Running Lean with Patrick McGilvray
Winter can either break your running routine—or quietly make you a stronger, smarter runner. In this episode, The Winter Running Survival Guide, I’m breaking down how to train, eat, and think …
Continue Reading about 319. The Winter Running Survival Guide →
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner sports nutritionist, master life coach, and weight loss coach. For runners, I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you, properly fuel your body and your mind so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought. Possible. This is running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to episode 319 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners, and today the Winter Running Survival Guide. It is winter and winter can either break your running routine or quietly make you a stronger and smarter runner. So in this episode, I’m gonna break down how to train, how to eat, and how to think differently during the coldest months of the year.
This isn’t about pushing harder, just toughing it out more. It’s about adapting your approach so that you don’t lose momentum. You don’t lose fitness or confidence when conditions aren’t exactly ideal. I’m gonna talk about why winter training should look a little bit different, and how to stay consistent without burning yourself out, and how to come out the other side of winter feeling stronger instead of feeling like you gotta start all over again.
Okay, so if you’ve ever struggled to stay on track, once daylight disappears and the temperatures drop, this episode will give you a clear, practical path forward. So let’s just jump right into this. Uh, winter has a way of exposing how, uh, solid or how fragile your running routine really is. When the weather’s perfect, motivation is easy, right?
Shoes are by the door, the sun’s out. Running feels easy. But in the winter. Winter doesn’t care about your plans. It’s dark, it’s cold, it’s windy. Sometimes it’s snowy and icy and sloppy and just flat out miserable out there. Okay? That’s exactly why this topic matters right now. ’cause every winter I see the same thing happen with a lot of runners.
They’re mileage drops, the strength work disappears. Their eating gets a little bit looser. And their weight starts to creep up. Running starts to feel harder, and by the time spring rolls around a, a lot of people feel like they’re starting over instead of building on, you know, what they’ve already done.
And so I wanna talk about how we prevent that. Okay. I, I wanna reframe winter for you. Okay? Not as something that we just have to like, plow through here, but as an opportunity to actually get smarter, get stronger, and become more resilient as a runner. Okay? This isn’t gonna be like a hype you up type of episode.
This is more of a, uh, grounded and practical episode. Um, if you approach winter the right way, it can actually become one of the most productive trading seasons of your entire year. But a lot of people don’t really approach it that way. Um, winter is when a lot of runners actually derail. Um, they lose momentum, they lose discipline, and it derails them because the environment changes, but they don’t.
Days get shorter schedules. Tighten and friction unchecked leads to inconsistency. And the mistake I see a lot of runners make is trying to train in the winter the same way that they trained in the summer or the fall. Same expectations, same intensity, same structure, and this mismatch creates frustration.
You miss a run because it’s dark and icy out, or there’s. A foot of snow on the ground, then you miss another one because you know it’s, it’s cold and you’re tired, and then you start questioning whether you’re falling off. And before you know it, your whole identity as a runner starts to fall apart here.
Okay. Winter punishes rigidity, but it rewards adaptability. The runners who come outta Winter Strong aren’t the ones who you know, white knuckle through every single workout. They’re the ones who simplify, they adjust, and they focus on the right priorities for the season. Okay, now here’s a mental shift that we need to, um, make so that everything kind of changes for us.
Winter is not about peak performance, okay? It’s about foundation. You’re probably not racing much right now. Uh, you’re not chasing prs and that’s not a problem. It’s. It’s the way it’s supposed to be. Winter is where you build strength that supports your running winter’s. When you build aerobic efficiency without all the pounding, it’s where you build consistency without burning yourself out.
And it’s where you build habits that don’t depend on perfect conditions. So if you, men, if you measure winter success by. You know, maybe your pace, you’re gonna feel like you’re falling behind. If you measure winter success by consistency, strength, and resilience, you’re gonna realize that you’re actually, um, ahead of the game here.
Okay. The real goal of winter running is not to, uh, you know, run as fast as you can in freezing temperatures or grind through all these miserable workouts or prove how tough you are. The goal of winter running is to arrive at spring healthy. Stronger than you were in the fall. Leaner, not fluffier, mentally confident that you didn’t lose yourself over the winter, and this means that the way you train has got to change.
So for a lot of runners, winter mileage will naturally drop, and that is completely normal. We have less daylight, colder temperatures, tougher conditions, and it all adds that friction I was talking about earlier. So instead of fighting against all of that, the smarter move is to manage it intentionally and take the emotions out of it.
Okay? We don’t want to try to manage this with our emotions. That said, if you’re training for an important spring race, like a half marathon, full marathon, this is not the season to go completely rogue with your training. Winter is where the base gets built and base work doesn’t look flashy, but it absolutely shows up on race day.
So what can change is how the training shows up week to week. So you might be doing some shorter runs, maybe slightly fewer runs, but still maintaining consistency and that’s the key right there. Consistency is the non-negotiable. That’s what keeps the aerobic engine burning hot when conditions aren’t perfect for running.
Okay, winter running, should em emphasize. Easy aerobic efforts, time on your feet more than your pace. Um, terrain awareness and safety, right? It’s not the time to chase super fast splits or force workouts just because they’re written down on a piece of paper somewhere, um, or trying to hit summer paces on frozen ground with cold, stiff muscles.
This is a, a very fast way to get yourself hurt. And getting hurt in the winter almost always derails your spring, uh, races. So instead, we want to adapt the execution of the plan to the conditions. And we don’t need to abandon the plan altogether, though. Okay? This is where things like treadmill running becomes a tool.
It doesn’t mean, you know, you, you’re being punished. It becomes a tool that sometimes we have to use. I mean, if the choice is to skip a run entirely or do like 30 or 45 minutes steady on a treadmill, the treadmill is gonna win every single time. Okay? You don’t lose fitness because you ran indoors. You lose fitness because you stop running consistently.
And running fitness doesn’t care about scenery. That’s just your ego talking there. Okay? So if you can stay steady through the winter, keep up the routine, protect your aerobic base, avoid stupid injuries, uh, you don’t have to get back into shape in the spring. You can just build on what’s already there.
Um, that’s a big difference between showing up to your spring race. You know, just hoping everything comes together and showing up knowing that the work was done, even when the conditions outside were not super comfortable. Now, another thing that really has to become a non-negotiable during the winter is strength training.
Um. This is where, you know, the, the weather gets cold and your body gets tight. Your hips lose their range of motion. Your glutes stop firing the way they should. Ankles and feet get a little lazier, and you don’t notice it all at once, but you feel it. When running starts to feel heavy, awkward, or harder than it should, even at an easy pace.
And it’s not a motivation issue, it’s really just a strength issue. So winter is the season to lift with intention. And by that I don’t mean random workouts that you find online. I don’t mean. High rep bootcamp, chaos. It just leaves you tired and sore, and definitely, I’m not talking about lift lifting in a way that interferes with your running.
I’m talking about focused strength work that does three things, builds and preserves muscle, improves joint stability and resilience, and then makes running feel more efficient, not more exhausting. And this is how runners stay lean when their mileage drops. Muscle is metabolically expensive tissue, right?
The more muscle that you maintain, the more calories you burn at rest, the easier it is to keep your body fat in check, even when you’re running fewer miles. But strength training in the winter. Isn’t about chasing aesthetics or trying to bulk up. That’s not how runners train and that’s not how muscle growth actually works anyway, for runners, strength training is about durability.
It’s about being able to handle the miles you, you’re running, um, without all these nagging aches and pains. It’s about showing up to spring training with hips that work glutes, that fire legs that feel stable instead of super fragile. So two to three well-designed strength sessions a week is plenty heavy enough to stimulate, um, muscle growth, uh, strength gains, controlled enough to support your recovery.
In other words, don’t overdo it and then always thinking about your running right. All this stuff should be done. To help compliment your running, not compete with it. And when runners skip their strength training in the winter, they usually pay for it later. They feel weaker, more injury prone, and they struggle when their mileage starts to ramp back up, especially again for those spring races.
So that when they commit to this strength, uh, training, though, running starts to feel easier again. Um, almost like they’re, you know, getting something for free. And that’s quite powerful. If you think about it, you know, winter strength work can be a powerful tool. You know, you don’t see those gains immediately, but come springtime, it’s gonna show up in those spring races.
Okay? Now let’s talk a little bit about food, because winter is comfort food season. That’s just the reality. We all kind of start to gravitate towards comfort foods in the winter. Colder weather tends to push us towards more carbs, more sugar, more snacking, um, usually later in the day too. And at the same time, most runners are moving less, like they’re not running as much fewer miles.
Less walking around, more sitting. And this combination actually does matter. ’cause if nothing changes on the nutrition side, fat gain doesn’t really happen dramatically. It happens slowly and quietly. Okay, a few extra, a hundred calories a day here, a little less movement there. Then suddenly spring shows up and your running feels harder than it should.
Here’s a key point though. The goal in winter is not more restriction. It’s actually more awareness. You don’t need summer level calories when your training volume drops. It’s not punishment. That’s just math. But you do need enough protein to maintain muscle. You do need to eat real food that actually supports your running and your recovery.
And you do need some basic structure so that eating doesn’t turn into, you know, just a constant grazing fest. Most runners don’t gain weight in the winter because they’re eating, you know, badly. They gain weight because they’re eating mindlessly. They’re just, they’re on autopilot and mindless eating usually shows up as.
Snacking just because you’re bored, you’re not really hungry, you’re just bored. You just want something to do. Eating whatever’s easiest, especially later in the, in the day or at late at night and treating winter, like it’s the off season from being mindful, you know, that’s where we just get this mindless, um, unintentional eating happening.
Okay. We wanna make a switch from mindless and unintentional eating to mindful and intentional eating. So let’s make this practical First. Protein becomes non-negotiable in the winter when your running volume drops. Protein helps to preserve muscle. It helps you to stay fuller for longer. It makes weight gain far less likely.
And if every meal doesn’t have a clear protein source, that’s the first thing to fix right there. Second meals beat snacks. Okay? You don’t need to eliminate snacks altogether, but if most of your calories are coming from random handfuls of food, instead of, you know, having an actual meal, you’re just setting yourself up to overshoot without realizing it.
So two or three solid meals anchored with protein and Whole foods. This is gonna go a long way right here to help you to, um, fuel yourself properly, recover properly, maintain, or even lose weight if you need to. Third, carbs still matter, but timing matters more. You don’t need to cut out carbs altogether, but you need to, you know, earn them with training on harder run days or harder strength days.
Carbs help to support performance and recovery. On lighter days, you don’t need the same amount of carbs. Um, you know, you’re just going to do fewer, and that’s gonna go a long way in helping you to, you know, not get into this overeating, you know, super hungry all the time cycle that we get into when we’re eating a ton of carbs.
And then finally, structure is gonna be willpower every single day. Planning your meals even somewhat loosely, removes the decision fatigue that happens when you have to make decisions all the time. When it’s cold, when it’s dark, uh, you don’t wanna try to rely on figuring it out at 8:00 PM right? You wanna have a plan in place, so create that structure for yourself.
Winter is where intentional eating matters the most. Not because you need to be perfect, but because small habits. Compound fast in this season, so get this part right and you don’t just maintain your weight through the winter. You set yourself up to feel lighter, stronger, and more in control when your spring training ramps back up again.
All right, here’s a truth that most runners don’t really want to hear, and this is about motivation, and motivation is unreliable in the winter. Waiting to feel like it is going to be a losing strategy, especially when it’s dark and cold and snowy and icy out there. And this is where identity matters more than emotion.
You don’t run because you’re motivated. You run because you are the kind of person who follows through. You’ve adopted the identity of someone who does what they say they’re gonna do. Okay. This might mean you do some shorter runs. Or you do some indoor sessions, train at different times of the day instead of early in the morning when it’s the coldest, you do it in the afternoon.
Consistency doesn’t have to look heroic, it just has to exist. Okay, so let’s get away from relying on motivation, uh, and start getting into this identity of I am someone who shows up for myself consistently. Um, and this comes down to like building systems. You know, you gotta have systems in place in order to stay consistent, in order to not only create that identity, but to establish and reinforce that identity every single day.
And systems are gonna help you more than anything else. Systems look like this. Maybe you lay out your clothes the night before you decide in advance, which days are going to be indoor days. You can check the weather ahead of time. And you’ll know what days are gonna be good for running outside and days that are definitely gonna be good for running inside.
And then maybe have a minimum effective workout for some of those brutal days. Right. Just so, even if you’re like, oh, you know, I’m just gonna do two miles on the treadmill if I have to, whatever that looks like for you. But when decisions are made ahead of time, discipline becomes automatic. It’s just something that happens.
Okay? Now, every Spring runners fall into one of two camps. One of ’em is like, oh, I feel strong running feels easier. I didn’t lose too much, uh, uh, performance over the winter. And then the other group is like, oh, I feel sluggish and heavy. Everything feels hard. I’m outta shape again. And the difference isn’t talent.
It’s what they did during those quiet, cold months. Okay? Winter reveals who’s training with intention and who’s just being reactive. Okay. If winter feels like a constant battle for you, if running always seems harder than it should if you’re putting in the miles, but not getting leaner or stronger, it’s not a motivation problem, it’s a strategy problem.
And most runners try to solve everything with what? More running. Right? And that’s why they stay stuck spinning their wheels, dealing with nagging aches and pains. Wondering why progress feels so slow. That’s why I created the Leaner Stronger Runner Project. It isn’t a generic plan. It’s a complete system designed specifically for runners who want to feel lighter on their feet, stronger in their bodies, and more confident in their training without running themselves into the ground.
In the program, you’re gonna learn how to train smarter, not harder. You’re gonna learn how to build real strength that supports your running. You’re gonna learn how to eat in a way that actually works for you as a runner, and you’re gonna learn how to stay consistent year round. Yes, even in the winter, no guesswork, no extremes, just clear practical coaching that makes running feel better.
Again, if you’re tired of starting over every spring, this is your moment to change that pattern. Just go to my website running lean coaching.com/ready. And check out the leaner, stronger runner project. Winter doesn’t have to set you back. It can set you up for success. Alright, that’s all I got for you today.
Love you all. Keep on running lean and I will talk to you soon.
If you feel like you’re constantly struggling with food… If strength training always feels hard to stick to… If you feel like you’re forever “trying to get back on track”… …but somehow, your …
Continue Reading about 318. If You’re Always Struggling, You’re Doing It Wrong →
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner sports nutritionist, master life coach, and weight loss coach. For runners, I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you, properly fuel your body and your mind so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought. Possible. This is running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to episode 318 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today, if you’re always struggling. You’re doing it wrong. If you feel like you’re constantly struggling with food, if strength training always feels hard to stick to if you feel like you’re forever trying to get back on track.
But somehow your running is just fine. Listen up. This episode is for you. It’s called If you’re always struggling, you’re doing it wrong. And yeah, I know that sounds kind of harsh, but hear me out here, because this isn’t about shaming you or telling you to try harder, it’s about something way more important.
I talk to runners all the time who tell me that they are disciplined, they’re motivated, they’re committed, yet. Their food plan, their strength training always feels like a constant battle. And the interesting thing is those same runners don’t say that about running. Okay, so today we’re gonna break all this down.
What the struggle really is, why it keeps happening, and how putting simple systems into place, not more motivation is the actual solution. Okay, so let’s just get right into this. Okay? I wanna start by saying this very clearly. If you’re struggling with your food, with your strength training, it doesn’t mean you’re weak.
It doesn’t mean you’re lazy. It doesn’t mean something is broken with you, okay? But what it does mean is that something in your approach is probably a little off, okay? The reason I’m talking about this now is because I keep hearing this over and over again from runners, and I’ve heard this many, many times in the last couple of weeks.
And these are different people, different ages, different experience levels. They all have different goals, but the story is the same. Okay. I hear things like, I’m running consistently, but I just can’t get my eating under control. You know, I know I should lift weights. Um, I know how important strength training is.
I, I know, but I just don’t do it consistently. I just can’t seem to stick with it. Or I always feel like I am starting over with all this stuff, and if you can relate to that, that, that, this is why I’m talking to you right now. Okay. Because I know so many people who can relate to this. Okay. Um, the crazy part is, is that they’re not struggling with their running, alright?
They don’t wake up every day debating whether they. Feel motivated enough to run. Okay? They’re not constantly second guessing their running training plan, maybe they’re training for a half marathon or a marathon. Um, they don’t, they don’t second guess that, you know, they don’t argue with themselves for 45 minutes before they put on their running shoes.
Okay? They get up and they go outside. Doesn’t matter how cold it is, doesn’t matter what the weather’s like and they run. Okay? So if you’re running feels. Solid, but somehow all these other things feel hard. We need to start asking some better questions. Okay? Not, you know, geez, what’s wrong with me? Um, but what am I doing differently?
Here. Okay, so the core idea of this episode, and I really want you to hear this, is this, if something feels like a struggle all the time, it’s not supposed to be that way. Okay. Now I am not saying that growth is effortless. Growth requires effort. Growth requires discomfort. I’ve talked about this a lot, where you know everything that you want but don’t already have lies outside your comfort zone.
In order to get something that you don’t have, it’s going to require you to get uncomfortable. Okay? So growth is one of those things that. Requires some discomfort. Okay, so growth is not effortless. And I’m also not saying that discipline doesn’t matter because it does matter. You do have to show discipline.
And the funny thing is, is I’m talking about. You know, runners who are very disciplined about running. Most people, most normal people would see us as runners who go out and run when it’s zero degrees outside or there’s snow on the ground or whatever, and they think we’re crazy. Like, how could you possibly do that?
I could never be that disciplined, you know? But I see it all the time with runners and we don’t even think about it. We’re just like, of course I’m gonna run. Well, it’s gonna be zero degrees outside, but that doesn’t really matter. I, I can wear the right gear. I, I’ve done this before, you know, so discipline is not the problem.
And I’m not saying this is, everything’s going to always feel easy either because stuff is hard sometimes, you know, sometimes it is hard to, to get out there and run when it’s that cold out and the wind chill is 15 below zero or whatever. But there’s a huge difference between, you know, sometimes things are challenging or uncomfortable, and then you’re constantly feeling exhausted and constantly struggling.
Okay. When something feels like it’s a daily battle, when you’re always. You know, negotiating with yourself, always feeling like you’re behind or feeling like you’re failing at stuff. It’s not a problem of, you know, not being disciplined enough. Okay. It’s a, it’s a problem of design, right? You don’t have a, a plan designed for that area, whether it’s food strength training.
Those seem to be the two that I hear most people talking about. And most runners have never been taught to really look at it that way. Okay, so let’s talk a little bit about why running doesn’t feel like a constant struggle for most runners because you probably have set days that you run, right? You probably have a, a rough idea or, or a very.
You know, detailed idea of distance or time that you’re gonna run on those days. You know, you have a structure in place, you have a training plan that you are following, and you have a clear definition of what you know, what this week is going to look like, what this day is gonna look like, what this particular run is going to look like.
So you have those systems in place. You have that plan in place for running. And even if you’re not following a perfect plan, you know running still has. Well, you know, like rules, right? There’s a start time. There’s a route that you have in mind. There’s an end, you know, you don’t wake up and ask, you know, should I run today or not?
’cause you’ve already decided that ahead of time, that decision was made in advance. And because of that, because you made that decision ahead of time. Running doesn’t drain you mentally. You don’t have to make decisions every single day. Those decisions have been made so it doesn’t feel heavy. It doesn’t feel, uh, like a, like a struggle.
It doesn’t feel chaotic, right? It just feels normal. Alright, let’s compare that with, you know, sticking with a food plan and sticking with a strength training plan. So when we talk about food, especially if you’re someone who is trying to change their diet because you wanna lose weight, you know, a lot of times people say, I really wanna lose weight, so I’m gonna change my diet, but here’s what their food.
Plan looks like or lack of, like, they don’t have a clear plan. They are, there are too many options on the table constantly. Um, you’re making decisions in the moment all day long, every single day. And then there’s emotional baggage attached to every decision, every choice that you’re making. You know, we have a lot of emotions tied into food and what that means about us and about our, our sense of who we are and how we show up.
In the world and how we compare ourselves to others, right? So you don’t have clear plan, you have too many options. You’re making all these decisions. There’s emotional baggage attached to everything. Um, strength training, like sticking with that kind of a plan looks like this. You know, I should probably lift weights, but I just, I don’t know what to do, or, you know, I don’t have time.
In my schedule for another thing. So I just, I don’t know when I’m gonna work this in. I’ll just do it when I, when I have time or you know, I know I should be doing some strength training, so I’ll start next week. Okay. And then we label that as an a motivation issue. Okay. Like, oh, I just didn’t feel motivated.
I need to be motivated. Okay? But it’s not what I’m describing here around food, around strength training is decision fatigue. So every time you have to make a decision, what should I eat? When should I eat? How much should I eat? When should I lift weights? What exercises am I supposed to do? How long is this gonna take?
Where am I gonna do this? You gotta make all these decisions. You’re burning mental. Energy, and that’s why it feels like a constant struggle to you. Running doesn’t feel like a struggle to you because you already have a system in place and you just follow the system. Okay? Now let me say this very plainly.
You are not struggling with food or strength training. You are struggling with too many decisions and because you don’t see that you’re trying to solve the wrong problem, you’re trying to be more disciplined, you’re trying to be more motivated. You’re trying to lock it in this time, or you’re trying to push harder, and that works sometimes temporarily until.
Anything in life shows up until you’re tired or you get busy at work, or you get a little bit of stress and then everything just falls apart again. Right? Not because you failed, not because you’re undisciplined, it’s because your system. Is not in place. Okay. That’s all it is. Um, but I see this cycle over again, over and over again with runners.
You decide like, okay, I’m really gonna do this now. So you clean up your eating, you know, you commit to strength training and it feels good. Um, but nothing is automated. So every day you’re just relying on motivation and willpower and willpower. It is not reliable. Okay. The reason why is because willpower is a temporary resource.
Like you have willpower, like your willpower is strongest in the morning, if you’ve noticed that. And then as the day goes on, that willpower. Tank that you have like that, you know, reservoir of willpower that you have available to you throughout the day tends to dwindle down throughout the day. That’s why a lot of times in the evening, people have a very hard time sticking with their food plan, like they’re good during the day, but as soon as nighttime comes around because your willpower’s just gone.
By that time you’ve been making all these decisions, you’ve had all this stuff to do at work, kids have been bugging you, you know, you, it is just like too much stuff going on. And by the end of the day, you’re just done with making decisions. You’re just like, just don’t just gimme the pizza. Okay. So willpower, motivation, these things are not reliable.
They’re, they’re limited resources that we have available to us. Okay, so eventually you’re gonna miss a workout. You’re gonna eat something off plan. You’re gonna just go and eat that whole pizza by yourself, and then you’re gonna feel like a failure. You’re gonna feel like you’re running behind or, or falling behind with your plan.
And then you’re, you’re gonna start to talk to yourself and say, I blew it. I always do this. I’m gonna restart next week. Listen, this is not a lack of discipline, okay? It’s just a bad setup, right? It’s just a bad plan. Okay? Um, so. One thing I want you to really understand here. Is that hard? Is not the goal.
And I know endurance athletes love suffering, right? It’s glorified. It’s like a rite of passage. It’s a badge of honor. Uh, no pain, no gain, all that stuff. But food and strength training are not supposed to feel like daily emotional battles. Okay? Save those emotional struggles for. Uh, you know, out there trying to pr your, your marathon or whatever.
Okay? Sticking to your food plan, your strength training plan. These things should feel boring and predictable and repetitive. Not exciting. Not dramatic, not something you have to. Mentally prepare for every single day. If your nutrition plan requires daily motivation to stick to it, it’s flawed. Okay? If your strength training plan requires you to, you know, have motivation to, to feel like doing it, it’s flawed.
Okay? You need systems in place to avoid, you know, relying on motivation all the time. Let’s talk a little bit about systems. Okay? ’cause a system is something that you can follow without thinking. Um, and a real world example of this, this has nothing to do with like running or anything, but it’s brushing your teeth, right?
Think about you Don’t wake up every morning and ask yourself, Hmm, do I feel motivated to brush my teeth today? I’m just not feeling very motivated today. I, I, I don’t know, maybe I should brush later. I’ll just do it later. What if I just skip today and I’ll, and I’ll brush my teeth twice tomorrow? I know it sounds ridiculous, right?
But you don’t do this. You don’t debate it. You don’t negotiate with yourself. You don’t have to rely on willpower to brush your teeth. You just do it. Why? Because brushing your teeth has become a system. You have a system in place. Uh, it’s not a decision that you have to make. It happens at the same time every day in the same place, in the same way, with the same expectation.
And because it’s a system, it’s automated, it takes basically zero mental energy to do it. Okay? Now imagine if brushing your teeth work the way that most runners approach their diet. Okay? You’d wake up and think. I brushed last night, so maybe I don’t need to today, or let’s just see how the day goes. Okay.
Or I’ll be extra good tomorrow. Okay. That sounds ridiculous, right? But that’s exactly how people treat nutrition and strength training, and then they wonder why it constantly feels so hard, okay? The big takeaway here isn’t that brushing your teeth is easy. The big takeaway is this, things feel easy when the decision is already made.
Okay? You’re not disciplined. With brushing your teeth, you’re not motivated. You just have a system in place. That’s the point here. And if food and strength training feel heavy, emotional, or exhausting, it’s not because you lack discipline, it’s because you haven’t turned them into systems yet. Okay?
Running has systems like you run on the same days. Usually at the same times, there’s people that love to run in the morning or maybe they run after work, or maybe they switch it up, but they have like certain days they run at certain times. You just know when you’re gonna do it. You have the same expectations, right?
You don’t debate this stuff. You just execute, right? So food needs systems. You need to have some default meals in place. You know, you need to have some rules around the grocery store and what you get and what you don’t get. You need to have routines around. Eating strength training is the same way. You need fixed days.
You need simple workouts. You need a clear progression. And when you have these systems in place, the emotion disappears, the decisions disappear, um, and those emotions, that’s what’s really causing this. Struggle and it’s causing you to burn out. You know? ’cause you’re just getting too emotionally involved with all this stuff.
And we gotta remove that layer. When you remove that layer, because you have these systems in place, everything becomes easier. Um, and I hear this all the time from runners, you know, the a about the strength training, I just can’t stick to lifting. I’m like, well, what days are you doing this? What workouts are you doing?
How long do those workouts take? What you know? What exercises do you have in, in what order are you doing them? And they can’t answer any of these questions. You know, everything is like vague. I’m just gonna show up and do it whenever. I don’t know what I’m really doing. That’s the problem. Okay. You’re trying to build consistency without any structure in place, and you don’t do that with your running, so why are you doing it in other areas here?
Okay, so we gotta get out of this struggle. And if you want out of the cycle of constantly trying harder, falling off, starting over. The solution isn’t going to be more discipline, okay? It’s gonna be fewer decisions. So here’s what I want you to do instead. Decide once. Not every single day. Most runners don’t realize how much energy they waste deciding the same things over and over and over again.
What should I eat today? When should I do my strength training? Should I train now or later? That’s not flexibility. It’s friction. Okay? Running works because the decisions are already made. You don’t wake up and reinvent your training schedule every day. You just follow the plan that’s in place. So do the same thing with food.
Do the same thing with your strength training. Decide what you eat for breakfast on most days, or if you eat breakfast or not, decide which days you’re going to strength train. Decide which days you’re going to the grocery store. You don’t need to go every single day, decide, you know, when you’re gonna prep meals, if it’s, if it’s gonna be once a week, or you know, a couple times a week, whatever.
Make those decisions in advance and once those decisions are made, don’t question the decisions. Okay. You don’t need a new plan every Monday. You need a good plan that you can stick to long enough so that you can start seeing results. Okay? The point here is we’re trying to reduce options, more options feel freeing.
Like, oh, I have all these options here, but it’s actually exhausting. Okay? And if you’re choosing between five different breakfasts every single morning. You’re burning mental energy before your day even kicks into gear. Okay? So pick one or two, go-to breakfasts one, or go-to one or two, go-to lunches. Uh, maybe a small rotation of simple dinners, okay?
Not because you can’t eat other things, because you don’t need to be deciding these things every single day. Runners love routines, you know, when it comes to training. So apply that same thinking to your food. Repetition isn’t boring when it’s getting you the results that you want. Okay? And I like to use this term all the time, which is make it boring.
You know, this part messes with some people, okay? Because we’ve been taught that progress needs excitement and novelty and constant change. It really doesn’t. The most effective nutrition and strength routines are boring by design. Boring means it’s predictable, it’s low stress. It’s easy to repeat if your plan requires, you know, enthusiasm and, and.
Inspiration or perfect conditions, it’s not gonna last. Okay. Boring works because it is sustainable. Another way you can kind of make the change and start moving away from the struggle is to attach new habits to existing routines. Okay? This is one of the most powerful moves that you can make. Don’t create standalone habits that float around.
Your schedule that you’re just hoping will get done, you gotta anchor them to something you’re already doing. Okay? So maybe you lift after your easy run. So you have like two easy runs a week, and you lift right after those. Attach the habit of lifting to your running habit that’s already in place. Okay?
Or prep your food right after your grocery shopping. Maybe you have a grocery shopping on Sunday afternoon. You do that regularly. Just prep your food right after that. Okay. Or, or do your stretching while your, your coffee is brewing in the morning. Okay. Attach the habit of stretching to an already made and established habit of like brewing your coffee in the morning.
Okay? You already have strong routines in your life. I know you do. Just use these to your advantage. Okay? When habit has a, uh, an attachment, a trigger, it stops being optional. It’s just something you do no matter what. Okay. Now here’s a question I want you to ask yourself, and I really want you to sit with this.
What can I automate so I don’t have to argue with myself anymore? Because arguing with yourself is exhausting. Okay? If you’re debating food choices, if you’re constantly debating the timing of your workouts or whether you’re on track every single day. That’s a sign that something needs to be automated.
Okay? It’s not about being perfect. The goal is not perfection. The goal is removing friction. So consistency becomes the default. Okay? We wanna remove the friction so that our default is. Being consistent. All right? You don’t need to become a more disciplined person. Uh, you just need fewer things competing for your attention, right?
When decisions are made in advance, when routines are boring and predictable, when habits are anchored to things you’re already doing. The struggle disappears, right? Not because you’re stronger or more, you know, mentally powerful. It’s because you finally have a system that works. Okay, let me leave you with this.
You don’t need to struggle less because you’re tougher. You need to struggle less because you are smarter, okay? You are not broken, you are not undisciplined. You’re just trying to succeed without systems. And once you fix that, everything else changes. And if you’re listening to this and you’re realizing that you’re not actually struggling because you lack discipline, you’re struggling because you don’t have a system in place, this is where I want you to pay attention.
Okay? The leaner, stronger Runner project isn’t a quick fix. It’s not another short term challenge. It’s a simple structured system designed to support you over time, so you’re not constantly guessing, restarting, or relying on motivation. Most runners who join don’t come in saying, okay, I’m all set forever.
They come in thinking, I just want this to feel easier. And that’s exactly what happens because they stop debating their food choices. They stop wondering if what they’re doing is right with their strength workouts. Um, they stop feeling like they’re behind all the time. And everything gets simpler because the decisions are already made.
This program is set up as an ongoing coaching program month to month. You’re not locking yourself into anything. You come in, you follow the system, and you give it enough time to actually work. And here’s the key. People don’t stay because they have to. They stay because they’re training, they’re eating in their day-to-day life.
Finally, feel aligned. Right. So if you’re tired of struggling, if you want running to feel better instead of harder, if you’re ready to stop arguing with yourself every single day, go to my website running lean coaching.com/ready and join the Leaner Stronger Runner Project. This is where things get clearer, calmer, and a whole lot more sustainable.
Okay, that’s all I got for you today. Love you all. Keep on running lean, and I will talk to you soon.
Let me say this straight up—you can’t rush progress. And yet, almost every runner tries. In this episode, “You Can’t Rush Progress,” we’re talking about why fat loss, strength, and better …
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner sports nutritionist, master life coach, and weight loss coach. For runners, I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you, properly fuel your body and your mind so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought. Possible. This is running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to episode 317 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners, and today you can’t rush progress. So let me say this straight up. You cannot rush progress, and yet almost every runner I know tries. In this episode we’re talking about why things like fat loss, building strength and better running performance take longer than you want.
But not longer than they need to. If you’ve ever jumped from plan to plan, if you’ve ever pushed harder when your body was already tired and exhausted, or if you’ve ever wondered why you’re doing all the right things, but still not seeing the results that you expect. This conversation should hit home for you.
I’m gonna break down what real progress actually looks like. Why impatience is one of the biggest things holding runners back and how to shift from constantly chasing results to building momentum that actually. Lasts, no hype, no shortcuts. Just clear thinking, practical examples, and a better way to approach training and nutrition so you can stop fighting your own progress and start working with it.
All right. Let’s talk about something that almost every runner struggles with at some point. Especially if your goal is to lose weight, if you’re trying to get stronger, if you wanna actually enjoy running again, and that is progress, or more specifically, the urge to rush progress. We live in a world where everything is fast.
You know, we want everything right away, and we can pretty much get it. That way, you know, same day shipping, instant feedback, training plans that promise big changes in just a few weeks. Social media, highlight reels that make it look like everyone else is improving faster than you are. And if you’re a runner, that pressure hits even harder because.
I, I, I know what you’re thinking. You’re like, I want the weight to just come off right now. You know, I want running to feel easier right now. I wanna be stronger. I wanna get leaner. I wanna get faster right now. So that’s why I decided this is a good topic for us all as a reminder, especially as we start this new year and, and start working towards big goals for this year.
You just cannot rush the process. You can’t rush progress. And I wanna be really clear about something upfront. This is not gonna be like a, a motivational speech today. It’s not about like, just trust the journey or you gotta embrace the grind. You know, that stuff is fine for, for some situations and it sounds nice, but it’s not gonna help you when you’re frustrated, when you’re tired, when you’re wondering if what you’re doing is actually working or not.
Okay? This episode is gonna be all about. Reality. Okay. How progress actually works. Um, why, you know, when we try to speed everything up, it actually backfires on us. And how to stay consistent long enough for the results that you actually want. You gotta give them a chance to actually show up for you. Okay?
So if you’ve ever felt stuck, impatient, or tempted to just switch everything up because you’re not seeing the results fast enough, listen up. Okay. I keep seeing this pattern over and over again with runners. Okay. They’re not lazy. Um, the people I talk to, they’re not unmotivated. Uh, it’s not like they’re sitting around on the couch eating Cheetos or something like that.
Okay. A lot of times they’re just doing too much. You know, a lot of people I talk to think the answer to everything is just more, more, more, more, more, more increased mileage and then like cut your calories way back. At the same time, um, people that add intensity, in other words, they, they do more. Intense workouts, more high interval in uh, sessions, high intensity interval sessions, um, when they’re already kind of beat down and exhausted.
Uh, they change programs every few weeks, but they think, oh, this next thing will finally be the one that works. You know, so they just keep switching things up. If they don’t see results in like two weeks, three weeks, then they just change up and move on to the next thing. I see this a lot with like the diet mentality out there.
A lot of people that adopt some sort of a diet and they give it like three weeks and they’re like, this isn’t working, and then they go and try something else. You know, they never give anything a chance to actually, uh, you know, show up and actually start showing you some results. You know, you just keep switching things up.
You never give your body a chance to adapt. And on the surface it looks like, you know, we’re committed to something. It looks like we’re, we keep changing things up because we’re committed to getting these results right now. So I’m gonna keep doing whatever I can to make sure we’re moving the needle. But underneath all of this, it’s just impatience.
Like you’re just being impatient. It’s disguised as effort. But it’s just impatience. And impatience is actually expensive, okay? It costs you consistency, it costs you recovery, and eventually, if this goes on long enough, it costs you the belief that you know nothing’s gonna work for you. You know, you just keep believing that, you know, you’ve tried everything.
And I hear this a lot with people. I’ve tried everything and nothing works for me. Well, how long did you try everything? Did you give it three months or six months or a year, or was it like three and a half weeks? Because there’s a big difference there. Okay. If your belief systems are built on shaky ground like that, you are never gonna be able to make progress, okay?
Because deep down you, you just know that nothing is ever going to work for you. Okay, so just to understand that what I’m talking about here is what’s really going on under the surface. Okay? And a lot of people don’t like to talk about this stuff because it’s uncomfortable. I hope this conversation makes you a little bit uncomfortable because then I’m doing a good job.
Um, one of the realities I want you to adopt here is that progress is slow by design, and it’s something that a lot of runners don’t want to hear. Um, if progress feels slow, uh, they think that it’s, it’s not working. It’s broken somehow fat loss happens slowly. Because your body is actually trying to protect you.
Your body’s goal is to hold onto that stored body fat as energy because hey, if we need that later, I want to have that on board. So fat loss is going to happen slowly. Your body is not going to release all the fat all at once. Okay? Strength gains happen very gradually. Because it takes a while for your muscle, tissues to adapt.
It takes time for your muscle, tissues to uh, either get larger or get stronger, or both, um, improving your running economy. It happens in small increments, not giant leaps. Okay. Your body isn’t Amazon Prime. Okay? It doesn’t deliver results overnight just because you want them, okay? When you try to force it by training harder or eating a lot less, or stacking more and more strategies on top of each other, you’re not actually speeding things up.
You’re interfering with the process. I’ve coached so many runners who were doing all the right things. You know, on paper they look like the right things and they’re still spinning their wheels. And when we zoomed out, the problem wasn’t what they were doing. It wasn’t their effort level is that they were constantly interrupting their own adaptation.
Process. Okay. They never stayed in one place long enough for their body to actually have that positive adaptation for their body to respond to the changes that you know, they were putting on their body or the stresses that they were putting on their body. You know, it’s like you go to the gym and you do some bicep curls and you expect your biceps to grow by three inches.
It’s just not gonna happen. It does not work that way. It’s like millimeters at a time and it takes weeks and months and years to grow, you know, three, four inches on your biceps or whatever. You know? It takes a long time and, and we get stuck. I think a lot of runners anyway get stuck in this trap of constantly making adjustments.
Okay? A lot of people get stuck here. I kind of touched on this a little bit earlier, but it’s like you start a plan, you feel motivated, you expect noticeable changes in just a couple of weeks, right? And then you don’t see it. So you tweak something. Maybe it’s your diet, you cut out the carbs. Maybe you’re talking about trying to improve your endurance or make running feel easier, so you add a bunch more miles.
You know, you throw in a bunch of extra workouts because you want to get stronger faster. You download a new plan, and then a new plan, and then a new plan. And what you’re really doing is you’re telling your body, you know, nevermind, forget what I asked you to adapt to. Here’s something brand new. Okay?
Adaptation requires consistency under stable conditions. And if the stimulus keeps changing, the signal gets weaker. Um, and I’ve heard people talk about this when they, when they talk about strength training, and they’ll say, oh, you know, you wanna confuse your muscles, you know, by constantly changing everything up.
And there is some truth to that. But you don’t wanna change everything up constantly because then you’re never actually creating that adaptation. Okay? The, the signal does get a little bit weaker. You’re kind of watering things down, okay? So you do want to stick to a consistent workout routine for a while.
Maybe, you know, four weeks or something like that. And then you change it up. And so that gives your body time to, uh, you fully stress those systems adapt. Uh, have positive adaptations. You get stronger, uh, you get bigger muscles, whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish. Same thing with running, you know, stick to the same training plan for, uh, you know, a few weeks at a time, three, four weeks at a time, and then switch it up a little bit.
Okay. Because when you do that, now you’re giving your body a chance to adapt to those, uh, changes and stressors that you’re putting on your body. And your body will have those positive adaptations and you improve, okay? But you’re not gonna improve if you constantly keep changing the rules. Okay. This is especially true if you’re trying to lose weight while you’re training.
Your body’s already navigating, uh, an energy deficit, right? If you, if you are cutting your calories, your body’s navigating an energy deficit, you’re gonna pile on, you know, a bunch of changes, a bunch of. Un uncertainty essentially, and your body responds by slowing everything down, so weight loss really stalls and you just can’t figure out why.
Why is this stalling? I’m doing all these different things. I keep changing everything, but it’s not working. And it’s not because your body is dumb or stubborn. It’s because your body is actually smart. Your body understands that it, it can’t respond to these constant, uh, variations and inputs. Okay? You gotta keep things consistent for a while, for a while, okay?
I wanna talk a little bit about comparison, because this actually is something that a lot of people do. And again, a lot of people aren’t talking about this, but it pours gasoline on the fire here. Okay? So you, you see other runners, uh, maybe friends of yours or people that you see on, on social media as you see them dropping weight faster than you, you might see people, you know.
Getting stronger, quicker than you. Um, you, you hear success stories of people and it just sounds like they did it without any effort. This is, this is not a good thing to compare ourselves to others, okay? Because you’re missing out on what got them there. Okay? You don’t see their starting point. You don’t see their history of consistency.
You don’t see how many. Years it took them to get to where they are. Uh, you don’t see their capacity to recover. Uh, you don’t see their, their lifestyle stress or their genetics. Genetics play a role with all this stuff. Okay? And progress isn’t linear. It’s definitely not universal across the board. So just because you see somebody else.
Losing weight super fast, that does not mean that even if you did the same things that person was doing, you’re gonna have the same results. It’s just not gonna happen that way. This is why I always say there’s not one diet that’s gonna work perfectly for everybody because we are all different. We’re all coming from different places.
We all have different metabolisms, different stressors, different lifestyles, different genetics. Um, and the same diet is going to, uh, have different results in different people. Okay, so there’s not one universal diet that’s perfect for everybody. Uh, so we just have to understand that, you know, you might be comparing yourself, uh, to your, where you are in your process.
You’re in chapter three, somebody else is on their chapter 12. And this feels logical, but it’s misplaced. Okay. The fastest way to really stall your own progress is to constantly judge your progress against someone else’s timeline. Okay? ’cause you have no idea what’s going on with that person or how they got there.
Um, all you’re seeing is where they are today and where you are today. And. Thinking somehow they should match up. And that’s just, it just doesn’t work that way. Okay, now I wanna make an important distinction here between urgency and consistency, because this is where kind of the rubber meets the road with this conversation here today.
Urgency says I need results right now. Consistency says I’m willing to put in the work and do this long enough for the results to show up. Urgency pushes harder when things are feeling slow. Just go harder, harder, do more, and more and more. Consistency keeps showing up even when nothing exciting is happening.
Right. That’s harder to do. Here’s the uncomfortable truth, though. Most progress happens during the boring phase, the weeks where nothing dramatic changes, but your habits are solid. The months where you’re not setting prs, but you’re not falling apart either. Those stretches where discipline matters more than excitement.
Okay? This is where your body actually adapts. Let me give you a couple of examples that I see all the time. A runner increases mileage and intensity while also cutting back their food intake because they want to lean out faster. Um, someone lifts heavy, runs hard, sleeps poorly, and they wonder why they’re not making any progress.
They just feel flat all the time. Or a runner abandons a solid plan after a couple of weeks because it doesn’t feel aggressive enough now. None of these people lack drive. What they’re actually lacking is patience. And patience isn’t passive. It’s strategic. It’s not just waiting around for something to happen.
It’s showing up consistently day after day after day, and doing those things, you know? Are going to eventually lead to results in the long run. Okay? We have to work with the process instead of constantly fighting against it. Okay? And here’s what actually works. Number one, pick fewer priorities. You can’t prioritize everything all the time.
You can’t maximize fat loss, strength. Speed, endurance. All at the same time, decide what matters most right now. Pick one thing, maybe two things that you wanna work on and work on those two things. Okay? Trying to do everything at once can just lead to exhaustion, burnout, and then you don’t want to do anything.
Okay? Number two, stay in the plan longer than feels comfortable. Right. This is a big one. Most people I talk to, they quit right before the results really start to compound. Okay? You gotta stay in the plan, and sometimes you get to the point where you’re like, I just don’t know if this is working or not.
Keep going, right? You just gotta stay with it. Eventually, those results are going to show up for you, okay? Number three. Track the right signals. Okay. Things like energy levels, recovery, consistency, your mood performance trends. Not just, you know, what the scale says or who, how fast that last run was. Okay.
You gotta be tracking more than just a couple of those, uh, kind of vanity metrics. Okay? Track the signals that actually. Matter. And number four, respect recovery as part of progress. Okay? Recovery isn’t time off. It’s the time when your body adapts. It’s the time when your muscles get stronger. It’s the time when your cardiovascular system improves.
You gotta give yourself time to recover. It is part of the process. It is what leads to progress. Okay? When you do these four things, pick fewer priorities. Stay in the plan longer than it feels comfortable. Track the right signals. Respect. Recovery. Progress. Doesn’t feel fast, but it happens. It feels stable.
Okay. And stable. Progress is sustainable progress. Okay. So you gotta shift your mindset here a little bit, okay? You gotta stop trying to rush progress. And when you do that, a few things are gonna happen. You stop overreacting to a bad week here or there. Because you’re in it for the long haul, okay? You trust your processes more.
You’re committed to what you’re doing day by day. You’re not focused on the end result. You’re focused on the processes. You train with intention instead of panicking all the time, and you make decisions based on logic, not just because you’re frustrated and you want results now. And ironically, when you do this, results actually show up faster.
I know it’s crazy how that works, right? Not because you pushed harder, but because you stopped getting in your own way and you just decided you were going to, uh, be consistent with this stuff. Okay? So this is the mindset shift that’s going to actually, uh, make big changes for you, okay? And if any of this is landing for you, here’s what I want you to consider.
A lot of runners feel like they’re constantly working, but rarely. Moving forward, you know, they train consistently. Yet running still feels harder than it should. They try to dial in their nutrition, but it feels confusing, restrictive, or unsustainable. They lift weights, you know, here and there, but it never really sticks.
And deep down there’s this quiet frustration that says, you know, I’m doing a lot. Why does this all feel like such a struggle? And it’s not a willpower problem. It’s not a motivation problem. It’s a problem of. Strategy and the leaner, stronger runner project was built specifically for runners who are done rushing, done guessing, and done starting over.
It’s a complete system that brings together smart training, realistic nutrition strength that actually supports your running and the mindset required to stay consistent long enough. For real change to happen. It’s not extreme, it’s not obsessive, it’s not complicated. Just clear, structured, sustainable coaching, so you stop spinning your wheels and start building some momentum.
If you want running to feel easier, if you wanna feel stronger in your body, if you wanna plan, you can actually stick to without burning yourself out. Just go to my website, running lean coaching.com/ready. Read through it. Take your time, see if it feels like the approach you’ve been missing, because once you stop trying to rush progress and start following a process designed to work, you’re gonna be surprised at how much changes.
Cool. Alright, that’s all I got for you today. Love you all. Keep on running lean and I will talk to you soon.
In The Leaner, Stronger Runner Framework – Part 2: How Runners Should Actually Eat, we’re talking about the piece that confuses more runners than anything else: food. Most runners think eating …
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner sports nutritionist, master life coach, and weight loss coach. For runners, I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you, properly fuel your body and your mind so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought. Possible. This is running Lean.
Hey there and welcome to episode 315 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners, and today the leaner, stronger runner framework. Part two, how runners should actually eat. So in this episode, uh, we are going to be talking about the piece that confuses more runners than anything else, and that is food.
So most runners think that eating better means eating less, cutting out all the carbs completely. Or just being more disciplined. And for a while that might seem like it’s working, but then the hunger ramps up, recovery slows down, energy crashes and running starts to feel way harder than it should. So in this episode, I’m breaking down how runners should actually eat if they wanna burn fat, recover faster, and stop feeling like food is this constant mental tug of war.
And this isn’t about meal plans or calorie counting or eating perfectly, it’s about fueling in a way. That supports your training instead of constantly fighting against it. So if you’ve ever felt confused, frustrated, or stuck when it comes to food and running this episode is going to bring a lot of clarity.
All right. Like I said, this is part two of the Leaner Stronger Runner framework. This is part two of a three part series. Last week I talked about why running more isn’t the answer. And before I get into today’s topic, I wanna set the stage a little bit because if you’re listening to this episode, there’s a pretty good chance that you’re already doing a lot of things right?
A lot of the people that listen to this podcast, they are runners who are doing. Most things, right? Um, you know, you’re running consistently, you’re training, you’re, you’re lifting weights. You care about your health. You’re trying to make good choices. You’re not just like sitting on the couch, you know, hoping that things will magically improve for you.
Also, something still feels a little bit off. So last week in part one of the series, I talked about why running more is in the answer why piling on miles intensity and effort often makes things worse instead of better when runners are trying to lose weight and improve performance. Today we’re talking about the next piece in the framework.
Um, and then for a lot of runners, this is gonna be the most emotionally intense or emotionally loaded part, and that’s about how runners eat. And I wanna be clear right up front, this is not about. Perfection. You know, it’s not about starving yourself. It’s not about meal plans or calorie counting or tracking your macros.
It’s not about being good or bad or eating clean. It’s about understanding how food is supposed to work with your training, not against it. And here’s something that I’ve noticed after coaching hundreds and hundreds of runners over the years, runners are very disciplined, okay? They are very disciplined about running.
They are very disciplined about sticking to a training plan. They’re very disciplined about exercise in general until food enters the conversation. Then suddenly everything feels. Confusing. Everyone has a different opinion and nothing seems to really work consistently. You know, one week you feel amazing and the next week you’re exhausted.
One week your hunger feels quite manageable, and then the following week you’re thinking about food all the time. And a lot of people I talk to, they internalize this and they think, gosh, I gotta be doing something wrong. This is not the way it’s supposed to be. But the truth is, most runners were just never taught how to eat as endurance athletes.
I can’t tell you how many people I talk to who have a nutrition coach or a running coach, and the nutrition coach really doesn’t know how people should fuel for, uh, endurance athletes. And, and the, and the running coaches don’t understand how people. Should fuel at all. Really, all they know is just, just for running, right?
There’s nothing that kind of bridges that gap, okay? People are, are, are taught that, you know, you’re, you’re either a fitness enthusiast or you’re a dieter, or you’re just somebody who’s trying to lose weight as fast as possible, right? And all that, all those rules and all that just does not translate well to fueling properly.
Maybe losing some weight, improving your body composition as an endurance athlete. Okay. This is why I do what I do, because there’s this huge gap there. So there’s this diet mentality that a lot of runners bring into their training, right? Because that’s all they know. Most runners start with this mentality, whether they realize it or not, but they’re thinking in terms of good foods and bad foods about earning your food.
Like you, you just ran a lot, so you’ve earned. X, Y, or Z, um, burning off calories, you know, making up for overeating by probably doing something, which is the opposite of undereating. Or being, uh, on track or off track or being good or being bad. And when you combine that mindset with endurance training, you, you aren’t actually solving anything.
You’re just creating more friction, okay? Because running doesn’t respond well. To punishment based eating. Okay? Your body doesn’t care how disciplined you are. It responds to signals. Okay? So I want to be very clear here. Here’s a, uh, a very, very, uh, common, uh, situation or scenario that I see all the time.
Okay? And maybe this is you. So you decide you wanna lose some weight, you’re a runner, you decide you wanna lose some weight, so you quote unquote, like, clean up your eating right. Maybe you cut portions. You, you start, uh, eating a lot less. You, you reduce your carbs back to almost none. You try to be good.
You’re skipping all the snacking that you used to do, and at first this might seem like it’s working okay, but after a few weeks, you’re noticing some negative side effects. Here, running starts to feel harder. Your energy drops, you’re hungrier all the time than you should be. Uh, you’re not recovering property properly from all the, uh, training that you’re doing.
Alright, then you have a, a long run. Or a stressful week, and suddenly your ravenous cravings hit late at night. You start overeating foods that you’ve been, you know, pretty good about avoiding, but now that’s all you can think about, right? And then this mental spiral starts to kick in of, oh, I blew it. You know, I need to be more disciplined.
I need to get stricter. And so you tighten the screws again. But listen, this is not a willpower issue. This is a fueling mismatch, and I want you to really hear this, okay. Eating for runners is not about restriction. It’s about supporting adaptation. Your body is constantly adapting to stress. Running is stress.
Strength training is stress. Life stress adds to this, okay? Food is not something you quote unquote. Control food is one of the tools that your body uses to recover and adapt. When your eating supports adaptation, your body feels safe. Like you’re no longer in that fight or flight mode, you’re no longer like super stressed out.
Your body feels calm and safe and at peace when it doesn’t though, your body goes into this defense mode, right? Goes into the fight or flight mode, and most runners believe. Incorrectly that, you know, if I wanna lose weight, I just have to eat a lot less. And that idea works on paper. Okay? It looks good when you start crunching the numbers.
If you’re like, Hey, you know, if I’m used to eating 2,500 calories a day, if I eat 1500 calories a day, I should lose weight. Okay. And guess what? It, it will work like that will work for you. Um, but it really is not going to support you as a runner, okay? Because if you’re training consistently, especially if you’re training hard, let’s say you’re training for a marathon, you know you’re running 30 to 50 miles a week, somewhere in that range, your body needs.
Energy. Your body needs nutrients. Your body needs recovery resources. And when you eat too little or you’re not eating consistently, your body doesn’t think, oh great, it’s time to lose weight. It thinks, Hey, we are under attack, we’re under threat here. Something is not right. You know, we’ve got all those energy that we’re expending and we don’t have enough fuel coming in.
So your body goes into. Fight or flight mode, it goes into high stress mode, uh, chronic stress mode. Your, your hunger increases, your cravings go through the roof. Your body starts holding on to body fat. So you, you think you’re gonna lose weight, but it actually has the opposite of effect. Your body will start holding onto more, more body fat.
You know, because it doesn’t want you to, you know, waste away into nothing. Your recovery slows down. Um, running just feels harder than it should. Okay? This is why runners are saying like, you know, I don’t eat that much, but nothing is changing. I can’t lose the weight. Right? Your body isn’t broken. Your body is actually doing what it’s supposed to.
It’s protecting you. Okay, so just know we have to respect the physiology here. Okay. Now, a lot of runners feel kind of out of control around food. This is actually a, a big one. All right? A lot of runners feel like they’re, they’re fine all day and then suddenly f. Food feels uncontrollable, let’s say at night.
Like, why can’t I just stop eating? Why do I crave sugar so much? Why do I keep losing control? And it’s not a character flaw. It’s not like you’re a bad person or anything like that. This is what happens when you under fuel earlier in the day, you undereat. After training, you rely on willpower. Instead of having structure in place, your body is simply asking for what it didn’t get earlier.
Um, delayed hunger. It’s still hunger, okay? And listen, hunger is not the enemy, right? Hunger is just information. A lot of people treat being hungry as an emergency situation that they have to fix right away, and it really isn’t. But listen, chronic hunger. If you’re a runner and you’re experiencing this chronic hunger, it probably means that you’re under fueling relative to your training.
It probably means that your recovery. Is not working properly, is incomplete. Your blood sugar’s probably unstable. Your stress hormones are most likely elevated. So it can be. All of these things are combination of a few of these things and ignoring hunger isn’t gonna make it go away. It just kind of makes it.
Show up even more. It makes it louder. Okay? So it’s not a problem for the most part, but we have to understand that it is information and you gotta do the right thing with that information. And this is confusing for a lot of runners and I get that. You know, they’re thinking, I didn’t even run today. How come I’m so hungry?
’cause hunger doesn’t know that like it is supposed to reset every 24 hours. You’re not on some. 24 hour clock, where at midnight every night, your hunger goes back to zero. Your body’s responding to yesterday’s training, to cumulative stress, to incomplete recovery. If you under fuel on training days, hunger’s probably gonna show up later.
It might be tonight, it might be tomorrow. And there’s nothing wrong with you here. There’s not a lack of discipline. It’s just, you know, delayed demand for fuel. Alright, so the goal here is really not about being perfect or anything like that. It’s about stability. Okay? Here’s what runners should be aiming for when it comes to nutrition.
These are the things we’re looking for. We’re looking for stable energy, like steady energy throughout the day, stable appetite. We don’t want your appetite to be going through the roof and then down to nothing and, and. Keep repeating that cycle. We want predictable recovery, so we want your recovery to feel like it’s manageable and something that you know, that when you fuel fuel this way, you’re gonna be able to, uh, recover faster and you’re going to, you’re gonna be able to, you know, train well tomorrow.
Okay? You want consistent training quality. That means that your runs are consistent or improving. You know, we don’t wanna see your training quality diminishing, and we want there to be less noise around food. We don’t want you to be thinking about this all the time. You know, and that’s one of the things that a lot of people don’t understand, is that when you’re constantly obsessed with food, there’s a, there’s something wrong there, there’s some dysfunction happening there.
Okay. But here’s a few things that are not on that list. Uh, eating perfectly all the time or being super skinny all the time, or never eating pizza or ice cream or pasta ever again. That’s not what this is about. Okay? It’s not about being perfect, it’s about being consistent and consistent. Consistency always beats perfection.
So what does it look like to actually eat like a runner? So eating like a runner means you should be eating enough, not undereating, not overeating, but just eating enough to fuel your particular, uh, training load. Eating regularly. That means that we’re not, you know, going two days without food because we’re trying some crazy intermittent fasting, um, regimen, some crazy fasting regimen.
I’m a fan of intermittent fasting, honestly, and I eat typically about twice a day. Uh, but that works really well for me. You know, I am very. Efficient at utilizing that schedule for my training load. Um, most people do really well on two or three meals a day. That does not mean you should be eating 12 times a day, though.
It doesn’t mean you should be eating once a day either. I think eating two or three meals a day is perfect, but we want to keep our eating, uh, schedule regular. Okay. Um, it eating like a runner means eating to recover. Right. So getting enough protein, making sure that, uh, the food that you’re taking in the electrolytes and things like that is actually helping you to recover from the training load.
Um, and then of course eating to support your training, making sure you’re getting the right combination of foods. You want healthy fats, you want quality protein, and you want some, some good quality carbs in there too to support your trading And listen. This kind of looks boring sometimes. You know, you’re eating regular meals, you’re eating protein at every meal.
You’re eating some carbs that match your training demand. Um, you’re eating some fat for satiety and for those good hormones. Uh, you’re not skipping meals to make up for overeating. Um, you’re kind of being boring. But guess what? Boring works. Boring is very sustainable. Okay. Meals and food doesn’t have to be like an entertainment extravaganza every time you sit down to eat.
And I think that’s one message that we’re given. You know, if you just scroll through Instagram and, and start looking at all the food, uh, videos and stuff that people post, it’s like, oh my God, why does everything have to be so over the top? Can’t things just be pretty boring? Sometimes and the answer is yes, they can be.
Alright, I wanna have a little conversation about carbs, uh, without drama here. Okay? Carbs are not bad, okay? But they’re also not magic. Carbs are fuel. The problem is not carbs. Okay? The problem is the context. Alright? So hard training days. Carbs are going to matter more. Okay? Carbs are going to have a more of an impact on your training and your recovery.
On easy days or off days, carbs are going to matter less. You do not need as many carbs on easy days or on days where you’re not. You just don’t need as much, um, extreme approaches on either end of that where you’re eating all the carbs all the time, or zero carbs because you’ve been told that you know, you, you gotta like just cut out all the carbs.
Neither of these is really ideal for endurance athletes. Okay? So we, we wanna stay away from the extreme approaches. Um, extreme approaches create extreme reactions in your body. Okay? We don’t want that. We want things to be. Stable. Remember, blood sugar, stable appetite, stable, um, eating patterns regular.
Okay. I’m gonna give you a simple nutrition foundation that doesn’t require tracking, doesn’t require counting macros, and it doesn’t require stress. This is very simple, but I want you to just pay attention and try to commit to these three. Non-negotiables. Okay? Number one is to eat real food, right? Eat protein, eat fruits, eat vegetables.
When you’re going to eat some carbs. Make sure they are whole food sources of carbs. What do I mean by that? Stuff like sweet potatoes or beets or some oats or rice or beans. So those are all whole foods, sources of carbohydrates. Um, and then healthy fats, so protein, veggies, fruit, whole food, carbs. Healthy fats just stick to real food.
It should still look like food. I’m not talking about overly processed bars and powders and um, you know, things like that, or meal replacement shakes or whatever. Just eat whole food, right? That right there is going to solve. A lot of your problems. Okay? Number two, make sure you’re getting protein at every meal.
This one thing alone is going to help you recover better. It’s gonna improve your muscle retention. Remember, running is catabolic, it breaks down muscle tissue. We wanna replace that muscle tissue. We gotta be building muscle back up. That’s why I stress strength training so much. That’s why I stress eating protein, it’s very, very important.
Okay. Getting enough protein means that you’re probably going to be 80% of the way there, right? It’s gonna solve a lot of your protein, of your, uh, nutrition issues. Just getting enough protein. It helps you to stay satiated. It’s nutrient dense, meaning you’re getting a ton of nutrition from eating, you know, protein.
And this can be, uh, uh, animal-based proteins or plant-based proteins. Just make sure if it’s plant-based proteins that you’re getting complete proteins. Um, so eat real food protein at every meal. That’s a non-negotiable. The third non-negotiable is sit down and eat meals. Don’t just be snacking all the time.
When you eat regular meals, and again, I said two, three times a day, perfect. We’re, we’re not grazing all day long. We’re not carrying around, you know, bags of chips and nuts and things like that to eat in the car all the time. Um, this is going to help you to, number one, eat the right amount of food for you.
We should eat our meals and, and feel satiated when, when we eat our meals, we’re eating a couple times a day. We’re not constantly. Ramping up our blood sugar, ramping up our hunger signals. The more you eat, the more hungry you are, the more calories you’re taking in. Um, you know, the, the more your appetite goes up, the more your cravings for carbs goes up.
Like all these things happen when you’re eating constantly. So just. Try to be a little more chill with that. And listen, most snacking is, is not a need for fuel. It’s not a need for nutrition. It’s an emotional eating situation. You’re bored, so you go in the pantry, you’re tired, you’re stressed out. You just want something to feel good and listen.
When you do that, you’re not usually making choices like, oh, I’m gonna eat some of this leftover broccoli that’s in the fridge, like you’re eating chips or nuts, or whatever. So eat meals, not snacks. This is gonna really help to regulate your appetite, um, and, and still make sure that you’re getting, uh, food, uh, that supports your running and your training.
So eat real food, protein in every meal. Eat meals, not snacks. What this is gonna do for you, it’s gonna help reduce cravings. Improve your recovery, stabilize your energy, and make fat loss possible. Again, if you’ve been kind of stuck and you, you just can’t get the scale moving and you know you’ve got 15, 20 pounds to lose, whatever, then we gotta get fat loss happening.
We gotta turn on fat burning and this. Little three non-negotiable formula I just put out there. That’s what’s gonna do it for you, right? That’s definitely gonna at least get things moving in the right direction for you. And again, I mentioned this at the beginning of talking about these three non-negotiables, is that this is simple.
It doesn’t require writing things down and using an app to track all your macros and inputting all your food. It doesn’t have to be stressful. It can be that simple. Okay? And simple beats perfect every single time. Now, here’s the truth that most runners miss. Training alone is not going to fix everything for you.
Nutrition alone isn’t going to fix everything for you, and your mindset alone isn’t going to fix everything for you. You have to have a whole. System, essentially, right? When training, nutrition and recovery align, your body feels safer, your adaptation improves, fat loss becomes easier, consistency becomes much easier and more natural.
And this is what I’m calling the leaner, stronger runner framework. All right? Now, even when runners train smarter, eat better, and fuel properly. There’s still one thing that can kind of derail everything, and that’s consistency or lack of consistency. So next week in part number three of this series, we’re gonna talk about why motivation fails for runners and what actually creates long-term consistency.
Because once that piece clicks into place, everything else falls into place perfectly. Okay, so if you’ve been listening to this episode and you’re thinking, Patrick, this is awesome. This makes sense, but I’m not sure how to actually apply all this stuff. I want you to hear this very clearly. Most runners I work with, they’re pretty consistent.
They train hard, they care about their health. They generally wanna feel better in their bodies, and they want to enjoy running again. They want running to feel easier again. But despite all the effort. They still feel stuck. Their energy is inconsistent. Recovery takes longer than it should. Running fields feels harder than it used to, and no matter how much they try to clean things up, their body just doesn’t respond the way that it used to or the way that it should.
It’s not because you’re doing something wrong, it’s because you’re just never been given like a complete system, and that’s why I created the Leaner Stronger Runner project. Inside this program, I help runners stop guessing and start training with confidence. You’re gonna learn how to train in a way that actually supports progress instead of wearing you down.
All right? You’re gonna learn how to eat in a way that stabilizes energy. Your appetite and your recovery without tracking, obsessing or starting over every single Monday, you’re gonna build the mindset and the structure that makes consistency feel natural, not forced. This is the full framework training, nutrition, mindset, all working together the way they’re supposed to.
If you’re ready to stop spinning your wheels and start feeling stronger. Wider and more confident as a runner. Head over to running lean coaching.com/ready to learn more. Cool. Alright, that’s all I got for you today. Love you all. Keep on running lean and I will talk to you soon.
This episode is called “What This Year Taught You (If You’re Willing to Look)”, and it’s probably one of the most important conversations we can have right now. Before you rush into setting new …
Continue Reading about 313. What This Year Taught You (If You’re Willing to Look) →
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner sports nutritionist, master life coach, and weight loss coach. For runners, I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you, properly fuel your body and your mind so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought. Possible. This is running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to episode 313 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today, what this year taught you. If you’re willing to look. So this is gonna be one of the most important conversations that we can have right now before you rush into setting new goals, new races, or another plan that promises everything will be different next year.
I just want you to pause, ’cause if you don’t take the time to reflect on what this year actually showed you about your habits. Your mindset, your training, and your relationship with your body, you’re likely to repeat the same patterns all over again. So today we’re not talking about success or failure, we’re talking about lessons.
Honest lessons, the kind that lead to real change if you’re willing to look at them. This is a reflective, slightly uncomfortable, but incredibly powerful year end reset. That can really change how you show up for yourself next year, not just as a runner, but as a human being. And listen, if this episode hits a little close to home for you, that’s not an accident.
Okay? Most runners I talk to, they’re not lazy, they’re not unmotivated, they’re not broken. They’re just tired of working hard without seeing the payoff. Running feels harder than it should. Strength feels like something they should be doing, but can’t quite stick with it. Nutrition feels like a constant mental tug of war, and deep down there’s this quiet frustration.
Why am I putting in so much effort and still not getting where I want to go? That’s exactly why I created my brand new membership program, the Leaner, stronger Runner Project. So runners finally have a simple, sustainable system instead of guessing and then starting over. This isn’t another random plan or quick fix.
It’s a complete system that helps you connect the dots between strength training running. Fueling recovery and mindset so you’re no longer guessing or starting over inside the project. You’re gonna learn how to train in a way that actually supports your running. You’re gonna learn how to fuel your body so energy becomes steady instead of unpredictable, and you’re gonna learn how to build habits that don’t fall apart.
When life gets busy, this is for runners who are ready to stop spinning their wheels and start seeing real lasting progress physically and mentally. If you’re ready to take what this year has taught you and turn it into real change, go to running lean coaching.com/ready. And join us. You can also go to my website running lean coaching.com and click on start here.
This can be the year that you stop repeating the same patterns and finally move forward with confidence. Alright, let’s get into this topic. What this year taught you? If you’re willing to look, so what if this year wasn’t something that just happened to you? What if it was actually trying to teach you something and what if.
Right now before the calendar flips, before you rush into new goals, new plans, and another version of this time, things are gonna be different. You slow down just enough to take a listen, because here’s the truth, most people don’t want to hear. If you don’t intentionally extract the lessons from this year, you’re almost guaranteed to repeat it.
Same struggles. Same frustration, same cycle of starting strong and then slowly drifting back to where you started. So today I want to help you do something that most runners never do. I want you to look back, honestly, without judgment, without beating yourself up and ask a better question than did I succeed or fail?
Because. That question is useless. The better question is this. What did this year teach you if you’re willing to look? So most runners are obsessed with forward motion, new training plans, new races, new nutrition strategies, new goals. And don’t get me wrong, I love goals. I love ambition. I love runners who want more for themselves.
But here’s the problem, if you don’t pause to reflect, your goals are built on. Unexamined patterns, right? You’re not designing a better future. You’re just repeating the past with new dates on the calendar. Reflection isn’t about dwelling, it’s about extracting data and your life, your training, your health, your habits, all of that.
They are all giving you feedback all the time, but most people just, they don’t listen at all. Okay. So I’ve got seven lessons that I wanna share with you, um, as we look back through the years. So be thinking about your past year as we’re going through this. Okay. Lesson number one, effort without alignment just leads to burnout.
So let’s start here. If this year felt exhausting to you and if you were doing like all the things, but still felt stuck if you’re trying harder but not getting the return that you expected, then this year was probably. It’s probably taught you that effort alone isn’t the answer, right? Running more miles, trying to eat better during the week, doing random strength workouts.
You know, maybe whenever you had time starting over every Monday. That’s all effort. It’s like you’re just constantly efforting your way through all this, okay? But this is effort without alignment and effort, without alignment just leads to frustration and burnout. Okay. Alignment means your training supports your body instead of fighting it.
Your nutrition works with your physiology instead of working against it. Alignment means your habits are sustainable instead of reactive. Okay? So this year may have shown you that grinding harder isn’t the same as moving forward. That’s not failure, that’s just feedback. And I want you to look at. All of these lessons as just feedback, just data.
Okay. Lesson number two. Consistency beats intensity every single time. So be honest with yourself. This year, this past year, did you struggle more with starting or with. Staying consistent. Most runners don’t fail because they lack motivation, right? They fail because they rely on motivation. Big bursts of intensity, all in plans, aggressive goals.
So they’re great at starting stuff. Okay? And then life shows up. You got stress and travel and busy schedules and kids in school and low energy and missed workouts and comfort, food and guilt. And this year may have taught you. That intensity is easy, but consistency, that is the real skill you need to develop.
And consistency doesn’t come from motivation. It doesn’t come from willpower. It comes from having systems in place, you know, having, uh, a plan in place if your habits only work. When life is perfect, they don’t work because guess what? Life is not perfect. Most of the time it is not. Okay. So lesson number two, consistency is gonna beat intensity every single time.
Um, and we wanna work on that, staying consistent as opposed to just starting new stuff. Lesson number three, your body is always telling the truth. So here’s a tough one. Your body never lies If running felt harder than it should have, or maybe recovery took longer. Um, if ache and pains just, you know, lingered or your energy felt unpredictable, your body was communicating something to you, not punishing you, not betraying you, but just communicating.
Okay? So this year may have taught you that ignoring those signals doesn’t make them go away. It just makes them louder. And the runners who thrive long term, they learn how to listen instead of just ignoring or overriding the signals. And I know the answer for most runners, as soon as they get any kind of ache and pain, they’re dealing with any kind of injury is just to run through it.
You know, oh, take a couple days off and run through it. But you gotta pay attention. Your body is communicating to you and it’s always telling you the truth. So maybe that was a lesson that you need to learn from this past year. Okay. Lesson number four that you may or may not need to learn from this past year.
Your identity drives your behavior. This is a big one. We’re talking about this, uh, last night in our group coaching call. This one changes everything. So if you keep saying things like, you know, I’m just not good at strength training, or I always fall off the track, or This is just who I am, or, you know, I’ve already tried everything.
These aren’t facts, they’re statements about your identity. And when you make statements about your identity, your identity always wins. Your identity is like the foundation of who you are at your core. And if you say, Hey, this is just who I am, guess what that is Just who you are. Okay? So this year. May have shown you that, you know, no plan will ever outperform the story that you’re telling yourself about who you are, about your identity.
Okay? So we wanna work on changing that identity because when we change our identity. The actions that you take, the behaviors, the habits that you start to develop that stuff follows identity. Okay? People do this backwards though. They do it backwards all the time. They try to change the behavior. They try to change their actions without changing their identity.
And you know what? That leads to frustration. Okay? So if you get this part right, if you start working on the identity, that’s where real transformation begins. Okay, so that was lesson number four. Your identity drives your behavior. Lesson number five, you can’t outsmart biology. Okay, let’s talk about food for a second here.
If weight felt stubborn this year. You know, if losing weight just felt like it was not happening, if, you know, hunger felt intense, if cravings felt relentless, if eating, felt like a constant negotiation with yourself this year may have taught you something critical. You can’t outwork or out discipline a misaligned fueling strategy.
Okay? White knuckling it, restricting food, you know, trying to be good all week and then just overdoing it on the weekend. You know, that’s not a personal flaw. That’s biology doing what biology does. Okay? When you work with your physiology, with your bi biology, instead of fighting against it, everything gets easier.
Okay? So when you eat the right kinds of foods that support a healthy body, uh, a, a good digestive system, uh, good fuel levels, you know, good performance for running, uh, fat burning, weight loss. Everything just feels easier. Okay. But so many people are fighting against their own biology. Okay? So lesson number five that you may have experienced this year.
Can’t outsmart your own biology. Number six, avoidance is the real problem. So this one might sting a little bit if something stayed stuck all year for you, like maybe it was your weight or your strength gains, or maybe it was your confidence, it probably wasn’t because you didn’t know what to do. It’s probably because you avoided.
Doing something uncomfortable. You avoided slowing down or lifting heavy or eating enough protein, or you avoided saying no to something, or you avoided committing fully to something like to plan, or you avoided asking for help avoidance, it feels safe, okay? But. It’s a little tricky because it keeps you exactly where you are when you avoid doing things because maybe you’re afraid to fail.
You’re afraid to get uncomfortable, you don’t get anywhere, right? You don’t grow when you stay inside your comfort zone. Okay? So this year may have taught you that growth always, always requires discomfort first, right? So discomfort is the price you pay in order to grow. It just is. I’m, I’m, I hate that it works that way, but that’s the way it works.
So that’s number six. Avoidance is the real problem for a lot of people. Lesson number seven, you don’t need more information. Let’s be clear. You don’t need another podcast. You don’t need another YouTube video or another free play or another Instagram tip. You already know enough to be dangerous, okay?
What you need is integration. You need a system that connects strength and running and nutrition, and recovery, and mindset, all that stuff, okay? This year may have taught you that trying to piece all this stuff together on your own creates confusion. Not clarity, okay? And we’re always looking for that new podcast episode or that one interview, or this one book, um, or this one video.
And I have to just tell you that you have so much information, okay? But you need something to just, you know, put, put all this stuff together. You just need a good, solid system, a good solid plan, okay? So you don’t necessarily need more information. Now the most important question I want you to ask yourself is this.
So before you set a single goal for next year, ask yourself this question. What patterns do I want to stop repeating? And be honest with yourself, okay? Not what, what do I wanna achieve? You know, what big things do I wanna accomplish? Um, you know what, you’re done, what are you, what are you done tolerating?
Right? Because the same struggles next year. They could be waiting for you, or they could be optional, right? But you have to be willing to look at this stuff and learn from these, you know, lessons from this past year. Okay? Like I said, some of this stuff is a little uncomfortable. It may have hit a little close to home.
That’s on purpose. You know, I want you to look at yourself honestly and look at this past year, honestly, and see if there’s anywhere where you can make. Some changes, uh, going into this next year before you set any big goals, before you decide what races you’re gonna do before you decide on big health and fitness goals, okay?
Learn your lessons. Okay? So here’s the truth, this year wasn’t wasted. Even the hard parts, especially the hard parts. Okay, but lessons only count if you apply them. Okay? So don’t rush past this moment, right? Sit with it, reflect, be honest with yourself, and just get curious because the runner that you become next year depends on what you’re willing to see.
And change right now. Okay. That’s all I got for you today. I hope you all have an amazing, healthy, strong, and happy 2026. Love you all. Keep on running lean and I will talk to you soon. I.
Every January, runners do the same thing. They get fired up, set big goals, promise themselves this year will be different… and a few weeks later, they’re right back where they started. That’s why …
Continue Reading about 312. Why Starting Over Every January Never Works (And What Actually Does) →
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner sports nutritionist, master life coach, and weight loss coach. For runners, I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you, properly fuel your body and your mind so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought. Possible. This is running Lean.
Hey there and welcome to episode 312 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today, why Starting over every January never works. And what actually does every January runners do the same thing? They get fired up, set big goals, promise themselves that this year is going to be different.
And then a few weeks later, they’re right back where they started. That’s why today’s episode is called Why Starting Over Every January Never works. In this episode, I’m breaking down the real reason January. Motivation fades so fast. Why relying on willpower is a losing strategy and how the motivation.
Burnout, quitting cycle keeps runners stuck year after year. More importantly, I’ll show you what actually works. If you wanna get leaner, get stronger, and make running feel easier, not just in January, but all year long. This episode also connects directly to something I’ve been building for a long time because so many of you have been asking for a better way.
So if you’re done starting over and ready to do this differently, you’re going to want to listen all the way. Through. But first, if you’ve been listening to this podcast for any amount of time, you probably already know this, that you don’t need more motivation. You don’t need another random plan, and you definitely don’t need to keep starting over every January.
What you need is a clear proven system that actually works for runners. One that brings together training, strength, nutrition, and mindset in a way that’s realistic, sustainable. And built for real life because when everything feels hard, when your body doesn’t respond the way you think it should when you’re putting in the miles, but not seeing the results that you want, that’s not a failure on your part.
That’s a missing structure problem. So I built the Leaner Stronger Runner project for runners who are done guessing and ready to do this the right way. It’s not about perfection, it’s about consistency, confidence, and finally having a plan that makes sense. So if you’re ready to stop spinning your wheels and start moving forward with intention, here’s what to do next.
Go to running lean coaching.com/ready to learn more and get started today. Take a look, see what it’s all about. And if you feel like. The the right next step is for you to jump in, do so, because this year doesn’t need to be another reset. It can be the year where everything finally clicks. All right.
Today I am talking about something that comes up every single year around this time. It’s January. It’s a new year, new motivation, new goals, new promises to yourself. And yet, for a lot of runners, January turns into the same old story because if you’re tired of repeating that same cycle year after year where you get fired up, you go all in, and then you burn out.
Slowly quit. This one’s for you, and I’m gonna tell you right up front, this episode ties directly into something big I’ve been working on for a long time. I’m gonna share more about that later. But first, let’s talk about why this keeps happening and what actually works instead. So here’s the January cycle.
We all know about this, but let me paint this picture for you here. So January 1st, rolls around. You’re feeling motivated. Hopeful determined, and you tell yourself things like, this is my year. I’m finally going to get serious. I’m not messing around anymore. You clean out the pantry, you plan a perfect training schedule.
You swear off alcohol and sugar and junk food and rest days you go from zero to everything overnight. And for a few weeks, it’s fine. It works. You can be pretty consistent. You’re disciplined, you’re feeling proud of yourself. But then, you know, life happens. You might miss a workout, you overeat one night.
Uh, you drink too much, you start to get tired, and then your motivation kind of slowly dips, right? And instead of adjusting. You just spiral. So suddenly you’re, you’re off the plan and then you get frustrated, and then you’re telling yourself what is wrong with me? And then by February or maybe even sooner, you’re exhausted, you’re discouraged and quietly backing away from the very goals that you were so excited about just a few weeks prior.
If this sounds familiar. Listen, it doesn’t mean you’re lazy. It’s, it’s not because you lack discipline. It’s definitely not because you don’t want it badly enough. It’s because the way most people approach January is just fundamentally broken. So here’s some uncomfortable truth. Motivation is unreliable.
Motivation is emotional. It’s fleeting, and it disappears. The second that things get uncomfortable, and yet most runners rely on motivation as their primary strategy. They think, you know, when I feel motivated, I’m going to train. Consistently when I, when I finally get motivated, I’m going to eat better.
When I feel motivated, I’m going to stay on track, but motivation is like a spark. It can start a fire, but it can’t keep one going. So eventually. Motivation is going to fade again. It’s a fleeting, it’s a feeling and feelings don’t last very long. And when it does start to fade, if you don’t have something else in place, everything is just gonna kind of slowly fall apart.
Okay? This is why January never works. So many people, they make these resolutions in January and they can’t stick with them ’cause they’re feeling super motivated on January one. But then by January 29th, they’re just like. Done with it. Okay. January is typically built on emotion, right? There’s no structure, there’s no infrastructure in place.
So there’s also something called the willpower trap. So let’s talk about willpower for a second. Willpower is what most runners lean on when motivation starts to fade. So they think, oh, I just need to be a little bit stronger. I just need a little more discipline. I just need to push a little harder.
Here’s the problem with that. Willpower is a limited. Resource. Okay. And you use it up all day long. Think about willpower as a gas tank, okay? And at the beginning of the day, it’s full, but you use it as the day goes on. And by the end of the day, you know it’s, it can be empty. So you use it at work, you use it with your family, use it to manage stress.
You use it to make decisions, to deal with life. And then by the end of the day, you’re tired, you’re hungry, you’re stressed, you’re overwhelmed. And willpower, that tank is empty. Okay? When your entire plan. Depends on willpower. You don’t have a plan. The plan is going to collapse basically every day. This is why white knuckling your way through January isn’t a good long-term strategy.
You’re trying to overpower your human biology with sheer, sheer force, you know, with sheer willpower, and this is not something that is sustainable. Okay. So there’s this cycle that I keep seeing over and over again with runners, and the cycle looks like this motivation. So you got new year, uh, new energy, you got big goals, you got this all or nothing thinking you’re, you’re motivated, right?
And then we see. O over commitment. So too much training, uh, too much, uh, uh, not enough flexibility. Too many rules. Okay. And then that leads to burnout. So you, you get fatigued, you start having cravings, you start missing workouts, you feel guilty and then quitting. I’m gonna start again later. This just isn’t a thing for me.
I’m gonna start at square one. So, motivation, overcommitment burnout, quitting, and then the cycle repeats. Next January, not because you failed, but because you don’t have a system in place. Okay. So starting over is the wrong way to think about all this. Okay. This is another big mistake that I see so many runners make.
They believe that every January requires a reset. They think they need to start over, fix everything, and become a completely new person overnight. Like somehow something magical happens between December 31st and January 1st, and you become a whole different person. The truth is, though. You’re not a new person and you don’t need to start over.
What you need is to build forward. Okay? Starting over assumes that you failed, that you lost progress, that you’re back at zero, and that mindset alone can be kind of demoralizing, right? Instead, what if January was about refining, strengthening, simplifying, and adding structure? What if it wasn’t about doing more but doing things better?
So what actually works is having a system in place, not willpower, right? This is the part that most people just skip over, right? Successful runners don’t rely on motivation or willpower. They rely on systems. A system is something you can follow even when you don’t feel like it. Systems remove decision fatigue systems create consistency.
Systems support you when motivation is gone. Think about it this way. Motivation says, I’ll do it when I feel like it. A system says this is just what I do. Big difference. So some examples of real systems. I wanna make this as practical as possible for you. So a system might look like this, knowing exactly how many days per week you train and why.
So maybe you have certain days that you run and, um, uh, train and, and you know exactly what those days are, and you have a goal for each of those sessions. Um, having a simple strength routine that actually supports your running. So something in place that is, uh, going to give you the results that you want.
It’s gonna improve your running, improve your endurance, improve your speed, your power, eating in a way that supports fat loss without constant restriction because that is unsustainable. Some restriction is okay, but constant restriction can be. Um, very unsustainable for a lot of people. Another system might be having some default meals instead of trying to make decisions every single day or planning ahead for travel, for stress, for holidays, uh, for busy weeks.
This is having a system in place that will help you to plan for those things. Knowing how to adjust instead of just quitting when things get a little sideways. ’cause you know what? Things are always gonna get a little sideways. None of this requires superhuman discipline or motivation or willpower. It requires having systems in place.
It requires some clarity. It just requires some structure. So one big reason why, uh, runners struggle specifically is because, well, first of all, runners are very unique, right? We’re disciplined consistent. You’re used to doing hard things, but most runners were taught that more mileage equals better results.
Uh, less food equals better body composition. Suffering equals success. And you know what? For a little while, that might work okay, but at some point that is unsustainable, right? ’cause it leads to overtraining under fueling injuries, stalled fat loss, mental burnout. So runners double down. They just do way more miles, you know, way less food.
They’re just trying to, you know, throw, throw more discipline at the problem. Okay. And that’s when everything tends to break. Uh, what runners actually need is a balanced, integrated approach, not. More punishing yourself. Okay? Runners are very good at punishing yourself, right? But this is why I built the Leaner, stronger Runner project, right?
This is where everything kind of comes together. For years, runners have been asking me, Patrick, how do I put all this stuff together? How do I stop starting over every January? How do I lose weight, get stronger and run better without burning myself out? And honestly, this podcast has been my way of answering those questions piece by piece, you know, but I knew something was missing, so I spent a long time building this, and it’s called the Lean Stronger Runner Project.
It’s not a quick fix, not a challenge, not a temporary plan. It’s a complete system for runners who are done. Messing around inside the project. Everything I teach here is organized, structured, and supported. You’re gonna learn metabolism and fat loss, strength training for runners, smart running strategies, mindset and consistency, habits that actually stick.
This is what actually works because it’s built on systems, not relying on willpower or motivation. So here’s the, the key difference this year and this why is why January can be different for you, right? You don’t need to wait for motivation. You don’t need to overhaul your entire life. You don’t need to start over.
You need a clear plan, the right structure, ongoing support and accountability. And with the new year, literally days away now, now is the time to choose a different path. Not February, not after this busy season, not once things calm down. The time to start is now. All right, so imagine that you could approach January differently.
It’s not about punishing yourself, it’s about alignment. It’s not about chasing perfection, it’s about building momentum. What if January wasn’t about relying on hype and hope, but instead following a proven system? You know, it’s not about doing it alone. It’s, it’s having support all, you know, every step of the way.
That’s how real change actually happens. So if you’ve been nodding along to any of this stuff today, if you’re tired of repeating the same January cycle. If you’re ready to stop all the starting over, just learn more about the The Leader Stronger Runner project. Just go to my website running lean coaching.com/ready.
Take a look, see if it feels right. No pressure, but if you’re ready to do this differently in 2026, this is your moment. Okay? That’s all I got for you today. Love you all. Keep on running lean and I’ll talk to you soon.
