What Makes A Run Successful?

Welcome to Coach Bennett's podcast, where every run has a purpose, where kindness is

hard core, where this is about running, and this is not about running.

Where every starting line is a finish line in disguise, where rambling still gets you

where you need to be.

Your pineapple will never ruin your pizza, and the sodas, adult, and not adult kind are

always cold, and where there is room on the starting line for everybody.

I'm Coach Bennett.

Thank you for letting me be a part of your day.

Let's get started.

Welcome to yet another episode of Coach Bennett's podcast.

Thank you for being here with me.

I appreciate y'all.

It's a big deal, episode 142, what makes a run successful?

I'm excited about going over this, because I feel like not everyone knows what exactly

makes a run successful, and let me just give you a teaser here, so much can make a run successful.

Alright, now before I get into it, I'll just let you know.

I'm gonna try not to talk too quickly, because I do have a little pressure here, so I'm

recording it.

I've got to get to the airport, because I'm heading to Berlin for the reopening, the

grand reopening of the Nike Berlin store, and I'm gonna be there on the sidelines cheering

all of you on in the Berlin half marathon this coming weekend.

I'm excited to be out there on the roads of one of the truly great running cities on

the planet, Berlin.

So I gotta get to the airport, but I've got time.

Don't worry, I've got time to go over what makes a run successful.

So settle in, or keep running, or walking, or hiking, or driving, or whatever it is

that you're doing while you're listening to episode 142, what makes a run successful,

because we are ready.

Okay, what makes a run successful?

I'm gonna basically go through this by asking questions.

I think that's the best way of doing it, socrates, what's up, anyway.

Did you start a run that you should have started?

That's a great question.

So let's say you're three, four strides in to the run, if you should have run this run,

if you should have started this run, it's already a success.

Now here's something to important.

Now success is an interesting word, all right, and I think it's important to understand

that you can have many different kinds of success, examples of success on a run.

You can have partial success on a run.

I'll give you an example.

Like if the exam is going to be a very difficult exam, you're in school, you're sitting down,

you crack open the booklet, and you're like, all right, here we go, passing is a 70.

Let's say an A or top honors is going to be a 95 or above, and then you've got all

of the other grades in there.

There's lots of different measurements of success, right?

They're gonna be certain individuals that are entering into the classroom, and they're

thinking, I just need to pass.

I need to pass to graduate.

This isn't a subject that I especially like, or I'm interested in, but I need to pass.

Success for them is a 70, right?

Everything above that is victory.

There are gonna be other people in that classroom where they're like, this is my jam.

I love this class.

This is what I want to spend the rest of my life doing, or teaching, or learning about,

or sharing, and for them, this is maybe a stepping stone to something else.

So for them, maybe it's, I really got to get a 90 or above so I can get into the next

level of this class, or a 95 and above, because this is something that is very important

for my future, so for them, the measurement of success is different.

I think it's really important now with running, getting so popular that people understand

that success is a very personal thing.

It's meaning is personalized by an individual.

What is success for them is not always going to be success for someone else.

If you take away the numbers, I imagine our versions of success, or examples of success,

are strikingly similar.

But we do it to service to ourselves in this sport, thinking the clock is what measures

success and the numbers on that clock mean the same thing for everyone.

It's not true.

Not true at all.

That person who is hoping to get a 70 so they could pass, they may have a different goal

than spending the rest of their life moving through this particular subject.

They may be extraordinary in an entirely different subject that that person who got a 95

on the exam has no interest in, or maybe is not very good at.

That's fine.

That is fine.

How you measure success is up to you.

I just wanted to put that in there as we roll through.

I probably should have done this before I did the first one.

The point is, remember, success is personalized.

What we often do is not just think our version of success is the version of success.

Sometimes we will look at someone who, for instance, maybe that person who got a 93

and they really wanted the 95, they're disappointed.

That person who's shooting for a 70, oftentimes going, what are you so upset about?

I got a 70.

You're saying a 93, that's incredible.

Don't do that.

Don't do that.

They have different goals than you.

Just like the person who gets the 93 or the 95 shouldn't look at the person getting

a 70 and say, that's it.

You're calling that a success, a 70.

We do both of those things.

Don't do either of those things.

Just a little public service announcement for all of us to respect each other.

It's not that hard to do.

Anyway, did you start a run that you should have started?

The reason why I'm saying that is because a lot of times we think that just starting a

run is a success.

Well, not really, because if you start a run, you should have started.

That's not a success.

That's not a good thing.

Sometimes the best run is no run at all.

Remember that.

So did you start a run?

You should have started.

Meaning you're healthy.

You're able to do it.

Right?

That's the first thing I want to say.

You running while you're hurting, maybe emotionally or even physically, like your sore,

your little beat up.

Okay.

I'm fine with that as a coach.

There's a lot of times we're going to be banged up.

We're going to be hurting a little bit in various ways.

The key here is that we make a distinction between hurting and hurt.

It's not a success to run while you're hurt.

It's not hard core to run while you're hurt.

Sometimes, in fact, many times, the hardest thing to do is to stop yourself from starting.

When you need to not start.

So remember that.

It's a successful run that you started.

If it's a run, you should have started.

It's also a success.

If you don't start a run, you shouldn't start.

All right?

Wrap your head around that.

You may have to rewind it.

It all makes sense.

Just listen to me.

So did you start a run that you should have started?

If the answer is yes, success.

Now, again, it doesn't mean this is all success on the run.

It doesn't mean every other part of the run is going to be this incredible success.

I'm just saying, that's an example of success.

So, took that away for later because we're going to talk about that.

Okay.

I got another one.

Did you nail the purpose of the run?

You know every run has a purpose.

I mean, I hope you know every run has a purpose.

I mean, because come on, I say it all the time.

People are you listening.

I know you're listening.

I'm just saying that.

I want you to feel good about yourself because you're one of the people who listen.

You're a rock star.

You're a badass.

Thank you for listening.

Every run has a purpose.

Sometimes, the purpose is to push.

Sometimes the purpose is to be comfortable.

Sometimes the purpose is to be uncomfortable.

Sometimes the purpose is to pull back.

So did you nail the purpose of the run physically, emotionally?

Mindfully, did you nail the purpose?

That's great.

Again, this has nothing to do with the pace.

I didn't mention any pace.

Has nothing to do with distance.

I didn't nail the distance.

It has nothing to do with anything other than, did you nail the purpose of the run?

So when you're asking yourself, what is the purpose of this run?

Remove the numbers.

Do it.

It's a fantastic exercise, all right?

The numbers will fill in, believe me, as you run.

If you're measuring it with a watch or a phone, it will measure it.

But before you measure it with numbers, measure it with all those other things.

Like I'm going for a recovery run, which means I should be comfortable, I should be giving

an easy effort, I should end this run refreshed in many ways, renewed in many ways, reinvigorated

in many ways.

It's still an effort.

Don't get me wrong.

You're still going to need to recover in other ways, but have you recovered in the

ways you're supposed to recover on a recovery run?

If you're doing a hard effort, was it hard?

Remember, when you're trying to push yourself, if it's difficult, that's not a sign of you

doing something wrong or weakness, it's a sign of you doing something right and the

strength to take on something difficult and something hard.

So did you nail the purpose of the run?

Because if you did success, I got another one.

Did you have fun?

I know, it's a simple one.

A lot of people struggle with this.

Nothing about running is fun.

No, it sounds like nothing is fun about you as a runner and you need to check yourself

and change the way you run because running is supposed to be fun.

Don't confuse that with running is supposed to be easy.

It's not supposed to be easy all the time.

There are times when it should feel pretty easy, but it's not supposed to be easy period.

It's running.

Supposed to be a run.

There are so many different types of run, I just talked about the purpose of the run.

Run runs are not supposed to be easy at any point.

Some are supposed to be well within your range of what you would classify as easy enough.

But the point is, did you have fun doing it?

Remember, this should be a form of play.

Running around used to be a form of play.

Let's bring it back and you will run better and faster and further if you're enjoying

what you're doing.

If you're having fun doing it, did you have fun?

But don't muddy the waters by saying like, well, it was hard.

Yeah, it can be hard and fun.

Most runners that have been running for a while when I say, what was the funnest run you've

ever done, it's usually the hardest runs they did, the craziest runs they did, the ones

that challenge them the most.

So don't limit fun to just easy.

Limit fun to fun.

And you should be having fun, you should be incorporating fun into your running, alright?

Another one.

Did you challenge yourself?

And I wanted this right after the fun one because I think they should work together.

But did you challenge yourself?

Now again, not every run is going to challenge you.

But this is another question you can ask because if the purpose was to challenge you and

then you finish, you know, that was so hard, what's wrong and you think, no, the purpose

was to challenge me and I did challenge me.

Well then that's a success.

And let me just tell you this, so many times we say, oh yeah, that type of a run challenge

me or the distance challenge me or the pace challenge me or the terrain challenged me,

the hills challenged me, the weather challenged me, no, you challenged you.

The reason why the run was a challenge was because you kept running, you ran on the hills,

you ran at that pace, you ran for that distance.

I know you're a nice person and you want to give, you know, your run, all the flowers,

you deserve the flowers.

The reason why the run was challenging was because you challenged yourself.

You pushed, went forward, progressed, it was you, not the run, it's the runner that makes

a run challenging, not the run that makes the run challenging.

So own it, did the run challenge you?

If so, heck yeah, own it, own it, acknowledge and appreciate that you did that.

So when you ask the question, ask it like this, did you challenge yourself, all right, own

it, take it back, stop giving all these gifts to the run that you should be giving to

the runner.

Here's another one, did you surprise yourself?

I think one of the greatest things that running gives us as a gift is the ability to surprise

ourselves that on the other side of the starting line, we can do something we did not know

we were capable of doing.

We were aware it was in our wheelhouse.

We did not know it was inside of ourselves already and the run helped bring it out.

Ask yourself, did you surprise yourself?

The perspective of anything else that went on on the run was there something there that

surprised you about you, that is badass.

That is a stone cold gift to yourself, bring that into the rest of your life that you

still have the ability to surprise yourself, that yes, you are constantly molding yourself.

But listen, too often what happens in life as we're molding ourselves into this version

that we want to be, we stop molding.

When we let this, you know, version of us harden into stone and marble and we're like,

that's it.

I'm done.

No, every time you surprise yourself, you are a new version of yourself.

It's exciting to know that you know you better than anyone will ever know you and yet

you still don't know everything about you.

I think that's amazing and that's waiting for you on the other side of the starting line

and if you do a run where you surprise yourself, acknowledge it, appreciate it, and realize

that is a success, all right?

Another one, did you learn something?

Which again is a way of changing who you are every time you learn something, it expands

your mind.

Of course, you have to have an open mind for this to happen, you have to be willing to learn,

you have to be willing to challenge your preconceived notions, but did you learn something?

I'll tell you what, good and bad, learning something good is great because now you know

something good, learning something that you shouldn't do shouldn't have done.

Well guess what, you're now smarter as a result, I call this earned wisdom.

What did you learn on the run?

I shouldn't eat tacos and have two services at two in the afternoon and then go for a

run at two thirty in the afternoon on a hot humid day and halfway through that run instead

of going to a water fountain and maybe stopping the run, have a big warm glass of milk and

then continue the run.

There's a whole bunch of learnings in there, my people, a whole bunch of learnings.

So the next time you're like, I'm going to have Mexican food, but I'm going to have it

after my run or I'm going to have it before my run, but I'm going to give myself enough

time to properly digest this food.

I'm going to make sure I'm hydrated, not with milk before the run and definitely not

with milk during the run.

I'm going to use something that maybe is a little bit more beneficial to the experience

and I'm not going to run at 2 p.m. on a very, very hot and humid day.

I think I'm going to either run earlier or later in the day when it's more beneficial

for a runner to run so many learnings from one terrible run.

That is a success.

So even if the run didn't go the way you wanted it to go, there is an element of success

in that run because you are now a better runner as a result of having a not so good run

with a bunch of not so good decisions.

That's why learning from our mistakes, learning from other people's mistakes too.

It's a benefit.

It's a benefit.

A lot of people would look at that run and be like, this was a complete and total disaster.

Only if we didn't learn from it.

Only if we didn't learn from it.

It could still be a disaster, but it's not a complete disaster because we learned from

it.

So did you learn something?

All right.

All right.

Another one.

Did you move forward?

You can define what that means as literally or as figuratively as you want.

Did you move forward?

Did you progress?

And remember, progress like a run is not based on a specific number.

There is no number set in stone in how you're going to measure progress.

This can be so small as to be almost imperceptible.

But if it is even an imperceptible bit of movement forward, it is movement forward.

So did you move forward?

A lot of this is going to ask you to ask yourself to sit with yourself and think about the

run and the runner so you can find that progress.

Yes, you may need a magnifying glass.

But if you're saying I moved a little teeny, it's a bit forward as opposed to I didn't

move at all.

I'll tell you what.

That little bit of positive movement forward is dramatic, especially emotionally.

So do not, do not, do not diminish or dismiss even the smallest progress forward.

Okay.

Don't do that.

So did you move forward and if you moved forward, even a little bit, that is a little bit

of success.

It's a little bit like hope.

You don't need to be chock full of hope to be hopeful.

You just need to have a little bit and you don't need to be completely, totally 100 percent

successful to experience success.

And if you're experiencing success in any way, shape or form, you are in fact, by definition,

successful.

Remember that.

Did you end the run safe?

That's my last one.

Could have started with that, but I figure this is a great bookend.

Did you end the run safe in order to have a successful run?

It needs to end as a safe run.

If you end your run safe, I don't care what else happened on the run.

If you ended the run safe, you have some success right there.

Remember that.

Make good decisions about the type of environment you're running in, where you're running,

when you're running, who you're running with, what you're asking of yourself and give

context to these decisions based on the environment.

Think about the weather, think about where you're running, think about what you're asking

yourself to do because you cannot have a successful run unless it ends as a safe run.

Okay?

So I gave you a whole bunch of things to think about and I'm not quite sure.

I mentioned a number in there as a way to measure the success of a run.

I'll leave that up to you, but I honestly feel that if you ask yourself these questions

first, those numbers will not limit your success.

They will only add to your success.

But if you're not asking yourself these questions, a lot of times those numbers associated

with your run can make you feel like you have less success than you actually earned.

And I think that whatever you earn is yours.

So if you've earned this success, you deserve this success.

Don't cut holes in your pockets, my people, and then fill them up with success.

And when you get home, you got these empty pockets and think you didn't earn anything.

You did, you just lost it on the way home.

That's on you.

It doesn't change the fact that you earned that success.

But when you let it disappear, you don't get to take advantage of it.

So the next day when you want to go see a movie, like I want to go see Project Hill

Maryx, it's one of my favorite books.

I loved it so much.

I can't wait to see it.

If you've seen it, I hope you loved it.

And if you haven't seen it, I would recommend reading the book first.

Honestly, the book was so extraordinary.

It's going to be tough to raise itself the movie that is to the standard of the book,

but I've got faith.

I've got faith.

I got hope.

I got optimism that it's going to be great.

My point is that if you fill your pockets up with your little success coins and you want

to go to the movie the next day to see Project Hill Maryx, and suddenly you get to the ticket

window and you're like, one ticket for Project Hill Maryx, and they're like, okay, that's

four success coins and you're like feeling in your pockets like, I don't have any success

coins.

Dude, I saw you yesterday go for a run.

I saw you earn the success coins.

I saw the run give you those success coins.

Where are they?

I didn't feel like I earned them.

So I got holes in my pockets and I let the coins, you know, just fall out and the person

at the windows like that's just really, really silly.

That's makes no sense at all.

Don't do that.

So your pockets up, which by the way, would be success right there because now you've fixed

a problem and the holes in your pockets.

That's a definite problem.

And I'm just rambling now.

The point here is when you earn it, own it, and then spend it on yourself.

You deserve it.

Okay?

So that to me is a couple of questions you should be asking yourself.

So you know what makes a run a success.

What makes a run successful and in doing so I think what you're going to find is you

are way more successful than you think.

And if you now realize you're way more successful than you think, I believe you're going to

be coming to the starting line and going to the other side of the starting line and making

your way to a finish line, which is just a starting line in disguise way more confident.

Because now you know you've earned a whole lot more success than you thought you did.

You are way wealthier at the success bank than you originally thought and I hope that

feels good.

Alright, that's episode 142.

I got to go pack.

Thank you all for listening.

Thanks for rating and reviewing the podcast.

Please share the podcast.

I appreciate it.

I hope you know that and please now take care of yourself.

Take care of each other and I'll meet you on that next starting line.

Thank you so much for listening to Coach Bennett's podcast today.

And if you haven't already subscribed or set yourself as a follower to the podcast, I really

hope you would and make sure you check out the show notes because in those show notes

you're going to find a link to Coach Bennett's newsletter and all the social media sites

I'm on like Instagram and threads and cameo and blue sky and nope not on that one anymore.

So all the ones I am on, you're going to find it in the show notes to check that out

as well.

And as always, thank you again for listening to Coach Bennett's podcast.

Until next time, keep taking care of yourself and each other.