· By Sarah Conklin
46: 5K Workouts, Hard Conversations, Time
Juggling work-life balance can be a real three-ring circus, which Lauren & Jesse know first hand. Led by listener questions, the Work, Play, Love Podcast is all about sports, biz, and family. [ASK YOUR QUESTION]
46: 5K Workouts, Hard Conversations, Sleep Before Race Day, Investing Your Time, Multi-Level Marketing
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Description:
Confronting yourself or someone close to you is a major challenge, but it’s often worth it. Whether you’re approaching a tough conversation with a loved one, addressing your sleep-depriving excitement or anxiety before a race, or digging deep to get honest with yourself about how to spend your time, Jesse and Lauren offer tips on how to push through it in work, play, and love. You'll also hear about the best 5K workouts, sweet podcast recommendations, and the best jogging stroller. Plus, follow-ups about runner's PTSD, and changing your name.
What's Goin' Onnnn?!
Lauren’s just back from her first-ever time hosting Wilder Lab. She shares her experiences and takeaways from the long weekend. What stuck with her? This type of work is really important, and she hopes that more people, especially men, get to experience it.
Meanwhile, Jesse’s still on the hunt for a Director of Sales for Picky Bars, and he’s just back from a batch of interviews with candidates. He shares some details about the hiring process, and talks about how he’s re-posting the role under a different title to attract more best-fit talent. Jesse gives some other Picky updates, talks about the response to his Rich Roll podcast episode, and shares his experience solo-parenting while Lauren was away.
Tasty Bites
15:48 - With the recent discussions about male leg shaving, I'm wondering if you've ever looked in to the Roka Aviators having any sort of impact on aerodynamics since you're always looking for ways to maximize efficiency? Will you be sure and get the wind tunnel people to look at this aspect of your setup in addition to the shaven legs?
Oh don’t you worry. We’re looking into wind tunnel tests for shaven legs, and yes, now aviator glasses. Chances are you’re right—the aviators are less aerodynamic than other types of glasses. But when it comes to efficiency, you gotta know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em. And in this case, the aviators are too stylish to leave behind.
18:22 - What are some good sports podcasts to listen to while working out?
Here are a few podcasts Lauren and Jesse dig!
Burn It All Down – The feminist sports podcast you need!
The Purple Patch Podcast – Triathlete coach Matt Dixon’s podcast
Tower 26 “Be Race Ready” Podcasts – Triathlete swim coach Gerry Rodriques’s podcast
Ali On The Run – Great interviews with interesting folks in sports and fitness
20:19 - What are your favorite 5K workouts?
Before we dive into workouts, it’s important to know that 5K-specific training is very difficult and it’s really tough on your body. The types of workouts that help you prepare for a 5K take weeks or longer to build up to. That said, here are some workouts that can help you run your best 5K:
- As a general rule—4 miles of work during your workout is good training for a 3-mile race
- Repeats are common and effective for training, such as:
- 4x 1-mile at 5K pace with 3-4 minute recovery between
- 1200m repeats at 5K pace with 3-4 minute recovery
- 6x 1000m repeats at 5K pace with a lap jog between
- 800m repeats at a 5K pace with slightly shorter recovery
- 400m repeats at a 5K pace with a shorter recovery: 1-minute or jog 100m
- Here’s a workout Lauren uses with her athletes:
- 1x “easy” mile – 10K pace
- Lap jog
- 1600m at goal mile pace, 1 minute recovery
- Lap jog
- 2x 800m at goal pace, 1 minute recovery between
- Lap jog
- 4x 400m fast (3K pace), 1 minute recovery between
- 1x hard mile
24:21 - What is the best jogging stroller?
Lauren and Jesse have only had two jogging strollers. They started out with a Mountain Buggy jogging stroller, which they got for free and liked. But they’ve had a lot of success with their Thule jogging stroller, which love, and they’ll use it until the wheels fall off. They don’t own but they love Bend local business Kid Runner, which makes a highly engineered, lightweight, hands-free jogging stroller—check ‘em out!
Resources:
28:20 - How do you track your workout data? What are the key performance indicators you watch?
- Running: It’s good to track your pace. If you’re on a crazy variable course or the temperature conditions are outside of “normal” heart-rate can be a more appropriate metric.
- Cycling: track power and time. Heartrate, again, is secondary.
- Swimming: track pace and distance.
- Nordic skiing? Take a look at time and heart rate, because the conditions are highly variable.
32:15 - How do you navigate relationship issues when verbal requests for change haven't been effective?
A good template to start a difficult conversation with a loved one is: [person] I really love you, as you know I’ve struggled with [issue], and I’m doing everything in my power to [resolve the issue]. I really want to fully [resolve the issue], and so I’m having the difficult conversations with the people that make that harder for me, and so I want to talk to you about it. When you [do action] it makes me feel [how you feel].
Seeing a therapist can also be a huge help in healing relationships. They can help you identify your triggers and find new ways to approach the situation. If the person is a family member, family counseling can also be a great option.
All that said, it’s important to note that the burden of healing a relationship is not on one person alone. The other person in the relationship needs to do their own work.
39:10 - Any tips for getting adequate, quality sleep the night before a big race or workout? Do you guys have any go-to methods or quelling the anxiety attached with getting enough sleep prior to a race? Do you condone the use of sleeping aids (OTC meds, CBD, etc)? How the heck do you get yourself to fall asleep?
Healthy sleep habits are habits! So it’s important to practice them outside of racing and training environments. Here are some things to try to get better sleep as an athlete:
- Eliminate screen time 2-hours before bed
- Have a consistent schedule and activities before sleep
- Reduce caffeine and sugar consumption later in the day
Other helpful sleep aids for athletes could be:
- ZzzQuil, or melatonin, though these may make you feel groggy on race day.
- Headspace meditation app (has a 10-minute sleep exercise)
- Write down the schedule of your race day, and even the 48 hours before a race so you have a plan to follow
- Prepare and lay out your racing gear the morning or afternoon before race day
45:48 - How do you decide where to invest your time?
When it comes to deciding how to spend your time, consider your long-term personal goals. Then break those big goals down and identify the smaller goals that you need to achieve to get there. Then align your actions with those goals and continue to check in with yourself along the way. Here are some tips to help:
- Do some vision casting! Write down what you want to achieve in 5, 10, 20, and even 40 years. Then try to identify what you need to do in the next 1-2 years to work towards that vision.
- Try a new years resolution. It doesn’t need to be new years, and it doesn’t need to be a resolution. But sit down with yourself and think about what you want to be doing with your time, then check in with yourself every quarter and see how it feels.
- Pay attention to what you pay attention to (advice from Jennifer Louden – see below). This can be a great clue in helping you find how you want to spend your time. What you pay attention to will let you know what you care about.
Resources:
Traction – goal-setting for business that can apply to personal as well
Jennifer Louden – badass writer and self-care evangelist
53:16 - What is your take on multi-level-marketing (MLM) businesses? Do you think there are good and bad ways to do MLM? Can you help clarify the difference between ambassador programs like Oiselle Voilee and even Picky Club from MLMs?
Here are a few definitions to help clarify the differences between these things:
MLM – A multi-level-marketing business is a business like Avon. You are a product reseller. You sign up to sell a product, you’re given the tools to go sell the product, and part of the money you make from that sale goes to the person or entity that empowered you to sell the products.
Brand Ambassador – An individual that is paid (in money, or in goods) to promote a brand publicly by giving the brand their time, their audience, or their stories.
Paid Consultant – An individual who is paid to offer product feedback based on their expertise in their industry. They may also be involved in collaborations to develop a product with a brand.
The Picky Club and the Volée are none of these things. Picky Club is a subscription service wherein customers subscribe to products they love. They get the products at a discount in exchange for offering Picky Bars regular business.
The Volée is a team that you pay an annual membership fee to be a part of and in return you get some cool gear from Oiselle, and you become part of a worldwide community of like-minded runners.
59:15 – Follow-Ups
Each episode, Jesse and Lauren read some follow-ups and input from you! Listeners respond to questions and discussion topics from previous episodes to offer personal stories or expertise.
This episode’s follow-ups include a follow-up about runner’s PTSD discussed in episode 45. A listener writes in with a story of their own running trauma and how they worked through it. Another listener writes in to share their experience in not changing their last name when they got married—a follow-up to episode 44.
As always, submit your work/play/love question at pickybars.com/workplaylove - Thanks for listening!
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