Episode 639: Our Favorite Race Prep Workouts

There was a big movement towards under fueling and under recovering during your race build and then resting up and peaking like crazy. Now, the in vogue route is to fuel for every workout and recover to the max on a daily basis. Which is superior? Is there room for both approaches?

You have to make a choice and stick with it for the rest of your running life: Plated or Unplated, Tights or Shorts, Music or Silence, High Rep or Low Rep lifting, Roads or Trails, High or Low mileage, and more!

You’re already in good shape and you decide to sign up for a race that is just a few weeks away. What should you do for your final few quality sessions? We give you our two best “get ready to race” workouts for the Mile/1500m, 5k, 10k, Half Marathon, Marathon, and Ultra distance races.

Highlights include balancing strength training with running, fueling for a 90 minute race, barefoot & zero drop shoes, at what age can you determine whether or not you’re able to be a high level runner.

As a teen, Croix spent four days in a coma after being struck by a drunk driver. His family was told he would be a vegetable; if he survived. 40 years later, he is an ultra runner, speaker, and author.

We kick off with a Backyard Ultra chat, briefly talk about adjusting to time zones when traveling for races, and then Brakken gives himself a race ultimatum!

We spent a combined 20 years dedicating ourselves to the track. Then, we spent 15 years training for Obstacle Course Racing, which in turn led us to the trails and mountains. Along the way, each version of running taught us some things we wouldn’t have learned anywhere else!

Can you use lifting in a way that maximizes hormone production yet minimizes the interference effect on your running? Yup!

Highlights include: How much did altitude training help us? What type of form work should runners do? Are recovery shoes/slides legit? How to strengthen core, and how to run and lift simultaneously.

Tim is a firefighter, Air National Guard officer, and endurance athlete. After surviving a near death medical emergency, and the subsequent year long recovery, he rebuilt himself and was named the 2023 Air National Guard Athlete of the Year.