AJ and Erika: One of the most requested topics y'all have been asking for is to talk about diet and nutrition. That's not our area of expertise, so we've invited a special guest onto this week's show that can help provide some really helpful nutrition information. ⁓ Hey there, friends. Welcome to one more run of the podcast. Erica, I believe this is episode 56 or 57. I'm starting to lose count as the numbers go up. Yes. I think it's 56. Okay. I know that today is July 22nd. ⁓ Whatever episode number it is, welcome to One More Run the Podcast. My name is AJ. And I'm America. We are married. We host this thing to help you feel confident, prepared, and inspired for whatever your race is that you're training for, or maybe even thinking about. Right. Right. And if training is getting hard right now for whatever you're doing, ⁓ I just want to say right up here at the top, don't quit. Right? Like listen to this. Podcast, if you're just like on that verge, yeah, and you're like, I don't know if this is for me, I don't want to do this anymore or whatever, don't quit yet. That's right. Give it one more try. You know, give it one more. And then after that, give it one more after that. That's right. So we really want to be helpful and encouraging. And ⁓ today's guest is certainly gonna help with that, right? Absolutely. She is awesome. Today we have Kristen, who you might know as Run Fit Mama, on the podcast. She is a certified personal trainer, running coach, and nutrition coach. We asked if she'd be willing to join us on the podcast to talk nutrition, which will hopefully be really helpful now that we're into marathon training. Absolutely. We're trying to set foundation right for upcoming races, whether that's marathon weekend or maybe it's Space Coast or Wine and Dine or whatever it is. Whatever you're doing. We're trying to set that foundation now. Yeah of like, hey, get your nutrition in order early so that you're not trying to play catch up every mile to get big, right? Set the foundation now. And then heads up, we couldn't resist. We had to ask her some strength stuff too. Yes. And so of course we'll talk Ren Disney and all of that stuff. ⁓ it was a really great conversation. She's awesome. She's so sweet. And one of the things we did is ⁓ we we text our friend Devin and she hosts a podcast with Devin. And I said, Hey, Devin, what do we need to know about Kristen? Because you guys host a podcast together. We've not met her in person yet. She seems awesome, but what do we need to know? Yeah. And her thing was she loves this community and she loves people. And that was so clear. And it's and it's pure. Yeah. You know what I mean? She said that that's all you need to know about her. Yeah. She does it for others. Right. And I got that vibe a hundred. Totally. A hundred percent. She was telling us that her her dream client would be a Ren Disney runner. Yes. And she says that she has the dream job because she gets to work with all the dream job. Yeah. It's pretty it really is. All Well Erica, I say grab a pen and paper or everyone else should. Because you're gonna wanna take some notes. Absolutely. This is awesome. We're talking nutrition and strength with our good friend Kristen. All right, friends, this is so exciting. We have another amazing Run Disney community person on the podcast. What she does for the community is awesome. She's a run coach, like just so cool when somebody like as awesome that cares about people and that cares about this community is willing to come on the podcast. And her wealth of knowledge in the topic is so good that it's super exciting to have Kristen, who we know is Run Fit Mama on the podcast. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much. my gosh, I almost cried. ⁓ good. That's so sweet. Thank you. Well, if we don't cry at one point or super embarrass at one point, then it wasn't really a successful podcast. I'm down. I'm down for both. Okay. Perfect. ⁓ yeah. Erica cries. At least at least once or twice a podcast. Yeah. It just comes with running. You gotta cry. Yes. Exactly. ⁓ Kristen, for those for our friends who don't know who you are yet, or maybe they know who you are, but they don't know like exactly, you know, kind of the details of what you do and what Run Fit Mama is and all of that. Can you give us kind of the the background? Yeah. So I started my own business in twenty ten when I sort of wanted to take a hold of my own health and fitness. And I was working just in person at different gyms and ⁓ training clients that way. And when COVID hit, kind of a good and a and a bad situation because I couldn't work in person. And so I just decided that I was going to just take a leap of faith and start Training people online. And anytime I would ever get business coaching advice, they would always ask me who's your perfect client. And I would just say every single time, a Run Disney runner, a Run Disney runner. And they kept telling me it's too niche. It'll never work. There's there's never enough people. And I just felt deep in my soul like something was calling me to reach out to more people. And I remember exactly where I was sitting in my house when I got my very first like Run Disney official client. It was Kimberly Estherbrook. I don't know if you guys watch her YouTube videos, but they're great. But I pretty much screamed on my couch that she wanted to do my strength program. And it just kind of took off from there. And I think because the foundation of my, I guess, ⁓ goal is that I just want to help these specific people. It just brings me so much joy that it just it worked. So now everything is mostly online, which is such a wonderful thing. That's so good. Yeah, and that's so, and this might be news for me that I didn't understand. So you work with primarily Run Disney clients, exclusively Run Disney. Like what what how does that work? So I definitely have people that run all the majors or they run home races and and different things like that. But yeah, I would say ⁓ 90% are people that do at least one Run Disney race a year, at least. ⁓ you know, you know us, we like to do them all. So that's awesome. Yeah. Kristen, can you tell us a little bit more about your background as an athlete? Sure. Yeah. So my clients are all rolling their eyes right now because they've heard this a thousand times. But I was a synchronized swimmer ⁓ pretty competitively until ⁓ I started coaching ⁓ in college for the same team that I swam on. ⁓ and so that was really my background of. It ⁓ we need some sort of diagram of like synchronized swimming to run Disney Pipeline because the glitter and the matching costumes and the music of it all. Yeah. Like I love to program playlists for my clients and it's for that reason because it in my head we're just swimming the whole time. But yeah, so I was a synchronized swimmer and then, you know, after I stopped coaching and I went off to college, maybe habits weren't as healthy. ⁓ I will say and you know, kind of the health side of that kind of fell to the wayside and but in my head I always thought like running a marathon was the equivalent to like, I don't know, flying to Mars. I just kept thinking like, wow, that must be you must be so in shape and so dedicated and committed to your sport if you can run a marathon. And so that's kind of where that little thing in the back of my head was the whole time until I found running and and run Disney. So Tell us a little bit about that. How did you find and fall in love with Friend Disney? So what's so funny is I had a friend who was actually a client. I knew her in high school. And then she started coming to my in-person boot camps. ⁓ this is way back when boot camp was a big thing. Yeah. And she was like, You you know that Disneyland has half marathons, right? And I was like, I did not know this. And this was actually before they even had 10K. So it was just the 5K and the half marathon for the weekend. And it was August that I looked it up in August of like 2012. And the Tinkerbell half was still open for January. And so I was like, yeah, I'm doing that. And so and I never even thought to look up a challenge or doing the 5K and the half. Like that would have I'm like, no, absolutely not. So I ran the half in the race shirt, by the way. And I picked up sparkling sparkle athletic wings at the expo. Like I had no idea what I was in for. Yeah. And that it changed my life. I mean, I don't think I stopped smiling the whole time. And I was like, what is this? Amazing world that I entered into and the rest was history. I mean, it literally was so addictive from the beginning. So Yeah. We've hear we hear it over and over and over again from guests on the podcast that like running their first run Disney race changed their life, right? Like, can you help like put a like an exclamation point on that or or or whatever underscore that for you? Like it has changed our life. You know, something as and I say as silly as running it Disney has changed our life. You know what I mean? Can you give kind of give us a reason why? ⁓ it's Besides my family, this is gonna sound insane, but truly it is such a driving force for everything I do because I know at the end of the day I have made the very best friends and I'm so lucky that I've become friends with a lot of my clients as well. So where it's like a family reunion every time we go. And I know that if I ever needed anything, if I need emotional support on something. Or if I'm just having a tough time on a run, there are so many people that are in this community that just want you to succeed and be happy and do well. And I remember when I did that first Tinkerbell, I was in like a Tinkerbell half-marathon Facebook group. And there was a leader in there, her name was Lynn, and she would post her coffee cup every morning. And it was like such a ⁓ comfort to see that other people were awake, they were doing what they needed to do. And that was kind of my idea behind starting the Dopey Strong Facebook group because We all have something in common, no matter our walks of life, our age, our experience, but we can all come together with this love of just getting up super early and meeting Mickey Mouse in a parking lot somewhere. I just find it to be so beautiful. And like before the races start, when you see these athletes who are seventy two, I've never done a half marathon before. This is my first one. And there's just something so incredibly magical about this one thing we can all have in common, no matter who we are. Yeah. I love that. ⁓ just not in my notes. So I'm throwing another question in here. You said Dopey Strong and Facebook group. And I did not put that in my notes. And I know that exists, but I don't really know the story behind it or or really what that is or for or whatever. Is now a good time to ask that question or should we table that one? Yeah, sure. I would love to to tell you the story behind that because it's kind of funny. Okay. After I did the 2018 Dopey, I remember I was like walking through the finish shoot, and that was I think one of the first years that they handed out the ears. And I was on the phone with my husband and I'm screaming. I'm like, ⁓ my God, you won't believe what happened. He's like, what? What happened? And I'm like, they gave us ears. And he's like, okay. But you know, after after a marathon, you know, you get defended anything. ⁓ yeah. ⁓ yeah. And I'm in the parking lot of Epcot and I posted on ⁓ I had a Facebook group on on Facebook that was like 13 people that were local runners, just friends of mine. And I had posted in there, who wants to run Dopey twenty twenty three for the for the What was that? The 30th anniversary. and I figured a five-year goal was great to get all my friends to convince them to come. And so many people on Facebook are like, me, me, me. So I changed the name to Dopey Strong with two purple heart emojis and two like that's so funny that I used emojis because now I wouldn't have done that. But anyway, it was just this silly little group of like 12, 13 people. And now it's like, I think 2800 and we do meetups at the race weekends and stuff. And it's just such a wonderful, like. I call them my gummy bears because what we were training for the twenty twenty three Dopey, we were all into like nineties Disney cartoons. Like so that that gummy bear song was on our playlist. And anyway, it's just such a wonderful group, like I was saying, of just all walks of life, all different people from experiences and and everything. And so yeah, it's just our little happy area of the of the internet. That's awesome. Who's that group for? Just just for I I honestly don't know. Anyone, okay. Yeah, anyway. So and I always say, because I know a lot of I think that the word dopey for a lot of people can be not triggering, but it can sort of feel like you're left out if you don't want to run Dopey or if to you that is not a challenge that sounds good to you. And so I tell people that Dopey is whatever you want. If a five K is like the biggest, grandest thing you could ever think to do and you want to be in our group, you can join our group. So it's not just for Dopey. Yeah. That'd be awesome. I just like the name. Yeah. Perfect. So I in doing my homework, I I'm, you know, on your Instagram and and the website and all that stuff. Yes, I know websites are still, you know, an actual thing on the internet. I know people don't like really look at them, you know. But I know so I find out and I don't know if these numbers are accurate, but forty-six half marathons and eight marathons. Is that is that the accurate? Because I know you're like always doing races. Is that are those numbers still accurate? Yes. I that is my one happy thing I do after a race. And I do think that is accurate. Yes. I think I updated it after London. Which is my question. Yeah. My question. Your website says, and hope maybe one day I'll run London, right? It's like on your like a little ab about you page or whatever. But I know you ran London this year. Yeah, I should update that. So tell us about London. I mean, you don't have to take the whole episode to tell us everything. And we know you talked about it on your podcast with Devin, but like t tell us like like was it as amazing as you'd hoped it would be? Like tell us about it. ⁓ yes. I mean Yes. So when I originally, like I was saying, before I even got into fitness, I was 50 pounds heavier. And I remember this is back when I worked in a cubicle. I worked for like the state for nutrition. And like a serial killer, I cut out letters from a magazine, London Marathon, and I I put it with a printed out picture of Big Ben on my cubicle wall. And I still have a picture of that that thing that I made because like I said, that was The ultimate. Like there's no way I could ever run a marathon. So I've been dreaming of this for so long. And I think it finally hit me. There's, I think it's mile probably 23. And you turn and you come up and you see the eye and you see Parliament and Big Ben. And I lost it. I mean, every mile was worth it just to have that view of running up towards Big Ben. And the community support was incredible. ⁓ The course was so fun. I didn't wear headphones once because just everyone's screaming your name. And that's so cool. ⁓ yeah, it was it was amazing. If anyone ever has the opportunity, just just do it. We're, you know, an asteroid could come tomorrow, say yes to the race. You never know what's gonna happen. So yeah, it was it was worth everything. So that's awesome. That's awesome. Is it on your list, London? ⁓ my gosh, I would love to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Let's go. Yep. Awesome. ⁓ okay. So Kristen, thank you for telling us a little bit about you. We we ⁓ one of the the things that everyone keeps asking us about is hey, when are you guys gonna cover like diet and nutrition and all that on the podcast? And we're like, hey, we love chocolate covered gummy bears a little too much to talk about that. You know what I mean? Like like Trader Joe's ⁓ gummy bear things or whatever. Like they're it's a vice, you know? And so we're like, we are not expert, like we cannot. Touch that. You know what I mean? So I when I reached out, I was like, hey, is this a topic you'd be willing to cover? Cause we know you are an expert in it, plus strength and other things. So can can we ask you for some insights on nutrition? Would you be okay with that? ⁓ absolutely. And I will say if you go to Trader Joe's, what I just sent my husband for, if you like their gummy bears, there's something I saw on TikTok. They're called ⁓ sour confetti and they're limited time. But someone said they're very good. So if you want to try those on a run, I would just suggest that. Okay. Our our daughter, college age daughter, just bought those and she took them to like a friend group thing or whatever. And she said they were gone instantly. Like they were just instantly gone. So well, we'll have to do a mutual online review. Yes. Awesome. Well, not including the gummy bears from Trader Joe's. What are some core things that we need to understand about food and nutrition? Right. Like kind of base level, you know, foundational work. What do we need to understand as it relates to endurance sports, right? Because that's where we're, that's our focus. So I think just at a very basic level, like taking care of your body and feeling really good, you always want to make sure that your plate is very balanced. Do you want fiber, which is really, really important, especially now when foods are so processed, just make sure that you're looking at your plate. Do I have a source of fiber? Am I getting enough fiber in my day? And in fact, when I have clients who Want to track what they're doing, but don't want to be too obsessive. The two things I tell them always, fiber and protein. And you want to make sure that you're getting like 30 grams of fiber. And then protein is always it's variable on your weight, but you just want to make sure that if you are at a very basic level, am I getting a good complex carbohydrate? Because we're all athletes and we need to feel that way. Am I getting a source of fiber, which is probably coming from that carb? ⁓ vegetables. good healthy fats and your protein and just make sure that that plate is nice and balanced as an athlete. You need to have that. So can you strip it down like to like the basics, basics for people who are like, okay, but I don't really know like, like what are what are like five fibers that I should be even be considering, right? Like like can we just go so basic that that way no one has to be embarrassed to ask. Does that make sense? I'll be the one to embar embarrassingly ask. No, and you know, and that's so important that you say that. No one should be embarrassed because I've had clients who are lawyers who are like, What's a fruit? Is it a fat? Is it a car? I mean, if you just don't know and it's not what you do in your day-to-day life, it's okay to be confused, you know? And I think the more questions you ask to and the more you can look at a nutrition label, try to figure out like, okay, rice, I'm only seeing carbohydrates, that's a carb. So something that has high fiber fruits, vegetables, sweet potatoes, rice, ⁓ chia seeds are a great source. I know a lot of runners like a chia seed protein pudding. That's a great way to incorporate more fiber into your diet. I will say though, this is getting a little bit more in depth, but maybe try to keep the fiber away from your run. So think about your normal everyday 90%. You want those complex carbohydrates like sweet potatoes, rice, quinoa is a great ⁓ source as well, fruits and vegetables, things like that, oatmeal. But maybe around your run, that's where those gummy bears can come into play. So we don't upset your stomach or have any GI distress during your run. But yeah, incorporating anything with. Lots of vitamins and nutrients like that for runners is really important and really helpful. And that's why a lot of times with my clients and on Instagram, I'm like, stop being afraid of carbs because they contain so many of those wonderful things that we need as runners, like fiber and like I said, vitamins and nutrients and stuff like that and energy. So awesome. Would you be willing to sorry, Eric, I keep jumping like you're never gonna get to your next question on the notes. Sorry. ⁓ can you can you give us kind of the same thing, but as it relates to proteins, right? Like I think, you know, we all just like protein, meat. You know what I mean? Like, can you give us some the real basics on protein that we should be considering? Yes. I would love to. So when I said when you were making that plate, your carbohydrate, think of it as a size of your fist. So a nice good sweet potato would be your fist. Your protein is more like your palm. I would say for men, probably a A little bit more than that, but protein sources that are great, obviously things like turkey, chicken, beef, ⁓ things like that. But also you can do things like cottage cheese. I love the good culture cottage cheese. I pair those with the Quest protein chips, and that's like 40 grams of of protein right there. And it's a really good snack. I think it's great. protein shakes, obviously. Greek yogurt is a good source, eggs, tuna. ⁓ I try to get a lot of fish in my diet too, because I feel like it's really good for the omegas and things like that. So you want to just look at look at some of your sources and think, can I swap this for something that also has something like omega-3s? So, like salmon would be a really good ⁓ option for that as well. And a lot of times you'll see online people will say, ⁓ I had a lot of protein because I had a lot of peanut butter or I had a lot of nuts. Those I would consider more of a fat source because the amount of protein you're getting is not really complete or enough for the calorie amount you would have to get in order to get like 40 grams of protein, let's say. So I would keep that more as like the size of your thumb would be, ⁓ you know, your peanut butter serving or avocado. Let's be real. We're all going to do a half an amount of an avocado. but avocado has a great source of fiber in there too. So I would just recommend if you're brand new to nutrition and you're like, I have no idea what's in anything, I would ⁓ either, you know, look it up or just get a free tracker and just start to look at the nutrition facts of each fruit or vegetable or whatever, and you can kind of familiarize yourself with what would be best picks for you. But I hope that answered your protein question. I think I went off on a tangent. I I have I have a hundred questions that I could ask that are like so detailed or whatever, but I'll I'll keep us on track. You can ask me anytime. Just send me message. All right. I will. I'll join the dopey strong group and just start asking. There you go. All right. Kristen, there's so much nutrition advice on social media. What are some core tried and true principles of proper nutrition that Actually work for runners. I will say outside of the run, making sure that you are balanced in those meals because a lot of us are crazy and we're gonna wake up the next day and do another workout. So I don't like the restrictive advice of don't have carbs with dinner, don't have carbs with breakfast. I think if you have a nice steady state of nutrition, not only is it going to keep you fueled so you can work out harder and therefore make more gains in the gym or in speed work. But ⁓ it's going to take away that those peaks and valleys of restricting because you think you're eating too much and then not eating enough and and eating and overeating in one sitting, let's say. So I think tried and true, try to keep your nutrition as basic and as steady as possible. So a carb, a protein, a vegetable with every meal, making sure that you're eating enough because you are all athletes, no matter. What you think your size is or your experience. If you're training for something, you're an athlete. And so you really need to fuel like that. And that's what I try to always tell people because I feel like there's a lot of advice online to restrict when that's just gonna do more damage for your training in the future. Yeah, that's good. Perfect. ⁓ coach Tom Stokes said the same thing, right? He was like the the first answer is not necessarily taking away, you know what I mean, which is which is consistent with what you're saying. We love that. Do our nutrition needs change based on the distance that we're training for? So right now I'm running ⁓ a full. Last year I ran a half, right? Like, does it matter nutrition-wise based off the race I'm doing? Yeah, I would say it does. ⁓ for going from a half to a full, obviously your carbohydrate needs are going to greatly increase. There's a lot of online carb calculators that are really helpful, especially for a carb load, but just carbs in general. And so I would say the biggest difference is keeping your protein high where it needs to be, depending on that person and their weight, ⁓ keeping your fiber where it is. And then also you just have to increase the carbs. And a lot of times with full marathon training, you'll find that. So when I'm training for a half, let's say I I'm fueling every 30 minutes, I've noticed that for marathon training specifically and in the marathon, I need to be fueling every 20 to 25. So you'll notice that your body is using up a lot more energy for twice the distance. And so I would just up that carbohydrate intake in your daily needs plus during the runs. And also you probably need more sodium during the run. Yeah. What about during my like my daily life or whatever? Does anything need to change based off the distance? Like especially like if I'm doing dopey, right? Like I'm trying to fuel for something crazy like that. Your your increase of just carbohydrate needs do increase, but everything else should stay the same. ⁓ keeping that protein really steady day to day. ⁓ and then another thing we could talk about this later, but another thing with ⁓ runners and women also ⁓ take a look and talk to your doctor but in incorporating creatine I think is really helpful in your day to day for recovery and for strength training. So definitely do that if you're marathon training, I think. What are the most common fueling mistakes that you see? Maybe start with like daily training and then maybe the race day next. So this is tough because I don't want people to feel bad, but I do feel that most often people use running And strength training as only a device to burn calories. And so in after the workout or in their normal life, they're restricting a lot of calories in order to like burn more during that during that workout, let's say. And it it tends to just put you kind of in that hole. So not like again, not being consistent in your nutrition and your normal life outside of the workout, I think is such ⁓ a common mistake that. Everyone does. I mean, there are many times where I'm like, ⁓ I can feel it. I'm not eating enough. ⁓ and then in turn, I think they are going out and let's say they're doing four miles. Well, it's only four miles. I don't need to have a little snack before or after, none of that, because I want to burn as many calories as I can. So I always try to tell people, be consistent in the normal day-to-day. And then the biggest mistake you can do is to not fuel properly for that workout surrounding that workout as well. ⁓ because again, it's just gonna put you in more of that hole and then your your workouts are gonna feel like junk volume, basically. What about fuel mistakes like for race day or race weekend? Anything that you see super common? The biggest mistake. Obviously, we all know don't try not anything new on race day. But the biggest mistake I see is that I'll hear someone say, It's let's say it's mile 23. ⁓ I don't need the last gel. We're almost done. Don't do that. Take every gel you have because This is the thing. You might think you might not need it, but you have to finish and walk through the shoe and get your stuff. And so you're fueling for that and beyond. And also those gels are a drop in the bucket. You're burning so many calories. When you are in the moment in the race, there are so many little demons telling you, you don't need this, you don't need it, you're fine. Please take the gel. Because if any even drop in in mood, like if I notice me or a friend, we're getting a little cranky, we need a gel. So that's my biggest mistake I see is. An aftermath of people saying, ⁓ I should have taken that last gel. That would have helped. It's funny you say that. I was packing my bag last night, wasn't I, Erica? Yeah. For because I had 17 miles this morning. And so I'm packing my stuff and I'm counting it and going, all right, this for this is whatever. And then I said, All right, and this is emergency. Right. And then we were cut we were just joking about like, you know, has a four-dollar emergency. I don't need that, you what I mean? Like, you know, these things are expensive, right? But then I'm like, yeah, but four dollars is nothing. When you're out there. Right. You know what I mean? To your point. Drop in the bucket. Totally. Because I'd give I'd I see I said last night, I'll pay Uber Eats to come bring me something right now. You know, because I'm dying. And here I am complaining about, you know, wasting a gel. Yeah. You know? Yeah. ⁓ no, totally. Yeah. It all the time. Especially where you training with Morton. Is that why? Yeah. Yeah. Four dollars. Yeah. Four dollar gel? It's gonna be more than one. I I put one in my sports bra. And we started Princess and I've never done that, but I was like, ⁓ I couldn't fit it anywhere else. And I just slipped it right there. And as the race started, she fell out and it was just four dollars. No, that's a cocky. Yeah. Yeah. I got them back. I'll never let go. Yeah. That's hilarious. That is. ⁓ can we talk about Run Disney race week? And obviously a lot of us are doing challenges, you know, a lot of the time. So even if it's not, like it's still a big deal. And then you're at a theme park staying in a Disney resort. You don't have all your normal foods or whatever. Any advice or suggestions or anything on those, you know, that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, you know, leading up to the race when we're at Disney? So I will tell you my routine is I normally will pack obviously all my race gels, but I also pack my corral snacks of fig bars, Morton Chewy bars, those like oatmeal things, and anything else I can little gummies, stuff like that that I can have control over. I put those in my bag along with creatine and Liquid IV, let's say. But on my layover, I always like to make a Target order or an Instacart and I'll do yogurt, string cheese, protein shakes, cold brew. I think sometimes I'll do like deli turkey, bagels, stuff like that that I want in my room that I can have a little bit of control over because you can find good things at Disney. Like you can't really go wrong with maybe pizza at Via Napoli or a red sauce pasta with chicken. Like that's pretty easy and basic. You can get at race weekends. But I like to make sure if I'm not If I'm nervous and I'm not really feeling it, I can go to my room and have a bagel, have some yogurt, whatever. ⁓ bananas, obviously, too. ⁓ but what I always tell my clients is so before we do our last long run, we always work together on our carb load. And I have them go and find out the the amount that they need for their carbload and we'll test it out before, let's say, their last dopey simulation. ⁓ because when do you carbload? ⁓ If you're at the start line and you're feeling a little bit like Santa Claus, you've probably done your carb load right because carbohydrates naturally hold on to water and you need to drink extra water and you have all these electrolytes. So you're feeling all squishy. You know, you kind of did it right. So I want them to practice that feeling of like, I am so full, but you have all this energy because you've, you know, stored up all of your glycogen. So on the plane ride over, I have all my clients do a scratch super high carb. And a liquid IV when they get to the airport. So they buy a big bottle of water. We drink it on the airplane. ⁓ and then from then on, so let's say you're doing dopey, from that Tuesday on, we're starting that five day carb load. And so that's why it's kind of important to bring your own stuff. I mean, obviously you can find straight carbs at Disney, but a lot of times those carbs are, you know, have other things like fat along with them, which fat is not bad, but maybe not during your carb load when you're trying to keep your stomach a little bit more settled. So Totally. On race day, you know, again, that I don't wanna I wanna ask the dumb question so other people don't have to. When do we wanna focus on carbs, right? And when do we want to focus on making sure we get our protein in, right? On race day. So carbs before and after are always key. ⁓ you're not really going to be using a lot of that protein for protein needs, if you catch my drift before the race. So usually in my room, let's say I'm waking up at like one thirty or two, I'll have a cold brew and a protein shake just to start my day and a bagel. And then so pretty much that point on, you're just needing carbohydrates. So have something in your room that's a little bit more balanced. You could do a yogurt and a banana, something like that. And then when you're in the corral having your corral snack, have that be straight carbs. And I would get 40 to 50 grams before, and obviously that can differ if you're much taller. ⁓ but I would get around 50 grams before the race starts. I would also, because we're waiting around so long, you kind of need those two breakfasts. ⁓ And then I always tell my clients gel at the start because the time start is zero. So you're gonna gel and then every 25 minutes after, you're gonna take in that gel and then trying to get that sodium, like you know, 500 to 800. That's like a baseline ⁓ of milligrams of sodium per hour after that. So And then the minute we cross the finish line, we wanna eat the plastic cheese. Is that right? Yes, of course you need that. Actually, you know what? It's not terrible because those mix with the chips, it's great sodium. Yeah. Yeah. But I always have my clients pack a protein shake in their gear check bag. So that banana that you get right away. ⁓ and most often I'll throw like a a Morton bar or something in there and I'll have that with some creatine and a liquid IV and a protein shake. It's very boring. But ⁓ I have found the the best feedback I've gotten is that people feel so good at the end because even on 5K day, you're having that protein shake after. And I think that's one of the things a lot of people are like, I don't need to feel the 5K if. you know, if it's day one. But it is day one of 50 miles essentially. Plus the walking to and from. You have to again, you're an athlete. You have to protect yourself for day four. So even after the 5K, we're all chugging those protein shakes. And so you want 40 to 50 grams of carbohydrates at the start and after. And you want about 30 to 40 grams of protein when you're done with your run. That's great. Kristen, is there anything about nutrition for women specifically that they need to consider when they're doing training? Yes. So I always tell my clients, first things first, before you start training, get some blood work done, get your ferritin levels checked. For runners, we need them over 50. And women especially ⁓ lose iron really easily through our periods and actually through heel striking just with running. and so a lot of times I have found that a lot of my clients are really low in their ferritin. That can feel like you are very undertrained. And so it feels like you almost Like can't catch your breath. Your body's not getting enough oxygen into its, into your blood. And one one big thing I will notice with clients, if I ever see a comment that's like, my legs are really sore and heavy, boom, get your ferritin checked. And most often they are under. So for women, especially, get that ferritin checked, see if you need to be supplementing. And also I will tell you, make sure you very you are very ⁓ clear to your doctor. I am marathon training because anytime I have been. Low on ferritin. ⁓ my doctor's like, you're fine, you're within range. And I'm like, I'm marathon training. She's like, actually, you need to supplement. like, okay. ⁓ so that as well as your vitamin D levels ⁓ for women, and because we really need to make sure that we're protecting our bones by strength training, which is another reason. I know that's later, but I know that's a reason I'm very, very passionate about women's strength training. But yeah, ⁓ get your vitamin D levels checked. And then also for women as well, I wanna just reiterate that carbohydrates are so important. Carbohydrates also help with iron absorption. They're really important for hormone function. And so I know that there's a lot of talk on low carb and keto and fasted training, but all of those studies are really they're on men. And so for women, we are like the moon. We need to be very balanced and very steady. And so please make sure that you are getting those. Everything checked under the hood and then also incorporating more of those healthy carbohydrates into your diet. And you'll you'll see a lot of very positive signs in your training if you're upping your carbs. That's good. Perfect. You mentioned earlier, I think, and I know like I read it on your website or whatever that you made a ⁓ significant life, you know, decision to be healthier. You lost 50 pounds, you know, and and that's amazing. My I guess my question I wanted to ask was like. What led to that? Like of all these things, right? Like nutrition, running long distance, strength training. Yes, all of it, you know, one of it. Like what what what do you think is the the leading contributor to you, you know, losing 50 pounds and changing your life? What really kickstarted it was I just wasn't happy. And I think I felt really lonely. And I just kind of had a a moment of like, this is not really the life I want. And it has nothing to do with weight, but more of I couldn't really feel good walking upstairs. And I felt really out of breath all the time, you know. So yes, there is that measurement that was lost, but it was more how I felt on the inside. And I just I I knew I couldn't go to the gym and run a mile. And I just thought after coming from being so active with swimming, it just wasn't who I was to not be active or not at least try to be active. And so honestly, what I did was I told myself. That for one day out of the week I was gonna track my food. And then the next week I was gonna track it for two days and the next three. And just to see what I was doing, if it was mindless eating, if it wasn't eating enough. And then I had joined a boot camp class and I couldn't do things like side planks. I couldn't do lunges really anymore. And so I think it was that. It was seeing that that I wanted to change. And then it was literally one day at a time. And I For just Mondays for this week, I'm gonna track. And then next week it's gonna be Monday, Tuesday. And so that's kind of why I really like to tell people just do things in baby steps. And I always tell my clients, how do we with dope? How do we eat the elephant bite by bite? So you just gotta take one bite, ⁓ just make it to the weekend, see what you can do. So I think that for me was if it's too much all at once, it's too overwhelming. So for me, I just focused on tracking my food and Going on a walk every day. And then the next week was tracking my food, going on a walk and one class a week, something like that. Yeah. I love that a lot. That's really good. Yeah. Erica, do you have any other nutrition related questions before we talk about a few strength training things? I mean, I have about a million, but as soon as we're done recording this, I'm gonna go on Kristen's website and sign up. Okay. Any any questions that would benefit everybody, everybody else. That I guess that'd be a better way to ask that. Not off the cuff. Yeah. I do have a thousand questions. Yeah. Okay. ⁓ Kristen, ⁓ you also obviously, like you're a run coach and ⁓ strength coach, right? Can we talk about strength for a minute? Because we we know that's important. Can you give us a good pitch for like, hey, don't just decide to run a race and then only run, right? Like, which is what we all did. We all, you know, unfortunately, that's what happened to us. We just ran and then here we are with injuries and stuff like that, right? So can you give us the pitch for why strength training is so important? Yeah. So I think at just a very foundation level, it's only gonna make your running feel better because you're adding a different way to add endurance and strength to your muscles. So we are when we are at mile, I don't know, Blizzard Beach, whatever that is, and you have to do that stupid on ramp, you're like, I've done deadlifts for this. I know I can get up this on ramp without feeling like it's all this wear and tear on your body. You've incorporated so many other ways and ways of movement. That your body can handle those miles when it starts to want to break down, it has that other foundation of strength. ⁓ and also just in a longevity perspective, you strength training and strength training with the right amount of weight is going to build muscle mass, which means you can be running when we're 90. And I think not strength training and not really building that muscle mass for when we are old ⁓ is just such a missed opportunity to feel so much better during the run. Like I have a lot of people telling me that dopey felt kind of easy. And I'm like, well, that's good because I made you do a million lunges. Right. You know? And so I definitely think if you want to feel your best at the finish line, strength training. And I think a lot of times people think that strength training has to be really overcomplicated. We see a lot of Instagram workouts where people are jumping all around or they're combining all these core movements. And that's really intimidating. And so a lot of my strength programs, they are very basic. We are squatting, we are deadlifting, we are doing push-ups because those movements are going to be really beneficial for runners. We don't need to be, I'm sorry, we don't need to be like twisting all around, jumping all around. I mean, some of those movements, I'm like, that looks fun, but it's not something you need to spend your time on when you're running 17 miles. You need to go back to the basics. And even if you only have 20 minutes of really, really heavy lifting, that's gonna be so helpful for you in the end. Yeah. Love that. Yeah, especially that twenty minute thing. I mean, I we joked about it the other day, but it's like when you're training, especially for a marathon, yeah, it's almost like it becomes your full time job, like the running and the and the meal planning and the, you know, strength training and all that stuff. And so I'm like, I have a nine AM meeting today. What time do I have to get up to do all of this stuff? Yes. Four AM AM. Yeah. So to hear you say like, you don't have to do all these other crazy things. Like these are the core things that you need to do. Like that's that's important. So Yeah. So I will tell you it I a lot of times if I go out and I do my run, I'll come back and do five minutes, 10 minutes of core. And that way I don't have to do it on my strength training days. So I'm in there super sweaty doing my side planks. So sometimes we have to get creative. I have a lot of really busy clients. So I'm like, ⁓ if you didn't have time for your push ups yesterday, do them during your cooldown. You know, so you can be creative in little pockets of time that you can find it. ⁓ it doesn't have to be this perfect 60 minutes. This is my strength training time. ⁓ a lot of times if I'm in between Zooms and I have 10 minutes, I'm like, I'm gonna go do my squats and then I'll come back in here and you know, so as long as you get it done. Yes, totally. ⁓ okay, let's see. Is someone's age a factor when you're figuring out the proper strength training plan for them? I will I don't really look at age as much as I look at experience. Yeah. So there could be ⁓ a 70-year-old and a 20 year old who both have never done lunges and We need to start with learning that foundation. But there could be women in their 60s that have lifted for years and years and I can give them way more complicated things to do than someone who's never lifted before. So it's more ⁓ it is more about experience, but also I also look at where someone's coming from. Let's say they've had a C-section or they have pelvic floor issues. ⁓ a lot of lifts I will change in order to protect that pelvic floor health. ⁓ so I think it just depends on the person really instead of age. It's good. ⁓ are there any strength training myths, right? Like, ⁓ well, I say myths, it's probably more like excuses, right? Like, I don't want to bulk up or you know, running is enough cardio from here. I don't have time. Like, is there anything like that that you can like debunk for us? Like, hey, it's worth it because, you know. Okay. Listen, the bulking thing. I'm like, I wish I could bulk my biceps. Please. Exactly. Please, will you get bulky? I'm begging you. it takes It takes so much work. Everything we see online is not normal. It takes so much work to build muscle. It is your muscle is your goal. That is your 401k. And it takes so much to invest in that. In fact, also this goes with under-eating. You absolutely cannot build muscle mass without eating enough. You're just kind of spinning your wheels. And so to get bulky, especially women, it's just so hard for us in general to keep that muscle mass after 35 that. We would all love to be bulky. We need to be bulky. But ⁓ I think that's a myth. And I think when people feel bulky, most often it's just inflammation from being sore. and and if you truly are, let's say your body composition is getting ⁓ is building, I say, or getting bigger and you're you've noticed your waist size has gone up. ⁓ it could be a nutrition thing. So it's not the ⁓ muscle tends to be a little bit more slim on your body composition, it's most likely your nutrition. ⁓ so that is definitely a myth that I always kind of laugh at because we would all love bigger triceps and bigger quads and all of that. And I think the other myth is that you need more reps so you don't bulk up. And I think truly what you need is you need less reps, more resting. You need to go to failure in order to see that change. And so that kind of goes hand in hand with the bulky thing. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. Love it. ⁓ if someone has little to no strength training background and is staring down a marathon training block, where should they start? Ooh, I would say, well, c come email me. And then what we'll start with are just the basic movements. So we'll start with a lunge, we'll start with proper squatting, just body weight squats, because that you can learn a lot from from just watching someone squat. And maybe we'll start with a side plank. ⁓ you said come email you and ⁓ without it sounding like a sales pitch, whatever. Like, like, do you do one on one coaching? Are there programs that are like ⁓ You know, pre prescribed or whatever that are, you know, maybe a lower cost of entry. Like like what are the options, I guess, ⁓ with your training programs? So I do move strong, which is just strength training specific, and it's one on one programming for someone online and it's like a monthly subscription. I write their workouts and I give it to them. Perfect. I also have Run Strong, which is just my run coaching, but then I also do Zoom sessions with clients as well, if they want me to to sit there and make them. Show me everything they're doing. ⁓ you're all in their business on the Which is my favorite. Yes. I'm like, ⁓ let's do five more minutes of abs. Thanks. That's awesome. All right, Kristen, you do run fit fab with our good friend Devin. Can you tell us a little bit about Run Fit Fab? Yeah. So ⁓ Run Fit Fab is our group strength training and run coaching programs. So let's say you don't want something that's one on one, you want more of a group ⁓ program. So we do strength training in there. We have mobility, we have core work, warm-ups, cooldowns. and we do monthly Zooms and everyone gets to know each other. and also in there is obviously your run program for whichever race that it is you're doing. ⁓ and we do have Run Fit Fab Dopey, which starts September first. Even though it says Dopey, ⁓ we have people doing a variety of races for marathon weekend in there. So ⁓ yeah, it's great. And it's all on a platform where we can watch you do your, like I said, your squat checks. We can have videos in there and messages and everything. And it's so much fun. We absolutely love it. It's our fifth year this year. Very cool. That's awesome. How how does somebody choose, right? Like you've got multiple options you just outlined, right? Like obviously they're all great, right? Like is there a really clearly defined way of like, hey, if you're looking for this, this is your way to go. If you're looking for this, this is your way. I would say if you are looking for Completely one on one. I like to be hyper focused on that would be more my run strong program. But if you want to do something that is maybe a little bit more budget friendly, where it's a group program, you get everything all in one enchilada, then that would be more run fit fab based on which ⁓ race weekend you're doing. And like I was saying, we had a j someone joked that we should create like a ⁓ magic key for the programs for everyone that's just going program to program ⁓ because they're doing all of the races. But if you have If you ever have any questions, I have a million messages in my inbox that are always like, I'm doing this race. What do I do? I'm more than happy to talk you through all of your options. ⁓ and you can even, you know, if you decide you're in run fit fab and you want to do something more one-on-one, you can always switch. Awesome. Awesome. That's really good. Excellent. We have Run Disney questions for you. So we can finally ⁓ you know, set aside the really helpful. you know, really helpful, valuable information and just chat Run Disney because that's our favorite thing ever to talk about. You go to talk Run Disney for a few minutes. ⁓ yeah, let's do it. Perfect. ⁓ so what's your favorite race weekend and why? We have our favorite. I mean, do I have to j so I guess I'm just gonna pick whatever is currently available. So marathon weekend, obviously, because I just think it's it's the big show, right? It just feels so different. ⁓ but in my heart, I'll always say Tinkerbell. But If I'm being real, it's marathon weekend. Okay. Perfect. I love that. ⁓ it looks like you've had some pretty great costumes over the years. Do you have a few that are your favorites? Okay. I had to write them down. I literally looked through because I knew I was gonna forget some. ⁓ okay, and funny enough, they're all Disneyland costumes. So I picked three, even though it was very hard. And I picked them from the current times. ⁓ so we did the inside out, the little blue people that do the triple dent gum. Yes. So we did that one. That was really fun. ⁓ my friend Lauren made small world trash cans. And so we were small world trash cans, and we tried to make ⁓ lots of trashy puns the whole time. That was really fun. ⁓ and then last year for the Halloween race, we did the fish band from Little Mermaid, and I made, I was so proud of myself. I mean, this was like my fourth child. I made a conch shell and I used a diet coke bottle as the inside. And I was just so proud of it because it actually stayed on my head. Was the trash cans like pre like some of the new rules they have around what you can and can't have, or was it pretty slim? No, it was in January. So I don't think they even really cared. Yeah. But we kept them pretty close to the body. Right, right, right, right. Yeah. ⁓ what's a Run Disney race weekend hack that those who are new to Run Disney might not know? Ooh. Or a tip, you know what I mean? Yeah. Something that we're probably just used to. Okay. I a tip would be ⁓ please don't be nervous. That's I I don't wish away your race because you're so nervous. Literally just your first run Disney is unlike anything else. I want you to take it in. Maybe even don't wear your headphones. and I would say too, like, I don't know, if you if you don't feel comfortable doing this, but say hello to the people around you in the corral because you'll never know you might meet a lifetime friend in your corral. Yeah, absolutely. We've said that before, we're like. You're nervous to do it, but the number of people we know now because we said, ⁓ my gosh, I love your costume. You know, and that's all you have to say. You know what I mean? Or is this your first race or how many races have you done? You'll you'll end up talking to them for 15 minutes. You know, it's awesome. Yeah. Yes. And and you'll meet people I, you know, someone needs a band-aid, someone needs a gel, someone needs this. And then all of a sudden your Facebook friends, your Instagram friends, you've known them forever. It's wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. Yep, for sure. Whoa. I thought you were gonna like what? You were you're pointing at me. No, I was pointing that that's what Erica does. I get Erica's hot hands. Erica's with the hand warmers. All the people that are freezing, you know, she goes, here you go. You know, she gets hands moving. ⁓ I ⁓ I actually so you said don't ⁓ you know, like your first race. This is my like hot take, I guess. You said your first race is like, you know, the bet, you know, not yeah, I don't think you said best. I don't know what your wording was, but I actually think this is my personal opinion, your second Run Disney race is the best one you'll ever do. Because all the nerves are gone, you realize there's nothing to be stressed about. You've seen how it all works. And now you're not like you're but it's only your second one. You're not like totally sucked in like we are now, where you know every single detail and all that. And so you don't like to me, I think my second race is my absolute favorite one. I think. That's my hot take. Okay. That makes sense. ⁓ can you help us make the case for spectating a Wend Disney race? We've discovered that it is so much fun and just as meaningful as running the race. ⁓ can you help us describe what it's like to cheer for friends and totally random people you don't even know? Well, I will tell you this is kind of a sad element tied into it, but for 2025, I had to DNS my marathon and I've never had to do that before. I was very upset. ⁓ so after I cried and went back to sleep for a little bit, ⁓ we went to Main Street. And I'm telling you, that was one of the best days ever. I think watching other people fulfill a dream. Cause you don't know that could be the that person's 100th marathon or first marathon. You have no idea. But watching your friends light up when they see you on the side of the cheer section, I mean, I think it's just so incredible. It's almost like you can feel their like magic come into your body, like watching them run by and be so excited for other people. And it kind of restores your faith and just there, there are good people in this world. You just have to watch the marathon, whatever that phrase is. But ⁓ I definitely think if you have an opportunity and there's nothing better than when you have like a bag of candy and someone runs up and is like, ⁓ thank you so much. I needed that. You know? Yes. It just feels so good to help other people. So definitely if you have an opportunity to sit out for the half or the full or something like that and spectate, I say do it. It's so much fun. And we've discovered it's as fun as running it. You know, like potentially more fun, you know, because you don't have to do the Sweat to death and all right. We love it. Yeah. And it's beautiful watching the sun come up at Disney. ⁓ my gosh. There's nothing better. Yeah, we were in the Magic Kingdom. I guess it was the half this past year spectating. And ⁓ it was awesome just to walk around Main Street, you know, like the hour before everyone got like got there, just mosing through the shops and whatever. Like we I loved it. Yeah. It was so good. ⁓ yeah. Yeah, it's magic. Okay. ⁓ would you rather question? This is ⁓ if You've heard our podcast. We ask everyone this question. Erica's on team Main Street. I'm team metal. And so we ask everybody for a Disney half marathon, which would you rather have if you could only have one of those things, right? ⁓ would you rather have the opportunity to go down Main Street or would you rather ⁓ get a finisher medal for that half? What do you say, Kristen? ⁓ Main Street for sure. I knew it. I cry every time. Especially when the Christmas wreaths are all, get out of here. So good. I'm so glad you had that answer, Kristen. That's the right answer. I think the first time I ever turned down Main Street at Disney World, they were playing Feed the Birds and I just lost it. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ I the first time I turned on Main Street, I lost it as well. I like I've admitted that before. I don't know what they were playing, what music, whatever. I just remember seeing Mickey on the bridge before you'd go under and he was waving at me and I waved at him like I was four years old. Right. Yeah. And then I went under the bridge and I turned the corner and I just lost it. Yeah. You know, I have I I could hardly see. I was like wiping my eyes, you know. My allergies really got me that day. Yeah. It was just the allergies. Yeah. Just hearing Kristen talk about Main Street a minute ago, ⁓ spectating, I was like, I you've made me tear up three times in this episode so far. I haven't actually one hasn't fallen, but it was very close right then. ⁓ maybe maybe soon. Yeah, watching everybody come around on Main Street, especially people that have never done, you know, half or a full before, and you can tell like how impactful it is for them. I my my like public service announcement is like I want people like so many people come around the corner with their phones out, you know, now and and or their camera or whatever. My like public service announcement is I know you want that video, but the moment isn't worth seeing through your phone. You know, like like please put it away. But I also understand you want to have it forever. Right. So it's it's a hard thing to do. But yeah. I love that moment. When you're in the tunnel before you can see the first people cheering, and it's like so quiet. And then all of a sudden you're like, I love people. Yes. It's so good. It is so good. So good. ⁓ my gosh. Kristen, this has been so much fun. Where can our friends find you and your coaching options online? ⁓ my website is runfitmama.net, and then I'm on Instagram at Run Fit Mama. Perfect. One of the things I totally forgot to ask you about is you mentioned Run Fit Fab, but you guys have a podcast. Can you tell us about the tell us about the podcast? I totally forgot to ask that earlier. Yeah. So we're just run fitfab the podcast. ⁓ we talk about shoes and stranger things and everything else running in between. Who knows really what we talk about? But we have a great time. It's just a great way for us to catch up and and talk about all of you wonderful people. It's been a minute, but the episode that you and Chris I mean, sorry, the episode that you and Devin did like a few months back, I feel like it was months, maybe it was weeks. I don't know. You guys were talking about the shoe design. And I was like, Can we please have Kristen and Devon design the Brooks shoes? Like, because everything that you were saying, I'm like literally another, yeah, yeah, totally, yes. Like that's a good idea. Anyways. Yeah. I would love that opportunity to design a shoe, I will tell you. But ⁓ we had someone from Brooks on the podcast. Yeah, it was awesome. And after we made our yeah, when we made our princess predictions, she slid into my DMs and was like, What? How did you you and anyway, she can't say anything. So it's always like A like a smirk face. Like, how did you just figure that out? But yeah. Right, right. Well, y the two of y'all, your y'all's ideas were like the the greatest. I'm like, we need to get Brooks on board with them. So exactly right. Yes. That's a dream. Yes. Yes. ⁓ is there anything you're excited about in your life right now that no one ever asks you about, right? Or or or you don't get a chance to talk about enough? Wow. I well, I'm running Chicago and then three weeks later, like an idiot, I'm running New York. So I'm excited about that. But I'm just trying to I'm trying to, you know, be very diligent on my mobility and all that stuff. So I'm I'm excited about that. So that's awesome. ⁓ I'll be we'll be in New York. I'll be running in New York ⁓ as well. So that'd be awesome. ⁓ no way. I think I knew that, but ⁓ now all of a sudden my coffee's not setting in. But that's awesome. I hope I get to see you guys. Yeah, for sure. I'm I'm ⁓ I love to brag. I'm the point zero zero one percent or whatever that got in on the lottery. ⁓ my gosh. I hope you bought a log lottery ticket or something after that. I know, but I keep having to tell the story over and over and over again that my neighbor down the street also got in on the lottery. And so apparently living on our street so crazy. Yes. I know living on our street's the place to be, apparently. That's crazy. So I have like a a text thread with like ten people and two of them got into London last year. I'm like, how did that happen? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Gosh. It's crazy. Awesome. Well, good luck with Chicago and New York. Yeah, we definitely want to see you. Thank you. Kristen, thank you. Thank you so much for being here. This was such a pleasure for us, such a joy. Thanks for sharing, like open-handedly, right? Like with the knowledge that you have, like no expectation, wherever you're just like, here's helpful information. Because ⁓ one of the things we asked ⁓ your pal Devin was, hey, what do we need to know about Kristen? Because we don't know her yet. And she said, here's the thing you need to know. She loves people. I mean, she loves this community and she does it all 100% for the right reasons. And that was on full display today. So we just literally just want to say thank you for everything you do. Thanks for being on the podcast, but thanks for everything you do for the Run Disney community. Thank you. I truly that that made me want to cry. ⁓ truly I mean it. Like if you ever need help or if you have a question, I love this community. I'm truly blessed to be here with you guys and and just talking about running and sparkles and all of that. So thank you so much. I truly this is my dream job. And I'm just so lucky. So thank you. I know we save this every week, AJ, but that was such helpful information. Like I'm gonna go back and listen to this like two more times with my piece of paper and pencil. Right. Just jot down the notes and whatever. I liked ⁓ that she was totally willing to share information that like and I said it, but like you might be afraid to ask. Right. Or, you know, you feel dumb Googling it or you might, you know, whatever. Yeah. And she said, Don't be embarrassed. Like Yes, you need the information. Let's talk about it. You know what I mean? What are some fibers? What you what are good whatever? What are good proteins to get? Like things like that. I love I love that. You know, just being open handed with stuff. Yeah. So Kristen, thank you for being on the podcast. It was thank you. So good. So AJ, we usually talk about our training. You did something crazy the other day. Tell us how many miles did you run? Well, crazy, but it was on the schedule. Of course, yes. You know, so ⁓ I had seventeen miles to do and I made it fun. Yes. Well, at least it started out fun. Because it, you know, like these long runs, you don't know what you're gonna get sometimes. Sometimes they're no big deal. Yeah. You know, and you're like, wow, I'm such a good athlete. And other times you're like, I'm regretting all my life's choices. I mean, just like staring down the barrel of a 17 mile run. I don't care like who you are, like that's a long way to run. So I tried to make it fun by I made it ⁓ a target run. Yes. ⁓ which obviously we know what a target run is, you know what I mean? But target is like just over eight miles from our house. So I thought, hey, I'm gonna run to Target and then, you know, you turn around and come back. Anyway. So I did that, but it's summer and it's so hot and humid and whatever that I did this super early on a Sunday morning. Yes. Right. And ⁓ everything went fine all the way there, eight and a half mile, you know, just under eight and a half miles. Perfect. Nailed it. Yeah. Got there. Target's closed because it's so early in the morning. Super early in the morning. Yeah. So my plan was still like use the restroom and all that there, you know, before I turn around. Nope. No, that was that didn't happen because they were still closed. So ⁓ the the the it was fine. Everything was coming fine on the way back. And ⁓ I think mile 12 or so I ended up stopping to use a restroom. And ⁓ I don't think it was the stop that did it, but like have you ever stopped long enough where like your motivation to get back moving is hard or not? You know, it was hard. And so then, you know, the next mile was like demotivating. But then around mile thirteen, like I actually got like physical pain. You know? Yeah. And I don't have that very often. No. You know. But like the le outside, left side of my knee was just I knew it wasn't like a injury injury, but like it was enough where like the the bearing weight, putting weight on it hurt. Yeah. You know, and ⁓ when I would walk, it was totally fine. Yeah. But anytime I tried to put some like and I say speed, I mean like 13 minute mile kind of speed, like really slow. Yeah. Anything I try to put anything on it, be it on the walk, it hurt, you know. And I just muscled through five miles of that. And I thought about calling and be like, hey, come pick me up. You know, I'm calling it, but it didn't feel sharp or anything. So I it felt like what it was was like a resilience test. Right. You know, what are you, what are you gonna do? ⁓ because it did not feel dangerous, but it was uncomfortable. Yep. You know? ⁓ and so I just muscled through it, good or bad, I don't know. But I I got through it and ⁓ needed a big time nap. So ⁓ we have good ones and bad ones. Totally. You know? And then what ⁓ you know, what I didn't want to do was call it short and then what's gonna be called up next for me is a nineteen miler. Right, right, right. When am I gonna get a seventeen miler in before a nineteen mile? Yeah. I don't want to jump up to nineteen if I never actually hit seventeen, you know. So I just I don't have a point at this point. That was too many points. ⁓ but I finished. Good. Yeah, even though it was slower than I wanted, and I almost deleted it off of Strava. You know, I don't want anyone to know. Yeah. But ⁓ we have those runs, right? Totally. They make us stronger. That's right. So just getting you ready for the marathon. Yep. That's that's all I have for training. Okay. Training update right now. I know that everyone's, you know, kind of getting into Walt Disney World Marathon training right now. So the mileage there, you know, it's gonna start to add up. Yep. And ⁓ so hopefully that's going good for everybody. And ⁓ mine, obviously, we've talked about is a little bit. Off because I have New York first. So that's why my mileage is so high. If you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm supposed to be doing I was only doing seven this weekend. Right. What the heck? Yeah. And so it's because I'm a little bit shifted forward. Right. ⁓ next week's topic, Erica, for the podcast. Yes. Is ⁓ gonna be good. We're gonna we kind of touched on strength stuff a little bit today. We're gonna be ⁓ talking with ⁓ somebody, ⁓ a a doctor of physical therapy, and we're really gonna be talking about how do we reduce. Reduce the risk of injury. Yes. You know, and so obviously strength is going to be a big part of that. And then there's going to be some surprise answers in there. Totally. Well, like, yep. You know, I said, what are the two things we need to do? And he gave me two answers, and they were not the two I was expecting. Yeah. So there's a tease for you. Yep. ⁓ that it's really great information. Yeah. And one of the things I really enjoyed is he's not a Run Disney person. And I actually loved it because we focus so much on Run Disney stuff, which is great. But Run Disney is a thing. Yeah. Right? Like we all. ⁓ we just cater to the the different things of Run Disney, right? Right, right. And so when we were telling him in our interview, ⁓ we've already recorded it, when we were telling him about some of the Disney things, he was like, Y'all are crazy. ⁓ yeah, you know, he had never heard Adopy before and he was like, I'm sorry, what? Yes, but he we asked for advice on like if you're doing four races, what do we need to do? And so what was super cool was for him to take this crazy challenge, yes, and then apply all the principles of reducing injury and strength and whatever. And okay, so if this is the challenge. How do we break that down? Right, right. From a like a scientific standpoint, whatever, which is really great. He wasn't thinking about it from the emotional standpoint of, well, you want to make sure you experience the fireworks the night before, right? Like that's not a factor for him. Right, right. You know? He's never done it. So I really love next week. Yeah, it's good. It's real good. It's really good. What else do we need to talk about? I guess we'd like to read a review. Yep. ⁓ so we could probably do that and then wrap this episode up. Perfect. This one comes from Alicia Unsen. And actually. She wrote it, they're a married couple that run together, which is awesome. Yeah. So she says, as a married couple in our very late 40s who just started running, this podcast has been incredible for us. We ran our very first Run Disney Princess 5K after training specifically for a 5K in February. And that experience is what got us hooked. Since then, we found this podcast and went all the way back to the beginning so we could learn as much as possible. It has made a huge difference in how we think about training, pacing, and even strength training and what to expect. Because of all of this, we signed up for the Ren Disney Wine and Nine 5K and 10K, which will be our very first races beyond a 5K. And we've also committed to the Half Marathon during Ren Disney Marathon weekend. Yes. We are definitely nervous about the Half Marathon, but having this podcast to guide us through training, tips, and real advice makes it feel doable. It's been a huge part of our running journey already. Thank you for the advice. Keep it coming. Awesome. We promise to keep it coming. We got Kristen today. Yeah. And strength training stuff tomorrow or next week. I mean, we will keep it coming. Thank you for listening. We love that you do it together. We love that you've pushed yourself outside of your comfort zone a little bit to do a half marathon. Yeah. And that that is a big deal. Like don't don't let it get lost when we say things about dopey. Right. And these words. Like if it's your first half marathon, we're like hats off to you. Congratulations. You can do it. You know, we sure can. We believe in you. Yeah. So thank you for leaving a review. ⁓ if you guys don't mind leaving a review, it's a really great and easy way to support the show. Just let us know what's working well. ⁓ you know, what you love about the show. That's awesome. It helps other people find the show. One of the things I love about that is that like the reviews literally help the show just get spread and pushed out and whatever. And it's not because we want to like have as many people listening as possible. It's because we know that this information is valuable and encouraging and helpful. And it might get somebody unstuck. Right. It might keep someone from From quitting. Yes. You know, totally we love that. Absolutely. That just by leaving her a review or a like or something like that, it literally could help expose this what we hope is encouraging environment to somebody who needs it. I know. AJ, sometimes I see like on Facebook or Instagram, someone will ask a question, like on a Ren Disney page. They'll be like, This is my first, whatever. Like, what do I need to about? And of course I'm not gonna say like listen to my podcast. But I'm like, I I, you know, ⁓ like you just said, like we have these resources, like we have these amazing guests that come on, and I'm like you know, like you want to hear Kristen talk about that. That's right. You sure do. So, friends, if you hear of someone that, you know, has questions or whatever that this podcast might be helpful for, please, please share it with them because we want to just be encouraging and helpful to as many people as possible. 100%. We believe good things grow right. That's right. And so if the more people can be encouraged and all of that and and just get the right information, not just, you know, TikTok trends and whatever. Right. We'd ⁓ we'd love for that. So if you don't mind ⁓ leaving a review, it's very helpful. If you want bonus content from us, join our Patreon. We do tons of bonus content. Kristen's is she's sticking around. Yeah. And we're just chatting with her even more. So extended time with her. So our Patreon members get that. And then ⁓ I don't remember the third way that's an easy way to support the show, but ⁓ And a third way, third easy way to support the show is just to hit that follow button, right? On your podcast player or whatever. That way you get notified when new episodes come out. Yep. Erica, this was so fun. It always is. This podcast has become like a joy to do every single, every single week. And ⁓ I'm just so excited that people continue to say yes, that they want to share the helpful information they have. And I love it. Yes. It's so much fun. All right, friends, that's it for today. Thank you so much for joining us. We will catch you next week for another episode of one more event. Thanks for joining us for this episode of One More Run the Podcast. If you like what we're up to, be sure to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and follow us on Instagram. You can find links to all of that at ajnerrica.com.