AJ and Erika: It takes so much for us to get through months of training and arrive on race day strong, healthy, and injury free. This week we're chatting with a running performance and rehab specialist to help us all get to the start line safely. Hey there friends. Welcome to One More Run the Podcast. This is episode number 57 where season three is rolling. Yeah, it is. ⁓ if you're new here, my name is AJ. And I'm Erica. We are married and we host this podcast together now for a little over a year and having a great time doing it, aren't we? Yes. So much fun. ⁓ what I like about today's episode ⁓ is that we have someone outside of the Run Disney kind of ⁓ bubble. Yeah. Which it's so been so much fun to have all Run Disney stuff. Totally. You know, and obviously Run Disney is our favorite. ⁓ in early days of the podcast, we had some people who are not Run Disney. Right. You know, helping us out or whatever. And then we just, you know, I'll just say it. We met some awesome people and made some really great friends. Like, come on the podcast, you know. And ⁓ Vakash ⁓ is he owns or operates, I'm not sure the right term, he'll probably clarify for me, Perfect Stride PT, which is in New York. They work ⁓ we learned in the interview, they work with people all over, they do virtual stuff too. So they're a PT practice for runners specifically. That's awesome. ⁓ which is great because he says it and I believe it too that. ⁓ a PT practice and a PT practice for runners are two separate totally separate things. And that's been our experience in life. Right. Absolutely. So ⁓ we met him ⁓ and just started talking, you know, online. And I was like, yo, can you come on the podcast and share some of this gold with us? So what we're gonna be talking about is ⁓ injury, right? How do we avoid or prevent or reduce the risk of injury? That is that is the goal. ⁓ Erica, I feel like this is a needed topic, especially as training gets started. Yeah. ⁓ yeah, anything else before we kind of dive in? Everything's good over there on your side of the podcast room, right? Yep. Perfect. Okay. ⁓ we are so excited about this. ⁓ hang around for afterwards. We'll kind of do some of our housekeeping stuff and and whatever after this fun conversation with Vakash from Perfect Stride PT. All right, friends. ⁓ this is a topic that we've been needing to cover, where we really need an Expert in it. Absolutely. Absolutely. You and I love to run. We love Run Disney, all that stuff. But don't ask us expert advice on a couple topics. Right. You know what I mean? And injury prevention is one of them. And so we have a new friend we've not met yet in person. He actually reached out to us, and I was so excited because, ⁓ my gosh, what a wealth of knowledge. Yeah, totally. You know what I mean? So I say, yes, like, can you come on the podcast and talk with us about strength and ⁓ injury prevention? Right. And so this is awesome because we have an expert in it. And outside of Run Disney, right? Which is really good because like he works with. high level athletes. So this is very exciting to welcome Vakash to the podcast. Welcome to the podcast, my friend. Thank you. Appreciate you having me. Yeah, we're super excited. Like we're not experts in this. And so we're going to ask you probably some questions that are super basic that you you might get all the time, but like we want to just lay a good foundation of like, ⁓ like for those of us doing Run Disney this year, this is the beginning of marathon training season, right? Like right now we're starting to train. And so we just really all want to come in like how do we avoid injury or what do we do when we are injured? Things like that. So thanks for thanks for jumping in with us. No, of course. Yeah, here to help. So whatever, like I said, you know, whatever questions come up, just you know, shoot away. Perfect. ⁓ social security number. ⁓ credit credit card number is actually the one you need. Yeah, that's the one you want to Whatever, the whatever questions. Yeah. Okay. ⁓ let's start, if you don't mind, with a background, right? Like I actually don't know it and I held this question on on purpose, right? Like what's your background as a runner, an athlete, a a doctor of physical therapy? Like just give us a background. Physical therapy goes back a long time for me. When I was younger, I used to skateboard. And as any, you know, I guess runner and great skateboarder, you encounter an injury along the way. Mine was a dislocated shoulder. Okay. And that brought me to PT. I had a great experience there. I loved it. I was like, this is great. You know, like the interactions I was having with my PT were awesome. I was getting better. It was just a positive environment. And then I, you know. I had a calf injury and track as well. So went back to the same PT again, reinforced what I thought at the first time. So I kind of stored that memory in the back of my head. You know, went to undergrad, fast forward a few years. ⁓ you know, had a couple other PT experiences and got through three years of undergrad. And I still kind of wasn't sure what I wanted to do. And then, you know, I was like, You've had this in the back of your head, like it's still there. It hasn't gone anywhere. Let's just go for this, you know. So Ended up kind of ⁓ you know, declaring a little bit later, but you know, went to and to exercise sports science and then ended up, you know, going into get my DPT at George Washington University in DC and then moved to New York and that's where we started Perfect Stride. And, you know, we've been open since 2012. And Perfect Stride kind of started a little bit more out of like necessity, I would say. I was working in one of these high volume PT settings where I myself was working with like three, four, five clients at one time. And I just realized that wasn't it, you know, it was like an exercise in multitasking at that point. You know, I really wasn't using my brain for anything. It was more trying to make people think that they were doing stuff while I was working with them. So, you know, that got frustrating. And I was already thinking career change at that point. I was like, maybe I just signed up for the wrong thing, you know. But my eyes kind of got open to this idea of like a different way of doing, you know. So we kind of switched our model a little bit. We became more cash-based and out of network, but that allowed us to work one-on-one to. Full hour with each of our, you know, clients coming in the door. And that with that sparked for me. And I was like, this is this is what I've been looking for. And since then, you know, we've just been growing, working with the runners of New York City and beyond at this point now for you know a good 14 years. I love that model because ⁓ how many times, Erica, have we like taken our daughter to PT or you've been to PT stuff or whatever? And yeah, they're they're working with you and four other people. Correct. And they're like, I'll do this, I'll be right back. You know what I mean? And you're like, man. Like I sure don't feel like they have like my that I don't have their full attention. You know what I mean? So I love that that you had to do it a different way, right? You couldn't like you know, you couldn't do the traditional insurance model, yada yada for but I love that you're focusing on athletes. That's super cool. Yeah. How did you end up sort of working with and specializing in runners specifically? Running has been like near and dear to me for most of my life. I started in like sixth grade, cross country, indoor track, outdoor track, right? As any good runner, it's been a love and hate relationship over the many years at this point, you know. ⁓ so I've had my points where I've been in it running like every season, some years where it's been like more just out of necessity to kind of like, you know, stay fit. But, you know, it's always been there for me. It's been something that's helped me through like some dark times as well, you know, where it's just helped me as a stress reliever to gather my thoughts. So it's just something I've always had and held really close to the chest and When I started working ⁓ and like, you know, through my schooling, I had some clinical experiences, you know, clinical rotations where I would go out. And every time there was a runner on the schedule, I, you know, was a little bit more excited about that. I just knew it was something I wanted to do. ⁓ so then when I kind of started working on my own in the the high volume setting I started in, that's where I kind of reinforced it a little bit more. I really took an interest in it. I kind of like would be doing more research on that. I was taking more courses on it. So when we started Perfect Stride. That's kind of the direction I knew that, you know, I wanted to head in was to kind of really work with that population ⁓ of something I understood and something which I really, really like held close, you know, in my own life as well. That's awesome. What's your what's your running, your favorite thing, right? Like so for I love the half marathon distance, right? Like it's my favorite. Shorter distances I can do, whatever, but I don't love to run fast. I love that, I love the long distance, right? But the marathon pushes it for me, right? Like what what's your jam? The half the half is great. I I love the half for for my. life, it's like very approachable and I can get into it. Right now though, I'm trying to challenge myself a little bit. So I am kind of like scaling back to like some shorter distances to build a little bit more speed. So then I can kind of like build back up to the half. But the half is a is is a is a great distance for me. Yeah. And do you do that very often or like what what what's your kind of ⁓ race ex ⁓ history? I would say the half I've raced probably like five or so halves at this point. ⁓ I got the yeah, I deferred this year for the New York City half, so I'll be doing that next year. but I'm just, you know, I'm always out there running, whether it's some shorter races, whether it's hanging up with run clubs, whether it's just in I'm just getting out the door because I feel so I need to move the feet a little bit. ⁓ but the sweet spot for me a hundred percent is is the half marathon and I love it. Yeah, perfect. Awesome. Vikash, we talk a lot about Ren Disney races on our show. Have you ever participated in a Ren Disney race, or do you ever want to? I I have not, but the ⁓ I feel as though the lure has like, you know, made itself into the clinic care at perfect stride. And I just I I I knew of it just because of ⁓ I think I was mentioning you guys like how fanatical some of the clients are that I've worked with who are doing Disney races. You know, they're just so excited. They get that like twinkle in their eye when they're talking about it. ⁓ so I know it's something special going on down there. So I might need to investigate this at some point, you know? Yeah, I'll go ahead and tell you now that if you do one, just plan on signing up for more. That's right. Start budgeting now. Right, right, right. you know, we will we hear over and over and over from guests on the podcast, it's the community that the community that makes it different, right? And as you know, the community of just runners in general is is amazing, right? You are you you like you said, you know, you see a runner on your schedule, yes. You know what I mean? Like awesome. And so Run Disney just takes that up another level where you've just got all the Disney magic, whatever, and everybody's kind and everyone's supporting each other. And so, ⁓ yeah, we love it. Like we'll we'll be doing it as long as our as our our feet will allow us. That's right. ⁓ so I want to ask, ⁓ kind of like a little bit of a left turn here or whatever, ⁓ just about like, you know, injury prevention and stuff like that, right? Like we really want to learn and and and ⁓ just pick your brain. If you're cool with that. So ⁓ my first question is what's the most common thing that you see, right? Like the most common injury, big, small, whatever, like what comes through the door the most often? That's a unique question. I think it will it will vary. At some points, I'll have like a lot more of this on my caseload than why, you know, whatever it might be. I think if I had to average it out over the course of my 14 years of working with runners, I would say kind of like that. Kind of it's almost like a garbage bucket diagnosis of like runner's knee fatalophemoral pain syndrome. ⁓ I would say that's probably the number one thing that would come in the door. But, you know, as I mentioned, right now I have a lot of people with Achilles tendinopathy on my schedule. That's like the that's like the big thing if you ask me right now what it is. And I remember, you know, a few months ago it was a lot more folks that were having some bone stress injuries going on. So it kind of fli it kind of has its ebbs and flows for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Are there any myths about running injuries that you wish you could put to rest? ⁓ God. You're like, I wish Ty cast a whole podcast episode on this one question. Yeah, no, there's definitely a lot. There, ⁓ yeah, it's like so. So if we had to kind of keep it short, you know, we gave you the the the condensed version of it. ⁓ trying to think of like what like what would be the easiest one to to go through. Well, let me throw one at and just see what you think. Like I hear all the time, like people are like, AJ, you're in your 40s. Isn't that bad for your knees? How can you be doing that? You know what I mean? Like, like that to me feels like a ⁓ whether it's j justified or not, like that seems to be the common thing is like running is bad for your knees, right? Like, like how do you even approach like something like that? No, so I think there's a lot of ways, you know, I I kind of like will speak to people about it. I do think one thing that's the people have to be mindful of is as you're aging, your body changes, right? So you can't necessarily use the same training approach that you were using in your twenties. When you're in your 40s and 50s, you have to do things a little bit differently. And if you are, if you are making those adaptations and changes and training a little bit smarter, you're going to be able to run well, well, you know, into your lifespan as well. And they've also done some good research on this too. There's been some pretty large studies which have shown that the prevalence of like osteoarthritis in the knees of runners is not higher than like the general public as well. You know, so that's something to kind of be mindful of is. that it's not necessarily gonna be, you know, beating up your knees or it's bad for your knees. It's just a matter of like how you approach it and are you doing it the right way, I think is important. Yeah. You know, kind of piggybacking off that, I think so one of the other big like, you know, things I think that come up which aren't necessarily true when it comes to running are that one about like if it's painful, you have to like rest. You have to kind of like just put your feet up and not do anything. So I think that that happens a lot. And that's where I see people kind of faltering is because, you know, All of your fitness, your resilience starts to drop and decline at that point too. And then people will just as soon as that ache or pain kind of disappears a little bit, they'll just try to jump right back into their, you know, their training cycle where they were and not realizing that, okay, my level of fitness has gone down. My tissues may not be as resilient as as they were. And, you know, they come back and that injury kind of pokes its head back out again, too. Right. So I think that's ⁓ that's a big one that kind of happens too. And if we know if we want to keep kind of running down that ⁓ running down that same pain road, I think a lot of times people always equate like pain to something bad or tissue damage. ⁓ so that's something where we do a lot of education with people about that too, right? Like not all pain is bad pain and how to reframe your relationship with pain too, I think is really, really important. Obviously there's certain times where it's like, yes, if you have a bone stress injury, we're not running, we're shutting it down. We're letting this recover. We're figuring it out. But then there's a lot of other times, you know, if you have a pretty stable like tendonopathy going on, we can let you run them. Then we can kind of kind of be successful still during that time. It will give you some guardrails or some bumpers of, hey, this is like, you know, this is where you have to play within. If you kind of make your way out of this, then we gotta kind of pump the brakes a little bit and maybe we need to modify too. So those would be some of the some of the big ones, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have In every case is different. I know you can't just give a blanket statement. I totally get that. But I'm gonna put you in a corner anyway and ask, like, how do I know, like, ⁓ if I'm on a long run at home or I'm in the middle of a half marathon and I am in pain? Like, what is there any guidance of like, okay, this is my body, you know, tiring out and whatever, or I should work through this, or get off the road now and seek help. You know what I mean? Like, how how do I know the difference? I mean, that's ⁓ that's a really common one too, right? Because As a runner, like there's no way you're not gonna have any pains or aches. Right. That's just it's it's inevitable. I at most runs that you go out on, it's sometimes it's just like, you know, the thoughts always in your head, like, I could stop right now. I could stop right now. You know? ⁓ so it's like better understanding, like, okay, yeah, when do I need to stop? I think is is the key here. And, you know, we give our runners some, like I was just mentioning, some guide ⁓ guidelines, some like kind of bumpers to kind of, you know, like make sure that they're making the right decisions. And one of them for me is like, you know, it's a subjective scale, right? The zero to ten scale. If you're kind of staying at like a zero to three, sometimes maybe even a four, depending on what's going on. And it's not really getting worse than that. And it's staying pretty stable. I'm okay with you kind of continuing onwards. I think that is something to be mindful of. If it's something that's getting worse though, like if it's like a one, a two, a three, I'll be much more weary of that and say, hey, maybe we need to. walk it off a little bit, do some mobilizations, and then come back to running. If it's still there, then we probably have to shut it down. If we're feeling, you know, if we're taking pain medications to run, that's a big no-no. So I think that's somewhere where we also have to shut it down because the, you know, the risks associated with that can be very, very high. And like, you know, it's compromising safety. So I think that's something we really, really have to be mindful of too. ⁓ another one is if it really feels like your your mechanics are being altered, like your stride is different. That's probably where we also want to shut it down too, right? Because your body's telling with something. It's telling you the way that you normally solve this problem isn't approachable for you right now for a certain reason. And you're gonna have to move a different way. And then repetitively loading that different way over and over and over again isn't necessarily gonna yield the best results because those tissues may not be like used to that stress yet. Yeah. That was great. Great. Like, yes. I mean, I feel like we've already gotten the gold that you know, we're gonna get so much more. But like that's that alone is helpful. Like understanding the pain scale of like, ⁓ okay, you know, if it's getting worse over time, yeah, that all the things you said. I'm not gonna rehash it. That was perfect. I loved it. ⁓ what's ⁓ what's one, two, maybe even three if you have it, things that we can consistently do to prevent injury, right? Like exercises or things that, like, hey, it doesn't matter if you're in your 20s or your forties or whatever, like. This kind of activity or whatever is a good thing to help help avoid injury and you know down the road. For most of my endurance runners I work with, I I think I would honestly say the number one thing I'm stressing is nutrition. ⁓ I think the value of that just gets really, really underplayed. And a lot of people just very grossly miss the mark on that, right? You're breaking down the cells in your body by going out there and doing the thing. And if we're not supporting it with enough nutrition to come back like healthier and stronger, that's gonna cause a whole heck of a lot of problems. And that's where a lot of my runners are missing the mark, right? Like if your nutrition is just staying here, right? It's just staying flat through your training block, but your level of activity is ⁓ upwards. Yeah, that just doesn't make sense, right? That math isn't happening at all. We're gonna have some problems. Yeah. So that's something I really ask people is like, okay, when you started your run, you know, your training block, where were you with your nutrition? And can you tell me with certainty that your nutrition has also been ramping up during this time as well? ⁓ and a lot of times the answer is no. So that's where, you know, I can get some research back guidelines. And if they need a little bit more in-depth understanding, we work with, you know, some sports dietitians that we refer out to a lot as well. Cool. You know, I think make just the other big one is also like, you know, managing your training load appropriately, right? I think that's where a lot of hindrix come is just doing something. Too much and too quickly, it you know, where we'll see a lot of injuries as well. You're saying taking it slow and easy and gradual is is is the way to go. Yeah, is the way to go. I thought we just, you know, I thought I thought I was behind in my training. I can just catch up this weekend. You know what's so hard is ⁓ we you know we talk around Disney a lot, but it could be any major race is you you get behind or you have a pain or whatever, but you've signed up for this race, you've been working for this thing. It's a goal race, like it's a major thing, and then you make a decision to push it too hard or to show up at all or whatever because it's a major life event. You know what I mean? The once in a lifetime opportunity kind of thing. ⁓ but then you pay the price so long down the road, you know, like there's so much I guess what I'm saying, and it's not helpful necessarily, but like there's so much emotion involved with these races, you know, where it's like, I I probably know the smart thing to do is to not go out and run or to seek help or whatever. But I paid for it. You know what I mean? I already have my flights or whatever. And so That that emotional side is hard too. I think that's that's a big I mean, honestly, like the psychology behind it is a really big part of what I do, right? There's like an identity that's been built at this point. And a lot of times people find themselves like, you know, they find themselves like getting to the marathon for something profound that's happened in their life. You know, whether it's like, you know, they're raising money for a charity because it's a near and dear cause to them, they've had the loss of a loved one. It's like, you know. There's been some big life event and they need a challenge to try to like overcome. Right. So I think there's like this identity that people get linked to at that point. And then, you know, it's really tough for me sometimes, like being like, you know, pulling that away from them and being like, hey, from like a medical standpoint, like and looking out for your safety, this doesn't make sense. You know, like that's sometimes something I have to do. And then it then it kind of comes down to like, you know, making sure that we're under understanding and making sure that from a psychological standpoint. We're also safe and we're not like, you know, contributing to any potential, you know, depression that may be caused or whatever else might happen as a result of that. Sure. Yeah, that's really good. We've talked about before about ⁓ we'll tell someone else what the really wise and smart thing to do is. Right. Like you can see it in somebody else, but you can't see it in And then ignore it for ourselves. You know what I mean? Like that's so common. Erica's like, I have to because I said I was gonna. And I'm like, Right. But that's not what you would tell right somebody else. You know, you would say, No, you need to go get some help, you know, like with that injury or whatever. Yeah. ⁓ Vakash, how do how ⁓ how important or or I guess does it even matter? Like, does it play in your running form, right? Like, does that matter in injury prevention, right? Like proper form or is, you know, o overreaching or whatever to like like any of that play into injury? Yeah. So this is I I actually love this question. ⁓ just because from my own standpoint, I've seen my opinion evolve on this. pretty drastically over the course of my career. When I first started, even through residency, I did like my, you know, I did my like project on gate retraining. I was like starting off as a new clinician. I was in there looking at everybody's form, making changes, like, you know, doing gate retraining with them. And then as time has gone on, you know, I've realized, you know, from my own experiences and through what the research is also saying that it really for most people isn't That's important, right? Like it is a part of the puzzle, a hundred percent. So I won't like, you know, I'm not saying like it's you don't consider it whatsoever, but it has like dropped down the pyramid for me in terms of the things that I will kind of like look at in the level of importance that it has. You know, I think for us as humans, we are very resilient and very remarkable. And just by running, we start to self-optimize. Your body figures out how to solve that movement problem. For kind of like the ingredients that you're giving it. It figures out how to make the best recipe for the ingredients that you have. And I think that's really, really powerful, especially for somebody who's been doing it for a while now. You look at some of these elites, right? Like you go out there and look at Sebastian Sahway, who's obviously, you know, fastest marathoner of all time, and you look at his running form, like a lot of people like cringe. They're like, ⁓ my gosh, that much pronation going on, you know? And it's the thing is, like, he's been doing it for so long. His body has adapted to this. It's very resilient and it knows how to work with what he's been doing as a result of that. So I kind of err on the side now of like, you know, your body has kind of figured this out. But if we're noticing there's a pattern of like repetitive, like similar injury going on over and over and over again, that's where I'm a little bit more inclined then to think, like, okay, maybe we need to. you know, do a little bit more to figure out how to change and redistribute the loads a little bit so that way we can impact your running form and make sure that we're kind of trying to avoid this. Or if somebody is acutely injured, I might change their running gate to allow them to continue to run a little bit more as well. Too that's really good. Yeah. Is there anything that's like, ⁓ is there anything that you're like, ⁓ yes, but don't do this. Like like de like definitely don't and I I say overreach or or whatever, don't Kick, you know, don't kick your feet too high behind you. Is there anything that's just like an absolute no-no or not really? I I would say don't just change your gate because of that Instagram post. That's great. Right. Like I I think that's the big thing. It's just like everybody's out there trying to influence. Right. Most of these people just really have no place or no credentials to be doing this. It's just they're just taking their own experience and saying, like, hey, because this worked for me, everybody should do this now, you know? Yes. So just be really mindful of just not falling into that trap. Yeah. Yeah, but they look so trendy and perfect in their Lulu shorts. You know what I mean? Like I can't help it. Like I want to look like them. Yeah. I get it. ⁓ gosh. ⁓ okay. So Vikash, when we started running in the beginning, we were just like going out and running three days a week and that was it. Yep. And then the more years went by and the all the, you know, all the miles started packing on, we realized that we really needed to start incorporating strength training. So tell us, tell our listeners how important is strength training as runners? On a scale of like important to important, I'd say it's very important. Exactly. On a scale of one to ten, it's an 11. Yeah. Exactly. Yes, yes. Can you give us some examples of simple strength training exercises that we should all be doing? Yes and no. Yes and no. Okay. So very very once again, very, very loaded question. Right. A lot of we know to it. I'll kind of think more about it from like a like a 30,000 foot view, right? So I think where a lot of runners are making mistakes is I think like body weight, bands, lightweight is a great starting point for runners if you haven't been strength training. But the research is very clear. You gotta be strength training heavy. Yeah. And that's like, you know, like 80, 85% of one rep max. I usually like to tell my runners think about like one to three reps left in the tank, like reps in reserve as we call it. So you really wanna be pushing that. And I Keep it in a single digit rep count. So, like, you know, like six, seven, eight reps with, you know, like one to three reps left in the tank is kind of how heavy we want to be going. And that's like a general framework. And, you know, the way I like to think about it also is kind of if your training load is a little lighter, you're in the off season right now. I like to prioritize a lot of the single leg work then because a single leg work is gonna cost you double the amount of time. So as we're building up training volume through our ⁓ pro through our ⁓ ball ⁓ training block, I'll start to move into double limb work because that's gonna kind of be a little bit more efficient in the gym as well. Too. And we also wanna make sure where the research is very clear is to include like plyometrics in the mix too. That kind of bridges the gap between strength training and then being able to express that strength within our running tube. So mixing, you know, getting a mix of some plyometrics and some strength training. is gonna be very, very important for our runners. Yeah. For our runners who are newer and you know, we don't want them to walk away going, what are plyometrics? I don't know. I I I don't want to embarrass myself. Can you explain that, ⁓ what that is? Yeah. So plyometrics, the easy way to think about it without getting like, you know, very scientific or in the weeds is it's gonna be like your jumps, your hops, your skips, your bounds. That's gonna be more plyometric. But quick, quick movements is what we want to think about. Yeah, yeah. Good. Perfect. So ⁓ again, I'm framing everything kind of knowing that a lot of us are run Disney runners. ⁓ we all kind of follow this like two to three runs during the week and then a a a long run on the weekend, you know, kind of model, what you know, right or wrong, wherever that's what we all kind of all of our our training plans have that, right? If if that's our our training plan, where we're thirty or forty five minutes on Tuesday, thirty or forty five minutes on Thursday, and then you know, whatever it is, five, ten, twelve miles on a Saturday, right? When should we be strength training? In that in that schedule. So if I if we were to once again, very always very loaded questions, right? A lot of a lot going on with them. Yes. ⁓ so if we were in like an ideal world, you know, the the the philosophy I like to think about is like your low days need to be low, so your high days can truly be high days. So something that works, you know, if somebody's like training for a marathon and you're getting like, you let's say if we're getting more than three days of running in, is stacking like strength training. with running within the same day. So it is a very clearly defined high day that you have within your week. And then you can have recovery around it. ⁓ and then it's also if we're getting into the weeds even more, it's separating the workouts by like six hours at least. So you're getting your run in in the morning, you're prioritizing the thing that is the priority first. And then you're getting a lift in in the afternoon or the evening. But most people that's not practical. Like that's really tough to be able to say, hey, like go do a two-a-day for me while you're Dealing with your kids, you have your significant other, you have a full-time job. Yeah. Not really going to work for most people. ⁓ so then how I like to think about it is if you are gonna stack the workouts within the same day, ⁓ prioritize the thing you're doing first, go for your run, and then give yourself a little bit of time in between, whether it's 20, 30 minutes, if you need to like get a little bit of fuel in, get some carbs in during that break, and then hit your gym work afterwards, we can also do that as well. And if you're Also very pressed for time and that doesn't work. Yeah, we can then put it if you're running three days a week, 100%. We can layer in a couple strength training workouts strategically on those days where you aren't running, but maybe making sure that they're not abutting the bigger workouts of the week, right? If we're doing like a tempo run, maybe we will kind of avoid putting the strength workout around that. So for a lot of us run Disneyers, Tuesdays and Thursdays, you know, it might be a speed work or whatever, but like would you say, yeah, if you know if time is a challenge for you, whatever. And you're gonna go for a 30 minute, you know, three mile run, something like that, then yeah, do your do your strength workout after that run. You would you would suggest that. In in general, I know you can't, you know, everybody's different. No, I think if you're running three days a week and like, you know, that's you have the the time to do your, you know, your three mile run and then get into the gym a hundred percent. Okay. If you have the time to just do it on like a non run day in the week too, right? Or like I said, it's like kind of, you know, if that's the easy run, you could easily do it the day afterwards as well. And nothing, you know, I would say nothing wrong with that either. Excellent. Well, that's really good. That's helpful. Uh-huh. Are there specific muscle groups runners constantly neglect that may come back to haunt them? There is. I think the the big one for me is is the calf complex, right? So that's like all the muscles that make up the calf, plus like your Achilles tendon as well. ⁓ that's probably the one that gets neglected the most. I think a lot of people think glutes, quads, hamstrings, you know, they're bigger. Yeah. But when it comes to running and running ⁓ economy, running efficiency. Most of the, especially when we're running slower, most of the forward propulsion energy that we ⁓ that we get comes from that big Achilles tendon. So we really want to be training that spring to be more efficient. And that's where strength training and polyometrics come in, you know, and kind of take care of that for us as well. So that would be my priority. But that being said, yeah, obviously we're not neglecting like the big guys as well, you know, the glutes, the hamstrings and the quads either. But I think the calves do get overlooked and training the calves. heavy for a lot of my athletes that I work with, I love to see them work up to 25 to 33 plus percent of their body weight in a single leg heel raise is kind of like what I have to think about. You know, and a lot of times people are really, really grossly off the mark of that. Interesting. ⁓ any thoughts on upper body, right? Like ⁓ especially for us that are trying to get a marathon done, right? Like any do we need to be doing that? The way I like to think about it is like for me Yes, I work with runners, but I work with humans. Yeah. And my goal is to make the best human that I can and optimize like whatever I can within this human that's in front of me to give them all the successful ingredients to live a long, healthy, fit life. And to do that, yes, we're training upper body for sure. And we can even use that like depending on what your splits are, right? If you're feeling really beat up, maybe you just have an upper body day in the gym. And that way you're being active, you're doing something. But then that allows you to come back and hit your run the next day because your legs are getting a break as well. Too. But yeah, no, most definitely we we are training upper body. And that's something where I will have I've noticed a pattern over the years myself that like a lot of runners who do get some of that like neck pain from running that kicks in like later into their run. They might get some like tingling in their arms. They start training their neck, they start training the back a little bit more. That can help with some of those symptoms too. Cool. Perfect. ⁓ what's your take on rest days? I'm gonna guess you say yes, we need one. ⁓ but how do we know if we're getting enough rest, right? Versus, you know, like I'm always balancing that, like, AJ, get get out there, get some something done. But then I also understand that yeah, my body needs the rest, right? So what what's your take on rest days? Yeah, you were right. I I love rest days a hundred percent. ⁓ I think recovery is probably like the most underrated aspect of training, right? Like the society we Are trained to like do, like we just have to do more to get more. And I think that's where we kind of ⁓ fall into like a problem there, you know, is like if we're just never recovering, we're never gaining like those like physiological adaptations from our training. And that's where like the magic actually happens, is when we're getting those those benefits in our recovery. So at a minimum, I like to see like seven hours of sleep. And there's, you know, plenty of research out there about that in athletics and The incidence of injuries going up if you're sleeping less than seven hours. So that's a minimum. But a lot of people, especially after bigger workouts, probably need more than that as well. Too. So depending on how you're feeling, that's something we'll talk about a little bit. So I think that's really, really important. And then like we were talking about before, right? Like low days and high days. Like you gotta be able to have that. You can't just be like the biggest problem I see is just like these moderate days that are always happening. ⁓ so I think that's like really important to make sure you're differentiating between those two. That's good. That is that's great. So I have days in my week that are lighter than others or whatever. But Sunday ⁓ is typically like I I don't run, I don't lift, I don't anything, right? Am I ⁓ do you in in general, do you think like, yes, have one day that you're not doing anything or do I need more than that? I mean, I do get a good amount of sleep at night, you know, but is is one fully off day is is that a good place? 100%. I I encourage that for for all of my athletes to to have that one day. As you get into working with like some folks who are, you know, pumping out a hundred plus miles a week, that's it's a different story at that point. And you gotta kind of, you know, I I fight my battles appropriately there. but yeah, no, I think it's it's very important to have that rest day. And then I think also another mistake I see is folks not taking those like deload weeks in their training block as well. ⁓ so every like three, four, five weeks, have this week where you chop down your training volume anywhere from 25 to 50 percent. To once again allow your body, body to kind of like gain those adaptations and then come back stronger, right? It's like kind of like almost like to think about it as like little mini tapers that we have through our training block, then that allow us to come out of that and attack that next block and kind of continue to build. Sure. I got an unscripted question, which is how do I know that I in you know, the whatever the next week, whatever I take a Sunday off, whatever, and then Monday I'm just so exhausted. I decided to take another day off. I just gotta, you know, I need the rest, right? How do I like what's the sign that it's like, nope, now you now it's time to get back to work? Or do I just need to follow the training plan from my running coach? You know, like what are there any physical or or psychological signs that like, yes, it's time to get back out and get to work? I mean, I think honestly this the keep it simple, I think just asking that question of like how ready are you to train today is goes a really, really long way. Great. And if it's just the answer is no, you know, like I I just really, really like, you know, I've done this, I've done this plenty of times and Today is not the day. Yeah. You know, we have options. Like, does strength training seem more viable for you today? Does cross training seem more viable for you today? That's something I think that runners really kind of like miss out on is like there's like this all or none sometimes principle. But like we can hop on the bike, we can hop on the electrical, we can hop on the rover. We have a lot of other tools, you know, that we could use. And sometimes that's what we need because like the training monotony of just running over and over and over again. That can get daunting sometimes for people too, right? It's just like the same thing. Hey, I'm gonna go for a run today. I'm gonna go for a run today. And you know, that's not that's not it for some people. So if we can get a little training variety, I think that can go a long way towards ⁓ helping people too. Mm-hmm. Excellent. I'm trying so hard not to keep saying that's really good. I know. Well, it is really good. It is. It's so awesome. Thank you for all of this so far. I have some race specific questions ⁓ that we've got. And I say race specific. ⁓ again, I I Disney audience, right? And one of the Disney things is the challenges, and you may have heard this where you go and it, you're not just going to do a half marathon, you're gonna go do the 10K and the half marathon, right? Back to back days, right? Or you can do the dopey challenge, which we've not done, but that is a 5K on Thursday, 10K on Friday, half on Saturday, full on Sunday, right? ⁓ Danny, okay. Yeah, it's crazy. It's it's like the the The what do you call it, Erica? Like everybody wants to do it whether they think they can or not. Like it's just got this prestige around it. You know what I mean? Like, ⁓ you're doing dopey. Wow. You know, they have all these challenges. So my question for you is like, what do we need to watch out for? Like if we're gonna be running that much, not just in that weekend, we have to do that in the at home too, because we simulate that that Thursday, Friday, Saturday runs ⁓ on a normal weekend, right? And so what do we need to watch out for if we're doing that? As a side thought. How do I get a perfect stride stall set up at the at the race grounds for that? I feel as though people may need our services after doing that. Yeah, you should be in the expo. There is no doubt. Or at the finish line. Especially for all the people that are like, I've never even run a half, but let me sign up for Dopey, because that sounds like a smart idea. That happens a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I could see that you put a challenge in front of people. People, you know, people want to, you know, the challenge 100%. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah. So and the medals are amazing. You know what I mean? And the shirts they get like it's just so good. People can't not do it. You know, like they're like, well, I did a 5K once. Let's do the dopey. You know? And it's like, well, hold on, hold on, hold on. So so what do we need to watch out for? Right. We're we're training, we're putting in all these miles, you know, on at some random weekend in November. We're doing, you know, five miles, 10 miles, whatever on a, you know, in in a weekend. And then we're building up to this one where we do 48.6 in a weekend. What what do we need to watch out for? So I mean, I think number one, we need to rewind, right? We need to make sure does our training support what we're trying to do? Right. So I think that's the first thing. Like, have we trained appropriately to accomplish this task? Yeah. So that's first. Yeah. And if we can say yes to that, then I would say like one thing we want to make sure is like, are we going to make sure we're fueling adequately to meet the demands of what's happening in this, you know, multi stage, multi day like race series that we're doing? And one of the most important things for that is within a couple hours of completing one race is getting in adequate carbon take to fill up your stores for the performance the next day as well. So that's gonna be really important. Yeah. And then also making sure we're getting adequate sleep is gonna be important to try to maximize that recovery between between those efforts. Yeah. Most people do get really good sleep. You know, there's no theme parks, you know, at Disney. That that draw them in. You know, there's no fireworks and spectaculars at night. You know, they're usually in bed. The races, they start pretty late in the day. Yeah, we get up at like two AM. We we're not we're not getting up at two in the morning to catch the bus at three. So yeah, usually sleep is not a problem. It's the most challenging environment if you really think about it, Vikash. Like all those things. You got all these things you bring your family, they all want to go to the theme parks and you're going to bed at eleven o'clock and the and the alarm hits at two. And now you're going to run a marathon after three days or you know what I mean? It's just like yeah, it's just it's just wild that we even do we even do it. Right. Yeah. So for all of us crazy Ren Disney runners who have lost our minds apparently. That's right. ⁓ does racing in the Florida heat and humidity change anything from your perspective? So I think kind of almost the same answer here, right? Like has your training equipped you for what you're about to do? Yeah. So if you've been training in the Florida heat and that's what you're used to, and you know, that's what you've been doing, we're gonna be all right. But if you're somebody like, you know, coming in from, you know, somewhere where it's not as humid, not as hot, and that's where all your training has been done, we gotta, you know, there's a there's a gap we gotta bridge there. Your body's gotta acclimate and we gotta figure that out. So either A, we just gotta reduce our expectations and slow our pacing down. ⁓ or we gotta get there a few weeks early and get some training in and allow our body to activate to that heat as well. Yeah. I love that idea. Get there a few weeks early. I need a couple of extra weeks of vacation. Yeah, he did. He said a few weeks. Acclimated. And he said leave your family at home. That's what he said. Yeah. I think he said it'd stay in a deluxe resort too, I think. ⁓ a hundred percent. ⁓ man. That's awesome. ⁓ any other race thing, like and it doesn't have to be Disney related, just any race related advice that you would give, like how to know when to pull yourself out of the race or something you can do mid race if your calf is feeling weird. You know what I mean? Like any any race specific things before we move on to at home exercises? I think the biggest like thing for racing is like the, you know, the the big quota around ⁓ running. It's like nothing new on race day. Yeah. So I think just really, you know, making sure that you're not trying that gel for the first time. You're not putting on those pair of shoes for the first time or trying this new fit today and you haven't worn it before. And next thing you know, like, you know, you're getting some crazy chafing going on. Yeah. So I think that's just like the big thing is just make sure nothing new on race day. That probably be like the number one like piece of advice for for racing. Perfect. Love that. ⁓ okay. So we want to talk about at home exercises, things that we can do at home. What tools or resources do you think are like actually worth having at home, right? Like so we've got In the room over there, we got foam roller, you know, and and you know, weights and stuff like that. Massage gun, massage gun, right. Like what do you think is not just a trend on TikTok or whatever? Like these are things that are worth having. I think having a kitchen stocked with really nutritious food. Yeah. It's great. Yes. And I think having a comfortable bed that you can sleep in comfortably is also another great one. Yeah. Wow. Perfect. So those would be like one and two for me. Like those I consider like your massage guns, your foam rollers, all that stuff just bells and whistles. ⁓ no real research behind it, like supporting much of anything that we need to do. I tell people if it feels good, it feels good, sure, go for it. ⁓ but yeah, if you know nutrition, sleep, training, like hands down, that's where you need to be focusing. Okay. I love that because it's so counterintuitive, right? We want like the quick fix, like. ⁓ my, you know, whatever hurts. Like, give me the thing for that. When it's really like, are you are you fueling your body, right? You're good. You're gonna you're fueling anyway, right? Are you fueling properly? Yeah. You know what I mean? You're getting five hours of sleep. You need seven. We don't want to do that or whatever, but man, it's just so it's so simple. Yeah. Versus like buying all these tools. Yeah. I love that. Totally. That's good. ⁓ here's another one where I always have a lot of questions. Yeah. Can you clarify when we should ice versus heat or just leave it alone? Yeah. I I think, you know, ice and heat, how I approach it now is once again, it's not essential. It feels good, sure. It feels good, go for it. But I'm not necessarily going out of my way to prescribe that to people. But if it does feel good and it helps you, sure, go for it. It might temporarily like, you know, get more blood flow to an area to help you a little bit. It might reduce the nerve conduction velocity a little bit. So the pain signaling is reduced for a period of time. Sure. You know, if that's what you want to do, but then there's arguments going the other way. It's affecting the natural, like, you know, inflammation that happens in your body. And do we want to do that? So, you know, like I said, there's there's cases in either direction, but for me, I'm not like actively prescribing that to folks as much anymore, or actually really at all, really. I'm learning a lot. Yes. This is awesome. ⁓ are there any quick daily, just ⁓ you know, easy things I can do at home, right? I can't get to a PT. I don't have. The time and my schedule or I just don't have the financial resources right now or whatever. But I should be doing these things, right? Like, hey, every day, make sure you're doing some calf raises at home at least. You know what I mean? Like like any anything like that, where it's yes, if you, if nothing else, please do these things. Yeah. No, I mean, I think that kind of goes back to the, you know, yeah, if we don't have access to weights, we don't have access to a gym. Yeah, that's probably that's gonna be a place where body weight, maybe bands is gonna be the thing we need to do, right? So maybe we are doing some. You know, some lunges, some single leg deadlifts, you know, we're doing some squats, we're doing some calf raises. We could throw some s throw a bunch of books in a backpack, you know, and like put it on our back, add some weight. You know, during COVID, that was a big thing. We were doing a lot of virtual sessions and that's what I did with folks was we just loaded up backpacks and like, you know, duffel bags. And that's how we kind of like added weight to things. So, you know, I think that would be a great place to go is do your strength training. And find creative ways to to add some load behind it. If we're at home, we can also be doing some pliometrics, right? We could be doing some jumping, some hopping base drills as well. So I'd encourage folks to kind of find the best, you know, recipe and the best way to modify their at-home situation to kind of get the solid strength training routine together for themselves. Awesome. Vikash, we've teed up a couple of times that you have a practice, a PT practice that is specialized for runners. Can you tell us about any resources that you guys have for injury prevention? Think at the end of the day, any successful runner needs their team. Right. I think that's really important. You know, whether it's your dietitian, your running physical therapist. I think I always stress that with runners, is like going to like a general physical therapist isn't gonna meet what you need. It's like kind of, you know, within the medical system, right? Like we have various specialties for a certain reason. And that's the same with physical therapy. You need to go to somebody who understands the demands of what you're trying to do. So having a running physical therapist on your team is also very, very important. ⁓ so I think kind of making sure you have those resources. And if, you know, you're looking for stuff out on like, you know, the world of social media, that's like, you know, where perfect stride PT, you know, we we have a we have a page where we're putting out like, you know, tips and exercise recommendations. Vikash Sharma DPT is my page where, you know, I'm giving my takes on what I think like, you know, runners and coaches and clinicians need to hear a little bit more about. And then if you are somebody who happens to be a clinician or a coach, I have a company called Running for Life Education, where we actually teach coaches and clinicians how to better work with runners as well. That's kind of cool. ⁓ if we follow your ⁓ Instagram, which you just said it and I'll put it in the show notes, but if we follow the Instagrams, right? Like as runners. What can we expect there, right? Like what kinds of reels or information? Is it a weekly thing? Like to just tell me what we can expect if we follow. Yeah. So on ⁓ like my personal professional Vakashirama DPT, like I said, I'm sharing a little bit more, like kind of, you know, insights in my life. I'll share some things going on, like maybe personally with me, with running, things that I like, but also things that I think maybe the running community needs a little bit more of. Yep. And then on the perfect stride PT side of it, ⁓ All of our great like running PTs that we here have have have here at the clinic, they'll do like a daily post where they're sharing some like either exercises or tips that they find helpful for runners, but also just active individuals as well. Too. And we'll share just like news related to perfect stride PT or like the running community, right? Like if there's things going on in the running world, like records are being set, like this is going on, a race like declares that they're going to a two weekend or two-day or kind of like. Format, right? Like we're kind of sharing all that news that's in the running world out there. Perfect. Okay. Excellent. Yeah. We'll put the link to that for sure in the in the show notes so that people can follow that. It's totally worth doing. I pulled together a list of myths and we kind of talked about this at the beginning, but I'd love for you to like true or false busts bust some of these based off your opinion. And you'll probably tell me that's a loaded question. I'm sure. But I want to just throw some of these against the wall, see what, see what you ⁓ what you think about some of these. You you okay that? Let's do it. I love this. All right. Got a couple of them. True or false. Stretching before a run prevents injury. True or false? Big false. Okay. And why? Just static stretching. You know, we've kind of, you know, I think the we've kind of like learned that over the years that that's not necessarily gonna do much for us in terms of injury prevention. I even think a lot of runners, like their warm-up is probably too much. I'll get a lot of people that come into the clinic and they'll sh they'll share with me what they're doing. Ends up being this like 20, 30 minute thing. And I think for a lot of runners, if you're just going out for a simple, easy pace run, you could do like five to 10 minutes of brisk walking and just start your easy run. You're good to go. If you're doing something that's a little bit higher intensity, a little bit longer day, like longer run, yeah, you might need to do a little bit more to kind of like bridge the gap of like, you know, maybe a brisk walk to what you're trying to do. So we might need to incorporate a little bit more into it. And if you have some things that specifically you need to like, mobilize or activate a little bit more on your body. Like if you have a really stiff ankle and you you gotta kinda like hit that a little bit more, sure. Throw in a couple of things for that. But outside of that, like you know, like bending down to touch your hamstring, touch your toes to stretch your hamstrings for like 30 seconds, like yeah, I would go ahead and skip that. Yeah. My understanding is we definitely don't want to hold those, right? Like like what I do is I'll do some and I and if I'm doing it wrong, you can call me out right here on the podcast. Like I'll do some ⁓ Some lunges, right? Some calf raises, you know what I mean? Things like that that are dynamic and movement. And I probably spend, I don't know, four to five minutes doing a couple of those things or whatever and just making sure my shoulders and whatever are loose, right? Am I doing is that is that okay? Or are you like advising, like, hey, you know, AJ, ⁓ cut that back a little bit. You might just want to do this instead. Yeah. No, I mean, I think like I said, most people, if it's just a purely like just easy pace run, I'm not not going out there for like a long run. Just if you do some brisk walking, like you're good to go. Perfect. But if you're if you're not doing some brisk walking, yeah, then your equivalent of brisk walking might be doing a couple of lunges, doing some hip circles, maybe doing a couple like pogo hops just to kind of like get the springs warmed up a little bit. And yeah, like you said, four to five minutes and then you're good to go. Right. So I don't think there's anything wrong with that whatsoever. Good. Awesome. Okay. Thank you. True or false stretching after a run prevents injury. We're gonna go with a big fat false again, too. Yeah. Okay. Really? I actually I thought that was more about this. Yeah. Yeah. Tell us. Yeah. No, I mean we're in the same place there, right? Like in terms of just like research, like there's really nothing out there mentioning that that's going to be helpful. You know, I think if you want to like do some movements just to keep the blood flowing, you know, a little bit after your run, that's great. If you want to end off with like a brisk walk just to kind of like let your heart rate slowly come down, do a little breathing work, maybe a brisk walk. That's, you know, that's a great place to go as well. But you know, outside of if you're just feeling really stiff and sore after a workout, doing some dynamic stuff just to get some blood flowing, that's great. But otherwise it's not something where I think you have to be like prescriptive and just do it for the sake of doing it after every run. So if I come home, I'm feeling loose and warm and fine, right? And I I cooled down for two or three minutes, you know, getting down my my street or whatever, you're saying I don't necessarily need to hit the floor for 15 minutes and and stretch everything out. No. But I mean, hey, as runners, I know that like, you know, we love the floor after a workout. I'm there with you. You know, I love just standing on the floor hanging out. Maybe I'll grab like a shake or something and just like, you know, just we'll be kind of hanging hanging out and just like letting things recover a little bit or just like letting ourselves settle. You know, nothing, nothing wrong with that at all. If you want to throw in a couple of movements just because they feel good or something's starting to feel stiff, right? Yeah, go for it. But if it isn't, yeah, I don't think there's no there's no reason to be like, you know, taking time to do anything at that point. You're saving like 15 minutes out of my day every morning. I appreciate this. So good. ⁓ all right. Two more. True or false. Running is bad for your knees. I mentioned this one earlier, but I'd love to get your true or false. Running is bad for your knees. ⁓ false on that one too, right? As we talked about earlier. You know, we have some research out there talking about. I think the big thing was always people talking about how it like contributes to arthritis and knees. We know that's not the case. It's actually almost like the other way. Like People who are sedentary have a higher prevalence of like osteoarthritis in their knees than people who run. So that's like, you know, some great information to be having. And I also think, you know, that if we're doing it the right way, that we are, you know, we're gonna be very successful in helping ourselves stay fit and also stay fit for the long term. Right. And I think that's where how you go about doing it is very, very important. It's good. Love it. Okay. True or false. You need new shoes every 300 miles. So I guess with the with you know, obviously super shoes being out there, that like changes things a little bit for sure, right? We know those have a little bit of a shorter shelf life on them. ⁓ and I said it would say 300, 400 miles, like for your other shoes that have like the non like you know, fluffy midsole that like super shoes have. That's like probably a good rule to go by. But also if you're starting to see like visual defects in the shoe as well. ⁓ it's probably time to kind of swap it out if you're seeing like a chunk of the heel is missing. You know, we we probably want to like make some different. And then that also might be some information of like how you're running and you're stressing one area a little bit more than others. So might need to kind of come in and see a PT and kind of talk about, hey, like why is this happening here? Yeah. That's good. Mm-hmm. ⁓ you talked about you know, trends or whatever you see on Instagram earlier. So here's my question. What's the worst piece of running advice or trend you've seen on TikTok or Instagram? It's the, you know, I think it it just, it just makes my blood boil a little bit. But you know, it's the it's like the here's the like one or three exercises that will like prevent, you know, injury for your marathon training block, or here are the three exercises to shave 30 minutes off your marathon time. You know, and I'm always just like, no, absolutely not, you know? It's like, clickbait, it's getting people to buy into that and then they're thinking like this is what it's gonna take for me to, you know, not get injured, or if I do these things, I'm gonna be good to go. And, you know, so that's one of the big ones that I notice, like those trends of like, you know, these three exercises or the one exercise to prevent injury from your, you know, marathon training block. I I always say like run the other way when you see the word prevent, because nobody can guarantee prevention. You know, you can walk out the door and get hit by a bus. That's not going to prevent any injuries there. It's more of like I always say I can help you maybe reduce the risk of being injured by giving you some education and kind of like telling you what's the smartest way to approach, you know, your goals and to go about achieving them. But yeah, I I never tell people I'm gonna prevent injuries. Perfect. So the title working title I had for this episode was preventing injuries. I now need to name this title reducing the risk of injury. Is that what I need to title this one? Good. We could do that. I'm going to do that. That's so good. ⁓ Vakash, we so appreciate you. Is there anything that you feel like before we sign off and call it a day, is there anything that you feel like we missed? One of the things I want to point to ⁓ and ask you is, you know, if folks are in New York, like are you taking on clients, right? Like, like that's a question I have. But before we get there, like anything that we missed in terms of reducing the risk of injury or anything like that? No, I think we did a really good job of kind of covering a lot of the the main points. You know, I think there is. Yeah, there's always like more we can get into the weeds for sure. But I think for like the purpose of like, you know, the audience and people who are out there trying to, you know, trying to do their their Disney races, that that should cover a very large majority of things. But if there's things that are a little bit more specific, yeah, that's where maybe kind of like getting a little bit more help and working with a running PT might be helpful for them. That's perfect. Friends, I want to tell you ⁓ that like when ⁓ I was introduced to Vakash I followed Perfect Stride PT and I saw the exercises and stuff that he was ⁓ doing on there and I saw the single leg, you know, heel raises, whatever there should be, you know, weighted, like all that, whatever. Like it was very insightful and helpful, which is why I was so excited about this conversation. So absolutely go follow ⁓ them on socials. ⁓ if people are in New York City, like are you taking on clients? Do you have a wait list out the door like kind of vibe? Like what's if if people are close to you, can they can they come into the into the practice? Yeah. So I mean as a practice we're taking on new clients for sure. We have like, you know, We have a lot of great clinicians here who are all trained very similar to how I'm trained as well. So we're taking on new clients. I personally am very limited in kind of like my ⁓ like my ability to take on new clients right now. Sure. ⁓ but yeah, we as a clinic, a hundred percent perfect stride PT is is taking on new clients. We work virtually with people as well, too. So, you know, if you're not directly in New York City, that's something we can do, ⁓ do for you as well is like kind of like do provide just more of like Coaching where it's like, you know, breaking down what are you doing? Are there opportunities to accrue here? We do physical therapy, you know, virtually as well. You do. Okay. So how do we find that resource? I did not realize that. And you're I'm glad you said that. Reach out to us. Yeah. And we can kind of no, we can go through it with you. We do discovery calls as well. So if you have any like specific, you know, questions about would we be a good fit, we can get get you on a call with one of our physical therapists just to talk about like we would could we be a good fit for what's going on with you before we actually commit to working together. Awesome. I love that. Cool. I love it. All right. I've had a a this has been an hour and I've loved every every single piece of information you provided for us. We really appreciate you giving us the time, ⁓ for just introducing yourself, saying hi so that we can have this fun conversation and hopefully it's a helpful resource for everybody. Erica, anything else? No. This is all really, really good. I know. Yeah. Rakash, thank you for joining us today, my friend. We really, really appreciate you. Yeah. Thank you guys too for having me. This was awesome. All right, thank you, Vakash, for being on the episode. ⁓ especially with us crazy Disney fans. Yes. Yeah. ⁓ I y'all didn't get to see it, but we got to see his face when we were exactly what I was just gonna say. When were describing the dopey challenge. Please let his eyes just keep getting wider and wider. Bigger and bigger. And I'm not trying to describe it. Think maybe he knows what it is, but it clearly, as soon as I said four races in a row, back to back to back, his eyes got big, and then every day he was like, ⁓ my god. ⁓ there's more? Yeah. It's ⁓ that's pretty as as a PT who probably sees it all, he's probably like, ⁓ my gosh. Yeah. You know. Yep. ⁓ so super fun. Thanks for being on the pod. We we appreciate that. ⁓ Erica, let's talk personal training update. Yes. ⁓ we did something kind of fun this week. I say fun, it was hard. Was it? What did what it how did it start? Because you were a part of the beginning. Let's talk about how so our long runs. Let's talk about our long runs. Yeah, I'm starting at the beginning. Okay. The very beginning. ⁓ The night before when I said, what time are you setting the alarm? And you said 4 15. That's right. That's right. Because we live in Atlanta and it's very hot and very humid. ⁓ yeah. And like you have to get up at the back crack of dawn if you want to run and not have heat strokes. So yeah. So we got up early and you had to run 20 miles because you're getting ready to run the New York marathon. Right. New York City Marathon. ⁓ I was only running seven miles today. I'm I'm trying to like incorporate three different running plans and I'm like seven's like a happy medium for all these. So which actually we were supposed to have run a couple days ago, but we were traveling and couldn't run. So we we ran today. So Monday morning, Monday morning before work. Super dark and and it was cooler, it was 74 degrees. But was the humidity like I didn't actually look, it felt like it was like 98% humidity. It was really high because it rained overnight. Yes, it was terrible. So yeah. So we did the first seven miles together. That's right. And then ⁓ you ran me back home essentially, and then you kept going to finish your 20. Any no anything of note or anything from that for you? Yeah. So I would say that ⁓ you know. We tell you guys all the time on the podcast, like run your own race, do what works for you, like follow your training. Yes. and I would say that when I say that, ⁓ I'm also preaching to myself because it's very easy for me to like fall into this trap of like, I want to make sure that I'm not holding you back or like doing anything different than what you're training. So like I know right now that for New York Marathon, you're doing two minute run, 30 second walk. That's right. Is that right? Yep. Or is it more than that? It's more than that, but that's 230-30. It's 230-30, yes. Yeah. And so I normally do 130-30. Yeah. And so I was like, well, I I could do two minutes and 30 second walk break. ⁓ and I will say that it went fine. Yeah. But by mile five, I was really feeling it in a way that like I don't normally feel. and also Our mile time was so freaking slow compared to what I normally run. Because I was running slow. No. I'm saying that. Okay. I I intentionally, you were trying to go faster than I was trying to go. I kept trying to go slower. But the point of the story is that I think that like a lot of times, well, there's so many, there's so many points to the story. But the first point is that a lot of people, especially if they're new to the run walk method, the galloway method, they're like, Well, I I have to run longer. Like, or I'm gonna go slower. ⁓ I see. That is not necessarily the case. I run much faster when I follow the intervals that I've trained with, ⁓ that I know that work good for me, that like my form's gonna stay good, you know, that I'm not gonna overexert myself, I'm not spending too much time in, you know, zone four or whatever. ⁓ and so I would say that like that's not necessarily true. Today I ran two minutes slower per mile than I normally do just because I extended my run, my run running. Also, then by mile five, like I said, I was feeling a lot of pain that I normally feel even now. Like my knee is hurting me really badly. So I just encourage y'all, as I'm encouraging myself, to stick with what works for you. That's right. Like, and if it doesn't work for your running buddy, then that's okay. Like find a different running buddy or like see if they want to compromise for you. Like AJ gladly would have done, and he did at the end. We like switched intervals. Like but at that point, like we say, like it's It's kind of too late at that point. Like you're already tired. You're already sore. Whatever you can't recover at that point. Exactly. So trust your training, stick with the intervals that work for you. Play around with them. Like running longer does not necessarily mean running faster. Right. So just play around with them and see what works for you. So a hundred percent. Anyway But you survived, even though I mean you got your seven miles in. Yes. We came back to the house. Yeah. Right. And you showered and went to work and went to work. You know, now you know. You you went digital. And then I had to go back out. I changed my shoes. Yes. And had to go back out and do ⁓ 13 more miles. Fortunately, everything felt good. Fuel worked great. Everything was good. And my coach had me on a speed limit, not a pace, whatever. He said, as long as you don't go faster than this. And I'm like, that's it. Yeah. He's like, AJ, I need you to run slow. Right. I'm like, it's actually, you know, like mentally, I'm like, come on, I'm a runner. You know I mean? And he's like, slow down. Right. I'm like, okay. So I did, which made it really great. You know, like I didn't I wasn't I never was gassed out or whatever. Right. Running really good. I get to mile sixteen and ⁓ we have a lake that I'm running next to and the sun's out and whatever. And then all of a sudden this breeze comes across the lake and just kind of cools me down. I'm like, ⁓ wow. Right. That feels great. And then it starts to sprinkle a little bit. And ⁓ I'm like, wow, that feels really good. I'm actually really grateful for the rain. Uh-huh. And like 30 seconds later, out of nowhere, it goes black You're in Twister. Yes. It goes black outside. Right. Yeah. The rain comes sideways like like hail hitting me in the side of the face. I look over at the lake in white caps. You know what I mean? And it was smooth a second ago. Right. And I'm like, all of it, and I'm like, what in the world? So I pick up my pace a little bit because I'm like, I don't, I mean, I need to get, you know, away from the the rain. Yeah. And I'm running through we, you know, very wooded. We have these cool paths, you know. Yeah. I'm running through the paths, and about half a mile later, I'm all wet. Now it's like pouring down rain. And ⁓ all of a sudden, the lightning and and thunder start start up. And it's like, like, like I see the lightning strike. Like I'm saying, not saying I see the flash, I see the lightning strike in the woods, uh-huh. And I hear the thunder at the same time. Crack bang! Yeah. On multiple sides of me. Crack boom tree branches are fall falling into my path. Uh-huh. And I can't see very well. And I'm at work and I'm testing a patient, but I can hear the thunder and lightning and I'm looking out the window across the way and I'm like I'm like, yes, tell me everything that you remember about what I just said. Meanwhile, I'm like texting you under the desk. Like, AJ, call Taylor, our daughter, right now, and have her come pick you up. Like I was like, do not try to run home in this. Well, I I realize it's not safe. Yeah. But I'm in the middle of absolutely not nowhere. Yeah. Like not nowhere, but like in the woods, in a path. Right. You know what I mean? And I'm like The nearest place is our grocery store, a mile and a half forward. Right. There's no going back. That's the lake. That seems worse. Yeah. You know, and so I'm trying to get there. I mean, my pace really picked up because I was hauling butt, which a side thing though, how great to be at 17 miles in a long run and a and a tornado hits. And I had the energy and whatever to haul butt. Yeah. Without really having to think about it. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? I was like, wow. So my I guess my training's kind of working. Yeah. Anyway. Trust your trainer. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So it was it was very scary. And of course, and then dad mode kicks in where you sent Taylor. I'm like, I don't want Taylor driving in this. But then I'm like, hey, but I probably shouldn't be out of here either. Right. So I get to the grocery store undercover. She comes and picks me up. And this this is the part where it's still raining, but like I can tell like the lightning has moved on. ⁓ huh. You know? And she comes by and I'm like, just go home. Like, I I'll run home. You know what I mean? She's like, How many miles do you have left? I have I got two and a half miles left. I'll make it. She's like, Mom sent me. Mom said you cannot ride home in it. I looked at her and she gave me like kind of a look you would give me like copy and paste. I'm following orders, Dad. And I'm like, fine. So I get in the car, which was their right call. Right. A hundred percent their right call. Yeah. I get in the car, she takes me home, and I go to the gym. ⁓ to finish my mileage. Well actually I ditch all the wet clothes, put dry clothes on, and ⁓ that's actually worse. Uh-huh. I feel like cause now I'm like cold and got that like my runs over vibe and I'm kind of like shaky, like I'm just like freezing from being wet. Right. But I need to finish two and a half miles indoors. Right. Well it's awful. Yeah. Like the the dreadmill is awful anyway. Right. Then this condition. So there are these other people working out at the gym and they don't know that I've just run 17 miles. Right. 17 and a half and part of it like in a freaking tornado storm. Right. You know what I mean? I'm dry and whatever. Right, right. Barely moving on the treadmill. And I'm like all out of breath. You know. And I just, you know, the last couple of miles I ran really hard. Right. Right. And I was cramped up in Taylor's car, all the things. Yeah. And so I just I d didn't have the whatever, the the frame of mind to let them know, hey, I just ran. A marathon a half marathon and a half, you know what I mean? Like just a heads up. That's why I suck. Right. At the treadmill. I got like my feet up on the wall stretching after two and a half miles on the treadmill. They're probably looking at me like, Wow, this guy's really out of shape. And so I I ⁓ my I might I let that go. But ⁓ I stretched out and took a long nap. Yeah. After that one. Yeah. So anyway, I survived. I'm alive. I'm alive. I would have run home if it if you hadn't ⁓ No, there's no way I didn't want you running home in that in that storm. I know. Yeah. So that was our training from this week. So I got my 20 miler done. You know, stubborn like you is I was looking at the 17 and a half or whatever, going, that's close enough, right? But I thought, but what happens when he asks me to do 22 miles? Right. And I never made it to 20. Yeah. You know, like I really wanted to finish. Yeah. So I did. Okay. All right, let's read a review. Okay. If you don't mind. ⁓ Apple Podcast re review. We really appreciate these ⁓ because helps us know what we're doing well. And we like to read them on the podcast because we want to say thank you. Thank you for reading these kind words. Like it really means a lot to us. Yeah. All right. This one comes from Ed Runs and he says, I'm hooked. After listening to AJ and Erica on Rope Drop Radio, I binge listened to all the episodes and they've since become my go to podcast during training. I really enjoy listening to Erica and AJ and Scene June and love their positive attitude and find their banter entertaining and so natural. I've been running consistently for over forty six years, completed multiple Bostons and multiple Wren Disney events, and I still learned something new on most episodes that helped me adapt. The tips are great, and thanks to AJ's video on race registration, I'm entered in the marathon next January. So I hope I get to meet my new friends in person. Keep up the good work, you're making a difference. Awesome. We hope to meet in person. Yes, we would love to meet you and way to go, running 46 years. Yeah, and Boston's or whatever. And I feel like I need my picture with him. Right. That's right. That's that's awesome. That's pretty great. And I'm glad that the ⁓ video of how to register it was helpful because it's our most popular video, you know what I mean? And I hate that video. Like it's just it's me sitting in front of the camera being like, okay, so click on this and click on this. Right. But it's helpful for that have done it before. We've heard, we've heard over and over and over and over and over again. Yeah. It's not about us, but we've heard over. I th I'm in this race because of your video. You know what I mean? Like you showed us how to do it. I actually watch the video every year before every race registration. Yeah. Just to be reminded of all the things. Well, you don't know what you don't know. You know what I mean? And it's so overwhelming. You don't want to miss anything. And you get all these, you know, videos and whatever on TikTok or whatever that they're good, but they're not correct. Complete necessarily, and I'm not calling anybody out, but like this is you know, that video really is meant to be like it's dry. That's just know that it's dry. Yeah. but it's it's got all the steps, have this information available. Right. You know what I mean? Don't do this. And so anyway, Ed, I'm glad that that helped you get into the marathon. We'll be running the marathon as well. All right, you good? Yeah, I'm good too. ⁓ if y'all want to support the podcast, there's three super easy ways to do that. One, you can leave a Apple Podcast review like Ed did, that helped people find the show. ⁓ you can follow and subscribe on whatever your thing is. Spotify, Apple, follow on all those things. And then of course we have the support crew, which is our Patreon. We call them the crew ⁓ because they literally are cheering us on and making things happen, but they get bonus content. Yeah. ⁓ and fun things in the mail. And fun things in the mail. Yeah. For sure. And so one of the things we added for them ⁓ recently is so you we we have some podcast merch. Yeah. You know what I mean? And Crew members get a steep discount on that. You know what I mean? And so that's, you know, a perk of being a crew member is, you know, you're we call it backstage access. That's right. Right. Yeah. And so if you want to support the show and get bonus stuff, that's the easy way to do it. Thank you guys for joining us for this episode of the podcast. We'll catch you next week for another episode of One More Run. 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 ajanerica.com.