The Long and The Short Of It

Episode 255 - Pacing

Transcript:

Jen: Hello, Peter.

Pete: Hello, Jen.

Jen: Well, it's that time of year. It's August. It's time for the annual running episode.

Pete: Yes. It's Jen's running episode, the annual episode where you have an aha moment on one of your runs.

Jen: Yes, can't wait to share this year's aha moment about pacing.

Pete: Jen's aha moment as it relates to running, 2023 edition, on pacing. This is The Long and The Short Of It.

Jen: Alrighty. So for the listeners who've been here less than a year, I'll bring you up to speed. Every summer, I spend with my family on the beautiful island of Nantucket in Massachusetts. And I'm a morning person anyway, when the sun comes up, my eyes just pop open and I'm ready to go. So while I'm here, I love to wake up with the sun, hop out of bed, into my running shoes and out the door. And I run using an app, and the app has a coach in it. And the coach is talking to me the whole time. And every year, I just find myself having these grand aha moments, piecing together little nuggets of wisdom about how my running practice can start to inform my actual life. So, that's the gist of it. This summer, I have been working on my pacing, which, as I understand it...I'm not an expert runner. So, expert runners...

Pete: Bear with us.

Jen: ...don't freak out if I get this wrong. But as I'm working on my pacing, I'm essentially trying to hit a certain tempo with my run and then hold it there for a designated period of time. And then I will increase my speed and then hold it there, and then increase my speed and hold it there, etcetera. So, I'm running at these different paces. Does that make sense so far?

Pete: That makes sense so far. That makes sense so far.

Jen: Okay. So, the big aha moment is that the way one paces oneself when trying to get better at running is equivalent to the way one must pace oneself when you're trying to get better at anything in life.

Pete: Alright. Alright. Say more, say more.

Jen: So as I'm running, my coach says, "We're going to start today at a light, easy jog. Like, this is just slightly faster than speed walking. This should be overly comfortable. Nothing about this should be hard. And we're going to hold this for...," and then she'll give an amount of time. And then, she'll come back on every now and then and go, "You're probably wanting to run a little faster right now. Don't do it."

Pete: Nice.

Jen: "Hold on to the pacing. Hold on to this cadence. Hold on to this tempo. Do not push the gas yet. Let your body acclimate to this pace. And then when we kick it up, that next level is going to be so much easier, because you laid this solid foundation right now."

Pete: Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm. I'm catching what you're throwing here, Jennifer.

Jen: And then, she'll take us up to the next level. And she talks about this in terms of percentages. Like, your 50% effort is your median effort, and that would be like your average running pace. So we start underneath that, and then we work up to that, and then we push past that. And each time we move to the next level, she says, "Your job is to maintain a consistent level of effort on your end." So as you're running, she'll come back on and say, "Okay, if you're feeling like this just got too hard, you are putting in more effort right now than when you started this section. Like, go back to the level of effort and maintain it. Maintain this consistent effort."

Pete: I mean, this is rich. I already have a few different directions I'd like to take it, and I'm sure that you have too, like based on this now, what about life and our projects. But the thing that comes to mind immediately for me...and we mentioned this in the recent Baby Brain episode where Tracey and I have been navigating the wonderful world of a newborn. And the first six weeks (we're almost at six weeks) has been joyful and wonderful and emotional and like hard and tiresome and amazing, like all of the feels, all of the things, all of the time. And one of the things we have intentionally been trying to do with one another...because we're both lucky enough to have taken time off work for that first six weeks. And we're also both the kinds of people that like to sprint, and get lots done, and have all of the things all of the time, of the to-dos. And anyway, one of the things we're trying to remind ourselves and one another of is to lower the bar, is what we're sort of saying to one another, of what success looks like for today. So instead of needing to get fifteen things done, you know, on any given day, instead, we're like, "Well, if we get out for a walk, that's a successful day."

Jen: Mmm-hmm.

Pete: Like, we've completely redefined what success looks like, based on where we're at in our given circumstances. And in my mind, this is like, I've been thinking about it as trying to be more disciplined with how we articulate success to ourselves, because we have a tendency to go, "I didn't do enough today," or, "I didn't do anything today," or, "I didn't clean the dishes and hang out the washing and mow the lawn and do all the other things today." And so, I'm realizing in this moment, we're like trying to deliberately pace ourselves at that first pace that you mentioned. Which is, you know, you probably could do more, but that's not the point.

Jen: Right.

Pete: The point is to maintain a consistency over six weeks, while you're tired and while you're figuring this out, so that you can show up every day consistently.

Jen: Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes. Because even with a baby that you love waking up for, it is easy to experience that feeling of burnout, or like, "I'm putting too much toward this. There's no way I can keep this up."

Pete: Yeah. Whereas, like one thing a day feels manageable. Sometimes, the one thing is, "We walked around the park." You know? Or sometimes, the one thing is, "We caught up on the washing." Or sometimes, it's just, you know, "I had a nap." And that is like, "Great. I did one thing for myself today."

Jen: Now, where I've been seeing the parallels with this pacing aha moment has been with my summer coaching program. So, I've got thirty-eight artists who are spending four months with me. We're working on building their career strategy and working on craft, and it's just, it's amazing. I love it so so much. At the beginning of the program, everyone is so excited to dig in, because they're like, "Ah, I'm finally making this decision to take some control back over my career and build the career that I want to build." And they come out of the gate like their feet are on fire.

Pete: Coming in hot, yeah.

Jen: And then, they realize that there's no way to maintain that pace. So, I let them do that. Because I think it's one of those life lessons you have to actually experience to understand. But at the halfway point, I ask them a series of reflection questions, and one of them is, "What have you learned about pacing?"

Pete: Nice.

Jen: And, you know, they've all learned something about how it's so tempting to take on too much and to put in too much effort. But if what you're trying to do is build a practice or build a career, something that you can sustain over a very long period of time and maybe even the duration of your entire life, you've got to figure out how to pace yourself.

Pete: Yeah. Yes, yes, yes. Okay, bouncing off that, one of my favorite things I learned from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear...which is a phenomenal book, by the way, if you haven't read it. Listener, I'm going to put it in the Box O' Goodies. You just must. I mean, the entire book is about developing healthy habits and getting rid of unhealthy habits, and the psychology in the ways that we can do that. And it's very practical. Well, one of the things he talks about is this idea of keeping the habit and reducing the scope. And I think of that, actually just now in your story of like a version of the pacing that you're talking about, which is, you know, he uses examples like going to the gym or say like doing a mindfulness meditation practice, where some people might go, "Well, I usually do an hour session at the gym. Today, I don't have an hour, so I just won't go."

Jen: Right.

Pete: And so, you break the habit. His point is keep the habit, reduce the scope. If you have ten minutes instead of one hour, just do ten minutes worth of push ups or like ten minutes of running, just do something that maintains the habit of exercise and completely reduce the scope. And that is better than skipping it altogether because you didn't have the time. Because then, the research he kind of speaks to is that like getting back on the train is way harder than just reducing and dialing up the scope.

Jen: So, that is making me connect another dot that I hadn't even thought to include in this pacing conversation. But one of the focuses when we are moving between different levels of effort is focusing on the transition. Like, she'll say, "Okay. We're going to start this at 30% effort, and we're going to move to a 60% effort. But in the transition, we're going to climb from 30% to 40%. And we're going to hold that for, you know, thirty seconds or whatever. And then, we're going to climb from 40% to 50%. And then, we're going to climb from 50% to 60%. And then, we're going to hold that for, you know, the next five minutes," or whatever it is. But she always says, "Focus on the transition. Make it a clean transition. Make it an intentional transition." And the same is true if we're going in the other direction, slowing down.

Pete: Mmm-hmm.

Jen: "Make it a deliberate and clean and intentional transition." And that feels like it is in alignment with what you're talking about, with keep the habit, reduce the scope.

Pete: Yes.

Jen: Focus on how you're going to still show up. Even if it's not going to be for sixty minutes, focus on this transition to twenty minutes. And then tomorrow, let's bring it back to sixty. Interesting.

Pete: Yeah. I like that. I like that. I like that. And then, you go to the idea of the way that compounds over time, is what creates the change or the comfort of that higher, more intense pace. That you can't start with the sprint or the intense pace, you need to build up to it. I was just sort of trying to work out in my head, as you were sharing, how might this relate to say like leadership development and a lot of the work I do with executives and leaders. And one of the things I was thinking about is, so often when I have a workshop or I'm coaching a leader, they might have an aha moment about, "Oh, I realize why and how empathy is so much more important in the way I lead my team than perhaps I did prior to this session." And they might get overwhelmed at the thought of, "Oh, I need to kind of completely reinvent myself as an empathetic leader," or, "I need to make all of this time to be empathetic to my team." And it's the equivalent of your Reboot program, of people going, "I need to sprint at the start, and like go as hard as possible because my feet are on fire." And actually, often what I tell them is, "You could start with just asking one more question in your next one-on-one than you did last week, and a question that is rooted in, you know, a genuine empathy and curiosity for what might be going on for the people you're leading." That's a "transition", to use your terminology. So I'm liking the fact that you've helped me see that about the way I'm trying to help leaders, is, you start with an aha moment, perhaps, and then you transition into being a bit more intentional to put that aha moment into action over time.

Jen: Yes, yes, yes. And one of the things my running coach says is, "You shouldn't have to, or you don't want to think about fighting to maintain your pace. Instead, your technique and the mechanics and the foundation that you've laid are what actually help you create the pace." So, as with that example of practicing new empathy skills, you've got to actually lay the foundation if you want to be able to eventually increase the effort. And similarly with my Rebooters, you know, one of the things that we spend a lot of time talking about is making connections with people, like actually making human connections with people. And for these artists who haven't been in that habit, that can feel really daunting. So, our equivalent of a light jog is gratitude. So just say thank you to people for the art that they've made that has impacted your life. You don't have to offer a collaboration. You don't have to ask for a collaboration. You don't need to ask for a favor or a meeting or, "Can I pick your brain?" Just say thank you.

Pete: Yeah.

Jen: And put that into place. Let that be the foundation. Let the idea of giving and expressing gratitude be the foundation, and then we can kick it up to the next level.

Pete: Nice. The thing that you said that I'm really latching on to or curious about is fighting to maintain your technique, like you don't want to be fighting to maintain your technique. And actually, what I think you're saying or what this running coach is saying is, you should be fighting to not do too much, as opposed to fighting to maintain your technique. Like, it should be that you have...and you used this in the gratitude example. It should be that you might have more in the tank. You might go, "I've got more gratitude to give today." And it's like, that's okay. We'd rather you have a bit more in the tank and continue to build up consistently over time, rather than completely burn out and come in all guns blazing because you did, you know, eight hours of gratitude one day and then you did nothing the next day, and then it just falls by the wayside.

Jen: Oh my gosh, that is so wild. She uses that phrase, "Don't empty your tank."

Pete: Oh, really?

Jen: Yeah. So like, we'll be running at 70% effort and she'll say, "This should be hard, but your tank should not be empty."

Pete: Yeah. I've done a lot of reading and nerding out at various points in my life on like various exercise modalities/methodologies/philosophies. And one of them that felt so counterintuitive to me, which I actually really liked though, is, "You should leave the gym or finish your workout with more energy than you started." And I think about that so much. Because I think, so often in the environments I was in or in the classes I was taking, all the sports I chose, I was like peeling myself off the floor at the end or peeling myself off the football field at the end of the game. And it was the opposite, my tank was completely empty. And that was like the psychology of how I approached exercise, was, "I need to like fall over myself at the front gate if I go for a run, because I'm so tired." And it really like flew in the face of that, of, "Actually, you should finish the run with more energy than you started."

Jen: Yeah.

Pete: And personally, I just like that. I'm like, "Oh, I'd love to finish this with more energy. That sounds great. Like, it sounds more appealing."

Jen: Yep. Yep. And I'm the opposite of that, Pete. I'm like, "Can't we just stay at this 30% the whole time," which is why I need the coach screaming at me in my ear.

Pete: So interesting.

Jen: Because I would not actually increase my effort if I didn't have someone telling me to. And it's interesting, because she...actually, she says this at one point in one of the workouts, where she says, "You know, this should feel comfortably hard. And I'm going to ask you to press the gas a little bit right now. Don't be afraid to press the gas. The reason you're afraid is because you're not sure how long you're going to be able to hold it there."

Pete: Ooh.

Jen: And she's like, "This is why you need the technique. You need to be aware of the cadence and the rhythm, so that you're able to maintain. And if it feels like you're putting in more effort than you can maintain, then you back off. But don't be afraid to kick it up and push the gas a little bit to get to that next level, just because you don't know if you'll be able to maintain it. Trust your technique."

Pete: Now, doesn't that feel like a lesson for life too though? Maybe that's an entire other episode.

Jen: Right?

Pete: Is like, the fear of what might happen if I tried to kick it up a gear or kick something into a different gear or try a different approach to something is the thing that stops us from doing it.

Jen: Right? So many life lessons in running, which is why we have to always do the annual running episode.

Pete: I feel like this one might be my favorite. This one might be my favorite. I can see how pacing is going to show up for me personally, but also show up for the people that I'm working with and the leaders that I'm coaching. And it's helped give me some verbiage and a mental model, also, to the way that I'm trying to show up as a parent and not show up all the time for Oliver, like in every moment all the time always present, and then never do anything for myself. It's like, how do I show up and pace all of that?

Jen: Yep. Steady pace, consistent effort.

Pete: And that is The Long and The Short Of It.