The Nick Bare Podcast - 032: Last Man Standing Ultramarathon Recap

Episode Date: September 18, 2023

Today I'm breaking down my most recent endurance effort, the Last Man Standing ultramarathon. A backyard format ultra consisting of a 4.2-mile loop every hour on the hour, until only one person remains. I'm sharing my nutrition and pacing strategies, revealing new perspectives learned, and the mental battles I faced throughout the race. Enjoy the episode! Follow for more:  IG: https://www.instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: https://www.youtube.com/@nickbarefitness Topics: 00:00 Intro 1:20 What is Last Man Standing? 9:00 Race stats 10:43 Go One More perspective shift 23:19 Pacing strategy 31:00 Nutrition strategy 38:13 Facing mental battles 42:53 Consistently good vs. occasionally great 47:37 Post-race recovery 53:15 My next challenge

Just the action of going more does not facilitate the outcome that you are trying to achieve. It was founded on an action. And if I run one more mile, I do one more thing that compounding consistency builds and builds and builds. But just because you're working harder doesn't mean you deserve the outcome. It doesn't mean you've earned the outcome because that work needs to be strategic and intentional and very thoughtful to have the outcome that we want. Just by doing more of something doesn't mean you deserve the outcome. going more. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to thank you for tuning in and supporting the brand. Now, I have spent the last decade plus of my life building bare performance nutrition,

and we create effective supplements that you can trust to support your wellness, endurance, and performance goals. We offer high quality, great tasting weight protein powders, effective pre-workouts, superfoods, sleep support, electrolytes, and much more. So if you want to support the content that we produce and the message that I am sharing through my content and on this podcast, I would greatly appreciate it if you went to BPNSups.com and you can use code Nick Bear 10 to save 10% off your next order. So thank you guys. I appreciate you. And let's dive into the show. What's going on, guys? And welcome back to another episode. Today's episode is all about the last man standing Ultra Marathon Recap.

Now, I completed, participated in this race. I say participated, not completed. And I'll give context to that here in a second. On September 2nd, 2020, so at the time of this recording, that was 13 days ago. Now, with a last man standing ultra, there is one winner. There is one person who completes the race. Everyone else is a DNF. Did not finish.

So technically, this was my first DNF because I did not win this race. This race was won by Ryan Mativer. And I want to give just some background on a backyard ultra. This is my first backyard ultra that I ever did. I want to talk about the experience, what I learned through it, what it was like. But with every race that I do, every physical challenge that I do, there is, there's a key takeaway. And I unlocked a huge key takeaway in this race. And that is that go one more is it's actually an outcome.

It is not necessarily an action. And go one more for me, the phrase, the mission, the meaning has evolved over time and it will continue to evolve over time as I experience more life as I get older as I learn more as I gain more insight and wisdom but the key takeaway during this race that I unlocked was that going more is an outcome and we should focus on the outcome as opposed to necessarily just the action now last man standing Like I said, this was September 2nd, 2003 is at 12 p.m. start time, which was very different

compared to the other races that I've ever done. It was in Pineland Farms, Maine, beautiful area, reminded me of parts of central Pennsylvania where I grew up. And this was a backyard ultra. So it was set up a little different. This is my first style of race like this. It was a 4.2 mile loop with double track that restarts every hour on the hour.

So the way that's broken down, the race started at 12 p.m. You have one hour, you have till 1 p.m. to run 4.2 miles. If, for example, you finish those 4.2 miles in 50 minutes, well, then you have 10 minutes to rest until the next lap restarts. You can't start early, you can't start late. Every hour on the hour, you tow the line,

you go do your loop, you come back, you rest with the, allocated time you have left over. Now, my watch clocked 4.5 miles for each loop. So I'm just saying it was a little bit longer than 4.2 miles. But regardless, it doesn't matter because we're all running the same distance, right? Each loop had 362 feet of elevation gain. And I actually found this race through Jesse Itzler a few years ago. And And, you know, there's backyard ultras, there's last man standing races across the country, and I'm sure across the world. It is not the most popular style of ultra, but I'm sure it's gaining popularity.

You know, we're seeing more people host and participate in these backyard ultra events. And I saw Jesse do this, the same exact one in Pineland Farms, Maine a few years ago. And I love the concept. I love the challenge. I wanted to eventually do it. And this was the year because on January 1st of 2023, we launched our Prove Yourself Right brand campaign where we asked people, we asked you guys to commit to something physically hard and challenging to prove yourself right that you could commit,

prepare and execute on said mission for the year. And I chose two things. I chose the bodybuilding show that I trained for and dited down for the end of March. And then I also chose the last man standing ultra, which was September 2nd. So I finished my two prove yourself right commitments of the year. Now, I threw a third one in there, which was CIM. It's a marathon that I'm doing December 3rd. It'll be my third event of 2023. And we're currently in marathon prep. So a lot of the content we're talking about and referencing over these next couple weeks,

not just in the podcast, but on YouTube, will be in regards to this marathon prep where I'm trying to go for a sub two hour, 45 minute marathon. But that's what the race was.

That's the last man standing set up. And I think it's very approachable for a lot of people. I actually love the concept because for a lot of people, I think the ultraspace can be,

very intimidating. You know, 100K, which is about 62 miles or 100 miles or even more, you know, 200 plus mile races, that's intimidating for a lot of people. But a last man standing race, you have to pick your poison. You can go one loop, you go five loops, you can do 10 loops, you can do 20 loops, you go as far as you want to push it. Because what happens during the race is there's attrition. You know, after a certain amount of loops, people start dropping off.

We saw a lot of people drop off after the 50K mark, then the 100K mark, and then 100 mile mark is where I tapped out. And then there were, I think, eight runners who went on after that. And we started with over 300 runners at this race. But like I said, found this through Jesse. And there was a huge BPN community that showed up for the last man standing race in Pineland Farms, Maine. Now to pull some hard facts and data from my Garmin, I want to share with you guys before we go into some more pieces about this race. This was the first time I wore the watch that I'm wearing on my wrists right now. This is the Garmin E.P.E.P.I.X.

Now, historically, I've been wearing the Garmin Phoenix 6 and 7 Pro for the last couple years. And I've worn those races for, I think, for Leadville 100-mile, and then the Rocky Raccoon 100-mileer. I was incredibly impressed by the Garmin epics. I charged this watch the day before the race. I had it going the entire 100 miles, and I wore it for another 12. 12 days after the race and the battery was still fine. So the life of the battery on the Garmin Epic is absolutely incredible and insane. Now, the data I pulled from my Garmin, I went based off course just over 100 miles,

but my Garmin pulled 107.41 miles in 23 hours, 51 minutes, 28 seconds. average heart rate of 133 beats per minute, average pace, 13 minutes, 19 seconds. That's minute per mile. And that includes the rest. So I didn't stop my watch when I finished the loop. I let the watch run the entire course. So when I came in from the loop,

I sat down for 10 or 11 minutes. My watch was still running. So that average pace includes that rest period, 13 minutes, 19 seconds. calories burned, which I thought was very interesting. Now, is it accurate? Probably not, but it's a cool stat to pull from. 17,167.

And total assent, 10,319 feet. So there was over this 4.2 mile loop. I mean, there was a lot of twists and turns in small hills and a few big climbs. but after running, you know, a 4.2 mile loop for 24 hours, you know that loop like the back of your hand. You know what you're going to feel like at certain parts. You know at what time you're going to hit certain milestones. It's just like I went almost into autopilot after a certain amount of loops and it was just clipping one loop after another loop after another loop. Now, in the beginning of this episode, I mentioned how the meaning of going to,

more has evolved for me. And over this last year, I mean, this is why I do these races, right? Like, I want to unlock a part of my mind or mindset or or vision or even perspective during these, these big efforts that I can carry through in other parts of my life. And over this past year, there have been a few things that have shifted my perspective and meaning of going more. I think I've become wiser in my years and especially with two big life transitions. One, stepping down from the CEO role of bare performance nutrition and truly living and embodying the founder creative part of my profession. to having a child, becoming a dad. Charlie Grace was born.

She just turned 14 months old. Actually, today, just turned 14 months old. And I've put a lot more effort and focus on my marriage. So I have evolved in my personal life and my professional life. and my professional life, but the meaning of Go One More has evolved. And this has been something that's been building over this past year, but I finally was able to unlock and understand exactly what it was during this race,

which was really cool to realize. It doesn't always happen like that. During a lot of these big efforts or races that I do, I learned something about myself or I learned something about other people, that I'm observing or I'm surrounded by with every race that I've done. I've unlocked something, but I would almost argue

that this was the biggest unlock I've had during a big effort yet. And I'm going to try my best to take what's in my mind and put it into words and articulate it as clear as possible. And if you're watching this episode, you might see me close my eyes. You might see me

look off because I'm trying to really just articulate this as well as possible. Now, when I first founded Go On More, 2018, 2019, it was all about an action. I discovered Go on More, if you You guys know the story during a marathon training run. I was supposed to run 18 miles that day. This is before I knew anything about running or how to run properly at least. I was supposed to run 18 miles that day. I got the mile 10. I was downtown Austin, Lady Bird Lake Loop.

And I wanted to stop. So I started walking back to the house that Steph and I were renting in Austin at the time. And as I start taking steps towards the house, I thought to myself, if I quit on this run, what else will I put on? What else in my life will I give up on midway through? So I forced myself to go back on the trail, finish the run, ended up running 19 miles that day, one more than I was originally planning to do, came back from that run, wrote one more on the bill of my hat, took a photo of it, it went nuts online, that evolved into go one more.

and the powerful mission that it has carried out today. It was founded on an action of realizing that I was making a mistake. I was making a decision that was influenced by a weakness and then rejecting that weakness in that decision in pursuing greatness. Now, ultimately, it was an outcome that I was achieving, but I didn't have the perspective or the depth of thought to realize that at the time. I just saw it as the action of,

oh, I'm going to run one more mile. And if I run one more mile, I do one more thing, that compounds over time. And if I keep doing that, that compound and consistency builds and builds and builds. And that is true for certain things as long as you are intentional and strategic with what you are working on. But just the action of going more does not facilitate the outcome that you are trying to achieve. And I've come across so many people, I've done this myself on a lot of projects or challenges or pursuits that we think that just by doing the work, we will be rewarded with the outcome. And it doesn't necessarily mean or matter what the work is.

Sometimes we think that just doing more of something, working harder will facilitate an outcome. But just because you're working harder doesn't mean you deserve the outcome. It doesn't mean you've earned the outcome because that work needs to be strategic and intentional and very thoughtful to have the outcome that we want. So it's not just the action that matters with Go and More.

And what I mean by outcome, you know, right now I'm working on a new book and it's called Go One More. And the reason I'm writing this book is because I want to share how the meaning and message of Goan More has evolved for me personally. In order to apply an experience go on more in your life, you need clarity, clarity on what you are working on, why you are working on it and how you are working to achieve that thing.

Without the what, why, and how you are just doing. and through doing you are hoping and wishing that just by doing more of something, it will pay off, but that's not necessarily how it works. Just by doing more of something doesn't mean you deserve the outcome of going more. Go on more only works when you have the clarity

of the why and how. And you are so intentional and strategic and patient and disciplined that the outcome is, it's expected because it's, it's built that way. Every part of what you are doing is built to facilitate the outcome. Go on more is the outcome. It's not necessarily just the action. It's the intention behind how, what, and why.

I think ultras give us a lot of time, at least, me a lot of time for reflection because you spend a lot of time by yourself in your head. And what I found so unique about this style race, last man standing, you know, say for example, and why it's so different, Leadville 100, even Rocky Raccoon, those are 100 mile races, but you can't necessarily go into autopilot, especially. during Leadville, could not go into autopilot. This race right here, last man standing, 4.2 mile loop that you do every hour on the hour,

you do it over and over and over again. And you fall into a rhythm. I'll get into this rhythm in a little bit, but my brain was able to go into autopilot. My body, I should say, was able to go into autopilot, and my brain was able then to break through new perspectives.

Sometimes when you go through some struggle and some pain, a little bit of suffering, if you will, it has the ability to unlock certain things. And when we got onto the course, I noticed that there was a difference between the people who are there to go really far and the people who were there to go really fast. And the people who were there to go really far had a much different approach to the race and the people who wanted to go really fast for each loop.

And I'll get into that in a little bit with strategy and kind of what I observe. But you've probably heard me say this quote many times before. And it's lack of intentionality leads to a repetition of what is easiest. And I love that quote. Absolutely love it. but I kind of rewarded it when I was planning for this episode. And it's lack of intentionality can lead to a repetition of what is overworked and underachieved. It makes me think of the people who apply action to work with no intention,

hoping that it's going to achieve greatness, but it doesn't because it lacks intentionality. And like I said, I'm going to hammer this and again. it's so easy it caught up in the hope and dream that hustle culture is going to produce results when the reality is that the hustle and the grind only produces results when you are intentional with what you are hustling and grinding on. It's really easy. You know, they say comparison is the thief of joy.

It's really easy, especially with social media. You look at people around you or on social who are in your social ecosystem, who are constantly doing something. And it might make you feel bad because this person is constantly on the move. They're constantly working. They're not sleeping. They're staying up late. They're waking up early.

But just because they're doing all of these things, does not mean they're progressing in life. Just because you are spitting your wheels and you're burning the candle at both ends does not mean you're making forward progress. You can stay in the same position with the wheels off the ground and they're spinning at 100 miles per hour

but you're not going anywhere. Or you could have the wheels on the ground and you're moving slower and more intentional and deliberate and you have more forward thinking and backwards planning but you're making forward progress. You're not just spinning your wheels.

You're not burning the candle at both ends. You're still sleeping. You still have a social life. You're still focusing and prioritizing family. But you're working with much more intention, which allows you to move forward as opposed to no movement at all. I've met so many people who are working so hard to make no progress. And you think that one day it's going to pay off,

one day it's going to pay off, one day it's going to pay off. but it doesn't always pay off because the wheels are still suspended above the ground. They're not on the road. They're not going anywhere. They never will until you plant them on that surface and make forward progress.

Now let's talk race plan, race strategy. What was cool about this last man standing race is how often you actually ended up seeing your crew. So it was me. and Bobby running. Bobby is Kat Thomas's fiance Kat is the CEO of BPN.

BPN was the nutrition sponsor of this race. The crew was Steph, my wife, Kat, Jordan and Ian were there filming slash crewing. Trey, Arod,

and Hope were there, crewing, but also handing out samples of BPN products, G-1M Sport and Electrolites, and then just supporting the race in general with the race director. And then Kat's parents were there for accruing support as well. And it was such a unique experience because, like I said, a lot of the races I've done in the past, almost all the races,

start between 4 and 6 a.m. This was a 12 p.m. start. You know, normally you're waking up super early the day of the race. You're trying to get food in. You're trying to drink your coffee. You're hoping for a bowel movement before you tow the line because it's the last thing you want to be worried about. But on this race, we're able to sleep in. I got like nine hours of sleep the day before this last man standing race.

Woke up, drank my coffee, went to the bathroom, took my greens and reds, made breakfast. Me and Bobby talked and just chilled for a little bit, preparing for, for the next 24 hours or however long we were going to go. And then we showed up to the course. And it just felt like a bunch of friends camping together. You know, you drive up, you check in, you get your bib. They give you your campsite. Every campsite had a 12 by 12 foot allocated section where you can put a tent.

You can put tables, chairs, set up all your food. You're talking to the other racers. There's people wearing BPN hats and T-shirts and gear all over the place. And I didn't know if I was getting ready to run a race, go camping and make a bonfire, or be at a music festival and rage our faces off. I really couldn't tell what we were about to expect and go through. So 12 p.m. start time. We are a campsite set up.

We have all of our nutrition laid out. crew was there. So there's a very just like casual kickoff. And that's how these races are done. That's how they're executed. They're called backyard ultras. You feel like you're in someone's backyard. Literally, you probably could do this in someone's backyard if they have a significant

amount of property and you just set up a 4.2 mile loop. Now, what I learned early on with this, this race, it's all about pacing. Now, the guy who won, like I said, Ryan Mativer, I watched him from that first loop. And it was a very unique approach where he was, he was striding the uphills, he was walking the downhills, and then he was running the flats.

And he was taking his time, like every part of that course, he was taking the same approach to different legs in segments. And I watched him early on. I remember I asked him, I said, how far are you going today? He said, all the way, baby.

And I knew, yeah, this guy, he's in it. You know, this was a race. This is a race. It's won by pacing correctly. I'm used to with ultras or any other race that you choose your pace, right? Like, if you tell me I have 100 miles to run, I'm going to pace myself,

but I'm also trying to run that 100 miles as fast as possible. With this, if you want to run 100 miles, it's going to take you 24 hours. You don't have a choice or a little less than 24 hours. You don't have a choice.

You can't get ahead. You finish 4.2 miles and you have to wait for the next hour to restart and go out again. That's what was so unique not just physically but but mentally as well for this course so i went out those first two loops and i went out super slow uh i was just trying to find like my rhythm my pace what felt comfortable what felt right and originally i planned for i wanted to finish around 50 51 52 minutes per

loop and have, you know, about eight minutes of rest at each loop. And what I quickly found after, say, like, maybe two to four loops is I fell into this rhythm. And I fell into this rhythm that was like so dialed in within a matter of like 30 seconds. So, like, I would finish every loop pretty much from like loop four to the last. loop at 49 minutes. So I had like 11 minutes of rest before the next loop started again. And there are different checkpoints around that 4.2 mile loop that I would set up.

So I had one at one at one at 2.5 miles. I had one at four miles. And I'll check my watch at these checkpoints. And there were different trained features associated with some of these checkpoints. And some also had like mile markers. Like, for example, at 2.5 miles in, the terrain feature was the start of this big hill that you would climb. And every time we hit these mile markers or these train features, I would look at my watch. And it was within like a matter of 20 to 40 seconds.

So I was very consistent, extremely consistent for every loop from like I said, mile or loop four to the last loop. I finished the last loop in like 49 minutes. If there's something I would have changed or what I've really learned from pacing this type of loop, I did stride or I walked the uphills, I ran the flats, I was running the downhills. Now after watching Ryan, he walked the downhills because he didn't want to blow up his quads.

My quads were blown up from running the downhills. at around a mile marker 50. Quads were just blown up and feet were wrecked because I ended up kicking a lot of rocks when it got dark. You know, during an ultra, the race is completely different in the daytime compared to the nighttime.

When it is dark, it is a different course. It is a different race, completely different. So like there's these big boulders and rocks on these trails. and I kept finding that I was kicking these boulders and rocks at night and just busted up my toes, busted up my feet. So that was kind of pacing strategy and the way that was set up. Now talking nutrition, I was focused on getting about 500 calories in per hour.

That was my goal. I'll talk about where I started and kind of where I ended up with nutrition. but I wanted to get 500 calories in per hour. On each loop I had a handheld water bottle which I had about 16 ounces of water. So I was consuming one handheld every loop

and then when I would come in for rest for those 10, 11 minutes I was drinking based off of thirst. So the deeper we got into the race the thirstier I got and I was trying to stay on top of hydration during these resting periods but also getting liquid

calories in during these resting periods as well. So I started with G1M Sport and electrolytes in my bottles in those first couple hours, and then I eventually transitioned to Whole Foods. Now, this has happened to me in all the ultras that I've done, the three that I've done so far. Gastrointestinal distress. I think that's honestly the hardest part of running ultras. because what you're trying to do is get in enough fuel, enough nutrition to sustain the distance,

duration, volume, and intensity of the ultra because you need to. But you're trying to avoid stomach issues, gastrointestinal distress, diarrhea, gas, bloating. It typically happens at some point during the race. it always happens to me. But I found that after a mile maybe 65, 70, I started getting significant gastrointestinal distress. What I mean by that is I was super bloated.

I was super gassy on the course. You get to a point where you're having trouble getting calories in because you just don't want to eat anything, but you're forcing them down. So you start getting creative with what you're, you're eating, trail mix, sandwiches, anything that is calorically dense makes it a whole lot easier to kind of get in the calories required for that big effort. But I ended up going the bathroom multiple times on the course. So experienced explosive diarrhea three times

throughout that course, just running off from the trail, which was fine at night. It was interesting during the day as the sun came back up. You know, we started at 12 p.m. Saturday. So up until the evening, stomach was fine. And then we went out into, you know, that next phase of it being dark throughout the evening. That's when I started experiencing some gastrointestinal issues. And whenever that happened, I would run into the woodline. It was dark, obviously.

and I'd have a episode of diarrhea, pull my pants back up, hop back on the trail and I was good. Where it got interesting was when the sun came back up. Because when the sun came back up, I was still experiencing gastrointestinal distress. So I remember this one point of the race where, you know, there's, what makes it hard about this is in any other ultra, you end up getting spaced out between people. because there's these bigger segments. You know, Leadville was 50 miles out, 50 miles back. Rocky Raccoon was a 20-mile loop. You did five times.

When it's a 4.2 mile loop that restarts every hour on the hour, you're typically around the same people that whole race because everyone's pacing or groups of people are pacing in similar time frames. So it would hit, my stomach would hit all. all of a sudden when I was out on the course as the sun came back up. And I didn't want to fall too far behind in my time. So I wouldn't run too far into the woodline. So there's one time where I saw this massive rock.

I was like, okay, I'm going to go behind that rock. Ran behind the rock, squatted down. Realized as I squatted down, the rock wasn't big enough. So my head's peeking over the top of this rock. As I'm having explosive diarrhea behind this rock, I make direct eye contact with this guy. as he's running by me, we're looking at each other in the eye and I'm peeing out of my butt essentially because of the gastrointestinal ultra-dustress.

It is a real thing. If you've ever run an ultra, you've probably experienced this. Some people have rock guts and can just handle anything. Not me. When I'm 16 plus hours into a run and I'm trying to stay on top of nutrition. and run on top of that, I had a princess belly and I felt the effects. I did because there were a few loops

where I was trying to let my stomach settle out. And I went out without fuel. And I could tell a huge difference when I went out for a loop without any fuel compared to when I was fueled. Now, whenever I start a race like this, I have a strategy in the beginning. It's like, okay, I'm going to start with GOMSport. I'm going to start with electrolytes.

I always talk to Steph, like, hey, Steph, when I come back from this loop or we meet at this checkpoint, I'm probably going to want some peanut butter, banana, honey sandwiches to get started. And we'll do that for the first couple hours. And then I'll kind of just feel it out from there. Because you don't know what you're going to be craving. You don't know what you can handle. And it gets to a point where, you know, you're deep into a race.

You come into the checkpoint, sit down on the chair before the next loop starts. And the crew is just kind of listing off things. And you're waiting for something just like sound doable. So I'd come in, I'd sit down, step would say you want a field bar. Yeah, this time around. Next time, you know, I might not want a field bar at all. Ramen. Casidia.

Sandwich. gel, G1M. Like we had all these different options because like I said, you're trying to just figure out what your stomach can handle at certain parts of the race because nutrition is so important. Where people end up falling out of these races is they don't think they need the nutrition. They don't think they need the water.

They don't think they need the hydration. And your body ends up balking and giving up on you. So you got to stay on top of nutrition during these big efforts because it's what a allows you to go deeper into these races. I've talked a little bit about the differences between a last man standing effort and other ultra-marathons that I've done. The 12 p.m. start. That was different.

I think it's a great race approach for everyone because you get to pick your poison. But this had a different mental battle and struggle than some of these other altars that I've done. and I hit my low point in this race. There's always a part of a race where you hit like this low. I remember Rocky Raccoon. I mean, I was super prepped for Rocky Raccoon. I was doing 30, 35 mile runs every Saturday in preparation for this race. I hit the second loop at Rocky Raccoon last year, 40 miles in, feeling horrible.

And then the next loop around at mile 60, it felt great. And, you know, the rest of the race, is pretty good, but I remember hitting this low at mile 40 thinking, what is going on? Well, last man standing, my low was mile 75. And you start getting in your head, right? It starts messing with you. And I think why this race was challenging mentally is because I felt like I couldn't get ahead. And it was almost like a governor.

You know, like when you have a vehicle that is a governor on it and it holds you back, you can only go at a certain speed. That's how I kind of felt with this race because I was 75 miles in and it was 6 a.m. And I knew that regardless of how fast I ran, I still had to run for six more hours to get to mile marker 100. And for some reason, that messed me up. I was struggling with that. you know at that point you've been running for 18 hours you're like i got around six more hours

and i can't control the pace of this doesn't matter how fast i go i know that when i come back from that next loop it restarts and i have to wait for everyone else to get back for some reason that that that mentally got to me that broke me off but it also unlocked that that mindset shift of of going more it opened it up. I needed that. I needed that feeling and experience at mile marker 75 to really unlock this evolution of the meaning of going more for me personally. That's why I sign up for these efforts.

That's why I keep going back to these challenges because, you know, when I was, for example, interviewing Courtney DeWalter and talking to her about what she gets from each and every race that she does and she's done so many what is the incremental benefit and the way she described it was so beautiful

where it's this it's this part of her brain it's like this cave and her goal with each and every race that she does is she just wants to carve out that pain cave a little bit more with every effort she does. It's going more, right?

With every effort, you just carve out a little bit more. You gain a little bit more. Now, that is the action, but the action has intention which facilitates an outcome. And I know that when I do these big efforts, I do these challenges,

I'm going to spark something. I'm going to carve something out. I'm going to unlock or break down some wall that allows me to to grow or see things differently from a new lens from a different perspective with new opinions and new ideas that's the win it's not it's not the miles it's more than the miles i might get the same benefit from running 20 miles or 100 miles or 200 miles or 500 miles it's not necessarily the mileage that facilitates that outcome, but it's just putting yourself in the right headspace and position and mindset to unlock

these parts of your mind and brain that are closed off and can only be opened up by some type of experience. Now, while I was running on this course, like I said, there were a lot of people rocking and supporting BPN. And something you guys have definitely heard me say in this past couple years I've learned from my running coach, Jeff Cunningham, said it's better to be consistently good than occasionally great. And as someone was running by me on this course, they said, hey, Nick, consistently good.

And I responded with, this is the exact example of what being consistently good means and can be applied to. And what I mean by that is the people who fell out of the race early on. Some chose to drop off at certain milestones, but some dropped off because their body gave up on them or their mind gave up on them. but when you're trying to be occasionally great, you go out to run the fastest loop farther than or faster than anyone else. You go out on a loop with no nutrition strategy.

You decide to skip out on your hydration or carry water. You decide not to change out your socks when you should have and you're starting get blisters or take care of your feet. When you aim towards the occasionally great, you miss on the longevity. of consistently good. But what allowed Ryan to win this race, for example, is that he was so consistently good with every loop.

I watched him at every segment and milestone and part of that course. He was disciplined, he was intentional, he was strategic. He walked the downhills, he ran the flats, he walked the uphills. he was never the first to finish the loop, but he had so much longevity and sustainability that when I dropped off at just over mile 100,

he still looked fresh as loop one. So consistently good. And the way that you succeed or push your physical and mental boundaries and limits in a race like this is by the consistently good. it's discipline, pace, and strategy, staying on top of nutrition,

in hydration, in water, and rest. Like I said, changing out your socks or shoes. And you treat every loop or lap like it's the only one. And then you go into autopilot

and do that over and over and over and over again. And you do that for as long as you possibly can. A last man standing race is the definition. It's the example of consistently good rather than occasionally great. Now we can look at building a business, building a life, a marathon prep, these longer term, more stretched out efforts and apply the consistently good over occasionally great approach to that. And yes, that is like, that's going to take you a lot further.

a lot further in succeeding and progressing. But if we want to really just condense it into something, I mean, this is a 24-hour race, you can condense that mindset and approach to a 24-hour race of being consistently good over occasionally great and watching before your eyes the benefit unfold. And the result is right there in front of you. Oh, this is what happens when I'm consistently good over.

occasionally great. Every loop after like loop four, 49 minutes, loop after loop after loop, hitting paces, staying on point, being consistently good. It allowed that race

to, in retrospect, feel easier than some of these other efforts that I'd done and it also allowed me to fall into this rhythm that unlocked this potential and evolution of going more for me personally. It's not just the action. It is an outcome.

Going more is an outcome. Now post race recovery, I was very mindful going into in the last man standing because, you know, you can talk about a race season. some people go into a race season with like an A race, a B race, a C race.

I've never done this in the past but I think this is the first year I'm really taking that approach. Your A race is something that you really focus on. That is the number one goal of the year or the race season. You're going to, you're going to build for that,

you're going to taper for that. It is the big PR and goal you're going for. That for me is CIS. That's my A race going for sub 245 marathon. My A race is CIM. I'd say my B race of the year was last man standing. So I was very mindful going to this race that I did not want to get injured or dig myself too deep into an inability to recover fast enough to get back into marathon prep.

So that is one of the reasons. that after I crossed the 100 mile threshold, I decided to tap out of this race and call it a win for me. Like a win for me was the unlock of the evolution of going more and gaining the clarity and it wasn't behind that. That was my biggest takeaway from that.

So after mile marker 100, quads were beat up, feet were wrecked. Obviously, it was a big effort. But I also know, knew that I had to get back into marathon prep within the next 10 to 12 days. So I didn't want to dig myself too deep into, like I said, the inability to recover. Right now being 13 days post race, I guess kind of 12 days post finish of the 100 miles, my feet are pretty destroyed.

I think my feet, not my feet in general, my big toes, the rest of my feet are fine. It's my two big toes that are just destroyed more than I've ever experienced in any other race. I also think at this point I've done so much damage to my feet that any trauma to those big toes, I'm losing the toenails. And like I mentioned earlier, I kicked some big rocks at night, which busted up my big toenails. those are definitely about to fall off. Those are the most painful part of my feet right now. It's just the big toenails and the pain associated with those.

I should get them ripped off, but I'll be honest. I'm a little afraid, and I'm fearful of taking time off from running to let those heal because we're deep into marathon prep right now. Yesterday we hit our first big workout of this season. It was a 14.25 mile workout that Jeff programmed. Two mile warm up. And then two times the following set. Two miles at 615 pace, 400 meter jog.

1.5 miles at 610 pace, 400 meter jog. One mile 605 pace, 400 meter jog. Repeated that twice. Two mile cool down. It was 14.25 miles total. hit those pace as well, but I'm still feeling just some overuse injuries from the ultra. And of the three ultrass I've done so far, including Last Man Standing, I've experienced the same things post race.

Overuse injuries, so tendons are typically inflamed, muscles are tight and inflamed as expected, just from overuse of running that long. on your feet being that long on your feet running. Overuse injuries are going to happen. Sleep issues are always a concern for ultras, at least for me. I can never sleep for three to four days after finishing a big effort ultra marathon. So like that first night after the race, I was up at 2 a.m. The second night, I was up at 3 a.m.

The third night, I was up at 1.30 a.m. and I finally started falling into a sleep rhythm. But my sleep is always disrupted after an ultra. And there's always some hormone disruption after an ultra as well. And what I mean by that is like I've never gotten my blood work done post-altra to show like this is what happens to my hormones. So I could be mistaken, but it's just my assumption that after an ultra, I'm always irritable. I'm always moody. and I'm always cranky for a few days.

And I've just learned at this point, like, that's what's going to happen. And me and Steph have the conversation and we communicate, like, hey, after this ultra, I know I'm going to be irritable, cranky, moody. I can't help it. I'm sorry. But for a few days, like, I'm going to go through this experience that I'm not proud of or happy to go through, but it's just like part of the post-race recovery. But now being 12, 13 days post race, things are starting to fall back in a place.

We're fully embracing marathon prep. This week, I'll wrap up with about 70 miles total, hitting workouts again. And at the time of this recording, like I said, it is September 15th. CIM is December 3rd. So it's going to go fast. It's going to be a quick prep. We have lots of work to do, lots of volume to accumulate, some big workouts to hit. But I'm shooting for that 245, sub 245 at CIM this year.

And that's what I'm going to make happen. That's what I'm going to do. So that's what I want to share with you guys in regards to last man standing. A recap. But my biggest takeaway, one, if you're looking to do an ultra, I think a backyard Ultra is a great place to start because you get to pick your poison, you get to pick your distance. The one in Pylon Farm's Maine was beautiful, but I know there's races all around the country, all around the world that are set up with the same structure, last man standing backyard approach.

And these big efforts, these big challenges, they unlock new perspectives. and the new perspective I took away from this is the evolution of going more. It is not just an action. And if there's anything you take away from this episode, I hope that this is it. It is not just an action. Go on more is an outcome. Work on the right things. Spend the time being efficient on the what, why, and how.

And you will facilitate Go on more in your life. by not just spinning your wheels, but putting those wheels in the ground and pushing them forward to make progress. So that's the episode. Hope you guys enjoyed it. We'll see you in the next one.