RTTC #218 How to Stay Consistent With RunDisney Training Without Hating Every Run

In this episode of Running to the Castle, Dr. Ali breaks down what consistency actually looks like for slow, back-of-the-pack runDisney runners… and why it has less to do with willpower and more to do with whether you actually enjoy your workouts. 

She shares how consistency even counts during rest and recovery phases, and explains how small factors like missing your caffeine or under-fueling with carbs can make a session feel completely impossible. 

Through personal examples and stories from her clients, she shows how forcing yourself into workouts you dread, whether it's hills or specific speed sessions, quietly sabotages your ability to keep showing up. 

Instead, she encourages you to trust your gut reaction to your training plan and choose movement that feels sustainable and fun, because when your training aligns with what you actually like… staying consistent becomes a natural result, not something you have to force.

Learn more about Stronger. Faster. Finisher. !

Ready to cross the finish line stronger, faster, and prouder at your next runDisney race? 

Get personalized support, smarter training, and strategies designed specifically for slow, back-of-the-pack or injury-prone runners who want to build a bigger buffer ahead of the balloon ladies, have time for character photos and energy to enjoy the Disney Parks. Learn more about the Stronger. Faster. Finisher. Program today and be the first to know when doors open!

Free Resources

• Follow me on Instagram @rundisneydpt
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• Check out FREE training plans for injury-prone runDisney runners on my website. 
• Book a Free 30 minute Call with me if you're wondering how you should train and if working together makes sense.
  
  Hi, I'm Dr. Ali
  I've been running for 15+ years and been in the rehab space since 2012 when I earned my Doctor of Physical Therapy Degree. I get injury prone runDisney runners across the finish line without feeling broken.

Transcript

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Hey, how's it going? Today I'm talking about how to stay consistent with Run Disney training without hating every run. This is Running to the Castle, a podcast for injury-prone Run Disney runners on a journey to running magical miles. Join me, Dr. Alley, as I share the secrets I've gathered as a runner, doctor of physical therapy, and coach. You'll learn the exact ways I get my clients to the castle strong without feeling broken or held together with KT tape as they cross the finish line. Before I get into that, it is week two of rest and recovery for me, so there has been no running. Does that mean I was inconsistent? Absolutely not. This was part of the plan. I am in rest and recovery. It's the two weeks after any race distance where you stay loose, stay mobile, do some activity, but you let your body rest and recover to optimize how you're going to be for your next training block. And my next training block is going to be speed and strength. I got my new workout equipment. Forgive me if I've told this story already, but I got my new workout equipment and I've been playing around with it. So I did an upper body workout today and utilized the different pieces of attachments. And I am in a strength program with Betsy Foster, Be Foster Strong. And so I have been following her plan and it took me an hour to do the strength workouts. I didn't even get through all of the exercises, but I had to be done in an hour. I really thought I was going to be able to get through it all in one hour. I'm really going to need to look at what I'm doing and how long each of these strength workouts is going to take me moving forward. And it's fine that it takes me an hour. I actually, I had a rough morning today, and it it was fine. I just, I got in my head with something from this morning, and I walked Levi and it was almost two miles. Levi took me to the park and like literally, he walked me to the park. And he was like, I want to sniff around. And then the the sprinklers started, which frustrates me because it was like seven o'clock or so in the morning. Why are the sprinklers on in Las Vegas? We are always in a drought. We are always in a drought. And we are actually only allowed to water our lawns one time a week. And which is okay for us. I mean, we have desert landscaping and we actually don't even have a backyard yet, but we have desert landscaping. So it's it's, you know, plants and trees and everything that are meant to be in the desert, so they don't need a ton of water, but you're also not supposed to be um watering during daylight because the water evaporates. So that's just frustrating to me that the city doesn't have to follow those rules. I don't, I don't understand it. They also will water the grass in the middle of the day. They will water the grass multiple times a day. And I mean, I guess they just have different rules, right? It really shouldn't bother me that much. But, you know, there's we we do have a finite amount of water here in Las Vegas. It literally comes from mountains, mainly in Colorado, a little bit here. We have a dam. The Colorado River supplies water to parts of Colorado, Nevada, and Arizona. And if you've ever been here and seen Lake Mead and you've seen like that striation, like that very prominent demarcation, and it looks like somebody bleached the rock because that's where the water line used to be. And if you haven't heard me tell stories about Lake Mead, um it is full of dead bodies and they just keep popping up like daisies. Every time there's a new body found, I think of the episode, excuse me, the part of Mulan where Mushu is like, they're popping up like daisies. It's one of my absolute on all-time favorite quotes from a movie. Uh, in that movie, I also love um where he's uh oh my god, I can't even think of it right now. Ah, where Mushu's talking about, and shame on your cow. I think it's so funny. But anyway, um, yeah, with the water line going down, all of these 55-gallon drums are popping up. And guess what's in them? So, yeah, that is in our water here in Vegas, and we just we have a finite amount, and it is gonna run out at some point. So it does frustrate me a bit to see things like that. Like it it has now been mandated that new pools are only allowed to be a certain size, and um, people who have grass in their yard uh have to rip it out and put desert landscape in, turf, things like that. Like it's a serious issue. So anyway, but it did affect us today because Levi wanted to smell every blade of grass. And so we stayed in one part that didn't have any water going, any sprinkler system going. And then we left that part just as the sprinklers turned on. Thank goodness. But he wanted to go in the other part, and I was like, no, it's wet. And if you saw from a couple of weeks ago, he came home green a couple of weeks ago because he rolled in wet grass, freshly cut wet grass. This was not freshly cut, but I'm not dealing with that again. For a dog that actually doesn't like being dirty, he certainly likes to roll in a lot of things, but he does not like to be dirty. It drives him crazy. So then he needs a bath, but he got a bath yesterday, and he certainly won't want another bath today. So anyway, this morning I didn't have a great morning, and then I sat down and I was like, I'm just ugh, I don't want to work out, I don't want to do this, I just I don't feel like it. And then I realized, well, get yourself some caffeine and carbs. So I had a coke. Actually, no, back it up. I actually went, laid down in bed, closed my eyes for 20 minutes and reset. And I was like, I got, I didn't get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, but that's how I felt. You know, like it didn't start from first thing in the morning, but that's how I felt later in the morning. And by later, I mean seven o'clock. And so I literally at like nine o'clock, I went, I laid down, set a timer for 20 minutes, I closed my eyes, I did some deep breathing, and I reset. Now, I understand not everybody has that luxury. I do work for myself and I work from home. So I could do that. So I did do that. Then I got myself some caffeine and carbs, and I went out to go do my workout. By this time, it's like 10 something. And Levi was nowhere to be found. He did not want to hang out with me. And that's fine. So I went out in the garage and I started my workout. And I had to be done in time for a 12:30 coaching call. My schedule typically allows me to work out until 10 a.m. I am going to have to adjust that schedule for this next training block. I think I'm gonna need to allow myself until 11 in the morning to train, just based on, I'd already been thinking about it, but based on this information today, I looked at my list of exercises. What I didn't watch the videos. I was gonna say I watched the videos. I hadn't watched it yet. I really did think that an hour workout was gonna be enough. And it wasn't. I even was hoping to do a walk afterward. But because I had walked Levi 1.7 miles, even though it was a leisurely pace, that's still a significant amount of movement. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't half a mile for and for me, like a half mile could be significant for somebody just starting. But for me, half a mile is not significant. But 1.7 miles for a morning walk that took probably, I'll have to look at it, but probably 75 minutes, that that can count as my walk for the day. I don't always count a snifari as a walk because of how slow it is, and we don't always go that far. Levi took me to the park and then he took me home. He knows how to get home too. So that was good. But I didn't have time to do the whole strength workout because this new way of strength training, I have to take the rest breaks. And it's so funny because I was doing one of the movements and this was an upper body movement. So today it um the one I'm talking about was an overhead press, single arm overhead press with a dumbbell. Now I am not strong. I also have loosey-goosey joints, so I am hypermobile and especially in my shoulders. So there are things that are definitely more challenging for me. And so I had just done single arm chest press with dumbbell, and I'd used 10 pounds for that. And then I was resting between that workout and the overhead dumbbell press. And I guess I didn't wait long enough. And it's so fascinating. This I love everything about like physiology and anatomy. So, like exercise physiology and how your muscle is working and what is happening on the inside fascinates me. I actually literally just bought an exercise physiology book because of some research I'm gonna be doing over the summer, like my own research, not for you know, publications or anything like that. So stay tuned for information about that. But it it fascinates me. And so I thought I had waited long enough. Now remember, these are two different exercises, not wildly different. They both are like considered a push exercise, and they both use some of or at least parts of the same muscles. Now, I didn't wait long enough between the chest press and the overhead press. And the first set, I could only do eight, um, I could only do six repetitions with 10 pounds with my right arm. I had to do the last two repetitions with my eight-pounder, which if you have done a program with me like Stronger Faster Finisher or Finish Line Fitness or anything like that, you know that my recommendation is just drop the weight when you need to. That's fine. And so that's what I did. And then I went to go do it with my left arm and I could do all eight repetitions with the 10-pound weight with my left arm. Friend, my left arm is significantly weaker than my right. So I was like, huh, that's weird. So I did a longer rest break between that first set of the chest, mm-mm, that overhead press and the second set, just to make sure I had given myself enough time. The 10 pounds doing the overhead press was fine. Like it, I actually will need to go up for it. Now, I wasn't planning on doing a heavy weight today. This was supposed to be a medium weight, which is why it's eight reps, right? If you've been in stronger fast furniture, medium is eight reps. And I'm just like getting my body geared up as it's recovering from springtime surprise. This was my first somewhat heavy weight. And so I did eight reps. 10 pounds, eight repetitions was so doable and so easy. So why wasn't that first round doable and easy? Because I hadn't waited long enough. So if you don't know, you need that amount of rest because your body needs to replenish the ATP, which is its energy source, between those sets. Well, I clearly didn't wait long enough. So I need to set a timer. Today I didn't set a timer and I I knew I didn't. I have been for the program I'm following. I have been setting a timer to make sure I do that, but I was in a mood and I wasn't having it. And I just I wanted to get it done. It is what it is. But hey, Allie, this is why you set the timer to make sure that you give yourself that rest break. And it's a good reminder that I need that rest break even in between different exercises because they weren't different enough for me to be able to um not have tired muscles for that movement. And so it was just very fascinating. So I am going to have to, I'm gonna have to make an Excel spreadsheet or a Google spreadsheet. Shucks. What a bummer. If you don't know, I love my spreadsheets. I love the data, but I need to actually see how long, if I do this many sets and rest this amount of time, how long the workout will take. And so with these recommendations that I have with the program, it's three to four sets of however many reps they have. Um, she has written in there. So I'm gonna look at it and see well, am I even factoring in enough time? And part of, and so part of this leads me into my next part of how to stay consistent with your Run Disney training without every run feeling hard or miserable. And so I had that interaction with myself today. That's a weird way to phrase that, but I had that happen with myself where I was like, I don't want to do it. I just today's not the day. Well, my first recommendation is always check your caffeine and carbs because are you not motivated or do you just need some energy? And as adults here in the US, we have plenty of caffeine, usually in the form of coffee or soda. Our bodies are used to having it, or most of us, maybe not everybody has caffeine, but I think most of you listening do. And so, do you need some caffeine? And you might need more. I have a cup of coffee every morning and it's a latte, so it has a shot of espresso or however much espresso is made, and that still wasn't enough by like 8:30. Part of it was my mindset, and I did do a reset. Part of it is carbs. I had barely, if any, carbs this morning. I typically haven't been having carbs in the morning. So I'm going through this process of figuring out what to have for breakfast. So I used to have breakfast smoothies, but I have been battling what is likely an undiagnosed histamine response that is getting triggered by certain foods that I'm eating. And I do believe that banana is one of them for me. And so I had taken time off from having my breakfast smoothies, which is banana, blueberries, yogurt, protein powder, spinach, and water. And then you heard my story a couple of weeks ago with what I thought was an allergic reaction. Turns out it was likely the fermented yogurt. So then I tried my smoothies with avocado. It didn't taste as good. I didn't like it as much. And then I started to have the hive and itchy reaction that I had been having. And so then I realized, well, it's probably the banana. And I have tried making smoothies without the banana. I have not gotten it right and I am so frustrated. Like I've tried this for a couple of years now because I I've been thinking for years that banana is an issue for me. And so I've tried a variety of different things. I just haven't found something that is consistent enough. Maybe you listener know of a great smoothie recipe that is delicious that does not involve banana or yogurt. Please send me a DM, Run Disney DPT. I am all ears because one of the ways I was getting carbs in the morning was in my protein smoothie, that fruit and vegetable. And so now that I'm not having that smoothie, I am drinking just an organ protein shake, which has one gram of sugar in it, which is fine for the protein aspect, but it means I don't have any carbs. And so I forget in my mind, like I forget, oh, you also need carbs. So it's it's been a work in progress in progress. A work in progress. That phrase sounds funny to me today. Anyway, I've been working on it. But so check yourself, caffeine and carbs. Have you had any lately? And for a workout, a strength workout or a run, it's great to have about 30, maybe even up to 60 grams of carbs within an hour before your workout. What I typically do with my Coke is I drink my Coke walking Levi before I go on my run, or as part of my walking warmup if I'm just walking. I don't want the Coke sloshing around too close to when I'm starting to run. So I don't do it during my walking warmup when I'm about to go on a run. But anyway, drank some caffeine and carbs, did my strength workout. That was great. So staying consistent, check your caffeine and carbs. Do you just need caffeine and carbs? And I have talked about that a lot. So I'm mentioning that and now I'm moving on. Another thing that came up today was one of my clients asked, if I'm not feeling it this week, what is the bare minimum I should be doing? Like I'll do my long run, but then like what other run should I be doing? And she's she's alluding to the speed workouts because that's what the program is, right? It's two cross-training days, two speed workout days, one long run for most training plans. Now, of course, if you're doing a two-course challenge that changes with some back-to-back long runs, it changes if you're doing dopey, things like that. But that's like baseline training program for me. And then two full rest days. So for this particular client, we are doing three cross-training days, one speed workout and one long run based on her life and her goals. And so when she's talking about which other run should I do, you might be thinking, well, it's just a speed workout. Like you do a speed workout. Well, what she's talking about is should it be a hill? Should it be a 30, 20, 10, should it be a tempo? Should it be a progression? Should I just do another easy run? Like what should I do? And so it, my question back to her was, well, what's your goal in this season of your life? Is your goal to get faster and, you know, have a very specific time goal for your race? Are you looking for a proof of time? Are you just looking to not feel like you're gonna die at the end of it? What are we looking for here? And she was like, I just I want to have a regular routine and I want to just feel like I'm not gonna die and just feel like I'm more fit. Like, great. I love that goal. That's a wonderful goal for you. And so then my next question was, Well, based on something you just said to me about tempo runs being miserable, I said, we're gonna knock that one off the list. Because talking like that, if you're already not feeling it, why would you then go and do something that's miserable? Right. So then I said, Well, what about between Hills 30, 20, 10 and progression, what about those? And so we talked about them a little bit. She asked, like, what are the goals of each of them? And I described them to her. And so when I was describing the hills, I said something like, That's training you for the Run Disney ramps. And she's like, Oh my God, those are awful. And, you know, hill workouts are fine and everything. But I feel like no matter how many hill workouts I do, a a Disney ramp is still going to be miserable. And I was like, well, let's get that one off the list. Because again, I'm hearing the word miserable. We don't need to be miserable. We are spending a lot of money. We're not that fast. So we might as well enjoy it, right? Like if our thought process is already like that's miserable, are you gonna be gung-ho about going and doing it? No. So then that brought us to the 30, 20, 10 and the progression. And so I said, between those two, which one of those, when you see it on the schedule, do you go, oh, okay. And which one of those on the schedule do you go, oh, okay. Like, what's your gut reaction to those workouts? Now, not everybody has a great gut reaction. I am learning. I am somebody with a great gut reaction, if I do say so myself. I don't always know that I like something, but I always know when I don't like something. And I am on point with that. I'm on point with it with people. I am on point with that with like working out, work situations, work environments. Royal and I were just talking about a work and work environments that I've had in the past. And I don't tend to gossip in the workplace. And I don't tend to, I try to not like commiserate. Again, this word miserable. Oh, miserable, commiserate. And so I don't make a lot of friends that way, I guess. That doesn't sound right. Like I have friends, a few. I have a few close friends. Um, but It's because, like in the workplace, I don't do those things. And we were talking about when I worked at Rhode Island Hospital. My very first interaction with anybody on my very first day of work, I should have quit because the gut reaction I had with that interaction with that person, I was on point. And that never got better. It only got worse and it was miserable. And I did it for two years and it was not worth it. Where you're just like, oh, another one. Like that is different, though my training plans do accommodate for that, if you are curious. But the, you know, that is kind of just like, oh boy, it is December 1st. It's cold and I don't know how cold I want to be, versus feeling that way every week when you hit a long run and paying attention to your gut when you see a 30, 20, 10 on the schedule, a progression run on the schedule, a tempo run on the schedule, a hill on the schedule. So for this particular runner, she was like, oh, I guess based on that information, I would like 30, 20, 10 better. Great. So that's what you should do if you're not having it that week and you're, you know, picking another run. For me, it would be a progression run. I like a progression run. I don't really like the 30, 20, 10. Um, I also don't use 30-30 intervals. So I think that 30-30 change-ish, you know, the change after 30 seconds, change after 20 seconds, it might just be too much, too soon for me. Um, so progression might be a little bit better because I change every minute. So maybe that's why. I don't know. I don't really need to know why I like it. I just need to know that I do like it, right? Because what that comes down to is if you feel like you aren't consistent, of course. Are you injured? Like, do you keep getting injured? If if that's what's happening, like this is not the episode, maybe I'll talk about an injury um consistency episode another time. Um, part of that has to do with the training plan that you're following. But if it's like something else always better happens, subconsciously you might hate your training. You might hate what you're doing and you feel miserable doing it, right? Like, think about chores. Growing up, kids don't want to do chores because they would rather go play outside, play on their iPad, play computer games, right? Like if they have a choice, they're going to choose the fun thing. And in like nobody, nobody wants to be miserable, right? Like you, you're doing this really expensive hobby. Why are you miserable while while you're doing it? So look at that training plan and look at do I even like what I'm doing? Does this line up with how I want to feel? And I'm not even getting into the nitty-gritty of how fast or how slow you're going. It's just literally what is on the schedule. If that doesn't make you want to do it, you're going to find something else better to do, right? Like even myself. So I mentioned earlier, I love my spreadsheets. I love tracking data. I have gotten sucked into creating my new stronger, faster finisher training program for the next round. I am a month early on it because this there's always some math formula broken. And so I'm trying to get ahead of it so that I don't have 30 people that I need to go and change their training plans back to back to back. I can do it all in one and then make a copy. But I am loving the different things that I can do in this training plan. Like I just learned that I can make it so that the training plan can go onto the calendar. So somebody doesn't even need to pull up the Google spreadsheet. It's on their calendar and it will update if they change something. And I have been just diving in and I have spent hours and hours and hours going through it and updating it and adjusting it. And so there were some times in there where I didn't go do something else. I didn't go do the laundry. I didn't go do the three hours of laundry that I have to do. I didn't go give Levi a bath because that's miserable for both of us. Right? I wanted to do this spreadsheet. That was exciting for me. And so those other things that needed to get done didn't get done because I just flat out didn't want to do them. So I was not consistent in bathing Levi once a week. He missed a week. Literally, he missed a week. And I feel very bad about it because he gets itchy when he doesn't have a bath once a week. And so then he's biting at his tail and he's biting at his leg and he creates bruising, and Wheatons get bruised hair. So then it's um a darker color. And it I was not a good dog mom in that time frame. And I have since apologized to him. And then the laundry, it's just piling up. It's it's there on our guest bed. It is a pile. Levi goes and lays on it, and it it's just there, but it just it happens. Or like another example I can think of, this was really popular with a lot of people I knew. Now I'm a huge nerd, in case you spoiler alert, I'm a huge nerd. Um, but I loved the Harry Potter series growing up. Now, this is of course before J.K. Rowling came out saying all of her things. I have the books already. I'm not giving her more money. I do love the books. So I used to go and get the books at midnight and read them and stay up all night reading them. I love my sleep. I used to stay up until I was done. And sleep took a back seat because in that moment, reading the new Harry Potter book was exciting for me. I I, you know, didn't sleep. Now, of course, I I was a kid, like when these books came out, I was in third grade, fourth grade. I don't know. I didn't start reading them until fifth grade. Mrs. Itzel, my fifth grade teacher, used to read them aloud to us. She read the first book. And then that summer after fifth grade, the second book was in stores. And when we went down the Cape, remember I was telling you about going down the Cape and doing um the boat every weekend. Well, there's this bookstore. And my parents had a rule that we were allowed to buy any book and all books within reason, I'm sure. I'm sure if there was some like adult content or something, they wouldn't let us. But if we wanted a book, if we wanted five books, we got them. And so we went into that bookstore, so mom could get a new book for the beach. And I saw Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets and I bought it. She bought it. And I was hooked. And so then every time a new one came out, we would get it instantly and I would stay up and read it. And other things took a back seat. Same kind of thing. When it's something you want to do, you will not do other things. But if it's something you don't want to do, if it's something that's miserable, everything else is going to be a better option for you. Even if you don't know that you're making that decision, you may be making the decision subconsciously. Just know that that decision has been made and something needs to change. It's either too hard of a training, a training you don't like, or just not a big priority in the moment. And so with this episode, I'm talking about when the actual training work on the schedule is something you don't like. Look at your training schedule. Are you doing something that you do or you do not like? Because this is an expensive hobby and you should enjoy doing it. And when you enjoy it, you are going to be consistent.