The ULTRA - Death by 5K

Hey, Athletes! New Cycle!! The ULTRA - Death by 5K - Episode of The Garage Gym Athlete Podcast is up! 

• The ULTRA - Death by 5K

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IN THIS 22-MINUTE EPISODE WE DISCUSS:

• Jerred is doing the ULTRA!
• Jerred and GGA'er Mark Bishop talk through the Death By 5K ultra after each segment.
• He talks through nutrition, recovery, performance for each 5k
• And A LOT MORE!!

Diving Deeper…

If you want to go a little bit deeper on this episode, here is a link to the study for you: 

• No study

Garage Gym Athlete Workout of the Week 

Don't forget to watch today's podcast!

The ULTRA - Death by 5K

Thanks for listening to the podcast, and if you have any questions be sure to add it to the comments below!

To becoming better!

- Jerred

Podcast Transcript

Joe: [00:00:00] What's up Garage Gym Athletes? A little bit of a different episode for you this week. Jared's been talking about his ultra, adult ultra prep that he's been doing for months now, and it is about, finally time that it happened this past weekend. And this episode of the podcast is the chronicling of him doing the the actual race.

He actually ended up recording before or just after every single 5k. So you'll hear every single moment before, during, and after each of the 5ks and the race as a whole. So, he's going to break down everything that, that went on the, his his pacing, how he felt and just the entire play by play somewhat of a live experience of The race that he did.

Hope you guys enjoy. This is the garage gym athlete podcast, and we're here to build autonomous athletes and put phenomenal programming into every garage basement and spare bedroom out there. I'm Jared moon. And with Joe [00:01:00] Courtney, we are strength and conditioning coaches who have turned over 20, 000 people into garage gym athletes over the last decade.

Jerred: And we're here to reduce the information overload that exists in the health and fitness. industry today. We're going to do that by covering relevant science and give actionable takeaways, not only from the data, but from our years of experience. So let's dive in.

What's up athletes? Jared Moon here doing something a little bit different, something we've never done before. This is going to be a live play by play of the ultra marathon I'm doing today. So it is 6 0 4 a. m. Woke up about 5 30 and I am in Memphis, Tennessee, and I'm doing the death by 5k ultra marathon.

So what this marathon is as you do a 5k every two and a half hours, and that starts at 8 a. m. Today, 13 April. So I thought I would [00:02:00] update you come on maybe every 5k, maybe every other 5k depends on how I'm feeling and what's going on, how long it takes to get hydrated and fed and all those kinds of things.

But I want to give everybody update in the moment as things are going on with everything. Also, there are some garage gym athletes here. Try to get them on the podcast as well, but I thought this would be a pretty cool format. Check in starts shortly. Again, the first race is at 8 AM. So really looking forward to getting started and that's it.

I'll update you as we go along. Let me know what you think of this style of podcast. All right. Sitting here with Mark Bishop. How's it going so far? So good, man. So far, so good. Yeah. So we just finished the first

Mark: 5k. I had to tell myself to dial it back a lot. And not race the people around me. And just focus on running my race.

I like the course. It's not as sloppy as I thought it was going to be. We had rain [00:03:00] here Monday through Thursday. A lot of tree roots, so it could be pretty treacherous at night. Yeah, the night time is going to be a little scary. Yeah. Yeah, so for me, I don't know, it's pretty good. I was like in low zone two for the first half, but then same thing happened to me that you're talking about.

Jerred: Like I see somebody, I want to pass them. So then heart rate climbed up a little bit. There does seem to be a lot of elevation gain more than I was expecting. And that will get tiring. I don't know if those will turn into walks at some point. But overall, I feel pretty good. This is one of ten though, so we'll see where that goes.

I'm interested to see how the day progresses, but overall I'm good right now. Just trying to get a little bit of hydration, some food after every single one. We have basically a two hour break in between each one, which is nice, but Yeah, I think that's about it. What do you think the hardest part is going to be?

Where do you think it'll get hard? I'm trying to call it now.

Mark: I, so when I did a practice one of these, I did four of them back in October. I didn't, Give myself enough mobility, cool down, warm up and stuff like that. So by number four, [00:04:00] my body was starting to ache. I don't think that'll be the case today because we have so much downtime and it's just, we're just chilling and stretching and have plenty of time.

But I think probably seven, eight, nine, when it starts getting dark and you're ready to go to bed at a normal time is when it's really going to be tough.

Jerred: Yeah. I think I'll get tired at dusk. That's when I'll be like, okay, I'm good. I'm tired. Like I, and then once this not sleeping, I don't know how sleep is going to go if at all.

So I think that's when it's going to get really tough is like that stretch in

Mark: the wee hours of the morning. That's when it'll be tough. But yeah, that's, it'd be fun though. Cause it's night running with a headlamp and yeah, it'll be slower going cause you're already tired and stuff. So I think that's going to be the biggest thing to tough, toughest part to wrap your head around is fatigue and dodging tree branches and roots and stuff.

Jerred: Yeah. Oh, I hope I don't catch one. All right guys, that's it for the first one. We'll keep updating you as they go along. Alright, just finished the second [00:05:00] 5K, feeling pretty good felt hungry on that one, so I just crushed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a gel, trying to get about 50 to 80 grams of carbohydrates post post 5K, and I'll share some of the math on why I'm doing that later or perhaps in a different podcast.

Post race or something like that. Overall felt good. Probably went a little too hard on that one. Heart rate was a little high. I definitely probably need to scale back, but it's hard. It's hard when you're out there running and to be honest, I feel pretty good. But I'm still pushing it a little bit harder than I should here in the second one.

So the third one, I'm gonna try and calm down a little bit. Not go as hard and see other than that, a little bit of fatigue in the legs, which I was surprised that in number two we'll see how number three feels but overall everything's good. Good. There's plenty of time to rest in between these hydrate, get enough nutrition.

So hopefully things just carry on and keep updating you. That is number two. All right. We just finished number three. So 15, 15, [00:06:00] 000 meters, nine miles ish, something like that.

Mark: How you feeling? Better than I thought I would. Definitely like the first half mile to mile takes a little bit to loosen up a little bit, but feel better running than I do just sitting and waiting around.

Jerred: Yeah. Same.

Mark: But yeah, better than I thought I would. And pleasantly surprised. So having a good time so far.

Jerred: Yeah. I'm feeling pretty good after the third, I started to have like a weird crash after. Before we started the third, really. And, long story short, I don't think I ate enough in the last two days.

I think I was, like, just a little bit behind on calories in general. So I stepped it up. I had protein bar, and then they had quesadillas for us after this one. Slammed that. So I'm actually feeling pretty good right now. Do think I got slightly behind on food and calories. But I think I've, I'm caught up now.

I know I'm good on hydration. And I took that one easier. I've you've been consistent across all three, right? You're just, yeah. Plus or minus

Mark: 30 seconds. Yeah. Heart rate has varied, but this one. Similar pace as [00:07:00] mile or as routing two, but a lower heart rate. I think it's, I just focused on breathing more and and stride and just thought about other things.

Jerred: Yeah, I this one I took easier is about three minutes slower than my first two. I actually did a negative split between one and two and I just didn't think that was sustainable. I don't know long term if that's gonna be a good decision. Hopefully if I get to the end of today and I feel man, I could have gone faster.

I, that won't be awesome because I do feel like I, like this last one is finished, I feel like I could have gone faster, but it was nice to chill because I feel almost recovered from that third one. I just kept heart rate in low zone three. I'd get up to higher zone three on some of the hills, but I'm feeling really good right now because of it.

So number four, I don't know, maybe I'll go a little bit harder on four just so I don't, and start switching back and forth. And then if I feel like I have a lot of energy left. On number seven or eight then maybe I empty it then you're gonna just try and stay consistent all the time

Mark: Yeah, I'm just gonna listen to my body I thought about this in the last one because I saw a couple people that had been ahead of me on previous laps Walking in spots and then I made [00:08:00] me second guess my strategy I'm like shoot should I be walking more like taking it easier and I was like, I feel good I'm just gonna listen to my body and Cuz it's not

Jerred: out of shape people walking up the hill.

It's like I've seen some people, I'm like, you look like a really legit runner and you're walking up the hill. So I've had the same, you have the same second guessing. Cause I'll start at the front of the pack with you. I don't, and then I slow down after about a mile. But some of the people I'm like, okay, I get what you're doing.

This is intentional. Just some of the more advanced runners. I think the fastest guys here aren't walking anything. But some of the people who are definitely doing better than me are still walking.

Mark: That's a goal is to just not run. One, not slip and fall. And two to not have to walk at all.

Jerred: Yeah, what time is it? It's 1. 52 at the time of recording this. We're also at the peak of the day in heat. This one and the next one are going to be hot. It's not like hot, but it's like, what, like 80? Yeah, it's probably low 80s. A little breeze kicked up though. Feels somewhat humid. But, I will like it when it cools down.

It hasn't been too bad. There's a lot of shade on the course. Yeah, So there is a spot like [00:09:00] right in the middle for about a stretch of three quarters of a mile or so where it gets hot though. It's open gravel road and it gets hot there. Yeah. Other than that, it's, yeah, it's pretty shady.

All right, cool.

We're going to hydrate some more lacrosse ball, Theragun, all that good stuff and get ready for round four. Alright, we just finished 4, so 20K, and I think we both agree that was a pretty good one. Is that how you feel?

Mark: Yeah, definitely. I felt more energized after that than when we started. It took a few steps to get warmed up and loosened up a little bit, but, I don't know, I just felt like I really hit a stride.

It just felt good, and so I just, kept on going and it's just, it seems seamless. Almost not effortless, but like I didn't have to think or work hard. I just really hit a groove. And so yeah, it felt good surprisingly.

Jerred: Yeah. I'm pretty much in agreement. So third one, I went a little bit slower.

Fourth one, I sped back up, basically [00:10:00] matched my, the time of my first two and felt really good. My height, my heart rate's a little bit higher. And. To be honest, I think if I were to be running without a GPS watch, I'd probably just be going faster. Cause I, it says my heart rate's high, but I feel okay.

Like I don't feel like, but I'm accustomed to high heart rate stuff just from over the years, but I feel fine. And that's the thing is I'm just gonna keep pushing it. Maybe go, I don't know. The next one. I say the next one, I'm probably gonna run fast cause it's our last one in the daylight.

Most likely. And then I already know I'm going to add a couple minutes just the second the sun goes down because when we put those headlamps on I'm going to not want to fall down. So maybe I'll go fast on the next one and then chill, chill on some of the evening ones until I understand how running with a headlamp works because I haven't actually really done that on a trail yet.

Oh really? Yeah. It's fun. Yeah, so it's I've done some road running in the dark but I don't think I've done any trail running in the dark so it's going to be fun.

Mark: Yeah. One thing I mentioned earlier is I, [00:11:00] I'm seeing more and more people walking and stuff like that. And I think this is where like strength training has really paying dividends is just like with the endurance and lack of fatigue or just overall like energy levels and stuff like that.

Jerred: Yeah. Like I think even some of the smaller, they're like, there's like the long Hills that I guess, you could run or walk up to you, but then even those like shorter ones that are like. 10 steps to go up real quick. Like a lot of people were like walking those and holding a tree to get up that I'm passing because I think it's just lack of strength.

Yeah. I'm

Mark: like bounding up and that's, yeah, that's the fun part for me. I have to tell myself to slow down. Yeah. Same. I feel like I'm, juking people out and stuff like that. Like Barry Sanders or something. But

Jerred: yeah,

Mark: don't jack

Jerred: your heart rate up real quick, but it feels better to go up them fast.

Mark: It's actually a good opportunity to pass some people, too. If you're in a conga line and you can't get past anybody. Yeah. Those are really good opportunities to just zip on past someone. Yeah. Just hurt some feelings,

Jerred: take some, crush, take some souls, is that what Goggin says? Yeah. Yeah, alright, so we're gonna get some [00:12:00] water and some food and catch you guys at at number 5.

Okay, just finished number 5. So that's halfway, that's 25k. Just me recording, Bishop and I had a big fight and now we're just, no I'm kidding I'm in my truck charging my phone so I'm away from the base camp area, but I figured I'd give a quick update. So everybody knows how things are going on.

Like I said, five complete. Running a lot faster than I thought I would, to be honest, I thought I would be sandbagging most of these runs heart rates pretty high and I feel decent to be honest. I wasn't wearing a heart rate monitor. I'd probably be running a little bit faster because I actually feel pretty good on the runs, but I'm paying attention to my heart rate and I dial it back based off of it getting too high or, going uphill.

I just regulate. All those kinds of things. Other than that body is feeling decent definitely starting to feel a little tight, little sore. And that was the last one in [00:13:00] daylight. So we're headed to the, the nighttime headlamps, things are going to slow down a little bit. It's going to get a little bit colder.

Just circadian rhythm, just going to start to get more tired. So the nighttime will be interesting. This is the part I've been looking forward to. Forward to really get to find out what it's going to be like to run through the night limited sleep i'm actually going to try and get some sleep after i'm done recording this even though it's only 6 53 p.

m at the time of recording but See if I can get like a 30 minute nap or something, but I don't know if it's going to be possible. Because i'm not good at naps, but that's it. I'll update you more at 6 7 8 9 and 10 So far so good. Okay, just finished number six This is the first one in the dark. So we're using headlamps, which is a new experience for me overall wasn't bad I was slightly slower, but only by 30 seconds So we've both me and mark both have pretty much kept our same splits throughout the [00:14:00] entire race Six in so far, which is pretty good feeling pretty good.

How you feeling mark?

Mark: Surprisingly well. I'm surprised that we're, both of us are able to maintain a solid pace.

Jerred: Yeah.

Mark: That was the first lap that I have actively thought about sleeping though. So I'm definitely getting tired.

Jerred: Yeah. So these updates are going to probably get a little bit shorter because we're going to try and get some sleep, actually try and get some sleep in between the races here, maybe get 30 minutes, 40 minutes, who knows.

But I'll update you on the next one. Alright guys, here with Mark Bishop. We just finished number 7 and it is 1143 p. m. How'd you feel after that one, Mark? Strong. I don't know what it is, like the first mile hobble along, and then all of a sudden it just body loosens up a little bit. I don't know, I really like the woods parts, cause it, I just Yeah, I feel like I can go hard [00:15:00] and just bound and it's fun for me.

Mark: I actually look forward to running through the woods.

Jerred: Just so everyone knows, Mark may actually win this thing. We'll see. See how it all shakes out. Nah, there's some dude with a handlebar mustache

Mark: who's just crushing it.

Jerred: Yeah so I just did PR. That was my, not PR 5k, but PR in this race. That was my fastest 5k.

Number 7. Feeling pretty good. I think it's more anger that I just want it to be over . And I feel like if I run faster, it'll be over faster. But let's talk about the most impressive thing. Mark's been saying all day how it'd be nice if they just handed him a cup of chicken noodle soup at the end of one of these five Ks, and it happened on the end of seven.

That was impressive. How did you do that?

Mark: Just a little little willpower, just a little telepathy. You manifested that. I did. And I was just cooling down and I had a feeling I was like, it just felt right. I was like, God, chicken noodle soup sounds good right now. Sure [00:16:00] enough, man, they hooked it up.

So we get one or two more meals. One, one more. There might be something at the very end but I think four o'clock 4am is our next after the 4am run is our next meal.

Jerred: All right. So 4am, what are we getting? You think breakfast? Yeah,

Mark: man, they did pancakes after the very first run. Pancakes and bacon you know what?

I'm gonna go with waffles on this one. No chicken to go with it. Yeah, I would call it chicken and waffles,

Jerred: I just know it's impossible.

Mark: I

Jerred: got nothing. I think waffles is a great guess. I'm gonna go with that. Alright guys, seven in the books, a couple more, three more here and then we'll be done.

Alright, we just finished, what was that? Number eight. Eight. We just finished number eight. Both doing pretty well. That was like a top three performance for me. How about you? Was that like a pretty good one? Yeah, top three. Yeah. 26 even. Mark's doing awesome. I'm feeling good. 2. 09 AM. And we're going to see if we can get some [00:17:00] sleep.

But yeah, that's it. Things are going well. The whole thing. Crowd, the whole crew, everyone's slowing down quite a bit. Which is, I think, motivating us to go faster. But, it's been good. Two more to go. Wait, there we go. Mark, how's it going? It's going pretty good, Jared. We just finished number nine. Can you tell it's 4.

43 AM and we have not really slept. So we just finished number nine. That's it. We're getting faster. I think we're running like negative splits. Oh, I am you're not you're just staying fast the whole time That was your strategy. It's worked out really well

Mark: Riding the razor's edge, baby.

Jerred: Yes

Mark: This last one's gonna hurt that nine hurt the worst out of all of them.

Jerred: Yeah, so body overall legs are super I Soar is the word I'll use for yeah torn up and just say yeah achy cool about getting into the night [00:18:00] time we were just talking about this before we were recording is like Start of the race for me. I was like middle of the pack, maybe top third During the day, but then as soon as the Sun went down Like I've been top ten like you've been top five For the last four I guess

Mark: yeah,

Jerred: maybe more for you I'm saying for me last four so it's just crazy what That's all like grit, it's like mental fortitude.

That's I think pushing us through the end here because I don't feel like how much faster you run. Have you stayed pretty consistent?

Mark: Yeah, that one was a little bit slower. Probably top half I would say though of my finishes, but I didn't have anybody chasing me on that one

Jerred: Yeah,

Mark: and you were still like top three or something.

Jerred: Yeah. Yeah, that's crazy You Alright we got one more. One more, man. Can't wait. One more. Alright. And that's a wrap. Mark and I both finished the Death by 5K, the 24 hour [00:19:00] race. I will be doing a follow up podcast, maybe with Mark, and just going over lessons learned after we've had a chance to, one, get some sleep, and then two, just go over what we thought of the race.

Coolest thing, I hinted on some of the other ones, like I kept getting faster throughout the night. Once the sun went down I was running almost negative splits all the way from 5 so I felt really good about my performance and I'm going to think through it a lot more.

And like I said, do a follow up podcast, but overall it was a great event and great experience. And definitely got to meet myself, which was, uh, what you can expect and what you go for in an event like this. But hopefully you like this style of podcast where we try something new and give you like the real life updates of what was happening every single time.

But that's a wrap on this one. Hope you enjoyed the podcast. Remember, if you don't kill comfort will kill [00:20:00] you.