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[upbeat music] Welcome to For the Long Run, the podcast exploring the why behind what keeps runners running long, strong, and motivated.
I'm your host, Jonathan Levitt. I've been running for a few years now and have the privilege of meeting many incredible runners on my travels all across the country.
This podcast is intended to share those amazing conversations. This week's podcast is sponsored by SynchroKnit, powered by Wigwam.
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And welcome back. I am here with Nick Klustava, uh, who is joining from Baltimore. Nick, thanks for, thanks for joining today. Yeah, thanks for having me. For sure.
So we've known each other, um, on the, on the internet and through Instagram for a few years now, and we met, we met... We finally met down in Atlanta a couple weeks ago.
But for those of you who, those of us out there who don't know you, uh, who is Nick? Yeah. Nick is a man of many hats. I am a father of two daughters, a three-year-old and a one-year-old. I am a runner, avid runner.
I am a running coach. I am a software engineer/project manager. Um, you know, I think that sums up most of what I do every day. Yeah. Cool.
So, uh, here on For the Long Run, we're all about, uh, exploring the why and understanding what keeps runners running long, strong, and motivated, and, um, you're all about the motivation side of that.
And on social, you're a, you know, you're a cheerleader of, of many, um, definitely more than most. Um, so I want to know what, what keeps you motivated?
Uh, what, what keeps you going, um, when, you know, the training gets tough or, or the race gets tough? Yeah, you know, for me, running has always been social.
Like, when I started, it was in high school with a group, with a team, as part of something bigger than myself, and I ran in high school, I ran in college, and then I took some time off after college.
I didn't have a team, and, you know, running by myself was foreign to me, and I think I just sort of lost touch.
And when I started up again at age 30, as I had moved to Maryland and didn't have any friends and sort of just started exploring the social aspect of running again. I met a person on Twitter of all places.
I really never used it back in 2011, but met someone there, and we connected. They had a running group, and then, you know, running again became this social thing.
And a lot of my friends I met in Maryland who started with running and now our kids are friends have all been through this social amazing thing.
So for me, Instagram and sharing people's journeys and motivating them is, is awesome because it, it is what I love so much about running.
And when you got back into, into running after that break, what was, what was the first thing you did? Did you sign up for a race? Did you just put in a bunch of, a bunch of miles? What did that look like?
Yeah, so it was hard. So I was, you know, running D1 and, and running competitively my entire life. When I came back, it was a lot of, "Okay, well, I just wanted to lose some weight.
I don't know if I'll get competitive again, but I just wanted to run." I just enjoyed it. And so I started running, and it took me a while to actually sign up for a race, and when I finally did, it, it...
These competitive juices came back, and all of a sudden I was like, "Oh, well, I can, you know, run the same time I ran in college, even though I've only been running for four months."
[laughs] And you know, that comparison trap sort of caught me, and I just, I struggled for a couple years trying to think I was the runner I was at 20, you know, that I now at 31 with eight years off.
And a lot of the times, I kept just looking back to that runner and trying to run those times and struggling and workouts being too hard, being too hard on myself.
And so, you know, I, I ran races, but then it got so much race anxiety to me that I s- took a year off and just enjoyed running again with a group with no goals. Cool.
Um, and we have the same coach and, and do similar structured training. And so, um, I'm familiar with how David, you know, doesn't care about the splits.
And, and it's been, it's been fascinating to watch an athlete like yourself, um, really, um, really enjoy that process and, and really, um, fundamentally buy into the approach that it's, it's all about the process and not about, you know, did you nail your splits today.
And I can't remember when it was, but I remember pretty vividly there was like a switch for you where you just stopped splitting your watch during workouts. So let's, let's talk about that.
Um, you've run, you've run some very fast times, and you're training for, um... What's, what's the marathon goal? So I'm running New York City Marathon this fall, and, you know, I, I wanna break 230.
I'll see how everything goes, but-Course or not, I don't- I know New York City's a little harder. I- that's my goal is to break 230 and see how far I can go under that. Cool. So, so yeah.
So you're running fast, uh, it's faster than most, and, um, you're doing it in a way that's a little different than what you did in high school and college.
So let's talk about how you got there, um, and, and what it's like now where you're just out there crushing it, um, versus, you know, staring at your watch. [laughs] Yeah.
So a lot of being a tracks runner, you know, we live 400 meters at a time, you, you know your 100-meter splits, and you can calculate in your head, extrapolate and figure out exactly what pace you're running to the mile.
And, you know, a lot of that was overwhelming at times.
I would run workouts and compare it to other workouts and know 100 meters into my split, even if it was 2,000 meters long, if I was off pace, on pace, too fast, too slow.
This was exhausting in my mind for someone who already has an, a racing mind, anxiety- [laughs]... filled mind, like, so you know, I had gotten to a point in my own training that I was stopped sort of improving.
I, I wouldn't know if a workout was good or bad. You know, I would run it and be like, "Okay, this, this seems fast, but maybe I could've been faster or not."
And so I reached out to David and 'cause I had liked a lot of what he said, and we worked together, and it took me about...
I bought in immediately 'cause I, I was like, if I'm gonna have a coach, I better trust and listen to him, but the idea of these minute on and not splitting, like it was about, it was about eight months together until the point where I just sort of wrote him a message one day, and I was like, "I, I didn't split a workout.
I don't even know what my splits are." And he's like, "Perfect. Do that every time." [laughs] And you know, we went from there, and it, it all fall of 2018 I, I didn't split a workout. I would, you know, if I ran...
Only thing I would know is my miles would s- click on my watch 'cause- Right...
I have, you know, so but I- if I would do two-minute intervals, I wouldn't know what my pace was 'cause I had to rest in there, and just run the workout.
So start my warmup, run the workout, start my cool down, the whole workout would be, that, that would be my workout. I wouldn't know.
And you know, I just started embracing the fact that, uh, if I'm running my effort, and if I'm running hard, then I know I'm running hard.
I don't need some validation from something on my wrist that isn't always accurate. I, I... The validation's in my mind. If I believe that I'm running a hard effort, then I'm, I'm running fast.
And then it came to fruition when I ran a four-minute PR in the half at Richmond when I ran 111. And you know, I, I didn't know what I was capable that day.
I just went out and just kept falling into this, this pace range mile after mile after mile, not caring.
And you know, I sort of put it in my head that, hey, I can do tough things, and I can run these splits without having to know what they are. Yeah. I think, I think it's fascinating.
And then you get, you get the, you get to the point where you're racing, and the outcome, I don't wanna say it doesn't matter, but it doesn't, it doesn't determine who you are as a runner. Yeah.
I mean, that's how I felt at Richmond. I didn't need to run anything to know how well I was doing. I, I knew I was gonna have a good day, and it, it didn't, it didn't, the, the outcome didn't matter.
I knew when I started, it, I was w- I was already, you know, better off than I've ever been.
And because I didn't have race anxiety, and I ran that race smiling and thanking fans and things like that, that I would've never done in the past because I would've thought I'm wasting precious energy.
[laughs] Now how did you get there? What, what was that journey like? You know, it was... When you have a coach who literally every day puts a comment in there of, "Hey, you're doing great.
Hey, you know, you're doing wonderful. Hey, you know, th-it doesn't matter what that split is, it doesn't matter what this is", you know what?
Over time, it just, it just makes you feel loved and cared and makes you feel like you can do anything.
And so, you know, as more and more of that world of David came out, of this, you know, grateful, gratitude-filled, you know, person just filling you with love of the journey and the process, the more I bought into the fact that if I just work hard, if I just, you know, if I just look at workouts as a way to gain fitness and not prove it, that then, you know, I, I will get faster and, and it doesn't matter.
I don't need to have the watch or anything validate that.
So the journey just kind of filled itself out as mo- workout after workout, week after week of support that I just felt loved, that it didn't matter what a time was. Yeah. I find, I find the approach fascinating.
So I've, I've considered myself a runner now for [clears throat] maybe seven years, um, in my entire life.
And for the first five years, six years as a runner, I cared way too much about splits and paces, and, you know, if I was running an easy, easy run at, uh, 7:30, I was going too slow.
Um, and I kept trying to BQ, and I kept coming up short. I would either, you know, I would keep pace for 13 miles, or I'd keep pace for 18 miles or 19 miles, and then I'd hit a wall.
And I was so hard on myself, you know, for running a 3:20 or a 3:27 or a 4:01, you know, when I thought I was in 3:05 shape. Um, and then after maybe a year and a half of working with David,
yeah, I guess that, yeah, roughly, almost a year, um, I lined up at the start line of Providence with this shit-eating grin on my face. [laughs] It was raining, it was 50 degrees, and I was just like, "Let me go."
Like, "Let me at this course. I'm... It's a celebration." And I started that race, I was running 6:40s, and I couldn't stop smiling. And it felt like I was flying, and it was totally effortless.
Now that effortless 6:40 lasted about five miles.
[laughs] And, and I ended up running the, the sub-three that, that I was, um-That I had been chasing for so long and it- I almost didn't even care that it was sub-3.
I cared that like I put in the work, and I showed up to the start line happy and like l- ready to race versus like ready for a test, and I think when you can shift away from seeing a race as a test and seeing a race more as like this is something we get to do, I think that's- that's powerful, um, and it's hard to do.
It is, and- and I- I like to tell people and athletes I coach, like, training is the test, racing is the celebration, so, you know, let's celebrate. Let's- let's...
Th- we sign up for these things for fun, and the- you'll do much harder work training week after week, running a har- a hard workout after an- a, you know, miles the day before, and cumulative fatigue.
But like, you know, when you get to the race day, it's just celebrating all of those gains, all of that fitness and having the time that you want to, which is excitement and fun and joy because that's ultimately why you signed up.
It's n- we sign up to chase goals, but we also sign up to have fun and enjoy it and have a great time, and why not do both? [laughs] Definitely. So you're a coach. How did that evolve? Yeah.
So I, um, I started- I've always wanted to be a coach, but my job has never allowed sort of me the luxury of being a high school coach, you know, uh, where the hours I worked didn't fit, and, you know, run coaching online started becoming more of a thing that people were doing.
And around 2018, I reached out to a friend and just started working with her just, you know, for free, but just doing it enjoyable to help her try and chase her goals and for me to see if how much I enjoyed this.
And, you know, we started a- around the end of 2018.
Another one of my friends who I just ended up going to trials with to just cheer, we started coaching- I started coaching her in December after CIM in 2018, and then I sort of just started saying, "Hey, I, I like this.
I'll reach out." You know, I didn't do much marketing. Um, I, I wrote a post on this, but I'm, I'm...
It's hard to be that, you know, feel like you're bragging about yourself sometimes, so like I'm the worst promoter or marketer of myself. Yeah.
I just, I just, I feel like if people like me, they'll say stuff, and, you know, I'm just doing a good job.
So I'm getting better with that, but I didn't market myself much in the beginning, and I had a couple athletes just local, and then I reached out to Mary Johnson from Live Run Perform about the summer of 2018 and asked if she would bring on a- another coach, and we talked, and, you know, she has the same coach as both of us, too, so when we talked about training philosophies and how we approach it, we were on the same page obviously 'cause, you know- [laughs]...
disciples of David.
[laughs] And, um, so, you know, I started coaching with her and- and, you know, that helps because she has a business, and she's very good at marketing and- and that just sort of helps bring athletes in.
And it honestly, you know, with how my 2019 went, it's been one of the most enjoyable things because when my running wasn't going well, it was easy as me, a huge empathetic person, to just invest in my athletes and just be excited for them every day, every race, every workout.
I'd get amped up and excited, and, you know, I, my- I was hurt, I was- things weren't going right, and I was just like, "This, this is enjoyable, and this is so much fun, and this is, this is what it's all about, so I can have my own journey, and I can invest in everyone else's," and I've loved it ever since.
Yeah. I think it's so cool when, when you can f- put the focus on somebody else maybe when things aren't going so well.
Um, that was the story of my January and February [laughs] where it was, um, it was a nice distraction to have another race to focus on with the Olympic trials, um, and it's so cool when you can, when you can be there for other people and- and have it as, I don't wanna say a distraction, but like something to, like, that's your, like, guiding light or your, your focus.
Yeah.
It keeps me excited about running, and like I said, it's so social to me that, like you said, a reason, a lot of reason I reach out and post on people's post and get invested in their running, whether I coach them or not, is just because it- it's fun to me and because I know what it feels like to have someone post on your post, "Hey, great job" or, uh, you know, someone who read your post or someone who sees what you're doing or someone who offers you some, you know, compassion or sympathy when you're struggling, like,
it feels amazing. So, uh, to me, I always wanna tell people, "Hey, you're doing amazing."
I wanna say the nice things that you don't know if people hear ever because we all assume everyone, you know, why would you say something nice to someone? They hear it all the time.
Instead, the only confrontations we have with people are when it's negative, so I always like to bring the positives because I don't think enough is said nicely to people or encouraging to people. Definitely.
Um, let's talk about something you briefly mentioned, um, mental health. Uh, we're both a, a fan of talking about it, to say the least. Uh, for you, where did that come from? Yeah, so I sh- it's very funny.
I, I'm- my wife is a physical, a mental health therapist, and, you know, a lot of her li- my life she would sort of say, "Hey, you know, you should see a therapist. You sh-" and I was always like, "Eh, eh, whatever."
Like, and, you know, so I kept going on my life, and I kept having like i- things that were, I was stuck on, things in my life that I was stuck on, but I would always just, you know, bury, bury, what we do, bury it deep inside, like not worry about it, try not to- Push it under the rug.
Yeah Yeah, and, you know, growing up when I did in- in the 2000s as a male, like, you weren't, you were told to be tough. You weren't told to be sensitive. You weren't told to have feelings.
They were, i- in your bo- in your male group friends, like, they weren't acknowledged, and a lot of that, like, I think stuck me, and I, you know, as I, I was a highly sensitive person with huge empathy from the start, and, you know, when I finally,
I, I finally hit a really bad spot in 2016 where my anxiety was just crippling, and I finally-Took the ther-- You know, I finally went through and, and got a therapist and sat down with her.
And as I talked through everything, uh, every session was like this epiphany to me, because I would talk through things and she would just listen, and she'd offer some words of wisdom.
And, you know, then I'd go home, and I'd search on the internet, and I'd connect some dots, and I'd come back next week and be like, "Hey, I think I'm this plus this, and I've seen this, and this is from my history."
And she'd be like, "Oh, well, let's talk about that." And each week it was like learning more about myself, and as I kept going through and learning more, like, I kept embracing the person who I was. It's like
who I've always been, I was maybe scared to be that sensitive person who, you know, has feelings and cares about them and wants to share them and wants to be vulnerable and wants to just be who he is. That's awesome.
Um, what advice do you have for someone who may be, you know, the 2016 version of Nick versus the 2020 version? Yeah. I, I guess I would just say there--
The more, the more you can learn about yourself, the better, and we all have a huge bias on ourself.
We all are super hard on ourselves, and I think too often we, we, we do things we're not proud of, and we get upset at ourselves, and we beat ourselves down, and then it just spirals.
And ha- going to someone to talk to really helps you have someone in your life who's not also biased, you know, not your significant other, not your best friends, who you may tell you you're doing great, but you're like, "Well, they're just my friend."
Yeah. Right. And you're not gonna go to your enemy and ask them ex- We don't do that. [laughs] So going to like, you know- We should We probably should more, but- Tell me everything wrong about me.
[laughs] But having this non-biased person in your life who, you know, isn't telling you anything other than the things you need to hear and, and think about and learn, like I learned more about myself in, in three years of therapy than I learned in thirty-six years of life.
And it's because I was willing to listen to someone who didn't have some bias to my life, and I was willing to, you know, be ready for it.
I think that's the other thing is like, you have to want to change, you have to want to learn more. You can't force it. If you go there and you're like, "I'm not gonna listen to anything. I'm fine." Right.
You're probably not gonna get a lot out of it. Just like with run coaching or the process, if you don't wanna buy into the process, you, you might not really do great with the process.
So I think it's just, you know, being willing to go for it and also just acknowledging that, you know, there's something you can learn about yourself that you don't know. Cool.
How has your running changed since going to therapy? You know, it's very interesting. So I have run faster since I've gone to therapy, and I don't know if it's... It's probably all correlated.
It's David, it's therapists, it's, it's just being more comfortable in my own skin. But like, uh, if nothing else, it's, it's being less hard on myself is, is one of the key things.
And that is how, as you ment- asked earlier, how I sometimes cannot split workouts or just go through these, these periods of running and be content is because I'm not hard on myself.
I know if I tried my best every day, that's all I can ever do, and there's nothing more.
And sometimes I come up short in my life, and that's perfectly fine, and sometimes I do things that I regret, and we're all gonna do that.
And, but that's perfectly human, 'cause we're all perfectly imperfect, and, and that's wonderful. That makes us human beings.
And I think learning more of not trying to hold myself to these incredibly high standards in life has helped me in running because, uh, you know, as running is this numbers comparison game, you could get stuck comparing yourself to everyone and needing to feel like you have to run 100 miles a week, and every mile has to be at a sub-six pace.
And, you know, you, you have to never t- s- only sleep five hours a night 'cause you're doing core work all day and lifting, and you don't ne- and, you know, you can do all that stuff, but you can also do what your life allows and be perfectly fine, too.
Cool. Um, my, uh, chiropractor made a comment about my own running maybe last fall.
And he knew he-- like we talk about therapy all the time, um, and he's like, "You're-- like you-- people don't normally have gains like this." And David has said the same thing. Megan has said the same thing.
And what he got to, where he got to with it was like running for me is just running. It's not, you know, it's not where I'm going to seek isolation.
It's not where I'm going to work out, you know, what I did in the day or did in the day prior. It's, it's pure, and I'm, I'm just out there enjoying it.
And I think that therapy allows us to work through the, maybe the roadblocks that, um, we might focus on when we have that alone time, and then you can just rip it [laughs] when it's, when it's time to run, um, because you're-- there's nothing holding you back.
Yeah, that's a really good point, I think.
I think a lot of my running pre-therapy was spent on things in my life, things-- If I said something to someone and I'm an- overanalyzing it in my head, I'd spend 40 minutes on my run doing that.
You know, if I'm in a race and I see someone who I said something wrong to once in my life, all of a sudden I'm spiraling on that, not focusing on the race. So that's a really good point.
I think, you know, it helps us focus more on our task or just the running of enjoying it and not- Yeah... spending the whole run spiraling. For sure. What's your favorite thing about running?
Um, you know, uh, like I said before, social. So I, I think I love just sharing a run with a friend, and I said this to-- I, I did a run with Carly Gill recently.
I did a run with Andy Casarelli recently, and what I said to both of them was like, "Hey, these are people I've known from online but never met."
And we went out and shared 90-plus minute runs together, and we talked for the entire time, and it's like we've known each other our entire lives. And like- Yeah... what other sport, what other hobby does that exist in?
It doesn't. Like it's, this is-- People are always shocked at work when I say, "Hey, what'd you do this weekend?" "Oh, I went for a two-hour run with my friends and we caught up." Like, like what?
Like, this is sometimes the only time you get with a lot of your friends when they're running friends, and to me that, you know, to be able to still rip it sometimes with my friends or if I have to do some workout and they're not, I still can share some of that run and catch up and have a great time, and that's the enjoyable part of this whole thing for me.Yeah, I love that.
Um, I get to travel a lot for work and run with some really interesting people and, and, like, that's my favorite part of the whole thing.
Just, like, being able to experience new places with new people or with people that you know really well, but maybe you've never met. Um, and just sh- it's, it's such a,
it's such a unifying act, such a unifying activity. And it, um, [laughs] I love how Andy described the run that you guys did together. She was like, "That was the most casual 6:30 pace I've ever [laughs] run."
[laughs] She said you guys had a blast, so that's funny. Another, uh, podcast guest, Andy Cazarelli. Um, what is, what is next for you? Uh, we have some interesting times ahead. How are you, how are you managing that?
You know, the best I can every day, day by day. Um, in, you know, I'm working from home and that's new for me.
You know, i- as I mentioned, my anxiety, it, it is a very difficult thing in an uncontrollable, um, unknown world. It, it spirals really bad.
So for me, running is, is helping me, you know, remember where I am and forget the world around me.
Um, you know, just, so for me, it's just kind of helping athletes I coach, helping friends who are struggling, helping family members or anyone who's just having a tough time.
For me, helping people helps me forget what's going on. E- even if I'm talking about it, if I'm helping someone else, it feels like it's less anxiety to me. Yeah.
Um, so, you know, I've reached out to friends, I've been supportive. I've, you know, done strange things. We did a virtual happy hour last night, which was super fun. Yeah.
Um, and, you know, just taking stock of what I have in my life and, and that I'm healthy and I am able to run, and, you know, I have a job, and going from there. And so for next for me running-wise, I don't know.
I don't know if I'll have any races for a while, so I have none, but I have New York City Marathon in the fall, and that's what I'll keep moving towards. Cool. Um, what big, scary goals do you have for yourself?
Um, you know, scary goals in my life are sort of everything. I, I, you know, being a coach was a big, scary goal for me, and, and I still love it, and I still want to be better at it and learn more.
And every day, I'm trying to learn from some of my, you know, favorite coaches in the business who've been doing it forever. And so to be an amazing, supportive coach who can...
I'm very supportive, but learning more about the other side and having both, I think, would be amazing. 'Cause I know it's something I'm capable of. For running, you know, my goal in 2019 was to try and chase an OTQ.
I never got to run a marathon. I spent 85% of the year hurt for weird, different things. And, you know, so big, scary goals for me are just taking it year by year. I think this year I, I just wanna race a marathon.
It's been two years. I wanna get under 230. And every year, I like to look at things in a bigger picture. So for me, I, I have 40 years of goals ahead of me.
I'll be 41 in 2024, and I, I'd like to still chase that, but if my life takes me to a different path, I, I don't mind. I don't- I love the troll, uh, the trail world. I've run a couple 50Ks. I've run JFK 50 Miler.
I wouldn't necessarily mind going back to that life and trying that. And, you know, just keep advancing in my career.
And, and then, you know, a big, scary goal for me is to get my kids more involved in running, and if they want to, or just being really involved in their lives too while I juggle my goals, you know? Cool.
So one of the communities you're also a part of is, uh, with Rabbit, and I know they had a, a pretty large, um, delegation down in, in Atlanta. What's, what's that team like? Is that similar?
Is that, being on that team similar to what you experienced in college? Is it totally different? Um, what's, what's the vibe there? Yeah, it's, in 2018 I joined, and, uh, I was lucky enough to be put on the elite team.
And, and one of my favorite things about it is it felt like I, I had lost sort of this team community thing when, after D1 college.
And, you know, I had a running community here of, of fast runners, but the nice thing about Rabbit was we were all scattered, but we're all super incredibly supportive of each other through Instagram.
I mean, we haven't even met each other, a lot of us. We're just, you know, encouraging each other through DMs, through posts.
And, you know, for the last two years, the people I've met through Rabbit have become some of my friends that I, I would've never even known otherwise.
And, you know, you've met Jill and Monica, and they're one of the b- most wonderful, supportive, community-oriented people and have created something truly amazing.
And, and I love the, what they do, and it's fun to stand behind that product and those, that, you know, both of them and, and help to promote their brand, but also to have a team to feel like I'm racing with.
And when I put on my Rabbit singlet and I show up to a race with other Rabbits, it's, it's very fun to just, you know, share those moments together. Cool.
Um, what are some things you know now about running that you wish you knew when, when you got started? [laughs] Um, maybe, maybe the second go around. Yeah. Um, you know, I think run your easy days easy.
That was a, a tough one. I found my college running log a few years ago, and it had a week where I basically ran every mile under six minutes.
[laughs] Like, and I would, and we were doing three track workouts a week at the time. Wow. So it'd be, like, hard track workout. Next day it'd be, like, seven miles at 5:35 pace. Wow. And I'd be like, "It felt hard."
[laughs] And then it, and it'd be like... And I was just reading my comments and, like, and there was a race on that, like, Sunday- Felt hard... and I was like, felt dead for my race. And I was like, "You, you idiot.
Like, you were running so fast- [laughs]... every day, you never had a chance to recover.Um, no wonder. And, you know, then reading it and knowing how hard I was on myself, like, every day.
I, I remember I used to always just tell myself, "Nick, you have to be tougher." And, and, you know, this is this male mentality that I grew up with. I always had to be tougher.
It was never like, "Hey, Nick, you were running too hard and you weren't recovered. Hey, Nick, you know, you just gave your best effort today." It was always, "You just have to be tougher late in the race.
You keep collapsing at, you know- [laughs]... 3K of a 5K." It's kind of in life. Yeah. [laughs] It was like, if I was just tougher I would've, I would've been able to finish it and run that PR.
And, you know, I hated that mindset, and as I got older I don't... Sure, toughness matters. I, I feel like, uh, and I tell a lot of people, I think runners are tough. We're all tough.
You know, most of the times when we struggle at a race, it, it isn't always that toughness. It's, you know, maybe we were overworked. Maybe we didn't have the right fuel in that race.
Maybe we had ton- tons of anxiety in our life the day before. You know, sometimes it's toughness.
But I think I always went to toughness, so I'd lo- you know, as I got older I, I removed that from my mind, just say, like, I don't always have to be tougher. I have to be smarter.
Um, you know, so those things and then just, you know, this idea of, you know, I don't have to prove my fitness in workouts.
I felt like I always would think if I couldn't run a certain split in a workout, how was I gonna do it on race day?
If I couldn't, you know, split five-minute miles on race day, I could never run, you know, what I wanted in the 5K. And, you know, as I got older, I learned that I don't need to prove anything in a workout.
I just need to gain fitness and run hard and do my best efforts. And all those things have helped me grow so much at this age that I wish I knew when I was younger. Awesome. I think that's a good place to wrap.
Um, where can we, ah, where can we find you on social media? Yeah. So I'm, ah, @nklastava, K-L-A-S-T-A-V-A, on Instagram, Twitter, and, um, yeah [laughs] I think those are the two I use. Very cool.
Well, ah, hopefully we'll see you in New York, and, ah, thanks so much for joining in today. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. For sure. Thanks again to SynchroKnit for sponsoring this week's podcast.
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As a reminder, you can use the code LONGRUN25 to receive 25% off your first order at synchroknit.com. That's S-Y-N-C-H-R-O-K-N-I-T.com. I'll be wearing them this spring, and you should too. That's it for today's episode.
Like many long runs, it's sad when it has to end. I hope you join in next week on For the Long Run, and in the meantime, happy trails.
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