Hey everyone and welcome to another running article!
Today we are talking about “the wall.”
Most runners know what I mean when I say “the wall”, but it doesn’t really stop in the running world.
In the broadest sense, the wall is just a term applied to any part of life. It is a point at which no matter how much you want to push past some barrier or obstacle, your mind or body simply won’t let you.
It is a breaking point.
The wall is not something we can break through, no matter how catchy that is. But it is something we can work to avoid, push further away, or weaken enough that we can break through it.
Let’s jump in!
My Previous Running Walls
If you have not read about my previous marathon experiences, check out my other writing on those to get a fresh idea of what hitting a wall is like in the marathon.
Some people hit even bigger walls where legs lock up and they literally can’t finish the marathon.
As weird as it sounds, this is actually one of the reasons I love the marathon.
It is the perfect distance to truly push your body to the human limits. Not your own personal ones, but the limitations of what it means to be a human physiologically.
Here is what I mean.
During this training block, I picked up 2 new books for fresh perspectives, science, and ideologies around marathon training. I did this to fine tune my own training, but also to help teach and give valuable content to all my followers.
One thing I’ve seen over and over is the idea that the marathon distance is just a different beast.
Whether we are talking about glycogen in our muscles or oxygen in our lungs, they all talk about the marathon as something unique altogether.
So from what I’ve learned so far, and what is the reason behind this wall I keep speaking of?
Well, I think it can be a few things.
Unprepared
The first and foremost reason for hitting a wall is simply that you were unprepared to go the distance at the intensity (pace) you chose.
One of the crucial training pieces for the marathon is the weekly long run.
The long run aims to build 2 adaptations for you:
- The ability to go the distance
- The ability to go faster further
If you are not properly training these then your body will not have the aerobic endurance to run for 3, 4, or 5+ hours straight.
One huge piece I have learned for this upcoming block is in that 2nd point: Training for speed.
I thought that a long run was just done at an easy pace and should always be in zone 2 if possible.
Turns out there are many ways to train with a long run and that is just one of them. And in fact, that is the one you shoulddo at the beginning to help build that base endurance to go the distance.
But if you have a time goal, you need to train more than just “going the distance”. You need to also train “going for speed.” And you are not alone…(iykyk)
Other ways to work a long run are to run them at moderate paces, progression runs where you progressively get faster throughout the run, or break up the long run into easy paces and marathon pace. This helps you actually build up to say 16 or 18 miles at your marathon pace during training.
In my past training blocks, my long runs were 90% slow and easy. The last 10% were failed attempts at marathon pace.
Why were they failed attempts, though?
Partly because the other training methods were missing. But I also think there might have been another reason too.
Which brings us to my second point.
Under Fueled
Being under fueled is a sneaky problem.
My last few training blocks, I had this weird theory in my head.
Word to the wise, here. If you have a weird theory that is just in your head, not backed by any meaningful data, (whether that data is someone else’s experience or actual scientific data), then you should probably not follow it.
But I had a theory that if I did my training in a slight calorie deficit, I would lose weight and thus be lighter for the race. Imagine training with a 10lb vest on and then suddenly shedding it for the race. It would be such a huge difference!
So I thought…
That was my first problem. When you are marathon training, it is not uncommon to burn 1000+ calories in a training session.
If you are already eating at a calorie deficit and then add in 1000+ calories of burn, you are now at an extreme calorie deficit.
That does not induce weight loss in your body. At least, not healthy weight loss. In theory, you should lose weight because science and the law of thermodynamics says mass can’t be created. So if you consume less mass than you output, you will lose weight.
But when you are not fueling your body enough, you also won’t make proper adaptations from all that hard training you just did.
And the reality is, some days I did eat enough. I did the classic, “I’m training for a marathon, I can eat whatever I want.”
So when it came to food I was either not eating enough, or I was eating too much of the wrong things.
The second big problem I had was fueling my body with the wrong fuel. Imagine putting diesel in your car that needs normal gas. It won’t work, right?
In that analogy, that would be like eating a bunch of junk food to fuel your training and your race.
It might work for a little while, but in the long term it will destroy your engine.
Carrying this analogy through, there are 2 other questions when fueling your car:
- Are you filling your car all the way up?
- Could you be putting in premium fuel?
Another incorrect thing I did was I wasn’t actually filling my body up with fuel. I was leaving the tank pretty close to empty during training, and I didn’t properly fuel it before the race either.
Imagine a drag race where the racer forgot to fill the car up with fuel.
It doesn’t matter how prepared the team is for that race, if that car runs out of gas halfway through, they won’t finish.
That’s an example of a wall. It doesn’t matter how much grit you have, you can’t fight the physiological limitations of being a human.
The other question to ask is, are you putting unleaded fuel or premium?
Premium fuel in all cars burns slower and is better performant and better for your engine than unleaded. The other stuff works just fine, but the premium sits better with your car.
Now, before I lose you all, let’s take it back to running.
Our main fuel source is carbohydrates.
Now, I know some people avoid those and love fat for energy. This is not a nutritional guidelines post, so let’s put that aside right now and at least agree that carbs can be a fuel source. And agree that carbs are the most efficient fuel source for our body.
Our bodies have a certain amount of carbs they can hold onto. They are stored in the muscle and liver. I talked about this a little in my last post.
The body can hold around 2500 calories worth of glycogen (carbs). This is filling the tank with fuel.
Most don’t realize how many carbs it actually takes to do that though. In fact, in one of my books it really estimates consuming around 3g of carbs per lb of bodyweight everyday. That is not even during the 2-3 days before your race you should be really filling the tank.
The other piece with carbs to watch out for is, are these carbs sitting well in my stomach?
If you are having digestion issues, then perhaps the carbs you consume are not the right kind for you. This will be especially hard for my fellow runners that are gluten intolerant.
But a fun fact for you is that fruit is jam packed with carbs. Honey also has a lot of carbs.
Bread, pasta, rice, etc are all carbs.
However, processed sugar also has a lot of carbs.
Again, this isn’t a health post, but it is to show that different carbs will fuel you more efficiently. Some will burn off faster than others. Some will give you stomach aches or other digestion issues.
Don’t be afraid to experiment in training and figure out what carbs work with your body best and then double down on those. Find out what your premium is.
The goal is to fill your body up with premium gas. Not just unleaded gas, and definitely not diesel.
Real Life
To tie it all together, I was thinking about these 2 principles for marathon failure: unprepared and under fueled.
Both of these I believe led to me not achieving my full goal. Don’t get me wrong, I was still proud of the outcome. But in both races, I couldn’t finish strong. I stumbled across the finish line.
My hope is…or my theory is that if I fix these issues, Asheville 2025 will be different. That if I get my prep dialed in, and ensure I’m taking in the right amount of fuel, I will cross that finish line strong!
But it’s not just in the marathon. It’s really in every aspect of life.
And they both come together in being prepared for the challenges of life.
The problem with life is that we don’t always know what trials await us tomorrow. At least with a marathon, you can count down the days.
But I do think that if you consistently seek comfort and pleasure rather than stepping out of comfort and doing hard things, then you are not going to be prepared when life inevitably hands you hard trials.
The more we get used to stepping out of our comfort zone and doing things that challenge us, then the easier it will be when life throws unexpected challenges our way.
So, whether you are running a marathon, raising a child, or just living each day to the fullest, whatever the challenge is, I encourage you to face them prepared and fueled up.
Let’s cross the finish line strong.
Until next time, run with joy!
