S4 Ep 9 How Jeff Galloway Made Running Last Longer- A Tribute Replay

Jeff Galloway didn’t just coach runners, he quietly rewired what many of us believe “real running” is supposed to look like. We’re replaying a conversation recorded in 2023 to honor his impact and to put his most useful ideas back in your ears: run walk run, smarter pacing, fewer injuries, and a better finish when everyone else is falling apart.

Jeff shares how he found running as an overweight kid, how community pulled him in, and how goal-by-goal progress carried him all the way to the U.S. Olympic team. From there, he builds the bridge to his most famous contribution, the Galloway method. You’ll hear the true origin story of run-walk intervals, why it worked so well that an entire group trained without injuries, and how he later used large-scale runner data to recommend run-walk ratios based on pace.

We also get practical: why the walk break is often 30 seconds, how shorter run segments can leave your legs stronger in the late miles of a marathon or ultra, and why “you can’t run too slow” can be the key to better race times. Jeff closes with mental training tools, including mantras and simple attention tricks that help override the negative “monkey brain” when stress and fatigue spike.

If you want marathon training advice that actually protects your body, plus mindset strategies you can use on your next long run, hit play. Then subscribe, share this with a running friend, and leave a quick review so more runners can find it.

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Transcript

Tribute And Why This Replay

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Hello and welcome back to Overthe Next Kill Fitness Podcast. I'm Carly Coffee, your coach and host for today's program. Friends, today's program is going to be a little bit different than normal. I wanted to take a minute and honor Jeff Galloway. How we know his recent passing. It's on our minds of how we got started using the Jeff A method, the runwalk method that he studied and perfected over time. I don't know how you learned about the runwalk method, but I learned from my coach. And so now as a coach, I share that method with my runners. And I use it myself a lot. And it has really helped me to continue running as I age. And it helps me with injuries, especially with long distance running. It has really helped me. And as I mentioned, those of us as we get older, it allows us to continue to run and still participate in the thing that we love. So I had a chance to record him back in 2023. And so I wanted to bring that recording back for those of you who may have missed it. Give you an opportunity to hear our conversation. And if you haven't ever tried it, you might try it. Just share this episode with someone you think um might enjoy it. And I hope you enjoy the episode. And I'll look forward to speaking with you at the end. Today we have an Olympian, and he's an athlete, he's a coach. We want to give a great big welcome to Jeff Galloway. Welcome to the show, Jeff.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Great to be here, Carla.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

I am so honored to have you on the show. So I just hit a few of the highlights of you. Can you tell us a little bit more about you and how long you've been running and when you got started?

Vietnam, Trials, And Becoming An Olympian

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Yes, I uh began running in 1958. I was in entering the eighth grade at a school that required boys to go out for athletics after school. I had not done much of that, uh hardly any of it, because during my first uh seven years of school, um my father had been in the Navy and I had gone to 13 schools during those first seven years. We were constantly bouncing around, and I never got involved in sports or physical fitness or whatever. Uh was overweight, uh lazy, and uh forced with reality. Uh I fell in with a group of kids in my classes who were runners, mainly because they were funny, and uh they dragged me out during the winter for winter cross-country. Well, I just absolutely hated it at first because I was exhausted and didn't have any conditioning, but I very quickly found that within 30 minutes after a very hard, exhausting workout, I felt better in my head and in my spirit than I had ever felt. And the other thing was having gone to 13 schools uh in seven uh years of classes, I found it very difficult in a new area to meet friends. As soon as I got with the cross-country guys, I had instant friends, I had good friends. Uh, and I found that true with any running group that I've ever been a part of. And so I uh set as my goal to be able to keep up with my teammates, and it was very, very difficult. Uh, I did not show a lot of promise. It took me until my senior year to be able to qualify to get into the state championships in Georgia, and Georgia was not a very good uh state competitively. Uh I just wasn't good. And um I went on to uh a small liberal arts school, an academic school that didn't even offer scholarships. But as fate would have it, uh the class in the class behind me, a fellow entered named Ambie Burfoot, and two years later, when I was a senior, we were joined by Bill Rogers. All three of us were there. Uh, and there were we didn't get scholarships, they didn't have them. We were at an academic school for the academics. Uh senior year, Ambi won the Boston Marathon. Uh, it's the only time an undergraduate has won the Boston Marathon before or since. And uh, of course, we know what Bill Rogers went on to do. Um and it was just a wonderful uh coincidence that has yielded long-term friendships between the three of us. Uh as a matter of fact, I uh kept uh in touch on a number of issues with Bill Rogers just during the last week and and talked to Ambi quite often. Uh went on to uh after graduation to go into the Navy because I had a low draft number. That was the uh period of the draft, and went over to uh Vietnam for uh 12 months. Um unfortunately that's where I was exposed to Agent Orange, which later on became an issue uh in my heart attack that occurred two years ago. Uh but uh I got out of the Navy in 1970 and uh set as my sights the uh the possibility of qualifying to get into the Olympic trials. And I I was way away from that, but I gave myself goals every six months and pretty much hit them. Uh and but I still had a good ways to go uh going just right before the Olympic trials. Uh went to the national championships. I needed a minute and a half PR in the 10K, and I ran two minutes faster and uh qualified for to get into the Olympic trials. And then, as fate would have it, on uh the day of the trials, it was a really hot day, and I had been training in Florida for the previous two years. Uh I knew how to pace myself in the heat and uh went out in last place for the first mile, and then people started coming back to me. So I passed them one after another, and uh with uh about two miles left, I realized that I was in third place and then very quickly into second place and qualified for the U.S. Olympic team.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

That's amazing.

Building A Running Community Through Retail

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Uh a week later, um I paced one of my teammates from the Florida Track Club through the marathon because he had been disqualified. Uh, during the last stretch of the 10K, uh, my teammate Jack Batchelor was in third place and was passed by another runner who happened to be the son of the mayor of Eugene, Oregon, where the trials were being held. And of course, the crowd was cheering him on. So uh John Anderson passes uh my buddy Jack about 30 yards from the finish line, but Jack was exhausted and he was weaving and he bumped uh John as John went by, and an official disqualified Jack. I I've never seen that before or since, but it happened then. Uh significance was that a week later, if I had uh been able to qualify in the marathon, I would have dropped out of the 10K, but that was no longer possible because Jack wouldn't move up if I did that. So I paced him through and uh uh was uh having to cheer him on and and be the lookout and keep the positive mantras going like crazy during the last five miles. We entered that stadium together and the crowd was on their feet. I can still remember how my ears were just pounding, and uh so I paced Jack right to the finish line backed off so that he could be the official qualifier, and it was just a wonderful experience to help a teammate become an Olympian. Um the uh Olympics in Munich were a great experience. I did not run very well, but I was I immediately went into teaching. I taught for a year and then decided that I wanted to help others get into running and change their lives in the way that my life had been changed. So I opened the very first running specialty store in the United States in 1973, and uh it's Fedipides. We are we're celebrating our 50th year uh this year, uh, and uh it was the platform for my training programs, for clinics, for coaching, and for all the things that I do now. And it's just a wonderful life.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Wow, that's such an incredible story. So the store, is it still in the same location? And it's in Georgia, is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 10:38

It is in Georgia. We have two stores uh in Atlanta, and um I actually started the store in Tallahassee because that was my training ground leading up to the uh the Olympic trials. I actually uh uh went to Florida State University and got my master's degree as I was training towards the Olympic trials. But uh uh after a couple of years in Tallahassee, I uh had a partner and we both decided that we wanted to do things with the store that were a little bit different. Uh and it was uh amicable separation, but I took my half of the stock up to Atlanta and uh he stayed in Tallahassee, and uh that's how FidiPides started.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

That's really cool. So you have two stores, and do each of them hold the clinics and all that that you do for runners? Um both?

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Yes, absolutely, and we have two uh Galloway training programs in Atlanta, and they quite often meet at the store and do their runs from the store and so forth.

unknown 11:57

Okay.

How Run Walk Run Was Born

SPEAKER_01 11:57

So, how did you come up with this walk-run Galloway system that is so popular?

SPEAKER_00 12:04

A few months after I opened my store, uh, I waited on a customer who was in charge of a local uh not-for-credit series of courses that were open to the public. Uh, things like uh auto mechanics or basic accounting, things like that. And uh after we were talking, he said, you ought to teach one of my classes on running. So uh thinking that I could attract customers, which I dearly needed to do, I agreed to do that. And uh he um uh gave me the leeway to uh hold the class wherever I wanted to. So what I did is uh I found a way to see what level the uh folks in the class were uh were in terms of their fitness. And it broke down into three groups. I met with the with each group uh uh on a separate day of the week, and that way I could run with them, I could coach them, and uh we could do the drills and and the other things that I do. And during those runs, I realized that to keep the group together, we were gonna have to take walk breaks. And so we did right from the beginning. And my first rule was a real simple rule, and that was when anybody in the group started huffing and puffing uh greatly more than they were, we walked. And and so that was our clue. And uh at the end of the class, 10-week class, we had uh every one of them be successful in finishing either a 5K or a 10K. But what was really impressive to me is we had no injuries, and uh I'd never been with a group of 20 or more runners for two months in which there were no injuries, and I realized right then that it had to be taking the walk breaks from the beginning of every single run.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Yeah, that that is one of the major benefits I've found for myself since I've started using it, is I haven't been injured in a really long time. Uh I'm pretty positive to say since I started the run-walk method, it it has been that way. Um so how did you decide on the ratios? Because my ratio is I like to run six minutes and walk 30 seconds. That just works for me. I don't get overtired, but I will do a marathon and still do like a four-hour finish. I can. I mean, I go slower a lot of times, but I can do a four-hour finish fairly with no discomfort at that point. Um, so how did and I got the ratio just from poking around on your website and um just kind of came up with that specific number for me. But how did you decide on ratios?

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Well, that's actually a very old ratio uh that goes back about 35 years. We uh what I did is I started collecting data in the mid-70s uh about what ratios of run running to walking worked for paces, for various paces. And now that database uh encompasses over half a million runners. Uh so these are people that have reported in uh during my season, I used this ratio uh and I uh ran this pace in my key race and so forth. And so I databased all that stuff. Uh, and of course, when you get a large database like that, you get more and more accurate, and and that's what has happened. So the ratios now, uh any given pace ratio is based on at least 50,000 people reporting in. And so it's it's just works for practically anybody. And in your case, for example, I'm glad that you are able to uh to feel good with your six minutes uh running. However, I am sure you could run faster and feel even better, and particularly be stronger at the end if you used uh a different ratio. Now, you say you're around five hours?

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Four.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Four. Okay. So nine-minute pace. Uh that usually is a run two minutes, walk 30 seconds, or run 90 seconds and walk 30. Uh, and I would suggest that you try that on some shorter runs in which you try to hit nine-minute pace and just see how it feels. And it may take you a couple of weeks to get up to speed with it because it it is so different than what you're doing now. The big difference in uh time improvement occurs at the end of uh half marathons or marathons. Uh, you can imagine that running two minutes instead of running six minutes is going to leave your legs stronger at the end. And that is a fact. Uh and that's so instead of slowing down at the end, people are able to maintain pace, and that maintaining pace or speeding up is what gives them extra time at the end.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Okay, so you're saying I should go down to a two-minute run and a 30-second walk?

SPEAKER_00 17:53

I think you should try that. Uh, part of our Galloway program, we have components for just about every aspect of running. And these components are cognitive tools that we use. We have the magic mile to be able to set up what is a realistic goal for the next six months, and also what would be a safe pace for long runs with the walk break uh suggestions. And uh, by the way, this is on our new app, which you can find at jefgalloway.com. Uh, it has a free download and a free run-walk-run timer. And uh, you better get used to my voice because I recorded all the prompts and uh tips and the coaching along the way. Um, but one of the uh cognitive tools is done on a Tuesday, and so uh on Tuesday, the normal workout would be uh a gentle warm-up followed by four each of my form drills, the cadence drill and the acceleration glider drill. And then uh I'd like for my folks that I coach to go into a series of four to six, either quarter miles or half miles, and run those right at the pace that they want to run in their next race, and uh take a three-minute walk in between each one of those. So the first goal of doing those uh segments is to get your timing, get your pace down so that you know pace, you know that pace that you want to run in a race. And uh the second one is on each one of those, uh either quarter miles or half miles, you use a different run-walk-run strategy. And so in your case, you could start out with uh run two minutes and walk 30 seconds, and on the second one, you could try a 90-second run, 30-second walk, and maybe on the third one, you would push it up a little bit to two and a half minutes and 30 seconds, and so forth, and you can go in between. Uh, I've had hundreds of my uh e-coaching clients over the years who I've encouraged to try quirky ratios, and they found that the quirky ones work better. Um, it's sort of like their signature, but you find that out by trying it out, and uh I think you're gonna find that your legs have a lot more juice at the end if you will use a shorter run segment.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

Okay, I will definitely try that because I am always up for good suggestions. So will that just allow me to be faster, or will I have to run faster at that two minute? Do you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Oh, yeah, you will have to run a little faster. It's not uh a lot faster, and it really surprises people. But the bottom line is because you're taking those walk breaks much more frequently, you're erasing the fatigue buildup much more frequently. And so the first 10 or 20 walk breaks, you're erasing all of fatigue buildup that's that's going on. Uh with a six-minute run, you're not going to be erasing all of a fatigue buildup during the first 20 or so uh walk breaks. Uh, but uh you'll notice that, and so give it a try. Now, in the long run, the concept is uh simple, and that is you do what works for you. You you try these things out and uh find out what seems to be more sustainable and then go with what's working for you. But you should be open to experimenting from time to time because you'll you'll be surprising yourself.

Why The Walk Break Is 30 Seconds

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Okay. Yeah, I definitely will try some different ratios. Um so why the 30-second walk? Is that just enough to recover, or is that what you found statistically or scientifically to work best?

SPEAKER_00 22:30

About 12 years ago, we embarked on uh a series of studies to see what law what uh duration of walk break bestowed the greatest amount of uh recovery and and erasure of fatigue. And we came up with 30 seconds. We found that those who walked longer, such as a minute, uh, would actually start slowing down during the second half of long races and long runs. And it became harder and harder to restart again after taking a walk break. And with a 30-second walk break, that was either minimized or it simply didn't happen. And so uh we saw improvement in times. An example was uh people that used to run half marathons in in two hours, uh running two minutes, running excuse me, four minutes and walking a minute, when they shifted to run two minutes, walk 30 seconds, there was an average of around four-minute time improvement.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

Wow, that's huge.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

It is at that pace, it's huge.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

That's huge. So does the run walk work for all distances, 5k through ultras?

SPEAKER_00 23:47

It does, although you would change the ratio uh on the shorter distances. You would you don't have to run as uh short, you can lengthen the run segment for 5Ks and 10Ks.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Okay. And then for an ultra, would you keep it at like a um I have a 50 miler coming up, so would would a two-minute run and a 30-second walk be better for that distance?

SPEAKER_00 24:16

Well, certainly it would, but uh just depending on where you are with your distance conditioning and how tough the terrain is, um more frequent walks in the beginning is is the usual uh format for ultras uh because it's all about being strong at the end. And the more you save in the first half, the stronger you can be at the end.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Okay, sure, that makes total sense. Um so one of my athletes, Amanda, um, had a question for you. She wanted me to ask, how do you not just want to keep walking since it's easier? Is that because you're only walking 30 seconds versus a longer walk? Do you do you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Um could you repeat the question? I didn't quite get her specific wording of that.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Okay. She wants to know why would basically why would you start running again when walking is so much easier?

Getting Faster While Avoiding Injury

SPEAKER_00 25:52

Well, you don't have to. I mean, if if you prefer walking, uh then just walk. Uh because as long as uh you're in a race where your walking speed is enough to stay ahead of the people that you know uh close the race, walk. Uh the the main difference between running and walking, as identified by thousands of studies that I I learned about when I researched my book, Mental Training. The difference between running and walking is that running stimulates certain brain circuits to a higher level. The circuit for a better attitude, the circuit for more energy, the circuit for empowerment, the growth of new brain cells, uh, all these are uh relating to hormones that are produced. And walking does produce those hormones for those three effects. However, running stimulates the production of a lot more of them. So you get a better feeling afterwards. You you you feel um, well, the the thinking process has been shown to be better and uh a lot of other things. The other uh thing, if you're interested in longevity, the studies tend to show that walking for every hour you all you walk, statistically you will add about three hours to your life. For running, you add seven hours per hour of running. So there's a greater extension. There are more benefits going on, and the researchers I talked to said that it had to be the extra mental benefits that you get when you run over walking.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Man, I'm gonna live forever. I put in a lot of hours. Yeah. So then it must uh because her other question was um, how does it make you faster? And that just must be because you don't get fatigued, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:06

That's right. The insertion of a walk break uh will erase, first of all, the fatigue on muscles. So the muscles will be stronger at the end. And so instead of slowing down, you're the one that can keep going, and there that is that means time. You know, instead of slowing down, you're staying the same or you're speeding up, and and that's where you gain that. The other benefit uh with taking the walk breaks is that you take away the stress buildup on the weak links that cause aches and pains. And uh when you're in pain at the end of a race, most people are gonna slow down, and uh you can avoid most or all of that with the right run-walk-run strategy.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

So, with your athletes that you started out with when you first started the run-walk, did they also just accumulatively get faster from getting stronger from being able to run longer? Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 29:13

Well, they did it first. Um and uh you identified a point here, and the point is that uh run-walk-run allows people to do longer, long runs prior to long races. And that is also a way to improve time. Uh, and we've studied that. We found that those who are training for half marathons and run up to 10 miles, when they go up to our 14-mile recommendation two weeks before a half marathon, they have an average improvement of seven minutes.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

Seven minutes. But if people are running the long runs too hard, they may not be able to get up to 14 miles. And I I'll tell you what we found about that, and that is you can't run too slow. I mean, we've had people break three hours who, for whatever reason, had to do mostly walking on all of their key long runs, and they still broke three hours in the marathon.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

Wow. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

And we've got thousands of reports of that. Uh so uh, you know, one lesson there is that if you are tempted to stop because you don't feel good, you're tired, and so forth, just walk it in, and you'll keep all of the benefits of the distance that you cover on that day. But it does help to go beyond race distance. Uh, in terms of a half marathon, those who used to run 14 miles but got up to a 19-mile or three weeks before their half marathon, uh the average improvement is another seven minutes.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

That's amazing. That is just amazing. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

I never would have thought that. And you can't you can't go too slow.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

Yeah, and that's key. You know, for a lot of runners, walking is just taboo. You know, and some of my athletes, I've been purposefully scheduling walking into the running because they also don't always when you tell them to go easy, they don't know what easy is. So I've been scheduling their speed, right? Their pace and their walk break into the easy runs now instead of just relying on them to go easy because they're a little bit stubborn. They just don't want to.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

That's another advantage of the run-walk-run. You can slow people down that need that in order to recover and avoid injury on long runs by simply adjusting their run-walk-run strategy.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

Yeah, they're a little bit stubborn sometimes, and and it's like they won't believe you when you say, I promise, if you just put this in, you're gonna feel so much better. And it's like you know the old adage, no pain, no gain, and you just can't get that out of their heads. They're like, Well, I feel like I didn't do anything. That's great because you just covered 10 miles and you don't feel like you did anything. That's what we're looking for, but it's so hard.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Well, we've got uh over half a million success stories to back that up.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

Yeah, they're gonna have to go read those, I think. They were not taking their coach's word for it. So um just to get back real quick to the distances. So if I'm running a 5K, I'll do a longer run with still the 30-second walk. But if I'm doing a marathon, I'm going to do a shorter run period, so say two minutes with the 30-second walk. And I'm going to that's going to be my ratios.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Yeah, six minutes uh of running in a 5k would be fine.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, so see, all this time I've been doing it for a marathon, I'm running the wrong race with the right ratio.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

Well, that's okay. I mean, we can all learn, experiment, and then revise. That's the essence of being a human being.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

Yeah, I um was uh just aged into the next uh Boston age qualifying range.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

And congratulations!

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Thanks. I would never I did run the the Boston uh marathon in 2017, but I haven't qualified again since. And you know, because there wasn't a need, right? And I did happen to just qualify at my last race, had it been a Boston qualifier. And now I do want to officially qualify again just to say I did, right? Not to go again just to say, wow, I still can do that. And I think if I change my ratio down to two minutes, I think I might just get a PR, like an actual PR for overall running. I'm really excited about that.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

I agree. And uh in the marathon, what we recommend for long runs is going up to 29 miles. We found that the difference uh between a 26-mile longest run and a 29-mile longest run, and they would be done either three or four weeks before the marathon itself. But the difference is uh 11 minutes of time improvement on the average.

SPEAKER_01 34:57

That is that is just amazing.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

More stamina.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

Yeah, that makes sense. That really makes sense. I've been doing um my long runs uh based on heart rate as well. So not only do I do the the walk break, but I um try to keep my easy runs super easy. And that in itself has really conditioned me to not be tired at the end of a marathon. It's it's just good. Yeah, the amazing.

SPEAKER_00 35:26

The heart rate on long runs can be misleading because the percentage that you are generating at the beginning of a run is based on running all out for the first mile and then all out for a 5k. And you can very easily, using heart rate, run too fast and still be below what the heart rate monitor is showing you because it's just showing you the short distance uh effect of the heart rate.

Monkey Brain, Mantras, And Mental Control

SPEAKER_01 36:01

Yeah, I've noticed that as well, and um that it it jacks up, but then it just kind of evens out, and I'm like, I don't know about that. So yeah, I know they're not foolproof for sure, but so so what other um running tips and things can you tell my audience about you, your method, or anything else that we haven't touched on?

SPEAKER_00 36:27

Well, uh probably the biggest uh effect would be mental uh effect. And uh when I wrote my book mental training, I had to take six months off before to go through the research and then keep going through the research because there was a just a lot of stuff out there uh and it's a very exciting feel. But uh and it unfortunately it's uh there are a lot of conflicts there. So I had to spend a lot of time comparing apples and apples and oranges and oranges, and it was so frustrating at first, and then when it finally started coming together, eureka, uh, and here's the eureka moment. We have two different brain operating systems that we use as human beings. We have the ancient subconscious brain, the reflex brain, sometimes called the monkey brain, that has a million times the operating capacity uh compared with our poor little human brain. The human brain has only been around for a relatively short time compared with the monkey brain. Now, the human brain, on the other hand, uh will override the monkey brain uh if you uh use it. Uh but most runners, when they start running, just put one foot in front of the other, are thinking about something else, and they let the monkey brain be in control. Uh the problem there is with the monkey brain in control, as the fatigue builds up and the stress builds up from all sources in your life. And of course, when you're on a run, you really revisit all those sources of stress in your life, don't you? Uh but when this happens, uh the monkey brain is going to send uh negative hormones. At first, it'll send anxiety hormones. So you start the run feeling bouncy, and probably as a result, you go a little too fast in the beginning. And then at two, three, four miles, uh you start to get the first wave of a little fatigue, and your muscles aren't as bouncy, and uh the uh monkey brain starts sending you some anxiety hormones. You're just not as confident as you were. And then uh 10 miles into uh a 13-mile run, uh, particularly if you've run a little too fast for the heat and so forth, you are going to start getting negative hormones that are uh juicing you by the uh monkey brain. And uh monkey brain's main goal is to keep you alive. And you know, you're putting stress, a lot of physical stress, on you when you run long. Uh but by having mantras and by having cognitive strategies, uh you can turn all that around because as soon as you start using the cognitive strategy, the human brain takes over, it overrides the monkey brain and does away with the negative hormones. And as long as you keep using a cognitive strategy, you can stay away from those negative hormones.

SPEAKER_01 40:08

Yeah, I would agree with that. Do you have a mantra that you use?

SPEAKER_00 40:13

I can do it. I can do it. Uh I'm in control. Uh this is my day. That you know, positive uh mantras are best, but they don't have to be positive. Any words that you say and you just think about it just a little bit uh will allow you to turn on your human brain. Another trick that works uh extremely well is to count your steps. Because when you start counting uh for any reason, you you turn on the left side of your human brain, and that also turns on the right side. The right side is the wonderful creative and intuitive side that has sources of all types of strength and creative solutions to problems and so forth. So uh you you're not feeling so good, count your steps.

SPEAKER_01 41:13

I know in a race what helps me, um, my mantra usually in a race is I'm a machine. I'm a machine, I'm a machine. Um but also um thanking all the the volunteers, the policemen, whoever's out there, that that puts that on me, and I'm not thinking about myself, right? That I mean it puts that on them where I'm I'm thanking them and I forget about how I feel. So that helps me too, other than my I'm a machine.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

Yeah, uh anytime that you engage in an activity that turns on that human brain, and certainly interacting with other uh people will do that. Uh and because you know, you're as soon as you say something, your mind, your human brain is going to be ready to get a response and be able to react to that. That that's cognitive uh frontal lobe, human brain behavior.

SPEAKER_01 42:11

Yeah, and yeah, because those monkey brains sure can get in the way. I think a lot of um runners really have to develop that mental toughness in order to do the things that they do. I that's it almost more so than the physical sometimes is getting through it mentally.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

Uh absolutely correct. And uh I'm I'm very surprised that uh other coaches have not come into this knowledge about the two different brain operating systems, but that's the key to the whole thing. Uh have a cognitive strategy and you can be in control over your motivation.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

Absolutely. That is great. Uh I need to get that on a t-shirt. Any last thoughts that you want these people to know? I will definitely put your links in the show notes. Um, but is there anything else that one line or tips or anything you have for us?

SPEAKER_00 43:09

Well, I just want everyone to enjoy their running injury free. And my whole mission is to help people do this. And we just have thousands of people that are coming into running every month as a result of that. It's just a wonderful thing to see people have these amazing experiences that running will give you without the aches and pains. That's what we do. And and take a look at us at uh jefgalloway.com. We've got a whole lot of content there that's free and and open to everyone. And we put on retreats and uh uh running schools, some of them are Zoom clinics too, and we just want to help people.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

Yeah, isn't that the truth? Man, yeah, injury free is the ticket right there. And if you they can, you know, humble themselves to and start walking. I I honestly I had to take myself off of Strava because I was so afraid that people would see my numbers go down and oh, look, looks like she's walking. Well, you know, if you're that person, then take yourself off Straba and start walking, you know, and you have to sometimes you just have to admit that to yourself that that's what I have to do in order to get this to fit in.

SPEAKER_00 44:32

I agree. Uh take control and then uh everything else will start improving.

SPEAKER_01 44:39

For sure.

unknown 44:40

Well

SPEAKER_01 44:41

Jeff, it's been such an honor to have you here. I am just over the moon that you said yes and would come on the podcast. I really appreciate your brilliance and all the things you're doing for the running community. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 44:54

Well, Carla, don't hesitate to reach out or if any of your folks uh have any questions. Uh my uh website has a free email service so you can just ask questions. Just put ask Jeff in the subject line.

SPEAKER_01 45:10

Awesome. I will put that in the show notes as well. Well, thank you again for being here, and I will look forward to maybe a follow-up sometime.

SPEAKER_00 45:19

I will be glad to do that, Carla. You do a good great job.

SPEAKER_01 45:23

Thank you. Bye now.

SPEAKER_00 45:25

Bye.

SPEAKER_01 45:27

Well, what did you think? Pretty special uh episode, wasn't it? Um I've learned so much uh over these past few years of just you know reading uh his works and uh hearing him on other podcasts and yeah, pretty special. So I hope you enjoyed it. Uh if so, uh please rate, share, follow the show. Um if you're on YouTube at that time I didn't have um uh video, only audio, so uh you weren't able to get a glimpse of him. Sorry for that. But yeah, please uh share and rate and follow the program. Send it to anybody you think that would enjoy it. Uh and as always, uh if you need a coach, I still do have some virtual coaching um options available. You can reach out to me, Carla, at coffeecrew coaching.com. And uh you can follow me on the socials. I'm not as great on the socials, uh it keeps getting less and less. Um, but I'd be happy to uh help you with your running or any uh personal fitness things that you need. And uh I'll look forward to you guys uh seeing you guys again. Thanks for everything.