From Couch to Coach: Javier Trilla's 10-Year Running Journey

DFW Running Talk with Javier Trilla
Chris Detzel: , [00:00:00]
Welcome to DFW running talk. I'm Chris Detzel. So let's get started.
welcome to our first episode on DFW Running Talk. I am Chris Detzel and today I have a special guest, Javier. Javier, how are you?
JT: Hey, Chris, good. How are you? Thanks for thanks for having me on this. I appreciate it and it's exciting.
Chris Detzel: Yeah, no, I'm excited, man. And I was really excited that you said, Hey, yeah, let's do this.
We're both into running. We, I see you a lot at the track and then when we do hills and things like that. And and so you've always been an interesting runner to me. You've accomplished a lot within the running stuff. So I'd love to get to know you a little bit.
Tell me about you, you're running, all this kind of stuff. Yeah.
JT: Me, I have been running for a little under 10 years, just is a little crazy to me when I think about it, because I feel like I just started running yesterday. And I feel like up until a few years ago, I still called myself a baby runner.
I'm very much not a baby runner. I'm salty and jaded at this point. But here we are. My my [00:01:00] bones definitely feel the the 10 years of running after a while for sure, but no local DFW runner been doing this for about 10 years recently started coaching about a year ago or so. And it's been quite the adventure since I'm pretty heavily involved in the running community.
A fixture in the white rock running co op and I bounce around with all the different running groups and check out to see what works and what doesn't for all the groups around town.
Chris Detzel: I've been running for probably since I was 37. So 13 years pretty consistently for the most part, I used to be a runner back in the, when I was a teenager and all that did cross country and did a very slight way at a community college.
And so I certainly understand where you are and certainly been in DFW area running a lot of myself. We all have a story to tell when you think about it like, and for me, I know I have a story. That's just That got me back into running, you know I gotta do this for my health and all this other stuff and as I You know, i'm curious to understand, what got you into running and then you know, let's go from there.
JT: Yeah Definitely was not a runner in high school [00:02:00] or college or anything along those lines I was a I guess You Not midlife crisis runner, but I'm on mid thirties. I was introduced to running a 5k with the promise of beer at the end of the finish line. So I had had friends that that dragged me into running.
I was not expecting to to enjoy it quite as much as I did, but back in 2015, I think I ran the Plano Balloon Fest was my first 5k. And I used that as a training run for my very first goal 5k, which is the RAR 5k back in back in 2015 also. So I jumped on the couch to 5k bandwagon and.
Ran the first 5k, didn't do too bad for my first one. I was like, all right I'm not too bad at this. One, one thing leads to another with running, you run a 10 K, you run a half and next thing you know, you're signed up for a full marathon over a little over a year later, which is wild.
Chris Detzel: That's interesting.
So there wasn't something there that said, Hey, I need to really start thinking about my health. It was just Hey, there's some beer and okay, let's go do some more.
JT: I was, I've been in big into the gym [00:03:00] for, years before that. And, relative fitness and I would do cardio at the gym and whatnot, but I was never a runner.
I think I tried couch to 5k years prior to that, like maybe six or seven. And I, never stuck with it. And then just having friends that were really into it really helped push me along
Chris Detzel: Then what kind of kept you going? I mean you mentioned that you did a few 5ks and stuff but what you know for me, it's always about a community and It's hard for me to do something by myself all the time, right?
Some people really like that but for me, but what kind of kept you focused and going guys anyway, but
JT: Community for sure. In the beginning, a lot of it was really just training by myself and train with some friends that, the same friends that dragged me into running and then little by little, I lived in Lewisville at the time, so I was a little bit further north and there wasn't really a big running community presence there at the time.
So a lot of my training was solo and I would actually in the beginning, drive up to Dallas to run with the WRC, my Saturday long runs and and that kind of started it, that was my inroads into the running community. Meeting lots of friends over time and really the group was is [00:04:00] so marathon crazy that it stuck me into through it Led to another yeah, I mean it wasn't long.
I think I ran my first half in five months after I started running. And like shortly after that, I was already signed up for, we accidentally got into the New York city marathon via lottery. Was it planning on getting in? And next thing I know I was running a marathon.
Chris Detzel: One of the things that when I first started running, I thought, when I was training, I thought I'm running as fast as I can on every single train run and, it's getting a PR, but, I was starting to get sore and all this other stuff and realize, You're not supposed to do that.
JT: Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, the beginner gains make you a very greedy in the beginning and you're running everything at one speed. And really that's the same thing with me. When I first started running, everything was like, I've got to run just around my 5k pace and for a long time, that, that was fine. And the, as the distances got a little further, I was able to slow it down a little bit, but really, I, in the beginning, one of the biggest mistakes I made was running too fast all the time.
And it, it really slowed my progress down in the beginning. And [00:05:00] you just can't run every single run at top speed because. Your top speed never goes up and then you end up getting hurt. I eventually did get hurt after doing that for too long and 18, two years in a running.
Chris Detzel: So let's talk about that for a minute.
Injuries. Yeah. What'd you do? What happened?
JT: So I think, it's hard to say cause you never know what really causes the injury. But I was training for I guess it was my. Third marathon. I was training for whistle stop marathon and late 2017 and training through the summer, and it was my first like real big buildup for a marathon.
I don't remember if I was really trying to BQ at the time or not. But I was definitely trying to get my marathon time whittled down for my earlier marathon in 2017, but. I think it was maybe a combination at the time of jumping into it too fast and overtraining. And I did take a pretty hard spill.
I fell during the marathon cycle about a month and a half before the race. And like a week later, I could just feel it was a sacral stress reaction and it took me out for Six to eight weeks in a, and it really it was a tough time. [00:06:00] It's the longest injury that I've ever had to deal with.
I've had little minor things here and there, but nothing's really ever taken me out that long. And I'm going to knock on wood real quick, because I feel like
I've been pretty lucky so far.
Chris Detzel: You know as you so you mentioned that you've run for almost 10 years and you know Can you talk a little bit about what it took? Why it sounds like you're i'd say I wouldn't say like peer pressured into it But a lot of times whenever you run with the a group that runs marathons you get interested I don't know what kind of got you into running your first marathon
JT: the first marathon.
I've been promising my wife a trip to New York city for years and years. And that's for whatever reason, I don't even really remember the backstory, but we were talking about going to New York city and signing up for the New York city marathon. And we figured, we'll give it a shot.
Probably not going to get in. Two of us got in via the lottery and two of us had to pay the hefty way in through one of the marathon towards programs. And we're able To get all four of us in as a group. But that's really what brought me into it. I look I really after my first half I really [00:07:00] did fall in love with running and it's and I, The distance that the half brought really interested me in the fall.
And, I'd watched, over the first couple of years that I was running, just like watching like the Boston marathon and watching the friends that I've been meeting along the way. And I was really interested in it that at the time I never thought I'd make it. I never thought that this would be like this long time thing that I'd love so much and keep doing, but.
over time, little by little the gains kept coming and things got a little bit more structured with me and I whittled my times down after that.
Chris Detzel: You're pretty focused, dude it's fun to watch so my wife's run 11 bostons and She's run, you know a lot of those kinds of things.
So I got to go I get to go wherever she goes. So It's always fun. i'm not a i've run some marathons, but i'm not a You know, I get tired of it. I was like, oh, this is just too much time and effort for me, you know
JT: It is a time suck I think I spend up to 10 hours a week training when i'm actually seriously focused on the marathon even right now for half I think i'm still running like eight hours a week.
So it's a fair amount. It's Time suck for [00:08:00] sure. It's a lot of getting up early and it hurts
Chris Detzel: so, you've run all these impressive times and they can people can go to your website and we'll give that information out later, but Let's talk a little bit about you know Look, you've run a lot.
You've had a lot of experiences, what got you in and into coaching So you're a coach now,
JT: so the coaching came about. So look, I could talk about running all day. That's why we're here. Exactly, right? I could talk about running all day and I found myself, you know Giving advice here and there.
Hopefully it wasn't unsolicited advice Sorry friends if you got unsolicited advice from me in the past now you got to pay me for it. But I think about a year and change ago I had a friend in the WRC that actually was asking me, Hey, do you think that you would coach me? I'm trying to make a run for a BQ and I, I wouldn't mind if you gave it a shot.
I don't, at the time I was like, look, I'm not certified yet. I don't really have any. By your coaching experience. I do I did have a coach for about a few months for one of my, one of my first BQ buildups and over time I've really been self coached and I've learned a lot along the way by reading a lot of books and everything else.
So I was like, look, I'll take you on. And we'll [00:09:00] just see how this goes. And I know. You know pretty well what I'm doing within a certain range. I try not to take on people that are faster than me I don't feel it's right for me to take on clients that are faster than me. I have a limit which hey, maybe i'm losing customers that way but that's the way I see it That's how I started.
One friend reached out. He did really well. For being my first client He qualified for the boston marathon. Actually, he's going to be running it. This coming April for 25. So that inspired me. I went out and got VDOT certified through the Jack Daniels coaching program. And I'm, I'm looking into more certifications in the future as well, but that's really what got me going.
I picked up a few clients since then, and it's been excited. It's fun helping people. Look, I'm never going to quit my day job doing this. But it's fun and not a lot of money. No, there isn't. But it's a gratifying experience and I can tell people, or I can, help people out with what I love.
And, it's a lot of fun. Seeing people succeed and watching them grow as a runner. It's really cool. It's a fun experience
Chris Detzel: How does if I were to call you, today and I said javier, look i'm looking at Trying to run let's just start [00:10:00] off with the half marathon.
I don't have any experience and things like that I have goals. I think I can do a half marathon, you know What would you tell somebody like, and I want to hire somebody to help me get To there and maybe i haven't had previous running experience.
JT: Yeah, so I treated I treated like a job interview we set up a phone call and we talk about some folks, you know I may know them some folks and i'll know a little bit about their background and whatnot but you know if it's just somebody that's found me at random and I don't know your history sometimes i'll see if you've got a strava so I can spy on you a little bit and see what you've been doing but really I get a good idea of of what your goals are.
Do you just want to finish the half? Do you want to race the half? You have time goal in mind. How much are you running a week right now? Have you already picked a race? That's the, one of the more complicated things I found with coaching is a lot of times people will come to you by the time they've already picked their race.
So I only have a set amount of time that I can work with you to get you to your race. Yeah so that's where like the setting realistic expectations about time goals and what we're looking at comes into play because you know when they've already got their race picked [00:11:00] out, it's great It's fantastic.
But you know now I have to square peg round hole. Like all right, you've got a race You've not been running very much the past few weeks and now you've got a race in eight weeks.
Chris Detzel: Yeah,
JT: That's probably the toughest but otherwise Really?
Chris Detzel: I think you have eight weeks, so
JT: yeah yeah, I prefer more full disclaimer.
Full disclosure. But yeah, it's but yeah it's really an interview that a lot of it is just finding out your running history. If you've been injury prone, how many miles a week you're running today. How much time are you willing to commit? Cause that's important too. Some folks only want to run three or four days a week and that's fine.
But you have to tailor it to that. Some people, some folks love to be, deep in the hurt locker and deep in pain. And you can push them really hard. And some folks are like, look, I just want to finish, relax.
Chris Detzel: I remember so I run sometimes with Dallas running group and a bunch of other different clubs.
I've learned that, I just want to meet people. And, the clubs that I run with doesn't matter. It's just about building the relationship with the running community. But I was running with this woman one time and [00:12:00] she had a lot of speed, she's run five Ks, 10 Ks and even has, but never ran a marathon.
And. She decided to run a marathon and she was like look my goal is i'm gonna make sure I get a bq I said you know I said it's not that you don't have the talent because she certainly had the talent There's no doubt in my mind at some point. She's going to boston. You know what I mean? I said but I said just remember like let's put expectations.
Let's set the right expectations. One was like running marathons isn't just, hey, you run one marathon and you're going to hit this time necessarily. In general, you don't. I'm not saying it never happens, but it takes time to get to that. If it's a marathon, certainly to a speed that is going to it just takes time and effort to get there.
It's like your body has to adjust over the years, and. I don't think people are that patient a lot of times in my opinion and maybe halves are like that Halves are a little different to [00:13:00] me maybe because I ran so many but I think you can get there a lot faster and a half you do full
JT: I think the half is a lot more forgiving.
I think my biggest thing is with the marathon is you got to respect the distance or the distance will very quickly disrespect you. Cause look at the half, you can almost get away with, not that I recommend it, but you can almost get away with a bad fueling plan, a short training cycle.
It's not, it's still a hard and big accomplishment, but the marathon, it's just a totally different beast and the training that goes in it and the fueling and everything else. There's so many things that have to go right to have a good day in the marathon. And, training is a huge part of it.
But your sleep and your weather that day how does your stomach feel when you wake up? A lot, there's so much that goes into it, but you bring up a good point about people that kind of folks will have a goal already in mind. And that's, that is, I think from the coaching perspective, one of the harder things I have to work with is, someone will say, Hey, look, This is my second marathon.
I'm 45 minutes away from my BQ time on my last marathon, but I really want to BQ this time and really, [00:14:00] I think the best thing that I can do as a coach is be honest and set expectations early on and not sell false promises. Because you can't, you have to be able to hit certain milestones before you can hit that main goal of marathon.
It's just, it's not, and you, it's, are you ready for this? And what does your training look like before that? Cause there's some folks that, yeah, they can be cue maybe easily on their first job. They're naturally talented, but it takes time. And I appreciate when folks give me a little bit more time to work with them to get them there.
And I just. Through the coaching certifications that I've done. It's very calculated there's some pretty simple math and some pretty simple formulas that say, you know You need to run an xyz before you can run an xyz marathon along with the distance that goes along with it So I I tend to get people like checkpoints.
Yeah, let's say you want to break Four hours of marathon, right? Generally speaking. There's that old rule, take your half marathon time and, add 10 minutes and that's ballpark and it's, it's rough math, right? And it depends on your training, but that's been the, the biggie for me is like setting up real expectations for folks.
Chris Detzel: So a couple more questions around your [00:15:00] coaching style is, one of the things that I believe, and you can completely disagree because I don't know what your coaching style is, but is if I have a goal race, let's say my goal race is eight months from now, nine months or whatever, and, I've never really raced much, my thinking is, Hey, you should put some five Ks or 10 Ks inside that six or eight month window to get race ready, and I think that. Because you don't, you want to know what it feels like on race day, because I might have to go to the bathroom. I might have to do these things beforehand, or, I might, I should carry some gels. There's a lot of things, my opinion is to think about, and, if I haven't run a race in six months, which just happened, like this weekend, I ran a race, it was a five is a five K and a 10 K at the same time.
Yeah, thanks it's been like five or six months since I even ran a race at all, And I was like, oh man, I almost forgot what this is about But for those that don't run a lot of races what do you think about six eight twelve months out when they have a goal race?[00:16:00]
JT: I 100 agree getting the pre race jitters out of the way and really The best way to figure out how you're going to do at your goal race is to do little checkpoints along the way So honestly the first thing you should probably do is a 5k. Let's see Like a 5k time trial is like how I base your paces.
So if you run, whatever 25 and at 5k, I can say, I can expand that out and say, all right, run your tempos at this pace, run your long routes at this pace, run your easy pace at this pace. And then you do a next checkpoint. All right. Now you're in a 5k, you ran a 10 K a little bit later on.
Let's see how you're progressing. Yeah, I'm a big proponent of racing along the way. Cause yeah, pre race jitters practicing. Even me, like I, I'll go several months without racing and like before goal race, I will definitely. Jump on and get on a bib even if it's a pacing gig just that
Chris Detzel: yeah
JT: that having a bib on and having those race day morning nerves and getting them out of your system and Both those jitters is a big deal.
So yeah 100 percent a proponent of racing a fair amount.
Chris Detzel: Hey pacing is so fun I haven't done it a little bit, but I used to do it a lot and One it is it's okay I was I felt like I [00:17:00] was pretty good at pacing, certain like a 150 or something like that but it's always fun to get people riled up excited, you know during kind of The race and then watch them accomplish it, right?
They beat you at the end or you know They get their goal time, and set them
JT: free and tell them to sprint
Chris Detzel: Go, what are you doing here? Still,
JT: go you're talking too much. Leave me
Chris Detzel: You shouldn't be talking. You should have been way faster talking right now. When you look at because I believe that and I'm not saying I'm going to be really great at this, but I believe that, you got to do more than just running to really, especially as you get older to keep the body moving, right?
So whether it's weights or core stuff or whatever, how do you incorporate some of that or do you into the train? Cause I know you do a lot of that stuff.
JT: I do a, Some strength training, probably not as much as I should. I think it's the hardest balance ever is, throwing 8 to 10 hours a week of running and then also finding the energy to go lift and everything else.
I try I'm not the best at it. If folks have the time and the bandwidth what I like to say [00:18:00] is keep your hard days hard and your easy days easy. If you have a pretty hard run and You're mixing, some folks want to do heavy legs. I'm like, all right you're gonna have to put it one day where you already have your legs beat up and it's a give and take.
What do you want to be good at? Do you want to be good at running or do you want to lift heavy weights?
Chris Detzel: Yeah,
JT: I agree with
Chris Detzel: that a hundred percent.
JT: If you're gonna have a leg day, I say, throw it on the tempo to hell. I do. I do. Like day sometimes on long run day, cause it's out of the way.
It gives me the weekend to recover. And I bounced back from that, but really. For the sake of recovery, really running super, super slow, easy recovery runs is super important to me. Doing all the foam rolling and having a good sports chiropractor in your back pocket, isn't a bad idea either.
I, it's important to me to keep those things in check before the body starts hurting. And look, I'm not going to sit here and lie to you. Like I don't sit around in some level of pain at all at any given day. It's just, I'm a master's runner now, so it's it takes its toll, man.
Chris Detzel: I'm not sure that it's really fair sometimes when you start looking at a 40 year old versus a 60 year old, and that's [00:19:00] still considered masters. But, they, I think they really should start thinking of grandmasters and every big race,
JT: I'll appreciate that when I'm at that age.
Chris Detzel: Yeah, what, you're going to be that age. We all will. And so what's your go to races, in the Dallas Fort Worth area, what would you say? You really love some, or some of your good races that you love.
JT: So local races. I've, I love the DRC half. I've I've been able to race it and pace it at this time.
Dallas is always a fun weekend. You can always, get a great cheer squad. Everyone, everyone in the city is there, right?
Chris Detzel: Yeah, that's right.
JT: So Dallas half, I've actually never run the Dallas full and it's on my agenda at some point, but I am running the Dallas half this year.
The YMCA Turkey Trot, that's always one of my favorites. Have you
Chris Detzel: ever done Cowtown?
JT: I have done Cowtown. It was actually my second marathon. Oh, wow. It was I've actually done twice. I it was my second marathon and I paced I paced it the full marathon and 20. 23 on a build up. Do you pace a lot of marathons?
Actually, funny [00:20:00] story. That was my first pacing gig was the kowtow marathon We used it as a, I had a 24 mile training run and they needed pacers for a certain PACE group and I was like,
Chris Detzel: might as well,
JT: let's go do it. So me and me and KG shout out to Kiran paced the three 10 group that year and it was a lot of fun.
And then ,
Chris Detzel: she paced the three 10 . Oh, my God. I didn't mean to drop
JT: that. I'm sorry. You can edit that out if you want. No, man. I
Chris Detzel: love it. No, I don't. Look, I think that whether you're no matter your speed and and that you should be proud of it, right? To me that's amazing.
A 310 that you can pace, but you know what? You can go run a four hour, 430, whatever marathon. That's great. I think, we're all different speeds and we're all different. And in all reality in the reality in reality, we're all different right? So yeah, I think that we just have to just understand that but I think it's awesome that you and karen just One day go pace just because you got to do a long run.
JT: Yeah it was a long run for sure But but no and i've [00:21:00] paced a few races since at drc half being one of them and then I actually recently paced for the floor on a very warm. Yeah, that's a warm day.
Chris Detzel: I feel like that one's always warm.
JT: It is I You I've run the quarter marathon twice and it never goes quite the way.
I wanted to I
Chris Detzel: remember last year I raced three or four half marathons in the summer and I thought I was gonna die, right? Like I literally I will not I don't think i'll race another half. I'll do some 5k's maybe but i'm not gonna race a half marathon during the summer because I just, it makes me feel like I'm super slow and everything else.
And I actually ran my fastest half marathon in September on a downhill race in Utah. But anyways, the point is yeah, it was last year, that's not this year. It is what it is.
JT: Hey, my PRs are about a year and a half old now, so I'm better than not totally. My marathon PR is about a year and a half old.
I was looking at your 5k
Chris Detzel: like four years ago,
JT: no, I ran a 5k. Oh my [00:22:00] 5k pr. Yeah, it's a little yeah, but i'm not getting any younger I don't plan on that pr getting any faster anytime soon unless I
Chris Detzel: 5k's are tough man.
JT: Breakthrough
Chris Detzel: yeah, unless you're really just training and look you're super speedy.
Can you give some so let's go back to the coaching and training and things like that So tell me a little bit about like how you would get somebody so let's say You I call you up and we're doing the training and stuff like that. And I have some injuries and things. How would you tell me, what would you tell me to, it probably depends, but if
JT: you've got some injuries, I want to know from your doctor that you're cleared to run and don't lie to me.
That's the biggie, right? Because if you start running and you're, half injured and you're coming into this. You're just going to get injured again. It's it's hard to it's hard to get started when you're already limping on one foot, but what was the rest of the question?
I'm, sorry.
Chris Detzel: No, I think that's good. One question. I do think and That I think is important is So it's funny because sometimes I use different things to motivate me, it could be you know, a david goggins thing or whatever but It's not it's never enough right? Like I feel like [00:23:00] motivation is just an emotional You Kind of thing and some, the things I hear a lot is I'm not motivated.
I'm not motivated. What do you tell people that? What do you tell people that say that kind of stuff?
JT: Folks that aren't motivated. They don't typically reach out to a coach, if I'm going to be honest with you. But if they're having a hard time getting out the door, I just got to remind them, Hey, what is the goal that you have in mind for this race?
It's, this cycle is only temporary. There's some sacrifices involved in it. You know what
Chris Detzel: I would tell them? I'd be like, if I, if you're trained, it's just like life in general. This is what I believe it's running, or you're trying to get a promotion at work or whatever. Sometimes, motivation is not enough, right?
It's doing the work it's focusing in on the things that you have to do on a consistent and daily basis. And that's running. You want to run a marathon? You get out there and do the work. My wife tells me all the time. She goes I just go out and do it. I'm not motivated to do it I just go do it, and so I think that to [00:24:00] me That's really the way to look at it, right?
JT: Really? And the other thing too like the whole community thing is a big deal, right? Some people are not motivated to get out the door by themselves at all and look I mean I will go out there and grind solo. I don't love it The days that are the hardest to get up are the days that i'm going to go You know run a workout at the lake at 5 30 in the morning and there's not A peep out there and it's me my light my thoughts going through my brain and my anxiety my workout starts but really if you're having trouble with getting out the door, the best thing I can recommend anybody is find a running group.
There's a bunch of running groups here. Your website itself has a ton of resources for all the different running groups here in Dallas. There's a run group for everyone out here. There's, the kids call it run club now, right? There's running groups for three to four miles, but that's all you want to do.
Run five Ks, three, four miles, have fun with friends. That's great. Thanks and then you have all sorts of different groups all the way throughout DRC, WRC, Pegasus, this loss. They're all out there for all different levels of all different levels of skill, really. And and someone you'll meet someone that might be your buddy that'll get you out the door.
They'll be your text accountability [00:25:00] buddy. And that's, God knows I haven't.
Chris Detzel: 1000%. And so I'm glad you said that because I think community is key for a lot for most of us. That's why you see these really big running groups, right? That's, I think that's a big one. And I like the accountability partners is, the beauty about that is I could call some people up today and just say hey so and so i'm gonna go run on tuesday and wednesdays can you come and run with me one of these days or whatever and Like i've been starting to try to come to the tuesday and wednesday groups that you guys have right like for Speed workout and it's just there to keep me accountable to hey, I need to do some running You know, I don't want to continue to do this by myself.
I think that is extremely important, big I love that door. Yeah, when you look at one thing i'm interested in is what does your diet look like? How do you manage that throughout the day, you know from a
JT: diet? They say you can't outrun a bad diet and that is Somewhat true I you [00:26:00] know That's a tough one for me because I don't have the best diet in the world.
I try to eat pretty clean dinner I see you on
Chris Detzel: facebook sometimes and you're like passed out on the ground with hey
JT: Yeah, I I do like to have fun I do not let running take over my life I very much enjoy my saturday nights and and I will not say love that You know, I try to eat.
That's the
Chris Detzel: thing is have fun,
JT: right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean I look Most of us do not do this for a living. Exactly. Even with the coaching. It's not my day job. So I'm going to live life a little bit too. And, as well as my friends, but yeah, I don't know. My diet's okay. It's not great.
It's not bad. I do think that I outrun it a little bit. For the most part, then what's favorite food, Christian? My favorite food? Yeah. What do you I will tell you that my favorite pre-race, meal, and pre long run meal is always gonna be pizza. So I love pizza. Yeah. I will not lie.
Other than that I'm a heavy meat potatoes guy, so steak is always will always make me happy.
Chris Detzel: Yeah, I [00:27:00] love steak. It's definitely do you cook yourself or do you do you just
JT: go out a lot? No, we eat at home a fair amount. We go out on the weekends usually, it's one night a week here or there, but for the most part we try to eat at home.
Chris Detzel: All right, you know
JT: that helps keep it a little healthier
Chris Detzel: Yeah, it does. This way you don't get these burgers. Look, I love a good burger, but man Yeah, I can't eat a ton of those things anymore,
JT: because they also come along with french fries
Chris Detzel: Yeah, or like every wednesday I take my son to gloria's and i'll eat fish but before the fish, I eat a bunch of chips.
JT: Yeah
Chris Detzel: I'm, just oh my god,
JT: you know The funny thing is about all the social running groups if you're not careful you end up at a social run every night and you're Eating junk food and drinking beer every night and that's I actually had to stop going to so many social runs after a while I was like i'm being counterproductive my diet here on running at this point
Chris Detzel: So we have this group.
It's a social run group called DDR and we meet on Thursday nights and supposedly we meet at Norfolk Park and supposedly we get out there and [00:28:00] run, but generally we don't. We just sit there and have beers. That's it. Or whatever you drink. Yeah I i'll do my running or workout, you know in the morning Knowing that i'm not gonna but it's just for me to hang out there other runners, you know
JT: That's us at taco join after we finish our long runs at the co op on saturday mornings.
We hang out there for hours afterwards having mimosas and You
Chris Detzel: guys every now and then for that,
JT: You really should. It's a good time on Saturday.
Chris Detzel: Yeah, I think I'm going to, I've been thinking about it. So when you look at the vision of, or not really the vision, but when you look at the future for you do you have a future like goal of some people want to run all six major marathons or whatever, do you have any kind of particular marathons that you want to go after?
JT: Not really. I'm in, I'm still PR chasing right now. So I'm looking at races that are typically more convenient for, for PRs granted I, mine is not on the easiest course in the world considering my PR is over at [00:29:00] Boston, but I'm still PR chasing. I love CIM in Sacramento. It's a favorite race of mine that I'll probably go back to one of these days.
I've got all three domestic majors under my belt already. And I, at some point I think I might chase the international ones. I'm just not big on my priority list right now. I do think it'd be fun, but I do see people going through the travel nightmares of going overseas for a marathon and like putting all their cards and all their training into it.
And didn't they have a bad travel day or they get sick and it's man, I don't. Maybe later when i'm not chasing a lot of effort
Chris Detzel: to get sick or something And
JT: there's so many variables when you go out of the country and like time zone changes and it's hard I see people like really struggle with this sometimes some people do great.
Don't get me wrong But it's not where my head's at right now But there's you know, there's some other good races that I haven't done yet that I look forward to doing. I might be doing like actually Eugene is one that it's been high on my list of races that I would love to do. So that won't be awesome.
So those are the marathons I've minded. I'm not a every year, Boston repeater, although I do [00:30:00] love running Boston and I'm sure that I'll be back again soon enough.
Chris Detzel: Yeah, you're not one that cares to necessarily just do it every single year like, you know
JT: He's a funny thing is the funny thing is that yeah kieran I should give him a little help because he said he wasn't gonna run it this year and I know But
Chris Detzel: he's gonna do london.
He's gonna do live man Yeah, my wife's doing the same thing though, right? Yeah, she's gonna do boston and then London like the next week and i'm like, okay. That's a lot I probably won't go to london, but i'll go to boston with you,
JT: right? And i'm not gonna lie Like I would love to do boston every year because as soon as it comes around it's like solo as soon as everyone leaves, I would love to do it.
It's just My wallet and my vacation time. It's the highly doing it every single year.
Chris Detzel: Yeah. Yeah, it's highly expensive you know if you can do it then i'd recommend it it's a lot of times it's just a once in a lifetime thing for somebody, yeah.
JT: Yeah. I get it. Some people are one and done with it.
And I love it. I think it's an amazing experience. It's still my favorite race to date. I'll never forget my first Boston and my second Boston.
Chris Detzel: When did you do, when's the last time you did Boston?
JT: 23. Not that long ago,
Chris Detzel: [00:31:00] No,
JT: I I trained my heart and soul out for that marathon. So Yeah, I did.
And I haven't
Chris Detzel: run a marathon since
JT: Yeah,
Chris Detzel: I remember my last marathon I ran. Probably like 2017 or 2018 And I was talking to my wife and I said, which one was it? Was it Dallas? Yeah, I think it was Dallas. Okay. And, a month or two after, talking to my wife and I'm always complaining about the training and just doing it, she goes, Chris, you don't really have to do a marathon.
I was like, Yeah, that's true. She says, why don't you just focus on halves? And I never did another marathon again.
JT: I was about to ask you, when am I going to drag you out to do another full again?
Chris Detzel: I don't know. I don't know that you can. I've done several like I've done 50ks. I've done, like My wife and I will go into the colorado mountains do these six day trips where there's 25 miles up Like for six days straight we're doing 25 miles not every day, but maybe three or four days going up and down mountains, which is brutal, i'll do stuff [00:32:00] like that, but running the marathons have just been just Ball breaking to me, like i've done three and One of them I did haze funny enough, which was only a 4 30, which I was like, okay I could and even that was hard, and so grind.
Yeah, it just I think the training for me is the grind and so I don't know but so last question for you, so As you look at Giving advice to maybe somebody new that's starting to run, whether it's 5k or wanting to train, what would be your advice to get into running and things like that?
JT: I think the tried and true couch to 5k plan is amazing for new runners, especially if you haven't run a mile yet. Don't try to go out there and run a mile the first time. I think those walk dog intervals are clutch. I that's what I use. I swear I started on couch to 5k and it worked. And. It gives you that flexibility to try it over and over again and repeat weeks if you want to.
But I think, at first just focus on running. You don't need to [00:33:00] focus on speed work and the track and everything else. That's a great way to get hurt right off the bat and burn out. The first thing that you should really do is just. Run and run more and just get your body used to that just general running and don't worry about pace Just get out there Run have fun with it the track and the gains and the tempos and all the rest of that'll come later soon enough but I mean I think the most important thing is just get out there and run and start logging some miles and just Take care of your body on the way to don't try to jump up too fast.
Try not to sign up for your marathon within three months of starting to run. That's a really bad idea. Don't do that. I don't recommend it. I'll help you get there if you really want to. But I really don't recommend it. It's just it's a good way to get hurt right off the bat. And I think that's the hardest part, right?
When you're starting out, like there are a lot of little aches and pains that come with running that eventually do go away. That's actually, that's a good segue to another point. The aches and pains do eventually go away. Like all those beginner runner pains, like shin splints and knee pain and everything else.
You got to take care of them, but they [00:34:00] will eventually get better. The side stitches, all that stuff does go away. It just. It comes with experience and a lot of people like oh, man I can't run because my knees hurt or my shins hurt I get side stitched like just stick with It's gonna get better.
It's the only way you get better at running is by running more
Chris Detzel: Here's what I think is the more you do it and the more people you're around. You know Going back to that community aspect. I learned a lot just being around runners like yeah shoes They wore what kind of socks and shirts and things like that, you know You And I learned a ton.
So I definitely think one is, if you're going to start running, maybe get with the group, I remember two is when I started running, there was no groups that I knew of, because I lived in little back in the day, and there was no groups there. And I just started running.
And one of the things I did was I said, for one week, I'm going to run a mile for the next five days. And I can walk run the first one, first time and then at the end of on friday I want to get to where I can jog the whole thing Yep, and I got [00:35:00] to that and then you know over time, I remember my brother He comes in he was in the air force and he goes.
Hey, man, i'm gonna do a 5k He goes you get do it with me and I was like i'm not no I don't know if i'm just do it. Let's go, and so I did it And it did fine, that's where it just revved up the engine, and sometimes you just sign up for a 5k, and give yourself a month or two.
I think that's where
JT: it starts. I think the 5k is the gateway drug of running and it's a really great place to start. But I think you made a good point, right? Ask questions. What did we say in the beginning of this? Runners love talking about running. So ask someone that's chatty and just ask them a lot of the questions that we talked about today.
How did you get started? What would you do? What shoes do you wear? How do you fuel? How do you run? What's your training like how many miles a week do you do how fast should I increase my mileage all those questions? Like those are all the questions that I asked when I first started So,
Chris Detzel: That is something that and I was gonna stop it But i'm gonna keep going a little bit if you don't mind Is there specific gear that you I assume that you're that you really whether it's shoes or shirts or I don't know Do you listen to music and all that kind of [00:36:00] stuff?
JT: You will normally find me covered in tracksuit clothing, so that's that's my go to apparel shoes. I tend to run in sock and he's quite a bit endorphins fees, endorphin pros, every, I've got a shoe. It seems like for every purpose, easy days, hard days, tempo days. And I will admittedly run in vapor Nike vapor plies for all of my racing.
So that really I don't have a whole lot of gadgets. I don't have a lot of stuff around. Of course, I've got mine. My Garmin and my
Chris Detzel: I tried the Apple watch for a little while and I was like, no, man, I just like my Garmin, that's way better.
JT: Yeah, and you'd be surprised how many newer runners actually do have an Apple watch and I have to get All of them used to helping them out with that.
It's definitely a little bit different because like i'm like, where's the lap button? That's right does my workout push out to your Apple watch? Like how does this work? It does work 100. I get several runners that have Apple watches and it's Totally okay.
Chris Detzel: Yeah, I decided not to use the apple watch because I really wanted to because it does all it's a cool watch but yeah running for me.
It was like i'm used to the lap button i'm used to like whenever I was [00:37:00] doing speed work, I can just push a button rather than Go to the screen and oh my god, you know I tried it for six months then I started wearing two watches And then I was like screw this i'm wearing my I
JT: feel like garments have come such a long way too.
I remember my first garment was like You know No notifications nothing crazy and now you know gone going to basically what feels like an apple watch on my wrist Anyways, I don't feel like i'm missing out and hell my latest watch has a full gps mapping that I can use When I go out of town
Chris Detzel: I always buy the Best garmin, you know whenever and I keep them for five years Ish because then it dies.
Yeah and I don't use half the shit that's on it,
JT: no, I don't either I just have a fancy running watch. I can do a lot of things more than running I think this one could do golf and i'm like, I don't
Chris Detzel: yeah, i'm sure this can too,
JT: Yeah,
Chris Detzel: but it lasts forever and I like I don't have to I could go run like three races Within four weeks and it still has some juice left.
That's how awesome this garment [00:38:00] is
JT: Yeah, I love it. Yeah, I wouldn't go any other way. I think i'm on my third garment at this point. So
Chris Detzel: yeah
JT: Every three or four years
Chris Detzel: Yep, that's about when it happens. My wife's kind of on her, last her garments She's had for five years. So it's I don't know how she runs way more than I do I don't know how it stayed alive, is there a particular store that you like within dallas,
JT: I think my go to whenever I need something locally is I typically go to luke's and see if they have it Yeah, that's my go to, I mean they've been an anchor in the running community for so so long You so they're typically my go to they're usually close by to where i'm running from also So
Chris Detzel: I remember when they were almost bankrupt.
I don't know if you remember four years ago five
JT: Yeah, and of course close down. Yeah.
Chris Detzel: Yeah now man. They're just rocking every time I go in there. I talk to I forget his name, but he's the owner. He's the gm there and he's like I was like, man, I'm impressed every time,
JT: They had a really good bounce back, especially because we've had so many like major companies come in and take out like run on with Fleet [00:39:00] Feet and everyone, all the Fleet Feet is great and everything.
But they're huge companies that come in and take over. So to see a smaller family owned business stick around and, survive the worst of it, really, And bounce back and, go in and look pretty strong. I think, hosting group runs from the stores and all that.
It's always, really great way to get people in the door. Yeah, they do whenever I go out of town. I'll look for you know See if there's like a running store that has like a local group or something like that to see if I can get in of course, I never can but
Chris Detzel: I remember one time I went to overseas where'd I go?
I went to belfast and I was like, I gotta run a race And so I found this race online and went to it and it was a trail race And I won the trail race got there on a friday or got there for late friday went there saturday morning Took an uber ish and I had to figure out how to get home or back home But that was really hard.
I had found a taxi but the point is I won that race and then I looked on facebook groups for I know i'm completely [00:40:00] going off here, but for A group that to watch the dallas cowboys because there's no nfl there, right? But yeah some places you can't and I found this group in the middle of town And I walked over there to the middle of town and hung out with all these guys got a little tipsy with them and just Dude, so I mean I think community is helpful in anywhere you go, and so not sure if they had any running there, you know besides what I did.
JT: I've yet to do a race out of the country so I think I Every once in a while, like I'll see one and I'll be like, Oh, can I find like a 5k here to knock out real quick?
Chris Detzel: It all depends, right? Generally when my wife and I go outside of the US then it's probably either where you signed up for a race like she went to Berlin and we did This thing in France and stuff like that a month or so ago, And it was to do the mountains and run there.
So usually we'll do like a running trip or if not, we'll just run during the trip instead of making a running trip so I think you have to plan that out if you're gonna do like a 5k 10, whatever, you know
JT: I do think that running in [00:41:00] different cities is like the best way to see a city
Chris Detzel: I
JT: just ran in philly and got to do like the philly steps the rocky statue like things I probably wouldn't have driven out of my way to go do at a conference but like I was like, oh look It's rocky statue.
I'll just jump in and take a photo with that How do you do
Chris Detzel: that whenever you go could you travel a little bit for work? So that's a good question. How do you do you just plan out a route or two and then?
JT: Yeah, so i'll look at heat maps and whatnot and see if I can figure out strava's got all these I mean you got to be a paid subscriber now, but like you can basically say I want to run like eight miles From here and it'll generate a route for you, but I try to look for running trails and whatnot.
If I could find them, if not, I'll wing it. Haven't gotten myself into very many sketchy situations winging it so far, but like I was just running in. Yeah, I know. Just went right in Anaheim the past. Two weeks or so when I went on a work trip and, it wasn't the most scenic running I've ever done, but I've had the the luck of having some built in running conference buddies in the field.
So it's been awesome.
Chris Detzel: That's usually what I'll do is I'll find some [00:42:00] guys that are really good that run and then they're really good at directions. And I'm like, Hey Luke, we're going to here. Do you get a place for us to run? He goes. Yeah, we'll figure it out,
JT: Yeah a lot of times I end up having to pull out my phone and figure out where the hell i'm at because I lost or the route that I had planned had a fork in the road and I took the wrong fork
Chris Detzel: You definitely gotta carry your phone.
I would recommend that especially
JT: 100 percent Yeah, when you're on your own in the dark at 5 30 in the morning in an unknown city You might want to take your phone just in case you end up 10 miles. You went out 10 miles instead of 5
Chris Detzel: Is there anything that you wanted to cover that we missed?
JT: I don't think so.
I think this has been awesome so far So what's your favorite race you've ever done? I'll ask you one question at least
Chris Detzel: Yeah, no in Dallas I do Cowtown has been probably one of my favorites over the years. Just because the, I don't know the crowd the, it's somewhat of a smaller race, but it feels really big, I've done that probably eight or nine times, [00:43:00] the half marathon and, now Dallas is starting to become really fun to me.
Maybe because I know the race director and some people there, but that's you know, the crowd support is huge now, I think 10 12 years ago It was a little bit different, you know It just felt like it was I don't want to say it was dying But it just didn't feel like it was growing but then now I feel like man They're doing all kinds of things, they're doing some 5ks in different, areas before the races and they're selling out like crazy And so they're doing a lot of fun things now that I really like and enjoy so they
JT: make all that whole weekend series that i've done all i've done the 5k on On the saturday instead of doing so I can actually just go and spectate on sunday and get get the racing out Of the way i've definitely done i've done them both.
So they're all a good time It's great.
Chris Detzel: I would say one more that I did this weekend and it just it's really small. It's called LaGras ElGras It's like grapevine something and it was cool because they had this you could do a [00:44:00] 5k And then when you're finished with the 5k then you go do a 10k So it pushes you to really I don't know if I'd recommend like going to do that a lot But it does push you to go run two races They you know, they have some local vendors there and things like that and I just thought it was just fun
JT: It's a road race
Chris Detzel: No, it's a road race.
They do it every year the last several years. Yeah, it's just super, it's hard to know about it if you don't know about it, yeah, exactly. And it's in Grapevine, and so the, if you're in Dallas, it's a little drive over there, but, so that was just, the atmosphere was cool. It's like a trail race, Atmosphere, but it's a it's just in a park and you run on the road Pretty cool.
So how does somebody get ahold of you? How does if somebody wanted? Hey, look I want javier to be my coach or call him. Where do they go?
JT: So a few different ways. I've got a website and My email of course, but my website is jtendurance. com. Let me double check that. That's actually [00:45:00] right. Yep.
Jtendurance. com It's my website you can find me on Instagram on at JT endurance training. And then my email is JT endurance training at gmail. com. But the website is great. You can fill out a form and all that fun stuff. And it gives me a record of where you're at. So it helps out.
I've got some forms to fill out there too.
Chris Detzel: I feel like you made some progress on your website. So last time I looked was I don't know when you first came out And then I looked today. I was like, oh wow, this looks even better. So it's actually
JT: a functional website now I think I sat on it for a few months because I just didn't have time to get around I had a loading page for I think three or four months.
I bought the domain. I did the logo. Yeah So I went ahead and finally finished the design after getting motivated. There's that motivation thing.
Chris Detzel: Yeah, maybe let me for that but that's a little different you could turn on some music and then get motivated a little Bit and push yourself a few hours do it all right.
Well, Javier. Thank you so much for coming on to our first episode of dfw running talk I'm, chris detzel, and please don't forget [00:46:00] to rate and review us That is so important for all the algorithms and apple and spotify and everything else. So thanks javier for coming on today
JT: Thanks for having me chris.
Appreciate it. All right