Mere Mortal Marathon Podcast

Welcome to episode three of the mere mortal marathon podcast, where you'll hear what it's like to train for and run your first marathon. I'm Duane France, and each week I'll be joined by Coach Morgan Latimore. And together we're going to share my week by week training journey that will take me just a regular guy and a mere mortal to the finish line of my first marathon. And if I can do it, you can too.

Thanks for joining us for the mere mortal marathon podcast. I'm excited to be going on this journey and pleased to invite you to join me along the way. There's a couple of ways that we can be connected, follow the podcast wherever you listen to them and you'll be notified when a new episode comes out.

You can also see where the journey takes me by connecting on Strava, by going to strava.com/athletes/m3podcast, which will be in the show notes as well. There, you’ll see if I'm following the training plan like I'm supposed to. And finally, before we get into the meat of this episode, you can find all of the episodes on the fundraising page for my charity partner, The Second Wind Fund at www.Coloradogives.org/m3podcast. The mission of the second wind fund is to decrease the incidence of suicide in children and youth by removing barriers to treatment. They match children and youth at risk for suicide with licensed therapists in their communities and pay for up to 12 sessions of therapy, when there's a barrier to treatment.

If you appreciate the show and what Coach Morgan and I are doing show a bit of love by throwing some chains in the tip jar. By going to www.Coloradogives.org/m3podcast.

If you listened to last episode, it was a first part of a two part series that started my training journey with the initial coaching call with Coach Morgan. He asked me about me, the person about my family, my background, my running experience. In this episode, you're going to hear him talk a bit about himself, his coaching philosophy and where we go from here. As we're hoping to show you what it looks like to work with the coach, this is the beginning. Coach Morgan shared an overview sheet with me ahead of the call detailing what we were going to be talking about. So this is the first call that everyone gets, whether they're a mere mortal, like me training for their first marathon. Or, there a new athlete that he's working with to help train for an ultra marathon, or triathlon, or qualify for Boston. So check out the second part of our conversation and we'll come back afterwards to wrap things up.

[00:00:00] Coach Morgon: Any other information that you used to train for the half marathon, send that to me as well. I'll evaluate it. I'll put all that together and look at it and see okay, what are you doing? What has he done? Where can we make improvements? And go from there.
That kind of rolls us in as we kind of talked about. You a whole. You as a person. You as a husband. You as a father. You as a soldier. We then we talked about you as an athlete. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about me. Marine Corps 24 years, retired. I've always loved fitness.

[00:00:29] Coach Morgon: I thought about what I wanted to do when I left the military and I started thinking about this a long time ago. And I wanted to do something that was with people, so I could help people and that it was with physical fitness. So I started personal training years ago, over 20 years ago. Right. And you know, spinning instructor, group instructor doing that type of stuff.

Went to Afghanistan, came back, got into cycling. Gas station and SoCal, the mecca of triathlon and multi-sport. Got into that world in a facet of different ways, I won't go over that . We might have to use that for an episode of just what I've done and so people can know me as a coach and where it is.

And then I started getting into different stuff. I'm training for ultra running right now. I'm running. I've done marathons. I've done ultra runs. I've done ultra swims. I've done ultra cycling. I've just rode across America from, Oceanside to Maryland. So that's kind of my background. And I've always, even in the military, I always took on the the role and responsibility as leading the physical fitness programs and I just loved it. I loved that transformation piece. And one story that stands out to me is I was at Miramar and I was helping the BCP program. It's called the Body Composition Program, and it's for people that are overweight and outta height and weight standards for the Marine Corps. And it was air Wing, so it was just a lot of people that were over, yeah, overweight. And these are young marines, you know. I think I was an E6 or Staff Sergeant at the time and I started having conversations with them cause I wanted to know like, why were they there?
And then you started to hear how it wasn’t a physical issue. It became a physical issue because of a mental issue. And when I say mental issue or emotional issue, it doesn't mean that they had PTSD, depression or anxiety. Those things were created by the environment. And some people are, oh, they had it.

Yeah. Well it had to come from somewhere, like a chain of events had to occur to make that happen. And I started asking them, and as I work with them, you started hearing their stories. Why their overeating. Why they're not eating correctly. Why they're not sleeping correctly. Why they don't have the financial means to buy new running shoes.

And I'm like, you get paid on the first and the 15th. I know you got the money. Do we need to have a financial talk? And so when you miss those things and people like, ah, you know, it's just this. They just, they lazy, they lazy. But what we're missing is, what makes them feel like they’re not the person that they want to be so they can do the things they need to do? And so as I work with them and I started to see the weight come off and the positiveness and the drive change in a positive way, I asked him like, what's different? And I remember a Marine told me, he said, I'm doing this, but what's different with this program is that you care. You actually care.

And It was crazy how many people get stuck in an environment where people don't care about them. It could be family. It could be work. It don't matter who you are. Anybody listening to this can, could be subjected to this type of treatment. And subconsciously you don't even know that you’re being affected at that level. Like you just know he's mean. But you don't know that you about to carry around a weight with you for the rest of your life that no one even told you that they were giving you . But when you start to see, one, yourself because somebody else sees you. It's so impactful because the person that has a hip surgery, or overweight, or ankles broke.
It's a chain of events that led them to that, it doesn't define them right. And sometimes we guilt people, especially in the military. It was a very heavy, alpha mentality where they say, well, you know, you running slow today. Even if you been running all week. And they say, oh, you running slow, you not putting out. I've ran for six days straight and you're telling me I'm not putting out.
And because the way that we measure success, it’s quantity over quality. This is the world, right? More money. More stuff. More accolades. Like that's what it is. But that has not lent to service well in a lot of occasions. And so what I learned as I coach people, is that they need to be seen and met at a certain level and that's where they. Who they are. Where they are. And what they are dealing with in that moment. Not where I think they should be. Not where people are telling 'em where they should be. Not where society thinks they should be. But where they are. And so through this journey, I'm gonna meet you where you are, okay? And right now there may be nothing.

They're athletes that process things well, are very disciplined and consistent, and we don’t do much internal work. But we will confront these things. It may be a day you don't wanna run. Maybe a day you go out there and run and don't finish the run. And I'm gonna ask you to go back out, Okay? I had a young lady and she was running. She said, I fell cause I was running from a dog and I skin my knee. I said, did you break your leg? She said, no. I said, or do you need to go to the emergency? She said, no. I said, are you okay? She said, yes. I said, so, why can't you finish your run?

What will you do on race day when something that you didn't plan for happens to you? And that's where we get in the habit of planning for how to make it perfect. But we don't plan for what ifs, and that's what endurance training is about. Because the longer you're out there, the more that can occur.

And so my job is not to tell you what to do, but to teach you what needs to be done. Because coach won't be there on race day. Coach won't be running beside you with nutrition go, or pacing, or you get a cramp, or you pull something, or you fall. What have I taught you to do and how to handle it through the end?

And you could say, I've learned that through the military. I'm not gonna force you. And you say, oh, you made that lady go back out. Run. Yes. After I made sure she was safe and okay, I did. And then what she said, she said, thank you, I wouldn't have done that without you. That's my job. Most people would've said, yeah, I fail. I ain't going back out. But how does that stop you from running? Ain't nothing broke, just a little blood, right? Like your kids, they fall. You brush 'em off. You clean the wound, You send them back out there. We have gotten away from pushing ourselves past comfort. And that's where that transition from 70.3 to full Ironman, from half marathon to full, or 5K to 10 K, whatever it is you can do more.

You have to stop listening to the inner voices that say you can't, or the people in society that say you can't. My job is to empower you with the physical, nutritional, and mental tools to make it to the finish line. And that's the kind of my philosophy in, a nutshell. And to make sure that no matter what you do, you know that I'm gonna be beside you.

And I want you to think like people are say, oh, what would Jesus do? What would coach say?. I want you to question it and say, what would coach say? Because if I've done my job well, you won't need me on race day, and that's how it is, right? And so that's how you prevent people from not finishing a race or actually starting a race.

You empower them with the skills, strategies, and information that makes them successful. Okay. And so that's what we're gonna do. And it's gonna be fun. We're gonna have a great time. While I'm on that, and I'm gonna transition into what this is gonna look like. After we get off this call, I'm gonna send you a email.

It's gonna have payment links, things of that nature, all in there. So I'm gonna ask for a long term and short term goals. We're gonna set you up on training peaks, it’s a coaching platform that allows me and you to share information. Basically you gonna go run, say five miles, your watch will upload. What kind of watch do you have?

[00:08:10] Duane: Fitbit. Yep.

[00:08:11] Coach Morgon: A Fitbit. Okay, we may have to transit you to something else. Okay. But what we do, we take a running watch or whatever. We link it to whatever platform. And that platform usually links to a training peaks.

Okay. Anything that you do, or you can enter it manually, right? You don't have to do it. It’s automated if you have certain programs. We take that information and it will upload to the third party site. It will send it to me, and I'll be able to see if you stopped. If you walked. What city you was in. What street you was on. If you're stopped at a light. How fast you were going. How your heart rate was. All depending on what you give me.

And what it allows me to do, is like, it gives me a data picture. It gives me a data picture of, okay, what is your pace? What is your heart rate consistency? What is your cadence and things of that nature. So I can make the adjustments as needed. All right. And I'll ask that when you, when that stuff loads, after the workout. That you give me 25, 50 words of like how it felt. What did you feel like going into it?

What did you feel like during? Or what did you feel like after things you would do better next? Right? And so that gives me a different, because the data could say you go on a three mile run. You can complete it. I look at the data, I'm like, oh, he did great. But then I could see your comments and say, I struggled on that one. Right?

I was tired. I didn't feel good. A lot of things that could happen. And so having both pictures and putting them together just gives me a better sight picture of what needs to happen moving forward. The first probably 60 to 90 days is gonna be really us getting to know each. And then we've talked before, so that process has already started for us.

And we're gonna take from those 60 to 90 days, the first two to three weeks. I'm gonna be basically give you training that shows me what you're capable of. Okay. Can he be consistent? Can he be disciplined? Can he communicate with me if something needs to change? What you're used to is saying, oh, this is a plan.

[00:10:09] Coach Morgon: I have to do this. I'm gonna move this. I'm gonna do this twice. I'm gonna do more on this day. We're not gonna do that. You don't tell me how it's gonna be done. I don't tell you how it's gonna be done. We decide how it's gonna be done together because you know your body and I have the knowledge and experience, right?

And so from that, we build something that works for your lifestyle. Custom, handmade. Okay? And so if you got travel or meeting or you anniversary, you're gonna put that on the schedule. And then what I go in, like today, I have training plans to do today, and they're gonna be done by 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time every Sunday.

Okay. I usually do two to three weeks at a time, depending on what group that I'm adding to. And from there, anything that you've already put in there, I'm going to see and then I'm going to build around it. My job is to be creative and still give you the things that you need to be very successful. So we don't have to force ‘em. We don't have to double up on anything. But guess what, life does happen.

It will happen a thousand times in here. Something's gonna be nagging you, right? You might have to a meeting that pops up or an emergency, God forbid. And then you let me know, you shoot me a text, I can make real-time adjustments from my phone. Okay? And that's what you're paying me for.

So a lot of people are like, oh, I didn't wanna bother you, you know? Well, literally you pay me to bother me. Like that is my job. I will tell if I don't answer the phone, I ain’t free. If I'm gonna be out of town, I will let you know. If I'm racing that day, you will know because I will build the athlete coach relationship on my end that promotes two-way communication.

Okay, I'll leave it at that because there's a lot of information and what I don't want to do is bring down everything on you. Because, what happens is you get people getting told a whole bunch of stuff and then they're like, oh my God, this is just too much. It’s a lot to soak in.
That's just kinda what you can expect. And guess what? We're gonna go over those sort of things every time that we need to. And so I'll leave you with this for the end of this portion is, I don't know what you don't know. I don't know your body like, you know your body.

I can only help you with what I assume you need. But it's always better the more information that you provide, the better coaching I can provide. And so with that being said, I leave the floor open for any questions.

[00:12:35] Duane: No, I definitely appreciate that. The idea of, you don't know what I know, especially about me specifically. And this is one thing that I saw as a therapist, actually, I had a client sort of identify this, and this is how I see you as a coach. You are an experienced nexus, right? You have coached hundreds of clients, right?

Men, women, young, old, and you may not me. But based off of your vast experience, like I'm, it is just me and you together right now but you see me in like maybe 15, 20, 30 other. I think we even talked about it like you've coached some retired veterans, right? And so you know a little bit about the mindset.

[00:13:10] Duane: You don't know about how my mindset might differ from theirs or be similar to theirs. But I think that's really one of the things where I'm excited to start working with a coach, is because I don't know what you know. And what you don't know about me and what I don't know that, you know, in my opinion, can't help but make me a better runner. Get me through this marathon, right? Like it's gonna be a toss up whether this is my, one of two marathons that I have in my mind, or if this is the beginning of another stage of my running career. So, I really appreciate that idea. The other piece, I see this as an investment. Like I lost running for 10 years and we'll likely talk about this because we had similar military background. But leaving the military, you lose an identity. But I also lost my runner identity at the same time as I lost my soldier identity, and I didn't realize it at the time. So I wanna be a runner.

I'm 49 years old, I wanna run for the next 30 years. I wanna be a lifelong runner. I don't know that I wanna be a lifelong marathoner, but I want to at least be able to run, because of what running does for me. Psychologically mainly, obviously physically and things like that. But I see this as an investment. Not just to help me get across the marathon.

I'm certain that I could get across a marathon and make it a sufferer fest if I pulled a training plan off the internet, right? And there's nothing wrong with it. People do that all the time. But I see this as an investment. Not just for this period of time, but also something to be able to make sure that I can continue to engage in this particular aspect of my lifestyle that I lost for a very long time.

[00:14:43] Coach Morgon: You'll get it back and you've already gotten it back cuz you've already started. Like you've already took the steps. You’ve done the half, and now you're going onto the full marathon. You’re mentally where you need to be. We sometimes look at life as what has happened to us, how life has affected us.

But instead of looking at how life is happening for us, , right? Like we put it in certain situations that sometimes we can look back on and say, oh, I would've did it this way. But if you would've did it a different way, would you have the emotional and mental resilience, grit resolved that you currently have?

If you got the picture painted the way you thought it should be painted, would you have all those things and more? And you wouldn't nine times outta 10. Because hiatus that you took, right? It was a place to show you is right now, this is what I went through. Why did I go through that?
I started running again., I felt better. I don't wanna feel like that anymore. I wanna run as long as I can. That shifted you. Cuz if we'd have put that 10 years back in there, it could have been like, man, I think I'm tired of running. I don't wanna run anymore . It could happened so many different ways, but it, it happened a way that was meant to happen for you.

And I think that's, a testament to all our lives, moving forward in anything that we do. Really, that's it for the day. And there's, yes, there's a lot people like, oh, that is it. It's a podcast. So there's a whole lot more that we can talk about.

[00:16:11] Duane: Right. But, but then there's the the funny part of so how far do I gotta run tomorrow? What do I gotta do tomorrow? I'm a planner. I'm a logistics NCO. So I'm the guy that wants to know how far, how fast you want me to run. And I recognize that's gonna come. But also there's that piece I think of, what’s next.

[00:16:27] Coach Morgon: But always I tell people, like, always ask the question. The worst thing I tell you, let's say, be patient and my job is to tell you to be patient sometimes. But always ask the question. Always ask the question. Assume that I have no clue what's going on. And then what I could do is that's when the dialogue happens.

If you hold every question in, then we can't have the dialogue that may change the way you run, the way you perceive something. And that's, I think, that's just, that's in any relationship. I can't know what you don't know, until you say this: Hey coach, I got a question. And that's where I lead an open door policy. Text me, just text. You can always text me. You can, and they're like, oh I didn’t want to bother you. Again, iff I'm not free, I won't text you back. I usually text back in 24 to 48 hours, if not sooner.

Because I have athletes and and my family. And the worst thing, you don't hear back from me, you'd have to make the best decision that you. . But I'm very great with communication and I'll lead the podcast with this. The reason that I became the coach that I am, that is not only so I can help people and make sure they never feel alone. But it's because I had some experiences that when I had coaches, prior to the ones I have now, cause I have two of them, and they're amazing. That I wasn't happy with the service that I was getting, the interaction that I was getting. It's again, like you said, therapy, it's like you go somewhere, it's I don't feel heard. I don't feel seen. And I, and when you feel that way, you can't really give wholeheartedly of yourself and really do the work you need to do.

[00:17:59] Coach Morgon: And so I always, I take my experiences and try to be the best. I had some coaches I didn't have great communication with. I wanna be the best that I can be at that. Some mistakes I made early on in as a coach is where I wasn't listening enough and I was talking too much.

And that doesn't mean verbally. It could just be like this, my eyes, my mind, like I wasn't listening with, with my full self. And because people, once you learn, and you know this. Once you learn people, you'll learn that they're always telling you their story, even if it's not verbally.
Right? You're more than a coach's because I see you for more than just an athlete.
You're a mother, you're a father, you're a human being. And when I meet you at that plane and we can step off together, what we do is amazing.

[00:18:51] Duane: It is gonna be amazing. I’m excited.

Coach Morgon.Yeah. So what do we do here? We get off the phone. Before the end of the day, probably within the next hour for you. I'm gonna send you an email and then we're gonna get that stuff started. And so I can have you set up by tonight and you'll have the next three weeks played out. I'm gonna need that training plan.

[00:19:09] Coach Morgon: I would ask that you look into, I'll send you some couple choices, but like a running watch. And what that's gonna do is help us, help me gather the information. We can track your heart rate, your pace and things of that nature. But what it also helps me do is helps me manage your fatigue, right?

And so when I think we need to take a break, I can make sure that we set that up. Cause everybody is different. Some people can go two or three weeks without a break. Some people need a break every three days. Right? Age changes things. Your sex changes things. You at altitude changes things. Life changes things. Cuz stress comes in more than one form for sure.
And I'll send you some stuff to think about. And by no means, like I, I always tell people this, you don't have to buy any of it because I can still coach old school, you know what I mean? And the goal is not to spend more money, but this is just an option if you want to take it your fitness to the next level.

We can get really detailed and we don't have to go super detailed, but the more information, the better is in. It's like a daily diagnostic of your health. Yeah.

[00:20:10] Duane: we'll take a look at.

[00:20:12] Coach Morgon: All right. Questions for me?

] Duane: None right now. Like I said, I'm excited to see where we go.

[00:20:17] Coach Morgon: Okay. So people, there you have it. Coach Morgan, Duane. We gonna knock this out, man.

[00:20:24] Duane: Ready to go.

[00:20:25] Coach Morgon: All right, brother. that's all I got for you.

[00:20:27] Duane: Sounds good. I appreciate it. Look forward to getting the other information and we'll connect again next week.

[00:20:32] Coach Morgon: Yes, I see ya then

There you go pretty motivating, right? I know. I'm ready to go. There were a lot of meaningful things that he said, but I just wanted to bring one thing back. I want to say that there was a point that I wanted to foot stomp, but then I realized that I may need to explain that a bit too. Many people may not know this, but the military is a learning and teaching organization. It's not all just running through the woods with muddy boots and rifles.

You're almost constantly going through training and classes and courses. When an instructor is telling you something and they want you to remember it most likely because it's going to be on whatever test is coming up.

Then they would stomp their foot or otherwise emphasize the point. It means that this thing I'm telling you is really important. And when I re listen to my conversation with coach Morgan and I heard this part, I thought to myself, we really need to foot stomp that.

[00:02:55] Coach Morgon: I started asking them and as I work with them, you started hearing their stories and. overeating. Why they're not eating correctly. Why they're not sleeping correctly? Why they don't have the financial means to buy new running shoes? But what are we missing is like, what makes them feel like they’re not the person that they want to be so they can do the things they need to do.

Right on. What makes us feel like we're not the people we want to be so that we can do the things that we need to do or want to do .These things that we're trying to do are possible 99 times out of a hundred, there are things that other people have done. If they can do them. Why can't we.
What makes us feel like we're not the kind of person that does things like run marathons or change careers, or start a new relationship Or in an unhealthy relationship. Life is too short, my friends, and there are enough obstacles in the road that we need to navigate without having to navigate the obstacles in our minds as well.

Just a little reflection of mine on something really important that coach Morgan said. So after our conversation, we did exactly what we said we were going to do. I shared with him my half marathon training plan that I use for the Pueblo Colorado rock canyon, half marathon in December of 2022, to give him an idea of the general training plan I followed and he set up the initial part Of my marathon training plan. Next week. He and I are going to meet for a coaching call review the first week of training and talk about some of the different aspects of running and training. And show you what it sounds like. For the first week of a training plan, that gets me on my way to my first marathon.

Make sure you follow the show on your podcast player of choice, and thanks for joining us for the mere mortal marathon podcast. I where you can hear mere mortals like you and me reach our goals. As I trained for the 2023 Denver Colfax marathon. If you enjoyed this episode, we would love to hear from you. You can reach out to me at duane@veteranmentalhealth.com .
You can also follow along our training journey by connecting with me on Strava at www.strava.com/athletes/mp3podcast. Or just search for my name as long as you spell it right. Won't be hard to find. Do you want to support a great cause I'm a charity partner with The Second Wind fund.

The mission of The Second Wind fund is to decrease the incidence of suicide in children and youth by removing barriers to treatment. They believed that every youth at risk for suicide should have access to the mental health treatment. They need. They match children and youth at risk for suicide with licensed therapist in their communities.

And pay for up to 12 sessions of therapy. When there's a barrier to treatment, you can donate to the cause by going to www.Coloradogives.org/m3podcast If you want to reach out to Coach Morgan show appreciation for the excellent work that he does or sign up for the people's coach newsletter, You can find him at morganlatimore.com. All of these links are in the show notes. So thanks for joining us for another episode of the mere mortal marathon podcasts, And just remember mere mortals can do amazing things.