Episode 194 - Q&A: Slow 5-Mi/Fast 2-Mi Fixes, Are 18-X Bad Leaders, Favorite Parts of My Job, Short Vs. Long Run Repeats, SFRE Taper Tips, Cutting & Optimal Performance, Training while Traveling, Best Rice & Grinds Flavors & More!

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What's going on guys? Welcome to another episode of the Terminator Training Show. I'm Kevin Smith. Today is going to be a q and A post-Christmas pre-New Year's edition where I'm going to go through, I usually do my questions from my Instagram story, ask me anything and I will choose some good ones and answer them the best I possibly can. Try and provide a bunch of context, try and pick questions that I think a lot of people can benefit from. I got some pretty good ones that I haven't really talked much about today, so [00:00:30] that should be awesome and go from there. I had a really chill, quiet Christmas, which is honestly kind of exactly how I like to spend Christmas. It was just my wife and I this year. Her sister was here with her son, AKA, my nephew leading into Christmas. They left a couple days early and it was just us and then her other sisters coming in a couple days for New Year's, the day before New Year's Eve, I believe also with her nephew, which these two happened to.

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[00:01:00] This was not planned necessarily, but these two nephews happened to be three days apart in age, so pretty awesome, and they're very, very different boys, not even close, they just act extremely differently, but they're both awesome and we're really looking forward to the next one coming in. So for Christmas, my wife and I just kind of hung out, didn't really do all that much. We went to Pinehurst and did some chipping and putting, it was 72 degrees out, so a great day to just kind of be outside. And my wife [00:01:30] actually was the one who requested a chipping and putting date, which was surprising to me, but also absolutely, I'm always going to be down for something like that. So we went. She actually beat me in a putting contest, which I'll have to get revenge sometime soon, but basically there's this massive practice green at Pinehurst Resort and they have an 18 hole putting course, which is like a bunch of slopes, super fast greens [00:02:00] and the type of course that you could miss a putt and literally be putting your next putt from off the green because it rolls 40 feet down a slope off the green.

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So both of us experienced that a couple times, but it was a good time. And yeah, aside from that, ate some beef stew. My wife makes amazing beef stew and chilled out and now it's two days after Christmas. And with that in mind, the TTM programs are all on sale right now. They're all [00:02:30] 25% off with the code Xmi S 2025. So if you are looking for a way to start your New Year's strong or honestly, if you want to just train for less than a dollar a day and pick up a bunch of programs, now's your time. 25% off all that information is down in the description, so that sale will go until the end of the year, 11:59 PM right before the ball drops, basically 11:59 PM on the 31st of December. So should have a couple days to still act [00:03:00] on this when this episode comes out and go from there. So with that out of the way, let's hop into some of the questions.

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First question, I have trouble sleeping after long runs. What can I do to mitigate this? So general sleep tips should work universally unless you're doing your long run in the evening, in which case I would a do your best to do that earlier in the day. Although long runs are usually not very [00:03:30] stimulating, like nervous system stimulating. If you go long, they definitely can be a stressor and your body's still probably in a sympathetic state, a little fight or flight state, and you want to kind of switch over to parasympathetic, so some sort of breathing exercise, belly breathing or diaphragmatic breathing, maybe box breathing or double exhale breathing, box breathing, pretty simple, four seconds in hold, four seconds at the top, four seconds out and then hold four seconds at the bottom. Doesn't have to be four seconds, it can be three seconds or five seconds if you want, just even each [00:04:00] time.

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And then double exhale is pretty much the same thing except you hold or you are exhaling for double the time. So say it's three seconds in, three seconds at the top, six seconds out the bottom hold is kind of up to you. It's a little more advanced, but box breathing is super simple. You can do that while you're just doing a nice walk five to 10 minutes not looking at your phone, not listening to anything, just kind of being mindful. You could lay down your back, close your eyes and do it. You could do some light stretching, whatever you kind of fancy, [00:04:30] and then getting some food in you. Again, if you're doing this late at night or later closer to bedtime, you definitely want to eat some food of course to recover, but you want to make it so you're not eating a massive amount of food afterwards because that can just interfere with sleep, that digestion process.

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And to do that, you would probably just have to make sure you front load your calories a little bit more throughout that day. Now if you're doing this in the middle of the day and it's still bothering you, then [00:05:00] that could be any number of different things. Make sure your sleep habits aren't checked. I've talked about this a million times, but waking up at the same time every day, plus or minus 30 minutes, going to bed at the same time, plus or minus 30 minutes, and that includes weekends is huge. Making sure that you are doing some sort of wind down routine that does not involve screens or things that are going to stress you out. So reading, stretching, petting your dogs, chatting with your spouse, chatting with your [00:05:30] roommate, whatever it is, something that's just going to calm you down. Separate the busyness of the day from winding down, getting ready for bedtime.

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You also want to make sure you're getting outside sometime after the sun comes up sometime before around 10:00 AM is good, five minutes at the very least. If it's sunny out, 10 minutes is even better. If it's less sunny, 15 to 20 minutes, most people should be able to do this. I've heard a lot, a lot, a lot of people say they can't [00:06:00] get outside at all in the morning, which I really have a hard time believing. I think it's just a lack of effort thing and it's also not something you're going to feel the first time you do it. You got to do this on a kind of consistent basis for your body to get into that rhythm, that circadian rhythm. And just seeing the sun in the morning as best you possibly can is a good idea. If not, at least watch it set.

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That would be a good second option if you can do both even better. Definitely be mindful [00:06:30] of your caffeine. You don't want to be having too much caffeine later in the day. If you're doing your run later in the day and you are taking gel packs or some sort of intra workout carbohydrate, make sure you look at the label and see whether it has caffeine or not. If yours have caffeine, although they usually have very small doses of caffeine, it's still not great to be slamming four or five 30 milligram caffeine gels later in the day because that's going to keep you revved up a little bit. You [00:07:00] can also consider make sure you're very hydrated. Sometimes if you're very dehydrated after a run. Low sodium levels, low magnesium levels, that could be an issue. So generally I recommend some sort of magnesium supplement for most people who sweat a lot, who train a lot, usually people are a little bit lacking in magnesium.

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Magnesium glycinate is probably the best option here, but you can also try three inate or citrate, those are all good bioavailable forms of [00:07:30] magnesium. The stuff you get at the grocery store, magnesium oxide is not going to do much unless you are looking for a laxative effect. So it could be a bunch of different possible things that are affecting your sleep. If usually you sleep well, it could be the long run, but if your sleep's kind of all over the map, maybe it is in the long run, maybe you just happen to notice it on days that you have the long run, but I would probably number one thing is to make sure it's not super close to bedtime. If you're finishing your run hour, [00:08:00] two, three hours before bed, that could absolutely affect you. I would just try and push that earlier in the day or at very least, if you can't do that for whatever reason, you've got obligations.

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Do those breathing exercises that calm down exercise after the run, get into that parasympathetic state so you can kind of calm down and get some good sleep. Next question, wondering what the benefit is to high rep 200 meter repeats in Jack Gelle as opposed to 400, 800, et cetera? Yeah, so the first phase has 200 meter [00:08:30] repeats and the later phases you will definitely see some four hundreds, eight hundreds. You'll even see some mile repeats in the last phase, but the main benefit here is it's just less fatiguing and generally speaking, a good program, even though a lot of programs aren't like this, a lot of programs like to wow you at the beginning and be like, oh man, this is so intense. I'm so smoked all the time. I make programs to get results. And if I start out with super high fatigue, longer repeats, faster repeats, higher volume [00:09:00] repeats, then it's just going to start you with a big dose of fatigue at the beginning.

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So the main benefit for two hundreds is that they're less fatiguing, but you still get plenty of time practicing running at your faster paces and you don't feel as smoked afterwards. You don't feel as sore the next day. You don't feel as smoked the rest of the week, so you can get into your other quality training throughout the week. So nothing super special about them other than they're just less fatiguing. You will see later in the program, I have some fastest repeatable [00:09:30] two hundreds to finish out a workout that's more aerobic power building. So you'll do your race pace stuff, your goal pace stuff, and then a little bit longer rest to kind of be somewhat fresh going into those two hundreds at the end. And then you'll hit some hard two hundreds fastest repeatable pace and those will have longer rest periods in between so that you can hit one, hit each one relatively fresh and put some good quality into it.

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So good question. That's the main reason why. Next [00:10:00] question, would you taper for an SFRE the same as SFAS? Can I use the taper from ruck run lift or adjust it? You don't have to taper as long for an SFRE just because it's a much shorter duration thing. It's kind of a high dose of stress in a couple days, so you definitely want to go into it feeling fresh, physically, mentally, just systemically, but it doesn't have to be a 10 to 14 day taper like a lot of SFAS tapers would be or proper ones would be. So you definitely can use the one from ruck run lift, [00:10:30] that's totally fine. You don't have to use the entirety of it. I would maybe cut it in half or maybe cut it by two thirds and taper for three, four days going in. That's totally fine. Generally the day prior for most people, I would recommend doing a shakeout run of some kind and maybe some practice calisthenics, like very, very low intensity like RPE two or three pushups, pull-ups, just so you have that muscle memory down that range of motion and it's going to be a little bit, you're going to probably be a little bit less [00:11:00] stiff for lack of a better science term going in if you do that shakeout and some practice calisthenics.

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Usually what I do with most of my guys is I have them do that the day prior, two days prior, complete rest day, three days prior, I'll have them do a similar thing as one day prior except maybe a little longer in the shakeout run. And before that, I mean honestly, it's mostly the normal training that we usually do. I'm not going to have 'em run repeats four days out or have 'em do some crazy [00:11:30] long ruck or something like that, or really heavy lifting. But if you're pretty fit and you take a few days of just dial back intensity, dial back volume especially, then you should be good to go. You want to go in not feeling banged up, feeling fresh, ready, mentally prepared, but it's definitely not the same beast as SAS and therefore does not require anywhere as long as a taper or as meticulous as a taper.

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Next question, how to increase lifting intensity without sacrificing form? [00:12:00] This is fantastic and it's really simple honestly, it's just practice and repetition and doing it. And also the key thing is to actually assess yourself and track your form and make sure that your form is locked in. Your technique is locked in for every rep, not just your reps. Later in the set, which most people are able to train hard and close to failure, but their last few reps just look like dumpster fires and usually that's because A, they don't actually take into account that they [00:12:30] should be really focusing on their form on those last reps. Even though they're smoked, they should still look exactly the same as your first rep and your third rep and your seventh rep. So you're doing a set of 10, they should all look the same. The only difference is that your 10th rep is going to be slower and your ninth rep is going to be slower than your first couple reps because you're fatigued, not because you're trying to go slower just because you're fatigued and that makes sense, you're not going to be able to push as hard, but a lot of people kind of fall apart, a few reps shy of failure.

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And on that note, [00:13:00] if you are a little bit less advanced, which I'm guessing you are just by the nature of the question, which is totally fine, you got to start somewhere. I would consider failure your first rep. That is not perfect. So even if you could do three more reps, think about pull-ups, I talk about this once in a while, but if you are doing pull-ups and you get to your last full really good pretty rep, you could easily probably do three, four, or five more. Most people could with a little body English, maybe recruiting some different muscles and [00:13:30] you can eke out those more reps. A with pull-ups, not a very good idea, just really stressful on the joints, any sort of overhead movement, I would not push past failure pushing, pulling, but B, it also is way more fatiguing. So those last few reps, they're not going to really bump your pull-up numbers up, they're not going to really add any more muscle, they're just going to add a bunch of fatigue and it's totally not necessary.

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And that's just one example I would say for pretty much any lift your first rep that isn't pretty, consider that failure and as you [00:14:00] get stronger and as you practice it, you're going to be able to take those sets a little harder, closer to failure with still good form and over time you're going to develop the ability to push sets really hard with locked in form. Another thing I would absolutely do this is kind of for anyone but especially this is film yourself. At the very least, film yourself if you don't have a in-person coach or if you don't have a coach, you can send lifting videos to for feedback, film yourself and [00:14:30] actually watch the replay in between your sets or after the training session. It doesn't have to be in between sets. If you don't like being on your phone, I totally get that, but after the training session and kind of rate yourself and be like, how could I improve this technique?

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If you're doing a press, are my elbows in the right position? Are my joint stacked? Am I going the proper range of motion? Am I trying to bounce out of the hole, which can be really stressful on the joints? Little things like that and just kind of over time get better, critique yourself, get a little bit better. You could probably even [00:15:00] send it to chat GPT or grok and they might be able to give you some feedback on what you're doing wrong, but if you never really look at yourself and watch the instant replay every human being that plays any sort of sport or does any sort of physical discipline competitively watches themselves and make sure that they're doing things right, they watch the replay, watch film, whatever you want to call it. A lot of people are just so apprehensive about filling themselves and I kind of get it like a lot of people do [00:15:30] dumb shit in the gym and they film themselves for TikTok and yeah, it's annoying, but if you're doing it to improve, then it's worth it.

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If you're not looking at yourself or you're not trying to assess your current abilities and iterate and improve over time, it's a shot in the dark. You're not going to get better at lifting with really good form close to failure. So this is a very beneficial thing to learn over time, not just for joint health, but also because you're just going to be able to take sets closer [00:16:00] to actual muscle failure in a safe manner and therefore it's going to be more effective. You don't always have to train to failure. In fact, there's a lot of lifts. I wouldn't recommend going to failure, and if you're newer to training, you're still going to make great gains if you're not pushing closer to failure. But eventually you're going to have to either do a ton of sets and spend forever in the gym, which is not really all that efficient, and it also is more fatiguing.

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It also usually leads to more joint wear and tear. So your ability to push close to failure [00:16:30] later in a set is going to allow you to do less volume, spend less time in the gym, less joint wear and tear and just get more out of every single rep in every single set. So that is how I'd go about it and really it just requires patience and time, but it also doesn't, it requires more than just doing it. You got to actually have some sort of feedback system, whether it's self feedback or a coach or ai, whatever you prefer. Next question. Best rice and grinds flavor. You got me hooked. [00:17:00] Let's go. My goal is to get as many people hooked on rice and grinds as I possibly can. Rice and grinds, if you have not been listening, is basically just an oatmeal alternative that is rice-based if you couldn't guess by the name.

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And it's way easier digesting than oatmeal, at least for the vast majority of people. A lot of people don't really realize it, but they don't digest oatmeal very well. They continue eating it and oatmeal is healthy if you do digest it well. Not everyone struggles with it, but I certainly do and a lot of my clients do. And rice-based [00:17:30] products like Rice and Grinds or Rice Krispies, rice Krispies are a little more processed. I would probably eat those sparingly. You definitely have some Rice Krispies, especially if you have a really high carb need, but rice and grinds is naturally sweetened. It's delicious and I'm going to get into the flavors here in a second, but it is a great option. You got to buy it online as far as I know, I've never seen it in stores, but you can buy it from Pride Foods or you can buy it on Amazon and it is top tier.

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My favorite flavors [00:18:00] so hard because I honestly really like most of the flavors. I haven't tried the taco one just doesn't sound all that appetizing to me, although you might be able to get the taco one and mix it into some ground beef or some chicken, make a Mexican bowl eventually I'll probably try that, but I go with the more sweet flavors. So I would say the best base in my opinion, because it can mix with a lot of other things, is [00:18:30] chocolate. Chocolate waffle is delicious. Chocolate, coconut is delicious, chocolate peanut butter is delicious. Those are all other flavors too that you mix in. I usually do two servings at a time, sometimes three, usually two. So I'll do one scoop of chocolate, one scoop of those other ones. Maple Waffle is delicious on its own or mixed with cinnamon or chocolate or blueberry.

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Blueberry's a really good one too. Blueberry is a little bit sweet for my liking plain, but I like to mix it with other stuff. It's honestly pretty delicious with [00:19:00] most of the other flavors. I haven't tried blueberry chocolate, I don't know if that would be any good, but blueberry waffles, delicious, blueberry, cinnamon's delicious and peanut butter is one that I don't really like on its own, but I love it with chocolate and I love it with waffle. It's a great mix. Coconut too, I'm not a huge fan on its own, but it's delicious with believe it or not, coconut and peanut butter. Even though I don't like those flavors individually mixed together, they're pretty damn good. And coconut's also really good with chocolate. One of my [00:19:30] favorite combos is coconut chocolate. So I would say my top overall flavor is chocolate. My second top overall flavor is cinnamon, brown sugar and then mix and match.

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You can experiment with it and that's the best thing about it is just buy a few flavors, rotate every time you buy new ones and try a bunch of dew new flavors out. Mix 'em together and see if you like. Honestly, I've never had one mix that I have regretted [00:20:00] making. There are some that are better than others, but I've never had it. So if I mix the wrong two flavors, I can't eat it. It's usually edible regardless. So good shit. Glad you like Rice and grinds and if you're interested, definitely check those out. They're awesome. Next question with de training after OSI I portion of 18 X Pipeline, how long should getting back into shape take? It depends on what your actions are coming off osi I getting into Airborne School, you're [00:20:30] going to have time to train in Airborne School on your own if you take advantage of it and if you do the right things, a lot of people will come off osi, get into Airborne and either not train, which if you're going to be a Green Beret and you don't have the discipline to train when you have the actual time to train, then I've got nothing for you.

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So don't make that mistake. But a lot of people will come off OIT and they will try and make up for all this lost ground. So they'll do way more running than they should be doing. Maybe they start [00:21:00] running about the same that they were doing pre oit, which should be relatively high volume, higher volume than you should start with after oit, that's for sure. But you probably want to take a couple weeks afterwards to ease back into running, getting used to the impact of running, getting used to the skill of running, doing mostly easy stuff, definitely throwing in some strides, but if you're just launching into four by 800 the first day after ic, that's not a very good idea. Your body's just not, probably not unless you have a unicorn [00:21:30] IC class that does a lot of running, your body's just not ready for that and it's totally unnecessary.

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So don't try and expedite the process afterwards, just be patient, ease back into it, get back into the gym, do some running, do some rucking, do some cross training. Don't go too too crazy during Airborne school because you're probably not going to be sleeping a ton. It's not the most ideal scenario for recovery, but the workouts, quote unquote, that they have you do in Airborne are not very challenging and they [00:22:00] shouldn't really interfere with the workouts that you want to do to get back into pre OIT shape, but also realize that you're going to have quite a bit of time between the day you graduate basic training or osi, whatever you want to call it, and the day you step foot at McCall for the first day of ssi, you're going to have plenty of time. It's different for every class, but you should at least at the very minimum have like eight weeks, maybe even more than that.

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And every single 18 x-ray to include myself in the history of the 18 [00:22:30] X-Ray program has been somewhat concerned, at least with whether they're going to regain their fitness in time first election. And if you went into OIT fit, which you absolutely should if you're an 18 x-ray, if you didn't, then that's a massive mistake. Or if you are going soon and you're thinking maybe I just won't go in shape, don't do that. You want to get as fit as you possibly can. That way you when you train, you still are more fit than most other people when you do start training again, [00:23:00] but this has been a concern forever and no matter what, you're going to be able to get there. Of course, if you had the raw materials beforehand, you're going to be able to get there and then some in plenty of time and then you're going to have, I think sys like five weeks long so you'll get in a little bit better shape while you're there.

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So I wouldn't worry too much about it. The two main mistakes again, are either just blowing it off, not doing anything because you're tired or whatever's going on in OSI or Airborne School that you [00:23:30] are convincing yourself is restricting your training, which is actually not, or just jumping the gun and going way too hard way too soon and hurting yourself or just putting yourself in a recovery hole that you can't really dig out of or that takes way longer than it should dig out of. So that's what I got for you. Next question, what's your favorite part of your job right now? Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you. This is a cool question right now. Let's see. I would say overall, [00:24:00] I really, really look forward to every Tuesday I have all my guys, all my clients on a group call and we just shoot the shit, talk about fitness, they ask questions, I give answers, guys get to kind of meet each other because most of my clients are at various parts of the process in regards to either prepping for selection.

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I've got some clients that have already been to selection and are prepping for the Q course. I've got a couple guys prepping for the long walk. I've got a guy prepping for marsoc a [00:24:30] s, I've got some NSW guys, some guys going to Buds. So it's a good mixed bag, but it's just like-minded guys and like I said, we shoot the shit guys meet each other and there probably a lot of them are going to meet each other in person at some point along the way. So it's a pretty cool little community building thing and I love talking about fitness, so it's an hour and a half, sometimes they go two hours, sometimes even more where I just get to talk about fitness with the guys [00:25:00] and help them troubleshoot things and answer really, really good nuanced questions that maybe one guy in the group hasn't come across this obstacle yet, but another guy did and he asks about it and the other guy who hasn't come across it yet, it's like, oh, when I come up to that obstacle at some point, whatever it may be, I'll remember Kevin talking about it and it's just cool.

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Little hour and a half, two hours that I get to spend every week doing what I really enjoy doing and I think the guys get a lot out [00:25:30] of it. They're not required to go to it. Anyone who wants to as all my client roster can go, but I've got some regulars and I've got some guys who show up once in a while and it's awesome. So that's probably number one right now, honestly, I love programming. I could program all day to be honest with you. Usually I'm working on either some client programs just updating them or changing some things or making adjustments just to make them a little more personalized. Or I've got new clients coming in [00:26:00] and I have to prep their assessments and all that kind of stuff, all that stuff I love. And also I have train heroic, my training team that I update every Saturday and I have almost all the time, I have a program, a PDF program in the works right now I actually am not working on a program because Jack Zel just came out.

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I usually take a week or two off before I start the next one, but little sneak preview, I am about to start working on a new running program that is going to come [00:26:30] out kind of as a program to follow after two and five mile higher volume and a little bit more for more advanced runners. Whereas two and five miles, a little bit lower volume, it's more appropriate for guys who are in that 40, 45 minute, five mile range and the 15 to 17 minute two mile range. Honestly, if you're faster than that and you follow it, you're still going to make gains. The deltas are just going to be smaller because you're already more fit, especially if you've been [00:27:00] running a little higher volume. I do get a lot of people who ask why the volume's so low in the two and five mile, but it's low because that's appropriate for a lot of people.

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Unless you have built up a really extensive running background, the quality of the training is more important than how many miles per week you run. Yes, volume is important and I know this wasn't the question, but anyway, I'm just putting it out there because it's been a recent theme. And yeah, if [00:27:30] your runs are quality and you're running enough to provide that ability to continue running to and two miles, five miles and not get hurt and be able to do your lifting and be able to recover from it all and be able to function throughout the day and not just run yourself into the ground, then I would consider that a success. And guys are cutting. Some guys are cutting eight to nine minutes off their five mile and three to four, sometimes even five minutes off their two mile, which indicates [00:28:00] that it's a pretty solid amount of volume.

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It's enough volume to make significant progress. But anyway, the next one will have some more volume. So I know everyone loves volume. You guys are all volume fi and I am definitely more of a proponent to higher volume with running, but also I have to program for the masses. So if I just put an 80 mile per week program out there, that'll be appropriate for, I don't know, half a percent of people listening to this, not even maybe 0.1%. [00:28:30] Yeah, you guys would probably eat it up, but I would bet that most people just get hurt following it because it's just excessive, especially if you're not a true runner, you are a tactical athlete who runs. There's a difference between being a runner training to become a really good runner and training to become a well-rounded tactical athlete who oh by the way, also can run pretty well.

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So just remember that as you go about looking at volume in different [00:29:00] programs and wondering why my hybrid program volume is low for running when you're also doing a bunch of lifting and conditioning and rucking and strongman work and so on and so forth. So anyway, that was a big time tangent, love programming and I love making content. That's probably my third favorite thing to do is shoot podcasts like this, make content for Instagram and I am also getting back into some writing, expect some articles coming [00:29:30] out pretty soon. I've got one that I'm working on carbohydrates. That's been a theme lately because most people just don't eat enough carbs and they are shortchanging themselves big time. So I'm going to go reel into the weeds with carbohydrates. It's a three part article series that talks all about different benefits of carbs, how to determine how many carbs you need, my favorite sources of carbs, the most optimal sources of carbs for a round training versus just in general and a bunch of different nuances.

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So expect articles [00:30:00] like that to come out in 2026 early in January. And then I'm going to try and at least get one article per month on average coming out for the year 2026. Great question. Glad you asked. And I would say those are probably my top favorite things. Alright, next one is not a question, it's just a testimonial about Jack L two and he's about to start Jax L three. So post JG two, pre JG three, JG Jack L, his [00:30:30] bench is up five kilograms, his squats up 22 and a half kilograms and his deadlifts up 35 kilograms and also the best part is he did the entire thing in a cut, so he's now leaner too, so that's pretty dope. Good job, man. Thank you very much for sharing that. I'm not very good at math, but I think five kilograms is like 12, 13 pounds.

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I think 22 and a half kilograms is like almost 50 pounds for the squat and then deadlift is probably, I don't know, 80, 80 [00:31:00] pounds, 35 kilograms, probably 75 to 80 pounds in the deadlift while eating at a calorie deficit, so pretty dope. Again, those programs are on sale if you want, maybe not the same results, but if you want to get strong and faster and do so in a way that doesn't just destroy you, definitely consider checking 'em out. Next question. My five mile lags relative to my two mile, my speed is there but I'm lacking the staying power. Should I do longer tempo [00:31:30] runs? Very good question actually. I've talked about this in the past, but it's been a really, really, really long time. Longer tempo runs is definitely an option depending on where you're at right now, there's probably a limit to tempo duration just for fatigue reasons.

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You don't really have to go over 35, maybe 40 minutes would be the longest tempo run I would consider doing for five mile gains, but that's one of many options. It could be, well, there's a lot of different ways to skin it. I would recommend the things I go over, [00:32:00] don't just throw 'em all in at once, maybe pick one or two at a time and see how they work. But you could just need more running volume. You could add another easy run throughout the week. You could just add a little bit to your warmups and cool downs. As far as duration is concerned, you could lengthen your long run depending on what it is right now. That's one option. You could also do some more five mile specific speed work. So instead of doing, if you're following a program and [00:32:30] the repeats have you going at a goal two mile pace or something like that, your two mile is already pretty solid.

(32:35):

You don't have to do this forever, but maybe a short block, four weeks, six weeks or so, you could do five mile pace intervals and if you're doing five mile pace intervals, but the program calls for, say you're following my two and five mile and the program calls for doing it at your two mile pace, you'll want to make your rest periods less complete so you can do the same distances, that's totally fine, four hundreds, eight hundreds, whatever. [00:33:00] But if you are going harder at your two mile pace, you're just inherently going to need more rest. Whereas if you're going at your five mile pace to make it more of a stimulative workout, you should probably decrease the rest maybe by 25 to 33%. So if you see for example, if you see 400 meters with a one 30 rest in between, maybe rest a minute or you could do either of these, you could make the rest less complete so you could jog much [00:33:30] of, or even all the rest period or like I said, shorten them or you could do a little bit of both, but that's kind of getting a little bit into the weeds and might get a little bit troublesome.

(33:42):

Additionally, I would consider higher volume repeats, so maybe add another repeat or two to what you're normally doing just to spend more time running at that five mile pace. It's a lower intensity depending on the duration of the repeats or the distance of the repeats. If you're doing four hundreds, you could probably add two to what [00:34:00] you would normally do for two mile. So if you normally would do 10, you could add two to those and you get 12 and then maybe get up to 14, 16 eventually. If it's eight hundreds, probably just add one. I don't like adding more than 400 meters of repeats per week. That is, unless you do the same amount of repeats for two weeks in a row. So if you're doing five by eight hundreds instead of going up to six by eight hundreds the next week, which is another full half mile of repeats, [00:34:30] basically do another week of five by eight hundreds or you could split them up and do four eight hundreds and what, three four hundreds and then the following week you could do six, eight hundreds because you're adding 400 total.

(34:45):

So that's not to say you can never add 800 at a time, especially if you've been up there in the past and you just had maybe a dial back week or something like that. But usually adding a full half mile of speed work over one week time is probably less than ideal for most [00:35:00] people. Also, you could consider doing some slightly longer goal five mile pace intervals, so you don't necessarily have to call them anything, I just call 'em goal pace intervals helps guys get used to running at their goal pace but also with some recovery period so it's not crazy fatiguing something like five by four minutes at goal, five mile pace or six by four minutes at goal mile pace or goal five mile pace or up to six minutes, seven minutes, eight minutes with 60 to 92nd [00:35:30] recovery. Jog in between each one and that'll just get you more used to running at that pace.

(35:35):

It'll get you used to running at your threshold and that can be super beneficial and doing them for slightly shorter than a continuous tempo run is going to be less fatiguing and higher quality, especially the later intervals. Lastly, this one is not something I would do on a regular basis, but you can do this once in a while on your long runs. You can go harder to finish, almost like a cut down run. So say [00:36:00] you're doing a 90 minute long run, maybe from minute 75 to 85 before you get into your last five minutes, and you can use that as a cool down. You could go, I usually like to use RPE for this, not pace just because you're going to be fatigued because you just ran for 75 minutes, but go up to a seven to eight RPE and hold that or get up into close to zone four and hold that for a little bit.

(36:23):

You can also alternate, so maybe you're doing a 90 minute run, you get to minutes 60, maybe you do five minutes [00:36:30] at RPE, seven to eight, two to three minutes at RPE, two to three like a recovery pace. Then another five minutes at RPE seven to eight and then a two to three minute recovery period that's a little less fatiguing because you're again breaking 'em up with rest periods. But all those things I just went over something in there will for sure help. It just kind of comes down to good solid programming and being consistent with it. Also, you could [00:37:00] consider potentially if you are blazing at the two mile and you're struggling, especially in the later stages of the five mile, you can consider two things actually. It could be a pacing thing. Really holding yourself to a negative split would be a pretty solid idea.

(37:15):

If you're going super hard for like three miles and then you just die off, which is super duper duper common. A lot of people when they are less experienced runners, this is super common with honestly most people listening to this with military guys, they'll run like a PR first mile [00:37:30] and slower, the second mile, slower the third mile and so on and so forth, and their gaps between their first mile pace and their last mile pace are extreme. So better pacing would be one thing better fueling is another thing. You're going to need a little bit more carbohydrates. You're going to need more higher glycogen source going into a five mile than you will for a two mile. You don't necessarily, and I wouldn't do this, you don't have to have intra-workout fuel, but make sure you're well topped off your glycogen source are well topped off.

(37:56):

Your carbohydrate intake is sufficient because it's [00:38:00] just more relevant for the five mile. You're going to really be burning more glycogen, you're going to be tapping into that sugar substrate, so that's another consideration. Hopefully one of those things works. I would be shocked if they didn't, but yeah, best of luck. Super common issue and very solvable. Next question, do you recommend repeating two and five mile for more progress? I'm still a long ways out from selection. You could do that for sure. You could wait a couple months for the next running program to come out or to be honest with you, if you have a long ways out, [00:38:30] I would probably do something like Jack is L two or Jack is L three. Jack is L three is going to be the closest running volume to two and five mile, so it's definitely got more lifting.

(38:38):

You're going to gain more strength probably. You're definitely, because you've already made running progress, you're going to have smaller run gain deltas when you follow that. But even if you follow two and five mile again, you'd have smaller gains too. Just the more advanced you get, the better at running, you get the harder it is to progress. That's kind of just the case for most fitness disciplines, but you could follow it again or you could [00:39:00] follow JG two or three or you could hop on T eight 50. That's another great option that looks kind of like the Jack Ls. It's a little bit more changing ever changing. I switch things up more frequently, but there's plenty of running in it to continue making gains and also get into some more strength. If you follow two and five mile again, you could be totally fine just following it as is, but you might want to add some volume.

(39:25):

I would probably add maybe five to 10 minutes to not the interval days, [00:39:30] probably not the tempo days. Maybe you could add maybe up to three to five minutes to the tempo days if you want. Again, not going crazy high, maybe the first tempo you just do two or three minutes longer than you did last time, but also cutting it off in the mid to high thirties. You don't need to go higher than that, but on the easy run days and or the long run days, you could add five to 10 minutes to each one and should be higher volume but also manageable and not crazy. You shouldn't be running five hours [00:40:00] by the end of it or anything like that. If you add five minutes to each long run, that's a decent amount over time, over a 13 week program, that's a decent amount of extra volume and that should help you quite a bit too.

(40:12):

You're probably just more used to or more available and able to run more mileage now that you fold it once. So bunch of ways to skin it, but one of those should work, just kind of depends on what you're going for. Next question. How would you balance a calorie deficit with an aggressive run and lifting program [00:40:30] for performance? Yeah, so it depends on which one you want to be more aggressive with. If your main goal is performance, then you want to be less aggressive with the calorie deficit. If your main goal is fat loss, then you can be a little more aggressive with the calorie deficit, but you also want to definitely, definitely be less aggressive with the training because you're just going to be in a recovery deficit. That being said, you might see some people depending on how much fat they have to lose and how much weight overall they have to lose.

(40:58):

You might see some really good run gains [00:41:00] in a calorie deficit on a run program, but also the lifting is another factor that you have to consider and just the overall workload. Generally speaking, if you're in a minor calorie deficit, I really wouldn't worry all that much about higher injury risk. I wouldn't really worry about massive strength losses or anything like that. You could absolutely gain strength just depending on your lifting experience and how much workload you're doing of course, but if you are in a significant calorie deficit that increases your injury risk, it really drops your [00:41:30] recovery off significantly and it kind of throws a little bit of a wrench into the whole thing, not a wrench, but it just makes it more difficult and a little bit more, you're going to do some more blade running if you're in a more significant deficit.

(41:43):

Generally speaking, for most people, I recommend having your main goal as performance and your secondary goal as fat loss. That is not a hard and fast rule. If you don't really have specific performance goals that you want to hit super [00:42:00] soon, then you can be more aggressive with your calorie deficit, but I'm guessing you probably want to crush whatever performance goals are coming up and also get a little bit leaner, which is great. So you want to keep your calorie deficit minor. Something like 300 to 500 calories a day is a pretty solid deficit that you can maintain and it shouldn't be a hunger fest. It also should allow you to recover not quite as well as you would if you're at maintenance, but still enough to make really good progress. [00:42:30] And for most people, especially if you really have these performance goals instead of thinking of your calories on a daily basis, so say your maintenance just for easy math is 3000 calories.

(42:43):

Instead of being like, I need to eat 2,600 calories per day and being a 400 calorie deficit every single day, think of it on a weekly basis. So multiply your daily calorie maintenance by seven, that'll get you 21,000, so that's how [00:43:00] many calories per week you need to eat, and then look at your training week on the days you're doing more higher intensity stuff or higher volume stuff. Those are days you want to eat more. Probably around maintenance on rest days, you can eat in a pretty significant calorie deficit to just make sure your net calories are where they should be on easier training days that are not super high volume, not super high intensity those days you can definitely eat in a deficit, but maybe a little bit smaller deficit than [00:43:30] you would on a rest day, but also a little bit less than you would eat on the higher volume, higher output days.

(43:36):

If you want to learn more about calorie cycling and how to individualize it and make it ideal for you, the soft prep recovery guide goes into it in depth and it talks about it in the context of selection prep, in which case you should be eating at maintenance, but it's super easy to just make it into a deficit. You just basically drop 300 calories per day on average. [00:44:00] I'm not saying you have to be in a 300 calorie deficit, 400, 500, whatever you kind of go with, but you just drop it from that and you still, it's easy to calculate, so you can check that out if you want. I've talked about calorie cycling quite often, so that was kind of a recap for a lot of people, but it's something that I do with all my clients, a hundred percent of them, and they get great results from it, and it ensures that on their big benchmark days where the workouts are super important or really high volume or potentially higher risk of injury, [00:44:30] they're not dragging ass because they're in this massive calorie deficit because even if your maintenance is 3000 and you're eating 26, 2700 per day, but say you have a day that's two hours of rucking you're going to and you eat 2,700 calories, you're going to be in a massive deficit that day, and that can be just really rough and you're just going to be starving too, or you might have a little less hunger that day, but the next day you might be absolutely famished.

(44:58):

Oftentimes that rebound hunger comes [00:45:00] back a couple days later and people struggle to, especially if it's on your rest day and you're supposed to eat less, but you're super hungry from the day prior and you're just trying to stick to it. That's not for everyone, but some people just experience a lot of rebound hunger the day after a really hard effort. So that's the way I would do it. If you want to be more aggressive with the calorie deficit, then you probably will want to dial back the volume. I would dial back the first two things I'd dial back in the lifting again, this is if you want to go like 700, [00:45:30] 800 calorie deficit, which is okay, but not without changing the program in general. So I would dial back lifting volume, so sets per week and I would dial back running intensity, so not as much speed work or not as much volume at speed, not as much frequency of speed work.

(45:49):

Maybe alternate week to week, do one week where you do just speed work, no tempo or anything threshold, and then maybe the next week you do just threshold, just tempo and no speed work [00:46:00] and so on and so forth. That way, generally running volume is going to be less fatiguing than running intensity, and gym volume is usually more fatiguing than gym intensity. Intensity in this case is usually just proximity to failure, so you want to train hard but a little less and really get the most out of your sets when you're lifting and you want to allow yourself to run quite a bit of volume when you're running, but be a little bit weary of too much intensity, too much speed work, too much tempo [00:46:30] work, too much threshold work, and really, really, really last thing, ensure that you're sticking to the right intensity parameters.

(46:37):

So don't get too attached to your zone two pace. If you're a little slower than your buddy is or than you want to see what's on your watch, it's not a big deal. Just stick to the intensity parameters. One of the things that really messes people up, whether they're in a deficit or not, is lying to themselves about their paces and their efforts and their heart rates, whatever they use to kind of track running ability or running effort, [00:47:00] and the only person that is limiting is you. So just remember that next question. Is cream of rice as good as rice and grinds, in my opinion, not even close as far as taste is concerned, is it still effective? Is a good carb source to eat? Absolutely, but it's not even in the same wavelength as rice and grinds, so I would highly recommend rice and grinds over a cream of rice, but if you want cream of rice, totally fine.

(47:28):

Next question. I heard on a podcast [00:47:30] 18 X doesn't create good leaders. What are your thoughts? Have you had good 18 x leaders? So relying on some sort of program to make people good leaders or make you a good leader is already a terrible idea. You can decide to be a good leader. It's not like you shouldn't rely on other people to make you a good leader or you shouldn't rely on some sort of system to make you a good leader. If you want to be a good leader, you do what leaders do. You hold yourself accountable. You don't lie to yourself. [00:48:00] You set the example. You lead from the front. You do what you want other people to do, you do it as to the best of your ability and you continue to do it, and you continue to get better. You continue to iterate and you can decide to be a good leader.

(48:15):

Now, just deciding, sitting there and doing nothing and deciding to be a good leader, that's not it. You actually have to go put the work in. It's a bunch of skills. Being a leader is a bunch of skills. All skills pretty much in existence can be learned. [00:48:30] So if you want to be a good leader, then you can decide, I'm going to develop the skills that make me a good leader, and then you can go lead. And to answer the last part of your question, yes, I have had great leaders that were 18 Xs and why were they great leaders? Because they made themselves great leaders. Or maybe they had made themselves good leaders prior to joining the Army or something like that. Maybe they played sports in high school or in college, and they were leaders then, and the skills transferred over to the Army.

(48:59):

But if [00:49:00] you hear anyone say some sort of system or some sort of program or whatever it is doesn't make people into good leaders, they have it all wrong. That person has it all wrong. It is not the job of the system to make someone a good leader. It is the job of the individual to want to be a good leader and then put the actions in necessary and practice being a leader, practice leadership skills and develop them and get better at [00:49:30] them over time. That is what makes great leaders. So it doesn't fucking matter if the program doesn't make really good leaders. If someone is an 18 X and they're not a good leader, that's on them. If someone is not an 18 x, they've been in the army before whatever unit, and they're not a good leader, that's on them. So it just pisses me off when people get things wrong like this and they lack agency and they make stupid claims like that.

(49:53):

So if you want to be a good leader, whether you're an 18 x-ray or not, then go do the things that are [00:50:00] required to be a good leader. And there you go. Next question, gym recommendations. In the Fayetteville Southern Pines area. So I don't really have much for you for Fayetteville. I used to work out when I was on Bragg, I would just work out on post when I was stationed there or when I was in the barracks on Bragg, I would work out on post my go-to gym these days on base, well, I shouldn't say these days, but before I got out my go-to gym, besides the third group gym was Ritz Apps. Ritz is pretty dope as far as in Fayetteville, I [00:50:30] don't really have an answer for you, but in Southern Pines area, one is TrueFit. That's where I go. If you ever see me there, say what up?

(50:38):

And that goes for everyone. Once in a while, guys will stop me and say hi, which I love. Don't shy away. I'm not that bad of a guy. We can definitely chat. But another one is Carolina Barbell. It's more of a power lifting, strongman style gym. I have a membership to both, so I don't go to Carolina Barbell quite as often, but it's twice as far away from my house [00:51:00] as TruFit, and I'm more into the machines and stuff that TruFit has, but they're both fantastic. If you're prepping for selection or something like that and you live in this area, Carolina Barbell is by far a better spot. You can do strong man stuff. Sled work carries odd objects. They've got great deadlifting bars, they've got great, basically if you're a powerlifter or a strong man or you're trying to train for something that involves power lifting or strong man style stuff like Team Week for example, [00:51:30] then Carolina Barbell is amazing.

(51:32):

So those are my recommendations. Fayetteville can't really help you. Next question, is it okay to work out right after traveling plane time zone change the next day? Yeah, it's totally fine. I wouldn't go and try and set prs honestly. When I travel and I get a workout in, whether I'm changing time zones or not, when I get to the new destination and it's not some crazy hour, if it's the middle of the night, I probably wouldn't. But if it's sometime during the day, one of the best things you can do is get some activity in. Again, don't go and [00:52:00] load your one rep max on the squat bar and just destroy yourself. Don't go run 12 by 800 meters or something like that. But getting a little bit of a workout in a light, one light pump, maybe some light cardio is a great way to re-energize yourself.

(52:14):

Especially if, say you get there and it's like 9:00 AM in the new place that you're at, but it's like 9:00 PM in the place you left. The best option is to stay up and just suck it up that day. That's going to be your best option in the long term. It's going to be a miserable day, [00:52:30] but the subsequent days, you're just going to get more used to that time zone quicker. But one thing you can do instead of just going and taking a four hour nap, which is it's okay to nap when you get to a new time zone, that's fine. But one thing you would benefit from doing is getting some activity in, whether it's going for a brisk walk in the new location. That's one of my favorite things to do is area fam when I get to a new place, it's just go check it out on foot a run or finding a gym to go get a little pump [00:53:00] in.

(53:00):

Again, probably not going crazy hard and good on you. I want to commend you for thinking about this. A lot of people, it just blows my mind. A lot of people will hit me up and be like, Hey, I am traveling. I can't work out. What should I do? Instead, the place you're going to does not have a gym anywhere in the vicinity of where you're going to be 30 minutes away, 20 minutes away, maybe even have to drive an hour, maybe a little bit less frequent, but getting a couple [00:53:30] of workouts in just blows my mind. If you're into your fitness and your health and your gains and being consistent and just self-respecting, then find a way to get training in it just doesn't make any sense to me. Just doesn't compute where people will be like, oh, I have this goal. I'm going to go to selection, but I'm traveling for 10 days and there's no gym within two minutes of my house.

(53:54):

Or even worse, there is a gym, but I don't want to pay the day pass the $10 day pass or $15 [00:54:00] a day pass or $40 week pass. These are all investments. You either invest in your access to train and actually work towards your goals, or you just make excuses and you go the whole time thinking you can't work out when you, in reality, you could. It just takes a little bit of effort and maybe some funds out of your pocket. So anyway, I don't know how I got there from that question, but that's just something that really irritates me. If you're [00:54:30] traveling, ideally, before you even go figure out exactly what gyms are available that have the stuff you want, maybe even call ahead and be like, Hey, do you guys have week passes? Or do you guys have day passes? And set it up and plan it.

(54:43):

You can do that with food too, depending on where you're at in your prep for whatever. If you're prepping for selection, for example, and you're a month out and you have to travel, guess what? You probably should find a way to train because if you take a week or 10 days off from eating the way you normally do [00:55:00] and you take a week or 10 days off from training the way you normally do, you're going to lose progress. You're going to maybe not lose a bunch of progress, but you're going to miss out on opportunities to gain progress. So that is my spiel on traveling and training and why I'm commending you for asking that question. Good on you, and we're going to end it there. Guys. Thank you very much for tuning in. I'll be back soon with another episode. Remember to check out that sale if you're interested in a program [00:55:30] and looking forward to a sick 2026. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Thanks for the awesome questions, and until next time, Terminator out.