Super Awesome Runner
Hi, I'm Sam! Running has taught me a lot of things -- how motivation is not a permanent state, how difficult it is to get yourself out of bed and move, and how our brains do their best to keep us comfortable and limited in our action (they have good intentions but often miss the mark).
Each week we'll dive into a lesson learned from running, and sometimes cover a song I'm currently listening to help me get out there and move. Some weeks will have a guest runner on the show talking about their path and what helps them when things are tough.
I (Sam) hold a degree in Neurobiology and have been obsessed with motivation, goals and psychology for nearly a decade now. I am a former spin instructor, a current runner & marathoner, an entrepreneur, and podcaster. It's great to meet you!
Super Awesome Runner
How running transformed from a high school chore to a lifelong passion and its fascinating link to neurobiology
This episode is a brief introduction to me, Sam! it's great to meet you! We also spend some time in the end talking about a habit hack I have for getting me out the door to run on those days when I don't want to (which does happen, for sure. Looking at you, hot humid days in summer).
Want to connect with me directly? Follow me at @superawesomerunner on insta and threads!
You can find the song of the week on the weekly playlist here on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2wxmDClsiebNBJ2B3Jut5u?si=5edd46976ddc4630
Hello and welcome to Super Awesome Running. You can find more of the show's content at Super Awesome Running on Instagram and on Threads. As I've mentioned a couple of episodes ago, I've been really getting into Threads and having a lot more fun with it now and, thankfully, getting more engagement now that I seem to be figuring it out. So if you haven't already followed, please be sure to do that, because it's a lot of fun on there and I love getting into conversations with fellow runners and fitness enthusiasts and really anyone that's trying to better themselves. If you also have not yet left a five-star review on either apple podcast or spotify or wherever you may listen, most players do have reviews. If you could go ahead and take a moment to do that, I would greatly appreciate it. It helps other runners stop on by, feel encouraged to hit, play and then hopefully find some useful content for their lives. And if you have already done both of these things, I genuinely greatly appreciate it. I love receiving reviews and follows and, like I said, getting to know all of you and everything that you're going through. To know all of you and everything that you're going through Today, I figure, since it's the top of the year, it is January 7th, at the day of the release of this episode, I thought I'd just kind of talk a little bit about my background and you can get to know me a little bit better, since you are doing the kindness of listening to me talk about running and neurobiology and fitness and mental fortitude and all these fun things. I thought why not introduce myself a little bit more than I have in the past? So I shall start in the beginning, except not quite the beginning, but in high school I got into running by signing up for cross country in high school and actually it was kind of a funny thing. I realized I needed a PE credit to graduate from high school and I was in my junior year. I hadn't yet done anything, so I only had four semesters left to get at least three credits worth of some kind of physical activity in order to graduate. This was the summer before my junior year. So I just graduated my sophomore year and I started looking at all my options and I was not a team sports or fitness person. In fact I really never considered myself to be an athletic person at all Because I spent most of my life playing video games and staring into computer screens and being just enamored with computers. So I kind of categorized myself as a nerd. So again, this is part of the reason why I ignored physical education entirely, because that part of me just was not something I ever considered for myself.
Speaker 1:Well, looking at all the options that I had, I saw cross country and thought, well, running just seems so easy, right? I mean, you just put on some shoes, you head out the door and you run. So I signed up for that one. It felt like the most accessible and I believe I've mentioned this before. But the first time I stepped on a treadmill that summer to try to get myself prepared to run long distance which is a funny thing to do because, a I was never going to run on a treadmill in this class, it was always going to be outdoors. And B like it's fine. This is how my brain worked and I thought, yeah, I'm going to totally train myself for long distances over the summer. I couldn't even do a quarter mile without feeling like I was going to pass out and die. I mean, it was. It was rough, but I kept with it a little bit and started to build it up. Build it up.
Speaker 1:That semester was still pretty rough in terms of just my physical part of the course, because my body was not at all used to running and I really underestimated the challenge of running at that time. But thankfully I had a really nice coach. There were some great teammates on it. They knew that I wasn't there because, you know, this wasn't like a passion of mine, but they were very fun to hang out with and I was kind of just like a you know, just a fun person being there, realizing that I have no idea what I'm doing, and they all like, took to that, and so it was. It was a great memory looking back, but that really kind of planted the seed for me with running. I graduated that I was going to do track and field. I got freaked out about track and field. I didn't want to do that either. So I basically just found a way for my school to allow me to work out at the gym and they would log the hours that I stayed at the gym and that could turn into a credit. So that's what I did for the remaining two credits. But I had planted that seed right of being a runner. I didn't know it yet, but I would come back to it many, many, many years later.
Speaker 1:Over the next five to 10 years, I would run on and off. It was something that I'd kind of go through seasons where I'd get really into it for three to four, sometimes off. It was something that I'd kind of go through seasons where I'd get really into it for three to four, sometimes even six months, and then back off for a little while and then get back into it, and that's pretty much how I stayed for, you know, at least five to 10 years. Then in my graduate school program I started to get back into running, especially because they had a really nice gym. So I got back into kind of taking care of my body and being interested in being a little bit more fit, especially because it was business school and business school is basically just one long drinking trip and I needed something to offset the amount of damage I felt like I was doing to my body.
Speaker 1:So I got back into running and decided I wanted to run a half marathon. I'd heard other people talking about it but you know, never I didn't really appreciate the distance at the time. I just knew that people signed up for this thing called a marathon and there was a half marathon. So I thought, okay, that seems like something I could do. And I mean, what a what a mess. Looking back, I didn't have a training program, I never did any speed work, I never did any hill work. I would just kind of run haphazardly the week of my half marathon.
Speaker 1:I was meant to now I know I was meant to be tapering and taking care of myself, but instead I decided that I needed to make sure that I could get to 13 miles. So I tried to run as many of the 13 as possible, like the Thursday before the weekend. So I got to like eight or nine miles that day. I mean just a terrible idea to do that Because, as you know, you're just depleting all of your glucose and glycogen stores and you're risking injury and, like your legs are not going to be completely healed by the time you show up. I didn't know any of that, but then I was able to complete my first half marathon. It was a mess, as you might imagine. I bonked at like mile nine or 10 and had to walk for a bit, but I was able to cross the finish line, I believe, in like two hours 32 minutes. And then again I went through a period of five to 10 years where I barely touched running. I didn't really do any more half marathons. I might have done one, but I can't remember it if on the top of my head but I wasn't really committed to this idea of racing or getting these distances and at some point I transitioned over to spin class.
Speaker 1:My friend dragged me to a spin class. I fell in love with it. It was a style of spin that was very popular at the time in like 2015, 2016 studios everywhere you know, kind of because of soulcle with the dark lights, the EDM music, the remixed music, the dancing on the bike. I really loved it because I love music. Part of the reason why Matt and I and Jen have the Super Awesome Mix podcast network is because we adore music and we love to talk about it.
Speaker 1:So I got really into taking spin class and then at some point again not really ever planning this I thought I want to be a spin instructor. That seems like so much fun and I really liked the motivation element of spin class and the coaching element and all the really nice cool things instructors would say to us while they were on the bike to get us to move and to dig a little bit deeper and, you know, show up for ourselves. So I emailed the owner and asked about becoming a spin instructor. She was very excited for me because she knew me at this point since I'd taken hundreds of classes. I went through her training program and she put me on the schedule.
Speaker 1:So I was a spin instructor for like three or four years and I didn't really run during that time. I was all in on spin and just had such a blast. It was really fun being a part of a fitness oriented community, getting to know people who are all there to work on themselves, to feel stronger, to feel better, to feel like they are doing again, just doing something for themselves, and it was very rewarding. I loved that time period in my life. But I wasn't running, you know, I was just doing spin class and again, I always fought with this idea of I'm not an athlete or I'm not someone who is physically fit. You know, this is just some weird side gig of mine. I never connected the dot that this might be something that I really genuinely love and might be a purpose for me.
Speaker 1:So I moved to New York after you know, being in Texas for my entire life moved to the city and the running community in New York City is out of this world. I mean, it's unbelievable, I you know, for being such an urban environment you wouldn't imagine. But there are so many great places to run in the city. Central Park of course comes to mind. It's a great running track. I always tell runners, especially whenever people would come and visit and join our running club meets from you know somewhere in the States or somewhere from Europe, for example, they marvel at the track that is Central Park. And if you ever run the marathon and finish in Central Park, you know it's very hilly, it's very challenging. You can never relax for those six miles of the loop and if you do multiple loops, I mean it will crush you. I did my 18 mile long run and it was really rough in there because those hills just add up you can get a lot of elevation in Central Park Anyway. So Central Park has this really rich running community. The highways along the east side and west side have great running communities and you can even just run through the city streets. If you go out early enough. You don't have to get stopped too often by lights. Running bridges is so much fun. Anyway, all that to say that there's a very rich running community in New York.
Speaker 1:And so it kind of turns, you know, began to set that seed again of like I miss running. You know, I really have enjoyed spin, but there's just something about running that just keeps calling me back. And I lived right by part of the marathon route and watched a bunch of people run the marathon and still, like it was, didn't really connect the dot. And it wasn't until a friend of mine he was a coworker at the time and we were becoming friends but he had just finished his fourth or fifth marathon and I looked at him, you know, running by me and literally said to my then girlfriend, now wife, I'm going to do that, like I'm going to run a marathon and just committed to it. I said it just so matter of factly. It's like I knew I was going to do it. There wasn't any like I want to or, you know, maybe I'll look into it it's like I'm going to do this. And that is when I really recommitted to running and have been a consistent runner and built in strength training and all of that Incredible, incredible fitness journey. And finally, now I identify as someone who is athletic, who loves fitness.
Speaker 1:And you know, one part of the story that I didn't mention in all of this fitness journey is that in college I studied neurobiology. And I studied it because at the time I thought I wanted to be a doctor. I also, I would admit, picked neurobiology because it sounded like the smartest degree I could get. I was a bit egotistical in college. I'd like to believe I'm a little less egotistical these days. I found a way to kind of tampen it down but I picked neurobiology because it just sounded so smart and so impressive. But I ended up loving it.
Speaker 1:You know, studying the brain structure, understanding you know how it works, all the different parts of the brain, reading some incredible research about. You know just why we make the decisions we make, how we make them, all the subconscious elements to our brain that we don't really fully understand. You know consciously. You know you feel yourself doing something you don't even know why you're doing it, like that part of our brain I find really interesting. And then I also had the chance to take a lot of psychology courses. Because it was neurobiology, they paired it a lot with a lot of psychology studies and also some sociology.
Speaker 1:So again, just always kind of building that context of we as humans, both as individuals in our own minds, but then as individuals in a group and in a society, and how do we interact with one another to, you know, kind of get what we want, and how are we like animals and how are we unlike animals, and all this really fascinating stuff. So, you know, I started to connect all of these dots. I had the running, the fitness, the spin class, the motivational elements, the coaching, and then finally connecting it all the way back to my neurobiology degree and realizing this is what I want to do with my life. I want to talk about running and talk about how and why we run. And what do we do when we hit a wall during a training program, or hit a wall during our race, or we don't want to get out of bed, or we are exhausted and all we want to do is just sit on the couch and couch rot, but instead we find ourselves pulling our shoes on and out the door anyway and then discovering afterwards you know, they were so happy that we did that and I was I'm still so fascinated by the two sides of that coin.
Speaker 1:You know, how do we have this internal dialogue that seemingly fights itself constantly. You know, I'm just in a constant state of battle of wanting to go out and do things and then wanting to stay in and not do things, and I just am so fascinated that both sides of this conversation are me. These are literally just me, right. But it's like these two push and pull beings in me that, you know, one person, kind of, is looking out for me in one regard and the other person argues also looking out for me in another regard, and ultimately there's like kind of a third person that decides which one of these two people we're going to listen to. And I just think that that that is such an interesting structure for us from a mental and psychology point of view and a neurological point of view.
Speaker 1:So I am really excited about this podcast. I'm excited to where it's going to go from here. I'm eager to find runners as guests on the show. So if you are someone that has had an interesting journey into running and you would love to share your story and what motivates you and how you get excited or not excited to head out for a run, send me a DM on Instagram at superawesomerunner and we'll connect and see if we can make it work, but I am really excited, as I said, for 2025 and this season, and just wanted to let you know a little bit about why I'm so excited and about my journey here.
Speaker 1:I will leave you with a little bit of you know, something that I've been thinking about this last week that is off the topic of introducing myself, which is using music as a cue to get you excited to head out the door whenever you're feeling like you don't want to go out. This is something that has been helpful for me, especially as I was training and deep in my training block for the marathon. Deep in my training block for the marathon. You know there's a point where you're going to be tired and you don't want to go out and do a three hour long run, because that's a very long time to be on your feet and moving and exercising and pushing yourself, and you might not even want to do the four mile run, even though, because you know you've just done it so many times before and you're honestly just bored. What I would do is I created a playlist throughout the entire training block and every single morning before I would go out for a run, I would put on headphones, I'd listen to that playlist and I got to the point where that became a cue and part of the habit cycle.
Speaker 1:I've talked about habits before in this podcast in an earlier season, but you know it's cue basically is what triggers the start of a habit, and then there's the action and then the reward of the habit. So the cue here was the playlist, the action then the reward of the habit. So the cue here was the playlist, the action was going out for the run, the reward at the end was the feeling of satisfaction of having done it. So the cue becomes very important because once your brain learns that that's the cue for the action, it's that subconscious mind that takes over. So a trick that I did for myself, as I mentioned, is listening to the same playlist, the same set of songs, every single morning before I went for a run meant that on the mornings I really didn't feel like going out, like the humidity would be like 90 percent.
Speaker 1:We had a very humid summer in New York this last summer I would follow the exact same things I would do any day of the week and any weather situation put on my headphones, hit, play on that playlist and just kind of let my body take over, and you know, just the same way that you know how to brush your teeth without thinking about how to brush your teeth. That is what started to happen. So, before I knew what my shoes were on, you know, my heart monitor on my watch was set and I was out the door beginning my run, even though, you know, my conscious mind was telling me like, oh my gosh, it is so gross outside. Well, what are you doing? My subconscious mind was just bopping along and on my way. So that is a little tip I have for you, and you know. To bring it back to music, which I mentioned, that I love.
Speaker 1:I think it's a really cool trick to train yourself to listen to the same kind of set of songs as you get ready to get out the door, because on those mornings when you don't feel like doing it, it will help you be a little bit more automatic in making it happen. So, with that, that's going to wrap up this week's Super Awesome Runner episode. Again, you can find me at Super Awesome Runner on Instagram and on threads. Please reach out. Let me know how it's going with you and what challenges you're facing in any topic you might want to chat about or hear me talk about on the show. I appreciate your time, as always, and I hope you have a wonderful week.
