0:01

Hi, my friend. Have you plateaued in your running performance or simply wondering what will it take to get to the next level?

0:07

Well, today you will find answers to your questions as we sit down with an Olympic athlete and talk about the pillars to improving your performance as a runner and how applying this information will put you on a path of becoming a high performing athlete.

0:22

Hope you enjoy.

0:24

Welcome to Inspire to Run podcast.

0:27

Here you will find inspiration, whether you are looking to take control of your health and fitness or you are a seasoned runner looking for community and some extra motivation.

0:36

You will hear inspiring stories from amazing runners, along with helpful tips from fitness experts.

0:42

Now here's your host, richard.

0:45

Connor, welcome to Inspire to Run podcast.

0:50

We are here today with a special, special guest, dan Brown.

0:54

You are going to love this conversation.

0:56

I had the chance to meet Dan just a few weeks ago and let me tell you a little bit about him and what we are going to talk about today.

1:01

First, he is a 2004 Olympic track and field team member, 10,000 meters in marathon, united States Army National Guard retired Lieutenant Colonel, 17 time US national champion on road track and cross country, two time NCAA, all American as a collegiate athlete at the US military academy.

1:24

And he is sales manager for the government division at Polar, my favorite fitness tracker and heart rate monitor company.

1:32

So excited to have Dan on the show today.

1:34

Welcome to the show, dan. Hey, thank you very much, richard, really appreciate it.

1:38

Yes, yes, of course, and you know what we were talking before.

1:42

I love your mindset and philosophy about high performers and high performance athletes and you just have such a rich background that I think would be very interesting for our community to learn about and just kind of learn your philosophy and mindset to help them along their journey.

1:59

So you know, we love to just kind of kick off the conversation and just hear a little bit about your background and your journey.

2:06

Yeah, absolutely Well, you know. First of all I just want to say it's been, it's been an amazing journey to to get the opportunity to explore my parameters athletically and running in endurance has been kind of like that common denominator in that in that journey I started running at a young age, ran through high school, had some decent success at the high school ranks and but still had some business to do, never winning a state title.

2:36

And so, you know, continued on into the collegiate ranks, went to the United States Military Academy a tough place to to go to to continue that journey.

2:47

But at the same time, looking back on it, it was an excellent choice to develop professionally and personally on the on the athletic side and in the same way, had some, you know, success while I was there competed at the Olympic Trials in 1996, when I was a junior, or refer to as a cow at West Point, and then, you know, senior year had some had some continued success, interspersed with some setbacks you know life doesn't always give you everything you want and so did not win an NCAA title when I was there.

3:24

But then I took that, I took those setbacks and really reorganized my training plans and philosophy and came out that following year, as a new lieutenant in 1998, I won five US national titles with sort of that.

3:37

That. That refocused mindset and, you know, continued on mixing, you know.

3:44

A career with these Army will class athlete program and, as a logistics officer, ultimately transferred to the Oregon National Guard and then I then continued on to as a National Guard officer, moved to Oregon and then competed with under a program called the Nike Oregon Project in 2002, ultimately allowing me to compete at the and succeed at the Olympic Games in Athens, greece, 2004.

4:13

So that's incredible. You know I can't express how excited I am to have you on the show, just having an Olympic athlete here, to kind of share your incredible journey with us.

4:24

You know I love what you said about not only the successes and the wins but also the setbacks, and you know all of that together is part of kind of being a high performer and a high performance athlete it's you're not always going to win, but you know you're going to have those setbacks and what you learn from it is really going to determine, you know, your future success.

4:43

So you know we'd love to hear a little bit more about that, like, what are the, what are the cases where you know you were winning and where are the cases where you had those setbacks and when did you learn from them?

4:54

Yeah. So overarching principle, what I would say is that bottom line is that you got to get back up one more time and you fall down, and the mind is the key there.

5:05

Everyone experiences setbacks in life, but then the key is to figure out ahead of time what you're going to do about it when they come your way.

5:15

It's not a question of if, it's a question of when.

5:17

I'm sure everyone listening understands that, and so the key principle is to determine ahead of time what you're going to do when that happens.

5:27

Many examples from high school.

5:29

I remember I got second place to the same guy in the cross country 3,000 meters and the 1,500 meters my senior year.

5:37

I think if you develop a mindset to let setbacks help fuel your future performance, that's the key in terms of constantly iterating toward achieving at a higher level.

5:50

Yeah, that's for sure, and I can imagine that it's not easy for someone to do that.

5:55

If you're looking to get a certain time in a race or if you're looking to get on the podium and it just doesn't happen that day, I'm sure it's not easy for someone just to dust themselves off, pick themselves up and move on and figure out where to go next.

6:09

So what are the things that someone could do to help put them in that right mindset or be positive about the future?

6:17

Well, I think the first thing to do is, when you have setbacks, just understand that it's a natural process to feel sad or despondent over that performance, and that's okay.

6:30

Give yourself a period of time to allow those emotions to happen.

6:36

I remember, after I didn't do as well as I wanted at the state championships in Oregon, taking some time and talking with my coach later and just expressing those things, and that's a key part of that process, because that feeling that you get when you don't accomplish your goals If you don't feel that way, then, from my perspective, it would mean that, well, maybe that goal wasn't as important as you were for you, so it's a good thing to feel that way.

7:10

The key, then, though, is give yourself that time to process and then come back with a really good thoughtful analysis of what happened and work with people that are close in your life to then give you some good guidance and pointers about, hey, what are things that I can maybe do a little bit differently In today's information age?

7:30

There is so much amazing information out there, and I've been blessed in my life to have many great mentors both on the cognitive performance side, such as Dr Nate Zinser at West Point Center for Hands Performance as well.

7:42

Asa gentleman worked with in Denver named Dr Justin Ross, great psychologist out there.

7:48

It's exploring the mind and having that fearless curiosity to explore your top level performances.

7:57

It's a life process and it doesn't stop.

8:01

And if you think of it that way, I think it will then help you to frame the setback and then to frame it into something that can be very, very positive, because that's a key aspect is being authentic about it.

8:16

Yeah, for sure, and I love what you said about getting support in with the coaches to help you with the mind.

8:22

And it's interesting because for my story, just about four years ago five years ago I ran my first obstacle course race and that was the time where I really started to get back into running.

8:33

And I did the race and after I finished I was like I could do this a whole lot better.

8:37

So I got a coach, but my mentality with the coach was just tell me what to do and I'll go and do it.

8:42

I don't need anything else. I don't need any motivation or inspiration.

8:46

Like I'm pretty self-motivated, but what I've learned over the years is that I absolutely needed someone to be there to push me to do more, to be better and to do things that I've never done before.

8:57

And it's just been an incredible journey that I don't think I would have been on without the support of a coach.

9:02

So I really appreciate what you said about that.

9:06

Yeah, and I think as a coach, I've had a natural evolution, going from an athlete to a coaching advisor role, and one of the things that I try and inculcate into my team is the idea of not just what to think but how to think, because that will then translate into your ability to process information in real time, as you're having, as you're in a performance or a competition, and that helps develop your mastery, which I think is a key aspect.

9:42

I learned from some of the best in the business Alberto Salazar, bob Larson, joe Vihel, a number of other great mentors in my life who've kind of poured into me, and I do hope to do the same thing with the next generation.

9:57

For sure. I'd love to talk more about that how to think part and I want to share a quick story.

10:02

You know when we were talking about setbacks before.

10:04

Just another quick story about one of my races. This year I ran the Brooklyn Half Marathon for the first time and it was a way for me to run a race in New York City and see what it's all about and I really just wanted to run it.

10:16

But I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform and I'm thinking I'm going to PR.

10:20

I've never run the course before and I did everything wrong.

10:24

I didn't feel properly before the race.

10:27

I didn't sleep well the night before. I think that could have gone wrong, went wrong.

10:30

But then after the race, of course I didn't feel really great about myself or the race.

10:35

But just a month later there was a Father's Day race and it was a five-miler, so not quite a half marathon, but I ran it in the sense of I needed redemption, I needed to know that I could run a good race and I felt really great about the race and I was very positive in my thinking and the end result is I did even better than I thought I could in that five-miler Father's Day race.

10:58

So it was really interesting what you talked about setbacks, but how you get back up and how you're thinking about how you're going to perform in the future.

11:07

So I know a little bit about how I was talking to myself internally, but tell me a little bit about what are the things that we could do in terms of how we talk to ourselves or how do we think during these tough times.

11:20

Yeah, I mean, you hit on a really neat point with that.

11:24

You had the near miss and then you regrouped and had a greater performance.

11:31

I think inspiration is definitely a powerful fuel for that great performance in a lot of ways, and everyone is different in terms of what inspires them, and I think it's very important to be very thoughtful about not just what you're doing but why you're doing it, because it's amazing the power that can be generated by thinking critically about why you're doing things.

12:01

What is this inspiration rooted in?

12:04

Because that's when I've personally found in my life to have had some of the biggest breakthroughs and performances, when I've been able to channel that inspired effort, especially in a sport as challenging as endurance, running and athletics, where you're really kind of pushing it on the red line for a lot of times and you have to stay very focused throughout, because you're there in your own mind.

12:33

You're doing a very physical activity, but it's also very mental and only you know when you've given it your best effort or when you've really pushed it to the highest level that you can reach toward.

12:47

And so it's that journey.

12:50

I would definitely say that mastering your mind and how it works is a critical component the sports psychology stuff that's out there about visualization and mindfulness, it's all right on, but you've got to practice the tools and that's what it really comes down to and do it consistently.

13:13

A consistent application of good principles will yield excellent results.

13:21

I often say the more things, the harder you work and the smarter you work, the luck you're going to be, because really I say that facetiously, because there's actually very little luck when it comes to high performance at the Olympic level and or even if you're just trying to just optimize your own personal performance.

13:41

It's not a lucky thing, it's something that is planned out.

13:46

And at the same time, you also have to think and you also have to also sometimes take a little pressure off yourself and recognize that this is a journey and that you're not going to be perfect and nobody is and to give yourself that ability to have that margin, if you will.

14:07

I think that in the mindset, sometimes, if you're and I've been a victim of this too where, like, if you just always have like I have to be perfect or I have to do this, sometimes that state of overall arousal can actually be a negative thing in your life.

14:24

So there really is truly a balance in terms of you know, when you think of the sympathetic and parasympathetic system within your body, you want to have a certain level of arousal to achieve performance when it comes time on for race day, but at the same time it needs to be very channeled and not and any, and you can't, you don't want it to go so far that you're not getting the proper amount of sleep and recovery because, as with most that, you know, any physical activity you know you have, you have the training that you're trying to do, but then you also have the other half of training often say is recovery, and if you're not really good at recovering from it, your, your, your training won't, won't get to new levels.

15:08

So it's kind of a balancing act and I've trained with a lot of international athletes and I've seen how they are our masters of recovery and also working very hard, and I think that's that's kind of the key in today's age.

15:20

It's very hard because you know we're go, go, go, you know all kind of all kind of rest when I'm dead mentality, but like, ultimately, if, if what you're trying to do is try and get the best at yourself, you need to be at least very cognizant of the idea of recovery being important.

15:37

Yeah, that's for sure, and that's something that I've tried to focus on, especially these past couple of years, because, you know, like you said, it's this hustle culture.

15:47

It's a go, go, go, and you know you got to do more, you got to be better, and you got a lot of things going on in life, a lot of stimulation from different areas, so it's hard to do.

15:57

So I feel like I've gotten better at it, but I'm not great, so you know.

16:01

So I'm using device you know we'll talk about a little bit later so I'm using devices to kind of help me with that and I'm learning all about it.

16:08

So, so, but you know, thank you for sharing that.

16:10

This, for sure, an important point about not only the training but also the recovery.

16:13

You know, and I'd love to hear a little bit more about your journey, your story about you know what are some of the races that were, you know, successful races for you, races where you've learned, and then, yeah, share a little bit about that with us.

16:29

Yeah, absolutely. And I think just to add one final one thought to what you were mentioning, I think one of the keys when it comes to when you are busy is to really do a thoughtful process about the priorities in your life.

16:41

That, to me, is the key. Once you Identify your life priorities, it makes the what you're gonna do throughout the day that much easier.

16:50

You know, when you have those guiding principles like, hey, these are my, these are my priorities, then then Just put them in, put them in stone, and once they're there, then it will help figure out Okay, what do I do now?

17:02

You know, type of thing. So yeah, I've had a number of different experiences that have been very shaping in my life.

17:10

On on the running side. You know everything from.

17:13

You know running a subformin at mile at the at the Army Navy Indoor track meet when I was a senior at West Point that was.

17:19

That was quite a rockin experience. There at Gilles Field House, it was amazing to be able to be the first cadet to have done that.

17:27

You know I. But the interesting thing about that is that this is this is that thing about life is like.

17:33

Immediately following that, I had an.

17:35

I experienced a setback with, with a stress fracture, and it sort of took me out of that being able to perform at the NCAA level that year.

17:42

So all this to say is that, like you know you, you know it happens, you have these great, you know you work hard toward these successes, but it doesn't mean that life is just going to go perfectly, you know, thereafter or whatever.

17:56

So another example that I think back to is, well, even even the Olympics in 2004, when I was working with Alberto and the Oregon Project, you know, I set kind of an ambitious goal to try and make it in the 10,000 meters and also the marathon team, and those are two separate Olympic trials contested, you know, in February and July of 2004, and so they required two different phases of peaking and also the Olympics, and so we had to be very thoughtful about the training process leading up to it.

18:28

But I remember, you know, being in, you know, birmingham, alabama, and you know that, this being ultimately the first place that I would make an Olympic team and one of the more memorable experiences for me just because of having, you know, been a professional athlete for quite a while and then Realizing that last mile that I was gonna, you know, the my Olympic dream was gonna come to fruition, I was gonna make an Olympic team, was a very meaningful experience for me at a very deep level, after many, many, many thousands of miles of training.

19:02

So that was that was Excellent.

19:05

I guess another maybe example of Meaningful race to me that that maybe wasn't okay.

19:13

So then, when I went to the Athens Olympics, I had Set an ambitious that had set this ambitious goal.

19:20

Ultimately I went in the 10,000 meters that was the first event that I did and Ended up getting 12th place, which I was very proud of.

19:27

That, I mean, I, I was the top American, with a number of other great American Olympians in the field and, you know, ran just about as competitively as I could have in a very warm and humid space, running I think it was like about 28 low for 10,000 meters in those conditions.

19:44

But immediately thereafter I went back to the island of Crete and did my final train up for the marathon that was gonna be contested and On that day, you know, the truth is is that I'm just not a great hot weather runner.

19:59

I never really was like Physiologically.

20:02

I think my just my, my body composition didn't lend itself to that that performance, which that's okay, you know we.

20:10

You know we, we do the best we can and but sometimes you have to recognize that we have limitations.

20:14

And so you know I worked with, you know, our Nike counterparts we use the ice vests that we just gotten right before the games.

20:23

And you know I set out an ambitious goal to you know run that you know, top 20 in the the race.

20:29

And you know I did that. But but ultimately I found that my body was not assimilating the fluid that I was putting into it.

20:35

I mean, the temperature was, you know, 85, maybe even a little higher, with high humidity.

20:41

They just a black top the road and so it was just imagined, just the Most brand new fresh black pavement you'd ever seen and all the heat of the day Baked into it at 5 pm In Athens in August, and you get a picture of what it was like just almost steam.

20:58

So you know, unfortunately I basically dehydrated out there and I remember, at 28k the course in Athens was there was literally almost a 10 mile stretch where, from mile 10 to mile 20, we sort of kind of weaved our way up this hill until the final 10k descent, well, which is, you know, new York Marathon, is, is, just is, is is difficult to, but this was on another level.

21:24

Well, at about 28k into the race, my hamstring just completely went out and I, cramped, had to stop on the side of the road, you know I.

21:32

But I determined in my mind that I was gonna finish this thing, you know, and that, and, and I did it ahead of time, and even though I had to kind of go into survival stride mode and, you know stretch, right before, you know, I came into the Olympic Stadium at the end of the race, I, I Saw it through and that, and that principle of following through with what you say you're gonna do, I think is a very important thing in life.

21:58

As best you can, you know, you know you've got to, you know you don't want to permanently harm yourself but at the same time, developing that resiliency to really, you know, mean what you say and do what you say you're gonna do, is a key principal and I think I think, like sixty, third or sixty I mean, it was not I fell back, but that principle of Building that muscle, of following through is one of those key life principles that I found.

22:24

So I'm not great success from my perspective but at the same time Tremendous learning opportunity, and I think sometimes we learn more from our you know near missus.

22:38

That's. The idea is to try and learn more than just from those times when you know everything, you plan it and just everything goes great, you know.

22:46

Yeah, for sure, for sure will be great to hear that you still finished a race.

22:50

And you know I can only imagine being, you know, not kind of race and having that happen, and you know, I don't know what that does your mind set.

22:57

At that point, you know, if you're in pain or whatever the case may be, and the conditions you describe, by the way, that sounds very much uncomfortable.

23:06

So I got alone.

23:08

I can't, even I can't imagine.

23:11

But you know, the thing is that and I know you know there's a lot of ultramarathon types out there it's amazing what the body can do as you, as you develop your mindset and as you develop yourself physically over time.

23:25

The key is consistency and the key is also to just have what I know just that fear is curiosity, to explore your boundaries and remember it doesn't matter where you're at on the scale, whether you're Running a 10 minute mile pace, running at 5 minute mile pace.

23:44

This is the thing I've learned about coaching.

23:46

It's been really fun is that it's a neat process to help people, whatever level there at, because it's a very enjoyable thing to see people kind of reach for that next thing that they're not quite sure if they can do, and so it's fun to see the joy when they when they express it.

24:04

So I encourage people to kind of continue to have faith, believe in what you're doing, get good guidance from people around you and learn and Be you.

24:16

Know you. The mind is the key.

24:18

Be mentally strong and good things will happen.

24:24

For sure, sage advice for our listeners.

24:28

You know I appreciate you sharing your running journey and your philosophy around you know, again, kind of being a high performer or high performing athlete.

24:36

You know I love you to share. If you didn't share it in one of your stories, what would you say was the biggest obstacle that you face in your running career?

24:44

And then hide you over come it.

24:47

Okay. So after the Athens Olympics I went into a period where, you know, injuries are in running, are inevitable and they're very hard.

24:59

That's why, when I coach, I do everything I can to help athletes avoid what I call the injury cycle.

25:05

And you know that principle of ounce of prevention versus a pound of cure, it's everyone knows it, you know when they've been, whenever they've ever been, in that injury cycle.

25:14

So so after Athens I had some serious it band syndrome and, and you know just the many, many miles of training and Pounding overtime, you know it took a toll on my body.

25:27

Ultimately. You know, I worked very hard with alberto and and the project try and recover, but I found that I was not able to get my body right, and so, after about A little over two months of just constant therapy every day, we decided that probably a surgery was going to be a good outcome for me to do, and so how?

25:51

To lateral release done my right knee and immediately the pain was gone.

25:55

Unfortunately, I think, my my left knee got jealous and so it started doing the same pain.

25:59

And you know, within about a month I was having a left knee done, and you know it's Surgery is.

26:08

It's a tough one. Every you know I'm sure many listeners out there maybe I have experienced that it's a long, it can be a long process, especially trying to get back to a high level, and I was no exception.

26:21

But you know you, just one of the things is you learn a lot about yourself when you're, when you're in those low periods, and you also learn a lot about the people around you in your life.

26:32

And I think that awareness was very critical and I just I knew I was going into the woods basically with this experience and for me, I just determined in my mind to Get out of it, get out of those woods.

26:48

And it took, it took a long process and I really wasn't running what I would say is effectively until well into 2006 and in large part, maybe not after even a couple other Changes that I had made in my training program and everything, even 2007 with doing some more altitude training.

27:06

So, but I it goes back to that principle that I say about overcoming setbacks Is you just have to determine that you were gonna, you're gonna, get back up, no matter what it takes, and Keep people in your life that that kind of keep you positively focused toward that end, and the chances are, you know you'll, you'll come out of those woods.

27:25

But it's not easy and it wasn't easy for me and you know.

27:31

But Ultimately, helping people to kind of avoid that as much as possible has been a really an interesting process.

27:39

When you start talking about Different recovery modalities or even using technology to kind of help you to assess what is your appropriate load amount of cardio and or muscle load training that you should be doing, it's those ounce prevention pound of cures kind of things that will will really help you to avoid those pitfalls.

28:01

Yeah, for sure, and I appreciate you sharing your story and, you know, glad to see that you were able to get through that successfully.

28:07

And I love how you brought it back to mindset having the right mindset to get through an injury in that, you know, dark time.

28:13

But also I don't know if we talked about this yet, but you mentioned about having the right people around you, right to Positive people to help support you during those times.

28:22

So that's a really interesting and, I think, really important point for our listeners.

28:27

So I appreciate you sharing that. And then you know you just talked about technology and I love to, you know, talk about that a little bit.

28:34

You know. So I mentioned at the beginning of the show that polar is is my favorite, you know, fitness watch and heart rate tracker brand and you know I've used polar for I think it's been a couple of years now and you know it's helped me level up my training and I'd love to hear from you a little bit about you know.

28:53

How is? You know? Just tell us a little bit about the brand first.

28:56

But then how can the technology give athletes, runners, an edge, kind of, in their performance?

29:03

Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, I mean it's.

29:05

You know, polar technology is the best in the business.

29:09

I mean, we're the pioneers of heart rate technology and our company is focused on providing the products and services that can really help optimize your own your life as it pertains to see what you know the athletic and and the impersonal arena by developing this greater understanding of how hard you're working during training sessions.

29:32

Then, you know, using these products to help gain that insight, both Not only in the training side but also on your sleep and recovery side, which, as I mentioned before, is a key component.

29:43

Understanding Quantitatively how you're doing on both sides of that of that coin, in my opinion, is the key to success.

29:52

You know it's all about using these sensors to kind of, you know, paint this like 24-7 kind of holistic picture of, like, your current physiologic status that they give you know and thereby giving you that data that you need to improve.

30:07

Basically, you know, and we have.

30:10

You know, polar has something called flow, which is our ecosystem, where our sensors go into and it doesn't just stop it Sharing that data so that you can have your own, have that situational awareness of where you're at in real time.

30:23

But then they also give you the opportunity to use that data you know and provide training guidance to you to whatever your goal may be, it's actually a very it's an amazing system.

30:33

I've seen it used it. It's been a very fun process for me to kind of move with a move from that coaching focused arena to then being a part of industry and especially on the this wearable technology side and and deep diving into it and Understanding, gaining, like from my perspective, deeper insights into this, and I think it's it's gonna allow me to help Me be even a better coach in the future.

30:59

And no, I just appreciate the opportunity to be with them and it's been fun.

31:04

So you know, I want to share a little bit about my story as to you know why I decided to go with polar throughout my training.

31:10

I'm looking to, I got back into running just a few years ago, as I mentioned obstacle course races and road races, and I think it was two years ago Maybe.

31:20

I ran a race and I did well, but not as well as I wanted to, and I told my coach I will do whatever it is you tell me to do.

31:30

You just need to help me get to where I want to go. So one of the things that he recommended was to change my training plan from running based on time and speed to, well, a distance and speed, I should say to time and on my feet, as well as heart rate.

31:45

So I'm like, okay, well, how do I do that?

31:48

Well, you have to get yourself a heart rate monitor. So that's basically kind of what led me to polar, and I'm sure you know somebody I knew had the device.

31:54

I'm like, and I researched it and I'm like, you know what?

31:57

This is what I want to go it. So I absolutely love it and it's definitely transformed my training, it's definitely transformed my performance and races and it's also given me confidence in in my runs, because before I have to run, I have to run.

32:14

You know, so far, listeners, if you're running by heart rate, there's different zones right zones one, two, three, four, five and I had no idea what zones that would be, based on my pace.

32:24

So I had to use the watch quite often. But now I kind of know, right now I kind of have a feeling, oh, you know, I kind of feel like I'm I'm probably getting up there doing zone four, right, and I look at my watch and, sure enough, that's that's where I'm at.

32:36

So it gives me more confidence that I'm really listening to my body and understanding a lot more about what's going on because of this technology, and that's definitely helped me through my training.

32:45

So, anyway, so that's a little bit about my story, about, you know, how it's helped me along my journey and that's one of the reasons why I'm super excited to have you here to you know, share that piece of it as a how did that technology again help someone become a high performer or high performance athlete?

33:02

Well, you hit the nail on the head.

33:04

I mean it's it's. What I like to say is quantitative analysis is always going to be superior to subjective assessment, and what I mean by that is the data is important, right, but then it's it's what you do with that data that then really synthesizes into a better training plan.

33:22

That's the key. And there is a component to where you do need to have an intuitive feel, but that comes with time.

33:29

You start. You know, I used to be able to tell within about point, three seconds what my time was in a 400 meter repeat, almost without fail, but that's because I'd run hundreds and thousands of repeats, you know.

33:42

So you, you develop that. But, like when you're growing in your ability to understand what's going on in your body remember, nothing has ever.

33:49

Nothing has ever static.

33:51

You know, change is constant and so, understanding that things are either kind of moving this direction or this direction or maybe just some different evolution of that, but like the, the, the sensor, I, you know, obviously I'm biased, but you know, at the same time, I've really understood.

34:11

I really understand at a very deep level now, the power that these sensors can then Give you what I would call your own personal awareness of what's going on within your, within your heart, and and, and then using that awareness to then translate into those Changes of you know, training methodology or behavior modification that you're looking to do.

34:37

Because heart rate is one thing, understanding your sleep is another, I mean, and there's a lot of people that would say you know what you can do, all the hard training in the world, but, like, if you don't, if you want to get in the proper recovery, it you are not gonna, you're not gonna improve.

34:52

So it's like you know, you get into these discussions all the time with people like what's the most important pillar of performance?

34:58

Well, they're all important nutrition, sleep, activity, recovery, you know, mindset.

35:05

There they're all, they're all Interlinked.

35:09

And as you start to think about it that way, thinking and maybe thinking about as your, as your, optimizing your own personal, these systems within you know, then think of it like a wheel sort of spinning faster and faster toward the goal that you want to achieve.

35:27

That's kind of what I would say and I think that you know.

35:30

The truth is that there's you know, polar has a lot of great tools to to help you toward that end.

35:36

Yeah for sure, and I you know we talked about sleep before and I didn't mention it.

35:39

I mentioned focus mostly on the heart rate, but yeah for sure, the sleep score that I get you know Every morning when I wake up I just kind of hit the button, I say I'm awake, and then I just wait a couple of seconds and it tells me you know how I slept.

35:52

And I'm starting to see the patterns like, oh well, if I do this at a certain time, or you know, if something's going on like I could start to see why.

36:01

And and maybe sometimes I'm surprised, right, one way or the other, like oh, I thought I would have been a bit better tonight.

36:06

Or wow, you know, I was way better than I thought.

36:09

So sometimes this is a surprise. But I'm also starting to learn like I can do or shouldn't do certain things, you know, as I kind of winding down for bed, yeah, and it's that.

36:19

It's that self-awareness, that the, that the tools will, will help to improve, help you to improve and to Understand that like is really the key to iterative performance improvements.

36:31

That's what that's what that's what it means to you know, be all you can be to get, to get the most out of yourself.

36:38

And then there, then, then, once you overlay the mindset, training on top of all the good behaviors in terms of as you're, as you're getting more sleep, as you're, as you're dialing in your nutrition a little bit better, as you're really Figuring out what it means to you know, to where you're maybe not over training and not under training Once you overlay the mindset over the top of that, that's when the, that's when the magic happens, and then you'll really.

37:04

You'll really. Whatever your potential is you, you will reach it, no question, and it's a neat, it's a neat journey and I and I Really enjoy talking with people and hearing about their journey and they'll in getting opportunities to help them.

37:20

Love it. Love it, dan. This has been so helpful, so inspirational.

37:24

We talked a lot about mindset.

37:26

We talked a lot about you know coming back from setbacks and then succeeding and learning and succeeding from there.

37:31

We talked about recovery being just as important as the training.

37:35

We talked about you know the technology and how it can give you an edge, and you know this has been really, really insightful.

37:42

So, you know, I love to just learn a little bit about you know what's next for you and what's next for polar.

37:50

Yeah, well, I mean, you know we're we're really excited and we got a lot of great things coming up in our lineup.

37:55

You know, the it's just, I think, technology what I've learned about wearable technology is that there is, it's still, it's still developing the landscape.

38:08

I think my own assessment is it's kind of like computers back back, way back in the day, like that.

38:15

It's the, these sensors, I think, are gonna be gonna become more and more important to our daily lives as we continue to move forward into the future, giving us more insights, better understanding of ourselves and and helping us and but also recognizing that it's, you know, this is a, this is a tool like anything else and it's important to you know, develop your own critical thinking about and that consistency, you know.

38:44

But it's an important tool and I See a great future in the wearable space, awesome.

38:50

And then how about you? For you personally.

38:53

Yeah, no, I mean, there's some, you know, there's some some fun things.

38:57

I mean, once you get a taste of the Olympics, you kind of always want to go back to it, and so I've been, you know, working with Pat and legacy sports foundation and, and they have an amazing program that they're looking to iterate.

39:11

There's a sport called pentathlon. That's it's.

39:14

It's really an amazing sport, it's it.

39:17

You know, you combine fencing, swimming right now it's equestrian show jumping and running and shooting and it's like a, you know they say, it's like you're like the most complete athlete.

39:28

It was. It was envisioned by Pierre de Coubertine, the founder of the modern Olympics.

39:32

So I got an opportunity a number of years ago to be a part of it and you know we've got some.

39:38

I got some neat things coming up with them and I'm looking forward to, you know, exploring what that means, how utilizing technology might be able to help them as we move toward Paris and La 2028.

39:51

So you know, just good stuff They'll be.

39:54

You'll be hearing more about it.

39:56

All right, well, looking forward to it. So kind as we wind down here, dan, you know what was the one thing that you would say to our community to help inspire them to run after a setback?

40:07

I Would say that Just understand that you're not alone in this process and that the key is to remember that to you know, keep your, your center.

40:23

You know the people in your lives close to you. That will help, that will help you along that journey.

40:26

Keep positive voices in your life that inspire you to, to get back on the horse and to and to and to and to try again.

40:34

You know we're, you know that the world is, is.

40:40

It's crazy sometimes, but, like I think that you know, we need great examples and stories of people that that Overcome and and achieve that that heroic effort that that inspires us when we read about it.

40:54

And and that's the one that's the some of the great things about Olympianism and everything.

40:58

And so it doesn't mean that you but you don't want to be a part of it.

41:01

It's not about that.

41:05

It's about but it's because, whatever it is that you're, you're sort of your network or platform people.

41:09

You can inspire people. You know, no matter, no matter how far your reaches, but just and just you know, and one of the things that I, like I learned from Dr Justin Ross is that idea of, like this, you know, an express value Versus an engaged value, and I learned this from him and I thought it was a very powerful Visualization.

41:33

A lot of things get said, right, but it's those things that you do that really implant and build that muscle into your psyche and and your mind as you go forward.

41:39

So so it doesn't matter if you know what's happened in the past, just like Continue to reinforce within yourself, like, hey, no, I said I was gonna do this, I'm gonna, I'm gonna come back from this and I'm gonna, and then, as you experience that set that, that overcoming that setback, it's gonna reinforce that mechanism within your mind that, hey, that build that capacity.

42:00

Hey, I remember I, I overcame this.

42:04

I can go and reach for this, for this new thing that I'm going after, and that translated.

42:08

That translates across Sports and life and personal and family and the whole gamut, and so that's, that's how you optimize you know, life.

42:20

So I wish you all well.

42:23

Yeah, love it. Thank you so much, dan.

42:29

How can our community find you and follow your journey online as well as polar?

42:32

Yeah, well, we, you know it.

42:36

You know you can. You can find us on on all the social media channels.

42:38

On polar, we're very easy to find. You know it's at some point there's gonna probably gonna be some news about the programs.

42:46

You know that I'm getting ready to find. You can also find me on like Facebook, just like Facebook, just under my, you know, Dan dot brown or whatever, and yeah, no, I definitely looked.

42:56

I look forward to hearing from people, whether it's on, you know, facebook or or LinkedIn or whatever like it.

43:01

It's exciting to see, to hear from people and about their journeys, so thank you All right.

43:07

Well, I'll include that information in the show notes to make it easy for listeners to find you and polar and follow your journey.

43:14

And, you know, reach out to Dan and share your journey.

43:17

Let him know that you heard him on Inspired around podcast.

43:20

So with that, thank you so much, dan. I really enjoyed this conversation and, again, it's an honor for me to have you on the show.

43:26

So thanks for coming on the show. Hey, thanks very much.

43:29

We should really a buzzer.

43:31

That's it for this episode of inspire to run podcast.

43:34

We hope you are inspired to take control of your health and fitness and take it to the next level.

43:39

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