How To Be A Better Runner Book

HOW TO BEA
BETTER
RUNNER
A GUI
DEFOR RUNNERSATANY LEVEL
How To Be a Better Runner
Introduction
Chapter 1: Periodization
Chapter 2: Mileage
Chapter 3: Coaching
Chapter 4: Goal Setting
Chapter 5: Cross-Training
Chapter 6: Injuries & Illness
Chapter 7: Diet
Chapter 8: Gear
Chapter 9: Sex & Masturbation
Chapter 10: Nerves & Anxiety
Chapter 11: Your Best Event
Chapter 12: Talent
Bonus: Going Pro
Conclusion

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 2

"What was the secret, they wanted to know; in a thousand different ways they
wanted to know The Secret. And not one of them was prepared, truly prepared to
believe that it had not so much to do with chemicals and zippy mental tricks as
with that most unprofound and sometimes heart-rending process of removing,
molecule by molecule, the very tough rubber that comprised the bottoms of
his training shoes. The Trial of Miles, Miles of Trials. How could they be expected
to understand that?"
-Once a Runner


Introduction
Don’t waste this opportunity.
I said these four words to myself every single time I warmed up for a race.
I’d wasted opportunities before and those missed moments haunted me.
Do NOT waste this opportunity, I’d say again to myself as I stripped off my
warmups near the starting line.
Head down, focused on the track beneath me, I’d repeat these words over
and over, a mantra that would simultaneously pump me up and calm my
nerves.
This was my prerace ritual.
I’d take a few deep breaths and hear my coach’s words in my head,
“Breath in energy, breath out relaxation.” My heart rate would begin to drop
and I’d experience an increased feeling of strength and power. I’d think
back to all my hard work, the thousands of miles I’d logged to get me to this
starting line as prepared as possible. Thank you, I’d whisper to my slightly
younger self for having put in all that work.
Calm, confident, and aching to prove myself, I’d toe the line and impatiently
wait for the gun to set me free.
To be clear, I wasn’t always calm and confident going into a race. In fact,
when I began running in middle school I would spend most of meet day
thinking of things that could get me out of racing. If I twist my ankle during

warm up coach won’t make me race. If I throw up right now, I bet they will
let me go home…
Being prepared mentally and physically for a race is an art form. It certainly
requires hard work and dedication, but it also requires knowledge. The
knowledge I am about to share with you in the following chapters was
accumulated over two decades of competitive running. I’ve raced
everything from 100 meters up to the marathon and I can tell you first hand
that the preparation for all distances is very similar. Train hard, train smart,
master the mental game, kick ass.
I don’t know what you call this training philosophy I’m about to reveal to
you. To be honest, I have never really studied the various “running
philosophies” that are out there. For some reason, all my coaches had a
similar one. Whether it was Tom Shanahan in high school, my coaches in
college, or the three incredible men that coached me as a pro, every coach
I had during my career shared a very similar training philosophy. For lack of
a better phrase, I’ll call it INTELLIGENT GRIT. Work hard, work smart.
I hope these lessons provide you with a new perspective. I hope they give
you a unique insight into the process you must focus on to achieve your
desired results. Above all else, I hope these lessons help you to never
again waste an opportunity due to lack of conviction, mental mishaps, or
improper training.

Chapter One
Periodization
How to be ON when it counts.
Periodization is the beginning and end of success in running. About 50% of

the questions I’m asked can be answered with this one topic. Nothing else
matters unless you understand periodization. It’s more important than the
training, the mental preparedness, the diet, the raw skill, etc. It’s more
important than any of these topics simply because periodization
encompasses ALL of these and more.
Think of periodization like a puzzle; there are a thousand tiny pieces that
need to fit together in just the right way to create the finished product. A
properly periodized season is that finished product for a runner. Just as you
look down at a completed puzzle with a sense of accomplishment, so too
can you look back at a properly periodized season with pride.
This concept of periodization will allow you to kick harder, visualize better,
and spread energy throughout an entire season so you don’t peak too
early. It will get you to the starting line full of confidence and past the finish
line faster than you ever have before. Essentially, periodization will help
you bring your best race when it counts, ideally during championship
season.

To help you better understand periodization, I’m going to walk you through
the more technical aspects of it and show you how I utilized a properly
periodized season to run my best race of each season when it really
mattered.
So, what is periodization exactly? In a nutshell, periodization is adjusting

your training based on your race calendar. The goal is to peak at the most
important competition of the year. Notice I said “competition” and not
“competitions.” While it is possible to have two separate peaks for two
separate seasons (i.e. cross country and outdoor track) it is not possible to
peak for an entire season or year.
For this reason, when we begin to periodize our training we are usually
working backwards from the competition most important to us. This could
be the State Championships, the NCAA Championships, Regionals, or
even the Olympic Games. Doing so allows us to put our goal front and
center and to build a framework toward it.
That framework is typically going to consist of four parts: Base, Sharpening,

Peaking, and Rest. To illustrate each of these, allow me to show you how I
managed each phase during a typical year as a pro runner.
Please note that this schedule is for a professional middle distance runner
training specifically for a World Championships or Olympic Games. Your
phases will likely differ in timing, but not in structure.

Base Phase
October – March
Think of a big win or a personal best as the tip of an iceberg. The vast
majority of that iceberg exists beneath the surface, out of sight. Similarly,
the majority of any great performance is a product of the base phase. It’s a
grueling, unforgiving, sometimes lonely phase of training that very few
people see.
There are no shortcuts through the base phase. There is no way to bypass
it. The base phase is often what separates those that truly want to be
successful and those that don’t. It is made up of two separate but equally
important things: hard work and smart work. To be clear, those are NOT
the same thing. Hard work is logging your miles each day. Smart work is
knowing the degree of effort you should be running each of those miles.
For me, the first few weeks of training were all about easy running. October
would typically have zero workouts and the running would simply consist of
easy jogs at a conversational pace. Mileage would begin at roughly half the
amount I hoped to peak and I would only increase my mileage by 10-15%
week over week.
The goal was to get my body and mind back into the structure of training. I
was working to rebuild strength and to begin shedding some of the weight I
had likely gained during my weeks off. There was a phrase we used during
this time that I loved, “We are getting in shape, to get in shape.” I carried

this mentality with me until the first workout which would usually come
sometime in November.
As coach would begin to feed us workouts, there would invariably be an

athlete or two that would try to set the world on fire. Impatient runners that
just had to prove how fit they were in the early part of the season. Don’t be
one of these. Nobody ever got great by showing off to their teammates at
practice.
Instead, be the athlete that focuses on consistency. Each week during the
base phase training will get tougher and tougher as your coach, or
coaches, pile on more work on. The mileage will increase, the workouts will
get harder, you will lift more weight. You want the workload to feel easy in
the beginning. But I assure you, as all this work compounds you will be
missing those easy days soon enough.
Ultimately, your workload will plateau and you will attempt to “stack” weeks
of mileage. By this, I mean you will try to consistently log good, quality
training, week after week. As a professional mid-distance runner, my
mileage peaked around 70 miles per week. This would include two
sessions in the gym, lifting weights, and two sessions in the pool swimming
laps on top of the miles. Occasionally, just for an added challenge (and
benefit), I would put in this work at altitude.
The base phase can get very long and boring. There will be periods where
you are tired and want to rest. As long as you are healthy, keep training

hard. It is OK to feel tired during your base phase. You should be tired, but
still feel able to handle the workload.
The base phase for a professional runner can last many months and we
would occasionally break up the monotony of the training by running a
short indoor season. Doing so not only allowed us to break up the training,
but also allowed us to get the legs ready for the next phase of training:
sharpening.
Sharpening
April – July
Here is where the workouts get more specific to your event. If you saw me
training during my base phase, you might assume I was training for the 5k
rather than my bread-and-butter event, the 800 meters. However, as spring
rolled around my workouts would have me running shorter, faster intervals.
That’s not to say that I wasn’t still working hard and logging miles, it’s just
that the work was much more specific and the volume slightly less than
what I was running during my base phase.
Often, those first few sharpening workouts can be a real shock to the
system. As you teach your body to dig deep again, it will be painful and
there were more than a few times I would get exertion headaches or even
throw up from the strain of the workout. I figured this was the price I had to
pay to be great. Also, I knew that, as the season went on, my body would
learn to handle the stress of these sessions better.

These harder, race specific sessions will help prepare you for the early
season races that are coming. We call these early season races “rust
busters” as you are just coming out of base phase and busting the rust off
some tired, sleepy legs. You are not sharp at the beginning of the
sharpening phase and that’s a good thing! There is still much work to be
done.
A runner can only be absolutely “on” for about four to six weeks during a
season. Anything longer than that, and you will start to deteriorate (read:
injuries and illness). Fortunately, for our purposes, four to six weeks is all
we need. Remember we have been planning our entire year around these
few weeks.
The final few weeks of sharpening will bring you close to your peak shape.
Your times should be improving from race to race. Workouts are
challenging, but manageable and you may find yourself “crushing” a
workout or two. Let these good workouts and races give you confidence
that the plan is working. Don’t question it, just keep working hard!
Peaking
July - August
Learning to peak at the right time is an art form. It can take years to get to
know your body well enough to get the timing just right. Similarly, it can

take even the most experienced coach a few seasons with an athlete to
understand how to get them to reach their peak.
How do you peak at the right time? Well, we have already discussed a lot
of the physical aspects; base building, sharpening, etc. And you will
certainly continue to sharpen up during the peaking phase, but a lot of
peaking at the right time is mental. Have you wasted energy trying to “win”
at practice? Have you tapered for early season races that really didn’t
matter? Have you made needless sacrifices all year just because you
thought it’s what you were supposed to do? Side note: I eat dessert year-
round! If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, then it is going to
be very hard for you to hit your absolute peak at the right time.
I found I could be 100% focused in every aspect of my training for only a

few weeks each year and I made sure those weeks took place during
championship season. During this peak phase, I ate better, slept better,
trimmed down to target race weight, and most importantly, brought a
winning attitude with me to the track each day.
However, a few weeks of this intense lifestyle and I would invariably end up
fried both mentally and physically. Fortunately, this feeling of being spent
would coincide nicely with the end of my season and I could enjoy some
well-deserved time off.

Rest
September
Each phase of training is rewarding in its own way, but perhaps my favorite
phase of all is the Rest phase. Some athletes suck at this part of training.
Notice I called the rest phase “training.” That’s because sometimes resting
IS training.
If you are an athlete that says, “But Nick, I just can’t take time off
running…” this is me telling you to stop being obsessive. You might think
you are going to be great because of your unstoppable work ethic, but I can
tell you that I have seen just as many athletes fail because they wanted it
too badly as I have seen athletes fail due to laziness.
It is critical that you allow your body and mind to rest occasionally. Now, I’m
not saying that you can’t still be active. In fact, my favorite way to pass time
during my Rest phase was fishing, biking, and hiking. We called it “active
recovery” and it was a blast. But after a few weeks of not running I would
invariably get the itch to start training again.
For some, it takes only a week to press the reset button. For others it can
take as long as a couple months. As a young athlete, (high school, college,
my first couple years as a pro) I found that two weeks was just right.
However, as I got older and the seasons got longer and more stressful, I
enjoyed as many as four weeks completely off.

When you get that itch to start training again, it’s time to begin another
base phase.
Conclusion:
I like to use the following metaphor for periodization: imagine a blunt stick,
a blunt stick that aspires to one day be a lethal spear. That blunt stick is
more or less useless as a spear. It really isn’t doing its job. To be a useful
spear, that stick needs to be sharpened. It will take hundreds, maybe
thousands of little knife cuts to sharpen that stick into something lethal.
However, with patience, time, and work, that stick will become a very
sharp, lethal spear.
Keep in mind that it is possible to sharpen the stick too quickly and/or too
aggressively. Do this and you could easily snap off the tip of the spear.
Don’t rush the process, don’t rush your season. Impatience leads to injury
or illness every single time. Plan your seasons carefully and you will be
ready physically and mentally to win when it counts.

Chapter Two
Mileage
MPW (Miles Per Week).
During a properly periodized year, your weekly mileage is going to fluctuate

significantly. As discussed in the previous chapter, you are going to begin a
season with low volume, low intensity weeks. These will gradually become
high volume, low intensity weeks. Finally, you will have high volume, high
intensity weeks that you will need to maintain until you begin to taper for a
big race.
How do you find out what is the ideal mileage for you? Well, it is a
combination of a few things, but mainly having good communication with
your coach, listening to your body, and a little bit of trial and error.
For perspective, in high school I ran roughly 30-40 miles a week. This is
sort of what the coach recommended (I was a bit lazy back then!), but also
not far off of what was probably the right amount of work for a young runner
that only ran six months out of the year. (I played ice hockey for my winter
sport and didn’t run much during the summers).
When I went off to college, that mileage was bumped up to 50-60 miles per
week on average. Add to that, it was in college that I finally began running

year-round. The combination of high mileage and year-round training led to
some massive improvements for me.
As a professional runner, my mileage was bumped up even more,

averaging close to 70 miles per week (and that was as a half-miler!) Some
of the distance runners on my team were running well over 100 miles every
week.
My mileage wasn’t like that of a normal 800-meter runner, but my intention

was to build speed from strength. I knew that if I could be the strongest
runner on the track and time my peak phase perfectly, then I would be very
tough to beat. This was indeed the case for the majority of my career.
Recall that I said that there is a bit of trial and error involved with finding the
mileage that is right for you. I mean that. You are trying to get the most out
of your body and the only way to do so is to establish your limits.
As I aimed to become the strongest runner I could be, I was constantly

trying to up my mileage. I mistakenly assumed that more mileage was
always better. It’s not. After years of playing around with my mileage I was
able to learn my body very well. I knew that I could hold 70 miles per week
for many weeks at a time without getting injured. However, if I got greedy
and tried to hit 75 miles one week, I was likely to get sick or injured.
Think about that for a minute, five extra miles, just a little over 6% increase
was the difference between happy, healthy training and not being able to

run a step. Our bodies are incredible machines, but like any machine, they
have limits and it is our job as athletes to learn those limits.
Of course, your own mileage is going to depend on a number of factors.

Perhaps, the most significant of these factors is the event you are training
for. Obviously, a 100-meter runner is not going to be putting in the same
mileage as a marathoner. However, there can still be big differences in
mileage for two athletes running the exact same event.
At the end of the day, the best advice I can give you with regards to
mileage is to consult a good coach. It is their job to watch your progress
and fine tune the volume and intensity that is right for you.

Chapter Three
Coaching
Finding the coach that is right for you.
I have played sports pretty much my entire life. I’ve had dozens of coaches
and somehow almost all of them have been really wonderful people. But
I’ve also had a some really bad coaches.
A good coach can inspire you to be great. They can see potential in you
even when you can’t see it in yourself. A good coach is often patient and
selfless. Behind almost every world class athlete is a world class coach.
A bad coach can make you feel worthless. They try to stifle that special
flame inside you. A bad coach is often insecure and/or self-absorbed.
Behind many people who quit a sport prematurely is a bad coach.
So, given that a coach can have such a tremendous impact on an athlete,
how do you go about finding the one that is right for you?
To be honest, for those of you in middle school or high school reading this,
most of the coaching selection is out of your hands. Chances are the
Athletic Director at your school picked the coach and if you want to
participate, you get the coach that has been provided to you. The best thing

you can do in this case is try to be open and honest with your coach about
how you are feeling. What event or events are you most excited for? What
fears do you have? What do you hope to accomplish in each season?
Good communication is the foundation of a great coach/athlete
relationship.
If you are planning to run in college or post-collegiately, then you are in

luck!* Most athletes that choose to run after high school have a ton of say
in who will ultimately coach them. During college or club visits, make sure
you come prepared with a list of questions, not only for a potential coach,
but also for potential teammates. Some sample questions could include:
When are team practices? How often/far do you travel for races? Is it a
high or low mileage program? Where does the team need points? Etcetera.
Once you have established who will be coaching you, it is time to begin
building a rapport with that person. As I mentioned above, communication
is everything. Don’t be afraid to be honest and blunt with the person who is
coaching you. A good coach will listen to what you are saying, consider it,
and make calculated decisions about your training. That’s not to say they
are going to give into your every demand! On the contrary, a coach is there
to push you, to challenge you, and to oversee your training and adjust it
when necessary.
*Running can be a lifelong sport if you want it to be. There is a college running program for EVERYONE regardless of experience
and ability. There are also many opportunities to continue training once you have completed your studies, if that is something
you desire. Much more on these topics can be found at youtube.com/nicksymmonds800

I would never have become the athlete I am today without great coaching.
It almost brings me to tears to think about the countless hours that went
into making me an Olympian. Tom Shanahan first gave me a love for
running in high school. Kelly Sullivan and Jimmy Bean kept me running in
college. As a rookie pro, it was Frank Gagliano that helped me make my
first Olympic team and Mark Rowland that helped me win a World
Championship silver medal. Danny Mackey helped me as a veteran to build
a team and to finish my career strong. And of course, through it all there
was coach Sam Lapray, my best friend and mentor guiding me through the
ups and downs of professional athletics. These men epitomize the words
patient and selfless and I am forever in their debt.
There were a couple bad apples along the way, however. Coaches that
didn’t listen. Coaches that said, “Do it because I told you to.” Coaches that
were more concerned about their own accomplishments, bonuses, and
egos. If you are unlucky enough to get stuck with one of these people, ditch
them. The prime years of an athlete are few and should not be wasted by
idiot coaches.
In the end, even the best, most experienced coach cannot know your body
as well as you do. It is your responsibility as the athlete to be honest and
transparent with your coach, to provide him or her with all the necessary
information to allow them to make informed decisions with regards to your
training. Can you do it without a coach? Possibly. Can you achieve peak
performance on your own? Almost certainly not.
Shout out to all the GOOD coaches out there!


Chapter Four

Goal Setting
And Goal Achieving!
Most runners like goals. They need goals. They wake up in the morning
with an overwhelming desire to achieve something. Despite this feeling,
many runners are quite bad at setting goals. To be fair, goal setting is a
skill that not all people are taught. Believe it or not, there is a right and a
wrong way to set a goal.
You may be thinking, “I know what my goal is. My goal is to be a better

runner. That’s why I purchased this book Nick!” As thankful as I am that
you are reading these words, what you have there is a wish, not a goal.
Remember, a goal without a plan is just a wish! Furthermore, a goal without

a concrete metric of success is tougher to achieve.
Let’s take the aforementioned wish of wanting to be a better runner. What

does that really mean? Does it mean running further? Does it mean running
faster? Does it mean winning bigger races? Heck, it could just mean being
healthier or happier with your running!

Examples of goals might be to finish a marathon this year or to win a state
title this spring. Those are concrete goals with very clearly defined metrics
and timelines. Success or failure is black and white.
It can be scary to set goals like this because there is no fudging the results.
You either achieve them, or you do not. However, goals like this give you a
sense of urgency and accountability and those sentiments go a long way
toward helping you achieve the goal.
There are other things you can do that greatly increase the likelihood of you
achieving any goal.
Let’s discuss some of those now.
Write it Down: Did you know that simply writing your goal down makes you
42% more likely to achieve that goal? FORTY-TWO PERCENT! It is
incredible to me that something so simple can have such a huge impact. I
write all my goals down on sticky notes and put them somewhere I will see
them every day.
Tell Someone: One word: accountability. You want to share your goals
with someone close to you and you want that person to help keep you
accountable. The journey towards goal achievement is never smooth.
There will be obstacles in your way. Rely on the support of those around
you to help you overcome these obstacles.

Build the Path: You wouldn’t try to drive across the country without a map.
Similarly, don’t try to navigate the way to your final goal without a path. I
like to set small and intermediate goals that direct me towards my big goal.
When I achieve these smaller goals, the little wins pump me up and tell me
I am on the right path. They encourage me to continue working hard. Here
is an example of a big, daunting goal I recently completed and how I built a
path toward success.
Big Goal: Finish my first marathon (I chose Honolulu 2017).

Intermediate Goal: Race my first Half Marathon (Newport 2017).
Small Goal: Run my first marathon workout.
Running my first marathon workout was easy. It was exciting. As soon as I

had completed it I wanted more. So, I continued to build out a training plan,
creating harder and harder workouts. These workouts led to increased
fitness and that feeling of being fit made me want to race. A half marathon
is a good stepping stone towards running a full marathon and I ran 1:26 at
the 2017 Newport half marathon. Completing this race just two months
before the Honolulu Marathon gave me the confidence to keep pushing
hard toward my big goal. Then, on December 10, 2017 I did something I
had always wanted to do: finish a marathon!
I’ll leave you with this thought: as much fun as it is to achieve a goal, the
process of setting and working towards a goal can be equally (or more!)
fun. When I learned to put the process ahead of the end results, I found
that not only was I happier each day, but that increased happiness led to
more success.

Chapter Five
Cross-Training
There’s more than one way to get in shape!
Here’s a true story…
It was the winter of 2009. A few months earlier, I had competed at the 2008
Olympic Games in Beijing, China. I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped (bombed
out in the semi-finals), but I was young and I knew that if I worked hard for
four more years, I would have a good shot to win a medal at the 2012
Olympic Games. My coach, team, and sponsors believed in me too. There
was just one thing that didn’t seem to believe: my right knee.
The day before we were supposed to leave for a warm weather training
camp, I was on a 12-mile long run. It was cold and raining out and about
half way through, my right knee just stopped working. Not like it was simply
sore, more like it was busted. It literally would not bend. This knee was so
bad I had to ask the local car dealership for a ride home.
Not wanting to miss out on the warm weather trip, I caught a flight to
Tucson the next day. Trainers and doctors there looked at my knee and
struggled to diagnose the injury. Their prescription was all the same: REST.

If you are an athlete that has ever been injured, you know this is the worst
word in the English language.
Fortunately, they did say it was ok for me to swim, and that’s exactly what I
did. I swam like a crazy person. Whatever the workout was for the day, I
took it to the pool. 6x400 with 2 minutes rest? I converted it to 6x1minute
freestyle with 2 minutes rest. Easy hour jog? Easy hour swim.
For nearly eight weeks I did this. Physically it was exhausting, emotionally it
was draining. When my knee finally healed, I was just a few weeks away
from the Prefontaine Classic, a very important race in my outdoor season. I
had not run more than a few steps in two months, but my engine was
primed. I busted the rust off my legs in some intense workouts leading into
the meet and on the day of, I laced up my spikes with the feeling I had a
snowball’s chance in hell of doing well.
I won that race, defeating some of the best half-milers in the world.
That’s a long-winded way of saying cross training works! It can be

swimming, it can be biking, it can be lifting. In fact, ideally it is a
combination of all three. During times of injury, cross training can keep you
fit and sane. During times of health, it can complement your running and
make you a more well-rounded athlete.
While I don’t believe that cross-training is a substitute for mileage (except in

cases of injury), I do believe that cross-training is a fantastic supplement to

mileage. In fact, during most of my career I supplemented my mileage with
swimming, biking, and weight lifting.
When it comes to your own career, find what works best for you. What
makes you feel like a better athlete? What helps you get through periods of
injury? Cross-training is the icing on your cake. It doesn’t fill you up, but it
sure makes everything taste better!

Chapter Six
Injuries & Illness

Misery Loves Company.
As you learned in the previous chapter, I am no stranger to injury. In fact,

no accomplished athlete is! If you choose to be an athlete, then being
injured at times is something you are going to have to be ok with. It is the
price we pay for pushing our bodies to their limits.
Injuries aside, even the most resilient athlete is still human and is
susceptible to illness like the rest of us. You will get a cold, you will get the
flu, you will have to learn when you can and cannot train through these.
All that said, injuries and illness are things to be avoided at all costs and
there are some measures you can take to stay healthy. In my twenty plus
years as a competitive runner, here are the measures I have found to be
most helpful in keeping me healthy.
1.) Getting LOTS of sleep! I’m leading with this one because I think it is
the most important thing you can do for your body. When you sleep,
your body repairs itself. My number one rule of training was to try to
never wake up to an alarm clock. If an alarm wakes you up, you have

robbed your body of the sleep it needs. Get to bed early, get a good
night’s sleep.
2.) Eat a healthy diet! You wouldn’t put cheap fuel into a Ferrari, don’t
put cheap fuel into your body. You want a diet that is well balanced
and fresh. Think big, colorful, plates with plenty of fresh fruits and
veggies. Meat and carbohydrates are fine, but don’t let that be all you
are eating. Try to keep highly processed foods to a minimum.
3.) Take a multivitamin! Even the best diet is likely lacking in a few key
nutrients. I used to get a cold every few months. This would seriously
impact my training and I couldn’t figure out why I was getting sick so
often. A doctor suggested I take a daily multivitamin. That did the
trick. I almost never get sick anymore! I don’t know what nutrient my
diet was missing, but I am not lacking in that area anymore thanks to
a good daily multivitamin.
4.) Cycle out your shoes frequently! I get it, shoes are expensive and
you want to get every mile out of them you can. Doing so, however,
puts your body at risk of injury. Shoes lose their ability to adequately
cushion your stride long before they start falling apart, long before
they even start looking old. I try to cycle my shoes out every 300
miles or so.
5.) Get sports massages! No matter how great those shoes are, you’re
going to be putting a ton of strain on your legs. A good massage
therapist can work out those stubborn knots that can lead to injuries.
6.) Ice baths suck, but they sure do help reduce inflammation! Double
edge sword here, as I think they can increase the risk of getting sick
in the winter. My ice bath season was spring and summer and only

after my hard sessions. RX: 10 minutes in water that is approximately
45-50 degree Fahrenheit.
7.) Listen to your body! More on that below, but you are the ONLY
person who knows exactly how your body is feeling. Not your coach,
not the doctors, not the therapists, but YOU. Be honest with yourself
and those around you. Stay within your limits.
No matter how diligent you are at avoiding injuries and illness, you will,
inevitably, be stuck dealing with them. Injuries and illness are annoying.
They are frustrating and they can wreak havoc with one’s happiness and
sense of purpose. I was not always the best at dealing with them, but I
have had the privilege of watching some incredibly resilient athletes deal
with their own injuries and illness.
Here is how mentally tough athletes deals with injuries and illness:
1.) They recognize that to be great they must push their bodies and that
sometimes, great athletes get injured. They know it just comes with
the territory. When injured, they don’t feel a sense of anger,
victimhood, or apathy. Instead they GET TO WORK.
2.) The Paradox of the Injured Runner: you will actually work harder
while injured than while healthy. The mentally tough athlete takes
their focus to an even higher level while injured. They seek the best
help they can get from doctors, physical therapists, and other experts
that can help them diagnose their injuries and get them back out
running. Between appointments, cross training, and rehab they are
putting in more hours of work while injured than when healthy.

3.) That’s right, they cross train. The general rule of thumb is, if the
exercise doesn’t aggravate the injury, then it’s probably ok to do. For
example, if I had a stress fracture in my foot, I would swim laps, but I
probably wouldn’t be lifting a ton of weight. If I had a cold, I would
consider going into the gym for a light workout, but I would not swim.
Get the idea?
4.) They listen to their bodies! They know when something is making the
situation worse or improving their condition. They know when it is ok
to push harder and when they would be better off resting.
5.) That’s right. They REST. There are some injuries and illnesses that
you can’t train through. There are some that simply cannot be cured
through hard work. Sometimes you just have to give your body a
break. The mentally tough athlete understands this and is OK with
taking that short break.
With hard work, practice, and a little luck you will likely be a healthy and
happy athlete for much of your career. When injury or illness do creep up,
you will be the kind of athlete that doesn’t panic. You will be the kind of
athlete that embraces the challenge. You will be the kind of athlete that
overcomes the obstacle and is stronger for it in the end!

Chapter Seven
Diet
You are what you eat!
We touched on this topic a little bit in the previous chapter, but diet is so
important that it deserves its own chapter.
When I was a young runner, I heard the phrase, “If the furnace is hot
enough it will burn anything.” I loved this quote, still do! However, the
reason I love this so much is it helps me justify eating poorly from time to
time. While I do believe there is some truth to this saying, the furnace will
burn hotter and more efficiently with proper fuel.
So, what is proper fuel for a runner? I know athletes that run world class
times on just about every diet. I have seen vegans run ultras and have
witnessed Olympians eat McDonalds just hours before setting world
records. But just because you can run on a certain type of fuel doesn’t
necessarily mean that you should.
Before I go any further, I want to be clear that I truly believe humans are
meant to be omnivorous. I also believe that just because our caveman
ancestors lived a certain way does not mean that is how we should live

today. So, that rules out vegan, vegetarian, and paleo diets. Again, not to
say you can’t run great on those diets, they just aren’t for me.
In fact, I don’t subscribe to any particular diet. If there was a term for my
diet it would be called “The Colorful Plate Diet + Occasional Cheat Meals.”
It is a very good diet.
It begins with a rule of thumb that when you look down at your plate it
should be colorful. If your plate is just various shades of browns, whites,
and greys, then you have failed to load that plate up properly. Every meal
should have lots of fresh fruits and vegetables on it. Those fruit and
vegetables, along with everything else you consume, should ideally be
organic. It is worth the extra cost, trust me.
Notice I said, “load that plate up.” I mean it! As a runner, you are going to
be burning a lot of calories. Make sure you are giving your body the
nutrients and calories that it needs to get the work done. If you need to lose
weight you will want to be in a caloric deficit. If you are trying to gain weight
you will need to be in a caloric surplus. Both are best achieved during the
off season in my opinion. Weight fluctuations can be very hard on the body
and my general rule of thumb is to never gain or lose more than one pound
per week. However, every athlete is different and target weight should be
something decided on with the assistance of your coach and a nutritionist.
Last, but certainly not least, the occasional cheat meals! Would it surprise
you to learn that I eat Taco Bell year-round? Would it surprise you to learn
that I have chocolate after almost every meal? Well, I did both during my

professional running career and still do to this day! What’s the point of
working your butt off if you can’t have a little fun at the same time?
I’ve known runners that became obsessed with their diet. They were so
obsessed with “eating healthy” that they ended up actually having a rather
unhealthy diet. They restricted their caloric intake too much or they
consumed too little fat. Remember the body needs calories and fat to
function properly! Furthermore, fixating on any aspect of training is going to
cause stress and mental anguish. Stress and mental anguish are things to
be avoided as much as possible when training hard.
In summation, eat healthy, eat often, don’t fixate on diet, simply fuel the
machine.

Chapter Eight
Gear
Shoes, apparel, and so much more.
I was raised by two incredible people. My parents believed in physical

fitness and knew that I would learn as much on the playing field as I did in
school. From a young age, I was encouraged (but not forced!) to play
sports. It didn’t matter the sport, just that I showed some initial interest.
That was all it took for my mom and dad to drive me to the local sporting
goods store and get me everything I needed to start.
There were soccer balls, basketballs, baseball gloves, and many cleats.
There were full sets of golf clubs and the absurd amount of gear it takes to
play ice hockey. No matter where my interest landed, my parents were
there to get me outfitted. “I was his very first sponsor!” my mother loves to
say.
So, you can imagine my parents’ delight when, at the age of 13, I
approached them and said, “I want to run cross country.” Finally, a sport
that required nothing more than a good pair of running shoes!
That is one thing I love so much about the sport of running; at its simplest,
it doesn’t even require shoes. But this book isn’t about simplicity, it is about

improvement. Large improvements in one’s own running can be made by
simply using the right gear.
I’ll break this one down into five categories: shoes, apparel, watches,
supplements, and miscellaneous. Again, none of this is required equipment
to run, but everything mentioned below can be helpful in maximizing
performance.
Shoes: Unless you were raised barefoot and have logged thousands of
miles without shoes, you are going to need a good pair of trainers. (Side
Note: anyone who tells you barefoot running is the way to go is trying to get
you injured). However, every foot and every stride is different. The right
shoe for me might not be the right shoe for you. Furthermore, the right shoe
for my event might not be the right shoe for your event. The best thing you
can do is go into your local running store and talk to the experts. A good
running store will have employees that can analyze your unique features
and find the shoe that is just right for you. Don’t worry about brand (most
make good shoes) and don’t worry about color (they are going to get real
dirty real fast). Rather, focus on the shoe that feels right and gets you
excited to log miles. As you progress in the sport you may find you need
multiple shoes for multiple purposes. As a pro, it was not uncommon for me
to show up to a practice with as many as four pairs of shoes: trainers for
warm up and cool down, flats for long intervals, spikes for short/fast
intervals, and slides for ice baths and driving home. No need to get carried
away, but make sure you have the right shoe for the mission.

Apparel: The apparel companies are about to hate me for this one! Most of
what they sell is over-priced and completely unnecessary. A five-dollar
cotton t-shirt works just as well as a $50 dri-fit shirt. Socks should cost ten
dollars for a dozen, not $12+ dollars for a single pair. Apparel companies
are in the business of convincing you that you need their clothes to perform
better. You don’t. I encourage you to find what is most comfortable for you
as comfort does play a big role in performance. To battle the elements
always think layers and accessories. But when I need a new piece of
running gear, most often I head to Walmart or Target where I can find
exactly what I need at a very good price.
Watches: I’m about to sound like my grandpa, but that’s ok… Now, when I
was young, we didn’t even have GPS watches! Seriously, I think I got my
first GPS watch sometime in my late twenties. GPS watches are incredibly
useful devices, but not at all necessary. For most of my career, I never
used one. Want to know how far you’ve run? Easy, divide the total time run
by your average pace. I know that I run most of my easy miles around 7
minutes per mile. So, for example, if I just completed a 35-minute run, I
probably ran about 5 miles. Good enough.
GPS watches can be helpful on tempo runs when you need to know your
pace and don’t have a marked-out course. They can be helpful to give you
heart rate data if you want that (you don’t need it), and they can be very
helpful when you need to get unlost. Too many times, though, I see people
jogging around in circles in a parking lot trying to get to an exact number on
their watch or I see them fiddling around with their smart watch mid-
workout trying to clear some screen or scroll to some other feature they

don’t need. In summary, don’t be a slave to the watch, it works for you, not
the other way around.
Supplements: As the owner of a supplement company (Run Gum), this

one is near and dear to my heart. You may find it surprising then, to hear
me say that 99% of supplements are a complete waste of money. If you are
deficient in something essential, say iron or vitamin D, then taking a
supplement can be hugely beneficial. However, most supplements and
vitamins you take are going to simply be excreted through urine or feces.
You are paying a ton of money for something your body does not need.
During most my career, I relied on just a few supplements. Those are:
500mg Vitamin C (daily), 2000IU Vitamin D (seasonally), and one
multivitamin taken daily. When I went to train at altitude, I would take liquid
iron. I also relied heavily on caffeine during my career. Caffeine has been
shown to have a significant boost in performance in both power and
endurance athletics. For me, experimentation with coffee and energy drinks
led to a lot of trips to the bathroom. Finally, I decided to make the product I
really wanted, energy gum. Run Gum is chewing gum fortified with caffeine,
taurine, and b-vitamins (ingredients found in many energy products) to give
you a quick boost of energy whenever you need it most. It can be found at
Amazon, Walmart, Target, and at RunGum.com
Miscellaneous: Fancy little bottles? Don’t need them. Little belts to hold
things? Don’t need them. Gel packs? Don’t need them. Silly self-massaging
devices? Don’t need them. There are thousands of ancillary products out
there that you may find helpful, but you don’t truly need them. If you find
something that works for you, then of course go ahead and incorporate it

into your personal arsenal of products that you enjoy. But please do keep in
mind that in the end, one of the most beautiful parts of running is the
simplicity of the sport. By keeping it simple, you will free up more time and
energy to pour into your training.

Chapter Nine
Sex & Masturbation

Will it affect my performance?
I thought for some time if I should write this chapter or not. I assume there
will be some prudes out there that think it is not ok to talk about sex and/or
masturbation. Well, guess what prudes, both are perfectly normal, healthy
activities and we shouldn’t be ashamed or scared to talk about them.
I take pride in telling my friends, family, and fans that they can always ask
me anything. Nothing is off limits with me. It’s hard to embarrass me, it’s
even harder to offend me. That openness leads to some pretty interesting
questions! One I get frequently, from both men and women, is, “will sex or
masturbation affect my athletic performance?”
In short, no.
But the full answer is a little more complicated. There have been many
studies on this subject and the majority show no statistically significant
evidence that sex/masturbation will influence athletic performance one way
or another. This seems to hold true for both men and women.

Some research does indicate that sex/masturbation can lead to a feeling of
relaxation. I would argue that relaxation can be a very good thing the day
before competition. However, I typically do not aspire to feel super relaxed
the day of competition. There is also research that suggests sex can leave
a person with increased feelings of confidence and I can assure you
confidence is a good thing going into competition!
Where things can get detrimental is in the chase. One of my favorite lines
in a movie comes from the classic running film Without Limits. There’s a
scene where a young Steve Prefontaine visits Coach Bowerman at his
house. Bowerman looks at him and says, “Well Pre, it’s spring. I sense this
is your week to chase the ladies.” Pre replies, “Do you object to that Bill?”
Coach Bowerman then responds, “No, as long as you catch ‘em quick. It’s
chasing that wears the body out.”
Courting a partner is hard work. Running is hard work. Where do you want
to invest your time and energy? There is no right or wrong answer, just
understand that we only have so much time to allocate to our various
priorities each day.
It would be a mistake if I didn’t also mention that a good partner can be an

invaluable asset in accomplishing one’s goals. As a guy who is about to get
married, I can say with certainty that having constant love and support from
someone helps immensely. Someone in your corner to encourage you
when the going gets tough. Someone in your corner to celebrate when you
accomplish something big.

But there needs to be reciprocity. You will be asked to provide love and
support in return. There is a great deal of work involved in maintaining a
happy and healthy relationship. For much of my professional running
career, I found that work to be so demanding that it often interfered with my
running goals. For that reason, I spent a large part of my professional
career single. It was a very lonely period of my life. The loneliness of the
long-distance runner.
As always, find what works best for you. What works for me, or for people
in studies, or your teammates, is not necessarily what is going to help you
perform optimally (on or off the track!).

Chapter Ten
Nerves & Anxiety

The worst part of competition or the best?!
Would it surprise you to learn that I used to get really nervous before most
competitions? Yep, even Olympians (especially Olympians!) get nervous
before a race. I will say, however, that as I got older I was much better at
dealing with these feelings. But, as a young runner, they were crippling.
I can still recall my high school running days. I would sit in class the day of
a meet and try to think up ways of getting out of the race…
If I throw up at my desk right now I can go to the nurse’s office and she will
give me a note saying I’m too sick to run today.
If I twist my ankle during the warmup, then coach won’t make me race.
I’d have these thoughts all the way up until the gun went off and I started
racing.
I hated that butterflies-in-my-stomach feeling, hated the adrenaline that

would send my heart racing the minute I thought about the upcoming race.
What I didn’t know then, but would learn during my pro career, is that these

feelings are GOOD! The adrenaline coursing through your veins that
makes you feel that way is a powerful drug and can help you do
superhuman things. But only IF you can harness it for good.
What do I mean by that? I’m talking about learning to control your

emotions. Seasoned athletes are extremely good at compartmentalizing
their thoughts. They are good at controlling their emotions and they know
how to separate what’s happening in the outside world from what’s about to
happen to them on the playing field.
This lesson was really taught to me by my sports psychologist. He taught

me to learn to embrace the feelings of nervousness, taught me to
appreciate adrenaline for what it could do for me, help me run faster. He
also taught me how to control it, encouraged me to find ways of distracting
myself before a big competition so that I only drew upon those reserves
when I really needed them.
I would read magazines, watch crappy TV, hang out with friends or family,
anything to take my mind off the big race. I would channel my thoughts
away from the race, thus preventing the expenditure of unnecessary
energy, as much as I could. Finally, when I arrived at the track, and prior to
my warmup, I would lay down and allow myself to think about the race. I
would run through some visualization exercises that would prepare my
mind and body for the competition to come.
Once I learned these skills, those feelings of nerves and anxiety weren’t
something to dread, they were something to welcome with excitement! In

fact, towards the end of my career as my attention and focus shifted to
other priorities, I actually had trouble feeling nervous before competitions. I
would chew Run Gum and listen to loud rap music to try and get myself
amped up for a race. I missed the nervous energy that came with
competition.
Don’t fear the nerves and anxiety, embrace them, harness them, put them
to good use.

Chapter Eleven
Your Best Event

With so many distances to choose from, how do you know
what’s right for you?
I have raced the 100 meters, the marathon, and everything in between.
When I started running at the age of 13, it was specifically to race 5K cross
country. When I finally joined the high school track team at the age of 15, I
was a two-mile specialist. Though I would go on to make a living running
the 800 meters, I never considered myself an 800-meter specialist until I
turned pro at the age of 22.
Perhaps my absolute favorite part of running is that there is an event for

everyone. Huge, muscular sprinters share a track with light and lean
marathoners. Truly the sport includes all genders, ages, ethnicities, and
body-types.
With so many options, how is one to know what event will be their best?
The answer: TRY EVERYTHING. I really mean that. I am constantly
encouraging young runners to try different events. Do you usually run the
100 meters? Great try the mile at the next meet. Cross country runner
trying track for the first time? Make sure you give the sprints a try! The truth
is you really never know which event will be your best until you try them all.

If you are willing to try new things and challenge yourself at different events
four things are going to happen: First, you will find where you are naturally
having some success. Second, that success is likely going to lead to
feelings of accomplishment and happiness. Third, you will begin to focus
your training in that area. Fourth, you will have even more success in that
event and the process continues.
It is a snowball rolling downhill. The more success you have, the more you
want to invest in your training, and that training leads to even more
success! Add to this, the fact that as you have more success, more
resources will come your way (coaching, gear, possibly tuition, or even
money as a professional). Perhaps now you can see how a short, stocky,
kid from Idaho (me!) found his way onto an Olympic team.
One final note here, another beautiful part of running is that it is a lifelong
sport. At a certain age, you are going to slow down. In fact, that is
something I have experienced for myself the last few years. Just
remember, there is an event out there for everyone. And I can tell you from
firsthand experience that trying new events, setting new goals, and
experiencing different types of training is fun and rewarding at all ages, and
at all levels of success.

Chapter Twelve
Talent
The four D’s.
If you’ve made it this far into the book, you have likely learned a few things.
You have also shown yourself to be the kind of person that is serious about
investing time and energy into their running career. At this point, you might
be thinking, this is all well and good, but what does it take to be GREAT?
I’d like to tell you about the Four D’s. I first heard about the Four D’s from a
few college coaches that were talking about the best way to find talented
recruits. They said that talent, in and of itself, was hard to identify. What
exactly is talent? These coaches decided to break that amorphous word
into four categories: Discipline, Drive, Development, and Durability.
Let’s look at each of these more closely.
Discipline: It takes a lot of discipline to be great at anything. To become

great at something will always take a ton of sacrifice. It will require you to
identify your priorities and structure your days accordingly. Do you have
what it takes to say “no” to things that are going to get in the way of your
goals? Do you have what it takes to live a disciplined lifestyle that allows
you to progress steadily on a path toward success? Coaches want to work

with disciplined athletes. Disciplined athletes want to work with other
disciplined athletes. Believe it or not, this category is probably where I am
naturally weakest. I am not the most disciplined athlete, but I was
disciplined enough to have some success early on. That success fueled my
desire to be even better, that is called drive.
Drive: How bad do you want it? Seriously, ask yourself that. Would you
rather bleed than let someone run away from you in a race? It killed me
when someone beat me in a race. It would literally devastate me. That
feeling would stick with me and fueled me to train harder. I often hated
training, but I hated the feeling of losing even more. I don’t know why
winning was so important, but I just had to win. I would do whatever it took,
so long as it was legal, to win each race. That is drive, and it is probably the
area of talent I was most naturally blessed with. It can be hard for a coach
to identify drive in an athlete that they have not yet worked with, but after a
season or two they can tell you, unequivocally, if an athlete has it or not.
Some coaches value drive above all else, for without it you will likely never
become a champion. If you do possess drive, however, there will be no
shortage of coaches that want to help you develop as an athlete.
Development: You know when you see some high school kids running
world class times and you think, if they are this good now, just think how
good they will be when they are older! Then you go on to see them fizzle
out in college and never really run faster? Sometimes (not always) those
kids were overdeveloped from a young age. Just like the tires on a car,
your legs only have so many miles in them. I heard a physiologist once say
that the average athlete has around ten really hard years of training in their

legs. Some people use up these years early in life, they train HARD from a
very early age. Some athletes start those years later in life. I personally feel
like I never really started training hard until I was in my early twenties. It
probably comes as no surprise then that I peaked in my late twenties and
was able to run well into my early thirties. How are you going to develop as
an athlete? Do you need to run well in high school to earn a college
scholarship? Or perhaps, you are thinking about turning pro and know you
need to accelerate your development to get a shoe deal. It is ok to develop
faster, or slower, than your peers, just understand that every athlete
develops at different paces and that is OK. The last thing you want to do is
try to develop too quickly and risk injury.
Durability: This is the category that will seem most unfair. You can learn
discipline, you can develop drive, and certainly you can choose how fast
you want to develop, but durability is largely out of your control. Some
people are blessed with it, others less so. There are things you can do to
improve your durability like cycling out your shoes frequently, taking ice
baths, and getting sports massages regularly, but even the most disciplined
athletes can find themselves injured if they are not blessed with durability.
This is probably my second strongest category. I’m not the most naturally
gifted runner, but dammit I’m durable! And I could out train many of my
competitors simply because I didn’t get sidelined by injury often. The
athlete that steadily stacks week, after week, after week of consistent
training is going to be very tough to beat.

Do you have to be perfect in each of the aforementioned categories to be
great? Absolutely not. In fact, I gave myself a low score in a couple of those
categories! Especially when I was young. What you do need to have is a
basic level of competence in each of them and a desire to improve in all of
them.
I was blessed with durability, but had to work at it to stay healthy. That took
discipline which I learned from my family, school, and scouting. I never
lacked for drive, but it took great coaching to help me develop as an
athlete. You see, I had enough of the Four D’s to be considered talented,
but that talent had to be refined. Even a diamond is just an ugly rock, until it
is cut and polished!
I’ll conclude with this, it is perhaps my favorite quote of all time: Hard work
beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
Want to know how talented you are? Get to work, polish that diamond, find
out what lies beneath the surface.

Bonus
Going Pro
How to become a professional runner.
Think you have what it takes to become a professional runner? Well, you
are already way ahead of me! During most of my youth I never thought I
had the talent to one day run professionally. In fact, the very first time I
thought I had a chance to make running my job was the summer before my
senior year of college.
That summer, I recognized I was just one year from joining the real world,
one year from being kicked out of the nest that school had been. I was
going to have to figure out a way to make money. As I saw it, I had two
options: quit running and focus on becoming a doctor OR quit school and
focus on running.
Knowing that I would likely only get one shot at running professionally, I
decided to go with option two. The summer before my senior year of
college, I packed my bags and moved to central Mexico to live at altitude
and train with a group of elite Kenyan marathoners.*
*I am currently working on a short story chronicling that very transformative summer. If you are interested in reading
it, please follow me on Instagram, @nicksymmonds, where I will be announcing the publication date of that story very
soon.

Fortunately, upon my return, I was able to find a way to make running my
number one focus and finish my studies senior year. Education is important
to me and even though I did not pursue further education after university, I
am very glad I earned my college degree.
Shortly after graduation, I flew to the USA Outdoor Championships for

Track & Field. This competition pits the best athletes that the United States
has to offer against each other to decide who is the US Champion in each
event. I barely squeaked into the field of 32 and was not expected to do
well. However, smart racing and a cool head, allowed me to navigate the
rounds and ultimately finish second. I was the number two 800-meter
runner in the entire country!
Agents were shoving their business cards in my hands before I even had a
chance to cool down. This is the most important part of the process if you
want to become a professional runner. Find an agent.
An agent typically takes 15% of everything you make, but you will struggle
to run professionally without one. A good agent helps you find endorsement
deals and negotiates those contracts on your behalf. They may also help
you find a coach and/or a training group. A good agent will assist you
getting into races and possibly negotiate appearance fees and bonuses for
you in those competitions. Whether you are a relatively unknown Division
III runner as I was, or Usain Bolt himself, you need an agent.
It’s that simple. Win big races (or run fast enough) to get the attention of an
agent, then let that agent go to work for you. There are many agents out

there and a lot of them are incompetent. There are, however, a few very
good ones. Be sure to do your due diligence, ask for recommendations,
pick the person that you trust above all else. A simple Google search can
get you started.
One side bar on this topic: the wonderful world of social media has, to
some extent, upended the traditional definition of what it means to be a “pro
athlete.” Today, there are some very average athletes making thousands of
dollars, or even millions, as content creators. I’m talking about bloggers,
influencers, YouTubers, etc. Today, as a retired runner, I am able to earn
more money in one month through YouTube and Instagram than I earned
in an entire year from my first Nike contract! There is a lesson here: all
professional athletes are entertainers. Be entertaining and you will get paid
well. Running fast is entertaining, sharing your life with your fans is
entertaining, creating silly YouTube videos is entertaining. How you fit into
this entertainment industry depends on your own skill set and goals.
One thing I am sure of is that the traditional model of professional running

will continue to change significantly over the coming years. Be nimble, be
hungry, work hard, and the opportunity to run professionally could be yours.

Conclusion
I hope you found some helpful information in these chapters. I have never,
and will never, claim to have all the answers. However, I have managed to
find some success in running; it has been an honor to pass along the
knowledge that I have accumulated over twenty years of competitive
running. Thank you for reading these words.
We spent a lot of time digging into the “how” of running, but we never really
talked about the “why.”
I’ll be honest, I’ve never been very good with the “why” questions.
People ask me all the time, “Why do you run Nick?” I have come up with
some generic answers to this question to appease them. However, if I
looked myself in the mirror and tried to answer that question, I would laugh
it off as a waste of time.
Why do we do anything? Do we even need a reason to do the things that

we do?
I can tell you various things that have motivated me to run during my
lifetime. In high school, I ran because I was naturally good at it and wanted
to impress people. In college, I ran because I liked being outdoors, enjoyed
the social aspect of being on a team, and felt a need to compete in a
physical activity with my peers. As a professional, I ran for money and

adulations. We can argue whether each of these are good or bad
motivators, but do any of them truly answer the deeper question, WHY?
I will say this, through each of those periods of my life I felt an underlying
obligation to myself, to my God given abilities, to see just how good I could
be. Each mile logged, every year of strength accumulated, made me feel
that I somehow owed it to my younger self to reach my peak. It was as
though my younger self had made sacrifices and put in the hard work so
that my current self could be a better runner. The more I invested in myself,
the more future me would feel indebted. I knew I would never be able to
quit running until I found out just how good I could be. Thankfully, I was
able to do so.
Today, I run because it makes me happy. I run because it makes me a

better person in every aspect of my life. I think clearer during a run and
afterward have more energy throughout the day. Running makes me
physically and emotionally healthier. It also gives me a sense of
community.
Why do I run? Because I can’t imagine life without it.

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HOW TO BEA

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 2

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 3

Don’t waste this opportunity.

This was my prerace ritual.

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 5

Periodization is the beginning and end of success in running. About 50% of

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 6

So, what is periodization exactly? In a nutshell, periodization is adjusting

That framework is typically going to consist of four parts: Base, Sharpening,

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 7

As coach would begin to feed us workouts, there would invariably be an

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 9

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 11

I found I could be 100% focused in every aspect of my training for only a

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 12

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 13

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 14

During a properly periodized year, your weekly mileage is going to fluctuate

As a professional runner, my mileage was bumped up even more,

My mileage wasn’t like that of a normal 800-meter runner, but my intention

As I aimed to become the strongest runner I could be, I was constantly

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 16

Of course, your own mileage is going to depend on a number of factors.

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 17

If you are planning to run in college or post-collegiately, then you are in

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 19

Shout out to all the GOOD coaches out there!

You may be thinking, “I know what my goal is. My goal is to be a better

Remember, a goal without a plan is just a wish! Furthermore, a goal without

Let’s take the aforementioned wish of wanting to be a better runner. What

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 21

Let’s discuss some of those now.

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 22

Big Goal: Finish my first marathon (I chose Honolulu 2017).

Running my first marathon workout was easy. It was exciting. As soon as I

Here’s a true story…

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 24

That’s a long-winded way of saying cross training works! It can be

While I don’t believe that cross-training is a substitute for mileage (except in

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 25

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 26

Injuries & Illness

As you learned in the previous chapter, I am no stranger to injury. In fact,

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 27

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 28

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 30

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 31

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 33

I was raised by two incredible people. My parents believed in physical

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 34

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 35

Supplements: As the owner of a supplement company (Run Gum), this

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 38

Sex & Masturbation

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 39

It would be a mistake if I didn’t also mention that a good partner can be an

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 40

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 41

Nerves & Anxiety

I hated that butterflies-in-my-stomach feeling, hated the adrenaline that

© 2020 by Nick Symmonds LLC 42

What do I mean by that? I’m talking about learning to control your