Emperor Fitness - Running a sub-4hr Marathon (Ouroboros)

Journals - Major Programs
#3

Bad habits I’m speaking out of existence and tracking progress on

#1: Sleeping in. this one is the big one I’ve always struggled with, but my plan is to wake up 1 hour before work and get a 30 min run in every morning, so, that bad habit will need to leave, pronto. One excuse I tell myself is “waking up at 6am will wake up and disturb my fiancée” even though she literally encourages me to wake up early and says she’ll be fine.

#2: Caffeine Consumption - not that it’s bad… but I’m overdoing it. I’m not taking breaks from caffeine. I’m drinking 3-5 cups a day just to feel the effect, and at that quantity, I’m feeling the effect of the overdose :joy: I really need to regain my caffeine sensitivity, and then use it sparingly. Running in the morning will wake me up and help with that.

#3: Gluten and Sugar are the culprits in my diet that I know I have a better life when I cut.

5 Likes
#4

You choose well, EF st2 is probably the best sub for running with Spartan as a second.
Have you tried Yerba mate instead of coffee?

In terms of putting muscle on, I have the same body composition as you and by that I mean I am an ectomorph, slim figure, hard to put on some muscle, etc.
What works for me is Nucleus overload.
Or exercise part of the body of your choice as many times as possible throughout the week.
I got the best results when I was not going with heavyweight, because of the possibility of injuries which I do not like.

I rather go with let’s say middle heavyweight and 15-25 reps with 3-4 sets per one body part. Not going to absolute failure but in the end targeted muscle feels fatigued. Rests between sets are in a range from 30 sec to 1 minute and 30 seconds. Depends on how you feel and how heavy exercise is, etc. But the universal time would be 1 minute.

So you can choose 5-7 body parts and do it every training session. Then with every meal try to eat some protein.

Something similar started @RagnarLothbrok, he is about the same body structure as I correctly understood. And I think he is quite satisfied with his results so far.

I can also tell you what exercises are best for any body part, it took me quite some time to figure it out, because even for any body part there are tons of exercises but some of them are better than others. But it of course does not mean, that what works for me would also work in the same way for you.

1 Like
#5

Yes im doing full body heavy/stretch/pump with 6-7 exercises each workout and i already gained 2kg of muscle

And for your marathon EF2 is very good as it as a heavy focus of endurance, i would suggest considering Spartan instead, something more important in marathon than endurance is mental toughness and to keep running even when it hurts + Spartan is very good for everything, endurance, muscle endurance, fat burning and muscle building

So i think Spartan would be an even better choice, of course i can’t day for sure because i never ran EF

5 Likes
#6

I second Spartan for the mental toughness alone. I plan to run it this coming April.

Edit: And maybe watch some Goggins motivation videos to hype yourself up whenever you feel like quitting.

Edit 2: Or invest in a custom with the Inexhaustible Module.

#7

First loop of Emp Fit today. 3 mins.

Ran it solo. Will run it with my NR/LE custom in the future.

Marathon is a priority only so long as it enhances work not detracts from it, so, if needed I may run a 1-1 rest/listen schedule, with NR every listening day, but EF only every second listening day.

1 Like
#8

This week’s training

Thursday: 5k run @ 5:22/km - hard pace.

Friday: A 2K morning run, easy. A 2K walk, easy. Then a 7K walk/run at a mostly easy pace.

Saturday: 6K super easy runs

Sunday: 1K walk, 4K bushwhacking, then 5K road run at a 6:44/km pace. This was my “long run”

Weekly mileage: 30k

Little Lessons:

  • go slow, go easy, build up mileage safely.
  • zone 2 cardio is the aerobic zone where you can maintain the pace indefinitely, this is where we want to log large mileage.
  • endurance is built in zone 2, or in interval training, or with a high heart rate under heavy load. One cool way of training endurance is to take a heavy kettlebell (mine is 70lb), do 10-20 KB swings until HR is high, and then walk until you can talk, and do those intervals 10 times. Trains muscles and heart.
  • world record marathon holder’s #1 tip is to ENJOY running - very in line with how it feels to try and meditate while running
2 Likes
#9

I wish you luck and success in your training. My weight loss will focus on Zone 2 as well.

1 Like
#10

Early ST1 impression is that it’s easy and more natural for me to take a nap or rest when
I’m tired, for sure. On the flip side, I couldn’t sleep last night, mind was racing.

That’s my favorite kind of recon. I already have sleep issues pre EF1. It didn’t cause them. It would’ve happened anyways. But EF gives me the extra awareness on health habits, so I was watching it and have learned from it as if it happened for the first time even though it’s happened for the thousandth time.

This podcast released today.

Obviously it talks about mental toughness, which was why Spartan was recommended to me. The release of this episode was great timing.

The “actionable bit” I’m taking away is from a neuroscience tidbit from Huberman, actually. Willpower has a region of the brain associated with it. That region is increased in size when we do things we don’t want to do, and it decreases when we do things we want to do.

So if you hate running so you go for runs anyways, your willpower will grow. But if you start to enjoy the running, and then keep running, the willpower part of your brain starts shrinking again.

So what was my interpretation of that? Simple. Don’t ever do what my brain wants to do. The fact that I want McDonald’s is reason enough to not have it - saying no is the reward. Wanting to end a run is reason to keep going. Not wanting to cold plunge IS the reason to do it, etc etc.

3 Likes
#11

Ran my first 10K

6:03/km pace, 1hr1min59s total.

Literally didn’t even plan a 10k. My goal was to just keep on turning until I was lost, and then run home. Turned out perfect.

And also I won’t be posting every run. Just the major milestones.

2 Likes
#12

Andrew Huberman with David Goggins?! Holy crap I have been waiting for that collab for ages lol. Can’t wait to dive deep into that episode tomorrow.

I agree with this, especially for skinny guys, it’s crucial to focus on compound exercises with high volume. There’s a lot of conflicting research on muscle building, but this is something I’ve consistently observed with clients and experienced myself.

Nice to see how much thought you put into your schedule :wink: Looks like LE with NR is doing it’s job tremendously.

1 Like
Adventures of Ouroboros: Wealth Development
#13

Goal is to just run every day, even if only a little bit! My knee hurts today so I’ll just walk.

Woke up at 6 today, didn’t get out of bed and shower right away, but I definitely was up and prepared for work for a 7am sales call. The goal was to run, not just get ready for work, but I’ll be honest I was shocked at the fact it was still dark. I’ll get another shot at it tomorrow.

EF1 results from my fiancee, she DID get up at 6am and go for a 40 min run. It’s the first 5K she’s ever done by herself.

Sleep Habits

Because I had to sleep early, I naturally was “forced” to plan my next work day with pen and paper, find my top 3 priorities, etc., instead of stay up late and work.

Just an example of how working on my health/fitness is benefiting my career.

Overall, EF1 feels like it’s adding a lot of structure to my life, which is basically exactly what I wanted off of QL. With QL, i noticed it was my habits that were my bottleneck, not my brainpower itself, and while I want to work QL’s objectives, I find that if I were to do that now, I’d just be adding more brainpower onto my chess habit haha

1 Like
Adventures of Ouroboros: Wealth Development
#14

Goals of this were to

  • focus on waking up earlier and happier - which has ABSOLUTELY been happening this week.
  • to exercise consistently which I’ve been doing
  • to improve nutrition which has been happening all unconsciously

and one change I’m noticing from EF1 specifically is that I think about my running form a lot more when I’m running, I’m consciously shifting more upright and am sort of able to intuitively learn better running gait just through trial and error - I don’t feel like I need anyone to teach me this.

1 Like
#15

Lots of snow this week, and went to an osteopath to look at my knee, so I took things a little toooo easy. Went for a good run today and then a 3 hour sumo class so that’s a lot of good conditioning today.

Watching my form improve over time is amazing

1 Like
#16

Use some magnesium.

2 Likes
#17

Good to know, thank you! I am probably deficient

1 Like
#18

You could also include Boron.

3 Likes
#19

I second boron, helped my knees and back a lot

#20

I went and bought perfectly fitted running shoes for me, spent a good chunk of money, and within 30 minutes of running my feet were blistered worse than anything I’ve experienced before. Was pretty frustrating. I got a shoe that I could exchange if they didn’t fit right, but I wore them outside, so I don’t know if I can exchange it.

Since then, I’ve got a VR machine and am putting LOADS of time into cardio through VR Table Tennis and VR Boxing (Eleven Table Tennis /// Thrill Of The Fight)

Gonna switch to EF2 soon but once I make my “long term development” custom I think EF1 will have a permanent spot in that stack.

1 Like
#21

This was quite a journey. Just completed the marathon yesterday. Ultimately, old injuries were a lot more of a factor than I thought, and the goal changed from completing a sub 4hr marathon to just COMPLETING the marathon. It was pretty easy for the first 30km, then I hit the wall. Ended up with a 4:48 time, i’m extremely happy with the overall accomplishment.

The training was going for a 10km run about once a week, and then the rest of the time doing swimming, sports, etc, to not aggravate the knee injury.

This has helped me fall in love with cardio but not necessarily running. It was the cross training that I really enjoyed the most.

4 Likes
#22

congrats on finishing the marathon! that’s a great achievement

1 Like