186: How to Start Running From Zero (Beginner Runner's Plan) | Jeff Cunningham

**Nick Bare** (0:06)
Ladies and gentlemen, today's returning guest, my personal running coach who has helped me go from a 4-15 marathon to a 2-hour 39-minute marathon, Jeff Cunningham.

**Jeff Cunningham** (0:22)
Man, I'm fired up to be here, excited to be back. It's been a while, man.

**Nick Bare** (0:26)
It has been a while.

**Jeff Cunningham** (0:27)
I like your hat. Where did you get it from?

**Nick Bare** (0:29)
This is the hat that I've been rocking for almost 10 years now.

**Jeff Cunningham** (0:34)
Yeah. Listen, man, if you got rid of every BPN hat that's ever been made, the one that we're wearing, keep it.

**Nick Bare** (0:41)
It's my go-to. Be gold, man. It's my go-to.
You know, now that I'm in high rocks training, I'll wear this hat for some of my high rocks workouts lately. And it gets absolutely drenched. And then they smell. I started throwing my hats in the dishwasher in the evening when they get just trashed.

**Jeff Cunningham** (0:58)
Oh, yeah?

**Nick Bare** (0:59)
And it cleans them pretty well.

**Jeff Cunningham** (1:01)
Well, I've heard that they actually have things that you could put in your hats to put them in the dishwasher, like an insert or whatever, to keep them from sort of losing their shape. But I don't know.

**Nick Bare** (1:09)
Yeah, this is my go-to hat.

**Jeff Cunningham** (1:10)
Yeah, love it. This one shows sweat stains, the least just about any hat I've ever owned. And I'm an anti-sweat stain guy, so.

**Nick Bare** (1:18)
I sweat a lot, but I don't have a lot of sweat stains. Surprisingly, even though I'm a heavy, salty sweater.

**Jeff Cunningham** (1:24)
Yeah, well, I don't know, man. I love it. My favorite hat, so.

**Nick Bare** (1:29)
Well, I provided you some context into this conversation, where I'd like to take the discussion. And for context, for the listener, the viewer, what I was telling Jeff is, sometimes I find myself creating content and sharing things for the top 1% of the population. The people who have been doing this for years and years and years, and they have systems and routines and habits in place. They are committed.
They are already motivated and inspired. They're training for Ironmans and sub-three-hour marathons and ultras and all of these things, which is great.
But, I found myself neglecting the people who are just getting started. And I want to take a lot of my content back to serve those people. The people who are having trouble just getting to the gym a few times a week. Or waking up without hitting snooze and their alarm. Or who want to start logging some miles. So, that's what I would love for this conversation to be grounded in. Is that we're providing information and resources in a training philosophy, but also a mindset philosophy as well of where they should get started when they first get started with running. And training for maybe a 5k, half marathon, full marathon, if you fancy. But, I hope that shapes kind of the people that I hope this podcast reaches and helps.

**Jeff Cunningham** (3:15)
It's funny because I think that you and I have had this discussion before about how sometimes we get so close to it that we can't see the whole forest, you know, because our nose is so close to a tree trunk. There's a whole forest, there's a whole landscape of people who are getting into the fitness space, who may sometimes view anything, whether it's experienced high rocks athlete, experienced bodybuilders, experienced runners, where I don't want to say there's embarrassment, but there's reluctance to get in there because there's this fear maybe of judgment.
Sometimes it can be projection. And I really want to help erase that. And I don't want to be sort of part of that machine that only speaks to the 1% because I think fitness and moving our bodies, whether it's running, whether it's high rocks, bodybuilding, being a hybrid athlete in the general context, I think is for everybody. And it's generally helpful, both from the neck down and the neck up, mental health, physical health, everything.

**Nick Bare** (4:18)
Trey described it to me a few weeks back. And I feel like I've quoted him many times since then.
And we were talking about, you know, building business and brand and serving the committed athlete. And you find yourself in this echo chamber sometimes, where you forget about the people who aren't that committed or that experienced or have that much wisdom around what to eat, when to eat, how to train, what to train. And he said, dude, sometimes we find ourselves just smelling our own farts. And I was like, you know what?