How to Find Godly Friends & Avoiding Burnout as a Runner

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Welcome to One Day Out, a weekly newsletter to help deepen your faith, enhance your health, and guide you in pursuing a purpose-filled life.

Today’s Snapshot:

• How to Find Godly Friends

• Three Keys to Avoiding Burnout with Running

• New Segment: Question of the Week

Opening Prayer

Lord, thank you for the opportunity to grow closer to you today. Soften my heart today, Jesus, and help me be open to all that you want for my life. Surround me with godly friends so that we can advance your kingdom together.

Take a moment to think about the 5 people you spend the most time with. Are those people pulling you closer to, or further from, Christ?

King Solomon (author of Proverbs, son of King David) makes it clear in this verse that the people you choose to surround yourself with will shape your character.

What should you look for in a godly friend? The young adult Pastor at my church shared a few things that I found helpful:

1. They have to be chasing after Jesus

2. They should have wisdom- not worldly wisdom, but wisdom from god

3. They should have grace

4. They should be able to tell you the truth even when it’s not what we want to hear

I’ve had to let go of a lot of friendships since I fully gave my life to Christ and received salvation because whether you believe it or not, the environments you’re in, the people you hang around, and the things you consume are all conditioning your mind.

This is not me being a hardo saying you have to ditch all of your current friends and only spend time with other believers; however, in my experience the more I am around other godly men and women, I become challenged and hungrier for God’s Word and grow my relationship with Christ.

Here are some ways that I have found more godly friends:

• Going to church - if you’re not doing this, how do you expect to meet godly people?

• Bible studies/small groups - go to your church’s website or ask someone there about opportunities to join a bible study or small group.

• Facebook groups - there are Facebook groups either directly intended to help Christians meet up, or local groups where you could post and ask if anyone knows of any groups.

There are many other ways, but this has worked for me, and I’m confident it will work for you too.

Be VERY selective about who you let into your circle.

How Often Should Runners Be Weight Training?

The ‘hybrid athlete’ movement has taken the fitness world by storm over the past few years. It feels like everyone is trying to look weights to look like Arnold, and run like Kipchoge.

People like Nick Bare have led the charge in promoting this style of training- running high mileage and lifting like a bodybuilder.

While I agree that a mixture of strength training and cardio is a great combination for health, longevity, and aesthetics, it can be easy to overtrain and end up injured, fatigued, and burnt out.

In my experience of training for an endurance goal, I was so worried about continuing to build strength and maintain muscle, that I overtrained in the weight room leaving me under-recovered for my runs- leading to injury and burnout.

I was running 40-50 miles/week and strength training 5x/week for 60+ minutes. The volume was too much, and it was ego-driven.

As I prep for this half-marathon next month where I will attempt to go sub 1:40, I am focusing on performing my best during my runs and using strength training to enhance my performance and recovery vs. trying to build strength.

Right now, I strength train 3-4x per week for 30-45 minutes and focus on compound movements and uni-lateral (single leg, single arm, etc.) exercises.

For the beginner runner, 2x/week of full-body lifting would be great, with an optional 3rd day for active recovery and core work.

Here are a few movements to focus on in those training sessions:

• Squat variation

• Hinge variation (deadlift, RDL, glute bridge)

• Lunge variation

• Explosive movement (push press, hang clean, etc.)

• Calf/soleus raises

Lifting should enhance your running, not leave you injured or burnt out!

NEW SEGMENT: Question of the Week

I want to answer any questions you may have. I started this newsletter to provide as much tangible value to you all as possible.

Each week, I will choose one question submitted by one of you and answer it to the best of my ability.

It can be about faith, fitness, a struggle you are facing, something you are curious about, or anything about life.

Respond to THIS EMAIL with your question, and I will respond whether or not it is featured as the question of the week.

I am looking forward to seeing the submissions!

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Closing Prayer

Lord, I pray that you give me the courage to step outside of my comfort zone this week and seek godly friends. Give me discernment to know which relationships I need to let go of, and which ones I need to pour into.

Amen.

Know others who want to grow in their faith, optimize their health, and live a biblically sound life according to God’s word? Share this and let’s grow His Kingdom!

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