237. Andrew Glaze: On The Mental Health Benefits of Running 100 Miles Weekly

23:42Gary Brecka:Including God. Including yourself. Including God. Yeah, he failed, I think, the second, or the first time and then came back and crushed it. Got second place. Yeah, that's pretty significant. But, you know, mentally preparing for that race, and a lot of people don't know what it is, So I would love if you would unpack what the race is and like what kind of terrain it is and, and you know, what it entails. I know it's 240 miles. Is it consistent? How long does it take? But, you know, are you running all day, all night and all day again? Because I think that is fascinating. Yeah, I mean, so that race is a 240 mile circle around Moab, Utah, which is pretty remote Utah.

24:20Gary Brecka:Like who came up with this, dude? There's some sicko sitting around. Candice Burt, who's like an amazing, she has all the like 200 mile races. She's pretty amazing. But yeah, like, uh, it's, it's a 240 mile loop. Uh, it goes through all the most beautiful areas of Moab, which is also, you have arches and all these other national parks around there. It's, I always tell people, it's probably like one of the top three most beautiful places I've raced and I've really, yeah, I've raced from Europe to China. Like it's really pretty if you like desert landscapes. And does that matter when you're racing?

24:52I think so. It's, it's nice to, to look around and see some really beautiful terrain. you know um and you have two giant mountains you have to climb one at like mile like 120 and then another and then another i think mile 175 you go up like 10 ,000 11 ,000 feet from sea level well not sea level but like you know i mean you're probably like 5 ,000 have to go up to 10 ,000 it's it's a big climb though and like one of them's like 26 miles so it's climbing well if you're going up and over this mountain. So, I mean, it's, it's, you're out there for a long time. Um, and then the rest is a lot of desert running, um, slick rock, um, just things that are hard on the feet.

25:37Um, and this year we had 150 year storm, so it poured rain almost the entire race. And so the previous years were, which I had not been successful. We'd be running up like a dry riverbed well this year it was a full river so i have video of myself going up and you know i have water you know shin deep and i'm having to go like two miles up a river yeah there's nowhere else to go so i have to deal with a lot of footage there's just the terrain on the other side it's just mud

26:06Gary Brecka:and like weird stuff on the side because it's raining so you used to stay on the rock bed yeah yeah and uh it's running against you yeah it's running against you that is so brutal and you know one of the worst things about running in the rain is wet feet right all the issues with wet feet so then you have to deal with all the foot issues and all that um it's a very very difficult race but um yeah and and and when you first set out to do it i mean you train for it oh yeah i mean a lot how do you train for a 240 mile race i mean how many miles can you put on well you run a lot of a hundred mile races.

26:46You do. Yeah. I've run, you know, every year I run a lot of a hundred mile races to get ready for, for like 200 mile races. I mean, and then it's a lot of logistics with like, you have drop bags. You have to like, think about in the future, like, okay, when I get to mile one 50, what am I going to need? Oh, I'm going to need to put new socks on and clean my feet. And you know, I'm going to need this food or this, you know, all these things. and you have to, you know, prep mentally. I mean, it's like, I have pictures of myself with like 20 drop bags on the ground with like all this stuff. And I mean, it takes me weeks to get ready for a race.

27:22Oh yeah. And then it took me 90 something hours. So I was almost, you know, four days. So out there.

27:30Gary Brecka:And did you sleep at all? I did sleep a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I really want to unpack that. I mean, 240 miles. I mean, how, how much distance can a human being cover? in a 24-hour period? Most people can, I mean, I don't know about most people, but we try to... The 100-milers, what can they cover? In 100-mile, you should be able to, a lot of people can cover 100 miles in 24 hours. In a 200-mile race, maybe 80 miles, maybe somewhere around that. I mean, it just depends if you're faster or slower. The really fast people will do it under 24. But for sleep, like the first year that I failed, I made it 200 miles, and I was climbing up 200 miles.

28:12Yeah, 200 miles. I was climbing. Basically, a tree had fallen down and I was going around the tree and I fell asleep while I was moving and fell backwards through the tree and like off a cliff and landed on my back. Oh, you fell asleep running. Yeah, which does happen quite a bit in 200 mile races. Wow. If you don't give yourself - That is insane. Right. So, and always trying to get better, right? You're always trying to improve yourself. This year I had a much better sleep strategy where I, I would sleep from like 3 AM to 6 AM so that like I would wake up right as the sun was rising. And so you would get that boost.

28:53You'd get, you get the three hours of sleep, which was key. And then, and then the boost of the sun hitting your eyes. And like, this worked really well for me. I actually took no naps the whole race. And I was only, only slept for like those hours in the, in the middle of the night. Um, so that's a strategy I'm probably going to use for future 200.

29:13Gary Brecka:So how far did you go before you actually went to sleep? Well, I skipped the first night. So the second night. When you say skip, you say you started in the morning. Well, the race starts at noon. So yeah, I ran all night and then went to bed at like 3 a.m. So what is that like? The following day. The following day. So you're running the entire time. Right. So 30 something hours, I think, before I slept. Wow. I've done quite a few races where I've gone 51 hours without sleep. 51 hours. Yeah. That's probably my, that's my threshold. And I mean, at that point you're hallucinating. Oh yeah. You're, you're like, you're in a cartoon.

29:47Gary Brecka:Yeah. You're in a lot of pain and you're in a lot of cart. That's just gotta be such a weird place. I've only had that happen once at the only marathon that I ran in Cartagena and not even nearly to that extent, but just between the heat and the dehydration and the pain that I was in, I did start to kind of, uh, hallucinate a little bit. And, and, and the pathway that we were running on at one time, I felt like I was going downhill. It was perfectly flat. And then another point, I felt like I was running uphill and it looked uphill. And I was telling myself, this is level. My brain was like, this is uphill.

30:24Gary Brecka:It looked like it was climbing in front of me. Um, and I've, I've heard other people talk about that hallucination. The water was kind of weird, but what are the hallucinations like? I mean, if you've, if you go 51 hours, um, I mean, it can be what starts happening in your brain. It can be a lot of things for the people that haven't drawn for me. Um, I mean, a lot of times the ground looks very different, you know, like the rocks or whatever you're seeing. I think during Moab, I shot a video where we were running on a road and the whole road looked like those little troll dolls. And so I was like hey does everybody see all the troll dolls and like i was just seeing like i was running on troll dolls like i don't i don't even know what a troll doll really is but that's what i was seeing and what i see one time at a race like i saw these robot dogs and i like went up and wanted to start playing with them and it was a guy sleeping and like a black yeah and so like i woke him up and then he was like what are you doing and i was like the dogs turned into this sky and I was like, I'm sorry, I need to sleep.

31:28And I just kept, you know, going. Wow. Was he in the race? Yeah, he was in the race. So he at least knew he had like a black, like, I don't know if he was in a black bivy sack or something that he was sleeping in on the side of the trail, but I was convinced it was these robot dogs. And I thought in my, in my stupor, like, Hey, it'd be a good idea to play with these things.

31:47Gary Brecka:I'd want to play with the robot dog too, but you never reasoned yourself just randomly there. There's a robot dog at, you know, mile 120. Right, right. Yeah, yeah. Well, you're so out of it at that point that, and then, you know, what'll happen is you'll go to sleep, your brain will reset, and then normally you'll be okay for a little while. And then when you start seeing stuff again, you're like, all right, it's probably time for another nap, you know, because things are getting a little squirrely. It always gets more squirrely at night than it does during the day. Yeah. Just because, you know, your vision gets weird when you're just staring at headlamp light.

32:21Gary Brecka:Yeah. um for so long bouncing like that it's like just like the shadows dancing everywhere driving five hours in the mountains when you're when your headlights are low and you can't see the whole road in front of you and and you know it's twisty and turning and and you and you're sitting in you know behind the wheel of a car i've had that those times just driving from denver to our place in gunnison it's five hour drive you get some of those country roads have no lights right only have the beam in front of you and it starts to weird you out yeah like artificial light's terrible it's like yeah i get so sick of it by the end of the night like all i want is the sun to come up so i can start seeing real light again yeah yeah because that's constant on light um and and if you got that hat on then it's also kind of i mean that that that headband on it's also kind of bouncing i've been using no waist light and it's it's a lot better oh because it doesn't throw like shadows the same way it you know it's just a side hack that i've i've learned over time that the waist light looks it looks weird but um it works better yeah i'll remember that if you ever do it 240 miles so you know here you are you you obviously you prepared for this thing um in in your first race you're going around this tree and you're hallucinating and you fall backwards and you just happen to be on a hill i guess yeah and did you injure yourself yeah i hurt my back pretty well and then i had to i had to go like another five miles or something to get to the aid station oh and it took i think it took like seven hours to go five miles yeah because there's no i mean there are other racers out there is i i had a i had a guy with me that was pacing me um one thing about these races is you can you can get people that will come out and run alongside you like your friends or whatever and and normally they you know they can do a good job of like keeping you alert and talking and because they're not they're not out of it yeah they're only 30 miles in or whatever instead of 100 or i was 200 miles in so he was able to like because when i fell all the branches broke and then they all landed on me and then i landed on these rocks so he was able to like get me up and everything and at first i thought i would be okay but what happened is i'd landed on my back and it started to swell and so after time like i couldn't throw my leg because you know how your leg is then attached to your lower back so i got to the aid station i still had like 35 miles to go and i was just like i can't go 35 miles like this it was i was in seventh place it was like i was having the best race oh and then yeah and then it was like and then i wasn't so that was a hard one to walk away from i'd rather have that happen a mile too right i know exactly 200 miles but then i was like oh i did the moab 200 you know yeah yeah Yeah, you turned into a positive.

35:02Gary Brecka:Yeah. So you pack it up, and this race is only once a year. Yeah, it's only once a year. Oh, dude. So for you was, I mean, there's a PTSD trigger for you. Oh, yeah. It was the worst. And then I came back the next year, and I got heat stroke, where my body stopped sweating. Cold. Yeah, and, like, I ran out of water, and I was, like, all by myself, and, like, basically almost died. like i'm a paramedic so like i started to know the symptoms i started to get altered and i got to the aid station and they had to pack me with ice to like like cool my core body temperature down and then i couldn't recover after that so you couldn't no i mean how did you get to the aid station when it when it first started i mean i just kept yeah i just kept moving forward because there's nothing i could no cell signal i had you know i just literally i got into i started thinking about my family i started thinking about my kids like i'm not gonna die We're going to race again.

35:58Yeah, well, I'm not going to die out there. You know, you start having that talk with yourself. Because when you stop sweating, you just get so hot. You know, and then your core body temperature gets hot. And, you know, you start cooking your brain.

36:09Gary Brecka:And are you out in the sun at this point? Yeah, it's just full sun. No shade. There was no shade for me to hide in or anything. Oh. So, yeah, it got really scary. And then, yeah, so that was like the second DNF, which was supposed to be my, you know, redemption year. How far in was that? That was only 85 miles. Only 85 miles. Well, and I run hot race. I live in Southern California. It's hot where I live. I run hot races all the time. So I was just like super frustrated with myself. Like, why is my body doing this to me? But you did it and you just, you know, sometimes your body just fails. So mile 85 and you, you, you have this heat stroke and you don't have any water.

36:48Gary Brecka:And you know, there are other areas where you might've been able to get into water. Yeah. Yeah. And cool yourself down. Right. Which might've turned things around. It would have, but there was no, nothing on this section. It was just desert, which is funny because that's the, the same area was the area that was the river this year. Wow. So, you know, it just shows you like the difference in, you know, one year it was super hot. The next year it's a river. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Well, I mean, uh, you know, if it had been the river, maybe with a river, I would have been great. Yeah. Just laid down.

37:20Gary Brecka:But you can't come back after heat. No, no. I mean, I've, I've actually seen that people get catatonic and they can be, really life threatening. And then you're, you're susceptible to get it again, you know? So if I had continued on, you know, then I'm in the sun again for how long, like I can't, you couldn't risk that. Yeah. So, so you pack it up, you go home again. Yes. Um, and was that more defeating than the first time? Oh, it was. And especially cause I, I know 85 sounds a lot to you, but 85 to me is not significant. So I was extremely frustrated. Time wise, how, how, far as 85 miles into the race.

37:57I mean, I was maybe like 24 hours or something, maybe a day. Okay. So, I mean, literally nothing for me. And so I was extremely frustrated with not only my body, but like, you know, myself, cause you know, I really wanted to complete it that year. So, yeah.

38:14Gary Brecka:And so now you pack it up, you go home year two, your redemption year. Now is your family at these races? Like, uh, no, I mean, sometimes like my wife, like go knock your socks off, fanny yeah my wife will go to like a race if it's in like a beautiful area like i go to europe every year and then shamany have you ever have you ever been to the alps and yeah yeah so she loves swiss alps yeah well it's it's french swiss and italian alps i rent racing and she'll come to that okay but like yeah the middle of utah desert like no she's not yeah i'm not not coming to that so it's like i love you but i'm not sitting in a tent for yeah three days waiting on well and my kids you know they have so many activities and so it's like it's hard to pause everything so dad can go race you know yeah because then they're gonna miss out on all their you know yeah so you go you you go back home um two failed attempts heat stroke back injury thankfully you didn't injure yourself more serious and was it the third year did you go three times in a row three times in a row yeah I just kept coming back.

39:21So, yeah, this year I got a team behind me. I had two guys. We got a camper van. And I, you know, took it super, super seriously.

39:32Gary Brecka:So you actually got the nap in that, which is like major luxury. Because it poured rain. So I was in there just like with a blanket on me, all comfortable, just hearing the rain just on the van. It was nice. Yeah. And how many hours would you sleep? I mean, it was like three hours. I give myself a three hour break, you know, you don't, why not sleep more? Cause it's only going to extend your time, but you still finished. Yeah. I think, I mean, really what people think, um, they think that like, because you're doing something really physically hard that, that you have the ability to then sleep for a long time.

40:04But what you find is that your body is so sore and so, and so much pain that like the natural pain and soreness wakes you up. So I would go to sleep and sleep as much as I could. but when my body would wake me up that is when i would start start going again so um you don't and you gotta wake up in just immense pain yeah and then you stiffen up after so it's like a really

40:28Gary Brecka:hard workout you always you lay down and you're nice and tired and you're like oh this feels so good and then the first half mile you kind of have to do like a walk trot yeah you know because you're just so stiff and then you know motions the lotion you start it starts lubricating and then you can start moving again but yeah it's it's a little especially when it's cold and raining one of the nights the last night we we got there at like 10 o 'clock and i think i slept till midnight and we got out you know pitch black obviously it's super cold and it's just pouring rain and we had your team running this with you one of my team members yeah the whole thing well we we switched back and forth right but one of the guys did 120 miles with me wow so yeah he did he did I told him I was going to get him a belt buckle that said the Moab 120.

41:14So, but, uh, yeah, he, uh, we had to go up this, you know, mountain and it's pouring rain and yeah, to get out of the van, the warm van and it's freezing cold and raining. Again, these are the mental toughness lessons that you're teaching your brain to do. Like you don't want to do it. You want to just stay in that warm van, but you force yourself out and then you start moving and then, then you get miserable.

41:37Gary Brecka:So how many times did you sleep in that 240 miles? I slept three times, I think, for a total of seven hours. Wow. Out of 98 or something. Yeah. Yeah. And now, do you see a lot of other racers on this? Or at that point, when you get over 100 miles, I imagine people are really spread out. What you do is you see them at the aid stations. Because everyone's, like, vans and crew and everything are there. So you'll see them. How do people know where to go? well so people get lost in this they do put flags on some of the course but you really have to have a map on your phone or i have it on my watch um they they provide you a file that you could upload your watch and then i just put it in there and it tells me where to go okay yeah otherwise yeah there's no you would get lost and and that's pretty accurate and within just a couple of super accurate yeah yeah you know right where you're at exactly so you got to keep this charged and everything.

42:34Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, then I have a backup on my phone. So if this were to die or break or something like that, then I have it on my phone as well.

42:41Gary Brecka:And where's your phone during this time? It's just like, I have a pouch right here and I just keep it right there. Cause that's what I use to film all my videos and everything. So I have to have it accessible. Yeah, exactly. But you know, it's hard to film anything when it's pouring rain. Yeah, exactly. Touchscreen phones. Don't like, don't like the rain. Yeah, no, they definitely know so you know you you slept three times you had a whole team behind you you brought a van super smart um and you know at some point you had to realize i think i'm really going to finish this thing yeah yeah it was well i mean you get down and you have like a three mile section along the river where you're running to the finish line there's no more obstacles you're just on like a bike trail so there's no more rocks there's no more anything and you're just like you're just cruising.

43:29I had my pacer with me, Cody, he was running. And the other guy, he parked the van and then ran to me. So we are all running together. That's so cool. You know? And that's

43:39Gary Brecka:where I like these guys you trained with too. No, they actually, they live in Ohio and they're just friends from ultra running and they flew out to just do this with me. That's so cool. Yeah. Yeah. So, and then, and that's, you know, that's when the video where I get so emotional, I'm like literally almost at the finish and realize, yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to do this. I'm going to finish this race. Yeah. So yeah. And, and you know, the moment you came across that finish line, uh, it was, what was that like? I mean, it was literally, yeah. The best feeling ever, just a really sense of accomplishment and just, I was, I was proud of myself, you know, I felt I overcame some really, first of all, the race was super hard that year and I overcame a lot, but just not giving up continuing.

44:26Like I said in the video, like failing forward, you know, you fail and you just keep trying to do better and better and better until you get to that, that point. And that's what life's really about, you know, is just continuing to try to improve yourself, get better, give yourself grace. You know, you're going to make mistakes. Things are going to go wrong. Things aren't always going to work out and not beating yourself up, but just trying to get better so that it doesn't happen again. And so it was a, you know, a culmination of three years of hard work to get to that finish line. So it felt pretty, pretty, pretty dang good.

44:59Gary Brecka:Yeah. I think a lot of people looking from the outside in have got to be thinking, what is this guy running from or what is he running towards? Yeah. Um, how, how would you answer that? Well, I mean, I always tell people I love running. And so on a very fundamental level, I just really enjoy it. You know, I mean, people love to do lots of things. Pickleball, whatever. Yeah, whatever. Pickleball. I mean, some people like to watch TV, right? I mean, I just really love to run. So I get an incredible amount of joy doing this. And then obviously social media has become like a huge part of my life. and being able to inspire people and change people's lives through my videos has been really rewarding for me.

45:47Gary Brecka:Yeah. I got into the fire service as a secondary career because I wanted to help people and I wanted to make a difference. And now I have this like third sort of career where I'm able to help people internationally on like a huge scale, millions of people, just because I like, because I like to run, you know, like, and it, you know, I like, I'm an old guy that likes to run and yet I reach millions of people every month and it's, it's a really great feeling. No, that's a, that's an, that's an amazing feeling. Just knowing that you're, you're doing this for something more than yourself, you know, you know, that you're inspiring other people when you're out in the public.

46:27Gary Brecka:I mean, do you, are you often stopped like, oh my God, Andy. Yeah. It's, yeah i mean just in the airport i think i took five selfies just really yeah literally just walking to my plane you know so it's and every it's it's weird too like internationally like i was running in venice and it was like somebody stopped me oh you know it's like so i have like a huge following all over the world and it's uh i love it though i love my fans and i'm not one of those people i will stop and take a picture even mid-race like i don't care like i'll stop and take a picture with you. I'll have a chat with you, whatever.

47:01Like, I really, you know, I want to connect with people. I want to, you know, meet them and, you know, hear their story.

47:07Gary Brecka:Well, it's a blessing to be in the kind of condition that you're in to be able to do what you love to do. And I think when you realize and you accept that with some humility, you're so thankful for it. Then when other people appreciate it, you appreciate them too. I get the same thing and it's, I always stop and try to be intentional with people and really, and really lock in, listen to their question or, or really tell them that I'm really thankful that they actually stopped me. And it took a minute to say what it was that changed their life. Yeah. No, it's, it's, it's an amazing feeling. You, it's, you, you get addicted to that too, because you're like, wow, my message is really resonating.

47:43Gary Brecka:I always send those to the team and I'm like, this is you guys, not me. You know, this message is really out there. Servant leadership right there. Yeah. Yeah. What are the top three reasons why I prefer a vertical cold plunge versus a lay down tub? Well, I've used both. When you're in a vertical position, your body naturally regulates your breathing better. So if you're holding on to the sides and you're in a vertical position, you can just focus on your breath work and you can stay calm. A lot of people feel more calm when they're in a vertical position than when they're laying down in the water and think they might slip under the water.

48:13Gary Brecka:So when you're vertical plunging, you're fully immersed faster, you can focus on recovery, inflammation reduction, and you're not struggling to just stay in a lie down position. Your body floats in an awkward way sometimes. So it's just a more efficient, comfortable experience, in my opinion. It takes up way less space too. It has a smaller footprint. So you can put these on your patio, your garage, your bathroom, your locker room. You can really put it anywhere. I've got one on my balcony. I've got two in my bathroom. So this is why cold life is my favorite cold punch on the market. So click the link below and you can order yours today.

48:42Gary Brecka:Make sure you get the Ultimate Human version. Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human podcast. Stacking this with, You know, a firefighter's career is an odd career from an hour standpoint and a demand standpoint because, number one, no two days are the same. Right. And you don't know if you're going to go to the fire station and lay around for two days or you're going to go to the fire station and you're just, you're not going to sleep. You're going to be up for 48 hours and it's going to be balls out and you're going to have more, let's call them triggering events where you're seeing these, you know, meeting these people at really difficult times in their life.

49:15um how is it that you maintain consistency because you know i i talk about this all the

49:20Gary Brecka:time is the most important thing you know i talk about the weight loss journey with with jelly roll and and how first goal was just walk the mailbox walk the second mailbox and then eventually get up to 10 000 steps but the most important thing was every day we're doing something and when you're preparing for something like the moab 240 um and i want to hear what else is on your list because i'm just fascinated by it because that's going to be really cool but when you're repairing preparing for that i mean you have can't really take a lot of time off no in fact before moab i worked eight days straight like because i was during fire season and there was like these big fires and so literally i worked eight days straight got off went home packed my car and drove to moab oh my god so i don't even know how many days eight days straight is it's like hundred and what 160 is it 172 i don't know it's a lot it's a lot of hours straight yeah at the fire station so yeah i mean it's not ideal i can tell you that yeah yeah no it's not ideal when my lawyer would call suboptimal yeah people like they'll say stuff like oh this person beats you and i'm like well they're not racing the same race i'm racing because you know i was just at the fire station for eight days straight you know so it's like we're just not the same i'm competing against myself yeah but um i'm i've been doing it for so long i've made it work but what does a typical day look like i mean get up run 50 miles i mean what no i mean i like if i'm home you break it up and yeah so i found that in order to not get injured because right we're always everyone's worried about overuse injuries it's best to like break your mileage is up into two, two runs a day.

51:01So if you're going to do 20 miles, it's better to run 10 and 10 or 13 and seven or something like that rather than run just straight 20 miles. So I normally run twice a day. Um, I try to get my longer run done in the morning. Cause that's like when my kids are at school and all that stuff, then I have the afternoon to spend with them. And then I'll run again at night, like right before dinner, I'll go get like a quick five miler or whatever um but that's i mean that's my day normally but at the firehouse it's always i mean i still try to get two runs in a day because we're allowed to work out and we're encouraged to work out but you know it just doesn't how do you how do you get that kind of mileage and you just get on a treadmill or no i run little loops around the fire station really yeah like literally out in the parking lot well not around the parking lot but like we're in a city block so i'll just kind to like run around and around.

51:52Gary Brecka:Cause you can't be too far and give you the call. I have to be very close and I have to run with like, you know, well your radio, I guess. Yeah. All that sort of stuff. So if you get dispatched, I have to go back. It's a little different now. Cause I'm a chief. Whereas when I was like, cause now I have my own vehicle and, and I'm, I'm responding in a different manner, but yeah, I mean, I've, I've done this my whole career. So, but yeah, radio, I, my phone and just, you know, loops around the firehouse. Wow. Yeah. Which again, builds mental toughness because it's real boring. Yeah. You know, there's a lot of podcasts listening and a lot of, a lot of books on tape, like, or not dating myself books on what an audible, whatever you call them now.

52:32Yeah. Audiobooks. Yeah. That's all right.

52:33Gary Brecka:Yeah. I, Hey, I remember books on tape, man. I remember mixed dates. I remember sticking my finger in there and trying to rewind or putting a pencil in and trying to rewind the, you make a girl, you know, I was like a president, you know, listen to my mixtape. Then it was a mixed CD. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you can hear the recorder shutting off and turning back on and it never really sounded very good at all. But you don't have, have any of the guys in the firehouse? Cause I imagine you, you know, you've been at the firehouse for a long time. I mean, you probably know some of these guys really, really well.

53:05Gary Brecka:Right. They're like your brothers. Have you flicked that switch in anyone else? Has anyone else gotten inspired and said, I want to run a half marathon. I want to try to run a marathon. Yeah, I have a few that have run half marathons. Or they just like, Andy's crazy. Well, I mean, they do say that too. No, I have a, like I work for the city of Laverne. So I say Laverne Fire Running Club and occasionally the guys will join me. Yeah. But yeah, I have one guy that ran an ultra with me. Really? A full 100? No, he ran a 50K. Okay. I ran the 100, but he was there. Yeah. And then on this week 300 that I just did, one of the guys showed up and did the first day of 50 miles.

53:41so and that was his first time running i think even past a marathon really yeah so but a lot of guys have done half marathons a couple have done full i've run a full marathon with a couple of the guys so yeah and a lot of times guys will like will show up early before like a shift and we'll run together so um but yeah i mean running still not a huge thing in the fire service they're more into like lifting heavy weights right and doing that sort of thing so yeah yeah because that at least ends in an hour yeah they want the big muscles and all and all that sort of stuff

54:14Gary Brecka:yeah so you split it into two runs um you're running on your shifts and then you're you're you're managing your family this is the thing that i find really fascinating your father your husband you're a battalion chief and you're this incredible ultra distance athlete um and how do you keep the motivation to keep because even if you love running right you can experience the joy of your craft in 20 miles a day. Yeah. Or maybe not. Maybe you have to get into some of these insane distances. No, it's just, I mean, I keep myself motivated. Are you setting it? Is it because you set a new goal? Like it's this race or this, I want to run in this area of the world.

54:59Gary Brecka:I want to see. I mean, I don't know how much further you push it than 240 mile race. Right. I did a 300 this year. Okay. I'm doing a 300 next year Are you really? What's the name of that? It's called the Arizona Monster And it goes from basically Phoenix I feel like people are just making shit up now Yeah, it goes from Phoenix to basically the Mexico border Wow All the way down through Arizona Wow One time I ran a 100 mile race Got on a plane, flew to Arizona And ran a 250 mile race the next day No So yeah, that was 350 miles in one week. So you can always, you can always, I mean, there's, there's always crazier people.

55:41There's crazier people than me. You know, there's like, I seem crazy to people, but then in my community, there's way crazier

55:49Gary Brecka:people. Oh yeah. Yeah. There's, yeah. I'm, I'm not, I wouldn't say mild, but there's, there's definitely people that are doing crazier things. Wow. I mean, is there anything beyond a 300? Well, I mean, like I'm doing a race on New Year's Eve where we run from New Year's Eve into New Year's Day. But that race has a six day event. So it's how far can you run in six days? And it's a mile and a half loop. Oh, no. Yeah. So how many times can you run around a mile and a half loop in six days? And what do you get for that? Like nothing. You get a little piece of wood thing that says that you completed it.

56:23Nothing. that seems so i mean like underwhelming a lot of times you could just get a belt buckle i want to i want a range rover yeah i mean for real like one of the hardest races in the world is in is in the alps which i was like in europe and like at the end you get a vest that's what you get

56:43Gary Brecka:like like a just like a cheap vest and i'm like oh i live in california this isn't going to really do much for me but okay so i mean you just it's it's all about personal satisfaction and accomplishment you can't you can't do things for trinkets yeah and other people yeah but um what is your favorite part about is it i mean are you seeing the world are is it just this constant mental edge that you're you're you're you're doing this for yourself to really see like where does that mental boundary for me. Um, I mean, I, I like the new challenges. I like the dynamic aspect, like, you know, Moab one year, super hot Moab next year, all rain.

57:21I mean, there's changes. So I like that, but I do like the community a lot. I like, I like meeting people. I like running with people.

57:29Gary Brecka:You see a lot of the same kind of moving around. Some of the same, but like you get a lot of first timers and you just get, I, I meet a lot of really cool people. Like, you know, I was literally for my one of my runs a guy showed up and he he works at SpaceX and he designs the solar panels for the satellites I mean it was just a cool conversation yeah you just never know I've met like orthopedic surgeons and you know really start talking to them about like well are my knees gonna be okay and he's like unless you fall your knees are gonna be just fine you know like well yeah most most knee issues are from trauma you know or like stepping off a curb wrong or something like that i mean so they're not actually repetitive no i mean the body can take it not only does it take it but it actually strengthens the cartilage and then ends up building more and there's a bunch of like new studies if you do it the correct way you know if if you go from doing nothing to going oh i'm gonna go run 100 miles tomorrow then you you might have some knee problems right if you slowly build over you know a decade yeah you're probably it is astounding to me how just fascinating the human body is yeah you know um i mean it truly is that we can you can actually strengthen it by putting that kind of repetitive use on i i think i have about 100 000 miles on my knees wow somewhere around there which is and no knee pain i have literally no knee pain you know back shoulder maybe you know it's like no i mean you know the people in the audience want you yeah the ankles get a yeah i know they do i know believe me i have a lot of haters yeah yeah i mean i kind of hate you dude because i did a 5k in my knee hurt well you know but again if you're not doing it a lot yeah you go out and do it you know like anything like your muscles adapt faster than your tendons right so i mean yeah if you go out and do something where your muscles can handle it but your tendons can't then you're going to get a little pain you know but over time that works out unless you're like bone on bone already yeah you know But nothing advanced like stem cells, exosomes.

59:27I haven't done any of that yet. I have friends that do it. I'm sure at some point I will look into it. I tell everyone, look, the body only goes in one direction. So at some point you're going to have to start taking evasive action. But as of now, the body is holding up. So I'm doing what I can do. but yeah. Um, and I've been lucky where I haven't had anything really significant injury wise, um, where I need to go get like stem cells or anything like that.

59:58Gary Brecka:But yeah, it's always on, you know, I have a lot of friends that do it. I know where to go and you know, all the things, but just haven't needed it yet. Knock on wood, but, um, I'll knock for you too. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I know it'll happen eventually. Yeah. I mean, you were really inspiring to my, my son. I mean, you guys had a few minutes in the kitchen here. He's, he's running his first hundred mile race yeah in uh january which i might join yeah you just said that you might join i said i'll bring you to a ufc fight now you got proof if uh i think the race is on the 21st and the fights are on the 24th so yeah um he's doing his first 100 mile race i'm really i'm really proud of him because he's been militant and dedicated to to training for this race and he's doing it with kyle foreguard from the Nelk boys, which I also find incredibly inspiring because, you know, those guys had a big YouTube reputation for, you know, partying and, and, you know, sending it.

1:00:54Gary Brecka:And, and, but it, you know, at heart, they're really good people and they've, they built an incredible, they're some of the smartest young businessmen that I've ever met. Uh, and they're really, it's really, they're a great circle for my son to be in because like, they're, they're like young overachievers. Um, um and and the fact that now kyle's locked in on his health journey and you know reached out to cole and ran the his first marathon and then now is running a hundred mile race i mean i i really think those are incredible goals for them and i think it's going to have a majorly positive impact well one cool thing is that the health journey and like being healthy and fit is now becoming like everyone else used to they used to say oh i'm partying i'm doing all this and now it's like cool to yeah to be healthy and to like be able to like run 100 miles yeah yeah we see that shift here in miami like uh i was reading a stat about alcohol and in in the younger generation i think it was age 36 and under it's down like 34 36 percent right which is i mean that's a third less that's crazy um in 2024 and they say 2025 is going to be even lower and i see it here too there are these uh events like coffee and chill where you know they're on they're on sunday mornings from 9 a.m.

1:02:08Gary Brecka:to noon, but they sort of look like every other South Beach pool party rager, but instead of your calling card being the car you pull up in or your Richard Melee, it's your physique. And there's no alcohol and there's no drugs. There's a DJ and there's coffee and there's cold plunges. And it's just a really cool environment. And my kids go to those all the time and we're big supporters of it because I just think that that trend, I think the pandemic did us all a big favor. It did on that level. Yeah. Yeah. On that level. I mean, in a lot of And you were in California, so it sort of extra sucked.

1:02:39Gary Brecka:Yeah, it was a little rough. Yeah, it sucked squared. We survived, but it was rough. But, you know, it's an awesome trend to see. And I think it allows for better connection. I mean, if you've been in the pain cave with somebody on a distance race like that, I mean, that's a real moment that you're not going to share with that. Very few people experience that. yeah i i did a race with uh cara nate nate is they're like huge on youtube they have like four and a half million subs and they travel the world and he raced this race with me and we did like ultra no he's just gotten into it now okay you know it's like now that you know they're so big he can do whatever he wants and like he's so he's like i'm gonna start good for him to do that though i mean there's a lot worse things he could do and so we did like 30 very hard miles together and at the end he was like man i know you better than i know like some of my best friends and i'm like I'm like, yeah, because like you just talk and you just you get to know someone.

1:03:36And when you're really stripped down, when the onions peeled all the way back, you can really get into somebody's like core being and who they are as a person. So some of my best friends I've met suffering at ultras, you know, and they live all over the world.

1:03:50Gary Brecka:Wow. But and are you surprised at your body's ability to recover after some of these races? I mean, have you ever felt really, really broken after a race? like, oh, we, we might've pushed that one a little too far. I feel really broken after every race. Really? Oh yeah. I mean, I feel broken after this 300 mile week, like 300 mile week. And you're going to run a 50 K with my son tomorrow. He's actually really excited about it. Yeah, no, it'll be fun. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I normally feel pretty broken, but like if I just do my recovery protocols and do everything that I, you know, know I need to do, then I, I bounce back, but it's definitely, as I get older, it's definitely getting slower.

1:04:29Gary Brecka:Yeah. It's when I was younger i definitely noticed that i bounced back faster but yeah you know getting now you can cover the distance it's just the recovery yeah yeah so i you know i try not to have the races too close together but i also really like to race so it doesn't always work out sometimes i just go into a race at 60 or 80 instead of 100 but yeah it's again it's me against me so you know it's just it's just an experience you're not really what it what you would call a fierce competitor You're not out there to just crush somebody else, to set a PR, to, or is that a component of it too?

1:05:05Gary Brecka:Like, do you have any nemesises? No, no, I don't. No, not in the ultra. Is that a word, nemesises? Yeah, maybe. I mean, when I was younger, yeah, I was like more of a competitor and, you know, I'd win a couple races here and there, but now it's, you know, with the family and the job, especially since I promoted to battalion chief, had a lot less time to train. um it's just more or less just me against myself and like going out and meeting people and inspiring people and doing all that but you know when i was single and i was younger like yeah it was more about being competitive but not not at this point in my life like you know i just have too much going on to i i know what i would need to do to get competitive and i just i don't have that time and i don't want to it's not even that i don't want the time or i don't have the time i don't want to put that time into that box because, you know, I want to spend time with my family and I want to spend time, you know, doing well in my job and all those things.

1:06:03And something would suffer if I really had to like move that, yeah, move it and become competitive again.

1:06:09Gary Brecka:Yeah. So it's, it's not worth it to me. I'd, I'd rather just be, you know, like, you know, balanced then, you know, if you're going to win, there's not a lot of balance, right? You have to like focus on that oh yeah that's a whole different level and i'm sure there's levels to the game you're in too i mean yeah you know like when i watched that moab uh 240 last time the kid that won when when i when you looked at the map like the the distance that he was ahead yeah of the second place yeah it was killian insane killian korth is his name and he is an incredible athlete yeah he's what makes him so gifted is he well i mean he's just well he's really talented physical physically but like he has failed a bunch and has figured out what he needs to do to not fail so and and he's talented and young and how old is he i think he's 30 okay so um and he lives in the mountains so he's got a lot of altitude yeah he's got a lot of things going for him but i mean he's just he's got talent you know talent and he's physically really fit so yeah hey guys Guys, let me tell you about one of my favorite new hydration drinks.

1:07:20Gary Brecka:Now, this is for distance athletes, HIITS cardio exercisers, people that sweat a lot or exercise intensely. An A-game is a hydration drink. It has eight essential vitamins. It has all of the electrolytes, the entire suite of B vitamins. Before you freak out and read that it has 21 grams of sugar, which it does, the sugar is coming from natural cane sugar and honey, my preferred mechanisms for getting glucose into the blood during intense exercise. It also has natural flavors, but these natural flavors don't come from bacterial fermentation. They actually come from real citrus fruits, and the color is from vegetable juice, not artificial dyes.

1:07:54Gary Brecka:So next time you're looking for a great hydration drink and you're exercising intensely, A-game is your choice. Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human podcast. It almost seems like a lot more thankless than a lot of sports because I don't think the ultra sports really get the attention they deserve. Maybe because it's hard to be a spectator. I mean, you know, a lot of these other sports don't require a fraction of the dedication and the consistency and the mental grind, right? I mean, if you're a professional athlete and you're playing most sanctioned sports, they have a beginning and an end that most people can survive.

1:08:34Gary Brecka:And you can go really, really hard during that. It's like when I was training for, again, not comparing it at all to what you were doing, but when I was training for half Ironman, I would do as many sprint tries as I could. Yeah. Because I could just really lay it down and I could really go hard and I could focus on the transition, you know, between the bike and the run and the swim. and I really did, you know, like it. But it seems like a lot, but it ended in an hour, an hour and five minutes. And you can do anything for an hour and five minutes. You pretty much can, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you can't do anything for 51 hours.

1:09:14Gary Brecka:Right? No. That's gotta be, what percentage of that is mental? I mean, he is very mentally strong for sure, but you also really have to have a game plan and know exactly what you need because nutrition and all those things play such a huge factor in ultra running you know if the car doesn't have fuel it doesn't move right and so you have to be able to like take on a lot of fuel and keep yourself going in this delicate balance of all these factors like he had to go through the same mud i did he had to go through the same rain you know i mean i still don't know how he did it that fast i'm like yeah i'm crawling on my hands and knees up a mountain.

1:09:55Cause it's like this and it's all mud. And I'm like, how is he doing this faster? Right. You know, cause it's like, yeah. I mean, every time I take a step, you'd slip back. So you literally had to get on your hands and knees and climb up the mountain. I mean, wow, it was, it was wild. That is so wild. So what is the next big flag for you? Um, well, I, so I'm, I have a couple hundred mile races and then I'm going to do that. You just throw those out. Like that's not a big deal.

1:10:25Gary Brecka:It's like, I, I, you know, I did do a 5k today, but I, and I will throw that out. And I did a 5k, but you throw the 5k out. Like, I mean, you throw out a hundred dollar race. Those are kind of like my training runs, but yeah, I'm insane. I'm going like, I have three kind of back to back. I'm doing the Arizona monster 300. Then I'm going to do Coca-Cola 250 like a couple of weeks later. And then I'm flying out to the UK and I'm doing this race called the spine, which is 200. Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. It's 268 miles, and it goes from, like, England to Scotland. But there's only five aid stations, and you can have no support.

1:11:03So, like, the first aid station's at mile 45. The next one's at 110.

1:11:10Gary Brecka:And it's just, like, it's a very, very difficult race. So. Wow. Those are kind of, like. So you're carrying stuff with you? You got to carry a ton of stuff, yeah. But you're also going through little villages and you can stop and like, you know, get food at the village if like they have like a little store, a little restaurant. Wow. So, yeah. So that would be the longest one you've done, 268. Well, 300. Oh, 300. But yeah, 268. I mean, it's going to be long. That's going to be my longest one I do like unsupported. And how long will a race like that take you? Hopefully under 100 hours. Hopefully.

1:11:46you know i don't know because you're going through all these bogs and i haven't ever run in england so it'll be like a wow it'll be an interesting experience on what kind of trails and mountains

1:11:56Gary Brecka:and you know all that sort of terrain a race that they that's regularly done yeah every year and the crazy thing is is they have a winter version oh where you do it in the winter in the snow no i swear and also this race does not mark or anything so it's kind of like you have to navigate by yourself they give you the map they give you the map but like you know as far as finding a trail it's not always super evident wow so imagine people will run something like that i think they allow 150 wow yeah i'm surprised they could get to 150 it's sold out in like uh like eight minutes no yeah yeah i only two americans got in me and another guy really yeah It's, it's, I mean, these races, like you think like nobody want to do them, but they, there's lotteries to get into them.

1:12:45They're very, very hard to get into. Even Moab, you have to win a lottery to get in. Really? Yeah. Yeah.

1:12:52Gary Brecka:And in order to qualify for the lottery, do you have to have some kind of pedigree or some of them do some of them? You just register the race. Cocodona, they don't have a lottery, but they have a wait list and there's like 700 people on the wait list to run it. And it's a 250 mile race. that's insane i mean yeah yeah it's it is insane because you know because i mean i guess to find a place where they mapped out a course we can safely do this and sometimes you're not even safely doing it right right i mean they're shutting down traffic for 200 miles that's for sure you have to cross roads and do all sorts of stuff yeah yeah do you know anybody that's done this racing which which in the spine one yeah i know the guy that got he an american that got second place who's a really talented runner um but because i have such a lot of international fans i've i've had a lot of people reach out to me and like give me give me notes so i at least won't be going into it blind yeah um what would you say is either the race or just the accomplishment that you're most proud of you have so many of these under your belt right now yeah what one stands out for it.

1:14:00I mean, my first hundred miler, I always is like, you know, I trained really, really hard for it.

1:14:05Gary Brecka:Um, my son's next month. Yeah. I mean, it's, uh, I spent, cause I didn't, you know, there's back then a hundred milers, nobody really knew about them there or they knew about them and it wasn't as big a thing. And so I, I really spent like a good year and a half doing the smaller distances, just training in the mountains and getting ready for it. And, um, it's a really hard race. I got sub 24, which is really hard to do in this race. They give you a solid silver belt buckle if you do if you do sub 24. It's better than the vest. Yeah and the wood it's actually worth the wood trinket. Yeah yeah you can at least melt it down.

1:14:38Gary Brecka:I can melt it down especially silver is like really high right now. It might be worth 50 bucks. I would do that one every year man. Yeah so um but yeah getting that that that and crossing that finish line was that was I was so proud to do that that was a really good one um and you know and then And obviously I loved it so much. I just kept going. So now it's been over 10 years of doing a hundred milers. Is your family really supportive or are they kind of waiting for this habit to pass? No, no. I mean, they know dad's crazy. And, you know, I mean, my son runs with me. My wife, she'll go through bouts where she'll run a little bit with me.

1:15:15She's done a couple of marathons with me. Okay. Yeah. So, but like right now she's on.

1:15:19Gary Brecka:That's legit by the way, a couple of marathons. You know, she did a 50 K too. She did a 50 K. Did she really? Yeah. Six hour 50 K. So dude, I don't know a lot of women that have done six hour 50 Ks. So she's, you know, it's good. Um, but my, my other two daughters, they're not runners, but you know, I don't, I don't push my kids to do anything they don't want to do. Right. Like my one daughter's really into horses. She's like competitive barrel racer. Awesome. She doesn't want to run. Like, I don't want you to run, ride your horse, you know? And my other daughter's really into cheer and dance.

1:15:49Awesome. Do that, do that really well. and you know but my son yeah we did a marathon together this year which was cool i mean kind of like you talking about you know your son and the experience you guys had um it's fun suffering with

1:16:06Gary Brecka:your with your kids yeah a little bit you you you've talked in the past about your your inspiration coming from your late father's memory yeah and was he an inspiring figure for you because he did something in this space or was he inspiring to you he was inspiring because he taught me the like the value of like hard work and he was he was a very very hard worker and like and he and he taught me the power of like positivity and you know at the time when you're young you don't always understand the lessons that your your parents teach you um but you know in reflection, I think back and I'm like, oh yeah, he was trying to show me to do that mental shift in my brain where I was always looking for the positive.

1:16:54Um, and so, you know, in reflection, it's like, he taught me to work hard and that nothing would be given to me unless I worked hard for it. And that, you know, positivity wins.

1:17:09Gary Brecka:So he was a positive guy. He was, he was, he was very positive. Yeah. I mean, he was, you know, life is filled with negativity, but you always have to kind of like shift it and try to find that like positive angle. If you, if you focus on negativity, it'll be negative. Yeah. You know, if, you know, if you, if you think about it in a positive way, your brain really creates what it wants. If you live in negativity, you're going to have a negative life. Yeah. You know, if you live in positivity, you're going to have a better life. Yeah. We really do create our, our own reality. And you know what's interesting is my wife and I were having this conversation the other day as I look back on some of the most what I would consider to be the most traumatic things that happened in our business or even in our even in our marriage and um they turned out to be turning points that led to great things and so now I can actually look back on them as little blessings along the way because I go you know what if this person hadn't stolen from me right completely tried to screw me over yeah and i had to fire her i i would have never actually gone in this direction i would have never brought this person onto my team which actually took us to the next level you know it's there's so many of those points and you can focus all your vitriol on what this person did to you or that person did to you or you know the the moments where you failed or you can go and that's actually what led to this decision i mean most of the time when your back's against the wall you make the, you know, you make some really ingenious decisions that lead to good things.

1:18:34Why is it that there's all these people in business that are like, you know, so unscrupulous, you know?

1:18:39Gary Brecka:Yeah, it is so true, man. I've had a few of them pass through my doors. But again, you know, as I look back on it, these skirmishes I had with really narcissistic people that had really ill intentions, you know, when I finally uncovered it, for me, was it was difficult because i was just like well why you know i really liked you and i thought i gave you a real pathway to succeed and i thought that we really were trying to do something special but you had completely ulterior motives um but once you close that door like an entirely new chapter opens i don't think my platform would be anywhere near the size and impact it is now if i still had the person along yeah right 100 um so that so it's really a blessing yeah you know um and that's just a personal journey of mine but i but i you know there's those moments where i look back and i think man all of those times that i thought how could this happen why did this happen you know how did i let this person into my life and then you realize letting them go made you make choices another door opened and then now now you're in a way better room yeah so um you've got to be at least uh keep in check on some of your biomarkers yes i do quite a bit okay okay so i i love i'd love to unpack that for a minute just you know do you get regular blood work done i mean do you mind asking me yeah are you on trt no i'm not on that i mean i take uh i do take a like a supplement kind of like like a tonkat ali or all that stuff in it um it's like a mixture boost testosterone yeah to help a little bit i i get regular blood work done and it's i can do it through my doctor and then once a year we do it through the fire service like through our like our department like your physical yeah well it pays to have us run through like a test um it's really cool actually uh we do like push-ups and run on treadmill and do with the 12 lead attached to us and um like grip strength and we blow into one of those tubes to see what our lung capacity is and do all the things.

1:20:48And we've been doing it every year. So you can like track it all, you know, it gives you your like biological age and then you're, you know, yeah. So, and which is cool to offer to the fire service. Cause then we can see where we're going. Um, but yeah, I, I do, I have gotten regular blood work since I've been doing this for a while, just because I'm always a little nervous. Like what are my levels at? And, and I also like, i don't i don't really like looking at it and going oh okay well i'm normal because if i'm

1:21:17Gary Brecka:normal then i'm normal compared to who yeah you're this the average population human and it's like i'm not really getting to see yeah i'm not really a solid 70 yeah so i have to have a lot of talks with my doctor about look i'm not i don't want my numbers to be like the normal number i need to like have them be where um where they should be functional yeah for like an yeah for an athlete So, um, but I don't, I don't have them all memorized or anything. Yeah. Um, but yes, I, I do, I do track it. And, you know, occasionally I find like the biggest thing that changes after races and stuff is like, and also just like not sleeping well at work is just, I do get like fluctuations in testosterone.

1:21:58Um, and then I also like, I get fluctuations in what's the lead. It's like CRT. C reactant protein.

1:22:06Gary Brecka:CRP. Oh, CRP. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I get, I get like high levels of that at time, which I assume is because it's a non-specific marker of inflammation, but that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. I get like, so that'll, that'll normally be pretty high. And then I'm like, well, yeah, but beyond that, like everything tends to be okay. I, I, I follow you a lot and I'm like, I always, I'm like, I need to just make sure I need to get like everything done, you know? So it's definitely on my list to do. uh sometimes i i'm like ah do i really want to know all the you know the amount of waste that you're eliminating though meaning like not just stool and urine but like you know sweat you're circulating your lymphatic fluid i mean those are those are life extenders yeah so it's perfectly normal for your creatinine break breakdown of muscle uh you know byproduct of muscle breakdown or c-reactive protein to be elevated certainly after a race because it's a non-specific marker of inflammation but if you had a long recovery period and they were still very elevated that's a different story but i i i was just curious if you were checking in because i mean don't take this the wrong way but it's a i i find what you're doing is foundationally basic for like the achievements that you're doing you know i mean i i know people that are professional athletes that are not exerting themselves the way that you are and biohacking everything and i'm i'm always fascinated by that yeah because you know it's a it's a less is more philosophy i mean you're checking in on your your biomarkers you're obviously doing the training you're eating very very clean um and you're supplementing which i think at that level you have to be supplementing um maybe we'll throw hydrogen water into your yes uh yeah into your quiver i mean that's a that that would be a big one that i would i would suggest but i mean i i'm i'm really uh sort of shocked is not the right word but i'm surprised at the you know the the level or the lack of like really intense biohacking that you're doing it's pretty phenomenal well i believe it's if i could do it i would do it you know it's like it's also a lot more time hyperbarics well it's also like access you know it's access it's i i'm doing what i can do based on my financial status and like where I'm at in life.

1:24:23And, you know, I live in Redlands, California, which is not the, you know, the Mecca of biohacking, you know, area. You know, I don't live in LA, you know, like I have friends that live in LA and they can go to all these different, they get the, I don't even know all the acronyms, but all the things they can get done to them. And I don't really have access to that. So I do what I can with what I have and the time I have. But believe me, walking around and seeing what you have, I would do it all day, you know, if I could, you know, because I would love to, you know, recover better, recover faster, live longer, all the things like.

1:25:03Gary Brecka:Well, you're going to live a long time. Yeah. I mean, the condition you're in and yeah. I like your positive outlook. And I think a lot of it has to do with, you know, you're hitting all the big areas that nobody talks about, the sense of community, sense of purpose, finding some meaning in your life. And you're finding a lot of meaning, not just in your family and your work. your work's got to be rewarding as much as it is stressful because there are other times that you probably save save lives yeah and so i mean there's nothing more rewarding than that and now you have this social media outlet that's allowing you to impact more lives hopefully hopefully you're finding a way to monetize that i'm just just starting okay i like not to self promote too much but i wrote a book oh you did yeah yeah no that's great i'm gonna link the book yeah yeah so like we just are just pre-released now and then what's the name of the book smile you're doing it wrong.

1:25:48Gary Brecka:Oh, that's like my tagline. You know, that's the thing I say all the time, but yeah, it'll get released next year. And so, um, that's sort of like my first, like I wrote the book and then I realized how expensive it is to write a book. So I was like, well, I'm going to have to start monetizing my social media a little bit. So I've started taking a few sponsorships here and there. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'd love to link the book and, and I appreciate people to read it. um, how does my audience that wants to find you, find you? Uh, so on Instagram, I'm am glaze, like am glaze. And on Tik TOK, I'm glaze runs YouTube.

1:26:23I'm glaze runs and Strava. I'm Andrew glaze. Okay.

1:26:28Gary Brecka:Cause I, I have a group of, uh, a community that I'm building called my VIP community. And so, uh, when, when the podcast ends, we're going to go into this room with my VIPs. They've, they're the ones that I let know who's coming on the podcast. Yeah. They've got some questions for you. A lot of big fans in here. Some of these are really, really great questions. And if you're interested in becoming a VIP, you can go over to theultimatehuman.com forward slash VIP and you can sign up to be one of my VIPs. We do private podcasts. I do live Q &As. You can ask my guy anything. You can literally feed it your labs.

1:27:00Gary Brecka:You can feed it your genetic test. If you have questions about supplements, you can do it there too. But Andrew, I wind down all my podcasts by asking my guests the same question. And if you've seen my podcast, you might know this question's coming. There's no right or wrong answer to it. But what does it mean to you to be an ultimate human? Because you are definitely an ultimate human. You know, I think making the world a better place than you, like when you leave it, you're making it a better place before you leave. Like I think the ultimate human contributes selfishly to society to make society better.

1:27:35And whatever that means to you, um i think that's that's the ultimate human is is is helping people and making the world a better

1:27:43Gary Brecka:place well uh andy i think you're doing all those things i mean i just know from the people in my inner circle that you've inspired on my team and they see a lot of inspirational people and you've been a big inspiration to my son and i'm really deeply appreciative of that um on his on his journey you know to become an ultimate you know an ultra marathoner so i appreciate that that, you know, I try hard, but that's a personal, that's a way that you, you know, personally touched my life, but thank you for coming on the ultimate human podcast. I hope we'll have you back. I want to have you back after the 300 mile and the 268 spine race.

1:28:21Gary Brecka:Cause I'm just so fascinated by this. That will be interesting, but I appreciate you, brother. Thanks for coming on the ultimate human. And until next time, that's just science.