PODCAST - not seeing fitness results don’t worry, your body is still changing
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[00:00:00] Welcome to The Athlete with Asthma Show. I'm your host, Johnny Havey, an ultra runner, endurance athlete, and yes, a guy who's had an inhaler prescribed since birth. Despite doctors telling me I could never play soccer, nor run a marathon, let alone 100K ultra, I proved them all wrong. This show is where I share everything I've learned, from breathing techniques to mindset shifts, to help you become the athlete and the person you truly want to be.
So if you're ready to achieve your goals despite limitations, let's get started.
Today on the show we're gonna talk about how frustrating it can be when you have put hours and hours of time into working out, into exercising, into training, and you're still not seeing results. Well, I have news for you, friend. Stick to it. Your [00:01:00] body is changing, it just takes time, and sometimes it takes a lot of time.
Rewind back to when I was four years old. I was diagnosed with asthma, and I had struggled with asthma since I was born, but I didn't really understand what was going on until a doctor told me that the reason why I was always out of breath and I couldn't keep up with my friends and I was struggling on the soccer field even though I loved it, was because I had asthma.
And he prescribed me an inhaler, and he told me that I'd never be able to do the things that my friends are doing at the level that they're doing. I'd never be able to be an athlete, and I definitely wouldn't be able to be a runner. And he told me that for the rest of my life I'd probably have to take my inhaler before, during, and after any sort of exercise that I did.
Well, my parents had a different idea, because I had a different idea. I loved soccer and I loved playing on the playground with my friends. So I f- finally found a doctor that taught me that there was another way. A way where I could incrementally create wins. And that's really what you and I need to look at, is the more wins that [00:02:00] you can stack, even if they're small.
For me, it was going five minutes without using my inhaler. That's how it was for weeks. Then I got it up eventually to 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, then an hour. Then eventually I got to the point where I could do a whole game, whole 90-minute soccer game, without taking my inhaler. I eventually, years later, was able to play multiple soccer games in a day, multiple days in a weekend of soccer without my inhaler.
But it all started with the little wins, and then win after win after win after win after win, stacked to the point where my body changed, and it's never been the same. And your body can do this, too. Fast-forward to my 30s. I've always remembered that doctor told me I couldn't be a runner, and when we got a dog back in 2021, I decided that I would try and become a runner.
Never really liked running just for fun, [00:03:00] but in my 20s I started climbing a bunch of 14,000-foot mountains, and I really enjoyed being out there in nature, being out there with my friends, and seeing how fast we could get at these things, to the point where I started trail running at least on the way down these 14,000-foot mountains.
So when we got a dog, I said, "You know what? I've been a long-distance biker for a decade doing 100-mile rides through the mountains. I want to become a runner so I can run with our dog." And that led me to, in 2021, running my first marathon. My first marathon- was brutal. Now I did a very structured marathon training program brought to you by Peloton that really helped prep me.
But my first marathon took me six hours to complete. That equates to about a 13 minute And 45-second pace per mile. Now, fast-forward a couple of [00:04:00] years, uh, a lot more marathons, and, uh, I decided that it was time for me to really move into ultra. I had ran a 50-kilometer race before 2023, but it wasn't an official race.
And over the years, I've done a lot of pick-your-own adventure races where they're not official. I just go and do the thing because I wanna do the thing. Well, in 2023, I ran my first 50-miler. And well, I would say I did significantly better than I did with this first marathon. I still, mathematically, it took me 13 hours, which equates to 15 minutes and 36 seconds a mile.
Now, I will say that, I will say that every additional mile that you run over a marathon is much harder than running a marathon. So when you look at a 50-mile race versus a marathon, it's not just twice as hard. It is exponentially [00:05:00] harder than a marathon. So I felt pretty good about my 13-hour finish, but I didn't feel good about how, uh, my body felt after, and I almost gave up ultra at this time.
But I told myself, "Hey, I have a cousin who's been doing this for decades, and he makes it look easy." I talked to him after I did my 50-mile race, and I couldn't walk for a couple of days, and I asked him how he feels after 100 miles, and he seemed fine. He downplayed it a little bit about how fine he feels, but I know how he feels after these races.
And it was a lot different than how I felt after my 50-miler, so I stuck with it. Well, in 2024, I ran my first 100-kilometer race. This is 62.2 miles. And at this point, I'd been running for about four years, and on average, 2,500 miles per year. I had 10,000 miles under my legs, under my [00:06:00] body, in my lungs since 2021 that compounded to the point where I ran this in 12 hours, which was unbelievable.
I ran this in 12 hours in 95-degree heat and won the race. Well, this equated to 11 minutes and 34 seconds per mile, significantly faster than even my first marathon pace, and I ran more than two times the amount of miles that I did that first day, August 1st, 2021. Why do I share this with you? Well Because you really need to stick with it.
Now, I know you can get bored, and I have a whole YouTube video and podcast episode about how you can mix up your workouts so you don't get bored. But really, even if you're mixing up your workouts, the key is consistency and doing the same types of workouts over and over and over. You can do different [00:07:00] things, but as long as you're doing the same types of workouts, you're gonna get to the place you need to be.
Your body does change. Now, in 2026, I can run a marathon on demand, and I did one without any training a couple months ago. Now, I don't just sit on the couch. I'm always running, but this marathon I did in five hours, which equates to a 11-minute and about 28 or 27-second pace per mile. Now, this is very different than running a 62.2-mile race, but the point is I was able to show up for this and live my life normally after this marathon on demand and it's because my body has changed over time.
And guess what? Did you know that there are many [00:08:00] things in your life that you used to have no idea how to do them and your body wasn't even adapted to a point where it could do the things? And that's why I invite you to do an exercise with me called there was a time. Let's start pretty simple. Did you know that there was a time that you couldn't hold your head up on its own?
Yeah. And did you know that there was a time that you couldn't walk? And yes, there was a time when you couldn't speak. And this is just the start of the list. I invite you to think about when there was a time that you couldn't do something that you do without even thinking about it today. It's the same thing that [00:09:00] happened to me with marathon running.
Five years ago, there was no way I could run a marathon on demand. Now I can just go out and do it, and it's because my body, my mind has changed. And as long as you stick to what you're doing and you stick to your goals, you're gonna get to the point where your goal becomes automatic, but only if you put the work in and you put the work in over a long period of time.
Now what I want you to do is shift your mindset from fad workouts to working out for life. One of my best friends, his name is Brandon, I ask him, and I don't really know why I do it, but I just do it because we're both ultra runners, and we run together almost weekly. Well, the question I ask him more frequently than I really should is, "What are you training for?"
And every time he tells me the same thing, even if [00:10:00] he has an event that he is actually training for, he tells me that he is working out for life. That's why he does the things. That's why he gets out and runs. That's why he takes a tire and ties it around his waist and walks up this hill outside our place.
That's why he goes and he lifts weights. Well, I love this answer 'cause this is why I do these things, too, because I'm not working out for one event. I'm not working out for one race. I'm working out, I'm building strength so I can show up better in my life, and so that when that race does come up, I'm ready for it and I'm ready to crush it.
Well, friend, I want this for you, too, and that's why along with everything we've talked about with movement today, I wanna give you a gift, my Three Pillars of Healthy Living guide. When you implement the three pillars in this guide into your life, you will see change. These three pillars empowered me to not only lose 40 pounds in 90 days, but become an ultra [00:11:00] endurance athlete with asthma that has won ultra races.
You can go grab a copy of my Healthy Living guide at athletewithasthma.com/healthy-living-guide, or click on the link in the show notes and in the YouTube description, and I'll see you in the next episode
Thanks for tuning in to The Athlete With Asthma show. I hope today's episode inspired you to overcome any perceived limitations you may have. Remember, your health and wellness journey isn't about perfection, it's about progress. So I invite you to take a small step right now towards your goals. And if you found something helpful here, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share the podcast with others on a similar path.
Until next time, keep challenging yourself and redefining what's possible
