How Smart Training Transforms Running—and Chess
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[00:00:00] Hello, my lovely chess improvers. I am Grandmaster Noel Studer and you are listening to Next Level Chess Podcast. On today's episode, I want to talk about my running improvements, how I more than 3x'd my longest distance run in under two months, and how you guys can use the same approach that I use for running for chess. Because it turns out, improving chess is basically the same as improving anything else. So you can learn from chess and apply the same methodology to something else. Or you can improve something else like I did with running and then bring it back to chess. But before we go into today's episode, can I remind you that this podcast is spreading [00:01:00] thanks to you guys.

So, if you like this podcast, please take a few seconds to review it. This helps out a lot. And then, if you have a friend that is into chess improvement, please send them this podcast episode. That would help out a ton. Thank you so, so much. And just as a quick reminder, if you want to get more from my chess improvement advice, you can sign up to my newsletter.

This one is going out every single Friday totally free into your inbox and you can also check out my courses. All of them are in the podcast description wherever you're listening to this. Thank you so so much and now let's jump into how I went from 5k to 18k and how smart training transforms running and chess. Enjoy. 

Two months ago, I could barely jog 5km, that's 3 miles for the American friends, without feeling exhausted. [00:02:00] Yesterday, I ran 18km, faster than my 5k pace from two months ago. How is this possible? The answer is simple. Smart training. I am not a born runner, nor do I have the most sophisticated training plan.

There are three key ingredients to my progress. Ingredient number one, a simple plan. Ingredient number two, giving 110 percent every time I run. And then key ingredient number three, no shortcuts. Let's go through them one by one. A simple plan. A few months ago, my friend Dror, you can check out his amazing blog about wealth creation, about business.

He's really amazing. That will be as well in the podcast description, invited me to train for a half marathon with him. He shared a straightforward training plan from a running book, three [00:03:00] training sessions per week. Training number one, track training, which is speed, short but intense. Training number two, mid distance run, quicker pace over a moderate distance.

And then training number three, the long distance run, slower pace but a longer distance. And guys, the longer distance, what does it mean? It means that you go up to 26 kilometers, even though the half marathon is only 21 kilometer. So that's a quick in between that training, whenever you train for something, usually the training should be harder and longer and more intense than what you will experience during the real competition, because competition you will be nervous, you will have all the nerves, you will 

maybe not sleep that well. So it's important that you trained harder before so you can say, okay, that will be moderately easier than what I've done already before. The plan [00:04:00] also provided clear pacing goals based on my initial 5k time, ensuring I knew exactly how fast I needed to go for each run. I run every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

Before each session, I check the plan, lace up my shoes, and execute. No debates, no adjustments, no shortcuts, just consistency. And I really mean it when I say I just check my phone before the run. Often my fiancée Alessia will ask me, Hey, what is on your plan today? How long are you running? I'm telling her, I have no idea.

I just look on my phone before I go. It's okay. It's 13k today. Let's go 13k. So point number two is giving my best, right? That's the ingredient number two. Instead of wasting time researching the perfect running method, I committed to giving my absolute best every time I run. Somewhere in the middle of each session, whether it's during an interval on the track,

or [00:05:00] in the last kilometers of a long distance run, I feel the urge to stop. It's tough, it's exhausting, and often not that much fun. But I remind myself, if I'm already out here, why not give it everything? Some days I exceed my goals, other days I barely hit my target pace. But what matters is that I can always say today I did my best.

One of my proudest moments was finishing my first 10 kilometer race, that was a preparation race, at minus 4 degrees Celsius, that's roughly 25 Fahrenheit. Running in the cold wasn't exciting, but I pushed through and clocked a time of 50 minutes and 28 seconds. My goal was 50 minutes, a random target to motivate myself, but technically I missed it.

But still, it was a huge success. And just to compare this time. So I had this 50 [00:06:00] minutes and 28 seconds for 10 kilometers. And before I started the training plan, I had to run these five kilometers at maximum speed, really the best I could. So the five kilometers I did in 28 minutes and 30 seconds, and only was not even a month later, it was like three weeks later.

I ran double the distance and I ran it quicker because my 5km time was 25 minutes. So I increased my speed and doubled the length in 3 weeks, which is incredible. And this is only with 3 trainings per week. And then the last thing, and maybe the most important, especially when then we talk about chess, is no shortcuts.

What I love about running is the simplicity. I never spend time trying to optimize a plan or find a better way. I trust Dror's experience and the plan he found in this book. That's it. It's [00:07:00] incredibly liberating to switch off the overthinking, focus on the process and put all of my effort into execution.

Sure, there will be weeks when I feel stuck or see no progress, but I know this is part of the journey. I'll keep following the plan, push a little harder when needed, and trust the process. Improvement will come. And now probably to the most important part for you guys. Why does this matter for chess? Why am I rambling about running when this is a chess improvement podcast?

This will make sense in a minute. Reflecting on my journey, I realized the formula for improvement is universal. It's the same process I apply to chess and I put out a lot of podcasts. I think there were five podcasts about the chess improvement equation. And we can repeat it here. The what is a simple plan, times how, consistent effort, times the time I put in, that was roughly [00:08:00] 3 to 5 hours with my running journey, is improvement.

When the what, so the plan, and the how, how well I do it every single time, are dialed in, even small time investments can lead to big process. Again, my longest run so far, 18 kilometers. I started with 5 and I was absolutely destroyed. And the 18 kilometers, the average speed was even faster than the average speed in my 5 kilometers. 

So, what should you do for your chess? Suggestion number one. You don't need a perfect plan, just one that's good enough and easy to follow. Simplicity beats perfection. My one third rule, dividing training into tactics, that's one third, playing and analyzing, that's the second third, and then everything else, so strategy and game openings, that's the third third, is a great place to start.

When I suggest this one third rule to many people, the first reaction I get, ah, this is [00:09:00] way too simple. It's not. It will work. If you want to be among the 0. 0001 percent best chess players in the world, the one third rule is not going to work, right? You have to be more sophisticated. If you want to be in the top 1 percent or top 5%, it's totally fine.

And it's the same with running. Suggestion number two, start with a manageable 30 to 60 minutes a day, rather than overloading yourself with 15 plus hours a week. And guys, I'm not just making these numbers up. I have a lot, and I mean a lot of readers, listeners, students, core students, whatever, that study so much chess, or they think they study a lot.

And actually what they are doing is wasting a lot of their time. If you can't study for five hours with proper focus, how will you manage 15? Less but better is the goal. I remind you, I do three running trainings a week. I [00:10:00] could try to do more. I would probably improve more if I would do it more sophisticated. But there is a risk that if I would try to go for five, six trainings a week, I would get tired, I would get unmotivated, I would stop at some point, and there is no half marathon if I stop training at some point.

And then suggestion number three. Many players waste time reworking plans, chasing shortcuts, or trying to out-hustle everyone else. Chess improvement isn't about grindset or hustle culture. Stick to a proven plan and trust the process. It's not about working harder. It's about working smarter. And again, this for me in running was super liberating, just like not even thinking once about how could I come up with a great running plan.

I was like, okay, Dror has ran half marathons and marathons before. He has trained with this training plan before. He likes it. I like [00:11:00] Dror. Why not just do exactly the same thing? It has worked for him. It will probably work for me too. Now again, I'm not trying to become the fastest runner in Switzerland in my first run, but I just try to improve, and I improve a lot.

So for a lot of people that try to improve chess, this is the main problem, in my opinion. What I see is they are like, okay, I need the perfect opening course. I need to perfect this. I need to perfect that. I need to perfect that. And then they get caught in this finding the perfect resource and never actually put in the time in real chess improvement.

Point number one, make it simple. Point number two, make it manageable and put in the right effort. Do it really well. Then point number three, just follow that simplicity and don't try to go for the shortcuts or the smartest way of training or the, Oh my God, I'm so smart. This grandmaster suggested me something, but I'm sure I can do it better than him.

So I will find some extra thing and I will find the hidden stuff and then and I get lost [00:12:00] and I will not improve my chess. Okay. So this is super important. And then I had another realization actually, when I reflected a little bit on this running journey is that just these three things is actually my goal with my course Next Level Training.

What I've shared is basically reflecting the whole mission of Next Level Training. One, to give you a plan you can trust, right? In Next Level Training, I talk about resources that fit different levels. I help you find your personalized chess plan and then being able to stick to that and trust it because, well, it's recommended from a grandmaster.

It has worked for a thousand plus other students. So probably it's also going to work for you. Then point number two, to teach you how to study chess the right way. That's super important. Nobody does that. Like in school, we're not taught how to do things the right way. It's just like, okay, learn this, learn that, memorize this, but how are you doing it?

And in chess, it's the same. Everybody talks about what you should do, [00:13:00] but not about how you should do it. So in Next Level Training, we talk about how to study tactics, how to analyze your games, how to do endgames, how to do all these parts of chess and how to focus better. So you can really give the best possible thing.

And I think this is the biggest difference to running. Running is, you know, I mean, I got good shoes and I asked one person to check if I was running wrong and they said, no, that's good. And that's it. It's not so complex to run the right way. In chess is super difficult to actually focus properly and to do tactics the right way, to analyze your games the right way.

That can be overwhelming. So it's helpful if somebody teaches you. And then point number three, to eliminate the mental burden of figuring it all out on your own. And from the feedback I get, many people actually say this is the most important part of Next Level Training. They say, finally, they have no fear of missing out anymore.

They can study a simple plan. I remember one student was saying me that I think they deleted 20 apps on the phone or something like that because they had [00:14:00] so many chess apps and got lost all the time. It was just like, okay, I have Noel now. I just delete all that stuff. I just focus a simple plan and that's it.

So hundreds of students have already used the course to save time, simplify their training and see real progress. If you want to stop feeling overwhelmed and start focusing on what truly matters, this course is for you. And right now I'm filming an updated version. Actually, as of recording this I have finished basically 80 percent of recording and I'm super proud of how it looks.

And all current students, so if you're enrolling, if you're going to check it out and you see, oh, new version is not out yet. By the way, it will have a different name. So you would realize, should be end of March, beginning of April, something like that. So if you enroll before, you also just get access to the older version right now, that is very good and beloved by students.

And then you also get the upgrade on the newer version. You can lock in the current price if you join right now, right today, and get a [00:15:00] sneak peek at the upgrades because you'll have earlier access than everyone else coming. So if you want to simplify your chess training and see massive improvements, you can check out Next Level Training with the link below. 

And I just want to finish on one note that I think is super, super important. And that is the most powerful feeling I get from running is not a certain time or saying, okay, I'm now way faster, but it is that I'm proud of myself. I do something hard and I do it right and I do it consistently. And that for me is so important.

And that's what chess did for me a long, long time. Training chess the right way gave me always that same feeling of, hey, I'm able to do something hard. I'm able to stick to it. Even when results are bad. So it gave me that just self confidence that [00:16:00] no matter what happens in my life, I will be able to tackle that. So, much more than any kind of rating game, I think the benefit of chess improvement is really if you're doing things the right way and subconsciously, believe me, you will know if you're doing things the right way or not.

Even if you're progressing, but you know, sometimes I tilt, sometimes I don't play the right way. More often than not, when I train, I take shortcuts. I don't fully write down my solutions. All of these kind of small things, your subconscious will realize that. So, if you're doing things the right way, you will get that self confidence that you can bring over in other areas.

And to me, that's the most beautiful benefit of improving your chess and doing things the right way. And as we've seen now with running is, you can just use the same approach for chess improvement and then you can use it for running. I used it learning poker, I used it learning business.

So you just [00:17:00] take that, you're saying, okay, I trust myself. I know I can do the right thing the right way for a consistent amount of time. And now I just control copy, control paste into another area of my life and I just improve it this way. So this is for me, the most beautiful thing. And if somebody joins my course and is telling me, Hey, I use this to improve my chess, but now I also improve, improve my work and I improve this other hobby this way, that really makes my day.

Okay guys. Now that's really it from me. Short reminder, if you like this podcast, please make sure to shortly take the time to review it and send it to a friend. Thank you so much and see ya next time.