RunRunLive 5.0 - Running Podcast (Chris Russell)
Explore every episode of RunRunLive 5.0 - Running Podcast
Dive into the complete episode list for RunRunLive 5.0 - Running Podcast. Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.
| Pub. Date | Title | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Aug 2022 | Friday August 19th | 00:08:25 | |
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 14 Feb 2014 | Unicorns - Finish Lines, Cancer and Family | 00:24:18 | |
Unicorns-1.0Introductory Comments:[audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/Unicorns10.mp3]Unicorns10.mp3Hello and welcome my friends. This is Chris and this a new series of podcasts that I’m doing that I’m going to call ‘Unicorns’. Let me explain. Be warned this is a bit of departure from what I’ve done in the past. I’ will try to give you enough information so that you can decide whether you want to get on this particular bus and share this personal journey with me.This series is going to be about my current life events and journey. It involves running and the Boston Marathon, but only tangentially. If you’re looking for marathon tips you should stop now and switch to one of the main RunRunLive episodes or any of the other fine marathon podcasts out there.If you have been listening to my show for any of the last 5 years and 282 episodes you know that I have chosen not to share much about my personal life. You could if you listened carefully tease out some of the background noise from my sanitized avatar but for the most part I’ve isolated you from my job and my family. I did this for two reasons. First I didn’t want the show to be about me – I wanted it to be about you and your journey with running and endurance sports. Second, I suppose I was afraid to trust the internet with too much personal information. That’s the way we were raised. It’s part of our culture in New England. We keep the shades drawn and we give our neighbors their peace and privacy.Well, my friends, today, and in the unicorn series I’m going to throw open the curtains of my personal life a bit. I’m going to do so to bring purpose to this year’s running and to let you help me in my journey.First we’ll have a 15-20 minute interview with Nick from the American Liver Foundation and then I’ll share with you what I’m doing and invite you to get on my bus as things get weird over the next 9 weeks or so.Cheers,Chris,Featured Interview:Nick Giordano is a 13 time marathoner. He has been the chair of the American Liver Foundation's Run for Research Marathon on two occasions. Nick serves on the Board of Directors for the American Liver Foundation's New England Chapter. ALF- The American Liver Foundation's Run for Research® program is the oldest and one of the largest marathon teams in the Boston Athletic Association's official charity program. For over two decades we have helped thousands of runners compete in the historic Boston Marathon while raising funds for the fight against liver disease. The organization's mission is this one of advocacy and education while raising important funds for research. Myfinishline link: Summary Article:I said I’d get personal and here we go…A year ago during the holidays my Dad wasn’t feeling well. He began to look Jaundiced. After a few visits and trips to Boston we discovered that he had an inoperable tumor on a bile duct in his liver. They were able to put a stent in to relieve the bile duct and he went through a round of chemo to keep the cancer at bay. Over the last year he has had a series of setbacks and infections and now is ready to leave us in the near future. My Dad was a runner. My dad introduced me to the concept of running to get in shape when I was quite young. He never ran a marathon or any of that he just set the example of running to stay in shape. My Dad was and is a strong man. My parents have been very active in their social circle and teaching dance lessons and being an inspiration into their 80’s. I’m the youngest of 4 children who all turned out well, thanks in no small part to the direction our parents set us on. Their belief in education, in learning, in being a better person and making the difference you can have been lessons that have guided us well.My parents supported me and encouraged me when I started racing marathons. They came to my races and passed me bottles and cheered me on in my success. My parents were always there for me. In a short while my father won’t be there for me anymore. To honor my family, my parents and my family I have decided to run this year’s Boston Marathon for the American Liver Foundation. I am going to track my journey through this Unicorn series and I need your help. Please go to my page at the American Liver Foundation and Donate.As an extra incentive, if you donate $50 or more I will write and record a personalized inspirational audio message for your next event. This is not some throw away kindness. I will write you something powerful and poetic that you can carry with you forever my friends.Go to:Thank you for joining me on my journey with purpose.Chris, - “sad song” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 02 Feb 2020 | Episode 4-424 – Alix Shutello – The Intersection of Publishing and Endurance | 00:58:52 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-424 – Alix Shutello – The Intersection of Publishing and Endurance (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4424.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-424 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Some off you may be wondering what happened to me last week! Or not. I was waylaid by an aggressive intersection of life and technology that prevented me from putting a show out. It was a cascading series of events that you get sometimes in this squiggly path we are all on. First I had an interview set up with Jamie Bearse who heads up the ZERO for prostate cancer foundation that I’ve decide to run Boston for this year. Oh, right, I got a waiver number from my club for Boston and I’m running again. Anyhow, Jamie got the flu, not the coronavirus, this was before that reared it’s multifarious ugly heads and we had to reschedule. I, not willing to give up, called our friend John Vaughn who is a Prostate cancer survivor and coerced him into recording a last-minute call on the same subject. Probably the finest and most compelling interview ever done by two mere mortals… But, something got twiddled sideways in the great bit-locker in the sky and there was no file of the recording to download. After a week of tet-a-tete with the support guys there was no file. Meanwhile I was in Phoenix for 5 straight days for a kickoff with my new job. I did, over-optimistically bring my recording stuff, but, as these things go, was not afforded the chance to create some sort of non-interview filler episode. C’est la Vie. Such is life. But, even as you mourn the apparent reality that a rigorous and devoted podcaster like myself can’t keep a schedule, all hope is not lost! I rounded up a great talk with Alix for you for today’s show. I met Alix on LinkedIn, saw that she runs an endurance sports magazine and had to get her on. I love to understand the intersection of business and endurance. I have two asks today. First is that you send me suggestions on people you’d like me to interview. I don’t have a producer so I have to hunt them down on my own and after 12 years of doing this I’ve talked to a lot of people! Second ask is to contribute to my Prostate cancer campaign. I’ll put the links in the show notes. My friends are dying from this. It’s important to me. In the first section I’ll talk about long run paces, again. In section two I’ll give you my brief understanding of the current OKR wave in organizations. How’s my training going? Actually quite well. Since I’m planning not to hammer Boston this year my coach has me running basic base building runs so far. For example this week I have had 4 easy 1:20 runs. These are not race specific so I can do them in the woods with Ollie and it makes us both quite happy. I got every one of my workouts in while in Phoenix. Proud of that. I’m heading to Vegas next week and look forward to doing some early morning exploring there as well. I received multiple ‘feedbacks’ that my grizzly bear audio was just a little too real last episode. People were startled and looked around on their runs to make sure they weren’t about to be eaten! Sorry. Trying to be creative. Yah know… 12 years and all… got to keep it from becoming too rote. No, I did not suffer from any grisly grizzly attacks but that was actual audio of a grizzly eating a dead caribou in Yellowstone. There is a grisly back story here. And it’s not that someone found a way to mic up a dead caribou. If you search for grizzly audio there’s a sort of viral audio of this poor dude and his girlfriend being attacked and eaten by grizzlies in the early 2000’s in Yellowstone. I did not watch or listen to it because I don’t need that in my head. Apparently they were trying to video the grizzly with the phone, the grizzly attacked, the phone was dropped and you get a black box narrative of the affair. Not my cup o’ tea. I won’t leave you with that. I’ll leave you with something positive. The days are getting longer up here in New England. It’s been a mild January and we don’t have much snow. This means there’s enough sun to get on the trails with the dog around 6:30 AM now. And it’s cold enough for the trails to be firm and fast. There’s nothing like being out in the woods in the silence of a winter’s morning. Your feet crunching in the frozen ground. The sun glow highlighting the world in an innocent blur. Your friend the dog hiding at the tops of hills to pounce on you, damn near knock you down, and run off laughing like a teenager to find his next ambush spot. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Long run Nuances - Voices of reason – the conversation Alix Shutello My Story: A Message from the CEO Hi, my name is Alix Shutello and I started Endurance Sports & Fitness Magazine back in 2010 because someone asked me to. I mean that! I started writing a blog entitled, Tighthams, to write about my running exploits as a new mom. In 2002, I ran the San Diego Marathon pregnant and it wasn’t until 2006 when I wrote about it in my blog. I started the blog, truth be told, to learn how to us WordPress. Many of my 11 magazine clients at the time were starting to blog and leverage social media. I figured if I were going to be able to consult with my clients on blogging, I needed to start blogging myself. And now I’ve published this blog about running a marathon pregnant, and other women from around the world began responding to the blog. I was immediately humbled. Many of these women had multiple kids, had run through all of their pregnancies, and who still felt that society didn’t agree that women should run pregnant. In essence, my blog post on running pregnant started a conversation, and that was a lesson I could teach my clients. I kept up with the blog and started to write reviews on products and post some other topics, all of which seemed to generate a number of comments, so I turned Tighthams from a blog into a company called Runners Illustrated. Runners Illustrated, which played off of a combination of Runners World and Sports Illustrated was a great way for me to report on all aspects of running. An endurance runner from Australia names Andy Bowen emailed me one day. He asked me if I could start covering endurance races. Bowen was one of a number of athletes who approached me about covering global endurance foot races beyond the marathon. It opened my eyes to a world I didn’t know existed….and from there, Runners Illustrated, which focused on running any distance up to the marathon morphed to include all types of ultra running. It didn’t stop there. Once I changed the name of Runners Illustrated to Endurance Racing Magazine, the triathlon community found me too – and it didn’t stop there. Endurance Racing Magazine operated from 2012-2016 and covered a number of non-motorized endurance sports including kayaking, canoeing, ultra marathons, adventure racing, Ironman-distance races, ultra-triathlons, duathlons and all other types of trail and road races in between. In late 2016 I conducted a survey and the title of this publication changed to Endurance Sports & Fitness Magazine. The title, while long, resonated with my readers and created more comfort for those, like me, who are striving to enter the endurance world. In 2016 the newly redesigned magazine (which was only published digitally) hit the “shelves” with a lot of fanfare. We hope that you consider supporting the magazine through a subscription or by advertising. The magazine, which is a community-based magazine, is supported by a number of writers who give their time to provide excellent content and rich stories for our reader base. Please and support our publication. If you ever need to contact me, reach me at . I look forward to hearing from you. Alix Shutello CEO & Publisher Section two – On OKR’s – Outro Well, my friends, we have transversed the frozen ground to the end of another RunRunLive Podcast Episode 4-424 lies sweating and spent in the hoar frost. Nothing new or novel in my training or racing to report. I’m plunking away build mileage for Boston. I canceled the pacing race on Martha’s Vineyard so I can focus on requalifying in June. I have signed up for the Tunnel Light Marathon in Oregon which is on a rail trail and is a consistently slightly downhill course. I’m not going to run any other races, except for the Groton 10K of course. This is I think our 29th running of the 10K. Last Sunday in April, come up and join us. If you folks need anything feel free to reach out to me. I like hearing from you. Ollie the collie is doing fine. He’s just 8 months old now. He’s a stud of an athlete. We’ll finish this week with somewhere around 30 trail miles. He’s still incredibly unruly. He is very vocal, which Buddy was not. Ollie will spontaneously treat you to a loud, close-range, ear-splitting bark if he wants your attention. He’s still very mouthy and jumpy and does not listen well but we’re working on it. A couple weeks ago we were out running in the woods and we came upon a large flock of wild turkeys. Probably 20-30 of them. Ollie was beside himself with joy. He chased those birds hither and thither. Some flew away, like turkeys do, they can’t really fly but they can go short distances, some ran away clucking. Eventually he came back to rejoin me all tuckered out and quite happy with himself. He’s just come into my office to see me and put his big head in my lap for a hug. When I was out in phoenix last week I was thinking about the absurdity of having such a city in the middle of the desert. Before the modern era you could not do such things at scale. One of my mornings I was running along a canal, which I think they called an aqueduct. It was fenced in. I did not attempt to breach the barbed wire. I’ve been known to jump fences, but it looked like they really didn’t want you inside this fence. Turns out, I was told later, that the whole thing is alarmed with motion sensors and if you get inside the fence the authorities rush out to apprehend you. That might have made a good running adventure story. The Puebloans who lived here before got by, but not at this scale. Cities need a reason to exist. They need to be near something. Ancient desert cities were on an Oasis and or near a source of water or trade route. You just don’t put a city in the middle of a desert like Vegas or Phoenix for no reason. There was a recent discovery of a large city in Egypt from a few thousand years ago. And they were asking the same question. Why was this city here? In the middle of the desert? They were able to use modern LIDAR and other airborne surveys to figure it out. A branch of the Nile used to run by this city. That branch of the Nile silted up so the residents picked up the whole city and moved it to the next branch of the Nile some 100 miles away. We’ll see what happens when Phoenix runs out of water. And Vegas. Challenges like this bring out the innovative nature of humans. I will see you out there. (Outro bumper) To continue my music series I give you track #2 from Brian Scheff, the Rock Opera by The Nays. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 11 Dec 2015 | Episode 4-327 – Kyle & Brent Pease – Where there’s a wheel there’s a way! | 00:52:23 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-327 – Kyle & Brent Pease – Where there’s a wheel there’s a way!(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4327.mp3]Link epi4327.mp3MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, my friends. Wherever and whenever this ghost of my voice finds you I hope you are well. Welcome to the RunRunLive podcast Episode 4-327. Today we have a great talk with Kyle and Brent Pease who are a team of brothers that run races. I think you’ll dig their story and get a kick out of their running adventures. In the first section I’m going to talk a bit about flexibility and range of motion. In the second section I’m going to talk about Dr. Carol Dweck’s book, “Mindsets”. …It’s been a good couple weeks since we last chatted. I am recovered from my rolled ankle and running well. I’ve got a bit of a head cold today so I apologize for the sexy voice. I’m heading down to Atlanta this weekend, actually tomorrow, to run the Jeff Galloway half. It will be a good test race for me. I’m planning to go out at marathon pace, try to pace it well and close strong. Weather looks reasonable. It’s a hilly course, but that’s ok, I need the work and the practice. I raced the Mill Cities Relay last weekend. It’s a 5-leg, invitation only, local club relay race. I was the captain of a senior team. The legs are all different lengths but there’s one long one, leg 4, which is a 9.5 miles and that was my leg. We got perfect racing weather. It was mid-30’s and sunny with no wind – so it ran warmer than the temperature. I raced in short shorts, a long sleeve tech with my club singlet over it, a fuzzy hat and light cotton gloves. I carried a bottle of UCan. Leg 4 is an entirely slight downhill route that follows the Merrimack River. It’s additionally challenging because the leg before it is only 2.5 miles so you really don’t have much time to warm up. You basically have to jump out of the car and go. My plan was to pace it at near my target marathon pace of 8 minute miles then close hard at the end to mimic a step-up or negative split. Me being me, instead I lit out like a cat with its tail on fire and was racing in the low 7’s from the start. Once I got a couple miles in I managed to calm down a bit and came in with an overall average of 7:26 for the leg. I was happy with the time, because, like the Thanksgiving 5k it shows me that I have gotten some of my speed back. My legs were the constraint. I was hurting in the last couple miles with dead legs and wouldn’t have made it much farther. Someone took a picture of me on the course and my form is crappy. In the picture I’m over-striding. My quads were dead and it wrecked my form. With this additional data point I’ve pivoted my workouts to longer tempo training away from the speed work. I got 2 more 9+ mile step-up runs in this week going into Sunday’s race. I’ll see how marathon pace feels on the legs for the half and that will give me a good idea of where I am. If all goes well I’ll try to target a race in January to see if I can stretch it out to the full 42k. All good. I feel strong. The heart is hanging in there. …I drove up to Buffalo NY last week from where I live in Mass. It’s interesting to drive through upstate NY and Western Mass. 100 years ago this area was the center of industry and commerce. Each valley has a town with a brick factory, a rail line and a court house, but there’s not much industry anymore. I drove by the Erie Canal and many tumble-down farms and old buildings. It’s not to say that the area is super depressed or a wasteland, it isn’t. It just isn’t industrial anymore. It’s like a museum to the industrial age. But, when I see one of those finely crafted brick buildings in the landscape I see a person’s dream. Someone had the dream and the persistence to put a factory there or a house or a barn. They dreamed big of a better future. They bet big on a big future. They took leaps of faith and built without knowing what was going to happen. I wonder where those people are today. Where are they that believe in growth and abundance? Who among us has the curiosity and drive to build something new on the landscape? Maybe it’s me. Maybe it’s you. On with the show. Section one - Running TipsPart One - Form - http://runrunlive.com/prepping-for-a-harder-training-cycle-part-one-formVoices of reason – the conversationKyle & Brent Pease – Where there’s a wheel there’s a way!Pease Brothers Bio KYLE PEASE At Kennesaw State University, Kyle excelled in the Sports Management field. He worked on designing disabled athlete friendly sports facilities in Acworth, GA before graduating in 2008 with a BS in Sports Management. Throughout his time at KSU, he was an active member and event coordinator for ABLE (Advocacy, Boldness, Leadership, and Empowerment), KSU's disabled student organization. Kyle was also a brother of KSU's Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. Kyle has worked as a liaison and an ambassador at a major grocery store chain and at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Kyle enjoys competing in marathons and Ironman races with his older brother, Brent. With the mission of instilling hope and determination, Kyle wants to help people see the world from a different view. Through his accomplishments and speeches he hopes to provide a positive outlook and inspiration for individuals looking for motivation in their own lives. Kyle's message, though always delivered with a sense of humor, is heartfelt and inspired by his unique perspective of life. BRENT PEASE Brent, an avid sports fan, always enjoyed competing in sports as a child. It wasn't until he completed his first Irondistance race in 2010 that he and Kyle really enjoyed sports together. Since then he has gone on to complete six Ironman races and numerous 70.3 & Olympic distance races. Brent swam at Woodward Academy and graduated from Florida State University. Brent is multi-sport coach with Dynamo Multisport and is the Executive Director of the Kyle Pease Foundation. THE BROTHERS PEASE Together Kyle and Brent help other disabled athletes compete in the multisport & endurance world through their non-profit organization, The Kyle Pease Foundation. The Kyle Pease Foundation promotes success for young persons with disabilities by providing assistance to meet their individual needs through sports and competition. Programs include scholarship opportunities, adaptive sports equipment, and participating in educational campaigns around Cerebral Palsy. The Pease brothers have completed over 30 races together since 2011. Brent and Kyle recently completed their second 140.6 mile race together at Ironman Florida with a time of 13 hours, 38 minutes. In 2013, the Pease brothers completed their first iron-distance race at Ironman Wisconsin with a time of 15 hours, 9 minutes.Press October 2014: Pair of Brothers Compete in This Year’s Ironman http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/Pair-Of-Brothers-Compete-In-This-Years-IRONMAN--281023582.html October 2014: Atlanta Brothers Aim to Make History http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/atlanta-brothers-aim-make-history-ironman-race/nhtRf/ July 2014: Pease brothers push through the AJC Peachtree Road Race together http://www.11alive.com/story/news/local/2014/07/02/kyle-pease-brent-brothers-peachtree/12026855/ Sept 2013: Pease Brothers Finish First Ironman Tri http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/23362269/pease-finish-ironmantri#ixzz2qDrQKVaEThe Kyle Pease Foundation 711 Cosmopolitan Dr #126 | Atlanta, GA 30324 | 404-822-2383Section two – Gratitude - http://runrunlive.com/gratitude-2Outro - Closing commentsMarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/That’s it my friends you have successfully driven through the postindustrial landscape of Episode 4-327 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Keep an eye out for Kyle and Brent when you’re out at races, say ‘hi’. I’m racing this weekend at the Galloway. Then I’m going to load up a couple cycles of high mileage to bulk up my distance on top pf my speed and tempo and with that, who knows? Maybe I’ll be ready to requalify. It’s a scary thing for me. Now that I find myself on the precipice again it scares me. But, you never know how a race is going to turn out until you stand on the starting line and take the test. I’ve got a guy recording the audio version of my MarathonBQ book. He does a podcast called the “Passerby” podcast which is about story telling. Remember if you stop getting the RunRunLive podcast every 2 weeks go into iTunes and re-subscribe to the new feed. …Last week. In addition to driving to Buffalo I was also on a plane in Alabama. When I got on the plane I mistakenly sat in the wrong seat. I knew I had an aisle seat, but I sat in D when I was supposed to be in C. This odd gentleman sits in the C seat and is looking at his ticket confusedly. He mumbles something about ‘I think you’re in my seat’. I check my boarding pass and say ‘you’re right – but it’s the same seat if you just want to stay there’.He says ‘no’ and he wants his seat. I’m like, ‘OK buddy, no problem’ and we do the dosey-doe and swap aisle seats right next to each other. The other passengers are giving bemused smirks and ironically raised eyebrows. The thing is, now that I’m in my correct seat, the C seat there’s an empty seat next to me. It’s the only empty seat on the whole plane. Karma. I try to be super nice to people this time of year because everyone is so stressed out. If you follow me on social media you might notice that I don’t jump on any of the hate and religion and politics stuff. It doesn’t affect me one way or another what you are angry about. You see, I figure I can really only control my side of the relationship. And even if you are doing a really bad job of executing your side of the relationship by, let’s say, being a dick, I still can only control my own thoughts and actions, and that’s where I focus my energy. So as we stroll through the end of the year why don’t you try to be the best customer that sales clerk has ever had? Why don’t you try to be the partner that your loved ones deserve? Why don’t you try to be that member of your community and society that holds up your end of the relationship? Because that’s under your control. And while you’re noodling that, I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/Http://www.marathonbq.comhttp://runrunlive.com/my-books Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 18 May 2018 | Episode 4-386 – Pat Runs Boston | 00:57:25 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-386 – Pat Runs Boston (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4386.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-386. This is Chris, your host. How are we doing on the fine spring day? I love May. Don’t’ you? Up here in New England it’s a time of rebirth. The trees and bushes go from brown to green in the span of a few days like one of those slow motion nature videos. We are close by the summer solstice. We get back all those long dark winter days. The sunrise today is 5:19 AM and the sunset is 8:02. Plenty of time to get stuff done! It’s still cool in the mornings and hasn’t gotten hot yet during the days. This is the week after Mother’s Day when those of us who have read the farmer’s almanac start planting our gardens, and those of us who are over enthusiastic have to replant what they killed by planting it two weeks ago! Today I have an interview with Pat who is from Calgary and ran his first Boston this year in the epic weather. In section one I’ll give you a write up of the trail race I ran last weekend. And in section two a quick book report on the second book in the Takeshi Kovacs series. A real grab-bag of topics. You might ask, Chris it seems like you’re just stuffing random topics into a show to make a deadline. And I would answer no, I’m embracing a random universe, I’m satisfying the souls of the renaissance woman and men who are endurance athletes and well… a deadline is a deadline! My training for my first hundred miler is going as well as can be expected. I topped out a couple 50+ mile trail weeks and now I’m in a recovery week to get the benefit. With the long days I can go out in the morning in the forest behind my house. I can be back before most people are even up! It’s beautiful out there. The trails are drying up nicely. I take Buddy the elderly wonder dog with me for the first 2-mile loop and he loves it. He’s a trooper. In the morning it’s cool and the bugs aren’t out yet. Let me tell you the story about Buddy’s soccer ball. Many moons ago when I was a soccer coach for my kids I ended up with a kid’s soccer ball in my bag of balls from the local field. It was one of the little ones for little kids. It eventually ended up in my front yard and became the dog’s soccer ball. Buddy never popped it, he just played with it. For a decade it was a fixture in the yard. This spring, unknown to me, it disappeared. A couple weeks ago I was out in the trails and there was Buddy’s soccer ball a ¼ mile from the house on the trail. Then yesterday I was out and I saw it again, now maybe ¾ of a mile out on the trail. It seems some friendly interloping dog came into our yard and took Buddy’s soccer ball for a carry in the woods. The problem is that I don’t come back the same trail I got out. But, yesterday it didn’t seem right to abandon it so I grabbed it and carried it with me as I was running through the woods. I was like some grade schooler goalie given a coach’s penalty. “Take that ball with you and give me 20 laps!” A muddy, half-deflated kid’s soccer ball isn’t as easy to carry as you would think. I didn’t want to put it under my arm, like an American football, because it was quite muddy. I had to sort of clench it in one hand. It was a bit unwieldy. But, now it is back where it belongs. Lying in the grass beside an elderly border collie… until a thieving rover roves by once more. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Wapack and Back 2018 - Voices of reason – the conversation Patrick Hanlon Patrick Hanlon, 51, is an educator, writer and photographer based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He has been a long distance runner for the last 9 years and can be regularly found running along the Bow River. He has completed 11 marathons including Big Sur, Edmonton, Calgary, Nova Scotia, Nashville and Boston. His account of the 2018 Boston Marathon can be read at: Section two – Broken Angels – Outro Ok my friends you have stumbled down a rocky slope to the bottom of the mountain that was Episode 4-386 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Mission accomplished. Have a smoothie. Throw in some extra Kale. I started figuring out the logistics for the 100Miler. It is the Burning River 100 in southern Ohio. It starts on Saturday July 28th at 4:00 in the morning. I am not going to try to guess a finish time but it will be some time Sunday Morning. It’s a point to point. They bus you out from the finish at 3:00 in the morning. The course doesn’t look to bad. It’s only got a few thousand feet of gain and loss over the 100. So nothing like the Wapack. The timing is a bit troublesome. With that start time I’ll be running the last half of the race in the dark. Doesn’t sound like I’ll be getting much sleep that weekend. I haven’t decided if I’m going to drive out and get a hotel or maybe rent a camper or something. I know I won’t be in any shape to drive afterwards. And, this is where you come in. I need pacers and crew. Who wants to come pace me through a section of the last 50 miles? I’m going to be going super slow. It’s going to be the middle of the night. All you have to do is keep me on course and say encouraging things like, “Come on, you can barely see the bone protruding through the skin, rub some dirt on it and suck it up!” Shoot me an email and we’ll make a date. Guess what else? I got my old motorcycle running this week. Yup, that bike that I bought factory fresh in 1985. It lives. Here’s the story. Last summer the clutch started getting soft on me and I didn’t have time, money or energy to attend to it so I just packed it away into the garage for the winter. I dropped it off last week at the shop and had them take a look. With a clutch problem it can either be simple or hard. It might be simply air in the line or fluid or a leak in a line. Or it can be the slave cylinder or the oil seals where the clutch meets the engine. I was a bit terrified that this was going to be one of those take the engine apart kind of things. I know from experience that if this was a car that clutch could run me $1500 dollars and I wasn’t really excited about spending that on a $1,000 motorcycle. I called the guy and asked if they had figured out what was wrong. He said, “You’ll have to call back later we’re still building the estimate.” That sounded to me like I should start mentally preparing for the worst. I called back. My heart sank when he said, “I’m sorry but it’s the slave cylinder and an oils seal.” Then he continued, reluctantly, “It’s going to be $238 dollars.” I heaved a sigh of relief and told him to go ahead. Got to love the simple engineering of a Honda motorcycle! So, as it turns out, I’ll see you out there! MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 16 Dec 2013 | Episode 3-278 – Bill Rodgers! Hero Worship! | 00:52:06 | |
The RunRunLive 3.0 Podcast Episode 3-278 – Bill Rodgers! Hero Worship!(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi3278.mp3] Link Support RunRunLive; Purchase an audio book of running stories. Written and performed with love by Chris Russell -------------à>>>>>>> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 29 Mar 2020 | Episode 4-428 – Matt Fitzgerald – Training with the Pro’s | 01:01:29 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-428 – Matt Fitzgerald – Training with the Pro’s (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4428.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-428 of the RunRunLive Podcast. So here we are in the apocalypse. How’s everyone doing? These are interesting times. That’s a trick of modern English. Whenever we don’t want to say ‘bad’ we say ‘interesting’ like somehow we are just observers in the soup? Took me until today to get this show out. Not because I don’t have time. Not because I don’t have ideas and content. Not because I have technical issues. No, just lacked basic motivation over the last couple days. Been watching low quality TV, eating poorly, playing some my online zombie game…you know, super adult and productive! It’s ok to take a day or two off but don’t let these doldrums turn into patterns or new habits. Now is a good time to start new habits. An excellent way to kick out of a malaise is to do a fixed program – like a 10-day meditation challenge or a 20-day plank challenge. Or a daily journaling challenge. I’ve kicked off a couple new projects this week. First is I’m reading the Princess Bride into audio for 20-30 minutes every day and posting it on my web site. I figured if I could read to my kids when they were young, I can read to everyone’s kids. You can find the current nine reading sessions on my website under Story Time. I also got asked by some folks to participate in a group story telling event for the Chicago Area Running Association. That’ll be a live Zoom meeting Wednesday night of this week. My work is super busy. My training stepped back to just some easy runs and one crazy HIT workout this week. These HIT – High Intensity Training workouts are something you can do from your house. You can look them up online or just make them up. The basic form is a short sprint followed by some high-intensity exercises. For example; go out your front door and sprint 100M out and back, then do 10 fast pushups, 10 fast crunches, 5 pullups then sprint again, 3 more exercises, sprint – you will be gasping like a fish out of water. Definitely a change in pace for me who’s been doing mostly easy trail runs. The entire world is marching through my woods these days as well. I know they’re bored, but I feel a bit violated. Buddy and I cut those trails 20 years ago. Now I’m shoulder to shoulder with the hoi polloi in my happy place. I have to go out at dawn if I want some peace. Today we have a great interview with old friend and running journalist Matt Fitzgerald who is publishing a new book this month called Running the Dream where he executes all of our adult fantasies and lives and trains as a professional with a professional team for a race. It’s a great read and gets my thumbs up. In section I’ll give you a the results of a Q&A I did on Facebook which may or may not be useful. And is section two a follow-up apocalypse story from the same universe I created last episode. Having fun with this. Maybe this is the book I was looking for? … Had a nice outing with Ollie on Friday night. Coach gave me a day off on Saturday and I was super sore from that HIT workout on Thursday so I figured I could go out late. The day got away from me from the start. The dog woke up early, like 5:30 and after I let him out to pee, I laid down on the couch. Ollie climbed up on the back of the couch and fell asleep sort of sitting on me. Next thing I know it’s 7:30. Missed my 7:00 AM call. Took Ollie for a walk and went to work on the back to back calls and deadlines feeling unmotivated. But, I dropped that 2-hour run on my calendar for 6:30 PM. I didn’t even come close to completing everything that was due or catching up. But, at 6:30 I grabbed my new headlamp and Ollie and headed into the woods. Technically the sun set at 7:00. But, as a trail runner you start to understand the relationship between sunset, weather and having enough light to see. It was a clear and beautiful day. Without cloud cover you get another 30 minutes or so of residual light after the sun sets. Ollie and I set out into the woods. The melt is on now and there’s plenty of mud to deal with. There’s a spot out on the trail about 3 miles out where we run along the edge of the pond. There’s the remnants of a cottage and a break in the bushes where their beach used to be. I set my sites on getting to this spot before the sun was totally gone to get a photo. I’ve taken to stopping here and taking the same photo from the same place to mark the passing of the days and seasons. I stand on the same stone and frame the same tree and get the same photo. I wasn’t sure this one would come out. The sun had set 10-15 minutes before. But it came out beautifully. I arrived right at that point when you have to switch the headlamp on. It’s a hauntingly beautiful shot. It’s a shot in the moment. That peaceful glow of a setting sun. That slight ripple from the paddling of unseen ducks in the shadow. The water black and smooth. The tree starkly silhouetted against it all. That moment of peace and beauty was there whether or not the work got done. That beauty was there whether or not the apocalypse raged. That beauty and peace is still there. I just wasn’t looking for it. What are you focused on? Your beauty and peace is still there. Everything else is just made up. Own your focus. On with the show! About Zero ZERO — The End of Prostate Cancer is the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer. ZERO advances research, improves the lives of men and families, and inspires action. Link to my ZERO page: (for Donations) … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Ask me a question about running - Voices of reason – the conversation Matt Fitzgerald Hi Chris, Cover image attached. It's a 3D conversion. I don't seem to have a straight front cover image, but Jessica can supply that, along with the jacket copy. Here's a link to the book page on the publisher's website (which, I'm just now seeing, does NOT have the correct jacket copy!) Matt Fitzgerald is an acclaimed endurance sports and nutrition writer and certified sports nutritionist. His most recent book, Iron War, was long-listed for the 2012 William Hill Sports Book of the Year, and he is the author of the best-selling Racing Weight.Fitzgerald is a columnist on Competitor.com and Active.com, and has contributed to Bicycling, Men’s Health, Triathlete, Men’s Journal ... And here's a link to my website (which does): Let me know if you need anything else. Thanks! Matt Fitzgerald Author of Section two – After the Apocalypse #2 – Outro Well, my friends, another week, another episode and another opportunity. You have run like a pro through the end of yet another RunRunLive Podcast Episode 4-428 done and down. Go get Matt’s book – I think you’ll like it. By the way, shout out and thanks to Carlos the Jackal for doing the edit on this interview. My normal editor Dimitri from Moscow was on holiday. Hope he’s not on a cruise. I’ve started a new hashtag - #longsongsfortheapocalypse – these are all those great 10 minute plus jams that I listen to in the background while I’m writing. You can find them on my facebook feed. Well, I’m still training. My A race in June hasn’t gotten cancelled yet. I was going to cobble this race trip together with a Vancouver vacation with my wife – but she is making noises like there’s no way she’s getting on an airplane with me in June. I haven’t made my travel plans yet. Maybe this will become one of those in-and-out guerilla marathon tries that my races always seem to devolve into. My friend running buddy Frank, yes the drummer for the Nays, is making noises like he might come. He was training for Vermont and that got pushed. It’s going to be a full fall with all the races moving. It will be interesting. You’ll have twice as many races with the same number of runners. This may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for a lot of races. We’ll see some consolidation. We’ll see that same consolidation and aggregation across industries. The small and fragile will get washed out and the big and strong will invest and get bigger. It’s the cycle of life, I guess. The thing is this type of forest clearing creates the next wave of growth. When businesses see a contraction like this it creates thousands of entrepreneurs for the next cycle. Ollie is being Ollie. He’s a nut. He’s so strong. We’re working it out. He’s been good interacting with all the new people on the trails. He doesn’t attack them. He immediately defaults to submissive with other dogs. That’s good because I don’t’ think I have the upper body strength to run with him on leash all the time. Sorry for getting this one out a little late. I appreciate you. I am quite thankful to have you in my life even if it’s a one-way relationship. I’ve had a couple good interactions these last couple weeks that let me know people are out on the other end and that helps, it really does, so thank you. Let me know if there is anything I can do for you. Let me know if you want to collaborate on a project. Let me know if I’m traveling to your town and you want to grab a coffee. These things are all still there for us. The beauty is still there. The peace is still there. Close your eyes now. Take a deep slow breath through your nose. Inhales kindness and empathy. Exhale through your mouth and give that kindness and empathy back to the universe. Do that a few times. Let yourself relax. We’re going to be ok. Whatever happens, we can handle it. We’ll see you out there. (Outro bumper) Track #6 from Brian Scheff, the Rock Opera by The Nays, She’s a lonely girl, Frank told me last weekend when he, Brian and I were out on a social distance run that all these songs are available on iTunes. So go buy a couple, music will keep you sane in the apocalypse. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 01 Nov 2014 | Interludes 1.0 | 01:05:08 | |
Interludes 1.0(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/Interludes1.mp3]Link Interludes1.mp3 Introduction:Hello my endurance friends and welcome to a crack-stuffing version of the RunRunLive podcast that I’m going to call “Interludes”. I didn’t want you to think I fell into the abyss as I work to figure out the format for RunRunLive4.0. I’ll keep passing along some content as I go to keep your interest. You can always go back and sample one of the previous 300 episodes that are filled with so much fluff and stuff about long distance running and endurance sport. I was going to call it interregnum, but that seemed a bit imperious. But, it does lead us to a discussion of the value of a good command of Latin and Greek roots when trying to discern the language. As you may have guessed the prefix ‘inter’, (technically a ‘morpheme’) means between or among. In this case Inter means between. Inter should not be confused with ‘intra’ which means ‘within’. Intercompany would mean “Between companies” whereas “intra-company” would mean “within company”. See how that works? You can figure out the meaning of most words by looking at the morphemes. Interregnum means between kingships. The Latin root Reg is king. As in Regicide, Regent, etc. Now, as far as interlude, I thought at first that second bit, the ‘lude’ was a form of the Latin root Luce which means light – as in Lucid, Elucidate, Luminescent, etc. But I was wrong. It turns out to be Middle English for ‘play’. Which, is perfect, because what we have here is a pause between plays. And I ‘d like to thank my 9th grade prep school English teacher Mr. Mitchell, for making me memorize all the Latin and Greek roots. Very handy for dismembering meaning from any of the Latin languages. Oh…We were supposed to talk about running, right? Or atleast Zombies. Did you like my zombie story in episode 300? Can you imagine poor Andrew Kastor listening to that episode and having to suffer through all the self-indulgent schlock? Heavens!Speaking of Andrew Kastor, I get to run with him in the morning. I’m safely ensconced in the New York Palace Hotel (5-stars) on Madison Ave across from Rockefeller Center. They flew me in today and got me a limo into town. I’m having drinks with them later. I do feel a bit like Cinderella. (but I’ll still never a Disney race) I just made a successful foray into the wild metropolis (greek word) and managed to forage a bag of fruit and a kale salad with avocado, so the city isn’t too bad. Today, well, we’ll see what I can get done. I’ve got too many plates spinning at the moment, but today we’ll squeeze in an interview (see there’s that Morpheme again) interview with Jim from the seeker podcast who is a certified nurse. I asked Jim to talk me through some of the things people should be looking for when they get a physical. I’m also going to try to write up my Marine Corp marathon report for you…and maybe even something else. I’ve got more ideas than time to birth them! Last time we chatted, two weeks ago, I was getting ready to volunteer at the BayState Marathon and the Groton Town Forest Trail Race. I did volunteer at Baystate, we work a water stop each year. It’s fun. We’re at the 7 and 17 mile marks of the Marathon. I try to coach people and encourage them. I know most of the local running clubs so I can call them out when I see the singlets. It was a bit of windy day, as it is sometimes at BayState, and that knocked a lot of the folks down who were looking for times. That’s why you need to train outside in real conditions. Learn how to run in the wind and the rain. There are techniques for all of this that can save your race.I had a 10 mile pace run on the calendar as my last taper run for Marine Corp that day. I didn’t manage to get up in time, and instead decided to run the trail race, which is 9.5 miles as a substitute. If you’ve never run the Groton Town Forest Trail Race you are missing out. It’s a gnarly single path with plenty of vertical. We had great trail conditions and a nice cool day. The wind didn’t bother us in the trails. I started out in the back with the baggage train and used the first 20 minutes to warm up. Then I accelerated through the pack for the next 7 or so miles. I’ve run the course plenty of times so I know how hard it is. You’d better be in top trail shape if you decide to attack it. In the last couple miles I caught all the people who underestimated the course and overestimated their abilities! Yeah, I felt great, had a good race. I had forgotten just how much fun trail running is! Then, of course, I was down in Marine Corp last weekend. Got that done without breaking anything, much. And now I’ve got The New York City Marathon this weekend, (which apparently has been outsourced to the Tata Consultancy). Spinning plates…On with the show…Section One: New York City Marathon Speech - http://runrunlive.com/gratitudehttp://youtu.be/xHYCClSGnfo?list=UUHxGvauB2-_J1qvR_oDobeg….Intro to Interview: I got my physical last week and everything checked out, but they handed me a bunch of blood work results which are mystifying to me. I figured I’d share those and chat through them with Jim and see if we couldn’t save some lives. My resting pulse, or heart rate is somewhere in the 36-42 BPM range, which is not normal, but it’s perfectly normal for me. It’s partly genetics and partly endurance sports. My blood pressure is 117 over 80, which I guess is normal. My Prostate is okey-dokey on both the ever-pleasing digital exam and the PSA blood test. By the way – men, get yourself tested. As many men die from prostate cancer as women die from breast cancer and it’s 100% curable if they catch it early. Ladies, make your men get tested. The blood test they do checks all sorts of stuff, your sugar, your salt, your liver function and even if I was pregnant. All of which I’m in the normal bounds on and (I’m not pregnant). My liver function was borderline high but this is also one of those long distance running things. I always go into these physicals after a hard race or workout and when you do that it can throw off your blood work, especially your liver function, because your liver is trying to clear all that crap from the workout out of your blood. If you want a copy of my blood results with all the explanations I can send them to you. Lean back and relax now while Jim and I discuss saving your life. I didn’t have time to edit this so you’re getting our raw conversation. Section two: Marine Corp - http://runrunlive.com/2014-marine-corp-marathonOutro:Was that fun? I bet it was. Over the next couple weeks, if I survive New York, I’m going to dial back the training for November. I have many balls in the air this month. I have to get through a colonoscopy. I’ve also got an appointment with the cardiologist to see if we can figure out what’s going on with my heart rate. I went in yesterday to my doctor and I brought some HR graphs from some of my runs to show him what I’m experiencing. About 40 minutes into a workout my HR will flip to max and I’ll feel it. There is no way my heart rate should be getting up into the 180’s and 190’s unless a bear’s chasing me. A zombie bear. An alien zombie bear. I’m perfectly ok if the answer is ‘you’re old’. But I want to make sure it’s not some new adventure that’s going to cause me to not return from a run. Therefor – If I hit the cement hard in the NYC marathon and don’t get up, tell my wife I’ve got 3-4 interviews on the hard drive that need to be edited and released. I will see you out there. Chris, Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 26 Apr 2020 | Episode 4-430 – Amanda Conditioning Versus Form for Injury Prevention | 00:55:24 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-430 – Amanda Conditioning Versus Form for Injury Prevention (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4430.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-430 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Here we are, still in the apocalypse. Hope everyone is doing ok. I’m cycling between busyness, weirdness, sadness and gratitude. How are you doing? This week was Patriot’s Day and would have been the Boston Marathon. Weather was good for it too. My buddies went out Sunday and ran a bit of the course, but I demurred. I took Ollie and did a 17ish mile long trail loop around my house. I just felt like I needed that. Took me about 3 hours. Ollie was exhausted and slept all day Monday. Before you call the SPCA on me, I stay on the trails with him and he’s only got to keep up with my casual trial pace – so other than the 3 hours it’s a low effort affair for him – literally a walk in the woods. He sleeps most days while I’m working. I’ve been getting him out on base building runs about 3 days a week and I take him with me. These are all in the trails behind my house and we typically do 7ish miles or 1:20ish and that takes the edge off of both of us for a day. On the days when I’m not running, I get up early and take him for a walk of the 1 mile loop in the woods. He really enjoys this, and it gives him a chance to vent some energy. He’s going to go nuts when I start traveling again. Today we chat with Amanda about injury diagnosis and prevention. She’s got an interesting take on how runners should focus on strengthening their core primarily to run better. In Section one I’ll give you a quick primer on how to build your own core routine. It’s not rocket science. Or, if you prefer an amusing malaphor, ‘It’s not rocket surgery…’ In section two, by popular demand we’ll check in on our apocalypse friends who we left stuck on a barn roof. I have to thank you folks for forcing me to keep the story going. I’m very good at 1500 word pictures. Not so practiced at stringing them together into cohesive stories. Here’s what I plan to do. I’m going to take this storyline out of the RunRunLive podcast and move it to another place. Maybe I’ll set up a podcast feed for it. But, mostly I just want to figure out what the bigger narrative is and see if I can pursue that. Thanks for the help and stay tuned for details. Today would have been the Groton Road Race. We had potentially postponed it to the fall, but we met this week and decided to cancel until next year. It’s the right thing to do. I went out with Frank and Brian and we ran the old 10k course, then ran the regular 10k course, for the most part. The word ‘Apocalypse’ is a Greek word that apart from our current usage originally meant revelation, uncovering, and discovery. And I think that’s a lesson for us here. As cheesy as it sounds this is an opportunity for you and I to take a deep breath, to uncover and discover, to realign with our families and ourselves. Take it easy on yourselves though. I’m finding myself feeling guilty for not getting more done. There is no reason for that. Celebrate your wins. There’s always going to be an infinite number of things you don’t get done. Do the best you can. Make progress. You can’t achieve perfection. Just make progress. Do the best you can. As we settle into this change, remember it takes 20+ days to burn in a new habit. What better questions can you be asking? What better things can you be doing? What small habits of kindess, empathy and thoughtfulness can you use this episode of discovery to begin or learn? We’re all stuck on our roofs with a hungry lion prowling, aren’t we? On with the show. About Zero ZERO — The End of Prostate Cancer is the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer. ZERO advances research, improves the lives of men and families, and inspires action. Link to my ZERO page: (for Donations) … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Core - Voices of reason – the conversation Amanda Regnier Hi Chris, Thank you very much for having me on your podcast yesterday - it was fun! As requested, I have attached a photo of myself. In terms of a bio: I am a Calgary based strength and conditioning coach, with a specialization in endurance running. Although I have competed at a national and international level in triathlon, I am not a natural athlete. Being naturally un-athletic has inspired me to take a deep dive into the science behind endurance performance, to coach myself and my athletes to reach their full potential. As new science becomes available, I like to share this through various platforms such as my website runningwithregnier.com in the "Running Science" section, social media (@RUNNINGWITHREGNIER on instagram), live presentations in the community and my podcast "Performance Running Podcast" available on iTunes and Spotify. Amanda Regnier MSc. Strength and Conditioning, C.S.C.S Endurance Performance Specalist/ Coach Section two – After the Apocalypse #4 – Outro Well, my friends, you have fixed your core strength and your knee feels better and you have limped to the end of another RunRunLive Podcast Episode 4-430. I’ve got nothing on the calendar race-wise now, which I find utterly disturbing. I’ve still got my eye on a July race. I think the next 2-3 weeks will resolve some things. I wouldn’t be surprised if they canceled the Boston race or changed it to be just the elites. My nutrition project is going fairly well. I’m cooking more and I’m off the beer and bread. I haven’t dropped a ton of weight but I’m feeling healthier. I’m about 10 pounds lighter. I’m off the beer. I have good energy and no real aches or pains. I’ll give you a couple of simple healthy cooking tips, although I have no right to do so. I have a big cast iron skillet that I use. The company that makes those, by the way is Lodge and they are in Tennessee a couple miles from Tim’s house. It is great for simple, 1-pot meals. You can take any vegetable. Broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage and make a nice, filling sauté. First, heat that pan up pretty high, put a couple tablespoons of olive oil in, dice up a couple garlic cloves and some onion. Cook those, while stirring until they turn translucent. Will make your house smell great. Throw your veggies in cover for a couple minutes. Pour in a cup of broth, shake on some kosher salt, add a couple shots of soy sauce and you’ve got the same veggies you would get from a Chinese restaurant in the US. You can even eat them with rice. I’ll give you another, even simpler, cooking hack. Spices. Yep. You can use the same basic spices to make anything taste better. It doesn’t matter whether you’re making. If you’ve got any friends from southern Asia have them spice shop for you. Let’s say you have chicken, doesn’t matter if it’s wings or breasts or whatever. Take a teaspoon of the good salt, a teaspoon of pepper, a teaspoon of paprika and, let’s say some cumin. It doesn’t’ matter, you will figure out the ratios, the spices and the amounts that fit your pallet. I tend to go heavy on the cayenne pepper. Take all these spices and combine them. If you happen to have a mortar and pestle, that’s the perfect tool to crush them all together. Did you know the mortar and pestle is one of the oldest human tools? Goes all the way back to the stone age. Mortar comes from the Latin mortarium and is a receptacle for pounding. Same word gives you the mortar you put on bricks and the mortar board you wear to graduation, if graduation wasn’t canceled. Pestle, uninterestingly, comes from the Latin pistilium, and simply means a tool for pounding. And unfortunately has nothing whatsoever to do with ‘pistil’ which is the reproductive organ of a plant, nor any of the P-words we use for reproductive organs. Pestle isn’t even related to ‘pistol’, even though I think it should be, ‘pistol’, they think originated from the name of a town in Italy where they apparently made pistols in medieval times. With all the several thousand bags of crap my wife has carted home from the Christmas Tree shop over the years, ironically I don’t own a pestle, or a mortar. So I used a small bowl and the head off a small wooden hammer that I brought back from a vacation to Ocean City any years ago and was originally used to violate soft shelled crabs. Soft shelled crabs, by the way, are typically very spicy. You grind your chosen spices together. Put your chicken or whatever else it is you want to spice into a bowl or bag. Pour in a glug of olive oil. Throw in your ground spices. Mix thoroughly. Bake in the oven. That’s it. Sweet tasty food without any fattening cheese sauce from a bottle that any dummy with a pestle can make. Do you feel more capable of facing the apocalypse now? OK then, I’ll see you out there. (Outro bumper) You’re not getting off that easy. There are 20 tracks on Brian Scheff, the Rock Opera by The Nays. Here’s Number 9 – Called Casino. All music can be found at their website MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 10 Feb 2018 | Episode 4-381 – Megan – First 100 Advice | 00:54:26 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-381 – Megan – First 100 Advice (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4381.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-381 Hey folks, how is everybody doing? I am doing fine, thank you for asking. Here we are in February. Are you watching the winter Olympics? Aren’t they exciting with all those fun winter sports? I Particularly like the snow-man building. I think the Czechs have a real shot at gold there. With the Russians banned for doping that leaves the snow-fort-building and snowball-fight category wide open? Who can forget Dimitri Puschov’s overhand ice ball of 88 in Calgary? I don’t think anyone can unseat the French in competitive pairs snow-angels. They just got that je ne sais quios. Been a long couple weeks. Started out well with the Derry 16 miler after we last spoke. I ran it as a surge workout and felt fantastic. Finished in almost exactly 2:15. People were a bit startled to see me laying in those 3 minute surges during the race. I’d blow by people like they were nailed down then pull up and settle back into a easy run. Like I said, I felt great. Finished with a good kick and wasn’t at all sore afterwards. That was at the end of a pretty big build week. Then coach threw me into another build week with two long surge runs. I did them before work down by the river. One in a snow storm and one 10 degrees. Nothing like an 1:30 surge run in a snow storm before work to make your cheeks rosy. This week I had a bit of a down week. Coach gave me speed work. I had a bad day Tuesday and had to walk away from a 7 X 1600 workout on the treadmill. I was trying to do it after work and I was just mentally and physically exhausted. I rarely give up on workouts but I just could will myself to execute. But it was ok because it forced me to reevaluate my expectations of myself. I’ve got to come to grips with not being able to do the paces I used to and just execute the workouts to the best of my ability. I’m putting too much pressure on myself to live up to the Chris of 10 years ago. I have to put that baggage away and get out of my own head. I did a ladder workout in the cold and dark ice of my neighborhood Thursday night. I just ran as hard as I could and didn’t worry about pace. That wasn’t so bad. I was surprised at some of the paces I hit by not paying attention to pace. Tomorrow coach has me scheduled to do a 10K race simulation. I hate these race sims but he wants to see what I’ve got. I’m just going to go out and run it by feel and, again, not worry about pace. I’ve got another gym story for you from last week. Actually I’ll give this one to you as a math problem and a ‘choose your own adventure’ story. I discovered something interesting. It turns out one of my daughters has underwear that looks very similar to my athletic underwear, or what they refer to as my ‘man-thongs’, or what we would have called in the 70’s a ‘jockstrap’. So here is your math problem. If you have the choice of a) going commando in your running tights (when it’s 10 degrees out), or b) wearing your cotton briefs in the workout or c) wearing your daughter’s underwear to your workout, and if you also have the choice of going commando to work, cotton briefs to work or girls underwear to work, How many different combinations are possible (assuming you cannot repeat any of the options for work or workout) and what is the formula? Originally, I thought this would be a factorial, but I don’t think it is because it’s 2 situations, work and workout. Therefor, unless one of you math geek corrects me I think it’s a simple square of 3. 3 X 3 = 9 different possible combinations of commando, cotton briefs and girls’ underwear. And this is the choose your own adventure part of the story. You find yourself in a gym locker room at 6:30 in the morning. You reach into your backpack for your running clothes and find a pair of girls’ underwear instead of your athletic underwear. You have cotton briefs to wear to work. What do you do? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – How to do workouts when you forget your watch - http://runrunlive.com/30-day-diet-reboot-day-30 Voices of reason – the conversation Megan – Teacher, VeganRunningMom and Ultrarunner This was taken toward the end of headlands 100 in sept. People can follow me on Instagram @veganrunningmom Snapchat @veganrunningmom Twitter @veganrunningmom Or Facebook -Megan Storms Was lovely to catch up some Today! Thanks and good luck to you!!! Section two – 30 Day Diet Reboot Summary - http://runrunlive.com/when-you-forget-your-watch Outro Ok my friends you have worn your womens’ underwear to the end of another RunRunLive Podcast. Episode 4-381 done and done. What’s coming up for me? Not much really. I’m sure my training will ramp up as we get into the final weeks before Boston. I used my Baystate time to upgrade my race position. The BAA accepted my Portland time but didn’t take the adjusted time, they took the original net time, which was still a qualifier but 4 minutes slower than what the race directors gave me. That was because they screwed up the course and made us run an extra ½ mile. My Baystate time is a minute plus faster than that adjusted time, so 6 minutes faster than the time the BAA gave me from Portland. 6 Minutes in the middle of the pack at Boston is probably 3,000 runners. Might even move me up a corral. I’m not collecting for any charity this year. It’s my 20th Boston Marathon and I’m running it for me, and for you. I’m training for it. If we get decent weather I’m racing it. I’ll do my best and respect it. We will celebrate it together. I’m humbled and grateful that this special race has become part of our lives. Maybe I’ll run next year, maybe I won’t, but this year I’m going to run and celebrate how lucky I am. … My wife lost an uncle this week. We went to the wake and funeral. It was good to see her cousins and aunts and uncles. Her parents’ generation is getting to that age. I knew this uncle from her family events. He was a kind and caring man. Seeing his kids and the impact he had on his family by being that kind and caring man impressed on me some lessons. You don’t have to be a superhero or save the world to make a difference in this world. You just have to care for those around you. You don’t have to overtly do anything special to make a difference. You can make a difference just by being there, being present and caring. Your actions, even those daily, run of the mill activities that we all take for granted, impact the lives of others. In fact, it is those small loving and caring moments that have the most impact on the ones we love and care about. Live your life, go through life, with the understanding that everything you do has an impact on others. The hustle and bustle of career and stuff is not that important in the grand scheme of things. Keep it in perspective and take time to be present for the ones you love. And… I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 21 Nov 2021 | Episode 4-468 – Thomas and the Emerging Athlete | 00:48:14 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-468 – Thomas and the Emerging Athlete (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4468.mp3] Link Zero Prostate Cancer 2021 Boston - MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Chris’ other show à Intro: Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-468 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Today we’re going to talk to my friend Thomas who is a college cross country runner. If I could name only one benefit from having put out this podcast for the past dozen years it would be, head and shoulders above anything else, the people I meet, and the podcast gives me an excuse to learn about them. I didn’t meet Thomas through the podcast, but the podcast gives me an opportunity to talk to him. It’s interesting and enlightening. I think there’s something to learn here for everyone. it tells us older athletes that just by showing up we may make an impact on someone. It has some lessons learned for runners just starting out around what the journey could be. It has some things for parents to think about. … In section one I’m going to talk about the magical sport of cross-country. In section two I’m going to talk about the elliptical – that ungainly piece of equipment in the corner of your gym. As for me, I had a bit of a setback in my return to running. When I glibly tossed in that trail 5-miler a few weeks back I did something to my knee. I don’t know if that something was the same something I’ve been recovering from for the last year or a new something – but it was noticeably sore. So – I am not running. Instead I’m working with Gina and focusing on some basic core, PT, flexibility and balance. I, purely on a whim, jumped on the elliptical at the gym for my warm up this week and discovered that this may be a piece of equipment I can use to gain fitness while I’m waiting for the knee to sort itself out. I haven’t put my bike on the trainer yet. When I say ‘trainer’ I mean this contraption that is basically some rollers that you can mount your bike on and ride in place. It is in the top 3 of the ‘endurance training Hall of Pain’ workouts. It is mind numbingly awful. But you can watch TV. I did go out and squeeze a bike ride in last weekend with my buddies. When I left my house for the ride Saturday morning there was ice in the back of my truck. It was a bit brisk out on the bike trail, but we stopped for coffee to warm up at the halfway point. I am starting to put on a little weight. But it is what it is. My daily workout is a combination of foam rolling, stretching and some core or strength. None of which is super-challenging. The only challenging part is convincing myself to do it and then not trying to rush through it! I did buy a set of latex bands from Amazon that I use to add resistance to some of the PT exercises, like clamshells. They are pretty good. If you want the link, ask me and I can send it. They are in a little pouch that you can throw into your gym bag and there are 10 different tensions. I think it was 12 bucks. My knee is still pretty achy and I’m losing my patience and getting frustrated with it. I just have to keep reminding myself to take the long view. Keep showing up! Good things will happen if you are consistent. Since you all know by now that I am running a fitness project at work, which basically means I’m being an ad hoc fitness coach for all the people in my group. I have one friend who’s in his mid-40’ who has gotten the Peleton treadmill and has been on it every day for almost a month now. He’s really inspired. He’s gone from zero to every day. When I look at what he’s doing, he can’t even run a mile without walking, but it is transformational for him. So I’m not going to complain about not being able to do intervals, hill repeats and 50k’s! I’m going to do my PT and take what the knee gives me. That’s not about injury or fitness. That’s about mindset. Some people look at the sky and see the clouds. You look at the sky, make note of the clouds and see the blue sky. It’s the same with thoughts. The blue sky is your gratitude and peace. The clouds are the crazy thoughts your brain sends scampering around like demented weasels. Don’t focus on the clouds. Focus on the blue sky and your days will be sunnier. You may even manifest some more blue in your skies. On with the show. About Zero ZERO — The End of Prostate Cancer is the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer. ZERO advances research, improves the lives of men and families, and inspires action. Link to my ZERO page: (for Donations) … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. Section One – Cross-Country - … Thomas Orcutt Originally from Groton Massachusetts Ive been running since I was about 9 years old I hold the school records at Groton high school in the mile, 2 mile and 5k. Now a Sophomore at Merrimack College running cross country and track I’m looking for an outside shot to qualify for the NCAA championships in the spring season in the 5k. 1 Mile 4:13 3000m 8:12 5000m 14:30 8k 23:48 10k 30:08 Instagram @torcutt25 https://www.strava.com/athletes/torcutt25 Section Two – Elliptical - Outro Ok my friends we have run over hill and dale through the end of episode 4-468 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Knock the mud off your cleats before you come back in the house, please. Even though I have not run at all for a couple weeks I’m running the Ayer Fire Dept 5K next week for my turkey trot. I should be fine. I’ll just jog it. It will be good to get out. Then the week after is the Mill Cities Relay. I’ve got a good 50+ team of my three old running buddies plus Just Plain Dave who’s driving up for southern Mass. There’s one short 2.5 mile leg – I’ll take that one and see if I can race a little bit. I’m really looking forward to it. It should be a blast. I’m getting to the point where I just want to start running again. Whatever was / is messed up in my knee should have healed by now and I’m a big believer in active recovery. I’m going to need some coaching to make sure I ease into it. I’m sure everyone saw that they accepted everyone who qualified for the 2022 Boston Marathon in the spring. Meaning, you didn’t need to beat your qualifying time to get in. I’m out of qualification. I’d need a 3:35 still to get in. I think I get another 15 minutes in 2023. Which is a lot. I might consider getting a charity bib for 2022, just to keep my streak alive. I ended up raising over $1,500 for my virtual this year. And they finally sent me the finisher’s box. I got the official race long sleeve tech shirt, finisher’s guide – which is a magazine type thing, I got the Sam Adams bottle opener, the unicorn sticker and a medal. I checked on the medal and, yes, it is a different medal than the one the people who ran the physical race got. The virtual medal is silver, and the ribbon says virtual. The in-person medal is gold. So depending on how you look at it I’ve got 21 Boston marathons under my belt now. And that would be my 18th in a row. Tough habit to break. … Ollie the collie is back in training. We’re doing the “Good Citizen’s” course. This includes everything we’ve learned so far plus greeting people and other dogs. I’ve been trying to get out for a walk with him every day on the leash. He’s still a struggle but he’s getting nicer bit by bit. He’s such a smart, lovable dog. Really handsome. But crazy as a barrel full of monkeys. Guess what? I booked some business travel this week. I’m heading to Dallas. I may have two trips to Dallas this month. How about that? It’s been almost 2 years. Crazy. I’m going have to learn how to travel all over again. When I walk Ollie out in the woods I find trash. I find face masks, which are the new cigarette butt. I find tissues, which I’m not picking up. I draw the line at used tissues. But the other two things I find are grocery receipts and candy wrappers. I get the grocery receipts. They hand those to you at check out when your hands are full so you stuff them in an available pocket from which they jump when you go for your walk. I don’t get the candy wrappers. I’m not talking chocolate bars. I’m talking about hard candy and Lindt Truffles. Those little, dense, evil balls of calories. How does that happen? What’s the scenario where you say, “Hey let’s go for a hike! Hold on I’ll get a pocket full of truffles!” I think it’s people who are watching their step counter and when it hit 10,000 they scarf down a couple truffles as a reward. It’s ok. I’ve got your back. When sugar coma induced weakness hits and you drop those truffle wrappers I’ll be there to pick them up for you. Because I’m helpful like that. And as you are clutching your next handful of sinful chocolate balls, I’ll see you out there. My Apocalypse show -> MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 16 Apr 2023 | RunRunLive 4-16-2023 | 00:11:08 | |
4-16-2023 Update Well my friends. Tomorrow is Patriots Day in Boston. And we all know what that means. That’s right, it’s the Boston Marathon. I’ve got a few friends running. The weather looks pretty good. Sara Hall is running and Des Linden. The fastest man in the world, Kipchoge is looking to complete his sweep of the majors. Who knows? Maybe we’ll see a sub-2-hour finish from him! That would be something. I am running a bit again. I have spent the last 2-3 month slowly trying to get myself back into shape. The knee seems to be ok as long as I don’t work it to hard. I’m still trying to see where the edge is. I worked with Rachel and took 15-20 pounds off. And I got through the first 30 days of the Body Building for Beginners program. I’m going to stop that right there. I repeated weeks 3 and 4, but I’m not going to go deeper. It gets very specific in the second two months and is probably more complex than I need. And, the big news is that I have signed up for a race. My friend Ann who we have talked to a couple times here on the podcast has a charity that she is heavily involved in called “Burgers and Bands” which is a teenage suicide prevention program. She got 50 charity slots for the Marine Corp Marathon. So, jokingly, I said, if you run it I’ll run it. And she called my bluff. I am fund raising and I’m going to try to blog about the process of getting back into shape. I’ll put a link in the show notes, at the top so you can donate. Then my coach, who was in the mix, said “Ok if you two run I’ll train you.” And the rest is, as they say is history. I am going to toss in some audio from before my run today. I am going to start podcasting more. I have some interviews. I’m trying to put less pressure on myself. I’ve got a lot of ideas and a lot of content, but less time to execute. I have been plugging away at my other, After the Apocalypse podcast. I’m just about to finish up season 3. I’m getting somewhere around 22,000 downloads a month. There’s 20 episodes in a season, and I plan to make each season into a book. As I creep ever closer to retirement I’m setting myself up to have a bunch of evergreen publishing content going. At some point I’ll circle back to all the posts on RunRunLive and try to consolidate them into some sort of order and edit them up into some books. There are literally millions of words worth of content out there. Anyhow, figured I’d check in let you know I’m still out here. A little slower, gimpy-er and grey – but out here none the less. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 07 Feb 2015 | Episode 4-305 – SheriAnne’s Adventures | 00:54:59 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-305 – SheriAnne’s Adventures(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4305.mp3]Link epi4305.mp3Intro Bumper:https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussellBuenas Dias! Mi Amigos. I told you that early in my career I did a couple projects in Chihuahua Mexico, right? That was before it got a bit dicey with the los drugos down there. More innocent times. So we made it to February! Old Man Winter has shown up with a vengeance up here in New England. It’s ok, I like winter. Or at least I can deal with it when it’s really only a couple months out of the year. That’s one of the joys of living here is that you get 4 real seasons, but not enough of each to make them annoying. Makes us flexible and tough. Since we last talked it’s been snowing almost every other day. Last weekend we got a cool 2-day blizzard that dumped 3 feet of snow. Since it was cold too, zero degrees Fahrenheit, it was that fluffy snow that is great for winter sports and fairly easy to move, but we got a lot of it. It’s over Buddy’s head and he’s confined to a short path in the front yard. He’s got cabin fever and is quite bothersome. I took him for a walk during the blizzard but it was over his head and up to my thighs so we could only break trail for a couple hundred feet before we had to turn around. I’ve been having to get most of my runs in on the treadmill which is not optimal. After we last talked I ran the Derry 16 miler and felt pretty good. The weather was good at just around freezing. I took it super easy and ran/walked the big hills then closed it nicely in the last 5k. I ended up running around 2:17 and felt pretty strong. That capped a 53 mile week for me on 4 runs. The following weekend I went out for a 3 hour easy run. I took it super easy and did loops around my house. I felt like I could keep going at the end so my base is good and strong. It’s a bit dismal with the snow and cold and darkness but you know how it is; the only way out is forward. Besides, the cold weather slows the zombies down. Thanks to those of you who threw me some donations for my Team Hoyt campaign for Running the Boston Marathon this year – I appreciate it. Those of you who haven’t, now’s a good time. I still need your help. I’m only ¼ way to my goal. Come on now, I don’t ask you folks to buy t-shirts, I don’t give a rat’s ass if you give me a review on iTunes or vote for me in whatever podcast awards are the thing of the day. This isn’t a commercial venture for me, it’s a creative hobby. So, cough up the cabbage and we’ll call it even…quid pro quo Clarice…quid pro quo.Today we have a most excellent show for you. I interview SherAnne Nelson who is the captain of a team that is going to take on the Patagonia Expedition Race next year which is a super hairy race in South America. It’s a run-bike-paddle-mountain climbing survival type thing. Hard core. I feel like I could have done a better job with SheriAnne. I feel like I should have asked, “Are you nuts? Leavingyoru comfy life and family for this misadventure? How do you feel about that?“ but I didn’t. Even with my love of a good adventure, I’d be terrified. I haven’t been traveling and that always makes me a little itchy. But I’m getting a lot done, in between angsty episodes of over eating and over sleeping...But the days are getting longer and I’m hitting the road next week. In section one I wrote a bit of a tongue in cheek piece about some of the myths surrounding marathon running that we have to watch out for. In section two we’ll talk about the philosophy of time. So, keep on shoveling, but don’t shovel straight lines because as we all know evil spirits love straight lines and will follow them right to your door. Shovel crooked lines. It will confuse the walking dead too. On with the Show!Section one - Running TipsFive Dangerous Marathon Mythshttp://runrunlive.com/5-dangerous-marathon-mythsVoices of reason – the interviewsSheriAnne NelsonHere are the links to follow our team. Facebook - http://bit.ly/usateamprsfit Twitter - http://bit.ly/1usateamprsfit Tool Kit - http://bit.ly/prsfittoolkit YouTube - http://bit.ly/prsfityoutube Website - http://bit.ly/usateampatagonia Google+ - http://bit.ly/prsfitgoogleplusFirst and foremost I am a mom of 3 young beautiful children. I am a Fitness and Nutrition Coach that believes in helping people realized their untapped potential. I believe too many people go through life wondering if, and wishing they could do something magnificent. Everyone's "magnificent something" is different, mine just happens to be epic adventures. Everything I do, I think about my children and the example I am setting for them. Setting goals is critical to being successful in life and I love to set big goals that make my heart beat a little faster and make me wonder if it is possible because I love nothing more than busting past that mental barrier. Anything is possible.What I bring to the 2016 Patagonia Expedition Race Team is the desire to succeed. Once I set a goal I will do whatever it takes to accomplish it. The hope and inspiration that I bring to others when sticking through the thick and thin of an event brings me great pleasure. Not only do I want to accomplish my goals for me but for everyone else watching me. I want to be the name that comes off of people's lips when they say, "I didn't quit because of you."The other attribute I will bring to the team is the ability to solve problems under pressure. I deal best when there is pressure, I have the ability to compartmentalize the situation and accomplish what needs to happen in order to move on. I have the ability to keep people calm and focused on the situation at hand.Athletic accomplishments:Collegiate Runner - 10K PR 36:30, 5K XC - 17:22, IMAZ '12 10:16 (PR) 3rd,Kona '13 10:33 30th, IMAZ '13 10:21 3rd, IMMT '14 10:37 6th, IMAZ '14 10:41 5thQualified 2x for 70.3 Worlds, raced '14 IM70.3WC 5:05, Ultra 50 miler 3x with a 10:50 PR, Marathon PR 3:14, multiple Boston qualifier, 70.3 PR is 4:46Here is my ZERO pagehttp://www.zeroprostatecancerendurance.org/prsfit/sheriannenelsonHappy shoveling :)Live well.SheriAnne NelsonFitness and Nutrition CoachKonaMom.comCoachSheriAnne.comSection two – Life Skills“Time”http://runrunlive.com/timeOutroHey folks we have shoveled a crooked path to the conclusion of yet another RunRunLive Podcast. Episode 4-305 in the can! I think we’re short on time so I’ll keep it brief. When it gets really cold out I like to wear a balaclava. Unfortunately a couple years ago I lost my balaclava. Maybe one of you could knit me one? I hate to buy one because I we only need it 2 or 3 days a year and I know as soon as I get another one I’ll find the old one. My wife in her Yogi Berra moments, (not the picnic basket bear – the catcher with a proclivity for malapropisms) always asks me if I’m wearing my baklava – which gives me a hilarious visual of having my head wrapped in Greek pastry. The new book is getting typeset into a beautiful e-book by a nice gentleman in Pakistan – should be able to ship some promo copies next week. I have to get it converted to Kindle too so I can post it up on Amazon. And remember If you haven’t donated a couple bucks to my Hoyt cause – now’s a good time! https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussellWe’ve got the Groton Road Race coming together for April 26th this year. I’m working to set up a virtual race category so folks can run it remotely. We’ll send you one of the super sweet tech shirts that we’re putting our ‘wearable art’ on this year. http://www.grotonroadrace.com/I was talking with my daughter last week. She had started a new job and was complaining that she didn’t sleep well because she had too many things going on in her head. This is another version of the Tetris problem. You lie awake at night going over all the things you have to worry about and trying to fit them together in a way that makes sense. Your brain is working on that puzzle and can’t sleep until it gets resolution. The way to address this problem is to get out a piece of paper or the equivalent handful of electrons, and write down all the things that are on your mind. You purpose here is not to solve the Tetris problem. Your purpose here is to capture all the bits so your subconscious knows that they are in safe keeping. You do this before you go to bed and it allows your brain to take a break and sleep. So sleep tight, and I’ll see you out there. Closing commentshttp://runrunlive.com/my-books Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 19 Nov 2022 | 11-19-2022 | 00:10:29 | |
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 06 Feb 2016 | Episode 4-331 – DCRainmaker and device technology | 00:52:49 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-331 – DCRainmaker on the current state of device technology (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4331.mp3]Link epi4331.mp3Team Hoyt Boston 2016 Campaign -> https://www.crowdrise.com/teamhoytbostonmarath/fundraiser/christopherrussellMarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/Hello and welcome to episode 4-331 of the RunRunLive Podcast. How’s everybody doing? We made it to the end of January. Even though my wife insisted we come home from Phoenix a day early to avoid the big East Coast storm, we got nothing here northwest of Boston. No snow at all! I think she probably was just sick of me. Who can blame her! I’m training away again. I’m healthy and feel great. I sat down with my coach and talked over the marathon and now we have our sights set on turning in a good time at Boston. Like I said I think my training was too inconsistent for Phoenix. I also wasn’t doing enough core and strength work. Coach had me do a leg work out last Monday and I could barely sit down for two days. I was definitely weak in the hips, glutes and quads even with all the miles I was getting in. Running is a funny sport. I’m also on a clean nutrition kick. I weighed in after the vacation at 189.4, which is close to 10 pounds heavier than where I want to race at. I’m eating mostly fruit and veg now for a week and I’m enacting a beer-breakup. With the amount of exercise I do I lost 6 pounds in 3 days and actually had to work some more calories in. I’m going to see if I can lean up over the next couple months. It’s not about ‘going on a diet’ or calorie counting per se. Those are certainly tools you can use. For me it’s about eating clean so that my body can recover and I can be in the best shape possible in April. For today’s show I grabbed veteran blogger DC RainMaker for a chat about the state of device technology. Ray started blogging device reviews back in 2007 when I started podcasting. He has managed to turn his hobby into a full time job. We talk about where we are, where we have been and where we are going on the tech front. It’s interesting. It makes you wonder what the heck we are going to be doing in 10 and 20 years! …It’s been a weird January for everyone. Last week I got up early packed my running stuff. Since it’s January I threw in tights, gloves, sweater, hats – you know – winter running kit. I get up from my desk to go running at lunch and it’s close to 50 degrees out! Following the no excuses rule one day I ran in winter tights, winter hat and a tee shirt. The following day I ran in short-shorts, a running jacket and gloves. It really doesn’t matter. You just have to get out there. One lesson I apparently have to be taught over and over is not to pack my bag when I get up in the morning. This invariably leads to some unfortunate clothing combinations or lack thereof. On with the Show! Section one - Running Tips8 Different Treadmill Tips - http://runrunlive.com/8-different-tips-for-treadmill-runningVoices of reason – the conversationRay – DC RainMakerhttp://www.dcrainmaker.com/Here’s the podcast link: Http://www.dcrainmaker.com/podcastAnd the 2015-2016 Recommendations guide: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/11/winter-sports-gadget-recommendations.htmlRay Maker is behind DCRainmaker.com - which focuses on endurance sports technology and training and was ranked as one of the 50 Most Influential people in running by Runner’s World magazine in 2015. The site produces the most in depth reviews and analysis of sports technology products out on the web today, gathering more than 3 million views a month. Thanks!-RaySection twoAsking questions - http://runrunlive.com/dont-be-afraid-to-ask-questionsOutro - Closing commentsMarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/Ok my friends, hit the stop button on your smart watch, we have arrived all sweaty, heart pounding and breathing hard at the end of episode 4-331 of the RunRunLive podcast. Like I said I ‘m training well and trying to live well. Hope you are as well. If anyone has a particularly interesting piece of writing around 1500 words they’d like to submit for me to read into one of the show sections – I’m willing if you are! After 7 ½ years of this I sometimes feel like I’m tapping a dry well. I was poking around in the RunRunLive 1.0 archives this week and listened to some of the single digit episodes. The audio quality is cringe-worthy. It’s all out there on my website RunRunLive.com - Feel free to download them – and let me know if you find broken links. Next episode we are going to talk with Kim Jones who was one of the best female marathoners in the 80’s and 90’s. If anyone has any other people they’d like me to interview let me know and I’ll sick the producers on them. Thank you for all the folks who contributed to my Team Hoyt fund for Boston. For the thousands of you who haven’t – hey come on - it’s a great cause. It’s what’s right about our sport. Your virtual friends in our virtual running community have been throwing me 10-20-50 bucks. You can do it too. Think of it as positive karma investment. The Groton Road Race April 24th. Come on up and join me for my last stint at race directing and our 25th anniversary. I’m cooking up some cool commemorative tchotchkes for you. Come up and join us. …This past week I got invited to present at an event in the city called Ignite! Boston. I guess this is one of those lyceum-like, TedTalky sort of, I don’t know, but one of my personal guidelines is to accept all invitations to present. You know how much value I think there is in presentation skills in general. I believe it is something we all should cultivate and stage time is one of the best ways to practice it. The format for these presentations was 20 slides, with a 15 second auto-advance per slide. A bang, bang, bang presentation flow. I was intrigued. The topic was loosely ‘data’. I looked at the presenters and they were all tech people. I looked at the agenda and I was the last of 7. That means it was me between them and the complimentary drinks. I thought to myself, “Well, I’m screwed.” First, I’m not a deep tech guy. Second, I don’t know that much practical stuff about Data. Sure I could manufacture some overview of industry data uses, but in the position of last presenter I’d be forgettable. The game was rigged to focus on my not-strengths and not my strengths. How could I flip the tables on this? What do I bring that these folks didn’t? What talents do I have that they don’t? Well, I know how to communicate. I know how to present and I know all about marathons. I decided to use the kobayashi maru subterfuge and change the game in my favor. I created an entertaining presentation around marathon data. Of course as I’m watching these other presentations with their flow charts and SQL code I’m wondering if I’m making a really bad decision. I start to get nervous that this audience will be slack-jawed and confused by me being off topic. Then I smile and remember one of the rules of presenting, which is you have to go all in. You have to commit to your topic and your speech. It doesn’t matter if it is good or bad. You have to sell it. You have to live it. Because if you go all in the audience will go with you. They won’t get a choice. They’ll get sucked into your gravity well. I rocked it. They loved it. I had a blast. Commit, go all in, sell it – and l’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/Http://www.marathonbq.comhttp://runrunlive.com/my-books Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 28 Oct 2016 | The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-351 – RunGum | 00:49:21 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-351 – RunGum (Audio: link) Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends. How’s your October going? This is Chris, your host. Welcome to episode 451 of the RunRunLive podcast. Today we’re going to chat with Nick Symmonds Olympian, 800m champion and CEO of RunGum. I usually shy away from talking about products but Nick seemed like a fairly interesting dude and I like to support entrepreneurs, especially in our space. Reading Nick’s bio he seems a bit of a high-energy renegade type. A world class 800M racer with a rich social life – supposedly he dated Paris Hilton but I didn’t have the guts to go there. Perhaps he’s the Toulouse-Lautrec of middle distance running? I tried to tease him out on his start-up story but he mostly sticks to the script. It’s something we are seeing more of. Accomplished runners in 2016 don’t have to fade into obscurity or open a shoe store. The new playbook in to use that 15 minutes to launch something. A cookbook, a clothing line or a supplement. I haven’t tried the RunGum, but I suppose it’s as good a way as any to get caffeine into your system. I’m a bit leery of supplements in general, but I tend to play a long game when it comes to my health and fitness and I’m not looking for shortcuts. If he gets a hit with RunGum it will be from treating it as a fashion accessory not as a supplement. It could go viral on him if he can get a Kardashian to spit some out at the Oscars or something. In section one I’m going to read an abstract from an NIH article on supplements because they said it better than I could. In section two I’ll talk about the interesting nature of social media algorithms. … It’s been 2 weeks since the Portland marathon and I have only run once. I’ve been doing a lot of strength workouts and yoga. My right hip is a little tight and I don’t want to push it. I’m on a strict beer, chips and cake diet that is working wonders at reversing the ill effects of eating clean for 90 days! I plead my case with the Portland marathon and they credited me 4 minutes off my finishing time for running that extra ½ mile. Honestly, the only reason I pushed so hard was I knew I was close. I’m not sure we can make a linear assumption on that pace! But, officially it’s now in the books as a 3:34:54. That puts me just over 5 minutes under my BQ for 2018. Thank you for all the great feedback on that episode. It seems to have resonated with many of you. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio ****This week the first chapter of the lost zombie novel!!!! Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com Thank you for my new members over at the member feed. My guy in Nigeria couldn’t figure out the members only podcast feed so I got another guy somewhere else to take a swing at it. Because I’m patient. I will have the separate feed up so you can get it in your favorite podcast app. This week I’m recording some another couple book reviews for members only. If you want to join up go to the website and follow directions. … I also volunteered at two local races last weekend. In the morning I worked the BayState Marathon water stop. In the afternoon I worked the Groton Town Forest Trail Races. Both had excellent days. In general the weather has been great for most of the marathons this fall. That’s going to put time pressure on all you people looking to qualify for Boston in 2018. You’d better get chewing some RunGum because you may need 4-5 minutes under your qualification standard! It’s funny. It’s just like the 4 minute mile story. No one thought it was possible until Bannister did it. Now they run sub-4 in high school! You lower that Boston standard and people are going to figure out how to do it. That’s the one of the great things about challenges. The bigger the challenge the more likely we are to rise to it, the more likely we are to have our finest hour! On with the show! Section one – NIH Article on Supplements - Voices of reason – the conversation Nick Symmonds THE RUN GUM & COMPANY STORY PEOPLE MATTER. PERFORMANCE MATTERS In the fall of 2002, Run Gum co-founder Nick Symmonds began his studies at Willamette University in the field of biochemistry. When Nick wasn't in class or the lab, he was running miles as part of the cross country and track and field teams. It was on the track that Nick met Run Gum's other co-founder, Coach Sam Lapray and a dynamic partnership was formed. This partnership would go on to win 7 Division III NCAA Titles, 6 USATF Outdoor National Titles, and make two Olympic teams (Beijing 2008, London 2012). Always searching for the extra tenth of a second that could separate winning from losing, they experimented with non-banned performance-enhancing stimulants. Pulling from Nick's biochemistry background and experience in training and competition, they knew what chemicals the human body needed to perform optimally. Among these was the world’s most consumed stimulant, CAFFEINE. Nick and Sam found that the current methods of delivering these important stimulants to the body often required drinking large quantities of liquid in the form of coffee or energy drinks. To achieve optimal performance, they needed to eliminate the water, acid and slow absorption. They wanted a product that could perform as well and as fast as Nick. It was on the track during one of their many training sessions together that the idea came to them. GUM. Utilizing chewing gum as the delivery vehicle for stimulants to the human body allowed for faster uptake through sublingual absorption. Furthermore, this lightweight, zero calorie option would allow an athlete to run free without the unwanted liquids around in their stomachs. Truly, the smarter caffeine kick had been found. They launched Run Gum because they truly believe that people matter and their performance matters, both in sport and in life. They hope they can show this with the products they create, the inspiration they provide and the support to athletes of all levels. Section two Social Media algorithms - Outro Well my friends you have chomped your caffeine laced gum through the end of episode 4-351 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Feeling a bit jittery? I have some good news. I mentioned I was upgrading my home computers, right? I found a backup of my zombie novel that I thought I had lost in a hard disk crash 2 years ago. I have a feeling you folks on the members feed may be getting some zombies…. I’ve got no big plans other than continue to lose fitness. If my hip feels better I may try to lay on some speed for my Thanksgiving 5K. But I’m not pushing it. I have to think about what my next big thing is. Speaking of big things, did your see the Guinness record for the USA cross country run is going to fall this week? Probably by the time you hear this. I was trading emails with Frank Gianinno who has held the record since 1980. He did it in 46 days and 8 hours and 36 minutes. As we speak Pete Kostelnick should be pulling into NYC with an average of 72 miles a day to set a new record. Frank is going to be down there to greet Pete this week. I’m going to chat with Frank later in the week if we can swing it. You know what’s special about Pete? Nothing much. He started running to lose weight. His first goal was to complete a marathon. He caught the bug and ran Boston in 2009 and 2010. Then he caught the ultra-bug and went on the set a new record at the Badwater 135. Now he’s going to break the record for running 3,000 plus miles across the country that has stood for 36 years. Just because He decided to lose some weight and run a marathon. Humans are amazing. There are miracles hidden in each of us. We just have to find them. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 08 Feb 2014 | Episode 3-282 – Dr. Phil Maffetone | 00:55:46 | |
(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi3282.mp3] Link Support RunRunLive; Purchase an audio book of running stories. Written and performed with love by Chris Russell -------------à>>>>>>> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 17 Apr 2016 | iTunes upload issues 4-15-2016 | 00:05:19 | |
iTunes upload issues 4-15-2016(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/upload-problems.mp3] Link Apologies folks – I did manage to drop Episode 4-337 on Friday but for some reason it’s not making it to iTunes. We’ll keep working on it. Until then you can download the show mp3 or listen directly on my website Cheers,Chris,Music by Tim Timebomb and Friends - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 07 Oct 2022 | 10-7-2022 Ride Update 3 | 00:30:24 | |
Bike Report… Here is a slightly more scripted version of my 2 day ride across Massachusetts. I scheduled it as a 4-day adventure. This is one of those things that you learn from doing long or hard or ultra-type events. Give yourself some buffer time. I have always violated this rule. Partly because my life has always been busy, or I have convinced myself that it was, and I had to rush to get to events and then rush back. I have always tried to not be that guy who talks too much about this stuff at work. I realized early on that this is my obsession, and the rest of the world may or may not give a shit. I’ve been more than willing to talk about it in depth when asked, or in this purpose-built forum for that outlet, but I have always taken pains not to be THAT GUY in the office. As a result, most of the people I’ve worked with know vaguely that I train all the time, but seldom have the gift of knowing exactly what or when I’m doing an event. That vagueness allows work activity to crowd around the events and I find myself running a marathon in the morning and jumping on a plane in the afternoon. I think it also fits that egoistic self-image I have had of being the indestructible man that can pop in and out of events that other people can’t even fathom. Even my acts of humility are ego-centric! There are advantages to not buffering time around an event. If you show up just in time for the event it doesn’t give you time to think too much about it. You can get much more adventure in the day by not being prepared and not knowing the course, etc. Just show up doesn’t fit many peoples’ brains but I enjoy the adventure of it. If you jet off after the event you don’t have time to wallow in your misery. But the disadvantages of this cramming in events, especially big events, are manifold. You can make mistakes that you could have avoided by being just a bit more prepared. Like, for instance, not thinking about how the temperature drops below freezing in the mountains at night. And, most regretfully, you don’t really get a chance to let it sink in. Many of those races I’ve run are just blurry memories of a fast weekend spent somewhere doing something hard. I’ve found that no matter how good shape you’re in, a multi-day event will mess with your thinking ability. It’s best to take a day off after because you’re going to be useless anyhow. For this ride, I took 4 days off to ride around 250 miles in 2 days. I enlisted my wife to crew for me. I suppose this is one of the advantages of having a long-term relationship. You can just casually drop something like this… “Hey, take Friday and Monday off we’re going out to Western Mass and you’re going to follow me while I ride across the state for 2 days.” And that doesn’t end the relationship. … Day one was Friday. We got up and I took Ollie down to the local kennel when it opened at 9AM. This was Ollie’s first time being kenneled – so it was a bit like first day of school for your kids. I had a pang of sadness driving back to the house in my truck with the passenger seat empty. I had done my best to make sure all my stuff was organized. We drove out a pretty section of Rte 2 west into the Berkshires and the Mohawk Trail. Western Mass is a pretty place. All hills and farms and little; towns. Those same little towns that you’ll find in Vermont or New Hampshire. A bit of a tourist trap but really pretty without being entirely off the map. We took the new truck with my bike in the back. I prepped my bike earlier in the week. I washed it and cleaned the chain and derailleurs as best I could. It’s a messy and dirty job. It requires using a degreaser and a toothbrush. Kids, this degreaser chemical is very dangerous. Remember to wear rubber gloves and safety glasses when you’re cleaning your bike chain. Once you get it all sparkly clean then you can rub a little bike grease back into the chain and sprocket. This really helps the efficiency of the drivetrain and keeps the shifting action clean. You can ride on a dirty chain, but it will slow you down and eventually something will break. I wore my old Northface water backpack. I think it holds more than a liter. It has enough room to carry my tools and food and whatever else I need comfortably. That old pack is like a second skin for me. I’ve worn it in many, many ultras. For tools I carry a small pump and a multitool. In my underseat pack I carry an extra tube, levers and a patch kit. I had one bike bottle in the cage on the bike for just water. I actually found this bike bottle by the side of the road after the local triathlon. It was perfectly new from one of the local bike shops. You may think I’m crazy, and you’d be correct, but I washed it out and it’s fine. I prepped up enough 24 oz water bottles with Ucan for the ride and put those in a cooler with ice. I made some protein smoothies too, for emergency meals, extra fuel if needed and recovery. Smoothies are a good source of clean calories. The 24 oz bottles of Ucan mix I stuck in the back of my bike shirt on both sides for the ride. This provides clean fuel with some electrolytes. This sounds like a lot of stuff, but it was all the result of what I had learned in my training over the summer. I knew I could get 4+ hours of hard work in the heat with that set up. A liter or so of clean water in the pack. A full bottle of water in the cage and 2 X 24oz bottles of fuel mix in my shirt. That may sound uncomfortable to carry, but it really isn’t bad on a bike. You’ve got the mechanical advantage and can carry a lot of stuff comfortably. I stopped at a grocery on the way out and bought a handful of Cliff bars and other packaged edibles. I also had my favorite pitted dates in a baggy. All this fuel went into the back pack. Then there was the electronics. I decided to use Google Maps with the bike route option selected. This meant I would have to have my phone with me, and it would have to stay charged. This is a challenge because having the maps open for navigation all day long drains your phone battery very fast. Especially when you’re riding through the mountains in the middle of nowhere. Yes, it also uses a ton of data. If you don’t have an unlimited plan, don’t do this at home kids. Where to put the phone? While I was training, I started out putting the phone in a plastic bag in my backpack. But that is a pain in the ass because you have to stop and get it out of the pack to use it. So I bought a fairly inexpensive handlebar mount for it. It’s basically a stretchy rubber cage that I attached right in the center of the handlebar. In this set up the phone is inches from my face and easy to access. If it rains you can put the phone in a plastic bag before you put it into the holder. That plastic bag makes it harder to use the touch screen, but for my ride both day were sunny, so I mounted it au naturel. Next question was how to keep power in the battery. This worked out way better than I expected. I bought a pair of those charging bricks from the internet. I didn’t know how long they would last. I had a plan to swap the charge brick out for a fresh one if needed in the middle of the ride. I put one in the under-seat pack with the cable running along the frame tube up to the phone. At first, I thought I’d have to zip tie the phone cable in place, but I was able to snake the cable around the top tube in such a way that it was attached to the phone and the battery pack with no slack. That worked great. I didn’t know if this pack would give me 30 minutes of juice or 30 hours of juice. That’s why I got two. I figured I could hot swap them out when I met Yvonne during the ride. But as it turns out I had nothing to fear. Even burning all that data with the GPS and radio on the whole time the charge pack kept the phone at 100%. To cap this all off I had my Mifo ear pods. These are little, wireless ear pods, that I trained all summer in. They fit snuggly in the ear and had both the stereo headphones and a microphone for talking. It was a great set up. I listened to podcasts and audio books all day. I had my phone right in front of me so I could even skip commercials! I could also make and receive phone calls without even slowing down. And the Google maps lady was instructing me with turn-by-turn voice commands the whole time, so I wouldn’t get lost. It was awesome! Besides that, I wore normal bike Chamois shorts with underarmour sport undergarments. I lathered up all the risky bits and my under carriage with Squirrel’s Nut Butter. I had this left over from my last ultra. It works great as an under-carriage lube. I also wore a knee sleeve on my left knee, which is the one that was giving me trouble. I wore my Garmin 235 watch but did not use the chest strap. I don’t really need to know my heart rate with that much precision when I’m riding. It never gets anywhere near max. That was my set up. Was I nervous? No, not at all. I was confident I could do it. It wasn’t that much of a stretch. I was happy to be off on an adventure. To be spending some time out of my home office with my wife. Friday we got out to North Adams in the afternoon after a casual drive on a nice day. We had a nice lunch. We drove around North Adams, Williamstown and Williams college. We had an early dinner and I set the alarm for 5:00 AM. … Saturday morning I got up with the alarm and made a cup of coffee. The sun wasn’t going to come up until closer to 6:00. Making room-coffee in the dark I mistakenly had a cup of decaf before I realized my mistake. I loaded up all my stuff and woke my wife up to drive me to the starting point. … I’ll cover the ride itself in a subsequent episode. … Continuing with my bike report. Let’s pick it up at Day 1 of the ride. This is the one part of the ride that I had done some actual research on. My original plan had been to find the marker for where Massachusetts, New York and Vermont touch in the western corner of Massachusetts. But, on Googling the map I saw that the point was actually back in the woods a good distance with no real road access. And it looked like the access trail was on the Vermont side which added significant miles to the trip. Given that I was riding my mountain bike I could probably find a way to make that work; but consulting the map again it would make the trip very long. It would add some unknown trail miles right out of the gate and I didn’t really think I’d have the time to go up and plot the route. To avoid that little bit of drama and the extra miles, I looked around the map to see what the closest town was to that point. I discovered that Williamstown was right there in the upper corner and had a hotel I could use points at. So, I booked that. This was probably about a month out. Then I started looking at potential bike routes. I did this by using the bicycle option on Google maps. It’s a swell tool, Google maps. If you choose the bicycle option it will keep you off the highways and find any available rail trails. The first pass route, starting from the hotel was 256 miles, which seemed doable in 2 days. Unfortunately Gooogle Maps also provides the elevation profile. You have to understand that Massachusetts is relatively flat state. We’ve got rolling hills. Lots of rolling hills. But we don’t have any mountains. Any real mountains. As it turns out our tallest mountain is mount Greylock. Mount Greylock is only 3489 feet tall. As it also turns out Mount Greylock is in Adams Massachusetts. Adams, as it turns out is just to the east of Williamstown. I had, in my hubris created a route that had me climbing the highest point in the state first thing in the morning on the first day. I have not doubt I could do it, but it caused some consideration. I decided that it might be a good idea to start on the top of the mountain ridge. Which, in fact would shave about 20 miles off the ride. That seemed like a reasonable thing to do. My race, my rules – as McGillvray always says. I really wanted to get out and drive some of the route, but did not really have the bandwidth. An opportunity arose, like they sometimes do, when my running Buddy Frank suggested we go for a motorcycle ride one Friday afternoon a couple weeks before my scheduled ride. I took him up on it. On a brilliant August afternoon we rode the length of Route 2 out to North Adams and Williamstown. I checked out the hotel. We did a bit of poking around the towns. My plan was to ride as much of the bike route as possible on the way back home. Frank had to bail but I was able to trace the route up out of Adams on an old 2-lane highway, 8A. I knew that where 8A met 116 would be about the peak elevation and I rode to that point on my motore cycle. Let me tell you it was not an encouraging route. It was a few thousand feet of steady climb, some of it quite steep, on roads with no shoulder. Bad roads too, beat to crap roads. And in places the Google route actually routed me through some old hilltop farms on a dirt road, which was quite scenic and everything but not good for making time on a bicycle. That reconnoiter of the climb up and out of Adams over the steepest, highest ridge in the state sealed the deal for me. I made a mental note to have my wife drop me off at the high point. I mean it wasn’t that I thought I couldn’t do it, it just seemed unnecessary to the project. If that climb had been in the middle of the ride, or even at the end, I would have been more optimistic about it. But given I was planning on a century a day, I didn’t want to burn all my matches in the first hour. … Going into the ride I had trained over the summer. Basically 3-4 rides week with one of those being along ride on the Saturday. I managed to get my long ride up to somewhere around 70-something miles. I also got some good data on nutrition and fluid consumption, especially in the heat of the summer. A couple of those long rides were really hot days This is how I figured out that I could carry enough to get through 4-5 hours on a hot day before I needed a pit stop. On a cool day I could ride all day on the same water and fuel. Back to the route. Since I was shanghaiing my wife into this adventure I thought I should at least consider making things palatable. Looking at the possible routes and where we would end up at the end of the first day I realized that it was close to Foxboro, which of course is the home of the New England Patriots, who my wife loves. And the Hotel at Patriot’s Place, it turned out, was another I could use points at. Now it was coming together. Looking at the revised route, with the new start point and the planned end point, that gave me about 120ish miles for Day 1. That seemed reasonable. Next I had to figure out how long that would take me. Since I was riding my mountain bike I wouldn’t be able to go as fast. I knew form my training I was averaging around 15 miles an hour. Doing the math on that would give me a 8 hour day. But, in training, I knew the routes and was pushing pretty hard. I didn’t want to push that hard on the ride, because I had a long way to go and didn’t want to burn out. If 15 was the top end guesstimate, what was the worst case? I figured if I really got in trouble and slowed way down, I’d still be able to manage 10 miles an hour. That would give me a 12 ish hour day. Which was still within the daylight hours. I definitely didn’t want to be out on the roads exhausted in the dark. I wasn’t as concerned about the second day. I knew that part of the ride was pretty flat and when I got onto Cape Cod I would know where I was. I would be in familiar territory. … On the morning I got all my stuff packed up and ready and loaded into the truck. She wasn’t super happy about being woken up at the crack of dawn from her comfy hotel bed to drive me to the drop off. She got exceedingly less happy as we wound through the old farm roads and up the mountain. Finally as she dropped me off I was bubbling with excitement. I was nervous and happy and ready to roll. She was in a foul mood. From her point of view, I had just driven her into the middle of nowhere and abandoned her. I had to stop her and give her a speech. Something like “Listen, your role here is to support me, not to bitch at me.” Which seemed to bring her around. And I was off… It was cool, in the 60’s and after 6:00 AM when I finally launched. The first sections flew by. Literally. Because I had started on the top of the ridge there were these long downhills where I was probably holding 30 miles per hour for miles at a time without touching the pedals. Of course what goes up must eventually come down and there were some good size climbs as well. For those climbs I took it easy, stayed in the seat and used my gears to conserve energy. My strategy on this first day was to not do anything stupid. I had looked at the maps and tried to find some really obvious places for my wife to meet me. I settled on a grocery store in North Hampton that was about 25 miles in and then another grocery store in Worcester about 77 miles in. That would give me 3-4 hours of riding before each pit stop. I wrote all the stop addresses and approximate distances and times out for her – which if you know me, is probably the most organized I’ve ever been for an event. I usually just wing it. That first 25 miles was wonderful. Lots of downhill, some interesting back roads. The traffic was light. I took it easy and enjoyed myself. Pulling over when I needed to, pull over and staying hydrated. The ear buds and the phone worked like a champ. The phone stayed fully charged and the nice lady from Google was reading turn by turn directions into my ears. I had my phone right in front of me on the handlebars and could sort through podcasts and fast forward when I needed to skip commercials. This is where my first logistical mistake got me. With my wife needing to go back to the hotel to check out, she couldn’t catch me for the first stop. I had just assumed that with me being out on the road for 8-12 hours she would be able to leisurely follow along and take side trips as she wanted and still have plenty of time to catch me. But this first morning with here having to go back to the hotel and me flying down the hills there was no way she was going to make that 25 mile stop. It was ok. I had her on the phone through the earbuds, so we weren’t lost or panicking, I was just going to need to push through. I had my wallet and my phone with me, so I probably wasn’t going to die. At the same time as this stop got aborted another wonderful thing happened. I found the Norwottuck Rail trail that runs 11 miles from North Hampton through Amherst on a beautifully maintained trail. Amherst is where the University of Massachusetts is. The trail has a nice bridge over the Connecticut River. It was a joy to be spinning along on a rail trail. They even had porta-potties. I stopped and ate some food and enjoyed myself immensely in this section. It was now mid-morning. And it was starting to heat up. The next section through the hills towards Worcester was challenging. Lots of construction. Lots of hills. More traffic and bigger roads without much tree cover. The day peaked out around 95 degrees and sunny. It was hot. As I was grinding the hills in the heat I realized I wasn’t going to have enough fluids to make it to the next stop. I was losing too much sweat in the baking heat. My energy was good but I was getting dehydrated. With another 40-50 miles to ride and another long day coming I uncharacteristically pulled over to a gas-station convenience store. I bought a liter of water and a Gatorade. They were ice cold. I drank all the Gatorade right there and it was mana from heaven. My feet were falling asleep from all the climbing. I was soaked with sweat. My butt was sore. Back on the bike feeling hot and tired and a little bit nauseous I cranked through the city hills to where my wife was waiting in the parking lot of a big grocery store. I drank some more water, filled up my fluids and swapped out two more bottles of UCann. I was beat. I took my shoes off and let my feet air out a bit. It was a welcome respite. Knowing the evils of spending too much time in the aid station I bid her adieu and mounted back up for the final push of the day. But, I did feel a bit refreshed. The last chunk was a bit of a grind. I had another 40-something miles to push. At least the sun was starting to go down, but I was worn out. Two things happened that made the day longer. The first one was I lost one of my earbuds. I was screaming down a hill and felt it coming loose. I tried to grab it with one hand. I thought I had caught it and trapped it in my shirt. But I couldn’t brake with one hand . By the time I was able to slow down and stop it was gone. I dis a desultory search along the length of the shoulder of the road on the hill, but it was gone. It wasn’t a total loss. I still had the left one and could still here the navigation and everything else. It actually was kind of nice because with only one I could hear the noises around me better. The second thing was a detour. I was watching the map click down. I knew I was under 20 miles form my destination. All of a sudden the road was blocked! There was a detour. And as I followed the detour, of course the map was screaming at me. So I had to stop and zoom in and out and see how to backtrack around the detour to get back on route. It ended up adding 6+ miles to the day. Which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it happened right towards the end for maximum emotional impact! Finally, as I was turning into the back parking lot of Patriot’s Place in Foxboro, I heard a noise. That noise was the loud leaking of a punctured rear tire. That’s right. Less than a mile away from the hotel I picked up something in the back tire. I road it until it went flat and called my wife. And I called it a day. I was tired, sore and hot. There was no way I was going to change a flat tire by the side of the road for the priviledge of riding ½ mile to the hotel. I stopped the Garmin at 127.78 miles, 10:03 total time for an average speed of 12.7 Miles per hour. Yvonne came and rescued me. We took some pictures. I cleaned up. We went out for dinner in Patriots place – Pizza and beer. I slept well, wondering what it would be like to get back on the bikein the morning for another full day of riding. Outro… So that’s where I’ll leave it. I’ll pick up on Day 2 in the next episode. To take you out I’ll give you an update on where I’m at. Right now I’m freezing. It got cold today. It’s the first day of autumn here in New England. I’m a cold weather guy, but it takes a few weeks for your body to adapt. And it’s dark when I get up in the morning. Winter is coming! Fitness-wise I still tread the crooked path. I started a body-building campaign 3 weeks ago, on the first of September. It was going great. Really was. I felt strong. My balance felt good. My legs had some bounce in them. I would recommend this beginner body building program. A question you might ask is what’s the difference between weightlifting and body building. That’s a good question. Both involve lifting weights. Body building is lifting weight to shape the muscles. Which I didn’t really get until I started doing this program. Think about it like shading in a picture that makes a feature stand out. Body building is weightlifting for muscle growth in specific places. Which, on my old body, doesn’t’ make a hill ‘o beans of difference, but it’s kinda fun to see the muscles changing shape in a very short period of time due to this focus. Kinda fun. But that fun came to an abrupt end last Friday when I was pulling a dumbbell off the rack at an odd angle and threw out my back. I know you’re getting that schadenfreude felling, aren’t you? You thinking, “I know that idiot was going to over-do it and hurt himself.” Yup. I’m that idiot. But in my defense I wasn’t actually doing a weightlifting exercise at the time, I was pulling the weights off the rack. So at least a week off. Couldn’t straighten up for a couple days. Lots of pain. A trip to the chiropractor, who by the way is on a first name basis with me. What does it say about us that our doctors are always excited and happy to see us? Speaking of which my physical bloodwork didn’t turn up anything awful but… But… They did add a note to tell me that my cholesterol doubled in the last year. Not running + shitty diet = bad cholesterol. I immediately went on a plant-based diet. I needed to anyhow. I was just too have and it’s not healthy. My plan is to restart my body building next week. To take it back to day 1, because I was only 2 weeks in, and lower the weight, focus on the form. At the same time the Dr. wants me back in 90 days to check that cholesterol. I will eat plant-based until then and most-likely lose 15-20 pounds in the process. And next week, drum roll please, I meet with the knee Doctor. Maybe he’ll have some new ideas. I tell you what, this cool weather makes me want to head out into the woods on a run. If all those things come together just right … I might end up being a mediocre old guy. I’ll take it. As we say it’s all frosting on the cake at this point. The warranty has expired and there’s no expectations except opening your eyes and smiling in the morning. Smile baby, And I’ll see you out there. … Day 3… Hello again friends. Let’s wrap this race report up. If you haven’t been following along, this is the third in a series of recaps for the 250 bike ride I did this summer across Massachusetts. I budgeted 4 days for the trip with 2 days of riding bracketed by a day of buffer on both ends. This is Day 3 of the trip and Day 2 of the ride. As I recapped last time Day 1 of the ride from Savoy Mass to Patriots Place in Foxboro ended up being 127.7 miles based on my Garmin. It was a challenging hot day through the back roads and hill towns of western Mass that took me just over 10 hours. I did not stop my Garmin at any point, so that 10:15 includes all the breaks. I have learned that whenever I stop my watch at a break I inevitably forget to turn it back on. I hit a detour and had a flat at the end that slowed me down a bit as well. After dinner on Saturday night I changed the tire and tube of the flat. I had 2 extra brand new tires with me. As I have recounted earlier, I was riding my Mountain Bike. I bought some small block tires with a less aggressive tread. These were not road tires, per se, but they were closer to road tires. But by the time I got to this ride they had worn significantly from all the road training. Especially the rear tire, where I picked up the flat. I decided to swap out the whole tire and tube for new. Partly because it was easier than monkeying around with the old stuff, partly because it was time. I left the front old front tire on. It was in better shape and I didn’t see a need to do the work in my tired state or to introduce more variables at that point. I cleaned up the bike a bit. Put some more lube on the chain, got all my gear ready to go for the next morning, set the alarm and slept like a rock. Both of the hotels we got for this trip were newer properties and really nice. No problems at all. Nobody gave me a hard time dragging my dirty, smelly self and my big bike through the hotel. As a matter of fact, there was a wedding going on at the Patriots Place hotel and my wife saw Rick Hoyt. I did not go in and say ‘hi’ but apparently one of the Hoyt clan was having a wedding reception in the hotel. Day two I had about 120 miles on the plan. My first pit-stop planned was at a Starbucks 40 miles in to meet Yvonne. I had scheduled 3 stops into this day thinking that I might need them. I’d need to get across southeastern Mass from Foxboro to the Cape Cod Canal. I’d need to get over the Canal. From there I would find my way over to the start of the Cape Cod Rail Trail that runs from Yarmouth all the way up to Wellfleet, where I’d meet my wife again and have just a short push up top Provincetown to the end. When I got up in the morning it was cool and foggy. I felt good. Part of the unknown about this trip was how it would feel to get back on the bike on that second day. Turns out it felt fine. On this day Yvonne didn’t have to get up to drive me anywhere, I departed from the hotel and made my way out through the parking areas of Gillette Stadium to get back on route. I had the same set up with my phone mounted on the center of the handlebars and wired into a battery pack under the seat. I had my one remaining left ear pod in with the nice Google Maps lady giving me the turn by turns. I had purchased an audio book for the ride called “Team of Rivals’ about Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and cabinet. There I was peddling easy in the cool morning mist through the back roads of southeastern Mass learning all about Salmon Chase and Edward Stanton. Fascinating stuff. The geography of southeastern Mass is different from the northern and western parts of the state. It’s mostly flat and near the coast. There are cranberry bogs and small cites. I rode through Bridgewater in the early part of the day which is a, how shall we say, ‘working class’ part of the state. I got yelled at for jumping a 4-way-stop. And he was right. We Massholes are very particular about some things, 4-way-stop rules being one of them. There was a fair amount of road construction in this section where I had to deal with the sticky new road and the prepped, grated gravel. Some of the back roads were a bit beat up. My legs felt fine. I was able to keep my nutrition going fine. My butt and feet were okay. All systems go. Answering that question of ‘how would that second day feel?’ I felt fine. I was also able to spend more time in the aero position which helped me relax. I met up with Yvonne at a Starbucks in Wareham. She managed to get there ahead of me! I fueled up and had her order me an iced coffee. She came out with a hot coffee, which was fine, but I just got off the bike from riding 40 miles and really wanted an ice coffee. After much waiting on the Starbucks brain-trust, I finally got my iced coffee, but I wanted to get going so I put it into one of my bike bottles which was an awesome treat as a rode the next few miles. As I got closer to the canal I was on some busy roads through Wareham and had to pay attention to not get run over by tourists. The next big unknown for me was how I was going to navigate the canal. Google maps seemed to think it was possible. I would find out. The Cape Cod Canal is a waterway that cuts straight across the base of the arm of Cape Cod from south to north. It was created 100 years ago so that ships wouldn’t have to go all the way around Cape Cod the long way. It is about 17 miles long running from Buzzards Bay in the south up to Cape Cod Bay in the north. For the purpose of our narrative the canal cuts right across our route. We have to get over it. There are two big Army Corps of Engineer bridges over the canal. The Bourne and the Sagamore. These are old-style high bridges to allow ship traffic to go under them. They are two narrow, highspeed lanes in each direction with a high sidewalk on one side. They were not designed for bicycle traffic. Back to the story. Again the Google Maps did a great job of finding rail trails for me to follow. It popped me out on the southern end of the canal and onto the canal trail. This was another one of those cool discoveries for me. It turns out there is a beautifully maintained bike trail that runs the length of the canal on both sides. This was about 50 miles into the second day, and it was late morning by the time I hit the canal trail. It was a gorgeous, sunny day. Lots of people and families were out on the trail. It routed me up the west side of the canal under the Bourne Bridge and all the way up to the Sagamore, where, apparently I’d be making that crossing. I had to get across one busy road to circle around the back and up onto the raised sidewalk of the bridge. This sidewalk is raised up above the road surface by a tall granite curb. There is no railing. So you are a couple short feet away from the screaming metal hellscape of 4 narrow lanes of highspeed traffic. The signs said to walk your bike. I did not. But I did stop at the apex of the bridge arch to take a video with the boats way down below in the peaceful canal. One funny thing was that the sidewalk was covered with pennies and other coins. As far as I could determine people were throwing coins out the window of their cars over the sidewalk and railing into the canal. Like a big wishing well, I guess. I think this custom goes back to the Romans paying tribute to the water gods. The pennies that didn’t make it over the railing gathered up on the raised sidewalk. I wonder if there’s a notice for boats in the canal to be wary of high-velocity coinfall? Once I got over the bridge it was a quick button-hook back down to the canal trail on the other side. It was starting to get hot again, but the trial was beautiful, paved, wide, and of course porta-potties! Yay. The next bit of road was the dicey-est part of this day’s ride. After I got off the rail trail I had to navigate Rte. 6A which is an old, windy, narrow highway with no shoulder and a lot of disappearing shoulder that dropped off into sandy nothingness. I met Yvonne again at another coffee shop around 70 miles in and was in very good spirits. The ride was going well. I felt fine. And I now knew everything there was to know about 19th century American politics. AND I was about to get on the Cape Cod Rail Trail which was home territory for me. This 25 mile stretch of paved rail trail was where I had been training all summer. Or at least on those weekends when I was down at my house in Harwich. But, I had to get over to the rail trail in Yarmouth from the coffee shop on 6A where I met Yvonne. This ended up being harder than I thought. First I had to deal with 6A again and then I had to cut across the ‘Arm’ of the Cape from north-ish to south-ish to pick up the trail. One thing most people don’t know about Cape Cod is that it is quite hilly in the interior. Not hilly like Colorado or even like where I live but lots of pesky little rolling hills. And finally it turns out Google Maps is confused about where the western trailhead for the trail is. The maps routed me to the middle of nowhere with no trails in sight. Luckily I knew generally where I was and was able to route to a landmark next to where I knew there was a trailhead in Dennis. But, it wasted a lot of time and energy. Once on the trail I was on easy street for a couple hours. It was still a hot day but the trail has great cover and it’s easy going. Which was good because I was into the 90’s mile-wise and was starting to feel the cumulative tiredness of riding for two days straight. The next and last stop was at the Wellfleet trailhead at the north end of the trail. This would put me about 100 miles in and just a short push up to P-town. What happens here is that the rail trail ends and you have to get back on the roads to get the final bit up. This was probably the low point of my ride, if there was a low ride. I was pretty tired and looking forward to the end. As I pulled in and met Yvonne she somehow was under the impression that this was were I was going to stop. She got mad when I told her, no, I’m going up to P-town. Not a great point in the journey to get in a fight with your crew. She went off in a huff. I climbed back on and cranked my tired legs up 6A again towards the end. You can use back roads to kind-of zigzag around rte. 6A at this point but I was too tired to mess with it and mostly stuck to the big road. Which sucked. It was hilly and trafficky with no cover and my legs were trashed. In this section I was battling a bit. Finally I got onto the access road that runs along the bay up into the town. This was a pretty, flat section with the ocean on your left. It’s funny how the big miles at the beginning of the ride seem to fly by but those last few seem to take forever. It was here that I walked a hill. What happened was, I was coming down a slight hill into an intersection with the intention of using my momentum to get up the other side, but a car cut me off and I had to come to a complete stop. I couldn’t convince my trashed legs to grind up the other side, so I took a break and pushed the bike for a little bit. Before long I was getting into Provincetown proper. Now, one thing I had not thought about was how difficult it would be to get through the center of P-Town on a Sunday afternoon. P-Town in August is a bit like Carnival. It’s a 200 year old fishing village that has thousands of party-ers dumped into it. Tiny roads filled with stop and go cars, tourists, scooters, it was Bedlam. And here I am, fairly wobbly on my big mountain bike trying to navigate it all without crashing. And then I was turning out onto Macmillan Pier. I rode all the way out to the end and hit stop on the watch at 123.73 miles and 10:15 for an average pace of 12.1 MPH including all the stops. My wife called me, which was good because I thought she may have abandoned the project and gone home. In fairness to her it was a pretty big ask, and probably not the best use of her weekend. She wasn’t able to get into the downtown and was idling at a parking lot a few blocks away. I got some bonus miles riding over to her. We threw the bike in the back and took off back down the Cape to Harwich where our house is. All-in-all I was pretty pleased with myself and the ride. In terms of difficulty, it really wasn’t that hard, but it was the right adventure for me at this point in my journey. We stopped at our house just long enough to shower and change and got back on the road. Yvonne was sick of travel and wanted to get home. I wouldn’t need that 4th buffer day after all. Turns out we got turned around trying to short cut across the suburbs back home, but we got there eventually. And we slept in our own bed that night. The next day I felt fine. No hangover at all from the riding. I could have easily gotten back on the bike for another day. I did have some saddle burn that took a week or so to heal up. Overall, I find bike riding to be easy in the endurance sense. My heart rate stays low, even in these long, hot, back-to-back rides. It’s a good workout, but it’s never hard. I never felt like I was at the edge. Maybe that’s what I need at this point in my life? Who knows. So that’s it. Two days, 250 miles. 127.7 in 10:03 on the first day and a slower 124.73 in 10:14 on the second day. Found some new trails. Had an adventure. … So what’s going with me? Well, it’s taken much longer to get over throwing my back out than I would have liked. I tried to restart the weightlifting last week but it was too soon, so I’m taking this week off as well. I’m feeling quite sad and broken around this latest setback. Not being able to do something, anything to stay fit, makes me squirmy. I suppose it’s another good lesson in resilience, but who among us takes their foul-tasting medicine well? My company shut down travel for the rest of the year which means I’ve been trapped in my home office looking at the walls far too much. I feel a bit like a recluse. Without the daily run or the daily workout it makes the walls close in. I guess it’s time for me to take up some new hobbies, like competitive lawn bowling or pickleball. It’s all very confusing and transitional for me to be sliding into my 60th birthday on this dust ball not knowing what the future holds. I had my follow up appointment with the knee Dr. and he was not very encouraging. I’ve got an MRI tomorrow and then a follow up. I really miss running on these cool fall days. Ollie-Wollie the killer collie is doing fine. We get out for our walk everyday. He’s 3.5 now and getting much less crazy everyday. I’ve got no races or projects on the calendar except the Mill Cities Relay in December. I am planning on restarting the body building campaign as soon as my back lets me. And, depending on what the MRI reveals maybe I can work some light running in over the winter. … At this point I guess I have to tell a story. My company requires us to use two volunteer days a year. On the surface this is a great thing. In reality it’s hard for me to find and plan something important to volunteer for during the work week. I have friends that work at homeless shelters or habitat for humanity and all sorts of other charities, but for some reason I find it hard to coordinate with official charities. Last year I used my two volunteer days doing trail maintenance in the local trails that I run. Basically I hiked the trails, picked up trash and cut/moved deadfall. I always discover that I have to use these days about this time of year when time is running out. This year I decided to take a Friday off and pick up trash on the roads around my house. I figured I could clean up those roads that I used to run every day. It always bothers me to see the trash along our beautiful New England roads. I don’t understand why people can’t just keep it in their cars until they get where they are going? So, last Friday I took a volunteer day. It was a bit harder than it should have been because my back was still really sore and I couldn’t bend over or lift very well, but a deals a deal. I went to a section of road near my house which is part of a 5-mile route I’ve run 1,000 times. It’s an old road. In this section I targeted, it runs flat through a swampy area and there are no houses. With the dry weather this summer the water table is low, and thus more of the swampy parts are accessible. I drove my truck over there and parked about midway in the section. I took out a couple big black plastic trash-can liner bags and got to work. It felt a bit strange being by myself out walking and picking up trash on a Friday during the day. I didn’t know if maybe someone would report my ‘strange behavior’ to the local authorities who would come and chase me off for not having the proper permits or something. I began filling my bag with cans and bottles and bags and wrappers that I could get to. It was maybe a ¼ mile stretch. I stayed off the shoulder as much as I could to stay out of the road and away from cars. There isn’t that much traffic here, but it’s an old road with narrow shoulders and I didn’t want to cause anyone to swerve. When I got to the end of the road I crossed over and turned around to walk the other side. A strange thing happened when I was midway down the other side. A passing car slowed down and pulled over. The driver rolled down his passenger window to talk to me. “Here we go!” I thought to myself. I’ve offended someone or something. The guy leans over from his driver side and shouts out the window at me, very earnestly, “Thank you! Thank you for what your doing!” He was incredibly earnest. Apparently somehow moved by me dragging a trash bag of beer cans down the road. He may have said some other praiseworthy things before driving off. Frankly I had my (one) headphone in and was listening to a compelling science fiction story. I really didn’t know how to respond. I guess I probably smiled and nodded my head in acknowledgement. I finished up that side of the road and completed the circuit back up the other side to my truck. Collecting two bags of miscellaneous cast-off refuse. When I sorted it out the next day, I found that the majority was recyclable. I even got some money for returning the cans and bottles. The lesson here is that you think that what you are doing is a small and, maybe, even a meaningless act in the grand scheme of things. I wasn’t feeding the hungry or helping the homeless or solving world peace. But, what I did on that day, that small action, apparently had a large impact on a fellow traveler. I always use the metaphor of ripples in a pond. Every act we take, no matter how small, crates ripples that spread out in ways unknown to us. Make that act an act of kindness and it will spread kindness. Make that act an act of helpfulness and it will propagate helpfulness. Even small actions change the world. Thanks for staying with me on this bike narrative thing and I hope you enjoyed the narrative. With any luck I’ll see you out there. Chris, Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 12 Jul 2020 | Episode 4-435 – The Athlete’s Gut | 00:59:44 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-435 – The Athlete’s Gut (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4435.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hey Folks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-435 of the RunRunLive Podcast. So, here we are. Mid-July in New England. And all that brings with it. The deer flies are thick as college students on a Florida beach. The days are long and weather is a dirty soup-like mixture that drains the sap right out of you when you’re outside. People are slowing down a bit and easing off to vacation houses for a bit of lock-down in a different place. Ollie and I have been getting out for 8 or so miles in the woods 3 days a week. Then I’ve been mixing in a long bike ride on Saturday with a longish run on Sunday mornings. My legs are tired but I have a good cadence going. Even with only 4 days of running I’ll end up with 40 miles this week. I’m catching up on the Great Virtual Run across Tennessee. I should pass the buzzard this week. This week - and I’m speaking to you from Sunday afternoon now - this week I ran Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday in the woods with Ollie. Saturday, I talked my running buddies into riding the Great Circum Groton Fondo with me yesterday that ended up being 37 ish easy road bike miles in the sun. It was a hoot. We stopped for muffins in Pepperell center about half way in – so that will give you an idea of the intensity with which we were riding! I guess I have to back up a bit. My friend Gordon, who is my friend Frank’s brother, (I run with Frank every Sunday), Gordon had this idea of setting up a relay race that went all the way around Groton, the town I grew up in and where my running club is based, without actually touching Groton at any point. I borrowed his course and we rode it on bikes yesterday. I toyed with making it into a real event for charity and such, but there wasn’t much interest, so we just went out and had a good long ride. Then this morning I got up early and ran 4.5 miles of trails with Ollie, then went and met the guys at 8:00 for another 10 on the road. A nice mix. Done by 10:00. I’m whipped! I could nap! I’m getting a good balanced set of miles in. I’m avoiding most of the heat. I’m giving the dog enough exercise to stay sane. Last weekend Ollie and I went down to our house in Cape Cod for the 4th of July. I ended up coming back early because it was just too crowded and frantic. I didn’t even attempt to go do my annual; beach run or my long ride on the rail trail. Maybe I’m turning into a hermit, but I was a bit disconcerted by all the people and how stressed out they were, so I came back. Today We are going to talk about all kinds of bodily fluids. Actually we are going to talk about ‘The Athlete’s Gut’ with Dr. Patrick Wilson. It’s his new book from Velo Press that answers the questions around why do I get nauseous or gassy or poopy when I’m running and racing? In section One I’m going to talk about sweat – because I realize that my half hearted treatment of hot weather running was a bit thin. In Section two I’ll talk about why certainty in an uncertain environment is so powerful. My work is very busy, but I’m having a good summer. I actually threw my hat in the ring for another role at this company. I have an interview tomorrow. I know there are a lot of job seekers out there these days. So I have a tip for you. There will come a point in that interview where you will get a hard question that you don’t know the answer to and when you do, you lean back, get a faraway look in your eyes, channel your inner Rutger Hauer and say: “I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain..” That won’t get you the job but you’ll be the topic of conversation in HR for weeks! On with the show. About Zero ZERO — The End of Prostate Cancer is the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer. ZERO advances research, improves the lives of men and families, and inspires action. Link to my ZERO page: (for Donations) … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Sweat - Voices of reason – the conversation Patrick Wilson Patrick Wilson is an associate professor of exercise science and directs the Human Performance Laboratory at Old Dominion University. He earned a PhD in exercise physiology from the University of Minnesota and completed post-doctoral training in sports nutrition at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Wilson has authored over 50 scientific articles that span the disciplines of exercise science, sports nutrition, and health. He is the author of the recently released book, The Athlete's Gut: The Inside Science of Digestion, Nutrition, and Stomach Distress. Wilson is also a credentialed registered dietitian through the Commission on Dietetic Registration. The gut does many wondrous things for us. Without it, we surely couldn’t exist. For many an athlete, however, the gut can also be a source of consternation before, during, and after exercise. Have you ever made a pre-race trip to the Porta Potty due to an uneasy gut? Or ducked into some roadside greenery mid-race because of an angry bowl? Or hurled up your breakfast in the loo before a big game? If yes, you’re just one of the innumerable number of athletes that have been plagued by gut issues. What is so often vexing about these gut problems is that they can have many different causes, and consequently, they often aren’t fixable with a single solution. Thankfully, there is now a resource available for athletes to turn to when they are struggling with gut issues: . It is without a doubt the most comprehensive, accessible book on how exercise and sport competition affect the gut. It helps makes sense of the complicated gastrointestinal tract and offers potential solutions to many of the digestive troubles that plague athletes, from the recreational to the elite. is a must-read for any athlete who is experiencing gastrointestinal problems that interfere with training or competition, as well as for coaches and practitioners that work with such athletes. Written by , assistant professor of exercise science and registered dietitian, combines the latest research on exercise and the gut with humorous descriptions and relatable, real-life anecdotes. After reading this book, athletes will better understand the inner workings of their own gut and will be equipped to implement strategies to perform—and feel—better. Patrick B. Wilson, PhD, RD Associate Professor Human Movement Sciences Old Dominion University 2003A Student Recreation Center Norfolk, VA 23529 Section two – Certainty in uncertain times – Outro Ok my friends we have run, clutching our side in gastrointestinal stress to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast Episode 4-435. I registered for the virtual Boston Marathon, it was $50. And, Apparently I was one of the first 15,000 so I get some special, super-secret care package from the BAA. I have a plan. I am going to run my Boston as part of a 43 mile out and back on the Wapack Trail on September 7th. I would love company if any of you can come up. We are going to start at Watatic and run to the end of the Wapack Trail on the back side of Pack Monnadnock, turn around and run back. This is the double of the race I ran in the spring a couple years ago. This will take us 10-12 hours. My friend Eric is coming up to join, because he can’t resist stupid shit like this. I will be able to wrangle some basic on course hydration support, but nothing fancy. Since it’s an out and back people can turn around any point they want. The Wapack is typical New England mountain trail. Mostly single-path and highly technical. Lot’s of elevation gain and loss, basically running the spine of a mountain range. In September the forest will be thick and shady, except where you break out on to the tops of the mountains. The weather is a crap shoot. You can get very hot days, well hot for us, mid-80’s. You can get the tail end of a hurricane with cold rain. That’s part of the fun. For the most part it’s very sheltered from the weather under the canopy. So – that’s what I’ll be training for. That’s my summer project. … I’ve been listening to a history of ancient Egypt. And since we have been talking about digestion and hydration I have a story for you. I would imagine you are familiar with the electrolyte mix called Nuun? I can’t prove it but I’d like to think they based that name on the Egyptian creation myth. In the beginning, all that existed was the sacred water. The lifeless sacred waters from which all things would be made were called Nun. They were the waters of chaos and the waters of everything. The first god Atum created himself from the Nun. He got bored with being the only god so he decided to create some more gods and other stuff, like all the rest of the stuff we have in this world. Now he didn’t have a partner to do anything procreative with so he, umm, ‘handled that situation himself’ and fertilized the Nun from which everything else came into being. So…Think about that the next time you take a big swig of that warm, sweet, cloudy Nuun at mile 40 of your ultra. And I’ll see you out there. (Outro bumper) To take you out is Track number 14 from Brian Sheff The Rock Opera by - Called "Bobby LeFavre” Enjoy MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 13 Feb 2022 | Episode 4-473 – Sidney – A Pioneer from Boston | 00:53:01 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-473 – Sidney – A Pioneer from Boston (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4473.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Chris’ other show à Intro: Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-473 of the RunRunLive Podcast. This one is going to be brief. As I told you last time, I got a new role, and it’s kicking my ass. I’m basically working two roles at the same time during the transition period. So I have to keep the plates spinning in my old job which is customer facing and then spin up my new job which is building out a new business. All of which leaves me… What did you think I was going to say? Exhausted? Overwhelmed? Nah, you know me by now – it’s true that I have paucity of applicable hours and I’m drowning, but I’m energized! Actually haven’t felt this alive in years – as far as work goes. Yeah, I find myself late in the afternoon with my head groggy and I have to get on a call with Japan and I’m like “I’m cooked!” But, then I remember. I remember all the things we’ve talked about over the years. How to focus on your process. How to relax into the discomfort. How to breathe and smile. When you get tired, focus on your form, your hips and have grit. It will all work out. And if it doesn’t, who cares? That was just a long way of saying I didn’t have any spare time this week to work on this podcast. But I’m going to push through. Today we have a great chat with Sidney Baptista, a smart entrepreneur from Boston who’s got his hands in a lot of things one of which being a running clothes startup called Pynrs. You should follow him on Instagram. Sidbap. Tell him I sent you. In section one… well, who knows I haven’t written it yet. You might get nothing! You might get poetry. You might get some tried retread of an article I wrote years ago. In section two – yeah probably something similar. What can I do? I’m drowning over here. The only reason I’m writing this is to avoid housework. I guess the lesson here is that you’re never too old to learn something. You’re never too old to fall in love. Perhaps it’s even easier. Certainly makes you wonder about how you spend your idle hours. On with the show. About Zero ZERO — The End of Prostate Cancer is the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer. ZERO advances research, improves the lives of men and families, and inspires action. Link to my ZERO page: (for Donations) … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. … Section one – Dallas Ice Storm - http://runrunlive.com/the-last-snow-plow-a-lyric-opera-in-6-parts Voices of reason – the conversation Sidney Baptista – PYNRS owner Sidney Baptista is an entrepreneur and community advocate passionate about leveraging running to create experiences and connect diverse communities. He is the Founder of PYNRS Performance Streetwear. and PIONEERS Run Crew, as well as a running coach. Sidney believes in the power of running to create connections, elevate voices, and champion change. While he wears many hats, his favorite two are being a proud father and husband to his wonderful family. - links: Section two –Prospecting - Outro Ok my friends we run through the mean streets of Dorchester to the end of episode 4-473 of the RunRunLive Podcast. We are the pioneers. My training is going horrible. Yeah, you heard me. I tackled a 15 mile long run last week in the freezing cold and tried to do it at a 30/90 interval. I got it done but my knee did not react well. It’s basically back to square one. I made a break for it Tuesday night with the dog, but the conditions were so slippery, and the knee was giving me that sharp pain. You know the one. (Here’s a tip for you kids, sharp pains are usually bad.) I made it about a hundred feet from my driveway and bailed. Not worth it. And I’ve taken the rest of the week off. I’m going to give it a try tomorrow and back down to a shorter run interval. See if I can get back on track. Because I’m signed up for the Flying Pig Marathon in May. Me, Tim, Duane and Dave are renting a house. Come on up. We’ll have some fun. Even if the knee doesn’t’ turn around I can finish a marathon. After that I’m thinking maybe I’ll switch over to Mountain biking for the summer. Buy some good knee pads. I have to figure out how to take Ollie Wollie with me. Is there a way to ride a mountain bike with the dog on leash? That sounds disastrous. But I have to do something because we are both getting fat! I’ll tell you a story from work. Like I said I’m transitioning out of a group that I worked with since the pandemic started 2 years ago. It was a start up of a new business process and we were the pioneers, figuring it out as we went along. I didn’t think I was doing that good of a job. I was acting like I knew what I was doing and pushing through a lot of hard stuff on a wing and a prayer. But in my mind I was barely holding on. I wasn’t making enough progress. I wasn’t getting enough accomplished. I was trying to bring more of myself to the team. More of the real me. I started a fitness group. I coached as much as a could. I made a point to try not to be as much of a narcissist know it all as I can be. I tried to be kind and helpful and mindful. But, I didn’t think I was making any progress. Here’s the thing. I have been totally blown away by the people coming to me and saying how much they appreciated the work I did. How I helped them. How I made a difference. And I’m not saying that as a narcissist. I think it’s just the opposite. My whole career I’ve been focused on me. Me. Me. Me. But when I stopped gripping the wheel so tightly I had more of an impact. That’s the lesson. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 07 Apr 2016 | Episode 4-336 – Varsity Punk Director Anthony Solorzano | 00:52:41 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-336 – Varsity Punk Director Anthony Solorzano (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4336.mp3] Link Team Hoyt Boston 2016 Campaign -> MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-336 of the RunRunLive Podcast. I’m squeezing this one in on an off week to help out my interviewee today, Anthony Solorzano, (sounds like a character from a Quintin Tarantino film), but he’s a lifelong runner, with a passion, who is making, or has actually made a movie called Varsity Punks. His Kickstarter campaign to put the finishing touches on this new cross country team themed movie ends on April 13th. I figured with a little extra midnight oil I could get this episode up in time before that kickstarter closes. If you want some good swag and want to help Anthony bring a running-themed feature length film to market go now and kick some cash his way. I’m not getting any kickbacks, I just like the idea of bringing the discussion around running as a real sport out into the open! I try to help people when I can. It’s karma. So, yeah, we’re talking to Anthony today about his movie. Go watch the trailer – it’s cool – the links are in the notes. If I can swing it you’ll get 3 podcasts in three weeks – plus all the good stuff I’m putting into the members section.In the first section I’m going to talk about why sometimes your training is always hard and why it’s ok. In the second section I wax counter-culturally about passion. What I’m not going to give you are any advertisements. No Harry’s razors, no Audible and no Stamps.com. Actually, while we’re on the topic, I think you should go to the post office. The public post is one of the great enablers of civilized society. Yeah it’s slow and everyone is grumpy but that’s why you should go down there. Think of the great impact you and your positive attitude can have on those poor, lost souls standing in line! If you bought your stamps online you’d be denying them your bright light.Those confused old people using pennies to buy stamps ae the greatest generation. They are the defenders of democracy and the western world. You should go get to know them.Get thee to the post office! Go when it’s busy. Stop along the way and bring coffee and donuts. Strike up conversations, make friends and make someone’s day. Life’s not just about the miserly squeezing of pennies and minutes. Treat it like a safari, and adventure. We are Ad free and listener supported. To keep it that way we have created members’ only content.By signing up for a membership, you will get…Access To Exclusive Members Only audioMember only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!(You have to check out the zombie story I put out last week... It’s awesome)Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all ShowsIntro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. (I’ve got episodes 4329 – 4335 up – in pieces - already) We will consider other benefits as they are requested by you, because when you’re a member it’s all about you! I’d like to thank Eric and Keating and Cliff and Judith for paying the dealer this week. I asked for feedback and Eric said I’m not funny anymore. I used to be funny. So I’ll tell you some jokes: Clean jokes for your kids. For all you teachers and coaches. The first one is for trail runners. Q: How do crazy runners go through the forest? A: They take the psycho path.No didn’t like that one? This next one I may converted from a blonde joke…Q: Why did the Labrador retriever jog backwards? A: She wanted to gain weight!And here’s one the 3-5 year-olds will think is hilarious… Q: Did you hear about the race between the lettuce and the tomato? A: The lettuce was a "head" but the tomato was running to "ketchup"! …I kicked ass in the Eastern States 20 miler a couple weeks ago as my last tune up for Boston. I came in at 5-10 seconds a mile faster than my goal pace even though it was my 2nd 20 miler inside of 7 days and I had to make a 2-minute potty stop at mile 7. My Heart rate was a bit high and I had a little power loss at mile 16-18 but my legs were strong and I finished strong. All the lights are green for Boston. We just have to get decent weather and I have to figure out how to navigate around the 14-16,000 runners between where I’m starting and my pace group. My number is 28766 if you want to track me.Now I’m in my taper. That doesn’t mean I’ll stop training it just means I’ll switch to race specific training like shorter speed work, strength and stretching. I also have to reign the diet in to see if I can cut 5-10 pounds for the race. I was a wrestler in high school – so I know how to drop weight.I’ve been pretty hard on myself for not being able to make this qualification time. I could have knocked this time out without too much struggle in 2011 before I ran (heh heh) into a couple of wee health challenges. But, I suppose, if you look at the age-graded curve with the new qualification times you could make a case that if I succeed this year it will be an age-graded PR for me by 3-5 minutes. I don’t know. I try not to get too wrapped around the axle on this sort of mental gymnastics. It’s all a bit self-serving. Anyone who wants to say ‘hi’ on marathon weekend, that’s typically a challenge for me because I’m pretty busy and I like to lay low before the race. I usually go into the expo on Saturday Morning to get my stuff. My club has a hotel room at the finish if you want to stop by and have a shower or an adult beverage I’ll be there. Fair warning though – given my starting coral I may not be rolling in until after 4:00! It’s ironic that we are almost back to the traditional noon start we used to have for the race!Crazy days! Everything is going too well. Must be a crises coming!…Getting ready to talk with Anthony this week I did some reminiscing about my stint on my prep school cross country team. I’m fairly confident that my time on a New England Prep School team was probably different than Anthony’s time running in high school in East LA. Who knows, maybe there are more similarities than differences? I only ran for my last 2 years. I joined up because the captains of the wrestling team were also the captains of the cross country team. We had a pretty small team. But I made the varsity team. I was the 5th man. This is the slow guy that you need to fill out the team for scoring purposes. The top 5 guys get scored in the meets. I would finish in the middle of the pack. I was probably running in the low 6-minute mile range. Story of my life – steady and mediocre!I hated the races. Our courses were short and mostly off-road. Some of them had obstacles like steeplechase. Like fallen trees, steep hills – stuff like that but also a lot of athletic fields. Most of the courses in our league were 2 miles or less – so it was pretty much an all-out anaerobic effort. Those short races hurt like hell.They’d line us up across some soccer field or something in separate corals by team, maybe a couple hundred feet of starting line – all spread out. Then invariably after 100 meters or so they’d slam you into a single path trail. Everyone would have to come off the line in a dead sprint to get to the trail first and box the other guys out. Yeah, it was like the hunger games. But, I loved the practices. We’d go out as a team on these long runs all around Groton. Out on the back roads and through the woods. It was awesome. I learned a lot about training and running.We used to ride to away meets in a school van. Because our team was so small we could fit in one van. Our coach would drive. He was a kindly guy who was also the Trigonometry teacher. Oddly enough he smoked a pipe. Hey it was the 70’s. The pipe tobacco he liked was called “Borkum Riff” and I remember that smell as he smoked his pipe in the van on the way to the meet. Sports were never a priority for me. I am so glad that the prep school I went to forced you to do competitive sports. If they hadn’t I might never have learned what little I was capable of. It isn’t about winning, or being a champion. It’s about learning. Learning what you’re capable of. Learning how to be a member of a team. Learning how to suffer for that team.Make sure you and your kids and your community have that opportunity to learn.On with the Show!Section one - Running TipsIt’s supposed to hurt sometimes - Voices of reason – the conversationAnthony – “Varsity Punks”Yes! The first link below takes you to our Kickstarter campaign (which ends early April) and has the first trailer to Varsity Punks, as well as a lot of the pertinent info. I was hoping you'd be able to squeeze in Anthony shortly before the end of the Kickstarter but late April would absolutely work. I also included a few other links. I specifically recommend the KCET article. What is Varsity Punks?An independent feature film in the making! It’s a fun high school movie about belonging, portrayed with authentic teenage moments and inspiring sports drama.Genre: Coming-Of-Age Sports Comedy Setting: Present-day San Gabriel Valley Estimated Running Time: 100 min. Logline: When star quarterback, AJ Montoya, breaks his hand, his only hope is to team up with his longtime rivals – the cross country team, a group of nerds and misfits with potential for high school glory!Production Update: (as of Nov. 2015)We are currently in post-production. That means we are done shooting and now it’s time to put the movie together through editing, color correction, music and sound design. You can expect a completed film early in 2016.Where Can I See It? Some time around Spring/Summer 2016 Section two5 myths about finding your true passion - OutroFriends and members, runners and cavaliers, you have giggled, guffawed and snickered your way to the end of Episode 4-336 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Now go do something useful. When this podcast drops I’ll be around 10 days out from Boston. I’m still not injured or broken. I’m a little heavy but my legs are strong. Coach has me doing pace runs and shorter track stuff to ‘freshen the legs’. The hay is in the barn and it’s almost time to dance with the devil. Did you see Neely from last week’s interview was on the cover of that famous running magazine this month? I swear those guys follow me around just to poach my good ideas! A couple reminders before I let you go. You can still support my Team Hoyt campaign for Boston. The links are in the show notes. April 24th is our 25th anniversary Groton Road Race. We’ve set up the virtual race if you want join from afar – just go to – Hope to see you there. It’s been a great privilege for me to be able to work with the race. I figure everyone already knows by now but I have 3 books that you can get on Amazon. First is called “The Mid-Packer’s Lament” a collection of running stories, some of them quite funny, (Eric), “The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy” is a second collection stories, some of them quite funny and my latest “MarathonBQ” outlines the program and all the tricks and tips I used to qualify for Boston when I was a puppy – and that one is on Audible as well and isn’t funny at all. More jokes here…These are a little edgier…you might want to tell them to your 10 year-olds.Q: What do you get when you run in front of a car? A: TIRED Q: Q: What do you get when you run behind a car? A: EXHAUSTED Q: What do you do when a golden retriever throws a pin at you? A: Run! She's got a hand grenade in her mouth. …I’m looking forward to Boston and Groton. As I get older I’m learning to enjoy these great sign-post moments in my life. I stop the smell the roses more. I can’t tell if that is the blunting of my own passions or the sanguinity of self-awareness.Zen Runner did a bit a few weeks ago about bucket list items. I was looking at the things that people came up with and wondering about my own list. Which is another strange thing we do – compare the things we’ve accomplished or more appropriately collected with other people. People were listing things like run a marathon or an ultra or maybe qualify for Boston…things like that. And it kind of struck me that while I’ve been going about my business I’ve collected a lot of souvenirs and memories. I’ve been graced and for that I am grateful.Run a marathon? How about more than 50? Qualify for Boston? Yup. Write a book? Uh huh 3 of em. Ultra? Sure. Start a business, yessir. Triathlons? Yup. Mountain bike ultras? Done. Be a race director? Affirmative. Read the classics? Most of em. Stay married and raise a couple of functional adults. Present and accounted for. See the world? A good chunk of it.Interestingly, I never sat down and said ‘these are the things that I want to accomplish’. This was an organic mélange of little projects that interested me at the time. A portfolio of hobbies, passions and necessities. I’m not done. Not by a long shot. I’ve got a list of cool stuff in my back pocket that I’m going to shoehorn into this world one way or another. Like the marquee on a B movie “The Adventure Continues (dot dot dot)”.It’s not a contest. There is no score on the polished granite marker that lays in the grass above your withered corpse. Yesterday, today, tomorrow; it’s all the same. Do what interests you. Don’t keep score. Keep swinging away until the bat falls from your hands.And I’ll see you out there.Closing comments So, yeah, the universe is in balance… – and l’ll see you out there.MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 31 May 2015 | Shadow Puppets 1.0 | 00:13:12 | |
Honey, I lost the Podcast... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 30 Sep 2016 | Episode 4-349 – Chrissy Runs a BQ | 00:45:30 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-349 – Chrissy Runs a BQ (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4349.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-349 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Today we chat with Chrissy Simmons who made the grave mistake of tell me on facebook that she ran a qualifying marathon using my MarathonBQ training plan. Of course I coerced her into an interview. The audio quality is a bit off because we were using the telephone to record. Most of the time I can use a skype plugin to record digital audio but we couldn’t swing it this time. Think of it as quaint trip down technology memory lane when we used to pick up the phone and call each other over twisted pair, copper wire, plain old telephones. I like to talk to folks who have used the plan successfully because when I was writing it down I never really knew if it would work for other people or if it was just some strange manifestation of my own personal demons. I thoroughly tickles me to hear it working and to hear people learning the things I learned by going through it. When you boil it down it’s really about speed. I’ve heard a couple interviews of Shalane and the other marathoners since the Olympics. They train up to 100 – 120 miles a week. Most of it varying forms of long tempo which is very specific to the marathon distance. In essence their training is specific practice for the race they are looking to run. They are training to find and stay on that edge of the pace where they maximize their results without crashing. They don’t do a lot of speed work. Why? Because they are already fast. They are coming up from the track or the shorter distances. They already know how to run fast. The amateur mid-packer marathoner is different. We may have never run track in school. We don’t know how to run fast. Even those of us who may have run 20-30 marathons. We know how to run, we just need to get faster if we want to qualify for Boston or any other race. The key light bulb idea for you is this. Everyone is capable of running fast. They just have never practiced running fast. They don’t know how. That’s the main question I addressed in MarathonBQ; “How do I take 20 – 40 minutes off my marathon finishing time?” The answer logically is to run faster. But how? The answer is to practice, rigorously running faster. Simple. Not all simple ideas are powerful, but most powerful ideas are simple. In section one I’ll chat a bit about how to experiment with speed. Not just for the marathon, but in general as a component of your tool kit. In section two I’m going to talk a bit about your personal finances. Why? Because I just went through a long avoided financial planning process and I think I’ve got it figured out and thought I’d do you the service of telling you what I learned. So how’s my training going? As it turns out, fairly well. The big part of it is that I’ve stayed on the nutrition plan that I began as a 30-day project in August. I dipped under 170 pounds last week which is as light as I’ve been since the 1980’s and that really has had a positive effect on my training. It has a dual impact. The healthy, lean diet has my body reacting better to workouts and the weight loss has put a pop back into my pace. The net result is I’m able to train at a pace that is a lot more familiar and comfortable to me and I’m guessing that I’ll benefit from that. I raced the Spartan Beast last weekend and you should get a nice long race report on the podcast feed if everything works out. I followed up with a nice 3-hour, 21ish mile long run the weekend after. I still don’t have a lot of volume but I’m going to continue on this nutrition plan through the Portland Oregon marathon in October and see what happens. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio Last week I uploaded two, count ‘em, two, book reviews. One for the Neal Stephenson SevenEves scifi tome and another for Moonwalking with Einstein, a treatise on memory techniques. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. For the cost of a pack of Clean and Clear , to, you know, remove that extra shine off your brow, you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew. There is no shipping charge for membership and I just today fixed the bug in the annual membership signup process! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … I have a course at home that I do most of my workouts on. It runs down some back roads that are fairly light in traffic. It’s rolling hills through neighborhoods. One of the modest 1950’s ranch houses I run by has had a sign for one of the current political candidates out in his front wall. I say ‘his’ because I’ve seen him. He’s a white guy, about my age. The yard and the house are well kept but not overly fastidious. He drives an older model red Volvo sedan. He and his wife live there on that classic suburban ¼ acre lot. Doesn’t look like there are any kids. He’s had his sign up since the primaries. I shake my head when I run by. I wonder what has happened to him to make him so angry. I wonder what his narrative is. I’ve often thought of starting one of my speeches by talking about all the challenges I’ve had to overcome in my life. I say it with great seriously and gravitas. How hard it was to grow up white and male in the suburbs of the richest state on the richest country in the world. I’d spin my miserable yarn about how I had to cope with being healthy and well fed, being provided the best education by loving parents who were in a stable long term marriage. I wonder how long the audience would stay with me? These are confusing times for many. If you can look beyond that confusion. If you can look within. You will find abundance. And I just wish more people would see that abundance. Do you believe in abundance? On with the show. Section one – Getting Faster -. http://runrunlive.com/getting-faster Voices of reason – the conversation Chrissy Simmons I am a 34 year old living and working in Winchester, KY. I enjoy hiking and various outdoor activities, playing with my two dogs, and of course having drinks with good friends. But my primary hobby is definitely running. Over the years, I have established my top 3 running goals: 1.) Run a marathon in all 50 states (16 down!) 2.) Finish a 100-mile race (50-mile race completed. 100K scheduled for 12/31/16) 3.) Qualify for the Boston Marathon (Done!). I started running when I was 25 years old. With help from the well-known Couch to 5K training plan, I ran my first 5K. 3 years later in 2010, I ran my first marathon at the Cincinnati Flying Pig (4:38). Since then, I have run about 25 races that were marathon length or longer. Some of those were ultra-marathons, some trail marathons, some races I did just for fun, and some I did to check new states off the list. I would say that I honestly put effort into training for about 6-7, making gradual improvements to my finishing times by loosely following hybrids of various available training plans. Qualifying for Boston was a dream I had from the beginning and after finally breaking the 4:00 mark in 2014, the goal felt like it was in reach. On 6/6/16, I started the MarathonBQ training plan with a goal to run a 3:35 marathon (BQ -5). And on 9/11/16, I finished the Erie Marathon with an official time of 3:34:36. Training with this plan during a hot, miserable summer was brutal at times but the final result was definitely worth it. Section two Financial Independence - Outro How about that? You, my abundant friends have sped your way to the end of Episode 4-349 of the RunRunLive podcast. Do you feel faster? I do. Next up for me is the Portland Or marathon in two weeks. I don’t know what to expect, but I’m hopeful. Travel marathons are always a bit of a wild card for me, but we’ll see how it goes. Depending on how things go in Oregon I may look for a November race. Other than that there is the tradition of volunteering at the BayState Marathon in October and either volunteering or running the Groton Town Forest 10 miler and then of course the traditional Ayer Fire Department 5K on Thanksgiving morning. One new development is that I’m setting up a website for the Groton Marathon. I’ll read you the copy. “The Groton Marathon was founded in December of 2013 by veteran runner Chris Russell. He was in the midst of a ‘marathon a month’ streak in honor of the Boston Marathon bombings from April 2013 to April 2014. The marathon he was scheduled to run in December was canceled due to snow. Frustrated at the lack of convenient distance events in the Massachusetts area, Chris grabbed a couple running buddies and created the first Groton Marathon to keep his streak alive. The Run has repeated each year since. This year, 2016, we want to open up the race to a select number of applicants who are facing the same shortage of local distance events to keep their streaks alive. If a small, lightly managed run with veteran runners in December sounds like a fit for you, join us this year.” … That’s what I’m up to. It’s an abundant life. I don’t have to stop and ask permission if I can create my own race. I just have to do it. The way I’m able to continue to run and have adventures is simply that I believe I can, and I do it. Frankly the biggest challenges we face in this era and in this season of our lives is that there is too much abundance. The challenge is how to focus your energy on the handful of things that bring value to you and your family and your community. The Millennials talk about FOMO – ‘fear of missing out’. That’s a classic example of how abundance makes us crazy. There are too many good choices and we either freeze in place overwhelmed or flit from thing to thing like deranged dilettantes. And then I’m out for a walk with Buddy in my woods. With the dry sun filtering through the green tree canopy and falling mottled in the leaf litter. The old stone walls delineating sheep pastures that long ago gave way to forest. We stop to breath in that good air. We listen to the skittering of squirrels and the chittering of birds… And we know abundance. Think about the abundance in your life. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 14 Jun 2020 | Episode 4-433 – Eric Runs Across Missouri | 00:55:53 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-433 – Eric Runs Across Missouri (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4433.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-433 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Been a weird couple of weeks for me. I’ve been working out of the house, which I’m a bit used to, but the new bit is this part about being on video calls all day long for many days with no break. It can be really exhausting. I’ve got a guy replacing all the trim boards on my house over the last couple weeks as well. So I’ve got him banging on the wall while I’m trying to talk to people. Which is the new normal. People just forget they’re on these calls and all kinds of crazy stuff goes on in the background. Him ripping the boards off has disturbed the hornets that live in the eaves. I had one wandering around my bathroom one morning. And as much as I tried to avoid it, it ended up stinging me a little. Hornets are ferocious little critters. Bad attitudes. Up here in New England the seasons have flipped and all is green. The mosquitoes and ticks are out. I’m harvesting lettuce from my garden. Good year for lettuce. Immediately after we last spoke I woke up with a back issue. I don’t know what I did but my back locked up. It’s a problem I’ve had before when I do too much snow shoveling or something like that. It is very painful. You can’t bend and it hurts to sit, hurts to walk, just hurts. Your lower back is such an integral part of everything you do. Got up the second morning of this and basically had to crawl on my hands and knees to the bathroom. Went to my chiro on the third day and got some immediate relief. It’s still pretty sore this week but I think that has to do with spending so much time in the chair. I’ve started doing some of these meeting standing up, but you’re still constrained and hunched. The end result was I took a week totally off from training and it was surprisingly relaxing. Was a good break to reenergize and rethink what I want to do with my training and racing going forward. I’m still on my nutrition plan and hovering around 170 pounds but I’m losing enthusiasm for it as we move into summer and all the good eats and drinks that are part of that! I’m back to running now and feel good. I’m going to pivot to some longer trail based training. I’m working on cooking up some events in the fall. Today we talk to our old friend Eric who I ran Leadville with last year. He did something amazing by running across Missouri on Memorial Day weekend. In section one I’ll talk about taking a week off. In section two I’ll talk about some ways to recharge in today’s weird hyper-work world. As I write this on a fine cool morning that looks like it will emerge into a humid summer day I’ve got a purple T-shirt on. I have been wearing shirts with collars all week to try to look somewhat professional on the video, but this morning I saw a nice purple race T under the pile so I’m wearing that. Did you know that purple is the royal color? It was a prized color in classical times. The Greeks and Romans somehow figured out that a predatory land snail in Lebanon, that they called murex, secreted this color and they could make that into dye. In the Eastern Roman Empire, what we would refer to as the Byzantine Empire, but that’s a construct of modern historians, they just called themselves Romans, anyhow, they referred to a person being of royal blood or royal pedigree as “Being born in the purple”. Isn’t it amazing how we humans can make the leap from snail snot to justification of royalty? We really do have an outstanding ability to make stuff up and believe in it. On with the show. About Zero ZERO — The End of Prostate Cancer is the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer. ZERO advances research, improves the lives of men and families, and inspires action. Link to my ZERO page: (for Donations) … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – A week off - Voices of reason – the conversation Eric Strand Section two – Recharge – Outro Well, my friends, you have run across Missouri to the well-deserved micro-brewery that is at the end of the RunRunLive Podcast Episode 4-433 – Thank you for your company! Alrighty. So what now? I have decided to pivot my training for the summer. Instead of the holding pattern of marathon training I’m going to target some ultra-distance trail running and some casual bike riding. For a few reasons. First, because I’m feeling a bit too fragile with all this race-specific training and need to broaden up for a cycle. Second, if any races are going to be run this fall, they are going to be longer, smaller trail races. And, bike riding to get some cross training and most of the guys in my cohort can’t run as much anymore so Some casual bike riding is a good way to spend time with friends. I’m contemplating organizing a Fondo around Groton with my running club for July. And some dort of longer trail run, perhaps on the Wapack for Labor day, which, by the way would kill two birds with one stone by logging 26.1 miles of it for the virtual Boston. And I’m behind on my virtual race across Tennessee from taking a week off. I’m 4 days behind, which isn’t much. It’s only like 20 miles, but some longer sessions would help me get back in the hunt so I can finish before 8/31. Eric, BTW, with all his shenanigans is finishing this week. OK – so those are my loose plans. I’ll tell you a couple stories and a dad joke for Father’s Day and we can all get on with our lives. Switching back to the trails is good because I can take Ollie with me. The challenge is he’s not leash trained yet, so he’s a bit of a nightmare to run with on leash. With the Apocalypse the woods are just stuffed with cranky people and I unless it’s off-hours I have to put him on leash. I have the standard 6-foot leash. He goes right to the end of that and pulls. No matter how much I correct him he’s constantly leaning on the leash. It’s exhausting. It’s also a bit dangerous because he stays right in my line of sight and occludes my line on the trails. Makes it hard to carry anything in my hands with all the jerking about. He won’t go near the ponds or lakes to get a drink because he’s decided he’s afraid of them. He won’t drink out of my bottle, either, because he doesn’t trust me not to squirt him. I’m gong to have to get some sort of collapsible dish for him that I can carry. There is a boom population of rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks this year and he likes to take off after those as well. Friday, when we were out, and he was on leash, a big snake ran across the trail in front of us. I saw it and calculating its progress could see it would be well out of our way by the time our paths intersected and I didn’t bother to break pace. We don’t have any poisonous snakes in New England. Ok, technically there is an Eastern Timber Rattlesnake and the Copperhead viper, but those are both endangered and you have a better chance of getting hit by lightning. Anyhow, Ollie saw that snake and jumped backwards, causing me to have to jump vertically to vault him. It’s funny how the fear of snakes is so deeply ingrained in us mammals. Lots’ of bad blood between us and the reptiles I guess over the millennia. I had him out Saturday in the trails, mostly on leash and he was a nightmare. You’d think he’d get tired of dragging my fat ass around after a few miles. He joined me today for and hour and forty five minutes on a combination of rail trail and roads with my buddies. I was on the rail trail around 7:00 AM. I brought my old iPhone and my headphones, figuring I’d be all alone at 7 Amon a cool Sunday morning and could catch up on some listening. I brought the extendable leash which I think is about 15 feet. He pulls less on that one, probably because it has some built in resistance and partly because it gives him more line. Because, you know, Apocalypse… I was to have no peace. The trail was packed. Bikes, joggers, walkers and some lady screaming into her cellphone in Spanish – it was like taking public transit on a Friday Afternoon when the Red Sox are playing. I had to take out my headphones so I could hear the traffic or someone was going to die. The new herd of Apocalypse bikers are not going very fast. Some are barely moving faster than my running pace. Which is fine but it’s takes forever for them to catch you and pass you. Especially if you’re trying to control a mental border collie. If you’re a heads down cyclist training away at 20+ miles an hour in aero I would stay away from public rail trails for awhile. It’s a bit of a carnival. And here’s your Dad joke for Father’s Day. A hamburger walks into a bar. He goes up to the bartender and says “I’d like a bowl of Chili please.” The bartender looks at him and says, “Sorry, we don’t serve food here.” Keep moving friends, It ain’t all bad, is it? I’ll see you out there. (Outro bumper) To take you out is Track number 12 from Brian Sheff The Rock Opera by - Called "Hold on tight to your dreams" Enjoy MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 31 Jan 2021 | Episode 4-448 – Dave McGillivray Boston Marathon to Covid Vaccination | 00:48:32 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-448 – Dave McGillivray Boston Marathon to Covid Vaccination (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4448.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Intro: Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-448 of the RunRunLive Podcast. How we doin? Here we are flipping the page to February of 2021. How about that? Big news from my side of the world, that being New England, is the cold. Cold, cold, cold. It was zero degrees F this morning. I just got back from 7ish miles in the woods with Ollie. We waited until after lunch and the temp came up over 20. Nice day, sunny, windless, cold. It’s really good running in the trials right now. With the freeze, the ground is nice and hard. We got a couple of light snowstorms earlier in the week, maybe 3-5 inches of fluffy snow. With so much traffic in the trails these days it’s all packed down and hard and fast. It’s only icy where the spring come up. I had a pretty good week of running coming off the end of the infected toe. The antibiotics cleared the infection up. I took a bout a week off, but was back on it this week. I bought some silicone toe caps, toe protect that toe while it heals. They work really well for me. For some people they fall off, but for my big toe they fit great and keep the toe safe. I got back to training. Had a pretty good weekend, despite the cold weather. Friday I did a set of long hills in the cold, which were awful while I was doing them, but when I looked at the data were a decent effort. Yesterday I did a long 16 miler in the trails. Most of it was pretty sucky, but that’s how ultra training is supposed to go. You run until it sucks and then you run more. That’s the name of the game. And Ollie and I knocked out another 7 just now so that’s close to 30 miles in 3 days. That’s encouraging. I didn’t take Ollie yesterday for the long run. I thought it might be too cold for him. I didn’t want to chance him hurting his feet. For myself, I had to figure out how to carry water. The challenge with this weather is that your bottles freeze in under an hour in any handheld. And the bite valves freeze even faster on your packs. What I ended up doing was wearing my Aonjiie vest with the two 500ML bite valve bottles under my outer layer. I had my phone in an inner layer as well. That worked well. The bite valves didn’t freeze and I could unzip my outer layer to get a drink. I brought an old spring energy recovery gel from my ultra-bag; that bag where I keep all the ultra stuff, for fuel. But when I opened it up at the halfway point it tasted like it had gone bad. So – basically 3 hours in the cold with no fuel. My balaclava froze to my head. But I got it done and felt fine today. After the antibiotics and taking a week off I was noticeable chubby so I’ve been watching my food this week and have already knocked 5 pounds off. Today we chat with out old friend, director of the Boston Marathon, Dave McGillivray. He is a case study in resilience and the power of a positive attitude. This pandemic knocked his business of race directing right out from under him. He had to pivot. And he did. He’s now running the vaccinations at Fenway and Gillette stadium. Of course we also sneak in some Boston Marathon talk. In section one I’m going to talk about what to expect and how to counter the effects of aging as an athlete and in section two I’ll talk about work stress. Because I’ve had a really stressful week of work. And I got through it. Next week might be worse or better – but I’ll get through it. I try to show up with a positive attitude, have empathy and lead as best I can. I also know I’m not going to get everything done and I make choices about what to not get done based on what’s important to me. Getting my workouts in is important to me. Writing and communicating is important to me. You, you’re important to me. We’re in this together right? That’s what they keep telling me anyhow… On with the show. About Zero ZERO — The End of Prostate Cancer is the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer. ZERO advances research, improves the lives of men and families, and inspires action. Link to my ZERO page: (for Donations) … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. … Section one – The Aging Athlete - Voices of reason – the conversation DAVE MCGILLIVRAY– DMSE Sports WHEN DAVE MCGILLIVRAY FOUNDED DMSE SPORTS IN A MEDFORD, MA, STOREFRONT IN 1981, RUNNING WAS KNOWN AS JOGGING, WICKING MATERIAL WAS A TERRY CLOTH HEADBAND, AND SPORTS DRINKS AND RUNNING SHOES WERE IN THEIR INFANCY. OUR MISSION DMSE Sports is an industry leader in event management operations and logistics. From road races to charity walks, we pride ourselves on producing safe and technically excellent events by creating trusted relationships, paying attention to every detail, and executing flawlessly. DMSE strives to produce the highest-caliber experience, whether consulting on existing events or building and managing them from the ground up. OUR COMMITMENT Black Lives Matter. We at DMSE Sports have always supported that sentiment internally, but stayed silent externally. However, we want to be part of the change for good, and to do that, we recognize it’s necessary to speak out and stand in solidarity with those who are fighting for equality and racial justice. It’s time we become better allies. To externalize our internal anti-racist beliefs, to learn from those who have lived the experiences, to listen when they point to injustices and prejudice. Black and brown lives matter, and they deserve to have an equal opportunity for happiness, success, and long life. As a start, we will be donating all funds raised by the DMSE Foundation during the Medford2Medford race to organizations that directly support communities of color. This is just the beginning of DMSE's effort to effect real change. We know we have a long road ahead. OUR EVENTS The company and its 75+ consultants manage more than 30 major road races and charitable events per year, including: New Balance Falmouth Road Race Eversource Walk for Boston Children’s Hospital Camp Harborview Citython 5K Run to Home Base Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk Delta Dental Mount Washington Road Race BAA Half-Marathon BAA Boston Marathon lululemon San Diego 10K TD Beach to Beacon Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon BAA 5K Feaster Five Thanksgiving Day Run Harvard Pilgrim Finish at the Fifty at Patriot Place BAA 10K “There are 3 rules I never break—No questions asked. 1) Call my mom back within an hour. 2) Tell someone every day that I love them. 3) Always say yes to Dave McGillivray.” — DAVID BROWN, CHIEF ADVANCEMENT OFFICER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSOCIATION FOR THE BLIND & VISUALLY IMPAIRED THE EARLY YEARS Since 1981, DMSE has organized or consulted on more than 1,000 events, raising millions for charity and earning a reputation as one of the most thorough, well organized race management firms in the U.S. DMSE’s first event – the Bay State Triathlon at Wright’s Pond in Medford, Mass. – attracted 100 participants and was one of the first triathlons ever held in New England and the nation. McGillivray had competed in the 1980 Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii and brought the concept back to his native Northeast. A triathlete for years, McGillivray competed in eight Ironman triathlons and introduced the inspirational father-son team of Rick and Dick Hoyt to the sport. In January of 2011, he was inducted into the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame. Triathlons were just the beginning for DMSE. As the group organized more athletic events, McGillivray and his staff quickly earned a reputation as detail minded, safety oriented and creative thinkers in the competitive arena of event management. In 1988, the B.A.A Boston Marathon noticed and appointed McGillivray technical director of the world-famous marathon, and in 2001 he was appointed race director – a title he still holds today. PICKING UP SPEED As DMSE grew, McGillivray added to his team, hand picking the best in start and finish line management, lead vehicle programs, runner registration and results, while working with local volunteers, race committees and police and fire departments to create a smooth operation come race day. So when Olympic Gold Medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson had an idea for a road race in her hometown of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, she reached out to McGillivray and his team. The TD Bank Beach to Beacon 10K was launched in 1998 and is now among the most popular on the U.S. road race circuit, attracting some of the world’s fastest elite athletes and drawing rave reviews from participants. Others noticed as well. From the Bellin Run in Green Bay, Wisconsin and the Lady Speed Stick® Women's Half Marathon Series throughout the U.S. to Run to Home Base at Fenway Park and Run For The Dream in Williamsburg, Va., a DMSE race is known for being safe, organized, technically advanced and produced without flaws. No wonder that in 2000, McGillivray and his team received the prestigious Race Director of the Year award from Road Race Management. MAINTAINING THE PACE In 2014, DMSE added another high-profile event to the portfolio as the team was brought on to manage the Across the Bay 10K in Annapolis, MD, which has had more than 20,000 runners in each of the first two years! PHILANTHROPY DMSE Sports also is a pioneer in what is now one of the most important aspects of the athletic industry – combining athletics with philanthropy. Nearly every DMSE endeavor has that unbeatable combination of fitness and fundraising, giving back to the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston Children’s Hospital, Lazarus House and many others. MILESTONES DMSE has been involved with more than 900 major events over the 30+years, but here are a few highlights: 1980 Dave McGillivray Running and Sports Center opens in Medford, Massachusetts 1981 Dave McGillivray Sports Enterprises (DMSE) is born, sets up offices in Medford 1982 DMSE directs first triathlon, the Bay State Triathlon at Spot Pond in Medford 1983 DMSE produces Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon, first Ironman-distance triathlon in the continental U.S. 1984 Dave McGillivray Sports Enterprises, Inc. is incorporated, April 19, 1984 1988 DMSE is hired as the Technical Coordinator of the BAA Boston Marathon. 1989 DMSE manages Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk 1990 DMSE directs the Triathlon World Championship at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida 1993 DMSE manages Feaster Five Thanksgiving Day Road Race in Andover, Massachusetts 1996 DMSE assists with 100th running of the B.A.A. Boston Marathon with a record 38,000+ official entrants 1996 DMSE consultants hired to assist with venue management of all road events for Atlanta Olympic Games 1998 DMSE directs Goodwill Games Triathlon in New York City 1998 DMSE asked by Olympic Gold Medalist Joan Samuelson to manage the first TD Bank Beach to Beacon 10K (then the People Beach to Beacon 10K) 2003 DMSE creates its own foundation: The DMSE Children’s Fitness Foundation 2004 DMSE manages USA Women’s Marathon Olympic Trials in St. Louis 2008 DMSE assists BAA in managing USA Women’s Marathon Olympic Trial in Boston, Massachusetts 2010 DMSE launches four new races – Spring Training 10K Classic in Jupiter, Florida; Run to Home Base at Fenway Park in Boston; Harvard Pilgrim 10K at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough; and the Run Gloucester 7-Mile Race in Gloucester 2010 DMSE Foundation launches “Running in Places” program for Boston-area school children 2010 DMSE hired as consultant to the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2010 DMSE hired to manage 2011 Run for the Dream half marathon in Williamsburg, Virginia, and 2011 Mt. Washington Road Race 2011 DMSE celebrates "30 Years Running" March 12 with more than 450 dignitaries, consultants, and athletes; DMSE hired to serve as the race director of the New Balance Falmouth Road Race in Cape Cod in time for its 40th running 2013 DMSE manages the 25th Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk 2014 DMSE assists with the Across the Bay 10K in Annapolis, Maryland 2015 DMSE hired to direct the USA Invitational Half Marathon in San Diego, California 2016 DMSE manages the Runner's World Half & Festival in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 2017 DMSE celebrates 20 years of managing the TD Beach to Beacon in Cape Elizabeth, Maine 2017 DMSE hired to manage the inaugural Fenway Park Marathon Section two – Managing Work Stress - Outro Ok my friends we have lined up in the parking lot between the barriers to get our shots through the end of Episode 4-448 of the RunRunLive Podcast. So I watched “the Dig’ on Netflix. I’ve been excited to see it. Because I’m a big history buff. And if you don’t know ‘the Dig’ is a period piece about the excavation of an Anglo Saxon ship burial in , on the coast of Suffolk in England. I won’t disparage the program but I was hoping for some archaeology and it turns out it’s more like ‘the English Patient’. Lots of feelings and relationships and very little actual Anglo Saxon. They don’t even show the helmet or mention king . So if you like British period dramas go for it. If you like archeology, not so much. The other wonderful discovery I’ve made in the last couple weeks are some very entertaining science fiction podcasts. Since I have my own “After the Apocalypse” podcast now – which you should go like and comment remember – I did some searching and found some others to listen too. There are three I’ve been listening to on my runs. The first is podcast that reads stories form Asimov’s magazine. The second is , another science fiction story podcast. And finally my favorite is . I think I like that one the most because the editor always sounds exhausted. They are all nice, little 20-30 minute chunk-size stories. Perfect company for running in the dark, snowy trails. Some are better than others. The good ones make the so-so ones worth it. Other than that I’m working my way through a Jimmy Buffet novel called “” which is refreshingly easy to digest. A bit of a palette cleanser – so to speak. Cowboys, boats, lighthouses – typically breezy Jimmy Buffet style. Cringe-worthy at time but unapologetic. And that’s what I have for you this week. A decent week. The days are getting longer fast now. 4+ minutes a day. The vaccinations are rolling out. We might even be getting on airplanes and gettiggn back out into the world soon. Stay warm. Stay strong. Be a leader, And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 23 Apr 2021 | Episode 4-453 – Stress Fractures! | 00:56:51 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-453 – Stress Fractures! (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4453.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Intro: Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-453 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Today’s show is all about stress fractures. Because I discovered with the help of an MRI that I have a stress fracture in my knee. Which is oddly comforting. I was betting that it would be another case where the Doctor shrugs and tells me to take it easy and do some PT. But, no, I have an honest to goodness, real-to-life, injury that you can see, or I guess that he can see. The Doctor asked me a silly question. “Do you run a lot?” That’s a solid ‘yes’. But, remember this was a follow up telephone call on the MRI, so he already talked to me. I get the feeling he’s lost in a sea of patients. Anyhow – today we dedicate our show to the humble, but proud, stress fracture. At this point I’m 7 or 8 weeks into break. I have been hiking most days with OIlie. I’ve Been getting some easy bike rides. I was about to launch full scale into some cross training and join the gym, now that I’ve had my first shot, but remember last time we talked? I had just bounced myself on the road pretty hard after an unfortunate mountain bike incident? Yeah, well I’m pretty sure I broke a rib. I’ve had a lost of pain there and haven’t really been able to do any kind of exercise while it heals. So basically I’m just a mess. An old, broken athlete. My original idea was to have the sound of bubble wrap in the background, and explain that my wife and my coach had told me to consider wrapping myself in a protective layer from now on. But, hey, A little time off won’t kill yah. And today we talk about stress fractures. In section one I’ll talk about, well, Stress fractures. In our interview I talk to Bill who had a good story about, well, I bet you can guess… Stress fractures. In section two I’ll talk about the new Geoffrey Moore book – which has nothing to do with stress fractures. I was about to say ‘Stress Fractures’ would be a good name for a punk band, but then I googled it, and it is indeed an emo punk band out of South Carolina – because of course there is an emo punk band out of South Carolina called the Stress Fractures – and that’s what I like about this world. I kinda like their single “”. I took this week off. I mean from work. It was a bit of an experiment. I was a bit burnt out from this whole pandemic zoom call thing, but I didn’t really have a reason to take time off. My current company has an unlimited vacation policy. Which is absolutely befuddling to a baby boomer. “So how much vacation do I get?” “It’s unlimited!” “So, theoretically, I can just leave and never come back and you’ll keep paying me?” “This is some sort of trap, right?” I wanted to see if I could actually take a week and not get sucked back into work. Maybe recharge a little. Get some projects done. I’ve been mildly successful. I did get pulled back in for some calls, and I haven’t gotten much done with my current physical disabilities. Monday was Patriots’ Day. There was a lot of Boston Marathon chatter. I posted a mile of my walk with Ollie for my Millennial Mile time of 23 minutes! A real scorcher there. Now they send me a medal and the hat. I signed up for the virtual version of Boston again this year. I’m in no shape to respect the race. I probably won’t be by October. But, by doing it virtually I can keep my streak intact. Not that it matters because I don’t know how I’m going to qualify for the next one. This week on my self-imposed vacation I would make long lists of the things I wanted to get done, then proceed to waste time and not get them done. Do you do that? DO you overcommit yourself and then get mad at yourself for not living up to your overcommitments? That’s really setting yourself up to fail. Instead what you should do is set yourself up to succeed. Instead of a making a long list, just pick one or two or three things that you want to accomplish today. And if you get those things done the day is a win. This is called ‘Winning the day’. So that’s how you game the system. Don’t do everything just do those things that give you the win. And what you will find ins that when you win today, and then tomorrow and then string that together for a couple weeks you’ll start moving the needle. Win the day. On with the show! About Zero ZERO — The End of Prostate Cancer is the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer. ZERO advances research, improves the lives of men and families, and inspires action. Link to my ZERO page: (for Donations) … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. … Section one – Stress Fractures - Voices of reason – the conversation Bill Pritchett – Stress Fractures Bill Pritchett is an avid runner and triathlete who lives in Midland, Michigan. He recently retired from Dow Chemical, where he worked as an information systems analyst. Fitness and endurance sports have long been a passion for Bill. He ran his first marathon in Detroit in 1987 and is registered to run his 40th marathon in June of 2021. His active Boston Marathon streak began in 2010 and will continue this fall. When Bill is not running, he cross-trains with cycling, swimming, and weight lifting as part of his triathlon training. He also enjoys cross-country skiing and downhill skiing during Michigan winters. When Bill isn't training, he enjoys traveling and spending time with family and friends. He and his wife Kandis have an adult daughter and son. They both hope that staying active will give them a long, healthy retirement! Section two – Zone to Win - Outro Ok my friends we have stressed our fractures through to the end of episode 4-453 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Careful with those weight bearing activities. Did you see Des Linden set a new 50K world record last week? She ran a 2:59:54 , which averages out to 5:47 miles. Think about that. 5:47 miles for 31+ miles. That’s solid work. So yeah, I’m more than halfway through a 3 month hiatus in running. It will be interesting to see what happens when I come back. I’ll be curious to see how much I lose. In these more lengthy layoffs I tend to lose some speed permanently now that I’m older. To be honest with you, I need to find a safer, healthier way to integrate running into my life. The rib is feeling much better today. Maybe I’ll get back to the gym if it recovers quickly. I’m still a mess as far as strength and flexibility go. We’ll see. I’m in no hurry. I’m sanguine. May 9th is when I get my second vaccine shot. Then I should be able to travel again and I hope so, because I miss the road. I know most people loathe work travel, but I always enjoyed it. Not the work part so much, but certainly the travel part. I’ve been spending more time in the Science Fiction world since I launched my Apocalypse podcast – After the Apocalypse. It’s one of those things. It always fascinates me to see how every seemingly niche subject has a crew of enthusiasts. SciFi is no different. These folks are deep. I’m not sure you’ll catch me dressing up as an alien and going to a convention on Parsippany to take selfies with 3rd string actors, but that does sound like a great place to people watch. Speaking of dangerous aliens I’d like to call out some members. Yes, there is a membership option at the RunRunLive website. I don’t push it because this is a hobby, not a business, but they do make me feel all warm and fuzzy like a cuddly puppy when they sign up and give me financial support. You know what the most expensive thing about podcasting is now? Internet security. There are so many bad actors out there that you have to have you web site locked down. That’s the big reason I switched to Acast for my new show. They handle all the security for me. But, back to our discussion about dangerous aliens I’d like to introduce some of our friends that have paid a membership recently. First is Marcie. Marcie is a member of the international space force who is currently working to put out some accidental fires that got started on the attack ships off the shoulder of Orion. It must be difficult to find a certified course to requalify for Boston out there. Then there’s Jason. Jason is a professional archaeologist and undercover spy currently in deep cover in the Levant attempting to thwart organized crime in Babylon. Daniel F., who, hey Daniel, friend me on facebook or something so I know who you are, but my best guess is he’s either a shape shifting alien from the future or a multi-dimensional deamon sent as an explorer from a dying universe. But, that’s just an educated guess. Anyhow thanks for the support. It takes a village. You know what else you can do? Reach out to me or send some audio. It’s a fun thing. Take some random audio of nature sounds and send those in. I’ll use them in the outro! I did mange to get my garden prepped and burn my brush pile this week. So, yeah won those days. Other than that, I’ve been catching up on reading and writing and generally wasting time. One of the things you realize when you take time off work is that you don’t have to work. You choose to work. But, you could just as easily choose not to work. We make up so many rules and constraints on our lives, but at the end of the day, it is all just made up. And those are your rules. So If you don’t like them, make up some new rules. Your game, your rules. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 28 Jun 2014 | The RunRunLive 3.0 Podcast Episode 3-292 | 00:57:14 | |
The RunRunLive 3.0 Podcast Episode 3-292 – Amy Chavez and the Marathon Monks Myth (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi3292.mp3]Link epi3292.mp3Support RunRunLive; Purchase an audio book of running stories. Written and performed with love by Chris Russell ------------->>>>>>>http://bit.ly/1cH2Fr7 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 13 Jun 2014 | Episode 3-291 – Life Events with David Hollingsworth | 01:04:39 | |
The RunRunLive 3.0 Podcast Episode 3-291 – Life Events with David Hollingsworth(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi3291.mp3]Link epi3291.mp3Support RunRunLive; Purchase an audio book of running stories. Written and performed with love by Chris Russell ------------->>>>>>>http://bit.ly/1cH2Fr7 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 17 Mar 2019 | Episode 4-405 – Julia and the Path Taken | 00:55:55 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-405 – Julia and the Path Taken (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4405.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-405. Today we are going to talk to Julia. Here’s the funny story. About a year ago my friend introduced me to Julia and I interviewed her here in episode 4-368. Then recently he introduced us again and I interviewed her again for this show. But here’s the thing. None of us remembered the fact that we had already done it less than a year ago! It’s ok – she’s got a great story. This stands alone. And what I want you to take away from this is how she chose a special path for her life. It involved a lot of marathons and twists and turns but it also involves a lot of love and fulfillment. We all make choices and those choices determine our paths. Don’t assume you can’t choose a different path. Don’t be afraid to try. So we’ve got the interview with Julia. Also, in this episode I’m going to talk about one of my favorite topics, speed work. Then I’m going to preach a bit about a new work I’m digesting by Eckhart Tolle. My training is going great. I’m super lean. I’m strong. I have no injuries. I’ve got a couple more big weeks left before I taper in to Boston. I knocked out a 20 miler with 18 of those at race pace on the treadmill last weekend. I’ve been hitting all my workouts well. I’ve got a 20+ outing tomorrow. The thing that really has me optimistic is that I feel a good ‘pop’ in my legs. That feeling of strength and energy that I haven’t felt in a long time. That last few cycles for Boston I’ve just been grinding through, hoping for a marathon miracle when I get to the race. But this cycle feels different. I’ve got pop. ... And Spring is here in New England! I had my shorts on yesterday. You can feel the Earth awakening. You can hear the birds and smell the fecundity in the ground. And as the snow melts, let me share with you my favorite old-English word of the week. Because it has to do with snow. At some point I’ll tell the whole story of why English is such a greatly diverse language, but for now, the original Old-English brought over by the Anglo Saxons was a Germanic variety. In the old Germanic languages, they had ‘strong’ verbs. About 300 of those strong verbs came into English and about 70 of them survived into modern English. A strong verb is when the vowel sound changes to indicate the tense of the verb. For example, a surviving strong verb is Sing, Sang, Sung. So instead of adding an -ed or -s ending like ‘walked’ or ‘walks’ we change the vowel sound to indicate tense. With me so far? Here’s the punchline. The verb ‘to snow’ was originally a strong verb. So my favorite Old-English word of the week is the strong verb past tense of snow. Snew. Isn’t that great? Instead of ‘it snowed’ you can say ‘it snew’. On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – My current nutrition - http://runrunlive.com/my-current-diet-and-meal-planning Voices of reason – the conversation Colin – Run Romsdal Run Romsdal is a guided trail and mountain running company set up by Colin Thornton & Hélène Hubert. Through our love of running in wild, remote and spectacular places we discovered the Romsdal region in Norway and decided we could not think of a better place to bring like minded people to come and enjoy the outstanding beauty of the place in the safe hands of people who know it the best. Instagram - Twitter - Facebook - runromsdal I have attached a few photos as I can never decide what to use! Section two – Feel the Fear (and do it anyway) - http://runrunlive.com/a-short-review-of-a-short-book-on-fear Outro Well, my friends you have chosen a path through this world even though it may have rained and snew along the way, you’re still going to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-405. Things are getting busy for me now for a few weeks. I have some travel and some more big weeks in the lead up to Boston. But I’m already looking beyond Boston. I’ve signed up to pace Eric at Leadville late in the summer so it looks like another trail-running ultra summer for me. I’m ok with that. Very peaceful. I’ll probably look to work in a 100K race somewhere because it’s a distance I haven’t run. Or maybe a 24 hour race or some other event that gets gives me a point on the horizon to point my coracle towards and steadies my hand on the tiller. I’ve found a few new podcasts that I can recommend to you. By the way, have you seen all the venture capital that is being poured into podcast content? Hundreds of millions of dollars. Maybe my ship is coming in after a dozen years of doing this? The first podcast is called by ABC News. It’s an investigative journalism piece about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. This was big news for awhile. She was a 19 year old Stanford dropout that had a billion-dollar startup, but turns out there wasn’t an actual product that worked and the whole thing was a bit of Ponzi scheme. It’s a great window on, and indictment of, the whole Silicon Valley zeitgeist and how it can go horribly wrong. It’s only 6 episodes and you can power right through the narrative in a week. The second is and NPR podcast called “” that explores historical events that you may not have known about. Like how Sam Adams was the original conspiracy theorist, the almost impeachment of Andrew Johnson after the civil war and how we engineered the overthrow of the Iranian government in 1955. Good stuff. Fun, but also food for thought. Finally, another NPR show called “” that “explores the unseen forces that shape how we act and who we are”. Very interesting. I listened to a show last night titled “how to be Batman” about how the way we treat blind people prevents them from ‘seeing’. They talk to a man who uses echolocation to see. He can ride a bike and hike in the mountains. He believes that it is because no one ever told him he couldn’t. When they tested his brain to see what was going on, sure enough the same place that sighted people use lights up the same way when he echolocates. The images he sees are the same images I see. The input mechanism is just a little different. The links for all of these are in the post and in the show notes. What are your beliefs keeping you from seeing? Maybe your thinker is too busy thinking for you to be able to see? Maybe there is another path? When you find it… And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 19 Jul 2019 | Episode 4-411 – Katy Sherratt – CEO Back on my Feet | 00:55:00 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-411 – Katy Sheratt – CEO Back on my Feet (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4411.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-411 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Like I mentioned last week 411 and 412 are out of order due to the forecasted recording sequence being different than the actual recording sequence and me not wanting to go move files around. But, I know you, you don’t care about such things. You care about important things like running past your house at the end of a long run to pick up that last .003 miles because you’ll be damned if you enter 6.97 miles into your log. Today we have a very good interview with Katy Sherratt who is the front person, the leader, for Back on My Feet. This is the organization that helps homeless individuals by leveraging the transformational power of running. We have spoken with this organization before. We have history. I was so fascinated by their program that I chased down the initial leadership team for an interview back in episode 89, which would have been 10 years ago, and then interviewed one of their recovering addicts in episode 167. So, if your interested we’ve got sample points in the life cycle curve of this program from its birth to where it is now. It’s a testament to how effective and resonant the program is that it grew from that nascent good idea of one runner in Baltimore to the professionally managed, multi-city, international manifestation of today. And, I was interested to ask Katy about that progression. Katy is a professional and you can hear the media coaching in her responses, but I think I did a good job of asking the questions that I truly wanted to understand. … My training is not going great. I’ve still got this troublesome high-hamstring tendinosis that is really curtailing my ability to push the pace or climb hills at pace. It’s fine until I load it then it screams back at me. I’m currently working through the best way to re-hab it. That being said I have been getting some good volume in. I’m trying to get 2 longer runs of 8 – 10 miles in during the week, then get a bike ride in on Saturday, then go longer on Sunday on the tired legs. But, it’s a bit unstructured and I a feel a bit adrift. It’s getting hot and humid up here and the bugs are out. This makes trail running a bit less enjoyable. I tweaked it Tuesday night and I’m limping around a bit right now. It was a hot night. There is a summer race series that many folks from my club run in near my office so I decided I’d run over to the race, run the 5k with them, then run back. Jogged over, it was about 4 miles away. That was ok, a nice easy warm up. Then I lined up for the 5K. No big deal. I just kicked it off at a solid tempo pace and felt pretty good. Clicked off the first mile at around a 7 minute mile, working hard but not killing myself, it had a lot of downhill. Then the course climbs a little hill over a bridge, over the river, and as I was leaning into the hill something tweaked in my left hamstring. I didn’t stop running but I slowed down to a pace where I wasn’t loading the hamstring and limped it in. Got passed by a lot of people in the 2nd mile! Had to get a ride back to my office. 2 days later and it is still noticeable sore. So, looks like I have a new project. … I listen to a lot of history podcasts. And when I find a new one, I typically start at the beginning and listen through until I’m caught up. The interesting thing about this to me, is the pattern. There’s this arc to a successful podcast. They start out as tentative and unsure of themselves. Then they start to get positive feedback and they find their stride. They comment with amazement on the 100 listeners, then the 1,000 listeners and the 10,000 listeners. Then they start to think that this could be a fulltime job for them and they start to look for revenue. The audible ads, the Patrion page, the iTunes reviews. At some point they become quite pleased with their progress and start having Q&A session about “Why they got into the podcast and where they got the theme music and some even quit their jobs. You can do that if you’re a history major. It’s fun to watch. I’m not sure what part of that cycle I’m in. I decided quite early on that this was a labor of love and I was primarily doing it as an exercise in self-preservation and improvement for myself, not for any practical or commercial concern. I talked to sponsors, but to be honest, I hate commercials and there just isn’t enough money in ads to move my needle. I stopped paying attention to numbers but, weirdly to imagine, we’ve had multi-millions of downloads from around the world. I don’t even know how to containerize that number. Each of those might be some individual, you for instance, at some point in their lives, looking for some combination of information, entertainment or inspiration, I get that personal touch point, but I can’t wrap my brain around the abstract of ‘millions’. I do get a bit of a satisfied feeling about the 400+ hours of content we have available for you now. That’s a goodly chunk body of work and by my calculations represents about a million words of content. That’s 4-5 goodly books worth of material. So, thank you all, whoever you are, wherever you are, and whenever you are, for facilitating my personal journey of creation. I appreciate it. I think the lesson here, is that you, yes you, as an individual can start something for no apparent reason and it can be the proverbial snowball that creates an avalanche. For me it’s bee the personal connection and friends and opportunities for connection that are the best part. For you it might be fame and fortune. Put yourself in the running shoes of Anne Mahlum. You are running in Philly at 5 o’clock in the morning and you keep running by the homeless shelter. You think to yourself, “Ya know what would be a good idea? If someone were to invite these folks out for a run and potentially transform their lives.” And so she started Back on my Feet with that one small thought and that one kick of the snowball. What’s your snowball? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Form series Chapter One - Voices of reason – the conversation Katy Sherratt Katy Sherratt leads Back on My Feet as Chief Executive Officer. An award-winning social innovation leader, Katy has been instrumental in increasing Back on My Feet’s programmatic impact by over 75% and introduced new and important measures to demonstrate the holistic impact of the program. Under her tenure, Back on My Feet has gone from early stage startup to sustainable organization and is now a leader in the homelessness services space nationwide. Funding has increased by over 50% thanks to the growth of existing, and cultivation of new, partnerships and fundraising streams and the geographic expansion of operations along the East and West coasts. Katy has been recognized across multiple media and news outlets including by The Economist’s Philanthrocapitalism program as a leader in social innovation and cutting edge non-profit management. In 2016 she was also named among Women’s Running Magazine’s “Top 20 Gamechangers” and most recently a winner at the Philadelphia Social Innovation Awards. Katy brings over 15 years of leadership experience across both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Prior to joining Back on My Feet, Katy led global projects for Accenture in their UK and US-based Strategy Practices working with corporate clients, NGOs and nonprofits with clients ranging from leading Financial Institutions to the United Nations. “I’m honored to lead such a unique, dynamic and growing organization,” said Katy. “You don’t have to be a marathoner or even a 5K runner, to feel the power of what we do on the morning runs – the community we build for individuals experiencing homelessness is the critical missing link and the reason why we’ve had such huge success in enabling our members to transition out of homelessness and maintain that transition.” Section two – The Happiness Curve – navigating the cliff - Outro Well, my friends, that was fun, huh? You got up at 5:00 AM and ended up at the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-411, you are amazing. I have no idea whether or not I’m going to survive this summer with the sore but and sore knee and hot weather, I’m a hot mess! But it is the season I’m in, yeah? I’ll give you a couple tips. The first tip, which I haven’t tested yet, bt seems to be corroborated from multiple sources is how to make a DIY der fly trap. The deer flies are awful this time of year. I got chased out of the woods by them last week. Even if you have the big hat on and the bug spray they still harass you in their multitudes. You can buy the deer fly patches which are a sticky patch that you put on the back of your hat that they get stuck on. Or, you can make them. The instructions are to take some blue tape (apparently the flies like blue and that painters tape works great) and create a 2X6 inch patch on the back of your hat. Then apply a layer of an off the shelf product called “Tanglefoot” which is sticky goop that you apply to tree trunks to keep bugs from climbing up. That’s it. This will trap the flies, or enough of them, to solve the problem. The second tip is for your bottles. If you carry water bottles on your run, either in your hand or in a belt, you may notice that they start to taste a bit moldy as they age. Especially if you have been putting sports drink concoctions in them. It just can’t be helped. The sugars get turned into wildlife. You can wash them out. You can rinse them with a bleach solution. You can put them in the dishwasher. But once those beasties get in there it’s a losing battle. I don’t want to gross you out but the problem is typically hiding in your nipples. That rubber bit that sticks out of the top of the bottle has crevices that you can’t get to. But guess what? If you pull on that nipple you can usually get it to pop off. Once you pop it off you’ll see all the black stuff in there and you can scrub it out. Then you can pop it back in. Good to go. So that’s it. We went from form to homelessness to old age to moldy nipples – such are the seasons of life. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 01 May 2014 | Podcast Episode 3-288 – Yo Pal Hal Elrod | 00:53:02 | |
The RunRunLive 3.0 Podcast Episode 3-288 – Yo Pal Hal Elrod and the Miracle Morning(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi3288.mp3]Link epi3288.mp3Support RunRunLive; Purchase an audio book of running stories. Written and performed with love by Chris Russell ------------->>>>>>>http://bit.ly/1cH2Fr7 Hal's website: www.HalElrod.com Section two: Recovery tips after a marathon - http://www.runrunlive.com/9-steps-to-recovery-after-a-marathonOutro:That’s it my friends you have daintily peeled back the page on another running year with me. So what’s next ? Well, my friends, next is not running for a month. May is going to be my recovery month. I’m doing some yoga, some swimming, some core and some biking. My back is sore, my ankle has a tweaked ligament of some sort and I’ve got some pain and numbeness in my left knee. All of this doesn’t prevent me from running but it has limited my ability to train and race at the level of quality that I’d like. So we’ll give it some time and see if we can get healthy before anything else. I’ve been reading, as usual. I read Chrissie Wellington’s book and it was interesting because I remember that Kona she won while all bruised up from a bike crash. Mostly I took away that she is bat-shit crazy. Not that I have anything against crazy people – I just don’t want to be trapped in an elevator with them. I also read The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. I had listened to her other book Pigs in Heaven a few years ago and really liked it. She is an incredible writer. I very much enjoy her prose. I’m working through a business book I’m quite enjoying called Die Empty by Todd Henry who does the Accidental Creative podcast. Really good stuff for people who have to deliver creative work. Of course I read Hal’s book. He sounded a little offended when I told him I read it in one airplane ride. Well, you know, I read some books for the prose and others for the content and adjust my reading speed accordingly. Last but not least I was looking through the Kindle store and saw that all the Edgar Rice Burroughs books were free. So I downloaded a bunch and read Tarzan of the Apes! This was an enjoyable surprise. What a bodice ripper! To see the original work that spawned a pop cultural hero was awesome. It is a very engaging story. Quite awfully racist and classist at times but if you can laugh that stuff off it’s quite entertaining. I think I’ll move on the some of his Mars books next. What’s my plan going forward? No running in May, then see how I feel and maybe train to run a qualifier at end of summer because I’ve got some unfinished business. Cheers, Outro BumperThanks for listening folks I appreciate your support. RunRunLive is a free service for you because I like writing and telling stories. I also love to meet folks so feel free to reach out to me at Gmail or any of the other social networking sites. I’m CYKTRussell. And as you know that’s Chris-Yellow-King-Tom-Russell with two Esses and two Ell’s. My Website is http://www.runrunlive.com and most if not all of this content is posted out there. If you want the show notes to magically show up in your inbox when I publish a show in a beautiful HTML wrapper you can subscribe to the mailing list at my site. It’s a useful thing if you are moved by something I say and would like to see if what I wrote is the same thing! It also has all the links to everything and everyone I talk to and about. Other than that, thank you for your attention, do epic stuff and let me know if I can help. CiaoHappy Song – Super Hero - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_SuperheroOther products from Chris Russell you may be interested inThe Mid-Packer’s LamentOn AmazonOn KindleOn Audio (Read by the author) – http://www.runrunlive.comThe Mid-Packer’s Guide to the GalaxyOn KindleStandard Links:http://www.runrunlive.comhttp://www.runeratti.comHttp://www.coolrunning.comhttp://www.Grotonroadrace.comhttp://www.SQRR.orgwww.midpackerslament.comContact:Cyktrussell At gmail and twitter and facebook and youtubeBioChris Russell lives and trains in suburban Massachusetts with his family and Border collie Buddy. Chris is the author of “The Mid-Packer’s Lament”, and “The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy”, short stories on running, racing, and the human comedy of the mid-pack. Chris writes the Runnerati Blog at www.runnerati.com. Chris’ Podcast, RunRunLive is available on iTunes and at www.runrunlive.com. Chris also writes for CoolRunning.com (Active.com) and is a member of the Squannacook River Runners and the Goon Squad. …Tags -> Running Podcast, podcasts for running, podcast for runners, free podcast for runners, Running Blog, marathon, triathlon, mileage, sprinting, run, track, training, running clubs, running groups, running shoes, exercise, health, 5k, running, swimming, sports, injuries, stretching, eating, jogging, biking, trail race, 5K, 10K, Ultramarathon, jogging a good exercise, road runner, jogging tips, benefits of jogging, free running, running shoes, marathon training, running, jogging, health and fitness, runners, runner, Boston qualification, Marathon BQ, Boston marathon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 18 Mar 2016 | Episode 4-334 – Nate and the Relationship Between Alcohol and Running | 00:40:25 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-334 – Nate and the Relationship between Alcohol and Running (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4334.mp3] Link Team Hoyt Boston 2016 Campaign -> MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-334 of the RunRunLive Podcast. This is a milestone podcast. With this episode I have caught up to Steve who is currently on episode 334 of Pheddipidations! See? Consistency! Tourtoise and the hare and all that. Great to have you along with me today on this sweet, sweet spring adventure up here in New England. Welcome and thank you for taking the time to download this podcast and listen to it. Maybe you’re out on your run and you can feel your heart beating, breath in your lungs and your feet hitting the ground. Maybe you’re in your car with the slow thrum of the road vibrating through your body. Maybe you’re at work pretending to be interested in that thing that you to keep the bailiff away from your door. Whatever it is – I’ve got a fantastic show for you today. (See how I used hyperbole there? I’m telling you it’s fantastic to hypnotize you into thinking that way. I have no idea if it’s fantastic or not. I’m mean really that would mean it’s so good it can only be considered as a fantasy. If that’s true you should probably upgrade your fantasies)Words have power. Thoughts have power. The power to teach, to console to salve the wounds of a soul. Don’t discount the power of words. Words are the manifestation of thought and thought is the precursor to action. Sorry – meandered a bit off track there. Anyhow – My training has been going fantastic! Heh heh. I am right where I need to be for Boston. Everyone stop right now and pray for good weather. Work with me here. I want mid-40’s, overcast, with maybe a slight misty drizzle and a 5 mph tail wind. I finished off another build cycle of 50 mile weeks that culminated in a really good showing at Stu’s 30k last Sunday. At the end of a cycle, on tired legs, on a difficult course I ran a disciplined negative spilt. I laid low for the first 8-9 miles then raced the second half. It was a real confidence builder. I felt like I knew what I was doing and was in control the whole way. I closed it hard and ended up averaging spot-on my qualifying pace. Today we chat with Nate who you may recognize as ‘Nate from Harrisburg’ from the Extramile Podcast. I had a couple of conversations recently about the relationship between running and Alcohol and I wanted to explore it more with people who know more than I do. Nate is a counselor who has worked with addiction and also a runner so I thought this would be a good place to start. I don’t claim to have any expertise here. I know I have been affected by addiction and I’m sure many of you have as well. I’m not here to minimize the topic or glorify it. I just wanted to have a thoughtful conversations about it. I wish I could do more, but for better or worse today Nate and I have a conversation around alcohol and running. In the first section I’m going to talk about how to program workouts into your running watch. In the second section I’ll ramble on about some other, general, random crap like I usually do.…I had a really good race last weekend. I ran well and disciplined and my body showed glimpses of race fitness and ability that I haven’t seen in a while. I’ve been here before. Approaching the peak of a solid, long, committed training cycle. I remember those days when I crossed the finish line fists raised in glorious triumph. I do remember being this strong and healthy before and how tenuous and slippery the foothold is on those peaks. We remember the glorious days, the big successes the big victories. But we don’t remember the hard work that went into making those triumphs possible. The long days and hard efforts and continuous, insistent, focused work that got us to those peaks – those fade into a dreary montage and all we remember is a summary. We remember that we are capable of these great things. But we forget that we need to do the work that goes into attaining them. The meal is remembered the recipe is lost. The same is true for failure. We remember the pain of falling down but we forget the thousands of choices that led to it. When you crest the big hill and unexpectedly find there is a flatter bit of road and the going gets easier. It’s easy to relax and fall prey to an entropy of spirit. Whether the slope is steep and your breathing labored or you find yourself moving with strength and ease the work is always there. Remember to smile when you find that ease and congratulate yourself for climbing to this point. But remember that the work that is done in the times of ease is the work that leads to success in the times of strain. The trick is to hold the smiles in one hand and the work in the other and keep moving forward.On with the Show!Section one - Running TipsHow to program workouts into your Garmin - Voices of reason – the conversationNate WagnerMy name is Nate Wagner. I live in Harrisburg, PA with my wife and two girls. I am a licensed therapist at Cornerstone Counseling. I enjoy running half and full marathons. I help clients get their lives back from addiction and marital difficulties. Have any questions or if I can help in any way, please reach out to me on twitter @natewagner08Running blog: Section twoSelling Change- http://runrunlive.com/selling-changeOutro -Closing commentsMarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Well, my friends, it might be time to crack open a celebratory cold one, or reconsider that, but either way, you can celebrate reaching the end of episode 4334 of the RunRunLive podcast.Have you noticed the new editing? This will be the 2nd podcast with entirely outsourced content editing. Anyone have any quality issues let me know.I’m moving into my final race build cycles for the Boston marathon. I’m right on track . Very comfortable with my speed and fitness after Stu’s last week. I am working on a race report for Stu’s – stay tuned for that. My next race is The Eastern States 20 Miler March 26th. It’s on a Saturday this year because of Easter. That will be my last pace run before Boston. I’m right on track. I’d like to thank all my friends who have contributed to my Team Hoyt fund for Boston. I can still use your help if you can – I would appreciate it.I’m still planning to run the in-and-out of the Grand Canyon on Thursday May 19th – whether you’re too chicken to join me or not!The Groton Road Race is April 24th and with the nice weather it looks like we’re going to have a good year. We set up a virtual race option, so no matter where you live you can sign up and run and we’ll send you one of our super nice 25th anniversary shirts. Just go to GrotonRoadRace.com Next week I have a great interview with Neely Gracey who is an pro-elite runner. She’s just at the beginning of her career, knocked out a sub-70 ½ at Philly and is making her debut at Boston this year. It was a super interesting talk. The next time you folks feel like saying something smarmy about Millennials you should listen to Neely.…We’ve been far too serious today. To take you out I’m going to give you a joke you can tell to your dog. You can try telling it your cat, but this joke has not been cat tested. It doesn’t work with dogs that have short attention spans, like Jack Russells, or dogs that just aren’t very bright like Labs and Goldens, and it definitely won’t work with deaf dogs. The good thing about dogs is that you could tell them this joke as many times as you want and it’s still going to be funny. I don’t know about you, but I talk to my dog. For his part, Buddy acts interested when I talk to him. He also does emotional mirroring – meaning that he senses from my tone of voice and my emotional state the essence of what I’m talking about and he projects the appropriate matching emotion of interest, concern, or hugs.When you’re telling the joke you have to address the dog like you’re talking directly to the dog, taking them into your confidence. When I do this Buddy will essentially ‘lean in’ to the conversation which make the punch line hilarious. I made up this Joke to share with Buddy how annoying some of his interaction with me are. Ok, Ready? Got your dog’s interest. Right.A border collie, a Persian cat and a llama walk into a bar.They walk up to the bar tender.The bartender leans in close, and says…“Bark!”…It’s funny because the dog jumps about a foot in the air every time. Tell your dog a joke – and l’ll see you out there.MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 06 Dec 2017 | Interludes 2017 – Priorities | 00:12:38 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast - Interludes 2017 – Priorities (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/ Interludes2017-Priorities.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hey Folks, This is Chris. I am dropping you a quick note so that you can stop worrying about me! That’s right, you can stop checking the morges and the hospitals and the retirement homes. I’m ok, I’m just busy and as much as I’m committed to producing the podcast, it is not, and you may be shocked to hear this, my highest priority! It’s up there and I take consistency of delivery and quality seriously, but that should give you an idea of how tactically strapped I am. Anyhow, I do have a half-written show for you coming and I will keep working on the fun scheduling and priority tetris that allows me to talk to you, but I beg for your patience. I’m also feeling that we’re in a rut and I need to change the format in the new year. It’s been a couple years so I’m willing to take suggestions for anything that you think we could do that would be useful, new and exciting in a RunRunLive Version 5. Also A quick note – I am running my personal festival of races called “The Groton Marathon” on December 31st in West Groton Massachusetts at 9:00AM if anyone wants to come up and join. We have people show up who run all different distances at all different speeds. Myself and some veterans jog the full 26.2 in 4-5 hours and we have some cheer. Shoot me a note at cyktrussell with any thoughts, comments, questions and suggestions. … And just for fun I’ll share a journal entry from a early morning train ride where I was trying to noodle out how to work my priorities to get everything done. It’s a bit of navel gazing and has nothing to do with running, but hey, why not? … Scheduling for me is about priorities. On the one hand I think my priorities are good and normal. I prioritize my career, the work that puts bread on my table, my family and my health. Those are my drop dead items on my todo list. Everything else is negotiable. The challenge is when these top-of-list items crowd out the creative things; pursuits that I get a juice out of – a joie du vivre. Career means work. It means putting in the hours. It means learning fast and acting faster. It means having a change mindset and looking around corners. It means having hard change conversations with people who’s support you need to be successful. It means all these things and more. I don’t just show up and hang off the back of the pack. I set the pace and the tone and I lead. Career is a daily heavy lifting that starts early, ends late and burns hot the mental torch. Career is exhausting intellectually and emotionally. Sometimes in a good way. Sometimes in a long-term capacity building way that training always is. Those are the good days when you are building roads and changing lives. The challenging days are when the hordes pour over the wall and daylight to dusk is spent swinging swords and thrusting pilum with your back up against the sortie gate. Could walk away from the world of business and spend my days on the farm? I think I could, but I don’t pine for it. I’m not bewitched by some retirement fantasy where everything is unicorns and rainbows and candy. That would kill me in short order. What about Family? Family is the rock upon which my church is built. This foundation allows us to venture forth into the world with some sort of hearth secured. It gives us comfort and purpose. This foundation, even with its human cracks and mold in the mortices gives us the confidence and strength to do battle. We know our flanks are held and solid. The baggage train is safe and we can sortie out into the world with some peace of mind. And Health. Health for me, in this context is both physical and mental. It takes the form of training for things that challenge me. The challenge me enough to make me grow. That challenge me enough to keep me mobile and strong. That allows me the physical confidence in life. These three areas of my life are an essential balance, but they sometimes become tactical and rote. They miss a purely creative, purely unbounded and joyous act of creation. This is when I become unbalanced. When the mind is not fed on the creative mana – that food of the goods. Underfed, the creative mind shrinks back in upon itself, meager and miserly and protecting. And I find myself unbalanced. It’s easy to say that you are too busy. It’s easy to say that just for today you will push the plow and tomorrow you will learn or grow. But, urgency aside, it is a trap. As we all know from experience, today turns into tomorrow and tomorrow plows into next year and the years folds into a life. And that, whether we know it or not, is a prioritization decision. It is true that you can’t do everything. No one can. And your life will shift out of balance occasionally as you embrace change and move. But, you can be aware of balance and priority. You can do a lot. Balance is a combination of time, place and priority. It is an outgrowth of process. You create the places and the times that support the process. Any amount of planning, (placing things in places bounded by time), creates process and process is the key to unlock a treasure chest of productivity – and creativity. Priority is tricky. When one of your top three life areas expands to pull so much energy and time it erodes your ability to reach those life areas that are important but not urgent. The question becomes “Is it important?” Is it adding value to you and yours and ours? If it is important then you will find the time in the cracks to get it done. The fruit hangs heavy on your trees. The frost is coming. Find the time to harvest. Find the time to prune. Find the time to allow bounty. Find the time to live. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 13 Jan 2018 | Episode 4-379 – The 30 Day Diet Reboot with Rachel Shuck | 00:49:43 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-379 – The 30 Day Diet Reboot with Rachel Shuck (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4379.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-379, This is Chris your host. It is the second weekend of the new year if you’re on the Gregorian Calendar introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 to upgrade the Julian Calendar. Because if your calendar is messed up all your holy days hop around and it makes it harder to aestheticize the mediaeval masses with religious chicanery. Or something like that. Anyhow… before I scurry down the rat hole of historical events let’s talk about the wild and wonderful world of endurance sports, or at least our little corner of it. It’s been a busy couple weeks since we last talked. On the day before New Years, Dec 31st, I hosted my 5th Groton Marathon. Which is an made up event where whomever wants to shows up and runs whatever they want. We set up the clock so we have a real start and finish and I post the times to a website – I guess you could call it ‘pretend official’. The curious part is the a handful of us go out and run an actual marathon through all the local towns. This year I got 4 other guys to join me. The weather did not cooperate. It was 2 degrees Fahrenheit at the start and never got out of single digits. I ended up getting in the support vehicle at 21.3ish because I was suffering. We went out a bit fast for me and I didn’t have any legs left. We had to go a bit fast in the beginning to get the feeling back in our toes and fingers from the cold. It was miserable running weather. There was a stretch from like 19 – 21 where we turned into a head wind that was awful. The other four guys finished successfully. My friend Gary ran in with a 3:52 and the other 3 came in around 3:55. The next morning my family and I went up to run the Hangover Classic in Salisbury. The deep freeze did not abate. It was -19 with the wind chill. I ran the 5K with Teresa and she came in 4th in her age group. Then, yes, we did, we ran over and jumped in the ocean. I was a bit worried about surviving this but the water felt warm compared to the air so it wasn’t too bad. The water in the ocean at 35-36 degrees Fahrenheit had steam coming off it like a hot tub in the single digit temps. That same day, the 1st of the new year (according to Pope Greg) I started a 30 Day Diet Reboot with my nutrition coach Rachel. I’m off the beer and the bad food for a month. I’m logging all my food in MyFitnessPal and posting a daily blog about it on my website (RunRunLive.com) under a category called ’30 Day Diet Reboot’. On top of that Rachel is looking over my shoulder, reading my post and commenting each day on her site - . What we wanted to do is to give people an actual case study of how she and I approach the combination of fitness and nutrition. And, in today’s interview, Rachel and I talk through all this and hopefully it can help some folks sort through all the misinformation that is out there. In section one I’m going to muse a bit on why I think I’m ready to take on a 100 mile race this year. In Section two I’m going to disassemble the oft-quoted phrase “No Regrets!” … I had something happen to me this week which was a first for me in my running life. Have you ever heard the old joke that goes something like “I don’t jog because I don’t want to find a dead body!” Because for some reason those news stories always start with “…found by a jogger…”? Well I was running down by the Charles in Boston this week. The weather warmed up to above freezing and the sun was out so I made a concerted effort to get out at lunch. Boston got over a foot of snow during the ‘cyclone-bomb’ event last weekend and the bike path was still covered in places. I had a 1:15 easy run so it wasn’t a problem to navigate around the snow. I ran up river to one of the far bridges, crossed over and came back across the next bridge to get a sort of lollipop route of the right length. Since it had been so cold for several days in a row the full expanse of the rive was frozen over all the way down to the museum of science. There’s one bit along Storrow drive at the Boston University Bridge where the bike path abruptly runs out of room and they route you out, under the bridge, into the river, on a wooden bridge to get around the abutment and back on the bike path up river. Right after this the snow removal ceased and we had to navigate some lumpy foot paths for a few hundred feet. When I met another runner or pedestrian, one of us would have to give way on the snowy single path. It was in this dicey section on the way back that the lady runner I had already passed going out started talking to me. I had my headphones in, but she said something about they were pulling a body out of the river up ahead. They were breaking it out of the ice. Sure enough, when I went out on the wooden plank section that hugs the abutment there was a clutch of police. As I came to it I was expecting someone to stop me and I asked the one sad looking cop there if I could sneak by. He motioned that it was ok. Not more than 20 feet from me there were four more officers of some type carrying a stretcher up the icy bank with the body. They had the top of the torso covered, but a man’s boots and snow pants stuck out from the waist down. The State Police were interviewing a shaken looking runner. A good runner. I remember passing him and thinking ‘he’s the real deal’. Skinny, athletic and underdressed for this weather. He must have paused for some odd reason to stretch or to catch his breath between intervals or something to cause him to look over that wood railing into the river under the bridge. I kept going. They had Storrow Drive West shut down. There must have been 15 police cars there. That’s a first for me. Never had a CSI moment on one of my runs before. So my friends. As you’re out and about today. You may have your head cold, or your other challenges but you’re not toes-up frozen in the Charles River. You have that going for you. On with the Show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Why a 100-miler? - http://runrunlive.com/why-100-miler-and-why-now Voices of reason – the conversation Rachel Shuck – Nutrition Coach Rachel Shuck is a board certified nutrition coach with a passion for running and all things fitness. She currently teaches nutrition courses at the local college while pursuing her doctorate in clinical nutrition . She is certified with the International Sports Science Association and the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Association as well. Her personal journey began with running 5k’s and being at the back of the pack, to running marathons and becoming a Boston Qualifier. Along her decade long path of coaching runners she found a true passion for teaching people proper nutrition to fuel for optimal performance. Rachel’s articles and videos have been featured in Mind Body Green, Personal Growth, and the Livestrong website as well as local news shows covering health and fitness. It’s no secret – a healthy body is a happy body. Taking care of yourself is one of the most important things you can do. Not only will you feel great, you will look great and inspire others to take care of themselves in the process. As a mother of two teenagers, I know how important eating right and exercising are for not just you, but the whole family. We have the power to influence the health and well-being of our loved ones and create a healthy lifestyle for future generations. I have experience teaching nutrition classes, group exercise classes and coaching runners. I coach people on how to achieve a healthy lifestyle, which includes learning to eat right for life and developing the proper mindset to want to do that. Long term success is the ultimate goal. Hiring a coach or trainer can strengthen your health, take your athletic performance to the next level, guide you in making the correct food choices, and improve your confidence and outlook on life. As a board certified nutritional coach, I’m knowledgeable in how food affects your performance, So if you want to live a stronger and more confident life, I’ve got the training and the expertise to help you every step of the way. Section two – No Regrets - http://runrunlive.com/no-regrets Outro Ok my friends you have eaten handfuls of probiotic macronutrients to the end of episode 4-379 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Coach is starting to ramp me up for the spring season. It looks like he’s going to add some back-to-back volume to my weekends in addition to my normal Boston Marathon training cycle. I’m not going to run any of the spring races with Frank and Brian. Maybe I’ll do Eastern States in March, but I’m skipping Derry. I’m going to run my plan and focus on staying healthy. I’m not even half way into the Diet Reboot but I already feel better. I have so much more energy in my runs. I feel like someone removed a sandbag from my shoulders. I’ve got an hour on the schedule today. I think I’ll put my old trail shoes on and go muck about in the snow in the woods. Maybe I’ll take Buddy with me for a short bit. The old dog is getting cabin fever. Next week I’m talking to a really cool guest, Lori, who is running Boston this year. She got hit by a car out running in 2016 and went from being in a coma for 5 days to running New York and Boston. I hope the audio is good enough because it’s a impactful story. … I’ve been working some long hours in the city. I get up at 5:00 AM and am on the road by 6:00 and in the city by 7:00. Depending on my schedule I usually hit my workout in the morning to get it done and off my plate. Which gets me into my office around 8:30. Typically I’ll work until 6:00 or 7:00 and get back to my house around 8:00. It’s a long day. Towards the end of the week, especially this week with my head cold, I was dragging. I had a hill workout on Friday. I haven’t quite figured out a good place to do hill workouts in the city yet so I did it on the treadmill in the gym. I was surprised how easy it felt given the head cold and how I was dragging. Again, the diet reboot is amazing for your workout energy. Then I got showered up and put on my work clothes. This office isn’t suit and tie, but it’s business dress. I’m an executive so I try to err on the side of business. I had a full day of meetings including interviewing a candidate for a position I’m hiring to. During the day I was noticing how baggy my underwear felt. I don’t wear anything special just your run of the mill boxer briefs. I kept thinking, there must be something going on with this pair because they just aren’t fitting right. Towards the end of the day I realized what it was. Have you guessed? Yeah, I was so tired in the morning I put my underwear on backwards and didn’t realize it until the day was almost over. I had a good chuckle over that. Hey, No regrets, right? I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 08 Jul 2019 | Episode 4-412 – Maryro does Comrades | 00:55:23 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-412 – Maryro does Comrades (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4412.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-412 of the RunRunLive Podcast. You’ll have to forgive me an episode incongruity here, a non-linear scrap of publishing. I had a couple interviews stack on top of each other, like the way you stack your hips in a yoga pose, and, apparently, in the race to you ears, episode 4-412 won out over episode 4-411. Confused? Don’t be. It will be fine. Today, this week, you will get episode 4-412, an interview by my friend Alex, long time participant of the RunRunLive podcast experience, of another long-time friend of the show Maryro Mendez, who ran Comrades this year. I’m always fascinated with Comrades. It seems such a foreign place, an extreme adventure. Both Alex and Maryro are world travelers. I have yet to make it to Africa. Except, maybe through enjoying a good read of “The Heart of Darkness”. In section one I’m going to give you the run-down on the cow-pasture race. I got some positive feedback on the uncertainty essay from last show, thank you for that. I certainly appreciate it. I struggled to write that last episode. I felt too jacked up about other things. I need a certain amount of alone time and contemplation to get the creative juices flowing and I couldn’t get settled. That has been solved! I am took Vacation! Yes, just my wife and I down on Cape Cod enjoying the beautiful weather. Soaking up the sea breezes. Very peaceful. No internet. Just reading and relaxing. In section two I’m going to piece together a vacation story for you. … I took 5 days off from running and riding due to a sore knee. It was one of those things where I probably tried to do too much too fast. In this case the too much part had to do with going mountain bike riding with Anthony. Don’t get me wrong, I love Anthony. Anthony has taught me an un-repayable number of useful things about bikes and riding over the last decade. But, for my second ride in the woods in two years he overestimates my ability. And, I on my part feel compelled to keep up, like a boy trying to please his Dad. I ended up bleeding from 4 different wounds at the end of the night. Nothing life threatening. Just those slow speed, slow motion crashes that stalk you when you haven’t got the miles in yet. That little bit of uncertainty, that spoonful of tentativeness as you go into an obstacle those few millimeters off your line that find you wide in the turns and stuck in the bad spots. You might call it ‘anti-flow’ On one of these slow speed crashes I couldn’t clip out and took the full weight of mass times acceleration (due to the force of gravity) on a pointy rock with my left knee. It hurt but didn’t feel consequential at the time. Over the next week it just ached a bit as I kept up my running and cycling. Finally, with the race in the cow pasture Wednesday night, going hard on uneven ground and the knee seemed to be more sore than it should be after a week, so I did the smart thing and took a few days off. I was a bit worried I might lose fitness, but I managed to get over myself, and do a little core work and yoga instead. Still a little sore, but I think it’s on the mend. We’ll see. I guess I don’t heal as fast as I used to. But, I feel pretty good and it’s summer time, and the days are long and what can be wrong with that? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Lonely Cows - Voices of reason – the conversation Alex Cooke Interviews Maryro Mendez Comrades Marathon 2019(up run): The other big 5 People always come to Africa wanting to see the big 5, Lion, Elephant, Leopard, Rhino and Buffalo, but I came here with the mission of not just seeing but conquering the other big 5. The nerve wracking 5 famous hills along the Comrades route, Cowies Hill, Fields Hill, Botha’s Hill, Inchanga and Polly shorts. What ever people can say about this race, they would be falling short but I will just describe my own experience here. On our way to Durban, Andrey had a packed itinerary. We spent 2 days in Johannesburg and 5 days in Kruger National Park, chasing the animals and we were rewarded with amazing sightings. That on its own is worth a different write up. We arrived in Durban on Friday afternoon, went straight to the expo, picked up my race pack and wonder around a bit just to feel the vibe but not too long. The city was filled with incredible energy. The people were amazing from day one. There is no hiding that I was scared, scared of failure, of not finishing. I knew I had put it a lot of work but also knew I had not been feeling quite right, mentally and physically. I also knew even when I was creative trying to do hill work, living in Rotterdam, NL I lacked that part. I felt excitement, fear and pure joy to be there. It was the fact that I was stepping in to the unknown but actually knowing that it was going to be the hardest race I had ever done that made this so especial. It was actually being part of a race that it is so important to a nation and you can feel it as soon as you land in Durban. Less than 10% of the 25000 runners are international runners, the rest are South Africans whom are very proud of their race. Only 20% are women. On Saturday Andrey went hiking up Royal Natal Park and also drove on the route while I stayed in the hotel resting. When he got back, he said “if you see those hills, the first 40km are the most difficult, you have never done anything like it. Even by car they look horrible” ok that scared me even more. “I got the belief, I will embrace the experience that I have earned after 5 months of hard training when conditions weren’t ideal. I got the belief that I am enough, good enough to be here but I will be patient and cautious because no medal will come easy tomorrow” I said to myself on Saturday. I woke up at 3:15, had some Ucan and almond butter, had a shower and we left for the start at 4:30 for a 5:30 start. Luckily our hotel was just in front so I was in my corral before 5. The atmosphere was incredible. I was next to a South African guy doing his 11th comrades. He started talking to me with a very zen like tone. He told me to be patient, that his first was also the up run and he did it in 10h15min. Even when my ultimate goal was to finish, on a good day I thought I could do 10h (A goal), my B goal was to finish under 10:30 but I thought “maybe my first can be close to this guy’s 10:15”. I also wanted to finish before sun set (5:15 pm) The start is just amazing, very emotional no point describing because you have to be there to live it. Never felt such an emotional start in a race. I started my watch as soon as the gun went off because this race is gun time and all the cut offs and different medals are awarded by gun time. I was seeded in corral C so took me a few minutes to cross but not too long. I had my watch in overall time and average pace, this time I didn’t want to get distracted by mile splits that made no sense. It was very humid and I was sweating like crazy even when the sun was not out yet and I started to worry but tried to just keep it together. The sea of people in front and behind was incredible to see thinking we had 87 km to go. I followed Bruce Fordyce’s advice and ignored the distance markers that go in count down mode. I was running by feel and just checking my total time and average pace every now and again specially when I passed the cut off points (there are 7 in total) that would give a good idea of how much I was slowing down or not. I realised very early on that running up the hills in such a slow pace felt very inefficient, just didn’t feel natural to me so I decided to power hike up the hills. This was not a walking break this was very intense walking. I was passing people running while I walked up the hills, felt just like Killian Jornet . However I did not train my body to do this so every time I was changing from walking to running my calves would rebel against me. I could feel my lower back too. But I just when over the initial transition discomfort and continue and as soon as I was in running mode it felt good again. “do not stop” that was my other strategy, no matter what, I was not stopping for anything. And I didn’t. There is no doubt as to when you are going up the big hills, they are relentlessly brutal. I was scared to ask anyone if we were at any of those hills in case I got NO for an answer. All along the route the atmosphere is delightful, the locals set up tents full of aid for people apart from the official 43 water stations and they do it every year. People singing, dancing, bbqing. Going pass the wall of honour was neat, thinking my name could be there once I finished. When I reached Arthur’s seat I touched it out is respect and moved on. When I reached half way at 43km to go I knew I had just done the hardest marathon (a bit over a marathon) I had ever done in my life and I still had more than a marathon to go. I was supposed to see Andrey there but nothing. I struggled a little, but I said The only way you are not finishing this is if you do not make any the cut off point and you are forced to stop and get on a bus. The 10h bus passed me. They are amazing to watch. You can hear them coming, it is like a pack of horses trotting and singing. I felt a little disappointed that there would be no sub 10 for me but I was clear by that point I had underestimated the course so I just continued with my mission. Suddenly with like 37km to go a familiar voice when I was not expecting “Moni, Moni” it was Andrey. That was my only stop. Maybe for just a minute or two. I grabbed a ucan bar and the hotshot anti cramp, which saved me because my calves were alive and kicking. My lower back was sore again for the power walking I am guessing. That gave me a second wind. The10:30h bus passed me and I was between 1h30- 1h20 ahead of the cut off time at the check points every time. I caught up with the 10:30 bus again. I was going to stay with them but I felt good so left them behind. The Coca Cola station is amazing and this kid starting calling, “my lady get a coke my lady” I grabbed a coke (never ever I drink real full sugar coke) and boy that felt good, it was iced cold. He said “I knew you wanted a coke my lady push on continue” and that my friends is reason 1568 I loved Comrades. With 20km to go I decided it was time to start counting down the km and noticed every km board. A runner with a green number that had done 13 Comrades started talking to me, he asked about my shoes, he congratulated me for my first comrades finish to which I thanked them but said that there was still 20 km to go. He said you will finish I know. With 17 km to go I saw Andrey up on a bridge after I went under it, again great surprise, I waved and continued. I reached little pollys, she is like The hiena, not part of the big 5 but her presence doesn’t go unnoticed in the wilderness. When I hit the 10km to go mark, I started feeling for the first time that I had it in the bag. Now my aim was to go sub 10:15. Then Polly shorts shoes up, and there is no need to ask anyone, I knew this is the famous mighty one that stretches along for 2km. Last 7 km I felt strong and full of joy. The down hills were hard, my toes were completely wrecked or so they felt. And the uphills even though shorter in comparison really sneaked up on you. 5 km to go and there he was again, I saw Andrey and I said “see you at the finish” saying that felt so good. I have say the performance of the day goes to him. Driving around with road closures it was messy. 4 km to go I kept checking my watch, 3 km to go and suddenly I felt it was taking too long for the 2k mark but then I saw 1km to go!!! I had missed the 2 km mark. I was there, I got chills. Yeah and because it is Comrades there is one final mini climb a few meters to the finish. I crossed the line 10h 13 minutes and 55 seconds after the gun went off and got my bronze medal. The different colour bibs depending on if you are national or international, the number of medals on your bib, the different medals depending on your finish time, the people oh the people and how passionate they are, all that make this race extra especial. With regards to nutrition I had 2 chia gels(low carb) and almond butter during the first third of the race. Then I started taking maurten gels I had 5 in total. I also had half a bar of ucan and some coke (I still can’t believe I drank full sugar coke but the even had ice cubes!) in the second half. I think probably consumed about 1000-1200 cals. I never felt I needed to eat but I forced myself to have something every 30 mins or so. I also had high5 zero electrolyte tablets. I grabbed 2 water poaches in maybe 40 out of the 43 water station, they were always cold so one to drink and one for my head and neck. All races should have those. I realised now why this race was unique for me. I normally enjoy the training, the process more that the races themselves. Races are always an excuse for me to train. This time for the first time was the other way around, I enjoyed the race more than the training, the race was a whole process in itself that was changing me for the better as I went through. The race was a whole new experience. From a performance standpoint I could say I am a little sad I didn’t get a sub 10 but I am actually very happy my splits were consistent, I finished strong and I learned a lot. In the end it is only running so the time itself is nothing in comparison to what you gain as a person through running. But the type A person I am is already looking at what to improve Comrades you are much more that people say, I will be back for the down run but next summer is already committed for other adventures so will be tight. If not in 2020 I will be back for the 100th Comrades in 2021 which will be another down run as it was the original...and maybe for my second I can properly aim for a better time I am a runner because I run, I run because I am a runner We carry with us, deep inside, the knowledge that we have faced our fears and conquered challenges, and with that brings confidence, peace of mind and self-belief. Section two – Puzzle Pieces - Outro Well, my friends you run the uphill course to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-412, see you in Paradise City. Got a couple nice long runs and rides in this week down the Cape. I did my traditional long run on the beach in Chatham. I went on the 4th itself and it was jammed with people. Usually once I get a mile or so down the beach I’m pretty much alone, but on the 4ht of July people come out by boat and hang out all over the place. At one point there was a seal on the beach injured, probably by a Great White Shark. Some guy was yelling at me to, I guess, not run by it. Chill out there Ranger Rick, it’s a seal, not a unicorn. When I came back the other way they had the seal EMT’s there working on it. There are a lot of seals and a lot of sharks now on the Cape. I ran out of beach almost exactly at 5 miles. Which gave me a nice tidy 10 for the outing. I timed it well too. I got out just after high tide. That means the tide is going out and you get a nice strip of hard sand. I got out this weekend for an 18+ mile trail run. Felt ok. It was a little hard at the end, but it’s supposed to be. I have to bring my volume up for the races I’m running this summer. All in all I got a good mental rest. I read a couple books. The best one was a Bradbury collection of short stories from the 70’s. Great writer Bradbury. The better read among you will smell a bit of Bradbury in my writing this week. One of the books I’m working my way through is ‘ by Jonathan Rauch. He basically says that the science shows everyone’s life arc is about the same. You’re happy when your young, you’re miserable when you’re in the prime of your life for the most part and then, in the last bit, the middle age forward, you get happy again, because, I guess you just don’t really care anymore? A couple things you can take form that. One is that your happiness is different depending on what phase of life you’re in. Another is that it’s, on average, the same experience for everybody. There ya go. Hang in there and it gets better. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 05 Jan 2019 | Episode 4-400 – Matt makes it stick | 00:57:35 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-400 – Matt makes it stick (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4401.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-401. Nice to be back in the saddle from the holidays. I feel like I’ve had a good couple months. I took an extra week on my cadence for this one because It was the holidays and, frankly, I had a lot going on. Plus I was sick. I got whatever cold is going around. Not the flu. Not pneumonia. Just a cough that hung around for the better part of 2 weeks. I managed to hold the line on my diet through the holidays. I did not lose a bunch of weight, but I did eat relatively cleanly and avoided most of the sweets and adult beverages of the season. This was my plan, so well done me. This puts me in a healthy spot to hit my Boston training hard and lose 10-15 pounds. Because I think that’s what I’m going to need to do to have any shot of requalifying. People think ‘Hey, Boston is in the spring! You’ve got plenty of time!” But that’s not really true. When you turn the corner to a new year on January 1st you are only 3 and ½ months away, which in broad strokes means 14 weeks. A typical hard training cycle for me is 12 weeks with a 2 week taper, so it’s game on. I’m not starting from scratch and I’m healthy and I’m mentally enthusiastic. The dark times will come, but as of now I’m in a good spot. Today we chat with Matt who is a team mate of mine. He’s got a great story. And it’s a timely story as we ease into the ‘resolution season’. Listen to what it took for Matt to find the courage to switch the momentum and begin his transformation. In section 1 I’ll give you a wrap up on the Groton Marathon, which, against the odds we managed to pull off successfully last Sunday. Thinking about it, if I include that in my week, I’m over 50 miles for week one of my training! Feel pretty good for that. In section 2 I’ll perambulate about goals and stuff, because, hey, it’s that time of year. … When I was out running the Groton Marathon with my buddies I told them I had two topics that I wanted to discuss. The first was the ending of the movie Road House and the second was the Boston Marathon of Sex. Now, this being a family friendly show I’ll reserve the latter explanation for my members feed. I’m writing that as we speak and I crack myself up. But, I was watching, or more to the point being forced to watch the movie Road House with Patrick Swazey, may he rest in piece, and like so many of the movies from that era, the ending didn’t make any sense. So he rips the one bad guy’s throat out. Then he goes after the big bad guy. Kills 4 of his henchmen and then has the final fight with the big bad guy. In the end he decides not to rip that guy’s throat out but the friendly villagers kill the bad guy with shotguns. Shortly after the police show up. Now we have been told that the police are in the back pocket of the bad guy. The police ask, ‘What happened?’ and everyone says “We didn’t see anything…” And that’s it. Cut to the final seen of Swazey skinny dipping with the love interest. So, let me get this straight… There’s 6 dead bodies, one of which has Patrick Swazey’s knife sticking out of his chest, and the police just shrug their shoulders and say, ‘Well, I guess since no one saw anything…it’s all good… nothin to see here…”? I’ve seen enough episodes of Law and Order to know they’re not getting off that easy! It’s ok, I ripped his throat out in self-defense… Plus, they shot this guy with old shotguns. He probably wouldn’t be dead yet when the police come in. If it was bird shot he’d just be uncomfortable. Maybe he had a heart attack from the shock. But think about all the movies you’ve seen where the end is a big pile of dead guys and it’s ok. That will give you something to talk about on your next long run. On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – 2018 Groton Marathon- Voices of reason – the conversation Matt Schorer Matt is father, husband and triathlete from upstate NY who recently made the successful move to reclaim his health. He trains with Jeff Kline at DailyFitBook.net Matt is currently training for the Lake Placid IronMan in Late June of this year. Section two – Your Best Self - http://runrunlive.com/your-best-self Outro Well, my friends kicked off your new year with a thorough listening to of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-401. Check that off your list. Next up for me is a whole lot of training. I’m going deep. I can’t control the weather but I can control whether or not I show up and whether or not I consistently do the work. I’ve got a good jump start on this cycle. I’ve been working on my core a stretching daily. I skipped the Hangover Classic this year. I was still fighting a cold and didn’t think jumping in the Atlantic Ocean was such a good idea. I did finally start working on the startup sales book. I pushed the introduction out to LinkedIn. If anyone is interested in being a proof reader or a friendly critical eye I welcome the help. One of the things I’m trying to do better is to ask for help. I tend to want to do everything myself and that has a built in ceiling to it. … I see the people in my community starting to complain about all the people showing up at the gym this week. My experience is that they tend to peter out after 10 days or so. I’ve got a couple suggestions for this first of the year gym bottleneck. First, if it really bugs you go early or late. I don’t care what time of year it is, you’ll have plenty of elbow room at 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning. Second, as we heard from Matt today, some of those out of breath people ARE going to stick it out. Let’s try to lean in and encourage them. Be that person that is the tipping point in that emerging healthy person’s life. Take this as an opportunity to spread the good news and set a good example. This is a good way for you to practice abundance in the new year. And, if you see Patrick Swazey, run because he’s been dead for a decade so the zombie apocalypse will be under way. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 27 Jul 2020 | Public Service Announcement | 00:01:00 | |
Sorry couldn't get a show out last week. Workin' on it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 24 Dec 2016 | Episode 4-354 – Heart Rate Training Refresher with Coach | 00:52:25 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-354 – Heart Rate Training Refresher with Coach (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4355.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my little elves and reindeer and welcome to the Saturnalia celebration of the RunRunLive Podcast. We are at Episode 4-355 today. I hope all of you are doing well. Are you getting to spend some time with your families? Maybe take a moment to be grateful and in the moment? It’s all good. Today we are going to do a little heart rate training refresher with coach. I have been getting a lot of questions on heart rate training so I thought we’d take a couple beats to review some of that. Maybe it will set you up for your next training cycle coming out of the winter solstice. In section one I’m going to talk about Raynaud’s disease or syndrome – which is common in the cold weather months – and how it’s a different thing than just having cold hands. In section two I’m going to wax philosophic about setting your own work/life balance rules. As you may have noticed from the sexy timber of my voice I am or have been sick. Last week I had a sore throat that rapidly progressed into a sinus infection and I’ve been on antibiotics for a couple days. I lost a week of training in the process and managed to eat 6 pounds worth of sugar cookies as well. I’m getting fairly disgusted with myself! I’m ready to get back on the training horse for…{dramatic pause here} the Boston Marathon! Yes, I’m lucky enough to have received a waiver entry for the 2017 Boston Marathon. It will be my 19th Boston. I’m qualified for 2018, but not this year, I age up in November of 2017. Unless they change the rules again. It’s been a long ride. Qualifying for that first Boston in 1997 damn near killed me. I only needed a 3:15 at the time because I was already aging up in 1998. But I trained for and ran a 3:09 just because that was the goal I set. I set my PR at Boston that spring of 98 at the ripe old age of 35 running a 3:06 on a nice cool, drizzly day. I remember that day. I remember passing Rick and Dick Hoyt somewhere in the middle miles. They weren’t as famous as they would become. You could really see people back then, especially as a qualified runner, there were a lot less, like a tenth, the number of runners on course. The crowds were the same but the course had a lot fewer runners. I clearly remember that day. GPS watches didn’t exist yet, but I knew I was running over my head when I caught the Hoyts. I positive splitted that race too. Ran like an idiot. The last two miles were a nightmare but I was in good enough shape to tough it out. You can see the thousand-mile stare in my eyes in the race photo from Boylston street. Good photo. My form is beautiful. I’ve got nice, big hair with a red bandana as a sweat band. I’ve got those red high-cut shorts and a long sleeve tech shirt with a nice nipple blood stain. You remember those things. Those moments change your life. In the same way the Hoyts have changed thousands of lives. Just by being out there. I hear the stories. They all start with some version of “Little Johnny saw Rick and Dick, turned to me and said “We can do that!”, and, Bam!, I life is changed, a dream is enabled. That art of the possible. The frame is broken. I can be part of that by supporting these guys. So expect me to ask you for a contribution so I can help these guys continue to change the world. You can do that. On with the show! The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – A couple words on Raynaud’s Syndrome - Voices of reason – the conversation Coach Jeff Kline PRSFit IT STARTS WITH THE DECISION TO TRY! At PRS FIT we provide training, motivation and camaraderie. When you become a part of our Team you quickly see we love what we do. (You also receive our first time finishers guarantee) We do it better because we care about you. The Team cares about you. We don’t go off the grid. When you need an answer we’re there to help you find it! OUR PHILOSOPHY Prs Fit is a community of athletes from all over the world. We are a team. Alone or together, from beginner 5k to Boston Marathon and 100 Miler, sprint triathlon to Kona, we strive and we conquer. Prs Fit lets you experience what we call Team and social fitness – connecting and motivating each through our one of a kind global team experience. No matter the weather, the circumstance, day after day, we provide a high quality training experience that produces results. Be Healthy. Train Smart. Have Fun. Section two Work the way you live your life - Outro Hey folks, merry Saturnalia and solstice to you…congratulations on having your heart continue beating through the course and to the end of episode 4-355 of the RunRunLive Podcast No races to report this week. Just 6 extra pounds of Christmas cookie blubber and an amoxicillin chaser. I do have the Groton Marathon coming up. As usually happens people tend to bail out as we get closer. What seems like a swell idea in October becomes a dumb idea In December. With my week off I’m in no shape to run it, but as the host I’m going to have to trundle my cookie-eating-butt out there and make a show of it. Teresa wants to run the Hangover classic, which due to the way the holiday’s fall is the next day! I guess a guy of my experience can go limp an easy 5k with an ocean dip… The water is warm this year; it’s in the mid-40’s. That will cure any and all hangovers. As we kick off the new year, as we turn over the calendar, it’s a new season. I’m going to focus on getting back into the shape I was in for Portland. With that fitness and actually training for the target race I should be able to go down into the 3:20’s and I’d really like to do that as a vindication for these last five years of struggle before I age up and stop worrying about it. I know. As much as I like to act like I don’t care, I guess I do. As much as I like to pretend I’m not compulsive in my need for book-end events, I am. I guess we’re all compulsive in our own ways right? … I’ll keep it brief. I hope you’re listening to this while you’re out in the winter trails at night under a waning moon. The snow crunching and squeaking under your yaktrax. The breath blooming large like a flower of life from your lungs. A chrysanthemum of joyous exertion. I’d like that. I’ve been figuring out how to get out in the dark and the cold and the snow myself. We got enough snow, and it stayed, to narrow the roads and make the trails dicey. People in the cars around me are super angry. We only get 4 hours of sunlight or something now, so, yeah, it’s a challenge to get out there, right? But you must get out there. Out there is that other existence. Out there is where life is. So get out there. Lean in…or maybe out…make someone’s day. Enjoy your holidays. Be grateful. Hug your family. Cuddle the dog. Relax. Be in the moment. Thank you for 2016. I’ll see you out there in 2017. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 14 Sep 2013 | Crickets-3.5 - Noise Complant! | 00:36:34 | |
Crickets 3.0.3My dear friends, I apologize effusively and throw myself like a penitent at your furry feet, but the challenges of travel and work and training and racing and, God help me, sleeping every once in a while I have been brought to bay – I have been finally cornered me like a mangy rat and there is no way I can put a full show out this week. It is a dirty shame, because, with so much going on I have a lot to share, but alas no time to share it. Instead I’m going to lay at the altar of your listening skills my Pocatello marathon report today and try to polish up a full episode for next week. Over the last month I have been in California, Idaho, Atlanta and Phoenix! This weekend I’m driving up to Presque Isle, in Erie PA to race again! I raced an 8 mile leg of the Winnepesauke relay last weekend in New Hampshire and crushed it, averaging 7:15s over a difficult hilly course. I had the punk rock on my headphone and was laughing out loud at how strong I felt. I passed a couple other racers, many years my junior and it felt great to be in the game. So – my friends – light those candles and put on some sexy music because I’m about to tell you the story of my Pocatello Marathon. Enjoy, Pocatello Marathon - http://www.runrunlive.com/pocatello-marathonSo this week I was out in phoenix at the Phoenician (which is one of those hoity-toity resorts where the nouveau and not-so rich pretend to be members of a leisured cast – I was at a conference) – but one great thing about the Phoenician is that it backs up against Camelback Mountain. Yesterday morning I got up before dawn and ‘ran’ up the mountain from the Cholla Trail head. There is no better exhilaration then standing on the summit of Camel back in the wee hours glistening with sweat in the cool desert air and watching the sun rise over Phoenix in the long shadow of the mountain. I am super-happy to have regained the point in my training where I can roll out of bed and go run up a mountain. As I was descending, skipping along, bubbling with the goodwill of life, the following song cycled onto my headphones and I had one of those iPod moments where it all synced – so enjoy your week and I’ll see you out there. Big D and the Kid’s Table – “Noise Complaint” - Chris,[audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/Crickets-3.5.mp3]http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/Crickets-3.5.mp3 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 02 Sep 2018 | Episode 4-393 – Gary and the Tao of Running | 00:58:11 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-393 – Gary and the Tao of Running (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4393.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-393. Today’s show is about resilience. That’s the theme. It’s more than just stubbornness, or courage, or grit, (which is the popular term now). It is about all those things and more. As endurance athletes and runners we have a front row seat to the practice of resilience across the arc of our lives. Today we talk with Gary who I met at the Burning River 100. He was selling copies of his book “the Tao of Running”. I took his card, and we connected this past week to chat about how to practice this courage, and enjoy it, in our training and racing. In section one I’ll talk about resilience in our running. You can tell by now that I ‘v been thinking about this a lot. Resilience is one of the keys to living a successful life, right? In section two I’ll talk about an example of how to use resilience at work. I am running the Wapack Trail 18 miler this weekend. I’m looking forward to it. I think I can carry the fitness I built up this summer into the race and do well. It’s a funny thing when you look at an 18 mile technical mountain race as an easy race! Other than that I’ve been training away, trying to get some speed back. Not that I ever had any real speed, it’s all relative. I registered for my 21st Boston Marathon this week. I used my Baystate time from last year of 3:33:33, which would probably get me in under the cutoff. I’m guessing the cutoff is going to creep again this year and move closer to 5 minutes under the standard. But, since I have 10+ years in I get to register early and cut the line. Technically I could get in with a 3:39:59. I can’t believe summer is almost over. I hope yours has been splendid. Mines been pretty good. I got to ride my motorcycle more than I have in years. I have a back-road route that I take to work and back. I sometimes think that maybe an old guy like me should not be riding the motorcycle so much. My reaction times probably aren’t what they used to be. Getting into an accident with a car on a motorcycle typically doesn’t end well for the motorcyclist. I’m basically a giant engine with a gas tank strapped to it traveling at high velocity. As anyone who rides a motorcycle knows, the first thing people do when they learn that you ride is tell you their worst motorcycle story. That friend who got obliterated on the highway by a distracted driver. Here’s a tip; that’s not the least bit helpful. Don’t do that. On the back roads I’ve got different challenges than on the highway. On a typical ride to or from work I’ll have one or two cars try to kill me. But, I’m pretty good at seeing it coming so I avoid these inelastic interactions with the other commuters. As a bonus I get to shake my head at them and give them the ‘WTF” body language. Mostly it’s people pulling out. They just don’t see bikes. There’s also a fair amount of running stop signs and not using signals. You scan the landscape ahead of you and watch you the oncoming traffic. You can read the ‘body language’ of the cars. You get good at predictive analytics. You see a situation developing and make sure you’re not there when they do that stupid thing. It’s like a video game. One thing I’m seeing more of this year is people crossing the lines. I know in Asia and certain metropolitan areas the lane lines are optional, but out where I live you’re supposed to stay on your side of the line. I don’t know why you need to drive on my side of the road. I see this behavior as a biker and runner too. It’s probably distracted driving. People are drifting all over the road. So, my friends, look twice, save a life. Motorcycles are everywhere. Relax. There is no need to run that stop sign. Tighten it up a bit and keep to your own side of the road. We appreciate the effort. Spread the love. I’m going to keep riding my bike. I always figured that’s how I’d meet my maker. Being distracted by a pretty girl on the sidewalk and burying myself in the back of a stopped truck. But, I’m resilient. Are you? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Resilience - http://runrunlive.com/resilience Voices of reason – the conversation GARY DUDNEY, Ultra Runner & Author , Thank you for the great podcast experience. The book is The Tao of Running: Your Journey to Mindful and Passionate Running and of course is available through Amazon or Barnes & Noble as a paperback, Kindle, or Audible version. The new book, coming out in November, is The Mindful Runner, Finding Your Inner Focus, which can be pre-ordered through Amazon right now. I have a website, , which has a lot of information for runners including all my past columns from Ultrarunning magazine and all my race reports from the past 20 years. Bio Blurb: GARY DUDNEY has been publishing articles on running, trail running, and ultrarunning for the past 20 years. His work has appeared in all the major running magazines, such as Runner’s World, Running Times, Trailrunner,and Marathon & Beyond. For Ultrarunning magazine, considered the “voice of the sport” of ultra long distance running, he’s served as a regular columnist since 2008, and he has additionally supplied the magazine with dozens of uniquely quirky race reports. Ideas for The Tao of Running were shaped by the 65 one hundred mile races he’s participated in and the almost two hundred other long distance races he’s completed. He holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Kansas in English Literature and his fiction credentials include stories in Boy’s Life magazine and in numerous literary magazines and one published novel, Cries-at-Moon of the Kitchi-Kit. Book Blurb: The Tao of Running offers a fresh perspective on the mental side of running while entertaining with vivid tales of running adventures. Going well beyond the standard training and racing advice found in most running books, it guides runners to a wider understanding of how running fits into their own aspirations, goals, and life philosophy, and how running can transform their lives. The Tao of Running answers questions, such as: How does running evoke mindfulness and lead to stress reduction? How is running a transformative existential experience? How does running teach fundamental lessons about goals, self-awareness, and self-improvement? How does running promote special friendships and new perspectives on life? No other book offers readers these multiple frameworks for understanding their running experiences along with lots of practical advice on getting the most out of running. Readers are guaranteed to gain a greater appreciation for the rewards and possibilities inherent in running. Section two – One More Call - http://runrunlive.com/one-more-call Outro I managed to get down to Cape Cod last week. I got a 2:30 long run in on the beach. I wanted to go up to Coast Guard Beach which has a long, unbroken, straight line of a beach. But the logistics proved a bit of a hassle. Instead I went out to the Coast Guard Light Beach in Chatham. I’ve been running there for years but It has become challenging to get enough distance. The beach used to run for miles but now it has been washed away and you can only get out for a mile or so before you run out of beach. I was standing there looking across the harbor opening trying to decide if I should swim across the 50 feet to the other side. A girl in a boat offered me a lift. I demurred. Luckily it was low tide and I was able to cross the mud flats and cut through the old port over to the private beaches on the other side. In Massachusetts you have access to any ocean beach, private or public, below the high tide mark. I finally ran out of beach about an hour in, but was able to cobble together enough turns and crenulations to get 2:24 in before I made it back to my truck. There were lots of families out and people walking. It was quite busy. There were old guys in dirty rubber coveralls working the low tide clam flats with rakes. The families got ferried out in skiffs for these excursions. The clammers had their own flat bottomed aluminum boats bobbing in the shallows. The thought in the back of my mind was if it’s low tide now, am I going to be able to get back when I turn around? Am I going to be able to beat the tide? Sure enough when I got back to the Old Port the tide had erased the mud flats. I figured I was almost back I could just run through the water. I already knew the bottom was hard and it was shallow. I had un-retired an old pair of Brooks Launch for the weekend and I could justify getting those wet. But, I found a trail off through the bush that circumnavigated the mud flats and got me back to the other beach without have to take the plunge. It added a little distance, which I needed anyhow. I was quite pleased with how things worked out. Step into the trails and the beaches and all you adventures. It will work out. … Speaking of Cape Cod. I found a home for my Spaulding Boys Wagon Tongue Baseball Bat from the 1800’s. Yvonne and I went to a bar in Harwich Port to watch the Patriot’s game and grab some dinner. It is named the Hot Stove Café. It is baseball themed. I was chatting with the owner. It occurred to me that I was surrounded by ancient baseball memorabilia. I told him I had something in my truck he might be able to use. When I dropped it the next day he wasn’t around. Which is perfect, because he couldn’t say he didn’t want it!. Just goes to show you. Everything works out. Patience. Mindfulness. Practice. I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 24 Apr 2014 | Unicorns-1.6 | 00:29:06 | |
Unicorns-1.6Introductory Comments:http://go.liverfoundation.org/goto/cyktrussell[audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/unicorns16.mp3]Unicorns16.mp3Hello and welcome my friends. This is Chris and this is the fifth and final in my series of personal podcasts that I am doing, to air out my brain and deal with my father’s cancer and passing and report in on my run for the Liver Foundation at the Boston Marathon this year. Note: Even though this is on the RunRunLive Podcast feed, this is NOT the RunRunLive podcast. You have fair warning to skip now because I’m not talking about running. Standard RunRunLive episodes will be labeled as such. As part of this project, whatever this project is, I’m collected donations for the American Liver Foundation to layer on some purpose for the event and make it more personal. The donation links are in the show notes and at http://go.liverfoundation.org/goto/cyktrussellMy story is that I already had a number for this year’s race. I Didn’t need to fundraise, but with my Dad’s health declining I thought it would be a decent thing to do to dedicate this to him and my family. …The Boston Marathon. Monday I ran the Boston Marathon. It was a glorious day. Not because I was fast or set a PR, I did not. It was glorious because it capped the end of a long and sometimes arduous year for me and my friends and my family. I look back on the year and I see what I have done and it seems like something. Maybe not the perfect body of work, but something, maybe even something worthy. My nuclear family had our internment ceremony for my Dad at the Groton Town Ceremony on Tuesday morning after Patriots Day. It was a beautiful spring day. My Mom, my brother, my nephew and my sisters had a very peaceful and thoughtful time wandering around the stones and remembering families and people we have known. My Dad is at rest nowhere Hollis Street meets Martins Pond Road and Chicopee Row, among his peers and friends. Monday I finished my 13th marathon in 13 months – Boston to Boston. It was a wonderful day with wonderful crowds and support. We took back our finish line. I’m no hero, but I do what I can do with the gifts I’ve been given and if I can keep doing that I think my Dad would be satisfied with my efforts. Today I’m going to bring you some audio that I recorded on Marathon Monday. I won’t contextualize it too much but let me give you some hints of what’s going on.The first recording is riding the bus into Hopkinton with my Buddy Brian. Then there are people I met and talked to at Athlete’s village – including Bree who was the local TV reporter for WBZ. Next there are some clips on the way to the start and in the corrals. Following that you’ll hear us cross the starting line. During the race you’ll here a couple clips with some interesting people I met. You’ll here a long loud section in the middle that is the Wellesley College girls or as we call it the ‘scream tunnel’. As we get closer to the finish I start trying to help people who are struggling and I start having fun with the crowds. The USA chant is the tipsy coeds at Boston College. Finally I talk to some people after the finish line as we are getting our medals. I don’t know when the appropriate time would be to listen to this. Hopefully you can feel the vibe and celebration. Close your eyes and put yourself on that course you may be transported. The air is warm and there is a spring sun pouring it’s warmth on your back and shoulders. The brilliant blue sky is streaked with wispy cirrus clouds. There is a slight and intermittent breeze from the far reaches of the Atlantic Ocean that kisses your face every now and again. The trees and bushes are brown with winter but tufted at the tips with the first outpouring of buds. There are the light footfalls of thousands of runners marching towards Boston. There are struggles and striving of the average Jill and Joe. There are the hearty New England crowds in Red Sox hats and black Bruins Hoodies. They lean in and offer us orange slices, tissues and beer. And they thank us! They thank us for running this race! We who are the most privileged to do so are being thanked. The entire 26.2 miles of spring sunshine cordoned by adoring, grateful and thankful compatriots – that’s something you should do before you die. …Featured Interview:Sounds of the Boston MarathonSummary Article: Thank you for joining me in my Journey. As I wrap up my campaign for the Liver foundation I want to thank all of my friends who supported me and the Run for Research Team for letting me iron my Jolly Roger patch to one of their shirts. I hope my small efforts save someone’s life or the life of someone they love. Thank you. The best way out is through and the best way through is to pick up your feet and run. May you have peace and prosperity on your journey.Ciao, New Orleans Funeral March. Go to: http://go.liverfoundation.org/goto/cyktrussellThank you for joining me on my journey with purpose. Chris,Music by Bridge Underwater - “sad song” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 21 Mar 2021 | Dick Hoyt Interview January 2013 | 00:30:16 | |
Dick Hoyt Interview January 2013 Originally Episode 3-353 of the RunRunLive Podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 23 Jan 2016 | Episode 4-330 – Passer-by and telling stories | 00:51:48 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-330 – Passer-by and telling stories (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4330.mp3]Link epi4330.mp3Team Hoyt Boston 2016 Campaign -> https://www.crowdrise.com/teamhoytbostonmarath/fundraiser/christopherrussellMarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/Hello and welcome to episode 4-330 of the RunRunLive Podcast. This week I have a chat with Matt about his experience recording the MarathonBQ audio book for Audible. I haven’t got the green light from audible yet. They are still processing the finished product – which is a good sign because if they have issues with audio production they get right back to you. I was interested in chatting with Matt about what it was like to be on his side of the table recording my words and about the conversational story telling medium that podcasting has become. Podcast have become, or maybe they always were, the glue in community building. There’s really not much of a leap between you and I talking right now and the shaman telling stories as the firelight dances on the puebla walls in prehistory. It’s a human thing. In Section One we’re going to discuss how to come back from having the flu in the middle of your training cycle. In Section two we’ll talk about the good and bad of setting big hairy goals. I raced the Rock n Roll Phoenix marathon last Sunday. As a story telling experiment I journaled my thoughts the morning before the race, the day after and then two days after. I’m going to drop them in here to see if it gives you some insight into the runner’s mind. …It’s 6:00 AM local time. I’m in a nice Renaissance hotel on East Adams Street about 6 blocks from the start line. The race starts at 7:50 for some odd reason. I’ll leave here around 6:30 – 6:45 and jog over for my warm up. It looks to be about ½ a mile. When this podcast drops we will know the results of this race. Right now we do not. I stand once more staring into the abyss that is long distance running.I’ve been suffering from taper madness for the better part of two weeks. I have been terrified of this race all week. My friends look to me and shake their heads. How can YOU be terrified of a race? Haven’t you done this 50 times? Didn’t you write a book about this?That doesn’t keep my mind from running around in circles like a cage of rabid weasels. I sit here in the stench of menthol that rises from my old legs and I am fine. The test is here and the waiting is over. Now all that is left is a few hours of honest suffering. Status? I got in a few great weeks of speed training in the fall with some decent mileage. I broke out of that schedule in December to run some races. I switched to a couple weeks of long tempo and some decent core work to tune up for this race. I have no injuries and nothing is bothering me. On a scale of 1 -10 I feel like I’m about a 7.5 in terms of fitness. I feel a bit heavy but I’ve stayed off the scale. The gym at work flooded just days after it opened from the remodeling. Instead of step-ups runs I closed out my training with some shorter fartlek runs. In some of these I saw signs of life. I tapered well, if not a bit too deeply but I wanted to make sure my legs were fresh for this effort. I sit here in this hotel with my wife gently snoring behind me and it is almost time to go. I’ve got my old wine-soaked Hokas, short shorts, my Squannacook singlet and a Boston Marathon hat. I’ll carry a bottle of UCan in one hand and some gels and endurolytes in the other. It’s 46 degrees and clear. The road stretches out before me. It’s time to step into the arena. …Monday morning – A bed and Breakfast outside Sedona, AZ. My legs ache. My quads especially. I’m up early because of the time change and also because of the unsettling ache in my legs. I don’t know if that’s an honest ache from the effort in the race or my legs got pummeled from the awful form I betrayed in those last few miles.I had nothing yesterday. Nothing. If I was my coach I’d wonder about mental commitment and whether I was just failing to embrace effort. But that wasn’t it. I wasn’t even close to the point where I would have to call on some deeper strength to tip the scales. I wasn’t even close. I warmed up well. I fueled. I was slotted comfortably in Corral #1. It was a small race for a city marathon. Like most of these Rock n Roll races the masses run the 1/2. We were out and running free right off the line. The course was wide city streets and no hassles with crowding at all. I fell into my race strategy and discipline right away. I was running within earshot of Eric the 3:30 pacer. He was pushing a 7:55ish pace that would give us 90 seconds of buffer for the high miles. I haven’t downloaded the data yet but it felt like a low to mid-zone 3 effort. The weather was mid 40’s with a slight breeze as the sun came up. I wasn’t working too hard but I did notice the sweat dripping from my hat by mile 4. You have to pay attention to that in a desert race because you can get dehydrated before you know it. I was sucking on my bottle of UCan and my energy was nice and level. At the 10k I took a couple seconds to fish out an endurolyte salt pill to stay ahead of the electrolyte loss – Another thing you have to watch in the desert. Mile 10 was a long barely perceptible uphill pull and I noticed my effort level going up a bit. I kept noticing my legs weren’t feeling so great. Especially my quads and the little uphill had them protesting. I tried relaxing out my stride but I couldn’t figure out how to clear the fatigue. That’s what it was. Fatigue. Not cramps, fatigue. Like that feeling you get when you’ve done 20 weighted walking lunges and you have to do 5 more. That burning fatigue. Around 11.5 miles I knew my goal was not going to be met on this day. I thanked the pacer and wished everyone good luck and tried to find a comfortable running pace. The rest of the race played out like so many bad marathons I have run. Slower and slower paces. More and longer walk breaks. Your classic 15 min positive split. And those last few miles hurt. My legs were cooked. I’m feeling it today. When you look around for things to blame, for excuses you talk about injuries or fueling or weather. For a mid-packer all those things are 5-percenters. All those things might be worth 5-10 minutes in your goal time. The only thing that really makes a difference in your racing is training. I don’t think the volume and intensity of my training was lacking but I think the consistency and the timing was bad. I was all over the place with my training in December and raced too much. I feel guilty when I fail at these races. It’s been such a long time since my last good race in 2011. That was over 15 marathons ago. I remember that day and the fact that it really wasn’t that hard of an effort. It was coming off a decent winter of training but nothing special. I had the world in my hands that day at Boston. It’s so far away now I wonder if that was really me. I wonder if that me even exists anymore. I wonder what the point is. I feel like a pretender. Maybe it’s time to take up golf. Maybe this sport has taught me all it can. On my desk at home is a charity entry for the greatest marathon in the world. When I get home I’ll fill it out and send it in without the qualification time. I’ll join my friends for my 18th spring run up to the great race. On April 18th I’ll be standing on Main Street in Hopkinton. I’ll bring with me the best training cycle I am capable of. I’ll lose the weight. I’ll work the legs. I’ll do exactly what my coach tells me. It’s on to Boston.On with the show! Section one - Running TipsComing back from the flu - http://runrunlive.com/coming-back-from-the-fluVoices of reason – the conversationMatt – Passers-by http://passersby.libsyn.com/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/passers-by-passers-by-podcast/id1037890127?mt=2Matthew McDonough is a Podcaster and father hailing from Michigan. Matthew hosts the Passers-by Podcast, the podcast where a random guest comes on and tells their story. Section twoThe peril of the big goal - http://runrunlive.com/the-power-and-peril-of-setting-big-goalsOutro - Closing commentsMarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/Well, my friends, apparently you have failed on you r time goal but you have successfully made it to the end of episode 4-330 of the RunRunLive podcast. I’m going to drop one more journal entry on you and we’ll head for the exits. I’m still looking for contributions for my Team Hoyt campaign for Boston 2016 if you can spare a dime. Registration for the Groton Road Race is open. April 24th 2016. Come up and say ‘hi’ – it’s our 25th anniversary. Wednesday Morning. Navajo Casino. Sitting in the coffee café listening to Dire Straits and waiting for the sun and my wife to get up. On a call this morning I was asked about the race. “When did you know?” “How did it go down?” “How are you feeling now?” “What are your plans now?” I’m quite at peace with my race and in general. That was somewhere around my 51st marathon. I would guess 75-80% of them have gone like this. Where I went in wondering what my fitness was and found out that it wasn’t what I thought. It’s a bit of a bell curve when you get enough races under your belt. And I mean races. Not the meandering parades that is becoming more and more the norm. For me a race means that I’m going to run my best time on that day with the fitness I have. If I’m racing I’m racing for time and the measuring stick I use is the Boston qualification standard. It doesn’t mean completing the 26.2 miles for the sake of a party and a pat on the back. But that’s a whole other conversation. My point is; when you’re racing a small percent of the time you are going to show up and have a great day. On those days it comes easily and you run above and beyond your training. Another small percent of the time you get the truly awful performance where you pull a muscle or have a cramp and the whole thing collapses into an ugly death march to the finish. On these days you run below the capabilities of your training. For the majority of my races it has just been work. Where the work starts early and the weight of the effort wears you down. It is not your day. You slow down and take the disappointment because it is what you have on that day. You end up asking those questions and trying to figure out what went wrong. Like your performances the majority of the fault lies not in the long tail items of weather, sleep, nutrition or any of the other thousands of influencers on performance. The majority of your race performance is due to your training. Your training has the largest influence on how you perform on that day. Thus, my training was bad. Not bad in the sense that I didn’t get enough volume or intensity. Bad in the sense that my timing was poor, I raced too much and I wasn’t consistent or focused. I didn’t peak well and I wasted all those miles. How do I feel? What do I do next? I was emotionally wrapped up in this race because I’ve been chasing this time for 5 years now and it’s starting to weigh on me. I also like to make races emotionally important to me because I find that urgency helps me focus my energy. It helps to ‘care deeply’ about the results. It helps to take that attitude into a race. It makes me less likely to give up. I do understand that it’s just a race. I do understand that it is not a judgment on me as a person and I don’t take it personally. One race doesn’t weigh on my self-worth. Emotionally, in my animal brain I get the disappointment, frustration and anger, but detached in my big brain I see it not as failure but as another data point from which to learn and improve. That being said I want to make promises that I can keep. It is always a challenging game in life to dangle that carrot far enough in front that you have to stretch and grow to reach it but not too far in front that you create a wash and rinse cycle of false expectations and failure. We’re on to Boston. And we’ll see you out there. …Tuesday Morning I got up early to watch the sun rise over the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was spectacular. Really something. I decided I at least needed to run a little bit of the trail down into the canyon. The Bright Angel trail head was right behind our cabin. It was 18 degrees out, which I wasn’t expecting. I put on 5 shirts under the finisher’s jacket from the race. I had tossed my cloth gloves during the race so I had to wear my dress gloves. The long switch backs clinging to the cliff face were covered in a packed snow. It wasn’t too bad. I was bit worried it would be sheer ice and all I had were the wine soaked Hokas – not really trail shoes. The descent was easy and I just kept my stride short and steady. I passed through rock tunnels and past petroglyphs high on the canyon walls. I decide to turn around after less than two miles because I didn’t want to get in trouble with the wrong shoes, no water, no food and my quads still sore from the marathon. Even so it was probably 1,000 feet of drop. Turning around and heading back up I was forced into a run-hike cadence almost immediately. The canyon rim is at about the same altitude as Denver and the air is pretty thin. I had to step aside to let a couple of mule trains pass. As I was pushing up out of the trail the day hikers were starting their descents and stepped aside with wide eyed wonder to see me churning up the path towards them. They apparently thought I had run up from the bottom. You look at something like the canyon that was worn down over millions of years of patient effort by the Colorado River and plate tectonics. Man can dig holes and move dirt with tractors but rain and melting snow can move continents with patient ablation. I thought about my life and my running and how happy I was to be that 53 year old guy running up out of the canyon on an icy trail to the astonishment of travelers. Maybe it’s that same patient, consistent work that will allow us all to leave behind immense and beautiful works of art, each in our own way. My advice to you today is to just keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t worry about the results. Don’t worry if no one except the mule deer and jack rabbit know and notice and – l’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/Http://www.marathonbq.comhttp://runrunlive.com/my-books Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 26 Sep 2021 | Episode 4-464 – Coach Chris Twiggs | 01:06:44 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-464 – Coach Chris Twiggs (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4464.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Chris’ other show à Zero Prostate Cancer 2021 Boston - Intro: Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-464 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Let’s see if I can get this one out on time! Today we have the legendary coach Chris Twiggs on for a chat. I met Coach Twiggs down at the Bird in Hand Half Marathon. He is the head coach for Jeff Galloway’s running program. Chris is a high-level marathoner and ultramarathoner in his own right, and it was interesting to me to compare and contrast the Galloway athletes that he coaches to the traditional training modalities. The net-net of it is that runners, whether they are the elites, the age groupers, the 100-mile-a-weekers, the casual athletes, the back of the packers – we are all as passionate about our sport and as curious about our training. And in section one, since we have a lot of new runners in the world these days, with basic questions, … I’m going to give you piece on how to get started from scratch. But – what you’re going to be really excited about is that I’ll start you out with a garden update and an Ollie update. Here’s why. When I meet folks who have listened to my podcast, this podcast, do you know what they ask me? What they want to know? Is it about training tips? Is it about race adventures? No. They want to know how my garden is doing. And they want to know about Ollie my crazy border collie. So, I’m going to lean in! First the garden. It was an interesting year. We had some successes and some not-so-successes. My tomatoes struggled because there was an epidemic of some sort of tomato disease this year in my area that caused all the leaves to turn brown and wither – they call it “Tomato Blight”. It’s because the weather has been so wet and gloomy this summer. I feel like I’m living in Seattle. Basically, you have to plan any outdoor activity around the next rains storm. It’s not a 100% bad thing. Lawns are nice and green. I never had to water. As a matter of fact, I mixed up a bucket of fertilizer-water in June and have not had to refill it. The rain just keeps topping it off as I use it. I did get some splendid heirloom tomatoes. These nice golden tomatoes with red veins that were incredibly scrumptious with a little goat cheese. Yummy. It wasn’t a total loss. Yvonne made me plant onions, even though I told her onions don’t grow in my garden, and they didn’t. I also had a fun experiment where I planted a bunch of old, sprouted potatoes in my compost bin. They grew like gangbusters, until something discovered how yummy they were and ate them all up. The composting process is amazing with all this rain. It turned 4 feet of leaves and waste into a foot of soil that I’ll get to spread next year. I had a very robust crop of peas. So much so that I just gave up on harvesting them after a couple weeks. They are a pain to shell. Same with the Beans. I harvested a couple times but ran out of energy. Same with the red raspberries that are now in their second fruiting, and I can’t keep up. I had a great crop of lettuces early again because of all the rain, which was great, except for having to share them with slugs. I had a good crop oof kale until the worms got them. I had an outstanding crop of green squash and zucchini. Barely kept up for all of June and July. My herbs were all very stout. I especially enjoyed the invasive mint plants this year for making tea in my home office. I got a fair amount of cucumbers. And a reasonable amount of these yellow semi-hot peppers. But, my real successes were zinnias and sunflowers. I had never before been able to grow a single sunflower. The chipmunks love the seeds and dig them out. I tried putting chicken wire down and they got through that. I tried sprouting them first but they just ate the sprouts. This year I built a little hot-house frame and grew them in peat pots. I let them get a foot tall before planting the whole pot into the garden. Sunflowers don’t like to be transplanted so you have to plant the whole pot. These sunflowers were the Russian Giant variety and they got 8 feet tall and had great big happy flowers. I have now harvested them and will see if I can get some seeds to eat. The zinnias were a mistake. My daughter started them and gave them to me thinking they were peppers. But they were zinnias, they grew to be six feet tall and are covered with flowers. Orange, pink, red – just wonderful to cut and bring in the house for a little liveliness of décor in the kitchen. Now, I will present to you my other reasonable success this year. First I’ll tell you a story. In the book “ he tells the story of the establishment of the modern state of Israel. When the settlers were establishing the first Kibbutz, they raised pigs. Since pigs are not kosher, when they talked about the pigs or listed them in inventory they referred to them as “Turkeys”. Which brings me to my last reasonable success on my garden. My Columbian Tomatoes. Now I used to grow the old varieties of these Columbian tomatoes, back in the 70’s when it was illegal to do so. Now in Massachusetts the Columbian Tomatoes are legal to grow for personal purposes. I bought 20 seeds of a variety of these tomatoes, whimsically called “Purple Kush”. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t eat these tomatoes anymore, I just like to grow them. About 15 of them sprouted. I gave 10 away to friends. I planted 5 in my garden. 2 survived. But, here we are at the end of September and they are quite vigorous. They are like little Christmas trees. About 3-4 feet tall and you can smell them 20 feet away. I’m not going to try to bring them inside the house. I’ll harvest them when the frost is approaching and hang them in my attic to dry. If any of you out there have a hankering for Columbian Tomato casserole send me a note. I hear they make excellent baked goods. Oh – and apples. I’ve got a tree full of apples. I’ve made apple sauce. I’m eating 6 apples a day. I’m going to turn into an apple. That’s your garden update. How was it? Everything you hoped it would be? OK – In section two I’m going to talk about the supply chain because it’s on the top of everyone’s mind. But – like I said – in section one I’ll talk about starting from scratch. Here’s the thing. I told you I’m doing a fitness project at work. I leaned in. Because of that I’m getting these types of questions. And it’s fun and rewarding to be able to answer them. By leaning in I’m getting rewarded. Find something you can lean in on and see what comes back to you as a result! On with the show! About Zero ZERO — The End of Prostate Cancer is the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer. ZERO advances research, improves the lives of men and families, and inspires action. Link to my ZERO page: (for Donations) … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. Section One – Starting from scratch - … Chris Twiggs Chris Twiggs As Chief Training Officer at Galloway Training, Chris Twiggs has mentored and coached thousands of runners in local Galloway Training Programs, Galloway Customized Training Plans, and Galloway Charity Partners. Chris is an RRCA Certified Coach, Boston Marathon Qualifier, Ironman distance triathlete, and accomplished ultra-runner (15x Hardrock 100 finisher). He serves on the board of The DONNA Foundation, helping to put on the nation’s only marathon dedicated to finishing breast cancer. He also works with dozens of races around the country to provide Galloway Pacers, helping to run/walk/run participants to the finish line with smiles on their faces. Twitter - @Ctwiggs Instagram - @christwiggs Email - Section Two – Supply Chain - Outro Ok my friends we have run-walked through the end of episode 4-464 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Quick updates for you. My Apocalypse podcast is in it’s second season and doing well. I’m having a lot of fun with that. I haven’t been running, but I have been volunteering for races. I volunteered for Wapack and last weekend the local 5K. Funny story. The race director is a local guy, used to be the track coach and a pretty good IronMan. When I saw the email I responded that I could help out. And, of course, since he knows me, he ended up putting me in charge of the course marshals! Remember what I told you. Somewhere near you is a local race that needs your help. So, that was fun. I promised an Ollie Wollie update. We’ve been through 4 session at K9 now. Both my wife and I are going which is great. He’s doing really well. One of the best things is that he’s learned to wait at the door for me to go through it and give him the release command. He’s a lot better on the lease. He sits and stays very well. They don’t do treat training at K9. They are all about the Martingale collar, which is a choke collar. You correct the dog by giving them a pop on the choke collar. It doesn’t hurt the dog, but it gets his attention. He’s doing great and I think it’s giving him confidence. I had him out in some pretty busy places today and he responded well. Next week We have a conversation with Murray, one of our runner friends, who is a South African, teaching English in Korea and has written a book about meditation. To take you out I’ll give you an opportunity to do some good! I’m going to run-walk the virtual Boston Marathon this year for Zero the organization to end prostate cancer. Since I’ve got so many people in my life that have been impacted by this stupid disease. I’ve set up a page you can donate at. And since they let you set up a vanity URL I created one that I’m quite proud of And I’m going to put it here at the end of the show so you can go there and do it now. Even if you’ve just come in from your run, and you’re all sweaty, and you can’t sit donw at the computer without ruining the chair. Grab a towel. Think about all the dads and brother and friends. And click that link. And I’ll see you out there. My Apocalypse show -> MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 16 Sep 2016 | Episode 4-348 – Kristy Jo and Power Foods! | 00:53:27 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-348 – Kristy Jo and Power Foods! (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4348.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-348 of the RunRunLive Podcast. I ran a bit long last episode with Mike. I was up against a deadline so I just let it slide. I’ll try to better this time. You may have noticed I started slipping cookies into the end of the show after the outro. A ‘cookie’ in the lingo of the podcasting ‘biz’ is a blooper that I find particularly engaging. Like last week when I either wrote into my script or spell checked in that Australopithecines had ‘disposable’ thumbs! That’s just too funny not to share. Today we speak with Kristy Jo. I love that name. It’s like something from a TV show. Kristy shares some very good tips and tricks around her Power Foods nutrition plan. I read through her book and it’s quite sensible. I know this whole weight loss nutrition thing is a real challenge for so many people and I thought we’d give you some pointers from someone who has been through it all and get her approach. I have been steadily losing weight as well. I wrapped up my 30 day plan at the end of August but decided to keep it going. My training is going really well at the lighter weight. I want to see where I can get to by the Portland Marathon next month. Last episode I erroneously said I was down to 170 pounds. That was incorrect. What I meant was 175 pounds, which is still good, because I started at 185ish. I’m currently in the low 170’s with a body fat percentage of in the 10’s. Body fat percentage is a much better metric than weight or BMI. A good range for a guy my age is in the low teens. All that aside what I’m really pleased with is how much better workouts feel and how well my heart is responding. That’s how I define ‘feeling healthy’ and that’s what I’m going for. We have a wonderfully hewn, well crafted, and individually designed for your specific needs - show for you today. It’s a thing of beauty this show. I had it hand crafted by virgin baby koalas just for you. In section one I’ll answer some rapid fire running questions. In section 2 I’ll talk about the Wapack Trail race I ran over Labor Day weekend. I was wondering if anyone was going to write in about my math problem when I told the story of the store clerk in Atlanta. And I wasn’t disappointed. For the record, I know that 30% plus 20% can be calculated 2 different ways. When you combine a 20% discount with a 30% discount the answer is either 50% or 44% depending how you apply the discounts. Glad to see you’re paying attention. Makes me feel loved. There are a billion podcasts these days aren’t there? It’s funny how the cycles turn. Someone should do some research on it. First it was just us hobbyists and the big news outlets. Now everyone with a platform has gotten the message that a podcast is a must-have channel – especially the internet marketing folks. Thank you for joining me on my journey. You don’t have to. I’m doing it because I like doing it. It allows me to practice my creativity and production. It forces me to think critically about topics. It allows me to interact with people I find interesting. I explore topics and people that are interesting to me, that’s why I can keep producing for 9+ years and 350 shows. I do it for myself. At the same time, whenever I create anything I think about the audience. I ask the question “Why do you care?” This keeps me from getting too wrapped up in myself and allows me to add value. If you don’t care I’m just an annoying old dude that you sat next to on a long flight and won’t shut up even though you put your headphones in and pretended to sleep. I don’t want to be that guy. I do have a membership option to defray the cost because I’m a capitalist at heart and not a charity! I’m working on a proper set of books but as near as I can figure I spend about $1,500 a year on the podcast. Consider buying a membership. I’m still working on a separate iTunes feed for it. My guy in Nigeria can’t quite figure out how to make the remote header calls work with my wordpress plugin, but I’m working on it. If you’ve known me for any length of time you know I’m patient. When I decide to do something it takes on the inevitability of a glacier. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio Last week I uploaded two, count ‘em, two, book reviews. One for the Neal Stephenson SevenEves scifi tome and another for Moonwalking with Einstein, a treatise on memory techniques. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. For the cost of a pack of Clean and Clear , to, you know, remove that extra shine off your brow, you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew. There is no shipping charge for membership and I just today fixed the bug in the annual membership signup process! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … How about some useful running information? How about that? Instead of all this waffling on about the creative act? OK One of the workouts Coach gave me this week was a medium effort hill workout. Many times you will run longer or faster hill workouts for leg strength or as a type of speed workout or threshold workout. That’s not what this particular workout is for. This is a workout to practice form. Hills are a great place to practice form because running uphill naturally forces you up onto your forefoot, to take shorter, more rapid strides and to lift your knees. Hills bring the form to you. For the medium effort hill repeat you are only doing 30 seconds. That’s long enough to get into your form but not long enough to stress you. You do the workout at medium effort, so maybe a 7-8 on a scale of 1-10. People always ask ‘how steep should the hill be?’ For these medium effort repeats you can actually answer that question. When you get into the repeat itself your form should be clean. If you’re having to lean forward or struggling to get your feet turning over – the hill is too steep. When you run the repeat focus on pushing off rapidly from the forefoot. Push your hips forward. Run tall. Keep your chin up, your shoulders high and loose and your hands high and loose. Focus on the form, not the effort. Don’t carry anything in your hands. Jog down the hill and don’t start another rep until your heart rate settles down. I usually leave my bottle at the bottom of the hill. I stop when I get back, take a drink, walk a bit and when my HR falls under zone 2 I’ll ease into the next rep. I also find a stick and scratch a tally mark into the dirt after every rep. It makes a game out of it. Do a set of 10-15 of these. These are great, especially if you are trying to clean up your form. Like I said a 4-6% hill will automatically help you clean up your form. And I’m pretty sure the sine of that angle is the opposite over the hypotenuse, but I could be wrong. Practice makes perfect. Do your practice. On with the show. Section one – Running Tip Roundup - http://runrunlive.com/running-tip-roundup Voices of reason – the conversation Kristy Jo Hunt My Skype is "kristyjohunt." My home website is but there is much under construction with funnels, and I fear not everything leads back to one congruent space. I would love to talk about my background with long distance running and why I got into it (disordered eating and thinking it would solve weight issues) to why I got out of it (chronic pain with my 50-degree scoliosis that I pushed through the pain due to the disordered eating habits and FEAR), as well as my coaching of long-distance athletes with meal structure and timing that we have found to be very successful and optimize their body weight and energy for better times. I will put my bio below: Kristy Jo Hunt is a Certified Personal Trainer, Fitness Nutrition Specialist, published author, and natural Women’s Figure Competitor. After overcoming over a decade of disordered eating battles, she began a Facebook page in 2012. This Facebook page grew to be a full-blown education-based body transformation company called Body Buddies. Her team of coaches helps people correct health issues, overcome disordered eating, achieve their goals, and reach their desired aesthetics. She is the author of the book series and recipe book line, The Power Foods Lifestyle, and founded the company, Body Buddies, a transformation and education coaching system. Body Buddies teaches strategic implementation of scientific principles using psychological profiling to help people make sustainable changes in their nutrition and fitness efforts. She hosts online group challenges, coaches clients one-on-one, and teaches seminars for athletic teams, corporations, and church groups. As a way to help many people for free, she hosts the Body Buddies podcast, YouTube Channel, and Social Media feeds where she shares tips and tricks to nutrition, exercise, and mindset training. Her greatest happiness comes from watching others succeed and overcome obstacles that previously prevented them from reaching their goals. I would love to link to in the show notes and I would love to offer my free gift to your listeners of my free book (they just pay shipping) at . Kristy Jo Kristy Jo Hunt CPT/FNS/Author, Body Buddies | | | Skype: Section two Wapack 2016 - Outro Well my friends you have nibbled your way on proteins, vegetables and carbohydrates through to the end of episode 4-348 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Are you full? Are you satiated? Did you have to unbutton your jeans so all that good info would fit? I’ve got a short turn around now and I’m heading out to do the Spartan Beast in Killington Vt. I’m dragging my youngest along and she’s going to do the sprint on Sunday. I was looking at the instructions and anyone who starts the Beast after noon needs to carry a headlamp and two glow sticks…And they pull you off the course if you haven’t finished by 9:00 pm. Really? I have no intention of being on that course for 9 hours. Am I missing something? Coach is still trying to talk me out of it so I can focus on the Portland marathon on October 9th. What I like about him is that he’s old-school. He thinks every race is an Olympic qualifier. But, I’m at the point in my life where I have to try new things and have some fun too. That being said if I can maintain the diet and come out of Portland strong I’ll look at the calendar and see if there isn’t something serious to train for. I’ve got to figure out if we are going to do the Groton Marathon again this year. … Many of you are running your goal races now or over the next few weeks. Good luck with those. Remember that the hay is in the barn and there’s nothing you can do in the last couple weeks to make up training. As you are in your taper towards your race you can use a couple of the things we talked about here to help you stay sane. As your training load gets lighter you have an opportunity and the time to do some of the fine-tuning things. Think about practicing the mediation and visualization that we’ve talked about. Work in some easy yoga every other day to stretch and strengthen your machine. Do some meal planning around your taper weeks to go into the race lean and strong with a lot of energy. That’s how you apply the tools from the conversations we have here. That’s the real trick with all the content available to you. You’re like a DJ. You are the creative genius for your life. You take all this stuff in and mix it to make your own sound, your own movie and craft your own story. Make sure you get the ending right. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 16 Jun 2017 | Episode 4-367 – Matt Dunlap – BQ | 00:53:12 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-367 – Matt Dunlap – BQ (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4367.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends, and welcome to episode 4-367 th3e new summer, of the RunRunLive Podcast. Here we are in June. Today we are going to chat with Matt who qualified for Boston recently. Not to be entirely self-promotional, but he used the Marathon BQ plan from my book, “Marathon BQ – how to qualify for Boston in 14 weeks with a full time job and a family” that recounts my own journey to a Boston qualifier. It fascinates me to listen to these folks who have run the plan and qualified. It’s wonderful to me that it actually works for them. When you write down something like that there is always the worry that it has nothing to do with the plan. Somehow it is just you and your genetics or your work ethic or pure chance tipping those scales. So – congratulations to Matt for putting in the work and reaping the rewards. Welcome to Boston. This book continues to have legs, especially in April for obvious reasons, in both the e-book and audio book form. I’m thrilled to help people direct their energy and strength in a way that enables their goals. It’s very fulfilling. I am going to look into spinning up a webinar course version of it where I would step through the chapters over 12 or 13 weeks in a live webinar. If that’s something you’re interested in let me know. I’ll try to put the registration up on – which I own shortly. Should be fun and I’ll learn something and help some folks. I’m not a webinar rookie. I do them for work many times. If you’ve listened to this for a awhile you might have heard me talking about giving presentations, or presentation skills or such. It’s one of the things I’ve worked on my entire career. I think I’m up to a B+ level now. I gave a presentation this week in Boston this week at a startup conference. It was a room with maybe 100 souls in it. It was a blast! I had a 5-minute slot to give a pitch and demo. It used to be that I would be flop sweating having to stand up in front of a room but I love it now. If you prepare well and practice your craft you can turn that nervous energy into performance energy. I met a bunch of cool startups too. At least one I’m going to get on the podcast. It’s a sensor garment that you wear and it tracks all your vitals and your haptic response. I’m definitely going to wear test that thing. I’m 16 days into my 5 at 5 project. This project is where I get up at 5 AM and run 5 miles every day. I write a quick blog about it, daily, with a photo, if you want to follow along and see what’s rattling around in my brain. It’s over at my website. It’s fun. I take Buddy the old wonder dog with me for the first 2 miles on the trails then I go back out for another loop to make up the 5. He seems to be handling it well. On the weekends I still get out but I freelance a bit, throwing in some longer runs with Ryan on Sunday. I’m doing as much trails as possible. For Section one and section two today we are going to give you my Kettletown 50K race report. It was, of course, close to 20 minutes long, so I spilt it into two pieces and bookended the interview with it. Like a serial, right? Build some tension and anticipation, right? I read too much. Really. When you read too much the words start to seep out of your brain like coffee through the seams of a carboard cup. They find their way out. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to yet another Blue Apron or Hello Fresh ad. As a matter of fact, stop being lazy and go shop for your own food. We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Kettletown 50K race report part one - Voices of reason – the conversation Matt Dunlap Matt Dunlap Age 44 from St. Peters, Missouri. Husband and father of two. I completed the marathonBQ plan while working full time for the Boeing Co. in St. Louis. My background as an athlete: Never did run in school. I was a baseball kid. Started running in my 30s to lose weight picked up over the years. Started running long distance in 2016 and completed the BQ plan in May of 2017 (2nd marathon). Looking forward to my first trip to Bean Town and running the Boston Marathon in 2018! Here’s the first email I got from Matt when he crashed in his first Marathon try… Chris! Just finished listening to your Marathon BQ book today. I am SO motivated right now, and ready to start training, but unfortunately it's not time... yet... A little more background about myself: I'm 44 (as of yesterday) I've been a casual runner for over ten years. Ran my first race (10k) last 4th of July and been wanting "more" ever since... Ran a couple more 10k's this year, then decided to "try" a marathon which took place 8 days ago. My intention when I first committed to it was to just be able to say I did it. I had been listening to your podcast all the while (for over a year). I used a marathon plan that came with my runkeeper app. I had no intention of qualifying for Boston; it was never on my radar. But when I got several weeks into my training, and only had trouble hitting my workout goals when it was 90+ degrees out there, I started to think "maybe I could actually qualify for Boston?" I worked my butt off, never missed a workout for the last 10 weeks of that plan (plan goal was a 3:30 marathon). I knew that my gps was cutting a lot of my corners off as a ran my routes and wondered exactly how much better my "real" pace was than what I was reading on my phone (and/or watch). I told myself on race day, I would just settle into a comfortable effort level and see what happens... I am sending you three images that will basically tell you the story of the race. When you see the pics, from mile three and from mile 25, I'm sure you'll get the big picture, along with the image that shows my split times. In order for me to get a BQ, I had to finish in less than 3:15. I had it in my grasp but it slipped away in the last 10k. That's a bit of irony because for years I have always topped out at 6 miles or so on my workouts. But this last 10k of the marathon kicked my ass (last 3 miles were 9+ min/mi). Now I'm on a mission and I can't wait to get to the track! I just need to decide if I'm going to try a spring or a fall race next year. I love this book! -matt dunlap in St. Peters, MO … Here is the facebook chatter on the MArathonBQ group from Matt. BQ attempt down the drain. Race cancelled due to weather. … Finished 3:20:50 ish... more details to come. Everyone ran extra 4/10 mile because the first turn wasn't marked! Hopefully 4 minutes is enough to get into Boston. … Matt did you stick to the plan note for note? Referring specifically to the three weekly 5 mile recovery runs ... Matt N Kim Dunlap Yes, I followed it almost exactly as written. I did improvise some workouts though during the extra four weeks after the first race was cancelled. I lost about 8 lbs during the process too. Matt N Kim Dunlap When I got into the 20 plus mile runs, I started around 8 min miles for 5 or 6 miles then gradually increased to my goal pace of 7:2x. One day I felt really good and kept going to 26.2 and averaged 7:33. That was three weeks before the race … Section two – More Kettletown Outro Ok my beautiful, fit and fast friends. Do you have the grit to get through a training plan, stay healthy and hit that staring line with gusto? Maybe, maybe not, but you have hung in there through the end of episode 4-367 of the RunRunLive podcast. Congratulations. Did you see that lady from Oklahoma who won Comrades? Great article. She says she has 2 craft beers during every race. Not 3, not 1, 2. That’s enough to get her head and body in the zone. I wonder why that’s not considered doping? I tagged a brief audio at the end of the show from Duane who is looking for people to go run an eclipse run with him. Once in a lifetime event. Next week I’m going to have a chat with Julia who has a very interesting story of how life changed for her and she ended up finding herself in endurance running. I also am in conversations with the anxiety guy, Tim, to do an interview about the interconnection between exercise and anxiety. I’m going to keep curating older episodes onto the members feed as well. Avocados. Do you like avocados? Avocados are interesting. They are native to the Americas. They are actually considered a berry with a single seed botanically. I like avocados. I have one in my salad most days. Healthy fat. A couple interesting things. First, avocados should not exist. They evolved the way they are to be eaten whole by megafauna. Wooly mammoths, giant sloths and wooly rhinos. The megafauna would eat the avocado in one big gulp, swallow them and drop them with a bit of fertilizer some distance off. That was the avocado survival strategy. Doesn’t work well when all the megafauna are gone. But along came humans and took a fancy to the poor avocado. We cultivated them and developed them into the current smaller seed, lots of meat form they currently have. Did you know there is now an injury called ‘avocado hand’ that is so common among millennials that it is an official medical term? It’s when you cut your hand trying to open an avocado with a knife. You can see how to open an avocado on YouTube. I use a modified approach where I cut it into 4 sections, then separate, then the skin just peels off like a ripe banana. Avocados have a perfect ripeness you have to catch them at. You want them to be ripe but not mushy. When you buy them leave 1 or 2 out on the counter to ripen, leave the rest in the fridge. They ripen fast. If it gets ripe and you’re not ready to use it, stick it in the fridge. Also, if you don’t want to eat the whole think you can put lemon juice on the exposed flesh of the leftovers to keep them from going brown in the fridge. That’s it. From mammoths to you. Everything is connected. I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 03 Aug 2019 | Let’s talk about form | 00:07:36 | |
Let’s talk about form Part 2 in a series on form Ok Bubbah, you’ve been patient . Now I want to fill in the details . Before I start out, let me say one thing; if you’re getting out and running and enjoying yourself then don’t obsess about form. If it’s working for you, hey, that’s perfect. I don’t mean to form-shame anyone. I certainly don’t have perfect form. But, if you want to learn more form. Let’s talk. I always worry about this because it is so holistic. There are so many moving pieces – it s like juggling octopi. But – we will progress. The other point worth mentioning is there are a bunch of interconnected movements here and there is really no precedence in what sequence to work them. Most coaches start with foot strike and posture, so that’s where we are going to start. Foot strike – This is when, where and how often your foot hits the ground. Let’s talk about ‘how often’. Cadence: In your running form there is a certain frequency to your foot strike. It is 180 hits per minute. That’s the magic number. That’s the cadence. Plus or minus 2 hits per minute. Like everything else that may vary slightly from runner to runner, but overall this number is pretty solid. When I count my cadence it is usually a bit low, in the 170’s. When I’m doing speed work it might be a bit fast. Uphill, downhill, it varies, but somewhere around 180 is a good number. Bump Bump Bump That’s the cadence. Burn it in. Bump Bump Bump There are different ways to count your cadence. Newer GPS watches come with a foot-pod accessory that you can stick in your shoe and it will count your cadence for you as part of the data. The easy way is to just look at your watch, or phone, note the time and count each time your right or left foot hits the ground. At the end of the minute multiply that by 2. There’s your cadence. There is also a ton of music you can get, and even a metronome app that will give you a 180 count you can practice with. When you first time your cadence you’ll typically find that you are too slow. It’s seldom too fast. The reason your cadence is too slow is because you are over-striding. What does that mean? It means you’re reaching out too far in front with your leading foot and dwelling too long in the transition. Which is a nice segue into next bit of running form in the foot strike itself. You want to pull your form upright and forward so that your center of gravity is slightly forward of your foot strike. Your center of gravity should be slightly forward of your foot strike. Where is your center of gravity? It’s in your core. In your torso. You want to push that center of gravity out in front of you so that you are falling forward. You are falling and you are catching yourself as you are falling. The way you push your center of gravity forward is by pushing your hips forward. Imagine that there is a rope tied to your belly button and it is pulling you forward. Push those hips forward. Move that torso so it is falling forward. Then your feet have to keep up with that forward fall. This almost forces you to land on the forefoot. That space right behind the toes. You feel the foot hit the ground, but since you are falling you flow through that foot strike and kick it up behind. Fast, hot feet. Bump bump bump. No lingering on the foot strike. Bump bump bump. A great mantra here is “Light Feet” or “Run Lightly” this will remind you to loosen up, run tall and maintain fast cadence. Fall through the foot strike. Push those hips forward. Move those feet quickly. Bump bump bump. Think about your torso. When your hips are pushed forward that automatically straightens up your posture. You should be, in the words of running coaches “Running tall”. Don’t slump forward. Straighten up your shoulders. High and square. Light and relaxed. Let all that tension release out of your back and shoulders. It’s all being pulled along by the hips. Bring your head up. Look forward. Relax your chin. Smile. Breathe. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. What do you do with your hands? Bring your hands up lightly to your chest. Elbows at 90 degrees and slightly pushed back behind you. Straight back and forward in rhythm with your quick stride. Hold your hands lightly and open, high and close to your chest. Quiet your arms and hands. Don’t swing or pump. Just quiet. High and quiet. light and quiet. Bump Bump Bump. In your mind imagine a string that runs down your spine and pulls you upright. Though the top of your head. Run tall. Hips forward. Bump Bump bump. Forefoot strike. Hot feet. Bump Bump Bump. Light feet. Fast feet. Tall and strong. Easy. Relax into this form. Tall and strong. When you get into the right spot there is no wasted energy. There is no pushing off. You are falling easily down the trails with you light, fast, feet catching you. That’s good running form. Next time we’ll talk about some of the “Why do you care?” moments for running form. Like in races. Last time I asked you to look at the form of good runners and make a mental note of what that looks like. I also asked you to have someone video your own form so you can see the difference. This week I’m going to ask you to pay attention when you’re out running with other people. If you have a running group take a look at the various ways people run. Better yet, if you are in or watching a race watch what happens to people’s form at the end. When they get tired what happens? This is fun right? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 30 Jun 2017 | Episode 4-368 – Julia and the Endurance Epiphany | 00:54:27 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-368 – Julia and the Endurance Epiphany (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4368.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends, and welcome to episode 4-368 the new summer, of the RunRunLive Podcast. Happy 4th of July to all my patriotic American friends. Today we have a chat with Julia who has a great story. She had that moment in her life where she almost lost everything that led her to endurance sports. We get some many of these stories and it makes me wonder why people seem to need to get knocked up side of the head to make big changes in their lives? Maybe it’s just that we need to be shown that anything is possible. I’m dropping this show on June 30th. I am finishing up my 30-day 5 at 5 project where I simply got up and ran 5 miles at 5 AM every morning in the woods. I’ll give you my report out on that in one of the sections. How are you doing? If you’re an ultra-marathoner you’re in the thick of your summer racing season. Likewise if you’re a triathlete or a biker you may be racing or training for a late summer race. If you’re one of those crazy marathon runners you probably need to start getting serious about your training plans for a fall race. Such is the cycle of our lives. I do love this time of year. I know many of you in Europe and in the great sun-beaten swaths of the Western US and in the densely humid jungles of the southern US, have been having some hot, hot, hot weather. But I, up here in New England have had a mild start to summer. We’ve had lots of rain and cooler temps. The plants are happy and the little animals are thriving. Buddy the old wonder dog ran my 5 at 5 project with me. I took him for a first loop and then went out again to get my miles. That seems to be a good fit for him and he loves the cooler weather. How are your gardens doing? Mine was slow to get started due to the cool entrance of summer, but now my tomatoes, squash and cucumbers are coming on. My beans didn’t come up, but I was using seeds from 3-4 years ago, so no surprise really. My berries are starting to come in and I am going to have a boatload of berries. Like I told you before I’ve got a bevy of apples on my trees as well so we might get some apples this year. How about you? How’s your running? Your Swimming? Your biking? Your gardening? What’s your next big race? … I watched a couple new movies since we last talked. The first one was John Wick 2, which I thought would be just another terrible action movie. I had low expectations. But it was good, for an action movie. They could have mailed it in and just done the typical guy with guns and cars Van Dame, Schwarzenegger, Stalone movie. But they did more. They put in this Noir affectation that made the character less cartoonish and more likable. They did this thing with the fight scenes that included a lot of judo which was interesting. Not wire fighting like the Matrix or Bruce Lee type, but Olympic wrestling type moves. And of course, lots of car crashes, explosions a high body count. The other movie I watched was . This is a sort of bio pic with Brian Cranston of Breaking Bad fame playing Dalton Trumbo. I’ll give you a quick plot summary. Trumbo was one of the most famous, richest screen writes in Hollywood in 1947, but he also was a member of the Communist Party, which wasn’t a bad thing in 1944 when we were friends with Stalin, but was a very bad thing in 1947, as the beginning of the cold war kicked off a red scare. Some wankers in the congress decided Hollywood was being run by communists and they were 5th columnist set on infecting the population with their commie ideas. They proceeded to create this extra-legal body called the House UnAmerican Activities committee, with subpoena power to weed out the commies. Now, technically, the constitution says we can believe in anything we want and the government can go suck it. But, in times of hysteria, power hungry politicians always find some boogieman to whip up that allows them to set those rules aside. The committee subpoenaed 10, mostly screen writers, who became known as ‘the Hollywood 10’ to question. These guys thinking they had rights decided to not answer the questions, and the times being what they were, they went to jail for a couple years for contempt or obstruction or something. Trumbo was one of those. Meanwhile, at the start of this, Hollywood banded together and tried to turn the tide and tell middle America how ridiculous all this witch hunting was. They totally over estimated their star power and totally misread the sentiment of working class Americans. Joe-sixpack didn’t have any love for these lefty, pinko, coastal elitists and wanted the commies weeded out! Thus started the blacklist. The studio heads were basically arm twisted into committing to not employ anyone who was on the blacklist. The blacklist did what it was intended to and put people out of work and ruined or even ended their lives. There is a great series that goes through this in detail that I would highly recommend you listen to before watching Trumbo. It’s on the “” podcast by Karina Longworth. She did a whole season on the blacklist. I won’t belabor the politics in Trumbo. Sometimes when you look back on the blacklist people are incredulous that this happened. It did. These guys were actually communists, but mostly armchair communists not Stalinist. There was a fair amount of anti-Semitism in this as well. It’s a good move and knowing the history of the era makes it a better movie. Cranston is great. The thing I really took away from it, more than the political parallels, was how Trumbo just kept working. They took his job and made him persona non grata, but he just kept writing. He did what he was good at and eventually Hollywood came back around. He won two Oscars for screenplays that were attributed to other writers, in one case a made up name. That’s the lesson here for me. Just keep your fire burning. Keep using your gift. Keep doing what you’re good at and the rest doesn’t really matter, does it? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to yet another Blue Apron or Hello Fresh ad. As a matter of fact, stop being lazy and go shop for your own food. We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Long Run Pacing in a marathon plan - Voices of reason – the conversation Julia Khvasechko, LMT Hi Chris I don't have a blog I'm too busy living my life I'll give you some background A bit about me I have run 183 marathons in all 50 states twice and am half way thru round 3 I'm working on the continent, sept is AUS, aka continent #4 I completed Four 100 milers so far and many races of varying distances in between All of this is remarkable to me since I only started running 12 years ago But it gets better, 19 years ago I was on deaths door with an inoperable brain tumor Also I used to work in finance but switched careers to do what I love Empower other runners & helping them feel good in their bodies I pace races all over the country and own my own business, I'm a RYT, LMT, Running coach & am living the dream Also through running I found the love of my life & got married on my course of my 50th state There are a few articles out there about me My best Chris, Many thanks for the book, I can't wait to read it I am so very impressed I would also love to hear the finished product, kindly send it to me. i am deathly shy and marathons gives me an opportunity to be social I love pacing races and talking to people about running and one on one i'm okay but having to give a speech in front of an audience is too scary for me to even think about. again, i'm so very honored to have been chose to be a guest on your show. thank you for allowing me to share my story. if i can inspire one person, one person to push their limits and leave their comfort zone, then I have done my job. I read somewhere once that you life should have meaning; so I want to become an inspiration to others so they can try to do more and become more than they are today. the most powerful weapon is the human soul on fire. and if you fire up people to run more, to run faster, to do more, then you are the true inspiration. thank you for your time and i look forward to reading your book. my best, Julia … Section two – 5 at 5 - Outro OK my friends, have you been proposed to and married during this marathon of episode 4-368 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Things are cooking. I’m busy. I’m working on a bunch of cool stuff. One of the startups I’m working with in Boston is this smart garment company I told you about last time. They are going into a testing phase before they launch and are looking for runners so if you’re local and want to try some new tech and you’re training for a fall race let me know and I can introduce you. Even if you’re not local and you want to learn more I can introduce you for future stuff as they roll it out. Yeah, I don’t know what I’m doing for a fall target race. I think I’ll look for a Maine race in October or November. Maybe I’ll target MDI, I know Gary Allen, we’ve interviewed him at least twice, he’s the race director, I’ve always wanted to run that race and I need a Maine race. I’m toying with doing a version of my own MarathonBQ plan to see if I can get some speed back. I’d have to modify it to have less volume, more cross training and more recovery days. I’d never survive it as written. Not sue how Buddy is going to react now that we’re finishing up the 5 at 5. He may revolt. He’ll be waking me up at 5 in the morning and demanding to hit the trails! There are worse things. Next week I’ve got a couple interviews lined up. I’ve got an Irish author who’s book I’m reading, sort of a literary mashup of and . (Editorial note: When I throw out authors or movies or other factoids like that I usually provide a link to an explanation of just what the fine day I’m talking about in the show notes and the accompanying blog post) I’m also talking with Tim the anxiety guy. We’ll getone of those up for the next show or maybe I’ll pull Arnar from the smart garment company in to talk about robo-running. I curated two old episodes up onto the members feed. Consider being a member, it keeps the lights on over here at the RunRunLive HQ. It’s fun for me to go back and listen to myself and what I was doing 5 or 6 years ago. By the way, this episode is more than likely the 10 year anniversary of RunRunLive as a podcast. How about that? Here we are. Who would have thought it was possible? Over a million downloads later. Don’t be a stranger. Reach out and say ‘hi’. I’m entirely approachable but not so terribly interesting in person. It’s funny how time moves around us and floats us and sometimes sinks us. Makes you think about what you are doing today and how it will change the flow of time for your tomorrows. One of my more philosophical answers that frustrates my business partners is that I don’t know what the outcome is, but I can tell you that I’m doing the things today that will put me in a position to change those outcomes. And that’s the message for you. You can’t get off your raft that is being pushed along in the river of time. You can’t change the past. You can’t change the future. You can only choose what you do with your great personal fire, your gift today. And that can be enough to not only change your life but also change the lives of others. It’s not set. You can do whatever you want. You just have to decide to do it. Today I choose to talk to you. About running. And thinking. And experimenting with the fabric of the universe in my small dusty corner of it. I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 11 Oct 2020 | Episode 4-440 – Jason has an Epiphany | 00:55:08 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-440 – Jason has an Epiphany (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4440.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Intro: Hello and welcome to episode 4-440 of the RunRunLive podcast. Yes, welcome my friends. I know I’m a week late. It pains me to not meet my commitments. It’s a sign of a life lived out of control. I’m not a control freak but I do like to engender habits. And habits are very strong things. Habits are the fibrous tissue of day to day life. They are hard to tear, but once rent they are hard to put back in place. So, apologies. For being a week late. My work got very time intensive and emotionally taxing for a couple weeks. That combined with the necessary house work and everything else pushed me past, irrevocably past, the deadline. I have taken some corrective action on this front and will talk about that more later. Today we talk with Jason. Jason had one of those death experiences. Not ‘near death’, no, for Jason he died, and then came back. It’s always interesting for me to talk to people who have had these life altering events. It underscores the ability and power we all have inside of us to change, to radically change, to begin to live life before it is too late, but for some reason we don’t. Why is that? What is the glue of normalcy that causes us to submit our dreams of adventure to a the daily grind? Until, one day, we shuffle off the mortal coil leaving dreams unfulfilled scattered here and there like unopened Christmas presents. In section one I’ll talk about how you can build your own ad hoc core workout routines. In section two we’ll catch up with the old man and Bill the dog in the apocalypse. I listen to mostly history podcasts these days. I’ll start a history podcast and listen through until I’m caught up. It’s usually a couple hundred episodes. I like the continuity of it. Of being able to listen through an arc of the historical narrative. Maybe while painting or gardening for a few hours at a time. It’s always a mixture of the bittersweet and the accomplishment when I get caught up. Then it gets me to thinking that there might be someone out there listening to this who has just listened through the athletic arc of a dozen years of my life. That’s odd. If it’s you, send me an email or reach out to me on social I’d love to talk to you. Cyktrussell at gmail dot com. I don’t spend much time on social media anymore. I’ve entirely given up on Twitter. I dip into Facebook to see if anyone is looking for me maybe once a day. I do post pictures on Instagram. That doesn’t seem to be much of a sewer yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Since we last talked, which was after my virtual Boston marathon, I’ve been taking it pretty easy. The leg seems to have gotten better. No more swelling or lumps or lymph node swelling. Kind of makes me feel like a fake. I skipped my race and it turned out to be nothing. But, that is life. I’ve been running with Ollie 3 days a week for 20ish miles, Maybe mid 20’s. Just easy stuff. Mostly trails. I’m easing into core work and yoga on the other days. On Sundays I meet my buddies and we do a long, easy bike ride. Usually around 30 miles. We hit someplace to eat halfway. It’s a nice change. I’ve got my old race bike, Fuji-san, the classic steel frame road bike that I bought to commute with 20 years ago. It’s a real bike. A bit heavy, but good Shimano components, clip on aero bars and enough working gears to get me where I’m going. Usually if I’m training I might average 18 miles an hour. On these pancake and bagel rides we tend to average 11-12 miles per hour, so that should give you a sense of the effort level! I’m going to stick with this routine until the end of the year. There are no events, so there’s no reason to get specific with any training. Just keep my engine turning over and stay healthy. How about a garden update? Well, not much left at this point. I picked all the rest of the peppers today. We haven’t had a frost yet so things are alive. I’ve got some beans and the rasberries are still producing. And of course the kale likes the colder weather. But I’ve got a persistent worm problem. Since I was working from home all summer I decided to see if I could win the worm war. I would go out everyday and inspect the kale leaves for worms. I’d pluck them off and squish them. I found that after a week or so I was winning. But, it was not a victory I could ever walk away from. Miss a couple days and the worms would be back. Miss a week and you might as well give up. I learned. I learned that if I actually wanted worm free kale I would have to inspect every leave on every plant every day. What if I had a kale farm with hundreds of plants? What if I needed these kale leaves to feed the tribe? The obvious conclusion is that kale farming must have led to the necessity for slavery. There’s no other way you could keep up. And with that, let’s get on with the show. About Zero ZERO — The End of Prostate Cancer is the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer. ZERO advances research, improves the lives of men and families, and inspires action. Link to my ZERO page: (for Donations) … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Creating a home workout routine - Voices of reason – the conversation Jason Pepin Mix one-part endurance athlete and one-part chef with a pinch of moderation, and you’ve got Jason Pepin. However, moderation wasn’t always part of the equation. Looking back, Jason knows he’s one of the lucky ones. After all, there aren’t many people walking around who can say they got to hit the reset button on their physical health. In 2012, Jason suffered a massive heart attack while on his bike ride in Los Angeles. With a survival rate of just 12%, and known as “the widowmaker”, his heart attack was the result of critical blockage in a main artery. That day, Jason died and was revived on the table. And while most people won’t ever walk out of the hospital again, in just two short months he was back on his bike. But being a determined athlete is just one half of who Jason is. The other half is a tireless chef who, at age 12, was first inspired by his grandmother to start cooking. She instilled in him the value of sourcing the freshest ingredients and a respect for simplicity in preparation, both of which have remained the hallmarks of his cuisine. After 30 years in the kitchens of famous culinary brands such as Morton’s The Steakhouse and Wolfgang Puck, Chef Jason has learned there is more to a healthy life than just exercise. Building on what his grandmother taught him, Jason has added the value of moderation to create a healthful lifestyle that is both sustainable and balanced. mountain climbing, practicing martial arts, cooking, and being the favorite human to a freakishly large cat named Loki. Section two – City of the Dead part 3 - Outro Ok my friends we have ridden our old bikes to the bagel shop at the end of Episode 4-440 of the RunRunLive Podcast. I’ll take a sunflower seed, toasted with crunchy peanut butter and strawberry jam please. So you already know my training plans for the foreseeable future. Easy on the running with a recreational bike and some core workouts. That’s pretty boring. Got to find myself some inspiration. Other good news is that I’m almost done painting the house. I’ve got a couple places I can’t reach. My 32 foot ladder that I used to reach those places last time I painted the house is out of action. The rung locks are non-functional. I tried to order new rung locks, but the ladder is too old to get replacement parts for. The only way I could use it would be to extend it all the way, manually lock the rungs in place then try to get it up, which, believe me I tried but the physics of it is impossible. But, my other running buddy Brian is a contractor, and he’s gong to let me borrow his long ladder this week to finish up. Next up on the never-ending home improvement list is garage doors. Which I was delighted to discover is only like $3,000. I have to winterize my motorcycle. I didn’t ride it at all this summer due to the apocalypse. I’ll take it back over and stick it in Frank’s barn for the winter. That’s on my list as well; to find an outfit to refurbish my old motorcycle. It would cost more than the bike is worth, but it would make me happy. Ollie the collie is almost a year and a half old! He’s still mostly feral but hey, aren’t we all? He’s great with people on the trails. I just say, “Leave it!” and he ignores them. When he greets another dog he rolls over onto his back and get’s all submissive. He’s a nightmare on the leash. I took him out on the road one night this week. I have to really pay attention. He’ll get spooked by something and take off at an angle. I have to get a better harness for him. The collar isn’t’ good enough. He’s built like a brick house. Not as rangy as Buddy was. More of a linebacker or a fullback. Amazingly strong and athletic. Smart as heck, but willful and I’m thinking part jackal. Among the books I’m reading is one by Brene’ Brown called Daring Greatly. The premise is that you have to get outside your comfort zone to find the good stuff. You have to be vulnerable. But, in order to be vulnerable you need to have a strong sense of self-worth. That’s what gives you the strength. You have to be convinced of your own self-worth. Your unique gifts. Your power. In itself. Incomparable to anyone else. Incomparable to previous versions of yourself. You centered power of what you bring, unafraid, right now. And that self-power allows you to dance badly in public and sing karaoke. When you have that keen sense of self in the now you can do hard things, you can be vulnerable, and that allows you to listen with empathy, to learn new things and, heaven forbid, change your mind. So, my friends, what would you do if you weren’t afraid of failure? Think about it. Every day is another chance to find out. And… I’ll see you out there. To take you out is Track number 18 from Brian Sheff The Rock Opera by - Called "when the Sun Burns out” AndI know you’ll be sad to hear that there are only 2 tracks left in the rock opera. But, Frank told me this morning that they are working on some new songs, so there is hope for the future. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 28 Apr 2019 | Boston 2019 | 00:35:33 | |
Boston 2019 All in – my 21st Boston Marathon (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/Boston2019.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - … I didn’t sleep great the night before. Part of it was the driving rain and the thunder and lightning that shook the house. Part of it was my ruminating brain. You might think that having such a great training cycle would allow me to rest easy. But, no, it somehow raised the stakes. My trusty subconscious was chattering away. What if after all this work I managed to screw up the race? What if the weather was bad? Of course I tied to let my big brain take over and talk myself down from the window ledge. I am grateful to be here. Yeah. I am happy to still be doing this 20+ years in? Yeah. I am blessed? Yeah. Blah, blah, blah… After 20 years you’d think I’d be able to rationalize. Repetition doesn’t lower the stakes. This is the Boston Marathon. It matters to me. I put in the work. I qualify. It matters. It matters to me. … I rolled out of bed reasonably refreshed and put on my throw-away clothes. With the lingering rain I didn’t want to wear my race stuff, especially my shoes. Stay dry as long as possible. I had time to take a nice shower and have a bit of breakfast. A normal day at the Russell house. My wife dropped me off at the local Starbucks where I caught a ride with some of the folks from my running club out to Hopkinton. Without incident I hopped the spectator bus to downtown Hopkinton and made my way over to the senior center to join Eric and the St. Louis runners. My second year of avoiding Athletes’ Village. Call me soft, but warm and dry with a bathroom beats ankle deep mud and a 45 minute porta-john line. I stretched and rubbed and pre-gamed. Got my race gear on and lubed up really well. With the humidity and warmer temps I figured chaffing might be an issue. I ran in my old Hoka Cliftons, split shorts and a race singlet. Nothing fancy. I wore the Boston Strong hat I had bought at the expo. I felt like that was an appropriate message for my training cycle and my race plan. Like Coach said in his pep talk to me; it didn’t matter if it was 100 degrees or if there were 80 mile an hour winds. I was not going to waste this training cycle. No matter what happened I was committed. I wasn’t giving myself any option to give up or to ease off. No matter what I was all in. I would control the only thing any of us really controls; my commitment to fight – to be strong. We watched the early waves start on TV. We saw the wheelchair finish, which seemed a bit strange to see people finish a race you are an hour away from starting. In the room were several faster, red-bib, wave 2 runners. That seemed to be the demographic in general. Lots of fit, young, fast runners in Nike Vapor Fly’s and a handful of us old war horses. Eric and I were in the same wave and corral. 3/3, which put us up the hill not far from the start line. Without hurry we made our way over when the time was right. … It’s an electric time. Walking to the start of the Boston marathon. If you could somehow drop an emotional energy meter into the center of Hopkinton Massachusetts it would be bouncing off the rails and maxing out. Thousands of qualified athletes stepping into the culmination of their training cycles. Each one a story of dedication and perseverance and, right now, in this very moment, at their emotional peak. This is it. The big test. The qualification effort is well in the past. The months of training and sacrifice all leading in an inevitable emotional march to this day and this moment. The atmosphere buzzes like an electric field. Eric and I made our way out of the senior center in the misty, post-rain, cool, overcast morning. The sun was struggling to break through the remnants of the storms that had passed. We walked the short trek to Main Street and the bottom of the hill where the first half of the corrals take a turn back towards athletes’ village. As we cleared security to access the melee of runners trying to find corrals I ran straight into Alett. This is one of the alternate universe characteristics of Boston. If you are trying to meet people on purpose, you can’t find them. But, you randomly run into people you know, for no predictable or probable reason in the crowd of 30,000 athletes. I gave her a hug. We had a few words. Eric and I continued our hike up the hill towards the start line to find our apportioned 3rd corral. Corral 3 is close to the actual start line. We got to the opening just before our wave start time and ended up in the back of the corral just as they pulled the ropes and the corral 4 runners flooded in to fill the gap. And like that we were off again, bounding down the steep hill out of Hopkinton, heading towards another date with destiny. … I went into my training cycle angry. It was mid-October and I had just jogged off the course at Baystate after one lap. I thought I would have the legs after that big training cycle volume over the summer training for the Burning River 100 mile ultra. But, I could not hold the pace at Baystate and gave up. There wasn’t a lot of urgency in that race. I was already qualified. I could run another if I wanted to. I let my big brain rationalize me off the course. Ultra-training was all about multi-hour runs in the trails. Great for fitness, great for peace of mind, but not great for racing marathons. While putting in those 90+ mile long training weeks I didn’t pay much attention to nutrition or flexibility. I paid no attention to speed and tempo work. Coming into the late summer I was tipping the scales in the mid-180’s. That’s not obese for me, but it is some extra weight. I have discovered that as I age, I’m losing body mass in general so my old race weights aren’t something I can compare against. Instead I look at body fat % as a decent proxy for excess. Late summer I was up in the 12-13% body fat. The extra weight doesn’t matter when you’re ambling around in the woods, in fact it’s probably an advantage, but it sucks to carry when you’re trying to run fast circles on a track or hard charges up a hill. Trying to tune up for that race in the fall I noticed that I really struggled with speed and tempo. My legs weren’t cooperating. My turnover was pathetic, and I had no pop. That’s when I got a bit angry. I knew I had work to do. Talking with Coach, after the race, he convinced me to not try to race again and to focus on Boston, still 5 months in the future. I committed, to get lean, to get healthy and to go into my 2019 Boston training cycle with a higher level of commitment. To see what I could do. Running a qualifying time has never been easy for me. I’m not that naturally talented athlete who glides by the standards. I struggle and work to barely scrape by. The BAA has helpfully lowered the standard by 10 minutes over the last few years and that struggle to scrape by is even more scrapier. I need to meet the same standard today as I did two age groups ago. And so it began…I worked my diet and worked my plan through the holidays. Dropping those first 10 pounds and working daily on my tight hamstrings and quads. I came into this training cycle lean and fit. By the end of this cycle I was hovering around 170 pounds and 9% body fat. I was getting good sleep and I was healthy. Bringing this health into my training cycle enabled me to hit paces I haven’t seen in 10 years. It enabled me to attack workouts that I would have walked away from in previous cycles. I had the quality, if not the volume, I needed to do well. Like I said. I’m quite proud of this training cycle. I feel like it was a major lifestyle change for me. I’m also cognizant of the fact that I’m not a 20-year-old (or a 30-year-old…or a 40-year-old) anymore and this kind of intensity may not be the best choice for longevity in this sport. … I was dead set on sticking to my plan. I was not going to go out too fast. I was going to stick to 8 minute miles or slower. My strategy was to make it through the hills with enough juice left to close the race. Maybe it was because we started at the back of the corral, but it seemed very crowded in the beginning. We crossed the first mile mark at somewhere around an 8:24 pace, successfully resisting the pull of the hills. Again, from the random encounter files, Frank, one of my training partners tapped me on the shoulder and congratulated me for not going out too fast. I was glad to see him, but I turned around and he was gone, running his own race. I say ‘somewhere around an 8:24 pace’ because my Garmin was off the mile marks from the start and got worse as the race progressed. I ended up off my 3 tenths of a mile. Which is a lot. It’s close to 3 minutes discrepancy at the finish. The next few miles brought our average down to right around 8:03 official at the first 5Kmark. Which was right where I wanted to be. We were running smart. According to the official BAA timers we were right on our target splits. At 5K and at 10K. My legs didn’t feel great. There have been times at Boston that early in the race I can feel that ‘pop’ in my legs. This wasn’t one of those. I knew it was going to be a work day, but I was committed to the work. I wasn’t going to waste this training. No matter what I was going to work my plan – all the way. The race felt very crowded this year, especially in the water stops. People were bumping and pushing and getting knocked off pace in those early tables. Eric started grumbling about it ‘not being his day’ but I pushed back and said all we have to do is hold this pace and get to the top of that hill. Hold this pace and make it to the top of Heartbreak. That’s the plan and I was working my plan – come hell or high water – all in. We were taking water at every aid station because it was a bit warmer than it should have been and we wanted to stay ahead of it. I got a couple endurolytes down at around the 10K point. It was still overcast and wasn’t uncomfortable. I had a couple gels with me that I had tried to pin to the waistline of my shorts. I had no ither way to carry them, except in my hands. I was going to tuck them inside my shorts but that didn’t feel right so I let them hang outside and flop around. At one point I had a guy say “You’re going to lose those gels” and one did break free, but I got the other one through the first hour and choked it down. With the warmer weather I was a bit concerned about my gut. I knew I had to stay on top of the water and fuel but by doing so also risked nausea from too much. Again, when you’re racing at your threshold pace your body doesn’t like to digest stuff too. Some where before the 10-mile mark I turned around and Eric was gone. Off to run his own race. Now I had to pace myself and execute my plan. Through the half I was right on pace, with even a couple faster miles. According to my watch I was a bit faster than the race splits and that difference would end up being significant. My watch splits were probably 5 seconds a mile off my race clock splits. We pulled through Wellesley and the scream tunnel. I stayed to the middle of the road to not get tangled up. I remember seeing some young men mixed in with the Coeds and hoping this wasn’t a trend. I was pacing a couple guys around my age who looked like they were on the same mission. But, one of them had this annoying habit of going much faster on the downhills and I moved on. Somewhere around Wellesley the clouds cleared and the full sun came out. Not terribly warm, but full sun, calm and around 70. … The weather was a big story this year at Boston as it usually is. It wasn’t a major issue, but it was a big story. A week out it was forecast to be raging thunderstorms, rain and wind like we had last year. The race officials moved up the wave 4 start to get people out of athletes’ village and onto the course a bit sooner. As the race got closer the forecast changed to 60’s, rain and significant tailwind. This forecast held right up to the race. The only thing that changed as the days clicked by was that the temperatures were predicted to creep up to close to 70. Still, drizzly with a stiff tail wind sounded pretty good to me. The dynamic was, as it usually is, that Boston is the last stop for any storm train that rolls across the country. Typically, these come through in waves, or fronts. When you look at a weather forecast for New England it really depends on where these storm fronts are, how fast they are moving and what’s on either side. That’s why this year was so squirrely. We had two energetic systems sweeping across the country and as good as our weather technology is it’s a guess as to when the fronts show up and when they leave. The first traveler was a warm front with tropical downpours. Then on the heels of that one was a cold front with another line of rain and high winds. This is all in the same 24 hour period. Depending on a couple hours or a shift in the storm path you could get rain, wind, warm, cold or sunny skies and/or calm. That’s why you’ll hear people say they got all 4 seasons during the race this year. That’s why, even the night before, we didn’t know what we were getting. What we ended up getting was the tropical storm early with lots of rain, warm temps and wind. That’s what woke me up the night before. As the out of town runners made their way out on the buses to Athetes’ village they had to deal with these tropical downpours, thunder and lightning. As the waves started to go off this weather calmed and it was overcast, wet and calm. Still this early rain turned the Hopkinton Highschool fields in athletes’ village into a medieval mud bath again for the waiting athletes. By the time my wave, wave 3 went off it was overcast, warmish and humid with very little wind. As I started the race in corral 3 wave 3 it was mid-60’s, calm, overcast and humid – not bad racing weather. But, as we got into Wellesely and the hills in Newton the sun came out. It was 70, full sun and no wind. A bit warm for us but not horrible. Ironically, after all the storms and dire forecasts, all the New Englanders got a touch of sunburn on their virgin skin. Those poor people from out of town who packed their winter gear in anticipation of Armageddon got a nice, warm and sunny New England day. Then that second front, the one with the rain and tailwinds, came through right after we finished. By the time I finished the clouds were coming in again. It started raining and gusting walking to the hotel. When I left for the train a couple hours later (after a shower and rehydrating) the temperature had dropped and there was a biting wind in the city. All four seasons in one day. The net result was, at least for we wave 2-3 runners, we hit the gap exactly between storm fronts and ran on a clear, windless, slightly too warm, spring day. Did it impact my race? I don’t know. It was a bit warmer than I like and there was no tail wind. It certainly didn’t help, and I’ve heard a lot of people blaming it, for poor performances, but it wasn’t awful. Probably more of a convenient excuse than a causative factor. That’s Boston. After the sun came out and we passed through the scream tunnel the next major landmark is the drop down into Newton Lower Falls and the start of the hills, with ‘hill zero’ climbing up over 128. It was in this section where I started to feel a bit funky. I had a classic power loss moment and it freaked me out. This is too early in the race to be having power loss. All those negative thoughts started swirling. I shut them off and recommitted to fighting it all the way. I took another gel and that did the trick. I felt human again. Just in time for the hills. I worked my downhill form down the steep hill into Newton Lower Falls and refocused on getting to the top of Heartbreak. I did great job of reeling my mind in. Each time my head started to go sideways I would refocus on what I was doing right now. My mantra became “Run the mile you’re in”. And I kept working. I lost 10 seconds or so on that slow mile but according to my watch I had a couple minutes in the bank for the hills so I wasn’t going to let up. And that’s the trick at Boston. How do you go fast enough in the beginning that you don’t fall behind your pace and have a bit of buffer for the hills, while at the same time not burning out your legs in the process? I was right on my plan. It was a work day but I was on my plan. According to my watch I could give a couple minutes back and still make my time. Maybe not my A goal but certainly my B goal. Hill zero was hard but manageable. After you get over the highway they are handing our gels again so I grabbed on of those for later. I was keeping my water intake up, but not really drinking much of the F2C I was carrying in my bottle. Mostly because it was warm by now and my stomach was a bit nasty. I couldn’t summon the energy to dig my Endurolytes out but figured I was getting enough from the gels and occasional sip from my bottle. We turned by the Fire House and I was grinding away, staying on pace. The uphills didn’t feel great but my downhill pace was nice a strong. It was still work and I wasn’t having a great day but I thought I was managing it well. I was running the mile I was in and focused on getting to the top of Heartbreak. Hill one wasn’t bad and I ran really well off the back of it to recover. This was very positive for me because many years this is the spot where the race completely unravels. Around 18 miles in before you even get to Heartbreak. Hill 2 was a bit harder, but again I recovered well and ran smoothly on the back side. Then we were into Heartbreak I wasn’t looking at my watch anymore. I was all in, working as well as I could and staying as close to pace as I could, looking to get to the top of that hill and reap the benefits of the downhills and flats into the finish. I took a quick walk of the water table before entering the hill to get my head right and started to climb. I raised my head and looked up that ½ mile climb and I got back to work. … My training and preparation were excellent. The only blip was that I had a business conference in Chicago the final week of my taper going into the race. I ate too much and drank too much beer, got bad sleep and spent way too much time on my feet. That shouldn’t have been enough to unravel the total quality of my training, but it may have been one of the small factors influencing my race. My legs were a bit tight and I was a bit jetlagged and heavy as I rested out the weekend before the race. Since I was flying back from Chicago Friday morning anyhow, I figured I’d swing by the expo and pick up my bib. I usually go in Saturday, but this seemed convenient and I really wanted to get off my feet and rest for the remainder of the time I had left. I dragged my travel bags onto the train and made my way over to the Hynes at the Pru for the expo. There was no line at the bib pickup. I cruised right through without breaking stride. When I turned into the shirt pickup room there was a long line. Luckily, instead of just joining the line I asked someone what the line was for. Apparently, it was for people to take a photo of themselves in front of a particular wall banner. I skipped that line and cruised through shirt pickup without breaking stride. There were people and family groups taking pictures all around with their bibs and shirts. There were people immediately taking the shirts out and trying them on for fit so they could exchange if necessary. All these people were just so excited to be there. They were clutching and fawning in the symbols and idolatry of the moment. So many stories, all different, but all the same too. They worked so hard to get here and now they were celebrating and in awe of the moment I made my way over to the expo. This is where the crowds were. There was a veritable feeding frenzy at the Adidas official gear booth. Crowds of runners pawing through the over-priced merch and a line to check out that would make Disney proud. I didn’t see anything I liked. I usually buy a hat, but all the racing hats had the logo as a stuck-on chunk of plastic, not stitched in, so I passed. None of the shorts looked like anything I’d want to wear either, so I skipped that line too and moved on. The Expo seemed smaller than usual. A bit underwhelming and disappointing. There were the usual big shoe companies and such. There was the theater showing the race course run through video which is always popular. On the negative side there seemed to be a lot of ancillary, what I might call, “late night TV products”. Various potions and devices guaranteed by someone to do something. On the good side there were two beer booths. The Sam Adams guys had a large presence and runners were happily consuming the 26.2 brew specially made for the race. And Zelus, the beer for runners out of western Mass had a booth. I might suggest that they consider the expo at Boston as part of the character of the race and find a way to do better. Maybe get people and products in that fit our lifestyle. I’m sure it’s just a financial thing, they fill the space with whoever is willing to pay. How about setting aside booth space for something more intrinsic to our demographic? How about authors? Important charities? Or maybe to good races? Or maybe some science-based products? Maybe I’m over thinking it. … My legs were pretty shitty at as I went into the ascent of Heartbreak. Even after all those awesome sets of hill repeats I had donei n training I couldn’t find that gear, that energy and strength, so instead of slowing to a shuffle I switched to a fast-hike, run cadence, an ultra-running trick, to save my legs and not lose too much time. My legs were really heavy and refused to climb well but I worked through to the top of the hill. I figured that was my time buffer. Now I had to hang on to close to race pace to have any chance of making my time. Coming off the hill I relaxed and again had good downhill form and effort. I felt comfortable. I figured I was really close to my goal pace and just had to keep hitting it. I kept running the mile I was in. I thought I carried a couple minute buffer at least into the hills, so even if I lost a minute or two, I would still be close. The course started to take its toll on the runners. The pack was looser here but runners would be stopping or weaving or sitting on the side of the road and you had to watch out or bump your way through. I saw two runners being packed onto stretchers by EMTs. I pushed on. In my head I thought I could just stay close. All in. keep fighting. It was work. I wasn’t terribly uncomfortable. I was able to maintain close to goal pace on the downs and flats in the that last 10K. I felt strong rolling down that hill with the train tracks into Cleveland Circle. Then, I looked up to see the 24 mile sign, and, out of habit, looked at my watch. My Garmin said almost exactly 3:20. Even with my addled brain I could do the math. I would have to run the last 2.21 miles in 15 minutes to get my time. I had been battling to hold on to 8:10’s in these last miles, thinking I had some buffer. But, battling as I was, there was no way I was going to lay down a couple sub-7:30’s at that point. The wind came out of my sails. I let my foot off the gas. I reminded myself to lift my head up and look around. The screaming crowds, the Citgo sign, the mile to go, the right on Herford, the left on Boylston. The crowd on Boylston like a living, screaming animal pulling you in to the finish. I let myself be in that moment. I finished easy in 3:40:19 according to the BAA timer. A full five minutes off my B goal time. As near as I can figure, with my watch being so far off the race splits I did not have that 2-3 minute buffer going into the hills. I probably only had 45 seconds to a minute. When I lost those 2-3 minutes in the hills, combined with a couple slower miles where I was 5 or 10 seconds off pace at the end I was in the hole coming off Heartbreak. I didn’t have the juice to negative split it in. In those final miles where I was working to stay close to race pace I really needed to be negative splitting. Of those 5 minutes I missed by, ½ of that is real and half of that is me taking my time to enjoy the last 2miles of the race. .. In these last few days since the race I struggle with how to write and talk about it. I suppose that’s the defining characteristic of this race – that it refuses to play along and be categorized. On the one hand I feel blessed and awed to be able to be part of this great thing. On the other I have mixed feelings about how I haven’t had a great race there in almost a decade. That’s why I like to let these things sit a bit before I try to write it up. Let something that makes sense congeal into narrative and form. Come to some sort of conclusion. Some sort of tidy summary to stamp a smiley face on the report before turning it in for grading. This week, since the race, I’ve been waking up early. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the early rising sun of late spring. Maybe it’s the damage in my legs. Maybe it’s my unsettled mind. I’m typically blessed with clarity in mornings so why not work on this report for you? Let’s see if we can’t benefit from an early release of green, fresh thoughts still weeping sap from the fresh cuts. … The summary statement, if one can ever summarize a Boston Marathon race, is I’m happy with my training effort, I’m happy with my racing effort, I think I executed my plan well, but I’m a bit disappointed with my results. Here are the two sides of that coin; I missed my A goal by 10 minutes, and I missed my B goal by 5 minutes. Now I’m out of qualification. Flip that over and you find that I trained well, executed my plan, worked hard and didn’t give up. Relatively I did very well. But, relatively doesn’t get you entry into next year’s race. How can I say that relatively I did well? That’s quite simple. Since Boston is a seeded race all you need to do is to look at how you performed vis-à-vis your bib number. For every finishing spot you beat your bib number by you finished better than someone who qualified with a better time than you did. I beat my bib number by 6,595 places. Even if you throw out the outliers it’s obvious I had a much better day than many of my cohort. It was my training, my execution and my pure stubbornness that enabled me to do so. Part of me wonders just what I have to do to have a break out race at Boston. Part of me wonders if I have anything left I can do. Part of me wonders if maybe I just don’t have the ability to pull it off anymore. And, of course, part of me wonders why I care so much? Really? What is it about this race that turns me into a neurotic mess once a year? Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have a terrible race. I’m not jumping out the window with remorse. I’m just stressed out, because I controlled everything I could, I did everything I could, and it still wasn’t enough for Boston. … Based on my training paces I should have hit my A goal of breaking 3:30 and should have easily hit my B goal of 3:35. But that didn’t happen. I crossed that line with a hard fought 3:40:19. I am beat up and sore. I executed my plan but those training paces and that training fitness weren’t enough for Boston. I worked hard. I worked my plan. And I never gave up. I’m proud of the effort. There were times in this race where I was struggling and I was able to pull myself together, focus on the mile I was in, and keep racing. It was probably the depth and quality of my training that allowed me to fight back. A positive spin on it might be that without that training and execution it would have been a real train wreck. … So here we are, Dear Reader, out of qualification. As my training buddies and I joke there is not way to gracefully disengage from Boston. If you have a good race, you’re qualified and might as well run. If you don’t you’re pissed off and don’t want to end on a down note. Either way you’re back on the neurotic Boston horse for another round. I signed up for the Vermont Cities Marathon at the end of May. I’m going to take this training and go up there and get my qualification on a reasonable course that doesn’t feel the need to demonstrate its dominance and extract its pound of flesh. And, I’ll see you out there. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 14 Sep 2019 | Episode 4-415 – Kate Williams – Yaks and the Planet | 00:46:48 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-415 – Kate Williams – Yaks and the Planet (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4415.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-415 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Today we have a great conversation with Kate who is the CEO of 1% for the planet. I owe you a bit of backstory here, so try to keep up. When I first started the podcast 11 years or so ago I was a bit worried about mixing my professional world with my running world. I’m a pragmatist. I made the decision early on that if the podcast ever caused conflict with my regular career the regular career would win. I had this nightmare scenario of sitting in a board meeting and someone saying “You had time to do this stupid marathon race report, explain to us why you missed your numbers again?” As an insider to our endurance lifestyles I get it. I know what we do is additive to our careers. What we do doesn’t make us worse at our day jobs it makes us better. I believe that. But my beliefs weren’t what I was worried about. It’s like the old joke about marriage; “Would you rather be right, or be happy?” I would rather be able to pay my bills than be sanctimonious. I was never that guy. Because no one at work gives a crap about your training or your marathon times. I built a wall between what I did for a living and my podcast adventures. Which confused and intrigued my listeners. Here I am talking about airplanes and board meetings and hotel stays and clients, and never sharing what I actually did for a living. I would get questions. What do you do for a living? So, I made something up that fit the evidence. I told everyone that I was a contract killer (that explained all the travel), but that my cover job was a yak farmer. And if you have the patience to go back and listen to those early episodes you’ll find all the yak farming jokes. Here’s the thing, I have never even seen a live yak. I just randomly picked the most absurd profession I could think of. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. I was in LinkedIn doing whatever it is you do in LinkedIn and I came across Kate’s profile. Here is this out-doorsy, masters runner person with an ivy league education and one of the jobs on her resume is “Yak Farmer”. I could not resist. I reached out to her and got her on for this interview. Which turned out to be apropos and extremely beneficial because she leads an organization that addresses the intersection of business and the environment – a topic that I have done much rumination on. Why can’t we be business friendly and environmentally friendly at the same time? Why are those two things antithetical? I think you’ll like our conversation and I’m grateful that this silly podcast thing has led me to engage with another outstanding individual who I would have never otherwise had the opportunity to meet. In section one I’m going to ruminate on the Boston Marathon some more. In section two I’m going to ruminate about rumination. And, I hope you enjoyed my attempt to be funny with the Leadville race report. Sorry for the salty language. Hope the kids weren’t listening. To make up for it I’ll give you a Dad joke. What kind of animal do you need to take with you on a trip to the Himalayas? A Yak of all trades… On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – The Boston Problem - http://runrunlive.com/the-boston-problem Voices of reason – the conversation Kate Williams, CEO Kate Williams is CEO of 1% for the Planet, a global movement inspiring businesses and individuals to support environmental nonprofit solutions, through annual membership and everyday actions. Last year, the network of 1800 members in more than 40 countries gave $24+million to environmental nonprofits. Kate stepped into her role at 1% for the Planet in May 2015 bringing a strong track record as a leader: Professionally, Kate served as Executive Director of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail and as founder and owner of the Vermont Yak Company prior to starting at 1% for the Planet. In addition, Kate served on the Board of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) for eleven years, two as chair. Kate has also served on the boards of the Northern Forest Center and Shelburne Farms (current), and served as an elected member of the Town of Waitsfield Select Board, serving three years a chair of that board. Kate earned a BA at Princeton University where she majored in history, and an MS at the MIT Sloan School of Management where she focused on organizational systems. Kate is a master’s distance runner and kitchen gardener. Kate lives in Waitsfield with her husband and two children. Links would be to our website: (our podcast) MISSION We bring dollars and doers together to accelerate smart environmental giving ORIGIN Ever wonder how 1% for the Planet began? It all started when two businessmen met and bonded over their shared love for the outdoors. Realizing their responsibility to protect our planet, they decided to give 1% of their sales back to the environment—whether or not they were profitable. In 2002, Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, and Craig Mathews, founder of Blue Ribbon Flies, created 1% for the Planet and started a global movement. “The intent of 1% for the Planet is to help fund these diverse environmental organizations so that collectively they can be a more powerful source in solving the world’s problems.” — YVON CHOUINARD IN HIS BOOK “LET MY PEOPLE GO SURFING” Soon after our inception, 1% for the Planet’s mission began to resonate across the globe. The idea was simple: because companies profit from the resources they take from the earth, they should protect those resources. Realizing their responsibility, brands such as Brushfire Records, Klean Kanteen, New Belgium Brewing, Honest Tea, Caudalie and many more followed suit to join the movement. Our network is global and diverse, proving that anyone can make a difference. From the individual members who give back by donating to and volunteering with local environmental nonprofits to singer-songwriter Jack Johnson, who joined our network in 2004 to protect the shores of his home state of Hawaii—everyone has a 1%. We connect our members with high-impact nonprofit partners that align with their values and add to their brand story. In doing so, we take the time to get to know what’s really important to our members. Through our partnership advising process, we learned that member, Klean Kanteen cares deeply about a myriad causes, which include connecting young people to the wonder and science of our world through environmental education. Beginning in 2008, Klean Kanteen's support of NatureBridge is one of our longest-standing partnerships. Today, we have more than 2,000 members, in over 45 countries, coming together to protect the future of our planet. Section two – The Ruminating Brain– Outro Well, my friends, ruminated to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-415, which is a small miracle. Two weeks after Leadville I went ahead and ran the Wapack Trail 18 miler. I couldn’t stop myself. I had a perfectly reasonable plan. I would do a couple hard weeks with speedwork and then treat Wapack as a long training run. This was a wonderful idea on paper, but not so much in execution. What I had not considered is that going into a technical trail mountain race like Wapack with tired legs result in spending a lot of time with your face in the dirt. Yeah, If you don’t lift your toes you eat dirt. I probably fell 7 times. Then I shut it down hoping for a big bounce for the BeanTown Marathon last weekend. I felt pretty fit and strong for the race but I only had 18 miles in me. I raced hard and hung in as long as I could but I just didn’t have the legs. Duh. It was a 6 loop course in a park, by the ocean in southern Mass. Pretty course with some gravel roads and a little hill in each loop. That little hill started really getting to me by the 4th loop and I just couldn’t hold the pace. Another classic Chris Russell 15 minute positive split. 18 miles at race pace and 8 more at a stumble. I’m not terribly upset about it because I felt like I was close. These last few cycles I haven’t made my time but every one of them felt like they could have gone either way. Next up for me is Baystate. I’m chilling this week to recover. I was super beat up after this race. I’ve got a very sore hip and still have that tendonitis in my butt. If I can get healthy I’ll load up on the long runs for a couple weeks and get some speedwork in. The challenge is going to be staying healthy. I can tell I’m a bit over trained. And, now, I’m officially out of qualification. If I want to run Boston this year I’ll need a waver bib. Oh, and I signed up to pace another half marathon. I’m going down to Nantucket with Gary two weeks before Baystate to pace the 1:50 group with him. Should be pretty. And that’s a good two-weeks-out workout for a marathon. As usual, I’m hopeful and still plugging away, but I’m only in my first year of this age group so I’ve got to qualify 3 more times at this level before I age up 10 minutes. And what about Ollie-dog? He is growing like a weed. As I was writing this he was crying to go out. I just came back in so I figured he was just bored. But, as all good puppies do, he proceeded to march into the living room and show the rug that he did indeed really need to go out. Good thing we haven’t got around to changing the carpet yet. He’s a maniac. When he’s not chewing on you he’s stealing something of yours to chew on. He like ice cubes and anything he is not supposed to have. He’s going to be a great dog if I can ever break him. Right now he’s a wild animal. It’s nice to have the pitter patter of little hooves in the house again. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 19 Jun 2021 | Episode 4-457 – Cody Runs the USA for Cancer Families | 00:47:56 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-457 – Cody Runs the USA for Cancer Families (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4457.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Chris’ other show à Intro: Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-457 of the RunRunLive Podcast. How is your week going? I understand from the news that much of you across the US are suffering through a heat wave. That’s too bad. 115 degrees in Phoenix. That’s toasty. Makes it hard to get outside. I remember one time going running in Las Vegas, in the afternoon, after an all-day meeting, like an idiot, and then I got lost. I could see where I wanted to be but I couldn’t find my way through all the fences and the buildings to get there. I remember being seriously concerned for my well-being with the heat. But, apparently I lived. Vegas is a weird place. I am still nursing a sore knee but as of today it seems to be getting a bit better and I’m hopeful. I joined the gym. I’ve been lifting heavy for the last couple weeks. It gives me something to do. I used to lift in my 20’s before I got into distance running. I had a guy I worked with who was an actual body builder and was able to learn some basic things that I still have in my tool kit. Like good form and the different ways to go after the different muscle groups. Over the last 20 years with running I rarely lifted heavy. My workouts were always light weight, high rep and mostly body weight. You don’t need that kind of muscle mass or strength for running. It’s counterproductive. The difference is that instead of doing body weight or light dumbbells for high-rep sets of exercises you do fewer reps with heavier weight. For instance instead of 20 reps with 15 pound dumbbells you might do 8 reps with 30 pound dumbbells. The difference is that the lower reps produce strength and muscle mass while the lower weight, higher reps result in less muscle mass and more endurance. I have been getting 3 or more bike rides in each week with a longer ride on the weekend. Typically I‘ll do an hour and change on the weekdays and 2-3 hours on the weekend. I backed off on trying to run after the previous week’s fiasco. When I first joined the gym I jumped on the treadmill but it was awful. I haven’t been on a treadmill in 18 months. I had forgotten how awful it is. Then I made a huge mistake and tried to use one of the old LifeCycle bikes in the gym. The problem is that the angles are so different from an actual bicycle that it really tweaked my knee. But I have started again this week. Sunday, I ran an easy 5k on the roads with my club. We were able to all get together and have a brunch for the first time in a year and a half so that was joyous. Tuesday, I did another easy 5k on the rail-trail, pain free. And yesterday I did a whopping 40 minutes of road and rail trail with some hills and trail sections, again pain free. Pretty happy about that. I’m so hilariously out of shape that I have to get used to running being hard. I have to watch out for all the beginner runner things like blisters and chaffing and Achilles tendonitis. Today we are talking with a nice young man Cody, who is aspiring to do a cross country run to support families dealing with cancer in a child. It’s a good story. He’s a positive influencer. In section one I’ll talk a bit about an observation that all the records for running are falling and why. In section two I’ll talk about a current phenomena that is being called the ‘turnover tsunami’, but I think it should be called the ‘JobQuake’. So Ollie is doing fine. It’s my habit to take him for a walk when I get up in the morning. This week I got up went down stairs and when I looked out the front door there was a rabbit sitting in the front lawn. I thought, ‘well that’s going to make Ollie crazy’, but what can you do. So, I sat to put my shoes on. When I got back up to put the leash on Ollie, I looked out to see if the rabbit was still there. And there was a big owl sitting on top of the rabbit looking at me. Not kidding. A bit of a Wild Kingdom moment. The owl looks at me for awhile and I guess decided I was scary, it takes off and the rabbit runs away. One of those early morning things where your have to scratch your head and wonder. Sometimes life is just being in the right place at the right time. On with the show! About Zero ZERO — The End of Prostate Cancer is the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer. ZERO advances research, improves the lives of men and families, and inspires action. Link to my ZERO page: (for Donations) … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. … Section one – 24 Hour Fast - Voices of reason – the conversation Cody O'Connor – Cody Runs the USA for Cancer Families Cody O'Connor My name is Cody O'Connor and after defeating cancer, losing my right fibula and being told I’d never walk normally again- I am embarking on the quest to walk across the USA. When fighting, I saw how my temporary illness was impacting my family. Seeing the struggles they faced I created Champions Do Overcome, a 501(c)3 non profit organization. CDO, supports families through paying monthly bills, providing food/gas, etc. which reduces stress on the family, and ensures no child is left to fight the beast alone. All of this to spread hope to all that need it coast to coast, and change the outcome for children battling pediatric cancer. Please follow our journey @overcomerteam on Instagram. Please consider donating to our cause at: Fundraiser by Cody O'Connor : Walk For Hope - Cross USA Walk For Cancer Relief (gofundme.com) Companies Involved: Kroger & affiliates, Infinit Nutrition, Altra Running, MyMedic, Dude Wipes, MyFanThreads, Groov App, GermX, Sacan Martial Arts, Feedback Audiology Solutions & Consulting Influencers Involved: Rich Franklin (UFC Hall of Famer), Ben Higgins (Bachelor Star Season 20), Ashley I and Jared Haibon (Bachelor in Paradise), Harvey Lewis (Team USA 24 Hr. Run Team), and Pete Kostelnick (Record for running across USA) Section two – Turning difficult work situations to your advantage - Outro Ok my friends we have run across the US of A to the end of episode 4-457 of the RunRunLive Podcast. And a good time was had by all. All-in-all I can’t complain. I’m reasonably healthy, the days are long and the weather is nice. Feels good to be taking it easy in the summertime. I have managed to lose 10 of the 20 pounds I had found. It doesn’t come off as fast when you’re not running. I’m not a naturally slender person and I have to work at it. That’s one of the reasons I’m lifting is to build up some more muscle, not just to be stronger, but to burn more calories. I ordered a couple new short sleeve shirts from Amazon. I needed some new bike shorts anyhow so I figured I might as well get up to the free shipping. I ordered them as mediums. My whole life I ordered large shirts. Now I’m wearing medium. Not sure if I got smaller or they adjusted the sizes. Probably a little of both. This week is Prime Day for all you techy folks who need new gadgets. I don’t have a Prime membership. I leach off my daughter’s membership for the Prime video. I don’t buy enough stuff to make it worth it. I really don’t need my orders to come same day. Call me old, but I like waiting for the stuff to come. You forget about it and when it shows up it’s a nice surprise. I found another, hopefully better, dog training center for Ollie. It’s up in New Hampshire. We’ll see if they can help me with his aggressive behavior. He’s even more nuts than normal when he can’t run. I’m telling people I had to go out of state with him because he’s exhausted all the local trainers. Not sure what my plans are for the rest of the summer. I’ve gotten a couple runs in this week pain free. I’ll go out with the club tomorrow and see how it feels. If I can keep stringing pain free runs in maybe I can get back into the woods, just in time for deer fly season. That would help Ollie. It’s ironic. I remember when Buddy was a puppy back in the early 2000’s, I crashed my truck and smashed my knee. That was in the late summer and it took me a year to get back in shape – I ended up requalifying at that rail trail marathon in Baltimore the following Thanksgiving. So, yeah irony. New dog. Smashed the other knee. But it all works out. My garden is growing well. Being home and able to water it every day is helpful, even though the weather has been weird. I’ve already started harvesting lettuces and should have peas in the next couple weeks. But, the best garden story is the mint. I have this mint that we had growing at our house when I was a kid. I transplanted some into my garden. This stuff is a weed. It grows everywhere and you can’t kill it. It’s the family mint. Which is nice and everything but what do you do with it? I know people will say mint jelly and such but that’s all a ruse. I’m not making mint jelly. So basically I just weed it out of my garden every year. But, this year, being still working from home, I discovered the fresh mint makes awesome tea. I’m drinking some right now You just throw some leaves into your cup and pour hot water over it and Bam! You have excellent mintyness. Finally, I know there is a lot of change going on. There has been change going on for the last couple years. Lots of chaos. And I know that has an impact on people. I’m going to give you a simple thought to help with that chaos. Think about it this way. You are an island in the sea of chaos. What can you do in your little boat out there in the crashing waves of chaos? You get to choose. And what you choose makes a difference. You can choose to be an island of chaos in the chaos or you can choose to be an island of calm in the chaos. When you choose to be an island of calm there is nothing that the chaos can do to hurt you. It can’t get to you. You choose to be ok. You choose to be happy. You choose to not ignore the chaos, but to let it flow around you. When you choose to be this island of calm, you’ll notice that others are drawn to your calm. You are a leader. You become the gravity well that sucks others in and then you can work together to find a path through the chaos. You get to choose. Through your attitude and actions. Are you an island of chaos or an island of calm? Be the island of calm in the chaos. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 13 Jul 2018 | Episode 4-390 – Pam Rickard - Ultras, addictions and recovery | 01:01:29 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-390 – Pam Rickard - Ultras, addictions and recovery (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4390.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-390. This is Chris your friend and host. Today we continue with our ultra-training themes. I’ve got a long write up of my last hard week of training before my race. I’ve also got an interview with Pam who is an ultra-runner and the director of the Herren project. She’s a talker! But I think you’ll get some good thoughts out of it. Again, this week since the interview is long and the write up is long I’ll just air the two segments. I’m in my taper for my 100-miler at the end of the month. Today it actually that rarest of animals, a rest day. Last weekend I knocked out an all-night-long 50 miler and a follow up 20 milers that you will hear all about today. Now I’m in my taper and trying top do some race prep. … Episode 390… 390 is another good year to talk about on the Julian and Gregorian calendars. There was the Thessalonica Massacre where the Roman governor killed a bunch of people who were rioting over a sporting event. See? This stuff never changes. Some popular chariot driver got killed and it kicked off a little revolt. But, more importantly a Goth named Alaric was starting to make trouble up in Thrace. A Roman general named Stilicho, who was half Vandal spent the next 20 years pushing these Goths around. You may recognize Alaric. He ended up sacking Rome with an army of Visigoths in 410, which many historians consider the end for the Roman Empire. And you know why the Goths were migrating West from the Steppes? Because they were being pushed on by the Huns. It’s all interrelated. But, let’s set all this talk of barbarian hordes aside and talk about some ultra-running stuff. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Ultra Training Update the last big week - http://runrunlive.com/100-miler-training-the-last-big-week Voices of reason – the conversation Pam Rickard Over the 30+ years of her running career, Pam Rickard has completed countless races, including more than 75 marathons and ultra-marathons. During the past 10 years, her races have included a 7-day adventure across China’s Gobi Desert and a 100k trek through the Alps from Italy to France. In 2008, her journey from addiction to recovery and redemption was featured in the book “A Race Like No Other,” New York Times writer Liz Robbins’ chronicle of the 2007 New York City Marathon. She was also a member of the 2016 6-person Icebreaker Run team, running across the US to bring awareness to mental health issues. Pam lives in Rocky Mount, VA and serves as the Director of THP RUNS, an initiative of former NBA basketball player Chris Herren’s foundation, (THP). THP RUNS engages people to run, walk, and participate in healthy activities, helping each other, and others, live stronger, healthier lives. The initiative raises awareness and funding for THP’s mission, which includes providing addiction recovery resources, education and prevention initiatives across the country. Links: For help: To join our movement/run with us: Outro OK my friends, you have trotted through the woods listening to one note of binaural audio to the end of episode 4-390 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Good job. You are fit and ready to race. My training is going great. I’m ready for my race. Anything can happen of course but I’ve done the bits that I can control. Looking at the calendar I can see that the next episode is scheduled to fall on the weekend of the race. That’s probably not going to happen. I’ll figure something out. As is my habit I tend to focus on running the race, not on social media or taking pictures. Don’t expect me to do a running commentary. I don’t see any facility for athlete updates either. I would suggest following Mike Croy and Kevin Green on the social media feeds because they will be with me and lucid. I could give my phone to my wife but she is fairly useless with social media. If anyone wants to say ‘hi’ at the race I’ll be driving out from Massachusetts the morning of the 27th so I can make check in Friday night. If you DM me or shoot me an email at cyktrussell at Gmail I’ll give you my contact info. … I found a couple odd things on Netflix this past week. One is a documentary by Werner Hertzog called . Werner Hertzog is a German director. Every time you see a movie that caricatures German directors they are talking about Werner. They let him bring cameras inside the Chauvet Cave. This is a cave that contains the oldest human paintings on earth (as far as we know). The paintings are pristine because a landslide sealed them off in antiquity. These are beautiful works of art from our ancestors of 30,000 years ago. There’s also a pretty good documentary on Bob Weir called There’s a new podcast I’m listening to which is called about the history of the Northwest. All the links are in the show notes. That’s it for me this week. I appreciate all your support and encouragement. There is a membership option on my website if you feel motivated to help me pay my bills. I wanted to take a moment to thank my coach for getting me to this point. I, frankly, wasn’t sure I had this kind of training in me, but, here we are. Once more into the breach. Also wanted to thank a couple other folks for reaching out with their notes on the Burning River. Local Sheila and runner Rick. And my team mate Dane for the encouragement. It’s been an epic training cycle. and I’ll see you out there! MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 18 Dec 2022 | 12-18-2022 | 00:14:19 | |
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 07 Apr 2018 | Episode 4-384 – Stephanie Bombs to BQ | 00:50:23 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-384 – Stephanie Bombs to BQ (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4384.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-384 How are we doing? Looks like spring is finally arriving up here in New England. I was out in the woods this week doing a little, slow trail running with Buddy the Very Old Wonder Dog. You can feel nature getting ready to explode. Buddy is getting pretty slow, but I wait for him to catch up and he does ok. He even breaks into a run every once in a while. It hasn’t greened up yet, but it will towards the end of this month. The ground is wet, and the snow is mostly gone. But even the mud smells fecund in its dormancy. There are a lot of trees and branches down. From all the nor’easters we had. I might go for a walk with my old dog today and bring my axe to clear some of the dead fall out of the trail. My wife is always telling me I shouldn’t drive around with an axe. I’m not sure I understand the safety concern. I was sharpening my axe last week and wondered how many people in the world still know how to sharpen and axe? Such an ancient thing. We humans have been rubbing stones against metal for a few thousand years. Yes, the dog is still alive, I’m still alive and the woods are coming alive. Today we have a great story for you. I talk with Stephanie who decided to become a runner the day the bombs went off in Boston 5 years ago. From the emotional beginning, she’ll be running her first qualified Boston this year, on that anniversary. Compelling stuff. In section one I’ll talk about active tapers. In section two I’ll talk about hope and emotional intent. Yes, I’m a little bit more than a week out from running my 20th Boston Marathon. If you want to follow me my number is 18051. Solidly in the midpack with a 3:33 qualification time. It looks like we are going to get good running weather. 50’s and overcast. This may be a good year. But you never know in New England. I’m in my taper. This week still has a few quality workouts in it but next week I’m sure we’ll be shutting it down. My weight is good. My fitness is good. I’ve got a little pirifomis pain but I’m working through it. All in all I guess I don’t have any excuses! … Racing is like life. You have to find that knife’s edge between too little and too much. Too fast and too slow. It’s a balancing act. Picture yourself walking along that mountain ridge. It drops off into the depths precipitously on both sides. But we have trained. We know how to walk the edge with confidence and aplomb. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Active Taper- Voices of reason – the conversation · Hi everyone!! Here is my introductory story – the video thing is not so much my forte’! Grab a sammich and sit back…it’s a little long, but I think worth the read! :) We all have a story about where we were the day the bombs went off…This is the day I became a runner… I grew up watching the race, the Red Sox, the Bruins, and doing so many things the great city of Boston has to offer. Five years ago, my husband and I moved to Las Vegas. On Patriots Day 2013, I was in my living room watching the race on TV. When it was finished, I turned it off, and shortly after that got a phone call from my mom, in tears, yelling at me to turn the TV back on, that “something really bad had happened”. And there it was…the news unfolding…my brother was running the marathon that day and his wife and my dad were near the finish line waiting for him. With phone lines down, it took some time to connect with his wife and my dad – oddly, Facebook messenger was operating and this became our life line. It would then be a couple of hours before we got word that my brother was ok…. Having just recently moved and retired, I was looking for some change in my life that would be healthy, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted or needed to do. I was overweight and sedentary. Most everything took so much effort. Everything about the bombings though felt personal. MY city had been attacked and for a few hours, I wasn’t sure if I had lost half of my family. As I watched the world wrap its arms around Boston, I also watched the running community and how they responded. I wanted to be part of that - I was all in! I was going to be a runner! My brother helped me get started and we talked daily about what happened and the continued news reports…I bought a pair of running shoes. Set a start date. Set a goal – get to the end of the street and back – 1 mile. I was able to “jog” about 20 feet before I had to stop and say, “What the hell????” “This is SO hard!!”. It only made me want it more… My brother instructed me to find a 5k event to keep me working toward goals. I did and six months later, I crushed it with a time of 40:53!! Hahaha!! I slept the rest of the day - BUT, I knew I wanted to get better and faster. I found a local running club and then my brother suggested signing up for the BAA 2014 Distance Medley. I was going to be back home for marathon weekend anyway – no way I would miss it! So, the 5k was no problem (although still a huge distance for me at the time). I figured I had enough time to train for a 10k, but that half marathon?? Holy hell…I didn’t know if I could do that. Marathon weekend and the first race for the Distance Medley came. The city was on fire with an energy I can’t begin to describe! I am forever grateful to have been able to be part of that weekend. I ran the 10k with my brother and my dad, at my dad’s pace. He had been so affected by everything the previous year, that this meant everything to him. I had been training with my running club coach and was able to complete my very first half marathon as part of the Distance Medley, in Boston, the city I love so much. My finish time was 2:41:32. I vowed I would never do another one – the training, the anxiety, the effort – it felt impossible… And those are the things that propelled me forward to want to do better at half marathons. I spent the next couple of years being 100% driven toward better running, faster times, and overall fitness. I lost 90 lbs. I brought my 2:41 half time down to a 1:48. Then I had a conversation with my coach…the 5th year anniversary of the bombings, the thing that started me running was coming up in 2018. I would be turning 50 the week before that race. I decided that I wanted to run Boston to bring my running journey full circle. I thought being a charity runner would be a good idea to make this happen. He stated that in no way was I going to run charity (although we both support charity running 100%). I was going to qualify. I had all the right things inside me, driven by determination and Boston to make it happen. I had no desire to run multiple marathons to try to BQ and get to Boston. It would mean the most to me to run April 2018, and if I got in, it was meant to be. If not, it wasn’t. I wasn’t going to be a multiple marathon runner. So, the training began and I did everything that was within my power to make it successful – nutrition, training plan, cross training, strength training, reading multiple books about mental focus & motivation – all of it. May 29, 2017, I stepped up to the start line of Mountains 2 Beach Marathon. I was ready. I was hungry for it. And I got it! Although I was shooting for a 10 min window & hoping at worst a 5 min window. I came in at 3:56:31, with around 3:30 to spare. Although this isn’t a guarantee, it was enough to keep me somewhat confident, until registration time. I kept with my belief that of it was meant to happen, it would. And it did…I made it in by 6 seconds! Wooosh! After basking in the glory, the butterflies, and flip flopping stomach, I was going to be running Boston! I was ecstatic!! Then, it was time for training to begin. My coach of four years, the only way I have known running and the coach I trusted to guide me, unfortunately made inappropriate sexual advances toward me. My husband and I fired him on the spot. But then I was panicked…What do I do? How do I train? How does this all work? I have an amazing support system of running friends that worked me through the grief & loss of my coach and helped get me get invested in a training plan to keep me on track. I have been following Hal Higdon’s Boston plan, with lots of success. I don’t have a time goal. My goal is to simply take it ALL in. Just to enjoy the entire experience, the crowds, the energy – and everything that got me to this point. I have two injuries slowing me down – residual pain from two hammy tears and now a bone bruise in my heel, but NOTHING will keep me from that start line in Hopkinton! In just under four weeks, I will be running a race I NEVER thought possible when I first started running. I will be bringing my running journey full circle, as I bring it back to Boston, to run the race that started it all for me. I will be turning 50 a week before the race. I will be bringing closure to an event that changed my life completely and fully. And I will be doing it all with amazing friends and my incredible husband who has supported every step of this journey (and just ran his first 5k!!!). Section two – Hope and intent – Outro Alright my friends you have hoped yourself – with good intent – through to the end of episode 4-384 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Next time we talk will be post marathon. Should have something interesting to say. We’ll see. Boston is always an adventure. Then I have to throw myself into ultra training for the Burning River 100 in July. I’ve been watching my way through a couple good shows on Netflix. The first one, I think I told you about is Altered Carbon. This is a hard scifi series based on a very good hard scifi novel. I would recommend reading the novel before you watch the series though. The show sticks very closely to the novel’s narrative but in doing so it becomes a bit of an insider game. If you don’t know the backstory of the universe you might think it is some sort of soft porn snuff movie. The universe’s conceit is that humans have discovered alien technology whereby you can put yourself on a chip. Which means you can be reanimated in any body or ‘sleeve’ and few people suffer ‘real death’. Leads to some tricky cultural problems when people can live forever. I’m starting the second novel in the series as we speak. Another one I’ve been working my way through is Peaky Blinders. Which is about a gang in Birmingham after the great war. It’s very well done. It’s a bit like Boardwalk Empire. The characters are compelling. It occurs to me that it is the embodiment of a set in the roaring 1920’s. (If you don’t get reference google it. The Stanley Kubrik rendition of this Anthony Burgess novel in 1971 was quite the cult classic – you owe it to yourself to watch it. You’ll never listen to Beethoven’s 9h the same way again.) This is another one where if you have a weak stomach for the vinni-vin-vino or the ultra-violence you might want to stay away. I myself was having dreams of murder last night. I’ll give you a running related slice of content recommendation as well. As part of the marathon run up this year the BAA is putting out a podcast. So far, they have interviewed Boston winners Jack Fultz, Bill Rodgers and Sarah Mae Berman, and also our friend Dave McGillivray. Sara Mae won the race before women were official. Great to remember, with all the dynamics of women in society today and current trials and tribulations, it wasn’t that long ago that the maximum allowable distance for women to compete at was 200 meters. Seems absurd today, but that didn’t change until the 70’s. Worth a listen. Very inspirational. These women changed the world, like Stephanie is changing the world, like we all can change the world by filling that moment between stimulus and response with our intent. I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 01 Jun 2018 | Episode 4-387 – Gene Keeps Getting Faster | 00:53:39 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-387 – Gene Keeps Getting Faster (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4387.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-387. This is Chris, your endurance partner for today’s workout. Today we have a chat with Gene Dykes who is currently knocking down most of the over 70 distance records. He’s found some sort of fountain of youth and just keep s getting faster. In section one I’ll give you an update on my 100 miler training and what I’ve learned. In Section two I’ll talk about the aging athlete. Buddy the elderly wonder dog is hanging in there. He goes the first 2 miles of all my trail runs with me. He got 5 runs in last week. Then he sleeps. I sometimes have to carry him up the stairs when his back hips don’t work. And I don’t expect him to jump up into my truck anymore. It’s ok. He’s done his part. Now it’s my turn. I’ve been training consistently. Typically 6 miles Tuesday, 10 Wednesday and 6 Thursday then back-to-back longs on the weekends. It’s not a bad cadence. The trails are drying out. The mosquitoes are out but those only get me if I stop too long. As we get into the summer the deer flies will show up and I’ll have to get some of those sticky patches. They are real pests. I booked my hotel for the ultra. And I got some wonderful news today. Dirtdawg and JustFinish aka Mike Croy and Kevin Green are going to crew and pace for me. Both those guys have run this course. This is a big bonus. … I got a haircut this weekend, actually on Memorial Day. The place I usually go was closed for the holiday. I went to a lower end clip joint chain that was open. I was a bit afraid with the guy I got. I haven’t had high quality experiences with this chain. But I had a business trip and needed to get it cleaned up. The kid was wearing a wrinkled white tee-shirt, looked rather slept-in, with a sleeveless black denim vest covered in studs. Quite disheveled. He had goth tattoos all over him and piercings. Showing my age and upbringing I wondered if putting my grey head in his hands was a smart thing to do. I had just finished reading Catra Corbett’s new book about how she was a goth meth addict before she got in to ultra-running. But, looking at this kid I figured he was a bit overweight to be an addict. Besides, it’s not hard to cut my hair, what’s left of it that is. You can’t really screw it up. He did a very precise job. Worked me over like I was some important bonsai topiary. Even worked on my crazy old-man eyebrows. I really need to work on my assumptions and stop profiling people. We all turn into our parents at some point, don’t we? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – 100 Miler Training - Voices of reason – the conversation Gene Dykes I’m sure you can make some of the awkward pauses go away, but I suppose trying to figure out what to do when we were talking over each other will be tougher. I had fun – it’s always fun to talk about running! I’ve attached a couple recent pictures that were pretty good: One shows me during a 24-hour track race a couple weeks ago (I only ran for 14 hours of the Dawn To Dusk To Dawn, though) where I set USATF age group track records for 50K, 50 miles, 100K, and 12 hours. The other shows me at the finish line of the Rotterdam Marathon on April 8, where I ran 2:57:48 to eclipse Ed Whitlock’s 3:00:23 world age 70 record. Section two – Running into the Sunset – Outro OK my friends you have set an impressive age group record while progressing to the end of episode 4-387, nice work. Two of my training buddies, from my age group had a good day at the Vermont Cities marathon over the weekend. They got great weather. Overcast and cool. Brian, who ran a 3:35 at Baystate with me in the fall, knocked out a 3:29 change! And Tim powered through to a 3:16. Now officially the slow guy again! Watched an great documentary on Netflix called Chuck Norris vs Communism about the impact of bootleg videos on Romanians in the 80’s. It’s been out for a while but I hadn’t seen it yet. Really well done. You’ll like it. Especially if you lived through that era. I have a big weekend coming up. If I can pull it off I’m going to run 35 on Saturday and another 20 on Sunday. Yikes! I had a good week – got all my runs in. I had a business trip to Salt Lake and I used that to practice more of this miserable, exhausted running that I’m supposed to be practicing. Ran 6 miles Tuesday morning. Flew out late to Salt Lake. Got about 5 hours sleep. Got up and went exploring Wednesday morning. I was originally aiming for the mountains but I ran by a canal, maybe a river, with a wide path so I turned onto that for the bulk of my run. I ended up getting around 9 miles in, partly because I was running short on time and partly because I ran into a fence. The canal trail literally ran into a chain link fence. I think it was because there was a school nearby and they were trying to keep the kids out. There was a kid size hole at the bottom. You know how they bend up the corner of the chain link to get under? But, I made the decision that I wasn’t going to wriggle under a fence in the suburbs of West Jordan to get that last mile in. It was a nice run. The trail was wide and crushed rock and flat. It ran behind people’s houses. A whole line of ¼ acre lots. It’s always interesting to look into people’s backyards in a voyeuristic way. Some people had gardens, some had chickens and some had angry dogs. The river or canal itself was what I would call grey water. I don’t know if that is just the color of the water in Salt Lake or if it is some sort of legacy drainage system. It didn’t smell bad, but it didn’t make me want to go for a swim either. Since it’s spring the canal was full of wild ducks and their little gangs of ducklings. I was subjective to maximum duckling cuteness the whole time as they scurried and paddled away from this strange lumbering thing on the trail in the slanting morning sun. I even passed a couple ‘joggers’ out there. On my way back, when I left the trail I had to navigate the now bustling streets of suburbia. At one point I was coming up to an intersection and saw a crossing guard. These are the community volunteers who are posted at busy intersections near schools with a reflective vest, a held held stop placard and a righteous attitude. As I was lumbering up the sidewalk towards the intersection I caught the vigilant woman’s eyes and gave her the conspiratorial nod. She moved out and stopped traffic for me! I tipped my hat and said “You’re the best!” The world is a good place filled with good people. I’ll see you out there! MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 06 Oct 2018 | Episode 4-395 – Karen - From the Brink to Boston | 00:46:05 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-395 – Karen - From the Brink to Boston (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4395.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-395. Today’s show is about endurance. Hopefully it will be available for you folks who are stepping into the Chicago marathon this weekend. Not that you would need a podcast to listen to at Chicago. I mean, you’ve got 45,000 other runners to talk to. You probably won’t catch Galen Rupp or Mo Farah. You might be able to catch Joan Benoit Samuelsson, she’s going for the age group record as a 61 year old, but that’s doubtful as well. Amy Cragg is out there with the elites as well. I hear the weather is going to be bad. High winds and maybe some rain. I remember joking after Boston this year that if they had that kind of weather in Chicago it would be the apocalypse. Hopefully it won’t be too bad and it will give everyone something epic to talk about. Endurance is the theme today. I talk with Karen who is a prime example of not giving up. This is the second person this year who I have talked to with one of these incredible stories of rebirth. In section one I’ll give you a primer on Achilles tendinitis (I made a video for this one as well because the stretches are hard to explain without a visual) and in section two I’ll wax poetically about endurance. Since we last talked my training has run the gamut between horrible and wonderful. Right after our last show I had to walk away from a long tempo run because I was just shot. I was pretty down about it. I don’t like giving up on workouts. But I couldn’t hold the paces and my form was shot so I walked away 2 hours into a 3-hour workout. But since then I have had a couple really good workouts. I’ve been doing a lot of speed work and my tempo paces have come down to encouraging levels. I have been consistently holding paces in the 7:30’s on my long tempo and that bodes well for the upcoming marathon. Some of you may have heard that you would have needed to beat your qualifying time by over 4 minutes this year to get into Boston. As registration closed the BAA announced that for the 2020 race they are lowering all the standards by another 5 minutes. For me that means I now need to run a 3:35 to make the standard, which is a hair over 8-minute miles. … You may have gotten used to hearing my dog Buddy the border collie in the background of these recordings. I had him into the vet last week for a check up. He’s doing fine. He’ll be 15 in December. With the cooler fall weather he comes back to life and gets agitated. He can’t really run anymore. His hips are pretty shot. He can still move well and isn’t in any discomfort. He’s in great shape for his age, but, like me, he doesn’t realize how old he is. Living an active life has probably given him an extra 2 years with us to enjoy. When I was walking down the sidewalk with him on the leash towards the vet a guy was unloading an old standard collie. He had a ramp that he unfolded so the old collie could totter down out of his van. This poor old thing could barely move. When he got the collie into the vet’s office he said ‘Don’t let him lie down or he won’t be able to get up.’ I asked the guy ‘How old?’. Thinking this museum piece of a collie must be really old compared to Buddy. The answer was 12. Buddy was 2 years older than this poor old collie and trotting around like he owned the place, ready to go. So – there ya go – lead an active life and you’ll have a much higher quality of life in the later innings. On with the Show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Achilles- http://runrunlive.com/achilles-primer Voices of reason – the conversation Karen Moore – From the Brink to Boston to · Everyone has a story. I have been a runner most of my adult life. Have done marathons all through the years. Two and a half years ago while out for my run I got hit by a hit and run driver. I was found along the road side by a amazing man. I was unconscious, major head trauma, leg broken in three places, multiple cuts, bruises. After a very long 8 months I started walking to get strong. Soon I was doing a limp like shuffle jog. It was ugly but it was a start. My daughter always wanted to run a marathon with me. I was not going to let this person who hit me take this from us. Lots of stubborn runners strength kept me going. Never would have guessed it but two years after I ran a marathon with my daughter and almost qualified. Two months later in Philly I did it. What the power of love can do. Can not believe it is real. Scared, proud. My daughter will be my cheer leader. Her goal is to qualify this year in philly. Someone wake me. — feeling blessed. Section two – Endurance - Outro You know what I’m going to say, right? Yup. That’s it you have endured another episode of the RunRunLive Podcast. That was number 4-395. Episode 4-395 of the RunRunLive Podcast. I’m in my taper for Baystate. It’s on the 21st. I seem to have gotten enough speed back and am confident that I have an opportunity to beat that new 3:35 standard. We’ll see. All you can do is put yourself in position to race. You get to the starting line and the universe takes care of the rest, right? I have a tip for you. When I first started running seriously I used to rely on a lot of sports drinks. I used to power my runs with Gatorade and Power Bars. But over the years I’ve come to find it easier, and heathier, to condition my body to run off its own fat stores with minimal intervention. I still use fuel in races but only enough to keep the fire lit, so to speak. Regardless of the fueling product you are using what I have found is that the recommended dosage from the manufacturers is always too strong, at least for me. This goes all the way back to when I ran on Gatorade. Full strength Gatorade gave me stomach issues. My tip for you is to practice cutting what ever you’re using by half. What ever it is. If it says a scoop per bottle, just put in a ½ scoop. This way it won’t impact your stomach. You get used to it and you can meter your intake just as well with a lighter dose. … Speaking of Buddy’s visit to the vet, I myself went to get a checkup. I try to get in every year for a physical because I’m in that age group that gets some of those top ten diseases like prostate cancer and colon cancer. It’s just good practice. I hadn’t been in for a couple years because of different urgencies in my life so I figured I should. No surprise I am boringly healthy. My blood pressure is excellent. My prostate is lovely. It’s all good. I joke to my doctor that I am an exceedingly uninteresting patient, and he tells me that I make his job easy. Did you know that 75-80% of medical issues are lifestyle related? The top 3 contributing lifestyle factors are of course diet, exercise and smoking. Pretty simple. It’s a game where you know the rules and have an 80% chance of winning. What are you going to do with all that extra quality of life now that you know the secret? Shal we find out together? I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 27 Oct 2019 | Episode 4-418 – Matt’s Long Ride | 00:52:30 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-418 – Matt’s Long Ride (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4418.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-418 of the RunRunLive Podcast. It’s been a busy couple of weeks since we last talked. I did jump on the Ferry out of Hyannis to Nantucket for that half marathon. It was kind of fun but also a bit of a struggle. When I first signed up for it, I thought it would be a fun outing. Maybe take my wife along or some of my running buddies. In the end it was just me. I met up with the other pacers on the ferry and met some nice people in the race. It was a nice sunny day. It was a pretty big race considering it was out on an island. This race fell a week before my target race, the BayState Marathon, and I planned to use it just as a final easy run. That was the plan. With how inconsistent my training has been this summer I wasn’t feeling very excited about it. I offered to run the 2:00 pace group, but they had a greater need for the 1:50 and I acquiesced. I don’t run a lot of ½ marathons, and my math gets fuzzy. A 1:50 half is the equivalent of a 3:40ish full marathon, and while not super challenging for where I am right now, it wouldn’t be the lark that a 2:00 would. It works out to a 8:23 ish pace versus a 9:09 pace. I went in tired. My week was weird and my tempo run slipped to Friday, which was probably too close to the race. My whatever-it-is pain in my butt wasn’t helped by the long ride down to the Cape. I made the morning ferry with no issues and had no issues finding the pace team at the start. I lost my pace group early. The first part of the course is a lot of sand roads. They had had a storm for the previous couple days before the race that dumped a lot of rain and left numerous large puddles straddling the road side-to-side. It turned those early sections into a bit of a steeplechase. As a pacer I’m supposed to maintain pace no matter what – so I did and lost everyone who was trying to keep up with me. I was trying to run by the overall average pace on my watch. Which was a mistake. I figured if my overall average was an 8:22 – 8:23 I’d be right on that 1:50 finishing time. I ended up right on an 8:23. I slowed down a little at the end because I was all alone and thought I might be a bit too fast. That turned out to be the mistake and I crossed about 30 seconds too slow – which is a cardinal sin in the pacing biz. I’ll probably get excommunicated. Pacing isn’t as easy as it sounds. Even though my average pace was exactly where it needed to be based on my watch, I missed the clock time. It’s a bit befuddling. My watch is always off a little on the distance and I guess that could be worth 30 seconds. It looks like the only strategy that works is to have your mile splits written out, hard copy and check every mile – old school pacing. And then plan to be a minute early on top of that to make up for variability. I got it done, but I didn’t feel great. Another small racing failure in what has been several months of disconsolate results and discontent. My whatever-it-is pain in my butt was screaming in the car-ride home. I was in a bit of a blue mood rolling into the last week of taper for BayState. And that, my friends is what we will talk about in section one! In our interview today we talk with Matt about his recent experience of riding his bike unsupported across the TransAm route and then writing about it. In section two I’m going to rant a little on the current ‘hustle’ culture. As I was lined up in the starting corral in Lowell, the city of my birth, a city that I have some history with. I had one of those pure moments that I love about racing. When you are there, on race morning, all the waiting is over. The decisions have all been made. It’s a pure moment. The expectations and worrying are washed away by the rising sun. The volunteer singing the national anthem fills your soul and dampens your eyes. It is a pure place without affectation, without choice and filled with the energy of being set free onto the course. How many pure moments like that are left in our world? On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – BayState 2019 - Voices of reason – the conversation Matt Hi Chris, I’ve been a listener to your podcast for years now. You’ve been a constant source of entertainment and motivation in my life. I really enjoyed your Marathon BQ book, and used it for my marathon. Though most of my training has been more in the ultra-cycling world, geared towards 24 hour cycling events, and last year I raced Trans AM, a 4200 mile ride from Astoria Oregon to Yorktown Virginia. One of the things that saw me through those 16 hours of riding every day was listening to your podcasts. Riding across country was a profound enough experience that I wrote a book about my journey “As Fast As You Can: How I Biked Across The U.S. In Duct-Taped Shoes” and there’s a quote from you in there from the podcast when you were talking about your 100 mile race “Here’s the uncomfortable truth. There is no strategy that is going to allow you to stretch the effort over the distance to make things sunshine rainbows and unicorns. You are going to be uncomfortable. At some point, things are going to suck. And not just for a few minutes like a 5K or 10K. It’s going to suck for hours on end. Your goal is to acclimate to the suck. You can keep going with raw bleeding patches of skin. It just sucks.” ~ Chris, from the “Run Run Live” Podcast. That was one of my favorite things that you’ve said, and it helped keep me going. If you’re interested, I’d love to work with you, maybe talk with you on your podcast. I have a modest facebook following and would do everything in my power to help promote your show, to add what support I can. Let me know if you’re interested. And thank you for being an inspiration. Regards, Matt Kovacic Section two – Hustle– Outro Well, my friends, you have peddled non-stop across the country to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-418. Time to put some nut-butter on those saddle sores. I was flying back from Miami this week and looking out the window when the following words bubbled to the top of my brain: “Clouds boil up out of the southeast humidity escaping from the cauldron of the world.” That’s how my brain works sometimes. It paints pictures with words. But, let’s talk about something important. Ollie the Collie. Last week we started puppy class. Which is a very good thing because he is a wild man. Technically I could just train him myself without class but this, as in all things, is better with a coach. Going in I was pretty sure Ollie would be the crazy, uncontrollable puppy in puppy class. He’s got so much energy and he’s really busy. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ollie was the smartest, calmest puppy in class. It’s a border collie thing. When it’s time to work they fall in line. He picked up the commands right away and he didn’t cause any trouble. He’s going to be a good dog. I forgot to mention last show that I met up with Tim when I was in Chattanooga a couple weeks ago and we went for a trail run up on Signal Mountain. It was good to see him. He’s retired now and is planning to through-hike the Appalachian Trail next summer. These long endurance events like the AT and Matt’s Trans AM can be game changers. Matt’s a great example of just deciding to do something and doing it in a way that changes your life. It’s one of those things that will become a fulcrum for his life journey. If you think about your life’s trajectory, we tend to fall into a path and either consciously or unconsciously build the conditions that keep us on that path. One of these big events is a great lever, to pry yourself out of that rut. I’ve got a funny story about Matt’s interview. As you may or may not know I have an editor for these interviews. One of the most time-consuming and hard to automate parts of the podcasting process is the audio editing of the interviews. The process is that you have to play the interview and cut out the bad bits. By definition it’s a hard thing. You have to understand what is being said to know whether it is pertinent or not. I do my best to be consistent, but some interviewees are harder than others. Sometimes we go down non-value-added (re: boring) rat holes that need to be ferreted out. Sometimes I get a real talker or I lose track of time and the interview has to be significantly shortened. I have had many good interview editors over the last many years that we’ve been in business. Currently I work with Dimitry who live in Moscow. He does a good job and seems to have learned my method well enough to make these tricky edits. I pay him for each show – and that is one of the things I use subscription money for. It doesn’t seem to bore him too badly. I have had other editors quit on me, basically saying “I can’t take any more of this!” Sometimes he’ll comment on what he thought was an interesting topic or person. With Matt’s interview, Dimitry was very enthusiastic. He said that he, himself, was a “Bike-Packer” as well and wondered how he could get a copy of Matt’s book. So here’s a guy I work with every week. That knows a shitload about my life. That I’ve never met. In Moscow. That’s the world we live in today! And as weird as that sounds, this conversation with Matt resonated and made a connection. Think about that. You never know which conversation or which thing you do is going to make a connection. So keep doing epic stuff and keep having conversations and I will see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 17 May 2014 | Episode 3-289 – Ann Brennan and the Challenges of Depression | 00:50:10 | |
The RunRunLive 3.0 Podcast Episode 3-289 – Ann Brennan and the Challenges of Depression(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi3289.mp3]Link epi3289.mp3Support RunRunLive; Purchase an audio book of running stories. Written and performed with love by Chris Russell ------------->>>>>>>http://bit.ly/1cH2Fr7 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 07 Mar 2014 | Episode 3-284 – David Mills and the Average Joe Ironman | 00:56:28 | |
The RunRunLive 3.0 Podcast Episode 3-284 – David Mills and the Average Joe Ironman(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi3284.mp3]Link epi3284.mp3Support RunRunLive; Purchase an audio book of running stories. Written and performed with love by Chris Russell ------------->>>>>>>http://bit.ly/1cH2Fr7 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 27 Jun 2015 | Episode 4-315 – Gary Allen and I talk running | 01:01:22 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-315 – Gary Allen and I talk running (Audio: link) garyallenLink epi4315.mp3 Support my Hood-to-Coast Relay for Cancer Research - https://give.everydayhero.com/us/chris-russell-hood-to-coast-for-cancer-research Intro Bumper: Hey there! This is Chris your steward for today’s ride along the colorful roadway of endurance sport. Practically, this makes for three podcasts in three weeks for you from the RunRunLive headquarters (Located in a dank cave in Western Pennsyvania that at one point in its history housed bandits, velociraptors and coal miners), just kidding, I’m actually in my home office. I did have a trip to Denver, but it got canceled. Episodes 4-313, 4-314 & 4-315 should be in your inbox, slightly out of order, due to a disruption in the space-time-chance-&-luck continuum. mayflower-smallI seem to remember closing Episode 4-315 with the note that I intended to run a ½ marathon in Plymouth. That would be two weeks ago now, and I did indeed run it. First actual race for me since the heart procedure so my main goal was, as is my practice now, not to die and have fun. My top concern was that I might pull something or otherwise hurt myself, given that I have not been doing much road work since Boston. Coming off of Boston having run 8:30’s I figured that something in that range would be easy enough. On the top end, if I felt good, sub-8’s would not displease the running gods. I told coach to NOT taper me for the race, just treat it like a long tempo run. I kept a nice training load right up to a bike and hard swim workout the day before. A bunch of us from my club got up and drove down in the morning. Brian had looked at the course map and said the first half was flat-to-down-hill, with big, long hill at mile 6 and then rolling hills to the end. This was a first year race, but there were close to 2,000 runners. The first mile was a bit jammed up, but I broke free and was feeling good enough spinning out the downs and flats, going a bit too fast, like I am wont to do. I had my Garmin on but wasn’t looking at it, just running, chatting up the pretty girls, thanking the volunteers and having fun. Looking at the data, those first 5 miles were in the 7:20 range, and that’s a bit fast (right now) with no taper, no training and a wonky heart. I knew it was non-sustainable going into the hills. My Heart rate was good – nice zone 4-5 effort but no flipping out into the 180-190 Afib range. There was a water stop at mile 6 with porta-potties, so I stopped to have a rest, and reset my pace a bit. There was a mile-plus hill from Mile 6, through the 10k and mile 7. And it turns out this wasn’t the only one. What Brian had called ‘rolling hills’ was a set of long steep hills over the last 10k that must have really beat up the back of the packers. I just geared down and worked the hills, giving back some time but not suffering too much. My legs weren’t all that peppy from the lack of taper. I came in, according to the timing chip right on 8 minute miles, and looking at the data, my HR stayed in bounds for the most part, so I’m going to call that a win. I mean, I could worry myself by remembering that I was trying to break a 1:30 ½ and ran a 3:23 at Boston 4 year’s ago, but that’s another season. I feel like I’ die for a good run now, pun intended. We’re done with the ‘happy-see-the warm-sun’ part of summer up here and into the ‘hot-sticky-horsefly-infested’ part of summer. I was down in Atlanta last week when they were having a mini heat wave. I got up in the morning to run and it was awful. There was no oxygen in the air and I ended up coming back to the hotel soaked like I had been swimming. Which is a pain in the butt, because then I had to pack up and get to work. First, what you have to do is rinse out your wet stuff in the sink to remove some of the toxic man juice. Then you roll them up in a couple towels and walk on them. Then you put them in a plastic bag and pack them. This worked ok except my Hokas were sweat soaked too. I put them in a plastic bag and packed them but forgot about them until Tuesday this week and that was a horrible thing to have to put on those still-wet-festering shoes to go for a run. Ewwwww. Then, after that Tuesday run I was soaked again, even though I exercised my rule of thumb that you can run shirtless under two conditions, 1) you have an attractive body or 2) you’re over 50. When I got home I put those clothes directly into the washing machine, as a form of hazmat isolation. But I didn’t run it because I wanted to wait until the morning. My daughter decides to do some laundry. She finds the wet clothes in the washing machine and decides that they must have been washed and puts them in the dryer! Domestic adventures… Today we have an interview with Gary Allen who we have talked to before in version one or two of the podcast many years ago. Gary is the race director of the Mount Desert Island Marathon. But, more relevant is that Gray is a bit of a historian for the local marathon scene having been involved at a near-elite level for many years, and still involved. I’m hoping it come off as two old guys talking passionately about their sport, not two old guys bitching at the kids to get off their lawn! In Section one I will continue my series of how to start running from scratch with a piece on how to build your support team that you’ll need as you progress. In section two I’ll pull some nuggets from the book I read last week called “Happy is the new Healthy, 31 ways to relax and enjoy life now!” … I had a person I was interviewing ask me a question recently. You know how it goes in an interview, where at the end I smile and say “Do you have any questions for me?” They asked “Are you happy?” I think the question was actually are you happy in your choice to work for this company? Are you happy at the company? I answered the question the way it was asked. I said, “Well, first of all, I’m happy because I choose to be happy. My happiness has nothing to do with where I work or who I work for.:” Of course your environment does influence your emotions. I get pissed off at work situations. I get blind-sided by irrational people. I have to deal with idiocy on the same scale as everyone else. But, I try to remember that those are environmental things and really only effect my happiness if I let them. On with the show! Section one - Running Tips newrunnerBuilding a support network - http://runrunlive.com/building-a-support-network-as-a-new-runner http://runrunlive.com/back-to-basics-how-to-become-a-runner-from-scratch Voices of reason – the interviews Gary Allen – Race Director of the Mount Desert Island Marathon Gary Allen - Team Run MDIfounder & race director gary at runmdi dot orgMount Desert Island Marathon • Half • Relay "Get Real Maine: Run MDI" The Mount Desert Island Marathon is the premier event of host running club Crow Athletics 1991 - CROW ATHELTICS IS HATCHED The exact origins of Crow Athletics are not that difficult to trace. In the early 1990's a group of Mount Desert Island runners were heading to the now extinct Boston Primer, a 15 mile road race held in Readfield, ME. As they were traveling down I-95 heading south (in a Buick station wagon as big as a house) the car full of runners suddenly thought that running as a team might be fun. The various names thrown out for selection (most of which are not fit to print) ranged from the utterly ridiculous to generic and much over used terms such as roadrunners, striders, racing team, track club and so forth. By the time the crew drove through Newport, (which is incidentally 26 miles from Bangor) someone pointed out how knarly the crows are that line the highway eating dead things that we all seem to run over in our big Buicks. After passing another group of blackbirds that literally wouldn't get out of the road (even with a ton of Detroit's best iron heading for them), the team name for our day of racing at Readfield was born. "Road Crows". We won the team division and the team name was used loosely over the next decade. Moving all the way forward to winter 2001-2002 another group of Mount Desert Island runners decided our island needed an organized running club. Again, many potential names were proposed and thrown out (most again, not fit to print -- why do runners think up such sick stuff?) Gary Allen, who was in attendance on the Readfield trip told the story of the original "Road Crows", and Crow Athletics as we know it today, was formed. Our club has since slowly and steadily grown into one of the most forward thinking, fun oriented, outrageous running clubs in the universe! We love to point out to anyone who asks, 'Why crow?', that we runners (like crows) won't get out of the road, we're afraid of nothing, we are found in every state and nearly every corner of the world, and we are impervious to the weather. Our members are of all abilities and hail from all over the US, Canada, and beyond. Some are among the best runners on the roads, while others run purely for fun! Our namesake mascot has even appeared as a tattoo on several Lifetime Members! We are a happy-healthyrecognized not for profit organization and annual membership dues (only $10 bucks) helps us to further our club and mission. PS - Roadkill is a friendly little term we like to use in describing what we like to do to our race competition! CAW! CAW! CAW! Section Two – Life Lessons Book sample – Happy is the new healthy - http://runrunlive.com/happy-is-the-new-healthy Outro Ok my friends that’s it – the terminus of Episode 4-315of the RunRunLive podcast. Those who arrive, survive. One quick technical note: At one point when I created a new version of RunRunLive a second podcast feed got added to iTunes. If you search on ITunes for RunRunLive, two shows will pop up. I’m going to ask Apple to eliminate one of them. So if you find RRL-Feedthat the podcast disappears or you aren’t getting the fortnightly updates, go to iTunes and search again and subscribe to the other feed. This is the correct iTunes Feed Link2 I bought new mountain bike for my daughter and last Sunday we went out for a ride. I know all the trails around my house for miles and decided to take one that cuts behind the local ski hill. It’s old farm road in the woods that runs behind one of the tubing hills. I’m flying down this hill and I look up and there’s a rope across the trail about 3 feet of the ground. I do some split second calculus and decide to lay the bike down and try to slide under it. My intentions did not translate well and I bounced my noggin off the trail. IMG_3213I had no idea where I was for a few minutes. I gave myself a nice concussion. Turns out I broke my helmet too. I stopped taking the blood thinners and took it easy but I had a headache for a couple days. It seems that they are running some sort of trial race over in the trails behind the ski area and had roped off the course. I started to get a lot of comments on the social media that maybe I should stay out of the trails. But, you can’t run scared. You can’t live scared. You take the precautions you can, you wear a helmet and you don’t do anything stupid, but you can’t hide under a rock. Remember, I’m looking for help with my Hood to Coast run the end of August. I’m running to support Cancer research, because cancer sucks. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I got a nice Team Hoyt running jacket from the Hoyts. It’s a large. It’s still in the wrapper. Factory sealed. Pristine. Biggest donation, let’s say $50, in the next 30 days gets the jacket. hoytjacketSupport my Hood-to-Coast Relay for Cancer Research - https://give.everydayhero.com/us/chris-russell-hood-to-coast-for-cancer-research I’ve got a great trip planned. I’m going to fly into Rapid City, SD and drive west over the divide to Portland. I’ve got the flights and hotels booked. It’s going to be a hoot. I’m taking my wife with me to give her something to complain about. Anyone live along that route want to catch a run or have dinner or coffee let me know. You folks remember Bruce Van Horn from a couple episodes back? He just launched a new book called ‘Worry no More’ that he’s offering pre-release on the Kindle for 99ø if you like his stuff. amazon link for Bruce's new book I’m training away and my next race is the Olympic Distance Triathlon up in Winchendon. I feel pretty good about it. I’ve gotten a couple swims in the open water of over a mile and as long as they let me wear my wetsuit I’ll be golden. I bought this wetsuit a couple years ago when I was entertaining doing an ironman. I hadn’t really used it much because my foot healed and I switched back to marathon racing. I’m using it now in the open water and oh my goodness it is like having the swim cheat code. It hold you in a nice balanced position so you can swim straight and easy without any struggle at all. Wonderful technology. After that I haven’t signed up yet, but I’m leaning towards riding the Hampshire 100 again. I have to do some work on my 29er and learn how not to crash so much – but It’s a good challenge and my bike legs are coming back. The one race I’m realwapackly looking forward to is the Wapack Trail Race on Sept 6th. This is one of my favorite races. It’s a hard race. 18 miles of mountain, technical trails. Not for the 5K crowd. But if you can run a marathon, you can run the Wapack and you will not find many other races like this one. Consider it. Try something new. Have an adventure. Come run the Mountains with me. http://wapack.freeservers.com/ I’ve got two interviews recorded for the next two shows. One is with Matt, from Manchester England who created a graphic novel around the Steve Prefontaine story and the other is with Tim who used my MarathonBQ plan this spring to qualify for Boston. … Buddy-2015Buddy is sitting in the front yard barking at me through the door as I write this. He wants me to come outside and play. He’s old now and his hips bother him. I don’t take him on long runs or on the road but we still get out in the woods for shorter stuff. He loves it. He loves to explore the woods and sniff everything and wallow in the mud holes even if it’s only 2-3 miles. He’s been a good running partner and a good friend over the last decade. I’m going to miss him when he’s gone. It’s going to be hard to celebrate the big part he played in my life without feeling the loss, and the empty space he leaves. I remember the time in he and I and Brian did a practice run of the Wapack. 20+ miles in the mountains and we had so much fun. I can picture the way he used to fly through the air to catch a Frisbee. I’m going to go take him for a walk now. Because he’s my brother and he deserves the moment no matter how busy I am. And as you’re walking your dog, I’ll see you out there. Closing comments Support my Hood-to-Coast Relay for Cancer Research - https://give.everydayhero.com/us/chris-russell-hood-to-coast-for-cancer-research Http://www.marathonbq.com http://runrunlive.com/my-books Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 24 Jun 2016 | Episode 4-342 – Matt Fitzgerald – How bad do you want it? | 00:56:26 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-342 – Matt Fitzgerald – How bad do you want it? (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4343.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-342 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Today we talk with author Matt Fitzgerald, mostly about his new book You may know Matt’s name from Runner’s World, Competitor and Men’s Fitness among other publications. His 2014 book “80/20 Running: Run Stronger and Race Faster By Training Slower” made a big splash. Matt and I geek out about the mental aspects of racing to your limits, both physical and psychological. In section one I’m going to report on my lessons learned from the Boston marathon this year. (I must be a slow learner because I keep having to learn some lessons over and over!) In Section two I’m going to give you my takeaways from a book I read on conversation tactics. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access To Exclusive Members Only audio Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. New on the members feed is a letter I wrote for my Daughter when she graduated that made me cry and an introspective essay on the nature of change. For the cost of a one faux leather bookmark with a bible quote on it about everlasting love you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew. Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Well my friends we’ve made it to the summer solstice. That time that is the official, astronomical beginning of summer. The longest day up here in the northern hemisphere where the earth wobbles precariously, catches itself and begins the long, drunken careen back to winter. If you’re in the southern hemisphere you can just switch all the words with their opposites. For all the pagan sun worshippers out there you need to build some stone circles and do a little dance. Maybe sacrifice something – like a six pack of lager. If you don’t believe the earth is round, well there’s no hope for you. If you want to have some fun ask random people basic astronomy questions, like “Does the earth orbit the sun or does the sun orbit the earth?” Or “Name the planets?” Then sit back and be surprised with the answers. It is getting warm up in my neck of the woods. The deer flies are out. I’m adjusting to it as always. For everything there is a season – Turn, Turn, Turn. Mostly I’m just trying to get all my runs in and trying to keep all the balls in the air. I’m doing a lot of trail running and some mountain biking. It’s all good. Friday I hit the ski area next to my house and did some reps on my bike up the tubing hill. It’s just about right for me to get to max effort at the top without blowing up or falling over. Sunday I did 2 hours in the trails before going to have a father’s Day lunch with my Mom and brother. I’m a bit tired today. We had one of those summer thunderstorm fronts role through at 3 in the morning. Thunder and lightning cause Buddy the old wonder dog a lot of personal stress and he needs to share his unhappiness with me. Sometimes he goes and hides in the bath tub. Sometimes we’ll open the basement door and let him hide down there. But usually he just wanders the house being miserable like last night. It’s summer. What are you going to do? I don’t mind running in the heat as long as I’m acclimated and kitted out for it. I love running in a warm summer rain. … I was down in Atlanta last week all week. It was a series of all-hands type meetings where the whole company comes in. I was on stage for some of it. It’s a tiring week. There’s the travel, the preparation, getting up to get my workouts in, being engaged all day and then socializing at night. I did manage to get enough sleep to execute. I did manage to get some sort of workouts in in the morning. It was super-hot in Atlanta. High 90’s with humidity. Even in the morning I was soaked from running outside. I told them the only thing keeping me from bursting into flames was the humidity. We were down near Georgia Tech this time so I got to explore the tech campus on one run – which was fun. I also got to go to a Braves game one night. Matt and I are going to talk a lot about mental training today in the interview. Your mental engagement in the training and racing is as important as the physical engagement. You can’t be successful unless you have both. It’s that perfect combination of mental engagement and physical capabilities that makes you successful. I think you can draw a parallel to your career. If you hate what you’re doing and are not mentally engaged it doesn’t matter how good you are at it, you will still struggle. The inverse is true as well. If you are mentally engaged but don’t know what you’re doing it won’t work either. One of the telltale signs that you aren’t mentally engaged in what you’re doing is whether the doing of it saps your energy or energizes you. If you are fully, mentally bought in to a job you will have inexhaustible energy to pour into it. Doing the work will give you energy. If you’re in a position where doing the work exhausts you while you are doing the work then either the work or the people you’re working with are not for you. There is a disconnect there. Pay attention and see which way your energy meter runs when you’re doing the work. When I was jogging around the Tech campus I was listening to DirtDawg talk about the difference between a job, a career and a calling. One of those differences is in the way your energy flows. On with the show. Section one – Lessons Learned from the Boston Marathon - Voices of reason – the conversation Matt Fitzgerald “The mind is the athlete.” —Bryce Courtenay Matt Fitzgerald is an acclaimed endurance sports writer and authority. His many previous books include the best-selling Racing Weight; RUN: The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel; Brain Training for Runners; and Diet Cults. His book Iron War was long-listed for the 2012 William Hill Sports Book of the Year. Matt is a regular contributor to Men’s Fitness, Men’s Health, Outside, Runner’s World, Bicycling, Running Times, Women’s Running, and other sports and fitness publications. He lives and trains in California Matt Fitzgerald is an award-winning endurance sports journalist and bestselling author of more than 20 books on running, triathlon, fitness, nutrition, and weight loss, including How Bad Do You Want It? and 80/20 Running. He contributes regularly to magazines and websites such as Women's Running and competitor.com. An experienced running and triathlon coach and certified sports nutritionist, Matt serves as a Training Intelligence Specialist for PEAR Sports and as a coach for Team Iron Cowboy. mattfitzgerald.org teamironcowboy.com pearsports.com racingweight.com Section two Conversation Tactics - Outro Well my friends you were able to stay mentally strong, and I know it was hard, to the end of Episode 4-342 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Happy 9-year anniversary! Happy Father’s Day. Does everyone have their summer plans? Are you ready? Have you filled your kiddie pool in the backyard up with ice? 4th of July in the States is on a Monday this year. I don’t have any plans. I guess I’ll have to venture down and see if my Cape house is still standing. Maybe I’ll recreate Thoreau’s walk up the outer Cape to Provincetown? That might be epic. We’re coming into that time where the Europeans take the whole summer off. Work tends to slow down as people head out to vacation. I’ll keep it short today because I don’t have a lot to say. Please consider becoming a member – It’s how I justify the time and money it takes to pull off this podcast. Also if you are looking at a Fall race you might want to check out my book MarathonBQ. If you want to get faster, or want to try some speedwork, this is the book where I lay out my speedwork secrets that I used to take 40 minutes off my marathon time and qualify for Boston. It’s on Amazon Kindle and also in Audio on Audible. Links in the show notes and on my website. … Coming into last week’s trip to Atlanta I had a couple amusing challenges. I was out trail running with Ryan, caught a toe and did the classic tuck and roll to keep from face planting. But when I stopped rolling I was right in the middle of a giant poison ivy patch. I’m super allergic to poison ivy. It was a hot day. We were miles from the trail head. I had to get on a plane later in the day. When we were coming back we passed a garage where I guy was hosing out school buses with a high-pressure water hose. So, we went over and got him to hose me down. It was very refreshing! I scrubbed off as well as I could when I got home before heading for the airport. Then I’m sitting in the airport and a crown comes loose on one of my molars. So here I am, getting ready to go to Atlanta to be on stage and engaged. I’m losing a tooth and there’s a good chance I’m going to swell up into a giant, puss-y rash in front of the whole company! Thankfully the bus wash and quick shower were able to mitigate an uncontrolled dermatological explosion. I got a couple itchy bits but nothing compared to what could have been. Dodged a bullet there. My tooth stayed put until Wednesday when I found it in a piece of pizza at lunch, but it didn’t hurt and I was able to get it patched up when I got back. See? Things never turn out as bad as we imagine they will! I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 24 May 2019 | Episode 4-409 – Julie the Marathon Goddess | 00:54:35 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-409 – Julie the Marathon Goddess (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4409.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-409 of the RunRunLive Podcast. With any luck I’ll be able to publish this before I jump in my truck and drive up to Burlington VT for my next marathon. It’s go time and I’m stressed out about it. I’ve held my weight and conditioning and am coming into the race in good shape, on paper anyhow. It’s a 3.5 hour drive from my house. Vermont Cities, I’m told, is a much more reasonable course than Boston. Fewer hills. My training buddies tell me that it has always been a good race for them. It still stresses me out. Age graded, for my goal, I’m targeting times that are faster than I ever ran when I was younger – if you believe age grading. Looks like the weather is going to be dicey. The race starts at 7:00 AM so I shouldn’t have to worry about heat. But, they are calling for thunder storms and a stiff wind in the morning. Doesn’t matter. I’m committed. I’ll fight it all the way down. It’s a figure 8 course. I’m not sure how sheltered it is, but that should mean I’ll have as much head wind as tail wind and side wind. I’m going to find a pace group and stick with it. Stay in the shadow of the pace group. I need a 3:35 to requalify and it looks like they have a 3:30 pace group. I’ll have to decide whether I want to hang with them or freewheel. 10 seconds a mile could be significant and I’d much rather negative split than burn out. We’ll see. I’m camping in a park on the lake front. Like I said it’s a trick I learned in my mountain bike racing days. Frankly, I don’t think those hard-core mountain bikers are house-trained. I’ve got a tent, a mattress and a mattress pump in the back of my truck. You don’t sleep much the night before a race anyhow. Eyeballing the map, it looks like I can walk to the start from where I’m camped. Brian is going to be up there with his son. I’m going to stay over Sunday night probably. We’ll see. I can’t wait to have this over with. I’m pretty sick of road racing and training. Not sure what I’m going to do if I miss my time. I might hang it up. Move on. What would you do? Do you think 21 Boston marathons is enough? Or will my life totally unravel if I remove this prop from the infrastructure? Today we have a great interview with Julie the Marathon Goddess. You know Julie. She’s the California Girl from the move “The Spirit of the Marathon 2”. Which isn’t an awful movie. The reason it’s not awful is that it has a cast of characters and Julie is one of those characters. In section one I’m going to talk about some new things I learned in this last training cycle. In section two I’m going to talk about the wild and whacky English Language. And, since we’re talking about the English language and the Boston Marathon I have a question for you? What is another perfectly good word for ‘unicorn’? Monocerous! Isn’t that a great word. Monocerous! Here’s another one. Did you know that the word Cadence comes from the same Indo-European root as Cadaver? Same Latin root meaning, loosely to fall. The cadence is the foot fall. The cadaver is a fallen one, so to speak. So next time you can’t keep up your cadence and you feel like a cadaver, you’ll know why. Oh, I have a redaction from last show. My childhood friend Dave didn’t die. He’s living in Seattle I think. His older brother Eric, who I went to school with passed. Rest in Peace Eric. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – LEssons from this long training cycle. Voices of reason – the conversation Julie Weiss Author/Runner/Marathon Goddess Available now on : 52 Weeks, 52 Marathons: The Miles and Trials of a Marathon Goddess by Julie Weiss with John Hanc and Ali Nolan (Tender Fire/Enhanced Communications) Do you ever wonder, or have a burning desire to be more than what you have aspired to be? I always knew there was more to life, and I found it through my joy of running. Before I started running I was overweight, on antidepressants and I could barely run around the block. I was a young mom and had battled some very dark moments. Since I started running I am no longer taking any medication and I have lost 20 pounds. Running saved my life. On March 2, 2008, I ran my first marathon, the Los Angeles Marathon. I had made all the beginner mistakes. Ouch! Pretty much sums it up. I had not trained properly, and swore I would stick only to 10K’s after that. But it was not long, two months in fact, until I ran another marathon and then another. My father became my biggest fan. We had a goal, that goal was that I would qualify for the Boston marathon where he would go to see me run. I attempted to qualify for Boston 19 times. Every time I completed a marathon I would call my father and let him know how I did. He was still proud of me, even if it was my slowest time. He always encouraged me to keep going and so I did. In October of 2010, my father was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. I was devastated, but my father urged me to continue to train, to work and go on with life as usual. It was hard, but I did as he wished. On December 5, 2010 I finally did qualify for the Boston marathon and made it in 3:47, sadly it was 1 week after my father passed away, just 35 days after his diagnosis. I know he was there with me, he was the wind at my back and had the best seat in the house, my heart. After I ran the Boston marathon in 2011 I looked deeply into the disease that had taken my father. I found that pancreatic cancer was the 4th leading cause of cancer death and the least funded for research. This was unacceptable to me. I knew had to something dramatic to raise awareness and that it should be centered around my passion for running and the love for my father. So I set out to run 52 marathons in 52 weeks to raise $1,000,000 for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. I recently completed marathon#52 on March 17, 2013 at the ASICS L.A. Marathon. I did all of this while holding down a full time job. I work 9-5 as an accountant. I would leave my office on a Friday or Saturday, travel to a different city, state or even country, run a marathon on Sunday and fly back home to get to work Monday morning. Almost every weekend waking up at 3:30 in the morning to get to the starting line. Not even Super Storm Sandy could stop me. I dedicated each of my marathons to someone affected by pancreatic cancer because my fight was nothing compared to what theses people had to go through. They are my heroes. I am now 42, have two amazing kids, who are 20 and 24, my wonderful fiance, and of course my first running partner ever, my dog Jessie. I have found my purpose in life. Now, I invite you to join me in the light, embrace your highest self and start being the person you were put on this earth to be. If it speaks to you, I also invite you to join me in the fight against pancreatic cancer. The disease that took the life of my number 1 fan, my father, and so many others. I am so grateful that we have completed this amazing journey, but we are not done yet. I am currently on a journey to finish 100 marathons ending at the 2016 Sketchers Performance Los Angeles Marathon and hope to reach my 1 Million dollar fundraising goal by then. When you do what you love, for those you love, that is when the miracles happen. The joy comes from the heart. If your love is running, I have learned that it’s not about how many miles you go, or even how fast. The heart does not have a clock, it has beats. My mission is to make sure those beats are spent on pursuing your dreams, your passions and having fun. Marathon Goddess is about embracing the God or Goddess within us all. Now I am running with a purpose, to fight the good fight against pancreatic cancer. It has become my mission, and I will not stop until we have found a cure. Find your passion, bring out your spirit and let it shine. We got this!! Section two – The Wonderful, Wacky, English Language - Outro Well, my friends you did that thing where you strike the Goddess pose in your underwear in front of the bathroom mirror and though tno one was watching, but we won’t judge and you have come to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-409, Keep up the good work. We’ve been having a cold and rainy spring in New England. Every time I hit one of those long hard tempo runs in a 45 degree drizzle I mutter a little curse to the gods. Why couldn’t we have this weather at one of my target marathons? I’ve been working in my garden for the last couple weeks. I started some seeds earlier but the weather has been so cold they are quite stunted. I got some tomatoes and beans and squash in. We’ll see what come up. Nothing like a warm, garden fresh tomato on a warm August afternoon. Part of the rhythm of life. I should be able to execute a decent race at Vermont. I’m still light – hovering around 170 pounds – I’m still hitting my tempo paces in the mid-7’s. Like, I said, on paper it’s a lock. We’ll see. Wish me luck. Send me whatever universal Karma you can. I accepted an invitation to pace a ½ marathon in PA at the end of July. It’s the Conquer the Canyon marathon and half marathon. I’ll be the alternate pacer for the 2 hour ½ with Greg. Light duty. It looks like a pretty course on a rail trail that winds through a river valley. 6-hour drive for me. This pacing outfit is called Beast Pacers. If you want to be a pacer they have races all over the country. They comp you the entry. Would be a great way to pick up your 50 states. One more of my favorite old-English words for you before you go. The old/middle English word for window or opening was ‘thirl’. You may be familiar with a compound word we still use this in. It combines the word for ‘nose’ and that word for window ‘thirl’ – and you may have guessed – that compound word is ‘nostril’ – literally ‘nose-window’. Isn’t that great? Nose window? … Julie’s story is a good one. On the one hand it’s familiar to us. It’s the classic hero’s journey. Over coming challenges to become the champion. On the other I think it verifies a useful truth: if you just decide to do something you can change the world, at least your little part of the world. You don’t need permission. You just do it and let the details figure themselves out. It’s not goal setting. It’s not achievement. It’s more like directing, or freeing the universal energy that is in each of us. Looking inside yourself, how do you let that energy free? I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 06 Jun 2020 | Bryan - In Memoriam | 00:59:42 | |
Folks, I am re-releasing episode 4-310 where I interviewed Bryan Lions so we could all hear his voice and listen to his story. Chris, ... The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-310 – Bryan Lyons on Pushing Rick in 2015 (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4310.mp3] Link Intro Bumper: Hello my friends, this is Chris your host and this is the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-310. Welcome. We are in our final days of taper leading into the Boston Marathon. I’m ready. I’m right on my target race weight, I’m strong in the legs and I’ve done it a few times before. I’m starting from the back this year in the last charity corral. It will take me awhile to get to the starting line and it will be crowded. Looks like we’re getting decent weather, cool and rainy. That’s actually my favorite racing weather. One of my friends from the running club is getting a limo to take a bunch of us out to Hopkinton on Monday morning. There’s no checked bags from Hopkinton anymore so we’ll have to navigate the cool, wet weather on the morning with some throw away stuff. There will be a wind. I don’t know yet if it’s a head wind on not but as far back in the pack as I am there’s lots of shelter if you know what I mean. I don’t know if I’ll be carrying my phone or not. I’d love to be unplugged but I don’t know how to get it into Boston otherwise without being separated from it for a day. It turns out this new iPhone6 fits perfectly into one of those ½ size snack baggies and you can use the phone through the plastic. Today we have the great privilege to speak with Bryon Lyons who is taking over for Dick Hoyt in Pushing Rick this year. It’s a long one, but’s that’s ok. I think we cover some good ground. In the first section I’m going to muse on this year’s Boston from my perspective, as is my annual tradition. In the second section we’ll talk about how to use an external brain to get important stuff done. I’m good to go for Monday. I have a red Team Hoyt singlet that I’ll probably put a long sleeve shirt on underneath because of the weather. It’s also got some rough bits that I’d like to keep off my nipples! I still need to swing by Whole Foods and pick up some Hammer Gels for the race. I tried to cook up my own energy gels from organic peanut butter and cocoa powder but it was a disaster. It was like when you give a dog a spoonful of peanut butter and their mouth gets all stuck. I’ll have to keep working on that. Damn near choked me to death on my last couple long runs. We might go long today, but I’ll keep my comments short. On with the Show! Section one - Running Tips Tapering into Boston Voices of reason – the interviews Bryan Lyons From “Team Hoyt Racing at Boston With a Different Look For the first time since 1980, Dick Hoyt won’t run behind his son. But Bryan Lyons, a longtime supporter and runner, takes up the cause. By Liam Boylan-Pett; April 9, 2015 Rick and Dick Hoyt with Bryan Lyons Bryan Lyons (left, bib number 33864) at the 2014 Boston Marathon with Dick and Rick Hoyt. In 2014, Dick Hoyt completed the Boston Marathon for the 32nd time—each year pushing his son Rick, who’s a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy, in a custom-racing wheelchair. After last year’s race, Dick wanted to retire. Rick, however, wanted to cover the 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to Boston again. He’s going to—this year with a new running partner. Dr. Bryan Lyons, a dentist in Billerica, Massachusetts, and a family friend of the Hoyts, will push Rick in the 119th running of Boston. “It was sort of shocking for [Dick] to ask me,” Lyons told the Lowell Sun. "My friends told me [the Hoyts] don't want the big name, they want the big heart. If that's the least that I can provide, I'm happy." This will be the seventh Boston Marathon for Lyons, 44, who has run for the Hoyt Foundation marathon team since 2008, with a best of 4:15:29, which he ran in 2010. Lyons does have some experience running with Rick, 53. Since January, the two have completed a few shorter local road races and gone on training runs together, according to the Lowell Sun. If Rick isn’t available, Lyons puts sandbags into the wheelchair to simulate his weight. Although Dick Hoyt, 74, won’t be running, he won’t absent from the marathon. He’s the race’s grand marshal, and will ride in a pace car ahead of the lead runners. The Hoyt’s story, chronicled by Runner’s World in 2007, has inspired many. Since 1977 when Rick asked Dick to push him through a 5-mile race, the father-son duo has completed more than 1,100 races, including Ironman triathlons. “Dick will continue to be at the head of the field, leading 30,000 runners on their trek to Boston,” Tom Grilk, Executive Director of the Boston Athletic Association, said in a press release. “Dick and Rick Hoyt will forever be synonymous with the Boston Marathon and the sport of running.” Now, Lyons’ name will be attached, too. Once Dick decided not to run, Lyons was an easy choice for the Hoyts. "Bryan will be out there, and he'll do his best, we know that," Dick Hoyt told the Lowell Sun. "He's a great athlete, a great person, and the type of person that we want to be pushing Rick. And Rick wants Bryan to be the one to do it." Section Two – Life Lessons Using an External Brain – Outro That’s it my friends. Episode 4-310 in the can. We’ll see what happens over the weekend. I may do a race report or not. It’s a lot of work to write something that I am proud of. You don’t really know the appropriate theme until the race has been run, so you can’t prepare that much. I’ve got the Groton Road Race coming up on the 26th and we’ve still got shirts if you want to register. We’d love to have you. Then I’m going in to get my heart fixed. Then…it will be summer time and the living will be easy. I was out in California this past week. I flew out Saturday and came back on the redeye Tuesday night. I was in Huntington Beach. You may or may not know that Huntington Beach is known as Surf City USA. This is one of the centers of the surfing culture from Southern California. There are surf shops and beach cruiser bikes and classic cars cruising in circles. It’s a surfer vibe. Sunday I was wandering around the resort, killing some time before dinner and ended up going into a surf shop, where they sell shirts, baggy shorts and flip flops to the tourists. There were a couple young guys lounging behind the counter. They were your surfer dude types. Being me, I figured I’d chat them up. I say “You guys look tired and bored.” To which the one guy replies, “Yeah, we’re the surf instructors but they make us work in here.” And the other dude says, “Yeah, man, Long night, ya know?” I nod, as if I can commiserate. He thinks I don’t understand. “I was up all night man, you know those Spanish girls…” I try to act like that’s something I can relate to as I stand there in my business suit and mid-life crisis look. He still thinks I don’t get it and says, “Ya know, man? The 6-2?” I agree and move on, wondering what the hell ‘the 6-2’ means. I tell the story to the guys I’m with and we come up with all sorts of theories around body type ratios and start-stop times. We Google it but the urban dictionary, while having some fairly unsettling definitions, doesn’t quite fit. We spend the next couple days asking people and not getting any good answers. I go back to the shop but the dudes aren’t working. At dinner that night I can see that the busboy is clearly a surfer dude cut from the same cloth. I call him over and tell him my story in a conspiratorial and hushed way, finishing with the big question. “What does ‘the 6-2’ mean? He says “Well bro, it’s kinda hard to explain…” I say “Just give it your best shot…” He continues. “Well it just mean he was tappin that shit all night long…” The mystery was solved. That’s all it meant. There were not ratios or timing or measurements involved. Now you know. You’ve got early access to some surf slang. I can see the ultra runners using this one. How was the middle 50 miles? “It was the 6-2, bro, all trail, all night…” With that I will leave you to your own adventures. Don’t wait. Step put the door and do it today. There will never be a good or convenient time to do epic stuff. Enjoy your race. I’ll see you out there. Closing comments Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 04 Oct 2020 | Quick Update | 00:07:37 | |
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 01 Apr 2016 | Episode 4-335 – Neely Spence Gracey Breaks out at Boston! | 00:54:19 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-335 – Neely Spence Gracey Breaks out at Boston! (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4335.mp3] Link Team Hoyt Boston 2016 Campaign -> MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-335 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Bear with me, we are going to get to the great show including a piece on the re-emergence of effort based training in the poplar zeitgeist and a really good interview with Neely Spence Gracey who is making her professional marathon debut at Boston this year. And I’m capping it off with a super-thoughtful post on mistakes not to make in life that is just in time for graduation season.But – before that -This week I’ve got another milestone announcement for you. I’ve been toying with this idea for years and I finally got the breathing room to put it into action. When I looked at the value of this podcast to you over the last 8 years and 300+ episodes it is in the content, meaning the words and the interviews, and the audio I create from them. That’s my value add in the process. The revelation I had is that even though I am perfectly capable of it, there is no unique or differentiating value to me twiddling with my website or editing the audio or the countless other admin tasks that something like this takes.So I asked myself, “Hey, Myself, how can I do less of that stuff and more of the good stuff?” and the answer was to automate the rote stuff. I had some down time at the beginning of this year and pulled together a great team of virtual assistants to do some of the time consuming production work for me. We’re about 3 episodes in and it’s working fairly well. The next phase of this project to automate is now ready. I had my website redone to support a membership option. I wanted to give people who had the ability to and wanted to a chance to help me cover the costs of all this stuff without having to resort to cheesy commercials or half-hearted sponsorships. I also didn’t want to take anything away or put existing stuff behind a paywall. Bottom line – there’s a membership option to get extra cool stuff and support the content but we’re not charging for or taking away any of the existing content or archival content.Here’s the pitch…Remember RunRunLive is and always has been free and listener supported. To keep it that way we now are offering members’ only content.By signing up for a membership, you will get…Access To Exclusive Members Only audioMember only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!(This week I put up my Stu’s 30k race report! )Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all ShowsIntro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. We will consider other benefits as they are requested by you, because when you’re a member it’s all about you! On top of that, consider how much it costs: $4.99 a month. That’s roughly the price of a couple Expresso Luv Gu gels a month. And unlike GU, we won’t give you a sugar overdose or rot your teeth. So not only will you be part of the RunRunLive community and be getting cool extras, you’ll also be healthier and happier.But the real value is that you will be helping this community continue to provide the content you love. And as a member you can directly influence the stories we tell, the research we do and the people we interview. We’re all in this together.So if you like what we’re doing here at RunRunLive, please consider becoming a member. Membership is cheap, for a monthly donation that breaks down to roughly around the price of 1/25th of a pair of running shoes each month you can help keep RunRunLive free and independent.Go to my website and click on the subscribe button.…I’m glad to say my training is still going well. I had another big build week that capped off with a 3 hour long run. I’m in a good place mentally and physically because instead of ruing the run I was quite looking forward to it.I queued up my favorite podcasts and ran 4 loops of my home 5 mile loop. Another good sign was when I got to the last loop I realized I’d be about 10 minutes short so I decided to run up to the top of the telephone tower hill –the driveway is on the course. So, yeah, 18 or so miles into the run I decide to throw in another big hill to make up some time. Then when I got to the end of the run, near my house I had the 3 hours but was about a 1/3 of a mile short of 20 so I kept going for another 3 minutes to get the 20. Wasn’t sore or chafed or damaged at all after. All very good signs.This weekend I’m racing one of my favorites – the Eastern States 20 Miler. Coach has gone easy on me so I can have fresher legs going into it and treat it as a pacing exercise. I’m confident I can negative split it and beat my target marathon goal pace. It’s a flatter course, but there’s always some wind coming off the ocean. It will be a good test and I’m looking forward to it.Then I taper into Boston. I got my bib number and coral placement and I’m all the way in the back and that is going to be a challenge. I’ve got 4,000 charity runners to get around to get my BQ. That’s probably worth 4-5 minutes of race time before I can break free. I’m so far back this year that I’m considering just waiting before I cross the start mat and giving everyone a 10 -20 minute head start.Whatever happens it will be an adventure.…I’ve always said that training well does not guarantee your race time. Training well only gives you the opportunity. Doing the work is not a guarantee of success. Doing the work is how you buy the ticket to get to the starting line with the potential to have a good or even a great day.There was a baseball movie in the 90’s called “Major League”. The storyline was a team of reprobates, misfits and has-beens comes together to beat everyone’s expectations and win. One of the characters was the has-been pitcher Eddie Harris (played by actor Chelcie Ross). I think about Eddie Harris when I’m racing now. He had lost his power and speed but he managed to strike people out with the tricks and veteran guile. That’s where I am now. I don’t have the power or speed. I can’t recover as fast. I can’t afford to skip any of the ancillary activities like strength training and stretching. I can’t skip workouts and expect to just ‘show up and race’. But, I know my machine. I know how to race. I’ve got the confidence and poise to coax good performances. And I’m ok with that. On with the Show!Section one - Running TipsEffort based training - Voices of reason – the conversationNeely Spencer Gracey – Elite MarathonerEight time division II national cross country champion and professional runner…Runner’s World article -> Email: getrunning@outlook.comFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/neelyrunsTwitter: @neelysgraceyInstagram: NeelySGraceyGarmin Connect: neelysgraceyMap My Run: neelysgraceyPROFESSIONAL HIGHLIGHTSRunner-up at USATF Club XC Nationals 20114th at the BUPA Grand Prix Edinburgh, Scotland 2012Runner-up at USATF 5k Road Champs 2012Third at USATF 10k Road Champs 2012USATF Athlete of the Week 11/14/12Chiba Japan Bronze Medal Ekiden Relay Team 2012First ever American Zatopek 10k Champ 20125th at USATF XC Nationals 2013Top American and first non-African (13th) at the World XC Champs 20135th at USATF 5k Road Champs 2013Queen of the Mountain and 6th overall at MRR 20145th and top non-African at Campaccio IAAF XC 2015Runner-Up at Gasparilla Half Marathon 2015 (Olympic Trials qualifier)Section two9 Mistakes you don’t have to make - OutroMy friends, members or not, you have reached the end of yet another free and listener supported RunRunLive Podcast – Episode 4-335 has made its successful professional debut.The coming 3-4 weeks are just going to be a blur for me and it’s going to carry through May and into June. I’ve got a multi-day meeting in Chicago next week. Then April 18th is the Boston Marathon and I’m in the best shape and have the most confidence in my training that I have had for about 5 years. You’d think that would make me less nervous. Just the opposite. When you haven’t trained well there’s no stress because there is no expectation. I have trained well and now all I can do is screw it up! There will be some full on sleepless nights and psychotic episodes over the next couple weeks!April 24th is our 25th anniversary Groton Road Race. We’ve set up the virtual race if you want join from afar – just go to – Hope to see you there.Rolling into May I’ve got a multiple conferences and meetings in New Orleans, Atlanta and Phoenix. I’ll be on the road a lot and looking to run the canyon while I’m in Phoenix. Not sure what my next goal will be. I’m feeling a bit achy from road racing. Whatever it is it won’t be road racing! Unless, of course I blow my qualifier try at Boston. Then I might have to lift that heavy bag of training to my shoulders again, but I’m getting good at that. I got some pushback on my dog joke from last time. Apparently the goldens and labs were insulted by my comments. I apologize for that, but I never would have thought they had the mental capacity to be insulted. I’ll try to be my sensitive.…Closing commentsBuddy woke up limping around the house today. He has something wrong with a front paw and I’m going to take him to the vet in a bit. I want them to look at that other fatty lump on his hip and maybe get that taken out because it seems to be really getting in the way of his running. We’re a pair of old guys limping around the house complaining about aches and pains. I don’t have any muscle or tendonitis problems this cycle. Coach gives me enough rest and I’ve been attentive to my yoga and core strengthening. I do have some goof pain. I caught a toes in the dark on the trail one night. I was emerging from the trail into a parking lot and the snow plows had pushed an unexpected piece of curbing into the path. I came down on my palm and tore a nice hole. Palms don’t heal well. Then coach gave me a recovery bike spin workout. It was one of those nice days so I took Fuji-san off the fluid trainer, pumped up the tires, greased all the moving bits and headed for the rail trail. In the process I had to swap the skewer on the back wheel because the trainer requires a specific skewer – it’s the rod through the axles that has a quick release lever on it. Well, I must not have clamped the back wheel on well enough. There I was in traffic, balancing at a stop sign, I stood up in the peddles to go and the back wheel comes out of the frame and seizes. Of course I’m clipped in so I do that embarrassing death roll into the bushes. I took a piece of gravel and tore a nice hole in my knee!Fast forward a couple days and I’m out running in Los Angeles. I decide to try to make it to the beach and turn my 1 hour run into a 2 hour run. Now since it was only supposed to be a 1 hour run I didn’t put any lube on. It’s hot for me in LA so I was sweating and I wore all the skin off of a part of my body that sticks out. There I was last week. In the best shape of my life and no running injuries, and I managed to manufacture a hole in my hand, a hole in my knee and a super uncomfortable bit of personal chafing.So, yeah, the universe is in balance… – and l’ll see you out there.MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 03 Mar 2017 | Hoyt - Boston- 2017 | 00:02:30 | |
Hello my friends, This is Chris. I know, you’re used to hearing my voice and may be taken aback to see it coming out of my actual face, but I wanted to talk to you. On April 17th of this year I’ll be running my 19th Boston Marathon. My training’s going well – I should be able to give it a respectable effort. And, of course, I’m running for Team Hoyt this year. If you don’t know the story of the Hoyts, on a fateful day in 1979 rick Hoyt, who is about my age now and told his dad, Dick, that he wanted to run a local 5 miler. That started an amazing story of Dick pushing Rick in his wheelchair through thousands of races. Marathons, ironmans and in the process they broke barriers for the disabled in all walks of life. They became heroes to a generation of athletes. So I’m asking for your help. This isn’t to support me, or even the Hoyts, or even the 100’s of disabled athletes they encourage. This is you and me supporting dreaming the impossible This is you and me supporting the courage to make a difference This is you and me creating a world that You and I want to live in. There should be a link to my crowdrise page here somewhere. I’d appreciate donations of any size. Thank you And I’ll see you out there. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 14 Feb 2021 | A Mid-Winter Tale | 00:21:58 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 – A Mid-Winter Tale (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/AMWT.mp3] Link Hello folks this is Chris. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find the time to podcast this week. I don’t know about you folks but I’ve had a crazy couple of weeks. Actually it’s been pretty crazy since before the holidays. I won’t bore you with the details but my job has been super time consuming. I’ve got calls starting in the morning every day and also in the evenings. And you know the morning time is my writing time. But, I’ll give you an update. I wrapped up my week of training last week with a stellar 30K long run on the roads. We got more than a foot of snow and it was too soft to do a multi-hour long run in. I was worried about switching to the road so abruptly. And I did pick up a little soreness in my plantar, but for the most part it was a great run. Let me tell you the story. I set out from my house in the direction of the rail trail in the next town over. I figured if the snow was going to be packed down and passable anywhere it would be on the rail trail. I can get to the midpoint of the trail about 10K from my house, so I headed out nice and slow in that direction. It was a sunny day, no wind, but pretty cold. I did my errands in the morning and waited for it to warm up a bit. The roads were dry but with the snow there were some places where the shoulders got a bit skinny. I wanted to avoid too much hill work and stay on back roads. I wore my vest with the two 500ML mammary bottles under my outer layer because it was in the high-teens, low twenties. After the previous week’s bad adventure with the spoiled gel I decided to go full ultra-fuel and keep it simple. I made a nice organic peanut butter and honey sandwich on Dave’s 21 grain bread. I cut it into 3X3 chunks – so 9 bite-size pieces and threw them into a plastic bag and stuffed them in a pocket. When I got to the trail It was impassable. I stopped to eat a couple pieces of sandwich, take a drink and figure out what to do next. As I was standing by the side of the road, basically having a stand up picnic, cars kept stopping and waving me across. And I was like, “no, I’m not crossing.” I finally had to scootch back into a driveway to stay out of their line of site. I figured I was an hour in and felt pretty good, so I’d just keep going east and see where I ended up. I vaguely knew where I was. I headed out through the back roads of Westford and east into Carlisle. Babe Ruth lived in Carlisle when he played for the Red Sox. Eventually I came to a main road. I was trying to figure out where I was. I only needed a few more minutes, so I mentally flipped a coin and turned left. I’m glad I did because in a couple hundred feet I came upon Great Brook State Park. This is a good-sized park in Carlisle that I’m familiar with having mountain biked in there a few time. I learned that I am about 9 miles away from the park crow-fly if I take the back roads. Which is cool. With the snow, they had opened it up as a snowshoe and cross-country ski venue. The place was packed. On the east side they were selling tickets to get in and ski. I asked if I could go into the trails on the west side where people were snowshoeing. They said it was ok. The trails were packed down and perfect for running and it was beautiful. The sun was high and families were out. I just ripped around in the woods for a few minutes. Then I popped back out on the road and headed back home after eating some more sandwich and taking a drink. Really beautiful day. On my way out I had noticed that it was apparently trash day in Carlisle because all the trask cans were out at the end of driveways. I began playing the beer can game that I like to play. The way this works of course is that you pick up a beer can that some a-hole has tossed out the car window and you drop it in the next trash can. I felt pretty good now, still running well. Not fast. But well. No crash. Good energy. And I crossed back into Westford. As I was coming back through Westford, I got cocky. I saw a brown paper bag in the snow bank and figured I’d throw it out. It turned out to be a empty fifth of vodka. Which is a good-sized bottle. And a glass bottle too. Then I see a Bud-light tall boy and grab that too. So I’m running down the road carrying an empty vodka bottle in a brown paper bag like a football and a big beer can and I realize “Oh Crap!” it’s not trash day in Westford and there’s no place to put these. I went on for a mile or so like that looking in peoples’ driveways and such, but eventually gave up and put them back into the snowbank. I chose and obvious place at the corner of a neighborhood figuring someone would pick them up. Ce’st la vie. As I was heading up Powers road towards my house I realized I was going to be short on my planned time so I re-routed through the Nashoba Mountain ski area. It was packed too. I guess the virus is afraid of heights. I stopped at the kiddee slope to see if I could find my running buddy Bob who is a ski instructor there, but I didn’t. I kept going, starting to get a bit leg-tired now, out through the back to the tubing hill. It was a perfect day for tubing. Plenty of snow and cold enough to keep the snow fast. Of course the tubing hill was packed as well. As I churned through watching the kids rocket down slope, I thought about how we would do this when I was a kid. We’d grab something totally dangerous, like a cafeteria tray or a trashcan lid or the hood of a VW and we would break our necks sometimes. Even our official sledding implements were super dangerous. My family had a 6-person toboggan. There was no controlling or turning these things. You just went until you crashed into something. I can remember falling off the toboggan mid run and getting my foot caught in the rope and being dragged down the hill at high velocity on my face. We had these things called ‘flying saucers’ that were plastic disks that you sat in. They had no steering or padding or anything. You just went until you wrecked. But the pros had sleds. The old Flexible Flyer. You sanded down and waxed up the steel runners. Then you hauled ass down the hill face first on the sled. You could steer them a little bit and at high enough velocity you could sort of Tokyo drift around the corners. Anyhow, that was what I was reminiscing about as I wrapped up my 18.6 miles. I had not planned to run a 30K. I was just running by time. It was serendipity. Felt pretty good. Didn’t eat the whole sandwich. Wasn’t sore on Sunday. Ran an hour with my buddies the next day. Good weekend effort. … Work being so crazy and time consuming reminds me of another story. This one is a SCUBA story. Anyone know what SCUBA stands for? Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. In my 20’s I used to go diving for lobsters off Halibut Point in Gloucester. I had a bunch of hand-me-down SCUBA stuff. But we never went deep and never more than one 80 tank. So we really couldn’t get into too much trouble. I remember one afternoon; my buddy Keith and I went out. We had to hike a bit out through the state park to get to the shore. It’s a good place to lobster dive because the shore is rocky and drops off quickly to 30-40 feet. And by rocky, I mean big chunks of granite. Like refrigerator size. To get to the water you had to climb down the rocks and jump in. Now, if any of you know anything about SCUBA diving you know there’s a bunch of equipment involved. You have the tank. A hose comes off the tank and connects to the thing you put in your mouth, called a regulator. The regulator allows you to breath off of the tank. Then you have your mask with a snorkel attached. The water in the Atlantic off of Gloucester is pretty cold, even in the summer, like 60’s. So you have a wet suit. You wear fins so you can propel yourself. All good so far. But the part that non-SCUBA folks don’t get is that you need buoyancy regulation. Any of you triathletes know that if you have a wetsuit on you float. With the whole point of SCUBA being the underwater stuff you need some way to overcome the floating of the wetsuit. The way you do this is to strap a bunch of medieval looking lead weights to a belt around your waste. The lead makes you sink. Which creates the opposite problem because you don’t’ want to get stuck on the bottom. What you want is to find that perfect buoyancy where you neither float, nor synch. This is where you have that last piece of critical equipment, the Buoyancy Compensator. This is like an inflatable life vest you wear. So, the way it works is, you inflate your BC – Buoyancy Compensator, jump in, snorkel out to where you want to dive, because you want to save your air for the dive. Then you put your regulator in and start deflating you BC until you sink. Easy peasy. I remember on this day the weather wasn’t great and the surf was pretty high. Pounding on those rocks. Makes it a bit tricky to get into the water. You have to get in, put your head down, use the fins and power out through the surf. Which is what I started to do as Keith was on the rocks behind me. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I had forgotten to inflate my BC. So, instead of snorkeling out through the surf, I was snorkeling straight to the bottom with 35 pounds of lead. Lucky for me, and I suppose you, I’m a pretty strong swimmer. Because I panicked. Nothing like in haling that first big gulp of sea water to put some adrenaline into the system. The smart thing to do in these situations is to drop your weight belt. It’s got a quick release on it. And then put your regulator in your mouth so you don’t drown. I didn’t do that. I treaded water with 35 pound of lead in the washing machine surf until I could get some air in my BC. The surf tore my mask off me. I caught glimpses of Keith looking distraught trying to decide whether he should come in after me. And, not to spoil the story, I lived to tell the story. We retrieved my mask and went back in to see if we could catch some dinner. But, that’s how I felt at my job this week. Like I was treading water in the heavy surf with 35 pounds of lead. But, I’m older now. I don’t panic as much. I’ve traded stoicism for panic. Here’s a tip for you. You can download a translation of Marcus Aurelius’’ diary for free. It’s basically his morning journal. He was the last of the good emperors. He was a stoic. And yes his son was Commodus, who, yes, liked to pretend he was a gladiator. But, Russell Crowe did not kill him. His wrestling partner Narcissus killed him. And finally to take you out, I heard a great piece of advice from the Olympic runner Alexi Pappas. It’s the ‘rule of thirds’. It says that if you look at any part of your life, whether it’s your work, your workouts or your relationships – a third of the time they are going to be good, another third of the time they are going to be OK, and the final third of the time they are going to be crappy. The key is to realize this when you’re in the crappy spots. For those of you who like math that would be a normal distribution. So my friends that is my race report for you this week. What shall we call it? The Lost Pirate 30K? The Tired Turkey 30K? The Old Man 30K? Your choice. We’ll see you out there. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 10 Jan 2020 | Episode 4-423 – Great Stories with Anne Audain | 01:10:28 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-423 – Great Stories with Anne Audain - The first female professional runner (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4423.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-423 of the RunRunLive Podcast. For those of you who got a new device for podcast listening over the holidays and are exploring new content, welcome to our tribe. Or, maybe, you’re embarking on a new year wellness campaign and somehow found it to us. Welcome. To my old friends welcome to the new year. There are 12 years worth of episodes on our website, with the corresponding blog posts, runrunlive.com. The site is searchable. There is an index page that lists all the episodes in one place. Every year we have a gathering in northern Idaho at the summer solstice at camp Whatafookie if you’d like to join us. We get naked, paint ourselves blue, take peyote and dance a shamanistic jig to the Earth Goddess. But, that’s another story. Today I’ve got a great interview with Anne Audain. She’s a native New Zealander who lives it the US now. She connected to me on FaceBook and when I started reading her bio I was a bit ashamed to have never met her before. She competed in the 70’s and 80’s at a very high level as part of that great diaspora of New Zealand runners. She has a great story. A real hero’s journey. You are going to love the stories. It’s a great interview. If you know someone I should interview let me know. The rule is - something interesting. Something you’re curious about. Something you want to learn more about. Famous is not a requirement. I tend to shy away from famous because they are jaded with interviews and give you the pre-recorded schtick. I I’ve always liked the person-in-the-trenches interviews because they are relatable and applicable to our tribe. In section one I’m going to talk about training your dog to run with you – because I have a dog I am currently training and I had multiple people ask me about this. In section two we are going to do some tracking in the New England snow. Here we are with the first podcast of 2020. A new year. A new decade. You can thank the Romans for this fascination with increments of 10. It’s not hard to see how they came up with that system based on counting on your fingers. But, before the Greeks and Romans counted on their fingers there were other, earlier cultures that counted on their fingers and the knuckles of their fingers to come up with a 12 based system. That still lingers in our world as dozens and grosses. I’ve started training again. I don’t have anything specific on the calendar yet. But it feels good to start getting stronger again after taking a break for the holiday season. I put on about 10 pounds but I’m not worried about it. It synchs well with the periodicity of my training cycles. Now, in the beginning of the cycle we focus on strength and aerobic fitness. There’s no pace work or specific, goal based workouts – so I can carry a couple extra pounds. As long as I feel healthy and eat clean it’s all good and one less thing to stress about. I find that the weight will take care of itself as the training intensifies closer to the goal event and it’s counter productive to stress on that too early in a cycle. And what are my events and plans? We’ll just have to save that for the outro. But, it’s a new year. A time of rebirth. I usually don’t like to go to deep into my personal business, but this story fits well with the new year theme. I start a new job next week. I’m excited and apprehensive. Looking forward to it. It’s a bit of a change for me. It’s a bigger company as opposed to the startups I’ve been working with for the past couple decades. It’s also a step back from management and a step back from direct sales. I’m quite proud of myself for making this change relatively proactively. I sat down with myself and asked what do I really want to do right now? I heard myself, whatever that inner voice is, say, “Right, you’ve got an opportunity to change. Don’t let your ego or your environment drive the bus. Make a proactive change because you’re a different person than you were 15 years ago.” My point is, and I share this with you, because we are all changing all the time regardless of our position, circumstance or maturity. This is part of the journey. We tend to think in terms of goals this time of year. What are goals? Goals are nothing but destinations. In this world of change there are no real destinations. Those goals are only there as waypoints to guide your journey – to keep you from going in circles. Instead of goals why not think in terms of virtues this year? Those things that are the demonstration of you as your best self. I didn’t put much thought into mine, not because it’s not important, but because to me they came quickly as soon as I asked the question ‘what are the virtues you want to cultivate this year?’ I’m going to focus of three things this year: Gratitude Kindness And Empathy As I move into the year this will give me the beginner’s mind I need to enable me to work with change. So, I ask you, my friends, old and new; What are the virtues you need to cultivate in this new year. How will those enliven your training, your health, your career and your relationships with others? Think about that. New year, new changes, new you. On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Running with your dog - Voices of reason – the conversation Anne Audain The first female professional runner Anne Audain was born in New Zealand, adopted as an infant and suffered through her younger years with bone deformities in both her feet. After successful reconstructive bone surgery at age 13, she joined a local athletic club and a running star was born! Through her career Anne set records and pioneered professional running for women. She has since been inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame, the USA Running Hall of Fame, and honored with a Member of the British Empire Medal from Queen Elizabeth II of England for her contributions to her sport worldwide. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Qualified for Six Olympic Games –1972 to 1992 in every distance from 800m to marathon. Pioneered professionalism for female track and field competitors by accepting prize money at the first professional event in 1981 which resulted in a “temporary” lifetime ban from the sport. Set a World Record for 5000 meters, Auckland, New Zealand 1982. Honored by Queen Elizabeth II of England with a Member of the British Empire award in 1995. Inducted into the Running USA Hall of Fame, 2008. Inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame, 2009. Inducted into the RRCA Distance Running Hall of Fame, 2014. Founded the Idaho Women's Celebration 5K (1993) which now has evolved into HISTORY Born 1955 in Auckland, New Zealand, with severe bone deformities of both feet. Adopted at birth. Did not walk correctly until re-constructive surgery at age 13. Three years later qualified for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games in the 1500m. Graduated from Auckland Teachers College with honors (1975). Taught at the elementary level for 4 years before arriving in the USA to further her sporting career (March 1981). Won more USA road races (75) than any other male or female runner in the 1980’s. Won Gold (3000m) and Silver (10,000m) medals at the Commonwealth Games – Australia 1982, Scotland 1986. Founded the Anne Audain Charitable Trust (1991) to support “at risk” youth in Auckland, New Zealand. Became USA Citizen, 1995. Section two – Tracks in the Snow – Outro Well, my friends, you have told some great stories out on your run, and embraced some change, to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-423. I wrapped up the year with the Groton Marathon – my own personal made up series of races on the last Sunday in December each year. We got about 30 people to show up and run various distances. 5 people ran a marathon. I woke up a bit under the weather and ended up running the first 12, jumping in a support vehicle to chase down some lost marathoners and then running them in for a total of 22ish miles. We got good weather and, as far as I know, no one died. I’m starting my strength building for a spring race. Right now I’m out of qualification and don’t know if I’m running Boston. You might say, “Chris, that must be a bummer!” but, honestly after 22 Bostons I can take it or leave it. If I do get a number, I’ll run for charity. I’ll train hard enough to respect it. I’d like to say I won’t race it but you’ve all heard that enough times by now! (Editors Note: I just received a waiver bib for Boston so the streak continues to 23) I’d still like to qualify because it bothers me. Like an itch I can’t scratch. One of the challenges of being an older athlete is that you can’t go all in on as many races. You really have to pick your spots. I feel like I don’t recover fast enough to perform at a high level in that 2nd or 3rd race. I’ve got my eyes on the in Oregon that Eric qualified at last year. That seems like a great event for a fast race and it’s out in June so I can get plenty of ramp in my training. I did sign up to pace a 4:05 at the , but I’m wondering if that might not be biting off more than I can chew, even at that easy pace, to recover for an A race 30 days later. The last thing I was thinking about after talking Dave at the Groton Marathon was organizing a Rim to Rim to Rim run later in the year. There’s another weather window in the canyon after Labor Day. I had so much fun the last time I ran the canyon. I’d do it in two days. Down and out the other side, sleep over, then down and out back to the start. Each down and out is less than 20 miles, which should be doable. I think it took Teresa and I about 8 hours to do Bright Angel to Phantom Ranch and back. Anyhow, let me know if that sounds interesting and we’ll set something up. I’ve been working with Ollie on his training. Since I’m in the non-specific base building part of my training I can take him with me and practice recalls and on-leash behavior. He’s still a maniac but we’re working on it. It’s teaching me patience. I’m super grateful to have this little maniac as a companion on this journey. My daughter got me a subscription to . If you’re not familiar it’s and app where you can take classes from famous people. I watched a couple sessions of Malcom Gladwell, which was interesting, but more of a Ted Talk than a class. It’s all talking head video. Another one that I am really getting a lot from is called ‘negotiation skills’ with Chris Voss. He’s a master negotiator. I’ve read Herb Cohen. I have some basic negotiation skills training from Harvard and have been in a lot of negotiations. But this guy is not so much about the negotiation as he is about the human interaction. Very interesting examples of using mirroring and tonality and neurolinguistic programming to get people into a helpful state. It’s more of a “Pick up artist” type skill set than negotiation tactics. I’ll let you get on with your life. Thank you for sharing this endurance journey with me. If you need anything let me know. Reach out and say ‘hey’. We’ve all got a lot to be thankful for in this new decade, this new year. What ever happens you will handle it with grace and kindness. And Ollie and I will see you out there. (Outro bumper) Like I said last time I’m going to close out episodes with music for the foreseeable future. This week we are starting a series. There’s a back story that I need to tell you. You all know my running buddy Frank. He is the first guy I interviewed in episode 1 and also in episode 100 and also an episode where we talked about his hip resurfacing. I’ve been running with Frank for over 20 years. Frank is a member of a band called . They recently released a rock opera about a friend of the band named Brian Scheff. So I give you now, over the next 20 shows, “Brian Scheff, the rock opera”. And I am eternally grateful for all the miles and hours Frank has spent with me listening to my stories and creating stories of our own. I don’t know if there’s a way to buy this music, but if you’re interested I can find out. Cheers, all. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 08 Aug 2020 | Episode 4-436 – Farm to Fork Fondo | 01:00:34 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-436 – Farm to Fork Fondo (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4435.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Intro: Hellos and welcome to the badly delayed episode 4-436 of the RunRunLive podcast. Today’s show is about farming. It’s about growing things. It’s about the late summer harvest of ideas and endurance. We have a chat with retired professional cyclist Tyler Wren who has started a post-pro life around supporting local farms in Vermont called farm to fork fitness. I ran into him because I’ve been doing a long bike ride at least once a week and thinking about the impact that the current apocalypse has had on these local farms and families. With the restaurants closed it impact specialized growers adversely. The specialized stuff, the local stuff, is the good for you stuff. I’d hate to see even more of them disappear. To see even more beautiful tracks of rural land turned into vacation condos. In section one I’m going to muse on what my running has taught me in the month of July as I push through the heat and humidity. In section two I’m going to talk about the history of agriculture. Because, that’s our theme. I’m doing fine, just busy with work and training and my wife needing me to do pointless man-things like paint the house. It all stacks up and, you, my unfortunate friends are made to suffer the vacuum of my attentions. I’m healthy. Ollie is healthy. We’ve been getting in a lot of miles in the trails. I’m starting to move into some fairly good volume as I target running the Wapack and back with Eric and anyone else who wants to come next month. More about that in the outro. … My own garden is hit and miss this year. I planted a lot of squash but it seems to have gotten a late start and I’m only getting a few. Whereas in other years I’ve gotten piles of zucchini and summer squash, this year only a few have battled through. The root borers are into the stalks now and that usually kills anything left. My berry patch has been less than spectacular as well. I have a very mature and robust patch of red raspberries. These are hybrids and have multiple sets of large berries. But I’ve also got a bunch of the native black raspberry canes that are muscling their way into my garden like unwanted ruffians at a genteel social event. Both of these typically overwhelm me with berries. Not this year. We seem to have a boom in wildlife. Something ate most of my red raspberries. I think it’s the birds. I’m getting the Black ones now but they are getting poached as well. In other years I would pull several pints a week out of the patch. This year I have salvaged barely enough to flavor 2 bowls of oatmeal. My tomatoes are just coming on now. A few weeks late. I’m keeping an eye on them because I have a chipmunk problem as well. The chipmunks won’t necessarily eat your tomatoes and squash but they will bite into them. The rodents also burrow around a bit as well. Ripping up the plants in general. They got my curly parsley. I had it growing in a pot in my garden and something burrowed into the pot and ate the root. Left the parsley. Ate the root. Then the next day they came back and ate the parsley. Not sure whether that was the chipmunk or some other kind of rodent. It was a very precisely executed crime. I suspect on orders of the rodent syndicate. Understand that my garden is heavily fortified. This isn’t my first rodent rodeo. I’ve got a 4-foot fence with chicken wire buried into the ground. That keeps the Woodchucks and rabbits out. Speaking of rabbits and woodchucks, I’ve given up on trying to trap the woodchucks and rabbits in the yard this year. There are so many of them. There’s only one reasonable solution. I’m going to have to get a falcon. Yup. I’ll stand out there like an angry old god, whisper something to my hooded assassin and let my falcon swoop down and rain terror from above on all the various and sundry critters that impede my green thumb. I will be the raptor rodent apocalypse. I’ve got some cucumbers coming, but those are late as well. I have some pepper plants that seem to be doing well. I replanted some beans that never came up and should have some of those to eat at the end of the month. The only successful plant in my garden is the kale. Successful in the sense that I’ve got enough if I want to eat kale for lunch. The challenge with the kale is that it gets the cabbage worms on it and you can either spray them of try to pick them off. It’s a battle that is currently about a tie. Each day I go out and pick off and squish as many as I can find but each day the kale is full of holes like Swiss cheese. So that’s it. Hours of gardening to produce a handful of berries and some buggy kale. If I was farming for a living I would have starved to death years ago. Each day I go out, because I’m working from home int eh apocalypse, and gather what ever seems to be ripe enough for my lunch salad. I try to scrub the worms off the kale, but I know I’m eating a lot of bugs in my salads. It’s probably good for me. They recently re-examined human coprolites from the Paisley Caves in Oregon. These had been dated to more than 14,000 years old. The great glaciers were beating a hasty retreat. The trouble was that everyone though homo sapiens only arrived 13,000 years ago. They wrote these coprolites off as animal scat that was tainted by human handling. recently they discovered that this was indeed human poop from 14,000 years ago. They were able to section that poop and see what we were eating as hunters and gatherers. Turns out there wasn’t a lot of mastodon and buffalo. Sure, there was the occasional bit of mammoth, but it was mostly plants and seeds and rodents with a fair number of insect carapaces. It would seem I haven’t progressed too far from therewith my own garden. Think about that today as we talk about farming. I have the advantage of water and modern seeds and I probably pulling 180 calories of vegetable out of that garden on a given day. Think about the early farmers who had to grow enough calories to last a whole year, and that after giving 30% to some tyrant. It’s not an easy job. But there is something worthy about it. There is something basic about getting your hands into the hot, wet soil and creating, nurturing the green things. Weeding is contemplative. Picking the perfect heirloom tomato warm from the vine is an act of fulfillment. To be one of those self-important jerks who like to quote people, Kahil Gilbrainsaid “And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. ” On with the show. About Zero ZERO — The End of Prostate Cancer is the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer. ZERO advances research, improves the lives of men and families, and inspires action. Link to my ZERO page: (for Donations) … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – What I heard this week - Voices of reason – the conversation Tyler Wren - Farm to Fork Farm to Fork Mission To highlight and support the symbiotic relationship between everyday athletes, farmers, and beautiful landscapes MESSAGE FROM OUR FOUNDER Tyler Wren here, founder of Wrenegade Sports. When I retired from my 13 years of professional cycling I wanted to do something meaningful, something that would allow me to share some of the best parts of my fitness career with the world in way that could have a positive social impact, while still being just plain fun. I've run and ridden my bike thousands and thousands of miles over the world and I've learned to cherish the days when I find myself rolling along on beautiful, quiet country roads. Sadly, as many who love these charming places, I've realized that peaceful rural landscapes and lonely country roads are endangered species. As athletes, it is natural for us to support land owners who are able to preserve the open space that we enjoy so much on our bicycles and in our fitness adventures. These landowners use that land to grow food that can make us better athletes and healthier people. With the Farm to Fork Fitness Adventure series, I want people to experience beautiful iconic farmland through exercise, meet the hardworking farmers who are fighting the good fight, learn about the pressures that these farms face, and have a great time in the process. All of the funds raised by the Wrenegade Foundation’s Farm to Fork Healthy Communities Program is donated to local farms and community organizations. That means at the end of each Farm to Fork event, Wrenegade Foundation will be cutting checks to help local farmers with projects like building a new farm stand or creating a new website, and to help local organizations advance their causes like preserving the area’s beautiful pastoral open space. At Wrenegade Sports, we strive to whip up the perfect combinations of health, social good, community and fun into unique and awesome events. Find out more at the website VOLUNTEER COMPETITION In 2019, donated more than $40,000 to local organizations in our host communities via our Farm to Fork Volunteer Competitions. In 2020 we'll be giving away even more, and your votes help decide which groups get the biggest donations. At each Farm to Fork event, all the volunteers will be assigned to teams that each represent a different area farm or charitable organization. From the registration tent to the last aid station, you will be greeted and cheered on by volunteers who are competing to bring the most spirit to the day. Ask questions of the volunteer teams to get to know them, their missions, and what makes the event host community unique. At the end of your ride, you will vote for your favorite team and help determine the size of the cash donations we give. The Volunteer Competition is supported by tax-deductible participant donations to , sponsors, and 100% of all raffle ticket sales. Section two – Agriculture – Outro Ok my friends we have planted and weeded and harvested Episode 4-436 of the RunRunLive Podcast. I’m still working from home. I’ve pushed my mileage up a notch by adding a long run into Sundays. This weekend I’ll do 3 hours. But, this is at the end of a hard workout on Friday and a long bike ride on Saturday – so it’s significant, for me. I feel strong. I’ve been having some fatigue and I need to watch my dehydration at times but I feel strong. Ollie has been getting out with me on most runs. He’s still crazy but he’s good with people and other dogs in the woods so I can let him off leash. His longest run so far is 14 miles. He’s lost all the baby fat and he’s lean ad hard. A real athlete. My plan to run the Wapack and back on September 7th has been finalized. It’s 43 mile s of technical mountain running. Eric is coming up from Missouri. I plan to log the firs 26.2 as my 2020 Boston Marathon. That will be my 21st Boston. We’ve had the storms, the heat and the bombs. Now we get the trails. I went out with my buddy Paul a couple weekends back and we did 13 miles of the Wapack. It was a beautiful, bright July day. We were out for just under 4 hours but I felt fine. Eric, make sure to bring your camera and we’ll make one of those cool race movies! I’ve been reading a lot and working a lot. I read my way through a 5 book SciFi series called “The Lost Fleet”. Who knows when I’ll need to know how to maneuver a space fleet in battle at near relativistic speeds, but when I do, I’ll be ready. After Wapack, I don’t know what I’ll train for. Maybe I’ll treat the Groton Marathon as a real race and train for it? Who knows. I’m out of qualification and I’m going to be 58 this fall. That means I still have to qualify at the harder standard if I want to keep running Boston. Some little voice inside is whispering that it just isn’t that important anymore. I read Rickey Gate’s book about running across America last night. It was mostly photos. I still think I’d like to do that. It seems so real and so visceral. I’m talking to him about having a chat. I’ve been wearing my old two-bottle slant pack on my trail runs. I don’t need the bottles but I use the pack to carry my old iPhone so I can listen to podcasts without having to carry the phone. That’s my kit. A bottle in one hand, the dogs leash wrapped around the other, my JayBird Tarah Bluetooth headphones and the old two-bottle waist pack to carry the phone. It occurred to me that it gives me two empty bottle slots which I use to pickup litter. I keep an eye out on my road sections for cans and bottles that have been thrown out the windows of passing cars. I’ve made a game out of trying to pick up my 2-can quota on my runs. Most of them I can return for a nickel with my other recyclables. We play these games, don’t we. We tell these stories. Each run, each set of runs is its own narrative. The run is an empty envelope that we fill with our stories. In this isolated world of apocalypse we create stories to fill the void. To find meaning. To keep sane. I read a great article on not having enough time to do everything you want. I’ll link to it . The author, Kira Newman, explains how that feeling of never having enough time works. If the work you do gives you a sense of accomplishment you don’t see it as wasted time. Instead of being the 100 things you have to do before you can do what you want it is the list of things you accomplish. There’s a subtle difference and it makes a difference on how we perceive time spent. When we see our activities as in conflict with each other we feel more stress about time scarcity. I can either do this or do that. They compete for the same time resource. People who see those competing activities as additive and congruent don’t feel the time stress. It’s ‘this or that’ in their minds it’s ‘this and that’. Again, a subtle difference, but a big one in terms of perception. What it really comes down to is a sense of control. If you feel like you’re in control of your time you won’t feel time stress for the same amount of activity. That’s why planning helps sometimes. Until it doesn’t’ help. Right now I’m having one of those days where my plan had me finished my workout and the podcast and on my way to the Cape an hour ago. That didn’t happen and now I’m throwing things out of the boat to try to keep up. It turns out that money doesn’t’ help either. There is a direct correlation between how much money you have and how much time stress you have. It’s not the correlation you’d expect. Rich people see their time as more valuable and they have more time stress. What can you do? Why do you care? You can’t do everything. Choose a comfortable mix of things you want to do and things you need to do. Don’t stress about it. You can workout when you get to the Cape. You don’t really need to clean the chain on your bike. Do what you can. Let the rest go. It turns out that time stress has nothing to do with how much time you have because we all have the same amount of time. Time stress is caused by the way you value your time and its use. Make your decisions and find comfort in that control. You have the control over your choice and nobody is goin g to care in 14,000 years whether you cleaned the toilets today. And I’ll see you out there. (Outro bumper) To take you out is Track number 14 from Brian Sheff The Rock Opera by - Called "Bobby LeFavre” – which I thought I put into the last show but I thin I missed it – because, hey, yah know, I was behind schedule and in a rush! Enjoy MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 08 Aug 2015 | Episode 4-318 – Barefoot Traveler Jake Brown | 00:53:46 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-318 – Barefoot Traveler Jake Brown jake(Audio: link) Link epi4318.mp3 Support my Hood-to-Coast Relay for Cancer Research - https://finishcancer2015.everydayhero.com/us/chris-russell-hood-to-coast-for-cancer-research Intro Bumper: Hello my good friends. I’m grateful for you. Even though I don’t know you. Sometimes I wonder who you are. My voice, tired and somnambulant drips wearily into your semi-circular canal every fortnight, and yet we have never met. It’s like that old saying, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there does it hear Chris’ voice?” Am I making a noise? My avatar and I have been pushing out the RunRunLive podcast for over 7 years. Do you and I have the 7-year itch? My computers tell me that some thousands of you download these episodes. I don’t know if that means my slippery words are actually worming their way in, around and past your tympanum. It could be some wrinkle, some fold, some chaotic echo in the interwebs – a ghost protocol in the machine and maybe I’m just talking to me. You know what? I’m ok with that. I’m grateful for the opportunity, the breath and the energy to spew forth this endurance sports manifesto every couple weeks. Boo rah! Hooray for us, you and I the ghosts of the roads and the tracks and the forest trails. The echoes of the footfalls in the dim mornings. We live! You know I’ve never had advertisements on the show. But, of course we have expenses. I have 2 mistresses now and the price of ammo and yak food keeps going up so this week’s show is brought to you by “Box-of-sticks.com”. You know how it is. You can never find good quality sticks when you go to the store. And when you do find them they are overpriced and low quality. Well Bill and Bob Fluglewort recognized this problem and founded ‘box-of-sticks.com’ Each month they’ll send you a personalized box of sticks right to your front door. How do they do it? Well let me tell you…The FLuglewort twins bought an advanced stick factory in Brazil and source their sticks direct – cutting out the middle-man. And the best part? It’s only $9.99! Box of sticks.com – use the coupon code DUMBASS for a 10% discount if you order yours now. How much fun are we having? If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right! On today’s show we have an interesting chat with Jake Brown who is running around the US barefoot meeting people, having adventures and promoting the universal good. In section one I’m going to revisit Fartlek runs because, let’s face it after 7 years of podcasts I’m out of running topics to talk about! In section two I’ll share some thought on the role of travel in formulating your life. My training has been interesting over the last two weeks. When I last talked to you coach had thrown me into a high-mileage week and I did not respond well. I was over-tired and all my runs were awful. Classic over training symptoms. The hot and sticky weather didn’t help either. But we rectified that by backing off for the last two weeks and I’ve bounced back. This week has been good and my energy level is back up. The warning signs are very obvious. My runs were a struggle. My heart rate was elevated. My sleep patterns were off. My old injuries started flaring up. The Buddha said ‘when the universe wants your attention it throws a pebble, if you don’t listen it throws a rock, if you still don’t listen it throws a brick and if you still don’t listen it throws a wall’ Your body is very good at telling you when you’ve done too much. You just have to listen. I also was trying to work the Miracle Morning routine into my life at the same time. This meant getting up early to practice a morning routine of meditation, affirmations, reading and writing – but when combined with the heavy workout schedule it just led to sleep deprivation – which made me stupid. I couldn’t remember anything. I was cranky and short tempered. I had weird food craving and lack of will power. I ended up eating some Cheetos at work that messed up my digestion for two days. (Shouldn’t Cheetos have the same dire warnings as the pills they peddle on TV?) I’m back in balance now. One thing I realized is that the powerful part of the Miracle Morning routine is not the getting up early part. It is the daily practice part. No matter what time you get started just make sure you give yourself the gift of the first hour before you check your email or log into facebook. I asked a serious question in the Miracle Morning community on facebook. I said, my wife likes to stay up late watching TV in bed and I can’t sleep with the TV on. I need to get to sleep so I can get up. What do I do? Many people said TV’s should not be in the bedroom and I should throw it out the window. Others, hilariously said I should trade sex for TV. But an excellent suggestion was to get earplugs. The problem with earplugs is how do you hear the alarm? The solution is to get a Fitbit with a vibration alarm. Yes, I ordered a Fitbit because I can’t sleep with the TV on. I bought the Fitbit HR. I’ll get my daily HR too which is good for someone like me who has the dodgy heart. On with the show! fartlekSection one - Running Tips Fartlek revisited - > http://runrunlive.com/lets-talk-about-fartlek Voices of reason – the conversation Jake Brown - http://www.thebaresoleproject.com/the-story.html I believe we can affect great change in small ways, do a little more with a lot less, and that everything we do is significant and so should be done consciously. I also think it is important to realize that everything we're conditioned to think we "have to" do is actually a personal choice. My goal isn't for everyone to kick off their shoes and go live in the wilderness; rather, it is to help others appreciate what they have for what it is, and what it's really worth. The Basics: http://www.thebaresoleproject.com/transcon-2015.htmlunrunThe Bare Sole Project is my private initiative to promote a Global Community and Conscious Lifestyle. My expeditions and sub-projects are funded by my awesome sponsors and generous donors. I raise money for charities and donate up to 51% of my personal income to 501(c)(3) organizations which were introduced and recommended to me by the people they've helped. In my travels I encounter artists, writers, craftsmen, activists, and such; many of whom have a platform here to share ideas, sell products, display and sell art, share ideas, and be heard; some I am helping to kick-start and others are partners who give me a commission - we're all here to help each other.As a foundation for this work and to provide examples of the real connection between us and our neighbors thousands of miles away, and to show the benefits of living consciously, I have spent over two years living on the road, beginning in Fall '12, and (though this could change) estimate I have another two years to go. I travel the United States on foot and by hitchhiking; meeting, engaging, changing and being changed by thousands of people from all places and walks of life. I've spent most of the last two years in a tent, though since Fall '14, it seems the BSP network has increasingly fewer holes and I often am within reach of friends and fans (who are friends, waiting to be met). So basically, the "Bare Sole Project" is my way of saying: This is your story too and I'm proud to be a part of it. I hope you like it, but more importantly I hope you will learn something from each other; even if you're only entertained, just remember that what you see here, read in my posts or in the news, is all a product of the countless individuals who have met and influenced me over the years and miles. travel Section two – Life Lessons The Traveling attitude - > http://runrunlive.com/vagabonding Outro https://finishcancer2015.everydayhero.com/us/chris-russell-hood-to-coast-for-cancer-research Great job my friends. You are accomplished citizens of the RunRUnLive communal congregaqtion. You have made it to the outer reaches of Episode 4-318 of the RunRunLive podcast. How do you do it? I’m impressed, I really am. I supposed to go up to Vt to do the Bike and beer weekend with my Buddy Dan. Who we have interviewed here before – way back in the dawn of time. He was in my wedding party and my freshman dorm in undergrad. It’s amazing that our trajectories have synched over so many years. He’s the one who got me into Mountain bike ultras. But, alas, my darling wife has other plans for this weekend that involve new toilets at our Cape house. I’m ok with that. Installing toilets is like a sprint triathlon, it sounds hard but it’s actually quite simple. So it looks like my next race will be my Hood-to Coast Adventure at the end of the month. I can still take donations if you’d like to help me fight cancer. The links are on my website at RunRunLive and in the show notes. After that we’re running the Wapack Trail Race. Come up and join me. 18 miles of beautiful trails. 4 mountains twice. But they’re small mountains. It’s very friendly. To take you out I’ll share with you a short piece I penned one morning while deep in the trance of the Miracle Morning. “Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.” – Lao Tzu I have said it often and I will say it again. You cannot hope to influence others unless you know yourself. This is what holds us back through most of our lives. Our ability, not to ignore our inner demons, but to invite them in and make peace with them. Nagging wives, busy politicians and invasive bosses all lack the ability to lead people. They have not learned to lead themselves and instead manifest their weakness in their attacks on others. If you are centered you can surf above the tumults of this tacky world and see it from a position of strength. They world won’t teach you this. You have to seek self-knowledge on your own. The world doesn’t want you to live at peace with yourself because there is no profit in that. The best way to control people is to let them be filled with fear and unsettled. Then they will mindlessly take any answer and buy any product and give away any liberty for a chance at inner peace. You don’t have to. Inner peace is inside you. Your true power is waiting for you to walk naked through the doors of perception. Look inward. Make peace with yourself. Understand what your strengths and weaknesses are. Understand what makes your happy and what troubles you. Start to think. Start to absorb. Start to review and communicate what makes you powerful. Start to believe. Build that strength every day by stacking one rock on top of another until you have a castle of self-power. That is the power of daily practice. Practice in the discovery of self and then the affirmation of that self and THEN the projection of that self out into the world, out into the universe. This is not a project that has a completion point. This is a lifetime of effort and practice. This is the process of wearing away the messy dirt of the world and scrubbing clean the windows to your soul. Begin today. … And I’ll see you out there. https://www.facebook.com/wapacktrailrace?fref=ts http://wapack.freeservers.com/ … Closing comments Support my Hood-to-Coast Relay for Cancer Research - https://finishcancer2015.everydayhero.com/us/chris-russell-hood-to-coast-for-cancer-research Http://www.marathonbq.com http://runrunlive.com/my-books Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 13 Dec 2014 | Episode 4-301, Dave McGillivray and Heart Disease in Runners | 01:01:22 | |
RunRunLive 4.0Episode 4-301, Dave McGillivray and Heart Disease in Runners(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4301.mp3]Link epi4301.mp3Intro Bumper:Intro: Prelude:When I started the RunRunLive Podcast in July of 1857 it was a different world. I know it hasn’t been 150 years but it does seem like a long time ago. Now here we are at the sharp and dangerous blade edge of another season or edition or chapter – whatever you want to call it. I chose the meme of running plus living not to show the dichotomy or separation of the two but to highlight the synergy and union of them. When you combine endurance sports into your life one plus one equals 3. Running has opened up worlds for me. I like to say it has transformed me, but that isn’t quite the right way to put it. I wasn’t a 300 pound diabetic asthmatic on the edge of physical extinction. I was a normal, family guy stuck instead in the corporate grindwheel of modern existence. Maybe that’s a form of existential extinction. Running didn’t so much transform me as it enabled me to realize my own potential. It snapped the strictures that tied me down and allowed me to transcend. It broke my frame of reference and allowed my light to leak out into the world in a new way. And that, my friends is what I still want to do. I want you to come see the light. We live in a time of great epidemic. I don’t mean Ebola or Aids. I mean the epidemic of people not believing in themselves, not believing in positive change and not trying because they are constantly being told that they can’t make a difference. You can make a difference. You can make a difference in your own life and in the lives of others by what you do, what you say and how you approach life. I can make a difference too, for you, for me and for those tiny humans that I brought into this world. Frankly, I don’t care if you run or jog or walk or wriggle like a snake to Elvis love songs. What concerns me is that you do nothing. That you think small. That you feel like you have nothing to give. That it has all been done. That you’re not smart enough, not fast enough, not rich enough or not talented enough to make a difference in this world of ours. What scares me is that you are afraid to try. If all you can offer is a smile or a hug then please for God’s sake give it today, give it now, because that is a tremendous gift that is in short supply. 90% of my days go by without either!What can I give? What can RunRunLive give? What small stone can we toss into the shimmering pool of humanity? What ripples can we make? For this version of the Podcast we will continue in mostly the same vein as version 3. I’ll structure it to fit in to a less-than-one-hour envelope. I’ll retain the 20+ minute interview with someone who can show us the achievement of honest synergy. I’m going to move the running tips segment to the front half of the show and try to make it useful to you. Likewise I’ll retain the life skills segment that I think many people like and move that to the back half. I’ll keep up the intro and the outro comments. Not that you care so much about what is going in on my life, but just some context and frame and storytelling to glue it all together. I’m not going to drop in any more music, even though I can’t for the life of me understand why some of you apparently hate punk rock and ska…That’s it, no big changes, just a little shuffling. Then why would I pause and take this time to ponder a new format? This is topic that deserves more ink, but in short, because I believe in the power of introspection. At some point as we draw into the New Year you should pause for introspection on your life and goals and direction too. It can ignite an epiphany. I reserve the right to change my mind. I reserve the right to change your mind as well. Are you ready to get out there? Intro:Hello, my friends and welcome to the RunRunLive 4.0 podcast. My name, is Chris, actually Christopher, which, if you want to talk about morphemes, is Greek for Christ Carrier and I’ve missed you. Seems like ages since we have chatted. What have I been up to? There is so much that It’s hard to summarize. On the life front I quit my job, left my family and moved to a 50 acre ranch in Pioneer Kansas to raise yaks full time. It’s a peaceful plot of land amongst the industrial farms straddling Spring Creek. I got myself 50 head of good breeding yaks. The running is good too and I’ve constructed some interesting trails but there aren’t a whole lot of hills. The professional hit man business was fairly frantic throughout the fall so I spent a lot of time on the road. Unfortunately, while I was gone the yaks went feral and now I have to be careful because they’ve organized and plot attacks against me when I leave the house. It can be startling when you’re lost in the peaceful reverie of a long run and one of those crazed, shaggy-headed beasts comes crashing out of the alfalfa at you. ‘Yak Attack’ would be a good name for a band.But – that’s all personal fluff and stuff – you don’t care about that. On the running side I’ve just been working on maintaining my base and staying healthy since my 15 minutes of fame at the New York City Marathon. I tried an experiment a couple weeks ago to see if I could run or more than an hour every day for 7 days straight. Just to see if I could take the load. The runs felt pretty good but my old and angry nemesis the plantar fasciitis flared up by day five and I aborted that flight of fancy. Kudos to me to be able to set that quest aside and not hurt myself. I’ve been logging most of my runs in the woods with Buddy the old Wonder Dog. Including a nice nighttime headlamp run for 1:30 the day after the Thanksgiving snow storm. I’ve got a good base and I’m not injured. We’re going to talk a bit about running in the snow in the first bit of today’s episode. Poor Buddy was pretty beat up by that run. He’s definitely slowing down. He was standing at the top of the stairs looking at them the way I look at them the day after a hard marathon. He still gets pissed if I don’t take him. I won’t take him on the road anymore, only the trails, off lease so he can pace himself. If the hikers want to yell at me for having him off leash they can bite me. That dog is 80 years old and still gets after it like a pro. They should be so lucky when they’re his age. The other big adventure I’ve had this fall is around my own advancing decrepitude. I know, it’s all relative, you’re rolling your eyes, here’s this running geek who does back to back marathons in October complaining about fitness and performance. Truth is I haven’t been able to muster a qualifying race since, I think, Boston 2011. That’s a long time ago. I’m still; looking for race fitness since taking the 18 months or so off with the plantar fasciitis. This fall I’ve taken the time to schedule all my general maintenance and upkeep appointments. I got a physical, had my bloodwork done and got my eyes checked. Basically checking the tire pressure and the oil. Since I’m past the half-century mark my doctor scheduled me for a colonoscopy. Which is a funny story. Meanwhile, I’ve been bugged by my heart rate wigging out on me in long hard efforts so I asked him to set me up with a cardio appointment as well. Not because anything is overtly wrong, just to make sure. I don’t want to go out for a run and not come back. I owe to the yaks. If the answer is “you’re old” I’m ok with that, I just want to be safe. Which plays into our interview of Dave McGilivary today about his adventures with heart disease. I spent a week ‘prepping’ for the colonoscopy, which is fairly miserable and involves a diet that is antithetical to what I’m used to, then slamming a variety of laxatives in large doses. They want your colon to be squeaky clean when they go in there with their camera on a stick. In the hospital, lying naked on a gurney, waiting for the anesthesiologist, I’m a bit nervous. My resting heart rate, as you know is normally around 40 beats per minute. Since I’m nervous I start doing some breathing meditation and it drops to 34-35. Alarms are going off from the leads they have stuck on me. The anesthesiologist does an EKG to make sure I’m not dying. My heart, they tell me, stops beating for up to 2.5 seconds at a time. I’m like, ‘yeah, so?’ What do you want it to be? I can control it by thinking about it. The colon guy wants to go ahead but the cardiologist on call says ‘no’. 4 days of prep, 3 hours of lying around naked in the hospital with leads stuck on me, and they send me home. The irony here is that I was by far the healthiest person in that place. They’re wheeling in a parade of sick people, but I’m too fucking healthy to get a camera stuck quip my ass. The world is a crazy place. Since then I’ve been to the cardio and had the stress test and echo cardiogram that show there’s nothing wrong with my heart. I think I have a bit of an arrhythmia in one of my valve when I surge after 40 minutes of running. That’s what my data shows but they don’t want to see my data. Their 20 minute stress test was a nice hill workout but hardly long enough to stimulate the symptoms I’m seeing. We’ll see what the clowns in this circus think when I go back for my consult before Christmas. Until that point I’m just going to keep doing what I do. Every day above ground is sacred. Every footfall crunching the snow, clutching the ground and driving me forward is a sacred act that I savor. On with the show! (feels good to say that again my friends)Section one - Running tipsCold and snow running - http://runrunlive.com/snow-ho-hoVoices of reason – the interviewsDave McGillivrayDave McGillivray is a U.S.-based race director, philanthropist, author and athlete. In 1978, he ran across the U.S. to benefit the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.[1] Presently he is race director of the B.A.A. Boston Marathon and his team at DMSE, Inc. have organized numerous mass participatory fundraising endurance events since he founded it in 1981.Here are a few of his many career highlights:In 1978, McGillivray ran across the U.S. from Medford, Oregon to his hometown of Medford, Mass., covering a total distance of 3,452 miles and ending to a standing ovation in Fenway Park. His effort raised thousands of dollars for the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.Two years later, he ran 1,520 miles from Winter Haven, Fla., to Boston to raise money for the Jimmy Fund, even meeting with President Jimmy Carter at the White House during the run.In 1982, McGillivray ran the Boston Marathon in 3:14 while blindfolded and being escorted by two guides to raise more than $10,000 for the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Mass.McGillivray’s many endurance events for charity are legendary, including running 120 miles in 24 hours thru 31 Mass. cities; an 86-story, 1,575-step run up Empire State Building in 13 minutes and 27 seconds; and running, cycling and swimming 1,522 miles thru six New England states while raising $55,000 for the Jimmy Fund.In 2003, McGillivray created the DMSE Children’s Fitness Foundation to support non-profit organizations that use running to promote physical fitness in children and help solve the epidemic of childhood obesity.In 2004, McGillivray and a team of veteran marathon runners journeyed across the country following the same path he took in 1978, raising more than $300,000 for five charities benefiting children.Each year he runs his birthday age in miles, starting when he was 12, and has not missed one yet. He was born on Aug. 22, 1954 – you can do the math. The race director of the Boston Marathon as well as an accomplished runner, McGillivray has run the marathon each year since 1973. For 16 years he ran it with all the other runners and since he began working with the race in 1988 he has run the course afterwards. His 2006 book, “The Last Pick”, which he co-wrote with Linda Glass Fechter, chronicles his childhood and career as the last pick for team sports because of his small stature, motivating readers to never underestimate their own ability to set and achieve goals. Order here on Amazon. A skilled motivational speaker, McGillivray has displayed his signature ability to engage and inspire listeners to more than 1,600 audiences from corporate executives to high school students.McGillivray has received numerous awards – valedictorian at both his high school and college, 2005 Running USA Hall of Champions, 2007 Runner’s World Heroes of Running Award, the 2010 Fleet Feet Lifetime Commitment to Running Award, 2010 Ron Burton Community Service Award, the 2011 Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center's 2011 100 list, and inducted into the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame in 2011 and the prestigious "Jimmy Award" by the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for 30 years of contributing time and expertise to help raise millions for cancer research and treatment. McGillivray has logged more than 150,000 miles, most for charity, raising millions for worthy causes. He’s completed 126 marathons and competed in eight Hawaii Ironman Triathlons. His personal bests?Marathon: 2:29:58 and for the Ironman: 10:36:42Section two – Life SkillsWorking on the important stuff - http://runrunlive.com/the-efficiency-trapOutroAnd so it goes. It’s a momentum thing, isn’t it my friends? If you can start you can keep going and soon repetition becomes habit and habit becomes a body of work. I have to admit it was hard to get this jump started again – but now that we have it should get easier. Just finished the book “Running with the Buffaloes”. It documents a season of the Colorado University cross country team. It is the year that Adam Goucher won the NCAA meet beating out Abdi Abdirahman and Bernard Lagat. What I found interesting was the training they went through. These are 20 year old kids, mind you. They were running 100+ mile weeks, in singles all through the summer leading into the season and held that volume in the 80’s and 90’s right through the season. As they came into the racing season they layered on a bunch of high quality anaerobic work as well. Really shows you what you can get out of your machine if you do the work. On the flip side most of these guys were injured. Adam made the Olympic trials but ended up having to retire early. Abdi is still out there and ran the Olympic marathon with Meb in London 2012 – he DNF’ed. Adam’s wife Kara is still out there too. She came in 11th to Shalane’s 10th in London. It was a good book if you’re a running geek and readable in the sense that it has a real narrative vs just the technical bits. I raced the Mill Cities Relay last Sunday with my club and had a great race. I did a warm up of 2.5 miles at around an 8:05 pace then raced the 9.5 mile leg at a sub 7:30 – which I felt pretty good about. I don’t race that much anymore so it’s hard to gauge my fitness. Next weekend, Dec. 21st Brian and I are putting on the 2nd annual Groton Marathon. This is a self-supported 26.2 mile run around my home town of Groton Mass. No big thing just a bunch of us out having a long run and having fun. You folks are more than welcome to come and run all or part of it with us. Shoot me note if you’re interested. I was going to go down to Atlanta for the Jeff Galloway ½ this weekend but my life is just too busy to pull it off and I’ve been spending too many weekends on the road this fall. I’m a bit fried. I have, believe it or not a cruise coming up in January. We’ll see how I can navigate that and my training. I’m going to have to miss my favorite New Year’s Day race – the hangover classic up in Salisbury with its ocean plunge in the Atlantic. The ‘How to qualify for the Boston Marathon in 12 weeks’ is in editing. Thanks for all the inquiries. I’m shooting to get a promotional copy out by the end of the calendar year and you all can help me promote it and then a launch in February. It’s been fun writing all this down, but challenging as well, because I really don’t have room for more projects in my life! But, I have to follow my own advice and get something done. The Groton Marathon will be my 48th marathon. Currently I’d love to find another race in January or February to be my 49th marathon so I can run Boston this year as my 50th. It’s got a nice symmetry to it, right? As for Boston I got a charity number again and I’ll be running for the Hoyts even though Dick has retired from Boston. I’m not sure if someone else is going to be pushing Ricky this year or not. Those are my plans, as nebulous as they are, for now. Remember celebrate every day and live in the now because this could very well be as good as it gets. And I’ll see you out there. You can reach me, if you need to, at my website, which is due for an overhall, www.runrunlive.com and on all the social media platforms as cyktrussell. TaglineChris Russell lives and trains in suburban Massachusetts with his family and Border collie Buddy. Chris is the author of “The Mid-Packer’s Lament”, and “The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy”, short stories on running, racing, and the human comedy of the mid-pack. Chris writes the Runnerati Blog at www.runnerati.com. Chris’ Podcast, RunRunLive is available on iTunes and at www.runrunlive.com. Chris also writes for CoolRunning.com (Active.com) and is a member of the Squannacook River Runners and the Goon Squad Runners.Email me at cyktrussell at mail dot comTwitter @cyktrussellAll other social media “cyktrussell” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 25 Nov 2016 | Episode 4-353 – Ann and I talk about when you can’t run anymore | 00:59:58 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-353 – Ann and I talk about when you can’t run anymore (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4353.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-353 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Today we are going to have a chat with our old friend Ann Brennan about not being able to run anymore. I’m going to do a series on this – so if you’ve got some major body part replacement or something that has caused a radical shift in your endurance sports allegiance – shoot me a note and we’ll chat about it. In section one I’m going to talk about how to ease into heart rate training and how it makes a great 30-day project. In section two I’m going to talk about a 30-day project I’m in – running naked! I apologize for the rough edit job on the last show. I got a new laptop and it took me a while to break it in. It was really struggling with the audio editing. I de-installed the stupid McAffee software, changed the cache settings and added another 8 meg of RAM, so we’re good now. We finally figured out how to set up a separate podcast feed for members and I’m working on it. I have a nice piece on running in the November woods that I’m going to drop this week for members. If you would like to join and help support the podcast that would be great and you would have access to members only audio. Here’s a snippet… The sound of the leaves crunching underfoot with each rotation of sole. That sound that is more than a sound. It is a sound that you feel through your body with each footfall. Like biting into a crisp apple and that first sweet chew of skin and flesh. The November leaves have yet to be trodden down by the rains of fall and the snows of winter. They lay heavily on the trails and in the woods like great drifts of snow. Piling deep in the hollows, hiding in their multitudes, huddled together from the harrying winds. Did you see the kerfuffle around fake news on Facebook? Wasn’t I just talking about that? There yah go. I’m a trend setter. My running is going great. I had a kinda big build week last week. Probably up into the mid-40 miles. Mostly long Zone 2 trail runs. My base aerobic fitness is spot on. I feel great. What I try to do is to take Buddy the old wonder dog out for the first 20 minute loop, then drop him at the house and go back out. He’s struggling a bit. His hips hurt and his back legs don’t work all the time very well. I’ve had a stretch where I haven’t been traveling and I’ve been working out of my home office. It’s great, most of the time. You can really get into a nice rhythm. I get up early and do my morning routine. It makes nutrition and workouts easy to manage as well. In the mornings when I get up I have a routine. I get up, brush my teeth and head downstairs to the kitchen. I switch on my computer when I walk by on my way to the kitchen. I put my coffee and oatmeal on the cook. I settle in at my desk while that cooks and do 5 minutes of guided breathing meditation. Now Buddy has hacked my routine. As soon as I switch the lights on he wants out. If I let him out he sits in the front yard and barks. Not at anything just Bark! Bark! Bark! Like some sort of dog Morse code. This is very early in the morning and does not ingratiate him with the neighbors. It’s still dark out. No one is up in the neighborhood. And it’s very difficult to meditate with a dog barking like that. Even with my noise cancelling headphones. But if I don’t let him out he’ll sit and stare at me while I’m trying to meditate. Then he’ll whine a bit to get my attention and if that doesn’t work he’ll just bark right at me. He broke his lead this week. I went out for my run at lunch and he met me in the driveway with 3 feet of lead trailing behind him. He was quite happy with himself, having had an excellent run about the neighborhood. Apparently he got into something nasty because I woke up to him staring at a big pile of throw up on the living room carpet the next day. So, Buddy hates meditation. I suppose I could do my meditation before I come downstairs…Or I could have him stuffed and mounted. On with the show! The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – 6 Heart Rate Training Practice Tips - Voices of reason – the conversation Ann Brennan – When you can’t run anymore Ann Brennan is the author of an adaptation of her blog, a blog about the mental side of endurance sports. Her book is currently available on Amazon. Ann is a marathoner, Ironman and ultramarathoner learning to adapt to life as a non-runner. She has recently started her own helping small local businesses realize their full potential through social media marketing. I included this photo because I am adapting to life as a non runner. Section two Running Naked - Outro Well my friends you may have woken up unable to ever run again but you have made it to the end of episode 4-353 of the RunRunLive podcast. How about that? I held off writing this outro until today, the Friday after Thanksgiving, so I could let you know how my Thanksgiving 5K went. It went well. I’ll give you the 300 word race report. The race started at 8:00 AM so I made sure to set the expectation with Teresa that we were leaving the house at 7:00, so I could get a nice long warm up in before the start. I got up and rubbed some flexall into my leg muscles to wake them up and get some blood flowing. I had some coffee and a couple bites of oatmeal. We got out of the house on time. The weather called for freezing rain but it held off until after the race. It was below freezing, maybe 28 degrees or so. There was a skim of ice on the ponds as we drove over. I put on full tights and a long sleeve tech shirt with my club singlet over it. I had a pair of thin running gloves and the multi-colored knit hat my mom made for me. In such a short race I didn’t want to be cold. We checked in and I headed out to run the course as a warm up. I am so glad I took the time to warm up. I ran about 2.5 miles of the course in just over 21 minutes, I managed to get my heart rate to come down but my hands never warmed up and I never broke a sweat. I probably should have done some strides, but by the time I got back to the start I had missed my clubs group photo and the race was about to start. There are a lot of kids in this race and a lot of rookie runners. They tend to take off like bottle rockets at the beginning and you have to be careful not to get tripped or get sucked out too fast. That first mile felt so strange and unnatural. I was trying to find a form and pace that didn’t feel totally alien. I was with a bunch of folks I knew from my club but there was no way I talk to them. It was all I could do to get oxygen. I looked up my time from last year and it was an average pace of 7:04’s so I set my A goal to break 7’s and my B goal to not collapse 2 miles in. We clicked by the first mile mark at 6:36 which was a pleasant surprise. I had managed to find my form. I wasn’t focused on effort or pace, just on having good upright form, turning my legs over and working the tangents. This course is pretty flat but does a bunch of zig-zagging around the neighborhoods in the second mile. It helps to know the course or to have run it 20 minutes before the race! With the fast first mile I just relaxed and worked my form. I knew last year I had faded in the last mile so I wanted to make sure I held back enough. There were a couple little kids running near me, like 8 or 9 year-olds. It’s great to see the next generation out there but they haven’t learned pace awareness or special awareness yet. It was like when you’re trying to cook in the kitchen and the dog is underfoot. I was just behind some dude running with a pumpkin pie hat, more like a head dress, and he got a lot of attention from the volunteers. I passed the 2 mile mark and misread my watch. I thought it said 6:37 but it actually said 6:47, but either way I knew I was ahead of my goal pace going into the last mile. Right after the 2-mile mark the course turns up and over a rail road bridge and back through the center of town, then one more small hill and downhill into the finish. Those little hills were where I faded last year, but with my thorough warm up I was able to push through there without the leg fatigue. I just held my form and focused on turnover. I pushed through the finish strong. My watch had me running 6:44 averages pace but the race clocked me at 6:51’s. I ended up 61st out of 587 with a 21:16 finish and 5th out of 72 in my age group. So, yeah had a good morning. Got to talk to some friends and made room for some turkey. Next weekend I’m running in the Mill Cities Relay and I’m dragging Teresa along for that too. It’s an 8-leg invitational that all the local clubs run from Nashua New Hampshire down the Merrimack River to Lawrence Mass. My club usually fields a bunch of teams. After that you’re all invited to join me at the 4th annual Groton Marathon and half marathon on New Years Eve Day. We’re going to have actual timing this year. I have at least 3 other people going the distance with me and we usually get 20ish people show up to run some of it with us. … I have been doggedly reading through Thoreau’s Cape Cod in snatches as part of my morning routine. I find it quite enjoyable. I know the places that he is talking about. I have been to them. And even though he is tramping around the outer Cape in the 1850’s, the towns are the same, the flora nad the fauna are the same, and the sand and the sea are the same. I can picture it quite well as I read. I’m nearing the end of my trip through this small but dense book. And Mr. Thoreau is nearing the end of his trip as well. The portions I read this week travelled through Truro, past Highland Light and up Race Point to Provincetown. One morning he is watching the mackerel fleet sail out to the fishing grounds from Provincetown. He sees hundreds of boats under sail coming in the morning then arriving back in the evening. He compares fishing in the ponds of Concord to the fishing these men do. In Concord they fish as a form of relaxation or sport. He seems to infer that these men and boys of Provincetown get to play at fishing all day and it seems like quite a life. The next day there is a strong North Easterly gale. Thoreau and his companion march out of Providence into the wind across the desert, as he calls it, to the Atlantic shore. They see the breakers being driven onto the banks at high tide and see the few ships struggling in the sea. “As we stood looking on this scene we were gradually convinced that fishing here and in a pond were not, in all respects, the same, and he who waits for fair weather and a calm sea may never see the glancing skin of a mackerel, and get no nearer to a cod than the wooden emblem in the State-House.” This resonated with me on a fine morning in November with the first dust of snow on the ground. Are you waiting for calm seas? Are you waiting for fair weather? The fish aren’t going to wait for you. Get in your small boats and be brave. Go out into the stormy world and wrest your destiny from the gaping mouth of Fate. I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 13 Apr 2019 | Episode 4-407 – Enoch Builds a Life of Running | 00:55:49 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-407 – Enoch Builds a Life of Running (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4407.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-407 of the RunRunLive Podcast. The first paragraph comes to you from Chicago where I am sipping coffee at in an airBNB getting ready to go work a convention all week. It’s not perfect, having to stand around on my feet and act like an adult all week, but at least it gives me something to do to take my mind off where I’ll be in 7 days – and that would be driving to Hopkinton Massachusetts to join 30,000 other friends to run the 2019 Boston Marathon. Bear with me. There will be some time jumps in the narrative this episode as I work through the week in the snippets of time available to me. I’ll try to give the updates as they pass through my big, dense brain. It may cause us to time shift a bit as we progress but should eventually coalesce into some sort of thematic narrative. As for today, I feel good. I’m very happy with my fitness. The only thing left to do is execute a good, conservative race plan. Which sounds easy enough, but has always been a challenge for me, especially at Boston. I’m known as that guy who trains well and then has a bad race. When you see that pattern consistently in an athlete it’s usually mental. Today we chat with Enoch who is also running Boston and we have a good conversations around coaching, training and running that I think you’ll get some value out of. I don’t know what section one is going to be, but you can bet it will be some sort of rumination on the upcoming race or the just-ended training cycle. … I capped off my training since the last time we talked with a 23ish mile long run. My buddies joined me for the first 2 hours and we ran a fair bit of it at a tempo pace. When I dropped them I slowed it down. I didn’t want to practice going out too fast and crashing. I don’t need any more practice on that front! I finished up the distance fine. I was pretty tired for a few days as I recovered from it. I managed to tweak something in my left foot on that run but nothing that will keep me from racing. I finished off the first week of taper, cutting way back on the volume. My last tune up was 10 miles with the middle 7 at faster than race pace – no problem. I’m fit and I have good pop. I went into this week of travel under 170 pounds, which is 15-20 pounds lighter than I usually race at. I stopped thinking about dieting this week at the conference and have probably put 5 pounds back but I’ll eat clean this weekend to cap it all off, I’ll line up light enough and I’ve stopped focusing on it. … It looks like the weather is going to be good old Boston Marathon weather again this year. Some sort of rain and wind. I don’t really care. I’ve got enough fitness to overcome most anything and I’ll take cold and rainy over hot any day. We’ll see how it plays out but it can’t be a s bad as last year. Even if it is I’ll be ready both mentally and physically to adapt to it. I’ve run Boston 20 times. This will be my 21st. It still motivates me but it doesn’t hold the dread or make me crazy like it used to. We are two old soldiers grappling our friendly match over a shared past that resonates with gratefulness for the opportunity. I am blessed. On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Prelude – Boston 2019 - Voices of reason – the conversation Coach Enoch Thanks for having me on Chris, I really enjoyed it! My Journey to the Olympic Trials: goo.gl/x8V527 Istagram: Team_FTC See you in Boston, Over the past 15 years, Coach Enoch (pronounced e-knock) has worked with countless runners of all ages and abilities. He enjoys sharing his passion and knowledge of the sport with all of his runners. Enoch loves helping runners achieve their goals and dreams. Coach Enoch first found his love for running in the 9th grade at Keystone Heights High School. As a member of the cross country and track team, Enoch took it upon himself to learn all that he could about running. He would go on to coach himself to multiple top five state championship finishes, and under his guidance, help his cross country team finish with its highest place in school history at the state meet. Upon graduation, Enoch was awarded a cross country/track scholarship to the University of Florida. During Enoch's freshman year at UF, he coached local High School Senior, Jeremy Criscione. Under Enoch's coaching Jeremy won the Cross Country state championship and set a State Record for the 5K and a 2-mile State Track championship. At UF, Enoch was a multiple All-SEC Conference and South Region Honoree. He was the captain of his Cross Country team and won numerous invitationals around the southeast. Enoch still holds top 10 time records at UF in the 8k and Steeple Chase. During Enoch's time at UF, he worked closely with the coaches and gained much of his running knowledge from some of the top minds in the sport. After College, Enoch stepped away from running to pursue other passions but he knew he would return back to his first love one day. In 2012, Enoch moved to Dallas and began coaching himself again. From 2012 to 2014, Enoch coached himself and qualified for 2016 Olympic Trials in the Marathon event. He trained 85 - 100miles a week and competed in both national and local track meets and road races. Enoch also took it upon himself to coach numerous local athletes in the area and helped elevate the local Dallas running scene to a new level. In 2014, Enoch and his wife Angela took a travel sabbatical living abroad for 15 months. They traveled 5 continents before returning home to Florida to settle down and be closer to friends and family in November 2015. Upon moving home, Enoch began volunteering with the local non-profit, Youth Combine and competed on the Youth Combine's record breaking relay team at the Five Points of Life Marathon. In August 2016, Enoch began coaching with the Florida Track Club and fell in love with the team coaching aspect. Soon after, Enoch and the Florida Track Club formed a partnership, and thus, Team Florida Track Club was born! TeamFTC offers runners an exciting team atmosphere, organized group runs, customized training plans and one on one training sessions. Enoch continues to race often and can be seen fighting for the win with other local elite athletes. Enoch debuted in the Marathon in 2017 running 2:18:17 to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Trials. Look for Coach Enoch and his Team Florida Track Club at your next local race or join today and become part of the team! Enoch's Personal Records: Distance Time 1 Mile 4:08 2 Mile 8:45 5k 14:05 8k XC 23:46 10k (split in 1/2 Marathon) 30:02 15k (split in 1/2 Marathon) 45:01 10 Mile (split in 1/2 Marathon) 48:20 Half Marathon 1:03:54 Marathon 2:18:17 Section two – Now and the Body - Outro Well, my friends you probably have trained hard and are ready to race after listening to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-407, now you just have to execute. Here we are on Saturday morning. I’m pretty tired after a week of hard business travel. Got up early to get to the airport Friday morning, quarter of 5 Chicago time. My flight got into Boston around noon and I navigated the public transport, dragging my bags, over to the Hynes to get my bib. Walked the expo. It was packed but smaller than previous years. Lots of useless crap. I wish they’d let more races in. Who needs more crap? I’m particularly disappointed with the official gear. Seems like the Adidas folks are designing for a different audience – not me. I don’t need shorts with an abstract picture and the unicorn on the ass. Who wants to look at my ass? Get off my lawn! I bought a Boston Strong hat at the Marathon Sports booth. Took me forever to get home. By the time I got out of the expo it was rush hour do I couldn’t get on any of the inbound Green Line trains at the Pru. I had to drag my bags down to Park street, about a mile walk and then jump on the Red Line. Lots and lots of time on my feet and walking this week. I need get the heck off them! I am avoiding getting on the scale! Too late now anyhow! Checked the weather this morning. Understanding that it changes every day and there is no guarantee that the weather predicted today will have any resemblance to the weather on race day. Earlier in the week they were saying it was going to be like last year. The BAA sent out an email saying they would smoosh wave 4 into the back of wave 3 to get folks out of Hopkinton sooner. But as of this morning it looks, actually, like great racing weather. Yes, it will be raining and windy. But the key difference from last year is that it will be 20 degrees warmer and there will be a stiff tail wind for most of it. So, my friends it looks like we will be buffeted, but we will set the sails, rig the flying jib and point our small but rugged craft downwind. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 22 Jul 2016 | Episode 4-344 – Ellen Jaffe Jones – Eat Vegan on $4 a Day! | 01:00:22 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-344 – Ellen Jaffe Jones – Eat Vegan on $4 a Day! (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4344.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-344 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Today we talk with a fascinating and successful woman – Ellen Jaffe Jones – about how to eat healthy on the cheap! . I connected to Ellen because my daughter brought home Ellen’s book . I started looking at it and saw that Ellen had a cool back story and was now a practicing endurance sports addict as well as a vegan and an author. She has escaped from being a broadcast news personality on a fast track to an unhealthy and early demise by eating better and living a healthier life. Whether you are vegan or not you can pick up some tips on how to shoehorn some healthier food into your busy life. She’s also one of those people that we talk to a lot who take control of their story and change directions mid-life. That should give all of us hope that the only thing stopping any of us is the decision and action to make the change we want and start telling a different narrative about our lives. I am not vegan but I do like to eat clean-ish. I get a lot of fruits and vegetables and nuts in my diet. The thing is, I like fruits and vegetables and nuts. You have to make these decisions for yourself but there are simple ways to eat a bit healthier. One is to get your fruit and veg and nuts. Another is to ease into eating less of the bad stuff. It has been consistently shown that there are a small set of lifestyle inputs that have an outsized impact on your health, quality of life and longevity. Going all the way back to episode 97 in 2010 with Dr. Monte we talked about this: In no particular order: Number one: Eat a healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables nuts (fiber). Number two: Don’t smoke. Number three: Exercise consistently. If you’re listening to my voice here on the RunRunLive Podcast you probably have most of these covered. All three is great. If you can’t do all three, two is good and even just one of these is better than nothing. It’s not black and white. We’d all like to be perfect but just remember your goal is progress not perfection. This is just for your physical health. There’s probably a similar list that includes cultivating a positive attitude, working on your self-awareness and having an attitude of abundance. There’s no winning the game. We all end up in the same place. What you get is a few more good years. A better life and a better legacy, maybe. Anyhow – in summary – Eat Kale! Heh…I actually see that bumper sticker when I’m commuting. “Eat more Kale!” like it’s some sort of political protest. I do have some Kale in my garden. And some chard. My squash were making a wonderful display of prolificness this week but, much to my ire, Mr. Woodchuck has dug a burrow directly under my squash bed and is browsing his way through the plants. And so another battle is pitched. Man vs nature in a dance played out each summer season for the last 8,000 years. Chaos want to have its way with our taming of the world. And this is 100 feet from where Buddy hangs out in the front yard! Brazen woodchucks and bunnies and squirrels! I guess Buddy is more of an observer than an interventionist. A Laissez-faire border collie. He had a big week this week. He had surgery to remove a couple of the large lumps that were accumulating. He’s an old dog, but there was one under his back leg that seemed to be restricting his range of motion. He made it through the surgery fine and is now recovering. He went out for a quick run in the woods with me yesterday and seems no worse for wear. I’ve been trail running like a maniac. I signed up for a trail marathon in Indianapolis July 30th – yes next Saturday. This past Sunday I did a 20 mile trail tempo run that I was pretty proud of. My runs have been crappy in the heat and humidity so far this summer. So that one was a confidence builder. Come up and join me next weekend! It’s called the . There’s a half and a 10k too I think. One Interesting thing that is bugging me is that my pace has slowed to the point where the deer flies can catch me now. I never had a problem with the bugs because I could stay in front of them. But now I’ve reached an inflection point where they can catch me and it’s quite bothersome. On a couple of these trail runs in the heat I’d have what felt like hundreds of deer flies swarming me in the woods. 50 would hold me down while the other 50 bit me. I feel so violated. In section one today I’m going to talk about beginner trail running – now that I’ve made it sound so sexy. In section two we’re going to talk about understand the narratives that other people are listening to. … Have you watched the new Tony Robbins documentary on Netflix? It’s fascinating. He does these live intervention things with people where you can see him reading the people. He watches their physical cues and asks them questions, almost like a psychic would. It’s an amazing example of how good or at least practiced he is at reading people. It’s fascinating. I guess we’re lucky he’s not using those skills for anything overtly evil. He could make these people do anything in these seminars. It’s like the old religious camp meetings. There are a lot of the things we recognize as familiar behavioral tricks. Like getting people to change their state – i.e. breaking their frame. Getting people to lean in – to buy in – a little bit at a time until they are totally susceptible to suggestions and instructions. Asking good questions that get around the façade. Getting past the perceived problem to the deeper self-awareness. And then, using the power of a shared experience to reinforce behavior. So really it’s just another version of the group run! On with the show! The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access To Exclusive Members Only audio Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. For the cost of a 5/8 ounce bottle of On Half.com you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew. I am currently working on an additional podcast feed so you can subscribe and the members audio will be downloaded to your listening device with no extra effort. Like Magic! Because my existing members asked me to do that. I’m also going to go back through time and re-curate some of the 300+ interviews I’ve done that I particularly liked for members. Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Trail running for beginners - Voices of reason – the conversation Ellen Jaffe Jones Bio: Ellen Jaffe Jones won 2 Emmys and the National Press Club Award during 18 years in TV news as an investigative reporter in St. Louis and Miami. She is the only female in her adult family without breast cancer, and has placed in 101 5K or longer races since 2006 "just" on plants. She placed 7th in her age group in the National Senior Games in the 1500 meters, 10th in the 400. She is a certified personal trainer and running coach. She is the author of 3 vegan cookbooks, "Eat Vegan on $4 a Day," "Kitchen Divided," "Paleo Vegan," and a 4th on the way, "Vegan Fitness for Mortals." She co-hosts "Dr. Don's The Vegan Myth Busters Radio Show" on KAAA-AM. The Veg Coach & "The Broccoli Rep"--because who else is? ;) SOON! VEGAN FITNESS FOR MORTALS! Eat Vegan on $4 a Day Kitchen Divided: Vegan Dishes for Semi-Vegan Households Paleo Vegan: Plant-Based Primal Recipes Running, Eating, Thinking: A Vegan Anthology Co-Host "The Dr. Don Show" Motivational Speaker Fitness, Health & Life Coach PETA's "Sexiest Vegan Over 50" 1 of PETA's 5 Inspirational Women Who Stand Up For Animals Every Day -7th in '13 US W60-64 1500 Meters 2013 -101 5K+ Age Group Awards since '06 -1st FL '14 W60-64: 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500 Meters 2014 he Veg Coach& "The Broccoli Rep"--because who else is? ;) (Co-author) Co-Host "The Dr. Don Show" Motivational Speaker Fitness, Health & Life Coach PETA's "" 1 of PETA's -7th in US W60-64 1500 Meters 2013 - 100 5K+ Age Group Awards since '06 -1st FL W60-64: 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500 Meters 2014 -Rollin' Oats Chef Instructor-Tampa/St. Pete, FL -Certified Personal Trainer (AFAA) & Running Coach (RRCA) Section two Other peoples’ narratives - Outro Well my friends time to put down that fist full of raw kale and get on with your lives. You have grazed your way through to the end of Episode 4-344 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Next week I have a cool interview with a guy who hit the slot machines for a couple million bucks, it ruined his life then he became an ultra-runner…of course. The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access To Exclusive Members Only audio Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. For the cost of a 5/8 ounce bottle of On Half.com you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew. I am currently working on an additional podcast feed so you can subscribe and the members audio will be downloaded to your listening device with no extra effort. Like Magic! Because my existing members asked me to do that. I’m also going to go back through time and re-curate some of the 300+ interviews I’ve done that I particularly liked for members. Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com I finished my stint wearing the heart monitor for my doctor. I ended up running out of electrodes. If you’re working out every day and it’s summer time you take a lot of showers – and that chews up a lot of electrodes if you replace them every time. Going in to see them in August but I don’t think they saw anything. I think it was the heat and jet leg and just getting old! I also think the few rounds I went with pneumonia in May and then the antibiotics that nuked my biome knocked me down a couple pegs. Not much I can do about that. Just put the head down and muddle through. One of my mantras is to wake up every day and do the best I can with what I have – or as Schwarzkopf said – “You fight with the army you have.” … I do have a new project that I’m working on. And part of this project is to put it out there, share it broadly and ask for feedback. I’m writing a new book. Specifically I think I will write about how to create a powerful personal narrative to drive your life. I believe this ability to create a powerful narrative has enabled me to be successful, but more importantly to be at peace with myself and my choices. I would like to share this keystone ability with the world. I know there are millions of people like me who are in a place where they don’t know what to do next or don’t have a purpose or reason in life and are struggling. By walking them through the process of documenting their past narrative, identifying the negative narratives in their life, re-writing and internalizing a powerful, positive self-narrative I can change their lives. The difference this time, or differences are: It will be a self-help styled book with simple exercises and such to specifically walk you through the process. It will be designed to be saleable. It will be designed to support speaking engagements around those themes. It will be designed with publishers, publicists and media as the target audience. There you go. It’s out there. No turning back! If you want to help. I’d love to get feedback as I create this project and its content. If any of you have ideas or people I should talk to feel free. I’ve always been a go-it-alone, do-it-myself guy but this time I’m aiming to break that bad habit and learn something new. Because at the end of the day if you’re not scaring yourself you’re not growing. Keep growing with me and I’ll be out there seeing you do it. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 19 Aug 2018 | Episode 4-392 – Rhonda Marie Runs Tennessee | 00:56:49 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-392 – Rhonda Marie Runs Tennessee (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4392.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-392. This is Chris your host. Well, it’s been a couple weeks since we talked and a couple weeks since I finished the Burning River 100. I’m back to full strength as near as I can tell. I seem to have recovered very well and very quickly, probably because I hiked so much of the last half. Today we speak with Rhonda-Marie who a blind ultra-runner who did something amazing this summer. She ran the Last Vol State Run across Tennessee which is a 500KM or 314 mile race. But she did it unguided. You are going to love this interview. My audio editor Dimitri even commented on how this one was super interesting. In section one I’ll do some Q&Q on the Burning River race, a bit of a wrap up, if you will. In section two I’m going to talk about kindness. Because we all need more kindness in our lives. My recovery is going very well. I’ve started training again and have some races lined up that we’ll chat about later. The first week after the race I did mostly stretching and a couple bike rides. The second week I started running again. Two weeks from stumbling across the finish line in Ohio I went up with some friends and ran the Wapack trail course one-way with them. We had a blast and I felt great. Very strong. What you look for when doing recovery runs after an ultra is unique. When you go out it’s not that your legs feel tired. Just the opposite. When you first start the runs your legs feel great. Unique to post-ultra recovery runs is that somewhere in that run your legs can go like throwing a switch. It is all the more telling because you feel great up to that point, then your legs just disappear. That hasn’t happened since I started back in. So I think I’m good. If you listen to any interview or story of ultra runners, when they are asked what they learned, invariably the answer is that we are stronger than we think. Our bodies are designed for this stuff. All we have to do is train for it and ask our bodies. Then we have to decide to do it. Whether it’s getting up off the couch for your first run, or stepping off the cliff edge into the yawning dark unknow of 100 miles, or 300 miles, you can do it if you decide to. That’s it. That’s what separates the finishers from those that don’t start, the belief that you can do it. You can do it. Just decide to do it and it is as good as done. That’s the hard part. The decision. What hard thing are you going to decide to do today? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Fever Dreams - Voices of reason – the conversation Rhonda-Marie Parke, Blind Runner · Other-abled athlete Rhonda-Marie Parke has 8% vision. Traditionally Rhonda-Marie runs accompanied by guides; runners who call out obstacles along the way. With these guides she's run races from Marathon distances to 100 mile distances. She has also completed several end-to-end runs of various Ontario trails including The Bruce Trail (885 km), The Avon Trail (110 km) and The Thames Valley Trail (112 km). Rhonda-Marie has also ventured to the infamous Barkley Marathons. Rhonda-Marie continues to work in her community to encourage and create space for inclusive sport. Accessing the Inaccessible In July of 2018, Rhonda-Marie Parke will attempt to run The Last Annual Vol State race without the aid of guide runners. Why Will Rhonda-Marie Proceed Unguided? "My whole life, I have had to follow - even if the direction has been my choosing." - Rhonda-Marie Parke Disability is diverse, dynamic, and ever changing. There is no such thing as universally accessible, especially in a 314 mile road race where cars are moving pieces, where animals are out and roaming, where fatigue, injury are all very very real; but then again, so is crossing the road to get to the library. Rhonda-Marie continues to show other-abled athletes that they can get involved in the sports of their choice. Rhonda-Marie also continues to encourage running events to think about how to make their events accessible to athletes of ALL abilities. Inclusion in sport is not a given, it’s a process of adaptation and evolution of parameters. Ongoing conversation and community building is required. What Is The Last Obstacle? In addition Rhonda-Marie looks to bring light to a bigger issue facing those with disability - stigma. She continues to face intolerance when it comes to her participation in sport as some believe that there is no place for a blind athlete in such a dangerous event. Rhonda-Marie is confident in her athletic abilities and that through training and careful planning, there is no reason why she won't have the same chance at success as any other runner. Help us show that if they have the desire and the drive, other-abled athletes have every right to participate in sport. Please help us send Rhonda-Marie to The Last Annual Vol State. With your help, she will strive to overcome the Last Obstacle. Section two – Into the Unknown - http://runrunlive.com/burning-river-100-into-the-unknown Outro OK my friends, you have stumbled along a highway shoulder to the end of episode 4-391. Be careful out there. Rhonda Marie is amazing, right? I felt seriously out of my depth with her. I think I’m going to try to see if I can’t guide a runner for Boston next year. I am training again. I signed up for a few races. I’m going to run the Wapack Trail race on Labor Day weekend. It’s my club’s race. I’ll go up early, help set up, park cars and then run the race. I’m looking forward to it. I should have good juice in my legs from all the miles I did this summer. Then I agreed to run a Ragnar the weekend of September 21st with my coach up in New York. Treat myself to a little adventure! And finally, I signed up for the BayState Marathon again. It’s my go-to marathon for requalifying. I’ll take a shot at getting my number for 2020. My buddy Brian is running it too. We’ll see if I can get enough speed back by the end of October. After the successful outing on the Wapack Trail I told coach I was ready to get back to work. He gave me a couple workouts for this week, as if to test me. I did a 1:40 step up run Tuesday. I went into the run feeling dead and didn’t have much hope for being able to step up to zone 3 effort for 30 minutes then up to zone 4-5 for an additional 30. That’s a hard workout. I felt heavy but figured I’d just do what I could and see how long I could keep my legs turning. As I stepped up the effort my legs were surprisingly strong. I was able to hold a decent effort level for the last hour of the step up. Looking at the results, I wasn’t moving super fast but I’m happy with the effort 2 weeks out from the hundred. Then Friday night I went down to my local track and knocked out some speed work. I did a ladder of 2X600, 2X800 and 2X1000 and was able to hang in there. The mechanics felt quite foreign. I was leaning back too much and was swinging my arms around. My butt muscles were sore afterwards. It’s going to take awhile to get some speed back, but I think I’ll be fine. … … I had a one day trip to Orlando this week. It’s a bout a 3-hour flight. I got up early and flew down, we had meetings and lunch and flew back. That put me out of the airport in Boston around 7:30 and getting after 8:00. I was wiped so I figured I’d order a pizza to pick up as I whizzed by on my way out to the suburbs. So, I called up Siri and asked her to call the pizza place for me. I was in my truck on the highway and didn’t want to be too distracted by the phone. I got the guy on the phone and had the following conversation… Me: “I’d like to order a Mushroom Pepperoni Pizza.” Him: “Sure, name?” Me: “Last or First?” Him: “OK 15 minutes.” And he hung up. When I got to the pizza place I thought I’d ordered from I found out that Siri and I had different ideas on that. She gave me the number of another pizza place. It was late. I was almost home. I thought about just bailing out on the whole thing, but I knew, across town. 4 .4 miles away, a pizza place had made a pizza for me. So I bit the bullet and drove over there. Good karma. When I got to the other pizza place, I went in, apologized for being late and asked if there wasn’t a mushroom Pepperoni pizza here waiting for me. He said, “What’s the name?” I said, “I don’t know. You asked me for my name, I said ‘last or first’, you said ’15 minutes’ and hung up.” He didn’t have a Mushroom Pepperoni. But, he did have a Sausage Pepperoni, for ‘Lester’. We agreed that was probably it. He felt bad about making the wrong pizza and gave me a discount. I didn’t tell him I never meant to order a pizza from him to begin with and was just barely able to drag p the will power to not stiff him. And the karma balances out. Even when ordering a pizza. I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 15 Feb 2020 | Episode 4-425 – John and Tom Chat about Cancer | 00:52:23 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-425 – John and Tom Chat about Cancer (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4425.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-425 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Well, here we are again, it’s a beautiful, sunny, single-digit, February morning and I’m talking to you! Ollie the collie is being a pain in the butt. I was on a trip all week so he didn’t get his runs in and he’s very stressed out. He’s being the toddler-terror today. He’s already chewed on a couple socks and the channel changer and is harassing me with a toy as I try to write. That’s dog life. Today, I have a very special and personal conversation with John and Tom, who are both prostate cancer experienced and members of our running circle. Both of them are friends of mine and I’m honored that they were kind enough to share their stories. In section one I’ll talk about the non-linearity of the mileage curve. In section two I’ll give you a write up of a book I read on the plane this week that I really liked called “Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on it.” All links, including the one where you donate to my prostate cancer campaign for Boston (wink wink nudge nudge) are in the show notes, which, by the way, you should be able to access on your phone or other listening device, as part of the episode meta-data. About Zero ZERO — The End of Prostate Cancer is the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer. ZERO advances research, improves the lives of men and families, and inspires action. Link to my ZERO page: (for Donations) Busy couple of weeks. My training has been going well. I knocked out a nice 13.8 mile step up run last week and I’m starting to transition into more long tempo as we are getting closer to Patriots Day. It’s been relatively mild this winter but getting a wee bit colder. My long run last week started at 14 degrees. I forgot my thick gloves and was worried I might have to knock on someone’s door to warm up during that first hour. It used to be I’d just run harder to warm up but that’s not a great strategy for me anymore in a multi-hour run. My bottle froze and my headphones failed. But, hey, it was sunny and windless, so it wasn’t too bad and I was able to do some thinking and focus on my run. There is no good or bad run there is only the ‘is’. I swung by and picked up a couple of my running club buddies for the second loop who I hadn’t seen for a while and had a good catch up. Was able to close out the last 30 minutes at close to race pace. All in all a solid outing. Monday morning I was off to Vegas. I always forget that Vegas is in the Western time zone. It feels like it should be in Mountain time. That puts it 3 hours ahead of me, which helps for those morning workouts because you’re up anyhow. I knocked out a 30-minute time trial on the treadmill Monday morning. I showed up at the gym in the casino at 5:00AM when it opened, and it was already ¾ full. There was a line for the equipment when I stepped off an hour later. All those East Coasters. I got a kick out of it though. I just imagine them thinking “Who’s this old guy knocking out 7-minute miles at 5 AM?” I’ve turned the corner a bit on worrying about being slower and I’m quite grateful to be getting at it still at all and to be able to do anything a bit quicker makes me happy. I got out on the strip during the last day before I headed to the airport. Always fun to get out and take a look around. It was mid-60’ss and sunny. Good to see the sun. I always like running up and down the strip. You can do the whole thing in 6 miles. You have to run up and down the pedestrian bridges. It’s not optimized for running. It’s optimized to get you into a casino. The air is dry there in the desert but misty with the sadness of self-loathing and empty wallets in the mornings. But, that’s not my story. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – The Mileage Curve - http://runrunlive.com/mileage-curves Voices of reason – the conversation John Vaughn and Tom Penny - article from Tom on exercise and cancer treatment - Tom’s Blog Section two – Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on it – Outro Well, my friends, we have run past the pyramids in the desert to the end of Episode 4-425. I’m going to continue to be busy here as I ramp up my specificity for the Boston Marathon. You can go to to contribute to my cause, I’d appreciate it. I’m going to wrap this up so I can get out and take Ollie for a walk before he chews through the walls. I’m pained to say that he has totally not taken any training. In fact he’s reverted. When I say ‘Come’ he runs in the other direction. When I say “Leave it!” he laughs and plays keep away. Nothing is safe in the house. Last night he brought me a nickel. I told him to come back with at least a $20. If I try to watch TV or sit at all he bites me until I stand up. After the nickel he stole my wife’s hat and chewed the pom-pom off the top. He’s got demons. I didn’t want to go for a walk this morning because it was only 3 degrees out and I wanted to get some writing done. I was planning to write on the plane but I was too tired and ended up watching the last season of Silicon Valley instead. That’s a funny show. I don’t get HBO at the house and can only get certain shows on planes ironically. I’m also watching my way through pretty bad scifi series called FarScape on Prime. Kind of a low-budget Lost in Space meets cosplay. Now that it’s warmed up a bit I’ll take Ollie for a walk and get my errands in. One of the speakers this week was an author from Stanford named Amy Wilkinson who writes and speaks about the The Creator’s Code: The Six Essential Skills of Extraordinary Entrepreneurs. One of her points was “Small Gifts”. This resonated with my current practices of gratitude, kindness and empathy. Her point was to make a practice of giving people small gifts to build trust and reciprocity in relationships. Not physical gifts, although that’s ok too, but the unexpected gifts of small kindnesses and thankfulness. And I’ll leave you with that – who today can you make appoint of thanking for something they did to help you see the world differently? And I’ll thank you for letting me think and talk with you on this endurance journey. I’ll see you out there. (Outro bumper) To continue my music series I give you track #2 from Brian Scheff, the Rock Opera by The Nays. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 28 Feb 2021 | Episode 4-449 – Your Spring Nutrition Plan | 00:54:43 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-449 – Your Spring Nutrition Plan (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4449.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Intro: Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-449 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Are you hungry? Are you feeling a bit porky after this long winter of our discontent? Well that’s good! Because today Rachel my nutrition coach and I talk about how to tackle that spring nutrition plan. The do’s and Don’ts and some simple things that can lead to success. In section one I’ll walk you through a long tempo run. In section two I’ll talk about tall birds stabbing frogs. It’s been an interesting couple of weeks since we last spoke. I was supposed to be wrapping up two weeks of hard training this week with another 3 hour long run today. But, I seem to have tweaked something in my left knee running hill repeats last night. That’s the danger of doing high effort, high impact workouts on tired legs. Eventually something gives up. The benefit is, if you get through, you have a big improvement in your fitness and your capacity to race. If you get through, that is. I was hoping to get through this week and hit all my workouts, but the old body is talking to me. It’s telling me that I’m not stretching enough, that I’m doing too much too fast and I’m not giving myself enough time to recover. It’s been challenging because my job is taking up too much time. Time in the mornings. Time in the evenings. That I would normally have for training. I don’t complain (much). I focus on getting the workouts done. But this leads to two things that raise the risk of injury. First is the weather. I can’t control the weather. And I do believe there is no such thing as bad weather, just soft athletes. But, this means I’m throwing some extra work at my body having to deal with the snow and ice on the trails and the slippery roads. Second, because by the time I get out to do my workout it’s late and I’m emotionally drained. That’s important, because for these bigger, harder workouts you really need to be able to bring your mental ‘A’ game. The quality of the work suffers. I’ve been skating on thin ice, (pun intended), for a few weeks now and it caught up with me. I don’t think it’s serious. There’s nothing swelling or aching. Just a sharp pain when I put weight on the flexed knee – think lunge mechanics. So – instead of my long run today in the freezing rain, I’m talking to you! Had a great email from an old friend of the show yesterday. Those of you who have been with me for a while might remember who did all the running parody songs. He told me that someone with another running podcast had found the old songs we made and interviewed him. I remember running in Seattle with him when my wife and I were out there on vacation, maybe 2013? I told him I had just watched the Rockumentary on YouTube and had a new song idea for him. It’s to the tune of “All the Young Dudes” – but the parody would be about a runner who left some gels in their gear bag in the trunk of their car and the gels exploded all over their running stuff before a race. It’s called “All the old Gu’s”. It would go like this: All the old Gu's, Stuck in my shoes, Banana Gu's, Stuck in my shoes, It’s a guaranteed hit. The weather is turning here. We’ve got a bit of melt. This means the trails will go from snow, to ice, to mud, alternatively until the end of April. I’ll be honest. I’ve been getting the anxiety as much as everybody else during this house arrest. There are some days where I just don’t want to show up on Zoom or talk to anyone. These long days where basically all I do is roll out of bed, work all day, go for a late run, read for a few minutes, fall asleep and do it all over again feel like a treadmill. By the time I get back from my run it’s after 8:00 and I’m asleep by 10:00. On a positive note the days are getting luxuriously long now – the sun is up at 6:30 and sets after 5:30. If I didn’t have a standing call at 5:00 I might be able to run in the daylight! And I’m getting plenty of sleep. I’m probably averaging more than 8.5 hours. And I don’t have time to do anything harmful or stupid. So there’s that. It’s in situations like this that we endurance athletes have an advantage. We can look at this life like a marathon or an ultra. We can appreciate the sucky days, even if we are stringing many together in a row. We can stand back from it and realize that all we have to do is keep moving through the suck. All we have to do is keep going with consistency, even when the joy and enthusiasm leave us. Consistency and perseverance will overcome any obstacles eventually. So, don’t be downtrodden or disheartened in this winter of our discontent. Just keep showing up. And if you can show up with a smile in your face, that’s even better. On with the show. About Zero ZERO — The End of Prostate Cancer is the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer. ZERO advances research, improves the lives of men and families, and inspires action. Link to my ZERO page: (for Donations) … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. … Section one – The Long Tempo - Voices of reason – the conversation Rachel Shuck – Next Level Fitness Here is my contact info and an attached pic :) Email: rachelshuck @ nextlevelnutrition.fitness Website: Section two – Memories and Notebooks - Outro Ok my friends We’ve eaten a good breakfast and that allowed us to get through to the end of Episode 4-449 of the RunRunLive Podcast. I always like talking to Rachel. She’s actually working with my wife right now and it’s weird for me to be in the other side for a change. Next week I’m going to be talking to a runner who is also a writer of young adult fantasy fiction. Interesting stuff. He said he liked my new apocalypse podcast () but I think he might just be shining me on! By the way thank you for all the listens and the reviews on iTunes. I appreciate it. The writing and editing has been very satisfying. And on the horizon I’m coordinating a call with – who is one of the leaders of the BAA here in Boston. A real mover and shaker in the Boston running scene. If you have not listened to the I would recommend it. A couple of Tom’s interviews are outstanding. is amazing and Boston win in 2018 told through the lens of a couple of insiders is amazing. There aren’t that many episodes and it appears to have pod-faded but the ones that are out there are good and Tom does a great job. Very polished guy. I’m looking forward to Massachusetts getting it’s act together on the Vaccine so I can get back into an airplane. Boston has been pushed out to October. I’m not sure whether I’ll run or not. At this point I’m stuck in the end of an age group. I wrote a post on this, probably 10 year’s ago! Called “Crazy Eights”. The qualifying standards are linear but your ability loss in non-linear, so when you hit an age that ends with an 8, qualifying is really hard, especially with the new times. I’d have to run 3:35 marathon to qualify. Which doesn’t sound that hard in theory, but I think it’s beyond my grasp. The thing is, in a scant 12 months I get another 15 minutes which reels it back into the realm of possibility. You never know. It’s such a heavy lift right now I’m not sure I have the mental capacity to do it again. … We opened this podcast today with the concept of consistency. I think it’s only appropriate that we close it with a discussion of habits and to-do lists. I had an interested philosophical conversation with myself this week. I had it with myself because there’s no one else to talk to in the apocalypse. Accept maybe the dog. But his philosophy is much more rudimentary and deals mostly with balls and runs and occasional belly rubs. Frankly, that’s what I like about dogs. Theirs is a more honest philosophy then we will ever achieve. I was thinking about habits and tasks lists. What precipitated this was a few recent experiences and some environmental stresses. My current job has me scrambling to keep up with a seemingly endless flow of tasks. My current training plan is getting into the dark place where workouts are apocalyptically challenging. We are deep in the heart of darkness winter-wise in New England. That’s a snapshot of life at a point in time. A seasonal cycle. I know this. But it still causes pressure. A long day on the video calls with clients who have intractable problems that require my attention, my accountability, and my empathy. Followed by a long, hard workout in the dark and snow. Left with a scant hour of consciousness to maybe grab a quick dinner, read a chapter in a book and fall into a worried sleep, only to do it all again the next day. Like I said, I know this. We all have these times. These dark places. That is the seasonal nature of life. And we develop tools to deal with these dark places. Tools to survive so we can enjoy the sunny times. One of these tools is habits. Habits allow us to get more done more efficiently. If you can habitize yourself to get up, do the work, and be rigorous about the tasks in front of you, you can get through to the other side. But, this week in the philosophical discussion with myself I questioned the outcome assumptions. We build these habits so that we can get things done, but why? What does getting these things done have to do with anything important? Isn’t this just an attempt to automate rote and joyless activities so that we can get through them faster without giving as much? It starts to feel like you’re bailing the ocean with a toy bucket. The justification in optimizing the task list and building habits is to be able to free up time to do the things you want to do. In my philosophical discussions with myself I realized that this justification was just another form of a classic lie. The classic lie is that by making you more efficient we are going to free up time to do ‘more important things’. Whether by choice or rule, that’s not what happens. What happens is that as soon as we lift one plastic pail of tasks out of the ocean another pail-full of tasks flows in behind to fill the void. Until you are at capacity again. You aren’t doing ‘more important things’. You’re doing more of the same stuff faster with less attention and no joy. Now, one saving grace of the habit hamster wheel is that it promotes or creates consistency. And there are many important goals that require consistency. For instance, if you are training for an event – consistency trumps everything else. If you are saving money for a worthy thing, again, consistency trumps everything else. There is power in consistency. Habit promotes consistency. But there is also a mindless spinning of the endless wheel that you have to put a foot to or you will habit yourself into a joyless grave. So – as you and I get on with our weeks, let us not be a slave to habit. Let’s be brave enough not to finish a task list. Let’s look at these things and ask ‘why?’. And then say ‘no’. Find those things that give you joy, not pleasure, joy. Use your magnificent to-do lists to schedule a few of these things into you habit hamster wheel. Take an hour and a half in the middle of a perfectly good workday and go out for a run in the sun. No one will ever know. When they ask you why you didn’t do X or Y you say “I’ve had to prioritize recently and I just haven’t gotten to it.” Which is the truth. And then if you’re extra Machiavellian, you can ask a follow up question. “Is there any way I can get some help with some of this stuff? I hate to leave it half finished.” That’s it. Do your best. Make sure you remember to stick up for yourself. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 28 Jan 2018 | Episode 4-380 – Lori – Coma to Boston | 00:57:35 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-380 – Lori – Coma to Boston (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4380.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-380, This is Chris your host. It is well into January and I lied. I am going to run the Derry road race this weekend. I wasn’t going to because coach gets so made when I race instead of following my training plan, but Derry coincided with a long training run. I promised to actually run the training run on the Derry course and not race. Today we are talking with Lori who has a wonderful, compelling story that I am grateful to be able to share with you. The audio quality of the interview was a bit poor and I had to clean up a lot of noise, so apologies for the hum and fade in places. But the story is great and should transcend the constraints of the medium. In section one I’ll talk about overlapping different types of training plans. In section two I’ll share, with permission, a response I wrote to a listener seeking advice on presentation skills. My training is going fine. I’m starting to build up my volume for Boston. It’s less than 3 months away so I’m sure I’ll be getting into some longer quality work in the coming weeks. The 30 Day Diet Reboot went well. I dropped about 10 pounds and I feel much fitter. You don’t realize how much difference it makes until you get back to race weight. Eating clean just makes everything easier. I continue to put long hours in and commute to the city. It’s difficult to find the time, and more importantly the space to write and record. I hate pushing it to the weekends because I have other stuff to do. It makes me feel rushed and less creative. Like I said I get up early, take the train in and usually do my workout before all before 8:00 AM. As my volume starts to increase this means getting out to the Charles River path before 7:00AM – which is just when dawn is breaking. I’m doing better. I haven’t forgotten anything or put any clothes on backwards for weeks. Friday morning I did my hill workout on the treadmill in the gym. I’m still figuring out the treadmills. I can’t figure out how to program it to do what I want so I have to manually adjust the speed and incline between reps. It’s tricky because you have to hold down two buttons at the same time. When I was transitioning into my 3rd rep the button got stuck and went to 30% incline and wouldn’t stop. I had to jump off and reset the whole workout. That was a bit exciting. I also discovered that these treadmills decline, at least 3%, which I’ll have to play with. That might come in handy for Boston training. Remember, this is my 20th Boston. I asked people what I should do to recognize that and one of the suggestions I liked was to design a special shirt with 20 unicorns on it. Maybe a unicorn party! … I was listening to an author speak this week about moments. They were talking about how many of the iconic moments in our lives were created, scripted if you will, by someone. Birthday celebrations have a script of gifts and cake and candles. Graduations, weddings, funerals, all these events don’t just happen, they are, were, designed for the social impact that they have. The author talked about the Olympic medal ceremony, how someone had to make that up. It’s essentially a little story, a vignette designed for a purpose. These vignettes create a message, a sticky emotional story that stays with us. That’s the purpose of the moment. So, when you look at your daily lfe and the good people who share it with you what are those moments? How can you write your own scripts? How can you make the vignette of hugging your child have the import of an Olympic medal ceremony? On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Transitioning from one type of training to another - Voices of reason – the conversation Lori Riggles– Teacher and Survivor Here are a few links, my bio, and picture. The picture was the moment I saw my daughter during the Boston Marathon 2017. Teaching is a rewarding experience, which I have dedicated 25 years to. I teach so that I can expose the infinite possibilities to achieve success to each child that I come in contact with. I have dedicated my life to inspiring children to help others through charitable causes, service projects, and empathy. My relationship with running began when I was a child going through many of my own challenges. Running became an outlet that truly saved me and made me the person I am today. Born in Oklahoma, I discovered running while living in Wyoming as teen. I currently live in Alabama with my husband and three children. My interests include reading, writing, coaching Science Olympiad, playing the flute, and being active. It has always been my mission to help others, I am currently writing a book of my experiences to encourage others to overcome their own personal obstacles. My goal is to use the challenges that I have faced to help others. If what I have been through can help one person, then that is what is truly important. My future goal is to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I aspire to reach goals beyond what anyone thought would be possible. Lori Section two – On Story Telling – A letter - Outro Ok my friends you have worked your way from the coma of consciousness to the hard fought glory of triumph through to the end of episode 4-380 of the RunRunLive podcast. Congratulations, we did it again. Nothing radically new for me coming up. I’ll use Derry as a training run tomorrow. I’ll keep working hard everyday to meet my life goals and I’ll keep telling stories and smiling. It’s pretty simple. I used to think life was complex and hard. But it aint. You just keep picking them up and putting them down and smile while you’re doing it. Life will take care of itself. I think Lori’s message is a great one. We are not struggling and striving and overcoming just for ourselves. We are doing it for others. If we are doing it honestly, selflessly and with gratitude we are creating a clearing for others. We are creating a clearing in the forest of fear; of don’t and can’t – a clearing of can do and a clearing of potential and a clearing of possibility. This is the life of abundance. The more you give the more you receive. I’m going to keep it short. I’m a bit exhausted today. But I am grateful. Grateful for you. Grateful for the gifts I’ve been given. Grateful to have a curious and active mind. Grateful for the gift of physical capability and grateful for my choice to use it. Like I said to Lori. Studies show that this practice of gratefulness makes the same physical changes to your brain that meditation or prayer does. Who knows, maybe my gratitude creates a positive ripple in the pond of universal consciousness. It’s been a pleasure and a gift to talk to you today. What can you contribute? What can you be grateful for? Surely you have gifts that you can share with us? I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 10 Jan 2015 | Episode 4-303 – Bruce Van Horn - Running and Self-esteem | 00:52:57 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-303 – Bruce Van Horn - Running and Self-esteem(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4303.mp3]Link epi4303.mp3Intro Bumper:Hello my friends and welcome to 2015. Who woulda thunk it? We made it. I can remember sitting in elementary school and thinking how old I’d be when we got to the year 2000, and here we are 15 years later. You have once again found yourself with me, Chris, in your ear buds. Whether you’re out on your frozen roads or the tropical antipodean outback I’m thrilled and honored to be your running-related mental succubus. …Well it’s been a quiet week out here in Independence Kansas along the banks of Spring creek. As I look out onto the frost covered acreage I can see groups of feral yaks cavorting in the sleet. Except for those sick ones. They don’t look so good. They’re in rough shape with fur falling out in bunches and they walk with a strange stiff-legged lurch. I called the local animal control officer out and he should be here shortly. It’s that government neuro toxin research facility. I know it is. Well the beat up F150 of Dick the animal control officer just pulled into the field. I think he’s the manager of the local grange too. He’s out of the truck now, approaching the yaks…Oh my god! They’re attacking! They’ve got him down! Heavens to murgatroid! They’re eating his brains! They’re Zombie yaks! That’s it. I’ve had enough of the Midwest. I’m moving back to New England. By the way…”Zombie Yaks” would make an awesome name for a punk rock band…Intro: Yeah – how about that running stuff? Well I’ve dropped into training for Boston. I’ve had a small set back with going on vacation for a week and coming down with a vicious head cold. I’ve got an interesting challenge this year with my heart acting up. I can train in Zone 2 all day long but Zone 3 and 4 work is dicey. I’m going to have to figure out how to train with a missing gear while I get this sorted. The issue is that the tempo stuff is where my arrhythmia kicks in. Instead of going from zone 2 into zone 3 and 4 it flips out and goes from zone 2 to max. But that’s not really what’s happening. It reads as max HR but what’s really happening is the heart muscles are out of synch and the blood isn’t getting to where it needs to be to support the effort. It’s the equivalent of a missing gear or a flat spot where I lose power. It doesn’t do me any good to tough it out because I’m not getting the benefit training while my heart is working ineffectively. I talked to coach and we’re working on training on things I can control and are effective. Since I have no problem in Zone 2 we’re just going to continue to build a giant base. Push those weekday runs up into the 1:30 range and the long runs up too. The other issue I have is the HR tends to flip when I’m running up hill. The increased load going up a hill caused the Arrhythmia to kick in. Again, it doesn’t do me any good to train in that state so I have to figure out how to get my hill strength for Boston without doing hill work. What can I control? I can control my nutrition, I can control my flexibility and I can control my strength and I can control my sleep. That leads me to my initial plan for Boston, which is build a huge Zone 2 base, get my weight down to race weight, work my flexibility and work my strength. I’m pretty excited about this experiment. It’s a challenge. It’s like fighting with a hand tied behind my back and it will force me to grow. If the cardio doctors manage to fix something then I can add on the fine tuning of racing and tempo later in the cycle. That’s easy and comes quickly if you have the strength, the flexibility and the base. Today I have a chat with Bruce Van Horn who is a life coach and marathoner out of Virginia. At first I wasn’t super attracted to Bruce when I listened to his stuff because it was basic positive thinking and self-esteem stuff delivered in a bit of a Mr. Rodgers narrative, but I warmed to it and I thought it would be valuable to step back and look at some of the basic approaches to get started on the right path. I had to get around my own prejudices. A couple notes that resonated for me are; first ‘the great mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation’ to quote our friend Henry over in Concord. Bruce is helping the 95% of the people out there who just don’t know where to start and they think that they are the only ones who feel that way. I also wanted to highlight, secondly something that all of us take for granted, which is the positive correlation between running and self-esteem and self-worth. As an added bonus Buddy the old Wonder Dog chimes in in the background a few times. In the first section I present a brief piece on how to start running towards something as opposed to running away. In the second section I’m going to counter balance all the basic self-improvement messaging with some thought on more advanced ideas for those of you who may be looking for the next level. I woke up this morning hemorrhaging snot with a full day of work on my plate and thought I might not get this show out, actually was wondering about surviving the day, but here I am and it’s after 6:pm and I’m still going! I think I just might make my deadline! To hell with the head cold and the cold weather (it was minus 8 F yesterday here) and to hell with the zombie yak attacks! On with the Show!Section one - Running Tipshttp://runrunlive.com/stop-running-awayVoices of reason – the interviewsInterviewee -> Bruce Van Horn – Life CoachBruce Van Hornwww.lifeisamarathon.comAboutHi. My name is Bruce Van Horn. I appreciate you taking the time to visit my site to learn a little about me.I am, in order of priority, a Dad, a writer, a coach, an entrepreneur, a speaker, a runner, and a lot of other things as life demands!My personal motto is: “Life is a marathon, so let’s train for it!”Most of the inspiration for that motto comes from the 12th chapter of the book of Hebrews, in the Bible. I’m in the race of life for the long run, and training for the ups and downs that will come whether or not I’m ready for them–so I’m trying to be ready!I’ve had many painful experiences and setbacks in my life, but I’ve also received many unexpected and undeserved blessings.I’ve learned, along the way, that I cannot control many things about my life, but I can control how I respond to everything. I spent a good portion of my adult life simply reacting from day to day, situation to situation. I know how it feels when just getting through the day is a good day. I’ve also learned that living that way was a choice I was making, not something that was being forced upon me.I’ve learned a lot about myself in my journey to take back control of my life. I’ve learned that, despite circumstances, I can live passionately and intentionally.While I am good at many things, I operate in my “sweet-spot” when I’m helping people discover their purpose and passion for life. When I’m coaching people to put the “extra” in their ordinary life and turn it into the extraordinary life they want and are capable of living. Most of my writing is on this topic because it is my passion!If you would like to work with me or reach out to me for any reason, I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to use my Contact Form.I am also constantly feeding my brain by reading books and blogs, listening to audiobooksand a variety of podcasts. If you’d like to see what I’ve read recently, visit my Reading List Section two – Life Skillshttp://runrunlive.com/advanced-self-improvement-ideas-for-your-new-year OutroWell my friends we made it. Episide 4-303 out of the box and into the either. I’ve got plenty of ideas and lots of life lessons to share. Let’s keep going, shall we? Can I talk anyone into doing audio editing for the interviews? It’s really quite simple and I can train you. It just saves me an hour of production time and you get to hear the interviews first! Some are awesome and don’t need any editing, some need a bit more work, but I could use some more volunteers. What else have I got cooking? Well I need to find a marathon to run before Boston so Boston can be my 50th. I’ve kicked off my fundraising for Team Hoyt and will be dropping a video on you guys to tell you my plans. If you can spare $2,260 as a donation now’s the time! Or even something smaller! http://youtu.be/GfBxVEGkb8AI’ve got the MarathonBQ book through the first edit so now I have to figure out how to get that through the birthing canal, sigh…So many good ideas, so little time. You know how I got myself sick? I was going on this vacation over new years and I decided I’d vacation AND keep my other stuff going as well. This meant I’d stay up until obscene hours celebrating with my family and then get up at 5 to work out and write anyhow. The plan was to nap during the day, because, hey, I was on vacation. After 3 days of this I got sick and lost not only all the time I tried to create but also the benefit of a vacation. Why, because I’m an idiot who can’t relax. But I did get one super cool morning run in. New Year’s Day I rolled out at 5:00AM. I was staying in the JW Marriott in downtown Miami on Key Biscayne. I headed out across the causeway and the little drawbridges over to Miami Beach. It was super surreal. The Bay park near the hotel was a scene of carnage. It was post-apocalyptic with piles of bottles and occasional zombified revelers staggering by. As I ran down the causeway road towards Miami Beach I’d pass young women leaving houses in party dresses holding their stilettos in their hands, doing the walk of shame – so to speak- and they’d look at me as if I was some sort of alien apparition. As I got into South Beach I passed very drunk and very friendly young men who would try to high-five me and miss. I stopped at a park bench to do 5 minutes of breathing meditation and relax my heart. I kept going out through to the beach itself which was another zombie-apocalypse scene. Piles of empty champagne bottles, all kinds of people sleeping in piles on the beach, (and doing other things that weren’t sleeping), and still more people wandering around like zombies in the pre-dawn darkness. I watched the cruise ships come in to the port all strung with lights. The sun rose over my shoulder as I ran back to the hotel, still the first one up. It was around 10k in each direction. The kind of surreal vacation adventure that isn’t on any travel company’s itinerary!So, my Friends, keep doing what you are doing and you will be sure to see me out there. Closing comments Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 16 Jun 2018 | Episode 4-388 – Mike Schools us on Running | 00:57:39 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-388 – Mike Schools us on Form (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4388.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-388. This is Chris, your host for today. Yak farmer. Zombie hunter. And amateur consumer of history. 388 is an odd number. In the year 388 by the Gregorian Calendar and the Julian Calendar Theodosius I consolidated power in the Western Roman Empire by beating up Magnus Maximus. Magnus Maximus is a kick-ass name. Magnus Maximus was from Britania and usurped power in one of the messy transitions that went on as the Empire was starting to fall apart. It had a larger impact a century or so later because when he left Britain to go fight Theodosius, Magnus Maximus took all the available soldiers with him, which left Britain pretty much unprotected. You see, when the Romans assimilated a region, like Britain, they said, “Hey you don’t need forts or weapons because we’re here to protect you now.” Standard operating procedure to keep the rebellions down. When the Romans pulled out those pesky Scots and Irish started raiding and the Romanized Brits had nothing to protect themselves with. Someone came up with the bright Idea of hiring in some Anglo-Saxons from the continent as mercenaries – and we know how that ended up working out. That’s why when you refer to England you’re calling them Anglo-Saxons now. Anyhow – 388. Today we talk with Mike who runs (see what I did there) Mike’s Running School. We talk about mechanics and form and how to teach running. I’m also going to talk about my Ultra-training. I’m learning a lot! It’s interesting. And I’ll do a bunch of product reviews around all the new stuff I’ve gotten in the last couple months. … It’s the summer solstice and the days are long up here. Not too hot yet but long. I got my garden in. I’m been having a pitched battle of my own with the various critters and varmints. It will all be worth it if I can have that one perfect, warm tomato on a bed of fresh basil. It’s also baseball season. I’ve got a baseball problem that I need help with. My wife was cleaning this week and tried to throw out that old baseball bat I have. Now, I found this bat when I was cleaning out an old house that my dad bought 30-40 year’s ago. It was just kicking around all these years and somehow I still have it. So I looked it up on the internet. Turns out it is a Spaulding Boys Wagon Tongue bat from somewhere around the 1880’s. Yeah. I have a 140 year old bat. I don’t want it. But, I would like it to go to a good home. Anyone want or need a 140 year old baseball bat? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Ultra Training Update - Voices of reason – the conversation Mike Antoniades Mike is the founder and Performance & Rehabilitation Director of the Movement & Running School. Mike’s passion for Rehabilitation, Running and Speed began a long time ago when as teenager he had a serious knee injury. He specialised in movement re-patterning and rehabilitation after injury or surgery and focused on Speed & Running training for athletes of different sports. He set-up the first Rehabilitation & Speed centre in the UK 1999 and his Clients include among others : athletes and teams from, The English Premiership, English Championship, German Bundesliga Rugby Union, Rugby league, Handball, Lacrosse, European Olympic Associations as well as Elite Track & Field athletes including World & Olympic Gold Medallists. Mike has been a coach for over 35 years and began coaching in 1982. He has worked in the UK, Europe and the USA. He has coached at professional and academy level and is a consultant for a number of professional Soccer clubs as well as track and field and Marathon athletes in the UK and Europe. www.runningschool.co.uk Section two – Stuff Review 2018 – , , , and Outro OK my friends, nice work, you have run crisply with perfect form to the end of episode 4-388 of the RunRunLive Podcast. It’s been the end of an easy week for me. We’ll see what coach has in store for me next week. Buddy the ancient wonder dog is doing well. It’s been cooler and dry. What really bothers him is the humidity. When you are mostly covers in a black fur coat it’s hard to cool your core. I know this from experience. Coincidently, I was reading this week that back hair is one of the DNA snippets that we inherited from the Neanderthals. I’m short on time today so I’m going to move you quickly to the exit. … One quick story. Last year they replaced the ignition on my old motorcycle. When they did that they saved the old key. Now I have one key to start it and another to open the gas tank and get into the seat compartment. This week when I got home form the office I noticed that I had lost the gas tank key. Which is a problem. I had about 110 miles on that tank of gas. I typically hit the reserve tank around 140-150 miles. I called the Honda guys and asked for help. They forwarded me to Jim’s Key and Lock out in Leominster. By the way Minster is an Anglo-Saxon word that means church. Turns out these tank locks are super easy to pick. Like child’s play. The guy popped it right open, read the key code off the lock and made me a couple more keys before I ran out of gas. Wasted a day but learned something new. I guess the thing I learn as I get older is not to freak out. I mean when I first saw the key was missing I could have dropped into full-on panic mode and gotten all ‘the sky is falling’ and ‘Woe is me’ but that doesn’t get you any closer to a solution. Life’s full of these little irritating events. This one threatened at first blush to turn my old motorcycle into a paper weight, but it all worked out. Don’t worry. It will all work out. I’ll see you out there! MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 04 Apr 2015 | The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-309 – Anne – Laura and 50 states by age 25 | 01:00:13 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-309 – Anne – Laura and 50 states by age 25(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi439.mp3]Link epi4309.mp3Intro Bumper:https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussellMan, what a week! I’m tired. I raced the Eastern States 20 miler on Sunday. It was the 20th anniversary race and they were back to the original course which starts in Kittery Maine, crosses over into Portsmouth, runs the entire coastline of New Hampshire and ends in Massachusetts. You get 3 states in one race. I didn’t really know how to manage the race going in. I have been logging 40ish miles a week for a while and have done several 3 hour long runs but I’ve done almost no tempo or speed. The summary would be that I’m in really good aerobic shape but lacking the sharp edge of racing. And, for those of you not paying attention, the reason I can’t do the tempo and speed is that I have a heart condition, ‘exercise induced’ A-fib that I’ve developed over the last couple years where later in a workout, under load my heartbeat becomes irregular. I’m going in to get that fixed in May but I have to drag my old self through the Boston Marathon course first!And, for those of you really not paying attention, this is Chris, your host, and this is the RunRunLive Podcast where we consider the transformational power of endurance sport. From now on, try to pay attention. There were 5 of us from my club at the race but we weren’t running together because we were at different goal levels. I planned to just sort of hang back and let the race come to me and keep a watchful eye on the heart rate. But, any of you who have raced with me know how that usually goes. I’m an excitable boy, and, as usual I struggled to stay slow and knocked off the early miles 45 – 50 seconds a mile faster than my ‘safe’ goal. I was worried I’d fall apart at the end but I felt great. The A-fib did kick in for the last few miles but I never crashed and my legs were solid and I wasn’t sore at all on Monday.We got a great day for racing. It was sunny and mid-30’s. There was a bit of a head wind, but nothing that was unmanageable. This course is nice and flat. I’ve probably run this race a dozen times. All-in-all it was an excellent outing. I had a blast. I have to be careful with my exuberance. Even though it was a good 20 mile run, that only gets you to the base of Heartbreak Hill and for the last 10k my heart was whacking around in my chest like a deranged hamster. While I was sorting through the race photos this week I actually paid for one it was so good. I usually don’t bother with race photos. The camera isn’t that kind to me in general and I’m too cheap to pay the exorbitant prices, but this was a great picture that captured how much fun I was having and was only $10 for the digital. We have a great show for you today. In the first section I’m going to look at how road races have changed over the 25 years I’ve been running them and what that may or may not mean for us. In the interview we have the final guest interview that was recorded for me at the end of last summer (sorry Anne and Laura for the delay in getting it out!) Anne interviews Laura who set the record as the youngest person to run all 50 US states. She did it by the age of 25. She recounts how she started as an adamant ‘non-runner’ just trying to get to one mile and some of the wonderful, transformative life lessons she learned along the way. The final section is a super interesting (and maybe creepy) social experiment that I was running on strangers while traveling this week using the tools of the Pick Up Artists. Props to my coach, Jeff from PRSFit. I told him in January that I couldn’t so any speedwork but I still wanted to race Boston and we figured out how to work with what we had. All long, slow, build, aerobic training. I can feel the results in my runs over the last 3 weeks and I can see the strength in my body. Just goes to show you folks, where there is a will there’s a way. On with the Show! Section one - Running Tips7 ways road races have changed in a generationhttp://runrunlive.com/7-ways-road-races-have-changed-in-one-generationVoices of reason – the interviewsLaura@50by25Management consultant who became the youngest woman to run a marathon in all 50 states, while still enjoying her margaritas. Sometimes simultaneously.I began writing this blog in December 2007 under the title “Absolut(ly) Fit.” I chose the name to reflect a belief that I had then (and still have today): the best way to live a healthy and happy lifestyle is to maintain balance. Of course it’s good for your body to work out and eat healthy food most of the time, but it’s also good for your spirit to eat the foods you enjoy. Perhaps you want to set an ambitious goal like training for a marathon – but in the pursuit of that, you don’t need to give up everything else in order to succeed. Case in point – heading straight from my 2nd marathon to visit my favorite winery, Chateau Ste. MichelleI didn’t always have this philosophy of balance. Growing up, I preferred musical theater to sports, and never understood how someone could do both. In my mind, you were either artsy or sporty – but never both. I began to challenge this and other assumptions while doing a college internship in Sarasota, Florida. Finding it difficult to make friends in a strange place, I told myself that I could either be miserable and have a terrible summer, or I could make the best of it and spend the time trying to improve myself in some way. I decided that I was going to do two things I had previously thought impossible: learn to cook and learn to run. Lounging and drinking in the ocean? Don’t worry, I still made time for that!The cooking was easy; the running was a bit harder. I had defined my goal as being able to run one mile without stopping, and lacking any better running equipment, I drove my car in a loop around the neighborhood until the odometer read one mile – that was how far I needed to go. For two months I pounded the pavement, working my way up to running more and walking less of that distance. By the end of the summer I had not only been able to run my one mile “course ” without stopping, but I also completed a 5K race (though that was with plenty of walk breaks)! I was so proud of myself, and told everyone I knew. But after running one mile, I wondered – could I run two miles? How about three?I gradually increased my distance, completing a 5 mile race, then a 10K (6.2 miles), and eventually a 10 miler. In December 2007, shortly after starting “Absolut(ly) Fit”, I decided it would be my New Year’s resolution to complete a half marathon by the end of the year. I smashed that resolution before the end of the month when I ran theManhattan Half Marathon in Central Park. I was shocked that I had been able to complete it – I thought for sure I was pushing my limits further than I could go. But I did it, and now I wondered – could I somehow complete a full marathon?I started adding more miles on to my “training sessions” (which were actually just early Saturday morning attempts to burn off the calories of the alcohol and late-night pizza/tacos/etc I had consumed with my friends the night before). I didn’t follow a real training plan, but typically tried to add five to ten minutes onto whatever I had done the last time I went for a run, and that gradual increase helped me to progress injury-free. I didn’t worry about how fast I was going, and instead focused on enjoying the gorgeous views and surprisingly quiet calm of Manhattan on a weekend morning.But while it wasn’t too hard to do just another five to ten minutes than I had done the week before, the extra mileage was adding up – until one weekend morning, I ran 22 miles! Although I hadn’t been following a formal training plan, I had read enough to know that most marathon training plans stopped around 22 miles… so it seemed that I was ready to go the full distance. I signed up for the Vermont City Marathon a few weeks later, selecting it in large part because it was sponsored by Ben and Jerry’s and promised free ice cream at the finish. If anything was going to get me to run 26.2 miles, it was ice cream!My mom and my best friend came to cheer me on, holding signs that said “run to the ice cream, Laura!” That motivation certainly helped – whenever I saw their signs, you can bet that I ran a little faster! Of course I had some soul-searching, “why did I sign up for this” moments in the last few miles (what first-time marathoner doesn’t?), but within a few minutes after the finish line, the memories of the tough times were completely replaced by pride of accomplishment. I did it! Proud marathoner with ice cream in hand!In fact, I was so elated that instead of wanting to stop there, I decided to run another marathon. And another after that. To this day, no matter how many marathons I’ve run, there is nothing like that feeling of conquering the impossible I get when I cross a marathon finish line. It never gets old!I set a new ambitious goal for myself – to run a marathon in each U.S. state by my 25th birthday – and completed it on June 6, 2010, just two years and one week after I completed my first marathon. In doing so, I broke the world record as the youngest woman to run a marathon in all 50 states. I didn’t stop there, though – in November 2013, I ran my 100th marathon to become the youngest member of the 100 Marathon Club. As of this writing (December 2014), I’ve run 105 marathons in 50 US states, one US territory, and six countries. Seconds after achieving my 50by25 goal, I’m in disbelief.While I was working toward my “50 marathons by my 25th birthday” challenge, I picked up the 50by25 moniker – and now that I’m a bit older and perhaps not quite so focused on college drinking games and the NYC bar scene, I thought rebranding my blog to 50by25 would make more sense. Yes, I’ve already completed the 50by25 goal and want to move onto new challenges. However, I think the short-and-sweet 50by25 phrase is a great example of how to set a goal, break it up into manageable chunks, and achieve it. It’s quantifiable, it’s timebound, and for me, it provided something inspiring enough to work toward that I didn’t give up even when things got tough. 50by25 is a huge part of who I am today, and a reminder that I can do the “impossible.” Of course I hope to accomplish more in my life and not just rest on my laurels from here on out, but 50by25 was really the perfect quest and serves as a great template for future endeavors.Though I still run marathons (and write about them on the blog), you’ll find that my blog now focuses a lot on goal setting, productivity, and travel in addition to the usual health and fitness topics. I think mastering these activities is the best way to enjoy life and attain true happiness, and I’m eager to learn and share as much as I can about those topics! If you’re not sure where to start, check out my top posts page that I put together for new visitors.Thanks for coming by, and if you have any questions, always feel free to leave a comment on a post or contact me anytime :)Section Two – Life LessonsMake them smile - http://runrunlive.com/one-powerful-easy-small-habitOutroOi! Oi! Oi! Come on! Let’s have some energy! Pick it up buttercup! Mmmmm… Got a little bit of rumbly in my tumbly today. Had to make not one, but two pit stops in the woods on my run. Feeling a bit jet lagged. I’ve got a funky playlist going now and I’m tapping out this semi-screed for you. Or, I guess for us. I had a funny idea for a short story based in the not-so-distant future where the people who come in last in the race get all the prizes and praise. No one wants to win because the winners get tied to a post and stoned for being un-feeling bastards. I forgot to tell you folks that I’ve been steadily upgrading my hardware. I got the new iPhone 6 and I really like it. Not the super big one the ‘just a little bigger’ one. And I replaced my laptop with a Surface Pro 3 a couple months ago and I’ve grown to like it, especially for travel. And finally, I lost those Bluetooth headphones that Hilton sent me, ironically by leaving them in a Marriott. I like the no-strings attached option though and I’ve bought another pair. These are called an Mpow Cheetah Sport Bluetooth 4.1 Headphone. They are good but they go all the way into the ear canal which can be uncomfortable and dangerous because you really can’t hear anything else. So far my toxic body juices haven’t killed them but the battery life seems to be maybe 4 hours. And of course the microphone sucks if you wanted to use them to talk on the phone. When I was up at the start I had a great chat with Team Hoyt. Rick and Dick were there as well as Bryan Lyons who is pushing Rick in the longer races now. I was talking to Dick, who still pushes Rick in the shorter races. Dick was telling me how he was having back pain and now that he was retired he’s got a physio coach and has been doing core work every day and he feels great. Does it ever feel to you like everyone is having the same conversations at the same time? Dick was telling me about how great having a strong core is. He’s 75 years old! I wanted to thank all of you who helped me make my goal for fund raising for Team Hoyt for Boston. I hope to get Bryan on before the race, in the next show. He was nervous, telling me he’s not good with ‘media’ – makes me laugh – like I’m Geraldo or something. Did some math and figured out that I’ve got somewhere around 5-600 miles on these Hokas. They still feel fine but I can feel them getting a little ‘loose’. Time to start looking for a new pair of something. I’m not going to change horses before Boston. But, as a lesson, don’t do what I do, which is to run in a pair of shoes until your knees start hurting. You should always have a couple pair in rotation and switch back and forth so you don’t get ‘repetitive’ injuries. Well my lovelies I have to let you go. I’m so far behind in my work that I may never dig out and it’s Friday afternoon. My motivation and energy flows from me and spreads like a dark puddle across the hardwood floor. The warmth of a comforting bed, the friendly embrace of the couch and the warm dopamine drip of procrastination are sucking at my mind. Last week I played hooky one weekday afternoon and went into China town with my daughter. We had a blast knocking around the Chinese shops and eating at a Shabu Shabu place. We didn’t roll back home until around 8:00 PM. I had still had to get my run in. The weather had taken a turn from the better. It wasn’t snowing and the hulking drifts had retreated from the roads a bit. There was not a cloud in the sky. There was not a breath of wind. There was a 1/4 moon and a sky full of stars. It was about 28 degrees – warm enough to allow some freedom from the atrocious and common winter bulk of accoutrements of the past 3 months. A soundless night. I made my way over through the old neighborhood where I bought my first little house and settled with my new bride in 1985 at the age of 22. I remember struggling to run a 2 mile loop there as I started my fitful return to fitness in my late 20’s. I ran down the sidewalks of my life and looked in the windows of my memories and felt at peace and full of joy. I remembered the nights like this when all is effortless and joyful are the reason I train and race and strive. It’s the quiet and beautiful moments that sneak up on you while you are busy living that teach you how precious living is. I’ll see you out there. https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussellhttp://www.grotonroadrace.com/Closing commentshttp://runrunlive.com/my-books Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 10 Jun 2016 | Episode 4-341 – John “The Hammer” Young | 00:55:20 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-341 – John “The Hammer” Young (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4341.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-341 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Today we have a great chat with John “The Hammer” Young. John is a proud father, husband, teacher triathlete and marathoner. I hunted John down to get an interview when I passed him in the Boston Marathon this year. It was one of those flashes in time during the marathon. One of those ‘moments’ in the disjointed flow of images as you fade in and out of race consciousness. I remember looking at John, seeing his kit and thinking, “Jeez, that guy’s a stud. I bet he has a great story.” Then I saw him hamming for a picture with Bryan Lyons who pushes Rick Hoyt in the marathon now. I enquired. We connected and today you and I get to share the fruit of that conversation. As you listen to our conversation you’ll hear me circling around the subject at hand because, frankly we’ve got ourselves a bit of a Catch 22 situation. The reason I wanted to pick John’s brain is that he competes, is an athlete, with Dwarfism. And I don’t say ‘suffers from’ or ‘is afflicted by’ on purpose because John is way more than you or I or anyone could pigeon hole as a ‘little person’. In fact he’s just a great guy, a committed endurance athlete and we could all learn something from him. But, the fact that I wanted to talk to him about it is a bit at odds with John’s narrative of being an athlete. As with so many of us John doesn’t want to change the world or intrude a message into the conversation. Like all of us he just wants to pursue his sport; to swim bike and run. To test himself and set an example for his family and community. In section one I’m going to talk you through a speed workout that coach has me given me a couple times. I’ll talk through the execution and the purpose and hopefully give you another tool for your box. In section two I’ll give you a working example of some of the tricks and tools of writing a compelling speech or talk. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access To Exclusive Members Only audio Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. Currently on the members feed is my Eastern States 20 miler race report and the 3rd installment of a 3 part series on the podcasts that I listen to. For the cost of a used DVD on Ebay of the Movie “Francesco” a 2:35 dramatic recreation of the story of the life of Saint Francis Assisi Made in 1998 staring a young Mickey Rourke before he got all weird and creepy and Hellen Bonam Carter, as, I guess the Saint’s teenage love interest? – Well – you can either have that or you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew. Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … I had a bit of a scare coming off that crazy May that I had with the travel and being under the weather. I had a couple easy long runs when I got back where my heart rate flipped on me in the 2nd half and I thought the AFIB might be back. But, everything seems to be cool now. I did call my heart doctor and they freaked out a bit. I just casually mentioned that I had a follow up appointment coming and, oh, by the way, it’s probably nothing, but I got a couple anomalous heart rate readings… And they freaked out. They wanted me to wear one of those 24 hour a day heart rate monitors. Luckily they seem to have lost their enthusiasm in their bureaucracy and I haven’t heard from them in a week. I’ll probably get a bill for the phone call. If you stop getting podcasts you may want to drive up to Massachusetts and start looking for me in the trails behind my house. I’ve been doing a lot of long trail runs. I’ve related to you before how in a span of 2-3 weeks where I live the forest explodes into verdancy. My woods ae all fairly mature trees and when they leaf out there is a dense canopy over and around the trail. It’s like running through green, living, soft and womb-like tunnels – or . The forest becomes a living entity and a nurturing character in my life play. I’ve got a new system where I take Buddy, the old Wonder Dog, out for the first 2 mile loop. Then I drop him at the house and head back out for the meat of my run. That’s enough for him to get a little freedom and pride of accomplishment without tweaking his hips. I even got my first mountain bike ride of the season in. I forgot how much fun it is to hit the trails on my 29er, Mr. Moto. And when I say ‘hit the trails’ I do usually end up face down in the mud bleeding at some point. But, I’m always surprised by how quickly the technique comes back…it’s like…well…wait for it…riding a bike. Makes me wonder if I shouldn’t do another mountain bike ultra this fall. I had a great run this past Sunday out in the trails. I did maybe 10 miles or so for a bit over 1:35 at a casual Z2 pace. It was overcast and sprinkling when I dropped Buddy and headed back out. It advanced to a steady rain and then to a downpour. But in the woods the rain is filtered through the canopy so it coagulates into these big, warm dollups of water that drain from the trees onto you. It’s glorious. When I got back I was totally soaked. Like wet t-shirt contest, just went swimming, soaked. I went upstairs to the master bath to strip off my wet stuff. I noticed that the gutter outside the window over the hot tub was clogged and not draining at all. I opened the window to see if I could reach up and get the leaves out of it. It’s still pouring buckets of rain that is cascading out of the clogged gutter down me and the house. I finally was able to tease it out with an appropriately MacGyver-ed coat hanger. Here’s the picture you won’t be able to get out of your mind. Stark naked, soaking wet man, hanging out a second story window in a driving rain storm fiddling at the gutter with a bent coat hanger. You’re welcome. On with the show. Section one – Change of pace speed workout - Voices of reason – the conversation John Young – The Hammer Twitter & Instagram @dwarfparatri Facebook John Young - The Hammer Run for TODAY: How running changed the life of a man with dwarfism As the More/Shape Women’s Half Marathon in New York, hosted by TODAY’s Natalie Morales and Erica Hill, approache... John Young Is Blazing A Trail For Triathletes With Dwarfism Since 2008, John Young has crossed the finish line of more than 30 triathlons, including four half-iron-distance... – Video of John’s 2013 / 2014 Boston experiences. Photo from start of marathon by WBUR and the other one is by Matthew Muise "Triathlon has become life in microcosm, a metaphor that gives truth to the wisdom passed from each generation to the next: work hard and you will be rewarded, have faith in yourself and you will excel; do not falter when an ill wind blows your way." Ashley Halsey Section two Telling a better story workshop - Outro Well my friends Your stride may be not be as long as mine and it may have taken you more steps but you have managed to make to the end of Episode 4-341 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Next episode will be our 9 year anniversary. Who would have imagined that? That first piece, for the first episode I remember recording in my old truck after running the Mount Washington Road Race and then running back down, which ironically is the just about the same as the Grand Canyon, just in reverses. Quite a ride. I signed up for a Spartan Beast in September. Hopefully we can get Joe on to talk about his new book at some point. The Beast is around a ½ marathon distance with 30+ obstacles in it. They have told me it takes people in decent shape 2 and a half hours. I can run 12 miles in an hour and a half so I don’t know what these Spartan people are doing with their extra hour J - must be a lot of standing around involved, right? Hey, I’ve been training hard and I can do almost 3 pullups now! They make you buy insurance when you sign up. This might not end well. But, that’s not until September so I have to find something else to train for. I’m thinking a nice technical trail 50K. I’ve never run the 50K distance officially so it’s an automatic PR for me! And, it will be good base training if I want to try to race a marathon in the fall. Let me know if you have an interesting trail 50K I can run in late July or August. I’m still trying to catch up from my May Madness. I feel good. I like the way the strength training makes you feel strong. I guess it’s probably a guy thing to like the feel of your new found muscles in your clothes as you walk around. I have not traveled the last couple weeks which has allowed me to catch up on sleep and get my diet and biorhythms back to normal. Whatever normal is. Running in my trails. Working in my garden. Mowing the lawn. The pollen has been really bad this year. When you come out in the morning the cars are covered in yellow dust. It’s given me a runny nose and headache but it’s ok. … We talked a bit about telling a good story today and being aware of your inner narrative. I had to learn this lesson again over the last couple weeks myself. I was in a situation where another person was asking me for details about some project I was working on. My inner narrative went nuts and I got really defensive. Why are they questioning me? Why do they care about what I’m doing? This is my responsibility. I’ll handle it. Why question me? Do you think I can’t do my job? Are you trying to make me look bad? I was really wrapped around the axle. I talked myself into being quite angry. I made up several scenarios in my head where I would wait for the next time this person asked for detail on something I was doing and I would call them out on it in front of our peers and put them in their place with a show of force. Luckily for me I had a chance to bounce the issue off a friend and quickly realized that I was letting someone else influence my inner narrative. What I do or don’t do is under my control. What other people do or don’t do isn’t. The solution is to keep doing what you think is right. Keep going on the path that is your path. At some point it might come to me saying something like ‘no, I’m not going to do that because it’s not a priority for me’ or ‘I’m doing this because I believe it’s the best path’ or whatever to keep someone from co-opting my agenda. But I’m not going to let someone else’s narrative intrude on my own or cause me to go on the defensive or change my approach. If I’m doing what I believe is the right thing, then I’ve got nothing to worry about. I can sleep at night. It’s your ship. You’re the captain. You can’t control the world. You can’t control other people. But you can control your own inner narrative and the way you react to the world and other people. Choose to tell a better story. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 17 Oct 2015 | The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-323 | 00:56:48 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-323 – Adam – Running with a Heart Transplant(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4323.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello there my friends, this is Chris your host and this is the RunRunLive Podcast Episode 4-323. Got a calculator? What’s 323 X 60? That’s 19,380 minutes, 323 hours, 8.075 straight work weeks, 40+ straight 8 hour work days. That’s a big pile of narrative. Isn’t that funny? How you can just start doing something, a session at a time and pretty soon it adds up? And that’s without any compounding of the interest.Try this experiment. Every time you go for a run put a penny in a bowl. Or maybe pick up a rock and put it on a pile at the trail head. See what it looks like at the end of the year. That’s the power of practice. That little bit adds up. That little handful of sand becomes a mountain to your perseverance.It’s the same concept with time and money. Anything can be done through daily or frequent little bits of practice. I’m working through a book right now. I don’t find the book particularly entertaining but I feel I need to know the content. I’m trying to give it 20 minutes a day. I did the same thing when I wrote the MarathonBQ book last year. I laid out the chapters in a table of contents format and worked on a chapter every day for a month – and just like that it was done. It took another 5 months of futzing around and editing, but I got it done. Some people call this ‘chunking’. Take something that seems overwhelming and chunking it down into bite size bits that you can chew off every day. My training has been going very well. I’m working in some consistent speedwork and tempo and building up my distance. It’s not perfect and I’m still feeling out the paces but it’s progress and I feel strong. We love the cool, dry fall weather, Buddy and I. Even though we’ve lost the sun it’s ok. I’m no stranger to running with a head lamp in the woods. It’s a bit hard to stay on the trail when all the leaves fall and obscure the ground. But that’s why I have Buddy. He knows the way and can see in the dark better than I can. He’s doing very well. The cooler weather helps. I’ve also started him on a regimen of joint supplements which seem to be surprisingly effective. He used to barely be able to get up the day after a 6 miler in the trails but now he shows no sign of stiffness at all. The product is called GlycoFlex by a company called VetriScience.I met the guy that runs their supply chain at a conference. We got to talking and it turns out he’s a veteran marathoner from Vermont. I sent him a copy of my book and he sent me a bag of supplements for Buddy. See how this networking thing works out?Today have an awesome interview with Adam the @transplant runner. I met Adam on twitter. I saw his twitter handle and asked a simple question “Are you really running with a heart transplant?” When he said ‘yes’ I had to get him on the show. Super cool - Super inspirational. I love this guy and his attitude. Reminds us that we really shouldn’t be whining and that you can really do anything if you have the right attitude. In the first section I’m going to rant about speedwork again. Just because I’ve been doing more of it and remembering all the benefits first hand. In the second section I’ll give you some random advice on Blogging. …Little things every day. They count. I’ve been in the office the last couple weeks. I don’t have to go to the office but I like the structure and the privacy of an office. When I use the common rest room outside my office I notice the paper towels. Specifically I notice the paper towels on the ground next to the trash receptacle.I think the scenario is that some guy before me washed his hands, (always a good habit) after using the rest room, then took a length of paper towel, dried his hands and tossed it towards the trash. However in this case the used wad of toweling was off the mark and ended up on the floor. In my head I wonder why they didn’t pick it up? Is their norm such that the effort to get it into the trash is the same as actually getting it in the trash? Is this their way of ‘sticking it to the man’? “I may have a crappy life but at least I have the power to throw paper on the ground!”Seems odd. But I don’t know what other people are thinking. I’m in no position to judge. I’m not saying this because it somehow makes me mad, but it does make me curious. Curious as to the thought process. Are they too rushed? Is it somehow a health hazard to pick it up and try again? Would they leave it there if there was someone else in the rest room to witness? I don’t know. Going back to our opening thought, if everyone left one towel on the ground we would all be up to our knickers in damp paper towels before long. And it seems to be contagious. As soon as there is one on the floor that seems to lower the threshold and then there are many. The paper on the floor becomes a negative social proof. This is the classic broken window syndrome.You can probably guess what I do. I pick up all the paper towels on the floor and put them in the trash. It’s no extra effort for me and I feel like I’m giving some sort of gift to civil society in the process. Do you know what else I do? When I see the janitors I say hello and I thank them for doing what they do. Because the way I see it when I pick up those towels and lay down those thank yous I’m putting bricks into a castle. A castle of karma. I don’t want anything back. It’s my gift to those aim-challenged office workers and underappreciated sanitation engineers.It’s karma.How’s your aim?On with the show!Section one - Running TipsSpeedwork saves the world -Voices of reason – the conversationAdam – The Transplant RunnerA Brief History Of MeHello Readers! Follow me on Twitter @xplantrunnerMost people reading this will have probably followed me here from Twitter, where I have somehow amassed a brilliant troupe of followers! So this first blog is basically going to introduce me in a more in depth way, give an insight into my history, and a look at what running means to me! So let's go!!My heart transplant is obviously a big part of my life, so i'll start here, and how I came to need a heart transplant!When I was born, it was pretty obvious I was going to be trouble, I wasn't screaming and I was a strange shade of blue, I was diagnosed with , in simple terms, oxygenated and non-oxygenated blood were mixing in the heart, and then being pumped around my body.At 9 months old I underwent my first surgery, a Waterman Shunt. They took arteries from my right arm and used them to 'fix' the defects in my heart. This was a stop-gap surgery, carried out purely to give me a chance to grow a bit and become strong enough for further, more complex surgery.At 2 years old I went under the knife for a 'full fix' to complete repairs to the heart and give me a normal lease of life. The surgery was initially successful, but 6/7 days later my natural pacemaker stopped working, deemed to be from the surgery. So I went under the knife again that week and had an fitted.Surprisingly I was pretty well for 5 years! growing and developing normally as a child should. Just before my 8th birthday, on a routine hospital check up, the pacemaker needed replaced. It is effectively a battery, and it was out of juice! So the next day they fitted me a new pacemaker and I was good to go!All Going WrongShortly after my 9th birthday, it became apparent that things weren't quite right. I had no energy, very little appetite and basically wasn't myself. After a particularly lacklustre summer holiday my parents took me to our GP, who had me admitted to the local hospital. After 3 days in hospital, they decided nothing was wrong, perhaps I had a virus.Not trusting the diagnosis, my parents took me to The Freeman Hospital in Newcastle (where all my surgeries took place) I was immediately poked, prodded and x-rayed, and then the bad news came.My heart was 3 times larger than it should have been, and was operating at about 3% (pro athletes run at about 40% - its an odd measurement!) what they didn't know, was why.They assumed that the pacemaker had malfunctioned, and determined it was its proximity to my heart. That the signals had somehow become 'confused' and gone awry! I underwent another pacemaker replacement, and it was placed in the now common place of beneath the skin in the front of the left shoulder.Sadly the replacement didn't solve any problems, my heart was done, I was dying.TransplantThe choice to undergo a heart transplant was mine. The Dr's told me the facts, I had less than 12 months without it, and possibly an extra 5-8 years if I had one. The choice was simple, and in my head, it was just another surgery! So I was assessed and placed at the top of the transplant list, I was the worst case on the list, so I would get first dibs on any heart that became available.1 week later the phone rang - they had a viable heart. Cue mad panic and lots of tears! An ambulance arrived and off we shot on the 90 mile journey to the hospital. On the way there however, the call came in that the heart had died on route, and they wouldn't be able to restart it.Another 6 weeks passed and then the phone rang again, they had another viable heart. We made it to the hospital and started the pre op routine. By midnight I was being wheeled into the theatre, very drowsy, but still awake.8 hours later I woke up in intensive care, the op was a success and the heart had restarted first time. I was the 21st child recipient in the UKA massive amount of thanks goes to the donor family, the donor was only 12 years old and I wouldn't even know how to imagine how harrowing that would be, to then allow the organs to be used for transplantation defies understanding, all I know is that I am eternally grateful to them. (In all, 8 people received organs from this donor - truly amazing)And Now?Fast forward almost 21 years to now, and its 2012! The 5-8 years I might have got from the transplant have turned into something more than anyone at the time would have thought possible! Obviously I am not the longest post op transplant recipient, there are people who are almost 30 years post transplant but it still feels pretty good to be this far out!Pretty much since my transplant i've tried to live a life that would hopefully make my donor and his family proud that I was the recipient. Nowadays, I use my running to help with that!I started running properly in April 2011, 7.5 miles (bearing in mind I ran maybe 2 miles once a month before hand!) over 3 local mountains. It took me about 4 hours, I was covered in cuts and bruises from slips and falls on the trails, I was caked in mud, ridiculously dehydrated and fairly peckish! I had no idea what I was doing! That same night I experienced DOMS for the first time in my entire life! Every time I sat down, I struggled to stand up again! And staircases were a massive no-no!So that's a fair old chunk of what makes my internal engine tick! In future blogs i will delve into my running more, and how living with a transplant affects me and what i've done since that night in 1992...Section two – Getting going with a blogging habit!Outro - Closing commentsMarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Well, my friends, thank you for your continued attendance. I appreciate it. Thank you. We have been transplanted to the end of episode 4-323 (see what I did there?)My training has been going well. I laid low for the month of September with all the travel but I started working in some speedwork. I let coach have a break – and just to squelch any rumors – I’m not fighting with coach or anything dramatic like that – I’m just experimenting with some more intensity to see how my body responds. If we add up the plantar fasciitis vacation and the Afib episodes I haven’t been able to get a decent training cycle in since 2011! The first thing I noticed is that my paces are off by a full 30 seconds a mile from where I used to be – some of that is due to age, but a lot of it is just being out of practice. The speedwork feels hard and foreign to my body. I’m like 3 weeks in now and I’m starting to see the results. I started with 5 days a week to see if my body would be able to recover. Sunday long, Monday recovery spin, Tuesday speed, Wednesday recovery run, Thursday Tempo, Friday recovery run and Saturday off to do house chores. This put me in the mid-30’s in terms of mileage. I made sure to really focus on doing the stretching, warm-up, cool-down and maintenance core work. Nothing really hurt, except the plantar fasciitis flared up at the end of the first hard week. I thought I was toast. (this was last week). It was super sore after Friday’s run. So – I got the splint on for sleeping, I took my Saturday off, I taped the foot for Sunday’s run and I got it under control… so far. I think I isolated the problem. I was wearing an old pair of ASICs E33’s (basic neutral cushion shoes) to get a better feel of the track for speed work. I don’t keep very good track of mileage in shoes but I remember I wore these for two marathons a year ago – so they are probably toast. We’ll keep an eye on it. I can always swap out the Friday recovery run with a recovery spin instead. This Sunday I’ll be volunteering at two local races. The Baystate marathon in the morning and the Groton Town Forest Trail Race in the afternoon. If you’re running either of those say ‘hi’. We’ll be at the 7 mile water stop at Baystate – just before the bridge. …I was coming back from getting tires on my Camry this past weekend. I was sitting in a long line of cars at a red light. I did what we all do at red lights. I checked my phone. Of course the next thing I know there’s the blaring of a horn and the guy behind me is freaking out because I let a 20 foot gap expand in front of me. I look in the review mirror and this guy is swearing at me and waving his hands – he’s quite apoplectic. My first reaction is to give him a big passive aggressive smile and wave. I also feel that drip of adrenaline as my dinosaur brain prepares for a fight. Can’t help it. As I think about it I wonder what is so wrong with this guy’s life that he has gone off the deep end over 20 feet of pavement? I just want to say “It’s ok.” I’m as guilty as the next guy. It makes me super stressed out to get stuck in traffic. Even though I know it has nothing to do with the traffic – it’s me getting me stressed out because of the way I think about time.I think time is scarce. In my mind I can only be successful if I get stuff done in the time I have. How often do we think about time in this way? I don’t have enough time. I don’t want to waste time. Is it worth my time? My revelation is that this is all scarcity thinking. As much as I talk about abundance I think in terms of scarce time. That is a disconnect between thoughts and beliefs. That’s an incongruence between a belief in abundance and thought of scarcity.I wonder if you’re not doing the same thing? What if we thought of time as abundant? How would that change the way we approached adversity? What abundance cold that bring into our lives?And the next time you’re running late and you lean on that horn, I’ll see you out there.MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 09 Dec 2016 | Episode 4-354 – Thor Kirleis – UltraRunner Vs Lyme Disease | 00:59:22 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-354 – Thor Kirleis – UltraRunner Vs Lyme Disease (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4354.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-354 of the RunRunLive Podcast. How’s everyone doing? We got our first snow on the ground up here in New England this week. It’s been a mild winter so far. In today’s show we have a good long chat with my old buddy Thor about his experience with Lyme Disease. This is part of my series on athletes who have been challenged and have had to reconsider the role of running in their lives. In section one I’m going to drop a piece on selecting a HR monitoring device (based on a listener question) and in Section two I’m going to share some timeless wisdom by Peter Drucker. This past Sunday I raced the Mill Cities Relay. They gave me the ‘long leg’ of 9.5 miles and I was on a solid male senior team with 4 other guys from my club. I’ll talk more about that race in the outro, but I’m running well and everything is cool with my training. I’m looking forward to the spring season. … When you join me for my call with Thor today I want you to listen to his attitude. He’s super positive about life even when this insidious disease is tearing at him. His positive attitude is infectious, (horrible word-play unintended). When I ask him how he coped he just stayed positive. That’s the lesson here. The things that impact your life have no meaning other than that which you give them. You can either ‘feed the good dog or feed the mean dog’ as the old story goes. So stay positive. Be that infectious force for those around you. You deserve it and they deserve it too. On with the show! The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Heart Rate Training Devices - Voices of reason – the conversation Thor Kirleis – UltraRunner Vs Lyme Disease From Thor on 12/7/2016 – “This morning's run, a 3.2 mile plod of really slow loop, marked 13 years of covering at least a mile on foot each and every day. I used to say that it is my Streak Running anniversary, and it used to be through 12 years, but illness robbed me the ability to run for long stretches of days between then and now, though it never dragged me so low that I could not complete a mile even if walking (though I did come close two or three or four times to not making even a mile). So while I am now back to running, still with some challenges related to illness, I'm still motivated to celebrate my health (ironic, huh?) with a mile a day (I say even more fitting). This will be the last time that I explain how my streak isn't any longer official, because to me it was never meant to be "official", as in qualifying for this list or that list or anything other than me celebrating each and every day my health and ability to prance and play, and now sometimes walk... for 13 years!” Section two 5 Prctices of effective executives - Outro All-Righty-Then, you and I have battled off a host of nasty internal pathogens to the end of episode 4-354 of the RunRunLive podcast. How about that? Like I said in the intro I raced last weekend. The long leg is leg 4 out of 5 and it’s a quite doable flat to downhill course along the Merrrimack River. The challenges are sometimes the weather is dicey in December (there can be a head wind at the end) and you don’t get much of a chne to warm up. The leg before the 9.5 is the short 2.5 leg, so you’re basically driving to the exchange, jumping out of the car and racing. My old body does better with a thorough warm up these days, especially on cold weather days. I went out fast. We had a rival club team with a 3 minute head start on us that I could potentially catch if everything went well. I laid down the first 3 miles at a sub-7 pace, but I wasn’t feeling it. I felt heavy. I have been letting the diet slip since Portland and I think it caught up with me. I ended up averaging somewhere between 7:15’s and 7:20’s which, given where I’ve been over the last 5 years, I’m thrilled with. My HR was great but my legs were heavy and I wasn’t running clean. I was sore from the effort. I whined to coach and he said I’m racing too much. But that’s what he always says! My Heart is strong and my aerobic base is huge so I’m feeling pretty good about the spring season. I can always fix my diet and if I can stay healthy I should be able to get some good performances! … I was drove into my old office in Burlington last week. It’s behind the mall. Anyone who knows anything about American culture knows that the malls do 85% of their business in the short time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. My usual route when I’m coming off the highway, is to cut through the mall to ‘cut the corner’ on the turnpike and save a few stoplights and a little time. This time of year, even in the middle of the day the mall is busy. The parking lot is full. There are people, cars and general holiday freneticism. I rounded a corner by the old Sears store in my truck and saw a woman pushing a stroller crossing the road. It’s a tight corner so I surprised her. There was never any danger of me hitting her, because I saw her, and I’m not driving recklessly, but she is in that no-woman’s-land of the crossing. You know - Less than half way across. Too far to turn back. Forward momentum into the middle of the street. I can see that combination of fear and anger on her face. She’s doing the Newtonian physics in her head when she sees my truck come around the corner. She sees the very small chance that I might be checking my email or twiddling with the radio and she is going to have to sprint for the curb or die. But there’s more to that look. There’s the harried nature of the young mother’s life. She’s got a million errands to run and has to drag the kid with her. She’s probably already well behind schedule on her mental check list. I brake to a stop and wave her across. As she bustles by I notice the stroller. In it is a child, maybe 2 years old, all bundled up against the cold. He’s wearing a bear hat with bear ears. He’s got the biggest smile on his face. Like riding around in the stroller in his bear hat on, on a cold, gray, November day is the coolest adventure ever! Watching them cross, the mom probably wasn’t havening a great day, but, the kid was having a fantastic time. Maybe he didn’t know he was supposed to be miserable? Which attitude are you going to have during these holidays? I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 07 Mar 2015 | Episode 4-307 – The Continuing Adventures of Wendy Nail | 00:52:56 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-307 – The Continuing Adventures of Wendy Nail(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4307.mp3]Link epi4307.mp3Intro Bumper:https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussellWell, my friends, here we are, Late Friday afternoon and time to publish another episode of the long running Podcast series RunRunLive…A serial magazine series sponsored by the Cialis and the History Channel about the trials and tribulations of Yaks farming on the north eastern permafrost… No? Ok, It’s not sponsored by anyone except the neurotically charged neurons of my cranial sphere. And mostly we talk about distance running and endurance sports and we talk to members of our community about their adventures and transformations and epiphanies. And at 25 words with 4 conjunctions that, my friends, is a sentence Vladmir Nabokov would be proud of. Just got back from running 1:45 outside on the roads. That’s two outside runs for the week! I’m killing it! Heh heh… My training is going good and bad. On the good side I’m getting the miles in. On the bad side my AFib is really getting annoying. Let me ‘splain…I’m not a doctor, so I’m going to dumb it down to my level. If you look at your heart it’s a big manual pump. It’s got these four chambers to it. Each one of these chambers is like a Turkey baster, you squeeze it and it squirts blood out one side, you let go and it reflates and draws blood in the other side. There’s a one-way valve on each side of each chamber, just a simple flap valve, like in the back of your toilet. Leading into and out of these turkey-basters are four big pipes. These pipes return blood and carry blood away. These are the pipes that get clogged up when you hear about people getting ‘bypasses’. The thing is, in order to squeeze and release those turkey basters your heart muscles contract and relax. The trick is that they have to contract and release in the right sequence or the blood doesn’t move around well. What’s going on in my Afib is that erroneous electrical signals are cascading down the sheathing material around these pipes and causing my heart muscles to get the turkey basters out of synch. This is exercise induced and only happens when I push hard and towards the end of my runs. What it feels like is a loss of power. If I look at my heart rate monitor it will read max, like I’m doing wind sprints. But it’s not really my heart beating too fast or at max, it’s my heart reacting to these bogus electrical signals and doing the funky chicken. When I think about it, now that I know what it is, I can trace it back a few years, but it only got noticeable in the last year or so. In its current form it’s just sucking the joy out of my running. What I love about running is that point when you get warmed up, deep into a workout and can push the gas pedal down and transcend the workout. Right now, when I get to that point, the engine sputters and coughs. It has removed the ‘flow state’ or the ‘runner’s high’ state from my workouts. Which makes them more like work and less like the flights of fancy that I love. But, all is not lost. I’ve scheduled myself to go in for a procedure called ‘Cryo-ablation’ where they snake a device up the veins through your groin, into your heart and freeze a ring of scar tissue into those four big pipes. That ring of scaring blocks the spurious signals from getting to your heart and all is well. They say it works 80% of the time and I’m a perfect candidate. But, like Mark Twain was fond of saying, “There’s liars, damn liars and statistics.”The other alternative is that I could just learn to run slow and short. But I don’t think I’m ready or wired for that. Let’s face it. In the grand scheme of things I’m a super fortunate, super blessed guy. I have nothing to complain about and I really mean that. Besides, I’ve got you right? And who’s going to hold off the zombie hoards if I have to take it easy? Today on this show of shows we have the continuing adventures of Wendy Nail who we talked to a few episodes back about barefoot running. This time around we talk about her international adventures and how running is enjoyed all over the world. In the first article on running related topics I’m going to share some insight on my experience training for the hills of the Boston Marathon. In the second article on life lessons I’m going to talk about how to deal with our hard-wired negativity bias. I’m not looking for you to give money to squarespace, dollar shave club or audible, and I don’t need any iTunes reviews, but I do still need help with my team Hoyt campaign for the 2015 Boston marathon. I don’t have a problem asking for support because Rick and Dick have given more to our community and sport than we could ever return. These guys have a statue in Hopkinton for heaven’s sake! They’re the real deal. Help me help them. Go to my crowdrise page, it’s in the show notes and on the RunRunLive website – or I may let the zombie hoards eat you. On with the Show! Section one - Running TipsThe Hills of Bostonhttp://runrunlive.com/hill-training-for-flatlandersVoices of reason – the interviewsWendy Nail Section two – Life SkillsCan vs Can’t and the negativity bias.http://runrunlive.com/can-or-cantOutroWell, well, my Campneros, another RunRunLive podcast driven to the ground and put in the pen with the rest of the free-range steers – Episode 4-307 done and dusted. I found out that my sister is listening to the podcast. Which, honestly kinda freaks me out. I’ve always told you that this avatar is just one of the me’s out there. But since you’re listening, hey, it must be weird for you to hear Dad’s voice come out of me every so often? I hear it. You must too. And remember: “Russell kids are the smartest and best at everything.” Right? Heh, is there anything as weird as shared family history? I mean weird- good mostly, but it really gets under your skin in a way nothing else can. Also this week I had a weird interaction with one of the guys I work with. I also keep I nice tall wall between this avatar and that work avatar. But, I was so brimming with pride last week I told him about the new book I released. I gave him a copy with the understanding that he would spread it around, the last thing I need is to be in a business situation and have someone say “But Chris, you had time to write a book…” Anyhow, this gentleman is a creative and he sends me back an email that says, and I quote, All I can say is… WOW. What a great book, Chris. I who never run or jog anywhere, salute you!Not only is your writing style a treat to read, but your whole attitude toward running and the philosophical POV you bring to the subject is outstanding. I think this writing is better than 90% of the pros.Congratulations on a real achievement!Then he says to me today, why didn’t you quit your job years ago and become a writer? Which I answered the same way I always do. Because I’m smart enough to know the difference between a profession and a hobby. But, is that my Dad talking? Am I just afraid? Probably a rational dose of all those things. Yes the MarathonBQ book is up on Kindle for your enjoyment, but any listeners of the show who want an e-copy I’ll give you one if you a) contribute to the Hoyt fund or b) promise to write up a review. It’s been on the Times best seller list for two weeks now. Spielberg, Tarantino and Scorsese are fighting over the move rights. Harison Ford was going to play the ‘old’ me but he crashed his plane last week so they had to switch to Timothy Robbins. Of course Ryan Gosling is already under contract to play the young me. Frankly he’s not as smoldering sexy as the young me, but he might pass. In my dreams…We are coming up on the Groton Road Race on the 26th and everything is coming together. Got some big changes this year and I’m sure there will be some chaos! I set up a virtual race option if you want to run it remotely. The shirt is super nice and we’ll ship it to you. As a matter of fact I’m going to go run a 10K in every shirt before we ship them. And the women’s smalls chafe quite a bit. That bit I did today on can vs can’t really resonated when I posted it up on my site. I got a storm of positive responses and shares. Which is strange because I sort of hacked it together in a bunch of small time blocks, between things, over the course of the week. I learned early that you never know what is going to synch with people. It’s not my responsibility to judge what’s worthy. It’s my privilege to create, to let muses have their way. Folks – get out there. Wipe those winter blues from your smock and get out there. Lace ‘em up and go on adventures. Have some fun. People are watching you and you can influence the world for the better. As you are pursuing your adventures and good works, I’ll be there too, I’ll see you out there. https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussellhttp://www.grotonroadrace.com/Closing commentshttp://runrunlive.com/my-books Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 29 Apr 2017 | Episode 4-364 – Steve Spear – Across the USA | 01:05:05 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-364 – Steve Spear – Across the USA (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4364.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening my friends. Are you out on that early morning trail? Or maybe the warm sunshine of a lunch-time trot? Perhaps the star filled purity of a speedwork session at the track at night? Wherever, whenever, you may be, Hello my friends and welcome to Episode 4-364 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Today we chat with Steve Spear, not Steve Speirs of the 100 pushups app who we interviewed in episode 108 of the podcast, must’ve been the winter of 2008-2009. BTW all those old episodes are on my website at RunRunLive.com. I’m going to go listen to some of them myself and see if there isn’t something interesting that I can curate for the members feed. It’s bit surreal listening to yourself from the past. Time truly is a river. Today we are also going to squeeze in the 2017 Boston Marathon race report. I think. It’s not the most exciting story ever told but it has become a tradition now. I think this will be the 9th Boston report that we have shared together. We started with my 10th Boston back in 2008. What a long strange trip it’s been. Anyhow – since the race report is long – I’ll just jump right into our interview with Steve Spear who ran across the USA to help get clean water to families in Africa. You’ll hear me asking about how he did this because unlike Pete Kostelnik Steve ran the cross country route at a reasonable pace of 5 days a week and 35 miles a day. I could see myself doing that. I’ll stick the race report in after that and we’ll call it a day. My Friday’s have become increasingly pressed for time but I’ll persevere! I took Tuesday, Wednesday off last week after the race. I dug my old steel Fuji out, sprayed some petrochemicals on the chain and gears, pumped up the tires and went for a ride Thursday out to the rail trail. That felt nice. I went for a run in the woods in the drizzle and dark with Teresa on Friday for an hour and felt fine. It was nice to run with her. Kinda cool getting to talk in a relatively neutral setting. Saturday I met up with the running club to pick up litter on the Groton Road Race course. Sunday I got to join the club run in the morning and it was good to not have to worry about a long workout. The marathon gave me a lot of stress this year and I’m happy to have it in my rearview mirror. Tuesday morning I got up and went for a run in the woods. It was grey and overcast and easing into a patient drizzle. I brought Buddy, the old Wonder dog for the first 20- minutes or so then went back out and did another hour. There is something so peaceful and centering for me to run this loop. Right outside my front door. Right on the other side of my vegetable garden is the trail head. Buddy and I cut these trails. There was nothing here except bulldozer roads and animal tracks when we moved in. It was slated to be house lots. Over the years it became conservation land instead. Now, my house is the last on the cul-de-sac with conservation land on three sides. The woods have not yet exploded in green. We are in the April showers phase. But, you can sense the arboreal tension in the woods. Like a pensive skeleton waiting, on edge for the new leaves to burst forth. Hen turkeys, with beautiful sheens of reflecting feathers dart across the trail looking for the perfect place to raise this year’s brood. Wood ducks bob on the gun-metal grey undulations of the pond. All are ready. We see the grey skeleton of winter. They sense the green wealth of spring. … Met the club on Saturday to pick up trash on the Groton Road Race course. We spent a few hours and got 2 full truckloads of litter off the roads. I suppose the most interesting thing I found was a plastic sandwich baggie with “Black Plague” and skull and crossbones written on it with a sharpie. What do you think? Some parent with a nerdy kid and questionable sense of humor making lunch? Or more probably an empty bag of a high-powered weed? Or, you never know, I’m now patient zero of the zombie apocalypse like I always assumed I’d be. Mostly it was Bud Light cans. And flavored vodka nips. The engineer in me wants to plot the beer can and vodka bottle distribution, do a regression analysis and lead an intervention to someone’s door in Groton. Or just wait at the liquor store with an officer and some handcuffs. I guess if you are drinking on the way to work every day littering is pretty low on your list of worries. But, like spring, the road is clean and ready for the racers. We’re going to have a great day. I’m no longer Race Director so I think I may actually run the 10K! That’s the way life is. Life is change. Life is winter. Life is spring. As Oprah says, we aren’t getting older, we’re evolving! On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to yet another Blue Apron or Hello Fresh ad. As a matter of fact, stop being lazy and go shop for your own food. We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – nada Voices of reason – the conversation Steve Spear Chicago Tribune article about Spear's 2013 run across the U.S.: Daily Herald article about the 52k Spear ran last year for his 52nd birthday in 2016: World Vision article about Spear's transition from charity runner to World Vision staff member: Information about the Global 6k for Water Spear is planning forMay 6th: About Steve Spear In 2013 Steve Spear, Pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, ran from LA to NY to bring clean water to children and families in Africa. Steve roughly averaged a marathon a day for 150 days straight. His run took him through 10 pair of running shoes and 14 states. Steve Spear is an honors graduate of Ozark Christian College in Joplin, MO. He led at senior levels at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL for over 15 years in a variety of pioneering efforts. As a Team World Vision Volunteer Running Ambassador Steve has completed numerous marathons, ultra marathons, a 2013 transcontinental run from LA to NY and personally raised over $500,000 for clean water in Africa. Steve and his wife Frances, of 28 years, have two grown children and reside in Carol Stream, IL. About the Global 6k for Water Steve Spear, Running Ambassador at World Vision is encouraging runners and churches around the U.S. to take part in the Global 6k for Water. 6 kilometers is the average distance that people in the developing world walk for water — water that is often contaminated with life-threatening diseases. From fast runners to leisurely walkers, thousands of people will unite around the globe and run 6km to bring clean water to communities in need. Each participant's registration of $50 goes to World Vision's Water Initiatives. After you register you will receive a World Vision Global 6K for Water t-shirt, race bib, and medal in the mail. Map out a 6km route in your neighborhood or attend a bigger gathering at a host site on Saturday, May 6th, 2017. More information is available at: Section two Boston Race Report - Outro Ok my friends, you have run slowly across the country and through the hills of Newton to the end of episode 4-364 of the RunRunLive Podcast. I’m running the Groton Road Race this weekend and the, just like that, it will be May already! I’ve got to peel off some time to get my vegetable garden started! I’ve been trying to get my old motorcycle on the road. I got it registered but ran into a bit of a snag last night. I put a new battery in an n no power! Now I’m going to have to chase around the wiring diagram with my multimeter and see if it’s a fuse or a short or a ground… sigh… I’m not really designed with the patience for that. I went and gave blood this week. They’ve been pestering me but I needed to get through the marathon first. My vital signs are all fantastic. I had to do the mind control thing to jack my HR up over 50 for the nurse so I could avoid the red flags. It took a awhile but they were able to get my blood out of me. They have this sound track of 70’s pop music that they play and it is a bit surreal. I hear those songs and I remember specific situations, where I was. For example building a fort in the rafters of my father’s garage with my buddy Dave as pre-teens listening to “Ricky don’t lose that number” by Steely Dan on the portable FM radio on a warm summer day in 1974. Us with our Mad Magazines and Farah Faucett posters. Now I’ve got to figure out what I want to do with this glorious summer laying before me like an unwrapped gift. So far all I’ve committed is to climb some mountains with Teresa. But, soon enough I’ll get the itch. I do love trail running. I think I’ll do some more of that. What’s next? I don’t know. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with my life forever. There’s no silver bullets. Sometimes you have the opportunity to choose epic and worthy things that in some way define you and in other ways demonstrate a worthy path to endeavors to the world. Sometimes circumstances knock you sideways and that unchosen path becomes the worthy thing. Every day, every mile, you get up. Whether your plan for that day works or something else happens you grind on with as much aplomb and reason as you can. Then you get up and do it again. Someday the crumbs of your life might lead someone else to something worthy for them. And that’s it, my friends. Whether you think you are a leader or even an exemplar, people are watching you, the universe is watching you, get up and get it done today. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 15 Jul 2017 | Episode 4-369 – Vybarr and the Muse of Running | 00:53:42 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-369 – Vybarr and the Muse of Running (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4369.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends, and welcome to episode 4-369, of the RunRunLive Podcast. Rolling into July and the dog days of summer. I don’t have any race reports for you this week, but I do have an excellent interview with Vybarr who wrote a book about running. We have a great chat. I kicked the 5 at 5 project on July 1st! So, I officially made it 32 days. Now I’m playing around with some speedwork and getting ready to train for a fall race. There are a couple I’m looking at. Both reasonably flat. My old Buddy Brian is back training again so we did a couple longish runs on the weekend. First one was out and about Groton with Frank. Frank, Brian and I started marathon training together in the late 90’s! It’s cool to run with them. Now that they’ve slowed down to my pace again. Frank had that hip resurfacing that we talked about and Brian had a foot problem that caused him to take a year off. We cranked out 14ish miles. This week, I met Brian and Ryan on the BayState course in Lowell and we did a loop around the river of another 14 miles. It was hot, but we lucked out because they were having a triathlon in the river. We got to refill our bottles a couple times. We closed the last 1/3 of a mile pretty hard. Felt good. My legs are in great shape and my aerobic fitness is good. I just don’t have and leg speed. I bought a pair of Brooks Launch off the internet for $60. They are lighter and less cushion than the Hokas. It’s challenging to do speedwork in the Hoka Challengers because they are so squishy in the forefoot. The launch are more responsive. Takes a while to break them in and get comfortable after running in the Hokas for so long. I ran to the local high school track the Wednesday after the fourth. If you ever read any of my stories about track workouts – this is that track. I have spent hundreds of miles there. The old track was heavily used. 15 – 20 years ago I learned where every pot hole and puddle was. I could run that track in the dark. A couple years ago they finally resurfaced it. It was a nice new track. Then I noticed it started getting cracks and grass was growing through it in places. They called whoever installed it and made them do it again. Now it’s a new, new track. Anyhow I was curious as to my leg speed after not having done any speedwork for a couple years. I ran down there. Now, in my mind I eyeballed the distance and it felt like 2 – 2.5 miles. Of course it’s actually 3.5 miles from my house. That’s a bit of a warm up. When I got there, I loosened up, stretched out and did mile as hard as I felt I could. My legs felt like cement. I was really dragging them, no pop. I managed somewhere in the 6:30 mile range. Not horribly disappointing. I think the next big landmark for me in my slow slide into decrepitude will be when I can’t run a 1600 in the pace I used to run a marathon at! (My marathon PR is a 3:06:40 at Boston in 1998 – which is a 7:11 pace.) Not to be discouraged, I went back down this week and did a set of 8 X 400 at an aggressive pace. They came in around 1:35, which isn’t bad, it’s like a 6:15-6:20 pace, but what was encouraging is that I was able to feel that speed form. Still not much pop, but good strength and form. And I went back out Thursday in the rain and did a set of 800’s at tempo pace, coming in around a 6:50 pace. I think in 3 weeks of speedwork I could get most of my pop back. Not super-useful for marathon training, but at this point I’m really just benchmarking speed with effort and heartrate before I start my next training cycle. Coach hates when I do useless speedwork. … Did you see the post I put up about the Chinese scientist who demonstrated quantum entanglement this week? I’ll try to give you the summary. Forgive me, I’m not a physicist, but I have always liked particle physics for some reason. This is the stuff that goes on sub-atomic or smaller than an atom. Atom is a word that the Greeks made up because they theorized that if you took matter apart you’d eventually find the smallest building block. From the Greeks up to the 20th century this was the atom. Then smart mathematicians and physicists figured out that atoms where made up of smaller bits, and those smaller bits were made up of even smaller bits. “Turtles all the way down is the old joke about this, it’s called ‘infinite regression’. And the physics, the way these particles interact with each other gets stranger all the time. In quantum entanglement two particles, in this case photons, which are particles of light, are behaviorally connected regardless of the distance that separates them. Meaning that if you do something to one of the particles, it also happens instantaneously to the entangled particle, NO MATTER WHERE THAT OTHER PARTCLE IS. Einstein called this “Spooky action at a distance” and said it could not be true because it violates known quantum physics. The cool part is the instantaneous part. This means that something is travelling faster than the speed of light, which breaks all the rules. So anyhow the Chinese measured quantum entanglement between two photons last week. One on earth and the other in a satellite in space. The SciFi part of this is that if you consider the entanglement a form of information or data, you could say, as the journalists did, that they transported a photon to space. Pretty cool huh? There’s a lot we don’t know and some of it is cool. Oh yeah – In section one I am sticking in chapter 9 from my marathonBQ audio book. I had this guy with a great Midwest voice record it for me in his studio. This is the version that’s on audible. This chapter is about what you need to bring with you if you’re going to be doing speedwork down at the track. Was thinking about this topic when I was down at the track this week. In section two I’ll talk about dealing with uncertainty. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to yet another Blue Apron or Hello Fresh ad. As a matter of fact, stop being lazy and go shop for your own food. We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Chapter 9 from the Audible recording of MarathonBQ on what to bring to the track - Voices of reason – the conversation Vybarr Cregan-Reid VYBARR CREGAN-REID is a Reader in English and Environmental Humanities at the University of Kent. He has a popular blog, , and has written on and been interviewed about running in major publications all over the world. He has also written numerous articles and essays for academic journals and a book on Victorian culture, Discovering Gilgamesh. Running is not just a sport. It reconnects us to our bodies and the places in which we live, breaking down our increasingly structured and demanding lives. It allows us to feel the world beneath our feet, lifts the spirit, lets our minds out to play, and helps us to slip away from the demands of the modern world. When Vybarr Cregan-Reid set out to discover why running means so much to so many, he began a journey which would take him out to tread London’s cobbled streets, the boulevards of Paris, and down the crumbling alleyways of Ruskin’s Venice. Footnotes transports you to the deserted shorelines of Seattle, the giant redwood forests of California, and to the world’s most advanced running laboratories and research centers. Using debates in literature, philosophy, neuroscience, and biology, this book explores that simple human desire to run. Liberating and inspiring, Footnotes reminds us why feeling the earth beneath our feet is a necessary and healing part of our lives. "Here is a book in which the striding energy of the prose matches its subject." — Iain Sinclair, author of American Smoke "Wonderfully authoritative vindication of what ought to be a self-evident truth: that running should be about being alive, not being a consumer." — Richard Askwith, author of Running Free "Insightful and intoxicating. Vybarr Cregan-Reid's book makes you take your shoes off and run through a world of ideas about nature." — Lynne Truss, author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves and A Certain Age "Footnotes is a blazing achievement. It burns with restless energy as Cregan-Reid, alive, alert, wholly and gloriously present, sets out his manifesto that running makes us human" — Kate Norbury, author of The Fish Ladder … Section two – Uncertainty - Outro OK my friends, have read the collective works of end of episode 4-369 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Good for you. Since we last talked I took Buddy down for his annual checkup and shots. He’s healthy as he can be for an old man of 14 years old. He loves the vet. They give him food and say nice things to him. I told them he had gone totally deaf over the last 6 months. They said that’s normal and if it didn’t bother him, which it doesn’t, then there’s nothing to worry about. It actually helps this time of year with the thunderstorms, fireworks and for some reason the coyotes being super vocal at night. He’s also lost 7-8 pounds since last year. A lot of it is muscle mass from getting older. He also leaned up running with me most days in June during the 5 at 5 project. I noticed the same thing in my own body. You just lose muscle mass as you get older. I think I’m going to run the Portland Maine marathon on Oct. 1st. That’s a bit of a short training cycle for me but I’m in pretty good shape already. If you want to come up it’s a flat marathon in southern Maine. Plenty of places to stay and we’ll have some fun. It’s been weird rainy and cool weather into July now. My Raspberries are coming in. I get about a pint a day – even after the birds take their share. With all the rain I’m having a mold issue. My tomatoes are going gang busters. We’ll see if they fruit out well. Need some hot weather for that. … Had a bit of a long week this week. We had lost a young family member in my wife’s family. Same age as my kids. It’s always a tragedy when we lose the young. Makes you think. Rightly or wrongly it makes you reflect on your own life and your own family and the fragility of this life. Folks, hold those you love tightly. Don’t waste time on petty things. Forget slights real and imagined. Reach out and hold the people who need you. Right now, today, you can do one thing. You can turn on your love light and let it shine. I’ll see you out there. And thank you for being my friend. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 15 Nov 2014 | Interludes 1.2 - NYC Marathon | 00:57:32 | |
Interludes 1.2 - NYC Marathon(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/NYC.mp3]Link NYC.mp3 Act one – The BridgeJoe Strummer and the Mescaleros – All in a Day Freezing and about half way across the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and the wind was blowing sideways at 20-30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. Physical shivers racked me in the Orange Staging Area on the island. My giant trash bag cut the wind but did little to warm me. I was thankful to have the giant trash bag but would have rather had a full size wool blanket or poncho like Clint Eastwood wore in the spaghetti westerns. Or a down jacket. The temperature was not that bad. It was in the high 30’s Fahrenheit, but the cutting wind dropped the perceived temperature to single digits. I was feeling it. We were ½ mile or so in, still on the upward slope of the bridge with a steady stream of runners. I didn’t want to get in the way of anyone trying to race, but I recognized this as THAT iconic photo that everyone takes from this race and had to find a way to get it. I was not racing this race. I had my iPhone with me to facilitate these sorts of moments. I felt compelled to fill the social media void with my fuzzy pictures of randomness to show my sponsors, the good people from ASICS America that, yeah, I do occasionally attempt some content of the typical race-blogger type. I saw my chance and jumped up onto the 2-3 foot wide barrier that separates inbound and outbound traffic on the top deck of the bridge. Safely out of the flow I pulled off one glove with my teeth and took a few shots of the horizon, the cityscape beyond the river and the bridge. …There’s a guy a few feet away on the median with me who has one of those giant cameras. I don’t give him much thought. There are camera-people all over the place on this course. One guy is lying on his belly shooting the runners’ feet as they swarm across the bridge. Who am I to get in the way of their art? Then I notice this guy is moving closer to me and it’s a bit creepy because when I glance his way he’s focusing on me, so I just try to ignore him and get my shots. Turns out he’s the photographer for Rueters and he’s giving me the iconic ‘Seinfeld moment’ of the weekend. In the picture he takes I’m holding up my cell phone, yellow glove dangling from my teeth. Desperately clutching last year’s orange parka, with the wind trying to blow it out of my hands. I’ve got my gray ASICS beanie, a long sleeve ASICS plain red shirt (not anywhere thick enough for this wind assault on the bridge), ASICS Shorts, and my E33 race shoes with the green calf sleeves. The caption will read; “A runner takes a selfie on the Verrezano Bridge at the start of the NYC Marathon”. It wasn’t a selfie, but who am I to argue with the media moguls of New York. Ironically those were the last pictures I took during the race because I realized my phone was going dead and I might need the GPS to get back to the hotel later at the finish. I powered it down. I’m also wearing a scarf that I bought on the street corner in mid-town. I would wear that scarf for the whole race. Rakishly tied like the adornment of a WWI fighter pilot in an open canopy. I fantasize about founding a whole line of racing scarves. I will call this version “The Sopwith Camel”. I can buy them on the corner for $5 and sell them to triathletes for $50 – (I’ll just tell them it takes 6 seconds off their run times – triathletes will buy anything). The last piece of clothing is an impromptu gator I’ve constructed by tearing the pompom off and gutting the Dunkin Donuts hat they gave us in the athletes’ village. Ingenuity bred by desperation. I would have gladly gutted a Tauntaun from the ice planet Hoth with a light saber and crawled into its bowels for the body heat if that was an option. I’m also holding a plastic shopping bag. In that bag is 3 Hammer gels and an empty Gatorade bottle. I held on to the Gatorade bottle thinking that I might need to refill it on the bridge given that I’d just finished drinking the contents. If I have to relieve myself I want to be tidy about it. Every time anyone has ever talked about the NYC marathon to me, somehow the conversation always ends up at “If you’re on the lower deck of the bridge you get peed on by the guys on the upper deck.” In fact there are signs along the start that threaten disqualification for anyone caught doing so. But on this day I don’t see a single guy attempting the feat. It would take a brave and talented man to relieve himself in this cross wind and temperature. The orange parka is from last year’s race. I have upgraded from my plastic trash bag. The trash bag was good, but this is warmer, and I need to get my core temp back up to normal. Ironically when I got my trash bag out I realized that it was slightly used. At one point I think it had actual garbage in it. I just grabbed it from my car. When I laid out the trash bag the night before I realized it wasn’t ‘fresh out of the box’ but, it is what it is, and I wiped it down with hotel face towels. I used the bib safety pins to carefully scribe perforations for the head hole and the arm holes, like in old computer paper or junk mail, so I could easily push the patches out in the morning without having to chew out a gash with my teeth. When you exit the holding area from the staging area into the starting line on the bridge they have big boxes to donate your throw away clothes to the homeless. I knew my core temperature was low from the bone rattling shaking and shivering and I looked for an opportunity to better my sartorial situation. I thought a nice hooded sweatshirt, or knit pullover would be the perfect upgrade to run the first couple miles in until my core temp came back up. At the homeless boxes I tore off my plastic bag and grabbed that thick, quilted, finisher’s poncho from the 2013 race. They don’t have arm holes but they are giant and you can wrap them around you like your grandmother’s cardigan. I made a joke that I hoped the guy who tossed it didn’t have Ebola or bed bugs. I had a politically incorrect but amusing mental picture that they should bus the homeless out to the start and have them set up on the bridge so people could pick the homeless person they wanted to give their old sweatshirt to. It would be a nice way to mainstream the disadvantaged of the city. They could hand out cups of fortified wine, like Thunderbird or Mogan David to warm the aspirants at the start. In the starting coral I had a couple guys from Indiana take my photo. America the beautiful played and I reluctantly took off my hat. They played New York, New York, which was awesome, and then, without further fanfare, we bent our thousands of feet into the wind of the narrows. Plastic bags and clothing of all sort blew sideways through the crowd and wrapped around people like suicidal jelly fish. We were off.Frank Sinatra – New York, New YorkAct two – The elites and the bloggerati I walked into the lobby groggy from my flight and a bit lost in time and space. I had been battling the cold that tore through North America the previous week and trying to get enough sleep to beat it back. I was coming off a short week and had run the Marine Corps Marathon 5 days earlier. ASICS had asked me to fly Thursday night to be there in time for the Friday morning warm up run. I was taking a rare day off on Friday to accommodate. They flew me down on the short hop shuttle into Kennedy from Boston and had a limo waiting to take me to the hotel. I definitely felt like a poser, but did my best to roll with it. When confronted by these situations where you feel the imposter syndrome creeping into the back of your lizard brain I’ve found it best to have a sense of humor. Smile and enjoy yourself. Try not to talk too much and try to inquire and understand the new people you meet. ASICS was putting me up at The New York Palace Hotel, a five-star joint on Madison Ave in midtown across the street from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It was a beautiful hotel with spacious rooms – definitely not the Spartan accommodation of a journeyman marathoner. The travel part didn’t bother me. I spend most of my time in hotels and airplanes. I’m a hearty and hale adventurer. But, I’d be lying if I didn’t feel a bit different, a bit fish out of water to be part of an industry sponsored junket of sorts. Not icky per se, but more like the guy without a cool costume at a costume party. …In the Lobby Noelle, our ASICS Liaison, was chatting with a couple guys. She noticed me lurking about in my head to toe ASCIS gear and introduced herself. I could have sworn one of the guys was Ryan Hall but I’m such a meathead with the social graces I didn’t want to make a faux pas. Eventually Noelle introduced me them and the young blond guy leans in, shakes my hand and says, ‘Hi, I’m Ryan.’ The other guy introduced himself as Andy. I would soon learn this was Andy Potts the Ironman Champ. It cracked me up that Ryan had the humility to assume I didn’t know who he was. Moving to the bar with Noelle we ordered drinks and waited for the other out-of-towners. …“Mini-Marathoners” – that’s what they called them. They were 5 inch tall statuettes of us. They had taken photos of us and rendered them, with the latest computer aided design, into mini 3D renditions of us in full stride. Noelle passed them out while we – the ASCICS Blogger team - were having drinks. They were a big hit. I met two of the other bloggers, Megan ‘Irun4Wine’ from Florida and Brian ‘PavementRunner’ from the Bay Area. Brian’s mini marathoner had a hilarious beer belly, which Brian does not possess in real life. Megan’s mini marathoner had brilliant red hair, which she does not possess in real life. Megan Wood (Copello) - @Irun4Wine www.irunforwine.netMegan Lee - @RunLikeAGrl - www.runlikeagrl.comBrian Kelly - @PavementRunner – www.pavementrunner.comGregg Bard – NYCGregg – www.NYCSweat.comMy mini marathoner was excellent. They gave me back a full head of hair, made me skinny, took at least 10 years off me and made me look vaguely like Will Wheaton. I’ll take it. Of course the jokes flowed in. Does it have kung fu grip? Is it a bobble head? Yeah, you know you’ve made it when they are making action figures of you……New York City is a funny, kinetic and desperate place. I walked the streets of midtown doing some people watching. Beat down, bowlegged men in suits trucking down the sidewalk. The street vendors. The tourists, always looking up in awe. The many languages and all the smokers! It was like being in Paris in 1970 with all the cigarette smoke being exhaled into my personal space. I circled the hotel, over to Park Ave and 1st and 48th and 54th, getting the lay of the land, taking mental notes of restaurants and stores and milestones. The Helmsley, Grand Central, the ebb and flow and surge of pedestrians. I passed a fruit vendor and decided to take the plunge. I was quite proud of myself having procured some bananas and plums and pears. It was later that I discovered the vendor had put the fruit stickers over the moldy spots. Ahh…New York, a kinetic and desperate place. …Friday morning dawned gray but I was up before the sun. I went to the Starbucks next door and treated myself to a coffee and oatmeal, not knowing what the day might have in store nutritionally. We had a rendezvous with the cars to shuttle us over to the park for our ‘warm up run’ event. Noelle was the leader like a tour guide with her charges in tow we all boarded limos for the ride over and gathered in a restaurant for coffee and sundries. Among the assembled crowd was a throng of actual journalists from places like Rodale and USAToday. Nice, literate and sporty journalists, guests of ASICS all assembling for coffee and bagels and selfies with the elites. Coach Kastor was there holding court and he was in charge of the morning exercise. Andy Potts was there as was Ryan and some other elite athletes from the ASICS stable. My new friend Grace ‘LeanGirlsClub’ was there and I gave her a big hug. As was the other Megan, ‘RunLikeAGirl’ and Greg, ‘NYCSweat’. The blogger team was complete. And then we went for a run.Up until this point it was just super surreal for me. All this attention for a journeyman marathoner of little account. I won’t lie. It felt a little icky. I love running. I love talking about, writing about and rolling around in the smell of running. But, it’s my hobby, not my job. All these industry folks and media people subconsciously gave me the heebee-jeebees and I consciously determined to smile and be humble and ask people about themselves. Coach Kastor led us around the park and out to the finish line. This is where it all got normal for me again. As soon as I felt the kinetic relief of feet hitting pavement my whole world resolved back to that happy place. The veil dropped and I was out for a run with some new friends. We were all taking pictures and chatting as we jogged around the park. I told Coach Kastor how perfect his form was. I chatted with Ryan and Andy and Coach about races and shoes and injuries and all those things that we default to like old men in a café over coffee. This is the human and democratic sinew of our sport. It is the most human of endeavors. To run . We paused for team pictures. I look lean and happy in my short shorts. Noelle told me that the only other person she knew who wore short shorts was Ryan. That’s good enough for me! Back in the restaurant for coffee and schmoozing. I had a chance to chat with Andy Potts about his Kona race. I asked what I thought was an interesting and erudite question about how he resolves the challenge of dropping into a flow state during the grueling endurance intensity of an ironman with having to stay aware of the immediate tactics of the race? Up until this point it had been all small talk and banter but when we started talking about racing his inner competitor came out. He got serious and intense. I saw the character of the Ironman champion emerge from the shadows. He told me about how when someone makes a move, “You don’t let them go, they take it, and it’s up to you to decide whether you’re going to let them take it.” I chatted with Ryan Hall too. It was just small talk. With the intent of small talk I asked him what he had coming up next. He got a bit dark, dropping the California persona. I realized that I unintentionally had asked a question that he got asked often with different intent by reporters. A question they asked that really was “When are you going to live up to the expectations that the world has burdened you with.” Here’s a man that can crank out 26.2 sub-5 minute miles. He’s got nothing to prove to me. I just wanted to talk about running and racing and geek out about the sport we love. There were some speeches as the elites all gave us their tips on running our marathons. At some point Deena Kastor came in and she gave us a talk as well. She filled a plate at the buffet and sat at a table to pick at it. I saw that the other bloggers were sort of hovering behind her chair so I took the initiative and asked Noelle to ask her to chat with us a bit. Deena was a sweetheart and immediately acquiesced. She told a story about the Philadelphia ½ marathon that I had read somewhere before. She told Megan that she loved the “Irun4Wine” blog name because she ran for wine too! …The Clash – City of the DeadAct three – the first halfThere is a strange dynamic between New York City and Boston. It’s a bit of a love-hate relationship. Like sisters that were born too close together and forced to share the same room. The typical exchange I had while in the city follows: New Yorker: “So…Where are you from?” Me: “Boston”Them: “I’m sorry”Me: “That’s quite alright.” Them: “You know what I like about Boston?” Me: “No, What?” Them: “The ride to the airport when I know I’m getting the hell out of there!” You think I’m joking. I had this exact conversation with more than one person. They weren’t being mean. In the zeitgeist of the New Yorker anyone living anywhere else is only doing so until they can figure out how to move to the Big Apple. I won’t bother telling them it isn’t so. They wouldn’t hear me anyhow. Another conversation I had was this one:“How many times have you run the New York City Marathon?” “This is my first.” Why haven’t you run it before?” “Because it’s a giant pain in the ass. It’s expensive, hard to get into and hard to get to.”“Well, you must be excited about running the best marathon in the world!?” “Yes, I’ve run it 16 times, but I hear this one is pretty good too…” …After we got off the windy chaos of the bridge and into the protecting streets of Brooklyn it warmed right up. We were moving. Everyone was happy, happy, happy with the early race excitement of finally being out there after much anticipation and wait. I tossed my sundry items of extra clothing away as we exited the bridge, taking care to place them downwind and out of the way. The first few miles as athletes discarded clothing you had to watch your step. The wind was swirling items around. Bags and shirts and blankets were doing mad dances in the street. The sun was peeking through and the building blocked the wind intermittently, changing it from a sideways bluster to an occasional vortex as you crossed side street gaps. They had removed much of the tenting and the mile markers due to the wind. I heard they also had to change the wheelchair start at the last minute as well to get them off the bridge. As is always the case in the first few miles of a marathon I was running easy and in my element. The pack was thick, but not as thick as you’d expect with a record 56,000 plus participants. You could find a line and run free without side-stepping or pulling into the gutters. The crowds were consistent and vigorous, lining the course. I was my usual chatty self and talked to a couple people with Boston Marathon shirts on. I had forgotten to bring my Garmin so I had no idea on pace or hear rate. I just ran. You should try that sometime. It’s quite liberating. At my age the heart rate data just scares me anyhow. Without the mile marks I had to ask runners where we were and back into the pace. My plan was a bit muddy and half-hearted. I figured I could run 5 minutes and walk one minute and that would be a nice easy 4-hour-ish marathon. Having run Marine Corps seven days previously I knew I wasn’t in a position to jump on this race with any enthusiasm. With the combination of no mile marks and feeling fine I forgot my plan to take walk breaks and just ran. I stuffed three gels down the back of my glove and carried the sleeping phone in the other hand. I had a baggie of Endurolytes in the shorts pocket. I had my room key in an interesting key-card size back pocket I had discovered in these ASCIS shorts, (that I was wearing for the first time). I had to add the extra security of a bib-pin to hold this mystery pocket closed because it had no zipper. Thank heavens I had ignored my impish impulse to wear the short shorts. The extra 4 inches of tech fabric might have kept me out of a hospital trip for hypothermia. I kept the scarf. …Whereas I had no need to pee off the bridge I did start assessing the porta-john distribution patterns with some interest. They seemed to show up every few K. The first few had long lines. I saw an opportunity around 10K and took care of my Gatorade recycling problem without a wait. This first stretch through Brooklyn was wonderful. Everyone on the course was happy to be running. The folks in the crowd were abundant and enthusiastic. There were several road-side bands, mostly playing classic-rock genre music, which I thought was great, but it reminded me of how old I’m getting that 80% of the people in the race had no idea what I meant by statements like “This was from their Fillmore East Live album!” I would rather have a less-than-fully talented live rock band than someone blaring the Rocky theme song out a window. I pulled up beside a young woman with a giant smile on her face. Me, smiling and pulling up alongside; “Hi, how you doing?”Her, gushing; “This is Great!, Isn’t this Great!?”“Yeah, it’s something. Where are you from?” “Oh, I live here. Isn’t this Great?” “Sure, why is this so great?” “The People! They’re just great!” “What do you mean? They’re acting nice for a change?”Her, scowling, and turning to look at me. “Where are you from?” “Boston!” “Oh, I’m sorry.”“Have you run this before?”“No it’s my first time.” “Do you have some sort of time goal?” “No, I’m just enjoying myself.” “Well, I would recommend saving some of this enthusiasm for the last 10k, you may need it.” I had three goals for this race My A goal was don’t die, my B goal was don’t die and my C goal was don’t die. I’m proud to say I met all my goals. Additional bonuses were that I squeaked under 4 hours and had a blast. Act four – the Village“My doctor told me I’d never run again.” Was one of the interesting snippets from conversations I had while waiting in the cold. The New York City Marathon, like many big city races has a substantially large block of waiting. For those who are not sponsored athletes it start at 3 or 4 in the morning getting to and waiting on the ferry to Staten Island. For me it meant a leisurely walk, once more led by our ASICS tour director Noelle down to the Sheraton to board the chartered busses that would drive us to the start. Early marathon start time tip: Go to Starbucks the night before and order a nice high-quality coffee. This way when you wake up in your hotel room you have coffee ready for your breakfast no muss, no fuss. OK, it’s cold, but it’s better than messing with the hotel coffee maker for some weak-ass crap that won’t get your pipes moving. We had to get up early, but the ‘Fall back’ time change mitigated that and it wasn’t a hassle at all. It was still a long, stop and go ride out to Staten Island. As we sat on the bridge in traffic the bus rocked from side to side in the wind. I had been being a proper dick for the last couple days making fun of the other runners who were super-concerned about the cold weather forecast. “40 degrees? Are you kidding? Up where I’m from that’s shorts weather!”Turns out the joke was on me. When we offloaded and made our way to the staging areas the wind gusts tore through me. My thin tech-shirt, shorts and snarky Boston attitude were no match for the wind-chill. By the time we had taken some more group photos before breaking up for our respective staging areas my teeth were chattering. It wasn’t that cold, but it was overcast and the wind was ripping through us. I got into my slightly used giant trash bag, to find my staging area, but by that point it was too late and I chilled to my core, and a couple millimeters of black plastic wasn’t going to help. The starting area of the New York City Marathon is the most giant, complex operation I’ve ever seen at a race. First the buses disgorge you into a triage area where a gaggle of friendly NYC police officers filters you through metal detectors and pat downs. Then you disperse off into the color coded ‘villages’.Once in the village you watch the giant screen for your start wave to be called. When your wave is called you make your way to one of several coded exits. When the wave in front of you moves to the start line, you progress through your exit to the holding pen. Then you get released to the starting area on the bridge for your start wave. All of this is coded onto your bib. For example I was Orange, B3. This meant I went to the Orange village and moved to exit B when my wave, wave 3, was called. In reality what it meant was me wandering around showing my bib and asking people where I should be. I didn’t check a bag, so I didn’t have to deal with the bag check at the start or the bag retrieval at the end. Which meant a couple lines I didn’t have to stand in, but also the risk of hypothermia at the start and at the finish if I got the clothing thing wrong. I didn’t die, but I sure would have loved to have had a throw-away sweat shirt!As I made my way through this hyper-organized, on a grand scale machine I thought about What 56,000 people all in one place looks and sounds and feels like. This is the size of one of Caesar’s armies, with which was conquered Gaul and Britania. Imagine all these people carrying swords and running at another similar, bristling force? The scale of it is moving and thought provoking. In the Orange village I found my free Dunkin Donuts hat and got some coffee. I heard my name called and got to spend some time with a couple of RunRunLive friends, Krista Carl, shivering on a piece of grass with them, taking selfies and waiting for our waves to be called. One thing I have to give the race organization credit for is access to porta-johns. I think these folks had procured every porta-john in the free world. They were in the village and more importantly in the various queuing areas at the exits and start. There’s no way you could have that many people waiting around for that long without access. No one was denied their personal respite. Dust Rhinos – New York GirlsAct five – the ExpoAfter the warm up run with the rest of the team and the elites I was riding the elevator back up to the room. I was chatting with Jason Saltmarsh from Saltmarshrunning.com and another young woman got in the elevator. We small talked up a couple floors Jason got off leaving just the young woman and me. I asked her “So what do you do for ASICS?” She looked a bit befuddled and responded, “I’m Sarah Hall…” It was a bit awkward for both of us but I smiled my way through it, saying, “Oh, I just ran with your husband…” After geeking out with the elites I was all fired up and feeling very grateful for having been given the opportunity and invitation. When I got back to the room I sat down recorded a YouTube video to publicly thank ASICS and muse on the unifying force that running and our community is. Had to get that off my chest. Apparently the fact that I was taking the day off didn’t register with anyone at work because the emails and phones calls were dogging me all day too. Isn’t that one of the truisms of life? Nothing going on all week and then when you take a day off all hell breaks loose? I beat back some emails and started putting together some material for a podcast. I had nothing else to do and it was still early in the day on Friday so I figured I’d go down to the expo and pick up my number, and beat the rush. I was still smarting from the previous week when I had wasted 3 hours standing in line on Saturday trying to pick up my Marine Corps bib. Cell phone to ear I set off to find the Javits Center and the Expo. Outside the hotel the well-dressed bellmen ushered me into a waiting cab for the quick ride. The cabby, as is usual, was from some non-English speaking part of the African subcontinent but was able to make it clear to me that the Javits Center wasn’t a good enough fare for him and tossed me out of the cab at the end of the block. Ahhh New York, funny, kinetic and desperate place. And they wonder why Uber is so popular…Being a marathoner, with time heavy on his hands, and nothing better to do I decided to hoof it the 2 miles or so over to the Expo. Along the way I could get some work done, take some pictures and really just relax and enjoy the day. As I drew nearer I picked up a few other strays from various parts of the world all questing in the same direction. The triage at the expo wasn’t bad and I got through to pick up my bib and shirt fairly quickly, but I may have accidentally cut the line. The ASICS store in the Expo with the race specific gear was GIANT. I would have bought a hat but I already had so much gear form ASICS and I didn’t feel like fighting the line that snaked all around the store. Wandering around with glazed over look I felt a tap on my shoulder. “Are you Chris from RunRunLive?” It was Brandon Wood, not the Brandon Wood the opera singer ironman, but another Brandon Wood @IrunAlaska who was in from said northern territory for the race. We had a nice chat. Later in the day I had another one of those Seinfeld moments when I cracked open the race magazine that they were handing out and saw Brandon’s mug staring out at me as one of the featured runners. I sent him a tweet and it turns out nobody told him about it and he was thrilled to get his 15 minutes. I wandered around and noted Ryan and Sarah signing autographs, but didn’t stand in that line either. I’m not much for lines. The Kenyans were there on display as well including Wilson Kipsang the eventual winner and Geoffrey Mutai, last year’s winner. I went by the Garmin booth and tried to make them talk me into buying a new watch but they couldn’t close.I got bored and wandered off to find the buses back to midtown. Apparently these buses were running from Grand Central and back to the Javits but it was a bit of a madhouse. It was easier to take the bus back than to locate the right bus in traffic on the streets outside Grand Central. Back at the hotel I beat back the tide of emails and I met Megan @Irun4Wine and her newly minted hubby for a few drinks, grabbed some Chipolte for Dinner and went back to the room to write and work on the podcast. Reel Big Fish - BeerAct Six – the raceEven though there were 56,000 runners in this race I never felt crowded or restricted. As we rolled through Harlem with its gospel choirs and on into Queens the roads were wide and free flowing. There were a couple times where the roads pinched in for some reason but I never felt like I was having to side step or trip. The pack was dense, but you could get through it. As we got into the middle miles I started to work in some one minute walk breaks every ten minutes or so whenever convenient water stops appeared. With this cadence I would pass and repass the same people several times. There were a bunch of people with orange shirts that said “Imagine a world without Cancer” and I had that thought running through my head, thinking about my Dad and Coach and all the other people I know that end up on the losing end of this disease. Another stand out attribute of this race versus any other is the number of international participants. I must have missed the memo but apparently you were supposed to run in the standard uniform of your country. In my wave there were Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, France, Brazil, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Australia, South Africa, and tens of other uniforms with flags that I couldn’t decipher. It was almost like the Olympics in a way because all the French wore the same uniform and all the Swiss wore the same red uniform and all the Aussies wore the same green uniform. It made it easy for me to know whether an ‘Allee Allee’ or Aussie Aussie Aussie! Was appropriate. It also made it hard for me because no one was responding to the constant stream of humorous comments that stream from me during a marathon. I’s say something funny or ask a question only to be rejoined with a blank stare and a shrug. Compounding this was the high percentage of ‘double-budders’ who had an ear-bud on both ears and were unaware and unresponsive to the other 56,000 runners. Seems a bit of a waste to me. To be out on this course in this city with all these people and these big crowds and then seal yourself off into your own little world. Not being able to communicate with people I amused myself with riling up the crowds and high fiving the little kids along the course. I would run along the curb yelling “Who’s gonna give me some sugar?!” After the first hour, at one of my walk breaks I swallowed an Endurolyte and ate the Espresso Love Gu I was carrying. I had already carried that gel through 2-3 entire marathons without eating it and I figured its time had come. My body felt fine. I wasn’t paying attention to splits or pace. It was just another Sunday long run with a few tens of thousands of friends. Through these middle miles the course reminded me somewhat of the Chicago marathon as we passed through neighborhoods, each with its own character. Except, unlike Chicago, on the NYC course there are some hills. Nothing steep or horrible but some long gradual pulls nonetheless. I wouldn’t call it a ‘hard course’, but it’s not pancake flat either. The other interesting topographical elements were the bridges. There are five bridges, including the one you start on. When I’m not racing I don’t bother looking at the course map. Part of it is I’m just not compulsive that way and part if it is the extra element of adventure this provides me as the course rolls itself out in front of me real-time. The Queensboro Bridge was one of these adventurous surprises. This comes right after the 15 mile mark and, including the approach and decent is over a ½ mile long. This means you’ve got this 500-600 meter hill that just seems to keep going up and up. The strangest thing was this was the first quiet place on the course. We were on the lower deck, the inside of the bridge and the wind was blocked by the superstructure for the most part. After all the screaming and noise and wind we were suddenly confronted with silence and the sounds of our own striving. It was a bit eerie. Not the silence per se, but the absence of noise in the heart of this race in the heart of this city. This is where people were starting to show signs of tiring. I had to side step some walkers and pay attention to the holes, lumps and buckles in the road that were common more or less across the course. A not small group of runners congregated at the ‘overlook’ gaps in the bridge to take pictures. I trudged on up the hill in the eerie quiet to the soft sounds of treads and breathing and the rustling of clothing broken occasionally by the wheel noise of traffic on the upper deck above our heads. Coming down the long down-slope of the Queensboro Bridge I find myself runner just behind an Amazon. This young woman is tall, muscular and blonde like something out of a cheerleading movie. My old heart and mind swoons. I lose my train of thought and stumble into a collision with one of my international friends. I smile at him apologetically, shrug my shoulders in the direction of the Amazon and sheepishly say “Sorry, I was distracted.” His broad grin tells me that some things are the same in any language. A couple characters I keep passing due to my walk break rhythm is a pair of Irish guys in their Green national uniforms. One of them has, I’m guessing his name, Cleary, on the back. Knowing that they speak a related version of my native tongue I make a comment on one of my passes, “Tough day, huh fellahs?” Mr. Cleary looks at me and rejoins without missing a beat in his best and lovely brogue, “Fucking Brilliant!” You know what they say? ‘If it wasn’t for whiskey and beer the Irish would rule the world.’I believe that to be true, and a fine lot of mad, philosopher, poet kings they would make. As we crossed Manhattan for the first time I was starting to get a little tired. I ate another gel at two hours and another Endurolyte. I wasn’t crashing or bonking or hitting the wall or any of that other poetic nonsense, I was just getting tire. It had been a long week. Someone said we’d be coming back this way and I quipped, “If we’ve got to come back, why don’t we just stay here?”As we cruised down the broad reaches of First Avenue I was trying to apply my drafting skills to stay out of the wind. I’m very good at drafting. You need to find someone about your height who is running a nice even pace and you snuggle up into their wind shadow. Drafting works even better in a big race because you can sometimes find two or three runners in a group creating a nice big pocket. In big races you can draft a ‘double-budder’ for miles and they won’t even know you’re there. You just have to not bump them or step on them. But, running down First Avenue I couldn’t figure the wind out. As you went by the cross streets it would start as a head wind then shift around and end up as a tail wind. It was a constant swirl that made it hard to find a good pocket to run in. The sun was out now. It was after noon and warm. I was wishing I had worn sunglasses. Act seven – SaturdaySaturday morning before the race Brian the PavementRunner has organized a tweet up on the steps of the Library in Midtown. The idea was we’d all promote it, get a big group of people, take some pictures and head for some coffee, then drop by the ASICS Times Square Store.It was a good plan but we woke up to a dreary cold drizzle. We went anyhow and had some fun with the people that did show up. We took some pictures, had some coffee and made our way over to the Big ASICS store. The ASICS store near Times Square is a showplace store. It has an old New York Subway car in it that is really cool. This is where we took a couple more pictures that ended up making the rounds. @RunMikeRun from Twitter took one of all of us in the subway car with his GoPro on a pole rig and that shot ended up being picked up by Runner’s World. Greg, Megan, Megan, Brian, Noelle and I all climbed up into the window display and took some great goofy shots with the manikins that made the rounds too. We ended up having a nice lunch over near Rockefeller Center and then drifting off in different directions. Some of these folks were understandably worried about having to run a marathon the next day. I wasn’t. My goals were simple. Don’t die. Back at the hotel I used the afternoon to finish up the podcast and get some other stuff done. Having no plans for the evening I wandered about Midtown, got some sundries and ended up getting a plate of pasta and a beer at TGI Fridays. I picked up my Starbucks for the next morning and settled in. I wasn’t sure I knew how to set my iPhone alarm for the time change so I called the hotel operator and asked for a 4:45 wake up call, which was really a 5:45 wakeup call…I guessed. I laid all my race kit out in ‘Empty’ runner format on the floor. Tried to wipe the garbage off of my garbage bag and commenced to watch a little TV. There was some really stupid zombie movie on that I started watching but reconsidered whether that was such a good idea the night before a race. I fell asleep. I slept fine, like a man with no secrets and many friends, and my eyes popped open at 4:30 (really 5:30) fifteen minutes before my wakeup call, like they usually do. Act eight – the finishAll the walking around the city, fighting the cold and wind all morning, and having run a marathon 7 days earlier started to wear on me as we crossed over into the Bronx by Mile 20. I wasn’t bonking. I was really tired. I skipped the three hour gel and Endurolyte and started taking a minute walk every 5 minutes. Looking at my watch and backing into the pace I was on a 3:40 to 3:50 finish schedule if I kept the fire stoked. I was tired though and I only had the one goal, which could be accomplished with any finishing time. Coming down the bridge into the Bronx there was a larger woman running a bit loosely in front of me. There was also one of those giant orange traffic cones in the middle of the road. I don’t know how she managed to do it, but she caught her toe on the cone and started to flail. It was one of those slow motion moments for me. She was in that state where she was off balance and wind-milling her arms for purchase on that razors edge between falling and not falling. She was right in front of me. I reached out and grabbed her as best I could until she regained her heading and rejoined the flow. Coming back into Manhattan was a bit rough as I was super tired and not having much fun anymore. I just wanted to get it done. The race finished in Central Park but to get there you have to climb a long, long hill that just seems to go on forever. I was passing the walking wounded and the walking dead but I was still on plan to attain my primary goal of cheating the grim reaper once more. Once you get into the park it’s another mile-plus of rolling hills to the finish. When you make that turn into the park it’s still a long way to the finish if you’re hurting but at that point you know you’ve got it. Along that long climb up Fifth Avenue and through the Park the crowds become loud and roaring. It’s a constant assault of praise and exhortation as the runners struggle through to the finish. I crossed the line and had enough brain power left to stop my watch. It said 4:00:03. I turned on my IPhone to get a finish line photo and felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Brian the @PavementRunner who had finished a couple steps behind me. He had carried a GoPro and taken video of the race for ASICS. Later I would learn that my actual time was 3:59:52. That’s nice. And, I didn’t die. I was glad to see PavementRunner. First because he’s a nice guy and a familiar face, and second because I was clueless as to what we were supposed to do next and where we were supposed to go after the finish. I didn’t check a bag so getting one of those quilted race parkas was high on my priority list as the sun was starting to get low in the New York skyline. Brian and I found the special, VIP exit that we were supposed to use and the volunteers were fantastic. They were like hotel concierges telling us in great detail where we needed to go and how to get there. We found the parkas and the food and even the warming tent where we sat for a while to get some energy back for the walk to the hotel. In another helping of irony, the woman sitting next to us in the warming tent was from the next town over from where I live. Brian and I set out to find the hotel and joined the long stream of thousands of trudging warriors in blue parkas like Napoleon’s Grand Army retreating from Russia. Brian seemed to think he knew where we were going so I followed his lead until I saw water in front of us and intoned that even with my limited geographical knowledge of the city I didn’t think there was a river between Central Park and Midtown. We turned around and did some more walking. My legs felt great. I felt great. This was an easy one that hadn’t left a mark on me other than the tiredness of doing it. We stopped to take some tourist pictures in front of Radio City and the Tonight Show banner. The people passing us in the streets of the City were very nice to us. They were friendly and congratulatory. It was a nice, warm and welcoming vibe that I’ve got to give the natives credit for. They like their race. Brian asked me what I wanted to eat and I didn’t have to think about it. God help me, and apologies to the planet, I wanted a big, juicy cheeseburger with bacon, fries and a beer. Brian concurred. After we washed up at the hotel that’s just what we did. After Brian walked us three blocks in the wrong direction which was beginning to become one of our running gags of the weekend we settled into Bill’s Burgers and consummated our burgers and fries. The waitress, seeing our medals, refused to let us pay for our beers. I was starting to like these people. On the walk back to the hotel I led Brian into St. Patrick’s Cathedral where a late mass was being held. I crossed myself with holy water and genuflected to the altar and it somehow felt as if we had God’s blessing on this day. I was grateful. Act nine – the selfie that wasn’t a selfieMonday morning as I flew back to Boston for a full day of work the tweets and emails started to come in. “Were you standing in the middle of the Verrazano Bridge wearing an orange parka taking pictures?” “Yeah, I was.” “You’re on the cover of the Wall Street Journal!”“No Kidding? Can you scan that and send it to me?” And there I was in full freezing to death glory perched on the median taking pictures. A final Seinfeld moment and another great Irony that this Boston boy was gracing the cover of their Newspaper. The caption said “A runner takes a selfie on the Verrazano Bridge at the start of the NYC Marathon.” It wasn’t a selfie, but I guess I don’t have a say in that. Then it got picked up by CNN as one of their “Selfies of the Week” and somehow I’m in the same gallery as Madonna and Barack Obama. Act ten – the endAt the end of the day when I met all my new blogger friends for celebratory drinks at pub. (my kind of place). Grace’s boyfriend said “So, I guess you won the editor’s challenge, then?” Honestly, it was the first time the thought had entered my mind that there was any contest involving finish time, especially between me and these social media friends. A bit jolly from the beer, my windburn subsiding into the cheery glow of my cheeks I turned to my new friends and said; “If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from all the marathons and all the years is that you have to celebrate every one. You don’t know what’s’ coming next. Celebrate today and now and every race because this could very well be as good as it gets.” Skankin Pickle – Thick Ass Stout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 01 Feb 2019 | Episode 4-402 - Duane Interviews a Guy | 00:58:16 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-402 – A Narcissistic Interviewee (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4402.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-402. First of all let me apologize for causing so much mid-workout vision issues last week for many of you. I got multiple letters that many of you had some dust in your eyes when I talked about the passing of my friend Buddy. Or as my sister put it, “Thanks for making me ugly-cry in the gym!” Twas no my intention. I just wrote what came to me in that moment on that day when I knew we were going to have to make that last trip to the vet and my old friend would need to bring some change to pay the ferryman. Let’s not be all sack cloth and ashes here, rolling in the mud, tearing at our hair and wailing. Let’s celebrate today, this moment and the friends we have to share it with. If a dog teaches you anything it is how to live in and enjoy the moment. The sun came up today. The reaper hasn’t caught us yet and we, you and I, are going to fight that asshole all the way down. We are not going to sit around and wait to be caught. We are going to get out there and live and love and have adventures and make that sonnabitch work hard to catch us. Right? Sorry for the shows being a bit less predictable in cadence recently. Life happens. Even to me! Today we interview some narcissistic knucklehead about pretty much nothing. In section one I’ll talk about committing, really committing to this marathon cycle. And in section two I’ll give you the draft introduction to a new book I’m writing on startup sales. I’ll give you a couple useful tips for the season. First, this time of year we end up having to hit the gym a lot. One of the things I do during my warm up, because whether you’re running or lifting or whatever you should do a little 5 minute warm up, what I do is get on the treadmill in my socks for 5 minutes. I set it at a slow pace, (for me), like 12-15 min miles and just let my feet relax and spread out a bit. Really helps get everything warm and relaxed. Second tip is about consistency. One of the things I’ve been challenged with over the last couple cycles, especially since the 100 miler, is my legs are super tight. What I’ve done is to work a simple 5-6 minute stretching routine into every day regardless of what my workout is. It’s not the stretching per se but the consistency of doing it every day that makes a difference. It has really helped my running this cycle. Small things done consistently have a huge impact. I’ve got a new podcast for you. If you love words and language like me, you will find this fascinating. This is for all you closet Philologists and Lexicologists. If you don’t like these things it’s going to be like a freshman English lecture. For example, I learned that there is a root language known as Indo-European that influenced Latin, Greek and Germanic. Those languages borrowed from each other, but were all decedents of the Indo European. And, today I learned that the original Indo-European word for ‘host’ had a dual meaning of both the host and the guest. Same word. This root word gives us both ‘host’ and ‘guest’ as well as house, hospital, hospitality, etc. It also means that the word Ghost is literally a guest in your house. … Ok. Get your hankies out. One last Buddy story from last week. I stayed home with him Thursday and even though we had a rough night he rallied during the day and was up tottering around the house. At some point in the afternoon my wife came home so I took the opportunity to jump out the door for a run in the woods. As I’m standing in the open doorway in my running kit talking to me wife the old dog stumbles over and sticks his head between me and the door. The dog can barely stand but he’s decided he’s ready to head out into the woods with me on a run. A gamer and a wonder dog to the very end. On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – A new training cycle- http://runrunlive.com/hitting-the-training-again Voices of reason – the conversation Chris Russell Chris is the product of suburban entitlement and over-education. I promise I’ll find real guests in the future. 😊 Section two – Startup Sales - http://runrunlive.com/startup-sales Outro Well, my friends you have looked at your reflection and fallen in love through to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-402. Wake up. We’ve got work to do. And miles to go before we sleep. My training is going very well. My strategy of losing weight and eating clean is paying off with some great workouts. I feel lean and strong. At least this week. I’ve been holding steady at around 173 pounds, which is somewhere around 10 pounds lighter than I normally would be at this point. The first 10 are easy. I want to see if I can get down to 165ish and go into Boston at 170ish. My paces ae better and my staying power in my legs is better. We’ll see how it goes. I don’t have any races planned for the spring besides Boston. This is good and bad. It’s good because I won’t waste energy and risk over-training by racing too hard. It’s bad because I like to use those races as practice runs to give me confidence. So much of racing well is confidence. I’m in the midst of thinking thorough what I want to do with the podcast going forward. I think this current format has run its course. I like the format but I want to bring the quality up and be more consistent on the cadence and the themes. … Went out into the trails today. It was Sunny and just below the freezing mark. We had a deep freeze, followed by a heavy rain, followed by another freeze. The trails are nice and firm but there is a lot of ice. It’s slow going. Buddy would not have liked it. He didn’t like the ice. I ran into a guy ‘walking’ some sort of cattle dog cross that was wildly exuberant, running in circles and giving me friendly full-body hip checks. Fun times. Nice to see the people using those trails. Buddy and I made those trails. It’s good for the soul. Getting out in the woods. Wending your way through the ice and snow. Splitting the horizon where winter sun meets frozen ground. That’s life. I’ll see you out there, MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 16 May 2020 | Episode 4-431 – Liz Warner – Running Adventures | 01:02:11 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-431 – Liz Warner – Running Adventures (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4431.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-431 of the RunRunLive Podcast. I know, I know, I’m a few days late… I’m going to be honest with you. I just wasn’t motivated to produce this past weekend. Just wasn’t. My strategy is to spread out the production tasks throughout the week so when I get to the microphone it’s only a couple hours of work. When I don’t do that it takes a good chunk of a day to pull it together. I just didn’t have the energy. Wasn’t motivated. Hey, I’m just a average guy like the rest of ‘em and sometimes I run out of mental energy. Truthfully when that happens the product quality starts to suffer. I’m guessing there’s only a few of you die-hards who even noticed I missed my publishing window! You’re waiting until your weekend run to listen anyhow, right? So, I have recharged the batteries, grabbed the loose threads, gathered up the sundry pieces of episode 4-431, swept them into a slightly greasy bin, and will present them here for you today! Today we have a good show for you. I’ve got an interview with Liz who is finishing up her ‘run 30 marathons before her 30th birthday’ project. I was really impressed by her sense of adventure and hopefulness. It’s a refreshing attitude. It’s empowering. I enjoyed talking to her. And indeed, she is running to empower women in many places around the world that would seem sketchy and dangerous to most people, let alone a young woman. I’m glad to have been able to talk with her. In section one I’ll talk a bit about how to mix in some hard effort sessions into your stale old training. I’ve been doing this and enjoying it. In section two I have a piece on consumer buying trends that I’ve been thinking about. I left the old man and the Amazon out in the Apocalypse for now. I have been doing some writing but haven’t gotten back to that. If you’re new, I’m talking about an apocalyptic story series I’ve been doing for the past three episodes. I’ve got some ideas, but I have to find the time. I think it would make a great serial podcast. I would be the narrator and we’d assemble voice actors for the parts of the story. If you’re interested in any of that reach out to me and we’ll have some fun. And if you’re new, this is the RunRunLive podcast. I’m up to 431 official episodes across 12 years and 4 iterations. 60ish marathons, ultramarathons, mountain bike ultras, Triathlons, a Spartan beast and sundry other fun stuff. We talk to interesting people about endurance sports. We try to have some helpful tips for our endurance athlete friends and we muse on different things that might be interesting to think about while you’re out in the woods with your dog on a long run. It is still the apocalypse here where I live in New England. My family is safe and I’m still safe. I haven’t traveled since March and I’m getting a bit of cabin fever. It’s a bit like Groundhog Day. I’m still training, even though all the races have been canceled. Well, I should say all the physical races have been canceled. Humans being humans we are creating a basket full of virtual races to run. I have signed up for a couple. Currently I’m running the that of Barkley Marathon fame is putting on. And I’ll link to all this stuff in the show notes. He has 18,000+ people signed up from around the world. That’s over a million bucks in race fees. My ultra-running friends wouldn’t stop pestering me – so I singed up. It’s all those anarchic ultra-runners. The first day someone ran 84 miles. We’re 13 days in and someone already finished the 1,000K. I’m not doing anything special to try to keep up. I’m not sure I have the mileage right now to make 1,000 Kilos by the end of August. I’m actually pretty sure I don’t. I am logging my 1.2 mile morning walks with Ollie the Collie, because according to the rules it counts. I signed up for another one which again, I’m probably not going to bust out a 5K alone for fun, but I want to support people in need. Jerod Ward and Mollie Huddle are running that one. You, my friends, if you’re able, should sign up for some sort of virtual event. Even if you don’t want to do the event. Sign up and lend your weight to the sense of community around the race and your shekels to the charity involved. It’s an easy way to stay involved and contribute. I’m not big on virtual races. I’ve spent so much of the last 20 years training alone. I don’t care about t-shirts and medals. When I race, I care about how I feel and how I compete. I don’t get that same juice from running by myself. For me, that’s called ‘Wednesday’. Close your eyes and join me. It is a cold morning with the chill of a mist in the air. The sun is just starting to creep up over a still cold lake nestled in the shoulder of a mountain. You feel the thrill of the crowded starting line. Nervous, fit, humans shuffle dust in the dirt road. Murmurs and stifled laughs fill the background and there is an electric sense of energy. Like the opening of mass at a great cathedral a hush comes over the throng. A runner steps forward. She launches into the national anthem. Starting out low and haunting like the bugles before a pitched battle and cresting high and brave like a waving flag of freedom. A large, gathering voice lashed across a sea of energy. You don your hat, wipe a tear from your eye, and wait for the gun and the surge. And then, you see, you are out there… On with the show. About Zero ZERO — The End of Prostate Cancer is the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer. ZERO advances research, improves the lives of men and families, and inspires action. Link to my ZERO page: (for Donations) … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Some high Intensity - Voices of reason – the conversation Liz Warner Run to Reach - Tackling 30 of the world’s toughest marathons for women’s organizations around the globe Runner and philanthropist Liz Warner is taking on 30 of the world’s most challenging marathons, reaching 30 different countries before turning 30 in June 2020. Covering 786 miles, Liz is set to raise $100,000 for women-focused organizations in the final 20 countries, as well as to highlight on a global scale the efforts of each incredible organization and the strong communities, natural beauty and rich culture that each country holds. In It For The Long Run Marathoner Liz Warner launched Run to Reach in early 2019, marking the beginning of a whirlwind 18-month international fundraising initiative that will see her face 30 marathons across the globe and partner with 20 local NGOs. Each one empowers women in its community to become independent, take control of their futures and fight in the face of vulnerability and discrimination. As the year’s end approaches, Liz is over two thirds into her challenge, with races taking her up active volcanoes in Guatemala, through refugee camps in Western Sahara, and across glacial lakes in Mongolia. For the last series of races, Liz will venture to far-reaching and diverse destinations, like the central highlands of Afghanistan, into the depths of small villages in Somaliland and through the rolling foothills of Mt. Everest. With every inspirational story encountered, Liz has pushed the Run to Reach mission to go even deeper. Through this project, Liz hopes to tell a story of each nation that brings to light a positive narrative in the face of challenging situations and stigmas. Race after race, it has only become clearer that the heart of each country’s promise of prosperity and equality comes from the empowerment and enablement of its women. Now with a clear focus for the last of the Run to Reach marathons, Liz hopes to drive relentlessly the success of each organization she engages with. “I’ve participated in numerous marathons and fully believe in the potential of the running community to make an incredible impact on the planet. I am firmly convinced that our collective impact, linked together, can be exponentially more powerful and change the world we live in today. Through Run to Reach, the organizations I have chosen to work with are strong examples of empowering global women communities.” Whether it’s transforming education facilities in local towns and villages or providing women with the resources they need to become leaders of change, I want Run to Reach to enforce change across the world. Section two – Consumer Trends – Outro Well, my friends, you have run through the deserts, oceans and jungles of this mad world to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast Episode 4-431. Good to spend time with you. Well, my friends, you have run through the deserts, oceans and jungles of this mad world to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast Episode 4-431. Good to spend time with you. I'm glad I delayed this episode for a week. It gave me a chance to read through the pieces and edit them. Usually I'm a write straight through and don't worry about editing guy. The funny thing is, whether you believe it or not, I care deeply about doing a good job. Not just here in the podcast, but in everything I do. It causes dissonance in me to have to rush through and do things in a slipshod way. And that's not the way I want to tell my story. Research has connected the dots between why affirmation works in some cases and not in others. It has to do with whether or not you actually believe the affirmation. What does this mean? It means the story you tell about yourself is important. It also means the way you tell it is very important. And it means you must believe that story. You can repeat whatever positive mantra you want over and over while gazing at yourself in the mirror, but it won’t improve your performance or your life unless you believe it. You can’t trick yourself into believing. Affirmation, whether internal or external works when it is grounded in what we believe to be our true selves. We all know what our strengths are. Those are the bedrock of our beliefs. When you can understand and articulate what your strengths are it gives you an anchor. Rooted to this anchor you can clear your way through the noise of inputs and outputs and set a path that is true to you. Take a moment of quiet today and write down what you are proud of, what you are good at, and what you are passionate about. Then use that statement of strength to tell your story. Not just to yourself, but to everyone else. Thanks for listening. Chris, And - I’ll see you out there. (Outro bumper) To take you out is Track number 10 from Brian Sheff The Rock Opera by - Called "Searching for so Long" Enjoy MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff -> Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 01 Apr 2017 | Episode 4-362 – Rick Hoyt – a Running Life | 00:48:50 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-362 – Rick Hoyt – a Running Life (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4362.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends and welcome to Episode 4-362 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Chris here. I am criminally behind in my production schedule. As some of you may have divined, especially those of you on LinkedIn, I changed gigs over the last couple months and am now back in startup land. It’s not my startup, but still the the urgency and lack of resources spills over. (Humorous editor’s note: Microsoft word tried to change ‘divined’ to ‘deveined’ which is something totally different. That combined with being in my last few weeks of marathon training for Boston creates less space and opportunity to write and record. The company is out of Silicon Valley, (of course), and I’m out of Boston so there’s a 3-hour time change. Even thought you’d think you’d be able to adjust your work days, it always seems to add 3 or more hours to the day. It reminds me of when I had a job where I had to contend with Boston’s infamous traffic. I devised a plan to go in a couple hours early to beat the traffic and then leave a couple hours early on the back end of the day to beat the traffic again. What really ended up happening was I’d go in early, get caught up in the day, and end up going home late after the traffic. I’m sure there’s some math we could use there to make everyone’s lives simpler. The way we have arranged it everyone’s whims always line up. For example, let’s say you’re sitting at work on a warm Friday in June and you think “I know, I’ll leave early and get a jump on driving to the Cape for the weekend!” You can bet that there are a couple hundred thousand people having that same thought at that same time and you will be soon sucking C02 with them on Route 6. I’m sure all of this will be solved when the impartial Artificial Intelligence of the robot overlords takes over. But, will we miss it? Will we someday be writing long, sorrowful poems in praise of a good traffic jam? How it brought our families together and made the fabric of society stronger? How did I get down this rat hole? Oh, yeah. It’s Saturday Morning and It’s snowing. It’s been snowing for 24 hours and it’s April first. Last time we got this kind of spring weather two weeks before the Boston Marathon was 2006. It ended up being 85 degrees at the starting line that year. Today I bring you a RunRunLive podcast exclusive. An interview with Rick Hoyt. Rick has run almost twice as many Boston marathons as I have and I’m running my 19th this year. I am thrilled to be able to ask him questions directly. My favorite Hoyt story is how Dick and Rick pushed their way into the Boston Marathon. The Boston Athletic Association of the late 1970’s would not be considered an ‘open-minded’ organization. They were steadfast in their belief that the Boston Marathon was a traditional race. You had to qualify. You had to be a man. You had to pass a physical and be a ‘real’ able-bodied athlete to get in. Dick tried to get in and they wouldn’t let him. They thought they had a good barrier to entry that he wouldn’t be able to get over. They told him that he had to qualify, not only in his age group, but in Rick’s age group as well. At the time this meant Dick had to run better than a 2:50 marathon with Rick. Dick didn’t whine about it. He didn’t sue them. Instead he trained and ran a 2:45 qualifying race pushing Rick. This was before racing chairs existed. This was before the first running boom. These guys were breaking new ground. They were all alone. Their dogged persistence, their unassuming commitment to the sport, their grit earned them a spot on the starting line in Hopkinton. The way they did it also earned the respect of the running world and opened a door for a generation of runners. They were pioneers who caused change. They caused change by living that change. So that’s the context of our interview today. In section one I’ll go deep into how I do a pace run on the treadmill. In section two, I’m going to give you an audio recording of the 2nd most read blog post I ever wrote, a chapter from my first book, called “Running with Buddy”. This will give you a good lead in for the sentiment going into our next show which will include an interview with Luaren Fern Watts about her new book, Gizelle’s Bucket List. After we last spoke I attempted a 22 mile tempo run on the Boston course. Frank and I did an out and back from Ashland, around mile 4, to Wellesley mile 15, right before the dip down into Newton Lower Falls. This is the so-called ‘flat’ portion of the course. I’m always surprised at just how not-flat it is. It’s rolling hills. Nothing major, but some good pulls when you’re racing. I was rolling off a hard week with a lot of miles. The plan was to run an hour in zone 2, then drop to race pace -5 for an hour and a half then do 5 minute on/off zone 3 surges for the last half hour. My legs were heavy going in from the big week. I ran 7 miles the day before and a set of hill repeats on the Friday. It was around freezing and overcast to drizzly. We didn’t see as many runners out as we thought we might. When we hit the hour mark I dropped into what felt like race pace to me, but my pacing ability proved to be clueless. I was shooting for around 8 minute miles but we were clocking 7:30’s and 7:40’s. At the end of each mile I’d say ‘Oh crap’ and let Frank lead for a while and we’d manage an 8:05. Then I’d drop back into the 7:30’s. It was a pacing disaster! We hung in there trying to find race pace until around the 18 mile mark my wheels fell off. We were climbing a long hill and my legs just went dead and said ‘no mas’. This was about an hour into the pace part of the run. I let Frank go and tried to find a pace I could manage and recover a bit. I managed some to bash it out in the low 8’s with a couple of walk breaks. I finished up with over 22 miles and over 3 hours of decent effort. I even recovered a bit in the last mile. All-in-all I wasn’t horribly disappointed. It’s another brick in the wall and a good race-specific workout and a good reminder of just how deceptively nasty that Boston course is with its constant rolling hills. Then I jumped on a plane to Silicon Valley. Spent the week out there that nicely coincided with a rest week, although I did manage to run up a 1,500 foot mountain behind my hotel twice. Now I’m finishing up my last hard week and tuning up for the big show. I’m off the beer and seeing how far I can get my weight down for the race, which adds to the stress of it all! I made some poor nutritional choices in Cali and have been hovering around 180, which isn’t horrible for me. This week I’ve stayed on top of it better and am down around 175. Those 5-10 pounds make a huge difference for me on race day. Especially where my current bottleneck is my legs not my engine. Taking a few extra pounds off my quads will buy me a couple extra miles at race pace on Patriot’s day. … And the weather continues to not cooperate. We are in the midst of yet another storm here 2-weeks out. My day got away from me yesterday and I ended up doing a hill repeat session at dusk in the slush. Now normal people might think, “hey, the sun is setting, it’s 33 degrees out and alternating rain and snow, I think I’ll skip that hill workout.” But, I think, “Here are the marathon gods putting another challenge in front of me. Here is another opportunity for me to rise to the occasion. To do what others will not. And that has some merit to it. I kitted up quickly, before I lost my nerve, and headed out through the trails to a secluded road behind my house with a nice hill. The woods were quite peaceful. The snow/ice was a couple inches deep but nice and granular, like running on beach gravel. There was no wind, and it was quite beautiful with the hiss of the sleet in the tree tops. The hill repeats themselves were a bit tricky. I had 3 sets of 5 X 40 seconds. It was snowing fairly hard. There was slush on the road. It was maybe an inch deep on the shoulders, but the tire paths from the occasional car were relatively clean with just a skim of icy slush. There were parts where the melt water was running in streams down the hill. The question in my mind was where would I get the most traction? The tire tracks? The slush? The shoulders? I opted for the tire tracks. It was slick and I had to run a bit flat footed. I couldn’t really toe off with any vigor. The trick was to find the places where the road was cracked or lined because these irregularities provided a bit of a traction point. When the occasional car passed, I’d drift over to the slushy shoulder mid repeat. That wasn’t bad either because there was barks and sticks and dirt under the slush on the shoulder that could give you some traction. But you had to run through the deep stuff and got much wetter feet. I switched back to my old Hokas for the outing so as not to abuse my race shoes. And you know what? It wasn’t that bad. I got my workout done and felt like a total stud. I felt like I ‘won’ somehow. That’s the lesson here my friends. You make your own rules in this world. Don’t let the slush storms of life cause you to miss a workout. On with the show. I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to yet another Blue Apron or Hello Fresh ad. As a matter of fact, stop being lazy and go shop for your own food. We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Treadmill pace run - Voices of reason – the conversation Rick Hoyt – Team Hoyt The Early Years Rick was born in 1962 to Dick and Judy Hoyt. As a result of oxygen deprivation to Rick’s brain at the time of his birth, Rick was diagnosed as a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy. Dick and Judy were advised to institutionalize Rick because there was no chance of him recovering, and little hope for Rick to live a “normal” life. This was just the beginning of Dick and Judy’s quest for Rick’s inclusion in community, sports, education and one day, the workplace. Dick and Judy soon realized that though Rick couldn’t walk or speak; he was quite astute and his eyes would follow them around the room. They fought to integrate Rick into the public school system, pushing administrators to see beyond Rick’s physical limitations. Dick and Judy would take Rick sledding and swimming, and even taught him the alphabet and basic words, like any other child. After providing concrete evidence of Rick’s intellect and ability to learn like everyone else, Dick and Judy needed to find a way to help Rick communicate for himself. With $5,000 in 1972 and a skilled group of engineers at Tufts University, an interactive computer was built for Rick. This computer consisted of a cursor being used to highlight every letter of the alphabet. Once the letter Rick wanted was highlighted, he was able to select it by just a simple tap with his head against a head piece attached to his wheelchair. When the computer was originally first brought home, Rick surprised everyone with his first words. Instead of saying, “Hi, Mom,” or “Hi, Dad,” Rick’s first “spoken” words were: “Go, Bruins!” The Boston Bruins were in the Stanley Cup finals that season. It was clear from that moment on, that Rick loved sports and followed the game just like anyone else. In 1975, at the age of 13, Rick was finally admitted into public school. After high school, Rick attended Boston University, and he graduated with a degree in Special Education in 1993. Dick retired in 1995 as a Lt. Colonel from the Air National Guard, after serving his country for 37 years. The Beginning of Team Hoyt In the spring of 1977, Rick told his father that he wanted to participate in a 5-mile benefit run for a Lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Far from being a long-distance runner, Dick agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair and they finished all 5 miles, coming in next to last. That night, Rick told his father, “Dad, when I’m running, it feels like I’m not handicapped.” This realization was just the beginning of what would become over 1,000 races completed, including marathons, duathlons and triathlons (6 of them being Ironman competitions). Also adding to their list of achievements, Dick and Rick biked and ran across the U.S. in 1992, completing a full 3,735 miles in 45 days. In a triathlon, Dick will pull Rick in a boat with a bungee cord attached to a vest around his waist and to the front of the boat for the swimming stage. For the biking stage, Rick will ride a special two-seater bicycle, and then Dick will push Rick in his custom made running chair (for the running stage). Rick was once asked, if he could give his father one thing, what would it be? Rick responded, “The thing I’d most like is for my dad to sit in the chair and I would push him for once.” The 2009 Boston Marathon was officially Team Hoyt’s 1000th race. Rick always says if it comes down to doing one race a year he would like it to be the Boston Marathon: his favorite race. 2013 was going to be Dick and Rick's last Boston Marathon together, but they were not able to finish due to the bombings. They vowed to be back in 2014 to finish "Boston Strong" with all the other runners, which they did; stopping many times along the 26.2 distance to take photos and shake hands of the many well wishers, and finishing with several of the runners from their Hoyt Foundation Boston Marathon team. Dick and Rick will continue to do shorter distances races and triathlons together, and teammate Bryan Lyons will be taking over in pushing Rick in the 2015 Boston Marathon. Bryan and Rick ran some local races together this year, and will start training for Boston after the holidays, doing a half marathon in Carlsbad, CA in January, as well as, other local half marathons and races. Neither Dick or Rick are ready to retire yet. The Team Hoyt Theme Song “Run!” By the Ted Painter Band It's available for download at as are other songs and information about the band. It was written by yours truly and band members John Prunier and Kat Duffey, recorded in Nashville and Harford, CT. and performed by the Ted Painter Band. Incidentally, I'm also a member of Team Hoyt and have been running with Nick Draper, a 27 year old man with a similar disability as Rick, for the last 3 and a half years. This will be our 4th Boston marathon and 16th marathon. We also do triathlons. If interested, you can learn more about "Team In the Nick of Time" at Thanks for your interest in the song, Chris. Take care, Ted Section two Running with Buddy - The Mid-Packer's Lament: A collection of running stories with a view from the middle of the pack Paperback – November 21, 2005 by (Author) Outro Alright my friends. I’m running out of daylight so I have to get this show out the door! You have slip-slided through the snow and slush to the end of episode 4-362 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Like I mentioned, next week we talk about dogs! Going to the dogs. I love my old dog. He’s lying on the floor by the door here with me as I write. He’s bored. He’s wearing one of the ridiculous shirts Teresa bought for him. The music in the Rick Hoyt interview today was the The Team Hoyt Theme Song “Run!” By the Ted Painter Band. I got permission to use it from Ted who also runs pushing Nick for Team Hoyt Boston Marathon team- they do sub 3 hour marathons and this will be their 3rd or 4th Boston together. It's available for download at as are other songs and information about the band. To learn more about Ted and Nick search for “Team in the Nick of Time” on Facebook – or find the link in the show notes. It was written by yours truly and band members John Prunier and Kat Duffey, recorded in Nashville and Harford, CT. and performed by the Ted Painter Band. "Team In the Nick of Time" at I just assume at this point that everyone knows what I’m talking about but I guess it wouldn’t kill me to give you a quick review. I post the text of all these shows on my website, . You can also click on the show in your podcast player and all the links and notes and text are in the actual show file. That’s what I mean when I say – it’s in the show notes. I would appreciate any contribution to my Team Hoyt fund you can make. The crowdrise link is ironically enough, in the show notes. … I told you my hill-repeats-in-the-slush story. Let me tell you another story from this week where the evil gods of marathon chaos beat me. Tuesday I had one of those 13 mile pace runs on the calendar. I had it scheduled for mid-morning. I had a gap in my schedule and weather window where it would warm up a little and before it started raining. Of course calls got rescheduled and things went sideways and I couldn’t get out. I repositioned it for early afternoon. The challenge for me with this kind of run is I’m looking at close to 2 full hours out on the road. It’s hard to squeeze into a day. And that 2 hours is just the running part. I should have done it early morning but I was still recovering from West Coast jet lag. Early afternoon comes and I’m still at my desk. Now it’s getting dark and it’s raining. I’d squeeze in a regular run in these conditions but a 2 hour tempo run in the pitch black rain, not really. I didn’t have the right clothes with me or a headlamp. But, I had a flash of inspiration. I still have the key card for the gym at my old office. I had to pick up Teresa later so I would drive to the treadmill, knock out this run and get to the train. I ended up getting to the treadmill after 6 and had to take some potty breaks, etc. but was getting the work out done. Then around 8:00PM I’m 8 miles in, 2 miles into that last 5 hard zone 4 miles and I notice I’m the only one in there and the cleaning staff is in. I look at the clock, and I look at the cleaning lady and it turns out the gym closes at 8:00! That was it. I got my 8 miles in and didn’t concede defeat as much as called it a draw. The evil marathon gods of entropy and chaos didn’t let me complete my planned workout, but I did get an 8 mile tempo run in. We’ll call it a tie. Because sometimes. Even when you really hang in there. When you make the extra effort. The chaos and entropy still wins. Just go down swinging. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 14 Mar 2014 | Unicorns-1.3 | 00:30:49 | |
Unicorns-1.3Me-and-DadIntroductory Comments:http://go.liverfoundation.org/goto/cyktrussell[audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/unicorns13.mp3]unicorns13.mp3Hello and welcome my friends. This is Chris and this is the third in my series of personal podcasts that I am doing, to air out my brain and deal with my father’s cancer and gear up to run for the Liver Foundation at the Boston Marathon this year.Note: Even though this is on the RunRunLive Podcast feed, this is NOT the RunRunLive podcast. You have fair warning to skip now because I’m not talking about running. Standard RunRunLive episodes will be labeled as such.As part of this project, whatever this project is, I’m collecting donations for the American Liver Foundation for my running of the Boston Marathon this year. I wanted to layer on some purpose for the event and make it more personal.The donation links are in the show notes and at http://go.liverfoundation.org/goto/cyktrussellMy story is that I already had a number for this year’s race. I Didn’t need to fundraise, but with my Dad’s health declining I thought it would be a decent thing to do to dedicate this to him and my family.…I’m the youngest of 4. I have two older sisters and an older brother. We didn’t always get along with each other as siblings do but we are close and working through my Dad’s cancer has given us the opportunity to spend more time together. It’s been fun to talk through shared family experiences and memories.As the youngest I don’t have the depth of memories as my brother and sisters, but they are there and as we spend time together they are unearthed like the quite turnings of some dusty album. There’s nothing bad there. There is some funny stuff. Mostly it is bits and pieces and vignettes that we can compare notes on.I remember my Dad coming home from work one day with a full size electric organ for the living room. My sisters were both taking piano lessons and I guess he thought this would give them some additional enablement.At some point we acquired a full size piano as well at some point. My Mom taught my girls how to play songs on it when they went for visits.My Dad designed a built a giant two story car garage out of pre-stressed concrete beams and I can remember helping shingle the roof with cedar shakes. Snapping the chalk lines, as a kid, and knocking the shingle nails true, row by row, all day long.He and my brother would work on cars together in that garage. They had every tool and machine needed to do anything. I remember one time in the 80’s I dropped my car off at the house. It needed a universal joint in the front end. I was going to help them replace it (which for me meant handing them tools). I went for an errand and by the time I came back they had it done already.My Dad and I would go for walks in the woods in New England. I don’t remember the walks so much as the trees. I still can identify every tree in New England by its leaves and bark. If pressed I could make a serviceable whistle from a young willow sapling with a jackknife – which was one of our spring rituals.The red oak, the white pine, the ash – used for axe handles and hockey sticks – the poplar, the white and grey birch, the pignuts and shagbark hickories – whose bounty we would collect in the fall for fireside cracking and snacking – the hawthorn and elderberry. My connection to the natural world that I treasure so dearly was born in those New England summers.My Dad loved to chop wood to feed the wood stove all winter long. He taught me how to swing an axe. His favorite axe was a light, thin-bladed axe for limbing the felled trees, and he would grind the cheeks of splitting axes to create the perfect tool.He taught me how to swing a maul to split the green hard wood and how to stack the split logs so that they would dry. He showed me that you could split any log with a sledge hammer and wedges.The wedges in my garage came from his collection. I use them every year as I relive the pure visceral joy of bringing the heavy maul down on the yielding log in the sultry autumn afternoons. There is nothing I enjoy more than becoming lost in a large woodpile with my axe, maul, hammer and wedges.And that’s the lesson here. There is peace and honor in a job well done. It doesn’t matter that you can pay someone $100 bucks to mow your lawn or drop a cord of presplit wood in your driveway. That takes the honor out of it. The pride and honor of reducing a pile of logs to a neatly stacked and tarped pile of BTU’s for the coming winter is a feeling of intellectual freedom that I am thankful for.Today I’m going to share with you a chat I had with a friend of mine and fellow Goon Squad runner Michael Robertson about running for charity.After that I’m going to read a story my brother wrote recently about something funny from our childhood. I never realized how good a writer my brother was until he began to comment on the Caringbridge site my sister set up for my Dad’s friends to check in. He was always the best story teller in our family. He could spin the tallest tales with a straight face and get away with almost anything.Cheers,……Featured Interview:Michael Robertsonshots of whiskey for the plow driversWritten Feb 13, 2014 3:46pm by Dave RussellBeing that it is a cold and snowy day today, I thought I would relate a story of how our Father (Russ) attacked problems head on with simple and imaginative solutions.Shots of whiskey for the plow driversThe Russells were the original Skyfields Drive hilltop residents of Groton. When we moved in, no other residents shared the top of the hill and during heavy snow we were pretty much on our own. This was the mid sixties; a time long before the advent of DSS when kids were considered free labor for the menial physical tasks. For example “Adults run the chainsaw and split logs. Kids carry wood and drag brush”.To shorten the response time of the town plow crews, Dad came up with the brilliant but elegantly simple plan to bribe the plow drivers with hot coffee or shots of whiskey to encourage them to come by our neighborhood first. It was this type of imaginative thinking and direct approach that made him a legend and our “go to guy”.We would usually see the plows start up the hill from 119 through the windows off the deck and have about 5 minutes to prepare.Since Mary Lou was the oldest but couldn’t go out alone, she and I usually got the nod. We had to wear dark clothing to contrast with the snow and flag down the plows without getting plowed into a snow bank ourselves. Over time, we learned that it was best to stand across the street and approach from the driver’s side door as the plow traveled slowly up the hill. Each driver usually downed one on the way up and stopped for a second on his way back down.As expected, the shots of whiskey were far more popular than the hot coffee. In fact, if we tried to offer only coffee, the drivers would ask if the whiskey was already “in there”. It did not take the DPW long to learn that there was free whiskey available up on Skyfields Drive and there was not a quicker or better plowed road in town.Often, we had to service a whole line of snow removal vehicles waiting for their whiskey and make multiple trips back to the house for re-fills. Mom would count the trucks by looking down towards 119 and have our resupply ready. I think this serving experience prepared both of us for work later on at Johnson'sWe were also expected to keep track of repeat clients and inform them that “Our parents say you’re shut off” when they reached their 3-shot limit..One morning years later, my friend Jason and I decided to surprise the paper delivery man with a free shot of whiskey around 5:00AM. When he saw us coming, he drove away in terror. By that time, life in Groton had changed forever.Dave RSummary Article:Thanks for listening if you have been. I know this is entirely self serving but too often we seal off the past and look to the future. As we get older we begin to unwrap those packages.Last time I checked I’m at about $1700 of my $2000 goal. The Boston Marathon looks like it is going to be crazy this year. Thank you for all my friends who have helped.Go to:http://go.liverfoundation.org/goto/cyktrussellThank you for joining me on my journey with purpose.Chris,Music by Bridge Underwater - “sad song” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 09 Sep 2017 | Interlude – 2107-001 | 00:12:16 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Interlude – 2107-001 (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/ interludes2017-001.mp3] Link Interlude Ok my friends, my loyal and good-natured listeners, I have good news and probably more good news. I’m just not going to be able to squeeze in a show for you this weekend. I know I’m breaking a covenant, a holy writ, a treasured norm. I know I’m forcing you to stumble unencumbered by my droll wit and troubled psych-babble it your weekend long runs. But, it’s the smart thing to do. My excuse is that I started a new gig in the city this week and have been putting in 14 hour days with the long commute. Both my mental carrying case and my cache of time is exhausted. I’m in that early phase that requires a steep learning process and the corresponding time commitment to get there. My training took a bit of a hit as well this week. Not to worry, they have a super nice gym in the office, you know one of those city gyms with attractive young people, shiny weights and a row of 50 high-end treadmills staring hopefully out the glass front across the alley at the sky scraper neighbor. I should have my membership next week. That will allow me to get in there early or stay late and workout while the rest of the cubicle monkeys fight each other in road-rage traffic like demented rats in a box. But – Don’t give up on me! I do have some great content for you. I have an interview with Bob sycalik who is running a marathon in in every state in a national park. I have my race report for running the always amazing Wapack Trail Race in the tail end of Hurricane Harvey last weekend. I have several interviews cued up with marathoners and ultra-runners now that the racing season is in full swing. And, you can bet your carbon outsoles that I’ll be dropping some wisdom on job transitions! Figured I’d keep you in the loop. Gotta go. Dropped a nice 10 minute song for you at the end of this. It’s the Grateful Dead live from Orpheum Theatre - San Francisco, CA 7-18-76. So enjoy your weekend without me and I will see you out there. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 06 Sep 2014 | Episode 3-297 – Nutrition Case Study | 00:54:10 | |
The RunRunLive 3.0 Podcast Episode 3-297 – Nutrition Case Study – Rachel Shuck(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi3297.mp3]Link epi3297.mp3Support RunRunLive; Purchase an audio book of running stories. Written and performed with love by Chris Russell ------------->>>>>>>http://bit.ly/1cH2Fr7 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 03 Mar 2017 | Episode 4-360 – Dan Weston Runs to Work | 00:54:25 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-360 – Dan Weston Runs to Work (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4360.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Well hello my friends and welcome to Episode 4-360 of the RunRunLive Podcast. This is Chris your host. That’s 360 podcasts out there over the past 8-9 years. Kind of amazing. It’s been awhile since I re-jiggered the format maybe it’s about time for some fashionable new skins or something. I’d like to do more but there just isn’t much money in yak farming. There is plenty of money in being a hit man but I have to keep that in secret, offshore bank accounts. Today we have a longish interview with Dan Weston who is one of our friends from the UK. We talk through his running adventures. In section one I’ve got a piece on some of the finer nuances of hill repeats. In section two I’ve got a thoughtful piece on ‘hope’ that has been kicking around in my brain for about a decade so I’m glad it made itself known. I published this piece on LinkedIn this week. By the way a kudos to those of you who hunted me down on LinkedIn after I posted that piece about setting up your profile a couple episodes back. I published another piece on ‘Grit’. I’m reading that book by Angela Duckworth and I would recommend it. Very good book. Pulls together many of the concepts we’ve talked about here and, frankly, a very appropriate read for endurance sports aficionados. How’s my training been? Am I still battling injuries? I know I left you hanging with some knee pain and some foot pain and a couple week’s off? Well the day after we last talked I went out and hit a hilly 18-miler with my buddies and felt great. Coach has been beating the crap out of me but I’m hanging strong. He gave me a 13 mile step up run with 50 minutes of it in zone 4-5 that I struggled with. He gave me these hill repeats that I’m going to share with you. Then last Sunday I knocked off a hilly 19-miler on my own in 2:45. Yesterday he damn near killed me with a set of 7 7-minute intervals. But, I’m getting it done and nothing hurts. 6 weeks out from Boston so this is the hard part. The dark place. For the remainder of this week he’s got me doing another set of hill repeats and then a tempo 14-miler with the middle 10 miles at faster than race pace. So, yeah, the good stuff! … I’ve been trying out different guided meditations on Youtube as part of my morning routine. Like I said you can search on “Meditation for _____” fill in the blank and you’ll find several. Meditation for sleep, for studying, for energy, for anxiety, for dead possums…anything. Most of these are just breathing meditation. Some have various relaxation and visualization techniques. But some are actually very close to hypnosis, so you have to be careful. They will do that thing where they talk you into a meditative state and then do the old “you are going down an elevator…deeper and deeper…when I count to three…” that sort of thing. Just be careful, because in this state you are susceptible to suggestions. Like I said it’s hard for me to meditation because Buddy the Wonder dog hates meditation and will invariably start his barking and whining when I’m deep in a meditative state. He hates meditation. Funny, I noticed I’ve been buying a lot of extra dog treats recently…and going for a lot of walks… Hmmmm…. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. We have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do. … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Hill Repeats Nuance - Voices of reason – the conversation Dan Weston Short bio : I started running at the age of 26 and quickly progressed to running for North Wales. I did well in 10ks, so moved up to half-marathons, then full marathons and Ultras often achieving a podium finish. In the last year and a half I’ve been focusing on Ultra Marathons. Representing my Country (Wales) in the last few. My goals for the next year are to achieve a sub 2h30m marathon, win a few more UK Ultra Marathons. Section two HOPE - Outro Yes, my friends, not only have you run to work but you have taken a shower and found yourself at the end of episode 4-360 of the RunRunLive podcast. I will continue to train away for Boston. I’m keeping my promise of not running any of the spring races and just focusing on the big race. That will be my 19th Boston Marathon. My club gets a hotel room at the finish with a massage / physical therapist. If you need a place to take a shower let me know and we can have a beer! That is if you’re willing to wait until I drag my tired old bones across the finish line. I am collecting for Team Hoyt and I’m a bit light so I could use the help – the link is in the show notes. My cross-training project for the summer is probably going to be to try to climb the 10 tallest mountains in New England. Not sure I can do them all in one season but Teresa says she’s in. … The days are noticeably warmer and longer. I’ve been getting out in shorts the last couple weeks. Spring is in the air. I really like spring. It’s a hopeful season. A season of rebirth. A season of new beginning and promise. It makes me think about how lucky I am. How many podcasts I’ve been able to produce on this journey. How many adventures we’ve had together. How many great new friends I’ve made. I’m a lucky person. I really am. I am grateful. Thank you for hanging around with me. Think about what you’re grateful for. I bet it will make you smile when you’re doing hill repeats! And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 23 Dec 2015 | Episode 4-328 – Bobby Gill – The Half-Naked-Hilarity of Cupid’s Undie Run. | 00:57:15 | |
The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-328 – Bobby Gill – The Half-Naked-Hilarity of Cupid’s Undie Run. (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4328.mp3]Link epi4328.mp3MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/Hello and happy holidays from RunRunLive central here at the Mongolian Yak farm. I was going to do a whole bit about the wild reindeer catching the zombie virus, but since it’s the holidays I won’t mess with you. Today we have a really good talk with Bobby Gill from Cupid’s Undie Run about his adventure. I’m always a bit hesitant when a publicist reaches out to me about someone or something. I always worry about doing the same interview as 10 other podcasters. That really doesn’t add any value to you folks. But, I resonated with Bobby and really enjoyed our chat. He does this ‘aww-shucks we just got lucky’ routine but you can tell there’s some focus and talent in the background for him and the Undie run to get so big so fast. In section one I’m going to talk about strength training. In section two I’m going to wax poetic about 9 key moments in the runner’s journey. Last time I talked to you folks I was rolling off of the Mill Cities Relay and getting ready for the Jeff Galloway ½ in Atlanta. I’ve continued to have great training weeks and am feeling fairly strong. I treated the ½ marathon as a pace run and didn’t taper for it. I have pivoted my training from speedwork to long tempo. From the races I’ve done recently it shows me that I have enough speed but I need to work on strength and staying power. I raced the previous Sunday then did two hard 1:20 step up tempo runs during the week. I was also fighting some sort of cold all week. A travel race in the middle of December is just the worst timing, but I had to be in Atlanta all week anyhow so I just went down early. It was an opportunity for me to test out my pacing strategy to meet some old friends from the pod-o-sphere community and to check out a new race. I’m not going to go into full race report mode for you here. And I’m certainly not going to debate the Galloway training stuff. It’s not for me, but kudos to Jeff for lowering the barrier to entry to running for so many people. He’s doing good work with his flock. Overall the race is extremely well managed – everything went off without a hitch. The weather was good – maybe a little warm if you were back in the pack. I ran in short-shorts and singlet. I was soaked when I finished but it didn’t affect my running. The course was actually interesting and had some pretty parts for a city course. The defining feature was the hills. I have worked and run in Atlanta for years. I know it’s a hilly place. Running a ½ marathon through it is challenging. Jeff told me that it’s actually a downhill course because the finish in Piedmont Park is a bit lower than the start. It’s a very hilly course. If you know Atlanta you know that they aren’t periodic steep hills, like in a New England race where you might have a 500 foot monster somewhere on the course. They are consistent long, shallow uphills and downhills. You’re always either climbing or descending. It made it hard for me to execute my pacing strategy. I forgot my Garmin at home and was pacing old-school off my IronMan watch – which isn’t a problem for me. I was intending to try to pace at just under my marathon goal pace of 8 min miles. The hills made pacing kind of impossible so I just ran by feel. This is a course where it would have really helped to know the course. The course is a bit deceptive at the end because they run you by and around the park a couple times. You are essentially circling the finish line for 3+ miles. Tim Cleary had told me there was a big hill at mile 9ish and then a steep downhill into the park. That was the landmark I was looking for. There was a big hill at the 9 mile mark, but that wasn’t the one Tim was talking about. There was the steepest hill on the course around 10 miles with a long steep decent after, then you turn into the park. Tactically this is where I screwed up. After climbing the big hill in good order I got to the steep downhill and thought to myself “The turn into the park is at the bottom of this hill so I’ll spend what I have here on the downhill and cruise into the finish.” The problem with that was once you turn into the park it’s still a couple miles of rolling hills to get to the finish. I struggled the last couple miles in the park on dead legs. Not what I was intending to do but still finished under my target average pace. That tells me I probably went out to fast. I hung around the finishing chute giving out encouraging words and high fives in the warm Atlanta sun. …I’ll tell you a couple of ‘big data’ stories from the week. Now it’s the holiday season so I expect to get my share of junk mail from people trying to sell me stuff. I noticed over the last month I’ve been getting flooded with targeted advertisements for fancy cars. Every day I get some glossy brochure and personal invite letter from Lexus and Jaguar and Range Rover. I was trying to figure out what demographic inflection point I had tripped in the great consumer database in the cloud. Why did BMW, Mercedes and Audi think that I was ripe for the picking? I figured it was probably my age and my income level. I’m ripe for a mid-life crisis car. But it all seemed rather sudden and targeted. Then I was out on a long run with my friend Ryan in the Town Forest last weekend and we were talking about it. Ryan owns a marketing firm. We figured it out. You see, all the college financial data is public domain data. The great marketing data bureaus know that I just sent my last college tuition check. And that same day the handsome glossies for shiny, new, carefully hand-crafted by Austrian engineers, glinting in the desert sun as a slightly greying athletic male model grins at the abundance of life, while leaning into a challengingly scenic corner in the road from a warm, self-heating leather seat…began arriving by the bundle in my mail box. On with the show!Section one - Running TipsPart Two – Strength Training - http://runrunlive.com/strength-training-to-get-ready-for-a-hard-training-cycleVoices of reason – the conversationBobby Gill – The Half-Naked-Hilarity of Cupid’s Undie RunHere is Runner’s World’s story on Bobby: http://www.runnersworld.com/cover-search/cover-search-winner-bobby-gill Here is a link to a story that ran on a DC radio station: http://wtop.com/other-sports/2015/11/why-a-local-man-is-on-the-cover-of-runners-world-in-his-underwear/ Cupid's Undie Run is the world's largest organized underwear run and must- do Valentine's Day event. The money raised benefits the Children's Tumor Foundation (CTF), a nonprofit organization that funds research to fi nd treatments and a cure for neurofibromatosis (NF). Presented by Sock It To Me as the official underwear sponsor, Cupid's Undie Run combines a pre-race party, a one mi le -ish undie run and an after party. Cupid's Undie Run will take place on February 13 and February 20. In 2010, founders Brendan Hanrahan, Chad Leathers and Bobby Gill set off on a mission to raise awareness and donations to CTF after Chad's brother was di agnosed with NF, a genetic disorder that can cause tumors to grow on nerves throughout the body, which can lead to blindness, deafness, learning disabilities, cancer and chronic pain. Affecting more than two millio n people, NF often requires patients to undergo numerous medical procedures. Since 2010, Cupid's Undie Run has donated nearly $8 million to CTF. A nationally recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit, Cupid's Undie Run held i ts first run in Washington, DC outside of the nation's Capitol Building. In 2016, the run will expand into 36 cities across the nation and three runs in Australia. Each run operates from the support of volunteers - creating an organized and enjoyable experience for its 25,000+ runners. Cupid's Undie Run aims to put the hilarity in charity, raising fu nds for NF research through whatever means necessary. Why run around in undies in the middle of the winter? There is no better "exposure." Runners can fundraise as individuals or teams, earning prizes and recognition for their part in helping to #EndNF. Participants in Cupid's Undi e Run must be 21 -years-old or older. About the Founders After his brother's diagnosis of Neurofibromatosis (NF), Chad Leathers and friends Brendan Hanrahan and Bobby Gill brainstormed ways to raise awareness and money in the fight against NF. The charitable cherubs decided on undies and started to make Cupid's Undie Run a reality. With endless help and support from volunteers, family and friends, this group continues to lead the world's largest organized underwear run - donating millions of dollars to CTF. Section two – 9 transformational moments in the running journey - http://runrunlive.com/9-transformational-moments-in-the-running-journeyOutro - Closing commentsMarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/OK my friends, you have run, maybe in your underwear, to the end of episode 4-328 of the RunRunLive podcast. It will be Christmas when this drops. I hope you all enjoys whatever version of the winter solstice you celebrate. Make sure to be kind to your family. Even if they are testing your patience. I’m in the midst of a couple hard weeks of volume and tempo. I’m going to run the Groton Marathon this weekend as a long training run. I’ve got a couple listeners who have stepped up and said they’re going to come along. I took the week after the Galloway as a step back week. I did a couple of easier Fartlek runs to let my legs get a bit of recovery before this last big push. This week I knocked off a solid 1:30 step up run. My zone 3 and zone 4 efforts are 15 seconds a mile faster than goal pace – so that bodes well. I’m going to do a 2 hour step up tomorrow that should be somewhere in the 14 mile range. Next week I’ll repeat those efforts and cap it with a 20 miler. Then I’m going to taper and take a swing at the Rock n Roll Phoenix race on the 17th. It’s not ideal, but If I’m going to requalify in time to get reseeded at Boston I’m out of time. If I can work on my strength training and dial in my nutrition to drop a couple pounds I should be right on my goal pace. It’s not guaranteed. But I have to commit. If you dither and give yourself outs you’ll never accomplish your goals. You need to have the ‘There is no plan B’ attitude. So that’s it. I’m committed. Over the next 3 weeks I’m going to do the work I can. It’s going to come down to a little bit of luck and a disciplined race execution. …Last week. In addition to all the fine automobilia brochures I was getting a bunch of calls on my cell phone from various states. I’d answer them or they’d leave a message. Sometimes they’d ask for ‘Harry’ and I’d tell them it was a wrong number. Sometimes they’d ask about my interest in earning an online degree. It wasn’t until one of them asked for Harry Potter that I figured out what was going on. Someone had filled out an interest form for colleges using my phone number and Harry Potter’s name. At first I was annoyed but then I’d be like “Are you listening to what you’re saying? You’re asking for Harry Potter, really?” Anyhow I’m just explaining it to them now. I mean if you’re an admissions assistance for an online college you don’t need me adding to your misery. I joked with my kids that I should start asking about Wizarding classes and such. But – my best story from last week is about ancient smells. I had to pack for a week in Atlanta, including a race. I am a business traveler and I use a small roller-board and I WILL NOT check a bag. I had to figure out how to get all my stuff into the one bag. The item of clothing that takes up the most space is my size 12D Hoka Clifton 2’s that I’m currently running in. I decided I’d wear these on the plane and save the space in my bag. Now, I’ve been running in these shoes since the middle of August. You figure 30 miles a week for 16 weeks is north of 400 miles. Many of these miles were hot and sweaty. These shoes are rather well-used, salt encrusted and aromatic. I get on the plane to Atlanta and get upgraded to 1st class. I kick my shoes off to let them air out a bit and give my feet some breathing room too. The steward comes by with the tray for the meal service – (yes they still serve meals in 1st class). On the tray he’s balanced a nice full glass of red wine. As he places the tray on my tray table the nice full glass of red win drops off the front directly between my legs. I have one of those ‘Oh shit!’ moments. There is a moment of good natured chaos. But I discover that the wine totally missed my (white) pants and merely glanced off my computer bag.Where did the wine go? Well it neatly filled up my size 12D Hokas. Now I’ve got a pair of wine-soaked running shoes that I have to race in the next day. The attendant was mortified as I poured wine out of my shoes, but assured them it wasn’t the end of the world. They had given me another great story to tell and if that was the worst thing to happen to me I’m leading a charmed life indeed. More noticeable was the incredibly unique aroma of old sweat and cheap wine. I’ve wandered this planet for many years and I don’t think I’ve ever smelled anything like that. A very rich, full-bodied smell with notes of dead animal carcass, you might say. I smiled when I thought about the race the next day and people wondering what that smell was. Maybe I’d be like the pied piper attracting all the middle-aged Galloway women with my secret wine pheromones. Then I thought, maybe this isn’t a unique smell. Maybe this is a very ancient smell. Maybe this is the smell of Greek and Roman warriors. Maybe I had rediscovered the scent of Pheidippides himself. So, think about that when you unwrap your Old Spice Cologne gift set from under your pagan yule bush this year and I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/Http://www.marathonbq.comhttp://runrunlive.com/my-books Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 01 Nov 1999 | A Quick Introduction for New Listeners | 00:02:39 | |
A quick intro for new listeners Welcome. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 25 Oct 2023 | 5-480 The Old Man and the Marathon | 00:20:43 | |
Hello my friends and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast. My name is Chris and I am your host. Here is a quick introduction for anyone listening for the first time. I have been an amateur runner my whole life. I got serious in the late 90’s and it changed my life, like many obsessions will. I started this podcast in 2007 to share all the wonderful things I had learned. It has been a gift to me and I‘ve met so many great people who have enriched my life. There are close to 500 episodes that span a decade or more of training and racing marathons and mountain bikes and triathlons and so much more. I am sifting though my archives and will attempt to post them all here in sequence. I interview famous and not-so-famous people from the sport. I give advice and tips. I tell stories and entertain. The first 50 or so episodes have some audio challenges as the technology hadn’t really ripened yet. After that I hit my stride and the show’s are fun and consistent through around 250, where I take a break and begin a new format. After that there are highs and lows, as there are in any life. Currently I’m working on finding time to keep the show going into the future as I am now an older runner. Feel free to sample your way through my journey, our running life. And enjoy. I’ll see you out there. Chris, Outro: That’s it folks you have found your way back to the end of yet another RunRunLive podcast. If you’re new to the show go back and sample some of the history. If you’re one of my old friends Rech out and say hi. On reflection I find that friends are the most important thing we carry with us. Bear with me as I sort the technology out. And wish me luck in DC. I’ll see you out there. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
Enhance your understanding of RunRunLive 5.0 - Running Podcast with My Podcast Data
At My Podcast Data, we strive to provide in-depth, data-driven insights into the world of podcasts. Whether you're an avid listener, a podcast creator, or a researcher, the detailed statistics and analyses we offer can help you better understand the performance and trends of RunRunLive 5.0 - Running Podcast. From episode frequency and shared links to RSS feed health, our goal is to empower you with the knowledge you need to stay informed and make the most of your podcasting experience. Explore more shows and discover the data that drives the podcast industry.
© My Podcast Data