RunRunLive 4.0 - Running Podcast

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 -

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-337 – Addiction Counseling with Greg Milbourne

 (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4337.mp3] Link

Team Hoyt Boston 2016 Campaign ->

MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

Hello and welcome to episode 4-337 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Today we are going to continue our exploration of the relationship between addiction and endurance sports with longtime friend of the show Greg.  I recorded this interview a few weeks ago the same week I spoke with Nate so I was using that discussion as a starting point with Greg to till new ground.

In section one I’ll give you my Boston Marathon 2016 walk through.  In section two I’ll give you a post I wrote on innovation that has a business slant but you folks are smart enough to tease out how it all applies to your personal lives as well. 

Remember no Harry’s razors ads here, because then my kids don’t get to go to school. That’s right.  One of the companies I was on the leadership team of sold a good sized deal to Gillette who makes those expensive razor blades everyone is trying to disintermediate.  If we hadn’t sold that deal, I wouldn’t get my bonus and my kids would be street urchins now. 

That’s why we’re Ad free and listener supported – to keep my kids off the street. 

To keep the lights on we have created members’ only content.

By signing up for a membership, you will get…

Access To Exclusive Members Only audio

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

(I’m working on my Eastern States Race report this week, and something funny for Eric)

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.

(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 welcome new members Ken, Rebecca, Foti and Greg for helping keep the kids off the street over here at RunRunLive.

The Boston piece in this show is a bit long so I’ll keep my intro comments brief.  I’m in my taper for Boston.  I knocked out my last real workout on Sunday with a 9 mile pace run that was again right where I need to be.  The weather looks decent.  Now I just have to have a good day.

I’m trying to eat clean and relatively lightly this week.  I’m locked down.  I’ve got no travel until next week and I’ve got enough projects to keep me busy.  It’s still very stressful to sit around and try to stay calm. 

…

So, It’s time to line up for Boston again.  When this episode drops it will be Friday before the Patriot’s Day.   20 years ago I started running again and ran my first Boston Marathon.  It had its way with me that first year.  It taught me a lesson about what the marathon distance expects from a runner.  Boston expects even more.

When I first started running Boston it was still mostly a local affair.  We had our fans and acolytes among the serious runners of the world but it was a still a local race and a local tradition.  When the rest of the world didn’t really care much about city marathons we had a deeply embedded heroic culture and mythology that was already a century old. 

We grew up with the marathon in our lives.

Boston shaped the long distance road running culture in Boston and New England.  The spring and fall race calendar revolved around it.  You were either training for Boston or training to qualify for Boston.  Seasons of training and racing that had a nice and comfortable cadence.

Some things have changed, but things always change in this world.  It’s still the greatest marathon in the world.  And it’s still our marathon.

Over the last couple years Boston has become a bit of a white whale for me.  But I’m working on that.  I know I can’t keep doing it forever and the new standards and new qualification windows really force it uncomfortably into my life.

I’m completely grateful to have had the privilege of this old race in my life.  I’m grateful to have been able to meet the great men and women who have written their stories there. 

Time is a river and you can never step in the same water twice, but I’m happy to have gotten my feet wet when I had the chance. 

On with the Show!

Section one - Running Tips

Boston 2016 Walkthrough -

Voices of reason – the conversation

Greg Millbourne –

As a psychologist, a father, a husband, a runner, a former Army officer and a former country manager of an American business in Russia, I bring a varied and eclectic style to my work. Trained in marital, family and child therapy, I have worked with clients from childhood into retirement and enjoy the diversity of seeing people at all stages of their life and development.

My goal is to maximize happiness and reduce anxiety and the impediments to truly enjoying your life. To do so, I am happy to see individuals, couples or families, and look forward to seeing you!

Section two

What is innovation -

Outro

That’s it my friends, let the credits roll as we gracefully taper our way out of Episode 4-337 of the RunRunLive Podcast. 

With any luck this episode will drop on the Friday before Boston.  Remember, Boston, being the special, on-of-a-kind unicorn that it is, is held on Monday.  That’s Monday the 18th. 

Then I have to turn my cranky old self around and pull off the Groton Road Race the following weekend.  

I’m starting back into a fairly heavy travel schedule so that should keep me busy.  After Boston I’ve got my Grand Canyon adventure planned for the middle of May.  And I told Coach I’d run the Portland Marathon with him in the fall.  But, I really don’t have any athletic goals for the summer. 

I’d consider a trail 50K if I could find an interesting one.  I want to get off the roads and I’ve never raced the 50K distance – so that would be something new for me.  I think that’s what my future agenda is going to skew towards – new and interesting stuff. 

You can still support my Team Hoyt campaign for Boston.  The links are in the show notes. 

April 24th is the Groton Road Race. You can runit virtually if you’re not in the area – or show up and say hi - just go to .  We took a crew out Saturday and cleaned all the trash up on one section of the 10k to make it pretty for you. 

…

I’m a bit stressed out this week, because, you know, beyond all of this I still have a job and a family and a home and an old dog to take care of!  I took Buddy to the vet and they thought he was fine.  I have a regularly scheduled appointment in June and we’ll decide whether we want to remove the big fatty tumor in the ‘armpit’ of his back leg that seems to be impinging on his range of motion. 

He’s happy.  He still gets out.  Ironically this week as I’m laying low into Boston he’ll get plenty of walks around the neighborhood.  Hey, if all he can do is give hugs, that’s ok with us.   

…

Closing comments

Who out there has seen the original Batman movie?  I’m not talking about Michael Keaton.  I’m talking about the campy one they made from the TV show in 1966. 

In one of the scenes they have Batman (played by Adam West) trying to get rid of a bomb.  The bomb is one of those ones like in the cartoons.  A cannon ball shaped thing with a fuse burning.  Batman has the bomb in his hands and is running around the piers on the waterfront trying to get rid of it.

The gag is that every time he goes to throw it in off the pier there is something in the way.  Like a boat or a flock of ducks.  So he’s running around with this smoking bomb that he can’t get rid of. 

I had a workout like that last week. 

Coach scheduled a little tune up workout of 3 sets of 3 X 200 meters all out with 20 second rest between reps and 3 minutes between sets.  It’s basically a lactic acid buffering workout.  Fine tuning for the race. Compared to what I have been doing it’s an easy workout, maybe 3-4 miles total even with the warm up and cool down. 

I was working from home and of course the day got away from me and it was getting into the afternoon before I got ready to go.  I was coming off a delayed flight from Chicago the night before and was a bit jet lagged.

I figured I’d head down to the track and knock it out.  I drove down to the track and much to my surprise and frustration there was a track meet in progress!  Who do these people think they are using my track!

I had to go to plan B.  I figured I’d just knock them out in my neighborhood.  But, of course, my neighborhood doesn’t have the 200’s marked off.  I had to go back to my desk and program this workout into my Garmin.  It took a few minutes to do this, because the workout is a bit detailed in structure.  Then I synced it to my watch and headed out.

I ran about a 2K warm up and hit the button to start the first 200.  I’m going all out on these, 99% effort, which for my neighbors I’m sure looked like I was having some sort of fit in the road. 

Now, I’ve done enough track work to know how far approximately 200 meters is.  I got to that point and the watch didn’t go off.  Now I’m thinking, “Did I enter 200M into the watch or 300M?” Because there’s a big difference there for this workout.

I turn around and do another one back to where I started and now I’m pretty sure the distance is wrong.  No problem I’ll check the watch and see what it says.  The only problem is that in order to do that I have to stop the workout in process.  Crap. 

I stop the workout and start editing it on the watch and I still can’t tell what it says because the watch has converted everything to miles and even though I’m a smart guy I don’t know how to convert 200 or 300 meters to .19 blah blah miles.  So, I have to change the watch default to metric and then see that I indeed programmed 300m instead of 200m. 

That’s not going to work.

Back to the house.  Log back into Garmin Connect. Fix the workout.  Re-sync.  Back out the door.

The actual workout really wasn’t that bad, but it fought me all day, it was a test of wills and I wasn’t going to let it win.  In the end this easy 30 -40 minute workout probably chewed up 2 hours of my afternoon.

Just like Adam West trying to get rid of that smoking bomb.

I’ll see you out there.

 

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 -

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 audio

Member 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 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.

(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 Tips

It’s supposed to hurt sometimes -

 

Voices of reason – the conversation

Anthony – “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 two

5 myths about finding your true passion -

Outro

Friends 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 -

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode - Tease

(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/Tease1.mp3] Link

 

Hey folks, I was listening to Episode 4335 after I had dropped it today and realized that I had not inserted the Stu’s 30K race report sample that I put in the members’ feed.  My production process with my new virtual assistant team still has some kinks! 

Just to be clear those are production kinks, not the kind of kinks you folks have out in San Francisco…

Anyhow – I’m going to put the tease in here.  In addition this give me a chance to drop another tease for a zombie story that I created an audio for the members.  I was doing some virtual cleaning this week and I found this zombie story I had written last year in November for NanoWrimo.  I read it and it was super cool so I recorded it for you.

Sorry for all the RunRunLive noise, but I’m also going to drop another episode this coming Friday because I interviewed a movie maker who is trying to make a deadline and I figured I’d expedite an episode to help him out. 

Expectation – wise you’ll get 3 episodes in 3 weeks.

Bang!  That’s value. 

Now listen to this…

Stu’s 30K race snippet here.

Truck Oil Zombie Story here

Thanks folks – That Offspring song is the one that was blasting on a dude’s phone when I passed him at Stu’s 30k.  You see that more and more these days.  People running races with their music playing free for the world to hear. 

These two new pieces of audio and many more to come in the members section.  Head over to RunRunLive.com if you are interested. 

Cheers,

Chris,

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 audio

Member 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 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.

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 Tips

Effort based training -

Voices of reason – the conversation

Neely Spencer Gracey – Elite Marathoner

Eight time division II national cross country champion and professional runner…

Runner’s World article ->

 

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/neelyruns

Twitter: @neelysgracey

Instagram: NeelySGracey

Garmin Connect: neelysgracey

Map My Run: neelysgracey

PROFESSIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

Runner-up at USATF Club XC Nationals 2011

4th at the BUPA Grand Prix Edinburgh, Scotland 2012

Runner-up at USATF 5k Road Champs 2012

Third at USATF 10k Road Champs 2012

USATF Athlete of the Week 11/14/12

Chiba Japan Bronze Medal Ekiden Relay Team 2012

First ever American Zatopek 10k Champ 2012

5th at USATF XC Nationals 2013

Top American and first non-African (13th) at the World XC Champs 2013

5th at USATF 5k Road Champs 2013

Queen of the Mountain and 6th overall at MRR 2014

5th and top non-African at Campaccio IAAF XC 2015

Runner-Up at Gasparilla Half Marathon 2015 (Olympic Trials qualifier)

Section two

9 Mistakes you don’t have to make -

Outro

My 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 comments

Buddy 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 -

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 Tips

How to program workouts into your Garmin -

 

Voices of reason – the conversation

Nate Wagner

My 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 @natewagner08

Running blog: 

Section two

Selling Change- http://runrunlive.com/selling-change

Outro -

Closing comments

MarathonBQ – 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 -

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-332 – Tobias Mews – 50 Bucket List Races

 (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4333.mp3] Link

Team Hoyt Boston 2016 Campaign ->

MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

Hello and welcome to episode 4-333 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Hello my friends.  Welcome and thank you for taking the time to download this podcast and listen to it.  You didn’t have to.  There is plenty of content clamoring for your attention and for you to commit an hour of your time to listen to me is a great blessing.  I thank you. 

This podcast has changed over the years.  The current version is the 4th iteration.  Some of you listen for the running tips of a seasoned marathoner.  Others to get some business or life advice from a seasoned, well, guy.  Some may just like the sound and music of my readings.  Whatever camp you fall into I work to create something of value.  My goal is that you can take away one nugget, one thought, one learning or one thing to try.

I know you do your best.  You’re always trying to do what’s right in this world.  This is our time to talk.  You’ve worked hard.  Sit back and let me talk awhile.  Listen to some ideas and I’ll give you the best I can with the time I have and resources at my disposal.  OK?

Today I interview Tobias Mews – Isn’t that a melodic name? – Tobias has written a book about 50 races that you just have to run!  It’s his ‘best of’ list from his years of being an endurance sports journalist.  He’s a fun guy and we have a great talk.  We actually talked for over an hour because he was pumping me with questions about what I do – I don’t think he could wrap his head around the fact that this is all just a hobby for me.

In the first section we’ll talk about some things to consider running when it is super-cold out.  In section two I’m going to wax poetically about a certain local, intellectual vagabond. 

My training, I’m pleased to say is going great.  A little bit more than a month out from Boston and I feel pretty strong.  My heart is right in the groove.  My legs are coming around and my fitness seems to be good.

Coach has transitioned me from base-building to race specific strength and fitness.  I capped off a 50 mile week Sunday Morning with a nice 20 miler with some race pace in it.  It was 2:45 with 1:30 of MP in the middle.  Good run.  Did a long step up run the previous Tuesday where I was in the mid 7’s for most of the tempo part.  Did a set of 10 hill charges on Friday and my form and leg strength was good. 

So – yeah, feeling strong.  Looking forward to Boston.  This time last year I couldn’t even race! 

…

One of the things about me, that I’m sure you’ve noticed, is that I have a lot of different interests.  Philosophically I’m ok with this and I call it my portfolio life.  Frankly, those times in my life where I’ve been squeezed into working on one topic make me nervous and sad.  Working on, thinking about and creating different things makes me happy.

The challenge is that you spread yourself too thin.  You never actually get anything done.  You eventually get to the point where you have so many irons in the fire you just sit and shake.  Another thing I find is when things get hard I immediately come up with one or two or three new projects that I want to work on instead of the ones I haven’t finished.

This crops up for me when I’m not traveling.  When I’m on the road and I’m engaged and working I don’t have time to think about what to do next. It’s obvious.  When I’m confronted with too much free time – it ironically becomes a problem because I have to decide what to focus on and you can’t focus on everything. 

To combat this I have adopted a couple of tactical practices that are different sides of the same theory. 

First is the classic .  The way I do it is I have my 2-3 top priority projects, and then a pile of other tasks.  I’ll set the timer on my iPhone for 20 minutes and work non-stop, without interruption on a project until the timer goes off.  Then, I’ll switch to the next project or set of tasks or maybe take a break.  In this way I’m constantly rotating through productive work, making progress on everything and not getting bored or distracted. 

The other thing I do is I’ve identified the 1-2 major enabling projects in each of the portfolio areas and my rule is, no matter how long it takes, no matter how hard it is, I finish that project before I can load another one (no matter how cool and sexy it is) into the queue.  This allows me to focus energy and resources and not get discouraged.  I give myself permission to fail at these projects but only when I finish them!

What’s an example?  I had this great idea to create a webinar series for the Boston Marathon this year as a charity thing for my Hoyt fund.  I had a few other podcasts and books that I have ideas for too.  But I’m not allowed to work on them until I finish the two projects I’m working on right now, which are automating the RunRunLive podcast production and redoing the RunRunLive website. 

So there’s your nugget for today.  It’s ok to have a lot going on, but you have to focus on something to get anything of substance done.

On with the Show!

Section one - Running Tips

Running in the super-cold -

 

Voices of reason – the conversation

Tobias Mews

Tobias Mews Adventure Journalist & Athlete

Mews Media Ltd

 

How to begin? It’s not only the hardest part for a journalist, but also incredibly hard for me to describe what I do.

I call myself an adventure journalist – a title founded on the principal that I write about the great outdoors and adventure sports. But I’m so much more than that: I could also call myself an author, motivational speaker, consultant, copywriter, blogger, video journalist, filmmaker, TV presenter and producer. But I think adventure journalist best sums up what I do.

However, I also refer to myself as an adventure athlete – which essentially means that I compete in adventurous endurance challenges – whether that be tackling the world’s toughest ironman distance triathlon, running ultra marathons around Mont Blanc, cycling the length and breadth of the country or swim running across islands in Sweden’s Archipelago.

Indeed, I could argue that I have a symbiotic relationship between my career as an adventure journalist and that as an elite level adventure athlete. One can’t live without the other. A curse and a blessing when the line between hobby and career become blurred.

But it means that I write with passion and enthusiasm for my subject – which essentially involves getting out of my comfort zone and exploring the world through adventure sports. And most importantly, I rarely write about anything I’ve not experienced.

Section two

In the footsteps of Thoreau on Cape Cod-

Outro -

Closing comments

MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

Ok my friends, reset your 20 minute timer because the task of ‘listening to the RunRunLive Podcast is done – check the box next to Episode 4-333.

Like I said in the intro I’m trying to offload a bunch of podcast tasks to save time.  I really love the global internet economy.  I have my guy in India who I’m training to be my production assistant.  I have a guy in Moscow I’m training to do the interview edits.  If I can pull it off all I’ll have to do is create and record the content and the rest will get done auto-magically.  That’s the theory anyhow.  If I can offload that stuff I can focus on creating content. 

I’m also going to re-do my website and install a membership option.  Hopefully I can find a way to pay for all this and still get you the content without having to do ads.  Because I hate ads. 

I’m full on training for Boston now.  And also getting into the short strokes on setting up the Groton Road race.  25th anniversary year for the race.  Come up and join us.  It’s going to be special.

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 frankly quite surprised that no one has come forward to run the Grand Canyon with me on Thursday May 19th.  My plan is to sleep somewhere around Sedona then drive up in the early morning to the South Rim and run down the Bright Angel Trail to the Phantom ranch and back up.  Worst case it will take 8-10 hours and I’m in no hurry – so think about it – shoot me an email and we’ll have some fun.

…

These are some interesting times we live in.  The promise of freedom and longevity for large portions of the world.  The expansion of science into unknown realms.  The understanding of history and archeology and the universe.  We live in amazing times.  I am very grateful to live in these times. 

There is no need for any of us to pull down others.  It does not increase our prosperity to persecute others.  There is no easy button where all the hard problems go away and the world becomes some neat reality TV show for you to change the channel on.

The world we live in is amazing – but it is chaos.  There are no easy answers.  Everything is shades of grey.  That makes people crazy.  That makes people uncomfortable. 

So when the charlatans come with their easy answers it is too easy.  We don’t realize what we are sacrificing.  There are no easy answers.  When you side with the anti-intellectual herd you give up more than you realize.  You give up your ability to think for yourself, to think about hard problems with many different facets to them. 

You give up your freedom.  Don’t make the easy choices to run with the herd and follow the pied pipers.  Make the choice to think for yourself.  I know it’s hard but you can do it.  We can do it. 

Do the right thing – and l’ll see you out there.

MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-332 – Marathon Champ Kim Jones (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4332.mp3]Link epi4332.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 4-332 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Hello, hello, hello. Remember when I said we didn’t get any snow in that big storm? Well you can scratch that out, apply a little white-out and scribble over it because we’ve gotten a couple nice storms since then up here in New England. Winter showed up after all and left me with some fluffy, white water particles to move. It’s also pretty chilly. Dropping down into the single digits Fahrenheit this weekend. I don’t mind. It just puts a little ice in the beard for these long runs. We did a 2 hour long run on Sunday morning and it was -9 F when we started and 0 when we finished. That was a bit rough. By the way kids ‘White-out’ is a clever double entendre for snow and typing mistakes. You see…we used to put sheets of flat dead trees into complex mechanical devices that bashed tiny courier font letters into place on the page. If we hit the wrong basher we’d have to pull the whole sheet of squished dead tree out of the bashing machine, paint over that mis-bashed bit with white paint, called ‘white-out’, then re bash it with the correct courier font basher. Medieval, right? In the late 80’s Wang labs invented ‘word processing’ ad all the courier-bashers went onto the scrap heap. Which was good news for me. The only class I ever got a C in was typing. Anyhow, today we chat with Kim Jones who was an elite marathoner in the late 80’s, early 90’s. It was a pleasure to talk with her and hear about her amazingly successful and well balanced career. Especially because she had a fairly difficult early life. In the first section I share a post I wrote on what to expect from a 24 hour relay race. In the second section is a summary of an interesting book I just finished on reinvention. I’ve been training well. I’ve been hitting some decent distances with some quality and volume. Coach has me working on some core strength and yoga. I really need it because my hips, glutes and quads are weak and my balance is crap. Nothing hurts and I’m progressing injury free. I’m probably up into the mid-40 miles a week range in volume and feel fine. We’re 2 months out from Boston and the hard work is about to begin. My travel and work schedule hasn’t been that intense so I’ve been trying to get a lot of sleep. I’ve been eating, mostly fruits and veggies and have maintained my beer breakup for 3 whole weeks now! I feel strong. Even though it’s cold outside I try to get out on the roads to do my runs because that little bit of sun goes a long way towards chasing the winter blues away. …I’ve had a few people asking about Buddy the old Wonder Dog. He’s doing fine. He’s old and doesn’t get around with the same pop that he used to. He’s got those fatty lumps which are some sort of benign fatty thing that old dogs get. He’s still lean and healthy at 12+ years old but his hips bother him if he does too much. He still manages the stairs and does everything he needs or wants. He apparently sees, smells and hears as well as he ever did. There is only one other dog left from his cadre in the neighborhood. All the rest are gone now. His friend the Sheltie took the long trip just last week. On the weekends he rides around in my truck with me to do errands. He just likes to get out and watch the scenery go by. When he was younger I had a truck with a sliding window on the back of the cab. He’d sit with his rump on the armrest and stick his head out the back window. More than once I’d look in the rearview mirror to see people in the car behind waving and making faces. I still take him out for easy runs, but not more than once a week, and only on trails and only easy runs. The cold weather helps but he doesn’t like the snow because it gets stuck in his paws. I just have to be careful to not overdo it or he’ll be stiff and sore and limping around the house the next day. He still gets cabin fever if I don’t take him out, at least for a walk every now and then. He’s cantankerous and will decide to walk up behind me and bark in my ear while I’m working at my desk and scare the bejeesus out of me. Or just sit and stare at me, like he’s trying to levitate me with the Force. Mostly he just hangs around the house and sleeps. He likes my bedroom, and my bed because it’s a high vantage point on the second floor and he can keep an eye on the front yard while he’s snoozing. This does mean that I’ll find my pillow a bit tainted with the smell of dog-butt and I’ll wake up with a beard full of Border collie hair. There is hair everywhere. We got him a big bed in the living room and he sleeps on that while we watch TV. He does this funny thing where he digs in it before he lies down. He’s always at the door to greet us when we come home looking for a cuddle and a hug. It’s been quite a ride since I smuggled that 8-week-old shy puppy home in a bag under the seat in front of me from a farm in Tennessee. Where I am in my life I don’t know if I’ll get another dog. But it’s hard to imagine not having the comfort and companionship. Maybe I can get a time-share arrangement. I was watching TV this week and it was cold in the house. I scooped up my old puppy who was snarfing around the rug at my feet compulsively looking for crumbs. He may be old and smelly but he still makes a great blanket to cuddle with on a cold winter’s night. On with the Show! Section one - Running Tips24 Hour Relays - http://runrunlive.com/mastering-the-24-hour-relay-race

Voices of reason – the conversationKim Jones. http://www.runnersworld.com/newswire/marathoner-kim-jones-authors-autobiographyBook ->Dandelions Growing Wild on AmazonCoaching site-> http://www.anaerobic.net/

Kim Jones began running marathons after watching Joan Benoit Samuelson’s victory at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics on television. She quickly rose to become one of the best female marathoners in US history and was ranked 3rd in the World in 1991. Throughout her career, Kim has been one of the most dominant distance runners in the world. She has more high-level placings in world-class marathons than any other US female marathoner in history with 17 performances under 2:33. (Deena Kastor 10; Joan Benoit Samuelson 9; Lisa Weidenbach 7) Kim grew up in the Pacific Northwest before raising her two daughters in Spokane Washington, and now resides in Fort Collins, Colorado with her husband Jon Sinclair. Since retiring from competition in 1998, she has been a coach with Anaerobic Management (www.anaerobic.net), an on-line coaching service for distance runners, as well as a speaker at special events, road races and Expos.Fastest marathon performances:• 2:26:40 Boston ‘91 (2nd) 3rd fastest U.S. marathon performer• 2:27:50 Berlin ‘91 (2nd)• 2:27:54 New York City ‘89 (2nd)• 2:29:34 Boston ‘89 (3rd)• 2:30:00 Boston ‘93 (2nd) • *** Plus 12 other performances under 2:33 since 1986• 5000 meters- 15:43 (‘96) • 10km- 32:23 (‘89), 32:48 (‘97)• 15km- 50:09 (‘88), 50:20 (‘95) • 1/2 Mar.- 1:11:34 (‘88)• 25km- 1:26:54 (‘97) • Marathon- 2:26:40 (‘91), 2:31 ('97, at age 39)• U.S. 30K (1:47:41) and 20 mile (1:55:29) records• Ranked 3rd in the World in the marathon (1989)• 8th place finisher at the Stuttgart World Championships (1993)• Member of the Road Runners Club of America Hall of Fame (1996)• Member of the Colorado Distance Running Hall of Fame (2009)• 25 career marathons (before the 1998 injury and retirement)• Average time - 2:33:04• Average place - 4.1• Fastest marathon 2:26:40 - Boston 1991 • Slowest marathon 2:48:48 - Honolulu 1984 (first marathon)MARATHON PERFORMANCES• 1984 Honolulu 2:48:48 5th place• 1985 Twin Cities 2:35:58 2• 1986 Twin Cities 2:32:31 1• 1987 Twin Cities 2:35:42 2• 1988 Pittsburgh 2:32:15 5• 1988 Chicago 2:32:03 5• 1989 Houston 2:32:32 2• 1989 Boston 2:29:34 3• 1989 Twin Cities 2:31:42 1• 1989 New York 2:27:54 2• 1990 Boston 2:31:01 5• 1990 New York 2:30:50 2• 1991 Boston 2:26:40 2• 1991 Berlin, Germany 2:27:50 2• 1992 Hokido, Japan 2:35:46 3• 1993 Boston 2:30:00 2• 1993 World Championships/Stuttgart 2:36:33 8• 1994 Boston 2:31:48 8• 1995 London, England 2:31:35 6• 1995 World Championships/Gothenburg short course 14• 1995 Chicago 2:31:24 2• 1996 New York 2:34:46 4• 1997 Boston 2:32:52 9• 1997 New York 2:32:00 6• 1998 Houston 2:35:44 2• *** injury and retirement from competition• 1998 Chicago 2:43:37 16• 2001 New York 2:51:21 36Related Articles:http://www.runnersworld.com/newswire/marathoner-kim-jones-authors-autobiographyhttp://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/i-can-make-people-proud-of-me-againhttp://www.runnersworld.com/races/how-i-placed-second-at-the-1989-nyc-marathonhttp://www.amazon.com/Dandelion-Growing-Wild-triumphant-astounding/dp/0615597424/ref=tmm_pap_title_0Section twoThe Last word on Power- http://runrunlive.com/the-last-word-on-power

Outro - 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, put down that dog, brush off the hair and get on with your life because we have bashed our way through to the end of episode 4-332 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Hey guess what? The audio version of my book “MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon with a full time job and family” is an official audio book on Audible.com. How about that?! Persistence yields favorable outcomes. Now you can use that audible membership that the other podcasts guilted you into getting so that they could pocket $10. Speaking of podcast advertising – I read an interesting article about it. I listen to a lot of podcasts and many of them have advertisements in them. I find ads super annoying – but – the way they work is there are 3 places where you can put an ad. These are called ‘pre-roll’, ‘mid-roll’ and ‘post-roll’. You see this with the ads at the beginning, the middle and the end, right? For example you might have a 15-second pre-roll spot for the ‘this show is sponsored by’, etc. The way the podcaster gets paid is by the thousands of impressions, or in our case, downloads. The rates vary but it’s somewhere in the $20 a spot per thousand range. It really only makes economic sense for the larger podcasters. If you were curious, that’s how it works. Here’s a tip for you. Most podcast listening apps have a feature that allows you to skip forward X seconds by poking the appropriate button. If you set the number of seconds to 10 or 15 you can cruise right by the ads and get on with the content – the podcaster gets paid and you don’t have to listen to yet another Harry’s razors commercial – it’s a win-win. On a more interesting topic I have a conference in Phoenix on May 17th and 18th. I’m planning on taking the following day, Thursday the 19th off and running down from the south rim of the Grand Canyon to the bottom and back up. It’s about 20 miles round trip. It’s an amazing place – even at a casual pace we can get down and back in 8-10 hours. So, anyone who wants to join me let me know we’ll have an epic adventure! I’m trying to talk my youngest who graduates the weekend before into coming with me. Would still appreciate your support for my Team Hoyt campaign for Boston. The links are in the show notes. (The totally pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll ad free show notes.) Or just go to my web site at RunRunLive.com. …One thoughtful bit of learning I got from the Last Word on Power was the concept of impossible. The point is to do the impossible you have to re-jigger your thinking so that it isn’t impossible any more. It’s an interesting leadership hack. While everyone else is looking at the situation, the challenge and asking “What is possible?” you could blow up the conversation by asking “What is impossible?” It’s similar to the ‘big hairy goal’ concept that we’ve talked about. If the goal is big enough it forces you to change your approach. By asking ‘what is impossible?’ it forces you to rethink your thinking, your frame of reference and your approach. By singularly setting the impossible as your goal you are forced to figure out how to make it possible and that inevitably is an entirely different path. In the business world look at Elon Musk’s companies. He’s going to commercialize space travel. He’s going to reinvent the automobile industry. He’s going to bring hyper-loops to cities. Surely all these things, if you asked insiders are impossible. Look at Amazon. They are going to deliver to you in an hour. They are going to fly packages to your door. All these things are impossible. These impossible things may never become successful realities but look at the innovation and forward progress and unique thinking they unlock. That’s the power of impossible. Look at your life. Look at your work, your family. What have you decided is impossible? Go make it happen. – 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

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.html

Ray 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

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