The RunRunLive 3.0 Podcast Episode 3-261 – A transformational life with Tara
(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.runrunlive.com/PodcastEpisodes/ep3261.mp3]
Link epi3-261.mp3
Introductory Comments:
Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast Episode 3-261. I feel great. You want to know why I feel great? Well, I’ll tell you. First of all why not feel great if you have the choice, but that’s beside the point. I feel great because my Achilles tendon is a little sore and my right knee also has a little achiness and my legs are a bit muscle weary in general and my right nipple is a bit scabby from abrasion…
How could these aches, pains and scabs be the source of my good feelings? Because in order for any of these things to manifest it means that I’ve been getting in the quality and volume of workouts needed to run well in a 26.2 mile foot race!
Hi. This is your old friend Chris. Welcome. Today we are going to talk to Tara who is a tremendous example of someone who has transformed their life. I would say she has transformed her life with an exclamation point. You can learn from that.
In section one I’m going to talk about how I stimulate myself into creativity when the need arises. And in Section 2 we’ll talk about ‘moving the curve’ in your race efforts.
A housekeeping item – I found the source of the audio quality problems I was having. I had assumed it had something to do with my hard drive crash a few weeks back where I lost all my presets in my editing software or that maybe my H2 microphone was giving up the ghost due to all the travel abuse riding along in my laptop bag.
As usual you shouldn’t make assumptions and it was something very simple. By way of explanation, the H2 microphone I use is close to commercial quality. It has 4 individual mics in a 360 degree array that allows the recording of ‘surround sound’. The mic array can be configured to pick up 360 degrees or 120 or 90. This translates to pointing the microphones at the whole room or the front or just me.
Somehow I managed to fat finger the array so that it was pointing 120 degrees away from me while I was talking into it. It was picking up the hum of the laptop quite clearly but only got my voice as it traveled by or bounced off something.
It should be clearer now.
My training has been going very well. I have a marathon this weekend and I’m hoping to turn in a decent performance. I’ve gotten 4 weeks of 1600 based pace work in and I’m feeling strong.
Last week I was on the road all week. I got up every morning and got my workouts in. Tuesday I was supposed to do 3 X 1600 at a 6:50 pace. I got the conversion from MPH wrong on the treadmill and ended up running an 800 at around a 6:15 pace before I figured it out.
Thursday morning I knocked off 6 X 1600 at a 7:13 pace and it felt awesome. Sunday I went out on a hilly course around my house and knocked off 13 miles at 5 sec per mile faster than my marathon pace.
More important than the performance and the work was how it felt. I felt strong and comfortable at pace. I’m not fighting it as much and I feel the training effect in my legs. I have moved the curve of my pace to where it needs to be now all I have to worry about is the distance and whether I can hold on.
Now I’m in a taper week. I’ll go up and have a go at the Vt. Shires Marathon this Sunday. It’s a hilly course and it’s going to be a little warm but I’m close. I feel like I’ve moved the curve.
That’s how the training effect works. It’s not a linear progression where you get a little better each week. It’s a step function where you get better in chunks and then you have plateaus.
I’ve also thrown in a 4th run in my week. I know that doesn’t sound like much but it’s 14% more runs per week than what I was doing in the spring. The way I’ve been working it in is by doing my long run on Saturday then doing an easy run with the club on Sunday. This has the added benefit of running on tired legs – which promotes active recovery.
I had a bit of a problem this past weekend. Buddy and I were running late due to an ill-timed call of nature. We missed the club by 5 minutes or so. I knew where they were headed so we lit out after them at a tempo pace and caught them on the first big hill.
And the Plantar Fasciitis continues to get better.
And, lest I forget I’m down to 185 pounds without any crazy dieting. That’s what 14% more runs and some quality 1600’s will do for. Plus it’s spring and with the nice weather I’m much more active on the weekends.
And I love the new Hokas. They feel like they are giving me energy when I’m racing. People asked which ones I got. I got the Stinsons. I wanted the Bondis, but they weren’t in stock. I have been chastised by semi-alert listeners that the proper pronunciation is OH-NEE OH-NEE. Not One-One. I like One-One better – it sounds celestial.
So lets’ bounce on our heavily padded shoes on to the next topic, shall we?
On with the show.
Section one:
7 Ideas to Stimulate Creativity – http://www.runrunlive.com/7-ideas-to-stimulate-creativity-hammock-thoughts
Featured Interview:
Tara – A life Changing Journey
http://www.alifechangingjourney.com/?page_id=1545
Who I am: Runner. Triple digit weight loss success story. Motivator. Life changer. Lover of living life in the moment and moving beyond my past to reach my future.
Section two:
Moving the curve – http://www.runrunlive.com/moving-the-curve
Outro:
Thank you folks for kindly dropping in, as they say. That was episode 3-361 which marks 10 of the new format. Feel free to reach out and let me know how you like it and what you think. (At least the audio quality should be better now!)
Let me catch you up on the books I’ve been reading recently.
First, I read a fascinatingly creepy little book on Kindle called “I, Zombie” by Hugh Howey that operates under the pretext that the human mind and intellect is still alive inside the evil undead and along for the ride and forced to watch all the horror and feel all the pain. It was stomach turning-ly awful to read, but I couldn’t put it down.
Then I also read two awesome hard SF novels from a series by Jack McDevitt, recommended by a friend; “Engines of the Gods” and “Deepsix”. They are well written and wrap the concept of exo-archeology around your basic outer-space adventure.
I’m almost done with “Masters of Doom”, by David Kushner, that is about the two guys that created the 3D shooter game Doom in the 90’s. It’s not all that well written but the story is interesting to me having lived through that time period. I like to tell the story of when I was on an airplane in the early 90’s. I had one of the first Windows Laptops and was playing the shareware levels of Doom. A crowd gathered behind me to see what was going on – that’s how innovative the game was at the time.
I’m also working my way through Ray Charbaneau’s book, “Over Thinking the Marathon”, and I will get him back on for a chat after I finish it. Ray also has a project going since the marathon where he has invited a collection of writer/runners to contribute stories to a collection that will be sold to benefit Boston – called “The 27th Mile” http://www.the27thmile.com/default.html. One of my stories may make the cut – but go check it out anyhow.
I’ve also exhausted all my podcasts so I’ve been listening to some audio books from Librivox. Librivox is a site where volunteers read books into audio that are in the public domain. You won’t find any current best sellers but you can find classics, like Thoreau, Lovecraft, HG Wells and Jack London. It can be overwhelming and the readers are a mixed bag – so I recommend Google searching on “Librivox recommendations” to narrow and filter a bit.
I’m listening to a science fiction work from the early 1900’s called “The Knot of Human Fate”, and it’s anachronistic, but interesting. http://librivox.org/the-master-knot-of-human-fate-by-ellis-meredith/
Finally I have a product review for you. I was sent a pair of RecoFit Compression Calf Sleeves. http://www/recofit.co I’ve run and biked in them a couple cycles and they seem to be functional. I don’t have anything over-the-top good or bad to say about them either way.
I like calf sleeves and I normally wear Zensah’s. These are made from a much thinner material than the others that I have. They also have a separate shaped panel that directs the most support to the calf directly. I think they will be better for the summer time because they a thinner material than the other ones I have and won’t be as hot.
Even though it is quite chilly in Mass this week I took Buddy to get his summer cut. It’s not a shave – they just take off some of the long stuff – what they call ‘the feathers’ on a border collie and it makes him much more comfortable, even though the visit to the groomer seems to be quite traumatic for him.
Last weekend I met up with a handful of nice virtual folks in Boston for the Poco-Loco running event. It was fun and I even brought Buddy in with me to run Sunday and let him swim in the Charles
This weekend is the Vt. Shires marathon for me and we’ll see what happens. If I don’t get my time I’ll have to look around to see what’s next. But, I’m not stressing about it. One day at a time.
And I hope to see you all out there.
Outro Bumper
Thanks for listening folks I appreciate your support. RunRunLive is a free service for you because I like writing and telling stories.
I also love to meet folks so feel free to reach out to me at Gmail or any of the other social networking sites. I’m CYKTRussell. And as you know that’s Chris-Yellow-King-Tom-Russell with two Esses and two Ell’s.
My Website is WWW.RunRunLive .com and most if not all of this content is posted out there. If you want the show notes to magically show up in your inbox when I publish a show in a beautiful HTML wrapper you can subscribe to the mailing list at my site. It’s a useful thing if you are moved by something I say and would like to see if what I wrote is the same thing! It also has all the links to everything and everyone I talk to and about.
Other than that, thank you for your attention, do epic stuff and let me know if I can help.
Ciao
Happy Song – Super Hero
(Sorry about the audio quality – I’m having to rebuild a bunch of presets.)
Links for this show
http://www.runrunlive.com/messing-around-with-a-kickstarter-project
Other products from Chris Russell you may be interested in
The Mid-Packer’s Lament
On Audio (Read by the author)
The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy
Standard Links:
Contact:
Cyktrussell At gmail and twitter and facebook and youtube
Dial in number for RunRunLive is – 206-339-7804 (to leave an audio message for the show)
Bio
Chris Russell lives and trains in suburban Massachusetts with his family and Border collie Buddy. Chris is the author of “The Mid-Packer’s Lament”, and “The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy”, short stories on running, racing, and the human comedy of the mid-pack. Chris writes the Runnerati Blog at www.runnerati.com. Chris’ Podcast, RunRunLive is available on iTunes and at www.runrunlive.com. Chris also writes for CoolRunning.com (Active.com) and is a member of the Squannacook River Runners and the Goon Squad.
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This may be a silly question but, what are 1600’s?
http://www.runrunlive.com/falling-back-in-love-with-the-1600s