The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-353 – Ann and I talk about when you can’t run anymore

(Audio: link)

[audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4353.mp3]

Link epi4353.mp3

MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks – http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/

Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-353 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Today we are going to have a chat with our old friend Ann Brennan about not being able to run anymore. I’m going to do a series on this – so if you’ve got some major body part replacement or something that has caused a radical shift in your endurance sports allegiance – shoot me a note and we’ll chat about it.

In section one I’m going to talk about how to ease into heart rate training and how it makes a great 30-day project. In section two I’m going to talk about a 30-day project I’m in – running naked!

I apologize for the rough edit job on the last show. I got a new laptop and it took me a while to break it in. It was really struggling with the audio editing. I de-installed the stupid McAffee software, changed the cache settings and added another 8 meg of RAM, so we’re good now.

We finally figured out how to set up a separate podcast feed for members and I’m working on it. I have a nice piece on running in the November woods that I’m going to drop this week for members. If you would like to join and help support the podcast that would be great and you would have access to members only audio.

Here’s a snippet…

The sound of the leaves crunching underfoot with each rotation of sole. That sound that is more than a sound. It is a sound that you feel through your body with each footfall. Like biting into a crisp apple and that first sweet chew of skin and flesh.

The November leaves have yet to be trodden down by the rains of fall and the snows of winter. They lay heavily on the trails and in the woods like great drifts of snow. Piling deep in the hollows, hiding in their multitudes, huddled together from the harrying winds.

Did you see the kerfuffle around fake news on Facebook? Wasn’t I just talking about that? There yah go. I’m a trend setter.

My running is going great. I had a kinda big build week last week. Probably up into the mid-40 miles. Mostly long Zone 2 trail runs. My base aerobic fitness is spot on. I feel great.

What I try to do is to take Buddy the old wonder dog out for the first 20 minute loop, then drop him at the house and go back out. He’s struggling a bit. His hips hurt and his back legs don’t work all the time very well.

I’ve had a stretch where I haven’t been traveling and I’ve been working out of my home office. It’s great, most of the time. You can really get into a nice rhythm. I get up early and do my morning routine. It makes nutrition and workouts easy to manage as well.

In the mornings when I get up I have a routine. I get up, brush my teeth and head downstairs to the kitchen. I switch on my computer when I walk by on my way to the kitchen. I put my coffee and oatmeal on the cook. I settle in at my desk while that cooks and do 5 minutes of guided breathing meditation.

Now Buddy has hacked my routine. As soon as I switch the lights on he wants out. If I let him out he sits in the front yard and barks. Not at anything just Bark! Bark! Bark! Like some sort of dog Morse code. This is very early in the morning and does not ingratiate him with the neighbors. It’s still dark out. No one is up in the neighborhood. And it’s very difficult to meditate with a dog barking like that. Even with my noise cancelling headphones.

But if I don’t let him out he’ll sit and stare at me while I’m trying to meditate. Then he’ll whine a bit to get my attention and if that doesn’t work he’ll just bark right at me.

He broke his lead this week. I went out for my run at lunch and he met me in the driveway with 3 feet of lead trailing behind him. He was quite happy with himself, having had an excellent run about the neighborhood. Apparently he got into something nasty because I woke up to him staring at a big pile of throw up on the living room carpet the next day.

So, Buddy hates meditation. I suppose I could do my meditation before I come downstairs…Or I could have him stuffed and mounted.

On with the show!

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Section one –

6 Heart Rate Training Practice Tips – https://runrunlive.com/heart-rate-training-6-practical-steps

Voices of reason – the conversation

Ann Brennan – When you can’t run anymore

Ann Brennan is the author of A Running Commentary an adaptation of her blog, Ann’s Running Commentary a blog about the mental side of endurance sports.

Her book is currently available on Amazon.

Ann is a marathoner, Ironman and ultramarathoner learning to adapt to life as a non-runner.

She has recently started her own social media consulting firm helping small local businesses realize their full potential through social media marketing.

I included this photo because I am adapting to life as a non runner.

Section two

Running Naked – https://runrunlive.com/running-naked

Outro

Well my friends you may have woken up unable to ever run again but you have made it to the end of episode 4-353 of the RunRunLive podcast. How about that?

I held off writing this outro until today, the Friday after Thanksgiving, so I could let you know how my Thanksgiving 5K went. It went well. I’ll give you the 300 word race report.

The race started at 8:00 AM so I made sure to set the expectation with Teresa that we were leaving the house at 7:00, so I could get a nice long warm up in before the start. I got up and rubbed some flexall into my leg muscles to wake them up and get some blood flowing. I had some coffee and a couple bites of oatmeal. We got out of the house on time.

The weather called for freezing rain but it held off until after the race. It was below freezing, maybe 28 degrees or so. There was a skim of ice on the ponds as we drove over. I put on full tights and a long sleeve tech shirt with my club singlet over it. I had a pair of thin running gloves and the multi-colored knit hat my mom made for me. In such a short race I didn’t want to be cold.

We checked in and I headed out to run the course as a warm up. I am so glad I took the time to warm up. I ran about 2.5 miles of the course in just over 21 minutes, I managed to get my heart rate to come down but my hands never warmed up and I never broke a sweat. I probably should have done some strides, but by the time I got back to the start I had missed my clubs group photo and the race was about to start.

There are a lot of kids in this race and a lot of rookie runners. They tend to take off like bottle rockets at the beginning and you have to be careful not to get tripped or get sucked out too fast. That first mile felt so strange and unnatural. I was trying to find a form and pace that didn’t feel totally alien. I was with a bunch of folks I knew from my club but there was no way I talk to them. It was all I could do to get oxygen.

I looked up my time from last year and it was an average pace of 7:04’s so I set my A goal to break 7’s and my B goal to not collapse 2 miles in.

We clicked by the first mile mark at 6:36 which was a pleasant surprise. I had managed to find my form. I wasn’t focused on effort or pace, just on having good upright form, turning my legs over and working the tangents. This course is pretty flat but does a bunch of zig-zagging around the neighborhoods in the second mile. It helps to know the course or to have run it 20 minutes before the race!

With the fast first mile I just relaxed and worked my form. I knew last year I had faded in the last mile so I wanted to make sure I held back enough. There were a couple little kids running near me, like 8 or 9 year-olds. It’s great to see the next generation out there but they haven’t learned pace awareness or special awareness yet. It was like when you’re trying to cook in the kitchen and the dog is underfoot.

I was just behind some dude running with a pumpkin pie hat, more like a head dress, and he got a lot of attention from the volunteers.

I passed the 2 mile mark and misread my watch. I thought it said 6:37 but it actually said 6:47, but either way I knew I was ahead of my goal pace going into the last mile. Right after the 2-mile mark the course turns up and over a rail road bridge and back through the center of town, then one more small hill and downhill into the finish.

Those little hills were where I faded last year, but with my thorough warm up I was able to push through there without the leg fatigue. I just held my form and focused on turnover. I pushed through the finish strong.

My watch had me running 6:44 averages pace but the race clocked me at 6:51’s. I ended up 61^st out of 587 with a 21:16 finish and 5^th out of 72 in my age group. So, yeah had a good morning. Got to talk to some friends and made room for some turkey.

Next weekend I’m running in the Mill Cities Relay and I’m dragging Teresa along for that too. It’s an 8-leg invitational that all the local clubs run from Nashua New Hampshire down the Merrimack River to Lawrence Mass. My club usually fields a bunch of teams.

After that you’re all invited to join me at the 4^th annual Groton Marathon and half marathon on New Years Eve Day. We’re going to have actual timing this year. I have at least 3 other people going the distance with me and we usually get 20ish people show up to run some of it with us.

…

I have been doggedly reading through Thoreau’s Cape Cod in snatches as part of my morning routine. I find it quite enjoyable. I know the places that he is talking about. I have been to them. And even though he is tramping around the outer Cape in the 1850’s, the towns are the same, the flora nad the fauna are the same, and the sand and the sea are the same. I can picture it quite well as I read.

I’m nearing the end of my trip through this small but dense book. And Mr. Thoreau is nearing the end of his trip as well. The portions I read this week travelled through Truro, past Highland Light and up Race Point to Provincetown.

One morning he is watching the mackerel fleet sail out to the fishing grounds from Provincetown. He sees hundreds of boats under sail coming in the morning then arriving back in the evening. He compares fishing in the ponds of Concord to the fishing these men do. In Concord they fish as a form of relaxation or sport. He seems to infer that these men and boys of Provincetown get to play at fishing all day and it seems like quite a life.

The next day there is a strong North Easterly gale. Thoreau and his companion march out of Providence into the wind across the desert, as he calls it, to the Atlantic shore. They see the breakers being driven onto the banks at high tide and see the few ships struggling in the sea.

“As we stood looking on this scene we were gradually convinced that fishing here and in a pond were not, in all respects, the same, and he who waits for fair weather and a calm sea may never see the glancing skin of a mackerel, and get no nearer to a cod than the wooden emblem in the State-House.”

This resonated with me on a fine morning in November with the first dust of snow on the ground. Are you waiting for calm seas? Are you waiting for fair weather? The fish aren’t going to wait for you. Get in your small boats and be brave. Go out into the stormy world and wrest your destiny from the gaping mouth of Fate.

I’ll see you out there.