The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-399 – The Mindful Runner
(Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4399.mp3]
Link epi4399.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 the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-399.
This is Chris your host and today we are going get a bit emotional. We are going to the dogs. Our themes are Buddy the Wonder Dog and courage.
One of our longtime friends Janet inquired how Buddy the old wonder dog is doing so today we are going to tell some Buddy stories.
In the interview I invited Gary back on to talk about his new book on running. I thought the timing was good with the holidays to give you another gift option! What can you buy for runners that they won’t hate? A book. Lots of books on running.
Gary has a dream job of writing about running for a living. I would have to become independently wealthy to do that. As it turns out words are cheap, in my experience.
I’m doing fine. I haven’t made much weight loss progress but I’m eating healthier. The weight will come off as I start building up miles in my spring campaign.
I’m working with Rachel to lose some weight and get my nutrition right. It’s hard through the holidays but I’m giving myself a long runway into the spring so even with setbacks I can ease my way into a good race weight for Boston.
And I’m working with Coach to build some strength. My core is not as strong as I’d like. My legs fatigue way faster than I think they should. My aerobic fitness is good, but my legs can’t get near that aerobic barrier and hold it like they used to.
I went to the PT to get his opinion and there’s nothing wrong with me per se I’m just getting old. I’m healthy and not injured.
With the shorter days I’ve been pushing my runs out into the evening. I find this is a dead time for me anyhow. I’m too mentally tired to do anything creative. I find it nice and head-clearing to get out on the road in the cold and dark with my lights. It’s peaceful.
Sometimes the stars are out, or the moon and it’s quite pretty.
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Like I said, we are going to spend some time talking about my old running partner Buddy the Wonder Dog today. He’s doing OK. He’s here with me now, sleeping.
The old saying is that you can’t teach and old dog new tricks. I beg to differ. You can teach an old dog bad habits rather easily.
Buddy has never been given human food. We never fed him from the table or scraps. I never gave him anything I was eating and as a result he never learned how to beg. You could eat, he wouldn’t bother you.
As he’s gotten older I started to toss him a peanut now and then. We let him have the morsels that fell on the floor and what have you. I figured, hey, how long has he got left? Let him live a little. What’s the harm?
Of course, now it doesn’t’ matter what I’m eating. A soon as I sit on the couch his nose is 3 inches from my food staring intently. And any time we’re in the kitchen he’s underfoot on scrap patrol.
So, yes, you can teach an old dog bad habits.
The same is probably true for humans.
On with the show.
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I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.
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Section one – Buddy in old age- https://runrunlive.com/buddy-in-old-age
Voices of reason – the conversation
Gary Dudney
GARY DUDNEY has been publishing articles on running, trail running, and ultrarunning for the past 20 years. His work has appeared in all the major running magazines, such as Runner’s World, Running Times, Trailrunner, and Marathon & Beyond. For Ultrarunning magazine, considered the “voice of the sport” of ultra long distance running, he’s served as a regular columnist since 2008, and he has additionally supplied the magazine with dozens of uniquely quirky race reports. Ideas for The Tao of Running were shaped by the 60 one hundred mile races he’s participated in and the almost two hundred other long distance races he’s completed. He holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Kansas in English Literature and his fiction credentials include stories in Boy’s Life magazine and in numerous literary magazines and one published novel, Cries-at-Moon of the Kitchi-Kit. His second book on the mental side of running, The Mindful Runner: Finding Your Inner Focus, was just released on November 1 of 2018.
Section two – Courage-
https://runrunlive.com/courage
Outro
Alright, I appreciate you sticking with me through the emotional journey of Episode 4-3989of the RunRunLive Podcast I’m sure it took great courage on your part.
I ran the Thanksgiving 5K with my daughter and a bunch of people from my running club. I had a good time. It’s always great to see friends and its always great to spend time with my kids.
I also decided to stop stressing out about pace and time. This is just about the only 5K I run each year so it bothers me if I don’t’ race well. When we woke up before the race it was 9 degrees Fahrenheit, which is very cold for this early in the winter. There was a nice little breeze too. So itf you’re one of those softies who believe in windchill it would have felt about zero.
There was no warming up. I didn’t even bother. I just went out at what felt like a good hard pace and tried to hold it. I think I ended up with7:20’s, but who cares, right?
I’ve been trying to follow a good morning routine with stretching, meditation, reading and writing and it helps. I haven’t made much progress on my new book about startup sales, ironically because the startup I’m in is keeping me uber stressed out and busy.
Thanks for playing along. Next episode will be our 400th official episode. I’ll have to think hard about what I want to do next.
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I decided to write that quick update on Buddy because I got an email from long time friend Janet inquiring for his health and wellbeing.
Let me tell you my Buddy story of the week.
Monday night I was getting ready to leave work. It was after 6:30. I had a need to pick up a bag of dog food, because we were almost at the bottom of the barrel. This is ok, because the dog food store is on my way home.
Then I realized I have forgotten to bring the 10% off coupon for said dog food that I received in the mail and was quite excited about. I believe the coupon algorithm in the great coupon generating AI computer typically only sends coupons when you don’t need something. So, the universe has made an error in my favor and I aim to take advantage of it.
I decide to go home first. Which is not on my way. But I can pick up the dog and take him to the pet store with me as an outing. It’s one of the few places they allow dogs.
As I leave work it is sluicing rain. Again. Rainiest month in history. (Like a normal week in Seattle or London.)
I get home and go to let Buddy out. He’s been in the house all day. He looks outside at the weather and digs in his heels. “Like, it’s only been 8 hours, I can hold it. I’m not going from warm bed to cold rain!” I push him out onto the wet front steps.
I do some quick things around the house. I grab the coupon off the fridge and retrieve him for the trip to the store.
It’s still pouring rain. I’m not dressed for it having just come from work.
He digs in his heels as I try to load him into the truck. Armful of wet dog into the seat.
We drive off to the pet store to get the food. It’s late. No one is in the parking lot and the store is empty. I unload the dog and lead him on the leash to the store. He wants to wander around the parking lot and sniff everything. It’s pouring rain, still.
We enter the empty store and I lead him back to the section where his food bags are stacked. Leaving a trail of wet footprints. I have to keep pulling him away from all the interesting things to sniff on the way.
I know to keep an eye on him because the pet store is full of pet smells. There have been hundreds of other dogs in there getting groomed and trained and just wandering around. I know if I don’t watch him, he may try to mark something. It’s not that he has that bad habit, it’s just that his reptilian brain gets overwhelmed by the scent of other dogs. For a dog nose that place must be the equivalent of technicolor.
I find the food and sure enough as I’m hoisting a 30-pound bag up onto my shoulder one handed with the leash in the other hand, he starts peeing on the floor. Dammit! I yank him away and go to check out.
Now I have a moral decision to make. A decision that requires courage. Pretend it didn’t happen or confess to the young lady at the register. And as I’m practicing doing things that scare me this month, I decide to come clean, so to speak.
She says they have “Sanitary Stations” just for this and asks if I want her to clean it up or would I like to do it myself – with the clear emphasis on ‘do it yourself’.
I grab a handful of paper towels from the sanitary station and the bottle of organic squirty stuff. I mop up my friend the dog’s unfortunate leavings. I have to make another trip to get more towels. He was serious about his duties.
When all is as clean as it’s going to get we wander back to the register to retrieve the big bag of food. I ask her if most people just ignore it and leave. She says that mostly happens with poop.
Que the ominous foreshadowing.
We exit the building. It is, impossibly, raining even harder and colder. Me in my dress pants and shirt with a big bag of food balanced on my shoulder like a suburban lumberjack and the leash in the other hand.
I decide to pause to let him sniff the pots outside the door. I feel bad that I had to practice urinatus-interuptus on him in the store. But he has other plans and begins to poop on the sidewalk in front of the store.
I say ‘no’ and try to pull him away but he manages to leave a trail of breadcrumbs, so to speak across the parking lot.
Eventually I wrangle him and the bag of food into the truck.
Now I’m stuck in another moral conundrum, but since I’ve already got momentum, I grab a plastic bag (that I keep in the truck for these types of outings) and stoop amid the puddles to undo the poo.
And that is my old Buddy story from this week.
There is no moral to it, but I think I earned some karma.
and I’ll see you out there.
MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks – http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/
https://runrunlive.com/my-books
Rachel -> http://www.nextlevelnutrition.fitness/contact-appointment/
Coach Jeff -> https://dailyfitbook.com/