Episode 113 –10K at Patriot’s Place and Loco Mike

[audio:https://runrunlive.com/PodcastEpisodes/Epi113.mp3|titles=Episode 113 – Mike from Loco on the new Harvard Pilgrim 10K at Patriot’s Stadium]

epi113.mp3

Show intro by:

John Hengstrom for Daily Mile www.dailymile.com

Intro:

Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast – This is Chris your host and this is Episode 113. Is that a lucky number? I’m doing this recording early in the week because my spider sense tells me I’m going to be busy this week.

I’m in my taper for the New Bedford 1/2. I’m really going to take it easy this week and give myself a shot at running well next Sunday. I ran a 12 mile progression run Saturday in the drizzle and it went very well. I’m feeling some of that familiar spring in my legs, that reservoir of strength that is a precursor to a strong race.

I’ve got some strange head cold that isn’t too bad, but my nose is runny and I’ve got a headache. It might be from all the rain we’ve had. If you are watching the national news you’ll see that we got a big storm here over the weekend and there are lots of trees down, power outages and flooding. It’s not uncommon for us to have flooding in the spring in New England with the snow melt and the spring rains. It makes for some uncomfortable runs and I’m pretty sick of it.

Linked in and show notes.

I did an interview bit with Kevin and James over on the Extra Mile Podcast – so go subscribe to that – should be out in one of the upcoming episodes. I think I’m going to host a episode of the live Runner’s round Table on April 7^th. I told Toni that we should talk about race preparation because everyone is doing races in the spring.

Today I talk to an old friend and long time runners here in New England – Mike StLaurent of Loco Sports. We’ve talked to Mike before about his Loco shoes. He is very active in the local running community. He’s got a new race coming up on the 4^th of July that is going to start and finish at Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots and it sounds cool.

Hope you enjoy, stay warm and dry – On with the show!

Audio clips in this episode:

red_static-white_girl.mp3

black_velvet_elvis-soaked_in_misery.mp3

Skits, commercials and parodies in this episode:

“Ice Bath Baby” by Collin Hayes – aka the Resurrected Runner

resurrectedrunner.blogspot.com/

Story time:

Eddie Marathon reading “The Curse of the Runner’s Body” from “The Mid-Packer’s Lament” by Christopher J. Russell

Equipment Check:

As you know by now I run with my dog Buddy. I trained him to run on the leash, but he still has some issues with pulling. I’m bigger and stronger than him so it doesn’t bother me much to have to correct him. But he has issues with my wife and kids. They don’t go as fast as I do and they don’t have the body strength so he causes issue pulling on the leash with them.

So I bought this leash thing called the Gentle Leader that had been suggested to me. It seems to work very well. It has a loop that goes over the dog’s nose. If you know dogs you know they don’t like things pulling on their snouts. It’s loose until the dog pulls. When the dog pulls it pulls their snout sideways and they can’t pull. It turns their face. It works great.

Buddy hated it and kept trying to get it off. But he couldn’t pull and I could lead him with no effort or pressure at all. So if you have a dog that pulls I think that gentle leader would work for you with a little training.

Featured Interview:

Mike from Loco and the Harvard Pilgrim 10k out of Gillette Stadium on the 4^th.

http://www.harvardpilgrim10k.com/

Quick Tip:

Contingency Planning for races. One of the things you always hear people stressing about is what to wear in a race. Too hot, too cold, too windy, ice, rain, snow, sun… It makes you crazy.

What I do is I start checking the weather on the internet – I use Yahoo weather which just uses a feed from the national weather service in the US. That will help you narrow it down.

But for race day what I do is contingency planning. I know what the predicted weather is and I’ll lay out my clothes and gear for that and pack it up. Then I’ll contingency plan. This basically means putting forth a number of plausible what if’s and then coming up with a plan for them.

For example: The weather says overcast and 50 degrees chance of rain 30%… You would set out your overcast 50 degrees outfit for the race. Then you would come up with what you will need if you show up and it’s raining and windy. I’ll bring an extra long sleeve shirt or maybe a different warmer hat or an extra pair of shoes (if it’s raining you can put your race shoes and sox in a plastic bag and change into them at the start.)

This way you can plan what you need to have for each plausible contingency and have it ready when you get to the race in case you have to make a race time decision. This is what your gear bag is for.

Outro:

That’s it you have slipped and slided to the end of another slippery episode of the RunRunLive Podcast. Episode 113 in the Can.

Before we get into our usual melodramatic musings I want to point out that I have a special musical guest tonight. The music tonight was provided by one of our twitter friends who is a musician. Jeannie who lives in NY and is in a band called Warm July. You can follow her @warmjulyjeannie. She provided me with one of their songs and I’ll read from her descriptive email here…

The song I attached to this email is titled “Painted Walls”. It is a single from Warm July’s (WJ) self-titled debut album. In many ways, it is the quintessential WJ song, full of rhythm and blues and hope.
The bloodline of rock ‘n’ roll courses through this song as WJ guitars, bass, and drums pump the “Bo Diddley” beat so strong and steady; you would think the Earth’s rotation depends on it. Guitar and bass wail solos and strike accents with bravado, in harmony with vocals who first deliver lyrics that find you “behind Painted Walls” and then end with the fall of these walls.
It is a song about feeling boxed in, and stifled. It is a song about getting out so you can give your vision or dreams a chance. “Painted Walls” is rock ‘n’ roll personified.

(in case you would like to know a little about the band, Warm July is Jeannie Tamariz and Kristyl Sisko, Vocals; Joe Maniscalco, Guitar; Jack Betz, Bass; Jerry Jaworski, Drums. Warm July is on a mission to re-affirm the promise that rock ‘n’ roll represents, and to keep the history of the genre alive in a substantive, new way.) www.warmjuly.com

I’ve got a couple interviews in the can. Next week I’ll be talking with a running fanatic named Dane who I’m going to squeeze in because he’s looking for volunteers to support his solo running of a big relay race and he is another one of those crazy endurance junkies.

I’ve also interviewed Jonathan from GoMotion Gear and this is a really innovative concept. I was trading emails with McGillivary and the last message I got was that his basement was flooding and that’s it, I haven’t heard from him since and I hope he’s ok! We got 6-10 inches of rain over the weekend and we have had a lot of flooding here in New England.

I’m going down to New Bedford with the Goon Squad Runners this weekend and I’m going to race. I was a bit worried about my mojo so I’m pulling out one of my secret weapons; Jill my massage therapist. I have never failed to qualify after Jill has worked me over and I need some work. My legs are all crazy confused from all this quality training. Jill and I work together to find the trouble spots and get my chi flowing!

OK – Now for the melodramatic musings. Let’s talk about personal responsibility. I provided a quote this week that really resonated with me. It is from Joan Didion and it goes like this: “Character is the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life and is the source from which self-respect springs. J There’s two things here. One is that only you are responsible for your life. As runners you have made that huge step to take control of your health and lifestyle. Don’t ever let me hear any of you playing the victim. “I can’t go running because my boss kept me late.” That’s just not true. You didn’t go running because you chose not to.

The other thing in this quote is that when you stop being a victim and accept responsibility for your life it is incredibly empowering. You find a power within yourself that will let you shine even more in the lives of others.

I often hear people say “If I don’t do X I can lose my job.” To which I say; “so what? You can always find another job.” My point is that it is under your control.

So – don’t wait. Don’t count on your company or your government or your family or your spouse to make your live wonderful and fix all your problems. Take responsibility and start working on it for yourself. What do you want? Act on it. Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t be afraid to ask. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Look folks, I’m 85% full of crap, and none of us have all the answers but you have as many answers as anyone else does so trust yourself. Be accountable for you and you’ll find it creates an inner strength that radiates out and makes the world a better place.

And in that better place I’ll be out there and I’ll see you.