[audio:https://runrunlive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi129.mp3|titles=Episode 129 – BQ Series – Jake from Run Like Health]

Show intro by:

Paula – @bigGreenPen

Intro:

Hello and welcome to “Yakkable” the Yak enthusiast podcast where we discuss essential Yak care as well as grooming and feeding tips for the yak herding community. Wait, no, that’s the podcast I do with my Mongolian affiliate. This is the Runrunlive podcast and I am Chris your host. And these are exciting times!

It’s summer time and the living is easy. The catfish are jumping and the cotton is high. And it’s Hot, Hot, Hot. You folks that are in the early stages of your training plans for fall races should be getting out early! Even though it’s only the first month of your plan when it’s still fun, like the first year of a marriage!

We have a good show for you today. We talk with Jake from the “Run like health” podcast about his Boston marathon qualification plans. I like his chances. Primarily because he has a great attitude. He’s already decided that he can do it and he has a plan. His is a great story because of where he started. A couple years ago consigned by his doctors a to the trash heap of early death by obesity he started from scratch and now, just a few short years later has Boston in his sites. It really highlights that we can do anything once we decide to. These training volumes and levels that we talk about off-handedly on this show shouldn’t scare you. They are within anyone’s reach – it just takes time and effort, a positive attitude and decision to do it.

I got a great 5 hour epic ride in with Anthony this weekend on the new 29er. I’ll put in some audio from that. As usual we’ll work in some tips and other stuff.

Thanks to Paula for stepping up and reading the intro for me. You can too. If you have something to share the script is on my website runrunlive and it’s all very straight forward. Speaking of my website I am totally re-designing it and adding a bunch of stuff so get ready to be thrilled by that. I’ve got some cool stuff up my sleeve.

I heard from Andrew of ice bath fame who ran a test self-supported marathon last week down under and did great. He made sure to let me know that he did not bleed from his eyeballs like I had predicted. Good on ya mate.

I was on Twitter today and noticed that I’m only 40 followers away from 4,000, so follow cyktrussell and you’ll put me over the edge. And if you are following me and I didn’t follow you back – send me a message and I’ll make it right.

Do you know we’ve been doing this for over 2 years now? I did my first show the week after running Mount Washington in 2008. Time flies. Too cool. I’m still super energized and excited about the future. There’s nothing we can’t do! On with the show.

Audio clips in this episode:

Lot’s of audio from my bike ride

Skits, commercials and parodies in this episode:

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Story time:

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Listener Comments:

Someone asked me to speak about running down hill. So I’m going to talk about that and you’ll soon learn not to ask questions if you know what’s good for you!

For this discussion we are going to assume we are talking about running down hill in a regular road race, not trails or mountains or ultras.

It’s interesting because running down hill doesn’t get much attention. Which is too bad because you can tactically use down hill sections in races to your advantage in a number of ways.

Most beginner runners don’t realize that there is a different set of mechanics for running down hill.

So, First, a couple tactical reasons to learn and practice running down hill well.

First – you can run 1-2 minutes per mile faster with not much additional effort if you do it right. And second – you can use the downhills to recover actively without losing time.

What are the mechanics? Well, what you don’t want to do is to fight the downhill. Resistance is futile!

Beginners will lean back and dig their heels in. That’s a big mistake. This slows you down and wastes energy Don’t fight the hill. Work with it.

What you want to do is relax. Let go. Focus on letting the gravity of the hill pull you. You are just falling and adjusting your leg turnover and mechanics to keep up. So you’ll naturally adopt a sort of sprinting motion where your forefoot lightly brushes the ground and kicks up behind you with rapid turnover and very little toe-off. Don’t lean back. Stay off your heels. You will naturally pick up speed but gravity is doing all the work so it shouldn’t be that much more work. You have to practice letting the brake off and freewheeling. If you do it right it’s like flying.

This is something you can practice in training. Just like you would do your up-hill training sessions. Find a nice 800 meter downhill – not too shallow, not too steep and practice running fast down it. Repeat the sets. . Or you can just race all the down hills in your normal runs.

In a race, like Boston with a lot of downhill sections this will be a big benefit. It will save your quads and shave minutes off your time.

My caveat is that, as with anything new, you want to ease into this type of training because it can produce new stresses to your legs and you can get injured.

Featured Interview:

Jake

Jake is a husband, father, runner, aspiring triathlete, and a lover of the endurance sport lifestyle. This site is dedicated to helping everyone to start engaging in sports instead of watching them.

Many topics will be discussed via the blog and podcast including all aspects of endurance sports. Technique, gear, nutrition, as well as listener submitted race reports and photos will all be topics of the blog and podcast.

Run like health = http://runlikehealth.com/

Quick Tip:

Boston Marathon qualifying tips – chapter 7.

Micro and Macro cycles in your plan.

Outro:

Ok folks that’s it, you’ve ridden your Yak out of the valley to the summit of the misty mountain that is the runrunlive podcast – episode 129 in the can. I’m going to continue chatting up these Boston hopefuls because they are part of our community and I think we can learn a lot from them. But next week I’ve got an interview with the lady who runs the finish line at the Boston Marathon. That should be a good show.

I’m working on a lot of stuff for you folks. Livin large and lovin life.

I’ve got a couple vignettes from my world this week.

The first is from Wednesday night. It was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit here on Wednesday. I went out for a ride around my house in my little town. I went into this trail section that has a very steep short downhill, maybe 25 meters with a little muddy patch at the bottom followed by a steep uphill section. I was feeling omnipotent on my new bike and flew down the hill so I could get a run on the other side. I let I t fly on the downhill.

Since the last time I was down there the boy scouts had built a bridge over the muddy patch in the trough between the hills so I hit that at speed, rather solidly bringing my bulk down on the back wheel and it pinch-flatted my tire. Inconvenient, but no big deal…

I didn’t have a patch kit or my rescue tool or even my phone so I figured I’d just push the bike the mile or so home and that would be part of my work out.

Now the section of my little town that I go through to get to this particular trail is down by the pond and there are many converted camps, small, lower cost of ownership type places.

This one house on the corner is a classic hoarder. The yard is filled with messy piles of miscellaneous stuff , it’s overgrown etc. Well, I happened to glance in the window as I was pushing my bike by and it was basically the same chaos in the inside except they has somehow carved out enough room to set up a 50 inch flat screen TV. Something about the juxtaposition struck me as ironic. I don’t know why but it struck me on that hot summer eve.

My second story is from the Akron/Canton Airport where I was today. When we were returning the rental car I noticed an enormous Boeing 747 parked on the side runway. Those are the big ones with the bulbous noses from the ‘70’s. Great plane! But out of context in this small regional airport.

The attendant said that it belonged to the local evangelical preacher who had his church based near the airport. That, somehow also struck me as ironic.

Now I could get all cynical and preachy about these vignettes, but I’m just a traveler in this world, an observer and a student. Good for them. I’m personally glad to live in a world where such ironies are prevalent. We’re free to pile up stuff and free to take money from people for words.

But – we are also free to make other choices, to direct our manias and energies in other ways. So make those good choices one at a time today my friends and I’ll see you out there.

The music tonight is a nice punky number called Arctic Parrot by Fortune for Tune.