[audio:https://runrunlive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi135a.mp3|titles=Episode 135a – The Wilderness 101 Race Report]

Show intro by:

@GutToCut Geeks in Running Shoes Podcast

Intro:

Hello and welcome to episode 135a of the parasitic brain control device known as the RunRunLive Podcast. I am back from vacation with a special report. It’s a special race report episode. Now, this is a bit out of character for me I usually don’t do race reports because after reading a few hundred of them I realized that they are all mostly the same and in general exercises in vanity – which I struggle mightily to eschew on the RunRunLive Podcast – because it’s should be something you learn and gain value from not just an exercise in mental self-stimulation by yours truly. (Hey! That was a 65 word sentence, cool, Nabokov and Tolkein would be proud) But I digress…

So I’m making an exception because a) it was an interesting experience, b) I had the time to write it up well and c) it made a pretty compelling audio and d) I think you can learn form it and hopefully take some value away.

Before we get started – a little house keeping. Ashley from MS runthe US who has been on the show a couple times and is a superhero; she is currently in Illinois, I think on her run from CA to NYC. She will be in Boston for the day to present at:

Here are the details for the Speaker Series event next Wednesday 8/25.

Location: City Sports, 480 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116. Please arrive by 5:30 pm

-6pm talk begins, intro on yourself, training, hydration

-6:30pm Q&A, refreshments

We will provide refreshments, goody bags, and a one night only shopping discount for all who attend your event.

So if you’re around go see Ashley!

Second house keeping item…If you, your parents or anyone in your family is allergic to bee stings please throw a couple of Benadryl in your pocket while your out running. I don’t like my friends to die for stupid reasons and the bees are mental this time of year. Both the guys I was running with this weekend got stung. So – be safe out there, especially on the trails.

Trainiing, Training, Training – I checked off my bike race so it’s back to running…Yay!

I eased back into it over the last couple vacation weeks. I followed the 10% rule. I ran around 3 miles the week of the race and the next week I ran 30 miles, one decimal place…that’s 10%, right?

Got some nice beach and trail running in and have been trying to get reacquainted with the track.

I hooked up with Jeff Kline CoachPRS – to go through a HR training plan, meaning training for speed based on heart rate. So I’ll tell you two funny stories about, well actually, about the first two days.

The first day he sends me a Abs Core work out video by Diane. And I’m watching this thing and it all seems pretty reasonable, so I scribble some notes and head off to the corporate fitness center in the complex. I get myself a little yoga mat and a big ball and try to do this series of Ab exercises. It is hilarious. I am so uncoordinated and non-flexible that I can’t so any of them really. If you came upon me unknowing during that attempt your would think I was suffering from a Taser attack or an epileptic fit. It felt good but I’ve got a long learning curve to go.

Now the second day Jeff tells me he needs me to do a MAX HR test. He says warm up well and run a mile all-out than take your heart rate right then – that’s your max heart rate. So being the over achiever that I am, I figure I’ll do a 5 mile track work out and have it peak with an all-out 1600 to get Jeff his Max-HR data.

I went down to the track with D2 who is trying to get in shape for Field Hockey season. Here’s the data:

In the morning before my coffee my resting pulse is 36 BPM.

In the car on the way to the track resting pulse is 42 BPM – (understand that I’m letting D2 drive on her learners permit and that may affect my pulse)

Ran a warm up 1600 at a 7:30 pace pulse is 132 ok now we’re getting somewhere

Ran a tempo 1600 at 6:44 pace, pulse is 156 – yeah progress.

Ran a fast tempo 1600 at 6:22, butpulse drops back down to 132, huh?

Now keep in mind that I’m checking my pulse by looking at my watch and holding my fingers against my throat and counting.

So now the dreaded all-out max heart rate 1600. I light off at a 6:00 flat pace but by the first 400 my legs are giving out. I should not have warmed up so much. I briefly consider bailing out, but I committed so I gut it out, losing my mechanics and my speed but keeping the effort up. I come into the last lap wheezing and flailing and generally looking like I’m going to expire. I push the last 200 all the way into and through the red, cross the line, hold my fingers to the big vein and realize that the sun has set and I can no longer read my watch. And I can’t turn the light on without my other hand and I’m close to death. So I’m cursing out loud that I just put every thing I had into that 1600 and can’t read my damn watch for the Max HR.

So I call D2 over and tell her, I’m going to do another 400 and when I cross the line and say “one” you time off 10 second with my watch.

Back on the track. Legs shattered. I push another all-out effort around cross the line, hold my finger to my neck and yell ‘one’…….then time goes by and she doesn’t say anything and eventually I’m like “what happened?” and she says “Didn’t you hear me?” No – I didn’t hear her I had the ear-buds in and all I could hear was my heart beating.

So some more cursing and I tell her to scream it out this time and I’m off on ANOTHER all-out max HR 400. My form is in total shambles at this point and I fear for my connective tissue but I do manage to get a reading and it’s 180 BPM Max.

Man what a crazy work out. I’m really curious to see what the data says about me.

That’s it – on with the show!

Audio clips in this episode:

Various clips from the race weekend.

Skits, commercials and parodies in this episode:

Parody from the Resurrected Runner Colin

Story time:

Listener Comments:

Featured Interview:

Wilderness 101 race report.

Quick Tip:

Ok folks my tip for you today is when things get very tough in a race you can mentally leave. You can disassociate your brain from your body. You can create a fictional mental world and go hang out in it for awhile while your body continues to slave away in the race.

Go to a happy place.

One of the things I’ll do is to picture that I’m riding on a magic carpet. My body is just flying down the road. I’m not actually running at all.

Another thing I’ll do is think about a time when I was running and I was strong and fresh and filled with joy. I’ll visualize that and put myself in that run.

Go ahead and practice this. It will come in handy in long races.

Outro:

Ok folks that is it – you have ridden, dragged, pedaled, pushed and suffered through another episode of the runrunlive podcast. Episode 135a in the can.

I’ve got some great interviews coming up. I interview the Rob Walch who is an executive over at Wizard Media, the company that owns Libsyn where I host my podcast and many others do. We talk about podcasting and I think you’ll find it quite interesting where the podcasting social media vehicle is heading. I also have Marshall Ulrich a very famous ultra-runner who has won Badwater 4 times among a host of other amazing things. I’ve got Dr. Pietro Baio who is a chiropractor for boxers in NYC and I’ve got Julie who runs the ‘Chubby Mommy’ running club. And much much more. Dancing bears, trained llamas, you name it – we’re on a roll.

So I’m working on my new website and if you want to see a Beta version go to

I’ve got the race report up on the blog with some pictures. I’m working on loading all the back episodes of the podcast in with show notes and it has been quite an archeological expedition. It’s fun to listen to me learning how to do things, training for an ultra and all sorts of stuff that brings the memories flooding back. Feel free to click around, but don’t expect everything to work. If you find a broken link or have a suggestion let me know.

I’m going to attempt an actual written blog to capture some of the other things rattling around in my head that just don’t fit into the podcast. We’ll see how it goes!

I’m going to start a newsletter I’m tentatively called ‘the RunRunLive Mercury’ and I want to take the connections in our community to the next level. I want to profile a member of the community, a charity and maybe a race in each one so people can start to connect and build their networks – I think this matches my mission of spreading the word and getting people out there.

I came across a couple good quotes this week – First one is “Success is often measured by comparison to others. Excellence, on the other hand, is all about being the best we can be and maximizing our gifts, talents and abilities to perform at our highest potential.”

I think that’s cool and it explains how folks like me and you who are passionate about something can exert so much energy into it without any expectation of actually winning anything. The real success, for me, is not standing on the podium, but knowing that I competed to the best of my ability within my resources. That’s maximizing my potential. It doesn’t matter what the other 26,000 people in the race do, it’s how I respect my abilities by doing the best I can.

I’m a little uncomfortable with today’s race report because I didn’t perform to the best of my abilities per se, I just suffered. And while I believe the ability to suffer is important, I do not see suffering as a noble or worthwhile goal in itself. That topic will make an excellent blog post, no?

The next quote I got was:

“Do not wait; the time will never be “just right.” Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.”– Napoleon Hill

This is so important to us. We have to rush in, to jump in before we are ready. Time will never be right. You will learn more by jumping in than planning it all out. Is there risk of failure? Yeah, of course, but no more than the risk of sitting where you are. And failure is not absolute. You can fail a little and end up in a much better place through the learning, growth and experience that it forces on you. But do not go into it with an expectation of failure, have an “Expectation of success”. If you have a committed expectation of success and are comfortable with your own self esteem failure will manifest as success for you.

So, jump in! Don’t sit on the shore waiting for rescue, start swimming out to meet your personal manifestation of success.

And those won’t be Great White Sharks that will be me out there with you.

Music tonight is Voodoo Woman by Koko Taylor – A little Blues for you to lighten up the mood a little.