The RunRunLive Podcast Episode 180 – Sage Canaday with the Hanson’s Running Program
[audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi180.mp3|titles=Episode 180 – Sage Canaday Hansons Running]
Show intro by:
Shane from the Full Speed Ahead Podcast.
http://fullspeedaheadpodcast.podbean.com/
Intro:
Hello and welcome to the terrified Border Collie podcast! That’s right it’s July and this is the month that is full of terror for Border Collies. You’ve got your daily thunder storms not to mention thousands of patriotic rednecks expending their personal fireworks collections during the long summer evenings. It’s like living in a war zone for poor Buddy the old Wonder Dog. He’s pacing around the house, shaking like a leaf and doesn’t know what to do!
But – this is the RunRunLive Podcast, where we do some shaking and pacing of our own, but generally not out of fear, and this is Episode 180 and we do have a great show for you today. Today I talk with Sage Canaday who is a member of the mythic Brooks Hanson Olympic development program – or as you may have heard it – the Hanson’s.
The background here is that the Hanson’s are two brothers who own a running store chain in Michigan. They were disappointed in the state of long distance running in the U.S. and decided to do something. They provide select athletes with housing and employment that allows them to focus and train after college to see if they can become world class distance athletes.
You may have seen Desiree Devilla break the American women’s course record at Boston this year with a 2nd place finish 2:22. She’s a Hanson’s athlete. The cream of the crop, like Meb and Ryan Hall get big company sponsorships, but the next tier of really good collegiate runners have no place to go after college. The Hanson’s program gives them a way to pursue their dreams – and get it out of their system.
It’s not glamorous. They live in group houses, work for low wages in the shoe stores and basically commit to a monastic existence of sleep, train, work, and race. The program has proven that given the time and support to train as a group with lots of high-mileage and high quality over a number of years produces Olympic caliber athletes and performances.
By the way – Sage complains a lot in his book about the lack of opportunities for romance for a young guy slaving away in the program, so if any of you ladies out there want to date an obsessive Olympic Marathoner – swing by the Bloomer House in Michigan.
Sage and I talk today about the book he wrote about his experience with the Hansons.
Now if we could only find someone to set up a similar program for our men’s soccer players!
What’s new with me? Nothing much. Had some nice long rides in my cramming sessions for the Wilderness 101 at the end of July. Haven’t been running at all – I’m waiting on some new shoes and want to let my heel heal – say that 10 times fast – before I start the ramp up to the VT50. I’ve only been getting at most one swim in a week. I have a sprint tri next weekend – but I’m mailing it in. I’ll survive the swim, hammer the bike and mail in the run.
Special thanks to Frank from Germany who has been going through the archived episodes on my website www.runrunlive.com and letting me know which ones are broken – they are all fixed now. That just tells me that none of you folks are actually visiting the runrunlive website to get the 150 episodes that are not on iTunes or even Libsyn. Your loss! I’ve fulfilled my end of the bargain! They are out there!
On with the show!
Audio clips in this episode:
Ferris Bueller’s Day off Clip.
Skits, commercials and parodies in this episode:
Apple IProd commercial
Script by the RunRunLive staff, Production and performance by Colin the Resurrected Runner
Story time:
Never fell in love
until i fell in love with you
Never know what a good time was until i had a good time with you
If you wanna get the feeling and you wanna get it right
Then the music gotta be loud
for when the music hits i feel no pain at all
Radio, Radio
When I got the music I got a place to go
Flying to work on wings of steel – http://www.runrunlive.com/flying-to-work-on-wings-of-steel
Equipment Check:
Featured Interview:
Sage Canaday – http://vo2maxproductions.com/
Sage Canaday grew up in the backwoods of Sheridan, Oregon, where he started running seriously in 6th grade because his soccer coach told him that he was better off without a ball! A part of the very deep Oregon high school class of 2004 (Galen Rupp, Ryan Vail, Stuart Eagon, Scott Wall), Canaday’s best cross-country finish was 13th at the Oregon State Cross Country meet (large-school division) his senior year of high school. Lacking natural foot speed, Sage was “just another 4:30 miler” who didn’t even make states in track and never got to race at Hayward Field in Eugene.
At Cornell University, Canaday slowly developed as a distance runner under the guidance of LetsRun.com co-founder and Cornell distance coach Robert Johnson. After a disastrous freshman year of running sabotaged by iron-deficiency anemia and a poor diet involving the infamous “freshman 15,” Canaday slowly built his mileage up over 100 miles per week. A gradual, but steady progression of improvement eventually resulted in a trip to the DI NCAA Cross Country Championships as an individual in the fall of 2007, and an Ivy League Conference individual title on the track for 10k in the spring of 2008.
Also in college, Canaday convinced his coach Robert Johnson that he should try to qualify for the 2007 US Olympic Marathon Trials. After receiving permission from his coach, Canaday trained between cross country and track seasons and debuted in the 2007 Houston Marathon with a 2:22:21, missing the trials “B” standard at the time by a margin of only 21 seconds. Determined to qualify for the trials (his dream since his sophomore year of high school), Canaday tried his hand at the marathon 6 months later at the 2007 Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota. Despite racing in sunny temperatures over 70 degrees, Canaday succeeded in qualifying for the trials in his second marathon with a 2:21:43. He was the youngest participant in the 2007 US Men’s Olympic Marathon trials at the age of 21.
Sage joined Hansons in August 2009 after graduating from Cornell University with Bachelors of Science in Design and Environmental Analysis, with a concentration in Human Factors and Ergonomics. Most recently, Sage ran a 1:04:32 at the 2011 Rock ‘n’ Roll Mardi Gras Half Marathon in New Orleans and qualified for his 2nd Olympic Marathon Trials.
For more information visit SageCanaday.com
The Book
Running For The Hansons offers the reader a glimpse of what it is like to be a professional distance runner, to run in a major sponsor’s shoes, and to live a lifestyle structured around training and racing. It is a first-hand, exclusive account that delves into the elations, the disappointments and the re-discoveries of what it takes to be an elite, American distance runner. The story provides a framework of The Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, a post-collegiate marathon-focused training group based in Michigan that was made famous by the progression of 2008 US Olympian Brian Sell. Runners of all ages and abilities will quickly recognize that the thought processes of such athletes mentioned in the story can be applied to their own running. The mega-mileage, 140-mile weeks and puke-inducing workouts and races that are discussed in the book are relative extensions from the challenges that any high school team, college cross-country team or marathon-training group must learn to conquer together. As a collective whole, the sacrifice and commitment of each individual yields a camaraderie, synergy and motivation for the entire group to break through pre-conceived barriers (which are the very efforts demanded to achieve new personal bests!) This is a story about dreaming big, following your heart and taking risks. It is a story of triumphs, disappointments, and how one may find meaning and purpose in life through a “simple” passion for running.
Included in the contents are informative sections about training, racing, and what it takes to become one of the best marathon runners in the country.
Quick Tip:
Trails 101 – Falling Down. – http://www.runrunlive.com/trails-101-how-to-fall-down
Outro:
Ok my friends that is it you have paced the house shaking nervously to the end of yet another RunRunLive Podcast, Episode 180 in the can.
I’m running behind this week so I’ll make it quick! I was in the departure gate in Baltimore last week. It was late. It was just a handful of people, me and the gate agent. Yet there was that lrge screen TV tuned in to some loud news program filling the space with audio invective about all the death and wars and crooked politicians that the world has to offer.
I looked at the gate agent and said, “You know, I can make all the world’s problems go away.” I walked over to the hanging TV screen, reached up and pushed the ‘off’ button. I turned to her and said “See?” and smiled.
I’ve got some good shows coming up. I have talked to my new friend Cheryl who is an ultra runner that has also been a body builder. I talk with somewhat controversial Dr. Yessis about his “Explosive Running” book. And I’m always on the lookout for new people to chat with – so let me know if you have any leads.
I put some more audio stories up from my book “the Mid-Packer’s Lament” and also the other old book “Fred Fenton Marathon Runner” on my website at www.runrunlive.com under Audio products. Not to be a shill, but I do not have any financial support for this show other than my writings and recordings so anything you can buy helps defray the cost. Which isn’t a lot, maybe $500 a year, if you don’t count my time, but I do run a deficit and would appreciate the support.
Hope you all are having a great summer. I know I am.
…
Speaking of money. I send most of my after tax income to institutions of higher education right now. And it’s ok, I think prep school and college is worth it and is a good investment for the kids even though maybe sometimes they don’t seem to appreciate the enormity of the expense.
I listened to something recently where they were debating , among other things, the value of a university education and some of the pressures and changes going on in the world of higher ed. I know a lot of our runner friends are teachers or employed by academia – that lifestyle seems to support or at least correlate with endurance athletics participation.
They were talking about what the goal of those years at school were. It got me to thinking about how different places and cultures expect different things from university. If you look at university as just a rote transfer of knowledge – then that becomes easy to measure and put some value on, like engineering or accounting.
If you look at a classic liberal arts college like we have some many of here in New England – you can make the argument that they don’t teach any usable skills. I would disagree. I think some of the most valuable things I’ve learned in my life, personally valuable, have been very difficult to quantify.
In our lives anyone can take the time and focus to learn the answers to questions that someone else has already said are truths. That’s not expanding ourselves or our world. The things that are truly valuable is instead of teaching the answers, to teach the questions, like Socrates did and especially the questions that have no answers.
To understand and be at peace with the infinite makes you far more tolerant of the finite. A narrow a rote perspective will lead you into corners and traps. There is no abdication of knowledge. You have to learn where the edges are by searching. Our existence is naturally chaotic and anyone who tells you they have all the answers is a charlatan.
There are no answers. But there are better questions.
And when you ask these questions, I’ll see you out there.
New-Outro
My friends you know me on Twitter, Facebook, DailyMile, YouTube as cyktrussell that’s chris yellow king tom Russell with two esses and two ells.
Callme – 206-339-7804. Leave a message there it sends me an audio file.
Read the intro- make it fun – I like when people think out of the box. You will find the instructions for reading the show intro and all my content (including 180 working episodes of this show) on my website www.runrunlive.com
Today we have been listening to the iconic sounds of prolific punk rockers NOFX – here’s a live song of theirs from a concert in San Franscio to take you out.
You know that all the music used here is from the podsafe music network and is available at Music Alley. It’s all legal and the links are in the show notes if you want to go buy them yourselves.
Be good. Ciao.
Music:
From Podsafe
fat_wreck_chords-nofx100_times_fuckeder
nofx-electricity
nofx-lori_meyers-_live_in_san_francisco
Standard Links:
www.midpackerslament.com
Cyktrussell At gmail and twitter and facebook and youtube
Chris’ book on Amazon – > http://www.amazon.com/Mid-Packers-Lament-collection-running-stories/dp/141961584X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228687012&sr=8-1
Mid-Packer’s Lament E-book
Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy E-Book
Dial in number for RunRunLive is – 206-339-7804
Chris Russelllives and trains in suburban Massachusetts with his family and Border collie Buddy. Chris is the author of “The Mid-Packer’s Lament”, and “The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy”, short stories on running, racing, and the human comedy of the mid-pack. Chris writes the Runnerati Blog at www.runnerati.com. Chris’ Podcast, RunRunLive is available on iTunes and at www.runrunlive.com. Chris also writes for CoolRunning.com (Active.com) and is a member of the Squannacook River Runners and the Goon Squad.
Email me at cyktrussell at Gmail dot com
Running Podcast, podcasts for running, podcast for runners, free podcast for runners, Running Blog, marathon, triathlon, mileage, sprinting, run, track, training, running clubs, running groups, running shoes, exercise, health, 5k, running, swimming, sports, injuries, stretching, eating, jogging, biking, trail race, 5K, 10K, Ultramarathon, jogging a good exercise, road runner, jogging tips, benefits of jogging, free running, running shoes, marathon training, running, jogging, health and fitness, runners, runner, Boston qualification, Marathon BQ, Boston marathon
ok, so any ideas how I get the archive shows onto mYpod? I’m fairly sure it only communicates with iTunes – I tried to put some other music on it once and it just fills up space without me being able to listen to it. I suspect the reason that so many of us aren’t accessing the archive stuff is lack of techy know-how rather than disinterest in the content. I can listen to it on the puter but would much prefer to take it out on runs with me. And why can’t it be put onto iTunes anyway? Is there a limit to the number of episodes they can store?
Well…your ipod shuffle is pretty low tech. These files are big so
you only want to get a couple at a time on your ipod.
1. Go to archive and download by right click and save as to a
directory on your laptop.
2. Open iTunes and file/Add the files
3. Create a playlist called ‘whatever’
4. Drag the ones you want to listen to to the playlist
5. Change your sync options to sync that playlist.
C_,