The RunRunLive 3.0 Podcast Episode 3-257 – Michael Sandler the Pied Piper of Barefoot
[audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi3257.mp3]
Link epi3257.mp3
Introductory Comments:
Hello and welcome to the much delayed and much anticipated episode 3-257 of the RunRunLive Podcast.
Did you like the Crickets episode? I like telling stories – and shameless plug – you can buy my first book in audio format from my website and I’m working on the second one.
The past few weeks have been a struggle. It’s that time of year where the walls just seem to close in on us. I find myself slipping into self-doubt and mild depression, but then again I have you to keep me company and bout my spirits!
What am I talking about? Well last week my iPhone had issues and I had to recover it from the cloud. It was basically crashing every few minutes. It made for a really annoying ride up to Canada – yeah, I drove to Canada last week – I had to restart the podcasts I was listening to every couple minutes. New Brunswick is nice, but it was a bit of a white knuckle ride through a foggy rain storm up ME rte 9 at night.
The highway goes to Bangor, then changes to a two lane twisty road for a hundred miles before turning back into a proper highway at Calais when you cross into Canada. I guess Eisenhower wasn’t worried about the Russians invading through New Brunswick.
Then – this weekend I was working on my laptop and it crashed. Looks like it’s pretty much dead. I have it down at corporate right now to see if they can recover the drive.
You would think a guy like me would have a fresh backup ready to go, right? Yeah, so about that… A couple weeks ago I put a new terabyte drive into one of my home PCs for storing backups because I was running out of space on my external drive that I use to backup my laptop. I took that opportunity to delete all the old backups and make a new one. Except apparently the new one didn’t take…
So I basically lost about a decade worth of work.
It’s not the end of the world, because most of my stuff is in multiple places and on-line as well – but it makes you realize how much of your life is wrapped around the computer.
I dragged out an older laptop to use as a temp machine. I was quite proud of myself on Monday when I successful took apart two old laptops and Frankenstein-ed one working laptop from them. I took both of them apart and took the memory and the LCD screen from an old scrap box in the bone yard at work. I was pretty impressed with myself!
My training has not been going great. I’m getting it in for the most part but I’m still too heavy and not fit enough. I’ve had to walk away from a couple long workouts and I’m just not really feeling it.
Last time we talked I was getting geared up for an 18 mile pace run. It was going great until around 12 miles in and my right leg locked up on me. I had to basically walk-jog the rest of it. I had gotten some ARP therapy the day before and apparently that was a bad idea. The muscles I used in the therapy were the ones that locked on me.
This week coach gave me a 2-hour step up run. And, of course we got another snow storm on that day so I attempted it on the treadmill at work. About an hour in I just felt awful and couldn’t reign my heart rate in. On the treadmill I notice that my gate has changed due to the plantar fasciitis. I’m landing more on the outside of my foot. I did a set of 10 2-minute hill charges today and got it done, but it didn’t feel great.
I have the Eastern States 20-miler this weekend as my last long effort for Boston. We’ll see how it goes.
You can never assume anything based on one or two workouts – but if the last couple weeks are the measuring stick then it doesn’t look good for a qualifier on Patriot’s Day. All I can do is go out at pace and see what the day brings. You never know.
Looking out my window, it’s snowing again. I think you can tell that I’m a little bit down and could use some sunshine in my life.
Today we have an interview with famous author and barefoot running pied piper Michael Sandler. I had read Michael’s book, “Barefoot Running” last summer when I was in the midst of the plantar fasciitis doldrums. I love the idea of being able to lope off into the woods unshod for hours on end, but I never got that far in my experiment.
He’s getting ready for a book tour for his new book “Barefoot Walking”.
I tried to avoid the usual lines of conversation with Michael and we have a nice chat about the spiritual nature of running.
I’m going to include a piece on the ARP therapy that I got – it comes in a funny story. And I was going to talk about applications of military history, but I think I’ll talk about how to deal with seasonal funks instead!
You know that I sometimes people send me samples of stuff to try. I recently got a care package from a company called Saquito mix that is interesting. Instead of a bar or a gel the mix is in a dry mix form. It’s got chia seeds, hemp seeds and dried berries in it. I really liked it. I ate it dry and also in a smoothie – either way it was yummy.
Another thing I got was a coupe boxes of a electrolyte replacement drink called Drip-Drop. It is like an adult version of Pediolyte. Interesting stuff. I’m not sure where this would fit into my endurance diet but it would be great for recovering from the noro virus.
And finally, last year the wool industry representatives in New Zeleand sent me some Merino wool active wear. At the time I wasn’t really training so I didn’t get to use it. I was a bit suspect of wool active wear. Wool typically has some annoying properties for athletes; like holding water, being hot and scratchy.
But this stuff has been treated or processed somehow to not be that annoying. I got a super-warm, long sleeve technical wool shirt with those thumb hole thingies and a pair of, believe it or not, IceBreaker underwear briefs.
I know what you’re thinking, “Wool underwear for long distance athletes?” But I have to tell you these are one of my favorite things now and they are awesome for long rides and long runs.
The shirt is awesome and super warm too. It still retains a fair amount of sweat, but because it’s wool, it’s warm when it’s wet. One interesting property of this shirt is that it builds up a ton of static electricity. Especially in the winter when it’s dry out. I’ll get a static discharge off the shirt into my ear-buds wire that will zap my into my ears and fairly knock me down!
But I still love it and may wear it today because even though we are officially into spring, it is still freezing out and there’s a foot of snow on the ground! And this shirt is the definition of snuggly.
On with the show.
Section one:
http://www.runrunlive.com/getting-out-of-a-winter-funk – Getting out of a funk.
Featured Interview:
Michael Sandler and (Jessica Lee)
Our Story – http://www.runbare.com/about
Humble Beginnings
In the summer of 2009, Co-Founders Jessica Lee and Michael Sandler launched the Barefoot Running Club in Boulder, CO. The club’s huge success inspired Jessica and Michael to launch RunBare, a barefoot wellness school to help people heal injuries, get active again, reconnect with Mother Earth, and discover a healthier lifestyle. Later that fall, they took a giant leap of faith, both quitting their respective jobs to focus entirely on writing a how-to book to safely guide people through the transition to barefoot running. For nine months straight they toiled in front of their computers, surviving on various ramen creations and the generosity and support of close friends. In April 2010, with barely a penny to their name, the duo hit the road on a 100+ city tour spanning 5 months. They drove across the country with their two dogs, Pumpkin and Sawa, a modest Suzuki hatchback and 4×6 trailer, speaking at outdoor retailers and specialty running stores. Three weeks after hitting the road, Barefoot Running: How to Run Light and Free by Getting in Touch with the Earth was released in May 2010. Upon surviving a 5 month book tour together, they got hitched on October 10th, 2010 on an organic farm on the outskirts of Boulder, CO.
On September 20th, 2011, Crown Publishing, a division of Random House re-released Barefoot Running, helping RunBare reach an even broader audience. A year later, RunBare branched out into multimedia with the release of their first how-to DVD, Barefoot Running, The Movie.
Since their humble beginnings, Michael and Jessica have garnered the attention of major media outlets from all major television networks to NPR, the BBC and the Martha Stewart Show, and Men’s Health, Shape Magazine and Trail Runner, and more.
Section two:
ARPWave Therapy – http://www.runrunlive.com/arpwave-therapy
Outro:
Thank you my friends. If you made it this far you’ll be happy to know we’re heading for the exit of episode 3-157.
Next time, hopefully in two weeks, we will bring you a great interview with Dean Smith who is a pastor to the Northern tribes who is trying to bring hope through running and we have a really good spiritual talk.
Looks like we’re going to have great weather for the Eastern States 20 Miler this weekend. Given how my training is going I’d just like to have a decent race. My expectations aren’t that high but I’d like to pace well and close strong. That would do a lot for my confidence going into the taper.
I’m going to pile into van with Frank and Brian – getting the band back together for one more fling.
My IT manager is sending my hard drive out to see if they can recover anything off it. IT would be nice to get some of my work back. I have most of it on line and in other places, but I’d rather not have to scrounge for it.
Maybe this is an opportunity. Maybe it’s a ‘burn the boats’ opportunity. You’ll hear people use this phrase ‘burn the boats’ or ‘burn the canoes’ as one of those military allusions I was going to talk about, but decided not to.
There are several examples in history where generals lead their armies across a body of water (river or the English Chanel) into hostile enemy territory and once they have disembarked they burn the boats to send the soldiers a message. That message is ‘no turning back, either victory or die trying’. That’s the modern message when you hear it.
Actually they may have burned them so they wouldn’t have to leave a force to protect the boats. Who knows?
Three weeks out from Boston now. Starting to get a little nervous. Could be snow on the course at this rate! If you’re up for the race I’m usually in at the Expo on Saturday.
We’re in the final stages of putting together the Groton Road race as well. Do me a favor and re-post the link www.grotonroadrace.com to your friends and social networks.
Hey – I had a fun idea. I’ve been doing the podcast for almost 5 years now – why don’t you let me answer some questions?
Send me whatever questions you have and I’ll answer them in an episode. They can be anything you want. They can be personal, business, philosophical or running related. Just toss ‘em over to cyktrussell at gmail dot com.
And I’ll put up a post on my site at www.runrunlive.com where you can leave comments.
I’m looking forward to spring. See you out there when it arrives.
Links for this show
http://www.runrunlive.com/messing-around-with-a-kickstarter-project
Other products from Chris Russell you may be interested in
The Mid-Packer’s Lament
On Audio (Read by the author)
The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy
Standard Links:
Contact:
Cyktrussell At gmail and twitter and facebook and youtube
Dial in number for RunRunLive is – 206-339-7804 (to leave an audio message for the show)
Bio
Chris Russell lives 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.
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