The RunRunLive 3.0 Podcast Episode 3-264 – Steve Chopper Rides Across the English Channel
Introductory Comments:
Hello and welcome to episode 3-264 of the RunRunLive podcast. I’m coming to you live from Sweden this week where I’m working with one of my guys on a client presentation. Pretty place. I’ve never been here before. I’ve got a Friday afternoon meeting so I could not get a flight back on Friday and they didn’t have any flights until Sunday, so I’ve got a free tourist day on Saturday and I’m going to explore Copenhagen.
It’s been busy. I was down in Atlanta last week then I drove up to Maine/Canada to run the Bay of Fundy marathon and had an adventure there. The short story is that the course ended up being quite difficult. I had a decent outing but it wasn’t a course I could race a BQ on.
I’m still healthy and my body is strong, even with all the travel and sleep deprivation. I’m forcing myself to take a healing rest week this week while I’m in Europe. I’ll do a couple exploratory fun runs but I’m not going to start training again until next week. Let the old body heal a little before a push again.
I’ll get a Fundy race report out over the next couple weeks as part of an episode. It was a fun adventure and I think you’ll be entertained!
We’ve got a great show for you today, Episode 3-264, I have chat with my old podcasting buddy Steve Chopper about a long distance bike ride and some of the other crazy stuff he’s got going on.
In Section One I’m going to talk about how to say ‘no’. In Section Two I’m going to share some fun I’ve been having mashing up cardio and strength workouts.
Since I was going to be in the car for 12+ hours over the weekend I went out and downloaded every podcast on the www.RunningPodcastList.com list. I hadn’t been listening to any running podcasts recently except The Extra Mile and Phedippidations so I thought it was time for me to exorcise some editorial curiosity.
The majority of them seem to be Ultramarathon themed. And those ultramarathon podcasts are really long. One I downloaded called The British Trail Podcast was over 4 hours long! That’s almost as long as one of Kevin’s Extra Mile Episodes with Jeff Galloway. My theory is that the Ultra runners know that their audience is going to be out on the trails for hours and hours so they are trying to fill that void.
I still have no desire to run a 100mile race. I could be talked into a 50K. I definitely want to run more trail races. I ran the Vermont 50 miler back in 2010 in just over 9 hours and honestly felt like I’d been hit by a car for two days. I can’t imagine what a 100 miler would feel like. And I know I’m stupid and stubborn enough to not give up if I decided to try one. No sir. Not me.
Another interesting theme is the other end of the spectrum, the slow runners and walk-runners (their words, not mine) seem to think there is some conspiracy of elite runners to take all their running joy away from them by being too serious, competitive and caring about finishing times.
I have to tell you that I feel directly in the cross hairs when they are railing against those ‘elite runners’ (not my words) who refuse to walk and apparently don’t understand the true meaning of the gift of running.
I don’t know why me trying to enjoy my personal gift of running, in my way, makes you so mad but you should calm down your rhetoric because I’m not against anyone, I’m just out running the best I can with what I have. Frankly, I don’t need to be saved or converted to the true meaning off running. I’ve been getting along just fine with my running since I was 10 years old I don’t see me stopping anytime soon.
“Que Será, Será”and Laissez-faire, to each his own. I don’t begrudge you your $5,000, 25,000 person, stuffed animal half marathons OR your 100 mile death races so keep your pontificating out of my marathon racing and focus your energies someplace useful on building a running community that is truly a big tent and has room for everyone. Let’s work together to learn from each other and build a welcoming community that supports all of us oddballs and freaks.
On with the show.
Section one:
How to say ‘no’ – http://www.runrunlive.com/how-to-say-no
Featured Interview:
Steve Chopper
Hey Chris
Bikes to the Dykes – http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=afcb2amsterdam
Ride was just over 180 miles in 2 days from London to Amsterdam. Pele called Wembley the ‘Cathedral of football, the capital of football and the heart of football’
In the 1970s the Dutch team played a fluid style known as ‘total football’ so hence the ride took place between these places. The ride in England was across lush rolling countryside down to the port of Harwich (pronounced like carriage). In Holland it was all on purpose built cycle paths along the North Sea coast through dune areas protected by dykes.
30 or so people did the ride raising £40,000 so far.
Dispatches from on the road to Amsterdam with former AC Milan and England football star Luther Blissett. We cycled 180 miles over 2 days – from London to Amsterdam to raise much needed funds for Prostate Cancer UK. Thanks to all my Facebook chums who supported me with their sponsorship. I have raised over £1000 so far and the event has raised more than £40k to fund research and awareness for a disease that kills 11000 men a year in the UK. Photos courtesy of Ricky B from “Movember”
Section two:
The Push-Run – http://www.runrunlive.com/modified-push-runs-for-cross-training
Outro:
The boarding door is now closed. Please turn off and stow any electronic devices, anything with an on/off switch because Episode 3-264 is first in line on the RunRunLive runway and ready for departure.
Hope that was fun for you. I love summer. This past weekend when I was racing was the summer solstice. The days are long a warm and easy. There just seems to be more time to get stuff done.
And I have been busy with the podcast. So busy, in fact, that I have 3 interviews recorded that I have to wrap shows around. Therefore, I’m going to attempt to go back to a weekly release schedule for awhile and see how that goes. I have to work through some content.
I have Brian from the SnowDrop foundation, who we talked to before who has a new adventure involving running a bunch of marathons, I have Iram who is a runner with terminal brain cancer who is getting the most out of life, and I have this crazy Brit Kevin who is about to set off to run around the world – and, yes it takes more than 80 days, apologies to Jules Verne.
I’m recovering well from Sunday’s race. I’m chaffing a little against the enforced rest, but I was definitely feeling the effects of overtraining toward the end of that last cycle and I don’t want to injure myself.
Much to my surprise I seem to have a marathon a month streak going. Maybe I’ll just see if I can keep it going. Why not make hay while the sun shines, eh? I could ride this wave right up to Boston in 2014. Not for charity or for some higher purpose, just because I like doing it. I signed up for the Pocatello marathon in Idaho on the 31st of August. It’s a downhill race, so that will be my failsafe. I haven’t got one for July yet, but I’m working on it.
I have to figure out what to do with my training going forward. I feel like I have my pace and mechanics back to where they need to be and now I have to build stamina, staying power. I’ll probably replace the speedwork on Tuesdays with something like hill work. I’ll probably start doing longer tempo intervals on Thursdays and I’ll try to get my long run up to 24 miles or more. All without breaking something.
I haven’t finalized the Katy Trail run with Eric yet. We’re still working on that but we’d welcome any other ‘elitists’ who want to come hang out, do some miles and have some fun. Shoot me a note.
Finally, I may have mentioned this already, but a group of writers who are also runners has contributed to an anthology of running stories called “The 27th Mile” including luminaries like Jeff Galloway, Mark Remy, Amby Burfoot, Katherine Switzer, Joe Henderson and Hal Higdon. I finished it yesterday and it’s a worthwhile read. This anthology is being sold to collect funds for the OneBoston Fund for the victims of the Boston Marathon. Please go to http://www.the27thmile.com and buy a copy.
Now go and do something worthwhile. Write a poem. Hug your kids. Plant a tree. Make today count. And I’ll see you out there.
Outro Bumper
Thanks for listening folks I appreciate your support. RunRunLive is a free service for you because I like writing and telling stories.
I also love to meet folks so feel free to reach out to me at Gmail or any of the other social networking sites. I’m CYKTRussell. And as you know that’s Chris-Yellow-King-Tom-Russell with two Esses and two Ell’s.
My Website is http://www.runrunlive.com and most if not all of this content is posted out there. If you want the show notes to magically show up in your inbox when I publish a show in a beautiful HTML wrapper you can subscribe to the mailing list at my site. It’s a useful thing if you are moved by something I say and would like to see if what I wrote is the same thing! It also has all the links to everything and everyone I talk to and about.
Other than that, thank you for your attention, do epic stuff and let me know if I can help.
Ciao
Happy Song – Super Hero
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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