The RunRunLive 3.0 Podcast Episode 3-277 – Ashley’s Relay Across America MSRuntheUS
(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi3277.mp3]
Link epi3277.mp3
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Introductory Comments:
Hello and welcome. Happy American Thanksgiving. It’s one of our big public holidays. We run ‘Turkey Trot’ races in the morning and gorge ourselves on mid afternoon food piles, then we all slip into a deep sleepy coma for a couple hours. It’s a Family tradition.
Today I’m speaking with our old friend Ashley Kumilen about her new venture, that is coming into its second year this summer. The MSRuntheUS relay across the USA. She is assembling a team of motivated, like-minded runners to each run a chunk of a relay across the US.
It’s interesting to me because Ashley has been fixture of the RunRunLive Podcast since we started it. I spoke to her on several occasions before, during and after her solo run across the US a couple years back. I know it sounds patriarchal, but it’s like we’ve watched her grow up.
Now she’s running this real, structured, official charity and it all started with that first step out the door, with deciding she was going to do something positive about the illness that was slowly taking her Mom from her. She didn’t say ‘I’m just a 20-something girl from Wisconsin, how could I ever make a difference?” She put on her shoes and got out the door and made a difference.
She’s currently looking for people to share her next adventure and we talk about it today.
I’ll also read a piece on personality types that I distilled from a book ZenRunner gave me when I stayed with him down in Florida a couple weeks ago – in Section one.
In Section two I’ll talk through why it is important to warm up for races and workouts and what exactly ‘warm up’ means.
I’m not going to write a race report on Fort Myers. I don’t have time and it just wasn’t that eventful. I thought I’d have a shot at running a qualifying time there because the course is super flat, but I just had a really bad day.
I went out at race pace, but didn’t feel great from the start. I had my heart rate monitor on and was trying to relax but my heart rate was very high for the effort and pace I was running at. If I’m racing at marathon pace my heart rate should settle down after 10 or 20 minutes. It will start high in zone 5 or 6, but then it should settle down into zone 3-4, preferable low to mid zone 3. Mine stuck up in zone 5 and 6 and wouldn’t come down.
We had a head wind heading out and that was a little bit of a challenge but I found someone to draft. It was 70’s and humid, which is not ideal for me but that shouldn’t matter until later in the race, I was struggling form the start.
After 10 miles or so I started throwing in some slower paced stuff and even some walk breaks to try to find a reasonable heart rate, but I couldn’t. I’d walk until it came down into zone 2 then I’d start jogging and it would shoot back up into zone 5. I almost wish I hadn’t worn the monitor. At this point I was concerned that I might have some sort of virus or something and to keep racing would give me a stroke or something.
After that I just walked until it come down then jogged until it got too high and walked again all the way to the finish line for my slowest marathon of the 12 in 12 (so far). I’m not disappointed in having run so slowly but I’m befuddled as to what the hell is going on with my body. Coach said something about a ‘Catabolic state’ induced by over training.
I’m just going to put it behind me and spend some time building my base with longer zone 2 runs. As the Lydiard guys like to say, “A big bottom solves everything.”
Facebook was asking me what I was Thankful for this week. I’m super happy to be running and putting down the miles that I have this year, when last year I wasn’t running at all. I’m happy to be healthy and have a good job and to be able to pursue the things that are important to me and fulfilling. My kids are doing well. My family is strong. I’m in a good place. I hope you are as well.
I got an email this morning that the RunRunLive email list is up to a new record 350 subscribers. I’ve been getting some great emails from newer listeners with interesting stories and positive feedback – they are an inspiration to me.
I started this podcast, this conversation with you back in 2008 in the parking lot after completing the Mt. Washington road race and training for my first ultra. We’ve come a long way together in 5 years. My original purpose was to share with you some of things I’ve learned, perhaps keep you entertained and maybe give you some inspiration as we continue to transform our lives.
Happy Thanksgiving.
On with the Show!
Section one:
Personality Types – http://www.runrunlive.com/leveraging-personality-types-in-your-interactions
Featured Interview:
MSRuntheUS – Running farther to serve others.
Ashley Kumilen
Hi Chris,
Thank you for the interview yesterday! I just sent you a picture of the group that ran the finish with my mom into New York.
Here’s the link for signing up: http://www.msruntheus.com/sign-up/
And this is a link that leads to the event description: http://www.msruntheus.com/the-relay/
The dates are slightly different for the 2014 Relay – April 13 to Aug 10th, but all the information about the event is the same 🙂
Thank you again and let me know if you need any more information!!!
Ash
Ashley M. Kumlien
Founder – Director
MS Run the US Inc.
P.O. Box 2273
Brookfield, WI 53008-2273
Ph: 262.894.3645
Section two:
Warming Up – http://www.runrunlive.com/warming-up
Outro:
That’s it my friends – episode 3-277 is done and done – and I’m thankful for it, are you?
I owe you a couple of shoe reviews. First I have been doing a bunch of longish trail runs in my new Brooks Pure Grit trail shoes. They don’t have as much bulk as the Cascadia and are much lighter with a much softer ride. They still have the toe and heel wrap-around caps on the outsole to give you the extra grip on technical bits and protect you from kicking something dense. They have a stiffer outsole and it feels like they have a bit of a rock plate in there somewhere too.
So far I have had no problems with them. They’ve got this sideways lacing system that takes a little getting used to and pinched my mid-foot until I got them broken in. The tread isn’t super aggressive but it’s enough for traction on everything I’ve done so far.
What I really like about them, and what I bought them for, is that they allow me to run lightly with good form on the trails. It was hard to do that with the Cascadia. I like them and I’ve had no problems with them.
I also had someone from Solomon send me a pair of trail shoes. I haven’t run in them yet because I don’t want to switch to an unknown quantity in the middle of a training cycle. I have been walking around in them and they’re quite pretty and comfy. They seem to be similar in 
weight and purpose to the Pure Grit. When I get some runs in them I’ll let you know what I think.
I’ve been traveling like a mad man and will continue to do so through the Christmas holidays. It’s tough to get out and get my workouts in the mornings on the road but I do what I can manage. Last week I flew out to LA for a meeting and when I got back into Boston I stopped by my office to get a weights workout in and pulled something in my back that slowed me down for a couple days.
Coach has me doing a big base building cycle where it’s all longish zone 2 runs. This is easier to manage on the road because I can just wander around wherever I am for an hour and a half in the morning instead of having to get a structured speed workout in. It’s a lot less stressful and I’ve been having some great exploration runs.
Next up for me is the Tecumseh Trail marathon in Indiana. I’m just going to treat it as a long trail run and do the ultra-running approach. I’ll power walk the hills and run the downs and flats. I’ll carry a lot of nutrition. Someone told me that Dean Karnazes said this was the hardest of his 50 in 50 marathons, but I have ultra experience and loads of trail running experience so I’m actually looking forward to it.
After that my buddy Ryan has talked me into racing Waco Texas at the end of January. That will be my last opportunity for a qualifier this year to get reseeded at Boston in 2014. I never imagined it would be this hard to get my time. Looking back I can see now that trying to combine a 12 in 12 aspiration with a BQ attempt has been counterproductive.
There just isn’t enough time to train between races. You are either recovering or in a taper. If you’re lucky you get 1 o2 two weeks of quality training. This would have been ok if I had come into this with a high level of fitness, but I didn’t. My thought was that my body would respond and I could basically race into shape. I ran 9 races in 9 weeks coming into Fort Myers and for some reason I’m surprised when my body shut me down?
It’s all part of the adventure my friends. It’s amazing that I can still learn things every time I put on the shoes. But, don’t ever give up. Fight it all the way down. Persistence and a positive attitude can move mountains.
Next show I have an interview with one of my long-time heroes – Bill Rodgers. I had tried to get Bill on for a few years, but he was hard to nail down so I just sort of gave up. With some recent prodding I went out and contacted him again and we had a great talk.
Have a great week and we’ll talk soon enough!
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 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Superhero
Other products from Chris Russell you may be interested in
The Mid-Packer’s Lament
On Audio (Read by the author) – http://www.runrunlive.com
The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy
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Contact:
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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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