The RunRunLive 3.0 Podcast Episode 3-294 – Jaquie Millet – Late Bloomer Success
(Audio: link)
[audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi3294.mp3]
Link epi3294.mp3
Support RunRunLive; Purchase an audio book of running stories. Written and performed with love by Chris Russell ————-à>>>>>>>http://bit.ly/1cH2Fr7<<<<<<<———–
Introductory Comments:
Hello my friends and welcome to episode 3-294 of the RunRunLive 3.0 Podcast. We’re here today to continue our convivial conversations around the efficacy and transformational power of endurance sports. Welcome. This is Chris, your transient poet laureate here to drop some smahts on yah about training and work and life in general.
I got some great feedback from my 5 core listeners from last week’s show with the essays on work and the dark place. Obviously I was in the throes of a hard week when I scribbled those missives. It pleases me mightily that they helped you or resonated somehow harmoniously within the universe.
I’m on a plane across the country as I speak to you and I was trying to figure out what I could eat here that wouldn’t blow up my training diet. Delta has something called “All Natural Cran-Blueberry Crunch” – so I got a bag of that. I read the nutritional information and it says 172 calories per serving – that’s not too bad. Servings per container 5! Damn! That’s 860 calories !
I know in the past I have happily eaten a whole bag of these. I guess it’s not a bad choice if you could just make it into 5 snacks. 110 of those 172 calories are from the fat in the nuts. Which proves that you shouldn’t read the labels because it will only make you unhappy.
I’m seeing some life in my training. I barely survived that last dark week I was in when we last talked. But I hung in there and it’s starting to suck a little less and my confidence is building. I’m going to talk about that process in Section Two with “The Big Bounce”.
In Section One I’m going to give you my take on the classic self help advice of affirmations. And in today’s featured interview I have a great chat with Jaquie Millet who started running later in life – a couple years ago actually – and just won her age group at Comrades. She is a super nice person and give some great insight into what’s possible.
We have to thank Alex, the Assistant Vice Chancellor of Residential Life in the UK Division of the RunRunLive Corporate Enterprises for chatting her up at Boston and making the introduction.
As I was getting into the dark place in my training a couple weeks ago, I really had to narrow my focus and remove the variables. I took my long step up run onto the treadmill to avoid the heat and the hills. I took my tough long interval workout down to the track so I could measure the effort without variability. This really helped me get my head wrapped around these hard workouts. Control the variability so I could focus on the form, the effort and the pace.
I’ve also started getting serious about my weight. Traditionally, historically, as I get into these hard weeks of the training cycle my weight adjusts down naturally to race weight. I Figure it’s ok to go into the first couple build cycles a little chunky because it’s like weight training for the strength building phase.
This cycle it wasn’t working. I got through my first hard cycle and didn’t lose a gram. This is a problem because due to the injuries and the time off and the beer I’ve managed to grow the bottom line up to around 196+ pounds. This is way too heavy to be doing speed work. This is beyond heavy and squarely in ‘Jiggly’ territory.
I don’t stand a chance of running my goal pace if I’m over 185 and I’m only 6-7 weeks out from my goal race – corrective action was required.
I connected with Rachel, one of my PRSFit teammates who does nutritional counseling. I asked her to look at my diet and help me, not just slim down, but optimize my nutrition for training. Obviously if what I’ve been doing isn’t working it’s time for a bit of intervention.
I started logging all my food in MyFitnessPal again – (and if you care I have no problem friending you and giving you access to my log) She looked at it for the week and said “You eat really clean”. Of course she wasn’t looking at the previous weeks where I had Chinese food, Mexican Food and an entire pizza as my meal plan 3 days in a row and a 12 pack of wonderfully full-bodied craft ales with potato chips and cheese on top!
When we get a few weeks into it I’ll write it up for you. The biggest challenge she has given me is when she said, “Do you really drink 6-8 cups of coffee a day?” That’s like when you spouse says “Are you really going to put that there?” Sell your coffee futures – Mad Dog is cutting back.
After a week of clean eating I’m down under 187 pounds and training feels so much easier. If I can keep up this focused nutrition for the next 5-6 weeks I’ll walk into the target race lean and mean. No Jiggles. Like Maverick said, “I feel the need for speed.”
I’ve got heavy travel over the next few weeks so we’ll see if I can stay away from the 1,000 calorie snack bags and keep it focused while rolling out of bed at the crack of dawn to push that rock up the hill. At least an eagle isn’t eating my liver while I sleep.
(Come on, I know you folks are all well read and will get my obtuse Greek mythology references.)
When life gives you lemons…give ‘em back and get some limes, limes are better and they cure scurvy.
On with the Show.
…
You should really sign on to my email list. Rather than basking in safe obscurity you can declare your allegiance to RunRunLive and get my drivel directly in your inbox. I mean, really, you’ve made it to 294 episodes and sucked the vital life force out of my narrative for 5+ years you should subscribe or at least join the RunRunLive Facebook group.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/46620307582/ or just search FaceBook for “RunRunLive”.
On with the show!
Section one:
Affirmations – https://runrunlive.com/new-agey-woo-woo-solutions-for-your-angst
Featured Interview:
Jaquie Millett
https://twitter.com/JacquieMillett – Marathon runner with freedom pass – late start! Lots to fit in 2014. Boston & Comrades btb done. Berlin, SVP100k, progress towards 100 club. LFC YNWA! Have fun!a
Section two:
The Big Bounce – https://runrunlive.com/the-big-bounce-in-your-training-cycle
Outro:
Cheers,
https://www.facebook.com/groups/46620307582/ or just search FaceBook for “RunRunLive”.
Outro Bumper
Alrighty then, pump those brakes and let’s move it to the exit of Episode 3-294.
To summarize, everything is going pretty well. I’m busy as heck, especially when you throw in travel and two-hour workouts! There is much more I want to do. I have to work on my ability to not do some things so I can wrestle more of the ideas in my head into existence.
One of the key things about this training cycle is my ankle pain, Achilles pain and general achiness is getting much better. It’s probably the less inflammatory diet combined with a lot of self massage early in the training cycle. Isn’t it nice to talk when things are going well?
I’ll tell you a couple stories since we last talked.
First are my track stories. I do my track work down at the local middle school. They recently re-finished the track and it’s beautiful. I’ve been training on this track for 18 years and I see many of the same people down there who walk in the early evenings.
I suppose I might be a bit of a strange presence when I’m down there running 1600’s at tempo pace. I know I probably look like I’m giving birth to a cow as I’m trying to hang on and relax into the effort. I’m a runner. I’m at the running track and I’m running. I think that’s as close to the intended purpose of the track as you can get – but I still have, not issues, per se, but situations.
I’ve told you before about how the soccer Moms used to yell at me for trying to run in lane 1 while they were setting up their lawn chairs to watch practice. “Why can’t you run in the other lanes?”
I guess I could run in the other lanes but then my 1600’s are no longer 1600’s. they are 1650’s or some other mathematical construct that I’m unable and unwilling to fathom as I’m dipping deep into the dark place. I have enough trouble holding it together to get my butt around the oval without having to swerve around people and do simple geometry.
Last week I was doing a set of 400’s at faster than 5K pace, so pushing it fairly hard. Some folks came out to walk. This one guy insisted on walking in the middle of lane 1. Why? I don’t even need all of lane 1. Just give me 12 inches to squeeze by on the inside when you hear me coming, because believe me, you’re going to hear me coming.
But, no, Mr. Fitness walker-guy would give an inch. I had to step off the track into the grass to pass him. I’m thinking to myself, “Great, all this work and I’m going to roll an ankle trying to get around this dude”.
After a few 400’s in the set I was doing I changed direction to keep my leg muscles balanced in the work. Now I’m running straight at this guy in lane 1. I had one of those ‘aha’ moments and just aimed straight for his chest. It woke him up to see my 190+ pounds of sweaty meat baring down on him and he did flinch and give way a bit, but he never moved over.
Then one night I was down there and I guy comes in while I’m doing my workout. He’s got one leg and he’s on crutches. Guess where he insists on crutching around the track? Yup, Lane 1. Just inserts himself into my workout and crutches away, glaring at me every time a pass. I mean, the guys got one leg so I guess he gets the right of way but what is it about me that pisses these people off?
I’m going to choose to celebrate the fact that I’m down their doing the work, but these are the kind of things that are going through my head as I struggle through the dark place.
On the lighter side, during one of my 1:30 step-up runs that I chose to do on the treadmill at the gym a lady with a nice bum got on the elliptical machine directly in front of me. She could have gotten on any of those machines and I’d just like to publicly thank her for choosing the one in front of me.
Frankly that should be a service that the club offers – and I’m sure the women would it too – attractive athlete inspiration and incentive program – unfortunately I have nothing to trade with in this regard.
Ce’st la vie,
As we get closer to episode 300 I’m looking for guest blog posts to read and I’m also going to experiment with other voices doing interviews. So if you’d like to conduct some interviews either with some of my guests or people you know and you think will be educational and inspirational – let me know – we’ll set it up.
Have a great week,
I’ll see you out there.
…
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
Standard Links:
www.midpackerslament.com
Contact:
Cyktrussell At gmail and twitter and facebook and youtube
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.
…
Tags -> 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