The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-307 – The Continuing Adventures of Wendy Nail
(Audio: link)
Link epi4307.mp3
Intro Bumper:
https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussell
Well, my friends, here we are, Late Friday afternoon and time to publish another episode of the long running Podcast series RunRunLive…A serial magazine series sponsored by the Cialis and the History Channel about the trials and tribulations of Yaks farming on the north eastern permafrost… No? Ok, It’s not sponsored by anyone except the neurotically charged neurons of my cranial sphere. And mostly we talk about distance running and endurance sports and we talk to members of our community about their adventures and transformations and epiphanies.
And at 25 words with 4 conjunctions that, my friends, is a sentence Vladmir Nabokov would be proud of.
Just got back from running 1:45 outside on the roads. That’s two outside runs for the week! I’m killing it! Heh heh… My training is going good and bad. On the good side I’m getting the miles in. On the bad side my AFib is really getting annoying.
Let me ‘splain…I’m not a doctor, so I’m going to dumb it down to my level. If you look at your heart it’s a big manual pump. It’s got these four chambers to it. Each one of these chambers is like a Turkey baster, you squeeze it and it squirts blood out one side, you let go and it reflates and draws blood in the other side.
There’s a one-way valve on each side of each chamber, just a simple flap valve, like in the back of your toilet.
Leading into and out of these turkey-basters are four big pipes. These pipes return blood and carry blood away. These are the pipes that get clogged up when you hear about people getting ‘bypasses’.
The thing is, in order to squeeze and release those turkey basters your heart muscles contract and relax. The trick is that they have to contract and release in the right sequence or the blood doesn’t move around well.
What’s going on in my Afib is that erroneous electrical signals are cascading down the sheathing material around these pipes and causing my heart muscles to get the turkey basters out of synch. This is exercise induced and only happens when I push hard and towards the end of my runs.
What it feels like is a loss of power. If I look at my heart rate monitor it will read max, like I’m doing wind sprints. But it’s not really my heart beating too fast or at max, it’s my heart reacting to these bogus electrical signals and doing the funky chicken.
When I think about it, now that I know what it is, I can trace it back a few years, but it only got noticeable in the last year or so.
In its current form it’s just sucking the joy out of my running. What I love about running is that point when you get warmed up, deep into a workout and can push the gas pedal down and transcend the workout. Right now, when I get to that point, the engine sputters and coughs. It has removed the ‘flow state’ or the ‘runner’s high’ state from my workouts. Which makes them more like work and less like the flights of fancy that I love.
But, all is not lost. I’ve scheduled myself to go in for a procedure called ‘Cryo-ablation’ where they snake a device up the veins through your groin, into your heart and freeze a ring of scar tissue into those four big pipes. That ring of scaring blocks the spurious signals from getting to your heart and all is well. They say it works 80% of the time and I’m a perfect candidate. But, like Mark Twain was fond of saying, “There’s liars, damn liars and statistics.”
The other alternative is that I could just learn to run slow and short. But I don’t think I’m ready or wired for that. Let’s face it. In the grand scheme of things I’m a super fortunate, super blessed guy. I have nothing to complain about and I really mean that.
Besides, I’ve got you right? And who’s going to hold off the zombie hoards if I have to take it easy?
Today on this show of shows we have the continuing adventures of Wendy Nail who we talked to a few episodes back about barefoot running. This time around we talk about her international adventures and how running is enjoyed all over the world.
In the first article on running related topics I’m going to share some insight on my experience training for the hills of the Boston Marathon. In the second article on life lessons I’m going to talk about how to deal with our hard-wired negativity bias.
I’m not looking for you to give money to squarespace, dollar shave club or audible, and I don’t need any iTunes reviews, but I do still need help with my team Hoyt campaign for the 2015 Boston marathon.
I don’t have a problem asking for support because Rick and Dick have given more to our community and sport than we could ever return. These guys have a statue in Hopkinton for heaven’s sake! They’re the real deal. Help me help them. Go to my crowdrise page, it’s in the show notes and on the RunRunLive website – or I may let the zombie hoards eat you.
On with the Show!
Section one – Running Tips
The Hills of Boston
https://runrunlive.com/hill-training-for-flatlanders
Voices of reason – the interviews
Wendy Nail
Section two – Life Skills
Can vs Can’t and the negativity bias.
https://runrunlive.com/can-or-cant
Outro
Well, well, my Campneros, another RunRunLive podcast driven to the ground and put in the pen with the rest of the free-range steers – Episode 4-307 done and dusted.
I found out that my sister is listening to the podcast. Which, honestly kinda freaks me out. I’ve always told you that this avatar is just one of the me’s out there. But since you’re listening, hey, it must be weird for you to hear Dad’s voice come out of me every so often? I hear it. You must too. And remember: “Russell kids are the smartest and best at everything.” Right?
Heh, is there anything as weird as shared family history? I mean weird- good mostly, but it really gets under your skin in a way nothing else can.
Also this week I had a weird interaction with one of the guys I work with. I also keep I nice tall wall between this avatar and that work avatar. But, I was so brimming with pride last week I told him about the new book I released. I gave him a copy with the understanding that he would spread it around, the last thing I need is to be in a business situation and have someone say “But Chris, you had time to write a book…”
Anyhow, this gentleman is a creative and he sends me back an email that says, and I quote,
All I can say is… WOW. What a great book, Chris. I who never run or jog anywhere, salute you!
Not only is your writing style a treat to read, but your whole attitude toward running and the philosophical POV you bring to the subject is outstanding. I think this writing is better than 90% of the pros.
Congratulations on a real achievement!
Then he says to me today, why didn’t you quit your job years ago and become a writer? Which I answered the same way I always do. Because I’m smart enough to know the difference between a profession and a hobby. But, is that my Dad talking? Am I just afraid? Probably a rational dose of all those things.
Yes the MarathonBQ book is up on Kindle for your enjoyment, but any listeners of the show who want an e-copy I’ll give you one if you a) contribute to the Hoyt fund or b) promise to write up a review.
It’s been on the Times best seller list for two weeks now. Spielberg, Tarantino and Scorsese are fighting over the move rights. Harison Ford was going to play the ‘old’ me but he crashed his plane last week so they had to switch to Timothy Robbins. Of course Ryan Gosling is already under contract to play the young me. Frankly he’s not as smoldering sexy as the young me, but he might pass.
In my dreams…
We are coming up on the Groton Road Race on the 26th and everything is coming together. Got some big changes this year and I’m sure there will be some chaos! I set up a virtual race option if you want to run it remotely. The shirt is super nice and we’ll ship it to you. As a matter of fact I’m going to go run a 10K in every shirt before we ship them. And the women’s smalls chafe quite a bit.
That bit I did today on can vs can’t really resonated when I posted it up on my site. I got a storm of positive responses and shares. Which is strange because I sort of hacked it together in a bunch of small time blocks, between things, over the course of the week. I learned early that you never know what is going to synch with people. It’s not my responsibility to judge what’s worthy. It’s my privilege to create, to let muses have their way.
Folks – get out there. Wipe those winter blues from your smock and get out there. Lace ‘em up and go on adventures. Have some fun. People are watching you and you can influence the world for the better.
As you are pursuing your adventures and good works, I’ll be there too, I’ll see you out there.
https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussell
http://www.grotonroadrace.com/
I haven’t had time to read through all of this because I focused on a) the AFib (and you know why considering I’m going down a similar path (albeit WAY SLOWER SINCE I WAS ALREADY SLOW PRE AFIB!) and b) the “what do you do with your life” part. Wow I love that stuff. Thanks for being you.