The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-349 – Chrissy Runs a BQ

(Audio: link)

[audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4349.mp3]

Link epi4349.mp3

MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks – http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/

Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-349 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

Today we chat with Chrissy Simmons who made the grave mistake of tell me on facebook that she ran a qualifying marathon using my MarathonBQ training plan. Of course I coerced her into an interview. The audio quality is a bit off because we were using the telephone to record. Most of the time I can use a skype plugin to record digital audio but we couldn’t swing it this time. Think of it as quaint trip down technology memory lane when we used to pick up the phone and call each other over twisted pair, copper wire, plain old telephones.

I like to talk to folks who have used the plan successfully because when I was writing it down I never really knew if it would work for other people or if it was just some strange manifestation of my own personal demons. I thoroughly tickles me to hear it working and to hear people learning the things I learned by going through it.

When you boil it down it’s really about speed. I’ve heard a couple interviews of Shalane and the other marathoners since the Olympics. They train up to 100 – 120 miles a week. Most of it varying forms of long tempo which is very specific to the marathon distance. In essence their training is specific practice for the race they are looking to run. They are training to find and stay on that edge of the pace where they maximize their results without crashing.

They don’t do a lot of speed work. Why? Because they are already fast. They are coming up from the track or the shorter distances. They already know how to run fast.

The amateur mid-packer marathoner is different. We may have never run track in school. We don’t know how to run fast. Even those of us who may have run 20-30 marathons. We know how to run, we just need to get faster if we want to qualify for Boston or any other race.

The key light bulb idea for you is this. Everyone is capable of running fast. They just have never practiced running fast. They don’t know how. That’s the main question I addressed in MarathonBQ; “How do I take 20 – 40 minutes off my marathon finishing time?” The answer logically is to run faster. But how? The answer is to practice, rigorously running faster. Simple.

Not all simple ideas are powerful, but most powerful ideas are simple.

In section one I’ll chat a bit about how to experiment with speed. Not just for the marathon, but in general as a component of your tool kit.

In section two I’m going to talk a bit about your personal finances. Why? Because I just went through a long avoided financial planning process and I think I’ve got it figured out and thought I’d do you the service of telling you what I learned.

So how’s my training going? As it turns out, fairly well. The big part of it is that I’ve stayed on the nutrition plan that I began as a 30-day project in August. I dipped under 170 pounds last week which is as light as I’ve been since the 1980’s and that really has had a positive effect on my training.

It has a dual impact. The healthy, lean diet has my body reacting better to workouts and the weight loss has put a pop back into my pace. The net result is I’m able to train at a pace that is a lot more familiar and comfortable to me and I’m guessing that I’ll benefit from that.

I raced the Spartan Beast last weekend and you should get a nice long race report on the podcast feed if everything works out. I followed up with a nice 3-hour, 21ish mile long run the weekend after. I still don’t have a lot of volume but I’m going to continue on this nutrition plan through the Portland Oregon marathon in October and see what happens.

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I have a course at home that I do most of my workouts on. It runs down some back roads that are fairly light in traffic. It’s rolling hills through neighborhoods. One of the modest 1950’s ranch houses I run by has had a sign for one of the current political candidates out in his front wall.

I say ‘his’ because I’ve seen him. He’s a white guy, about my age. The yard and the house are well kept but not overly fastidious. He drives an older model red Volvo sedan. He and his wife live there on that classic suburban ¼ acre lot. Doesn’t look like there are any kids.

He’s had his sign up since the primaries.

I shake my head when I run by. I wonder what has happened to him to make him so angry. I wonder what his narrative is.

I’ve often thought of starting one of my speeches by talking about all the challenges I’ve had to overcome in my life.

I say it with great seriously and gravitas. How hard it was to grow up white and male in the suburbs of the richest state on the richest country in the world. I’d spin my miserable yarn about how I had to cope with being healthy and well fed, being provided the best education by loving parents who were in a stable long term marriage.

I wonder how long the audience would stay with me?

These are confusing times for many. If you can look beyond that confusion. If you can look within. You will find abundance.

And I just wish more people would see that abundance.

Do you believe in abundance?

On with the show.

Section one –

Getting Faster -. https://runrunlive.com/getting-faster

Voices of reason – the conversation

Chrissy Simmons

I am a 34 year old living and working in Winchester, KY. I enjoy hiking and various outdoor activities, playing with my two dogs, and of course having drinks with good friends. But my primary hobby is definitely running.

Over the years, I have established my top 3 running goals:

1.) Run a marathon in all 50 states (16 down!)

2.) Finish a 100-mile race (50-mile race completed. 100K scheduled for 12/31/16)

3.) Qualify for the Boston Marathon (Done!).

I started running when I was 25 years old. With help from the well-known Couch to 5K training plan, I ran my first 5K. 3 years later in 2010, I ran my first marathon at the Cincinnati Flying Pig (4:38). Since then, I have run about 25 races that were marathon length or longer. Some of those were ultra-marathons, some trail marathons, some races I did just for fun, and some I did to check new states off the list. I would say that I honestly put effort into training for about 6-7, making gradual improvements to my finishing times by loosely following hybrids of various available training plans. Qualifying for Boston was a dream I had from the beginning and after finally breaking the 4:00 mark in 2014, the goal felt like it was in reach.

On 6/6/16, I started the MarathonBQ training plan with a goal to run a 3:35 marathon (BQ -5). And on 9/11/16, I finished the Erie Marathon with an official time of 3:34:36. Training with this plan during a hot, miserable summer was brutal at times but the final result was definitely worth it.

Section two

Financial Independence – https://runrunlive.com/financial-independence

Outro

How about that? You, my abundant friends have sped your way to the end of Episode 4-349 of the RunRunLive podcast.

Do you feel faster? I do.

Next up for me is the Portland Or marathon in two weeks. I don’t know what to expect, but I’m hopeful. Travel marathons are always a bit of a wild card for me, but we’ll see how it goes. Depending on how things go in Oregon I may look for a November race. Other than that there is the tradition of volunteering at the BayState Marathon in October and either volunteering or running the Groton Town Forest 10 miler and then of course the traditional Ayer Fire Department 5K on Thanksgiving morning.

One new development is that I’m setting up a website for the Groton Marathon. I’ll read you the copy.

“The Groton Marathon was founded in December of 2013 by veteran runner Chris Russell. He was in the midst of a ‘marathon a month’ streak in honor of the Boston Marathon bombings from April 2013 to April 2014. The marathon he was scheduled to run in December was canceled due to snow. Frustrated at the lack of convenient distance events in the Massachusetts area, Chris grabbed a couple running buddies and created the first Groton Marathon to keep his streak alive.

The Run has repeated each year since. This year, 2016, we want to open up the race to a select number of applicants who are facing the same shortage of local distance events to keep their streaks alive. If a small, lightly managed run with veteran runners in December sounds like a fit for you, join us this year.”

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That’s what I’m up to. It’s an abundant life. I don’t have to stop and ask permission if I can create my own race. I just have to do it. The way I’m able to continue to run and have adventures is simply that I believe I can, and I do it.

Frankly the biggest challenges we face in this era and in this season of our lives is that there is too much abundance. The challenge is how to focus your energy on the handful of things that bring value to you and your family and your community.

The Millennials talk about FOMO – ‘fear of missing out’. That’s a classic example of how abundance makes us crazy. There are too many good choices and we either freeze in place overwhelmed or flit from thing to thing like deranged dilettantes.

And then I’m out for a walk with Buddy in my woods. With the dry sun filtering through the green tree canopy and falling mottled in the leaf litter. The old stone walls delineating sheep pastures that long ago gave way to forest. We stop to breath in that good air. We listen to the skittering of squirrels and the chittering of birds…

And we know abundance.

Think about the abundance in your life.

And I’ll see you out there.