The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-365 – Steve Hailstone – Heart Attack

(Audio: link)

[audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4365.mp3]

Link epi4365.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, this is Chris, your host, and welcome to episode 4-365 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Today we chat with our friend Steve Hailstone about his experience as a runner having a heart attack.

I wanted to get Steve on and talk through his experience because I thought we might be able to save some lives. Seriously. It’s well known that we endurance athletes think that we are indestructible. This is not the case. We are typically healthier and fitter over the long arc of our lives but we are still susceptible to the same risks everyone else is, including heart disease.

In section one I talk about how it’s not that much of a leap to go from a marathon to an ultra and give you some thoughts on how to do that. In section two I talk about how we get into and out of mental slumps.

One of the things about mental slumps, whether you are religious or not, is the concept of will. You have free will. You are free to think what you want. With the free will comes the responsibility to know what it is that you are going to do with that free will. You’ve been invested with this great gift. It’s up to you to Use it.

It’s been a couple weeks since we last talked. I believe I was headed into Groton Road Race Weekend last time we talked. We got a beautiful spring day. The races went off without a hitch.

Since I was not race director this year I had the choice of either running in the morning at 6:00 AM with the race director’s cut of the race (that I invented 10 years ago!) or actually running the race itself. The 10k goes off in the early afternoon.

I couldn’t really decide. Then I had a brain storm that I would just run both! Of course when I told the other folks in the club this they all rolled their eyes and told me they knew I was going to do both all along.

Since we opted to hold the race on the 30^th we were a week or so later in the spring. It really made a difference. The course was beautiful. That extra week allowed the course to green up just enough. Groton is a really pretty town.

Coming out of a strong spring cycle and not really going hard at Boston I was able to perform well in both of my 10K’s. Maybe I’ll invent a new thing – the Groton Double.

Still I was a bit beat up after doing all that manual work setting up the race and racing twice over the weekend. Monday I felt a bit like I should have more naps in my life. I’m a white collar worker and it made me consider that I’m getting soft. I need more general labor in my life.

After Groton, I wanted to start in with the mountain climbing plan that Teresa and I came up with. Unfortunately, I didn’t calculate that you can’t really get into the White Mountains of New Hampshire until June. You can get into them, but only if you’re going to be skiing! Washington still has 30 feet of snow in Tuckerman’s ravine! It’s a very dangerous time to hike.

I’ve just been doing a lot of trail running and trying to stay fit. I’ve been taking Teresa out with me when I can and we signed up for a race this weekend in CT that I will talk more about in the outro.

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One of the books I’m reading is “The Magic of Thinking Big!” By David Swartz. This is a classic breathless self-help book from 1959. It’s great. It’s full of all the old-timey storytelling and phraseology of the era. It’s basically a self-authored book from this guy’s speeches and programs that went viral in those days.

One of the quaint things he talks about is people who are suffering from ‘excusitis’. Everyone has an excuse as to why they can’t be successful or live the life they want. They are too old, or too young, or under-educated, or inexperienced. He calls this excusitis!

He talks about how that’s all in your head and how to flip it over and make those excuses strengths. He talks about what I would call ‘feeding the good dog’ – meaning reinforcing those positive thoughts so your subconscious acts on them.

I also read through a series of early excerpts on government. You might wonder why. One of my daughters was recycling some text books and one of them was “The Great Works” a bit of a survey on great writing. I rescued it. (I always have 3-4 books going at a time)

I read Aristotle on why government is not what we want but a natural emergence of a bargain to trade independence for security.

I read Thomas Hobbes on the natural rights of man, written in the 1600’s, and then the Declaration of Independence that cribs heavily from that with its rights to ‘Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”.

Of course, they never meant total equality. They meant political equality. To get to total equality you’d have to force everyone to a middle state by hobbling the exceptional and lifting the less exceptional and this would bring civilization to a grinding halt.

That’s the dynamic we still work with today. Where do we draw that line between independence and equality?

I also read a piece by Alexis de Tocqueville on how Americans are never happy with what they have. That is true. It’s our strength and our weakness.

As I get older I am getting better at being happy with what I have. Even in stressful times I’m quite content. I picked up an old notebook and found that I had been listing things that I was grateful for as an exercise.

The first entry read,

Friends and mentors
Books
Sweat
My Daughters
My old dog Buddy

We’ve all got a lot to think about. But we’ve all got a lot to be grateful for. Feed the good dog – Fertilize the positive. What are five things that you are grateful for today?

On with the show!

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I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported. What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to yet another Blue Apron or Hello Fresh ad. As a matter of fact, stop being lazy and go shop for your own food. We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio.

I’ll also remind you that I have started raising money for team Hoyt for my 2017 Boston Marathon. I would appreciate any help you can give. The fundraiser is on Crowdrise (so I don’t have to touch any of the money) it goes straight to the Hoyts and supports acquiring equipment and supporting others who want to participate like the Hoyts do.

https://www.crowdrise.com/teamhoytboston2017/fundraiser/christopherrussell

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The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported. We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles.

Yes, we are still working on setting up the separate podcast feed for the member’s content. Most recently I recorded and uploaded the first chapter of the zombie novel I’ve been writing for 30 years.

- Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!
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Section one – Stepping up to a 50K from a marathon

https://runrunlive.com/training-for-a-50k-or-a-50-miler-for-marathoners

Voices of reason – the conversation

Steve Hailstone

Husband and father of 3. US Air Force veteran. California native transplanted in Pennsylvania. Reconnected with running in 2012. Heart attack survivor since early 2016. Seeking to understand Insulin Resistance as related to heart disease. Recently adopted Maffetone Method of running to ensure healthy retraining of heart.

https://philmaffetone.com/what-is-the-maffetone-method/

https://www.thenoakesfoundation.org/

http://naturalrunningcenter.com/

Section two – Getting out of a mental slump

https://runrunlive.com/7-ways-to-reboot-your-brain-out-of-a-slump

Outro

Ok my friends, you have stumbled, clutching your chest, through to the end of episode 4-365 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

You may have noticed that this episode was a week late. I apologize. I’m working with a startup out of California now and my time to write and produce has been significantly impinged. I’m not traveling as much, but, paradoxically that means less writing. Planes were always my quiet space.

I may have to take a vacation from the podcast this summer, maybe just drop some ancient podcasts from the past on to the feed for a few months while I get some breathing room.

Teresa and I are heading down to Connecticut tomorrow to run a trail race. She’s going to do her first trail race and her first ½ marathon distance. I’m going to attempt the 50K. I don’t have a CT marathon yet and I was a bit at loose ends so I jumped on this. We’ll see how it goes.

Although the New England weather made its traditional leap from 50 to 95 in one day this week, it’s only going to be in the 70’s tomorrow. It looks like a nice 10K loop course with some technical bits and a lot of elevation. I’m just planning to hike it. Would be thrilled to get in under 7 hours. It will be my first 50K.

I’m thinking about taking a step back from racing and training this summer. I’m leaning towards doing a 30 day program of just running 5 miles in the woods every morning for breakfast. I think it would be a nice challenge and give me some more free time to boot.

I carted my old motorcycle out to the Honda fix-er-up place this week. Had to roll it into the back of my truck and strap it in – which was a bit dicey. I made the service managers day dragging in a 33 year old motorcycle – seriously, they were excited to work on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iORT5E6Hbkc

Here’s the commercial from 1983, pretty cool huh?

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So my friends, as we roll into the dog days of summer. What are your plans? What great mountains are you going to climb? What fabled beasts are you going to slay? What frozen hearts are you going to melt?

Think about it. Send me an audio. I’ll play it if it isn’t too horrible.

I had some Silicon Valley type ask me in a meeting “If you had all the money in the world, what would you do?” Not sure what that self-important prick, sorry did I say that out loud? I’m not sure what my west coast brother was looking to elucidate, but my answer was that I’d drop everything and run across the country.

But, I’d like to add to that answer. I’d drop everything and grab a bunch of my friends and run across the country!

That includes you.

Meet me out back at the Winnebago and we’ll get started.

And I’ll see you out there.