The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-389 – DirtDawg and JustFinish Crewing a 100 miler
(Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4389.mp3]
Link epi4389.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 and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-389. This is your friend Chris. I feel like I need to introduce myself and what we do here in case there might be a new listener or two. That’s a challenge, for a couple reasons. First, because we’ve been at this for over a decade. Over the arc of that decade you an I have been through many seasons of both our lives and our endurance adventures.
I certainly will share with you what adventures I’m pursuing in this season of the brief ride we call life, but it is going to be different from what we were talking about 3 years ago and will be different again, god willing, in 3 years. Spoiler alert, my current season is one of training for a 100 mile race and today’s episode will topically reflect that.
Today we talk to two guys I met and got to know through the seasons. Mike and Kevin, whose respective ‘noms de enduro-guerre’ are DirtDawg and JustFinish. (How weirdly cool is it that we get to give ourselves handles?) I’m talking to them because they have agreed to pace and crew me for my race in 4 weeks.
I’m also going to give you a longish review of my last training week which culminated in 93+ miles and a 50 mile long run.
Since the interview is long and my training update is long, you’re just getting the one article this week.
And – remember up in paragraph one where I said there were two reasons it’ shard to describe who we are here at RunRunLive and what we do? First, was it depends on what season we’re in. Second, is because you’re going to get what floats through my brain any particular week.
We have different themes but it always circles around the power of endurance sports to teach us, to change us and to give us perspective. That perspective is transformative in itself, and humbling. You and I, DirtDawg and JustFinish, we are all crushed by the gravity of change together in a community of endurance.
So here we are episode 389. 389 is another good year for classical reference. In 389 BC The Athenian general, Thrasybulus, led a force of triremes to levy tribute from cities around the Aegean and support Rhodes, where a democratic government was struggling against Sparta.
What’s interesting about this is that on this campaign, Thrasybulus captured Byzantium, so that he could impose a duty on ships passing through the Hellespont. The Hellespont is the narrow opening that connects the Agean Sea to the Black Sea. Many scientist believe this opening was caused by the ocean catastrophically blasting through this sliver of land as the sea rose after the last ice age and is the historical and cultural source of the great flood myths, like Noah.
Anyhow, Byzantium was a town founded by the Greeks 300 years earlier. It passed back and forth with the Persians and Greeks and Romans. In 330 AD Constantine moved the seat of the Roman Empire there and founded what would become Constantinople.
Constantinople held out until 1543, when the Ottoman Turks finally took it over and now it is Istanbul, the heart of Turkey. See, 389, another suitable number.
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My training is going well. I’ve got one more big week of miles then I’ll taper into the race at the end of the month. Nothing is broken, so we’ll see. It’s all good.
Over the last few weeks you probably saw a plague of emails from social media sites and others, many of whom you probably don’t remember signing up for. This is because of the recently enacted GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation enacted by the European Union. It’s basically the rules around what you can and can’t do with people’s data and what you have to tell them when you’re doing it.
So, in the spirit of the GDPR I’m going to let you know what I’ve been doing with your data.
When we first met, your data and I, your data was very shy and didn’t interact much. But, over time, as we got to know each other, and spend time together, your data and I have formed a bond of mutual respect and affection.
There have been many warm summer evenings where your data and I have taken long walks on the beach and shared stories around an open campfire in the twinkling starshine. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been a perfect gentleman with your data! (well there was that one night where we had too much sangria at the Cinco de Mayo party, but, let me not tell tales about the chance encounters of consenting architectures)
Mostly we just cuddle.
So, yeah, your data is safe with me.
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 me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) 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. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to. I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway. “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit. So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.
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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.
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- Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!
Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com
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Section one – Ultra Training Update – https://runrunlive.com/ultra-training-and-the-penultimate-big-week
Voices of reason – the conversation
Mike Croy (DirtDawg) and Kevin Green (JustFinish)
Kevin is currently training for the Marquette 50. He finished Burning River in 2010 and the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning in 2011. Kevin is a project manager in the automation industry, is married to Stacy and has two very active daughters, Nora and Leah. He plans to relaunch http://www.JustFinish.com this fall.
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Mike “Dirt Dawg” Croy is a father, husband, runner, yoga teacher working with veterans, homeless shelters and educators, and serves as a high school principal working with at risk high school students. Mike has run up to a 100 miler and pac
ed at a few more. He had also run over 20 marathons and organized several fat ass ultras over the years.
Mike lives in Metro Detroit with his wife, 2 kids, and border collie Dash.
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/root-2-shine/id1099574983
Outro
OK my friends, you have staggered through the dark to the end of episode 4-389 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Good for you, because theirs not much cover and it was pretty hot.
Like I said, my training going well and I’ve got nothing to complain about.
My garden in coming in. Looks like I’m going to get beans, tomatoes and maybe some squash. I harvested enough lettuce and kale for 3 lunches this week. And my berries are coming in. I was just out there and picked a few. The birds were screaming at me like I was picking their berries! I’m not sure the half pint of berries is an even trade for the half pint of blood I gave top the mosquitoes to get them.
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I notice my thighs are getting bigger. That’s an ultra thing. I remember it from 10 years ago. I will probably try to see if I can use this fitness in the fall for a marathon. I remember I hade 2 or 3 really good years after the last ultra cycle I trained through, so maybe there’s a correlation. Maybe that’s the secret. Go deep every few years and then coast for a few!
Certainly, setting bigger goals drives bigger changes. In life as in the training effect. Set a big goal and do the work to get there. It’s not rocket science. Try it. You’ll see. Do something that scares you.
I was a little down after Boston. I came into this a bit mentally jaded. I look at all the stuff I’ve done over the last 20 years both personally and endurance sports wise and I get a bit blue. I think ‘Geez, I’ve done all this stuff, what the heck am I going to do now? And, do I have enough left in me to do anything significant anymore?’ I almost feel like I’m looking at my life in the rearview mirror.
But, again, I’m learning that the basic truths are still true. Set that big goal and you will figure out how to get there. Doesn’t matter if your 16 or 60. It’s what you do today.
I get asked in my role by board of directors “What are the results going to be this quarter?” And the way I answer that is, that I can’t tell you exactly what is going to happen in the short term, but I can tell you that we are absolutely doing the things we need to do today to be where we need to be when that time comes. Because that is what I can control.
Are you setting goals that scare you?
Are you doing what you need to do today, right now, to be where you want to be 6 months from now?
If not, set the timer for 20 minutes and don’t’ stop working until it goes off.
Then do it again.
You do that and I’ll see you out there!
MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks – http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/