The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-433 – Eric Runs Across Missouri
(Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4433.mp3]
Link epi4433.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 episode 4-433 of the RunRunLive Podcast.
Been a weird couple of weeks for me. I’ve been working out of the house, which I’m a bit used to, but the new bit is this part about being on video calls all day long for many days with no break. It can be really exhausting.
I’ve got a guy replacing all the trim boards on my house over the last couple weeks as well. So I’ve got him banging on the wall while I’m trying to talk to people. Which is the new normal. People just forget they’re on these calls and all kinds of crazy stuff goes on in the background.
Him ripping the boards off has disturbed the hornets that live in the eaves. I had one wandering around my bathroom one morning. And as much as I tried to avoid it, it ended up stinging me a little. Hornets are ferocious little critters. Bad attitudes.
Up here in New England the seasons have flipped and all is green. The mosquitoes and ticks are out. I’m harvesting lettuce from my garden. Good year for lettuce.
Immediately after we last spoke I woke up with a back issue. I don’t know what I did but my back locked up. It’s a problem I’ve had before when I do too much snow shoveling or something like that. It is very painful. You can’t bend and it hurts to sit, hurts to walk, just hurts. Your lower back is such an integral part of everything you do.
Got up the second morning of this and basically had to crawl on my hands and knees to the bathroom. Went to my chiro on the third day and got some immediate relief. It’s still pretty sore this week but I think that has to do with spending so much time in the chair. I’ve started doing some of these meeting standing up, but you’re still constrained and hunched.
The end result was I took a week totally off from training and it was surprisingly relaxing. Was a good break to reenergize and rethink what I want to do with my training and racing going forward.
I’m still on my nutrition plan and hovering around 170 pounds but I’m losing enthusiasm for it as we move into summer and all the good eats and drinks that are part of that!
I’m back to running now and feel good. I’m going to pivot to some longer trail based training. I’m working on cooking up some events in the fall.
Today we talk to our old friend Eric who I ran Leadville with last year. He did something amazing by running across Missouri on Memorial Day weekend.
In section one I’ll talk about taking a week off. In section two I’ll talk about some ways to recharge in today’s weird hyper-work world.
As I write this on a fine cool morning that looks like it will emerge into a humid summer day I’ve got a purple T-shirt on. I have been wearing shirts with collars all week to try to look somewhat professional on the video, but this morning I saw a nice purple race T under the pile so I’m wearing that.
Did you know that purple is the royal color? It was a prized color in classical times. The Greeks and Romans somehow figured out that a predatory land snail in Lebanon, that they called murex, secreted this color and they could make that into dye.
In the Eastern Roman Empire, what we would refer to as the Byzantine Empire, but that’s a construct of modern historians, they just called themselves Romans, anyhow, they referred to a person being of royal blood or royal pedigree as “Being born in the purple”.
Isn’t it amazing how we humans can make the leap from snail snot to justification of royalty? We really do have an outstanding ability to make stuff up and believe in it.
On with the show.
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Section one – A week off – https://runrunlive.com/7-benefits-of-taking-a-week-off
Voices of reason – the conversation
Eric Strand
Section two – Recharge – https://runrunlive.com/eat-sleep-work-repeat
Outro
Well, my friends, you have run across Missouri to the well-deserved micro-brewery that is at the end of the RunRunLive Podcast Episode 4-433 – Thank you for your company!
Alrighty. So what now? I have decided to pivot my training for the summer. Instead of the holding pattern of marathon training I’m going to target some ultra-distance trail running and some casual bike riding.
For a few reasons. First, because I’m feeling a bit too fragile with all this race-specific training and need to broaden up for a cycle. Second, if any races are going to be run this fall, they are going to be longer, smaller trail races. And, bike riding to get some cross training and most of the guys in my cohort can’t run as much anymore so Some casual bike riding is a good way to spend time with friends.
I’m contemplating organizing a Fondo around Groton with my running club for July. And some dort of longer trail run, perhaps on the Wapack for Labor day, which, by the way would kill two birds with one stone by logging 26.1 miles of it for the virtual Boston.
And I’m behind on my virtual race across Tennessee from taking a week off. I’m 4 days behind, which isn’t much. It’s only like 20 miles, but some longer sessions would help me get back in the hunt so I can finish before 8/31. Eric, BTW, with all his shenanigans is finishing this week.
OK – so those are my loose plans. I’ll tell you a couple stories and a dad joke for Father’s Day and we can all get on with our lives.
Switching back to the trails is good because I can take Ollie with me. The challenge is he’s not leash trained yet, so he’s a bit of a nightmare to run with on leash. With the Apocalypse the woods are just stuffed with cranky people and I unless it’s off-hours I have to put him on leash.
I have the standard 6-foot leash. He goes right to the end of that and pulls. No matter how much I correct him he’s constantly leaning on the leash. It’s exhausting. It’s also a bit dangerous because he stays right in my line of sight and occludes my line on the trails.
Makes it hard to carry anything in my hands with all the jerking about.
He won’t go near the ponds or lakes to get a drink because he’s decided he’s afraid of them. He won’t drink out of my bottle, either, because he doesn’t trust me not to squirt him. I’m gong to have to get some sort of collapsible dish for him that I can carry.
There is a boom population of rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks this year and he likes to take off after those as well. Friday, when we were out, and he was on leash, a big snake ran across the trail in front of us. I saw it and calculating its progress could see it would be well out of our way by the time our paths intersected and I didn’t bother to break pace.
We don’t have any poisonous snakes in New England. Ok, technically there is an Eastern Timber Rattlesnake and the Copperhead viper, but those are both endangered and you have a better chance of getting hit by lightning.
Anyhow, Ollie saw that snake and jumped backwards, causing me to have to jump vertically to vault him. It’s funny how the fear of snakes is so deeply ingrained in us mammals. Lots’ of bad blood between us and the reptiles I guess over the millennia.
I had him out Saturday in the trails, mostly on leash and he was a nightmare. You’d think he’d get tired of dragging my fat ass around after a few miles. He joined me today for and hour and forty five minutes on a combination of rail trail and roads with my buddies.
I was on the rail trail around 7:00 AM. I brought my old iPhone and my headphones, figuring I’d be all alone at 7 Amon a cool Sunday morning and could catch up on some listening. I brought the extendable leash which I think is about 15 feet. He pulls less on that one, probably because it has some built in resistance and partly because it gives him more line.
Because, you know, Apocalypse… I was to have no peace. The trail was packed. Bikes, joggers, walkers and some lady screaming into her cellphone in Spanish – it was like taking public transit on a Friday Afternoon when the Red Sox are playing. I had to take out my headphones so I could hear the traffic or someone was going to die.
The new herd of Apocalypse bikers are not going very fast. Some are barely moving faster than my running pace. Which is fine but it’s takes forever for them to catch you and pass you. Especially if you’re trying to control a mental border collie. If you’re a heads down cyclist training away at 20+ miles an hour in aero I would stay away from public rail trails for awhile. It’s a bit of a carnival.
And here’s your Dad joke for Father’s Day.
A hamburger walks into a bar. He goes up to the bartender and says “I’d like a bowl of Chili please.”
The bartender looks at him and says, “Sorry, we don’t serve food here.”
Keep moving friends,
It ain’t all bad, is it?
I’ll see you out there.
(Outro bumper)
To take you out is Track number 12 from Brian Sheff The Rock Opera by The Nays – Called “Hold on tight to your dreams”
Enjoy
http://www.thenays.com/home.htm
MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks – http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/
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Coach Jeff -> https://dailyfitbook.com/