Rocky Horror Picture Show Theme
Intro by Kevin theextramilepodcast.blogspot.com/
http://worldwidefestivalofraces.com/cgi-bin/home
Brad – The Nueman Show ->http://theneumenshow.blogspot.com/
Megan the Vegan Running Mom – Run Vegan Run – http://www.veganrunningmom.com/
Intro:
Welcome to episode 84 of the RunRunLive Podcast. Apologies as usual for the audio quality – I’m coming to you live from the SEATac international airport where I’m waiting to get on a bog-ole-jet airliner, more specifically the Red-Eye back to Boston. We’ll keep it brief because I know you’re not tuned in to hear me prattle on and I’m not here to talk either. I’m here to bring you content. Content, content, content. Rich creamy content … for you.
Today’s content is an Interview with John Sample of Chocolate #9. When these folks reached out to me I was like”oh man, not another energy supplement” Seems like this is a very crowded space. But then They sent me some and I’ve been using it – and I have to admit I like it. I’ve been eating one before my early morning runs and it seems to sit well on the stomach and really improve my mood and energy level. It seems as though they have some unique science. John is one of those entrepreneurs and you know I have a soft spot for anyone soft enough to bet the mortgage on a startup.
Lots of people to thank today. Kevin from the extra mile podcast – go sign up for the WWFOR, Nueman from the Neumann show podcast and Megan from the Run Vegan Run Podcast for that rather sensuous wordplay skit, and my daughter wants me to thank Saint Raphael, the saint of travelers apparently, who kept us from getting as parking ticket by five seconds.
Hope you’all are having a great week – I finished up my run everyday week last week with around 53 miles – and nothing broke. Got some good runs in this week so far as well. It’s all good! We have a Rocky horror theme on today so it’s just a step to the left, a jump to the right and On with the Show.
Equipment Check:
I didn’t want to – but I guess I will – pile on to the barefoot running craze. I went ahead and bought and read the Born to Run book this week. It’s a good read – well written and compelling. There is a lot to think about in it and most of what is there are things that you’ve heard before.
I think a main point that I agree with is that if you work on your mechanics and form then it really doesn’t matter what you put on your feet. I’ve never run in motion control or any corrective shoes. I do have very thin and soft orhtodics to bring my heals up a little for chronic Achilles problems.
The other thing I’ve noticed over the 30 plus years that I’ve been running is that I’ve gotten better at it. My form definitely moved from a heel striker to a more forefoot transition point as I did more miles and more speed work on the track. I would posit that running faster forces you to run cleaner and with better mechanics.
I’m not sure I’d make the leap that everyone should be running in bare feet. It would be great if we discover this is true. But I think it’s definitely worthwhile to work on your form to the point that you don’t need all that corrective stuff in your shoe. As I look back I see that I have naturally gravitated to simple neutral shoes for the most part.
I’ve given myself shin splints by running in dead shoes. My guess would be if you want to transition to a bare foot running program – get a mechanics coach and take it easy. Because just like any transition you’re going to need to give your body a chance to get used to it.
I find the whole thing intriguing and I’m probably going to try to get a pair of those VFF’s to try. Maybe I’ll run Boston barefoot next year, who knows. I think it’s great that we are still experimenting with stuff like this and questinoing the common knowledge.
Go ahead – give it a try and let me know how it works out.
Interview with Chocolate #9 – http://www.chocolate9.com/ John Sample
Quick Tip – The Passion
What is it that separates those of us who love running?
I was complaining.
I was out on a chatty run with one of my favorite running friends. He was a decade or so younger than me. He was a quiet, strong and peaceful friend who put up with my prattling away and enjoyed pounding the trails.
He trained for Boston with me one spring, sharing in my springtime rituals. From the New Year’s Day plunge in the Atlantic through the Boston Beast itself. He got to hear all the old tails and all my crackpot theories on running and life.
I had started podcasting by this time, setting free my running vibes out into the ether. I had intended to bring the tribal knowledge I had picked up along my routes to the new runners. Help some people and share the small lessons I had learned from the ‘real’ runners I had intersected with.
I was complaining that people were treated me like some sort of crazy person for running the way I do. Some sort of running savant. I was complaining that I was trying to connect and share with them on a common ground level and they were treating me like a “real’ runner.
You see, in my mind I was a mid-pack hack who never won anything. My heroes were the real runners of the 1970’s that I stood in awe of. The real runners were Bill Rodgers, Amby Burfoot, and that generation of runners. They ran in cutoff shorts and logged 120 mile weeks on Raman Noodles and flat Coke. I was a full 2 minutes per mile slower than them – an hour behind them at the marathon finish on my best day.
I complained loudly that people were mistaking me for someone else, someone I was not. You can scan the starting line of any distance race in Massachusetts and find the real runners. We breed them from the blue collar streets of Lawrence and Haverhill and Somerville. Lean, crazy and happy folks who love to run.
That wasn’t me. I was a middle-of-the-pack, suit and tie, prep school fakir. Old, overweight, amateur and slow.
Is it a universal truth that we never see ourselves as others see us? When we look in the mirror we see our faults, we see or failing and we see our tattered edges.
That day, he brought me up short with a matter-of-fact statement. “You’re a good runner. And you ARE pretty fast.”
That was an epiphany for me. To be at this point in my life and understand that when I look in the mirror I can see smiling man glowing with passion for life. I realize now that my gift, (and it is a gift), my gift for running is not my ability to do it but my passion for it.
Passion may not be the right word. It’s difficult to explain. I’m still figuring it out. I don’t lie awake at night feverish in anticipation of the next run. It’s not a physical passion. It’s a sense of peace, a sense of calm power that fills me as Buddy and I glide down the trails. Some days it is hard but it is never difficult.
The farther I go the more peaceful it becomes. The exhaustion of efforts centers me and I feel joy. Really, there is no other way to explain it. It’s a total body happiness where the physical and mental come together in a beautiful act of exhaustion. I can remember laughing out loud and shouting with glee at the 30 mile mark of an ultra. You’ll often find me singing to myself when you pass me in a long race.
This is the gift I want to give to you. It is a gift that I have been given over 3 decades of training and running in the mid-pack. Don’t go into running to lose weight or to get in shape. Don’t train for a marathon or a 10k. Train for a life time. Train your mind and your body as one and the same thing. Don’t worry about how fast you are going – listen to your body and hear what it is saying.
Make a 10 year plan. Make a 30 year plan. Become a student of your mind and your body. Treat each 10k in the woods with the dog as a lecture in running joy. I’ve been doing it for years and I never knew. I am truly an idiot savant. I never realized that like so many things in my life running had come easily to me and more importantly that joy of running came easily as well.
You have to stop trying to find the passion and let it find you. This is my gift – which I never knew I had. I thought everyone had this joy and passion. I always told people if running seems hard, you’re doing it wrong. Don’t worry about your stride or your shoes or the power-gels you eat. Focus on finding the joy. The joy is the lowest common denominator and once you find it the rest is a matter of course.
Search for the joy. Work for the joy. When you have the joy you will not be able to hold back the speed and the miles. They will sprout though you like a seed from the earth.
Don’t start running. Start living through running.
In the cooling shade of a cedar thicket the trail bends through a 200 year-old stone wall. My shirt is soaked with warm sweat. The downhill stretches and relaxes my stride. My footfalls are soft and strong as my feet search out the trail surface. My hands are loose and high. A water bottle is loosely gripped in the left and a grimy orange dog leash in the right. Buddy trots ahead tongue lolling and head low like a wild dog.
My shoes grip into the pine needles on the corner and the momentum slings me out into the trail.
I fly. I smile.
Outro:
That’s it folks – you’ve burned another 500+ calories of fat off that spare tire listening to episode 84 of the runrunlive podcast. Hope you enjoyed it. As always you can reach me at cyktrussell that’s chris-yellow-king-tom-russell two ss and two ll’s @yahoo.com and cyktrussell on twitter and cyktrussell on facebook and everywhere else where fine old runners are sold.
Coming up I have a bountiful plethora of entertaining guests I’m working on – My friend Dave Dunham the great mountain runner who we have talked to before, the great Dan Brown, And next week an expert from the Brooks shoe company so send me any questions you have for them. I was able to weasle an interview because they are sponsoring our Ragnar Twitter team. And speaking of which I’m going to swap interiews with the Running Relays blog lady – and that should be fun. I’ve been trying to get Tanner Bell one of the founders of Ragnar on the phone, but I guess now that they are so successful he doesn’t have time for me anymore!
It’s all good folks. I’m feeling strong. Looks like the economy is turning around – see I told you the world wouldn’t come to an end.
You know – I just don’t know how anyone can keep from smiling when we think about all the belssings we have and all the oppty’s out there for us. Everywhere I turn there are unconqured mountains of the mind calling me with their siren songs nad I’ll be looking for you to join me, out there.
Music tonight is by a group called “the Kits” and it is called “Horror Movie” AS always all music is form the starving artists at the podsafe music network – if you like what you hear – go on over and cough up the 99 cents so that they can continue to afford Raman Noodles and cheap beer and live another day to provide us with great tunes.