The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-324 – Josh – Overcoming Challenge to Qualify
(Audio: link)

 


 


 

Link epi4324.mp3
MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/
Good morning, afternoon and evening my friends.  This is Chris your co-pilot on this particular audio escapade.  This is the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-324 and today we’ve got an interview today with Josh who has gone through a bit of a hero’s journey.  He has had personal challenges and come back with the help of some friends to qualify for Boston recently.
The other interesting thing is that I don’t do the interview.  We got one of our friends of the show, Alex, to do the interviewing.  Alex is one of the folks who edits interviews for me, just because he is a friend of the show.  Today the tables are turned and I have to edit his interview!
In section one I am going to give you a piece on how to come back from a big injury.  In section 2 I’m going to talk about trying to fix my obsession with the scarcity of time.
My training is going well.  I got through the first 3-week cycle of my MarathonBQ plan.  I’m finding I don’t have the willpower or fitness yet to do the speedwork at a full 1600 meters and I’ve been doing 800’s instead.  My speed and strength are coming back nicely.  I did a long run of 15 last weekend and felt fine the whole way through.  I even felt strong enough to kick at the end.
I’ve been doing my speedwork on the treadmill at work, which has its pro’s and con’s.  It’s convenient and you can make the workout very structured.  On the other hand I’m always concerned about the real-to-life equivalency.  And I don’t just mean the effort levels are different. I mean there is a certain specificity to being outside in the elements that is beneficial.
I’ve got a long way to go, but I’m not struggling like I was when my heart was all wonky last year.  Very hopeful.  I haven’t scheduled any goal races yet but I have my eye on a few.
My next scheduled race is the Ayer Fire Dept. 5K on American Thanksgiving morning.  This will be a good test of how much I’ve managed to move my race pace set point.  I’ll treat it as a tempo workout.  I’ll go over and run the course before the race to warm up, then I’ll race it hard to see what pace I can hold.  It will be a good indicator.
I’m eyeballing a ½ in Atlanta on Dec 13th which would work well as a marathon pace run.
You have to trust your training plan but it can be useful to pick up some directional data points along the way.  I have the Groton Marathon on December 27th – which is a self-supported 26.2 mile run that me and some buddies from my running club put on each year.   If I treat that as a last long run that points to a qualifying try somewhere around January 10th.
If I screw the pooch on that one I could regroup and try again in February.  I don’t have a number for Boston, but these things have a way of working out for me.
…
In the spring my company upgraded me to the iPhone 6, which was nice.  But I kept dropping it and breaking it.  They made me buy a better case and I bought the LifeLock case.
It’s quite bulky. It reminds me of something that the Soviets would have designed.  But, supposedly it is 100% waterproof and it has kept me from breaking the phone again.
One challenge is that the hole for the headphones is now rather deep and has a screw-in feature that makes it impossible to use most headphones – especially the Bose headphones I run with and the big noise canceling headphone I use mowing the lawn and using the chainsaw etc.
As a result I had to either not listen to my phone when I was doing stuff, which kills me because I love to double task, or take it out of the case, which totally defeats the purpose of having a case in the first place.
But, fear not, there is a cable adapter that is about 4 inches of cable with the screw-in tip that you can theoretically buy.  Except you can’t buy it in any of