RunRunLive 4.0 Episode 4-302 - Roxanne and Paula
 
2014-08-07 17.53.12(Audio: link)
 
 
 
 
 
Link epi4302.mp3
 
 
 
Intro:
 
Hey. How are yah?  Welcome my friends.  To the RunRunLive Podcast.  Episode 4302.  How ya been?  Maybe you’re a new friend?  Maybe you got one of those brand new shiny i-devices for Christmas and you’re just dipping your toe into the podcast world?  By the way I like your nail polish. Matches your eyes.  But, that tattoo must have hurt, no?
 
Anyway, this is Chris your host.  We have been sharing a podcast in and about running and endurance sport for a few years now.  Welcome.  I’m coming to you from the grassy steppes of Independence Kansas where I run a feral yak farm in between professional gigs.
 
The running is challenging out here.  The wind cutting across the plains in the winter is a bit biting, but you get used to it.  And you know the toughest warriors are from the Steppes, the Scythians, the Huns and the Mongols all rode down on ‘civilization’ from the windy grasslands.
 
There’s something going on with the yak herd.  I think it might have something to do with the Government Neuro Toxin research facility a couple miles up Spring Creek.  Some of the yaks don’t look so good.  They look disoriented.  “Disoriented yak” would be a good name for a ska band…
 
…
 
I didn’t make it down to Atlanta for the Jeff Galloway 13.1.  I just couldn’t swing it.  Sounds like Kevin and friends had a fun time.  I’ve been actually getting some decent base building in.  I’m too old to run every day without breaking something.  I’ve stabilized at 4 days a week which seems like the right balance.
 
I worry whether I can get the volume of miles in to race well at the marathon distance at only 4 days a week.  Coach has extended my weekday runs out to 1:20-1:30 which helps.  The good news is that it gets me out long enough to build some base fitness and get the mileage up.  Right now he’s got me doing Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.  That gives me an automatic base in the mid to high 20’s.  Then you lay the Sunday long run on and I can get up into the 40’s.
 
That’s the compromise.  It’s enough to get the fitness I want without pushing me over the edge into injury.  The training impact from that extra 20-30 minutes in my weekly runs really makes a difference.  It’s a challenge when I’m busy, but I feel like I’m building base that will support me in the run up to Boston this spring.
 
GMMy friend Brian and I reprised the Groton Marathon last weekend.  This is a marathon we made up last year to get a December marathon.  The way it works is Brian and I lay out a course around town, invite all the crazy people we know and go run a marathon.  I count it as an official marathon because, my game, my rules.  That’s my 48th marathon.
 
We changed the course this year so it looped through Groton, Ayer, Shirley and a few hundred feet of Harvard Massachusetts.  Part of the fun, and the challenge is to create a course through New England towns that stays off the main roads and isn’t overwhelmingly difficult.
 
It was about 32 degrees with a light snow fall for the whole time.  Pretty good running weather.  There’s no snow on the ground up here and the roads were clear.  We started at 8:00 and got back after noon.
 
We had a dozen or so people join us for some part of the route and we had one person go the distance with us.  A big crew ran the first half with us and cut back.  Another couple of our club friends picked us up at mile 17 and ran us in.  We dropped water and Gatorade every 4-6 miles.
 
iceI’m sorry to report that I didn’t come in first this year.  I had gapped Brian by a good 2-3 minutes after mile 20, but I waited for him at one of our water stops and he got a 2nd wind at mile 24 and took off.  I didn’t have the mental or physical closing speed to chase him down.
 
It was a great run.  It always scares me a little to just show up and run a marathon, but this one was easy. We went super slow and stopped every couple miles to