The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-304 – Susan Loken – You’re never too old if you believe
(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4304.mp3]
Link epi4304.mp3
Intro Bumper:
https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussell
Hello my friends.  Here we are creeping up on February.  How has the core of you existence been treating you?  Has it been resonating with the universal master mind?  Have you been doing the dosey-doe with your life purpose?  
Yeah, me neither.  But I’m getting by.  I don’t know what it is about this time of year that just makes me want to sleep!  
It’s all good.  I have the headphones in and I’m listening to some reggae and sipping a local IPA and dredging some creativity from the dregs of my old and atrophied brain for you! My friends.  My running friends.  My endurance sweet hearts.  
Those of you new to our podcast, welcome to episode 4-304.  Codec-wise that’s the fourth version or iteration or generation of the RunRunLive podcast and the 304th episode.  Which is kinda cool.  
And, please, know that you’re among friends.  We don’t want your money, well not all of it, we don’t want your reviews and we don’t have any t-shirts to sell I have no interest in signing you up for a subscription or coaching. 
We just like to deconstruct why running and endurance sports has the ability to drive positive transformation in our lives and why this grand adventure fuels our humanity.  That’s all.  So, you’re among friends.  
And never mind all that drivel I spew about zombies, and yak farming and me being a hit man for the Irish Mafia…That’s all just a little fun I’m having.  That’s just a smoke screen.
Or is it? 
Anyway, here we are again and I have a great show for you.  Our interview today is with Susan Loken who took up running at the age of 36 and within a few years made the Olympic trials and became masters’ marathon champion.  We talk through how it has changed her and what lessons we can learn from deconstructing her success.  It’s a great chat.  
When I recorded this I was still fighting my way out of the chest cold I caught in the Caribbean and you can hear it in my voice.  Battling through adversity to bring you this lovely athlete.
Susan and I were introduced by a friend of mine from the Goon Squad Runners, one of my running clubs, with the motto “No whining, just running.”  Her code name is Cougar and Susan is her coach and she’s one of the runners I respect locally for doing the work and pushing herself.  
In section one, the running tips section I’m going to bring you a piece on treadmill step-up runs, which I’ve probably talked through before, but I thought it was timely with the weather pushing us inside.  
In section two I’m going to revisit another topic that we’ve discussed in the past, “How to get out of a winter funk.” Again, this may not be new information for you folks, but the timing is right and I had to work through it myself again, so I figured I’d share the love. 
How’s my running going?  Fairly well. As you know I’m training for Boston now.  As you also know I’ve got a heart problem that is constraining some of the ways and types of training I’ve done in the past.  Nothing life threatening, just something to work with.  
To net it out, I can’t really do the tempo and speed work and a lot of the effort based heart rate training I’ve done so successfully in the last ½ decade.  Instead I’m working on building a huge base at an aerobic level and building my core strength.  
What does this look like?  This is a build week for me and I’ll run 3 days of 1:45 at zone 2 effort, (conversational effort).  For me that’s like 12 miles a session, so that’s a nice 36 mile volume before I get to my Sunday long run.  Sunday I’ll do another 16 and guess what campers?  That’s 52 miles on a 4 day week.  Pretty good, huh? 
On the other 3 days I’m core training. I’m experimenting with some awesome new core protocols that I think are going to work out.  It’s a