The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-456 – Destination Marathons  (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4456.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Chris’ other show à Intro: Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-456 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Today we have a conversation with Mark Janik who leads a travel company called Destination Marathons.  I thought it would be cool to talk to Mark as we come out of lockdown.  I think we are going to see a big surge in destination races as people revenge buy from being couped up so long.  That’s an actual term being used now: “Revenge Travel”. In section one I’m going to talk about a successful, little nutrition experiment I did last week.  In section two I’m going to give you a different, maybe new, hopefully helpful view on how to deal with difficult work situations.  As I look out my office window it is full on summer.  The green of greens has descended on everything.  It is always amazing to me the unbridled enthusiasm of the New England summer after 8 months of cold.  It’s really something.   The tree pollen is very high.  There is a layer of yellow dust on everything.  Makes it hard to breath.  Well – I went for my follow up with the knee doctor and he gave me the green light to start running again.  I started out with a mile around the athletic fields, then jumped up to a 5K in my neighborhood.  Neither of which will be inspiring any move scripts.  I am slow, weak and heavy.  I then showed up for my club run on Sunday morning.  I told them I might be able to eke out 4 miles easy.  They said ‘no issues just come with us’.  Ollie and I ended running 8 miles with them.    I have to be honest I was struggling at the end.  Not because my knee hurt. Because I’m in terrible shape.  I found it to be fitting karma because I was always known as the guy who scared off the new members.  But the knee does still hurt.  Specifically when climbing hills.  There’s a spot where I get a stabbing pain when I toe off.  I’ve decided to keep trying to get out 3 times a week for 40 minutes or so but stick to the flats and keep it slow.  I’m still riding my bike on the off days too. The Doctor wants to give it some more time and look at it again in July.  He’s no help.  Not a lot of good news I’m afraid.  I’m going to have to figure out how much of my race calendar to scrap in the fall.  It’s all a bit disheartening.  I feel like the walls are closing in.  But I will eke it out. Isn’t that a funny little word? Eke?  This word is e-k-e, not eek, e-e-k.  Eek is an interjection of being startled, like “eek, a mouse!”  No, eke, is a good old Anglo Saxon word that originally meant to supplement or add to.  Like “He would eke his emu farming income with some freelance needlepoint.” We use it today to mean more of a sense of struggling to get by with just enough.  First usage of eke is traced by the Oxford English Dictionary, that grand old dame of word books, to 1596, so a late Elizabethan word for you to try in a sentence.  See if you can eke it out. Ollie is doing fine, but I’m going to have to get some help with him.  He has some behavior issues and hasn’t learned his basic, life-saving commands.  He’ll come when called but only when it’s convenient for him.   I can’t let him off leash in the woods because of all the traffic, especially the horses.  I’m perfectly ok with keeping him on leash.  If he doesn’t respond to voice commands then it would be irresponsible and potentially dangerous to let him off leash.  The challenge I have is that having him on leash, especially when I’m already struggling to run.  It’s hard.  And frankly, no fun. Even in the harness he tries to drag me at the worst moments and throws off my balance.  It’s exhausting.  I feel like we’re constantly fighting.  So I’m casting about for some professional help to get some control over him.  One option I have is to send him off for a 3-week deep training session, where