RunRunLive

This is a discussion of a specific point – for a summary of PF treatment see previous article

www.midpackerslament.com

Cyktrussell At gmail and twitter and facebook and youtube

Chris’ book on Amazon – > http://www.amazon.com/Mid-Packers-Lament-collection-running-stories/dp/141961584X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228687012&sr=8-1

Mid-Packer’s Lament E-book

Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy E-Book

Dial in number for RunRunLive is – 206-339-7804

Chris Russelllives and trains in suburban Massachusetts with his family and Border collie Buddy. Chris is the author of “The Mid-Packer’s Lament”, and “The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy”, short stories on running, racing, and the human comedy of the mid-pack. Chris writes the Runnerati Blog at www.runnerati.com. Chris’ Podcast, RunRunLive is available on iTunes and at www.runrunlive.com. Chris also writes for CoolRunning.com (Active.com) and is a member of the Squannacook River Runners and the Goon Squad.

Email me at cyktrussell at Gmail dot com

Running Podcast, podcasts for running, podcast for runners, free podcast for runners, Running Blog, marathon, triathlon, mileage, sprinting, run, track, training, running clubs, running groups, running shoes, exercise, health, 5k, running, swimming, sports, injuries, stretching, eating, jogging, biking, trail race, 5K, 10K, Ultramarathon, jogging a good exercise, road runner, jogging tips, benefits of jogging, free running, running shoes, marathon training, running, jogging, health and fitness, runners, runner, Boston qualification, Marathon BQ, Boston marathon

Shin Splints Question from Ben…

cyktrussell — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 03:03:22 +0000

Shin Splints Question from Ben…

Hi Chris,

I am a high school social studies teacher in the Chicago burbs. I just got my first iPhone and was looking through podcasts and found RunRunLive. Since getting my phone for Christmas, I’ve listened to at least 30 episodes! I listen on my drive to and from work as well as while walking my own “buddy.”

I’m fairly new to the running scene. I began running 3 years ago as a way to lose weight. I dropped 100lbs in a school year and began loving running even when it wasn’t to lose weight. I ran my first marathon in May! (3:24) I went from 262lbs to running 26.2 miles!

My ultimate goal is to qualify for the “Mecca of racing” (Boston.) I signed up for the Nashville Marathon on April 28th and bought plane tickets. I began ramping up my intensity and mileage.

Up until 2 weeks ago I was doing about 50 miles a week. It was about this time that I started feeling a very sharp pain in my right shin only during my runs. Hearing your disaster with plantar fasciitis I wanted to get it checked out as soon as possible.

The podiatrist told me that I have shin splints and need to take time off. I’m 10 weeks out from my marathon and really worried that I won’t be able to qualify for Boston if I take a whole week off.

Any advice? You seemed to deal with your injury with a much better attitude than I have. Thank you so much for a great podcast, it encourages me more than you know!

See you out there, Ben K.

My answer:

I’m not a doctor so any advice I give you is purely tribal and experiential and could be totally wrong.

1. One week off (or even 2 weeks) will have ZERO impact on your fitness.

2. Shin splints won’t kill you. You can run through them.

It’s a classic overuse injury and also is very common when your shoes lose their life. So make sure you don’t have old shoes.

Before you head out, rub the shins with some pre-heat (I use Flexall). Get some calf sleeves/compression socks (I use Zensa). When you get back Ice it and keep the compression on it.

If it really bothers you to take a week (or two) off and do pool running. It will eventually just go away as your body adapts to the load.

Caution: Stress fractures have similar symptoms and will only show up on an X-ray. If pain gets very sharp or severe ask for an X-Ray.

Good luck.

I had a bad case when I was a puppy. And stop stealing my lines!

C-,

The Plantar Fasciitis diaries – Shoes and inserts

cyktrussell — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 03:00:52 +0000

The Plantar Fasciitis diaries – Shoes and inserts

For want of a shoe the horse was lost

One of the most common remedies you will get for PF is to procure new shoes and/or inserts. This is great advice as long as you realize that your foot is different from everyone else’s, including the person giving you the advice.

A common theme among these shoe/insert remedies is someone will tell you to get a specific insert for your shoe because that specific insert cured their PF. This may be true, but I caution you that your foot is different than there’s and your injury is different than theirs.

There is no universal insert to cure PF. You are going to have to do your own legwork and will more than likely have to try a few before you hit on the ones that work best for you.

The goal, with any shoe, or insert, when treating the PF is to take the pressure and stress off of the injured area so it can heal. That’s what you’re looking for. It’s hard to know what works but it is a lot easier to know what doesn’t work.

Let’s start with Inserts.

I am not talking about orthotics from your doctor. That’s a whole other topic. I’m talking about off-the-shelf inserts that you put in your shoe. I have tried a few different varieties of these. There are full length inserts and heel only inserts. There are rigid and soft inserts. There are cushioned inserts and gel inserts.

In general the trick is to find that insert which supports your foot in such a way as to take the pressure off of your injury. I have high arches and an insert that works for me is going to have to support the arch.

In order of precedence then…given my foot type and injury…Inserts with just cushion and no arch support were the least effective. Rigid inserts with no cushion but strong arch support were mildly effective in taking stress off the injury. Link http://www.yoursole.com/products/

By far the most effective, for me, were simple Dr. Scholl’s heel and arch supports from the drug store. They have a very forgiving gel cushion and I nice high arch. Off-the-shelf-inserts

Next, casual shoes.

Again there are slippers and sandals that people will claim cured their PF. The caveat here is the same. Your foot is different. You will have to shop around.

I was injured in the summer and in the summer I don’t wear shoes if I don’t have to. I usually wear cheap Crocs. These Crocs have no cushioning or support. When I got injured I switched to a sandal with arch support. http://www.yoursole.com/products/

I also wore my running shoes with orthotics to work when I could get away with it. I have put both the rigid and cushioned inserts in my running shoes. For my foot the same elements apply. The best combinations of cushioning and arch support were the kindest to the injury as it healed.

The most comfortable combination now seems to be my Brooks Launch with the gel heel inserts. Although the Ghosts work well too. The shoes with less arch are not as forgiving. But, again, that is for my foot. Your foot is different.

Work shoes

This was the real stinker for me. I’d have my injury feeling better and then after a few days in business shoes it would be angry again. Even with the inserts my traditional business shoes are not good for the PF.

I wear a suit and tie and with that I wear traditional Bostonian shoes. These shoes have a high rigid heel and thick inflexible leather sole. They beat the crap out of my PF. The problem is that it is tough to find professional looking shoes that don’t crunch the injury.

Currently I have switched to a pair of loafers with a rubber sole and a lower heal. These seem to be much kinder on the foot. These are the attributes that you are looking for. A shoe with a flexible rubber sole and a lower cushioned heel. I bought these.

I had to go to DSW (a shoe warehouse store) and keep trying on shoes until I found some that might work. They aren’t perfect but with the gel heel insert they let me walk through airports without being crippled.

An interesting side note is that I had to also learn to walk differently. In the Bostonians with their high, stiff heel I walked with a classic heel-strike-lever stride. I could make excellent time this way but the impact on the foot was enormous and unforgiving. With the new shoes I’m having to learn to walk with less heel.

Summary.

I’d love to tell you there is a silver bullet here. That there is a magic insert you can buy that will make your PF disappear. I cannot. There may be a perfect insert/shoe combination for you, but you are going to have to find it.

Understand your foot’s structure before you start buying. Try to find those inserts that match your profile. Be prepared to buy, try and move on if it doesn’t work. Be prepared to give away a few pairs of shoes.

It’s a process of trial and error and the best you can hope for is to make it a mindful process of trial and error.

Episode 211 – Joel Phillips from Reasons2Ride

cyktrussell — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:11:01 +0000

Download audio file (epi211.mp3)
The RunRunLive Podcast Episode 211 – Joel Phillips from Reasons2Ride

epi211.mp3

Show intro by:

Dave Robertson– the Naked Runners http://www.thenakedrunners.com/

RunRunLive – Podcast Intro

http://www.runrunlive.com/home/read-the-runrunlive-podcast-intro

Intro:

Hello and welcome to the MonkeyMan podcast where we swing through the trees taking all sorts of leaps of simian fancy.

Alas, you may have guessed that, even though I’m 98% chimp, this is your favorite Humanzee host Chris and this is the RunRunLive Podcast where we explore the very fabric of endurance endeavors with a fine tooth curry comb. So squat on a comfortable branch and let me groom your back hair for nits because we have a great show for you today.

We have a lovely chat with Joel from Reasons2Ride who shares with us how he has transformed his life, continues to transform his life and is working to give back to the community and share the gifts he has found.

I find it’s actually a common trajectory for thinking humans and intelligent apes. We start out life focused on ourselves. We got through challenges and transformations and at the end we look to find self fulfillment through giving back, through helping others.

It’s a common pattern. A philosophical maturity curve if you will. It’s well documented in psychology and history.

Thanks for the feedback on last week’s weepy show. Yes, I am running. I’m already up to 3 miles so far. Too soon to make any major predictions but we’ll continue to take it as it comes.

In today’s show I’ll share a summary of my plantar fasciitis treatment recommendations as I posted earlier this week. I’ll also give you a bemused bike-trainer-movie review.

Here’s an extra credit tip for you. If you use your laptop and have an internet connection you can go to YouTube and play playlists. Either your own or someone else’s. This way you can queue up a continuous loop of music videos to watch on the bike trainer.

I took a Total Immersion swim clinic this past weekend and it really helped me visualize some of the mechanical problems that have been frustrating my swimming. What I think I’m doing, what I see in my mind’s eye, and what I’m actually doing are two different things.

It is invaluable to have someone watch you real time and give you the correctional feedback.

Maybe one of my biggest moments of enlightenment as I re-engineer my swim stroke is a greater empathy for new runners. I can see now the act of running, the mechanics of running in its different forms that just come naturally to me may be impenetrably hard for someone just starting.

I can tell you to ‘run tall’ or ‘relax into your stride’ and it may be meaningless without that real-time feedback. I’m going to think about how to do a better job of explaining the specifics to people, maybe some videos.

So, my friends sit back and scratch your selves because maybe man was not designed to walk on his hind legs.

On with the show!

Audio clips in this episode:

Mélange at the beginning was as follows…

Chris and Buddy in the driveway

Inspirational music from the IronMan video

Audio from the Miracle on Ice broadcast

Audio from Animal House

Audio from Independence Day

All borrowed from YouTube.

Clip of my unofficial theme song “Indestructible” by Rancid…

http://www.runrunlive.com/products-page/midpackerslament

RunRunLive » Audio Products » MidPackersLament » The Mid-Packer’s Lament Audio Book

Hope you enjoy consuming it as much as I enjoyed recording it!

Ciao, thanks, and I’ll see you out there.

Chris,

Skits, commercials and parodies in this episode:

Story time:

Equipment Check:

Plantar Fasciitis Summary -

Featured Interview:

Joel Phillips Reasons2ride – www.reasons2ride.com

I am not a former world champion. I know no glory beyond high-school sports.

I never bothered to record a personal best in anything. I have made many mistakes. I decided to settle rather than reach. I was unhappy, unmotivated and disinterested.

I changed. I found self-confidence. I became motivated. I have purpose and desire. I chose to live.

All my life I have struggled with my weight and a deep-seated lack of self-confidence. I rediscovered self-confidence riding a bicycle, and that has led to a complete lifestyle change.

I am currently training to participate in the 2012 “Ride the Rockies” event. I am also working to develop a non-profit program called Reasons2Ride. Its purpose is to inspire people to ride a bicycle. The mission is to promote a fun/healthy life style and increase the awareness about the obesity epidemic in this country and do something to reverse the trends.

I plan to lead by example and do what is necessary to take a 290lb frame and get it in shape to ride over 400 miles through the Rocky Mountains in June of 2012. Help support a worthy cause and join me in this grass-roots effort to inspire, and change lives.
Thank You,
Joel Phillips
Founder/President/Executive Director

Quick Tip:

Bike Trainer movie reviews -

Outro:

Ok my friends, you swung through the hanging vines of the forest canopy to the end of yet another RunRunLive Podcast, episode 211 in the can.

Next week we talk to Andy Holgate author and accidental IronMan. Great interview, interesting guy.

I’m kicking off a new project for all of us. As I’ve been gathering Twitter friends I see that all of you have blogs or websites. What I’m going to do is build a link area on my site where we can post your links and description and in return you can post mine and we’ll create a giant ball of world-dominating linkage. So, send me your links in a 140 char description and I’ll post it up.

…

I’ve had a couple excellent swim workouts by working the total immersion drills in and I just might figure out how to endurance swim. My goal was never to be fast. My goal was always to be efficient and to be able to enjoy a long swim, mindlessly, without fighting it the whole way, like how I run.

It so goes against my nature not to just work harder. There’s a lesson there.

Swimming is such a complex series of discrete coordinated movements. I told the folks on face book it was like trying to juggle angry rabid octopi. You focus on one thing and another thing goes awry. Especially if you learned to swim at a young age like I did.

When you are confronted by an overly complex problem with too many moving pieces instead of working harder to try and manage it all you need to simplify. This is what Total Immersion does. It starts with body position and floating and works up to breathing and swimming. But you focus on mastery of the basics before moving on to the complex. Because the complex ends up being just an ensemble of the basics.

You see this in all sports coaching. All successful coaches work on mastering basics. When I coached soccer I quickly realized that what won games was winning the 1-on-1 defensive interactions, the correct position on the field and the basic skills, not complex schemes.

I come against this in business all the time too. There are too many things to focus on. Focus on doing the important basic things with a studied excellence.

When you take on too many aspects too quickly without mastery of the basics, you fail.

There is a thing called a monkey trap. It is a basket with a skinny neck, like the neck of a bottle. They put a big piece of fruit in the basket. The monkey reaches down the neck to grab the fruit, but once the monkey has the fruit in its hand, the hand won’t fit back out through the opening.

The monkey is trapped because it won’t let go of the fruit. That’s a monkey trap. In our world it is a metaphor for over-reaching and trying to hang on to too many things at the same time.

So, my friends, try to focus on mastery of the few things, of the basic things that each act of industry contains and you may find your confidence returning.

Don’t reach your Vibrams with their prehensile toes into your own monkey trap.

And I’ll see you out there.

…

You can find me monkeying around at Twitter, Facebook, DailyMile, YouTube, Google and Tumblr as cyktrussell that’s Chris yellow king tom Russell with two esses and two ells.

share your own simian soliloquies at – 206-339-7804. Leave a message there it sends an audio file.

Don’t be a damn dirty ape, call in a show intro it keeps the wheels of progress greased here at RunRunlive Place- It is in the show notes and on the web site –- you will find all the other content on the website www.runrunlive.com

Music To take you out is a happy and whimsical tune called -song_for_amonkey by corey_tut Smile, like the lucky and hppy person you are.

See you next week.

Ciao,

…

Music:

From Podsafe:

All music used in the show is from the Podsafe music network found at Music Alley. Please support the starving, socially minded artists sampled herein by purchasing some!

Song1

brick_daniels-one_monkey_dont_stop_the_show

Song 2-3

erick_hovey-fight_that_monkey

Outro music:

corey_tut-song_for_amonkey

Outro Artists Bio:
Bio:

Standard Links:

http://www.runrunlive.com/home/read-the-runrunlive-podcast-intro

www.midpackerslament.com

Cyktrussell At gmail and twitter and facebook and youtube

Chris’ book on Amazon – > http://www.amazon.com/Mid-Packers-Lament-collection-running-stories/dp/141961584X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228687012&sr=8-1

Mid-Packer’s Lament E-book

Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy E-Book

Dial in number for RunRunLive is – 206-339-7804

Email me at cyktrussell at Gmail dot com

Bike Trainer movie review – “Columbiana” and “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”

cyktrussell — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:54:28 +0000

Bike Trainer movie review – “Columbiana” and “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”

I give it 3 out of 5 bicycles!

As I am in my winter training I have to spend hours on the bike trainer and need to be distracted. I have tried reading and listening to podcasts or music but the best distraction is to set up my laptop and fire up a movie.

It just can’t be any movie. It has to be a movie that is full of distraction. You aren’t going to want to think a lot or have to pay attention to complex dialog and cinematography. This isn’t film class. This is the bike trainer. No foreign films with subtitles.

No, what I’m looking for is explosions, gratuitous violence and over-the-top CGI. No subtleness need apply.

Two recent movies I’ve spun up are “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and “Columbiana”. Both of these had may have been in theatres, but I don’t remember. All I know is that you can rent them from a kiosk at the grocery store for a buck and change.

I would have totally hated having to sit through the silly ape movie with its strange humanzees at the cinema. I’m jaded by a love of the original 70’s kitsch. But, here on the small screen the “Computerized Monkeys Gone Wild” video was perfect for forgetting the lactic acid in my quads. You could turn off the sound completely and follow 98% of the plot.

Besides being unbelievable and ridiculous, the only real drawback was the intervening dialog between action sequences and a paltry run time of just over 1:30.

The next ‘feature’ I enjoyed was “Columbiana”. Another excellent action flick with no plot. Actually it had the same drug-lord revenge plot as 123,453 made-for-TV-movies, most of the original Miami Vice, and Crocodile Dundee. Plenty of skin tight eye candy for the guys with explosions and chase scenes galore!

I can’t buy this slightly built model-esque lady as being a bad-ass super killer. She looks like you could breathe on her and she’d fall down. Why not use one of my lady triathlete friends in these movies? They’d be beautiful and bad-ass and believable.

Trainer too loud to hear the dialog? Not an issue here. You’ll still be able to follow along. And at a sloppy 2+ hours this one will get you through your long ride.

Frankly neither of these movies is worth wasting time on unless you’re trapped and in pain. What they are good for is distraction. Save the chick flicks and classics for a couch snuggle and queue up the gratuitous distraction for the pain cave.

Plantar Fasciitis Tutorial

cyktrussell — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:13:18 +0000

Plantar Fasciitis Tutorial

There and back again (almost)

I’m probably going to run tonight. It will be my 3^rd run of my comeback since being cleared by the doctor. I have been working with Plantar Fasciitis for over 6 months. I will give this topic a more specifc treatment with all the details in future posts but for now I wanted to pass along my major learning from this episode.

The first thing I want you to understand is that this injury has stages over time and each stage has appropriate and inappropriate treatments. This is important for two reasons; first because when you go looking for treatment you are going to find a big mixed bag of treatments that people recommend without the specificity of the phase of the injury appropriate to that treatment. Second, and more importantly, some treatments will make the injury worse if applied in to the wrong phase.

I would define the physical phases of the injury as follows:

Injury
Recovery
Maintenance

The injury phase:

The injury phase is when you first realize you are injured. There is significant pain in the heel or bottom of the foot. The pain is worst in the morning when you get out of bed.

It starts as a pain in your heel that feels like a slight muscle pull or bruise. As you ignore it, it turns into an ever worsening ache.

If you are smart and catch it early the injury phase can be treated quickly. If you’re an idiot like me and most endurance athletes you will run on it until you can’t stand it anymore and build up scar tissue. This is where the injury becomes chronic.

Picture the tissue as a bundle of chords. In normal tissue the chords all run together in the same direction in a bundle. When you tear the plantar fascia it tries to fix itself by healing. When you keep running on the plantar fascia it continues to heal a little then get re-torn. After a few weeks or months of this you build up a bunch of scar tissue in the plantar fascia . It is almost like a tumor.

This scar tissue now looks like a fibrous knot where the fibers are hard and bunched and twisted together in all random directions and they are inflexible. They can’t heal back into the normal smooth bundle of chords. Every time you put stress on this little knotted bundle, it tears and gets sore again because it just isn’t designed for the repetitive stress.

During the injury phase you will notice pain and swelling and the injured area will feel hot. There is no treatment for this except to let it heal and try to knock down the inflammation.

The “Let it heal” part covers all the treatments like:

- Rest

- Supportive shoes, sandals, inserts

- Change your work shoes

- Night splint

- Walking cast or immobilization.

- Light stretching

- Taping

The “Knock down the inflammation” part covers treatments like:

- Ice

- Anti-inflammatories and anti-inflammatory foods

- Analgesic cream or other topical anti-inflammatory

- Cortisone shots

The Recovery Phase:

The next phase, the recovery phase, begins when, and only when the swelling has come down. The problem with this type of injury is that you can’t just let it heal. If you do nothing it will still have that fragile knot of scar tissue that is a time bomb waiting for you to do some exercise. You have to engage in treatments that straighten out that knot and help it heal as healthy tissue.

Treatment during the recovery phase involves various manipulations of the fascia to break up, straighten out and promote blood flow to the injured area.

These treatments include:

- Massage of the area to break up the scar tissue

Graston technique
Self massage
Rolling on a golf ball or ice bottle

- Deep, strong, repetitive stretching of the entire chain especially the plantar fascia

- Non impact exercise to promote blood flow

- Various professional physical therapy treatments

- In extreme cases sonic treatment and/or surgery

Note: during the recovery phase you still maintain the ‘let it rest’ techniques to keep from reinjuring it and you apply the “reduce swelling” treatments of ice and anti-inflammatory especially after recovery treatment.

These treatments during recovery are not quick fixes. They are long term repetitive treatments that you have to stick with over a period of time to get the efficacy of the treatment.

The Maintenance phase:

After what can be months of stretching and massaging and recovery you may have the injury under control to the point where you can start running again. You are still not out of the woods. What got you into this situation can still rear its ugly head if you don’t continue to treat as you regain your running.

You will continue to use the appropriate treatments from “let it heal” (i.e. night splint, good shoes) and the treatments from recovery (i.e. massage and stretching and ice) as you ease back into running.

There are additional treatments that you can work in to build up the strength of the foot to prevent the injury from reoccurring.

Maintenance treatments:

- Barefoot running – even if you’re not a barefoot runner working in some barefoot running to strengthen the foot

- Foot exercises like picking up marbles with your toes or scrunching up a newspaper with your toes

- Strength exercises and cross training

That’s it folks. That’s the summary of treating plantar fasciitis. It can be overcome but it may take time. The worst thing to do is to rush things. Take your time and understand which phase you are in before treatment. A scattershot treatment approach will drag out your recovery.

Episode 210 – Mike Blackmore from Blackmore Massage Therapy

cyktrussell — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:14:05 +0000

The RunRunLive Podcast Episode 210 – Mike Blackmore from Blackmore Massage Therapy

Download audio file (epi210.mp3)

epi210.mp3

Show intro by:

Sergio from Brasil – >

This is Not Chris your host, This is Sérgio Rocha from Brazil, I’m the guest announcer this week. When you’re done listening to the RunRunLive Podcast come visit me at www.contrarelogio.com.br where you can listen to our running podcast called “Contra-Relógio no ar”, something like “Against the Clock on Air” in English– you can also find us in the iTunes Store – and wherever and whenever this episode finds you I hope you’re doing great and I hope you’re getting your run in today! I know I’m getting my run in!

RunRunLive – Podcast Intro

Intro:

Hello and welcome to the Mammal hugging podcast where we know that giving any mammal a 20 second deep hug produces a burst of ocytocin, better known as the happiness chemical, in humans.

That’s it. You don’t need drugs or therapy. All you need is to find a mammal and hug it for 20 seconds. I prefer border collies myself, especially one old, compulsive stinky one. But you can use hamsters, cows, marmosets and the occasional human. Give it a try.

Here’s what you do. Walk into wherever your family is gathered and declare this as a medical fact. Now you can hug indiscriminately. You’ve got science behind you.

But, of course, mammals aside, this is your weekly dose of running and endurance hugs, the RunRunLive podcast, this is Chris your host and this is episode 210.

Today we have a reasonably competent show for you. We interview massage therapist Mike Blackmore. I think you’ll find it interesting.

I’ve been getting these out late on Friday recently because I have swim lessons at the YMCA on Thursday nights. As much as I plan to put the podcast together afterwards…well, you know how it goes. I work better with a tight deadline anyhow. I bet you do to.

I’ve got a piece I wrote on the elliptical machine and a piece submitted by Johnny Hegs about swimming. Be careful with Johhny’s advice because it sounds to me like he is suggesting pulling your catch across your body line and you shouldn’t do that. Your catch and pull should be outside and not across the centerline of the chest. If you pull across your chest you are using a different set of muscles.

That being said I have no right to talk about swimming because I can’t for the life of me figure it out. I can swim with the proper form for about 40 meters and by that point my heart rate is maxed and starved for oxygen. I’m signed up for a total immersion class this weekend, we’ll see. I’m quite discouraged that it just keeps getting worse. My instructor says that at some point it will all come together, but since I started re-engineering my stroke a couple months ago I just keep getting worse and it keeps getting harder. It just doesn’t make sense.

But, it is through challenge that we grow.

Let me tell you about the dream I had last night. I usually don’t remember my dreams, but my wife woke me up at just the right moment.

I was driving to a job interview that apparently was a long way away in Canada. When I got there it was college campus and when I got into range it activated a welcome app on my blackberry.

I went into the interview and for some reason Buddy was there. Apparently he had been invited to go up earlier. The interview was for some sort of startup company and it was apparent to me that they were inexperienced.

The guy had no confidence. I had no interview nervousness. My attitude was we’ll see if these guys have anything useful to say. I was nonplussed. And Buddy was there to hug. The guy’s line of questioning was around how old my laptop was and he seem to be concerned about whether they would have to buy me a new one.

I was just getting ready to take control of the meeting by asking my ‘take control of an interview’ question, which I have shared with you before is some form of “What was it that caused you to invite me in today?”

…and then my wife woke me up!

On with the show!

Audio clips in this episode:

01 Ava Kay Jones_ The Voodoo Priestess – The Moth Podcast – http://themoth.org/

John Hegstrom

http://www.runrunlive.com/products-page/midpackerslament

RunRunLive » Audio Products » MidPackersLament » The Mid-Packer’s Lament Audio Book

Hope you enjoy consuming it as much as I enjoyed recording it!

Ciao, thanks, and I’ll see you out there.

Chris,

Skits, commercials and parodies in this episode:

Story time:

Equipment Check:

Elliptical -> http://www.runrunlive.com/lets-talk-about-elliptical-machines

Featured Interview:

Mike Blackmore

http://blackmoremassage.com/

Are you getting what you need?

Don’t put yourself in the hands of just any massage therapist. Mike Blackmore provides the quality you’ve come to expect, using nationally recognized healing, therapeutic techniques. Specializing in sports massage, injury rehabilitation, and physical stress management (overuse injuries, daily physical activies, etc.), Mike uses a wide range of modalities to individualize treatment plans for each client.

Call now and schedule your appointment.

541-915-5263

Quick Tip:

John Hegs on beginner swimming.

I’ll speak more on this because I don’t think you can learn how to swim without being physically coached. You waste time training unless you learn the balance and mechanics first.

Outro:

Ok my friends, you have hugged your mammalian friends to the end of yet another RunRunLive Podcast, episode 209 in the can.

I spent this week interviewing people and have 6-7 new chats to share with you over the coming weeks and months. They cover the gamut from transformational stories of success to ironman triathletes. Lots of good coaching. Lots of thick, rich and chewy content for you delivered in convenient 15-20 minute bursts.

I’ve got a couple interesting stories for you from my week.

The first one was from an elliptical work out on Sunday at the gym. I was almost done my 1 hour surge work out. This lady gets on the machine next to me, maybe a foot and a half away, and I’m immediately subsumed by an enormous cheap perfume cloud. She gagged me.

What smell could she possibly be covering up that makes this necessary? When I told folks about my experience they said that she probably had been using the perfume for a long time and had become desensitized to it. One of my running club friends said that the amount of perfume is inversely proportional to a woman’s conditioning. And indeed this was a big woman who didn’t seem to spend much time in the gym.

Then on Tuesday I was in the pool drowning through my workout and there was a young woman in the lane next to me. She was probably 50 pounds overweight, but she swam so well. She swam easily and smoothly and so much faster than I. I told her I was jealous of her swimming. I hope that made her feel good.

…

I don’t know how to say this. I have always tried to write this podcast with the mantra “It’s not about you” in mind. I shield you, my friends from my personal stuff as much as possible. I don’t bring my family, my religious beliefs, my politics or my work into this work of my art. And when I do I try to edit it out before you hear it.

I try to make it about you. Like a good writer the prose should tell the characters without the characters having to be lain out clinically stark and naked.

You may have noticed there has been much less joy in this weekly work in the last couple months. Without my running my creative juices just don’t flow as well. My ideas don’t ripen. They wither unfertilized on the vine to fall into the maggoty leaf litter of the forest floor.

But you have kept me going. Usually with a chronic injury like this I’ll eventually just give up. I’ll take a number of months off and let atrophy take over. This time I knew I had to show up for work each Friday morning. I knew you were watching and had expectations of me so I kept at it.

This is where it gets personal.

Yesterday I cried. I cried in my car. I was on Winter Street in Waltham by the reservoir leaving ProSports after my appointment with Doctor Hester. He had said to me “why don’t you start ramping it up again and see how it goes?” All the pent up struggle of the past 6 plus months came boiling to the surface as I was thinking about running in the woods with Buddy…just an easy run…and I cried and laughed…it just came out.

I haven’t run yet. Frankly I’m afraid. What if it isn’t’ healed? What shoes should I wear? Where should I go? Should I put my orthotics in? I feel fragile.

I think the only way to do this. The only way to start this new journey is at home, in the woods with my dog, my friend, who has also been suffering through this injury.

And as I renew my journey, thank you for staying with me, and I hope I’ll see you out there.

…

You can find me hugging mammals at Twitter, Facebook, DailyMile, YouTube, Google and Tumblr as cyktrussell that’s Chris yellow king tom Russell with two esses and two ells.

Leave me an audio hug at – 206-339-7804. Leave a message there it sends an audio file.

The ultimate hug would be to read the intro for US- It is in the show notes and on the web site –- you will find all the other content on the website www.runrunlive.com

Music in this show is all by the Distillers. I found three of their songs on Podsafe. To take you out is City of Angels, it is 3:29 so straighten up, run tall, fast light feet, bring it home.

See you next week.

Ciao,

…

Music:

From Podsafe:

All music used in the show is from the Podsafe music network found at Music Alley. Please support the starving, socially minded artists sampled herein by purchasing some!

Song1

distillers-sing_sing_death_house

Song 2-3

distillers-la_girl

Outro music:

distillers-city_of_angels

Outro Artists Bio:
Bio:

Standard Links:

http://www.drscholls.com/drscholls/productSearch.do?method=doProductDetailsLookup&searchArg=2

www.midpackerslament.com

Cyktrussell At gmail and twitter and facebook and youtube

Chris’ book on Amazon – > http://www.amazon.com/Mid-Packers-Lament-collection-running-stories/dp/141961584X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228687012&sr=8-1

Mid-Packer’s Lament E-book

Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy E-Book

Dial in number for RunRunLive is – 206-339-7804

Email me at cyktrussell at Gmail dot com

Let’s talk about elliptical machines!

cyktrussell — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:28:05 +0000

Let’s talk about elliptical machines!

Round and round and going nowhere…

In my continuing stay in running purgatory I have been spending 3 or 4 workouts a week on the elliptical machine in the gym. Let me share what I have learned.

The first thing you should know is that there is a great variety of these machines. It’s not like a treadmill where the basic mechanics have to be the same. These machines are structurally different across the board. Your experience is going to vary depending on which one you use.

The key element is that they allow you to run-ish without the lift and strike of your foot. This takes a lot of the shock out of the exercise. Essentially the road moves to stay in contact with the foot while you move. This is important to injured runners who don’t want the stress of the foot-strike but still want to exercise.

The basic design is that you perform a running motion, or in some cases closer to a shuffling motion as the machine spins. What I have found is that they vary in every dimension of the stride from machine to machine. Some constrain you to a very short stride length and others allow you to really stretch out your stride length. Some have a deep vertical pitch and some are more like stair-climbers and require more ‘push down’.

You know how it works. You put your feet in the big foot pod things and start with a running-ish motion. The foot pods are big enough to take any size foot. My size 12D’s fit with 3 inches to spare. If there is ever a need for a Sasquatch to use the elliptical it will fit their foot probably.

You can move your feet around on the foot pads but after a few weeks I have found that I find it most comfortable to align my feet with the inside of the barrier. This leads me to believe that the foot pad spacing is probably wider than my normal foot strike pattern.

It takes a few sessions to get the motion. I found I kept trying to actually run (muscle memory) and my feet would lift and slide around on the foot pad. It takes practice to run/shuffle without lifting your feet.

This is another key point; you should not jump on the elliptical and expect to knock off an hour without easing into it. First you’ll be miserable and you’ll probably hurt yourself. Like any other mode of exercise you have to ease into it. Even if you are fit you are going to have to get used to the motion.

Most of the ones I use have arms that you push and pull as you are running-ish with your feet. It isn’t really an arm exercise but it does let you keep your balance and do something with your hands. There are times when my stride gets short where I can give it a little hand/arm assistance by pushing and pulling harder on the arm-thingies.

Some of them have heart rate sensors built into the grips. I’ve had mixed success with the HR pads on these machines. It doesn’t always seem to be the right HR and it doesn’t always pick it up well. Sometimes there is significant lag. Some of them only have the HR sensors on the stationary part of the grips so that you have to stop push-pulling to get a pulse. Clearly you are better off using your own HR monitor if you can.

Is it a decent workout? Yeah, after you get used to it you can work your HR up high, sustain that effort and work up a good sweat. Is it as good as running? No, not a chance. Does it keep you from hurting your injury? Yes and no. It is still a running motion. Depending on where your injury is the elliptical may stress it.

The big question is how does the time spent on the elliptical translate when I return to running? Will I have 85% of my conditioning or 10%? That’s the big question and I don’t have an answer. Yo’ll have to tune in later in the year!

Guest Post – Coming to terms with Plantar Fasciitis

cyktrussell — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:30:02 +0000

Coming to terms with Plantar Fasciitis

By Don Chapelle

Before we get started I want you all to know this is my recipe for success as I have Plantar Fasciitis in both feet. This paper will help you manage the onset of the condition and in mild to semi-acute cases, aid in your recovery.

Five years ago I tore a bit of the plantar tendon in a track workout. Like Achilles Tendonitis only rest will help a plantar tear: 6-8 months to be exact. If you have a tear and when that tear has healed – only then subscribe to using the tips outlined below utilizing these tips the last 3 months of healing process with some easy running.

Plantar Fasciitis results from age, flatting arches and most importantly for runner’s overly tight calf muscles including soleus and the Achilles tendon. Once you get plantar issues you will never rid yourself of the condition but you can manage it and reach peak condition for racing. Once the condition has been neutralized you can run years without flare-ups.

Critical footnote is that you must find the tasks from the list below that work for you. It goes without saying; all of us are different and have different deficiencies so it is up to you to concoct the right recipe from the ingredients below that work for your condition at a specific time. Also important to footnote as the condition heals, things what worked when the problem was acute will most likely not help when you when you are in the throes of healing and normal blood circulation resumes, so you will need to mix and match through the healing process. This point is what folks just don’t understand or remember.

Q. How do I know what is working and what is not? A. You will feel relief immediately whether in a few minutes or a few days. Any change is a good thing.

One thing that must be a constant when healing the Plantar is the consistent use of a night splint to stretch the calf muscles. (Usually up to 6-8 months)

Here is an outline that works for me in a day’s chronological order:

Before you get out of Bed:

Upon waking up in the morning BEFORE your feet hit the floor, point both of your toes and spell the alphabet with your entire foot moving and swirling around to form the letters A-Z this will loosen the Plantar/calf/ache lies to allow you to go to the bathroom.

WAIT! Before you put your feet on the floor put them in a very soft pair of Isotoner or Dearfoams slippers. (See the link below paragraph) A well-padded slipper will support the arch and cushion the foot. This will help protect healing that went on the previous night. As getting straight out of bed and hitting the hard tiled bathroom floor without support and stretching will defeat any healing gained the night before. If you have any hard wood or hard flooring in your house wear your slippers 100% of the time while home. You should have almost 80-90 comfort from the condition while wearing these specific slippers. If not you have purchased the incorrect slipper.

http://www.dearfoams.com/dearfoams-dm528/321527/687885

If you run in the morning it might behoove you to change your running schedule to a PM run. This will allow you the whole day to loosen up those muscles that are tight in the AM so you can have an enjoyable run or workout.

If you do run in the AM:

There are a few things that can help immediately if you have a mild condition. Firstly, use this link below to find these Dr Scholls inserts, they make three kinds of plantar inserts for various conditions, and I find that only this one works for me and have tested all of them. I have worked with at least 5 runners and each said that this insert is the real deal and really helps. They cost 13 dollars and are to replace what ever money you wasted on orthodics. You can get these at CVS, Brooks and most large stores they come in different sizes. I found that a woman’s large worked perfectly for me. Stop laughing – that’s all that was on the shelf when I needed a pair and said who is going to know? Remember this exact insert no others as Dr Scholls makes three that look very similar.

Here is the link for the inserts

I hear there is one Doctor inDanversthat makes a soft orthotic for runners. Matty Rivit and Coach Paul McGovern swear by them and wear them 100% of the time for the last 12 years. Do not waste your cash on anything else. I have a pile of hard orthodics that aren’t worth the price of the plastic.

The Doctor’s name is Dan Bishop,74 Elm Street,Danvers,MA,01923, 978-774-0473

The reason behind a supple arch support is that it is supports ever so gently the Plantar without pressing too hard against the tendon taking off some or most of the pain and pressure. Rigid orthotics just hammer the tendon and causing pain and resulting in inflammation. This is an important keystone fact.

New Balance says they have a shoe that helps with the plantar problem. You can identify a NB plantar aid shoe by its “NLock” insignia on the inner and outer arch of the shoe. Use the Doc Scholls inserts in all of your running and work shoes. I’m not entirely sure that NB has the right formula yet to control plantar problems but it is worth mentioning. I have a few pairs and they work ok.

Back from your run:

So you are back from your run. Towel stretches while on the floor are good for Achilles as well as calf and plantar and a must, if you are not a stretcher and don’t take the time to do so forget running and take up the Piano.

Let warm water build up around the foot while showering, then when out of the shower take some message oil or cream and massage your plantar using good pressure on either side of the tendon. If you feel an itchy and crackling feeling with hard pressure you have buildup of scare tissue, you will spend the next month to 8 weeks messaging away the scare tissue in this fashion. Just take your thumb and first finger and rub up and down the plantar hard for 5 minutes. Now you are ready to go to work. (Do not try this unless you are warmed up)

Lots of runners use a golf ball as well rolling it over the plantar to breakup scar tissue while watching TV or on the PC. This step must not be confused with any healing efforts as it is not, it’s just allowing the tendon blood flow to start the healing process. If you skip this step arrange your piano lessons.

While at work if you sit all day take a frozen water bottle Poland Spring 12 or 16 oz. and roll your plantar over it barefooted. And do the same thing while watching TV, eating dinner, FB, reading this email. Stop wining this will work…

While sitting in traffic try to give your calf muscles a stretch my bending your toes upward. I have a spot in all my cars where I can take my shoe off and stretch the toes upward taking pressure off of the plantar. Don’t go too nuts just every 10 minutes on and off.

Daily shoe wear:

You will need to purchase several pairs of shoes that the Dr Scholls insert will fit in or a shoe that offers a very soft and gentle support. Birkenstocks work well for some I use rubber clogs the kind you might see in industrial kitchens worn by chef or nurses in hospitals. They offer great support and a huge amount of cushioning as well as a good heel stretch. (Yes heel stretch) The same style is available for women

Here is a link of my favorite work shoe. Some people with wide feet like “Clogs” (it’s a brand) Never-ever wear wooden or rigid clogs. Clogs (the company) are acutely aware that folks who have plantar issues come to their site. So they are continuously coming up with new designs for plantar issues. I like the Bistro model mentioned below but others like the following.

http://www.crocs.com/crocs-bistro/10075,default,pd.html?cid=001&cgid=men-footwear-clogs

http://www.crocs.com/crocs-specialist/10073,default,pd.html?cid=001&cgid=men-footwear-clogs

http://www.skechers.com/shoes-and-clothing/styles/casual_shoes/work_shoes/slip_resistant_shoes/product/work_oswald_-_balder/blk

Well at some point you are going to have to wear shoes that look nice for work, church and such so try to find a flexible shoe that works for you, using what you now know about the issue. I can’t tell you how many shoes I purchased within 10 minutes of wearing them my plantar became inflamed sometimes acutely. They felt great when I tried them on in the shoe store, but just didn’t work later. Give it some time, this part is not an easy process find a friend with the same shoe size and pass the new misfits along to them. DO NOT WEAR ANY UNFLEXABLE STIFF LEATHER SHOE- EVER! If you cannot bend and or flex the shoe (to include your running shoes) give them away and start over.

A huge suspect for women who have plantar is high heals and very rigid shoes. The high heal compresses and shortens the calf muscles over time, putting lots of stress on the plantar doing exactly the opposite of what is needed.

Also there is a band that you can put around the arch to keep it warm and in my case I wore it with dress shoes with little or no support. I did like this during the acute stage of the injury but it aggravated it later during the non acute stages. See link below the better ones are sold at sports stores I think Whirlaway sells them.

http://www.drugsupplystore.com/servlet/the-532/PediFix-Arch-Bandage-Plantar/Detail

Worth a try – maybe?

I tried physical therapy and Active Release Technique both work well for getting the problem under control but are not fixes. You must do the work as well. Ultrasound and the “barbed foot roller” fall into the category of “maybe”.

Candy O’Toole an MVS runner swears by acupuncture for the plantar, although I’ve never tried it many report good results. It’s not going to fix your problem just reduce the inflammation.

Night Splints

Ok now it’s time for bed the most important time for plantar healing. Night splints do what you failed to do when training/running. They slowly stretch the calf muscles over time lengthening the muscles which take the pressure off of the Plantar so it can heal. Again the intention is to let this happen slowly, you might not notice any change in your condition for the first 3 weeks, furthermore I would venture to guess that little happens in the first 6 weeks of wearing a night splint. This is one of those consistency things that work over time. Again this is the #1 aid to getting you back to smooth running so jump on this one ASAP.

The Strasbourg Sox is not recommended and very uncomfortable – don’t waste your money.

The full length knee to toe night casts are heavy unless your spouse likes black and blue marks from getting kicked in her sleep, they are an ok option; althoughit is the most effective night splint system. They are expensive and most likely you will need a referral from you Primary Care Doctor to get one. There is a Medical store inAndover on Rt 28 North Main Street that sells them over the counter at least 200.00 without insurance. They are heavy and cumbersome I found it hard to sleep with it on. But they work the best.

If you sleep with a partner best choice is the Futuro Night Splint see link below.

They are light and adjustable comfortable and not rigid. If you need to “go” in the middle of the night, no biggie just hobble over to the bathroom, also machine washable and only 34 bucks. You can find them at most CVS pharmacies.

http://www.futuro-usa.com/product_detail.aspx?id=38

Speed workouts or hills

You have worked you way up to doing some speed and hill repeats. The plantar is going to nag each time you ramp-up your training so manage the process with ice and IBP and all the other things that you have learned about the condition. Ice bath works the best post workout.

More Random items:

There will come a time that you are feeling the Plantar is healed about 85-90% and is not getting any better. I find at that point you need to get blood flow to the area from easy running (no hills or speed work) bike or Elliptical. I also like to suggest depending how long you have been laid off several sets of heel and toe raises to help blood flow. \

An additional foot note. It’s been 14 months since my last flare up. Mummm what have I changed?

I started barefoot running – yes I can hear you rolling your eyes and smirking. But when I pass you in the next 5K because I wasn’t laid up or slowed down by my plantar we will see who’s laughing at the finish line.

Barefoot running is not a full-time activity think of it as another part of the week’s workout of strength training, like speed, tempo and long runs. I now run 3-4 times a week maybe a mile sometimes more sometimes much less to keep my feet and plantar strong and I can tell you it’s the coolest thing a runner can do to help with leg speed etc.

Before you go out and run barefoot get a book, the best one on the market is barefoot running by Michael Sandler a bit of a flake, make that really flaky but he explains and warms you to the sport.

I run barefoot without the 5 finger shoes – best way to go. With the 5 finger shoes you don’t get the strengthening of the foot as fast. Yes, I run on concrete, through the woods, grass, paved roads and side walks totally barefoot. You can stop laughing now and get out there and run your first 100 yards barefoot. Once the plantar is 85% healed you can start this step for preventive measures. It really works

Good Luck

Donald Chapelle

Episode 209 – Ray Charbonneau – Chasing the Runner’s High

cyktrussell — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:37:25 +0000

The RunRunLive Podcast Episode 209 – Ray Charbonneau – Chasing the Runner’s High

Download audio file (epi209.mp3)

epi209.mp3

Show intro by:

Ray Charbonneau

– My books!
Chasing the Runner’s High

R is for Running
– Help with your computer:
ReallyFixIt.com

RunRunLive – Podcast Intro

http://www.runrunlive.com/home/read-the-runrunlive-podcast-intro

Intro:

Hello and welcome to the RunRunlive podcast episode 209. Today we have a great show for you. I’m chatting with a local guy from the Sommerville running club Ray Charbonneau who wrote a book about his experiences with running called The Runner’s High. I have to admit a lot of what Ray talks about seems eerily familiar!

I’ve got a review of the Gym Boss and a piece I wrote about the bicycle trainer as well.

How’s everyone doing? Starting to crank up those spring marathon plans? I did notice yesterday that even though we are in the heart of winter here in NewEngland the sun is starting to stay up later and later each week. Spring is on the way.

We had a listener who was at the Houston Marathon, she recognized Dave McGillivray and went up and said she heard him on the podcast. She said Dave looked surprised. Too funny.

How about those marathon trials, huh? I watched them and I was really impressed by a couple things. First Desi Davilla looks so strong and all business for the women. What’s cool about this is that she runs for the Hansons.

If you remember our interview with Sage Cassidy who runs for the Hansons back in episode 180 – the way you get on that team is if you have a lot of heart but don’t have enough perceived talent to land one of the big sponsors. I guess Desi is showing them what it means to have heart.

I’m training away. I totally broke my swimming form in an effort to improve – which seems a bit ironic to me. If you remember I’ve been swimming my whole life, I’m a certified open water SCUBA diver, I’ve been doing sprint triathlons for 7 years. But I’ve never been satisfied with my efficiency or ease in the races.

Early on I tried to self teach myself the Total Immersion method and it helped a lot. I got to the point where I had good balance and could swim comfortably for extended periods of time. But, I was still slow and didn’t have a race pace.

Over the last two weeks I’ve been working on my ‘catch’. The catch is where your hand and arm grab the water in front of you. I’ve got it so I can really feel my catch grabbing that pool of still water in front of me and it feels quite powerful and efficient. Unfortunately doing this has screwed up my learned balance so now I’m struggling again.

Now I’ve got to take the new catch, what they call the ‘high elbow catch’ and work my balance and rotation back around it.

Part of me says why am I messing with it? But, then I know that I can only grow if I change. And I may be struggling now, I mean really struggling, but maybe today is the day I’ll find the one piece that makes it all fall into place and I’ll end up better off.

One of the common traps we fall into, especially us older folks, is that we spend all our times focused on our strengths. Because it is comfortable. Coach says that he has swimmers who he has to force to go for a run. Unless you spend some time working on your weaknesses you can’t grow.

My heel is unfortunately sore this week for some reason after a few weeks of progress. I’m not sure what I’m going to do if it continues to resist. It’s a sticky wicket.

Hope you are all doing well. We’ll keep working on it.

On with the show!

Audio clips in this episode:

Ray Charbonneau from his “R is for Running”

http://www.runrunlive.com/products-page/midpackerslament

RunRunLive » Audio Products » MidPackersLament » The Mid-Packer’s Lament Audio Book

Hope you enjoy consuming it as much as I enjoyed recording it!

Ciao, thanks, and I’ll see you out there.

Chris,

Skits, commercials and parodies in this episode:

Story time:

Equipment Check:

The Gym Boss -> http://www.runrunlive.com/beep-beep

Featured Interview:

Chasing the Runner’s High

My Sixty Million-Step Program

Chasing the Runner’s High is the story of how Ray Charbonneau pushed his addiction to running up to, and then past, his limits. Ray shares what he learned, what he should have learned, and what he still has to learn from running.

It’s a great read for runners or for non-runners who want to better understand their running friends!

Quick Tip:

The Pain Cave…-> http://www.runrunlive.com/the-pain-cave

Outro:

Ok my friends, you have chased the runner’s high to the end of yet another RunRunLive Podcast, episode 209 in the can.

I have been getting a lot of things crossed off my task list over the last few weeks because I haven’t been traveling as much. I’ve been spinning on the trainer, elipticing on the elliptical and spending way too much time in the gym.

When I’m stretching I get to look into the window where they do those group exercises. Some of the dance-type ones look really fun. The best one is that yoga class where they turn down the lights, put on some whale music and lay down on the mats. We used to do that in kindergarten. We called it nap time.

We’ve been working on the 2012 edition of the Groton Road Race. It will be on April 29^th this year. Hope to see you there. www.grotonroadrace.com

Since I’ve been in the office I took the opportunity to sort my tasks and projects and see what aligned with my goals. I’ll share a couple little tricks I learned recently. One was to set my watch to chime every hour. This reminds me to stay on task when I drift off.

Another was to print out my daily schedule or diary for the week and actually schedule specific tasks and projects into specific time slots. This way if I have a project like “write a blog post” I can spend 30 minutes on it uninterrupted. Then when the 30 minutes are up I move on to what’s next. It helps you get more done.

Of course prior to this I picked the areas I wanted to focus on for the year. 3 work, 2 personal and 1 other. That way I can prioritize the tasks and projects appropriately because if you haven’t figured it out yet; you will always have more things to do then you have time to do them in. The art of managing this is to choose to work on the things that are important to you and say ‘no’ to those things that don’t fit into the things that are important to you.

…

We mentioned strengths earlier. I didn’t mean to not use your strengths. Just don’t use them as a crutch. You should absolutely know what your strengths are. There are books and websites that will catalogue your abstract strength for you if you don’t think you know. Knowing your strengths is a great starting point for growth.

When you’re starting something new don’t focus on achievement. Focus on getting the habit first. We see this in beginning runners all the time. They set some sort of expectation for themselves and give up when they don’t make fast enough progress.

Give yourself a break when you are leaving your area of comfort and going into a new area. Make this pact with yourself; the first 4 weeks will just be to learn. No expectations at all. Just focus on habit, consistent participation and learning. Give yourself permission to learn, and yes to fail. Otherwise you can’t grow.

As soon as you think you’ve got something mastered that’s when you start to rust. Don’t get sucked into that trap. We all may be brilliant and super-effective, but we all have room to learn and to grow.

What are the strengths that you are afraid to risk?

Take that risk. I’ll see you out there.

…

You can find me whimpering in the pool at Twitter, Facebook, DailyMile, YouTube, Google and Tumblr as cyktrussell that’s Chris yellow king tom Russell with two esses and two ells.

Leave me some of your whimpers at – 206-339-7804. Leave a message there it sends an audio file.

Hey! How about a show intro for your old buddy Chris? It is in the show notes and on the web site –- you will find all the other content on the website www.runrunlive.com

A little garage punk form podsafe to take you out. Show us your speed! 3kisses with pass_me_by

See you next week.

Ciao,

…

Music:

From Podsafe:

All music used in the show is from the Podsafe music network found at Music Alley. Please support the starving, socially minded artists sampled herein by purchasing some!

Song1

22-pass_it_on

Song 2-3

brain_buckit-passion_fruit_go_bananas

Outro music:

3kisses-pass_me_by

Outro Artists Bio:
Bio:
3 KISSES serve up their own unique blend of Texas Party Punk with a positive, party vibe. Martin Folkman, Publisher of the MusicianÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Atlas says of 3 KISSES 3rd CD release, Ã¢â‚¬Å“Nut Job” combines pop, metal and punk into a musical fusion that packs more energy into a 3-minute song than all the WMD’s

Standard Links: