Podcast appearances and mentions of mike croy

Pastor Asa and guest Mike Croy look at the topic of foolish talk and coarse joking.

Mike Croy is a principal at school created specifically to support the needs of teens who are emotionally impaired, "EI" kids. The journey it took to get him here involved several twists and turns and a less than perfect childhood. His mother left his family with a "Dear John" letter when he was 11 and change and instability was his only constant growing up. His dad really rose to the occasion and Mike found his way into a love of running. Throughout his journey he was drawn to the misfits, the fringers, the outliers and this ultimately led him to the work he does now. My favorite part of his story comes in Part 2 where he incorporated his love of yoga into his daily life and beyond. Mike not only talks the talk but he walks the walk and continues to find ways to gift yoga to the typically underserved populations. You tell in this interview Mike is a pretty cerebral guy, he is thoughtful and contemplative and took the breadcrumb analogy to the max. Perhaps you will be able to look back at your own life and find the crumbs that are leading you to a soulful, meaningful life. Here is the ACEs test we spoke of: Adverse Childhood Experiences.https://www.ncjfcj.org/sites/default/files/Finding%20Your%20ACE%20Score.pdf

Mike Croy is a principal at school created specifically to support the needs of teens who are emotionally impaired, "EI" kids. The journey it took to get him here involved several twists and turns and a less than perfect childhood. His mother left his family with a "Dear John" letter when he was 11 and change and instability was his only constant growing up. His dad really rose to the occasion and Mike found his way into a love of running. Throughout his journey he was drawn to the misfits, the fringers, the outliers and this ultimately led him to the work he does now. My favorite part of his story comes in Part 2 where he incorporated his love of yoga into his daily life and beyond. Mike not only talks the talk but he walks the walk and continues to find ways to gift yoga to the typically underserved populations. You tell in this interview Mike is a pretty cerebral guy, he is thoughtful and contemplative and took the breadcrumb analogy to the max. Perhaps you will be able to look back at your own life and find the crumbs that are leading you to a soulful, meaningful life. Here is the ACEs test we spoke of: Adverse Childhood Experiences.https://www.ncjfcj.org/sites/default/files/Finding%20Your%20ACE%20Score.pdf

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-390 – Pam Rickard - Ultras, addictions and recovery (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4390.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-390.  This is Chris your friend and host.  Today we continue with our ultra-training themes.  I’ve got a long write up of my last hard week of training before my race.  I’ve also got an interview with Pam who is an ultra-runner and the director of the Herren project.  She’s a talker!  But I think you’ll get some good thoughts out of it. Again, this week since the interview is long and the write up is long I’ll just air the two segments.  I’m in my taper for my 100-miler at the end of the month.  Today it actually that rarest of animals, a rest day.  Last weekend I knocked out an all-night-long 50 miler and a follow up 20 milers that you will hear all about today.  Now I’m in my taper and trying top do some race prep. … Episode 390… 390 is another good year to talk about on the Julian and Gregorian calendars.  There was the Thessalonica Massacre where the Roman governor killed a bunch of people who were rioting over a sporting event.  See?  This stuff never changes.  Some popular chariot driver got killed and it kicked off a little revolt.  But, more importantly a Goth named Alaric was starting to make trouble up in Thrace.  A Roman general named Stilicho, who was half Vandal spent the next 20 years pushing these Goths around.  You may recognize Alaric.  He ended up sacking Rome with an army of Visigoths in 410, which many historians consider the end for the Roman Empire.  And you know why the Goths were migrating West from the Steppes?  Because they were being pushed on by the Huns.  It’s all interrelated.  But, let’s set all this talk of barbarian hordes aside and talk about some ultra-running stuff. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Ultra Training Update the last big week - http://runrunlive.com/100-miler-training-the-last-big-week Voices of reason – the conversation Pam Rickard Over the 30+ years of her running career, Pam Rickard has completed countless races, including more than 75 marathons and ultra-marathons. During the past 10 years, her races have included a 7-day adventure across China’s Gobi Desert and a 100k trek through the Alps from Italy to France. In 2008, her journey from addiction to recovery and redemption was featured in the book “A Race Like No Other,” New York Times writer Liz Robbins’ chronicle of the 2007 New York City Marathon. She was also a member of the 2016 6-person Icebreaker Run team, running across the US to bring awareness to mental health issues. Pam lives in Rocky Mount, VA and serves as the Director of THP RUNS, an initiative of former NBA basketball player Chris Herren’s foundation, (THP). THP RUNS engages people to run, walk, and participate in healthy activities, helping each other, and others, live stronger, healthier lives.  The initiative raises awareness and funding for THP’s mission, which includes providing addiction recovery resources, education and prevention initiatives across the country. Links: For help: To join our movement/run with us: Outro OK my friends, you have trotted through the woods listening to one note of binaural audio to the end of episode 4-390 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Good job.  You are fit and ready to race.  My training is going great.  I’m ready for my race.  Anything can happen of course but I’ve done the bits that I can control.  Looking at the calendar I can see that the next episode is scheduled to fall on the weekend of the race.  That’s probably not going to happen.  I’ll figure something out. As is my habit I tend to focus on running the race, not on social media or taking pictures.  Don’t expect me to do a running commentary.  I don’t see any facility for athlete updates either.  I would suggest following Mike Croy and Kevin Green on the social media feeds because they will be with me and lucid.  I could give my phone to my wife but she is fairly useless with social media.  If anyone wants to say ‘hi’ at the race I’ll be driving out from Massachusetts the morning of the 27th so I can make check in Friday night.  If you DM me or shoot me an email at cyktrussell at Gmail I’ll give you my contact info.  … I found a couple odd things on Netflix this past week.  One is a documentary by Werner Hertzog called .  Werner Hertzog is a German director.  Every time you see a movie that caricatures German directors they are talking about Werner.  They let him bring cameras inside the Chauvet Cave.  This is a cave that contains the oldest human paintings on earth (as far as we know).  The paintings are pristine because a landslide sealed them off in antiquity.  These are beautiful works of art from our ancestors of 30,000 years ago.  There’s also a pretty good documentary on Bob Weir called   There’s a new podcast I’m listening to which is called about the history of the Northwest.  All the links are in the show notes. That’s it for me this week.  I appreciate all your support and encouragement.  There is a membership option on my website if you feel motivated to help me pay my bills.  I wanted to take a moment to thank my coach for getting me to this point.  I, frankly, wasn’t sure I had this kind of training in me, but, here we are.  Once more into the breach. Also wanted to thank a couple other folks for reaching out with their notes on the Burning River.  Local Sheila and runner Rick.  And my team mate Dane for the encouragement.   It’s been an epic training cycle. and I’ll see you out there! MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-390 – Pam Rickard - Ultras, addictions and recovery (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4390.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-390.  This is Chris your friend and host.  Today we continue with our ultra-training themes.  I've got a long write up of my last hard week of training before my race.  I've also got an interview with Pam who is an ultra-runner and the director of the Herren project.  She's a talker!  But I think you'll get some good thoughts out of it. Again, this week since the interview is long and the write up is long I'll just air the two segments.  I'm in my taper for my 100-miler at the end of the month.  Today it actually that rarest of animals, a rest day.  Last weekend I knocked out an all-night-long 50 miler and a follow up 20 milers that you will hear all about today.  Now I'm in my taper and trying top do some race prep. … Episode 390… 390 is another good year to talk about on the Julian and Gregorian calendars.  There was the Thessalonica Massacre where the Roman governor killed a bunch of people who were rioting over a sporting event.  See?  This stuff never changes.  Some popular chariot driver got killed and it kicked off a little revolt.  But, more importantly a Goth named Alaric was starting to make trouble up in Thrace.  A Roman general named Stilicho, who was half Vandal spent the next 20 years pushing these Goths around.  You may recognize Alaric.  He ended up sacking Rome with an army of Visigoths in 410, which many historians consider the end for the Roman Empire.  And you know why the Goths were migrating West from the Steppes?  Because they were being pushed on by the Huns.  It's all interrelated.  But, let's set all this talk of barbarian hordes aside and talk about some ultra-running stuff. On with the show! … I'll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don't have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member's only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Ultra Training Update the last big week - http://runrunlive.com/100-miler-training-the-last-big-week Voices of reason – the conversation Pam Rickard Over the 30+ years of her running career, Pam Rickard has completed countless races, including more than 75 marathons and ultra-marathons. During the past 10 years, her races have included a 7-day adventure across China's Gobi Desert and a 100k trek through the Alps from Italy to France. In 2008, her journey from addiction to recovery and redemption was featured in the book “A Race Like No Other,” New York Times writer Liz Robbins' chronicle of the 2007 New York City Marathon. She was also a member of the 2016 6-person Icebreaker Run team, running across the US to bring awareness to mental health issues. Pam lives in Rocky Mount, VA and serves as the Director of THP RUNS, an initiative of former NBA basketball player Chris Herren's foundation, (THP). THP RUNS engages people to run, walk, and participate in healthy activities, helping each other, and others, live stronger, healthier lives.  The initiative raises awareness and funding for THP's mission, which includes providing addiction recovery resources, education and prevention initiatives across the country. Links: For help: To join our movement/run with us: Outro OK my friends, you have trotted through the woods listening to one note of binaural audio to the end of episode 4-390 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Good job.  You are fit and ready to race.  My training is going great.  I'm ready for my race.  Anything can happen of course but I've done the bits that I can control.  Looking at the calendar I can see that the next episode is scheduled to fall on the weekend of the race.  That's probably not going to happen.  I'll figure something out. As is my habit I tend to focus on running the race, not on social media or taking pictures.  Don't expect me to do a running commentary.  I don't see any facility for athlete updates either.  I would suggest following Mike Croy and Kevin Green on the social media feeds because they will be with me and lucid.  I could give my phone to my wife but she is fairly useless with social media.  If anyone wants to say ‘hi' at the race I'll be driving out from Massachusetts the morning of the 27th so I can make check in Friday night.  If you DM me or shoot me an email at cyktrussell at Gmail I'll give you my contact info.  … I found a couple odd things on Netflix this past week.  One is a documentary by Werner Hertzog called .  Werner Hertzog is a German director.  Every time you see a movie that caricatures German directors they are talking about Werner.  They let him bring cameras inside the Chauvet Cave.  This is a cave that contains the oldest human paintings on earth (as far as we know).  The paintings are pristine because a landslide sealed them off in antiquity.  These are beautiful works of art from our ancestors of 30,000 years ago.  There's also a pretty good documentary on Bob Weir called   There's a new podcast I'm listening to which is called about the history of the Northwest.  All the links are in the show notes. That's it for me this week.  I appreciate all your support and encouragement.  There is a membership option on my website if you feel motivated to help me pay my bills.  I wanted to take a moment to thank my coach for getting me to this point.  I, frankly, wasn't sure I had this kind of training in me, but, here we are.  Once more into the breach. Also wanted to thank a couple other folks for reaching out with their notes on the Burning River.  Local Sheila and runner Rick.  And my team mate Dane for the encouragement.   It's been an epic training cycle. and I'll see you out there! MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-387 – Gene Keeps Getting Faster (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4387.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-387.  This is Chris, your endurance partner for today’s workout.  Today we have a chat with Gene Dykes who is currently knocking down most of the over 70 distance records.  He’s found some sort of fountain of youth and just keep s getting faster.  In section one I’ll give you an update on my 100 miler training and what I’ve learned.  In Section two I’ll talk about the aging athlete. Buddy the elderly wonder dog is hanging in there.  He goes the first 2 miles of all my trail runs with me.  He got 5 runs in last week.  Then he sleeps.  I sometimes have to carry him up the stairs when his back hips don’t work.  And I don’t expect him to jump up into my truck anymore.  It’s ok.  He’s done his part.  Now it’s my turn.  I’ve been training consistently.  Typically 6 miles Tuesday, 10 Wednesday and 6 Thursday then back-to-back longs on the weekends.  It’s not a bad cadence.  The trails are drying out.  The mosquitoes are out but those only get me if I stop too long.  As we get into the summer the deer flies will show up and I’ll have to get some of those sticky patches.  They are real pests. I booked my hotel for the ultra.  And I got some wonderful news today.  Dirtdawg and JustFinish aka Mike Croy and Kevin Green are going to crew and pace for me.  Both those guys have run this course.  This is a big bonus.  … I got a haircut this weekend, actually on Memorial Day.  The place I usually go was closed for the holiday.  I went to a lower end clip joint chain that was open.  I was a bit afraid with the guy I got.  I haven’t had high quality experiences with this chain.  But I had a business trip and needed to get it cleaned up.  The kid was wearing a wrinkled white tee-shirt, looked rather slept-in, with a sleeveless black denim vest covered in studs.  Quite disheveled.  He had goth tattoos all over him and piercings.  Showing my age and upbringing I wondered if putting my grey head in his hands was a smart thing to do. I had just finished reading Catra Corbett’s new book about how she was a goth meth addict before she got in to ultra-running.  But, looking at this kid I figured he was a bit overweight to be an addict.  Besides, it’s not hard to cut my hair, what’s left of it that is.  You can’t really screw it up.  He did a very precise job.  Worked me over like I was some important bonsai topiary.  Even worked on my crazy old-man eyebrows.  I really need to work on my assumptions and stop profiling people.  We all turn into our parents at some point, don’t we? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – 100 Miler Training - Voices of reason – the conversation Gene Dykes I’m sure you can make some of the awkward pauses go away, but I suppose trying to figure out what to do when we were talking over each other will be tougher.    I had fun – it’s always fun to talk about running!   I’ve attached a couple recent pictures that were pretty good:   One shows me during a 24-hour track race a couple weeks ago (I only ran for 14 hours of the Dawn To Dusk To Dawn, though) where I set USATF age group track records for 50K, 50 miles, 100K, and 12 hours.   The other shows me at the finish line of the Rotterdam Marathon on April 8, where I ran 2:57:48 to eclipse Ed Whitlock’s 3:00:23 world age 70 record.   Section two – Running into the Sunset – Outro OK my friends you have set an impressive age group record while progressing to the end of episode 4-387, nice work.  Two of my training buddies, from my age group had a good day at the Vermont Cities marathon over the weekend.  They got great weather.  Overcast and cool.  Brian, who ran a 3:35 at Baystate with me in the fall, knocked out a 3:29 change! And Tim powered through to a 3:16.    Now officially the slow guy again! Watched an great documentary on Netflix called Chuck Norris vs Communism about the impact of bootleg videos on Romanians in the 80’s.  It’s been out for a while but I hadn’t seen it yet.  Really well done.  You’ll like it.  Especially if you lived through that era.  I have a big weekend coming up.  If I can pull it off I’m going to run 35 on Saturday and another 20 on Sunday.  Yikes!  I had a good week – got all my runs in.  I had a business trip to Salt Lake and I used that to practice more of this miserable, exhausted running that I’m supposed to be practicing.  Ran 6 miles Tuesday morning.  Flew out late to Salt Lake.  Got about 5 hours sleep. Got up and went exploring Wednesday morning. I was originally aiming for the mountains but I ran by a canal, maybe a river, with a wide path so I turned onto that for the bulk of my run.  I ended up getting around 9 miles in, partly because I was running short on time and partly because I ran into a fence.  The canal trail literally ran into a chain link fence.  I think it was because there was a school nearby and they were trying to keep the kids out.  There was a kid size hole at the bottom.  You know how they bend up the corner of the chain link to get under?  But, I made the decision that I wasn’t going to wriggle under a fence in the suburbs of West Jordan to get that last mile in.  It was a nice run.  The trail was wide and crushed rock and flat.  It ran behind people’s houses.  A whole line of ¼ acre lots.  It’s always interesting to look into people’s backyards in a voyeuristic way.  Some people had gardens, some had chickens and some had angry dogs.  The river or canal itself was what I would call grey water.  I don’t know if that is just the color of the water in Salt Lake or if it is some sort of legacy drainage system.  It didn’t smell bad, but it didn’t make me want to go for a swim either.  Since it’s spring the canal was full of wild ducks and their little gangs of ducklings.  I was subjective to maximum duckling cuteness the whole time as they scurried and paddled away from this strange lumbering thing on the trail in the slanting morning sun.  I even passed a couple ‘joggers’ out there.  On my way back, when I left the trail I had to navigate the now bustling streets of suburbia.  At one point I was coming up to an intersection and saw a crossing guard.  These are the community volunteers who are posted at busy intersections near schools with a reflective vest, a held held stop placard and a righteous attitude.    As I was lumbering up the sidewalk towards the intersection I caught the vigilant woman’s eyes and gave her the conspiratorial nod.  She moved out and stopped traffic for me!  I tipped my hat and said “You’re the best!” The world is a good place filled with good people.   I’ll see you out there!   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-387 – Gene Keeps Getting Faster (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4387.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-387.  This is Chris, your endurance partner for today's workout.  Today we have a chat with Gene Dykes who is currently knocking down most of the over 70 distance records.  He's found some sort of fountain of youth and just keep s getting faster.  In section one I'll give you an update on my 100 miler training and what I've learned.  In Section two I'll talk about the aging athlete. Buddy the elderly wonder dog is hanging in there.  He goes the first 2 miles of all my trail runs with me.  He got 5 runs in last week.  Then he sleeps.  I sometimes have to carry him up the stairs when his back hips don't work.  And I don't expect him to jump up into my truck anymore.  It's ok.  He's done his part.  Now it's my turn.  I've been training consistently.  Typically 6 miles Tuesday, 10 Wednesday and 6 Thursday then back-to-back longs on the weekends.  It's not a bad cadence.  The trails are drying out.  The mosquitoes are out but those only get me if I stop too long.  As we get into the summer the deer flies will show up and I'll have to get some of those sticky patches.  They are real pests. I booked my hotel for the ultra.  And I got some wonderful news today.  Dirtdawg and JustFinish aka Mike Croy and Kevin Green are going to crew and pace for me.  Both those guys have run this course.  This is a big bonus.  … I got a haircut this weekend, actually on Memorial Day.  The place I usually go was closed for the holiday.  I went to a lower end clip joint chain that was open.  I was a bit afraid with the guy I got.  I haven't had high quality experiences with this chain.  But I had a business trip and needed to get it cleaned up.  The kid was wearing a wrinkled white tee-shirt, looked rather slept-in, with a sleeveless black denim vest covered in studs.  Quite disheveled.  He had goth tattoos all over him and piercings.  Showing my age and upbringing I wondered if putting my grey head in his hands was a smart thing to do. I had just finished reading Catra Corbett's new book about how she was a goth meth addict before she got in to ultra-running.  But, looking at this kid I figured he was a bit overweight to be an addict.  Besides, it's not hard to cut my hair, what's left of it that is.  You can't really screw it up.  He did a very precise job.  Worked me over like I was some important bonsai topiary.  Even worked on my crazy old-man eyebrows.  I really need to work on my assumptions and stop profiling people.  We all turn into our parents at some point, don't we? On with the show! … I'll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don't have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member's only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – 100 Miler Training - Voices of reason – the conversation Gene Dykes I'm sure you can make some of the awkward pauses go away, but I suppose trying to figure out what to do when we were talking over each other will be tougher.    I had fun – it's always fun to talk about running!   I've attached a couple recent pictures that were pretty good:   One shows me during a 24-hour track race a couple weeks ago (I only ran for 14 hours of the Dawn To Dusk To Dawn, though) where I set USATF age group track records for 50K, 50 miles, 100K, and 12 hours.   The other shows me at the finish line of the Rotterdam Marathon on April 8, where I ran 2:57:48 to eclipse Ed Whitlock's 3:00:23 world age 70 record.   Section two – Running into the Sunset – Outro OK my friends you have set an impressive age group record while progressing to the end of episode 4-387, nice work.  Two of my training buddies, from my age group had a good day at the Vermont Cities marathon over the weekend.  They got great weather.  Overcast and cool.  Brian, who ran a 3:35 at Baystate with me in the fall, knocked out a 3:29 change! And Tim powered through to a 3:16.    Now officially the slow guy again! Watched an great documentary on Netflix called Chuck Norris vs Communism about the impact of bootleg videos on Romanians in the 80's.  It's been out for a while but I hadn't seen it yet.  Really well done.  You'll like it.  Especially if you lived through that era.  I have a big weekend coming up.  If I can pull it off I'm going to run 35 on Saturday and another 20 on Sunday.  Yikes!  I had a good week – got all my runs in.  I had a business trip to Salt Lake and I used that to practice more of this miserable, exhausted running that I'm supposed to be practicing.  Ran 6 miles Tuesday morning.  Flew out late to Salt Lake.  Got about 5 hours sleep. Got up and went exploring Wednesday morning. I was originally aiming for the mountains but I ran by a canal, maybe a river, with a wide path so I turned onto that for the bulk of my run.  I ended up getting around 9 miles in, partly because I was running short on time and partly because I ran into a fence.  The canal trail literally ran into a chain link fence.  I think it was because there was a school nearby and they were trying to keep the kids out.  There was a kid size hole at the bottom.  You know how they bend up the corner of the chain link to get under?  But, I made the decision that I wasn't going to wriggle under a fence in the suburbs of West Jordan to get that last mile in.  It was a nice run.  The trail was wide and crushed rock and flat.  It ran behind people's houses.  A whole line of ¼ acre lots.  It's always interesting to look into people's backyards in a voyeuristic way.  Some people had gardens, some had chickens and some had angry dogs.  The river or canal itself was what I would call grey water.  I don't know if that is just the color of the water in Salt Lake or if it is some sort of legacy drainage system.  It didn't smell bad, but it didn't make me want to go for a swim either.  Since it's spring the canal was full of wild ducks and their little gangs of ducklings.  I was subjective to maximum duckling cuteness the whole time as they scurried and paddled away from this strange lumbering thing on the trail in the slanting morning sun.  I even passed a couple ‘joggers' out there.  On my way back, when I left the trail I had to navigate the now bustling streets of suburbia.  At one point I was coming up to an intersection and saw a crossing guard.  These are the community volunteers who are posted at busy intersections near schools with a reflective vest, a held held stop placard and a righteous attitude.    As I was lumbering up the sidewalk towards the intersection I caught the vigilant woman's eyes and gave her the conspiratorial nod.  She moved out and stopped traffic for me!  I tipped my hat and said “You're the best!” The world is a good place filled with good people.   I'll see you out there!   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-347 – Mike Croy and the One Breath  (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4347.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-347 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Today we are going to reconnect with our old friend Mike the DirtDawg who has been doing a lot of useful work around mindfulness in his life, with his students and in his community.  I chat with him about some practical ways we can use mindfulness in our lives and some basic, easy ways to implement it.  In section one I’m going to zoom in on how meditation or mindfulness can help amateur athletes.  In section two I’m going to do a quick summary of how a 30 day project works and how you can use it to get some traction in your life.  Because, as I write this I’m wrapping up my latest 30 day plan.  I tend to try to do a bunch of things in parallel when I do 30 day projects.  This one I was trying to get up early, clean up my nutrition, avoid alcohol and work on my next book project.  It went very well, except for the last couple days where I was on vacation – that always causes some hiccups in the process.  But I managed to keep the damage minimal while not being bad company.  Up until that point though I had lost a bunch of weight and had mat all my goals and felt fantastic.  I didn’t get as much work done on my book project as I would have liked, but all in all it was a good month for me. I was particularly pleased with this because I took a 2 week break from running at the same time I took on the 30-day project. I kicked off the project on the 1st of August the day after my trail marathon.  The Achilles was hurting so coach gave me a week off.  After a week I ran once and felt awful.  I ended up walking back from that run.  That run was day 7 or 8 of the 30 day project, and as I will explain, that is when the project sucks the most.  I was in a bad place with no energy. My runs have been awful all summer.  I just felt sick, had no energy and was hating my runs.  I got them done but it was a struggle.  That’s one of the reasons I decided to put my foot down and use a 30-day project to clean up.  I decided to clean up my nutrition and with Rachel’s help rebuild my healthy biome. After the day-7 run debacle Coach smelled over-training and gave me another week off.  Not off, but off from running.  That’s when I started to turn the corner.  About 14 days in he finally gave me the green light and told me do an easy 1:15 run.  At this point I was lighter, healthier and well rested. I decided to go out at night after work. The night was cool, around 60, and the humidity had let up. I left everything at home and just wore a pair of racing shorts.  No phone, no bottle, no shirt – just my Garmin and the heart strap.  And - Oh my god! I felt weightless.  I couldn’t control myself and was literally flying.  I didn’t even start to feel any tiredness until the last long climb up to my house.  Coach was a bit peeved when I posted my ‘easy’ run and it turned out to be a 8+ mile marathon pace tempo run. But really, sometimes you just can’t help yourself.  The other thing I’m noticing is that my HR is staying down.  It’s behaving nicely and just the way I would expect it to.  My Achilles is still a little sore but I’m working it.  My runs since then have been fairly fabulous.   Plus, since I’m getting up early anyhow I can knock them out in the morning without much suffering.  It’s all good.  The wave is cresting again.  I’m going to see if I can keep the nutrition going until October.  In 30 days I got down to 175 pounds which is very light for me.  I think with a little focus I could get under 170 and I haven’t been there, ever.  I’m curious to see what that would do for my racing.  By the way, when I say ‘Clean Nutrition’ I mean eating 98% healthy, whole food, nothing packaged, lots of fruit and veg and nuts.  An occasional hit of fish or meat if I feel like I’m not getting enough calories.  I’ve cut out fried food, bread, most dairy and as much sugar as I can find on the food labels – although sometimes the bastards sneak some by me. When I set up the project with Rachel I told her my focus was not to lose weight but to get healthy.  But, as usual, once you focus on eating clean and healthy, the weight just comes off naturally.  It’s not due to a lack of calories per se, just a different mix.  Remember, the first two weeks of this I wasn’t even running.  There are a couple things I’m doing slightly different this time around.  First, I’m trying to get enough healthy fats.  I include olive oil in my salads and other meals as a condiment, and I mix a spoonful of coconut oil into my oatmeal in the morning – because apparently coconut oil is the new superfood. Second, we’ve been experimenting with lots of probiotic foods like KimChi, Sauerkraut, pickles, organic honey and homemade fermented beet juice.  This time of year I’m getting fresh chard and cukes from my garden too and they come with some helpful organisms riding along from the great outdoors.  You can get useful critters from any of the fresh from field produce available this time of year. Check your labels to find certified organic or live culture foods.  To be clear, I don’t mean the well-known yoghurts and other probiotic labeled dairy products which, in my humble opinion, are just another packaged food ploy to stuff more dairy and sugar down your throat. I don’t know if it is good or bad but my innards are a lot happier now after a month or so of working the probiotic, healthy food plan into my life.  It’s amazing how large a change you can make in a short amount of time with a little focus.  … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio Last week I uploaded two, count ‘em, two, book reviews.  One for the Neal Stephenson SevenEves scifi tome and another for Moonwalking with Einstein, a treatise on memory techniques. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. For the cost of a pack of Clean and Clear , to, you know, remove that extra shine off your brow, you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew.  There is no shipping charge for membership and I just today fixed the bug in the annual membership signup process! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … I was reading the New York Times in the airport on my way back from vacation.  There was an article in there about Lucy, the famous Australopithecine.  They found Lucy’s fossilized bones in Kenya in 1974 and it really kicked off the study and understanding of all the different branches of the hominid family tree since. Lucy was a small, juvenile, female Australopithecine that lived in the forested grasslands of Africa a few million years ago.  They weren’t humans in the sense that we think of Homo sapiens - the thinking ape.  They were a side branch or transitional form of hominid that seems to have been moving out of the trees to walk upright on the ground. According to the news, it seems Lucy’s 2M+ year-old fossilized bones were making a tour of the US.  Some scientists took the opportunity to create a thorough CAT scan of them.  In this way they could get detailed digital images that they could analyze without having to have the bones themselves. One of the things that they discovered is a number of compression fractures.  These are the type of fractures you get when you hit something hard, like in car accident or a fall from a great height.  They postulate that poor little Lucy met her demise by falling out of a tall tree.  I question these conclusions.  I don’t think anything so mundane happened.  I see the forensic evidence and I think Lucy was definitely into extreme sports.  She was probably wing-suit flying off the ridge from mount Kilimanjaro or paragliding over the volcanoes.  Maybe she was caught in a sudden gust of wind or was rattled by an ill-timed tremor from imbibing too much Red Bull.  Without fully developed opposable thumbs she couldn’t hang on and she crashed.  I’m no scientist but I have watched many episodes of CSI Las Vegas and that’s where the data leads me.  It was like an Australopithecine version of Point Break.  They had some mad-dog skills and liked to live on the edge those Australopithecines.  Live fast, die young, leave a fossilized pile of bone fragments – that was their motto. On with the show. Section one – Meditation and mindfulness in Sport - Voices of reason – the conversation Mike Croy – “DirtDawg50k” Mike Croy serves as a high school principal for special education students who have been diagnosed with severe emotional impairments. His area of expertise lies in working with at risk students and families for the past 20 years.  Mike is driven to serve by his belief that we are all works in progress and the key is to keep moving forward. Mike began teaching yoga and mindfulness/meditation classes to his students as a result of him obtaining his 200 RYT (Yoga Teacher Training) and has since started to offer it to staff and adults to help others find the space to be mindful and breathe in a hyper connected world.  He is also a 24x marathoner and has completed several ultramarathons including the Burning River 100. Contact information: mike@root2shine.com website: Root 2 Shine:     RSS FEED: Dirt Dawg's Rambling Diatribe: RSS FEED:  Section two Anatomy of a 30-day project - Outro Well my friends you have mindfully sat and watched your body’s breath through the end of episode 4-347 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Ohmm… Ohmm Padni ma… Yeah.  Rock solid.  Good job. I’m rolling off the long weekend and heading down to Atlanta to work.  I was out in Chicgao on holidays for a long weekend.  In my career I’ve been there many times but it was fun to go as a tourist.  I got up every morning and went out to run around the lakefront and Grant Park.  Two out of Three days it poured on me in the morning.  But that was ok.  I just took my shirt off and enjoyed myself.  I did a 2:20 long run Sunday morning and the path was packed with Chicago Marathon aspirants and club runners.  The triathletes were swimming their workouts in the lake. It just so happened that the Chicago Triathlon was also going on over at Grant Park.  There was a constant stream of bicycles on Lakeshore drive the whole time I was out.  We took the architecture tour up the river one night, went to Second City another night and then caught a Cubs game another night.  We walked through the Chicago Institute of Art one day as well.  Like I said it poured rain, but only while I was out running.   I’ll share one image with you.  Monday morning I was running a fartlek run. I got up a 6:00 AM local time, ran down the river trail, crossed over on the Lakeshore Drive bridge, ran out to the end of Navy pier and circled around to head north on the lakeshore path.  It was early, overcast and humid.  It hadn’t started to rain yet.  The lake was calm and the triathletes were cruising in the shallows parallel to the shore making little wave here and there. There are some sections of beach and sections of concrete along here as the path winds along the coves and points.  I passed the remnants of a beach volleyball tournament that was being disassembled.  Not too many runners were out yet.  Bicyclists were making their way inbound to the city.  Early morning maintenance crews were picking up trash and readying the day’s projects. At one point as I ran along the cement wall I could look down and see into the water of Lake Michigan.  It was clear enough for me to see the sandy bottom and I had to stop because there was a 3-5 pound bass going about its business there immune to my strivings.  A few minutes later as I pushed north, throwing in occasional 2 minute surges, the heavens opened up with a warm downpour.  This broke the humidity and washed the sweat from my body.  My shoes squished along as I weaved around the deeper puddles.  Another good morning run in the windy city. “Life Moves pretty fast.  If you don’t stop to look around once in a while you could miss it.” Ferris … Next up for me is the Wapack Trail race 18 miler.  I’m just going to try to have fun and enjoy myself.  If I can get in under 4 hours and not hurt myself that will be great! After that I have that Spartan race the next weekend.  I’m going to take Teresa up with me and spend the night.  My Beast race is on Saturday and she’s going to do the sprint version on Sunday.  Coach wanted me to skip it and focus on the Portland Marathon in October.  If I stay on my nutrition plan and manage to squeeze some training in and stay healthy I could do well out there.  I’m not worried about it though.  I think my days of overwrought expectations are over! … Speaking of overwrought expectations, on one of the planes on the way to Chicago a lady next to me was reading “Fast Girl” – Suzy Favor-Hamilton’s book.  I asked if it was any good and she said she was done with it and gave it to me.  I took it and read it over the next couple days.  I’ll see if I can’t write up a full review but I’m still processing it.  Suzy was a contemporary of mine.  We’re about the same age. I remember her on the cover of that running magazine back in the 1990’s.  She was fast and pretty and the media loved her.  She made 3 Olympic teams in the 1500 but mentally imploded in all of them.  It turns out she’s bipolar and has been struggling with mental illness her whole life. The final manifestation of that mental illness was her becoming a high-paid escort in Las Vegas.  Apparently she brought the same enthusiasm to that as she brought to everything else – but that’s a symptom of being bipolar.  I follow Suzy on Facebook and she is a genuinely likable person.  I’m still processing her story because there is so much intertwined here with the competition, the mental illness and yes, the sex.  It’s a complicated mess for her and her family.  I’m glad that these types of illnesses have less of a stigma now than they did, but it’s still a complicated mess.  It makes you wonder, when your mind is capable of such deception and complexity in the extreme, how much of what’s going on in your head is real and how much any of it actually matters?  The human mind is a complex and sometimes deceptive intelligence.  We should all be careful to remember that. I’ll leave you to think on that.  As you ping pong around on the inside of your overly complicated homo sapiens skull bone – how much does any of that noise matter?  Everyone thinks they are the center of the universe.  We worry about what other’s think. We worry about being good enough, rich enough, smart enough, strong enough – we create, or allow that complex human brain to create stories and chaos.  You don’t have to create that chaos.  All that noise is inside your own head and you and I, if we want to we can quiet it. Maybe you think you’re alone in the world with your deamons.  But you’re not. We’re in this together my friend.  Quiet your mind.  Get some help if you need to.  You’re not alone.  You’ve got us.  And I’ll see you out there.   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-347 – Mike Croy and the One Breath  (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4347.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-347 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Today we are going to reconnect with our old friend Mike the DirtDawg who has been doing a lot of useful work around mindfulness in his life, with his students and in his community.  I chat with him about some practical ways we can use mindfulness in our lives and some basic, easy ways to implement it.  In section one I'm going to zoom in on how meditation or mindfulness can help amateur athletes.  In section two I'm going to do a quick summary of how a 30 day project works and how you can use it to get some traction in your life.  Because, as I write this I'm wrapping up my latest 30 day plan.  I tend to try to do a bunch of things in parallel when I do 30 day projects.  This one I was trying to get up early, clean up my nutrition, avoid alcohol and work on my next book project.  It went very well, except for the last couple days where I was on vacation – that always causes some hiccups in the process.  But I managed to keep the damage minimal while not being bad company.  Up until that point though I had lost a bunch of weight and had mat all my goals and felt fantastic.  I didn't get as much work done on my book project as I would have liked, but all in all it was a good month for me. I was particularly pleased with this because I took a 2 week break from running at the same time I took on the 30-day project. I kicked off the project on the 1st of August the day after my trail marathon.  The Achilles was hurting so coach gave me a week off.  After a week I ran once and felt awful.  I ended up walking back from that run.  That run was day 7 or 8 of the 30 day project, and as I will explain, that is when the project sucks the most.  I was in a bad place with no energy. My runs have been awful all summer.  I just felt sick, had no energy and was hating my runs.  I got them done but it was a struggle.  That's one of the reasons I decided to put my foot down and use a 30-day project to clean up.  I decided to clean up my nutrition and with Rachel's help rebuild my healthy biome. After the day-7 run debacle Coach smelled over-training and gave me another week off.  Not off, but off from running.  That's when I started to turn the corner.  About 14 days in he finally gave me the green light and told me do an easy 1:15 run.  At this point I was lighter, healthier and well rested. I decided to go out at night after work. The night was cool, around 60, and the humidity had let up. I left everything at home and just wore a pair of racing shorts.  No phone, no bottle, no shirt – just my Garmin and the heart strap.  And - Oh my god! I felt weightless.  I couldn't control myself and was literally flying.  I didn't even start to feel any tiredness until the last long climb up to my house.  Coach was a bit peeved when I posted my ‘easy' run and it turned out to be a 8+ mile marathon pace tempo run. But really, sometimes you just can't help yourself.  The other thing I'm noticing is that my HR is staying down.  It's behaving nicely and just the way I would expect it to.  My Achilles is still a little sore but I'm working it.  My runs since then have been fairly fabulous.   Plus, since I'm getting up early anyhow I can knock them out in the morning without much suffering.  It's all good.  The wave is cresting again.  I'm going to see if I can keep the nutrition going until October.  In 30 days I got down to 175 pounds which is very light for me.  I think with a little focus I could get under 170 and I haven't been there, ever.  I'm curious to see what that would do for my racing.  By the way, when I say ‘Clean Nutrition' I mean eating 98% healthy, whole food, nothing packaged, lots of fruit and veg and nuts.  An occasional hit of fish or meat if I feel like I'm not getting enough calories.  I've cut out fried food, bread, most dairy and as much sugar as I can find on the food labels – although sometimes the bastards sneak some by me. When I set up the project with Rachel I told her my focus was not to lose weight but to get healthy.  But, as usual, once you focus on eating clean and healthy, the weight just comes off naturally.  It's not due to a lack of calories per se, just a different mix.  Remember, the first two weeks of this I wasn't even running.  There are a couple things I'm doing slightly different this time around.  First, I'm trying to get enough healthy fats.  I include olive oil in my salads and other meals as a condiment, and I mix a spoonful of coconut oil into my oatmeal in the morning – because apparently coconut oil is the new superfood. Second, we've been experimenting with lots of probiotic foods like KimChi, Sauerkraut, pickles, organic honey and homemade fermented beet juice.  This time of year I'm getting fresh chard and cukes from my garden too and they come with some helpful organisms riding along from the great outdoors.  You can get useful critters from any of the fresh from field produce available this time of year. Check your labels to find certified organic or live culture foods.  To be clear, I don't mean the well-known yoghurts and other probiotic labeled dairy products which, in my humble opinion, are just another packaged food ploy to stuff more dairy and sugar down your throat. I don't know if it is good or bad but my innards are a lot happier now after a month or so of working the probiotic, healthy food plan into my life.  It's amazing how large a change you can make in a short amount of time with a little focus.  … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio Last week I uploaded two, count ‘em, two, book reviews.  One for the Neal Stephenson SevenEves scifi tome and another for Moonwalking with Einstein, a treatise on memory techniques. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro's, Outro's, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3's you can download and listen to at any time. For the cost of a pack of Clean and Clear , to, you know, remove that extra shine off your brow, you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew.  There is no shipping charge for membership and I just today fixed the bug in the annual membership signup process! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … I was reading the New York Times in the airport on my way back from vacation.  There was an article in there about Lucy, the famous Australopithecine.  They found Lucy's fossilized bones in Kenya in 1974 and it really kicked off the study and understanding of all the different branches of the hominid family tree since. Lucy was a small, juvenile, female Australopithecine that lived in the forested grasslands of Africa a few million years ago.  They weren't humans in the sense that we think of Homo sapiens - the thinking ape.  They were a side branch or transitional form of hominid that seems to have been moving out of the trees to walk upright on the ground. According to the news, it seems Lucy's 2M+ year-old fossilized bones were making a tour of the US.  Some scientists took the opportunity to create a thorough CAT scan of them.  In this way they could get detailed digital images that they could analyze without having to have the bones themselves. One of the things that they discovered is a number of compression fractures.  These are the type of fractures you get when you hit something hard, like in car accident or a fall from a great height.  They postulate that poor little Lucy met her demise by falling out of a tall tree.  I question these conclusions.  I don't think anything so mundane happened.  I see the forensic evidence and I think Lucy was definitely into extreme sports.  She was probably wing-suit flying off the ridge from mount Kilimanjaro or paragliding over the volcanoes.  Maybe she was caught in a sudden gust of wind or was rattled by an ill-timed tremor from imbibing too much Red Bull.  Without fully developed opposable thumbs she couldn't hang on and she crashed.  I'm no scientist but I have watched many episodes of CSI Las Vegas and that's where the data leads me.  It was like an Australopithecine version of Point Break.  They had some mad-dog skills and liked to live on the edge those Australopithecines.  Live fast, die young, leave a fossilized pile of bone fragments – that was their motto. On with the show. Section one – Meditation and mindfulness in Sport - Voices of reason – the conversation Mike Croy – “DirtDawg50k” Mike Croy serves as a high school principal for special education students who have been diagnosed with severe emotional impairments. His area of expertise lies in working with at risk students and families for the past 20 years.  Mike is driven to serve by his belief that we are all works in progress and the key is to keep moving forward. Mike began teaching yoga and mindfulness/meditation classes to his students as a result of him obtaining his 200 RYT (Yoga Teacher Training) and has since started to offer it to staff and adults to help others find the space to be mindful and breathe in a hyper connected world.  He is also a 24x marathoner and has completed several ultramarathons including the Burning River 100. Contact information: mike@root2shine.com website: Root 2 Shine:     RSS FEED: Dirt Dawg's Rambling Diatribe: RSS FEED:  Section two Anatomy of a 30-day project - Outro Well my friends you have mindfully sat and watched your body's breath through the end of episode 4-347 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Ohmm… Ohmm Padni ma… Yeah.  Rock solid.  Good job. I'm rolling off the long weekend and heading down to Atlanta to work.  I was out in Chicgao on holidays for a long weekend.  In my career I've been there many times but it was fun to go as a tourist.  I got up every morning and went out to run around the lakefront and Grant Park.  Two out of Three days it poured on me in the morning.  But that was ok.  I just took my shirt off and enjoyed myself.  I did a 2:20 long run Sunday morning and the path was packed with Chicago Marathon aspirants and club runners.  The triathletes were swimming their workouts in the lake. It just so happened that the Chicago Triathlon was also going on over at Grant Park.  There was a constant stream of bicycles on Lakeshore drive the whole time I was out.  We took the architecture tour up the river one night, went to Second City another night and then caught a Cubs game another night.  We walked through the Chicago Institute of Art one day as well.  Like I said it poured rain, but only while I was out running.   I'll share one image with you.  Monday morning I was running a fartlek run. I got up a 6:00 AM local time, ran down the river trail, crossed over on the Lakeshore Drive bridge, ran out to the end of Navy pier and circled around to head north on the lakeshore path.  It was early, overcast and humid.  It hadn't started to rain yet.  The lake was calm and the triathletes were cruising in the shallows parallel to the shore making little wave here and there. There are some sections of beach and sections of concrete along here as the path winds along the coves and points.  I passed the remnants of a beach volleyball tournament that was being disassembled.  Not too many runners were out yet.  Bicyclists were making their way inbound to the city.  Early morning maintenance crews were picking up trash and readying the day's projects. At one point as I ran along the cement wall I could look down and see into the water of Lake Michigan.  It was clear enough for me to see the sandy bottom and I had to stop because there was a 3-5 pound bass going about its business there immune to my strivings.  A few minutes later as I pushed north, throwing in occasional 2 minute surges, the heavens opened up with a warm downpour.  This broke the humidity and washed the sweat from my body.  My shoes squished along as I weaved around the deeper puddles.  Another good morning run in the windy city. “Life Moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop to look around once in a while you could miss it.” Ferris … Next up for me is the Wapack Trail race 18 miler.  I'm just going to try to have fun and enjoy myself.  If I can get in under 4 hours and not hurt myself that will be great! After that I have that Spartan race the next weekend.  I'm going to take Teresa up with me and spend the night.  My Beast race is on Saturday and she's going to do the sprint version on Sunday.  Coach wanted me to skip it and focus on the Portland Marathon in October.  If I stay on my nutrition plan and manage to squeeze some training in and stay healthy I could do well out there.  I'm not worried about it though.  I think my days of overwrought expectations are over! … Speaking of overwrought expectations, on one of the planes on the way to Chicago a lady next to me was reading “Fast Girl” – Suzy Favor-Hamilton's book.  I asked if it was any good and she said she was done with it and gave it to me.  I took it and read it over the next couple days.  I'll see if I can't write up a full review but I'm still processing it.  Suzy was a contemporary of mine.  We're about the same age. I remember her on the cover of that running magazine back in the 1990's.  She was fast and pretty and the media loved her.  She made 3 Olympic teams in the 1500 but mentally imploded in all of them.  It turns out she's bipolar and has been struggling with mental illness her whole life. The final manifestation of that mental illness was her becoming a high-paid escort in Las Vegas.  Apparently she brought the same enthusiasm to that as she brought to everything else – but that's a symptom of being bipolar.  I follow Suzy on Facebook and she is a genuinely likable person.  I'm still processing her story because there is so much intertwined here with the competition, the mental illness and yes, the sex.  It's a complicated mess for her and her family.  I'm glad that these types of illnesses have less of a stigma now than they did, but it's still a complicated mess.  It makes you wonder, when your mind is capable of such deception and complexity in the extreme, how much of what's going on in your head is real and how much any of it actually matters?  The human mind is a complex and sometimes deceptive intelligence.  We should all be careful to remember that. I'll leave you to think on that.  As you ping pong around on the inside of your overly complicated homo sapiens skull bone – how much does any of that noise matter?  Everyone thinks they are the center of the universe.  We worry about what other's think. We worry about being good enough, rich enough, smart enough, strong enough – we create, or allow that complex human brain to create stories and chaos.  You don't have to create that chaos.  All that noise is inside your own head and you and I, if we want to we can quiet it. Maybe you think you're alone in the world with your deamons.  But you're not. We're in this together my friend.  Quiet your mind.  Get some help if you need to.  You're not alone.  You've got us.  And I'll see you out there.   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -