From Setback To The Start Line - Episode 10

0:00All right, this is going to be one of those setback to start line episodes with me and my coach. Liza Howard, we're going to talk about what happened at the race for the ages and what to do next and what's upcoming in my training world. These are just for people that are trying to get back into it. I thought it would be useful to record my trading calls raw and just, you know, so people didn't feel alone, like they went the only people struggling and maybe it's helpful to you. I'm just going to leave this in the next episode, but I'm just giving you some free stuff in the form of my training calls in case it's helpful to you. And although there's no sponsors or anything, I just always have made it a tradition for these shows to point out the products and people that are keeping me in the game. They came in really handy this weekend at the race. Well, first we have Rush Orthopedics, Midwest Orthopedics by Rush, the PT where I get all my, got all my, putting me back together from Michael Midwest Orthopedics was a great

1:03PT for me. Path products, project products, which I used pretty exclusively at this race, the shorts, the liners all weekend long. You can hydrate it and I drink a lot of it, although I did drink a lot of different stuff, which is kind of weird. Fitsock, I wore Fitsock's the entire time. Fitsock's shoes, I only wore them to C-135s, life savers, best shoe ever, and then Trail Tows, which I slathered all over my feet. And although I did get some blisters, I think that might have been user air. It's the best that we can go get. So with that, we're going to just have a raw coaching call, Eliza, whenever she calls me, which I'm hoping will be exactly when this intro music ends, but if not, I'll pause it and it'll feel like it was. Can still sign up for the races. Are available. We got some spots. You can win some money. Ten miles. Ten miles. Ten miles. Ten miles. A giant pile.

2:05Hello. He there, Scotty, how you doing? Excellent. How are you? I am hot. I'll get out. You know, Texas. Yeah. I know about that. Toby, tell me everything from the race. From you got there. It was hot. I'll tell you that. Uh-huh. Let's see. So I drove. I got there to this park, which is, I mean, this whole race is like, I'm going to just, I mean, this whole race is like, it's a one mile loop, like making space in a parking lot, basically. Uh-huh. It's kind of horrible. It's just, it's like really crappy. It's like, like, there's like a little sidewalk section that's next to a creek and then the rest of it is just like running around in a freaking parking lot in a park with no shade,

3:07whatsoever. And a lot of it's black top, which is really nice when it gets hot out. Uh-huh. I thought it was going to be really hot and it probably was. I hooked up. I made my little tent and, you know, watched Ann start and then I went to bed, got a good night's sleep. Uh-huh. I was very surprised to learn when I checked in to start the race that I was one hour early because I wasn't 55. I was only 54 much to most of the time. You were surprised that you were 54? I was. I thought I was 55. And, uh, all year I'd been 55. I called my wife and let her know. So I mean, I guess I got another year in my life, which is not, you know, so it's good news. But, uh, so. Can you felt 55 for this whole year? Yeah. Well, I've been telling people a lot, basically, but all right. So, but I'm turning 55 this month and, uh, so after that, it does get hard. Yeah. Oh, do you get started? I did a look. I, um, I think for the first, like, looper two, I did a few quarter mile intervals and then, uh, ended up doing a couple loops with Ann and then, you know, it's one of those

4:08things where there's, there's 150 people and there's a one mile loop. So you just keep hucking up with people and talking to them. And, uh, no one was, I mean, there was like four people that ran, you know, everybody else was walking. Some of them hunched over, you know, like the lean, all the different leans. It was like, like watching homeless people on the Vegas strip looking for cigarettes. There's just all leaned over, you know, and holding umbrellas. And that was in our swag bag. We got a hoodie, um, some sort of weird trophy that I, that I didn't keep and then, and, uh, umbrella. So I got a black, not a hoodie. It was sweatshirt. It was a sweatshirt without a hood. Black. Uh, you weren't wearing it during the day. I did hear about the umbrellas and that some, some packs not to use them. Me and Ann decided we were not going to become umbrella people under any circumstances. So whenever we saw people that became umbrella people, we were disappointed in them. Yeah. Especially David Johnston, who's probably not reading this.

5:11Who's like a legend, you know, of the winter and non-winter sport, but he became an umbrella person in flip flops. It was just, it was a shame to them. But anyway, um, it was, it was like a wall of heat. It was horrible, just horrible. So compared to bad water. Um, bad water was hotter, but bad water wasn't as dumb because there was like a destination and a reason. We're in a place that's known for being hot and we're on a road going to a mountain. This was, let's do circles in a parking lot because that would be really fun. You know what else would be fun? Let's not have age stations because that wouldn't make any sense. Let's, let's eat crackerbarrow meals. Let's get meals from the garbage can of the South. Let's get the worst possible food you can imagine crackerbarrow and we'll give people a crackerbarrow meal every eight hours. You sound grumpy. No, I mean, it was, so, and then every meal comes with a biscuit and a muffin for some

6:17reason. I don't know why that's a southern thing. But so there was water, iced tea lemonade, soared. I mean, in 1985 called and wanted to know why Laz was still using their hydration. Like, did you have like a fucking warehouse and left over sword? And then all these old people and everybody like, like worships and sucks up to Laz. And one of the first things I told Anne is it, I mean, he's fine, but I don't think he's like the most brilliant, amazing person. I like, he doesn't make my knees quiver when I see him and it's just weird watching all these people suck up to him. Like he's some, like, this is the dumb, this is a dumb idea. I don't know why we're applauding him for it. It's just stupid. Anyway, that's the creator of the world's longest tricky track. If that has a purpose, you're going to a destination and you're raising money for something. What was the purpose of this? To celebrate age and racing.

7:21How about finding a nice wooded, wooded loop, like a two mile wooded loop? How's that? Was shade? I mean, um, Anne is, Anne's like, crumpier than I am. She just pitches about everything. She's always complaining. And then I decide, so I go, I did, my knee never hurt, not once, not from the beginning to the end. My knee was non-shoot. So good. I didn't run much. It was a lot of power. I can't, and it was different speeds. When I was with her, some of her loops are, you know, 40 minute loops. When I was with David Johnston, we were doing like a 17 minute loop. So it kind of like, ebbed and flowed. I did a lot of breaks, put my knees up, you know, got caught my breath, got out of the sun a little bit. But, and then when night came, you know, I started to get blisters on my feet. And I don't know, this, this might be just me making things up, but I feel like maybe the fact that I'm not running that much and my feet haven't been beat up that bad with the heat and the pounding and the, you know, that I got.

8:21Yeah, I know I agree. The heel blisters and I got like big toe blisters and never was it, you know, like to the point where I'm limping and debilitated or anything. It was just like, my feet were getting gnarly. I was sick and tired of being hot. It was like 95 degrees. Like, with the heat index, it was like 100 something. Laz was saying it was the hottest one he's ever had. Although, side note, no one ever suggested that they should stop or delay or change the event in any way. All this to the badger 100 runners when they're bitching about the 82 and sunny, you know, that these people are like 150 years old and they're in their walk and loops on black ass fault, you know, I mean, anyway, I'm enjoying the thing. Okay. You're needn't bother you at all. No, my feet got gnarly and it was to the point where I was like, I got to either air them out and put a new layer on or take a break. So I decided after talking with my wife who said that I was stupid, why don't I just

9:23go to the hotel and just sleep in a nice bed with air conditioning, maybe have a frosty before I go to bed. So I was at like 20 years. I know, she's a smarty. Yeah. She's like, I don't understand. You have substantial personal wealth. Like, wow, why are you sleeping on a lawn chair underneath a tent next to a swamp where and let me tell you something about you. I mean, you're in the south, but you're like in the Texas south. This Appalachia South is a different south and everything is dirty, and everything that looks like dirt is really a fucking bug. They're just every time I touch something, they were like caterpillars like like inch long caterpillars everywhere. They were in like in my gear on the table. They were daddy long legs. I was just like spiders and bugs and dirt everywhere. So Kyle says, you're definitely going to do it next year. I was like, why don't you go get a hold of it? I thought, you know what? That's how's reasonable. So then I tell Anne. And then Anne is just like, I told someone and then it got back to Anne. And Anne comes to the thing and she's like, you're going, you're going to go to Goddamn

10:24hotel. What the hell is it? And she's like, yell at me. And she's like, that's a pretty good idea though. I mean, it's probably a good idea. So I went to the hotel and then there was a thunderstorm and then she texted me and told me that I totally made the right call. Oh, wow. I didn't get rained on at all. But in the morning, I had a nice, you know, kind of no breakfast in the buffet there with the hotel and went back and then it was miserable again. It was just garbage. So I did some more of those walking around garbage loops with people all day, again, until I get to about 40 miles and then same thing. And then I went back to the hotel. And when I woke up, my blisters were a little bit better. By about halfway through my blisters were back to where they were before. By the end of it, my feet were like, this sucks. You're hurting me. And again, I probably should have looted again, but I said, you know what, that's it. I'm just going to go to the hotel anyway. And the original plan was that Anne was going to take forever. So I was going to come back and do 10 in the morning. But she called me at about 5 a.m. and said, I'm coming.

11:24I got two loops to go. She was doing 20 minutes. And then that's the other kind of like side note to all this that people are whiners about heat. Here's this lady. She's like, she's not that old. And she's a pretty beat up 60 whatever she is. 66 let's say. And she's in a walker. She's got room with her arthritis. And she didn't sleep. She didn't stop. She kept going until she got to 100 miles. And her last five loops were like 20 minute loops. She was just crushing. So talk about toughness. But she's on another level. Anyway. So then I came, sorry her finish. But then now she's my problem with all of her wet crap garbage bags and just unicorn outfits. And just like shit everywhere. And she has to get to Nashville somehow. So I have to like pack her up and get her there, which was fun. And then we got it. We had a nice ride in the car. We put you off the Nashville.

12:24And then I made her the jewelry ins problem. Thanks to our friend, Eric Strandt, if you're listening, Eric, the tree or like a queen. I called my friend Eric and he called the GM. And they were ready for us when we got there. So. Wow. Dropped her off. And then she had a great time in Nashville, evidently. She went to Nashville in Memphis and saw the Graceland. And you know, she said she was out in a good old time. And then there was funny that every time I would say like next year we're going to put the tent over here. She would just get so mad at me. She started screaming. She was talking about next year. We're not coming back. We're never coming back. And then I got a text from her. I want to say like seven o'clock last night and it said, uh, rethinking never again. And I said, you shut your mouth. That was horrible. Fuck that. Never again. That was Hill, Billy, hell. And then I said, okay, fine. So you just registered then?

13:25No, I don't think it's open for a while. Okay. So how is your body feeling today? I have a very bad heat rash on my ankles. I wore arm sleeves and calf sleeves, which is very unlike me, but something told me to put them on. So I did. And they did protect me. I did not suffer any major sunburn probably because of that. But the, uh, heat rash, which I've never had in my life, by the way, developed right about the area that there was a, um, where the sock and the, um, there was a little space between the sock and the calf sleeve. I just sent your picture just now. I just heard the deep. I'm like, well, yeah. I'll, I'll listen to your very nice picture and with a vocal and then a picture of the, uh, and passed out in my car shortly thereafter.

14:26There's like the joy of victory in the agony of defeat. Um, the heat, very good. Yeah. Um, so, so the vibe, okay. So no soreness in your quads at all in your house? No. No. Right. How are the blisters? Um, I'd say they're like a day away from being gone. Okay. Yeah. Not, not horrible. Okay. Um, my feet have been through worse, you know, like, okay. Like if I had, if you would have been there and said, Scott, you have to, you know, run, you know, another 10 miles each of those days or you had to run 10 miles, I would have, I would have certainly been able to, the blisters didn't take me out at any point. Okay. Okay. Um, do you feel like you, what do you, when, okay, so you did all that and it's a big, long tiring weekend. And then, you know, fire it up maybe tomorrow. Okay. Let's get back to it. Oh, and then I didn't tell you the other big news is that I got into the Big Sur marathon.

15:34Oh, yes. So I was accepted. Yeah. Okay. So now we have something to prepare for it. Beautiful. Yeah. I mean, we're going to do the, um, Saint Croix 40. I'll winter ultra, um, but that, you know, and that's more hiking than anything. Okay. So it's, but, you know, that'll be in January and then this, this, um, this will be a member. And it's a strict six hour car off there. I don't, I'm your priority. You know that. Thanks, sir. Okay. Yeah. So I got to be, but then I looked up, what is a six hour car? I was like 1344. I could do that with the core of my intervals right now, probably. Yeah. Yeah. Um, that'd be great. Okay. That is, uh, coming to get, uh, um, yeah. I think, um, do you feel like you could run? You could do two miles with quarter mile intervals tomorrow? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I feel like I could do more. Yeah. I feel like I'm fully back. I'm ready.

16:34Okay. Well, then I will. Do you feel like you could do five this weekend? Then what are you telling me? Yes. For sure. Do you want to do five? Like, I mean, you know, like you did a bunch. We can take this week and not do five. Um, if you're, if that would be, I think that's fine. Owners. Yeah. That's great. I mean, I might even, cause I have like a podcast Friday's in Sunday. So those people might want to run before or after too. So, uh, very nice. Okay. Um, is that the one with John, is John Christ on that one? John Christus Sunday. Friday is the local drunk people. Okay. He has lots to tell you about from his trip. Um, he is also doing the big surmer, by the way. No way. Oh, that's great. Yes. We both got in. So we're racing. You might not give him any advice. You got a conflict of interest now. You're loyal to me. I have to send you a picture that he was taken of him, uh, looking pretty wiped out

17:39on the fast-tracking trip. Yeah. You will chuckle. Um, okay. Okay. Awesome. Well, then I will start playing around with a plan, uh, aiming for big surf. Um, anything besides finishing under six hours that I should know, like in the best of all possible worlds, what would make you most happy with the surf? Oh, no. Uh, under six hours and not, not destroyed is really all I'm looking for. Yeah. And, um, uh, there are some hills to sink. It's going to be all hiking and it'll probably be at party pace with a bunch of people. So I don't think I need to, I think I just need to be generally fit. I don't, I don't think we need to do a specific type of work for that. Um, okay. It's, it's more like a good point now. Yeah. Okay. Uh, and then I got to figure out, I think I want to try to do that, um, that, uh, my Washington race. I'm going to put in for that again. Yeah. I don't know if I can get in, but then I got to figure out what else to do. Like one, maybe a 50 mileer with a generous cut off at the end of the year, something like

18:40that. Not after, but, you know, something, something nice. Arfta, whatever. At the end of 2020, seven. Yeah. Like, like, I like to have like, do a marathon, do the winter race, do something awesome then to, you know, like a, like a nice 50, you know, okay. Sometimes pretty with shade and trees and real aid stations. You know, not non hillbillies, you know, like, it was, I hear what you think. It was just, it was just weird, man. That old thing's weird. Weird good. No, no, just weird, weird. Like, like, I feel like me and, and formed a alliance of the non weird, Michael was not weird either. Like, you know, he was, you know, we saw him plenty, um, got to, got to spend some time with him. That was fun. Yeah. Susan Donnelly, I hadn't seen her in a very long time. Um, there was, I thought she'd do a role well.

19:40Some TJM people were there that I got to spend time with. Uh, David Johnson, he's always been a bucketless person for me to meet. So I was really pleased to spend time with him. Uh, I think that's it. I'm probably even so. The entire time though you were talking to folks. Uh, I would say there was maybe one loop where I just, said, screw it. I just, I just, I would always come upon someone who would start talking to me, you know, and then I'm like, wow, okay, I'll go, so walk with you, you know, and I got to take my headphones out again and walk with them. Did you sigh and really your eyes? Um, no, but with, yeah, I kept them in, you know, like, cause she just, she just complained about everything. She's just mad. You know, I mean, I'm listening to her, but I know she's just, you know, sometimes, you reach a certain age. I don't know if you do this yet, but I do it. Sometimes when you talk to yourself, just, I mean, you're like alone, you just, you know, you're like, oh, I am making breakfast, you know, you're just like narrating your

20:41life, basically. And sometimes you don't know that and you keep doing it when other people are around. So I think that's, uh, I got you. Okay. Um, very good. I'm so happy. Yeah. Michael also did a big number of miles more than he's done in a while. I think he's 40. So yeah, he's going to come, so which means any figure out, um, some physical pain issues that are going to allow him to come to graduate. So that is awesome. Yeah. He didn't seem to be suffering much. And he did hotel at night too. If I ever do that, Arfta again, I'm going to just flip flop what I did because it's really stupid for me to spend the day in the sun and then the night in the hotel. Yeah. But I also wasn't committed. Like if I would have been smart, I would have booked a hotel three nights from the get go and then just work that angle. But, you know, I didn't. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I want to end with one funny story from the fast packing trip. So, uh, you know, it's a recording matter. Is this a secret story? No, this is just a good story. Okay. It's just nice.

21:41So we're sitting around debriefing this really amazing day that we had because we had to kind of bluebird sky, which allowed us to do this really neat pass and whatnot. Anyway, we're sitting around. And, um, we had one woman there, Aaron, who's a gold star mom. And she said, now I understand why my son, when he came back from training, do so many swear words. It was so funny. We were like, they were such a foul mouth group. Like in the best of all possible ways. And, you know, then Dustin was on the trip as well. You know, he is like an artist with the profanity. It was just so funny. Everybody laughed. They were like, yeah, laugh, laugh, laugh. I love it. I love it. It was really good. We also didn't, um, we didn't talk about the fact that the Western states qualify or too. I know. Uh, George read that to me while we were driving back from the trip and he all cured.

22:42It's going to, it's going to be busier for sure. The tunnel, I think is, I think the tunnel might be done right now. Like I've seen pictures on it. So it's like 99% yeah. I got good interviews coming to. I did Ashley Paulson. I did Matt Fitzgerald. Um, oh, and I, and I have to do make efforts. I've already done her. You did your game other cheese crush gold records. I don't know. I don't, I don't actually like to focus on that. I mean, I would. I wouldn't say no to her. I'm not saying no, but I mean, like, you know, she's going to be on a hundred podcasts now and telling that story, you know, so that that's kind of one of those things where like I like to be like that's why I had roach one scheduled to and then he did that lead villain. I'm like, so he's on everybody's father podcast feed. You know, I'd rather them flock to mine because no, you know, oh, I never heard of this person interviewed. Right. Yeah. But I like her personally a lot. I mean, and her husband too, her husband's, he said he's in the 10 jock miles world.

23:46He's in the nation. But they're good, good people. I wonder. Yep. Actually, Paulson's really fun too. I mean, she's, she's, she's a little crazy, but she's like in a good way. She's, she's fun. Pause a very positive person. Very good. Yeah. You like to pause the people. Yeah. All right, my friend. Well, I'm just so thrilled. Like, do you feel like you kind of like, I don't know. You're at a different place now. I feel like I turned a corner. Yeah. I feel, I feel very confident. I feel like I'm, like I'm going to, like I'm going to start building now. Like I, like I wouldn't be shocked if I go out tomorrow to do this run and I just run the whole thing. And I never even think about taking a walk and break, you know, I mean, I feel good. So, and I feel more confident. I've done. Yeah. Yeah. See, okay, cool. Well, then we're talking about two weeks and I'm just, yeah, I'm worse to be served. And I think I'm, uh, look, Roy, take a break.

24:49And don't let, don't let John steal any of this coaching stuff for himself either off the block him some. I don't want him knowing my secrets. Don't you worry. Take him, take him down. I'm going to take him down like I took down and the, uh, after. I'm going to take him down. That's very friendly to you. All right. I'll talk to you again soon. Good bye. Good job. Bye. Good job. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.