Hello, and welcome to Running Inside Out Podcast, where we talk about the races we ran in, the races we're not in, and getting outside to see what's going on inside the Rochester running scene. In this episode, Erica Sino tells us all about her journey to and through her first 13.1. From a never runner, to a sometimes runner, to a you can't be a runner, to a determined runner, Erica's story of finding motivation through adversity is as interesting as it is entertaining. Before we get into it with Erica, I'd like to tell you about a new upcoming adventure. I'm partnering with nutritionist Natalie Thompson in a full teardown and rebuild of my relationship with food and eating. You know.
starting it over. And I'm looking for four dedicated people who want to join me on this new path. Basically, Natalie and I are going to work together and we're going to make some podcasts while we do it. So I'll talk all about my experiences and her coaching and kind of what our goals are and how I'm getting through them as I go through three months of her program. And we're looking for four other people that want to come along with us.
Now, this isn't just like a lose weight adventure, you know, though for me and possibly some of you, it's going to be a greatly desired side effect. But it's more about removing old ingrained habits and emphasizing and reaffirming good habits and learning a bunch of new stuff really about food and how to make it easy to be healthy and not fall back into a life of convenience. bad convenience foods, make the good foods convenient food, you know, those things. But the thing about Natalie's coaching is that it's different for everyone. So maybe you want to gain weight. Maybe you feel like you've been eating healthy and you just aren't seeing the results you'd like to see. And that's why we want four people to come along on this so we can get four different experiences besides just mine. So you'll be coached in confidentiality by Natalie, and then we will talk about your general experiences and whatever you'd like to share on the podcast. So in short, if you're listening to this before June 15th and you're interested in working with Natalie to revamp your nutrition and chatting with me about how it
and sharing your story with others. And if you're willing to commit to three months of working with Natalie, then email me at chris at runninginsideoutpodcast.com. Or, you know, you can message me on the Facebook or the Twitters or whatever. And I'll have many more details for you. With that, let's get into the trails, training, food, friends, and yes, even feelings of runners just like you. You know, we've known each other for a long time, but you've never been exactly like, hey, I'm a runner, let's go running. Never. So what's up with that?
Well, after having my ankle surgery a few years ago, it was my motivation to get back in and make sure that I can prove them wrong, that I can actually run again. So you had an ankle surgery and they were like, you're never going to run. Sorry. Yeah, they took a third of my joint out. They said you might not even walk right again. So what the heck? How'd that happen? Probably previous damage years ago. I didn't know. I started training for a half a few years ago and that didn't work out very well and I had some injuries and I couldn't run.
And then it ended up, I think what it leads out to is not stretching enough. So they took a third of your, like you're missing pieces of your ankle. Yeah. And they're like, why don't you ride a bike or something? Yeah. No more of that. Do some weight training. All right. So three years ago, right? And then so when did you decide you're going to start running? When did you actually feel good about it? So a year ago, January, a friend and I decided we're going to run once a week. And we stuck to it. It was just more of let's go out, put a few miles out there, get some chit-chat in. That was it. And then the end of the summer hit. And September came along.
I said to two of my friends that we were meeting in the morning to run, and I said, oh, yeah, by the way, I'm signing you girls up. We're going to run the Flower City Half. And they go, no, we're not. And I go, yeah, yeah, we are. And sure enough, it started out with two of us, turned into three, and then there were five. So along the way, we met usually at least three or four times a week in the morning to do our runs, but it was more about the camaraderie, which was fun. So you start, you're like, okay, okay, okay. Here's sort of my deal is,
So for everybody like that says, I'm going to go run once a week, like usually they just kind of don't do it anymore. Right. And something happened where you suddenly became like, this is the thing that you like to do all the time. And was it was really like your friends? Yeah, that was my outlet. Right. It was easy enough to go and do it anytime, go anywhere to do it anytime. And we can sit and chit chat or run and chit chat. Sitting is not exactly the way to do that. You're doing it wrong. So nine months of once a week. And back in September, you decided to get ready for the Flower City Half, which just happened. So you had from September.
day april and i think the first time like i met your running friends was at the winter warrior half marathon and so up at that point were you like were you training for this thing like did you have did you have a plan yeah i i went online and i searched and i asked um a group that i will run with periodically you know what they suggested because they run halves and fulls and i've taken plans so i found a plan online and i thought would work best with our schedule and i doubled it out right and then We were good up until Christmas. Yeah. And then Christmas hit and then January hit and then nobody wanted to run. Right. And I can sort of know the end of this story. But the whole thing here is like your motivation. Like that's what made me sort of go, you know, Erica should be on the podcast because here's the deal. You got the two kids. You got the full-time job. You got the husband that's got the wacky job hours. So why don't you share when you do most of your runs? My only time a day to do this is at usually 5 a.m.
Right. So there's some friends that do the 5 a.m. That's not exactly crazy. You know, it's not it's not too crazy. No. But so you have the 5 a.m. runs. Yeah. You also like you like you said, the whole cross training or the not stretching enough has led kind of to like you got this thing for for working out all of a sudden. And I think that was my biggest switch. You asked, you know, why all of a sudden from going one day a week of running to deciding to run a half. Right. Is that I had been doing yoga for over a year and it had changed everything. Right. Suddenly you felt better. Oh, my gosh. The running got easier. It just and then I learned how to stretch. And I think if I would have done that.
right prior i would never have had to have that surgery or it could have been a different outcome right i could have helped it but now you're feeling like it's helping now right and so you've done like we worked out a schedule and you're like oh yeah i'm gonna do yoga this day i'm gonna do trx this day i'm probably gonna do circuit stuff this day i'm gonna do uh what beach body blaster 9000 like yeah i mean so you do all of those things and you find and then you're running yeah and um I need some of that. Like, quite honestly, I need, I need to like, so here I am going, Ooh, I'm kind of busy. I got the two kids. I got the full-time job. I got the wife thing and I got all that. And like, I'm going, I just don't, and you know, I don't have time. And I feel the opposite about you. And I'm like, how does he run all these miles and do all this all week long? Right. I mean, for me, it's what an hour, an hour a day. And that's my outlet. That's my only outlet. Right. So I make time for that. Except for when you're doing like the beach body blaster. Yeah. I don't, I don't understand that motivation is, I don't know. Maybe we're looking, we're looking at different sides of a mirror, I guess, or something. I don't know.
OK, so when you got you were going through this plan and you were all meeting together and did you have like different, you know, you had people of differing abilities, right? You had you had three people and you grew up to five people. And so you had people that ran slow, some people that ran fast. How did that how did that whole dynamic sort of work for you? So when we first started in September, there were four of us and we all were about the same pace, which is great. We all it was nice because you can pair up. And then a fifth girl came along who had never run before in the best shape ever and just went out and ran like six miles. And so as time went on.
Then she became the fast one. So then one of the other girls started to keep up with her a little more. Well, then we were split. There were two that were fast. There were two, or one that was really slow and then two of us in the middle. But we never wanted to leave anybody behind. So then the one that was left behind, or the last, the one that was at a little bit slower pace, she ended up hurting herself and she had to stop running altogether.
huh so did she hurt herself because she was trying to do too much she was doing too much yeah besides running she belongs to five different gyms and yeah she i mean she was overachieving everything right but she so then once she stopped then there was the four of us and then the one that was real fast It was hurting her body. So she stopped it. Right. So then it was the original back to the original three. It was back to the original three. And so, you know, I mean, I when I was doing I say like I'm retarded when I was doing my best running. But there is something to a group that can stick together and can train together, you know, and I have my group of friends that that's well documented on the podcast. I think we were all feeling sort of our greatest when we were going out for these big long runs together. And and we all sort of go like, wow, that was a really good year. You know, we know that we're not going to be able to like recreate that. Right. But when it came to race time, like we all sort of.
You know, we ran our own race. But when I saw you at Flower City, you three were sticking together the whole time. Our motto was you start together, we finish together. So it wasn't exactly like a race for you guys. No, it was more of an accomplishment than anything. One of the girls, this was her third half. And then the two of us that had started the year ago, January, this was both of our first. And our goal was let's complete it. At one point, we had a goal of, you know, finishing in a certain time. But as time went on, it just ended up being let's just complete it and be good with that. Right. And the nice thing, too, is.
I love running with these girls. It's just bonded us a lot. But if I couldn't run with those girls, I also have two other sets of running friends. Oh, you got some backups? Yeah. I meet with a set of three girls now a couple days a week in the morning. You're cheating. Sometimes we'll run together. Or there's another group. You're cheating on them, huh? No, and sometimes they'll all join us too. But it's kind of nice to be able to have that. There's always somebody that you can call to go out with. There's really no excuse. And how many times have you, do you enjoy running by yourself at all? No, I hate it. Can't stand it. I hate it.
the opposite of my husband who only runs by himself right he's never run with me ever not once no um so okay wow so you're never like oh i just need to go be alone and go run no that's when you're doing yoga though you do your yoga alone uh no i go to a yoga studio for that man so you're just you're a people person yeah but okay cool you know you can't just talk to yourself when you run that's a lot of what i do no it's not as fun no um okay So let's get to that part where you were talking about. So you were good through like Christmas and that's, you know, Winter Warrior was like the middle of January, right? Yeah. So were you kind of like just feeling yucky around then? Like what was it? I think after Winter Warrior, it was the winter blues. It was so cold and we still bundled up and went out, but it was like, this sucks. Like, I don't want to be out here. And what are we doing? And I think we just got bored with it. Our bodies got tired and nobody wanted to get up. We were in a rut. So the Winter Warrior.
You did it as a relay, right? And you had three people on the relay? Two people on the relay. Two people. Okay, so you're supposed to do six and a half miles, right, as the relay. And so that's what you did. You did the first half or the second half of the Winter Warrior? First half, yeah. How'd that work out for you? Yeah, I'm so glad I did the first half because it was cold. That was awful.
So, okay. Was that like your first ever, you know, race or first ever event? No. Um, shortly after, um, I had Sophie. Um, so just about five years ago, um, I had done the mini try at the Y and that's when I kind of, that one was after, but I had tried that a little bit and I like the running piece. And then I ran a 5k with a friend of mine and that was my first like race. What 5k? Do you remember what 5k that was? I don't know. Must not have been that great. You always remember your first time. Right.
Yes. Okay. So, so you had run a 5k previously, so you didn't have any of those like nervous erase jittery type things. Yeah. Like I ran the Turkey Trot that I, you know, a couple of different Turkey Trots and, um, other, I did a 10k, the lollipop 10k. I mean, I've done a bunch of those and I've been nervous and I've always got a good, you know, good music set to play, which the nice thing is now I don't want to run with any music. Right. Cause well now, cause you're chatting people's ears off. Wow. So you, when you first started running though, you were running alone and listening to music and everything. And yeah. Yeah. What's your jam?
A lot of 90s music. Yeah, that's the way it goes. That's right. When I had the Sirius in the car, that's all I would listen to is the 90s. That's all we still listen to. And the kids are like, what is this? I'm like, look. Best music ever. Yeah, they totally, some of the songs now they ask for again. Right. They always ask for too legit to quit. Yeah. That's a funny rhyme. Sort of mix a lot. Yeah. No, they never got to hear Baby Got Back. My kids like it and they got the dance moves down too. Nice. Little in the middle.
taking a turn here so you're rocking out the 90s music but then you decide like you're chatting with people and it's time you know now now you're chatterbox we probably can't run together then chatty mcchatty no no we'll be fine you can do either one the great that's what i love about it like you can run for 10 miles and maybe you talk the whole time or or maybe you don't you know you could just talk a little bit talk a lot i don't know we sort of get this at least with people i run you know when it's time to talk and when it's not time to talk you know so i don't know um okay Let's see. So let's talk about this training because I have a little bit of knowledge in there. So you're feeling yucky leading up to Winter Warrior. There was no crazy events in Winter Warrior? Nothing remarkable happened? You just ran around the loop and you were done? Yeah. It was a bitter, bitter cold. Nothing could keep you warm that day. But I was happy that I did it. I don't know. That was the fun part about it. Just being done? Yeah. And I'm glad I ran that first leg because I have to wait around to do the second leg. It would have been miserable. Yeah. Standing around in the cold is much worse than running in the cold. And I think I had my fastest six and a half mile.
time at that point yeah but um i think because i was just cold just and so i left there on a pretty good high because i had you know accomplished it was my first you know roughly 10k right since i had had surgery so i was happy with that and you came out of it uninjured yeah it was great good yeah right but then like the winter blues hit and the ho-hum training right yeah and then we missed you know like maybe only ran once a week or maybe twice a week and then yep and it starts falling apart and then you start wondering like what am i going to do for this half marathon and the of all of us together so now i needed somebody else to take that spot because i was just i was done yeah i needed the backup yeah you're feeling pretty crappy like when we talked about the happening you're like i just it's not fun anymore and i'm like well why is it not fun you're running with the same people and then we looked at your training plan yeah And what I, the thing that I saw when you didn't even tell me anything, right? I looked at it, I go, this is pretty boring. And I mean, but that's what it felt like, right? But some people think that way, like, oh, if I'm training, all I do is I just run, you know? And so the way that you had done this was you took, what was it? A 16 week, Hal Higdon's 16 week plan, right?
And you basically did week one twice. And the only reason why I did that was because I figured if I have this ankle the way that it is, I don't want to injure myself again. Right. So I better really take it slow, like extend the 10% rule. Right. And so you went, you went, you did week one twice and then you moved to week two and you did week two twice and week three twice. But the plan was really just straight mileage. Run three miles, run five miles, run three miles, run six miles. Then you do it again the next week. Yep. Yeah. And you started that like in November, September, September. Right. Yeah. So.
And so when we looked at that, like the main thing we did, right, you were like, hey, why don't we spice this up? And I said, I'm no running coach. And you said, you're totally a running coach. And I said, actually, let me tell you a little story. So that's what we did, right? We made a new plan. We kind of zazzed it up. I got you a little spreadsheet. We got your days mapped out. And then, so this was the fun part, right? Because you broke out the daily planner. And I don't know how to describe this thing other than extremely detailed.
I mean, you have your days planned down to 15 minutes almost on a lot of days. And everybody's color-coded, so you can't. The whole family was color-coded. It was amazing. It's like this all the time. Wow. Wow. Right. And then, so I was like, okay, what days can you run? You're like, this day, this day, this day, this day, this day, this day. And I think we had planned out, we had, what, 12 weeks? Yeah, I think there were. 12 weeks or 11 weeks? 11 weeks left, I think. And we had planned out the first, like, nine or eight? Eight, first eight. Yeah.
And so what we did was we did the four weeks to make sure that you liked this new method. And then we did the next four almost immediately. After the first week, you're like, yeah, let's just do this. Right. And we sort of adjusted it. I mean, part of it is like seeing how you were doing and changing some of the days around. But one thing I think we did was sort of made it interesting again. That was my whole goal was to make it interesting again.
So we changed instead of from miles, we changed to minutes on your on your days that sort of fit in your time blocks. Right. You have 45 minutes to run. Yeah. So we do 45 minutes. Which is great, too, especially with the different types of workouts. And then, yeah. So then that was the other thing we did was added like speed workouts, like little pyramids. The coolest thing was all all I had to do was suggest to you this is the way you're motivated. Like you're the easiest person in the world to coach. I wish I didn't see that side. I just saw like I did it.
Right. But we changed it up. Right. And it got more interesting. It was still only just running, you know, but you had your cross training and your yoga days. I mean, we had you running four days a week. Right. But the other three days I had to force you to make one of those days a rest day. Which is funny because I think when we first talk, I said, I only want to run three days a week. And you're like, yeah, yeah, we can do that. And next thing you know, I'm running four days. And you're like, how about these two days back to back? And I'm like, wait a minute here. Well, because you've got to maximize the weekends.
Right. But then but then we also worked in a rest day. You wanted to run three days a week and then work out four days a week. Right. And we switched it. We did four days a week running and two of them were short days. And then the two weekend days were like an hour and a half to two hours, depending. But then you wanted to do workouts in the other three days. And we had to shoehorn a rest day in there.
And rest is important. And I guess we'll talk about that soon. Yep. No, but so over the course of this, you were more interested again. It seemed like you were definitely excited. And it was good because I had, so now my group of three friends, the one ended up taking that Hal Higdon plan and doing it from scratch and running the 12 weeks, whatever it was, but she ended up starting it all over. My other friend and I did your plan. And it's interesting because we came at the same spot, you know, at the same time.
But my other friend and I, like we ended up the last 11 weeks running mostly together. And the third friend kind of came in for runs here and there just because of scheduling conflicts. But it was so much better. And it was good because we motivated each other to do more. That's cool. So I was coaching two people. You should have told me that. That's right. We got to watch the feedback on these things. So that was the important thing was, you know, in the spreadsheet, you also gave really detailed kind of how the workout went for you a lot. And that that helps, obviously. Right. And just to be able to have that kind of and we chatted a lot about, you know, oh, we can't run Thursday. I need to move it to Wednesday. OK, well, if you're going to move to Wednesday, don't do the same thing because you just did a workout on Tuesday. Do something later on Wednesday. And that kind of flexibility has to happen in a training plan. And when you're looking at like something that just says, OK, you're going to do 20 miles this week.
What am I going to do? One mile and then 19 miles? So being able to move things around and change things up, I think when you're in a funk, that's what I do when I'm in a funk is just go do something completely different. Yeah. And I needed somebody to push me to do that. I think that was all you really needed was somebody to go tell you to go run. And then you just went and did it. There wasn't much beyond that. But like you said, you got...
I think there might've been something too. Like you were tired of being the hub of all this stuff and that's kind of exhausting. So then you put your energy somewhere else, right? Like, Hey, like this guy said, we got to go run. It's not me. I'm not saying we have to go run. And that makes it made it a little bit easier. And it was, so we, we don't mind running in the cold. I hate running in the rain, but there were days where it was just too bitter cold and we were wimps and we were on the treadmill, but we would FaceTime each other. So we were still running together. Oh my goodness. Wow.
Now, do you do the other part? I mean, you probably don't because of how tight you're booked, but do you go out for coffee afterwards and hang out? No, which I wish that we could. Barry's in the village of Webster has their village runners and they do a Tuesday night run and, you know, around the village and they go out for beers afterwards or some of them go on Saturday mornings and they go out for breakfast sandwiches after. So it's like, you know, my husband's schedule, it's not, it's not, you know, able to do that conducive. So that kind of stinks. But we should, we should do that more often. Yeah. It's kind of, it's kind of nice. I mean, but then what you do, you sit around and you just talk about running anyway. So, you know, I mean, some people don't. Other people have other lives that they might talk about. Which is kind of nice because the three of us.
all have you know two to three kids so it's all about our kids and our families and a bitch about our husbands or you know whatever it may be yeah and this guy making you do a pyramid workout right so those pyramid workouts they're pretty fun aren't they i actually like them a lot i mean they kind of stink but they're kind of fun yeah um so the way that we did the pyramids um for you was we did a minute at your pace, right? And then a two minute break, then two minutes at race pace and then a two minute break all the way up. So I think we got one at, we didn't, I think we started, yeah, we think we started, we got up to six minutes and then you work your way back down. And those down ones, you feel like, ah, the down is coming. I get to go only five minutes this time, but you still want to, you got to run it at the same pace. So I had a feeling that you would either, you know, you only go one way or the other at those things. You don't feel neutral about a pyramid workout, but yeah, you used probably your most exclamation points on the training plan was when you're like, I did it! Exclamation, exclamation. Now the other thing too, is a lot of those pyramid workouts I did on the treadmill.
So sometimes I feel like, am I cheating myself because I'm not outside doing this? Well, I mean, the good thing is if you're new at them and you've never done them, you don't know how to sustain that pace. So the treadmill does it for you. Right. That's definitely, that's a good thing, you know, and then you learn what that pace is. So I don't think it matters. You did the work, you know. Those are the days when I run by myself. Yeah. When I'm not FaceTiming. The curse workouts. So what was the biggest, like, what was the biggest adjustment that you had to go through going through this, like, plain mileage plan to now this new kind of creative, interesting plan? Probably just.
the speed the speed workout was my biggest like challenge and um and i like the way that you had built it in you know where before people be like okay today's a sprint day where you're going to sprint you know four miles that's not me i don't want to sprint yeah like i that's why i think that's probably why a lot of those those faster days or the pyramid days whatever it is um i would run on the treadmill because i wouldn't have a chance to you know i wouldn't do it outside right but i you know so going from the the boring to the now this other new plan it was something new and i just i don't know it was it was new it was new it was interesting and you really didn't have much of a choice because you knew this half marathon was coming and you know the other thing too is like i was always after my surgery well if i can get out there i don't care what my pace is and then i was like all right so i started at like a 12 minute pace or 12 and a half minute pace and then i was like i can do this and then those days where we would do those sprints or even like whatever it was i would you know i had brought up my
um, my pace to be about 10 30. And I'm like, that's pretty awesome to see that. I mean, I, I can't sustain that pace for an entire half, but that's not where you start. I think the, the other ones where we had you just doing, um, 15 minutes, you know, 15 minutes of you do, do a mile warmup, do 15 minutes at, you know, actually running fast. Um, and then do another mile of cool down for a little short day. Um, that's a workout, you know, that people are like, but if you run a 12 minute mile and then 15 minutes and then another 12 minute mile, you're, you're, uh, got 45 minutes in you. So.
i don't know i think that that you can be creative in those ways and still get your you know your workout and for you running running 15 minutes is a mile and a half hard you know so yeah it is hard i don't know again i saw the most exclamation points on the speed days but it's interesting because there's a neighbor that runs over here and she has um she runs with her dog and i think this girl has like an eight minute pace on a bad day like she's just fast and she went out with us one morning and she took off and i'm like she's like you're coming i'm like Like, I've got to work on that page. Yeah. Like, how does she do this? It's about turnover, turnover, turnover. And then we did some of those too, right? We did little drills. We did the butt kicks and the high knees. I hate those, huh? I hate those. Yeah, those are pretty terrible. Yeah, yeah. But those help because when you're tired, you know, you're using those muscles. Right. And to be able to do that, to get your legs up high when everybody does the shuffle. Yeah. And the shuffle isn't great for a lot of reasons. So, you know.
And the other, did you have any other issues training at all? Was there any other problems or anything? I mean, I know you had a couple of times where like your heel was hurting a little bit, right? Yeah. I mean, I was really diligent about stretching my calves, my hips, my hamstrings, my quads, just to stay loose, my back. But other than that, I felt pretty good. And then once my heels started to hurt, I feel like things kind of went downhill again. And it didn't matter how many times a day that I would stretch them. Yeah. And we put in some extra rest days for that. And we did some walking days just to like get.
time walking around and not tighten up or anything but um like i was saying i think it's it's interesting that that's the heel on the same side as your ankle surgery right you know so and the other thing too is um so a month before the flowers say half we did a course preview and we went out with fleet feet and it was an 11 mile course preview and i'm like if i can do this i know that i can do the half yep and the week before i think you had me planned for like eight yep it was my long run so i'm like okay i'm going to increase from eight to eleven so my friend and i went and we said all right well let's pace with a 12 30 group We would really like to pace at 1130 for the race. So let's try the 1230 and just to see if we can do it. We had no issues. It felt great. I didn't. It was wonderful. I was so proud of myself. I was in the top of my game like it was great. And then that last month I lost it. I don't know that you lost it so much. I mean, your schedule got a little crazy, you know, so that that's never going to help. I'm living that right now. But if you.
if you would have seen yourself during the race, at one point you were running backwards, like in front of the group telling them, come on, let's go. I mean, nobody in their, in their first half marathon at mile nine is like trotting backwards, you know? So you were in the right shape. I think you were ready to go. But again, you were just on a Sunday stroll with the girls, you know? So I don't think you actually ran that. I think you could have been a half hour faster.
Probably, yeah. But I didn't believe them. But that's what I'm saying. That's not what it was about for you. But I think your fitness was at a point where you could have easily done that with the power faster. And you probably should have because you would have missed two rainstorms. Oh, gosh. And that's how it was. I was always a cheerleader in the fall. And then once winter came, those girls became my cheerleader. And so we never left each other at any time. So I feel like I couldn't have left any of these girls. I mean, we've been through thick and thin together. Yep. I'm just saying I don't think you lost it is all I'm saying. I think it was there.
You sort of got a little, you got, I guess, what did you say? Like, I don't, I don't under, I should go back and look at the text message you sent me, but it was something like, I don't even know why I'm going to bother trying to do this. And I think it was because you had missed two running days in a row or something. Yeah. And you're like, my heel kind of hurts. I don't even know why I'm going to bother doing this. And I'm like, okay, you know, fine. You've only been doing this for a year and a half. Good luck. You know, good luck quitting now. Yeah. And then the next day you're like right back on the stick. Yeah. I couldn't, you're right. At that point I wasn't going to stop. And those two other girls were not going to let me stop. Right. Exactly. They're going to know you're coming. Yeah.
And so race day, did you have the jitters before this one today or, you know, last week? No, that's the funny part. Like I knew what to expect by doing that course preview. And I just feel like, all right, it's another day to go out. And then my other concern was the weather. And so I'm like, what am I going to do? You know, so I'm like, ah, they look at the radar. Girls and I are texting back and forth at, you know, 430 in the morning. Like, no, no, you're going to bring a jacket. No, I'm not going to bring a jacket. Okay, great. We're going to be fine. Rain's not supposed to come to 11. We'll be good. And so we got there. I had everything laid out the night before.
I mean, you had told me when I did the course preview, treat it like it's race day. Get everything set. And I did that. So I did the same thing again for this. I knew what to bring this time. Where that morning then, here's Joe, fumbling around in the dark, waking up 15 minutes before we have to leave, trying to find everything. And I'm like, dude, what are you doing? Like, get your shit together. He didn't have a coach. He wouldn't listen anyway. No. So you're ready to go. I mean, and that's that, right? Yeah, it was exciting. I mean, I don't...
i don't know i was it was exciting to start and we're like hey we're out here this is great so what do you want to talk about like yeah it was good but then you know like mile four hit and we were like i need to have you know and i said girls don't look ahead and we looked ahead and it was like black yeah and i'm like oh and i'm like all right so then it starts to drizzle a little bit i'm like i can handle this this is good and then we shoot the corner and we go up goodman and i'm like okay here's here's the first quote-unquote slight incline yeah right and then that's when you had showed up yeah and it started to come down a little bit i got a little bit wet yeah and then we got up through highland park and down into the, just the start of Mount Hope. And then that's when it just came down in buckets. And then the, all I remember is the thunder and the lightning in the middle of the cemetery. And it's like, somebody's trying to tell us something here. Like we definitely should not be in here. We were sopping wet. And I think at that point I lost all enjoyment of that race. Like I trained so long for this. It was such a letdown. Like I can't even enjoy this beautiful course. Yeah. It stinks, you know? Yeah. Well, I mean, go run in San Diego then. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Between the bitter cold for the winter warrior and then this. If you, you know, we, we joke, um,
about, you know, Rochester weather, just wait 15 minutes and it'll change. Like we've been on, I've been on runs, trail runs, you know, that are seven hours long and we experienced three different seasons during the run, you know? So it just, it happens. And I think dealing with it, getting out of that headspace, you know, you were not in any mood for any of my jokes. Like you are not, I was trying, you know, I was trying to crack jokes and you just were not interested. I'm surprised you didn't knock me off my bike. It was miserable that, oh gosh, and it just didn't stop. Like it stopped for what, maybe five minutes at most and it would start up again. And it wasn't like a light rain, it was coming down.
I thought it was hailing at one point. Yeah, but you were going. I mean, you were still moving. Yeah, yeah. The only way out is through at that point. Well, that's the other thing, too. We were so cold that I couldn't walk because I needed to keep moving. Yeah. It was funny. The one guy, I was riding the bike, and the one guy behind me, he's like, I can't believe I'm walking down the river walk right now. He's like, I should be running. I'm like, yeah, you should be running. So start running. I was like, yeah, it's going to take you longer if you walk.
and um so i was underneath when it really came down really hard i was on top of the fourth street bridge and i went underneath the fourth street bridge and that's where the band was playing um and they were playing and it was nice because we were out of the rain and everything and then um all the drainage came and it came down underneath the bridge you know and all the all the high school kids were lifting their feet up while they're trying to play and the teacher was like your feet will be fine and i had my bike parked on the side it got up you know three inches up over the tire it was so we kind of got chased out of there you know but i have to tell you though i was so happy to see you and i'm like well i can't stop now like you were my motivator like i'm not gonna stop running and here he is right here he's coached me for how long now that was my whole point show up and then you'd be like oh it's that guy can we get out of here i don't have a choice now i gotta really keep moving you did fine though like i said i would you were you had so much energy you were ready to go and we did pretty good up until probably mile 10 and i was okay with it all but you know my girlfriend her knee started bothering her pretty bad and she's had some issues with that knee before and
It was just to the point she's like, I got to walk. And I didn't want to leave her behind. Yeah, you do what you got to do. That was the agenda that you guys set out. I just feel good because it looked like you were. Like you said, you could have done whatever you wanted to do. If you wanted to run that a half hour faster, you could have. Which is interesting because then at the end, you said that. And then I kept thinking.
All right, well, what's the next half? And then we went home, and that afternoon I had texted one of the other girls I had ran with. They said, do you want to sign up for the Buffalo half? We got four weeks. We got a good base. Chris told us that we could do it. And she's like, give me 48 hours to think about it. That's about what you need. You need 48 hours to get over it. I was so ready to sign up that day. I'm like, forget this. I'm going to definitely cut off a half hour of my time.
And I, you know, I mean, that's only two minutes a mile, you know, that's not a problem at all. And so the finish was the finish all you had hoped it would be finishing your first half marathon. No, it was miserable and cold. We were so, so cold. Yeah. You're all shaky. Yeah. My husband was, he was so cold that he was inside. Yeah. Well, that's where you should go inside. Yeah. Not at the end of the finish line where your wife's crossing for her first half. He came out, he saw it and then he said, I'm going to go inside. He goes, I got a picture from inside.
I'm like, oh, thanks. Well, you know, it was cold. He looked miserable when I saw him under the bridge. Oh boy, he did not look happy. But he never dresses right for running outside anyways. He doesn't ever run outside. Right, you got to practice. But I had so, so I asked him afterwards, I was like, what's that thing you were doing with your hands? He's like, what thing? I go, I can't explain it to you. He's like, I don't even know what I was doing with my hands. He was so cold though. Oh, yuck.
All right, so it wasn't all that pomp and circumstance and everything you hoped it would be. No, it was disappointing. It didn't change your life? No. You didn't see visions or anything like that? I think running that course preview was more exciting than this. There you go. And the weather was pretty similar. It's a lesson here. Don't sign up for races. Just run course previews. Yeah, that's it.
And it's not as expensive. No. Okay. That's good technique. But you did, now you're signed up for Boilermaker. Yeah. Boilermaker in July and Midsummer's Night. Yeah. You're going to do the trail run, right? So the Medved Midsummer Night Madness. That's the new, that's a new race. That's the, this is the first time it's happening. Oh yeah? Yeah. It's the, so last week was Medved Madness. And that was, that's every year it's 15 miles in Mendon Ponds Park. Now they're going to do a summer version of it.
cool so that's exciting i'm signed up for that too we'll be our first race together that's right no no boiler maker will be oh yeah i'm signed up for boiler maker that's right i've never run boiler maker before me neither i'm pretty excited for it wow the other you know what else too is um three of my friends are running the marine corps marathon yeah and um so i signed up to do the 10k you're hooked i'm hooked i don't think it's more about the running i think it's more about going away for the girls weekend yeah exactly and that's um that one will probably be an emotional weekend yeah yeah that'll be a big deal um a boiler maker is gonna be fun i think um i'm excited for that one It's hot, though, as far as I understand. I don't know. Lots of beer. Yeah, that's a thing. Yeah. Okay, so what are your plans between now and the Boilermaker? What are you going to do? Well, after the race, I had some pain in the side of my foot. And one of the girls that I was running with, one of the three of us, she went because she also had a pain on the right side of her foot, too. And she had it checked out. And it turns out that she tore a tendon. And she's in a boot for a month. What? Yeah. And she's like, your heels have been bothering you for so long. Go have them checked out. But I didn't tell her at that point that, yeah, my heels were bothering me.
It was on the side of my foot. It wasn't, I mean, it's on the side of my heel. And I'm like, it's not the plantar fasciitis. It's something else. Right. So I went in, I had an x-ray. So this was last week and it's either a bone bruise or a stress fracture, but it won't show up on the x-ray yet until it calcifies over. So, but regardless, the only way to treat it is to rest it. Yeah. So I really am interested in like, because like I said, it's on the side of your, your ankle surgery. I think it has something to do with the way you're running, you know, and the way you're landing, but.
And it's interesting because of the way that your training went. You had like soreness, but it would go away the next day. And so I don't know. I wonder if it was because you were out there so long and exacerbated it. Well, that's the reason why the other one tore her tendon was because she had ran at a slower pace than she was ever normally used to running. And I mean, you were training for two and a half hours. Right. And so your training at any point in time, the longest you ever ran, I think, was an hour and 45 minutes, right around.
I think it was like a little, it was more than that for the preview. For the preview, right. That was the one time. But then most of the time we weren't even getting you up to two hours. And so then you're up around three hours for this, right? Yeah. So, you know, I mean, there's a lot of ifs and ands and buts and all that. Right. Boo earns. And you know, it's rough because you can't run. Yeah. You can ride a bike. Yay. I mean, that doesn't excite me as much. I can do some workouts. I gotta be careful with squats. Can you do the body blaster, the beach blasting? I can't do any kind of jumping or even walking bothers it. It's hard to beach blast. Yeah. You can't jump.
So, you know, I'm just trying to, for the next month-ish, we'll see if I can wait it out that long. But I still have to get back out there to be able to train enough for Boilermaker. I mean, it's not going to be a race race for me, but it's something I want to accomplish. And it's still, what, an 11-mile race. Yeah, something like that. So, all right.
So we got to get a schedule going, Chris. Yeah, I'm booked up. I can't do it. You know, it's fun. I've told you for a long time that this is a thing that's been in the back of my mind. And I think especially, you know, helping beginners get over a lot of, you know, things like a boring training plan or I don't really know how to structure workouts or a what the hell am I supposed to do for eating on a long run? Right. You know, how do I not take 20 poops in a day? And, you know, all that kind of stuff. I've done all those things. That was a nice thing is, you know.
I could text you at any time of day and be like, I don't know what to do with this. And you'd be like, all right, try this. Try that. There's no right answer. There's a lot of things to try. And then find the one that works. And if you find something else, let me know. Because I'll try it. Yeah, I think we could put together something for Boilermaker. We'll get you fast and flat. That's what it is, right? And there's a couple climbs. But yeah, that'll be fun.
And even afterwards, Joe sent me a text. He's like, hey, you think you can get me down under 150 for the shoreline? Erica's talked so much about you. I figured I might as well give it a try. Step one, go outside. That's right. He's going to be like, I can't follow this plane. Out the window. I got too many shows to catch up on. I got to run on the treadmill today. Got to watch my stories. Yeah, so that'll be fun. So you have three races lined up. Yeah. Whoa. It's pretty exciting. It's pretty exciting, isn't it?
It's contagious. Is that the right word? Addicting. Addicting. That's the right word. Yeah. So do you think you're going to do you do you have a desire to see how fast you can run a race or do you think for you like signing up for the races is mostly social events like a big party type of thing? No, I definitely want to do it more for time. Right. Boilermaker. No, that's a social event. Yeah.
But that Marine Corps, I would like to run. I mean, the Midsommar is a trail. It's going to be my first trail run. Well, you're going to run on the trails before that. Yeah. Let me tell you that. With you. Yeah, we'll take you out. We'll get you acquainted. It should not be your first run. No. Your first trail race, yeah. And that's going to be a total social event. You'll have a good time. Yeah.
The Medved races are, that's what they're about. They're about hanging out before, you know, going for a run and then hanging out afterwards. So that'll be really cool. And there's lots of spots for that too. So you can convince all your, all your girlfriends, all your different cliques of girls, they could all sign up with you. They do have a relay race for that too. That's what we're doing is the relay. Okay. Yeah.
That's good. Yeah. So we need at least another team so we have somebody to run with. Well, you said you've got three groups of girls. I can pull them out. You can run one leg for each team. That's right. I could. That would be pretty sweet. Yeah. What else? What else going on? Anything good? Nothing? Yeah. So I think maybe that's the next thing we work on is for time. Yeah. I think that would be pretty cool. I need another. I need another. So after I told my girlfriend about possibly signing up for the Buffalo half, then I went and I'm like.
I mean, being from Buffalo, I mean, you and I both know, I mean, it's that race isn't all too exciting. No, the first half is this. If you run the half, it's neat because you run along the waterfront. Right. But then the second half is like, you know, so not great neighborhoods. Yeah. What are you going to do? Yeah. They're working on it. It's a work in progress. That's a city on the move. That's right. But, you know, the other thing, too, is the price. So it's like I want to find the fun. If I'm going to pay that kind of a price and I'm going to run another half, then I want to find something that's worth my time. Yep. So there's a race called the Damn Good Trail Race. It's in Letchworth State Park. It's seven miles out, seven miles back.
It's a 14-mile race on the trails. Yeah. It's a pretty nice race. Yeah, more trails. It's like a half marathon. We need to get me out on the trails first before we... Well, and trail races are cheap. Much cheaper. Dirt cheap. Dirt cheaps are pretty... It's in the name. Dirt cheap. But yeah, you'll find the trail races are fun and they're less money. Of course. And you also get to play in the mud or to dirt and get dirty and that's good times.
easier on your body you think i i think so um a lot there's a lot of like you know science and a lot of hocus pocus and everything but the main thing is the ground is softer but also you're not beating the same exact muscle every time you're landing differently because you're on the trails so you got to move your feet and that's the thing you beat on your feet the same way for three hours but when you're on the trails you got to move and you're going to land differently you're adjusting for roots and rocks your foot is falling differently each time right um your pace is always adjusting because you're either going up or down even if it looks flat right you know so there's just a lot more plus you got all the like circuit training and everything you do you got all the muscles that you need to stabilize we ran a lot of um trials in webster fall just to get off of the road and you know and that was nice i really like running whiting that's there's a race in um whiting yeah well yeah well there's the webster trail classic which is that's the first week in june so it's probably too soon for you yeah but you know there's there's options we got options i'll put together a training race package for you there you go um yeah what else anything else cool and no i think that's uh
yeah it's surprising to see and you know what most of you don't know is that so chris and i have known each other 16 years six yeah 16 years wow it is 16 yeah and the two of us were completely different 16 years ago chris was definitely not running i was definitely not running no but it's kind of neat to see us at this point now yeah it's been fun it's been a whole different aspect you know and and it makes sense that you know long long 16 year uh friend takes the leap and says hey why don't you uh coach me you know now now perfectly good strangers will be you know be confident in my in my abilities they will say i heard what you did with erica let's make this happen i've put i've put your name out there in all those different running groups let me tell you So, oddly enough, I think Erica has actually run more after her ankle surgery than she ever did before it. It's really amazing what a determined person can do when somebody tells them they can't, right? And we wonder where our children get it from. Am I right? Am I right? Come on. Interesting bit about her new coach, wasn't it? Yeah, her new, you know, that's me. I've been doing some background coaching here and there with runners. And, you know, in general, I think a lot of what I do on the radio show and the podcast is kind of like that mental, you know, coaching. So, and I found more and more that I really enjoy it.
Let's do it formally, especially with beginning runners and people that want to break out of ruts. I'm not exactly the guy that'll get you to a Boston qualifier. I think that's more like Chris Patterson at Apex Running. But I definitely have the ideas to get you on the right track and to break you out of those ruts and to get you started. If you're a new runner, one thing that's super important is taking care of your body and getting proper rest. You might've heard me railing on Erica about that. It's important to get rest and to recovery. I mean, you're asking your body to do some hard new stuff and it's going to need some recuperation time. In addition to rest, some standard recovery things that Erica mentioned like yoga or stretching and rolling, they can be extremely helpful. And massages. Massages can also be helpful, especially good massages like the ones that you get from Josh Stratton, LMT. You all remember Josh, right? Well, let me tell you about them.
Josh is a sponsor of the show. Josh is a licensed massage therapist who knows the treatments that active athletes need, though I'm not sure he knows any treatment for riding your bike slowly in the rain syndrome, which I got during Erica's half marathon. His office is inside Sports PT in Winton Place. Use the code PEMI when booking in May or June for $15 off a 60-minute massage. I haven't been in to visit him in a while, and my piriformis is screaming at me. And not in the good way that my piriformis screams when Josh has his elbow buried in it, but I digress. Even if you don't like elbows in your piriformis, Josh is still the right choice. Stratton is a runner, so he knows where the aches are, he can find them quickly, and he knows the right treatments to help you keep going. He's also very receptive to feedback and can customize your session however you'd like. He can do therapeutic massage, sports massage, specific treatments, you know, just your...
piriformis or just your ankles or your really bad shoulders whatever it is flavor of the month uh deep tissue massages and even swedish massage he can customize how you like and he's very receptive to feedback did i mention that i didn't mention that um just let him know uh man just talking about him makes me miss him i definitely need to get in there soon. So anyway, head out to his website at joshstrattonlmt.com. You can find that link in the show notes to learn more and to book an appointment. Tell him you heard about it here on this podcast and use this month's code PEMI, P-E-M-I, PEMI, and he'll give you $15 off 60-minute massage. Yeah, what's normally 65 bucks for an hour will be 50 bucks. So thanks to Josh for supporting the show. The show notes, by the way, are at runninginsideoutpodcast.com slash 050. Wait.
050, 50, he says with feigned surprise. Wow, that's like the golden anniversary, right? Yeah, golden anniversary. We're going to have to celebrate soon. Soon, we will definitely celebrate. I wonder if anybody has any cool ideas for a celebration of 50. What things...
What of significance? I don't know. So we'll probably have to combine it with the podcast's second birthday, which is coming right up in June. So yeah, lots of celebrations everywhere. But first, we run, right? We run. That's what we do. Anyways, be sure to check out the episode show notes for links to some of the topics in the episode, like tales of online training plans gone awry, that new race that we mentioned, Midsummer Night's Madness from Medved, as well as information on our sponsor, Josh Stratton LMT. You can also find links to our Strava Run group and the Patreon page. So speaking of Patreon, thank you to all of this month's Patreon supporters.
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Oh, by the way, patrons got a advanced notice about the nutrition with Natalie and got to provide feedback and got first dibs. Just just saying is all. So also, yes, please contact me if you'd like more information about the nutrition with Natalie. If you want to chat about this episode with other listeners, just simply share your they told me I'd never stories. You know, consider joining our running inside out slack where we talk about all manner of things from recent episodes to managing busy family schedules to our latest and greatest run. As I say, it's sort of like social media, but without the media.
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