151: 22 for 22 Challenge with Jeremy Stalnecker of Mighty Oaks.

In this episode, we are joined once again by our friend Jeremy Stalnecker. Jeremy is one of the co-founders of The Mighty Oaks Foundation, a non-profit organization that has been working with veterans and first responders since 2011 with the goal of helping them through their challenges with PTS. One of the most common stats that comes up in discussions that center around veterans is the number 22 which is a number that signifies the amount of veterans who take their own lives each day here in the United States. While the number fluctuates and there is evidence that currently it is far higher than that, the desire for Mighty Oaks and people like us is to take that number and turn it into zero. You can help us with that goal right now! We are joining Jeremy and many others in the 22 for 22 challenge where we are committing to doing something hard physically for 22 days, starting October 21st. During this challenge, we will be seeking to raise money for the Mighty Oaks Foundation so that they are able to continue the amazing work they are doing for veterans. Both Kevin and Nole have attended one of Mighty Oaks programs and have experienced firsthand the life-changing power that is available there. To join us follow the link below and make sure you join our team, "The Fire You Carry" so that we can track each other and raise money together for this cause.

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Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:13

Welcome back to the Fire you Carry podcast. On today's episode, we have joining us once again Jeremy Stalnecker. Jeremy is one of the co-founders of the Mighty Oaks warrior program. He's a really awesome dude. He has been doing a lot of intense endurance stuff over the past couple years and he has a challenge out there that we are going to be joining him in. We want you guys to get involved in that. He explains in this episode exactly what that is, but it all hinges around raising money for the Mighty Oaks warrior foundation, which is something that Kevin and I both believe in strongly, and it is centered around the focus on combating veteran suicide. So please listen to this episode, jump on board with our challenge. We have a team you can join. We're going to be raising money. That money is going to go to the Mighty Oaks foundation, which is the best organization that we know of that is combating effectively the issue of post-traumatic stress with veterans and veteran suicide. Thank you for listening, enjoy.

Speaker 1: 1:24

Welcome back to the Fiery Gary Podcast. We are your hosts. I'm Kevin Welsh, I'm Noel Lilly and today we have back on the show a special guest, jeremy Stalnecker. Jeremy, welcome back.

Speaker 3: 1:35

Thank you, it's going to be with you guys.

Speaker 2: 1:37

We love it, we love having you on. You are obviously a friend of ours and I would say a mentor, if you'll allow me.

Speaker 3: 1:43

Well, that's a pretty strong language you're using there. No, it's accurate.

Speaker 2: 1:49

Whether or not you want to be, you are, so we appreciate that. So, jeremy, you're a co-founder of Mighty Oaks and you've got the rad polo on right now. That's what you're doing, but for our listeners that don't know, can you tell us a little bit about what Mighty Oaks is and what you guys do?

Speaker 3: 2:05

Yeah, mighty Oaks Foundation. We serve primarily veterans, active duty service members, first responders and spouses. So that's our demographic, that's our target audience and we deal with a lot of different things. We start with and you know, we go back to 2011 when we were dealing with a lot of combat veterans coming home trying to figure out how to adjust to a new life out of the military and beyond combat and all the post-traumatic stress and trauma issues. That's where we started, and so we still spend quite a bit of time talking about trauma. Now a lot of it is life trauma or trauma for the first responders in their service to our communities. But really talking about trauma, understanding what it is, what it isn't, and how to move beyond what's happened in your past and you know. Beyond that, then trying to help families and support the men and women who have served and are serving us. So we've been blessed over the last it's really since 2012,. Started in 2011, but started running programs in 2012. We've had right at 5,000 students come through a week-long program.

Speaker 1: 3:12

Wow.

Speaker 3: 3:12

Man, it's been incredible to see. So, yeah, we do a lot of other things, but that's the core of the folks that we serve.

Speaker 1: 3:19

And full disclosure. Both Noel and I, yeah, but we got to say that both Noel was first to go to Mighty Oaks and Noel is not very you know he gives advice from time to time but he came back and poked me straight in the chest like hard and said you need to go to Mighty Oaks and I had the opportunity to go as well and I think both of us had shared multiple times on the podcast that it was really life changing for both of us.

Speaker 3: 3:46

Well, we have more success with other people. So anyone listening, don't use Noel and.

Speaker 2: 3:49

Kevin as your only examples but yes totally fair, totally fair.

Speaker 1: 3:57

We got to talk about this because, I mean, we follow your journey. You have an incredible blog. You also have a podcast called March or Die that we listen to, and you have another podcast that you do with one of the founders of Mighty Oaks, and so there's this. There's been this progression because the last time we had you on the show you were going into an ultra. The last time we were going on the show and we were like, oh man, how do you do 50K? You know what I mean and how does it. And now here we are and you've come out with this 22 for 22 challenge and I thought maybe you could talk about that, because the progression is incredible.

Speaker 3: 4:31

Yeah, yeah. This is why you shouldn't listen to podcasts It'll cause you to make bad decisions. So that's true, yeah, so I started. I started, let's see, it's been about three years ago. I've run my entire life. I was in the Marine Corps and played sports growing up, and so I've always been a runner. It's always been something that I've done. But about four or five years ago maybe, I don't know, maybe less than that I decided I would try an ultramarathon. So an ultramarathon is anything over 26.2 miles. There was a 50 kilometer race in my area in Southern California. I'm getting older, so I'm like my window for doing something like this is closing. I want to try it, so let's, let's try it. And so 50 kilometers, 31 and a half miles, and I did it, and it was one of those like while you're doing it you say you say to yourself this was really a neat thing to try. I'll never do anything like this again.

Speaker 3: 5:23

I may burn my shoes when I get home Right and then the next day you're like I could probably do better if I tried again. So then I did a few more and then I did a hundred kilometer race. Then I did a few more 50 Ks and did a hundred miler in February. So yeah, the progression is kind of weird. I was trying to explain to someone like it's like a mental disorder, it doesn't make any sense, but it's that challenge. I think that's a lot of it. For me is is like what, what could I do? You know how much further, how much faster and what would that look like? So I was running to get ready for one of these races and while I was, I was listening to a podcast and there was a guy on there who talked about doing 50 marathons in 50 days.

Speaker 3: 6:05

So 50, 50 consecutive days. You did a marathon a day. The world record is actually like 160 in a row or something like that. The woman who holds the woman's record for most consecutive marathons, jackie Hunt Barisma she is a single leg amputee, lost her leg to cancer and she ran 100 marathons in 100 consecutive days. So like it's real doable, right, but that's a different level. And so I'm listening to that, thinking there's no way I could ever do anything like that. But I wonder what I could do and I started to think like well, we're talking about veterans and veteran suicide all the time and the number we use for the veteran suicide rate is 22. And there's all these 22 challenges everyone's doing every year. So I thought what if I tried to do a marathon a day for 22 days, 26.2 miles a day for 22 days? And then I started hitting up my friends on, you know, texting them, hoping one of them would talk me out of it, and none of them even tried to talk me out of it including my wife.

Speaker 3: 7:02

So then I started saying it out loud, and then we broadcasted. And so here we are, next week, october 21. I'll start the first marathon and run for 22 days. So yeah, there you go.

Speaker 2: 7:15

Two things.

Speaker 3: 7:16

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:17

One, the 22,. That is the estimated amount of veterans that take their own lives on the daily basis. Am I correct?

Speaker 3: 7:26

So yes, and you know, kind of an asterisk, you know that mark that's star next to it. That number goes back several years. That was the number that the VA and the DOD settled on and there are several studies that have come out recently. In fact a big study that was just finished this year that puts the number at over 40 veterans a day taking their lives. So we don't exactly know the number, but that 22 has come to represent yeah, people know what it means. Veterans that take their lives.

Speaker 2: 7:54

Yes. Second thing I love the point in that explanation where you said you started saying it out loud.

Speaker 3: 8:01

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:02

There's so much power in that, and I know that for us, when we've had something that we kind of wanted to do, we talked about it for a while between just like the two of us, like in private, or maybe it was something we just were internally thinking about. But until you are willing to vocalize that commitment and tell people this is what I'm going to do, nothing's going to happen. There's huge, there's a huge step there that has to be made and there's a lot of power in that, and there's research behind that too. So I love that.

Speaker 3: 8:31

Yeah, yeah. Once you start saying it and you need to say to the right people, not people who are going to crush it as soon as you do say it but yeah, it starts to organize it in your own mind, it makes it real, and then it brings on accountability, which I know you guys talk about a lot. Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Well, there's a couple of things, too, that I'm bringing up. So one is that you're not just doing this for your own glory and shine and obviously it's a challenge and we love challenges but you're bringing awareness to that 22. And I think you're also raising money for Mighty Oaks, which is one of the. If you guys don't know, mighty Oaks is a nonprofit and that they deal with this trauma and PTSD. It's free. It was free for me to attend, it was free for Noel to attend, and I can't do nothing but support that. Hey, I want to see you do 22 miles and I just want to see you suffer. I also want to support Mighty Oaks because it was so impactful to me. So maybe talk about that as how the teams and some of the people that are joining your fight, even though they might not run 22 miles.

Speaker 3: 9:36

So a couple of things there. One is I have long struggled with the idea that we're going to consistently point out a problem, and right or wrong, I believe in the veteran community we spend a lot of time talking about how bad the issues are, how bad PTSD is, how bad the suicide issue is, and so we're constantly talking about the problem. But if we talk about the problem to the exclusion of pointing to a solution, then we're really not doing anything. Nothing valuable is coming out of that, and we've been doing this work for over 10 years. We've seen thousands of folks who were without hope and purpose and direction understand they can move forward in spite of what's happened to them. And so for me, it is about raising awareness of a major problem, but in the process saying and there's a solution.

Speaker 3: 10:24

So when we started talking about this as a Mighty Oaks challenge instead of just like a crazy thing I was going to try to do, we decided that I would do this piece. It's a big piece 26.2 miles a day for 22 days that's the big piece. But then the more important piece is asking others to join us, and so we have a virtual platform. People can go register, they can do whatever event or size of event they want to do. A lot of people are doing like a mile a day. They're going to walk or swim or run a mile a day. You can do whatever you want and it brings this community together.

Speaker 3: 10:58

And then those folks who are doing that can ask for sponsorships to come back to Mighty Oaks so we can continue to do the work that we do. No one has ever paid to attend one of our programs. We cover the cost of travel. We do that to remove every barrier so that people can get the help that they need, and so this, when you look at it as a whole, it's this big thing that draws attention to the issue, but then it gives us a platform to say and there's a solution and you can help be a part of that solution, and so those two pieces are very, very important.

Speaker 2: 11:31

And we believe really strongly in your mission at Mighty Oaks. Obviously, you can hear it, we're talking about it, which is why we wanted to partner with you guys on this, with you personally, because we would love to see you guys continue to do more of what you're already doing, and we love it. I'm excited. I can't even imagine running that far one day, let alone running that 22 days in a row and nothing but respect. I'm not a long distance guy. I don't really think I'll ever be, but that's crazy man. I love it. What have you been doing to train for that?

Speaker 3: 12:06

So, yeah, recovery is the big key there. Moving 26 miles I think just about anyone in moderate shape could move 26 miles. It may be slow, you may not be running the whole time, but you can finish the distance and so I'm not concerned about just getting through the distance, it's getting through it and then getting up the next day and doing it again, and then doing it again and doing it again For ultramarathons.

Speaker 3: 12:29

You take in enough calories to keep going, but you're not trying to maintain a balance. You're not trying to bring in the amount of calories you're losing, and all of it is different. You're trying to get through one event on one day. Maybe it's a couple days if it's a long event. So for me, I've really been trying to focus on how do I take in enough calories during the day, how do I block those 26 miles every day so that I have time to rest and recover and try to focus on that. So my running, instead of focusing on speed, I've really spent a lot of time focusing on time and just putting the time in A couple hours, running slow, just moving, so that I can get my body used to being out for a while and then coming back the next day and doing it again.

Speaker 2: 13:17

What do the logistics look like for this? Do you have to quit your job for 22 days, Like how are you going to balance?

Speaker 3: 13:22

that. So it's crazy. So a couple things. I'm in a good spot, just personally and professionally. I move around a lot anyhow. I travel a lot. I control my schedule to some extent, and so that's good. So I'm able to do what I'm going to do. I'm blocking out five hours a day to do these runs, so you start early enough, by late morning, early afternoon You're done and you have at least a few hours to work, to answer emails, to do those kind of things. One thing that is unique about this is I'll be in five different states over the course of that three weeks.

Speaker 2: 13:59

So I'll be in California.

Speaker 3: 14:01

Then I'm going to Virginia. I'm going to run the Marine Corps Marathon and I'll be in Virginia for a few days. Then I'm doing a speaking event at a military speaking event in Virginia. Then I'm flying to North Carolina. I'm going to run the Charlotte Marathon.

Speaker 2: 14:14

I'll be there for a few days.

Speaker 3: 14:16

Then I'm going to from Charlotte, fly to Tampa. I'm doing a speaking event at Special Operations Command South, which you guys are familiar with, in Tampa and then I'll be flying back to Texas. I'm spending a couple of days at a running camp for veterans and then we'll finish in the woodlands where our headquarters is. So that's kind of the most difficult part probably of all of this is I'm trying to maintain it's around Veterans Day. Obviously there's a lot of interest in what we do at this time of year and so trying to maintain my normal speaking and travel schedule so that's going to be a little challenging. So the logistics around that was really trying to figure out. If I'm going to be in, you know, tampa to speak, I need to be there at least a day early because I need time to get that day's marathon done. I need to leave late enough when it's over so that I can get my marathon in for that day.

Speaker 3: 15:08

So it's working around all of that and trying to figure all of that out has been challenging. Now, I've never done this before, right? So I mean the next podcast you guys have me on it maybe about how I got through three of them and then failed, I don't know.

Speaker 2: 15:20

I don't know how it's all going to work out. No way, no way.

Speaker 3: 15:22

Yeah. So the logistics is that I've tried to be deliberate about. So I told my wife, like hey, I'm just going to be on the road for three weeks. I just I can't do the back and forth, I can't do all that. So I'm going from West Coast, I'm making my way to the East Coast, I'm going to stay there, work my way back and when I get home I'll be done. So it's been challenging to work that out.

Speaker 1: 15:44

Are there any of these where you just walk out your front door and you try to get a marathon done?

Speaker 3: 15:48

Yeah, the first six days I'll be at home, which is nice, and then I'll be traveling the rest of the time. And then I scheduled. I'm not good at like looking down the road a year and then figuring out what I'm going to do, but I scheduled a speaking event for the weekend after this is over. So when it gets done I'll be flying back to Norfolk to finish up just speaking about there. So it's a lot of moving around and that's the logistics piece.

Speaker 2: 16:15

It's a little challenging, but that'd be fun If you like planned out your routes at each of those states. Are you just winging it when you get there?

Speaker 3: 16:22

Yeah, I'm going to have to figure it out when I get there. I may be walking around in circles for a mile, I don't know. But yeah, we'll figure it out, man.

Speaker 1: 16:31

Tell me about the Marine Corps Marathon.

Speaker 3: 16:34

Yeah, so it's crazy. The Marine Corps Marathon is something that I've wanted to run forever. When I was a second lieutenant in Quantico, we went as a unit at the school I was a part of. We went and supported the Marine Corps Marathon. So I've been there. I've never run it. Obviously it's iconic. It's in DC. You run past most of the monuments. There's a section of the race it's a mile long, they call it the Blue Mile, and it's a mile of pictures of fallen service members. I mean, it's just, you know, it's just super iconic, super patriotic race that ends at the Iwo Jima Memorial 30,000 people. So I'm pretty stoked. I tried to find as many organized marathons as I could during this block of time. There were only two that I could find, and it was Marine Corps Marathon, thankfully, and then the Charlotte Marathon, which is also supposed to be a great, great time as well. But yeah, I'm really excited about it.

Speaker 2: 17:31

That's cool. Yeah, that's cool. That's going to add a lot to it, for sure. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 17:35

So what are you talking about? On your podcast Imposter Syndrome and you were talking about, you were listening to these podcasts and we hear them too. You hear a podcast with the Jocotipes or the you know these guys and you're saying no way, no way, I'm not that guy and it's almost unattainable. But here we are. You know we're talking about this. You got it coming up on October 21st, which is around the corner, and you're in the middle of it and somebody could listen to this and be like that's, that's insane. But I know you and I know you know that you're a busy guy and yet here you are. Maybe talk about how you, how you are balancing your time just getting to the starting line of October 21st, because it's a commitment Anytime, a long distance I always think about. The time involved in training is substantial.

Speaker 3: 18:20

It's important to remember I didn't just decide to do this and then start training for distances. I mean, the last several years I've been focused on kind of endurance and trying to figure it out and and learning and asking questions, and nutrition is a big part of it. So so that's a big part of it. But the time certainly is is the issue, and thankfully again I have a flexible schedule. But it also means I can only do what I can do and there are days where I get a few miles in because I've got you know three other things I have to be a part of. Travel sometimes kills that, but it's it's using the time that I have available to me and, when I have larger pieces of time or larger, larger blocks of time, taking advantage of that. But you do, you feel I can't speak for everyone.

Speaker 3: 19:07

I feel like I decided to do something that professional athletes do and I'm not a professional athlete and then I have people talk to me about this and say things like you must love running, you must really enjoy doing these things, and I could never do that because of and they give me some reason they could never do that and in the back of my mind. I hear what they're saying, but I don't enjoy running. I run because it's good for you and it is a, it's a challenge and it's it's a lot of things, but I don't enjoy, you know, running. I don't like investing several hours at a time and in preparing for things like this. I do it because it's right, I do it because it's helpful, I do it because it's important, but it's it's not like I wouldn't rather be sitting on the couch right. So it's a decision that's made. So you hear what people are saying and then they say, well, my knee, my this, my that, my whatever, I'm like, yeah, like everybody I know, has something that they're dealing with and you just have to decide that you're going to do this. Now, not everyone can do the same stuff, but everyone can do something, and you know the worst of you and you know how. I finished a run before we get on today and it's like man, I I don't know if I can do this every single day, for you know 22 days, but we're going to, we're going to go for it, we're going to do it and it's it's going to hurt, but it's going to be okay.

Speaker 3: 20:28

I think we also look at people who do these things professionally and think it must be easy for them. I heard a professional ultra runner explain it this way, and she did a better job than I will, but she said it hurts just as bad for me as it does for someone a lot slower than me. I'm just moving a lot faster, and really that's what it comes down to. If you're doing it right, you're pushing your limit, whatever your limit is, and you're hitting that wall wherever your wall is, and so you know it is. It's not the same, but I think we all go through the same set of emotions and feelings and you just have to push through it. So but yeah, man, it's. It's a challenge to get get past the mental part of it.

Speaker 2: 21:09

Have you watched that documentary? Just one mile with Chad right.

Speaker 3: 21:13

I have yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:15

Yeah, it's crazy. It is crazy and we've we've talked about it on the show before, but obviously I've said I'm not a long distance guy but that made me want to go run something like that, not for the running aspect of it at all, but for the mental challenge that it presents, and like to really stack myself up against them like that. Like where could I go to from the mental side of it?

Speaker 3: 21:37

Well, and you guys do this too. I mean, this may be off topic a little bit, but running is is my thing, but I believe everyone needs to have something, yeah, something that that they are challenging themselves with. We, we live in this. I've already recorded it, but my podcast next week really kind of speaks to this. We live in a, in a world and a culture specifically that is seeking for comfort, and how can I be the least bothered and the least uncomfortable and all of those things? And so we need to inoculate ourselves against that and constantly be preparing. And you know, jiu Jitsu, they always talk about training. What are you training for? For? Whatever may happen, right, we need to be constantly training and building and preparing, because we don't know. But running is my thing, but, but everybody needs to have something. You need to steward over what God's given you and you need to to push as hard as you can and and and go for it, whatever that means to you. You know, go for it.

Speaker 2: 22:34

One of my favorite things we've done with this podcast is we've done we've done several fitness challenges over the years, but the the one where we did 400 meters of lunges every day for 30 days and we were told by people that were more intelligent than us and kind of the physical fitness world that we should not do that and that would be very bad and detrimental. And it's it's one of my favorite things that we've done and people did it with us and it's one of those things where it's a grind. It's not nearly the same as what you're doing, but it is that mental grind of going out there day after day, Especially when you get into like day 20 and 22, and just thinking what am I doing?

Speaker 2: 23:12

Yeah, but then at the end of it, when you finish it, you're that much more mentally strong, because every day you went out there and put in the work and you realize that, hey, that actually wasn't my limit, like I, I made it through that and Finding that stuff and building that mental resilience is is huge and that's a. That's a physical way to do it, but it translates into other aspects of your life for sure.

Speaker 3: 23:36

Yeah, absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:37

I gotta ask you this One, number one Are you listening to anything? Do you have music on when you're grinding through this? Or? And then number two I heard you talking about like controlling the control walls. Yeah, and I know you're a busy guy. Are you able to like mentally also let things go, knowing that for 22 days You're gonna have to probably let a few emails go, maybe a phone call here or there, because you are gonna be in the zone?

Speaker 3: 24:03

Yeah, I do listen. Now I listen to Like an audiobook or a podcast or something. I don't listen to music that much. Once in a while I did, I ran that hundred mile or without, without music. I ran the hundred kilometer run without music.

Speaker 2: 24:17

My wife's like your sociopath, that's not like yeah, people don't do that like.

Speaker 3: 24:24

Yeah, that you can, that you can do that. Yeah, I don't, I don't know. So I do a little bit, I don't. I try not to depend on it and part of it is like for me that the endurance stuff is Is a mental exercise and I try to mentally, you know you strengthen mentally and so I don't want to be distracted. It's that's part of the process for me. Now, when you get into something like this, I'm gonna need as much help as I can get. So I have some books already loaded and some music and playlists and that thing that kind of thing Just help me get past.

Speaker 2: 24:54

Whatever those those dark moments are you mind telling us what a couple of those books are? What are you gonna be reading?

Speaker 3: 24:59

Yeah, so I just got a book. It's Dan Michael Easter's new book. He wrote the book called the comfort crisis. If you haven't listened to that, it's fantastic. His new book is. It is called something brain Scarecity. Brain is what it's called Scarecity brain, yeah.

Speaker 3: 25:19

Yeah. So he's great I'm. And then on the other side, I just started listening again to a book called experiencing God. My doctor black and B is a great book, talks about, you know, experiencing God and how to do that. And then I loaded a third book, the guns of August, about the start of World War one. That that I have sitting there waiting for me as well.

Speaker 3: 25:45

So it's a variety of topics, it's a very intentional rights, a variety of topics and Paces of information and so, depending on how I'm feeling and kind of what I'm up against, I can, I can rotate through those. And then I have some playlists loaded just to kind of take my mind off of Is very mind, I don't know, I mean isn't the right word, but just very distracting if I need it. So that's loaded. And then a couple podcasts I listen to from time to time that I would jump on. I like listening when I'm running to Sports podcast, if I can, because they're always kind of talking about doing hard things, and so in those moments I need to listen to that. Cameron Haynes has a podcast I listened to you on few listeners podcast. Keep hammering podcast. He has some great guests on too, so I listen to his Joe Rogan sometimes and again I don't. I'm not endorsing those guys, but they they talk about things that when you're in the middle of like a painful grind situation, it's helpful to help you get through. It's interesting, yeah.

Speaker 2: 26:49

Well, Kevin and I are going to be participating in the 22 for 22 challenge. Can you tell us how our listeners Can also get involved?

Speaker 3: 26:58

Yeah, so it's. It's really easy. We have a website 22. That's the numbers for for 22 challengecom 22 for 22, challengecom. And so I mentioned there are a lot of 22 challenges out there.

Speaker 3: 27:16

Make sure you go to the right one. That's ours 22 for 22, challengecom. That will redirect you to a landing page, which is our virtual platform, and On that platform you go ahead and register. You can edit your profile so that you can change, you know, the event that you're going to do, how many miles you're gonna put in or whatever you're gonna do, and then how much money you'd like to raise. You'll have a personal link you can send out to your friends and family and say I'm doing this thing for 22 days, I'd love for you to sponsor me, and that's how will mighty oaks will raise money, and then a lot of folks are joining teams. You guys have a team set up on there and so once folks register we're listening to this podcast I need to join your team, and then you guys can compete against the other teams and see who can Go the furthest and raise the most.

Speaker 2: 28:03

Yeah. So if you guys are listening, come join us. Make sure you join our team. It's the fire you carry name of the podcast super easy. Let's talk a little bit about some other options that people are doing, or some things that we think they could do because, like, for me, I'm not gonna run 22 marathons but sure, sure, but I am gonna participate. So what are some? What's some other things that we could do?

Speaker 3: 28:25

Yeah, I mean anything that that fits in. You know, your normal Exercise wheelhouse people walk, people do run, people swim, people ride their bikes and you can also determine the mileage. So if you want to run, but you want to run two miles a day instead of you know something else, my parents my mom told me the other day her and my dad are going to walk 2.2 miles a day. So that's what they're doing. Yeah, I've had some folks tell me I'm gonna walk a mile a day. We've got a good friend is a triathlete. He's going to swim a couple miles a day. So it's really up to you and you can edit that in your profile and then that sets your goal right. So that just goes out over 22 days and set your your total fitness goal. So, yeah, it's up to you.

Speaker 2: 29:09

I'm like a numbers guy so I need it. I need whatever I do to include the number 22, like I love that correlation. So I'm thinking about running two miles with 22 pounds on like a vest. Oh yeah, I'm thinking about that, but I don't know if that's gonna be challenging enough, so I got to kind of test it. And then, of course, I thought about lunges. But I can't figure out how to get the number 22 into lunges, because 22 lunges isn't enough, and Neither is 220, and you know. So my brain works that way. But anyway, what do you think you're gonna do, kevin?

Speaker 1: 29:41

Well, I was gonna do two miles a day, but now that I hear your parents are doing 2.2. It has to be 2.2.

Speaker 1: 29:48

You got to get the 22 nice, nice Right so I'm gonna be to 2.2, but I will try to see if I can, if I do have a day where I'm off on a weekend, just try to do a longer run, just to push myself, because I haven't done like longer runs in a while. So I think my goal is to do a little bit longer on the weekends, like if you were training for a marathon or something like that. Usually you kind of do your base miles during the week Jeremy will tell us and then you kind of do longer runs on the weekends. Our schedule really doesn't work that way, but if I do have a day off and I'm feeling great, I'm gonna try to put in a little more.

Speaker 3: 30:21

That's cool and I think you know people are like, well, okay, Do it, where do I need to pay to get in? Like that's not the point. The point is you do the do the thing, whatever your thing is, and then reach into your network and ask people to support you. So that's how you know it's a community coming together to address a pretty big problem. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, I appreciate you guys jumping in man, it's pretty cool.

Speaker 2: 30:42

Yeah, we're excited it's gonna be, it's gonna be good. One of the things we're gonna be doing on kind of the side is, if you're in our group for the Myzone and you're tracking your, your meps, which is their Tracking system we're gonna track that during the same time period and we're gonna see who has the most meps after at the end of the challenge. So that's gonna be a little additional thing we're gonna do internally awesome. So for those of you out there listening, if you're thinking about getting on board with the my zone and joining us there, do it now so that you can have it before the challenge starts, because it's coming up.

Speaker 1: 31:15

Jeremy, are you, when you're talking about recovery, are you, do you have like a goal to say, like time wise, or you Can't try to keep your heart rate under a certain level and to say, hey, I'm not trying to Get my PR in this marathon. Yeah, what's your goal like throughout it, or have you thought that out?

Speaker 3: 31:31

Yeah, I mean, if I can stay in in you know, like a zone to heart rate, if I can keep my heart rate under 150, I'm pretty happy with that. 145 would be ideal, but you know, under 150 would be good. And then for recovery it's calories and then just rest. I need to get a full eight hours if I can. I mean, who knows but that's the goal, right, it's a full eight hours of just laying flat and resting and then getting as many calories in as possible. So I'll burn a lot of calories I don't know how many, it'll be a lot and then I need to do my best to do my best to recover those.

Speaker 2: 32:14

Yeah, what are you using? What are you using to track your runs? What kind of technology are you?

Speaker 3: 32:18

using I wear. The watch that I wear is a Coros brand watch Coros, which is an incredible watch. They have come a long way in the last couple of years. They have a long battery life, an amazing watch. I've used it for all my ultras and so they have an app that also syncs with Strava. People who are in kind of the fitness world are familiar with Strava. A lot of people are on Strava, In fact. I think, Kevin, you just started falling on Strava.

Speaker 3: 32:44

And the nice thing about it is, if it's open, you can follow people who you know that are on Strava, so you can kind of keep them accountable and even learn from them. That's how it works for a lot of people. I'll go to professional runners and try to figure out what they're doing. But yeah, so it's a pretty cool app, so I'll track it on my Coros app, I'll track it on Strava and then every day I will put out a social media post on. I finished, this is the distance, this is the time, so just to stay accountable to it.

Speaker 1: 33:14

I'm feeling like we have to. We should try to join you on the last in the first six days. If you're local, we try to finish your first two or the last two miles or something like that. We gotta join. We could do more than two.

Speaker 2: 33:26

Maybe we could do four and all we could join you talking about just like waiting on the side of the road and then as he comes by to finish, we run with him. I'm in, yeah.

Speaker 3: 33:34

Well, you're welcome to. So yeah, my first one will be Kevin, right down the street from your house, right? So we'll make it happen. And then my last one is actually pretty cool. So our headquarters. My headquarter is actually in Texas I live in Southern California but our headquarters in Texas, and there's a running club and a whole bunch of people in Montgomery, texas, that are going to be there for the last day and we're going to run as a big group and it's the day before it's it's it's Veterans Day Saturday, yeah, but it's Veterans Day the 11th, so there's a lot of patriotic stuff going on, so it'll be a lot of fun, man, that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 34:08

Did you see that? The iron cowboy? He did an iron man every day for hours, many days.

Speaker 3: 34:13

Yes, yeah, 50 days. And then people criticized him. So he said watch this and did 101 consecutive iron man distance triathlons.

Speaker 1: 34:23

Yeah, but it became a thing and then obviously all the podcasts, the major podcasts, but a lot of those guys they were out there and they he was pretty much grinding it out at a pool and a bike and run every day and a lot of the guys would come out and run some legs with them and it was very cool because, yeah, that guy was an unbelievable, yeah, unbelievable.

Speaker 3: 34:42

Yeah, yeah, he was amazing. Yeah, you watch the last, last day of his 100. And then him and his family went out and did another one the next day. He wanted to have 101. But there was a huge crowd with him and it was cool because you see little kids running part of the marathon with him and then, you know, local bike club was always out there riding on bikes with them and so, yeah, it's pretty neat, it's a community event it's really cool. Yeah, very cool All right?

Speaker 2: 35:07

Well, we will have a link directly to the 22 for 22 challenge that we are talking about in the show notes, so make sure you go to the show notes and follow it from there so you end up at the right place. Let's change gears a little bit. Before we hit record, you were talking about where you're at right now and what you're doing, and it's a little bit unique. As far as Mighty Oaks goes, I think this is the first one, so will you tell us about that?

Speaker 3: 35:28

Yeah, so I'm at one of our facilities, one of the ranches that we use for our program, so we have five different places that we run our program to week long, so 35 weeks this year we'll have have a session, so we do that all the time, but this week is unique and it's happening right now, so that's why I'm here. When Afghanistan fell, when the United States withdrew and all that took place around that and people are familiar with that story Mighty Oaks Foundation, a lot of people from Mighty Oaks and a couple of other organizations came together and facilitated a major evacuation. Something like 17,000 Afghans were evacuated Crazy, crazy story, of course. Well, a lot of those evacuees were what are called special immigrant visa holders SIV special immigrant visas and what that means is they worked for the United States government during operations in Afghanistan A lot of translators and folks that work with special operations units and those kind of things. I won't tell the whole story, but the United States government did not treat them very well in spite of that, in spite of their service, and they made it to the United States, but with with very little support.

Speaker 3: 36:39

And so you have local churches and other nonprofit organizations who are trying to support these communities and as part of our commitment to helping those who have served us and you know I mean for those that have been in combat. You understand the importance of a translator. I mean that's someone who doesn't have to be there but they are and in hundreds thousands of instances kept US service members alive because of what they did. And so, part of our commitment to serving those who have served us, we said we would like to do programs, if we can, For some of these special immigrant visa holders, and so this week is the first one. We have a group of men here who all serve as translators in Afghanistan and it's been. It's been crazy man. It's been really interesting to see and we know what we do and how it works, but trying to do that with kind of a different cultural setting and language issues and the rest of it. But it's been, it's been a pretty powerful week so far.

Speaker 2: 37:42

That's amazing. Yeah, my my limited experience overseas, I I do have one instance where Our translator actually saved my life. Yeah, and those guys, you know they all came from different backgrounds and most of them came from different cultures, but you know they were there on everything that we did and they were a huge part of it and We've talked about a little bit on the podcast. We actually had Hunter Robo show on a while back and we talked a little bit about Kind of the story and what you guys did during that time and it's it's tragic in the way that it didn't get handled well by the government, but it's awesome to hear and see how you guys and other organizations like you stepped up and Basically filled the void. Sure, because it was, it was definitely needed. So that's huge. It's really encouraging to hear.

Speaker 3: 38:33

Yeah, it's, it's been, it's been fun. We didn't really know exactly how this would all work out, obviously, but yeah, it's been, it's been awesome. It's really cool.

Speaker 1: 38:43

I can only imagine and sky rose to anybody that hasn't been there I would highly encourage. Yeah, that's one of the more beautiful places I've been to and I don't know if Kenny's cooking this week, but that was, he is.

Speaker 3: 38:54

Yes, he is.

Speaker 1: 38:57

Now turn it off. I'm jealous, that's like the best food I've ever had, ever, yes, yeah. So that's that's amazing work what you guys do. I can't only imagine what that week is like with that group. That's incredible.

Speaker 2: 39:09

Is Don West still out there?

Speaker 3: 39:11

He is. In fact, he just walked by. I was going to turn the screen around. What's up?

Speaker 2: 39:16

Don, that's cool. Glad you're still out there, buddy.

Speaker 1: 39:22

Well, we can't wait to get into this, and I'm in. I'm, you're inspiring me, and now my little 2.2 mile feels pitiful. I feel like I got to figure something else out there.

Speaker 3: 39:32

No, don't experience any peer pressure, man, do whatever you can do. You lift a lot of weights. I'm not playing on doing that, so it's all a trade-off.

Speaker 1: 39:39

I will have to bulk you back up after.

Speaker 2: 39:42

I don't think he's in, I think Jeremy's.

Speaker 3: 39:44

he's an endurance guy now, maybe not just now, for always just for the next couple weeks, and then we'll do something else. I don't know.

Speaker 1: 39:52

And did you take? I mean, you also trained jujitsu and I know you did that with your sons and stuff like so is that? Do you take a tactical pause on jujitsu training while you're doing this In?

Speaker 3: 40:01

the past have not, but for this one I I did. I had to say, look, I'll be back when this is over. Number one is the time, and then number two is if I get injured. Right, you know, it's kind of over. So so yeah, I took a couple months off and we'll get back to you when we're all done here.

Speaker 2: 40:17

Awesome. Well, for those that are listening, jeremy, will you tell us a couple of the places that our guys can find you if they would like to hear more?

Speaker 3: 40:25

Yeah, for the mighty oaks foundation. Mighty oaks programsorg. Mighty oaks programs org. For the 22 for 22 challenge. You'll put that out. But 22 for 22 challenge, calm. And then, yeah, you can follow me. Just use my name and Jeremy Stolleckercom.

Speaker 1: 40:44

I'm good on my website and just has contact, information, podcast and such for me to me, mighty oaks had some of the more impressive human beings that I've ever been involved with, and I think you know that there there they weren't getting paid really to do that.

Speaker 1: 40:59

There were a lot of volunteers and I think of some of, like the team leaders and things like that that were. They were there and that the wealth of men that were there, that were openly, candidly, sharing some of the similar struggles, I think broke down walls and they're still camaraderie. I still talk to guys from my group and I'm in, I'm in an outpost, a mighty outpost, and it's fantastic. I think so the, the bonds form in mighty oaks. Nolan, I say that we, we really started our fire up program after going to mighty oaks and and I, we, we tell every single guy that goes to our thing to say that this is just a little taste. I think you should go to mighty oaks, right, and so we, just we can't thank you enough for what you have done for us but also for our community, and I can't wait to get more guys to hopefully go to sky rose.

Speaker 3: 41:43

Yeah, it's awesome. We'll thank you guys for you doing.

Speaker 2: 41:47

I'm not sure if we covered it, but I do want to say this if we, if you didn't catch it, if you're a veteran, obviously mighty oaks is for you, but also if you're a first responder, yeah, you can come to any of their classes they do hold. They do hold classes that are Specifically for first responders. Kevin went to one where he was there with a bunch of veterans and he had a great time. So if you're in the first responder community, it's for you, and we strongly encourage you to look it up.

Speaker 3: 42:13

Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, please, first responders. This has been a huge, huge need, obviously, and and there's a there's a void of support for those in our communities who are serving. My son just became police officer in our city and I've always cared about first responders. It's funny when your son is doing the work, you care a little bit more and, man, if there's anything we can do to help On board first responders, please let us do it. Let us support you.

Speaker 2: 42:40

Awesome. Thank you for your time, jeremy. This has been good.

Speaker 3: 42:42

Thank you guys, really appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 42:44

Okay, we'll see you out there, jeremy, let's go. All right. All right, let's do it. This has been the fire you carry. Podcast.

Speaker 2: 43:04

All right, thank you guys, so much for listening. Please come join us in the 22 for 22 challenge. We will have a team, as we mentioned in the episode that is directly linked to this podcast. So once you register, please go join that team and then start raising money. Get out there and do whatever you can do, whether that's 200 lunges, run a mile, walk half a mile. Whatever you want to do, we want you to be a part of this challenge with us. The physical aspect of it Doesn't matter as much as raising money for the mighty ox warrior foundation and doing what we can to combat veteran suicide. It's an issue that we care about deeply and you guys can help us with that. So join us. We'd love to see you there. If you guys have any questions about mighty oaks, about the challenge, about getting involved, getting in, you have any issues, contact kevin or I. Our contact information is available in the show notes. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next week.