Run Christina Run

Running is an amazing sport, and I wish more folks would give it a try! 

Transcript

00:00.76
Christina Scovel
Hello, hello, and welcome back to A Pinch of Honesty. let's Let's dig in. Let's get into it. Let's get into the dish. The holidays are over, the New Year's here, and um interestingly enough, when I was just uploading something, I noticed that absolutely nobody has listened to my resolution podcast.

00:30.20
Christina Scovel
I And I actually really appreciate that because what it means to me is that maybe there are a lot of other people out there who are thinking the exact same thing I am, which is resolutions are overrated. And the entire podcast is basically dedicated to not setting resolutions. So my fingers are crossed that that is really what people are thinking. um Not that everyone has just fallen in love with Tarot Tuesday.

00:57.53
Christina Scovel
Um, this is a running podcast today. we are going to talk about, running and being a runner.

01:09.94
Christina Scovel
a If you were to ask me when I was in college, am i a runner? I would say no.

01:19.38
Christina Scovel
If you were to ask me in high school, if I were a runner, I would say no. If you were to have asked me probably even five, 10 years ago, I would say, no, I'm not a runner. And something mentally in me has shifted over that period of time.

01:35.99
Christina Scovel
So i started jogging, and I've got some quotes going here, jogging in high school. i did not run cross country. would go to the high school early and I would do laps um just for cardiovascular fitness. That's it.

01:55.67
Christina Scovel
period. um I always wanted to try to get down to um being able to run a faster mile.

02:10.23
Christina Scovel
And in particular, I was always shooting for a 10 minute mile and I could never make 10 minute mile. You know, people talk about speed and they talk about pace.

02:20.69
Christina Scovel
Um, and it was one of the goals when I was in high school and even into college, I just never made, I never made 10 minute mile, which I think for a lot of folks who are out there, especially if you're looking at the people who are, um, professional athletes, right? I mean, they're doing five minute miles.

02:38.42
Christina Scovel
um you know, 10 minute miles they could do in their sleep. There are people who are running marathons much faster than a 10 minute mile across the entire marathon. So, you know, for me to want to run a single mile at at a 10 minute pace um seems, you know, maybe even laughable. But But as I like to point out and think about, it's that you know running is an experience that's different for absolutely everybody. My spouse hates it with a passion. He doesn't enjoy the leaving. He doesn't enjoy the feeling of running. He doesn't enjoy after running. if There's nothing about running he enjoys, period. um

03:20.95
Christina Scovel
And I've always found it exhilarating, right? um I've never had my form checked out. Maybe at some point in time, I'll have my form checked out. I've never had a coach.

03:33.23
Christina Scovel
will say that in college, I hung out with and dated quite a few of the folks on the cross country team. And so I would do cross country practices with them. um I didn't have a car, so I ran pretty much everywhere. I ran, I don't know, probably hundreds upon hundreds of miles. I had no cell phone. had no way of tracking distances. um i would just put on my shoes and run. And I would work to be able to buy running shoes.

04:00.57
Christina Scovel
um I had a boyfriend when I was in college who was in England. And I flew over to England to spend the holidays with him. And I went out for a run. And i made the assumption, ill-informed person,

04:14.65
Christina Scovel
assumption that the roads were all done on a grid. You know, I was living in Seattle at the time. And so I made the assumption that big cities, everything was done on a grid. And so I figured if I just kept running and then I took a left and I took a left and I took a left, I'd make it back. And I was absolutely lost. I probably spent three and a half hours running that trip that one particular time because of my ineptitude when it came to being able to get back. And again, no cell phones, no way of actually knowing how far i ran, where I was, anything. um But I was just out there just hitting it and loving it, right? It was dumping rain. I remember being just drenched um and absolutely loving it.

04:57.02
Christina Scovel
I could never afford running shoes as a kid. And so by the time I got to college, it was one of the things that I worked at a cafe and I saved and saved and saved to be able to buy running shoes.

05:07.77
Christina Scovel
And I thought of it as being a luxury, right? it It definitely wasn't something that i could easily afford. and I wore them. I wore them way, way too long. Looking back, you know, I would buy a pair of running shoes and I i would wear them until they were absolutely sloppy on my feet.

05:27.10
Christina Scovel
Um, anyway, let's continue to move forward. Right. I've, I've run, I've run marathons. I've run half marathons. I've run five K's. Um, I've done duathlons. I've done mini triathlons. Um, I am not a wildly competitive person, especially when it comes to sports, because in general, I feel like I'm not as physically fit as other people.

05:50.81
Christina Scovel
um take that for whatever it is. That's how I feel. um And so I just would never call myself a runner. I would i would say I was a jogger, right?

06:02.65
Christina Scovel
But every year i go out and I train for something, I run something, you know, I i put miles upon miles on my shoes. um This year in particular, um let's see here, I pulled up I pulled up, oh, I absolutely destroyed my cell phone here. um I pulled up between walking and running, because I ah i also try to get out and I try to, well, I will either walk or run every single day. Sometimes I will do both, but I won't i won't take a day, even if I'm ill, and not do something, right? I think it's very important to be outside. In particular, even when you're ill, I think you can walk. And so in between walking and running this year, 519 miles, which is from the previous

06:54.04
Christina Scovel
nineteen miles um which is up from the previous year And as a matter of fact, actually the previous year, it was miles. So quite a bit right um if you are to look at If you were to look at just running,

07:12.89
Christina Scovel
um I ran 265 miles this year, which is up from last year, right? So last year was only 133 miles. um My pace was actually slower this year, which is interesting. Now, people don't share these things. People don't like to talk about them because it makes people either feel like they're fast or they're slow or um whatever. But you know my average pace for this past year was a 1445. And that includes really hard trail runs, right? Which there is no way for me to run quickly when I'm increasing elevation on really steep terrain. And so i'm not I'm not upset about that pace at all, right? I think that um i think that that's absolutely fine. um

08:03.26
Christina Scovel
I like looking at the data because it it shows a progression, right? It shows an increase. And as a matter of fact, actually, if you're looking at the miles that I've been recording, and I use RunKeeper, I know there's this whole Strava thing. Everybody does Strava. um I haven't gotten there, right? I use RunKeeper. It's a free app. I've used it forever. I like it because it keeps track of everything, does comparisons between them. Maybe there's some way to import all this into Strava. I don't know.

08:31.22
Christina Scovel
um but I don't really see a point in migrating at this point. Who knows? Maybe in the future. um But the thing that's kind of cool is that basically from 2022 until now, when you look at the curves, it's an exponential growth, which is really fantastic to see. i like seeing the progression. I like seeing how much...

08:53.40
Christina Scovel
In the midst of all that interruption, sorry about that. Anyways, I see exponential growth in the miles that i am doing. If you pay attention to ultra runner Andy Glaze, he has been doing over a hundred miles per, what has it been?

09:15.26
Christina Scovel
Has he been doing a hundred miles per week? for the past like five years, right? um So if you think about that, right, I mean, that means he's doing, you know, 52,000 miles in a year, right? We're talking about 260-ish for me, right? So not even not even in the same ballpark. And I'm sure, you know, on Strava, when it goes through to tell you like what percentile you are in in the US or any of these other apps, it probably would say something

09:48.44
Christina Scovel
um not great about my distances. And I'm okay with that. So let's get back to the whole point of this podcast, which is if you were to ask me if I'm a runner, I would say I'm not. um I'm not built like a runner.

10:04.31
Christina Scovel
My thighs touch. Come on, people. I'm not built like a runner. i am not lean. um But I love it. And I've always loved it.

10:18.23
Christina Scovel
And it is, you know, if there were to be like a sport that I would choose, that would be the sport that I would choose. What distances would I choose? Who knows? Currently, right, I'm working on a faster 5K time. um Really, I want to see how fast can I run a 5K. I'm also trying to really bring that mile time down. um Speed is hard. Speed requires a different set of skills than running a half marathon or a marathon. Um, and you know, I'm, I'm actively working on these things.

10:53.30
Christina Scovel
I asked my daughter, do you think I'm a runner? And she looked at me and she was like, why would you even be asking me this? She was like, you are a runner. And I said, look, like, you know, if you had asked me, i would say I'm not a runner. And she was like, why?

11:07.54
Christina Scovel
I told her, right? Like, I never ran cross country. you know um I've never won a race. I've never even come close to winning a race. um It's always just been done um out of love of the sport. right And to me, that makes it more a hobby, i guess, than being able to say, like, I am a runner.

11:33.27
Christina Scovel
um But she thought it was absolutely ridiculous that I didn't think of myself as a runner. um

11:42.92
Christina Scovel
I'm smiling right now because i think your children often see you in a light that is more true than you see yourself, right?

11:56.44
Christina Scovel
who

12:00.54
Christina Scovel
So why do I think pretty much everybody should run? Why do I think everybody should jog? Yogging. Anybody out there watch Anchorman? We're going to do this thing. I think the J is silent. Yogging.

12:17.79
Christina Scovel
It's where you run for absolutely no purpose. um I think that is one of the purest forms of a sport.

12:29.78
Christina Scovel
it It literally requires no equipment. You could do it barefoot. People do do it barefoot. um There are people who do it in their regular everyday clothes. It requires it requires nothing other than the desire to want to do it.

12:45.72
Christina Scovel
um I honestly believe that the human body is made to run. right We should be out there pounding the pavement. And in particular, I think women as we age, Um, of bone density issues, I think lifting and running are the two things that we absolutely should be doing.

13:06.01
Christina Scovel
Now I understand there's people who are out there who have back problems, knee problems, ankle problems. Um, you know, you're injured in some way and it makes it next to impossible for you to get out there. I get that, right?

13:20.28
Christina Scovel
Um, I've had, I've had injuries, um, But I recover from those injuries. I work really hard to come back from an injury so that I can go back to doing what it is that I love, which is running.

13:32.70
Christina Scovel
um And I think that when you are out there and it's just you, your tennies hitting the ground, your arms swinging, the sweat dripping in your eyes, um it is exhilarating.

13:50.49
Christina Scovel
right? It is one of the best feelings to me. Now, like I said, my spouse does not run. He does not enjoy running. To him, running is horrible. I actually think that he inherited some kind of like plantar fasciitis or something with his bone spurs in his feet, where I actually think running is one of those things that bothers his feet over time.

14:12.09
Christina Scovel
And again, right?

14:15.45
Christina Scovel
I still think everybody can run. i think it's making the choices to make those runs doable for you, right? Do you need inserts?

14:25.75
Christina Scovel
Do you need to do the Galloway run-walk method, right? The very first marathon I ran, I ran-walked and it was absolutely fantastic, right? I think there is nothing wrong with any means to get out there. And of course, as I like to tell my daughter all the time, right?

14:45.62
Christina Scovel
In case of a zombie apocalypse, it is the thing that could save you, right? Being able to run, being able to sprint, being able to turn it on. Now, doesn't mean you're not going to injure yourself, especially if you're not warmed up. However, definitely could help you in the long run.

15:01.66
Christina Scovel
So one of the things that I'd like to ask my listeners out there is just to give it a give it a thought, give it a try, um ponder you know what it might be like. Maybe what you do is you go out and you um jog for a minute and walk for five.

15:19.51
Christina Scovel
right Maybe you jog for 30 seconds and you walk for 10 minutes. That counts as a run. i think that's the other thing too that people get hung up on. They get hung up on this pace and distance and, oh, you know, I i want to take third in this particular event.

15:38.39
Christina Scovel
That is not, that's not, that's not running for the majority of us out there, right? um If you are out there, it's a run. It doesn't matter um what ratio of run or walk or pace. If you're doing a 20 minute mile and that is your pace, that is your pace.

15:59.26
Christina Scovel
Good on you, right? I would like to encourage everyone to lace up their shoes and give it a go. To rethink about the jogging.

16:13.24
Christina Scovel
To consider ah what it means for their body. to be able to continue to run into their 60s, into their 70s, into their eighty s um i have made this decision that I am training for retirement.

16:32.98
Christina Scovel
I am going to pick up the pace. I'm going to increase my muscle mass. I am going to become much fitter than I have been solely so that I can retire and do really hard things.

16:47.86
Christina Scovel
I want to absolutely enjoy the shit out of my retirement. And to do that, I want to be as physically fit as possible.

16:58.84
Christina Scovel
um And that might mean, I told my husband, I might try a full Ironman. I don't know. I absolutely have no desire to swim two miles. um But who knows, right? Pushing yourself to do hard things, I think,

17:15.42
Christina Scovel
is where we need to be this year. So with all that being said, I'd like to thank you for turning in. Even if listening to a running podcast and finding out that really I am a runner, truly I am a runner. In my soul, I'm a runner.

17:30.84
Christina Scovel
um i know it's not your typical... ah teary-eyed Christina explaining all of the crap that's gone on. Instead, it's really me pontificating on why running is the best.

17:44.76
Christina Scovel
But it truly is the best. And I think that it's for everyone. So with that, I'll catch you on the flip side.