Over the Next Hill Fitness
Welcome! We all know, as we age, it’s harder to put ourselves first and get in enough fitness, flexibility, and nutrition. Maybe you’re new to formatted exercise, maybe we need to push to the next level or set some goals. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to run a 5K, a marathon, or even an ULTRA marathon. This podcast is designed to get you moving and headed towards those goals. You’ll have opportunities for general coaching during each episode or you may contact me for personal coaching afterward. Are you ready to get over this next hill in life? Let’s get started.
Over the Next Hill Fitness
S3 Ep7 Trail Tales and Irish Adventures with Angela Ryan
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What happens when winter threatens to derail your running routine? For Angela Ryan, the answer isn't retreating to a treadmill—it's strapping on skis and embracing the season head-on.
In this captivating conversation, Angela shares her journey from casual childhood runner to adventure-seeking athlete who finds joy in movement across all seasons and terrains. Currently training for an 18-mile ski race called the Cortolope at the Birkebeiner, Angela explains how she's adapted her fitness routine to Wisconsin winters by learning skate skiing—a diagonal, skating-like motion that provides excellent cross-training for running by strengthening glutes, hips, and hamstrings.
The discussion ventures into creative winter activities that combine fitness with wonder, like Book Across the Bay—a 10K nighttime event where participants run, ski, or skate across frozen Lake Superior guided by ice luminaria, warming at bonfires along the route, and even passing a fire-breathing snow dragon at the 8K mark. For those determined to maintain winter running, Angela reveals her solution for icy conditions: specially designed screws from snow tires that provide traction without damaging shoes.
Angela's adventures extend far beyond Wisconsin, from running tours of Florence to exploring Dublin's coastal paths and Yosemite's panoramic trails. She's planning an upcoming running trip along Ireland's Wicklow Way, demonstrating how running becomes not just exercise but a lens through which to experience the world. Most poignantly, she shares a life-threatening experience with pulmonary emboli that went undiagnosed because her fitness masked the symptoms—a powerful reminder for athletes to trust when something feels wrong.
Whether you're a seasoned runner or just starting out, Angela's philosophy resonates: "There are no rules—just get out there." Her story reminds us that movement should bring joy, connection, and exploration, regardless of pace or distance. Ready to find your own path? Lace up and join the journey.
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Podcast Introduction
Speaker 1Hello and welcome back to Over the Next Hill Fitness Podcast. I am Carla Coffey and I am your coach and your host for the program. I want to thank everybody who's been following rating sharing the show. It's really appreciative of you to do that. If you haven't rated the show five stars, please go do that. I know it takes a minute, but if you go on that, hit that purple icon and you can probably give me five stars. Write a review In the show notes.
Speaker 1There's a place to buy me a coffee if you'd like to support the show that way and have your name mentioned. I do that as well, and I appreciate that. There are also some other links in the show notes for Hydra Patch, which is a sponsor of the show. You should try Hydra Patch. It really does work. I'm a firm believer in that. And also follow me on all the socials. You can reach out to me if you need a coach, carla. At CoffeeCrewCoachingcom, you can check out the website there as well. At CoffeeCrewCoachingcom, you can check out the website there as well. At CoffeeCrewCoachingcom, you can follow me on Facebook, instagram you can just look me up just about anywhere.
Speaker 1Today I'm going to be talking to Angela Ryan. You guys. We had such a fun conversation. I can't wait for you to hear her experiences. We had some fun off air too, but sorry you didn't get to hear that. But yeah, angela is a friend local to me here in Madison. We've met a couple times out on the trails and so it was really nice to get to catch up with her and hear all the excursions she's up to now. So I hope that you'll enjoy the program and that you'll share it with somebody and let them enjoy it too. Thanks, and we'll talk soon. Hey, angela, welcome to the show. So great to have you here.
Speaker 2Great to speak with you, carla, looking forward to catching up.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's been a little while. So, with that in mind, what have you been doing lately?
Angela's Winter Training Regimen
Speaker 2with your running. I am training to really get back in shape, but I have a ski race coming up and there hasn't been snow, so I need to really work on my hills and my speed and my strength so I'll be ready. I'm doing the Cortolope at the Birkebeiner, the open division, on February 19th, on the Wednesday, and so it's an 18 miler and so a lot of hill running, a lot of distance running and then some more strength training as well to try and keep like get in shape without being able to do it.
Speaker 1Wow, so you'll be doing those hills with skis on, is that yes?
Speaker 2Yep and I would be able to do it with the traditional skiing, but I signed up to do the skate skiing, which requires more technique, so I'm a little bit worried about that, but we will see how it goes.
Speaker 1So what is skate skiing? I would never even heard of that.
Speaker 2So traditional cross-country skiing is parallel and skate skiing is sort of diagonal, you like, push out from your legs and you transfer the weight more, so it's more like the rollerblading technique, you know. So it's truly skating, as opposed to the direct parallel.
Speaker 1So are the skis still just as long? Because that seems like they'd be hard.
Speaker 2They are about the same, but the waxing is different on them and you have longer poles and it's a lot of upper body strength that, uh, as a runner, I don't quite have. So that's why I've been trying to work on so it's a really an all body, totally aerobic and, uh, I don't know, do you uh, and he's does it. Um, and did you remember Tom Kaufman from the track club? Vaguely, so he is out. So you see a lot of runners who are out there and they do the running as their easy work before they go skiing. Yeah, wow, Because they're really aerobically fit.
Speaker 1That sounds like something I don't ever want to do, but I'm happy that you're doing it.
Speaker 2Well, it's interesting to do in the winter because racing in the winter is a little bit more challenging and trying to keep fit. So it's a good way to ensure that you go outside and sort of balance. It gives your muscles a little bit of a different aspect and keeps you really working on being fit and helps you enjoy the winter by doing some of those. So I have the Corto Lopet and then this week or in a weekend I have Book Across the Bay which you can run. It's in Ashland, northern Wisconsin, and you can run across Lake Superior or you can skate or traditional ski and it's a 10K loop at night with luminaria and it's just gorgeous. So you know some of the running group are going up and they will just run across it and some will ski.
Speaker 2That sounds terrifying. It's beautiful, it's one of the most wonderful winter experiences. It can be chilly but it's a 10K course and it's lit with ice luminaria the whole way. Each kilometer they have bonfires on the lake right on the ice because the heat goes up and you get treats the whole way along and at the 8K they have a fire breathing snow dragon. So you know if you're going to run in the winter or you're going to be outside in the winter doing something. This is totally motivational, you know it's. It's combining the fun, the workout, and so that's how my running slash other exercises have been going. I really try to enjoy the winter. It's never treadmill.
Speaker 2Yeah for sure, be outside the whole time. Yeah.
Speaker 1Well, you will have to take some pictures and share those with me, because I would love to see the fire breathing. Dragon, snow, dragon That'll be great.
Speaker 2It is really fun as you're coming along and you're like the first time you see it. It's like, is that what I'm seeing? And so this is my third or fourth time doing it and you're always looking forward to seeing that. And then the end they have fireworks and a big dance and party in the tent. So it's a true experience.
Speaker 1Yeah, I could maybe be motivated to do that with the treats, depending on how wonderful they are, but the ski one I could see me crossing my skis and just falling. So that's.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, and trust me, that will happen. I know so I like to downhill ski as well, so I like to change. So it's going uphill on skis is really the challenge, because you either have huge strength in your glutes and legs and then upper body, or else you're kind of walking up the hills with you know the duck pattern. Yeah.
Speaker 1Wow, well, kudos to you. That sounds amazing, but also very difficult, so that's great. So what's your running been like before winter came? Good.
Running Background and Journey
Speaker 2So I had a decade of where, you know, I was getting injured constantly and then I started doing more Pilates, more weight training, more overall body conditioning and little by little my body started to feel better and I've been able to ramp up my miles now that I'm consistently like in the 30 to 40 miles a week. Just haven't been able to get back to speed, so I'm still trying to work on that, but I think that comes with age as well. I think at a certain point you have to accept that you're going to get a little slower.
Speaker 1Well, I don't know If you listen to my podcast when I interview Jeannie Rice. She's late 70s and she's still running a three-something marathon.
Speaker 2Yeah, and that's what I'm trying to like get back to doing some more of the speed. My issue is more with my lungs and then getting back some of the. So I've been trying to add in some plyometrics and build that bounce and strength back. I think we don't realize, especially over COVID, how much sitting we were doing. Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1Yeah, you know, but plyometrics will really help with your speed and, you know, because of the takeoff. So that's great. I do a lot of plyometrics and have my athletes do plyometrics and for people who've never done it, when they first get with me they're like what is this crap she's got me doing?
Speaker 2I'll have to talk with you about that offline and understand what you're doing, because that piece of it like I love to run and I finally got an app called Dynamic Runner that has like weight training routines and that that I can actually follow but getting the discipline to do that piece versus just spending the time outside running and enjoying it is a little bit hard. So I know I need to do more of it, but I need to be more disciplined about it.
Speaker 1Yeah, don't we all? Yes, I feel like the only time we really embrace strength training is when we're too injured to run, because you've got to do something, and then people get on board with it after that. But yeah, because our love really usually is running, you know.
Speaker 2Right, and I now have a good collection of different weights. And where I run into trouble is I travel a lot for work and for personal and you can't obviously travel with weights and I don't really like going to the gym, like at the hotels. So I take rubber bands with me and I'll take some things like that and I will try to use them yeah, yeah, you could always just do push-ups to failure and squats to failure, that'll get you.
Speaker 2Yeah, I've been trying like the jump squats and I think I have a vertical leap of about a half a centimeter.
Speaker 1So well, your plyometrics will help that yeah, I got it.
Speaker 2I'm like oh, I used to Irish dance, you know, so I should be able to jump right, but, um, you know, it seems to have slacked off over the years, so I have to get back to it.
Speaker 1Yeah, so let's back up a page and let's talk about how you started running and what got you into running and skiing, let's put that in there too.
Speaker 2Yeah, so the getting into running was actually when I was a child, right, and in our neighborhood the kids would be outside and we would run around the block and I remember we would do that like fairly often and I noticed like I was beating the boys of my age kind of thing, right Like.
Speaker 2So I had the inherent ability to do it and while I was doing that for a while I joined some community races and I did reasonably well just for a short time, but then I didn't keep it up at all and it wasn't until I went to graduate school. I came over to the US and people were out running and I just went, got back to it and like people at lunch would go out for a run and I would join them with it and I realized like just how much that had been missing, right, like how I loved how my body felt when I was, you know, running and pushing and like just uh, feeling that power. Wow, that's great. So, and, uh, I wish I had kept it up more before I was in back to graduate school, but you know I did. Uh, I used to do a lot of biking and other things, so I was never not active but I wasn't just running.
Speaker 1But better late than never.
Speaker 2At least you got back to it when you did, and I've been running constantly then since like early 20s.
Speaker 1Now are you primarily a trail runner, because that's how I met you is on the trails.
Speaker 2No, I'm mostly a road runner and late to trails.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2Yeah, and most of the time I would have run on my own or run with my like my kids, or um with a small group. But the group I there's a sunday group of women that run on the trails during the summer and as long into the winter as we can, up until they're snow covered. I don't run snow covered trails. Some people love it, but it's really hard on me to do that. So I would say 70% road, 30% trails, but the long runs are mostly on trails. You know to be a little more gentle.
Speaker 1Isn't it interesting? Because I'm like a 5% trail runner and 95% road runner and yet we met on a trail run. It's so bizarre because we both run with the same that I can go on and actually over the last couple of years I've gone on some trail running holidays.
Trail Running Adventures
Speaker 2that with adventure running, and we went to Yosemite and we went to the Amalfi Coast and there was, you know, running the trails. There was just like spending a week just trail running was right, like it is total freedom and nothing like running a trail to get your mind away from work, cause when I road run I end up thinking about work too much or about other things. When you trail run, you're watching and you're in the moment, because otherwise you'll be on your tail end.
Speaker 1You're in your face. You're either in the moment or in your face.
Speaker 2And so I really. I love the beauty of trail runs and I'm actually going to. I'm planning to do the Wicklow Way in the end of May with some of the women from around here. So if you're interested, you're more than welcome to join us. We're going to Dublin and then we're going to run the Wicklow Way at the end of May.
Speaker 1Oh wow, it even rhymes. I've never heard of that or the Adventure? What do you call the group?
Speaker 2Adventure Running. So they're based out of Duluth in Minnesota and they have different trips all over and they're very effectively priced and the routes are great and they handle all the logistics and like getting you to the start of the trail and getting you back right and making sure you're fed and that you're with a good group. It was fabulous. Wow, sounds like it. Yeah, so more of I was going to say more of my running has been around fun and experiences versus. I used to be very focused on racing and now I'm just focused on the joy of it. So I tend not to like look how fast I'm running or doing. I tend to do it more by feel and by just the enjoyment of it. So I tend not to like look how fast I'm running or doing. I tend to do it more by feel and by just the enjoyment of it.
Speaker 1So when you go to Dublin, it's going to be people from our local area that you're traveling with.
Speaker 2Wow, yep, so some of the same people that you've met and I've been running with and it's a small group of us cause we're trying to like the timing, but, yeah, I'm, I'm trying to make sure that, uh, we get the group going. I have planned the route, I have the, I have the hotels and now I'm just working on the logistics.
Speaker 1So, very cool, that sounds amazing.
Speaker 2Yep, um, I'm looking forward to it. Can't guarantee the weather in Ireland, but it will be the days we're going at the end of May, which is the longer daytime, right, so it should be bright from like five in the morning till kind of 10 at night. So it's a beautiful time to be in Ireland and the Wicklow Way is one of the most beautiful parts of the country and it's like 80 miles from the south of Dublin into County Wicklow, through the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains and it's a marked trail and you look out into the mountains but they're not very high, but it looks out over the Irish Sea and it's just gorgeous. And we run by Glendalough, which is a monastic settlement from the 8th century maybe, and then we'll do a loop through there. So it should be really beautiful. It's really scenic.
Speaker 1How did you hear about this? How do you know so much about it? Just from reading?
Speaker 2Well, I'm Irish. Okay, I thought maybe you were, I just wasn't sure. So I came here first year in graduate school and so when I go home to Dublin so when I go home to Dublin I run different segments of it, but I haven't run multiple segments of it together. So after doing the adventure, running ones where we pieced it all together, I'm like you know, I really want to run multiple segments of this. So we'll come in on the first day We'll have a rest day. But one of my favorite places to run in the whole world is around Hoth Head in Dublin. So it's a coastal walk, coastal run, and it is truly one of the most glorious places to run. You can see over the whole city of Dublin, but then you're really, even though it's in the city, it's very remote and you can look down like 100 feet cliffs and you're in the heather and it's just gorgeous. So I'm going to take him on that and then we'll go drive to the south and then start and we have four days sort of on the trails there. Wow.
Speaker 1You are going to be the perfect tour guide, having been from there. Wow, that's so amazing. They're so lucky yeah.
Speaker 2So I'm really trying to work to make sure you know we have a good time, so Wow.
Speaker 1So then, prior to doing the adventure races, what other types of adventure runs, what other types of running and races did you do?
Speaker 2I am predominantly a 5K-er you know I really like the short hard and I will do some 10Ks. I'm really really really bad at marathons. I will do some 10Ks. I'm really really, really bad at marathons, so I always want to be good at them, but I blow up. I've done three so far in my lifetime and I have a 355, a 405, and then the last one in Dublin was a 420 in my mid-50s and I'm like I'm going the wrong direction with this.
Speaker 1No, I think that is the right direction.
Speaker 2But you know I'm a reasonably good, I was a reasonably good 5K runner and it should translate and I've never been able to do it because I blow up at about uh, 18 or so. You know I need to. It's one. I really like 5k and I will take the pain and and do that and, uh, I love like 800 meters, I love the mile, I love that piece of it and I actually have done a couple of good half marathons, right, but I like trail half marathons or something, and uh, but I so, um, I have a planned marathon.
Winter Running Tips and Gear
Speaker 2I'm running, uh, with my niece in Dublin in October, so the Dublin city marathon, with my niece in Dublin in October, so the Dublin City Marathon. So I'm signed up as a charity runner for that and I have to get back in and start training for that seriously. So that's my goal for the year I have, you know, I'm doing the skiing now. I'm signed up for the Ice Age Trail half marathon in May and then a couple of other ones and then the big one that I'm trying to work towards and my plan is around is getting in shape for the Dublin City Marathon.
Speaker 1So very cool. So what charity are you raising for the?
Speaker 2Irish Cancer Society. Okay, and the reason for that is all my work is tied up with cancer research, cancer therapeutics and that and my niece happens to be the president and CEO of the Irish Cancer Society. One niece is, and then her sister is going to run it with me and it's like so what better charity to raise money for than that organization? I think I focused on an Irish charity, and then cancer is just such an important area and it impacts so many people and takes so many lives, and the work that the Irish Cancer Society does is amazing in helping people navigate treatment making it like sending nurses and to help people understand what the treatment is, help them get to treatment, get access, get guidance and ultimately, hopefully have better outcomes. So I think it's a very worthwhile cause as well.
Speaker 1Well, we'll put a link in the show notes, so, if any of the listeners want to donate. They can help support the cause and your race.
Speaker 2Yeah, thank you. So I'm looking forward to it and I really. I just have to work on getting fit enough for it.
Speaker 1So I have a good base, but Well, yeah, I would think, with this ski thing you're doing, you're going to be just fine. That sounds like so much work, wow, yeah. So, speaking of that, how did you get into that? What made you decide? Just so you could stay outside, or it's easier than running?
Speaker 2Yeah, so I grew up in a country that didn't have snow, like we got snow once every five years or otherwise. But when you come to Wisconsin and I've lived in Wisconsin since graduate school- pretty much all the time.
Speaker 1That was going to be my question.
Speaker 2So I've lived here and if you're going to live here, you have to enjoy the winters. And we, when I worked at Promega, we there were a lot of trails and you could just go cross-country skiing on lunch so you could either go out for a run on the snow or, if you got cross-country skis, you could go out and ski the back trails and they are so beautiful. If you go out and break trail on cross-country skiing, it is just so beautiful out there and it's quiet and peaceful and you can go kind of at your own pace with it. So that got me into cross-country, traditional cross-country skiing.
Speaker 2And then I've been watching a lot of people on the skate skiing and I thought it would be a good cross training for running because you really have to get your glutes and all of the other glutes and hips and hamstrings have to be strong, and what's weak in all runners are glutes, our hips, our hamstrings Right. So I'm like, ok, this is the perfect cross training for that. Yeah, the challenge with skate skiing is you have to have groomed trails, whereas with the traditional, go out and and, uh, just break trail and make your own. So I try to do both. Um, we've had a little bit of a dearth of snow this year. So I have a membership at the cxc out in middleton and so they make snow and you can go out and uh ski there anytime the biggest challenge, though, is it's either uphill or downhill, you know so.
Speaker 2there is great training for the race, but it's hard training for developing your skill. Anybody can traditional ski. You have to learn technique, and I'm not that good at the skate skiing yet.
Speaker 1So are you taking lessons to learn the technique?
Speaker 2I've taken some and I need to take more, and I just I travel a lot for work still, and so I haven't had enough time to do it. The other piece is when it's really cold, like 15 and below Fahrenheit, the skating doesn't work as well because you don't, it gets too sticky, and so we, when I've been here, but I travel a lot for work, so I was gone three weeks or four weeks so far this winter and I go to California, so it doesn't help to work on that. It's beautiful, but it's harder to get the training in.
Speaker 1Well, we're getting snow tomorrow, so maybe you'll get something in this weekend.
Speaker 2I need to be.
Speaker 1Where around here do you go? That's groomed.
Speaker 2The CXC in Middleton. They make snow, but other than that.
Speaker 2When there's snow, elver and odana they groom for, but you have to have like four inches, five inches of snow, and this winter we just haven't had any. So I'm very happy that I uh decided to like get. It was like $90 or something. It's a great organization. They really have done a good job making snow, grooming it and getting it ready. They want to, I think, build a clubhouse out there and really make it into a facility that can give access to a lot of people for skating.
Speaker 1So it's really nice. We've definitely had the cold weather to make the snow. We just we've had maybe two inches.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's been really really light and I did um. Do you run outdoors in the winter? Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, and so, no, I can't do treadmill either. Just kills me. So we were talking about the appropriate footwear for it and what you do, and I have been having trouble with the micro, with the screws in the bottom of your shoes for gripping, and so, um, I was happy yesterday that we had ice so I could go test them out and uh, um, they're working pretty well. So I'm happy that, uh, I'm able to. You know, know, we're getting trying all the different traction devices you know, and traction or non-traction, and how you live with winter, but I'm really happy I can get outside and really enjoy it.
Speaker 1Yeah, who told? I think it was Bill that told us, like the group I run with, about putting the screws in. Is that where you heard it too?
Speaker 2It was from Bill, so Rick Smith, who does the Saturday Marathon group. He sent me a video on it and I couldn't get the right screws. So then I ended up getting ones on Amazon that they use for snow tires that are really closer to the microspikes and they're really easy to get into the shoe. And uh, they are only a quarter inch long on the screw part. And uh, so I did. I did the pair for myself and I had extra screws, so I had a couple of happy with it. So it's great you know they. I've gone into the hardware store a couple of times to try and like find the right screws, and these ones that I got on Amazon are really their designs for it. They're used in snow tires and like snow bike tires and for boots, and so they're really purpose made for it and they seem to be working well.
Speaker 1Okay, we'll have to put that link in the show notes too. That we'll get that Amazon link. I'll be getting some of those. So, because what I usually do in the winter is, wherever my oldest shoes are, those are the ones I wear, right, but they're also the most worn. So when you, if you don't have the right screw which I have never found you're going the, the sole is so thin that you're kind of going through and then you can almost feel it through your insert. You know, I've done that a lot of times.
Speaker 2It's like oh and these are a little bit shorter and um, but they're working really well, perfect, and so, and the, the set I got was 100 screws, right, which is a lot, yeah, and they had the tool for putting them in, oh nice, and so I didn't. It was minimal work and, uh, I've been pretty happy with it. So, yeah, happy to share the link on that, because I could never find the right screws, because some of them are three eights instead of a quarter. It's hard to get the quarter and I couldn't find them online. And then these ones came up and they work.
Speaker 1Perfect, yeah, and I do have yak tracks that I'll wear too, but sometimes those just like the snow builds up and then you've got a backwards high heel that you've got this clump of snow.
Speaker 2And I have yak track ones and I have half yak track, half microspike and I have the full microspikes but they always on a long distance run they hurt my feet on top of my feet, like if you get up, like to eight, 10 miles, then you know you start to feel it outside of the shoe, and so I'm looking forward to this working well.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah. I also like the sound of it when you go across the street and like you got your little tap shoes on if there's no snow.
Speaker 2Exactly so. Wednesday night we were supposed to. We got freezing rain but later. But we were doing an out and back on the Southwest Corridor and so we run out and then we do intervals on the way back, and so I had them on on that and you could hear them right the whole way, but it didn't start snowing until the way home.
Speaker 2Yeah, but they didn't really need them, but yeah, they worked, they're fine because they don't interfere with your running at all and uh, but you have them if you hit an icy patch, which is, you know, especially winter running, if you're out at night, I'm always worried about hitting an icy patch. That I haven't seen.
Speaker 1Yeah, so yeah, a little patch of black ice. You can't tell in the dark for sure.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, so during the day you can normally see it, but you know I will run in everything, except I really try to avoid the freezing rain, because that I've fallen just one too many times. Yeah.
Speaker 1Yep, haven't we all? At least I have too. I know that. Yeah, was it two years ago? Brand new, almost out of the package, running pants for winter? Yeah, and it was basically dry out and there was a patch of black ice and, of course, ripped my new pants. I don't think anything, I didn't even care that. You know I skinned my palms or whatever, but that knee had a hole in it Brand new. So, yeah, I got to get my shoes. I haven't used the screws in them in a long time, so I need to try that again.
Speaker 2Cause I just could never find the screws. I was desperate because, um, we had an early snow and, uh, I was out running with some of my women friends we did the Lake Wing loop and I fell twice on and it was. It was kind of comical because we were just by Edgewood and one of my friends has a Malamute right, so like that's a snow dog designed to run on that, and I'm watching her going oh why is Susie slipping right? And then so the dog slipped and then I slipped right, you know. So it was in a car track or whatever, and it was just a little bit icy and I just went over and I'm like, okay, we're doing something about the shoes, because I can't afford to fall.
Speaker 1As I recall, I feel like every time I ran with you on trails you fell. That's kind of like your thing, isn't it?
Speaker 2I fall more than I should, so you know. But you know I generally don't fall on the roads. I think I don't lift my legs enough, you know, and then I get distracted because I'm not looking at what I'm doing. So, yeah, yeah me too.
Speaker 2And it's shoe dependent as well sometimes. So, no, and uh, that's the hard part, um, running on trails you trip occasionally right, and which keeps you in the moment and it keeps you in the beauty, but you just have to, uh, uh, I like the gnarlier, the trail, I kind of like it, so you put up with a few trips.
Favorite Places to Run
Speaker 1And tripping up is better than tripping down. I was running a race in Flagstaff and coming down and I was not trying to go fast. Yes, it was just the momentum and it was kind of steep and I tripped and the guy that was in front of me must have heard the trip and he stuck his arm out and saved my life. I was like thank you.
Speaker 2So I didn't fall For me. Running downhill on trails I will go really slowly, I wish I could do it. Trails I will go really slowly, I wish I could do it. And some of our joint friends are more mountain goats and like can really enjoy the benefit of gravity, but I am very cautious with it.
Speaker 1Yeah, I normally am as well. I like I said it just kind of got away from me, it was. It was there were bigger rocks on this trail and it was like I just the way I went.
Speaker 2So yeah, I finally got for the big one, the big uh, longer runs. If you're going on that, I finally got, like the um poles. Oh yeah, you know, to be able to do that and uh, navigate it, and actually they help quite a bit. Oh, and actually they help quite a bit. Oh, I bet. Yeah, you know. So, if you're going to do like 10 or 15 in really more rugged terrain and you're going up and down, the poles really help.
Speaker 1Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm sure. So what else would you like to let the listeners know? Tell us more stuff about your running.
Speaker 2I, for me, you know, a lot of people ask how do you get into running and how do you start? And what I like to say, there are no rules and just get out there, you know, and if it's as simple as run 20 seconds, walk 20 seconds, run 20 seconds, walk right, just get out and start and then, um, you know, do it so you are happy and you're enjoying it. And you know, if you need company, get somebody to go out with you. If you, you know, listen to a book on like an audio book, you know, listen to a book on like an audiobook, listen to a podcast, um, or just enjoy the quiet and the peace, right, and get out there and just bring that joy back. And there's like you don't have to be able to run a certain pace, you don't have to be able to, uh, you know, run a certain distance, right, it's just get out there and start it and then make sure you do the stretching when you get back and keep yourself motivated. And, honestly, it's something you can do anywhere in the world and you need minimal equipment and you can really.
Speaker 2Um, you know, when I look at how healthy and how good I feel at the age that I'm at now I know, compared to you, know, some of my peers, I think the running has really helped me to stay in shape and keep a very positive attitude.
Speaker 2So, and I know I've been able to explore, I've been fortunate with my work and with my personal life to be able to travel a lot of places and I love to do a running tour of a new city that I'm in and explore it and see the sites, and you can cover a lot of ground. I was in Florence last year and I just did a run tour of the city. I had a day before and then in each morning I would go out and arrange with the work group I was with, we would arrange a different run around the city. So it's a really good way of making friends and exploring new places and really, you know, improving your quality of life. So get out and do it and you know, and it doesn't matter how fast or otherwise you are, you just put a pair of shoes on and get outside and enjoy yourself.
Speaker 1What's been your favorite vacation. Run that you've done, or tour or whatever. Tour, yeah.
Speaker 2So my favorite place in the whole world to run is the loop around Hoth Head in Dublin. It's on the north side of the city and it's a peninsula that goes out into the Irish Sea and I've run it in every different kind of weather and sometimes you think you're on the coast of Italy and sometimes you think you're in the North Pole, based on the wind. You know so, and it is just. It's one of the that. My happiest places to run After that I would say Yosemite we did a week out there and the.
Speaker 2There's a loop that takes you up and by the vernal falls and nevada falls and uh, I think it's a panoramic trail and that you see over the whole yosemite valley. You can see half dome, el capitan and all of that and like that's just spectacular. But uh, to me I love, if you're in Wisconsin, running the Ice Age Trail segments here is such a gift to us to have that available. So I finally got the Ice Age Trail guide book and the map and so when I'm driving up north to my daughter or driving somewhere, I'll pick out a different segment to run, and I love running them during COVID, being able to go out on those segments and just be sort of out on your own. I don't know, they're just that. As an asset that's available to us that we can use, is just incredible. So I don't know. I just I'm happy anywhere I'm at running yeah, not every run, but I come back and the memories are happy.
Speaker 1Yeah, what's. Can you think of a time that was like your scariest run that you've ever been on, whether it was daytime, nighttime, a cliff?
Speaker 2All right. So this is for all runners and this is my PSA or whatever. So I was running the Mad City Relays eight years ago, 10 years ago, and I started out and I wasn't able to breathe after about a half a mile and I kept running and at two miles I had to because I was a relay and I was the first one out and I'm like God, I'm being really slow Right, and people were passing me that shouldn't have passed me and I was just I couldn't get my breath and I didn't know what was going. So I called my teammate and somebody came out and met me at mile four and then somebody drove me back to the finish and I was like just not feeling right and I was running for two more weeks and I kind of like would keep going back, trying to run and keep trying to do it, and I just didn't feel right and it turns out I had blood clots in both of my lungs.
Speaker 1Oh, wow.
Overcoming Challenges and Final Advice
Speaker 2So I had bilateral pulmonary emboli and I thought, like you know, I was early 50s, 50s and I thought, well, maybe I was having a heart attack or something like that and not being able to tell in your brain that something's not right, you know. So I was thinking I was lazy or I was something. So to me that not that experience of not being able to get enough air when you're running and I think it was travel related, so for it was travel and dehydration and various different things, because I have no genetic basis for it, but a number of runners have had deep vein thrombosis and then. So the blood clot then breaks up and can go into your lungs. So if something doesn't feel right, go get it checked out. And if you're really fit and people look at you and you're like I was having trouble breathing, really push them to find what is going on.
Speaker 1Okay, wow, that's terrifying. So, yes, that would definitely be terrifying.
Speaker 2That's terrifying. So, yes, that would definitely be a terrifying thing doing that, and I've been really lucky to be able to run unimpeded and I to find the places that a woman is safe to run at night on her own and out, and but I'm cautious about it. Right, I'm sensible about where to go. So I've been lucky that I haven't been terrified from any specific experiences Um so, other than that that uh, not being able to breathe. And then in Yosemite, cause I have a paralytic fear of heights. I was trying to run up and I had, like I was doing the, the uh blinders so I couldn't see over the cliffs. So my running friends laugh at me because I have such a fear of heights that, like it impacts how I run on cliffs and things like that.
Speaker 1So those of you who are only listening on audio and not watching us on YouTube she was putting her hands up over her eyes to block the sides, like a horse with blinders on going up the hill. So I don't blame you. I have a healthy fear of heights myself.
Speaker 2Yeah, but I've done a lot of mountains and hikes. Have you ever gone out to Acadia in Maine? No, so, acadia, the national park there, there, um, the precipice trail and the beehive trail that has, um, like the uh metal steps up the the side of the cliff and that, and my daughter and husband kind of guided me up that with me, with my eyes closed half of the time, you know, and so so if I could solve one thing, you you know, in any of my experiences, it would be to get over the fear of heights.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2I would say for sure, because.
Speaker 1I'd be able to do a lot more trails. Well, you know um the uh. Appalachian trail is on my bucket list. I want to do a through hike of that. I will have to ring you and you. We will hike that together because I think you would. It's not too many high spots, I mean, I'm sure there are some, but nothing.
Speaker 2I think when you get up towards Maine, there's some of that, like where it finishes. I think that's pretty yes, yeah, so, uh, there's a couple of them but I'll guide you up with your eyes closed. That'd be perfect.
Speaker 1Do you have any last words you'd like to tell the listeners about running, other than it's okay to walk, which I really appreciate you mentioning that.
Speaker 2Just get out there and do it and if you're injured and you're going through a rough time, really work on your physical therapy and your strengthening and all of the rehab piece and listen, you know, just get back out and keep trying at it and find your group that will bring you joy when you're out running or go out and just enjoy it by yourself and just get out there.
Speaker 1Better words were never spoken. Thank you so much for being with us today, angela. We really appreciate all your stories and listeners. We'll put the links in so you can donate to her charity and also find some screws for your shoes if you have a screw loose. We'll talk to you soon, bye-bye, bye-bye, all right. Well, thanks for listening to the episode. I hope you enjoyed it. Please continue to follow, share and rate the program. If you're needing that coach, reach out to me. There's a button in the show notes that you can contact me directly. Share it with a friend. If you think their story needs to be on the podcast, I'd love to hear from them. So thanks again and have a great day.
