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 Ep 14 Running as Life's Mirror with Ben Bloedorn
What happens when someone who once hated running decides to lace up their shoes at age 32? Ben Bloedorn's transformation from self-proclaimed non-athlete to ultramarathon finisher reveals the profound parallel between running and life's broader challenges.
Beginning with his first painful 5K in 2019, Ben shares how completing that initial race ignited something unexpected - the question "what's next?" That curiosity propelled him from suffering through shin splints to conquering a 50-mile ultramarathon at the Ice Age 50, despite significant setbacks including knee injuries and failed race attempts along the way.
Ben's evolution mirrors what many reluctant runners experience - that moment of looking in the mirror, not liking what they see, and deciding something must change. His candid insights about training mishaps (like the snow-covered 20-hour Arctos race he abandoned) offer valuable perspective for new and experienced runners alike. The conversation explores the psychological aspects of progress, including the counterintuitive value of rest periods and how training data can sometimes become an unhealthy obsession.
What makes this episode special is Ben's authentic reflection on how running becomes more than exercise - it transforms into a practice that builds discipline, resilience, and self-knowledge applicable to every area of life. As he beautifully notes, "I have never come back from a run and felt worse than before I left." It's this simple truth that keeps runners returning to the roads and trails despite the inevitable suffering that comes with pushing physical limits.
Whether you're contemplating your first 5K or training for an ultramarathon, Ben's journey offers both practical advice and philosophical perspective on embracing discomfort as the pathway to growth. Ready to lace up your shoes and discover what you're capable of?
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Hello and welcome back to Over the Next Hill Fitness Podcast. I'm Carla Coffey, your coach and host for the podcast. I want to thank everybody who has been following and rating the program. I appreciate those five stars helping me grow. The podcast is brought to you by Coffee Crew Coaching, as well as HydraPatch. There is a link in the show notes for a discount on Hydra Patch.
Speaker 1:If you've never tried it, I really stand behind this product. I feel that it really works very well, so do a little research, check out the discount and get yourself some Hydra Patch to try, especially this summer. It's a really good product. There are also some other discounts in the show notes that you can take advantage of some products. As far as I know, they're all still working, so please feel free to do that.
Speaker 1:You can follow me on Facebook, coffee Crew Coaching, as well as on Instagram. You can email me, carla, at Coffee Crew Coaching, if you have any fitness questions, if you'd like to have a running or a fitness coach, and if you'd like to be on the podcast, please do so, and I think there's also a button in there that you can directly just chat with me that way. Somehow, I don't know how it works. Most people just DM me or email me. But yeah, please do all of that. And today we're going to be talking to Ben Bladorn. It was a very fun conversation and I meet a lot of people over the internet and you never know how you got a hold of that person. And then he let me know that Rachel was our special contact. So thanks, rachel, for hooking us up for the recording. So please enjoy this podcast and we'll see you at the end. Welcome to the show, ben.
Speaker 2:Hello.
Speaker 1:It's so good to have you here. So let's talk athleticism and tell me all about you and what sports you do, and all the tea.
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, I've been pondering where to start this for a while, since we kind of have been going back and forth and I would not consider myself very athletic, would not consider myself very athletic Um, way more so now than I was ever in the past. But just growing up, um, it was not a me thing. I mean, I I enjoyed a couple of different sports. I like dabbled very shortly in in hockey and, I think, uh, soccer and then softball. But when, when I say short, we're talking like a season, um, and it wasn't cause I didn't like it or maybe that I wasn't good at it, it just was one of those things where it became your parents get you involved and then they go, wow, this is a really big commitment. And then it just kind of ends there and as a kid you don't really have control over that Um, so then it just never spawned into anything.
Speaker 2:I was always fairly physically active as a kid, but not to the to the point of doing organized sports. So, um, I guess, to your question me now, um, it's pretty much it's it's pretty much it's running and maybe a little bit of biking here and there, and then I've gotten into golf over the last couple of years. Is it athletic? My body sure says it is. After I get done at the range I've been hurting in places that you know, as they say, you didn't know existed.
Speaker 1:So is that. Your favorite sport, then, is golfing.
Speaker 2:No, no, no. I, I think I probably prefer, not prefer running. Running and golfing to me have similar challenges and it's what draws me to both of them, um, which is you're never quite good enough. That seems weird to kind of say that, but there's always a level for improvement, and not saying that there isn't in other sports, but it's. It's different because it's so. It's kind of skill-based. Running is is a little bit skill-based. You learn new techniques and skills as you go along. That well, they improve you overall. Trying to think this through here without like diminishing other sports, you've already got everybody else.
Speaker 2:Super easy right. They've all already turned off the podcast. He's already. Yeah, definitely For sure, but those, those are the two main things that I end up doing. Um, as far as physical activity goes, running is probably number one, though.
Speaker 1:So tell me, when did you start running consistently and what are your favorite distances?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So my, I'm going to try to keep this as brief as I can, cause it feels like a long story and it gets longer every time I tell it. So about six years ago, um, actually we probably should go back even further than that. So I never liked running much, like a lot of people. My story is probably pretty typical of a lot of people that are just now getting into running. I hated it. In school. There was always there was like two or three kids, they were fast, they were great, and then you go out and like my lungs burn, my feet hurt, my legs hurt. I don't like this and we stay away from things we don't like. And then that's how running always was. It just was an uncomfortable, painful experience. Every time you do it short sprints and things like that you're into it. You know like you're, you chase somebody around, play tag, that's all okay. Running no. So I never did it until six years ago.
Speaker 2:My sister was a pretty big inspiration and my wife too. She started getting into it because of my sister and they started doing things together and I saw the effect that it was having on my sister and you know her and I are close and I saw the effect that it was having on my sister and you know I'm her and I are close and I noticed that. And then she started inviting us to these events and my wife started going to do things. She ran like a 10 K and a couple other things and I just sat on the sidelines like a big oaf. You know I'm like, yeah, doing great, I'd never do that.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. I'm like, eh, doing great, I'd never do that. That's crazy. And then, for myself, I started looking in the mirror and not really liking what I saw. So I'd have been 32 at the time. Face is getting bigger, body's getting bigger. I was starting to hurt more, just felt generally achy, never really was sleeping. Well, I feel like, ah, you know, this just isn't right, like what happened here, and so I felt like I needed a change. And both of those things coalesced into getting invited to do a 5k. She's like, hey, I'm going to do a 5k in Milwaukee, where we were living, and a bunch of our other friends they're going to do it too.
Speaker 1:It was in February of well what's?
Speaker 2:six years ago, I guess 2019. Okay, yeah. So I'm like, okay, you know, know, my neighbor was a pretty athletic guy. I know he was going out running. So I'm like, hey, I'm gonna train for this thing. And by training it ended up being like maybe a total of six runs, but it it got me there where I just started.
Speaker 2:I went and it was horrible. I'm like, yeah, but I paid for this, we're all doing doing it, it's going to be fun, ish. And I wanted to be committed and every time I went out it was like, wow, this is really kicking me, this. Why is this so hard? I don't want this to be hard. I want this. I want to like, overcome this. I want to be victorious here. So I went, ran.
Speaker 2:It suffered through really terrible shin splints, but I felt really proud of myself. I think it ended up being like 11-minute miles, which some people would be like, oh, my goodness, that's amazing. Yeah, but to me in my head, I'm going you really slog, really slog through that. But I enjoyed the victory and in afterwards it was all right. What's the next thing? Should I do the next thing? And, of course, my sister, being who she is, she's like, hey, we're gonna do ragnar.
Speaker 2:I think this might have been september of the same year. I'm like what's that? She's like? Well, it's sometimes a road thing, but this one's in the trail and it's up in Wausau and we get a group of eight people together and everybody runs three legs and we trade on and off. It's like a big relay race, like that sounds really cool. You know, 24 hours. This is right up my alley for adventure and I'm not fully, I'm not committed to running. At this point. I'm. I'm dubious. Right, I had the victory, but then you go. Hey, you know, maybe that's enough, like that's okay, I did it, that's exciting.
Speaker 2:But I kept thinking back to like how tough it was and again I was really morphing into my fitness journey and seeing this as something I could do, not easily, but definitely I had time to do it, I had motivation to do it, I had people around me to help kind of push along um on, who are growing with me, and my wife was getting into it more. So it was a connection point for her and I and a connection point for my sister and I. So I started getting ready for that and I started training and I ended up hurting my knee and I don't know if I aggravated a torn meniscus that I previously had from a snowboarding event many years ago that I like I didn't know I had it because I hadn't been doing anything. So we went for this run and it just started really hurting and it got really bad. I was laid up for a couple months.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And I was like this is great, great, I've started this journey and immediately I'm stopping this journey. Thankfully, it kind of just added more fuel to that fire of not wanting to get beaten by it. It just seems so simple you go out your door, you move your feet and you go forward. Right, I mean, you can't get more simple than that. There's no, there's no genuine magic to it. It's just moving forward and training your body to do so longer and longer and to get beaten by your own body. In that way it's, it's tough, it's frustrating. So that was that kind of mental push there, that kind of kept me going. So I rested up, tested out the waters, like a couple months later I'm like it's still twinged a little bit, but I'm like I only have a couple like two months, I think, before Ragnar was coming up and I really wanted to do it. Um, so I did it and, again, still didn't have a lot of runs under my belt at that point and it was fantastic.
Speaker 1:How long were each of your legs?
Speaker 2:I think that the total distance ends up being about a half marathon, I think it's. So it's seven miles, five miles and then a three mile.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a good distance, that's a good distance?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, all of them are, and you do this over like this 24 hour period, right? So we had about eight hours in between each of those runs, and one of my, one of mine, was at like two in the morning. So I'm not I'm not afraid of the dark. I always say I just don't care for the dark. Yeah, I don't care for what's in the dark.
Speaker 1:Um, well, I am not afraid to say that I just don't care for the dark, I don't care for what's in the dark. Well, I am not afraid to say that I am afraid of the dark, I'm afraid of what's not in the dark, and I'm afraid of what is in the dark. So you're braver than me, yeah.
Speaker 2:So those two items really propelled me forward and it was kind of like all right. Each time I did a little bit of training for each one. I got better and I started noticing and I started logging my runs. I think initially I mapped my run and then I joined the big boy leagues and got to Strava and I got a Garmin watch and you just start morphing. That's kind of what happened there. I started dragging out all the accoutrement.
Speaker 2:Um, after Ragnar uh was like, okay, I have these newfound abilities, is what it felt. Like I can run farther, yeah, and I'm feeling good. So then I'm like I'm going to go for a full half marathon and there was one not far from me. I had run it before, not the marathon half marathon. It was like they have what they call the quarter barrel run. It was like four miles. This was somewhere in between there and that one was really rough on me. It's like the worst four miles I think I've ever run. So, yeah, so I did the half marathon. It's progressive, it's like a drug. You do these little bits and each time you get that little hit and you're like, yeah, I want to do that again, I want to enjoy that again, like the suffering. There's suffering in between it, but you have these races that you do and you're with all the people. It's intoxicating in a way.
Speaker 1:And then you have your friends that are also the drug pushers. Like, let's sign up for this.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's my sister. She is a hundred percent. So my sister is the drug pusher on the running side and my brother-in-law is the drug pusher on the golfing side. It's funny, I can say that because we talked about it on his his podcast.
Speaker 1:There's no hope for you, sorry.
Speaker 2:No, it's only a matter of time before I'm a dealer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so funny.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So that's kind of just in a nutshell the first things that really kind of spurred me on and I feel like I could go on forever detailing each run that I did or that's pushed me on. Because after that there was it was the half marathon, and then my sister was like, hey, we're going to do a 50 K. It's like okay. And then after the 50 K she's like, do you want to do a 50 mile? And I'm like no. And then I ended up like, after thinking about it, I went sure, okay. After thinking about it, I went sure, okay, why not? So then I trained for a 50-miler and I did that, and that was last year.
Speaker 2:Okay, where was that at I did the Ice Age 50. Oh yeah, down yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did that one too. Maybe last year.
Speaker 2:It was an amazing experience, transcendent. I put a lot of effort into that. I don't think I have ever felt so beaten at the end of a training session as I did on that one. But then I came out. I think I had set a goal for I was going to do I was like I'm going to do 12 minute miles. I had run the course numerous times. I had a really good idea of how that was going to be about mile 26.
Speaker 2:My right knee decided to give me a lot of aggravation. I don't know what I did it. Some tendon along the side of my knee got very irritated as long as I kept running of. My knee got very irritated. As long as I kept running it was okay. As soon as I'd stop, starting up again was painful. So I'd have to like limp run to get back into motion, which I guess you could say was a good motivator to just keep moving. Um, but it was like I, I it was my vote, most vote, victorious run. I came to the end of that feeling good, other than the knee, feeling like I had done everything right, and I came at a head like a full minute per mile faster than I expected.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:Wow. So uh, to your question. Sorry, I haven't answered that one yet my favorite distance I'm I'm going gonna have to say half marathons, probably, probably there, because it's a really good combination of pushing yourself, but but the distance is enough that it feels like a chunk, like no matter kind of how fast you go on it. It it feels far enough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is definitely far enough. And so how many halves have you done? Do you know?
Speaker 2:Uh, like signing up and paying money to run them.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I've done three, three, three paid.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Then all the extra you do is just right, Just just in training.
Speaker 2:That's like actually this year I'm going to be running my first road marathon.
Speaker 1:Oh, which is weird.
Speaker 2:Just uh, it's going to be the lakefront lakefront in Milwaukee.
Speaker 1:Yeah so.
Speaker 2:I'm signed up for that. I'm very excited. It's weird to say first road marathon, because I've run that distance plenty of times Just getting ready for everything else.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:But in a small way it feels new is how I'd say it. Okay, yeah, it feels like it's going to be a new experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, and it really will be, because, you know, training and racing are two different things.
Speaker 2:Oh, a hundred percent. So I just did my fastest 5k here recently.
Speaker 1:Congrats.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, man, that was so.
Speaker 2:I hadn't't really I wouldn't say I trained for it, I just kind of had you know, keeping up running sure and I'm like you know, honey, I'm really feeling good, I'm putting some good times out there and this uh, 5k is coming up. It's close by. It's relatively cheap. It feels weird paying money for a 5K Agreed, no matter what you do. It feels like a blink and you miss it at this point. But it was for a good cause and that assuages me and my wallet. So I'm like I'm going to go. It seems like a pretty big to-do and I just want to see how I stack up. I'm I'm not overly competitive, but I'm kind of competitive, especially amongst people in my, my age bracket. Yeah, like, all right, I put the time in, I put the effort in. Where am I amongst all my peers? Doesn't mean I'm better. I'm not better than everybody else, but I might be. Uh.
Speaker 2:So like a week before this 5k, I started getting a tickle in my throat. I'm like, oh, you gotta be kidding me. And then I started getting a heavy chest, like a couple days before. I'm like, oh well, I already paid. I'm just you know, I already paid. I'm just you know, I have no expectations, I'm just going to go do it, do the best I can, was feeling run down, tired and, yeah, I ended up pulling out one of the best five Ks I've ever run and it was amazing. So now I'm curious what I can do at like full health, because I probably I ended up like right after that, having one of the worst colds that I've had in a very long time, to the point where I called into work, which is like unseen for me it's funny you should say that, because I was sick right before my last race and I called in and my son said oh God, if we get it, we're going to die because I've never called in before.
Speaker 2:I don't think my wife said that, thankfully, because you know there's like the man flu or the man cold. I'm sure you've heard of it. We joke about it from time to time. I try to make sure that I'm like no, if I say this is bad, it is, it's genuinely bad Cause, I'll. I'll always try to make sure that I'm like no, if I say this is bad, it is, it's genuinely bad Cause, I'll. I'll always try to push through it and she, thankfully, believes me, so we'll keep that running.
Speaker 1:So you know, um, I'm not super fond of five K's myself because of having to pay for them, Right? And I run five K's all the time in my neighborhood. Why would I?
Speaker 2:pay for one, and.
Speaker 1:I run 5Ks all the time in my neighborhood. Why would I pay for one? Yeah, but what I have found is that I do. It's called a team push for Ansley's Angels, and so you get to push athletes that can't run in these. They call them chariots, and they're usually 5Ks. Sometimes there's a 10K, and I find that so rewarding. So I will do a 5K if I can find one that I can push with it, and he's usually one or two people.
Speaker 1:Well, I should say at least two people, and sometimes a little bit more, depending on how many volunteers come to push but, you might enjoy that, um, because it's it's hard to get off your wallet for a 5K, but when you're letting somebody else have that experience too. That might be a good thing. And I'm sure they have them in wherever you live.
Speaker 2:I feel like I was talking to somebody about that recently. It may have been our mutual acquaintance, rachel. I think she was going to do, or had done, something like that, and she can correct me if I'm wrong there. But yeah, no, I I agree that that would be an amazing experience, and one that I'm completely open to, for sure yeah, yeah, they have some coming up in the madison area you in milwaukee I am yeah, yeah, yeah, and that's why one of the halves that I did was for a place.
Speaker 2:Where is it? It's in Waukesha or Delafield, it's in that area and it's called Zacharias Acres and they do work with people with disabilities and they have this whole workshop. It's in a really, really amazing place and I'm not sure how long they've put this run on for, but I did it last year with my brother-in-law and you get to run through their place, um, and that was amazing, it was fun. I wish it was bigger, meaning like I wish there was more people there, because it's so worth it. All the proceeds go to developing this farm that they have and the activities for people, and it's kind of near and dear. My brother, one of my brother-in-laws, has a daughter with downs and they cater to people with down syndrome. So, yeah, I think I will definitely pay money every time for something like that, you know, versus just kind of a generic event.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and you know I don't have a lot of listeners just yet, but you know it's getting on here and if you have a link we can put that in the show notes, for sure.
Speaker 2:Oh sure, yeah, I can. I can dig something up there. I think there we're talking about doing it this year. I don't have a definitive on that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great. So you've got your marathon coming up. And when is that you said?
Speaker 2:it's in October.
Speaker 1:October. Okay, and then? And then? What after a lake shore?
Speaker 2:Oh, oh. This is going to get me into another, into another story, uh. So there's the marathon and I'm gonna use that as a kind of lead-in. So this last february I did this run called arctos, okay, with my sister, and I had not trained for it quite the way that I did for the 50 miler, cause this was going to take its place. It is a they. They have a couple of different runs, I think. I'm trying to remember which ones. I think that they have a six hour, a 12 hour and a 20 hour, and then you, you run as many loops as you can of this trail. So it's at, it's held at scupper nong trails, down in uh, what's near there, kind of by eagle okay, it's in um the part of the kelmarine or yeah, part of the kelmarine forest, yep.
Speaker 2:So I, you know, start going down there and running those. They have a five mile loop, a three mile loop and a four mile loop. It's not really worth. It's not a three mile loop, it's like a two something. And I found that out because in my head it was a three mile loop and a four mile loop. It's not really worth it. It's not a three mile loop, it's like a two something. And I found that out because in my head it was a three mile. And then when I got done, I'm like looking at my watch going no, this is like two and a half. This is so not worth it because it's still a lot of uphill.
Speaker 2:So you run as many loops as you can in that timeframe and it's once the 20 hours is done, you can have it's. You know, whoever has the most miles wins. So you can have up to a four person team, I think, and my sister Holly and I were very ambitious. We're like you know what, we're just going to be you and I, let's see what we can do amongst there's like all these other four people teams. There wasn't a lot of people doing the 20 hour.
Speaker 2:It's a long time yeah and got ready for it, got excited for it. We like packed, we had this whole tent and we had food and it was enclosed and heated. And we, like plans, got out there and it it was snow, snow. It had snowed several inches. So up until this point it had been clear and I had run the trails and it was beautiful. I'm like man, if this is clear like this, it's going to be amazing. Well, it wasn't, and I was not prepared for this slippery snow that was several inches deep. There were people out there with tennis shoes I had just gone home, had that been the case. But we stuck it out.
Speaker 2:Um, mostly I ran the first couple of loops way too hard. I did just very classic. I was full of energy. I started going. I'm like you know, this isn't too bad, I can push, yeah, absolutely. Because in your mind you don't think about it as this whole, like hey, you're here for 20 hours, right, and I had segmented it out like this run and then this run and then this run, and it's so easy to forget how that builds up with you, just build up with fatigue.
Speaker 2:So, by my third outing, it's now dark, I'm tired, I'm cold, I'm slipping and sliding all over the place. I'm pretty sure I strained my groin and the trails diverge. I thought I got lost. I'm like calling my wife. I'm like, hey, you got to look on Garmin and see where I am, cause I'm pretty sure I just took the wrong trail.
Speaker 2:So about mid time it was like 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, we're. We're both sitting in the van trying to warm up and I'm like I'm done. This is like the worst thing I think I've ever done. It was terrible. I said I hurt, I would just want to go lay in bed. I was pretty demoralized and Holly kicks herself like she should have been the cheerleader at that point, like no, we can keep going. And she was kind of as despondent as I was. In a way she was definitely more positive than I was, but still, we were close and it's the first time that I ever went. No, I'm done, I'm not doing it anymore. So we packed up and we left, and that leads me. I have so much regret, so much regret packing up because of the nature of the run. We could have been like you know what? We're going to sleep. Let's sleep for like three, four hours.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then three in the morning we'll get up and we'll go back at it. We'll get several more miles under our belt and whatever comes comes. Whatever happens happens, Cause it's a timed race. You know it's like 20 hours and you do what you can in that time. But going back to not being competitive, but being competitive in my head, I could not not be out there, Like the in-betweens where we were sharing loops. That was okay, but the idea of both of us sleeping while other teams are out there racking miles up, no, I couldn't do it. It was like either I'm gonna leave and I'm just I'm gone, or we're gonna run, and I didn't want to run. So yeah. So it plagued us and sometime later, as we were licking our wounds and thinking about it, we went. Okay. You know what? On reflection, we see where we went wrong. Let's do it again.
Speaker 1:And sometimes it's about learning you know so good for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we're going to tackle that again in February.
Speaker 1:All right, and this time we're going to tackle that again in February, and this time we're going to add more people to our team, so it's not as strenuous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a stupid time to have a race in Wisconsin in February. Oh, it's horrible. Yeah, I mean it's a crapshoot as far as what the weather is going to be. It could be really nice and you can be wearing a t-shirt or you could be in like negative temperatures. I actually felt like I handled the cold temperatures pretty well.
Speaker 1:February gosh. It's almost always below zero in February. Here I feel it's terrible.
Speaker 2:We did luck out, I will say, despite the snow. It was a balmy 25 or 30 degrees.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's not bad For the people in Florida. They're thinking, what 25 is not bad? No, 25 is quite nice. Anything above zero is nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, and I I had run through so much already in the winter because getting into that if I had. I have a love hate relationship with winter training. I've done winter training now for the last three years I think, and I love the fact that it's beautiful out and you don't get overly hot. It's not the same kind of hot as like running in the summer. The problem is I can never tell what to wear.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I'm, I'm getting better at it and I invested in a bunch of clothing this year to kind of combat that. And, and you know, when they say like all you need to run is a pair of shoes and you know just whatever socks, shorts, hopefully other clothing, but your choice, it's true and it's not true, as you start going, it's like, oh no, there's stuff out there that really makes this a lot more enjoyable than that.
Speaker 1:I'm almost always overdressed all year round. I just I don't like to be cold. So in the wintertime I probably have on 15 pounds of clothes. And then in the summertime I'm just like, well, you know, it says it's 70, but what if it only feels like it's 60? So I should probably wear long sleeves. And then I'm like, oh my God, that was so dumb.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's that terrible thing. Well, I was really struggling through the spring here. I actually liked winter better, where I told my wife I'm like you know, at least there it's 20 degrees all the time. I know what clothes work for that. But springtime came, yeah, and I went all right. Well, I can't wear a long sleeve because by the time I get going I'm now sweating and I'm so hot. What am I going to do with that thing? I don't want to go out wearing a t-shirt because it's too cold. Yeah, so this last spring has been probably. I was so done. I'm like I don't even want to go out in this anymore. I'd rather go on a treadmill, and that's saying something. I know a lot of people make fun of it, but I can't. I have to force myself to do the treadmill.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Me too. I didn't used to be like that. But yeah, when my treadmill broke and I was forced to do everything outside, I was like, yeah, I like this better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, outside I was like, yeah, I like this better, that's, yeah, yeah, that night I'm pretty sure, even though I have checked the calibration on my treadmill, I'm pretty sure it's off because I'm running and I'm like, nope, I keep these paces outside. Either garmin is lying to me or or my treadmill is, and now that I think about it, with the way garmin is and how negative it is, I it may actually be lying to me.
Speaker 1:That stupid Garmin Does yours tell you how unproductive you are? All the time too.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know, I I I don't think I have as nice of a watch to tell me I'm unproductive. You get the lesser models and they, they stray away from that. It does tell me if I am maintaining, decreasing or productive in general. But no, it's not super negative. I still joke about it because I like to be part of that group.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Mine does. Anytime I taper, it'll say it was unproductive. I'm like you don't know me.
Speaker 2:Exactly no, it's 100%. I'm always happy when I see it in the productive zone, though, but I've had a fairly large swath of yellow maintaining on my my bar. Although I thought it was funny because it, you know, I was eyeing up what it gave me as a um estimated 5k time, yeah, and looking at it I'm wow, you are awfully ambitious here. I want to say it said like 18 minutes or something like that. Like no, not at all. I don't know who you've been tracking, but that's not me.
Speaker 1:Who stole my watch?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, exactly, I do have the one that when I go out, I have it set up it tells you what your performance indicator is.
Speaker 1:It's like a plus number.
Speaker 2:He did a plus or negative. Yeah, there have been some runs I've gone out and I am just like I'm hauling, feeling good, and it says base. I'm like what? Like I don't know if that's a compliment or not. Base, like yeah, this is how you should always be Right. No, this is really close to a plus seven for me. Come on, carmen. Yeah, they need to fix that.
Speaker 1:Mine does a negative or plus and they'll say like plus one or minus two, and I'm like oh, apparently I was faster last run, Okay, Whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's kind of like Strava's they have. What do they call that? It's your fitness score. Are you familiar with that?
Speaker 1:I'm not.
Speaker 2:No, I'm not really on Strava, so Strava well, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'm on there because I was told, if it's not on Strava, it didn't happen.
Speaker 2:Well for me, if it's not on my garment, it probably didn't happen.
Speaker 1:It didn't happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but on Strava.
Speaker 1:I used to be on Strava and then when I started training a few years ago for a hundred miler I was doing and there had to be walking involved and my pace got so slow. I didn't want people to see my pace and so I'm like I know, see, that's the kind of brain I have um, and then I just never got back on. It's like it was like all these people especially I see my friends doing these like super fast loops you know, what you know, mach five or what you know.
Speaker 1:They're running six minute miles and stuff like yeah, okay, here's my 14 minute mile, let me, let me get off straddle well that that is difficult.
Speaker 2:I actually would love to talk about that for a second. Um, but real quick. So the Strava fitness score is this thing that has plagued me for some time. When I first signed up for it and I was looking at it, it goes up based on the runs that you do. At it. It goes up based on the runs that you do and it it assigns a point value to it and it's meant to be an indicator of your training and progress and it's pretty arbitrary. But it doesn't set itself up that way and for a while I was kind of like it was gospel, like here's how fit you are and, um, the more runs I did, the more it went up. I'm like, oh, that's cool. The problem is that it falls off really quickly and it gets in your head. You take like two days off and it drops like 10 points, like what, and then you go for a hard run. It gives you like two points back going.
Speaker 2:Why am I using this thing to judge my fitness, you know? So it's not sure how we got on that, but just that it's not. I found out later that it's not meant to be like judging your fitness. It's meant to be judging your training load. So how much so? I think Garmin has something kind of like that, but it's, it's your overall. What do you get to?
Speaker 2:And I, when I started looking at it that way, like, okay, this isn't an indicator that I'm losing a ton of fitness if I'm not going for a run or if I'm not doing X, y, z, that I'm okay.
Speaker 2:And that leads into the broader thing, like when, when you use running for health and when I say health I mean like you're trying to just supplement some weight loss with it or just kind of get fitter you can get really trapped into this idea Like if I'm not running, I'm not fit or I'm losing fitness. And it is such a mind game and I can say definitively like you could take a solid week, maybe even two weeks off. I've actually had some great moments where I've been forced to take time off and it's crazy, cause I come back and I'm like, well, I'm starting from zero, I'm going to just go for a walk because there's no point in running anymore. But then you go for your run and you're like this is the best I have ever felt and it's incredible and I probably should do it more often where you just go. I'm going to take a week off and I'm, you know, do stretches and stuff, but I'm not going to run or I'm just going to go really light and it's okay.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:You will be just fine.
Speaker 1:Yep. So, I'm going to print that out and say Ben says and that's going to be what I hand to all my running athletes when I tell them take a rest day, no you're going to be just fine.
Speaker 2:You're taking one day.
Speaker 1:Let's take a week, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes, um. So I I think it's one of those areas that as you go on your running journey, it just takes a bit to sink into your head that it's, it's okay, um. I mean, I know now, progress, advancement, all that kind of stuff your body is being built during your rest. It's not your workout runs and all that stuff. Those are the drivers. They promote the growth, but they don't enact the growth. So I've learned and matured in my running journey that it's okay to rest, it's okay to take a day off, two days off, um, and I'm all the better for it there, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. So then uh, what else you got coming up? You've got the marathon and which. And then I said, uh, you're, you got a, a what coming up after that? 50 mile 100 mile no.
Speaker 2:So there's the marathon. I'm going to use that, as, yeah, that was where that story went. I'm using that as the jumping in point to get ready for Arctos.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:So that'll be the next thing, because I mean I might throw maybe a half marathon in there somewhere. Somewhere around that area is the Zacharias Ac thing, which I may or may not be doing, um, but I'll be doing that with. I love running with people, yeah, um, I don't think I pointed that out. I'm often running by myself. I I run with my wife when I can. She's been training for a 50k she's going to be doing at devil's lake oh yeah, my, my daughter-in-law is doing that oh okay, yeah, dances with her yeah, she's doing a marathon there amazing.
Speaker 2:Um, before I did my 50 miler, there was a guy I knew he did one there and he's like, yeah, you got to go up the hill like four times. Like, uh, that sounds horrible. Yeah, even now I think about it. I'm like it sounds terrible.
Speaker 1:Um my, my daughter-in-law is super ready.
Speaker 2:That's. That's awesome. I hope she does well, because that I hear it can be a very challenging course just going off the bluff and around. I mean there's a lot to it.
Speaker 1:Why are you picking this as your first one around? I mean, there's a lot to it. Why are you picking this as your first one?
Speaker 2:It's close by. Okay, oh, I think it's great. I mean, as many times as I've probably semi regretted it, there's something to be said where they it's like you know, screw around and find out. Yeah, uh, yeah, sometimes you have to do that, you, you push to your limits and you go. Yeah, that was a little bit too far, and then you know next time that's okay. So I have that going on. Um, currently in running I I have been trying to maintain about 30 miles a week. I feel like that's a really sweet spot for me. Uh, I'm not fully achieving it. It's like a real kick in the butt, cause then I'd have to start just with life going on and everything it has forced me to start waking up early and try and go running before work, yeah, and I hate early mornings, yeah. So I keep telling myself that there's gotta be some character growth there.
Speaker 2:It's hidden underneath there somewhere, right? So I have that going on and nothing, nothing else. I'm sure something will pop up last minute, sure? Um, I've been trying to hit up some group runs around me when I can. I really do. I see running as a social sport, even if I'm running by myself most of the time. It's a great opportunity to have conversations with people, and actually doing that makes you slow down.
Speaker 1:It makes you have an enjoyable run.
Speaker 2:Also, too, I joke with my wife that when we go running together it's like the only moment where I can legitimately run away from a conversation, and it's probably okay. I'm just working on my paces, honey. It's not what we were talking about.
Speaker 1:That's great. Do you have any last words?
Speaker 2:of wisdom, ben, for the audience that you'd like them to know about you, about running, about life in general. Yes, running is an amazing jumping off point. There are so many things in life that you can kind of tie back to running and that's why people bring it up in conversation all the time. If you know a runner and they talk about running all the time, that's because the parallels between running, training and life are so strong. And when I say that it just ups and downs, right, and when you're, when you're training, you have good days and you have bad days. I've had days where I didn't want to go for a run at all and they end up being some of the best runs I've ever had. And it's, it's an, it's something that you can apply. The discipline you get from it you can apply to every other area of your life. The skills you get from it, you can apply to every other area of your life. Right, the athleticism from it, you can apply to every other area of your life. So I don't know that I have any like magic words or anything. That's really deep and profound.
Speaker 2:It's had a really positive influence on my life. I've lost weight over the years. It's kicked me into getting healthier because I wanted to achieve these goals and do well at them and and because of that, you have to change your lifestyle to accommodate it. So for people out there who may be just getting into it, you have to stick with it. It is such a process and don't worry about your speed. I know that seems. I think a lot of people say that I mean there's a lot of influencers and stuff. They preach that. But it's so true. If you put the time in and you put in the workout efforts and stuff like that, it will come. It actually might come after you've put in a good solid session and then you take that week off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, might come after you've put in a good solid session and then you take that week off. Yeah, yeah, um, but to stick with it, that's, that's the biggest thing. I know that that can be applied to so much, but it's very true in this endeavor and it I always say this I never go out for a run and come back feeling worse, and that's including some injuries that I've had, right. So I've come back like, oh yeah, I'm hurting, like my leg hurts, my knee hurts, something like that. I've got a torn meniscus on my right knee. Um, I do what I can to exercise that or just strengthen those muscles, but I have never come back from a run and went. I feel so much worse than before I left.
Speaker 1:Right, Because even mentally you probably feel better, even if you didn't physically so yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:The impacts there are really good. So even if you don't feel like it, go do it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely yes.
Speaker 2:You won't come back feeling worse.
Speaker 1:That's right, get out there Well. Thank you so much, ben. It's been a pleasure talking to you, had some great laughs and you're pretty local, so I'm sure I'll see you around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you so much for having me on. Let me just kind of chatter here. I hope there's something usable in there for you.
Speaker 1:Well, take it all, have a great day and we'll talk again soon. Bye, bye.
Speaker 2:Thank you, carla, bye, bye.
Speaker 1:All right. Thanks, friends, for listening in on that session. It was a lot of fun, as always. For those of you who have been reaching out to me through the show notes, I'm unable to answer you back unless you send me an email. So I apologize for that. I didn't know, I thought it was like a texting thing, so yeah, so reach out to me again and put in an email for me. I did put the buy one, get one, half offraPatch discount code in the show notes, so you'll find that there for a little while. So thanks for that, for asking for that. Also, please follow, share and rate the program Five stars, please, even if you don't want to, I appreciate it. Thanks for supporting the show with the cups of coffee. I appreciate that and all the reviews. That's really kind of you all.
Speaker 1:If you know somebody that you would love to hear their story or you want your story on the podcast, please reach out to me. Carla at CoffeeCrewCoachingcom, I would love to have you on. It's super simple, it's fun, it can be fun, it's easy. I would love to have you on. It's super simple, it's fun, it can be fun, it's easy. I make it easy. We'll have a good time. I'll have a good time. Hopefully you will too. But, yeah, reach out to me, love to hear from you and have a great day, guys.
