 Weekly Q&A, time to rock and roll. All the questions this week are coming from YouTube, exclusively, none from email, Twitter or Facebook. I honed in, because there's a lot. There's a lot on YouTube, so I decided this week we're gonna focus on YouTube. Before we dive in, real quick, shout out to Will Claxton and Matt Bertrand. They watched last week's Q&A, and there was a discussion happening about Seth. Why don't you post the questions and the timestamp down in the description so people can jump around to the topics that they're interested in, because I realized the Q&A can go on for a while. Here's the deal. I don't have time to do the timestamps. I really, I just don't. But I do have time to post the questions in order down in the description, so you can go down. Now, forget the grammar, forget the spelling with these questions. I'm literally copying and pasting your questions that you're asking from last week's Q&A and all the vlogs over, let's say, the past two weeks. I can't get to all the questions, but as many as possible that are applicable to as many as possible, as many people as possible. So that's the new game plan. The questions will be posted hopefully every week. I will remember to do them down in the description and then maybe someday I'll have a little more help where I can get someone to do the timestamps for each question. Sound good? Let's dive in. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go. Here we go. Does airport security ever give you any issues with the foam roller? That is from Draw Sam? Yes, they do. They definitely do. A lot of times they think it's a speaker. And who got the foam roller, that the electric foam roller for Christmas? Who got it? And yes, I get a lot of issues. They pull it out. They think they're concerned, I think, mostly about the battery inside. So anyway, but I've made it through Amsterdam, Argentina, all those places. No problem. Moving on, number two. Do you have time for naps between runs? That's from Agnes Day. And Agnes Day, I do not. A lot of the elites take naps. You know, when they are fully sponsored and they literally have nothing else to do all day, most of the elite marathon runners and probably 10K guys as well, take naps during the day. I do not. Agnes Day, great question. I don't love naps. And if I take a nap, I actually don't sleep well that night. So good question. Number three. Seth, if you could only wear one pair of running shoes for the rest of my life, what would it be? That's from Syac. And that is such a crazy, impossible question to answer, but I will give it my shot, my best shot. If I had to pick one, it would actually be a road shoe over a trail shoe because I think you can wear road shoes on the trails more than you can wear trail shoes on the road. Okay, so I kind of thought through that process. And then I decided to hone it down to a trainer versus a racer. A racer, there's a higher risk of injury, although a trainer, you know, it's not gonna be as fast on race day. So I'm really honing in here. So if I had to choose one, I'd probably go, I mean, my easy answer would probably be New Balance Beacon. I love it so much. It's light enough and snappy enough and soft enough that I think would prevent injuries. But I know I keep kind of swooning over the Asics Glide Ride, but I'm just loving it so, so much. And we'll get to that shoe in a minute about the full review. So that is my answer, Syac. Number four, here we go. Have I missed the video reviewing the Skechers Max Road 4? That's from Devin Edwards. You have not Devin. I decided not to do a full review on the Asics Glide Ride or the Skechers Max Road because I lumped it into my best running shoes of 2019, road running shoes of 2000 and those two made the top three. So I'll try to remember to link to it in the upper right hand corner, that vlog. And Devin, I, once my knee is better, I plan to do a full review of the Asics Glide Ride. So good question. Moving on. Here we go. Stefan on YouTube. He's saying, so for those that don't know, if you didn't see today's vlog, I called it. I'm not racing the Houston Marathon. I'm not gonna be in the Olympic Trials. It was a tough decision. My knee is, it's just not gonna allow me to do it. And if you haven't seen that vlog, go watch it, upper right hand corner. But Stefan is wondering, he says, why is decision, thank you. And he says, any idea for your spring marathon? So at this point, Stefan, I'm not locked into a spring marathon as far as I'm definitely going to do one. I'm gonna see how I recover, see how the knee recovers, but I'm definitely, definitely intrigued. But if I had to throw a couple out there, I would say, I would say LA, but actually not LA, LA and California because it's a little too soon. It's, I think it's late March and I would want something in April. So I'm thinking, I'm just gonna say it, London, Krakow or Prague, okay? Krakow, Poland, Prague, Czech Republic, London, UK. But it's a matter of figuring out how do I get into these marathons? They're all late April. I think Krakow and London are on the same weekend. And I'm intrigued, I'm intrigued, I'm intrigued. But again, I gotta listen to the body but it definitely not running Houston, not running the Olympic trials, opens up a beautiful spring, healthy spring where I'm not worried about pushing the body too far. So it's a good thing. And this connects as well. This is from, oh, Muscle Fitness on YouTube. He asked, do you regret your decisions on the two marathons back to back, Amsterdam and New York? And then he says, rest up, you'll have a better year in 2020. I do not regret it. And you know the story about my mom and the reason I jumped on it. Oh yeah, and then there's another one. This is from Agnus Dei. He says, do you feel you should have sacrificed New York for Houston? And I don't because New York City is very difficult to get into. I managed to punch my ticket through a connection but frankly, I like to live in the moment and it was a lifelong dream to race. And personally, it's more important to me to race for my mom than to race in the Olympic trials. So when the opportunity presented itself to race New York, it was a no-brainer. Even though it was just two weeks after Amsterdam. And the reason it was a no-brainer, first of all, it's because of my mom, but also New York is, New York and London are the two most difficult marathons to get into, so I've heard. And it's like, gotta live in the moment. Like I jumped on it and I have no regrets. I have no regrets. Also like meeting all of you, it was, I feel like it was meant to be. It was such an amazing experience and I can't wait to go back. Okay, new move it on. This is from Everything Is Photogenic on YouTube. Hey Seth, you mentioned losing a little by way of quad muscles going out of the mountains. Do you think that will change your nutrition strategy a bit to offset any muscle cramping with less musculature to rely on in that area at such a fast pace? So basically adapting my nutrition in order to maybe build up more muscles. And I would say no, I'm trying to understand the question as well. Like I wouldn't change what I'm eating to let's say maybe rebuild some muscles more as far as protein goes. And there are a lot of questions about what I eat in a day. If I remember, I'll link to the vlog upper right hand corner where I talk about nutrition. But anyway, short answer is no, I won't alter what I'm eating. Moving on to E, no neck. He asked, I have to ask, why did you wait until now at this point in your life to do an Olympic qualifier? Great question. So the easy answer is that starting a family, starting work, buying a house, all these things like after college that I think are frankly more important than Olympic trials qualifier. So I put everything on hold for probably seven or eight years of just like living life. And that's the easy short answer is just like time and family. And now that things are a little more settled in life, we have a house anyway. It's just like opportunities are presenting themselves to go after it, if that makes sense. E, no neck. Thank you for the question. Baba Runfar asks, are am I on Patreon? So I've actually talked about Patreon a couple times on the vlog. Again, if I remember, upper right hand corner. But the short answer is that this channel is growing. It's amazing. Thank you for being here. Thanks for watching some of those ads. Basically you guys supporting this channel by returning and watching regularly is allowing me to create, I hope, higher quality videos for all of you. And Baba Runfar, I approach money in that if you were a Patreon supporter, if I was going that route, I would look at it more as a business and like you are buying a share in the company. And I don't wanna go down that road. Patreon is created for artists that want to create something and they're reliant on that support. But I don't like, like what if that money goes away and those Patreon supporters go away? Now, obviously if you continue and they're probably not gonna go away, but I would rather take the approach, I guess to make it a simple answer is a little more of the business approach, Baba Runfar meaning if the quality of the content is good, people will return to watch on a regular basis, which should, if you are strategic, be enough to support that endeavor because as the saying goes, cream rises to the top. That's my answer, good question, but I have talked about that a couple times before. Oh, okay, Nazach Rodriguez, which this kind of connects to Patreon, he asks, where can I buy a coffee mug, Seth? So Nazach, I was not impressed with the quality of the coffee mugs from Teespring and Teespring prints, the T-shirts actually, I have a T-shirt on right now, but I wasn't impressed with the coffee mug quality at all. So Nazach, at some point, I'm gonna have my own merch shop with a beer stein. I don't have it out here right now, but with a beer stein, a hat, higher quality products. But again, it gets back to that, kind of the business side of things where you have to take it one step at a time. So for now, we're sticking with Teespring and someday we will have a nice coffee mug. Thanks for asking that. Okay, moving on. I hope I'm getting through as many as possible. I think we're on question number 13. Holy smokes, John Ekonomu asks, hey, Seth, how do you decide what routes to run? Is it spur of the moment or do you have it planned? Can you please answer in your next video or on a Saturday? Thank you, John. John, I love this question because when I moved from Boulder, where I went to college, where there's a ton of trails, a ton of running, down to Denver, it took me, frankly, so this is a little tip of the day, if you're moving to a new place, just be patient with figuring out where to run. It took me in this house, I would say two years of running before I felt like I understood loops I could make, my 15-mile loop, my 10-mile loop, my 20-mile loop. It just took time to learn and the different surfaces to run on, the different elevation gain. So now, I will do a little spur of the moment, but I'll know, okay, if I go this direction, I know it's gonna be 12, if I go this direction, I know it's gonna be 11, so I'm gonna need to add on one mile at the end, somewhere around my house. So that's a great question, that was from John. I love running routes and just figuring out the different intricacies of the neighborhood. Okay, moving on to Michael Peter. He asks, has anyone heard of frozen lung? If you are running in really cold weather and breathing hard, it can happen and it can cause damage or even kill you. That's from Michael Peter. Michael, I have heard of it and frankly, I know nothing about it. It's not very cold here in Colorado, but please, if you have experience, we're leaning into the Canadians and the Norwegians and the Russians and anybody else who lives in really, really frigid temperatures, is this like a real thing where you have to worry about breathing in really, really cold air in the wintertime? If you could let us know, some thoughts down in the comments, that'd be amazing. Number 15, from Andre. Do you have a Facebook group? We do, Andre. It's listed below in the description. You gotta go digging for it. I think it's toward the bottom. Dig, dig, dig. It's down there, linked Facebook group and we have a good time on the Facebook group. A lot of good questions. Okay, moving on to 16, from T-Rex. How do you break in your racing shoes, types of runs and mileage, T-Rex? I would say, what I do is two runs, maybe three runs, totaling no more than, really like 15 miles. Definitely no more than 20 miles. Usually that 10 to 15 mile range, split up over two runs, just a little bit. And so I probably am a little, I bet some people break their shoes in more, which is fine. I lean a little bit more toward less breaking in is better. And depending on the shoe, there's a huge difference out there with respect to, and now we're dealing with and working with the carbon fiber plates in a lot of marathon racing shoes. So that throws a whole another, but that's my short answer for you, T-Rex. Moving on, Trapper Keeper on YouTube, ass number 17, on average. How do you break, no, on average. How much do you run and at what intensity in the off season? I love this question. And yes, Trapper Keeper, I am now everybody in the off season. It's so exciting. It's hard because I'm, it's bittersweet because I wanted to really give it, give it one more go in Houston, but I must say it's, it's nice to know that I can hit the reset button in a major, major, major, major way. Trapper Keeper, I'm a big fan of frankly getting out of shape in the off season, meaning I'm just like, I'll do, I'll go to the gym. I will, I'll lift a little bit, not much. I'll do some core work. I'll go in the sauna, do stretching, foam rolling, probably like 10 days from now, if the knee is feeling good, I'll start to mix in the pool. But frankly, Trapper Keeper, I'm a big, big proponent of hitting the reset button on the body, like big, big time. So then when I get going again, with respect to running, I'll probably, I'll start out, I won't probably, I'll start out in that 20 miles a week range and then bump it up to 30 and then 40 and then I'll probably stick it 40 for a couple of weeks and then go up from there. So Trapper Keeper, good question. And at what intensity? Slower the better, slower the better. So probably that's for me, 745 to 930 pace, ideally. All right, moving on, good question. Okay, there's a couple here in this one, number 18. This is from Laver Nutrition. Ta-ta-ta-ta, okay. Nope, I'm going to go to this one. Do you ever train on a treadmill? I do not. And the reason why I do not is that I think it, it fires your muscles a little differently. You're not because, you know, the ground's moving beneath you. So it's a little different muscle stimulation. Now I'm not against treadmills, especially if it's really ridiculously cold. I still go out and run in the cold. I know we just talked about frozen lung, but and some people run on treadmills for a little softer surface and I get that. I think that's, you know, wise. I think at the end of the day, it's I enjoy running in the fresh air. That's why I don't. I have nothing against treadmills. It's just that obviously they're pretty boring, but people watch the blog when they're on the treadmill. I appreciate you might be watching it right now, watching this right now on the treadmill. So anyway, those are my thoughts. I've got nothing against it. I just enjoy the outdoors so much more. Okay, moving on. Labor also asks best tips to get faster labor. If I remember question 18, I have a playlist with five or six videos about how to run faster upper right hand corner. Go check it out. Go check it out. Moving on. I gotta be careful with this one. CK Hiker asks, Seth, can you address why you said women should run less mileage? I saw one comment stating it was time on your feet. But you know as a fellow ultra runner, the longer the distance, the smaller the gap of the physical differences between women and men. Courtney and then she lists some very famous ultra runners. Courtney DeWalter, Maggie Gattrell and many others outright win ultras. CK Hiker, you are so correct. So here's where I'm coming from with, I mentioned this maybe last week is that traditionally women train a little less volume than men. And I'd actually like to dig more into this topic. You've peaked my interest, CK Hiker. But one of the reasons I said that is based on my experience in college, women, ladies had to be more conscious of anemia. And that's where your red blood cell count is lower, especially training in altitude. So when I was at the University of Colorado, the ladies did train less volume than the men. So CK Hiker, that's what I was alluding to, but I don't think I actually stated what I'm stating right now is that and also the time on feet, I think is a valid point as well where if a guy is running 20 miles and a lady is running 20 miles, there's a good chance that the lady depending, I mean obviously depending on the talent level, but the lady is gonna be running longer, which means more time on feet. But then you get into the whole discussion about effort during the run. So that's what I'm alluding to is anemia and ladies need to be a little more, at least that's based on what I, the research I've done and the experience that I had at the University of Colorado. And guys need to be cognizant of that as well, where your red blood cell count is low because you're running at a high volume, especially at elevation. It can be a real issue in it. Basically to offset that, you can take iron supplements and yeah. So I actually do take an iron supplement, just so you know. And I will say one more thing, CK Hiker. So it's because it's such a great question is, I've heard in Courtney DeWalter, if you don't know who she is, she is the toughest ultra runner, long distance runner, I'd say in the world for the women, but she wins 100 mile and 200 mile races outright, meaning she beats all the guys. And I've heard that, I've heard like women, they're wired a little differently. Like they frankly can be a little tougher than guys when it comes to longer, like longer run, like 100 mile plus races, the women can be much tougher. It's crazy and I don't know the science and I love it. I love the fact that Courtney is beating these guys. So CK, it's a great point, but that's my answer. And let me just check the back of the camera cause sometimes there we go. We got time. Sometimes the camera likes to shut off. Okay, question 20. I feel like we're rolling through these pretty well. Moving on run 26 asks, I've been listening to one of the books you love running with the Buffaloes. What do you think about Wetmore's emphasis on reaching high mileage while running singles? So for everyone that doesn't know, I ran at the University of Colorado under Mark Wetmore. He is the, he still is the head coach there and he's been there. Gosh, woof heading toward 25 years ish. No, he's heading toward 30 years. I take that back. So he's won many national championships, coached many Olympians and running with the Buffaloes is a book about the CU cross country program. And it's a great book. It inspired me to walk on to the team and I managed to accomplish that. So he asked, what do you think about Wetmore's emphasis on reaching high mileage while running singles? I love it. I love it. It gets back to the two hour principle that I've talked about for marathon training, made a vlog about that and how after that two hour mark, special things start to happen aerobically in our bodies. I'm not going to go into the science right now and you have to be careful. Got to ease into it. I'll just say I had a lot of injuries at the University of Colorado, but I think what we kind of discovered it was when I was running high mileage and high intensity. And I'll just say it, I think my body was still developing in like, I just feel like I was kind of later to develop as far as my skeletal system. And yeah, I'm just going to, that's kind of one of my theories as to why I maybe had a lot of injuries. Whereas now, I know I had a bone injury this past year, but that was the first one in 10 years. So I, I love running, I love running long distances. I'm a big believer in that aerobic base first and that old school kind of Arthur Liddiard-esque training style. So anyway, that's my answer, run 26. And you mentioned the singles. So we also did doubles at the University of Colorado, but that was after a certain amount of mileage, usually after like 90 miles a week. I just love, I love high mileage. I don't know what to tell you. I just love it. I love it. Okay, moving on, Mike Smith asks, but be careful. You can't just go run high mileage. It takes years, years, years, years, years, years to get, to get to that point. So be, you just don't go do it. Moving on, Mike Smith asked new to running. I've been running consistently for 17 months. Congrats, Mike. I'm up to 35 to 45 miles a week. I think that's pretty solid. As far as like, not too high, not too low. He's ran at mid 30s for last six weeks. Okay. Should I hold this for a while or am I ready to boost up to the mid 50s? Then 70. When am I not a new runner any longer? That's for Mike Smith. Mike, I think it's a great question. Boy, you put me on the spot and I like it. I would say, if you've been running for 17 months injury free, I think you are on the right track. I would say you're not a new runner. Gosh, that's, I don't know if I've ever been asked that. I mean, the easy answer is 24 months. So two years of consistent running with no injuries. And Mike, my recommendation would be to go up to 50 and then hold 50 miles a week for three weeks and then back off for a week. And then see how the body responds to three weeks of 50 miles a week and then back off. And do that two times and then maybe three times. And if you can do that and stay healthy, then you can start to explore 55, 60. But I would say it's gonna take another six months before you would begin to entertain 70 miles a week. It'd be my recommendation. And again, I don't know the surface you're running on. I don't know if you're mixing in workouts, higher intensity stuff. I don't know your elevation gain. So there's a lot of caveats here, but that would be my general recommendation. Good question, Mike. I love it. Okay. This is from, oh, I didn't write the name down. Sorry about that. Would the SLAB Sense 7SG be a good shoe? Solomon SLAB Sense 7SG, for those that don't know, be a good shoe for a muddy 50K. If not, which shoe would be good? So it would be a good shoe for a muddy 50K, but it is aggressive, okay? I would, that would be my shoe, just so you know. But it's like, it's a fast shoe. It's in, okay, the muddy 50K, definitely do SG. And so you have a soft ground lug depth to dig into the mud. And I guess, again, I don't know the elevation gain. I don't know if there's rocks mixed in with the mud, but if it's straight up mud, more mud than not, I would think it would be a great option for you. And I can't wait for the Solomon SLAB Sense 8SG to be released in 2020. It's coming. So, okay, last question. Here we go. Could you please weigh in on running vests when you use one? What features you like? How they should ride, slash fit. Racing with one, hydration bladder versus bottles. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, here we go. I am transitioning a little away from running vests because I'm focused more on marathon racing. But if I was racing a 50K, I would use this Raidlight. This is the three liter. It's being marketed and advertised as the lightest running vest in the world. And I think it still holds that place in the, yeah, it still holds that ranking. So it's Raidlight. It's a French company. And let me just pull this up here. If I was racing a 50K, this 100, 100, 100% would be the vest I would use. And man, you ask about fit. I mean, this thing is just stretchy enough that it wraps around, because I kind of have a big rib cage kind of. So I feel like it wraps around my rib cage quite nicely and hydration bladder versus bottles. I usually lean toward bottles just so you know. And then what features I like? I mean, I like having the bottles in the front. So these are in the front here, right? In the front of this Raidlight. And again, if I was racing a Trail Marathon, I would probably wear this, but I might even just rely on the aid stations. But for a 50K, I would definitely wear this. Now, keeping in mind, like I'm trying to run pretty darn fast. So I want to reduce the amount of weight on my back as much as possible. So you have to weigh that. Yeah, that's something to consider. Another tip of the day is like, you have to weigh like how fast you want to run and then how many aid stations there are and what's going to be at the aid stations and butter my bread. All right, that's my answer, but Raidlight, I love this vest so, so much. All right, that is this week's Q&A. We got another one in the books and question of the day. What questions do you have for me? I'll try and pull as many as possible for next week's Q&A. And again, there's a lot of questions coming in. I think we just went for about a half hour and who knows, if you really are enjoying this and you're getting some value, I can continue to explore doing this better and better, but we're just figuring this. I think this is week five in a row where we're doing this weekly Q&A. So I'm loving it. All right, there you have it. See beauty, work hard. Oh, we're gonna toss it back. Hold on first. We're gonna toss it back to some other Q&As in case you haven't seen them over the past month on the right and the left. All right, onward and upward. See beauty, work hard and love each other. See you tomorrow.