 Off to the gym answering your questions today, excited to do so on this Labor Day weekend, and we'll be doing quite as much filming today, but we're going to kick it off right from the get-go here with a question from Matt on Facebook. He asks, three weeks, I am three weeks into a 10-week block for my second half marathon of my running career. Congrats, Matt. August, you ran 112 miles and biked 90. What are your thoughts on replacing junk miles with, in quotes, with cycling for less impact and injury prevention? I'm giving it a whirl. I'll let you know how it goes, Matt. On Facebook, Matt, thank you for the question. My first thought is, if you can mix, so listen, I struggle with the phrase junk miles. I prefer to say, I do believe there are junk miles out there where you're literally pounding your body into the ground for no reason. One idea, Matt, is I love the idea of biking, but if you have access, and this is the tough part depending on where you live and for everyone out there, I am a huge fan of big, big soccer fields. I'm talking three, four, five, six soccer fields stacked together and doing loops on there. So, Matt, maybe if you have a bike, you could bike to find a soccer field in your area if you have it, bike there, do two to three miles, because for me, and it's a little bit of a mental game, I like to get that running motion often, and basically every single day, unless I'm on a break after a peak race. So, anyway, Matt, that's my idea, is bike to some grass soccer fields, and I know it's a little boring, but put on an audio book, find your favorite podcast, and just do two to three miles jogging on the soft surface. All right, Matt, thanks for the question. On Facebook, and away we go, off to the gym, get the lift on, get to the pool, get to the stretching, and oh, how sweet it is to be in a car that drives, because the clutch in the other car, like I said, it was done. So, in case you guys didn't know, I did purchase a car two days ago from a family member here in Denver, so that's why I'm in this guy. All right, rock and roll. So you never know what you're going to find at new pools and or rec centers or lack thereof when it comes to pools, so there was only a kiddie pool at this rec center. So, you know, just about three to four feet deep. So that's not, you know, I'm not the tallest guy in the room, but I need a pool that's a little more than three to four feet deep. So I did not get the aqua jogging in today, but that's okay. Yeah, you'll roll with it. You'll roll with the punches and see what you can figure out. So, okay, let's get you another question. Here's another question for all of you, and this came in from Facebook. I do believe, maybe it was Instagram. I forgot to write down the name, but here you go. He says, let's see. I work a physically demanding job and some days I walk 20 plus miles a day. That's a lot. Oh my goodness. On hard days, I try to reduce my training, but it's tough when I have a high goal mileage week. Sorry I didn't say that, right? I'm pretty new to running, started a few years ago, so I'd love to hear what people do who work labor intensive jobs. That's a great question. So I think it's totally fine. If you know you're going to have a hard week of, and I used to mow lawns in high school, sorry, actually in high school and a little bit in college as well. So I had to really think about my training up in Buna Vista. Mowing lawns anywhere from four to eight hours a day, depending on the day. And I had to plan out my training accordingly. I think it's totally okay to reduce your volume of training 10 to 20%. If you know your week of work, whatever you're doing, whether you're delivering mail, whether you're swinging a hammer, like building houses, whatever the case may be, because when you're on your feet, in my opinion, you're not recovering as well as obviously you could be if you were typing at a computer or if you were even actually even working in a restaurant. I used to wash dishes in high school as well. And I would be on my feet for six to seven hours straight washing dishes, and it was tiring. So I get it. I think 10 to 20% reduction in volume is totally legit. Don't hesitate to do that. And gosh, if you can set aside a little bit of your money for that weekly massage, I'm telling you, I know I'm on this massage therapist kick right now, but it's helping me, I think, recover so, so well right now. So that's my little tip. And then, oh yeah, question of the day. I posed this question on Strava and Facebook and it's everywhere today. And it's basically how many miles did you, that's right, the end of the month. Check in for miles. How many miles or kilometers did you run in the month of August? And how do your legs feel? Okay, so that's the question of the day and it fits in really well with this question from the gentleman who has the labor intensive job. All right, rolling back home. All right, Instagram, here we go. So today's vlog is a Q&A vlog on this Labor Day weekend. So ask me anything. I promise to answer the first three questions that come in. Ask me anything. Go. All right, YouTube family. I just, I just filmed that for Instagram. I will answer in today's vlog whatever questions come in from all of you. And okay, it's live. Next question, sorry, I got to get the phone here. And by the way, back from the drive home. So Jansen asks on Facebook, how do you know how much vertical to work into your training? He's giving examples of a 50K or 100K race. What is the amount of climbing to be safe? So Jansen, it certainly depends on the course that you're racing. I would say if it's a hilly course for a 50K, I like to get at least 5,000 to 10,000 feet of vertical gain. And I'll put it in meters as well on the screen right now. And then 100K, so I've actually never raced 100K. The furthest I've gone in a race is 50 miles, which is 10 miles short of 100K. But I think my rule of thumb would be 10 to 20,000 feet of vertical gain per week. Again, depending on how hilly the course is. Like there's some 50Ks and 100Ks that are actually pretty flat. But if it's hilly, especially at altitude, and if I had to retrain for the run rabbit run 100, I would have reduced my volume of training and I would have increased my strength training, meaning just go out and hike big mountains with weight on my back. I was running probably 90 miles a week last year for the run rabbit run 100. I would have reduced that to 75, and I would have tacked on another, at least another eight to 10, eight to 12,000 feet of vertical gain per week. All right, Jansen on Facebook, thanks for the question. Can't wait for the questions on Instagram. They're gonna be rolling in. Oh, better take the phone, better take the phone. Time to make a little salad, little salad time. First actually, first question that came in via Instagram was, what is my favorite junk food? Good question. Let me think on it for a second. Let me think as I'm making my salad. Three, two, one, machine. Absolutely delicious. Oh yeah, crush that salad like there's no tomorrow. Okay, I'm struggling a little bit to come up with my favorite junk food, but I will just say that my go-to snack, if you all know, is definitely, okay, can't close that, is definitely dark chocolate, no doubt. But another one of my favorite snacks, I know, I know it's not that crazy, but just coconut cashews from Trader Joe's. Absolutely delicious. Now I realize these are not really major, major junk foods. If I had to pick something that I could, I could put down two dozen chocolate chip cookies any day, any day, dunked in milk, no doubt, or Oreos, I guess Oreos too. So if I had to pick one, that would be my go-to junk food. Okay, here we go. Like I don't like Twinkies, I don't like, you know, Skittles, it's just not my thing. It's just not my thing. All right, taking the trash out. Okay, I gotta get the chores done on a Saturday. Okay, here we go. Next question is coming from, this is from Ryan in Wisconsin. Thank you, Ryan, on Facebook he asked. He's running his first marathon in Chicago. Congrats this year. I've done plenty of road and trail halves, but never a full yet. My ultimate goal is to get a BQ Boston qualifier by the 2022, is that how you say that? 2022, Boston, and before my 40th birthday, and he's wondering what my thoughts are on whether or not my rabbit singlet is good, it would be good for a marathon. I would say yes. Very lightweight. Now here's one crazy thing. You might need to push sunscreen on your back and shoulders because it's very lightweight. Like these shoulder straps, if I can say that are very thin. So just something to keep in mind, like you might need to put more sunscreen on your back and shoulders, but very lightweight. I'm sure Nike, maybe Adidas, I don't know. I know there's probably lighter singlets out there, but the breathability of this rabbit singlet, I'm really enjoying. So good question from Ryan in Wisconsin. All right, we march on, everybody. We march on, just getting stuff done today. Uh-huh. Hi, Michael, we're gonna, oh, let me just raise this camera. We're gonna open up a package that arrived today. Hold on, YouTube family. Okay, so speaking of singlets, I've heard of this company before. Okay, I thought it was called something else, Janji. I thought it was, yeah, okay, Janji. I actually don't, it looks like they're from Massachusetts. I don't know what's in here, but it feels like outerwear. So we're gonna open this up with all of you, Janji. I've heard of them, but I've definitely never tried anything from them. Let's do this. All right, what, what could we have here? All right. Oh my, okay, I gotta open these right now with all of you. This is cool, running shorts. Oh, running shorts with roses on them. Okay, that is pretty cool. Look at the color of those. Oh, and they feel really, really nice. It says the Mexico collection. Okay, that's amazing. Thank you, Janji. What else do we have here? Is there a tank top? That's what I, or a singlet. That's what I'm kind of curious about. Hold on, Michael. Oh, I don't even know what this is. Whoa. Hold on, you know how it is. All right, you go, you go explore, Michael. Bottom line, I'm excited and this is cool. Janji, oh, pants. So cool. Look at that, Joseph. Han, look at these. True loves in the house. Han, those are roses. And Han, Janji just sent this to JNJY. What is, water, oh my gosh. Okay, look how lightweight this singlet is, sure enough. Han, we're having a good old time out here. Open in, open in some outerwear. Thank you, Janji. And so anyway, roll the tape, more Q and A's. All right, everyone, continuing with your questions. Thank you for sending them in all over the place. Ah, there was one on Twitter actually. Okay, hold on, where is it? Okay, here it is from Lloyd. Shout out to Lloyd. Compression therapy has been a big part of my recovery from a recent soft tissue and muscle injury. Have you used before and do you have an opinion on using compression sleeves for recovery? Lloyd, I love my compression sleeves. In fact, I just ordered some compressed sport, brand new sleeves that will go on my calves later. But Lloyd connected a picture here to his tweet. I don't know if you're gonna be able to see that, but there's these new, basically your entire leg is, actually I'm gonna save it, and your entire leg is in these sleeves and it helps with recovery. Now a lot of ultra runners are using this compression system. Lloyd, I would say I'm very interested. I've never used it before, but yes, I am a fan of compression for recovery. Good question, Lloyd. Okay, moving on to Instagram. These are the top three. I already took one, where's the next one? So the question is, do I like the Hoka Evo Speed Goats EVO? I don't know if you say EVO or pronounce it out EVO. I will just say EVO. Basically, that is from Stax14 on Instagram. Yes, the answer is yes. I'm gonna give you my first impressions in the next, I'm gonna say the next 36 to 48 hours, so stay tuned for a second video publishing very soon. Absolutely, I'm excited, very excited. These are the shoes that Jim Wamsley wore when he set the course record this year at the Western States 100. Everyone at the race was wondering what he was wearing. It was this shoe, the Hoka Evo Speed Goat. Okay, enough of that. Stay tuned for the first impression. Okay, moving on to, this is from Liam Dennehy, how to get better at running short and steep hills in cross country. All right, here you go. Quick feet, eyes up, as I always say, pump your arms. That's actually my go-to saying, eyes up, pump your arms, quick feet. So move from your head down to your toes. So eyes up, pump your arms, quick feet, but short hills in cross country, like you don't wanna coast those hills, but you also don't wanna put yourself into too much oxygen debt. So depending on how long the hill is, I would, if you have runners around you and you've been running with them throughout the race, make sure you don't get dropped on the hills. And in fact, I would actually use it as an opportunity to test your fellow competitors to see if that's a moment where you can, I almost said break them, meaning pull ahead, see if they can go with you. If you're feeling strong enough, the other answer would be definitely hit the gym. Like make sure your legs are strong. Whether it's single leg squats, like I was doing today on that basu ball today, just like those little exercises to make sure your legs are as strong as possible, that will help a lot. Liam, I hope that helps. Good question. Holy smokes. A lot of questions coming in on Instagram. And this is from D. Shepard. Shepard, I hope I don't disappoint you. He asked, what shoes do you plan to run in for the Amsterdam marathon? I don't know. I'm still testing out. Sorry, I keep dodging that question, but I will have an answer for you. I would say by late September, mid to late September. All right, keeping going here. This is from Andy Roland. Have you ever done a track 24 hour event? Do you ever plan to? Andy, I have not. Yes, I would say yes. It's probably gonna be in my mid to late 40s, but I wouldn't mind just seeing how far I could run in 24 hours around a track, even if it just turned into a food and eating, hang out with friends type of situation. Good question, Andy. Moving on to Nate Gamble. He asked, how much does talent influence running? Can the average Joe's, such as myself, who has grit and a passion for the sport become a sponsored runner? Thanks, man. Keep up the good work. Nate, I would say talent has a lot to do with how you might perform, let's say after college and get a sponsorship. I hate to say it, but a lot of runners who are really good in college won't even be sponsored for very long after college because it's so competitive and the money is just not there. But I will say you can find your niche within running. For example, I kind of thought maybe I could be sponsored after running at CU and it didn't happen. I didn't pursue it as hard as I probably should have, but now as a mountain runner, I have found my niche and I'm not pursuing a sponsorship, but I think if I wanted to be sponsored, I could be. So I would say don't give up on your dreams. Work hard, harness that grit as much as possible and you could achieve great things and be patient with yourself. You might not, frankly, if I feel like my overall strength is just starting to come into its own in my 30s. So don't give up on your dreams as a 22 or 23 year old. You might hit your peak physically as a 32 year old or maybe a 28 year old. And frankly, if you don't mind running the marathon, that's when marathon runners peak is in their early 30s. So I'm not trying to discourage you. I'm just being a realist and yes, you can achieve great things, but yes, talent does help. It really does. I'm not discrediting talent at all. So good question. I believe that was from Nate. All right, here we go. We'll take one more here out on the patio. This is from Odium. Let's see. He asked, how do you get the perfect shot when record and what type of camera do you use? So I film with a GoPro 7 and then a Canon 1D, very expensive camera. How do I get the perfect shot? I've been actually, I've been running for 21 years. I've been taking pictures for 22 to 23 years. I've actually, my dad was a photographer. So I've been training my eye for a long, long time. So good question from Odium. All right, enough for now. We're gonna do a couple more here in a minute. I actually got to roll out. I'm realizing I'm not really rolling here. All right, everyone, let's finish this blog out. I know we're going a little long here, but there's a lot of questions and most blogs are not like this, but you have questions. So I'm gonna try and provide as many answers as possible, provide a little value on this Labor Day weekend. Okay, diving back into Javier on Instagram. He asks and I know I only said three, but I can't help myself. If you're asking questions, I'm gonna provide some answers. Here we go. I know I'm late, but I'll still send a question in. How has life changed with your YouTube growth over the past year? Javier, I love this question. How has my, what has not changed is this light going out? Hold on. All right, so what has changed, Javier? What has changed? One thing that pops into my mind is going up and running in the mountains. I almost every time I go up there to graze or now Long's Peak, I'm always seeing folks who have seen the channel, watch the channel, give me a high five. So that's really neat. Just to be able to connect with runners in the real world. I just, I love it. Now sometimes I'm running up the mountain as fast as I can and I don't really talk to those who are saying hi because I'm breathing so hard. But anyway, that's pretty neat. Javier, oh man. I mean, I would say it's given me some nice purpose in YouTube, a little more focus. As you know, it was just a daily, just, it wasn't, it was still cool, just a daily vlog, you know, over about a year ago, but just that nice focus on running actually provides a lot of mental relief because I love running. It's easy for me to talk about and I don't have to feel like I have to create something out of nothing every single day if that makes sense, Javier. So it's been nice to niche down to running. Good question from Javier. I appreciate it. I could go on and on, but hopefully that gives you something to chew on. Okay, let's see here. Moving on to some questions from, let's just jump in to Colin. He asks, how many miles on your old car before it gave out? 192,000 miles, but here's a fun, a fun little trivia. My car in high school was a 1987 Chevy celebrity. I gave it away at 300 and like 35,000 miles. So that's a fun little trivia question there for you. Okay, moving on. And I have not seen these questions. I'm just diving in as we go here. Hey Seth, glad I found your channel. This is from Sebast... I'm not even gonna try and say. I found your channel. It has helped me prepare for a second 50K Ultra next week question. How important is it to have more than one pair of running shoes to alternate on training days? I think it's important. I love, well, obviously now my life has changed a lot. That's one way Javier that my life has changed is the shoes. But I think it's important to alternate. I think wearing the same shoe with the same drop every single day, I think your foot and your ankle can get, frankly, used to that ride and that drop. I like changing it up, especially for easy days. I like that zero drop to stretch out the calf, stretch out the soleus. And for 50K training, I'm guessing your 50K is a trail race. So you might not have access to trails. So having a road shoe and a trail shoe is also important. Man, but at the end of the day, it's like you gotta pinch pennies, save money. Don't feel like you have to have more than one pair of running shoes. But if you're able to, I think niching down your running shoes, it really does, over time you'll realize it really does make a difference. And how much lug depth is on the bottom of your trail running shoes also makes a difference for aggressive trails like Long's Peak or buffed out trails like I ran on yesterday, where it was just nice and smooth and the Evo Speed Goats did really, really well. Okay, good question. Moving on. Oh man. Okay. Tristan says, hey, I've been getting this pain on the top of my foot near my ankle. And I'm wondering if it's because of my shoes. Anything you think it might be, I can't really find anything on the internet or anything that will help it get better. I have a cross country meet this coming Thursday. So Tristan, you might be lacing your shoes too tight or you might be using the wrong type of lacing, the wrong type of knot or the, yeah. And so I had troubles with, remember the Vemaro 14s, Nike Vemaro 14s? I don't know. I'd love, I'll be curious to see if I pick up the Nike Vemaro 15s whenever they come out because I had major issues. I never really figured it out fully. I had pain on the top of my foot near my ankle. So it might be the shoe lacing system just doesn't work with your foot. Yeah, I'm gonna leave it there, Tristan. Good question. Always talk to your doctor if you have a foot, if you have a pain on the top of your foot, if it doesn't get better sooner rather than later. All right, moving on here from JECXC runner. Here we go. What training philosophy do you use? Former college runner here wanting to get back into some longer races, half full and maybe even mountain. Awesome. So I'm an Arthur Lideard guy because that's what my college coach who I have a lot of respect for, Mark Wetmore who I would argue is one of the best American distance running coaches of all time. No doubt. And he was a student of the Arthur Lideard training system. Now he's added his own style to the Arthur Lideard training system but our training methodology I should say but that's definitely my go-to. And a lot of people bring up the Maffitone with me and I know about the Maffitone. If I'm saying that right, I have no clue but I do not follow that training methodology just so you all know. Arthur Lideard is my go-to guy. All right, moving on. I'm trying to be a little more rapid here. Some ultra training tips. That is from Decorated Dust on Instagram. Some ultra training tips. Gear is really important. Nutrition and hydration is really important. Way more than a marathon. And now I haven't raced a road marathon you really wanna be dialed into your nutrition in an ultra race and he'll work. Get your vertical, get your leg strength. And I would say you don't have to run ultras. It's kind of a fun thing to be able to say you've done an ultra race but I'm just gonna warn you, it takes a lot of time out of your day, your week, your month to train well for an ultra race. And I don't want you to go to a 50K and run for 15 hours. I don't know, whatever the case may be a long time and not enjoy the experience and never wanna go back. So I would just encourage anyone out there who's interested in racing 50Ks and above, make sure you have enough time in your life to be able to do that and that might require you cutting out some other things. That's what I discovered through the ultra running scene. Okay, moving on. Bada bing, bada boom. This is from Vegan Runner Taylor. Amazing work on the Pikes Peak Ascent. Thank you. I love the amazing vlogs because I gained so much inspiration. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay, this is not a question, it's just a comment. Thank you, Vegan Runner. I appreciate it. And let's make sure I'm not missing any others here. Okay, maybe one more. This is from Scott on Instagram. What affects ground contact time and vertical oscillation? Does it matter to running performance? I have a running dynamics pod that captures these. So Scott, you know me, I go simple. I don't even know what you're talking about. Vertical oscillation, but I can guess. So if you don't know my style, I'm just like, I'm not a tech guy. And I think it really does come down to time. I would love to get into, no, I would not. I shouldn't even say that. Like it just like power meters and heart rate monitors and it just doesn't interest me. And here's the thing in running, do what you love. Like for me, as I train for the marathon, a lot of you are kind of trying to figure out why the heck am I still running up in the mountains? It's because I love it. Okay. And so I think in this world, we need to continue to pursue happiness, right? Part of the declaration of independence. Like I don't enjoy even trying to figure out the heart rate monitor on my new Sun 2.5 watch. And I frankly don't have enough time. But so anyway, sorry, Scott, to go on a little rant there. I can guess that vertical oscillation is, ah, vertical oscillation. I can guess it's like, frankly, maybe how far off the ground your feet are coming through your gate cycle. And so there's that. Now what affects ground contact time? I would say your ankle, your ability for your ankle to snap in layman's term. So basically it's that snap and it's that, it's a snap. And I'm gonna focus in your knee, but I'm gonna focus more on the ankle. Like just boom, just that boom, boom. And I'm a big fan of light on your feet. That's why I always say mountain running is dancing in disguise, like just light on your feet, barely touching the ground, quick feet. That's why I do the quick feet exercises. So anyway, Scott, that's not a great answer, but I appreciate you asking anyway. I just, oh, maybe if somebody, when I have more help with this YouTube channel and somebody wants to come teach me about power meters and heart rate monitors, I will sit down and listen to you. But at this point, I just don't have time. Okay, moving on. Okay, this might be the last one. This is from Junren 0314, half tights or shorts. So you know how I like my shorts. I'm not afraid to wear short shorts, but I must say half tights in the wintertime critical. Why? To help keep the hamstring warm, to help prevent pulling a hamstring. I'm a huge, in fact, I just, actually I bought a pair of New Balance half tights. I'll probably pick up one more pair before the winter sets, or fall, you know, we're a ways off, but let's say in like two months from now, another pair of half, I'm just, I'm a big fan of half tights, just to help your hamstring stay nice and happy. I love you guys. Thanks for bearing with a lot of Q and A. I hope I brought you a little bit of value on this weekend. Have a great Labor Day weekend, a great Labor Day, tomorrow, and go grill, go have a good drink, enjoy time with your loved ones. And I already asked the question of the day, keyword, oh boy, let's just go with QA for Q and A, QA, so a little acronym there, I guess it would be. All right, shout out to two random blogs on the right and left, because I didn't even think about it. Right and left, two random blogs from yesteryear. I love you all, thanks for being here. Seek beauty, work hard, and love each other. See you tomorrow.