 more precious. All right, let's do this, everyone. Let's do this. Getting the run in, calling an audible. I was going to run far today, but Michael has a fever. Seth just slamed his finger in the door. We almost had to go to urgent care. It's been a while, crazy day at the D'Amore household. So I'm flip-flopping. So that's what I mean by calling an audible. I'm flip-flopping my training days. I'm going to go shorter today, longer tomorrow, take these shoes out, get you my thoughts soon. And yes, I'm going to answer a question from a spouse of an ultra runner who emailed me and is basically just curious to hear the thoughts of true love on that family running balance and the sacrifices that we have to make, not only as long-distance runners and athletes, but also the families. Let's just be, you know, call of spade of spade. There are some sacrifices that have to be made. And I'll explain a little bit more as to what, how that plays out in our household here in a little bit, but I'm going to lace up in the, well, let's just do it right now. And by the way, putting on my, my Sun2, Sun2 buff because I'm wearing my Sun2, watch today. And here we go. All right. Next shoe, testing out for you. One, two, three, hocuspeed goat four, the normal speed goats, not the EVO speed goats, the hocuspeed goat fours. But the only, the only issue is that I'm not running on trails today. I'm running on ice and snow. And I just, I've been sitting on these shoes for about a week now. And I just don't know when I'm going to get up to the trails again, because we got a big, you know, 12 to 18 inch snowstorm. So here we go. Hoka speed goat fours. Let's do this. Oh my goodness. Here we are. What a day. What a crazy day. It's been a crazy, I told them a little bit about the morning little guy told them about the morning with the finger. And so 12 seconds up. Everybody screaming bloods everywhere. It was not urgent, urgent care is on on speed dial just in case. So everyone basically, I had a game playing for the vlog got a little crazy. And that's okay. Remember, I think I mentioned it earlier. Flexibility is key as a runner as a human as a mama and a papa. You just got to be flexible all the time. And I'm going to hop out in the studio and just share a little bit about my experience with little sacrifices that need to be made in order to reach goals as a runner. But in addition, you know, out there, mama's and spouses, if you are married, or you know, or maybe you're raising a committed runner, maybe you're you're a mama or a papa that's raising a runner in high school, you know there's some sacrifices along the way. So what are some sacrifices that you maybe have? That's a good question. Thought of? Yes. Yeah. Okay, a couple that came to come to mind right away are when you have to travel. Here's the thing too about us. We are homebodies. We love being home. We love being home. We had a great privilege of I feel like before we met each other traveling the world and seeing everything. But when he travels, of course, you're a man down and a very helpful man down. So that is definitely a sacrifice. But for sure worth it. And we I have lots of little hacks that I do that make it easier for me. And we just lower the bar and have things like cereal and sandwiches for dinner, paper plates, paper plates are key. And obviously he does a great job of like going as minimally as possible. So not having any kind of buffer days, which I appreciate. That's really nice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then and then I am eating. Yes. That was the other thing a little healthier these days, more so than a year ago. It's been okay. So it's a sacrifice for me and that I'm having to shift how I meal plan and what I buy and rearrange the budget a little bit. But it's good. I mean, it's like a good thing that we all start eating healthier. You are definitely leading us in that. Yeah. But and then chopping, kind of just working in new systems and making the new routine fit and work. And so I mean, I don't know if I call that a sacrifice so much as life. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But but yeah, okay, that's been a place where I need to be flexible. A shift, a shift in the in the grocery bill. That's another thing too of like, we he'll plan out when he'll do his runs or his long runs and like something to come up, like whether we'll hit or something. So then instead of him going out right then, you know, and we had planned to go do something, then we shipped because now that's our time to be together as a family and then he'll run later. And so honestly, it's that word flexibility. Yeah. It's a matter of yeah. And so you're probably wondering what about the two hour, three hour, four hour, five hour long runs in the mountains sometimes. It's that's time away. But I don't think I've ever filmed on the vlog maybe once where I'm out at a bar watching a Broncos game. I would love to go watch a Broncos game. I love the Broncos at a bar, but it's like you just don't, it's like you have to make your priorities. So I prioritize the long runs, but I'm not out, you know, riding dirt bikes all weekend. Right. No, that's true. You don't ever, I was just had brunch with my best friends this morning and he stayed home with the kids. And we I was just saying like, you never once think or or say like, what about me or what about my top downtime or rest off? That it's true. You do utilize what would be quote unquote like the social fun moments. Like I'm not trying to brag. It's just, you just have to do it if you want to reach your goals with respect to there's only 24 hours in a day. And you got to get the training in. Yeah. And you know me building the aerobic engine, I'm a big believer in those long runs. And there that's time away from this bungalow, this perfect house, which means we have to, which means I have to not go do fun, you know, fun stuff all the time. Grab a beer with your pal. Yeah. You don't drink beer anymore anyway, but yeah, that is true. That's another sacrifice. I had a beer today. Yeah. Well, happy Thanksgiving America. There you go. So those are just a few little reflections. All right. Out to the studio, little sharks. You want to get on camera one more time? Got a couple of sharks. Yeah, come right at Seth. Too close. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. What to say about this topic of sacrificing as long distance runners. Real quick, we'll mention eight miles in the Speed Goat 4s. I'll get you my first impression next week. Once I take them out on the trails, I didn't even hit dirt today really. It was basically all pavement, ice, and snow, but I'm actually going to replace this Speed Goat 4 with another shoe. A shoe that I will keep, I hope for the rest of my life because it's a reminder for me of what it takes to chase down our dreams. This is the Hoka Clayton, a shoe from Hoka that I don't believe. Yeah. I don't believe they even make it anymore. So I'll just put that right there. There's a story behind it. I'll share that in a minute. And as I was thinking about even just listening to true love inside there, as runners, long distance runners, it's different. The pain is different than football, than hockey, than soccer, than a lot of other sports. Running is a pain and a sacrifice that is more sustained. It's like running. It's like the marathon of life. Life is a marathon, and in running, whether we're doing a three hour long run in nasty wind and blowing snow, or whether we're doing a track workout and the track has ice on it, I guess I'm thinking along the terms of wind, or maybe you're in the Southern Hemisphere and it's blazing hot out with 95% humidity, it's a different type of pain that we experience as runners. So as long distance runners, we sacrifice our sleep. Gotta get that run in, right? You got to get it in. Sometimes before you got to go catch the subway to get to work, or to get the kids off to school, or you got to get it in. You're waking up 15 minutes early so you can get home and get that foam rolling and stretching in before taking a quick shower, grabbing a bowl of oatmeal and hopping in the car to, you know, I don't know, go catch an airplane. Whatever the case may be, we sacrifice our sleep. As I mentioned inside, I do, and I don't love it. And I'd love to continue to talk about this with all of you, but yes, I do sacrifice some of my former social engagements, okay? It's not a great way to say, but just hanging out with friends, you know, it's hard. And I want that back at some point, but I realize right now as I'm chasing down dreams in running, and yes, on YouTube, I know that I have to hit pause a little bit so that I can just survive and find enough hours in the day to sleep, to edit, to do the running shoe reviews for all of you. So here's the deal, everyone. I'm just saying, and I'm not trying to brag here, but for those that don't know, it's been hard. It's been very hard to get to this point. And we're almost, I can't believe it. We are there. We are knocking on the 50,000 subscriber door, but I've been uploading. So here's the deal, everyone. I love running and I love video production, and I love telling stories, and I love communicating with all of you. So three and a half years, almost actually getting close to four years ago in April 2020, I will have been uploading a daily video to YouTube every day, no days off. And I made that commitment for a lot of different reasons, but one of them I knew that if I wanted to reach people, I needed to be reliable, and I would need to be consistent in talking to you, and thank you for listening on a daily basis. I know you can't watch every single day. I get it, you're busy, but I know many of you do watch so, so consistently. And my family, for those that have been watching a long time, you know my family has not always had the greatest financial situation. It's been hard. You know, raising three kids, a mortgage in Denver, Colorado, like Denver is a pretty hot, hot real estate market, but, but, but we have pinched pennies, true love and I, very tight budget for years and years. And I bought, if you got, I hope there's people out there watching who saw this blog, I think two and a half years ago now, when I got on Craigslist, and I was, I was a runner, I was running pretty high volume. I think about 70 miles a week, I could not afford. Okay everybody, this is where you've got a dream. I could not afford two and a half years ago, new running shoes, two and a half stinking years ago. I had to go on Craigslist and buy shoes for $20. And it's like, it gets me emotional because it was, I was, it was hard. And true love and I were like, we were, we were, we were juggling. We were trying to figure out, okay, it's like, we got to pay the electric bill. We got to go buy groceries. And I still wanted to be a runner. And so sure enough, a gentleman was selling, and these aren't even my size. These are size eight, you all know, I'm a seven and a half. So they didn't even really fit me, but I was like, okay, 20 bucks Craigslist, I got to buy them because I can't, I, this is all I can afford. And now, and now, and now it's like, what the, what the heck is going on? You know, sorry, it just gets me going. I'm back. I'm just trying to share with you that this, this, this, this, this, from this to this, it just doesn't happen. It takes sacrifice. You know what else it takes sacrifice? 219. 219 takes sacrifice. I've already tried twice. I've got to dig a little deeper, everybody. Got to dig a little deeper, get that 219. You better believe it. So we are on a journey together. Thank you for, for being, just for being here. But I hope that as a long distance runner, you are embracing and accepting the gift of sacrifice. Because if you open up to that sacrifice, you will receive it and it, it will set you up. And I know I'm kind of getting philosophical here, but if you embrace and accept that sacrifice into your life as long distance runners, the pain, the early mornings, the foam rolling when it hurts, the eating healthy shakes or whatever, however you eat health, whatever the case may be, it is a gift and it will set you up for success that goes far, far beyond anything you could imagine. Far beyond. Question of the day, how does long distance running teach you about sacrifice? Another way to think about it, have you been able to embrace sacrifice as a long distance runner? So I don't know where that came from. I just got going there because you guys get me going and you're here watching. I love you as always and onward and upward. All right, there you go. Tossing it back. I'll try and find on the right hand side the Hoka Clayton blog where I bought this shoe for 20 bucks off Craigslist or maybe it was Facebook Marketplace. It was somewhere online. And on the left, we'll toss it back to the 10,000 subscriber vlog from last spring. All right, everyone, say beauty, work hard and love each other. See you tomorrow.