Miles & Mountains
Join Nick, a social worker and coach by day, as he unravels the inspiring stories of athletes and the public, uncovering the motivations behind their actions, from conquering mountains to participating in ultra-endurance races and competing in rodeos. Get ready for heartwarming tales of community support, acts of kindness, and the revelation that everyone has a deeper story to tell. Whether it's running, climbing, or participating in rodeos, these stories will inspire and uplift. #Running, #Climbing, #EverydayAthletes, #Rodeo
Miles & Mountains
April Calendar Club Challenge w/ The Maricopa Cowboy
*Disclaimer. This episode was recorded early May. I apologize for the delay. Ty is an incredible athlete and person. Give this episode a listen and give him a follow. He will be back, so stay tuned. Until then....Enjoy!
@maricopa.cowboy
https://www.instagram.com/maricopa.cowboy?igsh=MWV2cHVndDVvaW50Nw==
@chrismorrison_runs
https://www.instagram.com/chrismorrison_runs?igsh=MWk1M2xnbDNsYTM4dg==
Shoutout to:
Ty Lawson
Chris Morrison
Alter Ego Ambassador: https://alteregorunning.com/
Miles & Mountains Promo Code: MMyr2
Ty Lawson. How are you Good? How are you doing? You are also known as the Maricopa Cowboy.
Speaker 2:That is true, that is me.
Speaker 1:Now I know some cowboys down there in the running world, arizona. That is why call yourself a cowboy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I I mean it was a long time coming.
Speaker 2:I feel like, um, I grew up small town, farming town in Wisconsin and uh then lived, you know, after uh high school, up in Northern Wisconsin, up on the south shores of Lake Superior, just really Minnesotan Northwoods area, where everybody says howdy, how you doing Northern slang, and so the word howdy has just been ingrained in my vocabulary for a very long time.
Speaker 2:And and yeah, you know, moving to Arizona and running with uh friends, they, everybody knows him from the Midwest because of my vocab and saying howdy, how you doing, and things like that, um, oh and uh, all those Midwestern slang words and and uh, then you know we, we got on the discussion of uh, if you're a morning runner, and uh, you say good morning when you're out on the trail. If you're a morning runner, and you say good morning when you're out on the trail, but you often say that in the evening too, you forget about it because you're always saying good morning on trail and and so I always just say howdy doesn't matter the time of day. You say howdy on trail. It's a friendly term and and people enjoy it. So I guess long, long-winded answer is it comes from being in the Midwest and in Wisconsin and saying howdy a lot and then kind of just embodying that being out here on the trails and living life in the desert.
Speaker 1:Okay, you know about the Coconino Cowboys. Right, you have to.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's why I mentioned this man because, hey, dude, all right, all right.
Speaker 1:I think I know you from alter ego mostly. I think I, I, we found each other before Chris Morrison. But then this whole running world is it's, it's big, but it's actually small man, and I think that's how we've known each other, the alter ego.
Speaker 2:How's that doing?
Speaker 1:And I haven't talked about alter ego at all. I've been an ambassador for two years now. I haven't really talked about it. I, you know, put the deets on every end of the episode. But that's how we found each other. We both, I guess, joined the team and they're like, okay, get to know more team members. And so here we are. Before Chris Morrison, how's alter ego doing for you, man?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think same boat for me I think it's been two or three years now of um doing the alter ego thing, I think. Um, I just loved a lot of the branding and the style of the hats and stuff like that and they seemed really community focused and community based and that is my favorite part of running and the desert trail scene here is the community's next level, like nothing, like I've seen anywhere else.
Speaker 2:And so that's why I wanted to join and, yeah, you meet all sorts of people online because of those kinds of connections and good group of people. And now it's expanded to be gigantic, of course. So there are so many people online that are connected through alter ego or different ambassadorships like that, some folks on social media here in the desert as well, and form some really great friendships and, uh, just one of the best communities around, so supportive and inclusive so I love it.
Speaker 1:The community in arizona is one of a kind man. I don't know, it's that high desert running community that. I guess I mean colorado. I know a few people in Colorado. They got the same. Washington not so much. That's where I live. It's different man. It's that high, it's that desert or the mountainous regions that come together as one man. It's pretty cool to see. Awesome to see actually.
Speaker 2:Pretty cool to see, yeah, Awesome to see, actually. Yeah. No, I was just going to say I think you know the outdoor access here is unparalleled. So you get people from all different walks of life, all different walks of life just wanting to enjoy trails, enjoy being outside, and that brings a lot of like-minded people together, naturally, just active people wanting to be outside, running on the trails, exploring nature, that kind of thing. So it's kind of a natural recipe for building an awesome, like-minded community. And we're a different breed of folks that enjoy running for hours and hours and hours on end. So you're bound to if you meet some people in the community, you're bound to be like-minded in one sense, because we're all crazy enough to be out there doing it when it's 115 anyway.
Speaker 1:So yeah yeah, that is crazy, with the rattlesnakes too. Speaking of desert running, right now Cocodona started. Are you paying attention?
Speaker 2:I am a bit. I will admit that during during work today I had the live stream up a little bit. Not gonna lie, yeah, I have to check it out and watch and, um, it's wild to think about the the first 37 miles of the course. They run up to crown king and it's like 37 miles and 10 000 feet of climb and the hottest point and the hardest point in the course is the first chunk. Um, yeah, last year I did crown king 50k and uh got to experience that and we go the the easier route. It's 31 miles and about 7 000 feet of climb, and so they go the hard route. It's 37 miles and 10 000 feet of climb, and then they also have to run 220 miles after that. So so it's just mind-blowing to think about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was paying attention to some of the splits and everything. Man, string Bean and the guy from Alaska were just tearing it up. Man, hopefully it works to their advantage. But man, they're going fast. That first 50, basically, um, basically what 10 hours probably.
Speaker 2:I think I I got off of work around 2, 30 and I think they were around almost 50 at yeah, I think it was right around there and I think, like, if you really consider the factor of the course and the elements and and how challenging that section of course is to to climb that much in the heat of day, uh, for that long. You know, it's such a hard start without aid too, like they, it's a huge section without aid and yet they have to have a heavy pack too, because you have to carry at least four liters of water and all these required gear items. So, dude, it's next level, especially that first section, and then to to fly through. That is is crazy, is considering you got over 200 more miles to go yeah, you got any buddies running right now no, just a lot of people that I um follow on social media, um, you know, connected in one way or another.
Speaker 2:Maybe have chatted a few times, not not any uh real close uh personal friends anyway okay, all right, I do have a friend um. I was gonna say I have a friend running sedona canyons 125 this week, so that's the the half one and so I'll be heading up um this wednesday and pacing him through the night. We got like a 32 mile section um between mums Park and Fort Tuttle to to chauffeur him along his way Wednesday night through the night um on route to his 125.
Speaker 1:Nice. Shout out to your buddy man and have fun pacing. Have fun, stay warm because it gets cold.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know All right. Is that on the horizon in the future?
Speaker 2:Um, I don't know it's. Uh, I got my first hundred on the schedule this fall for saddles 100, um, and that intimidates me, but I love that and so I I will give that a go before I ever consider a 250. For sure I think like it'd be cool to think about that as a bucket list item. For sure I'm not going to discount it. I think not on any time soon, unless I win one of those giveaways where they're giving away entry. And then I got to do it, you know, because if you get entry you get free entry. You got to take advantage of that, and so yeah, maybe someday.
Speaker 1:How did your journey start, man?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm part of that boat of runners that absolutely hated running. Never would have thought they would be in running. I played basketball and soccer pretty competitively through high school and I was going to play in college and just didn't want to, was kind of intimidated of playing on the college level. You know, I did tryouts and all that kind of jazz and then ended up just getting a local coaching gig for basketball in the town that I went to college for, and so I was just like, oh, there's the end of my sport career and then I missed it. I missed being part of a team and the camaraderie and all of that that comes along with it. But the bonus to that is I ended up rooming with a guy on the cross country team at my small college and, you know, one thing leads to the next. He's like dude, you played soccer, you're fit, you could run, like you should join the cross country team and, mind you, it's a.
Speaker 2:I went to a small private school on the South shore of Lake Superior, so it wasn't it's division three Wasn't anything crazy. So I had the ability to walk on if I wanted and I was like no, dude, not a chance. But then end of sophomore year, you know I was like, yeah, I really missed that team camaraderie. I was already friends with a number of the guys on the team and decided to give it a go.
Speaker 2:And uh, walked onto the team, did spring training, sophomore year and then ran junior year, ended up being men's team captain senior year, um, and then ended up being assistant coach the year after I graduated. So things transpired pretty quickly, yeah, um, and uh kind of went from there and kind of just blew up. Um, I, I worked for my college, uh, as coaching and and such after I graduated and then I had an opportunity to partner with charity called the olman foundation and actually it was part of a relay team that ran from San Francisco to Boston in 49 days for young adults facing cancer. And so I went from sophomore year of college just starting running to getting opportunity to run across country in 49 days within a matter of you know, three, four years, um, and then blew up from there.
Speaker 1:So Okay, how old are you?
Speaker 2:I'm 29, 29.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, so running started soccer, and then it hit hard in college.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hit hard in college. I just got lucky, got the opportunity to be able to be at a smaller school where I could walk onto a team without having to have any sort of crazy athletic background. You know, I just played soccer and and ended up being able to get on the team and just fell in love with it since then soccer players and swimmers are basically well-known runners.
Speaker 2:They turn into great runners, so yeah, a little bit of the aerobic capacity, I think, paid off for sure. Um, yeah, it's definitely still a rude awakening from uh going to running for a sport to let's just go run for fun without any sort of, you know, sport intent.
Speaker 1:So yeah, here I was about to talk about the apr April calendar club challenge and you told me, relayed all the way to Boston from San Francisco. That's crazy, man. All right, speaking of April challenge, what got you into that one? Why April? Why not February? Why not March?
Speaker 2:Why not the?
Speaker 1:whole year, like some people I uh that are on social media do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I mean, the right choice would have been february, right, and being the shorter month of the the year. Um, yeah, no, I think every year I try to do something that challenges me for my birthday. So I just had my birthday in april, um, and turned 29. I usually do the the run your age challenge just run the number of miles equal to your age, and I've done that for a number of years in a row, just doing it within the month of my birthday. Um, if I didn't have a race already scheduled that would run that number of miles, um, but yeah, it actually coincided with, um, uh, we can mention him marked out, all the guy that's in in Minneapolis running it for a full year. This was his last month to wrap up his full year of running the number of miles equal to the calendar day for a year. And so I followed him since, you know, closer to the beginning of that and always wondered you know how hard is it to get a month done, let alone a full year and so just started thinking about it and I was like, hey, I got a birthday coming up. I do something crazy. I don't have a race scheduled anytime soon. Why not give it a go for my birthday challenge, so jumped into it, so I had to give her a go.
Speaker 2:And how was it? Crazy, it was a lot, it was a lot. But good, dude, I'm so happy I came out the other side healthy. I think I'm a more knowledgeable ultra runner after that. Just considering, you know it's, I think it totaled up to be 28 miles the first week, 77. The second week, 126. The third week and then 175, the fourth week, 175. The fourth week, yeah, um, and the last seven days was about 190 miles and it's all back to back, no rest, and I didn't. I didn't know if I was gonna be able to do that, let alone, you know, injury risk this, that and yeah and uh.
Speaker 2:So I have a whole different viewpoint of back-to-back long runs and nutrition, timing stuff like that, um. So I think it also gave me a lot of experience that could be valuable for future big efforts and races too.
Speaker 1:I saw that you broke it up morning evening. How tough was that, especially if you got less, less miles in the morning and you were like, oh God, I gotta go do 20, something you know after work. Like how did you manage that mentally?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that that is a challenge. I think that is. One of the biggest challenges of this month was time management, especially in the second half of the month, and work for me right now is very busy too. So I'm I'm working a lot of hours and then to have to fit in five, six hours of running each day, it was tough and I think it was more so. I made it a non-negotiable for me. It's part of my day. I have to get it done. The day is not done until I get it done, and so mentally, it's just the one thing I have to tell you you've got to turn the doorknob, you've got to put your shoes on, you've got to just get started, and it always sucks for you know, the first couple of miles until you can finally find some sort of rhythm, yeah, but you end up making it through. It's just, it's the toughest part is getting going.
Speaker 1:Did you have the same route? Did you do different routes? Did you travel?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like to mix it up as much as possible.
Speaker 2:The caveat to that is when working during the week and working eight, nine, 10 hours a day, then trying to fit it in, it's so hard to.
Speaker 2:Also, I'm going to go drive to the trails or I'm going to, you know, go try somewhere new, just because it takes time to commute and that's like an hour in my day that I no longer have, and that's like an hour in my day that I no longer have. And so I ended up spending a lot of time on my local canal path here in the Phoenix Metro. There's canal paths everywhere where you don't really have to worry about cars, which is fantastic, which is minimal road crossings. You get little gravel patches that are on the side of the path, so you can get a little softer ground too, which I enjoy a lot more than the pavement, um, and I have one right outside my door here in mesa, and so a lot, a lot, a lot of the miles were just flat pancake along a canal pathway. Uh, in the phoenix metro, just right outside my door how many runs did chris run with you man?
Speaker 1:how many, how many days did he uh tackle?
Speaker 2:yeah, I have to look. Um, he was there for, uh, definitely a good chunk of the the tough ones. He came out a couple mornings to join me on my, my local canal path too. He came over here. Um, he's in a different suburb than me but it's you know, it's probably a good 20 minutes to get over here. So you come super early. Meet me at 5 am to share some of those miles, which which helps. You know, you're waking up with 20, some miles in the leg the prior day and you got to go get 20 more right away. And having that company is next level and chris and I, the miles always fly by because we're always talking about random fun stuff, you know and it makes it go by.
Speaker 2:Yeah, talk, he can talk yeah, and it's awesome, yeah, and so I I super appreciate him. Uh, he supported me a ton throughout this challenge. He came out on the last day with another buddy of mine too, to you know he ran a good number of miles um, there as well. Definitely just appreciate his support, any of that. Uh, shared miles go by so much faster than trying to do that by yourself, especially when the mileage is so high how many miles with the stroller?
Speaker 2:none none together with the stroller I have not ran with him with the stroller. Yeah, I haven't got to experience the, the dad mode, yeah okay, well him, did he run with the stroller? He did not with me. No, no, all right.
Speaker 1:What about the, the, he? He's starting a movement for the big guys the tarp off movement. How many, how many times or days did he run without a tarp?
Speaker 2:Also, you know, and and that's also something important to note too, I feel like this was like the last possible month that was feasible to do something crazy like this, because now it is so hot like I would have hated to do it this month. I just like snuck it in by a month because the end of april was getting so hot, um, and now it is definitely is tarp off season and so, yeah, no, I I appreciate that. I'm a fan of the, the tarps off running for sure, but yeah, I think, it was.
Speaker 2:It's also a thing here in the desert, though. You want to wear something to have sun protection, you know, and so you gotta mix it up and do a little bit here and there.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, the tarp off, but he, he's starting at the big man movement. Yeah, it's, it's funny to follow him and know what he stands for and why he does what he does, and then joining you on a run and everything else. Well, one day I'll be down there to run. I think I'll be down there across the years. This, yeah for sure. Oh, awesome, this Christmas time. So, april, you did 465 miles Before that, how many more miles did you put in?
Speaker 2:um, yeah, well, I was coming off of, um, I ran Black Canyon 100k in, uh, february and so, um, and it was a weird thing because, um, I had a lot of miles coming into Black Canyon, was feeling good, but then within like a month and a half of Black Canyon, my knee really flared up and so I was all sorts of uncertain about Black Canyon. Um, just trying to take time off leading up to it to get that knee right and made it through Black Canyon was all good. I had a good race and then just kind of, you know, coasted up until April, for the most part Relatively low mileage, just getting back in the swing of things. I still had long runs here and there, but mileage was pretty low, I think. I mean I was most weeks, you know, under 50 miles. I had probably 20 to 40 miles on average between Black Canyon and April. So that was just a, you know, a month and a half break in between Black Canyon and April anyway, where I was just keeping it easy.
Speaker 1:Was it difficult earlier in the month, middle of the month and the anticipation for late months or later in the month. What was the toughest part of April?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a really good question, I think I like I think there were random days more so than parts that were hard. I I got through like the first week and I was like, okay, this is going to get hard pretty quick.
Speaker 1:I was talking to you then I was like dude, I hey, I want to talk to you about this, but you're, you're about to get into the tough section. I don't want to mess with you. Let's let's talk afterwards, and then yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, and.
Speaker 2:I realized very quick I was about to enter the cave, the pain cave. You know, first week is 28 miles, but then it clicked that like there is no rest the rest of the month, there is no off day. You know it's back to back to back throughout the whole month. And, yeah, just coming off of like lower mileage since Black Canyon, the first week and a half, two weeks I definitely had a couple of days where I'm like dude, I don't really know if I'm going to be able to do this, and that mindset creeped in a little bit and I'm like I just gotta just keep showing up every day. I like I know I'm fit, I know I can, um, get it done as long as I can stay healthy and find a rhythm, stay on top of my nutrition, that kind of thing, um, sleep a lot as much as I can with the time that I have and and do that.
Speaker 2:And then I think there were just random days throughout the challenge where it's like as hard mentally as it was physically, like I have 28 miles to run today and I want to run zero, I want to sleep, I want to eat, I don't want to do anything, everything hurts and uh. So it was challenging for a number of reasons, and I think there were just some random days put in there that I was like man, I don't, I really don't know if I can keep doing this. So, yeah, random times, and then, of course, the end was hard. But I could also smell the hay in the barn. I was like I'm, we're almost there, I'll grind it out. And I got friends showing up to join some miles and share some of that with me too, which helps.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you think the camaraderie helped you a lot to get out of that funk. You know people joining you and whatnot.
Speaker 2:A ton, yeah, and I also I'll point back to the community. Like I, I wanted to share this journey on social media to inspire some other folks. But I received so much love and support on social media. You know just people encouraging me and you know people commenting on my posts or you know saying that I inspired them or that they're rooting for me or that I'm getting close, those kinds of things and and that support you know virtually and in person definitely went a long way to help motivate me to keep going for sure.
Speaker 1:How was your intake, especially during the latter half of the month? What was your caloric intake?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't particularly track overall calories. I think the big focus going into this month and I weighed myself, I have a scale. I weighed myself here and there just to make sure I wasn't losing as much as possible so my biggest focus this month was um protein. You know, I feel like I've lacked that in the past and I know that would benefit me a ton um, and I usually eat pretty clean whole food, plant-based for the most part um. I leave a little bit of everything but and don't have any particular diet.
Speaker 2:But if you eat whole food, plant-based for the most part, um, I lead a little bit of everything but um and don't have any particular diet. But if you eat whole food plant-based, sometimes it's hard to to get in high protein and I think that that played a pivotal role this month. So I a ton really focused on protein and quality um and was just eating constantly. You know I was eating during work, eating uh on the run, uh, eating after the run, eating all the time and just really focused on protein. Carbs and electrolytes were kind of the ticket.
Speaker 1:What was your go-to when running?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really enjoy. You get these giant box from Costco the Bobo's bars, peanut butter and jelly. So the Bobo's bars, peanut butter and jelly, yeah, and they're uh, they're like 230 calories a pop. They taste fantastic, Cause I, I love peanut butter jelly. They sit well on the stomach and, uh, it's just more whole food instead of taking goos or gels or sports drinks and stuff like that. So most runs where I would be out over an hour. I was having one of those for sure, At least.
Speaker 1:Okay, so do you eat peanut butter jelly sandwiches?
Speaker 2:Sometimes not too much at home during races, for sure, and they're like these Bobos and stuff Absolutely. But I, like, could never get sick of PB and J.
Speaker 1:Okay, so how do you build a PBJ man?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and here's the important part part you gotta have peanut butter on both slices of bread. So two slices of bread, peanut butter on both sides and then just one layer of jelly in between it. So your your peanut butter kind of engulfs the the jelly. But the peanut butter layer has got to be thin enough where you're not just like gum and peanut butter and it's too much so, um, it just makes a nice glue to glue the whole thing together.
Speaker 2:That's my favorite. And then the other important part is you toast the bread okay, all right nice and then it's uh, the peanut butter gets a little melty and it is just beyond. This is the best way to have a peanut butter jelly sandwich so what? 70, 30, maybe 60, 60-40 is probably right yeah.
Speaker 1:When you had to get out of the bed, man, did you have any motivational quotes? Did you listen to music? Did you get into your zen? I mean, how did you know? Okay, 26 day, tomorrow, I have to go 27. The next day, I have to go 28. The next day, I have to go 28. Next day, I have to go 29. Do you have a routine as you woke up every day?
Speaker 2:I don't know that I had like a particular routine. I didn't have any sort of specific quote or anything like that. I think it relates back to me saying it was kind of a non-negotiable for me. I also, you know, like I, I know that the time management was the biggest struggle too, uh, outside of like physically being hard, of course, um, and I knew that the the less miles I got in the morning when it was cooler out would be, the more I would have to suffer in the evening, and so that also got me.
Speaker 2:I'm like playing mind games with myself. No joke, I guess that was how I do it. I played my games and say you know, I want to suffer less today. I need to suffer more now than later and get it done in the morning when it's cooler. And so every morning I would do minimum two hours to knock out as much as possible before starting work at like 730 ish, and so I'd be on the canal by 5am every morning at least, to get as much as possible before I'd have to start meetings or work for the day, and then, knowing that then I have to just get in the rest, you know, whenever I can, the rest of the day.
Speaker 1:You got a lady. I do how did she like that?
Speaker 2:well, the the benefit is, uh, she's very much into the active lifestyle and so she has been a huge support of this whole challenge to just um helping me with all sorts of things outside of running too, but um, supporting me through the challenge she she found it um cool and inspiring and all those things, but um, she went through the hard with me. I think she, she ran a good number of miles with me, she rode the bike with me, um just helped with. You know, we we do meal prep things like that, all those things that take time outside of it too. So huge, huge shout out to her because, yeah, I mean it would have been a whole different challenge without having that support directly.
Speaker 1:You're quite the influencer man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm trying to bring everybody into the sport of trail running.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you like it. You like being called an influencer.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I don't really view it that way myself. I guess calling it an influencer, I don't know, I don't really view it that way myself, I guess calling it an influencer, I don't know. To me it's about the community and I always connect to that, and I had a pretty big following at once on a previous profile and deleted that because I could no longer connect with people, and so that was the impetus behind starting this new profile. I'm able to connect with so many more people. My content was just not really going anywhere, like my mom couldn't even see my reels on Instagram, where just the algorithm was funky, where I would spend so much time making content hoping to inspire other people to where it wouldn't be shown to even a very small fraction of people that followed me, and to me that wasn't worth it. I wanted to connect with the community and build those relationships and inspire other people and be inspired by other people, and I didn't have that anymore. So that's kind of creating this new account anyway.
Speaker 1:I think it had to do with attitude.
Speaker 2:What do you mean by that?
Speaker 1:Last profile didn't work out so well because you weren't getting connected and everything else. But now you are making, you know you're influencing, you're showing videos, making it worldwide. You know, known what you're doing and now you enjoy it. Do you think it has to do with a different attitude from then to now? Yeah, I see what you're doing and now you enjoy it. Do you think it has to do with a different attitude from then to now?
Speaker 2:yeah, I see what you're saying, um not, not like you have an ego yeah not, not, not knocking that, not at all.
Speaker 1:What I what I'm trying to say is the attitude, as how you presented before and now you, you've learned a bit and now you're presenting now and you're enjoying it. Because if you hit, like for me, if I hate, you know, was doing it and disliked it, I'm gonna dislike it next too. You know, I'm never gonna like it again and I'm gonna stay away from that, you know so do you think it had a deal with the attitude coming into this one, this profile?
Speaker 2:I think honestly to a little bit. Yeah, to an extent it does. I think what I've strived to do more of in this profile is be 1000% my authentic self, and that is the Maricopa cowboy, that is the dude that says howdy and is the small town, midwesterner and just um, is positive and and and shares you know my experience honest to the T of what's going on, um, honest about my races, honest about my training and uh, running is not always what social media shapes it up to be. It's not always just, you know, rainbows and butterflies per se. It's. It's a hard sport, man, and it's there's a lot that goes into it and there's so many highs and lows and, like, those lows also are what creates the highs and allows them to be so good, and I love to share all of that to inspire people to. It's not always pretty, but, like you, can do some pretty incredible things and meet some incredible people by experiencing all of that.
Speaker 1:What helped change that from before profile till now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think when my last profile you know I, it grew pretty big and I, you know I was missing that connection and I think, like missing that connection, made me realize the true meaning behind having a profile and connecting with the community is like it, um, it's like the Dharma behind it. You know, you could say, if you want to get hippie is like I, um. I realized that my purpose, the purpose of what I wanted a social media for, because that got taken away, for an instance, you know I, I was connecting and I enjoyed it and then that got slowly taken away on that Instagram, and so then I realized how important that is and that is the whole impetus behind my account and connecting with other people, and I think that's what made that shift be realized for sure.
Speaker 1:When you are running alone. Are you a podcast guy? Are you a music guy? Are you a book guy? What are you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, honestly, I'm a music guy. Are you a book guy? What are you? Yeah, honestly, I'm a nature guy. I don't listen to a lot. I'm on trails. I usually don't listen to anything.
Speaker 2:Um, no headphones, nothing. Um, I think you know, during this challenge and some of the the longer runs if I'm doing runs like just flat stuff on the canals. I like books, I like podcasts. I go to those both before I gravitate to any sort of music. And also what I really enjoy too that I was trying to get more people into is I found it a great time to catch up with friends or family. I saw I would call a family member or a friend back home in Wisconsin or something like that. And, uh, awesome, you know, if I'm out there running for an hour or two, you know, might as well maximize that time when I have such a busy schedule and and so I would call friends or family that I've been meeting to catch up with and chat on the phone a little bit, and that also makes time fly because it feels like they're there with you, except they don't have to run all those miles.
Speaker 1:So yeah, but you're also breathing heavily in their ear.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's the thing to all of this slow aerobic miles. My heart rate is so low when I'm out there doing these things, so it's also good practice to if you're chatting with people, you really make sure you're at that easy conversational pace and you can truly are taking it easy. If you're just able to, you know, say sentences and have a conversation without huffing and puffing, then you know you're, you're going easy, you know gotcha, but you're running on gravel too, so you get that, that noise.
Speaker 2:You know that noise that's uh, that's my kind of asmr. Let me tell you the sound of the feet hitting the gravel or the trails. Yeah, it's fantastic and I could run to that for hours.
Speaker 1:You have the 100 miler this October, right, yep, and you just did April. You got any other big things in mind, like, for instance, me, I'm, I'm doing, you know, the highest point in arizona and new mexico this summer, and also colorado and utah, what, what about you?
Speaker 2:yeah, you know, I'm definitely gonna have to sign up for something leading up to saddles, uh, just for training and what I'm thinking I'm. So I'm not signed up for anything right now. I don't have any other challenges either. I wanted to get through this calendar club and make sure I was healthy and good to go Um, but now it's, um, the kind of the off season in the Phoenix Metro because it's so hot, so similar to like winter and other areas where, uh, less action outside just because of the weather and how hot it is. But we, um, we have night races here and um at black Canyon.
Speaker 2:That was kind of my first experience of running a good chunk of a race at night in the dark, and I loved it. I really enjoyed it actually. Um. So what I I plan to do, um, which I think will will be also good training for saddles doing a hundred mile, just getting some night running in, and I think I'll probably end up hopping into probably a couple of the local night races, whether that's, you know, half marathon, marathon, 50k, something like that, just as nice. It's so much easier to get in good quality long runs as part of an event than trying to get out there and and knock it out yourself on the mountain okay, your headlamp kind of guy yep yep, your life changes when you get a kogala man.
Speaker 1:Not not, not sponsored by them, not giving them a shout out, but kogala man is where it's at. Dude, is that like the?
Speaker 2:strip belt clip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, dude yep I they're so bright.
Speaker 2:I've seen those on trail and I'm like I couldn't tell you if it's a car driving towards me or if it's a person. Dude, they're so bright. So I wanted to get one. Um, but I also, my thing too is like if you hear something off to the side, you have to like turn your body to look at it, you know, and so the the light. Maybe I should do both. I have little like clip lights, um, that way like if you look somewhere or if you want to like look up onto like a rock cliff for coyotes or something, you can see them right away because your head is a spotlight. Um, so I enjoy that aspect. That's probably why I haven't converted yet. But they're so bright and Chris runs with one and it's always I like don't even have to have my head lamp on next to him because he's got us both covered.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's a game changer, especially if you're in the hot, heavily wooded areas, man. It just brightens that up. Just it's like almost daytime, man.
Speaker 2:Oh, I bet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. So do you tackle mountains too, or are you just run trails?
Speaker 2:No, I do. I um, I haven't really done too many. I did do Humphreys here in Arizona, um awesome experience. So if you're keen up to to do that one, you'll love it. I think it's a a really cool summit. You kind of get a good bit of everything in it and you know it's the biggest altitude you can get here in Arizona, of course. So you definitely feel that too, I think, yeah, we started at like 9,000 and it goes up to like 12,500 almost, but yeah, I definitely enjoy it. I'm just all trails, mountains, whatever it means. I love to be out in the mountains and on the trails what brought you to the mountains, man?
Speaker 2:because wisconsin doesn't have too many mountains and that's exactly why, yeah, I, you don't have that as an option at all. We got hills, yeah, and so, uh, we got a lot of water and we have hills, um, a lot of greenery, and which is a lot of beer and cheese, and a lot of beer and cheese around every corner. But, yeah, I wanted to do more. I think also it goes back to me running across the country.
Speaker 2:I think that was eye opening for me to see so much more and what's all out there compared to what's in the Midwest me to see so much more and what's all out there compared to what's in the Midwest. And I knew then that I needed to live somewhere where I had way more outdoor access year round trails, mountains, that kind of thing. Just because of how limited it felt in Wisconsin, especially like fully diving headfirst into this sport of running and, uh, would it be so much cooler to be able to do that in such a beautiful area with different trails and scenery, and Arizona and California kind of were part of it, and I had actually some friends from Wisconsin coming out here to Arizona State University for grad school, and so that kind of just clicked and I was like, all right, I'm coming. I'm like I'm gonna go do the trail scene out there and I I work remote so made the move easy and that kind of dove me into the mountain scene.
Speaker 1:If you had to recommend a trail not Humphreys, but just a trail for someone to just get to enjoy and love the Arizona scenery what trail would you recommend?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have so many, so many recommendations. I think it, you know, depends on a lot of factors. If I'm picking one and it's nothing crazy I would recommend, just because of ease of access and the little bit of mix of everything you get I would go to National on South Mountain. You get some easy stuff. You get a taste of technical rocky stuff. You also get all the way up to the ridgeline and can see over Phoenix and Gilbert and some of the East Valley area and you can see some other mountain ranges in the distance and it's a good beginner and experienced kind of runner experience there at South Mountain and that's where I am the most and I never get sick of those trails.
Speaker 1:What about the toughest? Like? I'm not the moderate kind of guy, I'm the hard guy when it comes to the all trails, which one would you recommend around that area?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would probably. Would choose something out east, in the Superstition Mountains. They're just a lot more out there rugged, rocky, um difficult terrain, easier to get lost, huge trails with a mix of everything and definitely more technical too, um, and I say you go out there if you want to do some big vert and you want to do some technical hiking and stuff like that too, because those trails are a little bit more challenging.
Speaker 1:I'd say would you be able to pay somebody for across the years?
Speaker 2:actually, though, I'm really thinking about going out. Yeah, because uh I part of me has an intrigue with uh doing a fixed distance race myself too, at some point there's nothing like it, man. I know.
Speaker 1:Once you go fixed, you don't want to go anywhere else. Trust me.
Speaker 2:So have you done a couple of them then? Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, I'm doing the 48.
Speaker 1:I'm doing the 48-hour one. Oh awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that'll be cool, and that one is a little bit better than some of the other ones around here in my opinion, because you have it's a little over a mile loop and you get a mix of scenery that some of the other ones are on like a 500 meter loop, and so it's just endless repeats. So I'm intrigued about that one too, and I, um, I come from a road running background. After college I ran a few road marathons ran across the country. It was all pavement, pavement, everything, and so, um, I'm curious to see what I can do in like a six hour, 12 hour, that kind of thing, something else that I'll I'll cross off my bucket list at some point in time to experience.
Speaker 1:Well, you should come out. You should come out. I'm trying to get Chris to go out there, and I think Chris is. He said he's going to do something, but I don't know what. So he's going to do. He's going to compete, I guess, but uh, we get to run into each other. But yeah, I'll be doing the 48 this year, I'm going to do the 72 next year, then the sixth day, I'm going to try to do the sixth day.
Speaker 2:So oh man.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's why not?
Speaker 2:Got to go for it and it's awesome too because I think you can like. There's so much space, you can set up your own tent and have your own spot to sleep and unlimited access to support and aid and everything.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's don't mind me saying that on your episode, man, I ended up signing the waiver, running one lap every hour, making sure. So I can't take a nap, I can't take a break. I have to make sure I do a lap the whole 48 hours.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I didn't know that was part of it, so you just got to be yeah you got to be You're taking those little cat naps whenever you can get them, yeah.
Speaker 1:I try to. But yeah, it's going to, it's going to be fun, it's going to, it's going to be good man. So if you, if you get time, if you are in town and not leaving to Wisconsin for the New Year's, let me know I'll be glad to have you. You know, keep me busy and whatnot.
Speaker 2:For sure, yeah, no, either way, I think I'll, I'll plan to come out, so I think that'd be killer, for sure, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, ty, did I leave anything out? Do you want to add something? Man, we could talk forever, I know that, but, man, it's a Monday evening and I want to have you back on. I do, I want you back on, just like Chris is about to go. Uh, come back on eventually. Do you want to add anything?
Speaker 2:No, I think, um, I think we pretty much covered it. I think um talked about myself for a full hour. So that's always good, um, no, but I, I think, um, if anybody's listening to this, I would say like it, you don't have to run a calendar club challenge. You don't have to run a 100 mile race, you don't have to do all these crazy things. You can if you want to, but we're a very inclusive community and that's what I love most about it. And so take that first step. Run your first 5k, come out to a local um group run. Everybody's so friendly, you know. Meet some people. If you're thinking about it, do it. That's that's my message. I just encourage you to get out, get after it and get started, whatever that means for you.
Speaker 1:Cool man, I appreciate it. I appreciate your message too, on social media. I mean, that's why you and Chris are pretty much the only ones I follow that have a positive and not so negative mindset, you know, when it comes to others joining the community. So I appreciate what you do, man, and how you do it. Keep doing what you're doing. Next calendar club let me know. I'll join you. So hopefully it's not this summer. I was thinking about doing this summer, but it gets hot up here in the desert as well and don't feel like doing it on my time off. So if and when you do it, let us know please.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah, I got to choose an advantageous month. Maybe we'll choose, like a February, where it's short and it's cooler out.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's a lot colder here, yeah, than there, but Ty till next time.
Speaker 2:All right, appreciate it, man. Thanks for having me on. We'll see you next time.