Latest / The Steep Stuff Podcast / Chrissy Lofgren | 2024 Leadville Heavy Half Champion

Transcript

Chrissy Lofgren | 2024 Leadville Heavy Half Champion · The Steep Stuff Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, guys?
• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, james Lauriello, and today we've got a great episode for you guys.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: None other than Colorado Springs crusher, chrissy Lofgren, joins the podcast, so excited to have had this conversation.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: What a fun episode.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: It was great getting an opportunity to catch up with Chrissy and learn just all about her story and just about her killer 2024 season and what she's got planned for 2025.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: We talked all about her top 10 performance this year at the Pikes Peak Marathon, as well as an absolute dominant performance this year at the Leadville Heavy Half, where she took first place.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Christy is an absolute crusher.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Like I said, she's part of this group of dominant women on the scene in Colorado Springs and there's just absolutely on the rise in the sport, so someone you definitely want to buy stock in.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, hope you guys enjoyed this one Definitely a favorite episode of mine.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Without further ado, chrissy Lofgren, it's time.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: We are live.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Chrissy Lofgren, welcome to the Steep Stuff podcast.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Thank you, thanks for having me, how's?
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: your day going.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: It's been good yeah.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, did you get a run in today.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was off work.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: I had a speed workout and did it on the CC track Solid yeah.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Speed.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: I did a speed work today.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Well, relative, it was like a zone three workout.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, haven't done that in a while.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I was like, ooh, this hurts, yeah.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: So yeah, what do you maybe tell the audience a little bit about yourself, introduce yourself and let us know how you got into running.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Okay, my name is Chrissy and I'm from Minnesota.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: I've lived in Colorado for like four and a half years.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: I moved right after I graduated college and it was like right in the middle of COVID, so that was interesting.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Same, yeah.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: But, um, I've been running for a while, since like seventh grade.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: So oh, wow, yeah, that's cool, are you?
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: And you're like kind of new to the trails, maybe a few years right.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been running like more consistently on the trails probably for like the last two or three years and then started racing more like this past summer and a little the year before nice yeah yeah, well, welcome, it's exciting to have you on.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: I know I uh I nudged uh jennifer yeeman and her husband, dan metzger.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: I was like you gotta, you gotta tell her to come on we gotta we gotta get the rest of the training crew on uh, we should have done a group one we listen.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: It's it, it's common, it's going to happen.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I'm actually knock on wood.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: today we just put an offer down on a house closer down, like like close to like red rocks open space like the spring springs, so I'm excited that hopefully we move down there and that way I can uh yeah, I want to have I this like thing has like an external garage, and I was like, oh my gosh, that's going to be a pod studio.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, so hopefully we can expand the podcast a little bit.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that'd be awesome.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Actually, I think it's close to where Emily Schwert lives and them.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: So, oh, yeah, yeah, there'll be lots of group pods.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm here for it.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: It'll be fun.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Um, so, yeah, so.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: So you went.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: So you grew up in Minnesota, right, Yep?
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: So tell me about your.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: So you said you've been running since like seventh grade, that's.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: That's a long time.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: You want to talk a little bit about kind of how that progressed in college.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah I, our high school program was like I wasn't running a ton of miles, like maybe towards like the last few years of high school I was hitting like 20 mile weeks, so it was like more just, I'm like really lucky.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: I think they like put me in a spot where I could progress, like not get burnt out and I know like some people struggle with that in high school and college.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: But my high school coach is really great and I'm still like friends with her.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: So but yeah I.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: And then for college I went to a D2 school in Minnesota.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that was, I would say, like overall a good experience.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Um, I had three different coaches in the four years I was there so it was like kind of hard, just like a coaching carousel everybody yeah, yeah was it a good experience, though.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: A lot of people I talked to they either really like it or they really don't like it and like they kind of burns them out, if you will yeah, um, the first, my freshman year, went really well and I like got a lot faster than I did in high school and it was like super fun.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: I loved the coach we had and then he ended up or I think they were like having a baby so he stepped back and then, um, we lost a lot of um like the strong seniors on the team.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: So the next year was definitely like had a lot of like the strong seniors on the team.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: So the next year was definitely like had a bit of a sophomore slump.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: It was hard, I don't know.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Do you respond better to like high mileage or low mileage, or like what works better for you?
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: I was probably like medium, like 40 to 50 miles a week.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: And what events did you run?
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: I ran kind of well in track.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: I did anything from like the mile to the 5k okay, and you did cross country as well and then cross country.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so much fun.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: My sister ran for florida state.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: She ran cross country and track and, like I don't know, I never like had that proper running, if you will.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Like I played soccer, okay, um, and then kind of translated that to the trails, but I don't know, I just feel like I would have had so much fun doing that cross-country track.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: It's interesting because most of the people I have on the podcast usually come from more of that traditional background.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so what?
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Sorry?
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: So you go through college and it sounds like a great experience.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: How did you end up in Colorado?
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: I ended up just like moving here for fun.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: I have a college teammate that lives in Boulder, so I was looking up there first and then ended up getting a job here, so yeah, and then one of my friends from high school also moved here too, and we both were nurses in the Springs.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, you're a nurse.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what kind of nurse.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: I work in outpatient oncology now.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow, yeah, I started inpatient and then, a couple months ago, went to the clinic.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Do you do like 12-hour shifts and stuff like that, or do you like eights?
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: How does that work?
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Now I'm working clinic hours, so it's the nine-hour shifts.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Nine-hour shifts.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Wow, so you get an extra day off.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Then I would imagine, right.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, all right.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: So more time to run and weekends off, which is really nice.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Hell yeah, so helps with the running right.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Do you um?
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Do you who?
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Do you?
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Do you like work with a coach or like how does?
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, um, my friend Rachel is actually coaching Rachel Lemke, right?
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: We're going to have her on.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I got to reach out to her, wasn't sure, like I don't know.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Uh, because I know jenny and them work with or I know jenny works with um was an mk, so I wasn't sure, like who works?
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: with who?
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: yeah, interesting yeah, yeah, coaching's important, especially if you have a coach that lives by you.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a new one you can run with yeah that's dope.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: I wish I could run with my coaches.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: I just can't keep up with them.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Eli and taber hemming that's not happening yeah, um, oh, it's really cool.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: So what?
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: What started your love?
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Like, how did you get on the trails?
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Did you like pick a trail race?
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: And you're like, oh, this is fun, or how did that?
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: work kind of.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: I have one of my good friends um, he was a travel nurse on my floor and then so I got to be good friends with him and his wife and they kind of like I started trails with them and have kind of ever since just been.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: I I'm like, oh, this is a lot better than roads, yeah.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, For like the first two years I lived in Colorado I mostly ran like just I didn't do really any races but just was like running on the roads yeah, but the trails are like so much better and it's like I feel like for so many years I was just like stuck to like in my head I had to like hit certain places on the roads, and years I was just like stuck to like in my head I had like hit certain faces on the roads and it's just like that kind of all goes out the window on trails and it's like more freeing.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: It is more freeing.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Did you do any like?
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Did you trade for like any like road 10ks or half marathons or anything here?
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: no, I didn't.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: I did a road marathon in 2020, I did grandma's in 2023 okay, it's a fun race I've heard really good things about that race.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was fun.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Did you?
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: You think that's any like some, something you think you'd ever go back to to try to like get an OTQ or something like that Probably not no, but I would go back to grandma's.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, um, maybe try to break three.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: I mean that in like the most sincere way possible.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Like I don't like one of the reasons why I really wanted to have you on was like you've had like an absolute killer season.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, you and Jenny both Like I was like man, like this, this little training tandem like this is working and, um, you know, we've got like serious like women and you know, um, just like serious women talent, um that's really growing in the Springs and I think you're definitely a part of that.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: I mean Leadville heavy half champion this year.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Is that correct?
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's right.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Um, top 10 at Pikes.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, you just had some like, really, and like I know you guys kind of ran together at um, what was it?
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: I tell you, ride mountain runner.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: But like, had you really been racing, I think you, you guys, you and Jenny would have probably gone one.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Had you really been racing, I think you and Jenny would have probably gone one, two or however at that.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, you've just had a killer season.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: So it was one of the reasons why I really wanted to chat with you, learn more about who you are, because I think you're one of those people that, should you continue to stay in the sport and continue to grow, you've got a lot of opportunity to really do something.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, pretty cool, let's something.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, thank you.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, pretty cool.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about leadville.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I really want to hear more about that because I've never ran that race, I've never been on the course.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: I know that is a mass participation event.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of people and it's very competitive.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Um, so, yeah, maybe maybe unpack that.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about leadville yeah, um, I raced boston in april and then kind of took like some time off after that so I wasn't really like training super specifically for it, but it ended up being like I didn't really know what to expect going into it.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: But I kind of surprised myself, I think.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Um, I, I hadn't been up at high altitude much before, so I definitely felt the altitude like that morning, oh wow.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Did you do like any training runs at like 10 or 11,000 feet or anything like that, or maybe it had gone up like and ran on the Colorado trail once before then.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Okay, Um like earlier in the summer, but I mean like that race is so early so it's like hard to get up high before, yeah.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I like woke up and ate breakfast and I was like I feel better run.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Um, but did you?
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: drive out that morning of.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: No, we caned Stay there.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, you camped, yeah, I always like I don't know how people do that Cause, like I don't know I'm like, I'm old, I'm 33.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: So, like when you get, when you're older, and like you're stuck in your ways, I like bring my coffee machine with me.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Like I like my, my amenities, so I'm always really good.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: That's impressive, yeah.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: So morning of you camp out I don't know how you do that and you go and what like.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: What'd you like about the course?
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: What'd you, what'd you not like?
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Well, the first half was I think I probably was in like third or fourth when we turned around Um, but I was just like not pushing the uphill at all Cause I like still was not feeling super great.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Um, and I really focused on fueling um going up, cause I was like, okay, hopefully I can like push the down, and to be able to do that I need to like drink and fuel now.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: So I kind of like hiked a little more than I would have liked to going up mosquito pass, but I guess it ended up putting me in a good position to go down.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: And then the downhill was fun.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so at 2023 at Pikes, I like really didn't do well on the downhill, so like, going into the summer, like one of my goals was to become a better downhill runner, so I ended up I was really happy with how the downhill of that went.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: Downhill runner so I ended up, I was really happy with how the downhill of that went um.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: And then I was kind of um racing head to head with the two and three women too, which was fun.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: I haven't done that in a race oh it's fun.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I love like it's hard with.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: I mean half marathons you can do it.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: I guess marathons you could do it too.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: But like in the trail space, usually the first place once you're ahead.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: You're ahead, you can kind of hold it, maybe somebody catches you, but it's hard to like throw down.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: But like man, like when you get like a proper foot race, when you're with other other people, it's yeah, people make moves and you gotta cover.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: It's so much fun yeah, yeah.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: so it was a lot of fun.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: And then the last like two or three miles were like downhill on this gravel road and I felt I was like surprised how good I felt and I was it was.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: It was really fun.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fun to not be like hurting at the end of a race and to like actually be able to feel strong, you feeling with that day, like, um, I think I had like some of the scratch high carb in my bottle and then I was, I had a lot of precision and then like the beta fuel yeah, yeah, summer.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: So all the, all, the all the popular stuff yeah, the high carb stuff works um.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Are you like a vest person or a belt person?
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: for that I wore a belt did you?
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: yeah, yeah, I can't, I don't it was nice yeah yeah, that's or uh, belts are the way to go.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Big belt guy.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: So one of the things you said is that, like you weren't happy with your pikes in 23 and you wanted to work on your downhill, what did you specifically do to improve?
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: um, I feel like, just well, I think I was more like telling myself like, okay, like I think it's more mental really yeah interesting.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Um yeah, I didn't really do like any like change my training that much, but just like telling myself like I don't know yeah, well, sometimes it's just that mental switch, being able to turn it off and being like, okay, well, I'm not going to be afraid to step here, I'm just going to kind of just throw myself down the hill, or yeah, and just see what happens.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah so when you're training for a race like this, are you doing like what did?
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know what did rachel have you doing specifically mileage wise, like in a build for something like that half?
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: um, I think for leadville I was probably running like 40 and maybe once like 40 to 45 and then maybe hit like 50 once before, but it I was like it took me a while to recover from boston, so did it yeah, yeah what was that experience like?
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: It was, it was interesting a lot of people.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, um, I I don't know.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: I mean it was fun, but I don't know if I need to do it again that's what everybody tells me.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Like I haven't met any trail runners that are like I gotta go back.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't have that like, I don't want to like scratch that itch when it comes to like Boston or like any of the big marathons.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: It's not really interested to me, but like I'm more of like oh, I'd rather run like a fast 10k or something like that, or I, I don't know, maybe CIM one day.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: But like, yeah, CIM could be fun.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: But like Boston just doesn't I don't know, it just doesn't do it for me.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like kind of a logistic nightmare.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: That's what you know.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Emily Schwert said the same exact thing, like she had like a really terrible experience.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but I mean, I don't know.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Oh man, what was that build like?
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: I probably did like one speed workout a week and then like tried to get long runs in.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: I like to ski in the winter, so I was kind of like mixing them both together.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, not like too focused on just running, but Tell me about your skiing.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: What do you?
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Are you like more of like a ski mount?
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Do you do ski mo, or like backcountry or downhill?
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Mostly in the resorts.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Okay, and then like a little bit of backcountry or like uphill at the resorts, but mostly resort skiing.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: You minnesotans, did you like grow up skiing, or yeah, yeah where?
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Where are you from, like in minnesota?
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: um, like southeast minnesota, it's actually like probably the most, one of the most boring parts of the state oh really yeah, I grew up in the only county that didn't have a lake oh man, oh, that's true.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Land of many lakes, or something.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Isn't that what the yeah, yeah look at that.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: But um, yeah, I mean I grew up cross country skiing and then we like would downhill ski too I just got uh roller skis oh nice yo highly recommend I'm starting fun.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna start a club.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: I was telling I think I was telling jennifer this I I like really want to start like get a, like, get a group of people to go do this, especially if I move like proper springs yeah I think, like twice a week in the winter I'm gonna get people out to do it.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: It is ridiculously fun.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: It's harder than snow.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, um, just because, like, you're up a little bit further and you gotta, like, really maintain your balance, um, but yeah, it's it's.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, like you can I was pleasantly surprised Like you can get your heart rate like zone to the entire time, so it was like all right good training stimulus.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fun.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's dope.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: So so you cross country skiing and then and then running I feel like that.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: So this year you had a really great performance as well at Pikes.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Like you took a seventh place.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you this Did it like mentally throw you guys off?
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: I haven't really talked to a lot of people since this race, but like did it mentally throw everybody off with like the shortened course this year?
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: I mean, we didn't find out till the morning of.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: It was like 10 minutes before I was leaving the house and I heard people in the Port-A-Potty lines like they thought we were running the full race.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it was.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: I didn't think they were going to shorten it, or.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: I thought you guys were going, I mean.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: So I was kind of quote unquote, like not an official part of the race, but like we had a whole podcast thing and like so I, I like I was around Jordan and and I was around the race directors a bunch, so I figured like I'd have some information ahead of time, but no, they really made it last second.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: I was like damn yeah um, yeah, so that must have been a difficult decision to be able to, you know, seem like everybody was kind of disappointed.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: They're like let's just go to the top and yeah and see what happens.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but I don't know, did it did?
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Do you feel like it favored you more, or what did you?
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: think Actually, maybe, yeah, I don't know I was like ready and like had been.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: That was like my A race for the summer.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: So I mean.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: I was like training to go to the top but I ended up like it was.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: I had fun going like the shorter downhill.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: I was able to like bomb it, probably a little more than I would have if we were going from the top that's true.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: That's true.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: That's such a hard race to nail like.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: I've wanted to do it now, for I thought about doing it last year and I don't know.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: It's such a local race that I feel like if I fuck it up like it's a, it's embarrassing, it's hard, it's a hard one to figure out.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Um yeah like.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: For me it's that like section just below a frame yeah, like I feel like on the men's side of the race, like you have to run that, yeah, or even if you don't nail it, you're, you're, you're gonna get eaten up so yeah yeah, it's not so fun.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, I don't know.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Uh, what did you think?
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: How was your?
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: What did you write your like, what do you think about the whole thing this year?
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, I was like pretty happy with how it went, but also like I crossed the finish line and it was like kind of like a let down or like you know I was just it wasn't what we were planning or training for so it's like kind of a bummer.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, this is like anticlimactic, but yeah it was like a enhanced bar trail mountain race.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah is there anything?
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: So you're getting ready now for um your?
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: I guess did you start your build already for february, or or was it march that?
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: race gorgeous until april oh really I.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: I actually ended up going.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: I did a 50k in minnesota a couple weeks after pikes.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: I had some friends from college that did it too.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: So I was like, well, since I didn't do the whole marathon, I kind of like savored some fitness there yeah, how'd that go?
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: what was that?
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: It was good.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: It was on the Superior Hiking Trail in Duluth so the trail was really rugged and it was like super bright leaves all over but they were like all over the ground so it was like covering all the rocks and roots.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: So it was harder than I thought it was going to be, so sneaky, technical though yeah.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: So it's like hard, I guess, to run.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: You got it like hard to run fast, I guess you got to be constantly like dialed.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so, wow.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: So what do you think?
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Would you rate it better than colorado?
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: or like, uh, have you done a 50k out here yet, or no, I haven't done a 50k in colorado, but I mean, like the trails were nice, but I mean, yeah, it's not the same as colorado yeah, that's true.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: I feel like, too, like I don't know.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: You recover probably so much faster running one of those at sea level.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I know I'm a little.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I want to do a 50k.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: I know I was surprised.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: I do.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: I feel the same way.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: I mean that's I really, I really like, like the mountain classic races and like vks and stuff like that.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: So for me to do a 50k, it's got to be special, yeah or sea level.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I don't know.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Even a marathon like this is so far and you gotta like go so hard, whereas like I'm like what's hurt really bad for like an hour.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know about two.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, so you're getting ready for gorge.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: What's your take on that?
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Are you excited for that race?
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: I am excited yeah yeah, I think it'll be.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's like a pretty big race and there's gonna be a lot of fast people there, so yeah hopefully I can run a decent.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: I think it's a I think it's a great opportunity for someone like you.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: You know, like, if you have the day that you probably should have out there, like you know, they'll probably have it on the live stream.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: And then you get to meet dylan and it's like all of a sudden, like like it's an opportunity to like really like make your running career.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: It was kind of dope, yeah, have you thought about that at all?
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Or not, really no.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know why.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: It's the first thing I I'm like, I'm like an agent, I'm like you know you should do this yeah.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: No, that's, that's cool.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: That's, of course, is sneaky, technical too.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: It's like.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: My wife ran it a couple of years ago and this is undulating.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: There's good vertical to it.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: I think the 50 K has something like five to 6,000 feet.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: You don't really feel it cause it's so fast Like you're.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: You're going to be moving Like you'll.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't even know what the time you would run on something like that, probably like four hours or something like four plus hours, somewhere like that, somewhere under five.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah For, yeah for for the top 10 women.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm sure it's.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: It's a sneaky, fast course and it's like, hopefully, hopefully, you get the full experience, like the oregon experience, where it's like wet and rainy and like just tacky wet trails.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: So now, if are you out there for a while, like you're gonna spend some time um, we'll probably go out, maybe for like five days or so, but I have friends doing the 30k and 100k so it'll be quite the weekend, oh yeah yeah, who's running the 100k?
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: is it like anybody in the local colorado?
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: springs or jenny.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: It is jenny that's doing it okay wow, okay, so it's good opportunities for both you guys yeah, it's gonna be fun.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, I've considered the 30k, but I don't know for me to get ready for like an early season race like that, it's a lot of work.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: I kind of need something like that on the calendar.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: I feel like that can motivate me through the winter.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: That's fair.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: That's fair, yeah, oh my gosh, I can't believe we just got all the snow here.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: I know, yeah, it's crazy.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: The trails are such a mess.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: Now they are.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: I did?
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: I went clients on Saturday and Sunday like full loops and, oh my god, not only was there a ton of people, but it was like so icy and nasty and I was like, oh, we're in it again.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Like I was in Hawaii just before, like two weeks ago, and I came back and like it snowed and I was like, wow, I really didn't have any fall, yeah well, hopefully it'll dry, the sun will dry out the trails and we'll get it would be nice, right?
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, where do you do a lot of your training?
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: At?
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: um, I like going like in the canyon, like I did a lot of like behind like bear creek this summer.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: It's shaded back there, that's true.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: What about mantu?
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: You like mantu at all, or?
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: yeah, I didn't go there quite as much this summer as I had this summer before, but I like the intimen and like bars nice yeah, bar saw.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's some good ones, like there's some good climbs yeah, have you done cameron cone yet we did camcone.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so much fun, that was crazy yeah, good way to die on the way down.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: There's some good social trails there too that like nobody knows about.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, um, that are really fun to connect.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: I think, like the only vert, I'll probably do this.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Offseason is probably like the incline.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like, and everything else flat boring, running, just building, run economy.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: So yeah, is there any races that you're thinking about, maybe for the summer?
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: Like anything future you got planned um, I've been looking a little bit maybe I'll.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: I'm like considering doing pike's peak again and then I I the circuit basin race would be fun, but I think that's only like the week before pikes it is good tune up, yeah, so I could maybe do that.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: I did one of the cirque races this past summer and it was a lot of fun so I'd be interested in doing more what'd you do I?
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: did the snowboard one oh, so you were at the us mountain running champs?
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, how was that?
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: it was good, it was fun, yeah, yeah, awesome yeah I'm sorry.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I was almost said like I regret missing it, but I can't say that it was the day I got married.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: So so I was.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: I really wanted to race the us mountain running champs, but the best day of my life was that day, or best day of my life, that was that day, but that's sad.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, it's interesting.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: I was really hoping circ uh was gonna be.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: We were gonna have like one of the us championship races for this year.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: It was gonna be there, but it's not.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Um, but I'll be.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm gonna probably do the whole season again.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: We'll see next year yeah yeah, I highly recommend them a few, especially snowbird.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: I feel like was a good taste.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but alta was amazing.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: I did alta this year.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: I did grand targhee.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: That's a fast one, you crush it there.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Um, there's a new washington race they put in this year which I'm really excited for yeah so recommend that one as well.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah it could be fun to do more of those, yeah, but also it can be a lot of traveling.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: So yeah, try to figure out kind of what, how much traveling I want to do in the summer.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: It's stressful that was one thing.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: I was like man.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Like that drained me a little bit more than I anticipated, because this was the first season where the next season is going to be even worse, because I'll be doing everything, but like this season was like overwhelmingly draining, so I gotta figure that one out.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, do you think you go back to tmr again next year?
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: I would like to how was that really fun?
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's beautiful there, until you ride I've raced there.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: I didn't race tmr but I did.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Uh, they have like a local race in january or january, in july, um, that's like a very similar like to the route of the 13 mile, it's like the same course, um, and I did pretty well there.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: So I was like, well, maybe I'll go back and do tmr yeah see what I could go do on that course yeah yeah, I'd love that's like, especially the 13 miles like a 4 000 something foot climb yeah, like the whole first half we were going like straight uphill.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that, that's dope, yeah, um yeah, I think I'll probably.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: I'm debating.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: A lot of people keep wanting me to do that race.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: I'll probably put that on this calendar for next year.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: I'd recommend it's like it's pretty low-key, so they also have like their podium trophies are dope.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: It's like a nail with like some other thing.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh that would, that would look good on the on the mantle, yeah, so yeah, no, their stuff is cool and it's interesting because they finally, like this year, they attracted a pretty deep field or some deep fields.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the top three women, I think were all under the course record.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, those girls were real fast, oh yeah.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you raced Meg Cook, who I've had on the podcast, and she's a monster downhill beast, boulder right and yeah, she's 2023 champ.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: I think she got second this year and then they had one of the other girls.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: I think it was on the trail team.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: And the winner, I believe it was.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: I can't remember her name but beast.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: It's cool because the ladies' fields are really deep.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: So yeah, lots of competition, yeah how does that work with you?
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: do you, are you a competitive person?
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: yeah, I, I think I'm pretty competitive yeah I feel like I'm more competitive with myself than with other people really but yeah I feel like I'm the same way, not really I.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: I I'm one of those people like I can't even be on a hike, like just relaxing and have someone pass me.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: I'm like yo, what the?
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: fuck is this?
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Or like a board game Like I play to win the game.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: It's funny A lot of um.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: I meet so many people on this podcast that are like really like sweet and very like humble people.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: But if you like Cam Smith, you remind me of Cam a little bit, Cause Cam is like a very kind, like nice person and I'm like are you a competitive?
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: And then like they'll tell me how competitive they are, I'm like oh, that makes sense.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: That makes sense.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, the competition thing is uh especially, I feel like with cross country.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: You're probably yeah, it's where that home hone that in yeah, I mean, like the first two years I lived in colorado, I like I could tell I was like I just like I was missing something, like I didn't have any like competition or like outlet for competition for two years.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: So oh, wow yeah, so like then, I started doing more races and it's been good yeah, but it was like yeah that's so cool.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Um.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Did you do any other sports growing up besides uh, like cross country?
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: um, I ran track in high school too, and then I played basketball really yeah, oh man, what's what?
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: what positions you play?
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: um, I was guard your guard, yeah, do you?
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: are you like a big basketball fan or no?
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: oh no, not anymore.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: It's a fun sport.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: It was fun, yeah unfortunately, I'm pretty vertically challenged, so yeah it was never yeah, never a big sport for me, but definitely a fan that's funny, yeah, yeah that's cool basketball.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Did you do all through high school or for?
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: I played till my.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: I think I didn't play my senior year Nice.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Just focused on what was that process like?
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Getting like a, you said you went D2?
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Was that what it was?
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what is that like getting like an offer and then doing all that for like college?
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: It.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: I mean like just a couple of coaches would like reach out, and then I think I went on like maybe three or four college visits and then actually the school I ended up at, I I wanted to go to school in Duluth, um, but they didn't have a nursing program.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: So I was kind of like did not like I think I knew in the end that I like was going to go to St Cloud, but I was like denying it for like my whole senior year and I was like okay, and it ended up being great yeah there.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: So was it like, because I know like nursing is pretty intensive, um, like very intensive degree to get especially, did you get a BSN or yeah, okay, which is no joke, that's like as good as it gets for, you know, for nursing degrees.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: How hard was that like balancing getting your BSN along with, um, you know, with running yeah, I feel like run.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: Like, if there's any sport that you can do it with, it's probably running because, like, you have the flexibility to like, if I needed to, I could like do my run by myself, maybe only like once a week.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: I think I made most of the practices work.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: We'd have like longer clinical days, but overall it worked out.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: Nice yeah.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: How did you like those chemistry classes?
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: I only had to take like one chemistry.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: I think Jealous but I liked the chemistry I took.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: But I think if I would have gotten like more advanced I probably wouldn't have liked it.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: I totally.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: I can remember my freshman year of college like the lowest point of my life.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: I remember playing Call of Duty in a dorm room with my friends, eating Dunkin' Donuts and skipping chemistry class skipping like an exam.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: I hated chemistry, but for normal people that are, uh, that know what they're doing um.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: I think it could be, could be good, that's funny.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I feel like the balance is I don't know, for me that would have been really hard.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: I feel like that's a lot of like, just a lot of work trying.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: Did you is.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: It was was four years for that, or two or four.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: It was four for that, yeah I would have like gone crazy, though, if I didn't have running, like I can't just be doing school no same, yeah, so it actually worked out for sure.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Do you think you'd go back and like get your master's or uh, I don't have plans to but I'm not against it.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's a lot of extra work yeah, maybe someday I also like can't imagine going like being a student again.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: No, like I like my free time.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: How old are you 20s, 26, 26?
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: When did I go back?
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: I got my mba at like I think it was like 28, 28 to 30, something like that.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I hate.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: I mean it was fun because, like everybody else is kind of like in your age group for that, like for business school.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: But I'm not gonna lie, I didn't do much school.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of it's just like networking and whereas like I feel like those other programs are more uh, yeah, you actually have to like yeah, know what you're doing.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's like an option if I ever want to, but yeah, that's true.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: That's true.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's, and it's just interesting like like with running as well is sponsorship, something you think about at some point.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: I mean, I haven't liked that too much about it, but it'd be nice if like in the future yeah, maybe what kind of shoes do you like?
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: Um, I ran in.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: I was wearing brooks trail shoes for a while, and then I recently started wearing um nike trail for some runs, and then I also was.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: I got some last sportiva shoes that I liked for my racing.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: Oh, did you yeah, what?
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: what kind do you like um?
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: oh, they're like the prodigy prodigios yeah, all right.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: Well, if I sign a new deal, I'll hook you up yeah, they were.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: They were nice, for I raced in them at telluride and then really liked them there, so I wore them for bikes yeah no, yeah, they're.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Uh, that's probably the only shoe I'll ever race in from them, like a lot of the other shoes are much more technical.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Um, like harder to maneuver and like.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: The mutants are great, but like a great training show for, like more technical terrain.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: Um, toshito's are dope, but like the prodigio, you can actually move.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Just wait until you get your hands on the prodigio pros.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Those are thick boys, they're like super fat and yeah, just like it's like you know.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: What it reminds me of is the Adidas Agravix Speed.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Which people will probably eviscerate me for because it's probably it's a hard comparison to make but like that's the closest thing I can compare it to, is that it's.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: It's just a really like, it's a super shoe if you will.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: So yeah, now that all those shoe companies are like kind of in this war with let's make these super shoes.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: This is like Sport, like sportiva's answer to that so I still like the regular prodigio better though I think it's better yeah yeah, yeah, hands down no, I'm glad you like it.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: That's the first person that's told me they like the prodigio yeah, I've gotten quite a few of my friends pairs and they're always like oh, you know, this doesn't work for me.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: I'm like are you kidding me?
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: It's like the only thing I run in that's funny yeah, yeah, my, I've had like issues with my feet.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: I had like nerve inflammation after boston in my feet so I've been like kind of picky with my shoes and like it's hard to find, so I just like try to bunch of different ones this summer yeah rotating a bunch yeah, the nerve and it's actually really smart too, because, from what I understand, is like different.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: It's funny the other day, like I just randomly put on I don't know what I was.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: I was like shoveling snow outside and I put on like a old pair of tectons, like hoka tectons that I had like in the garage, um, and I was like whoa, these feel really different than like a sportiva shoe.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: I was like I haven't worn one of these in a while, but I feel like mixing it up is probably super good for you.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Um, you know, yeah, nerve inflammation is not that, not that fun I had that like pretty recently, where it like affected some stuff in my like all all the way up into my knee.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not good.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: No, have you dealt with any like crazy injuries in your?
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: not really, not like really from running Um in 2022, I got pretty hurt.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Mountain biking oh, no, but what?
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: happened.
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: I, um, I had mountain bikes like a couple of times before but I was with a friend and we were at Stretton and I just like love adrenaline and going fast.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: So I was just going like a couple times before, but I was with a friend and we were at Stretton and I just like love adrenaline and going fast.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: So I was just going like too fast for like my skill level probably and I had, like this, washed out part in the trail and went over the handlebars.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: So that was tough.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: I broke like six ribs and my collarbone.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Oh wow.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: So what happened?
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Did you have to like get sorry to get you, or did you just like walk?
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: out or we walked it out.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: It was painful, but all right.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: So this strikes me this is a common thread.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: I seen a lot of like people that like to go really fast downhill.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: It's like you're probably a great downhill runner that I would imagine the mountain bike makes sense and the skiing downhill also makes sense.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Are you like just a general person with skiing as well?
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: yeah, yeah.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: But I mean like I definitely learned a lot from the mountain bike accident, like yeah, you know I'm not invincible what's it like when you break a collarbone?
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: did you did it like?
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Did you feel that pop, or what was that like?
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: well, at first I thought my shoulder was like dislocated.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: So I called one of my friends, had his doctor friend was visiting the spring.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: So I was like can you guys come look at my shoulder and like pop it back into place?
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: And then they were like no, you need to go to the ER.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: But I had to get surgery on it.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: So oh, did you really?
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they put like a plate in there.
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: A couple of plates.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: I think I had to do that with my ankle.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: I snapped my ankle pretty bad in high school and, yeah, I had to get a pin in there.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no bueno, no, oh no.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: Especially when they pull it out.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: Oh my God, yeah, thank God, thank you.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Shout out to Dr Palmieri Great ortho.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I have like, not ptsd, because I think that's a over usage of that word, but like I don't know, I'm much more timid on certain downhills, sometimes still because of that yeah, yeah, I don't know.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: It's interesting like people, the way they think about like, think through, like running fast downhill and being able to pick a line and stuff like that.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: Like it definitely like you can move really well if you just have no fear.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have a little more fear than I used to after the, after the mountain biking.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fair.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: Have you been on a mountain bike since?
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: Um no, I haven't.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: No.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: Really I would do it again Like I.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'd rather like be running.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fair.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Do you do any other like cross training stuff training?
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: Stop for, um not really just kind of skiing and running, yeah, and then I did a backpacking trip over the summer, which was fun where'd you go?
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: kind of like cross training um the tetons.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: Did you really teton crest trail?
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: oh it's, it's dope right, yeah any grizzly bears um.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: We saw one at the very end really yeah, like back when we were like close to the parking lot, but other than that we didn't see any.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: Was that kind of terrifying or.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: Not really.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: It was just like off doing its thing and there's like a bunch of people around, but it's funny.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: Like I have now quite a few friends that live in that area uh, like drags on the other side, and even people that live in Jackson, and like I don't know, I went out there for the first time this summer and I was amazed.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: It was like it's just so much more wild than Colorado.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I loved it, just the animal life and everything.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: But yeah, the grizzly bear thing, I don't know, that's what I would be terrified of.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: It's just like running up on a, on a giant mama grizzly.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, getting eaten yeah.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Running alone out there would, there's a group of us.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: So it's funny.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: When I, uh I raced at grand targi and, um, it's like an inbound ski area and it's like you wouldn't expect to see anything.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: So my airbnb guy the guy was running the airbnb off it was like you should bring, uh, bear spray.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: Blah, blah, blah.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: I'm like no dude, I'm not gonna bring bear spray so I'm like doing what I normally do in colorado where, like, especially if I'm on a training run by myself, I'll put on earphones and I'm like just bopping along the trail, just like having fun, and, dude, I thought I, I like literally had a heart attack.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: I um looked to my left and like I thought I, I like didn't realize because I had my earphones on, they're like noise canceling, being a dipshit that I am, um, and there was a lady in a golf cart, like one of those four by four carts like going this is like all the way up by like the farthest back.
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: You could possibly be in grand targhee I'm like, what are you doing?
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: Here, but like scared me to death.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: To where?
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: like.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: I'm like, all right, I'm gonna be a little more careful next time.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: Take my headphones out definitely be a little more careful.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: So what was that experience like on the tea town crest trail?
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: Like how many days were you out there, like um I think we were three nights and four days, so and you camped the whole time.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we were backpacking, that's a long time to camp.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: It was really fun yeah.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: Did you, besides the grizzly bear, did you see like moose?
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: We saw a lot of moose, yeah, and then some deer, yeah.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: Wow, elk, or anything like that.
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: I don't think we saw any elk.
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: We saw like probably 10.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: That was the thing I was like the most amazed about with the Grand Tetons was like that just the area was just so much more wildlife than here.
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's more like remote.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, spread out.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: So I feel like here we either kill everything or it's like, or it's like hiding.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: It's funny, like in this area, that we're at now suburbia it's like probably a year ago.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: I'm like getting ready for work, I'm like in the shower and all of a sudden I hear my wife screaming and I'm like what the hell is she screaming about?
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: And I come outside and there's a moose in the backyard.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: I swear to god I was like, yeah, this is wild.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: How did you get here?
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: What are you doing in suburbia, man?
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: yeah, it's kind of wild.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, any any crazy animal encounters in colorado no, I haven't seen a bear here.
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: Even I've seen some moose.
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: But well I guess rachel and I were doing um, we were on the colorado trail like last summer and like, uh, I think a baby moose like came right out in front of us, so I guess that was kind of crazy that's wild.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: And then we were like oh, we need to get away apparently they're like super blind, like they can't tell like what's what I could?
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I believe that.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: That's like why people get attacked.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: Evidently I think it was Lacey was telling me, I think when she was on the pod, that she got chased, or I think it was.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: She got chased like near Rampart Reservoir.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: Really.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if I remember correctly, that's scary that.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think, other than the moose in my backyard, I haven't seen too many Mises out here.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think I've seen too many, which is kind of a bummer.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: I feel like we should have more, I don't know.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, so we're getting close to that like 40, 45 minute.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: Mark started asking some some fun questions.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: What, uh, who inspires you?
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: Um my running friends.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like pretty cool to be like on a group run in the Springs and just be like surrounded by so many.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: Like amazing women and they're so fast.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: There's an amazing contingent of women in the Springs that I feel like is, are, is, are, I don't know kind of slept on in a lot of ways, Like I feel like there's, just like I don't know kind of slept on in a lot of ways, like I feel like there's just like I don't know like such depth here, yeah, of like just crushers.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: Boulder gets all the hype.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: I know no shade of boulder, but I feel like we need.
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: We need to get more hype for the springs.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: We don't want too many people to move here, though at least not until I finalize buying my house.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Let's keep those prices a little bit lower.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I do.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: I just love it here because the access is just so great.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, like we can get anything and everything, you get a 14er, you can get two to three thousand foot climbs, like just everything is here yeah yeah, so all right.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: So you're running.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: Friends, inspire you.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: What are your goals in the sport?
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: Is there anything you want to accomplish, any, any races that you haven't done yet?
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: They're like bucket lists, anything like what do you?
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: got planned.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I have any bucket list races, um, I don't know, just to like trail runnings, I just want to keep being able to see a bunch of things and I like doing 14ers, so maybe doing more of those, oh yeah, um, and just like seeing more like what's in colorado and like staying more local how many 14ers have?
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: You done?
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: I don't maybe, like I don't know, between like 10 and 14.
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: That's more than me, I don't know.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: I think I might have done like six or seven so far okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, they're fun, they are fun they're fun.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: I like, like.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: But you know I'm like one of those people that like, once you find you like what you like and you kind of stick to it like quandary right quandary is a perfect vk.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know and and it's runnable yeah whereas, like I don't know, I mean all the other ones are far yeah, they are, though do you like any of that technical stuff like climbing?
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: yeah, oh really I like, yeah, I like technical climbing, like bridges and stuff like class three, class four, class five stuff I haven't done class five, but like a little class three.
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: Okay, I think it's fun, have you done like the needle yet?
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: No, oh yeah, that would be fun.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: Needles dope yeah, I like the needle.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: And then like that whole ridge traverse is beautiful yeah.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: Just I like being up high, Like it's, I don't know.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: That's my favorite.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: Are you take on the aliens?
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: on aliens.
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, uh, I don't know you believe.
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I believe in like the like, stereotypical, like alien, but I think there's probably like life out there.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I believe in the stereotypical alien, but I think there's probably life out there.
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you would consider that an alien or not.
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: I don't know if there's aliens or UFOs.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: I have this crazy friend of mine shout out to Chaba, he's a Hungarian guy.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: He just sent me a link.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: Today there was a guy testifying in front of Congress talking about how we had vehicles from outer space.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: I was like whoa, we're just talking about, like, how we had like vehicles from outer space.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: I was like whoa, like we're just talking about it now and here we are.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: It's kind of wild, I don't know.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so what is your take on bigfoot then?
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: bigfoot.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: I feel like he's more likely to be real than aliens.
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: Really, he could be well.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know how aliens are like get from outer space to.
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: It's just like seems.
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so far reasonable, yeah, yeah.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: They must've figured out some like crazy science that like we, we haven't really cracked yet.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, it could be, I don't know, yeah, but Bigfoot, bigfoot's pretty dope, I don't know.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: I hope he, I hope he's real I don't know.
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my neighbor has like a giant bigfoot statue really in their front yard.
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's like a couple houses down but I'm always like that's so cool oh my gosh there's uh darren thomas.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Uh, I had on the pot and he was telling me that there's a park ranger um on, like the pikes peak highway that dresses up like bigfoot once a year and like runs across the road just to keep like the uh, just to keep the like the.
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know the whole thing alive.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's funny, but imagine being like that one, like tourist from from I don't know, from pennsylvania or something that was like driving past and sees the guy in the gorilla suit that'd be amazing.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: What's your uh, so you're I don't know.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: I feel like so for a nurse.
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: I'm sure that like there's a lot of like medical equipment, all kinds of stuff that you guys use like what's your take on like ai, does that excite you for like what the future is, what they could do for like medical?
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: yeah, I feel like I don't know, I mean like my job is so hands on, but I think it like there's things in the medical field that would that I think could benefit from ai yeah but also, like I don't know, it depends you're 26 so you didn't have chat GPT in college.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: I feel like the kids now that have it.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: It's like you don't have to do anything, it just does it for you.
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, one of my friends from home.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: She's in her master's and was like I was over there and she was showing me how she's writing a paper with AI and I'm like wait, so it's writing it for you and she's like confusing.
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: She insisted she was still writing the paper herself.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: I don't know about that I know that's so funny it's crazy though, yeah, I've got a cousin that's like 18 and it's like a freshman now and I'm just like, are you even learning?
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: yeah, what do you do like?
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: yeah, I don't know, I feel like one of my um, yeah, one of my best friends has two kids and like they're very, very young and he's like do I even save for college?
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: yeah, right what do I do at this point?
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: Like I don't know, it might not even be a thing in the next decade.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: It's kind of wild.
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's crazy, I don't know.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm always.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: It's always interesting to me like get people's different takes on the pods, because people have tend to have like very polarized opinions about it.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, some people are like very like, oh no, it's gonna take us over and it's going to be our robot overlord, yeah, which that terrifies me a little bit.
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: I guess it could get.
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: I don't know, things like AI could kind of keep piling up, yeah.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's kind of crazy.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: I was talking to somebody that was like yeah, you can throw your blood work into ChatGPT or upload it to it and it'll read your blood work for you.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: I chat GPT or upload it to it and it'll like read your blood work for you.
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: I was like yo, that's.
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: That's pretty crazy.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: Interesting.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, right, I don't know, it's kind of wild, but I don't know.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: All right, well, listen, we're.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: We're pretty much the end.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: I definitely want to thank you so much for coming on.
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: Um, I can't wait to hear more about the future and what your 25 plans are.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: So thank, you yeah.
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for coming on.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, what'd you guys think?
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: What a fun episode.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: Really want to thank Chrissy so much for coming on the podcast.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: Uh, just just really exciting and uh, really fun and definitely, um one of those persons in our sport that I am just so excited to see where the career goes, along with just so many others in our, our little bubble of Colorado Springs.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: Uh, before you guys get going, do me a favor, hop on Instagram and give Chrissy a follow.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: Um, her tag is basically just Chrissy C H R I S S Y dot Lofgren, which is her last name L O F G R E N.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, shoot her.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: Uh, yeah, the hop on um.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: Give her a follow, shooter a DM.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: Let her know about what you guys thought about the episode.
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: Um, and send her some words of uh encouragement as she gets ready to start.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: I guess would start her training block now for the Gorge waterfall race Pretty wild.
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, hope you guys enjoyed this one.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: Uh, got something very special coming out on Friday, so stay tuned.
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: Um, I think we're going to be dropping the Joe Gray episode finally, with some really exciting news around that.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, keep an eye out for Friday, guys, if you enjoyed this episode or any others, I challenge you to share them in your Instagram stories so we can get this out to the world and or give us a five-star rating and review on Spotify and Apple.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: Thanks, guys, much love and have a great rest of your week.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: Thank you.