Ep #15: Construct Your Perfect Training Plan with Denny Krahe

Welcome to The Not Your Average Runner Podcast. If you’re a woman who is midlife and plus sized and you want to start running but don’t know how, or if it’s even possible, you’re in the right place. Using proven strategies and real-life experience, certified running and life coach Jill Angie shares how you can learn to run in the body you have right now.

You are listening to episode number 15 of The Not Your Average Runner Podcast. I’m your host, Jill Angie, and I have an awesome episode for you today. I recently did an interview with Denny Krahe, who is the host of Diz Runs Radio and if you’re looking for another running podcast to listen to, this is a great one.

Denny is a lifelong runner and he’s just really funny and great to talk to, and he’s also a running coach who just wrote a book on how to create your own training plan. And I love this idea so much because not everybody wants to or can afford to work with a coach, but they still might need help creating a training plan that works for them.

So Denny has the answer to that and it’s his new book called Be Ready on Race Day. So links to follow Denny on social media and to grab a copy of his book are all in the show notes, so make sure that you check them out because he’s super inspiring, and you can find all of those at www.notyouraveragerunner.com/15.

But I want to make sure you listen all the way to the end of today’s episode to find out how you can win an autograph copy of his new book for yourself. And without further ado, here is Denny.

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Jill: So hey, Not Your Average Runners, I am super excited to have a very special guest with us today. His name is Denny Krahe. He’s a coach, he’s a podcast host, he’s an author, he’s the creator of the website DizRuns.com, which you should immediately check out because there is so much good stuff there, and he’s just kind of an all-round badass, and I’m super excited to have a chance to speak with him today and learn all about his running practice and what he does in the world of running because I swear to god, this guy has got his hands in everything. So welcome so much, Denny.

Denny: Oh gosh, Jill, that’s a bit over the top on the intro but I’ll take every word of it. So thank you for that, and that’s for having me. Looking forward to it today.

Jill: Yeah okay, so my first question is who is Diz, and why is it Diz Runs?

Denny: Yeah, so I’ve had that one a couple times, as you might imagine. So like, Diz was my college nickname, and it was just kind of one of those things that it just kind of stuck. It was – for those that are in the right era as I am, it was kind of that phase when like, Snoop Dog was like, it was Snoop Dizzle Drizzle type of thing, and I kind of somehow got saddled with that nickname and me and a couple of my buddies would kind of do that – talk like that sometimes. We have our catchphrases and what not that had the iz or the izzy or the izzle type of verbage, almost like a pig Latin but not as cool as pig Latin. So that was how the nickname started for me and I mean, it’s one of those things that – and I obviously don’t mind it, but like, pretty much all of my college buddies still call me that.

Like, it was never one of those nicknames that you graduated out of. It was one of those that stuck, and when I kind of got into running a little bit more after college than during college, I ran a bit in college but only to try to keep the late-night beer and pizza runs in check, try not to add too much to the waistline at that point. So I started running after college and thought that I’m running now, I’m going to start a running blog, and it’s going to take over the world and I don’t know what it’s going to be called but I was like, well, you know, my nickname is Diz and it’s going to be about my running so we’ll go with Diz Runs. And I guess that was how the – I don’t know if persona is the right way to say it, but that’s how the brand, I guess, was born with my humble beginnings of I’m going to start this great running blog and then realized that I was a little bit late to the party and nobody really cared about my track work out repeats and things like that. So it has grown since then to maybe something that people might care about now.

Jill: Oh my gosh, yeah. It has definitely grown, and I was actually just on your website this morning and just kind of amazed at all of the resources that are there and like, I have got to spend more time investigating everything because there’s so much good stuff. But one of the most amazing things, like, the thing that really catches my eye when I go to your site to look at the podcast and the blog and so forth is that you say that your site is about running, life, and everything in between, which like, just as a life coach it really spoke to me. But I’d love to know what that means to you and why is that your philosophy?

Denny: It’s kind of maybe the original tagline for the podcast and I guess it still kind of is the tagline for the podcast because when I’m talking with people and interviewing other runners and stuff, like, running is the thing that brings up together and that’s what we typically spend most of the time talking about but I’m not married to the idea that every conversation has to be just about running. You know, we can go off on family stuff, we can go off on whatever, I mean, I’ve had conversations about Wrestle Mania before, I’ve had conversations about more serious things like anxiety and depression and not even just the running component of how that has helped certain guests battle those issues, but just the subject in general. So I’ve kind of embraced that idea that everything about me doesn’t have to be just about running. You know, most of the stuff on the website is – it tends to be fairly running related, but like I said, podcast interviews go all over the place, all of my social media and my clients and everything is all – like, running is our focus but I try to worry about my clients more than just as their runners but like, how are the kids, how is your spouse, like I know most everybody’s spouses names, or at least that they have – if they have a spouse or not. I know who they’re – how old their kids are, they have young kids, older kids, kids out of the house, whatever the case might be. Everybody that’s in my community pretty much knows my wife’s name, they know my daughter’s name because I talk about them all the time.

Like, it’s – running is a big component of my life, I mean, it’s not only just something I do for fun, but something I do – I don’t run professionally, but you know, running is my profession now with the podcast and coaching, all of that kind of stuff that that’s not the only facet of me. So I like to – I just like to keep that in mind and make sure that I’m trying to attract a crowd that like, yeah, running’s cool, running’s important, running’s something that we like to do, but it’s not the only thing. You know, there’s other parts of life and a lot of times those things kind of merge and weave in and out of each other. So that’s kind of where that idea came from.

Jill: I love that so much. Because running for me is like, it’s often the starting point of a lot of conversations that lead to some really fun places because running is such a metaphor for so many things in our lives anyway, right? Like, if you think about – you know, if you’re training for a marathon there’s a lot of steps along the way and you just kind of – you know, it’s like, you know, it’s not the end all be all. Like, if you’re a runner, like, you connect with other runners because you have that common focus on how much you love the sport. But I feel like runners have very similar philosophies about life very often, and so that is always such a great starting point for a conversation.

Denny: Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I’m sure that probably transcends to other passions, you know, if you’re a scrapbooker you can probably find scrapbooking groups where like, that’s the common bond that starts with, and then you know, you start to develop – you learn more about each other. If you’re a cyclist, if you’re a whatever, like, you’re going to find whatever that common tie is and for me, you know, yeah, definitely the time is running and there’s a lot of overlap.

There’s a lot of similarities I think between a lot of runners, but there’s certainly, you know, there is no – I don’t think there is really an average runner, let alone everybody who falls outside of whatever “average” might look like that makes us all unique, it makes us all different in who we are so we have the umbrella – at least in my view – we have the umbrella of running that brings us together, and that’s the launch point of the conversation, that’s the launch point of the conversations on my podcast, that’s the launch point of the conversations I have when I’m running with people in town, or I meet somebody to go run with, we start probably talking about running and pretty soon we’re talking about other areas of life, and who knows where the conversation might go and that’s one thing I love about virtual community of running, in person community of running, it seems like everybody’s up for that type of loosy goosy conversation which is definitely my preferred method of conversation anyway, so it’s a lot of fun.

Jill: Yeah, for sure. I completely agree, and I think that’s one thing for me that podcasting has brought is this ability to like, talk – you know, to start a conversation under the guise of running and bring it to a whole new level. One thing that I’m absolutely dying to know about because you kind of little birdy told me a secret earlier this week that you have a book coming out soon and I would just like to know kind of everything about it because you know, like, I’m a voracious reader and I love books about running, and I love hearing new voices. And I mean, your voice is amazing already that, you know, all of the body of work that you’ve put out so I’m super excited that you have a book coming out as well. So just tell me everything.

Denny: Tell you everything. Well, as we’re recording the book’s coming out, but probably – I guess, I think we’ve kind of talked about this a little bit. As people actually listen to this, it’s probably already out. So the book is called Be Ready on Race Day, and it’s all about – it’s basically – the goal of it – hopefully the result is what I intend it to be, is that it’s a how to guide for runners to put together their own training plan, and you know, there’s a lot of plans out there that you can download for free or what not that are kind of, what I call, lump them in to the one size fits all type of training plan, which really just irks me, and maybe it irks me as a running coach, and maybe it just irks me as just somebody who thinks that like, we’re not one size fits all in anything. Like, you know, anything that you get, any clothing piece that you get that has one size fits all usually never fits anybody anyway.

Jill: Unless it’s a Snuggie.

Denny: Right. You know, and so things like that, I just don’t really care for the idea of one size fits all and you know, in the course of just starting the coaching thing a few years ago and working with runners and just communicating with runners on social media and what not, you know, there’s always – it seems like every time somebody gets one of those types of plans, whether it’s a Hal Higdon plan, whether it’s something that you download from Runner’s World, like, they’re all over the place, they’re not hard to find. They start out great and then something happens. You get sick, the kids get sick, work goes crazy and you miss a week of training and then it’s like, well, what do I do now? I’ve got this plan but I don’t know what to do. So what the idea with the book is that I’m basically laying out the step-by-step process of everything that I do with my clients to create their training plan. It’s something that to me, a good training plan is a living document, something that changes as you go. You know, you have your idea of where you want to go but when life happens, when something crops up and gets in the way and screws up your training a little bit, it needs to adjust. It needs to move with the runner, with the client, and help to keep them on track even though the track may have changed a little bit. And so with the book, that’s the goal is to say, here’s everything I do basically.

All the steps I take, all the little tests I run or the questions I ask, to try to put a good plan together for one of my clients, and for the runner who has had enough of the one size fits all and trying to scramble and figure out what to do when something happens or the paces aren’t quite perfect with what you’re going to, but maybe don’t have room in the budget to work with a coach or for whatever reason and we can get into this if you want or not, I don’t care, but don’t think that they “are good enough” yet to work with a coach, which is another pet peeve of mine. But for whatever reason, you don’t have a coach, you’ve outgrown the downloadable free training plan, like, what is in the middle? And there’s not much. So the goal is that this kind of fills that gap for somebody who’s like, “Alright, maybe I’ll take a one size fits all plan but now I know how to modify it, now I know how to maybe tweak it.” And I know some of the reasons behind why do we do speed work, like, I’m training for my first marathon, why do I need to do short repeat speed work type of things, or I really hate tempo runs but why does every plan have a tempo run in it.

Like, well, here’s some of the reasons why that those different types of workouts are important, and hopefully that’s what will come from the book is just really kind of serving those folks that are in that middle zone between I’ve outgrown the real one size fits all maybe kind of more beginner type of plans, but I don’t have a coach yet and there’s a big gap in the middle and I’m trying to hopefully fill that space in a little bit.

Jill: I love everything about that because really, I don’t think there is a book out there that I can think of that really addresses this. Most books seem to just assume that you’re going to be following the training plan from beginning to end and it’s going to be amazing, right? And like, there is, you know, running, life and everything in between. There’s that life and everything in between that happens to us, and I love that. Okay, so here’s one of the most common questions I get asked, and I would love to hear, you know, from the perspective of the book how you would address this. So I have clients that come to me and they say, “You know, I signed up for a half marathon and you know, when I signed up I had six months to train and I trained for a while but then I got injured or life happened, some family member got sick and I had to take care of them, whatever, and I stopped training for a couple of months. And now my race is two months away and my longest run is only five miles.” Like, what would you suggest to that person? Would you say, “Hey, just cancel the race,” would you say, “Let’s modify your training plan,” would you say like, “Just pick up where you left off,” like, what would your suggestion be?

Denny: Yeah, that’s certainly something that happens from time to time, and it’s a tough nut to crack when you’re in that situation because especially whether it’s the first race or there’s some special – maybe it’s a Disney race so it’s like we’re going to be there, part of family vacation, I’m going to run this race, like, I’m really excited for it. But like you said, something happened and the training has fallen off. I think there’s a couple of tracks that you can take. I think one, if there’s an option to defer, which some races offer that as the possibility, that might be the best in the generic case at least, of obviously not knowing – everybody’s going to be different, but that might be the best option because the last thing that you want to do is try to cram a whole bunch of training into six weeks or eight weeks, something like that, and wind up injured, wind up burnt out, wind up you know, kind of almost being resentful of the fact that you’re trying to do this stupid race and now this running thing is like – becomes way more than you thought it was going to be when you signed up because you’re trying to make up for lost time. So there’s a lot of issues that can come into a situation like that, but assuming that the person is going to – really still wants to run the race, really – or “has to” because they can’t defer for whatever reason, I think in that case, the best thing to do kind of going forward is to really reassess the goals.

If the goal at the beginning was I’m going to try and make this a PR race, I’m going to really try to be well trained and be well prepared and really run this race to the best of my ability, at that point I mean, you can still try to run it the best of your ability, but I think the sights need to be maybe shifted a bit and realize that like, hey, life happened, I’m not a fulltime runner, I’m a fulltime spouse and parent and employee and all of these other things and I try to make running a priority as well but sometimes that has to get shoved to the back burner. So then you change your goal. And like, what can we do to make this fun? So if it kind of a destination race or some type of vacation type of race, like, go into it with just the idea of like, I don’t care what my time is going to be, maybe beforehand the strategy was or wasn’t to run-walk but now maybe let’s focus on just run-walking it because that’s going to help us – you know, help me to be able to not push too hard, not run the risk of overdoing it, probably going to be able to have the right kind of ratios or play with the ratios with a couple months left in training to build up to where maybe you’re not as trained as you would like to be, but you can get through the 13.1, you can finish, cross the finish line, get your medal, hopefully you know, do it with a smile on your face, have fun, maybe get some great pictures along the way, and avoid it being a bad experience because that’s the worst.

I’m sure you can agree with this, Jill, that anytime you have a client, as a coach, having a client where things just really go bad and the race was just not the experience that you want, regardless of the finish time, but just the overall thing was just bad is the worst feeling that I can get as a coach. So you try to give some options of other things that you can do to still build but maybe shift the priorities so that you can still have fun, you can still enjoy the day, and you know, hopefully, it might be the most important thing, is to finish with a smile on your face and uninjured when you get to the finish line.

Jill: Yeah, love that. I love that because really that is the goal, right? We – runners, the worst thing that can happen to a runner, I swear, is getting injured and not being able to run. It’s like, taking – you know, it’s like that when we run too much and train too hard, we actually cause the very thing that we’re most afraid of, which is not being able to run. So I love that idea of shifting the focus of the training so that you can still do the race and have a good time and not end up getting injured, which is, you know, always the goal. Yeah, I just love that and I think what I’m hearing you say is that you know, if you lost a couple months of training in the middle of a half marathon training, or you know, even if you’ve lost just a couple long runs, it’s not the end of the race, it doesn’t mean that you’ve failed, it doesn’t mean that you’re a terrible runner. It just means that you need to shift priorities. There’s always options out there and I think that’s what sometimes we forget as runners is that just because we’ve decided it needs to look a certain way, doesn’t mean we can’t shift and still get a lot out of the experience.

Denny: Yeah, exactly. And that’s where – you know, like I said, it comes back to that idea of – that just rubs me so much the wrong way of the one size fits all, like, this is the static plan and you have to stick to it. And you know, maybe in the perfect world, like, that would be the case, but I don’t live in a perfect world, I don’t know too many people that live in a perfect world. There’s always something that over a 16 or 18-week training plan that’s going to interfere. You’re going to be sick, you’re going to oversleep, whatever. So you know, being able to step back a little bit and go alright, like, I missed one training run, or I missed a month, so how do I change my goals based on how the training has happened is an important part of, I think, the process of being mentally ready on race day as much as physically ready on race day.

Jill: For sure. For sure. So I have another question for you, just while we’re talking about the mental aspect of running and sort of managing your mind around that. How do you work with clients when they’ve done their big goal race and then the day after – maybe it’s marathon they’ve been – it’s their first marathon, they’ve been training for months and months, and they finish the race and then the next day they kind of feel a little bit sad and like, they struggle to get their running mojo back for, you know, weeks sometimes after this event. Because there’s sort of this like, funk that you get into after you’ve completed a big event. And like, for a lot of my clients, they’re very confused when that happens because they say, “I just ran my first marathon, why am I not happy?” So I’d love to hear your take on that if you have clients that have experienced that and what kind of discussion do you have with them and how do you help them through that?

Denny: Oh yeah, I mean, that’s definitely a common thing. I’ve worked with people that have been in that situation, I myself have probably been in that situation if I’m going to be totally honest. And if you take a step back, and it’s – maybe it’s hard when you’re in the moment, but if you just take a step back and think about it for a second, it kind of makes sense because you’ve been looking forward to this day for four months, five months, six months, maybe 12 months, maybe 18 months. You’ve been looking forward to this one race, training for it, preparing for it, getting ready for this race for a big chunk of time, and then you finished it, it hopefully went well, maybe it didn’t, whatever, you ran the race, and now what? You know, it’s almost like that December 26th, as a kid you look forward to Christmas since, I don’t know, about the time school starts, and you know, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, and present and the Christmas tree, and then like, now it’s December 26th and Christmas is over and you’re like – it’s just kind of a little bit of a deflating experience. And you know, that happens to us.

So when you’re in that situation and when I’ve been in that situation, when I’m working with a client in that situation, you know, a couple things that I try to maybe have them focus on is one, after a big race, half marathon, marathon, whatever, it’s probably a good idea to give your body and your mind a little bit of a break, so like, don’t worry about running for a few days at least. Probably longer than that, but at least give yourself a few days, a week, whatever. I kind of have a loose goal that I – not really that loose of a goal I guess, but I use it with my clients where it’s pain free plus three. So probably after the race you’re going to have some soreness in your legs. You may feel pretty good until you go to walk up or down some steps, you’re like, “Wow, wait a minute,” and the other one that hits some people is getting down and getting up off the toilet. Like, everything feels pretty good until you go to sit down and it’s like, “Wow, wait a second, like, my quads are still on fire, I didn’t realize what was going on here.” So once you get to that point where daily life is back to normal, and for some people it might be a couple of days, you trained well and maybe the race wasn’t as physically demanding as you thought. For some people it might be a week, 10 days, two weeks, depending on the distance of the race and how much effort you put into training and then exerting on race day.

But give yourself until you’re pain free, everything’s normal, walking up and down the steps, getting up and down off the toilet or off a low chair, something like that, no problems there, and then just wait three more days. Usually by the time you’re pain free, in my experience, most of my clients are pretty ready to go, and I kind of have to really strap them down and be like, “No, you’re going to wait three more days and then we’ll start running again.” And that can kind of, just that absence makes the heart grow fonder thing can kind of really set in where the first couple days it is kind of a deflating, “What’s next? I don’t know?” but by the time you take a few weeks, or a few days, a couple, three weeks sometimes even to go pain free plus three, now you’re chopping at the bit, you’re ready to get back at it. And you know, if that doesn’t seem to work, if you know, you’re recovered and you still don’t have the desire, that’s when I start to look at maybe some other options of like, maybe putting another race on your calendar.

You know, you were so excited about this one race, is there another race that’s five months out, six months out, whatever, three months out, depending on the distance of the race and where your fitness is. You maybe go even little bit closer, but can you put a race on the calendar that would give you that beacon in the distance that you’re going to continue to strive for and continue to train for? Could you shift your goals? Maybe these last couple races you’ve been trying to push to set a PR or get faster or maybe run a new distance. Can you shift to finding something to do that’s just for fun? So maybe it’s mentoring another runner that’s in your town, or maybe your neighbor that wants to get started with running, has no idea what they’re doing, and say – almost kind of take on that leadership role or pseudo coaching role for a new runner where now all of a sudden the runs aren’t about you, they’re about helping a new runner, or maybe just run a race for fun. If there’s a color run or a bubble run, an obstacle course race if you think that might be fun, doing a warrior dash. I mean, just kind of shifting the focus so that it’s something different, something new, something that you know, maybe it’s not going to be your long term focus, but just enough to just kind of give running a little bit of excitement back, make it something a little bit different, a little bit new, and once that happens it usually doesn’t take too long to start to be like, “Alright, I’m ready to get back to the normal – my normal kind of training, training mode.” So hopefully those are some ideas that might help a little bit.

Jill: Yeah, I love all of that, and especially like, just that permission to be like, “Yeah, this happens to everybody and there are ways to get out of it,” rather than feeling like, “Oh my gosh, it’s the end of the world because I’ve lost my running mojo.” Like, just knowing that that sort of ebbs and flows is such a relief I think, for me. At least when I think about – like, I don’t always have to be like, super excited about running and I don’t always have to feel like completely like, constantly like, “Oh my gosh, I ran this race, this is the best thing ever.” That it’s normal to feel a little weird about it, a little sad about it, and that it’ll come back.

Denny: Yeah, and another thing that people sometimes struggle with and maybe some of your clients and your listeners would appreciate this is that the idea that if I take a week off or two weeks off, I’m going to lose all of my fitness. And I understand the fear, but I promise it’s not founded. Especially after a long training cycle, like, giving your body a week, 10 days, whatever, depending on how you’re feeling and that’s part of also where the pain free plus three thing comes into play. Like, just gives your body a chance to be fully refreshed and recovered and you’d be surprised how little fitness you’d lose, especially if you’re somewhat active in normal life. So if you’re doing some yoga, or maybe doing a spin class once in a while, or just taking the dog for a walk in that recovery period.

Like, the loss in fitness that you’re going to experience is going to be much less than you’re afraid of. And then once you come back, it might take you a week, two weeks, whatever, to kind of build back up to where you were, but we’re talking a week or two. No big deal. You just got to get back on – when you’re ready, just get back on track and it won’t take you long to get right back to where you were.

Jill: Yeah, and it’ll come back a lot faster if you’re in the right mental space. For sure. And often I think, like, the training runs that we do, you know, when you’re training for a race, like, the training that you’ve done two to three weeks before the race is what’s really important to the race. Not the training you did the week of the race, right? So if you think about that, like, that two weeks after a marathon or half marathon, like, it’s just not enough to lose a significant amount of fitness because really, you’re still kind of riding like, that marathon, it’s a pretty damn big training run in the first place. So yeah, so it’s – just like, yeah, I think it’s so important to kind of step back and shift your thinking about training, for sure.

Denny: Right. And that’s where having a good community helps because every runner – just about every runner has been there. They’ve had some of those questions, they’ve had some of those doubts, so whether it’s Twitter, whether it’s your Facebook group, Jill, people that are in that group, whatever it might be, ask those questions. Like, I promise you’re not the only one, I promise you that in almost every case you’re not going to be the first person to ask that question, you’re not going to be that first person who’s experienced whatever nervousness or feelings or whatever that you’re having. So like, reach out to your running friends whether they’re online or whether they’re in person, and you realize that A, I’m not alone, B, you know, I’m not abnormal, like, this is a normal probably issue that people have dealt with, and there’s a way out of it. It’ll get better, whatever that feeling might be.

Jill: Yeah, for sure. And I just love what you said about reaching out to your community so that you know you’re not alone because there – I mean, I don’t know how many billions of people on this planet run, but I’m pretty sure that whatever problem someone has, at least one other person has had that problem. Probably millions. And there’s so many things that like, at least in the community that I run, where folks are like – they’re afraid to talk about things. It’s too much information. I’m like, there’s never too much information.

Denny: Oh yeah, hang out with a group of runners for very long, on a long run, the TMI things that come up, you just become immune to bodily functions and all kinds of things that maybe aren’t great dinner table discussion but at five o clock in the morning on a Saturday for a long run, like, it just flows, for a lack of better way of saying it sometimes.

Jill: Exactly, exactly. So good. Okay, so I have a series of questions that I want to ask you that I think are just kind of to give us a sense of what it’s like to go for a run with you. So the first question is do you prefer trail or road?

Denny: Oh gosh, that’s – I might have to straddle the fence on this. I think I prefer trails. In fact, I’m fairly positive that I prefer trails, but I run roads much more often because it’s more convenient, and I’ll use the Florida excuse, I live in central Florida and like, we actually do have some pretty good trails here but it’s – you know, if I lived in Appalachia, if I lived in the mountains out West somewhere, somewhere where there’s – like, our trails run through the swamp and it’s just kind of like, ugh, like swamp. But if I lived somewhere where there were more extensive trail systems and more varied landscapes, I would be probably all trails all the time. But I run road probably 90% of the time, so I’ll go either way and I don’t dislike running on the roads, but definitely the trail – I mean, it’s just nature and not having to worry about cars and other people and all that kind of stuff, or at least not as often, you’re not going to cross paths with pedestrians and bicyclists and all that kinds of stuff on the trail very often. So give me the trail over the roads I think any day.

Jill: And trails for you – I mean, you have alligators, crocodiles, like, that’s an actual honest to god hazard.

Denny: Yeah, you know, they’re not too bad. Although if you remember a couple years ago when – like, it was all over the news, there was like, gigantic dinosaur alligator that like, crossed this trail. That’s like, one of the trails where I would run on occasion. So you know, I was telling my wife, I went for a run a couple weeks ago on the trail, on one of the trails that I run somewhat regularly when I make the effort to go because again, I can’t just walk out the door. I have to get in the car and go to the trails to run. And she was like, “How was the run?” I said, “Well, you know, it was a typical trail run through Florida. I ran through the cow field and saw a bunch of cows. Saw four, five gators in the pond, or in the lake right next to the trail, and saw about, couple bald eagles as well.” So I covered all my bases of different animal life that you could see, and that might have been the run that – there was a big snake across the trail too. I mean, it was a big rat snake so it’s not – it wasn’t a threat. He didn’t care that I was there, I didn’t really care that he was there. But yeah, that’s another thing about the trails is you never know what kind of wildlife you might stumble upon out there.

Jill: That’s awesome. I love that. One of my clients lives in Everglades city and sometimes she’ll post a picture of a gator that she sees on her run and I’m like, “God, how do you do that?” It’s crazy. Alright, so talk to me about the weather in Florida too because I know – I’m a northern girl, I was born in raised in northern New York, I’m like, six feet of snow, bring it on. I’m all in. So I’m not a huge fan of the hot weather and I mean, here you are, like, nine months of the year you’re running in what I consider completely unacceptable type of weather. So talk to me about what it’s like to run in Florida, I mean, have you ever run in a hurricane? Like, what’s going on there?

Denny: Yeah, it’s interesting down here, and I’m from northern Michigan originally, so I know what real winter is like, and I certainly laugh at the natives down here who get bundled up when it’s – anything below 50 and it looks like it would be – like they’re heading to the slopes for a good day of skiing. It’s like, really, you don’t need a parka and a scarf and boots and like three layers when it’s 47 degrees at eight o clock in the morning. It’s going to be 60 by the time – by noon. You know, you’re kind of overdressed. But yeah, running down here is an adventure, especially from about now as we’re recording this, kind of end of March until at least Thanksgiving time, until at least kind of the end of November, it is pretty hot and humid. It’s not uncommon to wake up with it being low to mid 80s and 94% to 98% humidity at four o clock in the morning. So you just kind of – I mean, it’s similar to what you do if you lived up north and it’s the winter time. like, it’s like, well I’m a runner so I’m going to go and I’m going to maybe bitch about it, I might complain a little bit about it, but you know, for me I’m not going to run on the treadmill. Like, that is just – I’ll take a zero day, I won’t run today before I’ll go run on the treadmill.

So you know, you get out and when it’s – like I say, when it’s summer from about the first of April to about the last of November is what I call our summer. You know, you got to get out there early, and that means you go to bed at eight thirty or nine o clock at night so you’re up at four and you can be done before the sun rises. Especially on those long runs, on Saturday morning it’s four, four thirty, you’re tracking out there so you can be finished before seven, seven thirty when the sun starts to really make it even more miserable than it was before the sun came out. So you know, there’s all that going on, you know, sometimes you have to run during the day and it’s just kind of like, well, it’s going to be short and it’s going to be sweet, and it’s not going to be – I’m not going to try to push it, taking water with you, all that good stuff, but yeah, and then my favorite, and don’t let my wife hear this, but my favorite is definitely when it’s kind of tropical stormy out there and it’s just raining buckets and it’s July or August, something like that, it is the best runs of the year are running through almost hurricane conditions because it’s – all of a sudden it’s not hot anymore.

I can actually be awake for a run as opposed to if I’m running at four thirty in the morning, five o clock in the morning, like, I’m sleepwalking for the first couple miles at least. But you get a chance – and I’ve been known in the past to be sitting at my desk, working, already ran for the day, and all of a sudden like, the storms just kind of roll in and it’s kind of the running joke in Florida – running joke, pun there, but you know, the joke is that it rains at three o clock every afternoon. It may not be quite at three o clock, but every afternoon it rains somewhere in the radius. And when it’s your day, you’ve got about 20 minutes of just absolute downpour, then the sun’s going to come back out and it’s going to be miserable again. So like, I’ll see the clouds roll in and have no plans to run, I’m working on something, editing a podcast, or coaching, whatever, and it’s like, as soon as those rain drops start, I’m grabbing my shoes and I’m out the door. And just getting just completely drenched, completely soaked, loving every minute of it, splash in every puddle like I’m a three-year-old, just out there running and having a great time, and trying to be done in that 15 to 20-minute window because when the sun comes back out and the steam starts rising off the cement, you want to be finished by then.

So yeah, running in the storm – last year we actually had – when the big, oh my god, everything Armageddon hurricane came through, it definitely came right over our house and my wife wouldn’t let me go, but like, the year before we had like a tropical storm through and I definitely snuck out and ran, and that wind is no joke. It’s something maybe to laugh about now, but probably not the wisest, safest decision, but it’s just a break from the heat, which is all I care about at that time of year. It’s like, just a break from the heat and the oppressive humidity and go out and have a little bit of fun and see what trees have been blown down and all that kind of good stuff as well.

Jill: So basically, when all of us on the northeast coast are looking at the tropical storms developing down in the Atlantic and we’re thinking, “Oh god, don’t come up here, don’t come up here,” you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I hope this comes to me.” Right?

Denny: Yeah, I mean, yes and no because there’s the home owner part of me that’s like, you know what, stay away, I don’t want to deal with boarding everything up and bringing out – all the logistical stuff, and you know, the heaven forbid, like what happens if it comes over and actually ruins – actually causes real problems to the house. But the runner part of me, it’s kind of like the surfer part of the surfer community on the coast, they’re like, “You know, it’s cool when it’s close enough that there’s good waves,” like, I enjoy it when it’s close enough that it’s downgraded, maybe it’s tropical storm level but there’s all the rain and all that kind of stuff, like I’m cool with that. But you can keep your category threes and up, you can keep those somewhere else. They don’t need to come here.

Jill: They can stay out in the Atlantic, alright, fair enough. That’s awesome. I love that because I think so many runners are like, “Oh gosh, the weather’s not good so I’m not going to go outside,” and I feel the same way that you do about running in the rain. It’s really – I mean, unless it’s 30 degrees outside or 35 and raining, in which case I’ll probably – I might stay – I might skip or wait until it stops, but like, on a summer day when there’s just like a beautiful rain storm, I’m all in. Like, it’s just – it feels amazing, it feels like you’re getting to take a shower and run at the same time, right?

Denny: And a few of the people that I run with, they’ll kind of complain like, “It’s raining,” especially when it’s early in the morning because it’s not as much fun to run in the rain at five o clock in the morning as it is at, you know, two o clock in the afternoon, but some of them have complained in the past about summer time – it’s storming, I’m just going to stay home, whatever, but it’s like, you know, we’re just as wet after a normal run when it’s not raining and it’s all sweaty, nasty, gross, so yeah, like, running in the rain, you’re literally just as wet but at least it doesn’t feel as gross. At least in my opinion, like, it’s a much more refreshing soaking wet than it is sweaty nasty soaking wet.

Jill: Yeah, I completely agree. So okay, so I have one more question for you before we wrap up today and this is – you’ve really inspired me because I know we talked earlier in the week and when I was on your podcast and you have sort of a signature question that you ask everybody, and I thought, you know, I really want to start doing that. So you are the first – first of all, you’re the first male, first man on the Not Your Average Runner Podcast, so welcome behind the curtain. It’s been awesome having you here, do not tell anybody our secrets, and so you’re also the first person I’m going to ask this question of, and that is if you knew that failure was not an option, or if you knew that you really didn’t care if you fail or not, what is the one thing you would do?

Denny: Wow, that’s a head scratcher. I love it. I don’t know if this quite answers your question, but I’m going to go with – because this has been kind of my if I knew everything was going to work out okay in the end scenario, I thought this for years, and I don’t know why this is what my thought has always been. Now I’m kind of kicking myself for leading up to it like that, but I would go over Niagara Falls in a barrel if I knew that A, I was going to be safe, and B, I wasn’t going to be arrested. And obviously both of those things are like, the absolute opposite is true. So I would never do it, but I don’t know what it is about Niagara Falls and seeing it in person and realizing how big it is, like, I don’t know, I think that would just be like the ultimate like, rush, crazy, you’d be in a barrel so you couldn’t necessarily see so you won’t know exactly when the bottom was going to fall out on you, just bobbing along on the water there and all of a sudden just like, down you go. If I knew – in that case, failure being death or being arrested, if I knew that failure wasn’t an option there, I think that would be just a rush. I don’t know why, like I said, I don’t know why that that’s been something that’s always been in my mind, since a little kid, and growing up in Michigan like, we know all about the great lakes, that’s one of – that’s kind of our bread and butter topic in school and what not, but yeah, Niagara Falls has always been fascinating to me.

You hear stories of people that did it back a hundred years ago or whatever and most of those stories don’t end well. So that was always my thing, like, if I knew I was going to be okay, give me a barrel and Niagara Falls and I’ll have a good time. Probably not where you thought I was going to go with that one, but that’s where I’m going.

Jill: I did not see that coming, but I kind of love it, and now I’m picturing like, well, alright, like, what if you had like a barrel – specially constructed barrel that had maybe some like, really nice glass on one side – and this would be glass that wouldn’t break so you can actually watch yourself falling through or would you rather it be, you know, that you don’t know where you are and you’re just like, you go off and then you land in the water? Like, would you rather see or not see what’s going on?

Denny: You know, I like the – to me, the romantic idea is that you’re just bobbing along and you have no idea when you get to the end, but it would be kind of cool to see it and have that anticipation build almost like when you’re on a rollercoaster and you get the click, click, click going up, and you can kind of – wow, I’m really high, and wow, I still have a lot farther to go, and it heightens the intensity a bit. So maybe having a window pane would be a nice added feature or some type of webcam or something. These days you have a GoPro attached to the outside and you can just be watching it from the inside.

Jill: Absolutely, I’m down with GoPro. That is the best. Alright, so you have set the bar really, really high for future podcast guests.

Denny: Either that or really low. One or the other.

Jill: One or the other, exactly. I love that so much. So okay, this has been super fun and I would love to just kind of like, have you talk a little bit about how people can connect with you. Like, maybe tell us a little bit more about when the book’s coming out, where they can get it, and what else you have available for people if they want to connect with you or follow you or stalk you, I don’t know.

Denny: Stalking would be great. If you want to stalk me, that would be fantastic. Everything is pretty simple, pretty straightforward across the board. It’s DizRuns.com is the website, and I’m @dizruns on pretty much all things social with Twitter and Instagram, probably be my preferred channels or places I hang out most. We have a group on Facebook if you want to come hang out there or whatever, and the podcast is Diz Runs Radio, but again, if you just search Diz Runs in whatever podcast app of choice, if you want – if you like – Jill, I wish you would do more than just one episode a week and a couple bonus episodes here and there once in a while, you know, I do a couple episodes a week too, so maybe check those out if you’re so inclined. And then again yeah, the book, thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about that. It’s titled Be Ready on Race Day and it – as long as this is being aired after the 30th of March, it is alive on Amazon near you.

Bereadyonraceday.com is the website with the information but if you just look for it on Amazon, Kindle and paperback, it is there. So go ahead and one click – one click that thing, just put it in your shopping cart and let me know what you think after you’ve had a chance to look through it.

Jill: Yeah, and definitely leave him a review because as an author myself, I know how excited I am when I read reviews like, whether or not it’s, “Hey, I love this book,” or, “I hated this book,” like, it’s super exciting to hear what people think because you pour your heart and your soul into creating this thing to help people and it’s super fun to get feedback on whether it’s working or not. And I’m sure your book is going to get a five-star review, and I can’t wait to read it. So, excellent. Oh my gosh, this was so much fun. So thank you very much and I am just very grateful that we were able to spend this time together today and I’m a little jealous that it’s not freezing cold where you are but I know that it will be super-hot soon. So enjoy your hurricane running. I think you should rebrand yourself as the hurricane runner because that just makes me laugh. Wait, one quick question. Do the alligators hide during hurricanes and tropical storms or are they out in the middle of everything?

Denny: I mean, I don’t typically go into the swamp alligator hunting when there’s a hurricane coming along, but I would imagine – they’ll just kind of law low in the water. You know, and just kind of ride it out. I don’t know, I mean, they’ve been living in the swamps and dealing with the hurricanes a lot longer than we probably have, so they probably have some innate instinct of what to do. All the animals seem to survive them just fine, so they have it figured out.

Jill: I know, it’s the humans that have the problem. Anyway, okay, well thank you so much Denny, it was a pleasure talking to you today and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of your book.

Denny: Well, thanks Jill, really appreciate it.

Jill: Thanks, bye.

I hope you enjoyed my chat with Denny Krahe. Again, links to follow him on social media and check out his book are all in the show notes. And you can find those at www.notyouraveragerunner.com/15. And here’s the best part, Denny has generously offered to give away a signed copy of his book, Be Ready on Race Day to one lucky person.

Now, all you have to do to enter is post a picture of yourself on Instagram, tag @dizruns and @notyouraveragerunner, and just tell us what race you’re training for. And that’s it, you’ll be entered. The drawing for the book will be on April 26th on Instagram and I hope you win. That’s it for this week everyone, next week I’ll be back to talk about 5K training and how you can make it your bitch. Until then, happy running.

Thanks for listening to this episode of The Not Your Average Runner Podcast. If you liked what you heard and want more, head over to www.notyouraveragerunner.com to download your free one-week jumpstart plan and get started running today.