From Setback To The Start Line - Episode 6 - Trying To Build Momentum

**Scotty** (0:00)
All right, everybody, this is going to be one of those from Set Back to the Start Line episodes. These are raw coaching calls between me and my coach, Liza Howard, about my recovery from my root repair injury and how to learn how to run again, basically. It's about my progress and what's been going on with me, and I don't edit them. I don't do anything to them. I just record them raw and give them to you to see if they might be helpful. And the only thing I do do is I do a shout out to the companies and the products that I use to help me in my everyday running. And these are not companies that have did a, that sponsored this episode. I just want to thank them because I've been working with them or you've been using them, and they're not giving me any money at all for this. But Midwest Orthopedics at Rush, giving me my PT, Path Projects, shorts and liners, UCAN for my hydration and nutrition, Fitsock, which is what I wear on my feets, and the Mount to Coast shoes. Also Trail Toes Anti-Body Chaffing Cream, slather it all over and I don't chafe.
Those are companies that have given bought ads for me in the past, but they're just products that I use in case someone's curious. So we're going to call Liza and we're going to check in and have a coaching call. Here we go.
Hello.

**Liza Howard** (1:54)
Hey there, how are you?

**Scotty** (1:58)
I'm doing all right. I had some personal things that we can talk about offline when we're done, but...
Running-wise, I think, you know, I'm struggling.
It's been hard. So I took that last week off because of the power issue. I basically had to kind of sneak out of here in the middle of the night and go up to Wisconsin early. And life was in chaos because of the... We ended up having to throw out our whole refrigerator full of groceries. We had no power for like four days. I don't know why I didn't bring my running clothes with me on my thing, but it was just like a... We have a problem and trying to fix it. And then there were some dog walks and stuff like that. But then this week was the Four Mile Week. And...

**Liza Howard** (2:48)
Did you do too much mentally?

**Scotty** (2:51)
Well, I've been on the struggle bus. It's been really hard.
I can't explain it. And it's not my knee, which is the hard part. I would have thought that that would be what I was struggling with, but it's like I'm struggling because I'm not in shape. And it's harder than I remember. I don't remember being this hard back in the day.
So I did, well, and I did a four-miler with a group run on Thursday. Okay, hold on. Let me back up.
I'll leave out the dog walks because those don't matter as much. But I decided a four-mile run on the treadmill, and I ended up run walking every quarter mile for 1509 average pace for four miles. And the whole run, I felt like a piece of garbage. Like, why do I suck so bad? And then I had another dog walk. And then Thursday, we did a four-mile run with my running group with the Flatlanders. And it was mostly walking with them because we were bringing up the rear. And then I did more dog walks. And then yesterday, I went to the trails for the first time because I wanted to just go run by myself in the woods. And so I went to, there's a 2.3-mile loop that's pretty flat, but it's real trail. And I did that by myself. And just like within a tenth of a mile, I was tired and had to walk. And I'd start walking up hills. Eventually, I had a few good songs come on, and I got in the groove and started to enjoy it. And then I just kept saying to myself, well, you know what? You thought you were never going to run again. And now you're on a trail and you're going four miles. And what are you complaining about? Just run when I could run and hike when it got too much. And so I just alternated and tried to make the best of it. And I put a smile on my face at the end of it. And I was just like, you know what? Who cares? If I could go run, you know, I ran an hour and five minutes on trails by myself and you know, I did struggle with like being afraid of falling and tripping. Like that was the first time I was on a weird surface where there was rots and roots and rocks. So I was like picking up my feet and very worried about falling, you know.