who me?? Runner's World story

This past week I had a phone conversation with a guy doing a Runner's World story about recovery methods.  I felt kinda like a bozo - 'who me?  what do i know about running??'   But that's typical Boulder - there's always someone that's connected to someone else or knows someone and somehow a newbie like me gets asks questions by some guy writing for Runner's World.   how weird is that??
Backstory
This past summer as I was ramping up toward the crux of my Breck Epic training...Coach told me "you are a slow recover-er".   That really bummed me out..I thought to myself "great another thing I need to worry about.'  But it was true - every workout left me sore and tired.  If I was going to reach my goal of doing a 6 day mtn bike race at high altitude- I'd have to recover faster in order to be able to train harder.

slowing easing into a freezing cold river in Salida!

As any great coach would do - Lynda took a hard look at my nutrition and recovery methods.  This is when I learned the *magic* of ice baths, compression tights and foam rollers.   I think the ice baths were the key.  My first "ice bath" was soaking in the river in Salida after day 1 of a 2 day stage race.  I was seriously amazed how good I felt afterward and how well I rode the next day.  SOLD! From then on after every hard workout there was a ice bath immediately afterward, a little foam rolling and then compression tights.

Since then I have joined All Sports Recovery and take advantage of their MVP Normatec Compression boots, circulating ice bath and cold lasers.  I get my moneys worth for sure - I'm pretty much a fixture at the place... after every run I go there and use the boots and any achy spot I have I use the cold laser on it.  I think it's given me the ability recover faster to go out and run the next day.

no - this not me - it's picture I stole off the All Sports Recovery website.  But let me tell you - you'd be smiling like that too if you were in those boots - those puppies are awesome!!!

Now to the Runners World part...
So other day I was at All Sports and I had a conversation with the owner Josh.

Josh: "hey -you are a runner, right?"
me: "welll...I just started running I'm not quite sure I'd call myself a runner"
Josh: "this guy from Runner's World is doing a story on running and recovery methods - would you be willing to talk to him?"
me: "uhhh...shouldn't he be talking to like a *real runner*...maybe even an expert?"
Josh: "No - actually I recommended another lady that comes here - but he recognized her name and said she was *too fast*.  He wanted to talk to someone that was more average"
me: "uhhh...we'll i'm definitely average - so..ok...sure..I'll talk to him"

The guy called me up and wanted to know a few things:
1.  how long I had been running (4 months)
2.  recovery methods I was consistently using . (ice baths, MVP compression boots, foam roller and compression tights)
3. how long I've been doing these recovery methods (since the summer while training for a mtn bike race and since then I use the same recovery methods for running)
4.  Did I think running was harder on the body than mtn biking( yes -  I think a demanding, technical 3 hour mtn bike ride would be equivalent to a 1 hour tempo run)
5. Had my running speed gotten any faster since I started running (yes - i have definitely improved over the last 4 months)
6. Did I think the recovery methods I was using allowed me to run faster.(to this I said - yes and no.  Whenever you start something new big gains are usually made at the start.  So the fact that once my body got used to running consistently then my speed increased.  So the fact I was a newbie with a good cardio fitness base gave me the ability to run faster within a few months.  However; I think the fact that the recovery methods I used allowed me to run consistently.  If my muscles weren't sore and fatigued that allowed me to go out and run the next day. So yes - recovery methods I used enable me to run faster since I wasn't fatigued)

It was interesting conversation...I don't know if he'll use anything I told him..but it was a cool experience.