Interview with Chris Price – Runner

Community Outreach Series: Chris Price talks running, racing and training with PBCM. Read more…

When did you first get into running?

• Not a lot of people know this about me, but I wasn’t always the figure of perfect health.  My background isn’t extensive in athletics by any stretch of the imagination.

• Growing up in NZ I played a bit of rugby, cricket, some soccer and tennis in school and university but after that it was mostly social team sports that required superior beer drinking skills over athletic competency.  When I hit 30 a series of major life events shook me up and I decided that I needed to make a change.  At the beginning of 2008, I entered a globally hosted 12-week Health and Lifestyle challenge, and through some solid determination, sound education and positive drive, I won the competition and was crowned the global champion.

• Part of my new active lifestyle was running twice a week and throughout the 12-week challenge I set myself the goal of running the Vancouver Sun Run.  My interest in running really peaked when I ran the race and finished faster than everyone on my corporate team.  Being a former ‘pack a day’ smoker and the office cake eater (read: garbage disposal), people around me really took notice and my sense of accomplishment swelled to a point where I just had to keep going … faster and longer.

• From there I set myself some solid road racing goals of a sub  40 minute 10k and a  sub 1:25 21k and smashed them all by the end of the year.  I was also fortunate to have gotten my first sniff of trail racing via ‘5 Peaks’ Whistler in ’08 and a new passion was born.

• 2009 was my first full year of trail running and I threw myself at it with a gusto that only I know how. I had big goals and a great year with highlights being my first 50k trail run, my first 50 mile trail run and a 3^rd place age group placing in the 5 race, BC ‘5 Peaks’ series.

Do you read other sports and training blogs? If so, what are some of your favourites?

Most certainly.  Running in particular can be looked upon very easily as a solo sport.  It is so hard to actually experience what happens in a foot race as it is such an individual endeavor.  Racing is a constant battle between your body, your mind and often your friends.  Online training blogs and race reports offer the platform for runners and athletes to share their thoughts and experiences and give great insight into what actually happened during a race, how you trained to get there and the trials and tribulations along the way.  It really brings the community together so everyone can share and learn from others experiences, and opens a forum to offer advice and support along the way.

My RSS feed reader contains close to 100 different feeds, but I definitely have my favourites.  For running, I love to keep tabs on the Local BC guys:

• Gary Robbins http://www.gary-robbins.com
• Ellie Greenwood http://elliegreenwood.blogspot.com
• Tom Craik http://tomsrunnow.blogspot.com
• Duncan Coo http://lazytrailrunner.blogspot.com
• Donald Peterson http://trainharder.com/blogs/jarhead/
• Rob Mackay http://robertmackay.wordpress.com/
• David Papineau http://broadwayrunclub.com/

On the health and fitness front I get pretty excited when I see new posts from:

• Marks Daily Apple http://www.marksdailyapple.com
• Precision Nutrition http://www.precisionnutrition.com
• Zen to Fitness http://zentofitness.com/

I also follow blogs of my good friend’s and great runners in their own right:

• Katie Drechsel http://drechselk.blogspot.com/
• Dave Emilio http://www.runningwithscissors.ca/blog/

What inspired you to begin blogging about your experiences?

• A close friend of my started a blog when he was training for the Knee Knacker in 2008 and the NYC Marathon also in 2008.  Shortly after the Marathon he stopped blogging.  I was at the stage where I was getting so eager to read about his training/running that I thought if I started one up that would inspire him to keep going with his.  It didn’t, so if you’re reading this mate – get back on it! HAHA!

• Also, being a pretty poor communicator and living a long way from home, I thought it would be a good way to document my adventures and share them with family and friends around the world.

Do you find blogging has become something that helps keep you motivated?

• Definitely.  I have been pretty vocal on my blog about my goals, and use it as an accountability tool.  It’s a very strong driving force when you make a statement on the internet. If you have any personal integrity, you need to really go after it and try your hardest to back it up with the goods.

• Voicing my goals and training logs online really help me with this process.  It’s also a good way to start discussion about techniques, gain support and gather and report of feedback on how everything is working or not working.

What are some other tricks you use to stay motivated?

• I’m a naturally competitive person, so competition definitely keeps me motivated.  Every race I enter with an ‘A’ goal in mind and I use that ‘A’ goal as a visual during training.

• The goal could be to beat last years’ time or to race a friend or whatever, but I usually always train with this goal in mind.  Knowing and believing in the end result of my training while doing it is a huge motivator for me.  I fully understand that process with reaching goals one day at a time and can break it right down to each training session.

• In saying that, that is my approach to training and racing and not necessarily running as a whole.  This year has turned onto a more relaxed year where I’m running for fun, with no major race goals, the motivators for me to get out there are the sunshine, the trails, mountains and the stories shared after a few hours cruising trails.  I am motivated by my love of the outdoors and exploring.

Besides running, what else do you do to stay in peak condition?

• That’s a great question. I am a firm believer in only running 3 or 4 times a week, I’m definitely not a run every day of the week sort of guy.  In saying that, I do train every day, sometimes twice a day.  Earlier in the year a spot of tendonitis took me off my legs so I focused back into the gym.

• I did a 6-week strength training program, utilising low reps of heavy Olympic lifts and greatly improved my 1RM over a bunch of different lifts. At the end of that cycle I switched focus to a more traditional hypertrophy style program for 6 weeks and using the extra strength manage to pack on some good lean muscle and increase my 5’11’’ frame to 190lbs.

• Once that goal was obtained it was time to lean out a bit and drop a few of those pounds so I switched to metabolic conditioning style workouts, using various techniques incorporating Tabata intervals, Crossfit WOD’s and a bunch of other high intensity, full body-blasting workouts.

• Skipping is also one of my recent favourites and I’ve recently discovered and perfected the crossfit style double under (rope goes under twice for each jump).  Sometimes I’ll just pull out the rope and rip off hundreds at a time.  At least once a week I will incorporate in 100 burpees timed to gauge where my overall fitness is at.

You often post on diet and nutrition. How important is what you put into your body (your diet) during training and recovery to your overall performance?

• Nutrition is everything.  I manage my own personal training business and cannot preach this to my clients enough.  Time spent in the gym and on the trails is only a fraction of your overall time in a week and it’s what you do with your nutrition outside of your training that is just as important no matter what your goals are.

• Whatever way you look at it training is a stress on your body and the real benefits of the training will only be reaped with the correct recovery process.

• I base my diet on a variety of whole foods mostly including nuts, berries, fruit and abundant vegetables, good quality meats, organic eggs, and whole grains of which I adjust according to my level of activity in a week.  I base my nutrition on what the human body was genetically designed to ingest and find that I get optimal performance from optimal diligence in my nutrition.

We noticed a few post about chocolate milk as a recovery drink – can you tell us about some of your chocolate milk experiences?

• Back in the day when I was more interested in the gym than the outdoors, I was heavily researching nutrition and in particular post-workout and pre-workout nutrition for muscle growth. All my research led me to the magic formula of 4:1 ratio of sugars to protein for optimal recovery.

• The science behind the theory was sound; the ingestion of the simple sugars cause an insulin spike in the body which in turns shuttles essential nutrients to the exhausted muscles, glycogen stores are replenished and the protein aids in muscle synthesis.

• Back then I would try to engineer my own PWO drink with expensive protein powders and even more expensive synthetic carbohydrate powders.  It was costly time consuming and ultimately ineffective.

• When I discovered that chocolate milk had the same properties in a PWO drink as the expensive, sugary concoctions I was engineering in my kitchen I was sold.  I mean seriously who doesn’t love chocolate milk?  It is a scientifically proven, post workout gem.  Portable, readily available and inexpensive.  I drink it after every session, weather in the gym or on the trails.

What is your favourite racing memory to date?

When you love racing as much as I do every memory becomes a favourite!

Highlights include:

• Sharing the experience of Adventure Racing at the MOMAR in Cumberland.
• Conquering my first 50 miler last August.
• The Hallows Eve trail half was so much fun when I got into a foot race the whole way with my friend Duncan Coo.  I paced off him for about 18km, then he let me pass on a climb where I gained no ground and then we sprinted side my side to the finish where I got the edge by 1 second.
• Then there was the SFO women’s half marathon where I ran the 21km barefoot and paced my good friend in just under 2 hours.

To read more about Chris:

Visit his blog: http://trainharder.com/blogs/pricey/

Follow him on Twitter: priceyruns

Want to be part of our community outreach program? If you’re an athlete living in BC and are sharing your experiences online, please contact social@poweredbychocolatemilk.com.