Episode three forty seven, How to Start running with Martinez Evans.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live your life. Here your hosts Jen and Jill.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are sharing a interview with one of my personal favorite runners, the creator of the Slow af Run Club, Martinez Evans. If you don't know who he is, he is at three hundred pounds and running on all of his socials and he is making running accessible for everyone, and I love, love
love him. I love what he's all about. I love the people that the other other social media runners that are in his profiles that he highlights like they have given me so much encouragement as a non traditional runner that I wanted to share him with you and then also encourage others to pick up this hobby that I have loved so much and see if it's right for you.
This is an excellent interview you all know, and you'll hear me talk throughout. I personally am not a runner, but if there's anyone who's going to convince me, it's definitely Martinez and hopefully you'll see why.
Yeah. I love to say that running is frugal fitness, and it can be, and we'll talk about this in the interview, but it also cannot be. And there's nobody that can espouse that better than today's sponsor overpriced five K ten k's half marathons and marathons. Maybe you have started running because you don't want to pay for a gym membership. You just want to see if running is right for you, and that's amazing. That's the frugal way
to do it. Don't procrass to spend and spend all this money on shoes and outfits and gym memberships and dumbbells before you know, you're gonna stick with the dang thing, but be prepared. If you do stick with the dang thing, then you may find yourself signing up for overpriced five kse ten k's half marathons and marathons like the ones at Disney World or Disneyland, or the New York Marathon or Boston. It is a gateway drug to spending a lot of money on a sport that you thought was
going to be frugal when you started it. But if you value it, spend the money on it. And if you don't know what you value yet, then sign up for the friend letter Frugal friendspodcast dot com, slash frind letter, or honestly, you could just go to Frugal friendspodcast dot com. It's right there on the homepage and we will send you an email three times a week with free activities, free fun, maybe even links to some free running clubs, tips to save money, and tips to help you refine
your values based spending habits. Become a better spender so that you have more margin to spend on the things that you really care about, like overpriced races at Disney. So again, Frugal friendspodcast dot com. Sign up for the friend letter and make your inbox a safe space, get all those those marketing emails out of there, and open up the friend letter three times a week.
Wow, just spitball in the sponsor today. You don't even write it in the outline, just go in all right.
There was no script on that. The script said friend letter.
And seamless connection made between overpriced running parades.
And yeah, I don't spend money on nice backs or shoes, but when the Disney races open up, I'm there, even if I'm one week postpartum, I'm there. So if you are excited to develop a habit that causes you to spend a lot of money, no, I'm just kidding. I do. I love running. I got into running in college. I have. I grew up with asthma. I am not athletic. You literally throw a ball at me and I will not catch it. I will look at it as it flies by me. That is how athletic I am. And I'm slow.
And I picked up running in college as a way to stop having asthma attacks. So literally, that was why I just wanted to stop. And I also like had like fifteen pounds to lose. I had just run. I had just spent three months on the road living in a van, eating Natella for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So that was also part of it.
And it has followed us for more frugal tips. Yeah, uh, it's not the van life Instagram shows.
Oh god, yeah, Jill, we talked about how Jill lived in an RV. Everyone forgets I lived in a Vannutella. Yeah yeah, Before Jill lived in an RV, I lived in a sixteen passenger van. But running has really shifted my relationship with fitness and health. Before running, I did not have a healthy relationship with my body. And running has given me a way to pursue fitness, not because of the way it will make me look, but the way it makes me feel. And I think everyone deserves
to have something like that. So for you, it may not be running, but I wanted to share Martinez's wisdom with you because maybe it is, and maybe you just don't think it's for you. But this episode, this interview is a very very great way to uh to kind of find out if it's really your preferences or if it's mental barriers that are keeping you from getting out there. So let's get into it. Martinez Evans has run over eight marathons since his doctor told him to lose weight
or die, and he has coached hundreds of runners. He's the founder of Slow af Run Club, which is a community of over twenty thousand members worldwide, and he has a new book out called Slow af Run Club, The Ultimate Guide for Anybody who wants to Run. When he's not running races around the world, he enjoys speaking passionately about issues related to size inclusivity, mindset, DEI and mental health and he is a joy. So here he is.
Let's get to it.
Martinez. Welcome to Frugal Friends podcast. We are so excited to have you here today.
Thank you for having me.
What an amazing opportunity to talk with you about the community that you've bill. I am so impressed by it. I was checking out your website before we jumped on with you, and it feels so congruent in many ways to some of the things that have been really valuable for us with Frugal Friends of community and how important that is for these other endeavors that can be quite difficult, so specifically as it relates to running. I'm so excited
to hear your perspective. But can you tell us a little bit about yourself about slow af How did you get started running? What do you recommend to others? Just kick it off about yourself?
All right, good morning, get even to get out the noon to wherever you and the world while listening to this thing. My name is Martinez Evans. I am the founder and Slowia Front Club. Slow Front Club it's a community of twenty five thousand members worldwide who has the all the same goal of just running in the body
that you have today. Overall goal and mission with the Slawyer Front Club is just to provide accessibility in the sport of running in ways that traditionally is historically has not been provided and we just look forward to just making a big splash in the sport of running, especially for how I like to call it adult on set runners, right for people who maybe never been active in high school or in college and now getting older in age and just trying to figure out what is this movement thing.
We've planned to be that place for those individuals. I started runing about ten years ago, so more or less, I want to go see a doctor. He called me fat told me I was going I either need to lose weight or die. But I wasn't even there because of any of that stuff. Basically, I was with this doctor because I was having some hip issues because I was working at a job that was required me to be on my feet for about ten hours a day. And I went to this doctor and he was like, oh,
I know it's wrong with your hip. You need to lose weight or die. We had some arguments. I wanted to hit him, but I didn't. I told him I was going to run a marathon. He laughed at me and told me that was the most dumbest think he heard. Hey, here's a practice of medicine, and if I ever tried to run a marathon, I'll die on the course. So, needless to say, I left that doctor's office and I bought running shoes that day, and I was like, well, let's see if I die. And that was about ten years ago.
Oh my gosh. And how soon after that did you run that marathon?
I ran a marathon, my first marathon, pray, about eighteen months after meeting that doctor.
Oh my gosh, did you send him photos of your finishing?
How did you rub it in his face?
I never seen him again another day in my life.
Did you send him a copy of your book? Should you?
Maybe the thing is been so long, I don't even know this doctor is even alive anymore. Who knows?
Like that's so right, I don't.
Even know if he's even practicing medicine. It's one of those things where I don't think about him. There's a little message in there for him if he ever come about this book, but I'm pretty sure he don't remember who I am. Like, I'm pretty sure I'm just another fat black somebody that he told he was fat that day he went on about his life.
Hmm. It's so lumbering because what did he want you to do as a result between a rock and a hard place, And yes, you can't do good for yourself in either direction. It's so maddening. You made an incredible circumstance out of that experience. It's a bummer that that was the impetus, but sometimes anger really does create all some forward motion for us.
Spite is the best motivator.
Oh man, I'm glad to hear that you've completely moved on. You don't think about him much, but that was a fire for sure.
We would be doing some salacious things that we probably wouldn't we wouldn't talk about publicly, so no need to pry into it. So tell me about those eighteen months between that doctor visit and your first marathon. What was the journey like to get there? And is that what you recommend people recreate or like, what are the mistakes that you made? Just walk us through that eighteen months.
So that's what my whole book is about, is all the mistakes I made and running more or less. So let's talk about it. I bought shoes that day, I went running, and I fell off the treadmill on my
first run. Didn't run longer than fifteen seconds, So that's a mistake that happened, and pretty much embarrass myself in front of the whole fitness center of my apartment complex, because you know who goes running for the first time in their apartment gym with everybody being there but me, So that was something I would say more or less, it was like kind of hillatious, like I bumped and shuffled and bruised myself along this journey from funnel off
the treadmill to having very bad chafe. I used to call my legs taco meat thighs because like the chafe is so red and raw that it kind of looked like taco meat. I've had people yell let me.
I mean, there's worse things to look like, right, Tacos are real great.
Yeah, it's been awful my thighs to look like taco meat. So there was a lot of stuff that I learned, But I would say, like my journey was kind of methodical, where I learned how to run a five k, and then I ran a few five k's and then I trained for ten k and I ran a few ten k's, and then trained four half ran a few halves, and then trained for a marathon. It kind of just went from there. So very methodical, if that's the way you
want to do it. Absolutely. However, I just learned along the way throughout this journey was that the typical running books and just the typical knowledge about running is not necessarily made for slower individuals or individuals who are in the back of the pack or like non traditional runners. Right, so there was no information out there for me, right so much so like I went to like become a certified run coach, not to train anybody, but just so
I can learn. I thought to myself, Well, if I'm a certified run coach, like I'll learn all the things that I need to. Like, if I learn everything I need to train somebody else, then I can train myself. And like still bumped and bruised myself along the way. Wow, sorry, yeah, something, Oh we.
Usually do BOLLI But I was like, is she about to say something?
When we're like listening to somebody intently, sometimes we'll lose our volley. So I am personally a runner, but it took me a long time to be able to say that because I'm not fast, I'm not naturally athletic, I'm not a gifted runner. I'm not a gifted athlete. And so I felt like I can't call myself a runner because I'm not fast. I'm not a good quote unquote good runner. And it took following people like you and other quote unquote non traditional runners to accept that, Okay,
I run, therefore I'm a runner. And I think we internalize if we're not fast, if we don't look like the people running the Boston Marathon, that we can't do this, and it's really like a self fulfilling prophecy. Did you feel that? How'd you get over it?
Oh? Man, you got ten years of therapy and like just a lot of self work. I wish I had an easy answer for that's hard, right, Yeah, it took years to do that. But I think one of the things that I kind of learned throughout this journey was like, we're all about and by rules that somebody made up, and you never know who these people are, but somebody else made rules for you, and you don't know who they are, and we just buy abide in by those rules.
So I think for me that was kind of the start of like, oh, if that's the case for like everything else in this world, it's definitely the case we're running as well. If that's the case, like why not just create my own rules and live by my own rules, because if that makes me happy, then like who cares what everybody else say? And then like I started to pull like peel away at the end of like running. One of the things I learned throughout this process was
most races are permitted as a parade. There's no such thing as like a race permit.
I had no idea.
In certain areas, in certain towns and countries, certain municipalities, they don't have a race permit. They have a parade permit. And if you think about it in that sense, once you get the elite athletes out the way, and if your job is not an elite athlete to like win races and get first, second or third place, or if you're not in that first corral, then all of us are just running in a parade.
I love that.
I do too.
I'm here for the float.
That's what I'm saying, that, like we are all just human floats, and that if that's the case. Last time I see a parade, I don't see like the Santa Claus Parade, being like, oh, I need to catch up with the Mackey Moss float, and like I'm not afloat because I'm not running as fast as Mickey Mouse. Like everybody just a part of it in people way, and they cheer and they take pictures. We're doing the same thing.
Amazing. I'm usually the one holding the sign taking the pictures, screaming.
Yeah, this is super relevant for me because my next half marathon is at Disney. Okay, so I will be running next to Mickey Mouse and he'll be standing still though, so I won't have to catch up to him.
Yeah, part of the parade. I'm becoming more and more obsessed with this idea of you can do things just because you love them. And it's also okay if you don't have a personal goal of becoming the best at it or even continuing to set personal best records. That's
great if that's you. But I'm meeting so many people in various space is being like, I do this thing that makes me a rock climber, that makes me a runner, that makes me an artist, but I don't have these lofty goals of doing the Boston Marathon or hiking the highest peak or being a paid artist, and that's okay. I can do with this what I want. I can set personal great records, or I can just maintain and
all of that is beautiful. And I'm getting some of that message overlap from what you're describing of your journey and your community.
Absolutely, because like it goes back to rules like who made this stuff up? Like who made up the fact that if you're not training for Boston, then you're not a runner, right, if you don't qualify to run Boston, you're not a runner. Well guess what, Like I've ran Boston and I ain't qualified, so that makes me less than a runner.
Like kick Rocks, how did you run Boston?
Oh? I was sponsored by one of the their sponsors. So that's the thing. Like, you can run Boston so many different ways. Of course, there's qualifying and chasing three hours, but there's also running for charity, and you can do that. There's also the sponsors of the race usually have bibs that they give away to like random people just kind of so like imagine reaching out to like one of the sponsors and being like, hey, I got this compelling story and my dreams to run Boston. Do you have
any bibs? And they might be like, yeah, here's a bib, or like, you can also pay for a bib. There's this company called Marathon Tours that you can buy a bib through them to run Boston. Wow, there's so many ways to run Boston Marathon that people are like, Oh, if you didn't do the whole three hour thing, you ain't do it. I'm like, so what. So that's the thing is that by what rules are we listening to? Who are making this stuff up? And when you start to like peel back the ways that you can do it,
you can be like so what. And I think that's the funny thing because it's people that's like, well, you know, you took a spot for somebody else could because you didn't qualify, And I'm like, no, I didn't. The company sponsored this race and they get bibs and it has nothing to do while do with the number of spots they're available for people who got qualified. Don't mind your business.
That's crazy.
I mean honestly, we say that all the time with finances. So I don't know why it's blowing my mind with running, Like there are so everyone is trying to live this budget or this financial goal that somebody else said that they should reach or live, and we're saying, like to question that. And it's the same with any activity. You can do whatever you want. Thank you for coming.
And that's the thing. Like if people want to run Boston, like if they want to qualify, be my desk, Like more power to you. But like you, running a race at a certain speed does not make you morally superior than somebody else. And I think for a lot of people we kind of tending to like forget that, like that make you morally superior because you ran faster and you great golf clap, But like that don't move me. Letting people know that, Like there's so many ways to
get into this thing. If you want to run it that you don't even have to qualify and you can do it. And if that's a part of your journey you can do just do it right, But like you don't have to go with the rigamarole of all the other stuff that are formalities that people put out there that tell you, oh, well, you got to do it this way. And if you don't do it this way, then you don't matter. I blow people's minds when I show them to Boston Metal, like yeah, just the metal.
I got to Boston and it was like so many things about what they think about Boston start to run through their head. One of them was like, oh, you qualify, Like what race did you qualify? And how fast you run? And it's like, I didn't qualify ran via a sponsor. Go reach out to Amazon or like, go reach out to Adidas and see if they can get you a bib. It blows their mind because it's like, oh my god,
you ran Boston and didn't qualify. So it kind of messes up their whole external folk of like what it means to be a runner or be to run Boston and like do it without necessarily doing it in a way that everybody thinks they need to do it.
Yeah, you got creative. You didn't follow the rules. How dare you?
Yeah?
So for those listening who are interested in blowing minds or are as equally as angry as you were when you got started. How much does it cost to start running? Let's yeah, that is a true business.
Yeah, I know, because it can be very frugal. It can be very inexpensive, or it can be very expensive. There's a spectrum.
That is a trick question for my frugals.
I'm not trying to trap you.
Like when you started, what were the expenses you were happy to pay, stuff you wish you hadn't bought, stuff you wish you'd bought sooner, or even like race expenses, stuff like that.
Okay, theoretically, if somebody wanted to go out the run, they can run today, like with the stuff that they have. Everybody has a pair of sneakers. They might be beat up, but like if you wanted to start running, you can do that. But eventually you're gonna have to go get a pair of shoes. Like that's probably going to be your most suspensive, well the initial most suspensive thing that you're going to buy, because like running shoes are expensive.
They can cost you anywhere between like one hundred and fifty plus. So like going into like a running specialty store and getting a shoe fit, things of that sort, that's by far like the most important thing, and then it could be the most expensive things starting out running gear, shorts,
running brawls for the ladies, things of that sort. Most of the time we have some of that stuff at home just laying around, so you could theoretically just use that until you feel like, hey, I want to buy some stuff, but like that could stuff you want to lay yourself out and get new gear, like maybe three hundred dollars get your whole running wardrobe, and then you
start talking about like other cessories. Do you want a fancy water bottle, Do you want to fancy running watch or are you going to use like the running app on your phone? Do you want to run races? Do you want to travel to races? And like those are like things that you can't necessarily plan for right off rip.
If you stay in California, you want to run New York City Marathon, and say you got in via the lottery, the ticket might be just for the race, might be like two hundred and fifty bucks, but then you got to buy a plane ticket and hotel and things of that sort. So it really just depends on like how deep you want to go into this thing. Yeah, pretty much, that's how deep you want to go into this thing.
Yeah. Is there ever a journey that people take where they just run and they don't pay to run in parades? Is that a thing or is that just inevitable for everybody, They're all gonna end up. Uh huh.
There's people who just run just for the heck of it and like not need that stuff, but like some people need that validation of I gotta race metal out of this and like start collecting race metals, and one of the things is a gateway direct to spend more money.
Yeah, running is.
An expensive sport, but it's also it has tons of big money in it, from like running gear to these races to charities. Like there's so much money in the sport of running, which is like a good thing, but it's also a bad thing because your pockets can definitely
take a hurting on there. So are there people who run for the sake of running without like participating a race, Like, yes, but what I found for my own personal thing, I'm not running unless I'm training for something to get a shiny piece of metal at the end of this day.
That's me same. I need the validation of the finish line. I need to like feel those tears well up behind my eyes when I cross the finish line near the back of the pack. So there's already confetti from the first people that came across. So I'm like looking at all the confetti and I need that. Yeah, I'm only running if I'm training. But I will agree like, you can start very inexpensively, And I think that's why we wanted to highlight running, because you don't need expensive dumbbells,
you don't need a gym membership. There are so many things you don't need to get started, and that is the biggest hurdle for most people. It's the mental thing that's the biggest hurdle to jump through. It's not finances, and you can work up to buying stuff. But I would agree, like the shoes, getting fitted for shoes, my hips and my knees are not great. And whenever I go back for shoes, every time, I need like more
padding in my shoes. And I said that to the guy that owns a store, and he's like, yep, yep, you get older every year. And I was like, I was like, please stop. Nobody asked you. I mean I did, but like, nobody asked you. But yeah, and I'll spend one hundred and fifty dollars on a brand new pair of running shoes. That's the most expensive shoes I own.
But in the great things. If that's the cost, Okay, it's your shoes. You can choose as you value it and understand yourself what more you're going to be spending on. But overall, it sounds to me like a relatively inexpensive sport because every other sport generally is going to include running on top of all the other gear and equipment, except for golf. Is that a sport? I don't know.
Don't come out as golf people.
I don't know. Maybe you're running. I don't know. Maybe you can't afford the golf cart and you're running.
But otherwise, but that's the thing Jill, is that initially it can be inexpensive, but it does rack up because like if you get into the hype of all the other things that goes along with running. So it's like, do you get into this thing and do you got running friends? And it's like, oh, that's a nice watch. Tell me about your running watch. Next thing, you know, you got like a six hundred, seven hundred dollars running watse and it's like, gosh, like what are you doing?
It's like, oh, what races are you running?
Oh?
I want to be a fifty state or too. Next thing, you know, you're traveling around the United States trying to be fifty staters, and then it's like, oh, what shoes, the super shoes. Yes, I'll pay three hundred dollars for super shoes. They got carbon plate in, and like, it's definitely one of those things where initially it can be inexpensive, but like if you fall for like all the other hype stuff, you'll get looped in and be paying ninety thousands of dollars.
I mean, that's why there's so much money in running. It's it's such an easy sport to get hyped up on and to get so much stuff in. But like you just have to like pick and shoes what you're going to spend money on. For the longest time, all of my running clothes were just old T shirts and stretchy capris. But I would spend money to run Disney races. That's what I wanted to do. I want to spend a lot of money to run inside of a theme park. I don't even get to ride rides in that is what I want to do.
And having to wake up at three am.
Oh yeah, earlier, earlier. God, you'd be late if you wake up at three.
Am, two.
Gradually, I've started to evolve in my wardrobe. But like you just pick and choose the other day and Travis does not. My husband, Travis doesn't know this, but he bought the carbon plated shoes. He did spend three hundred on his shoes, so like he can do that. I signed up for the ten mile race and I didn't tell him about it. I have time, I have time.
Does he not listen to the pod?
Because two of my friends said that they were doing it. Because I had a friend text me saying like, oh, I'm doing the Disney ten miler in April. You should do it, and I'm like, mmm, maybe I was thinking about it. And then literally later that day my other friend said, oh, yeah, we're doing the Disney ten miler. And I was like, well, there's my sign. That's the sign that I needed. It's confirmation. But you work up to that. And I think the biggest cost is the mental barrier to get started.
I'm shaking my head for the audio experience people, I'm shaking my head, yes, because you may not see me vividly shaking my head, but yes, that is the greatest cost is the mindset that comes along with the sport and like all the ups and downs that that comes in it, the sweat equity that comes along with running, that costs you more because if you're not like mentally sound or ready for it, like your mind can play the greatest tricks on you and having you just feel
less than less than a runner while participating in it.
Yeah, all right. So for people trying to get over that mental barrier who think that they want to get started, but are like like you and me and like definitely are not don't feel like athletic people, don't feel like runners, definitely hated the mile run in school and couldn't do cross country to save my life sort of thing. How does somebody like that get started? Like, what are the action some of the action steps?
So for my fugal frugal ference, you go get a library car and you go request my book from a library.
Okay, man, that's what I like to hear.
I support that.
So plug a little plug or just buy it.
Just buy it, like yeah, whether they're frugal, they're going.
To and we make the library buy.
It, yes, yeah, make your tax dollars work. What I would say is that, like the funniest thing is that in my chapter. I have a chapter called You Versus your Mind Versus Everybody, And this literally what running is is you, your thoughts and feelings about running, how do you get off the couch, the thoughts and feelings about yourself, how you're feeling about yourself, your mind, your mindset, so all of the things that's going on in your head. It's like the voices, it's like, you can't do this,
go sit back down, whatever whatever. And then you got everybody else. These are the people who may be looking at you, or you think they looking at you, or people who say snyp remarks like good for you. Hey, when people are like good for you, Oh you're you ran seven now you're good for you. So that is all a big battle. And one of the things that new people need to do is really start to break up those things. And you start with you, right, you,
this is what you think about. It's this notion of like, not everything you feel is real, and not everything you think of yourself is true. So then really trying to think about like, oh, these are just thoughts that who are just coming through. How do I separate these thoughts that I know they're not true? And one of the things that I've done that has helped me is I've given my inner critic a persona. So my inner critic
name is Otis. He has a raspy voice, he smokes peckses of cigarettes, and he says random things to me all day. And so whenever there is a limiting belief or or thought that's like I can't do this or you should do X, Y and Z, I have a conversation with Otis to say, like, this is not true. You're just saying the stuff, and I know I'm better to that. Right, So that's one thing, right, second thing is having delusional self belief. Right. The notion of all
of the modern marvels stuff we think about. We are having a conversation and I'm talking to a screen and you see me and y'all talking to a screen, and I see y'all. Somebody had to make that up. Flying. Somebody made that up. Somebody was like, you know the birds fly, I want to fly with them as well. You can imagine somebody being like, sir or madam, what are you smoking? I would like some as well. You've
had too much of milk of a poppy. But like somebody has followed that dream to make it work, and for you, you had to be so wedded to your dreams and your goals that sometimes your friends and family might think that you're out of your mind, but you believe in yourself so much and you do the work that you make it happen. That's the second thing. And then the third thing is like, sometimes you gotta just tell people to kick rocks and like just move on about your day, and that's okay as well.
Yes, go kick rocks. I'm a runner.
That's it. Thanks for taking us to therapy, truly, thank you. We got way more words just now that we can attach to our experiences. And Jenn and I have talked about this before for a lot of the overlap that happens between various types of exercise, certainly running included, and learning how to be good stewards of our money and some of the mental blocks and barriers that come and hearing you talk, I can see the correlation between all
of these things. And as we would engage in something like what you're describing of pushing Otis's voice aside and moving forward and doing the dang thing is only also going to help us in our finances as we see ourselves capable of doing something that we didn't think we
were capable of of recognizing. We are the experts on ourselves, but that doesn't mean we're always one hundred percent accurate about as you said, how we see the world, how we see ourselves, and just what a beautiful endeavor for anybody to partake in because the benefits are going to be seen across our whole person.
Yeah, it's encouraging because I'm so bad at weights and running and athletic stuff that every time I make an improvement, there's a big improvement because there's so much progress to be made. I mean, when things you're already good at, how much can you improve? Like just little bits? So
it's encouraging for stuff outside of exercise. Maybe you're listening, you are good at exercise, find something you're bad at and try it, and if you enjoy it, stick with it because the satisfaction of getting better at it will seep into other things that you are trying to improve.
Martinez, any final tips that you have for us for our listeners, just on what to expect from ourselves when we're getting started, or if we are concerned about injury, how to just I mean, we can get started today with whatever ratty sneakers, But then like, what should we do to make sure that we're not irreparably hurting ourselves.
Yeah, so that is a great question. Most people get injured. Most new people get injured by what I call the terrible twos. They do something too much, too soon or too fast. They run too much, they run too fast too soon, or run longer too soon, or they do all both of it and they do it too fast. So it's really about understanding your body. Understanding it takes typically it takes your body at four to six weeks to get used to something new and after that to
slowly start to increase. So I would say for your listeners out there, don't fall for the terrible twos, because that is the first step to getting injured. The second thing is that sometimes it's the things that you do outside of the sport or running that makes you better
at running. So while yes, you may not go to the gym, but cross training, some form of cross training, whether that's doing body weight at home or if you have some dumbbells, so on and so forth, doing some cross training also helps out because you're strengthening the muscles. That helps become accessories to runny so that you can stay healthy and not hurt yourself.
That's so helpful.
Yeah, I just figured that out this year, and I just started cross training to train for this race. And it's mostly due to the fact that I'm only six months postpartum, so I lost a lot of muscle mass. But I am realizing now that in my long runs I would have pain, like in muscles that I didn't know existed. And now that I'm like training small muscle groups, which is something I've never said before, I have less pain after.
Yes, the necessory, your muscles are a big thing. They're small but a thing.
Right, And you don't want to train small muscles because you don't see the results. But if you're I mean, this is definitely different than training for weight loss. And you also have to push down the urge to like, oh, I want to go fast. I should be able to go this speed. And then when I'm supposed to do an easy run, I rarely ever do it quote unquote easy because I'm always trying to go all out. I'm always trying to like break a pr and it is
a mind thing. It's a mind training sport as much as it is physically it's.
Crazy speaking of small things being big things and it being too much, too soon, too fast, But it's fine.
Always the bill of the week, that's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week.
Maybe a baby was born and his name is William.
Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Built flow bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week.
Yes, oh man, you're right at home. You can part of the show where we stay Martinez. Every week we invite our listeners or our guests to share with us a bill that has impacted them this week, whether it is a actual lowercase bill or an uppercase bill, and we would love to hear yours today.
Oh man, I would say, the bill that has has really affected me this week or has made an impact is that I received the bill for merch samples for the next line for the Slowya Front Club merch line. So received the bill for that, and that that made me pretty exciting. It made me pretty exciting.
And your shirts are so.
Cool, thank you.
Oh they are very cool. And because I love turtles, so maybe a little bias. But that's awesome.
So that is the bill that has affected me the most this week.
Oh, that's so exciting. We love the bills that we don't mind spending on next to people being Bill, those are our favorite bills. That's my favorite. Yes, for an actual person named Bill to call us, I'm hold out. So if that's you, if you're listening and you want to submit a Bill of the week because your name is Bill, doesn't even matter if you run or ever look at your finances, we put all that aside.
What show Bill, somebody just holds the phone up to your ear, doesn't matter your bill.
Or if you've got some really helpful examples and want to celebrate bills, you don't mind paying bills you paid off you know the drill through afriendspodcast dot com, slash bill. We're here and now it's time for.
Peo pew.
All right, I don't know.
If you hear my air horn. I got actually air horn.
Yes, and I we have your first guest that brings their own sound effects.
Well, it's funny because we've never ever actually had our own sound effects. It's always just like whatever we on our microphone, you're you're elevating us.
You're bringing we do that our own sound effects and you're bringing your own Oh okay, So this is our vulnerability round, and in it we will say what is the longest distance you've ever run? And what's your next running goal or goal? For Jill Martinez, you can go first because you're going to show us all up and as longest this.
As I ever ran was on Marathon, I ran a them. The next race I'm doing, I'm doing Chicago five k in two weeks.
Wow, I love a five k. You feel ready?
You feel ready for that five k? Have you trained for it?
Pretty nervous about that five k?
Wow? I have a book you should read if you need help training. Okay, yeah, Jill, how about.
You somewhere in the ballpark of three to five miles. Spoiler alert, I'm not a runner. I'm not so certain you could ever convince me. I am run curious. I admire all of you who do it. I've got my own version of exercise that I enjoy. So I've been forced to run in the past at school and college. Somehow that was a part of our credits. Yep, because you forced me to go and there was free beer afterwards. It wasn't my balance that was a motivator for me. I did go at the run club. She went several
beer in Saint Pete. Yeah, gave free beer afterwards. So yeah, that kept me going for a couple of mondays through COVID and it just wasn't for me. And then I also recognize that I don't want to flip a switch because I don't want to lose my toenails and I don't want to pee myself and be fine with it, like I just don't.
But I've never lost a toenail myself, so I know she's getting this. Ye, we just said that neither of us have lost your toe or peede themselves.
That's making that's wild. I didn't know it was possible. I thought, like, if you are a runner, you've got to just get used to it, no more or toenails.
Also, this is the that's the reason we're doing this episode.
We need to change your external folkio running you because we got to change that.
That's a barrier, Like that's a pretty big barrier.
That would be a huge barrier. If I thought I was going to pee myself, I don't know. I would have started running the thing I can see that would be a huge barrier.
Yeah. The thing is is I want to have a certain level of stamina for running because I see benefit, Like if I'm ever being chased, I want to be able to have some degree of stamina. And that's about the motivator for me. But yeah, somewhere between three and five miles right now. I do more hit exercises so I get my heart pumping while remaining stationary. And that's what I do. Not encouraging it for everybody else. I mean,
if you're a runner, great admiration. But this is my vulnerability for you, Jen good pails, you care tell me that there's not other people who have said that that's their barrier to running.
Yes, but like that, not everyone loses their toenails or pee themselves.
Yeah, maybe it's just the extreme ones. You're right, that's the extreme version. Even if you're doing a race that I won't be able to hold the radical middle on this.
There are bathrooms on courses, yea sporta patties. You don't have to pee yourself if you don't want to.
Well, that's that's what I'm saying.
Oh, you may not have toilet paper in some of these races, but at least you can go pee.
But like, runners can get so into running that they know that they're peeing themselves and they don't care. And knowing that that's a possible human experience for me makes me be like, I don't even know if I don't know who you're talking to, but like it, I could become the person who's just like, who cares?
I don't person, Jill, you.
Don't want to be my pr.
Wow, Okay, we're gonna move on from that one. For me, a half marathon is the longest distance I've ever done, and I have done I don't know five maybe ish, I can't remember. And I'm doing one in November, the Wine and Dine.
Mm hmmm, yep, are you going to be there?
No, that's the only Disney race I've ever ran.
It's the best one. This will be my third or fourth time doing it. I'm so bad with counting. I should have come into this episode prepared. But yeah, I love that race and we'll be doing it. Roped my husband into signing up. He has not started training, but I have been running. I did an eight mile long run last week and I do not go up to thirteen before the race. I think I will be lucky to hit eleven. I don't know if I could do
a marathon. I don't know if I'm a marathon It's not like I don't know if I have the capacity to train for a marathon. It's a lot of training, it is, and I got kids that they're needy. They're just needy, and some parents can do it. But I'm not that fast. It takes me a long time to run. I'm out there for a long time as it is, and I need my energy for other things right now. So I don't know if I'll ever run a marathon. But a half marathon is a good distance for me. I like it.
I half marathon is my favorite distance because you can train for it and still have a life.
Yes, yes, agree.
You have the least appealing yourself.
I would agree. I have never peid myself to this day.
I'm so glad to know this. I really thought that all of you'd be.
Like, yeah, I was glad. We have been business partners for like almost six years, and you have spent our entire relationship thinking I have peed myself.
I think you enjoyed yourself. It just might not have been. It might have been for different reasons.
I have paid, I have peed myself never while running. Okay, Martinez, thank you so much for joining us today and helping us like really have some breakthroughs individually and relationally. Yes, where can people find your book? More from you?
Just you?
In general? Where can people get more?
Yeah? So you can find a book wherever books are, so Amazon, Barnes and Noble, your local independent bookseller, it should be there. If you want an autograph copy, I do sell them on my website. So you can go to slow afrunt club dot com and you'll be able to find we can get an autograph copy there. It's pretty much everything. Slow Your Front Club. So like, we have an app, a free app for all my frugal friends.
So if you're looking for a community of runners who are not pan on them sales while running, you can download the app. You can download the app on your favorite app store, so Apple iOS, you can search for slowya Front Club and we have about twenty five thousand members world wide. There. I'm on all the interwebs, Instagram, Facebook, the ToxS of the tics. You can find me at three hundred pounds in running or a Slower Front Club.
Amazing. This has been so fun. Thank you for removing and demystifying running for me.
At least you're a nation.
So talking with you, Martina.
Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Beautyful, What what a gem?
I am still shook that you believe that I willingly would pee myself on a run in a race in front of so many people.
I thought that it was a part of becoming a runner, not that you start there, but but that you get there at some point, because everybody says you kind of do start to pay to run, You start to pay to take part in these races, even if you didn't intend that. So I'm thinking, and then there's the point where you didn't intend to lose your toenails, but it's happening. You didn't intend to pee yourself, but here we are because the.
Huge work between paying for race and not expecting that that would be you.
Okay too, Okay as a timeline and a spectrum, you just tell me when you do get there. I'm gonna be waiting at home after that wine and dine run, I'll be waiting for sure.
Yeah, I just.
Had to fin I wanted to beat my pr.
Yeah, I've been running for almost fifteen years and I've never won.
That is good to know. I feel like everyone that I've talked to who has done a half marathon or more has lost toenails. So I don't know what they're doing wrong. If they're taking if they don't have the right shoes, do they not spend enough money on shoes?
Shoes and socks are super important. I will get blisters. Blisters are common, but yeah, no, I mean I actually have heard the toenail thing on marathon runners, but that is far different from choosing to urinate yourself. Anyways, thanks for listening everyone.
If you have a hot take on what your barriers are to running, well yeah, well, I mean let us know to listen to us in an email, set the friend letter, and then respond to us in the friend letter because it comments coming right back to our boss Instagram.
Please, that's the way that Jill will see it fastest.
Another way that people are giving their feedback on our episodes is through kind reviews. We'll get stories from people just commenting while also leaving a five star review. So that's an option. And we're going to highlight one today which comes from a non they didn't want us to know who they were or their name is a non that'd be rich titled my favorite podcast. I love this podcast and look forward to hearing a new episode each week.
I began my Debt Free Journey a couple of years ago, and this podcast quickly became my top choice for finance podcasts. I love listening to Jen and Jill read advice from topical articles and talk about their own experiences. I also am motivated by listening to their guests amazing debt free journeys. Jen and Jill are fun and relatable and cover a variety of topics that make you feel like you can take control of your finances beautiful.
Thank you so much, Anon, and I know we haven't done many debt free stories on the podcast this year, but that's because we did a video series over on YouTube called Debt Free Stories where we shared ten of them from listeners just like you, who have paid off debt in a variety of ways, backgrounds, settings. So definitely, if you love the debt Free Journeys, head to Frugal Friends on YouTube and just queue all of them up. So thank you so much, Anon.
Yep, see you next time. Jen speaking of the friend letter and speaking of sports. So one of the most recent friend letters that I wrote had to do with curiosity, which y'all will hear more on that through our podcast, through our friend letter, through the book that we're writing. But then it got me thinking about, ooh, what podcasts are out there about curiosity? And I did find one and I listened to an episode because it was short.
Love those. I know it's not the method we follow, but when I personally listen to oncast, I do love the fifteen minute Little quick Boy.
But you read children's books, you love fifteen minute pacast.
Yes, yes, I love a good quickie. And this one that I listened to was about blinking and what that means specifically for race car drivers. But they've been studying it for I think athletes in general, but specifically it means the most for race car drivers because they drive so fast, something like two hundred fifteen miles per hour. A blink means that they have their eyes like, So if you're two hundred and fifteen miles per hour and a blink takes about a second, they could travel like
sixty feet with their eyes closed. And so the importance of I don't know just how important that is. Like then their eyes are closed, And then they were saying that they studied it more and realized that we automatically
blink at more opportune times. So they studied when race car drivers are choosing to blink, and it's not even this thought necessarily, it's a subconscious They're blinking at stretches of road where it's not as dangerous, so they're not blinking around turns, and they're finding similar with just people in general. We tend to blink at the pause of
the person that we're listening to. We tend to blink at the end of a sentence that we're reading, Like subconsciously, we are blinking at the times that are going to be most advantageous to us. We don't even realize it. It was jaw dropping to me. Curiosity. Sometimes it doesn't nail the cat, sometimes it saves the human.
Yeah, I mean, I mean it is fascinating. Yeah, we blink.
I'm sorry, glad. So now you can pay attention as you love that for you, beg you. I love it for our listeners who also love it, because this is the type of stuff you can expect from me at least general bring you something different. So there's there's a reason for everyone to come and say.
My latest audiobook that I'm listening to right now is twenty hours long. Yeah, I know, I'll do it on one point two five speed.
Wow. Yeah.
But yeah, that's why our podcasts are an hour long. Jill would like them to be fifteen minutes. I would probably make them four hours, and so that is why they are an hour.
Fun fact, I'm here for it.