This is the Hope Cast Network, stories and shows you actually want to listen to. Hi, this is Erin Mayer, your host from the Everyday Runner, the show where we love to chat about the unfiltered side of running, everything from why the first smile is always a liar to chafing, and why you should never trust a fart, just the things that people don't typically talk about, we're going to talk about on here, as well as bring on other everyday runners to share their running story. So don't forget to like and subscribe on iTunes and Spotify and leave us a review. And also we have an Instagram account if you want to connect on there at the Everyday Runner. And to kick off the show, I wanted to talk to you today about my running story, because I think it's going to surprise you a little bit as I share how I went from being somebody who absolutely hated running to now I love it. Here we go. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Everyday Runner, and I'm so excited to have Dr. Maria Fuentes on today. So I found Maria through Instagram quite some time ago, and she is just such a great person and energy and we were chatting before I hit record, and she admitted to me she's an introvert, which totally surprised me that you're an introvert. But I know for a lot of us that's kind of how we are, like we're introverts at home and then we get online and we share our running. And anyways, she's a great human. She's so much fun. If you don't know who she is on Instagram, you should follow her. I'll put her in the show notes, but it's Dr. Fuentes underscore runs. Maria, thank you for coming out with me today. How are you? Thank you so much for inviting me. I know we've been like coming back and forth with messages like for some reason. We've been trying to connect like more closely, I guess, like we know each other, but then we do and we don't, but it's a great that we have like the opportunity to finally have these chats together. Yeah, absolutely. Well, think about it. Like, if it wasn't for social media, right, we would never know each other. Like I'm in Massachusetts, you're in Texas, right? Yeah, not even more to Mexico and Texas. So you're like south, south, Texas, Texas is kind of like, we always love like joke about it. You know, because of us, it's kind of like, like all the West part like next to New Mexico and then it's Texas, you know, kind of like Houston, Dallas, everything like it's right, like in the center and we're kind of like in the middle of nowhere, but it's like in the border right before like Mexico, Texas and New Mexico. So we're like in that little corner. So where are you in comparison to San Antonio? We're like driving like eight hours away. See, that's wild to me that that's how big Texas is. Yes. So I ask because I'm going to San Antonio this summer for an event and then my sister lives in Houston, but I don't think Houston's near you at all. Oh no, like 10, 11 hours driving, so I look to me, so I think it's easier to drive to the lake, to go the other way to Texas to do a sun in Denver and so on. That's nuts to me. So like where I am in Massachusetts, I'm right in between Boston and Cape Cod. So if I drove just an hour and a half, I'd be in New Hampshire, just a few more hours I could be skiing in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and you're like 10 hours. This is like really far away, maybe like Phoenix will be kind of like 6, 7 hours about. So everything's really a little bit far. So that's why we say like we're looking at the middle of nowhere. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. That's wild to me. All right. So why don't we do this? I would love to ask you how you got into running because I didn't know if you like have always been a runner, always been a health enthusiast or this a new thing for you. Can you tell myself and our listeners how you got started running and of course at some point I'm going to ask you about running in Texas because I can fathom it's like death. Yes. I can imagine it's like death but go ahead. Let's hear how you got started with your running journey. Okay. Well, I started running I guess early like in my 40s, maybe 40 going to 41 I guess for me I was gaining weight, I was going to like a spiral of depression, I went ahead and get like my lab work checked and my cholesterol, my lipids, everything was on the roof. So for me, you were like a bit shocking because it was not a person that I was you know expected to be when I was young like when you when you're young, you see yourself like like accomplished and professionally your 40s and successful and I was like that is not the image of the person that I was expecting to be by my 40s, right. So for me, first it was kind of like I guess to improve my health to like lose weight and I guess a lot of us you know like we start with that idea of losing weight and kind of like improve our health. So at that point, that's when I actually started to run on the treadmill, so I love my treadmill runs. So I started on the treadmill, but for me, it was like nothing, right, like I couldn't run a minute, two minutes, so every time was like okay, this week is gonna be two minutes and then so on trying kind of like to improve it. Later on, I guess I enrolled in my first 5k, I was the slowest person ever probably like in my first 5k, well like 45 minutes, but I feel like so accomplished and so happy. It was just like such a big accomplishment for me, you know like to be never to run a 5k, well like such a big thing, I was so happy and you know how it goes, you enrolling the first one and from then on, it was like a 5k on and on like every month over. Exactly, exactly, you started like kind of like signing up for everything. So I guess that was the first reason that I started running, of course you want to get into it, you change the whole perspective, you change nutrition, you change absolutely everything, but that was the initial removal for me. The same way that I started to run, I gave up with me because of the cholesterol and everything that I had, I was like, I'm gonna make changes, right, I'm one of the different person. So I cut out like all the red meat, I wasn't really vegetarian back then, but for me it was just okay, I'm gonna cut red meat and run, so that's the one like the two I guess initial, amazing, that I didn't to improve my health and that's how I got started, that was it. So when you say you did your first 5k at like 45 minutes, I think I did mine at like 55. So I feel like 5k's are just like, it takes a special beast to run them because it's like you have to be so, like if you want to run your quicker pace, whatever people's paces are listening, you're gonna run fast like the whole time and it's just like out the gate where like longer distance running, I feel like you can kind of work your way up to it, like you, they say don't start fast, but like you can like build it, but I remember my, I don't know about you, but my first 5k, like the last half a mile, it might have even been a quarter of a mile, was a slow hill climb, the entire way and I was like, I am going to die the whole way, because I started off strong, I went out really, really fast and I'm like, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, and then all these people are at the finish line watching and like, okay, I guess I can't die, I guess I can't die. I mean my mantra, how do you, how was your first 5k experience, obviously it must have been positive for you to do it again, do you remember any like moment while you were going on the road, like I'm, I'm sure you've done so many different things, so I'm just curious. - For me it was, I think it was, I trained the whole training on the treadmill, so going for the 5k on the road with heels and usually that area tends to be healing around where I live. So obviously it was not the same thing, so it was kind of like the first main thing and the second one was my husband, I guess he always, somebody in my family tends to wait for me, kind of like, you know, like in the finish line and he kind of like, I guess went a little bit, walked a little bit like, towards the finish line but like helping me and he's always like, recording me and you can do this, you can finish, you can't finish, you're almost there. So yeah, with that, which I think is really cute but yeah, it was about survival, you know, like the first one is just survival, you don't know what you're doing but I think that's, that's a goal, you know, that you are able to, to make it happen, to accomplish it and that's, that's amazing. - Yeah. Yeah, now do you see your husband run or anything like that? He's just, he's just the cheerleader, he's like, I'm here for you. It was funny because in the beginning, he like, okay, yeah, I'll go with you. So because beginning starts sort of safety, I'll go in my follow you. So in the beginning, he was running, right? So later on, you know what, I'll just get a bike and I'll follow you on the bike. So he started to follow me on the bike. So he would, I would do look back and he will be, you know, off the bike, he just went to walk with the bike. Later on, I think there's a real that I have like, it's on the car. So he moved on to the car, so he was following me on the car. And while it's like, like for his men, send me your lips. - Let me know where you are, be safe, good luck, I'm all stressed. - Let me like, to me to pick you up and it's, it's been your pollution now. - Oh my God. - Oh my God. - I'm running this process. - Now, so how often do you run treadmill versus road now? - Okay. - I guess right now, for me, I've been doing since, since I got my coaching about a year and a half, almost two years, my schedule has always been five, five months per week and two days of rest. And that has been my, my beautiful recipe to maintain injury free and everything. But it depends if, because I have to go really early, like at four a.m. is really dark. So I guess for safety, most of them in weekdays I do treadmill and on the weekends I go on the road. - I feel like, and, and I'd love to hear from our listeners if you guys want to drop it in the show notes or let us know on Instagram too. I feel like treadmill miles should count double. I feel like it takes a special, I've tried so hard to like like it and like watch TV or get into a show and maybe it's because I have an ADHD brain that like ADHD that I'm just like... - It requires a lot of mental focus, that's true. - Yeah. - Yeah. - I think so. And I think that's one of the reasons that I like it because I think you, you kind of like develop that like mental focus, whatever, it's just like, like keep it like on a chain place, you know, like, like running and playing with it. - Yeah. - I do find it, I'm just beneficial though. I think it has helped me a lot for multiple reasons. Just injury prevention, I guess safety, that's how we like the one of the, a good point to count for treadmill. But for me, it allows me to play with with paces that I cannot reach myself on the road. So it allows me to create that muscle memory at a speed and how it's supposed to feel at that particular pace. - Of course. So when I go back and kind of like try to mimic the same thing, it's easier for me to patch up those, like try to make those paces. So it has helped me in that way. So that's kind of like why I like it. - That makes sense. So let me ask you this, how long have you been running? When did you start running? - Like about four years ago, four or five, five or five years ago. Okay. - Yeah. - So of your four, five years of running. Can you share with us maybe a mistake you made, something that like if, if, if I was a first time runner and I said, Maria, I'm thinking about running, if there's one thing you could tell me not to do or something that you made a mistake and you learned from, what would it be? Cause we have folks that listen to this that are newbies that have been runners for years. It's really for the, the everyday runner. So what would you say is your biggest mistake or biggest learning? - Because we say that we all do like all of us is that we begin running. We don't know what we're doing and we stop like pushing it for more, more like too fast, right? Faster, more miles, like both distance and, and speed both at the same time. And we want to always like push it more and more and more. And I see like a lot of, I guess runners every, every run that they do, they always want to do it faster than the previous one. You like a self-competition of how we're trying to be faster. And I get it. I mean, most of us we will love out to be fast, we will love all to be cute, you know, like in a way and everything. But I think for most of it, it will be, first of all, you, what's your plan? Like what's, what's your goal? Like, is it just to go and run like a fast 5K on the next race? And that's it. Or seek to develop kind of like a long term, long distance goal. I think that's like the first thing that you need to have and what is your goal because like your, I guess your training, the type of training, the type of goals, the type of everything, your nutrition is going to be like so different. So I think that the mistake that we tend to go, we want everything too fast too much. And that's like a quick, we all know, we are just a quick recipe to injury, right? So, and when you get that injury, it's not pretty because, hopefully you cannot run. It affects you emotionally, physically, everything that you've been training for. And it's just horrible to deal with an injury. So, yes, it would be that like have, have a plan, I will always recommend hire a coach if you can. It's, it's a great investment, like for wheels, like once you start hiring a coach, if you can, they're going to like to proper way of training through different seasons throughout the year, when it's soft, when it's rest, when it's people, when it's distance to build up like in the proper way. This, for me, it has been one of the best investments that I've made. I guess for myself. Absolutely. Same for me. Same for me. After I had an injury last year, I hired somebody that's a physical therapist and a running coach and strength coach. It's made a world of difference for me just to help with everything. You learn how to build in a certain way that's safely, doesn't mean that you're not going to hit bumps in the road, but it just means that you've got that support. So I totally agree with you. So you suffered quite the injury at one point, correct? Yeah. You had a stress fracture, right? Yeah. I guess after my first first game that I started to enroll in every single 5K, right, that I went to fastest, more and more and more. I think it was within one, one year, but I first began kind of like with signs of an IT band, but that one was quickly restored, but then after that, I just had like a stress fracture in one of the TV outlets like in my leg, I guess, in a tendon. So that was the one that just knocked me out like for about like a 3 for months and it's like so depressing because you've been working so hard. I mean, even though maybe we're not professional. I hate to interrupt what you're doing now, but something very important I need to let you know about. When you purchase serious coffee beans, we want you to try to enjoy each brew for two reasons. Number one, because you're a part of something bigger, making a positive impact around the world. And number two, because we did not compromise on the quality of coffee, you're drinking some of the best coffee in the world. 100% of profits are done into nonprofits that are fighting injustice facing humans around the world. Well, that's powerful. Generous is best known for especially coffee, but the heartbeat of generous is their hope to use for profit business for good and 2024, generous is hoping to provide coffee to churches around the U.S. to spread a message within congregations that churches care about people even down to the coffee they are serving and the people they enjoy. I apologize for that extremely long run on sentence. If you have interest in hearing more about generous coffee, please reach out to their founder, Ben Higgins at binhagans@generousmovement.com. Thank you and back to our scheduled podcast. You know, athletes, but you train like an athlete, you invest in your nutrition, in your therapy, in coaching, in everything so much, like an athlete, right? So obviously, you injured yourself and it affects you so much. So I tell you, what's about two years ago that I had that stress fracture, so it's kind of like, you feel like starting over a lot of everything. Yeah, no, I can empathize and I'm sure the folks that are listening that have ever dealt with an injury, it's not fun. And like you said, I noticed how you said like were athletes. I found it interesting so my coach, Alyssa, has always called me an athlete and I'd be like, I'm just a mom. But the more that we strive and push ourselves and we take our health and fitness journey serious, we are athletes. We shouldn't play who we are and what we're doing. And when you invest time into it, like, like my husband has golf clubs. He could go play one round a golf and he's calling himself a golfer. We as runners and go right and we and we push and push and work and work and work. We should 100% have the title athlete, exactly 100% agree with you. So now I'm curious, what is it like in Texas running with that heat? Like, if you were to give a tip to somebody, like let's say they're listening and they're from a warmer climate, they maybe don't have all four seasons like me or actually we're heading into summer running. So yes, humidity is going to smack Massachusetts in the face and the Northeast in the face at some point. What would be your top? Maybe like three tips for hydration and like what you've done for hydration. I guess for me, it will be hydration, right? Like water, do you use anything else, like tap your water throughout the day to remind yourself to drink it. Things like that. Okay. So no, I guess I make changes. I'm a big sweater. I sweat horribly, one of those I've been living around like 200 million, so I would never think you're a sweater, like, right now, but she's very put together. She's, yeah, you don't look like you're a big sweater. Oh, no. Trust me. I am. But so those are, there's like a lot of, not only like water, but also use those like a lot of sodium and electrolytes as part of it spread, right? So obviously I always hydrate myself. Can I say plants or? Yeah. Why not? Okay. Okay. I wasn't sure. So I guess I always use the known products, I guess, those for my doing training, I guess, for my hydration. I always carry, I don't care if it's like a five miles, if it's 20 miles, I always carry my water. I try to be hydrated because you feel better. You perform water, just sweat a lot. So obviously you got to make sure I always tell like some people is like, I'm for your body, you know, treated nice if you wanted to give you everything that you're like, expecting it to give you to perform, you know, to endure treated right, right? So you know what it needs. So that's I always doing, I do, I guess, those known, those, I do not like having products like to be honest, especially because I hate how it's like, you know, your heart rate and Chris said you want to keep it as low as possible. So it's kind of like, I'm like cheating, like, don't make it worse. So and during the day, I tend to have those eye, the electrolyte ones, that's a little one. I usually hydrate myself with those. I have reduced my intake of coffee, I used to be like a heavy coffee printer and I don't know why I kind of like lost it. So I usually tend to have my, my bottle of water with my hydration, but that's all that I use for hydration. So as the temperatures rise, or maybe they're always hot there, do you try to run not mundane, like you try to run first thing in the morning to beat the high heat? How does that, how do you take that into consideration? Or do you run in the evening because it's cooler? What do you typically do? I'm an early bird. So and it gets like really hot right now, I guess, I guess here the sun is beginning to get feel like really hot by eight. I am already like seven something, so I always try to like start really early right now because I'm working, I do begin around for 30, but I'm doing that on the on the gym. So that's a sense really effect, but it gets like a long run day here, like in the summer, you know, so with, we get to 110 degrees, like it gets like really hundreds. It's really, really intense. So I usually tell something my husband to drop me in the bar of place and he's dropping over there and I'll come back home. But yeah, I don't know if you have seen him when we straight, the dog one. No, no, I don't think so. Anyway, he has this stray dog and every time he's leaving the dog far and farther away, the dog finds a way to manage and make it back home. Although you're like that, every time he goes farther and farther away to drop me and I still still able to make it back home. Anyway, so now I try to begin like about, I guess around five, five years to try to be done by seven thirty eight at the most. I don't understand people who run at two p.m. like with the heat, like really, you're not going to lose weight. You're just losing water. There's no point in doing it other than to make yourself miserable basically. So before I think it's to understand that they're going to lose more weight, right? I mean, in the heat. Yeah. No, thank you. So another question, either now, this is, I'm just curious about this, whether it's something that's happened to you or something you've seen. What is the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you while you're running or that you've seen like the craziest, embarrassing thing that you've ever experienced or seen? I guess I want to go with a GIS too. I guess I was just running on, it was a five K, I just couldn't wait and it just happened. It's like full, that's just happened or like just a little happen? No, it just, it just, let's go over the whole whole, so it was just, it was just embarrassing for me. I ended up just looking back because I was embarrassing, so yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it's funny. I feel like even people, 'cause I've had people say, oh, if you're feeling right, you'll never have a GI issue. And I'm like, hmm, I think sometimes our bodies go rogue, no matter what we do, even if we try everything, sometimes, right? Do you agree? You agree? Usually, GI, well, it's kind of, if you're not, there's, I mean, if you're not feeling properly, your GIS still requires like a lot of, you know, like, we still have like this small layer in, as part of the digestive tract, that is muscle tissue, right? And as muscle, it requires fuel, it requires glucose as well. So if all the glucose is being directed to muscles instead of GI system, obviously your GIS system is going to start suffering. But of course, I mean, that can not only be the only thing, also like if, I guess, if you have like a high fiber intake, take it like a day before, or maybe your hydration is not proper, like there's manufacturers, of course, that can, like a threat. I swear, like, so if I, so I had a long run this past weekend and I felt good the whole time, I never had to think about where I needed to go to the bathroom, like I always have a plan, but I didn't have to. But it's funny, the moment I was like a half a mile away from my car, so I could get in it and go home. It was like a timer went off and was like, oh no, you got to go to the bathroom. And I don't know if that's just a psychological thing. I was like, oh, I got to go to the bathroom like right now. And I then like moved, you know, I was supposed to run slow, so I didn't run too fast that I changed up everything. But maybe it's a psychological thing or like you get into like a routine where you think you have to go at this point because you're used to stopping at this bathroom or this port-a-potty or, I don't know, maybe it's me. It is amazing how I think of like a body nose, like what's going to happen because like on long run days, I don't know, I still only have like the need of just going multiple times to, you know, to the restroom, it's like my body knows like, okay, the day that we have to, you know, like be ready, like, help us. So it's amazing how like mentally, I guess, we're constantly and unconsciously where like a body knows and prepares out for what we have to do. Yeah, it's crazy. It's really crazy. So what are you working towards now? What can we do to support you? Like, do you have a goal you're working towards? Something you're training towards that you can share with our listeners. So when they follow you on Instagram, they can cheer you on. Oh, thank you. Well, when I'm training for Chicago Health in June, so I usually like to have my house in the spring. So I like to spend some time like three, four months on just base building, like slowly, you know, build that base foundation during December to March, February, March and then start, you know, getting prepared for our health. So right now I have the house in Chicago, I think it's like seven, seven weeks, seven, six weeks from now. And then probably, I think I'm going to take some couple of weeks of, learn to rest, you know, recover, enjoy maybe other type of cross-training, not because I want to, but I've learned that you've got to be able, you know, like to take those breaks which are like healthy for your body as well. But I'll probably start working for Philly, Matt, I'm going for Philly this year. So I'm excited. That's in November, I think, right? Usually. Yeah. The first time running that marathon or yes, I have never been there. So I'm excited. I don't know why they just was in my heart, Philly, that's the one. That's awesome. That's awesome. Now, how many marathons have you done? Marathon. That's one. I just in New York. I just won. Like, it's not a big deal. Oh my gosh. But you know what? We'll pray, I guess, of that, right? We see all this amazing runners with all this history that you tend to diminish your one amazing goal and that's like, we're praying of comparisons, I guess, with other people. I love doing health. I love doing health. Every time I try to improve my time, like on that one. I guess I'm learning to take over now that. Now, for your half marathon, right? Do you find that there's a mileage you hit that like when you get to like maybe seven miles or six, you're like in your groove, like you're like, yes, I am loving it. Like, does it take you a little bit to get warmed up or I'm curious, do you have like a point in the race where you're like, you just feel good that you know, like, if I just get to miles such and such, I'm going to just take off or me, it'll be mile six or six, probably six. That's when I'm like, oh, okay, we got this, let's get going. So probably it takes a while for me to get to that point. So prior to mile six, do you feel like, oh, okay, I can do this here I go. Do you, is it hard for you to get to that point, like the first few miles, can you kind of share a little bit your mind around it? I guess, well, like my coach always teaches us, you know, like mile one, two, three, get really comfortable just the idea of just, you know, warm up, get running, get into the idea of racing, and then start kind of like speeding up on five miles four to mile kind of like between 10, and then push it from 11 to 13, like with confidence goal, like you lose it already burning all down, but I'm still, I still struggle to contain myself on the most miles, I still push it more than I should on the first two, I get too excited. So I tend to plateau a little bit, so I, on the first two, I tend to go a little bit faster than I, that I should, and then I try to cut myself back, kind of like for miles three and four. Okay, bring it down. Let's get this under control. And then for mile three to five and six, that's when, okay, let's time to work good. Now let's, let's get going. So it takes, that's why it takes me a while to find that more like that, because it's first I tend to go fast and okay, relax, you got this, let's get it under control and then start with the flow again. Yeah, I can, I can understand that's a little bit how I feel. It's at the first mile, even though I typically go faster than I probably should, I never like the first mile of any run. Every run, I'm like, I can't believe I'm doing this. Why am I putting my body through this? Like I play this game in my head of being like, this is the stupidest thing I could ever do right now. I should only be running if I'm being chased. Why am I torturing myself? Like I'm not kidding. When I make reals saying like the first mile is the worst, I am heart felt in my message. That's what I feel. But usually by like mile two, three is when I'm like, okay, I do actually like this. There's a reason why I get out in the road and run. So well, thank you so much, Maria, for hanging out with me. I really appreciate it. I know all the listeners really enjoyed hearing from you and hearing your story and when it's like running out in Texas. Once again, where can we find you? Tell us your Instagram handle and if you have any other links or sites you'd like us to visit. Okay. So pretty much I just have a box of quintess underscore then runs. I just share my personal journey, you know, try to be sometimes silly about it or what works for me. What just doesn't work for me. It's like a personal journey. I don't try to be an expert or anything and just share my passion, I guess, and love for running. And I'm also like ambassador for gun for one. So if you guys ever, you know, by teachers or towels or whatever that you guys need for for gun for one, I have a link right there in my in my profile. So so you can give it like a little extra discount if you guys ordering a thing. And also, I guess for my coach, coach Chris was also like invested in the past year with him. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thanks for hanging out with us today. And we'll see you everybody next time. Thank you so much, Erin. Hey, thanks again so much for hanging out with me this week at the everyday runner podcast show. Don't forget to follow along on iTunes and Spotify and even check out the account and Instagram at the everyday runner. See you next time. Bye. a.
