The Ramblings of a "Conquistador of the Useless"

Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson

Mountain & Prairie Media

Places & Travel, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2021

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode is a little different than normal-- it's me being interviewed on the Off the Couch podcast by my friends Jonathan Ellsworth and Brendan Leonard. Brendan is likely familiar to many of you long-time listeners-- he joined me on the podcast a few years ago to discuss his writing career, his film "How to Run 100 Miles" and his blog Semi-Rad. Jonathan is the creator of Blister, an amazing online resource that includes outdoor gear reviews, a podcast network, and much more. Jonathan will be joining me on this podcast in the coming months.

Jonathan and Brendan were nice enough to invite me on Off the Couch to discuss a somewhat silly challenge that I imposed on myself on my 43rd birthday. Every hour on the hour for 24 hours, I ran a 1.3-mile loop around my neighborhood. In between laps, I did a long list of tasks that I had been putting off, including stacking firewood, cleaning and rearranging my basement, sending a ridiculous number of emails, and other mindless tasks. The whole thing was based on a film by a guy named Beau Miles who did a similar challenge in Australia. I stumbled across the film on Youtube and decided to give it a shot a few days later. I've linked to that film in the episode notes.

That birthday challenge was just one part of what turned out to be a wide-ranging conversation about a ton of fun and funny topics. We discussed the backstory on the Mountain & Prairie, my experiences running 50 and 100-mile races, some scary moments I've had running ultras, why I'm so obsessed with reading books, and some of my favorite books from 2020. There were enough interesting topics that overlap with what we discuss here on Mountain & Prairie, so I thought some of y'all might enjoy it and get a few laughs at my expense.

If you're interested in running and some of the fascinating characters that the sport attracts, I encourage you to check out Off the Couch. You'll recognize a few past Mountain & Prairie guests, including Mike Foote and Joe Grant, but all of the episodes are fun and inspiring. There's a link in the episode notes, so check it out. Enjoy!

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TOPICS DISCUSSED:

Ed's podcast, Mountain & Prairie (3:32)
The Procrastinator's Punishment 50k (11:49)
Ed's Scary DNF (33:02)
Ed's Gross DNF (39:21)
Triathlon community vs the Ultra community (42:11)
Ed's bi-monthly book recommendations (47:20)

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ABOUT MOUNTAIN & PRAIRIE:

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, this is Ed Roberson, and this is the Mountain and Prairie podcast where I introduce you to some of the innovative individuals who are shaping the future of the American West.
0:18.0	I meet most of these people through my work in land conservation or through my hobbies and interests that revolve around spending time up high in the mountains.
0:25.6	My guests include ranchers, writers, entrepreneurs, conservationists, athletes, artists,
0:30.4	adventurers, pretty much anyone who's doing important work has an interesting story and loves
0:35.8	the American West. This episode is a little different than normal. It's me being interviewed
0:41.0	on the Off the Couch podcast podcast by my friends Jonathan Ellsworth
0:44.8	and Brendan Leonard. Brendan is likely familiar to many of you long-time
0:48.9	listeners. He joined me on the podcast a few years back to discuss his writing career, his film
0:54.8	How to Run 100 miles, and his blog semi-rad.com.
0:59.7	Jonathan is the creator of blister, an amazing online resource that includes outdoor gear reviews,
1:05.3	a podcast network, and much more. Jonathan will be joining me on my podcast in the coming months.
1:11.1	Jonathan and Brendan were nice enough to invite me on off the couch to talk about a somewhat
1:15.2	silly challenge that I imposed on myself on my 43rd birthday.
1:20.0	Every hour on the hour for 24 hours I ran a 1.3 mile loop around my neighborhood.
1:25.5	In between laps, I did a long list of tasks that I've been putting off, including stacking
1:29.7	firewood, cleaning and rearranging my basement, sending a ridiculous number of emails, and other
1:35.8	mindless tasks.
1:37.3	The whole thing was based on a film by a guy named Bo Miles from Australia, who did a similar
1:42.2	challenge.
1:43.0	I stumbled across the video on YouTube and a few days later decided to give it a shot.
1:48.0	I've linked to that film in the episode notes.
1:50.0	But that birthday challenge was just one part of what turned out to be a wide-ranging conversation about a ton of fun and funny topics.
	...

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