The Hobby Jogger Podcast
Welcome to The Hobby Jogger Podcast, where elite athletes and ham-and-eggers lace up their stories. We explore the common ground that running creates from the world-class runner to the hobbyist hitting the pavement, trail or treadmill. Expect a blend of inspiration, laughter and the shared joy that makes every step count. Join us on this journey, where every run is a story worth sharing.
The Hobby Jogger Podcast
E20 | Bryan Parker on Emmy Nominations, Running Tips, and Iconic Red Beard
Emmy-nominated sound supervisor Bryan Parker joins us to share not only his journey in the sound industry but also the amusing and fascinating story of his red beard. This episode promises a blend of professional insights and personal anecdotes. Plus, Bryan’s creative touch is all over this podcast, as he’s the talent behind our intro and outro music roll.
Bryan's career is nothing short of spectacular, and we delve into his work on notable shows like "Whale Wars," "The Amazing Race," and "American Idol." Hear about the pride and precise effort that go into each project, and get the inside scoop on his recent nominations for "The Underground Railroad" and "Mrs. Davis."
From training tips to music recommendations, this episode has it all for both running enthusiasts and music lovers. Bryan shares his experiences with the Couch to 5K app and underscores the importance of friends in achieving fitness goals.
Welcome to this week's episode of the Hobby Jogger, where I am once again joined by my co-host with the most, Mr Rob Myers. Rob, how are you doing today?
Rob Myers:I'm doing well, excited about this podcast.
Casey Koza:Yes, it's going to be a good one. Today's guest, very special guest, he is an eight-time Emmy-nominated I guess you would say artist, editor, producer. We'll get more into that. I'm sure he is a red-bearded Viking and has the greatest beard I have seen, possibly over ZZ Top, I don't know. And he wrote the intro and outro music for us. Mr Brian Parker, how are you?
Bryan Parker:No complaints, happy to be here.
Casey Koza:Did I get all that right?
Bryan Parker:I'm not much of a producer. I'm a sound supervisor and sound editor. Sound designer, sound person.
Casey Koza:Sound person. So I was. I mean to me, it's all. I don't know. I'm very layman when it comes to sound.
Bryan Parker:They don't even let me edit the show, I'm sure you produce something at some point, brian, I've been productive in the past. I'm sure you've produced something at some point, brian. I've been productive in the past. I'm not saying I'm not productive, I'm just. The word producer means something different in my world, that's all.
Casey Koza:Gotcha. Well, you did produce our intro and outro music, so thank you very much for that.
Bryan Parker:It's awesome. Happy to. Yeah, that was fun. Rob was looking for some music, something that had a little bit of pulse to it, and I was like here's a bunch of stuff you can have for free that I've made over the years. Let me know what you want.
Casey Koza:We like free here at the hobby.
Rob Myers:We do. It fits in the budget.
Casey Koza:Perfect, perfect price. So so, brian, we have you here on the hobby jogger. We'll save the Emmy stuff for a little bit later, cause I kind of want to hear about your running.
Bryan Parker:First, though, I want to hear about the beard. Your, your sister told me that you, you have to roll it up. Is that correct? Yeah, um, I started doing that, um, in maybe like 2011 or 12, like after, after like the three year mark, uh, when it's hanging like below like a shirt collar. I started, I started braiding my beard. Actually, at that point I was, I think I was still twisting it and pinning it, just to give it a little bit, just to keep it on the head, just to make it look a little bit more like a regular art teacher beard and less like, um, a person, who, who, who doesn't care, I don't know. Um, I do, I braid, I braid it really tightly, um, and then I roll it up, I make a little pocket that the beard sits in and I pin it from the sides using amish pins, uh, just to keep it all contained, and that way it's a lot more safe around barbecues and power tools and stuff too. Yes, it's got to be a little hazardous.
Casey Koza:I, I with the because it is. It's. It's a lot more safe around barbecues and power tools and stuff too. Yeah, it's got to be a little hazardous. I I, cause it is, it's. It's down what, halfway down your thigh it looked like in the picture that.
Bryan Parker:Yeah, it's, it's at this, at this point it's, it's down on my knees, yeah.
Casey Koza:Yeah, that's awesome, that's that's how long has it been going.
Bryan Parker:I shaved clean in 2008. And I was in Los Angeles. I had no car and, at that time, no motorcycle, and so I was just riding my bike everywhere. I came home with my panniers full of groceries. I came home from a grocery trip and I was like it's too damn hot. I'm starting this thing over and shaved down to the skin and just like, didn't recognize myself and I was like, no, let's never do that again. So that was when I started clean.
Casey Koza:It's crazy how much it becomes an identity for someone. My buddy, Chris, who I co-own Branch with, recently took a job where he had to shave his beard and he's had it since.
Bryan Parker:I've known him.
Casey Koza:And he was like he got kind of like he started lifting and got a little bit, you know, bigger and shaved his beard and looked like a totally different human being, Like that was his identity and it's just, it's crazy how the beard does that. Like I know, when I shave, people go what'd you do?
Bryan Parker:My friend had a big bushy like he has a great beard, dark, really dark brown, with, you know, occasional red hairs in there, um, and he shaved. He went from like a two-year beard, you know, like two inches longish, um, shaved to the skin and then went to a party like someone's I don't know house party um, this is back in columbus, ohio and just went the party, sat down somewhere and just watched all of his friends walk by and not recognize him at all for the first half hour and he was like, okay, this is old, hey, it's me.
Rob Myers:Yeah, but you've had your beard for what? A third of your life, I mean. It really tells a story, because when you put it down, there's no gray from your belly button down right you can see exactly when you started going gray yeah that's rings on the tree right
Casey Koza:yeah, precisely yeah just like yeah, that that thing's awesome. Yeah, when, when rob sent me the picture you run in uh, looks like the rock and roll half, yeah, uh yeah, I was like that is that is awesome that is. That is a lot of work is what that is.
Bryan Parker:I know a lot of work well I mean, the actual growing of it requires no input from me at all. I just have to pull it out of the things that it gets tangled in along the way. Yeah, yeah, because, like, the milestones for a beard this long are like, um, you know, a loop of hair got caught on the top button of my button up shirt, ok, fine. And then, oh, I felt my beard tickling my shoulders. And then a little while after that, like, oh, I have to be careful to move my beard out of the way when I wash my hands in the sink. And then like, oh, today was the first day that my beard got caught in my zipper. It's always just annoying milestones Getting into a car.
Rob Myers:Where's my beard when you shut the door?
Bryan Parker:Yeah, actually that's.
Rob Myers:Putting on your shoes. Where's my beard?
Casey Koza:Next thing I want to get to is you've been nominated for. Don't just jump it right into the, because I'm just staring at these speakers in this microphone. You know a lot about sound, know a lot about music and I we've had an author on the show. We had a doctor.
Rob Myers:We haven't had a doctor, have we Rob? No, not officially. A doctor had a lot of smart people, though.
Casey Koza:Had a lot of smart people, but we've never had an Emmy-nominated anything on the show. So what were you nominated for? Because I was looking through your IMDb a little bit and what's that like to make it to that level of what you do.
Bryan Parker:Yeah, for me it was in a couple different waves. I got a handful of nominations when I was working in non-fiction television, um, one of those shows was um will wars. It's about some activists who, like, got a boat and decided they were just going to go physically stop whalers from whaling in the southern ocean. Um, very intense experience for them and the you know, the cameras and audio team down there in those hostile conditions can only do such a good job of capturing what that environment is like, you know, when subject to the winds and mists and splashing water in that environment. You know, the technology doesn't really capture it that well. So we tried to recreate the feeling of these huge swells and winds and storms and the boat creaking as best we could.
Bryan Parker:And so we put a lot of work in Way, beyond the budget of the show, because my boss, who makes that show, um, said that he like wanted this to be our. You know he wanted, he wanted, specifically wanted to go for awards on this show and I was like, all right, let's, let's go get it. So we, we put a lot of time and detail into it and I'm really proud of, I'm really proud of those seasons for sure, sure, a couple of the other shows that I've been nominated for in the nonfiction reality sort of world are like the Amazing Race, which gets nominations pretty often. I don't know that the years or year, years, I don't know um, that I was nominated I I don't know that I contributed specifically. My particular talents made the difference there, um, but you know the uh uh, the amazing race is still a real fun show to work on and one show to watch.
Rob Myers:I mean the earlier seasons.
Bryan Parker:It's still pretty good yeah, yeah, it's one of the shows where, like it's actually a huge chunk of that show is about the connections between people, connections between family members, and like I don't know. It's just, it's instead of it's not real housewives. You know it's people being like, hey, you did great today, I'm really proud of you. Just like it feels good, right, actually accomplish something and and then express positivity between people. Uh, an american idol, idol, american idol. We did um. I did a handful of seasons of that too, and um got some music show, and so the recognition for our sound work is sort of inherent, I think so. So that was one that was sort of my first volley and I did.
Bryan Parker:I went several years. I didn't get any, any nominations for what I was working on, when I was working on really small indie films that you know, some of which got good distribution and some didn't, so I wasn't really in a position for a while. And then, more recently, I got a nomination for the Underground Railroad, probably the best project I've ever worked on, probably the best product I've ever worked on. And last year I got a nomination for Mrs Davis, which I was really proud of because it was the first time I'd been nominated for a show that I was supervising as a season one. I was, you know, a principal storyteller department head decided what that show sounded like, and the voters saw that we cared, you know, and we made this.
Bryan Parker:It's not based on. It's not based on any other thing. You know, the show is an original creation by Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof and we, like, made this weird world. I'm extremely proud of it. I wish that more people had seen that show. It's called Mrs Davis is on Peacock, in case anyone wants to check it out and we made this bizarre world and sound was at the forefront, I think, of a lot of what made those scenes really jump out. So I'm really proud of that one. And then, very recently, just a few weeks ago, I found out that I was a part of the team that was nominated for Masters of the Air, which is on Apple TV+. Masters of the Air yeah, so that just plus. Masters of the air yeah, so that just just went down. So we'll see on september 8th. So when the um, that ceremony, is, we'll see. I get to put on my suit and um fingers crossed, man, you deserve it.
Rob Myers:One fun fact about the amis brian proposed to his wife on the red carpet that's true, yeah.
Casey Koza:Yeah, that's pretty awesome. That's hard to top. Very cool.
Bryan Parker:Right, I figured I was wearing the suit already. Right, I was like I knew I was looking good that day. I figured like I just box her in, you know, like I figured there's no way she could say no. So that was my strategy.
Rob Myers:Worked out. Yeah, surprise, it worked out.
Bryan Parker:Yeah, surprise, it was very frugal can't say no at the emmys right, I mean she could have, but but uh, you know the probability I thought was low so I I went for it. Does your wife run, brian? Jessica used to run when she lived in venice and um and has recently gotten back into it. She's cause she, my, my wife loves old things, loves old architecture, and she's a very visual person in, I think, a similar way to how I process a lot of things through sound, and she loved running around the, the Venice canals, and our neighborhood currently doesn't exactly have that, but she's gotten more into it. She's found a park that she likes and she has a loop that she likes and she's like just getting back into it and we're looking forward to maybe like finding like a 5K in a few months and running one of those together, I think.
Rob Myers:So I think we've reached a point where we're at the running origin story. Right, yeah, we'll start at the beginning. Yeah.
Casey Koza:That was where we're getting to the next part of how you got. I was thinking maybe your wife might have got you into it, but you seem to have preceded her in the running.
Bryan Parker:Yes. Well, two things happened around the same time Last year. The Emmy nominations went out, emmy nominations were announced and I was really happy, but I realized my third thought there was like oh, I know for a fact that my suit doesn't fit. Oh, I know for a fact that my suit doesn't fit. You know and I'm not here to say that smaller bodies are better than bigger bodies but I know for sure that I was engaged in behaviors that I did not need to be engaged in and letting myself feel way too busy and stressed to make better choices activity choices at that time and I just thought, yeah, I need a solution because I know for sure that my suit doesn't fit for the Emmys.
Bryan Parker:So that happened and at the same time, my friend Vince was sort of talking about running a 5K and he had one in mind, the Dia de los Muertos 5K here in Los Angeles, and I was just like, without giving it too much thought, I was like, yeah, I'm in, we're doing that, that's what's happening. It felt so good to like have a goal and be on a path with somebody that I trusted, who was sort of starting in the same general's place as I, like from scratch, going to run 5K. That's what it is. You know, um and um. That's how it started. We both decided to use the um watch to 5k app. You know, like the, the implementation of couch to 5k. That is like it's all built into your watch. When, when, when the watch buzzes, you walk, and then when it buzzes again, you run again that thing. Make it that easy for me and I'll just do it.
Rob Myers:Is that part of Nike Run Club? Is it that app or is it a different one?
Bryan Parker:No, it's a different one. Watch the 5K is its own thing, and so we both started. Vince is also a sound person and among all the sound conversations that we have, we also started talking about our run progress as well, like you know, every week. So it was nice to be on that journey with someone and not not feel like I was just out like out on my own, like having someone to figure things out with was really nice that is.
Casey Koza:That's always helpful when you have friends especially. It's the good side of strava, I think, where you know, you see, your buddy just went out that day, you know. Oh, oh, I saw Rob ran five miles. I've been sitting here all morning Like what's my excuse? Oh, rob did it. You know, I'm going to go out and run five miles too. So I I do like that aspect of of Strava.
Bryan Parker:And there's like there's a thing that there, though, where where I I wasn't that inspired by seeing, by knowing that not Strava, but by knowing that Rob was running 50Ks, like when that was like completely outside of my world experience, yeah, that wasn't that inspiring, that was just kind of weird, honestly, right, and so, like it took, it is weird Rob.
Rob Myers:A little weird right, and so, like it took, it is weird, rob, little weird.
Bryan Parker:Casey, it took like a little more familiarity with what the first few miles of that might feel like to even like Contextualize that enough to drive an inspiration from it, which is why Having a friend start from scratch was such a big deal.
Casey Koza:Yeah, you gotta be on the same level. You gotta be playing the same game.
Bryan Parker:Yeah, similar enough to where it's okay to say like, hey, what hurts more today, your heels or your knees?
Casey Koza:Always the shins too. Always the shins.
Bryan Parker:I don't really have trouble with that.
Casey Koza:That's good Knock on the wood. My heels, bro.
Rob Myers:It'd be like if the first runner that you ever meet, Casey, is Jim Walmsley.
Bryan Parker:That's not inspiring at all. That's just an alien.
Rob Myers:Yeah, that was like the third, I guess. After his brother. You are pretty unique there. Yeah, you met a lot of very fast people early on yeah, wasn't good.
Casey Koza:Wasn't good for the ego, for sure, gee, you do what outfits you're out of your mind for a living, what?
Bryan Parker:what that can't be. Yeah, that's an aspect that I still don't understand at all. Like I'm always, I know that it's usually like rude to talk about money, but I just don't understand the economics of all these professionals at all, how any of that I don't get it. It's dope, no shade I.
Casey Koza:I think there's a very few. I'm talking mostly of what I know. I think there's very few. I'm talking mostly of what I know. I think there's very few at the top who do very well, and then there's a lot who?
Bryan Parker:are working at the shoe store, the pizza shop, the bike store, you know as the real job, and then running. This is how I get free shoes and fuel.
Casey Koza:Yeah, you know that sort of thing I I think that happens, happens quite a bit um I I think there's very few pros that are actually bringing home very good money by, I guess, but I don't know, I'm not an expert in in like in the music world.
Bryan Parker:there's a fair well these days. I don't know, but historically there there's a fair well these days, I don't know. But historically there have been a fair number of musicians who get by, you know, have like a 20 hour a week bartender job or whatever, and then like two tours a year, one record a year Cool. There are not that many musicians who like do two tours a year and are also a dentist. You have to commit, you have to allocate enough of your brain space not even a brain space, enough of your brain hours every month to this thing in order to keep it sustained at all.
Rob Myers:Yeah, I think that's the beautiful thing about running you can technically be sponsored and still have a regular job do you, do y'all know a fair number of people in that position?
Bryan Parker:we've talked to quite a few. Yeah, yeah, I have.
Casey Koza:No, I have no frame of reference for that at all so you went couch to 5k you right off the couch right brian yeah, I live in a neighborhood where half of my neighborhood's really hilly and I, you know, go on long dog walks.
Bryan Parker:That was like as much physical activities I'd had. Walking's a great start. I've done bicycle tours and stuff before, but but yeah, walking two, two and a half miles with the dogs was like the extent of my physical activity when I started watch 5k.
Casey Koza:And that's a good start. I mean that's, walking is good, that's progressing towards the ultimate goal of running. So that's, we are bipedal humans, that's, that's good, you know they are similar, you're right.
Bryan Parker:Yeah, I think the hills help too yeah for sure, and?
Casey Koza:and then I just looking here, you then decided well, I ran a 5k, now I've got to step up to the next distance and run a half marathon, correct?
Bryan Parker:Yeah, pretty much. I signed up for a 10K. After one or two 5Ks I saw a little bit of time improvement between the two 5Ks and I was like, all right, I'm going to sign up for a 10K. Decided to do the Chinatown Firecracker 10K.
Casey Koza:Nice.
Bryan Parker:And then I got my first injury I was out for I was just building up my distance, I was just working on volume, not sweating the pace. Really Cool. Five miles. Six miles great Seven miles, let's go a little further than 10K and be really ready for it. Eight miles felt pretty good and then I went off for a nine, nine mile run.
Bryan Parker:At about five miles into that, knees felt a little weird on a downhill, it's fine on the flat, started to go uphill, felt some pain again really hesitant, fine on the flat downhill. A little bit of pain, and then the next uphill was like there's no way, absolutely not. No. Walked for another, you know, half mile. Tried to run a couple of times and eventually had to bail. I had to call my wife and ask her to pick me up from the pain in my left knee.
Bryan Parker:So then that took me on a little detour, obviously, and I went to my old friend, the internet, for answers, so burned a couple of weeks there before I got some real help. Yeah, I've done that. Yeah, I've been there. I mean, you want to try, you know, you want to try figure out yourself, but, like man, that is a messy, messy topic to try and get real information about your specific situation. Right. I think we've all been like why do we even bother? Here's, here's my, here's my deal, here's my deal. Why do we even bother naming it band syndrome? All that means is it feels bad from there to there, like that's not a diagnosis, that's nothing specific anyone can work with at all right, yeah, I, I get the internet thing.
Casey Koza:We just had the flu in our house and my girlfriend was convinced that she had a tick bite and that's what was causing it. She's like I Googled it. I was like, well, do you see the bullseye anywhere on you? Because it's like a big bullseye when a tick bites you.
Casey Koza:She's like I'm looking everywhere, I was like I don't see one. I was like it's not a tick. She's like it's a tick. The internet said it's a tick, it's a tick. I was like, no, I promise you it's not a tick. So then we ended up getting the flu.
Rob Myers:Typically the tick's still there. They don't just bite you and walk away. Thanks for a little bit of blood. They're burrowing into your skin.
Bryan Parker:They're pretty happy to have a home. Yeah, yeah, they're in it for the long haul. Yeah, they're not. Yeah.
Casey Koza:So yeah, I've had a few of those. Yeah, like the IT band. Yeah, it's just like a general term for my leg hurts, I think. Right, yeah absolutely.
Rob Myers:Every runner's had that at some point and it's very painful and it takes a long, long time to recover from.
Casey Koza:Yeah, and there's no cure. The internet is less helpful than anything, it's just yeah.
Bryan Parker:And then the momentum that that took out of. That's not true. My perception of the momentum that that would take out of my running was huge, right, because I had like, all right, 5k, another 5K, a little bit of room and time. The next thing is 10K and feeling so much better, like literally every week, that the notion of taking three or four weeks off I was like I was just. I was like, oh my God, it's over. Like I'm like I don't know how I got the motivation to get this far in the first place. I'm never going to get this again, right, but now I'm like it's, it's been a year, right, so three weeks like a three week detour, like it doesn't really sound like that much, right, does it? Like there are people you break your leg you're out for, you're like you're literally on crutches for nine weeks and you've got to rehab to build muscles again for another four months, right.
Rob Myers:Yeah, yeah, but you stick to a running plan like no one else have ever seen. Brian, I mean, oh, is that true? Oh yeah.
Bryan Parker:Yeah, I have, I've taken, I have taken the plan pretty seriously, and so the notion of taking three or four weeks off and having to fix this other thing, I don't know. I mean it seems obvious now, but like you do have to do other exercises to strengthen the muscles you're using while running, you can't get better at running only by running. Super unfortunate Total drag. Now how? Not at all. How, how? I would have designed that, but here we are. That's what it is.
Casey Koza:Yeah, that's a Rob. We've learned quite a bit about that on this show. Huh, Uh.
Rob Myers:Oh, yeah, yep, yoga, yoga and more yoga.
Casey Koza:Yoga seems to be the common, absolutely 100% the common theme of everyone that we've talked to is they all do yoga.
Bryan Parker:I think that yoga is poorly marketed to chubby men, so I don't participate in that. I think that they focused way too much of their marketing energy on thin white women and I just disapprove, so, as a result, I don't do it. I agree.
Casey Koza:That's, yeah, that's like that. Clearly it's not for me, you never. You know, that's my excuse too. Hey see, that's it's big yoga. They have it out for us. I think, yeah, the trappings of big yoga they don't want us to enjoy the fruits of of all the yoga.
Bryan Parker:So yeah, I get it. So, yeah, um, dug up some information on the on the internet about what might help relieve some IT band syndrome symptoms and then you know, you start foam rolling for whatever the hell good that does, until you actually figure out where to put the thing and came across a few like okay, let's look at runner-specific exercises for core and for mobility and strength, found a few of those that really seem to make a difference. So, like by rolling my butt and getting that to relax and doing some leg lifts and clams and stuff, it felt like I was making some progress there, but not really enough to get going. I know my knee was still hurt after like two miles or something. So I got some pro help from a physical therapy place in town called Victory Performance PT and that was magic pretty much.
Bryan Parker:Just having a real person put their hands on your leg Okay, lift your leg. Don't let me push your leg down. Yeah, your glute med is not strong enough, brian, that's not where you want to be with that. Try this, show me what you can do here. Okay, we're going to work on that too. So just having a pro, someone who actually understands bodies and anatomy, say these are the behaviors I'm seeing. This is where I see opportunities to build strength. We can make the pain go away by this and this, but we have to be really regimented about these exercises. Can you hang and me saying I'll do anything, I'll do anything, I'll do those exercises every day? It made a big difference.
Bryan Parker:And so then when that firecracker race came up, I ended up doing another 5K instead of the 10K, just to play it real safe, but got a time I was real happy with and then basically immediately went in for starting to train for the half marathon, with all that new knowledge and those new exercises and a foundation where, like every single day for me, it's, you know, planks, clamps, leg raises, donkey kick. You know, like this, this is if I want to do that other thing, I have to do this. This is my. I have to eat these vegetables, you know, every morning for for whatever, for 20 minutes the rest of your life.
Casey Koza:Probably. I kind of went through something similar just recently with my back and got away from doing all the stuff that you just said, like the donkey kicks the leg, raises the planks and the back started hurting and she was telling me you got to go to the chiropractor. I don't need to go to the chiropractor, I'll just run through it, it'll be fine. And a week later can't run at all, can't, can barely walk. Going to go to the chiropractor now is like going to go to the chiropractor now. Get down there. He puts you in the ball, you know. Hey, hold your breath real quick. This might hurt a little bit, you know. Snaps the hip back into place and step down and back, doesn't hurt anymore.
Casey Koza:It's like wow, really should have been taking care of myself a lot better. So it's definitely an important aspect of running is the strength.
Bryan Parker:Is that something you do a lot? Do you see a chiropractor often?
Casey Koza:Now, since I hurt my back, I'm going twice a week and the difference in pain I went in like my toes were like a little bit numb. I was having a tough time even walking without being in pain, like short-stepping every right foot.
Casey Koza:I went in there he put a heating pad on electric stem for I think like 15 minutes maybe we'll say and he's like okay, come to the back, I'm going to stretch you out. And I was like I'm not real limber, doc, like this might be painful. He had my legs and was pressing on my hip and I could feel it right where it hurt. He knows he's been doing it for a thousand years, so he knows what he's doing. And he does the other side and he's like all right, I'm going to adjust. You Get on your side. He has one leg straight, the other one. He's like this might hurt a little bit. You know your hip's pretty far out of line. It's like, ah, we'll be all right, don't worry. So he just takes his palm of his hand, just shoves it into my back and I could feel the pop and I like see my hip move. I was like I was surprised. He was a little bit surprised, which made me nervous.
Bryan Parker:Whoa that's not supposed to go, that way.
Casey Koza:I was like I should be surprised. You shouldn't be surprised, doc. He's like that was a little bit more than I thought it was going to be. Soon, as I stood up pain-free, completely pain-free, but he goes, that was pretty intense. You're going to be sore for the next few days. Come back next week, you know have a few appointments with me and it'll get much better.
Bryan Parker:And it has.
Casey Koza:that has been the single most thing that I've done to ever take away back pain Like that was the was the chiropractor.
Bryan Parker:And so have you been running in between times you like, in the sort of is like after an adjustment, like that after the initial adjustment I walked around the neighborhood.
Casey Koza:I was still sore to the touch now on the back from all the inflammation of him adjusting me, I guess. So I was able to walk. Then he did it on a Monday. I was able to walk during the week and I actually went for a hike Saturday and Sunday and then I was able to run on Monday. Progress was made. I have an appointment tomorrow and Monday as well. 100% recommend if you're having issues hip back, go check out the chiropractor, because it was. I've never had such relief in such a short amount of time.
Bryan Parker:Do you talk with the chiropractor about the root causes of what's causing the need for those adjustments in that case, root causes of what's causing the need for those adjustments? In that case, like, do you attribute it to? Like a pinched nerve or like um a building up of muscles unevenly, or do you? Do you not get into the the mechanics of of like what caused in the first place? You're just like you're.
Rob Myers:You're giving me entirely too much credit there, brian I'm gonna grab here and I'm gonna pull here and you're gonna hear some noises and you'll feel better, right?
Bryan Parker:he's just like I live. Live for the crack. Just just get. Get in a position. I'm going to do the thing.
Casey Koza:Yeah, get me out of pain, doc. Yeah, dr Rook is his name. He's in Fairlawn, excellent chiropractor. I just I honestly I didn't ask him. I just I was just so happy to be like I didn't even ask, like I all I did is I walked in there I said, here's where it hurts. He pointed around like, does it hurt to touch? I'm guessing, because I didn't ask him, because I didn't want to know really.
Bryan Parker:He knew exactly what it was, because should be in the first place, see now you're giving me questions to ask him tomorrow.
Casey Koza:See, I should have had this podcast before I went in there. I'm sorry, we had to push. I'm sorry, no, no, because you're 100% correct I should be asking those questions. No, Because you're 100% correct. I should be asking those questions rather than just kind of walking in there and walking out like oh, everything's better, Like yeah, is there things that I can do strength-wise to help out my hip and back?
Bryan Parker:That's the stuff I get curious about Like our bodies get shaped into certain ways over time, especially, you know, north of 35 or 40 or whatever, and some of the routines that we like like this is my desk at work. You know I'm hunched over this desk at work, like it's been a 14 hour shift and I my client's still not happy or whatever. And like I wasn't born that way, right? So like I can potentially turn my body into a different shape by strengthening different muscles than the ones that get quote strengthened unquote by me hunching over a mixing desk all day. Yeah, one of the most fascinating things that I have found about revealing things about my own path through running thus far you know, obviously I'm still very new to it Doing the mental triage of like this is the difference between discomfort and pain and a likely injury.
Bryan Parker:Right, like my heels are just tense and painful pretty much all the time I'm working. These days I'm working specifically on building strength in my calf muscles to mitigate that, but like that's the main thing, that. Like it's just super tight when I start out and when I'm done with the run, I come down downstairs from the parking garage at work or something. That's where I'm like you know that's just, that's just painful all the time now, but it's not an injury and 10 months ago I couldn't have sorted that sensation into a bucket that was labeled like painful but not a threat. You know, like just roll your eyes at this, you don't have to be concerned about it.
Bryan Parker:Which is you me just past, like right around 10 miles, where you're like, yeah, this is uncomfortable and we still have a few miles to go. You know that thing that's like steady state, uncomfortable, not like let your animal instincts kick in and stop the activity uncomfortable. You know it's a different thing, thing than actual pain you should probably address like a pebble in your shoe that you have to address right now to be able to continue. Continuing into discomfort is its own thing. And then, sorting out the difference between a pebble in your shoe and a knee, you're probably doing damage to like an injury that's going to steal four or five weeks from you. Mentally separating those things, um, not something I would have thought about before I started around all, and now I'm parsing that information constantly, you know jc.
Rob Myers:What did andrew blaze say?
Casey Koza:he brought that up on the podcast how he's always sore, so that's just norm yeah, I mean he's hurt, he's just always sore it is a big thing, like you got to know, be able to differentiate for sure. Like is this going to blow up, you know, whatever body part to the point that I need surgery, or is? Is this just?
Bryan Parker:I mean it's an important thing to like you know, to, to at least you know, assess yeah it's the, you know, back to not being a professional runner.
Casey Koza:I. You know, if I can't work I generally don't get paid. You know, I don't want to be out for four weeks of work with a knee injury from running because I just ignored the pain.
Casey Koza:It was like, ah, it's just a, just a nag, it's fine. But yeah, yeah, I, I, I have to go back and listen to see what his cause he's. He's a California guy, big Strava guy. He runs tons of miles, run what? Four years worth of a hundred mile weeks and is running a hundred mile races seemingly every other week here in the summer. And yeah, it's just try not to get injured and injured. You're always hurt. Something's always hurting.
Bryan Parker:Like you said, your heels are always tense.
Casey Koza:There's always going to be a pain somewhere, especially our age. We're old, right, rob.
Rob Myers:The soreness reminds you that you need to go for a run. If you're not sore, then it's been too many days since your last run. Why do I feel so?
Casey Koza:good, oh right, I'm not doing the thing I I supposedly enjoy well, like the way I judge it is, if I don't thaw out of it after two miles. Yeah, like it's all right, something's, something's right. It's not just me being sore, it's not just you know right quad sore, or whatever like there's. There's probably an underlying issue that I can't just, you know, ignore anymore, and we'll get some sort of. I'll run to the internet to diagnose myself as generally perfect perfect cure for it.
Rob Myers:So, brian, what's next? When are you going to run the, the marathon?
Bryan Parker:well yeah I know you're looking at it, I am, but like for me, like I'm enjoying this part of it so much that I'm about I'm all about the slow goals. You know, I don't want to like, I don't want to go in for the marathon too soon and then feel like like this is factually untrue, but I'm pretty sure that my brain would serve this up to me just to preface it. I don't want to like train for the marathon, pursue the marathon and complete a marathon too soon and be like, well, that's it for road racing. I did it. I did road racing, you know, and I want to. I want to. I've been enjoying it so much and benefiting from the improved fitness along the way so much that I just want to like, just keep pursuing goals slowly.
Bryan Parker:So at the moment, what I've been doing since the half marathon is basically just sharpening my 5k, just getting trying to work on my foot mechanics better. I think I have rolled on the outside of my foot too much for too long, possibly because of marching band, possibly because of marching band, and I think that I've seen much, much better comfort in my heels actually by just working on foot position and working more on landing on the ball, my foot and the heel of my foot at the same time, instead of going around the outside that kind of thing making sure I'm not overstriding, working on those mechanics and kind of sharpening my 5K time. I've been getting my you know mile and two-mile time faster for fun, and I don't know In terms of what's next. I am eyeballing another half marathon in Santa Fe in September. I might do that.
Bryan Parker:Just this morning I looked at what that date was and looking at the volume I've been doing for the last couple of weeks and I'm like, oh God, I'm only running like, I've only been running like 12 or 14 miles a week. I need to. I need to get that a lot closer to 20 miles a week for that that half marathon to even be in the realm of possibility at all. So I'm going to try for a week or two to get back on a half marathon plan and get ready for that. And I was looking at a real just like a 5k trail run down in Palos Verdes to sort of dip my toe in that water Cause only because you've been pressuring me to do that, enough that I think it's probably time.
Casey Koza:Well, the good news with that, brian, is you will fit right in with the trail people. They're just going to be like oh, this guy runs trails, must run trails every day. As soon as they take a look at you oh, because of the Forrest Gump thing.
Bryan Parker:With the beard.
Casey Koza:yeah, yeah, that's the trail runner right there, that's our guy right there.
Rob Myers:Yeah, take it slow. Take it slow because once you go past the marathon, it gets weird. Yeah.
Casey Koza:Yeah, it gets weird. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it definitely gets weird out there, and the best thing I would think is, yeah, build up a base of gradually stepping it up and things go a lot smoother for you.
Bryan Parker:Yeah, slow goals man I am, so I know this is going to sound weird for a lot of folks. I am so into my job. I am so into my job, I love what I do at my work so much that I'll take these detours and do things that I'll get real passionate about X, y or Z whether that's vintage motorcycles or deciding to make an album more tame at work for some months or a year or whatever. And then a project will come along at work that needs my entire attention for long nights, long weeks, and I'll just like just abandon everything else. I'll just like my entire fuck your work-life balance.
Bryan Parker:My whole life is a job, and not in a resentful way, not in a bad way. I get really into what I do and I don't want for that to be what happens with me in running. I want to continue to find a way that this stays woven into my mornings for the rest of the time that I draw breath, if at all possible. So I'm trying not to go so deep as to burn out on it. Just here we go. I'm just trying to pace myself.
Casey Koza:I think that's a big thing, cause I I do see a lot of people that and I hate it when I read about it I'm going to go out and run a hundred miles. It's like you have no idea how far a hundred miles are. Like why don't you go out and do the 5k around your neighborhood first and then maybe reassess the situation? So what you're doing is the optimal plan, what people I feel and I could be wrong should do, rather than I'm going to go run a hundred miles Cause, yeah, like Rob said, as soon as you get above the marathon, it gets weird.
Rob Myers:It's awesome, but it's weird.
Bryan Parker:Yeah, I mean it's, as far as I can tell, marathon. It gets weird. It's awesome, but it's weird. Yeah, I mean it's as far as I can tell. It gets really non-linear at a couple different places. Like I mean, you two run distance enough, you probably forget this but like, running 10 miles does not feel like twice of what running five miles does. There's something really non-linear that happens somewhere between nine and ten miles. For me that is like it feels like a different activity entirely. Yep, and I'm sure that that that continues, um, if not in the same direction, then in a in a different and weirder direction, at some other break points along the way. Like maybe, I don't know, maybe 10 to 20 feels about the same in the north of 20, the ball game, I don't know, but I know for sure it's not a linear thing yeah, no, it's definitely not like 10.
Casey Koza:10 is different. Then probably the next one is, I think, 18, and then around 23, then the 50k mark and then above the 50k mark. For me it just gets. Yeah, you're not supposed to be doing this, dude like mine's just like yeah, bud, you know it's nice bench over there. Yeah, looks pretty good. So yeah, you're 100 right, it is not linear, it is. Do they call that a j j scale rob. That was called the j. It is definitely a j. You're 100, right, brian a.
Bryan Parker:J.
Casey Koza:And you've got to be able to sustain the J.
Bryan Parker:One of the things that I try to do to make sure that I'm like, to make sure I'm sort of looking at it from all angles, is% of the time, both in an effort to numb the pain a little bit and, like, alter my headspace a little bit and find that zone a little bit, if not easier than a little sort of different on-ramp to that zone where you're just, like my legs feel like a wheel underneath me. You know, yeah, and it's been, that aspect has been really, really, really positive. Now, have you?
Casey Koza:tried anything else Like I know a big thing is like hallucinogenics as well. That I have not done. Silas Silbin, is that the? I guess that would be the proper term. Yeah, so that we're saying that I have not done.
Bryan Parker:Psilocybin psilocybin yes, let's go with that instead.
Rob Myers:Yeah, yeah yeah I'm not a doctor on this show, I'm the hobby jogger you know, I only know that from joe rogan, so yeah, I've seen people that have definitely experimented with that while running you know?
Bryan Parker:yeah, I don't know about that. I'm glad it works for those folks. For me I'd be a little. I don't want to. I would rather just put a nice aura around what I'm already seeing and not go the hallucinogenic route. Just going deeper into my own thoughts and checking in with my body through that lens has been really positive.
Casey Koza:But I wouldn't want my state to be much more altered than yeah, I mean I would have to. Just you know, take your word on that, brian. You know I would have no experience.
Bryan Parker:Copy, copy that, copy that Much love from California. Yes, yes, for sure.
Casey Koza:But, yeah, it's a different mindset, like it's a different. I get it like yeah, you're right, different aura around it.
Bryan Parker:Just uh, I've heard it opens up your mind and good, getting getting good and stony, some put some heavy metal on.
Rob Myers:It's really, it's a really pleasant experience well, that takes us to your running playlist, my friend was just I was like I gotta know what is on Brian's, brian's running tracks here.
Casey Koza:Uh, I imagine it's stuff that's really cool.
Bryan Parker:It took a big shift, uh, towards the end of the half marathon train and by the end, but getting getting towards the actual half marathon race uh event in San Diego, diego. Because I was only listening to metal mostly Swedish, mostly death, but not exclusively death metal just to get going, just to tap into the core anger that is my primary fuel for running and to get my heart rate up and keep a pace. And, you know, just stay at, you know an adrenaline drip beat. But in trying to pace myself north of nine miles, north of 10 miles, I was like, yeah, I really can't be getting myself too amped up on the first half of this run, like, really, I really knew the opposite effect for the first several miles. So I shifted my half marathon miles, um, so I shifted my uh half marathon and now I have, you know, I have like interval playlist, 10k um and and half marathon plus, and my half marathon plus now starts out with literally anya, like just that'll do it the chillest, the chillest on ramp.
Bryan Parker:I can get some medieval chants on there Hildegard von Bingen, which is, you know, from like the 1100s, she's amazing and then some just like relaxed stuff to build into it, you know, jason Isbell, and a little bit of even Springsteen, whatever. And then after about an hour when I feel like I need the boost, then I transition with something a little bit spacey. There's a band in LA called Death Chant that I adore. They're a new, you know, they're a newer band in the last you know four or five years to kind of get me into it. And then I just go all, just all Swedish metal, just all.
Rob Myers:Swedish.
Casey Koza:All right.
Bryan Parker:Yeah, I, we're talking like arch enemy, soil work, and especially, especially, the big one is Amon Amarth which is just all Viking death metal.
Casey Koza:What, what, hold on? What's the Viking death metal band?
Bryan Parker:Amon Amarth, a-m-o-n oh, excuse me a-m-o-n. Space, a-m-a-r-t-h. And their album. If you want, if you want somewhere to start to see what I'm talking about, decide if it's for you. Their album, yams viking j-o-m-s viking, is a concept album and it is perfect. Start to finish. It's like like right, like I. I feel the first chorus like rise in my chest and it's like it's just all the adrenaline I need to power through.
Casey Koza:If it's um, I'll check it out right right now I timmy trump itet's my go-to running music.
Bryan Parker:What is Timmy Trumpet? He's an EDM artist.
Casey Koza:I'm not a fan of the scene of EDM at all, but his music is. I really like Timmy Trumpet. He plays the trumpet in a lot of his stuff, which is cool, but it's a lot of techno remixes. It's kind of got a little bit of up beat but it's not super like it's not gonna slam you like the, the, uh, the swedish death metal. You know what I mean it's like, do you?
Bryan Parker:seek songs to match the cadence of your feet, or is that a different thing for you? Because I know that some, some people really pursue. They're like this is my 150 BPM playlist and here's when I need to do a 170 BPM run.
Casey Koza:I don't do it purpose, like I don't have like a specific like beats per minute or anything like that that I go to. But I would bet if we went through my playlist, they are all pretty similar to each other within. I bet they're within a pretty short range, like you know what I mean. I just I prefer stuff within that range when I do listen, but when I run trails I don't, I don't take the headphones out.
Bryan Parker:You don't take headphones out on the trails, really, yeah, You're just. You're just. You're there with your own thoughts. That sounds horrifying. I just, I just as the kids now say, I just raw dog it. I guess the kids do say that.
Casey Koza:Yeah, the kids. That's the thing now, I guess.
Bryan Parker:Wow, I would find that tough.
Casey Koza:Yeah, it's in the woods Like if I go down you know the towpath here in Akron.
Bryan Parker:I don't think I do.
Rob Myers:It's flat, it's long Boring.
Casey Koza:If I go, do that, I put the headphones in. Like, if I boring, if I go, do that, I put the headphones in. Uh, like, if I do go fat, like faster days, I'll, I'll put the headphones in. But if I go back through, like cbmp somewhere, I don't I don't put headphones in, I just, it's me the woods. Uh, some friends, if they decide to come along, rob never comes because he doesn't live here anymore, so I don't have him as running running only a 10-hour drive.
Rob Myers:Yeah, that's all plus. You don't invite me often, so but I'm with you, for for races I don't wear headphones, but for training I do what's on your playlist, rob? Everything, everything I have, and, yeah, in one of my my playlists I do not have any uh uh yeah, Mostly heavy bands though, who can say Only Time?
Casey Koza:Who can say when the Road? That's my singing debut and finale on the show right now we're going to edit that out. No, we're keeping that.
Bryan Parker:That's legendary. Right now, if we're going to sing snippets of our favorite songs, do you think I should sing some death metal?
Casey Koza:Yeah, yeah, you have a guitar that shoots fire. Yeah, it's, it's I. That is one question I do like to ask. We had, uh, ryan thrower on and he's a he produces like trail running videos and stuff big, big music guy, and we had some interesting conversations about music and I think there's a lot of. You can draw a lot of similarities. They're very parallel to each other. Music and running. They go very well together. Something to keep your mind off of the pain.
Bryan Parker:I benefit greatly from turning the music up loud enough that that's most of my sensory experience Right. That just becomes most of the world that I'm inhabiting. Actually, I was in a short run this morning. I managed to hit it. I managed to get into the place within like in under a mile. I got my brain like into into the space where, like the legs were just doing their own and I was sober sober, to be clear, like my legs were just doing their own thing. I didn't really have to manage them and I was able to like go, think about stuff and keep a pace on and I was like, oh man, that's the shortest distance I've ever been able to find that with so far. I was stoked. But yeah, the music has to be up at a certain volume and I'm paying attention to that music actively to get there.
Casey Koza:Yeah, anytime you hit the flow state and you're just kind of just cruising through everything, feel super easy. Those are always definitely the best runs.
Rob Myers:It's also a measurement of time, like I'll put on one album or two albums and my goal is just to finish those two albums before I stop running. Yeah, I've been doing that a lot lately With stuff that you're familiar with.
Bryan Parker:Yes, that's really useful.
Casey Koza:I do listen to some. Yeah, I listen to some albums because I know like 45 minute run, like take off your pants and jackets one of my favorite albums, so I'll put that on, since like 45 minutes.
Bryan Parker:So yeah, let's. I believe that that jams viking is about 42. If you want to try that one next, casey, I'm definitely going to.
Casey Koza:Yeah, that's what was the last new genre of music we learned about on this on the show Rob Gospel rap. Was that it Gospel rap? Yeah, it was, it was. It was pretty cool, I got to admit, when Jensen was on the show and gave me a new type of music that I just had never kind of thought would.
Bryan Parker:Yeah, I heard, I heard that episode. Yeah, that was cool, yeah it was pretty cool.
Casey Koza:So now I we got to start asking every guest.
Bryan Parker:Rob, who knows?
Casey Koza:what we've missed, the treasure trove of music we've missed out on by not asking a simple question.
Casey Koza:I think you should start with I don't know maybe I wouldn't go directly into the swedish death metal, maybe architects is a better place for architects, might be a better on-ramp. It's a little more accessible. Nice, yeah, that's what was the other. Uh, I think that was it. Yeah, I don't should ask the hemmings. I bet we would have liked their music, eli and tabor yeah, I think so yeah, they probably they out there in colorado. They probably got some blues grass or something going on.
Bryan Parker:I bet, I know my sister's been listening to High Life while she runs and that might be a good one. You might dig that. You know, like Western African guitar music, high Life, yeah, all sorts of not Taylor Swift, although I do like Tay-Tay.
Casey Koza:Tay-Tay is punk rock as far as I'm concerned.
Bryan Parker:I don't really know any of her songs.
Casey Koza:I don't know many of them. Most people get mad when I say that that makes me happy.
Bryan Parker:I wouldn't get mad at you for being happy, Casey.
Casey Koza:I appreciate that. Well, brian, we've taken a lot of your time. You're busy. You're out there trying to get. Uh, hopefully, hopefully, you win an Emmy. I'm rooting for you, yeah, uh, so we'll be watching for you.
Bryan Parker:Who can say where the road goes? Casey, only time.