Finding Time for Fitness, No Matter Your Age with Felix Martinez! Episode 016

Richard Conner 0:00

Welcome to Episode 16. A few months ago I met a fellow runner and Spartan obstacle course racer, Felix Martinez, and he has a great philosophy and story about fitness and running. In this episode, we’ll share that philosophy with you and also trade a couple of stories about our running journeys. Hope you enjoy.

Here’s what you can look forward to on this episode of Inspire Virtual Runs Podcast.

Felix Martinez 0:28

Getting ready for the 2020 season before the pandemic hit. I continue to run, do my 15-18 miles a week, it’s important to get up and do something. Even if you’re not running that many miles get up and do a mile you know, do two miles. Walk, do something. Keep your heart in good shape.

Welcome to Inspire Virtual Runs Podcast. Whether you are new to running or seasoned. Get tips in the inspiration that you need to achieve your health and fitness goals. Now, here’s your host Richard Conner.

Richard Conner 1:07

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Inspire Virtual Runs Podcast. I’m here with today’s guest Felix Martinez. Felix is a retired police officer with the Vineland police department, where he worked as a patrolman, detective and a PT instructor at the police academy. In 2006, his love for mixed martial arts led him to start his own promotional company, Cage Fury Fighting Championships out of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Cage Fury quickly became the top regional show in the East Coast bringing the legendary Kimbo Slice into the cage for the very first time. Felix has always had a love for running since his high school wrestling days. He has done several half marathons, 10K races and 5K races. He has recently begun to compete in Spartan races, finishing his first trifecta in 2019. Welcome to the show, Felix.

Felix Martinez 2:06

Hey, Richard, how are you?

Richard Conner 2:07

I’m good. I’m good,

Felix Martinez 2:09

Good. Cold out there this morning. I did a nice little run this morning. It was very cold.

Richard Conner 2:18

I hear you. I’m waiting for it to warm up just a little bit. But I gotta get up there myself. I gotta get ready for the winter months.

Felix Martinez 2:25

Dress warm, dress warm.

Richard Conner 2:27

Lots of lots and lots of layers. So my wife actually bought some Under Armour clothes for me just to kind of get me ready for the winter. So that’s working out pretty well.

Felix Martinez 2:37

Yeah. I love Under Armour. Keeps you warm. Richard Conner 2:40

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Felix first, you know, thank you for coming on the show and agreeing to share your story with with our community. And you have a very interesting story and great success and your personal professional life. So, you know, I’d love to like kind of start to learn a little bit more about you and maybe we can start to talk about your work in the martial arts. You know, it piqued my interest because of like the fitness component, but also entrepreneurship. So why don’t we start there and talk a little bit about that.

Felix Martinez 3:11

I love mixed martial arts, I wrestled, I wrestled in high school. I actually went to Sweden, for a world police and firemen games. That was an awesome experience. But in 2000, I say about 2006, I went to go see a mixed martial arts event called reality fighting in Atlantic City. And them fighters, they put everything out there. But watching the show, I said Ah there’s something missing in a show. So I said let’s, let’s start our own promotional company. So a year later, I started Cage Fury Fighting Championships. Within a year’s time, we became the leader in the East Coast regional shows. As you said, you know, we brought in Kimbo Slice. We did a pay per view, which was, which was awesome. He fought merciless Ray Mercer. It was a great experience. Make Kimbo rest in peace, he was awesome, gentlemen, great guy.

Richard Conner 4:09

Very cool. Very cool. So that’s awesome that you did that. And it really just kind of showcases again your love for for fitness and for being active. And I love the work that you did there with with Cage Fury. That’s pretty cool.

Felix Martinez 4:26

Yeah. Them fighters then fighters are in top shape. Yeah. I always said that fighters are the backbone of any promotion, obviously. But them guys put it all out there. You know, they train the train hard. You know, they don’t get paid a lot of money. We tried to pay them top money, but I mean, they’re out there. They’re giving it their all and like I said, top notch athlete.

Richard Conner 4:50

Mm hmm. Absolutely. Absolutely. And speaking of training, you know, that’s actually one of the things that that caught my attention because I’ve seen your posts about all the work that you do with With your training, which is awesome, by the way, and you know, let’s let’s talk about that a little bit. And let’s talk about running. So you you do training, you’ve also run you’ve run several half marathons, 10K races, 5K races, and you started to run Spartan races, I think about four years ago. So why don’t we like roll back the clock a little bit and tell us a little bit how you got, you know, started into running.

Felix Martinez 5:23

I tell you wrestling, I mean, there’s a lot of lot of running and wrestling, you know, our coach uh, every Saturday, we do our long run, and it was a six to eight miles. And that’s what started me into run. And to me, it’s the core. Yeah, like lifting like everything else. But I think run is the core. Being a 51 your heart is the most important muscle, right? So it’s important to keep our, our heart in great shape. So I think running is a great exercise to keep your heart in shape. After high school. I began running three or four times a week. I tried to do between 15 and 18 miles a week. Like I said, I think I think that’s my core of everything. Like I said, I love lifting but running as my is what I love. Then after that I started doing races. Actually my first race was in Philadelphia was that Breast Cancer run. Susan Komen run in Philadelphia, and that was a 5K. I’ve done several half marathons. My first half math down was Atlantic City. That was a flat one. That was awesome run. I’ve done the Hershey run in Philadelphia, and several 10 K’s. I did a triathlon. That was tough. That was tough. triathlon. I think I told you the story. I was swimming. If you don’t swim, don’t do a triathlon.

Richard Conner 6:55

That’s good advice. Why did you decide to get into it?

Felix Martinez 7:00

You know what one of my buddies done a lot of them. He said, Hey, you gotta try one. You gotta try one. And I’m swimming in my mom’s pool. You know, she has a inground pool. And yeah, this is all right. I got this. And I was training for a half hour for a quarter mile swim. Well, when I got there, it was a half mile swim. And you have to get out in the water to really train for swimming. You can’t do it in a pool. Like I did. I can’t get a third buoy. And I raised my hand and I forgot raise my hand. I go help, help. Well, the guy looks at me. He said, You’re so close. You’re so close. I say I’m gonna drown here. So he said, keep on going, keep on going. So a funny story. I could touch the ground, right? So I’m moving my arms walking. And he said, He’s thinking I’m swimming. Well, I made it to the end and you can finish the race if you’re not pulled out if you if you’re pulled out, you’re disqualified. Okay, I was grateful that he let me finish and I finished a triathlon. But like I said, if you don’t swim, don’t do a triathlon.

Richard Conner 8:01

That’s, that’s great advice. You know, I, I don’t, I don’t swim. But I have kind of taken on these challenges to do things that either scare me or things that I haven’t done before. Triathlon could have made it to the list, but but after this conversation, I don’t think so.

Felix Martinez 8:15

Just just get to swimming. After that, after I did a triathlon, I mean, in 2019, you know, after doing runs marathons, I decided to do some Spartan races. They’re awesome. It’s a family. I tell you that. Have you ever done one Rich?

Richard Conner 8:32

I have. Aroo Aroo Aroo.

Felix Martinez 8:37

I think they’re awesome. They’re tough. You must do you must do some running to train for it. Especially when you’re doing the Beast that that killed me. I could hardly walk for a week. Yeah, make sure you put the miles in. It was a great experience. I was getting ready for the 2020 season before the pandemic hit I continue to run. Do my 15-18 miles a week. It’s important to get up and do something. Even if you’re not running that many miles get up and do a mile you know, do two miles walk, do something. Keep your heart in good shape.

Richard Conner 9:13

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thank you for sharing that. So just a little backstory on me for Spartan. So I started Spartan I think about two years ago. And it was a buddy of mine. And I just kind of got together and decided to do it. And I did not know what I was in for for that first race. And it was a sprint in Virginia in Arrington, Virginia. And we did it it was it turned out to be four and a quarter miles I think about 22 obstacles. I probably failed about three or four obstacles. And I and I just realized even though we had been training for maybe, I don’t know, six, seven months in earnest. It was definitely not enough training not enough for for what we went through. I was like I can definitely do better than this. And my challenge was not necessarily the running because I’ve been running for for quite some time, but really was all the overhead and upper body, upper body stuff. So that’s the stuff I really had to train for. And last year, I did a few races. And then this year, I did all obviously all virtual because of the pandemic, but I was able to do a virtual trifecta, which was my goal this year

Felix Martinez 10:15

Thats awesome. Yeah. Awesome.

Richard Conner 10:17

Excited about that.

Felix Martinez 10:19

So how was that? How did they send you? How’s that ran?

Richard Conner 10:23

Yeah. So I mean, basically, the distance is the distance, right? You run, you just send in your time with the tracker, the Sprint, Super, and Beasts, you know, 5K, 10K, and half marathon. But I did have to train for the 10K and half marathon because I had not done those distances before and in a live race. So I did have to train for that. But the upper bar, the obstacles are simulated by exercises. So you know, you do burpees all bodyweight burpees you do jumping jacks, you do push ups. And they had a lot of leg exercises, for obstacles when I did by time I got to the Beast. But that’s basically what they’re doing to kind of simulate that element of the race. And I just finished the Beast less than a month ago. And it was a beautiful day. It was so perfect. It started raining like when we finished which which was great, because it was you know, clear skies, and it was just beautiful weather for the for the whole run. But that’s what I did they send the medals and yeah, and that’s it. So kind of looking forward to live races. But I was really happy that I had something to focus on and work on this year by going for the virtual trifecta or else I just, I don’t know, sat on my hands and said, Well, I’m gonna wait for 2021 when everything comes back, so it was nice that they set that up,

Felix Martinez 11:37

and you would have been way behind.

Richard Conner 11:39

Exactly, exactly.

Felix Martinez 11:41

Yeah. Like I said, I’m a believer. I love I love their way of thinking. They’re not easy teamwork sometimes, you know, so awesome race. Awesome. I like to do you know, the first one in February sometime, hopefully this pandemic goes away. And we’re able to start the season in February, but we’ll see.

Richard Conner 12:02

I don’t know, I don’t know, I’m not planning on it for the first part of the year. I don’t want to be disappointed like I did earlier this year. So I think I’m gonna I think I’m goingto focus on different things in 2021. And then maybe come back to Spartan and then ’22. But definitely want to do the trifecta again, with the with the live races. Well, we’ll see how the year goes. I normally start with Citi Field, which I think is in April, and then I’ll do the Boston sprint, which I really enjoy in May, and I don’t have to fly anywhere, which I love. And then we’ll see we’ll see what the rest of the year looks like. But.

Felix Martinez 12:34

That’s awesome. I normally do when I do a sprint. I did a Philly Philly citizen bank. That’s awesome. One 2019 I was second in my age group, which was awesome. Finished in 47 minutes. And

Richard Conner 12:47

For the sprint.

Felix Martinez 12:48

Yep. For sprint. Good for you. Yeah, felt good. Felt good that day. The guy that took first now he was a beast he had he had me about four minutes.

Richard Conner 12:58

Wow.

Felix Martinez 12:59

Yeah. But it was a great event.

Richard Conner 13:02

So tell me like through all of your in through the the 5K’s, 10K’s, half marathons, triathlons, Spartan, like what? What would you say? was like your biggest obstacle that you faced? You know, throughout any of those races?

Felix Martinez 13:17

I would say being older, right? 51 you get them, I have some ankle issues. So that affected me of a few races. But I think it’s finding in the time. I always say give yourself an hour to yourself to do something. And for me to hours to work out. I have kids makes it tough. You know? And you have kids to right Richard?

Richard Conner 13:37

I do I do

You know, you know, it’s that hour? Hey dad. Can you take me to the store? This is my hour to for me to do something from me. So I would say it’s the time and everyone’s gonna say that’s the reason I don’t run this. Make that hour yours. Don’t let no one take that out from you. It’s important that you stay in shape. And you do something.

Absolutely, absolutely, completely agree with you. And you know, everybody is busy, like you said, and it’s the family. It’s work. It’s the house, there’s there’s just so much that’s vying for your time. And you’re right, you have to be intentional about it. You have to make the time and and then do just put in the work. You know,

Felix Martinez 14:16

I tell my kids get on the bike. I’m gonna go for a run you get on a bike, you ride your bike next to dad. And they rather go to the stores go buy stuff.

Richard Conner 14:29

That’s right.

Felix Martinez 14:30

That’s funny. I got to hear their mouth all the time. That’s always working out dads. Yeah, when you’re 51 when you’re getting older, it’s important that you stay in shape.

Richard Conner 14:38

Mm hmm.

Felix Martinez 14:39

Because at some point of our life, some is going to be thrown at our away. So it’s important that we stay in shape, you know?

Richard Conner 14:45

Right. Right. And I know you mentioned that a few times about like staying in shape and just being conscious of of your body and your age. Like what is it? What is it that you enjoy most about like fitness and running, so staying in shape, I guess is one element of it. But there’s there’s something else behind it too.

Felix Martinez 15:04

Yeah, It’s it’s, it’s my meditation time, you know, having a stressful day at work. Coming home, you know, I have a 15 year old and a 12 year old they fight all day. I love them to death, but they fight all day. So it’s the stress. So going out there running, working out. It’s it’s the time for me to mellow out, meditate and get my my thoughts back together.

Richard Conner 15:29

Okay.

Felix Martinez 15:31

Thank God, thank God, there’s fitness. You take that away from me, I’m in trouble.

Richard Conner 15:37

Yeah, I think a lot of people would feel that way.

Felix Martinez 15:40

The same for you. Right?

Richard Conner 15:41

Yeah, same. I mean, for me, it’s, it’s an opportunity for me to, you know, not not so much on the on the mental side. But it’s just something that makes me feel good, like, feel good that I accomplished something that I’m taking care of myself. And in some cases, doing things that I’ve never done before, like a really, it’s a, it’s a way for me to kind of focus on on those things for myself, because I want to be healthy for me and for my family. And, and like you said, you know, your hearts, your, your your muscle, your most important muscle. So just making sure that I can be here for for them.

Felix Martinez 16:17

Exactly. Great. That’s awesome.

Richard Conner 16:21

So going back to the races, I know you mentioned a few that you enjoy to do. If you had to pick a favorite race, what would it be and why?

Felix Martinez 16:31

I would say Palmerton, Pennsylvania Blue Mountain. It’s the Super, Spartan Super, I would say that was the toughest race. And you know, I mean, you’re probably like me, Richard, you like being challenged. And that was, that was the ultimate challenge. There was times in the race where I was saying, Oh, I can’t do this anymore. And I’m fighting with myself. And I’m like, you can you can do this. You know, it was just an awesome experience. When I finished it was the best feeling. And just helping the people you know, the people that are, as you know, you know, when you do to beast, you do them, you have to take salt tablets. It’s tough. So you got to take all that stuff, and you see people hurting, and they forgot their salt tablets or whatever you just, here’s a salt tablet, and you see them finish at the end. And you’re like you just feel great. I will say Palmerton because of the toughness. Yes, I love that race. That was an awesome race. If you get a chance to do that. palmerton. Richard, you should you should give it a try. It’s, it’s, I mean, when you’re on that mountain, and you’re going up the mountain you made it made it and you get to that top, and then there’s another 100 yards going up again. And then you get to that and there’s another and you’re like your mind starts messing with you.

Richard Conner 17:48

Yeah, yeah. Well, I don’t know, doesn’t really sound all that appealing.

Felix Martinez 17:55

I know, but the feeling is like no other you know?

Richard Conner 17:59

Yeah, I might try it. I think, you know, for the for the races. What I’ve learned is, if it’s something that I could drive to, then I would consider doing it or to have to stay over because I made the mistake. My my first race, like I mentioned was in Virginia, I made the mistake of flying home that night. And that was that was brutal.

Felix Martinez 18:20

How’d you get off the plane?

Richard Conner 18:22

How did I get on? It was brutal. It was funny because it was my first it was my first race and I everything that hurt. I can tell you why I can tell you well, this was from the bucket carry. I climbed over this wall like I could I could just tell you so obviously as you do the races and you train more you progress. It’s it’s not the same, right? I mean, you have a much better experience with the first one’s pretty rough.

Felix Martinez 18:48

Exactly.

Richard Conner 18:48

And and we were sort of the first flight was was fine. I got on the first plane. And then the second one was delayed. I don’t even remember where the layover was, but I was all I was thinking is I didn’t even have the energy to hop in a car and drive from here. Like, I’ll just wait for them to carry me on the plane and to get home. But, but yeah, so you know if I kind of realized, like if I could do more local races, and if I do something that’s that will require me to travel that I shouldn’t make like a trip out of it not just trying to get in and out.

Felix Martinez 19:18

There. I did a race it was a 10K. I don’t know if you ever heard of it. It’s up your way. The Cow Harbor. You’ve heard that? No, I haven’t looked into that one. Now. That was an awesome race. It was. It was in Long Island. You run up this I never forget it was a hill hill from hell. It was like straight up. And once you got to the Hill, the prize was the view of the harbor. It was the most prettiest race I’ve ever done. And it was it was a great race. So if you if you can look into that race, if you ever get a chance to do that. That was a great race.

Richard Conner 19:53

Yeah, I’ll take a look at that and you bring up a really good point. So we’re talking about kind of the the hardships of the difficulties to these races, but there’s a lot of benefits, you know, to doing the races and especially like you said, either during the race, it’s either the views or the people that you meet along the way. But even after the race, the sense of accomplishment is something that that that’s awesome too. So, so it is work. Sometimes it’s a little bit of pain to get there, but it’s well worth it, whether it’s a standard road race, or if it’s one of one of these obstacle course races.

Felix Martinez 20:30

Right. I always said that. Yeah, the medal is great at the end. But it’s it’s the friendship you build, its the views you see, it’s the experience itself. That’s worth it, you know?

Richard Conner 20:40

Uh huh. Absolutely. So I know that, you know, before this conversation, we’re kind of talking a little bit about you and, and your family. And you had mentioned that you’re your wife brings all the gear, we’re talking about running in the winter months. And I don’t know if you said your wife or your partner brings all the gear, so so tell me a little bit about that.

Felix Martinez 21:02

So important to have the proper gear, I was tight. I told you that when we spoke earlier, when when you’re running in 20, at 20 degrees, it’s important to bring all your gear. So my running partner used to bring all the gear you know, the gloves, the hat, keep you warm, you know, it’s important, like I said, Under Armour is my thing. So they would bring all their stuff get and get us ready for the races, you know, so it’s important to be prepared, you know, don’t go out there and run it that 20 degrees without the proper equipment, you know.

Richard Conner 21:34

Mm hmm.

Felix Martinez 21:35

Important. That’s important.

Richard Conner 21:36

Then how do you how do you avoid like overdressing and that that’s something that I just experienced, even recently, um, I put on, I put on my clothes and long sleeves and jacket and hat and a mile into it, I’m sweating like you wouldn’t believe which is very uncomfortable. Like, how do you kind of avoid?

Felix Martinez 21:54

You know what, it’s funny, Richard? You know, I’ve been running since since the 18 – 17 years old. And it’s the same problem, you always end up ripping stuff off. So I don’t think I have an answer for you there. To this day, I’m ripping off hats taking off gloves, taking off a shirt. You know, I think it depends on a day, you know, your body changes every, every year every six years, right? So sometimes you go out there, it’s like, I’m freezing. I gotta wear more stuff. Then you put more stuff on and you’re ripping it off. I you know, my rule of thumb is I try to do three layers of my upper body. I wear long sleeve, running shirt, you know, then I put on a short sleeve. And then I put on a running jacket. My legs I wear I wear you know, some running pants. Most importantly, it’s the sneakers you run in, you know, you know that it’s important to find the right sneaker. You see people go out there and they got sneakers that they’ve worn for 10 years and then they wonder why their feet or knees hurt. It’s important to have the right sneaker.

Richard Conner 23:01

That’s very good advice. Yeah, definitely. We, in another episode, we talked about making sure that you change your your running shoes. I think we said maybe every 500 miles or so. I don’t know what’s your what’s your take on that, by time or by miles?

Felix Martinez 23:17

I go by miles. I would say I would say that four to 500 miles changes. And I you know, I mean, I mean, I’m a Brooks guy. So I love my Brooks. I’ve tried different pairs. Yeah. But I’ve seen that go back to my Brooks. you know? Richard Conner 23:34 Okay. Yeah, very cool. And do you have special ones for for the winter, like any kind of traction specific traction ones or?

Felix Martinez 23:42

Now you know, I have my special sneakers for my my Spartan runs. You know, it’s important, right? Because, you know, you know, when you’re running out on rocks and everything else, it’s definitely running on the street. Yeah.

Richard Conner 23:53

Right. Yeah. trail shoes. Yeah, I bought my first pair of trail shoes. Not for my first race because I didn’t know any better but for the for this

Felix Martinez 24:01

OMG. So you suffered the first race.

Richard Conner 24:04

I did. It wasn’t terrible. The mud made a it was not easy to go in through the mud. But, but yeah, I definitely learned.

Felix Martinez 24:12

Yeah. And you gotta you gotta make sure they fit you. You know how many people lose their shoe shoe in the mud?

Oh, no, no

Yeah, So. Yeah, you’re, and that happened to me on my first race. I’m running. And the mud was deep. Because, you know, it was raining the day before. So I remember stepping down and I got out my shoe still in the mud. Yeah.

Richard Conner 24:35

Wow. Yeah, I didn’t realize that. But I’ve seen people do some really crazy things to get over the mind like jump from one of those mud hills. So the next one, which I thought was crazy.

Felix Martinez 24:45

Yeah. Hey, if you’re going to these things, thinking you’re not going to get mighty then you might as well not do it.

Richard Conner 24:50

Right, right. Yeah. So let’s switch gears a little bit. I know that you know your overall fitness. is important to you. And I know we’re focused highly on running, but you do a lot more for your fitness than running. So why don’t we talk a little bit about like, what are some of the other things that you do if you have any specific training programs or just other kind of workouts? Yeah,

Felix Martinez 25:13

Yeah, I got, I mean, during this pandemic, it’s tough, you know, I would hit the gym before depends them if you know, at least six times a week, put in 45 minutes to an hour of weightlifting, depending on what I was training for. If I was training for a Spartan Race, I would I would do a lot of hangs, you know, for pull ups, as you know, it’s important to have the upper body strength, you know, doing doing the squat and stuff. So I would get to the gym at least six times a week, and I would break it up, you know, chest, chest and tries, then I would throw a Spartan training day in there. But you know, Spartan races has changed the way I think I what I do in a gym, it was normally Yeah, go to the gym, do chest and tries. But now, you know, with the Spartan stuff, so important to get that heart rate up. So I would throw a lot of different stuff to get that heart rate up, run, get on the treadmill, push, push the box, little stuff like that. But like I said, it was like six days a week. Now that I’m home. I’m still training six days a week, but I’m doing all bodyweight stuff you can get on there’s a guy I follow. His name is Bully Juice. You can find him on YouTube. He does a lot of calisthenics, push ups, sit ups, you know, burpees mountain climbers. I like him because he gets to the point that a lot of talking, it’s a half hour to 45 minute workout. So I do a lot of bodyweight stuff here at home to this pandemic breaks, you know, at least I’m not sitting on my butt not doing nothing. Yeah.

Richard Conner 26:48

All right. Very cool. Yeah. Felix, this has been awesome. Your story is very inspirational. I love all the things that you’ve done in fitness and in business and your professional life. So just thank you for for coming on the show and sharing all of this with us. So you know, we talked about a lot of different things. And if you were to like summarize some message for inspire virtual runs community, like what would you want to say to our community kind of summarize a little bit what we talked about?

Felix Martinez 27:20

I was saying, There’s no excuses. Yeah, we’re in a pandemic, but we can do something, get up and walk, get up and run, do some bodyweight stuff. It’s important to stay fit. And one of my quotes I always say, when I’m on Fitbit, I always say, live the rest of your life, the best of your life. You know, get out there enjoy your life. Life’s short. But you know while you’re here, make a difference. Do something. Yeah.

Richard Conner 27:48

Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much, Felix. I love following you on social media. And if any of our inspire virtual runs, community members would want to follow you as well. Where could they find you?

Felix Martinez 28:00

I’m on Fitbit. I like that that platform. A lot of people they’re wanting to learn about fitness, you have the experience fitness people you could always learn from somebody. My Fitbit name is Felix. m. Felix, like Mike, and shoot me a message on there. And I’ll respond.

Richard Conner 28:23

Okay, that’s awesome. So I’ll also include it in the show notes make it easy for listeners to find. Thank you again, Felix. This has been great. And yeah, have a great day.

Felix Martinez 28:35

Rich, thank you very much. Keep in touch and good luck in your journey.

Richard Conner 28:40

Thank you

I want to take a moment to thank Felix for coming on the show. It’s always cool to meet fellow Spartan obstacle course racer. And I’d like to share the top three things that I took away from this conversation with Felix. The first one is something that he said about running is the core. So for him running helped him and some of his other sports activities. And it’s important to know that you don’t have to just run, you can incorporate it as part of your overall fitness routine. The second thing that Felix talked about, was staying fit. at any age. He talked about the importance of that. And he mentioned it a couple of times throughout the conversation and during my conversation even before the the interview. So just an excellent philosophy, about no matter your age, it’s just really important to stay fit and find that way to prioritize your health and fitness. The third thing he talked about was giving yourself that time for fitness. It’s your time. It’s not something that you have to do or you’re dreading doing it. This is your time away and Really just taking the time to yourself to dedicate to your fitness. In some cases when that’s not possible, then you can incorporate your family as an example and make them a part of it if that’s your situation, but otherwise, just really take the time or make the time for your fitness. So those are the top three things I took away from the conversation. A lot of great tips and great conversation with Felix. I hope you enjoyed it. Check us out on inspirevirtualruns.com send us an email. Let us know what you think about these episodes. Also let us know what other topics you’d love to hear. Alright, that’s it for now. Thanks for listening.

Felix Martinez 30:46

That’s it for this episode of Inspire Virtual Runs Podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review. Also, be sure to click the subscribe button so you don’t miss an episode. Thanks for listening.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai