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The Volkswagon Bulldog: Steve Speirs

08.06.08 | in Fitness | 9 Comments Share

He's on an 11 sub-3:00 marathon streak, going for an even dozen. He's also done quite a few push ups along the way. Check out our interview with running Bulldog Steve Speirs.

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Steve Speirs—the man that brought you the incredibly popular One Hundred Push Ups Challenge, Run Bulldog Run and Cymru66 is on two missions: he's going for a PR at November's Richmond Marathon, and he's set his sights on a Volkswagon Bus.

A proud Welshman ("Cymru" is "Wales" in the Welsh language), Steve took a minute to talk to us about his running, the Hundred Push Up Challenge inspiration, and his newest Volkswagonian endeavor.

Interview

Hella Sound: When did you start running? And what got you started?
Steve Speirs: I started running back in the early 1980s. I used to play soccer and rugby in high school, and really it was just a way of keeping fit. My rugby coach was a runner, and he was entering a half marathon event, and he talked me into doing it. I did it, finished and I did quite well with really no training at all, and I've been doing it ever since.

HS: Wow, that's pretty amazing.
SS: Yeah, I think my time was 1:30-something; I was 16 years old, didn't really know what I was doing to be honest (laughs). I just kind of showed up, had a really good time and got hooked straight away.

HS: I bet recovery time when you're 16 is a little different…(laughs)
SS: (laughs) Yeah, it really was. Really it was more for fitness than anything else. I used to really love soccer and rugby. Over the years it's just been a fantastic way to keep fit and healthy, and keep the weight down a little bit.

HS: Yeah, and in running it's easier to keep all your teeth than with rugby.
SS: Yeah. I used to play fullback, so I was like the last line of defense. I'm only a small guy—I used to take some hits.

HS: Do you prefer to run solo, or with a partner or in a group?
SS: I would say 90% of the time I'm solo. Occasionally I'll run with a partner on a sunday long run, but I do prefer being alone. My wife will come out—she's a runner, too—so she'll come out with me while I do easy runs, and it's nice to have some company. Typically on a workout I just like to be alone. If I was going to be in a race, that's how I like to train.

HS: Who inspires you as a runner?
SS: There's a few professional athletes that inspired me: one is Steve Jones, a marathon runner from Wales, which is my home country. He held a world record for a while at Chicago—he broke it. That's going back 20 years ago. He now lives in Colorado—he moved from Wales to Colorado and he's a coach and a really nice guy. He usually shows up at the Rock & Roll Half Marathon Expo in September in Virginia Beach. I've met him 3 or 4 times and he's a great guy and a big inspiration.

Then we have Paula Radcliffe, the women's world record holder. I've read her books; she's really down to earth, and her work ethic is just tremendous. Another big inspiration there.

Another one is Sebastian Coe, the English runner. Back again to the '80s and the Olympics, the big rivalry with Steve Ovett, the great middle-distance runner.

HS: What do you do to cross-train?
SS: A bit of cycling. I've done triathlons in the past—swimming and biking. I'm not really a swimmer, so, never really enjoyed it or got into it too much but it's a really good cross-training tool. It's more of a chore for me to go to the pool and swim though. I'll jump on a bike but getting to the pool is always a chore. This won't surprise you, but the push-ups… (laughs)

HS: (laughs) Right!
SS: I'm doing a lot of push-ups at the moment. And a lot of core strength as well—abs and crunches and that type of thing.

HS: Yeah, I saw that post on your site about the ab program you're doing…
SS: It's called Essential Abs and it's a 6 week program. It starts you off gently and it gets more and more difficult. I'm on week 6 at the moment. I do that probably 4 or 5 times throughout the year, just to keep myself in shape in the midsection area. I think that's important to a runner to have a strong core. It's one of those areas that'll get neglected by most people.

HS: It's something that everyone can do. The different trainers and coaches I talk to, the one universal thing you can do is mind your core.
SS: That's right. It provides so much stability.

HS: So what's the inspiration for the Hundred Push-Up Challenge?
SS: Probably about this time last year there was a very similar website that my friend in the UK sent me a link to. He was doing this challenge—it was the same principle, not exactly the same. So we were both following it about a year ago, and I managed to get through and did a hundred straight push-ups last June. And then I kind of forgot all about it. My strength work when I'm running, I tend to run a lot, but when it comes to strength and cross-training I'm not that good—I'm not that serious about it. So I tried this push-ups program a few months later, did 3 or 4 weeks of the program and kind of got tired of it so I gave up on it. I was blogging about it on one of my blogs, and then all of a sudden I started receiving email from people who were reading my blog and following this push-ups program. The original website had gone down and disappeared, and they were asking me if I had copies of the full program, since the website had disappeared.

Luckily I saved it on my local computer, so I emailed it to these people so they could finish off the plan. And this was going on for weeks and weeks and weeks, people were emailing me out of the blue.

HS: (laughs)
SS: And it kind of gave me the idea "why don't I just put the site up?" A. to help myself out, and B. to help all these people out that had been following the blog. They were kind of stuck on week 4—there was nothing around after week 4.

HS: (laughs)
SS: That was really the incentive to do it. It made it easier than emailing all these people back. I launched it on June the 9th, and it just went crazy. Even in the first couple of days the hits on it were crazy. You know the social site StumbleUpon?

HS: Yup. [note: http://hellasound.stumbleupon.com]
SS: I think StumbleUpon got hold of it somehow—maybe even Digg—and it just went crazy. And it's been crazy ever since.

HS: It was something that just popped up on everyone's radar. So many people with running blogs just latched onto it quickly. People just love it.
SS: I've been following the stats on the site, and there was a few key blogs and websites that got a hold of it—they have a huge following themselves. They're kind of driving it as well. There's a guy in New Zealand, and he's got a huge following on his blog and he posts about it every few days. It's going crazy. 980,000 unique visitors now.

HS: (coughs) Wow! (laughs)
SS: 10 million pageviews… I had to increase my webhost bandwidth a couple of times.

HS: I bet.
SS: Yeah, it's just totally unexpected and really really cool.

HS: That's just fantastic. You hit a nerve I think.
SS: Yeah I did. The most special thing is actually receiving all the emails from people saying that I kick-started their fitness regime, and they haven't felt better about themselves in years and years and years. I'm getting all these emails, which is really touching, and to be able to have helped these people is really fantastic.

HS: What have you been reading?
SS: I'm currently reading…you know the ultrarunner Dean Karnazes, he's got a new book coming out on August 18th called 50/50. I managed to get a hold of an advanced copy. The publisher was reading my blog, and I mentioned it on one of my posts, so I got an email from the publishing company asking if I'd like to review it, and they offered 5 copies so I could hold a contest on my blog with the copies as prizes. I'm halfway through and it's a great book, so I'll be reviewing it shortly on my Run Bulldog Run blog, and I'll be holding the contest.

I love running books. Running with the Buffaloes is another favorite of mine. Bill Bowerman—his book—that's a cool book. Apart from that, any Stephen King books I enjoy. And I'm also currently reading a ton of stuff about the Volkswagon Bus. I'm really into that at the moment.

HS: That's very cool. The Volkswagon Bus thing you have going on is great. Is it a new model that you're craving or is it an older model?
SS: I'd like something from the 60s or 70s. They first started building them in the 50s. I'd love to get one from the 60s. They're quite expensive now and quite rare and hard to find. We'll see; I'm saving hard and every penny is going towards my bus fund at the moment.

HS: Living in San Francisco, I see my fair share of buses around here.
SS: Yeah, the West Coast is the place to get them because it's dry and rust-free in most cases. Over here in the East Coast it's so humid. They're really full of rust and you don't get much for your money at all. Maybe I'll need to come out to the West Coast and spend a few days looking.

HS: Yeah, I think this is the place for it. Do you plan on doing the wrenching, mechanics and upkeep yourself? Are you inclined with that sort of thing?
SS: Yeah I am actually. I used to have older cars when I was a teenager. The good thing about a bus is that they're very easy to work on mechanically. I wouldn't be very good on the bodywork side of things, but the mechanics yeah—I'd be more than willing to have a go. I have plenty of books and I'm a quick learner.

HS: That's awesome. I love your ad page and the whole thing that you're doing.
SS: I'm not sure if it'll take off or not but it was kind of a cool project when I was thinking about it. It was good fun putting it together. So, fingers crossed.

HS: What have you been listening to? Do you have a top 5 favorite albums?
SS: I'm loving the new Coldplay album at the moment. Listening to that a lot at work and in the car. Probably playing it to death and I'll be sick of it soon, but I'm enjoying it at the moment.

HS: (laughs)
SS: They played in Virginia Beach a couple of years back and it was a great concert. I'm also into the Hives at the moment. John Digweed and Transitions, it's something I listen to at work and it helps the time pass and it helps me kind of focus in front of the computer all day long. I like John Digweed.

HS: Is he Digweed of "Sasha and Digweed"?
SS: Yeah, it's the same guy—a British DJ. He has a series of albums called Transitions—I think there's 4 at the moment. They all kind of mix into one and it's easy to listen to in the background. I'm an 80s guy (laughs) so I've got a 12-inch 80s CD that I'm listening to in the car at the moment.

HS: (laughs)
SS: Takes me back.

HS: What is "work" to you—what is the 9 to 5?
SS: I am a web designer actually.

HS: I was gonna say, based your sites, your stuff is really great.
SS: I do a lot of front-end work for a print/logistics distribution company. We have quite a lot of big clients—American Heart Association, Mercedes Benz, Xerox—we do a lot of front-end promotional websites for these companies. The can go on and order their golf shirts, that kind of thing. The 9 to 5 is…I wouldn't say mundane but it can be repetitive. So it's nice to have some freedom and flexibility when I'm doing it in the evenings and on the weekends.

HS: I know exactly what you mean.
SS: I love it. I love the running as well—it gives me that time outside and thinking time, which is good.

HS: Yep. Except when you have a…have you ever had a code nightmare, when you dream in code all night…
SS: (laughs) Yeah, I've had a few of those.

HS: When you're traveling, how do you find running routes?
SS: I usually do some events; most of my travel is back to the UK where my family live, and I know most of the routes over there. When I go on vacation—we're actually going to the Cayman Islands for a long weekend in October—it'll be a nice break. We went in 2003 and I'm looking forward to going back. I'll just go out and run, I probably won't look anywhere in advance.

HS: Doing any scuba diving?
SS: We did the last time—went through the whole certification. Not sure if we'll have time, I think we're just going to relax this time. Take my books and my music and relax.

HS: You're a Garmin guy, gadget-wise, right?
SS: Yeah (laughs) until last weekend. I don't know if you saw my blog post but it died on Sunday. It hasn't come back. But I think it's self-inflicted. I did this race called Muddy Buddy…at the end of the race is this huge mud pit, and I think that's what did the Garmin in.

HS: (laughs)
SS: And I was debating before the race whether to wear it or not, and I thought it would be cool to have the Garmin track of the race…I'm kind of wishing I didn't now…

HS: What's the single best piece of advice you can give to beginners?
SS: Have fun and run for yourself. Don't run for anyone else, just have fun and enjoy it. There's plenty of time to get serious about it in the future, but just enjoy it and use it as a healthy tool.

HS: I think the more they have fun with it and just enjoy it, the more time there *will* be in the future, instead of spending time injured or turned off to it.
SS: Right. My wife had never run before she met me, and I kind of inspired her, so she started off with a mile, then a mile and a half, and she's done numerous marathons and we did an ironman triathlon together. Start off slow and just enjoy it.

HS: So we know about your Hundred Push-up Challenge and we know about your blogs and we know about your quest for the Volkswagon Bus; any other special projects you're working on?
SS: I'm training for the Richmond Marathon in November, I started that about 3 or 4 weeks ago. I'm not getting any younger—I'll be 42 next month—and I'm hoping to PR in the marathon, so… fingers crossed. Lots of hard work ahead of me.

HS: Well, happy future birthday.
SS: It's the 18th of August, which is the same day Dean Karnazes book comes out, so…

HS: …It's like a birthday present to you! Anything else?
SS: I've got a fantastic family that really support me in everything I do. I can't say enough good things about them.

HS: Thank you very much for posting about Hella Sound on your site, and have a great week!
SS: Thanks! Take care.

Races

• Boston Marathon 2000 time of 3:05:00
• Ironman Lake Placid 2004 time of 12:19:00
• Charlotte Marathon 2006 time of 2:51:00 (PR)
• Upcoming: Richmond Marathon in November 2008, looking to run 11th consecutive sub-3:00 marathon

Contact Information

If you are interested in contacting Steve you may contact him via the following:

• URLs:
  • Cymru66
  • onehundredpushups
  • Run Bulldog Run
  • I Want a Volkswagon Bus
• Twitter: @britishbulldog
• StumbleUpon: cymrusteve

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