Something good happened, but I am not sure what

Less than a month ago I had posted that Missionary Talks had its 4000th download/listen. That was an increase of 1000 from the previous 2 weeks. Since I did not want to seem too excited about it, when I hit 5000 downloads, I did not shout it from the rooftops. Well, yesterday we went over 7000! That is just under 1000 per week for the last 4 weeks.

All of this was helped by something strange that happened this weekend. I am still a bit baffled about what caused it. I assume some big podcast played my promo or said something about me. But I have not heard anything from them to know who or what happened.

My normal daily downloads have settled into a nice 80 per day. That is after the spike it took a few weeks back to 100 per day because someone promoted my show. I was swimming along at 80 a day and am very pleased with that. Then Saturday hit. I got 324 downloads that day! That was quite exciting to see to say the least. But, it was nothing in comparison to Sunday…859!

Monday was back to normal as has been the rest of this week.

I was a bit skeptical thinking that it must just be some search engine that is cataloging my show. But it would mean about 50 downloaders taking every show to make that number happen. I don’t think it was a robot doing it. It must have been real people (though bots could account for some of it). Then today I got nice confirmation of that. I uploaded my new show this morning and already have more downloads through the RSS feed than I normally have had for any show its first week in the feed. That makes me think that I have picked up a boatload of subscribers through the event this weekend. Whatever it was.

Anyway, we are now over 7200 downloads and growing. That is just exciting to me. Since I am thrilled to get my content out there for people to hear.

If you have not heard Missionary Talks, it is nothing like the podcast here. The My Thought Spot podcast is all about me being me. Also, it honestly is a thinly veiled attempt to promote Missionary Talks. Whether people listen to MTS (My Thought Spot) is not that important to me. I am doing it for fun. But, Missionary Talks is where I am putting out content that I think can be a great help to people and promote my calling.

GO MISSIONARY TALKS!

If anyone knows why I might have gotten such a big boost this weekend, please let me know. I am curious.

Missionary Talks 24: Sherry Rovirosa

This interview with Sherry Rovirosa is a little late in coming in that I missed the last 2 Mondays with a new interview. I had hoped to have it up this last Monday, but we did not get a chance to sit down and talk until Tuesday morning. Because I knew she was packing up the family right now to move to the field, we really focused on what kinds of things are an issue for her at this time. Particularly as a mother. It was very insightful and I think can be helpful to others who will be packing up to head to the mission field in the future.

We recorded this in the living room with cars going by outside plus my 2 kids playing and banging around. I was able to edit most of the extraneous noise out, but not all of it. The sound quality starts off a bit rough, but then settles down afterwards. That is typical of my interviews though.

Enjoy!

First six miles on the new shoes

Yesterday I ran my 5K loop. It was a pretty good pace for someone who oNew Balance 857verdid his long run on Saturday. The shoes were very comfortable.

They felt light. The Nikes I had been running in for the past 460 miles have always felt heavy. I compared them with my old shoes and they felt about the same just by feel. But when wearing them, they always felt heavy. I think I now know why. These New Balance 857s are very wide. I bought 11.5 EEEE. They were actually wide enough for my feet. And, they feel light. Again, I compared them to my Nikes and they feel about the same in my hands. So it must just be that because they are not tight across the toes, they feel lighter.

They also felt a bit rigid from heel to toe. They are a stability shoe. I presume that this is the cause of the stiff (ish) feeling to them. It seems that they are keeping my feet from rolling to the inside of my foot as I pass through my step from heel (or mid-foot) to toe. I assume that is a good thing.

Both of these aspects were noticeable enough that I felt them and were surprised by them again this morning as I ran my next 3 miles in them.

I plan another short run tomorrow in them. I will take Thursday off. They Friday I will do a 6+ mile run in them. That should be enough information for me to know how I like them. I doubt I will be sending them back though. My friend that brought them down is leaving Saturday morning. So the possibility of exchanging them for any reason leaves with him.

My Thought Spot 06: Talking on the Run

Here is a fun episode for you. I did a full blown run cast. The only part of this done in the studio was the editing. If there are horrible mistakes in it, I blame it on my poor memory while trying to run and talk at the same time. If it is spectacularly lucid and understandable, then I give my strong memory credit while talking on the run.

It was funny that I originally started out this episode saying that it would be a short show. I edited that part out since it ended up being my longest show to date I think.

Show Notes: