Keep Going (Michael Krajicek & Steve Sisson)

Ahhh, the iconic Lou Reed with singing the title to this week's Keep Going podcast. In this episode, Michael & I finally get back to a specific running training topic. We wax poetic, abound locquatious platitudes & reach toward the profound. All in search of the perfect long run. 
Thank your for listening to Keep Going & if you want this podcast to reach others like you, give us a rating or review wherever you drop into these conversations. Not that we really care that much...it's like Christmas comes every Thursday for us. 
Here's the episode we call, A Perfect Day: On the Long Run.
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

Shit is gettin weird around here, y'all. & fair warning: Steve gets really riled up on this one. & drops lots & lots of f-bombs.
It's helpful to remind you that this is just a conversation between friends. 
If you take this episode's title at face value, you may be a bit confused for the first 10-15 minutes where we touch into personal addictions & thoughts on sobriety. Eventually we transition into our more general discussion around magic & the desire we all have for altered states. Our foundation is that our current models of what is real & how the world is represented by our senses are not up to the task of what we desire around meaning & purpose. We talk about how language & communication are complicit in the way we experience the world, how are conditioning & mindsets can hold us captive if we do not examine them closely & ensure they are working for you.
We eventually get to a place where we recognize suffering is so helpful to our lived experience, especially as runners.
For anyone interested in egregores see THIS reddit thread.  
Join us on a journey where we explore a magical way of experiencing the world & our running, more specifically.this is some deep shit, friends, Godspeed. 

This episode is all about shoe porn. Michael returns from The Running Event & sparks a wide ranging discussion on the state of the shoe industry, foundations & fundamentals, how you can rejuvenate your running by using effort & more shoe porn. 

In this episode, we break down what is really happening when we gain fitness. I sense that there is a pretty big misunderstanding around the actual mechanisms, the levers that we pull to develop fitness. What transpires is an episode that explores the subtle & & not so subtle mindset shifts that are required to truly maximize the training & our thinking around the training, the recovery & all the other things that we consider when we consider fitness. 
Thank you for listening. 
Without further ado, we bring you the episode we call A Pebble on the Beach of Your Fitness. 
Godspeed my friends, godspeed. 

Buckle up, ladies & gentlemen, you're in for an amazing ride.
This week on the Keep Going podcast, we are joined by Paul Carrozza, the Godfather of Austin running. In our No Direction Home episode a few weeks ago (Episode 11, for reference) we mentioned how one of the three pillars holding up the foundations of Austin running was the mercurial & magical energy bottled up in RunTex, the original local running store that Paul & his wife Sheila owed & operated between 1988-2013. In its 25 year run, it fundamentally changed the entire city, not just the running scene. On any given day you might bump into governors - at least three Texas governors (Ann Richards, George W Bush & Rick Perry) were consistent drop ins, tech millionaires - Michael Dell trained with Carrozza & was a close friend, musical celebrities - Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker were New Balance junkies & spent time on the RunTex floor, but, in addition,  also all the rest of the wild & weird scene that made Austin such a vibrant & exciting place in the 90's & 00's. Those halcyon days are hinted at in this episode where we unpack where Paul started & how he made his way to Austin & the early days of RunTex where every employee was trained in the Trifecta of shoe sales, event production & coaching. Two of your hosts worked in this melting pot of creativity, inspiration & hard work & bring an insider's vibe to the conversation. Stories abound.
This is the first in a series of episodes we have planned with Paul as there is simply too much history to cover in an hour. So in honor of 1985, the year Paul & Shiela moved to Austin, as well the year Starship released their international hit smash, We Built This City, we bring to you the episode we call He Built This City: Paul Carrozza, the Godfather of Austin Running.
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

One of the core opportunities every runner needs to experience is getting embedded in a running community. Having others do the work along side you significantly nehances the running experience. In this episode we interview Ryan Yamba, president & social media coordinator for the Rose City Track Club based in Portland, Oregon. We discuss his personal running journey, the benefits of training in a group, the hazards & responsibilities of training in  group environments & more. In the final 30 minutes we really dig deeper into the meaningful experience of group running & how perhaps the cliche of the Church of the Long Run is actually a true statement.
Be sure to check out the Rose City Track Club's Instagram page for more of the flavor of their unique setup & vibe. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

At the risk of eliciting hundreds of eye rolls due to another podcast discussing the perils of technology, Keep Going is diving into the fray. We know it's a bit risky because we too are experiencing the palate fatigue around the talking heads warning us about AI, the singularity & advancing techno-annihilation. But fear not! We are not experts! We are 1/3rd rube, 1/3rd luddite & 1/3rd dabbler...I'll let you attempt to determine who is what. But we are decidedly NOT in preacher mode, though I do have to step off my soapbox at least once. SO what do we have in store for you? 
We're glad you asked.
Our conversation starts with an experiment in crafting a marathon plan using ChatGPT (glitchy) before Michael reveals a momentary existential crisis around relentless progress & the seeming imperative of accumulation in our modern world. John jumps in imploring us to beware of riches & rewards for - & I quote: "The big payout will never be big enough."
But fear not...we pivot before things get too heavy: I talk about how you can't unsee your mom naked & leaving piles of poop on the trail. Thankfully, Michael re-grounds the conversation around how we can use technology to help us become better runners & humans. 
Along the way, we use the Tao te Ching, magpies thieving shiny baubles & carts getting out in front of horses as metaphors for technology's best case uses. We finally end with a plea to find the others. 
Without further delay I present to you the episode we call Dark Necessity: The Paradox of Technology. 
Until next week, godspeed my friends, godspeed. 

There are so many varieties of training experience: the easy run, quality sessions, long runs, VO2 max, threshold, etc. The list is very long here, for sure  One very specific varietal is commonly called, The Grind. In this episode we steep deeply on this concept & the ways it can be considered. Is The Grind essential? Is it good? Is it dangerous? What kind of wisdom, of felt sense, are required to balancing The Grind with the very real risks of overtraining. We mention discernment as being critical in this regard. An analogy of the defensive backs in American football has always seemed appropriate to be. There is a saying, "bend but don't break". This cuts to the heart of what we discuss around the critical distinction between working hard & smart & risking overtraining & injury. We hope we've thrown a little light on the subject in this episode we call The Grind: Varieties of Training Experience. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

0:00 - Intro to the Origin Story episode 
2:10 - Banter
3:20 -Naming the podcast
15:28 - Steve's elevator pitch bio
21:13 -Michael 's elevator pitch bio
32:55 -John's elevator pitch bio
40:45 - Running will save your life

If you like what you hear, keep listening. 

This conversation goes a thousand different directions. If you need a little help in determining if you want to join us on this crazy ride based on the topics we cover, here are a few: flat earth theory, running monoculture, the mind as immune system, recovery, failure/mistakes are required, capitalism, suffering well, etc.

This is the podcast episode we reference in this episode: AI EXPERT ON THE DAWN OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 
Curt Jaimungle's Theories of Everything podcast is one of Steve's favorites. In this episode, he interviews William Hahn, associate professor of Mathematical Sciences & CEO of an AI AI 
William is a technologist and researcher, specializing in the intersection of artificial intelligence, programming languages, and the nature of consciousness.

We dive into a favorite topic of Steve's: listening to your body. Along the way we discuss the Japanese kōan, guitar pedals, old school running magazines, book collecting, etc. 
In this episode, Steve mentioned that he has an online lecture series created in 2020 that he was willing to offer. If you are interested, send Steve an email at sisson at telosrunning dot com. 
We hope y'all enjoy this one & godspeed!

This episode is released as The Running Event (TRE) - an annual trade conference for the running industry - is in full swing in our hometown of Austin, Texas. As a provocation, I asked Micheal the question "What's New In Running?" thinking we might just skate along the surface. Instead, Michael unloads in an open & honest reflection of the thoughts, insights & fears surrounding the business side of the business of running. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

What an awesome opportunity Michael & I had last week to interview the legendary Leo "The Lion Manzano.  This is a personal & wide-ranging discussion around his experiences in the sport & industry of distance running. One of Keep Going's missions is to explore local running culture & this episode does not disappoint on that level, but it is also so much more. Leo is incredibly candid, funny & insightful in detailing how a young Hispanic boy in Granite Shores/Marble Falls with limited options or opportunities ran himself into the American running legend he his today.
In this episode we cover a lot of ground but spend most of our time discussing Leo's local Central Texas roots & racing experiences. If you don't know who Leo Manzano is, you must be living under a rock. He won the first Olympic medal in the 1500m in the 2012 London Olympics in 44 years. As we discuss here, we argue that Leo - & his University of Texas teammates between 2004-2008 - fundamentally changed the face of American distance running.
Leo has two ventures we are excited to support. Check out his store at www.leomanzano.com. Leo is also announcing very soon his involvement in the new Border Line Track Club, founded by Paul Carrozza this spring. This group's unique feature - besides having both Paul & Crayton, his six-time All-American son, onboard - is to help athletes who find themselves in limbo in their collegiate career. There are many athletes who find themselves pushed out of the collegiate system. This group will allow these athletes to bridge back to the collegiate system, or bypass it altogether if that's the best choice. See this recent FloTrack article for more, We are very excited to see how this venture proceeds & look forward to supporting Leo & Paul in any way we can.
Please enjoy this extended & candid conversation with one of the all time greatest American middle distance runners, Leo "The Lion" Manzano. 

A correction in the audio: Leo was at UT from 2004-2008, not from 2008-2012. 

In this episode Steve critiques Michael's strength training regimen. We cover four domains that should be considered when spending any time working on developing strength.

Some links to resources discussed in this episode:
The two classic text's Steve references here are by Jay Dicharry are Anatomy for Runners & Running Rewired. 

This is an episode that has a lot really personal revelations. I felt maybe it was a little too personal, entering TMI zone from my perspective, but Michael's trip to Japan has become so important to his overall worldview & the direction he is beginning to be called to take Atreyu & his own creative journey. It would be remiss to let this episode sit on the cutting room floor, so consider it a Christmas gift from Michael & I to you in this holiday season. We recorded this right after his trip, in mid-November & much of the discussion is devoted to the unique beauty of Japanese running culture. We eventually move on to how travel, journeys & running in on & in country have changed our lives. 
We hope you enjoy unpacking this audio gift we call, On Japan & Journeys: Personal Reflections on Running Culture. 
We'll see you again in 2024. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

In the initial episodes of this podcast, your hosts talked coaching & being an athlete. In this one we explore the challenges Michael confronted as he started Atreyu & how those align with running & culture in general. Some highlights include: pain points, pain & anxiety yield really tasty fruit, life is a mysterious thing, reason is not alway best, stealing the culture, losses are more valuable than wins & many other things.
As John says at the end of this conversation:"The world is round, we'll get there."

The Women's 10K/5K History

The 10K wasn't even added into the WC or Olympics until 1988.  

Again, the domination by the East African countries, especially Ethiopia & Kenya has been total. 

I'll mention Ingrid Kristiansen, a Norwegian badass in the 80's who revolutionized the women's 5000/10,000 before moving up & getting steam-rolled in big races by the inimitable Joan Benoitin the inaugural women's Olympic Marathon (LA-1984). After this though, she utterly dominated the marathon between 1985-1989. Why is she not the GOAT? 4th in 1984; DNF in 1988. 

After this the East Africans come in & start dominating, same as with the men. 

Recent Results setting up 2024 Paris Olympics

10K/5K

2019 World Championships at Doha: VIDEO & SUMMARY

2020 Solo WR by Letesenbet Gidey at Valencia with the wavelights VIDEO 

2021 Olympics in Tokyo VIDEO not the full race unfortunately & SUMMARY

2022 World Championships in Eugene VIDEO & SUMMARY

2023 World Championships in Budapest VIDEO & SUMMARY

The women's 5K/10K players over the past 5 years.
Sifan Hassan (1500m to Marathon) the world's greatest all around talent, hand's down.. But she loves to play. & simply wants to enjoy her career. If winning happens (& don't get it twisted...she wants to WIN) so be it. If not, she honors the Gift. 

Letesenbet Gidey (WR - 10K/Half/fastest marathon debut ever) Perhaps the greatest overall potential. But she has a hard time holding off the kickers - except in Eugene. 

Hellen Obiri (NYC Marathon wins '22 & '23; 5K World Champion '17 & '19; 5K Olympic silver in Tokyo; 10K World Championship silver '22)
Gudaf Tsegay (5K WR - 14:00.21/10K World Champ '23; 5K WC '22; 1500m silver WC '22)

Faith Kipyegon: The greatest miler of all time AGOAT (male or female...the A stands for Absolute) moved up to the 5K last year at the WC & won an epic battle with Sifan. 

Americans: 

Kara Goucher was our last great 10K woman. We have some solid potential here but we don't have our Grant Fisher yet. 

Alicia Monson was stellar in the WC 10K battling to 5th but will struggle since the event is dominated by women who ha e equal or greater aerobic talent & sub 4 min 1500m wheels & gears on top of gears.

& Karrissa Schwitzer has been close but can't hold up under the final 800m pressure.
Elise Cranny could be in there but it seems she wants to move down to the  1500m/5K. 

We have seen women lead the world in willingness to move freely between the roads & the track, led by my favorite runner - male or female - right now, Letensebet Gidey. The most representative race to cover in the 2022 Eugene WC 10K Race. Watch the final 800m (30:54)Until the rash of WR 5K performances this past summer, Gidey held the WR in the 50K, 10K, 15K road (where, in the final 10K, she ran the fastest time ever recorded by a woman at the time - 29:12) & the Half Marathon. SHe's run two marathons now Valencia - 2:16 where she was 2nd in her debut - fastest debut ever - & 2nd at this fall's NYC Marathon. 

But Obiri is now the NYC/Boston x2 champ & looks to be the best strategic marathoner in the world. But what will happen in the 5K/10K this summer? 

I am most excited for these two races in Paris. 

--

We finally take a break from all the track & field talk & get back to talking training. Michael has been following the telos Running training model in preparation for his upcoming marathon in Detroit. In this episode we catch back up with his training progress, answer some questions & do what we are pretty "famous" for here at Keep Going, talking shit about running. We discuss mileage, how to execute in hot/humid conditions & adapting to these on race day, "sneaking in" last chance Boston qualifying races, strength training - in praise of the pistol squat!, curiosity & creativity in training, racing off feeling-based training & more. This one is a little of a grab-bag discussion be we cover a lot of ground &, as usual, have so much fun talking training. We hope you enjoy this one where we get back in the flow of the "typical" Keep Going content.
Please don't puke! 
Godspeed, friends, godspeed. 

Cross training is always a fruitful topic & one we haven't really explored together on this podcast. Michael makes his arguments for why cycling & swimming are really optimal cross training options for the serious runner. 
We also discuss the longterm potential of this podcast, take a listener's recommendations really seriously & ask any of our consistently listeners to chime in on requested topic suggestions. 
This one is for all our dedicated listeners. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

An episode where we talk about the foundations & fundamentals of footwear. 

For some, a nearly two hour conversation about the future of the sport of running - between three relative bozos - may be a bridge too far. For others of you, this will really help reveal significant changes we feel will revolutionize the sport. Recent NCAA legislation has slowly filtered into the real world of collegiate distance running. The first athlete to sign a significant NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) contract is Katelyn Tuohy of NC State, in signing with adidas, her school's shoe & apparel sponsor. This past weekend, Tuohy won both the 5K & 3K races at the NCAA Indoor Championships, as she continues to cement her legacy. 
In this episode, recorded in the first week of December, we provide a quick primer on the history the amateur vs professional arguments in distance running. In the 1970's, the legacies of Steve Prefontaine, Frank Shorter & Bill Rodgers transitioned the sport by ushering in a new era of professionalism. But the opportunity to make a living from sport has always been thwarted by the NCAA, where every athlete has been unpaid employee of shoe companies, television networks & athletic directors that truly own sports in America. This "stuckness" as I term it, has traditionally limited athletes - especially distance runners - opportunities to benefit from their success on the track. The new legislation - we argue - will be a huge opportunity for athletes to turn the tables.  
Listen in as we delve deep into this topic & its role in social media, the attention economy, sponsorships & how we can expect the sport to change. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. But we are seeing seismic changes in the world of sponsorships & marketing - positive & negative- & how it impacts us all. 
Somewhere along the way we begin to focus on Atreyu & its marketing challenges & The Story of the Wasp. We delve into our favorite topics: "Steal the culture."; narratives & stories; style & soul; coming home. It's all here in this one, folks. 

In this episode we discuss the roots of being local. In Austin, we have a local business support rallying cry that has become the de facto Austin vibe: Keep Austin Weird. We spend a lot of time wrestling with the concept of being local in a global running culture. This is our 50th episode & while we don't really celebrate the milestone in any concrete way, we definitely hit our favorite themes here.
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed.
 
Some links around what we discuss in this episode:
Comedor Running Club in Austin
Atreyu Run Club is Michael's crew in Austin.
Episode 25 where Paul Carrozza challenges us to invest in local events.

We've decided to jettison the intro & drop the needle right into the deep track. Let us know if you miss it...I certaily won't miss doing it!

We announce a new series we are calling FUNdaMENTALS, where we break down a specific topic that we hold as fundamental or foundational for all runners, regardless of your pace or race (or lack there of). These will be shorter episodes & we'll be weaving these in every other episode. We hope that these are helpful to runners of all levels who want to improve their running over the long term. 
This week we cover the importance of the easy run. 
What is an easy run?

• The easy run is where all running begins. It is where all training begins.
• Conversational 
• Different for beginners & advanced runners?
• The easy run makes you fitter, not slower. 
• Can you run too easy, too long? No. 
• What happens when we want our easy run to be faster? Don't. 
• Now that marathon training sessions tend to be longer, recovery easy runs become more important. 
• Doubling easy days.
• Why the 10% Rule is bullshit. Consider using the Bump & Hold method. 
• Nose Breathing for the win. 
• Our take on Phil Maffetone's method. 
• The Running Rogue podcast episode (Episode #97 - The Maffetone Method-Oct 2018) referenced by Steve. Evidently there was another episode cut in 2020 (Episode #178 - Maffetone Method REDUX - April 2020). We have not listened to this second episode & have no idea what they say there. 
• Why neuromuscular work is critical. It's essential that biomechanics & speed be considered with the MM. 
• "What you don't use, you lose." 
• James Nestor's Breath
• "Easy is as easy does."
• Why Steve & John are pro-effort based training. 

• Jane's Addiction "Ain't No Right" - Ain't no wrong now, ain't no right.
• sobriety
• polarity 
• karma
• tantra
• meditation
• Kanye West's INTERVIEW with Lex Friedman (https://youtu.be/4AWLcxTGZPA)
• Kanye's song Ghost Town (https://open.spotify.com/track/7vgTNTaEz3CsBZ1N4YQalM?si=2f77449981d34795)
• waves & bars
• &
• accounting/cash flow
• multiple lifetimes/reincarnation
• Nagarjuna 
• pain is the ultimate motivator

This is a special episode discussing/analyzing the first half of the Olympic Trials this past week in Eugene.

The Women's 800m Final Video

The Women's 5000m Final Video

The Men's 1500m Final

The Men's 10,000m Final

In this special edition of Keep Going, Michael & Steve interview Darian Allberry, Head of User Experience or "Product Translator" at Coros. They discuss smartwatches, GPS & data & their uses in our training experience. 

Hello. Welcome back to another edition of the Keep Going podcast. In this episode we dive into what we have craft-fully termed the Four Systems of the Apocalypse.  The four horseman are: 

1. The Musculoskeletal System: The tendons, ligaments & bones; how they act, react function & coordinate
2. The Cardiovascular System: The heart & lungs & the role they play in getting oxygen & blood to where they need to be
3. The Metabolic System: aka energy systems, or how the body is fired & fueled for endurance
4. The Nervous System: The brain, spinal column, peripheral nerves or "The Mind".

John & I give a rough breakdown of each system, what it's doing & why it's important. 
I have to say, this was a tough episode to prep for & execute. There is so much to cover & we thought we'd be able to do it 30-45 minutes...boy howdy were we wrong. What you have here should be considered a primer, not a textbook. & we really try to target the functionality, the practical, real-life ways these systems impact the act & art of running. 
So I'll cut to the chase. Please enjoy this second episode in The Systems series we call The Four Systems of the Apocalypse. We hope you enjoy. 
Godspeed my friends, godspeed. 

A little musical prelude where we talk about Dan Reeder, Ted Lucas & Charles Bukowski before we wander back into the AI discourse on our way to what beauty & art mean in our current crazy world. Steve asks Michael about these damn tariffs & we all get a great education on the struggles & strategies around running a small business

For more on this please don't miss Michael's heartful & revealing Tariff Talk on his YouTube channel.  This discussion was recorded on April 3rd & Michael's talk was released a week after this episode. At the time of this episode's release, there were 3.3K views & 182 comments on the video: that's a good bit of discussion around a critical issue for all of the running shoe industry. Consider this discussion as an early iteration on Michael's thinking around the challenges these tariffs will create. 
We hope you enjoy 

 "One good thing about music, when it hits you you feel no pain."
- Bob Marley & The Wailers from Trenchtown Rock

Has a truer statement ever been uttered?!? When we consider the source, one of the lions of 20th century music who expanded the musical palettes of millions of people around the globe, we have it on excellent authority. In this episode of the Keep Going podcast, we return to one of our common passions, "The Album". Your three hosts all are deeply enamored & passionately enthused about the artistic artifacts of a golden era where each song is written, recorded, produced & positioned within a larger ecosystem of other songs, all working in concert to deliver the listener an experience. Depending on the artist, the experience will be different & this is expected, hoped for - perhaps even demanded. We lament the continuing trend away from The Album (with a capital "A") but remain optimistic about music because, well, "when it hits you"...
In a spur of the moment decision, only a day before we had scheduled this recording, we pivoted away from a running topic & back to music. There was a sense that we might begin to lose the music thread if we didn't return to it. You see, we have two new series's planned for the coming weeks & that worry was beginning to feel very real. So we decided to consider one album each, with the criteria being it must bring all the feels & have had a big impact on our life. We all listened to each other's selection so we would have an appreciation of the love the others brought to their choice. The conversation is framed as a love letter to one transformational album in our lives. With less that 24 hours notice, we examine, explicate & experience three albums we consider classic: Beck's 2002 album Sea Change (Michael's selection), Radiohead's 2007 album In Rainbows (Steve's selection) & Janis Joplin's 1973 release Greatest Hits (John's selection). 
One note: The attempted addition of songs from the albums did not go as planned. As producer, I left the songs in because removing them seemed to disrupt the flow within the greater context of the whole conversation. So please excuse the lack of engineering acumen. If we attempt musical examples again, we'll have our shit together. 
So with that noted please enjoy our conversation, in an episode we call When It Hits You: Three Love Letters. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

Appreciation of the radio, early Genesis & Keep Going Radio kick this episode off but our main topic is on the importance of racing various race distances for all runners. We cover how training for & racing different race distances is incredibly beneficial for all runners. We hope you enjoy this one...
Godspeed, friends, godspeed. 

This bonus episode has sound quality issues & we did not want it to be the initial episode & turn off folks who expect better production values. But the content is good & the vibe excellent so we decided to release it as a bonus episode. This conversation was the exploratory first take at what we now know this podcast could be. We go anywhere & everywhere. Enjoy!

We have all experienced the existential dread around the 48 hours prior to a command performance: bubble-guts, lack of ability to focus or relax, the feeling that wish the race would not happen or there would be a cancellation so you don't have to go through the actual suffering you know is going to be served. In this episode, Michael & I explore this space in some details. We get meta & highly practical. Typical of how we've been rolling in these last few episodes.
Because it may be of interest, since I mention my recent episode of Running on Purpose, where I provide  what I hope is a helpful road map for skillfully operating- in training & racing - with the contents of your body, mind & soul. you can find links to the episode & worksheet below.
So please enjoy the episode we are calling Some Thoughts on Mental Training.
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed.

THE MISSION PROTOCOL
THE MISSION PROTOCOL DOCUMENT

Last time around we covered the essentials of a quality session. This time around we attempt to cover what to consider when starting a training cycle. Jury is out on whether we succeed or not. What we most certainly do is get our rant on. Steve pops off all over the goddamn place. Trigger warnings for vegans, overreachers, those who are full of shit & many others. This is definitely a wide open conversation heavy on Steve's "strong opinions".
Godspeed, friends, godspeed. 

In our continuing series on the FUNdaMENTALS of the sport of running, we wrestle with one of the bears every marathoner is required to attempt to tame. While food, nutrition & fueling will alway be loaded topics, we try to dig deeper: Is there a standard protocol? Or is it simply trial & error? There are those who run nutrition free & others who engineer a very specific & well-oiled plan of attack for maximizing the benefits of in-race nutrition. In this episode we unpack the challenges & landmines associated with fueling in race &, in the end, tend to agree that while fueling is important, it really is idiosyncratic. 
We remind you that this podcast is a conversation & not a primer or final statement on the subject of fueling in a race. We aren't nutritionists, doctors or authorities. We simply have lots of experience & these experiences have informed our ideas around the topic. 
We bring you the episode we call To Fuel or Not To Fuel? Is That Really A Question?!?!? 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

A mistake many runners make at some point in their running career is breaking the rule above. This episode covers the dangers of ramping up mileage while in the specific phase of a training plan. Steve describes the phases that he uses in any training program: Base, Foundations, Specific & Taper. We also discuss what the right mileage is for marathoners, what pace should our easy runs be & can they be too slow, & what about doing doubles? & much more great training intel in this episode. We hope you enjoy & godspeed. 

After expound at length of the role of an athlete in episode 2 of this podcast, Michael, John & Steve get deep in the weeds on the role of an athlete. We discuss types of athletes, sobriety, training as learnin not winning, the responsibilities & expectations coaches have of athletes, goal setting & much more. 

This episode ends up being a continuation of last week's discussion around the important aspects any runner should be considering when starting a training plan. We covered so much ground last week but it felt to us that there were still things we needed to address. 
Every runner who embarks on a training journey desires transformation. Ultimately, every runner who sets a goal time for a race wants to be somewhere different from where they find themselves in the moment. They are desiring transformation. & because they are working extremely hard for this change, there is a significant risk that if they don't hit the mark, there will be significant disappointment. 
So the training process is very serious business. What do we need to be considering in order to be ready for the transformation we desire. Listen along as we unpack this more deeply. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

In this episode, your intrepid hosts try something new. We didn't feel like we had enough of a robust topic to fill our usual 60-75 minute conversational window, so we decided to cobble something together & see if it adheres. Likely it doesn't but each of these topics felt like they needed to be aired, so here we are airing them out. 
In the first third of the episode, we discuss my favorite album of all time - Talk Talk's Laughingstock. Their final album, released in 1991 which is - in my opinion - as close to a perfect ablum as can be found. I was confident Michael would really enjoy it but it took hims a while to get around to putting the headphones on & giving it a spin...or stream...or whatever. 
In the second third we discuss Michael's recent triathlon, a 70.3 Half Iron in Waco, Texas. Since we've peppered many of our recent epsiodes with tidbits from Michael's training, we felt it timely & instructive to do a little post-mortem. 
& finally, we took a listener's recent comment to me that they'd like a little more tangible training & racing tactics from the podcast. So we end up discussing whether or not we should give the people what they want. 
If there is something you want, drop us a line. Send an email to me at sisson at telosrunning dot com or, if you like this shit, give us a rating or review wherever you get your podcast consumables. We hope this episode finds you healthy, happy & hale. & please, god speed, my friends, godspeed. 

Halfway through the Olympic Games, Michael continues to reflect on his track & field education. We reflect on our experiences as fans during the amazing Paris Olympics.  This episode was recorded on August 8th, about halfway through the Olympics T&F events. We know we are risking a little overkill for some of you who prefer our discussions around running culture & training more than this experiment in building a track & field fan. But we know there are some of you who are loving this shit. Don't worry. We'll get back to regular Keep Going content in the coming episodes. 

Of of our heroes is the late, great Townes van Zandt & this episode is named after one of his great albums. In this episode we loop back to the ideas of running as Practice & running as Pursuit that we unpacked many months ago. 

In this episode we introduce a series in which we endeavor to educate & inspire Michael to become a track & field fan as we approach the 2024 Paris Olympics. As the series unfolds, we'll go through each of the distance/middle distance events & unpack the event, its history & attempt to set the stage for whatever transpires this spring & summer. It is an incredible time to be a track fan. Each event now has an unprecedented about to drama, really compelling storylines & rivalries & we are seeing an absolute renaissance in the sport, & especially in the middle & ling distances as America is finally competitve & the hegemony of the East & North Africans is beginning to be broken up. It is a very exciting time to be a fan. We hope you'll consider joing us on this journey we call Hoe To Become A Track Fan: An Introduction. Godspeed my friends, godspeed. 

We start with Steve's experience of the "Fuck You Beer" & move into much more important matters like Michael's discontinuing of Atreyu's iconic Base Model. We recorded this episode on December 12, 2024. It seems important to mention this at the outset of this episode. There is a lot of early chatter around bodily functions - yikes Steve - but it is all a part of what we appreciate about this podcast: conversation. 
There is a lot in this discussion around endings, getting older, dying & the Tibetan Book of the Dead. 
Par for the course over here in Austin, Texas. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

We have been dancing around the edges of capital P "purpose" in many of our discussions over the past year, but in this episode Michael & I dive in deeper. We consider if purpose should be considered as an ultimate aim or if we are in need of a  less grandiose & more useful conception. As usual we get into pretty deep waters. But you've come to expect that by now. 
So we hope you'll join us for a conversation we call Running & Purpose: Towards a Natural Style. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

Where we start with X - & weak sauce social media takes, move into Michael's pre-race thoughts around IRONMAN Texas on April 27th (no pressure, dude!) & finish with privilege of celebrating the human experience of training & racing.
Hot takes on Death, predictive processing, & the recent Kara Goucher/Rich Roll episode.
We hope you dig this one. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

In this episode of the Keep Going podcast, Michael & I discuss the psychology of running. 

It's been awhile but we're making it up to you with two episodes being released on back to back days. Unfortunately we hit a little bump in the road. A few weeks ago, John determined that he couldn't continue to be a part of the podcast. So Michael & I needed to regroup & decide the best way to approach this monumental loss. We considered not going forward with the podcast as we both recognize John a critical part of what makes the podcast work.  We continued to record each week in hopes it would allow a little time to see if John might only need a short reset & if he'd be okay to get back in the saddle after a few weeks break. But he's not coming back - at least not in the next month or two - so Michael & I decided to Keep Going.  We hope we've made the right decision. 
To make up for lost time & to honor John, we are releasing two conversations in two days. This episode is the first discussion Michael & I had post-John recorded in early July & the second one is an older conversation from January where we covered some of the same ground but in a very different way. I think they work well together & can be considered a diptych - a two-part artwork designed & connected in theme & style, yet retaining their own individual frame.  
We hope this honors John, while still allowing Michael & I a little room to roam. Hopefully you'll continue to find this podcast valuable & insightful. 
Just to be clear, John is okay. He just needs a break & we are hopeful he'll feel ready to jump back in a some point. His presence here is already sorely missed. 

Love & light are not all there is. While at some foundational metaphysical level, perhaps all is emptiness or bliss or any other altered state of consciousness. But in the day to day operations of being a human in this crazy, fucked up world at this "interesting time" in civilizational history, things are much more painful & messy & hard. How we wake up everyday pretending to be ready for the chaos that is awaiting us once we step out our doors of safety, is astounding to me. We talk about purpose or meaning or manifesting. But reality of the situation is that we are in nature & of nature & nature doesn't give a flying fuck about us. Our personal history & goals don't seem mean a goddamn thing to actual functioning of the universe. & there are hazards to being alive & aware & paying attention. Suffering, pain & risk are right here. Right in front of us. & if we are going reason & hope & try at this game of life, is to risk everything. We must wrestle with the angel of risk, just as Jacob wrestled with his angel in the Biblical story in Genesis (34:27). 
In this episode we get really real about risk: how most people avoid recognizing risk in their training & racing, how risk can effect our mental health & life purpose & how accepting risk & meeting it head are the cost of doing business when trying to operate in high performance situations. As we frequently do in these conversations, we lay out a blanket & sit down with risk. Along the way we get messy, ball the blanket up, tear at it gnash our teeth, bend over backwards as we approach the monsters hiding underneath it. We get hot & bothered in this one & I go on a few spontaneous rants. You've been warned. 
So join us in this exploration we call Wrestling with the Angel of Risk. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

All hail, Guided By Voices' Alien Lanes!

John's Top 3

• Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory
• Rage Against The Machine - Battle of Los Angeles
• Flaming Lips - Soft Bulletin

Honorable Mentions

• Liz Phair - Exile in Guysville
• Jeff Buckley - Grace

Michael's Top 3

• Foo Fighters - The Color & the Shape
• Weezer - Pinkerton
• Radiohead - The Bends

Honorable Mentions

Violent Femmes - Why Do Birds Sing
Bad Religion - All Ages
Dinosaur Jr - Where You Been?

Steve's Top 3

• PJ Harvey - Rid of Me/To Bring You My Love
• Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
• Tom Petty - Wildflowers

Honorable Mentions
Sparklehorse - Good Morning Spider
Tortoise - TnT
Being There - Wilco

What started in an insightful conversation at the dinner table between Michael & his wife, Lena, inspires this dive into the nature of the meaning of running & life & a challenge is issued. This episode is a conversation based on an idea that was burning a hole in Michael's mind. We'd already had a topic planned but we needed to pivot & Michael had the courage to unpack this concept with me & - as it turns out - all of you. We have not checked in on the journey Atreyu is on in awhile & here entrepreneurship acts as an initial spark but this goes deeper into what might be the ultimate aim of running, of business & of self.
Of course, those of you who know, know that when one's existential dread stirs up the "big questions", you are in deep water & you drowning feels inevitable. No one can help, nor should they...we all know that trying to save a drowning person by swimming out to their aid is very dangerous. &, if we're being honest, most of really don't want anyone else there with us anyway. In this scenario, even the optimists among us will tend to see the glass significantly less than half full. 
By the time this conversation ensued, Michael had pushed off the bottom of the deep end & had surfaced with a concept to explore: curiosity. He unpacked this in his recent Vlog for Atreyu & here we go deeper & share our perspectives on how curiosity underlies all learning, all growth & all development. & we tie in running & life as sitting on the bedrock of this curiosity.
Open awareness, dreams, insight meditation, yoga, mindfulness, bodyfulness, simplicity, human potential, zen, enlightenment & many other concepts pop up in this conversation. 
Also, we issue a challenge designed around an experiment Michael is calling 10,000 Runs. Who among you are interested in stealing the culture? Email me at sisson@telosrunning.com with your thoughts. 
Pull up a chair, sit down at our table & join us as we dig deep in this episode that we call, 10,000 Runs: Curiosity as Ultimate Aim. 
Godspeed, friends, godspeed. 

What is the felt-sense? How important is it for runners to be conversant & skilled in the varieties of the feeling states we encounter in our running practice & pursuit? While this episode only scratches the surface on this topic, it does try to grapple with what we feel is a critically overlooked aspect of training & racing for runners across a variety of domains, from footwear to easy running to racing paces & effort. 
We hope you enjoy this episode. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

This episode is a first for us, we take a listener question about a specific training method - The Maffetone Method - & discuss Michael's experience training with the method for between 12-24 months & our views on the pluses & minuses of it. This is a next episode in our The System series. Let us know what your thoughts are & what we should cover next in this series. You can reach us at sisson at telosrunning dot com. We hope to hear from you. 
So pull up a chair, sit down & join us around the table as for this conversation we're calling The Systems 04: Maffetone & the Maximum Aerobic Function. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 
 

The struggle is real, my friends, the struggle is real. While it's understood that we can't be on all the time, as creative folk, we feel the pressure to bring the heat every week. This week's episode is an attempt to salvage an entire day's recording where we'd flopped around like fish in the bottom of a leaky boat. Of course, the reason for the flopping was hubris...We'd gotten pretty confident that we could pull off any conversational trick with flying colors, so we decided we'd freestyle on this morning. Good luck with that. After an hour of attempting to weave discursive threads into some kind of tapestry, we'd simply run out of conversational road. Hooked, cooked, flopping around...heavy as lead.
Then Michael decided to dig in. What follows is a shorter episode where we try to pull a rabbit out of a hat by returning to one of my old saws: A Beautiful Race.
Here we discuss how running is a metaphor for existence & an art form to be practiced. Taking up the call to action Eliud Kipchoge issued about running a beautiful race. We improvise, we push & pull, we challenge each other, we circle up & get deadly serious about planning for the future while living in the present.
While I suspect we'll return to this concept for a deeper dive, this episode is really all about your hosts being very serious about honoring your time & attention & not putting out an hour of bullshit content. Let us know how we did.
I do reference another podcast that is not afraid to dig deeper & get beyond the physical hosted by Ryan WIllms' MEP Podcast. So there is a link here to that resource. Also, I wrote an essay on this topic last year for my short-lived RunGnosis project & there is a LINK HERE for that, as well. 
So with no further ado, I bring to you the episode we call The Art of Running: Grace & a Beautiful Race. 
Godspeed my friends, godspeed. 

The second in our series of episodes highlighting the iconic & inspiring "Godfather of Austin Running", Paul Carrozza. 

Please be patient in listening to this episode, friends. We take a little while to get rolling on our topic but we think its worth your time & listening investment.  ichael & Steve use the analogy of playing a musical instrument for how we might approach our body/mind experience in running. As Michael is learning how to bring his music theory & experience of musicianship to learning how to play the pedal steel. We take that & run with it, no pun intended. Steve ends with a short introduction of his developing theory of Four Intelligences. 
We end with a little outro music from Michael, for your listening experience. 
Godspeed, friends, godspeed. 

After the amazing results in London, the interwebs exploded again in allegations of doping. While we've danced around this topic a few times, in this episode we dive into the deep end. While we don't have any answers or novel suggestions, we do have opinions. But you know about opinions & assholes, right? It seems we'll really never get to the bottom of this topic but we hold that as fans it's important to focus on the Good, the True & the Beautiful. We refuse to be jaded & sarcastic about the sport. Sure, there are reasons to be skeptical but that skepticism frequently turns sour & infects public perception of the sport by focusing on the cheaters & not on the epic performers & performances. Even when there are performances that are untainted by actual doping bans, the well has been poisoned.
But why even fucking care? If one is always thinking the game is rigged, why even pay attention? This has never sufficiently been explained, in our minds. You are either in or out, we say. You can make yourself miserable & nihilistic, but we are not falling for that bullshit.
Instead, we will focus on the beauty of competition, of failures, of pain & suffering.  We honor the intent of runners across the globe to endeavor to test themselves against time & distance; against other men & women; Against the inevitability of death. This running journey is a journey of self-discovery & self-transcendence, not a wallowing in a morass of "getting real" or "being naive". Because if we are going to "get real" we will all realize that the whole sport is really entertainment. It's a game. But when the sport, the pursuit, becomes something more - something deeper & higher - it becomes a way of living, a practice. A practice for what, you ask? Being human. & as more & more signs are pointing to humanity's disregard the lessons of empires of the past, perhaps what we are really training for is collapse. Maybe our real pursuit is outrunning the destruction of the world. 
But it's not all doom & gloom in this episode we call Drugs, Beauty & the Apocalypse...there is a light at the end of this tunnel: follow beauty. 
Until next week my friends, godspeed.

A deep dive into training with a group & what training even is anyway. Is "Everything is Training" really true? What about when you aren't in a series training mode? How do you process not having a goal race staring right down your face? In this episode we cover a lot of ground but we stay committed to the topic & hope you enjoy our ponderings. Until next time, friends, godspeed!

In this episode we trace many of the mistakes that an athlete makes at the midpoint of their training for a big command performance. Ostensibly, it is about dialing your strategies in way before race day: pacing for your race, dialing a specific strategy, fine tuning nutrition, getting your shit straight NOW!  Don't make the mistake of waiting until your taper phase to be planning your work & working your plan. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

Get ready for some heat, folks. Please be advised that there are portions of this episode where I go off on obscenity laden tirades & passion fueled laments. Michael holds down the emotional fort to keep some semblance of balance & objectivity, but you'll have to determine if he succeeded. If he didn't, don't blame him - this is all on me. We are releasing this episode the day we recorded it, September 28th, because I make some bold predictions that I want to be held accountable for & because the hot takes are flying all around the sprot this week & I want to add my 2 cents. Our subject this week is the incredible performance of Tigst Assefa at this past weekend's Berlin Marathon. Berlin is reputed to be the fastest marathon in the world as it has hosted many world record performances with only London being close. Assefa - who's name I repeatedly mispronounce through this discussion - ran 2:11:53, a time that was simply jaw dropping, & this in a year where women's distance running has produced an unprecedented number of world records. But I won't go there in this intro because we cover it in depth the episode itself. What does follow is part angry rant, part impassioned plea, where I beg distance fans to stop considering every unprecedented performance in track & field with a cynical & pessimistic take that it must be drugs & doping. Sure, it might. But it also might not be. & if this & other performances are not the result of performance enhancing drugs, then we are endangering the relevance & beauty of the greatest era in distance running history. I think there could be an argument for this being the greatest era in all of human sporting history. Bold - perhaps ridiculous?!?!? - claim, sure. But what the hell...I'm on fire here anyway & what's a little more hyperbolic fuel an an already raging inferno. 
Strap in, folks, for the episodes we call, Drinking From A Poisoned Well: Doping as the Ruin of Running. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

In this episode of Keep Going, Michael & I roll without John but his spirit is certainly present. In the last episode, John & I introduced our concept of Four Systems & how nearly all training can be slotted into one of these categories. Michael & I decide to kick the tires on this concept by considering his current planning of his training through the lens of these four systems. As Michael shares, he wants to compete at Ironman Texas in The Woodlands on April 27, 2024 & make it a Beautiful Race. We introduced the Beautiful Race in Episode 21 (The Art of Running).  Here we look at what a longer approach to a training cycle might look like as Michael asks me how I would recommend he approach his pre-training block. What follows is a refreshing luxury for me: I get to spend the time unpacking how a two to three month pre-training phase might be approached. I think the content in this episode is incredibly useful...if rarely considered, to say nothing of actually being implemented. Those looking for a secret weapon to performance excellence will find here gems of wisdom that are often hidden underground. Join us in this episode we call A Very Good Place To Start, where we excavate these precious stones for your benefit. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

What makes a workout something other than just a run? In this training deep dive, Michael & Steve describe the architecture of a workout. The two categories we use are form & function - following the famous quote of Louis Sullivan: "Form ever follow function." 
The full quote is pretty cool, actually:

It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all things superhuman, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law.

-Louis Sullivan

In our discussion we break things down as such:

Form

• pace/effort
• distance/duration
• rest/recovery
• warm-up/cool-down

Function

• variation
• specificity
• one discrete whole
• purpose

We go pretty deep here. Enjoy & godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

In this episode of the Keep Going podcast, Michael & discuss some of the implications around a recent podcast episode discussing various aspects of GenX culture that inspired us. You can view this at Howl in the Wilderness' YouTube channel or search Erik Davis, Is Generation X Still Relevant? HITW 125, in your podcatcher of relevance.
We get started talking about the recent The Running Event in Austin & how that experience impacted Michael & Atreyu. We bow deeply to Anthony Bourdain & get really hot under the collar around the idea of selling out. Good luck hanging on to the twists & turns in this one. But stay with us...there is gold in them thar hills. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

In part two of our race series discussion around Michael's Detroit Marathon performance, we debrief his experience. Surprises ensue, respect is gained. Godspeed my friends, godspeed. As mentioned in the short intro, check out THIS REALLY COOL RACE VIDEO Michael made documenting his race experience for his Man on the Run YouTube channel. Very cool & inspiring. Like & subscribe, as they say. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

There are few legacy sessions with more legs than the Yasso 800s workout. In the fall of 2001, Amby Burfoot wrote an article in Runner's World about a session that the magazine's races services manager, Bart Yasso did repeatedly in preparation for a marathon. He'd been doing this session 3-4 times a cycle for over 15 years. It's simple as shit: 10 x 800m in your marathon goal time with tequal rest. So if you want to go sub 3, you do 10 x 800m in 3:00 w/ a 3 min rest. 
In this episode, we take this session to task. Or, more accurately, I do. I get a little spicy in this one so beware. I have some strong opinions about it. In Bart's defense, he didn't proselytize this session, Burfoot did. & he didn't do it as a predictor session, he did it as a progressive load session, very different animal. So perhaps my ire was misguided. But as I point out repeatedly, I am not banging on about Yasso, I am banging on about the way this session has been appropriated & infantilized. You be the judge.  
Regardless, we have a lot of fun with this one & we decided to rename the workout...or create an adapted version...I am not really sure. Last week I said "Stories Abound." This week, "Joker's Abound." At least I'm consistent. 
& speaking of consistency, two notes before we send you into the meat of this conversation: 
1.) This episode is a day late to be posted because I didn't get it scheduled correctly before I headed out to the Boston Marathon. What an amazing weekend. But more on that next week. 
2.) We added some bonus content. If you listen through to the end, there is a hidden track that actually began this conversation but was so far afield from the main thrust of the topic that we had to cut it. But at the last minute, I thought I should add it as a bonus. Let us know if you like the banter. 
So, in all it's raging glory, I present to you the episode we call Ted Lasso 800's. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

While this was entirely unintended, this episode feels like a part two of last week's discussion. This one leans into the struggles we both feel about this late capitalist, social media saturated attention economy as entrepreneurs & "experts" in our respective fields. What would happen if it all fell apart? Is mission enough? What is our expertise worth? We wrestles with these topics & many more in an attempt to stay optimistic & creative in a challenging market that seems to suck the soul from any entrepreneurial effort. 
We hope this frank & vulnerable conversation resonates with you. Godspeed, friends, godspeed. 

The conversations Michael & I have sometimes feel like therapy. There is the sense that we can work out whatever happens to be front & center in our personal & professional lives through talking it out every Thursday morning at his condo. That's pretty much what psychotherapy is designed to do. Holding ourselves accountable for the choices we make is radical responsibility: from waking up & getting out the door on those stormy mornings to battling the inner & outer demons that feel like they want to devour us where we sit. 
I mention the book Tough by Greg Everett in this episode & I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the mental side of training. In this book, Everett talks about Character, Capacity, Capability. There is a the fourth C I forgot when mentioning it in this discussion, which is Commitment.  Interestingly enough, commitment is action & practice. This sets us off on a deeper exploration of a concept I have been unpacking since the pandemic, when many of us lost our purpose because races were cancelled. What follows here is a conversation that gets pretty personal, especially for Michael. We wondered whether or not to release this episode because of its sensitive nature, its raw bloody revelation of the struggle we have in our day to day lives. What is authenticity? What is true to our core essential nature? & why does running sometimes feel like a slick sales job designed to sell us something. Michaels & I are businessmen. We are entrepreneurs operating in late Western capitalism, attempting to both provide for our families & to change the running culture. This conversation reveals just how hard that work can be. 
& we know we are not alone. We know you also feel this paradox of wanting the next new thing that will make you better, faster, sexier, cooler at your next race & knowing, with everything you hold dear, with every ounce of your godforsaken soul that running cannot be capitalized upon, that - at its essence - running is pure being. That is all. 
So if you resonate with this episode, let us know. Drop us a line. Give this podcast a rating or share how it makes you think & feel. Because the only way we steal this culture is when we all show up & practice our bliss. 

This episode is both an homage to Austin's unique & idiosyncratic running vibe & a call for listeners to explore their own local running haunts as power places. We try to set the stage for how the soul of a place - its flora & fauna, its land & waters, its roads & neighborhoods - can be tapped into for inspiration, gratitude & soulmaking. Wether we are traveling to another location for a change of pace or traveling for work or going epic with a running pilgrimage, perhaps the best way to get to know a place in a deep & meaningful way - & drink in its physical culture - is to run its roads & trails & footpaths. 

But it's not just a place's physical attributes...we can also learn from its weather, it's winds, its smells, its energy, its vibes. The experience of running at the ocean is vastly different from running along a river in the mountains. The nature of the experience is unique & tapping into this experience greatly enhances our run.
We can tap into the a place's history of running - Boston & Eugene are not special because of their weather or landscape, it's because of the power of those who have raced on those roads & at Hayward Field.

We don't think it is too much to say that one's relationship to reality is mediated by a sense of place.

We each share a sampling of our favorite running magical haunts in Austin & are very curious about your locals. Send us an email with your favorites & we'll share them on an upcoming episode. You can reach us at sisson at telosrunning dot com to share your's. 

We hope you enjoy this magical mystery tour of Austin & recognize the power spots in your life. So we hope you enjoy this episode we've titled A Magical Sense of Place.

Godspeed, my friends, godspeed.

Michael's Haunts

• Butler Trail's 10 miles of crushed granite trail around Town Lake
• the Central Texas Hill Country
• the 410 Speed Shop 
• Exposition Blvd/Pease Park/Lamar loop

Steve's Haunts 

• a secret spring on the Barton Creek Greenbelt
• the Hyde Park neighborhood
• Scenic Hill

Alrighty. So I am going to keep this intro very short & sweet. What we have on tap for you this week is a lengthy introduction into what we think will be a series of episodes on what makes training Training. Here we explicate the who, what, where, when & why - as we see it - of training. Next week, John & I will be recording without Michael as he'll be traipsing across the Italian peninsula on his honeymoon. We plan on breaking down the various systems that we train when we train. Hopefully this resonates with you as a listener because its gonna be a two-week deep dive. So here's the episode we've named Training's 5 W's, the first in a series we are calling The Systems. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

A conversation exploring beauty & how it plays into our experiences of running. 

This is the second part of a diptych, a two-part artwork designed & connected in theme & style, yet retaining their own individual frame.  The first part, released yesterday was recorded in early July after John decided he needed to take a break from the podcast. This second part was recorded in mid-January & include the original three "expeditionaries". Both episodes are themed around suffering. We wanted to honor John's extraordinary style & insights even as we continue to carry the torch of Keep Going. We hope we are making the right decision. John is already sorely missed. 

In this episode Steve takes a deep dive into the 10,000m track event in our series on trying to make Michael into a track & field fan in anticipation of the 2024 Olympics in Paris. For the notes Steve created to help introduce Michael to the event, please see below.
Please note that we while we didn't go into the women's 10K nearly enough, we'll continue to bring out the important storylines over the coming months to ensure Michael has as much intel on the women's events as the men's. 

The 10,000m Episode Notes

• Relevance. It's more likely that you have experience running/racing the 10K than the 800m. Also, you understand the energy needs for this event more than the 800m. 
• The TEN. One of the biggest 10Ks of the year was run this weekend. Sound Running put on the their yearly 10K on So Cal in perfect conditions where athletes were trying to get their Olympic standards. This provides an excellent opportunity for you to watch the race before we talk & have it top of mind.
  Here is a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdnO--7pbP4
  You won't know many/any? of the names before watching this video & I won't be surprised if you want to fast forward to the final 5 min or so. If you do fast forward, I recommend you jump to 17 min (18:17 on the video). One argument for listening all the way through is you can get a chance to be exposed some of the lingo & energy. 
• How To Qualify for the Olympics. This will give us a chance to go over the rather confusing & complicated process for getting on the starting line of the 10K in Paris. 
• Another important 10K happened over the weekend in Spain where two of the favorites for the 10K gold medal ran on the roads. You can see that HERE of you are interested. 

Main Discussion Points

• We want to talk distance. How the event feels when racing. 
• We want to talk surface. Track (25 laps of the 400m track) vs Cross Country vs Road. 
• I want to talk about technology & how wavelight & new "super" spike/shoe tech has revolutionized the distance. Also, here is an interesting review of the top 6 models as of summer 2023.
• I want to talk a quick overview of the history of the event: Flying Finns, Emil Zatopek & then the African Dominance of the past 30 years. See below for a bit more on that. 
• Set Up for the Olympic 10K final. 
• Is the 10K redundant?

Quick History
The Men

• The Flying Finns: Paavo Nurmi & the dominance of Finland in the first 
• Emil Zatopek, of Czechoslovakia 
• East/North African Dominance 

At the World Championships, between 1991-2023, out of 51 potential medals, 47 were won by East or North Africans. The other four were won by Mo Farah of Great Britain, who was born & raised in Somalia, in East Africa. . 

At the Olympics, between 1988-2020, out of 21 potential medals East/North Africans won 17 of 21. 2 of these were Mo Farah. The other two were an Italian in 1988 (EPO era) & Galen Rupp in 2012. 

There have been a few eras in the 10K since the 70's.

• The Lasse Viren era (Prefontaine & Frank Shorter competed in this era).
• The Haile Gebraselassie/Paul Tergat era.
• The Kenenisa Bekele era.
• The Mo Farah era.
• & the Joshua Cheptegai era we are in currently. 

The Women

Women did not begin competing in the 10K until the late 80's at the World Championships (1987) & 1988 Olympics. 

Similar story to the men in the dominance of East/North Africans in the event. 

Recent Results & Race Videos setting up 2024 Paris Olympics

2019 World Championships at Doha: VIDEO & SUMMARY

2020 Solo WR by Joshua Cheptegai at Valencia with the wavelights VIDEO & SUMMARY

2021 Olympics in Tokyo VIDEO & SUMMARY

2022 World Championships in Eugene VIDEO OF FINAL 1K & SUMMARY

2023 World Championships in Budapest SHORTER VIDEO & SUMMARY

The TEN (VIDEO) was raced this weekend & 8 runners got the Olympic Standard. 

& that's just the men. 

It was in the fall of 1993, that I was introduced to the concept of a "magic bullet". Tom Waits had recorded his album, The Black Rider which was based on a play co-written by William S Burroughs. Like any good Gen-X boy, I was utterly enthralled by the Beats in general but Burroughs in particular. The juxtapositions of fatalism & magical thinking, heroin-chic & creative genius were compelling but ultimately, his willingness to make beauty from chaos was foundational to my budding worldview. Enter the magic bullet. In Burroughs hands, a magic bullet is profoundly purposeful but the underlying telos is not controlled by the one who fires the bullet. It is much more mysterious than that...& potentially miraculous or tragic. Everything comes down to your intention to transform.

It is in this vein, that we bring forward nine magic bullets. These are simple, effective means to transform one's running. Whether you are in the doldrums, looking for a change, or grasping at what are now termed "hacks" to quickly help you refocus your training & racing, these magic bullets can be very effective.

But keep in mind that any hack is like a magic bullet: it has its own purpose that you can attempt to harry to your target through aim & sighting or random gunslinging. But ultimately, you'll be required to accept that you must change your life & transform if you want the magic to work. & you'll have to accept the consequences.

Perhaps it needn't be so dramatic, but in my experience, everything costs something & you better be ready to pay the Devil when he comes to collect. So as you consider the nine changes that we suggest in this episode, be certain to fully weigh the decision to implement any one of these & bring the proper respect & commitment to see it all the way through. Lest the magic bullet determine its own trajectory & leave you bereft.
With that cautionary injunction, I present to you the second episode in our ongoing FUNdaMENTALS series we have titled, Nine Magic Bullets.

Godspeed, my friends, godspeed.

LINK
HUBERMAN LAB PODCAST SLEEP EPISODE

In this first official episode, John & Steve discuss coaching roles, styles & responsibilities. Michael pokes & prods them into revealing some of the secret sauce around what a coach is so he can relate it to running a business. 

Consider the first of a two part series on the Detroit Marathon 2024. Michael & Steve create a race strategy for Michael's Detroit Marathon run from scratch in this episode & in the one well release tomorrow, we'll debrief the race itself. 
Godspeed! 

This episode is in memoriam to my father, Thomas Edward Sisson, who passed from the finite game into the Infinite Game on September 12, 2023. Michael & I discuss mentors, living & dying, strange attractors & a beautiful life. 
Godspeed, Dad, godspeed.  

In this episode, Michael & I discuss how to add quality training into a base phase. We talk through a specific session that Michael jumped into a few weeks ago in the middle of this experimental base phase he is in the middle of. Along the way, we cover the three basics of training in the Telos model: effort, economy & efficiency. For those of you who have been missing the nuts & bolts of training discussion, this one is for you.  

At the end of the episode, I tease a new podcast I have planned that dives deeper into the practical training weeds. I state that this would launch in early September, but that's been delayed with the passing of my father that we discussed last week. Coming soon to a podcast feed near, my friends. 
SO without an further delay, we bring you episode we call Loaded: Optimizing Training In a Base Phase. 
Godspeed, listeners, godspeed. 

Coming at you with back to back episodes this week...a little 2 fer 1 action.  We have a little back log in the Keep Going pipeline & decided to try to get caught up. We are doing this because we've started recoding video for the podcast & are now on YouTube, check out the link below or search Atreyu Running over there & you'll find us gesticulating & oscillating wildly...just jamming multiple Smiths references in one episode. If we didn't these out, they'd end up all soft & moldy in my hard drive & nobody wants that. So here we go. I expect we'll toss another two episodes at you next week, as well. We'll see.
In this one, we talk about how to choose a race. We talk timing, seasons & race distances & I throw out three potentially useful categories of races that might help you in considering & selecting your races in the upcoming months. So without further ado, we bring you the episode we call Locals, Classics & Epics: How To Select A Race.
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed.
Atreyu Running's YouTube channel, where we've started posting the video accompaniment to these audio recordings. 

Please join us in a discursive, yet oddly flowing conversation exploring the paradoxes around being an Artist.
 
For more on Michael's analogy of "a vending machine on Mars" see below, curated from the Atreyu Running's newsletter that you should be subscribed to: 

I have this philosophy about goal-setting: it’s about daring to transcend the logical confines of a reasonable outcome. For instance, if we aim to move from a 4 to a 7 on a 1–10 scale (any goal, any task), I find myself best served by aspiring toward a 15, only to land, serendipitously, on an 8 or a 9. Occasionally, I even achieve an 11, and have the opportunity to recalibrate my prior boundaries of excellence. Magic.

The audacity of the goal is something to revere and embrace. The storytelling boldness alone has the capacity to catapult us beyond the familiar, pushing us into uncharted territory: the “exploration zone.” It allows us to glide gracefully over the incremental steps required to achieve the goal. Yes, those small victories are vital, but shooting for the audacious 15 becomes the beacon that keeps us inspired and invigorated in the pursuit.

With that said, I am renewing my commitment to this challenge of the world's first vending machine in space. If humanity ever ascends to the point of running marathons in space, I fervently hope Atreyu is the title sponsor of the race, outfitting you with marathon finisher metal worthy of the stars.

Wishing you boundless success in your own endeavors as you reach for the seemingly unattainable. Dream big, and always remember: Huge goals are a mosaic of tiny victories, thoughtfully strung together in an extraordinary way.

_michael

P.S. A shoe is just a shoe until you imbue it with meaning. I hope your Atreyus carry you on an adventure that’s nothing short of extraordinary.

We hope you enjoy this conversation. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

We live in a world where the old gods have seemingly been tamed by the one God, & for the last 100 years the twin lords of order - reason & science - have declared the one God dead. But those of us who run know there is something deep & mysterious about the marathon distance. It seems to be a strange attractor, pulling anyone remotely interested under its spell. & if there is an old god attached to the marathon, Boston would be its primal home. It may seem strange to talk of old gods attaching themselves to a city, but Boston has always had a very witchy past w/ Salem less than 20 miles away. Before you start thinking this episode is gonna head down an occult path, rest assured, it is more love & light than dark & twisted. 
Because as we dive into here, the Boston Marathon's 127 year history is deeply magical. Join us as we get vulnerable, tapping deeply into the myth & mythos of the world's most storied & special marathon. It is my pleasure to bring to you the episode we call That Old Boston Magic. 

Note: If you tried to listen to this early on Monday, March 10th, we'd uploaded a repeat of last week's episode. This has been corrected. If you downloaded it prior to our correction, you may need to refresh to get the actual episode. Sorry for any confusion.
Your intrepid hosts were completely winging it on this one & we thought it might end up on the cutting room floor. Then we decided that we among friends here so why not air out some crazy thoughts & theories. Certainly we meant for there to be more levity & laughter on this one but we ended up getting into the competitive world of distance running & Michael is still waiting for the sport to create format & delivery upgrades before he'll really dive into the sport. Steve gets angry, sad & a more than a little sensitive. We end up shaking hands but it got a little spicy here for a hot minute.  
Trend Topics Include:

• Footwear 
• Apparel
• Training 
• Groups
• Joy of Running

Then an hour long argument around what it would take for there to be more fans of the sport. 

This episode is in honor of Lightenin' Larry Bright. Larry was an athlete I coached, a coach I mentored & a friend with whom I shared miles & smiles & tears. Larry took his own life recently & I want to take this opportunity to ask each of you to reach out to someone you know today to tell them you care for them. We never know how our actions might positively impact a friend or colleague who may need your touch. Do not miss this opportunity. We are all interconnected & what happens to one of us, happens to all of us. 
 
In this episode, Michael & I debrief our experience at the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. I came away from the race, which by nearly all metrics was an unmitigated success, feeling a shadow lingering. Every athlete either set a personal best or ran better than they had hoped. But because one athlete in our group was trying to qualify for the US Olympic Trials, the stakes seemed even higher than usual. She missed the required mark after staying on pace for over 20 miles, yet her ability to hold sub-6 minute miles became frustratingly untenable. She still set PR & slipped under the 2:40 barrier but our entire group all felt a sense of sadness that was palpable even as we celebrated post-race. 

Michael & I work through this ambiguity & its shadow in this episode. Hopefully you can resonate & learn from our shared exploration in this episode we call Embracing Uncertainty: Patter & Chaos in Assessing Results.
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

The nature of human endeavor is to keep moving, to keep pressing forward. What is it about the human condition that looks forward & plans? We've all nodded knowingly when someone quotes, "Man plans; God laughs." & yet, we're incorrigible planners. In this episode, Michael & I break down our 2023 experience of this crazy life & look forward to whatever 2024 might bring. Maybe you are already tired of our personal reflections or, in general, are experiencing  "year in review" fatigue. If so, maybe skip this one. But we hope you'll join us if only to get a clearer understanding of the themes that this podcast is constantly mining for ways that we can steal the culture. So we're using the tried & true method of reflection to help us peer ahead & see what might be around the next corner. Join us for the episode we call "Your Life Is Here For You Right Now: A Reflection". Happy New Year, y'all. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

The Big Questions of life, love & God are covered as Michael brings forth a challenge: What's one thing you want to accomplish before you die? Everything comes back to power chillin'. 

In essence a Part II of episode 54 - The Privilege, in this episode we unpack Michael’s IM Woodlands race experience. We cover how we can think through race results that go wrong & so much more.

Definitely a provocative title, but true to how a new fan has experienced this compressed tutoring in the sport. This episode was recorded way back in early July, post-Olympic Trials & Pre-Olympics. For certain this is outdated discussion but we still feel like its interesting listening for those who have been following our ongoing attempts to turn Michael into track fan, for those who are interested in Steve's "hot takes" (racism, elitism, diversity, etc) & for our thoughts on how the sport is distributed across media channels. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

Does running have a home court or home base? With stakeholders across three distinct disciplines (track & field, road running & trail/ultra running), is there any cultural center where we can invest our effort, time & money to cohere & thrive? Using Austin as a case study, we explore various means & modes of bottling the magic that running provides us as individuals into an elixir to share with all movement culture. We come up against a number of seeming dead ends before we recognize that culture is about people, not places. It's about virtue & valor, not metrics & money. It's about growth & evolution, not market & shares. 
If you have ideas around what makes running culture cohere, please reach out. You can email me at sisson at telos running dot com. We'd love to hear from you. 

Neither of your two intrepid co-hosts planned to continue to explore, analyze & interrogate "the race experience", but here we are. The past few months have followed Michael's preparation & execution for the 2024 Detroit Marathon & we covered significant prep/debrief in episodes 71 & 72. Then in episode 73 we discussed the importance of felt-sense for training & racing thinking we'd moved on...& that was not the case. in this discussion, I felt it was really important to unpack more a specific comment Michael made in the episode on felt-sense. Here we unpack this in much greater detail. 
This episode was recorded on November 7th but will be released almost a month later because we took a break for The Running Event (TRE) & Thanksgiving. I made the executive decision to release our November 14th conversation earlier to coincide with when The Running Event is actually happening. 
We'll be back with you in December. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

The taper is the least discussed aspect of a runner's training plan that causes the most distress in the 2-3 weeks before a command performance race. Michael & Steve break it all down in this episode. Godspeed, y'all!