Phedippidations

In this episode I present for you an abridged for podcast version of Henry David Thoreau’s essay “A Walk to Wachusett”.    As you listen to these words, think about the excursion you might make wherever you live; knowing that you could cover the distance on a long run, but instead taking the time to walk and explore the world around you.    This is one of the great lessons of Thoreau: that we should savor the journey and experience our environment.  It’s as Professor Nancy Etcoff said in my episode 274 on the Pursuit of Happiness: The pleasure system in our brain responds positively to the beauty of the natural world.     I love to run, as I know you do: but maybe every once in a while we should slow down, and just go for a walk.

Philosophers have been asking the question “What is Truth” for thousands of years, as they try to determine if truth is subjective, objective, relative or absolute.   I think that we, as runners: have a special opportunity to both ask and, in some specific way, at least, answer the question for ourselves.    Truth can be found in the hard work and determination we put into every mile; truth can be understood based on our personal experiences about what we can achieve and the goals we can accomplish: and truth can be felt in the exhaustion, sweat, agony and tears associated with the triumphs and failures of a life on the road.

I propose to you that running can bring you great happiness, and since I know that I’m preaching to the choir here, I’ll ask you to consider how running can bring happiness to those in your family, friends and acquaintances whom you’ll meet in your life…and that no matter how sad or broken they and we may sometimes feel: we have an obligation and a certain unalienable right to engage in the pursuit of happiness.

In this episode we tackle the philosophical question “Is it morally right to quit a road race?”.  For help in understanding the question en route to an answer, we call about the great minds of Professor Richard Dawkins, Immanuel Kant, Socrates, and Aristotle.

The 6th Anniversay of Phedippidations.

This episode of Phedippidations is intended to recreate for you the experience of running with fellow runners and friends.  On April 30th Team Poco Loco gathered in Boston Massachusetts to run a half marathon distance around the mighty Charles River.  

This is the story of a fellow runner by the name of Katie who fought a good fight in that all too familiar way where all options are gone and the only thing left to do was to make a terrible agonizing choice: “When you have nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire” 

A tour of the Poco Loco Course  

“From where he tottered before the couch, on muscles immune to elongation and contraction, Duncan contemplated his next move.  Opposite the lavatory, on the northern end of this dwelling, was his bedroom: unkempt and festooned with the discarded wrappings of many cakes, candies and snack treats; necessary supplements to his ongoing carbohydrate loading.”   This is the story of Duncan, a man without ambition or purpose who stumbles upon an idea that challenges his very existence and forces him to consider living a different life.  In this original story, I try to convey the importance of inspiration and how powerful positive examples can have to those who seek to live a better quality of life.   LINKS:   Trail Slammer's 100 Mile Ultrarunning podcast:   Book recommendations:    Core Performance Endurance by Mark Vertegen    Athletic Body in Balance by Grey Cook     Manzanita Beach Walk/Run:   The song “Go” was a new track by the band Stray Palace, a side project of Black Lab’s Paul Durham.  Go to http://s

  The term varietal describes an elementary form of something.  With wine, it’s the fermented product of a single grape.  With running, the word varietal describes the specific practice of a training element.  With running as with wine it’s important to understand the differences between the fundamental elements that go into the final product, so that when the harvest is released: be it after bottling or on race day: the end result can be savored over time; with rich expressive notes and a fine lasting finish. The concept of varietal is as useful to wine as it is to running.  It helps to define the unique elements that make up a good training plan, or great a Bordeaux, Meritage or Blended wine.   It’s important to understand each varietal and how they bring out the best in the end product of that which you seek to consume: be it the finish line of a 26.2 mile road race or the lasting finish of a remarkable bottle of wine.  Get to know the varietals that comprise your goals, and you’ll savor the glass or meda

We all know how running can improve our lives, our health and our disposition with the universe around us.  We know that running is part of a healthy lifestyle and that it can improve the condition of our cardiovascular systems, and that we have evolved as homo sapien sapiens from Australopithecus Africanus to run across the savanna in search of the meat from fallen animals.  The benefits of running are clear, and new evidence is being found that further supports this idea that we should be runners: because as we’ll learn with the workings of the inner brain: running is the smart thing to do! LINKS:   The song “An Ordinary Guy” was written, performed, and produced by one of the most talented musical artists currently residing in this quadrant of the galactic spirally arm: Matthew Ebel; who creates incredible music right here in the Boston area.  Go to his website at join his email list, see where he’ll be playing live, and buy one or five of his great albums at

You and I are out on a run together.  As we’re getting our miles in we start to talk to each other to pass the time. This is where we get to know each other, where we start to open up a little and reveal ourselves as the persons we really are.    You and I are different, with different backgrounds, different beliefs and different understandings of the universe around us.  I want to know what you’re all about, and you might want to know what’s going on in my teenie tiny little head.  So today, let’s acknowledge that we really are out on a run together, and I’m going to reveal to you a little bit more about who I am.   These are what I call: Intervals and I’ve even gone ahead and created a couple of podcasts where I express my thoughts in a rambling diatribe format, one is recorded in audio, the other in video, both are available on iTunes.    In running, of course, an interval workout is one where you run hard for a specific duration or distance, such as once around a track, and then you run at a relaxed rat

Today I present the second in a series of episodes that I’m calling “Running Blogcasts” featuring the writing of fellow runners in our community who have a talent for the written word.  The author of today’s episode is Kim Cowart. (Kow-ahrt).   Kim is one of the writers for the “Reasons to Run” blog over at Deseretnews.com.  She’s a 35 year old mother of two from West Jordan, Utah.    Kim spent much of her childhood living in Eugene, Oregon where running is as common as breathing.  In her teens, she moved to Utah, where there is a large and very strong running community.  Kim has always run off and on, but it was after she had her second daughter that her love of running became more serious.    It started with a 20 minute run, and before she knew it, she found herself registering for her first marathon.  She had never run a race before, ever.  Her husband says she’s an all-or-nothing kind of girl, and this just proved him right.    Kim finished her first marathon alive and well and even qualified for Bos

Celebrities are people too.  They wake up in the morning, just as we do, they brush their teeth, they log onto their computers, they lace their own shoes, and they have to put in the same amount of effort as the rest of us in training for their marathons.   You could outrun Will Ferrell, Kim Alexis and President Bush if you dedicated yourself to the task.  There’s nothing special about someone who is famous. Their bodies undergo the same physics and chemistry that we are prone to experience…and while they may have financial advantages which give them access to experts and training tools that can help them run faster and further; in the end: they still have to get in their miles to achieve their goals…and if it helps to motivate you, their goals can be your goals…because you are just as good an athlete as they’ve ever been or will be.   LINKS:   Please support The Mojo Loco Fund: The song “Ya Famous?” was by George Hrab:

  IF YOU COULD, SOMEHOW, SEND A MESSAGE TO SOMEONE WHO WILL BE ALIVE ONE THOUSAND YEARS FROM NOW: WHAT WOULD YOU TELL THEM?   The universe has come together to create the unique and special life form that you are, with your hopes and fears, dreams and concerns.  The thoughts you form and the words you write and say constitute information, never to be duplicated information born of your mind that goes out into the world and has the potential, however remote the possibility, to outlive you and be shared with far future generations of people.   If you had the opportunity to send a message to someone in the year 3011, what would you say?  Would you tell them about yourself and your life?  Would you warn them about the dangers of hurting the environment or plead with them not to go to war?  Would you talk about love and joy, sadness and pain, life and death?   And if somehow you were granted this chance to speak to someone in the future, how would you get your point across?   I think the answer is obvious: poetry

As a runner, you have to discover and understand your own running Terroir.  You need to know how your environment, personality, geography and local climate influences your ability to perform.  In this sport, we are taught to listen to our bodies and the symptoms of over-use injuries: but before we can hear and feel these signals from our bodies: we have to know who we are as runners….not in relation to others of similar age, weight, sex and shape…but relative to where and how we train.    Dr. George Sheehan has said repeatedly that we are each an experiment of one;   “Life is the great experiment” he said “Each of us is an experiment of one-observer and subject-making choices, living with them, recording the effects.”   Learn how your Terrior manifests itself in your body to make you the runner you have become, and you’ll better understand the range of your limits; which are far above and beyond what you might expect.    You are an expression of the place where you become the runner you have always wanted

I’m starting off the new year right by answering all of my email (or at least trying to).  In this episode of a goofy little podcast I respond to some of the messages I was unable to get to last year with hopes that I’ll be able to answer ALL of my email in the year of our Lord 2011.   Also, join me for a swim in the FROZEN Atlantic with friends on New Years Day, and I get to chat with friend and Mojo Loco Founder Adam Tinkoff as we discuss his vision for el Mojo Loco!   LINKS:  “Whiskey in the Jar” was by the Blaggards Please support The Mojo Loco Fund:

This is our time.   With the changing of the calendar year it’s common for us to take the time to look back on the previous solar orbit, or look forward to our future.  This is a great exercise, to look forward without dwelling on the past: as we make our way through this adventure called life.   But, it think it’s even more important to consider our present….the now that we are existing in…today, right now.   This is our time.  The who, that we are has grown and become in such a way that we can experience the Universe around us….we are, in effect: a way for the Universe to know itself; and I know that sounds deep…but it isn’t.   Consider that we, as human beings, are made of flesh and blood whose elemental construction has it’s origins in an enormous universal expansion that began 13.7 billion years ago…we are made of star dust…ever replenishing cells made of carbon atoms, hydrogen and oxygen that have through biology formed into the creatures we are today.   Trillions upon Trillions of inanimate objects and

Today I’m going to read for you the final chapter of Dr. George Sheehans book “Running and Being – The Total Experience”.  I’m doing this in hopes that you might buy and read his book, and as a way of presenting you with an alternate special holiday episode of Phedippidations…a gift you don’t have to unwrap.   This chapter is very special to me, as I hope it will be for you.  It was the conclusion to a book that so inspired me, so enthralled me when I first picked it up, that I literally could not put it down until I finished it well into the early hours of the next morning.   I’ve read Dr. Sheehans book, “Running and Being” at least a dozens times since I first read the book; and this final chapter titled “Seeing” really sums up most of the major points made in the previous 17 chapters.   You can purchase the book “Running and Being – The Total Experience” by Dr. George Sheehan, at LINKS:     The Linus and Lucy theme was by the band J.E.L.L.i The background music “I Saw Three Ships with Good King Wenc

The friends who I ran the Mojo Loco with are listening to this right now, Chris and Chris, Eddie, Nik, Dan, Mat, Susan, Steve, Samantha, Norm, Adam  and Maddy.    They’re wondering to themselves: “How is Steve going to tell this story? How will be express the narrative? What imagery will he call upon? What great message will he send forth throughout the tubes of the Interwebs to tell the world about this Mojo Loco?   So this is for my fellow teams mates; dedicated runners all; who accepted the challenge and call of the Mojo Loco and contributed by their presence to a happening:    Guys, I thought about it…I really did.  In the days following the Mojo Loco I had a lot to digest, thoughts and ideas, feelings and revelations.    I know you did as well.   I could have told the story of how we met at the Starbucks in Daytona Beach and drove North to St. Augustine.  I could have told the story about the many stops we made along the way and the twelve legs of a run we accomplished together.  It would have been a