Phedippidations

The history of wine is the history of civilization.  It’s a story that dates back to the earliest days of agriculture and encompasses the life and times of our ancestors who consumed wine for both pleasure and ceremony.  When we raise a glass today, we are tasting more than just a fermented grape juice which technology has perfected into a form of liquid art; we are tasting the product of history; an ancient beverage that friends have shared over the millennium at the end of their long and arduous days shaping the world into a better place for themselves and us, their descendants.   Links:    by  and Robert G. Mondavi (Jan 2, 2007)   And the second is titled    by  (Nov 12, 2002)   America's a Nice Italian Name by Allan Sherman “Wine Woman and Song” by Johnny Ferreira

Get to know the parts and materials that make up your running shoes, and you’ll be a better consumer of the one critical tool needed to reach your goals as a runner. Whether you’re looking to run your first marathon, set a PR or BQ or just want to run at your own pace for the joy of it…wearing the right running shoes will make the difference between surviving through the miles, or savoring every moment you’ll have, on the road. Links:   The song Skullcrusher Mountain was by Jonathan Coulton at

Today’s episode, being my first Running Blogcast features the writing of Neil Bearse, a fellow runner I’ve never had the honor of meeting in person: but I feel like we’re old friends.  Neil is the one who first introduced me to my all time favorite musical band: Black Lab…as well as others.   Neil is the manager of web based marketing for Queens School of Business in Canada.  He’s responsible for the web presence of 5 MBA programs as well as executive education initiatives in Canada, the Gulf Region and Europe.  He is a digital marketing consultant focused on making online communications clear and effective while ensuring creativity and innovation.   Neil’s pioneering work to market the music of independent artists on-line and through the word-of-mouth channels of podcasting and blogging has led to him representing artists from across North America including Black Lab, David Usher, Ingrid Michaelson and My Chemical Romance. In 2007, he was one of the architects of the Bumrush The Charts project, a global vir

You have the same ability to produce content in an artful way that will, no doubt, convince someone you care about to join us on the road as runners…and, if in the course of those public new media conversations, you convince one or two others to rise up of THE COUCH OF DOOM, then all the better!   You and I have an opportunity, today: through the use of blogs and podcasts to write and speak the words that will inspire the people who read or listen to become runners themselves…and by virtue of your experience for having been where they once were…and by telling the story of your life on the road in an entertaining, thoughtful and brutally honest way: you will change their lives for the better and make the world just a little bit better than it was before you spoke.   Links:   The song “Nothing But a Song” was from the new album “Safe Upon the Shore” by Great Big Sea at  

The American statesman Ben Franklin once wrote “  There may be something to that with respect to our running performance. We sleep, on average a full one third of our lives.  So, as a middle aged, middle of the pack, slightly asthmatic 48 year old runner: I’ve already slept 16 years of my life away.  It seems like an unfair trade off: 16 years of my life that I could have spent in a conscious state of productivity…but when we consider that the time spent sleeping helps to improve the quality of the two thirds of our life when we are awake: it’s easy to see that the horizontal investment is a sound one. Links:   The song “Slow Down” was by Black Lab off their new album: “Two Strangers” available on iTunes, Amazon MP3 and at

  Today I will tell you about an amazing person who lived his life to the top.  It’s an interesting life with high and low points, with obstacles which were overcome leading towards an eventual spiral into disaster…but in the end, redemption and glory. Abebe Bikila was the first black African to win a gold medal at the Olympics, winning the Mens Marathon in Rome which he completed barefoot! The headlines in the Newspapers and on the radio proclaimed the fact that it had taken an entire Italian army to conquer Ethiopia, but only one Ethiopian soldier to conquer Rome! Links: The song “Salala” was by Angelique Kidjo; with background vocals by Peter Gabriel.

How many of us have trained over many months for a race only to perform terribly in the event itself, or how many of us have crossed that finish line in say, oh…I don’t know…a minute and 31 seconds slower than we had hoped.    It happens…a lot.  But we know that the sun will rise in the morning, we’ll put the pain behind us, and go forward.  Some days we win, some days we lose, some days we don’t even have the opportunity.   Today’s episode is somewhat long over due, the last show I did featuring your email was on March 14th, episode 228 “Dispatches from the Road”.  That was just the second episode into a six month hiatus where I produced episodes every two or three weeks apart…but now that I’m back to a regular weekly schedule, I’m going to try to do this once every 4 to 5 weeks, if I can.   So, let’s figuratively jump into the virtual mailbag and see what happens….because today is the tomorrow I was worrying about yesterday…and the sun came up just fine.  Yes I had a really crappy week last week…but I’m lo

In the area of genetics and with respect to athletics, we are trying to understand what construction instructions are required to build the perfect runner.  It would seem that certain attributes exist which we can use to measure the influence of our genetic blue prints to create faster humans…and that our ethnic origins might predict who of us will be able to run faster and farther.  But the fact is that we are an infant species, descended from the same Mitochondrial Eve who ran across the African savannah 150,000 years ago…and we’re all related, we all have the same basic building instructions, the same Deoxyribonucleic acid and each of us, everyone: has the same set of running genes.  Links: The song “That Spells DNA” was by Jonathan Coulton Channel Runner Review: B-Hag Running PodCast

  They ran all over the world.  They ran in warm places, cold places, rainy places, dry places.  They ran alone and with friends; they ran fast and slow, in an organized race and in their back yards.  They ran with the sound of each other in their ears and the spirit of each other in their hearts.    The World Wide Festival of Races is a celebration, but this social networking movement does not end on race weekend.  We run together every day, all around the surface of a little blue bubble in space: and we do so with the knowledge and understanding that we do not run alone: not as long as someone, somewhere is lacing up their shoes to head out on their local roads.  We are a global community of fellow runners; and together we run.   Links:   https://sites.google.com/site/wwfor2010 http://worldwidefestivalofraces.com http://crawllyflowersgarden.blogspot.com   The song “The World is Upside Down” was by A Band Called Quinn at http://www.myspace.com/abandcalledquinn  

In a Universe that is thirteen point seven billion years old, on a planet that has only existed for four and a half billion years; our species: homo sapiens sapien, has only been around for two hundred thousand years, in fact modern day homo sapiens with our language, culture, use of tools, barter between groups, art, game playing, music, and reliance on symbolic thought only began to arise 50,000 years ago.  Civilization, as we know the word, started to arise around 10,000 years ago in the middle east, near where Iraq is today…you and I fellow runners are a part of an infant species with respect to the age of all that there is.   Think about that for a moment. Everything you know….everyone you know, everything that has ever happened in the ten thousand year history of civilization of fellow human beings has occurred only on this four and a half billion year old planet three orbits out from a four and a half billion year old star in a single, typical spiral galaxy out of a hundred fifty billion in the entire

PodCamp is all about podcasting, and using this medium to reach out to a community.  Since you and I are runners, and since we all listen to podcasts, you and I are a part of this thing…and since I’m eager to encourage everyone listening to my podcast to start up their own podcast, I thought it would be useful to dedicate today’s episode to what I learned at PodCamp. PodCamp is first and foremost about community.  It’s not about selling a service or a product, it’s all about focusing on building personal relationships with other podcasters.  Think of it this way; you and I are a part of a running community of new media creators…we listen to running related podcasts listed on Runningpodcast.org and we run with each other as we train for our next big race, or just get some miles in together because it feels good.  This is our podcasting universe: but there are other worlds than these…other podcast universes that have nothing to do with running: such as marketing, story-telling, science, comedy, news, politics,

The Stanford University study titled “Reduced Disability and Mortality among aging runners” was published in the August 11th, 2008 issue of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.  At the time that the study was conducted: the assumption was that vigorous exercise would cause older people more harm than good.  The expectation was that running would lead to an excess in orthopedic injuries and lead to earlier disability with runners over 50. But the researches found that regular exercise would extend high-quality, disability free life.  Frequent running would compress the period at the end of life when people couldn’t do things on their own.  This is an idea that has been given the name “compression of morbidity”.  In this episode of Phedippidations, I’ll talk about both the clinical details of this study AND the significance of it’s findings, leading to the obvious conclusion that Life is Short, but it Should be Long Enough!   Show Links: http://www.runningthenarrowpath.blogspot.com http://planettinkoff.co

While the first part of this episode is dedicated to the precautions a pregnant mother should take with regards to athletic endeavors, there are many benefits to running while pregnant including the prevention of excessive weight gain.  Running while you’re pregnant can keep you mood off and help to prevent pregnancy induced hypertension. If you’re healthy, and you’re having a healthy pregnancy there is no reason not to run.  Listen to your body, and check with your doctor.  It’s probably best not to run an Ultra marathon, or compete in a major race where you might feel obligated to run hard.  Remember, you’re running for yourself and your unborn…and while running can be good for you and make you feel better: what’s most important is that you are healthy and well prepared on your child or children’s birthday as you go through one of the greatest athletic event that a woman will ever experience…the marathon of labor. Show Links: www.audiblepodcast.com/phedi SEND ME YOUR SHOUTS OF ENCOURAGMENT: OR DIAL:

From Saturday April 14th through the 18th, 2010 my Dad, son, nephew and I traveled up the West Branch of the Penobscot River and across the northern end of Chesuncook Lake in the Northern Maine Wilderness.  Through our journey we gained a better appreciation of Henry David Thoreau’s adventure of 1853.  While logging in the Northern Woods of Maine continues, the river that we paddled on remains mostly unchanged.  You can imagine the sites and sounds that Thoreau experienced as he journeyed up this river.  We saw many moose, every day, stopping to feed and drink at the rivers edge.  We saw Eagles and Loons, ducks, geese, ospreys raven, fish, red squirrels and more that we could not identify…but it was the moose, lanky majestic in stature and serenity that captured our imaginations the most. They are, as Thoreau called them: “God's own horses, poor, timid creatures”; but they are a stark reminder that we are guests in their wilderness; and that they’d continue to roam these woods long after we’ve returned to our

I am a disciple of Dr. George Sheehan, I’m not ashamed to tell you that, I’ve read and re-read everything the man has written…and I’ve come to know him in a comfortable, familiar way.   A man of science and medicine; a man filled with great passion for this sport and a devoted Roman Catholic…Dr. Sheehan and I have a lot in common; but while I yearn to be a writer and use this podcast as a creative outlet: I will never come close to the writer that he was…I will never approach the level of philosophical understanding of life, the universe and everything that he understood so well.  Dr. Sheehan was a great thinker…I’m merely a doofus.   But Dr. Sheehan was also human, and prone to human error, selfishness and sin.  He understood his weaknesses…he understood his imperfections and he didn’t live his life in wonder and celebration of those sad, dark and lonely attributes: but he did seek to understand himself and to understand how and why to love others.   Today, I’m going to read one of the final chapters of his

As it is with most things in life, taken in moderation: Caffeine can be good for you and improve you’re your health and your performance on race day. But too much of a good thing can lead to disaster.  In living our lives to the top we have to learn to savor, with small sips, those things which bring us pleasure and improve our health. Show Links: Free Audible Book download:  “The Java Jive” was by The Inksports (1940) “Coffee Man” was by Calvin Owens

This is my annual music show; recorded (as always) while I’m on vacation.  This time I’m on the Norwegian Cruise Ship Spirit traveling from Boston to Bermuda with my family as we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of my parents wedding!   In addition to listening to podcasts, I love to run to music!  It helps me keep my cadence in check and fills my head with positive images as I get my miles in.  The songs on this episode are all from previous Phedippidations shows; so I hope you enjoy them! Please support the artists by purchasing their music and following them on the various social media networks on the “tubes of the internets”. Show Links: Summertime by Brother Love at   Broken Heart by Black Lab at Sweat by Darren Geffre at Dare to Dream by Adam Ilami at If This Geek Ruled the World by Geoff Smith at Talking Bout my Dogs by Boo Boo Davis at Move Your Feet by Dogman Joe at Say Hey I love You by Michael Franti and Spearhead at Tickle Cove Pond by Great Big Sea at And Die Alone by Ingrid Michaelson at

Why Cook Well. We eat because we have to. Civilization is nothing more than a ten thousand year old human experiment to test the freakish theory that mankind could eat without being eaten.  Four million years earlier, our australopithecine ancestors crawled down from some God-forsaken trees to run with sweaty persistence after the meaty goodness left for scavenger animals.  This, they called a meal. The world we have inherited is only a savannah away from that prehistoric reality.  We have to eat to survive, but it’s what we eat and the quality of that food which gives our lives pleasure and meaning. The question our human experiment should answer is “Why should we cook well?” If survival is the purpose of culinary consumption then what benefit is served by eating food of higher quality, flavor and beauty?  Would not our human condition be sufficiently served through the daily ingestion of ground chicken speckled cheese spread sprayed from a can? We eat because we have to, we cook because we care.  Through tr

Podcasting is a media so perfectly suited for the running lifestyle.  Just as we schedule our runs in advance, we can schedule what we listen to ON those runs, in advance.   We can multi-task the time we spend out on the roads and by listening to a podcast, exercise our brains and feel a camaraderie with the podcast host or producer: especially hosts and producers who are fellow runners like the podcasters you just heard: real people with a shared passion for this sport we love so well. When I first started producing this goofy little podcast about running, five years ago, the idea of clipping on a microphone and apparently talking to yourself while out on a long run seemed like a ridiculous idea; but today there are over 70 running podcasts listed on the runningpodcasts.org directory!  This idea of recording a podcast and listening to other podcasters completes a mode of communication and conversation not possible with traditional old media; such as radio (for example).   The other really cool thing about po

I had come to the town of Milton Massachusetts to run a 10K road race that I had run three times before, with a 48:18 finish in 2002, a 52:30 finish in 2003 and a 53:40 finish in 2004.  Today I was hoping to finish in an hour and five minutes, although secretly a sub one hour would make me feel better. I’ve been injured, I’ve gained weight, and I’ve not felt as in shape as I have in the past: but today’s effort might serve to remind me that there was still hope within me to shed these pounds and run faster and more intelligently with a new strategy of training.   If the act of running is a celebration of life, it seemed only fitting that I’d be here in the town where I took my first human breath, and experienced a childhood of tradition and love, to celebrate my identity as a runner in training: where my walk breaks allowed my body to run faster, and this guy named Walker could feel more like a runner.   Show Links: Free Audible Book download: The song “Walk on the Moon” was by Great Big Sea