Phedippidations

What is the “Runners High‿, and is it real or imagined?  In this episode we investigate the truth and fiction behind this “feel good‿ phenomenon.

This is a biographical review of the Czech runner Emil Zatopek. He was the first to run the 10K under 29 minutes and the first to run the 20K in an hour and set 18 world records in his 15 year career.

However you approach your training runs or road races, you’ll find comfort in finding a ritual: a method of psyching yourself up to the task ahead of you.  As you develop a familiar routine, you’ll feel more relaxed and at ease before you run.

Focus, concentration, internal conversation, planning and visualization are all key elements to a successful mind game in pushing your body past the limits of your own belief. 

In this episode I talk about the basics of most training programs, and discuss items such as the maximum weekly distance you should run each week, the number of weeks you should train, and the length of your longest “long run‿. You need to determine the best training schedule for yourself that will help you meet and surpass your own goals.  For some of you, just finishing a race of any distance will be a satisfying achievement.

Those New Year resolutions we make for ourselves should be balanced with a promise of altruism. Use the occasion of this new year to help change the world for the better, both for yourself and for others.

Runners are both patient and understanding.  We’ve found something to improve the quality of our lives and should make some effort to save the non-runners from themselves.  We should not be afraid to be laughed at or ridiculed, if we can save another human being from the fate of inert uniformity.

It’s important to dress warm and in layers.  The fabric available on the market today is on par with the most advanced space suits constructed by NASA.

Since it’s the season to be jolly and all that, I list four gadgets that a geekoid runner like myself would love to receive during the Holidays, or any time of the year that you’re in the mood to give.

I discuss eating for runners, and go through the basics that your Mom probably gave you as you were growing up.  I mention some “fad‿ diets, and talk about an interesting study in the Britich Medical Journal that justifies a daily consumption of wine and chocolate! (How cool is that?!)

Bill Rogers is one of the most respected, influential distance runners in the United States, having won the Boston Marathon and New York Marathons four times each.  He’s run a total of 57 marathons in all, 28 of them in under 2:15.

Diatribe – a noun meaning a bitter, abusive denunciation.  From the Latin “diatribe‿ meaning learned discourse and the Greek “Diatribee‿ which itself is derived from the word “diatribeen‿ made up of the prefix “dia‿ meaning completely and Tribeen‿ meaning to run. This PodCast includes what I can only consider to be “rambling diatribes‿ when I’m out here running along the back roads of Central Massachusetts.  My use of the term is intended to explain the gloppy streams of consciousness that dribbles out of my head while I’m out here running in an oxygen deprived state.

Each of us needs to find a way to fill the void, to recapture that incredible feeling we had when we were climbing that Mt. Everest of running events.  The experience of the Marathon Blues is common, and the cure is as easy as lacing up your running shoes.

One of the things that makes the Cape Cod Marathon such a pleasure to experience, is the way the local residents come out to cheer, volunteer and entertain the runners as we work the miles.  In this episode, I run the 2005 Cape Cod Marathon in Falmouth Massachusetts, attempting to set my second PR is as many weeks.

Too short of a taper period will leave you tired on race day, too long of a taper will leave you unprepared physically.  In this episode I cover the basics about “tapering‿ as documented from the experts, and I confess to my own failures at properly preparing in the days before most of my marathons.

Listen as I run the first of two Fall 2005 Marathons, this time in Lowell, Massachusetts: home of the American Industrial Revolution.  This is a very flat course where, despite hitting the eventual “wall‿ I attempt to set a new personal record in the Marathon.

According to section 2.00 of the Major League Baseball rule book: A runner is an offensive player who is advancing toward, touching, or returning to any base.‿  In this episode we discuss the "Runner verses Jogger" debate.

The human brain is a fascinating organ, and while few completely understand its true operation; some of its properties can be found in the way that it retains such high resolution memories from observations made during extreme physical exertion.

Of the many ways that we can prepare our bodies and minds for the act of running a road race, it’s the long slow run that is most effective, both physiologically and psychologically.  Your body needs to change: BOTH muscularly and metabolically.

There’s an interesting behavioral quirk that many runners nurse and foster over the years, myself included.  We develop this need to seek acceptable answers to our medical questions which meet our demanding requirements, rather than submit to the expertise of our own assigned doctors.