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 runner...
Feb 23, 2011•1 hr 2 min
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 ac...
Feb 11, 2011•58 min
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 mov...
Feb 04, 2011•1 hr
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 whil...
Jan 28, 2011•59 min
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 share...
Jan 21, 2011•1 hr 4 min
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 ...
Jan 14, 2011•1 hr 1 min
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” w...
Jan 07, 20110
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 experie...
Dec 30, 2010•1 hr 18 min
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 p...
Dec 23, 20100
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 challen...
Dec 17, 2010•1 hr 4 min
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...
Dec 08, 2010•1 hr 1 min
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...
Dec 03, 2010•51 min
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...
Nov 26, 20100
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...
Nov 21, 2010•53 min
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...
Nov 14, 2010•58 min
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...
Nov 10, 2010•48 min
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 ...
Nov 10, 2010•48 min
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...
Oct 24, 2010•41 min
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 w...
Oct 17, 2010•1 hr 12 min
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 middl...
Oct 08, 2010•1 hr 21 min
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 p...
Oct 03, 2010•1 hr 11 min
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 e...
Sep 26, 2010•1 hr 9 min
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 ...
Sep 12, 2010•59 min
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 r...
Aug 29, 2010•1 hr 23 min
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 philosop...
Aug 13, 2010•1 hr 11 min
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
Aug 01, 2010•1 hr 4 min
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 supp...
Jul 25, 2010•1 hr 3 min
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 t...
Jul 11, 2010•8 min
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 firs...
Jul 04, 2010•1 hr 11 min
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 ...
Jun 27, 2010•1 hr 5 min
