On Thanksgiving Day here in the United States, and in holidays around the world, we feel compelled to offer thanks for the receipt of our good fortune. It’s a uniquely human need that we have to offer thanks for the good things which occurred to us in the previous solar orbit. I’m taking a break from my podcast this week, but wanted to thank you for your thoughts, prayers, kind words of congratulations and encouragement. Thank you for being a fellow runner and a friend, and thank you for helping...
Nov 22, 2007•21 min
Consider using this holiday season as a way to invite someone to become a runner. If to show appreciation or admiration you want to give someone a gift, consider giving them the gift of running by means of some item that is related to our sport. There are many products out there perfect for holiday giving, and they need not be all that expensive or difficult to find. To give someone a gift that encourages them to run, you are showing a special kind of caring through your action…and as we wind do...
Nov 18, 2007•1 hr 2 min
You wouldn’t fill the fuel tank of an airplane with half the fuel needed to land it safely on the ground. You wouldn’t lift off in a spaceship that had a leak in it’s main propulsion rocket, and you certainly wouldn’t fill the gas tank of your car with chocolate pudding if you ever expected to successfully drive our of your parking lot. You need to fuel your body with the correct balance of carbs, fat and protein at a time prior to your race event that benefits your performance without leading y...
Nov 08, 20070
There is just so much to do in this world, so much to experience, and it would be so terribly wrong of us not to do so. As runners, we have an opportunity, every day, to rise above the tedium and experience life to the fullest; and having a list of things to do before you run your last mile is a way to keep yourself focused not on the finish line of your life: but on the joy of your life’s race, while you’re in it.
Nov 01, 2007•53 min
With three solid hours of sleep, the depressing notion that my beloved Boston Red Sox had lost a crucial game in extra innings, and the understanding that I was about to run my 16th marathon, fellow runner John Ellis and I crossed the chip mat at the starting line of the Bay State Marathon in Lowell Massachusetts, and I ran the best marathon of my life. What happened next was not magic. It wasn’t some kind of impossible stroke of luck, and it wasn’t completely unexpected: to be a runner is to ac...
Oct 25, 2007•1 hr 8 min
Over 12 hundred fellow runners ran the second annual Phedippidations World Wide Half Marathon and Kick the Couch 5K. It was an event that demonstrated the fraternity and fidelity of athletes all over the world, of widely different physical condition and abilities. When we accepted the challenge to run in this event, we accepted the role of becoming a runner. We ran in official events, back country roads, in parks with friends, on military bases, quiet places, and organized races. We ran together...
Oct 19, 2007•1 hr 7 min
Today we run all over the world, at the very same time and encourage each other to push ourselves past our physical limitations. We are living for the moment, and nothing else matters. Each of us has an unstoppable power within us, earned through dedicated training, determination and the friendship of fellow runners near and far. Over a thousand of us will run today across 45 countries, 6 continents and one small blue bubble in a lonely vast, cold and empty universe, but we are not alone: Today ...
Oct 11, 2007•1 hr 20 min
There is a pace you can run which will get you to the finish line of your race totally spent and with nothing left. There is a pace you are able to run that will have you crossing the finish line knowing that you ran as fast and strong as you possibly could. You need to find that measure of minutes and seconds per mile or kilometer, by testing yourself, reviewing your most recent past performance and making a best guess at what will be your perfect pace.
Oct 05, 2007•1 hr
So where are we going when we lace up our shoes? Where are we going when we head out that door? Where are we running, not why or how…but where? There has to be a purpose to all this…and it’s only logical that that purpose is our direction, and that direction has a name, and that name is “Joy‿.
Sep 28, 2007•1 hr 8 min
Fred Lebow was a showman and a promoter who was one of the main reasons why distance running and marathons became so popular as the running boom exploded. He transformed the NYC Marathon from a local event in Central Park with 55 finishers to one of the world’s largest running events with over 25,000 finishers running through all five boroughs of New York City. He lived his life to the fullest, against the dangers and odds of both the Nazi and Soviet occupations of Romania, and although fate han...
Sep 21, 2007•1 hr 3 min
You need to incorporate hard workouts into your training program if you’re looking to extend the duration of your runs, and improve the speed at which you compete. Hard runs are the key to your adaptation as a faster, more efficient runner….they are the only way you can achieve your goals on the road. As a runner you need to experience physical stress with the understanding that when it comes getting your miles in: The harder they come, the harder they fall.
Sep 14, 2007•57 min
Periodization is a way to incorporate different phases of training through out your athletic life. It’s a system custom fit for you and your running goals, and is a way to remain fresh, focused and motivated throughout the year. You build a base, you prepare for your race, you taper well and you’ll find that on race day, it’s easier to run.
Sep 07, 2007•1 hr 7 min
The human body is a remarkable vessel capable of impressive action, best displayed within the course of running a statute mile. A milerembraces a style of running that demands all of her or his faculties: physically, mentally and spiritually. To watch a mile race is to watch an extreme form of performance art, but it is also to behold the beauty and wonder of the human body, in motion, as it was meant to be: running fast, and hard, moving smoothly with purpose and a searing determination that is...
Sep 01, 2007•1 hr 3 min
The state of the World Wide Half Marathon race course is in jeopardy if the projected global temperatures increase as they are expected to do. We owe it to our fellow runners, and future generations to use the natural resources of our planet with care, respect and intelligence. Ignorance of the truth is not an option, and it does not matter who or what is to blame for Global Warming: what matters is that we be responsible and take action, today, right now, not later; today, not tomorrow, this ve...
Aug 24, 2007•1 hr 9 min
For the 35 th Annual Falmouth Road Race, I’m once again running with my friend Joe. It’s summertime on Cape Cod, with the promise of an ice cold beer waiting at the finish line, and what better way to share such a delicious frosty beverage than with an old friend.
Aug 20, 2007•1 hr 7 min
Dr. Sheehan taught us that this running life sets us apart from the sedentary, but not necessarily above them. There is a runner in all of us, even for those who sit on the “Couch of Doom‿ because the body is willing, but it is our spirit that needs ignition. As runners, we are required to live a life of work, and a life of play, but above all, a life less ordinary.
Aug 08, 2007•1 hr 2 min
We all understand the concept behind the phrase “no pain, no gain‿. As runners, we can accept some level of aches and injuries for our efforts on the road; but we must not invite pain as an expected and acceptable consequence for hard training…we must prepare our bodies for the pressure and force that we’ll put upon it by taking preventative measures that will help us to run without the hurt.
Aug 02, 2007•1 hr 2 min
Junk miles and recovery runs are important elements of a good training program as they can help you run faster and longer. They allow you to enjoy slow easy runs while your body is healing from the stress forced upon it in the hours before you hit the road and they allow you to reach some whole number goal of daily or weekly mileage to appease the guilt you might carry for running below a self made threshold of distance that you consider significant and a source of pride.
Jul 25, 2007•59 min
As runners, our intent in a race is to meet and exceed our goals by moving as fast as possible towards the finish…but while the motion of running is always going to be our primary method of locomotion, you should not ignore the benefits of incorporating walk breaks as a means towards finishing fast and strong, as well as to ensure a faster recovery.
Jul 19, 2007•1 hr 4 min
When you get to an age where the world tells you that you’re quote “old‿, when society begins to classify you as a “senior‿ and treats you with the respect that the elderly deserve: don’t reject the kindness or attention; but neither should you “act your age‿. If you are a runner, training and taking part in a road races: then you are NOT old.
Jul 11, 2007•1 hr
You owe it to yourself, and to the rest of the running community, to start writing a blog, or producing a podcast. Write about your thoughts, your opinions and share your rambling diatribes…because at some point you’re going to write or record something that will touch another fellow runner, somewhere in this world, in such as way that it will have an important and positive influence in their life.
Jul 04, 2007•1 hr 9 min
This year, the Phedippidations World Wide Half marathon will take place on the third planet from the sun, 26,000 light-years from the galactic center. It’s a tiny blue bubble of life swarming with fellow runners who will be thinking of this global community while running on their local portion of the planet. As we travel around the globe, or look to imagine those places where our fellow runners take to the roads and paths, we should consider that at only 25,000 miles in circumference the Earth r...
Jun 28, 2007•59 min
The embarrassing things that can happen to our bodies may not be a good topic of conversation at a dinner party, but they are all a part of our human condition, and need to be understood and dealt with as we push ourselves past our physical limits, on the road.
Jun 20, 2007•59 min
Jesse Owens represented the United States in the 1936 Olympic Games, held in Berlin. It was here that he showed the world that human beings are endowed with unalienable rights, as well as incredible talent. Jesse proved that ethnicity and skin color were meaningless and that all men are truly created equal.
Jun 13, 2007•1 hr 7 min
Let’s talk about what Phedippidations is, what I believe in, whether I am delusional, what running means to me, and what this podcast means to me. These are the thoughts that go through my head during a long run in the back country roads where these Phedippidations are born. Thoughts, opinions, observations and rambling diatribes are all composed while we’re out on these long distance runs across the planets surface.
Jun 06, 2007•1 hr 6 min
You need to experiment with what you use to fuel yourself before, during and after a marathon. It is as important as stretching, and following your training schedule as you prepare your body for the miles you have before you.
May 31, 2007•1 hr 12 min
These rules of running etiquette are common sense items that most runners follow without much thought. They can all fit under the single heading of “being respectful of our fellow runners‿ whether we’re out training, in a race, or just getting a few miles in with friends. It really comes down to that ol’ phrase “Do unto others as you as you would have done unto you‿.
May 24, 2007•1 hr 2 min
Monitoring the rate at which your heart pumps blood around your body is one way to measure your cardiac fitness, but having a feel for your body’s perceived exertion is just as important. A heart rate monitor device may give you some useful information you can use to help improve your running performance.
May 17, 2007•1 hr
Just as it is with any recipe, the one that will comprise your existence as a distance runner will be varied and unique. But just as you require eggs for an omelet, flour for cake and potatoes for making French fries…you will have basic ingredients required of you as you re-create yourself into an endurance athlete.
May 11, 2007•55 min
The stories about a runner’s first marathon are filled with emotion,well deserved pride, and a sense of satisfied accomplishment. You will hear how they set themselves a seemingly impossible goal that,through hard work, persistence, and an indomitable spirit they were able to achieve. These are changed people who have come to understand that nothing is impossible if they have the desire and dedication to run, quite literally, towards their goal.
May 02, 2007•1 hr 8 min
