This week I present for you the short story “The Winning Bug” written by Jackson Volney Scholz also known as the “New York Thunderbolt”. Jackson Scholz was an American track and field athlete who specialized in the sprint, was born in 1897 and died on October 26th, 1986. In the 1920s, he became the first person to appear in an Olympic sprint final in three different Olympic Games. He won the gold in Antwerp for the American 4x100 meter relay, he won the silver in the 100m race in the 1924 Paris ...
Mar 06, 2009•1 hr 19 min
The greatest reward for producing a podcast like Phedippidations is the electronic messages that you are kind enough to send me, but there’s an old Scottish proverb that reads “What may be done at any time will be done at no time.” Today I’m making an effort to find some time to go through my email inbox to answer some of the messages you’ve been kind enough to send me over the past three months. Despite good reason and a stressfully increasing workload, I’ve felt guilty for not answering your m...
Feb 27, 2009•1 hr 14 min
There are so many beautiful places on this planet that you can find to go for a run which are beautiful, interesting, and memorable. If you are traveling for pleasure, business or any purpose: pack your running shoes, a pair of shorts and a tee-shirt; you’ll see the places you visit from a more interesting and intimate perspective and will be able not only to say you visited that place, but can boast quite proudly that you’ve run there. In this episode of Phedippidations, I go on vacation to Flo...
Feb 21, 2009•55 min
In April of 1990, Arthur Lydiard gave a lecture in Osaka Japan as part of a clinic he conducted in Tokyo and Osaka. From that trip, numerous articles were written in running magazines all over the world, and the material he covered led to his publishing a book titled “Running With Lydiard”. He is without a doubt one of the greatest athletic coaches of all time, and is credited with popularizing and inventing the sport of recreational running and jogging for health. His training methods were all ...
Feb 13, 2009•1 hr 19 min
As runners, we all have questions; questions about our experiences on the road, questions about best practices as outlined by the experts, questions about the human body and the science regarding motion and our bodies, and even just questions about each other. How are you doing? How are you feeling? How’s your running going? Have any big races planned in the near future? What’s up? What’s going on? Did John Michael get his puppy yet? As friends and fellow runners we have plenty of questions as p...
Feb 06, 2009•1 hr 3 min
The book George Sheehan on Running to Win, is a book of wisdom, sage advise and clinical recommendations from a well versed authority on health and fitness. Dr. Sheehan was someone who was passionate about our sport, and cited many reasons why all should join us on the road. Most of all, he promised us that the act of running is fun. In his book “Running to Win” Dr. George Sheehan perfectly articulated what many of us have been thinking all along. We’re all winners when it comes to this sport, a...
Jan 30, 2009•38 min
There are plenty of reasons why runners break. The human body is a fantastically robust and adaptable organism, but it has it’s physical limits that, despite our good intentions through hard and long runs…can often lead to injury. The problem is that our willpower is often far stronger than our bodies power to absorb stress. You have within you the power to accomplish great things, and run impressive races…while at the same time you have the power to run yourself into the ground, and break that ...
Jan 23, 2009•58 min
I don’t want to make a big deal out of it, but the anniversary of my first breath on this planet’s ocean of oxygen takes place on the 19th of this month, just a few days after this show is available for download. It was of course 9 full months prior that I first came to be; and have been growing into a more complex organism ever since. As my complexity increases, so do the ideas that get formed in my admittedly teeny tiny little brain…and like a balloon in the state of inflation, if I don’t get ...
Jan 16, 20090
Pain is the body’s way of telling us that something is wrong, and when we ignore those messages we are risking further and more permanent injury. Myofascial trigger point pain syndrome is problematic because of the nature of referred pain, where a defect in the muscle can cause soreness elsewhere in the body. To resolve this kind of pain, you have to identify its true source, and apply massage as a preventive measure to overcome it. It takes patience and consistency to perform the stretches, exe...
Jan 09, 20090
If you find yourself struggling to catch your breath during a race or on a particularly cold or humid day, you may have exercise induced asthma. Don’t let it prevent you from taking to the road and reaching your goals. I have every intention of running and finishing future marathons, and I won’t let my exercise induced asthma keep me from running. There are treatments available to all of us who suffer with E.I.A. which can make our enjoyment of this sport continue through our lives. Show Links:F...
Jan 02, 2009•58 min
This episode is a review of the leap year 2008, MMVIII of the Gregorian calendar, Anno Domini of the Common Era. Like any other year, 2008 had it’s accomplishments and failures, its successes and disasters, it’s good moments and instances of sadness and terror. We lived through it all and each in our own way did our best, wished the best for others and helped to make the world just a little bit better than it was last year. This week we listen to some of the skits, sketches and audio bits that I...
Dec 26, 2008•1 hr 25 min
This week your goofy little host goes “off the deep end” again with a podcast filled with critical thinking, loud enunciation and a very un-holiday-like disposition. This episode is a statement of my opinion. Not all will agree with that opinion, and all are invited to consider and challenge what I have to say here. I suspect many will consider my premise faulty and my conclusion to be wrong; but this is just MY OPINION, and if I sound angry and passionate in my argument it’s because it bothers ...
Dec 19, 2008•1 hr
Ted Corbitt was without a doubt the “father of long distance running”. He was a pioneer in ultramarathons and a big part of the running revolution of the 1960’s and 70’s. He was once called “a spiritual elder of the modern running clan". We will remember him in many ways: as the quiet guy in the background working to establish rules for age groups and course measurements. As a promoter of distance running who worked behind the scenes. He was an amazing athlete who was able to cover distances tha...
Dec 12, 2008•1 hr 12 min
In this episode I run the 20th Annual Whiten Five Thanksgiving Day Road Race in Whitensville, Massachusetts; a village in Northbridge. It wasn’t my fastest five miler, but I had fun running it never the less. I came to celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving, to enjoy the morning with fellow runners, to compete against those around me and most of all, to run. Old New England towns remain preserved while merging with the modern world and new technologies. You can see that most clearly when you go f...
Dec 05, 2008•1 hr
Running clubs are local organizations that you can join to gain the support of fellow runners as a way to motivate, inspire, invigorate and improve your performance on the road. But for all the great benefits that joining a running club will give you, there’s something else you should consider in deciding whether or not you should join such an organization. When you join a running club you are not doing it only for yourself but as an opportunity to help others improve as runners: you are signing...
Nov 28, 2008•1 hr 4 min
When you are out there, running a race, and you find yourself (point A) behind another runner (point B) whom you are working to catch up to…there is a relative velocity between the two of you that is much smaller than you can imagine…and today, I want to help you imagine it…because once you’ve come to realize how small that difference is, then you’ll be better able to summon the energy required to exceed that speed and close the gap between you and that runner ahead of you to the point where you...
Nov 21, 2008•1 hr 4 min
So what is the point of giving gifts to each other during the holiday? It is to express our feelings of appreciation, care and fondness for one another…and the best way to do that, with respect to gift giving, is to make the gift a personal reflection of what you know the person you’re giving to would appreciate. Runners appreciate the little things; a good book on our favorite subjects, or something simple like a pair of gloves, socks or a water bottle…items which help to protect and comfort us...
Nov 14, 2008•1 hr 5 min
Our core is our center; it is where our arms, legs and head meet to create the human body we inhabit and control. It is where, just a few inches or centimeters above, resides the all important heart, pumping oxygen rich blood to all of our extremities. In an anthropological sense, the heart is the focused center of our emotional and mental character….it is the mystical source of our kindness, charity, and love. In this same way, our core…the very central characteristic of who and what we are is ...
Nov 07, 2008•1 hr 7 min
This episode will serve as proof that I’m an totally independent new media producer, and will guarantee that I never get that huge contract with a major running shoe label. But when running shoe companies enable their outsourced suppliers to treat their workers poorly, in unhealthy working conditions for long hours with wages that hardly allow them to feed and shelter their families…they are being evil…either by direction or failure. You and I can support the fight for human rights and the envir...
Oct 31, 2008•1 hr 10 min
Life is all about making choices. Choices between what’s right and wrong, choices between what’s good and evil, choices between altruism and egotism, of giving and taking, of sharing and selfishness and choices between what’s smart and what’s dumb. I chose to run the 2008 Bay State Marathon just as 25 years ago this month I chose to take part in a project to help etch my college radio station’s name in the history of a Northern Massachusetts city. Sometimes we do things without thinking it throu...
Oct 24, 2008•1 hr 3 min
Over 1,100 runners from more than 40 countries took part in the 3rd annual World Wide Festival of Races. This really was a festival; it was a celebration of life, of community, of doing something of importance, endurance and strength. It was a day where we took to the roads and ran together although we were apart. There were many reasons why we all took part in this event: to celebrate, to share, to make friends and to inspire others. We did it to prove that national and territorial boundaries o...
Oct 17, 2008•1 hr 8 min
"It's hard to appreciate the Earth when you're down right upon it because it's so huge. It gives you in an instant, just at a position 240,000 miles away from it, (an idea of) how insignificant we are, how fragile we are, and how fortunate we are to have a body that will allow us to enjoy the sky and the trees and the water ... It's something that many people take for granted when they're born and they grow up within the environment. But they don't realize what they have. And I didn't till I lef...
Oct 09, 2008•1 hr 7 min
These are some of the things that have been on my mind lately…random thoughts that I dwell upon while I’m getting my miles in…and that’s one of the great things about running…it can sometimes be a time for you to reconnect with yourself, to dedicate the duration of your run to thinking about politics, hate, wine and endurance….so let’s go for a run together, and indulge me the privilege of telling you what I’m pondering today.Show Links:Leave a message: +1 206-338-3211Fdip featured blog of the w...
Oct 02, 2008•1 hr 7 min
It was once thought to be impossible for any human being to run the distance of a single mile in less than four minutes. Roger Bannister knew that if he focused on the task, if he used both his medical knowledge and physical abilities in a good and effective training program he could break the four minute barrier, and accomplish the impossible. This is his story. Show Links:PLEASE SEND IN YOUR WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT FOR FDIP156 Audio Messages needed by no later than October 6th.Leave a message: ...
Sep 26, 2008•1 hr
Running will not prevent you from developing cancer, but it may save your life by retarding it’s growth and by increasing your bodies natural resistance. Life is worth fighting for…and moderate exercise such as a 2 to 3 mile easy run every day is something that can both ease the stress from dealing with cancer as well as help us to fight against it’s uncontrolled growth. Researchers aren’t sure how much exercise is needed to help prevent cancer, but they all agree that consistency is the most im...
Sep 19, 2008•59 min
A podcast is so much more interesting, entertaining, informative and intimate than a radio show. When you subscribe to a podcast, you’re really joining a social club of like minded enthusiasts for whatever the topic of conversation may be. Running podcasts are special in that they can be listened to while you, yourself, are out on your runs…or on a treadmill, or in the car on your way to or from work, or after your run as you do chores around the house. A podcast is better than a radio show beca...
Sep 12, 2008•1 hr 2 min
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a procedure that can postpone the condition of clinical death, where the heart has stopped beating and the victim is not breathing. There is no guarantee of successful resuscitation, but you can act as the heart and lungs of a victim to provide the body and brain with life sustaining oxygenated blood while waiting for a trained emergency responder or doctor to arrive on scene. The person you save through something like CPR may be a person who helps make the world...
Sep 05, 2008•1 hr 3 min
Running is a universally important skill to have in life; no longer solely for the purpose of hunting, gathering and chasing down wild animals that lack the endurance we possess…but as a way to keep our bodies in shape, to help strengthen our muscles and cardiovascular system and to become the good animals we were meant to be. In baseball, it’s one…two…three strikes you’re out; but in life you only have this one chance to live your life to the fullest, to rise off the couch of doom and to run th...
Aug 29, 2008•1 hr 12 min
The mens marathon of the 29th Olympiad will feature the fastest and most prestigious distance runners in the world today. Those few hours and some minutes will mark the greatest race of their lives, and we will witness inspirational feats of athleticism as they run through an ancient city which is being transformed into a modern world. While these are the best runners on an elite level which many of us will never reach, do not forget that they are also our fellow runners….they have the same pass...
Aug 20, 2008•59 min
This is episode one of a new podcast, created and presented by fellow runners around the world. The Runners Round Table! Episode 1 - Join us at the table as we share some time with our good friend Dr. Monte from the great podcast, . He shares insight he gained from an interview with Dr. Eliza Chakravarty of Stanford Medical School about how exercise (namely running) can play a major role in reducing your disability and even morbidity as you get older. Amazing stuff. Also we discuss the new devel...
Aug 18, 2008•47 min
