Keep Going

It was in the fall of 1993, that I was introduced to the concept of a "magic bullet". Tom Waits had recorded his album, The Black Rider which was based on a play co-written by William S Burroughs. Like any good Gen-X boy, I was utterly enthralled by the Beats in general but Burroughs in particular. The juxtapositions of fatalism & magical thinking, heroin-chic & creative genius were compelling but ultimately, his willingness to make beauty from chaos was foundational to my budding worldview. Enter the magic bullet. In Burroughs hands, a magic bullet is profoundly purposeful but the underlying telos is not controlled by the one who fires the bullet. It is much more mysterious than that...& potentially miraculous or tragic. Everything comes down to your intention to transform.

It is in this vein, that we bring forward nine magic bullets. These are simple, effective means to transform one's running. Whether you are in the doldrums, looking for a change, or grasping at what are now termed "hacks" to quickly help you refocus your training & racing, these magic bullets can be very effective.

But keep in mind that any hack is like a magic bullet: it has its own purpose that you can attempt to harry to your target through aim & sighting or random gunslinging. But ultimately, you'll be required to accept that you must change your life & transform if you want the magic to work. & you'll have to accept the consequences.

Perhaps it needn't be so dramatic, but in my experience, everything costs something & you better be ready to pay the Devil when he comes to collect. So as you consider the nine changes that we suggest in this episode, be certain to fully weigh the decision to implement any one of these & bring the proper respect & commitment to see it all the way through. Lest the magic bullet determine its own trajectory & leave you bereft.
With that cautionary injunction, I present to you the second episode in our ongoing FUNdaMENTALS series we have titled, Nine Magic Bullets.

Godspeed, my friends, godspeed.

LINK
HUBERMAN LAB PODCAST SLEEP EPISODE

For some, a nearly two hour conversation about the future of the sport of running - between three relative bozos - may be a bridge too far. For others of you, this will really help reveal significant changes we feel will revolutionize the sport. Recent NCAA legislation has slowly filtered into the real world of collegiate distance running. The first athlete to sign a significant NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) contract is Katelyn Tuohy of NC State, in signing with adidas, her school's shoe & apparel sponsor. This past weekend, Tuohy won both the 5K & 3K races at the NCAA Indoor Championships, as she continues to cement her legacy. 
In this episode, recorded in the first week of December, we provide a quick primer on the history the amateur vs professional arguments in distance running. In the 1970's, the legacies of Steve Prefontaine, Frank Shorter & Bill Rodgers transitioned the sport by ushering in a new era of professionalism. But the opportunity to make a living from sport has always been thwarted by the NCAA, where every athlete has been unpaid employee of shoe companies, television networks & athletic directors that truly own sports in America. This "stuckness" as I term it, has traditionally limited athletes - especially distance runners - opportunities to benefit from their success on the track. The new legislation - we argue - will be a huge opportunity for athletes to turn the tables.  
Listen in as we delve deep into this topic & its role in social media, the attention economy, sponsorships & how we can expect the sport to change. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. But we are seeing seismic changes in the world of sponsorships & marketing - positive & negative- & how it impacts us all. 
Somewhere along the way we begin to focus on Atreyu & its marketing challenges & The Story of the Wasp. We delve into our favorite topics: "Steal the culture."; narratives & stories; style & soul; coming home. It's all here in this one, folks. 

Does running have a home court or home base? With stakeholders across three distinct disciplines (track & field, road running & trail/ultra running), is there any cultural center where we can invest our effort, time & money to cohere & thrive? Using Austin as a case study, we explore various means & modes of bottling the magic that running provides us as individuals into an elixir to share with all movement culture. We come up against a number of seeming dead ends before we recognize that culture is about people, not places. It's about virtue & valor, not metrics & money. It's about growth & evolution, not market & shares. 
If you have ideas around what makes running culture cohere, please reach out. You can email me at sisson at telos running dot com. We'd love to hear from you. 

We announce a new series we are calling FUNdaMENTALS, where we break down a specific topic that we hold as fundamental or foundational for all runners, regardless of your pace or race (or lack there of). These will be shorter episodes & we'll be weaving these in every other episode. We hope that these are helpful to runners of all levels who want to improve their running over the long term. 
This week we cover the importance of the easy run. 
What is an easy run?

• The easy run is where all running begins. It is where all training begins.
• Conversational 
• Different for beginners & advanced runners?
• The easy run makes you fitter, not slower. 
• Can you run too easy, too long? No. 
• What happens when we want our easy run to be faster? Don't. 
• Now that marathon training sessions tend to be longer, recovery easy runs become more important. 
• Doubling easy days.
• Why the 10% Rule is bullshit. Consider using the Bump & Hold method. 
• Nose Breathing for the win. 
• Our take on Phil Maffetone's method. 
• The Running Rogue podcast episode (Episode #97 - The Maffetone Method-Oct 2018) referenced by Steve. Evidently there was another episode cut in 2020 (Episode #178 - Maffetone Method REDUX - April 2020). We have not listened to this second episode & have no idea what they say there. 
• Why neuromuscular work is critical. It's essential that biomechanics & speed be considered with the MM. 
• "What you don't use, you lose." 
• James Nestor's Breath
• "Easy is as easy does."
• Why Steve & John are pro-effort based training. 

This episode is all about shoe porn. Michael returns from The Running Event & sparks a wide ranging discussion on the state of the shoe industry, foundations & fundamentals, how you can rejuvenate your running by using effort & more shoe porn. 

The Big Questions of life, love & God are covered as Michael brings forth a challenge: What's one thing you want to accomplish before you die? Everything comes back to power chillin'. 

All hail, Guided By Voices' Alien Lanes!

John's Top 3

• Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory
• Rage Against The Machine - Battle of Los Angeles
• Flaming Lips - Soft Bulletin

Honorable Mentions

• Liz Phair - Exile in Guysville
• Jeff Buckley - Grace

Michael's Top 3

• Foo Fighters - The Color & the Shape
• Weezer - Pinkerton
• Radiohead - The Bends

Honorable Mentions

Violent Femmes - Why Do Birds Sing
Bad Religion - All Ages
Dinosaur Jr - Where You Been?

Steve's Top 3

• PJ Harvey - Rid of Me/To Bring You My Love
• Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
• Tom Petty - Wildflowers

Honorable Mentions
Sparklehorse - Good Morning Spider
Tortoise - TnT
Being There - Wilco

• Jane's Addiction "Ain't No Right" - Ain't no wrong now, ain't no right.
• sobriety
• polarity 
• karma
• tantra
• meditation
• Kanye West's INTERVIEW with Lex Friedman (https://youtu.be/4AWLcxTGZPA)
• Kanye's song Ghost Town (https://open.spotify.com/track/7vgTNTaEz3CsBZ1N4YQalM?si=2f77449981d34795)
• waves & bars
• &
• accounting/cash flow
• multiple lifetimes/reincarnation
• Nagarjuna 
• pain is the ultimate motivator

In the initial episodes of this podcast, your hosts talked coaching & being an athlete. In this one we explore the challenges Michael confronted as he started Atreyu & how those align with running & culture in general. Some highlights include: pain points, pain & anxiety yield really tasty fruit, life is a mysterious thing, reason is not alway best, stealing the culture, losses are more valuable than wins & many other things.
As John says at the end of this conversation:"The world is round, we'll get there."

After expound at length of the role of an athlete in episode 2 of this podcast, Michael, John & Steve get deep in the weeds on the role of an athlete. We discuss types of athletes, sobriety, training as learnin not winning, the responsibilities & expectations coaches have of athletes, goal setting & much more.