Keep Going

Shit is gettin weird around here, y'all. & fair warning: Steve gets really riled up on this one. & drops lots & lots of f-bombs.
It's helpful to remind you that this is just a conversation between friends. 
If you take this episode's title at face value, you may be a bit confused for the first 10-15 minutes where we touch into personal addictions & thoughts on sobriety. Eventually we transition into our more general discussion around magic & the desire we all have for altered states. Our foundation is that our current models of what is real & how the world is represented by our senses are not up to the task of what we desire around meaning & purpose. We talk about how language & communication are complicit in the way we experience the world, how are conditioning & mindsets can hold us captive if we do not examine them closely & ensure they are working for you.
We eventually get to a place where we recognize suffering is so helpful to our lived experience, especially as runners.
For anyone interested in egregores see THIS reddit thread.  
Join us on a journey where we explore a magical way of experiencing the world & our running, more specifically.this is some deep shit, friends, Godspeed. 

Please be patient in listening to this episode, friends. We take a little while to get rolling on our topic but we think its worth your time & listening investment.  ichael & Steve use the analogy of playing a musical instrument for how we might approach our body/mind experience in running. As Michael is learning how to bring his music theory & experience of musicianship to learning how to play the pedal steel. We take that & run with it, no pun intended. Steve ends with a short introduction of his developing theory of Four Intelligences. 
We end with a little outro music from Michael, for your listening experience. 
Godspeed, friends, godspeed. 

While this was entirely unintended, this episode feels like a part two of last week's discussion. This one leans into the struggles we both feel about this late capitalist, social media saturated attention economy as entrepreneurs & "experts" in our respective fields. What would happen if it all fell apart? Is mission enough? What is our expertise worth? We wrestles with these topics & many more in an attempt to stay optimistic & creative in a challenging market that seems to suck the soul from any entrepreneurial effort. 
We hope this frank & vulnerable conversation resonates with you. Godspeed, friends, godspeed. 

A deep dive into training with a group & what training even is anyway. Is "Everything is Training" really true? What about when you aren't in a series training mode? How do you process not having a goal race staring right down your face? In this episode we cover a lot of ground but we stay committed to the topic & hope you enjoy our ponderings. Until next time, friends, godspeed!

We dive into a favorite topic of Steve's: listening to your body. Along the way we discuss the Japanese kōan, guitar pedals, old school running magazines, book collecting, etc. 
In this episode, Steve mentioned that he has an online lecture series created in 2020 that he was willing to offer. If you are interested, send Steve an email at sisson at telosrunning dot com. 
We hope y'all enjoy this one & godspeed!

Appreciation of the radio, early Genesis & Keep Going Radio kick this episode off but our main topic is on the importance of racing various race distances for all runners. We cover how training for & racing different race distances is incredibly beneficial for all runners. We hope you enjoy this one...
Godspeed, friends, godspeed. 

We start with Steve's experience of the "Fuck You Beer" & move into much more important matters like Michael's discontinuing of Atreyu's iconic Base Model. We recorded this episode on December 12, 2024. It seems important to mention this at the outset of this episode. There is a lot of early chatter around bodily functions - yikes Steve - but it is all a part of what we appreciate about this podcast: conversation. 
There is a lot in this discussion around endings, getting older, dying & the Tibetan Book of the Dead. 
Par for the course over here in Austin, Texas. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

Please join us in a discursive, yet oddly flowing conversation exploring the paradoxes around being an Artist.
 
For more on Michael's analogy of "a vending machine on Mars" see below, curated from the Atreyu Running's newsletter that you should be subscribed to: 

I have this philosophy about goal-setting: it’s about daring to transcend the logical confines of a reasonable outcome. For instance, if we aim to move from a 4 to a 7 on a 1–10 scale (any goal, any task), I find myself best served by aspiring toward a 15, only to land, serendipitously, on an 8 or a 9. Occasionally, I even achieve an 11, and have the opportunity to recalibrate my prior boundaries of excellence. Magic.

The audacity of the goal is something to revere and embrace. The storytelling boldness alone has the capacity to catapult us beyond the familiar, pushing us into uncharted territory: the “exploration zone.” It allows us to glide gracefully over the incremental steps required to achieve the goal. Yes, those small victories are vital, but shooting for the audacious 15 becomes the beacon that keeps us inspired and invigorated in the pursuit.

With that said, I am renewing my commitment to this challenge of the world's first vending machine in space. If humanity ever ascends to the point of running marathons in space, I fervently hope Atreyu is the title sponsor of the race, outfitting you with marathon finisher metal worthy of the stars.

Wishing you boundless success in your own endeavors as you reach for the seemingly unattainable. Dream big, and always remember: Huge goals are a mosaic of tiny victories, thoughtfully strung together in an extraordinary way.

_michael

P.S. A shoe is just a shoe until you imbue it with meaning. I hope your Atreyus carry you on an adventure that’s nothing short of extraordinary.

We hope you enjoy this conversation. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

Neither of your two intrepid co-hosts planned to continue to explore, analyze & interrogate "the race experience", but here we are. The past few months have followed Michael's preparation & execution for the 2024 Detroit Marathon & we covered significant prep/debrief in episodes 71 & 72. Then in episode 73 we discussed the importance of felt-sense for training & racing thinking we'd moved on...& that was not the case. in this discussion, I felt it was really important to unpack more a specific comment Michael made in the episode on felt-sense. Here we unpack this in much greater detail. 
This episode was recorded on November 7th but will be released almost a month later because we took a break for The Running Event (TRE) & Thanksgiving. I made the executive decision to release our November 14th conversation earlier to coincide with when The Running Event is actually happening. 
We'll be back with you in December. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

This episode is released as The Running Event (TRE) - an annual trade conference for the running industry - is in full swing in our hometown of Austin, Texas. As a provocation, I asked Micheal the question "What's New In Running?" thinking we might just skate along the surface. Instead, Michael unloads in an open & honest reflection of the thoughts, insights & fears surrounding the business side of the business of running. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed.