Keep Going

The nature of human endeavor is to keep moving, to keep pressing forward. What is it about the human condition that looks forward & plans? We've all nodded knowingly when someone quotes, "Man plans; God laughs." & yet, we're incorrigible planners. In this episode, Michael & I break down our 2023 experience of this crazy life & look forward to whatever 2024 might bring. Maybe you are already tired of our personal reflections or, in general, are experiencing  "year in review" fatigue. If so, maybe skip this one. But we hope you'll join us if only to get a clearer understanding of the themes that this podcast is constantly mining for ways that we can steal the culture. So we're using the tried & true method of reflection to help us peer ahead & see what might be around the next corner. Join us for the episode we call "Your Life Is Here For You Right Now: A Reflection". Happy New Year, y'all. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

This is an episode that has a lot really personal revelations. I felt maybe it was a little too personal, entering TMI zone from my perspective, but Michael's trip to Japan has become so important to his overall worldview & the direction he is beginning to be called to take Atreyu & his own creative journey. It would be remiss to let this episode sit on the cutting room floor, so consider it a Christmas gift from Michael & I to you in this holiday season. We recorded this right after his trip, in mid-November & much of the discussion is devoted to the unique beauty of Japanese running culture. We eventually move on to how travel, journeys & running in on & in country have changed our lives. 
We hope you enjoy unpacking this audio gift we call, On Japan & Journeys: Personal Reflections on Running Culture. 
We'll see you again in 2024. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

Ahhh, the iconic Lou Reed with singing the title to this week's Keep Going podcast. In this episode, Michael & I finally get back to a specific running training topic. We wax poetic, abound locquatious platitudes & reach toward the profound. All in search of the perfect long run. 
Thank your for listening to Keep Going & if you want this podcast to reach others like you, give us a rating or review wherever you drop into these conversations. Not that we really care that much...it's like Christmas comes every Thursday for us. 
Here's the episode we call, A Perfect Day: On the Long Run.
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

In this episode of the Keep Going podcast, Michael & discuss some of the implications around a recent podcast episode discussing various aspects of GenX culture that inspired us. You can view this at Howl in the Wilderness' YouTube channel or search Erik Davis, Is Generation X Still Relevant? HITW 125, in your podcatcher of relevance.
We get started talking about the recent The Running Event in Austin & how that experience impacted Michael & Atreyu. We bow deeply to Anthony Bourdain & get really hot under the collar around the idea of selling out. Good luck hanging on to the twists & turns in this one. But stay with us...there is gold in them thar hills. 
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

In this episode, we break down what is really happening when we gain fitness. I sense that there is a pretty big misunderstanding around the actual mechanisms, the levers that we pull to develop fitness. What transpires is an episode that explores the subtle & & not so subtle mindset shifts that are required to truly maximize the training & our thinking around the training, the recovery & all the other things that we consider when we consider fitness. 
Thank you for listening. 
Without further ado, we bring you the episode we call A Pebble on the Beach of Your Fitness. 
Godspeed my friends, godspeed. 

This episode is in honor of Lightenin' Larry Bright. Larry was an athlete I coached, a coach I mentored & a friend with whom I shared miles & smiles & tears. Larry took his own life recently & I want to take this opportunity to ask each of you to reach out to someone you know today to tell them you care for them. We never know how our actions might positively impact a friend or colleague who may need your touch. Do not miss this opportunity. We are all interconnected & what happens to one of us, happens to all of us. 
 
In this episode, Michael & I debrief our experience at the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. I came away from the race, which by nearly all metrics was an unmitigated success, feeling a shadow lingering. Every athlete either set a personal best or ran better than they had hoped. But because one athlete in our group was trying to qualify for the US Olympic Trials, the stakes seemed even higher than usual. She missed the required mark after staying on pace for over 20 miles, yet her ability to hold sub-6 minute miles became frustratingly untenable. She still set PR & slipped under the 2:40 barrier but our entire group all felt a sense of sadness that was palpable even as we celebrated post-race. 

Michael & I work through this ambiguity & its shadow in this episode. Hopefully you can resonate & learn from our shared exploration in this episode we call Embracing Uncertainty: Patter & Chaos in Assessing Results.
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

In this episode, your intrepid hosts try something new. We didn't feel like we had enough of a robust topic to fill our usual 60-75 minute conversational window, so we decided to cobble something together & see if it adheres. Likely it doesn't but each of these topics felt like they needed to be aired, so here we are airing them out. 
In the first third of the episode, we discuss my favorite album of all time - Talk Talk's Laughingstock. Their final album, released in 1991 which is - in my opinion - as close to a perfect ablum as can be found. I was confident Michael would really enjoy it but it took hims a while to get around to putting the headphones on & giving it a spin...or stream...or whatever. 
In the second third we discuss Michael's recent triathlon, a 70.3 Half Iron in Waco, Texas. Since we've peppered many of our recent epsiodes with tidbits from Michael's training, we felt it timely & instructive to do a little post-mortem. 
& finally, we took a listener's recent comment to me that they'd like a little more tangible training & racing tactics from the podcast. So we end up discussing whether or not we should give the people what they want. 
If there is something you want, drop us a line. Send an email to me at sisson at telosrunning dot com or, if you like this shit, give us a rating or review wherever you get your podcast consumables. We hope this episode finds you healthy, happy & hale. & please, god speed, my friends, godspeed. 

The conversations Michael & I have sometimes feel like therapy. There is the sense that we can work out whatever happens to be front & center in our personal & professional lives through talking it out every Thursday morning at his condo. That's pretty much what psychotherapy is designed to do. Holding ourselves accountable for the choices we make is radical responsibility: from waking up & getting out the door on those stormy mornings to battling the inner & outer demons that feel like they want to devour us where we sit. 
I mention the book Tough by Greg Everett in this episode & I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the mental side of training. In this book, Everett talks about Character, Capacity, Capability. There is a the fourth C I forgot when mentioning it in this discussion, which is Commitment.  Interestingly enough, commitment is action & practice. This sets us off on a deeper exploration of a concept I have been unpacking since the pandemic, when many of us lost our purpose because races were cancelled. What follows here is a conversation that gets pretty personal, especially for Michael. We wondered whether or not to release this episode because of its sensitive nature, its raw bloody revelation of the struggle we have in our day to day lives. What is authenticity? What is true to our core essential nature? & why does running sometimes feel like a slick sales job designed to sell us something. Michaels & I are businessmen. We are entrepreneurs operating in late Western capitalism, attempting to both provide for our families & to change the running culture. This conversation reveals just how hard that work can be. 
& we know we are not alone. We know you also feel this paradox of wanting the next new thing that will make you better, faster, sexier, cooler at your next race & knowing, with everything you hold dear, with every ounce of your godforsaken soul that running cannot be capitalized upon, that - at its essence - running is pure being. That is all. 
So if you resonate with this episode, let us know. Drop us a line. Give this podcast a rating or share how it makes you think & feel. Because the only way we steal this culture is when we all show up & practice our bliss. 

An episode where we talk about the foundations & fundamentals of footwear. 

Coming at you with back to back episodes this week...a little 2 fer 1 action.  We have a little back log in the Keep Going pipeline & decided to try to get caught up. We are doing this because we've started recoding video for the podcast & are now on YouTube, check out the link below or search Atreyu Running over there & you'll find us gesticulating & oscillating wildly...just jamming multiple Smiths references in one episode. If we didn't these out, they'd end up all soft & moldy in my hard drive & nobody wants that. So here we go. I expect we'll toss another two episodes at you next week, as well. We'll see.
In this one, we talk about how to choose a race. We talk timing, seasons & race distances & I throw out three potentially useful categories of races that might help you in considering & selecting your races in the upcoming months. So without further ado, we bring you the episode we call Locals, Classics & Epics: How To Select A Race.
Godspeed, my friends, godspeed.
Atreyu Running's YouTube channel, where we've started posting the video accompaniment to these audio recordings.