Running On Purpose
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In a another of our Innnerwork Dialogues, Kobe & I unpack a key concept from an early In The Zone episode more fully. We discuss the hazards of judgement. Please join us
Happy Vernal Equinox 2024. Last night at 10pm we shifted seasons. This marks the scientific & mythic transition from winter into spring. It’s associated with Easter & the death burial & resurrection of Christ & the temporary return of Persphone, goddess of Spring, from her enslavement in the underworld with Hades for the rejuvenation of the crops & cycle of agriculture. For many runners, it marks the final preparations for the annual pilgrimage to Hopkinton & the most desired starting line experience on the planet, the Boston Marathon. It marks for HSers the beginning of outdoor season, cut grass & the taste of blood at the finish of track races. I want to use this opportunity to highlight the importance of cycles & rhythms in a runner’s life. For so many athletes I see a disregard for the season & cycles of life that make a significant impact on our bodies, minds & souls.
I am back with Kobe of the In The Zone podcast, where we are primarily focused on the inner game of running. What are the varieties of inner experience, that some may call spiritual, & how to they impact our training & racing. In this specific episode we explore the concept of "goallessness" or framing one's running experience without the typical overriding focus on goals & outcomes. Using Kobe's recent training focus away from outcomes & toward process, we dive really deep into som of my very favorite topics: the importance to have varied racing & training experiences to become a more complete runner, how process can open up much greater fitness, how running ins a path with heart, & various other modes of appreciating how limiting goals & expectations can be in our training & racing experiences. I hope you enjoy this episode I call On "Goallessness" & Process. Godspeed my friends, godspeed.
Where I announce the Endorphin Book Club, a community for runners who read or readers who run. If you are interested in joining us please reach out to me directly via email at sisson at telosrunning dot com.
In this essential episode, I walk through the single most important protocol one can implement this year & in the future for vastly improving their performance in training & racing. There is a ton of very important information here. It can be distilled as follows: As mentioned in the episode, please see the Google Document entitled THE MISSION PROTOCOL https://docs.google.com/document/d/1beddq4pUvQPWANW58GoiuJVEaDo3KWWOHpU-iK5Ll2c/edit?usp=sharing for tracking the content of this episode & future reference.
“The bad news is that you are falling through the air, there is nothing to hang onto, and you have no parachute. The good news is that there is no ground.” ~Chögyam Trungpa We are back in conversation with Kobe Blondeel from In The Zone podcast for another of what we are calling The Innerwork Dialogues. Our goal with these discussions is to begin to attempt to sketch the outline & form of a concrete & practical approach to incorporating & exploring the spiritual path with running. We cover a lot of ground in this conversation. A few of the __ __ In the final 20 minutes, Steve brings forward an actual, real life example of how a spiritual approach (process in this case) can improve an athlete's training & racing experience in potentially evidential ways. & Kobe discusses how a "failure" experience of trying to run under 20 hours in a recent 100M event, where he finished 4 hours slower than his goal. & yet, he was deeply moved by how he was still possible to tap into the love of the process. At the end of the episode we ask your to reach out to us if have specific questions or examples so we can use them to help clarify our point. We hope you are encouraged & inspired by this episode to continue to take risks & dive into your next challenge. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed.
If you are anything like me, you probably listen to a lot of podcasts. I mean, here you are, listening to this one now. & it can be challenging to process the content in a long, deep episode & come away with concrete, actionable takeaways. I'll be listening to an episode & have a note file started on my phone so I can jot down key insights or inspiring ideas I want to develop later. If this is you, you are going to love my guest this week. Charlotte Grysolle is an online writer who distills in her weekly newsletter "tools & resources to experiment with your mental and physical performance • Guaranteed to teach you something new about your mind and body in just 15 minutes per week". She calls it Stretch Letter & there is a link below to subscribe to it. & it's free. & it is chock full of practical content. & that content is highly applicable for runners of all levels as she is a runner herself & uses the newsletter to work through the experiments & practices she researches. Stretch Letter comes out each Friday & I invariably read it the day it arrives.I believe you will, as well. I was so excited to talk with Charlotte & hope you'll find the conversation as stimulating & inspiring as I did. Topics we cover in this episode are Charlotte's running journey, our future admission into the Andrew Huberman Fan Club, understanding the nervous system, the importance of breath for runners & considering our "future self in relation to goal setting. Links Charlotte's Stretch Letter https://www.charlottegrysolle.com/newsletter/
This episode is filled with gold. While the recording quality was abysmal - totally a fault of my using a recording system I was unaccustomed to - the discussion is phenomenal. I as mentioned in the last RoP episode, sometime getting more context & discussion around the heady, meta foundation of worldview can be challenging. This discussion has many takeaways & practical applications that would have taken me too much time to articulate in a solo episode. On tip of that, I hope to coax my interlocutor - my brother in soul & the run, Jason Brooks - to continue where we started with these episodes. If you like this discussion, there are several more in this short-lived podcast experiment under the show name arête or RunGnosis. Below are links on Apple Podcasts & Spotify. Apple: RunGnosis: arête https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ar%C3%AAte/id1618485316 Spotify: RunGnosis: arête https://open.spotify.com/show/2n0kd96MNco3nEinabm3Z3?si=7eccf7af1519473e As usual, I am honored by your ears & attention. I simply ask you bring these ideas forward & apply them in your personal running journey. My goal is to revision running & steal the toxic culture of acquisition & outcomes over the freedom & fluid process of self-discovery & soul-making. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed.
Because something is happening here but you don't know what it is Do you, Mr. Jones? -Bob Dyan, Ballad of a Thin Man This intro is from Cat Power's recently released live album I highly recommend this album & of course the various originals Dylan himself released. This episode takes this quote as inspiration for exploring worldviews as foundation for running, training & racing.
In this Thanksgiving special episode, I interview Bill Corrigan an athlete I have worked with for over four years who was diagnosed almost two years ago with ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease. https://donate.als.org/give/314333/?gclid=CjwKCAiAx_GqBhBQEiwAlDNAZpprhmoshtCXQmFVaRhWlxN3rLx1iqkGjwnrIAvziGNlPJASb5NN_RoCDC4QAvD_BwE#!/donation/checkout?utm_source=search&utm_medium=paidads&utm_campaign=google_GT&c_src=search&c_src2=google_GT What follows is an inspiring & moving conversation around how this disease has changed Bill's life & how much we all have to be grateful for. Happy Thanksgiving & godspeed, my friends. At the end of the episode, Bill mentions his fundraiser for Boston this year, HERE IS A LINK. https://bit.ly/endals I also mention our first conversation titled Q&A: On Planning Mental Training https://share.transistor.fm/s/2ec37d58. Also, the title of this episode is taken from a quote Bill mentions repeatedly from Andrea Lytle Peet https://www.teamdrea.org/about/. Definitely check out her inspiring story.
In this solo episode, I develop my thesis that running is best understood & experienced as a movement practice. Here I unpack various arguments & points of view where the focus of most runners on training & racing is missing a huge opportunity & is a fundamental misunderstanding of what we are doing as runners. While this might seem a bit dry or meta, I sincerely hope you'll consider following me down this path. I use it as a foundation for running & the conversations that will continue n this podcast will be using this idea of running as a movement practice as a core principle. I have unpacked this idea repeatedly in conversation with Michael Krajicek on the Keep Going podcast, be here I present a much more comprehensive argument. So if this is a little too much, consider listening to the following episodes: __ __ I mention at the outset of this episode that I am developing a program I am calling Foundations of Running which is designed for intermediate & advanced runners to get back to basics & find core principles & processes for grounding their running in deeper & more pragmatic modes of being. More on that to come. Please enjoy this episode I call Our Birthright: Running as Movement Practice. Godspeed my friends, godspeed.
This episode is the first in a series of readings I am calling the Endorphin Book Club. The EBC - which really should be called the Endocannabinoid Book Club to honor recent scientific discovery but we'll keep it simpler & nostalgic - scratches an itch that I have always wanted to scratch: classic texts in running history read in audiobook style to relive & honor great running history & writing. The first take on this concept is a reading of my favorite running writer, Kenny Moore, who died in the summer of 2022. This essay/article comes from his classic book, Best Efforts https://www.amazon.com/Best-Efforts-World-Class-Runners/dp/0385172230, which is out of print & difficult to find. The essay I selected in one of my favorites in the iconic book about the Australian distance runner, Ron Clarke. I hope you enjoy this reading. Let me know what you think! You can find out how to reach me in the episode itself.
I am very excited to introduce a new series & co-host to the RoP podcast. Over the summer I found a podcast created by a Belgian runner & coach, Kobe Blondeel, that addressed topics that I felt resonated the essential shift in consciousness that was undergoing around running as a spiritual practice. Kobe hosts In The Zone https://open.spotify.com/show/6GQzlEnO7FhRH3VenC2P0c & his early episodes were a mix of solo discussions around his experiences as an athlete & coach around deep philosophical & spiritual modes of being a runner with his travelogue of running across Belgium. Suffice it to say, I had a bit of envy around the courage & insightfulness Kobe brought to these discussions. I highly recommend listening to episodes #11, https://open.spotify.com/episode/4LzYyfkNE6CtwYKjdpABtL#12 https://open.spotify.com/episode/6up9qFHFjbvWNBeu6g4qKG & #28 https://open.spotify.com/episode/0nPt9p2rP84Nt4IznVAt9Z as introductions to his inimitable style. So I reached out to Kobe to see if he would consider a collaboration. I was planning the reboot of this podcast. I was committed to a mix of solo, co-hosted & interview type content & felt that Kobe - if he was game - would be a really valuable conversation partner. I think my initial Instagram message to him gave him some pause, however. Who is this crazy old dude vibing on his weird content? But thankfully he respectfully responded that perhaps we could meet to explore common ground & potential collaboration. Our first conversation can be found on on his In The Zone podcast under the title, Steve Sisson: running as a spiritual path https://open.spotify.com/episode/4CW3ekq2KJjZym9An2Uf2Q & I highly recommend you give it a listen if you want a little more background & how we worked out what we were even trying to accomplish with our conversations. That episode went well enough for us to commit to an ongoing collaboration/co-hosting of our discussions on each of our podcast platforms. What follows here is us beginning to work out the details on what we think we can unfold & offer the running community that hasn't ever been done before. I mean this...I believe we are doing something novel in the space of running podcasts; we are stating emphatically that running is a path with heart, a spiritual practice that can be & mined for deep inner wisdom & practical benefit to our experience of moving through space. I'll let you decide if this is your particular cup of tea. In this episode we introduce the series & discuss our point of views; setting the stage for a deeper dive into our argument framing Belief as the essential starting point for our conversations. As Kobe summarizes in this episode: we have conscious & subconscious beliefs, most of them subconscious, & a belief actually runs as a sub pattern in our physiology, it’s something that we observe in our inner experience. These patterns show up in our lives, both negatively & positively, & are the programs we operate on to help us filter for the good shit we want in our life, & filter out the bad shit. So running has the opportunity to become a testing ground of these beliefs & how they serve us. I provide a specific method for assessing & managing challenging feeling states, using the prompt “Is this real?” to help with decisionmaking in a training or racing environment. I also delve into what he calls “the natural state” as our foundational & fundamental birthright, which needs to be claimed for any truly skillful approach to these challenging feeling states. The first hour unpacks the concept but in the last half hour Kobe & I both explore the practices of meditation, contemplation & prayer as core practices for deepening & expanding our running experiences. So much good stuff buried in this episode. I hope you enjoy this conversation & join us for the future ones coming up in this series I call the Innerwork Dialogues: Belief as Container & Fuel for Sensemaking Godspeed, my friends, Godspeed.
As I was putting the finishing touches on the episode I planned to release today, I realized it might be helpful to discuss what I see purpose meaning now - in the fall of 2023 - vs how I framed it three years ago. This episode is a revisioning of what I mean by "running on purpose" & how I am doubling down on the concept, if in a slightly modified version. A meandering meditation, free-form & floating along. I hope you enjoy. Godspeed.
Wherein your host, Steve Sisson, marks the return of the podcast from a three year hiatus. This episode reintroduces the new reboot of the Running on Purpose with a Who, What Where, When & Why for this return. It's been a long time coin', but Sisson is BAAAA-AAACCCKKKK!
Show Notes Full Video of this Episode (YOUTUBE https://youtu.be/-VRrgaX_Hnk) Deena's Essential "Instructional" Memoir at AMAZON https://www.amazon.com/Let-Your-Mind-Run-Thinking/dp/1524760757 Full video of 2003 London Marathon (PART I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyUThmV0630) (PART II https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMGXzFb1N-I) Footage of the 2001 World Championships 10,000m Race (YOUTUBE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3QaKRvZS50) Deena book recommendations -BY SHAWN ACOR AT AMAZON https://www.amazon.com/Shawn-Achor/dp/1524761532/ref=pd_lpo_14_t_1/144-7976529-5979561?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1524761532&pd_rd_r=9daed606-b849-49f9-98c0-bad86f5d0271&pd_rd_w=OynAv&pd_rd_wg=oJF4m&pf_rd_p=7b36d496-f366-4631-94d3-61b87b52511b&pf_rd_r=74SR76EX15ARY2KAFBDY&psc=1&refRID=74SR76EX15ARY2KAFBDY - BY ANDREA MEAD LAWNRECE AT AMAZON https://www.amazon.com/practice-mountains-Andrea-Mead-Lawrence/dp/0872235939 ($$$!) - BY JOSH WAITZKIN AT AMAZON https://www.amazon.com/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Performance-ebook/dp/B000QCQ970 00:00 - In da Club/Intro 6:30 - Women's Marathoning from 1985-2003 12:00 - Protagonists 12:00 - Catherine Ndereba 16:30 - Paula Radcliffe 24:10 - Deena Kastor 40:00 - Other Protagonists 45:00 - Lead-up & Race Discussion 1:18:15 - 2004 Athens Olympics 1:30:00 - Open Discussion with Deena 1:37:00 - Excellence vs Success 1:46:50 - Deena's book and other favorite books 1:58:00 - Deena signs off, Jeff and Steve wrap up
YOUTUBE VIDEO LINK https://youtu.be/_4pCkLMPqJE Only 18 months after making the decision to train seriously, Dick Beardsley drives the best marathoner in world beyond his limits in the world's best marathon. How does an upstart develop so quickly in such little time? Listen to this interview & you'll find out. After our inaugural episode of Legends, covering the 1982 Boston Marathon & the iconic Duel in the Sun, we had an opportunity to interview Dick Beardsley. This interview runs the gamut, from history & reflections on his running career to a deep sharing of personal tragedy & loss. But the current running underneath the narrative is Dick's love for life, others & the simple act of moving through space. It was an honor to conduct this interview & hope you find it as moving as we did.
EPISODE BREAKDOWN 0:00 - Introduction of Legends 10:45 - Culture & Running Scene in 1982 17:55 - Background on Race Protagonists 34:55 - Race Discussion & Analysis 51:00 - The Race Finale 1:00:15 - Career Epilogue 1:13:15 - Hot Takes on Alberto 1:27:00 - Final Questions about Race LINKS Boston Marathon 1982 Video footage - https://www.runnerspace.com/video.php?video_id=62014 Duel in the Sun - https://www.amazon.com/Duel-Sun-Beardsley-Americas-Greatest/dp/1594866287
A dialogue with Bill Corrigan on how to set up a metal training plan. Bill asks if there is a periodization model we can use to optimize our mental game in running & racing. Recorded before the outbreak of COVID-19 on March 6th.
In this episode we discuss life on lockdown & how we recommend silence & resilience as tools for coping with change & uncertainty. We end with one key session you can add now that will pay huge dividends down the road.
A wide ranging, honest dialogue about how injury impacts running & life. We start off talking about the US Marathon Olympic Trials & move into the specifics of how Tomek became injured, how he struggled with diagnosis, how it impacted his overall wellbeing & what he's going to be bringing to his running & his community as he returns back to full health. I mention late in the podcast about the need for community when athletes are injured. We are considering creating a community of Injured Reserves who can commiserate, compare, discuss & stay in community while they recover from injury. If you are interested in helping us create this community, please reach out to me at sisson@telosrunning.com & use the subject Injured Reserve.
A Question & Answer episode on playing a long game in your running.
I. Preparatory Work: __ __ II.Align Your Fitness/Circumstances with Your Objective __ How Likely Are You To Achieve Your Goal__ __ How To Assess Your Fitness__ __ Personal Strengths/Weaknesses__ Mental Space__ __ __ Course Concerns__ Course Challenges: Do Your Homework__ Look At Map/Elevation Profile__ __ __ Uphills/Downhills__ __ If Training Has Not Factored in The Specifics of Your Challenging Course?__ __ __ Weather IS. But it WILL affect performance.__ Heat & Humidity__ __ Should/When/How You Adjust?__ __ __ __ III. Make The Plan __ Decide & Execute__ Big Picture: Tell The Story/Your Why__ Two Basic Approaches:__ __ __ Details: Mile By Mile Or Gates?__ Mile By Mile__ __ Gates__ __ __ __ __ IV. Check Your Work __ __
The first in an ongoing series of short exhortations or "rants", if you will. This week I discuss the essential & necessary aspects of suffering in our training & racing.
THE LONG RUN What Even Is a Long Run? Why It Matters __ All Distances (800m to Marathoners/Ultramarathoners)__ __ Special Concern for Marathoners__ __ __ What Happens in the Long Run Physiologically __ Enhancing aerobic development at the cellular level__ __ __ Long Run Adaptors vs Long Run Breakdown __ __ Hanson’s 16M Long Run - Luke Humphrey’s (https://lukehumphreyrunning.com/hansons-marathon-method-the-16-miler/) __ Time Factor: Balancing the Benefits of Aerobic Development with the structural damage of long runs. The Hanson’s Method argues that over 3 hours is very costly. I agree. & if you are a 4 hour + marathoner, there are hard choices to make. Do you prepare for the distance of the race? Or do you follow a more conservative approach? To me it comes down to the likelihood of injury or burnout. __ 12/mile pace: 16M - 3:12; 20M - 4:00 __ __
In this episode Steve discusses: __ __ Enjoy! Telos Running has a new FREE Base Building program beginning February 3rd called, Basecamp. You can find out more at www.telosrunning.com/basecamp
ROP 12 - ON YOUR WHY: CREATING A RUNNING PURPOSE (PART II) QUICK REVIEW FROM LAST WEEK: __ How to get started:__ Write a Letter to Running (LtR) that discusses __ __ __ __ CREATE A PURPOSE STATEMENT __ Take the tested threads & weave them into a statement. __ __ SoP 2.0__ __ __ __ LIVE YOUR PURPOSE __ You’ll want to do daily, weekly, monthly check ins on your Purpose. __ DAILY: Set a timer on your phone or watch to look back at your SoP daily. Do this consistently & you’ll eventually have it memorized. Then it will evolve, morph & change as you reflect on it. It will become a living document, one that informs, sustains & inspires you to be your best self, to recognize your inherent value. WEEKLY: You should be doing a weekly reflection on your training. This allows you to check in not only on the physical training you did in the week but to also reflect on the emotional, psychological & bioenergetic experience of your training. If you are doing this then starting off your weekly reflection by detailing how your Running Purpose served you that week can really deepen the value & experience of your SoP. It’s like a mission statement for your running & the consistency of your being aligned with your purpose will significantly improve your training at all levels. MONTHLY: I highly recommend a deeper dive into your SoP each month. Carve out 30 min to an hour to take your SoP, your four weekly reflections & read them. Then start again with the mind mapping brainstorming process that started this whole journey all over again. Don’t worry about anything: redundancy, ridiculousness, vulnerability, etc. Just take a deep breath & start the process over again. When you finish, look over the mind map & consider it in relation to your SoP. How has your purpose evolved or changed? Are there greater depths to your purpose that need to be folded into your statement? Any new languaging or images that can deepen the experience of living your running purpose, day to day. __ __ SOME ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS __ __ If you are interested in being guided through this process of finding your running purpose, Steve can help. He is also completing a certification in Purpose Guiding, which expands the search for purpose into all of life. If you are interested in that, you can check out our website (www.telosrunning.com/purpose-guide http://www.telosrunning.com/purpose-guide) or reach me directly at sisson@telosrunning.com. I look forward to hearing from you.
