On The Long Run

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: 

The Mission Protocol. 

The Brief is the Vision. The intention is the Seed. Training is the water/ground/conditions.  Rest & recovery are the Harvest. The Debrief is the Full Belly & Story/Map for future Vision. 

As mentioned in the episode, please see the Google Document entitled THE MISSION PROTOCOL for tracking the content of this episode & future reference. 

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 

• The Big Picture View
• Training Weaknesses Early & Strengths Late
• Intentions
• Overcoming a Toxic Running Culture
• The Felt Sense
• An Anatomy of Soul
• Staying Open 
• Brief & Debrief
• Pattern Recognition & Reversal
• Being in process 

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

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
Spotify: RunGnosis: arête
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. 

This intro is from Cat Power's recently released live album Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert. 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. 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. 
I also mention our first conversation titled Q&A: On Planning Mental Training.
Also, the title of this episode is taken from a quote Bill mentions repeatedly from Andrea Lytle Peet. 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:

• The Art of Running: Grace & A Beautiful Race
• This Podcast Is Our Therapy (The Practice) 
• Embracing Uncertainty: Pattern & Chaos in Assessing Results

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, 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.