Keep Going

The final planned episode of the Keep Going podcast is a running homage to Town Lake & Austin, Texas. We've enjoyed being on this ride with all of you. We'll see you down the road. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

The (second to) last episode of the Keep Going podcast. In this final conversation, we talk about why this the end, for now. & what we've loved about these conversations. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

This episode breaks down an iconic & specific key session in the Telos Running marathon program as Michael prepares for the 2025 Chicago Marathon. The Dance is a marathon specific session that, on paper, looks like the following:2M warm-up6 sets of 2M at Marathon Goal Pace w/ 1M Float (continuous)0-2M cool-downJoin us as we dissect Michael's experience of this particular session. We hit on heart rate, paces vs efforts, how to adjust in session, etc.We hope you enjoy this deep dive on one race specific session. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

In this episode of the Keep Going podcast, your hosts talk about running's special gifts, many of which are not recognized or valued by the wider running culture. This leads up to one of our favorite artist's least catchy, most deep songs: For The Sake Of The Song by Townes van Zandt. We spend the remainder of the episode expounding on the ways running explores, expands & enhances the human condition. It does get a little deep here. Roll up you pants & jump in, the waters fine.

In this wide ranging episode we trace how being the best at what you do can play into a beautiful life. Dave Matthews Band, politics & if racing is dying off are the framing points but where we end up is being excellent is a personal journey. 

We hit another four quick takes this week & we relate much of this to the idea of training by feel. We also talk about the Breaking 4 performance before the event happens. Performance: what is the optimal time of day to train?Progress: when do we know we are fit?Pain: varieties of painBreaking 4

In this very special episode, Michael shares his Atreyu journey. Having recently announced that Atreyu would not be continuing to produce shoes & would be shutting down at the end of 2025, Steve asks Michael some questions about his Atreyu journey. This episode is not the whole story, by any stretch, but it is a conversation around what really matters. We hope you enjoy this candid conversation around Michael's Atreyu journey. Godspeed, friends; godspeed. 

Welcome to Riffs! In this experimental episode in which we unpack four distinct topics in 10-15 minute segments instead of one topic over an hour. The Riff topics are: WaterstopsHungerRace Day Fitness IndicatorsRainIf you like this format, please send us a few topics/concepts that you'd like us to riff on & we'll pull them all together in our next Riffs episode.  

In this episode Michael calls Steve out on his administration of hilly routes for easy long runs. We talk about hills, easy running & how hills can become your superpower. Godspeed, friends, godspeed. Note the inclusion of the fantastic Iron Maiden song, Run To The Hills from the classic album, The Number of the Beast.

An extended conversation/diatribe on the value of growth & Late Western Capitalism. We loosely pull in running in a few places but this is definitely way of the beaten path. There does seem to be something in the air, relative to the unhappiness many of feel about the current state of the world: politically, economically & culturally. We hope you enjoy this conversation. Godspeed, friends, godspeed.

An invitation to join the experimental Training By Feel Project which will follow an approach of training by feel for any race between 5K & a marathon this fall. If you are interested reach out to me directly at sisson at telosrunning dot com. Also, we are looking for listener input on topics for Michael & Steve to riff on for a maximum of 15 minutes. We'll take your topics & curate them with others of our own & the Telos Running community to put out a couple of hot/cold takes on any topic you'd like us to riff on. Just reach out at the email above. This one is super short & sweet, ya'll. Godspeed. 

This is the initial exploration of an experiment we are planning for this fall. Listen along & look for the next episode - a solo one by Steve unpacking & presenting the project more concretely. Reach out if if you have any questions: sisson at telosrunning dot com. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

Even though we didn't plan this episode to link up so well with the last one (see Ep 88: Liminal Running (Part I): Breaking Frames), it just does. A continued bending of the tariffs impact on Atreyu & Michael's livelihood with one of Steve's major philosophical positions, soul-style. We really catch a groove here & are interested in your feedback, if you've got any. Thanks for listening, we truly appreciate our listeners. Godspeed, y'all, godspeed. 

Man, this podcast is so fucking cool. I mean, it certainly is an acquired taste - like nattō or Limburger cheese or Mr Twit's Odious Ale - but when it hits, it hits. This episode (88) should be paired with the next episode (89, duh) in terms of full on Keep Going. We sense we are getting into rarified air, if lack of oxygen is your thing, in these two epsiodes of sharing our personal experiences alongside some pop culture references & our continued anti-running culture vibes. We are't likely gonna win over any new listeners with tour views, but we will continue to explore the liminal spaces of running experience.  We really can't categorize these two episode so just trust us: a mouthful of nattō is NOT a bad thing. Godspeed, expeditionaries, godspeed. 

A little musical prelude where we talk about Dan Reeder, Ted Lucas & Charles Bukowski before we wander back into the AI discourse on our way to what beauty & art mean in our current crazy world. Steve asks Michael about these damn tariffs & we all get a great education on the struggles & strategies around running a small businessFor more on this please don't miss Michael's heartful & revealing Tariff Talk on his YouTube channel.  This discussion was recorded on April 3rd & Michael's talk was released a week after this episode. At the time of this episode's release, there were 3.3K views & 182 comments on the video: that's a good bit of discussion around a critical issue for all of the running shoe industry. Consider this discussion as an early iteration on Michael's thinking around the challenges these tariffs will create. We hope you enjoy 

Cross training is always a fruitful topic & one we haven't really explored together on this podcast. Michael makes his arguments for why cycling & swimming are really optimal cross training options for the serious runner. We also discuss the longterm potential of this podcast, take a listener's recommendations really seriously & ask any of our consistently listeners to chime in on requested topic suggestions. This one is for all our dedicated listeners. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed. 

Of of our heroes is the late, great Townes van Zandt & this episode is named after one of his great albums. In this episode we loop back to the ideas of running as Practice & running as Pursuit that we unpacked many months ago. 

Note: If you tried to listen to this early on Monday, March 10th, we'd uploaded a repeat of last week's episode. This has been corrected. If you downloaded it prior to our correction, you may need to refresh to get the actual episode. Sorry for any confusion. Your intrepid hosts were completely winging it on this one & we thought it might end up on the cutting room floor. Then we decided that we among friends here so why not air out some crazy thoughts & theories. Certainly we meant for there to be more levity & laughter on this one but we ended up getting into the competitive world of distance running & Michael is still waiting for the sport to create format & delivery upgrades before he'll really dive into the sport. Steve gets angry, sad & a more than a little sensitive. We end up shaking hands but it got a little spicy here for a hot minute.  Trend Topics Include:Footwear ApparelTraining GroupsJoy of RunningThen an hour long argument around what it would take for there to be more fans of the sport. 

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.