Podcast appearances and mentions of neal stephenson seveneves

Im Rahmen der “Lob und Verriss” Sommerpause die Rezension eines Buches aus dem Jahr 2015.  Ein wirklicher Urlaubsschmöker mit Tiefgang, und natürlich wusste Neal Stephenson mal wieder viel mehr über unsere Zukunft als alle anderen.Holy f*****g s**t, Neal. Neal, Neal, Neal Neal, Neal.. Was machst Du hier mit uns?Neal Stephenson hat einen Roman geschrieben, der unendlich deprimierend ist. Und genauso grenzenlos empfehlbar. Es ist seit langem ein Roman, bei dem man 200 Seiten im Buch nicht das Ende ahnt. Es kommt alles ganz anders. Ganz anders. Deshalb hier mit einem Katzenbild von der Rezension getrennt die Bitte an alle, die Starke Nerven und ein positives Gemüt haben, sofort abzuschalten und sich Neal Stephensons unaussprechlich betitelten Roman “Seveneves”, auf Deutsch “Amalthea” zu holen und wiederzukommen, nachdem die letzte Seite gelesen ist. Ich verspreche beim heiligen Douglas Adams, dass niemand enttäuscht sein wird. Das Buch ist noch nicht übersetzt, aber der Schwierigkeitsgrad is mässig und man vermeidet bei sofortigem Lesen den unvermeidlichen Spoiler, den ein gedankenloser Verleger durch den Deutschen Titel verbrechen wird (was sich überraschend nicht bewahrheitet hat, Respekt!). Neal Stephenson heißt der Autor, “Seveneves” das Buch. und … an alle Fragilen, Daheimgebliebenen, zur Depression neigenden Leser kann ich ohne Angst vorm Spoiler von einem ganz unglaublichen Buch berichten. Ort der Handlung: Die Erde. Zeit der Handlung: Jetzt. Szene: Nacht. Ein Arbeiter genießt seinen Feierabend, schaut in den Sternenhimmel von Alaska. Szene: Nacht. Rio. Menschen amüsieren sich.Szene: Nacht. Eine Party in LA. Kamerafahrt: Blick zum Mond. Action. In einer Sommernacht Anfang des 21. Jahrhunderts verschwindet der Mond. Genauer, ein “Agent”, im Sinne von “eine nicht erklärbare Ursache”, “irgendeine Kraft” spaltet den Mond in 7 Teile. 300 Millionen Tweets während eines Super Bowls sind ein Scheißdreck. Jeder kann es sehen und jeder ist starr vor Schreck und Faszination. Wo gerade eben noch ein Mond war, sind jetzt, etwas größer in der Fläche, sieben verschieden große Mondteile, nicht weit voneinander entfernt, umgeben von einer Halo Mondstaub. Faszinierend. Während der Bürger noch am tweeten ist, der Politiker fragt, wer dran Schuld hat, machen sich Wissenschaftler Gedanken um die Auswirkungen. Bleiben die Gezeiten aus? Die Erde stehen? Keine Sorge, Stephenson erklärt uns kurz das Ding mit Newton, Gravitation. Der Mond ist nur gespalten, nicht verschwunden, solange die Masse halbwegs an einem Platz bleibt, sind die Gravitationskräfte, die auf die Erde und damit die Meere einwirken, die gleichen. Puh. Faszinierend. Problem: Der Mensch. Er hört nur, was er hören will. Das Entscheidende am soeben gehörten Satz war nicht, dass die Gravitationskräfte, die auf die Erde wirken, dieselben bleiben werden. Das Entscheidende war das einschränkende Konditional: Solange die Masse des Mondes halbwegs an ihrem Platz bleibt. Nunja, wo soll der Mond hin, die Gravitationskräfte der Erde wirken auch auf den Mond zurück. Dass sich da sublim etwas verändert über einen kosmischen Zeitraum, sicher, aber kurzfristig sollten die Veränderungen klein sein, schreiben wir den Gezeitenplan halt um. Ein paar Nächte später beobachtet Astrophysiker Dr. Harris, TV-Celebrity und Physikerklärer irgendwo zwischen Bill Nye und Neil DeGrass Tyson dass aus den sieben um die Erde und sich selbst kreisenden Mondteilen durch Zusammenprall zweier derer acht geworden sind. Kurze Zeit später 10, kurze Zeit später 14… Faszinierend.Problem: Entropie. Dr. Harris erklärt: Das Universum neigt zum Chaos, zum auseinanderdriften. Vom Organisierten zum Unorganisierten. Der Mond - gespalten von bis zum Ende des Romans unbekannter Kraft - wird sich weiter teilen, immer kleiner, immer kleiner. Vorbild: Saturn. Ein Mondring um die Erde. Faszinierend.Problem: Gravitation. Kein Mond bedeutet keine Gezeiten. Zumindest nicht das Bekannte, das durch das Eiern des Mondes um die Erde hervorgerufene Gezerre an zähen Wassermassen im  Zwölfstundentakt. Klingt beunruhigend und ist völlig egal. Weil...Problem: Gravitation. Vor 4,5 Mrd Jahren haben sich Erde und Mond gefunden oder voneinander gespalten, je nach Theorie, so dass beide in einem Equilibrium sind. Die gegenseitig aufeinander wirkenden Kräfte sind im Gleichgewicht, man tanzt umeinander. Das geht mit sieben Teilen eine Weile gut, mit acht auch noch, mit zehn? Mit vierzehn Teilen? Eines leichter als das andere? Beunruhigend.Frage: Was passiert, wenn man es mit 100, 1000, einer Millionen Mondteilen zu tun hat?Antwort: Nichts, solange diese beieinander bleiben. Masse in halbwegs der gleichen räumlichen Ausdehnung ist im Prinzip die gleiche Masse. Problem: Beim sich gegenseitigen Splitten fallen Brocken aus dem Mond. Sie gelangen aus dem Gleichgewicht. Werden von der Erde angezogen und verglühen als Kometen. Je mehr sich der Mond splittet, desto öfter passiert das. Desto leichter wird der Mondstreusel. Desto eher fliegen Tele aus dem Verbund. Zur Erde. Desto näher rückt der Mond zur Erde. Desto ungleichgewichtiger werden die Gravitationskräfte. Desto einfacher werden Teile aus dem Mond gerissen. Desto öfter. Problem: Exponentialität. Die gerade Linie ist in der Natur unbekannt. Nichts steigert sich linear. Nicht die Anzahl von Blättern an einem Baum. Nicht die Anzahl von Menschen auf der Erde. Nicht die Anzahl von Atomspaltungen in einer Atomnombe. Nicht der Zerfallsprozess des Mondes. Insert: Exponentialität kann man berechnen. Danke Herr Euler (1707 bis 1783). Eulers Number: e=2,71828. Viel wichtiger als Pi.Lösung? Der Gleichung? Kein Problem mit Euler: Masse der Erde. Masse des Mondes. Anzahl von Teilungen pro Zeiteinheit. Eulers Number. Endlösung.Und das ist kein schnippig dahin gesagtes Wort. Höhö. Endlösung, so wie bei den Nazis. Es ist ein Gefühl, das das Buch durchzieht. Es ist alles so grausam. Gruselig, wenn das nicht ein Wort für Kinderbücher wäre. Traurig. Zutiefst. Die Menschheit hat sehr genau noch 2 Jahre. That's it. Alles, was sie der Erde, sich selbst abgerungen hat. noch 720 Tage +/-. Dann kippt die Linie in die Kurve. Die Entropie gewinnt. Meteoriten werden größer, mehr. “Hard Rain” wird der Effekt getauft. Es wird der Tag kommen, sehr genau berechenbar, in 2 Jahren, da wird es nicht einen Einschlag pro Woche geben. Nicht einen pro Tag. Nicht einen pro Stunde irgendwo auf der großen weiten Welt, da wird der ganze f*****g Mond in einem Rutsch auf die Erde fallen. Ok, nicht in einem Rutsch. Es wird ein paar hundert Jahre Steine regnen. Hard Rain. Dann wird es ein paar tausend Jahre Vulkane, kochende Meere, dünne Luft geben. Dann vielleicht wieder Bakterien. Irgendwann. Toll ausgedacht, Neal. Ganz toll. Faszinierend.Zwischendurch beim Lesen wird man einfach wütend. What the f**k. Man recherchiert ein bisschen und begreift, dass so astronomische Katastrophen nicht unüblich sind, im kosmischen Maßstab. Statistisch möglich. Diese Sinnlosigkeit. Es ist einfach nur frustrierend.Neal Stephenson also gibt der Menschheit noch 2 Jahre. Nach kurzer Schockstarre beginnt sich die Welt zu vereinen, in der Anstrengung wenigstens die “Heritage” der Menschheit zu bewahren. Etwas zu Hinterlassen. Alle Anstrengungen werden auf die Errichtung einer “Ark Cloud” gerichtet. Um die Raumstation ISS sollen Pods für jeweils 5-6 menschen gescharrt werden. Lose verbunden wie ein Fischschwarm, um Manövrierfähig zu bleiben. Jedes Land soll per Los proportional zur Weltbevölkerung junge, vermehrungstüchtige Menschen schicken, sich über dem Sturm zu halten, zu vermehren, wenn es sein muss ein paar tausend Jahre lang, bis die Erde sich abkühlt von Mondes Dauerfeuer. Keine Wissenschaftler, berühmte Künstler, oder, Gott behüte, Staatsmänner. Hier geht es um Biologie. Jung müssen sie sein, fruchtbar. Der Plan klingt so verzweifelt und aussichtslos wie er ist. Er ist Hoffnung und Therapie und gibt der “Menschheit” etwas zu tun bis zum Hard Rain. Aber der Gedanke, dass  1000 oder 2000 Menschen über 1000, 4000 oder nur 500 Jahre in ein paar hundert Raumkapseln um die Erde segeln. What are the odds? Und ist das dann noch eine “Menschheit”? Was ein Wald ist, was ein Fluss, was ein Berg, eine Bar, ein Fussballspiel ist Stoff von Erzählungen, dann Videos, dann unverständlichen Bildreihen. Was für eine Scheisse.Aber der Mensch gibt nicht auf, Selbsterhaltungstrieb over alles. Also baut man und stößt auf Schwierigkeiten und überwindet sie. Die Monate vergehen, der Mond wird größer, milchiger, Meteoriten häufiger, Einschläge kommen näher. Es sind nur noch Wochen, man verabschiedet sich von den zu Hause bleibenden, wenn man auf der ISS ist, von den glücklichen, die einen Platz dort gefunden haben, wenn man sein Leben auf der Erde runterzählt. Ein paar verzweifelte graben sich ein in tiefen Steinbrüchen. Atom-U-Boote tauchen in tiefe Meeresschichten. Ein Asteroid. Seit Millionen Jahren im Sonnensystem unterwegs wird ausgemacht. In sechs Stunden kreuzt der die Bahn der Mondwolke. Der Auslöser. Der Schmetterling in China, der den Sack Reis auf die Erde stürzen lässt. Panisch werden in höchster Eile die letzten Pods in die Luft geschickt, zur “Izzy” wie die neue Mutter der Menschheit liebevoll genannt wird. Zur Ark Cloud, ihren Babies. Die Einschläge beginnen um den Äquator herum, astronomische Gründe, die keinen mehr interessieren. In den Kathedralen, Konzerthäusern, Stadien der Welt versammeln sich Orchester. Ein letztes Mal Musik, Volkslieder, Hymnen, Mozart, Bach. Radiostationen übertragen aus London, Paris, Sao Paulo, New York. Man spielt durch, trotz Einschlägen entfernt und immer näher kommend. Man spielt für sich und für die Ark Cloud. Dort hört man das Ende der Zivilisation per Mittelwelle. Paris fällt aus. Sao Paulo. London, trotz Einschlägen spielt weiter. Nördliche Hemisphäre, weiter weg vom Äquator. Ein Tsunami  löscht die East Coast aus. Die Erde trägt eine Schärpe aus Feuer. London verstummt. Die Erde schweigt.Neal Stephenson hat uns 400 Seiten lang von einer Sommernacht auf der Erde zu derem Ende als Heimstatt der Menschheit geführt. 2000 Arkies, ein paar tausend Reagenzgläser Sperma, Wasser für ein paar Jahre, nicht wirklich funktionierende Nahrungsproduktion sind übrig geblieben vom Jagen und Sammeln, vom Glauben, vom Aufklären, vom Ausbeuten, vom Bekriegen, vom Spielen mit Atombomben. Wie ausgesetzte Kinder hängt der klägliche Rest der Zivilisation aneinander und bibbert. In aller Ausführlichkeit hat uns Neal Stephenson an diesen Tiefpunkt, den tiefsten den man sich in der Belletristik vorstellen kann, geführt. Tiefer geht es nicht. Denkt man, als das letzte von der Erde gestartete Pod anlegt, sich die Schleuse öffnet und die Präsidentin der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika an Bord kommt. Die nunmehr einzige Politikerin in der Ark Cloud. What could possibly go wrong?Es dauert keine Stunden, da fängt Julia Bliss Flaherty, als POTUS noch sehr schön assoziativ JBF genannt, an "Politik" zu machen und sich eine Machtbasis zu suchen. Die Cloud Ark technisch bedingt geteilt in die recht groß gewordene Mannschaft der ISS, meist Techniker, Genforscher, Psychologen, Piloten und in die "Arkies", das fruchtbare Jungvolk, dass in separaten Raumkapseln und nur durch ein kleines Internet miteinander verbunden hinter der ISS her fliegt. Julia, die nicht wirklich etwas dagegen hat, wenn man sie Madam President nennt, hat den für jeden Karrierepolitiker notwendigen Spalt in der Gesellschaft gefunden.Die Cloud Ark, ISS und die Archies, mögen voneinander getrennt leben, aber sie fliegen gemeinsam und nur gemeinsam können sie überleben. Nach all dem S**t, der die letzten 2000 Menschen in diese verdammte Situation gebracht hat, alle Wunden noch offen vom nacheinander Verstummen der Orchester der Welt, sieht der Leser, was kommen muss: ein egomaner Politiker hat nichts besseres zu tun, als sich auf Kosten der Überlebenschancen des letzten verschissenen Restes der Menschheit zu profilieren. Blutdruck. E-Book weglegen. Unvorstellbar. Was für eine Scheiße.Aber Neal Stephenson ist noch nicht fertig mit uns.In den ersten 500 Seiten von “Seveneves” hat er uns eine Kerntruppe von Charakteren nahe gebracht. Fast alle Besatzungsmitglieder der ISS. Da ist Dr. Harris, der Erklärbär aus dem Fernsehen, der immer mehr sieht, dass die Cloud Ark, verkauft an Todgeweihte auf der Erde, eine Sache ist, die nicht funktionieren kann. Da sind Dinah und Ivy, respektive Robotertechnikerin und ehemalige Kommandantin der ISS, beste Freundinnen, die sich auch mal einen Tequila hinter die Binde kippen und sich ewig aufeinander verlassen können, Moira, die Gentechnikerin, die alles daran setzt den letzten Rest der Menschheit, zusammenklebend in Reagenzröhren, irgendwie zu retten, Tekla, eine russische Pilotin, aufrichtig und kompromisslos, wenn es um die Sicherheit der Cloud Ark geht. Luisa, die Psychologin aus New York, die vielleicht ohne die Erde auskommt, aber nicht ohne ein Strassencafe, eine Dive Bar, einen Tacostand und sich darum kümmert, dass, so Scheiße alles ist, es noch Reste an normalem Leben gibt. Dutzende Typen, mit denen der Leser die letzten zwei Jahre der Erde verbracht hat, an Bord der ISS und der entstehenden Cloud Ark, auf einem "Ausflug" um einen Wasserhaltigen Kometen von weit außerhalb der Umlaufbahn des ehemaligen Mondes einzufangen, denn ohne Wasser braucht man das Projekt Cloud Ark gar nicht angehen. Charaktere, die zu Menschen wurden, dank Stephenson, die sich den Arsch aufgerissen haben gegen alle odds, gegen alle Hoffnungslosigkeit, die gewachsen sind, die auf einmal Dinge können, die ihnen und sich selber niemand zugetraut hat, die jedes Problem angehen, alles unter dem Gesichtspunkt diese f*****g allerletzte Chance zu erhalten, diesen Hauch einer Chance, dass das hier nicht die letzten 1500 Menschen sind, die es je gab und dann kommt so eine B***h von abgefuckter Politikerin, Madam President Julia Bliss Flaherty an Board, mit einer Pistole, Feuerwaffe, mit Kugeln und so. Im Weltraum. Diese grenzenlose Dummheit!Bis diese zum Einsatz kommt, vergehen ein paar Monate. Monate, in denen sie zusammen mit ihrer Bewunderin "Camila" und einem fetten Schwein von Blogger die halbe Cloud Ark Besatzung aufwiegelt, sich von der ISS zu trennen. Camila ist ein Schulmädchen aus Pakistan, ein Medienstar und Beleg dafür, wie gut das "Auslosen" von Arkies in den jeweiligen Ländern funktioniert hat. Camila hat ein Vorbild in der realen Welt: Malala Yousafzai - das Pakistanische Schulmädchen, dass bei einem Talibanüberfall in den Kopf geschossen wurde und überlebt hat und seitdem ihre Bekanntheit dazu nutzt, Vorträge über die Situation von Frauen in der islamischen Welt zu halten, ihre Unkritisierbarkeit jedoch dazu missbraucht, dies in einem derart pathetischen, unhörbaren Duktus zu tun, dass man als TV-Zuschauer nur still in's Kopfkissen schreien kann. Neal Stephenson rächt sich damit, sie zu einem der Präsidentin der USA verfallenen, manipulierten Dummchen zu machen. Ich bin Fan.Zumal sich Camila rehabilitieren kann. Nachdem sich der aufgewiegelte Teil der Cloud Ark selbst und -mörderisch vom Rest des Restes der Menschheit gelöst hat, kommt es zu einem Handgemenge (alles in Zero G) und JBF, Madam President schießt auf Tekla und wird nur durch die mittlerweile augengeöffnete Camilla daran gehindert, diese zu erschießen. Aber eine Pistole im Raumschiff, zusammen mit einem Meteoreinschlag in wichtige Teile der ISS, dezimiert die Menschheit auf die Hälfte. Da waren es nur noch 800. Minus all den gesammelten und tiefgekühlten Spermavorräten. Oups. Kann ja mal passieren. Zwei Teile des Schwarmes machen sich also auf den Weg: der Eine, die Abtrünnigen in eine vermeintlich sichere Umlaufbahn, ein Korridor, in dem man den Mondsplittern entgehen kann - für den Preis, permanent Sonnenstürmen ausgesetzt zu sein - soviel zum Thema "Wenn Facebookuser entscheiden könnten". Der Rest macht sich zusammen mit der ISS zum letzten stabilen Teil des Mondes auf, eine tiefe Spalte im selben, in die man sich schmiegen möchte, geschützt von Strahlung, Meteoriten und Politikern. Problem: Physik. Um sich von der Position der Raumstation ISS in stabilem Orbit um die Erde zu einem Orbit um den Mond, oder was davon übrig ist zu bewegen, braucht es Zeit und Energie. Drei Jahre werden vergehen.Drei Jahre, in denen der abgespaltene Teil der Archies, ganz kalter Krieg, keinerlei Kontakt haben möchte. Irgendwann jedoch fehlt Wasser, die ISS hilft. Bald essen, die ISS hilft. Irgendwann, kurz vor Erreichen des Mondes, es sind noch ein paar Dutzend Menschen am Leben, meldet sich der Schwarm, man möchte wieder nach Hause. Mit letzter Kraft, in letzter Minute, auf der finalen Umlaufbahn um die Erde, bis diese in eine Umlaufbahn in den Mondrest umschlägt, stoßen ein paar wenige Überlebende zur ISS, angeführt von Aida. Eine charismatische Italienerin, Madam President Jula Bliss Flaherty entmachtet, die Zunge mit einem verschraubten Beissring ruhiggestellt. Wir sind alle dankbar. Der Schwarm dockt an, die Schleusenautomatik beginnt, das Intranet des Schwarms verbindet sich wieder mit dem der ISS, die Inboxen füllen sich mit drei Jahr lang nicht abgeholten Postings und denen, die gerade nicht mit der Landung auf dem Mondrest beschäftigt sind, stehen die Haare zu Berge. Was da ankommt, sind keine Überlebenden. Was da ankommt, sind Kannibalen. Vom Hunger getrieben hat der fette Blogger angefangen, sich selbst zu essen. Wer braucht schon Beine in der Schwerelosigkeit. Der erste Tabubruch ist getan, und bald spaltet sich der Schwarm in Kannibalen und Hungernde, Fresser und Gefressene, Tabuisten und Tabubrecher. Angeführt von Aida kommt der Schwarm und fällt über das letzte Dutzend Menschen her, mit ihrem Plan, im letzten verbliebenen Ort im Sonnensystem, auf dem wenigsten die Theorie ein Überleben hergibt. Man kämpft mit allem, was man hat, um alles was von der Menschheit übrig geblieben ist. Und verliert.Ja, es gibt Überlebende. Genau Acht. Acht Frauen. Und kein Sperma. Zugegeben, Neal Stephenson hat uns nie Hoffnung gemacht. Kein wundersamer Mondbeschuss mit Atomraketen wurde uns versprochen, keine Aliens haben uns gerettet, der Vater von Dinah, der Robotertechnikeren, Tochter eines Bergmannes, der sich am Tag 1 des “Hard Rain's" in Alaska eingegraben hat, hat sich nicht wieder gemeldet, der Bruder von Ivy, der Kommandantin, der sich als Chef eines Atom-U-Bootes am gleichen Tag unter Wasser begeben hat, auch nicht. Ein paar Arkies waren zum Mars aufgebrochen, keine Antwort von dort. Die Erde, ein oranger Feuerball, die ISS auf Restenergie in einer Mondspalte, 8 Frauen on the moon. Kein Mann. Moment. Seite 553 von 860. Mh.. What the f**k.Wir sind am grössten Climax der Literaturgeschichte. Neal Stephenson hat uns jede Hoffnung genommen, die Erdbevölkerung von 7 Millarden Menschen auf 8 dezimiert und beginnt nach dem literarischen Mord an 6.999.999.992 Menschen mit einem spektakulären Comeback, zu welchem ich alle deprimierten und labilen Hörer nochmals die Chance gebe, sich Neal Stephensons “Seveneves” zu kaufen und wenigstens die letzten 300 Seiten, brillant wie die ersten 550 zu lesen und wiederzukommen, nachdem die letzte Seite gelesen ist. ich verspreche beim heiligen Douglas Adams, dass niemand enttäuscht sein wird. Acht Frauen sitzen in einer Spalte im Mond. Dinah, die Roboterbauerin, Ivy, die Kommandantin, Tekla, die Sicherheitschefin, Julia “Madam President”, Camilla, Ihr ehemaliger Fan und Aida, die einzig überlebende Kannibalin vom Schwarm. Dazu Luisa, die Psychologin. Und - Moira, die Genbiologin.Alle bis auf Luisa, die schon in der Menopause ist, sind fruchtbar. Seven Eves. Sieben Evas.Die Männer fehlen - aber Moira weiss Rat. Parthenogenese. Die Jungfernzeugung, eine Form der Fortpflanzung durch Zellteilung, die verbunden mit Genmanipulation der Menschheit eine Chance gibt. Ressourcen sind genug da, jetzt wo nicht mehr 2000 sondern nur noch zunächst 8 versorgt werden müssen. Zeit ist da, die Genmanipulation von der Theorie in die Praxis zu bringen. FaszinierendProblem: Heterozygosität. Inzucht für Fortgeschrittene. Wenn der Genpool klein ist, und Sieben ist verdammt klein, kommt es in nachfolgenden Generationen zu Erbgutschäden. Aber wenn man schon für die Jungfernzeugung am Erbut rumspielt, kann man auch dagegen gleich was machen, sprich, die Gene der Eizellen vor der Teilung manipulieren. Problem: Moral. Welche Gene verändert man, welche lässt man lieber in Frieden. An sich klar, man baut starke Menschen, man baut kluge Menschen, man baut weniger aggressive  Menschen. Problem: Philosophie. Aggressivität verursacht Konflikte, aber beschützt gegen Feinde. Körperliche Stärke löst Konflikte zu Deinen Gunsten, bis der Kluge mit der Pistole zum Boxkampf kommt. Aber Gendiversifizierung muss sein, sonst Inzucht und aus der Menschheit wird in eine paar Generationen ein Stamm von noch größeren Dummköpfen. Also Genmanipulation. Aber welche?Problem: Gruppendynamik. Seven Eves, Sieben Evas, jeder mit prototypischen Eigenschaften, klug, aggressiv, stark, milde sitzen auf einem Plenum. Fünf sind Freundinnen, eine Ausgestossene und eine ist einfach nur evil. Aber gerade diese, Aida, die Kannibalin, ist die Jüngste, und man kann nicht einfach ein Siebtel der Menschheit euthanasieren. Lösung: Ein Pakt. Jede Eva darf sich eine Modifikation aussuchen, die Moira umsetzt, aber keine weiß welche.Lösung? Oder Problem? Aida, die Kannibalin wider Willen, die Ausgestoßene ahnt: Problem. Sie stimmt zu mit diesen Worten:“Ich künde von einem Fluch. Das ist kein Fluch den ich Euch auferlege. Das ist kein Fluch den ich Euren Kindern auferlege. Nein. Ich war nie so "böse" wie Ihr alle denkt. Das ist ein Fluch den Ihr auferlegt, wenn Ihr das tut, was Ihr tun wollt. Und es ist ein Fluch, den Ihr meinen Kindern auferlegt. Denn ich weiss, ich sehe wie es sein wird. Ich bin das "Böse". Die Kannibalin. Die, die nicht mitmachen wollte. Meine Kinder, egal welche Entscheidung ich treffe, werden für immer anders sein als Eure Kinder. Denn täuscht Euch nicht, was Ihr hier entscheidet ist neue Rassen zu erschaffen. Sieben neue Rassen. Sie werden für immer anders und getrennt  voneinander sein, so wie du Moira von Dir Ivy. Sie werden sich nie wieder in eine einzige Menschheit zurück vereinigen, denn so sind die Menschen nicht. In tausenden Jahren werden die Nachkommen von Euch sechsen auf meine Nachfahren schauen und sagen, "Da, schau, da kommt ein Kind von Aida, der Kannibalin, der Bösen, der Verfluchten". Sie werden die Straßenseite wechseln, meine Kinder meiden, auf den Boden spucken. Das ist es, was Eure Entscheidung  meint. Ich werde meine Kind formen, meine Kinder, und ich werde viele von ihnen haben um mit diese Fluch leben zu können, um überleben zu können. Um Euch überleben zu können."Womit diese Buchbesprechung, halb Buchvorstellung, zum kreischenden Ende kommt, immer noch 300 Seiten vor dem Schluss. Man fragt sich gespannt, warum soll man ein derart deprimierendes Buch, dessen dunkelster Abschnitt mit einem Fluch auf die Zukunft endet, lesen? Punkt 1: Neal Stephenson. Stephenson begann als Novellist und findet durch seine Arbeit in der TV- und Filmbranche den Rhythmus, den ein Buch dieser Länge braucht, die richtige Menge und Tiefe an Nebensträngen und schafft es, wie schon gesagt, über 550 Seiten nicht im Ansatz zu verraten, was am Ende geschieht. Wovon die Hörer dieser Rezension nun nichts mehr haben. Sorry.Punkt 2: Neal Stephenson. Stephenson hat mit seinen Frühwerken Zodiac und Snow Crash, man beachte: in den 80ern, enormen gesellschaftlichen Weitblick besessen, Umweltkatastrophen und die Machtübernahme durch weltweite Firmenkonglomerate vorhergesehen, hat mit dem letzten Werk REAMDE die Parallelwelt viele Jugendlicher in Massenrollenspielen wie Eve Online oder World of Warcraft begleitet und bündelt in seinem Magnum Opus hier nichts weniger als sein Wissen über die Human Condition. Geschichtsverläufe sind aus deren Mitte heraus schwer zu beurteilen, aber wenn man jemandem diese Kompetenz im Ansatz zugestehen kann, ist es Neal Stephenson. Das Verschwinden des Mondes ist anlasslos, was danach folgt, jedoch mit dem heutigen Wissen um unseren Umgang mit uns selbst ursächlich unvermeidlich. Die Konzentration von Macht und Geld in den Händen weniger ist undemokratisch und für das Wohlergehen in “normalen” Situationen schon problematisch. In extremen Situationen ist sie fatal. Was “Seveneves” dabei so lesenswert macht, ist, dass Stephenson sich das alles schon lange anschaut und trotzdem nicht zum einseitigen Prediger wird: Denn man kann das Argument bringen, dass Machtkonzentration in Situationen, in denen es schnell gehen muss, positiv ist. Stephenson tut es. Er lässt einen Multimilliardär nach dem Vorbild von Elon Musk ein Problem erkennen, zukünftiger Wassermangel auf der ISS, und auf eigene Kosten, mit eigenem Antrieb und schlussendlich unter Opfern des eigenen Lebens lösen: der elon-muskeske Protagonist schleppt einen aus Eis bestehenden Asteroiden aus seiner Umlaufbahn zur ISS und ohne diese heroische Aktion wäre die Cloud Ark nicht im Ansatz bis zum Mondrest gekommen. Aber das Gegenargument folgt prompt in Form der schlussendlich renegaten US-Präsidentin und ihrer Machtspiele, die die Cloud Ark den Zusammenhalt kosten. Der Machtwille einer Person löscht nahezu die Menschheit aus. Das Argument “Demokratie löst alle Probleme” führt Stephenson im nächsten Schritt ad absurdum: Der sich abspaltende Teil der Cloud Ark mag von Madam President manipuliert worden sein, aber am Ende entscheiden sich 1100 Arkies, sich auf den Weg in eine eigene Umlaufbahn zu machen - das Argument, dass man dort an radioaktiven Sonnenstürmen drauf gehen könnte, wurde im Spacebook (dem Facebook der Cloud Ark) gemacht, aber verworfen, denn Klimawandel is for Pussies. 1050 Arkies weniger (oder 50% der Menschheit) kommt der letzte Rest derselben dann final in die Situation, solchen Entscheidungen nicht mehr wirklich unterworfen zu sein. Für Demokratie sind acht Frauen zu wenig, für Diktatorentum erst recht. Es bleibt nur noch der Glaube an wissenschaftliche Notwendigkeit, der alles, inklusive der Moral, untergeordnet wird. Eine Verurteilung von früheren Vergängnissen, die Gefahren von Rassismus werden dem Überleben geopfert und damit die achso schöne einfache Welt der “Lösung der Probleme der Welt aufgrund technischer Analyse und daraus gezogener Konsequenz” auch noch diskreditiert. Danke Neal Stephenson. Am Ende müssen sich “Die Menschen” auf das verlassen, was sie alle eint und ausmacht. Das, sorry, cheesy, “Menschsein”. Das, von dem keiner weiss, was es ist, aber für das jeder irgendwie inherent ein Gefühl hat, was es sein soll. Etwas Gutes. Und das wird auf den letzten dreihundert Seiten erzählt. Diese müssen positiver sein als die vorangegangenen fünfhundertfünfzig. Sind Sie auch, aber Aidas Fluch war kein leerer. Es wird ein Wiedersehen mit alten Bekannten geben, und um die letzten 300 Seiten von Neal Stephensons “Seveneves” nicht auch noch komplett zu verspoilern hier nur die Überschrift über diesen, letzten Teil des Romans: “Der Habitatring, 5000 Jahre nach Verschwinden des Mondes.”Gehet hin und leset dieses Buch. Es ist wichtig und es ist traurig und es ist gut und damit ertragbar.  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lobundverriss.substack.com

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-350 – Marathon Training Strategies with CoachPRS  (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4350.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends from Portland Oregon where I just ran the marathon.  Portland – home of the weird.  Welcome my friends and family to episode 4-350 of the RunRunLive podcast.  Another week another adventure, eh? This week's adventure was flying to Portland to run the marathon.  It was weird and wonderful and I did well – but you can hear all about it in the race report in this episode.  I also sit down with Coach and we talk about some marathon strategies on the futon in his running store in Woodstock Oregon – Pace Setter Athletics. That's probably enough for one episode.  Thank you all for showing up every other week and listening to my stories.  I appreciate it.  I truly live a charmed life.  I ran into a couple folks this week who were podcast listeners and it's super weird for them to hear my voice and see it coming out of me.  I'm sure it's terribly disturbing and potentially disappointing but I love getting out and having adventures and meeting people.  I'm like Kwai Chang from Kung Fu.  Wandering the earth, speaking cryptic philosophy and kicking ass.  “When you can snatch the pebble from my hand…grasshopper”  (Google it kids.) I'll keep my comments brief because I'm juggling travel and work this week. If you want the inside scoop on my adventures you can always become a member.  It's basically a subscription option to fund the podcast and in exchange I produce member only audio.  Mostly I've been doing book reviews of the various books I read but you never know what's going to pop out of my fertile and active mind and into a member's episode! Look on the RunRunLive Website for the member links.  … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio Last week I uploaded two, count ‘em, two, book reviews.  One for the Neal Stephenson SevenEves scifi tome and another for Moonwalking with Einstein, a treatise on memory techniques. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro's, Outro's, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3's you can download and listen to at any time. For the cost of a pack of Clean and Clear , to, you know, remove that extra shine off your brow, you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew.  There is no shipping charge for membership and I just today fixed the bug in the annual membership signup process! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … I spent the week in Woodstock Oregon.  You have to remember I'm from Boston.  .  I grew up in the 70's Irish Catholic.  The Portland area is in some ways way outside my comfort zone but in other ways strangely familiar.  It's like being dropped into a friendly pot growing commune in 1972.  Everybody is super politically correct and friendly but at the same time super alternative life style.  This is a place where you have to be careful not to walk too close to the road when walking down the sidewalk because cars will crash themselves stopping to let you cross.  In Boston driving is a contact sport and pedestrians are the prize.  In Portland it's like some sort of baroque dance routine. There is a coffee shop on every corner.  But not a Starbucks.  The villagers picket Starbucks and drive them out of town as the evil corrupting corporation.  Every store sells craft beer.  The hardware store sells craft beer. The tanning salon sells craft beer.  If they're not selling craft beer they are selling pot.  Everyone wears a ski hat.  Everyone has purple hair, and piercings and tattoos and man-buns and Mohawks.  But they are all super nice and homey.  Every restaurant is a vegan restaurant.  There are homeless people everywhere, but it's hard to tell the homeless from the hipsters.  There's an actual game in Portland called ‘Homeless or hipster?' where you try to guess.  Everything is made by orphaned panda cubs using baby koala tears.  It rains almost every day.  As I sit here writing this, on the roof of a natural foods market – that sells craft beer and vegan appetizers – they have Kombucha on tap - there is a woman(?) with a goatee who has been discussing the nuances of an upcoming wiccan ceremony for 40 minutes like she's talking about what kind of brownies to bring to the PTA meeting.  I love it here.  You can be as weird as you want and everyone is friendly.  And that's what I love about America.  And that's why I go on adventures. On with the show.   Section one – No Section one. Voices of reason – the conversation Coach Jeff Kline PRSFit IT STARTS WITH THE DECISION TO TRY! At PRS FIT we provide training, motivation and camaraderie. When you become a part of our Team you quickly see we love what we do. (You also receive our first time finishers guarantee) We do it better because we care about you. The Team cares about you. We don't go off the grid. When you need an answer we're there to help you find it! OUR PHILOSOPHY Prs Fit is a community of athletes from all over the world. We are a team. Alone or together, from beginner 5k to Boston Marathon and 100 Miler, sprint triathlon to Kona, we strive and we conquer. Prs Fit lets you experience what we call Team and social fitness – connecting and motivating each through our one of a kind global team experience. No matter the weather, the circumstance, day after day, we provide a high quality training experience that produces results. Be Healthy. Train Smart. Have Fun. Section two Portland Marathon - Outro Well my friends you have pushed your hips forward through the end of episode 4-350 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  That was fun right?  I'm definitely on a high cycle right now.  I find myself at the end of my to-do list with no races on the calendar.  Well, of course I always have races on the calendar.  But, I'm going to heed Coach's advice and lose a little fitness now.  I decided not to double down.  See?  I'm coachable. I have my yearly water stop volunteer duty at the Bay State Marathon coupled with the Groton Town Forest Trail race next weekend.  At some point in November I have a turkey trot.  Then in December is the Mill cities relay.  Of course on New Year's Eve day we have the newly official .  And on New Year 's Day the Hangover Classic.  That should keep me busy.  How about you all?  What are you racing and training for?  What's your next adventure?  What are you going to do?  You're not getting any younger.  Now is as good a time as ever. Find something the scares you as much as it inspires you and turn that weird thing into an adventure. And I'll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-350 – Marathon Training Strategies with CoachPRS  (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4350.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends from Portland Oregon where I just ran the marathon.  Portland – home of the weird.  Welcome my friends and family to episode 4-350 of the RunRunLive podcast.  Another week another adventure, eh? This week’s adventure was flying to Portland to run the marathon.  It was weird and wonderful and I did well – but you can hear all about it in the race report in this episode.  I also sit down with Coach and we talk about some marathon strategies on the futon in his running store in Woodstock Oregon – Pace Setter Athletics. That’s probably enough for one episode.  Thank you all for showing up every other week and listening to my stories.  I appreciate it.  I truly live a charmed life.  I ran into a couple folks this week who were podcast listeners and it’s super weird for them to hear my voice and see it coming out of me.  I’m sure it’s terribly disturbing and potentially disappointing but I love getting out and having adventures and meeting people.  I’m like Kwai Chang from Kung Fu.  Wandering the earth, speaking cryptic philosophy and kicking ass.  “When you can snatch the pebble from my hand…grasshopper”  (Google it kids.) I’ll keep my comments brief because I’m juggling travel and work this week. If you want the inside scoop on my adventures you can always become a member.  It’s basically a subscription option to fund the podcast and in exchange I produce member only audio.  Mostly I’ve been doing book reviews of the various books I read but you never know what’s going to pop out of my fertile and active mind and into a member’s episode! Look on the RunRunLive Website for the member links.  … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio Last week I uploaded two, count ‘em, two, book reviews.  One for the Neal Stephenson SevenEves scifi tome and another for Moonwalking with Einstein, a treatise on memory techniques. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. For the cost of a pack of Clean and Clear , to, you know, remove that extra shine off your brow, you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew.  There is no shipping charge for membership and I just today fixed the bug in the annual membership signup process! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … I spent the week in Woodstock Oregon.  You have to remember I’m from Boston.  .  I grew up in the 70’s Irish Catholic.  The Portland area is in some ways way outside my comfort zone but in other ways strangely familiar.  It’s like being dropped into a friendly pot growing commune in 1972.  Everybody is super politically correct and friendly but at the same time super alternative life style.  This is a place where you have to be careful not to walk too close to the road when walking down the sidewalk because cars will crash themselves stopping to let you cross.  In Boston driving is a contact sport and pedestrians are the prize.  In Portland it’s like some sort of baroque dance routine. There is a coffee shop on every corner.  But not a Starbucks.  The villagers picket Starbucks and drive them out of town as the evil corrupting corporation.  Every store sells craft beer.  The hardware store sells craft beer. The tanning salon sells craft beer.  If they’re not selling craft beer they are selling pot.  Everyone wears a ski hat.  Everyone has purple hair, and piercings and tattoos and man-buns and Mohawks.  But they are all super nice and homey.  Every restaurant is a vegan restaurant.  There are homeless people everywhere, but it’s hard to tell the homeless from the hipsters.  There’s an actual game in Portland called ‘Homeless or hipster?’ where you try to guess.  Everything is made by orphaned panda cubs using baby koala tears.  It rains almost every day.  As I sit here writing this, on the roof of a natural foods market – that sells craft beer and vegan appetizers – they have Kombucha on tap - there is a woman(?) with a goatee who has been discussing the nuances of an upcoming wiccan ceremony for 40 minutes like she’s talking about what kind of brownies to bring to the PTA meeting.  I love it here.  You can be as weird as you want and everyone is friendly.  And that’s what I love about America.  And that’s why I go on adventures. On with the show.   Section one – No Section one. Voices of reason – the conversation Coach Jeff Kline PRSFit IT STARTS WITH THE DECISION TO TRY! At PRS FIT we provide training, motivation and camaraderie. When you become a part of our Team you quickly see we love what we do. (You also receive our first time finishers guarantee) We do it better because we care about you. The Team cares about you. We don’t go off the grid. When you need an answer we’re there to help you find it! OUR PHILOSOPHY Prs Fit is a community of athletes from all over the world. We are a team. Alone or together, from beginner 5k to Boston Marathon and 100 Miler, sprint triathlon to Kona, we strive and we conquer. Prs Fit lets you experience what we call Team and social fitness – connecting and motivating each through our one of a kind global team experience. No matter the weather, the circumstance, day after day, we provide a high quality training experience that produces results. Be Healthy. Train Smart. Have Fun. Section two Portland Marathon - Outro Well my friends you have pushed your hips forward through the end of episode 4-350 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  That was fun right?  I’m definitely on a high cycle right now.  I find myself at the end of my to-do list with no races on the calendar.  Well, of course I always have races on the calendar.  But, I’m going to heed Coach’s advice and lose a little fitness now.  I decided not to double down.  See?  I’m coachable. I have my yearly water stop volunteer duty at the Bay State Marathon coupled with the Groton Town Forest Trail race next weekend.  At some point in November I have a turkey trot.  Then in December is the Mill cities relay.  Of course on New Year’s Eve day we have the newly official .  And on New Year ’s Day the Hangover Classic.  That should keep me busy.  How about you all?  What are you racing and training for?  What’s your next adventure?  What are you going to do?  You’re not getting any younger.  Now is as good a time as ever. Find something the scares you as much as it inspires you and turn that weird thing into an adventure. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-349 – Chrissy Runs a BQ  (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4349.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-349 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Today we chat with Chrissy Simmons who made the grave mistake of tell me on facebook that she ran a qualifying marathon using my MarathonBQ training plan.  Of course I coerced her into an interview.  The audio quality is a bit off because we were using the telephone to record.  Most of the time I can use a skype plugin to record digital audio but we couldn’t swing it this time.  Think of it as quaint trip down technology memory lane when we used to pick up the phone and call each other over twisted pair, copper wire, plain old telephones.  I like to talk to folks who have used the plan successfully because when I was writing it down I never really knew if it would work for other people or if it was just some strange manifestation of my own personal demons.  I thoroughly tickles me to hear it working and to hear people learning the things I learned by going through it.  When you boil it down it’s really about speed.  I’ve heard a couple interviews of Shalane and the other marathoners since the Olympics.  They train up to 100 – 120 miles a week.  Most of it varying forms of long tempo which is very specific to the marathon distance.  In essence their training is specific practice for the race they are looking to run.  They are training to find and stay on that edge of the pace where they maximize their results without crashing.  They don’t do a lot of speed work.  Why?  Because they are already fast.  They are coming up from the track or the shorter distances.  They already know how to run fast.  The amateur mid-packer marathoner is different.  We may have never run track in school.  We don’t know how to run fast. Even those of us who may have run 20-30 marathons.  We know how to run, we just need to get faster if we want to qualify for Boston or any other race.  The key light bulb idea for you is this.  Everyone is capable of running fast.  They just have never practiced running fast. They don’t know how.  That’s the main question I addressed in MarathonBQ; “How do I take 20 – 40 minutes off my marathon finishing time?”  The answer logically is to run faster.  But how?  The answer is to practice, rigorously running faster.  Simple.  Not all simple ideas are powerful, but most powerful ideas are simple.  In section one I’ll chat a bit about how to experiment with speed.  Not just for the marathon, but in general as a component of your tool kit. In section two I’m going to talk a bit about your personal finances.  Why?  Because I just went through a long avoided financial planning process and I think I’ve got it figured out and thought I’d do you the service of telling you what I learned.  So how’s my training going?  As it turns out, fairly well.  The big part of it is that I’ve stayed on the nutrition plan that I began as a 30-day project in August.  I dipped under 170 pounds last week which is as light as I’ve been since the 1980’s and that really has had a positive effect on my training.  It has a dual impact.  The healthy, lean diet has my body reacting better to workouts and the weight loss has put a pop back into my pace.  The net result is I’m able to train at a pace that is a lot more familiar and comfortable to me and I’m guessing that I’ll benefit from that.  I raced the Spartan Beast last weekend and you should get a nice long race report on the podcast feed if everything works out.  I followed up with a nice 3-hour, 21ish mile long run the weekend after.  I still don’t have a lot of volume but I’m going to continue on this nutrition plan through the Portland Oregon marathon in October and see what happens.  … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio Last week I uploaded two, count ‘em, two, book reviews.  One for the Neal Stephenson SevenEves scifi tome and another for Moonwalking with Einstein, a treatise on memory techniques. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. For the cost of a pack of Clean and Clear , to, you know, remove that extra shine off your brow, you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew.  There is no shipping charge for membership and I just today fixed the bug in the annual membership signup process! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … I have a course at home that I do most of my workouts on.  It runs down some back roads that are fairly light in traffic.  It’s rolling hills through neighborhoods.  One of the modest 1950’s ranch houses I run by has had a sign for one of the current political candidates out in his front wall.  I say ‘his’ because I’ve seen him.  He’s a white guy, about my age.  The yard and the house are well kept but not overly fastidious.  He drives an older model red Volvo sedan.  He and his wife live there on that classic suburban ¼ acre lot.  Doesn’t look like there are any kids.  He’s had his sign up since the primaries.  I shake my head when I run by.  I wonder what has happened to him to make him so angry.  I wonder what his narrative is.  I’ve often thought of starting one of my speeches by talking about all the challenges I’ve had to overcome in my life.  I say it with great seriously and gravitas.  How hard it was to grow up white and male in the suburbs of the richest state on the richest country in the world.  I’d spin my miserable yarn about how I had to cope with being healthy and well fed, being provided the best education by loving parents who were in a stable long term marriage.  I wonder how long the audience would stay with me?  These are confusing times for many.  If you can look beyond that confusion.  If you can look within.  You will find abundance.  And I just wish more people would see that abundance. Do you believe in abundance? On with the show.   Section one – Getting Faster -. http://runrunlive.com/getting-faster Voices of reason – the conversation Chrissy Simmons I am a 34 year old living and working in Winchester, KY. I enjoy hiking and various outdoor activities, playing with my two dogs, and of course having drinks with good friends.  But my primary hobby is definitely running.   Over the years, I have established my top 3 running goals:  1.) Run a marathon in all 50 states (16 down!) 2.) Finish a 100-mile race (50-mile race completed.  100K scheduled for 12/31/16) 3.)  Qualify for the Boston Marathon (Done!).   I started running when I was 25 years old.  With help from the well-known Couch to 5K training plan, I ran my first 5K.  3 years later in 2010, I ran my first marathon at the Cincinnati Flying Pig (4:38).  Since then, I have run about 25 races that were marathon length or longer.  Some of those were ultra-marathons, some trail marathons, some races I did just for fun, and some I did to check new states off the list.  I would say that I honestly put effort into training for about 6-7, making gradual improvements to my finishing times by loosely following hybrids of various available training plans.   Qualifying for Boston was a dream I had from the beginning and after finally breaking the 4:00 mark in 2014, the goal felt like it was in reach.   On 6/6/16, I started the MarathonBQ training plan with a goal to run a 3:35 marathon (BQ -5). And on 9/11/16, I finished the Erie Marathon with an official time of 3:34:36.  Training with this plan during a hot, miserable summer was brutal at times but the final result was definitely worth it. Section two Financial Independence - Outro How about that?  You, my abundant friends have sped your way to the end of Episode 4-349 of the RunRunLive podcast. Do you feel faster?  I do.  Next up for me is the Portland Or marathon in two weeks.  I don’t know what to expect, but I’m hopeful.  Travel marathons are always a bit of a wild card for me, but we’ll see how it goes.  Depending on how things go in Oregon I may look for a November race.  Other than that there is the tradition of volunteering at the BayState Marathon in October and either volunteering or running the Groton Town Forest 10 miler and then of course the traditional Ayer Fire Department 5K on Thanksgiving morning. One new development is that I’m setting up a website for the Groton Marathon.  I’ll read you the copy.  “The Groton Marathon was founded in December of 2013 by veteran runner Chris Russell.  He was in the midst of a ‘marathon a month’ streak in honor of the Boston Marathon bombings from April 2013 to April 2014.  The marathon he was scheduled to run in December was canceled due to snow.  Frustrated at the lack of convenient distance events in the Massachusetts area, Chris grabbed a couple running buddies and created the first Groton Marathon to keep his streak alive. The Run has repeated each year since.  This year, 2016, we want to open up the race to a select number of applicants who are facing the same shortage of local distance events to keep their streaks alive.  If a small, lightly managed run with veteran runners in December sounds like a fit for you, join us this year.” … That’s what I’m up to.  It’s an abundant life. I don’t have to stop and ask permission if I can create my own race.  I just have to do it.  The way I’m able to continue to run and have adventures is simply that I believe I can, and I do it.  Frankly the biggest challenges we face in this era and in this season of our lives is that there is too much abundance.  The challenge is how to focus your energy on the handful of things that bring value to you and your family and your community.  The Millennials talk about FOMO – ‘fear of missing out’.  That’s a classic example of how abundance makes us crazy.  There are too many good choices and we either freeze in place overwhelmed or flit from thing to thing like deranged dilettantes.  And then I’m out for a walk with Buddy in my woods.  With the dry sun filtering through the green tree canopy and falling mottled in the leaf litter.  The old stone walls delineating sheep pastures that long ago gave way to forest.  We stop to breath in that good air.  We listen to the skittering of squirrels and the chittering of birds… And we know abundance. Think about the abundance in your life.  And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-349 – Chrissy Runs a BQ  (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4349.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-349 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Today we chat with Chrissy Simmons who made the grave mistake of tell me on facebook that she ran a qualifying marathon using my MarathonBQ training plan.  Of course I coerced her into an interview.  The audio quality is a bit off because we were using the telephone to record.  Most of the time I can use a skype plugin to record digital audio but we couldn't swing it this time.  Think of it as quaint trip down technology memory lane when we used to pick up the phone and call each other over twisted pair, copper wire, plain old telephones.  I like to talk to folks who have used the plan successfully because when I was writing it down I never really knew if it would work for other people or if it was just some strange manifestation of my own personal demons.  I thoroughly tickles me to hear it working and to hear people learning the things I learned by going through it.  When you boil it down it's really about speed.  I've heard a couple interviews of Shalane and the other marathoners since the Olympics.  They train up to 100 – 120 miles a week.  Most of it varying forms of long tempo which is very specific to the marathon distance.  In essence their training is specific practice for the race they are looking to run.  They are training to find and stay on that edge of the pace where they maximize their results without crashing.  They don't do a lot of speed work.  Why?  Because they are already fast.  They are coming up from the track or the shorter distances.  They already know how to run fast.  The amateur mid-packer marathoner is different.  We may have never run track in school.  We don't know how to run fast. Even those of us who may have run 20-30 marathons.  We know how to run, we just need to get faster if we want to qualify for Boston or any other race.  The key light bulb idea for you is this.  Everyone is capable of running fast.  They just have never practiced running fast. They don't know how.  That's the main question I addressed in MarathonBQ; “How do I take 20 – 40 minutes off my marathon finishing time?”  The answer logically is to run faster.  But how?  The answer is to practice, rigorously running faster.  Simple.  Not all simple ideas are powerful, but most powerful ideas are simple.  In section one I'll chat a bit about how to experiment with speed.  Not just for the marathon, but in general as a component of your tool kit. In section two I'm going to talk a bit about your personal finances.  Why?  Because I just went through a long avoided financial planning process and I think I've got it figured out and thought I'd do you the service of telling you what I learned.  So how's my training going?  As it turns out, fairly well.  The big part of it is that I've stayed on the nutrition plan that I began as a 30-day project in August.  I dipped under 170 pounds last week which is as light as I've been since the 1980's and that really has had a positive effect on my training.  It has a dual impact.  The healthy, lean diet has my body reacting better to workouts and the weight loss has put a pop back into my pace.  The net result is I'm able to train at a pace that is a lot more familiar and comfortable to me and I'm guessing that I'll benefit from that.  I raced the Spartan Beast last weekend and you should get a nice long race report on the podcast feed if everything works out.  I followed up with a nice 3-hour, 21ish mile long run the weekend after.  I still don't have a lot of volume but I'm going to continue on this nutrition plan through the Portland Oregon marathon in October and see what happens.  … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio Last week I uploaded two, count ‘em, two, book reviews.  One for the Neal Stephenson SevenEves scifi tome and another for Moonwalking with Einstein, a treatise on memory techniques. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro's, Outro's, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3's you can download and listen to at any time. For the cost of a pack of Clean and Clear , to, you know, remove that extra shine off your brow, you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew.  There is no shipping charge for membership and I just today fixed the bug in the annual membership signup process! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … I have a course at home that I do most of my workouts on.  It runs down some back roads that are fairly light in traffic.  It's rolling hills through neighborhoods.  One of the modest 1950's ranch houses I run by has had a sign for one of the current political candidates out in his front wall.  I say ‘his' because I've seen him.  He's a white guy, about my age.  The yard and the house are well kept but not overly fastidious.  He drives an older model red Volvo sedan.  He and his wife live there on that classic suburban ¼ acre lot.  Doesn't look like there are any kids.  He's had his sign up since the primaries.  I shake my head when I run by.  I wonder what has happened to him to make him so angry.  I wonder what his narrative is.  I've often thought of starting one of my speeches by talking about all the challenges I've had to overcome in my life.  I say it with great seriously and gravitas.  How hard it was to grow up white and male in the suburbs of the richest state on the richest country in the world.  I'd spin my miserable yarn about how I had to cope with being healthy and well fed, being provided the best education by loving parents who were in a stable long term marriage.  I wonder how long the audience would stay with me?  These are confusing times for many.  If you can look beyond that confusion.  If you can look within.  You will find abundance.  And I just wish more people would see that abundance. Do you believe in abundance? On with the show.   Section one – Getting Faster -. http://runrunlive.com/getting-faster Voices of reason – the conversation Chrissy Simmons I am a 34 year old living and working in Winchester, KY. I enjoy hiking and various outdoor activities, playing with my two dogs, and of course having drinks with good friends.  But my primary hobby is definitely running.   Over the years, I have established my top 3 running goals:  1.) Run a marathon in all 50 states (16 down!) 2.) Finish a 100-mile race (50-mile race completed.  100K scheduled for 12/31/16) 3.)  Qualify for the Boston Marathon (Done!).   I started running when I was 25 years old.  With help from the well-known Couch to 5K training plan, I ran my first 5K.  3 years later in 2010, I ran my first marathon at the Cincinnati Flying Pig (4:38).  Since then, I have run about 25 races that were marathon length or longer.  Some of those were ultra-marathons, some trail marathons, some races I did just for fun, and some I did to check new states off the list.  I would say that I honestly put effort into training for about 6-7, making gradual improvements to my finishing times by loosely following hybrids of various available training plans.   Qualifying for Boston was a dream I had from the beginning and after finally breaking the 4:00 mark in 2014, the goal felt like it was in reach.   On 6/6/16, I started the MarathonBQ training plan with a goal to run a 3:35 marathon (BQ -5). And on 9/11/16, I finished the Erie Marathon with an official time of 3:34:36.  Training with this plan during a hot, miserable summer was brutal at times but the final result was definitely worth it. Section two Financial Independence - Outro How about that?  You, my abundant friends have sped your way to the end of Episode 4-349 of the RunRunLive podcast. Do you feel faster?  I do.  Next up for me is the Portland Or marathon in two weeks.  I don't know what to expect, but I'm hopeful.  Travel marathons are always a bit of a wild card for me, but we'll see how it goes.  Depending on how things go in Oregon I may look for a November race.  Other than that there is the tradition of volunteering at the BayState Marathon in October and either volunteering or running the Groton Town Forest 10 miler and then of course the traditional Ayer Fire Department 5K on Thanksgiving morning. One new development is that I'm setting up a website for the Groton Marathon.  I'll read you the copy.  “The Groton Marathon was founded in December of 2013 by veteran runner Chris Russell.  He was in the midst of a ‘marathon a month' streak in honor of the Boston Marathon bombings from April 2013 to April 2014.  The marathon he was scheduled to run in December was canceled due to snow.  Frustrated at the lack of convenient distance events in the Massachusetts area, Chris grabbed a couple running buddies and created the first Groton Marathon to keep his streak alive. The Run has repeated each year since.  This year, 2016, we want to open up the race to a select number of applicants who are facing the same shortage of local distance events to keep their streaks alive.  If a small, lightly managed run with veteran runners in December sounds like a fit for you, join us this year.” … That's what I'm up to.  It's an abundant life. I don't have to stop and ask permission if I can create my own race.  I just have to do it.  The way I'm able to continue to run and have adventures is simply that I believe I can, and I do it.  Frankly the biggest challenges we face in this era and in this season of our lives is that there is too much abundance.  The challenge is how to focus your energy on the handful of things that bring value to you and your family and your community.  The Millennials talk about FOMO – ‘fear of missing out'.  That's a classic example of how abundance makes us crazy.  There are too many good choices and we either freeze in place overwhelmed or flit from thing to thing like deranged dilettantes.  And then I'm out for a walk with Buddy in my woods.  With the dry sun filtering through the green tree canopy and falling mottled in the leaf litter.  The old stone walls delineating sheep pastures that long ago gave way to forest.  We stop to breath in that good air.  We listen to the skittering of squirrels and the chittering of birds… And we know abundance. Think about the abundance in your life.  And I'll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-348 – Kristy Jo and Power Foods!  (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4348.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-348 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  I ran a bit long last episode with Mike.  I was up against a deadline so I just let it slide.  I’ll try to better this time. You may have noticed I started slipping cookies into the end of the show after the outro.  A ‘cookie’ in the lingo of the podcasting ‘biz’ is a blooper that I find particularly engaging.  Like last week when I either wrote into my script or spell checked in that Australopithecines had ‘disposable’ thumbs! That’s just too funny not to share.  Today we speak with Kristy Jo.  I love that name.  It’s like something from a TV show. Kristy shares some very good tips and tricks around her Power Foods nutrition plan. I read through her book and it’s quite sensible. I know this whole weight loss nutrition thing is a real challenge for so many people and I thought we’d give you some pointers from someone who has been through it all and get her approach.  I have been steadily losing weight as well.  I wrapped up my 30 day plan at the end of August but decided to keep it going.  My training is going really well at the lighter weight. I want to see where I can get to by the Portland Marathon next month.  Last episode I erroneously said I was down to 170 pounds. That was incorrect.  What I meant was 175 pounds, which is still good, because I started at 185ish.  I’m currently in the low 170’s with a body fat percentage of in the 10’s.  Body fat percentage is a much better metric than weight or BMI.  A good range for a guy my age is in the low teens.  All that aside what I’m really pleased with is how much better workouts feel and how well my heart is responding.  That’s how I define ‘feeling healthy’ and that’s what I’m going for.  We have a wonderfully hewn, well crafted, and individually designed for your specific needs - show for you today.  It’s a thing of beauty this show.  I had it hand crafted by virgin baby koalas just for you. In section one I’ll answer some rapid fire running questions.  In section 2 I’ll talk about the Wapack Trail race I ran over Labor Day weekend.  I was wondering if anyone was going to write in about my math problem when I told the story of the store clerk in Atlanta.  And I wasn’t disappointed.  For the record, I know that 30% plus 20% can be calculated 2 different ways.  When you combine a 20% discount with a 30% discount the answer is either 50% or 44% depending how you apply the discounts.  Glad to see you’re paying attention.  Makes me feel loved. There are a billion podcasts these days aren’t there?  It’s funny how the cycles turn.  Someone should do some research on it.  First it was just us hobbyists and the big news outlets.  Now everyone with a platform has gotten the message that a podcast is a must-have channel – especially the internet marketing folks.  Thank you for joining me on my journey.  You don’t have to.  I’m doing it because I like doing it. It allows me to practice my creativity and production.  It forces me to think critically about topics.  It allows me to interact with people I find interesting.  I explore topics and people that are interesting to me, that’s why I can keep producing for 9+ years and 350 shows.  I do it for myself.  At the same time, whenever I create anything I think about the audience.  I ask the question “Why do you care?”  This keeps me from getting too wrapped up in myself and allows me to add value.  If you don’t care I’m just an annoying old dude that you sat next to on a long flight and won’t shut up even though you put your headphones in and pretended to sleep.  I don’t want to be that guy.  I do have a membership option to defray the cost because I’m a capitalist at heart and not a charity!  I’m working on a proper set of books but as near as I can figure I spend about $1,500 a year on the podcast.  Consider buying a membership. I’m still working on a separate iTunes feed for it.  My guy in Nigeria can’t quite figure out how to make the remote header calls work with my wordpress plugin, but I’m working on it.  If you’ve known me for any length of time you know I’m patient.  When I decide to do something it takes on the inevitability of a glacier.  … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio Last week I uploaded two, count ‘em, two, book reviews.  One for the Neal Stephenson SevenEves scifi tome and another for Moonwalking with Einstein, a treatise on memory techniques. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. For the cost of a pack of Clean and Clear , to, you know, remove that extra shine off your brow, you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew.  There is no shipping charge for membership and I just today fixed the bug in the annual membership signup process! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … How about some useful running information?  How about that?  Instead of all this waffling on about the creative act?  OK One of the workouts Coach gave me this week was a medium effort hill workout.  Many times you will run longer or faster hill workouts for leg strength or as a type of speed workout or threshold workout.  That’s not what this particular workout is for.  This is a workout to practice form. Hills are a great place to practice form because running uphill naturally forces you up onto your forefoot, to take shorter, more rapid strides and to lift your knees.  Hills bring the form to you.   For the medium effort hill repeat you are only doing 30 seconds. That’s long enough to get into your form but not long enough to stress you.  You do the workout at medium effort, so maybe a 7-8 on a scale of 1-10.  People always ask ‘how steep should the hill be?’  For these medium effort repeats you can actually answer that question.  When you get into the repeat itself your form should be clean.  If you’re having to lean forward or struggling to get your feet turning over – the hill is too steep.  When you run the repeat focus on pushing off rapidly from the forefoot.  Push your hips forward.  Run tall.  Keep your chin up, your shoulders high and loose and your hands high and loose.  Focus on the form, not the effort.  Don’t carry anything in your hands.  Jog down the hill and don’t start another rep until your heart rate settles down.  I usually leave my bottle at the bottom of the hill.  I stop when I get back, take a drink, walk a bit and when my HR falls under zone 2 I’ll ease into the next rep.  I also find a stick and scratch a tally mark into the dirt after every rep.  It makes a game out of it.  Do a set of 10-15 of these.  These are great, especially if you are trying to clean up your form.  Like I said a 4-6% hill will automatically help you clean up your form.  And I’m pretty sure the sine of that angle is the opposite over the hypotenuse, but I could be wrong.  Practice makes perfect.  Do your practice.  On with the show.   Section one – Running Tip Roundup - http://runrunlive.com/running-tip-roundup Voices of reason – the conversation Kristy Jo Hunt My Skype is "kristyjohunt." My home website is  but there is much under construction with funnels, and I fear not everything leads back to one congruent space. I would love to talk about my background with long distance running and why I got into it (disordered eating and thinking it would solve weight issues) to why I got out of it (chronic pain with my 50-degree scoliosis that I pushed through the pain due to the disordered eating habits and FEAR), as well as my coaching of long-distance athletes with meal structure and timing that we have found to be very successful and optimize their body weight and energy for better times. I will put my bio below: Kristy Jo Hunt is a Certified Personal Trainer, Fitness Nutrition Specialist, published author, and natural Women’s Figure Competitor. After overcoming over a decade of disordered eating battles, she began a Facebook page in 2012. This Facebook page grew to be a full-blown education-based body transformation company called Body Buddies.  Her team of coaches helps people correct health issues, overcome disordered eating, achieve their goals, and reach their desired aesthetics. She is the author of the book series and recipe book line, The Power Foods Lifestyle, and founded the company, Body Buddies, a transformation and education coaching system. Body Buddies teaches strategic implementation of scientific principles using psychological profiling to help people make sustainable changes in their nutrition and fitness efforts. She hosts online group challenges, coaches clients one-on-one, and teaches seminars for athletic teams, corporations, and church groups.  As a way to help many people for free, she hosts the Body Buddies podcast, YouTube Channel, and Social Media feeds where she shares tips and tricks to nutrition, exercise, and mindset training. Her greatest happiness comes from watching others succeed and overcome obstacles that previously prevented them from reaching their goals.  I would love to link to  in the show notes and I would love to offer my free gift to your listeners of my free book (they just pay shipping) at . Kristy Jo   Kristy Jo Hunt CPT/FNS/Author, Body Buddies  |  |  | Skype:  Section two Wapack 2016 -   Outro Well my friends you have nibbled your way on proteins, vegetables and carbohydrates through to the end of  episode 4-348 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Are you full?  Are you satiated?  Did you have to unbutton your jeans so all that good info would fit?  I’ve got a short turn around now and I’m heading out to do the Spartan Beast in Killington Vt.  I’m dragging my youngest along and she’s going to do the sprint on Sunday.  I was looking at the instructions and anyone who starts the Beast after noon needs to carry a headlamp and two glow sticks…And they pull you off the course if you haven’t finished by 9:00 pm.  Really? I have no intention of being on that course for 9 hours.  Am I missing something?  Coach is still trying to talk me out of it so I can focus on the Portland marathon on October 9th.  What I like about him is that he’s old-school.  He thinks every race is an Olympic qualifier.  But, I’m at the point in my life where I have to try new things and have some fun too.  That being said if I can maintain the diet and come out of Portland strong I’ll look at the calendar and see if there isn’t something serious to train for.  I’ve got to figure out if we are going to do the Groton Marathon again this year. … Many of you are running your goal races now or over the next few weeks.  Good luck with those.  Remember that the hay is in the barn and there’s nothing you can do in the last couple weeks to make up training.  As you are in your taper towards your race you can use a couple of the things we talked about here to help you stay sane.  As your training load gets lighter you have an opportunity and the time to do some of the fine-tuning things.  Think about practicing the mediation and visualization that we’ve talked about. Work in some easy yoga every other day to stretch and strengthen your machine. Do some meal planning around your taper weeks to go into the race lean and strong with a lot of energy. That’s how you apply the tools from the conversations we have here. That’s the real trick with all the content available to you.  You’re like a DJ.  You are the creative genius for your life.  You take all this stuff in and mix it to make your own sound, your own movie and craft your own story.  Make sure you get the ending right. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-348 – Kristy Jo and Power Foods!  (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4348.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-348 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  I ran a bit long last episode with Mike.  I was up against a deadline so I just let it slide.  I'll try to better this time. You may have noticed I started slipping cookies into the end of the show after the outro.  A ‘cookie' in the lingo of the podcasting ‘biz' is a blooper that I find particularly engaging.  Like last week when I either wrote into my script or spell checked in that Australopithecines had ‘disposable' thumbs! That's just too funny not to share.  Today we speak with Kristy Jo.  I love that name.  It's like something from a TV show. Kristy shares some very good tips and tricks around her Power Foods nutrition plan. I read through her book and it's quite sensible. I know this whole weight loss nutrition thing is a real challenge for so many people and I thought we'd give you some pointers from someone who has been through it all and get her approach.  I have been steadily losing weight as well.  I wrapped up my 30 day plan at the end of August but decided to keep it going.  My training is going really well at the lighter weight. I want to see where I can get to by the Portland Marathon next month.  Last episode I erroneously said I was down to 170 pounds. That was incorrect.  What I meant was 175 pounds, which is still good, because I started at 185ish.  I'm currently in the low 170's with a body fat percentage of in the 10's.  Body fat percentage is a much better metric than weight or BMI.  A good range for a guy my age is in the low teens.  All that aside what I'm really pleased with is how much better workouts feel and how well my heart is responding.  That's how I define ‘feeling healthy' and that's what I'm going for.  We have a wonderfully hewn, well crafted, and individually designed for your specific needs - show for you today.  It's a thing of beauty this show.  I had it hand crafted by virgin baby koalas just for you. In section one I'll answer some rapid fire running questions.  In section 2 I'll talk about the Wapack Trail race I ran over Labor Day weekend.  I was wondering if anyone was going to write in about my math problem when I told the story of the store clerk in Atlanta.  And I wasn't disappointed.  For the record, I know that 30% plus 20% can be calculated 2 different ways.  When you combine a 20% discount with a 30% discount the answer is either 50% or 44% depending how you apply the discounts.  Glad to see you're paying attention.  Makes me feel loved. There are a billion podcasts these days aren't there?  It's funny how the cycles turn.  Someone should do some research on it.  First it was just us hobbyists and the big news outlets.  Now everyone with a platform has gotten the message that a podcast is a must-have channel – especially the internet marketing folks.  Thank you for joining me on my journey.  You don't have to.  I'm doing it because I like doing it. It allows me to practice my creativity and production.  It forces me to think critically about topics.  It allows me to interact with people I find interesting.  I explore topics and people that are interesting to me, that's why I can keep producing for 9+ years and 350 shows.  I do it for myself.  At the same time, whenever I create anything I think about the audience.  I ask the question “Why do you care?”  This keeps me from getting too wrapped up in myself and allows me to add value.  If you don't care I'm just an annoying old dude that you sat next to on a long flight and won't shut up even though you put your headphones in and pretended to sleep.  I don't want to be that guy.  I do have a membership option to defray the cost because I'm a capitalist at heart and not a charity!  I'm working on a proper set of books but as near as I can figure I spend about $1,500 a year on the podcast.  Consider buying a membership. I'm still working on a separate iTunes feed for it.  My guy in Nigeria can't quite figure out how to make the remote header calls work with my wordpress plugin, but I'm working on it.  If you've known me for any length of time you know I'm patient.  When I decide to do something it takes on the inevitability of a glacier.  … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio Last week I uploaded two, count ‘em, two, book reviews.  One for the Neal Stephenson SevenEves scifi tome and another for Moonwalking with Einstein, a treatise on memory techniques. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro's, Outro's, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3's you can download and listen to at any time. For the cost of a pack of Clean and Clear , to, you know, remove that extra shine off your brow, you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew.  There is no shipping charge for membership and I just today fixed the bug in the annual membership signup process! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … How about some useful running information?  How about that?  Instead of all this waffling on about the creative act?  OK One of the workouts Coach gave me this week was a medium effort hill workout.  Many times you will run longer or faster hill workouts for leg strength or as a type of speed workout or threshold workout.  That's not what this particular workout is for.  This is a workout to practice form. Hills are a great place to practice form because running uphill naturally forces you up onto your forefoot, to take shorter, more rapid strides and to lift your knees.  Hills bring the form to you.   For the medium effort hill repeat you are only doing 30 seconds. That's long enough to get into your form but not long enough to stress you.  You do the workout at medium effort, so maybe a 7-8 on a scale of 1-10.  People always ask ‘how steep should the hill be?'  For these medium effort repeats you can actually answer that question.  When you get into the repeat itself your form should be clean.  If you're having to lean forward or struggling to get your feet turning over – the hill is too steep.  When you run the repeat focus on pushing off rapidly from the forefoot.  Push your hips forward.  Run tall.  Keep your chin up, your shoulders high and loose and your hands high and loose.  Focus on the form, not the effort.  Don't carry anything in your hands.  Jog down the hill and don't start another rep until your heart rate settles down.  I usually leave my bottle at the bottom of the hill.  I stop when I get back, take a drink, walk a bit and when my HR falls under zone 2 I'll ease into the next rep.  I also find a stick and scratch a tally mark into the dirt after every rep.  It makes a game out of it.  Do a set of 10-15 of these.  These are great, especially if you are trying to clean up your form.  Like I said a 4-6% hill will automatically help you clean up your form.  And I'm pretty sure the sine of that angle is the opposite over the hypotenuse, but I could be wrong.  Practice makes perfect.  Do your practice.  On with the show.   Section one – Running Tip Roundup - http://runrunlive.com/running-tip-roundup Voices of reason – the conversation Kristy Jo Hunt My Skype is "kristyjohunt." My home website is  but there is much under construction with funnels, and I fear not everything leads back to one congruent space. I would love to talk about my background with long distance running and why I got into it (disordered eating and thinking it would solve weight issues) to why I got out of it (chronic pain with my 50-degree scoliosis that I pushed through the pain due to the disordered eating habits and FEAR), as well as my coaching of long-distance athletes with meal structure and timing that we have found to be very successful and optimize their body weight and energy for better times. I will put my bio below: Kristy Jo Hunt is a Certified Personal Trainer, Fitness Nutrition Specialist, published author, and natural Women's Figure Competitor. After overcoming over a decade of disordered eating battles, she began a Facebook page in 2012. This Facebook page grew to be a full-blown education-based body transformation company called Body Buddies.  Her team of coaches helps people correct health issues, overcome disordered eating, achieve their goals, and reach their desired aesthetics. She is the author of the book series and recipe book line, The Power Foods Lifestyle, and founded the company, Body Buddies, a transformation and education coaching system. Body Buddies teaches strategic implementation of scientific principles using psychological profiling to help people make sustainable changes in their nutrition and fitness efforts. She hosts online group challenges, coaches clients one-on-one, and teaches seminars for athletic teams, corporations, and church groups.  As a way to help many people for free, she hosts the Body Buddies podcast, YouTube Channel, and Social Media feeds where she shares tips and tricks to nutrition, exercise, and mindset training. Her greatest happiness comes from watching others succeed and overcome obstacles that previously prevented them from reaching their goals.  I would love to link to  in the show notes and I would love to offer my free gift to your listeners of my free book (they just pay shipping) at . Kristy Jo   Kristy Jo Hunt CPT/FNS/Author, Body Buddies  |  |  | Skype:  Section two Wapack 2016 -   Outro Well my friends you have nibbled your way on proteins, vegetables and carbohydrates through to the end of  episode 4-348 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Are you full?  Are you satiated?  Did you have to unbutton your jeans so all that good info would fit?  I've got a short turn around now and I'm heading out to do the Spartan Beast in Killington Vt.  I'm dragging my youngest along and she's going to do the sprint on Sunday.  I was looking at the instructions and anyone who starts the Beast after noon needs to carry a headlamp and two glow sticks…And they pull you off the course if you haven't finished by 9:00 pm.  Really? I have no intention of being on that course for 9 hours.  Am I missing something?  Coach is still trying to talk me out of it so I can focus on the Portland marathon on October 9th.  What I like about him is that he's old-school.  He thinks every race is an Olympic qualifier.  But, I'm at the point in my life where I have to try new things and have some fun too.  That being said if I can maintain the diet and come out of Portland strong I'll look at the calendar and see if there isn't something serious to train for.  I've got to figure out if we are going to do the Groton Marathon again this year. … Many of you are running your goal races now or over the next few weeks.  Good luck with those.  Remember that the hay is in the barn and there's nothing you can do in the last couple weeks to make up training.  As you are in your taper towards your race you can use a couple of the things we talked about here to help you stay sane.  As your training load gets lighter you have an opportunity and the time to do some of the fine-tuning things.  Think about practicing the mediation and visualization that we've talked about. Work in some easy yoga every other day to stretch and strengthen your machine. Do some meal planning around your taper weeks to go into the race lean and strong with a lot of energy. That's how you apply the tools from the conversations we have here. That's the real trick with all the content available to you.  You're like a DJ.  You are the creative genius for your life.  You take all this stuff in and mix it to make your own sound, your own movie and craft your own story.  Make sure you get the ending right. And I'll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

Besprochene Bücher: Adrian Tchaikovsky: Children Of Time, William Gibson: The Peripheral, Kim Stanley Robinson: Aurora, Neal Stephenson: Seveneves.

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-347 – Mike Croy and the One Breath  (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4347.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-347 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Today we are going to reconnect with our old friend Mike the DirtDawg who has been doing a lot of useful work around mindfulness in his life, with his students and in his community.  I chat with him about some practical ways we can use mindfulness in our lives and some basic, easy ways to implement it.  In section one I’m going to zoom in on how meditation or mindfulness can help amateur athletes.  In section two I’m going to do a quick summary of how a 30 day project works and how you can use it to get some traction in your life.  Because, as I write this I’m wrapping up my latest 30 day plan.  I tend to try to do a bunch of things in parallel when I do 30 day projects.  This one I was trying to get up early, clean up my nutrition, avoid alcohol and work on my next book project.  It went very well, except for the last couple days where I was on vacation – that always causes some hiccups in the process.  But I managed to keep the damage minimal while not being bad company.  Up until that point though I had lost a bunch of weight and had mat all my goals and felt fantastic.  I didn’t get as much work done on my book project as I would have liked, but all in all it was a good month for me. I was particularly pleased with this because I took a 2 week break from running at the same time I took on the 30-day project. I kicked off the project on the 1st of August the day after my trail marathon.  The Achilles was hurting so coach gave me a week off.  After a week I ran once and felt awful.  I ended up walking back from that run.  That run was day 7 or 8 of the 30 day project, and as I will explain, that is when the project sucks the most.  I was in a bad place with no energy. My runs have been awful all summer.  I just felt sick, had no energy and was hating my runs.  I got them done but it was a struggle.  That’s one of the reasons I decided to put my foot down and use a 30-day project to clean up.  I decided to clean up my nutrition and with Rachel’s help rebuild my healthy biome. After the day-7 run debacle Coach smelled over-training and gave me another week off.  Not off, but off from running.  That’s when I started to turn the corner.  About 14 days in he finally gave me the green light and told me do an easy 1:15 run.  At this point I was lighter, healthier and well rested. I decided to go out at night after work. The night was cool, around 60, and the humidity had let up. I left everything at home and just wore a pair of racing shorts.  No phone, no bottle, no shirt – just my Garmin and the heart strap.  And - Oh my god! I felt weightless.  I couldn’t control myself and was literally flying.  I didn’t even start to feel any tiredness until the last long climb up to my house.  Coach was a bit peeved when I posted my ‘easy’ run and it turned out to be a 8+ mile marathon pace tempo run. But really, sometimes you just can’t help yourself.  The other thing I’m noticing is that my HR is staying down.  It’s behaving nicely and just the way I would expect it to.  My Achilles is still a little sore but I’m working it.  My runs since then have been fairly fabulous.   Plus, since I’m getting up early anyhow I can knock them out in the morning without much suffering.  It’s all good.  The wave is cresting again.  I’m going to see if I can keep the nutrition going until October.  In 30 days I got down to 175 pounds which is very light for me.  I think with a little focus I could get under 170 and I haven’t been there, ever.  I’m curious to see what that would do for my racing.  By the way, when I say ‘Clean Nutrition’ I mean eating 98% healthy, whole food, nothing packaged, lots of fruit and veg and nuts.  An occasional hit of fish or meat if I feel like I’m not getting enough calories.  I’ve cut out fried food, bread, most dairy and as much sugar as I can find on the food labels – although sometimes the bastards sneak some by me. When I set up the project with Rachel I told her my focus was not to lose weight but to get healthy.  But, as usual, once you focus on eating clean and healthy, the weight just comes off naturally.  It’s not due to a lack of calories per se, just a different mix.  Remember, the first two weeks of this I wasn’t even running.  There are a couple things I’m doing slightly different this time around.  First, I’m trying to get enough healthy fats.  I include olive oil in my salads and other meals as a condiment, and I mix a spoonful of coconut oil into my oatmeal in the morning – because apparently coconut oil is the new superfood. Second, we’ve been experimenting with lots of probiotic foods like KimChi, Sauerkraut, pickles, organic honey and homemade fermented beet juice.  This time of year I’m getting fresh chard and cukes from my garden too and they come with some helpful organisms riding along from the great outdoors.  You can get useful critters from any of the fresh from field produce available this time of year. Check your labels to find certified organic or live culture foods.  To be clear, I don’t mean the well-known yoghurts and other probiotic labeled dairy products which, in my humble opinion, are just another packaged food ploy to stuff more dairy and sugar down your throat. I don’t know if it is good or bad but my innards are a lot happier now after a month or so of working the probiotic, healthy food plan into my life.  It’s amazing how large a change you can make in a short amount of time with a little focus.  … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio Last week I uploaded two, count ‘em, two, book reviews.  One for the Neal Stephenson SevenEves scifi tome and another for Moonwalking with Einstein, a treatise on memory techniques. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time. For the cost of a pack of Clean and Clear , to, you know, remove that extra shine off your brow, you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew.  There is no shipping charge for membership and I just today fixed the bug in the annual membership signup process! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … I was reading the New York Times in the airport on my way back from vacation.  There was an article in there about Lucy, the famous Australopithecine.  They found Lucy’s fossilized bones in Kenya in 1974 and it really kicked off the study and understanding of all the different branches of the hominid family tree since. Lucy was a small, juvenile, female Australopithecine that lived in the forested grasslands of Africa a few million years ago.  They weren’t humans in the sense that we think of Homo sapiens - the thinking ape.  They were a side branch or transitional form of hominid that seems to have been moving out of the trees to walk upright on the ground. According to the news, it seems Lucy’s 2M+ year-old fossilized bones were making a tour of the US.  Some scientists took the opportunity to create a thorough CAT scan of them.  In this way they could get detailed digital images that they could analyze without having to have the bones themselves. One of the things that they discovered is a number of compression fractures.  These are the type of fractures you get when you hit something hard, like in car accident or a fall from a great height.  They postulate that poor little Lucy met her demise by falling out of a tall tree.  I question these conclusions.  I don’t think anything so mundane happened.  I see the forensic evidence and I think Lucy was definitely into extreme sports.  She was probably wing-suit flying off the ridge from mount Kilimanjaro or paragliding over the volcanoes.  Maybe she was caught in a sudden gust of wind or was rattled by an ill-timed tremor from imbibing too much Red Bull.  Without fully developed opposable thumbs she couldn’t hang on and she crashed.  I’m no scientist but I have watched many episodes of CSI Las Vegas and that’s where the data leads me.  It was like an Australopithecine version of Point Break.  They had some mad-dog skills and liked to live on the edge those Australopithecines.  Live fast, die young, leave a fossilized pile of bone fragments – that was their motto. On with the show. Section one – Meditation and mindfulness in Sport - Voices of reason – the conversation Mike Croy – “DirtDawg50k” Mike Croy serves as a high school principal for special education students who have been diagnosed with severe emotional impairments. His area of expertise lies in working with at risk students and families for the past 20 years.  Mike is driven to serve by his belief that we are all works in progress and the key is to keep moving forward. Mike began teaching yoga and mindfulness/meditation classes to his students as a result of him obtaining his 200 RYT (Yoga Teacher Training) and has since started to offer it to staff and adults to help others find the space to be mindful and breathe in a hyper connected world.  He is also a 24x marathoner and has completed several ultramarathons including the Burning River 100. Contact information: mike@root2shine.com website: Root 2 Shine:     RSS FEED: Dirt Dawg's Rambling Diatribe: RSS FEED:  Section two Anatomy of a 30-day project - Outro Well my friends you have mindfully sat and watched your body’s breath through the end of episode 4-347 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Ohmm… Ohmm Padni ma… Yeah.  Rock solid.  Good job. I’m rolling off the long weekend and heading down to Atlanta to work.  I was out in Chicgao on holidays for a long weekend.  In my career I’ve been there many times but it was fun to go as a tourist.  I got up every morning and went out to run around the lakefront and Grant Park.  Two out of Three days it poured on me in the morning.  But that was ok.  I just took my shirt off and enjoyed myself.  I did a 2:20 long run Sunday morning and the path was packed with Chicago Marathon aspirants and club runners.  The triathletes were swimming their workouts in the lake. It just so happened that the Chicago Triathlon was also going on over at Grant Park.  There was a constant stream of bicycles on Lakeshore drive the whole time I was out.  We took the architecture tour up the river one night, went to Second City another night and then caught a Cubs game another night.  We walked through the Chicago Institute of Art one day as well.  Like I said it poured rain, but only while I was out running.   I’ll share one image with you.  Monday morning I was running a fartlek run. I got up a 6:00 AM local time, ran down the river trail, crossed over on the Lakeshore Drive bridge, ran out to the end of Navy pier and circled around to head north on the lakeshore path.  It was early, overcast and humid.  It hadn’t started to rain yet.  The lake was calm and the triathletes were cruising in the shallows parallel to the shore making little wave here and there. There are some sections of beach and sections of concrete along here as the path winds along the coves and points.  I passed the remnants of a beach volleyball tournament that was being disassembled.  Not too many runners were out yet.  Bicyclists were making their way inbound to the city.  Early morning maintenance crews were picking up trash and readying the day’s projects. At one point as I ran along the cement wall I could look down and see into the water of Lake Michigan.  It was clear enough for me to see the sandy bottom and I had to stop because there was a 3-5 pound bass going about its business there immune to my strivings.  A few minutes later as I pushed north, throwing in occasional 2 minute surges, the heavens opened up with a warm downpour.  This broke the humidity and washed the sweat from my body.  My shoes squished along as I weaved around the deeper puddles.  Another good morning run in the windy city. “Life Moves pretty fast.  If you don’t stop to look around once in a while you could miss it.” Ferris … Next up for me is the Wapack Trail race 18 miler.  I’m just going to try to have fun and enjoy myself.  If I can get in under 4 hours and not hurt myself that will be great! After that I have that Spartan race the next weekend.  I’m going to take Teresa up with me and spend the night.  My Beast race is on Saturday and she’s going to do the sprint version on Sunday.  Coach wanted me to skip it and focus on the Portland Marathon in October.  If I stay on my nutrition plan and manage to squeeze some training in and stay healthy I could do well out there.  I’m not worried about it though.  I think my days of overwrought expectations are over! … Speaking of overwrought expectations, on one of the planes on the way to Chicago a lady next to me was reading “Fast Girl” – Suzy Favor-Hamilton’s book.  I asked if it was any good and she said she was done with it and gave it to me.  I took it and read it over the next couple days.  I’ll see if I can’t write up a full review but I’m still processing it.  Suzy was a contemporary of mine.  We’re about the same age. I remember her on the cover of that running magazine back in the 1990’s.  She was fast and pretty and the media loved her.  She made 3 Olympic teams in the 1500 but mentally imploded in all of them.  It turns out she’s bipolar and has been struggling with mental illness her whole life. The final manifestation of that mental illness was her becoming a high-paid escort in Las Vegas.  Apparently she brought the same enthusiasm to that as she brought to everything else – but that’s a symptom of being bipolar.  I follow Suzy on Facebook and she is a genuinely likable person.  I’m still processing her story because there is so much intertwined here with the competition, the mental illness and yes, the sex.  It’s a complicated mess for her and her family.  I’m glad that these types of illnesses have less of a stigma now than they did, but it’s still a complicated mess.  It makes you wonder, when your mind is capable of such deception and complexity in the extreme, how much of what’s going on in your head is real and how much any of it actually matters?  The human mind is a complex and sometimes deceptive intelligence.  We should all be careful to remember that. I’ll leave you to think on that.  As you ping pong around on the inside of your overly complicated homo sapiens skull bone – how much does any of that noise matter?  Everyone thinks they are the center of the universe.  We worry about what other’s think. We worry about being good enough, rich enough, smart enough, strong enough – we create, or allow that complex human brain to create stories and chaos.  You don’t have to create that chaos.  All that noise is inside your own head and you and I, if we want to we can quiet it. Maybe you think you’re alone in the world with your deamons.  But you’re not. We’re in this together my friend.  Quiet your mind.  Get some help if you need to.  You’re not alone.  You’ve got us.  And I’ll see you out there.   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-347 – Mike Croy and the One Breath  (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4347.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-347 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Today we are going to reconnect with our old friend Mike the DirtDawg who has been doing a lot of useful work around mindfulness in his life, with his students and in his community.  I chat with him about some practical ways we can use mindfulness in our lives and some basic, easy ways to implement it.  In section one I'm going to zoom in on how meditation or mindfulness can help amateur athletes.  In section two I'm going to do a quick summary of how a 30 day project works and how you can use it to get some traction in your life.  Because, as I write this I'm wrapping up my latest 30 day plan.  I tend to try to do a bunch of things in parallel when I do 30 day projects.  This one I was trying to get up early, clean up my nutrition, avoid alcohol and work on my next book project.  It went very well, except for the last couple days where I was on vacation – that always causes some hiccups in the process.  But I managed to keep the damage minimal while not being bad company.  Up until that point though I had lost a bunch of weight and had mat all my goals and felt fantastic.  I didn't get as much work done on my book project as I would have liked, but all in all it was a good month for me. I was particularly pleased with this because I took a 2 week break from running at the same time I took on the 30-day project. I kicked off the project on the 1st of August the day after my trail marathon.  The Achilles was hurting so coach gave me a week off.  After a week I ran once and felt awful.  I ended up walking back from that run.  That run was day 7 or 8 of the 30 day project, and as I will explain, that is when the project sucks the most.  I was in a bad place with no energy. My runs have been awful all summer.  I just felt sick, had no energy and was hating my runs.  I got them done but it was a struggle.  That's one of the reasons I decided to put my foot down and use a 30-day project to clean up.  I decided to clean up my nutrition and with Rachel's help rebuild my healthy biome. After the day-7 run debacle Coach smelled over-training and gave me another week off.  Not off, but off from running.  That's when I started to turn the corner.  About 14 days in he finally gave me the green light and told me do an easy 1:15 run.  At this point I was lighter, healthier and well rested. I decided to go out at night after work. The night was cool, around 60, and the humidity had let up. I left everything at home and just wore a pair of racing shorts.  No phone, no bottle, no shirt – just my Garmin and the heart strap.  And - Oh my god! I felt weightless.  I couldn't control myself and was literally flying.  I didn't even start to feel any tiredness until the last long climb up to my house.  Coach was a bit peeved when I posted my ‘easy' run and it turned out to be a 8+ mile marathon pace tempo run. But really, sometimes you just can't help yourself.  The other thing I'm noticing is that my HR is staying down.  It's behaving nicely and just the way I would expect it to.  My Achilles is still a little sore but I'm working it.  My runs since then have been fairly fabulous.   Plus, since I'm getting up early anyhow I can knock them out in the morning without much suffering.  It's all good.  The wave is cresting again.  I'm going to see if I can keep the nutrition going until October.  In 30 days I got down to 175 pounds which is very light for me.  I think with a little focus I could get under 170 and I haven't been there, ever.  I'm curious to see what that would do for my racing.  By the way, when I say ‘Clean Nutrition' I mean eating 98% healthy, whole food, nothing packaged, lots of fruit and veg and nuts.  An occasional hit of fish or meat if I feel like I'm not getting enough calories.  I've cut out fried food, bread, most dairy and as much sugar as I can find on the food labels – although sometimes the bastards sneak some by me. When I set up the project with Rachel I told her my focus was not to lose weight but to get healthy.  But, as usual, once you focus on eating clean and healthy, the weight just comes off naturally.  It's not due to a lack of calories per se, just a different mix.  Remember, the first two weeks of this I wasn't even running.  There are a couple things I'm doing slightly different this time around.  First, I'm trying to get enough healthy fats.  I include olive oil in my salads and other meals as a condiment, and I mix a spoonful of coconut oil into my oatmeal in the morning – because apparently coconut oil is the new superfood. Second, we've been experimenting with lots of probiotic foods like KimChi, Sauerkraut, pickles, organic honey and homemade fermented beet juice.  This time of year I'm getting fresh chard and cukes from my garden too and they come with some helpful organisms riding along from the great outdoors.  You can get useful critters from any of the fresh from field produce available this time of year. Check your labels to find certified organic or live culture foods.  To be clear, I don't mean the well-known yoghurts and other probiotic labeled dairy products which, in my humble opinion, are just another packaged food ploy to stuff more dairy and sugar down your throat. I don't know if it is good or bad but my innards are a lot happier now after a month or so of working the probiotic, healthy food plan into my life.  It's amazing how large a change you can make in a short amount of time with a little focus.  … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio Last week I uploaded two, count ‘em, two, book reviews.  One for the Neal Stephenson SevenEves scifi tome and another for Moonwalking with Einstein, a treatise on memory techniques. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows Intro's, Outro's, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3's you can download and listen to at any time. For the cost of a pack of Clean and Clear , to, you know, remove that extra shine off your brow, you can be a member of the runrunlive support crew.  There is no shipping charge for membership and I just today fixed the bug in the annual membership signup process! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … I was reading the New York Times in the airport on my way back from vacation.  There was an article in there about Lucy, the famous Australopithecine.  They found Lucy's fossilized bones in Kenya in 1974 and it really kicked off the study and understanding of all the different branches of the hominid family tree since. Lucy was a small, juvenile, female Australopithecine that lived in the forested grasslands of Africa a few million years ago.  They weren't humans in the sense that we think of Homo sapiens - the thinking ape.  They were a side branch or transitional form of hominid that seems to have been moving out of the trees to walk upright on the ground. According to the news, it seems Lucy's 2M+ year-old fossilized bones were making a tour of the US.  Some scientists took the opportunity to create a thorough CAT scan of them.  In this way they could get detailed digital images that they could analyze without having to have the bones themselves. One of the things that they discovered is a number of compression fractures.  These are the type of fractures you get when you hit something hard, like in car accident or a fall from a great height.  They postulate that poor little Lucy met her demise by falling out of a tall tree.  I question these conclusions.  I don't think anything so mundane happened.  I see the forensic evidence and I think Lucy was definitely into extreme sports.  She was probably wing-suit flying off the ridge from mount Kilimanjaro or paragliding over the volcanoes.  Maybe she was caught in a sudden gust of wind or was rattled by an ill-timed tremor from imbibing too much Red Bull.  Without fully developed opposable thumbs she couldn't hang on and she crashed.  I'm no scientist but I have watched many episodes of CSI Las Vegas and that's where the data leads me.  It was like an Australopithecine version of Point Break.  They had some mad-dog skills and liked to live on the edge those Australopithecines.  Live fast, die young, leave a fossilized pile of bone fragments – that was their motto. On with the show. Section one – Meditation and mindfulness in Sport - Voices of reason – the conversation Mike Croy – “DirtDawg50k” Mike Croy serves as a high school principal for special education students who have been diagnosed with severe emotional impairments. His area of expertise lies in working with at risk students and families for the past 20 years.  Mike is driven to serve by his belief that we are all works in progress and the key is to keep moving forward. Mike began teaching yoga and mindfulness/meditation classes to his students as a result of him obtaining his 200 RYT (Yoga Teacher Training) and has since started to offer it to staff and adults to help others find the space to be mindful and breathe in a hyper connected world.  He is also a 24x marathoner and has completed several ultramarathons including the Burning River 100. Contact information: mike@root2shine.com website: Root 2 Shine:     RSS FEED: Dirt Dawg's Rambling Diatribe: RSS FEED:  Section two Anatomy of a 30-day project - Outro Well my friends you have mindfully sat and watched your body's breath through the end of episode 4-347 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Ohmm… Ohmm Padni ma… Yeah.  Rock solid.  Good job. I'm rolling off the long weekend and heading down to Atlanta to work.  I was out in Chicgao on holidays for a long weekend.  In my career I've been there many times but it was fun to go as a tourist.  I got up every morning and went out to run around the lakefront and Grant Park.  Two out of Three days it poured on me in the morning.  But that was ok.  I just took my shirt off and enjoyed myself.  I did a 2:20 long run Sunday morning and the path was packed with Chicago Marathon aspirants and club runners.  The triathletes were swimming their workouts in the lake. It just so happened that the Chicago Triathlon was also going on over at Grant Park.  There was a constant stream of bicycles on Lakeshore drive the whole time I was out.  We took the architecture tour up the river one night, went to Second City another night and then caught a Cubs game another night.  We walked through the Chicago Institute of Art one day as well.  Like I said it poured rain, but only while I was out running.   I'll share one image with you.  Monday morning I was running a fartlek run. I got up a 6:00 AM local time, ran down the river trail, crossed over on the Lakeshore Drive bridge, ran out to the end of Navy pier and circled around to head north on the lakeshore path.  It was early, overcast and humid.  It hadn't started to rain yet.  The lake was calm and the triathletes were cruising in the shallows parallel to the shore making little wave here and there. There are some sections of beach and sections of concrete along here as the path winds along the coves and points.  I passed the remnants of a beach volleyball tournament that was being disassembled.  Not too many runners were out yet.  Bicyclists were making their way inbound to the city.  Early morning maintenance crews were picking up trash and readying the day's projects. At one point as I ran along the cement wall I could look down and see into the water of Lake Michigan.  It was clear enough for me to see the sandy bottom and I had to stop because there was a 3-5 pound bass going about its business there immune to my strivings.  A few minutes later as I pushed north, throwing in occasional 2 minute surges, the heavens opened up with a warm downpour.  This broke the humidity and washed the sweat from my body.  My shoes squished along as I weaved around the deeper puddles.  Another good morning run in the windy city. “Life Moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop to look around once in a while you could miss it.” Ferris … Next up for me is the Wapack Trail race 18 miler.  I'm just going to try to have fun and enjoy myself.  If I can get in under 4 hours and not hurt myself that will be great! After that I have that Spartan race the next weekend.  I'm going to take Teresa up with me and spend the night.  My Beast race is on Saturday and she's going to do the sprint version on Sunday.  Coach wanted me to skip it and focus on the Portland Marathon in October.  If I stay on my nutrition plan and manage to squeeze some training in and stay healthy I could do well out there.  I'm not worried about it though.  I think my days of overwrought expectations are over! … Speaking of overwrought expectations, on one of the planes on the way to Chicago a lady next to me was reading “Fast Girl” – Suzy Favor-Hamilton's book.  I asked if it was any good and she said she was done with it and gave it to me.  I took it and read it over the next couple days.  I'll see if I can't write up a full review but I'm still processing it.  Suzy was a contemporary of mine.  We're about the same age. I remember her on the cover of that running magazine back in the 1990's.  She was fast and pretty and the media loved her.  She made 3 Olympic teams in the 1500 but mentally imploded in all of them.  It turns out she's bipolar and has been struggling with mental illness her whole life. The final manifestation of that mental illness was her becoming a high-paid escort in Las Vegas.  Apparently she brought the same enthusiasm to that as she brought to everything else – but that's a symptom of being bipolar.  I follow Suzy on Facebook and she is a genuinely likable person.  I'm still processing her story because there is so much intertwined here with the competition, the mental illness and yes, the sex.  It's a complicated mess for her and her family.  I'm glad that these types of illnesses have less of a stigma now than they did, but it's still a complicated mess.  It makes you wonder, when your mind is capable of such deception and complexity in the extreme, how much of what's going on in your head is real and how much any of it actually matters?  The human mind is a complex and sometimes deceptive intelligence.  We should all be careful to remember that. I'll leave you to think on that.  As you ping pong around on the inside of your overly complicated homo sapiens skull bone – how much does any of that noise matter?  Everyone thinks they are the center of the universe.  We worry about what other's think. We worry about being good enough, rich enough, smart enough, strong enough – we create, or allow that complex human brain to create stories and chaos.  You don't have to create that chaos.  All that noise is inside your own head and you and I, if we want to we can quiet it. Maybe you think you're alone in the world with your deamons.  But you're not. We're in this together my friend.  Quiet your mind.  Get some help if you need to.  You're not alone.  You've got us.  And I'll see you out there.   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

I Neal Stephensons 14. roman, Seveneves, kaster den visionære forfatter sig over tankeeksperimentet: Hvad hvis månen pludselig kolliderer med noget og sprænges itu? Vi er i udpræget Hard SCI-FI land, med masser af beskrivelser af teknologier, og kreativ udnyttelse af videnskabelige tanker. Følg med når Stephenson kaster jordens befolkning for ildregnen, og når han springer […] Indlægget Ep.22: Neal Stephenson, Seveneves blev først udgivet på SCIFI SNAK.

"Holy fucking shit, Neal. Neal, Neal, Neal Neal, Neal.. Was machst Du hier mit uns... Neal Stephenson hat einen Roman geschrieben, der unendlich deprimierend ist. Und genauso grenzenlos empfehlbar. Es ist seit langem ein Roman bei dem man 200 Seiten im Buch nicht das Ende ahnt. Es kommt alles ganz anders. GANZ anders. Deshalb hier die Bitte an alle, die Starke nerven und ein positives Gemüt haben, sofort abzuschalten und sich Neal Stephensons unaussprechlichen Roman “Seveneves” zu holen und wiederzukommen, nachdem die letzte Seite gelesen ist. Ich verspreche beim heiligen Douglas Adams, dass niemand enttäuscht sein wird. Das Buch ist noch nicht übersetzt, aber der Schwierigkeitsgrad is mässig und man vermeidet bei sofortigem Lesen den unvermeidlichen Spoiler, den ein gedankenloser Verleger durch den Deutschen Titel verbrechen wird.

A catastrophic event renders the Earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere: in outer space. Only a handful of survivors remain . . . Five thousand years later, their […] The post Neal Stephenson : Seveneves appeared first on Tin House.