runs.  These are not race specific so I can do them in the woods with Ollie and it makes us both quite happy.  I got every one of my workouts in while in Phoenix.  Proud of that.  I’m heading to Vegas next week and look forward to doing some early morning exploring there as well. I received multiple ‘feedbacks’ that my grizzly bear audio was just a little too real last episode.  People were startled and looked around on their runs to make sure they weren’t about to be eaten!  Sorry.  Trying to be creative.  Yah know… 12 years and all… got to keep it from becoming too rote. No, I did not suffer from any grisly grizzly attacks but that was actual audio of a grizzly eating a dead caribou in Yellowstone.  There is a grisly back story here.  And it’s not that someone found a way to mic up a dead caribou.  If you search for grizzly audio there’s a sort of viral audio of this poor dude and his girlfriend being attacked and eaten by grizzlies in the early 2000’s in Yellowstone.  I did not watch or listen to it because I don’t need that in my head.  Apparently they were trying to video the grizzly with the phone, the grizzly attacked, the phone was dropped and you get a black box narrative of the affair.  Not my cup o’ tea.  I won’t leave you with that.  I’ll leave you with something positive.  The days are getting longer up here in New England.  It’s been a mild January and we don’t have much snow.  This means there’s enough sun to get on the trails with the dog around 6:30 AM now.  And it’s cold enough for the trails to be firm and fast.  There’s nothing like being out in the woods in the silence of a winter’s morning.  Your feet crunching in the frozen ground.  The sun glow highlighting the world in an innocent blur.  Your friend the dog hiding at the tops of hills to pounce on you, damn near knock you down, and run off laughing like a teenager to find his next ambush spot. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … 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 and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Long run Nuances Voices of reason – the conversation Alix Shutello My Story: A Message from the CEO Hi, my name is Alix Shutello and I started Endurance Sports & Fitness Magazine back in 2010 because someone asked me to. I mean that!  I started writing a blog entitled, Tighthams, to write about my running exploits as a new mom.   In 2002, I ran the San Diego Marathon pregnant and it wasn’t until 2006 when I wrote about it in my blog. I started the blog, truth be told, to learn how to us WordPress. Many of my 11 magazine clients at the time were starting to blog and leverage social media. I figured if I were going to be able to consult with my clients on blogging, I needed to start blogging myself. And now I’ve published this blog about running a marathon pregnant, and other women from around the world began responding to the blog. I was immediately humbled. Many of these women had multiple kids, had run through all of their pregnancies, and who still felt that society didn’t agree that women should run pregnant. In essence, my blog post on running pregnant started a conversation, and that was a lesson I could teach my clients. I kept up with the blog and started to write reviews on products and post some other topics, all of which seemed to generate a number of comments, so I turned Tighthams from a blog into a company called Runners Illustrated. Runners Illustrated, which played off of a combination of Runners World and Sports Illustrated was a great way for me to report on all aspects of running. An endurance runner from Australia names Andy Bowen emailed me one day. He asked me if I could start covering endurance races. Bowen was one of a number of athletes who approached me about covering global endurance foot races beyond the marathon. It opened my eyes to a world I didn’t know existed….and from there, Runners Illustrated, which focused on running any distance up to the marathon morphed to include all types of ultra running. It didn’t stop there. Once I changed the name of Runners Illustrated to Endurance Racing Magazine, the triathlon community found me too – and it didn’t stop there. Endurance Racing Magazine operated from 2012-2016 and covered a number of non-motorized endurance sports including kayaking, canoeing, ultra marathons, adventure racing, Ironman-distance races, ultra-triathlons, duathlons and all other types of trail and road races in between. In late 2016 I conducted a survey and the title of this publication changed to Endurance Sports & Fitness Magazine. The title, while long, resonated with my readers and created more comfort for those, like me, who are striving to enter the endurance world. In 2016 the newly redesigned magazine (which was only published digitally) hit the “shelves” with a lot of fanfare. We hope that you consider supporting the magazine through a subscription or by advertising. The magazine, which is a community-based magazine, is supported by a number of writers who give their time to provide excellent content and rich stories for our reader base. Please  and support our publication. If you ever need to contact me, reach me at . I look forward to hearing from you. Alix Shutello CEO & Publisher Section two – On OKR’s – Outro Well, my friends, we have transversed the frozen ground to the end of another RunRunLive Podcast Episode 4-424 lies sweating and spent in the hoar frost. Nothing new or novel in my training or racing to report.  I’m plunking away build mileage for Boston. I canceled the pacing race on Martha’s Vineyard so I can focus on requalifying in June.  I have signed up for the Tunnel Light Marathon in Oregon which is on a rail trail and is a consistently slightly downhill course.  I’m not going to run any other races, except for the Groton 10K of course.  This is I think our 29th running of the 10K.  Last Sunday in April, come up and join us.  If you folks need anything feel free to reach out to me.  I like hearing from you.  Ollie the collie is doing fine.  He’s just 8 months old now. He’s a stud of an athlete.  We’ll finish this week with somewhere around 30 trail miles.  He’s still incredibly unruly.  He is very vocal, which Buddy was not.  Ollie will spontaneously treat you to a loud, close-range, ear-splitting bark if he wants your attention.  He’s still very mouthy and jumpy and does not listen well but we’re working on it.  A couple weeks ago we were out running in the woods and we came upon a large flock of wild turkeys. Probably 20-30 of them.  Ollie was beside himself with joy.  He chased those birds hither and thither.  Some flew away, like turkeys do, they can’t really fly but they can go short distances, some ran away clucking.  Eventually he came back to rejoin me all tuckered out and quite happy with himself. He’s just come into my office to see me and put his big head in my lap for a hug.  When I was out in phoenix last week I was thinking about the absurdity of having such a city in the middle of the desert.  Before the modern era you could not do such things at scale.  One of my mornings I was running along a canal, which I think they called an aqueduct.  It was fenced in.  I did not attempt to breach the barbed wire.  I’ve been known to jump fences, but it looked like they really didn’t want you inside this fence. Turns out, I was told later, that the whole thing is alarmed with motion sensors and if you get inside the fence the authorities rush out to apprehend you.  That might have made a good running adventure story. The Puebloans who lived here before got by, but not at this scale.  Cities need a reason to exist.  They need to be near something.  Ancient desert cities were on an Oasis and or near a source of water or trade route.  You just don’t put a city in the middle of a desert like Vegas or Phoenix for no reason.  There was a recent discovery of a large city in Egypt from a few thousand years ago.  And they were asking the same question.  Why was this city here?  In the middle of the desert?  They were able to use modern LIDAR and other airborne surveys to figure it out.  A branch of the Nile used to run by this city.  That branch of the Nile silted up so the residents picked up the whole city and moved it to the next branch of the Nile some 100 miles away.  We’ll see what happens when Phoenix runs out of water.  And Vegas.  Challenges like this bring out the innovative nature of humans.  I will see you out there.  (Outro bumper) To continue my music series I give you track #2 from Brian Scheff, the Rock Opera by The Nays.  MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->