We Are Superman

Here's a bit of fun recounting my recent three-week trip to South Africa and Namibia, a fancy cruise with my family to celebrate my dad's 90th birthday.  I describe the thrilling animals, impressive sights, crazy runs, and the history and culture, including the tragic legacy of apartheid, and the good and the bad of current life there.  I discovered there is a ton more to know about this conflicted part of the world, full of beauty, wild nature, poverty, and Third World problems.  Please check out my Instagram account for many scenic photos.Bill Stahlsilly_billy@msn.comFacebook Bill StahlInstagram @stahlor

Here's a quick Power Play episode referencing a recent real-life coaching scenario, discussing ensuring both your body and brain are totally engaged in your training program.  Ixcela is offering the WASP family a free 15-minute consultation with one of their nutritionists, and a 10% discount if you decide you’d like to use their services to try to improve your performance and overall health. Go to https://qrco.de/bdZsae to set an appointment, and if ordering, use the code SUPERMAN10 to get your discount.Bill Stahlsilly_billy@msn.comFacebook Bill StahlInstagram @stahlor

When I heard Glenn Livingston’s story, I was immediately struck by the similarities to those of David and so many others I know from the Warriors group and elsewhere. This native of the same area of Long Island that I grew up in, like so many young people I coach, felt that as an athlete he could eat anything he wanted to because he would burn it off at the next workout. What occurred next was the inevitable massive weight gain and the doctor’s pronouncement that he would not live much longer on the path he was on. Very familiar story. Glenn spent years as a psychologist counseling overweight clients and as a CEO for a firm consulting many Fortune 500 food industry companies, which gave him inside knowledge of how the food industry perpetuates the bad habits it has created. Not satisfied with the bingeing and overeating solutions that were available, he researched the subject in a study with 40,000 individuals that gave him unique insights into these maladies of modern-day life. That launched Never Binge Agai

Happy New Year, everyone! Returning to the Hive is the always fun breakout star of ultrarunning, Annie Hughes.  We spoke with her in 2021 after she became, at age 23, the youngest-ever winner of the Leadville Trail 100. And she was a local resident to boot!  Annie ramped up her racing and success even more in 2022, capturing four more titles and many course records, all with the guidance of her trusty friend Olga. Included among them was a huge win at the Cocodona 250 in Arizona, which she describes as a series of course mishaps, sleep follies, and rattlesnakes, yet was a resounding victory. I’m sure you’ll be entertained to hear what it takes to not only finish 250 miles, but to place highly as well. We cover a lot of areas during our high-spirited chat, including her plans for this coming year, with her keystone race being the Hardrock 100, and her insane plans for her 25th birthday in March, topping even her 24-hour run in Leadville for her 24th birthday. Annie is so much fun to talk with and as long as we

Following my running the LT100 in August, I went through two weeks of extreme fatigue, I was exhausted at times following doing only household chores.  I had an ok week after that, and then I was set back for another two weeks after receiving shots I needed for my trip to Africa.  Even after that, I have often struggled to feel energy on runs, frequently feeling out of breath either at the very start or later in runs. I’ve had thoughts that maybe I was experiencing so-called long-Covid. Some people suggested I get a blood test. I didn’t really know where to turn for that, and more importantly, who would competently analyze and interpret the results for me. Then through Robbie Balenger I became aware of Ixcela, a company started by two biochemists, whose goal is to help people live and perform better by assessing their health using a simple finger pinprick blood test and providing feedback in the areas of gastrointestinal fitness, immune fitness, emotional balance, cognitive acuity, and energetic efficiency, a

It’s our annual holiday tradition: Gary Stotler and I presenting Sober F*cking Christmas. Gary has had quite a journey in 2022, so we chat about both of our career’s twisting roads and what’s coming up for the holidays, including Gary’s own food struggles during the holidays and how he solves them. Of course, we pay tribute to David Clark, who recorded the first Sober F*cking Christmas, with some of the things that he enlightened us with, and carry that forward with our always insightful advice for some things you can do to make this a great holiday season for everyone. Enjoy, and Merry Sober F*cking Christmas and Holidays to all WASP listeners!Gary Stotlergarystotler.comFacebook Gary StotlerInstagram @garysellsdenverFind his latest book, "Success is Spelled Action" on AmazonBill Stahlsilly_billy@msn.comFacebook Bill StahlInstagram @stahlor

We often talk about rebounding on the WASP. It may not be much harder than this since we spoke earlier in 2022 about Holocaust survivor Lili Berliner. Today we talk with Rick Townsend, whose lovely daughter Lauren was one of 12 students murdered at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Rick is the president of the Columbine Memorial Foundation, which maintains the beautiful memorial in Clement Park adjacent to the school. It’s a place that allows quiet reflection and healing, and does a fantastic job of remembering the innocent lives lost. I met Rick, along with former Columbine principal Frank DeAngelis, in September at the Dave Sanders Invitational cross country meet, named after the heroic teacher and coach who died protecting his students. Both Rick and Frank impressed me with their passion and devotion to the memorial and to remembering the victims and supporting the entire Columbine community. I’ve always been awed that Mr. DeAngelis stayed on as principal until kids who were in kindergarten at the t

I’m excited to present the second WASP appearance by Dan Herman, who trains and counsels athletes out of Dan Herman Performance in New Jersey. Like we did a year ago, Dan and I have a fun and timely chat to keep you focused on your training and nutrition goals through the holidays and into next year. Dan is an amazingly insightful guy who’s had his own amazing journey. He was 375 pounds with an unhealthy relationship with food and a broken self-image. Add in an inoperable spinal tumor that made it nearly impossible to move. Like David, he illogically bought a pair of running shoes and ran a few seconds at a time. Eventually of course he kept improving and lost nearly half of his weight. Go back and listen to his WASP episode #183 from Jan. 5, 2022 if you didn’t catch him already. I hope you’ll get some good advice and nuggets out of this episode with a really cool guy who’s dedicated himself to helping others.Coach Dan Herman and Dan Herman Performance:www.danhermanperformance.comdan@danhermanperformance.comd

As most of you know, the typical response in our medical system to your injury is first medication, sometimes physical therapy, then maybe injections, and finally surgery. In the previous episode, Sammie Lewis and I touched on some of the more advanced modalities available should you get injured. The problem can often be that if you need one of these, good luck getting our health insurance system to help you pay for it. Or that your traditional doctor has no idea about these, or worse, dismisses them as unproven, often because they are untrained on them. Interestingly, many so-called traditional medical providers are now bringing in specialists to perform these procedures like platelet rich plasma, or PRP. I have brought in today two experts in helping you navigate the medical jungle, Drs. Vas Eliopoulos and Khoshal Latifzai, of Rocky Mountain Regenerative Medicine of Boulder, CO. Both men came out of this traditional medical system, but after seeing how much they were limited by its rigid structure, includin

As I’ve mentioned, I’m a huge believer that if you want to keep working out without interruption, you must address your muscle imbalances and your overall balance, and in many instances work on your mobility, flexibility, and overall strength. These efforts should be happening year-round, but in particular we often have more opportunity to do so in the winter. So I thought it would be most appropriate to bring into the Hive Sammie Lewis, a prehab, rehab, and strength coach with Golden Endurance from right here in Golden CO. Sammie and her fellow coaches bring a holistic approach to training those aspects and provides her thoughts here for getting the most bang for your buck when dealing with health insurance for your injury rehab. Sammie and I also have some interesting discussions about the most important exercises endurance athletes can do, including plyometrics and ones for activating your glutes when you run, something many of us hear about, but few really know how to do. Then we delve into the pluses and

With Thanksgiving around the corner, our focus is on family, so who better to bring onto the WASP than the creator of the Leadville family herself, Merilee Maupin? While Ken Chlouber and his rugged miner face and dressed in classic Western attire appears on the Leadville Race Series Web site and posters, Merilee, as co-founder with Ken, was the force behind creating the Leadville Family that gets runners and bikers returning to Leadville summer after summer. It is deeply heartfelt when she says Welcome Home to Leadville. And it’s the goal of every runner who starts the race to receive the coveted hug from Merilee upon crossing the finish line, metaphorically returning home. The founding of the Leadville Trail 100 is well-chronicled. The mine was closed and once-booming Leadville crashed, suddenly having the highest unemployment in the nation. Residents fled in droves. Ken had this crazy idea to save the town by staging a 100-mile race at 10,200-foot elevation. Not only did it stick, but it thrived and then gr

I hope you caught last week Kelly Thrush’s jaw-dropping story of nearly drinking himself to death, how a liver transplant saved his life despite that he hadn’t yet gotten sober, and waking up from that surgery feeling gratitude for the efforts of so many to give him another shot at life. Kelly has grabbed that opportunity by the proverbial horns. He describes in this second part getting sober and losing weight, discovering hiking, running, and ultramarathoning, his Grand Canyon rim-to-rim-to rim hike, by the way, all while eating plant-based, his upcoming goals, and some of the ways he is positively impacting the world helping kids, and the recovery and transplant communities. I have no doubt you will leave this episode as impressed and inspired by Kelly as I was when I first met and ran with him at the American Heroes Run.Kelly ThrushFacebook Kelly ThrushInstagram @just__keep__going_Bill Stahlsilly_billy@msn.comFacebook Bill StahlInstagram @stahlor

At this year’s American Heroes Run, Kelly Thrush of Arizona by far had the best cheering section, including a couple of adorable tikes, his niece and nephew, holding up a posterboard sign with the message, “From liver transplant to 100 miles, look at what you can do Kelly.” I had the fantastic opportunity to cover a few laps with Kelly and got to hear his remarkable story. An aspiring professional baseball player, Kelly fell instead into the world of college partying. He later worked in restaurants and bars, which fueled his drinking even more. Kelly drank so hard that his boss sent him to the hospital and Kelly eventually found himself on his own deathbed. With perhaps hours to go, Kelly received a new liver, which went against normal protocol because Kelly hadn’t even started getting sober yet. He awoke feeling immense gratitude and has ever since dedicated his life to showing gratitude and giving back. He also started hiking and eventually progressed to running ultramarathons and completing a Grand Canyon

I’ve brought back Kathy Davis from VegInspired, who was on episode #217 on July 21, to expand on the benefits of plant-based eating, and more importantly, how to make it easy to do. Specifically, she recommends meal planning so as to avoid, when life gets chaotic, reverting to eating out of a box, i.e., reaching for the nearest junk food. Most importantly, she offers tips about making meal planning fit into your own schedule, making it exciting for you by using ingredients you already like, and how to make meal planning and healthy eating an intentional activity. If healthier eating is on your agenda, especially as the Holidays approach, grab a pen and paper and take copious notes because Kathy doesn’t just provide a gold nugget or two in this discussion, but a whole pot of gold. For those who like to have some positive encouragement to get going and/or moving on their meal planning, definitely check out Kathy’s new accountability club to help you along. This is on top of the free meal planner she offered dur

Training most of your life to make the Olympic team and then actually achieving that goal has got to be the crowning achievement of your life, right? For Hannah Halvorsen, it certainly was. It looks so glamorous to march in the Opening Ceremony, competing against the best in the world at the most awesome venues money can build, enjoying an unparalleled experience in the Olympic Village and seeing the sights of the host country with teammates and competitors. We met Hannah back in January, 2021 in episode #113 when, as an aspiring member of the U.S. Cross Country Ski team, she had rebounded from a catastrophic accident getting run over by a car in Anchorage, Alaska to return to the world Nordic Cup circuit and earning racing points. Certainly the kind of comeback story we love to share on the WASP. Hannah’s upward trajectory continued to earning a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. But as she describes, the Beijing experience was just a bit skewed due to Covid, restrictions on free speech and movement, dietary cha

First I had a two-week malaise after running the Leadville Trail 100.  Then after receiving yellow fever, typhoid, and polio vaccinations for my upcoming trip to Africa, I went through a host of medical problems including debilitating cramps in my upper trapezius muscle, more fatigue, numbness in my fingers, and double vision.  So now I'm pretty much starting over, as I did after each of my surgeries every year of the 2010s, only this time there's no rehab involved.  I was in shape enough to attempt 100 miles in August, and here I am taking the baby steps to get back into shape just six weeks later.  How do you make a comeback from this kind of layoff?  I'd love to hear your techniques and perhaps discuss that on a future episode!Bill Stahlsilly_billy@msn.comFacebook Bill StahlInstagram @stahlor

There were stories galore at the 2022 American Heroes Run, David's tribute to first responders, military service people and veterans, and the lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. We also had a lot of record performances, perhaps due to a sudden 40-degree drop in temperature plus a steady dose of rain. Please listen to hear some of these impressive and inspirational tales of endurance and perseverance.Bill Stahlsilly_billy@msn.comFacebook Bill StahlInstagram @stahlor

I hope you enjoyed part one of the great storytelling with one of running’s legends, Roy Pirrung. Last episode I detailed some of Roy’s many incredible running achievements at a wide array of distances, and he and I talked about some of his many-varied experiences. In part two of this conversation we talk more about how the Italians tried to stop him from finishing a race, getting married in the Vatican, competing in the famous Spartathlon, running across the Gobi Desert with seven broken ribs, and how crazy a race is too crazy for Roy Pirrung. If things go according to his plan, he expects to outlive his centenarian aunt, and no doubt he’ll be running that entire time. I hope you’ll be entertained again in this episode by this tremendous ambassador of the sport of running.Roy Pirrungroypirrung.comFacebook Roy PirrungBill Stahlsilly_billy@msn.comFacebook Bill StahlInstagram @stahlor

When I first began running long distances, I subscribed to this obscure black-and-white magazine called Ultrarunning. It was nothing but race results and a few articles and letters to the editor. The community of ultrarunners was very small in those days, and there were a couple of names I’d always see standing out in the results. One of them was Roy Pirrung, a legend of the sport, now 74 years young, who has run 105,000 lifetime miles, set 99 national records and counting, been named USATF Ultrarunner of the Year five times, and voted to the USATF Masters Hall of Fame. He has run 157 marathons and 219 ultramarathons. Roy is currently top-ranked in the world for 100 miles in the 70-74 year old age category. Some of his jaw-dropping marks include 90 miles in 12 hours, 100 miles in 13:15:50, 154 miles in 24 hours, and 243 miles in 48 hours. Roy thinks of himself not as an ultrarunner but as a runner, the kind of guy who will complete an ultra one day, and jump into a 5K the next day. He’s also the extraordinary

It’s taken a bit to process everything from my Leadville Trail 100. The race for me ended at Twin Lakes, mile 40. My plan to fuel and hydrate better by going out at a conservative pace was obviously too slow and might have worked better had I not expended so much mental and physical energy dealing with a lighting system that wasn’t bright enough and my dicey depth perception and balance that led me to being too cautious navigating the rockier, uneven trail sections. I was moving ok but with a thin margin for error when my left hamstring cramped ¼ mile from Halfpipe aid station, mile 33. Despite eating salted mashed potatoes, salted watermelon, and a banana, the hammy continued to cramp up for the next 2-3 runnable miles. I got 250 mg. of salt from a fellow runner that immediately helped, but I’d lost too much time. I bombed down into Twin in a desperate attempt to beat the cutoff and have a shot at Hope Pass, but missed by about 15 minutes.Aside from the disappointment, I’m left with a few bright spots. I pro