DIALOGUES by Mindful Endurance Program

This episode we dive into the dynamic of coaching, leadership and teams in sport—sharing our own experience, reflections and insights from both a spiritual practice and the pursuit of performance.Contemplation: Is Running Dead?After reading Jay Smith ‘s article, ‘Running is Dead,’ I share a contemplation on what he was saying, my place in the running space and where I can see it going from here. It’s an interesting idea to explore, as the popularity peaks, I don’t think running is dead per say, but it will evolve and we have the capacity to shape that evolution ourselves.Acceptance: The Post-Race DepressionYou trained for months. You crossed the line, hugged your teammates, maybe cried a little. And then, somewhere between day one and day five, something feels uncomfortable. You’re tired in a way sleep doesn’t fix, a little flat, maybe irritable, and quietly wondering now what?If that sounds familiar, you’re not doing recovery wrong. This is one of the most common and least talked about parts of endurance sport. First we have to acknowledge it, and then learn how to move through it with grace.1. The Purpose VacuumFor months, your calendar, your food, your sleep, and your weekends all had one organizing principle. Then the race happened, and the principle is gone. The flatness many athletes feel afterward is often less about the race itself than about the sudden absence of direction. As humans, having a purpose is a potent catalyst for focus and energy, but we’re meant to oscillate between this intensity and periods of ease and rest.Remember: The emptiness doesn’t mean the race wasn’t meaningful. It means it was. Something that mattered is complete. Don’t fill the space immediately. Resist the urge to sign up for the next race that same week. Give yourself at least a couple of weeks of open space and see what actually wants to emerge. This can be challenging but it truly where some of the deepest takeaways from endurance sport can come through.2. Your Body Is Doing a Lot of Quiet WorkA big effort leaves real physiological debris: muscle damage, inflammation, depleted glycogen, disrupted sleep, and a stressed immune system. Many athletes also notice appetite swings, heavy fatigue, and a general sense of being “off.” Add the drop from weeks of heightened adrenaline and anticipation, and mood can dip alongside the body.Remember: Feeling low and feeling tired are tangled together. Your body is rebuilding, and your mood is partly riding on that. Often we think we should be ‘able’ to get back to training a lot faster than we should. A half-marathon can take 10-15 days to recover from, a marathon 14-30 days. Unless we are professionals that have trained for decades to handle the load, there is a huge requirement for gentleness post-race, which feels like such a hard change of gears, it can be challenging for the mind, even of the body is screaming for restfulness.3. Losing the ContainerTraining gave you more than fitness. It gave you rhythm, a community, and a reason to see people at 8 a.m. When the race ends, those structures often loosen, and the social and emotional benefits go quiet along with them.Remember: What you miss may not be running. It may be the belonging, the ritual, and the sense of being part of something. You can keep the connective pieces alive on intentionally. Schedule an easy, no-agenda run or coffee with your training partners. A debrief with the people who shared the journey does more than most people expect. You are no alone in this part of the journey either.4. The Story You Tell About the ResultThis is where your Strava piece comes back in. After a race, the mind starts building narratives: I should have gone faster. It wasn’t enough. Was that it? Or, after a great result: who am I now that it’s over? Either way, the number gets attached to a story about who you are.Remember: The race happened, and it’s complete. The finish time is data, not a verdict. You are not your result, and you aren’t your best effort either. Wait several days before you analyze the race. Then reflect with curiosity instead of critique. What did you learn? What are you proud of? What surprised you?The only real question is did I give it my best? In training and on race day? If yes, then relish in the sense of fulfillment. If not, then what held you back?Journal promptWhat did this race give me that has nothing to do with the finish time? What do I want to carry forward, and what am I ready to put down?INDEX Latest products, updates and inspiration* Wear: After a long quiet period at the top of running, Nike appears to be back. Worn by Vincent Luis winning KONA Ironman and Andreas Almgren winning the NYC Marathon, the yet-to-bet released Nike Apex is sparking a lot of interest. At $380 it feels pretty affordable compared to Adidas top-end shoe.* Fuel: L-Theanine and Caffeine together. I’ve met many people that don’t want to give up coffee and also feel like its slowly wrecking their nervous system. This combination could be the answer, or at least worth trying.* Recover: The Hyperice massage gun and Normatec boots get a lot of love, but I find that the Vyper 3 actually gives me some of the best daily support before and after my runs. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mindfulenduranceprogram.substack.com

In this issue we explore the often conflicting inner dynamics that can create suffering in sport, but can also lead us to liberation. As human beings, everything exists in relationship, but our ego can misinterpret information and conflate it with our unconscious internalized self-concept. We explore how this can help, some ways that we can spot it, and offer an example to put into practice with our ‘Mindfulness for Strava’ guide below.PRACTICE: Mindfulness for Stravaby Ryan WillmsThere’s a certain irony in an app called Strava — from the Swedish “strive” — becoming a mirror for our comparison, our shame, our hiding. Einstein’s relativity tells us that motion, time, even simultaneity depend entirely on the observer’s frame of reference. The opportunity is to use Strava as a catalyst — to bring awareness to the beliefs it stirs up, the thoughts of not being good enough, or of being better than. Relativity is a tool. The numbers are helpful. And they mean nothing about who you are, or why you run.Below are five steps to explore, to anchor more deeply into the truth of your being, your heart, and your gratitude for the experience your body offers.1. Why am I running today?Before you run, before you log your data, reconnect and anchor into your why. Why are you running today? To feel better, for health, to process thoughts and feelings, for solitude, to lose weight? There are no wrong answers — but a why centered on your own experience of life and movement has no relativity to it. When we anchor into that, and remember it, we can put down comparison and judgment much more easily.Journal prompt: What frame am I running from today — physically, emotionally, energetically? What would it mean to measure myself only against that?2. Numbers have nothing to do with who you are.The number is neutral. The story you attach to it — “I’m behind,” “I’m not a real runner,” “everyone’s faster than me,” “they’re going to think I’m slow” — is something you build afterward, quickly and almost invisibly, because it feels like it has something to do with who you are, your identity. That’s the work: catching the gap between the pace on the screen and the meaning you assigned it. Most people aren’t consciously thinking this — they just feel uncomfortable, and then delete or hide the workout. But if we can explicitly acknowledge that the pace or time has nothing to do with who we are, we can put it down more easily, before we ever build a story around it.Journal prompt: What thoughts come up when I see another athlete’s time or pace? How do I judge them as a human or a runner based on it — and can I see that mirrored in how I judge myself?3. The effort is the goal.In relativity, there’s no universal clock — only what’s true within a given frame. The only “clock” that’s actually yours is effort relative to your own capacity that day. A 9-minute mile on four hours of sleep, in a hard week, might be your fastest mile. If we’re honest with ourselves, we can check in with our own heart — the real compass will tell us.Journal prompt: Did I give my best effort today? If yes, let yourself feel that fulfillment — it’s worth honoring. If not, what got in the way? Fear, a thought, a belief, an excuse — let it be OK that it’s there. Naming it is the practice.4. The truth will set you free.The instinct to delete, hide, or make an activity private after a “bad” run is the not-good-enough identity talking — treating the workout as evidence of inadequacy, rather than as data, as practice, as a simply human experience. What if the slow run stayed visible — not for anyone else, but as a small act of self-honesty? We want to shed our sense of worth based on others’ opinions. That is freedom. I am here. Here I am, today. I showed up and gave my best effort, period. (And truthfully — nobody’s paying as much attention as you think.)Journal prompt: What am I afraid a slower or harder workout says about me — and is that fear something I’d say out loud to a friend? Consider this your invitation to take that step, and share this experience with someone you trust.5. Gratitude for your body and breath.Just as you are not your run data, you are not your body either. It is a magnificent, magical, ever-evolving, self-healing vessel for the experience of humanity and divinity. Whatever the pace, however the run felt, bring gratitude to your body for the vast experience that movement — and stillness — allow. Each breath is a small miracle. What a gift, that this body lets you move, and lets you connect with others through running. Apps like Strava, used well, can offer insight to help us care for our bodies, connect with community, and stay devoted to the practice.Journal prompt: What was the most joyful part of running for me today? Clarity, sweat, the no-mind, the rhythm, an idea, a sensation?The truth is, we are all relatively mediocre, and objectively exquisite. The practice of letting go of identity is what lets us anchor more deeply in our true nature — and that nature is not relative.INSIGHT: A Fruitful GoalBy Sri ChinmoyWe can sustain freshness and enthusiasm in running by having a sense of a clear, meaningful and fruitful goal. If we keep in mind this meaningful and fruitful goal, then enthusiasm and freshness will automatically dawn. If we value the goal, then the goal itself will give us enthusiasm and freshness. We are not aware of our goal’s conscious eagerness to help us reach it. We think that the goal that is ahead of us is indifferent to us: if we can come to it, well and good; if we cannot come to it, the goal is not going to come to us. We feel that the goal is something stationary. But it is not like that. In our case, the goal is always progressive, and this progressive goal is more than eager to help us.The mother will stand at a particular place and wait for the child to come crawling or running toward her. But the mother is not only waiting to see; the mother has tremendous eagerness for the child to come and reach her. Finally, if the mother sees that the child is trying but not succeeding, at that time she will come running toward the child. Similarly, in the inner world the goal actually comes toward the runner. If we value the goal and feel that the goal is something worthwhile, if we feel that it has tremendous, boundless things to offer us, then naturally the goal itself will inwardly help us. The goal does not want us always to feel that it is a far cry; it wants us to reach it.WATCH: MEP Run Retreat in Ojai, CA with On“No man ever steps in the same river twice.”—HeraclitusThis phrase came ringing through my awareness as I went through the photos of this year’s Run Retreat in Ojai, CA. The format of these retreats and training camps hasn’t changed much over the years, but each experience is entirely its own. Shaped by the group, the openness, the environment, the attitude, the heat, and the collective consciousness — it’s never the same river twice. Always stepping into the unknown, and always beautiful, fruitful and fulfilling.I’m grateful to the group of amazing men that ventured out with MEP this year — traversing new terrain, remembering Truth, and connecting through movement, stillness and breath. I was inspired, challenged, and reminded of why I pour myself into this work, and that none of it would be possible without the courage and commitment of everyone who shows up. We are interdependent beings, here to recognize our shared humanity — and endurance sport is a beautiful medium for that experience.Film by Asa FletcherPHYSIOLOGY: Trust your Heart Rate RecoveryWhat HRR Actually Tells YouA heart rate drop of 20+ beats per minute within the first minute after hard exercise is a sign of excellent Heart Rate Recovery (HRR) — not to be confused with Heart Rate Variability (HRV), which measures the microscopic variation between heartbeats at rest. Both are driven by a healthy autonomic nervous system, but they’re tracking different things: HRR is how fast your heart rate drops once you stop moving, and a drop of 18–20+ bpm in that first minute is a strong, efficient signal — your “fight-or-flight” sympathetic system stepping back and letting your “rest-and-digest” parasympathetic system take the wheel. A drop of less than 12 bpm, on the other hand, is considered a red flag — often pointing to overtraining, low aerobic fitness, or cardiovascular strain worth paying attention to.How can you improve your HRR?* Aerobic base — the bulk of your easy, conversational-pace running. Improvements in HRR track closely with improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, and it’s the steady, unglamorous mileage — not the hard efforts — that seems to build this capacity most reliably.* Second, your state going into the workout: sleep, stress, and caffeine all shape how your nervous system responds, so a sluggish HRR reading on a given day may say more about last night’s sleep than about your fitness.* Third, don’t mistake a temporary dip for detraining — a slower HRR after a heavy training block can simply be your body under load, not losing fitness; it tends to normalize again after a couple of easy days. In all three cases, the invitation is the same: treat HRR as a trend to notice, not a single number to judge yourself by. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mindfulenduranceprogram.substack.com

In episode two, Ryan Lynch and Ryan Willms pick up some threads from the first episode, reflecting on pain and pleasure in endurance pursuits, before diving into a work-in-progress map for exploring the inner world through movement. Following the mind into the emotional body, into the physical body, and the different ways these inner dialogues can emerge, what is the point of exploring this map and the benefits of space and differentiation in sport and the human experience. You cannot separate what is One, but as the Buddha noted below, it is important to remember that the map is not the terrain.* Mental Body: Who is speaking to whom? I am vs You are.* Emotional Body: What am I feeling? How am I relating to “others”, as the experiencer?* Physical Body: Our primal physicality, our cells, our nervous system. Our feet on the ground, the smell in the air, the sound of the birds. How are we relating to Mother Earth, as part of the environment, not separate from it.“The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon.”—The Buddha (From the Lankavatara Sutra)PROTOCOL: Running as a Spiritual PracticeBy Ryan WillmsRunning as a Spiritual Practice is something I’ve been exploring the last couple of years with more intention. While running can be meditative, I don’t believe that it is meditation. But through moving contemplation, we can turn our running experience into something deep and meaningful. In this video, I share the 4-step protocol that I’ve been experimenting. The process requires curiosity and openness; we see what works for and refine, and be curious about how our running practice can take you deeper into your Self, body, and Universe.* Microdose (20-40 minutes before run, be conservative to begin)* Activating Breathwork (5-10 minutes of active breathing)* Run (drop in, curious, feeling, exploring, a question to ask)* Shavasana (lay down, let go, recover, listen, experience whatever is present)ESSAY: Pursue nothing, Surrender to allBy Helena PostigoAt the beginning of this year, after a few weeks of feeling a strange pain in my right leg that I couldn’t pinpoint where it came from, an MRI confirmed that I had a grade 4 stress fracture in my femur, probably one of the most uncommon bones to injure, given that it is the strongest and longest bone in the body.The injury forced me to give up my spot in the London Marathon, which would have been my fourth marathon and my attempt at going sub-3 after a very bittersweet result of 3 hours and 1 minute at the Boston Marathon last year. And despite how frustrating and hard it was, months before, during my peak training phase, something inside me knew that one day I would have to face the reality that progress in sport is not a statistical line that goes endlessly up and up the more you train, but a mysterious and unpredictable journey where a pitfall can happen out of nowhere at any time.Having centred my identity around running over the last two years, finding myself all of a sudden incapable of practising the sport triggered some uncomfortable questions about who I was. I found myself lacking a purpose, not having a race to train for or a tough weekly run to write a Track&Record newsletter about. I found myself lonely, not being able to spend time with the community and friends I had built around the sport. I found myself guilty, knowing how much I had shaped my diet around my training, and how toxically correlated my food consumption was with the amount of exercise I would do. I found myself full of questions and doubts, trying to fill the gap that running used to fill in my life. I found myself facing the uncomfortable position of accepting things as they are, existing without seeking or chasing, presence after all.Luckily, my interest in exercise has always been wider than just moving one foot after another, and the injury gave me the chance to focus on some things that I had always wanted to do more: swimming and cycling.Through swimming, I found the mental clarity I used to get from solo runs, but also the excitement and novelty you experience with a new sport, when every day you get a small sense of progress and you don’t judge yourself so harshly because you have little knowledge of what is “good” or “bad”, “fast” or “slow”.Through cycling, I found space to gather with friends again, to spend my weekends having silly conversations and getting lost on the roads instead of getting trapped journaling through my own thoughts.Somehow, unintentionally, I was preparing myself for the triathlon I had signed up for at the beginning of the year, a goal I have had since I was a kid and one that I had been finding excuses not to pursue over the last few years.When the physio gave me the green light to start running in May, as well as confirming that I could do the triathlon, instead of suddenly obsessing over the race and the training as I would have done in the past, I simply continued my training without doing anything crazy, aiming to get to the start line with one single purpose: having fun.Commonly, “having fun” is the typical form of self-sabotage amateur athletes resort to, a coping mechanism to avoid facing the possibility of a race going wrong or not getting the result they had in mind, but also a mechanism that stops us from truly having faith in what we could be capable of if we surrendered to the goal we initially had.But yes, this time the goal was no other than that (... and crossing the finish line, I guess). Nevertheless, there were still nerves and tension before the race, the kind of nerves you get when you do something for the first time.The growth I experienced during the months I couldn’t run made me comfortable with the idea of not having anything to aim for; it translated fear into excitement, insecurity into ease. There was no longer a pursuit of something, or something to prove; all that was left was a state of play, joy and a true and honest love for the practice of sport.DESIGN: Three Layers of DIALOGUES are OneThis shirt was designed for the upcoming Run Retreat and taking the themes of DIALOGUES into consideration. We dive deeper into the layers in this issue’s podcast episode above, but the idea is that, through movement, we can bring our awareness to the three layers of dialogue. It follows the path of the subtle bodies- Mental, Emotional, Physical and how each connects with our Self and our environment. If you look into the Gene Keys, it also mirrors the inner path of IQ, EQ, and SQ, as a spiral journey leading to our Heart. I’m excited to share the shirt with our community this weekend, and it was interesting for me how the design of this shirt has actually led to a useful and functional inner map discussed in the episode this month.The shirt is designed with Pat Palacio, and limited quantities are available through seeding at our upcoming runs.PLAYLIST: Natural HighFind your runner’s high with this playlist by Guillaume Berg featuring a selection of ‘tunnel’ music. Starting off at 118bpm and working up to a smooth 123bpm, Natural High will help you find a state of mushin for your next run.COMMUNITY: Monthly DIALOGUESWe have started our monthly DIALOGUES in Los Angeles. Each month we are running and riding together. We’ll explore different themes in performance, recovery, mind and body. Some workouts will be on the road, the trail, some will integrate intensity, some ease. This weekend we’re sharing the experience of 10km on a flat trail and the polarity of hard and easy. Next month we’re partnering with 2XU for a Long Beach Half/marathon fine tuning session, where we’ll speak about racing mindset and fueling as well.Follow Mindful Endurance Program on Strava for updates.INDEX Things I learned this week* Nutrition: I’d been taking Collagen peptides or powder after my workouts, mixing them into my smoothies. And this can be a general protein boost, but I found out that it misses a lot of the unique benefits of collagen. By taking it 30-45 minutes before the workout and mechanical loading, the collagen can really be utilized for strengthening the tendons, ligaments and structural pieces of the body.* Injury Prevention: There has been a general ‘rule’ in running, not to increase your weekly volume by more than 10%, or else you will be at much greater risk of injury. And now there are newer studies that say its less about your weekly volume, but more about a single run being too long or hard. It says that your longest run now, should not be more than 10% longer than your longest run in the last 30 days. This makes sense to me experientially as well, and is super helpful insight as I dig into week 1 of my marathon training for CIM.* Listen: Wu Wei – A practice, simple and helpful explanation of how to apply the practice of Wu Wei in our lives, meditation. Un-conditioning the urgency to ‘do’ is not as easy as it sounds, but it yields peace, surrender and alignment with the Way. But the more we can drop into this space of Being, everything happens without our ‘doing’. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mindfulenduranceprogram.substack.com

Our first episode dives into the ‘Pursuit of Pain’ in endurance sport, exploring the layers of motivation and the unconscious beliefs that move us. The Dialogues podcast is a monthly conversation between Ryan Willms and Ryan Lynch, where we’ll be diving into themes in sport, performance, the human experience and Self-Realization.“You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.”-Renée DaumalVIDEO WESTERN STATES by Asa FletcherAsa Fletcher captures the Western States Endurance Run. 100 miles of racing from Olympic Valley to Auburn, California. Shot for Hoka, 2026. Read our interview with Asa below.“I think it was a game of daring to try, while for me, the strategy was to try and not burn too many matches too early, especially because of the altitude exposure and the fact that even though it runs faster, it’s still a hundred miles. It’s still a long way to go to Auburn.”-Vincent Bouillard, 2026 Western States winnerPRACTICE Pre-Run MeditationA short pause before movement. An invitation to breath, center and be curious about what you need from your run today. Play or download and use this brief check-in with yourself, each time you are ready to move.INTERVIEW ASA FLETCHERRW: What’s your name and where are you based?AF: My name is Asa Fletcher, and I am currently based in Boulder, Colorado.How would you describe your job?I’m a freelance commercial photographer and filmmaker with an interest in capturing people and their connection to sport through a documentary approach.How did you end up tying your experience as a runner into capturing the experience of running?I ran briefly in college at NYU before deciding I wanted to fully commit to creative work. That ultimately led me to drop out of school and move to Colorado to work with some of the best professional athletes in the world. I always knew I wanted to tell the stories of elite athletes, so it was just a matter of time before I met some of them and had the opportunity to document their training and pursuit of the Olympics.What are you looking for when you are capturing a race or a workout?I try to bring an editorial feel while documenting more than just the intensity of a workout or race. I think people often care more about seeing the behind-the-scenes moments than the actual result. That gives me the opportunity to show what an athlete does before stepping onto the starting line.Whether it’s the athlete’s emotions, the environment they’re in, or the way they interact with their surroundings, all of those details shape my approach to making meaningful work that resonates with an audience.Lately you’ve been at some of the biggest ultra trail races in the U.S. What do you find unique about these races, the overall experience, the type of runner, and how you approach them in your work?Yeah, it’s definitely been something new. I had a friend in the space who invited me to shoot a documentary about his 100-miler in Leadville. Putting that film together had such an impact on me that I knew I wanted to document more of these longer efforts.There is often so much more emotion and grit that emerges over the course of tens of hours spent climbing mountains. I think that creates opportunities for stories that simply couldn’t be told over the course of a few minutes on the track. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to shoot Western States, Hardrock 100, and the upcoming UTMB race, all of which have pushed me creatively and left me feeling incredibly inspired.One of my favorite things about shooting these races is that they demand a lot from you as a filmmaker. Whether it’s hiking for hours or pulling all-nighters to follow a particular athlete, I love the idea that I have to be a good athlete myself in order to keep up with an elite athlete. That creates an interesting dynamic and makes the work feel even more rewarding.Do you still have goals in your own practice of running?Yes, and even though my NCAA career was short-lived, I still like to think I could be pretty fast on the track. Whether that’s getting back into the 800 or the mile, or moving to the roads and running my first marathon, I know I still have goals.I’d say I’m a pretty competitive person, and while I don’t have any races on the calendar right now, I know they’ll come. For now, the routine is usually an evening run on the dirt roads around Boulder, and that’s enough to keep me in the right headspace creatively. Running fuels my work without feeling draining.You have a unique style in how you process your imagery, combine shots, and share your vision of movement. How has that developed?I think it goes back to being an athlete myself. I’ve witnessed the highest highs and the lowest lows, and those are often the moments when I want to have a camera nearby. Of course, that’s not always the story that needs to be told, but I think people have an incredible willingness to dig deep. Being able to document that alongside movement is something I find really special. Our bodies are capable of enduring so much, and seeing just how far we can push ourselves is often where we learn the most about who we are.I like to approach my work as a documentarian, almost as if I’m a fly on the wall, allowing the person in front of the camera to move naturally and exist without distraction. I think that approach naturally creates more honest images because the moments aren’t manufactured. Movement is already compelling on its own, and my goal is simply to be present enough to recognize those moments when they happen.WATCH Race Weekend, IRONMAN 70.3 OregonFollow the MEP Racing team through the finale of our 4-month journey to racing Ironman 70.3 Oregon. Through adversity and challenge, connection and discipline, the team came together healthy and ready to celebrate the work together. It was an epic course, and day of PRs, disappointment and heart.In three weeks the next MEP program begins as we prepare for the CIM Marathon in December, we still have a couple of spots available to join the Running Satsanga LinkINDEX Latest products, updates and inspiration* Wear: The latest racing shoe from On is now out, the Cloudboom Strike 2. The original version became my favorite racing shoe last year, topping the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 4. I haven’t yet tried the new On shoe, but the reviews I’ve read sound promising and aesthetically it’s a step forward..* Fuel: Maurten continue to evolve the sports nutrition game with their latest Gel Mix 480, combining their Hydrogel Technology with drink mix, creating 120g in only 350ml, ideal for big sessions and long distance.* Listen: A reading of Star Child by Joaquin Phoenix in C’mon C’mon cracked me open.* Watch: A Pure Desert Feeling, follows Robert Irwin and his work. It’s incredibly inspiring, and while he doesn’t refer to his work as spiritual, there is an undeniable evolution of awareness and curiosity to explore the horizon eternally that unites humanity and our essential Beingness.Thanks for reading DIALOGUES by Mindful Endurance Program. Subscribe for free to receive monthly issues. Check our website for information on upcoming programs and retreats. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mindfulenduranceprogram.substack.com

MEP Mindful Cycling Retreat (Offer through 5.22)I’ve been sharing about the MEP Cycling Retreat at the end of June in Marin, CA and I can’t believe it’s coming up fast now. It’s going to be a deeply connecting and transformative experience using cycling, breath, meditation and more to really explore ourselves and our bodies. Each participant will receive a Rapha cycling kit, Walden meditation tools and the retreat includes all food with Holos providing us with nutrient packed overnight oats. From now through May 22nd we’re offering this experience for $1500, all you have to do is get there! Email for more info and see this page for a more in-depth breakdown.What is Wu wei and Ziren? Damo explains…This week’s MEP compendium ♾ ♾* Check out Richard Schwartz, PhD book, No Bad Parts on his IFS system ( Link )* Nike’s Circular Design principles, how much do they really follow this? ( Link )* I’ve been really interested to look at Ketamine therapy lately, and the research sounds pretty impressive ( Link )* 📺 🚴🏼 Are you watching the Giro D'Italia? GCN has great coverage ( Link )* New Maurten product? Energy bars? via Knox 🏊🏼 🚴🏼 🏃🏽 ( Link )* The new Hoka Carbon X 3 looks rad, especially in orange ( Link )* Love these epic photos of Rio running in Marin, CA ( Link )* Heading to Maui next week, mostly for rest but reminded me of this beautiful Rapha cycling film ( Link )Question: Who would you like to see/hear on the Podcast? Comment below! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mindfulenduranceprogram.substack.com

hale Breath Performance CertificationI’m really excited to join Johnny Oduya starting in April for hale’s first offering of their performance breathwork course. Personally, I’ve been using breathwork of various forms over the last few years for healing, growth, inner exploration, but rarely for performance, while there have likely been some indirect gains. Now, I’m going to dive into this course over the coming months and I’d like to invite you to join me in this course if it speaks to you. Applications are now open, and hale’s App is coming soon as well. The course is available online worldwide and now open to sign up ( Link )Tool Review: POC Elicit SunglassesExceptionally lightweight and with a completely frameless lens, the Elicit sunglasses give exceptional coverage and performance. Developed with the ethos of reducing weight and adding style, the Elicit weigh so little they are barely noticeable while wearing but have a form that is sure to get you noticed. Featuring a completely frameless design and large wraparound lens with Clarity technology, the sunglasses give complete eye protection and an optimum field of view, so you can stay focused on the road ahead.I recently got a pair of the POC Elicit glasses to try out, both on and off the bike. I never thought I would wear some of the ‘big’ cycling glasses that rule the market, but I’m converted. I wear the POC Aim on every ride, and now the lightness of the Elicit has me taking them off the bike once in a while. Although I still prefer District Vision for running, POC has taken over on the bike. This week’s MEP compendium ♾ ♾* 🔊 Really enjoyed this podcast by Peter Attia with Ryan Hall on running, health, training and more ( Link )* 🔊 This is my ultimate favorite running playlist, it got me through the last couple months and my marathon in 2015, Hesperian Sound Division ( Link )* Foam Roller Routine, this has improved my physical and overall health, learned via Paul Chek ( Link )* 📺 Aware: Glimpses of Consciousness is worth a watch ( Link )* Maurten just released a Transition Kit in time for race season 🏊🏼 🚴🏼 🏃🏽 ( Link )* 📖 Can a Brand Be a Gateway to Practice? via Tricycle featuring our friends from District Vision ( Link )* Magnesium in different forms has been an incredible supplement for almost everyone, lately I’ve been really liking Moon Juice’s Magnesi-Om before bed ( Link )* A recent video for Ironman + Maurten leading up to my first 70.3 experience ( Link )MEP Mindful Cycling RetreatMarin, CAJune 23-26More information This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mindfulenduranceprogram.substack.com