May 16, 2022 • 51 mins
Quite simply one of the world’s best ultra-runners, Michael Wardian set off on his latest adventure on Sunday, May 1, a run across the United States. He started at City Hall in San Francisco, California and will end at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, while raising money for World Vision’s clean water projects around the world. He will be following Route 50, America’s loneliest highway, through some of the remotest parts of the country, and will travel through 13 states, covering over 3,200 miles. Listen as Michael achieves yet another personal milestone live during the interview with Tom, his most days running consecutively.
You can follow Michael in real-time at https://share.garmin.com/michaelwardian Instagram @mikewardian with a link in his bio to donate to @worldvisonusa
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland and this is Fitness Disrupted. Alright.
I have interviewed some pretty amazing athletes on this show.
Dean car Nazzi is one of them. Ultra marathon man
(00:26):
really put ultras on the map. He was the one
who did fifty marathons in fifty states in fifty days
and so many other things as well. But this guy,
well that sounds horrible, sound to administring. What Dean did incredible.
But you know, I always say was that I've done
(00:46):
a lot of events. There's always so many people who
have done more, and that's fine. It's not a competition.
This guy, I don't I don't know. I don't know
of anyone personally who's kind of achieved what this guy
has and continues to which is just so amazing. And
(01:08):
here's what's really special about this podcast is I'm going
to give him a call as he's running across the
United States as we speak, and see if we can
interview him. He knows I'm calling, by the way, that
I've found your phone number. I'm just gonna give you
a call. No, but you know, there's um Sell issues
and things like that. So we'll say if it doesn't
(01:29):
work the first time, I will do it again, all right.
But I'm talking about Michael Wardian, and what I love
is that, having been in this industry for so long,
I have an experience with Michael from many years ago.
Two thousand ten, two thousand ten, I was doing more
TV stuff and a bunch of TV with a channel
(01:50):
in Hartford, Connecticut, and they asked me to be a
correspondent at the finish line of the Hartford Marathon. So cool.
First time I'd ever done live TV like that. I've
done a lot of live TV, but not at an event,
not at a marathon, not like all day at a
finish line myself and one of their real correspondence. They
(02:13):
brought me in. I had done um, some fitness segments
for them, but they brought me in with someone else
and it was amazing. So spent the whole day, beautiful day, uh,
talking about the marathon is it was going on? Uh,
standing at the finish line and then interviewing. There was
a half and a full marathon. Um. And there's other
great stories from that. But Michael Wardian one he won
(02:34):
in two thousand ten and he did this six days
after running a marathon in two one. Okay, so you go,
that's crazy, but there's so much more, so much more so.
I did meet him for about ninety seconds or so.
I'm sure he doesn't remember, but that was my first,
I think, my first real kind of getting to know
(02:55):
him as far as who he was, and then as
I got to know his story more and more, just
absolutely insane, absolutely insane. He holds. Let me say this,
he's probably one of the world's best ultra runners. Okay,
if you just pick an event, name an event or
race or something, and the chances are that he's not
(03:15):
only done it, but probably done it a handful of
times and one it Okay. He like competes all over
the world seemingly every weekend marathon's ultra marathons, and he
doesn't just finish like he finishes fast. He's raised at
the US Olympic Trials. He owns numerous world records, Guinness
(03:38):
World Records. He holds the Guinness World Record for the
fastest marathon run in Antarctica a two four. He did
that on Januar seventeen, and that run is believed to
be the only sub three hour marathon run on the
ice covered continent. Amazing, But I'm gonna give you so
much more. Okay. This was, by the way, that run
(04:01):
was the first leg of his World Marathon Challenge, which
was seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. So
Dean did fifty marathon's fifty stays fifty days. Incredible. Uh uh.
This was for Michael, the first marathon tour of seven
done in seven days on seven continents. He holds the
(04:21):
fastest cumulative time for that at nineteen hours, twenty one
minutes and thirty six seconds, averaging he averaged two forty
five fifty seven per marathon. So some of you might
not understand how fast that is. It's ridiculous. Seven days
an average seven marathons seven days at that that pace
(04:44):
in sane. This is what I loved though. Back when
I interviewed him at the marathon, this came out that
he had held I think someone broke it, but he
had previously held the record for the fastest marathon pushing
a stroller. He was pushing his ten month old son
Pierce at the Frederick Marathon in two thousand seven. He
ran a two forty two Has anyone pushed their kid
(05:06):
in a stroller and run. I tried it once. There's
a four on the fourth in my hometown. Four in
the fourth July. Hot out and back, kind of hilly
for the first two miles, turned around, come back. My
son was a little older than ten months at the time.
I made him get out and walk the hill. It's hard,
(05:28):
and Michael ran pushing his son a two forty two
crazy crazy in I love this and I heard about
this at the time, So COVID happened. Races are shut down, right,
So what does Michael do? He wins the quarantine backyard Ultra.
(05:50):
This is gonna blow your mind. For those of you
don't know what a backyard ultra is. The general rule
is you run four point one mile every hour on
the hour. So if run ten minute miles, you got
twenty little less than twenty minutes to rest. Whatever time
you have left over, that's your rest time. And then
when the hour starts, you got to do it again.
(06:10):
What did Michael do? He ran two hundred and sixty
two point five miles sixty three laps around his neighborhood
in Arlington, Virginia. Insane. I'm sure the number has changed,
but he has run over three hundred marathons, over one
(06:31):
hundred hundred ultra marathons. His achievements so many, but if
you want to start to rank them, he was first
again in that quarantine backyard ultra two hundred and sixty
two miles. He was second at the hundred K World Championships,
third at the Marathon des Sablo, which is a stage
(06:53):
race through the Sahara Desert, self supported. And he has
the fastest known time also known as f KT in
the ultra world for the Israel National Trail, which is
running across the entire country of Israel, and he did
that in ten days. Ridiculously nice guy, so accessible, loves
what he does, has a full time job. But my
(07:17):
point is that when you think you can achieve something,
here's an example of what the human body can do.
And by no means do I ever want to run
two and sixty two miles and a four point one
mile six laps, But it shows us what we can
do the power of not only the body, but the mind.
(07:42):
I know that he wanted to quit. I read an
article press release about how during that ultra he wanted
to quit and his wife said why, and he said,
I'm tired, and she said it's not a good enough
for reason, he kept doing it any won, he's married
to someone like I am. Anyway, enough, let's let's see
if we can get him on the phone. All right,
(08:04):
quick break when we come back. Michael Wardian currently as
I speak, running across the United States. All right, we'll
be right back, and we are back. Uh. It's never easy,
(08:26):
but I have on the line Michael Wardion. Michael, thank
you so much. Where are you as we speak? It's amazing.
I just crossed from Nevada into Utah, So I'm uh,
I mean I'm nowhere. I'm eight miles from the next
services so and on the Nova border. Just um, coming
(08:53):
out of place. Called amazing, So I am. Thanks to
the power of fitness technology. You have a garment device
that you're wearing where people can track you. I'm gonna
put that in in the notes so people can do
that as well. Did you But it looks like you
started running super early. How many miles are you in
right now? Um? I'm about nineteen. Oh my gosh, what
(09:14):
time did you start? Uh? We started, Well, it's weird
because we just changed time zones also, so we went
from Pacific time to Mountain Town. I started at seven
Mountain times, six Pacific time. Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh.
So so just explain to people again. I already did
(09:36):
an intro. I threw to a commercial. This is the
first time I've ever done an interview like this, Michael,
and again, thank you so much for making it happen. Um,
So tell people what you're doing. So, I'm running across
the United States for Long Route fifty to raise money
for clean water for a charity called World Vision. So
the goal is to raise a hundred thousand dollars and
(09:56):
we're about twenty two thousand dollars towards that goal. So, UM,
making progress and hopefully the more people that hear about it,
the more people that are interested in donating and changing lives. Awesome.
And we're gonna put that that world Vision in the
notes as well, so people can see that Michael, and
and donate. Um, which is it's just incredible. And this
(10:20):
is the first time you've done this. Yes, I just
want to make sure I've done my research right. The
first time that I've run across the country. Yes, I
ran across Israel a couple of years ago. UM, but
that was quite a bit smaller. So that was a
thousand kilometers, like six miles in ten days. So this
(10:43):
is this is a bigger project. Is the bigger project?
I watched you yesterday. Uh you climbed where did you start?
You ended up at what like seven thousand feet? And
you were using the polls and everything. Um. Yeah, that
looks like a tough day. It looks I had to
seven actually sorry, two summits or three summits yesterday one
(11:07):
was seventy one seventy So yeah, it was it was
a big day. And I ended up at a place
called Sacramento Pass. And just so people can let we
hear the cars go and buy you Michael, is there
a sag you have? Is the RV behind you? Or
explain to people how you do this with your crew? Oh? Yeah, so, um,
I have my dad here also, which is another part
(11:30):
of the the journey and the projects called running home
actually because I live on Route fifty in Virginia. Um,
and so what happens is they'll they'll go up. It's funny.
It's changed over the course of the weeks. But at
first it was like ten miles and as I've gotten
more tired, and it's gotten hotter. It's more like five miles.
(11:53):
So they'll they'll aid me, give me some ice and
water and stuff, and then drive five miles ahead and
and then I'll meet him up and if I need
to stop, I will and we just keep doing that
until I'm done with just a wile. And basically I
gotta tell people, Michael, because I've been following you on Instagram,
(12:16):
uh and you know, reading the stories you post every day,
So we'll put that in the notes as well so
people can follow you. There. Did I read correctly that
the other day you had like four people stop and
ask if you needed a ride? Yes? Yeah, going there
was a snow store actually as I was running into
eallye and uh yeah, four people stopped and one lady
(12:37):
reprimanded me for not having the proper retire on because
running shorts on and uh it was you know, just
running with its actually a lady from the local council.
It was really cool. So that was that was pretty awesome.
Oh my gosh. So while I have you people, you know,
what do you? Let's start with breakfast? So how do
(12:59):
you feel up? What? What do you is your You
must have a goat you thing every day pretty much.
What's what's the what's the before run? Fueling up plants?
Uh so I'm working with a company called Stoked Oat,
so it's oatmeal. Um, so have the oat nail usually
four you five minutes before running or so, and then uh,
(13:21):
I'm trying to replace like five to seven thousand calories
every day. So basically every time I stopped, I tell
tram in as much shood as I can and are
you taking stuff? I assume you're wearing the vest and
taking stuff in as you go, or you just wait
until the to the pit stops. No, no, no, I
well sometimes I have a vest all the time. I
have a waste pack, So I have like a Nathan
(13:44):
Pinnacle waste pack with like my spot tracker. It's like
the garment in reach. And then I have my phone
and some headphones and a little bit of money and
then I'm I'm running with speed max um hydration bottle.
But then sometimes I'm also wearing a vest. Today I'm
(14:07):
going with no vest, just to give my shoulders a break.
And what what's your Did you have a calorie per
hour that you're shooting for whatever it might be? Uh?
Not really um, because it's sometimes it's just hard to eat. Um.
So it's sometimes it's just easier because I'm gonna see aids,
(14:31):
so often I'll just taking liquid calories along the way
and then I always have like a stack with me,
like some apple sauce or doo or something if I
really need it, and then I'll just eat a sandwich
or something when i get to the r V. And
what what about when you're done? Are you just like
(14:54):
you must be starving? Do you have a post run
kind of ritual that you have food wise, hydration wise? Um? Yeah,
I just try to eat literally as much as possible. Um.
Each night. Like last night, I had a salad with
and I usually don't have dressing with my salad, but
(15:14):
I had the most calorie DNS Italian dressing uh. And
I think I may have even put extra olive oil
on it and salt and then pasta and then some
French fries. And I'm a vegetarian also, so like uh yeah,
it's just yeah, what else do I have? Oh, chips
(15:38):
and sausa, But the chips and salsa were not good
at the place where we had them. But anything and
anything you can get your hands on anything and everything right,
just you gotta refuel and it. Yeah, and I'm meaning
a lot of like I worked with a company called
Big Spoon Rosters, and I'm meaning tons of nut butters
throughout the day also, So I'll just come in and
just think a spoon and just it right in the jar,
(16:01):
just just eat it, eat it straight basically. And I'm like, oh,
that was just silories, you know, such an easy quick way, right, yeah.
And people are so interested, right, and how you do
it and what you feel yourself with and how are
you passing the time. I kind of know from following you,
but tell people what you're doing. I know people are
just jumping in with you and running, yes, and then
you're doing different things to kind of get you through. Yeah, yeah,
(16:25):
definitely there's people when I get in your towns. It's
been really great. People have come out and run with me,
and I hope that that continues. Um, And that's been
really fun. And then when people aren't with me, I'm
doing a lot of audio books, um, some of the
books that I didn't read in my youth. Right now,
I'm reading Tale of Two Cities. I read a book
(16:48):
called American Gods. I did some movie I got warrant
tief Um right now. I just I just learned there's
a Stephen King book about the high lay Alma called Desperation,
So I just started that. Um. But it's all about
root fifty and you know what happens the Loneliest Highway.
(17:11):
A lot of reading well, and then I do like
podcasts and uh music and also my friends all I'm
lucky because I've worked with Team Mobile, so it's shockingly
have really good service almost everywhere. So I've been able
to like just bore my friends. They're like they'll just
(17:33):
call me and we'll talk for like half an hour
or whatever, and they're like, what are you doing? What
male were you on? Where are you? I mean, it's
it's incredible that you can can do that and tell us,
tell us some great stories so far. So you started
on me feet, Um, give us some like memorable experiences
if you had up up until now. Yeah, I mean
it's been, Um, the whole thing has been pretty memorable.
(17:57):
Like starting on May first, like I started at City
Hall in San Francisco with a big group of runners
for the San Francisco Marathon, which it's like one of
my favorite races I've won both their marathon and ultra
and they're good friends. So they had a group of
runners come out, and I'd say one of the most
(18:17):
memorable things was running across San Francisco, putting my feet
in the Pacific Ocean UM, having a big group there,
and then running across the Golden gate Bridge. UM. Meeting
a bunch of friends in Sacramento was fantastic. UM got
to I got to go by Folsom prison and listen
(18:40):
to like Johnny Cash. That was really awesome. From there, UH,
running through up to Plasserville, which is like a very
famous for ultra running. That's where the Western States hundred
miler finishes. So ran from there to Tahoe, which was incredible.
Brand I think that day it was around of climbing,
(19:03):
so it was a really really long day. It was
probably my longest day running was as far as time,
but so beautiful. Coming into Tahoe, I actually sat like
a Strava segment which was funny and like a mile UM.
So that was cool. And then running from Tahoe to
(19:26):
UM two, Nevada was one of the most incredible things.
Like running across my first stay on this journey was
pretty special. And then Nevada was it was really really cool,
Like I was just shocked at how fast it is,
you know. Yeah, it was like I was joking with someone,
(19:48):
it's like a outdoor treadmill, like he just had these
magnificent mountains all around you. But ever, I was in
Nevada for I don't know, I don't know if it's
the longest of all the states all begin but it
definitely is a big, big state. So that was that
(20:08):
was cool. We we've finished enough place called middle Gate,
which is like fifty or sixty miles from anywhere, and
like had the most incredible neal and waitress and listen
to live music. That was really cool. And then there's
a tree where people throw their shoes, so like we
(20:29):
got we got to pretend to throw our shoes in
the tree, which was neat. And then going through eally
was cool just to see what there's a huge copper
mind there. It's like one of the biggest, I think
in the world or something, so to see, you know
what that looks like. And now I'm in Utah, so
that's that's kind of that's that's kind of it. No
(20:53):
better way to see the country, Michael. Most people won't
do it your way obviously, but I would say, you know,
driving it is chat sung enough, um, just incredible. So
and what are your your veteran You've been doing this
like forever, um, no one probably knows it better than you.
But what are your physical challenges now? Like what what
crops up running fifty miles a day for sixty plus
(21:14):
days or whatever it is. What are the physical challenges
you're experiencing. I mean, at the beginning it was a
lot of just fatigue. I feel like it's kind of
interesting because each day I'm getting stronger and bitter, but
I'm also taking body blows the whole time from the
distance and in the train, so it's like a very
(21:34):
interesting balance. I'd say the biggest things I'm trying to
be super mindful is I've got so pretty severe sunburned
yesterday for some reason. So I'm being really mindful to
make sure I use the sunscreen and then blisters, like
just trying to make sure that little hotspots don't become
(21:55):
a blister. Um. And you know, I mean I've worked
within GINGI which to socks, so they've worked really well
to minimize friction, and so right now I feel pretty happy.
You know, just have some KT tape on where where
things could become a problem. But right now everything's good.
(22:16):
That's great. And by the way, every time a cargoes by,
I get nervous. I'm sure people who who are listening
are gonna will tell you. I will tell you. The
shoulder in Nevada is about three ft wider than in Utah.
So Utah saved a lot of money on the shoulder.
So you're not as happy as you were a day ago,
(22:39):
well even like four or three hours ago. Like, yeah,
it's very very tight. It's like a it's like a
two lane highway and I'm very close to traffic. Now.
You just said people don't get this. You know, I've
done some endurance races nowhere near you. But you said
you're getting stronger, And that's totally contradictory to what most
(23:01):
people think. You know, the moment they get tired in
an event or something, they mentally probably quit or many
people do, right because they don't understand. They haven't done
it long enough to realize that you can actually get
through and be stronger. So so talk about that a little.
I mean, it's so counterintuitive to most people. Yeah, I
mean I think that it's like anything, the more you
do it, the more your body gets used to it.
(23:23):
So usually the people that I talked to, they have
done this kind of trans continental running. To say, the
first two or three weeks really is when you kind
of experience all the aches and pains, and then your
body realizes you're not going to quit, and then it's like, okay, fine,
you know we're gonna try to become as efficient as possible,
(23:43):
and then you just kind of turn into like a
some people called it like a road hug or like
a monster, or you just start being able to run
faster and stronger, and but you have to get there,
and so a lot of people, you know, gets you
get torn down. It's just like any thing when you're
building muscle or endurance, Like there's a tear down phase,
(24:06):
but if you can recover each night and and you
eventually start to get stronger and stronger. And so I'm
just trying to make sure I get through the first
couple of weeks and then be able to reap those
benefits and keep going and continue to do the miles
I need to do each day. Hopefully it'll be easier
and easier as I go incredible and that people like
(24:29):
that that minute when you just gave is like so
powerful to so many people who have no idea what
they can get through and come out stronger on the
other side and give us your mental challenges though, so
you know you are one of the strongest mentally, uh
that I know as far as all this goes and
talk about the mental I'm sure you still have those
issues the challenges. Oh yeah, I mean it's I mean
(24:51):
there's a lot of hardship. I mean, it's hard to
be away from your family and friends. It's hard to
be away from I still work like a job, so
like it's hard to be away from work. It's each
day it's it's hard to stay motivated when you know
you you're I've been running for four hours and twenty
three minutes and I still have eight hours to run. Like, um,
(25:14):
you know, it's it's a it's a thing. But I'm
also looking at it as each day is like an adventure,
and I get to, um, sixty four adventures, and so
I think it's really how you frame it, right, Like
I don't know what's gonna be around the next corner,
but I want to find out. You know, if I
started feeling down or whatnot. You can choose to feel
(25:37):
however you want, and so I'm excited about just the
opportunity to see more of the country and to see
it under my own power. It's that's highly motivating for me.
It's incredible. And when, um, I know your story, but
tell people, when was there a moment Michael in your youth.
I know you started pretty much in college or just
(25:58):
after getting serious about it, but when did you realize, hey,
I'm probably kind of good at this. I know it's
a weird question, but was there a moment um No,
I'd say I decided I wanted to run the Boston Marathon,
and I didn't know that that was actually like a
dream of most people, and so um, just decided that
(26:21):
was going to be my first marathon. And then it
was actually, you have to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
And so I ran Marine Corps first and aimed to
qualify and did and then I was like, um, you know,
that's kind of good. But then I decided, oh, if
you run sub three hours, that means you're a good runner.
(26:42):
I had heard that or read that in like Runners
World or something, and so I thought Okay, I'll do that.
So right after I ran Boston in seven, I think
I went to the local running store and I was like, hey, hey, sirs,
you know I'm which is funny because they're actually still
(27:03):
supporting this run. I'm still still still working with like
people that started with me, you know, I don't know
twenty some years ago or whatever years ago. But I
was like, oh, I'm a good runner, and they were like, yeah, yeah,
you're not a good runner, but you can come. You can.
I mean not that to fifty four isn't good, but
(27:25):
they're like, you know, you're not good enough to be
on our team. And so I decided to try to
make their team, and within like six months I was
on the team. But I still didn't think I was
I still wasn't sure if I was a good runner.
I'd say the first time I thought I was probably
like really substantial was when I qualified for my first
(27:48):
Olympic trials and UM two thousand and four. That's when
I was like, oh, I'm I'm a good runner. Before that,
I was like I'm good at like endurance events because
I did really well, like the Marathon to sob and
a race in India called the Himalayan hundred mile stage race.
Like I was like, um, I'm good at these like
(28:11):
kind of long things. But I feel like when I
qualified for the only big trials the first time was
when I was like, I'm not I'm a pretty good runner.
So your bar set a pretty high, Michael, Like, you know,
explain to people what the Marathon to sob that is.
It's it's the stage race, and tell them, tell them
what it encompasses. Oh yeah, yeah, sorry. So Marathon to
(28:35):
sab is a seven days stage race across the Sahara
Desert where you're required to carry all your own gear
and so like sleeping bag, flair, snake bite kid and
all your food for a week and then they give
you nine liters of water a day. But you have
like a punch card, so if you don't take it,
(28:57):
then you don't get it back. So like if they
offer you a bottle at the maid station and you
don't take it, you don't get it later. And you
run two kilometers or about a hundred and fifty miles
across the Sahara Desert in Baraco. But but that didn't
It wasn't until you you got to the Olympic trials
that you said, no, I'm good, it wasn't. Yeah, I
(29:20):
mean I was like I said, I was like, I'm
pretty good at like the longer stuff. Yeah, i'd say,
like to feel like you're I don't know, I feel
like I don't know why. That's why what made me
feel like that? But I was also like a pro
before that. I guess so, and what's the cut off?
It was a sub at that time. It was and
(29:43):
then and then I kept qualifying, and then some people
say they kept dropping the talk because I kept qualifying,
So then they moved it down to to nineteen. And
I think it might be to seventeen now, or maybe
it's back at two nineteen. So I qualified in two thousand, four,
eight and twelve. So my pr in the marathon's to seventeen.
(30:04):
Oh my gosh. You have so many accomplishments and achievements
Michael that I talked about in the intro. One of
my favorites. Though I want you to just bolls too,
But what is the uh the pushing your son in
the stroller? Yes, tell people about that. Yeah. I so
I also do some in this world records And I
(30:24):
said world record that's since been beaten, and it's been
beaten pretty handily by my friend Glum Enough. Um, but
I ran two forty two pushing my son Pierson a
jog stroller and set a world record in two thousand
and seven. I think it's funny. Now Pierce is just
about to drive, so it just blows me away. Yeah,
(30:47):
you're not pushing him in the uh the you know
the iron Man jogging stroller anytime soon? No, no, no,
pretty easy. He just ran regional track meet, Like, he
just did hurdles regionals for our school. So yeah, he's
got the genetical time class. That's that's amazing. I mean
I did a four on the fourth with my son
(31:08):
once and I made him get out and walk the hill.
I was like, you know what, I don't have this.
Those mothers are pretty darned strong. Um. Oh my gosh. Incredible. Um,
And tell people a little bit more about World Vision. Yeah.
So World Visions a charity. Um, they actually do a
lot of different things. Um. I work with them professionally.
(31:30):
I'm I'm an international shipbroker, and so they do direct
feeding programs on top of clean water projects. Uh, they
have a lot of different things. But the thing that
this run is force for the clean water aspect. And
what's really impactful about clean water is that it can
(31:50):
change the lives of so many people and it's a
long term thing. So you build a well enough a
village or a tow ship, you changed like not just
the lives of the immediate people, but also the people
around there. You improve the infrastructure, you change the lives
of many of the children because a lot of times
(32:13):
they're the ones who are sank to get the water.
A lot of times those kids are carrying like a
you know, like a jerry can, so it's like you know,
five five five gallons for it's usually leaders. I think
like a five leader jerry can up to six kilometers
so you know, four miles or so. Um, they're going
(32:35):
back and forth and they're you know, spending that time
when they could be doing other stuff like going to
school and so yeah, it can really make a big difference.
That's incredible And you, um, are you still working full
time for that's the shipbroker that people need to realize. Yeah,
I am still working a whole time. I'm lucky team
(32:57):
at work, Keith and Mark are doing a great job.
Bring me all I get to run around and uh
and you know be out here doing this, but yeah,
it's it's really incredible life. Felt super fortunate that that
I'm able to, you know, still have the ability of
(33:18):
work and the opportunity to do these things too. I
just want people to say, or to realize, Michael, that
when the number one reason for not exercising is a
lack of time, you know, you know, thanks to COVID
working remotely and you're running across the United States. Granted
you know your your employer is understanding, but we all
have time, right, we can all do so much more? Right? Well, yeah,
(33:41):
I mean it's you know, everyone's got a unique situation.
But you know there are there are ways where you
can be efficient. I do have a saying it's like
invisible training, but you know, can you find a way
to can you to work or go during your lunch
break where you know no one's gonna miss you? Um?
So yeah, if you can find ways to be efficient,
(34:02):
you can decide what you want to do and then
figure out how to train to get it done. It
plays into my most recent book, Michael, is the micro
Workout Plan, and I talk about yeah, you can go
to the gym, but it's about what you do throughout
the day. As you're saying, like sneaking the workouts in right,
all right, that scared me. That sounded too close. That
sounded yeah. I mean it's like I like, every time
(34:25):
you take a call, do five push ups. You know,
every time you walk out of your you walk out
of your office to the bathroom, do five push ups
or you know a side plank, sir, Um, you know,
jumping jack's or burpies. I mean, you do fifty buries
a day, You're gonna be pretty fit, right, And that's
one thing as we wrap this upside want you're giving
(34:46):
us so much time. Um, you do strength training, Like, yeah,
don't don't feel bad. Like, as long as I have service,
I'm happy to chat. I just I'm worried you're gonna,
like cars gonna come too close. So oh yeah, don't worry.
Talk about strength training real quick, because you do it
(35:06):
and many runners don't. And I see you, you know,
posting videos and for someone who is at your level,
many don't and many at what we're level. So just
talk about your strength training kind of routine and protocol.
Oh man, I love it. Yeah. During COVID, I got
into CrossFit with my friend Tom Mayer Hopper, and he
and I do five days of cross cross city type stuff.
(35:30):
I wouldn't say it's CrossFit because it's not everything now way,
but it's kind of that focused. And then I worked
two days a week with a guy named Jesse Fuller
who's a personal training or physical therapist, and so he's
the one who makes me do all the stuff that
you really should do but you don't really want to do,
(35:51):
like walking on your toes and inch worms and dead
bugs and planks and bird dogs and all the little like, oh,
let's see how strong you are. Just stand on one
leg for a second and you're like, oh my god,
I can't barely hold myself up right. So um ah, yeah,
I feel like that stuff has been so instrumental in
(36:14):
me being able to run as well as I have
so far and staying healthy. And actually it's kind of cool.
You caught me on a day where this is the
longest I've ever run continuously, because I just went by
the amount of days that it took me across Israel,
and I'm just about to cross the amount of miles
that I did, so that's pretty yeah, So this is
(36:35):
kind of a seminal day for me, something I thing
I was really excited about because you know, this is
all new territory for me now, which is crazy given
all that you've done. So I feel honored and you know,
thank you so much for sharing it, and I love
I pulled up a couple of lines of yours, but
one I love that I think is perfect to kind
(36:56):
of start to wrap it up with, is you say
you said, I think you have to set the audacious
and big goals, right, and that it keeps you passionate.
So talk about people again, just who have that limited
thinking Michael, that they can't they can't accomplish things that
we both know if they put them on to it
they can, right, So just talk about setting those goals
and how they should scare you and and you know
(37:17):
that there is no failure. Yeah. Well, and that's what
I think is cool about it is like, okay, so
it's almost like the Japanese style of marathon training. I
don't know if you know this or not, but they
will be like I'm a two nine marathon runner for
ten miles, and then three weeks later it's for thirteen
(37:37):
miles and then sixteen miles and it's kind of like
that when you said these big goals, even if you
come short, you're like, okay, and maybe I didn't make
it the full you know, five k, but I made it,
you know, three k, and then the next time you
make it four k, and so it's incremental progress. And
I think, you know, the big goals for me, i'd
(38:00):
be running across the country, but for somebody else it
could be I just want to start running three days
a week. Or I just talked to my friend yesterday
and uh Courtney and Singapore, which was awesome, and she
was saying she wants to start lifting more because she
saw me doing the streak training, so you know, she
started to lift like three days a week. And Like,
(38:22):
it can be whatever it is for you, But I
think if it doesn't scare you, then it's gonna be
something where you you aren't that interested in pursuing it,
because if it's too easy, then you'll just be like
I can do that anytime. And if it's too hard,
you're gonna get discouraged. So um, it's got to be
kind of in the sweet spot. But I think if
(38:46):
you can't kind of figure it out, it'll be a
really good way to drive yourself to where you want
to go. And if you don't make it, maybe the
next time you will, or it'll put you on the path.
Then you can see what you did wrong and then
tweak it and then you get there. It's just like anything.
But if you don't have goals and you don't say him,
(39:07):
and you don't put them out there, then then it's
not going to actually ever happen, or at least that's
how it works for me, right, right, right? I love that,
you know, it's the's the shorterter. I call it excessive moderation, Michael.
It's you know, it's being consistent, consistency of the small stuff,
shooting for the big stuff. Find something you know. It's
gonna take your time to figure out what motivates you.
You don't have to run, but you gotta figure out
(39:28):
what you enjoy. I always say, if if you're looking
for the shortest amount of time to exercise, you haven't
found the exercise you like. Right, if someone told you
or me you could only run for eight minutes a day,
we'd go no, like we're fighting, right, So you just
gotta find it. Right, But if you only had eight minutes,
I would say, do eight minutes of burpies and you
(39:49):
will be ready to be done. Right, You will be right, you,
you will be like because I was on a boat
in the Galapagos with our family right before this trip,
and it was hard to You couldn't run on the
boat and it was hard to run. And so I
was just doing like a hundred burpees every morning. He
took about eight minutes, and I was pretty much ready
(40:11):
to be done. Yeah. Yeah, I hate purpies by the way,
for that reason. Really hard, dude. They are so good.
I've made many people do them in my videos. I
just sit back and coach. Yeah yeah, but there there's
there's like really, I mean, burpies, push ups and sit
(40:34):
ups like you're pretty much and if you can find
somewhere to do with some pull offs, oh yeah, I
mean you're good. So that's how I started, you know,
when I was fourteen herschel walker. I think I'm a
couple of years older than you, but sports illustrated. He said,
he did free, used to carry around, He used to
carry around water jugs. Took jugs, right, yes, three pushups,
(40:54):
three sit ups? Uh yeah, But it was just the basics, right,
and you know, obviously good genetics as well, But to
your point, it's like, it's the minutes. It's going hard
when you have a short amount of time, and if
you have you know, two months, you run across the
United States. Yeah, let's finish with this story because I
love this tell So, Uh, the quarantine backer at Ault
(41:16):
COVID hit you needed something to do, you did the uh,
And I kind of explained this in the intro. It's
four point one miles every hour on the hour. About
halfway through and you're doing in your neighborhood, you decided
you've had enough, right, you were like, I think I'm done,
and then what happened. Well, yeah, so it's four point
one six six seven, So it's a little bit more right. Uh.
(41:41):
And so basically, I don't know if your audience is familiar,
but basically every twenty four hours you go a hundred miles,
So that's kind of the premise. And then every hour
on the hours you have to start. So you if
you do it in thirty minutes, you have thirty minutes
to rest. If you do it in fifty nine minutes,
you have one minute to rest and eat and whatever.
(42:04):
And once you leave for the loop, you're not allowed
to have any aid or support. So um. Yeah, so
around up to that point I had the longest I
had run continuously was about three kilometers, which is about
a hundred and eighty four miles or so. And so
(42:26):
I think it was the middle of the second night, um,
because they were coming up on two hundred miles. I'd
gone past three, and I was just feeling really bad.
My stomach wasn't feeling great, and I was just like down,
and um, I was just I was doing a point
(42:48):
four mile loop around my neighborhood, so basically like a
block and I've been running it for two and a
half days, you know, and I was just like, everyone's
like asleep right now. Uh, my wife had just last
or something, and my friend Tom had come to like
(43:09):
take over the age station, even though I couldn't really
take any food or whatever. Uh and then I, yeah,
I decided I was gonna I started and I just
just feeling bad and I decided I'm gonna quit. And
uh so I'm walking back to the aide station and
I was like, yeah, I've made people stay out here
long enough, and I my I got back and my
(43:35):
wife Jennifer who's a huge supporter. She's been with me
from the very beginning. She was like, do you feel sick?
And I'm like no, and she she goes, are you hurt.
I'm like nope. She's like, I'm like I had, I'm
just gone though, I don't want to go on anymore.
And she goes, that's not a good enough excuse, and
(43:57):
and I was like, you're right, that's just not a
good enough excuse. So I kept going and then I
was able to do like an extra like eight miles
or so and ended up winning the race. So you know,
sometimes you need that uh tough love. And I felt
great from that point on. I never felt bad. And
(44:21):
you did two sixty two point five is that correct?
Sixty three laps? Uh? Yeah. So we married the same woman,
the same type of woman. Michael, I'll leave you. I love.
This is a perfect way to kind of tie it
all up. I've done iron Man's all over the world.
One of my first ones Florida, I was hitting, you know,
the goal was to qualify for way long story short
(44:42):
now and back. I'm hitting the times, but I'm not
feeling good either. I get to my wife at the
thirteen point one mile point of the run, and I say, listen,
it's not gonna happen today, and she screams at me,
you go turn around, shut up, just suck it up
and go. And I ran my fastest half i'd ever run. Right,
So yeah, so we like listen, I didn't run and
(45:02):
the ninety more. But the point is we always have more,
and it's it's so mental. Obviously you gotta have the
physical part two, but people have to realize how much
they can do. Michael. I can't thank you enough. And
can we check in? Can I check in with you
again in a couple of weeks to where we are?
Oh yeah, sure, man, anytime you guys won, that would
be great. Oh my gosh, I cannot thank you enough.
(45:23):
Congrats on so what you just officially this is the
most days. Yeah, this is the most days. And I
think I'm close to the most miles I've ever run.
So yeah, you sound darn good, Michael. Yeah, yeah, I
feel I'm feeling really good. So, oh my god, have
an awesome day. I'm gonna be following you and gonna
(45:44):
share everything. People are gonna donate, and we're gonna check
in with you again and have an awesome a couple
of weeks and and we'll speak to you soon. All right,
sounds great. Thank you, Kansas. You let me know, reach out,
let me know when you're you know, when you feel
like it, a little someone to talk to. Forty so
on minutes. Thank you, Michael, having an awesome day, and
(46:05):
we'll speak soon. All right, Thank you, great one, and
we will be back after this short break, and we
are back. I love my job. I love it. I
(46:29):
say it frequently because I'm that passionate about it to
talk to people like Michael Wardian, How lucky are we?
How looky am I to have this forum, this platform,
and to bring it to you and to have that
conversation like I feel, I don't even know what the
(46:50):
feeling is right now. It's but it's good. It's a
positive thing. Like it's like a workout. It's like it's
like I ran, we ran a marathon together, Like we're
all better and stronger for listening to Michael. Like I'm
keeping this short because there's no way I can better
(47:11):
what we just listened to for the past thirty mon minutes.
And that's what you get when you have someone who
has just pushed through are you gonna run across the
United States? No? Are you gonna run it all? Maybe not?
Are you gonna, you know, suffer setbacks? Are you gonna
have obstacles in your life? Are you going to feel
poorly mentally and physically? Yeah? And that I looked right
(47:36):
at my recording equipment of fifteen minutes when he started
talking about when I asked the question about the obstacles,
he encountered, that's sixty seconds. Blew me away. Gave me chills.
That's why I only bring you the best of the best.
We don't have time. We have time. And I gotta
(47:57):
say this. I know a lot of ultra people. I
know a lot of iron men and a a lot of
endurance athletes. They're not all like Michael Wardian. Most aren't.
He is truly unique. What do I mean by that? Well,
most people who are you know, drawn to running ridiculously
long distances, not always the most social. And that's fine,
(48:17):
Like I believe that you know you do that because
you need to. But then there's those who have reached
a level of just living that is incredible. How many
times I say incredible, I kept saying it after and
I'm very conscious of words. I use, but I could
not not all right enough. We're gonna check in with
(48:41):
him again. I wanted to stay on. How many times
do I also say during interviews that I wish I
could have stayed on for four more hours. And that's
because it's the best of the best. When you have
access to people who are going to make you better,
you are a better person for listening to that. I
am a better person, way better for interact with Michael Wardion.
(49:01):
And I feel so honored that he took the time
and that we listened to him, to him someone who's
done what he has accomplished, accomplished something new for him.
Oh my gosh, Oh incredible. If you want to reach out,
(49:22):
Tom h Fit is Instagram and Twitter Tom h Fit
direct message, questions, comments, if you can donate, I'm gonna
as soon as I finished recording here follow him to
be inspired Michael Wardian see the links and a spell
(49:43):
his name and all that stuff in the notes. If
you want to reach out through email, Fitness Disrupted dot
com email me through the site. I'm just uh, I
feel really good like this is This is all about
collecting experiences and experience interacting with Michael Wardion. This is
what we do, make us better, put things into perspective,
(50:07):
teach us what we can do what we have control over.
That's an extreme I get it, not asking you to
do remotely what mich Alwardian does, but you need to
learn from it and take ownership of the fact that
we control three things, how much we move, what we
(50:27):
put into our mouths, and our state of mind, our attitude,
and as Michael put in a way I've never heard before,
the control over the mind is everything we see those
memes about. If you believe it, you can achieve all
that stuff, but you need to hear people who actually
(50:50):
live it. And you just did. Think of Michael Wardian
and enjoy the rest of your runs. Stay safe. Those
trucks going by were freaking me out. I am Tom
Holland This is Fitness Disrupted. Believe in yourself. Fitness Disrupted
is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
(51:12):
from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland and this is Fitness Disrupted. Alright.
I have interviewed some pretty amazing athletes on this show.
Dean car Nazzi is one of them. Ultra marathon man
(00:26):
really put ultras on the map. He was the one
who did fifty marathons in fifty states in fifty days
and so many other things as well. But this guy,
well that sounds horrible, sound to administring. What Dean did incredible.
But you know, I always say was that I've done
(00:46):
a lot of events. There's always so many people who
have done more, and that's fine. It's not a competition.
This guy, I don't I don't know. I don't know
of anyone personally who's kind of achieved what this guy
has and continues to which is just so amazing. And
(01:08):
here's what's really special about this podcast is I'm going
to give him a call as he's running across the
United States as we speak, and see if we can
interview him. He knows I'm calling, by the way, that
I've found your phone number. I'm just gonna give you
a call. No, but you know, there's um Sell issues
and things like that. So we'll say if it doesn't
(01:29):
work the first time, I will do it again, all right.
But I'm talking about Michael Wardian, and what I love
is that, having been in this industry for so long,
I have an experience with Michael from many years ago.
Two thousand ten, two thousand ten, I was doing more
TV stuff and a bunch of TV with a channel
(01:50):
in Hartford, Connecticut, and they asked me to be a
correspondent at the finish line of the Hartford Marathon. So cool.
First time I'd ever done live TV like that. I've
done a lot of live TV, but not at an event,
not at a marathon, not like all day at a
finish line myself and one of their real correspondence. They
(02:13):
brought me in. I had done um, some fitness segments
for them, but they brought me in with someone else
and it was amazing. So spent the whole day, beautiful day, uh,
talking about the marathon is it was going on? Uh,
standing at the finish line and then interviewing. There was
a half and a full marathon. Um. And there's other
great stories from that. But Michael Wardian one he won
(02:34):
in two thousand ten and he did this six days
after running a marathon in two one. Okay, so you go,
that's crazy, but there's so much more, so much more so.
I did meet him for about ninety seconds or so.
I'm sure he doesn't remember, but that was my first,
I think, my first real kind of getting to know
(02:55):
him as far as who he was, and then as
I got to know his story more and more, just
absolutely insane, absolutely insane. He holds. Let me say this,
he's probably one of the world's best ultra runners. Okay,
if you just pick an event, name an event or
race or something, and the chances are that he's not
(03:15):
only done it, but probably done it a handful of
times and one it Okay. He like competes all over
the world seemingly every weekend marathon's ultra marathons, and he
doesn't just finish like he finishes fast. He's raised at
the US Olympic Trials. He owns numerous world records, Guinness
(03:38):
World Records. He holds the Guinness World Record for the
fastest marathon run in Antarctica a two four. He did
that on Januar seventeen, and that run is believed to
be the only sub three hour marathon run on the
ice covered continent. Amazing, But I'm gonna give you so
much more. Okay. This was, by the way, that run
(04:01):
was the first leg of his World Marathon Challenge, which
was seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. So
Dean did fifty marathon's fifty stays fifty days. Incredible. Uh uh.
This was for Michael, the first marathon tour of seven
done in seven days on seven continents. He holds the
(04:21):
fastest cumulative time for that at nineteen hours, twenty one
minutes and thirty six seconds, averaging he averaged two forty
five fifty seven per marathon. So some of you might
not understand how fast that is. It's ridiculous. Seven days
an average seven marathons seven days at that that pace
(04:44):
in sane. This is what I loved though. Back when
I interviewed him at the marathon, this came out that
he had held I think someone broke it, but he
had previously held the record for the fastest marathon pushing
a stroller. He was pushing his ten month old son
Pierce at the Frederick Marathon in two thousand seven. He
ran a two forty two Has anyone pushed their kid
(05:06):
in a stroller and run. I tried it once. There's
a four on the fourth in my hometown. Four in
the fourth July. Hot out and back, kind of hilly
for the first two miles, turned around, come back. My
son was a little older than ten months at the time.
I made him get out and walk the hill. It's hard,
(05:28):
and Michael ran pushing his son a two forty two
crazy crazy in I love this and I heard about
this at the time, So COVID happened. Races are shut down, right,
So what does Michael do? He wins the quarantine backyard Ultra.
(05:50):
This is gonna blow your mind. For those of you
don't know what a backyard ultra is. The general rule
is you run four point one mile every hour on
the hour. So if run ten minute miles, you got
twenty little less than twenty minutes to rest. Whatever time
you have left over, that's your rest time. And then
when the hour starts, you got to do it again.
(06:10):
What did Michael do? He ran two hundred and sixty
two point five miles sixty three laps around his neighborhood
in Arlington, Virginia. Insane. I'm sure the number has changed,
but he has run over three hundred marathons, over one
(06:31):
hundred hundred ultra marathons. His achievements so many, but if
you want to start to rank them, he was first
again in that quarantine backyard ultra two hundred and sixty
two miles. He was second at the hundred K World Championships,
third at the Marathon des Sablo, which is a stage
(06:53):
race through the Sahara Desert, self supported. And he has
the fastest known time also known as f KT in
the ultra world for the Israel National Trail, which is
running across the entire country of Israel, and he did
that in ten days. Ridiculously nice guy, so accessible, loves
what he does, has a full time job. But my
(07:17):
point is that when you think you can achieve something,
here's an example of what the human body can do.
And by no means do I ever want to run
two and sixty two miles and a four point one
mile six laps, But it shows us what we can
do the power of not only the body, but the mind.
(07:42):
I know that he wanted to quit. I read an
article press release about how during that ultra he wanted
to quit and his wife said why, and he said,
I'm tired, and she said it's not a good enough
for reason, he kept doing it any won, he's married
to someone like I am. Anyway, enough, let's let's see
if we can get him on the phone. All right,
(08:04):
quick break when we come back. Michael Wardian currently as
I speak, running across the United States. All right, we'll
be right back, and we are back. Uh. It's never easy,
(08:26):
but I have on the line Michael Wardion. Michael, thank
you so much. Where are you as we speak? It's amazing.
I just crossed from Nevada into Utah, So I'm uh,
I mean I'm nowhere. I'm eight miles from the next
services so and on the Nova border. Just um, coming
(08:53):
out of place. Called amazing, So I am. Thanks to
the power of fitness technology. You have a garment device
that you're wearing where people can track you. I'm gonna
put that in in the notes so people can do
that as well. Did you But it looks like you
started running super early. How many miles are you in
right now? Um? I'm about nineteen. Oh my gosh, what
(09:14):
time did you start? Uh? We started, Well, it's weird
because we just changed time zones also, so we went
from Pacific time to Mountain Town. I started at seven
Mountain times, six Pacific time. Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh.
So so just explain to people again. I already did
(09:36):
an intro. I threw to a commercial. This is the
first time I've ever done an interview like this, Michael,
and again, thank you so much for making it happen. Um,
So tell people what you're doing. So, I'm running across
the United States for Long Route fifty to raise money
for clean water for a charity called World Vision. So
the goal is to raise a hundred thousand dollars and
(09:56):
we're about twenty two thousand dollars towards that goal. So, UM,
making progress and hopefully the more people that hear about it,
the more people that are interested in donating and changing lives. Awesome.
And we're gonna put that that world Vision in the
notes as well, so people can see that Michael, and
and donate. Um, which is it's just incredible. And this
(10:20):
is the first time you've done this. Yes, I just
want to make sure I've done my research right. The
first time that I've run across the country. Yes, I
ran across Israel a couple of years ago. UM, but
that was quite a bit smaller. So that was a
thousand kilometers, like six miles in ten days. So this
(10:43):
is this is a bigger project. Is the bigger project?
I watched you yesterday. Uh you climbed where did you start?
You ended up at what like seven thousand feet? And
you were using the polls and everything. Um. Yeah, that
looks like a tough day. It looks I had to
seven actually sorry, two summits or three summits yesterday one
(11:07):
was seventy one seventy So yeah, it was it was
a big day. And I ended up at a place
called Sacramento Pass. And just so people can let we
hear the cars go and buy you Michael, is there
a sag you have? Is the RV behind you? Or
explain to people how you do this with your crew? Oh? Yeah, so, um,
I have my dad here also, which is another part
(11:30):
of the the journey and the projects called running home
actually because I live on Route fifty in Virginia. Um,
and so what happens is they'll they'll go up. It's funny.
It's changed over the course of the weeks. But at
first it was like ten miles and as I've gotten
more tired, and it's gotten hotter. It's more like five miles.
(11:53):
So they'll they'll aid me, give me some ice and
water and stuff, and then drive five miles ahead and
and then I'll meet him up and if I need
to stop, I will and we just keep doing that
until I'm done with just a wile. And basically I
gotta tell people, Michael, because I've been following you on Instagram,
(12:16):
uh and you know, reading the stories you post every day,
So we'll put that in the notes as well so
people can follow you. There. Did I read correctly that
the other day you had like four people stop and
ask if you needed a ride? Yes? Yeah, going there
was a snow store actually as I was running into
eallye and uh yeah, four people stopped and one lady
(12:37):
reprimanded me for not having the proper retire on because
running shorts on and uh it was you know, just
running with its actually a lady from the local council.
It was really cool. So that was that was pretty awesome.
Oh my gosh. So while I have you people, you know,
what do you? Let's start with breakfast? So how do
(12:59):
you feel up? What? What do you is your You
must have a goat you thing every day pretty much.
What's what's the what's the before run? Fueling up plants?
Uh so I'm working with a company called Stoked Oat,
so it's oatmeal. Um, so have the oat nail usually
four you five minutes before running or so, and then uh,
(13:21):
I'm trying to replace like five to seven thousand calories
every day. So basically every time I stopped, I tell
tram in as much shood as I can and are
you taking stuff? I assume you're wearing the vest and
taking stuff in as you go, or you just wait
until the to the pit stops. No, no, no, I
well sometimes I have a vest all the time. I
have a waste pack, So I have like a Nathan
(13:44):
Pinnacle waste pack with like my spot tracker. It's like
the garment in reach. And then I have my phone
and some headphones and a little bit of money and
then I'm I'm running with speed max um hydration bottle.
But then sometimes I'm also wearing a vest. Today I'm
(14:07):
going with no vest, just to give my shoulders a break.
And what what's your Did you have a calorie per
hour that you're shooting for whatever it might be? Uh?
Not really um, because it's sometimes it's just hard to eat. Um.
So it's sometimes it's just easier because I'm gonna see aids,
(14:31):
so often I'll just taking liquid calories along the way
and then I always have like a stack with me,
like some apple sauce or doo or something if I
really need it, and then I'll just eat a sandwich
or something when i get to the r V. And
what what about when you're done? Are you just like
(14:54):
you must be starving? Do you have a post run
kind of ritual that you have food wise, hydration wise? Um? Yeah,
I just try to eat literally as much as possible. Um.
Each night. Like last night, I had a salad with
and I usually don't have dressing with my salad, but
(15:14):
I had the most calorie DNS Italian dressing uh. And
I think I may have even put extra olive oil
on it and salt and then pasta and then some
French fries. And I'm a vegetarian also, so like uh yeah,
it's just yeah, what else do I have? Oh, chips
(15:38):
and sausa, But the chips and salsa were not good
at the place where we had them. But anything and
anything you can get your hands on anything and everything right,
just you gotta refuel and it. Yeah, and I'm meaning
a lot of like I worked with a company called
Big Spoon Rosters, and I'm meaning tons of nut butters
throughout the day also, So I'll just come in and
just think a spoon and just it right in the jar,
(16:01):
just just eat it, eat it straight basically. And I'm like, oh,
that was just silories, you know, such an easy quick way, right, yeah.
And people are so interested, right, and how you do
it and what you feel yourself with and how are
you passing the time. I kind of know from following you,
but tell people what you're doing. I know people are
just jumping in with you and running, yes, and then
you're doing different things to kind of get you through. Yeah, yeah,
(16:25):
definitely there's people when I get in your towns. It's
been really great. People have come out and run with me,
and I hope that that continues. Um, And that's been
really fun. And then when people aren't with me, I'm
doing a lot of audio books, um, some of the
books that I didn't read in my youth. Right now,
I'm reading Tale of Two Cities. I read a book
(16:48):
called American Gods. I did some movie I got warrant
tief Um right now. I just I just learned there's
a Stephen King book about the high lay Alma called Desperation,
So I just started that. Um. But it's all about
root fifty and you know what happens the Loneliest Highway.
(17:11):
A lot of reading well, and then I do like
podcasts and uh music and also my friends all I'm
lucky because I've worked with Team Mobile, so it's shockingly
have really good service almost everywhere. So I've been able
to like just bore my friends. They're like they'll just
(17:33):
call me and we'll talk for like half an hour
or whatever, and they're like, what are you doing? What
male were you on? Where are you? I mean, it's
it's incredible that you can can do that and tell us,
tell us some great stories so far. So you started
on me feet, Um, give us some like memorable experiences
if you had up up until now. Yeah, I mean
it's been, Um, the whole thing has been pretty memorable.
(17:57):
Like starting on May first, like I started at City
Hall in San Francisco with a big group of runners
for the San Francisco Marathon, which it's like one of
my favorite races I've won both their marathon and ultra
and they're good friends. So they had a group of
runners come out, and I'd say one of the most
(18:17):
memorable things was running across San Francisco, putting my feet
in the Pacific Ocean UM, having a big group there,
and then running across the Golden gate Bridge. UM. Meeting
a bunch of friends in Sacramento was fantastic. UM got
to I got to go by Folsom prison and listen
(18:40):
to like Johnny Cash. That was really awesome. From there, UH,
running through up to Plasserville, which is like a very
famous for ultra running. That's where the Western States hundred
miler finishes. So ran from there to Tahoe, which was incredible.
Brand I think that day it was around of climbing,
(19:03):
so it was a really really long day. It was
probably my longest day running was as far as time,
but so beautiful. Coming into Tahoe, I actually sat like
a Strava segment which was funny and like a mile UM.
So that was cool. And then running from Tahoe to
(19:26):
UM two, Nevada was one of the most incredible things.
Like running across my first stay on this journey was
pretty special. And then Nevada was it was really really cool,
Like I was just shocked at how fast it is,
you know. Yeah, it was like I was joking with someone,
(19:48):
it's like a outdoor treadmill, like he just had these
magnificent mountains all around you. But ever, I was in
Nevada for I don't know, I don't know if it's
the longest of all the states all begin but it
definitely is a big, big state. So that was that
(20:08):
was cool. We we've finished enough place called middle Gate,
which is like fifty or sixty miles from anywhere, and
like had the most incredible neal and waitress and listen
to live music. That was really cool. And then there's
a tree where people throw their shoes, so like we
(20:29):
got we got to pretend to throw our shoes in
the tree, which was neat. And then going through eally
was cool just to see what there's a huge copper
mind there. It's like one of the biggest, I think
in the world or something, so to see, you know
what that looks like. And now I'm in Utah, so
that's that's kind of that's that's kind of it. No
(20:53):
better way to see the country, Michael. Most people won't
do it your way obviously, but I would say, you know,
driving it is chat sung enough, um, just incredible. So
and what are your your veteran You've been doing this
like forever, um, no one probably knows it better than you.
But what are your physical challenges now? Like what what
crops up running fifty miles a day for sixty plus
(21:14):
days or whatever it is. What are the physical challenges
you're experiencing. I mean, at the beginning it was a
lot of just fatigue. I feel like it's kind of
interesting because each day I'm getting stronger and bitter, but
I'm also taking body blows the whole time from the
distance and in the train, so it's like a very
(21:34):
interesting balance. I'd say the biggest things I'm trying to
be super mindful is I've got so pretty severe sunburned
yesterday for some reason. So I'm being really mindful to
make sure I use the sunscreen and then blisters, like
just trying to make sure that little hotspots don't become
(21:55):
a blister. Um. And you know, I mean I've worked
within GINGI which to socks, so they've worked really well
to minimize friction, and so right now I feel pretty happy.
You know, just have some KT tape on where where
things could become a problem. But right now everything's good.
(22:16):
That's great. And by the way, every time a cargoes by,
I get nervous. I'm sure people who who are listening
are gonna will tell you. I will tell you. The
shoulder in Nevada is about three ft wider than in Utah.
So Utah saved a lot of money on the shoulder.
So you're not as happy as you were a day ago,
(22:39):
well even like four or three hours ago. Like, yeah,
it's very very tight. It's like a it's like a
two lane highway and I'm very close to traffic. Now.
You just said people don't get this. You know, I've
done some endurance races nowhere near you. But you said
you're getting stronger, And that's totally contradictory to what most
(23:01):
people think. You know, the moment they get tired in
an event or something, they mentally probably quit or many
people do, right because they don't understand. They haven't done
it long enough to realize that you can actually get
through and be stronger. So so talk about that a little.
I mean, it's so counterintuitive to most people. Yeah, I
mean I think that it's like anything, the more you
do it, the more your body gets used to it.
(23:23):
So usually the people that I talked to, they have
done this kind of trans continental running. To say, the
first two or three weeks really is when you kind
of experience all the aches and pains, and then your
body realizes you're not going to quit, and then it's like, okay, fine,
you know we're gonna try to become as efficient as possible,
(23:43):
and then you just kind of turn into like a
some people called it like a road hug or like
a monster, or you just start being able to run
faster and stronger, and but you have to get there,
and so a lot of people, you know, gets you
get torn down. It's just like any thing when you're
building muscle or endurance, Like there's a tear down phase,
(24:06):
but if you can recover each night and and you
eventually start to get stronger and stronger. And so I'm
just trying to make sure I get through the first
couple of weeks and then be able to reap those
benefits and keep going and continue to do the miles
I need to do each day. Hopefully it'll be easier
and easier as I go incredible and that people like
(24:29):
that that minute when you just gave is like so
powerful to so many people who have no idea what
they can get through and come out stronger on the
other side and give us your mental challenges though, so
you know you are one of the strongest mentally, uh
that I know as far as all this goes and
talk about the mental I'm sure you still have those
issues the challenges. Oh yeah, I mean it's I mean
(24:51):
there's a lot of hardship. I mean, it's hard to
be away from your family and friends. It's hard to
be away from I still work like a job, so
like it's hard to be away from work. It's each
day it's it's hard to stay motivated when you know
you you're I've been running for four hours and twenty
three minutes and I still have eight hours to run. Like, um,
(25:14):
you know, it's it's a it's a thing. But I'm
also looking at it as each day is like an adventure,
and I get to, um, sixty four adventures, and so
I think it's really how you frame it, right, Like
I don't know what's gonna be around the next corner,
but I want to find out. You know, if I
started feeling down or whatnot. You can choose to feel
(25:37):
however you want, and so I'm excited about just the
opportunity to see more of the country and to see
it under my own power. It's that's highly motivating for me.
It's incredible. And when, um, I know your story, but
tell people, when was there a moment Michael in your youth.
I know you started pretty much in college or just
(25:58):
after getting serious about it, but when did you realize, hey,
I'm probably kind of good at this. I know it's
a weird question, but was there a moment um No,
I'd say I decided I wanted to run the Boston Marathon,
and I didn't know that that was actually like a
dream of most people, and so um, just decided that
(26:21):
was going to be my first marathon. And then it
was actually, you have to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
And so I ran Marine Corps first and aimed to
qualify and did and then I was like, um, you know,
that's kind of good. But then I decided, oh, if
you run sub three hours, that means you're a good runner.
(26:42):
I had heard that or read that in like Runners
World or something, and so I thought Okay, I'll do that.
So right after I ran Boston in seven, I think
I went to the local running store and I was like, hey, hey, sirs,
you know I'm which is funny because they're actually still
(27:03):
supporting this run. I'm still still still working with like
people that started with me, you know, I don't know
twenty some years ago or whatever years ago. But I
was like, oh, I'm a good runner, and they were like, yeah, yeah,
you're not a good runner, but you can come. You can.
I mean not that to fifty four isn't good, but
(27:25):
they're like, you know, you're not good enough to be
on our team. And so I decided to try to
make their team, and within like six months I was
on the team. But I still didn't think I was
I still wasn't sure if I was a good runner.
I'd say the first time I thought I was probably
like really substantial was when I qualified for my first
(27:48):
Olympic trials and UM two thousand and four. That's when
I was like, oh, I'm I'm a good runner. Before that,
I was like I'm good at like endurance events because
I did really well, like the Marathon to sob and
a race in India called the Himalayan hundred mile stage race.
Like I was like, um, I'm good at these like
(28:11):
kind of long things. But I feel like when I
qualified for the only big trials the first time was
when I was like, I'm not I'm a pretty good runner.
So your bar set a pretty high, Michael, Like, you know,
explain to people what the Marathon to sob that is.
It's it's the stage race, and tell them, tell them
what it encompasses. Oh yeah, yeah, sorry. So Marathon to
(28:35):
sab is a seven days stage race across the Sahara
Desert where you're required to carry all your own gear
and so like sleeping bag, flair, snake bite kid and
all your food for a week and then they give
you nine liters of water a day. But you have
like a punch card, so if you don't take it,
(28:57):
then you don't get it back. So like if they
offer you a bottle at the maid station and you
don't take it, you don't get it later. And you
run two kilometers or about a hundred and fifty miles
across the Sahara Desert in Baraco. But but that didn't
It wasn't until you you got to the Olympic trials
that you said, no, I'm good, it wasn't. Yeah, I
(29:20):
mean I was like I said, I was like, I'm
pretty good at like the longer stuff. Yeah, i'd say,
like to feel like you're I don't know, I feel
like I don't know why. That's why what made me
feel like that? But I was also like a pro
before that. I guess so, and what's the cut off?
It was a sub at that time. It was and
(29:43):
then and then I kept qualifying, and then some people
say they kept dropping the talk because I kept qualifying,
So then they moved it down to to nineteen. And
I think it might be to seventeen now, or maybe
it's back at two nineteen. So I qualified in two thousand, four,
eight and twelve. So my pr in the marathon's to seventeen.
(30:04):
Oh my gosh. You have so many accomplishments and achievements
Michael that I talked about in the intro. One of
my favorites. Though I want you to just bolls too,
But what is the uh the pushing your son in
the stroller? Yes, tell people about that. Yeah. I so
I also do some in this world records And I
(30:24):
said world record that's since been beaten, and it's been
beaten pretty handily by my friend Glum Enough. Um, but
I ran two forty two pushing my son Pierson a
jog stroller and set a world record in two thousand
and seven. I think it's funny. Now Pierce is just
about to drive, so it just blows me away. Yeah,
(30:47):
you're not pushing him in the uh the you know
the iron Man jogging stroller anytime soon? No, no, no,
pretty easy. He just ran regional track meet, Like, he
just did hurdles regionals for our school. So yeah, he's
got the genetical time class. That's that's amazing. I mean
I did a four on the fourth with my son
(31:08):
once and I made him get out and walk the hill.
I was like, you know what, I don't have this.
Those mothers are pretty darned strong. Um. Oh my gosh. Incredible. Um,
And tell people a little bit more about World Vision. Yeah.
So World Visions a charity. Um, they actually do a
lot of different things. Um. I work with them professionally.
(31:30):
I'm I'm an international shipbroker, and so they do direct
feeding programs on top of clean water projects. Uh, they
have a lot of different things. But the thing that
this run is force for the clean water aspect. And
what's really impactful about clean water is that it can
(31:50):
change the lives of so many people and it's a
long term thing. So you build a well enough a
village or a tow ship, you changed like not just
the lives of the immediate people, but also the people
around there. You improve the infrastructure, you change the lives
of many of the children because a lot of times
(32:13):
they're the ones who are sank to get the water.
A lot of times those kids are carrying like a
you know, like a jerry can, so it's like you know,
five five five gallons for it's usually leaders. I think
like a five leader jerry can up to six kilometers
so you know, four miles or so. Um, they're going
(32:35):
back and forth and they're you know, spending that time
when they could be doing other stuff like going to
school and so yeah, it can really make a big difference.
That's incredible And you, um, are you still working full
time for that's the shipbroker that people need to realize. Yeah,
I am still working a whole time. I'm lucky team
(32:57):
at work, Keith and Mark are doing a great job.
Bring me all I get to run around and uh
and you know be out here doing this, but yeah,
it's it's really incredible life. Felt super fortunate that that
I'm able to, you know, still have the ability of
(33:18):
work and the opportunity to do these things too. I
just want people to say, or to realize, Michael, that
when the number one reason for not exercising is a
lack of time, you know, you know, thanks to COVID
working remotely and you're running across the United States. Granted
you know your your employer is understanding, but we all
have time, right, we can all do so much more? Right? Well, yeah,
(33:41):
I mean it's you know, everyone's got a unique situation.
But you know there are there are ways where you
can be efficient. I do have a saying it's like
invisible training, but you know, can you find a way
to can you to work or go during your lunch
break where you know no one's gonna miss you? Um?
So yeah, if you can find ways to be efficient,
(34:02):
you can decide what you want to do and then
figure out how to train to get it done. It
plays into my most recent book, Michael, is the micro
Workout Plan, and I talk about yeah, you can go
to the gym, but it's about what you do throughout
the day. As you're saying, like sneaking the workouts in right,
all right, that scared me. That sounded too close. That
sounded yeah. I mean it's like I like, every time
(34:25):
you take a call, do five push ups. You know,
every time you walk out of your you walk out
of your office to the bathroom, do five push ups
or you know a side plank, sir, Um, you know,
jumping jack's or burpies. I mean, you do fifty buries
a day, You're gonna be pretty fit, right, And that's
one thing as we wrap this upside want you're giving
(34:46):
us so much time. Um, you do strength training, Like, yeah,
don't don't feel bad. Like, as long as I have service,
I'm happy to chat. I just I'm worried you're gonna,
like cars gonna come too close. So oh yeah, don't worry.
Talk about strength training real quick, because you do it
(35:06):
and many runners don't. And I see you, you know,
posting videos and for someone who is at your level,
many don't and many at what we're level. So just
talk about your strength training kind of routine and protocol.
Oh man, I love it. Yeah. During COVID, I got
into CrossFit with my friend Tom Mayer Hopper, and he
and I do five days of cross cross city type stuff.
(35:30):
I wouldn't say it's CrossFit because it's not everything now way,
but it's kind of that focused. And then I worked
two days a week with a guy named Jesse Fuller
who's a personal training or physical therapist, and so he's
the one who makes me do all the stuff that
you really should do but you don't really want to do,
(35:51):
like walking on your toes and inch worms and dead
bugs and planks and bird dogs and all the little like, oh,
let's see how strong you are. Just stand on one
leg for a second and you're like, oh my god,
I can't barely hold myself up right. So um ah, yeah,
I feel like that stuff has been so instrumental in
(36:14):
me being able to run as well as I have
so far and staying healthy. And actually it's kind of cool.
You caught me on a day where this is the
longest I've ever run continuously, because I just went by
the amount of days that it took me across Israel,
and I'm just about to cross the amount of miles
that I did, so that's pretty yeah, So this is
(36:35):
kind of a seminal day for me, something I thing
I was really excited about because you know, this is
all new territory for me now, which is crazy given
all that you've done. So I feel honored and you know,
thank you so much for sharing it, and I love
I pulled up a couple of lines of yours, but
one I love that I think is perfect to kind
(36:56):
of start to wrap it up with, is you say
you said, I think you have to set the audacious
and big goals, right, and that it keeps you passionate.
So talk about people again, just who have that limited
thinking Michael, that they can't they can't accomplish things that
we both know if they put them on to it
they can, right, So just talk about setting those goals
and how they should scare you and and you know
(37:17):
that there is no failure. Yeah. Well, and that's what
I think is cool about it is like, okay, so
it's almost like the Japanese style of marathon training. I
don't know if you know this or not, but they
will be like I'm a two nine marathon runner for
ten miles, and then three weeks later it's for thirteen
(37:37):
miles and then sixteen miles and it's kind of like
that when you said these big goals, even if you
come short, you're like, okay, and maybe I didn't make
it the full you know, five k, but I made it,
you know, three k, and then the next time you
make it four k, and so it's incremental progress. And
I think, you know, the big goals for me, i'd
(38:00):
be running across the country, but for somebody else it
could be I just want to start running three days
a week. Or I just talked to my friend yesterday
and uh Courtney and Singapore, which was awesome, and she
was saying she wants to start lifting more because she
saw me doing the streak training, so you know, she
started to lift like three days a week. And Like,
(38:22):
it can be whatever it is for you, But I
think if it doesn't scare you, then it's gonna be
something where you you aren't that interested in pursuing it,
because if it's too easy, then you'll just be like
I can do that anytime. And if it's too hard,
you're gonna get discouraged. So um, it's got to be
kind of in the sweet spot. But I think if
(38:46):
you can't kind of figure it out, it'll be a
really good way to drive yourself to where you want
to go. And if you don't make it, maybe the
next time you will, or it'll put you on the path.
Then you can see what you did wrong and then
tweak it and then you get there. It's just like anything.
But if you don't have goals and you don't say him,
(39:07):
and you don't put them out there, then then it's
not going to actually ever happen, or at least that's
how it works for me, right, right, right? I love that,
you know, it's the's the shorterter. I call it excessive moderation, Michael.
It's you know, it's being consistent, consistency of the small stuff,
shooting for the big stuff. Find something you know. It's
gonna take your time to figure out what motivates you.
You don't have to run, but you gotta figure out
(39:28):
what you enjoy. I always say, if if you're looking
for the shortest amount of time to exercise, you haven't
found the exercise you like. Right, if someone told you
or me you could only run for eight minutes a day,
we'd go no, like we're fighting, right, So you just
gotta find it. Right, But if you only had eight minutes,
I would say, do eight minutes of burpies and you
(39:49):
will be ready to be done. Right, You will be right, you,
you will be like because I was on a boat
in the Galapagos with our family right before this trip,
and it was hard to You couldn't run on the
boat and it was hard to run. And so I
was just doing like a hundred burpees every morning. He
took about eight minutes, and I was pretty much ready
(40:11):
to be done. Yeah. Yeah, I hate purpies by the way,
for that reason. Really hard, dude. They are so good.
I've made many people do them in my videos. I
just sit back and coach. Yeah yeah, but there there's
there's like really, I mean, burpies, push ups and sit
(40:34):
ups like you're pretty much and if you can find
somewhere to do with some pull offs, oh yeah, I
mean you're good. So that's how I started, you know,
when I was fourteen herschel walker. I think I'm a
couple of years older than you, but sports illustrated. He said,
he did free, used to carry around, He used to
carry around water jugs. Took jugs, right, yes, three pushups,
(40:54):
three sit ups? Uh yeah, But it was just the basics, right,
and you know, obviously good genetics as well, But to
your point, it's like, it's the minutes. It's going hard
when you have a short amount of time, and if
you have you know, two months, you run across the
United States. Yeah, let's finish with this story because I
love this tell So, Uh, the quarantine backer at Ault
(41:16):
COVID hit you needed something to do, you did the uh,
And I kind of explained this in the intro. It's
four point one miles every hour on the hour. About
halfway through and you're doing in your neighborhood, you decided
you've had enough, right, you were like, I think I'm done,
and then what happened. Well, yeah, so it's four point
one six six seven, So it's a little bit more right. Uh.
(41:41):
And so basically, I don't know if your audience is familiar,
but basically every twenty four hours you go a hundred miles,
So that's kind of the premise. And then every hour
on the hours you have to start. So you if
you do it in thirty minutes, you have thirty minutes
to rest. If you do it in fifty nine minutes,
you have one minute to rest and eat and whatever.
(42:04):
And once you leave for the loop, you're not allowed
to have any aid or support. So um. Yeah, so
around up to that point I had the longest I
had run continuously was about three kilometers, which is about
a hundred and eighty four miles or so. And so
(42:26):
I think it was the middle of the second night, um,
because they were coming up on two hundred miles. I'd
gone past three, and I was just feeling really bad.
My stomach wasn't feeling great, and I was just like down,
and um, I was just I was doing a point
(42:48):
four mile loop around my neighborhood, so basically like a
block and I've been running it for two and a
half days, you know, and I was just like, everyone's
like asleep right now. Uh, my wife had just last
or something, and my friend Tom had come to like
(43:09):
take over the age station, even though I couldn't really
take any food or whatever. Uh and then I, yeah,
I decided I was gonna I started and I just
just feeling bad and I decided I'm gonna quit. And
uh so I'm walking back to the aide station and
I was like, yeah, I've made people stay out here
long enough, and I my I got back and my
(43:35):
wife Jennifer who's a huge supporter. She's been with me
from the very beginning. She was like, do you feel sick?
And I'm like no, and she she goes, are you hurt.
I'm like nope. She's like, I'm like I had, I'm
just gone though, I don't want to go on anymore.
And she goes, that's not a good enough excuse, and
(43:57):
and I was like, you're right, that's just not a
good enough excuse. So I kept going and then I
was able to do like an extra like eight miles
or so and ended up winning the race. So you know,
sometimes you need that uh tough love. And I felt
great from that point on. I never felt bad. And
(44:21):
you did two sixty two point five is that correct?
Sixty three laps? Uh? Yeah. So we married the same woman,
the same type of woman. Michael, I'll leave you. I love.
This is a perfect way to kind of tie it
all up. I've done iron Man's all over the world.
One of my first ones Florida, I was hitting, you know,
the goal was to qualify for way long story short
(44:42):
now and back. I'm hitting the times, but I'm not
feeling good either. I get to my wife at the
thirteen point one mile point of the run, and I say, listen,
it's not gonna happen today, and she screams at me,
you go turn around, shut up, just suck it up
and go. And I ran my fastest half i'd ever run. Right,
So yeah, so we like listen, I didn't run and
(45:02):
the ninety more. But the point is we always have more,
and it's it's so mental. Obviously you gotta have the
physical part two, but people have to realize how much
they can do. Michael. I can't thank you enough. And
can we check in? Can I check in with you
again in a couple of weeks to where we are?
Oh yeah, sure, man, anytime you guys won, that would
be great. Oh my gosh, I cannot thank you enough.
(45:23):
Congrats on so what you just officially this is the
most days. Yeah, this is the most days. And I
think I'm close to the most miles I've ever run.
So yeah, you sound darn good, Michael. Yeah, yeah, I
feel I'm feeling really good. So, oh my god, have
an awesome day. I'm gonna be following you and gonna
(45:44):
share everything. People are gonna donate, and we're gonna check
in with you again and have an awesome a couple
of weeks and and we'll speak to you soon. All right,
sounds great. Thank you, Kansas. You let me know, reach out,
let me know when you're you know, when you feel
like it, a little someone to talk to. Forty so
on minutes. Thank you, Michael, having an awesome day, and
(46:05):
we'll speak soon. All right, Thank you, great one, and
we will be back after this short break, and we
are back. I love my job. I love it. I
(46:29):
say it frequently because I'm that passionate about it to
talk to people like Michael Wardian, How lucky are we?
How looky am I to have this forum, this platform,
and to bring it to you and to have that
conversation like I feel, I don't even know what the
(46:50):
feeling is right now. It's but it's good. It's a
positive thing. Like it's like a workout. It's like it's
like I ran, we ran a marathon together, Like we're
all better and stronger for listening to Michael. Like I'm
keeping this short because there's no way I can better
(47:11):
what we just listened to for the past thirty mon minutes.
And that's what you get when you have someone who
has just pushed through are you gonna run across the
United States? No? Are you gonna run it all? Maybe not?
Are you gonna, you know, suffer setbacks? Are you gonna
have obstacles in your life? Are you going to feel
poorly mentally and physically? Yeah? And that I looked right
(47:36):
at my recording equipment of fifteen minutes when he started
talking about when I asked the question about the obstacles,
he encountered, that's sixty seconds. Blew me away. Gave me chills.
That's why I only bring you the best of the best.
We don't have time. We have time. And I gotta
(47:57):
say this. I know a lot of ultra people. I
know a lot of iron men and a a lot of
endurance athletes. They're not all like Michael Wardian. Most aren't.
He is truly unique. What do I mean by that? Well,
most people who are you know, drawn to running ridiculously
long distances, not always the most social. And that's fine,
(48:17):
Like I believe that you know you do that because
you need to. But then there's those who have reached
a level of just living that is incredible. How many
times I say incredible, I kept saying it after and
I'm very conscious of words. I use, but I could
not not all right enough. We're gonna check in with
(48:41):
him again. I wanted to stay on. How many times
do I also say during interviews that I wish I
could have stayed on for four more hours. And that's
because it's the best of the best. When you have
access to people who are going to make you better,
you are a better person for listening to that. I
am a better person, way better for interact with Michael Wardion.
(49:01):
And I feel so honored that he took the time
and that we listened to him, to him someone who's
done what he has accomplished, accomplished something new for him.
Oh my gosh, Oh incredible. If you want to reach out,
(49:22):
Tom h Fit is Instagram and Twitter Tom h Fit
direct message, questions, comments, if you can donate, I'm gonna
as soon as I finished recording here follow him to
be inspired Michael Wardian see the links and a spell
(49:43):
his name and all that stuff in the notes. If
you want to reach out through email, Fitness Disrupted dot
com email me through the site. I'm just uh, I
feel really good like this is This is all about
collecting experiences and experience interacting with Michael Wardion. This is
what we do, make us better, put things into perspective,
(50:07):
teach us what we can do what we have control over.
That's an extreme I get it, not asking you to
do remotely what mich Alwardian does, but you need to
learn from it and take ownership of the fact that
we control three things, how much we move, what we
(50:27):
put into our mouths, and our state of mind, our attitude,
and as Michael put in a way I've never heard before,
the control over the mind is everything we see those
memes about. If you believe it, you can achieve all
that stuff, but you need to hear people who actually
(50:50):
live it. And you just did. Think of Michael Wardian
and enjoy the rest of your runs. Stay safe. Those
trucks going by were freaking me out. I am Tom
Holland This is Fitness Disrupted. Believe in yourself. Fitness Disrupted
is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
(51:12):
from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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