0:00

Welcome to Fitness Disrupted,

0:03

a production of I Heart Radio.

0:09

I am Tom Holland and this is

0:11

Fitness Disrupted. Alright.

0:15

I have interviewed some pretty

0:18

amazing athletes on this show. Dean

0:20

car Nazzi is one of them.

0:23

Ultra marathon man really

0:26

put ultras on the map. He

0:29

was the one who did fifty marathons in

0:31

fifty states in fifty days

0:33

and so many other things as well. But

0:36

this guy, well that sounds horrible,

0:39

sound to administring. What Dean did

0:42

incredible. But you know, I always say was

0:44

that I've done a lot

0:46

of events. There's always

0:49

so many people who have done more,

0:52

and that's fine. It's not a

0:55

competition. This guy,

0:57

I don't I don't know. I

1:00

don't know of anyone personally who's

1:03

kind of achieved what this guy has and continues

1:05

to which is just so amazing.

1:08

And here's what's really special about this

1:10

podcast is I'm going to give him

1:12

a call as he's running across

1:14

the United States as we

1:16

speak, and see if we can

1:18

interview him. He knows I'm calling, by

1:20

the way, that I've

1:22

found your phone number. I'm just gonna give you a call. No, but

1:25

you know, there's um Sell

1:27

issues and things like that. So we'll say if

1:29

it doesn't work the first time, I will do it again,

1:32

all right. But I'm talking about Michael Wardian,

1:35

and what I love is

1:38

that, having been in this industry for

1:40

so long, I have an experience with Michael

1:42

from many years ago. Two thousand ten, two

1:45

thousand ten, I was doing more TV

1:47

stuff and a bunch of TV with

1:49

a channel in Hartford, Connecticut,

1:52

and they asked me to be a

1:54

correspondent at the finish line

1:56

of the Hartford Marathon. So

1:58

cool. First time I'd ever done

2:01

live TV like that. I've done a lot of live

2:03

TV, but not at an event, not at a

2:05

marathon, not like all day

2:08

at a finish line myself and

2:10

one of their real correspondence.

2:13

They brought me in. I had done um, some fitness

2:15

segments for them, but they brought me in

2:18

with someone else and it was amazing. So spent the whole day,

2:20

beautiful day, uh, talking about the marathon

2:22

is it was going on? Uh, standing

2:25

at the finish line and then interviewing. There

2:27

was a half and a full marathon. Um.

2:29

And there's other great stories from that. But Michael

2:32

Wardian one he won in

2:34

two thousand ten and he did this

2:36

six days after running a marathon

2:39

in two one. Okay,

2:41

so you go, that's crazy, but there's

2:43

so much more, so much more

2:45

so. I did meet him for about ninety

2:47

seconds or so. I'm sure he doesn't remember,

2:50

but that was my first, I

2:52

think, my first real kind of getting to

2:54

know him as far as who he was,

2:57

and then as I got to know his

3:00

story more and more, just absolutely insane,

3:03

absolutely insane. He holds. Let

3:06

me say this, he's probably one of the world's

3:09

best ultra runners. Okay, if you just

3:11

pick an event, name an event or race

3:13

or something, and the chances are that he's not only

3:15

done it, but probably done it a handful

3:17

of times and one it Okay.

3:20

He like competes all

3:22

over the world seemingly

3:25

every weekend marathon's ultra

3:27

marathons, and he doesn't just finish

3:30

like he finishes fast. He's

3:32

raised at the US Olympic Trials.

3:35

He owns numerous world records,

3:37

Guinness World Records. He holds

3:40

the Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon

3:42

run in Antarctica a two

3:44

four. He did that

3:46

on Januar seventeen,

3:49

and that run is believed to be the only sub

3:51

three hour marathon run

3:53

on the ice covered continent. Amazing,

3:56

But I'm gonna give you so much more. Okay.

3:58

This was, by the way, that run was

4:01

the first leg of his World Marathon Challenge,

4:03

which was seven marathons on seven continents

4:06

in seven days. So Dean

4:08

did fifty marathon's fifty stays fifty days.

4:10

Incredible. Uh uh. This

4:12

was for Michael, the first

4:14

marathon tour of

4:17

seven done in seven days on seven continents.

4:20

He holds the fastest cumulative

4:22

time for that at nineteen hours,

4:25

twenty one minutes and thirty six seconds,

4:28

averaging he averaged two forty

4:30

five fifty seven per

4:33

marathon. So some of you might not understand

4:35

how fast that is. It's ridiculous.

4:39

Seven days an average seven

4:41

marathons seven days at that that pace in

4:44

sane. This is what I loved though. Back

4:46

when I interviewed him at the marathon, this

4:49

came out that he had held I

4:51

think someone broke it, but he had previously held

4:53

the record for the fastest marathon pushing a stroller.

4:57

He was pushing his ten month old son

4:59

Pierce at the Frederick Marathon

5:01

in two thousand seven. He ran a two forty

5:04

two Has anyone pushed their kid

5:06

in a stroller and run. I tried it once.

5:09

There's a four on the fourth in my hometown.

5:12

Four in the fourth July. Hot out and

5:14

back, kind of hilly

5:17

for the first two miles, turned around, come back. My

5:19

son was a little older than ten

5:22

months at the time. I made him get out and

5:25

walk the hill. It's hard,

5:28

and Michael ran pushing

5:31

his son a two

5:33

forty two crazy

5:38

crazy in I

5:40

love this and I heard about this at the time,

5:42

So COVID happened. Races are shut down, right,

5:45

So what does Michael do? He wins

5:47

the quarantine backyard Ultra. This

5:50

is gonna blow your mind. For those of you don't know what a backyard

5:53

ultra is. The general rule

5:55

is you run four point one mile every

5:58

hour on the hour. So if run

6:00

ten minute miles, you got twenty little less

6:02

than twenty minutes to rest. Whatever

6:05

time you have left over, that's your

6:07

rest time. And then when the hour starts, you got to

6:09

do it again. What did Michael

6:11

do? He ran two

6:13

hundred and sixty two point five

6:15

miles sixty three laps

6:19

around his neighborhood in Arlington,

6:21

Virginia. Insane.

6:26

I'm sure the number has changed, but he has

6:28

run over three hundred marathons,

6:30

over one hundred hundred

6:33

ultra marathons. His

6:36

achievements so many,

6:38

but if you want to start to rank them,

6:40

he was first again in that quarantine

6:42

backyard ultra two hundred and sixty two

6:44

miles. He was second

6:46

at the hundred K World Championships,

6:49

third at the Marathon des Sablo, which is a

6:52

stage race through the Sahara Desert,

6:54

self supported. And he has the

6:56

fastest known time also known

6:59

as f KT in the ultra world for

7:01

the Israel National Trail, which

7:04

is running across the entire country of Israel,

7:06

and he did that in ten days. Ridiculously

7:09

nice guy, so accessible,

7:12

loves what he does, has a full

7:14

time job. But

7:17

my point is that when you

7:19

think you can achieve something, here's

7:22

an example of what the human body

7:25

can do. And by no means

7:27

do I ever want to run two and sixty two

7:29

miles and a four point one mile six laps,

7:34

But it shows us what we can do the

7:38

power of not only the body, but the mind.

7:42

I know that he wanted

7:44

to quit. I read an article

7:47

press release about how during

7:49

that ultra he wanted to quit and his wife said

7:52

why, and he said, I'm tired, and she said it's not

7:54

a good enough for reason, he kept

7:56

doing it any won, he's

7:58

married to someone like I am. Anyway,

8:01

enough, let's let's see if we can get him on

8:03

the phone. All right, quick break when

8:06

we come back. Michael

8:08

Wardian currently as

8:10

I speak, running across

8:12

the United States. All right,

8:15

we'll be right back, and

8:24

we are back. Uh. It's never

8:26

easy, but I have on the line

8:28

Michael Wardion. Michael, thank you so much. Where

8:31

are you as we speak? It's

8:33

amazing. I just crossed from

8:35

Nevada into Utah, So

8:37

I'm uh, I mean

8:40

I'm nowhere. I'm

8:44

eight miles from the next services

8:47

so and on the Nova

8:50

border. Just um,

8:52

coming out of place. Called amazing,

8:56

So I am. Thanks to the power of

8:58

fitness technology. You have a garment device

9:01

that you're wearing where people can track you. I'm gonna put that in

9:03

in the notes so people can do that as well. Did

9:05

you But it looks like you started running super early.

9:07

How many miles are you in right now? Um?

9:11

I'm about nineteen. Oh

9:14

my gosh, what time did you start? Uh?

9:18

We started, Well, it's weird because

9:20

we just changed time zones also, so

9:23

we went from Pacific time to Mountain

9:25

Town. I

9:27

started at seven Mountain times, six

9:30

Pacific time. Oh my gosh,

9:32

Oh my gosh. So so just

9:35

explain to people again. I already did an intro.

9:37

I threw to a commercial. This is the first time

9:39

I've ever done an interview like this, Michael, and again, thank you

9:41

so much for making it happen.

9:44

Um, So tell people what you're doing. So,

9:46

I'm running across the United States for Long

9:48

Route fifty to raise money for clean water

9:51

for a charity called World Vision.

9:53

So the goal is to raise a hundred thousand

9:55

dollars and we're about twenty

9:58

two thousand dollars towards

10:00

that goal. So, UM,

10:02

making progress and hopefully

10:05

the more people that hear about it, the more people that are

10:07

interested in donating and changing

10:10

lives. Awesome. And we're gonna put

10:12

that that world Vision in the notes

10:14

as well, so people can see that Michael, and and

10:16

donate. Um, which is it's

10:19

just incredible. And this is the first time you've done

10:21

this. Yes, I just want to make sure I've done my research right.

10:25

The first time that I've run across

10:27

the country. Yes,

10:29

I ran across Israel a couple of years ago.

10:32

UM, but that was quite

10:34

a bit smaller. So that

10:36

was a thousand kilometers,

10:39

like six miles in ten days. So

10:43

this is this is a

10:46

bigger project. Is the bigger

10:48

project? I watched you yesterday. Uh

10:51

you climbed where did you start? You ended

10:53

up at what like seven thousand feet? And you were using

10:55

the polls and everything. Um. Yeah,

10:58

that looks like a tough day. It looks I

11:00

had to seven actually

11:03

sorry, two summits or

11:05

three summits yesterday one was

11:07

seventy one seventy So

11:11

yeah, it was it was a big

11:13

day. And I ended up at a place called Sacramento

11:15

Pass. And just so people

11:18

can let we hear the cars go and buy you Michael, is

11:20

there a sag you have? Is the RV

11:22

behind you? Or explain to people how you do this with your

11:24

crew? Oh? Yeah,

11:26

so, um, I have my

11:28

dad here also, which is another

11:30

part of the the journey and the

11:33

projects called running home actually because I

11:35

live on Route fifty in Virginia. Um,

11:38

and so what happens is they'll

11:41

they'll go up. It's

11:43

funny. It's changed over the course of the weeks.

11:46

But at first it was like ten miles

11:48

and as I've gotten more

11:50

tired, and it's gotten hotter. It's more like

11:52

five miles. So they'll

11:55

they'll aid me, give me some

11:57

ice and water and stuff, and

11:59

then drive five miles ahead and

12:02

and then I'll meet him up and if I need

12:05

to stop, I will and

12:08

we just keep doing that until I'm done with just

12:11

a wile. And basically I gotta

12:13

tell people, Michael, because I've been following you on Instagram,

12:16

uh and you know, reading the stories you post

12:18

every day, So we'll put that in the notes as well so people

12:20

can follow you. There. Did I read correctly

12:22

that the other day you had like four people stop and

12:25

ask if you needed a ride? Yes?

12:28

Yeah, going there was a snow

12:30

store actually as I

12:32

was running into eallye and uh

12:35

yeah, four people stopped and one

12:37

lady reprimanded me for not having the proper

12:39

retire on because running

12:43

shorts on and uh

12:46

it was you know, just running with its

12:48

actually a lady from the local council.

12:51

It was really cool. So that was

12:53

that was pretty awesome. Oh my gosh. So while

12:56

I have you people, you know, what do you? Let's

12:58

start with breakfast? So how do you feel up? What? What do

13:00

you is your You must have a goat you thing every day

13:02

pretty much. What's what's the what's the before

13:04

run? Fueling up plants? Uh

13:07

so I'm working with a company called

13:09

Stoked Oat, so it's oatmeal. Um, so

13:12

have the oat nail usually

13:16

four you five minutes before running or

13:18

so, and then uh,

13:21

I'm trying to replace like five to seven

13:23

thousand calories every day. So basically

13:26

every time I stopped, I tell tram

13:28

in as much shood as I can and

13:31

are you taking stuff? I assume you're wearing the vest and

13:33

taking stuff in as you go, or you just wait until

13:35

the to the pit stops. No,

13:38

no, no, I well sometimes

13:40

I have a vest all the time. I have a waste pack,

13:42

So I have like a Nathan Pinnacle

13:45

waste pack with like my spot

13:48

tracker. It's like the garment in reach. And

13:51

then I have my phone

13:54

and some headphones and

13:56

a little bit of money and then

13:58

I'm I'm running with speed

14:00

max um hydration bottle.

14:04

But then sometimes I'm also wearing a vest.

14:07

Today I'm going with no vest, just

14:09

to give my shoulders a break. And

14:12

what what's your Did you have a calorie

14:14

per hour that you're shooting for whatever

14:17

it might be? Uh?

14:19

Not really um,

14:21

because it's

14:25

sometimes it's just hard to eat. Um.

14:27

So it's sometimes it's

14:29

just easier because I'm gonna see aids, so

14:31

often I'll just taking

14:34

liquid calories along the way and

14:37

then I always have like a stack

14:39

with me, like some apple sauce

14:41

or doo or something if I really

14:43

need it, and then I'll

14:46

just eat a sandwich or

14:48

something when i get to the r V. And

14:51

what what about when you're done? Are you just like

14:54

you must be starving? Do you have a post

14:56

run kind of ritual that you have food

14:58

wise, hydration wise? Um?

15:02

Yeah, I just try to eat literally

15:05

as much as possible. Um.

15:07

Each night. Like last night, I had a

15:09

salad with and

15:12

I usually don't have dressing with my salad,

15:14

but I had the most calorie

15:16

DNS Italian dressing uh.

15:20

And I think I may have even put extra olive

15:22

oil on it and salt and

15:25

then pasta and

15:27

then some French fries. And

15:29

I'm a vegetarian also, so like uh

15:33

yeah, it's just yeah, what else

15:35

do I have? Oh,

15:38

chips and sausa, But the chips and salsa were

15:40

not good at the place where we had them. But

15:43

anything and anything you can get your hands on

15:45

anything and everything right, just you gotta

15:47

refuel and it. Yeah, and I'm meaning

15:50

a lot of like I worked with a

15:52

company called Big Spoon Rosters, and I'm meaning tons

15:54

of nut butters throughout the day also, So

15:56

I'll just come in and just think

15:59

a spoon and just it right in the jar, just

16:02

just eat it, eat

16:05

it straight basically. And

16:07

I'm like, oh, that was just silories,

16:09

you know, such an easy quick way, right, yeah.

16:12

And people are so interested, right, and how you do it

16:14

and what you feel yourself with and how are you passing the

16:16

time. I kind of know from following you, but tell

16:18

people what you're doing. I know people are just jumping

16:20

in with you and running, yes, and then you're doing different things

16:22

to kind of get you through. Yeah,

16:25

yeah, definitely there's people when I

16:27

get in your towns. It's been really great. People

16:29

have come out and run with me, and I hope that that continues.

16:32

Um, And that's been really fun. And

16:34

then when people aren't with me, I'm

16:36

doing a lot of audio books, um,

16:40

some of the books that I didn't read

16:42

in my youth. Right now, I'm reading

16:45

Tale of Two Cities. I

16:47

read a book called American Gods.

16:50

I did some movie I

16:52

got warrant tief Um

16:56

right now. I just I just learned there's a Stephen

16:58

King book about the high lay Alma called Desperation,

17:01

So I just started that. Um.

17:04

But it's all about root fifty and you

17:06

know what happens

17:08

the Loneliest Highway.

17:11

A lot of reading well,

17:15

and then I do like podcasts and uh

17:18

music and also my

17:21

friends all I'm lucky because I've worked

17:23

with Team Mobile, so it's shockingly

17:26

have really good service almost everywhere.

17:28

So I've been able to like just

17:31

bore my friends. They're like they'll

17:33

just call me and we'll talk for like half an hour

17:35

or whatever, and they're

17:37

like, what are you doing? What male were you on? Where are

17:40

you? I mean, it's it's incredible that you can

17:42

can do that and tell us, tell us some great stories

17:45

so far. So you started on me feet, Um,

17:48

give us some like memorable experiences if you had

17:50

up up until now. Yeah,

17:52

I mean it's been, Um,

17:55

the whole thing has been pretty memorable. Like starting

17:58

on May first, like I

18:00

started at City Hall in San Francisco with

18:03

a big group of runners for the San Francisco

18:05

Marathon, which it's like one of my favorite

18:08

races I've won both their marathon and ultra

18:10

and they're good friends. So they had a

18:12

group of runners come out, and

18:14

I'd say one

18:16

of the most memorable things was running

18:18

across San Francisco, putting my feet

18:20

in the Pacific Ocean UM,

18:25

having a big group there, and then running across

18:27

the Golden gate Bridge. UM.

18:31

Meeting a bunch of friends in Sacramento was

18:34

fantastic. UM

18:36

got to I got to go by

18:38

Folsom prison and listen to like Johnny

18:41

Cash. That was really awesome. From

18:43

there, UH, running through

18:46

up to Plasserville, which is like

18:48

a very famous for ultra

18:51

running. That's where the Western States hundred

18:53

miler finishes. So ran from there

18:55

to Tahoe, which was incredible.

18:58

Brand I think that day it was around

19:02

of climbing, so it was a really

19:05

really long day. It was probably my longest

19:07

day running was as far

19:09

as time, but so

19:11

beautiful. Coming into Tahoe, I

19:14

actually sat like a Strava segment which

19:16

was funny and like a mile UM.

19:21

So that was cool. And then running

19:23

from Tahoe to UM

19:28

two, Nevada was one

19:31

of the most incredible things. Like running across

19:33

my first stay on this journey

19:35

was pretty special. And then

19:38

Nevada was it was really

19:40

really cool, Like I was just

19:42

shocked at how fast

19:44

it is, you know. Yeah, it was

19:46

like I was joking with someone, it's like a outdoor

19:49

treadmill, like he just had these magnificent

19:53

mountains all around you. But

19:55

ever, I was in Nevada for I

19:58

don't know, I don't know if it's the longest

20:01

of all the states all begin but it

20:03

definitely is a big, big state. So

20:07

that was that was cool. We we've

20:10

finished enough place called middle Gate, which

20:12

is like fifty or sixty miles

20:14

from anywhere, and like had

20:17

the most incredible neal and

20:19

waitress and listen to live music.

20:22

That was really cool. And then

20:24

there's a tree where people throw

20:26

their shoes, so like we

20:29

got we got to pretend to throw

20:31

our shoes in the tree, which was neat. And

20:34

then going through eally

20:36

was cool just to see what there's

20:39

a huge copper mind there. It's like one of the

20:41

biggest, I think in the world or something, so

20:43

to see, you know what that looks like.

20:47

And now I'm in Utah, so that's that's

20:50

kind of that's that's kind

20:52

of it. No better way to see the country,

20:54

Michael. Most people won't do it your way

20:56

obviously, but I would say, you

20:58

know, driving it is chat sung enough, um,

21:01

just incredible. So and what are your

21:04

your veteran You've been doing this like forever,

21:07

um, no one probably knows it better

21:09

than you. But what are your physical challenges now? Like what

21:11

what crops up running fifty miles a

21:13

day for sixty plus days or whatever it is. What

21:15

are the physical challenges you're experiencing. I

21:18

mean, at the beginning it was a lot of just fatigue.

21:21

I feel like it's kind of interesting

21:23

because each day I'm getting stronger

21:26

and bitter, but I'm also

21:28

taking body blows the whole time from

21:30

the distance and in

21:32

the train, so it's like a

21:34

very interesting balance. I'd say the

21:36

biggest things I'm trying

21:38

to be super mindful is I've got so

21:41

pretty severe sunburned yesterday

21:43

for some reason. So I'm being really

21:46

mindful to make sure I use the sunscreen

21:48

and then blisters,

21:51

like just trying to make sure that little

21:54

hotspots don't become a blister. Um.

21:57

And you know, I mean I've worked

21:59

within GINGI which to socks,

22:01

so they've worked really well to minimize

22:04

friction, and so right

22:06

now I feel pretty happy. You

22:08

know, just have some KT tape

22:11

on where where things could become a

22:13

problem. But right now

22:15

everything's good. That's great. And by

22:17

the way, every time a cargoes by, I get nervous. I'm

22:19

sure people who who are listening

22:22

are gonna will tell you. I

22:24

will tell you. The shoulder in Nevada

22:27

is about three ft

22:29

wider than in Utah. So

22:32

Utah saved a lot of money on the shoulder.

22:35

So you're not as happy as you were a

22:37

day ago, well

22:40

even like four or three hours ago.

22:42

Like, yeah, it's very very

22:44

tight. It's like a it's like a

22:46

two lane highway and I'm

22:49

very close to traffic. Now. You

22:51

just said people don't get this. You know, I've done

22:54

some endurance races nowhere near you.

22:56

But you said you're getting stronger, And

22:59

that's totally contradictory to what most

23:01

people think. You know, the moment they get tired in an event

23:03

or something, they mentally probably

23:05

quit or many people do, right because they don't

23:07

understand. They haven't done it long enough to realize

23:10

that you can actually get through and be

23:12

stronger. So so talk about that a little.

23:14

I mean, it's so counterintuitive to most people. Yeah,

23:17

I mean I think that it's like anything, the more

23:19

you do it, the more your body

23:22

gets used to it. So usually

23:25

the people that I talked to, they have done this kind

23:27

of trans continental running. To say, the first

23:30

two or three weeks really is

23:32

when you kind of experience all the aches and

23:34

pains, and then your body realizes

23:36

you're not going to quit, and then it's like, okay, fine,

23:39

you know we're gonna try to become

23:41

as efficient as possible, and then

23:43

you just kind of turn into like a some

23:46

people called it like a road hug or like a

23:48

monster, or you just start being able

23:50

to run faster and stronger,

23:52

and but you have to get there, and

23:55

so a lot of people, you know, gets you

23:58

get torn down. It's just like any thing when you're

24:00

building muscle or

24:03

endurance, Like there's a

24:05

tear down phase, but if you can recover

24:07

each night and and you

24:09

eventually start to get stronger and stronger.

24:12

And so I'm just trying to make sure I get through the first

24:14

couple of weeks and then be

24:17

able to reap those benefits and keep going and

24:20

continue to do the miles I need to do each

24:22

day. Hopefully it'll be easier and

24:25

easier as I go incredible

24:27

and that people like that that minute

24:30

when you just gave is like so powerful

24:33

to so many people who have no idea

24:35

what they can get through and come out

24:37

stronger on the other side and give us your mental

24:39

challenges though, so you know you are one of the strongest

24:42

mentally, uh that I know as

24:44

far as all this goes and talk about the mental I'm

24:46

sure you still have those issues the challenges.

24:49

Oh yeah, I mean it's I

24:51

mean there's a lot of hardship. I mean, it's

24:53

hard to be away from your family and friends. It's

24:55

hard to be away from I still work

24:58

like a job, so like it's

25:00

hard to be away from work. It's each

25:03

day it's it's hard to stay motivated

25:05

when you know you you're I've

25:07

been running for four hours

25:10

and twenty three minutes and I still have eight hours

25:12

to run. Like, um,

25:14

you know, it's it's a it's

25:16

a thing. But I'm also

25:18

looking at it as each day is like an adventure,

25:20

and I get to, um, sixty four

25:24

adventures, and so I think

25:26

it's really how you frame

25:28

it, right, Like I don't know what's gonna be around

25:30

the next corner, but I want to find out. You

25:33

know, if I started feeling down

25:35

or whatnot. You can choose to

25:37

feel however you want, and so I'm

25:40

excited about just the opportunity

25:42

to see more of the country and to

25:44

see it under my own power. It's that's

25:47

highly motivating for me. It's

25:50

incredible. And when, um, I

25:52

know your story, but tell people, when was

25:54

there a moment Michael in your youth. I know

25:56

you started pretty much in college or just after

25:59

getting serious about it, but when did

26:01

you realize, hey, I'm probably kind of good

26:03

at this. I know it's a weird question,

26:05

but was there a moment um

26:08

No, I'd say I decided

26:10

I wanted to run the Boston Marathon, and

26:13

I didn't know that that was actually like a

26:16

dream of most people, and so um,

26:20

just decided that was going to be

26:22

my first marathon. And then it

26:24

was actually, you have to qualify for the Boston

26:27

Marathon. And so I ran Marine

26:29

Corps first and aimed to qualify

26:31

and did and then I

26:34

was like, um, you know, that's kind of good. But

26:37

then I decided, oh,

26:39

if you run sub three hours, that means you're

26:41

a good runner. I had heard

26:43

that or read that in like Runners World or something,

26:45

and so I thought Okay, I'll

26:47

do that. So right after

26:50

I ran Boston in

26:53

seven, I think I

26:55

went to the local running store and I

26:58

was like, hey, hey, sirs,

27:00

you know I'm which is funny

27:02

because they're actually still supporting this run. I'm

27:04

still still still working

27:06

with like people that started

27:09

with me, you know, I don't know twenty

27:12

some years ago or whatever years

27:14

ago. But I was

27:16

like, oh, I'm a good runner, and they were like, yeah,

27:18

yeah, you're not a good runner, but you

27:21

can come. You can. I mean not

27:23

that to fifty four isn't good,

27:25

but they're like, you know, you're not good enough

27:27

to be on our team.

27:29

And so I decided

27:32

to try to make their team, and within like

27:34

six months I was on the team. But I

27:36

still didn't think I was I still

27:38

wasn't sure if I was a good runner.

27:40

I'd say the first time I

27:43

thought I was probably like

27:45

really substantial was

27:47

when I qualified for my first Olympic trials

27:50

and UM two thousand

27:53

and four. That's when I was like,

27:55

oh, I'm I'm a good runner.

27:57

Before that, I was like I'm good at like

28:00

endurance events because I did really well, like

28:02

the Marathon to sob and a

28:05

race in India called the Himalayan hundred

28:07

mile stage race. Like I was like, um,

28:10

I'm good at these like kind of long things. But I

28:13

feel like when I

28:16

qualified for the only big trials the first time

28:18

was when I was like, I'm not I'm a

28:20

pretty good runner. So your

28:23

bar set a pretty high, Michael, Like,

28:25

you know, explain to people what the Marathon

28:28

to sob that is. It's it's the stage race,

28:30

and tell them, tell them what it encompasses. Oh

28:33

yeah, yeah, sorry. So Marathon to sab

28:35

is a seven days stage race across

28:38

the Sahara Desert where you're required

28:40

to carry all your own gear

28:42

and so like sleeping bag, flair,

28:46

snake bite kid and all

28:49

your food for a week and then

28:51

they give you nine liters of water

28:53

a day. But you have like a punch card,

28:55

so if you don't take it, then you don't

28:57

get it back. So like if they offer you a bottle

29:00

at the maid station and you don't

29:02

take it, you don't get it later. And you

29:05

run two kilometers

29:07

or about a hundred and fifty miles

29:09

across the Sahara Desert in Baraco.

29:13

But but that didn't It wasn't until you you got

29:15

to the Olympic trials that you said, no, I'm good,

29:18

it wasn't. Yeah, I mean I

29:20

was like I said, I was like, I'm pretty good

29:22

at like the longer stuff.

29:25

Yeah, i'd say, like to feel

29:27

like you're I don't know, I feel

29:30

like I don't know why. That's why what made

29:32

me feel like that? But I was also like a pro

29:34

before that. I guess so, and

29:36

what's the cut off? It was a sub

29:40

at that time. It was and

29:43

then and then I kept qualifying,

29:45

and then some people say they kept

29:47

dropping the talk because I kept

29:49

qualifying, So then they moved it down

29:51

to to nineteen. And I think

29:53

it might be to seventeen now, or maybe

29:56

it's back at two nineteen. So I qualified

29:58

in two thousand, four, eight and

30:00

twelve. So my pr in the marathon's

30:02

to seventeen. Oh my gosh. You

30:05

have so many accomplishments and achievements Michael

30:07

that I talked about in the intro. One of my favorites.

30:09

Though I want you to just bolls too,

30:11

But what is the uh the pushing

30:14

your son in the stroller?

30:16

Yes, tell people about that. Yeah.

30:20

I so I also do some in

30:23

this world records And I said world

30:26

record that's since been beaten, and it's been beaten

30:28

pretty handily by my friend Glum

30:30

Enough. Um, but I ran

30:33

two forty two pushing my

30:35

son Pierson a jog stroller and

30:38

set a world record in two thousand

30:40

and seven. I think it's

30:42

funny. Now Pierce is just about to drive, so

30:45

it just blows me away. Yeah, you're

30:47

not pushing him in the uh the you know the

30:49

iron Man jogging stroller anytime soon?

30:51

No, no, no, pretty easy. He

30:54

just ran regional track meet, Like,

30:56

he just did hurdles regionals

30:58

for our school. So yeah, he's

31:01

got the genetical time class. That's

31:05

that's amazing. I mean I did a four on the

31:07

fourth with my son once and I made him get

31:09

out and walk the hill. I was like, you know what, I

31:12

don't have this. Those mothers are

31:14

pretty darned strong. Um.

31:17

Oh my gosh. Incredible. Um,

31:19

And tell people a little bit more about World Vision.

31:23

Yeah. So World Visions a charity. Um,

31:26

they actually do a lot of different things. Um.

31:28

I work with them professionally. I'm I'm

31:31

an international shipbroker, and

31:33

so they do direct feeding programs

31:35

on top of clean water projects.

31:38

Uh, they have a lot of different things. But the

31:40

thing that this run is force for

31:43

the clean water aspect. And

31:46

what's really impactful about clean

31:48

water is that it

31:50

can change the lives of so many people and

31:52

it's a long term thing. So

31:55

you build a well enough a

31:58

village or a tow ship,

32:01

you changed like not just the lives of the

32:03

immediate people, but also the people around

32:05

there. You improve the

32:07

infrastructure, you change

32:10

the lives of many of the children

32:13

because a lot of times they're the ones who are sank

32:15

to get the water. A lot of times

32:17

those kids are carrying like a you

32:20

know, like a jerry can, so it's

32:22

like you know, five five

32:25

five gallons for it's usually leaders.

32:27

I think like a five leader jerry can

32:30

up to six kilometers so you

32:32

know, four miles or so. Um,

32:35

they're going back and forth and they're you

32:37

know, spending that time when they could be doing other stuff

32:39

like going to school and so yeah, it can

32:42

really make a big difference. That's incredible

32:44

And you, um, are you still working

32:46

full time for that's the shipbroker

32:49

that people need to realize. Yeah,

32:53

I am still working a whole time. I'm

32:56

lucky team at work, Keith

32:58

and Mark are doing a great job. Bring me all

33:01

I get to run around and

33:03

uh

33:05

and you know be

33:08

out here doing this, but yeah, it's

33:10

it's really incredible life.

33:13

Felt super fortunate that that

33:15

I'm able to, you know, still have the

33:17

ability of work and the

33:20

opportunity to do these things too. I

33:22

just want people to say, or to realize,

33:24

Michael, that when the number one reason for not exercising

33:27

is a lack of time, you

33:29

know, you know, thanks to COVID

33:31

working remotely and you're running across the United States.

33:33

Granted you know your your employer

33:36

is understanding, but we all

33:38

have time, right, we can all do so

33:40

much more? Right? Well, yeah, I mean it's

33:42

you know, everyone's got a unique situation.

33:44

But you know there are there are ways

33:47

where you can be efficient. I do have

33:49

a saying it's like invisible training,

33:51

but you know, can you find a way to can

33:53

you to work or go

33:56

during your lunch break where you know no

33:58

one's gonna miss you? Um? So yeah,

34:00

if you can find ways to be efficient, you can decide

34:04

what you want to do and then figure out how

34:06

to train to get it done. It

34:08

plays into my most recent book, Michael, is the micro Workout

34:10

Plan, and I talk about yeah, you can go to the gym, but it's

34:12

about what you do throughout the day. As you're saying, like sneaking

34:15

the workouts in right, all right,

34:17

that scared me. That sounded too close. That

34:20

sounded yeah.

34:23

I mean it's like I like,

34:25

every time you take a call, do five push ups.

34:27

You know, every time you walk out of your

34:30

you walk out of your office to the bathroom,

34:32

do five push ups or you know

34:34

a side plank, sir, Um,

34:37

you know, jumping jack's or burpies. I

34:39

mean, you do fifty buries a day, You're gonna be pretty

34:42

fit, right, And that's one thing as we

34:44

wrap this upside want you're giving

34:46

us so much time. Um, you do strength

34:48

training, Like,

34:52

yeah, don't don't feel bad. Like, as

34:55

long as I have service, I'm happy to chat. I

34:58

just I'm worried you're gonna, like cars gonna

35:00

come too close. So oh

35:02

yeah, don't worry. Talk about strength

35:04

training real quick, because you do it and many

35:06

runners don't. And I see you,

35:09

you know, posting videos and for someone

35:11

who is at your level, many don't

35:13

and many at what we're level. So just talk about your

35:15

strength training kind of routine and protocol. Oh

35:18

man, I love it. Yeah. During COVID,

35:21

I got into CrossFit with my friend Tom

35:23

Mayer Hopper, and he and I

35:25

do five days of cross

35:28

cross city type stuff. I wouldn't

35:30

say it's CrossFit because

35:33

it's not everything now way,

35:35

but it's kind of that focused. And then

35:38

I worked two days a week with a guy named Jesse

35:40

Fuller who's a personal training

35:42

or physical therapist, and so he's

35:45

the one who makes me do all the stuff

35:47

that you really should do but you

35:49

don't really want to do, like walking

35:52

on your toes and inch worms

35:55

and dead bugs and planks

35:57

and bird dogs and

36:00

all the little like, oh, let's

36:02

see how strong you are. Just stand

36:04

on one leg for a second and you're like, oh my

36:06

god, I can't barely hold myself up right.

36:09

So um ah, yeah,

36:11

I feel like that stuff has been

36:13

so instrumental in me being able to

36:16

run as well as I have so far and staying

36:18

healthy. And actually it's

36:20

kind of cool. You caught me on a day where this

36:22

is the longest I've ever run continuously,

36:24

because I just went by the

36:27

amount of days that it took me across Israel,

36:30

and I'm just about to cross the amount of miles

36:32

that I did, so that's pretty

36:35

yeah, So this is kind of a seminal day for me,

36:38

something I thing I was really

36:40

excited about because you know, this

36:42

is all new territory for me now, which

36:44

is crazy given all that you've done.

36:46

So I feel honored and you know,

36:48

thank you so much for sharing it, and

36:51

I love I pulled up a couple of lines of yours,

36:53

but one I love that I think is perfect

36:56

to kind of start to wrap it up with, is you say you

36:58

said, I think you have to set the audacious

37:00

and big goals, right, and that it keeps

37:02

you passionate. So talk about people again,

37:05

just who have that limited thinking Michael, that

37:07

they can't they can't accomplish

37:10

things that we both know if they put them

37:12

on to it they can, right, So just talk about setting

37:14

those goals and how they should scare you and

37:16

and you know that there is no failure. Yeah.

37:18

Well, and that's what I think is cool about

37:21

it is like, okay,

37:23

so it's almost like the Japanese

37:25

style of marathon training. I

37:27

don't know if you know this or not, but they

37:29

will be like I'm a two nine

37:32

marathon runner for ten miles,

37:35

and then three weeks later it's for thirteen

37:37

miles and then sixteen miles and

37:40

it's kind of like that when you said these big

37:42

goals, even if you come short, you're

37:44

like, okay, and maybe I

37:46

didn't make it the full you know, five

37:48

k, but I made it, you know, three

37:51

k, and then the next time you make it four

37:53

k, and so it's incremental progress.

37:56

And I think, you know, the big goals

37:58

for me, i'd be running across

38:00

the country, but for somebody else it could be I

38:03

just want to start running three days a week.

38:06

Or I just talked to my friend yesterday

38:08

and uh Courtney and Singapore,

38:11

which was awesome, and she was saying

38:14

she wants to start lifting more because she saw

38:17

me doing the streak training, so you know,

38:19

she started to lift like three days a week. And

38:21

Like, it can be whatever it is for

38:23

you, But I think if it doesn't

38:25

scare you, then it's gonna be something

38:28

where you you aren't

38:30

that interested in pursuing it, because

38:33

if it's too easy, then you'll just be

38:35

like I can do that anytime. And if it's too

38:37

hard, you're gonna get discouraged. So um,

38:40

it's got to be kind of in the sweet

38:43

spot. But I think

38:45

if you can't kind of figure it out, it'll

38:48

be a really good way to drive

38:50

yourself to where you want to go. And if you

38:53

don't make it, maybe

38:56

the next time you will, or it'll

38:59

put you on the path. Then you can see what you did wrong

39:01

and then tweak it and then you get there.

39:03

It's just like anything. But if you don't

39:05

have goals and you don't say him, and you don't put them

39:07

out there, then then

39:10

it's not going to actually ever happen, or at least

39:12

that's how it works for me, right, right,

39:15

right? I love that, you know, it's the's the shorterter.

39:17

I call it excessive moderation, Michael. It's you know, it's

39:19

being consistent, consistency of the small stuff,

39:21

shooting for the big stuff. Find something

39:24

you know. It's gonna take your time to figure out what motivates

39:26

you. You don't have to run, but you gotta figure

39:28

out what you enjoy. I always say, if if you're looking for

39:30

the shortest amount of time to exercise, you

39:32

haven't found the exercise you like. Right,

39:34

if someone told you or me you could only run

39:37

for eight minutes a day, we'd go no, like

39:39

we're fighting, right, So

39:41

you just gotta find it. Right,

39:45

But if you only had eight minutes, I would say,

39:47

do eight minutes of burpies and

39:49

you will be ready to be done. Right,

39:52

You will be right, you, you will

39:54

be like because I was on a boat

39:56

in the Galapagos with our family right

39:58

before this trip, and it was

40:00

hard to You couldn't run on the boat and

40:02

it was hard to run. And so I was just doing

40:05

like a hundred burpees every morning. He took

40:07

about eight minutes, and I

40:10

was pretty much ready to be done. Yeah.

40:13

Yeah, I hate purpies by the way, for

40:16

that reason. Really hard, dude.

40:18

They are so

40:21

good. I've made many people do them in

40:23

my videos. I just sit back and coach. Yeah

40:28

yeah, but there there's there's

40:30

like really, I mean, burpies,

40:33

push ups and sit ups like

40:35

you're pretty much and if you can find somewhere to

40:37

do with some pull offs, oh yeah, I

40:39

mean you're good. So that's how I started, you know, when

40:42

I was fourteen herschel walker.

40:44

I think I'm a couple of years older than you, but sports illustrated.

40:46

He said, he did free, used to carry

40:49

around, He used to carry around water

40:51

jugs. Took jugs, right, yes,

40:53

three pushups, three sit ups?

40:56

Uh yeah, But it was just the basics,

40:58

right, and you know, obviously good genetics as

41:00

well, But to your point, it's like,

41:03

it's the minutes. It's going hard when you have a short

41:05

amount of time, and if you have you know, two months,

41:07

you run across the United States. Yeah,

41:11

let's finish with this story because I love this

41:13

tell So, Uh, the quarantine backer

41:15

at Ault COVID hit you needed

41:17

something to do, you did the uh,

41:20

And I kind of explained this in the intro. It's four point

41:22

one miles every hour on the hour. About

41:25

halfway through and you're doing in your neighborhood,

41:27

you decided you've had enough, right, you were

41:29

like, I think I'm done, and then what happened.

41:34

Well, yeah, so it's four point

41:36

one six six seven, So it's

41:38

a little bit more right. Uh.

41:41

And so basically, I don't

41:43

know if your audience is familiar, but basically

41:45

every twenty four hours you go a

41:48

hundred miles, So that's kind of the premise. And

41:50

then every hour on the hours

41:53

you have to start. So you

41:56

if you do it in thirty minutes, you have thirty minutes

41:58

to rest. If you do it in fifty nine

42:00

minutes, you have one minute to rest and eat

42:03

and whatever. And once you leave

42:06

for the loop, you're not allowed to have

42:08

any aid or support.

42:10

So um. Yeah,

42:13

so around up

42:15

to that point I had the longest I had run continuously

42:18

was about three kilometers,

42:20

which is about a hundred and eighty four miles

42:22

or so. And so I

42:26

think it was the middle of the

42:28

second night, um, because

42:30

they were coming up on two hundred miles. I'd

42:33

gone past three,

42:35

and I was just feeling

42:37

really bad. My stomach wasn't

42:40

feeling great, and I was just like

42:42

down, and um,

42:45

I was just I was doing a point

42:48

four mile loop around my neighborhood, so basically

42:50

like a block and

42:53

I've been running it for two and a half days, you

42:55

know, and I was just

42:57

like, everyone's like

43:00

asleep right now. Uh,

43:03

my wife had just last

43:05

or something, and my friend Tom

43:07

had come to like take over the age

43:10

station, even though I couldn't

43:12

really take any food or whatever.

43:15

Uh and then I,

43:17

yeah, I decided I was gonna I started

43:19

and I just just feeling bad and I decided I'm gonna

43:22

quit. And uh so

43:24

I'm walking back to the aide

43:26

station and I was like, yeah, I've made people stay out

43:28

here long enough, and

43:32

I my I got back

43:35

and my wife Jennifer who's a huge supporter.

43:37

She's been with me from the very beginning.

43:40

She was like, do you feel sick?

43:42

And I'm like no, and she

43:45

she goes, are you hurt. I'm like nope.

43:48

She's like, I'm like I had,

43:50

I'm just gone though, I don't want to go on anymore.

43:52

And she goes, that's not a good enough

43:54

excuse, and and

43:58

I was like, you're right, that's

44:00

just not a good enough excuse. So

44:03

I kept going and then I was

44:05

able to do like an extra like eight

44:08

miles or so and ended up winning the race.

44:10

So you know, sometimes you need that

44:13

uh tough love. And

44:16

I felt great from that point on.

44:18

I never felt bad. And

44:21

you did two sixty two point five is

44:23

that correct? Sixty three laps? Uh?

44:27

Yeah. So we married the same woman, the

44:29

same type of woman. Michael, I'll leave you.

44:31

I love. This is a perfect way to kind of tie

44:34

it all up. I've done iron Man's

44:36

all over the world. One of my first ones Florida,

44:39

I was hitting, you know, the goal was to qualify for way

44:41

long story short now and back. I'm

44:43

hitting the times, but I'm not feeling good either. I

44:46

get to my wife at the thirteen point one mile point

44:48

of the run, and I say, listen, it's not gonna happen today,

44:50

and she screams at me, you go turn around,

44:52

shut up, just suck it up and go. And

44:55

I ran my fastest half i'd ever

44:57

run. Right, So yeah,

44:59

so we like listen, I didn't run

45:02

and the ninety more. But the point is

45:04

we always have more, and

45:06

it's it's so mental. Obviously

45:08

you gotta have the physical part two, but people

45:12

have to realize how much they can do. Michael.

45:14

I can't thank you enough. And can we check in? Can I

45:16

check in with you again in a couple of weeks to where

45:18

we are? Oh yeah, sure, man, anytime you

45:20

guys won, that would be great. Oh my gosh, I

45:22

cannot thank you enough. Congrats on so what

45:24

you just officially this is the most

45:27

days. Yeah, this

45:29

is the most days. And I think I'm

45:31

close to the most miles I've ever run. So

45:33

yeah, you sound darn good, Michael.

45:36

Yeah, yeah, I feel I'm feeling

45:39

really good. So, oh my god,

45:41

have an awesome day. I'm gonna be following you and gonna

45:44

share everything. People are gonna donate, and we're gonna

45:46

check in with you again and have

45:48

an awesome a couple of weeks and

45:50

and we'll speak to you soon. All

45:52

right, sounds great. Thank you, Kansas.

45:56

You let me know, reach out, let me know when you're you

45:58

know, when you feel like it, a little

46:00

someone to talk to. Forty so on

46:02

minutes. Thank you, Michael, having an awesome

46:05

day, and we'll speak soon. All

46:07

right, Thank you, great one, and

46:09

we will be back after this short break,

46:22

and we are back. I

46:25

love my job. I

46:28

love it. I say it frequently

46:30

because I'm that passionate about

46:32

it to talk to people like Michael

46:34

Wardian, How lucky are we? How

46:37

looky am I to

46:40

have this forum,

46:42

this platform,

46:44

and to bring it to you and to have that conversation

46:47

like I feel, I don't

46:49

even know what the feeling is right now. It's but it's good. It's

46:52

a positive thing. Like

46:54

it's like a workout. It's like it's like I

46:57

ran, we ran a marathon together, Like

47:00

we're all better and stronger

47:03

for listening to Michael.

47:06

Like I'm keeping this short

47:09

because there's no way I can better what

47:11

we just listened to for the past thirty

47:14

mon minutes. And that's what you

47:16

get when you have someone who has just pushed

47:18

through are you gonna run across the United States?

47:20

No? Are you gonna run it all? Maybe not? Are

47:23

you gonna, you know, suffer

47:26

setbacks? Are you gonna have obstacles

47:28

in your life? Are you going to feel poorly

47:31

mentally and physically? Yeah?

47:34

And that I looked right at my recording

47:36

equipment of fifteen minutes when he started talking about

47:39

when I asked the question about

47:42

the obstacles, he encountered, that's

47:45

sixty seconds. Blew me away.

47:48

Gave me chills. That's why I only

47:50

bring you the best of the best. We

47:52

don't have time. We have

47:54

time. And I

47:56

gotta say this. I know

47:58

a lot of ultra people. I know a lot of iron men

48:00

and a a lot of endurance athletes. They're not

48:02

all like Michael Wardian. Most

48:05

aren't. He is truly

48:08

unique. What do I mean by that? Well, most people who are you

48:10

know, drawn to running ridiculously

48:12

long distances,

48:14

not always the most social. And

48:17

that's fine, Like I believe that you know

48:19

you do that because you need to. But

48:22

then there's those who have reached a

48:24

level of just living

48:28

that is incredible. How many times

48:30

I say incredible, I kept saying it after and I'm

48:32

very conscious of words.

48:34

I use, but I could

48:36

not not all

48:39

right enough. We're gonna check

48:41

in with him again. I

48:43

wanted to stay on. How many times do I also

48:45

say during interviews that I wish I could

48:47

have stayed on for four more hours. And

48:49

that's because it's the best of the best.

48:52

When you have access to people who are going to make

48:54

you better, you are a better person for listening

48:56

to that. I am a better person, way better

48:59

for interact with Michael Wardion.

49:01

And I feel so honored

49:04

that he took the time and that we listened to him,

49:06

to him someone who's done what

49:09

he has accomplished, accomplished

49:11

something new for him.

49:14

Oh my gosh,

49:17

Oh

49:20

incredible. If you want to reach out, Tom h

49:22

Fit is Instagram and Twitter Tom

49:25

h Fit direct message, questions,

49:27

comments, if

49:29

you can donate, I'm

49:32

gonna as soon as I finished recording

49:34

here follow him

49:37

to be inspired Michael

49:39

Wardian see

49:41

the links and a

49:43

spell his name and all that stuff in the notes. If

49:46

you want to reach out through email, Fitness Disrupted

49:48

dot com email me through

49:50

the site. I'm just uh,

49:55

I feel really good like this is

49:57

This is all about collecting experiences

49:59

and experience interacting with Michael Wardion.

50:03

This is what we do, make us better, put

50:06

things into perspective, teach us what we

50:08

can do what we have

50:10

control over. That's an

50:12

extreme I

50:14

get it, not asking

50:16

you to do remotely what mich Alwardian

50:19

does, but you need

50:21

to learn from it and take

50:23

ownership of the fact that we control three

50:25

things, how much we move, what we put

50:27

into our mouths, and our state of mind, our attitude, and

50:29

as Michael put

50:33

in a way I've never heard before, the

50:36

control over the mind is

50:38

everything we

50:40

see those memes about.

50:44

If you believe it, you can achieve all that stuff,

50:47

but you need to hear people who actually

50:50

live it. And you just did. Think

50:53

of Michael Wardian and enjoy the

50:55

rest of your runs. Stay safe. Those

50:57

trucks going by were freaking me out. I

51:00

am Tom Holland This is Fitness

51:03

Disrupted. Believe in yourself. Fitness

51:08

Disrupted is a production of I Heart

51:10

Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart

51:12

Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,

51:15

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51:17

to your favorite shows.