In this week's update, Coach Michael talks about the Boston marathon cancellation (the big news this week), what runners can do now to stay focused on their running goals and the importance of adaptability.
In this week's episode, Coaches Dylan and Ruairi do a countdown on the top three hardest races to master when it comes to racing and their favorite distances to race. Tune in now!
After hitting her heaviest weight after graduate school, Jay Ell started running. That was almost 10 years ago. She is now the owner and CEO of Black Girls RUN!, a national running organization focused on supporting and encouraging African American women to embrace a healthy and active lifestyle through running. BGR is currently located in 75 cities and 33 states, and with a growing membership of 250K+.
In this episode, Jay Ell discusses with Coach Claire obstacles women of color face with their health and in the running community, BGR member success stories, and how lack of diversity in the recreational running community impacts runner safety, especially in light of the murder of black runner Ahmaud Arbery.
Jay Ell has a passion for creating safe and healthy spaces for women to come together and live their best life through running. She started as a volunteer at Black Girls RUN! eight years ago, and acquired the company in 2018, while also launching the BGR! Foundation with a focus on community engagement and local programming to support a healthy lifestyle in the community.
Jay Ell has her own public relations firm, and her background in public relations has been instrumental in growing the Black Girls RUN! brand. She is also a new children’s book author, and she and her husband, Chris, Sr., are parents to 8-month-old Chris, Jr.
2:53 You are the CEO of Black Girls Run. Can you talk about the organization, how it started, and its mission?
4:43 What are the obstacles black women face when it comes to running?
8:01 How have things changed for the group in the pandemic?
9:52 Is it more of a challenge now for people who feel vulnerable or that running solo isn’t something they’re able to do?
10:40 Do you still see a lot of online engagement with the group?
11:43 What are some success stories and transformations have your members experienced?
13:58 Women of all races are welcome to join in your group runs, but no men allowed. Why is that?
15:43 On a serious note, I would like to get your thoughts on diversity in the running world. With the recent murder of black runner Ahmaud Arbery, it has become glaringly obvious that the running community has a serious diversity issue. Can you expand on this?
17:28 Why do you think there is a lack of diversity below the elite levels?
19:52 Do some of the daughters come with their moms on the runs?
21:35 How important is it that parents set healthy examples for their kids?
22:28 How can the running community as a whole be more inclusive?
23:51 Before this happened, I had never thought to be worried about the safety of the athletes I coach, especially men. But when I asked my athlete, John, a kind, successful runner in his 50s who's also a black man over 6' tall about the case, he told me that he thinks about his survival every time he runs. He takes special precautions to make sure that people don't even see him, like running a 1-mile stretch of a service road over and over again. Do you hear stories like this as well?
26:14 What is the future of Black Girls Run?
27:16 Do you get most of your funding from donations or corporations?
27:55 What advice would you give yourself back when you started running?
29:02 What is the best gift running has given you?
29:56 How can people connect with you?
“We talk about health has to come over beauty. Well, when we spend a lot of money sitting in a hair salon, spend a lot of time in a hair salon, sometimes a run or your health can go on the back burner because you want to preserve what you have on top of your head, the style that you have or get your money’s worth, and so that’s absolutely a real conversation.”
“I think especially in the days that we’re in now where social media and things are definitely much more present, just skin color is still a big issue as well, just kind of running while black. That is a real conversation.”
“We’re finding women, that they’re almost living like a second life. Now they’re traveling more, they’re running to travel, they have this new friend group, they’re losing weight.”
“A runner does not traditionally have to look like a 120-pound white female. It can be all shapes, all sizes, all curves, all colors.”
“I definitely think children, they do see what their parents are doing, so it may not seem like a direct impact, but it’s dropping little gems that they may take away.”
“It doesn’t really dawn on you, sometimes we just take it for granted just to kind of run out our front door and just go for a run and not knowing what everyone else that may be a different walk of life, what they’re dealing with as well.”
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The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!
Does hard running suppress the immune system? What causes decrease in lymphocytes in the blood after hard workout? What to do to boost your immunity? Find out in today's podcast from Coach Hayley.
What causes shin splints while running? How to prevent it from getting worse without stopping running? What are the treatment options available for shin splints? Coach Claire explains in this week's Audio Blog episode.
In this episode, Coach Michael shares insights about training hard at this time and then talks about an athlete of the week who also shared some great advice on how to cope with the current situation. Listen now!
This week it's Coach Ruairi turn! Coach Dylan interviews Ruairi about his childhood running experiences, college life, current goals, planned breaks, passions and hobbies, and many more. Tune in now!
What is it like running in NYC right now during the pandemic? Why is there a performance gap between male and female athletes? How do running injuries differ between men and women? What are some of the issues facing intersex athletes?
Dr. Meghan Bishop is an orthopaedic surgeon specializing in sports-related injuries of the knee, shoulder, and elbow at the Rothman Orthopaedic Institute in NYC and Westchester, NY. She graduated at the top of her class at George Washington University Medical School, and completed her residency in Orthopaedic Surgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA. She also completed a fellowship in Sports Medicine and Shoulder Surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, NY. During her fellowship, Dr. Bishop served as one of the team physicians for the New York Knicks and Iona College.
Dr. Bishop has served as head orthopaedic medical director of the 2019 Philadelphia Marathon as well as volunteer physician at the 2019 USATF outdoor track and field championship meet. She is a former Division I collegiate track and field athlete at the College of William and Mary, and qualified for the 2020 US Olympic Marathon Trials in February, placing 50th and scoring a PR.
As an avid marathon runner, Dr. Bishop has a special interest in the sports-related injuries of runners and female athletes. In this episode, Coach Claire and Dr. Bishop talk about an article she recently coauthored that was published in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery on the biology of sex and sport. This article discusses the effects that sex and biology have on performance, why there’s a gap between male and female performance, if that gap can be narrowed or closed, and advantages of female athletes.
3:02 You are an orthopedic surgeon in NYC. How are things in the city right now? How is running?
4:18 What does an orthopedic surgeon do and how does that relate to running?
6:27 What’s the difference between a general sports-medicine doctor, what you do, and a physical therapist?
8:07 Can you talk a little bit about training at such a high level when you clearly also have a pretty high-level job as well?
9:46 When people ask, “Which specialist should I go to?” the first question should be, “Are you a runner?” Can you talk a little bit about the differences between men and women in performance?
12:00 Why do women do well in long distance events?
13:19 If you took a man who is the exact same size as a woman, the same height, the same weight, they still would perform differently. Is that what you’re saying?
13:51 So it’s not just testosterone. If it’s not just testosterone, it’s more complicated than that. Is that correct?
15:39 Do we know why women are more susceptible to those types of injuries?
16:15 You mentioned the shoulder injuries, that they’re more likely in women because you said their ligaments are stretchier. Can you explain that a little bit?
16:59 I’ve definitely seen some studies where you look at the marathon and women seem to slow less in the marathon than men. Is that due to the fatigue resistance or we’re just better strategists?
19:36 On the one hand you want everybody to be able to compete no matter who they are and what their genetic makeup is, but on the other hand, if you’re a female runner and competing against someone who is genetically more male, that gets very challenging if males are 10% faster, better, stronger than us, it’s tough on all sides. I don’t think there is an easy answer for this one.
20:55 It seems like forcing her to take any kind of drugs, that just doesn’t feel right either, so hopefully it’s going to evolve as we go forward as more intersex athletes rise to the high level, I would assume?
21:35 What things could we as women work on to close that gap? Do you think that it’s a possibility that the 10% could shrink in the future, or is this just, this is our biology, this is what we’re stuck with?
22:27 World records seem to be dropping all the time, so you kind of hope the gap would drop too, but maybe not.
22:47 You wore the Nike shoes for the trials, right? How did they work out for you?
23:25 What I’m hearing a lot is that recovery is so much better because they are so cushioned, you don’t pound your legs quite as much and you’re able to walk normally a little quicker after the marathon. Did you find that as well?
24:15 What advice would you give yourself back when you started running?
25:15 What are your favorite strength training exercises for runners?
25:42 What is the best gift running has given you?
26:50 Are you getting in some socially distant running?
27:09 How can people connect with you?
28:00 How do telehealth visits work?
“Taking care of a runner really is a multidisciplinary thing. It’s a big group involved with it.”
“Females, I think, in general, are just really tough, but that’s not the biological reason.”
“If you look at the trials this year, over 500 women qualified versus 260 men. I don’t know if that has anything to do with differences in biology, but it’s definitely a big factor that you can see there.”
“Recently, we’ve done a lot more sex-specific reporting and we’ve learned that females and males get injured differently too.”
“That’s one of the reasons I wanted to look into writing the paper recently, because I wanted to look at why performance was different between males and females, and you can see there’s a number of reasons why males have this consistent 10% performance gap over females.”
“Definitely for the fairness of sport, I think that we need to have a fair solution really for everyone, and especially for the female athletes that just don’t have that advantage over other people.”
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Rothman Orthopaedics, Meghan E. Bishop MD
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We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top.
The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use.
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What is Lactate Clearance? What are the benefits of including these workouts into your training? Find out in today's podcast from Coach Hayley.
Why is running harder when it's hot outside? How long does it take to adapt to the heat? Coach Claire explains and also shares six strategies for running in hot weather. Listen now!
In this week's Team RC Update episode, Coach Michael shares some of the awesome race results that are super inspiring at this time and provides more details about our daily live strength training video sessions. Listen now!
In this week's podcast, Coach Ruairi interviews Coach Dylan about his background, career, coaching style, first experience of running a marathon, goals, racing preferences, and many more. Tune in now to get great insights!
Nick is the editor-in-chief of WIRED magazine and former editor of newyorker.com. He’s a contributor to CBS News, CBS This Morning, CBS Sunday Morning, and he’s interviewed just about every major tech company CEO out there. Nick is also a fast marathon runner who in 2019, was ranked as one of the top 30 Masters marathoners in the world after clocking a 2:29 in the Chicago Marathon, a personal best he achieved in his 40s.
In this episode, Coach Claire talks to Nick about how he broke through his marathon pace plateau and psychological barriers by changing his technology, his workouts, as well as getting some surprise coaching assistance from Nike. But more than just going deep into the tools, techniques, and training tweaks he made, Nick talks about how his journey with the marathon started and how it’s inextricably entwined with his childhood, his relationship with his complicated father, and how he now sees himself.
It’s not easy to run faster later in life, but Nick’s story shows that it is absolutely possible. It takes a combination of many things including better training, better technology, as well as “belief and want”, to dramatically change your results, even if you're in your 40s or beyond.
2:22 You’re in New York City. Are you still run-commuting to work or are you mostly at home these days?
2:56 Can you explain how your father both inspired you and how you also didn’t want to follow in his footsteps?
5:27 In your 40s, the experts at Nike came up to you and asked if they could help you get better. Can you talk a little bit about that experience?
9:12 With all the changes, there’s so many variables, you can’t really attribute any one thing to your success, but do you think it’s just a combination of all the things you mentioned or is there something that stands out as, “Yes, this helped me get faster?”
14:19 Maybe in your 30s, you just didn’t believe it or you didn’t want it as much as you want it now. Could it be something like that?
16:25 What changed between not knowing your pace / effort when you were younger and now monitoring your heart-rate?
18:30 I wrote down a quote from one of your articles that you wrote. “The quantified self is often a neurotic soul.” And that could pretty much describe most runners. So how do you balance that? All the tech is awesome, but doesn’t it make you a little crazy?
20:28 How do you deal with the what ifs?
25:20 What is your feeling on this? What is the allure of the marathon distance?
26:43 You’re not in New York right now but you used to commute, and I would love to talk about run-commuting. Can you give me some tips about run commuting and how to do it for someone who’s thinking about it?
30:44 Assuming races are going on, are you planning on doing Chicago, or something else?
32:11 What advice would you give yourself back when you started running?
34:25 What is the best gift running has given you?
35:24 How can people connect with you?
“I think that running very fast both improves musculature and helps me psychologically.”
“Having a consistent heart rate monitor, and I used one on my arm, giving me constant feedback of not just feel but how fast I was going, was incredibly helpful, both in helping me sort of adjudicate workouts, and two, pacing in the marathons.”
“There had to be kind of a psychological intervention, which I think happened with the new training, the new coaching, the new workouts, that got me subconsciously to accept that my ambition wasn’t just to run as fast as I’d run before I got sick, but that I could go faster.”
“I feel like the heart rate monitor gives you assurance; the watch gives you fear.”
“One of the issues I have as a runner, and I’m sure you have and others have, is that it’s a hobby. I don’t make any money off this.”
“The perfect Nicholas Thompson, perfectly trained, what is his actual top marathon performance? Could I have made the Olympic trials? Probably.”
“I think what has made success late in life possible is failure early in life.”
“One of the things I think I’ve done a good job at is making my training efficient. And the way I’ve made my training efficient is I run to work; I run home from work.”
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WIRED magazine article: Aging Marathoner Tries to Run Fast After 40
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The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use.
The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!
Do female runners need fasted runs? Is it safe and effective for women? Coach Hayley explains in this week's ExtraKick podcast episode. Tune in now!
Is stretching before a run good or bad? Why should runners care about increasing flexibility? How to improve your flexibility? Coach Claire clarifies and also discusses various techniques that you can use to improve flexibility. Listen now!
With all the cancellations and delays of future race events, what areas you should focus on now to reach your running and fitness goals? When could racing start up again? Find out in today's podcast from Coach Micheal.
In this week's Up-Tempo talks episode, Coaches Dylan and Ruairi talk about recovery. How long should you rest between your intervals? What type of recovery it should be? How to manipulate the recovery periods to get the most out of your training and achieve the right goal?
Mario Fraioli is a running coach, writer, and podcaster who has helped athletes accomplish goals including first finish lines, personal bests, Boston Marathon qualifying times, national championship titles, Olympic Trials appearances, international podiums, world championship teams, national records, and the Olympic Games. He is a former senior editor of Competitor magazine, and currently writes the morning shakeout weekly email newsletter and hosts the morning shakeout podcast, both great sources of information and inspiration for runners.
This is a very difficult time mentally for all of us who have had races canceled and are not sure when things will actually get back to normal. Mario has some great thoughts about adopting a flexible mindset during this time to reap some different benefits from running than you would while training for a big event. Mario shares with us some of the advice he gives to his athletes on how to approach training right now, including his thoughts around the fall marathons, events which may or may not actually happen.
We also find out why the sport of track and field frustrates Mario so much, how he feels about social media for athletes, if he’s participating in virtual races, and how running with his puppy, Tahoe, is going.
2:16 With so much uncertainty about races this year, what gets you out the door and what advice do you have for others to keep up their fitness?
4:07 What kinds of changes are you making to your athletes' schedules?
7:42 How do you think various types of stress affects training?
9:23 What can you tell us about your current running streak?
11:39 What advice or guidance do you have for people considering doing a running streak?
12:30 How hard is it to go to open-ended training from a very structured type of training regimen?
14:34 How do you compare the experience of personal running success to coaching your athletes to success?
15:55 Why do you think that in a sport millions of people participate in, that track and field is not more popular in the US?
25:02 We've just learned that Berlin is out for the fall, so now there are 4 major marathons planned in 8 weeks. Any predictions? Training advice for September Boston?
29:51 What are your thoughts on virtual races?
31:01 Do you have any tips for running with dogs?
32:15 What advice would you give yourself back when you started running?
33:29 What is the best gift running has given you?
34:34 How can people connect with you?
“The way that I’m thinking about training right now for everyone that I work with is that it needs to be sustainable and there is no point to trying to get really, really fit right now because you can’t hold that for very long.”
“Running gives me a sense of normalcy, a sense of routine, and it serves as the foundation for the rest of my day.”
“I know because I’ve been doing this for long enough that when I run first thing in the morning, even if I feel crappy, I never regret it and the rest of my day is better as a result.”
“I don't, just in my life in general, don’t plan too, too far ahead. I think that’s a dangerous way to do things, so I like having just a little bit of structure, but I’m not super tied to it and if I need to pivot, I can do that pretty easily.”
“I get much more out of helping someone else get closer to their goal and being a part of their journey and seeing them do something that they didn’t think was possible, or helping pick them up when they’ve been down, than I do myself.”
“In general, athletes need to race more so that there’s a narrative to follow there if you’re a fan.”
Take a Listen on Your Next Run
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We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top.
The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use.
The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!
How to feel your pace for different types of workouts? What is the best way to ensure you're getting the right physiological benefits from your workout? Coach Hayley explains in this episode.
What is a heel strike? Is it bad to heel strike when running? What part of the foot should touch the ground first? How to find your ideal running cadence and how to prevent overstriding? Find out in today's podcast from Coach Claire.
When can we possibly expect the races to resume? What areas you can focus on right now to enhance your fitness level? Coach Michael explains in this week's Team RC Update.