Have you ever felt that you weren’t (or aren’t) a ‘Real Runner’? Maybe it was because of a perceived lack of speed, perceived body image or something else. Well, you’re not alone and we have just the guest to help re-frame any negative self-talk that is holding you back from your best running self.
This week we are joined by Jill Angie - author, podcast host, Certified Running Coach, personal trainer and believer in those who have trouble believing in themselves.
Jill founded Not Your Average Runner which has blossomed into several books, a podcast, a Facebook Community and coaching program.
Jill believes that running should be running fun and accessible for runners of all shapes, size and speed. In this episode, she walks us through her own personal journey of running and how she now helps all types of runners gain a clearer perspective on what it means to run. And, while Jill’s primary focus is plus-size women, this conversation is one that every runner can benefit from.
Let’s face it: Nobody wants a seat on the injury bus. But sometimes we end up there anyway. It could start as a nagging niggle that progresses into a real sideliner or it could just be a persistent twinge that keeps us from performing our best. But how do you know what it is, where it’s coming from and how to keep it from becoming a potentially serious injury?
This week we speak with Dr. Brianne Showman Brown, a licensed Physical Therapist who works to treat athlete’s injuries without meds, injections or surgeries to facilitate a quick and safe return to running. She knows runners because she is a runner herself.
In this episode, Dr. Brown clearly explains what PF and ITB issues are and also what they may not be. She believes strongly in injury prevention and provides helpful tips on exercises that can be easily incorporated into even the busiest of lives.
We also discuss nutrition and hydration and the role they play in recovery and prevention. And although some self-diagnosis tips are shared, we also talk about when and why a professional should get involved in the diagnosis and treatment process.
There is an amazing amount of helpful information here and you may find yourself revisiting this episode more than once.
Oh, and if you participated in the Boston Marathon, this year or any other, please share your Boston Marathon experience on an upcoming bonus episode of Run To The Top by clicking here.
In this episode we speak with the winner of the 1968 Boston Marathon, Amby Burfoot.
We learn about Amby’s background, his experience winning the Boston Marathon, his perspective on the changes in the running world over the last 50 years, and why he believes the brain is the most important part of our running bodies.
Bob Anderson / Runner’s World
In this episode we speak with Bob Anderson. Bob is a native of Manhattan (Kansas), photographer, filmmaker and founder of Runner’s World, My Best Runs and finisher of a grueling year-long race challenge that consisted of one race a week for 50 weeks and averaged under 7:00 / mile pace at age 64.
Bob started running at age 15 and eventually launched a 1,000 copy magazine that later blossomed into the million-plus subscription periodical known as Runner’s World. But, as successful as Runner’s World became, it was not without a cost which we learn about in this interview.
Bob shares his many ups and downs with running as well as his film A Long Run, the creation of a new running event: Double Racing, and the development of an informational website, mybestruns.com which features the best runs from around the world.
Bob’s passion for running is contagious and wise. We hope you enjoy our conversation with him.
A lot of research and empirical data (not to mention a certain book by a certain author about a certain indigenous people who run hundreds of miles seemingly effortlessly) has made a strong argument for a more natural running shoe. But the sudden transition from a traditional shoe to a minimalist shoe often causes injuries rather than prevents them. Imagine that there’s a company that makes shoes that feel great AND offers models with differing amounts of drop to ease the transition.
SPOILER ALERT: You actually don’t have to imagine it, because that company actually exists.
Ali Feller
Meet 3:51 marathoner, author of the Ali On The Run blog and host of the Ali On The Run Show podcast, freelance writer and editor, Ali Feller. Ali’s appearance on this week’s episode was suggested by listener, Angie Sherman and for that, we are certainly grateful.
Ali was not a high school track or cross country star; far from it, in fact. Growing up she found running to be punitive rather than fun. After graduating college, she became Editor-In-Chief of Dance Spirit magazine. She is a currently contributor to many women’s health and fitness periodicals.
Ali shares with us her experience living with Crohn’s Disease. As you’ll hear in more detail, Crohn’s is a chronic autoimmune disease that is unpredictable and inconvenient, yet Ali explains how she has come to terms with managing it. All while still remaining as active as she can.
Although she is now focusing on shorter distance races like the 5K, she has completed 7 full marathons and dozens of half-marathons. She also tells us how she continues to train and how she approaches goal setting. Oh, and we will also learn about her awesome husband and loving dog. Or loving husband and awesome dog? Either way… Meet Ali!
Sandy Baird, DC - Preventing and Treating Marathon Injuries
A graduate from LifeWest Chiropractic College, Dr. Sandy Baird is a certified Active RElease Techniques provider whose practice, Riverstone Chiropractic, is located in Oakland, CA. Originally a civil engineer, a persistent repetitive strain injury led Sandy to the field of Chiropractic via massage therapy.
Dr. Baird treats both elite and recreational athletes and also speaks to local running groups and clubs on topics such as injury prevention, injury treatment, nutrition and recovery techniques. The Riverstone Chiropractic website has links to a wealth of informational blog posts that cover a variety of medical and health topics.
In this episode, Sandy shares her personal journey into chiropractic care, her approach to injury prevention and treatment, nutrition, and footwear. We also learn about different self-treatment and prevention exercises to help keep us on our individual training plans and how to counteract the detrimental effects of being in a seated position for extended periods of time..
In addition to all the great content shared in this episode, you can also receive Dr. Baird’s free e-Book Eight Steps to Fix Your Plantar Fasciitis by texting the word ‘runningbook’ to 44222. (Standard data and text messaging rates apply).
“Sitting kills our running.”
It’s understood that we need to stay hydrated not only during physical activities, but in general. But how can we improve the efficiency with which our bodies use hydration?
A former collegiate track and field athlete, Vishal Patel has worked with Olympic and World Camp calibre athletes on personalizing their nutrition and hydration strategies to excel in their sports. As Senior R&D Manager for Nuun, he has developed hydration products for the past five years.
For those who are not familiar with Nuun, they make dissolvable hydration tablets. In this episode, Visah explains the science and rationale of general hydration and how Nuun has designed multiple hydration solutions that are optimized for specific types of activity plus how and why hydration is so important, even if you are not active. He shares with us the methodology and philosophy that Nuun has regarding hydration supplements and specifically the role that sugar plays in performance fueling products.
He gives us insight into an easy, visual method for determining your daily hydration level and how Nuun fits in with other training and performance fueling products.
While admittedly not a super-athlete growing up, Dr. Brett Hill was naturally drawn to distance running and the mental determination it required. And as he studied to become a successful chiropractor, he realized that his lifestyle habits directly influenced his health so he set about becoming more naturally active and fueled.
In this episode, he shares with us that our bodies have an innate ability and desire to function correctly. It is critical to create the dietary and physical environment our bodies are actually designed for. He further explains what these environments are and why they are so beneficial. We also discuss the merits and proper strategies of transitioning to barefoot or minimalist shoe running.
In addition to being a chiropractor, Brett Hill is a paleo-nutritionist, barefoot runner, author, podcast host, and public speaker. With all of these activities, his family and, of course, running himself, it would be easy to assume it’s overwhelming. He explains how he now manages to keep a healthy balance of it all and the adjustments he has made to accomplish this balance.
You could easily say that freelance writer, professional blogger, public speaker, coach, 3:11 Marathoner, wife and mother of three Dorothy Beal has a lot on her plate. Like many of us with busy lives outside of our training, Dorothy has had to learn how to balance it all. Oh, AND she has graced the cover of not one, not two, but THREE magazine covers!
On this episode, we hear from Dorothy about the catalyst that turned her into a runner and how running has impacted so many areas of her life. Her philosophy and perspective on running are incredibly healthy and well-grounded, especially when considering how easily we can become over-obsessed with training and race results. She also shares with us her approach to balancing training and family nutrition as well as some interesting lifestyle changes she has adopted, such as her ‘Dry January’.
Dorothy has a contagious positive energy that comes through clearly in this conversation about the transformation running has made to her very full life.
This week we introduce, certified nutritionist, award winning speaker, best selling author, running coach, certified rafting guide, AND the new host of the Run To The Top podcast, Stephanie Atwood.
Stephanie is the founder of Go Wow Living and host of the “Active After 35 Thrive To 105” podcast. In this episode, we learn about her background and listen as she shares secrets she’s learned from helping other runners throughout her career. She has a great perspective on redefining success and failure and believes in creating different successes. It’s easy to forget that the very act of stretching out of comfort zone, even if we fall short of our ideal goals, is still a worthy accomplishment.
Butch Cassidy counseled the Sundance Kid in the movie’s opening, “Every day you live, you get older.” and the same is true for runners. However, there comes a day, a session or a race where we have to accept that our fastest days may be behind us. This doesn’t mean we need to stop running or competing, but a healthy mental paradigm shift is sometimes needed to refocus our motivation to stay active as we age.
In our busy and hectic lives, it’s easy to overemphasize training to the point where it becomes unhealthily all-consuming. Stephanie talks about the concept of “Periodization”, which allows people to build up for a couple goals, but also structure down time to enjoy other important areas of our lives.
Please join us in welcoming Stephanie as we are sure her insight and experience will help you become, not just a better runner, but a better, happier and healthier you.
Pam recently completed two marathons with seven weeks of training in between, but no significant improvement in her time.
She would like to reach her goal in her next race, but feels the 24-week program she used last time is too long. She wants to to know how she can maintain fitness and then ramp up for race.
Coach Jeff provides context for post-race recovery and maintenance training prior to jumping into a marathon build-up and how long that build up should, and maybe shouldn’t, be.
He also explains how to leverage the time between races to arrive at the start of a marathon training cycle even stronger without much additional effort.
We hope you enjoy listening to this conversation and find some takeaways that help you in your training.
We’re doing something a little different today on Run To The Top and we hope you find it helpful. One of our athletes, Wayne Jimenez, recently DNF’d a marathon at mile 16 and was not sure why. He has completed marathons and half-Iron Mans, but just over halfway through this race he could not keep going and he’s eager to get back in a marathon ASAP since he still feels pretty strong from all his training. But, he’s concerned about racing too soon.
Coach Jeff engages Wayne in a discussion to unpack what happened during, and more importantly prior to, the race to help identify the root cause of the issue and to determine when Wayne should make his way into his next corral.
We hope you enjoy listening to this conversation and find some takeaways that help you in your training. We would also love to know what you think of this podcast format as well as any suggestions you have for Run To The Top in general.
We’ve long known the biggest barriers in running are those we create in our own heads, but according to Alex Hutchinson and the latest research, there are ways we can bypass these barriers to push farther and faster.
A National Magazine Award-winning journalist, Alex’s work revolves mostly around the science of endurance, and there’s a pretty good chance you’ve read some of his stuff. He contributes to Runner’s World, the New York Times, the New Yorker, and he also has his own column in Outside Magazine called Sweat Science.
In this episode, Alex will share with us a little about his upcoming book, ENDURE: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance.
In the book, Alex explores the controversial new science of endurance that suggests our brains are just as responsible as our bodies for the physical obstacles we encounter in running.
In other words, most of the limits we experience are illusionary, and, with some groundbreaking techniques Alex will share with us today, we can actually push through these imaginary limits to unearth our true physical capabilities.
If an airplane wing is too rigid, the plane will crash, and according to author and marathoner Duncan Larkin, the same is true for us runners.
When we adhere too closely to our training plans or even, as Duncan says, the tenets of his own books, we don’t leave room for two crucial details: one, that each of our bodies is different and possesses its own unique ebb and flow and two, we’re just plain busy.
For most of us, running isn’t our number one priority and our schedules don’t always perfectly complement our training - and that’s okay.
However, to optimize our performance and steer clear of injury, it’s important to be flexible and emphasize quality over quantity in training, and that’s the basis of Duncan’s new book, The 30-Minute Runner: Smart Training for Busy Beginners.
Duncan writes for Outside Magazine, Runner's World, and ESPN to name a few, and he was on the show in 2017 to talk about his second newest book Run Simple: A Minimalist Approach to Fitness and Wellbeing.
In this episode, Duncan shares with us a little about his new book and his tips for maximizing training when you lead a busy life (which probably applies to you if I had to guess).
The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club.
The second rule of Fight Club? You know how it goes.
Lucky for us, the opposite is true for the founders of November Project, a fitness movement popularly known as the “Fight Club” of running clubs for its intense workouts, free membership, and tribe mentality.
Following their days rowing crew for Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, Bojan Mandaric and Brogan Graham found themselves struggling to stay in shape in the cold New England months and the absence of a structured exercise regiment.
Then one night in 2011 over a couple of beers, they decided to make a pact: every morning for that month of November, they would meet at 6:30am and workout together.
Running hill repeats, bounding up the stairs of Harvard Stadium, dropping to the ground for the occasional pushups - the city was their gym, and the results were significant.
After a few months, Bojan and Brogan decided to throw out a few invites on Twitter, and the rest is history.
November Project now has tribes in 45 cities all over the world with its biggest meetups bringing together upwards of 1500 people for a single morning workout.
Here Bojan and Brogan share a little about their story, how November Project works, and what you can gain from joining a tribe near you.
****This episode includes some inappropriate language - just a heads up.****
While most of us know we need to do strength work to truly see results, according to Jay Dicharry, this is a waste of time without also practicing movement and mobility.
One of America’s leading physical therapists and author of Anatomy for Runners, Jay established his reputation as an expert in biomechanical analysis as Director of the University of Virginia’s SPEED Clinic.
Today, athletes from all over travel to his REP Lab in Bend Oregon where Jay blends clinical practice and engineering to better understand overuse injuries.
But what sets Jay apart from traditional therapy? He works to correct imbalances before they become a problem, and to do that he helps runners rewire their body-brain movement patterns.
In this episode, Jay will share a little about his new book, Running Rewired, explain how we can rediscover our body-brain movement patterns, and dispel the myths that pervade both the shoe and physical therapy industries.
As we enter the bell lap for 2017, I wanted to do something a little special for this week’s episode.
Just as it’s good to reflect back on a season and extract all the learning moments, I wanted to reflect back on the best lessons from Run to the Top this year, and to do that I asked for your help.
Today’s show will include Run to the Top’s greatest hits of 2017 as chosen by our very own listeners: runners who made incredible strides mentally and physically thanks to the wisdom, inspiration, and perspective shared in this year’s interviews.
In this podcast, those runners will share their favorite episodes and what they gained from them followed by a little segment from each show.
Whether these episodes are new to you or you’ve heard them before, I hope the lessons within both help you reflect back on 2017 and serve as a springboard into your best year yet.
If you ever have thoughts and feelings you wish you didn’t, there’s a good chance you’re human.
But there are ways to put a stop to those thoughts and feelings, and that’s where Dr. Simon Marshall comes in.
A competitive triathlete and world-renowned sport psychology expert, Dr. Marshall helps endurance athletes train their brains to become happier and more mentally resilient.
Dr. Marshall is a former professor of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, former Director of the Graduate Program in Sport & Exercise Psychology at San Diego State University, and has published over 100 scientific articles on the psychology of exercise and has been cited in scientific literature over 10,000 times.
He’s currently the performance psychologist for the BMC Racing team, an elite WorldTour professional cycling team, and he’s also married to three-time world champion triathlete and his business partner Lesley Paterson.
Together, Dr. Marshall and Lesley make up Brave Heart Coaching where they help athletes strengthen both their bodies and minds.
The two also recently published a book called The Brave Athlete in which they share actionable solutions to the most common mental barriers we runners face.
In this podcast, Dr. Marshall will share his tips for conquering the negative thoughts between us and our goals using “[butt]-kicking psychological weapons”. :)
*** This episode includes some bad language. If there are small ears around, you might want to listen with headphones! ***
He’s back! World renowned dietitian and exercise physiologist Bob Seebohar joins us again to delve deeper into the growing research surrounding his two concepts of metabolic efficiency training (MET) and nutrition periodization.
If you listened to Bob’s last interview with us, you know that together these concepts increase the body's ability to use fat as fuel during exercise and thus optimize both body composition and performance - a hard balance to strike for most distance runners.
If you missed that episode and like what you hear today, be sure to go back and give it a listen here for some better context.
Bob is a registered dietitian, exercise physiologist, NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, USA Triathlon Level III Elite Coach. He also traveled to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games as a sport dietitian for the US Olympic Team and the personal sport dietitian/exercise physiologist for the Olympic Triathlon Team.
This time Bob’s back to answer YOUR questions and, in so doing, discuss everything from MET’s relationship with paleo and plant-based diets all the way to how you can go about determining your own metabolic efficiency.
4:08 What do you do?
6:10 Can you remind us again about your concepts of Nutrition Periodization and Metabolic Efficiency Training?
10:21 Can you describe intuitive eating and how you help athletes attain that in combination with Metabolic Efficiency Training?
14:00 Can you describe what the Crossover Concept is?
23:41 How does the Metabolic Efficiency Test work?
28:20 Listener question from Yusef: Will I keep burning 60% fat at HR 150 bpm, at hour 28 of a 100miler?
39:55 Listener question from Diana: As someone who eats a ton of almond and peanut butter. Is this a carb, a fat or a protein?
48:14 Listener question from Chelsea: How does being vegan affect my metabolic efficiency and are there any tips for how can I improve this without giving up my lifestyle?
54:04 How do the Paleo Diet and High Fat / Low Carb diets fit in with Metabolic Efficiency Training?
57:13 Is it correct to assume you should increase carbs when in the thick of marathon training?
58:45 Listener question from Darlene: Is the Metabolic Efficiency lifestyle suitable for people with type 1 diabetes who use insulin pumps?
1:02:05 You offer personal consultations - what all do these entail and how can people work with you?
1:04:45 Where can listeners get a Metabolic Efficiency Test done?
“Nutrition periodization is basically aligning your daily nutrition to support your physical training needs.”
“Metabolic efficiency is basically how efficient your body is at using its stores of carbohydrate and fat. Those are the two main stores of energy we have in our body, and you can actually train that.”
“The point where the body crosses from higher to lower fat burning and lower to higher carbohydrate burning - where those two macronutrients cross - is the ‘crossover point’, and in research, they found that to be between 63-65% of max intensity.”
“Metabolic efficiency is a great lifestyle nutrition program no matter what distance you’re training for.”
“It will be more difficult - not impossible, certainly - but it will be more difficult to balance blood sugar following a pure vegan diet than it will when you enter animal proteins, and it’s just because you’re having more carbohydrate than protein.”
Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel
Book: Nutrition Periodization for Athletes: Taking Traditional Sports Nutrition to the Next Level
Bob's Author page on Amazon.com
Our guest this week is an incredible guitar player, amazing singer song-writer, and the best audio editor you could ask for, and I’m not just saying all that because he’ll be reading this while he edits the show. :)
If you haven’t already guessed, this week’s guest is none other than Run to the Top editor, Jeremy Noessel.
In addition to playing in 3 bands in the Rhode Island / Connecticut / Massachusetts area and working on several podcasts, Jeremy and his wife, Louise, are also writing an e-book for guitarists and musicians, will be soon launching a blog, and also planning his own podcast.
I’ve been wanting to have Jeremy on the show for some time now because his story is seriously one of a kind.
Jeremy started editing the podcast back when Tina Muir was hosting the show, and since then he’s not only helped us take the show to a whole new level, but the podcast has inspired him to start running again after about a 25-year hiatus.
Jeremy’s skill and incredible attention to detail is a large part of the reason Run to the Top is where it is today as Jeremy has not only improved the show’s audio quality tenfold, but, through constant guidance and constructive feedback, he’s also helped me become a better, more confident podcaster.
He is a true pleasure to work with, and I’m so excited to have him on the show today to share a little behind-the-scenes look at what goes into making Run to the Top, how the show inspired him to pick up running again, and the lessons he’s gained from editing both Run To The Top and our daily podcast, Extra Kick.
6:25 What’s your favorite part about editing Run to the Top?
9:33 How did editing the podcasts lead to your return to running?
17:57 How did your first race go and how did you feel afterwards?
22:12 What are some of the mistakes you might have made if you started running without the podcasts?
26:30 Do you have any desire for future races, maybe the marathon?
30:19 How has the Run/Walk method helped you get back into running?
34:58 What other Run to the Top episodes you’ve worked on that have resonated with you and helped you?
38:29 What stood out to you in the Kelly Roberts interview?
41:43 How do you balance running with all of your bands and audio work?
43:20 How long does each podcast take you to edit and what’s involved?
48:40 Did you struggle at all when you first started running to juggle everything?
50:54 Where can listeners check out some of your videos, songs and available services?
52:54 Is making music what you enjoy the most?
53:18 Where do your bands play?
“I’ve had the benefit of having all of this information that I’ve gotten from the podcasts to avoid some of the common beginners’ pitfalls.”
“On the starting line I kept repeating to myself: 1. Have fun, 2. Don’t get hurt, 3. Start slow.”
“There was a point in time where I didn’t think I would ever NOT Run/Walk.”
“I have had really no formal instruction AT ALL; no formal coaching, so take anything I say with a grain of salt.”
“Running can’t be your everything. And really, nothing should be your everything.”
Run to the Top Interview with Jeff Galloway
Book: Getting Started - Jeff Galloway
Mews Tavern Gear N Beer - 2017
2018 Blessing of the Fleet 10-mile road race
Run to the Top Interview with Danny Dreyer
Run to the Top Interview with Kelly Roberts
The Running For Real Podcast with Tina Muir
Follow Jeremy's running journals on Strava
Jeremy's bands and upcoming events
Jeremy Noessel Music & Audio homepage
Jeremy's Music and Audio Facebook page
Follow 610 Supertanker on Facebook
Listen to 610 Supertanker on ReverbNation
Follow Rhythm & Thunder on Facebook
Rhythm & Thunder's ReverbNation page
Follow Transmission on Facebook
Transmission's ReverbNation page
Michael Hammond is a graduate of Virginia Tech where he competed in cross country and track, earning two ACC titles and four NCAA All-American honors. His individual efforts led his team to four ACC team championships: one in cross country, two in indoor track, and one in outdoor track.
On this episode, Michael shares his perspective on, well… perspective.
Most runners are goal-focused, which is understandable considering the time and effort that goes into distance running.
But at what point does this single-mindedness become unhealthy? How can runners strike a balance between their running goals and the rest of the world, especially when blindsided by an illness or injury?
In his role as Director of Coaching for RunnersConnect, Michael has gotten to know every member, their motivations and exactly what support they need to receive from the coaches as well as from each other.
In this episode, he’ll also share a little about the support we need to give ourselves.
3:57 What do you do at RunnersConnect?
5:16 What are some of the biggest mistakes runners make when it comes to longevity and mental health in the sport?
8:46 How can overemphasizing one performance be counterproductive?
14:14 How can runners achieve and maintain a positive mindset?
18:55 What other outlets did you have to balance out running?
25:32 How did you cope with injuries and take your mind off running when you weren’t able to go for a run?
32:15 Why is the ‘comparison trap’ so detrimental for runners?
38:23 What other tips do you have for runners to keep perspective and achieve longevity in the sport?
47:13 What’s on tap for you now that you’re on hiatus from running?
“I think you should really be running for your own reasons and for yourself.”
“A huge part of staying positive is putting things in perspective from a LIFE standpoint, not just a running standpoint.”
“Injuries will show you what your real priorities are.”
“I think it’s best for 99% of runners to completely ignore professional runners.”
“Some of the most proud feelings I ever had were when I was by myself, completely alone, after a great race and I just felt that tremendous sense of pride and accomplishment; that is what you should be training for.”
“If you’re 50 years old, you can’t compare yourself to when you were 25; it’s not fair to yourself.”
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.
If more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, it means I can reach out to and get through to the top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!
Telling people that you run marathons usually prompts some dumbfounded expressions, but tell them you run ultras and, let’s face it, they’ll probably think you’re nuts. But that’s just a day in the life for Georgia native, Nathan Maxwell.
Like a lot of runners, Nathan started running to get in shape. He did a few 5K’s and then decided to try his hand at the half marathon. That was in 2012.
Since then, Nathan has completed 44 ultra marathons, 9 marathons, and 3 100 milers. He’s a self-proclaimed ultra junkie, and he loves sharing his adventures and promoting an active lifestyle on his blog and Twitter account under the name Social Shark.
On this episode, Nathan will share with us a little about his journey, how to transition from the marathon to ultras if you’re so inclined, and how to stoke the fire if you feel your passion for running starting to fizzle.
While running an ultra is no easy feat, it is manageable and possesses some surprisingly accessible entry points for those who want to dip their running toes in gently.
Questions Nathan is asked:
3:22 Can you tell us a little about yourself and what you do?
4:39 Where in South Carolina are you?
5:30 When and how did you get into running?
7:42 Was it love at first sight with ultra running?
10:33 How was the transition into ultra distance?
13:24 How do you train for ultras?
15:37 How do you avoid injury and fatigue with such a rigorous race schedule?
18:57 How can runners be more conscious of how to tune into what their body is telling them?
21:03 What advice do you have for runners who are struggling mentally with their training?
24:19 What advice would you give our listeners aspiring to transition from marathons to ultras?
29:00 How do you break down a 50-mile race in your head when considering race strategy?
34:27 How do you push past hitting the wall in a long race?
37:55 Your favorite mantra (which sits at the top of your website) is “When you walk, you won’t be held back; when you run, you won’t stumble” (Proverbs 4:12 NLT). Can you tell us a little about this and why this is significant to you?
39:53 How did you come by the name Social Shark?
41:42 What did you set out to accomplish with your blog?
43:46 What would you consider to be your proudest achievement to date?
46:13 How did the Uwharrie 100 Miler go?
49:33 What’s next? Any big races on the horizon?
Quotes by Nathan:
“My weekly mileage isn’t quite as high as even typical marathon runners.”
“I really listen to my body and make sure I’m doing the right thing.”
“You can set smaller goals (like) ‘I’m gonna run a certain amount of miles in the next 30 days’”
“You’re not gonna run the same pace in a half-marathon that you would in a marathon. Just do the same thing as you move up to some type of ultra distance. Expect that you’re going to run slower.”
“Find an ultra that’s out there that’s a 6-hour ultra. The nice thing about those events is that they’re very relaxed very chill.”
“Being able to be mentally prepared and ahead of time saying, ‘I’m going out and doing this thing.’ It would be so much harder if you were going out there to only run 20 miles and then you got to the 20 mile mark and somebody said, ‘Just kidding! We’re actually doing FORTY today.’ That’s where, mentally, you’re going to be completely devastated and not be able to get through it.”
Mentioned in this podcast:
In her more than sixteen years coaching elite runners, Olympians, championship teams, executives, and entrepreneurs, world renowned performance psychologist Dr. Cindra Kamphoff has discovered these ten practices to be consistent among the world’s very best.
In her book, Beyond Grit: Ten Powerful Practices to Gain the High-Performance Edge, Dr. Kamphoff explains why each of these practices is important to discovering your purpose, “owning your why,” and boosting your performance through drive and grit, which Dr. Kamphoff argues prove more important than talent.
Dr. Kamphoff is the Director and Founder of the Center of Sport and Performance Psychology, founder of the High Performance Mindset Podcast, a professor in Performance Psychology at Minnesota State University, and a longtime marathoner.
Today Dr. Kamphoff will share with us a little about those 10 practices, and how we can develop them to achieve stronger, more confident running.
“Grit really means staying passionate and persistent for your very long term goals.”
“Self-awareness is foundational to high performance, and it’s foundational to you being at your best consistently.”
“If you ‘think’ it, that’s not going to be as intentional, but if you ‘ink’ it, that’s really key.”
“I really like this quote by Simon [Sinek] - he said, ‘Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress, but working hard for something we love is called passion.’”
Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel
Follow Dr. Kamphoff on Twitter
Follow Dr. Kamphoff on Facebook
Author, coach, and nutritionist Matt Fitzgerald started running at the age of eleven when he completed the last mile of the 1983 Boston Marathon with his father (who had run the whole thing) and his two brothers.
By that time Matt was already a writer (specifically a comedic poet), having declared his intention to pursue a career in writing at the ripe age of nine.
He never changed his mind.
An expert on all things running, Matt especially loves to write about the psychology of running and has written several books and articles on the subject, including his popular book How Bad Do You Want It? Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle.
In this episode, Matt discusses what goes into a runner’s mental capacity and shares with us some tips as to how we can better push our limits.