Tales from the Valley Podcast

Sam, Katie, and Josh are joined by Jaymee McPherson, the founder of Just Another Run Club. Jaymee started JARC in January this year as she wanted to have a safe space for women to get into running. Jaymee also provides holistic programming for running, cross-training, and strength training. Jaymee ran her first half marathon at Kiama Classic this year and feels ready to step up to the marathon, though she is biding her training efforts while she deals with a few niggles. Katie is slowly ramping up her running as she does 25 km featuring a lot of cross-training. Josh is stacking brick on brick with a very solid long run on Saturday with some hills, 3 x 6 min at half marathon pace, and 30 min at marathon pace. Jaymee mixes up her training in the gym, on the bike, walking, and with the JARC run on Sunday. Sam has a scheduled down week, complains about three days of quad DOMs, and Katie calls him out for uploading strength sessions to Strava, but he walks away with 90 km for the week. Join us for the usual segments and find Jaymee’s Instagram for her PT services and Just Another Run Club below: https://www.instagram.com/jaymeekaitmcpherson/ https://www.instagram.com/justanother.runclub/

Sam, Katie, and Josh catch up with Myles Gough. Myles won the Canberra Marathon in 2021 with a time of 2:25 and holds some other impressive results. To our hosts' surprise, Myles only picked up running in 2016, starting at Parkrun to meet new people. Myles explains how his running developed, taking many learnings from local coach Barry Keem. He shares how he stayed fit during injury through cross-training and recently ran 2:39 at the Gold Coast Marathon. We also hear how Myles manages the challenges of balancing work, family, and running at a high level. Myles takes us through his training week, balancing cross-training with key workouts like sessions and long runs in the lead-up to the Sydney Marathon. Katie gets two more runs on the board and racks up hours of cross-training. It’s business as usual for Josh as he puts together another impressive training week, and Sam runs his first-ever trail race, coming 4th in the Summit Shoalhaven half marathon over the weekend.

Mitch is living it up in Spain, so Joshua "JOSH10" Engel is here for a few weeks to fill in. Sam, Josh, and Katie are joined by national middle-distance runner Rohan Laurendet. Rohan has run impressive times of 1:52 for 800 meters and 48.77 for 400 meters. However, he has found success in the 400-meter hurdles, running 51.56 in April this year. Rohan provides some interesting insights about his time spent transitioning from flat running to hurdling. Rohan is also a physio, so he talks us through his strength and conditioning protocols, as well as providing feedback to our hosts this week. Josh stacks some tempo running on top of some solid weekly mileage (109 km), all while adjusting to his new strength program prescribed by Rohan. Rohan talks us through his program, which is typically set in three-week blocks, including hill efforts, gym routines, cycling, and the "Kamikaze" Saturday Session. Sam stacks a 92 km week together with two sessions and a trip to Dalmeny. Katie gets some running advice and starts to do some jog/walking, while she smashes out hours of cross-training.

Sam, Mitch, and Katie are joined by Kate Matts, Head of Saucony Australia. Kate has been with Saucony since before the launch of the Endorphin line, so she has extensive knowledge of how Saucony’s incredible range has expanded over the past few years. Kate is able to give us technical insights into some of the upcoming shoes in the range over the coming months and years, as well as insights into how design choices and product direction are determined. Kate also provides a unique perspective on her own running, given how she came to running after starting work with Saucony. Katie is back on Australian soil and is spending a lot of time on the bike. Sam has improved ever so slightly compared to last week, both in terms of sessions and overall mileage, which is now at 84 km. Mitch runs 144 km of jogging but spices things up by revisiting his old training diary. https://www.saucony.com.au/ Tune in for our usual segments and also some exclusive intel on Saucony's upcoming range.

Sam and Russ catch up for the first time since the Christchurch Marathon, off the back of Russ’s stellar performance in the Gold Coast Half Marathon. Russ talks about his training since Christchurch and his new coaching relationship with Barry Keem. Russ has his eyes on C2S and the Sydney Marathon, but his ultimate goal for this year is to run a fast marathon in Japan. Russ recaps the Gold Coast Marathon weekend for us, and then the guys shout out some coastal results. Tune in for the first episode of the Russell Dessaix-Chin Wag, and congrats to all of those who ran on the Gold Coast last weekend.