the morning shakeout podcast

“That's the most dangerous place to be—is to think you know it all. I always just try to go into problems being curious. I’m always just like, ‘I wonder if I can solve this. I wonder if we can figure this out.’ And really, it’s not me, it’s not about me. It’s me and the athlete, or me and the athlete and the coach…and it just becomes this problem-solving thing, and a curiosity, and we’re communicating, ‘Hey, how do you feel with this? Do you understand? Yes. Is that what you sense too?’ You’re working with the person to get the outcome. You’re just the facilitator. The ego has to go away.” I recently sat down with my friend Jonathan Pierce, who I met in 2007 when we both competed at the national club cross country championships in West Chester, Ohio. He placed third overall that day to help ZAP Fitness win the team title and let’s just say that I finished way, way back in the field. The 36-year-old Pierce had a great running career—he competed collegiately at Stanford where he was an All-American steeplechaser, and then ran professionally for ZAP Fitness and later the Mammoth Track Club—and represented the United States at the World Cross Country Championships in 2008.And for as good of an athlete as he was, Pierce is an even better manual therapist. Since 2012, he’s worked with some of the top athletes in the world, including national champions, world and Olympic medalists, world-record holders, and elite CrossFit competitors. A few years ago he opened Kinetik Performance, a multidisciplinary sports rehab and performance center in San Diego, where he and his staff treat everyone from Olympians to everyday athletes who just want to stay injury-free. We covered a lot of ground in this conversation, from Pierce’s running career and his trajectory as an athlete, to his influences and what he’s learned from them along the way, to his current career path and the steps that led him down it. We talked about competitiveness, how it spills over into different areas of his life, and knowing when to turn it down. We discuss the importance of mentorship in his life and the advice he’d give his younger self. He also provides some actionable takeaways for any athlete who wants to stay healthy, and a lot more.This episode is brought to you by Aftershokz. AfterShokz is the award-winning headphone brand, best known for its open-ear listening experience. Powered by patented, best-in-class bone conduction technology, Aftershokz headphones sit outside your ear so you can listen to your music and hear your surroundings. To learn more and save $50 on AfterShokz Endurance Bundles, visit tms.aftershokz.com and use the code TMS when you check out.Complete show notes: https://themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-79-with-jonathan-pierce/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Why did it take me so long in order to decide that I needed to pull the plug on running? What was it that made me cling to the idea of running a little bit banged up for so long? [Figuring out the answers to those questions] is really cool. I’m getting deeper into figuring all that stuff out so that when I come back, I’ll have hopefully a really sturdy foundation to build on but then I’ll also have that knowledge to help me get a little bit further.” Excited to share a conversation I recently had with Jeanne Mack, an Olympic Trials qualifier in the marathon who moved to San Francisco from New York just a few months ago. Mack works as a copy writer at Strava, where she also hosts the Athletes Unflitered podcast. She ran 2:39:04 in her second marathon last fall at Chicago and she’s currently working through an injury so she can be at the top of her game for the Olympic Trials in February of 2020. This was a fun, wide-ranging conversation: we dug into Jeanne’s relationship with running and how it’s evolved over the years; what it’s been like for taking time off from running to work through injury and how some of the conversations she’s had as a podcast host have helped her in that regard; the differences between the running scene in New York versus here on the west coast, the lessons she learned—and how her training changed—from her first marathon to the second one; the professional path she’s traveled to land where she is today; her thoughts on the current state of running media, and a lot more.This episode is brought to you by Aftershokz. AfterShokz is the award-winning headphone brand, best known for its open-ear listening experience. Powered by patented, best-in-class bone conduction technology, Aftershokz headphones sit outside your ear so you can listen to your music and hear your surroundings. To learn more and save $50 on AfterShokz Endurance Bundles, visit tms.aftershokz.com and use the code TMS when you check out.Complete show notes: https://themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-78-with-jeanne-mack/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“One of the really cool things about trail and ultrarunning in particular is people go so far into the unknown and I think that, as an element of humanity, doing something where there’s a legitimate chance that you’re going to utterly fail and get taken off by a helicopter—right, that’s going to happen tomorrow, people are going to get flown out by helicopters—the fact that there’s a sport that people can participate in that has these neat elements to it, I think it’s good for everybody. It’s obviously good for me because I’m in the sport, I’m in it professionally and I earn a living doing it, but I just think it’s good for society to have those things that can really test you, so I just hope that the sport continues to maintain its edge, attract new people, be viable, and be fun to come out and do these types of events.” Really enjoyed sitting down with a coaching colleague of mine, Jason Koop, for this week’s episode of the podcast. Koop is one of the most highly respected and successful coaches in ultrarunning. He’s the head ultrarunning coach for Carmichael Training Systems, a company he’s been working for since 2001. Koop ran collegiately at Texas A&M and he’s coached athletes of all ages and ability levels over the course of his career, including some notable ones such as Western States champion Kaci Lickteig, Dylan Bowman, Dakota Jones, Stephanie Howe, and others. We caught up a couple weeks ago in Chamonix, France, where we were both supporting athletes during the UTMB festival of races, and a few days before he was about to set off for the Tor des Géants, a 330K trail race through Italy’s Aosta Valley. (Ed. note: Koop finished 27th overall in 97 hours and 6 minutes.)We got into a lot of coaching nerdery in this one, including the path Koop has traveled to get where he is today, the importance of education, experience, and observation as it pertains to coaching, how his mentors and colleagues have made him a better coach, balancing volume and intensity in training, how he responds to criticisms of his employer and why he doesn’t just start his own coaching company, the growth of the competitive side of ultrarunning in recent years, and much more.This episode is brought to you by Aftershokz. AfterShokz is the award-winning headphone brand, best known for its open-ear listening experience. Powered by patented, best-in-class bone conduction technology, Aftershokz headphones sit outside your ear so you can listen to your music and hear your surroundings. To learn more and save $50 on AfterShokz Endurance Bundles, visit tms.aftershokz.com and use the code TMS when you check out.Complete show notes: https://themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-77-with-jason-koop/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“I actually don’t feel that added pressure. If anything, to me, it’s just about continuing to live authentically, and part of that living authentically is that there’s going to be ups and downs—it’s not a linear progression at all and just giving myself grace with that is really important—and sharing those ups and downs. There are so many people that talk about eating disorders after they’ve conquered them or when they used to struggle but are over that now—and you see it a lot in the running world and I’m really, really appreciative who talk about it, but they also talk about it as a thing of the past, that it’s no longer an issue—but I think more of the reality is that there are many, many people out there for who it is still an issue day to day. And I think if I waited to a point where I was totally over it and in a really solid recovered place, honestly, I probably would never talk about it.” — Amelia BooneI’ve got a unique episode to share this week with two past guests of the show: Amelia Boone, world champion obstacle-course racer and badass ultrarunner, and Brad Stulberg, author of the books Peak Performance and The Passion Paradox, sat down with me for a roundtable discussion of sorts about mental health, eating disorders, OCD, recovery, running and racing, the desire to be relevant, social media and its influence on us, sharing our stories, and a lot more.This is an important conversation and there’s a lot to think about and take away from it, especially if you—or someone you love—have dealt with mental illness in the past or are currently struggling. Many thanks to both Amelia and Brad for being so open, honest, and flat-out raw with me in talking about these difficult and personal topics.If you are struggling with mental illness and need help, there are a number of resources at your disposal. If you're having thoughts of harming yourself, you can talk to someone right now at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255. For more information about eating disorders and how to get help, check out the National Institute of Mental Health website (https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/eating-disorders/index.shtml), the National Eating Disorders Association website (https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org), or call the NEDA hotline at (800) 931-2237. To learn more about various forms of OCD and how to get help, check out Intrusive Thoughts (https://www.intrusivethoughts.org/), an online resource that humanizes the symptoms of OCD, celebrates the bravery of the community and helps sufferers get the treatment they deserveThis episode is brought to you by Aftershokz. AfterShokz is the award-winning headphone brand, best known for its open-ear listening experience. Powered by patented, best-in-class bone conduction technology, Aftershokz headphones sit outside your ear so you can listen to your music and hear your surroundings. To learn more and save $50 on AfterShokz Endurance Bundles, visit tms.aftershokz.com and use the code TMS when you check out.Complete show notes: https://themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-76-with-amelia-boone-and-brad-stulberg/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Sometimes we all want to get as far away from running as possible, right? And I say that in a lighthearted way but I think that anyone who has been involved in running in any way knows what that means. We love running to an obsession, and that’s great, but we also need a deep breath, a break, something else that is not just running. I find myself as a lot of things, and running is a big part of that, but that’s not the only thing I am.”Super excited to share a recent conversation I had with Brian Metzler for this week’s episode of the podcast. I’ve known Brian a long time—back in 2009-2010 we co-wrote the On The Run column for Triathlete magazine—and he was my boss at Competitor magazine and Competitor.com (now PodiumRunner.com) from 2012-2016. Before his stint as editor-in-chief of Competitor, Brian worked as a senior editor at Running Times, he was also the founding editor of Trail Runner magazine, and he’s written for almost every running and outdoor publication imaginable at one point or another over the years. He’s authored or co-authored a few books in recent years and has a new one coming out soon called Kicksology: The Hype, Science, Culture, and Cool of Running Shoes.I loved this conversation and I think you will too. We talked running, media, and running shoes—along with where and how all those things intersect—and how Brian has made a career out of writing about the sport and the industry over the past 25 years. We discussed trends that have come and gone in media and with running shoes—two areas Brian knows more than most people about—and we also got into his new book, which, if you’re a shoe geek like me, or are just curious about how running shoes and the industry have evolved over the last several decades, you will definitely want to pre-order ahead of its release next month.This episode is brought to you by the Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon and Half Marathon, which takes place on March 1, 2020. Run, sip, and savor, as Napa Valley offers the ideal destination for a race-cation. Run down the Silverado Trail on scenic, net downhill courses, then celebrate your achievement at one of over 500 valley wineries, excellent restaurants, local breweries, or even on a hot air balloon. Sign up at napavalleymarathon.org and use code SHAKEOUT10 to save $10 on your registration before September 9, 2019.Complete show notes: https://themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-75-with-brian-metzler/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"It takes a long time to write books, it takes a long time to run a marathon, it takes even longer to train for a marathon, but if you don't take any shortcuts, and you push yourself, and you do the things that you're afraid of, if you get comfortable with being uncomfortable, then that's where the magic can happen."Excited to welcome Matt Futterman, the deputy sports editor of The New York Times and author of the new book, Running To The Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed, to the podcast this week.Futterman is an avid runner himself—he’s run 23 marathons and has qualified for Boston—and we had a great conversation about his new book, which is largely about coach Bob Larsen and his quest to discover the training secrets that would lead American runners back to prominence on the world stage. We also talked about how he got into running and developed an interest in it, why track and running have fallen out of fervor with mainstream media and what he’s doing at The New York Times to help bring more attention to the sport, the appeal of the marathon and what it’s taught him about himself and life in general, the importance of being process-oriented and appreciating the journey, whether it’s running, work, of life, and so much more.This episode is brought to you by the Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon and Half Marathon, which takes place on March 1, 2020. Run, sip, and savor, as Napa Valley offers the ideal destination for a race-cation. Run down the Silverado Trail on scenic, net downhill courses, then celebrate your achievement at one of over 500 valley wineries, excellent restaurants, local breweries, or even on a hot air balloon. Sign up at napavalleymarathon.org and use code SHAKEOUT10 to save $10 on your registration before September 9, 2019.Complete show notes: https://themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-74-with-matt-futterman/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"My relationship with running and myself was not in a good place—I was in a pretty low place. I didn't have a lot of great relationships in my life, I placed all this importance on running that soured my relationship with it. So that was definitely the lowest moment but it also gave me the most perspective and it's informed my perspective now—as an athlete, I've been able to stay healthy for the past 10+ years, I have a much better relationship with eating, food, my body image. But I've been able to use that experience in my coaching and in my writing to help other people who are dealing with similar things. So that lowest low, while I wouldn't wish it upon anyone, has also given me a perspective that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise."Trying something new on the podcast this week: Ask Me Anything! (OK, this is hardly a novel idea, but it’s a new format for me to explore.) In this episode, I'm on the receiving end of the mic with my assistant editor, Jeffrey Stern—who you will learn a little more about in the intro—and answered a wide range of reader and listener questions, including: Are there things you miss and/or don't miss about working for a national publication versus carving out your space in the sport? How do you know when running is a good thing for you versus consuming too much of your time or attention? Do you foresee some form of mountain/ultra/trail running becoming an Olympic sport within the next 50 years? What have been some of the most insightful or significant takeaways from interviewing the running community? What's the best way for a road marathoner to incorporate trail running into his or her schedule? How did you get into running, what have been some highs and lows along the way, and what’s next for you? What is the difference between a threshold, tempo, and critical velocity run and how do I incorporate these into my training?And many more! Thank you to everyone who submitted questions and apologies for all the ones I wasn't able to answer in this episode. What did you think of this format? Drop me a line on Twitter (@mariofraioli) and share your thoughts: good, bad, or indifferent, I welcome them all!Complete show notes: https://themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-73-ask-mario-anything/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Running is the most simplistic and puristic sport you can do. You put one foot in front of the other, you run as hard as you can for as long as you can, and whoever crosses the finish line first wins. But to see people now not have that joy—and I ask a lot of athletes, 'Why did you start running?' and a lot of them started running because they wanted to run with their dad or they wanted to make the school team, they speak with all this joy—and it saddens me that at this point a lot of them don't have joy. They've got tunnel vision, and they're gonna make it, and they'll sacrifice everything, and they come to training and you can just see that there's this tension in them and they just can't let it go. They've already analyzed, overanalyzed, and psychoanalyzed just the training workout and I'm like, 'Just let it go!' You'll have good runs and you'll have bad ones—if you have a bad one, catch up with some friends and go out and have a beer and just let it go. So, trying to get them to realize that training is a cumulative effect and it takes weeks, and months, and years, and if you've already got this attitude starting out in your career, you're not gonna last. So trying to get them centered as to why they do it, what they want to get out of it, but more importantly enjoying it."This week’s guest is one of my favorite people in the sport of running: Lee Troop. Troopy, as he’s known by his friends, is a retired three-time Olympian in the marathon for Australia with a personal best of 2:09:49 for the distance. He’s lived in Boulder, Colorado for the last 10 years, where he coaches a handful of athletes and puts on local running events around Boulder County.I caught up with Troop a little over a month ago and we had a great, wide-ranging conversation. We talked about his competitive career, from joining his dad on runs when he was 11 years old, to running at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas, and how his brief time there prepared him for a career as an international athlete. We talked about retiring from the sport in his early 40s and why Masters racing just doesn’t interest him. Along those lines, we got into the struggles that athletes face after retirement and what he would recommend based on his own experiences. We talked about coaching, and why he stepped back from it last year after one of his athletes, Jonathan Grey, committed suicide—and also how that experience affected him and changed his perspective moving forward.Troopy has a real passion for people, and that’s something we also got into here, along with a discussion of mental well-being and relationships, why it’s important to work on those two things throughout your life, and so much more.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-72-with-lee-troop/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"When I finally got to come back to running, my number one goal was no longer [to] run as fast as I can—my number one goal was, 'I don't want to have to give this up long-term again.' And so that was motivation to have proper nutrition and to realize if I have to be five to ten pounds heavier than what I thought my goal weight was, if that's keeps me healthy, then it's worth it."I’m excited to welcome my third returning guest back to the show this week: Sarah Sellers. Sellers, who finished second at the 2018 Boston Marathon, will race this year's Chicago Marathon on October 13. We recorded this podcast in front of a live audience back back in early July at the Sports Basement in San Francisco. Sellers and I spoke for about 35 minutes before we opened it up to audience Q&A.I really enjoyed this one—we touched a on a lot of topics we didn’t cover the first time around back in Episode 28—including her decision to run Chicago this fall and what she’s changing about her approach going into the race; we also talked about avoiding “the comparison trap” and having the confidence in herself to make adjustments to her training when necessary; we got into the steps she’s taken to stay healthy and keep her body strong, her renewed focus on nutrition and being at a healthy weight versus her fastest weight, how she’s learning to prioritize longterm health over short term success, and a lot more.This episode is brought to you by UCAN. UCAN powders and bars with SuperStarch give you slow-release carbs and long-lasting energy without the big crash. I’ve used the SuperStarch drink powder to fuel my last few marathons, and the new Hydrate product, which I’ve been taking on my longer training runs, is a clean, natural electrolyte replacement with no sugar, zero calories and 5 added electrolytes to replace the nutrients lost in sweat. Visit generationucan.com and use the code “SHAKEOUT25” at checkout to save 25% on your first order. Already a UCAN customer? Enter the code “SHAKEOUT”—no number at the end of that one—at checkout to save 15% on subsequent orders.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-71-with-sarah-sellers/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"The way I approach running, it's totally a joyous pursuit for me—which doesn't mean that every day is happy, but I do it because I love it and I feel good when I run, and the racing is just a fraction of it. I had run all summer training on the happiness principle, where if I'm training happy and not stressed and I'm enjoying it, then I'm training strong and I'll be healthy. And so that was just a reminder to let it come from within and to tap into that deep pleasure I take in running that really has nothing to do with competition."Excited to welcome Katie Arnold to the podcast this week! The 47-year-old Arnold is one heck of an ultrarunner—she won the Leadville Trail 100 last year in 19 hours, 53 minutes and 40 seconds, which, incredibly, was her debut at the distance—and earlier this year she was second at the Ultra Race of Champions 100K. She’s won numerous other races throughout her career, and is hoping is to run the CCC—a 101K race that goes from Courmayeur, Italy to Chamonix, France—as part of the weeklong UTMB festival of races in late August.Arnold is also an incredible writer: She’s a contributing editor and former managing editor at Outside magazine, where she worked on staff for 12 years, and currently writes the Raising Rippers column about bringing up adventurous kids—of which she has two of her own—for that publication. Arnold has also written for the The New York Times, Men’s Journal, ESPN the Magazine, and numerous other publications. She recently wrote her first book, Running Home, a memoir about her relationship with her father, grief and resilience, adventure and obsession, and the power of running to change your life. We covered a wide range of topics in this conversation: "smile" and "flow," what those words mean to her, and why they're important when she races; reverse goal-setting and how this strategy sets her up for success; balancing competitive running with the rest of her life; her “real life training plan” and how that helps prepare her for races; the importance of observation and paying attention to what's going on around her in life; how death can wake us up to the powerful realization that everything is changing all the time; her new book, how it came to be, and what she hopes readers take away from it; and a lot more.This episode is brought to you by the VCU Health Richmond Marathon. The event, which also includes half marathon and 8K options, takes place in Richmond, Virginia, on November 16th, 2019. Whatever distance you run, Richmond provides phenomenal course support, great fall scenery, awesome finisher swag, and supportive spectators. I know from my experience running there last year that when you run Richmond, you get it all. The marathon is a mostly flat, fast course, top-25 Boston qualifier, and it ends with a beautiful, downhill riverfront finish. Runner’s World called it “America’s Friendliest Marathon” and they certainly live up to this distinction. Start planning your race experience today and save $10 on your registration fee—it applies to the marathon, half marathon, and 8K—by using the discount code “morningshakeout” when you check out at RichmondMarathon.com.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-70-with-katie-arnold/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“As long as I’m true to myself then hopefully that benefits other people and ideally it’s a symbiotic relationship and it’s something I want to keep doing—and again, I’ve got to find ways to tweak it, it’s all about tweaking that and finding things that keep me fueled to push boundaries that are still left there for me to explore and then other times just be content. It’s a funky balance, for sure. It’s hard to not have that drive, have that competitive spirit, but at the same time it’s still there once in a while—and appreciating it and fueling it a little bit—but overwhelmingly there’s not going to be as much drive, and that’s OK.”This week’s guest is Scott Jurek and he hardly needs an introduction, especially if you’re a fan of trail and ultrarunning, so I’m going to keep it as short as I possibly can: Jurek has won pretty much every major ultra race there is to win, including the Spartathalon, the Hardrock 100, the Badwater 135, and the Western States Endurance Run a record seven straight times. He also set the speed record on the Appalachian Trail in 2015, completing it in a little over 46 days, and in 2010 he set a U.S. record for the 24-hour run, covering 165.7 miles. Both of those records have since been broken but Jurek’s overall running resume is one that isn’t likely to be matched anytime soon.Jurek’s also a best-selling author—he’s written two books, Eat and Run and North, which chronicled his 2015 AT adventure—and he’s also a husband to his wife Jenny and a father of two young children, Raven and Evergreen. We recorded this conversation a couple weeks back alongside a trail in in Boulder, Colorado, where he lives, and we covered all kinds of good stuff, from being back at Western States last month after 10 years away from the event, to how the sport of ultrarunning has evolved over the past several years, to using running as a way to give back to other people and organizations he cares about, making the sport accessible to more people and knocking down the barriers to entry, overtraining and the importance of rest, how long it took him to physically and emotionally recover from his Appalachian Trail FKT, and a lot more.This episode is brought to you by the VCU Health Richmond Marathon. The event, which also includes half marathon and 8K options, takes place in Richmond, Virginia, on November 16th, 2019. Whatever distance you run, Richmond provides phenomenal course support, great fall scenery, awesome finisher swag, and supportive spectators. I know from my experience running there last year that when you run Richmond, you get it all. The marathon is a mostly flat, fast course, top-25 Boston qualifier, and it ends with a beautiful, downhill riverfront finish. Runner’s World called it “America’s Friendliest Marathon” and they certainly live up to this distinction. Start planning your race experience today and save $10 on your registration fee—it applies to the marathon, half marathon, and 8K—by using the discount code “morningshakeout” when you check out at RichmondMarathon.com.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-69-with-scott-jurek/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"I don't care if somebody wants to criticize my 5K time from July 4—I mean, I got an opportunity to go and race and I went out a little too hard, I made a few mistakes, I learned a bunch from it. It was awesome. That's the point of it, that's the point of racing. So I think that's a really critical component: nowadays people race less because there's too much pressure on those results instead of focusing on the process."I was in Boulder, Colorado last week and had a chance to sit down with Tyler McCandless, a 2:12 marathoner whose career I’ve been following closely for the past 10 years. McCandless is not only one of the most underrated road racers in the U.S., he’s also one of the nicest guys in running, and you’ll see why in this episode.We covered all kinds of ground in this conversation—which we recorded just a few days before the birth of McCandless' son, Levi—from why he trains without a GPS watch to learning how to race aggressively and with confidence, balancing his full-time job as a Machine Learning Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research with being a professional long-distance runner, his relationship with his coach, former marathon world-record holder Steve Jones, and how that’s evolved over the past 6-1/2 years, the importance of having interests outside of running and not losing sight of the purity of the sport, and a lot more.This episode is brought to you by the VCU Health Richmond Marathon. The event, which also includes half marathon and 8K options, takes place in Richmond, Virginia, on November 16th, 2019. Whatever distance you run, Richmond provides phenomenal course support, great fall scenery, awesome finisher swag, and supportive spectators. I know from my experience running there last year that when you run Richmond, you get it all. The marathon is a mostly flat, fast course, top-25 Boston qualifier, and it ends with a beautiful, downhill riverfront finish. Runner’s World called it “America’s Friendliest Marathon” and they certainly live up to this distinction. Start planning your race experience today and save $10 on your registration fee—it applies to the marathon, half marathon, and 8K—by using the discount code “morningshakeout” when you check out at RichmondMarathon.com.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-68-with-tyler-mccandless/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I’m excited to share a little something different with you this week: a recent episode of The Weekly Rundown, a Patreon-exclusive podcast I’ve been recording the last few weeks with my friend and collaborator, Billy Yang of Billy Yang Films and the Billy Yang Podcast.In this teaser episode, which we recorded last week on July 2, Billy and I talk about the Western States Endurance Run, The Prefontaine Classic, and Billy’s recent trip to Austria for the Infinite Trails relay race. It’s not Billy interviewing me or me interviewing Billy—it’s just two friends talking casually and unscripted about what’s been going on in our lives, the sport, and the industry over the previous week.Right now, this show is only available to our respective supporters on Patreon, so if you’re into it and want more, you can support my work directly at themorningshakeout.com/support. If you like this informal format, or even if you don’t—or if you like it and think it needs to be longer than 30-ish minutes—let me know by dashing me a note on Twitter at @mariofraioli.Eventually we may make this show available to everyone but for now it’s only available to our respective Patreon supporters. We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled interview-style show next week but in the meantime, please enjoy this sample of The Weekly Rundown.This episode is brought to you by the VCU Health Richmond Marathon. The event, which also includes half marathon and 8K options, takes place in Richmond, Virginia, on November 16th, 2019. Whatever distance you run, Richmond provides phenomenal course support, great fall scenery, awesome finisher swag, and supportive spectators. I know from my experience running there last year that when you run Richmond, you get it all. The marathon is a mostly flat, fast course, top-25 Boston qualifier, and it ends with a beautiful, downhill riverfront finish. Runner’s World called it “America’s Friendliest Marathon” and they certainly live up to this distinction. Start planning your race experience today and save $10 on your registration fee—it applies to the marathon, half marathon, and 8K—by using the discount code “morningshakeout” when you check out at RichmondMarathon.com.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-the-weekly-rundown-a-teaser/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"When I was younger I really struggled with separating myself from sport. I really believed that how I performed is what defined me and I started to perform way better once I was able to separate myself from sport and realize that sport does not define me. And that's something that's just been huge for me."Really enjoyed talking to Gwen Jorgensen for this week's episode of the podcast. The 33-year-old Jorgensen is the reigning Olympic champion in triathlon, who, in late 2017, announced she was retiring from multi-sport racing to turn her attention to running full-time. Her goal: Olympic gold in the marathon. In early 2018, Jorgensen signed with Nike and joined the Bowerman Track Club to train alongside 2017 New York City Marathon champion Shalane Flanagan and reigning Olympic Trials marathon champion Amy Cragg under the watchful eye of coach Jerry Schumacher.We covered a lot of ground in this conversation, including Jorgensen's recent surgery to repair a Haglund's deformity in her right heel and how she's dealt with it from both a training and psychological standpoint, the importance of separating yourself from sport and having balance in your life, last fall's Chicago Marathon and why she didn’t feel that it was a fair representation of what she’s capable of in that event, reflections on her first full season of training as a runner, learning from Amy Cragg and Shalane Flanagan, what it's been like going from being at the top of one sport to an underdog in a different one, how she's learned to get comfortable sharing her story (and struggles) with a large audience, why the Olympic gold medal in the marathon is still her goal, and a lot more.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-67-with-gwen-jorgensen/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Any time I step on a line it's this huge moment of gratitude—this is another opportunity to challenge myself, to push myself, to have the privilege to run with these women. So I think when I can frame it that way, and have that sort of perspective, it just adds so much more fun and joy and excitement rather than any anxiety or outcome or stress that is often easy to get caught up in results.”Super excited to welcome Rachel Schneider to the podcast this week. On May 16, Schneider ran 15:06.71 for 5000m to win the USATF Distance Classic. It was a nine-second personal best and, at the time, the fastest 5000m run in the world this year. That mark has since been eclipsed but she is one of the top female 5000m runners in the U.S. right now and one of only two American woman to have achieved the 2020 Olympic standard so far in that event.This was a fun conversation and amazingly, it’s the first time Schneider has ever been on a podcast. We got into her progression as an athlete, from a soccer player-turned-runner in high school to multi-time all-American at Georgetown and now an Under Armour-sponsored professional training in Flagstaff, Arizona. We talked about her current setup in Flagstaff and the incredible community she has around her in the mountains. We talked training and how that’s evolved over the past few years, the importance of gratitude and balance in her life, who she looks up to, how she’s dealt with challenging situations, and a lot more.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-66-with-rachel-schneider/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“I was hooked by the appeal that you could work hard and you saw those results. I think coming from team sports, where you could work hard and still not be successful because there was so many different aspects that had to click and go right for that team to be successful, whereas I noticed from a really early stage that if I did the work, I was going to be successful.”I really enjoyed sitting down with my first Aussie guest, Brady Threlfall, for this week's episode of the podcast. Threlfall’s a 2:19 marathoner, a coach with Run 2 PB, and host of the popular Inside Running podcast. In this conversation, which we recorded a few months ago, we got into his introduction to the sport and progression as an athlete, coaching and working with different types of runners, Australia’s rich running history, what running culture looks like in his country, how the Inside Running podcast came to be, what’s exciting him in running right now, and a lot more.This episode is brought to you by Path Projects. PATH PROJECTS is a U.S.-based running apparel company that designs and manufactures technically advanced running shorts, base liners, shirts and headwear with a minimal design aesthetic, high quality materials, timeless style and unmatched price. PATH’s designs are minimalist without any big logos or bright colors—they’re just clothes that fit well, look good, and are super comfortable in a variety of situations. PATH uses a consumer direct model—their apparel is only available at pathprojects.com—which eliminates the retail mark-up and offers you phenomenal products at a great price. PATH is hosting a contest between now and June 12, 2019, where they’ll be giving away 10 of their hats. It’s totally free and you can enter the contest now at pathprojects.com/mario.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-65-with-brady-threlfall/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“No, I'm not surprised [that I'm still coaching] because there's two things: My heart and my mind is in it big time. And as long as those two continue to be in it—and my health, thank the good Lord at the age of 82 is very good—I love it, and I'm not ready to pack it in at all. Actually, I have a lot of fire in my belly.”It was an honor and a privilege to sit down with Frank Gagliano, the 82-year-old coach of the Hoka NJ-NY Track Club, for a conversation about coaching and life that had a profound impact on me—and I know it will do the same for you. This one got emotional a couple times but Coach Gags opened up to me in a way he hasn’t elsewhere before and his story—and message—is really powerful. The man has coached at every level of the sport over the past 58 years—high school, college, and professionally—and he’s had great success at all of them. He’s coached 15 Olympians, 140 All-Americans, multiple national champions, and a world championships medalist. More importantly than that, however, the lessons he’s taught his athletes extend far beyond the track. He has a love for the sport, his family, his athletes, and his country that is unmatched and it really comes across in this conversation.Whether you're a coach, athlete, or just a fan of the sport, you'll want to listen to this episode all the way to the end. There's a lot to take away from it, be inspired by, and apply to your own life. Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-64-with-frank-gagliano/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“The great thing about running is: it’s all you. If your team does better in soccer, it might be you, it might be your team. You could actually get worse and your team could get better, but if you are getting faster at running, it’s you, so the improvement feels pretty intensely emotional, and that drew me in.” I’m excited to share a special live recording of the podcast that I did with Nicholas Thompson, the editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, in front of a live audience last month in Boston. In this conversation, we spoke exclusively about aging and the marathon, which is a topic he’s written about for Wired. Last fall, Thompson—who is 43 years old—ran not one, but two 2:38 marathons at Chicago and New York, only 4 weeks apart, both faster than his previous personal best of 2:43. We recorded this episode at Tracksmith’s Trackhouse the day before this year’s Boston Marathon, where he finished in 2:34:27, a new personal best, running a nice negative split (which, if you’ve run Boston, you know is not easy to do). This episode is only about 35 minutes long but Thompson has agreed to come back on another time so we can dig deeper into the role running plays in his life, talk about his journalism career, learn about his love of music, and much more.This episode is brought to you by Tracksmith. Tracksmith is an independent running brand based in Boston. They’re a group of dedicated runners focused on building technical yet understated running apparel that celebrates the amateur spirit and inspires the personal pursuit of excellence. Tracksmith’s products reflect their New England roots: These are classic, understated and high quality essentials for runners who are working towards their next PR. To learn more, visit tracksmith.com/mario. Follow them on Instagram @tracksmithrunning and shop at tracksmith.com.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-63-with-nicholas-thompson/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“I went to the lead, even over Heartbreak, with a purpose and with the goal of dropping people and injecting pace—and I think that’s maybe what surprised me the most, is that I was able to be an actual factor and be something that impacted the way the race played out, which is a new feeling for me in the marathon, particularly in World Marathon Majors. In New York, I was as far back as probably 20th pretty early in the race and was kind of doing my own thing, so that was the biggest surprise—being up front—and the way we got to the 2:09:09 here in Boston.” Stoked to welcome the morning shakeout’s first-ever guest, Scott Fauble of Hoka Northern Arizona Elite, back to the show to talk about his recent seventh-place finish at the Boston Marathon, where he ran a big personal best of 2:09:09. We covered a lot of good stuff in this conversation: all things Boston, of course, but also training and recovery, what the next several months are going to look like heading into the 2020 Olympic Trials Marathon, his greatest strengths as a marathoner (and where he has the most room to grow), how he keeps himself centered and grounded, where his extraordinary ability to push himself in races comes from, what’s exciting him in running right now, and a heck of a lot more.This episode is brought to you by UCAN. Getting the most out of your training starts with the right nutrition and UCAN Performance Energy powders—which is what I use before big workouts and long races—give you steady, long-lasting energy with no spikes and no crashes. It’s also used by Olympians like Meb Keflezighi, Dathan Ritzenhein, and Alexi Pappas, so you know it’s the real deal. UCAN has a great offer for morning shakeout listeners right now: Try out the performance energy sample pack, which includes three (3) Performance Energy Packets and two (2) Performance Energy + Protein Packets, for only 10 bucks! Check out the offer at generationucan.com/discount/UCANSHAKEOUT—that's UCANSHAKEOUT— and use the code “UCANSHAKEOUT” when you check out to receive free shipping. Or, you can save 15% on any UCAN item you buy on generationucan.com with the code ‘SHAKEOUT” at checkout.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-62-with-scott-fauble/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Homelessness is a label, it is not who they are. It is a point in time, it is something they are struggling through, it is not something that should be used to put a label on them and define them as a human—and that's what we try to change on those morning runs. When you're running with one of our members, who may be suffering from homelessness at that point in time, it's just a human to human conversation."I had a great conversation for this week’s episode of the podcast with Katy Sherratt, the CEO of Back on My Feet, an organization that uses running and community support to help combat homelessness and provide essential employment opportunities and housing resources for people who need it.We talked about Back on my Feet’s origins, how the organization has grown since it launched in 2007, and where it’s heading in the coming years. We discussed running as a universal language, the evolving role that running has had in Sherratt’s life, how she first got involved with BoMF, and what she’s learned during her tenure. Sherratt also explains how the program works, shares some member success stories, knocks down some of the biggest misconceptions people have about homelessness, and a lot more.This episode is brought to you by UCAN. Getting the most out of your training starts with the right nutrition and UCAN Performance Energy powders—which is what I use before big workouts and long races—give you steady, long-lasting energy with no spikes and no crashes. It’s also used by Olympians like Meb Keflezighi, Dathan Ritzenhein, and Alexi Pappas, so you know it’s the real deal. UCAN has a great offer for morning shakeout listeners right now: Try out the performance energy sample pack, which includes three (3) Performance Energy Packets and two (2) Performance Energy + Protein Packets, for only 10 bucks! Check out the offer at generationucan.com/discount/UCANSHAKEOUT—that's UCANSHAKEOUT— and use the code “UCANSHAKEOUT” when you check out to receive free shipping. Or, you can save 15% on any UCAN item you buy on generationucan.com with the code ‘SHAKEOUT” at checkout.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-61-with-katy-sherratt/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Watching from an athlete perspective, where all of a sudden he gets it, or she gets it, and you see that just click, and then it's game time, I think that's the biggest thing I get from an athlete. All these things you see as a coach, like 'this athlete should be able to do this, or should be able hit these times, or do this performance,' but it's all nothing because it's just you and me talking here and we know the science of it, and the method, but the athlete is the one who has to believe in it and believe in themselves. It doesn't matter how much you tell them how great they are, or whatever, until they get it. And watching that process happen, and how it happens differently with each athlete, is probably the most exciting part of coaching.” Really enjoyed sitting down with Terrence Mahon for this week's episode of the podcast. Mahon, one of the best middle and long distance running coaches in the world, is currently the director and coach of the Mission Athletics Club in San Diego, which he co-founded last year with his wife, three-time Olympian Jen Rhines. Mahon was previously the coach of the BAA High Performance team in Boston, he was the distance coach for U.K. Athletics before that, and he was also the coach of Team Running USA/the Mammoth Track Club from 2004 to 2013, where he guided Deena Kastor to an American record of 2:19:36 in the marathon, Ryan Hall to his 59:43 AR in the half marathon, and developed eight Olympians during his tenure.This was one of my favorite conversations. We talked about Mahon’s career as both an athlete and a coach. I learned more about Mission Athletics Club and what his objectives are with his new group. We discussed the trajectory of his coaching career, from his humble beginnings working with age-group runners at a running shop in Pennsylvania to becoming one of the most highly sought after coaches in the world. He also told me about his coaching influences and mentors, including the legendary Joe Vigil, Dan Pfaff, and others.We got into the weeds of Mahon's coaching philosophy and there are a ton of great takeaways: like the importance of really getting to know your athletes, being brutally honest with them, and being adaptable when it comes to setting goals. We talked about what he sees as his main responsibilities as a coach, how he keeps sharp and stays excited about the craft, what he learns from the athletes he works with, the idea of "coaching mastery" and what that means to him, and a heck of a lot more.This episode is brought to you by Tracksmith. Tracksmith is an independent running brand based in Boston. They’re a group of dedicated runners focused on building technical yet understated running apparel that celebrates the amateur spirit and inspires the personal pursuit of excellence. Tracksmith’s products reflect their New England roots: These are classic, understated and high quality essentials for runners who are working towards their next PR. To learn more, visit tracksmith.com/mario. Right now they’re running a special offer for new customers: spend $150 and earn their signature navy Van Cortlandt singlet for free. Follow them on Instagram @tracksmithrunning and shop at tracksmith.com.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-60-with-terrence-mahon/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"A lot of us endurance athletes are obsessive and one of the things that makes us good is that we're able to focus on the very small details of our craft and spend a lot of time concentrating on improving those things. On the flip side, it's pretty easy to get too bogged down in the weeds and we can have a hard time stepping back and really seeing the big picture of progression, which is something that happens over a long period of time—not something that we can expect to happen in a matter of weeks or months or even like a year or two, and I think that's something that I've got into a little bit of trouble with in the past."I had a great time talking to Chelsea Sodaro for this week's episode of the podcast. Many of you may remember Sodaro by her maiden name, Chelsea Reilly, who national titles in the road 10K and indoor 3000m in 2012 and 2013, respectively. The 29-year-old Sodaro was one of the top distance runners in the U.S. not that long ago, with personal bests on the track ranging from 4:08 in the 1500m to 15:10 in the 5K. She’s turned her attention to triathlon in the last few years and is quickly rising through the pro ranks, having won her first ITU World Cup race last June and finishing 2018 atop the podium at Ironman 70.3 Indian Wells-La Quinta in December.We covered a lot in this conversation: how Chelsea got into running, where she gets her competitive drive from, how she’s dealt with injury throughout her career, the special relationship she has with Olympian Magdalena Boulet, transitioning to triathlon less than three years ago, why she felt so alone and empty immediately after winning her first triathlon last year, the advice she’d give her younger self, and a lot more.This episode is brought to you by Tracksmith. Tracksmith is an independent running brand based in Boston. They’re a group of dedicated runners focused on building technical yet understated running apparel that celebrates the amateur spirit and inspires the personal pursuit of excellence. Tracksmith’s products reflect their New England roots: These are classic, understated and high quality essentials for runners who are working towards their next PR. To learn more, visit tracksmith.com/mario. Right now they’re running a special offer for new customers: spend $150 and earn their signature navy Van Cortlandt singlet for free. Follow them on Instagram @tracksmithrunning and shop at tracksmith.com.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-59-with-chelsea-sodaro/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"They were doing 10-mile long runs by that time and I dropped them. And they were like, 'Oh, this kid is tough!' I was coming and going on rolling hills and my coach was like, 'Hmm, you ran the last mile in 4:55.' I didn't even know what that meant—4:55 a mile? I just ran. I used to clock [time] in kilometers, so I thought it was a kilometer, and I was like, 'That's slow.' But it was miles. A few months later I came back and ran my first indoor [race] and they were like, 'You can run!' and I was like, 'OK.' That's the moment I fell in love with the sport and I ended up quitting the soccer thing and just focused on running."Excited to share a recent conversation I had with Edward Cheserek on this week's episode of the podcast. King Ches, as he’s known throughout the running world, recently tied the IAAF world record for the road 5K at Carlsbad 5000, breaking the tape in 13 minutes and 29 seconds. I was fortunate enough to sit down with the 25-year-old Kenyan for half an hour a couple days before the race to learn a little more about his life, his upbringing in Kenya, moving to the U.S. as a high schooler 10 years ago, his record-setting collegiate career at the University of Oregon where he won 17 NCAA titles, what it would mean for him to gain his U.S. citizenship and represent this country in an international championship, where his competitiveness comes from, and a lot more.This episode is brought to you by Tracksmith. Tracksmith is an independent running brand based in Boston. They’re a group of dedicated runners focused on building technical yet understated running apparel that celebrates the amateur spirit and inspires the personal pursuit of excellence. Tracksmith’s products reflect their New England roots: These are classic, understated and high quality essentials for runners who are working towards their next PR. To learn more, visit tracksmith.com/mario. Right now they’re running a special offer for new customers: spend $150 and earn their signature navy Van Cortlandt singlet for free. Follow them on Instagram @tracksmithrunning and shop at tracksmith.com.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-58-with-edward-cheserek/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"I always found myself working very hard to try and be the best at those little things but also enjoy what I was doing. This was evident at a very early age—I wanted to be competitive at something but I wanted to enjoy it while I was doing it. I don't think I gain most of my enjoyment from the competitive side of it and from the racing or the competing. It was more from the just being present there and enjoying seeing other people enjoy what we're doing and enjoying it with them."Excited to share a recent conversation I had with a guy many of you outside the Bay Area running scene may not have heard of yet: His name is Paddy O’Leary, he’s an Irish lad living in San Francisco, and he’s a North Face-sponsored trail and ultra runner who has risen through the ranks of the sport in just a few short years. He’s also got a fast set of wheels, having run a big personal best of 2:20 and change in the marathon last fall at CIM, a race he ran on somewhat of a whim after The North Face Endurance Challenge Championships got cancelled due to the California Wildfires.O'Leary’s a friend and sometimes training partner of mine and he’s got an incredible story—not to mention a beautiful Irish brogue—that I’m excited to share with you in this episode. Before he got into running about five years ago, O'Leary played on the Irish national lacrosse team from 2007-2014, captaining the squad to its first European Lacrosse Championship final in 2012. He's also been a cancer biologist at UCSF since 2013, was the co-leader of the November Project in San Francisco from 2014-2018, and has a love of traveling, community, sport, and, of course a good Guinness.On Saturday, April 13, O'Leary will attempt the Wicklow Round in his native Ireland, a self-supported long-distance run which involves summiting 26 peaks with over 20,000 feet of climbing over 70 miles with no GPS—just a compass, a map, and his own questionable senses.This is a long one but it was an enjoyable exchange that covers a wide range of topics, from O'Leary's upbringing in County Wexford, Ireland, why he came to the U.S. to do his postdoctoral research, how he got into trail and ultrarunning, what he'd like to do in running over the next couple years, and much, much more. I really think you’ll take a lot away from it, so settle in and enjoy my discussion with Paddy O’Leary.This episode is brought to you by Tracksmith. Tracksmith is an independent running brand based in Boston. They’re a group of dedicated runners focused on building technical yet understated running apparel that celebrates the amateur spirit and inspires the personal pursuit of excellence. Tracksmith’s products reflect their New England roots: These are classic, understated and high quality essentials for runners who are working towards their next PR. To learn more, visit tracksmith.com/mario. Right now they’re running a special offer for new customers: spend $150 and earn their signature navy Van Cortlandt singlet for free. Follow them on Instagram @tracksmithrunning and shop at tracksmith.com.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-57-with-paddy-oleary/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"A lot of the folks I interact with now, whether it's a newly post-collegiate athlete who's still got goals that they want to achieve, or a middle-aged athlete who has a general fitness goal they want to achieve, or they'd like go for that Boston qualifier, whatever it is, most of these goals are achievable if you stick with it and keep building the tower—I call it 'the Jenga tower.' My outlook on coaching, generally, is: Let's build the tower and we'll eventually get there. Sometimes you do have artificial timelines, but if you can avoid them that's better, and just concentrate on building on what you have done and not worrying about what you aren't. So I try to think inductively about coaching and I think that's partly due to some of these experiences—let's assume we're going to get there. It's just a question of 'how' and not 'if.'"Really enjoyed sitting down with Dena Evans for this week’s episode of the podcast. Evans is currently the coordinator and coach of the Peninsula Distance Club, a competitive post-collegiate team based in Palo Alto, California that she founded in 2007. Evans also coached at Stanford from 1999-2005, and in 2003 was named the NCAA Women’s Cross Country Coach of the year after leading the Cardinal to the national title. A few of her athletes during those years are some names you might recognize, like Lauren Fleshman, Sara Hall, Alicia Vargo, Malindi Elmore, and others. She’s also been on the coaching staff for Team USA at multiple world championships. In addition to her coaching accolades, Evans was a standout athlete at Stanford from 1992-96, where she was a three-time All American in track and also star player on the soccer team.We covered a lot of different topics in this conversation, from getting into multiple sports at a young age to her thoughts on specialization, her career at Stanford and how she juggled being a two-sport athlete, her relationship with coach Vin Lananna and how he influenced her as both an athlete and a coach, how she got into coaching and what she’s learned working with different levels of athletes over the past 20 years, what’s exciting her—and what she would change—about the sport of running right now, and a lot more.This episode is brought to you by Tracksmith. Tracksmith is an independent running brand based in Boston. They’re a group of dedicated runners focused on building technical yet understated running apparel that celebrates the amateur spirit and inspires the personal pursuit of excellence. Tracksmith’s products reflect their New England roots: These are classic, understated and high quality essentials for runners who are working towards their next PR. To learn more, visit tracksmith.com/mario. Right now they’re running a special offer for new customers: spend $150 and earn their signature navy Van Cortlandt singlet for free. Follow them on Instagram @tracksmithrunning and shop at tracksmith.com.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-56-with-dena-evans/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"I think what made me me was taking big risks and training really hard. And I think that's what allowed me to have such high highs but it's also why I had so many low lows as well. I think if I would have taken the edge off my training I probably would have just been a lot more steady in my results and not so up and down and all over the map. But also, in my mind, I don't know if I would have gotten to the same place—and for me, I would rather risk everything and see what's going to happen than play it safe and just get to mediocre for me.” It was a treat to speak with Ryan Hall for this week's episode of the podcast. Hall, who retired from professional running in 2016, is still the fastest American male marathoner (2:04:58) and half marathoner (59:43) of all-time. He made two Olympic teams and finished in the top-5 at numerous World Marathon Majors, including a third-place finish in Boston in 2008.We packed a lot into this 45-minute conversation, including his reflections on retirement and when he realized he couldn’t push himself to the level he wanted to in running. We talked about battling extreme fatigue toward the end of his career and what he might do differently in retrospect, especially as a high school athlete who trained hard from a young age. There was some talk about nature vs. nature as it relates to athletic success, body image issues amongst male runners—including his own struggles—and where his own independent and competitive streaks come from. Finally, we got into his attraction to Ethiopia and what led to he and his wife Sara adopting four daughters from that country, his upcoming new book, Run The Mile You’re In, what that phrase means to him exactly, and a lot more.This episode is brought to you by Rise.Run.Retreat. Rise.Run.Retreat is a four-day women’s running retreat that takes place from May 16-19, 2019 in Woodstock, Vermont. It was founded on the idea that, when women come together through running they inspire and strengthen one another. Limited to just 16 women, the small-scale setting makes for a unique and impactful experience. Your registration includes all lodging, wholesome meals provided by the local farmer’s market and an amazing swag bag. For more information head to riserunretreat.com and use the code TMSPOD—that’s all CAPS—and save $100 bucks off your registration fee.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-55-with-ryan-hall/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"The bottom line is that a lot of people look at running and they want to try it but are intimidated by it—and I think the more encouraging and welcoming we are, starting from the top of the sport, the better it is. And so that's exciting for me to watch and to cover and I hope [elites] continue to be encouraging and welcoming."I had a great time sitting down with Erin Strout for this week's episode of the podcast. Just a few weeks ago, Strout was named the digital editor at WomensRunning.com and for my money, she's one of the top journalists covering the sport of running today. In addition to her work at Women's Running, Strout has also written for Outside, Runner’s World, Running Times, and numerous other publications.We covered quite a bit of ground in this conversation, including Strout's introduction to running, when she began to think of herself as a runner, and the evolution of her career as a journalist. We also discussed the current state of the sport, the collective rise of American women in recent years, and what can be done to bridge the gap between elite athletes and middle and back of the packers. Finally, we got into the issue of gender equity in coaching, how she deals with feedback and criticism of her work, why she wishes freelance writers would stop pitching her personal essays, and a whole lot more, including some fun anecdotes about Meb Keflezighi and Shalane Flanagan.This episode is brought to you by Rise.Run.Retreat. Rise.Run.Retreat is a four-day women’s running retreat that takes place from May 16-19, 2019 in Woodstock, Vermont. It was founded on the idea that, when women come together through running they inspire and strengthen one another. Limited to just 16 women, the small-scale setting makes for a unique and impactful experience. Your registration includes all lodging, wholesome meals provided by the local farmer’s market and an amazing swag bag. For more information head to riserunretreat.com and use the code TMSPOD—that’s all CAPS—and save $100 bucks off your registration fee.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-54-with-erin-strout/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Looking inside at the stuff that is scary and that you don't want to face, that's really hard, uncomfortable work. So in order to get to the other side, to truly feel compassionate for yourself and show yourself love, you have to come to terms with the ugly stuff. And that ugly stuff can be, 'I'm insecure,' that ugly stuff can be that, 'The only reason that I race is because I'm scared to die and this gives me something else to focus on,' it can be that 'I feel validated and my self-worth is from this,' like all kinds of stuff comes up and that's normal. We're humans, that's the thing. It doesn't mean that you're broken. And the more you can acknowledge that, be aware of it and be kind to it, the better chance you have of getting to the other side where suddenly you're just racing out of love."Excited to share my recent conversation with good friend and colleague, Brad Stulberg, on this week's episode of the podcast. Stulberg coaches executives, entrepreneurs, and athletes on their most pressing challenges and writes about health and the science of human performance as a columnist for Outside magazine. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Wired, New York Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Runner’s World and many other outlets.The best-selling co-author author of Peak Performance, a book which explores the science and practice of world-class performance, Stulberg and his co-author Steve Magness are about to release their second book, The Passion Paradox, a guide to going all in, finding success, and discovering the benefits of an unbalanced life, which comes out on March 19. In this episode, Stulberg and I discuss performance, passion, addiction, health, well-being, purpose, burnout, the importance of practicing self-awareness and self-compassion, and a number of related topics that are pertinent to your athletic, personal, and professional pursuits alike. We also got into Stulberg's own path as a hard-charging consultant turned writer and coach, recovering Type-A triathlete, his own struggles with burnout and mental illness, and much, much, more.This episode is brought to you by Rise.Run.Retreat. Rise.Run.Retreat is a four-day women’s running retreat that takes place from May 16-19, 2019 in Woodstock, Vermont. It was founded on the idea that, when women come together through running they inspire and strengthen one another. Limited to just 16 women, the small-scale setting makes for a unique and impactful experience. Your registration includes all lodging, wholesome meals provided by the local farmer’s market and an amazing swag bag. For more information head to riserunretreat.com and use the code TMSPOD—that’s all CAPS—and save $100 bucks off your registration fee.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-53-with-brad-stulberg/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Things are going to be uncomfortable in life. You're going to have uncomfortable runs, uncomfortable races, uncomfortable conversations with family and friends, or standing up to your boss if you feel like you deserve a raise. All things like that, I think are just giving you a little more courage and a little more pep in your step to really stand up for what you believe in and push through those hard days and know that you're going to see light at the end of the tunnel.” Thrilled to welcome Stephanie Bruce of Hoka Northern Arizona Elite to the show this week. The 35-year-old mom of two young boys is a 2:29 marathoner, co-founder of Picky Bars, online running coach, and oh yeah, reigning national 10K champion on the roads.In this episode, we discussed what she’s focused on from a training and racing standpoint right now, why she thinks it’s important to get out of your comfort zone when it comes to racing, and the changes coach Ben Rosario has made to her training in the past several years that have contributed to her recent success. We also talked about the marathon and her biggest limiters in that event, what it will take to make the 2020 Olympic marathon team in Atlanta, who she looks up to in the sport, where she gets her grittiness from, how to cultivate it in your own life, and a whole lot more.This episode is brought to you by Rise.Run.Retreat. Rise.Run.Retreat is a four-day women’s running retreat that takes place from May 16-19, 2019 in Woodstock, Vermont. It was founded on the idea that, when women come together through running they inspire and strengthen one another. Limited to just 16 women, the small-scale setting makes for a unique and impactful experience. Your registration includes all lodging, wholesome meals provided by the local farmer’s market and an amazing swag bag. For more information head to riserunretreat.com and use the code TMSPOD—that’s all CAPS—and save $100 bucks off your registration fee. Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-52-with-stephanie-bruce/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Everybody runs. It's the original. You go to an elementary school at lunch time and everybody is running. It's intrinsic to us. And we lose that, whether we don't make the track team, whatever it ends up being, we lose that and I think that's a shame. And I think as a community and as an industry and everything we need to get back to this idea of 'run a block and a half, and then run five blocks, and then run 10 blocks.' And just that alone is amazing.” — Jeremy Bresnen of Ciele AthleticsI’m excited to share a roundtable discussion I hosted last November at The Loop Running Supply in Austin, Texas, with Scott Gravatt, who is the run specialty sales director at Nike, Jeremy Bresnan, the co-founder of Ciele Athletics, and Pam Hess, who is the co-founder, along with her husband Ryan, of The Loop.We covered quite a bit of ground in this discussion, which centered around running culture, what that is exactly, how it’s evolved over the years, and where it’s heading. There was talk about the running industry, the rise of smaller brands like Ciele, the influence of bigger ones like Nike, and how they can all co-exist in an increasingly crowded space; we got into the sport of running, the activity of running, and the lifestyle of running, how those things are all very different and also where they intersect. Finally, we dove into the importance of running specialty shops to local culture and community, the importance of storytelling, the role of athletes, and a whole lot more.This episode is brought to you by Jaybird. Like many of you, I’m an avid podcast listener, and having a good pair of headphones is super important to me. And my go-to for a while now has been the Jaybird RUN true wireless headphones. They’re super comfortable, they stay in my ears, they hold a charge for a long time, and, most importantly, they pump out incredible sound. Jaybird has just released an update to their true wireless line called RUN XT, which are now fully waterproof and sweat proof, so they hold up to your hardest workouts and most extreme weather conditions. They are freaking awesome. Right now, morning shakeout listeners—that’s YOU —can receive 20% off of a pair of the just released RUN XT true wireless headphones AND free shipping through the end of March 2019. Go to jaybirdsport.com and use the code SHAKEOUT—that’s all one word, all capital letters—when you check out to take advantage of this awesome offer. [Offer can only be applied once per customer.]Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-51-with-scott-gravatt-jeremy-bresnen-and-pam-hess/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"I hope people can find joy in what they're doing, I hope people find things that are exciting, I hope people can look at me and say, 'If that dude with a job and a family and 1.5 cars and all the same things that I'm dealing with can get out and do something, maybe I can do something too and maybe I can set a big goal and maybe I can find something that excites me and motivates me and I'm passionate about that I want to chase.' And then I hope they go out and they do it.”Stoked to welcome another awesome guest on to the podcast this week: Michael Wardian. Wardian is the exception to almost every racing rule and for his latest trick he just broke the Guinness World Record for running ten marathons in ten consecutive days, covering 262 miles in 29 hours, 12 minutes, and 46 seconds, or an average of 2:55:17 per marathon. He ran the first seven of those 10 marathons on seven different continents as part of the World Marathon Challenge and completed the last three around a certified 5K loop near his home in Arlington, Virginia in 2:50 flat, 2:48:43, and 2:44:33. Oh, and on the 11th day, he raced a 5K with his vizsla Rosie in 17:01. Perhaps more impressively, he did all of that off about 20 total hours of sleep, which is something I pressed him on in this conversation.If you know of Wardian's way of doing things, you know this is just how he rolls. The 44-year-old races around 50 times a year on average and he’s not afraid to line up at a mile on the track or ultramarathon on the trails, sometimes doing both on the same weekend. He’s also set a number of wacky world records —like the fastest 50K ever run on a treadmill, fastest marathon ever run wearing various costumes, fastest marathon ever run on an indoor track, and even pushing a baby stroller— and he regularly tackles challenging ultra endeavors such as Badwater 135, Marathon des Sables, and the Hurt 100 to name a few. He’s also qualified for three Olympic Trials marathons, won a number of national titles and placed on the podium at world championship events.Wardian's a great guy with crazy goals, unmatched ambition, and a big, selfless heart. We talked about his most recent feat, what lies ahead, how he recovers between big efforts despite being a notoriously bad sleeper, how he fits it all in around a family and job, the importance of giving back and helping others, the power of positivity, what he hopes the average person can take away from his approach to life and running, and much, much more.This episode is brought to you by Jaybird. Like many of you, I’m an avid podcast listener, and having a good pair of headphones is super important to me. And my go-to for a while now has been the Jaybird RUN true wireless headphones. They’re super comfortable, they stay in my ears, they hold a charge for a long time, and, most importantly, they pump out incredible sound. Jaybird has just released an update to their true wireless line called RUN XT, which are now fully waterproof and sweat proof, so they hold up to your hardest workouts and most extreme weather conditions. They are freaking awesome. Right now, morning shakeout listeners—that’s YOU —can receive 20% off of a pair of the just released RUN XT true wireless headphones AND free shipping through the end of March 2019. Go to jaybirdsport.com and use the code SHAKEOUT—that’s all one word, all capital letters—when you check out to take advantage of this awesome offer. [Offer can only be applied once per customer.]Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-50-with-michael-wardian/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“There were days when I was just so exhausted and I didn't even want to get up out of bed because I didn't even see the point. There was so much time that I spent wishing that the accident would have killed me because it felt like it was easier than to have to face the pain and face the challenges of everyday life. But then I'd receive a message and some voice of encouragement, sometimes from a dear friend, sometimes from a complete stranger, and it just built this community that I felt that I had near and far and it again let me discover the strength that I had within me, whether or not it was still there. Trail running, I felt, I could experience it in a new way but talking with complete strangers or my friends supporting me, it also allowed me to dig deep and find that within me.” It was a real treat to sit down with Hillary Allen for this week's episode of the podcast. Every week on this show I try to glean as much insight and inspiration as possible from some of the top athletes, coaches, and personalities in the sport of running and this week’s guest has those two things in SPADES—and it really comes out in this conversation.The 30-year-old Allen, a North Face-sponsored trail and ultra runner from Colorado, has made her biggest mark in sky running, which takes place in super gnarly, technical, high alpine environments. She was the U.S. Sky Running Ultra Champion in 2015, and has course records and podium finishes at races all over the world. The crazy thing is: she’s only been in the sport for a few years and rapidly ascended the ranks—quite literally—in a very short amount of time.But there’s so much more to this special human. Allen has a Masters degree in neuroscience, she’s got a thing for bugs and grew up wanting to be an entomologist, she was a collegiate tennis player, she coaches other runners, and is just one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Allen also has an incredible story about survival—she fell 150 feet off the side of a mountain while racing in Norway a couple years ago—which we covered from a few different angles in this conversation, amongst a slew of other interesting topics, including using running and races as a way to explore places she's never gone, the issue of burnout in ultrarunning, how she got her nickname, "Hillygoat," the craziest wildlife encounters she's had on the trails, running a 2:50 self-supported marathon to see if she could go faster than she did in her first, her love of science and the outdoors and how that's impacted her life, and much more.Postscript: Allen broke her ankle in late January, just a couple weeks after we recorded this conversation, an injury that required yet another surgery. “Things happen for a reason—if you chose to let them,” she wrote on her blog. “I’m reminded to take a deep breath, feel what I’m feeling and believe. BELIEVE. That this too, will create, reignite and provide an opportunity for growth.”This episode is brought to you by Strava’s new podcast, Athletes Unfiltered. Are you looking for a little extra motivation on your next run or bike ride? Athletes Unfiltered is a new podcast of inspiring stories from the Strava community, told by the runners and cyclists who lived them. And along the way, they’ll tackle some of the big, scary questions every athlete has to find answers to: Why am I doing this? Am I getting too old? Will I ever run again? The answers these athletes give might just help you find some of your own. Give the Athletes Unfiltered podcast a listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you consume audio content.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-49-with-hillary-allen/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“The idea of doing what you love doesn't happen by accident. Like if I went to drama everyday, sure I'd have fun but it would have been misdirected. And I was fortunate enough to have what I loved and learn it but really cultivate it and really be around other people that loved it. And that's probably the theme that will come out of this conversation, whether it's a peer of mine that I'm still friends with because we raced against each other in high school or Mike Fanelli, who was running around the track with me at age 50, or my parents—it doesn't matter the demographic, we shared that. And I want for our high school kids to have that. They're coming to practice with two coaches that love it so much, they're surrounded by teammates that really love what they're doing, and it's the culture that we have, it's the community we're trying to create.”Incredibly excited to welcome Jake Schmitt to the podcast this week. The 31-year-old is a three-time Olympic Trials qualifier in the marathon with a personal best of 2:15:09. He most recently ran 2:18:03 at CIM and has his sights set on competing well at the Trials in Atlanta a little over a year from now.Schmitt was a state champion cross-country runner in high school and an All-American in track at the University of Washington. Aside from being an accomplished athlete, he has coached at his alma mater, Redwood High School, for the past nine years alongside his mom, Laura—who is also his coach—and they’ve developed one of the top distance programs in California. This mom and son duo also cofounded the Thoroughbred Treadmill Studio just north of San Francisco, which is the first of its kind on the west coast.We talked about all of those things in this conversation and then some, including Schmitt's tight-knit family, where he gets his competitiveness from, how his parents taught him to love running without forcing it upon him, why he loves monotony, the importance of restraint in bringing along high school athletes in their training, developing a healthy team culture, and a lot more.This episode is brought to you by Strava’s new podcast, Athletes Unfiltered. Are you looking for a little extra motivation on your next run or bike ride? Athletes Unfiltered is a new podcast of inspiring stories from the Strava community, told by the runners and cyclists who lived them. You’ll hear from a runner who loses his sight and discovers a new community. A drummer who passes up the after party so he can get up early to ride bikes with his fans and connect in a way he never could from on-stage. A mountain biker who watched the trails he loved burst into flames and then created an app to help rally his community around rebuilding them. And along the way, they’ll tackle some of the big, scary questions every athlete has to find answers to: Why am I doing this? Am I getting too old? Will I ever run again? The answers these athletes give might just help you find some of your own. Give the Athletes Unfiltered podcast a listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you consume audio content.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-48-with-jake-schmitt/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“I just kind of started to give myself a little bit more credit for what I've done and stopped having that need to incessantly prove myself. Because nobody else is thinking of me that way, nobody else is quantifying other people that way, it's just yourself. And so I made the choice to stop doing that to myself because the priority for me is health—because I can't do the running if I'm unhealthy, and it's as simple as that. The racing doesn't matter; if I'm going to race terribly because I'm ill, then why am I bothering anyways?” I really enjoyed sitting down with Devon Yanko for this week's episode of the podcast. We caught up a little week before the recent Houston Marathon, where she ran 2:39:34—less than a minute off of her personal best—to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Trials in Atlanta.Yanko is a super accomplished athlete who has run almost 100 races of marathon distance and beyond. She's also won two ultra-distance national titles on the roads, represented the U.S. at multiple world championships, been on the podium at Western States, won the Leadville 100, held the Grand Canyon Rim 2 Rim 2 Rim FKT, qualified for two Olympic Trials marathons, and has finished in the top-5 at Comrades. In short: she is a badass across a range of distances and on a variety of terrain.This was a loaded conversation and I think you'll take a lot away from it. We talked about how Yanko got into running after growing up as a basketball player, how the sport of trail and ultra running has evolved since she first got into about 13 years ago, getting over a tough year in 2018 that was full of health issues and injuries, the importance of community, her proudest accomplishment as an athlete, sharing her story of teenage sexual abuse and how that’s impacted her life over the past 20+ years, what can be done to bring more women into trail and ultra running, opening a bakery with her husband Nathan, and much, much more.This episode is brought to you by Strava’s new podcast, Athletes Unfiltered. Are you looking for a little extra motivation on your next run or bike ride? Athletes Unfiltered is a new podcast of inspiring stories from the Strava community, told by the runners and cyclists who lived them. You’ll hear from a runner who loses his sight and discovers a new community. A drummer who passes up the after party so he can get up early to ride bikes with his fans and connect in a way he never could from on-stage. A mountain biker who watched the trails he loved burst into flames and then created an app to help rally his community around rebuilding them. And along the way, they’ll tackle some of the big, scary questions every athlete has to find answers to: Why am I doing this? Am I getting too old? Will I ever run again? The answers these athletes give might just help you find some of your own. Give the Athletes Unfiltered podcast a listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you consume audio content.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-47-with-devon-yanko/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"You know, growing other avenues of my life has been really positive, and having an overall balance in my life, and not just having this laser focus on running. Because before, my running and my happiness were tied so close together that it was almost a dangerous thing. If I wasn't running well, the rest of my life was not going well either and it was nice to be able to separate that and separate different parts of life and get enjoyment and fulfillment out of hanging out with friends, and not being stressed about not running, and stuff like that. So yeah, it was a shift in mindset that was very important—it had to happen."I had a blast sitting down with Rob Watson for this week's episode of the podcast. Watson is a recently retired professional runner from Canada who won two national steeplechase titles and represented his country numerous times in international competition. He also has a 2:13:29 marathon personal best, finished 11th at Boston in 2013, and broke the 2:20 mark ten times in his career.The 35-year-old Watson, who stepped away from the professional side of the sport after failing to qualify for the Olympic Games at the 2016 London Marathon, where he ran 2:18:45, is a coach with Mile2Marathon in Vancouver, where he's lived since 2012. He won the BMO Vancouver Marathon last year—the first marathon victory of his career—and his resolutions for 2019 include "learning how to trail run and not fall on head. 2. Learn how to do ultra running shit. 3. After 1 & 2 are complete start crushing trail and ultra races."We had a great conversation and covered a wide range of topics, including being mentally done with the grind of training and racing at the professional level; coaching with Mile2Marathon and how that's fueled his own excitement for running, given him new perspective, and revived his desire to get back into training and racing; learning how to recognize, enjoy, and celebrate his accomplishments rather than always dwelling on what he could have done better; how the business of professional running has changed over the past 10-12 years; the disconnect that exists between the participatory side of running and the competitive side of the sport, and what can be done to close that gap; how he worked through insecurity and confidence issues and learned to trust himself and his training; his new year’s resolutions and why he's excited to explore trail and ultrarunning; and much, much more.This episode is brought to you by Strava. Strava is hands down THE best app for runners, cyclists, and triathletes. It's a great way to keep yourself accountable, stick to your New Year’s resolutions, keep track of and analyze your own training, and is also a great way to stay connected with and be motivated by other athletes who are getting after it every day. Strava is free to use whenever you want to log a run or a workout, but there are also a number of extra special Summit features that cost just a few dollars a month that allow you to set goals and stay motivated, better analyze your workouts, dig deeper into the data, share your location during activities, and explore new places with confidence, and more. For a limited time, Strava is offering listeners of the morning shakeout—that’s YOU—a chance to try those Summit features for FREE. Go to strava.com/summit and enter the code "shakeout" (all lowercase) at checkout to see what Summit is all about and try it out for yourself.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-46-with-rob-watson/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Like I want to make people happy, and do the right thing, and be successful. And I think a lot of people end up getting sucked into that and then have to be like, 'Wait, why am I doing this?' 'Do I want to be here?' 'Why did I make these choices?' and you have to rethink it and figure out what actually makes you happy and what you actually want to do. Luckily, just being competitive and wanting to get better and better and better at running has turned out pretty good for me because, when I sit back, I do love what I'm doing. But it is something you have to be careful of—like, 'Why am I so obsessed at being so good at that? Or not failing? Maybe it's OK. And I think that's something I'll probably be working with the rest of my life."Stoked to welcome Olympian Colleen Quigley to the podcast this week! The 26-year-old is a member of the Bowerman Track Club and has established herself as one of the top middle-distance runners in the world, specializing in the steeplechase. She competed in that event at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where she finished eighth, and has represented the United States multiple times in international competition.A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Quigley had a stellar 2018 campaign, winning the Wannamaker Mile at the Millrose Games, qualifying for the world indoor championships in the 1500m, putting up personal bests in the 1000m, 1500m, and steeplechase, winning two race races in Europe, and finishing second to Jenny Simpson in the Fifth Ave. Mile to close out the year.The nomadic Quigley and I caught up a few weeks ago in San Francisco before she took off for altitude camp and we covered a wide range of topics, including her morning routine, how she's dealt with injuries throughout her career, what it was like to be coached by her dad in high school and the importance of keeping the sport fun during those formative years, making the decision to postpone a modeling career in order to run collegiately at Florida State, deciding to join the Bowerman Track Club after college, the influence Shalane Flanagan has had on her professional career and how her relationship with coach Jerry Schumacher has evolved over the last few years, fear of rejection and how's she's dealt with it throughout her life, her competitiveness and where she gets it comes from, the origins of #fastbraidfriday, what she's excited about in 2019, and a whole lot more.This episode is brought to you by Strava. Strava is hands down THE best app for runners, cyclists, and triathletes. It's a great way to keep yourself accountable, stick to your New Year’s resolutions, keep track of and analyze your own training, and is also a great way to stay connected with and be motivated by other athletes who are getting after it every day. Strava is free to use whenever you want to log a run or a workout, but there are also a number of extra special Summit features that cost just a few dollars a month that allow you to set goals and stay motivated, better analyze your workouts, dig deeper into the data, share your location during activities, and explore new places with confidence, and more. For a limited time, Strava is offering listeners of the morning shakeout—that’s YOU—a chance to try those Summit features for FREE. Go to strava.com/summit and enter the code "shakeout" (all lowercase) at checkout to see what Summit is all about and try it out for yourself.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-45-with-colleen-quigley/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"That's the great thing about competition or even just running in general—it's all about yourself. And maybe even greater than that, your running community is behind you and they want you to do well or set PRs. But as long as you're happy or you're doing things that are of value to you, I think people really rally behind that and I think that's what's so cool and unique about the running community. I just focused on myself [at CIM] and was trying to run a big PR for the day and the stars aligned and gave me an extra cherry on the top there to win a national championship, so it was all the merrier."Really excited to welcome reigning U.S. marathon champion Brogan Austin to the podcast this week. For those of you who don’t know, the 27-year-old Austin won CIM in early December, running in 2:12:39 to claim his first national title, set a massive personal best, and make his case as a contender for the 2020 Olympic marathon team.We had a great conversation a couple weeks ago and I’m stoked to share it with you. I got to learn a lot more about who Brogan is, where he came from, how he trains, what it’s like to train and race at a high level while holding down a full-time job, why he loves breakfast cereal, what life has looked like for him since winning a national championship, and a whole lot more.This episode is brought to you by Strava. Strava is hands down THE best app for runners, cyclists, and triathletes. It's a great way to keep yourself accountable, stick to your New Year’s resolutions, keep track of and analyze your own training, and is also a great way to stay connected with and be motivated by other athletes who are getting after it every day. Strava is free to use whenever you want to log a run or a workout, but there are also a number of extra special Summit features that cost just a few dollars a month that allow you to set goals and stay motivated, better analyze your workouts, dig deeper into the data, share your location during activities, and explore new places with confidence, and more. For a limited time, Strava is offering listeners of the morning shakeout—that’s YOU—a chance to try those Summit features for FREE. Go to strava.com/summit and enter the code "shakeout" (all lowercase) at checkout to see what Summit is all about and try it out for yourself.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-44-with-brogan-austin/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"I think sometimes someone tells you their story, and you're listening to it and that's a value; other times you need to tell people about it in advocacy; and other times you need to do something about it to help create change. I kind of see Girls Gotta Run as an extension of that, really working to bring those stories, bring the experiences of the girls to an elevated level where more people can understand that, see that, and support them in making change."It was a real treat to talk to Kayla Nolan, the executive director of Girls Gotta Run, for this week’s episode of the podcast. Girls Gotta Run is the only non-profit organization in Ethiopia using the national sport of running to create safe spaces, end child marriage and expand access to secondary school for vulnerable girls.Nolan and Girls Gotta Run are doing some amazing things for women in Ethiopia using running as vehicle to drive positive change. We covered a lot in this conversation—from how Nolan first became connected to Ethiopia, to how she became involved with Girls Gotta Run, how the organization and her role within it has evolved over the last several years, the unique challenges women face in Ethiopia, how GGR is helping create opportunities for women through running, the rich running culture in Ethiopia, the importance of advocacy, and much, much, more—and I am super excited to share it with all of you.This episode is brought to you by Maurten, the sports fuel used by many of the world’s top marathoners, including Eliud Kipchoge, Mo Farah, Mary Keitany, and Des Linden, to name a few. Maurten has set up a special contest for listeners of the morning shakeout where you can win heaps of free product. Here’s what you have to do: Go to maurten.com/AMshakeout and register with your email address. At the end of Maurten’s 4-week sponsorship of this podcast they are going to draw 10 winners at random. Each winner will get a full box of 160 drink mix, a full box of 320 drink mix, and a full box of GEL 100s. That entire package is valued at over $130! Enter for your chance to win at maurten.com/AMshakeout.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-43-with-kayla-nolan/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“The number one thing is really taking ownership of what you do with your body and understanding that our ideas on strength and exercising, it's not the multivitamin. I can't eat like crap and take my daily pill and think I'm good. Strength doesn't work that way [either]. It's not like I can run like garbage, never stretch, ignore all these signals that my body is giving me all the time, but do this one exercise, and think everything is going to be OK. It needs to be flipped around.”It was super fun to sit down with my friend Nate Helming, co-founder of The Run Experience, an online community that helps runners train to become stronger, faster, and more well-rounded athletes. He is also my personal strength training coach and has helped me become a healthier, more resilient runner over the past few years.Nate and I caught up recently after a run and talked about his evolution as an athlete and a coach, how his own injury frustrations led him to think differently about his approach to strength training, and how all of those things intersected to land him where he is today. This was a great conversation and there’s a lot to take away from it, especially if you’ve been dealing with injury frustrations of your own.This episode is brought to you by Maurten, the sports fuel used by many of the world’s top marathoners, including Eliud Kipchoge, Mo Farah, Mary Keitany, and Des Linden, to name a few. Maurten has set up a special contest for listeners of the morning shakeout where you can win heaps of free product. Here’s what you have to do: Go to maurten.com/AMshakeout and register with your email address. At the end of Maurten’s 4-week sponsorship of this podcast they are going to draw 10 winners at random. Each winner will get a full box of 160 drink mix, a full box of 320 drink mix, and a full box of GEL 100s. That entire package is valued at over $130! Enter for your chance to win at maurten.com/AMshakeout.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-42-with-nate-helming/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"As far as balance goes, and how do you make it all work, some people call BS and say balance is not attainable, and I think there are moments in life where it feels like it's not, but I think if you can really hone yourself in on the things that are important to you at different parts of your life, it can be.” It was super fun to sit down recently with Lindsey Hein, host of the popular I’ll Have Another podcast, for a wide-ranging exchange that got into the weeds of podcasting (of course), including the origins of her show, how it’s evolved over the past 150+ episodes, what makes for a good conversation, and more.But that's not all! We talked about Hein's introduction to the sport back in high school and how her relationship with running has changed over the years. We also discussed the difficult decision to have a double mastectomy after she found out she was positive for the BRCA2 gene mutation—a story that caught the attention of Women’s Running magazine and landed her on on the cover back in 2014—and why she doesn't really talk about it all that often.Hein is also a mom of four young boys and shares what she's learned about running during and after pregnancy. She also explains how she and her husband Glen, who is also a competitive runner, have raised their kids in a two-runner household and make it all work. Along those lines, we got into the myth of balance and how it sways depending on what’s going on in your life.And there’s a ton more. We covered a lot of ground in this conversation, from personal to professional and all sorts of stuff in between, and I think you'll take a lot away from it.Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford at BaresRecords.comThis episode is brought to you by Maurten, the sports fuel used by many of the world’s top marathoners, including Eliud Kipchoge, Mo Farah, Mary Keitany, and this week’s guest, Des Linden, to name a few. Maurten has set up a special contest for listeners of the morning shakeout where you can win heaps of free product. Here’s what you have to do: Go to maurten.com/AMshakeout and register with your email address. At the end of Maurten’s 4-week sponsorship of this podcast they are going to draw 10 winners at random. Each winner will get a full box of 160 drink mix, a full box of 320 drink mix, and a full box of GEL 100s. That entire package is valued at over $130! Enter for your chance to win at maurten.com/AMshakeout.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-41-with-lindsey-hein/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"I talk about why I had success in Boston—it’s a 26.2-mile race that this year felt like 30, right? You add in the wind, and the conditions, and it suddenly feels longer, which is part of why I have this advantage in my mind. And so why not test that theory out in the actual distance? I think I can finish a marathon feeling like I can probably go another 10 miles, I just couldn’t go a lick faster, so let’s see how far we can extend that. I think those are all intriguing to me."I'm super excited to welcome my first returning guest back to the show: 2018 Boston Marathon champion Des Linden. Linden and I last spoke on Episode 3 in late January, a couple months before she won the race that changed her life. A lot has transpired since she broke the tape on Boylston Street in mid-April, including the launch of Linden & True Coffee, a coaching change, more media appearances than she can remember, and a sixth-place finish at the New York City Marathon a little over a month ago.Linden and I caught up recently at The Running Event in Austin, Texas and talked about all of those things in great detail and then some, including where her scrappiness and competitiveness come from, why her win in Boston was so validating, the importance of having confidence, trust, and faith in yourself on race day, the advantages of training in a group versus training alone, how her training has changed since leaving the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, what the rest of her competitive marathon career looks like and why ultra-distance races appeal to her, what's exciting her in running right now, why it's important to tell your story, and a lot more.Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford at BaresRecords.comThis episode is brought to you by Maurten, the sports fuel used by many of the world’s top marathoners, including Eliud Kipchoge, Mo Farah, Mary Keitany, and this week’s guest, Des Linden, to name a few. Maurten has set up a special contest for listeners of the morning shakeout where you can win heaps of free product. Here’s what you have to do: Go to maurten.com/AMshakeout and register with your email address. At the end of Maurten’s 4-week sponsorship of this podcast they are going to draw 10 winners at random. Each winner will get a full box of 160 drink mix, a full box of 320 drink mix, and a full box of GEL 100s. That entire package is valued at over $130! Enter for your chance to win at maurten.com/AMshakeout.Complete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-40-with-des-linden/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"I think my purpose is to share peoples' stories, share my story, share any stories that will impact peoples' lives. And I love the idea of the content that I create living beyond me, I do. I try not to get too wrapped up in legacy and all that crap but when I do allow myself to take a step back and look at the work that I'm creating, to have it impact people, beyond just the small circle of runners, to actually create runners—people who have told me that they started running, not necessarily 100 milers, but marathons, 5Ks, because they've seen a film of mine—man, you can't put a price on that."I really enjoyed sitting down with my friend Billy Yang for this week's episode of the podcast. Billy has been one of my most requested guests since I started the show a year ago and I was finally able to pin him down for an hour last week at The Running Event in Austin, Texas. (Spoiler alert: An hour wasn’t nearly enough time to cover all the things I wanted to cover, so I’m going to have to have Billy back for a round 2 at some point. And with any luck, it won’t take another year for that to happen.)For those of you who don’t know, Billy is one of the preeminent filmmakers—and now podcasters—in the trail and ultra running space. If you’re not familiar with his work, I recommend checking some of it out for yourself at billyyangfilms.com or The Billy Yang Podcast wherever you like to listen to audio content. It's inspired me on many different levels and I can guarantee you that it will move in some way.Billy and I touched on a number of different topics in this conversation, including how we got our respective starts in the storytelling business and why we do what we do, when he picked up his first video camera and realized it was something he wanted to play around with and eventually pursue, and how losing his dad spurred a lifestyle change that led to him quit smoking and take up running. We also talked about struggling with low self-esteem throughout his life and how he’s worked through those times, self-consciousness and dealing with outside opinions, embracing the journey and living the life that’s authentic to him, what he sees as his personal purpose, and so much more.Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford at BaresRecords.comComplete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-39-with-billy-yang/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“I'm just excited about being a part of the sport—my love for running and the community continues to evolve. My boy, 4 years old, did the turkey trot yesterday and he loves to race. We go to the track at Point Loma Nazarene and [we're] raising that next generation of runners. There's a lot of up-and-coming athletes that I think are going to do some pretty incredible things and so again, I think it's on us, as the promoters of the sport, the media, journalists, the shoe companies, the industry people to all take a look in the mirror over the holidays here in 2018 and really decide, 'What do we want 2019 to look like and what do we want 2020 to look like?' We get to write our own history and change the game how we want it to be changed, so I think that cooperation and collaboration and storytelling is really what gets me excited about the future of running.” It was a lot of fun to sit down with my former colleague, Dan Cruz, for a freewheeling conversation that gets into the weeds of what's happening right now in different areas of the running world.Cruz is the former vice president of communications and public relations for the Competitor Group, where he worked from 2008 through the end of 2017. During that time, he focused a lot of his energy and attention on the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series, attending hundreds of events around the world, directing all external communications as well as social media strategy, and sharing stories from the front of the field and the back of the pack alike.We jumped all over the place over the course of this hour-long chat, talking about Cruz' career and how he got into the running industry despite having no prior experience in it—or even real interest in the sport—and the ways in which his passion for the sport grew and evolved over the course of 10 years, professionally as well as personally; the power of storytelling and why it's important for growing the sport's fanbase; the ever-changing landscape of the running media and where he sees it going; running culture, what that term means to him, and why it's important; why he thinks the sport needs more trash talking and rivalries to help make it more interesting to follow; and much, much more.This episode is brought to you by Path Projects. This new U.S.-based running apparel company designs and manufactures technically advanced running shorts, base liners, shirts and headwear. Enter for a chance to win 1 of 10 PATH Projects hats at http://pathprojects.com/TMS. Get a bonus entry by following @pathprojects on Instagram.Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford at BaresRecords.comComplete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-38-with-dan-cruz/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Running is such a passion for me and such a source of joy. It's really my way of experiencing life but also a way of exploring the world, and so I really look at it from that lens and I'm always interested in new ways of exploring either the planet or my own capabilities or bringing other people along with me who maybe haven't done something as long or as vert-y, or whatever, and that kind of is what drew me to trail running in the first place."Really enjoyed sitting down with Ladia Albertson-Junkans for the podcast this week. The 32-year-old is one of trail and ultrarunning's rising stars, along with being one of the sport's most versatile athletes. Albertson-Junkans, a two-time cross-country All-American at the University of Minnesota, has accomplished a lot in the past few years, and here are some of the highlights, in no particular order: She made her ultrarunning debut in 2017 at the competitive Chuckanut 50K in Bellingham, Washington, winning in 4:17:44, and then represented the United States at the IAU World Trail Running Championships that summer, where she finished 13th overall. She followed that up earlier this year with a win at the Way Too Cool 50K in California in 3:44:01, the fourth-fastest time in race history, and top-five finishes at both the Broken Arrow Skyrace and Speedgoat 50K this past summer. She's also very good at running uphill, finishing fourth at the 2016 U.S. Mountain Running Championships, which qualified her for that summer's world championships, where she finished 15th and helped the U.S. to a bronze medal in the team race. Oh yeah, Albertson-Junkans also qualified for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon this past May with a 2:41:52 clocking at the Silo District Marathon in Waco, Texas, which she ran to support her best friend and college teammate, Gabe Grunewald.We covered a lot of different topics over the course of our recent conversation, including the cancellation of the North Face Endurance Challenge Championships, where Albertson-Junkans was set to make her 50-mile debut; her sense of adventure and how she's able to meld it with her competitive interests; getting into ultrarunning and what she's learned during her short time in the sport; versatility as an athlete and why that's important to her; coaching herself and how she builds flexibility into her training schedule; the power of community and its role in the furtherment and longterm health of the sport; the importance of having a team behind her throughout her competitive running career; what's inspiring her to try and qualify for next year's Western States Endurance Run; and much, much more.Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford at BaresRecords.comComplete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-37-with-ladia-albertson-junkans/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"If some of the people at the very front would start with these groups in the very back and see people's journeys, they would be changed—and they would realize, not only are these people working so hard at it but they [will] actually physically see what they go through to get to where they are. You know, I have people come up to me at races and say, 'I know you won't believe this, but I used to weigh 500 pounds.' And you're looking at somebody that weighs like 180 pounds and they've lost 320 pounds, and they say, 'Yeah, I couldn't even walk out to my car without stopping and sitting down. I'd get out to the curb and had to sit down because I was out of breath.' And now they're going to run a marathon. How does this transformation happen? Something gets to 'em...there's something out there. When we connect those people, that's when our sport is really going to take off."It's an honor to welcome Bart Yasso to the podcast this week. Known as "The Mayor of Running," the 62-year-old Yasso retired from Runner's World at the end of 2017 after 30 years with the publication. Yasso, who served as Chief Running Officer for the last 10 years of his career, attended thousands of races around the world, serving as an ambassador for the sport at all levels and celebrating the achievements of top finishers and average runners alike. And while he hasn't exactly stopped doing those things since entering retirement, he's scaled his event travel back significantly to spend more time at home and on the golf course.Yasso and I caught up recently and talked about all sorts of stuff, from how he got his start in running to how he landed his dream job at Runner's World in the late 1980s, and how his role there evolved over the course of three decades. We got into his retirement and how he's spending his time now that he's not traveling to an event every weekend of the year. There was some discussion about the state of the sport, the various ways that it's grown and changed over the last several decades, and how we can do a better job connecting the front of the field with the back of the pack. We talked about running media, the various directions it's gone over the years, and where he sees it heading moving forward. Yasso also shared his thoughts on how runners of all levels can inspire one another, his ongoing struggles with Lyme disease, Yasso 800s (of course!), and a lot more.Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford at BaresRecords.comComplete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-26-with-bart-yasso/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Not to sound cheesy, but anything is possible. I think that when you set your mind to something, and make a plan on how to get there, then you just chip away at what the next step of the plan is and you keep working up to the next step on the staircase basically—and it’s amazing how far you can go.”Really enjoyed sitting down with two-time U.S. Olympian Kim Conley this past weekend after she finished fourth at the NYRR Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K, a race which doubled as the U.S. 5K road championships for 2018.The 32-year-old Conley, who has been battling a series of injuries since early 2017, is finally healthy again and setting her sights on returning to the track in 2019. Based in Sacramento, where she lives and trains with her husband and coach, Drew Wartenburg, Conley ran collegiately at nearby U.C. Davis, where she graduated in 2009 with modest personal bests of 16:17 for 5000m and 4:22 in the 1500. Despite not being fast enough to land a sponsorship deal after college, Conley knew that she still had some unfinished business in the sport, so she decided to stick with it. It’s a decision that has certainly paid off: Conley has made the last two Olympic teams in the 5000m, captured national titles in the 10,000m and half marathon, and improved her personal bests to 15:08 and 4:07, respectively.We covered a wide range of topics in this conversation, including: what Conley has taken away from her most recent injury experience; her marathon debut in 2016 and what she learned from that race (and why she’s going to stay focused on the track through 2020); the state—and strength—of American women’s distance running right now; her own progression in the sport, from good but not great high school and college runner to two-time Olympian and national champion; her new upcoming biography, Underdog, which comes out next spring; the shutting down of NorCal Distance, her current training situation in Sacramento, and what’s it like to be coached by her husband, Drew Wartenburg; what other runners can take away from her story; and much, much more.Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford at BaresRecords.comComplete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-35-with-kim-conley/ ‎Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"It's really inspiring to see someone push themselves and challenge themselves...Bringing out the achievements of people who are fighting the odds, and really putting into context today's race, even for a pro, because even a pro is overcoming something tremendous each race they do—it's never rosy. And understanding that hardship, I think, will give people context into the meaning of a particular race for a particular runner, whether they're an amateur or the world's best."It's a treat to have filmmaker Sanjay Rawal on the podcast this week to talk about his new documentary, "3100: Run and Become," which takes an intimate look at one of the most unique foot races on the planet, The Sir Chinmoy 3100-Mile Self-Transcendence Race. What is the 3100? In short, it's the longest certified road race in the world, and runners attempt to complete 3100 miles in 52 days (or less) around the same city block in Queens, New York. That's just shy of 60 miles per day, for two months straight, around the same 0.55-mile stretch of concrete, in the middle of summertime. The 43-year-old Rawal, who lives in New York City but grew up as a competitive runner in California's East Bay, studied under Sri Chinmoy after graduating from UC Berkeley. Chinmoy, who passed away in 2007, was an Indian spiritual teacher who believed running provided an opportunity for people to challenge themselves and their pre-conceived limitations, a state he referred to as “self-transcendence.” Rawal, who has not yet attempted the 3100, has been working on the film since 2015. In it, he explores the theme of running as a spiritual practice throughout history, weaving three other cultural narratives around the story of the 2016 edition of the 3100. Rawal visits Arizona's Navajo Nation, spends time with the Mt. Hiei "running monks" of Japan, and also goes into the bush with the persistence hunters of the Kalahari, showing how running is one of mankind's most primal activities as well as one of our greatest cultural connectors. We covered a wide range of topics in the course of this conversation, including Rawal's film, how it came to be, and how it's changed him as both a person and a runner; the 3100-Mile Self-Transcendence Race, its origins, and its unique appeal; the role that running plays in the different cultures featured in the film; the connection between competition and spirituality; what can be done to make coverage of running events more appealing; the idea that running is something more than a competitive pursuit or form of exercise, but it can serve as a teacher, a form of prayer, and a celebration of life; running culture and what that means exactly; and much, much more.This exchange was very different from many of the others I've had to this point—there was no talk about training, nutrition, recovery, or the state of the sport—but it was also one of the most enlightening that I've had in quite some time. Whether you're a competitive athlete or recreational runner, a miler or an ultramarathoner, this conversation will change the way you look at running and the role it plays in your life.Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford at BaresRecords.comComplete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-34-with-sanjay-rawal/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"You have to look at it like a business. What do you want the culture of your team to be? Focus on that and make sure that the people you're working with are bought into what you're doing. Because I'm telling you right now, you could raise Bill Bowerman from the dead and he could write your schedule, but if you don't have the people that you're working with believing in you, and believing in each other, and believing in what they're doing, it's not going to work."It was a blast to sit down with Ben Rosario, the founder and head coach of HOKA Northern Arizona Elite, for this week's episode of the podcast.The 38-year-old Rosario, who started the team in 2014, has had a long and varied career in the running industry. As an athlete, he ran for the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, qualified for two U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, and finished second at the U.S. Marathon Championships in 2005. He moved back to his hometown of St. Louis that earlier that year, where he first worked as the special events director for that city's marathon, and then went on to co-found Big River Running Company. After selling his share of the business in early 2012 and moving to Flagstaff shortly thereafter, Rosario worked as the marketing director for McMillan Running and also did some work as an elite athlete coordinator and race director back in his hometown of St. Louis. Through it all, Rosario has coached other runners at all levels, leading him to his current role with HOKA NAZ Elite, "a professional sports team whose mission is to recruit, develop and produce distance runners to compete at the very highest level of international athletics."We covered a lot of bases over the course of this conversation: Rosario's career path, and the route he took to get where he is today; how he got into coaching and the influence different coaches have had on his own development as an athlete, coach, and person; what race weekend looks like for him when he's got athletes competing; the origins of NAZ Elite and how he sees the group evolving in the coming years; how he measures his team's impact beyond race results; what NAZ Elite is doing to make themselves relatable to average runners; the benefits of group training for all levels of runners; the importance of rest and recovery after a marathon and what that looks like for his athletes; how he furthers his own education as a coach and his advice for young coaches; what's exciting him about the sport right now, and a lot more.Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford at BaresRecords.comComplete show notes: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-33-with-ben-rosario/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“I could remember standing at the start line the next year and [seeing] how impactful what I do—that solidified it for me—how impactful a job I have to see the world come here and run this race. And when the howitzer went off, I couldn’t pull myself away and I was really overwhelmed at the time. It was a testament to all the work we do to put this on and just standing there and seeing the people run past the start line…it was just overwhelming, but it was something I’ll always, always remember.”Really enjoyed sitting down with Peter Ciaccia, president of events at the New York Road Runners and race director for the New York City Marathon, for the podcast this week!Ciaccia, 65, will be retiring next month after 18 years with the organization. He took over race director duties for the world’s largest and most popular marathon in 2015 and oversees the production of every NYRR event throughout the year. Ciaccia, who is “committed to growing and sustaining a vibrant, inclusive running community,” has helped grow NYRR's total number of finishers by over 40 percent.We covered a lot of ground in this conversation, including: what he’ll miss most about his job, and the mark he hopes to leave on the organization—and the sport—when he steps down after this year’s New York City Marathon; how he plans to spend his time in retirement and the origins of his impeccable fashion sense; his upbringing in the Bronx and how that shaped his passion for health and fitness; why he first got involved with the NYRR in 2001 and how his role there has evolved over the years; his time working in the music industry and how that experience has influenced the way he thinks about and puts on running events.I asked Ciaccia about the importance of professional athletes to races and what he’s done to help bridge the gap between the front of the pack and the back of the field; anti-doping and NYRR’s Run Clean initiative, which he spearheaded in 2015, and why that’s so important for the sport; the NYRR Youth Wheelchair Training Program, which he helped launch in 2016, and the opportunities it’s created for disabled kids; and whole lot more.Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford at BaresRecords.comComplete show notes here: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-32-with-peter-ciaccia/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"I grew up with faith and I do think that my life has a purpose—and maybe it's not what I thought it was going to be, but I think that it does help me at some junctures with this disease. This isn't how I would have chosen my life to turn out at all but maybe this is my way of fulfilling my life's purpose and trying to raise awareness for these rare diseases that really do actually need it. I would never have raised my hand to do this, but someone has to."I’m super excited to have one of running’s most impressive power couples joining me on the podcast this week: Gabe and Justin Grunewald.Gabe is one of the top middle-distance runners in the United States. She has run 4:01 for 1500m and was fourth at the Olympic Trials in that event in 2012. In 2014, she won a national title in the 3000m and has been competing at the top of the sport for close to 10 years now. But beyond all that, she’s got an incredible story, one that involves a near decade-long battle with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare, incurable form of cancer that’s returned four times since she was first diagnosed in 2009. She’s had multiple surgeries, chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatments, and just has generally been on a crazy rollercoaster ride with the disease since the age of 22.Justin, her husband, is a super solid runner in his own right. He’s qualified for the Olympic Trials in the marathon and is now a budding ultrarunner, who I’ve been fortunate to coach since last fall. By day, or night rather, he’s a doctor, working long shifts in the hospital, and has a very intimate understanding of the seriousness of his wife's condition.It was a real treat to sit down with these two recently to talk about all kinds of stuff, from how they met as student-athletes at the University of Minnesota to Justin’s foray into trail and ultrarunning and what Gabe thinks about it; we got into Gabe’s health situation, what she’s been through over the past two years, how her relationship with running has evolved in that time, and the competitive goals she still has for herself; we talked about her role as a cancer advocate, starting the Brave Like Gabe Foundation, and coaching celebrity Chip Gaines for his first marathon, to what it’s like for Justin, as an MD, to be so close to the situation on both a personal and professional level. We talked about the power of positivity and living life to the fullest, what Gabe and Justin hope people take away from her story, and so, so much more.Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford at BaresRecords.comComplete show notes here: https://www.themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-31-with-gabe-and-justin-grunewald/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning: www.themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.