The Running Public

Kris has an unbelievable combination of maybe the best athletic range and the most unique life story of anyone we have ever had on this show (all apologies to Ryan Atkins and Stephen Menya). Good luck not becoming a Kris fan after this one!

We’re cleaning out our closet! All your remaining questions from 2021 will be answered today! There are some good ones, some tough ones, and a zombie apocalypse question. We’ve got it all!

January is upon us and race schedules are being released. It is the time of year when many runners are faced with the dilemma of what races to sign up for and how to go about being fit for those races. Today we walk you through how we attack this process!

Cali Schweikhart joins us for our 200th episode, and we couldn’t ask for a better guest to represent everything the Running Public stands for! Her story is one of athletic pursuits, personal demons, health challenges, and continuing redemption. Oh, and she’s teaming up with Brakken to attempt a world record a week from now! Enjoy the episode and thank you all so much for the support over these past two years!

Brakken and Kirk break down and react to Spartan’s big Age Group and Elite Series announcement. This is about as close to a hot take episode as you’re going to get!

From juvenile delinquent to the fastest person to run self supported around the United Kingdom, Chris is not your typical distance runner. Come for his wild story, stay for his killer accent. http://chriscoastrun.co.uk/

Kirk and Brakken recap their highs and lows from 2021 and then preview what is in store for 2022. Thanks for being here with us the entire time!

We’re back from our holiday break with a phenomenal entry in our Philosophy of Training series. Becca Jones is an Ultra runner, Ultra Coach, and co-race director of the Tennessee Mile and the Mid State Mile Last man standing race. Get your notebooks ready!

Aerobic Threshold. Anaerobic Threshold. Lactate Threshold. Ventilatory Threshold 1. Ventilatory Threshold 2. So many threshold terms. So much confusion! Let’s break it all down!

Kirk raced this weekend, so we begin with the recap before moving into what we all love about training: The Quality Workouts!

Rich Ryan makes Running Public history with his 4th appearance on the show! As always, he brings a wealth of information for runners and strength athletes alike. Have the notebook ready!

Brakken hobbles to the mic to recap the Tennessee Mile, then the boys break down the Spartan World Championship.

When it comes to knowing the ins and outs of how the human body responds to both endurance and strength training, Alec Blenis is as good as anyone. Grab a pen and pad, and get ready for a few hours of knowledge bombs.

The Mid Week Long Run, or Medium Long Run, is one of our favorite types of runs. Get pumped to dive into this little rascal! FYI, we start with a chat about Brakken’s upcoming Ultra before breaking down the Spartan World Championship race, also this coming weekend. Skip to 42:10 to get right to the MWLR talk.

Steeplechase national champ, 2:21 marathoner, high school coach, and author Joey Keillor joins the Philosophy of Training series this week. If you’ve ever struggled with underperforming or overtraining, this one is for you!

Long Runs should be a staple of most runners’ programming, but we often let these slide out of use. Let’s refresh to ourselves why they are so important! We talk a good bit about Brakken’s race, so skip to 30:00 if you want just the Long Run info!

Kirk and Brakken each take on the same questions they’ve been asking other coaches during the past few Philosophy of Training episodes. Let’s see how they hold up under the pressure!

New series alert! We’re getting back to the basics on Tuesdays, focusing on the Fundamental pieces of running. Today we break down the principles of Easy and Recovery runs. They are very simple and very similar, but they are also the run types most often completed incorrectly!

Acclaimed author and coach Matt Fitzgerald joins us to chat through his philosophy of training. Along the way we delve into his evolution as a writer, his experiences living and training with a pro running group, and his current health battle.

We’ve received a lot of questions regarding the TRP Plan on Training Peaks recently, and with our off season build beginning this week it is a good time to give a complete breakdown of what’s in store for our athletes this year! We cover the weekly format, style of training, and yearly flow.

We take a break from our Coaches Series to clean house. We have so many listener questions unanswered that we just need to get through them. We start with Black Friday gift guides for runners, then get into the nitty gritty training questions!

The boys get chatty about life and running, but they manage to answer a few listener questions along the way!

Week Two of our series brings us Ian Hosek. Ian learned his craft while working at Nike and continues to apply his training principles today, with an emphasis on racing the trails and in the mountains.

We begin with chit chat, move to a breakdown of the Richard Diaz Flow Training episode, then finish up with some tough love and motivation!

Today begins a mini-series focusing on the different philosophies of endurance training. As people approach their “off season”, it is the perfect time to learn and evolve! We will have a different endurance expert on each week who will explain their theory of training. We start with Richard Diaz, endurance coach and author. Rich spent decades working with athletes before developing his own system known as Flow Training. Enjoy and take notes!

We all take at least one “off season” per year, and now is the time many people are looking to start theirs. Today we walk you through how to build and prioritize what should occur for you!

This is one of the most difficult topics to address with people, and runners are no exception. We’ve put off this episode for long enough; it is time to dive into how and why an athlete should approach the idea of lowering their weight. Please go into this with an open mind, and please listen to the entire episode! This isn’t one to press play on if you don’t have your full attention available, as every little sentence matters!

Warning: Spoiler alert for Boston, Chicago, and the Spartan 24 Hour Championship! The racing tactics of the pros this past weekend illuminated a flaw in how us mere mortals approach the majority of our workouts and races. This might be your most important episode for future races!

We received some truly great questions for this episode! Highlights include: running orthotics, preparing for hot races, burnout, how to train when you can’t get enough sleep, power hiking in races and training, and “should I race AG or Elite?”

Last week we talked about why you should rebuild your base if you’ve stagnated. Today we address the other people in the room: Those who are stagnating but still have a race remaining on their calendar. If you can’t start your off season quite yet, how do you approach your final race? Today we tell you!

At this point in the year (October), there are two types of runners: those who are still improving and those who are not. If you are struggling with stagnation, this episode is for you! If you’re not, count your blessings and take notes today in order to prevent it from affecting you in the future!

As our listeners well know, Kirk has been away for two weeks. Today, he opens up about everything he’s been dealing with. This is a heavy, personal episode. Our Training Tuesday will be released Friday.

In one of the most shocking upsets in OCR history, Hunter McIntyre was soundly beaten at the Hyrox World Championships in Berlin two weeks ago. A refocused Hunter joins us today to talk through how a champion responds to defeat. We also discuss season two of OCR Stars!

We get a surprise guest host today who walks us through his all time favorite running sessions from high school, college, and post-collegiate. Get ready to run fast!

Last Tuesday we gave you all the major pieces to include in your training. This week we give you our list of things many runners are doing but shouldn’t be!

From college walk-on to professional runner, Steph’s passion for running and competing launched a career that has taken her around the world. So what prompted her transition from the track to OCR? Listen to her story today!

What should I be doing in training? What strength work is beneficial to me as a runner? What mobility work is needed? What about core work? This episode is your complete guide to what EVERY runner should be doing in training!

From 400lb Strongman to record setting Ultra Endurance athlete, John Clark has never been content to live an ordinary life! He broke the 24 hour Ski Erg record and then recently became the first to run a marathon in all 48 counties in England in 48 consecutive days.

We’ve all been there and we never want to be there again! Today is nothing but how to prevent muscle cramping!

The faster Kraker joins us for a story of running, injury, potential, setbacks, rock bottom, and rebirth. This is one you won’t want to miss!

Some people just love racing. They would rather race than train, and they try to fill their schedules with as many races as possible. The question becomes, “How do I structure my training in between back to back race weekends (or back to back to back)?”

Kevin Donoghue has never chosen the typical path through life, so it is only fitting to have followed the same outside-the-box approach as an athlete. What started as a career as a defensive lineman and kick returner turned into a passion for endurance racing, ultimately leading him to becoming one of Obstacle Racing’s most decorated athletes.

We ran out of time last week, so we’re finishing up the Q&A today! We have some great topics, ranging from race cramping to blood flow restriction training, plus Kirk tries to navigate the choppy waters of purchasing a camper while recording a podcast.

Annie is a relative newcomer to the world of endurance racing, but has had immediate success. Not an outstanding runner as a youth, she ground her way to the top of her sport through years of consistent work and an abundance of grit. Equal parts distance runner and mountain goat, Annie’s story is a great one. Enjoy!

Veejay Jones breaks down his latest After Action Race Report, then we discuss the heart rate training zones we personally use, our thoughts on the CBD craze, the importance of pace and terrain in training, and much much more!

Kris is one of the most widely successful endurance athletes in North America. A self described “hybrid athlete”, he has seen success in everything from ultra running to obstacle racing. Kris boasts a resume that includes a top 10 finish at the Western States 100, a top 3 at a Spartan Race US National series event, and a 3:51 downhill road mile. On top of that, Kris is a chef, restaurant owner, coach, and course designer.

Training built to race day, but now the race is over. What do you do now? The first thing every runner needs to do is assess their performance in a non biased manner. Easier said than done! Excuses vs factors. Positives and negatives. Luck vs execution. Lack of toughness vs lack of fitness. We use Kirk’s race this past weeks to walk you through how to approach your after action report and what to do with the information!

After listening to the Ross Wiemer interview (Episode 46), TJ Schraufnagel decided to begin running with the intent of completing a mountain ultra. This is the story of his journey from running 7 times in January to completing a 31 mile race in July, at altitude and with 10,000’ of elevation gain!

We’ve all been there, searching online for the magic workout or training plan to get us through our next big race. Searching for the secret sauce that sets the great ones apart from the mortals. But what the great ones understand, either intuitively or through trial and error, is that success is the result of days, weeks, months, and years of consistent work. There is no magic workout that will launch you forward. Today we break that concept down and explore it fully!