The Running Public

The people have spoken: It is time to dive into training and racing distances over 30 miles! How much volume do you need? Back to back long runs? How long is long enough in training? Do I need speed work? Gear, fueling, shoes, etc

Slovenian National Gymnastics Team Member for 10 years Spartan Ultra World Champion 2x World's Toughest Mudder Champion 2nd Place at ECO Challenge: Fiji Undefeated at OCR Races 8 Hours or longer Bachelor’s Degrees in Physics and Astrophysics from Cal-Berkeley Master’s Degree in Science and Engineering from Stanford. This woman is one of the top endurance athletes on the planet but has taken the long, broken road to get here. Her story is incredible, as are the life obstacles she has overcome.

If you're going to swing the hammer, swing that thing hard! That was a big take away from the Dr Fred Clary interview, as he talked at length about preparing for 110% or even 120% of the demands of your next competition. Today we explain what that means, why it matters, and how it works / what it looks like in training.

Fred Clary is a Chiropractic Neurologist, World Record holding Power Lifter, and a goldmine of knowledge about maximizing the potential of the human body. Today we look into the role strength training plays in unlocking your endurance potential. Be warned: Brakken filled an entire page with notes while recording this episode. This is one you will want to listen to with a pen and pad in hand!

The super-shoe era is officially here, so Doctor Kraker went into the lab to test out the Nike Alphafly against two "typical" racing shoes in order to get clear data that shows exactly how much these new shoes affect your running. Along the way we hit the following: What is a super shoe? How does the carbon plate work? How do they affect pace at Mile, 5k, 10k, Half Marathon, and Marathon distances? Should they be legal?

Brakken's wife, Lisa, finally joins us today! Lisa hates racing. Hates it. She also can't stand easy runs, training schedules, and scripted quality workouts. We discuss how she structures her training and life in order to keep running a purely enjoyable and therapeutic exercise.

Kirk raced in Las Vegas this past weekend while Brakken commentated the Savage Race in Georgia. They have several takeaways from the two races that could be difference makers for athletes moving forward! The power of purposeful cross training How truly awful it is to race in sand The importance of a plan for attacking rigs Having the correct mentality for racing under the new pandemic style of races

Glenn is a self taught runner who didn't even begin training until after college. Learning on the fly, he progressed to a low 15 minute 5k and 4:12 mile over the course just a few years. From there, he was signed by the Spartan Pro Team in 2014 and has been an OCR racer ever since. Our longest episode yet, and you will not regret staying until the end! Glenn is one of the best people we have ever met in this sport, but he has also overcome some pretty incredible life obstacles along the way. If you don't know Glenn's story, buckle up!

We've noticed a few trends with the athletes we work with over the past few months. We want to go over them right now and hopefully help out anyone who is starting to exhibit similar behaviors in training! A few highlights: Rushing injury rehab in order to be ready for a "B" Race Forcing a specific pace on Easy / Recovery Runs Cutting weight too aggressively / restricting too many calories Trying to hit a monster workout too close to a race in order to feel mentally prepared

This month's Q&A covers a little bit of everything! How much is too much cross training? Nasal breathing as a tool vs a training style Should you treat Grip training like Endurance training? When to get new shoes for treadmill training Can you improve your ability to use fast-twitch muscles? Should supercompensation be used more heavily for designing training plans? And people apparently still really want to know who would win in a fight between the two of us... Heads up, we get lost down a few rabbit holes regarding OCR schedules and the recent NCAA National Championship meet, so skip to 21:00 if you are just looking for the Q&A portion!

Waking up for the second day of racing can be a brutal experience. Today's episode is designed to make that process as smooth as possible for you! How to train for multiple days of racing How to approach race week What to do immediately after Race #1 How to warm up Day #2

Yancy might be the most influential person in the sport of OCR not named Joe De Sena. His coaching, passion, and service to our sport has personally impacted thousands and thousands of individuals. From a childhood in rural Texas to the military to cancer, learn about the journey that made the man we all know and love.

When we find ourselves do too much of our running on surfaces that don't mimic race terrain it ALWAYS comes back to haunt us. A week ago in Jacksonville, many people realized they weren't ready for the sloppy conditions. The water and mud broke their cadence and rhythm, preventing them from ever getting going. Broken running is such a powerful skill to master, so we dive deep into it today!

An endurance athlete, Doctor and Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Dr. A'nna joins us for a look into the way nutrition and blood testing affects our performance. We begin with general principles then progress to A'nna's specialty: female specific nutrition and blood testing. If you are a female athlete, coach female athletes, or even just know a female athlete, the second half of this interview is now on your "must-listen" list!

Racing has returned to the OCR world! This weekend was full of familiar faces and surprise performers. Today we breakdown the course, the performances, what we learned, and much more!

Kevin is the biggest enigma in the sport OCR. Despite having an endurance career that stretches over 30 years, he is still a bit of an unknown commodity. Understood by few, his story deserves a listen. So kick back as he takes you through the process of becoming the KG we see today!

It is time to kick off our 2021 Race Season! Today we discuss our race week mindset, the final workouts we hit, we preview the course and the competition and talk a bit of strategy!

Born into extreme poverty in a small Kenyan village, Stephen survived and made his way to the US through running. One of the wildest stories of defying the odds you'll hear, Stephen is a shining example of what vision, hard work, and pure self belief can do for you, both as a human and as an athlete!

What barriers are constantly in your way? Every time you struggle to get a workout in or perform your best, what is to blame? Today we identify what is holding you back and give strategies for eliminating those road blocks!

Carol Pratt is a running coach who has seen and done it all throughout her career: Part of the first female high school class to have equal access to sports Witnessed the rise of Title IX Ran D-1 Track Ironman Finisher 2x Boston Marathon Qualifier Created a girl's high school cross country program High School, Club, and Masters Running Coach

The age old debate for endurance sports is one of size. At what point does extra power or strength begin to get in the way of your speed and endurance? This question is often paired with its less healthy sibling: How small is too small? We discuss this in depth today in hopes of helping you frame your mindset for what is ideal for your body.

So often we hear, "I've been running for 3 years now and I'm just not getting any better. I think I've hit my ceiling." Endurance sports are the LONG game, and it is important to keep your personal progression in perspective. Brakken and Kirk walk us through their Running Progression today in order to show how difficult it can be to know what phase you're in until afterwards! They trade stories and anecdotes back and forth that remind us of a few important facts: We track fitness in DECADES, not years or months. When we stagnate, that doesn't mean we've hit our ceiling. We need to be in the correct room.

We've all seen it: a guy or girl we know who is SUPER fit shows up to a competition and just gets smoked. How is this possible? What is the missing link between great overall workout fitness and great race day fitness?

Army Ranger. National Level Ultra Runner. Collegiate Basketball Player. And most impressively, the winner of the 2020 Running Public Burpee 10k! Mark is one of the best unknown racers in the US, and today will shed some light on how he got to be the man and athlete he is!

We've hit a lot of heavy topics lately, so today we're lightening things up with a rundown of our absolute favorite workouts! From track workouts and interval sessions to threshold work and long runs, we break down a ton of great workouts today.

Some really good questions came in this month! Some highlights are: How important is talent? Why does my HR go up on Easy days when I try a higher cadence? How often to hit race specific terrain? Is rucking useful to endurance racers? Active Recovery Days vs Off Days Road paces vs OCR paces

"We don't train so that the race doesn't hurt, we train to tolerate it." - Michael Scott, probably. Far too often, we improve our fitness and then go into a competition imagining how awesome we are going to feel, only to get smacked in the face by how much racing still hurts. Today's episode deals with every aspect of that, from mindset and mental tricks, to race strategy and training focus. We spend the first 25 minutes talking all about the Running Public Training Plan that dropped today on therunningpublic.com. We explain the set-up and training style as well as how to use the plan. If you want to skip straight to the meat and potatoes of this episode, fast forward to 25:00.

Bailey is the newest face on the world mountain and trail running scene. She only shifted to the trails in 2019 but has already established herself as the woman to watch in the coming years. Today she details her journey from child prodigy to stagnated race times, an eating disorder, unhealthy coaches and finally to personal health and competitive excellence!

Online Coaching is one of the easiest ways for people to start making money quickly. The fitness industry is overrun with bad coaching, and the Running community (OCR in particular) is not immune to this. If anything, it is worse than most other industries. Way too many unqualified coaches are taking advantage of unsuspecting clients. Warning: Today is one giant rant. We identify the key pieces to look for in order to ensure you are finding a good coach and we identify the classic tactics used by bad coaches. We finish by shouting out the coaches we know are doing it right!

Fresh off his Hyrox World Championship victory, Hunter has set his sights on the first race of the Spartan US National series. He discusses his training and mindset for being able to transition successfully between such vastly different competitions (OCR->CrossFit->Spartan Games->Hyrox->OCR). Good luck listening to this one without getting pumped up to train and compete!

We preach "the process" on this podcast (plan, periodize, execute, etc), but life isn't all about linear progressions. Races pop up, opportunities present themselves, and plans sometimes need to get changed. Kirk and Brakken are each going through that right now, so today they dive into the importance of not being held captive by your training plans. Mental flexibility is an important skill that the best athletes in the world share; here's how to enact it yourself!

Born in Brazil. Raised in Germany and the US. Injured for years. One of the top downhill runners on the planet. Johnny takes us through his athletic journey, enlightens us on his training style, and reveals his plans to be a dominant all around endurance racer!

With the last episode of the current year we discuss what we learned from 2020. From our most asked questions to our biggest training, racing, and life lessons of the year, this episode wraps up 2020 and looks ahead to 2021!

Aaron gives us an all access look into what makes him tick. Starting with a traumatic childhood and continuing through bizarre injuries, Aaron's love affair with endurance sports has been the one constant in his life. Don't make up your mind about Aaron until you listen to this episode!

Everyone knows that their weaknesses are the major obstacle holding them back from success. The tough part for many people is actually identifying what their most important weaknesses are and how to address them. We give you the 4 important questions to ask yourself that will accurately identify your major and minor weaknesses, and then we talk about how to go about fixing them! We finish off with a good old fashioned rant about motivation. You don't want to skip this one!

The greatest Obstacle Course Racer in history joins us for an episode about her rise to the top, her remaining goals, motherhood, and retirement. This is a fascinating look into the mindset and lifestyle of the very best of the best.

Yikes, we let the questions pile up this month! Today we hit over 90 minutes of you asking some pretty awesome questions and us doing our best to quench that thirst for knowledge! From training for the back-half of an Ultra and how to approach 80/20 for cross training to the importance of napping and stride imbalance, this episode highlights how far into their training the listeners are getting. We're pumped to hear you all taking the next steps in dialing in your fitness!

Ross's story embodies the everyman: good all around athlete who leaves his athleticism and fitness behind while focusing on his career and family. 10 years and 40 pounds later, he decided to sign up for an Ultra. He started jogging in April, training in August, and toed the start line in December. Today he shares his journey of weight loss, fitness gain, mentality change, and race day performance.

Far too often, an athlete puts in a great block of training only to underperform on race day. One of the biggest causes of this is a lack of Race Specific Fitness. The ability to analyze the specific requirements of your goal race and build workouts specifically to target those is an invaluable skill to an endurance racer! We break down how to analyze your race, what aspects to focus on, and how to design workouts specifically for race day success.

The reigning Spartan Canadian National Series champion joins us for a chance to talk about how he has remained so successful on the OCR scene despite living in a completely flat, sea level city. Mik breaks down the training regimen and philosophy that gives him the ability to simulate mountains and compete on a world stage.

How many times have you thought, "If I just had one more month I would be so ready for this race!" THIS IS THAT MONTH! So often, the beginning of winter coincides with a huge loss in motivation. Unfortunately for runners, after winter comes spring. Spring means racing, so you cannot afford a lackluster off season. Today we discuss how to avoid the off season slump!

Winter cold, dark, slippery, and uncomfortable - but you still need to get outdoors and train! From what to wear, the mindset you need, how to adjust workouts, and all our rationale for "why", today is a winter running PSA.

Rich Ryan returns to for an Intro to Sports Nutrition. We cover a variety of basic nutrition terms, break down how to calculate your caloric needs as an athlete, and give an overview of the most common diets and nutrition plans. Enjoy!

When can I run again? How much volume can I do? When is it safe to begin speed work? How do I even know if my body is ready? Returning to running after missing time with an injury can be a scary and confusing process, so today we make it easier for you!

Endurance legend Amelia Boone joins us for a must listen episode of race stories, injuries, comebacks and her personal struggle with a life long eating disorder. A multiple time world champion despite enduring setbacks and challenges that most people would never come back from, Amelia delivers a message that we all need to hear.

We receive more questions about Easy Runs than any other running topic, especially after the "What Should Hard Feel Like" episode. Today will address all those questions and more! From when to run Easy and how to identify your Easy effort to what Easy should feel like both physically and mentally, this episode will give you the tools to correctly polarize your training.

We opened to doors up for ANY question to be asked! You surprised us with your maturity, as we only got two defecation based questions. From Bachelorette questions and "who would win in a fight" to actual running submissions, this episode has a bit of everything!

We seemed to have a theme amongst the questions we received this week: Easy Runs, HR Training, Fitting Workouts in on Restricted Time, and Structuring Your Season. We love that people are diving into the nitty gritty of training, so we answered them all!

If you've ever ran, biked, or hiked on a trail, this interview will hit home! Adam Buck is a professional trail builder who also happens to have been a high school track star turned pro mountain biker, sponsored by Red Bull. He's lived a wild life, most of which has taken place in the great outdoors.

Everyone talks about racing hard, a hard workout, a hard interval session, a hard tempo run. But what does Hard really look and feel like? Pacing yourself based off effort is tricky but it is a super valuable skill to develop. We cover the key feelings and mental cues to be hitting during races and training in order to nail that effort!