The Running Public

We know that you’re probably struggling to deal with the current heat wave, but we have good news: It gets better! Your body will adapt.

Jess moderates a non-serious debate between Kirk and BK regarding listener questions.

If you’re going to take running seriously, you’re going to be tracking some combination of pace, RPE, and heart rate (at the bare minimum). So, where should you start? What metric matters the most?

The questions are nicely polarized: roughly 80% nonsense and 20% running related.

We are generally our own worst enemy. Here’s how to avoid that trap while self coaching!

At what point does cross training stop being useful to your running?

Last week Tyler slid into Kirk’s DMs with some friendly training advice. This week we invited him on to chat it through on air. So sit back, grab your notebook & pen, and get ready for some great advice from a 3x Olympic Trials qualifier!

Marathon Training Ultra “time on feet” indoor vs outdoor workouts strength training racing weight

Kyle recently broke the World Record for most holes of golf played in 24 hours, covering over 90 miles en route!

Unfortunately, most of us will drop out of a race eventually. Here is how to review the race & the preceding training, draw accurate conclusions, and plan ahead to prevent it from happening again!

The audience came through with some excellent questions this month, including questions about Tapers, Lifting, Hyrox, OCR, Pacing, and Body Weight.

Kirk is making his marathon debut this weekend. We discuss the exact details of his taper, race week sleep and dietary plans, race morning routine and warm up, and his plan of attack for the race itself.

Father, teacher, Ninja Warrior, and endurance athlete. Chris epitomizes the “non pro” athlete who is chasing performance with the same dedication and intensity as the pro athletes.

Last week we talked about avoiding common race blunders. Today, we lay the blueprint for actively succeeding on race day!

Glenn Cassidy and Edwin Leahy of Saint Benedict’s Prep School join us to discuss the 55 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail which all freshman embark on as a capstone project.

From pre-race anxiety and cramming in too much last minute work to starting out too fast, we cover the most common ways people screw up their races!

Some might be considered “hot” takes, others are decidedly lukewarm. But these are the trends we’re noticing (and not always loving) in running right now!

Don’t skip past this one just because you aren’t running 100 mile weeks! Overtraining can happen to anyone, regardless of training volume. Here are the signs, symptoms, and causes, with some fixes and preventions thrown in for good measure.

Your questions have been stacking up so we’re diving into them today! Highlights include: Supershoes Marathon Prep When to “retire” Why warm ups matter! Pre-race excuses

The heat and humidity has arrived. How should we go about accounting for this in training?

Last week we decided that Brakken needs to suck it, sign up for a race, and start training seriously. Today, we build him a 16 week training plan designed to address all the deficiencies he’s developed over the past few years of half-assed training.

After completing just 2 races in the past year, it is time for Brakken to sign up, show up, and get back to racing!

For the past 25 years, Rich has never stopped pursuing his goal of becoming the best runner and athlete possible. Why has he now, at the age of 39, seemingly reached new heights of fitness?

The Long Run is a staple of life for many distance runners. It is also pretty demanding on the body. Here are our favorite “bang for your buck” options!

Darla returns to talk injuries, rehab, holding on to fitness through cross training, and refusing to ever give back or back down.

Can you just do classic track workouts on the trails? Sure. But sometimes you need something specifically designed for your off road racing needs!

On Tuesday we covered the workouts that give you solid fitness benefits with very little recovery costs. Today we are taking the opposite stance: workouts that are crazy costly but have the potential for big improvements to your fitness and/or confidence!

Minimum recovery costs; maximum fitness gain. These are the workouts we find to be most repeatable, manageable, and enjoyable! We choose multiple options each for Speed, Threshold, and Tempo sessions.

Running is hard! Are you playing to your strengths as a runner or just banging your head against the wall?

Kirk was in California crushing marathon workouts and big mountain runs. Brakken was in Sweden… cross training?

Scott H. Frey, Ph.D., Ed.M., is an award-winning scientist, mentor, and lifelong endurance athlete. For the past 30 years, he led a research program that focused on understanding the relationship between the brain and human performance and is now applying his methods to endurance athletes around the world. Visit cerebralperformance.com to learn more.

Professional runner and Guinness World Record holder Michael Wardian talks goals, recent runs and races, and his work with World Vision on a clean water initiative.

When pace, gps or hr fails you during a race, having a metronome stride you can fall back on to ensure that you are pacing correctly is a huge advantage!

Sean is the founder and owner of Emergence Physical Therapy Strength and Running Performance Center in Redmond, Oregon, an ultra runner, and a holder of multiple Master’s power lifting records.

Workout One: 12x 1000m w/ 1:00 float recovery. Workout Two: 10x 200m w/ 150m jog recovery. Both workouts didn’t quite go as planned and adjustments had to be made during. What do you take away from a workout that goes awry?

Life and personal questions, generated randomly, answered by us? Sounds like Long Run material!

“I probably shouldn’t do this cool local race because it doesn’t fit in with the training block I’m currently in.” Sound familiar? Let’s chat it out!

You asked and we delivered! Three years after our last chat with Derek about his journey with running and his battle with colon cancer, he rejoins the show to update us on his life, health, and running.

We take some time to talk through racing goals and pick each other’s brains about the training needed to accomplish them!

Matt joins us to talk about: After three years of dealing with Long COVID, going from zero miles per week to racing a 100k Adapting his training to accommodate his body’s “new rules” His new book: Chasing Mastery

Far too many runners choose their training volume based on what others are doing. This is how we think about the appropriate volume to train at!

We continue from where we left off last week with Kirk taking the lead on his most impactful takeaways from our early episodes.

How we approach them, our strategy, our training adjustments, and our expectations.

We have had the opportunity to listen to so many incredible individuals impart knowledge, wisdom, and warnings over the past 500 episodes. Today we recap some of the best lessons we’ve learned from others since starting this podcast.

Our current practices for injury prevention. How to implement hill work and at what grade of steepness. How Lactate Threshold HR and pace change over time. When to time trial and when to race. Plus more!

Why should runners lift? What is really considered strength training when it comes to endurance running? How often do we think a runner should lift? Do we prioritize performance or prevention of injury? And much more!

This isn’t us telling you what shoes to get. We’re not telling you what shoes we think are “good”. There is really no such thing as a “good” or “bad” shoe these days; just a shoe that does or doesn’t work well for your foot and purpose. Today we discuss how to decide what shoes are likely to be a good match for your feet, your stride, and your terrain.

Cam is a renowned endurance athlete, through hiker, and all around outdoor adventurer. In 2024, between completing the Pacific Crest Trail and several other adventures, he slept outdoors more than indoors!

This is episode three in a series of Training Tuesdays explaining our rationale behind the way we think about and execute various pieces of our training. Today: How to approach your Off Season.