Wade Lightheart from BiOptimizers joins the show to talk about his new book, “The Ultimate Nutrition Bible”.   We get into the 5 goals - your final weight loss journey, your lean muscle journey, achieving athletic dominance, maximizing your brain power, and maximizing your biospan before diving more deeply into the weight loss and dietary components.  Specifically in those spheres, we talk about key components like clearing emotional blocks, how to eliminate food toxins, how to choose the...

Stephen is a masters runner just like you, but like a lot of runners, has really struggled with bonking during the marathon, despite putting in what seems to be great training. Sound familiar?  When it comes to marathon training and hitting the wall it’s difficult to piece together exactly what the issue is.  Am I under or over training? Is my nutrition, salt or electrolyte intake the cause? How do I start to figure out where I’m going wrong? Well, you’re not alone. In today’s podcast,...

Maggie Mertens joins the show to talk about her book “Better, Faster, Farther: How Running Changed Everything We Know About Women”.  In a wide-ranging discussion, we tie in some of the exciting news on the female-side of the sport including the Lululemon FURTHER event back in March, Jasmin Paris’ finish at the Barkley Marathons, and Claire Bannwarth's dominant multi-day performances across 2023 to discussions around the progress and the work to be done in academic, sporting, and other...

Maryke Louw a Physical Therapist and Founder of Exakt Health joins the show to talk about the importance of injury prevention protocols for runners and the pros and cons of various therapeutic approaches in cases where you do find yourself injured.  Specifically, we talk about the pros and cons of stretching, massage, taping, invasive treatments, and orthotics for therapy and the overarching importance of injury prevention and what you can do on a daily basis via running form drills and...

This month’s RC spotlight features an entire family of runners. Arthur and Christine Leyva are so passionate about the sport that they got a local coach to officiate their wedding and now have two kids, Flint and Artistotle, who have caught the running bug as well. They train together and support each other in pursuing some pretty lofty goals including getting into the Boston Marathon Weekend. You’ll hear all about it from them, including what they love about running and how it has brought...

Laura Rutterford joins Run To The Top to discuss several important topics within our community.  We lead with her experience with hip dysplasia and the steps that she took through childhood and early adulthood to get to a point where she had near-perfect running form and the ability to train for and race half marathons.  After that, we get into her professional background as a physiotherapist and some of the insights she’s gained working with running-related clients to rehab various...

Only 0.3% of Americans participate in ultra races but if you’re not a part of this group (yet) you can still learn from the challenges of these difficult events. Coach Hayley is a talented 2:37 marathoner and recently completed her first-ever ultramarathon by finishing a 50k run through the Endurancelife Ultra Series. She even accidentally ran an extra 2 miles, something Hayley will speak about during the episode. Despite the mishap, she is now preparing for her first 100k race and has some...

Marathon season is upon us and the team at RunnersConnect is bringing you all the greatest storylines going into the Boston and London Marathon. This year’s field of professional runners is loaded leading up to the Paris Summer Olympics and we’ll give you our take on what to expect and who might surprise or disappoint at upcoming marathon majors. We’ll also chat about our thoughts on what to expect from the American Olympic Marathon team who have all opted out of running a Spring marathon. ...

Roughly 1 in 4 US adults suffer from bunions and whether you knew it or not, there’s actually such a thing as “National Bunion Day '' that's only a few days away. Given the time of year and the applicability to our community, I figured it’d be a good topic of conversation.  For runners like us, bunions often result from the repeated stress of hitting the pavement, wearing shoes that are too tight, as well as having flat feet or over pronation to aggravate the problem.  With that context in...

After 8 years away, I'm finally making a return to competitive running. It's been a challenging road back, and I've learned some valuable lessons along the way. Here are three key takeaways from my journey: **Training at Your Current Fitness Level:** I've realized the importance of training based on my current fitness level, rather than aiming for past personal bests. It's been humbling, but ultimately crucial for progress. **Finding Your 'Why':** As my motivations have shifted, I've...

We are just a few weeks away from one of the world's most popular running events, the Boston Marathon. With this highly anticipated annual event approaching, I imagine you’ll be eager for relevant discussion.  So in this episode, we are joined by Jeff Gaudette, Founder of RunnersConnect, to address general questions about the race, offer advice on final race preparations, and discuss strategies for working towards the goal of qualifying for and racing in the Boston Marathon in the future, if...

Today’s episode is a true story of courage and resilience. Alison’s life was changed forever when she discovered two lumps on her neck in April of 2023 and later had these diagnosed as Non-Hodkins Lymphoma. Despite this news, she was so inspired to raise awareness and funding for another disease, motor neurone disease (MND), that she continued running and training throughout her chemo treatment. Alison finished her treatment last August and is now continuing her fundraising efforts while...

Running biomechanics expert, Jay Dicharry, returns to the show to talk about the upcoming new edition (stay tuned) of his popular book “Running Rewired”. In this conversation, we talk about: why we all need to be students of our sport the specific skills you should have in your running toolbox why you need inputs (not just recovery) to improve the way you’re moving why too much, too fast, too soon isn’t the only pathway to injury the cognitive, associative, and autonomous stages of building...

Running is an incredible sport with the power to change lives for the better. Unfortunately, it’s not as accessible as it can and should be. Despite being a relatively approachable sport with minimal equipment there are still systemic barriers that make it difficult for some to participate. Today, we’re tackling this issue head-on with a panel of diverse runners sharing their experiences in the sport and thoughts on how to make it more welcoming for all types of runners. Our panel for this...

If you’ve been tracking write ups in the media or public sentiment on all the message boards out there, then you know double threshold workouts are all the rage right now and given the moment we’re in, I thought it would be good to have RunnersConnect Head Coach Michael Hammond on the show to break everything down and help us determine whether it’s something this audience should consider for training purposes.  It’s a wide-ranging conversation with Michael, we cover a lot, but some of the...

As spring approaches, many runners are preparing for their first race of the season and may be wondering how to pace themselves in the race or during key workouts. Luckily, a properly crafted workout can be used to help estimate fitness for almost any distance. Whether you’re hoping for a PR or just curious about what finishing time to expect, then these race predictor workouts can help you make an educated guess of future race performance. We’ll go through several of these workouts for many...

RunnersConnect Founder and CEO Jeff Gaudette returns to Run To The Top this time to chat on a variety of topics. Specifically, we discuss: how his training methodology has changed in recent years peak week training tips for races like the Boston Marathon how to think about the non-running components of training like rest and active recovery protocols why he’s a strong (no pun intended) proponent of strength training the benefits of online coaching and how RunnersConnect is different from...

On today’s show, we are talking with Kara Goucher author of “The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike’s Elite Running Team”, which chronicles her ascent from Olympic aspirations to the Nike Oregon Project, led by Alberto Salazar, where she unveils a culture of abuse and doping, shedding light on the shadows of elite running.  Goucher's resilience and advocacy, despite corporate complicity, ignited a call for reform in the sport, offering a powerful...

Every racing distance comes with its own challenges, but in this episode the RC team is going to debate what race is the best test to crown the fittest runner on the planet. The winner of the 100m dash is typically given the title of fastest on the planet but we’re not going to let sprinters have all of the fun. You’ll hear our coaches each make their case for what they believe is the best test of fitness before we officially settle on a winner. Distance runners are a special breed of...

A captivating chat with Fiona O'Keefe, a former coach at Runners Connect, about her remarkable journey to winning the US Olympic Trials marathon and earning a spot on the Paris Olympic team.  Her insights and experiences shed light on the dedication and balance required for elite-level training and competition. 🏃‍♀️ Key Takeaways from the Conversation: - Balance and Recovery: The importance of balance, rest, and recovery in marathon training, from managing caffeine and alcohol intake to...

To many of you, Abdi Abdirahman is a household name. He’s the first American distance runner to make five Olympic teams and the oldest American distance runner ever to make an Olympic team. The list of accomplishments goes on. A few years ago, he wrote a book called “Abdi’s World,” which chronicles his impressive career in running, and that's why I wanted to have him on the show. In this conversation, we discuss: Not taking the sport too seriously as a strategy to stay competitive....

In this edition of RC spotlight we hear from Frederich Hayem (Fred), a relatively new runner who has achieved rapid success since taking up the sport just over a year ago. He is the perfect example of how good training and learning from your mistakes is the best way to improve as an athlete.  He joined our coaching program with the goal of running his first marathon and crushed it, running a 3:29. Despite some injury and setbacks, he has taken several minutes off of his already impressive...

Joe Friel is a renowned endurance sports coach most notable for some of the elite triathlon and cycling athletes he’s worked with over the years. He’s also the author of a great book called the “Triathlete’s Training Bible” and he joins the show today to discuss some of the running-related themes in the newest edition.  In a wide-ranging conversation around mental readiness, physical readiness, and race-season planning you’ll get some excellent takeaways from topics like: why should you...

It can be trickey to tell the difference between a niggle and an injury but how you respond when something doesn’t feel quite right could be the difference between a PR and and DNF. Coach Hayley Munn joins us in this to show, bringing her educational background in physical therapy and years of coaching experience to help tell the difference between an injury and a niggle and explain what to do about each of them.  It can be really challenging sometimes for even the most experienced runners...