Episodes
ASK THE COACHES. Here are the questions covered in the episode: Racing specific  HRV has been great but tanked during the taper How to run CIM Top 3 things to consider when buying marathon training shoes Training specific  How important is strength during the winter months?  If I can hold threshold for 1-1.5 hours, how long can i sustain zone 3 work (lower HR)
Published 11/21/24
262. STRENGTH TRAINING BENEFITS) Runners love to go hard. We love to keep moving and push ourselves. When we get into different exercises practices that are not as ‘fast paced’, it can feel strange. I have heard runners describe strength training as ‘boring’ or not feeling like they are ‘doing anything’. I have also heard runners say that they are ‘too sore’ from strength training to do their workouts. Even in my own experience, I have had my ego hurt when I visit the gym for strength...
Published 11/15/24
Published 11/15/24
Breaking down the barriers to tri Jason and I recently finished Ironman California. We were asked to do a podcast episode of our experience and answer some of the FAQs we have been getting. I think many runners and endurance athletes have a bucket list goal of doing a tri or an ironman, and we wanted to shed some light on what it might look like to take the dive. I did my first ever tri less than 3 months before the ironman and learned how to swim as an adult. If I can do it, I am confident...
Published 11/09/24
261. ASK THE COACHES 1. Muscle cramps at 38k. How much sodium an hour should I be taking? Only drank water and 1000mg of sodium in gels 2. Best snacks during carboloading & traveling 3. My HR zones and different in training peaks vs Garmin: which is accurate? https://help.trainingpeaks.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017420092-Zones-Calculator-Overview 4. What are your personal favorite gel brands to use? https://www.cranksports.com/comparisons/gu-energy-gel/ 5. How to ideally pace a 5k....
Published 11/01/24
You may have heard the phrase the ‘reverse taper’ lately. It can be all the rage on social media to use the term, but what does it really mean? I personally don’t love to use this term because after a goal race you don’t literally reverse the taper. If you did literally reverse the taper, you would probably end up injured and burnt out. The idea behind the reverse taper is that you would gradually get back into training slowly. It is important to take time off after a goal race. Sometimes...
Published 10/25/24
Intentional training is key to success. We all know this in regards to marathon training or half marathon training. We will try to find the perfect plan leading up to our goal race. We stick with it, we train with a purpose! We practiced our fueling. We hit the mileage. We run the workouts… But marathon training blocks are usually only 12-20 weeks long. What are we doing the other 40-32 weeks out of the calender year? Those weeks add up and they matter! A lot of athletes as we head into the...
Published 10/18/24
With fall marathons occurring soon, we are right around the corner to offseason training. If you follow runners on social media you will notice a few trends… Either there are the athletes who take time off after their goals races and then there are those athletes who appear to continue to train and put in some serious mileage even after 2 back to back marathons this fall. Why do some people appear to never take an offseason? Can you get away with that? Is it helpful or harmful in the long...
Published 09/27/24
Pacing properly in a race is key to actually racing to your potential and being able to run a time that is reflective of your fitness. The biggest mistake more athletes make is going out ‘too fast’ in a race. There can also be the mentality of holding back too much or starting too slow, but they are rare. We want to aim for our races to be even split or even a slight negative split. In recent years, we see more elites and pros positive splitting races and some even setting records doing so,...
Published 09/20/24
256. HELPING WITH RACE NERVES Worrying is suffering twice :) We have all been there. We all get nervous on race day to an extent. Some suffer from more race day anxiety than others. We care about our performances. We put a lot of time and energy into our training, and we hope that it all pays off on race day. It is good to care about your running, but we don’t want to be so nervous for a race that it makes us miserable! Today we are going to be chatting about ways to find zen and peace in...
Published 09/13/24
A lot of our content on the podcast and social media is about running marathons. Naturally many people want to improve their running which is sometimes measured in running your ‘fastest times’. This podcast episode is going to be talking about all the ways you can run your fastest marathon time. We won’t limit this episode to just ‘training tips’ but we will also add ways you can select a fast course, fast shoes & fueling optimization to get the best performance you possibly can. Why...
Published 09/06/24
As we get closer to fall races, more athletes are getting ready to run their fall races. As we get closer to these races, it is good to talk about one of the most important parts of your training plan: the taper! What exactly is the taper? It’s not exactly a time to kick back and relax/do nothing. The taper is going to give you a chance to peak for your race at the right time. If you do too short of a taper, you run the risk of feeling heavy legs on race day. If you do too long or extreme of...
Published 08/23/24
We focus a lot on setting time based goals. Round numbers always sound and look cool, but what else is there when it comes to setting goals? Did you know there are other ways to measure progress? Non-time based goals can be great for all athletes because they allow us to measure progress against
Published 08/19/24
We always hear about time goals. I want to break 4 hours in the marathon. I think I can run X pace for this race… but what about non-time based goals? Are there other ways to set goals for your races? Is there a benefit to setting non-time based goals?  Time goals are great for figuring out about what pace you want to run for the race, but what if you have a rocky day. You don’t want to feel like a failure if you don’t hit an arbitrary time goal. YOU PUT IN SO MUCH WORK & already are a...
Published 08/16/24
Most athletes are on a quest to improve. People like to see progress and no one wants to see that their hard work is actually moving them in the opposite direction of where they want to go. However, when there is not enough recovery in your training program, your body is not able to recover from the stressload of training. If you cannot recover from the stress of training, you will not be able to make adaptations that will make you a better athlete. Instead of improving, you will end up...
Published 08/09/24
Many athletes want to know when they should start training for their goal races. You may have trained for a race in the past and felt that you either were not prepared enough OR you felt the training cycle was a little long and you felt a bit burnt out. Today we are going to chat about different ways you can break up training so that you will have more longevity in the sport over the long term AND peak for your races at the right time.  I have heard a lot of people on IG say the phrase ‘I...
Published 08/02/24
The marathon is a very popular distance. Last week we chatted all about the importance of building a proper marathon training plan. This week we want to dive into the details of what type of workouts really matter when it comes to success in the marathon. We often see runners doing speed workouts during marathon training. This is not often the most effective way to become faster at the marathon. The marathon is 99% aerobic in nature, so it is very important to work on building that aerobic...
Published 07/26/24
Fall Races are just around the corner and many athletes are gearing up for events that are over 90 min in duration. Did you know that fueling becomes more important as your race gets longer? Many ultramarathoners attribute ‘fueling’ as their biggest barrier to finishing. When it comes to the marathon distance, fueling allows you to reach your potential on race day running faster paces for a longer distance as shown by research. We often hear about bro science of the benefits of fasting or we...
Published 07/19/24
A lot of our content is catered around the marathon distance. We know that the marathon is super popular and many people when they first start training for marathons will start to follow more specific training as the distance is super daunting THUS we have a lot of content to reach those people. However, did you know that most elite marathoners actually focused on the 5k distance first? That is right! Focusing on the shorter distance races can actually make you a better marathoner. Today we...
Published 06/28/24
It is HOT outside! It is that time of year again where the heat, humidity & dew point  is really starting to drag us down. We wanted to do a podcast chatting about this weather and what it all means for us. We should all be adjusting our paces in this heat anytime we run in over 60 degrees. There are temp conversion calculators out there created specifically for this. Have you ever heard the phrase, it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity? We will chat specifically about the humidity and dew...
Published 06/21/24
www.run4prs.com Training for a marathon is a big deal! We want to make sure your training cycle is framed up with the best shot of success at performance. At the time of this release we are about 17 weeks away from the Chicago marathon. Lots of questions pop up over the course of training. How long should my longest long run be? What if I have to miss a week because I’m sick? Should I increase my long run every weekend? Should I race a half marathon 3 weeks out from my marathon?  We will be...
Published 06/05/24
We did a podcast about postpartum and pregnant running back in spring of 2021, and we decided to do another episode about this topic to answer questions we have gotten from our listeners. In this podcast Coach Mary will be joining me in chatting about her 2 pregnancy and postpartum running experiences. I am a mom of 3 kids 6 and under myself. Together we have had our share of struggles and triumphs during this stage of life. We hope sharing our experiences can help you navigate this season...
Published 05/24/24
Long runs are the cornerstone for many half and full marathon training plans. Many people have bucket list goals to train for a full marathon and train their body how to run 26.2 miles at a time. This endeavor will require a person to be able to run for long periods of time. It can almost seem unfathomable to build from a 3-4 mile long run to 20 miles as a long run. We often see athletes struggle to get to a place where they feel comfortable running for 90+ min at a time. While it is always a...
Published 05/17/24
We spend a lot of time focusing on the training for race day but sometimes athletes find the art of racing to be complicated. We rarely practice racing for the obvious reasons because we can only have so many A races a year without burning out or compromising our training. However, if we never practice digging deep into the well, the already daunting task becomes even more daunting. It is similar to a lot of things in life. Like public speaking, we can prepare and rehearse everything...
Published 05/10/24
Assessing your strengths and weaknesses is key for building self awareness and also knowing what you should work on! When we know where we could use a little work, we can channel our energy to that area of life. This is important for your personal life as well as for your running. You will be able to better reach your potential when you know what direction to go. We have 3 areas of runner traits we are going to address in this episode as well as ways to turn your weaknesses into your...
Published 04/26/24