We wanted to wrap up 2022 with one of our favorite type of episode, TRN Audio Magazine. Andy Jones-Wilkins joins us to discuss this and that with a guess the title game.

Links to stuff we mentioned:

• "Unbreakable" movie by JB Benna
• Born To Run book by Christopher McDougall
• Pied Piper of Trail Running short reel
• "Strong Downhills Late in Races May Determine the Fastest Finishers" by David Roche
• "The Hidden Factor That Explains Easy Run Pace" by Alex Hutchinson

Hire Andy as a coach! or check out his weekly Tap Room at iRunFar

Outcome goals are goals that focus on the end result or objective, while process goals are goals that focus on the steps or actions required to achieve the desired outcome. Outcome goals tend to be more specific and measurable, while process goals are more focused on the journey or process of achieving the outcome.

Coach Ian Sharman joins The Nation to discuss these different kinds of goals and helps us understand the pros and cons of each.

Outcome goals can be motivating because they provide a clear target to aim for, but they can also be discouraging if progress is slow or if setbacks occur. Process goals, on the other hand, can help to keep you on track and focused on the steps needed to achieve your outcome goal, which can lead to better long-term success.

Real Science of Sport podcast episode Ian mentioned regarding soccer penalty kicks.

Find out more about Sharman Ultra Coaching

Frank Hart rose to fame, popularity and wealth in the 1870 as one of the first African American athletes to break the color barrier as an ultra runner.

Davy Crockett, the host of the podcast, "Ultrarunning History" joins us to tell us this amazing story of Frank Hart and the early popularity of pedestrianism.

Get the book here. It's a great stocking stuffer!

Davy has run over 100 100-mile finishes since starting in 2004.  He is a race director of the Pony Express Trail 50 and 100 in Utah and was recently named Director of the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame.

You can learn more about Davy and his many works at Ultrarunninghistory.com 

Check out our earlier episode with Davy about the history of EP 556: The History of Ultrarunning

If this episode was interesting to you, you might like the episode we did on "Pedestrianism" two years ago.

We recently read a blog post from Charlotte Grysolle, "15 Learnings Between a Neuroscientist & Navy SEAL Officer".  This article was based on the Jocko podcast between Jocko Willink and Dr. Andrew Huberman, "332: Influence & Ownership Over Your Physiological & Psychological Being".  We enjoyed it so much we thought we'd have a casual discussion about six points we thought were interesting and how they relate to running.

• Optic Flow
• Expand your visual field
• Re-frame friction
• Dopamine peaks
• Physiological sigh
• Making mistakes is key for learning

Check out the "GOOD" video from Jocko.

Coach Ian Sharman is one of the most consistent and successful trail and ultra runners. This year he had a few A-races that didn't go as expected. We talk through why.

We discuss knowing when to back off and how to keep running sustainable for the long term.

Some items that we discussed and we promised to link:

• The Range Report Newsletter by David Epstein
• Book: Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away by Annie Duke
• Learn more about running in Bhutan!

Find out more about Sharman Ultra Coaching

Alex Hutchinson is back to discuss some of his most recent articles he published at Outsideonline:

• The Salt in Sports Drinks May Not be as Crucial as You Think
• How Pregnancy Affects Your Marathon Time

Alex Hutchinson is an avid runner and author.  We did a series of podcasts on his book, Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance. Previous Podcasts where we discuss the specific chapters of Endure:

• Podcast #1:   The Unforgiving Minute, The Conscience Quitter, Heat, Belief
• Podcast #2: The Central Governor Theory, Pain and Training the Brain
• Podcast #3 : Oxygen, Fuel, and Zapping the Brain

Check out Alex’s other books:

• Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights?: Fitness Myths, Training Truths, and Other Surprising Discoveries from the Science of Exercise
• Big Ideas: 100 Modern Inventions That Have Transformed Our World
• What Defines our Limits - with Alex Hutchinson

Follow Alex on Twitter
Check out Sweat Science

There has been a lot of hype around intermittent fasting for the last couple years but not a lot of decisive research or data.  Coach Bob Seebohar rejoins The Nation to help us understand what intermittent fasting is and what he knows about it and help us understand if there is any benefit for endurance athletes.

Bob Seebohar is a board certified specialist in sports dietetics, exercise physiology, and an NSCA certified strength and conditioning coach.  He is also the sports dietitian for the University of Denver women's gymnastic team and the University of Denver Athletics Department.

If you want to learn more about Bob and his services including his books, articles, coaching services, nutrition and more, visit ENRGPERFORMANCE.  He is also the co-host of the podcast Inside Sports Nutrition with Dina Griffin.

Check out the tasty healthy snacks he invented at All-Around Snack Company.

He has been on TRN a couple other times including these two great episodes:

EP 517: Eat to Train
EP 583: TRAINING PRINCIPLES - Nutrition

Too often we mistake the terms "Trail Runner" and "Ultra Runner" as the same thing. They are not. In fact, running shorter distances can help us become better runners at any distance and better all around athletes.

Coach David Roche joins The Nation to talk about the benefits of running the next 5k or 10k turkey trot and how it helps us physiologically and biomechanically. It actually might be a whole lot of FUN TOO!

There are more people running ultras and especially longer ultras today. Are we moving to those longer distances too quickly? Is there benefit in running the shorter distances for a while before jumping into an event that takes all day?

David Roche is a 2-time USATF trail national champion and 3-time member of team USA. He is also part of the power duo of coaches at SWAP Running, along with his partner, Megan. They also a great book, The Happy Runner: Love the Process, Get Faster, Run Longer (you can listen to our book review with Megan and David HERE). Megan and David host a very fun and informative podcast, Some Work All Play Adventure Podcast. You can also find David as a frequent contributor at Trail Runner Magazine.

As a young runner, Steve Magness was a very fast runner, holding one of the fastest high school mile times at 4:01.  He was a model for toughness, pushing through the pain until he puked.  But this strategy failed as he continued trying to break the 4:00 barrier at the University of Houston.

Steve Magness is a runner, coach and world-renowned expert on peak performance. He uncovers the science and helps us learn how to be better athletes and tougher people. In his new book Do Hard Things - Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of REAL TOUGHNESS Steve looks at the science and helps us learn how to be more resilient and learn how to do hard things.

We did a chapter by chapter review of this book leading up to this episode. If you want to learn more listen to these episodes:

• Part 1 - Chapters 2,5,6
• Part 2 - Chapters 3,7,11
• Part 3 - Chapters 1,4,8,9,10

Steve is the co-founder of The Growth Equation, an online platform dedicated to the understanding and practice of performance and well-being. He also co-hosts The Growth Equation Podcast with Brad Stulberg and On Coaching Podcast with Jon Marcus. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram @SteveMagness

Andy Jones-Wilkins joins us to wrap up this great book. Hire Andy as a coach! or check out his weekly Tap Room at iRunFar

This is the part 3 and final chapter by chapter review of Steve Magness' new book Do Hard Things - Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of REAL TOUGHNESS. We encourage you to buy the book and read along as we will have follow up episodes discussing the key points in each chapter. In this episode we discuss Chapters 1, 4, 8, 9, and 10

Steve Magness is a runner, coach and world-renowned expert on peak performance. He uncovers the science and helps us learn how to be better athletes and tougher people. Every runner and parent should read this book. It's that good.

Our guest hosts are Andy Jones-Wilkins and Krissy Moehl.

Hire Andy as a coach! or check out his weekly Tap Room at iRunFar

Learn more about Krissy, preorder her book and consider her coaching services HERE 

Ryan Hall is a retired American long-distance runner.  He holds the American marathon record of 2:04:58 (Boston 2011) AND the half-marathon record of 59:43 (the first American to break the one-hour mark!)  He is a two-time Olympian and author of the recent book, Run the Mile You’re In.

 

Ryan joins us to talk about his transition from professional running to coaching, powerlifting, author, husband, and dad.

 

You can follow Ryan and learn more about

• his coaching at Run Free Training
• his web site Ryan and Sara Hall
• watch his video from the challenge “Chop Wood, Carry Water”
• follow Ryan on Instagram: @RyanHall3
• listen to his podcast Run Free

This is the part 2 of our chapter by chapter review of Steve Magness' new book Do Hard Things - Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of REAL TOUGHNESS. We encourage you to buy the book and read along as we will have follow up episodes discussing the key points in each chapter. In this episode we discuss Chapters 3, 7, and 11.

Steve Magness is a runner, coach and world-renowned expert on peak performance. He uncovers the science and helps us learn how to be better athletes and tougher people. Every runner and parent should read this book. It's that good.

Hire Andy as a coach! or check out his weekly Tap Room at iRunFar

Tapering is typically thought of as a physical reduction in ones physical stresses from training.  In today's episode, we talk about the mental part of a taper - getting ready for that big day.

Todd Larsen and Bob Crowley join us to talk about Todd's recent A-Race that didn't go as planned and his analysis of why.

This is the first part of our chapter by chapter review of Steve Magness' new book Do Hard Things - Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of REAL TOUGHNESS. We encourage you to buy the book and read along as we will have follow up episodes discussing the key points in each chapter. In this episode we discuss Chapters 2, 5 and 6

Steve Magness is a runner, coach and world-renowned expert on peak performance. He uncovers the science and helps us learn how to be better athletes and tougher people. Every runner and parent should read this book. It's that good.

Hire Andy as a coach! or check out his weekly Tap Room at iRunFar

Brad Kearns has been striving for peak performance, healthy living and fitness.  Recently his thinking of nutrition was challenged on his B.rad podcast by a guest, Jay Feldman.  We thought this was interesting enough to invite Brad back to discuss his new thoughts.  Brad might get you to rethink your nutrition and start a discussion with your running friends.

Brad Kearns is a New York Times bestselling author, Guinness World Record setting professional Speed golfer, #1 ranked USA age 55-59 high jumper, and former US national champion and #3 world-ranked professional triathlete.

Brad has written over twenty books on diet, health, peak performance, and ancestral living, and is a popular speaker, retreat host, and host of numerous online multimedia educational courses at BradKearns.com. In 2017, The Keto Reset Diet (co-authored with Mark Sisson) became New York Times bestseller, and #1 ranked overall bestselling book on amazon.com for two days. 

He promotes the importance of performing a daily morning exercise routine for a natural energy boost, improved strength, mobility and flexibility, and better focus and discipline in all areas of life.

Most runners don’t like strength training, including many of our experts in this episode.  Our experts discuss why it is important, how we can implement it into our training program and the benefits.

Michael Wardian is a great example of how strength training can help him become one of the best consistent ultra athletes with over 300 marathons and ultras.  He has many accomplishments including setting the record world record time in 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days and just completed a transcontinental run, “Running Home” in 61 days.  Check him out on Instagram or learn more on his web site.  Check out this video showing Mike’s three core strength exercises that you can do anywhere (dead bugs, bridge, bird dog)!

Jason Fitzgerald had to be on this strength running episode because he has a podcast and website dedicated to the subject, Strength Running.  Jason is a USA Track & Field certified coach, and frequent contributor on PodiumRunner, Runner’s World, Active, MapMyRun, The Art of Manliness, Lifehacker and others.  He has been running competitively since 1998 and competitively in the 3,000m Steeplechase.  After you subscribe to his podcast, follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Youtube.

Brad Kearns is a top endurance and multisport athlete, author, podcaster and coach.  Check out more at:

• The Primal Endurancebook
• Primal Blueprintweb site
• Rad Podcast
• Primal Endurance Podcast

Alex Hutchinson has studied and written about strength training  at Outsideonline.  Here are some articles you might be interested in:

• a general grab-bag of info about strength training
• the link between strength training and running economy
• strength training and longevity
• figure out how many reps to do based on subjective effort

Alex is an avid runner and author.  We did a series of podcasts on his book, Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance.

Professional Headmaster and 2nd place finisher of the 2005 Western States 100, Andy Jones-Wilkins, join us to write the latest edition of Audio Magazine. The Authors dug deep to come up with topics that will keep you up to date and informed about trail running.

Since there was so much trash talking leading up to this recording, we kindly ask our listeners to rank the magazine articles best to worst. Click this link to participate in the poll. There might be some high stakes and bragging rights based on the results, which, of course, we will share with The Nation.

Hire Andy as a coach! or check out his weekly Tap Room at iRunFar

Runner, Coach, and Author Matt Fitzgerald has a new book out, On Pace, Discover How to Run Every Race at Your Real Limit.

If you go to the link you can get the first chapter for FREE!!!!

Matt helps us undersand why pacing matters, why it is difficult to do, and how to become better at it.

Find out more about Matt:
- Matt's primary web page
- Matt's training page with coaching plans

Aid Stations are so important at a race.  They have evolved with trail running over time combining medical help, shelter, therapy, and all-you-can eat buffets. Sarah Lavender-Smith joins us to discuss how they have evolved and how to use them efficiently.

Here is her article that spurred the discussion.

Check out all her newsleter, Colrado Mouintain Running & Living

Check out on of Sarah's fall races, Hanging Flume 50K

We encourage you to check out all of our partners and their excellent products and services.  A new one we want to make you aware of is Wonderful Pistachios.  It might be your newest and favorite trail snack.

 

Sports Nutrition expert, Ashley Reaver, rejoins The Nation to discuss 5 additional biomarkers that endurance athletes should be aware of.  These biomarkers can help (or hinder) functions within the body like buiding red blood cells, help in recovery, energy and other body functions.

Biomarkers help us understand what is going on inside our bodies.  Ashley helped us understand the top 5 biomarkers in a previous episode.    In this episode identifies five additional biomarkers, why they are important, what is the normal range and what can we do to correct them if they are outside the normal range.

Ashley Reaver is a registered sports dietician with a masters in Nutrition Science and Policy.  She offers nutrition counseling in her private practice and a full-time teacher of nutrition and dietetics courses at the University of California, Berkeley.  She is also the lead nutritional scientist at Inside Tracker.

We encourage you to check out all of our partners and their excellent products and services.  A new one we want to make you aware of is Wonderful Pistachios.  It might be your newest and favorite trail snack.

We all are part of The Nation. What does that mean. How does The Nation look? What gear do we use? There have been a few surveys conducted in 2022 that help us understand.

• Check out the ITRA Survey
• ATRA also conducted a Survey

We encourage you to check out all of our partners and their excellent products and services.  A new one we want to make you aware of is Wonderful Pistachios.  It might be your newest and favorite trail snack.

Endurance runners love to eat!  However nutrition for endurance running can be a moving target.  Experimentation is key and once you think you have it figured out, you don't.  We found four nutritional experts to help us understand more about nutrition.  

• Meredith Terranova, experienced ultra runner, swimmer and athlete with a degree in Human Nutrition and Consumer Science.  Check out her website with coaching options.
• Matt Fitzgerald, Athlete, Coach, Author and Speaker is a certified sports nutritionist including many on nutrition.  Check out his new running camp concept, Endeavorun
• Stephanie Howe is a PhD in Nutrition and Exercise Science and elite athlete.  Check out her coaching and web site with many great recipes
• Bob Seebohar is a board certified specialist in Sports Dietetics and former director of sports nutrtition for the University of Florida and served as a sports dietitian for the US Olympic Committee.  Hire him as a coach

 

Elite runner, Tim Tollefson, had a great spring training and racing leading up to his A-race, the Western States 100 Endurance Run.  His expectations were high and many thought he would be able to best his 2021 fifth place finish.  Tim joins us to shares what he experienced and the lessons he learned. 

Be to check out and register for Tim's Mammoth Trail Fest on Sept 22-25, 2022.

We encourage you to check out all of our partners and their excellent products and services.  A new one we want to make you aware of is Wonderful Pistachios.  It might be your newest and favorite trail snack.

Do you have a hot adventure or race you are preparing for?  Corrine Malcolm helps The Nation understand what we can do to improve our chances for success.

Corrine breaks down these science-based strategies for getting cool before your adventure and staying cool when you are running.

We reference her article from iRunFar she wrote.

Find out how Corrine can become your Coach

Follow Corrine on Instagram and Twitter

Do you have an adventure or race at high altitude this summer?  You will want to listen to Coach Ian Sharman teach us about the ins and outs of how to adapt most effectively.

Ian has experience at altitude.  He is a four-time winner of the high-altitude Leadville 100 (lowest point is over 9000' and climbing up to 12,532').

We talk about

• when do you need to consider acclimatization
• where to train
• how to train
• how soon should you be at the event
• what if you don't have time to spend at altitude

Check out his article "High Altitude Training" in Ultra Running Magazine

Find out more about Sharman Ultra Coaching

What are the biggest misconceptions that endurance athletes have about nutrition?  Dr. Patrick Davitt, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology and Program Director for Exercise Physiology at the Saint Joseph's University, joins us The Nation to help us understand some important information about nutrition as it relates to endurane sports.  Patrick has practical experience as an avid and accomplished member of our community of trail runners!  Should we taper our nutrition prior to a race?  Can we train our gut similar to our cardiovascular system?

Find out more about Dr. Davitt at CTW Endurance

One of our favorite topics at TRN is sleep. Sleep is the time our bodies adapt to the training stimulus.  Alexey Guzey, a researcher, writer and co-founder and executive director of New Science joins us to shed more light on this important part of our training.  We cover many topics like:

• What are the myths of sleep?
• Why do we sleep?
• Is it OK to feel sleepy?
• Should we get as much sleep as our body wants?
• Can we over sleep?
• Can we bank sleep?
• Can we catch up on sleep?
• Depression and sleep

Check out this past episode about Matthew Walker's book, "Why We Sleep"

Take a look at a couple of Alexey's articles on sleep:

Thesis on Sleep
Alexey's take on Matthew Walker's book, "Why We Sleep"

You can learn more about Alexey at Guzey.com, follow him on twitter or learn more about New Science

 

Western States 100 is this weekend.  International runners represent nearly 1/3 of the entrants.  We recorded this episode live with these international runners at a local running store in Auburn California, The Aid Station.  Course experts, Tim Twietmeyer and Ian Sharman join us to help these runners understand the course and how to develop a strategy for success.  Many of these strategies can translate into your trail adventures and races.

HERE is a link to a course map and elevation profile.

Link to Joe Uhan's iRunFar articles:
- The Western States Killing Machine - Part 1
- The Western States Killing Machine - Part 2

Sharman Ultra Coaching

Merry Statesmas!

They 2022 running of the iconic Western States 100 is next weekend.  We sit down with Andy Jones-Wilkins to get his take on this year's race.  There will be 385 amazing stories from each of the starters this year.  We highlight some of the ones that you might want to watch unfold.

Joe Uhan's iRunFar articles, "Western State Killing Machine": Part 1 & Part 2

Hire Andy as a coach! or check out his weekly Tap Room at iRunFar

Pacing can be an art and a science.  In this episode we bring on four experts to help us understand what a good pacer is and isn't / does and doesn't.

Scotty Mills, Coach Jimmy Dean Freeman, Coach Meghan Canfield, and Andy Jones-Wilkins share their wisdom as racers and pacers.  What makes a good one?

 

Here are some previous episodes we have done on pacing:

• Pacing: How to Be the Best Pacer with Victor Ballesteros
• Pacing and Crewing with Dominic and Katie

Check out SoCal Coyotes

Check out Meghan's coaching site

Hire Andy as a coach! or check out his weekly Tap Room at iRunFar

It has been a while since the last publication of the Audio Magazine.  We invited some of our favorite witty guest to make it fun.

Each person comes with a title of their article. The other participants guess what the article is about and then we discuss.

Hire Andy as a coach! or check out his weekly Tap Room at iRunFar

Warren Pole,  one of the founders of 33 Fuel. They recently started a podcast that is devoted to endurance fueling: 33Fuel Podcast

Biomarkers help us understand what is going on inside our bodies.  There are many that are very important to endurance athletes.  In this episode Ashley Reaver helps us identify five of these biomarkers, why they are important, what is the normal range and what can we do to correct them if they are outside the normal range.

Ashley Reaver is a registered sports dietician with a masters in Nutrition Science and Policy.  She offers nutrition counseling in her private practice and a full-time teacher of nutrition and dietetics courses at the University of California, Berkeley.  She is also the lead nutritional scientist at Inside Tracker.

Don recently came across an article by Mariska van Sprundel, "Running and the Science of Mental Toughness". We love talking about the mental side of our sport and thought Dr. Rob Bell would be an excellent guest for the topic. Dr. Rob Bell is a certified Mental Performance Coach with years of academic research and real-life coaching experience.  

2 of the 7 books Rob has written::
- Puke & Rally: It's Not About the Setback, It's About the Comeback - listen to our episode on the book HERE
- No One Gets There Alone

Check out 
- Dr. Rob's web site
- Puke & Rally web site
- His podcast, "15 minutes of Mental Toughness"

Find him at

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube

Rob is running the Dances With Dirt 50K this weekend! He will be the one smiling!

We've all heard that we should build a good "base".  In this episode we devine what base building is and how to make it a fundimental part of our training.  

Our experts for this episode are Ian Sharman, Krissy Moehl, Dr. Phil Maffetone, and Ellie Greenwood.

Links:

• Dr. Phil's Big Books:
  • Big Book of Health and Fitness
  • Big Book of Training and Racing
• Dr. Phil's web site
• Sharman Ultra Coaching
• Krissy Moehl's web site
• Phil Maffetone's music site

What does consistency mean to you? Returning guest, Adam Kimble joins The Nation to discuss the long-term benefits of consistency.  Could consistency be the holy grail of training success?

Learn more about Adam by checking out his web site and his coaching site, Run On Dirt Coaching.
Adam's social channels: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook

Alex Hutchinson is back to discuss some of his most recent articles he published at Outsideonline:

• Why Cyclists Can Handle Heat Better than Runners
• New Data on How Your Arm Swing Affects Running
• Do Endurance Athletes Get More Cavities?

Alex Hutchinson is an avid runner and author.  We did a series of podcasts on his book, Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance. Previous Podcasts where we discuss the specific chapters of Endure:

• Podcast #1:   The Unforgiving Minute, The Conscience Quitter, Heat, Belief
• Podcast #2: The Central Governor Theory, Pain and Training the Brain
• Podcast #3 : Oxygen, Fuel, and Zapping the Brain

Check out Alex’s other books:

• Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights?: Fitness Myths, Training Truths, and Other Surprising Discoveries from the Science of Exercise
• Big Ideas: 100 Modern Inventions That Have Transformed Our World
• What Defines our Limits - with Alex Hutchinson

Follow Alex on Twitter
Check out Sweat Science

Our good friend and running doctor, Mark Cucuzzella, joins us again to discuss common medical issues that you might experience on the trail, causes and treatments.

• Dr. Mark's Run for Your Life Podcast
• Dr. Mark's book, "Run for Your Life"

Make sure you watch his 8:25 Video that show the principles of natural running.

Be sure to spend some time learning at The Natural Running Center web site.

Visit Two Rivers Treads running store either in person or call them and ask them some questions!

Head Coach and Executive Director of the Hoka Northern Arizona Elite Team, aka Hoka NAZ Elite, Ben Rosario helps us understand how the pros train.  You might be surprised that there are many things they do that you can too!  Regardless of your ability level, age, or experience, we can learn some key principles that will help us run faster and/or further.  

1. Sleep
2. Nutrition
3. Strength Training (you don’t have to have a gym membership)
4. Stretching
5. Taking it easy on easy days
6. BONUS – Pacing

You can learn more in the book he co-authored with Matt Fitzgerald, In their new book, Run Like a Pro (Even If You’re Slow): Elite Tools and Tips for Runners at Every Level,  they help us understand that we can reach our potential if we include some of these training techniques and strategies.

A few weeks ago we spoke with Addie Bracy about mental training.  We loved it so much we bought her book, Mental Training for Ultrarunning: Your Psychological Skills for Ultra Success, and asked AJW if he would join us to talk about the principles she writes about.

Visit her mental performance page at Strive Mental Performance

We often see photos of people, especially outside the USA, running with poles.  Running with poles can be more efficient - using both legs and arms to help you uphills.  Have you ever considered running with poles or not sure how to use them proplerly?  In this month's Training Principles episode, we get some sound advice from four professional runners, Max King, Courtney Dauwalter, Sabrina Stanley, and Tim Tollefson on how to be successful with poles.

Check out

• Max King's runnning camp
• Sabrina's coaching

Check our Leki, if you want the best poles on the trail.

Runner, coach, certified nutritionist and author Matt Fitzgerald teams up with the coach of the Hoka Northern Arizona Elite team, Ben Rosario, to help us understand how the pros run.  In their new book, they help us understand that we can reach our potential if we include some of these training techniques and strategies.

Matt has been on TRN ten previous times including the episode we referenced, How Bad Do you Want It?

Find out more about Matt and coaching at 8020endurance.com 

We've all heard the saying, "Ultra running is 90% mental and the rest is in your head". Addie Bracy a sports and performance phychologist rejoins The Nation to dive deep into this oft-times neglected part of our training.  We discuss mental toughness and how it correlates to performance, mental distractions, and how to get into the "zone".

Check out her book, book, Mental Training for Ultrarunning: Your Psychological Skills for Ultra Success

Visit her mental performance page at Strive Mental Performance

Trails can be intimidating with varying technical challenges.  Four coaches from Sharman Ultra Coaching help us understand these challenges and give us some tips on how to feel more comfortable.

Ian Sharman, Liza Howard, Hillary Allen and Addie Bracy  are all excellent technical trail runners and share their knowledge with us.

Learn more about mental training at Addie's web site: strivementalperformance.com

or her new book, Mental Training for Ultrarunning: Your Psychological Skills for Ultra Success

FInd out more about Hillary Allen HERE

Find out more about Liza Howard HERE

Check out Liza's great camp for veterans and their families HERE

Hillary Allen was on the top of her sport, Skyrunning, when she fell 150 feet off an exposed ridge, breaking two ribs, fracturing her back, ruptuing a ligament in her foot and breaking both wrists.  She joins The Nation to discuss the mindset of injury recovery, why having a support system matters, and the importance of balance in athletics. LINK to her Tedx CU talk

LINK to Hillary's web site

Get her Book, Out and Back: A Runner's Story of Survival Against All Odds

Sometimes we just have to have a light fun episode.  We invited Andy Jones-Wilkins to join us on a new type of episode, Spin the Bottle, a randomized vocabulary game.  Join us and play along.

We referenced AJW's postmortem episode shortly after his first DNF. HERE is that episode.

Hire Andy as a coach! or check out his weekly Tap Room at iRunFar

Dr. Megan Roche helps us all, men and women, understand the physiological differences that women have and how it might be an advantage.

Dr. Roche is an MD and current PhD candidate at Standford University working on epidemiology, focused on population health and genetics for athletes, spedifically women.  she is also a freaking fast runner:

• 2016 USATF Trail Runner of the Year
• 5-time national champion
• North American Mountain Running Champion
• 6-time member of team USA

She is the co-author of, The Happy Runner: Love the Process, Get Faster, Run Longer and co-host of the popular podcast, "Some Work, All Play"

You can also hire her or their coaches at SWAPRunning.

Check out this past episode with Megan and David about their book.

In our second monthly installment of Training Principles, we attack the subject of consistency.  Joining us on this episode are some amazing coaches and consistent runners.  We chose some running and coaching couples for this episode:

Megan Roche: Consistency in Speed
Happy Running Coaching
Some Work, All Play podcast
Book: The Happy Runner: Love the Process, Get Faster, Run Longer

David Roche: Consistency in aerobic development

Emily (Harrison) Torrence: Consistency will help you run injury free
Sundog Running Coaching, Running camp and Racing

Ian Torrence: Consistency and goal setting-both within a season and within an event

Eric Clifton was inducted into the American UltraRunning Hall of Fame in 2021.  He was the fastest and most dominating 100-mile trail runner in the 1990s. He has amassed more than 60 ultra wins and his win ratio at the 100-mile distance is staggering 17 wins of his 31 finishes and more than 20 course records.  His strategy was very different from the norm back then.  And get this....He has 19 years of his career where he won at least one ultra. We sit down and talk with Eric about his experiences back in the early 90s and how he went against conventional wisdom to race the way he wanted to race.  He talks about how running saved his life.

Be sure to listen to his complete story on UtraRunning History Podcast.

Davy Crockett, the host of the podcast, "Ultrarunning History" joins us to help us understand our community’s history and helps us better understand our tribe's culture. 

Davy has run over 100 100-mile finishes since starting in 2004.  He is a race director of the Pony Express Trail 50 and 100 in Utah and was recently named Director of the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame.

You can learn more about Davy and his many works at Ultrarunninghistory.com 

Are you new to trail or ultra running? Are you interested in testing the a new distance?  Krissy Moehl wrote the book that can help you. We talk with Krissy about her updated second edition of the book and how it can help you become a better runner. We mentioned a video of Roch Horton talking about the Kroker's Canteen aid station at Hardrock 100

Learn more about Krissy, preorder her book and consider her coaching services HERE 

Are you looking to begin running?  Are you having trouble with consistent running?  Are you wanting to take your running to a new level?  This episode will help.

Adam Kimble recommended the James Clear Book, Atomic Habits, to us a few months ago.  We read it and realized there are many tools in this book that can help us develop habits that will propel us to becoming better runners.  

Here is the episode where Adam introduced us to the book: EP 541: Improving Performance Through the Aggregation of Marginal Gains

In 2022, we will be doing a monthly episode focused on Training Principles.  In this episode, we start with the principle of Quality Training.

We have invited four experts to give their take on quality training:

Sally McRae: strength training = injury prevention
Sally's Web site

Patrick Reagan: disciplined recovery runs
Patrick's coaching site

Adam Kimble: variety
Adam's coaching site

Ian Sharman: have a purpose
Ian's coaching site