If you feel like achieving a sub-3-mile marathon pace is beyond your reach, this episode of The Bare Performance Podcast will inspire you to expand your horizons. Nick invites Jeff Cunningham, an elite marathon trainer, to share the formula and mindset that consistently lifts runners who compete around the country to excel beyond what might seem possible.

An attorney by day, Jeff has developed a hybrid coaching program that keys to training volume, speed work, adaptations and nutrition. Hard data and metrics factor in, but at the end of the day it all boils down to the one non-negotiable component: Passion. Not just passion for running a marathon or even for running itself; it’s got to be a passion for doing the work.

Jeff took Nick on and believed he was capable of a sub-3-mile race pace goal based on a few key biographical elements. With those baseline ingredients, Jeff believes, anyone is capable of hitting a sub-3 marathon goal. And he has proved himself right, time and again, as his runners reach their goals and blow beyond them.

No one can explain what it feels like to be ready to go on race day. Knowing how to manage exhaustion is the essence of marathon running – and something that cannot be achieved without exacting, consistent intentional preparation towards a specific outcome. Jeff explains how he builds confidence in his runners, brick by brick. His formula has certainly worked for Nick, who now knows the difference between running a race and racing a race. It’s an incomparable, indescribable feeling.

The episode features lots of practical advice and reveals Nick’s plans to turn his goal of running a sub-2:50 time at the Buffalo Marathon this spring into an opportunity to share resources, training programs and tools with other aspirational runners. The ultimate goal? To inspire 10,000 personal records in the coming year!

You can follow or reach out to Jeff about coaching @Insta.

Click here to listen to/rate/review previous episodes of The Bare Performance Podcast. You can also find out more about Nick’s performance nutrition and health supplements here.

Key Takeaways:

(02:30): How Nick met Jeff and started working with his team – and got on the path to his first sub-3-hour marathon.
(04:45): Jeff shares the roots of his passion for running, which stretch back to his childhood in the early 1980s. He continued to run competitively through high school, college and law school. From there he stumbled into coaching, which is his big love.
(7:30): Jeff, who brings a hugely competitive mindset, is all about his runners’ success. When they set a goal and he helps him achieve it, that’s his ultimate satisfaction.
(09:30): Why the sub-3-hour marathon has such an allure. In the larger context, they’re monumental but relatable. They can be completed by athletes at all levels of fitness, but there is a line of demarcation when your time starts with a “2.”
(13:07): Running is a rare sport in which the barrier to entry is low and the possibilities for any given individual limitless (within reason). It’s all about training and mindset.
(17:45): Jeff shares his initial thoughts when Nick came to him with his sub-3 marathon goal and some of the amazing athletic

Victoria Harms, "The Making of Dissidents: Hungary’s Democratic Opposition and its Western Friends, 1973-1998" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2024)