the morning shakeout podcast

“You are so much more than just your race results. When I think about people that I know in the obstacle racing world, in the ultra world, I don’t remember where they finished in races. It doesn’t really matter to me. It’s being involved and engaged in the community [that matters most].”From late 2011 through the early part of 2016, there was virtually no stopping Amelia Boone. She tore up the obstacle-racing scene, winning the Spartan Race World Championship in 2013 and the World’s Toughest Mudder, a.k.a. “the most extreme, insane, imposing, pulse-pounding, heart-stopping 24-hour obstacle course challenge on the planet,” three times—one of those triumphs just eight weeks after knee surgery. In 2015, she started experimenting on obstacle-free trails, finishing third in her first ultramarathon at the Georgia Death Race. The following year, she finished second at the Sean O’Brien 100K, qualifying for the Western States 100. If an event involved some combination of dirt and prolonged suffering, Boone seemed to excel at it.But her streak of podium finishes soon snapped. Literally. Not long after punching her Golden Ticket to Western States, Boone suffered a stress fracture of her femur, forcing her to forfeit her place on the start line in Squaw. But that was far from the end of it. A few months later, Boone was injured again, this time with a stress fracture in her sacrum. After starting the year on such a high note, Boone felt like she was in a hole with no clear way out. “The process of acceptance was really hard and that feeling of kind of losing your identity,” the 34-year-old Boone recently told me. “And I think anyone who’s been sidelined with anything for a really long time, you start to really feel that. And I remember just being really angry at first. When I saw people running down the road, I wanted to throw things at them because I was so jealous.”In this episode of the morning shakeout podcast, Boone and I cover a wide range of topics, ranging from how she got her start in obstacle racing and ultrarunning, to how she’s dealt with injuries and setback, both physically and psychologically, and how she juggles her day job working full-time as an attorney for Apple with training and racing at a high level. We also talk about her affinity for Pop Tarts and professional wrestling (“If I could go back and do it all over again, I would have been a professional wrestler,” she says half-jokingly), the value of strength training and rest days for ultrarunners, and the challenges of being a sponsored endurance athlete. 
Oh yeah, and we discuss her return to ultramarathon racing at this weekend’s Sean O’Brien 100K, where she’ll be a part of a deep women’s field—and much, much more.“What I’ve kind of realized beyond all this is yes, I signed up for Sean O’Brien to hopefully get a Golden Ticket to go back to Western States but as I get closer, the more and more I realize that if that happens, great; but you know what, the day to day, and the training, and everything that I’ve put into it, I’m just happy to be out there and racing,” says Boone. “So for me, this entire training block, and coming back to Sean O’Brien, is having trust and faith again in my body and just the ability to be out there and do that, because at points I was just throwing my hands up in the air and being like, ‘Maybe I’m just not meant for this, you know?’”This episode of the morning shakeout podcast was edited by John Isaac at BaresRecords.com.Complete show notes here: http://themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-4-amelia-boone/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered directly to your inbox every Tuesday morning: themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“I’m comfortable saying I’m a marathoner and everything feeds into the next marathon and making sure that’s great. So if that means being a little out of shape for some summer racing or some off-season racing, that’s OK. I think you kind of check your ego when it comes to that stuff and know that it’s playing into the bigger picture.”Two-time Olympian Des Linden comes on the podcast and discusses a wide range of topics including her pre-run coffee habits, how she pulled herself out of a slump last fall, what it’s like to live with a triathlete, how she’s approaching this year’s Boston Marathon, and the importance of being open and honest about her journey as an athlete.“For me personally, it’s sharing the entire experience. I didn’t have to tell people that I was in a slump this fall or unmotivated or just didn’t want to get out the door. But I think it’s valuable and I think everyone goes through that—the person who’s finishing last and the pros too—it’s pretty universal and I think there’s a lot of experiences like that,” Linden told me. “There’s those days where you don’t want to go out and run and there’s those days where you just feel great and you share the entire experience and I think it will connect with more people. I think it’s just talking about all of it because it is just a very universal sport—good days, bad days, injuries, the whole thing—and so the more you can share with people, the more they’ll realize beyond the pace, everything is pretty similar. It’s right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, repeat, and that’s all the way across the board, so there’s gotta be some things we can connect on. It’s just finding the ones that resonate.”Also in this episode, the 34-year-old native of Chula Vista, Calif., talks about training under Keith and Kevin Hanson as a member of the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project for the past 12 years, the state of competitive running in the U.S., the distant appeal of ultrarunning, how she views her job as a professional athlete, what she’d like to accomplish before she’s done competing, the toughest athlete she’s ever raced against, and so much more. This episode of the morning shakeout podcast was edited by John Isaac at BaresRecords.com.Complete show notes here: http://themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-3-des-linden/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered directly to your inbox every Tuesday morning: http://themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“I just tried to be the best I could be in the situation I was in—and as that expanded and grew, and as the competition expanded and grew, so did my goals.”Newly minted U.S. marathon champion Tim Ritchie comes on the podcast to discuss growing up in Worcester, Massachusetts, how he went from being an average high school runner to winning a national title as a professional, the importance of developing athleticism as a runner, and what he’s learned from coaching both collegiate and age-group athletes in recent years. In this episode, the 30-year-old resident of New Haven, Connecticut also explains why he stinks at social media, the changes he made to his training and nutrition that helped him finish the final 10K of CIM stronger than his previous two marathons, what he’s been up to since his big win, and much, much more. We covered a lot of ground in this conversation and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did taking part in it.This episode of the morning shakeout podcast was edited by John Isaac at BaresRecords.com.Complete show notes here: http://themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-2-tim-ritchie/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered directly to your inbox every Tuesday morning: http://themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“That understanding—that you have to create your own value—is something that was weird to me at first, because I thought that I had value, but I didn’t. I was a 28:40 [10K] guy out of college, and had been All-American a few times, but there’s like 40 guys who do that every single year, so why would anyone take an extra interest in me? So that would be my advice to anyone who is trying to be a professional runner: really sit down and really think about where your niche is, and look at people who have created their own niches...because there are only so many spots on an Olympic team or a world team or a podium, you know?”Burrito connoisseur and 2:12 marathoner Scott Fauble comes on the podcast to discuss the movement he's trying to create around his favorite food (1:20), the business of being a professional runner (9:00), the launch of a new project he's calling "Off Course,” (25:45), training for, racing, and recovering from his first marathon (39:35), and so much more.This episode of the morning shakeout podcast was edited by John Isaac at BaresRecords.com.Complete show notes here: http://themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-1-scott-fauble/Sign up here to get the morning shakeout email newsletter delivered directly to your inbox every Tuesday morning: http://themorningshakeout.com/subscribe/Support the morning shakeout on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/themorningshakeout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.