The Running Public

Training built to race day, but now the race is over. What do you do now? The first thing every runner needs to do is assess their performance in a non biased manner. Easier said than done!  Excuses vs factors. Positives and negatives. Luck vs execution. Lack of toughness vs lack of fitness. We use Kirk’s race this past weeks to walk you through how to approach your after action report and what to do with the information!

After listening to the Ross Wiemer interview (Episode 46), TJ Schraufnagel decided to begin running with the intent of completing a mountain ultra. This is the story of his journey from running 7 times in January to completing a 31 mile race in July, at altitude and with 10,000’ of elevation gain!

We’ve all been there, searching online for the magic workout or training plan to get us through our next big race. Searching for the secret sauce that sets the great ones apart from the mortals. But what the great ones understand, either intuitively or through trial and error, is that success is the result of days, weeks, months, and years of consistent work. There is no magic workout that will launch you forward. Today we break that concept down and explore it fully!

Hawk Call took a break from his summer build towards his senior cross country season at Utah Valley University and jumped into the US National Series race in Utah. In his first race in the elite field, he led for 90 minutes before finishing 3rd, putting the sport on notice. Today he walks us through his journey from “Hobie Call’s son” to D1 runner and future OCR star.

As runners, we work really hard in order to be ready for our next race course. Often times, this means targeting a specific skill (technical terrain, descending, etc) throughout our buildup to race day. However, we often leave those skills behind during our subsequent training blocks, leaving us scrambling to regain them when another situation calls for their use! Today we discuss the top perishable skills and how to keep them well-oiled year round.

100k US Champ. Team USA Ultra Runner. Coach. Freethinker. Psychedelics advocate. Anthony is unique in a sport full of uniqueness. Kick back and enjoy a running interview that will go places we’ve not gone before, while challenging you to rethink the way you approach caring for your running body. 

We received an interesting question this week:   ”How do you two approach a big mountain race, from the moment you wake up until the moment you cross the finish line?”   We liked it so much we talked about it for 55 minutes! From wake up time, breakfast, and warm up to mindset, strategy, and fueling, this is everything we think and do on mountain race day!

Today starts with a few personal stories that highlight the importance of flexibility on race week. You don’t always need a perfect lead-up to race day. Bad nights of sleep do not always equal a bad race! We then move into analyzing whether or not you are due for a “mini reset” in your training, along with strategies for resetting properly.

When life hands you lemons, make a Q&A Episode! Today we touch upon training with limited time available, training with new babies, how to handle physically aggressive racers on course, dealing with chronic pain, cramping on course, and racing shoes that drain well. 

On race day, having the best fitness isn’t always enough to guarantee success. Often times the style of race eliminates people from contention long before their engine does. Practicing specific race day tactics in training is the only way to make sure you are ready for any style of race that presents itself! Today’s episode breaks down the main styles of endurance racing and gives you specific workouts to implement for each.