Run to the Top Podcast | The Ultimate Guide to Running

In today’s episode, we’re going to drill down on one critical micronutrient that is essential to humans in the right dose, highly toxic in the wrong dose, and one that many runners are chronically deficient in and that is iron. To help explain the unique role of iron in runners, I invited Dr Mike Zourdos and Dr Sara Mahoney on the Run to the Top.  Mike and Sara have studied the role of iron in marathon runners for both health and performance, and fun fact, Sara is Mike’s endurance coach. Mike is a Full Professor and the Associate Chair in the Department of Exercise Science and Health Promotion at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL. Mike’s research lab, the Muscle Physiology Laboratory, focuses on resistance and strength training, but more recently, he has begun to come over to the endurance side of sport with a little help from Sara. Dr Sara Mahoney is the Chair of the Department of Exercise Science and Associate Professor at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY.  Her research has been focused in the use of nutraceuticals and the use of nutrition in athletic performance, specifically endurance and ultra-endurance events. CONNECT, COMMENT, & COMMUNITY:   Leave a review on Apple Podcasts!  A great FREE way to support the show! Email Coach Claire Follow Claire on Instagram Follow RunnersConnect on Instagram Join the Elite Treatment where you get first dibs on everything RTTT each month! Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page GET EXPERT COACHING AT RUNNERSCONNECT! This week's show is brought to you by: LMNT.  Head over to DrinkLMNT.com/RUNNERSCONNECT for your salty samples.

Up to 50% of runners will suffer an injury in any given year and one of the most severe and common injuries is a stress fracture. Because treatment for a stress fracture will require a significant amount of time off your feet, you’ll want to become aware of this risk to runners and start work on prevention now to avoid ever getting a fracture in the first place. And if you’ve already suffered from a stress fracture and want to know what steps to take to heal, recover, and get back to running your bes t, I’ll go over what you need to know with a little help from runnersconnect.net founder Jeff Gaudette.   CONNECT, COMMENT, & COMMUNITY:   Leave a review on Apple Podcasts!  A great FREE way to support the show! Email Coach Claire Follow Claire on Instagram Follow RunnersConnect on Instagram Join the Elite Treatment where you get first dibs on everything RTTT each month! Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page GET EXPERT COACHING AT RUNNERSCONNECT!

If you’ve run long enough or are just starting your journey, you probably have a Iove/hate relationship with running.  Running long distances is wonderful and completely irrational at the same time. To help me explore the delightful and nonsensical sport that we all love to hate, I invited author and ultrarunner Brendan Leonard on the Run to the Top. Brendan is a freelance writer and illustrator whose new book, I Hate Running and You Can Too, is a hilarious and relatable trip into the mind of a runner that’s not going to top any podiums or win any races, but still regularly runs irrationally long distances. Brendan started his popular website Semi-Rad.com in 2011 as a channel for active, yet not elite athletes, who love to get out there, but don’t take themselves too seriously. He’s  a contributing editor at Adventure Journal and a columnist at Outside. His stories have appeared in Backpacker, National Geographic Adventure, Men’s Journal, Sierra, Adventure Cyclist, and more. He’s bicycled across America, runs hundred milers, and he is continually amazed at the things that regular people can do. His work is funny and insightful and he might just inspire you to love (or hate?) your running too.   CONNECT, COMMENT, & COMMUNITY: Semi-Rad.com Leave a review on Apple Podcasts!  A great FREE way to support the show! Email Coach Claire Follow Claire on Instagram Follow RunnersConnect on Instagram Join the Elite Treatment where you get first dibs on everything RTTT each month! Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page   GET EXPERT COACHING AT RUNNERSCONNECT!     This week's show brought to you by:  Perform from the Amino Company. Perform is an amino acid based formulation that I simply add to my water bottle during my run. It tastes great and is easy on my stomach.  Clinical studies have shown that Perform helps improve endurance, reduce fatigue, and increases muscle protein synthesis so you recover faster after the run. Check out the research here: https://aminoco.com/rttt  If you’re interested in learning  more and giving Perform a try, we’ve got a special offer for you where you can save 30% by using the code RC30. Just head to: https://aminoco.com/rttt and use the code RC30 at checkout to save 30%   

Many people want to lose weight with running.  While the benefits of running can go far beyond losing a few pounds, running can be a fantastic part of your strategy to get in the best shape of your life. So why is it that runners come in all shapes and sizes?  If running is so good for weight loss, why aren’t all runners perfectly trim and lean?  And what about those stories that you hear of people actually gaining weight while training for the marathon?  How is that even possible when you are pounding out mile after mile? Coach Claire Bartholic goes beyond just calories in and calories out to explore why you might not be losing weight despite how much you run.  Then, she goes over how you can change your routine and habits to finally achieve the weight loss results you are looking for. CONNECT, COMMENT, & COMMUNITY: Leave a review on Apple Podcasts!  A great FREE way to support the show! Email Coach Claire Follow Claire on Instagram Follow RunnersConnect on Instagram Join the Elite Treatment where you get first dibs on everything RTTT each month! Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page   GET EXPERT COACHING AT RUNNERSCONNECT!

Hydration and Fueling For Endurance Performance Series, Part Two: The EXACT Fueling and Hydration Secrets from the Best Endurance Athletes with Abby Coleman Learn exactly how the best endurance athletes in the world are fueling and hydrating with sports scientist, Abby Coleman.  Abby is part of the team at Precision Hydration and she has helped create and analyze the strategies of top Ironman performers, the man who broke the 100 mile and 12 hour world record breaking race, and multiple champion ultra runners and riders.  She knows exactly what they ate and drank at every stage of the race and will help us apply that knowledge to our own plans. Abby is an expert on sweat and has Sweat Tested some of the top athletes in the world - including NBA, Premier League, NFL and MLB players - to help them refine their hydration strategies. She advises professional cycling teams, pro triathletes, and 2x Olympic runner Eilish McColgan.  Oh yeah, Abby helps recreational athletes too. CONNECT, COMMENT, & COMMUNITY: Leave a review on Apple Podcasts!  A great FREE way to support the show! Email Coach Claire Follow Claire on Instagram Follow RunnersConnect on Instagram Join the Elite Treatment where you get first dibs on everything RTTT each month! Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page   GET EXPERT COACHING AT RUNNERSCONNECT!

Welcome to Part One of our two part series on Hydration and Fueling for Endurance Performance.  In this episode we’ll talk about how to craft your perfect hydration plan and on Part Two, we’ll learn the exact fueling and hydration strategies of some of the best endurance athletes in the world.  Be sure that you are subscribed to the Run to the Top so you don’t miss out on a single episode! Ah, summer.  The warm, sunny days, and short nights are perfect for getting outside and savoring nature with family and friends.  But if you are an endurance runner, training in the heat comes with challenges. Not only is running simply more uncomfortable as the mercury rises, but the combination of heat, sun, humidity and distance will begin to affect our performance as the body struggles to cool itself down. If you’ve ever come back from a run soaked in sweat, or had salt stinging your eyes and staining your clothes, you probably already know that hydration is important. And if you are training this summer for a marathon or an ultra, a perfect hydration plan is an absolute must. The question is how do we do it right for both our health and our performance?   To get into the precise details and science to help you craft your own personal hydration strategy, I invited sweat expert Andy Blow of Precision Hydration back on the Run to the Top to help me out.  You may remember him from my interview with him in 2020, one of our most downloaded episodes of the year.  If you haven’t listened to that one, be sure to go back and check it out!  CONNECT, COMMENT, & COMMUNITY: Leave a review on Apple Podcasts!  A great FREE way to support the show! Email Coach Claire Follow Claire on Instagram Follow RunnersConnect on Instagram Join the Elite Treatment where you get first dibs on everything RTTT each month! Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page Precision Hydration hello@precisionhydration.com How To Measure Your Sweat Rate Cramps How To Start an Event Well Hydrated How Much Dehydration Can You Tolerate? How To Tell if You May be a Salty Sweater Discount code for precisionhydration.com for 15% off your first order: RUNTOTHETOP GET EXPERT COACHING AT RUNNERSCONNECT!

Your spine starts showing signs of aging at age 20.  Is too much running putting it at more risk? We talk about the spine a lot to our athletes. Your posture and spinal mobility are huge players in good running form, which allow you to run faster and longer with less effort.  Flexibility in the thoracic spine in particular allows you to run light and tall, as well as makes more room for lungs to fully expand to their potential. So what can we do to make sure that our spine is supported, helping us run faster and pain-free?  And what happens to our spinal health as we age, especially if we’ve spent years pounding out mile after mile? Brigham Young University’s Dr Ulrika Mitchell researches the spine and is on the show to talk about it.   Dr Mitchell was born in Germany and got her degrees in Sports Science and Physical Therapy there before moving to the US in the 90s.  She got her PhD at BYU and now teaches Functional Anatomy and Orthopedic Impairment at the university. Her research is mostly focused on the spine, low back pain, and she frequently studies runners as she is a runner herself. Coach Claire asks her all about how the spine functions when we run, how to make sure that it is optimally supported, what exercises we can do to maintain proper spine alignment as we run, and what happens to our spines as we age.  CONNECT, COMMENT, & COMMUNITY: Leave a review on Apple Podcasts!  A great FREE way to support the show! Email Coach Claire Follow Claire on Instagram Follow RunnersConnect on Instagram Join the Elite Treatment where you get first dibs on everything RTTT each month! Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page GET EXPERT COACHING AT RUNNERSCONNECT!

The instinct to run hard from the start is something that is tough to unlearn. That’s why you so often see new runners, and even experienced runners do this in workouts and races:  they start off too fast and at some point, dramatically and disappointingly slow down, finishing far slower than their potential. But there is a proven race strategy that race after race produces far better results. It’s a strategy that has led to nearly every world record in distances from 1500m to the marathon and beyond.  It’s called the negative split. A negative split is simply running the first half of your race slower than your second half.  That means you have to run slower when you are feeling good and run faster when you are feeling tired.  Sounds impossible, right?  Well, it’s not easy, for sure, but it’s a concept that can work in nearly any race to ensure that you get the very most out of your potential. CONNECT, COMMENT, & COMMUNITY:   Leave a review on Apple Podcasts!  A great FREE way to support the show! Email Coach Claire Follow Claire on Instagram Follow RunnersConnect on Instagram Join the Elite Treatment where you get first dibs on everything RTTT each month! Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page GET EXPERT COACHING AT RUNNERSCONNECT!

Is a lack of great sleep ruining our lives and our running?  Claire wanted to find out, so she invited sleep expert Dr Shelby Harris on the show to talk about it. Dr. Harris is the former director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center at Montefiore Medical Center.  Now in private practice in White Plains, NY, she treats a wide variety of sleep disorders such as insomnia, nightmares, circadian rhythm disorders, narcolepsy, and more using evidence-based behavioral treatments. She has researched the neuropsychological effects of insomnia in older adults as well as behavioral treatments for insomnia, parasomnias, narcolepsy, and excessive daytime sleepiness.  Dr. Harris has written for the New York Times and Psychology Today and has been quoted in media such as The Huffington Post, The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, O Magazine, and New York Magazine. She has appeared on the Today Show, World News with Diane Sawyer, Good Morning America, and more. In other words, she knows a lot about sleep and she is a runner herself.  Claire asks her how we can better decide to prioritize sleep over running and whether afternoon runners or morning runners are doing a better job with their sleep.  She talks about how much sleep we really need and how to get more of it. And if you are a runner with kids, this episode is especially for you because your little ones might just need a little more sleep too. And just so you know, if you are listening to this at 2am because you can’t sleep and you just happen to fall into dreamland before the show is over, we will take it as a compliment!

Summer is officially here in the Northern Hemisphere and while longer days leave lots more time for running, the sun, heat and humidity can make running miserable.  But unless you’d like to spend the season on a treadmill in the air-conditioning, learning to adapt to the heat is your best option. The good news is that all your sweaty work this summer will pay off with faster times in the fall, when things cool off a little. We'll get into the science of what is happening when you run in the heat and then offer some cool suggestions that can help you train this summer more effectively, despite the temperatures. CONNECT, COMMENT, & COMMUNITY:   Leave a review on Apple Podcasts!  A great FREE way to support the show! Email Coach Claire Follow Claire on Instagram Follow RunnersConnect on Instagram Join the Elite Treatment where you get first dibs on everything RTTT each month! Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page GET EXPERT COACHING AT RUNNERSCONNECT!