Run to the Top Podcast | The Ultimate Guide to Running

Lindsey Bomgren from Nourish Move Love is a super fit Minnesota trainer and creator of amazing and free YouTube strength videos.  While they are not marketed as “runners’ workouts” they are the exact same exercises that Coach Claire prescribes to athletes because they are classic strength moves that build better runners.  But Lindsey just does them better. Lindsey is a certified personal trainer and group fitness instructor who has been featured in Women's Health Magazine, The Bump, Yahoo Finance, Cosmopolitan, Popsugar, Brit + Co, Well + Good and more.   Lindsey is tough, but also cheerful and encouraging, often interjecting with her signature catch phrase “holy bananas” when things get hard.   Coach Claire has been using Lindsey's videos over the past few month and the difference in her strength is remarkable! Oh, and don’t forget to stay tuned at the end of the episode where we've got a major announcement about the future of the Run to the Top!   Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page email Coach Claire Follow Claire on Instagram Follow RunnersConnect on Instagram Join the Elite Treatment

The RunnersConnect family has grown!  We welcomed a brand new expert coach to our staff this year and I’d like to introduce you to her. Andie Cozzarelli is a 2:38 marathoner, semi-pro athlete from Raleigh, NC.  She ran in college at North Carolina State, becoming a 2 time All-American in the 10k and joined Oiselle after college. She qualified for the 2016 Olympic Trials in the Marathon with a half marathon and later went on to win her first full at the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. After coaching on her own, Andie has joined the coaching team at RunnersConnect and we couldn't be more thrilled! But Andie’s running road was not always smooth and easy.  As a sophomore in college, she was diagnosed with Celiac Disease after struggling with her training and developing some disordered eating habits. Her performances improved after making some important dietary changes, but it wasn’t enough to prevent some serious physical and mental health issues connected to her training and fueling. Thankfully, she has recovered and now is an advocate for mental health, nutrition, and balance in training.  Aside from running & coaching, Andie and Claire have another sweet passion that they share and we’ll get into that in this conversation.

If you think running a single marathon is tough, get ready to be inspired by Jocelyn Rivas. Jocelyn is on a mission to not just run 100 marathons, but break the Guinness World Records (plural) for being the youngest person to run 100 marathons AND the youngest woman to run 100 marathons AND the youngest Latina to run 100 marathons. Whew! At age 24, Jocelyn already has 82 marathons behind her, many done during the pandemic, which was no easy feat. And we’re not talking loops she’s running through her neighborhood. These are real certified races, each one bringing her closer to her ambitious goal. No stranger to adversity, Jocelyn is a DREAMer who was brought to the United States from El Salvador as a child and remains in this country for now thanks to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act.   Part of her 100-marathon motivation stems from her desire to shine a light on people like herself and to show others that women can do anything no matter where they were born. She talks about what this quest means to her, how she manages to pull this off with a challenging full-time job, and what training and recovery is like for her. Oh, and she’s doing this on a completely plant-based diet.  Jocelyn’s great determination and positive energy makes for a very unique and enjoyable conversation with Coach Claire! Questions Jocelyn is asked:  4:00 You are currently trying to break two Guinness World Records to become the youngest person to run 100 marathons and the youngest woman to run 100 marathons. How old are you and what got you started with this quest? 4:50 How did you start running then? Did you just start with a mile or what was the first day of training like? 5:45 How old were you when you ran your first marathon? 5:56 When did you get this idea to go for the world record? 7:05 Can you explain what a DREAMer is? 8:04 What country are you from? 8:11 Does anyone else in your family run? 8:43 How did the pandemic affect your mission? 10;33 What are some of your favorite stories? How many marathons have you run in a week? 11:49 The obvious question is how do you recover from running 26.2 miles for six out of nine days? You must be sore and tired, so how do you get through that? 16:33 Let’s talk about food. You’re a vegan so you’re like me, and the first question that everyone’s going to ask is, how do you eat enough on a vegan diet? Where do you get your protein? How do you pull this off on just plants? 19:06 You just started eating vegan as an experiment. It wasn’t ethical or environmental. You just saw that people were doing it and decided to try it. Is that it?  19:52 Do you still use gels while you run marathons or do you eat something else? 20:50 How long does it usually take you to run the marathons? Are you running them really fast or what is your average finishing time?  22:28 What are you doing in-between each marathons? Do you have some kind of structured plan? Do you do speed work? Do you do strength training or are you just recovering? 23:59 Have you had any injuries? Are you worried about overtraining or anything like that? 25:22 You’re still working a full-time job 40 hours a week. What do you do and how do you fit all this in with your life? 29:47 You’re planning on hitting marathon number 100 in November in your hometown at the Los Angeles Marathon. What are you anticipating that day to be like?  31:13 What’s been the hardest part of this journey for you? 31:54 You don’t drive. Why don’t you drive? 33:34 What kind of support are you getting from the community? If you pull this off, you will be the youngest Latina to run 100 marathons. Why is that important to you? 35:07 Once you accomplish this, do you have any idea what’s next? 35:31 What’s your next marathon coming up? Questions I ask everyone: 36:14 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you started running, what advice would you give yourself? 36:53 What is the greatest gift running has given you? 37:18 Where can listeners connect with you? Quotes by Jocelyn: “I was actually not in a good place mentally. There were things going on with being deported potentially, and so I was just in a very dark place. And I was like, I want to make a statement. I want to make a statement that DREAMers are here to do something good. DREAMers are here to just help.” “My biggest thing is I take recovery, I prioritize it more than anything. I use so many tools. I massage myself. I use so many lotions. You would make fun of me because I literally have like 10 different lotions and I use them all.” “I use running as a type of therapy and it’s just so amazing. Once I am done with work, I go for a run. I come back and I’m just like, I feel amazing. That feeling that wow, just everything goes away.” Take a Listen on Your Next Run Leave a space for libsyn link Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast: JocelynRivas.com Students Run LA (srla.org) Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page RunnersConnect Focus Classes email Coach Claire Follow Jocelyn on: Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top. The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use. The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!

Tianna Bartoletta is one of the best sprinters in the world, and she’s on hand to teach all of us, even the endurance runners, what we can learn from short distance running. Really short. For most of us, a sprint is less than 20 seconds, which is the distance short enough to reach your top speed completely anaerobically, or without needing oxygen for fuel.  Past this point, your lungs scream for oxygen and you will probably not be able to sustain the effort. Why should long distance runners care about those 20 seconds?  Because by tapping into your anaerobic system a couple times a week, you teach yourself to burn that fire just a little hotter, and train your other gears to run a little more smoothly and efficiently. Tianna also talks about what surprising things endurance runners can learn from long jumpers and yogis, how to frame our body talk in a positive way, how she’s adapted her training as she’s aged, and her gold-medal-winning, world-record-breaking Olympic relay experience. This episode has something for everyone, whether you’re a walker, a sprinter, or an endurance monster!  Tianna is a 35 year-old American sprinter and long jumper.  She is a two-time Olympian with three gold medals.   She ran the lead leg in the world record setting  4 × 100 m relay team in 2012, handing the baton to Allyson Felix.  At the 2016 Summer Olympics she won two more golds, first with a personal best to win the long jump then again leading off the winning  4 × 100 m relay team. In non-Olympic years, Tianna has won the World Championships 3 times and competed as a pusher on the U.S. bobsled team in 2012. And if all of that weren't amazing enough,  she’s also a registered yoga teacher, writes a blog at tiannabee.com , and her memoir, Survive And Advance, will be released this June! Questions Tianna is asked:  4:37 This conversation is a little bit delayed because you got a surprise drug test at 7:00 in the morning. Can you talk about that? 5:09 Can you talk about the 60-day transformation that you posted? What happened? I thought you looked great before, but now you’re like a sculpture. It’s amazing. Can you tell me how that happened? 9:01 I remember reading in one of your Instagram threads that you said you were hungry during your 60-day transformation, and that’s not something that we really like to admit. Why did you want to tell people like, “Hey, yes, this is working but to be perfectly honest, I’m hungry?” Why did you want to share that part about it? 11:45 You'll have to forgive me for asking what might end up being very basic questions, but our listeners mostly are endurance runners. So when somebody says, “I’m going to go run 100,” they’re usually talking about 100 miles not 100 meters, and you are a 100-meter specialist among many of your talents. So I would love to learn more about what it takes to be a good 100m specialist? 13:41 When you say you’re allergic to running long, you obviously don’t just run 100 meters in training and then stop. You do obviously run long. So what’s a long run for you? 17:17 Let’s talk about Stephanie Bruce. One of the bright spots of 2020, an obviously crazy year, is that you two connected, and I would love to hear about that story. 19:39 In 2020, obviously Tokyo was delayed. What was that like for you when you found out the news? 22:12 In both 2012 and 2016, you were a part of the gold-winning 4x100m relay team, in the lead leg position, handing the baton to Allyson Felix.  Talk us through that. What makes a good relay team? How does the coach determine the order?  How many times do you practice that baton pass?   24:19 What was your favorite moment from those games?  25:19 You are also a gold medalist in the long jump, and I want to talk about the world record there. The American world record and the overall world record, those are very, very old from the ‘80s and ‘90s. What’s it going to take to break it? 29:00 You recently had a meet where you were jumping really, really well, and you registered under the team name AARP.  Can you explain that? 30:37 What’s your key to longevity in this sport then? What makes you at your age still able to perform at such a high level? 32: 17 How do you get your ego out of the way when training? How do you tell yourself, “No, it’s okay to step back?” 34:19 Let’s talk about yoga. One stereotype about runners is that they really don't have to be all that flexible.  You are a yogi and you are super flexible. Can you share how yoga physically helps you, and then we get more into the mental side of it?   36:44 You have a book coming out. Tell us about that. 37:57 When does your book come out? 38:10 What do you think long-distance runners can learn from sprinters, jumpers, and yogis? 39:27 How often do you do plyometrics? 40:14 What's next for you? Questions I ask everyone: 40:39 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you started running, what advice would you give yourself? 41:04 What is the greatest gift running has given you? 41:17 Where can listeners connect with you? Quotes by Tianna: “You realize how much of our eating is just habit and mindless snacking. And so that’s really the biggest transformation is that everything is mindful. Everything I ingest is done with that little pause, like why am I eating this? What is it for? And that’s been the difference and my body has really responded to that.” “I loved not realizing that we broke the world record. Somebody had to point it out to us in 2012.  I just knew we won and we won by a lot.” “You have to be able to put your ego aside and say, ‘This is what my body needs. Sure, I can see that my rivals and competitors are doing six days a week but I can’t do that.’ And at the end of the day, you have to train the body that you have. That you actually have. Not the one you wish you had; the one you have. And that’s the key.” Take a Listen on Your Next Run Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast: Tianna Bee Survive and Advance Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page RunnersConnect Focus Classes email Coach Claire   Follow Tianna on:   Instagram We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top. The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use. The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!

You probably know that strength training can help a runner minimize injuries but what about plyometrics or jump training? Do runners really need plyometrics? Wouldn’t that lead to more injuries? Dr. Duane Scotti thinks the opposite is true. Dr. Duane Scotti, DPT, PhD, OCS is a running physical therapist, run coach, host of the Healthy Runner podcast, and founding owner of SPARK Physical Therapy, and has been a leader in the rehab and running community for over 17 years.  He is passionate about helping runners feel strong and confident so they can stay healthy and become lifelong injury free runners!   Dr. Duane truly believes that anyone can run and that all runners should be treated differently as athletes.  He is on a mission to change the traditional thinking that running causes “overuse injuries” and you must “take a break” in order to get better.  Through run specific training (exercises and running progression) you can build your body to be a strong resilient runner and stay active, stay healthy, and just keep running!  You may think it’s counterintuitive to take time out from your running to work on your jumping, but running is a series of one-legged hops so incorporating some plyometric training into your workout plan to get better at those one-legged hops can dramatically change how well you run and how good you feel while running.  In this episode, Duane explains exactly why plyometrics is important for runners and shares what he thinks are the key muscles runners should focus on, and also gives some great examples of non-jumping strength training exercises that all runners should do to become better and stronger. Some exercises were even new to Coach Claire!  Through the Healthy Runner community, Duane strongly believes living an active lifestyle can help you stay healthy and live a pain free life.  At SPARK Physical Therapy, Duane guides his clients in achieving a high-performance active lifestyle through his in-person clinic and virtually anywhere in the world. You could be a runner who aspires to complete your first half marathon, or you could be an experienced marathoner of 30 years. Duane has been the fitness and health support system and the go to resource for coaches, trainers, and runners.  Duane is also honored to be a part of team UCAN as a featured expert dedicated to training strategies and innovation.  He has his clients’ best interest in mind as evidenced by constantly creating and sharing new videos, podcast episodes, and blog posts to help runners improve their confidence and strength for running. Through his programs, coaching, and virtual rehab, Duane has successfully helped thousands of runners crush their running goals, hitting personal bests over the years.  He has a passion for helping runners of all abilities stay healthy and prevent injuries in order to get back to the workouts and runs they love!   Questions Duane is asked:    5:27  You’re a physical therapist who specializes in runners. Can you tell us a little bit about your own running journey and how you came to focus on runners in your practice?   6:30  You used to dance. What kind of dancing did you do?   7:20  What is plyometrics and why is it good for runners?    9:06  I’m going to play a little devil’s advocate for you here. So if we are jumping all the time, running is a series of hops from one foot to the other, if we’re already jumping all the time, why do we need to do more jumping?   10:03 How do your muscles function differently when you’re running and jumping versus strength training?   11:06 Are plyometrics for every runner?   12:43 Let’s say I am a Level 1 runner. I run three days a week, speed work one day, easy day one day, long run on the weekend, and I’ve never done any plyometrics before. What would your prescription be for me?    14:26 You’re saying that we need to practice landing softly in the gym as well as when we’re running?   15:22 What’s Level 2 plyometric training?   19:32 When I was in super heavy marathon training, the miles piled up, I was running every day, and the last thing that I wanted to do was jump around because I would be so tired. So what do you say to somebody who’s really deep into marathon training and who is balking at a little plyometrics?   22:00 One thing about plyometrics, at least in my experience, is that it ends up being really high cardio. For the most part, I want to get my cardio from running, not from my extra activities so what’s your position on that? How much do you really need or are you a fan of getting your heart rate up in non-running activities?   24:10 At least with other kinds of strength training, a little goes a long way for runners because we’re not trying to get huge and strong and build muscle mass and deadlift a million pounds. We are trying to be not weak for running, so we can get away with a little less strength training than some other kind of athlete in a different sport. So is the same true with plyometrics? Can I just do like five, ten minutes a week and call it good?   26:44 There are some runners, especially older runners and runners who are injury prone, who are afraid that jumping is either too hard or not something that they should do. How do you address that?   29:00 Before plyometrics, what kind of other foundational strength work should we runners be doing every week?   32:10 Let’s talk about examples for each of the muscle groups runners should be focusing on in strength workouts.    39:23 What are some exercises for hamstrings and quads?   43:28 What I’ve been doing for my hamstrings, just to get some feedback to see if I’m doing the right or the wrong thing, is I have a really big exercise ball. So I will lay down on the floor like I’m getting into a glute bridge and I’ll put my heels on the exercise ball and push with my heels the ball away and then pull it back in, and push it in. My hamstrings are on fire when I’m done with that. I can do 10 or 15 and I’m calling for mercy. But you’re saying that’s a little bit different than the Nordic one you recommend?   44:46 One thing you said a little bit earlier that I want to go back to real quick. You talked about some runners being hamstring dominant. I’ve encountered a lot of quad dominant runners. What are your thoughts on that and what’s going on there because most of the people I know who have problems or injuries tend to be really quad dominant?   47:17 When you say we need to work on eccentric exercises, I assume that means you’re a fan of some downhill running because that’s eccentric?  Questions I ask everyone:   48:37 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you started running, what advice would you give yourself?   49:10 What is the greatest gift running has given you?   50:07 Where can listeners connect with you?   Quotes by Duane:   “One of my big principles is we need to train in order to run. So running is not our only form of exercise, our only form of training. We actually have to train in order to run successfully and stay healthy.”   “I am not about, you will see some camp style classes or bigger programs, not going to drop any names, but they go to like failure and they’re doing like 50 box jumps because that’s the WOD that is posted and you’re going to do 50 of them no matter what. No, I’m a big believer in more the quality and how you’re feeling when you’re doing the exercise in order to get the benefit that you want to get from the exercise.”   “One thing about the calf muscle before I forget is endurance. So runners should be able to do 25 single leg heel raises or calf raises.”   Take a Listen on Your Next Run Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast: Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page RunnersConnect Focus Classes email Coach Claire   Follow Duane on: Instagram @sparkyourtraining YouTube Channel- Subscribe to Get The latest Running Tip Join the Healthy Runner Facebook Group Send Duane A Facebook Message Like the SPARK Physical Therapy Facebook Page Blog For Runners Inquire About Individualized Running Evaluation (virtual or in person) Twitter @scottispark⠀ Listen & Subscribe to the Healthy Runner Podcast: Apple Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Google Play iHeartRadio Amazon Music Website We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top. The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use. The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!

The Relatable, Rambling Runner - Matt Chittim Most running podcasts focus on professional runners. Matt Chittim’s Rambling Runner podcast focuses on dedicated amateur runners who are working hard at the sport while also balancing running with the rest of their lives.  That’s not to say Matt ignores the elites. He also covers the other end of the spectrum with his Road to the Trials podcast which follows the training, racing, and experiences of some of America’s best runners as they prepared for the Olympic Trials. As an athlete, Matt is a former college basketball player and coach. He started running at a young age with an occasional 5k or track season but most of his running was at the service of getting fit for other sports. After college Matt started taking running more seriously and eventually became fully invested in the running community.  Matt is currently working through a year-long journey called Mastering 40 in which he is hoping to break 40:00 in the 10k after turning 40 years old. He talks to Coach Claire about his training ups and downs and what motivated him to set this “stretch goal.” Matt also talks about how his Ramblin Runner podcast got started, his most memorable interview, and what he thinks the differences are between professional and amateur runners. He is a natural storyteller who brings a unique perspective to the running community!   Questions Matt is asked:  3:50 Most of us know you from your popular running podcast Rambling Runner. Can we go back to the beginning of how it all got started and how it's going now?   8:10 What do you attribute the growth of your podcast to?   9:32 What have been some of your most memorable interviews?     11:05 Who is still on your list of dream interviews?   13:28 You’ve got another show, Road to the Trials, which obviously interviews the best of the best, the elite Americans who are gunning for the Olympic Trials, so you have interviewed your share of elites and you’ve interviewed your share of just recreational runners. What would you say is the difference between the two?   15:54 PTs probably love working with professional runners because they do what they’re told more than amateur runners do.   18:38 You have a new series within your podcast called Mastering 40 that you started last August, dedicated to chronicling your journey of breaking 40 minutes in the 10k. Let's talk about that and what you are doing to prepare.   21:29 How’s your Mastering 40 goal going?   22:21 How did you injure your knee and how did it affect your training goal?   23:07 Do you have a date for your goal? When’s the time trial?   24:26 What kind of races are you looking for to prepare for your time trial?   25:19 What are all the other things you’re doing? What's training like?  Nutrition, sleep, all that good stuff, etc? How are you doing in those areas?   29:28 Another project of yours is Road to the Trials.  Can you talk about that and who you bring on the show?     32:33 We could talk about how great such and such race was but you really learn so much more when everything falls apart.   36:54 What's next for you?  What happens when you break 40? Questions I ask everyone:   40:01 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you started running, what advice would you give?   40:46 What is the greatest gift running has given you?   41:00 Where can listeners connect with you?   Quotes by Matt:   “I started the Rambling Runner podcast with the idea of there’s a lot of running podcasts out there that I really liked and the vast majority of them were talking to professional runners... and I was like, ‘All right, no one’s talking to amateur runners. Let’s do that.’”   “Professional athletes in any sport are incredibly gifted athletes, and I think that the thing that’s easy to miss sometimes for dedicated amateur runners is sometimes they hold themselves to too high a standard. These folks, they were awesome at running the minute they started running.”   “One of the things I’ve learned through the show is that just like anything else, racing is a skill. It’s not just a test of fitness.”   Take a Listen on Your Next Run   Leave a space for libsyn link   Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast: The Rambling Runner podcast Road to the Trial‪s podcast Amino Co - RunnersConnect Anchor - The easiest way to make a podcast InsideTracker.com Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page RunnersConnect Retreats email Coach Claire   Follow Matt on: Instagram Twitter We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top. The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use. The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!

As runners, we think about how to fuel properly. That includes carbohydrate and protein, but what about essential amino acids? How do they help us optimize our nutrition to become the best runners we can be? Dr. Robert Wolfe, Ph.D, is here to talk as both a scientist and a runner. As the director of the Center for Translational Research on Aging and Longevity at the University of Arkansas, he focuses his research on the regulation of muscle metabolism. His research publications have been cited an impressive 75,000+ times, and he shares how amino acids might be able to help your performance and recovery. Dr. Wolfe has also been running for 60 years and has run an amazing 62 marathons under 2:30 in his lifetime! Coach Claire talks to him about his running career, how to stay young and healthy, what happens in the body when we run, and how our food can help us before, during, and after the run.  Dr. Wolfe also shares his thoughts on the importance of keeping a consistent exercise routine as we age, so there’s definitely a lot of great food for thought in this episode!   Dr. Wolfe’s undergraduate studies were at the University of California, Berkeley, and he completed his Ph.D. degree at UC Santa Barbara’s Institute of Environmental Stress. Dr. Wolfe served as a faculty member at Harvard Medical School for nine years. Prior to accepting his current position in 2006, he was at the UT Medical Branch at Galveston, where he held the John H. Sealy Distinguished Chair in Clinical Research and was Chief of the Metabolism Unit at Shriners Burns Hospital.  Dr. Wolfe has received a number of awards and invited lectureships in recognition of his work. He received the Herman Award from the American Society of Clinical Nutrition for his career contributions. He has published over 452 peer-reviewed research articles, 126  review articles, three books, including the major reference source in the field of stable isotope tracer methodology and has 5 patents. His papers have been cited 50,663 times (h index= 122), and 16,423 (h index =65) since 2011. Dr. Wolfe has been funded continuously by the NIH for his entire career and frequently held two NIH grants per year as Pl. The focus of Dr. Wolfe’s research is on the regulation of muscle metabolism, particularly as affected by aging and stressors such as injury, sepsis and cancer. His research has been performed largely in human patients and normal volunteers. Dr. Wolfe has developed models using stable isotopes to quantify a variety of metabolic processes in human subjects including the oxidation and production of fatty acids, various aspects of carbohydrate metabolism, and the rates of muscle protein synthesis, breakdown, and the transport of amino acids between blood and muscle tissue. Dr. Wolfe is the Director of the Center for Translational Research in Aging and Longevity at the Reynolds Institute on Aging.   Questions Bob is asked:    3:33 Before we talk about the science of exercise metabolism, I want to hear about your running journey. You’ve been a runner for over 50 years with 62 marathons under 2:30. Can you tell us a little bit about what your story is and how you started?   5:15 I can’t imagine that every single run was super fun, so I would love to talk about what your training was like, how you trained for marathons and what are the key ingredients in the recipe for a marathon?   8:06 How old were you when you did your last sub-2:30 marathon?   8:59 As far as fueling goes, what does an endurance athlete need before, during, and after exercise?   12:09 What are amino acids?  What are the different kinds (essential, branched chain, etc)? And how are they used in the body?   14:56 When we’re eating enough dietary protein, does that mean we are automatically eating enough of the essential amino acids that we need?   16:53 What is the optimal amount of essential amino acids we as individuals need?   18:44 Obviously protein requirements are going to be different for an endurance runner and a bodybuilder, right?   22:51 Is the purpose of taking amino acid supplements to get everything you need for optimum performance without having to eat more food?   25:24 Is there a limit to how much amino acids the body can absorb at one?   27:55 Does the body have a way of storing essential amino acids?   29:22 If you take in too much essential amino acids, do you just excrete it?   29:44 How are the amino acids from the Amino Company produced?   32:09 How do you use amino acid supplements? Do you take it before your run, after, or even during?   36:40 When you are taking amino acids during exercise, do they activate hormones in your body?   41:00 Does your company have an amino acid formulation to help me with my insomnia too?   41:41 Besides leading the Amino Company, you are also the director of the center for translational research on aging and longevity at the University of Arkansas. So what's the secret to staying youthful and vital as we age?     43:39 Do older athletes have an advantage when it comes to longevity and aging?   Questions I ask everyone:   45:32 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you started running, what advice would you give?   47:02 What is the greatest gift running has given you?   47:54 Where can listeners connect with you?   Quotes by Bob:   “Generally speaking, I think the protein aspect of the diet is extremely important but as far as dietary protein, when you’re eating as many as 4 or 5,000 calories a day, even a low protein diet is going to provide enough dietary protein to meet your protein requirements.”    “It’s important to understand that the dietary requirements are telling us not only how much protein we should eat, but how much of each individual essential amino acid we should eat, are predicated on the baseline amount we need to avoid deficiency. And so the key aspect, what we’ll talk about with specific amino acid supplementation, is that for optimal physical functioning, particularly with stress like exercise training, that the baseline amount of essential amino acids that you need to avoid deficiency is really not optimal.”   “One of the things that obviously we’re trying to do is with running is to improve muscle function and muscle strength without increasing muscle bulk because it’s just extra weight.”   “The thing which is obvious when you see a lot of older people is that ability to function physically is really the primary determinant of quality of life. If you can’t get up out of a chair then medical costs and everything else go out the window, but just being able to do the activities you like is so important.” Take a Listen on Your Next Run   Leave a space for libsyn link   Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast: The Amino Company The Center for Translational Research in Aging and Longevity | UAMS Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page RunnersConnect Retreats Email Coach Claire   Follow Bob on: Email Dr. Wolfe We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top. The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use. The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!

Many runners face constant negative mental battle when the run starts to get hard.  If you are frequently struggling with negative thoughts, there is a way to win the mental battle. Dr. Jacob Cooper has the answers. Jacob breaks down exactly what you need to do and exactly when you need to do it, to convert your self-talk that’s telling you to quit, to an ally that lets the real you triumph. So if you want to perform better at running, or really at anything in life that's challenging, keep listening and be ready to apply Dr Cooper's techniques, and finally win the negative mental battle when running hard. Jacob is a clinical sport psychologist who serves as the director of sport psychology at Appalachian State University in Western North Carolina. A former college athlete himself, he has worked with professional and amateur athletes, Olympians, and Paralympians.  He has an extensive background in mental health and how it ties to performance.  Jacob has developed a style of working with athletes that focuses on them holistically, with the goal of performance optimization in the pursuit of excellence.  Jacob Cooper Ph.D. - Full Bio Dr. Cooper is a clinical sport psychologist who serves as the director of sport psychology at Appalachian State University in addition to his own private practice serving professional and amateur athletes. He is a member of the United States Olympic & Paralympic athlete mental health registry, which consists of a selected group of specialized sports psychologists who are thoroughly vetted by the USOPC and then made available to current U.S. Olympians & Paralympians. As a former collegiate offensive lineman turned amateur triathlete and runner (Hello Clydesdale Division!), Jacob has worked with athletes at the Olympic, Professional, and Division-1 level over the course of his career. As a sport psychologist, Dr. Cooper brings an extensive background in mental health and performance enhancement. To this end, he has developed a style of working with athletes that focuses on them holistically, across the spectrum of future-oriented performance optimization, current personal barriers/stressors, as well as more significant mental health issues that can inevitably show up in the pursuit of excellence.  As a doctoral student at Boston University, he completed clinical practicums within a variety of settings, including the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Federal Bureau of Prisons system (BOP) along with multiple D1 college sport medicine teams as a performance consultant. Additionally, he has published scholarly articles and cultivated a unique approach to working with athletes and teams that integrates the latest research, evidence-based strategies, and technology to help them reach their goals.  In addition to high performance populations, he has a unique background and training in the areas of rural mental health, trauma recovery, serving low help-seeking populations, and military psychology. He has provided performance optimization for military personnel prior to their deployments as well as counseling for veterans transitioning back to civilian life throughout Western North Carolina, Indiana, and Boston.  Dr. Jacob Cooper- Ph.D. Clinical Sport Psychologist.  Director of Sport Psychology Services at Appalachian State University Licensed Clinical Psychologist & Health Service Provider (HSP) U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Sport Psychology Registry Member   Education Background: B.A.- (Psychology) Taylor University (Indiana)- 4 year scholarship athlete & team captain (Football) Dual Masters Degree- Ball State University (Indiana) M.S.- Sport and Performance Psychology M.A.- Clinical Psychology PhD- Counseling Psychology (Sport and Performance Track)- Boston University Matched Clinical Residency - Charles George Veterans Hospital - Asheville North Carolina.  Questions Jacob is asked:    3:59 I first found out about you from an Instagram post that the folks at ZAP posted. You were working with the elites at ZAP helping them build some mental strength. Can you tell me a little bit about how you worked with them?   5:03 How do elite and regular runners find motivation and purpose when a lot of races have been taken off the board?   6:19 Maybe this pandemic is a silver lining or maybe it’s a gift because we can look at our running in a different way because we’re all going to get slower as we age and performance is a huge part of why we do it, at least for some people, but once you take those PRs and the clock away, why do we run? That’s got to be the most important thing, right?   7:28 We always talk about, “I want to get mentally tough,” because clearly it’s not just our bodies. We can train our bodies to do certain things but if the brain is not onboard, the train’s not going to get all the way to the station. So how do we train our brain to be mentally tougher when things get hard?   8:30 I’m going to use myself as an example. When I’m running really hard or trying for a specific goal, I have the devil and the angel on my shoulder. I have the voice saying, “Go, go, go. You can do this.” And then I have a very, very sweet devil saying, “Everybody still loves you no matter what you run. You can slow down. This is really hard.” So I’m fighting these two opposing things that are 100% me and I really want to tell the devil to shut up and I really want to keep moving hard. How do I do that?   11:30 So the feelings come and we’re supposed to say, “Oh hello, feeling,” and let it go on its way. Is that what we’re supposed to be doing when we’re trying to run that 400 meter repeat really hard?   12:43 Can you give us a few examples of mental tools that we can use? What’s in the toolbox?   14:37 What is radical acceptance in your RISE model?   16:32 What does the I in RISE mean?   23:50 What does the S in RISE mean?   25:23 Do you have any hints for people who don’t know what their optimal performance cues are?   26:18 When I’m running well in a race or in a group setting, I definitely lock on the dude in front of me. I’m laser focused on him and I pretend that I have a rope attached to him and I pretend that he’s pulling me. And I just link up to him like a train like I am not letting this person go. It works for me.   27:13 What does the E in RISE stand for?   29:06 Let’s talk about the difference between psychology of teams and the psychology of athletes that are in an individual sport. Can you address that a little bit? Or is it the same just on a different level? Are we all talking to ourselves like we would talk to a bunch of people?   31:58 What about teams of runners? What about groups of runners where they’re obviously not always running the same races but they train together? They are in a team environment where they eat, sleep, and work out together and it’s been proven that we work differently in a group setting. Can you talk about that?   33:31 Especially with the pandemic, we’re seeing more and more runners find support, find a tribe, find a group of people online that they haven’t been able to find before, and a lot of people are finding it incredibly helpful. Especially runners are typically Type A, loner, data nerds (or maybe I'm just speaking for myself!), but a group setting isn’t typically comfortable for people who love to spend hours alone running, so any advice for that lone runner who maybe shies away from a group?   35:48 You help athletes work on their mental health issues. And we think about elite runners especially as just having these super tough brains that are as tough as their bodies and they are able to do amazing things that the regular people can’t do. So we think that they are just some kind of machine when it comes to their minds but I suspect that you find some mental health issues. Can you talk a little bit about that?   39:36 People who drive themselves so hard to be excellent, they’re a specific breed of people and you look at them and you wonder if they did have some trauma. Why in the world are they pushing themselves to these extreme limits? Do you find that that is really the case that people that are just absolutely at the top of their game are more likely to have had some kind of trauma in their past?   41:58 One thing I really wanted to talk to you about is the whole concept of balance. When we are striving for something, whether it's athletics, a career, parenting, sacrifice is inevitable and balance is simply not possible (or desired).  How can we reach our goals without letting everything else fall apart?   45:21 What is next for you and what questions in sports psychology are you looking to get answered in the future?   Questions I ask everyone:   48:54 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you started running, what advice would you give?   50:04 What is the greatest gift running has given you?   51:33 Where can listeners connect with you?   Quotes by Jacob:   “That ‘why’ is such a valuable thing and it’s very easy in athletics to sometimes lose touch with that.”   “I think that it’s helpful to have multiple fuel sources because there’s costs to them all.”   “Your attention is a muscle. It’s like a spotlight that allows you to shift to what matters most right now. I call these optimal performance cues or OPCs.”   “Anywhere that there’s pressure and stress, we’re all capable of that impacting us and manifesting in the form of some level of mental distress whether it’s just some symptoms of anxiety, depression, eating disorders, trauma, or it’s like a full blown chronic disorder and something like that.”   “There’s going to be times and seasons of life that feel unbalanced. But I believe that in every season of life it is possible and worthwhile to live in a way that reflects our values.” Take a Listen on Your Next Run   Leave a space for libsyn link   Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast: ZAP Endurance Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page RunnersConnect Focus Classes email Coach Claire   Follow Jacob on: dr.coopercc@gmail.com Instagram Running with Heart We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top. The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use. The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!

How many marathon runners have acute kidney damage after they cross the finish line? According to a Yale University study, the answer is a shocking 55%. So if you’ve ever run a marathon, the odds are slightly better than 50% that this has happened to you.  But don’t worry. The damage tends to be temporary, resolving itself after a few days. So we heal, get stronger, and move on. But what if something goes wrong? Dr. Sherry Mansour and Dr. F. Perry Wilson are kidney doctors or nephrologists at Yale, and they share their expertise on running and your kidneys. Dr. Mansour actually led the research on marathon runners and kidney research. They talk to Coach Claire about who is susceptible to acute kidney damage from running, what we can do about it, and what we still need to learn.   They also discuss ibuprofen which can cause kidney issues, and how it can be used safely by runners. They also delve into kidney stones. If you’ve ever had one, you know they are extremely painful. They cover how to minimize the risk of kidney stones and what precautions kidney stone sufferers need to take when running long distances. If you are a runner with kidneys, this is one conversation you don't want to miss! Dr. Sherry Mansour grew up and attended medical school in New York. She graduated in 2010 and received the Highest Academic Achievement Award. She was elected valedictorian of her class and was also inducted into the Psi Sigma Alpha National Osteopathic Scholastic Honor Society. She went on to complete residency training in Internal Medicine at Stony Brook University Medical Center, where she was chosen as chief medical resident. She was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, Stony Brook Chapter in 2012. She then joined Yale New Haven Hospital in 2014 as a Clinical Research Nephrology fellow. She also completed her Master of Science from the Yale School of Public Health in 2019 with a focus on Chronic Disease Epidemiology. Since her arrival at Yale, Dr. Mansour has been working on identifying novel repair biomarkers in blood and urine to better predict long-term kidney and heart disease outcomes after AKI, and improve overall patient care. Her K-23 proposal is focused on understanding the role of a vessel repair pathway, known as the Angiopoietin pathway, in graft outcomes after deceased donor kidney transplantation.   A link to Dr. Mansour’s full biography including links to her research and publications is: Yale Medicine Profile - Dr Sherry Mansour   Dr. Wilson grew up in Connecticut, before attending Harvard College where he graduated with honors in biochemistry. He then attended medical school at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, before completing his internship, residency, and fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2012, he received a Masters degree in Clinical Epidemiology, which has informed his research ever since. At Yale since 2014, his goal is using patient-level data and advanced analytics to personalize medicine to each individual patient. He is the creator of the popular online course "Understanding Medical Research: Your Facebook Friend Is Wrong" on the Coursera platform. A link to Dr. Mansour’s full biography including links to his research and publications is: Yale Medicine Profile - Dr F Perry Wilson   Questions Dr. Mansour and Dr. Wilson are asked:    6:33 Dr Mansour, you did a study a couple years ago at Yale that studied the effects of marathon running on the kidneys.  Can you explain how the study was conducted and what you found?   7:50 So marathon runners have markers like people in the ICU. That sounds horrible. Should we be worried?   8:31 Why do runners suffer from Acute Kidney Injury? Is it unique to running? Do swimmers suffer from this too?   9:23 Sherry, you said that you just run for fitness, so I assumed you would be a marathon runner since you studied the effects of marathon running on kidneys. Can you tell me why you chose to study marathon runners?   10:38 Perry, are you a marathon runner?   10:48 Perry, what questions do you have when it comes to kidneys and running? Have you experienced dehydration? Have you tested your own urine after a race?   12:13 What role does dehydration, your sweat rate, and sodium play into the types of injuries that the kidneys have after endurance racing?   14:28 It’s very difficult and actually not advised to drink the same amount of fluid that you actually lose during a race. What kind of advice would you give for somebody who says, “I know I sweat a lot. How much do I drink? How much salt do I put in my water?” Are these questions that you’ve been able to figure out yet?   16:28 Runners, especially older runners, worry about salt because their doctors say they shouldn’t intake a lot of salt if they have high blood pressure. Or if they have other kidney problems, they might have been advised to be on a low salt diet. How does that play into while you’re exercising? Should you continue to not consume much salt just because you’re supposed to be on a low salt diet?   17:46 Runners hear a lot about ibuprofen. A lot of people call it Vitamin I and take it when they’re feeling sore. Some people even take it before a race so they won’t feel sore, and we as coaches try to advise against this. Can you talk about the link between ibuprofen and kidney injury?   22:08 One of the reasons I wanted to have both of you on the show is because I recently suffered from a kidney stone, something I haven't talked about until today. I’m a healthy, athletic person and did not expect it. It was the worst pain of my life and as an athlete, I'm struggling to find good advice for hydration for kidney stone sufferers.  Perry,  can you give me some advice?   25:00 Through my research I’ve found that kidney stones are fairly common. Is that correct?   25:16 What do kidney stone sufferers have to do as far as exercise goes? I’m absolutely dehydrated at the end of a marathon. Is that more dangerous for me than it would be for someone who doesn’t have a kidney stone history?   26:59 I haven’t heard of people talking about how endurance runners and kidney stones interrelates at all, so I think there’s a lot of people out there that are hungry for this advice. Like I said, that’s why I want to have you guys on the show. So we can still run, we can still get a little dehydrated, but our risk is going to be a little higher is what you’re saying?   28:21 I think most runners now take Tylenol instead of ibuprofen, which hurts our liver instead of our kidneys. There’s also some evidence that Tylenol actually affects your brain and makes your perception of effort go down. So any time there’s something like that, runners are like, “Give it to me. Give it to me.”   29:25 Acute Kidney Injury from marathon running is typically temporary.  When do we have to worry that something could be wrong and damage could become chronic?   31:17 Have you looked at people who you measured right after the race and then looked at them a few days later to see if the damage was resolved?   32:15 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you started running, what advice would you give?   33:41 Where can listeners connect with you?   34:12 Do you know why students at Yale aren’t allowed to run outside?   Quotes by Dr. Mansour and Dr. Wilson:   “This urine really we see in the hospital all the time when patients are in the ICU when their blood pressure is really low so we didn’t think that we would see something similar in runners but that was sort of the main finding that kind of surprised us.” (Dr. Mansour)   “I wish I were a runner. Every time I do studies with marathon runners, they’re so inspiring, they’re so dedicated. It’s really a great crowd to be around, but I’m just not like that. I don’t have the stamina.” (Dr. Mansour)   “There might not be that much of a correlation between how you feel and what’s going on in your kidneys because I was convinced I was going to see the most terrible stuff based on how I was feeling at the end of that race and my kidneys kind of shrugged it off.” (Dr. Wilson)   “A kidney stone is painful but it isn’t going to kill you either, so you have to think about the benefits.” (Dr. Wilson) Take a Listen on Your Next Run   Leave a space for libsyn link   Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast: Article: Marathons and Kidney Damage: What Runners Should Know Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page RunnersConnect Focus Classes email Coach Claire   Follow Drs. Mansour and Wilson on:   Dr. Mansour on Twitter Dr. F Perry Wilson on Twitter We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top. The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use. The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!

When you’re running hard, pushing yourself to extremes, which do you think is the more limiting factor, your body or your brain? Alex Hutchinson has done extensive research on exactly that question.    The Toronto-based author and journalist focuses on the science of endurance and fitness. You may know him from his book ENDURE: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance or from Outside magazine where he’s a contributing editor and writes the Sweat Science column.    Alex believes that our limits are elastic, stretchable, and as of yet, undefined. He and Coach Claire discuss those limits, and also tackle hydration, fueling, carbohydrates, strength training, aging and more.  And just for fun, they also get into the science of why Coach Claire loves an out-and-back course way more than a loop!   Alex also writes the Jockology column for The Globe and Mail, and his writing has appeared in Canadian Running magazine, Popular Mechanics (where he earned a National Magazine Award for his energy reporting), the New York Times, and he was a Runner’s World columnist from 2012 to 2017. Prior to ENDURE, Alex wrote a practical guide to the science of fitness called Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights? Fitness Myths, Training Truths, and Other Surprising Discoveries from the Science of Exercise, which was published in 2011. He is also the author of the 2009 book, Big Ideas: 100 Modern Inventions That Have Transformed Our World.  Alex started out as a physicist, with a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, followed by a few years as a postdoctoral researcher with the U.S. National Security Agency, working on quantum computing and nanomechanics. During that time, he competed as a middle- and long-distance runner for the Canadian national team, mostly as a miler but also dabbling in cross-country and even a bit of mountain running. He still runs most days, enjoys the rigors of hard training, and occasionally races, but hates to think of how he’d do on an undergraduate physics exam! Alex’s best-selling book Endure has a forward written by Malcolm Gladwell, another famous Canadian runner and writer, and the updated version is now out in paperback. Questions Alex is asked:    3:34 You are an author and a journalist, but you really seem like a scientist at heart.  How did you get into writing about fitness and endurance sports?   5:22 What fascinates you most about how the body works when exercising?   6:10 Your book Endure, if you could really sum it up, I would say that it is trying to discover whether it’s the body or the brain that’s mostly the limiting factor when you’re trying to go to extremes but it’s clear that it’s a mix of the two. You can’t say, “Oh, it’s just the brain” or “It’s just the body.” Can you talk a little bit more about how they’re interrelated and what we are finding out?   7:41 Tim Noakes is a South African scientist that has been very controversial. He’s written a lot of things that turned out to be totally true and then he’s written a bunch of things that maybe people have not found to be true. Can you talk a little bit about the controversy, both the good and bad things that Tim Noakes has contributed?   10:35 I would love to distill the lessons that you’ve learned so far about things that can help runners do better. The two main topics I would love to get into are hydration and fueling. Let’s talk about hydration specifically for the marathon. Hydration needs are different for every type of body. Are there any rules of thumb that recreational runners should think about when coming up with a hydration plan for the marathon?   15:25 ‘Drink to thirst’ is starting to become more popular but there are some populations that their thirst isn’t reliable. I’ve heard that as you age, your sense of thirst is not as strong. Have you heard that as well?   18:05 We could talk about fueling during the race or we could talk about nutrition in general, but what I have found is that human studies are just notoriously bad when it comes to nutrition because we’re not rats and we can’t put humans in cages and measure everything. So what would you say are the limitations to studying nutrition on humans?   23:53 Let’s get into the great carbohydrate debate. As I often tell people, what’s frustrating about the word carbohydrate is that lentils, lollipops, and lumber are all carbohydrate. And if you say do eat carbohydrates or don’t eat carbohydrates, clearly those three things are processed differently in your body. First of all, why do we lump carbohydrate? It’s an absolutely massive category of food and clearly our body treats it differently. Carbohydrate is the preferred fuel of the brain. It’s the preferred fuel of the muscles. So why isn’t everybody on the carbohydrate train?   25:35 Sugar or simple carbohydrate is bad if you’re not exercising but it’s exactly what you need if you are trying to run a fast marathon.   27:29 A keto diet could be exactly what an ultramarathoner would want to do. They’re not so concerned about ultimate speed; they’re concerned about eating all the time. Isn't that what they say about ultras is that it’s not really a running race; it’s an eating race?   28:58 What’s the point of all this science if the answer is always “It depends?”    30:22 Let's talk about strength training. What is the minimum effective dose for a runner who is highly active and competitive but not at the elite level?     34:36 What is the minimum effective dose of strength training for somebody who is actively training to be competitive in a race but still at a sub-elite level?   40:10 I think a lot of what we attribute to normal aging is actually more of lack of activity, and all the decline is mostly for the couch potatoes, the more sedentary people, and we runners think that maybe we’re immune to all of that stuff. Would you agree a little bit with that?   44:12 You recently wrote an interesting article about the science of finish lines or teleoanticipation and you related it to not knowing when the pandemic will end.  Can you explain?     47:46 I like out and backs better than loops because I know what to expect on the way back. There’s science that proves it, right?   49:28 The brain loves knowing what to expect and it predicts what’s going to happen whether it’s right or wrong, right?   49:42 What questions are left unanswered? What kind of science are you looking forward to in the future?   51:33 I think everybody wants to figure out how to make their brains stronger, not just in running but in life and dealing with little kids. Questions I ask everyone:   52:22 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you started running, what advice would you give?   53:32 What is the greatest gift running has given you?   53:58 Where can listeners connect with you?   Quotes by Alex:   “For every situation that you think of the answer is both. The answer is “Yes.” It’s just like nature and nurture. The answer is your fate is 100% nature and it’s 100% nurture, and your physical performance is 100% your body and 100% your brain.”   “If you look at the list right now of the top 100 men’s marathon times ever run, 98 of them have been run by Kenyan or Ethiopian marathoners so if they’re doing something wrong, I want to do it wrong like they’re doing it because they’re pretty successful. And if  you look at the data, in both cases they’re getting more than 60% of their calories throughout the day from carbohydrates. And for the Kenyans, apparently it’s more than 20% of their calories come from the added sugar that they put in their oatmeal and their tea. So is this healthy for a couch dwelling office worker in North America? Probably not. But if you want to run fast or if you’re training hard, sugar is not only like you can use it, but like you said, you need it.”   “There is some pretty interesting evidence showing that older runners like Masters runners get a much larger and more immediate benefit from weight training for their running than younger runners do because the younger runners have more muscle to spare.”   “Your body knows, even parts of your body that you wouldn’t think know exactly where the finish line is.” Take a Listen on Your Next Run   Leave a space for libsyn link   Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast: Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance Alex Hutchinson | Outside Online Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community  RunnersConnect Facebook page RunnersConnect Focus Classes email Coach Claire   Follow Alex on:   Twitter Facebook We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top. The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use. The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!