The Endurance Drive Podcast

Katie and Elena dive into a variety of intriguing topics, starting with their experiences at a ski race, emphasizing personal growth and teamwork. They discuss the importance of trying new athletic events to boost motivation and mental resilience. The hosts explore the vital role of vitamin D in mood and health, especially during winter. They also tackle the complexities of nutrition for female athletes, addressing body image and fueling strategies. Finally, listeners get practical coping tactics for seasonal challenges and the benefits of mindfulness.

In this week’s episode, we’re bringing back a fan-favorite repeat guest: physical therapist and athlete extraordinaire, Neil MacKenzie! Neil talks us through common training and recovery mistakes athletes make in the late winter and early spring, how to tell if a rehab plan is working, how to use pain as a useful indicator, how to support injured athletes from a psychological and emotional perspective, best practices for bone stress injuries and REDs treatment, run warmups, strength training, mobility, home assessments for imbalances and other issues, PT goodness of fit, and a lot more. This episode is jam-packed full of actionable advice for all athletes! View extended show notes for this episode here.To share feedback or ask questions to be featured on a future episode, please use ⁠this form⁠ or email: Katie@TheEnduranceDrive.com.

In this week’s episode, Katie and Elena tackle a big topic that has gotten a lot of interest among our listeners — the intersection of body image and endurance sports. We talk through external and internal pressures related to body image, challenges in thinking about how bodies change over time, whether weight is a useful metric to track or not, situations and circumstances in which body image concerns can be more activating, fueling and body image, and reframes that can be helpful for thinking about fitness, fueling, and our bodies. We also cover some fun insights related to shame and missed workouts, fueling higher-intensity workouts, vitamin D deficiency, not judging early-season workouts, and treadmills as a tool for hills and speed. Check it out! View extended show notes for this episode here.To share feedback or ask questions to be featured on a future episode, please use ⁠this form⁠ or email: Katie@TheEnduranceDrive.com.

This episode dives into tackling winter training, especially with windy conditions. Strategies for Ironman prep and adjusting goals for new athletes are shared. Find out how hydration affects performance, along with tips for swimming comfort and technique. There's a fascinating discussion on the importance of liquid calories and the reliability of fitness tracker data. The benefits of integrating HIIT into triathlon training highlight the balance between strength and endurance. It's all about enjoying the journey while staying motivated!

In this grab bag episode of the podcast, Katie and Elena catch up about recent happenings in their coaching and training lives including: how to think about training if you get sick, trusting the process, the concept of being "in your body" in sports, trying new sports, what it means to fuel enough, and mental reframes in the context of body composition. We also do a deep dive on two bigger topics: how to integrate skiing (of any kind!) with endurance training and an extended female athlete Q+A in honor of National Girls and Women in Sport Day. This episode is jam-packed full of insights for everyone -- check it out! View extended show notes for this episode here. To share feedback or ask questions to be featured on a future episode, please use ⁠this form⁠ or email: Katie@TheEnduranceDrive.com.

In this week’s episode, we’re talking through our top tips for making triathlon—arguably one of the most expensive recreational sports—at least somewhat more economical. We cover non-negotiable must-have gear and equipment items, nice-to-have but not necessary items, gimmicky items that you shouldn’t waste your money on, hidden costs to be aware of, and how to budget more effectively. We also deep dive on a bunch of fun coaching and training insights including Life Stress Score (LSS), not letting Garmin health data gaslight us, gear and strategies for cold weather running, mental imagery, and setting a ‘theme’ or intention for your day. Check it out! View extended show notes for this episode here. To share feedback or ask questions to be featured on a future episode, please use ⁠this form⁠ or email: Katie@TheEnduranceDrive.com.

In this week’s episode, Katie and Elena sit down with coach, elite runner, physical therapist, and friend of the pod Hanna Prunty. Hanna shares some exciting news—that she and Coach Kevin are expecting their first child in June!—and dives deep into the journey she followed in order to optimize her hormonal health for pregnancy. Hanna shares powerful reflections on why more isn’t always better, how challenging it can be to make major changes to your fitness and fueling routine when you are operating at peak performance in endurance sports, and the lessons she learned about balance and herself along the way. She also tells us about how she integrates her training and career as a physical therapist with her current coaching role, and how she approaches helping athletes achieve their goals from a standpoint of health, wellness, and longevity in sport. This inspiring episode has something for everyone. Check it out! View extended show notes for this episode here. To share feedback or ask questions to be featured on a future episode, please use ⁠this form⁠ or email: Katie@TheEnduranceDrive.com.

Welcome to the new season, athletes! We are back in full swing with training and coaching, so Jim and Katie sat down for an extended insights episode all about what we are learning from our athletes (and from ourselves!) in the first couple weeks of the new year. We cover: good and bad data, going high vs. low in Z2, workout ordering, logistics of a training week, intentions and resolutions, “gentle January,” engaging the parasympathetic state, hunger cues, and a whole lot more. We also do a deep dive on TrainingPeaks Virtual, a new online cycling competitor to Zwift, and introduce a new bonus segment. This was a fun one — check it out!  View extended show notes for this episode here. To share feedback or ask questions to be featured on a future episode, please use ⁠this form⁠ or email: Katie@TheEnduranceDrive.com.

Explore the principles that shape effective endurance coaching. Discover the importance of person-first coaching and the 80/20 intensity distribution for balanced training. Dive into the critical role of nutrition and hydration for optimal performance. Learn about holistic training strategies that prioritize individual athlete needs, building resilience through outdoor workouts, and preventing overuse injuries. Enjoy the journey of making training fun and flexible, enhancing both performance and recovery.

We're kicking off the new year with an episode all about goals and intentions for 2025! Katie and Elena reached out to our community for inspiration about what's motivating them this year and came back with a ton of physical and mental goals that span endurance, self-improvement, and everything in between. We also did a deep dive on coaching and training insights related to "how to solve for the right race," how to process tough race days, and how to practice shame resilience in the context of sports. Finally, we cover some of our own goals and intentions for the coming year. Happy New Year! View extended show notes for this episode here. To share feedback or ask questions to be featured on a future episode, please use ⁠this form⁠ or email: Katie@TheEnduranceDrive.com.