Run to the Top Podcast | The Ultimate Guide to Running

How to stay speedy and healthy when running in your 50s, 60s, and 70s? Can older runners do speed work without ending up injured? Coach Claire shares tips to help master runners increase speed and avoid injury in today's podcast.

In this week's episode, Coach Michael talks about the feedback we received on our daily podcasts and asks your suggestions about our plan of making a slight change with the podcast format.

Why do a lot of runners wear racing flats during workouts? Why some runners follow a 7 day training cycle vs a 10 day training cycle? Why do runners incorporate squats and deadlifts in their training - What are its benefits? Find out in today's podcast from Coaches Ruairi and Dylan.

Are You Tough Enough to Race the World’s Harshest Deserts? Samantha Fanshawe   Imagine running 250km (about 155) miles in 6 stages across the most inhospitable deserts in the world while carrying everything you need for the entire race on your back.  Whether you think that sounds incredible or miserable, you’ll probably agree the idea is fascinating. Samantha Fanshawe, president of the 4 Deserts Race Series at RacingThePlanet, manages ultra stage races all over the world in some of the harshest conditions from the Atacama Desert in Chile to the Gobi Desert in Mongolia to the Namib Desert in Africa to the coldest desert in the world, Antarctica. Sam tells Coach Claire what it’s like to race these events, what you need to do to train and prepare, and who should (and should not) sign up for an event like this. It’s a fascinating dive into the world of some of the toughest races on the planet, and you can enjoy it from the comfort of home!   Sam has always been a citizen of the planet. She is a Brit, born in Peru and schooled in Pakistan for a few of her early years. She graduated from the University of Leeds with a joint honors degree in Maths and Biology, then went off to explore parts of the world such as Sydney, Australia, before returning to the United Kingdom to work in business development of corporate clients in the recruitment industry. After a couple of years, her company transferred her to Singapore, followed by stints in Penang, Malaysia and Hong Kong.  Sam has mastered the art of dragon boat racing, competing in the Dragon Boat World Championships. She also plays squash, hikes, rides horses, and mountain bikes. She fell in love with running while living in Asia, starting with half marathons before running the Singapore Marathon, sprint triathlons, adventure races, and ultimately ultramarathons including the Hong Kong Oxfam Trailwalker, the Gobi March, Vibram HK 100, and Mongolia Sunrise to Sunset.  In 2005, Sam volunteered at the hottest race on record, the Gobi March, a seven-day, 250km footrace. She fell in love with the spirit of RacingThePlanet and became a staff member, and has since worked over 20 RacingThePlanet/4 Desert events.   Questions Samantha is asked:          5:18 You have a very interesting background, living all over the world. How did you first get involved with RacingThePlanet?   6:23 Can you describe what these events are like? I’d love to hear what they are and what kind of people sign up for them?   9:12 How many people actually really run every single day and how many people do more of a walk/hiking?   9:46 The participants pretty much have to bring everything as far as food. They don’t have to bring a tent I understand, but pretty much everything else?   11:02 How has the pandemic affected RacingThePlanet?   12:47 Let’s talk about training for the race. Let’s fast forward to 2021 when everything is perfectly healthy. How would you recommend training for something like this? Is it similar to marathon training?   14:05 Training for the race with a backpack is super important, right?   15:01 I imagine you have a lot of repeat athletes who do this over and over again, but I would love to hear about the first timers. What challenges do the first-time racers tend to face?   16:44 What kind of food do people eat on something like this? I imagine it would be different if you’re running or walking because you can chew a lot better when you are walking, but what kind of foods are most people bringing in their backpack every day?   19:23 You’ve got all of your food for all six stages in your backpack the whole time. Is that what you’re saying? No one takes it for you to the next stage.   19:43 I imagine not everybody makes it to the finish line. What are the reasons that you see that most people have to stop the race?   21:52 What kind of people should NOT sign up for a race like this?   23:03 I bet you have a whole collection of amazing stories from races as epic as this. Can you share a few of the more memorable stories of things that have happened in some of these races?   25:19 I noticed that registration for Antarctica is by invite only.  Can you explain?   26:57 I imagine you’re not dealing with heat in Antarctica, but there’s probably some other challenges like dealing with the cold and maybe frostbite. What are the other challenges in Antarctica?   27:56 How many times have you gone to Antarctica now?   28:29 What is the future for RacingThePlanet? Is there anything new in the works? Questions I ask everyone:   30:09 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you first started running, what advice would you give yourself?   31:11 What is the greatest gift that running has given you?   32:35 Where can listeners connect with you? Quotes by Samantha:   “The whole ethos of the race was not only to take people to amazing places and to achieve things that maybe they didn’t think was possible like covering 250km on foot across a desert, but also to make people realize that you can survive for seven days in a desert without the internet, without your phone, without a comfortable bed, without a shower, and just with everything you can carry on your back.”   “Our goal is to encourage people to finish, but within the cutoff times and safely and when they’re in the right position to do so.”   “When you think you’re done, you think what you’re going through is nothing compared to what some other people are going through, not just in the race, but in life as well.” Take a Listen on Your Next Run Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast:  RacingThePlanet info@racingtheplanet.com Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community RunnersConnect Facebook page claire@runnersconnect.net   Follow Samantha on:   Facebook - RacingThePlanet Instagram - RacingThePlanet LinkedIn - RacingThePlanet Twitter - RacingThePlanet YouTube - RacingThePlanet 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!  

In today's episode, Coach Hayley talks about electrolyte drinks and guidelines for electrolyte replacement. Listen now to find out when do you need electrolytes and when plain water is fine.

Should you accumulate a lot of mileage at an easy pace in training? Or should you try to reach race-specific speeds frequently? Is it necessary to do all of your runs faster if you want to get faster? In today's episode, Coach Claire look at one study that addresses this topic of training intensity problem.

In today's episode, Coach Michael talks about his experience as a high school runner and college athlete, and why is it worth to consider college sports from an athlete's perspective. 

Coach Dylan and Coach Ruairi welcome you back to another episode on running headlines where we cover the latest events and actions that happened in the running world during the past week or so. Listen now!

Battling Depression with Running Shoes and a Dog: Nita Sweeney A major depressive episode turned Nita Sweeney from the law to writing. She is now an award-winning author who shares what she’s learned in her autobiographical Amazon best seller Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink.    Running, and more specifically, running with her dog helped change Nina’s life and her mental health, and she talks with Coach Claire about how running can be an effective tool for managing mental health issues, the challenges and limitations of running, the importance of community, even a virtual one, for keeping your spirits and your training up, and for all you new pandemic puppy owners, she shares tips on how to run with your new friend.  Nita has been plying her writing trade for over 25 years, and her work has been featured in health.com, healthline.com, livestrong.com, Fupping.com, PsychCentral.com, bpHope.com, Bustle.com, NextAvenue.com, UpJourney.com, Medium.com, Pawstruck.com, Thrive Global, WGRN, Sweatpants & Coffee, Authority Magazine, Intergenerational Inspiration, 2014 and Beyond, and Pretty Progressive, and in bp Magazine and Epoch Times, on the Word Carver, Running Dad, My Brain on Endorphins, and Diz Runs podcasts, and was nominated for the Ohio Arts Council Governor's Award. Her articles, essays, and poems have appeared in Buddhist America, Dog World, Dog Fancy, Writer's Journal, Country Living, Pitkin Review, Spring Street, The Taos News, WNBA-SF blog, Pencil Storm, The Writing Cooperative, It's Not Your Journey, Wide Open Writing, and other newspapers and newsletters. She writes the blog, Bum Glue and publishes the monthly email, Write Now Columbus.   Her poem "Memorial" won the Dublin Arts Council's Poet's Choice Award and an early draft of her memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink, (previously titled Twenty-Six Point Freaking Two) was short-listed for the William Faulkner - William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition Award. The book was awarded a Maxwell Medal in the Human Animal Bond category of the Dog Writers Association of America writing competition. It is a #1 Amazon Bestseller in the "mood disorders," "bipolar disorder," and "running & jogging" categories. The book was selected by Ohioana Library to be included in the 2020 Ohioana Festival. Nita also coauthored the popular writing journal, You Should Be Writing: A Journal of Inspiration and Instruction to Keep Your Pen Moving, with Brenda Knight (Women of the Beat Generation.) Nita earned a journalism degree from The E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, a law degree from The Ohio State University, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She serves on the board of the Women's National Book Association of San Francisco. For ten years, she studied with and assisted best-selling author Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones) at week-long writing workshops teaching the "rules of writing practice" and leading participants in sitting and walking meditation. Goldberg authorized Nita to teach "writing practice" and Nita has taught for nearly twenty years. When she's not writing and teaching, Nita runs. She has completed three full marathons, 27 half marathons (in eighteen states), and more than 80 shorter races. Nita lives in central Ohio with her husband and biggest fan, Ed, and her yellow Labrador running partner, Scarlet (aka #ninetyninepercentgooddog).     Questions Nita is asked:          2:41 Let's start with your running journey.  How did you begin to run regularly?   5:03 Your running journey is also connected to your mental health journey. Can you talk a little bit about that?   7:46 What was it like finding a running community?   10:14 How specifically has running helped your mental health?   11:49 I think it’s pretty well known that everybody who gets a running habit going, you feel good, at least when you stop running. Sometimes when you actually are running it doesn’t always feel good, but most of the time we feel good after we run, but there is a limit to that. You can only run so many miles in a day. You can’t always rely on exercise for all of your mental health issues. Where do you kind of draw the line and say, “Yes, running is a tool but I need some extra help?”   14:16 Sometimes you need actual therapy beyond running; don’t you agree?   15:41 I would also like to talk about you running with your dog, Scarlet. A lot of runners have dogs, and dogs help us get moving and get active, but you decided to write a book about that. Can you talk a little bit about that?    19:03 What other tips do you have for someone who just got their pandemic puppy and want to start running with the dog?   20:59 I know a lot of people who run with dogs who will maybe do their warmup with the dog and then circle back home and drop the dog off and then do a longer run. Is that something that you’ve had to do? In marathon training, you can’t take your dog for 20 miles or something like that.   23:21 I would imagine if you’re doing any kind of speed work or some kind of session where you need to do that, that must be a challenge with a dog?   24:21 Many runners have, like you, found running later in life.  How has your running changed as you age?   16:13 With your running and the pandemic, all the races have been canceled for the most part, a lot of us are left without goals. Are you still running and training without that goal and deadline?   28:44 I’ve started to see these socially distant races come up, and it just makes me wonder, is everybody going to wear masks when they run, which is obviously hard, and how do you stay six feet apart, what if you want to pass somebody? Have you looked into any of that, like how they’re going to do that?   31:49 I would love to hear more about when you are depressed or going through a mental health episode, you know that running makes you feel better, you know that calling a friend makes you feel better, you know that intellectually, but because you’re depressed and not feeling good, you don’t feel like doing those things. So how do you start moving when you don’t want to move? How do you reach out when you don’t want to reach out? Any tips?   35:37 Let’s say I’m a brand new runner and I want to find community. Where would  you suggest me going? Questions I ask everyone:   38:09 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you first started running, what advice would you give yourself?   38:55 What is the greatest gift that running has given you?   39:42 Where can listeners connect with you? Quotes by Nita:   “I had to find something that suited me in a way, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally, and running did that.”   “I really think that it’s kind of ironic that I ended up writing a book about running. I couldn’t have done that without the focus and endurance that I had from marathon training.”   “Having gone through an injury, coming out the other side, realizing that it’s going to be okay, that’s been one of the great things of having done anything, but especially running for a long time, seeing those patterns.”   Take a Listen on Your Next Run Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast:  NitaSweeney.com Depression Hates a Moving Target John Bingham "The Penguin" books Marathoner in Training Dash for Donation Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community RunnersConnect Facebook page claire@runnersconnect.net   Follow Nita on:   nita@nitasweeney.com 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!

In today's podcast, Coach Hayley talks about some training tweaks that master runners can make to optimize their running performance and their health going forward. Tune in now!