Getting After It

Brayden came back on the podcast after finishing one of the hardest races in the country: the Leadville Trail 100. What makes his story crazy is that he wasn't expecting to get into Leadville this year. He entered the lottery thinking it might take 3–5 years. Then the acceptance email showed up, and suddenly he had to figure out how to prepare for 100 miles through the Colorado mountains. We...

I believe in hard work. This podcast is called Getting After It, after all. But the older I get, the more I realize that hard work by itself isn't enough. In this episode, I break down a few lessons from Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jocko Willink, and Tony Robbins that changed the way I think about effort, discipline, and success. We talk about having a clear vision for where you're going, doi...

My wife Ally is back on the podcast, and this episode felt a little different. We’re only a few weeks away from becoming parents for the first time. As excited as we are, we’ve been thinking a lot about what life will look like once our son is here. Can we still chase big goals and be present parents? Can I train for races, build businesses, work on this podcast, and still make sure my family neve...

Nine years ago, my mom started a business with an idea and a willingness to try. This year, she closed the doors and we talk about all the lessons learned.  In this episode, we talk about what it was like to build Snug from the ground up, why it came to an end, and the lessons she learned from running a business for nearly a decade. We also talk about her first marathon, raising four kids, becomin...

Jace Skidmore ran a 4:05 marathon. Years later he ran a 2:53. I wanted to know what actually changed in between, so I sat him down and asked. Jace is one of the best follows I have in the running space, and today he breaks down the real engine behind his jump, the mental game. We get into the two voices that show up mid-race (one supportive, one straight out of a David Goggins video), his 570+ day...

In this episode, I talk about something I’ve been learning the hard way: you can’t rush adaptation. Whether it’s health, running, work, podcasting, or becoming a father, some things just take time. You can show up. You can do the work. You can adjust the plan. But you can’t force your body or your life to change on your exact timeline. I’ve been frustrated with slow progress lately, especially wit...

In this episode, I talk about something I've been thinking about a lot lately: what excellence actually means. For a long time, I thought excellence looked the same every day. Wake up early. Train hard. Work harder. Stay disciplined. Keep pushing. Then life changed. My health changed. My energy changed. I'm preparing to become a father. And I realized something that I hadn't fully u...

Episode 201 feels like the beginning of a new season for Getting After It . After 200 episodes, I've been thinking a lot about what growth actually costs. We spend so much time talking about becoming stronger, healthier, more disciplined, better spouses, better parents, and better people. But we don't talk enough about what has to be left behind. In this episode, I share some lessons I&a...

Episode 200. I started this show with one microphone, a laptop, and no real idea what I was doing. This one is harder to record than a race recap. My testosterone is back down to 136, and I feel it. Workouts that used to be warm-ups wipe me out now. On the hard days, my mind whispers things I'd rather not hear. Underneath all of it: I'd been treating my output as my identity. I walk thro...

Ally likes to do hard things in hard seasons. Which is why she competed in a Hyrox while being 26 weeks pregnant. She went in without a watch, without a time goal, and without a plan. Her only job was to finish. Running had been wrecking her pelvis for months. The week before the race she ran eight miles and could barely walk for three days after. She taped up her belly with KT tape, asked a stran...

In this episode, I talk about the story of ultrarunner, firefighter, father, and author Andy Glaze. Andy's book, Smile, or You're Doing It Wrong , is about far more than running. It's a story of addiction, trauma, recovery, fatherhood, and rebuilding a life after hitting rock bottom. What stood out to me wasn't the miles he has run. It was the mindset he developed along the way...

Last week at Pattern Accelerate, I snuck into a talk from James Lawrence because I wanted to hear what drives someone to complete 101 Ironmans in 101 days. I expected another motivational speech. Instead, I walked away thinking hard about human potential, suffering, discipline, and the stories we tell ourselves when things get uncomfortable. In this episode, I break down a few lessons that stayed...

"This is no time for ease and comfort. It is the time to dare and endure." Winston Churchill said that in January of 1940. I've been thinking about it for three days, and it isn't about World War II for me. It's about a 5 a.m. alarm I let slip. It's about a race I keep almost signing up for. This episode is what happens when one line from a Churchill biography exposes...

Most people think discipline is about pain tolerance. I don't think that's entirely true anymore. You don't quit the things you want because they hurt. You quit because they got boring. After my last ultra in October, I pulled the next race off my calendar and dropped into six months of pure maintenance mode.  No countdown. No target. Shoes on the couch and the version of me who did...

Most people treat fear like a stop sign. They call it wisdom. They call it patience. It's usually neither. Fear shows up before everything worth doing. The race you've been avoiding, the conversation you keep postponing, the thing you've been circling for years. The problem isn't the fear. It's that you've never learned to read it.  Fear comes in two forms, and if you...

I set out to run a half marathon this weekend. I made it ten miles. My leg told me to stop. And for once, I listened. That didn’t sit well with me. I’m doing everything right right now. I’m running my miles. I’m lifting. I’m stretching. I’m eating well. I ended the week at forty seven miles. And still, something feels off. That’s what this episode is about. What do you do when you’re putting in th...

I trained for a sub-three marathon, hit it, and spent the next several weeks barely able to walk without my hips locking up. I did everything right. Trained hard, stayed consistent, crossed the finish line. My body broke down anyway. This episode is about what I got wrong, what the research says about training volume and long-term durability, and why most runners are one bad training block away fr...

Most people quit their habits right before they start working. I recorded this episode after watching a close friend pull himself out of a year of isolation. He started with small inputs. A walk outside. A phone call. A real meal. He stacked them day after day, and slowly, he's coming back. That experience forced me to confront something I have lived through myself. The habits that keep you s...

Most people never make the choice. They tell themselves they're being patient, being strategic. But if you get honest, it's fear wearing a responsible disguise. In this episode, I walk through the myth of Achilles and why his story maps almost perfectly onto the war most of us are fighting right now. The choice he made. The rage that pulled him off the battlefield. The friend he lost tha...

January 2023. Start line. Wrong shoes. One unofficial training run to my name. I ran the half marathon anyway and it taught me more than any race I was actually prepared for. This episode is about the lie of readiness. The way "I'm not ready yet" becomes the most sophisticated excuse high achievers use to avoid starting the things that matter.  I share three stories: a race I ran be...

I spent most of my life trying to outrun suffering. A brutal 24-mile training run, months of unexplained illness in my early twenties, and a long fight with depression taught me I had it backwards. Suffering is not the obstacle. It is the work. In this episode I break down what suffering is actually for; why most people either avoid it entirely or grind through it without collecting what it owes t...

I crossed the finish line at 2:56 and couldn't walk right for weeks. Sub-three marathon, shot hip flexors, and a lesson I should have learned a long time before that parking lot. Going fast has a price tag. You just don't see it at the finish line. In this episode I'm getting honest about three places I went out too hard too early: a race, a training block, and this podcast, and wha...

You're not stuck. You know exactly what you need to do, you just haven't decided to do it yet. And that's costing you more than you think. In this episode, I take you inside one of the most pivotal moments of my life: a hotel room in Hollywood, California, where the weight of months of avoidance brought me to my knees. What happened next changed everything, because I finally made th...

There is a version of you that already knows what it needs to do.  It knows the race to sign up for, the conversation you've been avoiding, the thing you keep circling. It's waiting on the other side of something uncomfortable. The hard things are coming whether you're ready or not. The only question is whether you've been training for them — or hiding from them.  In this episo...

The reason you can't do the hard thing isn't motivation. You can't sit still, and that reflex is quietly eroding your capacity to do anything that matters. In this episode, I break down why distraction is pain management, not a focus problem, and what it actually costs you to keep reaching for the escape hatch.  From a long training run at mile 10 where the boredom hit hard, to walk...