Eat Half, Walk Double

An ageless story of purpose, vision, and mission as relevant now as ever before.

What if every limit you've ever accepted... was a lie? I'm Chris J. Dunn. For four decades, I’ve navigated the world of human performance as an exercise physiologist. I understand the data and the scientific theory behind why we move. But in that same time, I've seen ordinary people do extraordinary, seemingly impossible things that the textbooks just can’t explain. Rise & Shine  is the show f...

Krissy St. Jean is my guest this week.  After spending more than a decade as a nurse in traditional healthcare settings she started her own functional medicine nurse consulting business, St. Jean Functional Health, in January of 2024.  Now as a holistic integrative nurse, she offers a conventional and complementary approach to healthcare that cares for the whole person rather than an organ system....

Scott Gordon is my guest this week.  The wild places here in the northeast are a soul soothing escape for many from near and far.  And perhaps because of their unassuming nature, these inviting mountain tops can sometimes lull the experienced and inexperienced alike into situations that quickly go from “wonderful day in the woods” to “tragic day in the wilderness”.  And few understand this better...

I’m Chris Dunn and I am an exercise physiologist and owner of Ascend Human Performance Coaching.  Today’s episode is the first in a series about endurance sports-related injuries, specifically conditions known as tendinopathies.  The special expert guest for this series is Dwight Hartman.  Dwight is a physical therapist with four decades of experience in the field.  He is presently the owner of Ha...

I’m Chris Dunn and I am, by profession, an exercise physiologist and human performance coach.  I am the founder, owner, and operator of Ascend Human Performance Coaching.  I am driven every day by the knowledge that each of us possesses the capability to give more, to do more, and to be more than just the ordinary.  This special Human Performance Workshop series will provide science-based actionab...

Today’s episode is the first in a series about mindset.  The special expert guest for this series is Holly Blais.  Holly is a board certified behavior analyst and licensed applied behavior analyst with more than 20 years of experience in education, applied behavior analysis, and leadership.  She is one of the behavior analysts at Exeter High School in Exeter, NH with a specific professional focus...

Patty Higgins rejoins the show this week.  In December of 2022, as we were all working on our goals for the upcoming year, I challenged her to “Think Big”.  What she same up with was audacious even by “big thinking” standards.  In the course of the 2023 calendar year her goals were to qualify for three unbelievably significant events; the Boston Marathon, Ironman 70.3 World Championship, and Ironm...

Dave Abbett joins the podcast this week.  What inspires someone at 57 years of age to quit their job and set out on 2190 mile northbound odyssey on the Appalachian trail?  Better yet, how in the world does someone prepare to do it; physically, financially, logistically?  And to top it all off, to do it while following the carnivore diet.  In a nutshell, this is Dave’s story.  We sit down to chat a...

I’m Chris Dunn and I am, by profession, an exercise physiologist and human performance coach.  I am the founder, owner, and operator of Ascend Human Performance Coaching.  I am driven every day by the knowledge that each of us possess the capability to give more, to do more, and to be more than just the ordinary.  This special Human Performance Workshop series will provide science-based actionable...

Brandon Newbould joins the show this week.  “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.:  -CS Lewis.  In this age of endless self-promotion, in which achievements, position, and influence blow down from high like a Chinook wind, Brandon is a breath of fresh air.  He doesn’t post on Facebook otherwise you’d probably already know he’s an accomplished professional mus...

Richie Blake is my guest this week.  Oftentimes the decisions we make as teenagers have a profound impact on the trajectory of our lives.  As was the case for Richie.  If not for a friend “talking him into” going out for the cross-country team in 7th grade it’s hard to imagine things would have turned out the way they did. When running is recreation, avocation, and occupation it’s fair to say it’s...

Katy Doyle is my guest this week.  Food is a ubiquitous and essential element of our human experience.  It is almost always in our consciousness.  Many of us have and maintain a healthy relationship with food.  Unfortunately for some, food and food choices can serve as an unhealthy control mechanism in periods of turmoil.  Eating disorders can co-occur with addictive behaviors making things expone...

Ray Calabro joins the show this week.  The poet and essayist Tyler Knott once wrote, “Mountains know secrets we need to learn.  That it might take time, it might be hard, but if you hold on long enough, you will find the strength to rise up.”.  When Ray reached out to me in June of 2000, he was looking for some direction.  What initially started as a journey back to health and fitness would become...

Nancy Eckerson is my guest this week.  This lifelong New Hampshire resident is as connected to the New England running scene as anyone I’ve ever known.  And that connection run deep both personally and professionally.  When running came into her life in her late 30’s it was a way to improve her health and fitness.  Over the next three decades her passion for running would help her build strong fri...

Warren Angell joins the show this week.  What are the chances running can save your life not once, but twice?  Well that’s exactly what happened to Warren.  At two very different times in his life, for two very different reasons, running was his salvation.  Yet despite that, as you’ll hear, running isn’t what defines him.  This intrepid explorer lives by the philosophy that “adventure is everywher...

Dave Dunham (Double D) is my guest this week.  If you just go by the numbers (if you know Dave, you know he’s a numbers guy) he’s run over 157,000 lifetime miles in 18 countries and all 50 states.  During his five decades as a runner he’s run, raced, and won on all surfaces, in seasons, and across all distances from the mile up to 100 kilometers.  That incredible success has earned him multiple Ha...

Jen Shultis joins the show this week.  A decade ago she traded the gnarly, rocky, & rooty east coast trails for the buffed, breathtaking (literally), alpine tundra trails of the Pacific Northwest.  But her trail running hasn’t been limited to Cascadia.  She’s raced dozens of ultra’s all across the US.  And with as much time as she spends in the woods, specifically in the Kitsap Peninsula of Washin...

Thomas Dal Molin, Jr. joins the podcast this week.  A decade ago, as an undergrad at the University of New England, he walked into my office to interview for an internship.  I chose one of his classmates instead.  Two years later, undeterred by that rejection, he contacted me again looking for an internship.  At that point how could I say no?  That decision turned out to be one of the best of my c...

Mark Traeger is my guest this week.  No doubt a visit to his bicycle shop is a commitment (I’ve never spent less than 45 minutes in the shop), but to understand this hilarious eclectic fast talker is to get to know a successful business owner who cares deeply about his community.  Mark immigrated from New Jersey to New Hampshire more than twenty years ago and started a small business in a mill tow...

Bob Dion is my guest. His name, and his snowshoes, are synonymous with northeast winters.  More specifically, snowshoe racing in the northeast.  If you’ve been to a snowshoe race in the last decade anywhere east of the Mississippi you’ve seen those orange tipped Dion 121’s.  The premier and preferred racing snowshoe for elite athletes and recreationalists alike.  But despite how many Dion Snowshoe...

Dr. Andrew Best joins the show this week.  A Cat 1 mountain biker and assistant professor of biology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts his IG handle is aptly the “shreddy_professor”.  Make no mistake, if you talk that talk you darn well better be ready to back it up.  And he has, for a few decades now, both on two feet and lately on two wheels.  As an elite level road runner in his 20’s...

Social media takeovers are all the rage nowadays.  And a quick internet search reveals there’s definitively a right way (and a wrong way) to do it.  Josh Ferenc is one of my favorite people. Shorty after he appeared on this podcast a guest he approached me with the idea of “turning the tables” by taking over the show as the host and having me sit in the guest chair.  Although I consider myself a p...

Richard Langevin is my guest this week.  Legendary basketball coach John Wooden once famously said, “Things turn out the best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”.  Richard is the embodiment of this quote.  Extreme hyperactivity and a book learning disability made for a very challenging upbringing.  Yet despite that, he would become a very successful business owner.  A mon...

Cole Crosby is my guest. In the fall of 2011, I received an email inquiry from a student at the University of Oklahoma about snowshoe racing here in New England.  Sounds crazy right?  Turns out it wasn’t crazy as that student, Cole Crosby, a decade later would represent the US at the World Snowshoe Running Championships in Argentina finishing 11th overall and helping to lead Team USA to a second p...