Girls Gone Gravel podcast

What a weekend at UNBOUND Gravel 2025! From epic community events, to next-level racing there was no shortage of action on the ground in Emporia. Thank you to the 80+ women who came out to the More Women More Miles shakeout ride, and to all of you who took the time to share your stories with us. The podcast this week features Kathryn’s live interviews from the pre-race expo with a few podcast fans...

UNBOUND Gravel is right around the corner, and here at Girls Gone Gravel we could not be more excited! Our crew is making their way to Emporia, but before the race kicks off we are joined by cycling legend Lauren Hall, and Life Time’s VP of Marketing Michelle Duffy Smith to take a deep dive into all things UNBOUND. This year’s 200 mile race will feature nearly 100 elite female racers, so you can b...

On our final episode of our More Women More Miles series we welcome back coach Kristen Legan to walk us through how to not mess up your final two weeks of race prep before UNBOUND. We cover everything from taper workouts to race week nutrition tips, and even how to lay out expectations for your friends and family for your race week. Kristen also goes over her suggestions on logistics prep for race...

On this week’s show we are joined by runner-turned-cyclist Caroline Wreszin. The LA based athlete got started on the bike in highschool when an injury sidelined her from running, and she was hooked from the first ride. As a self described competitor, Caroline found her way into gravel racing, and despite her first race being icy cold, she hasn’t looked back. Last year Caroline built up her own pri...

This week Kathryn & Selene are coming to us live from Girona, Spain, where they have just wrapped up the Feisty x Thompson Tours Gravel Camp and Selene is fresh off finishing the 100k at The Traka gravel race. We hear a little bit about the awesome week at gravel camp, and then Kathryn brings us some on-the-ground interviews from The Traka with 6x mountain bike world champion Annika Langvad, A...

This week on our More Women More Miles series, we are so lucky to be joined by bike mechanic extraordinaire Casey Wytske. Casey has years of experience working as a mechanic in the cycling industry, and also teaching courses on bike mechanics. In this hands-on session Casey goes over all of the things we need to know in order to get our bikes ready to take on UNBOUND Gravel, or any other gravel ev...

This week we welcome artist and cyclist Lisa Congdon. After a handful of charity bike rides, Lisa was drawn into cycling when she moved to Portland as a way to make friends in a new city. With a few years of road riding under her belt, Lisa was drawn into gravel cycling in 2020 and hasn’t looked back. This elementary school teacher-turned artist, activist and cyclist has found a way to beautifully...

Our guest this week is Colorado-based cyclist Michaela Thompson, who joined us a couple of days before the kickoff of the Life Time Grand Prix at Sea Otter Gravel. Originally from Boulder, Michaela now lives in Durango CO. She talks about her upbringing in a family of athletes, and how she made her way from downhill ski racing to joining the cycling team at Boulder High School in her junior year....

Welcome to our 200th episode! This week Kathryn and Kristi are joined by a very special guest, Heather Jackson. A former professional triathlete, Heather has jumped with both feet into the world of off road racing, claiming impressive results in both gravel cycling AND ultra running. Heather grew up in an athletic family, and her early years in sport were spent on the soccer field and in the ice h...

This week on our More Women More Miles series, we welcome Olympian and 2022 Life Time Grand Prix Champion Haley Smith, fresh off an impressive performance at Cape Epic. ALong with all of her accomplishments on the bike, Haley recently completed her Masters of Science in Sport Psychology and has just started studying for her doctorate. This combination of experience and education makes Haley the pe...

As you may know, The Mid South Gravel was meant to take place last weekend in Stillwater, Oklahoma. However, the event had to be cancelled at the last minute due to a devastating wildfire in the area. Past guest Meg Fisher joins Kathryn this week, freshly home from Stillwater, to talk through the weekend’s events. Though Stillwater was spared of any major damage, the neighboring town of Guthrie wa...

Our special guest this week for More Women More Miles likely needs little introduction in the gravel cycling world. We are joined by writer, cyclist, and host of the Hit Play Not Pau se Podcast, Selene Yeager. Selene brings her wealth of knowledge on female physiology and hormones, and how we can tailor our training for Unbound Gravel accordingly. This episode gives us a broad overview of hormones...

This week on the show Kathryn and Kristi are joined by Life Time Grand Prix rookie Stella Hobbs, from Whitefish, MT. Stella grew up competing in nordic ski racing, and after a successful collegiate career she hung up her skis, moved back to Whitefish, and within a couple of years was the proud co-owner of Great Northern Cycle & Ski. She participated in the weekly group road rides, and started...

We are back with another episode in our More Women More Miles series. This week Kathryn is joined by Paige Onweller and Meredith Root, and the trio discuss race day nutrition and how to avoid underfeuling. We start by defining low energy availability, then Paige and Meredith key in on a few strategies on how to avoid underfueling when training for cycling events. Then they switch gears to discuss...

This week we welcome artist and cyclist Lisa Congdon. After a handful of charity bike rides, Lisa was drawn into cycling when she moved to Portland as a way to make friends in a new city. With a few years of road riding under her belt, Lisa was drawn into gravel cycling in 2020 and hasn’t looked back. This elementary school teacher-turned artist, activist and cyclist has found a way to beautifully...

Next up in our More Women More Miles series we are joined by Tactic Nutrition’s Meredith Root and Lynsey Martin. Today’s episode focuses on our daily nutrition off the bike, and why it is important to understand our daily needs to help support our performance on the bike. Lynsey and Meredith break down how we can calculate our caloric and macronutrient intake needs to help ensure that we are fueli...

For our final show of 2024, Kathryn and Kristi are joined by return guest Heidi Wrentz. Heidi and her partner live in Patagonia, AZ and have been hosting gravel cycling camps and events in the region for over 15 years. They recently launched a new event for 2025, but this time they are breaking out the running shoes! The Daydreamer trail run will be taking place in Patagonia February 27-March 1, 2...

Continuing our More Women More Miles series, this week we are joined by returning guests Hannah Otto and Meredith Root. In this episode the focus is on balancing strength training with indoor cycling in preparation for UNBOUND or other gravel events. Hannah and Meredith cover topics such as the value of indoor training for athletes, creative ways to build volume into your indoor training, and why...

This week, as part of the More Women More Miles series, we welcome coach, professional gravel racer and 10-year Unbound veteran Kristen Legan. Kristen has trained many athletes in their journeys to Unbound Gravel, and as the official Unbound coach she is the mastermind behind the free training plans that are available on the Unbound website. She talks about the overall picture of building a traini...

Putting on a gravel event for thousands of people is no small task. Our guest this week Amy Charity knows that all too well. Amy is at the helm of the GRVL series which hosts gravel races in FNLD GRVL in Lahti Finland, RDL GRVL in Adelaide Australia, as well as SBT GRVL in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. This year their flagship race, SBT GRVL was met with an enormous new challenge as it faced major...

Welcome to our 200th episode! This week Kathryn and Kristi are joined by a very special guest, Heather Jackson. A former professional triathlete, Heather has jumped with both feet into the world of off road racing, claiming impressive results in both gravel cycling AND ultra running. Heather grew up in an athletic family, and her early years in sport were spent on the soccer field and in the ice h...

This week Kathryn and Kristi are joined by Meredith Root of Tactic Nutrition to share some big news for 2025. Girls Gone Gravel will be teaming up with Life Time and Tactic Nutrition to create the More Women More Miles community. This is our way of “keeping our foot on the gas” to make sure that women’s participation in big gravel events continues to grow. As a coach, Meredith explains how importa...

Here we go again with the bombardment of “New Year, New You” ads and messages to “eat this, not that,” or “do this specific workout for 30 days to get amazing abs.” You know the drill and they’re probably in your feed as we speak.  In this first-of-its kind episode, Feisty Media podcast hosts Kathryn Taylor (Girls Gone Gravel), Sara Gross (Women’s Performance Podcast), Kelly O’Mara (If We Wer...

For our final show of 2024, Kathryn and Kristi are joined by return guest Heidi Rentz. Heidi and her partner live in Patagonia, AZ and have been hosting gravel cycling camps and events in the region for over 15 years. They recently launched a new event for 2025, but this time they are breaking out the running shoes! The Daydreamer trail run will be taking place in Patagonia February 27-March 1, 20...

Geerike “Gee” Schruers was a soigneur on the women’s pro tour for over 10 years, taking care of some of the best riders in the world to help them perform at their best. However, last year she was tempted by the growing gravel scene, and made the jump to professional racing herself. Gee joined up with Specialized and is the only Specialized/SD Worx rider that focuses solely on gravel. She tells us...