Legwork

A practical look at how music affects running performance, from cadence and perceived effort to mood, motivation, and the messy science behind your favorite pump song. Narrative Summary A playlist can feel like a secret weapon, a pacer, a distraction, or a trap. One song can settle you down. Another can make you surge too early. A beat can pull your stride into rhythm without you realizing it. Mat...

A deep dive into the physiology, psychology, and pacing science behind negative splitting in track and road racing, and why the fastest times are often run by athletes willing to start slower to finish stronger. Episode Description: It’s one of running’s oldest pieces of advice and one of its least trusted: don’t go out too fast. Yet every race morning, thousands of runners surge through the openi...

A practical course strategy for Boston that covers race-day logistics, pacing, hills, and fueling, so you don’t give your race away before Heartbreak Hill. The Boston Marathon itself doesn’t test how fit you are. It tests how well you understand what you’re stepping into. It tests how well you can plan and prepare. The course gives you just enough early to make you believe you’re having a great da...

A focused guide to using heat training during winter—why it works, what adaptations you’re actually chasing, and how to implement sauna, hot water immersion, or layering protocols safely and strategically. Heat training is usually framed as something you do before a hot race. But the physiological adaptations don’t care what month it is. Plasma volume expansion, improved thermal regulation, and ca...

Always training, never improving? How periodization fixes your running by helping you plan an entire season, not just the next race. Most runners know how to train for a race. Far fewer know how to train for a season . Trusting that a more holistic approach to your training over a year, can be daunting, but it doesn't have to be. This episode examines why so many runners feel stuck in a cycle...

A live conversation with Nick Thompson on curiosity, endurance, and a complicated relationship with both a father and the simplest of sports: running. This conversation between Nick Thompson and David Alm, a Brooklyn-based journalist, professor, and runner, offers a window to Nick’s process in writing The Running Ground , and to the people, stories, and moments that made it into the final draft an...

From trial and error to precision, this episode unpacks why knowing how salty a sweater you are can unlock better fueling, hydration, and performance. Episode Description:  Most runners know when their legs are tired, when their heart rate is higher than they'd like, and when their watch disagrees with reality, but far fewer know what’s actually happening in their sweat. And yet, hidden in those g...

A clear, grounded look at strength training for runners—what to do, how to start, and why the gym doesn’t need to feel overwhelming. Strength training is supposed to make running feel better—stronger legs, sturdier tendons, fewer injuries. But for a lot of runners, it does the opposite: it sparks stress, uncertainty, and that familiar urge to skip the gym entirely. The machines look confusing, the...

How to taper with confidence and pace your best NYC Marathon, mile after mile. You’ve done the training for the NYC Marathon. Now comes the hardest part—trusting yourself. The taper and pacing strategy often get too little attention, too late. We set time goals, have a rough pace in mind, and let it rip. But if we don’t approach the start line with intention, we risk losing the discipline that get...

Bakline’s guide to tackling the TCS NYC Marathon—section by section, from the Verrazzano to Central Park. It starts early—hours before the start gun—with runners moving through the slow ritual of getting to Staten Island. The ferry’s crowded and buzzing, the buses crawl through traffic, and everyone’s half awake, half anxious, wondering if they packed enough snacks. It’s all part of the race befor...

A practical framework for fueling that explores the history and science of race nutrition to help you understand the products on the shelf, turning confusion into confidence. It starts with a wall of brightly colored gels and drink mixes, each promising endurance in a pouch. Runners swear by their favorites, but few can explain why they work—or don’t. Matt and Molly pull back the curtain on the sc...

More than America’s oldest ultramarathon, the JFK 50 endures because of the kindness, community, and love that Mike Spinnler has nurtured across generations. Most races don’t last six decades. Every November, the JFK 50 unfolds across the Appalachian Trail, a canal towpath, and country roads as a 50-mile test that has become the oldest continuously running ultramarathon in the United States. But w...

A practical guide to hiring a running coach — when to seek one, how to choose and work with one confidently, and why they can make all the difference. Most runners think about hiring a coach only when they’re chasing a big PR or a major race. But the reality is that coaching isn’t just for elites, and it isn’t just about getting faster. The right coach at the right time can help you break through...

A practical guide to heat training for endurance runners —why it works, the science behind it, and how to apply protocols to boost performance year-round. Most non-elite endurance athletes are leaving performance gains on the table. Heat training—often dismissed as something you only do before a hot race—is one of the most misunderstood and underutilized tools in the sport. Done right, it can boos...

Title IX changed the game—but it also came with a cost. In this episode of Legwork , we sit down with Vanessa Fuchs, CEO of WeCOACH, to unpack why the number of women in coaching roles plummeted after the passage of Title IX, particularly in running sports like cross country and track—and how WeCOACH is working to reverse that trend. From the impact of mentorship and representation to the systemic...

In this episode of Legwork , Matt and Molly go beyond the numbers to unpack what makes a training plan actually work—and why most of them miss the mark for the average runner. Built as a companion to our in-depth blog series on the Bakline site, this episode is a practical and honest guide to evaluating your plan, understanding the purpose behind workouts, and making modifications that are both sm...

00:00 Introduction to Fast Women and Alison Wade 05:34 The Evolution of Alison's Relationship with Running 07:52 The Impact of Community and Connection in Running 10:19 Exploring the Podcasting Journey 12:12 The Challenges and Opportunities Women Face In Coaching Especially In Collegiate Levels 21:35 The Growth of Women in Professional Coaching 27:26 Editorial Changes in the Fast Women Newsletter...

00:00 Questions We Ponder 00:51 What is podcast Legwork all about, and what types of conversations will we have? 01:26 What does every episode of Legwork aim to achieve? 02:03 When and where can you listen to Legwork? Every runner has had questions they didn't know exactly how to how do I evaluate a training plan actually life? What's the smartest way to in the heat? How do I get myself mentally t...