Most Pleasant Exhaustion

This week, we unveil a new segment as Erik tells us about a recent trail run. We also talk about a lot of recent race results, Pam Reed's 100th 100-mile race, George's penchant for flagging people on Strava, and our takeaways from some of the stats in the 2020 Global Runner Survey.

This week, we talked about runners Keith Gill and Mariko Yugeta, and we discussed some recent research on the relative benefits of moderate endurance exercise versus high-intensity training. As we often do, we also circled back to several topics such as the new carbon-plated shoes from The North Face, George's ever-changing race schedule, power and running, our book of the quarter, and the common...

This week, we touched a wide range of issues, including some interesting insights based on "big data" gathered from Strava, Michael Ortiz's completion of his "Game of Hundos," Jim Walmsley's attempt at the 100K world record, the jammed fall marathon schedule, and some new carbon-plated trail shoes.

This week, we picked up where we left off last week talking about running power, using Michelle's recent workout as an entry point. We also talked about whether George should race an ultra after a serious dog bite, the highlights of Strava's year-end data summary, and whether we think the Tokyo Olympics are going to happen this summer.

It's tech week on the podcast! This week, we talked about running power. Power has been an extremely useful and influential measurement in cycling, and there has consequently been an effort to create a metric for running that can do the same thing. Join us as we talk about what running power is, how it could be useful, how it's measured, and some of the flaws that we see in it.

This week, George, Michelle, and Erik discussed how they first got started in endurance sports, the hurdles they have faced along the way, and how they managed to get re-started when they got off track. We also announced the book that we're reading together for the first quarter, as well as a few other changes we're looking to make on the podcast in 2021.

This week, we present a massive year-end podcast that not only has all four podcast regulars--Michelle, Erik, Patrick, and George--but also several of the guests that we hosted on the podcast this year. We considered two questions: our favorite races of the year and our biggest takeaways from 2020. We had a fun and interesting conversation about where we are at the end of the unique and difficult...

In this week's episode, we talked a lot about The Marathon Project and a little bit about PTO Daytona. Both were unique races, and we may or may not get to see more of these sorts of races once the pandemic is done.

Race reports are a rarity in 2020, but this week, we were able to bring you one. Addie Wetzels, a first-time Ironman, competed in Ironman Cozumel in late November. We spoke with him a few days before he left for the race about his preparation for the race, and we caught up with him a few days after he finished to hear about how the race went.

Wondering what to get for the endurance athlete in your life? Erik, George, and Michelle have some gift ideas! This week, we offered a few general suggestions for those who are looking for something special during the upcoming holiday season.

This week is our first in a monthly series that we'll be doing on tech and gear for endurance athletes. Our resident guru is Erik Hall, who was originally with us back on Episode 127. This week, Erik addresses two burning questions: what was going on with Michelle's watch during her pacing that half-marathon last week, and what shoes should George wear for his trail 50K in January? Tune in this we...

In this week's episode, we caught up on the latest ways that endurance athletes like us are finding ways to race, including a race report on Ironman Florida from Charlie "Sprinkles" Holder. We talked about the end of the cycling season, Tierney Wolfgram's new record, the Marathon Project, DesTober, and how this week's announcement about a potential Covid-19 vaccine is influencing our thinking abou...

Given the attention that plant-based diets have received lately, George decided to go without animal products for five weeks in August and September. This week, we brought on vegetarian Kacie Darden and vegan Lauren Fogarty to talk about the reasons for going without animal products and the challenges that such a commitment presents.

This week, we were really excited to have Katie Arnold, author of Running Home, on the podcast to discuss her writing and running. If you've been reading the book over the past few weeks, you know that it's thoughtful and well-written, and we had a wide-ranging conversation with Katie about some of the big ideas. And of course, we asked her about her 2018 Leadville 100 win!

This week, we talked about Michelle's experience running the Virtual Boston Marathon, and George's experience with the 2020 Blue Ridge Relay! The lead-in, the weather, the performance, the aftermath . . . it's all here.

This week, we answered the questions that folks sent in. Need more details on Michelle's injury? On Patrick's base training? On why teams matter in the Tour de France? What an in-person race needs to do to be safe? Michelle's favorite workout? The difference between "old school coaches" and "new school coaches?" We get to all of that this week.

This week, Justin Schmidt and Justin Dugan joined us to talk about the Tour de France! We discussed the context in which the race is happening--almost two months later than usual!--the course, and the contenders.

This week, we talked about Joshua Cheptegei's new world record in the men's 5000m, some misleading headlines about gaiters, and a mind-blowing challenge taken on by Michael Ortiz that is nearing completion.

July saw an explosion of activity in the endurance sports world. There were virtual races, time-trials, Everesting, inter- and intrasquad meets, and more, and a lot of folks accomplished some really incredible things! We review our favorites this week, and we introduced our new book club book!

This week, Patrick, George, and Michelle discussed The Happy Runner by Megan and David Roche. We selected this book a couple of months ago with the help of our listeners, and we had a lot to say about it this week. Did you read it? If so, let us know what you thought! And let us know what you think of our thoughts!!

The head of Peak Racing, Tony Hammett, joined us this week to give us the race director's perspective on restarting the race season. Peak normally has fifteen races a year, and in 2020, they've only been able to have one. Tony shared with us his priorities and plans for the latter half of the year. We also discussed the big news out of New York and Berlin, and we talked a bit more about athletes t...

The last couple of weeks have seen a return to racing, but events are definitely not what they were prior to COVID-19. This week, we talked about a few of those events, and guest Katie Bennett told us how things looked at a recent trail race. We also checked in on the book we're all reading--Happy Runner by Megan and David Roche--and talked a bit about vRAAM. Thanks for listening!

After Ahmaud Arbery was killed while running, many endurance athletes began to consider the privilege they have that affords them the ability to run without worrying about being shot. As our community wrestles with this issue, we brought Dr. Brandon Lewis on the podcast to talk a bit about what privilege is and how it works.

For this episode of the podcast, Michelle and George were joined by Dara Steele-Belkin and Eric Letbetter. All four of us were supposed to run the 2020 Boston Marathon, but each of us followed different paths to our race entry. Dara was poised to compete in her tenth straight Boston Marathon, and Eric was just preparing for his first. We discussed our feelings about the initial postponement of the...

This week, George was joined by experienced cyclists Chrissy Blaisdell Oyler and Ben Holliday to talk about a few of the different platforms athletes can use to train on the bike indoors. Over the last two months, the panelists rode on Rouvy, Zwift, TrainerRoad, Bkool, Sufferfest, and Fulgaz, and we offered here the strengths and weaknesses of each platform. We also discussed what you should take...