Real Life Runners with Angie and Kevin Brown

Gain access to my new secret podcast, Unbreakable: The Runner's Guide To Injury-Proofing Your Body After 40. Click here: https://www.realliferunners.com/secret Join the Team! -->  https://www.realliferunners.com/team   Thanks for Listening!! Be sure to hit FOLLOW on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or your favorite podcast player  Leave a review on Apple Podcasts . Your ratings and reviews reall...

We've all been there before.  Whether we are at the start of our fitness journey or we have fallen off the wagon, we all have been faced with trying to start or restart a healthy habit.  We know we need to exercise, but how do we make it a normal part of our day that we don't even have to think about? Enter in The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.  This latest read explains the science b...

We've all heard it before: to lose weight, we need to burn more calories than we consume.  We need to eat less and exercise more, right?  We gain weight because we eat too much, have lack of self-control, and just don't exercise enough.  Wrong!   Weight control is about so much more than just calories in-calories out.  Sure, calorie restriction plans can work in the short term, but then...

A few episodes ago, we talked about the benefits of a training plan, and there are a lot!  However, today we look at the other side.  Are there negatives of following a training plan, and if so, what are they?   Well, the first is that training plans don't always take into account our real life.  Stuff happens.  We are under a lot of stress, we get sick, kids get sick, family drama, lack of s...

There are two main ways that people start on their running journey: on a team or as an individual.  Kevin started off on the cross country team in high school and has transitioned into solo running throughout the years.  On the other hand, Angie started off solo and has recently started running and training with a group.   This week, we talk about some of the pros and cons of running with a group,...

 The mental aspect of competition often takes a backseat to making sure that you have racked up the miles of preparation.  In this episode, we cover one of the worst outcomes of any race...choking.  We spend some time going into the nuances of another chapter out of Matt Fitzgerald's book  How Bad Do You Want It?  to dive into the details of what choking is and how to avoid this terrible race...

Technology has paved the way for huge advancements in running.  While not many are going to argue the benefits of shoe updates and wicking fibers, the picture becomes a little less clear when you look at activity trackers and phone apps.  Have we become so dependent on technology that we are missing the human component of running and training?    Today we will talk about:  What is the point of hea...

Running is bad for your knees, right?  That's what we all hear from everyone around us that doesn't run, but is it true?  Today, we get a little medical, and talk about a condition that plagues a LOT of runners: knee pain.   Here's the spoiler: Running is NOT bad for your knees, when done correctly.  Unfortunately, knee pain does tend to affect a lot of runners, so we are here today...

Gain access to my new secret podcast, Unbreakable: The Runner's Guide To Injury-Proofing Your Body After 40. Click here: https://www.realliferunners.com/secret Join the Team! -->  https://www.realliferunners.com/team   Thanks for Listening!! Be sure to hit FOLLOW on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or your favorite podcast player  Leave a review on Apple Podcasts . Your ratings and reviews reall...

Goal setting: It's something that we know we should do, but do we always do it?  And if we do, are we setting effective and appropriate goals that are pushing us to succeed or setting us up for failure? When we look at our lives and want to improve our health, our running, or just our life in general, we should be setting goals.  In this episode, you will learn:  What are 3 big challenges whe...

What the heck is periodization of training?  It's a fun vocabulary word that refers to cycling your training plan.  If you are shooting for a goal race, or if you just want to keep improving and getting faster, training cycles are very important.   Macro cycles are the big chunks of your training plan that have one goal in mind, like one season of the year.  Micro cycles are the weeks within...

In a world of distracted drivers and stories of runners being hurt, thinking about running safety is now more important than ever.  We tell you all about why this has become very important to us recently, with the development of a new medical condition.  In this episode, we talk about running safety, especially the topics of:  How to stay safe when running in the dark What gear is important for ni...

In case you hadn't heard, Kevin and Angie are high school cross country coaches.  Kevin has been coaching for over 10 years, and Angie joined the team a few years ago.  We just got back from the state championship last weekend, so we wanted to think about what lessons we have learned over the course of the season and figure out ways to improve next year.   Anytime we train, we should always t...

What is effort-based running and what are the pros and cons?  We break it down for you in this episode.  There is definitely a good time and place for effort-based training and times when pace-driven training is more appropriate.   In this episode you will learn:  What is effort-based running? The different levels of effort-based running What level most of your training should be in The purpose of...

What is clean eating?  It's definitely a buzz word now and has become much more mainstream, but what exactly is it? In this episode, we walk you through what clean eating is and why it is so important.  We tell you why we got into this whole thing, and share a little of our personal story as parents and as a person with ulcerative colitis.  Kevin will share what changing his diet has helped h...

We all want to feel better while we run, and running does not have to be a chore!  Today, we discuss three things that you can start focusing on today to make your running feel better and be more efficient!   What are these three magic things, you wonder?  Listen to this one to find out.  As always, we give you actionable steps to take to make a few adjustments, as well as the research and experie...

Some of the most common questions that we get asked are about running shoes.  What kind of shoes do we wear?  What kind of shoes should I wear?  My friend likes this type of running shoe; would that be good for me?  I was told I have flat feet, so what kind of running shoe should I buy? In this episode, we talk about the different kinds of running shoes, how to figure out what type of shoe to wear...

For a new series of episodes, we will be discussing Matt Fitzgerald's new book, How Bad Do You Want It? Spoiler alert:  We loved it.  Matt breaks down a very important topic in sports psychology: how our brain mind can either improve or inhibit our running and athletic performance.   Until about the 1990s, sports performance research was limited to the physical domain.  In other words, what p...

In this episode, we continue to tell you a little bit more about who we are and how we got to where we are today.  We both have very different stories and running journeys and are very different runners, but we also have a lot in common.  We both have a love for running (which was not always the case!) that is constantly challenging us to be better versions of ourselves.   Angie started out like a...

So you might be asking yourself, who are these two and why do they have this podcast? Today, we will tell you a little more about Kevin and his running journey, including the set-backs and struggles that have made him into the runner he is today. He chronicles the phases that he has gone through in his running so far and what he has learned along the way. Hope you enjoy it! Stay tuned to learn mor...

STRENGTH TRAINING: Why is it important for runners and what are some key exercises to focus on? In this episode, we dive into strength training for runners: the why, what, and how.  There has been a big push in the running community towards strength training as a regular part of our running routine, and there’s many good reasons why this is happening!  As runners, we like to run, but we can’t forg...

So, what’s the deal with carbo loading?  Is it what we should be doing as runners?  If so, what’s the best (and worst way to do it?)   Then there’s the new buzz in the running community about fat-adapted training, ketogenic diets, and becoming a “fat-adapted” athlete (or person in general).  What’s that all about? There are a lot of runners out there that have the mindset, “I run a bunch, so I can...

Hey there!  Thanks so much for tuning in to our first episode of the Real Life Runners podcast! In this episode, we dig into the concept of quality vs. quantity, and how that topic can relate to running, our health, and our relationships.  It’s a topic of debate in all of these areas, so we break it down and give you actionable steps to improve each area today! RUNNING Most training plans are brok...