RunnersConnect Run to the Top Podcast

In today’s episode, we’re going to drill down on one critical micronutrient that is essential to humans in the right dose, highly toxic in the wrong dose, and one that many runners are chronically deficient in and that is iron. To help explain the unique role of iron in runners, I invited Dr Mike Zourdos and Dr Sara Mahoney on the Run to the Top.  Mike and Sara have studied the role of iron in mar...

Up to 50% of runners will suffer an injury in any given year and one of the most severe and common injuries is a stress fracture. Because treatment for a stress fracture will require a significant amount of time off your feet, you’ll want to become aware of this risk to runners and start work on prevention now to avoid ever getting a fracture in the first place. And if you’ve already suffered from...

If you’ve run long enough or are just starting your journey, you probably have a Iove/hate relationship with running.  Running long distances is wonderful and completely irrational at the same time. To help me explore the delightful and nonsensical sport that we all love to hate, I invited author and ultrarunner Brendan Leonard on the Run to the Top. Brendan is a freelance writer and illustrator w...

Many people want to lose weight with running.   While the benefits of running can go far beyond losing a few pounds, running can be a fantastic part of your strategy to get in the best shape of your life. So why is it that runners come in all shapes and sizes?  If running is so good for weight loss, why aren’t all runners perfectly trim and lean?  And what about those stories that you hear of peop...

Hydration and Fueling For Endurance Performance Series, Part Two: The EXACT Fueling and Hydration Secrets from the Best Endurance Athletes with Abby Coleman Learn exactly how the best endurance athletes in the world are fueling and hydrating with sports scientist, Abby Coleman.  Abby is part of the team at Precision Hydration and she has helped create and analyze the strategies of top Ironman perf...

Welcome to Part One of our two part series on Hydration and Fueling for Endurance Performance.  In this episode we’ll talk about how to craft your perfect hydration plan and on Part Two, we’ll learn the exact fueling and hydration strategies of some of the best endurance athletes in the world.  Be sure that you are subscribed to the Run to the Top so you don’t miss out on a single episode! Ah, sum...

Your spine starts showing signs of aging at age 20.  Is too much running putting it at more risk? We talk about the spine a lot to our athletes. Your posture and spinal mobility are huge players in good running form, which allow you to run faster and longer with less effort.  Flexibility in the thoracic spine in particular allows you to run light and tall, as well as makes more room for lungs to f...

The instinct to run hard from the start is something that is tough to unlearn. That’s why you so often see new runners, and even experienced runners do this in workouts and races:  they start off too fast and at some point, dramatically and disappointingly slow down, finishing far slower than their potential. But there is a proven race strategy that race after race produces far better results. It’...

Is a lack of great sleep ruining our lives and our running?  Claire wanted to find out, so she invited sleep expert Dr Shelby Harris on the show to talk about it. Dr. Harris is the former director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center at Montefiore Medical Center.  Now in private practice in White Plains, NY, she treats a wide variety of sleep disorders such a...

Summer is officially here in the Northern Hemisphere and while longer days leave lots more time for running, the sun, heat and humidity can make running miserable.   But unless you’d like to spend the season on a treadmill in the air-conditioning, learning to adapt to the heat is your best option. The good news is that all your sweaty work this summer will pay off with faster times in the fall, wh...

Matt Frazier is a vegan ultramarathoner, author, and entrepreneur, best known as the founder of the No Meat Athlete movement and host of the No Meat Athlete Radio podcast. Matt found he could run longer and faster with the help of a plant-based diet, and shortly after adopting a plant-based diet, Matt qualified for the Boston Marathon after taking over 100 minutes off his first marathon time. He h...

Have you ever experienced painful leg cramping late in a race? Coach Claire goes into the science of leg cramping.  This episode will equip you with an action plan that you can start today to cramp-proof your legs, so you can crush your next race, cramp-free. And she does it with a little help from her running mentor, Coach Jeff Gaudette, 2:22 marathoner and founder of RunnersConnect.net. Coach Je...

What if I told you that there was a simple way to improve your muscular endurance, reduce your respiratory rate when running, reduce the production of lactic acid, slash your cortisol build up in half, allowing for faster recovery times after every run?  I bet you’d be all over it, right?  And then you might be asking, what’s the catch? My guest today is Dr Dena Garner and she’s spent the last 17...

Having a solid fueling plan for the marathon can make the difference between a great race and a disaster.  But how do you know what to eat, how much to eat, and when? Coach Claire Bartholic explains exactly how much runners need to take in before and during the marathon.  She talks what you should be doing in the days before the race to top off your muscles' storage of glycogen, what you should ea...

Are you ready to be inspired? And maybe have some fun while we are at it?  Then this is the episode for you. For most of us, qualifying for the Olympics is a completely unrelateable accomplishment, right?  Well how about qualifying for FIVE of them? Abdi Abdirahman is the only American distance runner to qualify for five Olympic Games. At age 44, Abdi is also the oldest American runner to qualify...

Do you want to know the number one way to get faster as a runner? SLOW DOWN! Yes, it seems like the opposite of what you want to do to improve, but it's absolutely true . In this bonus episode of the Run to the Top, Coach Claire Bartholic will explain the science behind aerobic development and recovery and why slow, easy runs are the most beneficial. Not only that, but she describes exactly HOW to...

Accurate nutrition information for runners can get pretty murky out there.   It can be tough to figure out what’s really important  and really, what’s even true. And that’s why I’ve brought on Meghann Featherstun who’s going to give it to us straight.  Meghann is a registered dietitian and board-certified specialist in sports dietetics at  Featherstone Nutrition – which means she’s an expert in sp...

On this bonus Run to the Top, we are going to talk about racing, and specifically over-racing.  That’s when you are racing so often that it’s actually hurting your progress as a runner. Now you might be wondering why I chose this topic, over-racing, right now just as some races are finally coming back after the pandemic.  But that’s EXACTLY why I think this is the perfect topic right now.   Races...

Can new tech in your shoe change the way you run for the better?    We are all used to our watches telling us how fast (or slow) we are, counting our heartbeats, our footsteps,  or even telling us how much recovery we need (or trying to anyway!) But now there is technology that can tell us even more.  New wearables can give us some clues to our own unique running form so we can better understand w...

Can you run a specific workout pace on feel alone?  Without looking at your watch?  Tempo runs, steady runs, threshold runs, VO2 max workouts...they all have a "feel" to them and if you can learn how to pace them properly without being a slave to your watch, you can become a better, more adaptable runner. On this bonus episode of the Run to the Top, Coach Claire Bartholic introduces Laurie, a Runn...

Lindsey Bomgren from Nourish Move Love is a super fit Minnesota trainer and creator of amazing and free YouTube strength videos.  While they are not marketed as “runners’ workouts” they are the exact same exercises that Coach Claire prescribes to athletes because they are classic strength moves that build better runners.  But Lindsey just does them better. Lindsey is a certified personal trainer a...

The RunnersConnect family has grown!  We welcomed a brand new expert coach to our staff this year and I’d like to introduce you to her. Andie Cozzarelli is a 2:38 marathoner, semi-pro athlete from Raleigh, NC.  She ran in college at North Carolina State, becoming a 2 time All-American in the 10k and joined Oiselle after college. She qualified for the 2016 Olympic Trials in the Marathon with a half...

If you think running a single marathon is tough, get ready to be inspired by Jocelyn Rivas. Jocelyn is on a mission to not just run 100 marathons, but break the Guinness World Records (plural) for being the youngest person to run 100 marathons AND the youngest woman to run 100 marathons AND the youngest Latina to run 100 marathons. Whew! At age 24, Jocelyn already has 82 marathons behind her, many...

Tianna Bartoletta is one of the best sprinters in the world, and she’s on hand to teach all of us, even the endurance runners, what we can learn from short distance running. Really short. For most of us, a sprint is less than 20 seconds, which is the distance short enough to reach your top speed completely anaerobically, or without needing oxygen for fuel.  Past this point, your lungs scream for o...

You probably know that strength training can help a runner minimize injuries but what about plyometrics or jump training? Do runners really need plyometrics? Wouldn’t that lead to more injuries? Dr. Duane Scotti thinks the opposite is true. Dr. Duane Scotti, DPT, PhD, OCS is a running physical therapist, run coach, host of the Healthy Runner podcast, and founding owner of SPARK Physical Therapy, a...