Running Lean

It’s that time of the year again! The kids are out of school, the weather is amazing, and you are going on vacation. But you might be worried because in the past, going on vacation meant going off the rails. You’re on vacation so you just want to have fun, right? You deserve to live a little! If this means coming home 10lbs heavier and hating yourself…is it really all that fun? In this episode of...

For a lot of runners, the off-season can be a challenging time. You’ve finished your races, the next training cycle won’t start for another 4-6 weeks, and you might feel like you’re in limbo until then. Here’s the thing, the way you approach the off-season is just as important as the training season itself. It’s so important that what you do in the off-season can often make or break your nex...

One of the big keys to achieving anything significant in your life – losing weight and keeping it off, running a marathon – is confidence. Being confident that you can accomplish something big will make that accomplishment practically inevitable. The opposite is also true however – a severe lack of confidence will make it basically impossible to reach that big goal. So how do you...

This past weekend was the biggest running event of the year here in Cincinnati – Flying Pig Weekend! I did a lot of racing this weekend and let’s just say that things did not all go as planned. But despite dealing with some very challenging situations, the whole weekend was a huge success, both for the city and for me personally. Today on the podcast, I share my experiences in dealing with a...

How are your stress levels these days? About 80% of Americans say they feel some degree of stress in their daily lives. Of course, some feel stress more often than others, but the fact is, we are a stressed-out society. Not dealing with stress can have all kinds of health and wellness implications including weight gain, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, depression, and a host of other i...

We’re in the middle of the Spring racing season here in the US and a lot of runners ask me questions about pacing for their upcoming race. Should you start slow and then try to finish fast? Should you start fast and try to make up some time for when you inevitably slow down at the end of a race? Should you focus on your heart rate? Your cadence? Your current pace or average pace? Believe it or not...

One of the most powerful things you can do to improve your health and fitness is to regularly push past your comfort zone. This might seem obvious to you and pretty basic, but it’s an area where most people really struggle. The idea of getting uncomfortable is easy to understand, and most people say they’re more than willing to get uncomfortable. But when they come face-to-face with their own disc...

17 years ago I finally made the decision to give up drinking alcohol. This was not a decision that came quickly or easily, I had been drinking daily for many, many years. I got to a point where my life was not what I wanted it to be. I wanted more for myself and alcohol was standing between me and the person I ultimately wanted to be. So today on the podcast, how I experienced freedom from alcohol...

There’s a lot of interesting food advice being given out these days by health and fitness “experts.” One in particular that has stood out to me lately goes something like, “Take a few days each week and go crazy! Eat whatever you want! You don’t want to be too restrictive with your diet!” I’ve done a lot of thinking about this idea, in fact, I even tried it…for a while. I’ve learned a lot about th...

Have you ever found yourself at the end of a sleeve of Oreos or at the bottom of a bag of potato chips and thought…did I really just eat all that? I know I have…and too many times to count! If so, then you have probably been doing some mindless eating. Mindless eating is something we have all done at one point or another, and it’s something you can absolutely change. You don’t have to continue to...

If you’ve ever trained for a marathon then you know that sacrifices have to be made in order to achieve that goal. You have to put in a lot of hours on the weekends running in the cold. You have to give up time with your family and friends. You endure sore legs for days and you’re tired all the time. You are more than willing to sacrifice these things in order to run that race. How about when it c...

A lot of runners are told not to lose weight while training for a race. There are many reasons why they are given this advice (which I cover in today’s episode), but I don’t necessarily agree with all of it. I believe there’s a right way and a wrong way to lose weight as a runner, even when you’re training for an event like a half or full marathon. In this episode of the Running Lean podcast, can...

If you’ve ever changed your eating habits or started exercising on the weekends instead of partying, and your friends have told you that you’re boring then this episode is for you. Every day I talk to people who want to lose weight and improve their health and fitness and one of the reasons they struggle is because it all seems so boring. They don’t want to give up their exciting...

If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you probably already know that you have to change your diet. This is obvious and we all know this, but that’s where most people stop. They change their diet and they see some results but it rarely lasts because they’ve only changed their behavior, not the thinking that drives the behavior. They keep slipping back into old eating patterns because they hav...

Whether you are just getting into running or have been at it a while, you should be actively working on improving your endurance. While there are many methods out there that are designed to help you improve your endurance, there are a few key principles that most runners overlook. So today on the podcast, I share 5 ways to improve your endurance to help you run longer and make running easier in ge...

As runners, we’ve been told over the last 40 years or so that the only way to fuel for running is with carbohydrates. Loads and loads of carbs. Eat lots of carbs every day, carb load the day before you run, carb up in the morning pre-run, consume ample carbs during the run, and then of course you’ll want some carbs for recovery after your run. This has been the standard approach since the 80s but...

Recently I spent a week on vacation and decided to change my diet a bit. I made the decision to eat more freely, to enjoy some of the amazing local food, to eat dessert, bread, pastries, and generally be a bit less strict about my diet. It was definitely an interesting experience and I learned some very valuable lessons along the way. In this episode, it’s all the lessons learned from vacation eat...

Being overweight is not something that’s not talked about very much (or at all) in the running community. There seems to be some stigma around being a runner and being overweight. Like you’re not running enough, or you’re somehow doing it wrong if you’re training for a marathon and you’re overweight. I know exactly how this feels. In this episode, I’ll share why running is not a...

If you’re a runner and interested in getting the most out of your training, then you’ve probably tried a multitude of supplements. There are literally thousands upon thousands of health and wellness supplements on the market today and around 1,000 new ones are introduced every single year. So if you are feeling a little confused and overwhelmed by all of these options, you are not alone! Today on...

When it comes to eating right and losing weight, there is so much information out there that it can feel incredibly overwhelming. While I can’t address every misconception out there on the internet here in one podcast episode, I do want to go over a few things you might want to stop doing right now. Because sometimes the best way to start… is to stop! So in this episode, I’ve got 3 things you shou...

There are a lot of dieticians and weight loss coaches out there who preach the benefits of tracking your food. They suggest tracking every bite you eat, entering all of your food into an app each day, and then sticking to this routine for…basically…ever. I’m not a big fan of this approach for many reasons which I will share with you here on today’s podcast! Today on the Running Lean podcast, I ans...

It’s a new year and a time when a lot of people become ultra-focused on health, fitness, and losing weight. It’s also a time when a lot of people will try some new fad diet or a new exercise routine that promises instant weight loss with minimal effort. I’m definitely not going to do that here today since I’m a big fan of the slow and steady approach to losing weight. In this episode, Common Weigh...

There are basically two ways to approach any challenge. One way is to focus on all the reasons why you can’t do it. The other way is to focus on all the reasons why you can. I find it interesting that so many people choose option one when facing anything challenging in their life. They spend a lot of time and energy focusing on why they can’t do it. Today, talk about why you do this, how this kind...

Most people spend a great deal of time thinking about the past. They ruminate over things they did that they regret doing. They replay situations over and over and wish they’d handled things differently. They focus all of their energy on past events and spend zero time or energy on their future. This is a mistake. Why? Because you can’t change the past, it’s over and done with. But you can 100% ch...

If you want to accomplish a big goal, the key to getting there is consistency. You have to take aligned action and continue to take it over and over and over until you eventually reach that goal. The problem is, that most people don’t stick with something long enough to see the end result! They get off track somewhere along the way and usually end up staying off track. Getting off track is not the...