The Lane 9 Podcast

"You might think, 'On the other side of this, if I'm not even guaranteed better performance, Why would I do it?' That comes down to our values," shares Lane 9 co-founder, and dietitian, Heather Caplan. This Q&A episode tackles two questions:  Is it possible to be 'healthy' even with extremely irregular periods or absent periods, if everything else is going well? Will I recover from REDs and get fa...

"I'd rather suck at running and have my life back," Erin McDonald, who just won the 2025 Detroit Free Press International Half Marathon in 1:16. She objectively does not suck at running, but she does have her life back! Erin McDonald recently opened up about her struggles with restrictive and rigid eating in college as a runner at Michigan State University. She was primed and favored to make natio...

"Athletes aren't immune to that messaging of like, 'carbs are bad, you shouldn't have carbs, and they're the worst thing ever.' But we know that carbs are our body's preferred source of fuel, especially when you're doing these intense bouts of exercise like most athletes are doing," shares sports dietitian Lauren (or Lo) Segal.  Segal is a now in private practice, after almost 10 years of working...

" You can't ultimately control what happens in a race. And so you convince yourself you can, right? Or you tell yourself, well, if I control these other things, I might be able to control what happens in the race."  Stephanie Reents ran for four years on the Amherst College women's Cross Country team in the early 90s, and is the author of "We Loved to Run" her debut novel. Reents wanted there to b...

"I've never had a very lean body type. I kept showing up to these triathlons with lean-looking people and second-guessing if I deserved to be there...then smoking them on the bike and in the run, and gaining that confidence," shares Jess Cerra, a former professional cyclist, a sports nutrition entrepreneur, and now VP of Product and Community Development at Alete Active Nutrition. Cerra joins us t...

"I've found that athletes vastly underestimate their [energy] needs," shares Heather Caplan RDN, co-founder of Lane 9, in this Q&A-style episode.  Listen for this one if you're wondering... How often is it okay to have sweet things/desserts? Is it possible to have REDs without weight loss/changes? Why am I not getting my period back, even though I'm eating a lot more? This one tackles flexibility...

"Once I started to really add fueling into the long runs...I realized how much that was helping the next run," shares Dr. Leah Avery DPT.  Leah Avery DPT was a D1 collegiate swimmer, who qualified for NCAA championships and the Olympic Trials (2008). On paper, her athletic story reads as inspiring and exciting for a young athlete. In reality, it was a pressure-filled struggle to keep up with expec...

"I weighed more as a professional runner than I did in college, and I ran faster as a professional runner," shares sports dietitian Maddie Alm MS RDN.  You might know Maddie Alm from her Instagram account and podcat, Fueling Forward. She started her journey to becoming a registered dietitian after meeting with a sports RDN in college, as a collegiate athlete. In college, she was feeling exhausted...

" When I eventually figured out my food intolerances and a better relationship with fueling, I brought [my marathon PR] down to 2:44 within a little under a year." Jenny Grimshaw, VP of marketing at EQUIP*, and now a 2:36 marathoner, joins us on the Lane 9 podcast. Jenny is also a mom of 2, and navigating prophylactic surgeries to reduce her risk of breast and ovarian cancers (with the BRCA-1 gene...

" I think young people often don't get that chance to like take a step back [from sport] and say like, is this working [for me]?" shares Kaleigh Cornelison, who specializes in working with teens and adolescents.  Kaleigh is a licensed clinical social worker with over 15 years of experience working with teens and the adults who care about them. She leads workshops, creative resources, and writes th...

"There's nothing wrong with getting a little out of shape. It's okay! We shouldn't be in our peak or prime all the time," shares Stevie Lyn Smith, sports dietitian and endurnace athlete. Stevie Lyn Smith is a Registered Sports Dietitian, avid endurance athlete, and dog mom. Her mission is to help educate and coach athletes on how to fuel their goals without sacrificing their health and happiness....

"I was the last [athlete] in my recruiting class by my senior year," shares Asia Rawls, aka Coach Brown Bambi, reflecting on the challenges of collegiate athletics and how she stuck with it.  Rawls competed in multiple events, eventually excelling in the 400m hurdles. She ran for Eastern Michigan University (EMU) under coach Sue Parks. In this episode she shares how running changed her life, from...

" I mean, half of our cross country team in college, I would say had disordered eating," shares Maddie Barrett, of Joyful Run Coaching.  She's a full time running coach, parent, and recently underwent a double-mastectomy. Maddie is part of the Lane 9 Directory, and joined us to talk about her experiences as a young athlete navigating eating disorder treatment, her time as a collegiate skier and ru...

" Eating disorders sometimes even mimic OCD. And by that I mean there is a compulsion that satisfies an obsession or an urge," shares therapist Hannah de Groot, a clinician in private practice at Stride Counseling.  Hannah de Groot is part of the Lane 9 clinician Directory, and joined us to talk about her work in helping athletes navigate symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and eating disord...

" I believed that what it took to get back to where I was year before was I needed to lose weight, so kinda overnight did a whole 180—was restricting food, was counting calories, just kind of trying to lose weight. But it was all under the guise of being dedicated to my sport," shares Kassidy Johnson, now a Division 1 collegiate sports dietitian.  Johnson is not only a helping collegiate athletes...

"... the overwhelming majority of people who identify as women, that run, have at one time had an eating disorder or disordered eating, or at minimum low energy availability. So just assume that 60% of images you saw [on social media] were of someone who is actively not well."  Zoë Rom and Kylee Van Horn RDN join the Lane 9 Podcast with Heather Caplan RDN to talk about why diet culture in running...

" I did have some moments where I questioned if I'd ever be the runner I was [before having a kid]", shares Carly Gill Larios, a 2:42 marathoner.  She joined us for a conversation about her history with disordered eating in high school, the ways in which running was healing for her through her D3 college experience, and what brought her back to running after starting her career in the TV and Film...

" I was not someone that anyone, including myself, would've thought was gonna make an Olympic team one day." Kim Conley is a 2x Olympian in the 5000m, competing in the 2012 London Summer Games and 2016 Rio Summer Games. She has competed in everything from the mile to the marathon. During her debut at the 2016 NYCM she shares how she underfueled and bonked hard. Eventually she teamed up with a spor...

"I think runners specifically are convinced that sh*tting your pants is normal...I see stuff all the time online of people saying, 'Oh, running causes me to have GI issues.' No, running  plus your nutrition is the cause."  Grace Kelley really wants you to be able to run without sh*tting your pants. And she's got the myth-busting reels on Instagram to help! Kelley is a sports dietitian, part of the...

"I saw the tie between, you know, delaying recovery, restricting food and ending up with a bone injury in my foot. And it was part of why I took six years off."  Mary Denholm was a dual-sport athlete in college, competing in ski racing and cross country, track and field. After her first (and so far only) bone injury in college and struggling with restricting food intake, she took a long break from...

" ...definitely we're underrepresented and I think especially with the state of our country and the world now, it can be really scary to put yourself out there." Ari Hendrix is the third fastest US-Born African American marathoner (2:35, CIM 2022), and ran the 2024 US Olympic Team Trials Marathon in 2024. She works for HOKA and lives in Portland with her wife and two dogs.  Ari joined the Lane 9 p...

" We have a lot of work to do to help improve the health of [running] culture, like the basic understanding of what it means to be a healthy runner," shares Renee Hodges DPT.  Renee Hodges is a physical therapist (DPT) based in the Phoenix AZ area, specializing in endurance athletes. As an endurance athlete herself, Hodges shares that she has experienced REDs, low energy availability, overtraining...

" I just needed to do all of those things for myself before I really talked about it publicly. Plus, I was not in a great head space about it at first, as most people aren't with a big injury," says well-known sports dietitian Meghann Featherstun, RDN MS CSSD, in regards to the post where she shared her sacral stress fracture injury at the end of 2024.  Meghann Featherstun, aka "Feathers" (if you'...

" I think I was just trying to make only running work for me and I just am not the kind of person that can only run. I need other things in my life," shares Jess McClain, who most recently finished 7th overall and first American across the finish line at the 2025 Boston Marathon, in 2:22:43, a 3-minute personal best.  Jess McClain is professional marathoner for Brooks Running. In 2024, she placed...

"My big fear with all of this is the trickle down," Dr. Sasha Gollish joins us on the episode, to chat about her work in Gender Equity in sport, her time as a professional runner for team Canada, how she knew she was in perimenopause, and much more. Gollish ran at a younger age, but took some time off and worked as an engineer in Toronto before getting back to the sport at a high level. We talk ab...