The MicroCast

MicroCAST: Hosted by Coaches TJ David and Zoë Rom. On today's episode we cover hot or not topics: -Minimalist Shoes -Backyard Ultras -Sweat Tests -Blood Test Then, we dive into some reflections on the epic weekend our team and community had at the Run Rabbit Run ultras in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. As the conversion progresses, Coach Zoë recaps her day at the race, where she placed 7th and w...

MicroCAST: Hosted by Coaches TJ David and Zoë Rom. On today's episode we cover hot or not topics: -Toe Socks -Carbon Shoes -Out and Backs -Being a Brand Ambassador We also talk about a few of our favorite shows and movies of late: The Bear, La La Land. And how they paint important narratives about the importance of relationships in going for big dream goals, the coach-athlete relationship, non...

Today's chat, hosted by ⁠⁠⁠TJ David⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Zoë Rom⁠⁠⁠ takes a reverse course, starting with six Hot or Not Topics: UTMB, UTMB Theme Music, Ice baths, Hot tubs, World Championships, and Writing a Book. Then we get into a discussion around Coach Zoë's new book, which she co-authored with Tine Muir, "Becoming a Sustainable Runner." In this conversation, we touch on some of the im...

Today's chat, hosted by ⁠⁠⁠TJ David⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Zoë Rom⁠⁠⁠ takes a reverse course, starting with six Hot or Not Topics: Caffeinated gels, Mash potatoes, Magnesium, Hot tubs, International racing and Running alone. Then we get into TJ's race at the Leadville 100, touching on some fun takeaways from the race and TJ's perspective on how this will impact his coaching. We finish off the call...

On today's Call, Coaches TJ David and Zoë Rom dive into dealing with uncertainty, and offer some grounding tools and techniques to help athletes who might be feeling anxiety about a life event, training or an upcoming race. Coaches TJ and Zoë also dive into training when sick, and offer some practice solutions and takeaways for athletes to think about when making adjustments for training due t...

Today's chat, hosted by  ⁠⁠TJ David⁠⁠  and  ⁠⁠Zoë Rom⁠⁠  dives into the biggest obstacles we've faced in our running journeys and how we dealt with them. Plus, we talk about working remote, getting vulnerable around a big book tour, and training while traveling. This episode is packed with takeaways for athletes of all levels, and wraps up with some hot or not questions that touch on our p...

Today's chat, hosted by  ⁠TJ David⁠  and  ⁠Zoë Rom⁠  dives into the challenges of covering a super long, remote and technical race like the Hard Rock 100. The challenges of running a business and the constant work it takes to learn, adapt and be open to change. We take inspiration from NF's song, "Hope" and talk about what it means to us, while also reflecting back on "Champ...

Today's chat, hosted by  TJ David  and  Zoë Rom  dives into the San Juan Summer Solstice 50 miler, recapping the event and Coach Z's process oriented goals for the day. We talk specifically about her goal to dictate the race from the start and later tie that into "The Champions" mindset- Champions aren't afraid to lose, and that's what makes them so dangerous! As the conv...

We have a special guest this week, coach Kristen Schindler ! Not only has Kristen been a long-term coach at microcosm, helping scores of athletes accomplish their big dreams each week, Kristen is also an accomplished runner and no stranger to the podium.  On our call today, we dive into a life changing injury that Kristen sustained in 2022. That injury ended up being the impetus for deeper, inner...

Today's chat, hosted by TJ David and Zoë Rom dives into the improv comedy principle "Yes, and," as well as the importance of consuming enough protein to support recovery, and WSER Fomo. We also shift into an important conversation about the WHY behind the Microcosm Community and how to balance training with our inherent social needs has humans. After all, a goal isn't really a bi...

Introducing a new format to the MicroCast, hosted by coaches TJ David & Zoë Rom - In today's chat, we get into challenges we worked through outside of running in the past week, something outside of running that we're currently obsessed with and our mindsets going into our races at UTMB Valhöll in Argentina last month. We chat about identity and the "never enough mentality" as...

We have a special guest this week, professional sport climber and coach, Dan Mirsky. Over a twenty plus year career, Dan has not only become one of the best climbers in the world, he’s also become a highly sought after coach with a wealth of knowledge that transcends climbing and sport. But, that journey hasn’t been linear. In today’s call, Dan talks about a herniated disc injury in his lower lumb...

We have a very special guest this week, microTEAM member and athlete Zena Robinson. Zena joins us today to talk about her experience running, and finishing 100 Millas Sierras Del Bandoleros, a steep 100 miler in the south of Spain. This was a dream race and performance for Zena, and in today’s microCHAT we get into the nuts and bolts of what it took to not only train for the event, but finish it i...

Coach Zoë and I had a wonderful experience at the UTMB Valhöll race in Cordoba, Argentina and this call is all about recapping that experience. From our training through a wet and snowy colorado winter, to our mindsets, process oriented goals and expectations for the race - to how we dealt with challenges and a race that ended up being more technical, hotter and longer than expected, we get into a...

Microcosm Coaching Team Call 04/28/2023 In today’s call, I’m joined by coaches and parents Sarah Strong and Drew Conner to discuss training and goal setting while parenting. In our call, we dive into the importance of developing good communication skills, flexibility with priorities, zooming out skills and self-care. We also get into the specifics around finding time to train and how to consider s...

Today’s call is all about the habits we see our most successful athletes exhibit in the training process. This isn’t a call about consistency, successful athletes have already laid that groundwork, and it's not about choosing the right goals, successful athletes already understand that process. This is about the small things, the glue that holds everything together and helps perpetuate the pro...

Microcosm Coaching Team Call 03/24/2023: A deep dive into Long Run & Race Day Nutrition with one of the leading experts and Sports Dieticians, Kylee Van Horn RDN of FlyNutrition: https://www.flynutrition.org/ . Topics include: -Getting started with fueling & hydration -Fueling & hydration for long runs & races -Fluid Loss & sweat testing -Pre-race fueling and hydration -Best pr...

Microcosm Coaching Team Call 03/17/2023: This episode is all about planning for your first ultra, but veterans, don’t stop listening. There are tons of important takeaways that can be applied to athletes at all stages of the process. Our call starts with a focus on pacing, and then moves from topics around fueling, hiking, and working through low moments that will inevitably pop up on race day. In...

Microcosm Coaching Team Call 03/03/2023 This episode is all about beginner runners, but if you aren’t a beginner, don’t stop listening. There are tons of important takeaways that can be applied to athletes at all stages of the process. We start the call by talking about easy runs based on feel versus heart rate, and from there evolve the call to touch on developing habits and routines, incorporati...

Microcosm Coaching Team Call 02/24/2023   We all have a really special guest this week, he’s written a new book called The Big Thing Effect: How to Transform Your Life Forever.   This book will grab you and inspire you. It will help you unlock parts of you you didn’t know were there, both personally and athletically. Zoë and I have both really enjoyed this book, and I was really intrigue...

Microcosm Coaching Team Call 02/10/2023: Today’s call is all exploring the concept of building confidence through a running lens. In this call, we define confidence as our belief in our ability to accomplish something. From here, we identify two types of confidence, extrinsic and intrinsic confidence, and discuss how to build intrinsic confidence through training and specific tools. Many of these...

Microcosm Coaching Team Call 01/27/2023 Today’s call is all about developing your mental performance toolset! We hope that by providing these techniques you’ll be able to build out your mental performance toolsets so you can better deal with adversity in training and racing. For more on visualization, see the link to our blog post on visualization 101 in our call notes. Like anything, these techni...

Microcosm Coaching Team Call 01/20/2023 The “Never Enough” mentality and approach to work, life, relationships, and financial status is an ever present part of today’s culture. It shows up everywhere, and for athletes this same mentality crosses over to training and goal setting- and has far reaching impacts on our mental health and overall contentment in an athletic life. On today's call, we defi...

Microcosm Coaching Team Call 01/13/2023 As many athletes on our team continue to get their race schedules ready for 2023, we wanted to start this year's calls off with the question, How does an athlete know when it’s time to step up to the next distance and what would an ideal timeline to get there look like? We love this topic because it encompasses so many of our coaching principles, like develo...

Microcosm Coaching Team Call 12/16/2022: This week's call is split into two sections, the first encompasses a really interesting, and ongoing discussion with athlete, coach and chaplain Chris Morgan about purpose. During this part of the call, we attempt to shed a little light on whether or not there is a purpose problem in trail running, if you need purpose to sustain the process and if the proce...