The Planted Runner

As a child of the 80s and 90s, Lauren Fleshmen was one of the first generation of women athletes to benefit from a piece of legislation called Title IV. Signed into law in 1972, Title IV expanded on the 14th Amendment, or the Civil Rights Act. It declared that no one could be discriminated against for participating in activities that received federal funds based on their sex. While the promise of...

When you’re a runner, summer can be a bit of a bummer. Every run feels harder and your speed seems to evaporate instantly, unlike the massive amount of sweat dripping into your eyes and staining your clothes. The good news is that all your sweaty work this summer will pay off with faster times in the fall. Your body will learn how to cool off quicker and more efficiently bring blood and nutrients...

Watch this episode on YouTube If you run a marathon every month, this episode is not for you. While that is amazing and inspirational, this episode is for those who prioritize quality over quantity.   This is for runners who love the marathon more than any other distance and want to discover how to get your very best performance, no matter what your age or natural talent. And to truly train to run...

Watch this episode on YouTube Let’s face it. Our culture values youth, beauty, and in the running world, speed. We train to get faster, stronger, and to cross that finish line just a little quicker than we did last time. The good news is that if you picked up running as an adult, even at an age where you are past your biological physical prime, you can grow muscle and run faster with good training...

Watch this episode on YouTube When you are trying to improve at anything, whether it’s business, parenting, or of course, running, the first place most of us go is the internet. We search and fall down rabbit holes. We follow gurus and influencers. We look at this article and that study. And before you know it, you aren’t sure what’s truth, what’s important, and what is just plain myth. So today,...

Watch this episode on YouTube In long distance running there are no hacks. You put in the work and it takes a long time and a lot of consistency to get better. But there actually is one thing that probably does meet the definition of a hack. It’s a simple way to get faster, to improve your running form, quicken your feet, better prepare for a race, and have some fun, all in less than 90 seconds of...

Watch this episode on YouTube! It can be so inspiring to hear the stories of the best in the world. Runners who do superhuman things running at speeds most of us can only imagine. The only problem is that elite runners are not typically all that relatable to the rest of us. So when I had a request to interview real, every day runners, who are not professionals, I loved the idea. Because most of us...

If you’ve just raced a marathon or half marathon, you know that you need to recover.  But how long will that take? It’s more than your body that’s been through the experience of training and racing.  Your mind, your relationships, and perhaps even your identity itself have been affected as well and need recovery.  No app or GPS watch is going to be able to quantify those things in hard data. Welco...

At no other time in your training cycle is nutrition more important than race week and of course, race day. Yes, you need to make sure you eat well throughout your entire training cycle. That means you are not restricting your food with the idea of getting down to some kind of mythical “race weight.” Instead, you’ve been fueling like an athlete, supporting your training with carbohydrates for ener...

Des Linden is not your typical marathon champion. Instead of emulating others, Des blazes her own path. Some might say that she even prides herself on not doing things like everyone else. And when someone tells her she can’t, she figures out a way to prove she can. Des is a two time Olympian and became the first American woman in 33 years to win the Boston Marathon on a brutally cold and rainy Pat...

What is the difference between good, challenging training and over-exercise? After all, running for hours and hours training for long distance events is definitely far more exercise that we need to be healthy and fit. But when is it really considered over-exercise? It can happen pretty quickly when we undereat. Undereating paired with high amounts of training will start to set off alarm bells in t...

Ask five runners what the definition of a tempo run is and you’ll probably get five different answers. Let’s clear up all the misconceptions and find out how to get the best out of your tempo runs. And to do that, we’ll have to go all the way to Norway. Welcome to the Planted Runner. I’m Coach Claire Bartholic and my mission is to help you improve your running, your mindset, and your life with sci...

Statistically, there’s a good chance you will get injured this year. Even if you do everything right, like eating and sleeping well, and keeping up with your strength training. It can make you feel helpless when your physical and mental health as well as your identity are defined by running. But if you get through the injury process well, you might even be better off than you were before you got h...

Pacing is hard. Wouldn’t it be great to forget about perfect pacing your next race and just follow a pace group? You’ll be led by a more experienced runner leading you to your dream finish time.   Plus you’ll have a whole group of people trying for the exact same thing. You can relax, keep your eyes off your watch, and ride the pace group wave all the way to a new personal record. Or it could be a...

Running vacations or running retreats are back with a vengeance because runners like you and me are ready to get back together in person and share a unique experience that we will never forget. Welcome to the Planted Runner. I’m Coach Claire Bartholic and my mission is to help you improve your running, your mindset, and your life with science-backed training and plant-based nutrition. In this conv...

Struggling with speed?  I’ll share my best tips on how to do it right. Today you’ll learn: How to get started with speedwork Where people often make speed training mistakes, and I’ll share My 6 best tips to make your interval training more successful and less stressful One of the great ironies of getting faster at running long distances, is that you need to run slow most of the time. Running at a...

How many pairs of running shoes are in your closet right now?  No judgment and don’t worry, I won’t tell your partner the real answer. But before you go and add another pair to your collection, you’ll want to check this conversation first. Known online as @Kofuzi, Mike Ko has an incredibly popular YouTube channel, he livestreams at @kofuzirunclub most weekdays and he hosts a podcast dedicated to r...

I am not a plant-based evangelist.  I’m not here to convince anyone to do anything.  But if you’ve already decided that you want more plants in your life and you’re trying to figure out how to do that and get really good at running at the same time, this is the episode you need to hear or watch on YouTube. Welcome to the Planted Runner.  I’m Coach Claire Bartholic and my mission is to help you imp...

How did I build my way to a 2:58 marathon at age 42 with no injuries? A big part of it was strength training. If you don’t want to be one of the 50-80% of runners who gets injured this year, proper strength training can help hedge your bets. While there’s no way to 100% guarantee that you’ll be one of the lucky healthy runners, strengthening your body for running can make a big difference. Today,...

What if I told you there was a way to get stronger, become more mobile, lower your risk of injury, and even get faster at running?  It wouldn’t take much of your time and you might even find that you actually like it. This is the promise of pilates for runners.  Now before you roll your eyes at yet another thing that you have to add to your to-do list, the benefits may just be worth the investment...

One of the most common and worthy goals of any marathoner is to be able to race the iconic Boston Marathon.  Now that it’s January, it’s time to begin your Boston Marathon training. But did you know that training for Boston, if you want to get it right, will require you to do a few things differently? While the point-to-point race is a net downhill, terrain is tricky. Factor in the unpredictable w...

The reality of high-level sports for female athletes is that it is rarely equal, even 50 years after the passage of Title IV. And Lauren Fleshman is here to tell us why. In this episode, you’ll learn: Lauren’s incredibly vulnerable true story with all the highs and lows How Lauren stood up to Nike well before she was famous, and She’ll share her best advice for those still competing today Lauren i...

What does it take to become a champion? Sure, you need to have talent, and drive, and access to the sport you want to play.   But it also takes some luck right from birth. If you don’t have a supportive family with the means and desire to help you on the right path, your road is going to be a lot tougher. Gwen Jorgensen became the United States’ first Olympic gold medalist in the triathlon in 2016...

Strength training is a completely different physiological stimulus from running.  It provides distinct benefits that you just can’t get from running, but are crucial to health and optimal performance. The two main benefits of strength training are that it prevents and helps heal injuries, and it enhances performance. Done properly, strength training creates a foundation for injury-free running and...

If there’s one book that turned the running world on its head and inspired millions to pick up the sport, it has to be Born to Run.  Christopher McDougall’s first hand tale of drama and barefoot running included an unforgettable cast of characters like Caballo Blanco and Barefoot Ted set in a backdrop of mystery and danger in the Copper Canyon of Mexico. Runners everywhere cast aside traditional r...