The Run Smarter Podcast

Stress fractures are a runners worst nightmare. They are often mis-diagnosed in the early days and when correctly identified, result in several weeks of inactivity which will drive a runner insane! Today Brodie interviews Ainslie who has faced several stress fractures throughout her running career. At the age of 14, Ainslie experienced her first major injury having fractured her hip bone and teari...

Andrew & Michael are the hosts of the Endurance Innovation podcast. With thermal engineer backgrounds and a passion in endurance performance, the boys deliver a unique insight into thermo-regulation, heat transfer & optimal performance in all conditions. We start with running in sub-freezing temperatures and how smart decisions towards clothing, sweat and layering can help you thrive.  Sec...

During these success story segments, Brodie interviews a runner who has managed to overcome a running related injury after much hardship and frustration. When injured, it is easy to find social media posts & stories from other injured runners which are discouraging and worrying. Tales of chronic pain, debilitating symptoms and failed treatment techniques often manifest anxiety and thoughts of...

On this episode of the Run Smarter Podcast, Brodie ropes in Pat from That's Running podcast and together they unpack the challenging topic of forefoot pain. The forefoot is the section between your toes and the arch of your foot. In fact, Brodie & Pat are both currently managing their own foot pain and share their experiences. Firstly, Pat talks about the research behind forefoot pain for runn...

During these success story segments, Brodie interviews a runner who has managed to overcome a running related injury after much hardship and frustration. When injured, it is easy to find social media posts & stories from other injured runners which are discouraging and worrying. Tales of chronic pain, debilitating symptoms and failed treatment techniques often manifest anxiety and thoughts of...

On this episode, Brodie summarizes a paper by Hamill & Gruber titled:  Is changing footstrike pattern beneficial to runners? This is a hot topic for a lot of runners, coaches and health professionals alike, and while this paper may not come to a conclusive statement, it does help bring us up-to-date with the current literature. The verdict might surprise you. Changing from a heel striker to a...

We are back for our second installment of question provided by my sister Zoe. Here are the list of questions answered on today's episode: I have injured my hamstring and took time off to recover from, now my leg feels weak and I am in a cycle of exercise followed by injury recovery. What can I do? How do I tell the difference between muscle soreness after a run and injury? Every run I am running t...

We haven't done a Q&A episode for a while and today we are doing something a bit different. My sister Zoe is taking over Q&A time!  We cover a wide range of questions today, here is the list. How do I know what a reasonable starting distance is if I haven’t ran before, or haven’t ran for a long time? How do hills impact my run, how can I best run on hills if they are unavoidable? My runnin...

This interview Brodie chats with advanced practice physio, sonographer & shockwave specialist Benoy Mathew. Shockwave therapy is a treatment method administered by therapists and Benoy answers all our questions on this treatment option. Firstly, Benoy helps answer the question of what Shockwave is and what the clinic experience looks like for a patient.  Secondly, we help decipher the confusio...

This interview Brodie chats with advanced practice physio, sonographer & shockwave specialist Benoy Mathew. Shockwave therapy is a treatment method administered by therapists and Benoy answers all our questions on this treatment option. Firstly, Benoy helps answer the question of what Shockwave is and what the clinic experience looks like for a patient.  Secondly, we help decipher the confusio...

After 12 months and 90k downloads the Run Smarter Podcast is celebrating 100 episodes!! Brodie reflects on the past year and the milestones surpassed as he shares clips of his favourite moments, including what he has learnt the most and what he looks forward to moving into the future. Listen in to hear clips from Brodie's first interview, interviews that have pushed him outside his comfort zone, e...

Starting off the year with something different and light hearted before our 100th episode. I pulled one of my most popular episodes from the Everyday Running Legends podcast. This episode I had the pleasure of interviewing John Kelly, the 15th person to ever complete the infamous Barley marathon before its 60-hour cut-up time.  The Barkley Marathons is an ultramarathon trail race held in Frozen He...

We are closing this month, this theme, this year with a bang!  This month we interviewed Dr. Izzy Smith, Simon Wegerif, Chris Schneider, Shona Halson, Christie Aschwanden, Dr. Carl Foster and Dave Proctor covering all topics on recovery. Brodie talks about what he has learnt, and his highlights throughout the entire month of recovery. Become a Patron! Choose your Tier Here Run Smarter YouTube Chan...

Today we switch gears and interview the ultra athlete Dave Proctor. Dave has held the world record for the longest distance covered on a treadmill in 24 hours (257km) and held the Canadian 24hr, 48hr and 72hr record.  Dave is also preparing for his second attempt to run across Canada, a total of 7,200km and break the speed record by covering 105km per day for 67 days straight. He does this to push...

Dr. Carl Foster is an Exercise Physiologist in the Department of Exercise & Sports Science. He has published close to 500 clinical papers on clinical physiology including 'Prevention, Diagnosis & Treatment of Over-training syndrome: Joint Consensus Statement'. Following a quote from Shona Halson 'There's a belief out there that you can't over-train, you can only under-recover', Carl dives...

Christie Aschwanden is an american journalist, science writer and author of Good to Go: How to eat, sleep & rest like a champion. Christie's work has had a huge influence on the momentum of this recovery month theme and today, we focus on Nutrition for optimal recovery.  After chatting about the book we then draw our attention towards hydration to the recreational runner. How important is hydr...

Shona Halson is an Associate Professor in the School of Behavioural & Health Sciences at ACU. She is world renowned in the field of recovery and has worked with countless elite athletes. Today, we talk about Shona's 'recovery pyramid', and highlight where you should be focusing your recovery strategy before moving onto other less effective methods. We start off with Shona explaining the benefi...

We continue our recovery month with interviewing Chris Schneider. A PhD student in Athlete monitoring & heart rate measures. Chris has contributed to several scientific papers relating to this topic including his leading author contributions in the paper 'Heart rate monitoring in team sports - A conceptual framework for contextualizing heart rate measures for training and recovery prescription...

We continue our recovery month theme with interviewing Simon Wegerif. Simon is the founder of ithlete and has website myithlete.com selling heart rate variability (HRV) apps and sensors. Firstly, Simon explains the measurement of heart rate variability and how the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system are involved. He does an excellent job of explaining this concept to the general public...

May I introduce the first guest to our recovery month! Dr. Izzy Smith is a specialist in hormone health and today we focus on all things hormones, stress & recovery. Firstly, Izzy talks about the concept of 'over-training vs under-recovering' and why a recreational runner needs to be mindful of this. We then move onto the role of certain hormones that hinder and enhance our ability to recover....

Today is episode #1 of our Recovery Month theme! We kick off the month by recapping on relatable past episodes. Rather than send you back to refresh your knowledge, Brodie thought it would be a better idea to do the hard work for you. So, we summarize the key points from these episode: Episode #7: Stress less: The hidden dangers that reduced your capacity to adapt. Episode #18: Sleep & cortiso...

Following our last interview with Jaclyn, we continue to learn from personal rehab stories. This episode, Brodie interviews Michelle who has suffered from proximal hamstring tendinopathy for over over 12 months.  An avid distance runner for the past 10 years, Michelle received a lot of physical and mental benefits from running until her marathon progress was brought to a holt! Michelle has an open...

On today's episode Jaclyn opens up about her experience with chronic knee pain. After her initial knee pain during marathon training 5 years earlier, Jaclyn found her symptoms gradually spin out of control.  Jaclyn describes her experiences as her symptoms intensify, to the point of constant fear and anxiety whenever she had to move or even see other people walking! We dive into the impact thought...

Dr. Kieran O'Sullivan is a Physiotherapist, Clinician, Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Limerick. His research interests are pain & injury with low back pain specifically.  This episode helps debunk a lot of unhelpful myths that plague back pain sufferers. Most of the template from today's discussion comes from the research paper Back to Basics: 10 facts every person should know ab...

Throughout this new weekly series, Brodie talks about his personal experiences with particular injuries and shares the lessons he has learnt along the way, so you will gain insight into injury management & prevention. Today, Brodie talks about his experience with Plantar Fasciitis. This is an extremely common condition in runners and non-runners alike. The podcast has covered plantar fasciiiti...