The Strength Running Podcast

You might recognize Tina from  Episode 31  of the podcast. She's an 11-time All-American athlete and elite athlete for Great Britain who's run in two British Olympic Trials. Tina recently overcame amenorrhea by taking a break from training, had a daughter, and is now returning to competitive running. But we're not here to talk about Tina. We're here to talk about YOUR questions, problems, and stru...

Nichola - or Nic as her friends call her - has such a long list of credentials and accomplishments that I simply can't share them all here. But just a sampling of her education and experience demonstrates her expertise: Graduated from Loughborough University with a First Class Honours Degree in Sports & Exercise Science Graduated from Leeds Metropolitan University with a post-graduate diploma in D...

I'm a proud omnivore. I firmly believe that eating a balanced, "whole-foods" diet is the key to both long-term health and improved running performance. But the issue isn't which diet is best, but  the results  that a certain diet can give to you. Over the past decade, I've been borderline obsessed with discovering the optimal diet for running performance. I've read many of the best diet books, int...

Angie and Trevor Spencer are the hosts of the Marathon Training Academy podcast and have helped thousands of runners over the years successfully run their first marathons. Angie ran her first marathon in 2008, promptly got injured, but turned things around in a big way: since then, she's run 51 marathons and 4 ultras with not a single injury (!). A Registered Nurse, she also has USATF-Level 1 and...

Over the years of coaching hundreds of athletes to new personal bests from 1.5 mile military fitness tests up to the 50-mile ultramarathon distance, I've been given a "private look" inside how runners approach their training. And most of the time,  I'm horrified!  There's no progression. They avoid race-specific workouts. I see  pacing mistake  after pacing mistake. If you want to run faster you n...

Alex Hutchinson holds a PhD in Physics from Cambridge, a Master's in Journalism from Columbia, and is a former national-class runner in Canada. He's written for Runner's World, Outside Magazine, The Globe & Mail, Popular Mechanics, and many other major media. I've been pestering Alex to write another book after  Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights?   became one of my favorite exercise science myt...

Warrior Dash is a fun vacation from more traditional road racing. If you're bored and need a new challenge, an obstacle race might be just the cure. They're fun – but you need the right training to prepare yourself for the challenge of completing a difficult obstacle course. With obstacles every few hundred feet on courses that are almost always hilly with uneven terrain, it's downright difficult...

Sam started running in 2002 to lose the weight he put on in college. But his training really picked up years later when he started racing more in 2015. He told me: I set a goal to run another marathon in December, 2016 with a goal of a BQ. I dumped weight lifting  and boot camps, to focus on running. I jacked up my miles going from running 10-15 miles and week quickly to running 30-40 miles a week...

Heather Caplan is a Registered Dietitian, certified running coach, and host of the  RD Real Talk Podcast . She's also the former Head of Nutrition and Coaching at tech startup Spright, Inc. She's also worked in corporate wellness coaching and public health nutrition counseling. Her work has been featured in national media such as Runner's World, The Washington Post, Women's Running, Outside Online...

Running uphill (against gravity) stresses your body in a unique way that you can't mimic on flat land. That stress results in some fantastic adaptations and benefits: There's less impact running uphill so it's easier on your joints and connective tissues Hills "force" you to run with better form, reinforcing a more efficient stride Running up steep grades builds power more safely than running fast...

In reality, we have to make time and shuffle our schedules to accommodate all of our responsibilities: Kids and family Work and professional obligations Social events Sleep? Maybe? It's no easy feat to train well, work, have a family, and find some free time to read or have fun. I remember back to one of the most challenging times of my life: the year after college when I had a 75-minute commute a...

Tyler Andrews  was a competitive Division III runner - but certainly not a multiple All-American or other kind of standout performer. But that never stopped him from chasing big goals. After graduating from Tufts University, Tyler kept training and improving. He's since qualified for the Olympic Marathon Trials and currently holds the world record for the fastest half marathon ever run on a treadm...

It's no easy feat to run a marathon under three hours. It's faster than the fastest Boston Qualifying time of 3:05 (for young men) and according to one analysis, only 4% of men and just 1% of women achieve this level of performance. An article from LiveStrong notes that: "the nonprofit organization RunTri used the times of 230,251 finishers in 25 races to determine that in the 2011-2012 marathon s...

Henry Wynne has an unusual origin story: he's a former lacrosse player who had no interest in running but his parents encouraged him to stick with the sport in high school. Fast forward about 10 years later and today, he's an elite middle-distance athlete sponsored by Brooks . A former runner for the University of Virginia, he's had several notable accomplishments over the years: 2016 Indoor NCAA...

I had the pleasure of getting to know Maggie last fall when she modeled the exercises for our new strength training program . We spent a few hours at a weight lifting gym called Barbell Strategy in Boulder, CO. Maggie and Addie Bracy (2x Mountain Runner of the Year) demonstrated 40+ exercises and we had a videographer to capture all of the magic. During her time at the University of Arizona, she w...

Dimity is the cofounder of Another Mother Runner - one of the largest communities you'll find for women runners. Besides the blog, the AMR ecosystem includes a helluva lot: The Another Mother Runner podcast AMR retreats Run Like a Mother Train Like a Mother Tales From Yet Another Mother Runner The AMR store I'm publishing this episode as an excerpt from Team Strength Running (if you're not sure wh...

Two years ago, I was interviewed for an event called The Running Summit. I spoke about wide-ranging topics: How I started running My injury prevention philosophy The biggest areas of improvement for runners Strength training do's and don'ts Warm-ups and cross-training My favorite aspects of coaching How running "scales" My favorite running authors The two principles of sound form you must remember...

You might recognize Jesse as the dude who races in Aviators (there's never an inappropriate time for Aviators). He was an All-American and school record holder at track and field powerhouse Stanford University. After graduating with a Masters in Mechanical Engineering, Jesse started a company and got an MBA before going pro in triathlon in 2011. You might say that Jesse likes to stay busy. Today,...

I've fielded hundreds of lifting questions from runners who all want to know, " How do I lift the right way? " It's a great question. In fact, it's THE question! Knowing how to lift properly will: Save you a lot of wasted time Give you the actual results you want Reduce your injury risk But without knowing  WHY runners should lift then it's impossible to answer  HOW  runners should lift. Do runner...

Cross-training is supplemental exercise that can be helpful to your running, like cycling. But just like  form drills , strides, or dynamic flexibility exercises, I consider strength training to be an integral part of how to train distance runners. If you're not strength training, then you're not training. Running by itself only gets you so far. It's a fairly one-dimensional form of exercise, afte...

I'm doing something a little different today in that I'd like to share with you what I think are the best gift ideas for runners this year. Now as a running coach, my focus is on improvement so I'm only going to recommend things that are going to help you improve. That's why I won't be suggesting sweatshirts, socks, shoes, or anything like that. Those are "nice to haves" but what's in this episode...

I invited Nick to share as much detail as possible about his marathon training, race strategy, and post-race recovery so you can understand how an elite marathoner tackles the race. Just recent he posted on Instagram : To run your best, you have to put in the work, know your body, and keep reminding yourself that you can do it. Train both your mind and body.  And today, you'll hear what "the work"...

Depending on whether you started running today or last year, today's podcast will clarify the most high-impact training available to you. Because certain training strategies and workouts are either too easy for some runners - or too difficult. Like Goldilocks , it's important to plan training that's "just right." And new runners are at an interesting time in their running careers. There's so much...

If you can replicate the principles (not necessarily the exact workouts, mileage, etc.) that lead to personal bests then you can keep improving and setting personal bests. The alternative is hitting a  performance plateau . Stagnating. Running the same times over and over again... And nobody wants that! After working with a lot of runners for the better part of a decade, I've come to understand th...

The best runners know when to get help and work together. If you're a  Lone Wolf , some things are inevitable: Have a question? Prepare to spend hours going down the Google rabbit hole... Feeling unmotivated? Sorry, you're on your own. Not sure how to break through your plateau? Time to " try everything! " But the runners who get the support, guidance, and camaraderie they need always seem to reac...