Running long - A trail & ultra running talk
By Vert.run
Running long - A trail & ultra running talkJan 11, 2023
125. Coach Lab with Parker Farabee | Strength Training for trail runners
Parker Farabee is a trail runner, physiotherapist, exercise physiologist and coach from Portland, Oregon.
In this episode we talk about strength training for trail runners. Why is strength training so important, why do we need strength as trail runners? Of course we're not bodybuilders, so how much strenght do we need?
What type of strength training do we need in order to get stronger, but not bulkier?
We will give some practical examples for the application of strength training in your normal training routine, how you should do it, how often and for how long.
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Francesco's links: Instagram | Twitter | Strava | Website
124. Seth Ruhling | Boulder Boys fan favorite. Training and life in Boulder, the professionalization of the sport, comparing the US and European trail running scene and much more
I’m recording this interview live, from the vert run headquarters in boulder aka moi’s house, and my guest today is Seth Ruhling. Seth is a North Face sponsored athlete, a podcast host and a boulder boy fans favorite. He’s originally from Tennessee but he’s moved to Boulder to chase his dream to train and compete at the highest level in the sport of trail and ultrarunninng.
In this episode, we chat about training and life in Boulder, what makes this community unique, what are some pros and cons of living here, we also talk about the professionalization of the sport, comparing the European and the us trail running scene, and the pressure that athletes often face to compete in longer distances, giving up an organic and probably healthier athletic development, something that is gradually changing and making the sport more competitive and interesting, with media fans and brands giving more attention to short races and sub ultra events.
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Francesco's links: Instagram | Twitter | Strava | Website
123. Yngvild Kaspersen, Toni McCann, Dani Moreno | Updates from Auburn, CA
Yngvild Kaspersen, Toni McCann and Dani Moreno are professional trail athletes for Adidas Terrex and respectively CCC 2023 winner, OCC 2023 winner and third place finisher at OCC 2022.
Yngvild, Toni and Dani are currently in Auburn for a short training camp on the Western States trails, so I thought it would be fun to catch up and see how they’re doing, how their training is going, how they support each other, who’s mostly in charge of cooking, who makes the best coffee, and much more. As endurance athletes, we don’t always get to share our training with other people, but when we do, that’s where the magic happens.
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122. Benjamin Roubiol | Catching up with the 2023 trail running world champion
Benjamin Roubiol is our 2023 trail running world champion. Benjamin comes from France (Savoie) won the world title in the long race in Innsbruck, on a 80km course with 6000m of elevation. We catch up with Benjamin to know how he’s doing and how he is structuring his training in this first part of the season, his goals in 2024, some curiosities about his still very young career and world championship race last year, his studies in environmental science and forest management.
Follow Benjamin on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/benjaminroubiol/
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121. Coach Lab with Steve Krenn | Tips for trail running at night
Steve Krenn is a trail runner from New York and a Vert.run coach.
Running at night can be a beautiful and rewarding experience, if you know how to do it. Some of the most famous ultra trail races often include running through the night. During the wintertime, when the days are short, we’re often running through the dark, before or after school or work. What are some of the best practices that can make your night running experience better and safer? What are some of the things you should pay attention to? From how to choose a headlamp, to navigation, to clothes and gear for the night, everything you need to know about the topic.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out.
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Francesco's links: Instagram | Twitter | Strava | Website
120. Carlos Ferrer | Mile & Stone - The must-read newsletter for trail running pros and enthusiasts
Carlos Ferrer Fernández is a trail runner from Paris and the managing director of the newsletter Mile and Stone. I invited Carlos on the podcast after following his newsletter for a while, and discovering a great project that I feel like is contributing to more knowledge, better information and more professionalization in the trail and ultra running space. In this episode, we chat about the genesis of this newsletter, why it’s particularly interesting and how it’s structured, we talk about some of the current and most popular topics of discussions of our sports, and some of its developments, from an economical and structural standpoint.
If you’re a passionate trail runner, if you want to find a job in the trail space, if you want ty stay updated with the most recent news related to our sport, I encourage you all to sign up to Mile and Stone:
https://mileandstone.com/en/
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Francesco's links: Instagram | Twitter | Strava | Website
119. Kimi Schreiber | The value of authenticity
Kimi Schreiber is a professional trail runner, a journalist and a podcaster from Germany. She runs for Adidas Terrex.
In this episode, we chat about running, training and trail running media, but the main topic of our conversation is probably authenticity: the courage to be ourselves and show other people what we really are, not what we pretend to be.
In a world where success is so often tied to performance, where the comparison game of social media causes much more mental stress than we’d like to admit, where we’re constantly exposed to criticism and judgement, I found Kimi’s reflections particularly valuable and extremely relatable. This is really one of the episodes of running long that I’ve enjoyed the most.
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118. Coach Lab with Parker Farabee | How to build an aerobic base
Parker Farabee is a trail runner, physiotherapist, exercise physiologist and coach from Portland, Oregon.
In this episode we talk about base training and how to build an aerobic base.
What are the benefits of base training?
Why is it essential to increase our work capacity and improve fatigue resistance?
What happens to our bodies when we're training at an easy intensity?
Why is hard, intense training not a substitute for aerobic training?
These are just some of the questions we will answer in today’s episode.
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117. Robbie Simpson | Running fast on any surface, any distance
Robbie Simpson is a professional trail and road runner from Scotland, sponsored by Adidas Terrex. Robbie is one of the best all around athletes in the world: he's run anything from 5k on the road to ultramarathons. He's been on the podium of Sierre-Zinal FIVE times, he's won a world mountain running championships bronze medal, and he's won a medal in the marathon at the Commonwealth Games. We talk about training, racing, combining roads and trails, turning pro, making a living from the sport, and much, much more.
Follow Robbie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fatsimpson/
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116. Coach lab with Max Keith | How to monitor your training
Max Keith is a trail runner from Chile and the co-founder of Vert. In this episode we talk about how to monitor your training: what data and metrics should we be paying attention to? Technology, with all kinds of data, has become so easy to access, but what is actually relevant and what should we really care about? What can we learn from the analysis of what we’ve done in the past?
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115. Henriette Albon | Winter Bob Graham Round FKT, quitting a "normal" job and turning pro, balancing racing and personal projects, keeping it fun!
Henriette Albon is a professional runner for Arc'teryx living in Norway.
Henriette just set the women’s winter FKT of the Bob Graham Round, one of the most challenging and famous trail routes in the British Lake District, tagging 42 peaks and covering 106 miles with over 8000m of elevation.
In this episode we talk about the challenges of her adventure, how she planned it and executed it, we discuss racing and FKTs in trail running, quitting her 9-5 job to become a professional athlete, defining success and where she finds her sense of validation, training and living with an absolute star of the trail running world like John Albon.
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114. Coach lab with Parker Farabee | How to deal with an injury, cross training and rehab.
Parker Farabee is a trail runner, physiotherapist, exercise physiologist and coach from Portland, Oregon. In this episode we talk about how to deal with an injury and about cross training and rehab. We will point out and clarify some of the most important things you should do when you get injured, how you can and should maintain consistency in your training, how to cross train, how to establish a recovery protocol, how you should work with your coach and your physio to get healthier and manage the return to running.
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Francesco's links: Instagram | Twitter | Strava | Website
113. Voices from the Vert.run community: Kristin Jensen | Trail running in Denmark, training with Vert, running long and backyard ultras
Kristin Jensen is a trail runner from Denmark and a Vert.run explore athlete. Kristin is a passionate runner whose goal is, like many other athletes that we coach, to run longer, faster and stronger while having fun in the process. In this episode we talk about being a trail runner in Denmark, probably not the most typical place you would think when it comes to running on trails or in the mountains, about Kristin’s experience with training with Vert, developing community, navigating the ups and down of training and racing, goal setting and much more.
Follow Kristin's journey and his community on Instagram
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112. Katie Schide | All the little things add up
Katie Schide is a professional trail runner for The North Face from the US, living in France.
Katie is one of the most well known and established trail runners in the world: she’s just been awarded the second place of the Trail Runner of the Year Award presented by Freetrail, and as well as the second place of the historic Ultra Runner of the Year Award by Ultrarunning Magazine.
She’s a 2021 UTMB winner, a 2023 Western States runner up, with a time that would have won every edition but last year, she also placed second at OCC and she won Diagonal de Fous in 2023, besides a long list of world class performances in the past years in her resume.
Katie currently lives in the Mercantour region of the French Alps with her partner, elite trail runner himself, Germain Grangier. She’s a geologist, and she loves spending long days moving through the mountains – whether that be running, skiing, biking, or a combination of all three.
In this episode we talk about Katie’s training and approach to racing, dealing with sponsors, media and brands, living in France and about the current state of the sport of trail running.
Follow Katie on Instagram and Strava
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111. Common misconceptions in training for trail and ultra running
In this episode we talk about some common misconceptions in training for trail and ultras.
With the recent increase in participation in trail and ultrarunning and more and more people coming to trail running from the roads or other endurance sports, team sports, or from being sedentary, we felt a need to discuss some common myths and not always accurate ideas about training for trail and ultras, such as that training for trails and ultras will make you slow, that you have to live in the mountains in order to succeed at trail running, that you have to commit to either roads or trails.
If you have any further questions, topics or doubts that you would like us to discuss here on the podcast, please let us know and get in touch! You can send us a message on Instagram, or in question box on spotify where you can submit your questions.
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110. Dan Curts | Trail and road fitness, Northswood Athletic Team, trail running on the East Coast
Dan Curts is a professional trail runner for Brooks coming from New Hampshire, United States.
With PRs of 3:43 in the 1500m, sub 4 min in the mile and 13:38 in the 5000m, Dan is a really fast, really talented runner who’s main focus is on mountain running and the sub ultra distances. This year he won the US mountain running up and down champs and has competed at the world trail and mountain running championships in Innsbruck.
In this episode we talk about Dan’s training, how road and track fitness can translate into trail fitness, trail workouts vs track and road running workouts; we talk about the Northswood Athletic Team and training with a track star like Ben True, we talk about the trail scene in the East of the united states, where Dan is based with his girlfriend Lauren Gregory and teammate Eric Lipuma.
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109. Max Keith | The Speed Project Atacama 2023
Our own Max Keith just ran The Speed Project Atacama, a 500km crossing of the Atacama Desert that is not just a race, it’s an adventure, a deep dive into the unknown, a shared experience with all the participants and crews, an introspective journey across one’s emotions and soul.
The only rule of this event is that there are no rules, and that you need to cover the approximately 500km between start and finish, alone or in a team of six participants. The spirit of the race manifests in the desire to overcome one’s limits by covering distances that seem impossible, with the sole aim of succeeding.
Unfortunately, we can’t give you a link to sign up to this race, because there are no links, no website, no official organization.
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108. James Huw | Trail running and climate action: why the environmental issue should be a key topic of every discussion related to outdoor sports
James Huw is a trail runner, a science presenter, a geologist, astronomy and climate scientist from Wales, UK.
James’ mission is to communicate science, make science cool and accessible to people. With Kilian Jornet he founded the Athlete Climate Academy, a place to give outdoor athletes the background they need to discuss climate change and environmental issues with confidence.
In this episode we talk about the language of science and how science should be a leading force of our society. We discuss the needs of individual and collective action when it comes to climate change, the impact of trail running and the outdoor industry on the environment, advocating for systemic change, and some actions that we can easily implement as individuals to have a greater positive impact on climate change.
Follow James on Instagram
Check out Athlete Climate Academy
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107. Emkay Sullivan | Redefining plans, dealing with fatigue and understanding ourselves through running
Emkay Sullivan is a professional trail runner for Craft from Reno, Nevada, United States.
After a long and challenging year full of success but also some setbacks, Emkay decided to put off her final goal of 2023 and not run CIM, California International Marathon.
In this episode talk about the challenge of training, the difficulty of redefining goals and adjusting a plan, how toughness sometimes can be just admitting to ourselves how tired we are sometimes, and how we get to decide whether we can use failure or joy and positive emotions to fuel our motivation to run.
We also talk about Emkay’s experience as a coach, why she still finds it very beneficial to have a coach for herself, how she monitors her training and her athletes’ training, some things that she learned through her coaching experience.
Besides being a pro athlete, Emkay is also the co-host of the sub hub podcast, which is part of the freetrail network and has been a great voice in the trail space to further develop the sub ultra and mountain running interest.
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106. Malen Osa | From the Basque Country, with a strong will to leave a mark in trail running
Malen Osa is a professional trail runner for Salomon living in Spain, in the Basque Country.
Malen is only 20 years old and has had a breakthrough season in 2023, placing fourth overall in the final ranking Golden Trail World Series, and top 5 at Dolomyths Run, Pikes Peak Ascent and Mammoth Trail Fest. She’s definitely one of the most interesting young talents in the sport, someone to keep an eye on over the next few years.
In this episode, we chat about her sports background and education, growing up in the basque country, dealing with great success and some setbacks, training, cross training and her passion for endurance sports.
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105. Emily Hawgood | The joy of running + training discussions: training data, athlete-coach relationship, strength training, altitude training
Emily Hawgood is a professional trail and ultra runner from Zimbabwe sponsored by Adidas Terrex. Emily is one of the most wonderful and cheerful people I know, not just in the sport of running, and she’s one of the strongest trail athletes in the world, especially in the 100k-100m distance. She’s also a running coach, a strength coach, she studied Exercise Science at the College of Idaho and she has a master’s degree in High Altitude Exercise Physiology from the University of Gunnison in Colorado.
In this conversation we talk about Emily and her very successful year, where she placed 5th at Western States and second at UTMB CCC, about how she’s treating herself during her off-season, how she handles the pressure of training and racing at a high level and a bunch of other topics. My favorite part of the conversation was when we dived deep into training, talking about our relationship with training data, with our respective coaches, some thoughts on strength training, strength training periodization and altitude training.
Follow Emily on instagram!
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104. Mike McMonagle @shitinthewoods | Trail running media and photography, supporting women athletes and the community
Mike McMonagle is trail runner and photographer from Salt Lake City, United States. I met Mike, better known to the public with his instagram handle @shitinthewoods, last year at the world championship in Thailand, and I was inspired by his vibrant pictures showing the athletes in the peak of their efforts. I started following him and I discovered not only a great photographer, but also a great person for the sport, determined to make an impact in the sport of running by showcasing the elite athletes, giving more opportunities to women athletes, supporting independent races and the community that makes trail running special.
Besides running a lot with his camera, Mike won Grindstone 100m in Virginia and he will at the start of UTMB next year, with his wife and professional trail runner Leah Yingling.
In this episode we touch many topics about the current state of the sport of trail running, from the storytelling and how the media influence it, to photography, to inclusivity, equality and perception of the elite athletes by the public and fans.
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103. Francesco Puppi | Racing my first long ultra and 2023 season recap
Francesco Puppi is a pro athlete for Nike and your Running Long podcast host.
Today I'm joined by Max and Moi, founder and co-founder of Vert.run, to talk about my 2023 season, including my first experience in a long ultra at Templiers (80km +3500m), where I placed second behind Jonathan Albon. We’re going to dive deep into how the race went, how I felt, what was my nutrition strategy, how I made the decision to do this race, what the training leading up to it was like. My 2023 season was not short of several ups and downs, but I’m incredibly happy and grateful for everything I got to experience.
Please rate and review our podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcast!
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102. Lauren Klein | How and why you should think about improving your running economy
Laurein Klein is a trail and ultra runner with an undergraduate degree in athletic training, a master degree in exercise science and experience in the sports medicine field.
In this episode we talk about how biomechanics influences running economy and how we can improve our running economy through training to become better and more efficient runners.
As trail runners we are constantly striving to be better, run further, add more elevation gain, and cover more technical terrain. Besides our training and the workouts we're doing, it is also important to pay attention to how our body is moving while we run.
Any changes that allow us to use less energy while running allow us to improve our pace without increasing the amount of stress placed on our body.
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101. Gloria Giudici | Balancing having a full time job and being a high level athlete
Gloria Giudici - for me and for some of my friends Rita - is an amateur runner, Sportsshoes ambassador and full time worker who happens to be my girlfriend.
Rita - which is Gloria’s middle name, for those of you who are wondering about where it comes from, is one of the hardest working people I know and for sure a great source of strength and inspiration for me. She’s also a great runner and an accomplished athlete, with a long story in endurance sports. She started as a cyclist, until she transitioned to running when she was in her 20s, and later on to trail and mountain running. She’s competed in 4 world mountain and trail running championships, she’s placed 9th in a European championship, she’s won national titles, she’s placed top 30 in the new york city marathon and many more accomplishments.
We’re here to talk to Rita about two topics: how she balances having a full time job and being a high level athlete, and how she managed to deal with a big injury which kept her away from running for over 6 months. We’re going to give some advice and tips on how it’s possible to train at a high level while working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and what’s been particularly helpful for her when treating her hamstring injury and how she handled the return to running, with the aim to point out what’s useful and what’s not, so that as many athletes as possible can apply these principles and ideas to their own situations, regardless of their level or how fast or slow they can run.
Follow Gloria on Instagram @glo_87
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100. Coach Steve Krenn | Trail running, self confidence and mental health
Here at Vert, we run to have fun, feel good and learn something about ourselves in the process.
How can we build self confidence through trail running? How can we be ok with the fact that we all want to grow and progress, but we may still experience failures and setbacks? How can we feel empowered through trail running?
Today's guest is Steve Krenn, a Vert.run coach and trail runner from New York City
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099. Ida Nilsson | Looking back to an amazing career
Ida Nilsson is a professional trail runner for Craft, she's from Sweden but she currently lives in Norway.
Ida has been in the sport for a very very long time and she’s explored pretty much everything that there is to explore within the sport of running, from the track to cross country, from the roads to the trails. Together with Mimmi Kotka and Emelie Forsberg, she's the co-founder of Moonvalley, a plant based nutrition company for outdoor people.
I’m interviewing Ida during her off-season, after a long and successful 2023 where she was 5th at Black Canyon 100k, 1st at Canyons 100k, 7th at Western States and 1st at Ultravasan 90km. Together, we go through her long and successful career, retracing the main stages of her athletic development, her choices and her approach to the sport.
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Discover Moonvalley
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098. Golden Trail World Series 2023 | Stories from the Pikes Peak Ascent and the Mammoth Trail Fest
The Golden Trail World Series athletes and crew landed in the United States for the two final stages of the circuit and another adventure in the West of the United States.
We raced at the Pikes Peak Ascent in Manitou Springs (CO) where Remi Bonnet set a new course record, beating the legendary mark by Matt Carpenter that was set 30 years ago, and at the new Mammoth Trail Fest 26k in Mammoth Lakes (CA), organized by Tim Tollefson.
Besides the races, it was great to share some days together with other amazing athletes and interesting people, in some of the most beautiful places we've ever been to. This episode is an inside story told by the athletes on their experience at Pikes Peak and Mammoth, extending their reflections to their 2023 season.
I hope you enjoy it, and thanks to everyone who has contributed to record this episode!
Give all the athletes a follow on Instagram 😉 it's a great way to support them!
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097. Abby Hall | Living the story I would want to read
Abby Hall is a professional trail runner from Flagstaff, USA, sponsored by Adidas Terrex.
I wanted to have Abby on the podcast in a very particular situation, which is not an easy moment for her. It's definitely a moment of struggle or at least not what people generally associate with the life of a professional athlete. Abby had a big injury earlier this year, she broke her leg while training a few months ago, and she also experienced some complications before having surgery and during her recovery. I think there's a lot of value in sharing our struggles and painful experiences, not just the victories and the positive moments, and this conversation was very very important to me and made me think a lot, so I want to thank Abby for opening up and being so transparent about her own experience through this difficult time.
Please rate, review and share our show on social media: it will help other trail runners discover this podcast!
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096. Voices from the Vert.run community: Miguel Quinta | The journey to CCC
Miguel Quinta is a vert.run explore athlete from Portugal living in Spain.
Miguel started training with Vert in 2023 with the goal to finish CCC, a 100km race with 6000m around Mont Blanc. In this episode we talk about Miguel’s race, how it went and how he handled the difficulties that he faced; about his preparation (using a specific training plan for CCC designed by Petter Engdahl), the challenges of training while having a full time job and a family, and also his why: from why he runs, to why CCC was a special experience for him.
As you know, in this podcast we try to talk about trail running at 360°, giving voice to all the people who are part of its amazing community: from the pro athlete, to the coaches, to the middle of the pack runners. Miguel is certainly one of them, and it was very inspiring and very relatable to hear from him, which is why I’m sure you’ll enjoy this episode very much.
Please rate, review and share our show on social media: it will help other trail runners discover this podcast!
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095. Toni McCann - 2023 OCC Champion | Discover what you can do
Toni McCann is a professional trail runner from South Africa sponsored by Adidas Terrex
She's the 2023 OCC women champion, with an incredible race and performance - she ran 53km with 3100m of elevation in 5h18 min. In this episode we talk about her preparation, which was not short of challenges and setbacks, her race, her strategy and in general about her 2023 trail season.
We always find it very inspiring to hear from the champions of our sport, and we think that Toni is a pretty special person who will go very far in her athletic journey. Find out why!
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094. Olya Amelina, health and performance coach | The game-changer power of daily routine for peak performance
If you're struggling around routines or to get back to your normal life after the summer and hopefully some time off for vacation, training or racing, then this episode is for you!
Olya Amelina is a health and performance coach helping people create daily routines around food, sleep, training and rest to enhance performance and achieve their goals in business, sport and daily life.
In this episode we talk about the power of routines and how they can help athletes maximise their performance and better handle their training. We get into details of how routines can affect nutrition, sleep, training, recovery and mindset; role of consistency; the routines vs motivation debate; how can routines help us balance work, life and training.
Follow Amelina Health on Instagram and Linkedin
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093 - Coach Daniel Rowland | Post race recovery, maintaining fitness, long term athletic development - reposted
After the summer season and especially after this week's UTMB, we figured it's important to relisten to this conversation with Coach Daniel Rowland on recovery and managing the time after a race.
It’s a very delicate period, both physically and mentally: we need to make sure that we've recovered well after a race and many months hard training, and we need to start laying the foundation of what is next.
In this conversation we talk about how the cardiovascular, muscular and hormonal systems recover at different times after a race, how we can maintain fitness, how long we should recover within the context of a racing season and with an eye to our long term athletic development.
Daniel Rowland is a trail and ultramarathon runner, a Vert.run coach and an expert in endurance science. Follow him on Twitter @dwrowland !
Enjoy!
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092. Wilfredo Benitez | Nutrition during a trail race - Reposted
This episode focuses on the nutrition during a race or a long run: you will learn how to fuel during an endurance effort, what it makes sense to eat and what doesn’t, some strategies that will help you always stay on top of your nutrition and get the all energy that you need.
Wilfredo Benitez is a trail runner and nutritionist based in Portland, Oregon, and founder of On Pace Wellness, a company with the goal to help endurance athletes optimize their nutrition for training, racing and having a healthier lifestyle.
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091. Wilfredo Benitez | Nutrition before a trail race - Reposted
This episode focuses on nutrition before a race or a long run: you will learn how to fuel before an endurance effort, what it makes sense to eat and what doesn’t, some strategies that will help you get all the energy that you need, in order to achieve your goal.
Wilfredo Benitez is a trail runner and nutritionist based in Portland, Oregon, and founder of On Pace Wellness, a company with the goal to help endurance athletes optimize their nutrition for training, racing and having a healthier lifestyle.
Please rate, review and share our show on social media: it will help other trail runners discover this podcast!
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090. Wilfredo Benitez | Nutrition for health and performance - Reposted
On Pace Wellness is a company based in Portland, Oregon, which helps endurance athletes to optimize their nutrition for health, wellness and performance.
We chat with Wilfredo Benitez, head nutritionist at On Pace Wellness, USATF certified coach and trail runner, about the importance of a balanced nutrition for athletes.
How and what we eat have the potential to help make our goals a reality or to impede our training and performance, while potentially reducing our health at the same time. Nutrition plays a major role in the body's performance, including its health. It's important to understand some basics behind nutrition and help the body perform the best it can, whether that be athletically or just functionally.
We hope you can find some valuable information and tips for a more aware relationship with food and exercise.
Please rate, review and share our show on social media: it will help other trail runners discover this podcast!
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Francesco's links: Instagram | Twitter | Strava | Website
089. Eoin Everard | Training with heart rate zones
What are training zones? Why is it so important to run at the correct intensity?
With Eoin today we talk about training with heart rate zones, why running at the correct intensity is key and how to use heart rate zones in your daily training.
Eoin Everard is an Irish athlete, physiotherapist and pilates instructor with a PHD in biomechanics. Eoin has a background as an international runner with sub 4 minute mile and sub 14 minute 5K PRs, and he’s been very successful as a master athlete thanks to his approach to training and his methodology that has allowed him to stay away from injuries and maximize his training benefits.
Discover more on everardpilates.com
Download his free book and audiobook "Get to the line in the best shape possible" here
Please rate, review and share our show on social media: it will help other trail runners discover this podcast!
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Francesco's links: Instagram | Twitter | Strava | Website
088. Max Keith | How to choose a trail running shoe for training and racing. A review
How has the shoe technology evolved during the past decade?
How do we choose a trail shoe, what should we pay attention to?
What are the most important features, depending on their use and purpose?
As trail runners, our most important piece of gear is a pair of running shoes, and there are now well over 200 trail running shoes on the market. That means there are shoes for every foot, every trail, and every terrain.
A chat to shed light and give some ideas on how to choose a trail shoe, with Max Keith, Vert.run co-founder, athlete and coach
Please rate, review and share our show on social media: it will help other trail runners discover this podcast!
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Francesco's links: Instagram | Twitter | Strava | Website
087. Anna Gibson and Meika Beaudoin-Rousseau | The Trail Team, developing young talents in the sport, why trail running is the coolest thing ever!
Meikael Beaudoin Rousseau and Anna Gibson are two young American athletes and members of The Trail Team. The mission of The Trail Team is to independently support and develop rising athletes into the best professional trail runners in the world through mentorship, skill development, and media exposure.
With Meikael and Anna we will talk about their running background, how they got into trail running, what makes them excited about the sport, ideas to help the transition from college athletes to professional trail athletes, about how they currently see the state of the sport and about The Trail Team project.
If you want to support them and the trail team, please give them a follow on social media and consider making a donation here.
Please rate, review and share our show on social media: it will help other trail runners discover this podcast!
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Francesco's links: Instagram | Twitter | Strava | Website
086. Voices from the Vert.run community: Rosie Mitchell | Redefining toughness, surviving a crocodile attack, how trail and ultra running saved my life
Rosie Mitchell is a 63 year old lady from Zimbabwe currently living in Cape Town (South Africa).
Rosie is an ultra runner, graphic designer, Vert.run athlete and so much more. Rosie is one of our most loyal and dedicated athletes, she’s had an incredible and super inspiring personal story which you will discover in today’s conversation, and she’s currently training for a 100m race in the US.
In this episode, we will talk about her experience at the 2023 Comrades Marathon, the largest and oldest ultramarathon in the world, about what it means to be tough and how her concept of toughness has changed through running, about her incredible story of how she started running, how she got into ultra running and how she survived a terrible accident thanks to the fact that she’s an athlete.
Please rate, review and share our show on social media: it will help other trail runners discover this podcast!
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085. Training for master athletes, improving as we age | with Eoin Everard, athlete and physio
Masters' running is usually framed as a process of decline and we rarely talk about understanding and optimizing masters runners’ potential in the same way that we do with younger runners.
This episode wants to bring a constructive approach to the topic, giving some tips and ideas to better manage our training as we get older.
Our guest is Eoin Everard, an Irish athlete, physiotherapist and pilates instructor with a PHD in biomechanics. Eoin has a background as an international runner with sub 4 minute mile and sub 14 minute 5K PRs, and he’s been very successful as a master athlete thanks to his approach to training and his methodology that has allowed him to stay away from injuries and maximize his training benefits.
Discover more on everardpilates.com
Download his free book and audiobook "Get to the line in the best shape possible" here
Please rate, review and share our show on social media: it will help other trail runners discover this podcast!
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Francesco's links: Instagram | Twitter | Strava | Website
084. Stian Angermund | 2023 Short Trail World Champion + the most humble person I know on the trails
Stian Angermund is a professional trail runner for Asics living in Norway, and the 2023 (and 2022) short trail world champion.
Stian is one of the most humble, well known and respected athletes in the trail running world, and he managed to repeat himself in the last edition of the trail world championship in Innsbruck, after his gold medal in Thailand of last year.
In this episode, we chat about his approach to the race in Austria and his preparation leading up to it, about the world championship as an event, about his consistency at such a high level, about his professional running career and how it’s changed over the years, now that he’s also a husband, a dad and a 36 year old man with a lot of experience.
Please rate, review and share our show on social media: it will help other trail runners discover this podcast!
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083. Kris Jones | In-depth analysis of the preparation and the race at the Trail World Championship - Innsbruck 2023
Kris Jones is a professional runner for Hoka coming from Wales.
Kris placed 8th at the 2023 world trail and mountain running championships Innsbruck 2023 in the short trail distance, and thanks to his result he helped the GB team take home the gold medal with his teammates Thomas Roach and Jonathan Albon.
One reason why I decided to invide Kris to the podcast was because he’s always been very open about his training and he recently posted a very good article on Substack about his preparation for the world championship race. He also shared some very interesting reflection on how he managed the race - which was a 45km and 3400m of elevation, which is approximately or 28 miles and 11 thousand feet of vert. Kris has an orienteering background and he’s also a really good road and track runner, with PRs of 13:45 in the 5000m, 28.23 in the 10000m, 63’ in the half marathon and 2:17 in the marathon.
Resources:
World Trail Champs - Preparation
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082. Marco Altini | How to use Heart Rate Variability (HRV) to quantify stress, balance training and lifestyle and improve performance
Marco Altini is a data scientist, computer science engineer, high performance coach and founder of HRV4TRAINING.
In this episode we talk about heart rate variability or HRV. Measuring HRV is an effective way to capture our body’s response to stress and how it's responding and adapting to training and lifestyle stressors.
In this episode, we learn what heart rate variability is, how to measure it, how to interpret the data, how to use them to make conscious decisions related to our training and lifestyle. Most importantly, we approach the topic of training embracing its complexity, without giving easy answers, but trying to understand the context and reason behind some choices and patterns that we observe, and how technology can be a great tool to increase our knowledge and awareness.
Follow Marco on Instagram and Twitter
Follow HRV4training
Sign up to his newsletter
Learn more about Heart Rate Variability
Discount code:
HRV4TRAINING - get 25% off the pro version of the app with the code ANYSURFACE25
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081. Coach Lab with Steve Krenn | How to train for trail running while living in a city
Steve Krenn is a trail and ultra runner from New York City and a Vert.run coach.
In this episode we will try to answer the question "can I train for a mountain or trail race even though I live in a flat place? Even with limited access to the trails, you can still call yourself a trail runner and develop the specific adaptations required by running on trails.
With some adaptations and creativity, and maybe a little shift in your mindset, you can still train for trail running even if the closest thing to a trail is your local city park. The key point is to understand that running is not always enough. Core and strength training, cross training, stairs, jumps, the treadmill and the gym should be your friends.
Sure, living and training where big climbs abound would be ideal. But thanks to this episode you can discover more on how to become a successful trail runner even without the hills.
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080. Adam Peterman | The quest for balance
Adam Peterman makes his second appearance on this podcast after his incredible 2022, when he became the Western States Champion and the Trail Running World Champion in the long distance event, in Thailand.
In this episode, we discussed how Adam’s life has changed after his incredible 2022, how he balances being a pro athlete with his other occupations, dealing with expectations and outside pressure, working with an agent, and we go into details of his training, how he picks his races, and his 2022 training data.
We recently learned that adam suffered from a sacral stress fracture during his build-up for western states and unfortunately he will have to review his plan for the summer. We wish him the best and quickest recovery, and we are certain that this experience will contribute to make him an even better athlete. All the best Adam!
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079. Craig Thornley, Western States race director | Western States, the growth of the sport, the culture and spirit of ultra running
Craig Thornley is the race director of Western States.
Western States is the oldest 100 mile race in America and one of the ultimate endurance challenges in the world, and Craig has been race director of the race since 2013. In this episode we talk about the history of the race, how he got involved, his work as a race director, and how he and the WS board are trying to evolve and at the same time preserve the spirit and special atmosphere of this competition, in the context of the fast changing and growing landscape of trail and ultra running.
We also talk about the history of the event in relation to the birth of ultra running, its spirit and culture and why it’s important to take care of it. If you deeply care about the sport, this episode is for you.
Follow Craig on Instagram and Twitter
Read his blog
Learn more about Western States
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078. Voices from the Vert.run community: Leo Pershall | Running and self identity, setbacks and growth, sailing across the world and finding the joy of running.
Leo Pershall is a Vert.run athlete and ambassador from California.
Leo has an incredible story in endurance sports, and he went from being an ultra cyclist, to sailing around the world during the pandemic, to becoming a smoker and quitting any kind of physical activity, to finding the love for running again. This year, Leo was signed up to Black Canyon 100k and he felt very well prepared, but he ended up dropping out for injury and questioning his value as an athlete and his life choices. He took a few weeks to reset and get healthy again, and he managed to bounce back with a very strong finish at Lake Sonoma 50 miler.
This is an inspiring story of setbacks and success, and a great example that progress is almost never linear. We are grateful to Leo for being so open about his struggles and what he went through, physically and mentally, over the past few months.
Please rate, review and share our show on social media: it will help other trail runners discover this podcast!
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077. Rachel Drake | Running and pregnancy, postpartum and return to running, dealing with injuries and learning opportunities
Rachel Drake is a professional trail runner sponsored by Nike from Portland, Oregon.
In this episode we talk about Rachel’s experience with postpartum return to running, how she’s dealing with a bone injury that she picked up during her post pregnancy, the challenges of being a mom and training as a professional athlete. This is a great episode if you want to learn more about pregnancy and running, what’s important to pay attention to, what could be done to help more mothers stay healthy and enjoy running while breastfeeding and raising a child.
Read Rachel's post on Spring Energy blog: My Journey with Postpartum Return to Running
Please rate, review and share our show on social media: it will help other trail runners discover this podcast!
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076. Coach Lab with Max Keith - Cross training: how to incorporate it into your training
In this episode of Coach Lab we talk about cross training and how to incorporate it into your preparation.
As runners, we tend to focus very much on running and neglect what is a fundamental part of training. Max and Francesco discuss the different types of cross training, their benefits and purposes, when you should you include cross training into your training periodization, and some ideas to have fun and make the most out of it.
Max Keith is a trail and ultra runner from Santiago, Chile, Vert.run's co-founder and coach.
Enjoy!
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