Community Trail Running

31 trail runners from 7 different countries sent me their trail running tips and I shared them all last week in the written newsletter. This week is the podcast version!

The reaction to the post has been fantastic as other runners have reached out and told me how much they enjoyed it, and some have even commented on their own tips!

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This episode goes over some favourite tips and I add some personal anecdotes. I had so much fun reading every single submission and it was a treat to put them all together and share them!

Music by Skilsel from Pixabay

If you enjoy the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)

Hello and welcome to the Community Trail Running Newsletter!

Sorry for the mass of emails the last couple of days, everything should be back to normal after this. Things are going to look slightly different around here with a new logo and name, but everything else is business as usual.

“Community Trail Running” is more straight-forward than “Ultrapostie thoughts in my head”. Simple as that. I’d like to grow the community here and a simple name that gets straight to the point is a more direct path.

Mission Statement

Inform, entertain, and inclusively serve as an online extension of the trail running community.

This is what the newsletter will continue to be all about.

Posts will still come out on the same days. Mondays for podcasts and Wednesdays for written pieces, with the occasional extra thrown in. I’m absolutely loving getting the opportunity to share with all of you!

A huge thank you to SK Designs for the new logo. I love it and the few variations I have. I will cycle through all of them I’m sure!

If you enjoy my newsletter, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running newsletter it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails.

Hello and welcome to the Community Trail Running Podcast! An extension of the trail running community and always 15 minutes or less. We’ll feature useful and entertaining guests and the show will be inclusive, adventurous, and fun. Subscribe today, join the community and let’s grow this together.

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Music by Skilsel from Pixabay

If you enjoy the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)

Scott Snell ran 254.167 miles (409.04 km) in just under 62 hours (finishing 62 yards) to capture the Capital Backyard Ultra title on May 28, 2022. An absolutely incredible feat that he accomplished without a crew!

Scott faced some highs and lows but managed to outlast a talented and deep field. His lows were tough and although he didn’t have any crew on hand, he explained there is always one person he knows that will tell him what he needs to hear.

“I called my wife and I was like, look, I think I'm going to quit. I'm done. I'm tired of this. And she reminded me that the reason I was there, what I said I was going to do was keep going until either I’m the last one or until I time out, whichever comes first.”

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Scott spoke glowingly of his wife’s support and about what Lazarus Lake has meant to ultra running. Laz was helping Scott get a few winks of sleep since he didn’t have a crew on hand. The famous race director also wrote a really awesome race update going into the 59th yard that you should read for yourself. It’s so cool how inspired Laz was seemingly feeling from Scott’s run. Scott is an easy guy to cheer for! Follow along and cheer him on as well here on his IG page.

If you enjoy the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)

Music by Skilsel from Pixabay

You are going to share a lot of personal information with your running coach if you want to benefit the most from the relationship and tutelage. Sharing all of this with someone is a huge act of trust and so it’s crucial that you and your coach have a great relationship. Personal Peak coach Chantelle Erickson preached the importance of a connection with her athletes during our interview.

“I mean, that's how we help you. And where I coach, I rejig programs all the time. It's pretty much every week I'm rejigging something. And it's those kinds of flexible things. Being able to communicate and just listen to your athletes.

I'm here to coach a person's goals and dreams. I'm here for them and to keep them on track with their goals.”

More from Chantelle Erickson:

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Chantelle is living in Lethbridge, AB these days, and was a great guest who is clearly passionate about helping others. She was a terrific interview! The interview went so well and so fast that I didn’t get to the submitted questions, and for that, I apologize!

Perhaps you can reach out on her IG page and ask her a question!

Chantelle’s Instagram

Chantelle’s Personal Peak coaching page

A reminder I still want your best two trail running tips! I’m accepting entries until the end of May and the article will be published on the first day of summer. Thank you to all of you that have submitted so far, it could be a record as far as participation and that’s amazing!

Want to listen to more trail running coaches?

If you enjoy the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)

Mathias Eichler is involved in trail running in all kinds of ways, as he runs and hosts a podcast (Singletrack), so directing a race doesn’t seem like much of a stretch for the man now calling Olympia, Washington, home. We had a chance to chat about his Rock Candy Running races which run from July to December in and around Olympia.

“It’s something very new and I’m super excited about it and I’m putting everything I have into it. "

Mathias is a super creative guy and the opportunity to create a race from scratch is something he loves. It was so fun to hear the passion he has for these races and I’m sure it’s going to be a complete blast to take part in any of them. It’s clear he’s invested himself in these races in a big way.

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Rock Candy Running Schedule:

July 23 - Beast of Big Creek (Half marathon and 7m)

August 6 - Little Backyard Adventure (6 hour challenge)

September 17 - Rock Candy Mountain Run (12 hour challenge)

December 17 - Saturnalia (10km)

If you enjoy the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)

Nutritionist Kristen Yarker shared great information about how to eat while training. She tells us how to ensure our body is recovering and getting enough out of what we eat to help us make forward progress!

“Aiming for a good 6 servings of vegetables or fruit a day is an important one. And the next one is just getting enough food (or calories) in general. The third one is hydration. If you’ve arrived at your training already dehydrated, you can’t make up for that.”

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Kristen runs a team of registered dieticians, she’s written a cookbook, she is well versed in all things nutrition, and in this chat, she shared a wide range of sports nutrition information. She is a wealth of knowledge and also, a really easy person to chat with! I hope you enjoy the chat and the information as much as I did.

Click here to read Kristen’s nutrition website

Click here to read her Instagram

I was also once again able to take some questions from Twitter!

I absolutely love being able to share your questions as I love to be able to provide the information you are thinking about :) So watch out and follow me on the various channels, so you can get your questions in there in the future as well!

Where do you think trail running is going? I talked about this in the intro of the podcast, but I recently posted some thoughts on this in a newsletter post. Mostly though, I wanted to hear from you! Where do you think it’s going?

If you enjoy the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)

When Gary Robbins and Eric Carter seek you out to work with them, you’re probably a pretty good athlete and an even better person. The two of them operate Ridgeline Athletics and added Jeanelle Hazlett as their first outside coaching hire in 2018. She’s been helping people become better trail runners and athletes as a Ridgeline coach ever since.

Getting better at anything requires practice and discipline. A coach can focus your practice so you are taking the most direct route to your goal. Jeanelle tells us about providing that focus for her athletes who are looking to become better trail runners.

“The most exciting thing has been really getting to know my athletes. What makes them tick and trick. They’re like, “I didn’t even mention this to you and yet you knew.” It’s the coaches intuition that gets to become the primary thing which is pretty exciting.”

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The conversation was a lot of fun and provided some great insight into what a trail running coach thinks about. I’m also certainly looking forward to the PNW Trailrunners group runs. I hope to see some of you out there!

Jeanelle’s Instagram

Ridgeline Athletics Website

PNW Trailrunners Website

I trained with Ridgeline Athletics in 2021 for the Squamish 50/50. I absolutely loved it and I feel that I learned more in 9 months of full-time coaching with them than I had in the previous 7 years of running.

Obviously, you can reach out to Jeanelle with any questions you have, and feel free to comment below if you have any for me as well!

If you enjoy the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)

Erick Thompson is the creator of “Fifty”, a trail running documentary. He told me the challenges of making a great documentary. The doc is about his journey to, and completion of, his first-ever 50 miler, along the HBC Heritage Trail:

“I Love this trail. It’s really interesting and it’s just beautiful. There are some great spots on it.”

Erick has a great connection with the HBC Trail and really enjoyed running and showcasing it.

Another Episode you may enjoy:

He was a great guest and it was fun to hear what a challenge it can be to run and document at the same time. I loved how Erick mentioned Monet painting the same scene multiple times and how he feels the same way attempting to showcase the HBC Heritage trail.

Erick had a great crew and it really motivated him to stick to his training. He didn’t want to let them down on the big day! Check out Erick’s Twitter and Youtube.

If you listen to your podcasts elsewhere, here are some links:

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If you enjoy the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)

This trail running podcast is fun and inclusive. It features interviews with wonderful people who will share helpful and entertaining information. I promise it will be 15 minutes well spent and you will look forward to the next episode!

I wanted to create a trailer for the podcast as some of the players have the option to highlight one. My wife Sheena (she’s also a makeup and hair superstar!) was kind enough to take me out for a photoshoot recently as well. So now I have a new logo for the podcast and some promotional material to milk a whole “post” out of ;)

I certainly appreciate all of you being here and supporting the newsletter. It’s been really fun so far as the writing side and the podcast side start to find their feet.

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Listen to the first episode about who I am here.

The podcast has been a lot of fun for me. I love the opportunity to chat and learn from all of the guests, and the challenge of keeping the interview short is also enjoyable. You’ve all been incredibly kind with your feedback and I could not be more grateful. I appreciate every bit of it so always comment on anything you are thinking.

I have to once again thank Mimi Jamieson, Kylie Morgan, Myke Labelle, Ty Holtan, and Carl “Professor” Stanfield for chatting with me. Every one of these people has been so kind to give up their time and eager to share some information with all of us, and I think we’re all a bit happier that they did!

If you enjoy the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could like, share, subscribe, or comment! I’m trying to make this the best trail running podcast it can be and I certainly appreciate your time. Thank you all and happy trails :)