For The Long Run: Exploring the Why Behind Running

How much data do we really need to become better runners?

Recorded live in Chamonix during UTMB week, Jon Levitt hosts a panel discussion presented by TrainingPeaks with Alison Lynch of Amazfit, Arnar Larusson of Tymewear, professional athlete and coach Corrine Malcolm, and Doug Stewart of the Elite Trail Team.

They explore how wearable technology is changing the way we train, what metrics actually matter, and why more data doesn't always mean better decisions. The conversation also digs into the gaps in women's health research, the role of AI in coaching, and how technology can help everyday runners balance training with the demands of life.

At the heart of the discussion is a question worth asking: How do we use technology to become better runners without losing the joy of running in the first place?

Support our Sponsors:

CEP compression socks and sleeves are built to support runners through the full race experience, from long travel days to race-day miles and post-race recovery. Shop CEP at ceprunning.com and make compression part of your next race plan.

FlyKitt helps take the jet lag out of travel with a personalized plan built around your specific flight, so you can arrive ready to run, work, or explore. Use code FTLR at flykitt.com.

Tifosi Optics: From bright sunshine to overcast mornings, Tifosi offers performance eyewear designed for every running condition, with prescription options available as well. Shop at TifosiOptics.com and use code FTLR2026 to save 20% on your order.

Dakota Jones has been running ultras for more than half his life, but these days, running means a lot more to him than results.

Recorded in Chamonix ahead of CCC, Dakota joins the podcast to talk about the experiences that have kept him connected to trail running, why some of his most meaningful days in the sport have had nothing to do with winning, and how running has become a vehicle for community, adventure, and environmental action.

They talk about Dakota’s work with Footprints, riding his bike 650 miles to Western States, his partnership with NNormal and the brand’s approach to sustainability, and why individual action doesn’t have to be perfect to matter. Dakota also shares how he thinks about excellence today, the importance of making change at the community level, and his upcoming Great Salt Lake Project, where he’ll run 260 miles around the lake over five days to bring attention to its future.

For Dakota, running isn’t the end goal. It’s a way to connect with people, explore what’s possible, and hopefully leave things a little better than he found them.

Stay connected:

Dakota on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatdakotajones/?hl=en

Support our Sponsors:

CEP compression socks and sleeves are built to support runners through the full race experience, from long travel days to race-day miles and post-race recovery. Shop CEP at ceprunning.com and make compression part of your next race plan.

FlyKitt helps take the jet lag out of travel with a personalized plan built around your specific flight, so you can arrive ready to run, work, or explore. Use code FTLR at flykitt.com.

Tifosi Optics: From bright sunshine to overcast mornings, Tifosi offers performance eyewear designed for every running condition, with prescription options available as well. Shop at TifosiOptics.com and use code FTLR2026 to save 20% on your order.

What happens when running becomes less about the numbers and more about finding the edge of what’s possible?

Victor Zetouine is an ultrarunner, entrepreneur, and founder of Party Place who has taken on some wildly ambitious endurance challenges, including running The Speed Project solo from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and racing hundreds of miles across Chile’s Atacama Desert.

Victor joins Jon to talk about going from barely running half a mile to chasing huge endurance adventures, why a stress fracture ultimately led him to ditch his watch, and how losing a close friend changed the direction of his running. They dig into what Victor finds when he’s completely alone in the desert, why the hardest adventures can make the rest of life feel more meaningful, and the difference between goals that scare you and goals that paralyze you.

They also explore the overlap between ultrarunning and entrepreneurship, why perseverance often matters more than talent, breaking enormous goals into the next manageable step, and why Victor believes that every time you think you’ve found your limit, there’s still more to discover.

Stay connected:

Victor on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vic_zee/

Support our Sponsors:

CEP compression socks and sleeves are built to support runners through the full race experience, from long travel days to race-day miles and post-race recovery. Shop CEP at ceprunning.com and make compression part of your next race plan.

FlyKitt helps take the jet lag out of travel with a personalized plan built around your specific flight, so you can arrive ready to run, work, or explore. Use code FTLR at flykitt.com.

Join us for a pre-race meetup at Pattern Break Brewing the day before Boulderthon! Whether you used our code or just love running, come hang out with us from 2–5pm on Friday, September 25th. Reserve your spot here.

Kila makes custom 3D-printed insoles out of super shoe foams, built to your exact feet and shipped straight to your door. Head to kilarun.com and use code FTLR for $50 off your first order.

Emma Zeiger knows a lot about doing hard things and finding meaning in them.

After losing her dad when she was nine, Emma eventually found community through Experience Camps, a free camp for children who have lost a parent, sibling, or primary caregiver. That experience helped inspire Ghosted by Grief, her podcast and community built around making hard conversations easier to have.

Now, after two marathon attempts were derailed by health issues and surgeries, Emma is training for the New York City Marathon while raising money for Experience Camps through her “Grief Is a Long Run” campaign. The idea: grief, like running, isn’t linear. Mile six can feel impossible and mile 19 can feel easy. You just have to keep moving.

Emma and Jonathan talk about grief, finding community through endurance sports, the pressure we put on ourselves, and learning to accept what our bodies can do. Ultimately, it’s about doing hard things, finding joy along the way, and making those hard things a little less lonely for someone else.

Stay Connected:

Emma's Podcast: Ghosted

Emma on Instagram

Support our Sponsors:

Boulderthon: Whether you're hunting for a PR or just looking for an excuse to visit Colorado in early fall, Boulderthon has a race for you. Register at Boulderthon.org and use code FTLR2026 for $20 off the Half or the Full.

CEP compression socks and sleeves are built to support runners through the full race experience, from long travel days to race-day miles and post-race recovery. Shop CEP at ceprunning.com and make compression part of your next race plan.

FlyKitt helps take the jet lag out of travel with a personalized plan built around your specific flight, so you can arrive ready to run, work, or explore. Use code FTLR at flykitt.com.

What happens when 100 miles is no longer far enough?

Ekta Basu joins Jon after finishing the Tahoe 200, a journey that took her more than four days and pushed her further than she had ever gone before. She shares how she went from a self-described “mile junkie” with little structure to training intentionally for 200 miles, and why the process taught her as much as the race itself.

Ekta takes us inside the highs and very low lows of Tahoe, from early blisters and chasing cutoffs to spending the final 20 miles hunched over with a failing back. She talks about the crew and community that kept her moving, seeing her son cry at the finish line, and the realization waiting for her after 200 miles: everything she needed to keep going was already within her.

They also talk about doing hard things, the freedom of running, why every step is a choice, and the curiosity that keeps Ekta wondering just how far she can go.

Stay connected:

Follow Ekta on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ekta_runs/

Support our Sponsors:

Boulderthon

Whether you're chasing a PR or looking for an unforgettable race weekend, Boulderthon offers a 5K, 10K, half marathon, full marathon, and kids races in beautiful Boulder, Colorado. Register at Boulderthon.com and use code FTLR2026 to save $20 on your half or full marathon registration.

Tifosi Optics

From bright sunshine to overcast mornings, Tifosi offers performance eyewear designed for every running condition, with prescription options available as well. Shop at TifosiOptics.com and use code FTLR2026 to save 20% on your order.

FlyKitt

FlyKitt helps take the jet lag out of travel with a personalized plan built around your specific flight, so you can arrive ready to run, work, or explore. Use code FTLR at flykitt.com.

Professional skier, mountaineer, endurance athlete, activist, and former U.S. Senate candidate Caroline Gleich joins Jon for a wide-ranging conversation about sport, advocacy, and having the courage to stand for something.

Caroline shares how running became part of her life after a major ankle injury, how she built an unconventional career as a professional athlete, and why endurance sport has given her the confidence and self-belief to take on challenges far beyond the mountains. She reflects on running for U.S. Senate in Utah, the grit she gained from the campaign, and what she learned about speaking up, finding common ground, and staying true to her values even when there are consequences.

Jon and Caroline also talk about the responsibility athletes have to use their platforms, navigating brand partnerships while being outspoken, the role of sport in building resilience, supporting a partner with equally big goals, and her concerns about AI, data centers, and the future of creators.

At the heart of the conversation is a simple idea: doing hard things in sport can teach us how to show up for the hard things that matter outside of it, too.

Support our Sponsors:

Boulderthon

Whether you're chasing a PR or looking for an unforgettable race weekend, Boulderthon offers a 5K, 10K, half marathon, full marathon, and kids races in beautiful Boulder, Colorado. Register at Boulderthon.com and use code FTLR2026 to save $20 on your half or full marathon registration.

Kila

Kila makes custom 3D-printed insoles out of super shoe foams, built to your exact feet and shipped straight to your door. Head to kilarun.com and use code FTLR for $50 off your first order.

Tifosi Optics

From bright sunshine to overcast mornings, Tifosi offers performance eyewear designed for every running condition, with prescription options available as well. Shop at TifosiOptics.com and use code FTLR2026 to save 20% on your order.

Ben Dhiman won UTMB. One of the most competitive ultra trail races in the world, and he won it. This conversation was recorded not long after, when the dust had barely settled and he was still figuring out what it all meant.

Ben talks about the race itself, what the final miles felt like, the weight of expectation that came with being a contender, what winning actually gave him versus what he thought it would, and who he is when he's not running.

Joe Corcione returns to talk through his Western States race, why he considers it his best race ever despite missing his time goal, and how he defines success through process and effort rather than placement or pace. He also breaks down the mindset tools he used late in the race, the role of sober living and personal growth in his why, and the bigger mission behind Everyday Ultra.

This is an interview centered on performance, identity, and purpose, with strong crossover into coaching, business, and community-building. Joe shares the practical and mental framework he uses for racing and for running a business that he believes should change lives, not just improve times.

Support our Sponsors:

Boulderthon

Whether you're chasing a PR or looking for an unforgettable race weekend, Boulderthon offers a 5K, 10K, half marathon, full marathon, and kids races in beautiful Boulder, Colorado. Register at Boulderthon.com and use code FTLR2026 to save $20 on your half or full marathon registration.

Go Brewing

This episode is brought to you by Go Brewing, a small family-run brewery outside Chicago making non-alcoholic IPAs, lagers, and hazies that actually taste like beer, with most cans under 60 calories and no added sugar, so try favorites like the Jab Jab Grapefruit IPA, New School Sour Berry, or Baller Melon at gobrewing.com and use code FTLR2026 for 20% off your first order.

Daniel Berk was 32 years old, about 50 pounds overweight, and hadn't sprinted since college when he posted a tweet saying he was going to become a runner. He didn't know what he was doing. His first 5K took 50 minutes. He described himself as a blubbery, slow, out-of-breath whale. And then he just kept going.

Two and a half years later he's lost 50 pounds, run four half marathons, and is sixteen weeks out from his first full marathon at Chicago. He's also an entrepreneur, a content creator, a father of two with a third on the way, and someone who thinks about running and business in almost exactly the same terms.

This conversation is about what happens when you show up publicly with a goal you're not sure you can achieve — and what that does for you in every other part of life.

Topics covered:

Support our sponsors:

Training Peaks

The coaches behind UTMB winners and the athletes you've heard on this show are all using the same platform — and that's not a coincidence. Get 20% off Training Peaks premium with code FTLR here!

Boulderthon

Whether you're hunting for a PR or just looking for an excuse to visit Colorado in early fall, Boulderthon has a race for you. Register at Boulderthon.org and use code FTLR2026 for $20 off the Half or the Full.

Kila makes custom 3D-printed insoles out of super shoe foams, built to your exact feet and shipped straight to your door. Head to kilarun.com and use code FTLR for $50 off your first order.

Quick note before you press play. This conversation with Des Linden first aired on Long Run Labs, my podcast about the business of endurance and the outdoor industry. Des is one of the most thoughtful people in running when it comes to how athletes can build something lasting beyond their competitive years, so I figured her story was worth putting in front of the For the Long Run audience too.

Des Linden won the 2018 Boston Marathon in one of the most iconic performances in the history of the race. But this conversation is not about that day. It is about what she has built since and how she thinks about the next chapter.

Des and Jon chat about:

Support our sponsors:

Training Peaks

The coaches behind UTMB winners and the athletes you've heard on this show are all using the same platform — and that's not a coincidence. Get 20% off Training Peaks premium with code FTLR here!

Boulderthon

Whether you're hunting for a PR or just looking for an excuse to visit Colorado in early fall, Boulderthon has a race for you. Register at Boulderthon.org and use code FTLR2026 for $20 off the Half or the Full.

Tifosi Optics

From bright sunshine to overcast mornings, Tifosi offers performance eyewear designed for every running condition, with prescription options available as well. Shop at TifosiOptics.com and use code FTLR2026 to save 20% on your order.

Kila makes custom 3D-printed insoles out of super shoe foams, built to your exact feet and shipped straight to your door. Head to kilarun.com and use code FTLR for $50 off your first order.