Stefan Heisler is one of my best friends from college, and he is the reason I run at all. A year ago he sent me a text about how running fits nicely around work and kids. That text ended with me standing on a mountain in New Hampshire wondering what I had agreed to.

This episode is his story. Two miles off the couch, a triathlon leg he was terrified of, a half marathon he had to walk in, a 3:30 marathon, and then 100 miles at the Tahoe Rim Trail. We talk about what he actually did to train for it while working full time with two small kids, the mistakes he made in every single race leading up to it, and the stomach problem at mile 15 that nearly ended the whole thing.

Also: what makes a New Hampshire trail different from a California one, and why nobody warned him about the boulders.

Heads up: Stefan's internet died halfway through, so we finished this a couple of days later. You'll hear me explain it around the 54 minute mark.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Eighteen years of friendship and zero runs together

2:01 How Stefan actually started running

2:49 A triathlon where he only had to run

5:05 The half marathon he had to walk in

5:58 Signing up for a marathon a year out

7:33 Hitting 3:30 in his first marathon

8:25 One YouTube video and a secret ultra signup

11:05 Training around a full-time job and two kids

12:55 4:30 AM alarms, and 3 AM during peak week

16:43 The weed whacker problem

18:59 Why running still feels hard even when you're improving

23:48 The Tahoe Rim Trail 100

24:44 The plan: aerobic base, uphill work, 80 mile weeks

27:14 Race week as a parent: whatever you do, don't get sick

29:26 Finishing 100 miles and winning his age group

31:11 What the 100K, 50K and 50 miler each taught him

34:31 The rock he never took out of his shoe

35:29 Fueling: gels, fig bars, and what stopped working

37:21 Stomach trouble at mile 15 and solving it mid-race

40:21 The text message that gaslit me into running

42:06 2.2 miles in 24 minutes

46:24 Jigger Johnson: 6,000 feet of gain in 20 miles

47:58 West Coast switchbacks vs New Hampshire boulders

51:19 Check the terrain before you sign up

53:52 A quick note about the internet

54:31 What's next: the Western States lottery

57:22 Run the same race better, or chase a new one?

59:06 Trail runners vs road runners

1:00:49 Why marathon and ultra training don't overlap

1:04:49 Signing up for the 50 miler three days later

1:06:46 94 hours at the Last Soul Ultra

1:07:16 Wrap up

If you're getting something out of this show, the best thing you can do is hit subscribe. It's free and it actually helps.

Come say hi on Instagram: @evan_blakeney

Everything else - podcast links, socials, all of it: https://linktr.ee/evanblakeney

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Tahoe Rim Trail Endurance Runs - Nevada

Canyons Endurance Runs 100K - Auburn, CA

Jigger Johnson 20 Miler - White Mountains, NH

Great American Triathlon - Sacramento, CA

Apple Hill Half Marathon - Camino, CA

Training for the Uphill Athlete - Scott Johnston

Last Soul Ultra, Germany - Mark Dowdle, 94 yards / roughly 392 miles

Quick disclaimer: I'm not a coach, a doctor, or an expert. I'm a runner who's still figuring this out, talking to other runners who are also still figuring it out. Take what's useful and check anything important with a professional.

Until Next Time: Just Keep Running

Nita Sweeney started running at 49, and it started with sixty seconds of jogging in a hidden ravine with her dog. She was severely depressed, out of shape, and convinced her neighbors would laugh at her. She's now a marathoner, an ultra runner, and the author of Depression Hates a Moving Target.

We go all the way back: an Ohio farm childhood, a father who measured everything, a law career that eventually broke her, and the year she couldn't work at all. Then the Facebook post from a high school friend that got her off the couch, and everything that came after it.

Nita talks about why she needs a race on the calendar to keep moving, the three things she checks whenever she feels off, and why the running community turned out to be nothing like she expected. If you're at the beginning and wondering whether it's too late, start here.

Nita's website: https://nitasweeney.com

Her books: Depression Hates a Moving Target · Memorial: The Year My Dad and I Stopped Keeping Score · Make Every Move a Meditation

Everything from the show: https://linktr.ee/evanblakeney

Instagram: @evan_blakeney

Follow the show so you don't miss the next one, and come say hi on Instagram @evan_blakeney.

This episode includes discussion of depression, suicidal thoughts, and psychiatric hospitalization. If you're struggling, you can call or text 988 in the US to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, any time.

Just Keep Running is hosted by Evan Blakeney, a runner figuring this out alongside you. Nothing here is medical or coaching advice.

Episode Tags

running, beginner runner, marathon, ultra running, mental health, depression, couch to 5k, running community, Nita Sweeney, running coach, meditation, starting running later in life

Until Next Time: Just Keep Running

Heads up before you listen: Fitz shares a specific calorie formula in this episode that's worked for a lot of her clients. It's a simplification — it doesn't account for height, age, sex, or how much you're training. If you're training for a distance event, talk to a sports dietitian before cutting calories. Under-fueling is genuinely common in endurance runners and it'll wreck your training before it does anything for your waistline. I'm not a coach, a doctor, or a nutritionist — I'm a guy who started running and wanted better answers than the ones I was getting. This is a conversation, not medical advice.

Fitz Koehler has yelled "GO!" at more starting lines than most people alive. She's the voice of the Los Angeles Marathon, the Publix Gasparilla Distance Classic, the OC Marathon, the DONNA National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer, and about thirty other events a year. She's also a breast cancer survivor, has a master's in exercise science, and built a before-school running program called the Morning Mile that's now in more than 400 schools across America, Canada, and Japan.

This one runs long because I kept stopping her to ask follow-ups. No apologies.

We get into:

• Why she taught her first fitness class at 14 years old — after quitting a job at Cinnabon
• The one sentence in a research journal that changed how she thinks about weight management
• Why she thinks your Garmin is overestimating your calorie burn, and what I started doing about it
• Her claim that roughly 60% of marathoners could still lose 20+ pounds — and why that's not a discipline problem
• How a conversation with a friend about her kid's school turned into the Morning Mile, now in 400+ schools
• What actually happens when you ask a school to let kids run before class (the pushback is weirder than you'd think)
• Why kids stop loving running somewhere between age 3 and age 12
• Her hard line on kids and marathons — and the growth-plate reasoning behind it
• The four pillars of fitness most runners are only doing one of
• Why your knees hurt when you run — and why the problem is usually your hips
• The glute medius test she says 97% of runners fail
• Why you should never strength train the same muscles two days in a row
• Why she told me to stop running seven days a week immediately
• How race announcing became a full-time career, and the 40 minutes she had to improvise when a car broke onto the course
• Her three favorite races to announce, and why the back of the pack has the best energy

If this one was useful, leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It's the single biggest thing that helps other beginner runners find the show.

Come say hi on Instagram: @evan_blakeney

FIND FITZ: Website: https://www.fitzness.com Morning Mile: https://www.morningmile.com Instagram: @fitzness Podcast: The Fitzness Show Books: You Supercharged: The Exact Formula for Fitness, Weight Loss and Longevity · My Noisy Cancer Comeback · the Healthy Cancer Comeback series

FIND ME: Everything: https://linktr.ee/evanblakeney Instagram: @evan_blakeney Facebook: facebook.com/evan.blakeney.9

Until Next Time: Just Keep Running

PJ Glassey has spent almost 40 years testing what actually works in strength training, and it led him somewhere weird: racing up skyscraper stairwells. In this episode, the founder of XGYM breaks down fast twitch vs. slow twitch muscle fibers, the exact exercise protocol he used to increase a triathlete's stride power, why tower running might be the best cross-training a runner can do, and how to tell a legit study from a bogus one.

We cover:

•      PJ's path from teenage bodybuilder to founder of XGYM's time-under-tension training method

•      How to actually evaluate a scientific study — and how to use AI to fact-check one

•      Fast twitch vs. slow twitch muscle fibers, explained for runners

•      The suspension lunge protocol PJ used to increase a triathlete's stride power

•      Tower running: what it is, why it's low-impact, and how it builds hill-running strength

•      Ways to replicate tower-running training without a stairwell (Jacob's ladder, stairmaster technique, versa climber)

•      Anti-aging: why quad strength predicts your mortality better than grip strength

•      Red light therapy: what's real, what's marketing, and how to vet a device

Note: PJ shares a personal VO2 max result from his own training log. It's a compelling anecdote, not a controlled study — worth keeping in mind as you listen.

Connect with XGYM

00:00  Welcome & guest intro

00:38  How PJ got into fitness (skinny kid → bodybuilder → trainer)

07:58  Why he founded XGYM in 1998 (less time, less injury, less bulk)

11:21  How to evaluate a scientific study (and use AI to fact-check it)

21:06  Pivoting to running: what PJ has learned training runners

23:16  Stride frequency vs. stride length — the only two ways to get faster

24:20  The suspension lunge protocol (built a triathlete's stride power)

31:24  Fast twitch vs. slow twitch, explained simply

38:22  What is tower running, and why is it the best sport you've never heard of

41:07  Why tower running builds hill strength without the joint damage

47:53  PJ's VO2 max results from anaerobic training (his own data — not a study)

49:24  Suffering as a trainable skill (“best at suffering,” not best-conditioned)

51:50  Replicating tower-run training: Jacob's ladder, stairmaster, versa climber

55:47  Tower running stories: stairwell hacking, team records, the community

1:01:12  Anti-aging: comfort zone expansion, quad strength vs. grip strength

1:04:00  Practical steps for people starting from pain or sedentary life

1:05:12  Red light therapy: what matters, what's marketing

1:09:34  Where to find XGYM, the brain type test

1:11:20  Wrap up

Follow on apple, youtube and Instagram

@evan_blakeney on Instagram 

Links:

Buzzsprout

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

YouTube

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Guest — XGYM

Until Next Time: Just Keep Running

Jason Geroux — known online as The Maine Viking — has run dozens of ultramarathons including 19 100-milers, and this spring he ran 300 miles solo through the Arizona desert using his own house as an aid station. In this episode, recorded in person in Orono, Maine, Jason walks through how a torturous 2-mile honeymoon run turned into a decade of daily training, why 100 miles became his favorite distance, what actually goes through your head at mile 200 of a race with no crew, and how he fits all of it around running his own flooring business.

This isn’t coaching advice — Jason isn’t a certified coach and neither is Evan. It’s one runner’s actual experience, shared so you can take what’s useful and leave the rest.

In this episode:

•      How a scared-to-run-alone honeymoon jog turned into 10 years of daily training

•      Why Jason picked 100 miles as his favorite distance over 50s or 200s

•      The first 100-mile attempt he didn’t finish — and what changed the second time

•      Planning and training for the Arizona Monster 300 (300 miles, no support crew)

•      What happens mentally once you’re past your previous longest distance

•      Running an epoxy flooring business on 4 AM training and zero days off

Find Jason: Instagram @themaineviking | Facebook: Jason Geroux

All links, socials, and past episodes: linktr.ee/evanblakeney

Until next time, Just Keep Running.

Until Next Time: Just Keep Running

Can one bad week of missed runs ruin your marathon training? I got sick partway through a training block — a chest cold, three nights of awful sleep, and a week where everything that could go wrong did — and in this solo episode I think out loud about what it actually costs.

I'm building toward an October marathon with a goal of breaking 4:30, and right when my training was finally clicking, it all came apart. So I get honest about training through sickness, the fear of losing fitness, and the all-or-nothing mindset that makes me skip a run completely instead of just doing a shorter one. No tidy answers here — just a runner working through a rough stretch in real time. If you've ever felt behind or gotten sick at the worst possible moment, you'll relate to this one.

In this episode:

•  Why I traded base-building for a strength block

•  Whether to run with a cold — and when to rest

•  Do you really lose fitness after a week off?

•  The all-or-nothing trap and the small fix I'm trying

New episodes every other Friday. If this one resonated, follow or subscribe so you don't miss the next.

Find everything here: https://linktr.ee/evanblakeney

Until Next Time: Just Keep Running

Zone 2 training is low-intensity, aerobic-base running — but the hardest part isn't the science, it's one simple question: how do you actually know when you're in Zone 2?

Most runners rely on the heart rate zones their watch hands them. The problem is those zones are built on an estimate of your max heart rate that can be off by 40 beats per minute, which throws the whole calculation off.

In this solo episode, Evan breaks down what Zone 2 actually does for your body, why your watch is probably getting your zones wrong, and the no-gadget “talk test” that's more reliable than the numbers on your wrist. He also shares what nine weeks of real Zone 2 training did to his pace — and the injury that taught him to build smarter, not just faster.

What you'll learn:

•  What Zone 2 is doing inside your body (mitochondria, capillaries, and the aerobic base)

•  Why “220 minus your age” makes your watch's zones unreliable

•  The talk test: how to find Zone 2 with no watch at all

•  How much Zone 2 you actually need at your weekly volume (and why 80/20 isn't a universal rule)

•  Why your heart rate spikes on hills — and why that's fine

•  How long Zone 2 takes to work, with real before-and-after pace numbers

•  The cardiovascular-vs-structural trap that led to an Achilles injury — and how to avoid it

Evan isn't a doctor or a coach — just a runner who reads the research and shares what he finds. Nothing here is medical or training advice.

Studies referenced:

Storoschuk et al., “Much Ado About Zone 2,” Sports Medicine (2025): https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-025-02261-y

Persinger & Foster et al., the talk test and ventilatory threshold, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (2004): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15354048/

Nes et al., max heart rate accuracy, The HUNT Fitness Study, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports (2013): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2012.01445.x

Mølmen et al., mitochondria and capillary growth, Sports Medicine (2025): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39390310/

Follow Just Keep Running: https://linktr.ee/evanblakeney

Until Next Time: Just Keep Running

Ice bath for runners — does cold water immersion actually help recovery, or is it just marketing hype? In this episode, I dig into the peer-reviewed research to find out and answer the questions every runner has but nobody seems to address.

For about 15 years, I thought I had ice baths figured out. Then in the span of a few months, I heard I might be doing them at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons — and that they might even be working against my own training. So I went looking for answers, and they were a lot harder to find than I expected.

This episode is one of the questions that made me start this podcast in the first place. Everybody talks about cold plunging and ice baths — but nobody seems to stop and answer the basic questions a runner actually has.

In this episode I cover:

• Is there even a difference between an ice bath and a cold plunge?

• Does cold water immersion really help with recovery?

• Will it kill your gains? (Spoiler: not for runners — and I explain why)

• When should you do it — in the morning, or after your run?

• How cold should the water be, and how long should you stay in?

• Do you need your whole body in, or are legs enough?

• How does cold compare to heat, contrast therapy, and active recovery?

I'm not a scientist or a doctor — I'm just a curious runner who can read and use the internet. I leaned on peer-reviewed studies for the facts and tried to translate what I found into something useful for runners of all levels, from beginner to marathoner.

If this episode gave you some value, the biggest thing you can do to help the show is hit follow or subscribe so you don't miss the next one. New episodes drop every other Friday.

Until next time — Just Keep Running.

—

Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evan_blakeney

Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@justkeeprunningwithevan

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/just-keep-running-with-evan-blakeney/id1884475740

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033hhjDEhHCUN076XH63Rc

Until Next Time: Just Keep Running

What does it actually take to run 60 miles a week, lift heavy multiple times a week, and still show up for HYROX competitions — without falling apart?

Joe Mello figured it out the hard way. He grew up playing baseball in the Bay Area, hated running his whole life (it was literally used as punishment at practice), and then one November day in Austin decided to sign up for a marathon happening in February — with zero race experience. That's just who he is: all or nothing.

Now Joe runs high mileage, lifts heavy, competes in HYROX, and works at Heart and Soil Supplements — where nutrition isn't just a hobby, it's his job. In this conversation we get into all of it: how he structures his week, how he fuels that kind of training load, what his supplement stack actually looks like, and the mindset behind doing more than most people think is possible.

We also get into:

•       What HYROX actually is and why it appeals to people who love both running and lifting

•       The running vs. lifting tension — and why Joe thinks most runners have it wrong

•       How to fuel early morning long runs when eating at 4am sounds impossible

•       The animal-based diet explained simply — and how it applies to endurance training

•       Organ meats: do you actually have to eat them, or do supplements cover it?

•       Why Joe thinks starting with shorter races is the advice he'd give his past self

•       The 50K he ran with nothing but a jar of honey — and what happened around mile 25

Joe is the kind of person who jumps in before he's ready and figures it out on the way. If that sounds familiar, this one's for you.

Follow Joe on Instagram: @joe_mello

Follow Evan on Instagram: @evan_blakeney

Heart and Soil Supplements: heartandsoil.co

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it helps more runners find the show. And subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Until Next Time: Just Keep Running

13.1 miles. It’s not superhuman — millions of people do it every year. But for me, finishing my first half marathon was a genuinely big deal. And not because I crushed it. I didn’t. I finished well below the average time, my knee was a question mark the whole way, the weather was absolutely miserable, and I almost needed an emergency bathroom stop at mile nine.

In this episode, I’m breaking down everything — the good, the bad, and the embarrassing. We talk training mistakes (I definitely violated the 10% rule), fueling experiments that almost went sideways, the mental war of the final three miles, and what I’d do differently if I could start over.

This isn’t a story about being elite. It’s a story about being a regular person who signed up for something hard and showed up anyway. If you’re thinking about doing your first half — or any race — this one’s for you.

In this episode:

•      Why I crammed my training into 8 weeks (and paid for it)

•      The honey and banana pre-run fueling strategy that actually worked

•      What happened when I almost didn’t make it to a bathroom at mile 6

•      How race energy is completely different from solo training runs

•      The mental trick that got me through the final 5K

•      My official finish time and what I’m taking into the next race

Key Takeaway: Give yourself more time than you think you need, train in conditions that match race day, practice your nutrition, and don’t skip the mental prep!

Until Next Time: Just Keep Running