Overcome and Run

Founder and Race Director for Grit OCR Antonio Alletto joined me on the podcast this week to tell me all about his race, how and why created it, and the challenges and success he encountered along the way.

We start by Antonio introducing himself and telling me about his background with OCR. We then dive into Grit as I ask him why he wanted to create an OCR, and he tells me how he started it.

Antonio walks me through the process of creating an OCR and creating the course, and tells me all about how he built all of his obstacles. He talks about the biggest challenges he faced in creating his own OCR, and we talk about last year's inaugural event and what he learned from it.

He explains the format of the race, and I ask him why he chose penalty loops over mandatory obstacle completion. He also explains how the competitive system works at his race.

We end by discussing expansion and different race formats, and Antonio tells me what kind of person Grit OCR is trying to reach.

The 2019 Spartan season kicked off in Chino, California last weekend and I spoke with some of the elite athletes who hit the podium all about the course, what they thought of the new obstacles, the competition, and the year ahead.

I spoke with:

-Kirk DeWindt

-Nicole Mericle

-Veejay Jones

-Nell Rojas

-Natalie Miano

-Nikolaj Dam

-Leon Kofoed

Live from Platinum OCR's first time trial of 2019, I spoke with some of the top athletes there all about the time trials, their training, and their plans for the upcoming season.

I spoke with Omar Padilla who placed first, Faye Morgan who placed first for women, Platinum OCR owner Nicole Kifer and second place female Evelyne Ruiz. We discuss the challenges they faced with the course and the obstacles, and how it relates to Spartan and other OCR races.

I also ask them about their training, their goals, and what their plans are for 2019.

A great short episode to send you into your weekend!

Spartan's VP of Product David Watson joins me on the podcast this week to discuss all the changes Spartan made to their championship qualification system, and their championship weekend, and why they decided to make them.

We start with some clarifying questions about the qualification system and the roll-down weeks that follow the last U.S. National Series race and the North American Championship in West Virginia.

Then we dive into the why: I ask David why Spartan decided to change the the qualification system to only 6 races in the season and if they took into account those racers that might find it especially difficult to qualify for the World Championships because of that. That leads us into an interesting discussion about raising the standards of championships and legitimizing the sport.

I ask David at what point Spartan will give more spots to international competitors, and we discuss the international competition.

We then talk all about the new format of the Spartan World Championship weekend, and I dive into all the questions I have about Sunday: why they cut the open wave, whether they think it's realistic racers will stick around to spectate on Sunday, and what the competition will look like.

After talking about the championships, I ask David about the new obstacles Spartan will be debuting this year which leads us into a discussion about obstacle standardization between the race formats, and further into distance standardization as well.

And lastly, I ask the question that's on everyone's mind: will the Spartan World Championships ever leave Tahoe?

This week, I invited Matt B. Davis of Obstacle Racing Media, Josh Chace of the New England Spahtens podcast, and Mike Stefano and Katelyn Ritter of the Obstacle Running Adventures podcast on the show for a round table discussion about a whole host of OCR topics.

We start by talking about Spartan's addition of age group podiums: what Spartan's goal was, whether or not they acheived it, and how they affected the competitive field. That leads us to discuss the addition of numerous race series within Spartan, and their championship series.

We move on to talk about Tough Mudder's Tougher series, and then we talk about the two-loop format Tough Mudder tried this year (and why it failed).

That leads us into a discussion about the breakneck speed with which companies are adding race formats and making changes. We talk about the Spartan trail race series, and speculate on whether or not it will be successful in 2019.

We also have a quick talk about the festival areas and where or not they're getting better, and why that's important.

Amidst unrelated banter, we then talk about OCR-related TV shows, and what they do or don't do for OCR. We then go off on another tangent about podcasts and which ones we listen to, complete with plenty more banter.

We end our discussion by stating our goals for next year, both with podcasting and racing.

This week elite OCR athlete and coach Mark Batres joins me to talk all about training in the off-season: the dos, the don'ts, and how to train to improve your performance for the next year.

We start with Mark telling me about his OCR season went, and then he tells me all about the recent Spartan combine held in Laughlin. I also ask him if he's planning on running one of the new Spartan Trail races, and we chat a bit about that.

Mark then tells me more about his coaching business, and how and why he got started.

We then talk about the off-season, and Mark explains why it's not good to take an excessive amount of time off. He tells me about building a base, and discusses the best ways to use the off-season to improve your OCR performance.

I ask him about plateaus in training, and Mark tells me how they happen, and the best advice for pushing past them. We then discuss finding a balance between overtraining and not training enough, and I ask him what some of the biggest mistakes are that people make in the off-season.

We end by talking a bit about the Spartan U.S. Championship series next year, and Mark's goals for 2019.

Elite ultra marathon runner and trail racer Devon Yanko joins me on the podcast this week to talk all about Western States, running ultra marathons, and why she loves (and excels at) those long distances.

We start with Devon telling me more about her background, and how she got into running and eventually towards ultras. She tells me about her first ultra, and how the community drew her in to the sport. She shares with me some of the lessons she learned, then talks about the first ultra she won.

I ask Devon why she prefers running long distances, which leads us to talk about how the ability to endure suffering is a key element to ultra running.

We talk about her lowest race moment (that happened to be captured on camera for the Billy Yang film Life In A Day), and how she got through it.

That leads us to talking all about The Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run, and her performance in 2016 where she placed third for women. She talks about what helped secure that podium spot, and goes in depth about various parts of the course.

She tells me about her injury after that race, and how she ran seven more races on a broken foot.

We then talk about her first OCR in Utah last summer and what she thought about it, and I ask Devon if she'll try any endurance OCR's coming up, and we talk about the possibility of her running World's Toughest Mudder next year.

Lastly, I ask Devon why she loves running, and we talk about all the great things about these sports.

This week, I brought Erin Rost on the show to talk all about her second place win for the women at World's Toughest Mudder last weekend, and all about that intense 24-hour event.

We start with Erin telling me about her background and how she got into OCR, and we talked about Toughest Mudder South (her first endurance OCR) and the lessons she learned in order to have a strong performance at WTM.

She tells me more about how she trained for WTM, and describes some of the long distance races she ran to prepare, including the North Face Endurance Challenge, her first 50-mile race.

Erin shares the worries she had going into World's, and she tells me all about her WTM experience, from the obstacles, to the routes she chose, to the lowest moment during her race (and she recites the epic poem that helped her through it).

We talk about the dramatic finish to the women's race, and the moment she realized that she took second place, and Erin tells me how it felt to cross the finish line.

We also talk about her experiences with the Tough Mudder community on the course, and she shares her OCR plans and goals for next year.

For our second episode this week, I brought elite OCR athlete Mikhail Gerylo on to talk all about this year's OCR World Championships in the UK.

Mik starts by telling me all about the 15k race where he placed in the top 15, and talks about the 100 obstacles in detail. He shares what made the course so difficult, and why the overall completion rate for many elite athletes was so low.

He tells me more about the unique obstacles there, and shares his strategy for recovering after falling off an obstacle. Mik also compares this year's course to last year's, and the challenges with each.

We then talk about the team race, and he tells me his role on the Maple Syrup Mamas team alongside Ryan Atkins and Lindsay Webster. Mik gives more detail about the team race format, and tells me more about the stiff competition.

We then talk about the race distance that he prefers to train for, and Mik shares more about his background and coaching. He tells me his plans for the off-season, and his big OCR goals for 2019.

From March 28th to August 28th of this year, OCR competitor Ben Mitchell hiked the entire length of the Pacific Crest Trail, so I brought him on the show to talk all about his journey.

Ben starts by introducing himself and how he got into OCRs, then tells me when and why he decided to hike the entire PCT. We talk about how long it took him to prepare, what it involved, and what he carried on him every day (and the lessons he learned about what not to carry).

He tells me about his worst day he had out on the trail, and we talk about trail logistics. Ben also shares what food and nutrition he relied on throughout the months he was hiking, and tells me more about his itinerary and breaks, also known as "zero days".

Ben also shares his favorite parts of the trail, and walks me through the different states and sections of the trail and their defining characteristics.

Lastly, he tells me about how it felt to finish the trail, and talks about the lessons he learned and the biggest takeaways from the entire trip.