Passion In Motion : A Fitness Podcast

Jessica began her athletic journey when she started playing soccer at the age of four through college. She started her coaching business Sugar Runs Coaching in 2017, works with athletes of all ages and abilities. Jessica ran 3:09 at grandmas marathon in 2019 and 3:01 pr at CIM marathon. She followed one of her favorite pacers Ricky during the races and became successful from doing it. She believed in herself and stayed mentally strong to have a strong finish, despite putting a lot of strain on her quads at the Eugene marathon.

Sophie is marathon runner and athlete from England. She discusses some of the ways how having a strong mindset can make you perform more efficiently at the longer distances. Sophie has worked with Heather McKirdy and has lowered her marathon pr down to 3:07.

Before the age of 16 I did very little sport, I found myself feeling unhappy with my body image and low in confidence. Day one in the gym was my 16th birthday where I set myself the aim of losing weight and building muscle. I developed steadily with the help of trainers in the gym and through Youtube. Through hard work and perseverance I continued to improve, setting bigger and harder goals for myself. Studying for a Geography degree at the University of Southampton I balanced sports with my studies and achieved the personal challenge of going to the gym 365 times in the final year of my degree.

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This was a real turning point in my fitness career. It inspired me to become a fully qualified personal trainer. I knew that I wanted to help anyone and everyone achieve their goals and feel happy and healthy. Post graduation I worked as a Personal Trainer at BrightsidePT, this was like a dream come true, I was helping a variety of clients push themselves to develop and I enjoyed seeing their fantastic results. All the while I was gaining experience working professionally as a running coach for the first time. Over this time I set myself the challenge of running 2500km in 365 days including my first marathon and many half marathons along the way. The training for me was addictive and I found myself wanting to achieve bigger and better things for both my clients and myself. For the following few years I moved seasonally between Greece and the UK working for Mark Warner in Rhodes and Nuffield Health. This broadened my client facing multi discipline experiences. Whilst working I began to advance in triathlon going on to complete several Ironman competitions. I found that this discipline is where I excel, achieving 3rd in my age group at Ironman Austria and ranking 4th in the age group. Since returning to the UK I set up Ben Parker Fitness with the aim of helping clients achieve their fitness goals. 2020 was a year full of challenges but I was lucky enough to be a part of a number of inspirational accomplishments set by many of my clients. Achievements ranging from 5k PBs to debut marathons; and some even more wild and wacky, such as ultramarathons including both a 100 mile run around a garden patio and 6 marathons in 5 days around the same patio. I also dabbled in the realms of ultra marathon and ran a rather crazy day to break up the various lockdowns, going 128km.

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Katie first started running in junior high school track/field as a hurdler. 16 years later, she gained interest for the sport of distance running. Katie since then has ran 62 half marathons, 7 marathons and 2 ultras. She's even trained and ran half marathons every month through her 9 months of pregnancy! Thanks to her coach at Atlanta Sports Recovery she’s now a firm believer in the “less mileage/more strength" approach to running, resulting in a 30 minute PR at the LA Marathon last year. Two of her other breakout performances was when she ran Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon and San Francisco Marathon. Katie thrives off of a plant based diet that has also helped her perform better in running.

Robbie Balengar is a dedicated athlete in the running community and has ran several ultra marathons including Bandera 100k, Caballo Blanco 50, and Austin Marathon to prepare for his run across the United States of America. He ran 3175 miles from Huntington Beach California to Tavern On The Green in New York City in 75 days. Robbie did this all on a Whole Foods plant based diet with the help from his crew and the ice cream company Nadamoo who sponsored him for this event. He believes becoming vegan will make a huge impact , not just in the running community but around the world. As a 100% whole food plant based athlete , Robbie has been able to reduce inflammation in his muscles , and joints much more efficiently then an athlete who is not vegan. He would burn up to 10,000 calories in a single run everyday. Robbies meal plan consisted of 11 meals throughout the day with shakes that provided him enough calories.

Podcast Host Lindsey Hein of “Ill Have Another” and “ Why Is Everyone Yelling” talks about her experiences podcasting Ryan Hall and Sarah Hall. She has ran 16 full marathons including a 3:11 pr. Lindsey balances a lifestyle of being a mom of four , full time marathoner and podcaster. She believes staying focused in training is the key to success.

Stacey got into running when she reached grad school. She has completed 25 half marathons, full marathon, triathlon and multi duathlons since then. Last year Stacey ran 30 miler and 50 miler 24 hour yeti challenge. She strongly believes in incorporating strength training with running for reaching a new level in training. Recently she launched her new company “Runs On Iced Coffee”. Stacey believes that coffee can help improve performance as a runner, and tastes great!

John is an accredited strength and conditioning coach with over 12 years of experience working with high performance sports. He holds a bachelors degree in applied sport and exercise science from Robert Gordon University and has masters degree in strength and conditioning. Jethro holds a masters degree in Physiotherapy and has gained multiple years of experience working in NHS and private sector. He has experience coaching strength and conditioning from university level to Olympic level. They discuss some of the ways effective strength training can be applied by using the progressive overload principle. John and Jethro talk about how having strong glutes can contribute to more power and force in the legs for offseason and season performance gains.

Jennifer is a USAT certified triathlon coach , age group triathlete and a mom. She spent 10 years working in global education, 5 years later changing her outlook to compete in triathlons and ironmans. Over the past couple years she has completed full distance triathlons, half ironmans, and multiple sprint races. She had placed in top 10 age group seven times and qualified for the 2020/2021 ironman 70.3 world championships. Her passion for this sport has discovered a new potential in these moments.

Rachel is a lifelong runner and has been running for over three decades. She ran throughout her highschool years doing track and xc when eventually sparked an interest in marathon running after running collegiate. She qualified for Boston marathon 4x. Rachel discusses some of the ways you can achieve your true potential as an athlete.