As I sit down with former NCAA Division 1 Decathlete and current NCAA Track and Field Coach Ben Yocum - I try to convince him to commit to his next full Ironman will a little peer pressure - only time will tell if it works.

We talk about the pitfalls of life sneaking up on you and how that affects the consistency of training.

Later on he regales me with the story of his first (and only?) Steeplechase race. He confirms a long held suspicion I have about the race.

I ask him how all his athletic history can translate into help for his young athletes now.

In the middle of my chat with coach Ben he recalls his very first triathlon ever - moving from highly competitive decathlete to doing a sprint triathlon wasn't nearly as glamorous as Ben thought.

We talk about mixing coaching and training and managing priorities between personal and professional goals.

Ben shares a tip for me and any other time starved athlete looking to maximize their performance.

In the last part of my conversation with Coach Ben we deep dive into running mechanics - sit back in your chair for this one as Ben has spent significant time studying the biomechanics of the best runners and shares his tips on how to achieve maximum efficiency on two legs.

Also see - Carl Lewis on youtube for Ben is talking about.

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As I sit down with all around badass Ashley Anderson for this episode of the Smart Athlete Podcast, I start off by giving her a hard time about eating breakfast for dinner.

I may receive some hate for it, but brinner has never been my thing - feel free to change my mind.

She shares with me how she is imminently finishing up dental school and sometimes it is easy to feel a little out of place. As well as how her sport career in triathlon and running has affected her academic life.

I ask her about the influences in her early life that led her to dental school and choosing her particular specialty and she tells me about how giving back to the community has often been a part of her life.

Ashley lets me in on the personal side of her life by sharing a little bit about her long distance relationship and trying to make that work.

In the middle of my conversation with Ashley we talk about how she met former Smart Athlete Podcast guest Greg Grosicki and his impact on her sporting career - leading to a huge running PR and ventures into the multisport world.

We commiserate a bit over both of our desires to have a coach that is more than someone who writes workouts. A coach to us is someone who is a friend, a confidant, and a person there for you in the highs and lows.

Ashley goes on to share with me the difficulty of balancing each day of intense dental school with training to be the best triathlete she can be.

We wander into a discussion about pain - the differences about pain and Ashley shares a story of a surprise medical discovery she found out about after the fact that was significant news to her.

In the last part of my talk with Ashley we jump back to her early sporting days - being a nationally competitive equestrian. She gives me the ins and outs on equestrian life as well as an easy way for me to get back into riding as a casual participant.

Since Ashley is also into yoga I ask her if she knows former SAP guest Richard Fineman. Though she's never met him, he did help upgrade her ride and fine tune some of the workouts she's doing on the bike with power.

Before I ask my closing question we talk a little about how overthinking workouts can affect them and the difficulty that mentally engaged people often have in shutting their brain down to get optimal sport performance.

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In the beginning of my talk with newly minted MIT PhD Richard Fineman we talk about fellow Smart Athlete Podcast guest Greg Grosicki's advice for Richard throughout grad school and the secret he's been keeping from Richard.

Since he's a newly minted PhD in Medical Engineering, Richard has been looking for employment both in the private sector and in Academia - he talks about the pros and cons of both and I share my opinion on one of the greatest moments in working in a private company developing unique products.

We talk a little about whether altruism can actually be real.

In the middle of my talk with Richard we discuss his research at MIT in Medical Engineering and human biomechanics as well as how some of this might be applied in the private sector.

Richard shares his opinion on machine learning in society - how it can aid us and the potential downfalls of relying too heavily on AI decisions.

He also gives me a little insight into what wearing a spacesuit feels like from his time working as a NASA fellow.

In the last part of my chat with Richard I bring up the beer mile wager between him as well as former smart athlete podcast guests Greg Grosicki and Corey Robinson.

Richard was the champion of that endeavor despite being the slowest runner so he shares with me his "secrets" to being the beer mile champ.

We diverge as I ask him about becoming a certified yoga instructor - something that takes 200 hours of work to complete. He lets me know how yoga has affected his triathlon career and what has happened in the wake of not being as active with it anymore.

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On today's episode of the Smart Athlete Podcast I sit down with doctor of human bioenergetics, Greg Grosicki.

I ask Greg if he's ever considered changing his name after I fumble with all the G's - good thing I'm not the host of a podcast or anything.

We hop into talking about Greg's research and lecture in human muscle performance as well as the importance of the gut microbiome.

To listen to Greg's lecture go to the youtube video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrKxd...

Greg shares his time management strategy for life - never say no to things you love.

I try to get some practical advice out of Greg for someone who's never worked out before and finds themselves in their golden years trying to play catch up.

Greg shares some hopeful news for us as we lose muscle through aging.

I ask Greg whether the compensation muscle fibers go through as we age helps us keep our speed up while running so that we can run like we are 19 when we are 60.

I ask Greg how he deals with the wrongful attribution of scientific research and results into pop articles and clickbait.

Though I love Bill Nye as he was a part of my childhood, I make the case for why Bill Nye isn't the best person to teach us science and why Academicians fail to gain the following that some science influencers have.

A little over halfway through we start to dive into Greg's current research on the gut microbiome.

I ask Greg for the definition difference between Microbiota and Microbiome and take a few minutes to get my head around the phrase "gene expression." In short - it's the amount of a particular gene that shows up that helps Greg identify which bacteria are present in the gut.

Out of curiosity I ask Greg why different people have different microbiota - even twins with radically different microbiomes.

In the last part of my talk with Greg I ask him about whether the US is the place that destroys your gut bacteria and makes you fat - something an article I saw suggested.

Greg tells me about how his research affects his coaching.

We talk a bit about labral tears for athletes and Greg has his opinion on what most people should do based on what operative results are available and how it applied to him.

As a new baby approaches for Greg we talk about how parenthood is going to change his lifestyle a little bit and how he's planning on rocking the running stroller.

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Today I sit down with pro triathlete and PhD student Mike Meehan.

We talk a little about what actually makes a pro triathlete a pro - is it money or a license to race?

I pose to him a question surrounding a lot of mystery about the pros - who actually makes a real living from racing? Mike gives a bit of insight to how some people get creative with finances to make the dream a reality.

He opens up about having hip surgery and the impact that's had on his training as well as his return to training post surgery.

In the middle of my talk with Mike he shares a little about starting triathlon early in life. Much like Hunter Kemper he began triathlon well before most of the people who compete against him that transplanted from other sports.

I question Mike on why he didn't take up collegiate sports on scholarship and he provides a quip back as to why it wasn't his focus.

We talk about how the relationship between sponsors and athletes develops at the pro level and the challenges both sponsors and athletes face in this relationship.

In the last part of our talk I ask Mike about his current research on fluid mechanics. Plus where he's at in the process of earning his PhD while still racing as a pro.

He shares a surprising insight about his relationship with triathlon and how what many people dream about - being a full time pro - might not be as appealing as you think.

I try to dig deeper to see if there's a huge motivation behind why he likes spending his time on research that can make an impact in the community, but he luckily lets me down with a beautiful response.

As always I ask last thing - what's Mike's one choice for recovery food if he only gets one - his response will have New Yorkers and Chicago natives alike cheering.

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I sit down with former Olympic hopeful swimmer and current engineering mad man Bryful Sun to talk about life, the universe, and everything.

As we sit down we share the experience of feeling impending doom closing in on you if you procrastinate about anything and Bryful's reasoning for doing so.

He shares how his parents shaped him to be a person who invests in yourself and the perspective they shared with him early on.

Bryful tells me how he went through a series of sports before finding swimming and how he got the point of wanting to make the Olympic team. He threw everything at the task he could - but stalled out in his training for 2 years before burning out and dealing with the fallout from that.

In the middle of my talk with Bryful we harken back to my conversation with Chris Douglas about how athletic performances don't really define us as people.

Bryful makes a little suggestion on how he has a full-time job and also manages a full training schedule while avoiding burnout.

We dive into Bryful's transition to collegiate Division 1 running and the injuries he sustained from training as he became a runner.

I ask him to give his high school self advice on how to avoid some of the problems he encountered in his athletic journey - he tells us what we already all know, but so rarely listen to.

We talk about his complicated college trajectory jumping several schools to get to his ultimate goal of learning at Georgia Tech. His switch to Georgia Tech led to a odd series of events which had him fall into triathlon by accident.

In the last part of our conversation Bryful laments the cost of cycling equipment - something we can all relate to.

He shares his new athletic aspirations now that he's smarter and preparing with experience instead of youthful exuberance.

We shift gears as I need my curiosity quenched about what Bryful does for a living as an engineer. Turns out he effectively works as the "engineer whisperer" - those engineers who help all the teams coordinate and work together as well as communicated their clients wishes to those teams.

As per every episode I ask my daunting question about the one food for recovery that Bryful would choose and he doesn't let us down with his answer.

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As I sit down to talk with Corey we jump into his work in global marketing for an international drug company and his reason for wanting to step away from such a lucrative position.

As we finish talking about Corey's marketing career we head into something that intrigues me - his life transformation.

From one thing to another Corey continues to embrace change into his life - in the fact that he used to be a 215 pound football player and made the transition into a much leaner 170 pound competitive amateur triathlete.

Corey shares his high school love for Men's Health Magazine and how it shaped his lifting routine at the time.

Then I plug another curiosity of mine and get Corey to open up his experience with setting his own PR in the beer mile.

As we veer to the end of our conversation about the beer mile we started in Part 2, Corey and I get onto the big question: why do your very first full Ironman at Mont Tremblant?

Corey shares his experience at the venue having self-coached his way to finishing his first full ironman and going back later to share the midnight finish with his parents.

Corey's experience inspired his father to complete his own full ironman and they shared a race together back at Mont Tremblant a few years after his first attempt.

I marvel at Corey's discipline to work 40-60 hours a week and train for a full ironman, but he shares his secret that keeps him motivated to get it all in and why it makes him HAPPY.

As with all my guests I ask Corey what his number 1 recovery choice is and he picks something his registered dietitian girlfriend can be proud of.

Follow all his antics on instagram at C_Rob802

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In the first part of my conversation with Rebekah we talk about her time as a division 1 runner and her history with becoming injured.

Then we dive right into what is bio geometric integration and how does it differ from regular chiropractic medicine.

Rebekah also offer some advice on how to deal with pushing yourself hard, but not going too far into the road to injury.

Diving deeper I ask Rebekah to share if she has any ways to discern the truth inside of the voices we hear in our own heads.

She also shares a bit about her own healing process with bio geometric integration and how she was introduced to the field

Rebekah shares with me a little about how feel plays a large role in her chiropractic practice.

Faith is also an important part of Rebekah's life and life journey so I ask her about how her faith affects her practice.

Since being injured Rebekah hasn't worked out much, but has big plans for returning to running with a 50k race.

If you have more questions for her you can find her at her website aldridgechiro.com

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In this episode of the Smart Athlete Podcast I speak with triathlete, former wall street employee and all around interesting guy - Matt Bach.

We start off talking about the time he's spent the last couple years finishing his MBA and making his jump off wall street to something he's more passionate about.

Through the prioritizing of life he's gone from winner of Ironman Maryland to struggling with 1.8 mile runs, but has plans on coming back in time.

Why he turned away from becoming a pro triathlete is a big point of discussion and Matt's story is deeply rooted in maintaining his health overall. Not sacrificing his future for a temporary present pursuit.

He speaks at some length about the struggle many male triathletes go through - low testosterone. And the steps he had to take to return some semblance of normality to his hormones and life.

In the middle of our discussion Matt and I continue to explore a bit more about the realities of low testosterone in endurance athletes.

We find ourselves moving towards a short discussion on the skinny vs strong culture that is slowing shifting in both running and triathlon. As well as it now being acceptable or even desirable for women to be strong instead of just thin.

Matt shares a bit on what exactly he did on Wall Street as well as why he decided to walk away from potential millions of dollars in earnings.

I pose the question to Matt "What is money?" and his thoughts are worth listening to.

In the last part of my talk with Matt we talk about his jump over to work at UCan and what he does there as well as the history of UCan and why it may be an important breakthrough to both people with a rare genetic disorder and the endurance community.

For 15% off orders from UCan use the code smartathlete during checkout.

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In today's episode of the smart athlete podcast I sit down with PhD candidate and competitive triathlete - Chris Douglas.

We discuss his reasons for not going prior after some absolutely stellar performances in the beginning of his racing career 2016.

How he had what one would be considered a terrible follow-up year to his highlights in 2017 as well as his time racing with team Every Man Jack.

Out of curiosity I poke his brain a little about his experience running in college and the injuries sustained during that time. Trying to figure out what led him to injury and abandoning running as a single sport competitively.

We talk about a high light or really low light of Chris' triathlon career at a race where he almost died.

Many people would take away a positive - in that they know they can push themselves to the end of their limits. Chris took away something a little different with the help of Every Man Jack CEO Ritch Viola.

We dispel the myth the endurance athletes are masochists - we are after something besides self induced suffering.

I also pose to Chris my hypothesis that the best athletes have some history of suffering and see what he thinks. We of course end up on the current poster boy for my theory - Lionel Sanders.

He does suggest that there is one common thread of how all of these very competitive athletes end up being able to spend so much time training.

You aren't on this show if you aren't a smart athlete and Chris is definitely that. In this last part of our chat I learn more about Chris' research in combustion dynamics (as well as what that actually entails).

We also talk about the all important question - what would you eat as your only recovery meal for the rest of your life. Chris's answer should delight the carnivore in you.

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