Sweat Elite Podcast

Jim Walmsley has been named "Ultrarunner Of The Year" for the last four years (2016-2019) by Ultrarunning Magazine and is the course record holder of several of the most competitive Ultrarunning events in the world including Western States 100, Tarawera Ultramarathon and Lake Sonoma 50. 

Jim has blazed a unique trail over the past few years, reaching the pinnacle of ultrarunning and amassing a cult following in the process. His latest undertaking – turning his attention to the marathon. There was a lot of hype surrounding Jim in the lead-up to the USA Olympic trials in Atlanta, where he made his marathon debut. Tait Hearps of Sweat Elite sat down with Jim over a skype call and discussed the motivations and process behind this transition, among many other aspects of his life in Flagstaff, training, and his path into professional ultrarunning.

A summary of the interview with Jim Walmsley including more on his training leading into Atlanta can be found here: Jim Walmsley – The road to Atlanta www.sweatelite.co/jim-walmsley-the-road-to-atlanta/

Jim Walmsley can be found on Instagram: www.instagram.com/walmsleyruns/ and on Strava: www.strava.com/pros/1635688

New content on the Sweat Elite website this week:

Lactic Acid – Friend or Foe?
www.sweatelite.co/lactic-acid-friend-or-foe/

Covid 19 – Strength Amongst The Chaos
www.sweatelite.co/covid-19-strength-amongst-the-chaos/

Detraining And Defending Your Physiology
www.sweatelite.co/detraining-and-defending-your-physiology/

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Brett Larner is the man behind Japan Running News - ” the world's window into elite japanese distance running.” 

In this podcast episode, Brett answers our questions:

Where did the Japanese reverence for long distance road racing come from?

What is Ekiden all about and how did the road running scene revolve around this event?

What is it about the running system and infrastructure in Japan that produces so many high level athletes?

Why is there a relative lack of talent in the shorter distances?

Are the university athletes paid? Are their grades taken into account when selection is occurring? Ie. If their marks aren’t great will they be cut from the team?

How do the corporate teams operate? What kind of wages are the corporate athletes on?

What are the typical traits Japanese are associated with of discipline, honour etc, how much does this play into their success?

Japan Running News: http://japanrunningnews.blogspot.com/

Read The Perplexing Depth Of Talent In Japanese Running: www.sweatelite.co/the-perplexing-depth-of-talent-in-japanese-running-part-1/

SUBSCRIBE to Sweat Elite to learn much more about elite distance running: www.sweatelite.co/subscribe-now.

Tom Evans is an elite British ultrarunner. Having only recently devoted himself to running full-time – leaving the military to focus on athletics – as we got started, Tom said, “I’m really excited to share some of my knowledge, some of my wisdom that I’ve built up over my very short running career so far.” 

Tom made an incredible debut on the Ultra Trail Running scene when he placed 3rd in the gruelling Marathon des Sables in 2017 – a 251km multi-stage self-supported race across the desert – which was initially a bet with his former military mates in a pub that he could improve upon their position at Marathon des Sables the previous year.

Tom stunned the ultra world once again in 2018, when he won the 101km CCC race at the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc. Tom went on to place 3rd at one of the most competitive Ultra Trail races in the world – the 100 mile Western States Endurance Run in 2019 and followed it up with a win at the Tarawera 102km in February 2020 against a competitive field in New Zealand.

Throughout this conversation Tom shared captivating anecdotes of his journey into ultrarunning and a wealth of information on his training that has taken him to where he is now. 

Tait Hearps, writer at Sweat Elite conducted the interview with Tom and published this article post-recording: www.sweatelite.co/tom-evans-pushing-limits-in-the-world-of-ultrarunning/

Articles mentioned in the intro:

The Perplexing Depth Of Talent In Japanese Running (Part 1): www.sweatelite.co/the-perplexing-depth-of-talent-in-japanese-running-part-1/

The Perplexing Depth Of Talent In Japanese Running (Part 2): www.sweatelite.co/the-perplexing-depth-of-talent-in-japanese-running-part-2/

Lactic Acid – Friend or Foe?
www.sweatelite.co/lactic-acid-friend-or-foe/

SUBSCRIBE to Sweat Elite to learn much more about elite distance running: www.sweatelite.co/subscribe-now.

Danish Marathoner Thijs Nijhuis ran an Olympic Qualifying standard of 2:10:57 at the Seville Marathon on 23rd of February 2020 and he returns to the Sweat Elite podcast this week to share his race recap. Thijs describes each segment of his race at the Seville Marathon in detail, including sharing the short story of requiring a quick pit-stop.

In addition to his Seville Marathon race recap, Thijs shares more information about his training leading into the Seville Marathon and discusses topics of interest from podcast listeners such as:

– Injury prevention exercises
– Strength training for Marathoners
– Changes made to general training plan in the build up for Seville
– Supplements and Vitamins
– Fasting
– Beginners advice

** Warning: unfortunately Thijs’s internet cuts out temporarily a few times during this podcast recording. We've edited as best we can. **

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“Coach said: “Do you know why we aren’t doing a tempo run today? When you do a tempo run, guess what you do? You get locked into the same form that I don’t want you to run in right now. You’re training for a 5km and a 1500m. When you’re training for those races, I want you on your toes. I want you feeling good, I want your chest up, I want your arms back. If I give you ten four minute reps, you’re going to rest and you’re going to attack going into each one of those reps. You’re going to get in that stride that I want you to be in today. If I give you a 6-mile tempo run, you’re going to lock into 5 minute (mile) pace, get on your heels, hunch over by the end of it and you’re going to look like shit. You’re going to feel great because you did that last mile in 4:55, but it’s not going to be accomplishing what I want you to accomplish today. You’re going to be firing a totally different muscle group that I want you to be firing today.” At that moment, I realised that I just needed to shut up and trust him.”

Sam Parsons is a professional distance runner for Tinman Elite and Adidas. Sam was involved in the creation of Tinman Elite in 2017 and has played a pivotal role in the development of the team. Today he is looked up to as a leader of Tinman Elite as well as the Creative Director. Sam represented Germany at the 2019 World athletics Championships in the 5000m and has personal best times of 13:22 for the 5000m, 7:44 for the 3000m and 3:37 for the 1500m.

In this interview recorded from the home of Tinman Elite in Boulder (USA), Sam shares in-depth stories about how Tinman Elite was created, training stories, racing tales and much more.

Sam is best followed on Instagram @par_sam_sons

Tinman Elite is best followed on Instagram: @tinmanelite

To learn more about Tinman Elite visit: www.tinmanelite.com

SUBSCRIBE to Sweat Elite to learn much more about elite distance running: www.sweatelite.co/subscribe-now.

“Being a great coach is like being a great chef. The food that Gordon Ramsay creates versus an average chef can be significantly different. His tastes better, but he probably uses 95% of the same ingredients. He uses flour, he uses spices – the same as the other trained chef. But he knows how much to put in, when to put it in and at what temperature. That’s the difference. As a coach, i’m constantly refining my skills and knowledge. I constantly hold the belief that I don’t know enough.”

Tinman Elite Head Coach – Tom Schwartz – joins the Sweat Elite podcast this week. This is a long episode, but it will not disappoint.

Tom has over 30 years of middle/long distance coaching experience. Tom has developed dozens of NCAA DI runners, national champions, and national record holders. Tom coaches runners from youth to masters, across every distance and platform of running from the track, road, and trail. His training philosophy can be distilled into one phrase: “Keep the ball rolling.” Consistent, tough, healthy, and smart training in order to feel your best year-round.

Tom holds a Bachelors degree in Exercise Science, Master’s degree in Human Performance and is currently pursuing his PhD in Health & Human Performance. In addition, Tom holds a Master’s of Business Administration degree and has obtained the highest level of certifications in both USATF (Level 3 Endurance) and World Athletics Association (Level 5 Elite Endurance Coaching).

Tom Schwartz is best followed on Instagram @tinmancoach

Tinman Elite is best followed on Instagram: @tinmanelite

To learn more about Tinman Elite visit: www.tinmanelite.com

To learn more about Tom Schwartz’ new track club: www.tinmantrackclub.com/

Tom Schwartz’s general coaching website: www.runfastcoach.com
(Tom is currently a free agent coach, not under any brand contract)

SUBSCRIBE to Sweat Elite to learn much more about elite distance running: www.sweatelite.co/subscribe-now.

Frank Shorter is known by many to be the father of the modern day running boom. Frank won gold in the Marathon at the 1972 Olympic Games, won silver in the Marathon at the 1976 Olympic Games, was the USA XC Champion 4 times, was the USA 10,000m Champion 6 times and won the Fukuoka Marathon 4 times. He was also the chairman of the USA Anti Doping agency between 2000 and 2003.

In this podcast episode recorded from his home in Boulder, Colorado (USA) Frank talks about:

– his training philosophy in detail (Frank never trained at slower than 65sec/400m pace during interval sessions).
– being spontaneous with threshold/tempo runs, deciding some days to change an easy run to a threshold/tempo run.
– racing and training with Steve Prefontaine.
– Running with an injured ankle for over a year (and through the Montreal 1976 Olympics where he placed 2nd in the Marathon).
– winning the 1972 Olympic Games in the Marathon.
– placing second at the 1976 Olympic Games in the Marathon.
– practicing surging/changing pace in training (and some example training sessions).
– peaking for his key races.
– experimenting with restricting carbohydrate intake before the final carbohydrate load leading into races.
– circadian rhythms relating to peak performance.
– the new ruling on racing shoes and the parallels with doping.

SUBSCRIBE to Sweat Elite to learn much more about elite distance running: www.sweatelite.co/subscribe-now.

Lee Troop is an Australian distance running legend – with personal best times from the 1990’s and 2000’s of 2:09:49 for the Marathon, 1:01:00 for the Half Marathon, 27:51 for the 10,000m, 13:14 for the 5000m and 7:41 for the 3000m.

Lee is now an elite distance running coach (among other things) with a wealth of training and racing knowledge. Lee coaches several elite distance runners, including Jake Riley – who placed second at the USA Olympic Trials for the Marathon just last week, securing his position on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Team for USA.

This podcast episode was recorded live in Boulder (Colorado, USA) 10 days before the USA Olympic Marathon Trials. In this podcast episode, Lee speaks about:

• Coaching Jake Riley since 2017 and some of the hurdles Jake has overcome in the last few years.
• Jake’s 2:10:36 Chicago Marathon 2019 result.
• Jake’s training stints in Arizona leading into the USA Olympic Trials.
• Some of Jake’s key training sessions leading into the USA Olympic Trials.
• Highlights of Lee’s own career, including breaking the Australian 5000m record and running under 2:12 for the Marathon on 6 occasions.
• Being self-coached.
• His own training including over-training through periods of his career.
• The importance of hill training.
• Weight training for distance runners.
• His opinion on the rise of the new racing shoes with carbon fiber plates.
• Lessons learnt from transitioning from being an athlete to a coach.

Lee can be found on Twitter (@runtroopy) and Instagram (@leetroop73).

The Sweat Elite team are currently in Tokyo, Japan studying the Japanese elite running scene. Some of our latest featured articles from this experience (mentioned in the intro) are below:

Highlights from the Tokyo Marathon Press Conference:
www.sweatelite.co/tokyo-marathon-2020-press-conference-highlights/

Training with Tokai University (Ekiden winning team):
www.sweatelite.co/training-with-tokai-university-ekiden-winning-team/

SUBSCRIBE to Sweat Elite to learn much more about elite distance running: www.sweatelite.co/subscribe-now.

Scott Fauble (Hoka NAZ Elite) is currently one of America’s fastest Marathoner’s, with a personal best of 2:09:09 set at the 2019 Boston Marathon where he placed 7th. Scott will line up at the USA Olympic Trials for the Marathon this coming weekend (Feb 29 2020) in hopes of finishing top 3 and securing a place on the USA Olympic Team this year. In 2019, Scott was ranked 2nd in the USA for the Marathon on time.

We were very fortunate to chat with Scott just a week before the Olympic Trials about his book – Inside A Marathon – where he and his coach at Hoka NAZ Elite, Ben Rosario document the entire four-month journey to Scott’s 7th place finish at the 2018 TCS New York City Marathon. Scott shares his daily training log and recaps each week from an athlete’s perspective–and includes plenty of humour along the way. Ben recaps each week from a coach’s perspective and gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at creating the training outline for a professional marathoner. In our opinion, it’s a must read for all competitive long-distance runners.

In this podcast episode Scott answers questions we have about the book – Inside A Marathon and he also talks a bit about his training leading into the Olympic Trials.

** We apologise about the patchy audio quality at times during this podcast episode. **

SUBSCRIBE to Sweat Elite to learn much more about elite distance running: www.sweatelite.co/subscribe-now.

Thijs Nijhuis is a Danish National Champion in every distance from 1500m through to the the Marathon. These days his focus is on the Marathon and he placed 31st at the Doha World Athletics Championships in the Marathon in 2019. He has a current Marathon personal best time 2:14:18 and his short term goal is to run under the 2020 Olympic Games qualifying standard of 2:11:30 at the upcoming Seville Marathon (23 Feb 2020). All of this while studying to become a doctor.

Thijs just completed a one month training camp in Iten, Kenya where he logged some gigantic weeks. In this podcast episode, Thijs talks about:

– his training leading into Seville Marathon, including mentioning his key workouts with times/splits.
– how he prepared for the Doha World Athletics Championships – a training camp in Dubai which included doing sessions such as 4 x 5km at 11pm (Doha World Championships Marathon had a mid night start time) and losing 6.5kg of sweat in a single training run.
– training with Sondre Moen in Italy.
– balancing studying medicine with training and racing.
– his pre-race diet
– being a big believer in eating junk food and letting go, post race.

** We apologise for the poor audio quality on our end in this podcast episode. Luckily, Thijs’s audio quality is clear. **

Thijs was generous in sending us his training log from December 2019/January 2020:
www.sweatelite.co/thijs-nijhuis-denmarks-1-marathoner-training-principles-and-log
(If this hyperlink doesn’t work in your podcast player, go to the Sweat Elite website and you’ll find the article under the Marathon section.)

You can follow Thijs Nijhuis’s journey on Strava and Instagram.

Strava: “Thijs Nijhuis” (www.strava.com/athletes/21127951)
[Side note: there aren’t too many faster Marathoners on Strava than Thijs]

Instagram: “Thijs Nijhuis” (www.instagram.com/thijs_nijhuis/)

SUBSCRIBE to Sweat Elite to learn much more about elite distance running: www.sweatelite.co/subscribe-now.