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By CITIUS MAG
4.9
18131,813 ratings
The podcast currently has 1,080 episodes available.
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Preet Majithia takes over the CITIUS MAG Podcast in today's episode to sit down with Laurent Meuwly, the head coach for sprints, hurdles, and relays at the Dutch Olympic Training Centre in Papendal. He’s been with the Dutch program since 2019, and the group he has built includes Femke Broeders-Bol, Lieke Klaver, and Nadine Visser, along with a rotating cast of international athletes, including world indoor 400m champion Lurdes Gloria Manuel and Australian sprint star Torrie Lewis. Under his guidance, Dutch relay teams have become a dominant force on the world stage, and his athletes have collected world titles, Olympic medals, and European and national records across the flat 400, the 400 hurdles, and now, in Femke’s first season of competition at the distance, the 800m. When Femke Broeders-Bol made the decision to move up to the 800 this season, it was Laurent who had already been thinking about this moment since he first started working with her. He actually talked her out of making the switch a year earlier. She wanted to go right after the Paris Olympics. He convinced her to stay in the 400 hurdles for one more season, win a second world title, and leave that chapter on a high note. Then came the transition. This interview was done one day after Femke ran 1:54.71, putting her within the top 10 on the all-time 800m list. Laurent is candid about everything: what he kept from Femke’s 400m hurdles training and what he changed, why her mileage stays around 60 kilometers a week, the mental adjustment of still being only halfway through the race after one full lap, and why the world record conversation will eventually shift from who breaks it to conversations about 1:52. Everyone’s been interested in the Femke 800m transition, and we’ve got the inside scoop here. ____________ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS OLIPOP: OLIPOP's Citrus Rush packs apple, lemon, lime, and orange juices with 60mg of green tea caffeine for a bold, refreshing blast of flavor ready to fuel your next adventure. If you haven't had tried Olipop yet, grab a can and see what the hype is all about! Head to DrinkOlipop.com and use code CITIUS25 at checkout to get 25% off your orders. ALTRA: The new Vanish Carbon 3 was built for race day. A patent-pending split-toe carbon plate delivers the rigidity you need for speed while letting the big toe engage in a more powerful way. Underneath it, a supercritical two-piece full PEBA foam — Altra’s lightest and most responsive ever. And Altra’s Racing FootShape leaves room for your toes to splay and generate power. Don’t just run. Vanish. Head to AltraRunning.com and use code CITIUS10 for 10% off your first purchase.

“Running doesn’t want you to suffer. Running wants you to feel great and powerful. It’s just that we’re humans.” My guest for today’s episode is Coach Chris Bennett — Nike Running Global Head Coach, voice behind hundreds of guided runs on the Nike Run Club app, and now first-time author. His debut book is called *This Is About Running. This Is Not About Running.* — a title he decided on in 2007 when he adopted the mantra while coaching high school cross country at Christian Brothers Academy in New Jersey. Coach Bennett is one of the most distinctive voices in running because of the way he thinks about what running actually is and what it’s actually for. He’s a tremendous storyteller. In this one you’ll hear him tell the stories of he started off in coaching by sending cold emails to his old high school every year asking about a coaching job and kept sending them for nine straight years, expecting a no each time. Why he gets to mile 22 of marathon courses because that’s where doubt creeps in and nobody’s carrying you anymore, but he’s there to see people triumph. I’ve loved hearing him talk about how he watched Joan Benoit Samuelson win the 1984 Olympic marathon when he was a kid and it changed his life. He’s spent years telling abbreviated versions of that story before finally getting to put the whole thing on paper. Now he’s done it. The book has almost no numbers in it. Instead, the cornerstone of his philosophy is that the goal of coaching is to eventually make yourself unnecessary as a coach. You work your way down until the athlete doesn’t need you anymore. By the end of the book, he wants you to need him less. In this conversation, we get into a lot. We pick up from his last appearance on the show in 2020 on why the COVID running boom is structurally different from every previous one and why it didn’t end. He makes the case against screaming coaches and the phrase “no regrets.” He shares why he says “you’re going to suck less” instead of “you’re going to get better”. I ask what surprised him in the recording studio when he went to narrate the chapters about heartbreak. I also give him my review of the book and I hope he ends up using it on the Amazon page for it. You can buy a copy of it by following the link here. Support running books. Support the sport. ____________ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS OLIPOP: OLIPOP's Citrus Rush packs apple, lemon, lime, and orange juices with 60mg of green tea caffeine for a bold, refreshing blast of flavor ready to fuel your next adventure. If you haven't had tried Olipop yet, grab a can and see what the hype is all about! Head to DrinkOlipop.com and use code CITIUS25 at checkout to get 25% off your orders. ALTRA: The new Vanish Carbon 3 was built for race day. A patent-pending split-toe carbon plate delivers the rigidity you need for speed while letting the big toe engage in a more powerful way. Underneath it, a supercritical two-piece full PEBA foam — Altra’s lightest and most responsive ever. And Altra’s Racing FootShape leaves room for your toes to splay and generate power. Don’t just run. Vanish. Head to AltraRunning.com and use code CITIUS10 for 10% off your first purchase.

The Brussels Diamond League final is coming up, World Ultimate Championships in Budapest is in nine days, and the season is headed toward its conclusion. Preet went from Zurich to Bellinzona for the last qualifying weekend, interviewed Coach Laurent Mewly (Femke Broeders-Bol's coach), and is heading to Brussels tomorrow. Discussed in this episode: – Nadia Battocletti runs 3:57 at Bellinzona — Italian 1500m national record. Her range of personal bests across the 1500m, 5K, and 10K is comparable to Hellen Obiri. – Gracie Morris — moves from Puma to Mike Smith's Swoosh TC group: Preet spoke to her in Bellinzona. She explained that the Puma group has become increasingly marathon-oriented (with Dorcas Ewoi as the one 1500m athlete staying). Morris didn’t want to wait for that transition, so she moved to Mike Smith and started doing double threshold. – Sabastian Sawe withdraws from the Berlin Marathon due to a stress fracture in his right tibia: This eliminates any remaining fall marathon options. Valencia, where Yomif Kejelcha will attempt to go sub-2 again, is off the table. This is Sawe’s second injury in 2026 (he was dealing with something coming into London but recovered in time). – Sydney Marathon results — second year as an Abbott World Major: Adisu Gobena wins the men’s race in 2:04:42, breaking the course record. He’s 21 years old, debuted at 19 in Dubai, and previously beat Conner Mantz at the Houston Half. Peres Jepchirchir wins the women’s race in 2:18:31 by nearly four minutes. – Athlos NYC — canceled: Statement from Alexis Ohanian cited athlete feedback. Laurent Meuwly posted a pointed response on Twitter: athletes who prioritized their welfare by declining lost the chance to compete at the London date too (because participation was tied to both), and that the realization came very late. + Brussels Diamond League Final preview. ____________ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS OLIPOP: OLIPOP's Citrus Rush packs apple, lemon, lime, and orange juices with 60mg of green tea caffeine for a bold, refreshing blast of flavor ready to fuel your next adventure. If you haven't had tried Olipop yet, grab a can and see what the hype is all about! Head to DrinkOlipop.com and use code CITIUS25 at checkout to get 25% off your orders. ALTRA: The new Vanish Carbon 3 was built for race day. A patent-pending split-toe carbon plate delivers the rigidity you need for speed while letting the big toe engage in a more powerful way. Underneath it, a supercritical two-piece full PEBA foam — Altra’s lightest and most responsive ever. And Altra’s Racing FootShape leaves room for your toes to splay and generate power. Don’t just run. Vanish. Head to AltraRunning.com and use code CITIUS10 for 10% off your first purchase.

Emergency podcast with Chris Chavez, Mac Fleet, and Anderson Emerole after the Zurich Diamond League produced two world records in the hurdles within 40 minutes of each other. – Alison dos Santos, 45.80 — men’s 400m hurdles world record: Takes 0.14 seconds off Karsten Warholm’s 45.94 from the Tokyo Olympic final — one of the most celebrated marks in the sport. Karsten was in the race to defend his own record and finished second in 46.69 — still among the fastest ever run and nowhere near enough. – Masai Russell, 12.09 — women’s 100m hurdles world record, 40 minutes later: Takes 0.03 off Tobi Amusan’s 12.12, with zero wind, and Amusan in the race (Amusan finishes second in a season’s best 12.23). – Parker Wolfe wins the men’s 3000m — American go 1-2 with Graham Blanks: Parker’s first Diamond League victory. Mac breaks down his style versus Cole Hocker’s. The Diamond League final might not suit Parker’s kick-dependent style, but he's a factor in a tactical World Ultimate 5000m final. – Cole Hocker wins the men’s 1500m in 3:31.71: 8th American to win a Diamond League distance race this year. – Women’s 800m — Audrey Werro wins in 1:53.70: Third fastest performance of all time. She let Femke Bol take the lead after the break, came to pass her around 300m out, Femke extended her arm and held her spot briefly, then Werro’s closing speed just overwhelmed the field. – The World Ultimate picture: Qualifying window closes Monday. ____________ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS OLIPOP: OLIPOP's Citrus Rush packs apple, lemon, lime, and orange juices with 60mg of green tea caffeine for a bold, refreshing blast of flavor ready to fuel your next adventure. If you haven't had tried Olipop yet, grab a can and see what the hype is all about! Head to DrinkOlipop.com and use code CITIUS25 at checkout to get 25% off your orders.

“I’d rather do a race than a time trial as my first marathon. I went to New York during my off season last year just to see how it was. I got to feel the atmosphere and I was like: yeah, I want to do this.” My guest for today’s episode is Andreas Almgren, who is the newly-minted European 10,000m champion and soon-to-be a first-time marathoner. On November 1st he will run the New York City Marathon for his debut at the distance. He’s had a great past 12 months with four European records in that span: the 10K road in Valencia in January at 26:45 (puts him sixth on the world all-time list); the half marathon last October in 58:41 (the first European under 59 minutes); World Championships bronze in Tokyo last September, where he finished 0.25 seconds off gold; and a 5000m European record of 12:44 last outdoor season. He’s one of the best in the world right now. Andreas is 31. He grew up in Sweden playing wing-back at AIK, one of the biggest clubs in the Nordics, and only turned to running full-time after recurring injuries ended that path at 18. He won World U20 bronze in the 800m in Eugene in 2014 and looked like Sweden’s next great middle-distance runner — then spent four years with stress fractures, a broken navicular, a sacral stress fracture, missing more than he raced. In 2019, sitting on a stationary bike during rehab for that sacral fracture, he watched his friend Kalle Berglund make a world championship 1500m final using double threshold training. He copied it. He has been going up in distance ever since, and every time he steps up, he runs faster. He has been working toward the marathon for a while now. We dive into why he picked New York over Valencia, how his double threshold system has evolved over the last seven years, what it took to stay healthy the past two years, the training he is doing for the marathon right now and much more. ____________ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS VELOUS: VELOUS makes recovery footwear designed to help runners bounce back faster between sessions. Their sandals feature Tri-Motion™ Technology: a technical three-density foam system and contoured footbed engineered to cushion impact, support your arches, and help your toes stretch and relax on every step. They keep your feet and legs properly aligned after you put in all of those weekly miles. Run. Recover. Repeat. with VELOUS! Get 20% off your VELOUS order with code CITIUSMAG20 at checkout including FREE Shipping! OLIPOP: OLIPOP's Citrus Rush packs apple, lemon, lime, and orange juices with 60mg of green tea caffeine for a bold, refreshing blast of flavor ready to fuel your next adventure. If you haven't had tried Olipop yet, grab a can and see what the hype is all about! Head to DrinkOlipop.com and use code CITIUS25 at checkout to get 25% off your orders.
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