The Endurance Drive Podcast

We are celebrating 50 episodes of The Endurance Drive Podcast this week with our first ever AMA (ask me anything) episode. We are so grateful to our listener community for tuning in every week and sending in such awesome questions. Check this episode out to hear our thoughts on how our approach to training has changed over time, what advice we wish we could tell ourselves at the beginning of our athletic journey, how we balance SBR during busy seasons of life, what our favorite post-race and “my body is not a temple” foods are, and a whole lot more. We also cover a bunch of fun insights related sport psychology, serving our communities through endurance, swim technique for beginners, and dry shirt season. This was such a fun episode to record - check it out and get excited for another 50!

View extended show notes for this episode here.

To share feedback or ask questions to be featured on a future podcast, use this form or email: [email protected].

This week, we’re diving into the process of how to set goals for your next season of training and racing. We start with identifying your purpose, which is ultimately the fuel that powers the engine of any endurance journey. We then drill into choosing different levels of outcome goals, identifying the process goals that it will take to achieve your outcome goals, mapping out goal achievement strategies, and overcoming barriers to achieving your goals. We sprinkle in some insights from our own goal-mapping journeys, as well as cover additional fun topics including: optimizing training during travel, how to approach choppy triathlon swims or windy bike courses, how culture breeds success, connections between the mind and heart in endurance sports, and a whole lot more. Check this one out and go set some goals for 2025!

View extended show notes for this episode here. 

To share feedback or ask questions to be featured on a future episode, please use ⁠this form⁠ or email: [email protected].

In this week’s episode, Katie and Elena welcome Catherine Rocchi, a competitive gravel cyclist, backcountry skier, climber, trail runner, triathlete, all-around adventurer, and longtime friend to the podcast. Catherine shares about how she developed from a runner in the suburbs of New York to an Alaskan multi-sport adventurer; how optimizing her training for joy, social connection, and unstructured adventure has helped her excel in races; how beginners can start to get involved in adventure sports; and how to build community through endurance and adventuring. We also dive into some heavier but incredibly important and relatable topics, including how movement can impact our brain chemistry (for better or for worse) and how to manage risk and handle emergencies in the backcountry. The interview culminates with the story of how Catherine survived a grizzly bear attack in northern Alaska while biking the 800-mile Alaska Pipeline route just a month ago, and how encounters like that—and any experiences of trauma—can impact us physically and mentally. This is a very profound interview, and we are so grateful to Catherine for sharing her story! Check it out. 

View extended show notes for this episode here. 

To share feedback or ask questions to be featured on a future episode, please use ⁠this form⁠ or email: [email protected].

A lot of our athletes have had their eyes on signing up for races next season, so in this episode we're deep diving on the most important things to think about when planning your race calendar. Highlights include: an honest evaluation of your skills and experience level, calendar mapping of your life commitments, finding your why, race logistics, cost considerations, and more. We also answer some fun listener questions on aligning high-volume training with busy lives, how to tap into different swim speeds, how to get more comfortable on the bike, and what our podcasting process looks like. Check it out!

View extended show notes for this episode here.

To share feedback or ask questions to be featured on a future episode, please use this form or email: [email protected].

Fresh off a summer in Paris with Team USA, Mac Morse joins Katie and Elena this week to share her perspectives and wisdom gained from a career working in athlete development with the best of the best. We cover Mac’s own career as an elite athlete, her entrepreneurial path to creating The Sideline Perspective—a platform for injured and retired athletes to find support and community—and her current role in Athlete Development with the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee. We dive deeper into the business of sport and how we can unpack the nuances of its impact through owning our narratives, both internally and externally. And we get a bonus treat of her poetry! This episode is about humanizing all athletes, from the recreational runners to the Olympic champions, and it isn’t one to be missed!

Check out The Sideline Perspective on Instagram, online, or through their podcast!

View extended show notes for this episode here.

To share feedback or ask questions to be featured on a future podcast, use this form or email: [email protected].

In this week's episode, we are bringing it back to basics with Intervals 101. We cover what intervals are (and what they are not), why do intervals, when to start doing intervals, how to determine what intervals are appropriate for you, basic considerations and mistakes with intervals, and examples of a basic interval progression in our programming. We also cover lots of fun coaching and training insights related to the off season, using repetition as a way to track progress, overcoming workout anxiety, positive mindset tools, defining race goals, the magic of high-carb fueling, and more. We had so much fun with this episode—check it out!

View extended show notes for this episode here.

To share feedback or ask questions to be featured on a future podcast, use this form or email: [email protected].

In this week's episode, Katie and Elena chat about a bunch of different topics that have featured in both of our lives in recent months, including highs and lows in training, health struggles as an athlete, and the idea of going "all in" on something you love. We specifically dig into Elena's decision to start and DNF the Lavaredo Ultra Trail in the Italian Dolomites, important insights she has picked up about health and fueling in the last several months, and an exciting next chapter of focusing on endurance training and coaching as a primary career objective. We hope this episode is relatable for listeners out there going through the ups and downs of training and life, and we close with an important lesson: when you commit, magical things happen! Check it out.

View extended show notes for this episode here.

To share feedback or ask questions to be featured on a future podcast, use ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠this form⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or email: [email protected].

In this week’s party episode, we are welcoming all four coaches (Jim, Katie, Kevin, and Elena) onto the podcast for the first time ever to share their tips and tricks for how to crush a fall marathon or half marathon coming off a summer triathlon season. We hear about why marathoning is so hard on the body, how to structure a marathon or half marathon training week, favorite workouts for marathon and half marathon, mental training for long runs and races, and lots more. Jim and Katie also cover some fun coaching and training insights including season planning tips for 2025, aging and endurance sports, the magic of no-watch swimming, what happens when our training priorities or values come into conflict with each other, and a deep dive on a new paper covering principles of Norwegian endurance training. This episode is jam-packed full of something for everyone. Enjoy!

View extended show notes for this episode here.

To share feedback or ask questions to be featured on a future podcast, use ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠this form⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or email: [email protected].

The main topic of this week's episode is why the off-season may actually be the most important season of all. We discuss what chronic stress does to our bodies, how to shift our training focus from fitness to wellness, the magic of Zone 1, three levels of recovery and their varied time horizons, what happens if you don't respect the off-season, and a whole lot more. We also share additional insights from Ironman Lake Placid and Sea to Summit, answer a great listener question about how to get into triathlon as a brand-new beginner, and introduce two new sort-of-joking segments that seem to come up in every single one of our podcasts: the "Ironman is hard" segment and the "eat our words" segment. Enjoy!

View extended show notes for this episode here.

To share feedback or ask questions to be featured on a future podcast, use ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠this form⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or email: [email protected].

In our second ~emergency podcast episode~ of 2024, Elena catches up with Katie about the Sea to Summit Triathlon, where Katie came back from a 20+ minute deficit after taking a wrong turn on the bike course to run down five women on the Tuckerman Ravine Trail and finish first on top of Mt. Washington with a run course record. We chat through her uncertain road to the starting line, racing under pressure and strategies for taking pressure off, the importance of cultivating your own performance bubble, focusing on process goals over outcome goals, perfecting the “car door pee,” and effective mental strategies, among other topics. This episode is full of clichés that somehow all proved to be true for Katie on race day. The biggest ones? You can be down but never out of the fight; don’t give up; believe in yourself; and no one runs the Whites off the bike like Katie Clayton runs the Whites off the bike. Check it out!

View extended show notes for this episode here.

To share feedback or ask questions to be featured on a future podcast, use ⁠⁠⁠⁠this form⁠⁠⁠⁠ or email: [email protected].