The Endurance Drive Podcast

In this week’s episode, Katie and Elena welcome Alex Larson, RD to the podcast to talk all things fueling and hydration. Alex’s mission is to support endurance athletes with practical and simple nutrition advice for lifelong health and performance. She shares valuable insights related to: the biggest mistakes endurance athletes make when it comes to fueling, how to know if you are not fueling enough, how to safely approach changes in body composition (and how to evaluate whether you even should be focusing on body composition changes in the first place), fueling through life stages, meal and snack ideas to support workout timing throughout the day, how and when use supplements, how to properly hydrate, how to calculate your sweat rate, how to manage and avoid GI issues especially in running, and how to effectively carb-load before a big event. This episode is jam-packed full of useful insights that will help you perform in both sport and life. 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].

This week’s episode is full of insights from the peak of race season! Katie and Elena cover whether and how to use pacers, how to handle the overstimulating nature of race morning, what to wear for racing, how improving your aerobic base improves your top end race performance, mindset shifts in the context of race-day uncontrollables, and not writing the narrative of the race before it’s happened. We also do an extended deep dive on Elena’s tough DNF at the Orcas Island 50K due to a calf injury as well as some of the mental hurdles she battled along the way and lessons she picked up from the experience. 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].

This week’s episode covers insights on lots of topics including: why you shouldn’t try anything new on race day or during race week, how to know when to push through vs. back of in periods of high life stress, panic attacks in open water swimming and how to avoid them, good data vs. bad data, rehabbing ankle sprains and other ligament injuries, mindfulness in running, swim-to-bike brick workouts, why going slow is the key to going fast, how performance gaps are widening between fueled and under-fueled athletes, and how effective movement patterns are key to speed and strength in endurance sports. 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].

In this week’s episode, we chat through our favorite strategies for recovery and signs of whether you are recovered or not, how we approach traditional strength training in the gym vs. cardio workouts that build strength in a periodized context, active heat training protocols to increase your blood plasma and improve performance, how we think about structuring training for unique combinations of events, how to know whether you are improving or not, and why adventurous and durability-based workouts can often make us feel like the best versions of ourselves as athletes. 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].

This week’s episode covers insights across lots of topics including: how you can level up your long-distance performance quicker with high-carb fueling, how you can use hydration biosensors to optimize your fluid intake, open water swim safety tips, how visualizing the transition area can save you time on race day, why you should consider “going all in” for your next race, and how to think about recovery in the context of travel. We also answer some great listener questions on how to plan out your hydration strategy with aid stations and limited bottle cage capacity on race day, how to approach racing in bad weather conditions, whether to buy a swim skin or not, and considerations for traveling with a bike. 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].

In this week’s episode, we’re recapping Elena’s speedy race and “effort PR” at the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati. We talk through why Elena chose to race a road marathon as part of her build for UTMB, her flexible approach to setting A/B/C goals, how she managed internal and external pressure, why feeling bad during the taper doesn’t mean you’re going to have a bad race, the mental prep she did to get ready for race day, how she designed and executed her race plan on a challenging course, why body weight has so much less to do with performance than we might think, what it was like to coach her husband Will (who also crushed it!) for this race, and why self-belief was the number one factor that led to her incredible performance. Katie and Elena also cover some fun insights on when and how to choose a big vs. small race, why the ability to “say yes” to anything physically is one of the greatest benefits of endurance training, how we think about integrating chat GPT into our training and coaching strategies (or not), and female athlete body pressures. This is a super rich episode full of insights for any athlete — 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].

This week’s episode is jam-packed with insights across a bunch of different topics! We riff on: how to think about training during the first hot and humid days of the spring; how to plan out your fueling strategy for long workouts and races; troubleshooting low motivation and/or fatigue; the pros and cons of indoor vs. outdoor intervals on the bike; handling high-pressure situations by having a calm conversation with yourself; optimizing recovery after big days; using races or group rides as organic fitness tests; how to build durability on the bike; why skipping and other plyometrics can revolutionize your running; and Jim’s minimum effective dose 15-minute run workout for time-crunched athletes. We also hit some fun swimming-related gear picks of the week and answer listener questions on clip-in pedals. 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].

This week’s episode is another grab bag full of recent insights from racing, training, and spectating! Elena and Katie cover a bunch of fun topics including: insights from the Boston Marathon; how to optimize your training schedule for variables like multiple sports, good vs. bad weather, recovery, and social time; pre-race nerves and anxiety; processing bad races; gender breakdowns in Ironman and ultra training; emotions and training; what rucking is and how to incorporate in your training; how the menstrual cycle impacts overall feel in training; and fun new marathon prep workouts. 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].

This week’s episode is a grab bag full of fun insights related to: the how and why of training camps, considerations for buying a new or new used bike, navigating race-day uncontrollables, impulse control in racing, how and when to “burn a match” in workouts or races, GI issues on long runs, the post-race blues, and lessons from interval training. We also debrief Jim’s recent bike trip in Europe, answer some questions related to “hitting the wall” after Katie’s recent marathon (hot take: there is no wall), and cover some fun tech-y gear picks of the week. 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].

In this week’s episode, Elena and Katie recap Katie’s recent BQ marathon. We cover why Katie decided to pivot from triathlon training to marathon training, why she kept the race a secret until after she crossed the finish line, how relatively low mileage and a ton of cross training kept her injury-free throughout the build, how she integrated heavy weighted strength into her run training plan, how she approached unexpected adversity leading up to the race, mindset tools that helped her in training and racing, her fueling and pacing strategies, and her key takeaways from the race experience itself. This episode is a good listen for anyone who is marathon-curious or who likes a good story about the importance of flexibility and resilience! 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].