The Running for Real Podcast

Today’s interview with Susan Lacke is a bit unusual because, while I prepared all the questions, they were sent to Susan in advance and read to her by someone else in a recording studio.  Why you ask?  Because Susan is deaf, which provided some logistical issues for us.  Despite those, this is a completely different and delightful interview.

Running has reminded Susan that she is not perfect and not the best, both lessons she believes are important for her perfectionist self.  It gives her an outlet and reminder to always be her true and honest self not some view of who she should be.

Her friend Carlos, who inspired the title of her book believed in her and that she could change from an overweight smoker and inspired her to get busy and get on with changing her life.  Carlos managed to change her mind from thinking exercisers were a cult that was not something she wanted to belong to.  He made her realize that it was herself she was afraid of.  It made her realize that if he was so willing to fight cancer, she was determined to stick by his side with anything he needed from her.

I do want to give you a small heads up that this episode contains some colorful language that might not be suitable for small children so you may wish to find a solo time or listen with headphones.

Susan Lacke is a writer for several running and outdoors publications, including Women’s Running, Success, Competitor and Triathlete.  She is the author of “Life’s Too Short to go So F*cking Slow”.

• How Susan got involved with running and IronMan competitions
• How her experiences have translated into her writing and trying to make others believe they also could do it
• How Susan’s parents instilled in her a sense of self reliance
• How her friend Carlos’ life and struggle with cancer inspired her to write a book so that she could remember him.
• How the struggles in training bring out the vulnerable side of us and in some ways the worst of us, so it allows us to open up.  Because our training partners have already seen us at our worst.

Be the best you can be with what you have.

It is the people in your life who will inspire you to change; the sports don’t change you, the people do.

The pain is the best part, because it lets you know you are alive.

Last week's episode with Colin McCourt

Tina4Real Podcast 

Life's Too Short to go so F*cking Slow

Susan's Website

Susan's Twitter

Susan on Facebook

Thank you to BodyHealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real.

Now I am back to training, guess what was the first thing I did to start making sure I recover quicker (as coming back to fitness really beats your body up!), yep, you guessed it, BodyHealth Perfect Amino! Get 10% off at Bodyhealth.com using coupon code TINA10

To share your thoughts:

Leave a note in the comment section below.

Join the Running for Real Facebook Group and share your thoughts on the episode (or future guests you would like to hear from)

Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.

To help out the show:

Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews will really help me climb up the iTunes rankings and I promise, I read every single one.

Subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcast player.

Not sure how to leave a review or subscribe, you can find out here.

Thank you to Susan, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the show.

Colin McCourt is a middle distance runner from Great Britain who competed at the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and was striving to attend the Olympics in 2012.  But he didn’t make the team.  And stepped away from running at age 27.  He never told anyone, just stepped away and got a job.

Over time, he gained weight.  He wasn’t in the best of head space.  He got married and had a son.  And came to realize that if he didn’t make some changes he would not be able to do all the things he wanted to do with his son, simple things like playing in the park.

Colin and I discuss how seeing an old photo of himself running caused him to rethink how he was living his life.  His first run was horrific to him.  After posting an up to date photo, his friends proposed a bet, one that changed his life.  He regained control of his life by reintroducing some structure in his life in by way of changing to a diet that better supported his running goals, building consistency in terms of running by insisting to himself that he just get out the door and run.  No watch, just run, each day a bit more than the day before.  Run to time and how you feel.  Can we say #nowatchme?

This episode is a big longer than usual but Colin and I were discussing such important concepts that I know it was so wonderful that he agreed that we could keep going.  Colin and I are so much on the same wavelength when it comes to being real and I know you will enjoy it.  I am sure you as well will find the investment worth the listen.

Colin McCourt hit the headlines for a bet he was undertaking. Having ballooned to 94 kg (207 lbs) after retiring from athletics, he stood to win money on a bet with friends if he could finish a 5k in under 16 minutes in 2017. If he failed, he had to have the names of seventeen of his friends tattooed onto his back. He finished the race in 15:38 thus beating the bet significantly.

• How Colin dropped out of running, got a job, and substituted working too hard and eating too much for the discipline of professional running
• How posting a photo of himself resulted in friends “helping” him meet his goal by challenging him to run a 5k in under 16 minutes or forever live with their names tattooed on his body
• How there is nothing wrong with heading out, taking whatever time you need for your run, stopping to take photos, embrace the scenery.  Remember what you were like as a kid.  How you should forget all the technical mumbo jumbo and just run.
• How Colin reintroduced balance in his life across all the facets of his life from home to work to fitness
• How posting and being real on social media helped him achieve his goals and inspire others to know they can do it too.  Life isn’t all just perfect and we need to all remember that bad days happen to everyone, even though they don’t talk about it
• How to win most of the little battles every day. And not worry about the small ones that you miss but can tackle the next day.

If you miss a deadline at work, it isn’t as if someone is going to die.

My friends knew I was stupid enough to agree to a bet like that.  If I say I am going to do it, I commit to do it.

Just Run.  Consistency is key.  Enjoy what you are doing.

Most days it is critical to just get out there and do it, even if you don’t want to. But it is also critical to know when it important to listen to your body.

With Strava and watches you can get too caught up in the times rather than how you are feeling and adapting each day.  I put exactly how I feel on the run in the description and then don’t go back and look at the paces.  I post what is real and what I am feeling each day.  Because you will get caught out in the lies eventually.

“I think I have just met the male version of me” - Tina Muir

My whole purpose is to teach my son that anything is possible.  You don’t have to keep worrying about what you did in the past.  The only way for sure that I won’t do it is if I don’t try when I have the opportunity.

Last week's episode with Ali Feller

Colin on Instagram

Colin on Twitter

Running for Real Beginners Podcast Series

Rest of the Podcast Series

•  Coming Back From Injuries
• Mental Toughness Training
• Marathon Training
• Running Nutrition
• Running Through and After Pregnancy

Thank you to BodyHealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real.

When I was running 90 miles a week as a pro, I would take 5-10 BodyHealth Perfect Amino tablets every day without fail. They helped me recover faster, and feel better. Now they have Perfect Amino XP, which makes it even easier. Get 10% off at Bodyhealth.comusing coupon code TINA10

Ali Feller is a freelance writer and editor, blogger and podcast host known for asking her guests some more unusual questions in a conversational fashion.  Her podcast style is probably as close to mine as they get.  Ali is very public with living with the chronic inflammatory disease called Crohn’s Disease.

We will cover how she manages both the physical and mental side of her disease and how hard it is when your body holds you back from what you want to do despite all the motivation and drive in the world.  How being a strong person is not enough to get past what is happening in your body and you have to learn how to manage and build your confidence that you can and will get through it.

Ali and I get very real about her struggles with her disease and her life overall.  We discuss body image and comparisons to others and how we looked at other times of our life.

Ali Feller of the Ali On The Run Show, freelance writer and editor, podcast host and blogger lives in New York City with her husband and rescue dog.

• Does Ali like the name she chose for her blog and podcast and was she surprised at the time that people would be interested in her running journey?
• What got Ali started running?
• How does Ali interview all the “big name” guests and not get intimidated by them?
• Advice for learning what works for you and listening to your body. Because what works for others may or may not work for you.  Get ideas from others, try them more than once, and then see if it works for you.
• We’ll learn how to get past having a goal “ripped away” from you?
• How your thirties are the best.
• How Ali manages life as a podcast host and runner with Crohn’s disease
• Do cults go to Stonehenge?
• You will never learn about the struggles others have if you don’t ask about them.  It is easy to see the glamorous in others especially with social media and miss their struggles.
• Ali’s favorite Celine Dion songs

It is tough to go from such a high to such a low place and still move forward.

Every runner will experience gastric distress, so if it happens to you, you will not be alone.

Your body is a tool, you can’t run without it and it is imperative that you take care of it to live the life you want to live. It is good to want to be your best so long as it is done from a positive and uplifting way.

Last week's episode with Trent Stellingwerff 

The Ali on the Run Show

The Ali on the Run Show Episode with me

Ali's Instagram

Ali's Twitter

Ali on Facebook

Running for Real Coming Back From Injuries

Rest of the Podcast Series

• Beginners
• Mental Toughness Training
• Marathon Training
• Running Nutrition
• Running Through and After Pregnancy

Thank you to BodyHealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real.

When I was running 90 miles a week as a pro, I would take 5-10 BodyHealth Perfect Amino tablets every day without fail. They helped me recover faster, and feel better. Now they have Perfect Amino XP, which makes it even easier. Get 10% off at Bodyhealth.comusing coupon code TINA10

To share your thoughts:

Leave a note in the comment section below.

Join the Running for Real Facebook Group and share your thoughts on the episode (or future guests you would like to hear from)

Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.

To help out the show:

Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews will really help me climb up the iTunes rankings and I promise, I read every single one.

Subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcast player.

Not sure how to leave a review or subscribe, you can find out here.

Thank you to Ali, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the show.

Nutrition is always a hot topic with runners, and today’s guest, Trent Stellingwerff brings a wealth of knowledge and extensive research into how nutrition affects our physiology.

Trent and I cover a wide range of topics that touch on more than just nutrition, from the notion that trying to do 5 or 6 things really well is simply impossible and leads to doing nothing well and his focus on health, mobility and wellness over an entire lifetime.  We cover whether there is really one way to eat that is better than any other, and how dietary choices are dependent on one’s individual history, training loads, and a continuum of macro and micro nutrients.  You will also learn why a simple focus on what and how much you eat for breakfast is probably the most important food choice you can make to help your performance and overall health.

For you listening that are not simply runners but also are perhaps doing Triathlons, Trent works with a wide variety of athletes from runners to rowers, cyclists, swimmers etc.  Our discussions covers the different training loads in terms of hours of training and how those impact the nutritional needs and focus for athletes of all types.

Trent Stellingwerff

Trent  Stellingwerff is an applied sport physiologist with a specialization in the area of performance nutrition. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Human Nutrition and Exercise Physiology at Cornell University and he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Guelph in Exercise and Skeletal Muscle Physiology.  He is currently the Director of Performance Solutions at the Canadian Sports Institute, with a focus on providing his physiology and nutrition expertise to Canada’s national rowing, track and field and triathlon teams.  He also heads the Canadian Sport Institute’s Innovation and Research division. Trent previously worked as the senior leading scientist in Performance Nutrition for Power Bar at the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Trent ran middle distances in his collegiate career for Cornell until he was sidelined by injury.  Trent’s lives with his wife Hilary, a two time Olympian, and their children in Victoria, Canada.

• How just a focus on breakfast can make a huge difference in our overall health and performance.

• How accurately measuring energy input and output is like trying to measure rain in a hurricane.  Both are fraught with over and under-reporting.

• How it is important to understand the calorie and nutritional breakdown of what you are eating but not stress over the number of calories as it is less important than the overall balance of what is in each item.

• How runners tend to be picker about what they eat but can quickly get into trouble by not fueling enough to support the pounding their bodies endure.  How the pounding forces and upright posture of running impacts the GI system and leads to somewhat unique issues related to digestion and fueling.
• How athletes in the hotbed of distance running (Kenya and Ethiopia) are eating pretty close to the land.  Their dinner probably just walked by them a few moments ago.

• How the pounding forces and upright posture of running impacts the GI system and leads to somewhat unique issues related to digestion and fueling.

• What the role of supplements should be in our diets

Are you happy, healthy and are you running well?

The best elites Athletes have a focus on the consistent quality of food without neurosis.

Never assume, always ask.

Last week's episode with Allie Kieffer 

Running for Real Strength Training Program

Podcast with Renee McGregor

Running4Real Podcast Series on Nutrition

Rest of the Podcast Series

• Beginners
• Mental Toughness Training
• Marathon Training
• Coming Back From Injuries
• Running Through and After Pregnancy

Thank you to BodyHealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real.

When I was running 90 miles a week as a pro, I would take 5-10 BodyHealth Perfect Amino tablets every day without fail. They helped me recover faster, and feel better. Now they have Perfect Amino XP, which makes it even easier. Get 10% off at Bodyhealth.comusing coupon code TINA10

To share your thoughts:

Leave a note in the comment section below.

Join the Running for Real Facebook Group and share your thoughts on the episode (or future guests you would like to hear from)

Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.

To help out the show:

Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews will really help me climb up the iTunes rankings and I promise, I read every single one.

Subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcast player.

Not sure how to leave a review or subscribe, you can find out here.

Thank you to Trent, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the show.

Allie Kieffer stormed back onto the running scene by coming in as the second US woman, and fifth overall, in the 2017 NY Marathon with a 15 minute personal best.  She became a runner for Oiselle early this year and selected them because of the focus on women and community.  Allie ran in college for Wake Forest, made the 2012 10k Olympic Trials but retired in 2013 after injury.  Because of her love of running she self-coached her way back, which is amazing it its own right.

Allie and I cover a wide range of subjects: how she focused on what effort she felt she could sustain in order to smash 15 minutes off her personal best to take everyone by surprise in that 2017 marathon,  her advocacy for positive body image and setting a goal of good healthy living and balance in her life and what she is currently doing to heal a stress fracture in her foot.

Allie and I cover whether you should strive for a race weight and what that could mean for your performance overall and your ability to give your body what it needs to perform at it.

• How Allie took 15 min off her PR in the 2017 NYC Marathon, finishing in 5th place and the second American woman
• How your race should be about the effort you can sustain, how you are feeling, and not any end result
• How weight training and having more muscle has made her a better runnerHow Allie ran a 2016 marathon on a 200 meter indoor track (211 laps) as the only woman and set a new world record
• To be healthy, eat mostly vegetables, whole foods, and don’t eat too much.  Be sure to get regular exercise.  Don’t have to say no to anything.  
• If you are under-eating to get to a “race weight” it is likely not healthy for you.  How would you know what an ideal race weight might be anyway?  Some runners are being told they are too small, some too big.  You have to figure out what your body needs and listen to it.
• How she came to be an advocate/spokesperson for positive body image and taking ownership of yourself and doing what is right and healthy for you
• How she is dealing with a stress fracture in the second metatarsal of her foot causing her to have to drop out of the NYC Half and London Marathon. How she has been using cross training on an elliptical (and ElliptiGO) and pool running to stay in condition.

Don’t box yourself in by putting limits on what you think you are capable of. Set yourself up for success, not failure.

If you can’t eat out at a restaurant or have anxiety about it, you are not being healthy.

Last week's episode with Sarah Bowen Shea and Dimity McDowell

Running for Real Strength Training Program

Running4Real Podcast Series on Marathon Training

Rest of the Podcast Series

• Beginners
• Mental Toughness Training
• Marathon Training
• Coming Back From Injuries
• Running Nutrition
• Running Through and After Pregnancy

Podcast episode on Orthorexia (obsession with healthy eating)

Allie on Instagram

Allie on Twitter

Thank you to BodyHealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real.

When I was running 90 miles a week as a pro, I would take 5-10 BodyHealth Perfect Amino tablets every day without fail. They helped me recover faster, and feel better. Now they have Perfect Amino XP, which makes it even easier. Get 10% off at Bodyhealth.comusing coupon code TINA10

To share your thoughts:

Leave a note in the comment section below.

Join the Running for Real Facebook Group and share your thoughts on the episode (or future guests you would like to hear from)

Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.

To help out the show:

Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews will really help me climb up the iTunes rankings and I promise, I read every single one.

Subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcast player.

Not sure how to leave a review or subscribe, you can find out here.

Thank you to Allie, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the show.

If you have read my blog or are already a member of my Facebook Group Running4Real Superstars (and if you are not, hurry up and join!) you know that I truly believe in the power of a strong community of support.  This week’s guests, Sarah Bowen Shea and Dimity McDowell from Another Mother Runner were busy building their social and in person community of roughly 90,000 followers on Facebook long before most of the rest of the running community ever considered doing so.

Whether you have kids or not, we are all juggling way too much in our daily lives.  This podcast is not just for women runners, it covers concepts and topics for all of us who are trying to balance busy lives with our passion for running.

AMR believes strongly in the power of the tribe, because women become mothers and suddenly are thrown into the deep end on their own.  They wanted to bring a resource to women runners to ask the questions they just could not seem to find answers for elsewhere in their lives or on social media.  People want to be around other good people, and hope to learn from them.  AMR gives them a forum to do so.

AMR relies on humor because when life throws you curve balls you can fall onto the ground, or you can laugh about it.  There are so many things about running and things that happen on a run that are just so downright funny.

Sarah Brown Shea and Dimity McDowell of Another Mother Runner

Sarah and Dimity founded Another Mother Runner (AMR) to build support around the concepts in their 3 books, Run Like a Mother (2010), Train Like a Mother (2012), and Tales from Another Mother Runner (March 2015).  Their business now offers support to women (and men) worldwide though blog posts, their Facebook and Twitter pages, and a very popular podcast series.  They offer training programs for many race distances in their TrainLikeAMother.club

• • The impetus that brought about AMR and why they felt it was important to build a support community for women runners.
  • Who is the boss of this thing anyway?
  • How they have grown the business from books, to a website, to social media, podcasts, and race training and retreats.
  • The logistics of managing twins and how you can compare it to tackling longer and longer runs.
  • Who is the boss of this thing anyway?
  • Why it is important for everyone, not just mothers, to claim a part of the day as their own.
  • Whatever stage of your life you are in, you have to learn to listen to your body and do what feels right on any day.

It is affirming to read posts about how much readers have gotten from AMR.  We’ve made our passion our job.

It isn’t about how fast you go or how far you go, it is that you get to go.

Last week's episode with Alex Hutchinson 

Running for Real Strength Training Program

Running4Real Podcast Series on Mental Toughness Training  

Rest of the Podcast Series

• Beginners
• Mental Toughness Training
• Marathon Training
• Coming Back From Injuries
• Running Nutrition
• Running Through and After Pregnancy

Another Mother Runner Website

Another Mother Runner Facebook Page

Another Mother Runner on Twitter

Thank you to BodyHealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real.

When I was running 90 miles a week as a pro, I would take 5-10 BodyHealth Perfect Amino tablets every day without fail. They helped me recover faster, and feel better. Now they have Perfect Amino XP, which makes it even easier. Get 10% off at Bodyhealth.com using coupon code TINA10

To share your thoughts:

Leave a note in the comment section below.

Join the Running for Real Facebook Group and share your thoughts on the episode (or future guests you would like to hear from)

Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.

To help out the show:

Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews will really help me climb up the iTunes rankings and I promise, I read every single one.

Subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcast player.

Not sure how to leave a review or subscribe, you can find out here.

Thank you to Sarah and Dimity, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the show.

I’ve found that one thing you most enjoy learning about is the mental side of running.  This week’s podcast gets us back again to the subject but this time to the science behind training and racing rather than the psychological side.    The episode will cover the 5 areas of the book, Pain, Muscles, Oxygen, Heat, Thirst and Fueling.

Alex and I explore why some athletes are able to push themselves harder than others can?  What defines our limits and how (or can) we actually change them? Do recreational runners experience pain sooner in a race than the elites?  What learning processes can we employ to help us deal with pain and other discomforts?

Alex discusses pacing how do we learn to ration our energy and how does it change from childhood to adulthood?  What can we learn from 8-yr old runners? Is our urge to slow down real? How do our expectations of our performance at a given pace impact how we feel about the level of pain we are experiencing during a race and our level of effort overall.

Alex also shows us how we can learn from both good days and bad days and how much mental fatigue can change the perception of what good days and bad days are.  I was amazed to hear him say that sometimes there is not all that much you can learn from a bad day, sometimes it is just a bad day. What can you do to help control the mental stresses?  Do you get better at handling changes and stresses? Can you plan in some bad days to learn from?

Alex gives us his impression of the Sub-2 project and what we have learned from it and just how much inspiration we can take from the human performance of Kipchoge.

Are you ready to learn about what we can do about our limits and and what we can do at our ability levels?

Alex Hutchinson

Alex is an award-winning journalist who writes about the science of endurance for both Runner’s World and Outside.  He has also covered Adventure Travel for the New York Times, and earned a National Magazine award for energy reporting with Popular Mechanics.  He resides in Toronto with his wife and children.

Alex holds a master’s in journalism from Columbia, a Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge, and he did his post-doctoral research with the National Security Agency.   He started out as a physicist. He was a middle and long-distance runner on the Canadian national team, and also dabbled in cross country.

His latest book, which came out in February 2018, is ENDURE: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance

• The impact of wearables on performance

• Learning to handle pain- both the mental aspects and physical aspects

• What you learn from both good days and bad days

• How smiling can help you race better

• What is a stile?

• A peek inside his role on the Nike Sub-2 hour project and his feelings about the outcome

Sometimes I should have thrown caution to the wind and just gone for it.  There is a role for planning but sometimes we should just run as hard as we can.

The way we pace ourselves reflects how we approach challenges overall.

Sometimes you just have a bad day and it means nothing.

Last week's episode on my update about life with Bailey

Alex' book: ENDURE: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance

Running4Real Podcast Series on Mental Toughness Training  

Alex’ Website

Alex’s Facebook page

Alex’s Twitter

Thank you to BodyHealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real.

When I was running 90 miles a week as a pro, I would take 5-10 BodyHealth Perfect Amino tablets every day without fail. They helped me recover faster, and feel better. Now they have Perfect Amino XP, which makes it even easier. Get 10% off at Bodyhealth.com using coupon code TINA10

To share your thoughts:

Leave a note in the comment section below.

Join the Running for Real Facebook Group and share your thoughts on the episode (or future guests you would like to hear from)

Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.

To help out the show:

Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews will really help me climb up the iTunes rankings and I promise, I read every single one.

Subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcast player.

Not sure how to leave a review or subscribe, you can find out here.

Thank you to Alex, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the show.