The Running for Real Podcast

I am officially a mother runner, and after a three month hiatus from recording the Running for Real podcast, it is time to update you on how my life has changed since my daughter Bailey was brought into this world.

Hear about the ups and downs of life with a newborn, how my return to running has progressed since I was cleared to start running...and how different it is now I cannot put my running first.

I also talk about the struggles with learning that your body is no longer your own, you are sore in places you didn't know you could be. 

If you have ever wondered what it is really like to go from elite runner, who can put running as number one to mother who has to squeeze a run in at any moment, I share all the things I had wondered about.

It's Me!

In this solo episode, I talk about my experience as a mother and how I have handled the lack of sleep, crying baby, and return to running postpartum.

Last week's interview with Dave Collins 

Running for Real Strength Training Program

Hypnobabies (practice for childbirth)

Podcast Series

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

Tina on Instagram

Tina on facebook

Tina's Community: Running for Real Superstars

Tina on Strava

Thank you to my new running buddy VI and favorite recovery product BodyHealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real.

VI is there to encourage you on tough days, congratulate you on the days you crush it, and remind you of your goals when you need it. You can enter to win your own VI by visiting GetVI.com/running4real

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

In this episode, we shift our focus from the runner to the person behind the scenes, the runner’s coach.

We discuss the unseen process of coaching.

Dave explains the difference between outcome focused vs process focused training.

He gives examples of soft skills coaches can use with their athletes to draw the best out of them.

Dave explains the balancing that needs to be done for multi-events to get the best from each event.

We discuss the pressures recreational runners feel vs. professional runners experience.

He shares his experience as the performance director for the British Athletics.

Dave Collins

Dave Collins is a performance psychologist.  Formerly the performance director with British Athletics, he is currently the director of the Institute of Coaching and Performance.  He also works and does research for his company, Grey Matters For Performance.

• What really is involved with coaching.
• What professional judgment and decision making means to a coach.
• What Dave means by content, knowledge, wisdom.
• What you can do mentally to improve your performance.
• What Dave’s advice is to parents who have a child with talent and enjoy the sport.

The basic point of being a high-level, a being coach at any level actually, is in the decisions you make.

It becomes quite important to, again, keep the coach focused and the athlete focused on the process.  What are you doing to get better?  What are you doing to get there?

A coach is more like a chef than a cook. They’re not following a recipe.

The good coach is a chef, but the good coach is also a conductor.  And she or he sets up the  system, the orchestra if you will, for all these different bits to play together to optimally benefit.

One of the characteristics of good athletes is that they have a pretty good and accurate sense of how well they’ll do on any particular day.  And they’ll be able to rationalize, that was a good performance, that was a bad performance.

When push comes to shove, it’s the thing between your ears rather than the thing in your chest that’s going to determine how well you do.

Runners can have their own wisdom, cos lord knows they know themselves better than anybody else.

Last week's interview with Camille Heron

Grey Matters Performance

Dave on Twitter

Thank you to Run Angel and favorite recovery product BodyHealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real.

 Run Angel keeps you safe, gives you the peace of mind to know that even if you were in danger, your loved ones could be alerted of your whereabouts in minutes, and an alarm the volume of a rock concert would be sent out to get you help. Use coupon code running4real for 10% off at RunAngel.com

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

We get to meet the best of the best. The professionals. The scientists. The psychologists. All the experts, motivational, inspirational, driven runners we could ever want to learn from. But what about those everyday runners. You know, the ones like you and I. The ones who are out there at 5am getting their runs in before the kids wake up, or the ones who are not up at the front of the pack.

That is who I have on today. Runners from our community, talking about their running experiences and what running has taught them. Just because they are not professionals, doesnt mean their stories aren't interesting, in fact, in some ways, everyday runners deserve more credit for finding the time when it would be easy to find an excuse.

The Running for Real Community has become a wonderful place to hang out, get to know other runners, be inspired by other runners, and just feel at home. Today you get to meet some of the most recognizable names, and have a little fun.

• Eddie Valen
• Peg DeBiasi
• David Skytte
• Sarah Williarty
• Pete Davy
• Lauren Stern-Kalamar

Role models are often people you see from afar and only hope to meet.  In this episode I meet and talk with my role model, Kara Goucher, and see the real and vulnerable side of her.

This episode is for runners, mother runners, and those who know a mother runner.

We dive right into running and motherhood.  Kara shares with us her thoughts on

starting a family while having a successful running career, and how becoming a mother has changed her.

She shares her personal experiences of lack of support and roadblocks with races and her sponsors.

Kara gives us some advice about coming back after having a baby.  She shares what she would have done differently with her comeback.

We discuss the issue of her body weight that has been a topic throughout her career before and after her child’s birth.

Kara recalls her experience running at the Olympic trials and describes what she was thinking during the last 4 miles.

We discuss her reporting the Nike Oregon Project to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and the possible repercussions it could cause her.

She gives us her views on what the sport of running could do to get out of the hole it is in related to doping.

Kara Goucher

Kara Goucher is an American long-distance runner.  She won a silver medal in the 2007 World Championships in the 10,000 meters, and participated in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic games.

• What roadblocks and lack of support she has experienced with races and sponsors since becoming a mother runner.
• What the worst part of her career was.
• Why Kara gave up the last 4 miles in the Olympic trials.
• Why Kara is no longer with her sponsor, Nike, after 12 years.
• What advice Kara gives to those who are struggling or injured to keep hanging in there.
• What ideas Kara has on preventing cheating from happening in the sport of running.

Losing my father at such a young age just makes me more appreciative of all the people I have in my life and all the time I have with the people I care about.

All you can do is focus on what your own journey is.  And nobody’s is the same.

I care about companies that care about people in the long haul.  And that care about every type of runner.

Just remember, the body is a miraculous thing.  You will get better.  You will get through it.

Lean on your running friends.  Just believe.  It takes just one good day to just turn everything around.

I am only asking myself to do what I have proven to myself I can do in training.

Last week's interview with Andrew Jones 

Kara's articles on Oiselle blog

Kara's website (where you can find about the retreat)

Kara on Twitter

Kara's Facebook page

Generation UCAN and BodyHealth sponsored this episode of Running for Real. Two products you can rely on.

Even if you are trying to tweak your diet to be ready for race day, Generation UCAN is the ONLY fuel I needed during my marathons. This is one product that can help you make sure you are well fueled, both in training and in races. I love the bars for every day training, and still have one every morning, they are great for pre-workout, ESPECIALLY if you are prone to stomach upsets. You can get 15% off with code RUNNING4REAL at Generationucan.com

BodyHealth Perfect Amino helped my body recover MUCH faster after runs and workouts, I couldn't imagine my training life without them. You can enter to win a free pack of 6 bottles or get 10% off at BodyHealth.com using coupon code TINA10. Click the banner for more information.

This episode shifts us to the science behind running, and beetroot.  Beetroot?  You heard that right.  After listening, you just may want to put it on your next shopping list.

We begin by talking about his running records held at an early age and how his running led him to become obsessed with the physiology of distance running.

He get into the specifics about his beetroot study.

We hear first-hand examples of time spent working with Paula Radcliffe.

He discusses his role as the scientific adviser with Nike’s the sub-2 hour project and his reflection to the outcome of it.

He shares his experience and what he learned when he visited the Kenyan runners’ camp in Kenya.

Andrew Jones

Andrew Jones is famous for his study of beetroot as it relates to a runner’s performance.  He is a physiologist who has worked with some of the leading distance runners including Paula Radcliffe.  His involvement led to huge improvements in her performance.  He was the major scientific adviser with Nike’s sub-2 hour marathon project.

• What record Andrew has held for the last 30 years.
• What Andrew’s involvement was with the Nike sub-2 project.
• What foods are used as great recovery products.
• When and how much beet root should be used to see a benefit.
• Why Andrew says that “the marathon world record is way slower than a human would be

  potentially be capable of running it.”

• What Andrew sees as the reasons why Kenyan runners are ranked above the rest.

Things like cherry juice are better in recovery and they contain a lot of polyphenols.  Taking anti-oxidants and things like polyphenols which are in cherries, also in beet root juice, can sort of help the recovery process a bit.

If you consume high nitrate food stuffs you can lower your blood pressure, as well.

I’m not saying you should run, you should not have breakfast before you race, but actually in terms of forcing some additional musclar adaptation, it isn’t always a bad thing to get up and to run.   You kind of treat your body to, or teach your body to adapt in certain ways by so doing. And you can have your breakfast after you run.

Last week's interview with Kim Jones

Andy on the University of Exeter website

Andy on Twitter

Thank you to my new running buddy VI and favorite recovery product BodyHealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real.

VI is there to encourage you on tough days, congratulate you on the days you crush it, and remind you of your goals when you need it. You can enter to win your own VI by visiting GetVI.com/running4real

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

I have been fortunate to have so many guests on the podcast who have been willing to be very open, honest, and vulnerable.  Kim Jones is another one who belongs in this group.

Kim describes how she became a marathon runner and the person who influenced and inspired her early in her running career.

She explains the natural slow progression she took that got her to her 2:26 marathon.

Kim becomes vulnerable and shares the challenges she endured growing up, and how these times of mental anguish helped her to be able to push through bad moments in races.

She shares her situation and feelings about giving her daughter up for adoption and their relationship that developed later on.

She talks about her autobiography, Dandelion Growing Wild.

She tells a running for real story about a Boston Marathon race that involved a racer in a wheelchair, a PR, and a surprise finish.

Kim Jones

Kim Jones is a woman who wears many hats.  She is a 2:26 marathoner.  She authored her autobiography Dandelions Grow Wild.  She currently coaches Olympic level to beginners at Anaerobic Management.

• Who Kim was inspired by that led her to begin running marathons.
• How Benji Durden became Kim’s coach.
• How running gave her the courage and strength to change her life.
• How she feels when she re-reads her autobiography.
• Why she includes wine in her weight lifting sessions.
• What kept Kim coming back to running in spite of all the mental anguish she had in life.

It is really helpful to look up to somebody.  I think the elite runners are more attainable.  You can reach them, you know, go on facebook or twitter and contact the elite runners.

I wasn’t afraid of failure.  And I think that was what helped me more than anything else.

The more you worry, you know, the less, umm, prepared you are to run a mentally strong race.

Last week's interview with Kirrily Dear

Dandelion Growing Wild: A triumphant journey over astounding odds by American marathon champion Kim Jones

Kim's coaching website

Runners World Article on Kim

Thank you to my running buddy VI and favorite recovery product BodyHealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real.

VI is there to encourage you on tough days, congratulate you on the days you crush it, and remind you of your goals when you need it. You can enter to win your own VI by visiting GetVI.com/running4real

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