Kipchoge is coming to Boston, 4 of the 5 fastest men ever are headed to London, star American women and men will be on the line at both races, and Phil promises fireworks! It's time for our preview of the crown jewels of the spring road racing season.

As we near America’s most historic road race, the Boston Marathon, Dakotah Lindwurm of Minnesota Distance Elite and PUMA Running joins us for a preview of Boston’s 127th running. Dakotah enters Boston with a 2:25 marathon personal best and back-to-back Grandma’s Marathon victories. She shares her training, race goals, and reflections on tune-up races at Gate River Run 15K and the New York City Half. But none of that is more important than her unsurpassed love for running. Dakotah’s perspective is a breath of fresh air, and she’ll have you cheering for her on Patriot’s Day, April 17th.

As we return to race-focused preparation let's take a peak into our recent training. Then, we'll complete our March Madness marathon bracket with 16 of the best female marathoners ever competing for the prize of Greatest of All Time.

We've had the new Hoka Clifton 9 and Rocket X 2 on our feet and we tell you how they ride. Then, in our main segment, let's put 16 of the greatest male marathoners ever in a NCAA-basketball-style March Madness bracket and see who emerges as the greatest of all time (in the non-Kipchoge division). And finally, we conclude with an ode to high jumping legend Dick Fosbury.

We catch you up on all the recent record breaking track, field, and road racing performances before discussing our Mile 143 interview with Professor Andy Jones. Then it's time to dive into new scientific literature on threshold training and the Norwegian Training Model.

Paper referenced: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/5/3782

No one in the field of exercise science has contributed more to our understanding of marathon training and racing than Andy Jones. Professor Jones has worked closely with arguably the two greatest marathoners in world history: Paula Radcliffe and later, as a lead physiologist for the Breaking 2 Project, Eliud Kipchoge. He serves as Professor of Applied Physiology at the University of Exeter and has published 350+ original research and review articles. In this episode, Andy shares his laboratory and practical experiences to help us better understand marathon physiology. His lessons can make all of us stronger marathoners. We open with a background discussion of the science underpinning endurance performance before shifting to how we might apply these concepts for better training and the scalable examples from Radcliffe, Kipchoge, and other legends of the 26.2 mile distance.

Resources referenced:

Breaking2 Project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26Vhcxatsms

Eliud Kipchoge's Sub 2 Hour Marathon @ Vienna: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-XgKRJUEgQ

The maximal metabolic steady state: redefining the 'gold standard': https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.14814/phy2.14098

Physiological demands of running at 2-hour marathon race pace: https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.00647.2020

Effects of Two Hours of Heavy-Intensity Exercise on the Power-Duration Relationship: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323657654_Effects_of_Two_Hours_of_Heavy-Intensity_Exercise_on_the_Power-Duration_Relationship

We give a full review of the new ASICS Nimbus 25 then catch you up on an unprecedented week of indoor track action. Which race performance was the best? Then, it's time for the seminal annual US indoor track meet -- The Millrose Games -- and we preview some of the showcase events. Finally, we close with workout session ideas for when you are in a down cycle, less structured training block, or transitional phase.

Last weekend Andrew Colley of the Zap Endurance team raced to a second-place finish at the US Cross Country Championships in a time of 28 minutes 47 seconds. That result punctuated a thrilling return to racing this fall and winter for Andrew. He also claimed top 10 spots at the US 10 Mile Championships and USATF road 5K champs, and 4th place at the ultra-competitive Thanksgiving Day Manchester Road Race in a course-record time for the age 30 and over division. Now Andrew sets his sights on the World Cross Championships in Australia next month as a member of the 6-man US squad. He joined us fresh off his runner-up performance for a discussion of cross country, training, and the challenges of overcoming injuries. Plus he gave us a sneak peak into his upcoming marathon schedule and the fueling plan that will carry him through those 26.2 miles. Here’s a spoiler…if you’ve thought about training on sweet tea and Bojangles, American distance running has a hero who is one step ahead of you.

Like you training in adverse conditions, we stayed committed to the craft this week and recorded amid some nasty weather. We apologize for the occasional weather-related background noise.

Aussie XC trials for the World Champs were last weekend. We recap the action from the beautiful venue at Stromlo Forest Park, and discuss the favorites to make the USA squad.

Then it's time for training talk. Our conversations flow from several great recent listener emails. There's something valuable in these questions for every type of runner!

After a brief training update, we preview this weekend's lightning quick Houston Half Marathon field. Then we tackle a listener question about best practices for when and why to use medium-long runs v. long runs across endurance events from 5K to half marathon to ultra distances.