Aid Stations are so important at a race.  They have evolved with trail running over time combining medical help, shelter, therapy, and all-you-can eat buffets. Sarah Lavender-Smith joins us to discuss how they have evolved and how to use them efficiently.

Here is her article that spurred the discussion.

Check out all her newsleter, Colrado Mouintain Running & Living

Check out on of Sarah's fall races, Hanging Flume 50K

We encourage you to check out all of our partners and their excellent products and services.  A new one we want to make you aware of is Wonderful Pistachios.  It might be your newest and favorite trail snack.

Sports Nutrition expert, Ashley Reaver, rejoins The Nation to discuss 5 additional biomarkers that endurance athletes should be aware of.  These biomarkers can help (or hinder) functions within the body like buiding red blood cells, help in recovery, energy and other body functions.

Biomarkers help us understand what is going on inside our bodies.  Ashley helped us understand the top 5 biomarkers in a previous episode.    In this episode identifies five additional biomarkers, why they are important, what is the normal range and what can we do to correct them if they are outside the normal range.

Ashley Reaver is a registered sports dietician with a masters in Nutrition Science and Policy.  She offers nutrition counseling in her private practice and a full-time teacher of nutrition and dietetics courses at the University of California, Berkeley.  She is also the lead nutritional scientist at Inside Tracker.

We encourage you to check out all of our partners and their excellent products and services.  A new one we want to make you aware of is Wonderful Pistachios.  It might be your newest and favorite trail snack.

We all are part of The Nation. What does that mean. How does The Nation look? What gear do we use? There have been a few surveys conducted in 2022 that help us understand.

• Check out the ITRA Survey
• ATRA also conducted a Survey

We encourage you to check out all of our partners and their excellent products and services.  A new one we want to make you aware of is Wonderful Pistachios.  It might be your newest and favorite trail snack.

Endurance runners love to eat!  However nutrition for endurance running can be a moving target.  Experimentation is key and once you think you have it figured out, you don't.  We found four nutritional experts to help us understand more about nutrition.  

• Meredith Terranova, experienced ultra runner, swimmer and athlete with a degree in Human Nutrition and Consumer Science.  Check out her website with coaching options.
• Matt Fitzgerald, Athlete, Coach, Author and Speaker is a certified sports nutritionist including many on nutrition.  Check out his new running camp concept, Endeavorun
• Stephanie Howe is a PhD in Nutrition and Exercise Science and elite athlete.  Check out her coaching and web site with many great recipes
• Bob Seebohar is a board certified specialist in Sports Dietetics and former director of sports nutrtition for the University of Florida and served as a sports dietitian for the US Olympic Committee.  Hire him as a coach

Elite runner, Tim Tollefson, had a great spring training and racing leading up to his A-race, the Western States 100 Endurance Run.  His expectations were high and many thought he would be able to best his 2021 fifth place finish.  Tim joins us to shares what he experienced and the lessons he learned. 

Be to check out and register for Tim's Mammoth Trail Fest on Sept 22-25, 2022.

We encourage you to check out all of our partners and their excellent products and services.  A new one we want to make you aware of is Wonderful Pistachios.  It might be your newest and favorite trail snack.

Do you have a hot adventure or race you are preparing for?  Corrine Malcolm helps The Nation understand what we can do to improve our chances for success.

Corrine breaks down these science-based strategies for getting cool before your adventure and staying cool when you are running.

We reference her article from iRunFar she wrote.

Find out how Corrine can become your Coach

Follow Corrine on Instagram and Twitter

Do you have an adventure or race at high altitude this summer?  You will want to listen to Coach Ian Sharman teach us about the ins and outs of how to adapt most effectively.

Ian has experience at altitude.  He is a four-time winner of the high-altitude Leadville 100 (lowest point is over 9000' and climbing up to 12,532').

We talk about

• when do you need to consider acclimatization
• where to train
• how to train
• how soon should you be at the event
• what if you don't have time to spend at altitude

Check out his article "High Altitude Training" in Ultra Running Magazine

Find out more about Sharman Ultra Coaching

What are the biggest misconceptions that endurance athletes have about nutrition?  Dr. Patrick Davitt, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology and Program Director for Exercise Physiology at the Saint Joseph's University, joins us The Nation to help us understand some important information about nutrition as it relates to endurane sports.  Patrick has practical experience as an avid and accomplished member of our community of trail runners!  Should we taper our nutrition prior to a race?  Can we train our gut similar to our cardiovascular system?

Find out more about Dr. Davitt at CTW Endurance

One of our favorite topics at TRN is sleep. Sleep is the time our bodies adapt to the training stimulus.  Alexey Guzey, a researcher, writer and co-founder and executive director of New Science joins us to shed more light on this important part of our training.  We cover many topics like:

• What are the myths of sleep?
• Why do we sleep?
• Is it OK to feel sleepy?
• Should we get as much sleep as our body wants?
• Can we over sleep?
• Can we bank sleep?
• Can we catch up on sleep?
• Depression and sleep

Check out this past episode about Matthew Walker's book, "Why We Sleep"

Take a look at a couple of Alexey's articles on sleep:

Thesis on Sleep Alexey's take on Matthew Walker's book, "Why We Sleep"

You can learn more about Alexey at Guzey.com, follow him on twitter or learn more about New Science

Western States 100 is this weekend.  International runners represent nearly 1/3 of the entrants.  We recorded this episode live with these international runners at a local running store in Auburn California, The Aid Station.  Course experts, Tim Twietmeyer and Ian Sharman join us to help these runners understand the course and how to develop a strategy for success.  Many of these strategies can translate into your trail adventures and races.

HERE is a link to a course map and elevation profile.

Link to Joe Uhan's iRunFar articles: - The Western States Killing Machine - Part 1 - The Western States Killing Machine - Part 2

Sharman Ultra Coaching