Off The Couch
184 episodes - English - Latest episode: 7 months ago - ★★★★★ - 85 ratingsOff The Couch is the weekly podcast from BLISTER that's dedicated to the wide, weird, and wonderful world of running.
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Episodes
26.2 TO LIFE: Running, Prison Reform, & Personal Transformation
September 19, 2023 21:23 - 59 minutes - 54.8 MBDoes running have the power to transform the prison system? According to the data, it might, and it definitely has the power to ignite personal transformation, as you will see in the remarkable new documentary, 26.2 TO LIFE. Our guest today is Christine Yoo, the director and producer of 26.2 TO LIFE, which tells the story of incarcerated men at San Quentin State Prison who are members of the 1000 Mile Club, the prison’s long distance running club. They train all year for the San Quentin Mar...
Jason Hardrath & The Rocky Mountain Grand Slam
August 22, 2023 15:49 - 46 minutes - 42.4 MBThe Rocky Mountain Grand Slam: it involves summiting 122 peaks and 318,000 feet of elevation gain (the equivalent of summiting Everest 11 times from sea level). And Vuori & Athletic Brewing athlete, Jason Hardrath, recently set a new FKT by completing it in under 40 days. So I caught up with Jason to break down his most recent accomplishment, and to discuss the blurring of the lines between running, scrambling, and soloing. TOPICS & TIMES: Rocky Mountain Grand Slam (2:02) Planning (7:03) ...
Michele Graglia on the Tahoe 200, Walking Away from Racing, & Next Steps
August 15, 2023 15:28 - 1 hour - 69.1 MBRecently at the Tahoe 200, Michele Graglia found himself in first place with an hour lead. Then he decided to stop running. So why did the former winner of the Moab 240 and Badwater 135 stop? And why, shortly thereafter, did he announce that he would be walking away from racing? Blister founder, Jonathan Ellsworth, explores these questions and more with Michele. TOPICS & TIMES: What happened at Tahoe? (6:04) Pushing vs Pulling (13:24) Authenticity & Joy (29:16) Mindset Going Into Tahoe ...
Western States Weekend Recap; Courtney Dauwalter’s Course Record Clinic; & Golden Hour Greatness
June 27, 2023 16:33 - 55 minutes - 51.2 MBThe 50th running of the Western States 100 took place over the weekend and delivered on all of the excitement and drama we’ve come to expect from US ultrarunning’s biggest stage. Snowy conditions in the high country weren’t enough to stymy blistering times, including a new women’s course record that’s already being hailed as the greatest single run in our sport’s history. To recap the race, Matt Mitchell is joined by Matt Seidel, who also spent the day bouncing around the course from sunup t...
Paddy O’Leary on Winning the 112th Dipsea; Trail Running Film Recs; & the Broken Arrow Skyrace
June 20, 2023 16:05 - 34 minutes - 32 MBFirst run in 1905, the Dipsea is the oldest trail race in the US. Its course takes runners from Mill Valley, CA to Stinson Beach, 7.4 miles separated by 700 stairs, shortcuts, thickets of poison oak, technical singletrack, and stretches of trail with nicknames like “Suicide,” “Cardiac,” and “Insult.” The race’s unique handicap format gives certain runners head starts based on age, gender, and prior performances, meaning that logging the fastest time on the course doesn’t always ensure a vict...
Olivia Amber on Endless Summers; Her Huemul Circuit FKT; & Fastpacking 101
June 13, 2023 16:52 - 57 minutes - 52.5 MBThe North Face athlete Olivia Amber is just about to roll into her second summer of 2023. Earlier this year, she set out on a 3-month road trip through South America, running and climbing (and occasionally fly fishing) from Santiago, Chile all the way down to Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the continent. Now that she’s been back home for a bit, we sat down to talk about her southern hemisphere summer, including the FKT she set on the 40-mile Huemul Circuit outsi...
Leah Yingling on Lululemon’s FURTHER Initiative, Their New Women-Specific Road-to-Trail Shoe, & Her Western States 100 Expectations
June 06, 2023 14:46 - 32 minutes - 29.4 MBLeah Yingling returns to the show to discuss her partnership with Lululemon and their FURTHER initiative, a first-of-its-kind ultramarathon specifically for women; the brand’s efforts to close the sex and gender data gap in sports medicine that historically underrepresents female athletes; Lululemon’s new women-specific road-to-trail shoe, the Blissfeel Trail; how she’s preparing for this year’s snowy Western States 100; and a whole lot more. TOPICS & TIMES: Leah’s Lululemon Partnership ...
Mike McKnight on His Record-Setting Cocodona 250 Comeback & Discovering His Potential
May 30, 2023 14:26 - 47 minutes - 43.4 MBEven in a 250-mile race, falling 10 hours behind the leaders is an almost insurmountable gap. Almost. After some electrolyte issues threatened to derail Salomon athlete Mike McKnight’s third attempt at the Cocodona 250 this year, he found himself confronted with a choice: pull the plug and take a DNF just 70 miles in, or put his head down and try and work his way back up the field. What ensued is already being hailed as one of the greatest comebacks in ultrarunning history. So, Matt Mitchell...
Andrea Sansone and Andrew Hamilton on Tackling Colorado’s Most Coveted FKTs
May 23, 2023 16:33 - 1 hour - 55.9 MBIt’s probably fitting that Andrea Sansone and Andrew Hamilton met at the summit of a Colorado 14er, one of the 58 such peaks in the state that have gone on to help forge their relationship. Though neither considers themselves trail runners, the duo routinely puts up times on popular alpine routes that outpace those of the pros. Andrew has held the supported FKT for climbing all of Colorado’s 14ers since 2015, and last year, Andrea set the supported FKT on Nolan’s 14, becoming the first woman...
Sarah Ostaszewski on Winning Round 3 at the Cocodona 250
May 16, 2023 14:48 - 54 minutes - 50 MBSarah Ostaszewski has run the Cocodona 250 all three years of its existence, each go-around shrinking the amount of time it’s taken for her to get from where the race starts just outside of Phoenix, Arizona, to where it ends 250 miles north in the town of Flagstaff. Sarah’s latest attempt on the grueling point-to-point course was her fastest yet; she finished in just over three days, good for 1st place and 4th overall. The daunting prospect of returning to something the scale of Cocodona 2...
Sarah Keyes on Living & Training in the Adirondacks, US Long Distance Team Dreams, & Pastry (Mis)adventures
May 09, 2023 15:00 - 53 minutes - 48.6 MBFor the most part, competitive trail running in the US is perceived to bias heavily toward the West Coast, with many of its marquee races and popular training hubs lying left of the Mississippi. This imbalance has stoked a gentle sense of rivalry in trail runners who call the East Coast home, an underdog mentality that many — including this week’s guest, New York native and athlete for The North Face, Sarah Keyes — have turned into fuel. Sarah recently punched her ticket to Innsbruck, Aust...
Jason Hardrath on Preparing for the Pico de Orizaba Infinity Loop
May 02, 2023 15:24 - 53 minutes - 73.3 MBLast time Jason Hardrath was on Off The Couch he teased a future project that involved a trip down to Mexico, a volcano, and a whole lot of running and climbing, but aside from those hints, gave no major clues as to what exactly he had cooked up. Well, during his spring break from teaching earlier this year, Jason, together with his buddy Nathan Longhurst and a lean film crew, set out to complete what is affectionately known as an “infinity loop” on Mexico’s Pico de Orizaba (18,491′), the ta...
Speedland Founders Dave Dombrow and Kevin Fallon On Their Latest Hyper-Performance Trail Shoe, the GS:TAM
April 25, 2023 15:21 - 39 minutes - 53.9 MBSpeedland recently released their much anticipated third commission, a hyper-performance trail shoe intended for ultra-length distances, which they call the GS:TAM. So, Matt Mitchell sat down with co-founders Dave Dombrow and Kevin Fallon to catch up on all that’s transpired since their first appearance on the show back in February of 2022; how they came to adopt a commission-based model for their company; the ins-and-outs of building an athlete team; what informed the design of the GS:TAM; ...
Preston Cates on Aid Station Dance Parties, Gas Station Go-To’s, & Redefining His Limits
April 18, 2023 16:11 - 1 hour - 83 MBWhen Preston Cates popped up on most peoples’ radars with his unexpected 6th place finish at the 2021 Canyons 100k as a 23 year-old, he had a pretty simple motivation driving his young trail running career: to never have to pay for shoes again. Since then, the Boulder, CO native has racked up podium finishes left and right, landed a pro contract to run for Nike (shoes included), and recently punched his ticket to represent the US at the World Mountain Running Championships in Austria later t...
Andy Wacker on Creating A Roadmap to Professional Trail Running
April 11, 2023 20:15 - 53 minutes - 73.2 MB“So, how did you get into trail running?” is an evergreen question, one that’s likely to field a variety of interesting and original responses regardless of who you ask. Underlying its premise, though, rests one of the sport’s major shortcomings, at least on the elite level. Up until recently, there existed few (if any) direct paths for new runners or athletes crossing over from different disciplines to pursue trail running professionally. Recognizing the critical role that development pro...
Courtney Dauwalter on Building Her Pain Cave, Nacho Connoisseurship, & Running By Feel
April 04, 2023 15:01 - 47 minutes - 65.6 MBAs far as superlatives go, there’s little hand wringing about Salomon Athlete Courtney Dauwalter’s standing as one of the best ultrarunners in the world, period. In a sport known for its fickleness, she’s been outright untouchable on the trails for the past two years, riding a 15-race win streak that dates back all the way to 2021 and includes dominant victories on stages such as UTMB (where she set a new female course record in 2021) and Hardrock 100. Matt Mitchell recently sat down with ...
Corrine Malcolm on Running Media, Barkley Marathons Coverage, & Trail Trend Forecasting
March 28, 2023 18:09 - 52 minutes - 71.7 MBCorrine Malcolm is a true trail multi-hyphenate. In addition to running professionally for adidas TERREX and recently launching her own coaching business, Corrine also covers the sport as a writer, editor, race broadcaster, and podcast host. Matt Mitchell recently sat down with her for a grab bag conversation on topics like the relationship between writing and editing; what makes for a good interview; the pros and cons of the way mainstream media outlets cover trail running; the Barkley Mara...
Max Romey on “No Lost Shoes,” Nnormal, and Striving for Sustainability in the Footwear Industry
March 21, 2023 18:39 - 54 minutes - 75.3 MBRecycling old running shoes is hard, really hard. The concoction of glues, plastics, fabrics, and foams that go into making each pair can each require their own form of disposal, a drawn out sorting process that’s often as inefficient as it is unrealistic. As a result, every year millions of pairs of retired shoes end up in the dump, where many eventually spill out into the sea only to wash ashore on coastlines thousands of miles away. As a proud Alaskan, artist, filmmaker, and trail runne...
Ryan Scura on "Urban Oasis," Trail Running in San Francisco, and the Importance of Green Spaces in Cities
March 14, 2023 13:42 - 52 minutes - 72.2 MBRyan Scura and Dylan Ladds have been making movies together since they were both teenagers. What began as a childhood friendship quickly evolved into a creative partnership, culminating in Dooster, the award winning production company they started several years ago. Much of the duo’s work focuses on storytelling in the outdoor community, offering an often candid lens that frames one of their latest projects, a short entitled, “Urban Oasis: A Love Letter to San Francisco.” Ryan has called the...
Anthony Costales on Smashing Course Records, Chasing States, & Sharpening His Competitive Edge
March 07, 2023 17:00 - 45 minutes - 62.1 MBThe Black Canyon 100k in Arizona is one of the most competitive ultras in the US. As the penultimate Hoka Golden Ticket Race promising automatic entry into this year’s Western States 100 to the top two female and male finishers, its elite field runs deep, meaning finishing times are often blisteringly fast. The men’s course record, set all the way back in 2016, was considered among the stoutest in the sport, that is until Anthony Costales, clad in his college singlet and sun hat, dropped it ...
Francesco Puppi on the Pro Trail Runners Association and the Future of the Sport
February 28, 2023 17:33 - 51 minutes - 70.7 MBTrail running’s evolution from recreational to professional sport has not been without its own share of setbacks, and as often is the case, athletes are the ones most immediately affected by them. Facing the lack of a collective voice to confront these challenges, Nike Athlete Francesco Puppi co-founded the Pro Trail Runners Association (PTRA) in 2022 to enable an international body of elite trail runners to share concerns about the sport’s present and future. So, Matt Mitchell sat down with...
Rod Farvard on The North Face’s Athlete Development Program
February 21, 2023 15:50 - 40 minutes - 56 MBNewly christened The North Face Athlete, Rod Farvard, returns to the show to talk about the brand’s unique Athlete Development Program, an initiative launched earlier this month to provide 17 young athletes from a multitude of outdoor sports with resources to accelerate their careers and serve as activists in the outdoor space. Rod and I talk about the critical role such programs play in continuing to professionalize the sport of trail running; how he intends to use his platform to help decr...
Jeff Pelletier on Adventure Filmmaking, Storytelling Through Trail Running, & ‘Racing Georgia’
February 14, 2023 15:01 - 57 minutes - 1.14 GBUltra-distance trail running is a sport ripe for storytelling, something that filmmaker Jeff Pelletier recognized when he first began chronicling his adventures back in 2018. Since then, his background in video production, married with his passion for exploring the world by trail, has produced dozens of compulsively watchable POV-style films of his experiences at events like UTMB, the 205-mile Tor des Géants, and most recently, a 7-day stage race in the country of Georgia. We talked to Jeff ...
Katie Asmuth on Beating the Injury Bug, Mom Strength, & Golden Ticket Season
February 07, 2023 17:29 - 55 minutes - 50.8 MBRunning injuries are often talked about in hushed tones, as if mere mention could speak one into existence. While undoubtedly the suckiest part of the sport, they’re also perhaps the most inevitable, so learning how to approach them mentally can make time away from running an opportunity for growth. Saucony Athlete Katie Asmuth spent much of 2022 nursing a broken foot, yet despite being sidelined, she discovered new ways to connect with the greater trail running community. Now healthy and in...
John Kelly on Barkley Marathons Lore, Being Uncomfortable Being Comfortable, & Rebuilding Speed
January 31, 2023 15:47 - 49 minutes - 45.1 MBLa Sportiva Athlete John Kelly has speculated that one of his weaknesses is that perhaps he’s uncomfortable being comfortable, and one look at his resume sure suggests as much. After trying his hand at triathlon for a few years, a stint that included a few trips to Kona, John found his way into ultrarunning and quickly began to prod at the limits of an already extreme sport. Since then, he’s become only the 15th person to finish the infamous Barkley Marathons (as well as the last to do so) a...
Jeff Stern on the 2022 UltraRunners of the Year Awards, the Art of Profile Writing, & Covering the Sport as a Pro
January 24, 2023 23:25 - 55 minutes - 51.1 MBWe recently talked to Salomon Athlete, Jeff Stern, about racing as an elite while simultaneously covering the trail running landscape in his role as the assistant editor of Ultra Running Magazine, a still independently owned publication that has served as “the voice of the sport” since 1981. Jeff hopped on the show shortly after they announced their UltraRunners of the Year for 2022, so we spent some time talking about the history of the award, this year’s winners, and a whole lot else — inc...
Abby Hall on Desert Chronicles, UFO Encounters, & Going All In
January 17, 2023 15:18 - 54 minutes - 49.9 MBThe high desert of Northern Arizona has been a hotbed for trail running for decades. The combination of altitude, changing topography, and year-round trail access the region affords helps to harden the legs and fortify the lungs. It’s perhaps no coincidence then that since moving to Flagstaff in early 2021, adidas TERREX pro, Abby Hall, has been tearing up the international racing scene. So, we sat down with her to talk about some of the changes she’s made to fuel this success in a winding c...
Dani Moreno on Stepping Up In Distance, Spearfishing, & Planning for Podiums
January 10, 2023 17:34 - 46 minutes - 42.2 MBAs a newly minted thirty-year-old, Dani Moreno has already been racing trails professionally for the better part of a decade. Over the last couple of years, she’s solidified her status as one of the world’s best sub-ultra distance trail runners, a position she’s reached through patience, consistency, and an intuitive knowledge of exactly the right time to give it some gas. This approach continued to pay dividends in 2022; Dani finished in podium position at both the Mont Blanc Marathon and O...
Barney “Scout” Mann on the Pacific Crest Trail, “Journeys North,” & the Future of Thru-Hiking
January 03, 2023 18:08 - 54 minutes - 49.4 MBBarney “Scout” Mann has been called “the dean of America’s long-distance trails” and is one of the rare individuals to have conquered the Triple Crown of thru-hiking, successfully completing the 8,000 combined miles of the Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide Trails. Each spring for the past fifteen years he and his wife Sandy have hosted hikers starting out on the PCT (more than 7,000 to date) at their San Diego home, providing them with a final hot meal and a bit of encourage...
Jeff Colt on Chasing Western States, the Beats, & Managing Expectations
December 27, 2022 21:22 - 57 minutes - 52.9 MBFor On athlete, Jeff Colt, the chase for a coveted spot into Western States had been a multi-year saga fraught with close calls and near misses, that is until a near-perfectly executed run at the Black Canyon 100k in February earned him a Golden Ticket and automatic entry onto one of ultrarunning’s biggest stages. We pick up Jeff’s story there and hear all about his journey leading up to Western States, a play-by-play of his 11th-place finish, and the complexities of looking back at that exp...
Dr. Anh Bui on Running Resiliently, Strength Training 101, & the Fine Points of Form
December 20, 2022 16:56 - 50 minutes - 46.2 MBRunning injuries seem inevitable; almost everyone has a story about being sidelined at some point in their career, either from an acute issue or from general overuse. While no one is completely immune to the stress the sport places on our bodies, there’s plenty we can do to make ourselves more resilient to it. It’s common knowledge that adopting a strength training routine is one of them, but knowing exactly where to begin can be difficult if you don’t have a ton of experience in the gym. So...
Ryan Montgomery on Creating an LGBTQ+ Trail Community Through ‘Out Trails’
December 13, 2022 16:46 - 41 minutes - 38.2 MBUltrarunning is often admired for the strength of its community, a quality that unites runners with a sense of belonging. However, we can always do more to ensure that this feeling of acceptance extends to everyone, regardless of how they identify. As one of our sport’s most vocal advocates for queer inclusivity and representation, Altra Athlete Ryan Montgomery is working to do just that. So, we sat down with him to talk about Out Trails, an initiative he started to help build safe spaces fo...
Jason Hardrath on Deer Collisions, Convoluted Bliss, & Keeping the Dream Alive
December 06, 2022 16:42 - 59 minutes - 54.4 MBWe first had Jason Hardrath on the show back in March, before the release of his film, “Journey to 100.” Since then, Jason’s spent much of the summer on tour, hosting screenings in cities across the country. But that hasn’t stopped him from continuing to set some pretty mind-blowing FKTs while he’s at it. So, we caught up with the King of FKTs to hear about the reception to his film, his series of vision quests in the Sierra, getting hit by a deer at 40 mph, what adventure he’s dreaming up n...
Matt Seidel on Racing the Oldest Ultramarathon in the US & His Rookie Year Reflections
November 29, 2022 16:11 - 1 hour - 55 MBAfter placing 4th at the 60th annual JFK 50 Mile, the oldest ultramarathon in the US, Matt Seidel is taking a break. The 26-year-old former D1 runner has finished in the top 6 at every trail race he’s entered this year, a successful rookie campaign that’s included multiple wins and put the rest of the sport on notice. As the 2022 season comes to a close, we caught up with Matt to talk about what he’s learned from his first year racing as an elite; why more and more road and track athletes ar...
Joe DeMoor on the Sub-Ultra Trail Scene, His Colorado Running Roots, and Riding the Red Line
November 22, 2022 17:29 - 55 minutes - 50.5 MBJoe DeMoor is about as Colorado as they come; he’s from Buena Vista, ran collegiately for the Buffalos at CU Boulder, lives in Carbondale, and works on Aspen Snowmass’s trail crew in the summer and grooms ski runs there in the winter. As a professional mountain runner for La Sportiva, he’s had a breakout year of racing thus far, with several wins under his belt. Redlining up mountains is in Joe’s blood, so we sat down with him to talk about growing up on Colorado trails; the ins and outs of ...
Leah Yingling on Chiang Mai Trails, World Champs, and Running Long for Team USA
November 15, 2022 15:16 - 52 minutes - 47.6 MBAfter a few months in the field, Off The Couch’s reporter-at-large, Leah Yingling, returns to the show to catch us up on how she rounded out her summer season after a top-10 finish at the Western States 100 back in June. We talk about her experience taking in the scene at UTMB this year, and why it’s an event worth going to regardless of whether or not you’re racing, before recapping her run for Team USA at the inaugural World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Thailand a couple of ...
Chef Soraya Smith & CEO Duane Primozich on the Future of Backpacker’s Pantry & Making Adventure Food Sustainably
November 08, 2022 16:22 - 44 minutes - 40.4 MBBackpacker’s Pantry has been family-owned and operated for over 70 years, a legacy that’s as important to the brand’s identity as the gourmet adventure meals they make. While that’s not set to change anytime soon, they recently welcomed a new leader to take the company into its exciting next chapter. As CEO, Duane Primozich will prioritize Backpacker’s Pantry’s role as environmental stewards, a commitment to sustainability that goes above and beyond. We recently sat down with Duane and Backp...
Olivia Amber on Ego Trips, Halloween Costumes, & How Not to Die In the Mountains
November 01, 2022 16:17 - 56 minutes - 51.9 MBSince her first appearance on Off The Couch back in 2021, Olivia Amber has switched things up. In addition to joining The North Face’s athlete team as a mountain-ultra runner, Olivia also recently decided to step away from the corporate grind for a bit to double down on investing in herself. So, we caught up with her to recap her summer spent epic-ing in the Sierra and, more generally, to find out how she’s adjusting to training full time. Along the way, we go back and forth about the import...
Canyon Woodward on “Rural Runners,” Life on the Campaign Trail, and the Value of Showing Up
October 25, 2022 15:30 - 39 minutes - 36.6 MBCanyon Woodward has found success on a few different types of trails over the last few years. In addition to an impressive top-50 finish at the Ultra-Trail Du Mont-Blanc in August, he served as the campaign manager for Maine State Senator Chloe Maxmin’s victorious House & Senate runs in 2018 and 2020, which put him on a demanding campaign trail through rural America rivaling that of any ultra. So we sat down with this seasoned political strategist, passionate climate activist, trail runner, ...
Ted Hesser on “Chains of Habit” & Destigmatizing the Conversation Around Mental Health
October 18, 2022 15:31 - 51 minutes - 47.4 MBAs an adventure photographer and videographer, Ted Hesser spends most of his professional life behind the lens, shooting some of the world’s top mountain athletes for major outdoor brands and publications. His eye for capturing dramatic scenes in the high alpine and willingness to immerse himself in extreme conditions to do so has garnered him success in an otherwise precarious industry. But success isn’t always synonymous with happiness. Ted’s latest project, a short film called Chains of...
David Kilgore talks Pro Trail Teams, On Running, & Leaning Into the Grind
October 11, 2022 17:07 - 50 minutes - 46.5 MBDavid Kilgore is living the dream. In addition to his role as On Running’s Sports Innovation Manager, David also runs professionally for On himself. As an athlete privy to several sides of the trail running industry, his perspective offers unique insights into the future of the sport as it continues to rapidly professionalize. So, we sat down with David a few days after he made his race directing debut — yet another hat he now proudly wears — to hear how he climbed the ranks at On; how he he...
Claire Bernard Miller, PT, on Building Strong Feet, Pelvic Floor Health, & Running Injury Free
October 04, 2022 14:55 - 49 minutes - 45.6 MBRunning is often praised for its simplicity, but what it requires from the body can be quite complex. As October rolls around, many of us will feel the stress from all those hard summer miles take the form of unexpected aches and pains, which sometimes demand more involved treatment than just some extra time spent on the foam roller. So, we sat down with Claire Bernard Miller, PT, to learn about how her style of physical therapy thinks of the body holistically; why every runner should work o...
Victor Diaz on Renegade Running, Representation, & Creating Space for New Communities
September 27, 2022 16:06 - 49 minutes - 45.4 MBSpecialty-running stores are seldom just places to buy shoes; as community hubs, they serve as places where runners of all skill levels can gather to learn, connect, and train. In this way, they’re essential to the sport, key landmarks in its growing future. However, the demographics these small businesses cater to often fail people of color. So, we spoke to Victor Diaz, owner of Renegade Running, a run-specialty store rooted in Oakland, CA, to learn about how he’s creating a space that’s en...
Jennifer Strong McConachie on “Go Far,” Dostoevsky, and the Four Corners of Endurance
September 20, 2022 17:02 - 51 minutes - 46.7 MBAs an accomplished endurance athlete who has let ultrarunning, mountaineering, marathon swimming, and more take her around the world, Jennifer Strong McConachie has cultivated a life philosophy informed by principles that have brought her success in competition. Lucky for us, she’s also pretty savvy with paper and pen, so we sat down to talk about her new book, Go Far: How Endurance Sports Help You Win At Life, a collection of stories that encapsulate what she’s learned from running long, cl...
Davy Crockett on the History of 100-Milers, Ultrarunning in the 1800s, and the G.O.A.T. Debate
September 13, 2022 14:41 - 54 minutes - 49.4 MBDespite its fast rise from a quirky pastime to budding professional sport, ultrarunning is anything but new; people have been running (or walking) long distances competitively for centuries. Fueled by beer, and usually motivated by a wager or two, these early pioneers helped establish a long tradition of human-powered endurance that persists today. So, we sat down with ultrarunning historian, Davy Crockett, to trace the development of the 100-mile foot race through time, from its roots in th...
Rod Farvard on UTMB, “Hobby Jogging,” & Making the Transition from Triathlon to the Trails
September 06, 2022 15:24 - 52 minutes - 48.1 MBIf Rod Farvard had grown to be a few inches taller, we might be watching him contend for a rebound on the basketball court instead of toeing the line at some of ultrarunning’s biggest races. After his hoop dreams fell short, Rod found trail running by way of triathlon, two sports that rewarded his ability to flatly outwork his competition in spades. So, we sat down with Rod exactly a week removed from finishing 5th American at this year’s Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc to talk about how he handle...
Todd Aydelotte on Running Through History, Edgar Allen Poe, & The Warriors UltraRun
August 30, 2022 16:19 - 56 minutes - 51.4 MBAsk ultrarunner and race director Todd Aydelotte for a bit of New York City history and he’ll probably tell you to lace up your running shoes. After injury derailed his marathon training a few years back, Todd traded a competitive approach to the sport for a uniquely historical one. Through months of research, he began piecing together ultra-length routes that visited important locations in the lives of historical figures, including Edgar Allen Poe, Teddy Roosevelt, and Walt Whitman. So, we ...
Travis Soares on Setting the Sierra Peaks Section List FKT
August 23, 2022 15:48 - 46 minutes - 42.1 MBEstablished in 1955, the Sierra Peaks Section List includes 247 of the most prominent peaks scattered throughout California’s Sierra Nevada Range. Reaching every summit is a lifetime’s work for most, and up until recently, no one had completed the list within a calendar year. Far more complex than a thru-hike, the SPS List is an undertaking that requires a mix of skills and probably a fair amount of chance. So, we sat down with Travis Soares, who finished tagging all 247 peaks in a record 11...
Reviewer Reports: On Running vs. Skiing, Go-to Gear, & Ramen Bombs
August 16, 2022 14:35 - 57 minutes - 52.9 MBWith summer in full stride, Matt Mitchell and Drew Kelly sat down to take stock of how their mountain running seasons have played out thus far, including the ways Drew sees his skiing translate to the trails; our tendency to bite off more than we can chew; and gear picks for a big day out in the alpine. We also discuss some of the early stumbling blocks we ran into when we started trail running; extol the virtues of vert; and Matt makes the case for why you should be eating “Ramen Bombs” in ...
Alex Nichols on Coaching College Cross Country, Pikes Peak Streaking, & Beekeeping
August 09, 2022 15:38 - 51 minutes - 47 MBRelying on a bunch of college kids to crew you through the Western States 100 might sound misguided, but for trail and ultra runner, Alex Nichols, it’s an important part of team building. After being named the head coach of Colorado College’s cross country program last year, Alex has made a habit of inviting some of his athletes out to support his own racing endeavors. So, we talked to Alex about the intersection between coaching full-time at his alma mater and running trails professionally....