We've all been there before.  Whether we are at the start of our fitness journey or we have fallen off the wagon, we all have been faced with trying to start or restart a healthy habit.  We know we need to exercise, but how do we make it a normal part of our day that we don't even have to think about?

Enter in The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.  This latest read explains the science behind habit formation, so we take that information and apply it to starting a workout habit.  

In this episode we talk about:

• How to create a habit
• The 3 main components of habit formation, what is known as the habit loop
• What you need to trigger a new habit
• How to reinforce that behavior to turn it into a habit
• Ideas for common triggers and reinforcements
• What to do if you fall out of a habit and want to restart
• How to troubleshoot and change a bad habit
• And lots more!

We think you will really like the real world application of these concepts, not only for running and...

We've all heard it before: to lose weight, we need to burn more calories than we consume.  We need to eat less and exercise more, right?  We gain weight because we eat too much, have lack of self-control, and just don't exercise enough.  Wrong!  

Weight control is about so much more than just calories in-calories out.  Sure, calorie restriction plans can work in the short term, but then why do 95% of all diets fail?  

Easy, because it's not sustainable.  Our bodies were designed to adapt.  If you keep restricting calories, your body will adapt and you will continue to keep cutting back calories to get the same results.  You can only cut back so far!  

There's also millions of other things at play, like our hormones, inflammation, stress, sleep, and life in general.  ALL of that plays a role in how our body either gains or loses weight.  

If you've ever had a problem losing weight and are confused, take a listen to...

A few episodes ago, we talked about the benefits of a training plan, and there are a lot!  However, today we look at the other side.  Are there negatives of following a training plan, and if so, what are they?  

Well, the first is that training plans don't always take into account our real life.  Stuff happens.  We are under a lot of stress, we get sick, kids get sick, family drama, lack of sleep - you name it.  At any given time, there are tons of things that can derail our training.  

As runners, we are so committed to our sport, that sometimes we forget that we are also human.  Some days, our body can't do what our training plan tells us to do, and that's ok!!  

There are also those times that we might need to take a rest day, even if we don't want to.  Sometimes, with all we have going on in our lives, rest can be more important than one more run. No, really, we're serious! :)

In this episode we talk about: 

• Some...

There are two main ways that people start on their running journey: on a team or as an individual.  Kevin started off on the cross country team in high school and has transitioned into solo running throughout the years.  On the other hand, Angie started off solo and has recently started running and training with a group. 

 This week, we talk about some of the pros and cons of running with a group, and highlight some of the awesome things that happen when running with others.

We also talk about some challenges to be aware of when running with other people and some ways to avoid some of those pitfalls.

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 The mental aspect of competition often takes a backseat to making sure that you have racked up the miles of preparation.  In this episode, we cover one of the worst outcomes of any race...choking.  We spend some time going into the nuances of another chapter out of Matt Fitzgerald's book How Bad Do You Want It? to dive into the details of what choking is and how to avoid this terrible race result. 

This episode includes:

• Choking defined as a poor performance in response to the perceived stress of a situation
• The negative result comes from excessive internal focus which, in turn, reduces running efficiency
• When we aim for a goal, we often put a number out there as if that is the ultimate prize
• Learn what to focus on in order to reduce the stress of the goal
• The opposite of choking is known as flow - a state in which self-consciousness is reduced and performance is increased
• The term flow was originally coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihali as a state of...

Technology has paved the way for huge advancements in running.  While not many are going to argue the benefits of shoe updates and wicking fibers, the picture becomes a little less clear when you look at activity trackers and phone apps.  Have we become so dependent on technology that we are missing the human component of running and training?  

Today we will talk about: 

• What is the point of heart-rate based training 
• What are the shortfalls of HR training 
• Why it can be incredibly helpful to have gps tracking on your wrist
• The disconnect between pace tracking and HR training
• Why a pace tracker on your wrist can help and hurt your ability to repeat different paces in the future
• Why your watches race prediction time might not be very accurate
• The inability of technology to measure heart, desire, and passion
   

Don't forget - if you need help with your plan - we got your back!  Use code PODCAST for 10% off of your first...

Running is bad for your knees, right?  That's what we all hear from everyone around us that doesn't run, but is it true?  Today, we get a little medical, and talk about a condition that plagues a LOT of runners: knee pain.   Here's the spoiler: Running is NOT bad for your knees, when done correctly.  Unfortunately, knee pain does tend to affect a lot of runners, so we are here today to help you out a bit.  

Today we will talk about: 

• Common causes for knee pain (there's way more than you might know about)
• How to know the difference between the different causes
• What kind of symptoms each condition usually causes and the location of pain
• What do do right now if you have knee pain
• A super easy test you can do at home to see what could be causing your pain
• Things you can start to do today to treat your knee pain
• The long term solution to getting rid of knee pain and making sure it doesn't come back
• And lots more!  

 Don't forget - if...

As busy people and parents, how the heck do we fit it all in?  When we talk to people, the number one excuse that everyone has for not working out or not making healthy meals is lack of time.  Let's be honest...it's just that...an excuse.  We all have the time - we just have to find it or make it.  In this episode, we give you some tips that have worked for us.  Number one is the most important and will lead to long term success.  We hope you like it!

 Don't forget - if you need help with your plan - we got your back!  Use code PODCAST for 10% off of your first month of premium membership AND a customized 4 week training plan if you sign up before the end of 2017!  Check it out here!

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Goal setting: It's something that we know we should do, but do we always do it?  And if we do, are we setting effective and appropriate goals that are pushing us to succeed or setting us up for failure?

When we look at our lives and want to improve our health, our running, or just our life in general, we should be setting goals.  In this episode, you will learn: 

• What are 3 big challenges when trying to set an appropriate goal?
• Why is fear a good sign when setting a goal?
• Why not achieving your goal is a good thing
• What are 4 keys to setting good goals
• What are some specific considerations when setting goals as a new runner
• What our personal running goals are for the new year
• And how it all connects to our lives outside of running (this one is pretty obvious)

 We hope you enjoy this one!  Enter your email below for our free goal setting worksheet!

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What the heck is periodization of training?  It's a fun vocabulary word that refers to cycling your training plan.  If you are shooting for a goal race, or if you just want to keep improving and getting faster, training cycles are very important.  

Macro cycles are the big chunks of your training plan that have one goal in mind, like one season of the year.  Micro cycles are the weeks within that larger macro cycle, where you vary your mileage and purpose of your workouts to make the most gains and avoid injury.

Today's episode is chock FULL of some pretty technical stuff and guidelines on planning out your training cycles to allow your body to make the gains it needs to get faster.  Cycling your training is also very important for injury prevention and to avoid boredom. 

If you like going out on a run just for fun, you might want to skip this one.  It's pretty technical, so if that doesn't interest you, no biggie!  If you want to...