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...

In a world of distracted drivers and stories of runners being hurt, thinking about running safety is now more important than ever.  We tell you all about why this has become very important to us recently, with the development of a new medical condition.  In this episode, we talk about running safety, especially the topics of: 

• How to stay safe when running in the dark
• What gear is important for nighttime running
• How to stay safe while running if you have a medical condition
• What Kevin's experience has been like getting back into running after a medical problem
• The right way to run in congested traffic areas
• and more!

This was a pretty personal episode for us, and we discussed something that we have been dealing with lately that has not been easy.  We hope you enjoy it.  

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In case you hadn't heard, Kevin and Angie are high school cross country coaches.  Kevin has been coaching for over 10 years, and Angie joined the team a few years ago.  We just got back from the state championship last weekend, so we wanted to think about what lessons we have learned over the course of the season and figure out ways to improve next year.  

Anytime we train, we should always take time to evaluate how it is going, what we have been doing, and how we can improve.  We need to do that in running and in life, so we think this will be a helpful episode for anyone out there, not just people involved in cross country.

There are some really great connections between being a part of the cross country team and how that applies to us as people, parents, spouses, and runners.

In this episode, we will talk about: 

• How each kid is different and why figuring out how to coach each runner individually and as part of the team is very important
• How...

What is effort-based running and what are the pros and cons?  We break it down for you in this episode.  There is definitely a good time and place for effort-based training and times when pace-driven training is more appropriate.  

In this episode you will learn: 

• What is effort-based running?
• The different levels of effort-based running
• What level most of your training should be in
• The purpose of each level and what training adaptations that creates
• The difference between aerobic and anaerobic training
• The different fuel sources that our bodies use during training 
• How intensity level affects the fuel sources that our bodies use
• The difference between effort-based and heart rate zone training
• The right and wrong times to use effort-based training vs pace-driven training
• And lots more!

Resources:

• Heart rate maximum calculations and information
• HR max calculator
• 80/20 Running by Matt Fitzgerald
   

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