RunnersConnect Run to the Top Podcast

What is running biomechanics? How improving your mechanics can help improve your running performance and reduce susceptibility to injury? Find out in today's podcast from Coach Claire.

What the running community thinks about participating in 2020 races such as London Marathon? In today's episode, Coach Michael talks about the email responses he received on this topic and the reasons runners gave on why they want to run or not to run a race.

In this episode, Coach Dylan interviews Coach Ruairi about his latest race experience and then both talk about their race plans during this pandemic. Listen now!

‘Rona Racing: Why Matthew Hammersmith Is Still Holding Races   This episode is sure to spark controversy. Despite the coronavirus, some small races are still happening, including the “Carolina ‘Rona Reaper” in Greenville, South Carolina. Some runners are relieved to be racing again; others are angry and think holding races right now is irresponsible. Race director for the event, Matthew Hammersmith, answers Coach Claire’s questions on how events like this are even legal and possible, addresses the risks participants take when they sign up for a race, and talks about what his organization is doing to minimize those risks. Listen in and see if you would be willing to risk racing in person during the pandemic. Matt Hammersmith founded Upstate Ultras in 2014 and serves as the race director. He’s a lifelong runner who kicked off his career by hosting a running series (now known as the Knock on Wood Ultra Festival) as a way of meeting runners. He describes the event as “poorly organized” and “chaos,” but the results were “utterly fantastic” and he has since dedicated his career to coaching athletes and hosting races of all distances and surfaces. Matt was born in Ohio, raised in Indiana, and found his long distance running path while competing at Eastern Michigan University. He started running at age 14 and is still going. Matt’s personal bests range from running the 400 in 51.6, the mile in 4:08.17, the marathon in 2:31, and 100 miles in 17:48.  Matt coaches about 40+ youth athletes every year and about 40+ adult runners throughout the country. His organization has over 20 events on the calendar including kids’ races (always free), trail races, 5K beer races, some gimmick fun races, and of course some epic mountain ultra races! His events are cost effective and always have a charity component. He is very proud of some of the big impacts his events have had over the years. Matt has always been impressed by those who want to improve personal fitness and overall well being through physical fitness and nutritional awareness. An overall athlete and fitness guru, Matt’s competed at the local, state, and national level in sports like cross country, track and field, wrestling, football, and basketball. His passion and intensity is summed up quite perfectly here: “I have seen the outer limits of the human body and there is no better feeling when your body, mind, heart, and soul are connecting on every cylinder and you transform your image into something that you have always wanted.” Matt’s motivation comes from wanting to offer opportunity and challenge. He enjoys watching overwhelming accomplishments, especially since he knows from experience that most will fail in a spectacular fashion. But ultra/trail running is ultimately not about the finish line; it’s about the growth through the struggle, which should be good enough for anyone.  Questions Matthew is asked:          3:03 On your bio on the Without Limits website, it says you are a life-long runner and fitness guru.  Can you tell us a little bit about how you fell in love with running and eventually became a coach?   4:27 How was your progression from going from running 2 miles to running a 50K or 100 miles? Did you really just get an invitation for a 50K and you were like, “Sure, why not?”   5:18 How did you start getting into race directing?     6:31 Can you talk about some of the events that you organize?   7:35 With the pandemic, most running races around the world have been canceled and runners and race directors have had to make massive changes, and I wanted to talk to you about that. You decided to go ahead with your  "Carolina Reaper," which this year was called the "Carolina Rona Reaper."  Can you talk about the decision to go ahead and what safety measures you had in place?   9:31 I would love to get into the details of the safety measures you have in place. So for the Rona Reaper race, how did you actually do it? What do the safety measures actually look like?   11:06 Were runners wearing masks during the race?   12: 01 What’s your advice if somebody did want to sign up for one of these races? How do you pass somebody at a socially safe distance?   13:01 It's my understanding that the governor of SC issued an executive order prohibiting large groups, but it's up to local law enforcement officials to enforce that if they choose.  How did you address this issue?  Did you work with local law enforcement while organizing your event?   14:13 How do you address those who might be critical to hosting events like this during the pandemic, especially as cases are rising?   15:23 What about the next races coming up? Any particular challenges with those?   16:24 I’ve seen a lot of thumbs up for what you’re doing. What are some of the people who have attended your events or wanted to attend your events, what kind of reaction are you getting from them?   17:12 I would imagine if you were positive for COVID, it would be pretty hard to run a 30-mile or a 30-hour race?   17:57 What do you think is the future for racing in general? All of the majors have been canceled, the major marathons, with the exception of London. Probably by the time this airs, London will finally kick the bucket. What do you see as the future of racing?   21:39 Are there any silver linings or things that you have learned from this whole experience that you think will help you put on better races in the future?   26:03 I’d love to talk a little bit more about virtual races. Obviously, for a lot of people, that is the only option, and it’s harder obviously mentally to train for a virtual race. It’s not the same dopamine rush as it is having a real in-person event. How would you as a coach coach somebody who is training for a virtual event, or somebody who is just not on board with virtual but needs that carrot?   29:16 How do you feel about virtual racing? With technology there are a few things happening that some companies are doing to make it a little more interactive and make it feel like you’re racing somebody else. Have you seen any of these new technologies?   32:13 What is up next for you and Upstate Ultras? Questions I ask everyone:   33:22 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you first started running, what advice would you give yourself?   34:06 What is the greatest gift that running has given you?   35:34 Where can listeners connect with you? Quotes by Matthew:   “Once I knew I wanted to start coaching and I wanted to meet some runners, I’m like, ‘Well, you know what? The best way to meet runners is to put on a race.’”   “Everything in life has a risk. We did everything that we possibly could to minimize the amount of risk that I thought was basically attainable for us as a race organization, but you’re going to have risk whether it’s endurance running or walking down the street or driving your car to Target. There’s always a risk.”   “We just focused on what can we do for the community right now, and putting on a virtual race is a great way.” Take a Listen on Your Next Run Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast:    UpstateUltra@gmail.com Without Limits Go-Green Events Upstate Ultra Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community RunnersConnect Facebook page claire@runnersconnect.net   Follow Matthew on: Facebook - Without Limits Facebook - SCUMRunner Instagram - Upstate Ultra We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top. The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use. The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!  

In today's podcast, Coach Hayley gives her top five tips to prevent injury that she mastered over 20 years of running. Tune in now to find out what mistakes she made along the way so that you don't make the same ones again!

What is balance training? What is the science behind it? Is it worth doing balance and proprioception exercises as a runner? How improving your balance can help prevent injuries? Find out in today's podcast from Coach Claire.

In this week's episode, Coach Michael talks about the new venture of our RC founder Jeff and how this company helps runners during this pandemic time. He then shares inspiring stories of one of our RC athlete - Sabina Havkins.

Coach Dylan and Coach Ruairi do a recap on some running related news that has happened during the last one to two weeks in today's podcast. Listen now!

At 79, Dr. Betty Holston Smith is Fitter Than You Are AT 79, Dr. Betty Holston Smith has the fitness level of your average 30-year old and looks at least 20 years younger than she is! How did the former 200-pound couch potato and cigarette smoker transition to a vegan 50 years ago when hardly anyone even knew the word vegan and become a highly fit ultra-marathon runner? Dr. Betty shares with Coach Claire her nature’s wisdom philosophy she’s developed and lived by over the last 50 years, how she eats and trains, and her lack of need for much sleep or recovery time despite running 60 to 100 miles per week. Her overall health proves the benefits of strict vegan diets and highly fit lifestyles; the bottom line is that you do not need meat and junk food to stay healthy and fit.  Dr. Betty’s top rankings in the national ultra-running community continues even as she ages. At ages 76 and 78, she set and later broke official USA-TF ultra-marathon national age group records for the 48-hour and 6-day ultra-marathon races. She is in the USA-Track and Field permanent record books. Currently, at age 79, she continues her national ranking by the ultra-running community (91.46% age group ranked and 49.06% overall ranked).  This strict plant eater has been a top-ranked ultra-marathon runner since she began running ultra-marathons in 2007. She took to running ultras after she completed 85 marathons run throughout the USA and on all seven Continents (a marathon on six including Antarctica), and a half marathon on the Great Wall of China. Now she trains for and uses marathons to train for ultras!  She has completed 30 ultras run in: Boston, San Francisco, Rhode Island, Vermont, Florida, Maryland, Virginia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. She is the founder and coach of the “Abandon Your Limits” land and deep-water running programs. Dr. Betty is currently running virtual races due to the pandemic and will continue to do so until the pandemic is controlled. She recently used a fitness age calculator developed by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The expected fitness level for her age of 79.6 is 26 VO2. According to the calculator, her fitness age is 45 VO2 and she has the fitness level of an average 30-year old. The free calculator is available at: https://www.worldfitnesslevel.org/#/ Prepare to be amazed and inspired by the one and only, Dr Betty Holston Smith! Questions Dr Betty is asked:          2:35 You are a 79 year old plant-based ultra runner and I suspect that you are healthier and fitter than most people listening to this show!  Can you talk about how you first started running and how you came to adopt a plant-based lifestyle?   12:12 How do you take your ego away from the finish line in a race?   12:27 You've talked about your life being  structured around "Nature's Wisdom." What does that mean for you?   23:24 You’ve said that you’re just a normal person that does a whole lot of good things. Well, I don’t know. Four hours of sleep doesn’t sound too normal. You said that you don’t need any recovery and you can still run 100 miles a week at almost 80 years old?   25:00 Have you ever been injured?   32:37 What foods do you eat every day? Questions I ask everyone:   40:39 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you first started running, what advice would you give yourself?   42:06 What is the greatest gift that running has given you?   46:06 Where can listeners connect with you? Quotes by Dr Betty:   “I don’t know how many marathons, I’ve lost track, but I do know at some point I was at 85 marathons, and I have run marathons on each of the seven continents.”   “My running is passion. My running is perseverance. Those two things are great for all of life, not just running.”   “I bring all of my food to all of my races. I also have a log with the food items across the top, and across the left side going down, I keep track of when I’m eating what. Once I’m into a six-day race and it’s day three, I’m not going to remember when I drank the last water.”   Take a Listen on Your Next Run   Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast:    Vivobarefoot Shoes Clif 90% Organic Lemon Lime Powder Lifestyle by Nature book Danny Dreyer, Chi Running Founder - Runt To The Top Interview Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community RunnersConnect Facebook page claire@runnersconnect.net   Follow Dr Betty on:   drbettys@aol.com   We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top. The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use. The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!

In today's episode, Coach Hayley shares tips on how to train for the half marathon and how you can improve your running performance for that distance. Tune in now!

What causes runner's knee? How common it is among athletes? What are its symptoms? How to treat and prevent runner's knee? Coach Claire explains in this episode.

In this week, Coach Michael talks about one of our athletes - Sabina Havkins. Find out why she is such an inspiration among our running community and the unique advice she gives to fellow runners.

Having trouble finding motivation to workout? Worried about your fitness? Not able to set running goals ? What can you do now to remain focused on your plans? In this episode, Coach Dylan talks about how to stay motivated and get going during this challenging times. Listen now!

Michael Hammond and Jeff Gaudette: How New Virtual Tools Will Transform Your Running and Racing   Some big changes have been happening this year at RunnersConnect. You may or may not have noticed that company founder Jeff Gaudette has been a little quieter than usual while working on a mystery project and Michael Hammond has stepped up as CEO. Coach Claire interviews them both to find out what’s been going on and what RunnersConnect members can expect to see going forward.   First, Head Coach Michael Hammond tells us who he is, what big changes were happening in RunnersConnect heading into 2020, and how the company has pivoted in response to the pandemic. How does an online coaching platform focused on training runners for races stay relevant during these unprecedented times when essentially every race for the year has been canceled?   Next, Jeff Gaudette discusses his exciting new company he’s been working on behind the scenes to help you stay motivated and at your running best during this new norm of virtual racing. He’s come up with a great new way to make individual racing fair, fun, and more engaging. There’s definitely a lot to look forward to!   Jeff Gaudette is an elite marathoner who founded RunnersConnect in 2011 as a better way to coach his personal clients. He was a two-time Division-I All-American in Cross Country at Brown University and competed professionally for four years afterwards. He has competed internationally in numerous marathons with a personal best of 2:22:02, and has recorded Olympic Trials qualifying times in the marathon and 10,000 meters.   Jeff’s coaching career started in 2004 when he was a member of the Hansons-Brooks professional team. He’s had success at all levels of coaching; high school, college, local elite, and everyday runners. Under his tutelage, hundreds of runners have finished their first marathon and he’s helped countless runners qualify for Boston. Jeff has been featured in Running Times magazine, Endurance Magazine, as well as numerous local magazine fitness columns.    Michael Hammond is the Head Coach and newly appointed CEO of RunnersConnect. He competed in cross country and track while at Virginia Tech, earning two ACC titles and four NCAA All-American honors.  His individual efforts led his team to four ACC team championships: one in cross country, two in indoor track, and one in outdoor track.   Post-collegiately, Michael has competed formerly as a member of Furman Elite in Greenville, South Carolina and currently as an independent athlete. He now trains at his alma mater while also serving as a volunteer assistant with the team.   Michael’s passion for helping athletes succeed began while counseling high school runners at  cross country camps. Since then he has coached several local athletes of various ability levels while continuing to gain experience at the college level. You can catch him every Friday on the Team Update segments of the Run To The Top podcast.   Questions Michael and Jeff are asked:   2:35 2020 has been a historic year, to say the least, with everything that is going on in the world.  Big changes were going on in Runners Connect before the pandemic hit and we expected an exciting year, but obviously nothing like this could have been predicted.  If we can rewind to December 2019, what was your vision for Runners Connect in 2020?   6:24 Most of our listeners do know what RunnersConnect offers, but for those who don’t, could you just give just a quick elevator speech of exactly if you go to RunnersConnect, what are you looking at? What would you get if you go to RunnersConnect?   8:31 Let’s get into all the races being canceled. Traditionally, RunnersConnect has always been race-oriented, meaning that most of our athletes sign up with a particular race in mind, so obviously RunnersConnect had to make some changes. What were the changes that RunnersConnect made?   13:45 Speaking of getting fitter and stronger, you have been doing something a little special with strength training. Do you want to talk about what you’ve been doing pretty much since the pandemic started to help people get strong?   22:00 You mentioned that you and Jeff came up with this idea for live sessions, so we’re going to hear from him at the end of our conversation, but I would love to talk about Jeff while he’s not here for a second. We at RunnersConnect never really made a big splash or a big announcement about where is Jeff and who is this guy Michael? So I’m going to give the ball to you and talk about that. What on earth has happened to Jeff Gaudette and who are you, Michael?   28:57 We’ve got some great things coming up for our RC members, and I will ask Jeff when he comes on about some of those exciting new features, but before we wrap up with you, Michael, what do you see happening in the future of RunnersConnect? I know it’s hard to see so far with nobody knows when this pandemic’s going to end, but anything you’d like to share about how we’re moving forward?   40:18 Jeff, can you talk about your new company Fitually, how it started and why it’s so special? Questions I ask everyone:   33:39 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you first started running, what advice would you give yourself?   35:16 What is the greatest gift that running has given you?   37:49 Where can listeners connect with you? Quotes by Michael and Jeff:   “We want to provide every single resource we possibly can to give you what you need to run your best.”   “So much of RunnersConnect in the past has always been like a utility. You want to run ‘X’ time or finish ‘X’ race or run ‘X’ distance, you come to us; we help you achieve that. Bam.  That’s it. Whereas there’s so much more to it than that. People desire so much more to it than that. So I think that’s been a huge learning point to me in doing live sessions.”   “We’re definitely going to do everything we can to improve the running lives and just the lives in general from a holistic standpoint of everyone who’s one of our athletes or one of our listeners.”   “I started to think, is there a way that we can make virtual events better? Is there a way we can bring some of the elements that make in-person races exciting to a virtual event?” Take a Listen on Your Next Run Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast:  email Michael RunnersConnect Fitually Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community RunnersConnect Facebook page claire@runnersconnect.net   Follow Michael on:   Instagram We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top. The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use. The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!

Why we need strong calves? How strong your calves are? How to strengthen your calf muscles? Coach Hayley explains in this week's ExtraKick episode. Listen now!