The Runners Roundtable, where runners from around the world share tips, tell stories, and keep each other motivated. Pull up a chair and join us, at the table.
Friday, December 10, 2010
RRT 109: Vegan Running
Thursday, December 9, 2010
RRT 108a: Karaoke, Joe Garland and the Imeldas
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
RRT 108: Open Mike

Wednesday, December 1, 2010
RRT 107: Nutrition Discussion with Nancy Clark
We discussed most of these nutrition-related questions, and many others in this episode of the Runners Round Table, which featured special guest Nancy Clark, internationally known sports nutritionist. The show was hosted by Mark Ulrich, Toni Harvey, Colin Hayes, Craig Macfarlane, and Margaret Suddeth.
Nancy answered all of our questions, and in the wrap-up section encouraged us to find a sports-dietitian via http://scandpg.org so-as to work with us individually and to answer additional questions. This site lists Members of Sports, Cardiovascular, and Wellness Nutrition (SCAN), who are experts in nutrition for athletic performance, fitness and weight management, cardiovascular health, wellness, and in the prevention and treatment disordered eating and eating disorders.
Finally, Colin Hayes' excellent Runnin' So I Can Eat song, a clip of which was played on today's show, is available for free download from his site: http://resurrectedrunner.com/
[Click Here to Listen to RRT 107]
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
RRT 106: Training Basics
A fun show. On training. With Steve Magness, Paul Butler, Julie Threlkeld, and Russ Porter. Hosted by Joe Garland.
Now that the racing season is just about up (and good luck to those with target races, such as Philly, still to come), we thought it would be a good time to step back and think about, and discuss, training approaches as we look to 2011. Do you get a book? Do you get a coach? Do you rely on a higher authority?
Listen to RRT 106
There comes a time in a runner’s career when she decides that just going our for runs every day, or every other day, is not getting her where she wants to go. Sure, literally, but we’re talking bigger picture. We thought it’d be worthwhile to give an overview of what you might consider in taing that (figurative) next stop, i.e., to pick a training program.
When I’m asked about training approaches, I suggest that people pick up a copy of Daniels’ Running Formula. I do this not to necessarily endorse Daniels’s approach but to have people read through the background section on physiology and the various systems that need to be stressed for improvement. Speed, distance. Tempos, repeats. MP runs, progression runs.
Daniels is also a proponent of periodization. In broad strokes, you break down the year into two 6-month periods and divide those periods up into quarters, and train differently throughout, building to a target race.
I am most familiar with Daniels, but have had exposure to other books, which have similar approaches (e.g., Pfitz/Douglas). I’m interested in hearing what other approaches are out there (e.g., Higdon, Hudson, FIRST).
We talked about sources for gaining insight on training. As an example, Steve Magness, who was on the show, just published something quite nice in Running Times concerning stress, and its usefulness. I’m not a fan of articles about the-best-workout-you’ll-do-for-a-5K/10K/Marathon/whatever-PR, but I find useful insights in things like Steve’s piece and other recent articles that focus on an aspect of training. For example, there was a good recent piece about Kim Smith about associating with (as opposed to disassociating from) pain and discomfort during training. I also found an interesting piece by John Kellogg about training for older runners. Again, things that get filed away in my brain as a way to personalize my own training.
That said, I will be speaking about turning yourself over to a coach. In fact, one reason for putting off the show was that I was meeting with a potential coach, who I have since decided to hire. Her thoughts are similar to mine with her own little tweaks. Plus it helps with structuring my training.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
RRT 105: Interview with Ruth England

[Click Here to Listen to RRT 105]
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
RRT 104: Endurance Relays
We had a great talk around the table regarding endurance relays, discussing putting together a team, finding a team to join, and what to expect during the race and at the finish line.
Hosting was Dr. Dave (NeverNotRunning.com) who will be running RAGNAR Key West in January. Co-hosting was Mark U. (RunInAmerica.com), Colin Hayes (ResurrectedRunner.blogspot.com), Chris Russell (RunRunLive.com), and Amanda Lanza (ChemERunner.blogspot.com).
[Click Here to Listen to RRT 104]
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
RRT 103: Houston Hopefuls
(where you can read individual interviews), hosted
- Julie Wankowski
- Lori Kingsley
- Jaymee Marty
- Jen Hitchings
- Jill Howard
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
RRT: CII Open Mike

Wednesday, October 6, 2010
RRT 101: Things to Remember and Know on your Marathon race day
- How to set a realistic, yet challenging goal finishing time;
- How race-day weather and the runner's physical condition can - and should - change the goal time;
- How the runner should adapt their pacing plan based on the course's elevation changes and their extent of "fade" in the late miles of the run;
- Advantages/disadvantages of wearing an MP3 player during a race;
- The panel's experience and advice with a number of fall marathons;
- Key preparations in the weeks, days, and hours preceding the race.
[Click Here for Runners Roundtable - Episode 101]_
Monday, September 27, 2010
RRT 100 - Run your own WWFOR!
Kris (host of the Geek Girl Runner podcast) and Jim "JayDub" (host of the B-HAG podcast) talk about their plans to run their own WWFOR in Sydney Australia!
From the chatroom, Iain (www.devoniain.blogspot.com) will be running (and more) at Ironman Hawaii in Kona for his race, and Craig McFarlane will be running the Chicago Marathon.

[Click Here for Runners Roundtable - Episode 100]
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
RRT 99: Trail Running for the Urbanite

[Click Here for Runners Roundtable - Episode 99]
Friday, September 10, 2010
RRT98: Running Form (and some stuff on shoes too)
- Pete has some super slo-mo videos from Boston (the below stills are from them).
- A study of Marine recruits on whether the type of shoes matter.
- Mark had nice things to say about Evolution Running's video.
- Mark also said using a techno-beat of 180 a minute helps increase the cadence; you can get it at PodRunner.com.
- Brandon Wood had good information on Jason's site on the transition to a forefoot stride (if that's something you want to do).
Also, I wanted to give some concrete numbers to Mark's question last night. I'm pretty sure it was Mark who asked me about the East African runner's stride frequencies. I wanted to give some concrete numbers. A runner, and now scientist, who I competed against in college sent me these results a year or so ago. He took 6 Kenyan's who ran at UTEP and measured a variety of biomechanical things at various speeds. These guys were top runners who grew up in Kenya then came over to the US for college to run, so it gives us an interesting glimpse into Kenyan running. The interesting thing with cadence measurments is that they measured it at a variety of speeds from pretty slow for them to relatively fast. When looking at the paces keep in mind that these guys are all 14min or faster 5k runners. Just to give you an idea on relative pace, the 7:40 would be a really slow jog. The 6:43= easy distance run pace, 5:58=normal distance run pace 5:22=steady, uptempo, marathon pace kind of effort. And 4:58 pace is probably right around threshold pace.Pace per mile Avg. Cadence7:40 1756:43 1815:58 1855:22 1914:58 196

Tuesday, September 7, 2010
RRT 97: Yelling & Williams from Marathon Talk
Martin (right), husband of 2x Olympic Marathon runner Liz, is a former British duathlon champ and is now a leading running and tri coach. Tom (below) is a an experienced marathoner and 7x ironman finisher.
Together they produce the fantastic "Marathon Talk" podcast.
They had some interesting insights to share with the live panel of Toni, Mark U from RunInAmerica, Joe from RunWestchester, Craig, and AMileWithMe's Steve.
Joining us in the chatroom, in addition to the panelists, were Matt the DumpRunner, Danny Norman, Steve Runner, The Curio, Nigel Runner (possibly related to Steve!), Catarcher and MedScholarAdam.
There were also over 20 "guest" participants in the live chatroom as the team discussed the power of interactive new-media in creating a global running community.
[Click Here for Runners Roundtable - Episode 97]
Monday, August 23, 2010
RRT96: The Quest for the 50-Mile Ultramarathon
The chatroom was buzzing with many fellow runners including: Dr. Smitty, Cewtwo, Carrie WtRS, Med Scholar Adam, Steve Runner, DirtDawg, Mark U, Patti Serrano, and Rob Maury.
You can find Eddie at his blog Eddie Marathon as well as on the Shock of the News podcast with his co-host Adam Tinkoff. Mike writes a great blog at Westy’s Running. Dave is the host of the podcast Running in the Center of the Universe. Kevin is the founder of Just Finish.
Come join us at the table!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
RRT95: Channelrunner.org
Monday, August 16, 2010
A Few Good Ideas
- You get an idea, old, new, borrowed, blue;
- You get input from other group members;
- You schedule a show in an open week;
- You get your panel;
- You act as the show's Timekeeper (a simple task).
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
RRT 94: Running for a Healthy Heart
Monday, August 2, 2010
RRT 93: Running In The Heat: 8/4 @ 8
And as with so much stuff running, we're unique and we reacted to conditions in our own ways. But in the end, when you cross your red-line, STOP.
Special Round Table Metacast: The Future of the RRT
Friday, July 23, 2010
RRT 92: Compete or Complete?

We had a busy chat room and even had a special guest caller, although he called in as guest #9, we all knew it was really the ZenRunner. Here are a few of the folks who joined us (my apologies in advance to anyone I missed): Navy58, SteveRunner, CewTwo, ZenRunner, Aclements, theburnster, thecrazyrunner and fishadad.
There have been articles over the last few years that seem to say if you can't compete you shouldn't be out there. Although it was an ad from Pearl Izumi that provided the basis for the show along with articles like these which we talk about during the show.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
RRT91 Dick Beardsley Running Camp
Dick is currently the third fastest American-born man in the marathon and joint winner of the first London Marathon in 2:11:48 (29 March 1981). But he's most famous for the race he didn't win (despite a 2:08:53 time!), one of the subjects of the 2006 book, Duel in the Sun by John Brant. And Dick has written his own inspirational autobiography Staying the Course: A Runner's Toughest Race recounting the stunning race in Boston that made him a celebrity and the difficult years that followed and his about him is his climb back to health after becoming addicted to pain medication after a farm accident.
The Dick Beardsley Foundation was recently established to help individuals who cannot afford treatment for chemical dependency. The work of the Foundation allows Dick to travel around the country, talking to children about positive, active lifestyles, and being chemically free.
Click here for Runners Roundtable - Episode 91
Sunday, July 4, 2010
RRT 90 Overtraining Pitfalls
Saturday, July 3, 2010
RRT 89 - Steve Runner Roast
Click here for Runners Roundtable - Episode 89
Saturday, June 26, 2010
RRT88 - HOW TO QUALIFY FOR BOSTON

Click here for Runners Roundtable - Episode 88
Sunday, June 20, 2010
RRT 87 - World Wide Festival of Races
We had Kevin, from the Extra Mile Podcast, Steve C from the a mile with me podcast, and Terry from the Gravity@1053 podcast on the call. In the chatroom were Nigel from Running from the Reaper podcast, Krister from the Running the Narrow Path podcast, Adam from the True confessions of a Medical Scholar blog, Margaret from her Flutter-bys blog, Joe from The Middle Aged Athlete blog, Allterrain, Mark U from the Run in America blog, and Craig @Craigmacfarlane.
Click here for Runners Roundtable - Episode 87
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
RRT86 - Running to overcome

Monday, June 7, 2010
RRT85 - NOT over the hill runners
In the chat room we had Charlie @cewtwo, host of the blog www.cewtwo.com; Joe Garland, host of his blog www.runwestchester.wordpress.com; Adam @MedScholarAdam, host of his blog trueconfessionsofamedicalscholar.blogspot.com; The Fire Runner, host of the blog www.thefirerunner.blogspot.com; Adam, host of his blog www.theboringrunner.com; Craig Macfarnlane @craigmacfarlane, and cydave.
Click here for Runners Roundtable - Episode 85
Sunday, May 30, 2010
RRT 84 - Open Mike - Half Marathon Advice

There were lots of people in the chatroom including Nigelrunner, host of the Running From The Reaper Podcast, Matt host of the Dump Runners Club Podcastt, Brian, host of the "Triboomer" Stay Tuned Report Podcast, Gary Wall, who just completed his 50 mi at 50 run and blogs at Kinverkid.blogspot, Colin, host of the Resurrected Runner Blog and cyDave.
Click here for Runners Roundtable - Episode 84
Sunday, May 23, 2010
RRT 83: Running Blogs
Here's a link to a BUNCH of great Running Blogs!
Blogs mentioned:
http://resurrectedrunner.blogspot.com
http://RunInAmerica.com
Zen Runner Mentioned:
http://www.corsolameta.blogspot.com
http://www.geekgirlrunner.com
http://thesecretlifeofkris.com
http://draft.blogger.com
Steve Runner Mentioned:
http://giverunning.org
Also at the table was: cewtwo, craigmacfarlane, liferunner, MarkU, ResurrectedRunner, verbivore, DAGs, forty2atforty2 and quest262 .
Thursday, May 13, 2010
RRT 82 - Reasons NOT To Run A Marathon
Thursday, May 6, 2010
RRT81 - Running to the Limits
You'll have to buy the video to find out if he made it! (here) and a portion of the profits will go to support a great charity to get shoes and healthcare to African young runners http://www.shoe4africa.org/sendshoes.htm
[Click here for Runners Roundtable - Episode 81]
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
RRT 80 - How to stay out of the Medical Tent
Listen in as Mike (Westy's Running), Albert (Albert Runs), Lesley (Going the Extra Mile) and Steve (Phedippidations) talk about their race experiences and how to avoid ending up in the medical tent along with what happens if you do venture into the tent.
Albert discusses his recent race which resulted in him spending quite a few minutes in the medical tent and we hear about Steve's recent Boston marathon where he should have spent some time in the tent. We discuss the most common reason most folks have issues, hydration.
Some products that were discussed during the show were Succeed (S-Caps) and Hammer Endurolytes.
We were joined in the chat room by -
Cewtwo
JoeGarland
MarkU
MedScholarAdamL
ResurrectedRunner
TedBeveridge
thepalmettorunner
Guest13
My apologies in advance for the weak audio for me (Albert, Lesley and Steve sound great) and the technical issues at the end of the show that resulted in a few extra bonus minutes along with 5 minutes of silence.