Host Brad Kearns catches up with Host Brock Armstrong -- that's right, the main hosts catch up with each other and hit it hard on an assortment of interesting topics. They debate the pros and cons of various coaching models, stressing the importance of having a wide-ranging personal relationship with athletes to help training sync with other life variables. Brock FIRES clients who refuse to take time off!
The pair gets into one of their favorite subjects, Heart Rate Variability, referencing the Primal Endurance Podcast episode 6 with Sweetbeat Life CEO Ronda Collier. They talk about how monitoring HRV and basing training decisions off of variation from baseline values brings a critical objective element to the challenge of making smart training decisions. For example, when you are running on fight or flight chemicals, it's hard to tell if you are actually stressed because the hectic pace of modern life is so familiar that it seems normal to the brain. Get to know your Primal Endurance Podcast hosts Brad and Brock through this lively and informative show!
Host Brad Kearns welcomes Aaron Olson, the popular host of the Paleo Runner Podcast, to the show to discuss Aaron’s new book, Low Mileage Running. The book is “a short guide to running faster, injury free.” Aaron details his injury-riddled running career as a high school and college competitor, as he struggled to thrive doing the traditional high mileage programs.
Frustrated with repeated injuries, Aaron tried cutting out junk mileage but keeping high intensity workouts and including extra rest in his schedule. He discovered that his injuries went away and he ran even faster than before. Aaron believes in an intuitive approach instead of following a rigid schedule. Perform those intense workouts when you feel strong and you skip them if other stressors are present in your life or you simply don’t feel your best during the session.
Aaron’s Paleo Runner podcast expertly blends the worlds of endurance running and paleo eating and living. Aaron became a convert to paleo after a lifelong struggle with IBS that subsided almost as soon as he started to ditch toxic modern foods and adopt a paleo eating strategy. Check out his podcast on iTunes or through his blog paleorunner.org.
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Host Brad Kearns records this fast paced essay on the importance of adequate sleep (especially for endurance athletes), in response to a recent episode of the Freakonomics Podcast.
Brad has always maintained a busy lifestyle balancing roles as a father, writer, and former triathlete, and discovered long ago that “sleep is everything.” Tune into today’s show for some quick tips and a personal sleep success story.
Host Brad Kearns welcomes popular guest Dr. Phil Maffetone to the show for the third time. Dr. Maffetone brings along both his insightful commentary and his ultimate endurance wisdom about balancing stress and rest while emphasizing aerobically-paced training. In this conversation, Phil talks about his incredible new smartphone app—called the MAF App—that does an assortment of evaluations to help you track health, fitness, disease risk factors, and stress levels.
Brad also challenges Phil on his profound assertion that endurance athletes need not ever exceed 90 percent of their maximum heart rate. Phil explains that the additional stress of going up to a maximum level does not deliver a sufficient return on investment. A healthy athlete can dig deep on race day and give a respectable 100 percent effort. Phil details the metabolic and endocrine effects of the stress response, and how to guard against the overtraining syndrome. “The game is how to moderate stress while training hard enough to perform your best,” Phil explains. Phil mentions how, for tracking aerobic improvement, time trials and other performance trackers are inferior to using a sub-maximal MAF test on a regular basis. Enjoy another lovely and informative show with Dr. Maffetone!
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