Nitty Gritty Training

On this week's episode Grit Coaching's very own Strength Coach and former Spartan Pro Faye Stenning shares 5 tips to take your OCR racing to the next level.  With a bronze medal at the Spartan World Championships and her record of the most Spartan podium finishes over the past decade, Faye has years of insight and has tested many different training approaches. This episode she goes through what she believes has worked and what hasn't.  The Nitty Gritty Training Podcast is hosted by Jessica O'Connell, MSc, CSEP-CEP, OLY, and Faye Stenning, BKin, and coaches at Grit Coaching! We offer custom run and strength training for runners, OCR, and hybrid athletes. Check us out!

You’ve done the work, and now it’s time to put it all together! We all know that consistent training is essential for great race day performance, but races are chaotic and wrought with unknowns. An underappreciated challenge of race day is “performing on demand” , or competing at your physical capacity in an uncontrolled environment, harnessing the work you’ve done into great race-day performance. To help, a bit of pre-emptive planning goes a LONG way!  Spending some time thinking about logistics, setting goals, and creating an execution plan (or several) will provide direction to your efforts. Let’s dive deeper on this week's episode. The Nitty Gritty Training Podcast is hosted by Jessica O'Connell, MSc, CSEP-CEP, OLY, and Faye Stenning, BKin, and coaches at Grit Coaching! We offer custom run and strength training for runners, OCR, and hybrid athletes. Check us out!

Today we are joined by Lindsay Housman, founder and CEO of Hettas, a company creating running shoes optimized for female biomechanics.  The majority of athletic shoes have been designed, researched and tested on men and the Hettas fundamentally believe that design shouldn't be unisex: if you consider design from a female perspective, you’ll end up with a better product for women — one that will positively impact performance and longevity. We are delighted to have LIndsay here to share about the research and innovation Hettas is working on in female biomechanics and physiology as well as the story driving force behind Hettas.  Want to give Hettas a try? Use promo code GRIT15 for 15% off! @ https://hettas.ca  The Nitty Gritty Training Podcast is hosted by Jessica O'Connell, MSc, CSEP-CEP, OLY, and Faye Stenning, BKin, and coaches at Grit Coaching! We offer custom run and strength training for runners, OCR, and hybrid athletes. Check us out!

On this episode we are joined by Gwendolyn (Wendy) Bounds, an award winning journalist and author as well as a multi-time AG champ in spartan racing. Wendy is an absolute powerhouse, and we’ve had the pleasure of coaching her since 2019.  Wendy recently wrote a book called Not Too Late which details her journey into obstacle racing and the power of pushing limits at any age. Obstacle racer or not, this is such an inspiring episode with lots of insightful takeaways. The Nitty Gritty Training Podcast is hosted by Jessica O'Connell, MSc, CSEP-CEP, OLY, and Faye Stenning, BKin, and coaches at Grit Coaching! We offer custom run and strength training for runners, OCR, and hybrid athletes. Check us out!

With a ton of our listeners being avid Spartan racers we thought it was about time we had Joe De Sena on! As the founder of Spartan and endurance junkie himself, Joe De Sena joins us to talk about how Spartan was started, how it has evolved over the years including navigating the challenges covid brought, and shares some exciting news about the future of the sport (hint- Olympics! ).  Joe also shares some tips on how he makes time for fitness while managing everything else he has going on- we all can relate to this one!  The Nitty Gritty Training Podcast is hosted by Jessica O'Connell, MSc, CSEP-CEP, OLY, and Faye Stenning, BKin, and coaches at Grit Coaching! We offer custom run and strength training for runners, OCR, and hybrid athletes. Check us out!

City folks this one's for you!  Coach Faye spent the majority of her Spartan Race career training for some big mountain races in the middle of Manhattan so she knows a thing or two about getting mountain fit without any access to elevation.  So whether you’re heading to the mountains for the last stops at the Spartan USNS or trying to nail an epic trail race with a ton of vert- you're not going to want to miss this one!  The Nitty Gritty Training Podcast is hosted by Jessica O'Connell, MSc, CSEP-CEP, OLY, and Faye Stenning, BKin, and coaches at Grit Coaching! We offer custom run and strength training for runners, OCR, and hybrid athletes. Check us out!

Grit coaching is 7 YEARS OLD this year, and we’ve learned a ton since Day 1. Sometimes coaches get a bit shy about admitting that they’ve changed their mind on something - there is a feeling that we must be all-knowing, and many coaches feel insecure saying “we’re looking at something differently now”. Not us! On this week's episode, Coach Jess shares how her philosophies towards run programming and coaching have changed over the years as she has gained a TON of experience working with a diverse range of athletes.  The Nitty Gritty Training Podcast is hosted by Jessica O'Connell, MSc, CSEP-CEP, OLY, and Faye Stenning, BKin, and coaches at Grit Coaching! We offer custom run and strength training for runners, OCR, and hybrid athletes. Check us out!

This week we are joined by Eoin Everard, the current World and European Masters (Over 35)  3000m champion who also has a blazing sub-14 min 5km and sub-4 min mile under his belt. In addition to being an astonishing runner, but Eoin holds a PhD in Biomechanics and is a Physiotherapist and the founder of the BackAware Belt, a tool to help with back pain. In this episode we talk about injury prevention (particularly when it comes to the back), discuss methods to help you move better day-to-day, and how to effectively structure your strength training routine. We also talk about how to have longevity in running as we age and as priorities shift and share some fun stories along the way. This is an episode you're not going to want to miss!  The Nitty Gritty Training Podcast is hosted by Jessica O'Connell, MSc, CSEP-CEP, OLY, and Faye Stenning, BKin, and coaches at Grit Coaching! We offer custom run and strength training for runners, OCR, and hybrid athletes. Check us out!  

You’ve done the training, and now all that’s left is executing your race. But…..how? In this episode, we give you the nitty gritty on different pacing strategies: what works, what doesn’t, and why. We tackle this both through physiology and personal experience: everyone’s got a good pace-related story! Proper pacing is absolutely essential for great performance. We’ll convince you why on this episode! This episode is hosted by Olympian/Exercise Physiologist Jessica O'Connell and OCR Star Faye Stenning, BKin, and coaches at Grit Coaching! We offer custom run and strength training for runners, OCR, and hybrid athletes. Check us out!

This week we are thrilled to catch up with OCR superstar Nicole Mericle! Nicole is fresh off her 2nd place finish at Tough Mudder Arabia which was arguably one of the most competitive OCR races in history with a prize purse that did not disappoint!   We also discuss Nicole's road to recovery after knee surgery, how the short course specialist changed her training to dominate a 8 hour event and much much more. This episode is hosted by Faye Stenning, BKin, and coach at Grit Coaching! We offer custom run and strength training for runners, OCR, and hybrid athletes. Check us out!