Episode 649: Alyssa McElheny

Long runs on the treadmill, zero drop shoes, 3 workouts per week to prep for an Ultra, cross training, and stagnation in training.

The search for the best way to carry 2+ liters of hydration has been a maddening one. Some people can wear anything and not notice. Unfortunately, those people are not us…

After struggling with severe long COVID and losing years of running, Matt Fitzgerald signed up for the Javelina Jundred (100k) despite not being able to currently train.

Upon crossing the finish line of her first Ironman, Alex’s first thought was, "If I didn't have it together with my nutrition, I'd never have made it through the day." It was right then she felt her calling to help other endurance athletes reach their goals and dreams through optimization of their nutrition.

Your questions have been pouring in and we do our best to knock a few good ones out today! Do we get far too bogged down in semantics and “it depends” scenarios? You betcha!

Less than a year ago, Alyssa was a marathoner solely focused on preparing for the Olympic Trials. Today, she is the reigning Hyrox World Champion. Come for her story, stay for a surprise drop in from the man behind the scenes who orchestrates her training program.  

Life is uncaring and unpredictable. We’re in two very different places with our training right now, both of which took us by surprise.

College track & field recruiting is noisy, expensive, and stacked against families who don’t already know how the system works. Most high school athletes apply blind — no real sense of where their marks make them competitive, what a program actually needs, or how NIL works in their state. Trackbeast replaces that guesswork with data. Former professional runners Eric Avila and Adam Dailey pair one of the most complete databases of programs, coaches, rosters, and performance marks anywhere with the tools a family needs to run their own recruiting: find the programs where an athlete’s marks fit, reach the right coaches, and track every step.

Our most dreaded workouts, hill running for Easy Days, “super trainers”, and how much should you expect to improve?

What exactly is Running Economy and how do we improve it?