Blake Dircksen 2

Ariane Hendrix is a VDOT Certified Coach and the 5th fastest U.S. born African American woman of all time in the marathon. She’s shown steady progress first running the event in 3:57 ten years ago. Recently, she placed third at the Bayshore Marathon in 2:42. Connect with Ari on her coaching profile page: https://coaches.vdoto2.com/ariane-hendrix-roach Follow her progress on Instagram @ari_hendrixroach. Music credit: Mike Quinn, Breakadawn

Sara Lopez is an athlete on V.O2 working with Ame For It Run Coaching. Recently, Sara has set new PRs of 1:13:53 (64 VDOT) in the half marathon and 32:59 10k (65.1). Both were road racing wins too. We learn in this episode how her pursuit to become a walk-on at BYU put her down a dark path and how she found her love of running and training again.  Follow Sara's progress @saraannelilopez Music credit: Mike Quinn, Breakadawn

Blake Dircksen is a licensed physical therapist at Bespoke Treatments and assistant high school coach. In this episode we discuss the success he's having remote coaching his high school alma mater on V.O2. Blake is also offering free strength and mobility exercises for download on your V.O2 calendar. You can sign up for free here: https://coaches.vdoto2.com/blakedircksen We also discuss ankle injuries and our new Stats feature on the app. 

Jason Martuscello is a researcher at BEESY Strategy, a behavioral science agency, conducting consumer and market research. After transforming his life by losing over 100 lbs. he became relentlessly determined to deeply understand the universal ingredients of behavior change. His weight loss has created a burning curiosity and passion to understand how we change and sustain behavior. In just four years Jason got into running and completing marathons. He has since completed three majors (NYC, Berlin and Boston) with a PR of 2:46. He currently works coach Dylan Belles on V.O2. Music Credit: Mike Quinn, Breakadawn

Pietro Gennenzi lives in Brooklyn, NY. Pietro is a musician and project engineer for acoustic architectural design firm Walters-Storyk Design Group. He recently completed his first marathon in 2:34:56 after only getting into running two years prior. The entire marathon build-up was a learning experience to say the least. In this episode we discuss:  his background, living in Brooklyn, how he got into running, his progression as a runner to running 2:34 in Philly, how he executed the race, goals moving forward (break 2:30 in Chicago this year then complete World Majors). Connect with Pietro @ptr_gnz Music Credit: Mike Quinn, Breakadawn

Andie Cozzarelli has one of the highest VDOT scores on V.O2 for a female athlete. She represents Oiselle, UCAN, Athletes For Yoga, AltRed, and InsideTracker. Andie was a 2x All-American in the 10k at NC State and she qualified for the Olympic Trials in 2016 in the Marathon. She’s also a private coach on V.O2. You can view her coaching profile at:  https://coaches.vdoto2.com/andie-cozzarelli In this episode we discuss:  living and training in Raleigh, NC, her athletic story, troubleshooting and working through her health issues to get back on track, Athletes for Yoga, coaching and training towards a 2:37 marathon.

Chris Free is an athlete based out of Virginia Beach. He recently set a new PB winning the Louisiana Marathon on a negative split (2:38:56). Chris currently works with coach Dylan Belles on V.O2. In the past 10 years he's dropped almost 80 minutes off of his marathon time. In this episode we discuss how Chris got into running and what his training looks like, including the strength training routine that keeps him healthy. Currently, he's raising money for World Vision while training for the Berlin Marathon. Connect with Chris on Instagram @_cmfree. Music Credit: Mike Quinn, Breakadawn

Leah Rosenfeld is an athlete and coach based out of Flagstaff, AZ. She's a former DI college coach and now coaches online on V.O2, in-person at Team Run Flagstaff and through iFIT on NordicTrack. A longtime middle distance specialist with PRs of 4:18 for 1500m (64.6 VDOT) and 15:58 for 5k (64.7 VDOT), Leah has recently bumped up to ultra running winning her first trail races at XTERRA San Tan Trail Run, Queen Creek, AZ, the Soulstice Mountain Trail Run in Flagstaff, AZ and Imogene Pass Run in Telluride, CO. In this episode we discuss:  her time coaching in Costa Rica with iFit, transitioning to trail with legend Rob Krar, how she got into running, transitioning from athlete to coach and more. Connect with Leah on her coaching profile (https://coaches.vdoto2.com/leahrosenfeld) and on Instagram @leahdanarosenfeld. Music Credit: Mike Quinn, Breakadawn

Tom Black is an athlete and coach based out of New York City. After working in Finance for several years Tom moved to NYC to pursue a career in fitness & fashion. He ran his first marathon in 2017 and before too long he was running every single day and going for 1-2 hour runs on the weekends. Since then, Tom has increased his mileage from around 20-30 miles to 70-90 miles and cut his marathon time down from 3:20 to 2:31. He's also gotten VDOT Certified and is now helping other athletes on V.O2.  In this episode we discuss:  his backstory, living and training in NYC (and vying for limited turf with cyclists), how he's improved over the years, his negative split in Houston running 2:31:54 and what he's learned along the way to now coaching athletes. Connect with Tom on his coaching profile (https://coaches.vdoto2.com/tom-black) and on Instagram @tom.r.black. Music Credit: Mike Quinn, Breakadawn

Christina Welsh is an athlete based out of St. Petersburg, FL. She recently set PRs of 2:33 (64.8 VDOT) in the marathon and 1:15:36 (62.3 VDOT) for a half marathon. Learn more about her incredible progression from her 3:29 marathon debut in 2019 to qualifying for the next Olympic Trials. Follow Christina @christinajwelsh. Music Credit: Mike Quinn, Breakadawn