The Shakeout Podcast

The leaves have fallen, the winter weather is moving in, and that means just one thing for fans of distance running in Canada: cross country championship season has arrived.The best student-athletes in the country will converge on Hamilton's Christie Lake Conservation area for the running of the 2026 U SPORTS cross country championships on Saturday, Nov. 14.The McMaster Marauders, who are hosting the event, will be looking to put up a strong home-course defence in pursuit of team titles in both the men's and women's championship, fielding squads ranked first and second in the nation, respectively. In the hunt for the individual title, the University of Victoria's Madelyn Eybergen returns as reigning champion, leading a Vikes team that has gone undefeated since claiming top spot at the 2025 edition of the championships. Meanwhile, in a men's field void of a returning champion, the University of Guelph's Jack Lehto enters the race off the back of his own undefeated season, with hopes of leading his Gryphons to another national championship–a title that has eluded the program since 2017.The Shakeout Podcast host John Gay is joined by Canadian Running's U SPORTS insider, Hayden West, to bring you a breakdown of all the storylines to watch for on Saturday, including their picks for which individuals and teams will go home as national champions in 2026.Subscribe to The Shakeout Podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts.To include in the episode description: [This collaboration is part of an advertising campaign led by the Podpass agency for Altitude Sports] Shop now at Altitude Sports and enjoy up to 20% off your first order with the promo code "shakeout2026" Click here to order 👉 https://bit.ly/altitude-shakeout2026Cover  Photo: Rich Lam

From the dawn of history, the heart has both fascinated and perplexed humankind. And so it seems apt that this vital organ should also be the focus of both obsession and confusion for endurance athletes today.Whether you’re a zone training aficionado, overnight HRV obsessive or simply live for the rush of pushing to your maximum in training, you know that this muscle is an incredible wellspring of information to help guide your experience in the sport. And if you’re a runner in the digital age, there’s a good chance at least some part of your experience is shaped by data tracking the movements of your ticker.Yet, for all the information that your heart generates for you, how much of it is really worth paying attention to? And in an age of optimization, should things like lowering your resting heart rate or elevating your maximum really impact the decisions you make around training and recovery?To answer these questions and more, we’re welcoming back to the show Dr. Mick Leahy, professor of cardiovascular exercise physiology at the University of British Columbia’s School of Kinesiology. As an expert in all things aerobic, Mick is here to help us understand what exactly our heart is doing for us as athletes.While it’s no guarantee that this episode will deliver the cure for your heartache over a missed PB, it just might tell you how to make the organ stronger, more resilient and higher-performing, setting you and your heart up to avoid heartbreak in the future. Subscribe to The Shakeout Podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts.Thanks to this week's sponsors!Push past the finish line with nutrition that fuels you! Discover more at canprev.ca Shop The North Face Summit Series https://www.thenorthface.com/en-ca/collections/summit-series

For many Canadian marathon fans, when Dayna Pidhoresky crossed the finish line as national marathon champion at last week’s TCS Toronto Waterfront marathon, there was a collective feeling of deja vu.  A massive new personal best, a Canadian championship title and a calendar year of racing that went from strength to strength: all the attributes of Pidhoresky’s 2026 campaign could just as easily be used to describe her season seven years ago, when she last stepped on the top flight of the Canadian marathon championship podium in 2019 as winner of the Tokyo Olympic trials. And, while for years setbacks kept her from returning to her 2019 form, her most recent string of races has put truth to the adage that you can't keep talent down forever. With her 2:26:01 clocking in Toronto, Pidhoresky became the third-fastest Canadian female marathoner of all time, knocking more than three minutes off her previous best from that 2019 edition of the race. Despite the parallels with her 2019 season and the long and winding road back to the top, 2026 marks not merely a return to previous form for the Olympian, but a leap ahead. This week on The Shakeout Podcast, Dayna joins us to recap her electrifying championship performance at Toronto, the string of PBs that marked her buildup to the race and what it’s taken to return to the top, faster and stronger than ever.Subscribe to The Shakeout Podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts.Cover Photo: Nick Iwanyshyn[This collaboration is part of an advertising campaign led by the Podpass agency for Altitude Sports]Shop now at Altitude Sports and enjoy up to 20% off your first order with the promo code "shakeout2026" Click here to order 👉 https://bit.ly/altitude-shakeout2026Shop The North Face Summit Series https://www.thenorthface.com/en-ca/collections/summit-series

When Andrew Davies toed the starting line at the 2026 TCS Toronto Waterfront marathon last Sunday, he did so with the hope that his first crack at 42.2km would be a positive enough experience to justify running another marathon in the year ahead. Over the course of the next 2 hours, 8 minutes, and 48 seconds, his quest for a respectable rookie performance became a run for the record books, laying down a time faster than any Canadian debut in history and vaulting himself into 4th place on the Canadian all-time list.Perhaps just as impressive as the time itself was the fashion in which Davies accomplished the feat, belying his novice-status at the marathon distance with a masterclass in pacing that saw him lay down a massive negative split to run away from the rest of the Canadian championship field. What's more, the performance comes at the end of a year that saw Davies lose several months to injury, graduate from law school, and begin full-time work articling. This week on The Shakeout Podcast Andrew joins the show to recap his record-setting debut and the training block that got him there, including details on how he and coach Steve Weiler incorporated a progression of workout long runs that built towards a signature effort on the streets of Toronto.Follow Andrew on InstagramSubscribe to The Shakeout Podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts.Cover Photo: Nick Iwanyshyn [This collaboration is part of an advertising campaign led by the Podpass agency for Altitude Sports] Shop now at Altitude Sports and enjoy up to 20% off your first order with the promo code "shakeout2026" Click here to order 👉 https://bit.ly/altitude-shakeout2026Shop The North Face Summit Series https://www.thenorthface.com/en-ca/collections/summit-series 

Sign up today for The Shakeout Podcast Shakeout Run: Thursday, Oct. 15 at 6:00 p.m. ET, at the Canadian Running offices, 75 Harbord St., Toronto, Ont. M5S 1G4.Over the course of a career on the track that included a spot in the 5,000m final at the Paris Olympics in 2024, Thomas Fafard established a reputation as one of the smoothest runners in the sport. Yet, despite his world-class pedigree at distances like the 5000m and 10,000m on the track, fans of road running couldn’t help but wonder whether his smooth style would translate to longer distances and, eventually, the marathon.Fortunately, after a breakout season on the track in 2024, Fafard wasted no time carrying his momentum up to the full 42.2-km distance. In December 2025 he made his marathon debut at The Marathon Project in Chandler, Ariz., with an eye on eclipsing Alain Bordeleau’s 41-year-old Quebec provincial record of 2:14:19.At that event, Fafard threw caution to the wind, quickly abandoning the pre-race pacing plan he’d set out with coach Felix-Antoine Lapointe in favour of a much quicker tempo. The gamble paid off, and what began as a conservative effort to get his feet wet at the distance became a signature performance, with his 2:10:29 finishing time making him the fourth-fastest Canadian debutant of all time. Now, Fafard is once again toeing the marathon starting line, this time against one of the fastest fields ever assembled at The Bank of America Chicago Marathon this Sunday, Oct. 11. With a strong debut to his name already, and the Quebec provincial record now firmly in his grasp, he joins The Shakeout Podcast this week, alongside coach Felix, to take us inside his build-up to his second marathon–one where he’ll once again be looking to go full-send against the best in the world. Subscribe to The Shakeout Podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts. [This collaboration is part of an advertising campaign led by the Podpass agency for Altitude Sports] Shop now at Altitude Sports and enjoy up to 20% off your first order with the promo code "shakeout2026" Click here to order 👉 https://bit.ly/altitude-shakeout2026Shop The North Face Summit Series https://www.thenorthface.com/en-ca/collections/summit-series 

The Shakeout Podcast Shakeout Run: Thursday, October 15 @ 6:00pm EST, 75 Harbord St. TorontoThe Shakeout Podcast LIVE from the Toronto Waterfront Marathon Expo: Friday, October 16 3:00-3:45pm ESTFor years, orthodox thinking on endurance training could be reduced to three central pillars: V02 max, lactate threshold and running economy. The higher scores an athlete produced in each of those three criteria, the more “talented” they were thought to be.The thinking went that if you took two athletes, tested their ability level in each of the three areas and set them off against one another in a race, the athlete with the higher overall score–that is, the more talented runner—would prevail. But this hypothesis stopped holding water pretty much as soon as the theory was transported from the lab to the real world, where less "talented" athletes continued to defy predicted outcomes based on the three endurance performance pillars alone. How athletes with measurably less talent at their disposal continued to pull off victories over more physiologically-gifted peers continued to stump sport scientists for years.Enter a factor that’s been intuitive knowledge to coaches and athletes forever, but is only now becoming quantifiable: durability. Research into durability (also known as fatigue resistance) aims to understand why two athletes with similar scores across the three standard pillars of performance prediction can end up miles apart on race day–a line of investigation that is leading many in the sports science world to suggest it may be the “fourth pillar” of endurance performance.This week on The Shakeout Podcast, science journalist Alex Hutchinson takes us inside the latest research on fatigue resistance to help us understand what durability means, what it looks like in practice and whether runners should be placing “increase durability” at the top of their training to-do list.Follow Alex on Instagram @Sweat_ScienceSubscribe to The Shakeout Podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts.Push past the finish line with nutrition that fuels you. CanPrev is proudly Canadian and has been delivering supportive natural health supplements for over two decades. Whether you’re training for your next goal race or looking to maximize performance when the gun goes off, make CanPrev's top-quality products part of your well rounded nutrition plan. Discover more at canprev.caShop The North Face Summit Series https://www.thenorthface.com/en-ca/collections/summit-series 

To hear the marketing team at one of any number of different sport supplement companies tell it, your next personal best is just one sip, slurp, or shot away. Whether it’s the latest super-food concentrate, the greatest powdered potion, or maybe even a new topical gel, the market for performance supplementation is a crowded one, with each new product promising some combination of performance buzzwords like optimal recovery, reduced blood lactate, greater muscular endurance or delayed onset fatigue. But with so many options out there, is there really one “silver bullet” when it comes to maximizing performance, and where does good old fashioned hard work fit into the mix in the age of “performance stacking” supplements?In the second instalment of The Shakeout Podcast's series on running buzzwords we’re joined by sports science writer Brady Holmer to help us cut through the hype and understand the science behind some of today’s most talked-about performance-hacking supplements. From beetroot and bi-carb to ketones and creatine, Brady has not only applied his background in human performance to understanding  the science behind the supplements but has put them to the test in the real world as a high level marathoner himself.Tune in this week as  we take a deep dive into the science of supplements to help you figure out how these supposed performance boosters work, how they measure up against their own claims, and what’s worth really your time and money when it comes to maximizing performance.Check out Brady on Substack: Physiologicallyspeaking.comX - @brady_hInstagram - @brady.j.holmerSubscribe to The Shakeout Podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts. [This collaboration is part of an advertising campaign led by the Podpass agency for Altitude Sports] Shop now at Altitude Sports and enjoy up to 20% off your first order with the promo code "shakeout2026" Click here to order 👉 https://bit.ly/altitude-shakeout2026Shop The North Face Summit Series https://www.thenorthface.com/en-ca/collections/summit-series

Between the two of them, there isn't much in the world of global running championships that sisters Gabriela DeBues-Stafford and Lucia Stafford haven't tackled. Both two-time Olympians and multi-time national champs, the Stafford sisters have come to define middle- and long-distance track for a generation of Canadian athletics fans. Between them, they hold Canadian records at 1,000m, 1,500m, 2,000m, 3,000m and 5,000m.But in careers that have ticked virtually every box, this weekend's World Athletics Road Running Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, will present a novelty as they toe the line in the road mile, a first crack at the discipline for both Gabriela and Lucia.This week on The Shakeout Podcast, the sisters join the show together for a preview of the upcoming champs, talking training for the roads, managing track seasons that have endured into the fall, and what it's been like to train together in preparation for a new challenge on the roads of Denmark. Plus, they offer timely coaching advice to one another from the unique perspective of a sibling and fierce competitor.Subscribe to The Shakeout Podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts.Shop now at Altitude Sports and enjoy up to 20% off your first order with the promo code "SHAKEOUT2026"Click here to order 👉 https://bit.ly/altitude-shakeout2026Shop The North Face Summit Series https://www.thenorthface.com/en-ca/collections/summit-series 

We’ve all got one, but what does it actually mean, and does the number your smart watch gives you actually matter? This week on The Shakeout Podcast we're setting out to understand the science of VO2 Max, a metric that seems to be everywhere in the saturated world of endurance training advice. From its correlation to performance to its proven effects on longevity, VO2 Max might be one of the most all encompassing indicators of fitness available. But is a higher number always better? And if more is better how do we go about raising ours?Joining the show to lend his expertise is Dr. Mick Leahy, professor of cardiovascular exercise physiology at The University of British Columbia. As an expert on all things aerobic, Mick walks us through the science behind VO2 Max, shedding light on what the term actually means, what the hype around VO2 Max is all about, and how runners can use the metric to improve their performance on race day. Subscribe to The Shakeout Podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts.Mick's Google ScholarShop now at Altitude Sports and enjoy up to 20% off your first order with the promo code "SHAKEOUT2026"Click here to order 👉 https://bit.ly/altitude-shakeout2026Shop The North Face Summit Series https://www.thenorthface.com/en-ca/collections/summit-series

If you wanted to know which athlete was at the top of Canadian trail running, a safe bet, at least in the most literal sense, would be Alex Ricard.  The Squamish based athlete has established a reputation as the best vertical runner in the country, clocking off wins and KOMs on some of Canada’s most iconic climb trails and mixing it up with the very best in the world at past editions of the world mountain and trail running championships. More recently, he’s adding distance to vert and finding success in over longer race distances, claiming another Canadian national championship title over the 50km distance at this summer’s Quebec Mega Trail. With a long history in the sport that includes early success on the track and cross country course, Alex joins the show this week to talk about his journey in the world of trail racing, life in the trail-running hot spot of Squamish, and what makes him so fast when the terrain gets steep. Follow Alex @Alex._Ric Subscribe to The Shakeout Podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts. Shop now at Altitude Sports and enjoy up to 20% off your first order with the promo code "SHAKEOUT2026" Click here to order 👉 https://bit.ly/altitude-shakeout2026 Shop The North Face Summit Series https://www.thenorthface.com/en-ca/collections/summit-series