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by Microcosm Coaching
The Microcosm Coaching Podcast helps endurance athletes—whether you're a road runner, trail runner, or training for your first marathon or 00-miler—get more out of their training with evidence-based advice, effort-based coaching, and expert mindset support. Hosted by professional coaches and athletes, each episode explores practical strategies for race prep, running recovery, mental performance, and sustainable training. If you want to build fitness, avoid burnout, and find more joy in running, you're in the right place.
Latest Episodes
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- 2 weeks ago54 min
Race-Specific Training: Are You Actually Training for YOUR Race? Plus: the best running belts, pre-race strength training, and make-up miles
ou've built the fitness. Now what? This week we're digging into training specificity: how to shape your training around the actual demands of your goal race, whether that's a road marathon, a 50K, or a 100-miler like Leadville or Hardrock. Specificity is the sexy stuff athletes love to obsess over, but it's also where we see the most expensive mistakes. We break down what race-specific training actually means, when it belongs in your training calendar, and the traps that cost athletes their races.What we cover:Specificity is earned. Why general fitness is the raw material and specificity is just the sculpting, and why "couch to 50K" plans set athletes up to failThe training funnel. Wide and general in base season, narrow and race-specific 8 to 12 weeks out, with fine-tuning inside the final two to three weeksDuration and time on feet. Why training for the hours you'll be out there matters more than the miles on the race page (100 miles can mean 14 hours or 30)Vert, terrain, and eccentric loading. Why per-mile elevation ratio beats a weekly vert number, how to read a course profile (three 1,000-foot climbs is not one 3,000-foot climb), and training downhill resilience with the repeat bout effectFueling and gut training. The most underrated specificity of all: why you need to practice your race-day fueling for a minimum of 12 weeksThe number one trap: sacrificing fitness on the altar of specificity, from course-obsessed weekend commutes to heat suits on the treadmill in JanuaryPlus:Listener question: "I missed my long run, so I added the miles to next week and dug myself into a hole." Why makeup miles don't exist, why the body knows stress rather than miles, and how to actually rearrange a training week when life blows up your scheduleHot or Not: running belts, handhelds, gas station candy as ultra fuel, and strength training during the taperWe're off for a two-week summer break and back in August.Questions for a future episode? Email us at microcosmcoaching@gmail.com or find us at microcosm-coaching.com.
- 3 weeks ago56 min
What Fitness Actually Is: The 5 Systems Every Runner Trains (Plus Running in Wildfire Smoke)
What is fitness, really? VO2 max, lactate threshold, running economy, durability, and neuromuscular power — in this episode we break down the five distinct systems hiding inside that one word, how each one develops, which respond fastest to training, and which age best. If you've ever chased a watch number and wondered why your race results didn't follow, this framework explains why "getting fitter" is actually five separate questions — and how periodizing your training over years brings them together on race day.We also answer a timely listener question about running in wildfire smoke: what PM2.5 actually does to your lungs, how to use AQI (and its limits), CDC guardrails for exercising outside, when to move to the treadmill, and how to set your line in the sand before race day — including what to do if smoke rolls in mid-race.Plus Hot or Not: gravel running, Garmin's heat acclimation metric, photochromic lenses, and whether bells or eye patches actually deter mountain lions (spoiler: your voice works better).Send us your Hot or Nots and listener questions: microcosmcoaching@gmail.comCurious about coaching? Join the Foothills tier — $10/month for twice-monthly Ask-A-Coach calls and our Slack community of 200+ athletes. Use code FOOTHILLS10 at microcosm-coaching.com
- 4 weeks ago1h 4m
Heat vs. Altitude Training for Runners: What Actually Works (+ Golden Hour, Probiotics & Time-Based Training)
Heat training and altitude training are two of the most obsessed-over (and most misunderstood) tools in endurance running. In this episode, Zoë and TJ break down the actual science: what heat adaptation does to your blood plasma, why "poor man's altitude" is a myth, and how the EPO-to-hemoglobin response really works up high. They cover who should bother with heat or altitude training at all, the two questions to ask before you start, and why fundamentals like consistency, sleep, and fueling beat every environmental hack. You'll hear practical guidance on hot bath protocols, ferritin levels, live-high-train-low, and the 21-days-or-24-hours rule for racing at altitude. Plus: coach spotlight with James Nance, a listener question on time-based training in the mountains (the body doesn't know miles, it knows stress), and hot-or-not takes on golden hour and probiotics. Curious about coaching? Our Foothills tier is $10/month for twice-monthly Ask-A-Coach calls and a 200+ athlete Slack community. Use code FOOTHILLS25. Join at microcosm-coaching.com or reach out at microcosmcoaching@gmail.com.Coaching & Foothills tier: microcosm-coaching.comEmail: microcosmcoaching@gmail.comFoothills promo: FOOTHILLS25 ($10/month)
- Jun 17, 202657 min
Durability: How to Stop Fading Late in Races (Plus Antihistamines, Yard Work & the "Ultra Bod" Myth)
Durability is the word every endurance runner has latched onto — but what actually is it, and how do you build it? Zoë and TJ break down durability for marathon and ultra runners: the difference between aerobic durability (heart rate drift and cardiac decoupling over long efforts) and mechanical durability (the eccentric loading that blows up your quads on late-race descents), why a smaller engine that doesn't fade beats a bigger one that falls apart, and why the only real path is years of consistent, recoverable volume. There's no shortcut — you have to put in the time to get to the place where you can put in more time.Before the main discussion, they take on three listener "hot or not" questions: whether antihistamines like Claritin really blunt training adaptations (the dose in that study matters more than you think), why swapping a strength session for yard work doesn't count, and the truth about chasing an "ultra bod" — energy availability, why underfueling undermines the adaptations you're working for, and why body composition is an output of training, not a lever to yank on. Plus downhill technique, easy volume, and TJ's three biggest coaching pet peeves.Curious about coaching but not sure where to start? Join our Foothills tier for $10/month — twice-monthly Ask-A-Coach calls and a Slack community of 200+ athletes. Use code FOOTHILLS25 at microcosm-coaching.com.—microcosm-coaching.com | microcosmcoaching@gmail.com
- Jun 10, 20261h 4m
AI vs. Human Coaching, Hiding Your Heart Rate in Races, Cramps & Training in Humidity
Sign up for our open house here!https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc0KnmFGBxZNYqTAZDNFSRUL86UXK7gCIVDDlLtWJBp5WoVvQ/viewform?usp=headerAI vs. human coaching is the big question this week: can a chatbot really build your training plan, or is it a premium cookie cutter? Zoë and TJ break down what coaching actually is — the plan plus the relationship, communication, and buy-in that no model replicates — and dig into the research, including why studies lag behind the tools athletes are actually using, the 2025 analysis pointing toward hybrid human-plus-AI models, and why AI is a good summarizer but a poor authority. Before that, three rapid-fire segments: why you should hide the heart rate field while racing (and trust RPE instead of a signal that lags 30–90 seconds and gets polluted by heat, caffeine, and sleep debt), whether Hotshot actually fixes muscle cramps and side stitches or just floods your mouth with a sensory distraction, and how high humidity wrecks evaporative cooling, spikes your RPE, and slows your pace — plus why heat training isn't the biohack shortcut Instagram sells. Practical, evidence-based, and skeptical in the best way. Questions or hot takes? microcosmcoaching@gmail.com. Join the community on the Foothills tier ($10/month, code FOOTHILLS10).
- Jun 3, 202653 min
Building the Long Run: Endurance, Fueling, and the Mental Game of Going Long
🏃 Microcosm Open House — Wednesday, June 11th at 5:30pm MT (virtual). Meet the coaches, ask anything, no pressure. Sign up: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc0KnmFGBxZNYqTAZDNFSRUL86UXK7gCIVDDlLtWJBp5WoVvQ/viewform?usp=header💪 Want coaching without the full 1:1 commitment? Join Foothills for twice-monthly Ask the Coaches sessions — $10/month with code Foothills10 at microcosmcoaching.comLong runs, ultramarathon training, and fueling are at the heart of this all-time favorite episode, back by popular demand. Kristin Layne and Kyle break down how to actually build long run duration without breaking down — and why the biggest barrier to going long usually isn't fitness.They cover the physiology and psychology of pushing into unfamiliar durations, why you should think in time rather than miles, and how to grow your long run gradually (a good rule of thumb: keeping it under about 30% of weekly volume). You'll learn why you don't need to run your full race distance in training, how back-to-back long runs build confidence and durability, and where RPE should sit so you're building fitness instead of digging a fatigue hole.From dialing in 60–90g of carbs per hour and training your gut, to strength work for late-race durability, to mental tools like segmenting and telling the difference between uncomfortable and dangerous — this is a complete blueprint for stepping up to your first 50K, 50-miler, or 100. Give yourself the runway, and you can absolutely do it.
- May 27, 20261h 7m
How to Know If Your Training Is Actually Working (The N of 1 Experiment)
Sign up for our free open house here! (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc0KnmFGBxZNYqTAZDNFSRUL86UXK7gCIVDDlLtWJBp5WoVvQ/viewform?usp=header)How do you know if your training, supplements, or recovery hacks are actually working — or if you're just fooling yourself? Zoë and TJ break down the science of the N of 1 experiment and how to self-coach intelligently in a world flooded with biohacks, miracle protocols, and "this one weird trick" content. Borrowing Feynman's first principle — you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool — they walk through six cognitive biases that trick endurance athletes into believing something works when it doesn't: regression to the mean, the placebo of the shiny new toy, confirmation bias, the novelty honeymoon, comparison traps, and sunk cost. Then they get practical: how to actually test an intervention, change one variable at a time, define success before you start, and ask the question that cuts through the noise — compared to what? Plus a coach spotlight on James Nance, TJ's road back to Leadville, and Zoë's day-by-day approach to managing an Achilles flare-up. If you've ever overhauled everything after one bad race or wondered whether your $80 ketones are doing anything at all, this one's for you. Reach out anytime: microcosmcoaching@gmail.com.
- May 20, 202658 min
The 5 Metrics That Actually Matter in 2026 (And Why Most of Your Data Is Noise)
Check out the fuel tracking app here! FuelFlowRunning metrics, wearables, and training data get a reality check this week as Zoë and Kylee Van Horn cut through the noise of HRV scores, readiness ratings, and AI coaches to name the five numbers that actually move the needle in 2026. The episode opens with a familiar character: the athlete double-fisting a Whoop and a Garmin who hasn't strung four consistent weeks of training together in six months. From there, the conversation breaks down what makes a metric genuinely useful, is it actionable, is the signal strong enough to act on, can you verify the underlying measurement, and does it tell you something your body isn't already saying? Then comes the countdown of the five that earn a spot on your watch: rate of perceived exertion (the master metric), consecutive weeks of consistent training, your 14-day sleep average, your long run as a percentage of your 30-day max, and carbohydrate intake per hour on long runs. Along the way: why one bad night of sleep won't break you, the 2025 research linking a single oversized long run to a 128% jump in injury risk, and why most runners fuel with far fewer carbs than they think they do. Evidence-based, occasionally unhinged, and a genuinely useful nudge to audit what you're actually tracking. Questions or hot takes? microcosmcoaching@gmail.com
About The MicroCast
The Microcosm Coaching Podcast helps endurance athletes—whether you're a road runner, trail runner, or training for your first marathon or 00-miler—get more out of their training with evidence-based advice, effort-based coaching, and expert mindset support. Hosted by professional coaches and athletes, each episode explores practical strategies for race prep, running recovery, mental performance, and sustainable training. If you want to build fitness, avoid burnout, and find more joy in running, you're in the right place.
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