This podcast is sponsored by Charm City Run. Learn more and shop at www.charmcityrun.com!

Running coach, exercise scientist, and McMillan Running founder Greg McMillan joins Nicky to talk about one of the trickiest parts of marathon training: the taper. Drawing from his book Surviving the Marathon Freakout, Greg explains why he prefers to call it “peaking” and shares six guidelines for arriving at the starting line feeling rested, confident, and ready to race.

They discuss how much to reduce mileage, why you should keep some intensity in your training, and how to manage the mental spiral that often comes before race day. Greg also shares his approach to pacing, fueling, and creating a race-day thinking strategy, along with how understanding your runner type can change the way you train.

Plus, they get into aging as a runner, finding joy in the sport, practical race-weekend planning, and what to do after crossing the finish line.

Learn more about Greg's coaching, training plans, and running calculator at McMillan Running.

Support our sponsors:

⁠Charm City Run⁠ is a local running store serving the Maryland and Delaware running community with shoes, apparel, and gear, and you can shop online from anywhere; use code NICKY10 for a discount on select purchases.

This podcast is sponsored by Charm City Run. Learn more and shop at www.charmcityrun.com!

NCAA champion, coach, and former elite sprinter Angelique Cunningham joins Nicky to talk about confidence, negative self-talk, trusting your training, and learning to get out of your own way.

Angelique shares how she went from struggling through her freshman year at Baylor to becoming a national champion, why confidence is a decision, and what running can teach us about moving through the good days and the bad ones.

Support our sponsors:

⁠Charm City Run⁠ is a local running store serving the Maryland and Delaware running community with shoes, apparel, and gear, and you can shop online from anywhere; use code NICKY10 for a discount on select purchases.

This podcast is sponsored by Charm City Run. Learn more and shop at www.charmcityrun.com!

Claire Forsyth didn’t grow up as a runner. In fact, she wasn’t particularly sporty at all. Now she’s running 100-mile ultramarathons, taking on back-to-back endurance challenges, and finding out just how much farther she can go.

Claire joins Nicky to talk about her path from half marathons to the trails, what drew her to ultrarunning, and why she prefers the adventure of long distances over chasing faster times. She shares what her DNFs taught her, what it takes to keep moving when everything hurts, the surprising party atmosphere at the back of the pack, and why preparing for 100 miles involves a lot more than just running.

They also talk about training solo, balancing running with work and family, finding confidence through doing hard things, and how running has pushed Claire to take on challenges outside the sport too.

Support our sponsors:

⁠Charm City Run⁠ is a local running store serving the Maryland and Delaware running community with shoes, apparel, and gear, and you can shop online from anywhere; use code NICKY10 for a discount on select purchases.

Kilian Korth joins Nicky to talk about winning the Triple Crown of 200s, what separates a 50-miler from a 100 or 200, and the parts of ultrarunning you simply can’t prepare for in training. He gets into second-night hallucinations, dirt naps, learning to ride the highs and lows of an ultra, and why you might actually feel better at mile 90 than you did at mile 70.

Kilian also opens up about the ankle injury and surgery that completely changed his plans for this year, finding purpose when running was taken away, meditation, cross-training, and trying to build an identity that isn’t entirely tied to running. Plus, he and Nicky talk about becoming a parent, healthy skepticism, changing your mind, and why some of life’s hardest lessons only make sense once you’ve lived them.

This podcast is sponsored by Charm City Run. Learn more and shop at www.charmcityrun.com!

Ashley Paulson, known online as Ashkickn, is a world record holder, ultramarathon winner, and mother of four with bright pink hair and zero interest in fitting a mold. She talks about how she went from having almost no self-esteem in her twenties to breaking the world record for fastest female 100 miler, then breaking it again two months later on a treadmill at the Boston Marathon Expo. She and Nicky get into why women struggle to own their wins, the moment she turned down a pro triathlon card because she didn't want to lose her sense of fun, and the "impossible year" she's in the middle of, which has included a triple crown of 200-mile races, a fall at Bigfoot 200, and passing out seven miles from the finish at Badwater 135. Ashley also talks about pulling out of a Team USA race out of respect for her body, what she's still chasing before the year ends, and why she thinks fear is something to run toward, not around.

Support Our Sponsors:

Courage Overconfidence for Runners is a three-part live, interactive mental performance series designed to help runners build the mental skills they need to feel prepared and confident on race day; register by September 16th to receive the audiobook free and use code NICKY10 for 10% off. Go to greenepsych.com and click on "workshops".

⁠Charm City Run⁠ is a local running store serving the Maryland and Delaware running community with shoes, apparel, and gear, and you can shop online from anywhere; use code NICKY10 for a discount on select purchases.

This episode is supported by Charm City Run. Learn more and shop at https://www.charmcityrun.com/

Rory Linkletter is a professional marathoner for Puma, a coach at Let's Tango, and a co-host of the Out & Back podcast. He talks about how his relationship with nerves has changed since college, why he thinks the pressure of competition gets more out of an athlete than chasing a specific time, and why he deliberately seeks failure in workouts as part of how he improves. He and Nicky get into the mental gap between chasing paces and racing people, why he still sprints twice a week even as a marathoner, and the rock-bottom stretch in 2021 that led him to leave his sponsor and rebuild his career under Ryan Hall. Rory also shares his current biggest weakness as an athlete (the longest of long runs), what he's chasing next in Valencia and Copenhagen, and where he sees himself eventually moving into ultra trail racing.

Support our Sponsors:

⁠Courage Overconfidence⁠ for Runners is a three-part live, interactive mental performance series designed to help runners build the mental skills they need to feel prepared and confident on race day; register by September 16th to receive the audiobook free and use code NICKY10 for 10% off. Go to ⁠greenepsych.com⁠ and click on "workshops".

Charm City Run is a local running store serving the Maryland and Delaware running community with shoes, apparel, and gear, and you can shop online from anywhere; use code NICKY10 for a discount on select purchases.

This podcast is presented by Charm City Run. Shop online and find a store near you: https://www.charmcityrun.com

Jacob Travis, known online as PT with JT, is a physical therapist in Nashville with almost 70,000 Instagram followers. He talks about how a run club turned him from a solo gym guy into someone who found community through running, and how that shift has bled into a deeper look at faith and why he thinks about the body as something designed on purpose. He and Nicky get into training for their upcoming Indianapolis marathons (his goal: a sub-2:50 and a Boston qualifier), the biggest mistake he made as a new runner, and what he actually tells patients who try to self-diagnose shin splints or plantar fasciitis with ChatGPT. He also breaks down why most runners don't need to change their running form at all, and the one piece of advice almost nobody follows even though it matters more than anything else he prescribes.

This episode is presented by Charm City Run. See all that they are about at https://www.charmcityrun.comBrendan Leonard, known online as Semi-Rad, is a writer and illustrator who spent years writing for climbing and outdoor magazines before building his own audience through a weekly newsletter. He talks about how he stumbled into illustration by drawing a pie chart on a napkin, getting sober in his early twenties, and trading rock climbing for ultrarunning after witnessing a serious climbing accident. He and Nicky get into why he doesn't listen to anything on his runs, the philosophy of running as a way to acquire a void rather than escape into one, and why he thinks most of the value in running has nothing to do with the races themselves. Brendan also shares what he's training for next: a 24-hour race two miles from his house that plays to every weakness he has.