Sometime in the past week the morning shakeout podcast surpassed 1 million total downloads. I know it’s just a number, but I’ve never hit a million anything in my life. THANK YOU to everyone who has listened in, offered feedback, and/or shared an episode(s) with others. It truly means a lot to me.
Check out the top ten episodes below in case you missed one or just want to revisit some amazing conversations:
“When I was younger I really struggled with separating myself from sport. I really believed that how I performed is what defined me and I started to perform way better once I was able to separate myself from sport and realize that sport does not define me. And that’s something that’s just been huge for me.”
Really enjoyed talking to Gwen Jorgensen for this week’s episode of the podcast. The 33-year-old Jorgensen is the reigning Olympic champion in triathlon, who, in late 2017, announced she was retiring from multi-sport racing to turn her attention to running full-time. Her goal: Olympic gold in the marathon. In early 2018, Jorgensen signed with Nike and joined the Bowerman Track Club to train alongside 2017 New York City Marathon champion Shalane Flanagan and reigning Olympic Trials marathon champion Amy Cragg under the watchful eye of coach Jerry Schumacher.
We covered a lot of ground in this conversation, including Jorgensen’s recent surgery to repair a Haglund’s deformity in her right heel and how she’s dealt with it from both a training and psychological standpoint, the importance of separating yourself from sport and having balance in your life, last fall’s Chicago Marathon and why she didn’t feel that it was a fair representation of what she’s capable of in that event, reflections on her first full season of training as a runner, learning from Amy Cragg and Shalane Flanagan, what it’s been like going from being at the top of one sport to an underdog in a different one, how she’s learned to get comfortable sharing her story (and struggles) with a large audience, why the Olympic gold medal in the marathon is still her goal, and a lot more. (more…)
Reigning Olympic triathlon gold medalist Gwen Jorgensen hadn’t raced since before giving birth to her son Stanley last August, and she hadn’t competed in a straight-up track contest since 2009, but in case there were any questions—yes, this woman can flat out run. Jorgensen went 15:15 for 5,000 meters—a 37-second personal best—at the Husky Classic in Seattle two weekends ago, telling Flotrack afterward, “I felt like I could run that but it’s also really exciting when you can run a fast time.” (more…)
Reigning Olympic triathlon gold medalist Gwen Jorgensen announced a couple weeks back that she will be aiming for the top of the podium again—this time in the marathon—at the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
Wait, what? That seems like a bold statement to make, especially for an Olympic-distance triathlete with limited marathon experience—Jorgensen has run exactly one in her career—and a 2:41:01 personal best for the distance, set in her debut last year at New York. But this full-time transition to the marathon isn’t happening on a whim; she’s been thinking about it since before she won it all in Rio.
“For me it’s just something I’ve wanted to try since I had the first thoughts about doing it a few years ago,” Jorgensen told triathlete.com. “I know I’m going to have to take some big risks, but I really believe I’m capable of doing it. With that being said, I know how difficult it can be to perform for a one-day event when you have years to prepare. A lot can go wrong on that one day and a lot can go wrong in a marathon. I have a huge mountain to climb in front of me, but I also know that I have a great team around me to help me get to the top of that mountain.” (more…)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mario Fraioli is a writer and running coach based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Sometime in the past week the morning shakeout podcast surpassed 1 million total downloads. I know it’s just a number, but I’ve never hit a million anything in my life. THANK YOU to everyone who has listened in, offered feedback, and/or shared an episode(s) with others. It truly means a lot to me.
