THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST

40 Episodes
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By: Dominic Schlueter

The Running Effect tells the best stories in running—and turns them into insight, inspiration, and tools to help competitive runners become greater. Every week, host Dominic Schlueter sits down with the fastest, smartest, and most inspiring people in the sport—from Olympic medalists to breakthrough athletes—to unpack the stories, lessons, and mindset behind elite performance. Whether you’re chasing a personal best or looking to understand how greatness is built, The Running Effect will make you a deeper fan of the sport—and a better runner.

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Jemma Reekie on 60 Miles a Week at 5:50 Pace, Missing Olympic Bronze by 0.09, and How She Rebuilt From the Lowest Point of Her Career
Jemma Reekie on 60 Miles a Week at 5:50 Pace, Missing Olympic Bronze by 0.09, and How She Rebuilt From the Lowest Point of Her Career episode artwork
Today at 8:34 AM

Jemma Reekie doesn't remember most of her records—she just ran and found out later.


The Scottish 800m/1500m star joins Dominic fresh off a fifth-place finish in the stacked Birmingham 2026 Euro 800m final, and opens up about a career that's been defined by extremes: three British indoor records broken in eight days as a 21-year-old who didn't even know what the records were; a fourth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics decided by 0.09 seconds; and a Paris 2024 Olympics that looked like her best shot at a medal on paper but ended without even a fi...


Alex Ostberg: The Workout That Proves Your Fitness Is Usually The One That Ends Your Season, What Bicarb Actually Does To Your Body, And Why Your Willpower Will Always Lose To Your Environment
Alex Ostberg: The Workout That Proves Your Fitness Is Usually The One That Ends Your Season, What Bicarb Actually Does To Your Body, And Why Your Willpower Will Always Lose To Your Environment episode artwork
Last Saturday at 8:41 AM

NEWSLETTER: https://therundownbytherunningeffect.substack.comThe magic workout you're chasing doesn't exist. In fact, the urge to prove your fitness before race day might be the very thing that breaks you.Alex Ostberg is back for our monthly recap of The Rundown, his weekly newsletter that lands in your inbox every Thursday. The former Stanford and UNC All-American, now an assistant coach at Nike's Swoosh Track Club in Eugene, joins Dominic to unpack the four biggest pieces from the past month—and the timing couldn't be better with cross country season underway.First up: why the best runners gain fitness in...


Cortney Berling on Why Runners Underfuel Without Knowing It: Carb Timing Around Workouts, What to Eat Before a Cross Country Race, and Why Craving Sugar Isn't a Willpower Problem
Cortney Berling on Why Runners Underfuel Without Knowing It: Carb Timing Around Workouts, What to Eat Before a Cross Country Race, and Why Craving Sugar Isn't a Willpower Problem episode artwork
Last Thursday at 8:20 AM

Your body doesn't know the difference between Coca-Cola and watermelon. And according to registered sports dietitian Cortney Berling, that might be the most freeing thing a runner can learn.


Back for her third appearance on The Running Effect, Cortney joins Dominic to dismantle the food rules holding runners back, starting with the sport's most controversial question: does weight loss actually make you faster? Her answer is a masterclass in why general nutrition advice fails athletes, especially female ones. 


The guidelines on your food label were built around a 154-pound r...


Inside Josh Kerr's Mind the Week of the Mile World Record: His Sport Psychologist on the Time Trial That Felt Too Easy, the Cue He Gave Him Race Morning, and the Flow State Behind 3:42.66 WR
Inside Josh Kerr's Mind the Week of the Mile World Record: His Sport Psychologist on the Time Trial That Felt Too Easy, the Cue He Gave Him Race Morning, and the Flow State Behind 3:42.66 WR episode artwork
Last Tuesday at 8:15 AM

Josh Kerr didn't chase the mile world record, he created it. And the man who spent six years helping him build the mind to do it is finally telling the story.


Jose Maresma is Kerr's sports psychologist, a clinical exercise physiologist with 35 years of experience spanning the Olympic Training Center, the NFL, NBA, special operators, ER doctors, and CEOs. Their partnership started with a pickaxe: Maresma invited Kerr to his men's group, where the Olympic medalist cracked through four inches of ice at six in the morning and realized the anxiety felt exactly like st...


Never Talent. Never Fear. Always Within 1%. Pete Julian on Coaching Rupp, Farah, Centro, the Mindset of Champions, and What Separates the Good From the Great
Never Talent. Never Fear. Always Within 1%. Pete Julian on Coaching Rupp, Farah, Centro, the Mindset of Champions, and What Separates the Good From the Great episode artwork
08/16/2026

Pete Julian didn't beat cancer—he survived it, and that distinction shapes everything about how he coaches.



The Union Athletics Club founder sits down with Dominic for one of the most reflective conversations in the show'shistory. Julian opens up about coaching across cultures—helping Suguru Osako escape Japan's ekiden machine, swapping pep talks for pure logic with Germany's Koko Klosterhalfen, and why Shannon Rowbury remains the most impressive athlete he's ever coached.



He makes a case few pro coaches will: America's best coaches aren't in the NC...


Inside the Rise of Trenton Sandler: How a Lifelong Soccer Player Ran 1:55, Got Recruited to the SEC, and Coached Himself to a 3:42 1500
Inside the Rise of Trenton Sandler: How a Lifelong Soccer Player Ran 1:55, Got Recruited to the SEC, and Coached Himself to a 3:42 1500 episode artwork
08/14/2026

Trenton Sandler didn't care about running until his senior year of high school. Now, he's a 3:42 1500m man with 130,000 followers watching every step.

 

The Arkansas transfer joins Dominic the day before his move to Fayetteville for a conversation about one of the strangest paths in the NCAA. A lifelong soccer player who only ran track to stay in shape, Trenton parlayed a 1:55 time in the 800m into an SEC roster spot, spent two years buried in injuries, then watched his LSU distance group collapse from 12 guys to three. 


He left th...


From Mike Smith's Assistant to Running the Dynasty: NAU's Jarred Cornfield on the System Behind 6 Titles, Keeping It Alive in a New NCAA, and Coaching Colin Sahlman to 3x NCAA Titles
From Mike Smith's Assistant to Running the Dynasty: NAU's Jarred Cornfield on the System Behind 6 Titles, Keeping It Alive in a New NCAA, and Coaching Colin Sahlman to 3x NCAA Titles episode artwork
08/12/2026

You don't replace Mike Smith. You carry forward what he built, and Jarred Cornfield is proving that's exactly how dynasties survive.


Entering year two as NAU's Director of Cross Country and Track & Field, Cornfield returns to the podcast as another Flagstaff fall arrives. He opens up about the transition from nine years as Smith's assistant—resisting the urge to prove himself, leaning on his mentor (still in town, still a phone call away), and practicing the same pressure-management he preaches to his athletes.


The conversation digs into the anatomy of...


The Running Scientist: How Low Testosterone Can Make You Faster, The 4 Supplements That Actually Work, & The Warm-Up That Wins a 5K PR | Dr. Bill Evans
The Running Scientist: How Low Testosterone Can Make You Faster, The 4 Supplements That Actually Work, & The Warm-Up That Wins a 5K PR | Dr. Bill Evans episode artwork
08/10/2026

Dr. Bill Evans admits the post was rage bait. But the science underneath it isn't.


Dominic opens by asking about Evans' claim that you can run faster with low testosterone, and Evans cheerfully cops to baiting the testosterone crowd before laying out the actual evidence. 


Two things can be true at once: train hard for years and your T drops, and your performance keeps climbing anyway. He walks through Anthony Hackney's overtraining research, the 80-kilometer-per-week marker where androgen deficiency starts showing up, and the diffusion-distance argument for why the bes...


From Wake Forest to Full-Time Counselor: Ashley Bastron on Leaving Coaching at Her Peak, the Eating Disorder Crisis in Running, and Putting People Over Results
From Wake Forest to Full-Time Counselor: Ashley Bastron on Leaving Coaching at Her Peak, the Eating Disorder Crisis in Running, and Putting People Over Results episode artwork
08/08/2026

Ashley Bastron just had the best year of her coaching career. Then she quit, and she's never felt more at peace.


In this episode, Dominic sits down with the former Wake Forest Associate Head Coach who guided the Demon Deacon women to their first NCAA Cross Country Championships since 2006, coached three All-Americans and two ACC champions in 2026, and then announced in July that she was stepping away to become a full-time clinical mental health counselor. 


Her reason cuts deep: in an NCAA increasingly built around money and results, she c...


From 9th at NCAAs to US Steeplechase Champion: Nate Mountain on the Collapse, the Mental Reset, and the Dive That Won Him a National Title + An Inside Look At His PRO Career
From 9th at NCAAs to US Steeplechase Champion: Nate Mountain on the Collapse, the Mental Reset, and the Dive That Won Him a National Title + An Inside Look At His PRO Career episode artwork
08/06/2026

Six weeks ago, Nate Mountain’s championship dreams died on the last lap of the NCAA final. 

 

Turns out they were just getting started.


The newly-minted U.S. steeplechase champion joins Dominic to unpack the wildest six-week swing in the sport: a ninth-place “mental implosion” at NCAAs, followed by a full reset in Charlottesville (fewer workouts, more coffee walks and pick-up 21 against a fifty-year-old street baller), and a nothing-to-lose dive across the line at Icahn Stadium to win his first national title by 0.07 seconds.


Nate takes us in...


From 9 National Titles as a Kid to 1:42 as a Pro: Brandon Miller on Beating the Olympic Champion, his 30 Mile Training Weeks, and Kicking Past Cooper Lutkenhaus
From 9 National Titles as a Kid to 1:42 as a Pro: Brandon Miller on Beating the Olympic Champion, his 30 Mile Training Weeks, and Kicking Past Cooper Lutkenhaus episode artwork
08/04/2026

Brandon Miller is done being overlooked. 


The Brooks Beast is riding the hottest streak in American 800m running: four straight wins, including a takedown of world indoor champion Cooper Lutkenhaus at the Prefontaine Classic, and a 1:42.19 stunner over Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi in London that made him the fifth-fastest American in history. 


In this conversation, Dominic and Brandon dig into the season that turned a former prodigy (nine AAU national titles and maybe the most-watched kid in FloTrack history) into the man of the moment.


...


Eric Avila on How to Actually Get Recruited to Run in College: Why Almost Any Runner Can Earn a Scholarship, How NIL Deals Really Work, and What Coaches Are Looking For
Eric Avila on How to Actually Get Recruited to Run in College: Why Almost Any Runner Can Earn a Scholarship, How NIL Deals Really Work, and What Coaches Are Looking For episode artwork
08/02/2026

Eric Avila quit racing, but he didn’t quit the sport altogether.


The 2021 USATF Road Mile champion spent eight years with Adidas before walking away in 2024. This included a torn plantar fascia, a contract offer attached to a marathon move he didn't want, and a competitive fire that quietly fizzled out. What surprised him wasn't missing the racing. It was losing the structure that had organized every morning of his adult life.


Now he runs a sports group out of Southern California, and he's direct with Dominic about how th...


How Fast Do You Really Lose Fitness? Alex Osberg on the Science of Detraining, Strategic Rest, and Coming Back Faster After Time Off
How Fast Do You Really Lose Fitness? Alex Osberg on the Science of Detraining, Strategic Rest, and Coming Back Faster After Time Off episode artwork
07/31/2026

-The Run Down By The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rs


Fitness is rented, never owned. But the rent is far cheaper than most runners think.


Alex Ostberg returns for the monthly breakdown of The Rundown, and this month's four editions split neatly into two halves: what actually happens when you stop training, and how to think clearly about training in the first place.


Alex opens with the principle of reversibility and the psychology that distorts it—losses loom rough...


How Ryan Cole Made Air Force an NCAA Powerhouse: An Inside Look at the Service Academy Few Runners Ever See, the Culture Behind It, and Why the NCAA Has Nothing Like It
How Ryan Cole Made Air Force an NCAA Powerhouse: An Inside Look at the Service Academy Few Runners Ever See, the Culture Behind It, and Why the NCAA Has Nothing Like It episode artwork
07/29/2026

There are no names on the back of an Air Force jersey, and that's exactly the point. 


While the rest of college running chases NIL money, transfer portals, and eighth-year seniors, Ryan Cole is quietly building a national contender out of American kids who signed up for something bigger than themselves.

In today's conversation, Dominic sits down with the Director of Track & Field and Cross Country at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where every one of 4,000 cadets is on full scholarship, the campus sits at 7,000 feet, and your first day of c...


UNC's New Women's Distance Coach: Ann Dunn on How She Landed the Job, What It Takes to Make It to D1, and Trying to Win an NCAA Title
UNC's New Women's Distance Coach: Ann Dunn on How She Landed the Job, What It Takes to Make It to D1, and Trying to Win an NCAA Title episode artwork
07/27/2026

Note from Dominic: for the first time in 800 episodes, had a weird issue where Ann's recording didn't save the last 5ish minutes of the podcast. So if it ends semi-abruptly that's why. Thank you for your understanding (: Enjoy!


Ann Dunn wasn't looking for one of the biggest jobs in collegiate distance running. 


Then she came home from a run to a text from Chris Miltenberg, and two months later, she's the new head coach of UNC women's cross country.


Dominic sits down with Ann j...


The Mental Performance Coach Behind NAU's Championships: Shannon Thompson on How Runners Train the Mind to Race Without Fear, Break Through Plateaus, and Become Their Best
The Mental Performance Coach Behind NAU's Championships: Shannon Thompson on How Runners Train the Mind to Race Without Fear, Break Through Plateaus, and Become Their Best episode artwork
07/24/2026

You can register for the program directly through the official Shannon Thompson MPC Focus Session Series Page 

 

Instagram: @shannonleighthompson


Your ego isn't the enemy — it's just a bodyguard using outdated tactics.


Shannon Thompson, MAPP, NCCP, is back for another edition of one of the podcast's longest-running traditions. The mental performance coach behind NAU's championship program (and the second-ever guest in show history) returns to break down the 16-page thesis she recently delivered at a coaching clinic, condensed into one conversation packed with tools you can use this cross...


How Trevor Giampa Runs Sub-2:30 Marathons While Benching 315: Inside the Brutal Training Schedule of the Hardest-Working Hybrid Athlete Alive
How Trevor Giampa Runs Sub-2:30 Marathons While Benching 315: Inside the Brutal Training Schedule of the Hardest-Working Hybrid Athlete Alive episode artwork
07/22/2026

Trevor Giampa doesn't call himself the best hybrid athlete — he says there's no such competition. He just refuses to accept the idea that chasing a goal in the gym has to cost him a goal on the course.


In this episode of The Running Effect Podcast, Dominic sits down with Trevor to unpack six years of all-out hybrid training and the results that have people convinced he must be cheating: a 2:28 Boston Marathon and a 315-pound bench in the same week, treadmill marathons followed by 15+ reps at 225, and 100-mile weeks paired with powerlifter-style strength work...


A Coffee Table. A Dog Crate. The Top of the Empire State Building. Jacob Cohen on Quitting Investment Banking to Become the Internet's 5K Guy
A Coffee Table. A Dog Crate. The Top of the Empire State Building. Jacob Cohen on Quitting Investment Banking to Become the Internet's 5K Guy episode artwork
07/20/2026

Jacob Cohen has run a 5K in a dog crate, a port-a-potty, and on top of the Empire State Building–-and no, he is not stopping anytime soon.


Before he was the internet's favorite 5K guy, Cohen was an investment banker in Atlanta, overweight and grinding through a banking job while his content dream sat on the back burner. 


Running, however, changed everything.


It helped him lose more than 40 pounds, and a run club of full-time creators convinced him to hit record. He posted for...


From One Spot Off the Olympic Team to 12:49 5k and a Pre Classic Title: Parker Wolfe on Consistency, Beating Grant Fisher, and His Rookie Pro Year For The Ages
From One Spot Off the Olympic Team to 12:49 5k and a Pre Classic Title: Parker Wolfe on Consistency, Beating Grant Fisher, and His Rookie Pro Year For The Ages episode artwork
07/18/2026

Parker Wolfe was the 43rd man on a 42-man Olympic list. Now, he's making the case for rookie of the year in professional running.



Dominic sits down with the Swoosh TC Flagstaff star to unpack a debut season that reads like a highlight reel: a USATF cross country title on a muddy Portland course, top American honors at World XC in Tallahassee, a first sub-13 indoor 5K, a 12:49.45 Diamond League debut in Oslo, and a front-running Prefontaine Classic two-mile win over Grant Fisher.



...


How He Races Pro Trails on 25 Miles a Week: Meika Beaudoin-Rousseau on Sub-Ultra Racing, Creative Cross-Training, Creative Cross-Training, and the Freedom of Running
How He Races Pro Trails on 25 Miles a Week: Meika Beaudoin-Rousseau on Sub-Ultra Racing, Creative Cross-Training, Creative Cross-Training, and the Freedom of Running episode artwork
07/16/2026

Meikael Beaudoin-Rousseau was fishing alone at the top of Nevada Falls at the age of 10, and has been finding ways to move faster through the mountains ever since. 


The Stanford-trained distance runner turned professional trail and mountain specialist joins Dominic to talk about a two-year injury saga that has redefined how he thinks about training, resilience, and what it actually means to compete. 


After a catastrophic fall at the 2024 Broken Arrow Skyrace left him with a complex orthopedic injury, Meikael spent 18 months trying every non-surgical approach available before going un...


Inside the Penn State 800m System: Handal Roban on the 1:42 Breakthrough, Why He Stopped Chasing Times, and the Mantra Behind Every Race
Inside the Penn State 800m System: Handal Roban on the 1:42 Breakthrough, Why He Stopped Chasing Times, and the Mantra Behind Every Race episode artwork
07/14/2026

He bet his uncle he could beat him in a race, and that was the start of everything.


Handal Roban grew up in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines playing cricket before a single track meet at age fifteen changed his trajectory.

  

When the cricket team pushed him out, he didn't look back. Instead, he chased the guys who beat him—literally moving to Jamaica to train at Jamaica College High School, one of the most decorated prep programs in the Caribbean. 


That decision, he says, taugh...


How Will Garinger Built a Run Club Spanning 85 Cities and 7 Nations: The Loneliness Epidemic, Identity, and Getting Outside Yourself
How Will Garinger Built a Run Club Spanning 85 Cities and 7 Nations: The Loneliness Epidemic, Identity, and Getting Outside Yourself episode artwork
07/12/2026

Will Garinger can't explain how Run with Christ became so popular—and that might be the point.


Less than two years after a group of 20-year-olds gathered in a Columbus park in September 2024, Run with Christ spans more than 85 cities across seven nations and three continents. 


Its founder never ran competitively. 


Garinger was a goalkeeper—an All-American who left for a Phoenix soccer academy at 16, jumped into life insurance sales at 18, and landed a Division I roster spot at UNC Greensboro. Every rung up the la...


From 3:57 in High School to a 3:48 Pro Debut: Gary Martin on the NCAA's Brutal Depth, Signing with Brooks, and Chasing Josh Kerr in Seattle
From 3:57 in High School to a 3:48 Pro Debut: Gary Martin on the NCAA's Brutal Depth, Signing with Brooks, and Chasing Josh Kerr in Seattle episode artwork
07/10/2026

Nobody hands you anything in the Bowerman Mile—not even on your first day.


Two days after his professional debut at the Prefontaine Classic, Gary Martin joined the show to break down a lifetime-best 3:48.76 in the deepest mile field ever assembled, and why he walked away wishing he'd been more aggressive. 


The newest Brooks Beast member takes us inside the shock of going out in 1:53 after a college season of tactical racing, lining up against Ethan Strand again, and what it felt like to finally pull the Brooks singlet out...


She Almost Hung Up the Spikes. Then Everything Changed. Notre Dame Hurdler Reese Sanders on Comeback, Confidence, and Running for No One but Herself
She Almost Hung Up the Spikes. Then Everything Changed. Notre Dame Hurdler Reese Sanders on Comeback, Confidence, and Running for No One but Herself episode artwork
07/08/2026

Reese Sanders ran a 57.3 and realized she wasn't done.


Coming off her final season at Notre Dame, Sanders—a four-time Indiana state champion and one of the top 400m hurdlers in Fighting Irish history—was closer to walking away from the sport than sticking with it long term. What changed wasn't a grand plan. It was momentum: a fast race at ACCs, another personal best at regionals, and a quiet afternoon running unattached at a meet in Duke where it finally felt like she was running for herself.


That shif...


26 Years. Two Dynasties. No Participation Medals. Doug Soles on Buy-In, the 2009 Loss That Still Haunts Him, and Why He Walked Away at the Peak
26 Years. Two Dynasties. No Participation Medals. Doug Soles on Buy-In, the 2009 Loss That Still Haunts Him, and Why He Walked Away at the Peak episode artwork
07/06/2026

Doug Soles just walked away from the most dominant program in the country, and he's not done building.


The two-time NXN champion coach joins Dominic to reflect on 26 years of head coaching and his recent decision to step down at Herriman High School. Soles opens up about the toll of 12-hour days, his choice to leave teaching first, and why he's leaving his next move "wide open" rather than rushing into another job. 


He traces his evolution from a rookie coach in the desert heat of Palm Springs with just t...


From a Year Without Leaving His House to a Guinness World Record: Mike Egan on Adversity, Repurposing Suffering, and Dragging His Chair Through the Mud at the BPN G1M Ultra
From a Year Without Leaving His House to a Guinness World Record: Mike Egan on Adversity, Repurposing Suffering, and Dragging His Chair Through the Mud at the BPN G1M Ultra episode artwork
07/04/2026

He gave everything for his country, came home without his legs, and then completed 110 miles anyway.


Mike Egan is a Marine combat veteran who lost both legs to an IED in Afghanistan. In this conversation, he sits down with Dominic to talk about the G1M Go One More Backyard Ultra in Texas, where he completed 27 loops (110-plus miles in a wheelchair over 27 straight hours) finishing 27th in a field of able-bodied athletes. When heavy rain turned loop 27's course into thick mud and locked his wheels, Egan climbed out of the chair and...


Reflecting on a Record-Breaking Freshman Year: Jane Hedengren on What Year One at BYU Taught Her, Summer Base Training, and Chasing a Cross Country Title
Reflecting on a Record-Breaking Freshman Year: Jane Hedengren on What Year One at BYU Taught Her, Summer Base Training, and Chasing a Cross Country Title episode artwork
07/03/2026

Jane Hedengren doesn't do freshman years quietly. 


Coming off a breakout debut season at BYU, the Nike-sponsored phenom joins Dominic ahead of the Prefontaine Classic to reflect on a year that redefined her expectations of herself.


Hedengren opens up about the whirlwind of transitioning from decorated high schooler to collegiate standout, describing her freshman year as less about the records and wins and more about the growth, the team bonds, and the hard-earned lessons that came with it.


She talks through her simplified shoe rotation, w...


12 Weeks. One Shot. Everyone Else Is Resting. The Mike Scannell Special That Will Set You Apart: Grant Fisher's Coach on the Summer That Separates the Fast From the Forgotten
12 Weeks. One Shot. Everyone Else Is Resting. The Mike Scannell Special That Will Set You Apart: Grant Fisher's Coach on the Summer That Separates the Fast From the Forgotten episode artwork
07/01/2026

Mike Scannell doesn't believe in mileage—he believes in how you run it. 

Back on the show for another appearance, the architect of Grant Fisher's Olympic campaign sits down with Dominic to talk about something every serious runner faces and most get wrong: the summer training block. 


Scannell makes the case that the six weeks in the dead heat of summer are the truest measure of who an athlete is going to become. When the training gets long, boring, and hot, most kids quit. The ones who don't are the ones worth coac...


pov: you are a fly on a wall for a convo between 4 running friends like they're on a long run
pov: you are a fly on a wall for a convo between 4 running friends like they're on a long run episode artwork
06/29/2026

The boys are back, and nobody came to talk about running.  


Dominic welcomes Scotty, Danny, and Chris from the Life in Stride podcast for their fourth appearance on TRE, and within minutes the conversation has already covered protein powder side effects, dry needling in uncomfortable places, and Dom's near-date with one of the most famous athletes on the planet.


Before things go completely off the rails, Dom shares the story behind his role as a strategic advisor for Attuned—a bioenergetics company whose health scanning technology helped his sister recover from...


Coach Chris Miltenberg on the Crisis Inside College Running: The Foreign-Talent Surge Reshaping Recruiting, the Age Gap No One Will Touch, and Whether the NCAA Can Still Develop American Stars
Coach Chris Miltenberg on the Crisis Inside College Running: The Foreign-Talent Surge Reshaping Recruiting, the Age Gap No One Will Touch, and Whether the NCAA Can Still Develop American Stars episode artwork
06/27/2026

The NCAA isn't broken: it's been bought, and Coach Chris Miltenberg is one of the last ones willing to say so out loud.


Miltenberg returns to the show fresh off an NCAA Championships in Eugene where the women's 5,000 and men's 10,000 runners were swept nearly clean by international athletes funneled in through university-funded recruiting services. 


He called it what it is: a paradigm shift, driven by two forces—an age gap that routinely pits 18-year-old Americans against 26- and 27-year-olds, and a recruiting model that has traded relationship-building for transactional deliv...


From a Down Year to 1:57 — 2nd-Fastest in NCAA History: Hayley Kitching on the Comeback, Confidence, and the "I'm Her" Mentality
From a Down Year to 1:57 — 2nd-Fastest in NCAA History: Hayley Kitching on the Comeback, Confidence, and the "I'm Her" Mentality episode artwork
06/25/2026

Running a 1:57 doesn't happen by accident. And for Hayley Kitching, it almost didn't happen at all.


A year ago, the Penn State senior was in Austin nursing plantar fasciitis while watching the sport move without her. Hayley is here to unpack the full arc: the injury, the comeback, and the NCAA Outdoor final at Hayward Field where she ran the second-fastest 800 meters in collegiate history—and still finished second. 


Hayley and Dominic go deep on what actually drove the jump from 2:20 in high school to 1:57 on the biggest stage. Her...


Inside How Habtom Samuel Won 5 NCAA Titles: On His Closing Kick, the Mindset Shift, and Leaving the NCAA on Top
Inside How Habtom Samuel Won 5 NCAA Titles: On His Closing Kick, the Mindset Shift, and Leaving the NCAA on Top episode artwork
06/23/2026

NEW MERCH OUT TODAY 5PM EST: https://luminarythreads.shop


Five NCAA titles. One backwards hat. Zero apologies.


Habtom Samuel is not a guy who talks much—he lets the track do it. The University of New Mexico junior just capped a historic 2025–2026 season by sweeping the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, becoming the most decorated athlete in Lobos history. 


In this episode, Dominic sits down with Habtom the week after the titles to find out what it actually feels like.


Launching LuminaryThreads: The 3-Year What-If Behind The Running Effect's Merch Brand
Launching LuminaryThreads: The 3-Year What-If Behind The Running Effect's Merch Brand episode artwork
06/22/2026

🔗 Shop drop one (early-access password: TRE): https://luminarythreads.shop


Dominic goes solo to launch LuminaryThreads — a merch brand three years in the making, built on a simple idea: you pass roughly a thousand people a day, and what you wear is the one way to reach them. 


Every month, one drop. One short statement meant to inspire, challenge, or move whoever reads it. When it's gone, it's gone for good.


Drop one is the motto that started it all: Turn Your What-Ifs Into Realities.


<...


The Runner's Playbook on Knowing When to Quit a Workout, Optimizing What Actually Matters, and Surviving Summer Heat — With NIKE Pro Coach Alex Osberg
The Runner's Playbook on Knowing When to Quit a Workout, Optimizing What Actually Matters, and Surviving Summer Heat — With NIKE Pro Coach Alex Osberg episode artwork
06/20/2026

NEW MERCH OUT ON MONDAY: https://luminarythreads.shop


Alex Ostberg doesn't waste your time—and this month's Rundown recap is proof. 


Dominic and Alex break down four newsletters that build on each other in ways that feel almost inevitable by the end: a framework for how elite programs fall apart, how coaches know when to pull the plug, and how summer heat can either wreck your confidence or become your secret weapon.

 

The first piece, "Stop Optimizing Things That Shouldn't Exist," starts with a pattern Alex sees re...


What It Takes to Run 1:45 in the 800: Niko Schultz on the Training, the Environment, and the Mindset That Got Him There
What It Takes to Run 1:45 in the 800: Niko Schultz on the Training, the Environment, and the Mindset That Got Him There episode artwork
06/18/2026

NEW MERCH OUT ON MONDAY: https://luminarythreads.shop 



From 1:54 and zero Division I offers to sixth at NCAAs in 1:45, Niko Schultz didn't sneak up on anybody, he just refused to stop showing up.


This year, in his first campaign at Penn State, he finished sixth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and earned First-Team All-American honors. 


That arc doesn't happen by accident. 


Niko sits down with Dominic to unpack everything behind that leap: the decision to enter the trans...


From Losing Her Arm at 14 to Six Years of Success in the NCAA: Ashley Jones on Grief, Faith, Victim Mentality, and What Running Gave Her Back
From Losing Her Arm at 14 to Six Years of Success in the NCAA: Ashley Jones on Grief, Faith, Victim Mentality, and What Running Gave Her Back episode artwork
06/16/2026

Ashley Jones competed for six years in Division I distance running with one arm—and she insists that was never the point. If all running taught her was how to go faster in a race, she missed everything.


Fresh off a trip marking ten years since the ATV accident that took her right arm at 14 (three months after losing her father), Ashley joins Dominic to discuss her farewell to college running. 


Across three programs in six years–from High Point's humble grind; to Tennessee's private jets; to a homecoming at Colora...


25 Miles a Week. Two Years of Training. 3:59 in the Mile. Carter Smith on the Fairy Tale Season Making Him Pennsylvania's Next Sub-4 Star
25 Miles a Week. Two Years of Training. 3:59 in the Mile. Carter Smith on the Fairy Tale Season Making Him Pennsylvania's Next Sub-4 Star episode artwork
06/14/2026

While his rivals stack hundred-mile months, senior Carter Smith has built one of the fastest high school seasons in America on simplicity, sleep, and a kick nobody saw coming. 


Fresh off the wildest stretch of his life—a 3:59.00 mile at the HOKA Festival of Miles; then a 1:48 win in the Brooks PR 800m days later in Seattle—Smith sits down with Dominic to explain how a kid from small-town Pennsylvania got here in barely two years of real training. 


Carter didn't run cross country until his junior year, when he won...


24 Hours. 133 Miles. One Treadmill. Ed Martin on the Text That Saved His Life, Running So Others Keep Going, and Why "I Got This" Are the Worst Words You Can Say
24 Hours. 133 Miles. One Treadmill. Ed Martin on the Text That Saved His Life, Running So Others Keep Going, and Why "I Got This" Are the Worst Words You Can Say episode artwork
06/12/2026

Edwin Martin didn't start running to become an ultra-athlete—he started because life had gotten so dark he almost didn't start anything again at all.


At 21, Martin hit rock bottom. Consumed by a gambling addiction and drowning in purposelessness, he was on his bathroom floor, ready to end his life, when a text from a friend (just three words: I love you) pulled him back. That moment became the foundation for everything that followed. He has since lost two close friends to suicide, and the grief and guilt that came with those losses sharpened his...


From 1:57 in the Tokyo Olympic 800m Final to 69:15 in the Half-Marathon: Alex Bell on Burnout, Reinvention, and Chasing the LA 2028 Marathon
From 1:57 in the Tokyo Olympic 800m Final to 69:15 in the Half-Marathon: Alex Bell on Burnout, Reinvention, and Chasing the LA 2028 Marathon episode artwork
06/10/2026

She ran 1:57 in an Olympic final as an afterthought—then walked away, rebuilt everything, and came back faster.  


Alex Bell isn't just reinventing herself; she's finally becoming who she was supposed to be.


In this conversation, Alex takes Dominic through one of British running's most unlikely second acts. She opens about the moment she crossed the finish line in Tokyo and knew (lying on her back; a million feelings at once) that she would never run 1:57 again. 


She talks honestly about the mental health toll of yea...


From Selling T-Shirts at Motocross Tracks to a $100M Global Brand: Jason Daniel on Building LSKD, the 1% Better Mission, and Running a Sub-3 Marathon
From Selling T-Shirts at Motocross Tracks to a $100M Global Brand: Jason Daniel on Building LSKD, the 1% Better Mission, and Running a Sub-3 Marathon episode artwork
06/08/2026

Logan, Queensland, doesn't typically produce global empires. Jason Daniel didn't get that particular memo.


The founder and CEO of LSKD built a self-funded, $400M global activewear brand from a BMX nickname, a carpenter's apprenticeship, and five years stuck at $3 million in annual revenue—and he did it without a single outside investor. What broke the plateau wasn't a strategy. It was books, a self-development course called Landmark Forum, and the birth of his son Hendrix six months before he scrapped everything and rebranded.


In this conversation, Jason talks about what the...