The Running Explained Podcast

Run clubs get called dating apps with cadence, influencer marketing for the warm-up, and content farms in matching kits. Some of that is fair. Most of it misses what these groups actually do every week.

Coach Nick sits down with two founders running clubs on the ground: Sydney Hara of Slow Girls Run Club in Vancouver, BC, and Will Walker of A Tribe Called Run in Baltimore, MD. They get honest about the criticisms and the parts nobody talks about.

In this episode:

• Whether the "dating app" reputation is fair, and why intention is the whole game
• Brand partnerships and content: building a community vs. farming your runners for a free commercial
• The pace problem, and what "all paces welcome" actually requires (caboose crews, walking trails, wolfpack long runs)
• The runners who never would have started without a club to show up to
• What run clubs do for mental health that has nothing to do with fitness
• Giving back: diaper drives, beach cleanups, back-to-school drives, and rallying around members in hard moments
• Starting your own club: two things to do, one thing to never do
• The question to ask any club before you join

Find the guests:
Slow Girls Run Club (Vancouver, BC): @slowgirlsrunclub. Runs Wednesdays at 6 PM.

Sydney Hara is the founder of Slow Girls Run Club, a women's running community in Vancouver built around one idea: movement should feel good, not intimidating.
What started as her own search for a space without pressure or pace expectations has grown into an active community of women who show up every week to run, connect, and have a genuinely good time. Events sell out. Friendships form. People come back.

A Tribe Called Run (Baltimore, MD): @atribecalledrun. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.

Will Walker is the founder of A Tribe Called Run, a BIPOC lead running group based in Baltimore, MD. Will is an engineer by day, but in his free time, he loves spending time with his family, connecting with friends through food and building communities focused in wellness! Will found the sport of endurance running during one of the most challenging times of his life and recognizing how much it helped with his mental health, wanted to share that gift with others. This lead will to only create an amazing Run community, but also to become an RRCA certified coach!

More from Running Explained: runningexplained.com and @runningexplained on Instagram. Rate, review, and subscribe if this one hit.

You can run well on too little fuel for a long time. Right up until you can't.

This week, Coach Amanda and Coach Nick sit down with Dr. Melissa Lodge (PhD in exercise science and sports nutrition, RD-in-progress, and the mind behind @fed_collaborative) to unpack REDs: Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport. It's one of the most misunderstood, under-screened issues in endurance running, and it does not have a look.

We get into why low energy availability sneaks up on runners (intentional and inadvertent), why weight is a terrible way to diagnose it, and the hidden biomarkers worth advocating for on your next blood panel (hi, T3). Melissa breaks down what's actually happening beneath the surface when you underfuel: bone loss, suppressed hormones, disrupted cholesterol, and a body quietly triaging which systems it can afford to keep running.

We also cover:

• Why a "withdrawal bleed" on hormonal birth control isn't a period, and what you lose as a vital sign
• The adolescent window for bone development that you genuinely cannot get back (essential listening for parents and coaches)
• Within-day energy deficits, backloading calories, and why "I fueled my long run" isn't the finish line
• How to raise concerns with a teammate or friend without pointing fingers
• The carbohydrate revolution in endurance sport, and the trap of nailing one thing while ignoring the other 22 hours of your day

The throughline, in true Running Explained fashion: nail the basics first. Eat enough, eat often, and stop making fueling harder than it needs to be.

Bio: Melissa Lodge, PhD, is an exercise physiologist and soon-to-be RD. Her research focuses on the physiological and psychological impacts of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs), particularly in female athletes. As a former elite runner, Melissa is especially interested in REDs prevention to improve the health and performance of athletes across the lifespan. Melissa also runs the social media platform @fed_collaborative, where she translates complex research on exercise physiology, REDs, and sports nutrition. 

Find Melissa on Instagram at @fed_collaborative.

This episode touches on disordered eating and bone health. If any of it hits close to home, please reach out to a sports-medicine-informed physician or dietitian.

Amanda IG

Nick IG

Email - Hello@runningexplained.com

Ready to finally train with a plan that’s built around YOU?

✅ Personalized training

✅ Weekly support + adjustments

✅ Strategy, structure, and accountability

✅ Expert coaching to help you actually hit your goals

Not ready for a 1:1 Coach

📝PDF Training Plan Templates available

🤝Group Coaching, Strength Training and Unlimited access to

all Training Plans available in The Run Club App to find the right training plan for you!

It's getting hot out there, and your fueling and hydration plan needs to keep up. Registered dietitian and board-certified sports nutritionist Stevie Lyn Smith (fresh off running 460-ish miles from Buffalo to Brooklyn, as one does) joins Coach Nick and Coach Amanda to break down what actually changes when the temperature climbs.

We get into why more electrolytes isn't automatically better, the real reason carb-based sports drinks help you absorb water faster, and how to run a simple sweat test at home so you can stop guessing. Stevie walks through her own half Ironman fueling strategy (carbs, caffeine timing, and cooling tricks included), what to grab on course when your gut says no to one more gel, and how to think about caffeine dosing without ending up with heart palpitations on the treadmill.

Then we go down a couple of rabbit holes you asked for: iron and ferritin (when to supplement versus when to dig into the why), and peptides (spoiler: the human research is thin, and we aren't rats). Evidence-based, occasionally unhinged, zero filler. Exactly how you like it.

Find Stevie on Instagram, stevielynrd.com, and on her podcast Real Fuel with SLS. Grab her book Power Up: A Young Woman's Guide to Winning with Sports Nutrition wherever books are sold.

Amanda IG

Nick IG

Email - Hello@runningexplained.com

Ready to finally train with a plan that’s built around YOU?

✅ Personalized training

✅ Weekly support + adjustments

✅ Strategy, structure, and accountability

✅ Expert coaching to help you actually hit your goals

Not ready for a 1:1 Coach

📝PDF Training Plan Templates available

🤝Group Coaching, Strength Training and Unlimited access to

all Training Plans available in The Run Club App

 to find the right training plan for you!

What's it actually like to finish a marathon after the crowds have gone home, the aid stations are packed up, and you're getting moved to the sidewalk at mile 22?

This week Coach Amanda and Coach Nick sit down with Avelyn, a proud back-of-the-pack runner who went from zero to three marathons in two years. She takes us inside the Walt Disney World Marathon and the famous balloon ladies, running New York as the crowds thin, and a brutally honest account of Boston: the unspoken bond she formed with two strangers on course, the ugly cry at mile 24, and why she chose gratitude over rage in a race that wasn't built for runners like her.

We get into why run-walking is real running, why "faster" and "better" aren't the same thing, how to define success beyond a finish time, and why what's happening in your body is nobody else's business. If you've ever felt too slow for this sport, this one's for you.

Avelyn is a Latina, born and raised New Yorker currently living in Atlanta, GA with her rescue pup, Georgia. She started running in February of 2024 with the goal of running her very first marathon. Since then Avelyn has completed three marathons and has built an online community by showing ordinary people that they can do extraordinary things.

Amanda IG Nick IG

Email - Hello@runningexplained.com

Ready to finally train with a plan that’s built around YOU?

✅ Personalized training

✅ Weekly support + adjustments

✅ Strategy, structure, and accountability

✅ Expert coaching to help you actually hit your goals

Not ready for a 1:1 Coach

📝PDF Training Plan Templates available

🤝Group Coaching, Strength Training and Unlimited access to

all Training Plans available in The Run Club App

Not sure talk our Training Plan Quiz to find the right training plan for you!

Coach Amanda and Coach Nick are joined by Justin Andreas a trail and ultra running coach, active duty Air Force member, beekeeper, girl dad, and host of the Golden Hour Adventures podcast for a deep dive into the world of trail and ultra running.

Justin shares his journey from competitive bodybuilder to 19-time ultra finisher (including six 100-milers), why he hated his first road marathon, and how the ultra community's culture of celebration especially for back-of-the-pack runners sets it apart. Plus: how he balances 100-mile training with fatherhood, what road runners get wrong about ultrarunners, and why your finish time genuinely doesn't matter out there.

In this episode:

• How Justin went from a once-a-year PT test to falling in love with distance running in Guam
• Why he hated his first marathon (and what that taught him about community)
• Making room for ultra running as a parent: 4 AM runs, stroller miles, and one 100-miler a year
• What road runners get wrong about ultrarunners ("we're not just walkers eating PB&Js... mostly")
• How to choose your first 50K — and why "hilly" means something very different on trails
• What road runners can steal from trail culture: efficient walking, gut training (~60g carbs/hour), and letting go of pace obsession
• The "golden hour": why ultra finish lines save the biggest celebrations for the final finishers
• Justin's best advice ever received, courtesy of his wife's mid-race text messages

Justin Andreas is a proud trail and ultra runner who has completed many races all over the country, including six 100 milers. His love for the outdoors and running started at a very young age, but once he discovered trail running in 2019, there was no looking back. “There is something special with being in nature, cruising on the trails, and crushing some vert”!

After completing multiple races, he decided he wanted to help other adventurers crush their goals as well. Beyond his coaching and hobby life, Justin is an active duty Air Force Firefighter, husband of 18 years, dad, and certified nerd. He is stationed in Alaska and resides in the North Pole. Justin’s also a co-host of the popular The Golden Hour Adventure podcast.

Find Justin:

• Instagram / TikTok / YouTube: @running_in_stache
• Podcast: Golden Hour Adventures — available on all platforms

Enjoyed the episode? Leave us a rating and review (you know the minimum — five stars) on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube, and reach out anytime @runningexplained.

Amanda IG

Nick IG

Email - Hello@runningexplained.com

Ready to finally train with a plan that’s built around YOU?

✅ Personalized training

✅ Weekly support + adjustments

✅ Strategy, structure, and accountability

✅ Expert coaching to help you actually hit your goals

Not ready for a 1:1 Coach

📝PDF Training Plan Templates available

🤝Group Coaching, Strength Training and Unlimited access to

all Training Plans available in The Run Club App

Not sure talk our Training Plan Quiz to find the right training plan for you!

Training Plans