THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST

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 best marathoners in the world aren't carrying much muscle. 

Then the necessary caveat: performance and health are not the same conversation, and bone, libido, and mental health all sit on the other side of that ledger.

From there it opens up. 

Evans gives a full explainer on how a study actually gets published and how to tell a credible one from a headline, including where pharma funding does and doesn't compromise the work. He and Dominic get into whether anyone can be an Olympian, whether mindset is trainable (Evans uses his own OCD and exposure therapy as the case study), and the Joe Burrow story about a nine-year-old who didn't feel pressure.

The back half is rapid-fire practical: how to warm up for a 5K and why the pickups should be near mile pace, why your treadmill is probably lying to you, the RPE scale as a free lactate meter, the bicarb lotion study he's running this fall, his unsponsored supplement stack, and the one thing every cross country runner should do this season.

Tap into the Dr. Bill Evans Special. 

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with your friend who you think will benefit from it.

S H O W  N O T E S   

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

-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run
  
-THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ

-My Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffz

Behind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZ

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$20 off your next Attuned scan: https://attuned.health/discount/TRE20?ref=TRE20

Instagram: @doctor_evans_running 

Coaching Website:The Endurance Lab.

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 couldn't be everything her athletes needed her to be.

What follows is one of the most important conversations we've had on this podcast. Bastron pulls back the curtain on the eating disorder epidemic hiding in plain sight in our sport: how student-athletes are two-to-three times more likely to develop one; how roughly 85 percent of female NCAA athletes admit to some form of disordered eating; and how eating disorders carry the second-highest mortality rate of any mental health disorder, behind only opioid use. 

She explains why "disciplined" eating is often a red flag, why losing your period is never normal, why male body dysmorphia is rising in silence, and how "amygdala hijacking" keeps today's athletes stuck in fight-or-flight.

But this isn't a goodbye. Bastron is still coaching post-collegiates (including Wake Forest legend Elizabeth Whaley), still mentoring young female coaches, and now fighting for athletes from the other side of the table. Her hoped-for legacy says it all: never give up on a kid.

Tap into the Ashley Bastron Special. 

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with your friend who you think will benefit from it.

S H O W  N O T E S   

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

-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run
  
-THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ

-My Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffz

Behind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZ

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$20 off your next Attuned scan: https://attuned.health/discount/TRE20?ref=TRE20

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 inside those final meters: the stumble on the last barrier, the running-in-a-dream legs, and why he refused to celebrate until his name hit the scoreboard.

From there, the conversation digs into his roots as a St. Xavier kid from Cincinnati who never dreamed of going pro—because kids from Cincinnati don’t go pro; his new chapter with HOKA and what the brand is quietly building; and five years under the legendary Vin Lananna, whose retirement Nate learned about one hour before the rest of the world. 

Plus, golf-cart workouts, the finish-line tape Vin wouldn’t let him live down, living with Gary Martin (and getting mistaken for him at Indoor Nationals), the state of American steeplechasing on the road to 2028, and why an Olympic medal is the dream. He closes his season at the Silesia Diamond League on August 23. 

Just a kid from Ohio, doing big things.

Tap into the Nate Mountain Special. 

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with your friend who you think will benefit from it.

S H O W  N O T E S   

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

-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run  

-THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ

-My Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffz

Behind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZ

LuminaryThreads: luminarythreads.shop

$20 off your next Attuned scan: https://attuned.health/discount/TRE20?ref=TRE20

Instagram: @nate.mountain

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.

Brandon opens up about the loss that lit the fire: walking off the track in tears after taking fifth at last year's USA championships, then hiding from social media for a month because he couldn't escape the highlights. He explains how coach Danny Mackey took that loss just as hard, why he runs only 30-35 miles a week, and how watching Josh Kerr call his shot on the mile world record (then deliver it minutes after Brandon's London win) raised the bar for the entire Brooks Beasts group.

There's also the origin story you probably don't know: Brandon nearly signed with Nike out of college before a teammate's advice (and his parents' due diligence) steered him to Brooks. Plus, they chat about the finger-over-the-lips celebration at Pre, why nobody on the start line cares that Cooper Lutkenhaus is 17, an impassioned defense of Noah Lyles as track's great entertainer, and his pitch for a Netflix documentary on the golden age of American 800m running before LA 2028.

Tap into the Brandon Miller Special. 

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with your friend who you think will benefit from it.

S H O W  N O T E S   

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

-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run  

-THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ

-My Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffz

Behind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZ

LuminaryThreads: luminarythreads.shop

$20 off your next Attuned scan: https://attuned.health/discount/TRE20?ref=TRE20

Instagram: @bmillertrackstar

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 the money actually works. They talk about why you have to be roughly top ten in your event before anyone pays you, why high school NIL deals are a separate marketing bubble most athletes are built to age out of, and why the scholarship (not the shoe deal) is the realistic prize for nearly every kid. He also guesses at Josh Kerr's world-record bonus and weighs whether the sport will ever shed its contract NDAs.

The back half is a coaching clinic.

Avila builds training backwards from racing, argues most high schoolers show up with exactly one pitch, and caps his senior boys near 45–50 miles a week while loading the quality inside it. He walks through the traffic-light plan he gives athletes mid-race, what he taught a young Hobbs Kessler about leaning into pain, and why he'd rather an athlete learn to win than learn to time trial.

Underneath all of it is one idea borrowed from European soccer: a real academy pipeline, built here, for runners.

Tap into the Eric Avila Special. 

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with your friend who you think will benefit from it.

S H O W  N O T E S   

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

-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run  

-THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ

-My Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffz

Behind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZ

LuminaryThreads: luminarythreads.shop

$20 off your next Attuned scan: https://attuned.health/discount/TRE20?ref=TRE20

Instagram: @avilaericc