The Running Explained Podcast

Running one marathon used to be the whole goal. Now it’s normal to stack two or three in a single fall, chase every world major, and call the easy one “party pace.” This week Coach Nick and Coach Amanda sit down with New York marathon coach Corky (@CoachCorkyRuns) to ask how many marathons is actually too many. We get into what the research says about performance and mental health, why party pacing rarely works the way runners think, the REDs and rhabdo reality behind the highlight reel, and what real recovery looks like. It’s a love letter to the marathon and to your long-term relationship with it.

WHAT WE COVER
How marathon culture changed, and why stacking races got normal
How many marathons a year is actually too many
The “Berlin goal, NYC party pace” trap and who it really works for
What party pace actually costs your body
REDs, rhabdo, and the toll behind the highlight reel
What real marathon recovery looks like, day by day
Fueling your race to protect your recovery
The questions to ask if you’re chasing likes instead of the goal
Building a running life that lasts decades, not seasons

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Welcome and meet Coach Corky
01:11 Who is Coach Corky
04:45 How marathon culture changed over the last decade
06:34 Why the marathon became “the event”
08:32 Social media, algorithms, and FOMO
10:15 What the research says: 2 to 3 marathons a year
11:01 The “Berlin goal, NYC party pace” trap
15:04 Intention vs impact
16:46 Love of running vs external validation
18:44 Why pros can stack races and most runners can’t
21:04 What “party pace” really means (and fueling for it)
23:03 The influencer highlight reel: REDs, rhabdo, and what you don’t see
25:26 The hidden mental toll of chasing marathons
28:17 Mental recovery and the marathon hamster wheel
31:45 What good marathon recovery actually looks like
34:30 Reintroducing running and the reverse taper
35:04 Muscle memory, a 31-mile run, and fueling for recovery
37:33 Training your gut and fueling for longevity
38:45 Staying flexible: adjust your calendar, respect the big picture
40:30 Questions to check your real motivation
43:30 Why DNS and DNF should always be options
44:03 Racing for yourself vs racing for the feed
46:31 Building a lifelong relationship with running
48:25 Super secret guest interview questions
51:03 Where to find Coach Corky
51:54 Wrap-up

Corky has been coaching and supporting runners since 2014, when she launched Coach Corky Runs. Her favorite distance to coach and race is the marathon, though she has extensive experience on the roads from the 5K through Ultra distances. While Corky coaches clients virtually anywhere in the USA, in person she's made a name for herself in the treadmill group fitness world. She was a full time coach at Mile High Run Club from 2015-2019, and joined Precision Run at Equinox in 2019, and is still currently coaching in person in NYC. She's also one of the Precision Run coaches on the Equinox+ app, guiding members through treadmill and outdoor programs. Corky is still competing, and while she loves to race, her favorite part of being a runner is truly the training. coachcorkyruns.com, @CoachCorkyRuns on Instagram and Threads, and teaching at Equinox NYC.

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!

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!