The Shakeout Podcast

The leaves have fallen, the winter weather is moving in, and that means just one thing for fans of distance running in Canada: cross country championship season has arrived.
The best student-athletes in the country will converge on Hamilton's Christie Lake Conservation area for the running of the 2026 U SPORTS cross country championships on Saturday, Nov. 14.
The McMaster Marauders, who are hosting the event, will be looking to put up a strong home-course defence in pursuit of team titles in both the men's and women's championship, fielding squads ranked first and second in the nation, respectively.
In the hunt for the individual title, the University of Victoria's Madelyn Eybergen returns as reigning champion, leading a Vikes team that has gone undefeated since claiming top spot at the 2025 edition of the championships. Meanwhile, in a men's field void of a returning champion, the University of Guelph's Jack Lehto enters the race off the back of his own undefeated season, with hopes of leading his Gryphons to another national championship–a title that has eluded the program since 2017.
The Shakeout Podcast host John Gay is joined by Canadian Running's U SPORTS insider, Hayden West, to bring you a breakdown of all the storylines to watch for on Saturday, including their picks for which individuals and teams will go home as national champions in 2026.
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To include in the episode description:
[This collaboration is part of an advertising campaign led by the Podpass agency for Altitude Sports]
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Cover Photo: Rich Lam

From the dawn of history, the heart has both fascinated and perplexed humankind. And so it seems apt that this vital organ should also be the focus of both obsession and confusion for endurance athletes today.
Whether you’re a zone training aficionado, overnight HRV obsessive or simply live for the rush of pushing to your maximum in training, you know that this muscle is an incredible wellspring of information to help guide your experience in the sport. And if you’re a runner in the digital age, there’s a good chance at least some part of your experience is shaped by data tracking the movements of your ticker.
Yet, for all the information that your heart generates for you, how much of it is really worth paying attention to? And in an age of optimization, should things like lowering your resting heart rate or elevating your maximum really impact the decisions you make around training and recovery?
To answer these questions and more, we’re welcoming back to the show Dr. Mick Leahy, professor of cardiovascular exercise physiology at the University of British Columbia’s School of Kinesiology. As an expert in all things aerobic, Mick is here to help us understand what exactly our heart is doing for us as athletes.
While it’s no guarantee that this episode will deliver the cure for your heartache over a missed PB, it just might tell you how to make the organ stronger, more resilient and higher-performing, setting you and your heart up to avoid heartbreak in the future.
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For many Canadian marathon fans, when Dayna Pidhoresky crossed the finish line as national marathon champion at last week’s TCS Toronto Waterfront marathon, there was a collective feeling of deja vu.
A massive new personal best, a Canadian championship title and a calendar year of racing that went from strength to strength: all the attributes of Pidhoresky’s 2026 campaign could just as easily be used to describe her season seven years ago, when she last stepped on the top flight of the Canadian marathon championship podium in 2019 as winner of the Tokyo Olympic trials.
And, while for years setbacks kept her from returning to her 2019 form, her most recent string of races has put truth to the adage that you can't keep talent down forever. With her 2:26:01 clocking in Toronto, Pidhoresky became the third-fastest Canadian female marathoner of all time, knocking more than three minutes off her previous best from that 2019 edition of the race.
Despite the parallels with her 2019 season and the long and winding road back to the top, 2026 marks not merely a return to previous form for the Olympian, but a leap ahead. This week on The Shakeout Podcast, Dayna joins us to recap her electrifying championship performance at Toronto, the string of PBs that marked her buildup to the race and what it’s taken to return to the top, faster and stronger than ever.
Subscribe to The Shakeout Podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts.
Cover Photo: Nick Iwanyshyn
[This collaboration is part of an advertising campaign led by the Podpass agency for Altitude Sports]
Shop now at Altitude Sports and enjoy up to 20% off your first order with the promo code "shakeout2026" Click here to order 👉 https://bit.ly/altitude-shakeout2026
Shop The North Face Summit Series https://www.thenorthface.com/en-ca/collections/summit-series

When Andrew Davies toed the starting line at the 2026 TCS Toronto Waterfront marathon last Sunday, he did so with the hope that his first crack at 42.2km would be a positive enough experience to justify running another marathon in the year ahead. Over the course of the next 2 hours, 8 minutes, and 48 seconds, his quest for a respectable rookie performance became a run for the record books, laying down a time faster than any Canadian debut in history and vaulting himself into 4th place on the Canadian all-time list.
Perhaps just as impressive as the time itself was the fashion in which Davies accomplished the feat, belying his novice-status at the marathon distance with a masterclass in pacing that saw him lay down a massive negative split to run away from the rest of the Canadian championship field. What's more, the performance comes at the end of a year that saw Davies lose several months to injury, graduate from law school, and begin full-time work articling.
This week on The Shakeout Podcast Andrew joins the show to recap his record-setting debut and the training block that got him there, including details on how he and coach Steve Weiler incorporated a progression of workout long runs that built towards a signature effort on the streets of Toronto.
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Subscribe to The Shakeout Podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts.
Cover Photo: Nick Iwanyshyn
[This collaboration is part of an advertising campaign led by the Podpass agency for Altitude Sports]
Shop now at Altitude Sports and enjoy up to 20% off your first order with the promo code "shakeout2026" Click here to order 👉 https://bit.ly/altitude-shakeout2026
Shop The North Face Summit Series https://www.thenorthface.com/en-ca/collections/summit-series

Sign up today for The Shakeout Podcast Shakeout Run: Thursday, Oct. 15 at 6:00 p.m. ET, at the Canadian Running offices, 75 Harbord St., Toronto, Ont. M5S 1G4.
Over the course of a career on the track that included a spot in the 5,000m final at the Paris Olympics in 2024, Thomas Fafard established a reputation as one of the smoothest runners in the sport. Yet, despite his world-class pedigree at distances like the 5000m and 10,000m on the track, fans of road running couldn’t help but wonder whether his smooth style would translate to longer distances and, eventually, the marathon.
Fortunately, after a breakout season on the track in 2024, Fafard wasted no time carrying his momentum up to the full 42.2-km distance. In December 2025 he made his marathon debut at The Marathon Project in Chandler, Ariz., with an eye on eclipsing Alain Bordeleau’s 41-year-old Quebec provincial record of 2:14:19.
At that event, Fafard threw caution to the wind, quickly abandoning the pre-race pacing plan he’d set out with coach Felix-Antoine Lapointe in favour of a much quicker tempo. The gamble paid off, and what began as a conservative effort to get his feet wet at the distance became a signature performance, with his 2:10:29 finishing time making him the fourth-fastest Canadian debutant of all time.
Now, Fafard is once again toeing the marathon starting line, this time against one of the fastest fields ever assembled at The Bank of America Chicago Marathon this Sunday, Oct. 11. With a strong debut to his name already, and the Quebec provincial record now firmly in his grasp, he joins The Shakeout Podcast this week, alongside coach Felix, to take us inside his build-up to his second marathon–one where he’ll once again be looking to go full-send against the best in the world.
Subscribe to The Shakeout Podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts.
[This collaboration is part of an advertising campaign led by the Podpass agency for Altitude Sports]
Shop now at Altitude Sports and enjoy up to 20% off your first order with the promo code "shakeout2026" Click here to order 👉 https://bit.ly/altitude-shakeout2026
Shop The North Face Summit Series https://www.thenorthface.com/en-ca/collections/summit-series