Julia Bleasdale on Running on Track and Trails

Julia Bleasdale is a professional runner from Great Britain and Olympian. In the episode, Julia tells her story of how she got into running from balancing her passions for running and music in her youth to running competitively at Cambridge University. She reveals the challenging transition to professional running and how she overcame injury. Julia reflects on her incredible experience running in her home country for the 2012 London Olympics and her racing strategy behind running both the 5k and 10k at the Olympics. She discusses what inspired her to first travel to run in Ethiopia, including advice for training at high altitude and her personal training philosophy. Julia shares her love of trails, from her recent trip to Italy to run with Salomon’s trail running team to a recap of her recent win at the Greensand Trail Marathon. She explains how to balance periods of rest and recovery in one’s training and offers her unique viewpoint on the pros and cons of not running with a watch. Julia explains her perspective on why Ethiopian runners are among the best in the world. Lastly, Julia previews what she is excited about in her progression to the 2016 Olympics.