PODCAST · sports
Running long - A trail and ultra running talk
by Vert.run
Vert is the home for every trail & ultra runner. On this podcast we host conversations with key members of our Trail & Ultra running community from all over the world. From professional world class athletes to our Vert.run members and community. Narrating captivating stories and learning from and about this amazing sport.
Episodes
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185. Abby Hall | From Training to Reality: What Trail Running Actually Feels Like
Francesco and Abby Hall are both injured days after Black Canyon 100k. One DNF, one top-five finish, two hard falls. A real conversation about processing setbacks, racing at the front of a historic women’s field, and what actually drives a big performance. Abby breaks down how her race unfolded,...
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184. Francesco Puppi, Moisés Jiménez & Max Keith | Francesco Puppi Black Canyon Preview
Days before lining up at Black Canyon 100K, Francesco Puppi sits down with Moisés Jiménez and Max Keith for a deep dive into training philosophy, double-threshold blocks, and what he learned from living and training alongside Jim Walmsley in Arizona. This conversation centers on performance — not...
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183. Max Keith | Pacers, Crews, World Champs & the Future of Trail Running: The 2025 Recap
Diving into the state of trail running in 2025, Francesco Puppi and Max Keith sit down for a wide-ranging, honest, and deeply insightful conversation about where the sport is headed — and what it feels like to live through this moment of rapid transformation. From debates around pacers and fair...
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182. Dylan Walker | Into the Mountains, Beyond the Limits: A Runner’s Awakening
Dylan Walker joins host Francesco Puppi for an honest and inspiring conversation about what it really takes to transform your life through running — from starting at 240 lbs with no plan or fitness, to completing ultras, crossing the Alps in the Transalpine Run, and preparing for his first…
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181. Mario Fraioli | Go One Less: The Mindset That Actually Makes You Better
Mario Fraioli joins host Francesco Puppi for an honest and thought-provoking conversation about the modern state of running — from content overload and algorithm fatigue, to what it really means to “go one more.” They dive deep into the balance between performance and storytelling, the illusion…
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180. Max Keith & Moises Jimenez | Run Less, Live More: Finding Balance as an Athlete
Vert.run co-founders Moi Jiménez and Max Keith join host Francesco Puppi for a deep conversation on the evolving trail running scene in Latin America, the return of The North Face Endurance Challenge Chile, and the cultural roots that make South American trail running so unique. They dive into…
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179. Toni McCann | Beyond the Podium: finding meaning in the process
South African trail running star Toni McCann joins host Francesco Puppi for an honest and vulnerable conversation about rediscovering her love for the sport, handling pressure after success, and what happens when winning doesn’t feel like winning. After dropping out of The Otter Trail with an…
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178. Francesco Puppi & Max Keith | CCC to Worlds: The Art of Recovery
Vert.run co-founder and coach Max Keith joins host Francesco Puppi for a wide-ranging conversation about the end of a long racing season—what recovery really means, how to avoid burnout, and why finishing strong sometimes means doing less. Fresh off his CCC win and top-10 finish at the World...
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177. Eva-Maria Sperger on the Mental Side of Trail Racing
Psychologist and elite trail runner Eva-Maria Sperger joins host Francesco Puppi for a candid conversation about the mental side of performance—self-compassion, motivation, and racing with vulnerability—just ahead of the World Championships in Canfranc-Pirineos. Eva explains why naming emotions...
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176. CCC Win Breakdown: Strategy, Fueling & The New Smartest Coach for Trail Runner
We sit down with Francesco for a clear CCC recap: pacing the early climbs without forcing, the move after Champex-Lac, fast aid-station execution, and his fueling plan (~90–100 g carbs/h with a structured caffeine strategy). Then we look ahead to the World Championships and whether to accept a...
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175. Francesco Puppi & Max Keith | Road to UTMB: Inside the World of Trail Running
Francesco catches up with Max to debrief a packed couple of weeks: the HOKA training camp, a fast-and-furious Sierre-Zinal, and the final touches before Francesco’s CCC debut at UTMB. We get into all the nuances. We cover: Key takeaways from camp: how fun it is to meet teammates, train together,...
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174. Rosemary Mitchell | A Story of Pain, Tradition, and Community in South Africa’s Most Iconic Ultramarathon
Rosemary Mitchell is a 62-year-old ultrarunner whose story with the Comrades Marathon is as powerful as the race itself. In this episode, I had the honor of sitting down with Rosemary for a heartfelt and inspiring conversation about endurance, tradition, and what it truly means to run with…
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173. Max Keith | Beyond the Finish Line: Racing, Resilience, and the Evolving Spirit of Trail Running
Max Keith is a trail runner, coach, and cofounder of Vert.run—and someone who’s been shaping the sport from both the frontlines and behind the scenes. In this episode, I had the chance to sit down with Max for a deep and honest conversation about racing, coaching, and the evolution of trail…
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172. Ken Seals | Content, Community & Change: Navigating Trail Running Media with The Ultra Minute
Ken Seals is a trail runner, storyteller, and the creator of The Ultra Minute, a newsletter and media platform that covers the evolving world of trail and ultra running. I was a guest on Ken’s platform to dive deep into the state of running media today—and we had such a rich conversation that it...
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171. Katie Asmuth | Identity, Resilience & Racing: A Journey Through Western States and Beyond
In this episode, Katie Asmuth—elite ultrarunner and Western States finisher—joins Francesco to reflect on the emotional highs and lows of racing, recovery, and personal growth in the sport of trail running. They explore Katie’s connection to Western States, the identity challenges athletes face,...
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170. Kameron Harder | Strength Training for Runners: Principles, Performance & Integration
In this episode, Kameron Harder—physical therapist and strength training expert—joins Francesco to dive into the world of strength training for runners. They explore why strength training is essential for trail and road runners, how to structure it efficiently, and common mistakes to avoid.…
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169. Max & Moi | Vert.run Co-founders in the future of trail running coaching, AI coaching and the release of Vert Pro
🎙️ In this episode, Max & Moi sit down with Francesco to dive into the state of running and trail running coaching apps—and introduce Vert Pro, the first fully automated coach built specifically for trail runners of all levels. They break down how Vert Pro works, why it’s shaking up the coaching...
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168. Rod Farvard | Every dog has its day. Reflections, hopes and expectations ahead of the 2025 Canyons 100k
I had the pleasure and privilege to share three weeks of altitude training in Mammoth Lakes with Rod, seeing his hard work, commitment and self believe, learning a lot from him. It’s been roughly a year since Rod Farvard's name really came into the spotlight. Rod definitely had a breakthrough...
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167. The Biggest Races to Watch in 2025: What’s Coming in Trail Running
What’s Coming in Trail Running in 2025? Clearly, 2025 is shaping up to be an exciting year for trail running. In this episode we examine the key races and their storylines, athletes to watch, new trends and predictions, strategies and advancements in performance. Guest: Max Keith For those of you...
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166. Florian Reiter | Running is for everyone. Reasons why we run, vulnerability and comparison, growth and success
Florian Reiter is a runner, coach, podcaster and physiotherapist from Austria. I was a guest in Florian’s podcast Running Free and it was a great chance to touch on many relevant topics related to running, so we thought it would be fun to do a follow-up episode, and here we are. We talked about…
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165. Josh Wade | Transgrancanaria Classic podium finish, strategy and preparation
Josh Wade is a professional trail runner for The North Face coming from England. Josh took third at the Transgrancanaria Classic this year, running an incredible race and surpassing all his expectations. In this episode we go into the details of Josh’s race, from how he managed his strategy to…
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164 | Personal updates, racing plans and what we're looking forward to ahead of the 2025 season - with Max Keith
Today I’m sitting down with Max Keith to share some reflections as we approach the core of the 2025 season, which kicked off in big fashion with races like Black Canyon, Tarawera and Transgrancanaria. Athletes are racing as fast as ever, races are getting more competitive, brands are investing…
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163. Dakota Jones | Running for climate action: Dakota's 100mile American record attempt raising money for Footprints Running
Dakota Jones is a professional trail runner for Nnormal living in Salt Lake City. Dakota is also the founder and executive director ofFootprints Running, a non profit organization with the mission to support climate action at the community level by bringing people together around their shared...
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162. Allison Lynch | Running, performance, athletes and influencers: navigating brand marketing in an evolving landscape
Allison Lynch is a writer, artist, competitive runner and sports marketing professional. Allison has 12 years of experience in brand marketing and communications, specializing in sports technology, running, and fitness. She’s worked for companies like WHOOP and COROS. I was inspired to invite...
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161. Voices from the Vert.run community: Adina Crawford | Trail running and diversity, changing the narrative and a memorable trip to the French Alps
Adina Crawford is a trail runner from the US and a Vert.run explore athlete. Adina is a passionate runner whose goal is, like many other athletes that we coach, to run longer, faster and stronger while having fun in the process. In this episode we talk about being a trail runner from an...
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160. Andy Wacker | How's The Trail Team doing?
Andy Wacker is a professional trail runner for Salomon living in Colorado. Two years ago Andy founded The Trail Team, a project with the mission to independently support and develop rising athletes into the best professional trail runners in the world through mentorship, skill development, and...
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159. Zach Miller | Ever forward: embracing the past and the future of trail running.
Zach Miller is a professional trail runner for The North Face living in the United States. We caught up on a number of things happening in our sport right now, some future evolutions, then his current training, future plans for 2025 and much more. Enjoy! PLEASE SHARE THIS EPISODE WITH YOUR…
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158. Tim Tollefson | We need to take care of our sport. Community, growth, professionalization, mentorship, physical and mental health
Tim Tollefson is a professional trail runner for Craft living in Mammoth Lakes, California, and the race director of the Mammoth Trail Fest. In this episode with Tim, we talk about community, antidoping efforts, sponsorships and opportunities to run professionally, growth of the sport, circuits…
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157. Roberto Delorenzi | Skyrunner World Series Champion, consistency at the top level, highest race results to training ratio??
Roberto Delorenzi is a professional trail runner for Brooks coming from Switzerland. Roberto has had a stellar 2024 season, with 38 races and 17 wins including 4 Skyrunner World Series races plus the final and the overall ranking, one european mountain running championship, a third place at...
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156. Lauren Gregory | Elevating the game in trail running
Lauren Gregory is a professional trail runner for Nike from Colorado, living on the East Coast and training with the Northswood Athletic team, under the guidance of coach Ben True - a true legend of distance running. Lauren is really, really fast, from the track to the trails: within one season,...
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155. Eli Hemming | Working my way up to the top: how to become a professional trail runner
Eli Hemming is a professional runner for Adidas Terrex from Kremmling, Colorado. Eli is maybe my greatest competitor of this 2024: we shared the podium at OCC in Chamonix, where he was first and I was second, so I absolutely wanted to have him on the podcast at some point. We’re good friends in...
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154. Vic Johnson | Nutrition principles for outdoor athletes - part 2
Vic Johnson is maybe better known on the internet as Mountain Sports Dietician. The principles surrounding sports nutrition are relatively simple - applying them is not. Vic’s mission is very simple, to help high performing mountain athletes apply these principles properly so they can fuel and...
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153. Vic Johnson | Nutrition principles for outdoor athletes - part 1
Vic Johnson is maybe better known on the internet as Mountain Sports Dietician. The principles surrounding sports nutrition are relatively simple - applying them is not. Vic’s mission is very simple, to help high performing mountain athletes apply these principles properly so they can fuel and...
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152. Matt Daniels | Navigating running and life's rollercoaster
Matt Daniels is a good friend of mine - we’ve known each other since 2016 - and a great, great athlete and mentor. He lives in Boulder, Colorado. I’ve met with Matt in four different countries this year, and we’ve shared a memorable battle at the Chuckanut 50k in Bellingham WA, in March, where I...
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151. Peter Frano | 2024 CCC runner up
Peter Frano is an elite trail runner from Slovakia who won a bronze medal at the world trail championships 2023 in Innsbruck and finished second at UTMB CCC in 2024. In this episode we discover more about Peter’s training and background, his preparation leading up to CCC, his race strategy and…
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150. Rosanna Buchauer | CCC podium and race strategy, physical and mental fitness, female athletes, pros and cons of being a pro athlete, the importance of cheering for our competitors
Rosanna Buchauer is a professional trail runner from Germany running for Dynafit. This year Rosanna won the Lavaredo Ultra Trail and placed 3rd at CCC at UTMB. In this episode, we discuss everything about her race, how important it was for her to build confidence after her DNF last year, the...
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149. Dani Moreno | Going all in as a pro athlete, media dynamics in our sport, sub ultra racing, trail running rankings
Dani Moreno is a professional trail runner for Adidas Terrex based in Mammoth Lakes, California. Dani is a great, great athlete and a true student of the sport. She has a really good perspective on various dynamics concerning our sport at an elite level, she hosts a podcast called The Sub Hub,...
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148. Vincent Bouillard | 2024 UTMB Champion
Vincent Bouillard is the 2024 UTMB Champion. With an incredible masterclass of race tactics and management, Vincent took everyone by surprise and won the most prestigious ultra trail race of the year, finishing sub 20h and running the third fastest performance of all time at UTMB. In this episode...
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147. Meet the coaches | Steve Krenn
Steve Krenn is a trail runner and a coach from New York City. Learn more about Steve: https://vert.run/coaches/ _______________________ Follow @vert.run on IG Download our app and sign up to our training plans on vert.run You can send us a message with any...
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146. A conversation around weight, body image, eating disorders and relative energy deficiency in sport
In this episode Francesco is joined by coach Andy for a conversation around weight, Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, eating disorders and body image in endurance athletes and endurance sports, particularly trail running. We give some facts and figures and we share our own thoughts and...
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145. UTMB week stories and recap
Today we're joined by coach Max, coach Manu and coach Steve for a recap of the UTMB week. Steve finished MCC and Francesco took second in OCC. Besides the races, the UTMB week is always a great chance to connect with and meet old friends and new people. The high energy and vibrant atmosphere left...
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144. Daniel Rowland | Recovery strategies and long term athletic development - reposted
As the summer season is coming to an end and especially after last week's UTMB, we figured it's important to re-listen to this conversation with Coach Daniel Rowland on recovery and managing the time after a race. It’s a very delicate period, both physically and mentally: we need to make sure…
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143. Athlete guide | How to run OCC
A guide on how to run OCC: from race preparation, logistics and gear to course description and strategy Resources: UTMB runner guide _______________________ Follow @vert.run on IG Download our app and sign up to our training plans on vert.run You can...
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142. Athlete guide | How to run CCC
A guide on how to run CCC: from race preparation, logistics and gear to course description and strategy Resources: UTMB runner guide _______________________ Follow @vert.run on IG Download our app and sign up to our training plans on vert.run You can...
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141. Athlete guide | How to run UTMB
A guide on how to run UTMB: from race preparation, logistics and gear to course description, strategy and how to figure out what to do after the race! Resources: UTMB runner guide _______________________ Follow @vert.run on IG Download our app and sign up to our training plans...
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140. Meet the coaches | Manu Ramirez
Manu Ramirez is a trail runner and a coach from Venezuela. He trains and lives between Colombia and Panama. _______________________ Follow @vert.run on IG Download our app and sign up to our training plans on vert.run You can send us a message with any…
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139. Jonathan Albon | Western States experience, training ideas, load management and motivation
Jonathan Albon is a professional trail runner for The North Face living in Norway and one of the most accomplished and decorated athletes of our sport. Jon has just raced at Western States, his first ever experience at the 100m distance, where he placed 6th. In this episode we talk about his race...
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138. Meet the coaches | Andy Chickness
Andrea Chickness is a trail runner, a professional ballet dancer and a coach for Vert.run. She trains and lives in the United States. ____________________________ Follow @vert.run on IG Download our app and sign up to our training plans on vert.run You can send us…
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137. Ask me anything with Francesco
How did you start trail running? How do you see your future as a runner? will we ever see you at the start of a famous 100 miler? How did you figure out the nutrition strategy that works for you? And much more. Thanks for your questions, if you have more, feel free to send me a DM or comment…
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136. Coach Lab with Moises Jimenez | The reality of endurance training: handling setbacks, learning from mistakes, keeping it fun
Moises Jimenez is a trail and ultrarunner for The North Face and co-founder of Vert.run. He currently lives in Boulder, US. In this episode we talk about the reality of endurance training: training is hard and progress is often non linear. We must learn to navigate the ups and downs of training…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Vert is the home for every trail & ultra runner. On this podcast we host conversations with key members of our Trail & Ultra running community from all over the world. From professional world class athletes to our Vert.run members and community. Narrating captivating stories and learning from and about this amazing sport.
HOSTED BY
Vert.run
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Running long - A trail and ultra running talk have?
Running long - A trail and ultra running talk currently has 186 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Running long - A trail and ultra running talk about?
Vert is the home for every trail & ultra runner. On this podcast we host conversations with key members of our Trail & Ultra running community from all over the world. From professional world class athletes to our Vert.run members and community. Narrating captivating stories and learning from and...
How often does Running long - A trail and ultra running talk release new episodes?
Running long - A trail and ultra running talk publishes regularly with 186 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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You can listen to Running long - A trail and ultra running talk on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Running long - A trail and ultra running talk?
Running long - A trail and ultra running talk is created and hosted by Vert.run.
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