The Pain Cave is a free-flowing conversation with a wide variety of guests from the worlds of running and exercise science. We talk about physiology, sports science, politics, music, beer, and occasionally running.
We welcome back Unived and Altra athlete Laura Kline to the program in the wake of her runner-up performance at the national 50K championships. Laura talks about her athletic background, how she got into ultras, recaps her recent race at Caumsett, and gives us the lowdown on how she succeeds as a vegan, gluten-free athlete.
Links:
Laura's website
Intro music: "Fine Line" by the Bloodletters
Outro music: "When I Was Still Young" by Yard Sale
Author, physicist (?), journalist, and world-class miler Alex Hutchinson calls in from the Great White North to discuss his recently released book, Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance. We discuss the role the mind plays in endurance performance (2:30), the work of Tim Noakes and the various ways it informs our understanding of exercise physiology (10:15), why positive emotions enhance your performance (21:30), and techniques we can use to improve our mental outlook (28:30). Plus, in a new segment, Alex tells us what he's bringing to a desert island (36:30). This is one of the best books on running I've ever read; you don't want to miss the episode. (And buy the book, it's awesome!)
Links:
Alex's Website
Intro music: "Fine Line" by the Bloodletters
Outro music: "When I Was Still Young" by Yard Sale
Dr. Zubair Jafar, the head of the Sports Cardiology program at the Heart Center, joins us in the Pain Cave to talk about the athlete's heart. This is an important episode for anyone with cardiac concerns or risk factors, or anyone who is curious about safely beginning an exercise regimen. We discuss the importance of exercise in maintaining good health, the benefits of hight-intensity training, some potential cardiac complications of long-term aerobic exercise, the utility of different cardiovascular tests, the need for cardiac screening, and the potential for performance improvement.
Links:
Heart Center Sports Cardiology Program
Intro music: "Fine Line" by the Bloodletters
Outro music: "When I Was Still Young" by Yard Sale
It's a bit early to start repeating guests, but we couldn't ignore the performance of our inaugural guest, Brian Oestrike, at the famous HURT 100 mile earlier this month. Brian sits down with a couple of awesome double IPAs to discuss how he prepared for a race in Hawaii while training in New York in December, what separates HURT from some of the other legendary trail 100s, his early-race mental struggles, the differences between multi-loop and point-to-point races, and more.
If you haven't already, make sure to go back to episode 01 for lots of fun stuff with Brian, including the Bighorn 100, mountaineering/ultrarunning crossover, altitude training, and lots more beer talk.
Links:
Brian's heat adaptation protocol
Brian's business, Hypoxico
Intro music: "Fine Line" by the Bloodletters
Outro music: "When I Was Still Young" by Yard Sale
In our year-end, non-science-related episode, we delve into the ballot for Ultrarunner of the Year. I welcome in my good friend Laura Kline to debate who should make the mens' and womens' top 10 ultrarunners of the year, and the five best male and female performances of the year. We also discuss whether DNFs should count more than DNSs, why we grade certain runners on a curve, the importance of big international races, and our toughest omissions.
Thanks to Ultrarunning magazine for sponsoring this episode.
Links: Laura's webpage
Intro Music: "Fine Line" by the Bloodletters
Outro Music: "When I Was Still Young" by Yard Sale
Counselor, lecturer, mom, and runner Courtney Edwards visits the Pain Cave to address the mental side of the sport...but maybe not in the way you've heard it before. We cover a lot of ground: the emotional benefits of running and exercise, the biochemical basis behind these emotions, addictive behaviors, eating disorders, the impact of running on psychology, mindfulness and gratitude, how to tackle periods of low motivation, and the pros and cons of goal setting.
Link: Courtney's awesome blog
Intro music: "Fine Line" by the Bloodletters
Outro music: "When I Was Still Young" by Yard Sale
I go back to my Ithaca roots for a conversation with my old Cornell teammate, Artie Smith, recently named the Alan B. '53 and Elizabeth Heekin Harris Head Coach of Women's Track and Field/Cross Country at our alma mater. We reminisce a bit about our days as students on the Hill, the history of the Cornell track program, the differences between coaching men and women, and some of the health challenges that can affect young female endurance athletes. Hopefully people who didn't happen to run track for the Big Red can enjoy this episode as much as we did!
Link: Cornell Track and Field
Intro music: "Fine Line" by the Bloodletters
Outro music: "When I Was Still Young" by Yard Sale
Ithaca's Ian Golden sits down to talk about his run for US Congress in NY District 23. We chat about the running specialty industry (6:00), race directing (9:00), and PEDs (18:00), before Ian fills us in on why he chose to run for Congress (21:25), stepping into politics for the first time (25:00), his unusual campaign tour (26:00), the basics of his platform (27:50), and the need for compromise in this era of polarization and division (31:15).
Links:
Intro music: "Fine Line" by the Bloodletters
Outro music: "When I Was Still Young" by Yard Sale
Physical therapist Greg Cecere joins the show to deconstruct how we experience pain. We talk about his background (1:30) before delving into what it means when we feel pain (7:30), the anatomy of the nervous system experience of pain and response to injury (14:00), chronic vs. acute injuries (20:00), the neurologic basis behind chronic injury (23:45), and how our understanding of pain can help us approach treating and recovering from injury (28:00). We also briefly discuss dry needling and acupuncture (34:45).
Greg's website, Momentum Physical Therapy
Intro music: "Fine Line" by the Bloodletters
Outro music: "When I Was Still Young" by Yard Sale
We sit down with Brian Oestrike to recap his amazing performance at the Bighorn 100 (2:30) before discussing his background in mountaineering (22:00), why many ultrarunners become mountain climbers (and vice versa) (26:30), the crazy nature of this year's men's race at Hardrock (32:30), Killian's exploits on Everest (37:30), altitude tents (45:00), and his brother's awesome brewery (56:15).
Links:
Hypoxico
Jackie O's Brewery
Intro music: "Fine Line" by the Bloodletters
Outro music: "When I Was Still Young" by Yard Sale
