Podcast
THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST
Hosted by Dominic Schlueter · EN
The Running Effect tells the best stories in running—and turns them into insight, inspiration, and tools to help competitive runners become greater.
Every week, host Dominic Schlueter sits down with the fastest, smartest, and most inspiring people in the sport—from Olympic medalists to breakthrough athletes—to unpack the stories, lessons, and mindset behind elite performance. Whether you’re chasing a personal best or looking to understand how greatness is built, The Running Effect will make you a deeper fan of the sport—and a better runner.
32episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Inside How Habtom Samuel Won 5 NCAA Titles: On His Closing Kick, the Mindset Shift, and Leaving the NCAA on Top
Yesterday00:47:04Tap to summarizeNEW MERCH OUT TODAY 5PM EST: https://luminarythreads.shopFive NCAA titles. One backwards hat. Zero apologies.Habtom Samuel is not a guy who talks much—he lets the track do it. The University of New Mexico junior just capped a historic 2025–2026 season by sweeping the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, becoming the most decorated athlete in Lobos history. In this episode, Dominic sits down with Habtom the week after the titles to find out what it actually feels like.The conversation covers the full arc: growing up in Eritrea, the culture shock of arriving in Albuquerque with no family nearby, and the quiet determination that carried him through a sophomore year of four runner-up finishes. Habtom opens up about that 2025 NCAA Cross Country final—the one where he lost his shoe midway through the race, kept charging, and still nearly caught Graham Blanks. He talks through the indoor DQ, the decision to work on his kick, and the precise moment in the outdoor 5,000m final where he knew it was time to move on Marco Langan.There is also real warmth here. Habtom talks about what it means to train alongside Josh Kerr, what the Hoka NIL deal has meant for his family back home, and why he refuses to let anything (a lost shoe, a disqualification, a trash-talk headline) pull his focus from what he can control. He is not a guy chasing a legacy. He is a guy who shows up, works, and lets the results speak. They have been speaking pretty loudly lately.Tap into the Habtom Samuel Special. If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with your friend who you think will benefit from it.S H O W N O T E S MERCH: luminarythreads.shop-The Run Down By The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rs-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run -THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ-My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffzBehind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZLInstagram: Habtom Samuel (@habtom_samuel_).
Transcribe →Launching LuminaryThreads: The 3-Year What-If Behind The Running Effect's Merch Brand
2d ago00:13:33Tap to summarize🔗 Shop drop one (early-access password: TRE): https://luminarythreads.shopDominic goes solo to launch LuminaryThreads — a merch brand three years in the making, built on a simple idea: you pass roughly a thousand people a day, and what you wear is the one way to reach them. Every month, one drop. One short statement meant to inspire, challenge, or move whoever reads it. When it's gone, it's gone for good.Drop one is the motto that started it all: Turn Your What-Ifs Into Realities.Only 50 shirts exist. Dom breaks down why he waited three years, why he's taking a loss on the first drop, and what "impact over profit" actually means to him.🔗 Shop drop one (early-access password: TRE): https://luminarythreads.shop📷 LuminaryThreads on Instagram: @luminarythreadsmerchThe Run Down by The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rsOur Website: https://therunningeffect.runTHE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQMy Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=enTake our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffzBehind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZL
Transcribe →The Runner's Playbook on Knowing When to Quit a Workout, Optimizing What Actually Matters, and Surviving Summer Heat — With NIKE Pro Coach Alex Osberg
4d ago00:53:29Tap to summarizeNEW MERCH OUT ON MONDAY: https://luminarythreads.shopAlex Ostberg doesn't waste your time—and this month's Rundown recap is proof. Dominic and Alex break down four newsletters that build on each other in ways that feel almost inevitable by the end: a framework for how elite programs fall apart, how coaches know when to pull the plug, and how summer heat can either wreck your confidence or become your secret weapon. The first piece, "Stop Optimizing Things That Shouldn't Exist," starts with a pattern Alex sees repeatedly when collegiate athletes go pro: the blank slate they've been waiting for becomes a trap. More practitioners, more supplements, more inputs—and performance drops.Someone has to own the whole system, not just be a piece in it. He calls it the difference between vertical and horizontal integration, and he believes coaches who act as master integrators (filtering what reaches the athlete) will always outperform those who don't. From there, Dominic and Alex get into "The Case for Quitting a Workout Early," a piece Alex traces back to his first day at the Bowerman Track Club, stopwatch in hand, with no script for when things went sideways. The final two newsletters take on summer heat as a pair. "The Heat Tax" lays out the physiology—why humidity is the real enemy; why the brain throttles the legs before the legs even know what's happening. "The Heat Adaptation Playbook" closes with the practical protocol: post-exercise sauna, effort-based training targets, and the mindset shift that turns miserable summer miles into a fall advantage. Same principles as the workout piece, Alex notes—protect the descent.Tap into the Rundown Recap Special. If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with your friend who you think will benefit from it.S H O W N O T E S -The Run Down By The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rs-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run -THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ-My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffzBehind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZL
Transcribe →What It Takes to Run 1:45 in the 800: Niko Schultz on the Training, the Environment, and the Mindset That Got Him There
6d ago00:51:11Tap to summarizeNEW MERCH OUT ON MONDAY: https://luminarythreads.shop From 1:54 and zero Division I offers to sixth at NCAAs in 1:45, Niko Schultz didn't sneak up on anybody, he just refused to stop showing up.This year, in his first campaign at Penn State, he finished sixth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and earned First-Team All-American honors. That arc doesn't happen by accident. Niko sits down with Dominic to unpack everything behind that leap: the decision to enter the transfer portal as a guy most coaches didn't want; the culture shock of arriving at Penn State and not winning a single training rep for three months straight; and what it felt like to be working server shifts after practice just to cover rent. Coach Ryan Foster's philosophy comes up early–-how he treats athletes like professionals; doesn’t micromanage the warm-up; and builds an environment where the training group does the coaching.The conversation goes well beyond the track. Niko is candid about what drove him to start posting: a stress fracture freshman year and a high school coach asking what he was worth outside of running. He sat through two years of getting roasted in the comments before anything clicked. Now he's building toward a million followers with the same intentionality he brings to dropping time on the track, and he sees the two pursuits as feeding each other.He also explains why he switched his international allegiance from the U.S. to Puerto Rico and what the road to the 2028 Olympics looks like from where he's standing.Tap into the Niko Schultz Special. If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with your friend who you think will benefit from it.S H O W N O T E S -The Run Down By The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rs-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run -THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ-My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffzBehind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZLInstagram: @nikoschultzzz TikTok: @nikojschultz YouTube: Niko Schultz
Transcribe →From Losing Her Arm at 14 to Six Years of Success in the NCAA: Ashley Jones on Grief, Faith, Victim Mentality, and What Running Gave Her Back
1w ago00:59:27Tap to summarizeAshley Jones competed for six years in Division I distance running with one arm—and she insists that was never the point. If all running taught her was how to go faster in a race, she missed everything.Fresh off a trip marking ten years since the ATV accident that took her right arm at 14 (three months after losing her father), Ashley joins Dominic to discuss her farewell to college running. Across three programs in six years–from High Point's humble grind; to Tennessee's private jets; to a homecoming at Colorado–-she lived what she calls three different lives. She walks us through each chapter: the mistakes and identity-building at High Point; the leap of faith and breakout performances at Tennessee; and a final injury-riddled Colorado season she nearly walked away from over the winter before deciding to finish the race.Along the way she gets candid about the parts of her story most people never ask about: why she has never covered her arm or worn a prosthetic; what it costs to share the most vulnerable thing about yourself with strangers; why she stopped training on Sundays in one of the most competitive environments in sport; and why victim mentality, in her words, robs people of life and opportunity. She challenges an NCAA team culture fading toward semi-pro. She tells rising freshmen to build community fast and advocate for themselves. And she hints at what comes next: writing, speaking, an email list, and saying yes to crazy adventures—because running was the vessel, never the destination.Tap into the Ashley Jones Special.If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with your friend who you think will benefit from it.S H O W N O T E S -The Run Down By The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rs-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run -THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ-My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffzBehind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZLInstagram: @ashley_carolinej
Transcribe →25 Miles a Week. Two Years of Training. 3:59 in the Mile. Carter Smith on the Fairy Tale Season Making Him Pennsylvania's Next Sub-4 Star
1w ago00:28:18Tap to summarizeWhile his rivals stack hundred-mile months, senior Carter Smith has built one of the fastest high school seasons in America on simplicity, sleep, and a kick nobody saw coming. Fresh off the wildest stretch of his life—a 3:59.00 mile at the HOKA Festival of Miles; then a 1:48 win in the Brooks PR 800m days later in Seattle—Smith sits down with Dominic to explain how a kid from small-town Pennsylvania got here in barely two years of real training. Carter didn't run cross country until his junior year, when he won a state title after being told it was impossible. As a freshman, he was a 54-second quarter-miler while logging ten miles a week and staying up until 3 a.m. grinding Fortnite. By sophomore year, running twenty miles a week, he split 4:07 at New Balance—and the big schools came calling.Smith breaks down the training that defies convention: thirty-mile weeks; six 200s the Tuesday before his sub-four; bodyweight strength work; chicken-rice-and-broccoli dinners; and eight or nine hours of sleep—because what you do outside the running, he argues, matters most.He talks about chasing the Pennsylvania sub-four-mile lineage of Gary Martin and Drew Griffith. He gets into the 800m state record that is in his sights when he races Josh Hoey on July 9, and why anything short of aiming for Olympic goldisn't worth lacing up for.When talent works hard, he says, crazy things happen. This episode is the proof.Tap into the Carter Smith Special. If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with your friend who you think will benefit from it.S H O W N O T E S -The Run Down By The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rs-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run -THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ-My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffzBehind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZLCarter’s Instagram: @carterj_smith
Transcribe →24 Hours. 133 Miles. One Treadmill. Ed Martin on the Text That Saved His Life, Running So Others Keep Going, and Why "I Got This" Are the Worst Words You Can Say
2w ago00:43:05Tap to summarizeEdwin Martin didn't start running to become an ultra-athlete—he started because life had gotten so dark he almost didn't start anything again at all.At 21, Martin hit rock bottom. Consumed by a gambling addiction and drowning in purposelessness, he was on his bathroom floor, ready to end his life, when a text from a friend (just three words: I love you) pulled him back. That moment became the foundation for everything that followed. He has since lost two close friends to suicide, and the grief and guilt that came with those losses sharpened his mission—use running to make sure people know they are seen, loved, and not alone.In this episode, Edwin walks Dominic through the full arc: from a COVID-canceled marathon run on a trail; to a full-distance Ironman with a partially torn Achilles; to 30 consecutive half marathons in August 2024; to a 2:50 marathon finish in early 2025; and ultimately, Project 24:70–the 24-hour treadmill run covering 133 miles to honor the 70 lives lost to suicide in Charleston County. He also breaks down the Stoney 100 (403 laps around a track) and what the monotony of that format does to the mind.Beyond the miles, Edwin and Dominic dig into identity, faith, men's mental health, the danger of making sport your God, and why Edwin believes the three worst words anyone can say are: I got this. His platform is growing fast, and his answer for why is simple: he never built it for himself.Tap into the Ironsned Special.If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with your friend who you think will benefit from it.S H O W N O T E S -The Run Down By The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rs-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run -THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ-My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffzBehind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZLFind Edwin on all platforms at @ironsned.
Transcribe →From 1:57 in the Tokyo Olympic 800m Final to 69:15 in the Half-Marathon: Alex Bell on Burnout, Reinvention, and Chasing the LA 2028 Marathon
2w ago00:41:27Tap to summarizeShe ran 1:57 in an Olympic final as an afterthought—then walked away, rebuilt everything, and came back faster. Alex Bell isn't just reinventing herself; she's finally becoming who she was supposed to be.In this conversation, Alex takes Dominic through one of British running's most unlikely second acts. She opens about the moment she crossed the finish line in Tokyo and knew (lying on her back; a million feelings at once) that she would never run 1:57 again. She talks honestly about the mental health toll of years spent as an unfunded elite, working police shifts and retail while competing at Diamond League level–and why she needed to step away from the sport entirely before she could fall back in love with it. Now, under coach Andrew Henderson at Leeds Beckett, she's averaging 85 miles a week (double what she ran at the peak of her 800m career) and her body has never felt better. She breaks down the training shift in real terms: double threshold days, long canal runs with 20-plus athletes on Sunday mornings, and the kind of joy she says she never once felt standing on a track start line. She describes pacing the 2026 TCS London Marathon, watching the world record fall from the inside, and coming home the next day to hand in her notice. The marathon debut is coming in February. LA 2028 is the dream. And she is, by her own admission, just getting started.Tap into the Alex Bell Special.If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! S H O W N O T E S -The Run Down By The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rs-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run -THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ-My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffzInstagram: @alexbell1992
Transcribe →From Selling T-Shirts at Motocross Tracks to a $100M Global Brand: Jason Daniel on Building LSKD, the 1% Better Mission, and Running a Sub-3 Marathon
2w ago00:39:15Tap to summarizeLogan, Queensland, doesn't typically produce global empires. Jason Daniel didn't get that particular memo.The founder and CEO of LSKD built a self-funded, $400M global activewear brand from a BMX nickname, a carpenter's apprenticeship, and five years stuck at $3 million in annual revenue—and he did it without a single outside investor. What broke the plateau wasn't a strategy. It was books, a self-development course called Landmark Forum, and the birth of his son Hendrix six months before he scrapped everything and rebranded.In this conversation, Jason talks about what the plateau actually feels like from the inside—the canceled orders, the weeks he couldn't pay himself, the quiet question of whether he'd have to go back to the job site. He talks about why he trademarked "1% better every day," how a mission that started as an internal team value became the spine of a 700-person company operating across three countries, and what it actually takes to scale a culture without hollowing it out. He also gets into his own running journey: from a sub-1:30 half marathon that nearly broke him, to chasing a sub-three-hour full—and why he believes the grind of distance running and the grind of building a brand are teaching him the same thing.Some brands sell a lifestyle. LSKD built one first.Tap into the Jason Daniel Special.If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! S H O W N O T E S -The Run Down By The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rs-Our Website: https://therunningeffect.run -THE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQ-My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en-Take our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffzInstagram: @jasondaniel_Website: lskd.co
Transcribe →How Sharon Lokedi Won Two Straight Boston Marathons: The 130-Mile Weeks Mileage, the Visualization, and Inside the Doubt She Fights Before Every Race
3w ago00:33:43Tap to summarizeShe grew up running miles to school through the hills of Burnt Forest, Kenya—and now she owns the streets of Boston.Sharon Lokedi, two-time Boston Marathon champion and one of the most quietly dominant forces in the sport, joins the show for a wide-open conversation about what it actually takes to run 2:17 twice, back-to-back, on the most unforgiving major marathon course in the world.Sharon doesn't carry herself like someone who knows she's going to win. She carries herself like someone who has decided, at the start line, to simply see what happens. That mindset—grounded, process-driven, almost stubbornly present—runs through everything she shared in this episode.She talks about how Heartbreak Hill still hurts every single year; why the pre-race pressure has only grown harder to manage with each title; and how she leans on meditation, music, and the psychology of staying present to quiet the voice in her head that tells her she isn't ready.She opened up about the real weight of elite marathon training—the 120-to-130-mile peak weeks; the relentless repetition; the sacrifice of ordinary life—and what it feels like to pour three months of work into two hours on race day, not knowing if it will land.She reflects on Paris 2024, finishing fourth by four seconds, and what that near-miss lit inside her. And she talks about where she's headed next: a different major marathon on the horizon, and an Olympic medal that remains the one thing still unchecked.Tap into the Sharon Lokedi Special.If you enjoy the podcast, please consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and giving us a five-star review! I would also appreciate it if you share it with the friend who you think will benefit from it.SHOW NOTESThe Run Down By The Running Effect (our new newsletter!): https://tinyurl.com/mr36s9rsOur Website: https://therunningeffect.runThe Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClLcLIDAqmJBTHeyWJx_wFQMy Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=enTake our podcast survey: https://tinyurl.com/3ua62ffzBehind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@Dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZLInstagram: @shazrine
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