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.
58episodes
Episodes
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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
Jun 1600:59:27Tap 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
Jun 1400:28:18Tap 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
Jun 1200:43:05Tap 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
Jun 1000:41:27Tap 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
Jun 800:39:15Tap 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
Jun 500:33:43Tap 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
Transcribe →Exclusive: Simeon Birnbaum On Going for the NCAA 1500/5K Double Title: Inside the Marco Langon Beef, the 3:31 Record Training, and Why He's Next Up
Jun 300:40:17Tap to summarizeSimeon Birnbaum, the NCAA 1500m record holder, is heading into NCAAs hungry, healthy, and ready to hurt people. Dominic sits down with the Oregon junior days before the outdoor National Championships, where Birnbaum is eyeing a 1500m/5000m double on his home track in Eugene. The guys cover the full arc of his breakthrough season: from the December 3000m that broke Edward Cheserek's Oregon school record; to the Big Ten indoor sweep; to a 3:31.69 at the Oregon Team Invitational that rewrote the collegiate record book by over a full second. Simeon breaks down the workout that tipped off head coach Jerry Schumacher that something special was coming; why he still refuses to train in super shoes; and what it felt like to watch the DMR fall apart at indoor nationals before channeling that fury into a runner-up finish in the 3000m the following day.The conversation gets into the strategic chess match of championship 1500m racing; the physical toll of the 1500/5000m double at regionals in brutal humidity; and what it means to finally arrive on the national stage as the favorite rather than the chaser. Simeon also reflects on the Penn Relays DMR redemption, his rivalry with Diadora teammate Marco Langon, and a 1:44 800m PR he ran more or less for fun. With NCAAs at Hayward Field, he's not hiding the goal: walk away with two titles in front of the home crowd.Tap into the Simeon Birnbaum 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 →Brian Burns on Chasing 3:57 at Festival of Miles: the Training Behind the Breakthrough, the Nerves of One Final High School Mile, and a Shot at History
Jun 200:38:02Tap to summarizeThe clock has beaten Brian Burns twice. June 4th at the HOKA Festival of Miles, he plans to return the favor. Burns, a senior at Bentonville High School and committed to UNC Chapel Hill, joins the show eight days out from Festival of Miles—fresh off a ladder workout that confirmed what his coaches have been telling him all spring: he is in 3:57 shape. The gap between where he is and where he needs to be is not fitness, it's a finish line.The episode traces the full arc of how Burns got here. Growing up in Missouri, watching his older brother Connor run 3:50 at Festival of Miles as a junior. A DNF at the Midwest XC regionals that humbled him and quietly redirected him. The mid-year transfer to Bentonville and what it meant to walk into a program run by Coach Mike Power, a former Olympian who has since become one of his most important influences alongside his father, Marc, who coaches the University of Arkansas women's cross country program.Underneath all of it runs one goal: becoming the first pair of brothers in high school history to both break four minutes in the mile. Connor did it in 2023 at this exact meet. Brian was there. He watched their dad sprint toward the finish line and followed without really knowing why. This time, he knows exactly why.Last year at the Festival, Burns finished last in 4:10. This year, things feel different.Tap into the Brian Burns 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/3ua62ffzInstagram: @brianburnsy_
Transcribe →Inside the Training of a High Schooler Chasing 1:47 in the 800: The Unconventional System of No Speed Work, High Mileage, and a Shot at History At Festival of Miles
May 3100:36:39Tap to summarizeAustin Plewe ran a 1:49 at altitude and never trained faster than two-mile pace to do it. The American Fork senior joins the show ahead of his Festival of Miles 800m debut to explain exactly how that's possible—and why his roughest year ended up being the thing that made him.Plewe is a product of one of the most consistent programs in the country. Coach Timo Mostert has been running the same aerobic-first philosophy at American Fork for over two decades, and it has produced Clayton Young, Danny Simmons, Casey Klinger, and now Plewe. No 800-specific sessions. No reps faster than mile pace. The speed is just there, evidenced by a sub-49 400 leg he threw down at the state 4x400 a few weeks ago.What makes this conversation worth listening to is how honest Plewe is about what it cost him to get here. His senior cross-country season came apart at the seams—a stress fracture, an emergency appendectomy two weeks before statemeet, then an illness before NXR. He didn't have one good race all fall. What got him through was perspective, teammates, and a faith that the other side of that stretch had something better waiting. It did, in the form of a Simplot Games title, a US number-one ranking in the 800, and a fifth straight Arcadia 4x1600 title for the Cavemen.Now he's in St. Louis targeting 1:47, maybe 1:46—and he's already got a post-race alligator po'boy locked in if it goes his way.Tap into the Austin Plewe 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/3ua62ffzInstagram: @austin_plewe
Transcribe →From 7 Years of Chronic Illness to a Half Marathon in 14 Months: Josh Blatchford on Bioenergetics, Predicting Injuries Before They Happen, and the Science That Saved His Life
May 2901:18:53Tap to summarizeJosh Blatchford couldn’t stand long enough to brush his teeth—and he was a personal trainer.After years of chronic illness nobody could diagnose, Josh hit rock bottom in 2020. He was bedridden, losing function on the left side of his body, and spending $30,000 a year on care that kept symptoms at bay for maybe six months before they came back harder. He had a two-year-old daughter he couldn’t lift. His mother-in-law found something called bioenergetic testing on a Facebook forum.Fourteen months after his first round of remedies, Josh ran the Columbus Half Marathon. He signed up to prove to himself he’d actually healed. He didn’t let himself believe it until he turned the corner toward the finish line.Now Josh is the founder and CEO of Attuned, the company he built around the technology that gave him his life back. On this episode, recorded in person in Columbus, Josh and Dominic get into how bioenergetic scanning works (hair and saliva samples; 60-plus years of science; and why it can flag a stress fracture weeks before symptoms appear), what separates the Endurance Scan from wearable data, how Dominic’s own scan caught his adrenal issues and flagged his achilles before he mentioned either, and why Josh won’t recommend a blanket supplement stack to anyone—even after taking 52 a day at his sickest. One of the most honest and unusual founder stories to come through the TRE universe.Tap into the Josh Blatchford 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/3ua62ffzBehind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZLInstagram: @joshuablatch Website: attuned.health
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