THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST

Josh Kerr didn't chase the mile world record, he created it. And the man who spent six years helping him build the mind to do it is finally telling the story.

Jose Maresma is Kerr's sports psychologist, a clinical exercise physiologist with 35 years of experience spanning the Olympic Training Center, the NFL, NBA, special operators, ER doctors, and CEOs. Their partnership started with a pickaxe: Maresma invited Kerr to his men's group, where the Olympic medalist cracked through four inches of ice at six in the morning and realized the anxiety felt exactly like stepping on a starting line.

This conversation goes far beyond race tactics. Maresma and Dominic dig into the trauma that drives high achievers; the belief that love and belonging are contingent on succeeding; why so many people find running as an outlet; and where anyone can start doing the inner work. Maresma opens up about the loss that led him to become a meditation teacher, and breaks down practical tools you can use today: breath work, the physiological sigh, nasal breathing, and how to pull your mind back into your body mid-race.

Then there's the record itself. Maresma takes us inside the final session, the time trial that felt "too easy," the cue to surrender rather than fight, and what he saw from the stands when Kerr and his pacers locked into formation like fighter jets.

What sets Josh Kerr apart? Not discipline. Curiosity, brutal self-honesty, and the healthiest ego Maresma has seen in 35 years.

Tap into the Jose Maresma 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/3ua62ffz

Behind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZ

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$20 off your next Attuned scan: https://attuned.health/discount/TRE20?ref=TRE20

Find Jose's work at embodiedspirits.com or @josevo2max on Instagram

Pete Julian didn't beat cancer—he survived it, and that distinction shapes everything about how he coaches.

The Union Athletics Club founder sits down with Dominic for one of the most reflective conversations in the show'shistory. Julian opens up about coaching across cultures—helping Suguru Osako escape Japan's ekiden machine, swapping pep talks for pure logic with Germany's Koko Klosterhalfen, and why Shannon Rowbury remains the most impressive athlete he's ever coached.

He makes a case few pro coaches will: America's best coaches aren't in the NCAA or the pros—they're in high schools, and nearly every great athlete he's ever had was built by one. From there, the conversation becomes a masterclass in mindset: living the life of a champion; the “1% rule;”, why the “balance” the internet sells you is a lie; why women are routinely undertrained with kid gloves; and what separated Mo Farah and Galen Rupp from everyone else. Hint, it was never talent.

Then it gets personal. Being diagnosed with cancer at 28, one week before his first World Championships. Splitting from Nike and starting over. Rediscovering “idealistic Pete.” And an unflinching stretch on Alberto Salazar, grace, forgiveness, and why Shelby Houlihan shouldn't be racing in a sports bra from Target.

Whether you're a seven-minute miler or chasing medals, this one will change how you show up tomorrow.

Tap into the Pete Julian 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/3ua62ffz

Behind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZ

LuminaryThreads: luminarythreads.shop

$20 off your next Attuned scan: https://attuned.health/discount/TRE20?ref=TRE20

Trenton Sandler didn't care about running until his senior year of high school. Now, he's a 3:42 1500m man with 130,000 followers watching every step.
 
The Arkansas transfer joins Dominic the day before his move to Fayetteville for a conversation about one of the strangest paths in the NCAA. A lifelong soccer player who only ran track to stay in shape, Trenton parlayed a 1:55 time in the 800m into an SEC roster spot, spent two years buried in injuries, then watched his LSU distance group collapse from 12 guys to three. 

He left the team in February, coached himself through the spring, and ran his 3:42 PR—at Arkansas, of all places.

They get into the recruiting visit that sold him on the spot, the ACC program that essentially would have banned him from posting, and his brutally honest answer to "Olympic medal or a million followers?" 

Plus, pressure as a trainable skill, why "it's cringe until it works," the reason he doesn't answer the "is my mile time good?" DMs, his 2028 Olympic Trials math, and the plan to pivot hard into entertainment once the spikes hang up.

Also discussed: the Ryan Trahan era he completely missed, his running-creator Mount Rushmore, Erin Brown's rage-bait genius, the jorts discourse, and the Mexican breakfast restaurant where a soccer kid learned Spanish and raked in $35 an hour.

Whether you're a modest recruit with big goals or building something people call cringe, Trenton's story is proof that consistency (and betting on yourself) compounds.

Tap into the Trenton Sandler 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/3ua62ffz

Behind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZ

LuminaryThreads: luminarythreads.shop

$20 off your next Attuned scan: https://attuned.health/discount/TRE20?ref=TRE20

YouTube: trenton Sandler YouTube Channel.

Instagram: TrentonSandler

TikTok: Trenton Sandler

You don't replace Mike Smith. You carry forward what he built, and Jarred Cornfield is proving that's exactly how dynasties survive.

Entering year two as NAU's Director of Cross Country and Track & Field, Cornfield returns to the podcast as another Flagstaff fall arrives. He opens up about the transition from nine years as Smith's assistant—resisting the urge to prove himself, leaning on his mentor (still in town, still a phone call away), and practicing the same pressure-management he preaches to his athletes.

The conversation digs into the anatomy of the dynasty: six national titles in seven years, why every single one was the hardest thing ever, and whether today's NCAA will ever allow another NAU dynasty.

Cornfield pulls back the curtain on the tactical side, too: watching a decade of DMR film with his men before their indoor title run; scouting rival coaches' tendencies; and building course-specific training, this time for Terre Haute, where this fall's championships return for the first time since the frigid 2019 race.

Other threads in this conversation: what he actually does differently from Smith; sub-threshold staples in Buffalo Park; the student-athlete question at a school nicknamed running university; exhibiting character when nobody's watching; and his candid, nuanced take on the NCAA scrapping altitude conversions, which is a change that hits Flagstaff harder than anywhere. Plus, a celebration of Colin Sahlman's historic DMR–indoor 3K–outdoor 800 triple, and the theme of 2026's first team meeting: encouragement.

Bring on Terre Haute. Bring on the rain.

Tap into the Coach Cornfield 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/3ua62ffz

Behind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZ

LuminaryThreads: luminarythreads.shop

$20 off your next Attuned scan: https://attuned.health/discount/TRE20?ref=TRE20

Dr. Bill Evans admits the post was rage bait. But the science underneath it isn't.

Dominic opens by asking about Evans' claim that you can run faster with low testosterone, and Evans cheerfully cops to baiting the testosterone crowd before laying out the actual evidence. 

Two things can be true at once: train hard for years and your T drops, and your performance keeps climbing anyway. He walks through Anthony Hackney's overtraining research, the 80-kilometer-per-week marker where androgen deficiency starts showing up, and the diffusion-distance argument for why the best marathoners in the world aren't carrying much muscle. 

Then the necessary caveat: performance and health are not the same conversation, and bone, libido, and mental health all sit on the other side of that ledger.

From there it opens up. 

Evans gives a full explainer on how a study actually gets published and how to tell a credible one from a headline, including where pharma funding does and doesn't compromise the work. He and Dominic get into whether anyone can be an Olympian, whether mindset is trainable (Evans uses his own OCD and exposure therapy as the case study), and the Joe Burrow story about a nine-year-old who didn't feel pressure.

The back half is rapid-fire practical: how to warm up for a 5K and why the pickups should be near mile pace, why your treadmill is probably lying to you, the RPE scale as a free lactate meter, the bicarb lotion study he's running this fall, his unsponsored supplement stack, and the one thing every cross country runner should do this season.

Tap into the Dr. Bill Evans 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/3ua62ffz

Behind the scenes of The Running Effect: https://youtube.com/@dominicschlueter?si=PM9FjPc92eFUFEZ

LuminaryThreads: luminarythreads.shop

$20 off your next Attuned scan: https://attuned.health/discount/TRE20?ref=TRE20

Instagram: @doctor_evans_running 

Coaching Website:The Endurance Lab.