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Welcome to the Steep Stuff Podcast, your source for all things Short Trail
248 Episodes
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Send us a text The plan was simple: go test the 100K waters. The reality was a masterclass in pacing, hydration, and what happens when marathon instincts meet an eight-hour mountain day. Chad Hall brings candor and clarity to his Kodiak debrief—why he went out hard, where the wheels came loose around Snow Summit, and how he’ll rebuild for another shot. From there, we widen the lens: short trail versus ultras, why 50K deserves more respect in the U.S., and how cycling’s strength engine can tra...
Send us a text A broken back, a fractured knee, and nearly a year off running—then podiums at Pikes Peak Ascent, Kodiak, and Moab. That’s the arc Alicia Vargo takes us through, sharing how a brutal dog attack in 2024 unraveled her season and how skate skiing, patience, and stubborn belief stitched it back together. We start with her fresh Moab Trail Half podium and the course’s split personality—slickrock step-ups, sandy slogs, and off-road pavement—before moving into the training mindset tha...
Send us a text The sport we love is growing up, and that’s a good thing—if we build it right. I’m joined by athlete and agent Nick Cornell of Trailhead Athlete Management to dig into what “professional” actually looks like in trail running: livable contracts, smarter bonuses, real anti-doping, and a path that lets athletes focus on performance without losing the grassroots soul that makes this community special. Nick shares how he went from thru-hiking the Triple Crown to winning Montana 50K...
Send us a text A brand doesn’t become real the day the website goes live—it becomes real the day someone beats it up on a mountain and still reaches for it the next morning. That’s the heart of our conversation with Dust founder Zach Colby, who walked away from politics to build a running brand rooted in the Mountain West: trails, dirt, big days, and gear that doesn’t need babysitting. We trace the idea back to Boulder, where Zach saw a clear gap. The urban-run-club look had its champions, b...
Send us a text A sharpening workout at 10,000 feet. A sudden stab in the chest. Vision slipping. Hours later, Abby Locke learned her right lung had collapsed—and that was only the beginning. Across one summer she weathered three collapses, seven chest tubes, helicopter flights, and two surgeries, then found her way back to 50-mile weeks with a new definition of strength. We talk through the full arc with honesty and grit: the ER chaos, hospital routines, and why “take it easy” is dangerous a...
Send us a text Ready to stop signing up for everything and start building a season that actually fits your life? We sit down with CTS coach Addison Smith to design a smarter year from the ground up: choosing an A race that truly motivates you, mapping B and C races that build skill without burnout, and matching training blocks to your goal’s specific demands. Whether you’re eyeing a first 50K or sharpening for a 100-mile bid, this conversation turns vague intentions into a practical plan. We...
Send us a text A week after tackling a steep Canadian classic, two-time Leadville champion Adrian Macdonald joins us to chart a season that nearly went off the rails—and how he brought it back. After Western States left him drained and “half-sick,” bloodwork confirmed anemia. Adrian pressed pause on workouts, added iron, and rebuilt with patience. That decision reshaped his plans: fewer hero efforts, more deliberate steps. Now he’s heading to Ultra‑Trail Cape Town’s 100 miler to practice nigh...
Send us a text A tailbone crash on a triangle rock. A season of strange falls and late-race cramping. And then a decision to tear it all down and rebuild. We sit with Dan Curts to map the truth behind his 2025 campaign, from a promising start at Canyons to a frustrating run through Iger, ETC, and Plitz Alpin Glacier. The thread is unglamorous and vital: when the posterior chain shuts down, quads overwork, climbing implodes, and even the best descenders can’t press when it matters. Dan walks ...
Send us a text A short trail host, a 214-mile finish, and a brutally honest look at what it really takes to cross a 200-mile line with your head still on straight. Franc returns fresh off the Mammoth 200 to unpack the race that started as a joke and turned into a test of logistics, mindset, and pain tolerance. We talk about the fast first day that had him mixing it with the leaders, the sandy fire roads that shredded his feet, and the moment—somewhere around mile 114—when he had to find a rea...
Send us a text A month after Canfranc, the dust has settled but the stories still sting—sometimes literally. We sat down with Team USA leaders Paul Kirsch and Tom Hooper to unpack a world championship defined by raw terrain, tight logistics, and athletes who found another gear when it mattered most. If you watched the medals, you saw the headlines. If you listen here, you’ll hear the blueprint. We start where results are made: planning. Paul and Tom pull back the curtain on selection debates...
Send us a text What if you didn’t grow up on a track and still became a force on steep, thin-air courses? We sit down with Colorado Springs native Amanda Koslosky to trace a candid, practical path from soccer fields to summit podiums—top ten at the Pikes Peak Ascent, podiums at Telluride Mountain Run and Bar Trail—and the bold decision to go part-time at work to chase what’s possible. Amanda opens up about the moment a Golden Trail–stacked Ascent proved her ceiling was higher than she though...
Send us a text Ten hours on the edge, a live stream watched by hundreds of thousands, and a second-place finish that announced David Sinclair to the world stage. We unpack how an injury scare turned into a smarter build, why he chose CCC over OCC, and the exact training and fueling choices that helped him lead for hours, survive the low points, and find the grit to hold the podium in Chamonix. David takes us inside the chaos at Worlds—from canceled flights to a sky-high vert profile—and what...
Send us a text The race began before the gun—shoulder to shoulder, 12 rows deep, with a call-up protocol that flipped expectations and turned the opening meters into a high-stakes fight for position. From a fast frontage road into stairs and tight singletrack, Tyler McCandless had to manage chaos without panic: protect effort, find clean lines, and pass only when it counted. What followed was a masterclass in patience and presence—steady gains through the forest, a fierce late surge on a 30% ...
Send us a text Golden Trail World Series Final Preview with Robert Prosser Follow Robert Prosser on Substack - @robrunsround (substack.com/@robrunsround) Follow Robert Prosser on Instagram - @robrunsround Follow James Lauriello on IG - @jameslauriello Follow the Steep Stuff Podcast on IG - @steepstuff_pod Use code steepstuffpod for 25% off your cart at UltimateDirection.com! Follow James on IG - @jameslauriello Follow the Steep Stuff Podcast on IG - @steepstuff_pod Use code st...
Send us a text A fall storm, ankle‑deep snow, and a west wind tearing across the Sawatch set the stage—then David Hedges took the Nolans 14 record back by roughly ten minutes. We unpack how it happened, from the early confidence on Antero to a near-collapse between Harvard and Oxford, a frozen night saved by borrowed layers and hot gels, and a final, ruthless push off Massive that flipped the math with miles to spare. The story isn’t just splits; it’s style, stewardship, and what local fluenc...
Send us a text Start in city gravel, end on a knife-edge ridge. That’s the arc of Kyle Richardson’s 1,300-mile Northeast Summits Tour—fifteen days, 84,000 feet, and six peaks stitched together by a bivy, a bike, and a refusal to overplan. We talk about why he treats endurance like an art form, how loosening timelines kept motivation high, and what it means to curate routes that flow from Catskill roots to Adirondack slabs, across the Whites, and onto Katahdin’s cathedral spine. We get tactic...
Send us a text What if the best prep for a world-stage 50K isn’t altitude at all—but rock, root, and relentless decision-making? That’s the case Ben Robinson makes as we dive into his Grindstone 50K win, an OCC qualifier that doubled as redemption after a brutal DNF during a rabies vaccine saga the year before. From Pennsylvania’s Roxylvania series to Alaska’s Mount Marathon chaos, Ben maps a season where the Northeast’s technical terrain becomes a training edge, not a compromise, and where j...
Send us a text What does it take to race at a world-class level when running itself isn’t an option? We sit with Meikael Beaudoin-Rousseau to trace a brutal knee injury—down to bone—and the long, confusing road back: tendon thickening, scar pain that burns like hot iron, false starts, and a fitness base built on a handbike, arms-only swims, and an elliptical. Meika is candid about uncertainty and the daily choice to believe that today could be the first day of the comeback. Then we go deep on...
Send us a text The mountains of Spain are set to host an unprecedented gathering of mountain running talent as the World Mountain Running Championships descend upon Canfranc in the Pyrenees. This year's championship field is arguably the deepest ever assembled, with elite athletes from Kenya, Uganda, Italy, France, Spain, and the United States poised for an epic showdown across four grueling disciplines. The championship courses themselves present extraordinary challenges. The vertical race ...
Send us a text Christian Allen takes us deep into the rugged heart of the Pyrenees as he prepares to represent Team USA at the World Mountain Running Championships. The reigning US Mountain Running Champion opens up about the wild, technical trails of Canfrank that barely resemble paths at times—"They stuck flags into a bunch of rock that you're just hiking up. It's really steep." Fresh off his stunning victory at Broken Arrow, where he outpaced legends Kilian Jornet and Joe Gray, Allen reve...
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