On The Runs 171 // Alex Larson Nutrition // Endurance Eats

Alex Larson returns (09:54) to the Pod to discuss her journey into gravel cycling, the challenges of balancing motherhood with endurance sports, and the importance of nutrition for athletes. The hosts explore various topics, including training strategies, the significance of self-care, and the role of supplements in performance. Alex shares her insights on how to navigate the complexities of nutrition, especially for busy parents, and offers practical advice for those preparing for marathons and ultra races. Alex shares her expertise on endurance nutrition, discussing creative fueling strategies for long events, the importance of carb loading, and personal success stories from marathons. The dialogue also explores the differences in nutrition strategies for morning versus evening runners, and Alex introduces her new podcast. 

During the Tros, Eric and Erika catch up and talk about the $50.4 Million dollars that Boston Marathon Charity Runners raised and much more!

Alex Larson Nutrition Website

Alex Larson Instagram

Endurance Eats Podcast

Chapters

00:00 Intro and catching up
05:36 Boston Marathon Charity Runners $50.4 Million
09:54 Welcoming Back Alex Larson
14:06 Transitioning to Gravel Cycling: New Adventures
17:10 Training Insights: Balancing Family and Fitness
20:15 The Role of Nutrition in Endurance Sports
23:03 Returning to Fitness After Motherhood
27:39 Balancing Self-Care and Parenting
29:29 The Reality of Fitness Journeys
29:59 Nutrition for Marathon Training
33:04 Building Healthy Eating Habits
35:43 Meal Timing and Structure
38:07 Navigating Nutrition Myths
44:08 The Role of Supplements in Nutrition
44:55 Nutrition's Impact on Body Composition
47:14 Common Challenges in Nutrition Coaching
53:53 The Importance of Carb Loading
01:00:56 Fueling for Race Day
01:09:58 Nutrition for Morning vs Evening Runners
01:14:00 Launching the Endurance Eats Podcast
01:18:50 Rapid Fire Questions: Fun Insights
01:24:03 Debate on Toothpaste Application
01:24:32 Imaginary Pasta Dinner with Guests
01:25:57 Final Thoughts
01:32:47 Outro
01:37:42 Partners Shoutouts
01:40:57 Erics Weekend
01:46:09 Yoga Night and StretchLab?
01:51

My Race Tatts Affiliate Page - 15% of your purchase goes towards our TEAM FORCE Fundraising efforts for the NYC Marathon

Wrightsock Affiliate Page - 15% of your purchase goes towards our TEAM FORCE Fundraising efforts for the NYC Marathon

Eric's NYC Marathon Fundraiser - Team FORCE, a dynamic organization that supports the hereditary cancer community

Erika's Chicago Marathon Fundraiser - for American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in memory of her brother, Nick

Strava Group
Linktree - Find everything here
Instagram - Follow us on the gram
YouTube - Subscribe to our channel
Patreon - Support us
Threads
Email us at OnTheRunsPod@gmail.com

Transcript

Eric (00:54)
What's up everybody. Welcome to episode 171 of the On the Runs podcast. Summer is so close as there's only one week left in school and we're closer to the year 2050 than we are to the year 2000. Erica and I are both off some Monday evening runs and guess what? It rained again for the ump team time.

Erika (01:14)
you

Eric (01:15)
We got a lot of catch up on. did a race apparently, and we have an amazing guest today. But before any of that, I must say hello to my kick-ass, rockstar of a co-host, six-star Erica. What's up?

Erika (01:30)
Not much, dude. I have to say I was doing a lot better before you told me that we're closer to the year 2050 than 2020 or what was it, 2000? Screw that shit. Oh, I feel old.

Eric (01:40)
Well, it's actually not

factual. I've seen everyone posting about this. I wrote it in our notes. Do you know we have a Google doc that we for show notes that I continued. Yeah, and you also were in a race as we can. I just learned guys the same time as you two seconds ago that Erica ran a race this weekend, had no clue it was even on her schedule, but I did some fact checking.

Erika (01:49)
huh. Yeah, I have not touched that in forever.

cannot wait to tell you guys about

it, okay? Yeah, go ahead.

Eric (02:08)
All

right, I did some fact checking. We are actually not closer to the year 2050 than the year 2000. However, everybody's posting about it because now it's like you're six months into the year, which I also thought didn't make sense. It would be at the end of June. So I fact checked and I Googled how many days has it been since January 1st, 2000? Actually, I did it wrong. I should have done since December 31st. Oh my God, they might be right.

Erika (02:26)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (02:38)
They might be right!

Erika (02:39)
can't even,

I don't know. See, this is the math that my brain does not even want to comprehend. Just like when we were talking to today's guest, I don't know if that made it into the actual episode, but I'm like, you were episode 40? was like, that was so many, like, don't, 80 episodes ago? Yeah, can't add. So don't hold that to me.

Eric (02:50)
It did. It did.

80 episodes ago, nah, that's 120. All right, so my

first thing I did was I looked up how many days has it been since January 1st, 2000, 8,972. I think I'm wrong now because it actually, well, actually, I would even be more right because December 31st was closer than January 1st, 2000. So long story short,

Erika (03:07)
Mm-hmm. ⁓

Eric (03:19)
We are 9,291 days away from January 1st, 2025. So that's more days than it's been since January 1st, 2000. So we're not actually closer, but we're close. We're really close.

Erika (03:32)
Did you say 2025 again or did you say 2050? It kind of went bloop bloop. ⁓ God damn it.

Eric (03:33)
I lost Erica again.

50. 50.

Eric (03:40)
But yeah, we're getting there. We're pretty close to 2050. So buckle up. I guess. Yeah, me neither. Man, I missed the nineties and the eighties. Hey, what the heck? ran a race this weekend. Nobody knows. Nobody knows.

Erika (03:45)
Don't like it. Hard pass. I know. Yeah, same here.

Yeah, yeah.

It was not a race I was excited for. Let's put it that way.

Eric (04:02)
So what? Those are the best content.

Erika (04:05)
Yes, which is why I can't wait to talk about it in the outro, because there's a lot to unpack.

Eric (04:09)
Well,

but what is it going to take for you to like tell the world what you're doing, where you're at? Like, you're at a race this weekend, guys. What's up, pod fam? ⁓

Erika (04:18)
This one is one that

I, never advertise because it is a trail race and you know how bad at those I am. So I'd like to struggle in silence, but I am excited to tell everybody I will be at the Hollis fast 5k this coming Thursday. ⁓ it's at 6 30 PM and, Hollis, New Hampshire. So if anybody's going to be there, know Jay Duncan's going to be there, but if anybody else is going to be there, I'd love to see you. So there's my announcement.

Eric (04:26)
So what?

Well, Jay, since you're there, I have a request for Jay.

Since she's going to be there, maybe she could post because Erica is not going to post. know that.

Erika (04:51)
I'm going to go ape shit, though. If I if I can get a PR, though, I will most certainly post.

Eric (04:53)
Good! You just gotta post

pre-race, post-race, hey great race, I'm not saying post when you run!

Erika (05:00)
No, that ain't happening. I have to focus

Eric (05:03)
Even trail race hey guys. I'm ready for a trail race. Hey vote in the poll Is it gonna go good or bad? You know I hate these and then at the end tell everyone how it went like come on

Erika (05:14)
So for the outro, I did send you a little video. I did take a couple of videos because the skies opened up and it got real sloppy out there. I took. Mm Yeah.

Eric (05:22)
⁓ was it on Saturday? Dude, it was

just like unreal the rain we had.

Erika (05:28)
Trust me, I know, but I just sent you a video because I took a 22-second video, so you can play that later if you want. Yeah.

Eric (05:33)
Mm-hmm. Okay. All right. Awesome.

Awesome.

Eric (05:37)
You know it's wicked awesome. Did you see how much money the Boston Marathon charity runners raised for the Boston Marathon this year?

Erika (05:40)
Do tell.

You know what? I did. And I have to say thank you to the real Michael Scott for doing a reel on this because I am one of the people who I am a total advocate for the charity runners. I love what you do. I love the money you raise. I think it's amazing the causes that you stand for this. Well, you're doing it for New York, so that still counts. So.

Eric (05:52)
Yes. Yes! ⁓

You guys are better than me because I couldn't do it.

But not like 10 grand! Some

guys have to do 12 or more! Yeah!

Erika (06:14)
It is a lot of money for Boston.

So the amount of effort it takes to do that is incredible. And this year they raised some, was it $50 million?

Eric (06:25)
$50.4

million raised by Boston Marathon charity runners.

Erika (06:28)
That's a staggering number.

Staggering number. Like, I just, I am in awe of all of those runners. That is absolutely incredible.

Eric (06:33)
Huge. Huge.

And you know what? Michael

Scott said it best. Like, I'm going to use my own words. But all those runners out there who are like, hey, this should be for qualifiers only. Shut the fuck up. Are you going to pay $50 million for these? like all these charities from Team I ain't here. I'm going to give you some credit, Erica, like Spalding Rehab, Boston Medical Center, Dana Farber, like, holy shit, $50 million, guys. And it's going to go up. It's not going to go down.

Erika (06:43)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah.

Eric (07:07)
These numbers go up every year.

Erika (07:08)
That is so much

good that is being donated to these organizations.

Eric (07:13)
Right.

I don't care if they make it a 10 minute buffer next year, more charity runners. I now I'm on the page of, know I still don't think like boss marathon should be your first marathon. Like you got to earn that, but like not everyone can qualify or run that fast. And they have a limit on numbers. They should never limit the number of charity runners. maybe they, maybe they don't ever limit that, but if they ever get like one year, Hey, we can do 10,000 more runners, charity runners, 100%. Like maybe give.

Erika (07:18)
you ⁓

Eric (07:42)
a five minute buffer then. like, like, seriously, are you gonna are you gonna get mad about people who raise money to run in the boss marathon? We're in the race over $50 million. Who gets mad about that?

Erika (07:54)
Apparently some people

do, which is ridiculous. Totally unwarranted, but we're giving you the kudos you deserve. Charity runners, keep doing your damn thing. You're amazing.

Eric (07:58)
Insane you guys you guys blew me away with that number

I, you know,

there's, there were times when I would kind of listen to their debate and I'd be like, yeah, I get it. didn't, I don't think I realized the impact that charity runners had on how many

Erika (08:16)
Huge.

When you put a number like that on it, how can you negate that? You can't.

Eric (08:20)
Right. Right.

Way to go, guys. Way to go. fundraising, as I've said many times, is super scary. That's why I partnered with MyRacedHats and RightSocks and hopefully more for New York City fundraising. Got to thank our sponsors and our partners on this episode. MyRacedHats and RightSocks, thank you so much. Check out the affiliate link. We'll talk a little bit about them more on the ⁓ after part of this podcast in the outro.

Erika (08:34)
Yeah.

Eric (08:45)
But we have an amazing guest today. Like, I'm on a high now after talking about Boston, and I'm on more of a high after our guest we just talked to on the pod the other day from Minnesota again.

Erika (08:46)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

We love Minnesota and we are so excited to welcome back one of our favorite OG pod fan members, Alex Larson.

Eric (09:04)
Yes, Alex is amazing as you remember if you for the OG listeners, if you remember episode 40 Erica, that was how many episodes ago? Do your math there. I'm kidding. Don't do it. ⁓ But she is a nutritionist and we will actually she reached out to us again, which was super cool. And maybe we do more of this too going forward. We'll talk about that later in the outro. But guys, Alex Larson is back on the podcast.

Erika (09:11)
Shut up. Do not judge me on my math. You will hear how bad it is.

Yeah.

Eric (09:31)
She's amazing. She just had an amazing day on the bike, by the way, yesterday. You're going to hear a little bit of bike talk too. And we'll congratulate her on the outro. No, we'll congratulate her now. Congratulations Alex on your second place finish in your gravel race the other day. You're amazing guys. Enjoy this Alex Larson from Alex Larson nutrition on the on the runs podcast.

Erika (09:44)
Amazing.

Eric (09:55)
Our next guest on the pod is a pod fam alum from Minnesota who had her first kiss in a hockey barn. She's the On the Runs endurance nutrition guru who will work with you to dial in your race day nutrition throughout the entire training process. She's an Ironman. She's a brand new cycling junkie. And last time she was on the pod, she was a mom of two boys. And since then, she's added a daughter to the mix. We're wicked excited to her back on the pod. Alex Larsen, welcome back to the On the Runs podcast. What's up?

Alex Larson (10:20)
⁓ my gosh, that was the best intro. Thank you for having me back.

Eric (10:24)
Yes,

I'm so excited to have you back. When your PR girl or Genevieve, whatever her role is, emailed us, we were like, hey, this is pretty cool. Alex wants to come back on and we were just talking about we need our own podcast guru here or a nutrition guru. So I'm excited.

Alex Larson (10:41)
Yeah,

Erika (10:41)
We

got one, we got one. We're so glad you are, Alex. It's so nice to see you again. We did miss you, we really did. So welcome back. So yeah, you got to fill us in on what's been happening since the next, we talked to you episode 40, which was 120 episodes, not like I was mouthing in my head, which was very incorrect. So what's up?

Alex Larson (10:41)
that's me. I'm here. I'm here for you guys.

Thank you.

I know it.

I feel like so much has happened since then. I mean, it's been two years and yes, I added a third child and final. I was like, make sure that that's no more kids after that one. She was planned. I will say that, but like we were for sure like three and done. So yeah, I've added that in. then once I had her and I was done,

Erika (11:07)
Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Perfect.

Alex Larson (11:29)
like with breastfeeding and everything, I was very much in this mindset of like, want to return back to endurance sports. But my background is triathlon. Before kids, I was really into triathlons, but I just don't have the time for triathlon right now. I don't have a time. It's so hard, especially the pool part. Like getting to a pool is really tough for me. It's at least a 25 minute drive one

Erika (11:36)
Mm.

Eric (11:43)
It's hard.

Alex Larson (11:54)
It just doesn't work with my schedule. And so I was like, I got to do something different. love, I like running. It's a social thing for but I was just not like wild about doing marathons or even like ultra running sort of has its appeal. Cause I love to go out in the trails around here, but it just like, for me, the bike was always my favorite part of the triathlon. And so yeah, I

Erika (12:10)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Larson (12:19)
decided to get a gravel bike. I've never really ridden on gravel, but I know it's wildly popular right now. And the thought of getting off of the paved roads ⁓ was appealing to you. And so, yeah, I am now this aspiring gravel cyclist is what I call myself.

Eric (12:21)
Yes.

Erika (12:36)
you

Eric (12:36)
I love it because two years ago I was doing a triathlon every year and I was asking you some big questions but that same year was the last year I've done a triathlon because I'm now I'm a dad of three you're a mom of three and I'm having this debate so sometime after you were on the pod my truck was stolen and I got my truck back but the dude who stole my truck took my bike which by the way was locked to like the ⁓

Alex Larson (12:46)
Was it? Yeah.

⁓ my gosh.

Eric (13:05)
the crossbars on it and the front wheel comes off. So the front wheel goes underneath the truck bed cover. He took my bike. It was a specialized ⁓ Robe and took it with one wheel. He left my front wheel in the bed of the truck. So I know, I know I got, the guy must be really good at riding wheelies. That's my opinion. So, but I don't have my bike anymore. I just have my triathlon bike and my mountain bike. And I'm, I think you're going to talk me out of it.

Alex Larson (13:21)
How? my gosh.

Erika (13:26)
Unicycle.

Eric (13:36)
I'm about to put my triathlon bike on the market and get a gravel bike.

Alex Larson (13:39)
You know what I regret 10 years ago not putting my triathlon bike on the market because I still have it. I'm like, it's ancient now. Like it's worth nothing. I wish I had sold it. think I just had a lot of like emotional attachment to it after just doing, but I should have sold it. And because I just, now I'm like, well, I got this tri bike and it's not worth anything. I mean, my business manager, she's thinking of doing triathlons. like, you can just have this bike, like just take it and you can ride it.

Eric (13:51)
Yeah.

Erika (13:51)
Mmm.

you

Alex Larson (14:06)
But yeah, my gravel bike is, it's lovely. The technology, I am having fun on it. Well, I mean, I ride the trainer like 95 % of the time, which to a lot of people is not fun, but it is my only time that I actually get to watch something that I want to watch that's not Miss Rachel. And, well, if you know, you know, if you know, know.

Eric (14:11)
It looks like you have so much fun.

has no clue I know yeah

Erika (14:31)
Nope. I figured it was a kid show. I figured it was something

kid related.

Alex Larson (14:37)
Yeah,

it's like Barney but in 2024, 2025. But with this really lovely lady instead of a purple dinosaur.

Eric (14:44)
Hey She's better Yeah,

Erika (14:50)
Mm.

Eric (14:50)
and she's a lot better than ⁓ Blippi. my god Yeah

Alex Larson (14:53)
Yes, so much better than Blippi. He's the worst.

yeah. ⁓ Bluey's the best. Bluey, truly the best. Yeah, I do like watching some Bluey, but ⁓ like Netflix and ⁓ HBO Max and no, I don't really let him watch YouTube.

Erika (14:58)
Where does it fall on the bluey scale?

Eric (15:02)
Bluey is amazing.

Erika (15:03)
See, I knew that.

Eric (15:11)
Do your kids watch YouTube?

So

ours have gotten it somehow and it just can't, unless we delete it completely, it's like they know how to find it. If we move it from the home screen, they know how to find it. Let me tell you, there is no one who will decline a call faster than a four-year-old watching YouTube. Yeah, so.

Alex Larson (15:23)
Hmm.

Wow.

Erika (15:26)
Smart kids.

Alex Larson (15:32)
Wow, no

my my kids haven't gotten into YouTube yet and I haven't really done much on there with them But yeah, that's like the the riding on the trainer it's so convenient because it's just in my basement It's all set up. I can ride it any time of the day if it's dark out if it's snowing out if my kids are home sick during the day from school like

I can get my workout in. And so I do really love that aspect of it. And I've been using TrainerRoads training program. It's an AI based training program. I'm very loyal to them because I've been a regular on their podcast for a couple of years now and they've been wonderful to me. I've been using their program and I've seen just huge gains on the bike. I was starting at like bare bones, no fitness at all. And I've seen like a 25 % increase in FTP and

Erika (16:08)
Nice.

That's

amazing. Ugh.

Alex Larson (16:22)
four or five months yet. It's been wild. How?

And so I'm just like super motivated. I'm like, how strong can I get? Let's see, you know, so I'm really I'm in it. So it's been fun.

Erika (16:33)
getting FTP flashbacks from Peloton. Oh God, I hated it.

Alex Larson (16:37)
I know,

I know. I know for me it's so exciting because I just get to see it continue to climb each month.

Erika (16:43)
That's amazing.

Well, it's good that you can ride that whenever you want, especially in the winters because you being in Minnesota, we know how cold it can get there. that's definitely, that's, my gosh. I was just telling Alex that today was our first nice day in New Hampshire and I was outside for as much of it as I could get. So yes, I mean, just any sort of nice weather we can get. It's wonderful, but you got to do what you got to do.

Eric (16:45)
love it.

Alex Larson (16:54)
Yeah, it's been a long winter.

Eric (17:10)
Well, it's New England because it snowed three

inches two days ago.

Erika (17:13)
Yeah, April, weird. No.

Alex Larson (17:13)
Yeah, we got nine inches last Wednesday. So yeah, I mean,

it's melted at this point, but yeah, it's it was quite the blizzard.

Eric (17:20)
Yeah, same. I was in Minnesota like

Erika (17:21)
That's good.

Eric (17:23)
three weeks ago when it was a nice 55 degrees, I ran outside.

Alex Larson (17:26)
Yay! Well, why were you in Minnesota? In the twin cities?

Eric (17:30)
for I was there for work and I'm going back in a couple

of weeks to do the same thing again too. We went and installed and I go back in a couple weeks we de-stall. It's a town called Wyoming I went to. Wyoming, Minnesota. With the Polaris headquarters.

Alex Larson (17:42)
I know where that is. Mm-hmm. Yeah, just...

Yes, just north of the Twin Cities.

Eric (17:49)
Yep. So we actually stayed close to the twin cities and went to a Minnesota wild game. It was a lot of fun, but it was fun. And I think we're going to go to a twins game when we're back. And I bought my boys Minnesota twins jerseys because they're twins. Yes. But enough about me. More about you. Quick question about the third child and maybe for all three. I know your third was a daughter and you're very happy. You're like, I don't know what I'll do with three boys. But did you know before?

Alex Larson (17:54)
Those are so fun.

Erika (17:56)
you

Alex Larson (17:59)
Mmm.

Erika (18:04)
That's cute.

Alex Larson (18:04)
Of course.

Yes.

No, we did not. So it was like this epic surprise because yeah, we're I mean, we're waiting for her to come out and they're like, what do think it is? And I'm like, I don't know at this point. And so then everyone in the room was like, it's a boy. And then she came out and they're like, it's a girl. I my face was just like, what? Just pure shock. So it was really exciting.

Erika (18:23)
⁓ awesome.

You

Yeah.

Eric (18:39)
Yes!

That's awesome. I'm so happy for you and for your husband. I'll tell you what. It's so much fun being a girl dad. Yes.

Alex Larson (18:49)
He loves it. He's

like totally on board with this. goes, girls are the best. And I'm like, yeah, I'm like, I've been trying to tell you that. then so I mean, he was on the fence about a third kid, but now he's like, oh yeah, you were right, Alex. He goes, this is pretty great.

Eric (18:55)
Yes.

Erika (18:57)
Duh.

Eric (19:06)
Well, I'm happy for you. Being a boy dad is super cool. It's me and the boys since I have two, but the girl dad thing. I'm happy I had the girl first as a dad. It probably, you know, calmed me down or I don't know, but it's a blast. But like I said, enough about me and Erica. Well, we haven't talked about her, but all about you, Alex. I want to know what was the kickstart to this cycling, you know, fascation. Is that even a word?

Erika (19:06)
you

Thanks.

Nah, all about you guys, yeah.

Eric (19:34)
Was this before kids or after? Cause you did the triathlon, but watching your stories and your Instagram lately, you're just, you have this huge smile when you're out on the, on the gravel bike and you're getting muddy and it's just looks so fun.

Alex Larson (19:47)
⁓ Yeah, it's kind of this new thing. So I just came back from Oregon. I did a three day gravel camp. That was truly the first time that ever really rode on gravel significantly. The road I live on, a mile and a half of it is dirt, ⁓ a mile of it is paved, and that's basically the only real dirt roads I have around the area. And so I didn't get a chance to really ride on them very much. And so this was my first time getting out on gravel and I was the first day.

irrationally nervous. I don't even know why. I was just scared. My body was in like full flight mode and I just had to keep telling myself like that you're going out there Alex no matter what. And so it was really scary the first day just because I didn't know what to expect. But once we got out there and we started climbing the first hill and I had trained five, six hours a week on the trainer in my basement.

for five months. So I was in really good shape, but I had no point of reference of how good a shape I was in. And so once we started climbing and I was buying some women and I was like, I think I got to go around them. Like I have, I got, I got a lot of power here that I can like still put out. And so I like whipped around them and I just flew up the hill and I was like, ⁓ I can climb. This is exciting because historically in triathlon, I was not a great climber, but this time around.

Erika (20:59)
Yeah.

There's that FTP.

Alex Larson (21:12)
I just like flew up the hills and the descending was a little scary at first. just, especially if we had a corner in the descent, had, really slowed down. was like, the object is to go home in one piece and not end up in the hospital. So I took things a little easy that first day. And then the second day we did the same descent where you're descending for like three, four minutes. And you, mean,

Erika (21:23)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Larson (21:40)
where you're going 25, 30 miles an hour down this hill. And so I felt a lot more comfortable the second day and that was a big confidence booster.

Erika (21:50)
That sounds like so much fun, but I feel like I would be equally as terrified.

Alex Larson (21:52)
It was amazing. Yeah, was anything

new. And I was telling my son this this morning, like anytime you do something new, it's super scary, but you just gotta kind of dive in and like start out being safe and then build that confidence and skills.

Erika (22:02)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (22:09)
Just dive

in, Erica, just dive in. I've been trying to get her to do a triathlon, which I've laid back because I can't train with her, but ⁓ that's so cool. You know, the one thing about those three, four, five minute downhills is you gotta go back up and it seems like you have no problem going up. I wanna know what kind of training are you doing when you're home in the basement on the trainer? Are you like strictly power zone? Are you doing like hit rides, hill rides?

Erika (22:10)
Dive in. Someday. ⁓

Someday.

Alex Larson (22:36)
it's a mixture, ⁓ for a while in the last kind of month or two months. was Tuesdays were a threshold workout. Wednesdays were just an endurance recovery ride. Thursdays were a VO2 max effort, which was, I think thresholds were the worst and then VO2 max was pretty rough. Then I'd have a rest day on Friday and I do a sweet spot workout on Saturday and then a long endurance effort on Sunday. And that's what was a lot of the

the last section of that training plan was kind of breaking it up that way.

Eric (23:08)
And you said your training plan was AI from Training Peaks, right?

Erika (23:09)
That's cool.

Alex Larson (23:12)
It was Trainer Road.

Eric (23:14)
train a road, how did that work? Like how did it, how did it build a base for you and then a plan?

Alex Larson (23:20)
Yeah, it didn't have a lot of data upfront. So it kind of just adapted as we went along. And I think if you're someone that's really new to endurance sports, I don't know if I would recommend an AI based program just because you have to really be able to listen to your body. Like on days where I'm like, I'm feeling a lot of fatigue and I can let the AI know so they can adjust my workout. Or like if I'm feeling really well, like if I'm feeling really strong, but they're thinking that.

I need just a really easy effort. I'm like, no, let's do this a little bit harder. Cause I got, I mean, I feel fresh and ready to go. So listening to your body, think is really important with an AI based program, but I just like how it uses all of that data and just like automatically updates. I don't have to wait for a coach to update something, which was kind of cool. They think there's pros and cons to both. But yeah, it would just monitor heart rate, stress, like TSS score stress and

Kind of just go from there is pretty cool actually.

Erika (24:17)
like the concept of the AI. it does adapt to you. But like you said, if you're not listening to yourself, you're not going to get much out of it.

Alex Larson (24:25)
Yeah, yeah. And I sometimes

would have to be like, okay, is this fatigue nutrition related for myself? Have I not been on top of that? Or is it because ⁓ it's been three weeks of hard training and I need a recovery week? usually I'll look at my plan like, ⁓ next week's the recovery week, sweet, I'm ready for that because I'm just feeling really tired. And then usually by the end of the recovery week, I'm like, yeah, I'm bored. Let's do some hard workouts. Yeah.

Erika (24:31)
Uh-huh.

Ready to pick it back up again.

But at least you would know the best. You are the nutrition guru. So if you knew that your nutrition was flagging, then that's why.

Alex Larson (24:53)
You ⁓

Eric (24:53)
I was gonna say that. The official.

Alex Larson (24:59)
Well, that's what it was really interesting too because I coach athletes on nutrition, but it is really hard to coach yourself. There's just something about having someone come in and look at your life and give you guidance that's so helpful. And for myself, I often would rely on my team. I have Hannah and Mary on my team that sometimes I would just message them and get their input. like, just, and then Mary would often go,

if you are my client, this is what I would tell you. And I'm like, perfect. So she always started it. And so it was nice to just have a team to support me along the way and use, take my own advice, which as we know, isn't always easy to do. But yeah, I really knew that if I wanted to see the biggest fitness gains possible on the bike, I was going to have to feel like I'm like I coach my athletes to lots of protein, lots of carbs.

Erika (25:29)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Mother protein!

Alex Larson (25:55)
timing things out throughout the day. When the kids were being chaotic and it was a meal time, like my husband knew that if I didn't sit down to eat, I was gonna get real crabby. And so ⁓ he learned that pretty quick. Once I got back into training that I could just, yeah, I hadn't had that for years because I hadn't been training. And then all of a sudden I'm like, my God, I have to eat right now. Or I'm going to like explode and so on.

Erika (26:05)
Yeah.

Hangar is real.

Mm-hmm. It's back.

Mm-hmm.

Eric (26:22)
So you just kind of said you weren't training for a while. You had babies. mean, you were training for something else.

Alex Larson (26:27)
Yeah,

I was in the season of growing and raising a family. That was the season I was in,

Eric (26:32)
right.

what was the next that motivation that kickstart to get back on that road and that trainer road in and running or biking or doing whatever?

Alex Larson (26:43)
I want it to feel like myself again is the best way I can describe it. For those that have had kids before, like you really, there's, I if I want to call it a sacrifice like with your body, but it is kind of a little bit because you like, like nine months of pregnancy and then, you know, if you choose to breastfeed, that's, you know, anywhere from however many, for me, it was a year with all three kids. And so like it, takes a lot out of you. And then

Erika (26:56)
Well, you deal with a lot of changes.

Alex Larson (27:12)
the lack of sleep for so long. You just don't feel quite like yourself. And so I knew that when I'm at my happiest, when I'm feeling fit and strong and can work out most days of the week. And so I really wanted to return back to that in a way that worked for my busy lifestyle.

Eric (27:22)
Yeah.

Erika (27:31)
Absolutely. And that's fair. You deserve that. You're a busy mom, so taking care of yourself is one of the most important things you can do.

Eric (27:32)
looks like.

Alex Larson (27:39)
Yeah,

it's not selfish. It's just like there I think you just have to have a balance between the two like doing things for yourself for you to feel good about yourself, but also still being there for your kids as well. So there has to be and it's fun for me sometimes when I'm like, ⁓ I haven't strength training lately. I've been bad about that. But the last time I can remember like strength training and my kids were playing with Legos in their room. And I remember one of them going like, Hey, look at mom. And I was like,

Erika (27:53)
Absolutely.

Alex Larson (28:08)
lifted like a pretty heavy weight and I was like, yeah, look at mom. Yeah, so that was really fun for me to just show them that, you know, it's good to be active and fit.

Erika (28:12)
See, teaching them some good habit. Yup, this is good. Lead by example.

Eric (28:23)
That's That's awesome. Glad to see the best part is not only does it look like you're crushing it, but it looks like you're having so much fun.

Alex Larson (28:30)
I am really enjoying it. like, I will say it is hard though. what people see on like Instagram, like it's always a highlight reel. And I try and share both like the struggles and the good things that happen in my life. Like it's not all sunshine and rainbows, but it is hard. Like there's definitely times where I'm like mentally struggling. You know what mean? So I just want people to know like,

Eric (28:41)
Sure.

Alex Larson (28:56)
It looks like I'm crushing it and I'm doing well, but it's not it's not perfect all the time. Just know that.

Erika (29:00)
Mm-hmm.

I like the honesty.

Eric (29:04)
Well, we want to do is Erica and I are going to start struggling pretty soon as we're training for two big marathons this fall. I'm running New York City. She's running Chicago. And it would be fun, like we don't want to have a carbon copy of the last episode when you're on it, but it would be fun to do this, know, annually where we bring you on and talk about some other topics. And I thought what better way than to kind of, without giving away all your secrets, tell us like, especially now.

Alex Larson (29:10)
Woohoo!

Erika (29:10)
Yep. Chicago.

Alex Larson (29:30)
No secrets. There's no secrets.

Eric (29:31)
You have so much knowledge. That's what it is.

Alex Larson (29:32)
Here's the thing. Here's the thing is that nutrition is so highly individualized that yes, I can give like the general guidelines and I can give my insight. But in order to get like the full bang for your buck with nutrition, like you just have to work one on one with someone to get like the real truly true benefits. But yes, I have no secrets. So happy to share my thoughts with you guys on in terms of training for your marathons.

Eric (29:59)
So here's what I'm really interested in. And I'll let Erica decide after what she wants to know, but my training won't really start until, well, I'm training now, but hardcore August 1st. And the next three months, I have like time to dial some things in. And I want to explore, I want to try things, maybe like, see if this works for me, this doesn't work for me. How would you talk to a client like me?

about that early, early, early stage before I'm really hardcore into training because I don't feel like you want to be messing around when you're training with nutrition. think, wouldn't you want to have it dialed in?

Alex Larson (30:40)
Well, it depends on your goals, right? So I think of nutrition as like periodizing it. So like, what does preseason look like compared to in season compared to off season? And so everyone has a little bit different goals depending on where they're at. Some athletes will have like body composition goals. Maybe they want to like lose a little bit of weight, but keep the muscle and strength and still build that baseline ⁓ kind of foundation in their running. And so what does nutrition look like there so that we're going into their in season training block?

at the body comp that they want to be at. that could be something that we would have to discuss in terms of goals. Like what do you want to accomplish right now before August 1st? Okay. Also, this is a great time to kind of build a foundation with your nutrition and build some habits so that when shit hits the fan in terms of training, like you can get really busy, you've already built some really nice routines.

Erika (31:11)
Mm.

Alex Larson (31:35)
Your nutrition is kind of integrated already into your lifestyle. So it's not like you're having to work really hard on those food habits and food decisions while you're also focusing on training.

Erika (31:47)
That's smart.

Eric (31:48)
When you're talking to a client, I want to know this, ratio-wise, how much are you talking about nutrition while training versus when you're recovering from a training?

Alex Larson (32:01)
that's a good question. I would say we probably talk more about the day-to-day nutrition than we do actually talking about the fueling during their workouts. But it'll kind of depend on the workout situation. If they're in peak training and we're really getting them ready for a race, then we'll probably talk ⁓ quite a bit about where they end their fueling, where do we need to get them to be for their race, and then how we're going to gradually step-by-step get them there. ⁓

I find with the endurance athlete lifestyle, because you're training so often and such a high volume that any other time that you are eating outside of your training, that is an opportunity to optimize recovery so that you can bounce back more efficiently and effectively from your workout and get ready for the next one. And so that day-to-day nutrition ⁓ is really important. Making sure we're getting enough, making sure we're getting enough protein, enough carbs to support that recovery.

and really set them up to have those great fitness gains.

Erika (32:59)
Well, I have a totally different question. So I want to make sure that you're all set with your chunk.

Alex Larson (33:04)
Well, I guess, Erik, my question is what are your goals here between now and August 1st?

Eric (33:04)
You go ahead.

That's a great question. okay, so my goal, let's, the race, I want to feel great, have fun, I'm running with my sister, there's no time goal. But my goals heading up to that training point, I do think I want to focus on a couple things. One, I want to get my running legs back because I had a long off season of just skiing. And I'm going to focus on more training. So my goal is to lean up and I would like to get closer. I'm not looking to lose a ton of weight, but 10 pounds would be great.

Alex Larson (33:37)
Sure. Okay. And then when it comes to nutrition, where do you feel like there are areas for improvement?

Eric (33:45)
Snacking Big-time well because I eat my kids snacks and and I also eat snacks at work like so that's my struggle like maybe Gummy bears at work. There's a bunch, know Right and also like gummy bears at home or just like the kids have some marshmallows I'm gonna have two or three marshmallows a lot of it. I feel like is actually discipline

Alex Larson (33:46)
Mm-hmm, okay.

⁓

Erika (33:58)
paying attention that's where I struggle.

Alex Larson (34:11)
A little bit. Yeah. There's a couple of things. One is, are you getting enough at meals that you're staying satisfied throughout most of that period between meals? That mid afternoon snack is a good example though, because a lot of times we're eating lunch between noon, one o'clock, somewhere in there, and then we're not having dinner until 5.30, 6.30, sometimes people have a really late dinner. That's a really long time to go.

Erika (34:35)
Hmm.

Alex Larson (34:39)
not snack. if that's the case then you need to already have kind of an intentional plan to snack for a mid-afternoon. Something with some protein, something with some carbs, something that's gonna really hold you over until that next meal so that when you have those moments where there's gummy bears out or marshmallows or whatever kind of snacks you're like, no I'm good like I'm not even hungry like I don't even want that.

Or if you do take one or two, that's satisfying enough. Like it's just there to kind of give you the like upfront little like hit of like sweetness gummy worms. Yeah. Like you're like, yeah, I'm having a couple, but I don't need to have like half the bag kind of thing. yeah. So that's, that's a couple ⁓ things as I look at it's like, okay, if you're truly like hungry and you're kind of just grazing throughout the whole day, then we need to look at having

Erika (35:15)
Yeah, you know you're having a snack and you're like, right, I ate some. I'm cool. Yep.

Eric (35:21)
Right. Well, I

ate half the bag. ⁓

Erika (35:24)
Same.

Eric (35:32)
Yeah.

Alex Larson (35:35)
little bit better structured meals that might need to be just a little bit enhanced, a little bit more filling so that it holds you over longer.

Eric (35:43)
Let me ask about meals then. How important is it to have your meals like a schedule? Like breakfast for me, I'm locked in, it's every morning 9.30. Like I do everything with the kids, get in school, I don't eat until I actually get to work and I have a bagel sandwich. Sometimes just a bagel of peanut butter or a bagel, and sausage. That's locked in always 9.30. How important is it to lock in this like a lunchtime and a dinner time? Because there's a lot of days, and now that I'm thinking about it, I'm like, okay, I struggle in the middle of the day.

Alex Larson (35:50)
Hmm.

Okay.

Eric (36:13)
Because it's not every day I eat a real lunch.

Alex Larson (36:16)
Yeah, see, and honestly, your breakfast doesn't even sound like enough.

Eric (36:20)
probably right, but it's good. It's a plain bagel, egg sausage.

Erika (36:21)
Just add like a banana, Like

Alex Larson (36:22)
I'm sure it's great, but it doesn't...

Erika (36:25)
something, a little something supplemental.

Alex Larson (36:26)
I think you need something else with it though. Like you might need like a little fruit with it, like make it a meal, make sure there's carbs, there's plenty of protein, you've got fruit and or vegetables. And most people that I see don't get enough protein, and especially they'll be stingy at breakfast and lunch. And then yeah, they'll get enough protein at dinner, but it didn't add up to what they really needed in the day. And that can really help with satiety as well and snacking between meals.

So there's just like these little tweaks that you can make ⁓ now that can really build that base and routine for you by the time you get to August 1. And then you'll notice that training feels significantly just stronger and more stable because you're better fueled.

Eric (37:08)
I like the suggestion about fruit too, because there's a fruit cup right there at work and I could grab that every day too to go alongside. So maybe, now that I'm thinking about maybe, maybe I'm not having enough, a question I had later and we'll get to it, I want Erica to contribute a little bit, but I was gonna ask how do know if you're eating too much or not enough or what's just

Alex Larson (37:12)
There you go.

You ⁓

saying, that's just lots of thoughts here, Eric, now that you're like telling me more about yourself. So how I would know is if you find yourself kind of grazing throughout the day, that's a sign that you want to bulk up your lunches and your breakfast and see start there and see if you notice yourself snacking less. And then you're probably on to something. But also, like you said, discipline, having like that mindful eating concept throughout the day and practicing that.

of being like, ⁓ why am I grabbing this? Is this because I'm actually hungry? Well, why am I so hungry? Is it because I didn't get enough to eat? Did I not eat my usual larger lunch that I've been trying to do? Like being curious also is helpful. Okay, Erica, you're up.

Erika (38:07)
All right, Alex. So I am a habitual Instagram scroller and Instagram is constantly trying to sell me stuff. They are trying to get me to buy creatine and collagen and probiotics. And I need to know, is this all crap or is this good for me? Like what is Instagram trying to really do? Is it just trying to make money off me or is it trying to help me as a person? So.

Alex Larson (38:32)
Hmm, I'm sure it's trying to make money off you

for sure, but ⁓ they're there

Erika (38:35)
Of course, of course, but is any

of this like warranted?

Alex Larson (38:40)
I actually, interestingly enough, I'm totally on board with creatine. I started taking it actually in July and I've been super happy with it. Yeah, so it will help you ⁓ increase muscle mass, not like by massive amounts, because when I started taking it, as I was drinking, it was, I think...

Erika (38:50)
What exactly does it do for you?

Mm-hmm.

Alex Larson (39:03)
I think I started putting like liquid IV with a scoop of creatine. did that and now I just add it to my protein shake. But as I would drink it, I literally in my head had this visualization of me waking up the next morning and being like, like the Hulk. And it never happened. It's not going to cause you to bulk up, I promise. it's especially for women because we do naturally have a little bit lower creatine stores in our muscles than men do. There is some benefit just for like the muscle mass that we

Erika (39:20)
Good, good, good.

Alex Larson (39:32)
do have, it makes our muscles stronger, which is good to know. so for if you think of like, I mean, Chicago Marathon is pretty flat. But like if you think of like, yeah, well, don't play, I don't play. It's just why you should come to Grammys because that was flat as well. ⁓ But like for Eric, you know, in the hills of the boroughs in New York, those where you're wanting to power up those and have some really strong

Eric (39:44)
That's why she's running it.

Erika (39:45)
I love Chicago.

Alex Larson (40:01)
strength up those hills, that creatine can come into play with that. And so I think the one deterrent with creatine is the fear of there's ⁓ a little bit of weight gain from just some water weight retention with creatine. The research has shown it's maybe like one to two pounds. It's not very much, but like the strength benefits that you get from it, for me, what I've noticed, I feel like it's been great.

Erika (40:05)
Good to know.

Mm.

so it outweighs

the little bit of water weight you might hang onto.

Alex Larson (40:32)
Yes,

yes. And I will say creatine has been one of the most well-researched supplements hands down. mean, it's like decades and thousands of research studies. So it's very, very safe as long as you take the recommended dosage. You don't go crazy with it. They say three to five grams a day. You don't have to do the loading phase. It's not it's vegan. So yeah, yeah, you can do.

Erika (40:42)
See, that's good to know. I love when things are scientifically backed.

Eric (40:54)
Is it dairy based?

Okay.

Alex Larson (41:00)
So for vegans, honestly, if you're plant-based, you even get more benefit from it because they don't eat a lot of meat that naturally has creatine in it. That creatine supplement will help with those creatine stores in your muscles. So yeah. Are you? Oh, yeah. No, it's vegan. Yeah. Oh, I was going to say college. You mentioned college in Erika.

Erika (41:09)
I

Eric (41:15)
Well, I'm glad it's not dairy based because I'm allergic. yeah, big time.

Erika (41:18)
you

Alex Larson (41:26)
Some decent research there, but more for like explosive sports like sprinters, football players.

Erika (41:32)
Okay, so me being an

endurance athlete probably not so beneficial

Alex Larson (41:36)
Well,

the research hasn't shown as big of a benefit, but with ⁓ those ligaments and tendons, early on in your training where you're more prone for injury, ⁓ if you take the collagen about 40 to 60 minutes before activity, that's how long it takes for it to enter the bloodstream. And then once you start working out, that's where our joints get the most blood flow. And so that collagen will get in there. That's where you'd get the most bang for your buck with the collagen.

Erika (41:40)
Gotcha.

Mm-hmm.

smart. Very smart.

Alex Larson (42:06)
Yeah, yeah.

I'm trying to think what other supplements you've mentioned.

Erika (42:11)
I said probiotics because there's some company out there that's like, you want the pre and the pro and the post-biotics? I don't know.

Alex Larson (42:13)
⁓ yeah.

yeah, I get a message from

them on Instagram all the time asking me to endorse them. I'm like, Hmm, that yeah. Or like some sort of mushroom tea. And I'm like, well, I don't like tea. I like mushrooms, but not tea. So, ⁓ no thanks. But yeah. So probiotics, I think gut health is very important. ⁓ do you have to take a probiotic? No. Is it going to hurt you if you take it? No. ⁓ but if you're noticing like,

Erika (42:22)
I bet not so much.

Yep. Yep.

Alex Larson (42:46)
maybe you're a little more irregular or you're having some like GI issues, it's not a bad idea to try a probiotic with like multiple different strains in there just to see if that helps kind of regulate things a little bit.

Erika (42:57)
But if you do

that, that's not what are the odds it's going to, let's say, cause code browns. Like if you're not used to one and you're out there, you're like.

Alex Larson (43:05)
Honestly, don't I

know like the the adverse reactions to probiotics is like very rare if the only time they would recommend people not taking them as if you were like severely immunocompromised, but Yeah, I would say honestly it might improve GI issues if you're having lots of code browns during your run. Yeah

Erika (43:14)
good.

⁓

Good to know. I'm

usually code brown free and I'd like to keep it that way. That's why I ask about that. yeah, it's just, Instagram is just trying to sell me all kinds of stuff all the time. And I never know what the real deal is behind half of it.

Alex Larson (43:32)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah,

so you can ask me. I'm always here as a resource. ⁓ And a lot of times if things sound too good to be true, they probably are. If they say it's going to cure everything, like a laundry list of things, it's unlikely. ⁓ So yeah, you have to be smart about it. And also, what's their source of research? Is it just anecdotal, or is there actually evidence back behind it?

Erika (43:44)
Thank you.

Exactly.

Mm-hmm.

Exactly. ⁓

Good to know. Thank you, Alex.

Alex Larson (44:07)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (44:08)
I'm actually glad you brought up the Instagram part because the ads I get on Instagram, well, I'm gonna tell you what they sell me is they try to sell me these AI nutrition plans and stuff and they show you pictures of what these guys look like with these very lean bodies because if I'm looking to lean up, I get those ads and I'm looking to lean up or tighten up in some areas like love handles or what I like to call the moobs. So how much

Erika (44:13)
Do they sell you that shit too? See, there goes my potty mouth, but.

Alex Larson (44:22)
Hmm.

Erika (44:29)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Larson (44:36)
Hahaha

Eric (44:38)
does your nutrition, along with your training and strength training, align with leaning up? Like if there's a ratio of how much you need to consider of each when you're talking to your clients and they want to lean, how much does nutrition play into that role?

for example, I remember seeing this ad one time, this poster, and it said, are what you eat. And it showed a donut and the guy was a bigger, heavier set guy. But then it showed an apple and the apple had abs.

Alex Larson (45:02)
Hmm.

Okay, yeah, like the saying, the abs are made in the kitchen kind of thing.

Eric (45:13)
Yes,

that was actually, I think, what it said on the poster.

Alex Larson (45:15)
Yeah, yeah. I find that nutrition plays benefits in multiple different areas. One, it can help improve athletic performance. It certainly can help with body composition, but we do have to be very careful about it. With body composition and getting leaner while training, we have had great success with it, especially over the past couple of years between Hannah, Mary and I and my team.

It's become one of our specialties, but we have to be really strategic in working our body comp while also fueling the workouts well so that we don't see performance decrease. We don't see like fitness lost in running. So I think we have to have both of those. You can't just like restrict and think that I'm just gonna eat less and exercise more and I'm automatically gonna lose weight because what you're gonna see is you're you might lose weight, but you're also going to see

your energy levels, your run performance decline as well. And that's where people will often come to us and like, every time I've tried to lose weight, I can't complete any of my workouts. I have no energy to go out and run. And we're like, yep, that's pretty common. We have to combine both our strategies with getting leaner, with also fueling well so that your workouts continue to get better and better. So.

Erika (46:21)
Mm.

Alex Larson (46:41)
Yes, abs can be made in the kitchen, but we can't, we have to be really smart about it in a way that supports both your running goals and your body composition goals.

Eric (46:52)
all right. With that being said then, what are some of the more common challenges you find with your clients when you're trying to get them to, to hone in the plan? Like for instance, with me with snacking and so the goal would be try to eat a little more for breakfast, but what are some of the

common challenges you're finding out there with your clients.

Alex Larson (47:14)
I would say just for us is figuring out how everyday life is maybe holding them back. It could be just mindset, right? It could be just feeling really confused and overwhelmed by nutrition and therefore when you're completely unsure what decision to make with food, you don't make any decision at all and you just can eat whatever. So for us, it's...

how can we simplify things? We first will look for the low hanging fruit. What are some of the simplest, easiest changes that we can make that are going to make the biggest difference in their athletic performance, in their energy levels, in starting to maybe see some body cop results? And so like for you, Eric, right away I'd be like, okay, let's work on those breakfast meals, lunch meals, make sure that they are a legit meal that are going to get you the nutrition that you need to support your whole day. And

see how that impacts your snacking and start there. So it's not like we're even really focusing on snacking. We're just focusing on eating more at breakfast and lunch and seeing how that snowballs into other areas of your life and starting there. Or maybe we'd have athletes that aren't fueling around their workouts at all. Like, okay, we're going to start having you fuel before your morning runs. Let's start with something very simple or easy and talk through some ideas of, could you have like a pop tart? Could you have some applesauce? Could you have some graham crackers?

Could you just drink some sports drink with some carbs in it? Whatever is going to get them to consume some sort of energy before their run that we could just press the easy button and they can get something in start feeling better in their runs and Get them believing because when we can start them seeing a difference and feeling better and feeling stronger and seeing gains Then I like we got you hook line sinker like you're in because I'm like we're just getting started like this is exciting

Erika (48:44)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (49:04)
Yeah.

Alex Larson (49:04)
So we kind of just progressively work on things and get them to where they need to be without doing an overnight revamp of everything, because that would be very overwhelming.

Eric (49:15)
Are you building a calendar with them? Like my running coach will have a calendar and I can look ahead and see what I got on Thursday and Friday. you can't really, like breakfast is almost the same every day, maybe you mix it up, but how do you structure that, like their day to day or just their day that they do every day? How do you plan that with your clients and with me in the future?

Alex Larson (49:34)
Yeah,

we do, yeah right, you're like saying, if I were a client, I'm thinking, you're gonna be our client someday, come on Eric. So we do use a food journal as a learning tool. ⁓ It also provides a little bit of accountability and the more that we know about how you're eating and drinking throughout your day and fueling your workouts, the better personalized feedback and advice that we can provide. So we do use a food journal, so as you eat and drink throughout the day, you can journal that and.

Erika (49:42)
you

Alex Larson (50:02)
we can set some targets for you, like where we want your nutrition to be on a consistent day-to-day basis. And then we will also then talk about how to fuel around the workouts as well. So if you're doing a long run on Saturday, we'll talk specifically about, here's some things specifically on Saturday for this long run we want to start working on because here's where you're at right now with your nutrition. Maybe it's you can tolerate 40 grams of carb per hour, but we want you more like 60, 70, 80 on marathon day. We got to build you up.

as we increase that training. So it's not necessarily a calendar, but we're saying, okay, if we're X months a week out from your race, and here's where we're at with nutrition, we got to build you up so that you feel really comfortable and confident fueling at that rate on race day. And same thing with hydration too, knowing that ⁓ Chicago can sometimes be really warm and maybe you're not great about hydrating during your runs. We're like, okay, we're going to take a handheld

Erika (50:32)
Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Alex Larson (51:01)
We're going to make sure you have water stops during these long runs because I need you drinking at least X amount of ounces of fluid an hour in order for you to not be too dehydrated towards in that final 10 K of your marathon if it's going to be a really warm one. and so that way when you get to those aid stations, I just took this to a triathlete. I'm like, if you're doing Hawaii 70.3 and end of May, I'm like, that's going to be a really hot race.

Erika (51:15)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Larson (51:28)
and you are a pretty heavy sweater. I was like, I need you every 15 minutes taking six to eight ounces of water. And I need you to practicing with that so that when you get to Hawaii and you can get to those aid station and it's easy for you to take those down and you won't have that sloshing feeling. So that's where it's not necessarily a calendar, but it's just chipping away at where we need you to be.

Erika (51:50)
I don't know why I didn't realize that if you're not used to taking in so many carbs during your race, if you're like a 40, 40 gram per hour person and you just up it, like that's code Brown city, isn't it? Like you're just going to overload your city. Code green. I never really realized that I would have just like kind of gone with it. But I mean, if that was me lucky for me, I think I can handle it pretty well, but maybe, maybe I have a higher tolerance than I thought I did. Like I have, I have no idea.

Alex Larson (52:03)
or vomit city or just like anything. Yeah, like you just.

Yeah, I mean.

Yeah,

yeah, I mean, if you're a pretty like veteran runner and you probably have a bit of an iron gut just from years of running, absolutely, you probably could get away with it. But honestly, you might be doing your your training is a disservice because you're I mean, you're might be doing an 1820 mile run and you still need to be fueling at that high rate. And if you're more of a newbie as well, one tip that you could do is

Erika (52:27)
Mm.

Mm, still better to train.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Alex Larson (52:47)
Like let's say you're doing a 16 mile run on Saturday. I would fuel it as if you're running 18 miles. And then when you do an 18 mile run, fuel it as if you're doing like 20, 22 miles. So then when you get to that final long run, fuel it like you're doing the fricking marathon so that you are actually gut wise prepared for marathon day.

Erika (53:02)
There you go.

That is great advice.

Eric (53:08)
Do you look at their schedule

and see they have like an 18 mile day run and talk to them about that ahead of time?

Alex Larson (53:14)
We have calls with them every two weeks. So usually I have an idea of what's coming up in training and so they, okay, this run we're going to do that or this one, we're going to practice your carb load the day before and then I'm going to have you feel like this. And we try and practice everything that we can in advance.

Erika (53:31)
I have a question for you, Alex. So, besides Chicago, yes, I am doing Chicago, but over the summer, I have myself a 72-hour ultra. Yeah. So, one of the hardest things is continuing to eat. Like, how much should I be upping my caloric intake during these kinds of races, continuously burning?

Alex Larson (53:33)
Yeah

snap.

Yeah.

So you're talking about during... so

you should first of all you should be doing like a three-day carb load in advance which sounds rough but like and when I see a proper carb load I'm talking like 80 % of your calories should be carbohydrates for three days. It sounds like it's not a problem but I'm telling you it gets tiring like you will be baggled out yeah yeah so there's that and then

Erika (54:01)
Good to know. 100 % going to do that.

That is not a problem. I got that covered. Okay. Probably going to be all bageled out and yeah. So there is too many cars with such thing.

Alex Larson (54:23)
because that carb load is going to save your ass in the race. I don't care how many grams of cardio you're taking per hour during a 72 hour race, have to, you have to carb load. During the race with those long distance ultras that are multiple days, it gets to a point where any calorie is a good calorie. It's not necessarily that like a burrito or a slice of pizza or like top ramen is going to like,

Erika (54:29)
Yup.

Alex Larson (54:48)
Enhance your performance, but it's going to prevent flavor fatigue. It's going to give you a morale booster It's going to give you a really good dose of salt because you're going to be sweating for 72 hours straight So there's other benefits to it other than and it will give you a source of carbs as well But because with those ultra races, it's not like you're going marathon effort for 72 hours You're going at a much easier effort. So So your gut tolerance is a lot better because you're not going at that really fast

Erika (54:57)
Mm-hmm.

Absolutely not. Power hike.

Alex Larson (55:18)
higher effort pace.

Erika (55:20)
Good to know. Yeah, that is the hardest part is wanting to eat because you just get so tired and you're like, all right, what's more important right now, eating or sleeping? So probably eat while I'm trying to sleep.

Alex Larson (55:25)
Yeah.

True, yeah. Yeah, I mean,

I'm a huge fan of the hydration mixes for ultrarunners because you do have to stay up on fluids so well and if you've got a good dose of carbs in there, it helps ⁓ reduce a lot of the eating that you need to do. But eventually you do get kind of tired of that stuff, so you need to have stuff that's really kind of mild, that's not super sweet. I really like the scratch high carb stuff. It's got like the raspberry one is...

Erika (55:37)
Hmm.

Great idea.

Mm-hmm.

Me too.

Alex Larson (56:01)
It's like sweet but not super sweet. And Tailwind I think is coming out with a new high carb product here soon. And they also have a naked flavor one, so you could put that in. It's very mildly sweet. So you could add that in there just to up the carbs without adding a lot of flavor to it. So yeah, you kind of have to get creative all of those products to kind of figure out how do I get enough calories in there to keep me going for 72 hours.

Erika (56:04)
Mm-hmm.

Awesome.

Mm-hmm.

Alex Larson (56:27)
that's not going to take up a huge amount of time so that I can just lay down and fall asleep.

Erika (56:32)
Good call. Yeah, and that flavor fatigue is real. Like, there are just times where I'm like, I can't even look at this stuff right now. I just need to eat something else.

Alex Larson (56:35)
⁓ yeah.

Yeah, I would agree with that because when I was at that

three-day gravel camp I carb loaded the first day I got there and then it was three days of riding by Sunday. I was like I cannot Look at like any candy. I took a Morton gel that third day and actually the Morton gel went down really nicely I was kind of worried that I wasn't gonna like it. But ⁓ even though was sweet. It just was like super easy so I was really thankful for Morton gels that final day because I could get that down pretty easily, but

Erika (56:45)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Alex Larson (57:09)
⁓ Any like sugary chews. ⁓ I was like no thanks. ate like a whole party pack of Hawaii rolls that weekend. That was like as soon as I woke up or I went before I went to bed I would have like four or five Hawaii rolls. They're amazing. Yeah, they're a little bit sweeter but like yet like not like sugary sweet. just were like I don't know.

Erika (57:09)
Awesome.

Mm-hmm. ⁓

my god, aren't those the best?

Yep, those are like the sweet rolls, right? ⁓

Exactly. actually, I

did that 72 hour race last year and I made myself little ham and cheese and pickle sandwiches, like mustard, and I put them on those sweet rolls and they were like, those hit the spot. So, but I didn't make enough.

Alex Larson (57:42)
Mmm.

They're the best. Yeah,

I buy them for my kids. And so I was really excited to have an entire 24 party pack of Hawaii rolls to myself that weekend.

Erika (57:55)
Absolutely.

But it's a good use.

Eric (58:01)
Quick question about, you said for Erica's Ultra, about a three day carb load for a marathon. If you're thinking you're going to be about a four hour marathon average runner, how much of an early carb load should you be doing? Because typically someone might just do pasta the night before, but should you be going more than one day?

Alex Larson (58:21)
You could do two days. It would depend on how much carbs you get in the day. Some people just really struggle with getting the full carb amount in. And so they'll be like, okay, well, let's extend it today and we can lower that number a little bit. So like, for example, I was calculating one today for a guy and it was like 550 to 600 grams of carb for a one day carb load for him.

But if that was impossible for someone to get in, I'm like, OK, well, let's do two days at 300 or 350 or something like that.

Eric (58:56)
How does somebody know exactly how much they're getting too, by the way? Like me, I go to work and we have a cafe at work, so I go and just ask them to make me a bagel sandwich. Is this like you just think, okay, a bagel is an average of this many carbs, or how do you track that? Like that's...

Erika (58:56)
Are you?

Alex Larson (59:02)
Yeah.

I would

journal it. You could just pull up MyFitnessPal and you could track it, I got to get to, and you can pre-enter it in. If you ⁓ plan out your day of what you're going to do for a carb load, pre-enter it into MyFitnessPal and see how many grams of carb it is. Yeah, we don't use MyFitnessPal. I use a coaching portal that has a journal in there. So I told this athlete today, hey, put this.

Eric (59:25)
Is that an app like that you and your clients use?

Got it.

Alex Larson (59:38)
Put your carb load in in advance, send me message, I'll look through it and make sure it looks okay. Yeah, because sometimes ⁓ I'll look through it and I'll just have a few thoughts or like, they might have too much juice in there. Like I had one marathon runner who for some reason he just last minute decided to drink a bunch of apple juice on his carb load day. And then he had code brown quite a bit during his run the next day. I'm like, well, apple juice.

Erika (1:00:02)
no!

Alex Larson (1:00:04)
You know, we give that to babies sometimes and they're constipated. So I'm thinking that might not have been a good idea to drink three, four glasses of apple juice a day. Because I even had, think, the glass like the morning before this long run. I was like, dude, no, no more than one glass of juice for your carb load. It's just like a sports drink or something else. Yeah. So like there's just a few things here and there that I might look through and just like give some feedback or like if they just put bagels for the entire day. And I'm like,

Eric (1:00:15)
Yeah.

Erika (1:00:20)
See, I wouldn't realize that.

Alex Larson (1:00:33)
You know, you can do like rice and he's like, rice, I haven't thought of rice. And I was like, yep, we could change it up. You don't have to just eat bagels with jam all day.

Erika (1:00:33)
you're gonna eat seven bagels.

that's too funny. So if you're carb loading over ⁓ multiple days, you're pretty much going to carry it over as long as you're not doing any hard effort in between those days, right? Like if you're carb loading two days before your marathon, if you do like a shakeout run, like you're still going to carry over quite a few, right?

Alex Larson (1:00:56)
The, the.

Yeah, you'll burn through a little bit of glycogen and I would, you know, fuel that little shakeout run. The goal is to really go into that race with topped off glycogen stores. So even the morning of the race, you're going to still have some pre-race carbs to, again, just top things off. Because even though we're tapering, we're still using some energy during those days before the race. is that a shakeout run or you're walking around the...

Erika (1:01:08)
Keep going. Yep.

Mmm.

Alex Larson (1:01:31)
the expo of your race, like you're still getting movement and your body's still using carbs. So ⁓ yeah, you want to just stay up on that. That's why we kind of calculate your needs and then fuel for the race and you go into the race well-stocked up and ready to go. And you'll feel kind of like a puffed up chip bag is how I describe it, because those glycogen stores are real full. There's some water weight in there that's going to help keep you hydrated. ⁓ you'll just honestly, that's what...

Erika (1:01:34)
Right.

You're not wrong.

Alex Larson (1:02:01)
That's what that final 10K feels really great when you had a good proper carb load. Whenever I have a marathoner that's never done a proper carb load, I'm like, just you wait for that final 10K. And they're like, my God, I've never felt so strong in the last two miles. They're like, I practically sprinted. And I'm like, yeah, that's that carb load there. It's coming in clutch.

Erika (1:02:18)
Yep.

to say, so I just had last weekend my gold marathon for like this whole winter I trained for it and I actually figured out my carb ratios, whatever worked for me and I did not hit the wall. I felt fantastic and I was like, I've never done this before. I had to go back and figure out what I did and I did use the Scratch Labs super high carb and I probably made way too much but like...

Alex Larson (1:02:40)
Yay!

Erika (1:02:50)
I had enough fuel through the whole thing and it was great. I had a vest, so I had two flasks with it. And I even make it a little extra concentrated because they're bigger than ⁓ what the bag calls for. So it's like 500 mils. But I wound up making more because I have the two flasks. So I had enough.

Alex Larson (1:02:51)
Did you carry a handheld then? okay. Nice.

Yeah, have a vest for the bike and I

love it so much. It's so slick. just, I have to practice finishing all of the fluid in there. That's what I'm working on right now is practicing. Like I have to count how many gulps I'm taking each time and like watch the clock and make sure that I stay on top of it, that I finish it all so that I get all the carbs from it. That's the trick about the liquids is you have to actually drink it in order to get those carbs.

Erika (1:03:20)
Mm-hmm.

There you go. Yep,

exactly. But I nailed it. I was really proud of myself. But thank you. But out of like, yeah, I felt really good. But out of the 57 marathons I've done so far, that was the first one I didn't bonk in. So wild.

Alex Larson (1:03:40)
Awesome! I'm so excited for you, Erika! Congrats!

Eric (1:03:43)
Brand new PR. Crushed it.

Alex Larson (1:03:53)
Isn't that wild?

That's amazing. Yeah.

Eric (1:03:56)
earned it. Absolutely earned it.

Erika (1:03:57)
Yeah, but this

is such good information, Alex. I'm so glad we had you to back on to talk to us. And yes, she is. Yes. Absa frickin' Lutely.

Alex Larson (1:04:03)
Well now I'm your nutrition guru. have to have, I gotta be a regular now.

Eric (1:04:03)
You are. You are. We're gonna make it

yearly now, not every two years. I keep thinking of things, so we're all over the map, I know that. But I like that you said this is, everyone's very individualized. And let me tell you, I've never had a nutrition coach, I don't even Google it a lot. And what I think a good bit of runners do is they kind of just read what the label says. So for instance,

Erika (1:04:14)
Go for it.

Eric (1:04:31)
And this doesn't work for me. So I'm telling you right now, I've learned this doesn't work, so I need to figure it out. But the label on a gel or blocks will say, take one 15 minutes before and then like every 30 minutes. And at some point, if this is more than 10 miles, I don't want to take another gel. How do you work with your clients and your athletes about

Alex Larson (1:04:31)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:04:56)
mixing it up and not always having the same thing on a run that gets you through it because eventually on my third gel I'm like I'm done with gels and that's how I felt on my last marathon and I just powered through the last 10 miles and didn't take another gel. Right. So and I regretted it but I was done and I will say Ironman training I always like to pull from the course and when I did the Ironman I would pull from the course and it'd be chips and pretzels and coke it was great. You don't have that at a marathon.

Erika (1:05:06)
That's texture fatigue.

Alex Larson (1:05:09)
Yeah.

No.

Yeah.

Eric (1:05:23)
And I got to

figure that out because I don't like to carry a lot of fuel with me. I always like to pull and I think I need to start adapting here.

Alex Larson (1:05:32)
Yeah, a couple options are you could mix, have a variety of different gels with different flavor profiles. The precision hydration gels are very neutral flavored. They're just kind of sweet. ⁓ Same thing with Morton gels. To me, the Morton gels taste like marshmallows, but it's just the texture that's a little bit thick. Yeah.

Eric (1:05:57)
I gotta try it. Couple people

have said Morton's, I've never had a Morton's yet.

Alex Larson (1:06:02)
They're expensive. That's like the biggest downside of them. These are just like so pricey. But I will say once you get used to the texture, they go down really clean. Like they don't coat your mouth and like leave that like gel flavor there where you're like having to always drink water to kind of get it all down. The other one that comes to mind is doing the gels that are higher carb amounts. So you don't have to take as many.

Erika (1:06:19)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Larson (1:06:31)
There's some that will have 40 in there the precision hydration has 30 cis beta fuel Morton have 40 grams of carb gels and then there's one that's called carbs fuel That's 50 grams of car per gel. It is a it's a larger Joe if I had what have some hair. Hello

Erika (1:06:45)
Aha!

Love it.

Alex Larson (1:06:52)
So here's a regular Morton gel and here's the carbs fuel. So you can see it's quite a bit more, but very neutral flavor. It's got kind of a texture of maple syrup, maybe a little bit thicker than maple syrup. 50 grams of carb per gel and ⁓ this is $2 versus this one's like four. Yeah. So this one's the steel, this carbs fuel.

Erika (1:06:56)
wow.

Eric (1:06:57)
wow.

Yeah.

Erika (1:07:14)
Four, at least. huh. Wow!

Yeah.

Alex Larson (1:07:20)
I am kind of a fan of this one, but I usually rotate between a few different ones in my training. And I used to, in my triathlon days, I would not take gels, but that was like 10 years ago and our only options were basically goo. And honey stinger, I think was pretty new still. And now it's actually one of my favorites, like outside of hydration mixes.

Erika (1:07:37)
Mm.

Eric (1:07:43)
big

white one, the carbs, the carbs fuel one.

Alex Larson (1:07:45)
I will do the Morton. ⁓ I'll do Carbs Fuel and then Precision is probably the other one that I'll do. ⁓

Erika (1:07:53)
actually have

the precision drink mix, like the high carb drink mix that they have too. That's good. It tastes good.

Alex Larson (1:07:56)
Yeah, yeah, they're really

neutral. It's a good product. ⁓ But I have a lot of athletes that like the cis beta fuel, ⁓ which is 40 grams. So there's lots of options where you don't have to take quite as many gels, but you're going to get more carbs from them. just have to practice it and make sure your gut is used to taking a little bit higher quantity versus taking like a 20 gram gel every 20 minutes.

Eric (1:08:11)
This is great.

Erika (1:08:22)
So fun fact thing that just to share with some listeners. So I do really like the Scratch Lab stuff. And I saw that you can make your own gels out of the super high carb stuff by mixing it with like an applesauce, like one of the go-go squeezes. I want to because I have a real texture problem. Like I cannot do gels, but I do like applesauce. And I feel like it won't make it that much.

Eric (1:08:23)
This is great.

Alex Larson (1:08:33)
I saw that too.

I haven't done it yet, but like that's super intriguing.

Same.

Erika (1:08:50)
thicker with, cause it's like two scoops of the super high carb mix. So I'm gonna, I'm going to try it and I will report back because I'm just super intrigued about it. I bought one of those little reusable flasks, like the tiny ones. So you can make your own like gels in it and yeah, reusable washable. So I'm really, I'm really intrigued on, how to do that. But I figure I'm like, ⁓ for, for Chicago and New York, they don't let you bring vests. Like those are not allowed for the big majors.

Alex Larson (1:08:57)
At two.

Yeah, they're like a silicone thing,

Yeah.

Erika (1:09:19)
I'm

sure I could carry the flasks a different way, but I just don't like to. I got to think of some other ways to get those carbs in.

Alex Larson (1:09:29)
Yeah,

the Brooks three pocket sports bra has, you could do like the back pocket. I don't know if I'd put the fluss.

Erika (1:09:35)
God, that's so smart.

Because that's where people

put the phone instead. ⁓

Alex Larson (1:09:42)
Yeah, you could put it back

there. That would be out of the way. I wouldn't put it in the pocket like on your side because your arm would bump and you might get some chafing, but I I would stick it right in there ⁓ because you'd have a little more space.

Erika (1:09:48)
Mm-hmm. I just squish it everywhere. that's really smart.

Eric (1:09:58)
I don't have that option. Yeah, yeah, I mean I would get some support but.

Erika (1:09:58)
That is, sorry, There you go.

Alex Larson (1:10:00)
You should wear that Brooks Three Pocket Sports Bra, Eric, in New York.

For those moves!

Eric (1:10:08)
for the moves.

I, you're awesome. got one more and I'm going to save the rest for later for the next time. morning runners versus evening runners, or even just someone who does more morning workouts versus evening workouts, what are some key things a morning runner has to focus on after their run throughout the day? And then what are key things someone who works out at night has to focus on besides just going to bed right away?

Alex Larson (1:10:14)
Okay.

Erika (1:10:14)
absolutely.

Alex Larson (1:10:36)
Yeah. Okay. So let's start with the morning. Um, do you get your morning workout done? Have a really good breakfast to kickstart that recovery and then make sure that you're having it again. We talked about this earlier. A good, good, decent actual lunch, not like a side salad and a half a sandwich. I'm talking like a meal and then some sort of afternoon snack and then a dinner. Like you have to provide that consistent supply of energy so that your body recovers really nicely from that workout.

Erika (1:11:04)
Mmm.

Alex Larson (1:11:05)
and you're ready to go for the next morning. Because if you under-fuel all day, you might have like sweets cravings, endless hunger in the evenings, kind of have this binge, and then going to bed uncomfortably full, not sleeping well, and then like starting this really nasty little cycle. So that's where I would focus on if you're a morning runner. In the evening,

⁓ Pretty similar advice, but I would just make sure that you're timing out how you're fueling around that evening workout, kind of depending on how late you're running. If you're doing like a, you get done with work at four, you're doing like a 4.30, five o'clock run, then having dinner afterwards, then I would have like an afternoon snack sometime at work to use as fuel for that run. If you're running really late in the evening, maybe a treadmill workout after the kids go to bed.

Then I would have like an early dinner and give yourself enough time for that meal to digest. And then having some sort of like post-run ⁓ recovery snack or maybe protein shake of some sort with some carbs and then getting yourself to bed. ⁓ I know it can be tough sometimes to get your body to like relax after that evening ride, but some people are pros and they can just pass out easily.

Erika (1:12:16)
Mmm.

That is not me. I am the evening runner, but if I don't get it done at like five o'clock and it goes any later, I am up till like midnight.

Alex Larson (1:12:26)
Yeah, yeah.

And if you don't have like a good breakfast or lunch, like you can go into that afternoon run really like low energy and really suffer and like almost like hungry low energy. It's not fun. So yeah, that consistency and routine and schedule of eating is so important.

Erika (1:12:35)
Mm.

Mmm.

Doesn't your body get used to when you eat too? So like if you're not eating at like a certain time, you get hungry too. Like my body is used to eating it this time. I should eat.

Eric (1:12:46)
That's awesome.

Alex Larson (1:12:55)
Yeah, and some people like they do that every day. They skip meals and then their body just kind of gets used to that. And then they report to me, I don't ever get hungry. I'm like, well, yeah, because you don't feed your body. It's not used to getting fed. And so after like a week or two of them actually eating a breakfast and a lunch, they're like, oh, my God, I get hungry now at meals. I'm like, yeah, your body's happy. It's ready. It's metabolism is running. It's things are happening. And so, yeah, we're going to have to stay on the schedule now.

Erika (1:13:13)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:13:22)
Well, this has been great. You've given us so much good information and last year as I was training for a marathon, think my biggest struggle was one, finding the time to get the runs in when I needed. I'm not a Saturday long run person. I made it Fridays because weekends are impossible. But then sometimes it'd be like, how can I squeeze in a run? And I wasn't properly planning my fueling throughout the day. So this year, the goal is to better align the two and we'll probably talk soon, but...

Alex Larson (1:13:37)
Nice.

Eric (1:13:50)
That was enough nutrition talk or maybe, our questions until next time. But what I really want to talk about is something I love and I'm passionate about, and that's podcasting. And since you've been on last time, you started your own podcast, the endurance eats podcast. want to hear all about this. Tell me more.

Alex Larson (1:14:00)
Yeah.

Yeah, it's always been on my radar. I think you and I talked about it like two years ago. I was like, yeah, someday I'll do a podcast. just I needed to get to a point in my life where I could do it justice. You know, I like anything that I do, I want to do it really well. I want it to be well thought out, well planned. And so, yeah, in twenty twenty four, when we started out the year and we were talking about goals, I was like, OK, let's plan out this podcast and.

because I'm a busy mom of three now, I do seasons. So we just finished season one, which started January one of this year. We wrapped up end of March. So we 15 episodes in season one. I do have some bonus mid-season episodes that are getting released now between now and July when we release season two. So it allows me to kind of catch back up because I try and record almost everything while in advance so that we can edit, it can prep.

Erika (1:14:41)
nice.

Mm-hmm.

Alex Larson (1:15:05)
promotional stuff for it. I can take some time to reflect on the season. What hit, what didn't get listened to as much. So I can tweak more episodes that I know people are interested in learning about. so like we had a season or episode two was all about creatine. I had a researcher on creatine come and it was been wildly popular. Yeah, you should definitely listen to it with Dr. Scott Forbes. It was awesome.

Erika (1:15:28)
I know what I'm going to listen to next. I'm going to check it out.

Alex Larson (1:15:34)
I just got to answer all of the questions that I had myself and that what I knew other people had for questions. And in season two, I'm having an expert on caffeine and then an expert come on ketones as another one that I get a lot of questions about. I'm really researching who I want to have on as a guest to like ask the tangible act.

Erika (1:15:45)
Ooh.

Eric (1:15:46)
I

need that one.

Erika (1:15:49)
my god.

Alex Larson (1:15:58)
applicable questions, like not just like the research, but like how do we take this information and apply it to just an everyday real world person that needs that information to be successful as a rest.

Erika (1:16:08)
That's great.

ketones are another thing Instagram's trying to sell me.

Alex Larson (1:16:16)
well,

all the pro athletes promoting that, I'm like, you are not taking that. That tastes like crap.

It does. It tastes awful. I haven't tried it, but I've just like heard all I hear from people is like, it tastes horrible. So bad. So bad. It's expensive. And I'm like, why would you, why would you just, why would you buy that? Like just buy Morton gels if you're going to spend your money.

Erika (1:16:26)
have not tried it.

Mm-hmm.

Still an interesting topic.

Eric (1:16:42)
So

you said seasons, so you record everything and then you plan it all out and then say all the episodes are done, whether it's 10 or 15, whatever, and then you plan out the release drop dates. So are they weekly or are twice a week?

Alex Larson (1:16:49)
Mm-hmm.

They're weekly, yes. So every week, ⁓ this season one we did the first week released three episodes on the launch day. So that was ⁓ just a little bit different. Just so there was some, few episodes to listen to that first week. ⁓ But yeah, it's weekly. ⁓ The bonus episodes are about every other week here. And they're a little bit shorter and fun. I see your cat there. I love it.

Erika (1:17:21)
I told you she was going to come. She's sitting on the

side. Yeah, the little tail's like coming in. All right. Sorry. ⁓

Alex Larson (1:17:27)
Yeah, so anyways,

Eric (1:17:27)
So

you say.

Alex Larson (1:17:28)
yeah, it's been honestly so fun to have a new way to serve this amazing endurance community.

Eric (1:17:35)
It's a lot of fun. And you must have just dropped a bonus, because I listened to the solo one where you talked a lot more about cycling, and I was like, yes, because I've been seeing the content. How much of a role does Hannah and Mary play in your team, or is this really just a you project?

Alex Larson (1:17:50)
It's mainly a me project, they were ⁓ in two episodes of season one. And then this last bonus episode, they just came on and we talked about her own fueling plans because Mary's running Boston. And I wanted her to share more about how she plans to fuel herself for that race. And she's a very well-seasoned marathoner. And then Hannah just had a baby.

a year ago and so her husband is doing Boston. He does a lot of racing and so she shared some insights of how he does his fueling and then I have an upcoming gravel race here in about a month. So I'm kind of planning out my own race nutrition. see how it goes. I'm just I'm like getting into it. It's like basically from starting from scratch here because it's been so long since I've done any like significant like intense racing. So

Erika (1:18:32)
Yes! ⁓

Alex Larson (1:18:43)
Stay tuned for more updates on how that goes.

Eric (1:18:47)
Can't wait to hear about it.

Erika (1:18:47)
That sounds like so much

fun.

Alex Larson (1:18:49)
Yeah.

Eric (1:18:51)
right, Alex, I'm doing something new. We've never really done this, but let's do some rapid fire real quick. you don't have to dive. You can spare the details on this one, all right? As we like to say, spare no details. Spare the details. Favorite morning snack before a long endurance day.

Alex Larson (1:18:56)
Okay.

Okay, I'll try, I'll try.

Pancakes with syrup.

Erika (1:19:11)
All right, favorite fuel.

Alex Larson (1:19:14)
I already shared this but I shared the three gels that I've been rotating through and then the super head carb.

Eric (1:19:22)
All right, favorite post long endurance day meal.

Alex Larson (1:19:32)
I have this dish that I make. It's like Asian noodles with some ground beef and vegetables in it. And I just use ramen noodles because those are cheap and easy and they hold together really nice. ⁓ It's like, and so my husband loves like Chinese noodles, like from a Chinese restaurant, but it took me ⁓ quite a long time to finally find a sauce that was like legit.

Eric (1:19:44)
They're so good too.

Erika (1:19:46)
Sounds delicious.

Alex Larson (1:19:59)
And when I found it, I tried it first and I was like, I did it. And he's like, we shall see. And he sits down with his little bowl and he like takes a bite and he looks at me. goes, Alex, you did it. I go, I know. It was so exciting. ⁓ So I have to, I have to put the recipe together and put it on my blog. I haven't gotten to it yet, but honestly it would make.

Erika (1:19:59)
Mmm.

You

I'd to make that too.

Alex Larson (1:20:24)
great like post-workout or even like a carb loading one because you'd get a really good like preload of sodium too. So I have to I have to put it together and actually put it on my blog. I haven't yet but that's probably my favorite. It's so good. So good.

Erika (1:20:35)
I'll be making that one. I like to

do that with a teriyaki, like teriyaki sauce and stuff. I am a big teriyaki fiend.

Alex Larson (1:20:42)
Mmm.

Yeah, this uses a dark soy sauce, which is definitely different than regular soy sauce. It's worth getting the dark soy sauce. It just like it's so rich and like, hmm. Yep. It's legit.

Erika (1:20:46)
Ooh.

So that sounds really actually not like not that bad for you, but what is your favorite cheat meal or snack or drink?

Alex Larson (1:21:04)
I don't really use that term cheat meals because like food has no moral value, but ⁓ if I were to like splurge, I was going to treat myself. Honestly, I'd go for like sushi because I don't know how to make that at home. So anytime we go to eat, I'm like, let's go get something that I can't make at home. it's yeah. And if it's got like, ⁓ what's that?

Erika (1:21:10)
Mm-hmm.

like a treat yourself kind of thing. What are you going to treat yourself with?

Ooh.

There you go.

Alex Larson (1:21:33)
Shrimp tempura in it. I just love that. So good.

Eric (1:21:38)
All right, what's your favorite thing to do in Minnesota?

Alex Larson (1:21:42)
Go to the lake. Go to the cabin in the summer. It's the best.

Erika (1:21:47)
Sounds wonderful. is your favorite part of your podcast?

Alex Larson (1:21:52)
Truly it has been the feedback from people once things get published. I was very nervous. I like, are people going to like it? And I was speaking on a panel at a local running shoe store in February. during the Q &A, this woman like...

raises her hand. She goes, I just want to share that your podcast is my favorite podcast to listen to. And I like thought I was going to explode and just like, like I was so honored. So it was really sweet to just hear like that feedback from people that it's helping them with, ⁓ with their nutrition, ⁓ that it's casual enough, ⁓ that it's easy to listen to and understand. It's not too sciencey where you have to think a lot, but it's like, you can get some tangible advice from. Yeah.

Erika (1:22:44)
You nailed the

balance between fun and educational.

Alex Larson (1:22:48)
Yeah, that's

like totally my goal and so when they like, when they come back and give me that feedback I'm like, my god I did it. So that's been probably the best part because it's so much work as you guys know to put together a podcast. It's not, it's not an easy undertaking. Yeah.

Erika (1:22:59)
Eric knows.

Eric (1:23:03)
love it. I absolutely freaking love it. It's a lot of fun. And if you ever have questions for me, ask, ask away. All right. This one has been a debate for a while. Before you go to bed, when you go to brush your teeth, do you put toothpaste on the toothbrush, then water, or do you go water, then toothpaste, and then water?

Alex Larson (1:23:10)
Yeah, I will.

⁓ I do toothpaste first and then water. Is it? I didn't know there was a right or wrong way.

Eric (1:23:29)
That's the way to do it. That's the correct way. I

think that settles the debate, Erica. I'm right, you're not.

Erika (1:23:33)
There shouldn't be.

I do water, toothpaste, and then water, because I feel like it makes extra bubbles somehow. Like more water. But what the hell do I know? It's just how I do it.

Alex Larson (1:23:42)
⁓ okay.

Well, I think if

I've ever put like what the toothbrush first, I've always put water then on after the toothpaste because I don't know. Like I just like, well, I've.

Erika (1:23:55)
Yeah, I

have to do it both ways. It's like a water sandwich with toothpaste in the middle. I don't know. Good question, Eric.

Alex Larson (1:24:00)
okay.

Eric (1:24:03)
All right, now, now

Alex, you get the two big questions we always ask. You're familiar with one because it's never changed, but mine changes every year. This year, we are having an on the runs imaginary, maybe we'll really do it though, pasta dinner where all our guests from 2025 are coming to the pasta dinner and we're going to carb load and we're going to eat all the good stuff. And you get to bring a plus one. You can bring anybody alive or dead.

Alex Larson (1:24:07)
Okay.

you

Erika (1:24:25)
Yes.

Eric (1:24:32)
for only one person. Who are you going to bring?

Alex Larson (1:24:36)
My gosh, have so many people that pop in my head. Like at first, just to be funny, I was like Obama because I miss that man so much. But is she OK? Good, because I love her so much. Well, maybe we won't bring Obama because we don't need them as a couple. ⁓ I also did anyone say did anyone say Taylor Swift? ⁓ she would be really fun. But I know Jason Kelce looks like a hoot.

Erika (1:24:43)
Didn't we have somebody say Michelle? Yeah

Eric (1:24:44)
Well guess what? Michelle's coming already.

And he's dating Jennifer Aniston, so we don't need drama.

Not yet.

Erika (1:24:59)
No!

Alex Larson (1:25:05)
Like he just looks hilarious and he just be a party. So I'd bring the party with Jason.

Eric (1:25:05)
Yeah.

Erika (1:25:05)
You

Eric (1:25:09)
All right. I

Erika (1:25:09)
All right.

Eric (1:25:10)
like

that one. I like that one. So we got some great people because we have, we have Jason Kelsey now. We have Michelle Obama. We have Oprah. We have Jesus. We have Lewis Hamilton. Erica, who am I missing? Fidipities? We have some good people. We have some good people here. I love it.

Erika (1:25:18)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Larson (1:25:18)
Jesus, ⁓ my God.

Erika (1:25:25)
Vidipities.

Alex Larson (1:25:30)
Okay, all right.

Erika (1:25:32)
We've got

quite the assortment and I love it.

Alex Larson (1:25:35)
Yeah.

Eric (1:25:36)
And Erica and I were both very excited for Michelle Obama. So we hope we can make that happen.

Erika (1:25:40)
Honestly, yes, I love her.

Alex Larson (1:25:42)
I adore her, she's amazing.

Erika (1:25:45)
got arms to die for too. Come on.

Alex Larson (1:25:48)
Yeah, she's

just this very strong, powerful, like, person to have in the world. I just love her. Yeah.

Erika (1:25:53)
Yes. Yes to all of that.

All right, Alex, so you you actually know my question because you have chosen a song before, but I still am going strong with this Spotify playlist. I just looked it up. You picked fire from Gavin DeGraw. So that is a great, great song. But would you like to add another one to our Spotify playlist?

Alex Larson (1:26:03)
I don't remember what I said.

did I? Okay. All right.

⁓

yeah, I will add Alive from SIA.

Erika (1:26:23)
Ooh, we have, everybody chooses Unstoppable, but I don't actually know this one by her. So now we got Alive by Sia.

Alex Larson (1:26:30)
Mm-hmm. Sometimes

like it comes on and I'm just like, I'm alive like like in my during my workout just like Yeah Yeah, just like I'm alive and suffering and yeah Yeah

Erika (1:26:35)
Perfect. Gives you those vibes. Keep going strong.

Feeling good.

Excellent choice.

Eric (1:26:46)
Well, this was,

well, this was awesome. Real quick, ⁓ Minnesota golden golfers or Minnesota Duluth bulldogs. Bulldogs. That's right. Cause you're, you're up there in Duluth. So I figured I wanted to ask that one.

Alex Larson (1:26:53)
bulldogs.

I am, yeah,

my husband would probably say Bulldogs now, but he is, it would be really hard for him to like stray from the gophers. He likes, he likes the gophers.

Eric (1:27:09)
You

got six division one hockey teams in Minnesota alone and that, that high school tournament is massive there.

Alex Larson (1:27:12)
I know.

Erika (1:27:14)
I had to...

Alex Larson (1:27:17)
Yeah, people come from all over to come. It is insane and it's really good hockey to watch. It's very, very good.

Eric (1:27:19)
Yeah.

It is, but what's up with all

their like haircuts they have for the the announcements when they all skate up to the blue line? Yeah, it's well, it's it's not hockey hair. They juice they do ridiculous stuff with their hair just for that one moment.

Alex Larson (1:27:28)
the hockey hair? Yeah.

Yeah, so they have this random guy that does a YouTube special afterwards where he will like rank the hockey hair. so the like bigger, curlier, bleached color usually does well. Yeah, it's usually bleached and it's they're awful, awful. oftentimes like facial hair involved because these are like high school boys. And so

Eric (1:27:51)
Yeah, it's usually bleached.

Erika (1:27:52)
man.

Eric (1:28:02)
Yeah.

Alex Larson (1:28:05)
Yeah, it's ridiculous. But the video of like the hockey hair is actually quite funny and entertaining.

Eric (1:28:12)
It is

entertainment. It's a hoot. Yes, ⁓ it's a classic every time.

Erika (1:28:14)
Send it to me, I need to know what this is about.

Alex Larson (1:28:18)
Yeah,

if you just type Minnesota State High School hockey hair, you can go back years of this guy. does a little YouTube thing and it's been around a while. And so yeah, these kids, they grow out their hair all season long in hopes that they get to stage so that they can do the hockey hair.

Erika (1:28:21)
hockey here.

so this has been around for a while. Good to know.

Eric (1:28:28)
Yeah. yeah. Yeah.

So Erica, the state championship game for all the Minnesota divisions is where the Minnesota wild play their NHL games. We do the same thing in Boston. They all play at the garden where the Bruins play, but they don't typically sell at the garden except for maybe the elite eight game. Every game at the Excel center in St. Paul, Minnesota is sold out.

Erika (1:28:46)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Alex Larson (1:28:59)
sold out.

Yeah, it's wild. It's it's really good. I mean, there's recruiters that come because a lot of the kids get, you know, to end up in it. I mean, I'm sure the because Morehead ⁓ won this year and there I don't know if he's an actual coach or if he's like just an assistant but as Matt, Matt Cullen, who is a former ⁓ professional.

Erika (1:29:02)
Awesome.

Eric (1:29:04)
Yeah.

It's the state of hockey.

Erika (1:29:13)
I love it.

Alex Larson (1:29:25)
hockey player. played for the Wild for the last couple years of his career. And so his kid was on the team. And then there is this, I think it's Mason Kraft is also on there. There's guaranteed he's going to end up in the NHL. He he scored so many goals that tournament. was wild. So yeah, it's fun to watch because you're going to see them playing pro here in the future. But yeah, it's like hockey is just life up here in Minnesota.

Erika (1:29:38)
Wow, wow.

Eric (1:29:45)
I'm-

Yeah, I'm looking around my room

right now because I got the boys little mini Minnesota Wild hockey sticks when I was there and I had to take them away because they became weapons and I'm like, where is it? want to show you but I promise you I have three of them.

Alex Larson (1:29:54)
Yay. yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, I believe you. And I believe that they used them as weapons because we have the little floor hockey sticks and they're hiding in my office right now because we had my nephews over and I was like, yeah, they're gonna chip a tooth here with these. ⁓

Eric (1:30:04)
yes.

Erika (1:30:04)
Children.

Eric (1:30:13)
Right, right, they're gonna be like me. I don't know,

little secret here, Alex.

Alex Larson (1:30:19)
You have a chipped tooth. my god!

Erika (1:30:19)
He's got his, yep, his,

He doesn't do that for many people, you're special.

Eric (1:30:23)
I have a chip

tooth too. I have a wicked chip tooth too. yeah. yeah. Yeah. The chip tooth was street hockey, was swinging a stick around or something like that. yeah. Well, hey, this was awesome. You're great. You are now the official like, can we make this yearly? Can we bring you on? We'll prep maybe.

Alex Larson (1:30:28)
From hockey? Yeah, of course.

sweet. Love it.

Erika (1:30:35)
you

Alex Larson (1:30:42)
Yeah, heck, we can do

it every six months, as much as you need.

Erika (1:30:46)
Love it.

Eric (1:30:46)
Yeah,

we'll do stuff. We'll make sure every episode is a little different. We're asking different questions. We'll prep better. Maybe we can like get aligned with the topic we want to talk about, maybe off season nutrition versus. Yeah.

Alex Larson (1:30:56)
Yeah, we could pull your audience on Instagram and just ask them

what they have questions on and put me in the hot seat. Honestly, I'm very comfortable just being rapid fired. Yes, love it.

Erika (1:31:01)
Yes.

We could do an Ask Alex Anything.

Eric (1:31:09)
And AMAA. Well, well, hey, this is great. And I really hope everyone listening enjoyed this because as we all know from last year, that marathon for me was a struggle because I hadn't done one in a while and it was a few years since my first Ironman. So everything I was doing, Alex, was no more than a half a marathon. And I could crush that off a few gels and, and just good, good running and training.

Erika (1:31:13)
Yes, sure.

Alex Larson (1:31:36)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:31:36)
And then

I was very humbled last November and I said, no marathons this year. Let's just stick to halves. And then I got into New York and I felt like I had to try cause my sister was running and I got in. So I need to do better. We'll chat more. And this was a lot of fun. This was super fun and I'm glad I got my questions out there. And I hope everyone listening enjoyed that too.

Alex Larson (1:31:46)
Jinxed it

Erika (1:32:00)
you gotta let everybody know where they can find you.

Alex Larson (1:32:03)
I'm on social media at AlexLarsenNutrition and my website is AlexLarsenNutrition.com and as we said before, my podcast is Endurance Eats on Spotify, Apple, all the places, on YouTube as well. So you can check it out.

Eric (1:32:13)
Check it out.

Erika (1:32:17)
Excellent.

Eric (1:32:18)
Check it out and support Alex, like we've said, for anyone who is helping us brand wise, you guys go out there and you support them. Support Alex too, show that it works and go there, listen to her podcast, give her all the ratings too and subscribe and watch everything. Support the people who support us, because we love them, they're awesome. You're wicked awesome, Alex, something we like to say here in the Northeast. Thank you for doing this so much.

Alex Larson (1:32:37)
Oh, thank you.

I appreciate it.

Erika (1:32:46)
Alex, ⁓ thank you for coming back on. We missed you. You were just so awesome sharing more of your knowledge. We appreciate you. And we can't wait to get you back for another one because you're always welcome, OG pod fam.

Eric (1:32:59)
That was fantastic

because do you remember when we got the email from her PR lady, Genevieve? And I forwarded it to you and I was like, what do you think? We could do a few things with this. Do we just say, we already had her on, thanks, but no. Or do we say, let's have her back on, ask her some new questions? That's kind how the conversation went with Genevieve. Like, okay, what direction would we go with this? And then Alex kind of brought up, I forget if it was.

Erika (1:33:12)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Eric (1:33:27)
during the recording or off air, like she would come back and do more of this. And I started thinking like, okay, we could have our own OTR nutritionist that comes on every once in a while and talks nutrition. And maybe every time could be a different topic. Maybe we have people call in or like on Instagram send a question. I think the call-ins would be cool though. I would love to do that. Like, you know, maybe they...

Erika (1:33:50)
Yeah, we got tons of options. Ooh, definitely. Yes. You think people

would do that? Or do we need a poll?

Eric (1:33:57)
Maybe they record something.

think it would like maybe so next time guys, let us know what you think next time would take your questions, what you want to ask her. Now it's, hard because it's also very individualized. So there would kind of have to be basic questions that aren't, like if you ask, what should I have during my marathon? Like that's hard because if it's a question on an Instagram thing or Colin, you really don't know.

Erika (1:34:11)
That is true.

Okay. ⁓

Eric (1:34:27)
who the person is or anything about them. So that's the tough part.

Erika (1:34:29)
could be a question

like, if I eat an entire cheese pizza and drink a six pack, will I PR my half marathon like Eric did that one time? Except it wasn't a cheese pizza. Yeah.

Eric (1:34:38)
with with like a couple hours of sleep and a night

in the hot tub and yeah. Right, right, ⁓ but that was awesome. Alex from Minnesota, two weeks in a row, a Minnesota guest. Love them.

Erika (1:34:45)
What will happen? What's the worst that can happen?

We've had a

lot of random Minnesota stuff lately. So we've had the awesome guests of Alex and Ellen. And then also we've found random like events that have been happening in Minnesota. One of them being like a lettuce eating competition. What was the other one?

Eric (1:34:57)
lately too. Well,

Yeah, and then a pencil event.

Like, I don't know if my phone thinks I'm still in Minnesota for my work trips and that we're talking to people from Minnesota, but we saw a pencil event and like everyone's dressed as pencils. They had this huge pencil and they were sharpening. We're talking like bigger than the wavy, wacky inflatable tube guy.

Erika (1:35:17)
Sending you stuff,

you

Yeah,

it was enormous. It was probably at least like 15 feet high. I don't know. It was just a very random event that people really got into. So they're doing it right over in Minnesota. Having some fun.

Eric (1:35:39)
I know, huge crowds. Hey, the other thing we need to do

is we need to congratulate Alex because she just raced in a gravel bike race, got super muddy. Go check out the photos, like her face is covered in mud. And I think she shocked herself a little bit because she like went really hard for 20 miles and felt amazing and got second place. And I don't think she was expecting any of that.

Erika (1:35:53)
Yeah, Alex!

you go girl. That's fantastic. That is not an easy sport.

Eric (1:36:08)
posting to, no, and she's

posting to AOHunter stories just like, I can't believe it. This is like, wow, yesterday was so many. I love that she's found this like sport of gravel biking and getting really competitive with it. Like she talked about how she did a lot of trainer rides and she wasn't comfortable going outside and now she's racing, getting all muddy and dirty in Minnesota. It's freaking awesome.

Erika (1:36:17)
She worked hard for that.

Yeah.

you out. That sounds

so fun. And we know how hard she worked for that. So she earned that second place.

Eric (1:36:40)
So she's great. Guys, if you really like, we don't have any deals through Alex, reach out to her, check it in the show notes. She, I think she works really well with endurance athletes. And if you're training for anything like half marathon, marathon, bigger ultras, Ironmans, like she's done all these races. She knows a lot about her. Like this is her full-time job. She has a team of people who work for her. So this is super cool.

Erika (1:37:01)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:37:09)
And I love that we connected with her years ago. So she was one of the very first people to reach out to us to come on the podcast long time ago. I'll always remember that day getting a message. got to that day. She was one of them. And I was like, Erica, someone wants to be on the podcast. And I didn't reach out to them. They reach out to us and then it happened again. An hour later, I'm like, my God, what's happening?

Erika (1:37:19)
I love it. Yay.

We did!

Yay.

Eric (1:37:39)
It was awesome. Hey, you know what else? We need to thank, we have partners, we have sponsors. This is so cool. Like 171 episodes, we have partners and sponsors to talk about. Huge thank you, Erica, showing it right there on the screen. MyRaceTats, forward is a pace. Don from MyRaceTats is awesome. Don't forget to check out his website. Click the link in the show notes. Whatever you purchase, 15 % of that sale, that purchase,

Erika (1:37:59)
Try.

Eric (1:38:08)
goes towards my New York City fundraising. The other one, Right Socks. They are doing the same thing. They stepped up and put the same money towards fundraising in the same affiliate link where 15 % of what you buy goes towards our fundraising. And let me tell you, I've been running with my two pairs of Right Socks the last couple of days and I lost them in the laundry. They're gonna pop up.

Erika (1:38:33)
Ha ha ha ha ha.

Eric (1:38:35)
But I have two pairs right now, different colors. So today on my run, I just like, well, I got a left and a right. I had a blue sock and a gray sock. They were amazing. They are like legit. They're amazing. I think when I go to buy more, I'm going to buy a little shorter ones. I they're a little high on my ankles, which is fine. Yeah. You got some long ones too that go like up the calf. How do you like that?

Erika (1:38:44)
It still works.

Yeah, those are the mini crews I think that you have, but I actually enjoy those. They make me feel young. ⁓

Actually, think Tara and or Lindsay took those. I kept the short ones because I have a lot. Yeah, let's do it.

Eric (1:39:07)
We're gonna have to get their report on the re-crap then. But

thank you to MyRacedHats and RightSocks. Thank you to Firefly, and I need to say this now.

Erika (1:39:17)
I'm listening.

Eric (1:39:18)
Of

all the things I give you crap for, I make sure to give you kudos. But UFOs has stepped up to the plate. And on August 2nd at the raffle night, you will have the chance to win a $100 UFOs gift card. Thanks to Erica!

Erika (1:39:37)
and my cousin Jen. Thank you, Jen.

Eric (1:39:39)
And her cousin, Jen. And I really

hope, Jen, if you're listening, I want to talk more. I want to partner more. want like, ⁓ can we make UFOs part of our on the runs family here somehow? Like I actually, we talk about them all the time. mean, basically free ads all the time. Hashtag no free ads as we used to say. We have another company. I'm going to talk about them right now. They have stepped up for the Ralph Knight as well. I have yet to receive what they are going to going to send, but there is a company out there.

Erika (1:39:50)
God, they know how much I love their shoes. I must have like 15 pairs.

Eric (1:40:08)
called Bare Butt Wipes. And I can't wait to get these and try them. And actually, I want to have the owner of the company, which is less than a year old, come on the podcast. Maybe around their one year anniversary, Sam, what do you think about that?

Erika (1:40:22)
That's special, I'd love that.

Eric (1:40:24)
I

wanna try these out, so I'm hoping, in a weird way I'm saying right now, I'm hop-

Erika (1:40:28)
You're hoping

that you're gonna have to take a shit while you're out for a run and there's no toilet paper and or a bathroom.

Eric (1:40:31)
Yeah. Well, because apparently

they're biodegradable. Which is... I've never heard of that before with like a wet wipe. Right! I'm super excited. So they're going to be at the raffle night too. Not them physically, they live in Tennessee, but their product, Bare Butt Wipes. Bare B-E-A-R.

Erika (1:40:37)
Mm, always a plus.

environmentally conscious. love it.

Eric (1:40:53)
I think it's clever. It's awesome. It's

Erika (1:40:54)
I like it.

Erika (1:40:56)
What did you do this weekend? I haven't heard a peep from you.

Eric (1:40:58)
Fast 5K.

man, well I just went for seven mile run because I missed it this weekend. A, it rained like downpour on Saturday and I get to pick and choose when I run. So I was like, hey, I'm gonna do it on And then Sunday rolls around and my parents, thank you so much to my parents. I gotta give them huge kudos.

Erika (1:41:06)
Mm.

Good for you.

Eric (1:41:20)
I expressed some frustration because of the weather and I'm not able to get a ton of yard work done. We're talking like not just cutting the grass, like cutting down trees and a ton of overgrown brush. We're talking trees that are like three, four inches thick, right? And I don't have all the right tools for it or the battery. Actually, my sage all like cutting one of these down, it burnt out. So now I got to go to Home Depot, get another one. And my parents came over Sunday. I thought,

Erika (1:41:42)
no.

Eric (1:41:48)
just to grab a bunch of brush, I took care of Saturday night. No, the three of us went to town because like they're there to kind of keep an eye on the boys at the same time. Ashley was home for a little bit of the time. We went to town. I have so much brush like ready. It's like probably three, four truckloads, trailers too, that we're gonna take. We could have a huge bonfire with all this. The yard looks great besides the mountain of all these, you know, cut down trees we cut.

Erika (1:41:51)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:42:16)
I, that was my weekend and I didn't get to run. So I ran today and I was like, I'm going to do a six mile loop. think this is six miles. Well, thinking isn't always my best thing either. I ran 7.3 and I'm proud of it. Yeah, not a big deal.

Erika (1:42:25)
you

There you go, long run, long

run. Got to get it in somehow. Good for you.

Eric (1:42:32)
Yep. Had a little bit, like the humidity caused a little bit of nip-shafe. Just, that doesn't happen to me. That's not a thing I get. I've gotten it once before. This was on like level one. It could have gotten worse if I kept running. If this was a big race, it would have gotten really bad. Like we're talking the Office Steve Carell, what's his name? Michael Scott, like situation. But we didn't even get there.

Erika (1:42:37)
Ooh, ooh. ⁓

⁓ huh. ⁓

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You need some nippies, is that what they call it?

Eric (1:43:02)
We weren't like Steve 305, he gets those. We love you, Steve. But yeah, I got in a run today because I didn't get to do it over the weekend. then I just, well, Adeline had a show at the Palace Theater. That's a funny story, actually. I got a funny story for you. It was great. It's called Anything Goes. She stole the show with her two lines. Absolutely did. So I went to the show on the second night by myself.

Erika (1:43:05)
⁓ Steve.

How'd that go? How'd it go? Yeah, go for it.

Really? That's adorable.

Eric (1:43:31)
and my mom came and watched the boys. I bought one ticket and when I bought the ticket the day of the show I was like, there's an aisle seat available. Yes. And I got the aisle seat. It's the only one available. I was like, this is unbelievable. Not just aisle, like at the end, aisle in the middle. So I had an amazing seat. And as I'm showing up to the Palace Theater and I'm walking over and I'm like, okay, here's my aisle. I know exactly where I'm sitting.

Erika (1:43:35)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:43:59)
row K seat two because one was on the opposite side. There's this old lady sitting in my seat and I'm like, ⁓ boy, ⁓ boy. I'm going to be like, yo, you're in my seat lady. Well, that wasn't the case. I was just like, ⁓ I think I'll sit in this one. That's fine. You can sit here. You're cool. She goes, no, no, no, I insist. And then she stands up and she's wearing a name tag that says the Palace Theater.

Erika (1:44:06)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:44:26)
and she volunteers there and gets to go to all the shows for free. So she had her family next to her in a row. And I thought it was weird when I bought the tickets, seats like two, three, four, and five were taken, but not seat one. Who would take four seats, but not the aisle? And she goes, right. They planned it that way thinking no one's gonna buy one ticket. But of course the dad who gets to go by himself, you know,

Erika (1:44:30)
Hmm.

Uh-huh.

She was just hoping nobody was gonna be there.

⁓

Eric (1:44:55)
on the last night of the show just so he can take his daughter home after bought that ticket. And they thought it was just, they thought it was comical. They weren't mad at all. And we chatted for a bit because their or her granddaughter was the main character. She was fantastic. But Adeline stole the show with her two lines. If she was here right now, I'd have her come over and just tell her lines because you would have thought they're hilarious.

Erika (1:45:03)
Mm-hmm.

Excellent.

Is she going to be home later? Maybe we can get her to log on.

Eric (1:45:24)
No, she has, my god, cheer season has already begun. Today is like outfit fitting, like size checks.

Erika (1:45:27)
Mmm.

How do

you guys do it, keeping track of all the activities? That must be so complicated.

Eric (1:45:34)
We got a calendar, we

got like this, it's called a sky calendar and it works on our phone, like the app. And then it's also like this flat 24 inch screen in our kitchen, touchscreen. we just, God, it's the only reason I have Facebook because all the cheerleading stuff is done on Facebook, schedule, practice, all that. It's the only reason. Maybe not the only, I know. So she's there right now and then she has dance. It never ends. It never ends. But you know what else never ends?

Erika (1:45:53)
Mm, mm, busy, busy, Good for you guys.

Do tell.

Eric (1:46:03)
This podcast because it's awesome.

Erika (1:46:06)
I hope it never ends.

Eric (1:46:08)
Couple of the notes before we wrap up again, back to the fundraising here, but we leave this for the outro because this is where our diehard fans listen. Hey, August 2nd, you guys know about that, the big raffle night, but next Monday

the first yoga night that I am going to make. It's at the Backyard Brewery in Londonderry. I think it's like $30 actually, to be honest, but Erica's gonna pony up and pay 30 for me, 30 for her. The money goes for yoga night goes to the entire team four. So we split that money. It's next Monday and also the second Monday of July and August.

Erika (1:46:32)
Sorry.

Eric (1:46:41)
Hopefully at one of those we'll do a live recording after. It's gonna be fun. I miss yoga. I need more of it in my life. As Erica always says, don't forget to stretch. I am hoping that we work on some hip flexibility, maybe some lower back. I'm gonna be there. I would love for all you to show up. I'll post about it on Instagram throughout the weekend. But yoga next Monday at the Backyard Brewery in Londonderry. I think it's 6 p.m. but check Instagram stories in my posts for that. I'm excited.

I used to do yoga three days a week before COVID and it was amazing. I want, actually, I'm gonna reach out to our listeners right now. Recently I've come across a stretching place called Stretch Lab Bedford. Have you ever heard of this?

Erika (1:47:27)
it but I've never been.

Eric (1:47:28)
I think that's what I need. Not a chiropractor. I need like a flexologist to stretch my body and to pull my body in ways that I can't do by myself. And I was on their website. I got like, dive deep in it. think Terra Teradactyl actually follows them. Does anyone know them? I want to go and get like a 50 minute, like,

Erika (1:47:37)
there you go.

feel like didn't Tara go?

Eric (1:47:54)
Did she?

Erika (1:47:55)
Feel like we talked about it and that's why I know about them because somebody we talked to did. Ha! Talk to her.

Eric (1:47:58)
maybe that's it's popped up in my algorithm. I want to go. Does anyone, anyone

want to go and do a stretch with me and hear like, my God, you have a fear of farting on an airplane. have a fear of like farting while I'm in a mid stretch.

Erika (1:48:12)
Dude, I'll go. We can fart together. They're gonna hate us. ⁓ no.

Eric (1:48:17)
I actually

think like this is something I'm going to check out. I don't know what it costs. I do know they have like a come and try it out type, you know, thing at a discount, but

Erika (1:48:26)
Mm-hmm.

Okay. Well, honestly, that's something I would be interested in too. I am very un-flexible. ⁓ I struggle there,

Eric (1:48:34)
I want to like, ⁓

I want them to like twist my body in ways I can't do it. And just, I know I've read their bio. It's like, it's not painful, but you definitely feel like the tension, but it feels amazing after. my God.

Erika (1:48:49)
Okay.

Dude, you should get a massage too. I am an advocate for that. I go once a month for 90 minutes and my girl Julia is amazing. ⁓ I have a couple of times and talk about another fear. I, God forbid, I fart on her table. Has not happened, but God.

Eric (1:48:58)
Wow. Do you fall asleep?

I got a chair massage

once at work that came to the office and like 15 minute chair massage and I was falling asleep and she goes, it's actually a compliment.

Erika (1:49:17)
Mm-hmm.

⁓ so yes, it has happened. You know how sometimes when you fall asleep, you get the jerk muscles, you're like, my God, and you wake yourself up? That has happened to me. And she goes, my God, did I hurt you? And I go, no, I fell asleep. was waking back up again. So yes, it's super relaxing. I go for the deep tissue.

Eric (1:49:28)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Erika (1:49:43)
because I often have the muscles that need to be worked very, very hard to get the knots out, especially my back is awful, like my shoulders. So she spends a lot of time on those and I usually feel great afterwards.

Eric (1:49:55)
Yeah, I've

only had one, I'm thinking here, one real massage ever. And it was like ⁓ in 2009. A girl is dating in North Carolina bought me one from like this massage therapist who massages like the Carolina Panthers, like a professional. And it was super expensive. And I was like, my God, it was so much money. I can't believe it. But I still went and cashed it in. I was like, I would never pay that.

Erika (1:49:59)
Mm-hmm.

Really?

⁓ okay.

Yep.

Yeah.

Eric (1:50:23)
But I don't know what it costs now, but I. ⁓

Erika (1:50:26)
I

mean, it's not cheap, but I think it's worth it to really get the knots out of yourself.

Eric (1:50:31)
I want to do the stretch lab.

I'll be honest. I was a little disappointed with when I started to see a chiropractor. I thought there'd be like more epic cracks.

Erika (1:50:38)
Mm-hmm.

Well, that means you're not in that, like your body's not terrible if they don't need to crack you in bad ways, right? ⁓

Eric (1:50:46)
Well, he would try, but my body wouldn't crack,

you know, all the time. So I just don't, I don't think the actual spinal cord and everything was my problem. I think it was just back strength and the back muscles. So I need to work better on back strength, especially lower back and stretching. I'm going to check this place out. I'm going to email them and ask them to donate to the raffle night. Yeah, why not?

Erika (1:50:52)
Meh.

Mm-hmm.

Hmm. Yeah. Yep.

Check it out, learn some stuff, give me some info. I mean, and also

if you want to throw a little something my way, that's cool. Not me as in you, but like.

Eric (1:51:16)
Yeah, hey, we'll

offer to do a live podcast while getting stretched. How funny would that be like? So Eric, I totally, oh, that feels real good.

Erika (1:51:22)
You

My hammies! I don't know, dude, whatever for the content, sure. We'll try it. Yeah.

Eric (1:51:33)
That would be hilarious. Well, that will need to

be like when we have a full video production set up.

Erika (1:51:38)
Yeah.

That's crazy.

Eric (1:51:41)
We're all over the place.

Have you caught up on the pit?

Erika (1:51:44)
So you gave me some not really homework of watching halfway through the season. I finished episode 10 last night. I am so into it. my God. I'm at a loss for words just because. Okay, so then you tell me things so I don't ruin anything.

Eric (1:51:52)
Whoa!

Really?

I'm at seven.

So

I'm not good with names, but the young first day guy doctor, Whitaker, he's gotten pissed on, shit on, blood. He changes his scrubs every other like 20, every hour, right? It's just comical, but also like, I know he's great.

Erika (1:52:13)
Whitaker.

my God, I laughed so hard when he goes through like.

he's become one of my favorites.

Is there a case that like resonated with you? Like, my God. if you guys know me, you, the whole reason I'm doing my Chicago fundraising is I lost my brother. The poor family who lost their only son and like they have to go into the viewing room or like that had happened in one episode. That hit me so hard. And it was one those triggering things that I wasn't ready for. was just like, my God, these are bringing back flashbacks and.

Eric (1:52:45)
Yes.

Well, and then the dad seeing

the other girl who was with him and they took the drugs together and the other student walking in there at the same time. Right. ⁓ man, I thought the dad was gonna kill them. The balls it took for that girl to go and apologize later. Kudos to her. Yes.

Erika (1:52:59)
my god.

my god, yeah.

Even like the organ donation thing. Did they talk about the organ donation for

his, like the parents had to deal with that? That literally like I was going through some shit while watching these episodes.

Eric (1:53:19)
Well,

back when Carter, is really Noel Wiley, who is really Robbie, when he had to go in the room and say something to them, and I hated how they dragged it out like they knew he was brain dead. But there are other tests. There are other tests. Right. But the scene when the mom was crying and sobbing, but you're not in the room.

Erika (1:53:24)
Robbie, Dr. Robbie. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. I mean, you gotta, he did it for the family. Yeah.

Eric (1:53:47)
You're actually in all the other rooms of the hospital and everybody is listening just like not saying a word. They know what is going on. They know some mother just lost her son. And they're just like, my God, whatever I'm dealing with right now is nothing compared to what she is. That screaming and sobbing, like those rooms are not soundproof. And she did not hold back.

Erika (1:53:48)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

That if they

ever bring you to that family room, you guys own, it's not going to be good stuff. ⁓ you are in for some episodes. I'm not even going to tell you, but that family room, like I'm getting like the remembering tears right now. Like, but there's some more shit that happens that they plot people in that damn family room. Never a good thing.

But I just like, I really like Dr. Robbie and how he handles things. He's got such a, even though he is a stressed out guy, he has his own issues. He is very, he's just very aware of what everybody is going through. So he, he has like the, I don't know if I can describe it right. He's just a very like gentle person and he cares about all of the patients, their families and you know what I mean?

Eric (1:54:38)
Yeah.

Right. Well, he seems like,

you know, he's the guy who's been doing this forever and he runs that place. the, you know, I love though, when his boss comes down wearing that fancy suit, it's a pink suit, right? And, and she's like, you need to do this or numbers. He goes, I need beds. You know, this is a hospital I'm running this like that's, I love all, you see all the aspects of running a hospital. Like hospitals aren't just there to...

Erika (1:55:02)
It's really nice. Like, yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Something like that.

Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:55:28)
save lives, they're there to make money. And yeah, what do you think about the doctor with the ankle bracelet?

Erika (1:55:31)
Yeah. Yeah.

So I like her a lot. There's a lot of doctors that I just enjoy as people. So the one they call Slow Mo, Dr. Mohan. I love her. I think she's great.

Eric (1:55:39)
She's the best.

yeah. But

when Dr. Robbie gets on her about being slow, I was like, holy shit, like he can go from calm guy to a boss. I almost thought like he was picking on her, but at the same time he goes, like he knows she can do it, but he has to kind of be a jerk about it.

Erika (1:55:55)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah. ⁓

Yep, you are not gonna like episode 10, The end of it, I don't even want to tell you, so I won't.

Eric (1:56:14)
Okay.

Well, I'll

get there by the next episode. I don't know what we're going to do Thursday. I don't think we're going to put out a second one. I was about to ask you about it and then you're running the Hollis Fast 5K. I don't, yeah, maybe we jump on Thursday after to talk about it and maybe I can catch up on some episodes. But I got some more Monday night media work to do. Yesterday dropped the Ali G show where Maddie V was on hosting her. The roles were reversed.

Erika (1:56:28)
Yes, I am.

Yeah.

Eric (1:56:46)
On Thursday, we have more movement people, which I'm curious how it's gonna work out. I'll talk to Hillary tomorrow, or today, the day everyone's listening, but she is currently crewing for Alvaro as he's doing a Ram race across America. So I'm like, how are we gonna get your intro done when you're in a van driving across the country?

Erika (1:56:55)
huh.

Bike! Yes, the bike ride!

Find a hot spot somewhere and just hop on real quick.

Eric (1:57:10)
Yeah.

Have you finished the Earnhardt documentary?

Erika (1:57:15)
I have not. I picked my battle at the pit one. yes.

Eric (1:57:16)
Okay.

All right, that's cool. I'll tell

you this. I know Dale Earnhardt's story. I know everything there is to know about Dale Earnhardt. There are things they talk about that I never knew. And I didn't cry, but you are going to cry. I got the big lump in my throat and I didn't cry about him dying. I did not cry about him dying. Yeah, spoiler alert.

Erika (1:57:29)
Yes.

that you didn't know? No shit.

I of course I will. ⁓ Well, you knew you knew that part. OK,

Eric (1:57:49)
He dies.

Erika (1:57:49)
well, I will prepare myself. Honestly, I wasn't in the mood to cry this weekend. You know, sometimes you just well, I don't know if this is more for for the sensitive type like myself, but sometimes you just get in the mood to cry like I'll watch a sappy movie that I know will make me cry like the first 10 minutes of up. But.

wasn't in the mood to cry this weekend and here comes the pit and I was like, wow, okay. So kind of shifted the Earnhardt thing to the back burner just so I wouldn't be a complete mess.

Eric (1:58:21)
My, my

advice when you watch Earnhardt, watch three and four, know, lock off two hours, watch them at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ yeah, there's things like, if I ever get to run into his son or daughter, like I almost know what I would say now. I learned a lot. I'll just put it that way. I learned a lot and I thought I knew everything. So it was so well done. So well done.

Erika (1:58:24)
Mm-hmm.

yeah, yeah, I would finish them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.

Mm-hmm.

I did, I do really enjoy it. I gotta see if my parents ever finished it because we started watching it together. So I wonder, I wonder if they did.

Eric (1:58:59)
All right,

I'm gonna have to take some notes in the group. So in our Google Doc, I'll make a thing called the pit and we can start reading some notes like, I wanna know what you think about the mom who made herself sick to get her son to take her to the hospital so he wouldn't go shoot a lot of kids at school, because he has a hit list. there's also like, know, slow mo was one of them. But it's funny, this young kid came in and they all got excited. What I thought was funny was they knew him, they all gave him condoms.

Erika (1:59:16)
Yeah.

Eric (1:59:27)
Someone a new girlfriend, it all gave her fun.

Erika (1:59:28)
my god. Well, that

was Dr. Robbie's son. I didn't know that. You didn't know that? He came in to get his ticket for that concert.

Eric (1:59:32)
it was? I

I didn't know it was this- ⁓

Erika (1:59:39)
That's his son, which makes it even funnier. He's like, please don't give me a condom. And he's like, you, you've been having sex. And I was like, God, yeah, that's his son. I forget what his name is, but dude, I am just, I am too far ahead. And there are things that I know that I can't wait for you to watch. So we can continue to talk about it. Yeah.

Eric (1:59:45)
I did not know that Okay, all right. I had no clue

That's so cool, it's his son though. Because

in an ER comparison, Dr. Green was ⁓ Noah Wiley, Dr. Robbie. And Dr. Green's daughter, Rachel, is in a lot of it. And is a big character, including, spoiler alert guys, I'm giving it away, what?

Erika (2:00:08)
Mm-hmm.

Wait a minute, wait a minute.

talking is real life, son. Is that what you're talking about? OK, I'm like, OK. OK, OK. I was like, wait a minute, that's not OK.

Eric (2:00:29)
No, no, I'm talking his TV show, Son and Daughter. Yeah. No, Dr.

Green's daughter in the show, her name is Rachel. She's like a little kid in season one, and you see her grow up throughout all the seasons. Now, she takes seasons off. Spoiler alert, if anyone is gonna go and actually start ER from season one and go all the way to 15, know, turn this off for 10 to 15 seconds, but the very end of the last season,

Erika (2:00:40)
⁓

I'll forget it.

Eric (2:00:56)
She shows up in the last couple episodes and she is now going to be a student doing a residency at the hospital, just like Carter was in episode one.

Erika (2:01:06)
that's cool. ⁓ I like that.

Eric (2:01:08)
Yeah, and because he died in season, like in the middle of like season seven, eight or nine. So you only see her on occasion because she might like retreat back to that area because she has a lot of difficulty with her mom and her stepmom. She'll go to the hospital to see her stepmom because her actual mom won't let her like do something. She'd be like, could you sign this for me? This permission slip, whatever. Or maybe she was pregnant or something. I think maybe she was.

Erika (2:01:15)
Okay.

Yeah.

Eric (2:01:37)
Maybe not pregnant. It's the best. It's the absolute best. Well, cool. Yeah, we'll talk more about the pit. I'll catch up to you. There's 15 total. So I don't expect you to finish it. But I would love next week to hear your thoughts on Earnhardt. you choose the direction you want to go here. You can finish the pit if you want to finish with pit. All right. By next week, not by Thursday night if we record Thursday night, but by next week. Yeah.

Erika (2:01:37)
Damn, so much shit happens in doctor shows. It's funny. ⁓

Okay, okay.

probably going to get them both done. I'm like addicted to the pit right now.

Okay,

perfect.

Eric (2:02:06)
Well, have fun everyone who runs in the Hollis Fast 5K. I'll have to decide if that's worth getting a babysitter for me to do because that would be fun. I love that. I enjoyed that. Yeah.

Erika (2:02:17)
That is a good race.

It's going to be a lot better than the one that I did on Saturday. No rain. Don't give me rain.

Eric (2:02:24)
Don't forget, yeah, don't forget yoga

night next Monday and the Goffstown Gallup on June 28th. Also, show notes in there, the links for my race tats and for right socks. Guys, I'm telling you, I love getting the email saying that you're buying my race tats. I don't know if right socks does it, but guys, I love my right socks. They're awesome. Nothing better than a brand new fresh pair of socks on your feet, especially these double layered ones. They're awesome. And thank you to your cousin.

Erika (2:02:31)
Coming up.

Eric (2:02:53)
at UvO's. You guys know we love UvO's. This is amazing. Erica, you're a rock star. Tell everyone where they can find us, how they should follow, and take us home.

Erika (2:02:55)
Jen is awesome. Hi, Jen.

You guys, are on YouTube, we are on Instagram. You can join our Patreon if you really love us. We hope you do. Where else can you find us? if I know threads.

Eric (2:03:14)
Well, I want to do better with the

YouTube. I have like eight YouTube videos uploaded, but I haven't done the thumbnails yet. So there's going be a massive drop soon. Massive drop.

Erika (2:03:20)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah,

well enjoy those when they do drop whenever no rush on Eric because I know he's got his his work cut out for him with everything else So whenever that happens, that's great. But yeah, just just follow us mostly on Instagram and the patreon thing if you like us because we love you

Eric (2:03:42)
We absolutely do. All right, this was fun. Episode 171 in the books. Take us home.

Erika (2:03:48)
We're up there,

man. That's a lot of episodes. Yeah, we really have to say thank you for listening. You guys have stuck with us through a lot of stuff and we appreciate you and we really, really love you.

Eric (2:04:01)
Don't fear the code brown!

Erika (2:04:03)
And don't forget to stretch.

Eric (2:05:00)
I think it was either one of our first times ever with Riverside or it was one of our last times ever on Facebook Messenger.

Erika (2:05:07)
I don't remember.

Alex Larson (2:05:08)
I think it was on Facebook Messenger because I was like, I don't, I don't remember it being on Riverside.

Eric (2:05:12)
You're like, who

are these amateurs? ⁓

Erika (2:05:17)
That was what you were episode 40, I think it said, right? Yeah, that was 80 episodes ago for us.

Eric (2:05:19)
40 40

Alex Larson (2:05:23)
Wow.

⁓

Eric (2:05:24)
No,

that was a hundred and twenty episodes ago for us. Tomorrow's 160.

Erika (2:05:26)
wait that's 20, my god I can't even add.

Alex Larson (2:05:30)
That's amazing. I'm so glad to be back!

Erika (2:05:31)
Math is in my strong suit.

Why did I think that? Okay. Still pretty good.

Eric (2:05:36)
And