Dirt Nap Diaries
A trail running podcast for everyday trail runners juggling training with real life. Hosted by women’s trail running coach Brittany Olson, it’s where the messy, funny, and real parts of running meet strength, joy, and the reminder that you’re more than “just” a runner.
Episodes
56 episodes
Episode 55: The Seasoned Runner: The dark side and a little about the brightside
It's still my birthday month! In case you were wondering.This episode gets into something I've been chewing on: seasoned runners and the trap experience can turn into. We start with the good stuff, reading an elevation profile, understan...
Episode 54: Alone on the Trail: Why Solo Miles Matter
A text from one of my athletes got me thinking about solo running, and it turns out I have a LOT of feelings about it. Some of you won't run alone, ever. Some of you love it but won't admit it to your run crew. And some of you are the friend wh...
Episode 53: The Hill Is Not the Problem: A Tactical Guide to Uphill Running
A bunch of you have been asking me about running uphill, so this is the tactical episode I promised. I'm getting into what those grade percentages actually mean (so you know if a hill is legit steep or you're just making shit up in your head), ...
Episode 52: I Cried, Then I Climbed: The Tour du Mont Blanc
I'm back from Europe and I finally get to tell you all about the Tour du Mont Blanc... 10 days circling Mont Blanc (around it, not up it), about 105 miles and 33,000 feet of climbing through France, Italy, and Switzerland. This one has everythi...
Episode 51: Post-Race Blues: When the Finish Line is Behind You and You Still Feel Off
The race is over, the crowd is gone, and everything is quiet again... and that quiet can feel really loud. It's been about eight weeks since Cocodona, and I finally named what I've been feeling: post-race blues. Except mine don't look like what...
Episode 50: Too Much, Too Little: Finding Your Training Sweet Spot
I'm off hiking around Mont Blanc while you're listening to this, but I couldn't leave y'all hanging...so today we're talking about the two extremes I see all the time as a coach: doing too much and doing too little. Sometimes in the same athlet...
Episode 49: The Door Has Conditions: Racism, the WNBA, and Who Feels Safe on Our Trails
This one's a deeper episode, and I'm not dancing around it. A few seconds of a basketball play turned into a suspension, death threats, and racial slurs aimed at Alyssa Thomas... and it says everything about how black women get treated in the s...
Episode 48: What coaching is all about: We're all adults here
Nobody signs up for coaching to get judged. But a lot of us show up bracing for it anyway.In this episode, I'm breaking down what coaching actually is, what people get wrong about it, and what your job is as an athlete versus what mine i...
Episode 47: Your body knows: The physiology behind why your numbers lie
Your watch doesn't know you. It doesn't know you had a rough night of sleep, that you're in your luteal phase, that you've been stressed all week, or that you're climbing in 90-degree heat. It just spits out a number. And yet somehow, that numb...
Episode 46: Born to Climb: My Journey to Vert
I didn't build a love for climbing. I just finally stopped being surprised that it was already there.In this episode, I'm answering a question from one of my athletes and friends — how did I actually build my capacity for vert? Were ther...
Episode 45: Cocodona 250: Your Questions Answered
You asked, I answered. This episode is a full Cocodona 250 Q&A — your questions about training, gear, crew, the mental game, recovery, and everything in between. If you've been curious about what actually goes into running 253.4 miles, this...
Episode 44: Cocodona Mile 176 to the Finish: Left on Birch
Made it! The final stretch. Mile 176 to the finish line at Heritage Square in Flagstaff.This episode covers the solo section through the Foxboro habitat where I was navigating a tracker scare, chatting with a woman from the UK named Jen,...
Episode 43: Cocodona Mile 75 to Mile 176: The Long Middle
Mile 75 to mile 176 — and this stretch had everything.In this episode, I'm taking you from Whiskey Row through Watson Lake, across Fain Ranch, up and over Mingus Mountain in the dark, down into Jerome, across the Verde River, through red...
Episode 42: Cocodona Day One: The Desert, the Dark, and Why It Still Feels Like a Different Race
Day one of Cocodona 250 covered 75 miles — through the Sonoran desert, up into the Bradshaws, through the first night, and into Whiskey Row in Prescott. And honestly? It still feels like it happened in a completely different race. Maybe that's ...
Episode 41: Cocodona 250: What I Wish I Said at the Finish Line
This week’s episode isn’t a full race recap yet because my brain still feels a little scrambled from five days across Arizona. But after sitting with the experience, I wanted to talk about the things that mattered most once the finish time goal...
Episode 40: There’s more than one win: Celebrating all the things
You trained for it. You showed up. And somehow…you’re still telling yourself it wasn’t enough.In this episode, I’m talking about something I see all the time—runners finishing races (or not) and immediately going to what went wrong. Miss...
Episode 39: How Training Actually Builds: From General to Specific (And Why It Matters)
Training isn’t random—even if it sometimes feels like it when you’re in the middle of it.In this episode, I’m breaking down how a training block actually builds over time so you can stop second-guessing every shift in your plan. From ear...
Episode 38: The final phase of training: Taper like you mean it
You hit your last long run and now you’re just…supposed to back off? Yeah. That’s taper. And if you’ve ever felt weird during this time—physically, mentally, emotionally—you’re not alone. I’m in it right now heading into Cocodona 250, so this e...
Episode 37: 75 Human: Why You Don’t Need Another Hard Thing
This episode came straight from a run and a voice memo I actually remembered to record. We’re talking about 75 Hard program, why it’s so appealing, and why it might not be the answer for most of us…especially the women already juggling a full l...
Episode 36: Fueling for performance: Support the work you're doing
This week on Dirt Nap Diaries, I’m talking about eating for performance and why trying to lose weight while training for an ultra can backfire fast. We get into underfueling, heavy legs, poor recovery, brain fog, and why carbs are not the enemy...
Episode 35: Stop Asking the Internet: Trust Yourself Before Race Day
This week I’m talking about something I see all the time in online running spaces: people asking the internet last-minute race questions that should’ve been figured out way earlier in training.I get it—especially if it’s your firs...
Episode 34: Cocodona Training Camp: Trail Running over 3 days
In this episode of Dirt Nap Diaries, I’m breaking down my big Cocodona 250 training weekend where I did 3 back to back to back long runs on course, including the first section out of Black Canyon City, Hangover Trail in Sedona, and the climb up...
Episode 33: What Actually Matters in Trail Running: 3 Things I Care About More Than Pace
What actually matters in training? Honestly…not your pace.In this episode, I’m talking about the three things I care about more than pace when it comes to trail running and coaching: consistency over perfection, effort over...
Episode 32: Stop Policing Other People’s Finish Lines: Someone Else’s Medal Isn’t Your Problem
The internet has been losing its damn mind over the LA Marathon shortening their course because of heat.Suddenly everyone’s an expert on “integrity.” People arguing about medals. People deciding whether runners should e...
Episode 31: Effort Over Pace: Their Effort is Not Your Effort
Today we’re talking about effort over pace because if you don’t understand the difference, you’re way more likely to plateau, overtrain, or mentally spiral (and I don’t want that for you).Effort is the stimulus. Pace is the result.