Mary Johnson is a running and strength coach and Founder of Lift | Run | Perform, an organization that specializes in teaching runners how to use time in the weight room or in your own home to optimize your running performance. Mary is a USATF certified running coach, owner of Lift, Run, Perform, mother of two and she’s going after her own goals after having babies. Recurring injuries plagued Mary for years until she found strength training and it totally changed her life and training paradigm.

Today, Mary and Whitney talk about the struggles of returning to running postpartum and what that looked like for Mary. Mary shares the origin story of her company, Lift | Run | Perform, and provides some tips and best practices for strength training. Mary and Whitney explain the Five Major Movement Patterns as well as how different workout reps spur different changes in the body. Finally, Mary talks about some of the exciting projects she’s working on, including her ‘Breaking Three’ project.

Runner Click Pro – https://pro.runnerclick.com/

01:18 – Whitney Heins introduces today’s guest, Mary Johnson, who joins the show to share her experience as a runner, running coach, mother and the work she did to overcome postpartum challenges in order to become stronger

15:02 – Why pregnancy is so polarizing

19:20 – The origin story of Mary’s business, Lift | Run | Perform

22:55 – Pros and cons of strength training for runners

26:31 – The Five Major Movement Patterns, explained

33:36 – How different reps spur different changes in the body

38:19 – Mary provides her thoughts on what strength training should look like when marathon training

45:25 – Mary suggests some workout equipment options

48:25 – Proper form and technique while working out

50:10 – How strength training has changed Mary’s experience running

51:48 – Mary’s ‘Breaking Three’ project

55:32 – Whitney thanks Mary for joining the show and lets listeners know where to follow him

“I think having an easier delivery this time has made me aware of how significant and different every delivery can be.” (11:54)

“We knew that the best thing that was necessary for athletes was coaching the person as a human as opposed to coaching the person focused on a time goal. And that was our mission statement.” (21:26)

“When we’re running, we’re pounding. There’s a ton of force that’s put on our body. So, we hit the ground, it goes through our foot, to our ankle, to our knee, to our hip, to our back, and we are not stable when we hit that ground. We can absorb the shock fine but after step after step, the body doesn’t sustain that pounding very well. It needs to be strong. And that’s the simplified reason why running alone isn’t enough to keep us strong.” (23:09)

“First, I would make sure you take a month, pre-Marathon cycle, to lift. Yeah, you could run but you’re probably going to go down in mileage anyway. And this is a great time to get yourself in the gym. If you’re sore, that’s ok because it’s not gonna affect your workouts. But you have to be intentional about it.” (38:46)

“When you run without any aches or pains, it’s amazing.” (50:21)

Whitney’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitney-heins-02ba3b5

The Mother Runners Club – https://www.themotherrunners.com/

Mary’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/itsamarython/

Lift | Run | Perform Website –

Laura Norris is a certified running coach, small business owner, writer, and content creator. She believes in a blended approach to coaching that utilizes both evidence-based methods of training and a holistic approach of coaching the runner as a person first, athlete second. Laura’s philosophy emphasizes sustainability, enjoyment, and long-term growth.

Today, Whitney and Laura talk all about how to predict your marathon time. They discuss pacing, pickups at the end of long runs, and the different types of running calculators, including Jack Daniels’ VDOT. Finally, Laura provides tips and best practices on tapering, fueling and when to heighten your focus on your marathon goals.

Runner Click Pro – https://pro.runnerclick.com/

01:12 – Whitney Heins welcomes Laura Norris back to the show to discuss her CIM Training and how to predict your marathon time

12:09 – Pacing and Jack Daniels’ VDOT running calculator

20:27 – Other popular running calculators

25:12 – Best workouts to help inform what your marathon time will be

28:01 – How to determine your marathon pace

30:52 – Pickups at the end of a long run

36:12 – The Garmin Race Predictor, easy miles, and long-run pace

43:01 – The best time to focus on your goal time and marathon tapering

46:02 – Fueling and other best practices to implement prior to race day

50:21 – Whitney thanks Laura for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with her

“Picking an arbitrary goal time is a sort of reverse engineering that doesn’t work in training, because you’re not this robot who you can input, ‘I want to run a nine minute mile pace’ which is roughly what you want for a sub-four hour Marathon. Unfortunately, training doesn’t work that way. A lot of times people see these nice round numbers or there’s some sort of excitement around them, but you just can’t program a number into your body. It’s all dependent upon where your current fitness is and where your aerobic capacity is.” (10:26) (Laura)

“For most runners, taking a 10k or longer will give them a more accurate result than taking a mile or a 5k just because those shorter distances have more anaerobic contribution. And that’s when you’re getting into differences of muscle fiber typology. So, you can have someone who really excels in the Marathon and once they get into anything above their critical speed, they aren’t as fast as the equivalent race times would predict.” (17:34) (Laura)

“Once we get to four and a half to five hours and five and a half to six, your marathon pace is gonna have a lot of overlap with your easy pace. And, when we talk about marathon pace, it’s not always this reverse engineered X minutes per mile faster than your easy pace. It’s about the pace you can sustain for a certain duration.” (25:33) (Laura)

“One workout that I find that is really great is to do ten minutes at threshold, thirty minutes at threshold, all those ones that push the upper end of threshold and really rely on the ability to control your pacing and then kinda add to thet.” (30:36) (Laura)

“Where you are eight weeks out from your marathon is not where you’re gonna be in your marathon. And, if you’re reaching peak fitness eight weeks out from a marathon, you should probably be worried. You’re probably overtraining.” (43:39) (Laura)

“Carbs are the spark that’s gonna fuel the fire of the marathon. You need that substrate. You’re putting gas in your tank. No one’s giving out medals at the end for running the marathon on the fewest carbs.” (48:19) (Laura)

Whitney’s LinkedIn – 

Dr. Haley Perlus is a sports psychologist with knowledge and personal experience as an elite athlete, coach, fitness professional, and entrepreneur. An overall wellness enthusiast, Dr. Haley Perlus provides her clients with the necessary mental toughness tools to quickly and consistently achieve their highest level of performance. Today, Whitney and Dr. Haley talk all about how we can believe in ourselves, get and maintain confidence, and overcome our mental blocks.

Runner Click Pro – https://pro.runnerclick.com/

00:55 – Whitney Heins welcomes Dr. Haley Perlus to the show to share the remarkable story of her inspiration to pursue sports psychology

13:07 – Your ‘Three Best Words’ and giving yourself grace

20:57 – Best practices for moving on from a bad day

27:08 – Quiet confidence, achieving ‘flow state,’ and pressure

35:14 – Overcoming anxiety and mental blocks

46:06 – Three solutions for overcoming mental blocks

56:19 – The reality of sports

57:50 – Whitney thanks Dr. Haley for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with her

“Usually when athletes call me it’s because they’ve tried everything else. They’ve tried their nutrition. They’ve tried their skillset or their conditioning. They’ve tried all of these things and nothing is helping them perform better or overcome that one thing.” (10:46) (Dr. Haley)

“You can gain the experience and the tools by doing. If you’ve been running for fifteen years without seeking out sports psychology, I guarantee you learned some mental toughness along the way. Or, you could just listen to Passionate Runner and listen to you and get educated so that you can get out on that training path and out on your run and start to utilize the tools immediately.” (11:35) (Dr. Haley)

“If you can bring back your three best words, at least one of them, often that allows you to push through a little bit more. And then, after that, if you find yourself not having your best performance, to me that’s still a sign that you put forth your best effort. And then it’s time to give yourself some grace. There’s a big difference giving yourself some grace and letting yourself off the hook.” (16:04) (Dr. Haley)

“Being upset tells me two things. It tells me, one, that you really care. And it actually, in my opinion, is a sign of confidence. If you’re upset, it means that you thought you could do better. And if you think you can do better, that’s a sign of confidence.” (21:57) (Dr. Haley)

“Pressure is earned. We don’t put pressure on ourselves for things we don’t think we’re good at. We don’t put pressure on ourselves for things we don’t care about. When we do the work - when we put in the time and the effort, and develop our skills, and see the progress - we put pressure on ourselves. It’s earned. We need to embrace it.” (34:00) (Dr. Haley)

“A mental block is also fear of success. This is huge. If you achieve a good performance, now you’ve got to keep doing it.” (45:19) (Dr. Haley)

“Every time we have a thought, we plant a neural pathway in our brain; it’s like a seed. But it’s just a seed. It’s just a thought until we start fertilizing it and giving it tender loving care. So, you have to repeat the thoughts that you like, the thoughts that help you. Repeat them and, with frequency and repetition, that seed - that neural pathway - grows. It’s a process called myelination. It grows and grows and grows and becomes your more dominant thought.” (51:11) (Dr. Haley)

Whitney’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitney-heins-02ba3b5

The Mother Runners Club –