Mitch and Sam catch up with Steph Auston this week. Steph is a highly credentialed road and trail runner with a stack of podium finishes and wins. Steph spent a lot of time living in Merimbula at the start of her trail running journey, though she currently resides in Newcastle.

In 2019, Stephanie achieved her peak road Personal Bests, marking a significant milestone in her career before transitioning to trail running. Her trail running breakthrough came with a golden ticket to Western States, earned through a second-place finish at the Black Canyon, and another ticket secured at Tarawerra in February 2023.

Stephanie's impressive athletic achievements span various distances, including a 10k time of 35:37 at the Sydney 10 and a marathon best of 2:43:33 at the Canberra Marathon. Notably, she has excelled in ultramarathons and trail races, consistently placing high in competitions like the Tarawera 102km and the iconic Six Foot Track Marathon.

Sam talks about his first regular running week (2 sessions and a long run) to finish up with a 79km week. Mitch’s hamstrings finally get the better of him where him and his coach Gary Howard make the call to just jog for a few weeks, though even with a couple of days off he edges out Sam’s mileage with 84km for the week. Steph puts together another ‘Bread & Butter’ 200km week with some up-tempto efforts.

Lots of shoe discussion tonight, as well as the usual Café kit of the week and Round the Club Segments.

For more insights into Stephanie Auston's journey and achievements, check out her profiles on UTMB and World Athletics.

https://www.instagram.com/steph_auston/

https://www.strava.com/pros/14523979

Sam and Mitch catch up with Trent Macleay this week. Trent has run 17:27 for 5000m, 52:44 at C2S, 1:22 for the half, and 2:56 just a few weeks ago at the Noosa Marathon. Trent came into his own as a runner after picking up the running bug from the rest of his family, running his first C2S around a decade ago. Trent tells us how he has evolved as a runner since then and has started to run these impressive PBs. Coached by Barry Keem, Trent is keen to keep improving on these times with a big focus on the marathon PB.

Mitch runs 121km this week, with more progress in sessions, outperforming his splits from the same session a few weeks ago. Sam runs his first session back from injury and is surprised by how well it went given the circumstances, slowly building back with a 63km week. Trent is just building back after the Noosa Marathon; however, he runs two very impressive sessions with some blistering 400s and a kickdown long run on Sunday.

We shout out members of Narooma Run Club, Team Keem, and Sapphire Coast Runners.

Lauren ‘Loz’ Mitchell Joins Mitch, Sam & Katie on the podcast. Loz ran a World Jrs Qualifier in the 800m of 2:06 as well as 4:23 in the 1500m. Loz took some time away from the sport following her success as a Junior however has run very impressive PB’s from 17:29 in the 5k to a 2:59 Marathon.

Loz talks us through the importance of training sensibly and enjoying running as a sport. Loz runs with the HIRT squad run by Ian Hatfield and Debbie Holland. Loz walks us through her recent training philosophy leading into Gold Coast Half Marathon.

Katie gives us an injury update as she clocks up 9 hours of cross-training, Loz dials into Half-Marathon pace a couple of weeks out from her race at Gold Coast, Mitch clocks up 114km of solid work & links up with Sam during the On Wear Testing NLRC x WTC Long Run on Sunday.

Tune in for some bizarre bits of equipment to bring to the café, as well as Round the club shoutouts. Remember to tag us on insta for a chance to win a TFTV exclusive Tee and $50 LSKD voucher in your freshest running gear.