Tales from the Valley Podcast

Tales from the Valley Podcast ft. Myles Gough

Sam, Katie, and Josh catch up with Myles Gough. Myles won the Canberra Marathon in 2021 with a time of 2:25 and holds some other impressive results. To our hosts' surprise, Myles only picked up running in 2016, starting at Parkrun to meet new people.
Myles explains how his running developed, taking many learnings from local coach Barry Keem. He shares how he stayed fit during injury through cross-training and recently ran 2:39 at the Gold Coast Marathon. We also hear how Myles manages the challenges of balancing work, family, and running at a high level.
Myles takes us through his training week, balancing cross-training with key workouts like sessions and long runs in the lead-up to the Sydney Marathon. Katie gets two more runs on the board and racks up hours of cross-training. It’s business as usual for Josh as he puts together another impressive training week, and Sam runs his first-ever trail race, coming 4th in the Summit Shoalhaven half marathon over the weekend.

Tales from the Valley Podcast ft. Rohan Laurendet

Mitch is living it up in Spain, so Joshua "JOSH10" Engel is here for a few weeks to fill in. Sam, Josh, and Katie are joined by national middle-distance runner Rohan Laurendet. Rohan has run impressive times of 1:52 for 800 meters and 48.77 for 400 meters. However, he has found success in the 400-meter hurdles, running 51.56 in April this year. Rohan provides some interesting insights about his time spent transitioning from flat running to hurdling.
 
Rohan is also a physio, so he talks us through his strength and conditioning protocols, as well as providing feedback to our hosts this week. Josh stacks some tempo running on top of some solid weekly mileage (109 km), all while adjusting to his new strength program prescribed by Rohan. Rohan talks us through his program, which is typically set in three-week blocks, including hill efforts, gym routines, cycling, and the "Kamikaze" Saturday Session. Sam stacks a 92 km week together with two sessions and a trip to Dalmeny. Katie gets some running advice and starts to do some jog/walking, while she smashes out hours of cross-training.

Tales from the Valley Podcast ft. Kate Matts

Sam, Mitch, and Katie are joined by Kate Matts, Head of Saucony Australia. Kate has been with Saucony since before the launch of the Endorphin line, so she has extensive knowledge of how Saucony’s incredible range has expanded over the past few years. Kate is able to give us technical insights into some of the upcoming shoes in the range over the coming months and years, as well as insights into how design choices and product direction are determined. Kate also provides a unique perspective on her own running, given how she came to running after starting work with Saucony.
Katie is back on Australian soil and is spending a lot of time on the bike. Sam has improved ever so slightly compared to last week, both in terms of sessions and overall mileage, which is now at 84 km. Mitch runs 144 km of jogging but spices things up by revisiting his old training diary.
 
https://www.saucony.com.au/
 
Tune in for our usual segments and also some exclusive intel on Saucony's upcoming range.

The Russell Dessaix-Chin Wag - Gold Coast Marathon Recap

Sam and Russ catch up for the first time since the Christchurch Marathon, off the back of Russ’s stellar performance in the Gold Coast Half Marathon. Russ talks about his training since Christchurch and his new coaching relationship with Barry Keem. Russ has his eyes on C2S and the Sydney Marathon, but his ultimate goal for this year is to run a fast marathon in Japan.
Russ recaps the Gold Coast Marathon weekend for us, and then the guys shout out some coastal results. Tune in for the first episode of the Russell Dessaix-Chin Wag, and congrats to all of those who ran on the Gold Coast last weekend.

Tales from the Valley Podcast ft. Steph Auston

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

Tales from the Valley Podcast ft. Trent Macleay

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.

Tales from the Valley Podcast ft. Lauren Mitchell

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.

Tales from the Valley Podcast ft. Alex Bui

Mitch and Sam catch up with Alex Bui. Alex has completed an Ironman in 11:06, UTA100k in 13:52 and also has run 4:53 for the Mile, 16:50 for 5k and just over 3 hours for the marathon (not to mention some impressive lifts in the gym). Alex posts a lot of great content on Instagram documenting his fitness journey, the latest endeavor being his sub 2:50 attempt at the Gold Coast in a couple of weeks.
Sam puts 29km down in his first week back to running, Mitch continues another week of solid training hit 120km last week and Alex nails his peak marathon session putting down 30 of his 36km at 4:05 pace.
Links to Alex’s Socials to follow his running journey below:
https://www.instagram.com/alexbuifitness/