Physiologically Speaking – Details, episodes & analysis

Greetings!

David Roche is a decorated trail runner, coach, and co-founder of SWAP Running. He's a two-time national champion and a three-time Team USA member, and he recently set the course record at the Leadville 100 trail run with a time of 15 hours, 26 minutes, 34 seconds.

David and his wife, Megan Roche, M.D., offer coaching that blends science, training theory, and a philosophy of joy and long-term growth for all athletes. Megan just launched a website—Huzzah—“to empower female endurance athletes by providing accessible sports science knowledge and fostering a love for sport through content, insights, and scholarships, with a focus on supporting overall health, education, and competitive edge.”

I’ve become a bit obsessed with how David thinks about running and how invested he and Megan are in reading and implementing the science of training and racing. So I needed to nerd out with him on some topics.

In this interview, I picked David’s mind about his scientific approach to training, and we detail several of the training practices he used in his buildup to the race, including:

Sodium bicarbonate

Downhill running

High-carb fueling

Super shoes

Post-exercise exogenous ketones

Heat training/hot water immersion

Caffeine

Heart rate zones

And more!

Relevant links

For more details about David and SWAP Running, visit their About Us page

Follow David on X @MountainRoche

Watch the documentary about David’s record: Leadville 100 Ultramarathon & David Roche's Run for The Impossible Record

Greetings friends!

In this interview, I sit down with Christina Smith, the Associate Director of Athlete Relations for the Enhanced Games.

Per the Enhanced Games website:

“The Enhanced Games are a celebration of the union of athletic excellence and scientific achievement.The Enhanced Movement believes in the medical and scientific process of elevating humanity to its full potential, through a community of committed athletes.”

Some are calling the Enhanced Games the “Enhanced Olympics” — but I think that this movement is more than just that. After attending numerous press conferences and doing this interview with Christina, I think that the Enhanced Games has the chance — if executed correctly — to change the way that we watch sports (and the way that athletes compete in them).

Due to a few issues with recording, the first 10 minutes of this interview are audio only. But the rest of the interview is video.

Enjoy!

Dr. Howard Luks is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon, chief of sports medicine and arthroscopy, and assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at New York Medical College. Dr. Luks's focus is on injuries that involve the shoulder, knee, ankle, and elbow. You can find him on X at the handle @hjluks.

In addition to his expertise in sports medicine, Dr. L…

Joseph Watso, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition & Integrative Physiology at Florida State University. Joe directs the Cardiovascular & Applied Physiology (CAP) Laboratory which has the mission to advance knowledge on cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment strategies. His research interests include the role of lifesty…

This interview originally appeared on my (now “defunct”) Science & Chill podcast on November 1, 2022. Now, it’s only available to Physiologically Speaking subscribers.

I’ll be posting videos twice per month. Be sure to subscribe, because there’s some stellar information in these interviews!

Enjoy!

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