This episode is an interview with professional runner for Nike, Lauren Gregory. Lauren is a Colorado native, where she fell in love with running while out on the trails with her high school xc team. She immediately excelled and after becoming a 7x Colorado state champion and NXN runner up, Lauren committed to the University of Arkansas to pursue D1 collegiate running. Struggles with fueling led to a frustrating injury cycle and she nearly medically retired, but after finding her way back to a healthier version of herself, Lauren had a very successful collegiate career as a 7 time All-American and signed a professional contract with Nike right out of college.
Lauren is now an accomplished track, road and trail athlete having won a US title in the vertical mountain running championships and the 10k trail championships, and making it to the final in the 5k at the 2024 US Olympic Trials. Lauren is also fresh off of her historic win at OCC UTMB as the first American woman to win the title.
In this episode, we talk about:
- How growing up near so many trails allowed her to discover her love for running and what her progression to being one of the best runners in the state looked like
- How trying to eat “clean” and “healthy” in high school led to unintentional under fueling that resulted in two big stress fractures, and her advice for high schoolers struggling with injuries
- Why she doesn’t use a ton of metrics to track her performance and fitness
- How cutting corners with fueling in college led to an injury cycle that nearly caused her to quit running, but instead focused on correcting her fueling and was able to have a successful collegiate career
- Why changing her environment during her transition from college to pro opened her eyes to the importance of fueling, and what she has implemented since
- How the trail running world has changed her view on fueling, and why she thinks fueling is what won her the OCC title
- What trail races are like and why it’s a great options for runners who are feeling burnt out or need something new
- Her breakdown of her win at OCC and how it ended up coming down to a kick in the last 800m
- Why her motto for her training block and race was “don’t wait until you’re hungry”
