Jonathan Marcus is to running as Charlie Munger is to investing: a coach that uses “elementary, worldly wisdom” to mold his athletes into high-level runners.

His past coaching and running industry experience includes:

• Assistant track coach at Portland State University
• Division I / NAIA / post-collegiate club / Oregon High School levels
• Involvement with the Portland Track Festival, USA Track & Field, NIKE’s Bowerman Track Club, and the Run Portland/Team Athena running clubs

He was appointed USA Track & Field High Performance Coordinator for the men’s middle distances in 2011 and his national role with USATF included serving as co-meet director for the prestigious USATF High Performance track meet held annually at Occidental College.

Currently he’s the Director of High Performance West, an elite training group in Portland Oregon. He also has an incredibly enlightening and action-packed podcast with fellow coach Steve Magness called On Coaching that I highly recommend.

What I most respect about coach Jonathan Marcus is that he’s a lifelong learner: always reading books, learning, educating himself, and connecting with others to improve his ability to perform at a high level as a running coach.

Our wide-ranging discussion might surprise you because we talk about some interesting topics that, on first examination, don’t appear to be truly about running or coaching!

Issues like:

• The books that Jonathan is reading (and why they’re not all running books)
• Empathy and bias (and why these are crucial traits for coaches)
• Vision (and how this relates to your success as a runner)
• “Cognitive coping skills” for racing and challenging workouts

For those who want to transcend beyond an elementary understanding of running, this conversation is a fantastic primer on the nuances of high-level running achievement.

I think you’re going to love it.

You might recognize Tina from Episode 31 of the podcast. She’s an 11-time All-American athlete and elite athlete for Great Britain who’s run in two British Olympic Trials.

Tina recently overcame amenorrhea by taking a break from training, had a daughter, and is now returning to competitive running.

But we’re not here to talk about Tina. We’re here to talk about YOUR questions, problems, and struggles.

In this conversation, we’re discussing:

• If you can only run a few times per week, should those runs all be “hard?”
• Do compression socks actually work?
• How do you advance beyond walking to run all of your miles?
• What are the most important things to remember when training for a Ragnar Relay?
• How do you pace a long run?
• And a lot more!

Nichola - or Nic as her friends call her - has such a long list of credentials and accomplishments that I simply can't share them all here.

But just a sampling of her education and experience demonstrates her expertise:

• Graduated from Loughborough University with a First Class Honours Degree in Sports & Exercise Science
• Graduated from Leeds Metropolitan University with a post-graduate diploma in Dietetics
• Holds a Master's Degree in Health Science
• Published author in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics

Her blog has also been voted as the UK's best health blog in 2015! Clearly, we're in good company.

In this conversation, Nic and I discuss a wide variety of topics important to runners:

• How can athletes running with diabetes fuel appropriately while managing their disease?
• Why is being "calorie-aware" important but fundamentally different than counting calories?
• Does the ketogenic ("keto") diet work for runners?
• Is coconut water a good source of hydration for runners?
• Do detoxes work?
• Should athletes like runners take multivitamins?

Use these principles to focus on big-picture principles and thrive!