The Halfstep Pod

On Episode 8 of Season 2 of The Halfstep Pod, the guys are back to talk about Grant's upcoming race: the US 10k Trials this Friday Night at Hayward Field (Live on NBC). They also go deep on weather talk, Grant's signature thing, nasal strips, and (also somewhat importantly...) Grant's past month of workouts to get him ready for the upcoming US Champs. 

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On Episode 7 of Season 2 of the Halfstep Pod, Connor sits down with Sean McGorty for a comprehensive interview about his last year of pro running. This includes the crazy moment his shoe fell of at the Olympic Trials, post-Trials achilles surgery for Haglund's Deformity, his comeback from this most recent procedure and his successes in hitting the world standards in the 5k & 10k in his last two races -- running 13:09 and 27:18. The...

In Episode 6 of Season 2 of The Halfstep Pod, Grant and Connor start with a brief recap of Grant’s week of training in Portland, then start a deep dive on the 2018 NCAA XC Championship in Madison. This was the first in a series of battles between Grant and Morgan McDonald during Grant’s senior year of college. Grant provides unique commentary and analysis on this often talked-about championship as a competitor and mai...

Ep 5 of Season 2 of The Halfstep Pod is a wide-ranging discussion that covers Grant's thought's about Elise Cranny's mindset she shared on last week's podcast, Marc Scott's first global medal, the shifting mentality of the members of BTC with an eye towards global medals, and -- with an eye towards an under the radar World Indoor Champs this past weekend, potential ways to get more people interested in Track & Field outside of the ...

On Episode 4 of Season 2 of The Halfstep Pod, the podcast welcomes Elise Cranny, recent winner of The Ten presented by Sound Running (Running a 10k in just a second off the American Record in 30:14) and American Record Setter in the Indoor 5000 run at Boston a month ago (14:33). Connor and Elise talk about her massive last couple of performances, her experience at the Tokyo Olympics representing the United States in t...

On Episode 3 of Season 2 of the Halfstep Pod, Grant runs a PR of  26:33 in the 10k, a new American Record by 11 seconds. Or rather, he talks about running it this past Sunday at The Ten presented by Sound Running. The guys go deep on the race recap and all things surrounding this performance, including the importance of incredible teammates and healthy rivalries, light rail technology, squeezing a pace down, how silly it sounds to ...

On Episode 2 of this season of the Halfstep Pod, the guys are back talking about Grant's band activation drills which have taken the internet by storm this week, "Poopgate" the scandal which has elicited NYT articles and caused an uproar in the Flagstaff running community, and Grant's next race: a 10k on March 5th at the Sound Running Meet in Southern California where he will be targeting the elusive 27 minute barrier. 

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On Episode 1 of Season 2 of the Halfstep Pod, the guys are back to recap Grant's breakthrough 12:53 AR in the 5000 this past weekend at the BU Valentine Invite, including closing the final mile of his 3 mile race in 3:58. Grant discusses what his first American Record means to him, if he knew he was ready for this performance, and much more!

Season 2 will include:

- Weekly Episodes

- Youtube Channel (Halfstep Pod) where we will u...

On Episode 24 of The Halfstep Pod, Grant reveals his plans to race the 2-mile at this weekend's Diamond League meet at Hayward Field in Eugene, The Prefontaine Classic. He gives an update on his recovery process since the Olympics, and the training he has gotten in this past week. The guys then spend the second half of this episode answering your questions on Grant's experiences at the Tokyo Olympics, including some noteworthy ones...

On Episode 23 of The Halfstep Pod, Grant joins the Pod from back home in Oregon, after completing his 10k-5k double at the Olympics last week. With two top 10 finishes in his debut experience at the Games (5th in the 10k, 9th in the 5k) Grant discusses how he managed to get through that intense week of racing, a sudden injury that prevented him from running a step between the 5k prelim and 5k final (and jeopardized his ability to c...

On Episode 22 of The Halfstep Pod, Grant joins the Pod after placing 5th in the 10k at the Olympics, the best finish over that distance for an American man not named Galen Rupp since Frank Shorter in 1972. The guys do a brief recap of the race, including the keys to Grant's composure running in the lead pack in his first Olympic race, how he maintained belief that he belonged up there, and just who exactly he was giving the double ...

On Episode 21 of The Halfstep Pod, Grant joins the show live from Tokyo (Not live by the time you're hearing him, unfortunately). The guys go through what it's like living in the Village- from how much he is actually able to socialize, how he's getting his runs in, and what a cafeteria pumping out 40,000 meals a day actually looks like in action. 

Grant and Connor then spend the second half of the episode previewing Grant's 10k o...

On Episode 20 of The Halfstep Pod, Connor and Grant discuss Grant's final week in Park City as he heads to Honolulu this weekend in preparation for the upcoming Olympics in Tokyo.

The guys then get into their race recap of the 2004 Athens Olympics 1500 meter final. A final that came down to Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco, the 4 time World Champ at the distance searching for his elusive Olympic Gold, vs Bernard Lagat of Kenya, the ma...

On Episode 19 of The Halfstep Pod, Connor interviews his Stanford teammate, Julia Heymach on the heels of her breakthrough 2021 Cross Country and Track seasons. The two go through her training experiences during the COVID pandemic, and then recap her whole season starting with her first cross country meet in Florida and culminating with her 6th place finish at the 2021 US Olympic Trials in the 1500. Along the way they discuss her 1...

On Episode 18 of The Halfstep Pod, Grant and Connor talk about the recent news that the Tokyo Olympics will have no fans in attendance, and get into a bit of a deep dive on why the games probably can't get moved this close to the start date. Grant updates everyone on his training situation, including a surprising trip he and the team have planned before arriving in Japan.

The guys then transition into discussing the three separat...

On Episode 17 of The Halfstep Pod, Grant and Connor go chronologically from Grant's return to Park City after the 10k final, all the way through the 5k final and the reaction to Grant making the Olympic team in his second event. (2nd place in the 5k). The guys get detailed on the Trials environment, the structure and difficulty of the 5k prelims, the 10 am race start time on Sunday for the Final, and, of course, the last 100 meters...

On Episode 16 of The Halfstep Pod, Grant recaps the biggest race of his life so far: his second place finish at the US Olympic Trials 10k. Race-winner and BTC teammate Woody Kincaid comes on as a guest, too. The guys talk about everything. From how it feels to make their first Olympic teams, to throwing up on the bathroom floor the day of the race (just one of them), to how long they believed what happened on Friday w...

On Episode 15 of The Halfstep Pod, the guys discuss Grant's mentality a week out from the Trials 10k, how he plans to attack that race, and his mentality for his potential double attempt. They also talk about the first two days of the NCAA Championships and touch on the killer 5k at the Rome DL. They end by answering a listener question about the Tokyo Games-inspired Bowerman merch and the story behind the Japanese athletes who tra...

On Episode 14 of The Halfstep Pod, Grant and Connor recap Grant's victory in last weekend's Portland Track Festival from heat two of the 5k. The guys then talk about Grant's kinda-finalized plan of events for the Olympic Trials in two weeks. They also touch on Hobbs Kessler being very fast and the NCAA regional meets this past weekend. 

Thanks to everyone for listening and sorry for the delay between episodes! Please continue sendi...