The Loudest Voice in Running: Fitz Koehler on Weak Hips, Wild Finish Lines, and 400 Schools That Run Before Class

**Heads up before you listen:** Fitz shares a specific calorie formula in this episode that's worked for a lot of her clients. It's a simplification — it doesn't account for height, age, sex, or how much you're training. If you're training for a distance event, talk to a sports dietitian before cutting calories. Under-fueling is genuinely common in endurance runners and it'll wreck your training before it does anything for your waistline. I'm not a coach, a doctor, or a nutritionist — I'm a guy who started running and wanted better answers than the ones I was getting. This is a conversation, not medical advice. Fitz Koehler has yelled "GO!" at more starting lines than most people alive. She's the voice of the Los Angeles Marathon, the Publix Gasparilla Distance Classic, the OC Marathon, the DONNA National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer, and about thirty other events a year. She's also a breast cancer survivor, has a master's in exercise science, and built a before-school running program called the Morning Mile that's now in more than 400 schools across America, Canada, and Japan. This one runs long because I kept stopping her to ask follow-ups. No apologies. We get into: - Why she taught her first fitness class at **14 years old** — after quitting a job at Cinnabon - The one sentence in a research journal that changed how she thinks about weight management - Why she thinks your **Garmin is overestimating your calorie burn**, and what I started doing about it - Her claim that roughly **60% of marathoners could still lose 20+ pounds** — and why that's not a discipline problem - How a conversation with a friend about her kid's school turned into the **Morning Mile**, now in 400+ schools - What actually happens when you ask a school to let kids run before class (the pushback is weirder than you'd think) - Why kids stop loving running somewhere between age 3 and age 12 - Her hard line on **kids and marathons** — and the growth-plate reasoning behind it - The **four pillars of fitness** most runners are only doing one of - **Why your knees hurt when you run** — and why the problem is usually your hips - The glute medius test she says 97% of runners fail - Why you should **never strength train the same muscles two days in a row** - Why she told me to stop running seven days a week immediately - How race announcing became a full-time career, and the 40 minutes she had to improvise when a car broke onto the course - Her three favorite races to announce, and why the back of the pack has the best energy **If this one was useful, leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.** It's the single biggest thing that helps other beginner runners find the show. Come say hi on Instagram: **@evan\_blakeney** **FIND FITZ:** Website: https://www.fitzness.com Morning Mile: https://www.morningmile.com Instagram: @fitzness Podcast: The Fitzness Show Books: *You Supercharged: The Exact Formula for Fitness, Weight Loss and Longevity* · *My Noisy Cancer Comeback* · the Healthy Cancer Comeback series **FIND ME:** Everything: https://linktr.ee/evanblakeney Instagram: @evan\_blakeney Facebook: facebook.com/evan.blakeney.9 Until Next Time: Just Keep Running