The V.O2 Podcast

What does it take to keep getting faster after kids and into your 40s? In Episode 5 of The V.O2 Podcast, host Brian Rosetti sits down with Minnesota-based athlete, coach, and top V.O2 Marketplace seller Michelle Baxter (@therunnersplate).

Michelle shares her athletic journey from running D3 college track to running a sub-3:00 marathon and setting new PRs after age 40. She reveals the simple, single nutrition shift that eliminated years of chronic injuries, how she works with a sports psychologist to tackle marathon mindset, and what it really looks like to balance high-level training with raising a family. Plus, Michelle breaks down how she uses V.O2 to streamline training for her 1-on-1 athletes and build virtual community programs like her winter "Bring on the BRRR!" challenge.

Key Topics Covered:

-Sustainable Performance: Lowering race times and setting PRs in your 40s.

-The Nutrition Game-Changer: Why pre-run fueling and post-workout carbs changed her injury trajectory.

-Mindset & Mental Health: Overcoming negative self-talk and the impact of losing an in-person running community after a cross-country move.

-Coaching & Business: How V.O2 pace calculations save hours on plan creation, allowing coaches to focus on athlete communication and feedback.

-Winter Motivation: Building community through virtual group challenges and staying active during cold-weather months.

Follow & Connect:

• Follow Michelle on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠@therunnersplate
• Check out her coaching on V.O2: ⁠⁠ https://vdoto2.com/running-coach/michelle-baxter

🎵 Credit: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Mike Quinn, Reforming⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Subscribe to The V.O2 Podcast on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen for bi-monthly conversations with world-class coaches, athletes, and industry leaders.

In Episode 4 of The V.O2 Podcast, host Brian Rosetti sits down with 2:12 marathoner and 1:03 half marathoner Will Norris. Will details his journey from a rural Iowa high school runner and NAIA athlete to achieving a 6+ VDOT jump post-collegiately. We dive deep into practical marathon and half marathon training insights, including why stacking consistent training blocks beats chasing shortcuts, the role of long single runs over doubles, executing key 90-minute goal pace sessions, and using VDOT to train where you are today rather than where you want to be.

Follow & Connect:

• Follow Will on Instagram: ⁠⁠@willdnorris
• Start coaching or training on V.O2: ⁠vdoto2.com⁠

🎵 Credit: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Mike Quinn, Reforming⁠⁠⁠⁠

Subscribe to The V.O2 Podcast on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen for bi-monthly conversations with world-class coaches, athletes, and industry leaders.

In Episode 3, we sit down with Renee Gunning, head distance coach at William Penn Charter School. Coach Gunning shares how she transformed a local program into the #16 team in the nation and state champions, missing a national championship berth by just three seconds. We discuss balancing high-level competitive ambitions with athlete longevity, using VDOT to streamline individualized training, avoiding the trap of social media overtraining, and why raising the floor for your JV athletes is the secret to elevating your entire team.

Follow & Connect:

• Follow Penn Charter XC on Instagram: ⁠@pcgxctf
• Start coaching or training on V.O2: https://vdoto2.com/

🎵 Credit: ⁠⁠⁠Mike Quinn, Reforming⁠⁠⁠

Subscribe to The V.O2 Podcast on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen for bi-monthly conversations with world-class coaches, athletes, and industry leaders.

In this episode, we sit down with the 2026 LA Marathon champion Nathan Martin. We relive his photo finish that shocked the running world and break down the exact mental grit required to pull off a late-race surge.

We dive into his training approach with coach James McKirdy: managing energy over mileage, using VDOT data to adjust workouts, and his golden rules for avoiding the dreaded 20-mile wall.

Whether you’re a high school athlete, a 3-hour marathoner, or a coach looking for real-world wisdom, Nathan's practical, effort-first mindset will transform how you approach race day.

Follow & Connect:

•

Follow Nathan Martin on Instagram: ⁠@nim_i_am

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Start coaching or training on V.O2: ⁠https://vdoto2.com⁠

🎵 Credit: ⁠Mike Quinn, Reforming⁠

Subscribe to The V.O2 Podcast on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen for bi-monthly conversations with world-class coaches, athletes, and industry leaders.

V.O2 kicks off the newly relaunched show with running coach Megan Cooke, founder of Never Give Up Coaching (NGU Coaching).

Megan brings a unique background to the running world, having spent 25 years competing and coaching at the highest levels of D1 NCAA rowing (including head coach at Duke University) and representing Team USA. After transitioning to road racing, breaking 3:00 in the marathon, and launching her coaching business on the V.O2 platform, Megan built a thriving, waitlisted coaching business in less than two years.

In this episode:

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Transitioning Elite Coaching Experience: How Megan leveraged decades of D1 rowing and high-performance physiology to launch a running coaching business without a traditional running resume.

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Authentic Social Media Content: Why raw "FaceTime-style" Instagram reels connect far better with athletes than polished graphics or sales pitches.

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Training Principles & Marathon Workouts: Megan's favorite workout structures (including mixing marathon pace with threshold work) and why aerobic patience is key to breaking goals.

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The "Human Edge" in Coaching: How she balances data-driven VDOT pacing on V.O2 with the emotional and mental support athletes need on race day.

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Debunking Marathon Myths: The biggest misconceptions around volume, injury prevention, and consistency.

Follow & Connect:

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Follow Megan Cooke on Instagram: @runningcoachmegan

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Learn more about NGU Coaching: Never Give Up Coaching

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Start coaching or training on V.O2: https://vdoto2.com

🎵 Credit: Mike Quinn, Reforming

Subscribe to The V.O2 Podcast on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen for bi-monthly conversations with world-class coaches, athletes, and industry leaders.

Ariane Hendrix is a VDOT Certified Coach and the 5th fastest U.S. born African American woman of all time in the marathon. She’s shown steady progress first running the event in 3:57 ten years ago. Recently, she placed third at the Bayshore Marathon in 2:42.

Connect with Ari on her coaching profile page: https://coaches.vdoto2.com/ariane-hendrix-roach Follow her progress on Instagram @ari_hendrixroach.

Music credit: Mike Quinn, Breakadawn

Sara Lopez is an athlete on V.O2 working with Ame For It Run Coaching. Recently, Sara has set new PRs of 1:13:53 (64 VDOT) in the half marathon and 32:59 10k (65.1). Both were road racing wins too.

We learn in this episode how her pursuit to become a walk-on at BYU put her down a dark path and how she found her love of running and training again.

Follow Sara's progress @saraannelilopez

Music credit: Mike Quinn, Breakadawn

Blake Dircksen is a licensed physical therapist at Bespoke Treatments and assistant high school coach. In this episode we discuss the success he's having remote coaching his high school alma mater on V.O2. Blake is also offering free strength and mobility exercises for download on your V.O2 calendar. You can sign up for free here: https://coaches.vdoto2.com/blakedircksen

We also discuss ankle injuries and our new Stats feature on the app.

Jason Martuscello is a researcher at BEESY Strategy, a behavioral science agency, conducting consumer and market research. After transforming his life by losing over 100 lbs. he became relentlessly determined to deeply understand the universal ingredients of behavior change. His weight loss has created a burning curiosity and passion to understand how we change and sustain behavior.

In just four years Jason got into running and completing marathons. He has since completed three majors (NYC, Berlin and Boston) with a PR of 2:46. He currently works coach Dylan Belles on V.O2.

Music Credit: Mike Quinn, Breakadawn

Pietro Gennenzi lives in Brooklyn, NY. Pietro is a musician and project engineer for acoustic architectural design firm Walters-Storyk Design Group. He recently completed his first marathon in 2:34:56 after only getting into running two years prior. The entire marathon build-up was a learning experience to say the least.

In this episode we discuss: his background, living in Brooklyn, how he got into running, his progression as a runner to running 2:34 in Philly, how he executed the race, goals moving forward (break 2:30 in Chicago this year then complete World Majors).

Connect with Pietro @ptr_gnz

Music Credit: Mike Quinn, Breakadawn

Andie Cozzarelli has one of the highest VDOT scores on V.O2 for a female athlete. She represents Oiselle, UCAN, Athletes For Yoga, AltRed, and InsideTracker. Andie was a 2x All-American in the 10k at NC State and she qualified for the Olympic Trials in 2016 in the Marathon. She’s also a private coach on V.O2. You can view her coaching profile at: https://coaches.vdoto2.com/andie-cozzarelli

In this episode we discuss: living and training in Raleigh, NC, her athletic story, troubleshooting and working through her health issues to get back on track, Athletes for Yoga, coaching and training towards a 2:37 marathon.

Chris Free is an athlete based out of Virginia Beach. He recently set a new PB winning the Louisiana Marathon on a negative split (2:38:56). Chris currently works with coach Dylan Belles on V.O2. In the past 10 years he's dropped almost 80 minutes off of his marathon time.

In this episode we discuss how Chris got into running and what his training looks like, including the strength training routine that keeps him healthy. Currently, he's raising money for World Vision while training for the Berlin Marathon.

Connect with Chris on Instagram @_cmfree.

Music Credit: Mike Quinn, Breakadawn

Leah Rosenfeld is an athlete and coach based out of Flagstaff, AZ. She's a former DI college coach and now coaches online on V.O2, in-person at Team Run Flagstaff and through iFIT on NordicTrack. A longtime middle distance specialist with PRs of 4:18 for 1500m (64.6 VDOT) and 15:58 for 5k (64.7 VDOT), Leah has recently bumped up to ultra running winning her first trail races at XTERRA San Tan Trail Run, Queen Creek, AZ, the Soulstice Mountain Trail Run in Flagstaff, AZ and Imogene Pass Run in Telluride, CO.

In this episode we discuss: her time coaching in Costa Rica with iFit, transitioning to trail with legend Rob Krar, how she got into running, transitioning from athlete to coach and more.

Connect with Leah on her coaching profile (https://coaches.vdoto2.com/leahrosenfeld) and on Instagram @leahdanarosenfeld.

Music Credit: Mike Quinn, Breakadawn

Tom Black is an athlete and coach based out of New York City. After working in Finance for several years Tom moved to NYC to pursue a career in fitness & fashion. He ran his first marathon in 2017 and before too long he was running every single day and going for 1-2 hour runs on the weekends. Since then, Tom has increased his mileage from around 20-30 miles to 70-90 miles and cut his marathon time down from 3:20 to 2:31. He's also gotten VDOT Certified and is now helping other athletes on V.O2.

In this episode we discuss: his backstory, living and training in NYC (and vying for limited turf with cyclists), how he's improved over the years, his negative split in Houston running 2:31:54 and what he's learned along the way to now coaching athletes.

Connect with Tom on his coaching profile (https://coaches.vdoto2.com/tom-black) and on Instagram @tom.r.black.

Music Credit: Mike Quinn, Breakadawn

Christina Welsh is an athlete based out of St. Petersburg, FL. She recently set PRs of 2:33 (64.8 VDOT) in the marathon and 1:15:36 (62.3 VDOT) for a half marathon. Learn more about her incredible progression from her 3:29 marathon debut in 2019 to qualifying for the next Olympic Trials.

Follow Christina @christinajwelsh.

Music Credit: Mike Quinn, Breakadawn

Ann Centner lives and trains in Tallahassee, FL where she's pursuing her PhD in Nutrition Sciences. Ann also has a masters in Food Science and Technology from the University of Georgia.

In the past year Ann has set personal bests of 1:13:45 (64.1 VDOT) in the half marathon and 2:38:31 (62.2 VDOT) in the marathon. In this episode we discuss: living and training in Tallahassee, her big improvement over past few years, rediscovering her joy for running after a bad experience in college and going after the Olympic Trials while trying to focus more on the process.

Connect with Ann @ann_marie_ce on Instagram.

Dylan Belles is a distance runner and coach based in Flagstaff, AZ. He's currently one of the highest volume runners on V.O2 and also one of the most highly rates coaches on the platform. At the 2022 Houston Marathon he qualified for his second Olympic Trials with his 2:17:26 (6th American, 73.4 VDOT).

Connect with Dylan at https://coaches.vdoto2.com/Dylan-Belles.

In this episode: training leading up to Houston, living/training in Flagstaff, AZ, how he got into running/coaching, goals for 2022 and beyond and how he plans to approach them.

[Please note: Due to technical difficulties volume is low on our host's audio using a back-up file].

Ron Loewen is an athlete and coach based out of Langley, British Columbia. He’s also a certified personal trainer with a specialization in biomechanics. He founded @GrittyRunClub, “running for the community,” and manages his private athletes on V.O2. In 2021, Ron was one of the highest mileage athletes on our platform so we connected to gain insights into his training.

“I’m obsessively interested in optimizing my own running patterns, economy of movement, and staying injury free.” Read more at news.vdoto2.com.

Kim Conley is a professional runner and coach based out of Flagstaff, AZ. She has represented the United States eight times, including at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. She holds PRs of 15:05.20 5k, (69.2 VDOT), 31:35.88 10k (68.5 VDOT) and 1:09:44 Half Marathon (68.4 VDOT).

In this episode we discuss: living and training at altitude, what it's like to now coach recreational athletes, her amazing 4-year progression from 80th at NCAA in 2008 to Olympian in the 5,000 meters in 2012, and of course, her incredible lean at the tape at the U.S. Trials.

Connect on Instagram @kfconley or at https://kimfconley.com/.

John Reniewicki is professional runner at Under Armour and a former Assistant Cross Country Coach at Arizona State University. As a collegiate athlete John broke the Arizona State University school record in the 10K and has since improved his PR to 28:15 (78.2 VDOT). He’s entering his second year of professional running and currently working hard to prepare for the national championships.

In this episode we discuss:

• His new sponsorship and coaching influences
• What his training and daily routines look like
• His experiences dealing with and managing injuries
• Goals for 2022 and beyond
• What he’s grateful for at this time

Connect with John via his V.O2 Marketplace profile at: https://coaches.vdoto2.com/John-Reniewicki or on Instagram @john_reniewicki.