Show Notes
Heather Knight Pech is one of the best age-graded runners in the world. She’s won her age group (F55) at the Boston Marathon and recently shocked the running world with her 1:27:24 half marathon at age 58. In 2019, she had the second fastest marathon time in the U.S. for her age (3:00:44). She was second only to marathon legend Joan Benoit Samuelson.
Heather also coaches athletes on VDOT O2. She coaches HS athletes privately in Darien, CT and is an online private coach for McKirdy Trained. She is a retired CEO of Polo Jeans Company and 9 West Retail.
In this episode we discuss:
-Quarantine as an opportunity
-Training without racing and with more intention
-Getting into running, her professional career
-How she balances and manages such an intense training schedule
-Coaching and nutrition
Producer: Andre Laboy
Song: Breakadawn, by Mike Quinn
More from The V.O2 Podcast
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.
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.
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.
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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.