Jackson Cole is a professional mountain runner with La Sportiva. He sat down with us to talk about the sport of mountain and trail running, and what it took to transition from being a track and cross country runner into one of the best mountain athletes from New Zealand. Jackson talked in depth about his training while a college runner at Adams State University, his introduction to mountain running by setting Fastest Known Times in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Colorado, his recent success in mountain and Sky Running, as well as his 26th place finish leading Team New Zealand at the World Mountain Running Championships in Spain.

Topics include:

• Mountain running, trail running, ultra running
• Adams State Cross Country
• Fastest Known Time
• Threshold Training
• World Mountain Running Championship
• Sky Running
• European vs. American Trail Running
• Running Nutrition
• Canyons 100k

Some of Jackson's recent accomplishments include:

1st Meet the Minotaur Skyrace - Alberta, Canada. (Skyrunner World Series)

1st Alyeska Cirque Series - Anchorage, Alaska (Cirque Series/ Alaskan Mtn Running Grand Prix)

4th Matterhorn Ultraks Extreme - Zermatt, Switzerland (Sky Running World Series)

6th Sky Running World Champs VK - Soria, Spain

FKT Ten Mile Traverse - Frisco, Colorado

FKT Borah Peak - Lost River Range, Idaho

FKT Bitterroot High Five - Bitterroot Range, Montana

Jackson on Strava

Jackson on Instagram

Classic Running on Instagram

Welcome to The Classic Running Podcast! This podcast highlights conversations with some amazing athletes from the running world, whether it be on the track, road, trails, or ultra. We take an in-depth look at their training, racing, and what makes them great.

In this episode I sit down with my good friend Sydney Gidabuday. Sydney is a professional track and road runner. He was a seven-time national champion at Adams State University, he's run 13:22 for 5k, 61:09 for Half Marathon, competed at the Olympic Trials on the track and in the Marathon, and finished on the podium at multiple US Championships in road running. We talk about the training that Sydney did to complete these feats. We also spend some time talking about Sydney's unique upbringing, from the US to Tanzania and back. Sydney describes how he got into the sport of running, his family history of success, and how his guardian fostered a love for the sport. We spend some time reminiscing about Adams State and Alamosa, Colorado, the training successes and a few mistakes that Sydney has learned from, and the power of relationship building as demonstrated by Adams State's legendary coach Damon Martin. Sydney then shares details about training and racing as a professional with Tinman Elite, Roots Running, and The Track Club in Boulder, Colorado. With an extensive training history, Sydney has insights on threshold training, aerobic development, VO2 Max, critical velocity, and much more, that any runner from beginner to elite could benefit from.

Sydney's Strava

Sydney's Instagram

Flotrack's "Get a Booty" Mt. Sac Invite edit