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In this solo episode of The Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast, Katie shares an honest update on her road to Grandma’s Marathon and takes listeners inside the reality of marathon training after a setback from illness. After battling the flu and losing valuable training time, Katie discusses the challenges of rebuilding fitness, navigating difficult workouts, and balancing confidence with uncertainty as race day approaches.

The episode also dives deep into the concept of functional overreaching — what it is, why endurance athletes sometimes intentionally push beyond their limit, and how to recognize the difference between productive fatigue and overtraining. Katie explains how athletes can safely use periods of increased training load to stimulate adaptation while avoiding the dangers of non-functional overreaching and burnout.

Topics covered include:

• An update on Katie's marathon training over the past two week
• Why workouts can suddenly feel harder than expected
• Understanding functional vs. non-functional overreaching
• Signs you may be pushing too far
• How recovery, sleep, and nutrition affect adaptation
• The importance of fueling during high-volume marathon training
• Why higher carbohydrate intake may improve recovery and performance
• Adjusting training when life, fatigue, and stress collide
• The mental side of marathon preparation and trusting the process

Katie also shares practical insight into her current marathon build, including high-mileage weeks, strength training integration, fueling experiments, and how she’s adapting her plan in real time leading into race day.

Whether you’re training for a marathon, triathlon, or simply trying to balance hard training with recovery, this episode offers a relatable and educational look at the fine line between pushing your limits and pushing too far.

For coaching inquiries:

Coach Katie → https://fuel2run.com

Coach Justin → https://tabularasaracing.com

Podcast Email → theenduranceathletejourney@gmail.com