Jason Geroux — known online as The Maine Viking — has run dozens of ultramarathons including 19 100-milers, and this spring he ran 300 miles solo through the Arizona desert using his own house as an aid station. In this episode, recorded in person in Orono, Maine, Jason walks through how a torturous 2-mile honeymoon run turned into a decade of daily training, why 100 miles became his favorite distance, what actually goes through your head at mile 200 of a race with no crew, and how he fits all of it around running his own flooring business.

This isn’t coaching advice — Jason isn’t a certified coach and neither is Evan. It’s one runner’s actual experience, shared so you can take what’s useful and leave the rest.

In this episode:

• How a scared-to-run-alone honeymoon jog turned into 10 years of daily training

• Why Jason picked 100 miles as his favorite distance over 50s or 200s

• The first 100-mile attempt he didn’t finish — and what changed the second time

• Planning and training for the Arizona Monster 300 (300 miles, no support crew)

• What happens mentally once you’re past your previous longest distance

• Running an epoxy flooring business on 4 AM training and zero days off

Find Jason: Instagram @themaineviking | Facebook: Jason Geroux

All links, socials, and past episodes: linktr.ee/evanblakeney

Until next time, Just Keep Running.

Until Next Time: Just Keep Running

Can one bad week of missed runs ruin your marathon training? I got sick partway through a training block — a chest cold, three nights of awful sleep, and a week where everything that could go wrong did — and in this solo episode I think out loud about what it actually costs.

I'm building toward an October marathon with a goal of breaking 4:30, and right when my training was finally clicking, it all came apart. So I get honest about training through sickness, the fear of losing fitness, and the all-or-nothing mindset that makes me skip a run completely instead of just doing a shorter one. No tidy answers here — just a runner working through a rough stretch in real time. If you've ever felt behind or gotten sick at the worst possible moment, you'll relate to this one.

In this episode:

• Why I traded base-building for a strength block

• Whether to run with a cold — and when to rest

• Do you really lose fitness after a week off?

• The all-or-nothing trap and the small fix I'm trying

New episodes every other Friday. If this one resonated, follow or subscribe so you don't miss the next.

Find everything here: https://linktr.ee/evanblakeney

Until Next Time: Just Keep Running

Zone 2 training is low-intensity, aerobic-base running — but the hardest part isn't the science, it's one simple question: how do you actually know when you're in Zone 2?

Most runners rely on the heart rate zones their watch hands them. The problem is those zones are built on an estimate of your max heart rate that can be off by 40 beats per minute, which throws the whole calculation off.

In this solo episode, Evan breaks down what Zone 2 actually does for your body, why your watch is probably getting your zones wrong, and the no-gadget “talk test” that's more reliable than the numbers on your wrist. He also shares what nine weeks of real Zone 2 training did to his pace — and the injury that taught him to build smarter, not just faster.

What you'll learn:

• What Zone 2 is doing inside your body (mitochondria, capillaries, and the aerobic base)

• Why “220 minus your age” makes your watch's zones unreliable

• The talk test: how to find Zone 2 with no watch at all

• How much Zone 2 you actually need at your weekly volume (and why 80/20 isn't a universal rule)

• Why your heart rate spikes on hills — and why that's fine

• How long Zone 2 takes to work, with real before-and-after pace numbers

• The cardiovascular-vs-structural trap that led to an Achilles injury — and how to avoid it

Evan isn't a doctor or a coach — just a runner who reads the research and shares what he finds. Nothing here is medical or training advice.

Studies referenced:

Storoschuk et al., “Much Ado About Zone 2,” Sports Medicine (2025): https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-025-02261-y

Persinger & Foster et al., the talk test and ventilatory threshold, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (2004): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15354048/

Nes et al., max heart rate accuracy, The HUNT Fitness Study, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports (2013): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2012.01445.x

Mølmen et al., mitochondria and capillary growth, Sports Medicine (2025): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39390310/

Follow Just Keep Running: https://linktr.ee/evanblakeney

Until Next Time: Just Keep Running