About this episode
Jeff Garmire shares his training journey and strategies for overcoming weaknesses in preparation for the Cocodona 250.
This one is part training update, part origin story, and part figuring things out in real time. I’m down in Arizona right now, overheating on purpose, trying to finally solve the thing that’s crushed me at Cocodona 250 for years. Day one. Heat, hydration, sodium, all of it. I’ve known it’s a weakness, but this is the first year I’ve actually committed to fixing it. So I built a training camp around it. We get into how I’m thinking about specificity, dialing in calories and sodium per hour, and actually testing everything in the conditions that matter. Not guessing, not hoping, just collecting data and adjusting. Then we rewind to the beginning. Signing up for the first Cocodona with no idea what I was doing, showing up with one drop bag, living off Skittles and electrolytes I’d never tried before, and somehow figuring it out along the way. Six years later, this is the first time I’ve treated Cocodona like an A goal. And I think that changes everything. We also wrap up Outdoor March Madness, talk about why the Appalachian Trail won (controversial), give out prizes, and get into a bigger theme. If something is a weakness, you can either avoid it or actually go fix it. This time…
People in this episode
Host: Jeff Garmire
Topics covered
- training update
- origin story
- heat training
- hydration
- Cocodona 250
- Outdoor March Madness
Keywords
- Cocodona 250
- heat training
- hydration
- sodium
- calories
- Appalachian Trail
- Outdoor March Madness
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Appalachian Trail
Places: Arizona
More episodes of Free Outside
- An Unsolved Outdoor Mystery · June 12, 2026 · 1h 1m
- From Barkley Crew to Professional Trail Runner: Jade Belzberg · June 8, 2026 · 1h 5m
- The FKT That Took Bob Stewart 3 Tries to Finish · June 5, 2026 · 1h 7m
- Rory Linkletter on the Olympics, Social Media, and the Future of Running · June 1, 2026 · 1h 27m
- Sage Canaday on Competition, Content, and the Future of Running · May 29, 2026 · 1h 9m
- The Mental Side of Ultrarunning | Lauren Jones on Failure, Hallucinations, and Hard Things · May 25, 2026 · 52 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Free Outside podcast page.