Zack Telander on Discipline, Longevity, and Why He’s Running a Mile Or More Every Day With No Background In Running
THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST
Dominic Schlueter
4.9 • 821 Ratings
🗓️ 1 September 2025
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Part coach, part storyteller, and part entertainer, Zack Telander shows that serious training doesn’t have to be boring—or stuck in one lane.
A former Division I lacrosse player at the University of Vermont (2011–2013), Zack built his athletic base in a team sport before transitioning into Olympic weightlifting as both an athlete and coach. But recently, his followers have been watching a different kind of streak: he’s running a mile every single day—and documenting it on Instagram. (As of recording this, he’s on day 79.)
What started as a personal challenge has become a running narrative (pun intended) on his feed, showing how a committed weightlifter can integrate daily running without losing strength or swagger. His posts blend mileage updates with reflections on training discipline, recovery, and mindset.
On YouTube, where he has about 245K subscribers as of August 2025, Zack’s content mixes deep coaching insights, technical breakdowns, and the occasional cultural hot take—plus personality-driven pieces like his snatch session with Alec Blenis. Off-camera, he’s USAW Level 1 & 2 and NSCA-CSCS certified, with coaching stints at Texas A&M (Rugby S&C; Weightlifting Club) and experience training everyone from beginners to national-level lifters.
We’ll dig into how his daily runs fit into a strength athlete’s world, how running and lifting can sharpen each other, and why Zack believes community and healthy skepticism are key to long-term athletic growth.
In today's conversation, Zack dives deep into his running journey, thoughts on how runners can get the most out of their life and running pursuits, where he wants to take his running, his unorthodox beginnings in the sport, and so much more.
This one is fun, but also deep. The perfect mix for your next run.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Running Effect podcast. |
| 0:02.4 | Before we hop into today's episode, a quick note that it is brought to you by Mount to Coast, |
| 0:07.4 | a brand new running shoe brand on the market that I have greatly appreciated using in training over the past few weeks, |
| 0:12.9 | specifically this R1 model. |
| 0:15.1 | They have many models, but the R1 is probably my favorite one that have tried thus far. |
| 0:19.7 | And what's nice about it is you feel like you have enough cushion in protection |
| 0:23.2 | where running feels effortless, |
| 0:25.0 | but you don't want to sacrifice weight for the amount of cushion. |
| 0:28.6 | What's nice about the R1 is there's a lot of foam and stability and support |
| 0:32.9 | so that your legs don't feel beat up, but it's also not that heavy. |
| 0:36.2 | And so it's a smooth, seamless ride. Specifically, if you're looking this fall for a new training shoe for cross-country or |
| 0:42.8 | marathons or ultramarathons, if you want to try out the R1 or a different model of Mount |
| 0:47.7 | to Coast shoes, you guys can use the code the running effect for 10% off. And their website is |
| 0:52.8 | very easy to remember. It is simply mount to coast.com. |
| 0:56.3 | I hope you guys enjoyed today's conversation of the podcast. |
| 1:02.8 | The people who say I could run a marathon, but I don't want to. |
| 1:06.6 | It's like, okay, well, there's, you got to say why you don't want to. |
| 1:10.6 | I know what it takes. I know what it takes. |
| 1:12.6 | I know what it takes to deadlift 700 pounds. |
| 1:15.6 | I don't want to do it because it's too hard and I'm not hard enough. |
| 1:20.6 | I'm okay with saying that. |
| 1:23.2 | And the lack of people who are willing to say that is insane to me. |
... |
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