Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.

 Kirsti Dolson and Matt Shepard are very passionate about trail running and that passion shines through in the way they approach their jobs with Sinister Sports These two want to create special events for people to celebrate their love of trails, and that mentality is shared with the entire Sinister team. All they want to do is make your experience awesome and Siniter Sports has plenty of opportunities to make your experience awesome as they host a bunch of different races and camp, all varying in length, difficulty and whether you’ll be above ground or not. Yes, Sinister even hosts an underground race in an old mine! Whatever you sign up for, their collective goal is the same. Make it awesome. 

 Matt Shepard is a on a quest to tackle some of the most challenging ultra running events around by taking on “Last Runner Standing” style Backyard Ultras and ridiculously long six day races.  He’s a big dreamer with some serious resilience and the ability to dig deep into the pain cave to withstand these brutally long events.

He started off with a win at OUTRUN Backyard Ultra in Alberta receiving a golden ticket to Big’s Backyard down in Tennessee. 2 months later he claimed the 2nd place spot Across the Years 6-day event, running a stout 435.87 miles (yes, you read that correctly!) and has his sights set on the Canadian six day record.

In this episode we chat all about Matt’s journey, the lessons he has learned along the way, how he prepares to race multi day ultras, and some of the mental, physical and emotional strategies he use in order to be successful!

In this YouTube series, the hosts of the Superset Podcast discuss all this Tonal. The Tonal is a revolutionary home workout machine that utilized magnetic resistance and an array of sensors to guide the user's movements.

We discuss how Shep started using the Tonal equipment, his favourite coaches and programs, as well as how he approaches training for unbelievable distances. 

Watch the full episode on Youtube!

 This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Matt Shepard - a Canadian ultra distance runner and someone I'm proud to call my friend. After meeting Matt a year ago, he and I will connect every couple months to discuss training, nutrition, life, and what's been going on. This casual chat is a great reflection of this. A conversation between friends about hard things. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.
NOTE: Matt was nice enough to carve some time out of his busy schedule, but that meant he had to record this outside after driving for hours to his current job location. The wind gets a little rough at times, so please excuse the less-than-perfect audio quality. 

 This week we are catching back up with Shep to hear all about his experience going after the Canadian six day ultra running record!

In a continuation of Episode 205, we dig into the lessons learned and growth experienced during Shep’s “6 Days in the North”.  A major theme is “expect the unexpected” as the project started with a massive torrential rainstorm.  Enduring unknown challenges with adaptability and confidence is HUGE in life and Shep was a steward of this through this event.

We also dive into the concept of learning from failures and the cycle of  “attempt, learn, adjust, attempt” which is a powerful driving factor to anyone’s success!

Hope you guys enjoy the episode! I could seriously chat with him for days as he is incredibly knowledgeable, passionate, driven and shares a wonderful growth mindset!

Matt Shepard, better known as “Shep,” is a trail and ultrarunner originally from Washington State who currently lives in Cochrane, AB.  As a former medic in the US Armed Forces, volunteer firefighter, woodworker and builder of things, Shep loves to work with his hands. An entrepreneur at heart, he operates two small businesses and spends his summers working as a part of the Sinister Sports team, maintaining and marking the beautiful Canadian mountain trails.

In this episode, we discuss:

• his running background
• backyard ultras
• his 6 day Canadian record attempt
• his experiences pacing and crewing for Dave Proctor in his run across Canada
• the inaugural Divide 200 that Sinister Sports is presenting this summer.

 This week we are catching back up with Shep to hear all about his experience going after the Canadian six day ultra running record!

In a continuation of Episode 205, we dig into the lessons learned and growth experienced during Shep’s “6 Days in the North”.  A major theme is “expect the unexpected” as the project started with a massive torrential rainstorm.  Enduring unknown challenges with adaptability and confidence is HUGE in life and Shep was a steward of this through this event.

We also dive into the concept of learning from failures and the cycle of  “attempt, learn, adjust, attempt” which is a powerful driving factor to anyone’s success!

Hope you guys enjoy the episode! I could seriously chat with him for days as he is incredibly knowledgeable, passionate, driven and shares a wonderful growth mindset!