If you’ve spent any time on running TikTok, there’s a good chance Justin Kaufmann, aka Morning Kaufy, has landed on your FYP with a take that made you stop scrolling. This week, Justin joins Remin and Ashley for nearly two hours of running hot takes, training talk, social media chaos and a surprisingly personal conversation about the road that brought him here. We get into Zone 2 training, heart-rate obsession, high-mileage running, AI training apps, injury culture, under-fueling, bloodwork, recovery, strength training and why Justin believes there’s a lot more to coaching an athlete than handing them a running plan. We also dig into the increasingly blurry line between endurance sport and entertainment: influencer culture, performative suffering, supplements, peptides, transparency and what happens when “working hard” becomes content. But underneath the hot takes is a much bigger story. Justin opens up about growing up overweight, losing 100 pounds, moving through bodybuilding and Ironman, building a career in marketing, struggling with alcohol and drug addiction, surviving two overdoses and eventually turning to ultrarunning as part of his path to sobriety. Running didn’t start as his identity, but it ultimately became something that helped him rebuild one. We talk about: • Why Justin doesn’t coach primarily by heart rate • The Zone 2 debate and why training stimulus matters • AI training plans vs. an actual human coach • Why volume matters, but recovery, food and sleep matter more • The difference between pushing through discomfort and training through an injury • Why under-fueling is such a problem in endurance sports • Bloodwork, nutrition and Justin’s approach to coaching athletes as individuals • The monetization of the “pain cave” • Social media, endurance influencers and authenticity • PEDs, peptides and transparency in the fitness industry • Addiction, sobriety and the role ultrarunning played in Justin’s recovery • Why sometimes the smartest training decision is simply to skip the workout • And, naturally, several completely unfiltered tangents along the way Justin describes himself as direct, and he definitely delivers. Whether you agree with every take or find yourself yelling at your phone, this is exactly the kind of conversation Is It Just Us? exists for. Find Justin / Morning Kaufy: Coaching: https://www.team-keep.com/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@morninkaufy Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morningkaufy Content note: This episode includes candid discussion of substance use, addiction and overdose.
