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Friends In Training Podcast with Marcela Todd: Life is A Marathon cover art

Friends In Training Podcast with Marcela Todd: Life is A Marathon

Friends In Training Podcast with Marcela Todd: Life is A Marathon

Written by: Marcela Todd
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About this listen
 Welcome to The Friends In Training Podcast with Marcela Todd: Life is A Marathon. This podcast is your ultimate companion for staying motivated and inspired on your fitness and life journey. Join Marcela each week as she shares uplifting stories, hosts insightful interviews with experts and everyday heroes, and offers practical tips to help you tackle challenges, celebrate victories, and keep moving forward—one step at a time. Whether you’re a seasoned runner, a first-time walker, or simply seeking inspiration, this podcast offers encouragement and community for everyone. Tune in, subscribe, and let’s run this marathon of life together! Visit https://friendsintraining.net for more information and resources.2026 - FriendsInTraining.net Exercise & Fitness Fitness, Diet & Nutrition Hygiene & Healthy Living Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Keep Moving Forward: Nurse and Grandmother Misty Noble's 180-Pound Weight Loss Story

    Keep Moving Forward: Nurse and Grandmother Misty Noble's 180-Pound Weight Loss Story
    Nov 3 2026
    Here's a tightened version at about 2,500 characters: In this moving episode of Friends in Training: Life is a Marathon, Marcela welcomes Misty Noble, a nurse, grandmother, published author, and lifelong horse lover whose story of losing 180 pounds shows it's never too late to change. Misty started riding at age three and showed horses into her twenties. Then marriage, three children, and a full-time nursing career left little room for herself, and the weight crept on. She was always dieting and always restricting, convinced that being skinny would fix everything. After her twins were born she weighed 317 pounds, and eventually she reached 375. She couldn't stand for more than five minutes, carried a chair everywhere, and relied on her children for everyday tasks like tying her shoes. Her breaking point came at Arlington Cemetery. Walking in the heat, she watched her heart rate spike and wondered what her husband would do if she collapsed. In August 2022, she had gastric sleeve surgery. Her surgeon gave her three daily goals: 60 to 80 grams of protein, 80 ounces of water, and 30 minutes of movement. Thirty minutes felt impossible, so she started with three 10-minute walks and built from there. She hired a trainer, went to the gym at 5 a.m., tracked her nutrition, and adopted Arnold Schwarzenegger's mindset: don't think, just do. The weight loss was a byproduct of something deeper. Misty wrote a list called 100 Things I've Gained Since I Lost 100 Pounds, which ranged from sitting in a restaurant booth to playing on the floor with her grandson. In February 2023, she got back on a horse for the first time in nearly 20 years. She was shaking with fear when her daughter told her, "Mom, just get on." She did, and she found she had never forgotten how to ride. Marcela and Misty talk about the emotional relationship with food, the slow fade of giving up on dreams, the power of small daily steps, and why community and coaching matter. After connecting with coaches at the 2024 Arnold Classic, Misty reached out to Todd Durkin, who introduced her to Kelly Watson of Scripter Publishing. Her book launched in August 2025. Today she's a certified life coach specializing in equine mindset coaching. Her practice rests on three pillars, Reviving Nutrition, Reviving Movement, and Reviving Mindset, and she uses horses as mirrors to help clients see where they're stuck. At a recent horse show, Misty fell during a class. She got back up, finished, and placed third. Her message is simple: we fall down, we get back up, and we keep moving forward. Misty is still on her journey and perhaps that is the most important part of her message. She isn’t sharing a story from a perfect finish line. She’s sharing what she’s learning … continuing to move forward, one choice, one step, and sometimes one ride at a time. Email: wstrnmom@yahoo.com (mailto:wstrnmom@yahoo.com) Find out more at https://friendsintraining.net
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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Getting Financially Fit with Coach Billy Hofacker - Discipline, Debt, and Building Wealth

    Getting Financially Fit with Coach Billy Hofacker - Discipline, Debt, and Building Wealth
    Sep 29 2026
    In this episode of Friends in Training: Life is a Marathon, Marcela welcomes Coach Billy Hofacker, a former gym owner turned financial coach, for an eye-opening conversation about getting financially fit. They explore the parallels between fitness and finance, and how discipline, consistency, and the right plan can change your money life just like your running life. Billy's journey into financial coaching began with a devastating wake-up call. In 2010, while he and his wife Melissa were sitting on the couch on a rare slow morning, a knock at the door changed everything. A repo man stood on the stoop and took Billy's car for delinquent payments. That humiliating moment forced Billy to confront a painful reality: he and Melissa had $130,000 in non-mortgage debt, including student loans, credit card debt, loans from family and friends, and stacks of unpaid bills. They were quickly losing hope. But rock bottom became the turning point. Over the next five years, they paid off that $130,000, and over 13 years, they eliminated $500,000 in total. Today, Billy uses that hard-won wisdom to help others transform their financial lives. Throughout the conversation, Marcela and Billy explore the striking similarities between fitness and finance. Both require discipline, consistency, and time. Both depend on behaviors that determine your outcome. Both can feel overwhelming and intimidating if you don't know where to start. And just as you can't tell whether someone is truly healthy by looking at them, you can't judge their financial health by their car, house, or vacation photos. In fact, the only thing you know for sure about someone who spends a lot of money is that they spend money, which is the opposite of building wealth. Billy breaks down the three essential steps to getting financially fit: Step 1: Take an inventory. You need to know where you are before you can plan where you want to go. That means calculating your net worth (everything you own minus everything you owe), even if the number is negative or discouraging, and tracking your spending for at least a week to see where your money is actually going. Step 2: Create a vision. Get clear on where you want to go financially, relationally, spiritually, and physically. Your vision doesn't have to be perfect, but you need direction. Step 3: Close the gap. Set your next financial target, whether that's saving $1,000 for emergencies, paying off high-interest debt, building your investment portfolio, or hitting a giving goal. If someone handed you $100 right now, you should know exactly where it would go. Billy also shares the three ingredients to building wealth: money, discipline, and time. You need a gap between what you make and what you spend, the discipline to maintain that gap, and time, which is why today is the day to start. Along the way, he debunks common money myths, including the belief that you don't make enough to start investing, that having a 401(k) means you're set for retirement, and that budgeting means you can't have fun. The truth: a budget gives you the freedom to spend intentionally on what you value, discipline equals freedom, and financial freedom is more about behavior than income. This episode is packed with practical wisdom for anyone who wants to take control of their money, build wealth, and create a life of freedom and generosity. Whether you're drowning in debt, just starting out, or ready to level up, Billy's story is a reminder that it's never too late to make a change and that small, consistent steps lead to massive transformation over time. Learn more about Marcela and the FIT community at https://friendsintraining.net/ Connect with Billy Hofacker: https://wwww.yourfitnessmoneycoach.com/ Podcast: https://yourfitnessmoneycoach.com/podcast-episodes
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    1 hr and 13 mins
  • 250 Marathons in Body Paint: Ken Skrien's Story of Survival, Pacing, and Never Giving Up

    250 Marathons in Body Paint: Ken Skrien's Story of Survival, Pacing, and Never Giving Up
    Sep 22 2026
    In this extraordinary episode of Friends in Training: Life is a Marathon, Marcela welcomes Pacer Ken Skrien, an inspiring runner, pacer, and survivor whose story of resilience, service, and unwavering determination will leave you believing in the power of community and the human spirit. Ken's journey into running began in high school as a scrawny kid who found his strength in cross country. He discovered that as races got longer, he got stronger, and at just 13 years old, he ran his first half marathon in 1:47:37 at the Fairfield Half Marathon in Connecticut. That day, a 60 something year old runner smoked him at the finish line, and a life goal was born: to become that guy who inspires the next generation. Today, Ken holds a marathon PR of 2:44:45, set at the Big Cottonwood Marathon in 2023 while running in memory of his beloved running puppy, Hermes, who had passed away the week before. Fueled by raw emotion and grief, Ken John Wicked the course, setting PRs at every distance despite having just paced two marathons the weekend prior. But Ken's greatest pride isn't in his speed. It's in his ability to run at any pace, with anyone, for any reason. He has paced marathons from 3:00 to 7:00 and half marathons from 1:40 to 3:30, and his mission is simple: to be more obnoxious than the voice in your head telling you that you can't, and to help runners discover what they're truly capable of. His two jobs as a pacer are to be a metronome so runners don't have to think about pace, and to be a louder cheerleader than the negative voice in their head. He shares unforgettable pacing stories, including the 3:30 half marathoner who fell behind the group but refused to quit, finishing long after the roads reopened and the race was broken down, crossing under the last remaining arch with a look of pure triumph on his face. Ken has completed over 250 marathons and has run seven of the eight Abbott World Marathon Majors, all in body paint. He is the only runner to have completed all the majors in costume, painting himself red and gold for Boston College at Boston, purple and pink for his charity at London, yellow and red with a German eagle for Berlin, blue and yellow with the Chicago flag for Chicago, green and orange as Mr. Liberty for New York, white and red as the Japanese flag for Tokyo, and silver and light blue for Sydney. He's planning to add Cape Town and Shanghai to complete his painted major tour. For over 10 years, Ken has maintained a run streak, running at least one mile every single day, with the vast majority being five miles or eight kilometers in honor of Martin Richard, the eight year old boy lost in the Boston Marathon bombing. Ken was at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon when the bombs went off. Standing in front of the Old South Church in his signature red body paint, he felt the shockwaves and experienced the trauma firsthand. Though the massive finish line arch blocked his view of the atrocities, he saw thousands of first responders rushing to help, and he saw people at their best. That day changed his life forever, and he found his why. Now, when he races and the pain sets in, he runs for Dennis, for Sean, for Crystal, for Lu, for Martin, the five people lost that day, as a giant middle finger to those who tried to scare people away from running Boston. Ken's resilience extends far beyond that day. Ten and a half years ago, he was hit by a car while cycling home from work in Miami Beach. A drunk, distracted, or homicidal driver plowed through him from behind at 40 miles per hour and left him for dead. The resulting traumatic brain injury and spinal issues cost him his business, his home, and left him quasi homeless and food insecure for years. In the early days of his recovery, his mantra was left foot, right foot, face plant is still forward progress, as he would run on the sands of South Beach after dark, falling repeatedly but getting back up every single time. Four months after the accident, he restarted his run streak, and he hasn't stopped since. Throughout their conversation, Marcela and Ken explore the power of pacing, the mental side of racing, why race day is all in your head, the importance of chasing your own limits instead of someone else's standards, why he tells runners to forget Boston and chase New York qualifying times, the beauty and trauma of the Boston Marathon bombing, how running teaches us to handle self induced and controlled trauma so we can handle the garbage life throws at us, the significance of the running community as family, and why we all have a choice when life gets hard: to stop and be buried, or to get back up and keep moving forward. Learn more by visiting https://FriendsInTraining.net and https://Konfedence.com
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    1 hr and 20 mins
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