Endurance Unlimited

Without proper recovery, training alone might not get your athletes to their goals. At the same time, how much of what we know about recovery is actually based on unscientific assumptions? You might be surprised at how much we don’t know about recovery.Dave Schell sat down Christie Aschwanden, author and lead science writer for FiveThirtyEight, to discuss her new book, Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery. They discussed topics like inflammation, sleep, and even New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to get to the bottom of our sometimes unscientific approach to recovery.

In its simplest form, training is a method of increasing biological stressors in order to increase performance in an athlete. But, how do coaches know when they push their athletes too hard and actually hurt their performance? This is especially important considering athletes encounter stress from more than just endurance training such as work, personal life, illness, and even environment.Dave sat down with researcher Simon Wegerif to discuss heart rate variability, a precise and easily measured metric that may help reveal when the body is overstressed and likely unable to endure heavy training loads. As even more information about the importance of effective recovery is published, coaches may want to consider adding heart rate variability to the data they monitor.

Endurance coaches have a lot on their plates already. They are physiologists, psychologists, nutritionists, motivators, voices of reason, scheduling experts, and friends. So, how are they supposed to fit "marketer" on the list, too?Dave sat down with triathlon coach, social media influencer, and business coach Jen Rulon to find out how she helps other coaches find their voice online while maintaining her own. They discussed how she built her online coaching brand, how she fits marketing tasks into her coaching schedule, and why she is dedicating herself to help other coaches build their businesses.

As the New Year approaches, you will likely hear about new diets and nutrition trends. At the same time, it can be difficult for even the most knowledgeable endurance athlete to separate the fact from the fiction. Are you prepared to the bust the myths around nutrition this year?Dave sat down with Asker Jeukendrup to get to the bottom of some of the most prevalent endurance sport nutrition trends. They discussed everything from how well ketogenic diets work to whether athletes should take salt pills to improve performance. 

How do you approach goal setting with your athletes? Are you actually helping your athlete develop healthy, attainable goals? And, are your athletes' goals really what they're striving for, or do they have unstated, "secret" goals that they are ultimately judging themselves by?Dave sat down with Mental Skills Coach Carrie Cheadle to learn more about the goal setting strategies she recommends coaches work on with their athletes.

All too often, athletes and coaches are strapped for time and looking for new training methods to get the most our of their workouts. If you are familiar with polarized training, you already know that a smart mix of high- and low-intensity workouts might be the perfect solution. But, are you actually approaching polarized training all wrong?Dave Schell and Cody Stephenson sat down with renowned academic Stephen Seiler to discuss his research, how he applies it in his own training, and why you might be overcomplicating polarization.

In today's world of big data, is technology improving endurance sports coaching or is it just a distraction for coaches and athletes, alike? As the advancement of performance technology outpaces actual use, coaches are faced with staying on top of new developments while also sifting through a lot of noise. Are you prepared to get the most out of your athletes' data?WKO Product Lead Tim Cusick explains how he thinks coaches should approach the relationship between data and coaching. In addition to coaching high performance athletes, Tim leads the WKO team to develop and implement advanced data analytic tools for WKO software. 

Ask anyone involved in endurance sports what the most important attribute in a coach is, and you will have a different answer every time. Is it the ability to coach with conviction? Is it incorporating your experience into your coaching? Is it motivating your athletes to simply adhere to their training plan? According to Coach Ben Day, it's a mix of all of these and more.Dave Schell sits down with Coach Ben Day to discuss how his experience as a professional cyclist has influenced the way he now leads other athletes. Day has worked professionally in cycling since 2002 and began coaching full-time in 2014 after retiring as an athlete. Since then, Day has coached many successful cyclists and triathletes and influenced countless coaches along the way.

Ryan Cooper, a representative from Best Bike Split, shares insights on unusual weather patterns for the Kona IRONMAN, emphasizing the importance of updated modeling for accurate race predictions. Veteran coach Lance Watson dives into over 30 years of expertise, discussing mental preparation for both new and experienced competitors. He offers tactical advice on when to take risks, the dynamics of race pacing, and the impact of heat and humidity on nutrition strategies. Together, they provide listeners with a detailed roadmap for conquering Kona.

For some triathletes, making it to Kona is the achievement they have strived for. For others, Kona is yet another chance to test their determination in a challenging, unforgiving environment. Regardless, all of the triathletes will face the same punishing heat, humidity, and wind on a course that is known for testing the best racers in the world.Dave Schell discusses this year's race conditions with BestBikeSplit Co-Founder Ryan Cooper, and then chats with Coach Simon Ward who has guided dozens of athletes to Kona over his coaching career. Simon raced in the Championship last year himself, and is busy preparing this year's crop of athletes to excel in the race.