Human Endurance

Most running plans save the speed work for last. For ultras, Jason Koop does the opposite.Jason has coached endurance athletes for 25 years. He is Head Ultrarunning Coach at CTS and has coached Western States winners Kaci Lickteig, Katie Schide and Abby Hall. In 2024 he coached the entire women's podium there. He wrote Training Essentials for Ultrarunning and built Koop AI, an AI coach based on his method.In this Expert Series episode, we talk about:•⁠ ⁠What his champions have in common (almost nothing)•⁠ ⁠Why ultra training flips the college model: intensity early, volume late•⁠ ⁠Why he rarely uses the track, treadmill or bike•⁠ ⁠How strength work fits around the run load•⁠ ⁠Fueling: get the basics right, then match carbs to the terrain•⁠ ⁠Why coaches who embrace AI will win, and who gets left behind•⁠ ⁠The one belief that changed how he coaches"You can use AI to help build up your deficits, but not to cover them up."For coaches, it's a look at how one of the best in the sport plans a season, picks athletes and sees the future of the job. For athletes, it's a reminder that the best took years, not months.Find Jason at ⁠https://www.jasonkoop.com/⁠Follow us: ⁠@justbrunathings⁠ ⁠@ifabimaia⁠This episode is brought to you by: ⁠@augo.training

Your zone 2 at the start of a ride is not your zone 2 at the end. Zones are a model. Feel is the skill.In this Expert Series episode, we talk with Dr. Thomas Mortelmans, a scientist who coaches. Thomas holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Basel and works as a Sr. Scientist at Johnson & Johnson. He coaches cyclists, triathletes, and runners through ESQ Coaching, writes the weekly newsletter The Scientist's Notebook, and is building Gradescale, a training analytics platform based on peer-reviewed models.We cover:- Why consistency and progressive overload matter more than zone obsession- Planning training around your life, not the other way around- Deload weeks and why some athletes recover faster than others- Heart rate drift, RPE, and "feel yourself" sessions with the data hidden- Strength training for endurance athletes, from base phase to race season- The "10 g of sugar is enough" myth, and when zone 2 isn't the best use of limited time- What a human coach gives you that AI can'tFor coaches: a simple way to adjust load, recovery, and strength work for each athlete. For athletes: a reason to stop chasing perfect numbers and start trusting how training feels.Find Thomas on Instagram at @esq.coaching and at gradescale.fit.Human Endurance is hosted by Bruna (@justbrunathings) and Fabi (@ifabimaia), coaches at Jornada Endurance and founders of augo (@augo.training).

A high VO₂max can be a sign that you are inefficient, not that you are fit.That is one of several ideas Marco Altini takes apart in this episode. Marco is co-founder of HRV4Training, an endurance coach, an advisor at Oura, and a guest lecturer at VU Amsterdam. He holds a PhD in data science and master's degrees in computer science engineering and human movement sciences. He is also Bruna's coach and an advisor to augo.We start with why he prescribes almost everything by perceived effort and almost never gives a pace or a heart rate. He explains how he brings along athletes who cannot yet read their own effort, and what he actually looks at when he analyses training data, which turns out to be far less often than most people assume.Then we get into the lab. Marco tests for running economy and substrate oxidation at race intensity, and explains why VO₂max is one of the least actionable numbers in endurance sport, using his own results as the example.We also cover what changes between a road marathon and a trail marathon, whether you can train for trails without trails, why fueling past ten hours becomes a calorie problem rather than a carbohydrate problem, and where AI genuinely helps a coach.That last part gets specific. Marco describes using augo to pull up a fueling conversation from months earlier instead of scrolling through workout comments and WhatsApp, and explains why he sees the tool as removing administrative friction rather than replacing coaching judgement.About augoaugo is an intelligent platform for endurance sports coaching. It combines coach and athlete communication, workout data from Garmin, Strava, Coros, Wahoo, Polar and Zwift, and post-session athlete feedback in a single platform, so coaches can ask a question and get an answer with full athlete context. augo surfaces which athletes need attention today, tracks wellbeing trends over time, and remembers every note, conversation and session feedback.augo is built to support coaches, not replace them. Learn more at: www.augotraining.comMore from Marco: marcoaltini.substack.com

Two runners can look at the same race stats, the same distance, the same elevation gain, and finish hours apart. Ido Dassa has spent a decade learning why.In this Expert Series episode we talk with Ido, a pro ultra-trail runner and CEO of RacePace. He is the Israeli 100 km champion and national record holder, a member of the national trail team, and a The North Face athlete. He has raced backyard ultras, 200K on the road, vertical Ks and technical mountain 100Ks. He also started running at 18, as a smoker who had never played a sport.We cover what separates trail running from road running, and why importing road pacing into the mountains is how most first trail races fall apart. Ido explains what to look for in a course profile before race day, how he decides when to walk and when to run uphill, the three common hand positions on climbs and what each one actually does, and why technical descents deserve more caution than most runners give them.We also get into fueling. Ido pushes back on the carbohydrate numbers circulating online, explains why gut training deserves sessions of its own, and describes the 100K where cold, altitude and wet hands stacked up until he pulled out at halfway.For coaches, his closing point is short: learn the demands of the race first, then build the plan around them.🔗 IDO & RacePace⁠https://www.instagram.com/ido_dassa/⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/find_racepace/⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.findracepace.com👋 HOSTSHuman Endurance is hosted by Bruna and Fabi, coaches, athletes, and co-founders of augo.Bruna: ⁠https://instagram.com/justbrunathings⁠Fabi: ⁠https://instagram.com/endurance_fabi⁠To support this podcast, head over to augo and create an account:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.augotraining.com⁠⁠https://instagram.com/augo.training⁠

Pain shows up late. By the time you feel it, the process has usually been running for months.In this Expert Series episode we sit down with Martin Kumm, a sports chiropractor who has spent the past five years with WorldTour cycling team EF Education-EasyPost, alongside years working in ice hockey and track and field. He is a lifelong athlete himself, from national level basketball to triathlon to cycling.We go through the questions athletes ask us over and over. Does a warm up actually prevent injury, and how long should it be? Should you stretch, or are you someone who should not? Is a cool down worth the time? How much strength training do you really need, and what happens to it during a three week race? Are magnesium and creatine worth the money? And now that the research has shifted, is the cold plunge still doing anything for you?Martin also explains why he can tell whether a professional cyclist played other sports as a child just by asking them to stand on one foot, and why plantar fasciitis you feel in your heel often starts in your toes.If you coach, his closing answer may change how you plan your season. Stop trying to prevent injuries and start building a robust athlete.🔗 MARTINhttps://www.instagram.com/martinkumm_cycling/https://cycling.clinic/ride-ready/👋 HOSTSHuman Endurance is hosted by Bruna and Fabi, coaches, athletes, and co-founders of augo.Bruna: https://instagram.com/justbrunathingsFabi: https://instagram.com/endurance_fabiTo support this podcast, head over to augo and create an account: https://www.augotraining.comhttps://instagram.com/augo.training

Bevan McKinnon has coached triathletes for over 20 years, hosts one of the sport's longest-running podcasts, and won his age group at Kona in 2016. We talk with him about what changed in his coaching when he stopped starting with the workout. Bevan makes the case that the objective data most of us build our training around tells us very little on its own. A flat CTL can hide an athlete who is genuinely getting fitter. A completed session guarantees nothing. "The brain is auditing the body at every single second in time," he says, and his argument is that we have largely stopped listening to it.He shares how he opens the conversations most coaches avoid, why he asked a physiologist to write an Ironman race plan with no numbers in it, what heat preparation actually costs an athlete, and his one-word answer to the question of what age groupers can learn from professionals.We also get into fuelling, recovery capacity, and why he now describes himself as a health coach rather than a triathlon coach.--Bevan is the founder of Fitter Coaching and hosts Fitter Radio: https://www.fitter.co.nz/bevanmckinnonFollow him on Instagram: @fitter.co.nzFollow Fabi on Instagram: ⁠@endurance_fabiFollow Bruna on Instagram: @justbrunathingsFollow augo on Instagram: ⁠@augo.trainingLearn more about augo: www.augotraining.com

In this Guest Series episode, we sit down with Ronja, a 23-year-old from the canton of Lucerne who came back to Switzerland in 2024 after a football scholarship in the US and started running almost by accident, mostly to clear her head. Within a year she had won her debut marathon (SwissCityMarathon Lucerne, 2:43:38) off a longest training run of just 26K, and later run 2:38:48 for second at the Zürich Marathon, a U23 Swiss record.We get into:How she actually used ChatGPT to build and adjust her training, and where AI coaching started to get riskyHer move from self-coaching to a human coach, and then toward more science-based, data-driven trainingWhy race fueling is the biggest piece of untapped potential in her runningThe mental side: kinesiology, racing through pain, and running with a smile as a performance toolHer road toward the World University Games and an Olympic goal for 2028 or 2032It's a story about starting late, progressing fast, and the reminder that consistency, rest, and joy matter more than any single heroic session. Whether you coach or race yourself, there's plenty here on the promise and the limits of training with AI.------Follow Ronja: @ronja_hofstetterFollow Bruna: ⁠@justbrunathingsFollow Fabi: ⁠@endurance_fabiTo support this podcast, check out augo. Use code HUMANENDURACE to get 1 month for free.

What changes when you stop chasing the number and start running on feel?Amanda Martin spent eight years chasing the US Olympic Trials marathon standard. This spring she taped over her watch at the Eugene Marathon, ran the entire race blind to her pace, and crossed the line in 2h34, an eight-minute personal best and comfortably under the qualifying time.Amanda is a marathoner and a neuro rehab physical therapist in Salt Lake City, and a former Emory teammate of Bruna. She walks us through the breakthrough and what actually made it possible: cutting her weekly mileage, protecting one big quality session a week, running her easy days genuinely easy, and rebuilding her relationship with fueling after years of under-eating and RED-S.We get into the mental side too, from positive self-talk to her rule for knowing a goal is worth holding onto: "If you can't go a day without thinking about it, it's probably something you can achieve."If you're working toward something big around a full and demanding life, Amanda's story is full of honest, practical takeaways on training, fueling, blood work, and making the sport work with your life instead of against it.Follow usAmandaBrunaFabiAbout the hostsBruna & Fabi are the co-founders of augo, a next generation coaching software bringing AI to empower endurance coaches, not replace. They also coach runners and triathletes of all levels at Jornada Endurance.

What does it actually take to line up at your first trail ultra and not just survive it, but do it right? In this Expert Series episode, we sit down with Ash Daniels, Level 3 Athletics Australia accredited coach, AUTRA endorsed coach, and Australian national 100km team manager, to get into everything road runners need to know before making the jump to trails.Ash starts where most coaches don't: with his own disastrous first attempt at Ultra-Trail Australia, carrying enough kit to survive the weekend and arriving at a checkpoint six hours late. From that experience came a 5-hour PB the following year, a decade-long coaching career, and a very clear philosophy on what actually matters in trail and ultra preparation.In this episode we cover training specificity for trail (and why your marathon prep won't save you), the vert-per-10K metric Ash uses with all his athletes, why he ditched heart rate zones in favor of running power and RPE, what social media consistently gets wrong about electrolytes and high-carb fueling, and a nuanced, honest conversation about where AI fits (and doesn't fit) in coaching.Whether you're eyeing your first 50K or just trail-curious, this one is packed with practical, no-nonsense insight.--Find Ash at journey2ultra.com.au or on Instagram @journey2ultracoachingFollow Bruna: @justbrunathingsFollow Fabi: @endurance_fabiLearn more about the podcast: www.humanendurancepodcast.com

In this episode, we sit down with Pascal Rüeger, the Swiss ultra runner who ran 100km in 6:18:27 earlier this year, beating a record held since 1985 by almost 9 minutes and winning the race by over 30 minutes.Pascal only started running competitively in 2018, in his late thirties. Today he holds the Swiss national records at 100km, 6 hours (91.6km), and 12 hours (161.2km), plus the M45 world record for 100km. He is self-coached, science-based, and trains twice a day, every day.We talk through his race-day execution in Italy, his pacing strategy at 3:40/km, and how he uses heart rate zones to manage a sub-7-hour 100km. Pascal also walks us through his weekly training (160-200km, with "Crazy Thursdays" of double 50K sessions), his low-carb daily diet paired with carb-targeted race fueling, and the entrepreneurial mindset that lets him fail repeatedly and come back stronger.For anyone curious about ultra running, late-starter performance, or what consistency at the limit actually looks like, this conversation delivers.--Follow Pascal: @swissultrarunnerFollow Bruna: @justbrunathingsFollow Fabi: @endurance_fabiBruna & Fabi are the co-founders of augo: www.augotraining.comBruna & Fabi coach runners & triathletes: www.jornadaendurance.comMore about Human Endurance: www.humanendurancepodcast.com