Your prescription can change your eligibility to race. You might check your shoes, bike and registration weeks before an event without checking your medication. Yet a legitimate prescription can create an anti-doping problem, even when you take it exactly as your clinician directs. If you compete under World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules, you need to…

A missed workout is frustrating. A rushed return from illness can cost you much more. For endurance athletes, the difficult question is rarely whether to train while feeling clearly unwell. The harder decision comes a few days later, when the fever has gone, the cough is improving, and the urge to “get back on track”…

Race week creates a strange temptation: the closer the event gets, the more urgent every workout can feel. Missed a session? Add a few miles. Feeling good? Squeeze in one last hard effort. Feeling nervous? Train until the nerves disappear. The modern taper points in the opposite direction. The goal is not to become fitter…

You can be training consistently, sleeping reasonably well, and eating enough to finish your long runs—yet still feel as if your fitness has disappeared. Easy runs become strangely hard. Your usual pace costs more effort. Hills feel steeper, recovery takes longer, and high-intensity work falls apart early. Iron deficiency is one possible explanation, especially for…