Category: Updates

Your hydration plan can include too much fluid. You might carry a bottle on every run, drink at every aid station, and add electrolytes because you want to avoid dehydration. But if you consistently drink more fluid than you lose, you can create a different problem: exercise-associated hyponatremia, or dangerously low blood sodium during or…

A suspected concussion ends your ride, not just your interval. After a crash, you might check your wheels, straighten your handlebars, and decide whether you can finish the route. But if you feel dazed, dizzy, unusually slow, or unsure what happened, your bike’s condition no longer matters. You need to stop riding and get medical…

You should never swim through unexplained breathing trouble. You expect heavy breathing during a hard open-water effort. You might also expect a brief gasp when you enter cold water. But when you develop unusual breathlessness, a persistent cough, or chest tightness during a swim, you need an exit plan, not a tougher mindset. Your safety…

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…

Strength training has moved from the margins of endurance sport to a central part of performance planning. The change is not simply that runners, cyclists, and triathletes are lifting more. The bigger update is that endurance athletes are becoming more deliberate about how they lift. Random circuits, high-repetition burnouts, and “functional” exercises that leave you…

You can hit your training targets, eat well, and follow a sensible recovery plan—then quietly give away performance by sleeping at different times every night. For endurance athletes, sleep is no longer just a question of whether you got enough hours. The more useful update is that sleep timing and consistency deserve attention alongside total…

Many endurance athletes still treat race fueling as a simple calculation: buy a few gels, start taking them at a certain mile, and hope the plan works. That approach is increasingly outdated. The current thinking is more practical: carbohydrate intake is a performance skill. Your body needs to become comfortable processing fuel while you run,…