Hey Reader, I have watched a lot of swim video. Hundreds of athletes, same camera angles, same slow-motion replays. After all those hours in front of a video editor, I know that the faults wrecking your swim are almost never the faults you think you have. You think you need a stronger pull. You believe if you just “swim more” it’ll fix your stroke. You show up to the analysis ready to work on your engine, and then we roll the tape and find out the engine needs to wait—the problem is the...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Have you logged what feels like THOUSANDS of hours in the pool, but never see your actual paces get any faster? You're not alone. The swim is the discipline I hear the most confusion and frustration around, and it's not surprising: we are upright, bipedal creatures who extract oxygen from air. When we try to swim we become horizontal, quadripedal creatures who move in an environment that we cannot extract oxygen from (i.e. one that can kill us!). Our primary subconscious goal while swimming...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, Most of us in the endurance world have a fairly tidy definition of mental toughness rattling around our heads: the ability to suffer without complaining, to keep going when it hurts, to not quit, “wanting it” more than someone else. These are fine sound bites — except that they don’t actually explain what’s happening in the moments when everything goes sideways. They doesn’t tell you what to do when your race plan falls apart at mile 18, or when you someone tells you to bake a...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Welcome to our weekly gathering around the campfire. This free communique will level up your endurance skills in ten minutes, twice a month. Forwarded this message? You can sign up for these emails by clicking here. 28 MAY 2026 A former triathlete out in the wind Every few years, there’s a new “marathon.” In the 1980s, that new marathon was...the marathon. The running craze had seized the United States and the world beyond. Regular citizens were running for fun and fitness, U.S. athletes...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Welcome to our weekly gathering around the campfire. This free communique will level up your endurance skills in ten minutes, twice a month. Forwarded this message? You can sign up for these emails by clicking here. 21 MAY 2026 Running after cycling CAN feel like this Triathlon lore disagrees about the origin of the term “Brick Run.” Some coaches and athletes believe that the dead, heavy sensations one experiences running off the the bike resulted in the term “brick.” Other, more…literally...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Welcome to our weekly gathering around the campfire. This free communique will level up your endurance skills in ten minutes, twice a month. Forwarded this message? You can sign up for these emails by clicking here. 14 MAY 2026 Cramps affect 63% of Triathletes — We Can Do Better Late on the run at Challenge Penticton in 2014, barely holding on to second place but only a few minutes, I started to feel my hamstring begin to tighten and quiver—the nascent signs of a coming catastrophic cramp....
3 months ago • 3 min read
Welcome to our weekly gathering around the campfire. This free communique will level up your endurance skills in ten minutes, twice a month. Forwarded this message? You can sign up for these emails by clicking here. 7 MAY 2026 Chris’ note—in today’s Infirmary episode, Chris sits down to talk with the legendary triathlon and cycling coach Joe Friel, and our freewheeling discussion spent a fair amount of time talking about a term that’s been en vogue recently, but has been used by coaches for...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Welcome to our weekly gathering around the campfire. This free communique will level up your endurance skills in ten minutes, twice a month. Forwarded this message? You can sign up for these emails by clicking here. 1 MAY 2026 Chris' note—sometimes I find myself repeating the same ideas to my athletes, and when I notice that those ideas become longer posts such as the one that showed up on our Substack page yesterday (you should subscribe for free if you haven't already). This...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Welcome to our weekly gathering around the campfire. This free communique will level up your endurance skills in ten minutes, twice a month. Forwarded this message? You can sign up for these emails by clicking here. 23 APR 2026 A new paradigm for prescribing intensity? Chris' note - today in The Infirmary we posit that perhaps triathlon needs way fewer zones than some of the zones system out there. If you want to go on a truly deep exploration of this "revolutionary" assertion, go ahead and...
4 months ago • 4 min read