TrainingPeaks CoachCast

Originally from South Africa, founder, CEO and head coach Natasha van der Merwe has built a unique coaching business in Austin, Texas. NVDM Coaching has seen explosive growth over the last two years, and while catering to athletes of all abilities, many have gone on to win age groups or podium spots in a number of Ironman races. Van der Merwe and her coaching staff have also developed a special knack for helping athletes build a lifestyle around their sport through careful training management, testing and periodization.Listen in as she and Dirk Friel dive into training methodologies, tips for success and how pulling back the focus from race results to personal development leads to better athletes. Quoted:"The last year [of my career] was my best year because I was after personal development. I wasn't after race results anymore. I was after, "How could I be the best athlete, and what did that look like?" And then, in turn, I saw myself becoming the best person and the best coach. And so we try to kind of hit that early on."

Dr. Iñigo San Millán is a professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, performing clinical and research work in cellular metabolism, especially in diabetes, cardiometabolic disease and cancer. He has been testing and coaching world-class endurance athletes for over 25 years. He is also the Head of Performance for the professional cycling team UAE, where he is the personal coach of two-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar. San Millán's focus for his athletes is training the biochemical systems to empower the biomechanical systems. Using lactate and heart rate as the guiding biomarkers, he has developed protocols to train various energy systems for the best performance possible. Listen in as Dirk Friel asks for details on how these systems work, when a Zone 2 ride is no longer a Zone 2 ride and how to train effectively on only 10 hours per week.  

Though coming to the sport later than most, John Gaston is the current U.S. National Ski Mountaineering champion and has won multiple prestigious U.S. events, including the Audi Power of Four 10 times. He is arguably the country's best ski mountaineering, or skimo racer, and competes on the world stage in the winter. During the summer, Gaston mountain bikes the trails near his home in Aspen to maintain fitness and revel in the high alpine environment. In August, he placed second overall at the Leadville 100 mountain bike race, ahead of a stacked field of the world's top professional cyclists. Listen in as Gaston reveals his training philosophy to compete at the world-class level in two different sports, balancing a growing family with running an apparel brand and the potentially limited future of elite-level skimo in the U.S.

David Warden and Matt Fitzgerald are the founders of 80/20 Endurance, one of the pioneers of endurance training plans. 80/20 sold its first plan within the TrainingPeaks Marketplace in 2005. Their plans have helped hundreds of thousands of athletes of all experience and ability levels achieve their goals.David Warden is an internationally recognized coach and author with clients including world champion age group racers, duathlon champions and multiple Ironman World Championship qualifiers. He is the co-author of "Triathlon Science," the industry standard for triathlon coaches, and "80/20 Triathlon."Matt Fitzgerald is an acclaimed endurance sports coach, nutritionist and author, haven written over 30 books, including "The Endurance Diet," "80/20 Running" and "How Bad Do You Want It?"Matt and David sat down with Dirk to talk all things training plans. From valuable insight for coaches making and selling programs to advice for athletes choosing a plan, it's a must-listen for anyone using training plans. Plus, the 80/20 duo reveal some exciting plans for coaches and athletes looking to advance their skills in the endurance athlete world. 

Sonya Looney is pushing the traditional notions of training for professional mountain bike racing during and after pregnancy while reinforcing patience and resilience in her clients as a health coach. Despite her results as a pro, she describes herself as a normal person who has accomplished extraordinary things through hard work, self-belief, determination and willingness to fail. Dirk sits down with Sonya to talk about a wide range of topics from her start as an athlete, adjusting to motherhood and racing, unique training approaches and the rewards of coaching others.She's raced mountain bikes across the world in more than 25 countries at the hardest endurance races in places like the Sahara Desert, the Himalayas in Nepal, tropical jungles in Asia and the steppes of Mongolia. Her passion for taking on the most demanding and longest races in the world has enabled her to serve others through her coaching business and Moxie & Grit Mindset Academy.

Craig Alexander, or "Crowie" as many call know him, has formulated an approach to triathlon training through many years as a professional and now as a coach. He talks with Dirk Friel about his approach to hitting peak fitness while balancing a restorative taper for the best performance racing long course triathlon.Crowie and Dirk consider the schedule changes to the Ironman World Championships in Kona for 2022 and who could take home the men's and women's titles after seeing recent performances and results from the championships in St. George earlier in the year. Plus, should the world championships always be hosted in Kona?Alexander is a true legend of triathlon and is a three-time Ironman champion and two-time 70.3 world champion. Winning both in 2011, He has held the Ironman Hawaii course record and was recently inducted into the Ironman Australia Hall of Fame. He started his coaching company, Sansego, in 2014, which serves hundreds of athletes worldwide through training plans, clubs, personal coaching and more.

Steve House sees the convergence of technical climbing and mountaineering as "New Alpinism." And the athleticism required to be an all-around alpinist demands a training regimen as diverse as the skills of the blended climbing disciplines used. His coaching company, Uphill Athlete, grew from his work helping lead other alpinists, mountaineers and athletes based on personal learnings and fundamental endurance coaching.For 21 years, Steve House was a professional climber and has been a professional mountain guide since 1992. His most famous ascent was Nanga Parbat's Rupal Face in 2005, which earned him and Vincent Anderson the acclaimed The Piolet d'Or ("Golden Ice Axe"). Reinhold Messner called him "The best high-altitude climber in the world."He has also compiled an impressive list of first ascents and new routes in Alaska, the Canadian Rockies, the Alps and the Himalayas. Since retiring from professional climbing, House has coauthored "Training for the New Alpinism" and "Training for the Uphill Athlete," as well as becoming a co-founder of the coaching company Uphill Athlete. 

Despite establishing a career in the financial domain after college, Amy Charity took a big gamble, trading boardrooms for race courses. She is now a former professional cyclist and member of a World Championship time trial team for the United States, and author of "The Wrong Side of Comfortable." Her new career is co-founder and owner of the SBT GRVL gravel event that has become one of the marquee cycling events in North America.Charity now focuses her efforts in the cycling community, bringing more diversity and new cyclists to the gravel roads of Colorado. Additionally, she's become a coach to several beginners learning and training their way to take on the various distances of SBT GRVL. She has created an opening for more riders to experience the gravel scene through partnerships with other cycling advocacy groups.

Dr. Ross is a clinical psychologist in Denver, Colo. specializing in athlete mental health and performance. He helps address issues such as anxiety, depression, disordered eating and insomnia while aiming to develop high-performance sports psychology skills within any field of play. Dr. Ross authored the Introduction to Sports Psychology for Endurance Coaches course through TrainingPeaks University. Learn the fundamentals of Sports Psychology with specific techniques to keep your athletes motivated, confident, and performing their best.He also helps athletes manage the psychological impact of injury or transition back into their sport. He's an athlete and has competed in IRONMAN® 70.3s and qualified for the Boston Marathon nine times with race plans for the Silver Rush and Leadville 100 Mountain Bike races, followed by the Berlin and London marathons back-to-back in the fall.

Ultramarathon running is a complex sport. Jason Koop's updated book, "Training Essentials for Ultrarunning," dives into the complexity to help answer many of the questions that ultrarunners and other competitors face as endurance athletes. The book is filled with evidence-based methodologies that may be useful for athletes in other endurance sports beyond ultrarunning.Koop is a leading authority and one of the most sought-after coaches in trail and ultrarunning. He has over 20 years of coaching experience and is the head coach at CTS Ultrarunning. He's an ultrarunner in his own right, having completed a 250-mile race recently and is preparing for Hardrock 100 this summer.Athletes looking for training guidance for ultra-distance sports beyond ultrarunning may find the evidence-based methodologies useful for their training. Koop self-published the book and hosts a podcast, Koopcast, centered on ultrarunning performance. You can find more information about him and his book at jasonkoop.com.