Science Of Ultra

Iñigo is back on the show, following up on his recent appearance in episode 127. In the previous episode, we talked about tapering. In this episode, talk about strength training from every angle, and we dive into two specific examples of training tweaks that made big improvements for athletes he coaches. Episode page: https://scienceofultra.com/podcasts/131

Trent Stellingwerff has been in the trenches of nutritional support and body composition in supporting athletes of all abilities for many years. Today, we talk through critical new insights that can apply to your training. Episode page: https://scienceofultra.com/podcasts/130

Dan Moore, PhD, brings us the current science on protein requirements for endurance athletes along with very practical advice for putting it into action for you. Episode page: https://scienceofultra.com/podcasts/129

Alyssa Amos Clark is an extraordinary athlete. We start this interview after she completed 66 marathons in 66 days, on her way to many more. We finish discussing her journey, including her battles with COVID-19. Episode page: https://scienceofultra.com/podcasts/128 Instagram: @theory_in_motion Alyssa's website: https://akamos13.wixsite.com/website

Iñigo Mujika (PhD) has coached numerous Olympians, national teams, and is recognized as one of the top triathlon (swimming, cycling, and running) coaches in the world. He's published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, books, and book chapters. He literally wrote the book on tapering, which is the main focus of our discussion though we touch on many other important and practical topics. Find all the links we talk about at https://scienceofultra.com/podcasts/127

My guest today is David Bishop, PhD from Victoria University in Australia. He’s a world leading expert on the health and performance outcomes of exercise prescription with a particular emphasis on mitochondrial adaptations. Recently, he’s been studying the impact of twice-per-day training and that’s the main reason I brought him on the show. You’ll learn, for example, that running twice in a day may be more beneficial than training for the same duration in one long run. But we explore many other topics that will help you take your workouts to the next level. I spoke with him in the midst of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic while he was on sabbatical and in lockdown in the north of Italy.

Jose Areta studies energy availability, training, and performance. We talk about his recent case study of an amenorrhoeic athlete who restored their menstrual cycle while training and competing at a high level, his comprehensive review of glycogen utilization, and how an athlete can loose weight while training for performance and periodizing carbohydrate intake. SOUP is free of advertisements and sponsors, it’s supported by listeners who find it useful: https://scienceofultra.com/support

My guest today is Mark Burnley, PhD from the University of Kent, in the UK. His principle interests concern endurance physiology, specifically the oxygen uptake and metabolic responses to exercise and the power-duration relationship. For example, he was part of the group that first validated the 3-minute all-out test to estimate critical power. He's spent much of his career questioning why a large fraction of our exercise capacity is unsustainable. In other words, we can only maintain exercise when the intensity is less than 20-30% of our ability to generate force…why do we have so much additional capacity when we can't sustain it?

Patrick Wilson (PhD) is an Associate Professor at Old Dominion University and author of a newly published book, The Athlete's Gut. He was a guest in episode 16. Today, we update our understanding of gut physiology from when he was first on the show but spend most of our time on lots of new and applied questions relevant to your training, racing, and adventures.

Andy Jones, leading expert in human performance physiology, talks about fatigue mechanisms, critical speed/power, evidence-based training, and beetroot juice. They discuss Breaking 2 project, decline of critical power with glycogen levels, ultra-endurance activities, running metabolic rates, and nitrate supplementation impact on athletic performance.