KoopCast

View all timestamps and show notes on the KoopCast website.

Episode overview:

The coaches review the process they go through with their athletes when planning out their seasons.

Episode highlights:

(12:15) Koop on weaknesses and strengths: anchor points, assessing weaknesses and strengths, when were you at your best, when were you at your worst, Abby Hall example, recap

(33:08) Emphasizing anchor points: making the most important training events known to the athlete so they are less concerned when non-essential training is changed to accommodate life, be 100% consistent 80% of the time, be flexible

(48:32) Life cost of racing: too much racing complicates family, employment, cost, travel, these make recovery from long races more difficult, muscle damage, emotional recovery

Additional resources:

Buy Training Essentials for Ultrarunning on Amazon or Audible

Information on coaching-

www.trainright.com

Koop’s Social Media

Twitter/Instagram- @jasonkoop

View all timestamps and show notes on the KoopCast website.

Episode overview:

Frederic Sabater Pastor is a CTS ultrarunning coach with a PH.D. in Exercise Physiology and experience coaching athletes for a variety of challenges. He is also a Postdoctoral researcher at the Inter-university Lab of Human Movement. His area of focus are  running, trail, performance, physiology and fatigue.

Episode highlights:

(32:02) Training differences: road runners 20 hrs/week, trail runners 10 hrs/week, road runners cross train and strength train more, overall road volume is double despite race duration being up to 10x less

(37:11) Why are trail runners stronger: do runners self-select, is trail running innately better strength training, strength training is a broad term

(51:38) Specificity of running economy: train for specificity, changing protocols from road training, strides over technical terrain, differences in strength training

Additional resources:

Frederick’s paper  

Trail Runner Magazine’s coverage of this paper

Fred’s CTS Coach Bio

Fred’s Researchgate profile

Buy Training Essentials for Ultrarunning on Amazon or Audible

Information on coaching-

www.trainright.com

Koop’s Social Media

Twitter/Instagram- @jasonkoop

View all timestamps and show notes on the KoopCast website.

Episode overview:

Renee Eastman is  a Premiere coach at CTS as well as the head of CTS’s physiology lab. She has been coaching since 1996.

Episode highlights:

(8:59) Koop’s takeaways from testing: assessing existing physiological and genetic traits, using your strengths and building your weaknesses, ensuring training is effective

(38:46) Interpreting test data: peak VO2, lactate threshold (LT2), heart rate and pace, looking at metabolism over lower intensities, explaining why lactate is at steady-state sub-threshold, lactate is an indicator

(1:17:58) Values of physiological testing: long-term training direction is the main benefit, not zone construction, zones are can be established from training but metabolic breakdown and lactate curve shape requires lab testing, value for elite and beginner athletes

Additional resources:

Buy Training Essentials for Ultrarunning on Amazon or Audible

Information on coaching-

www.trainright.com

Koop’s Social Media

Twitter/Instagram- @jasonkoop

View all timestamps and show notes on the KoopCast website.

Episode overview:

Adam Pulford is a Pro Level Coach at CTS and is one of the most sought after mountain bike coaches in the world. He also has served ass the team director for TeamShoAir UCI Professional Factory MTB Team the Twenty16/Twenty20 UCI Professional Women’s Race Team and the Orange Seal Off-Road Team

Episode highlights:

(23:45) Zones are descriptive not prescriptive: avoiding overeager zone prescriptions, instantaneous tests, athlete adaptability

(36:19) Is physiological testing worth it: marginal gains, correlating time to exhaustion between the field and lab tests, physiological testing is best for gauging improvement

(1:07:39) Durability at intensity: making sure zone paces are sustainable to increase volume at intensity, the importance of durability and sustainability in training

Additional resources:

Buy Training Essentials for Ultrarunning on Amazon or Audible

Information on coaching-

www.trainright.com

Koop’s Social Media

Twitter/Instagram- @jasonkoop

Episode overview:

Coach Jason Koop monologues on what 2023 will bring for the podcast.

Episode highlights:

(2:16) Scientific and coaching content: Dylan Bowman’s Freetrail is great for media coverage and commentary, the niche of the KoopCast is research and coaching 

(5:11) What to expect: research deep-dives and coaching roundtables, timing relevant content around the running season, longer format episodes

(12:55) What you can expect from Research Essentials: Koop, Stephanie Howe, and Nick Tiller review research papers and have a roundtable that is written by Jim Rutberg and illustrated

My conversation:

(0:00) Introduction: the new year and upcoming changes to the KoopCast, expressing gratitude, reaching one million downloads, the commitment to no sponsors

(2:16) Scientific and coaching content: Dylan Bowman’s Freetrail is great for media coverage and commentary, the niche of the KoopCast is research and coaching 

(5:11) What to expect: research deep-dives and coaching roundtables, timing relevant content around the running season, longer format episodes

(6:11) Commitment to no sponsorship: recognizing that the KoopCast loses money for being free, importance of integrity, putting athletes before sponsors, the role of the KoopCast

(8:05) Research Essentials in Ultrarunning: new research newsletter, most training advice online is superficial clickbait, the collapse of Outside Magazine

(12:55) What you can expect from Research Essentials: Koop, Stephanie Howe, and Nick Tiller review research papers and have a roundtable that is written by Jim Rutberg and illustrated

(14:34) First Research Essentials topics: Vitamin D Supplementation, sleep and nutrition profiles, Vitamin C and E on muscle damage; downhill running, iron metabolism, and artificial sweeteners, stay tuned for more information

(16:00) Outro: gratitude, excitement for the future of the KoopCast, giving thanks

Additional resources:

Buy Training Essentials for Ultrarunning on Amazon or Audible

Information on coaching-

www.trainright.com

Koop’s Social Media

Twitter/Instagram- @jasonkoop

View all timestamps and show notes on the KoopCast website.

Episode overview:

Ed Maunder PhD is an exercise physiologist with expertise in metabolic responses to endurance exercise, and metabolic adaptations to endurance training. Ed is a Lecturer in the School of Sport and Recreation and part of the Sport Physiology and Nutrition Research Group at SPRINZ. His research is focused on understanding the physiological drivers of mitochondrial adaptation to endurance exercise, and the physiological profiling of endurance athletes.

Episode highlights:

(13:42) Lactate threshold durability: before and after 2.5 hours of cycling, average decrease of 10%, athletes saw reduced efficiency and reduced energy expenditure, decreasing efficiency is likely even more of a factor in running

(35:37) Training durability: speculation, training specificity to durability, creating stress early during long runs

(44:44) Takeaways: interpreting research on training interventions, arranging training structure intensity-first versus intensity-last, specificity of durability training

Additional resources:

The Importance of ‘Durability’ in the Physiological Profiling of Endurance Athletes

Buy Training Essentials for Ultrarunning on Amazon or Audible

Information on coaching-

www.trainright.com

Koop’s Social Media

Twitter/Instagram- @jasonkoop

View all timestamps and show notes on the KoopCast website.

Episode overview:

Dr. Alan McCubbin lectures and conducts research in sports nutrition at Monash University, consults to Triathlon Australia's High Performance Program, and writes for Cycling Tips. He has worked as the dietitian for the Attaque-Gusto cycling team, adventure runner Richard Bowles, several triathlon squads, the Coburg Tigers VFL football club and the Tour de Cure cycling charity amongst others. He has written for Outer Edge Magazine, Trail Run magazine and lectured for Cycling Australia coaches. He has worked with summer and winter Olympians, A-League soccer players, national Taekwondo champions, triathletes, ultra-marathon runners, road cyclists & mountain bikers, boxers and windsurfers. Alan has competed at an international level in sailing, and in endurance mountain biking. Alan recently completed a PhD in sports nutrition at Monash University, looking at the effects of sodium in endurance athletes. He is also the co-host of The Long Munch Podcast, a podcast that answers common nutrition questions asked by runners, cyclists and triathletes.

Alan founded Next Level Nutrition, Australia's first ever online sports nutrition consultancy back in 2010. What was once an unheard of service model is fast becoming the norm in the sports nutrition industry, better servicing the sporting community of Australia with access to state-of-the-art sports nutrition counseling and education, delivered to clients anywhere in Australia via the web.

Episode highlights:

Part one — interview:

(15:14) When to supplement sodium: large sweat losses, high fluid intake, high sweat sodium concentration, example

(45:55) Decision chart for sodium replacement: check out Alan’s flow chart in the show notes, when to use sodium supplementation in training, season to taste

Part two — coach roundtable:

(1:35:28) Lower access to fluids during training: differences in resupplying, loop training, using your vehicle as an aid station

(2:06:00) Duncan’s takeaways: more 4+ hours runs, emphasizing that sodium is per unit fluid, train in varied environmental conditions

Additional resources:

Next Level Nutrition

Paper discussed

The Long Munch Podcast

Buy Training Essentials for Ultrarunning on Amazon or Audible

Information on coaching-

www.trainright.com

Koop’s Social Media

Twitter/Instagram- @jasonkoop

View all timestamps and show notes on the KoopCast website.

Episode overview:

Coaches Darcie Murphy and AJW sit down with Jason Koop to discuss what they are doing differently with their athletes next year.

Episode highlights:

(2:06) Darcie’s takeaway: perfectionism inhibiting training, factors outside of running

(28:22) AJW’s takeaway: multi-day training camps, creating your own race simulation, camps are a must-have

(54:50) Subjective data before objective data: getting useful feedback, creating a practical system, preventing bias

Additional resources:

The CTS blog

Previous podcast on training camps

Buy Training Essentials for Ultrarunning on Amazon or Audible

Information on coaching-

www.trainright.com

Koop’s Social Media

Twitter/Instagram- @jasonkoop

View all timestamps and show notes on the KoopCast website.

Episode overview:

Herman is a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University, where he focuses on the evolution of human energy expenditure and metabolism. He is also the co-founder of the Human Evolutionary Ecology Lab, where he and his team study the effects of diet, physical activity, and modern environments on human health and disease.

Herman’s latest book, "Burn: The Misunderstood Science of Metabolism," explores the latest research on metabolism and challenges long-held beliefs about weight loss and metabolism. His work has been featured in numerous publications and media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR

Andrew Best is a biological anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts; he is also a respectable endurance athlete in his own right. Ancdrew is currently conducting a research project on ultramarathon and ultra endurance athletes that further tests the limits of the human metabolic scope.

Episode highlights:

(15:23) The hypothesis: when you exercise you expend less energy to inflammation, stress, hormone regulation

(25:18) Reevaluating performance: energy expenditure may be the limiting factor in ultramarathons, if so training can be structured to target metabolic scope

(51:37) Training applications: strategically exceeding your metabolic ceiling during important moments in training and repaying metabolic debt when it matters least

Additional resources:

Contact for Andrew-

Website: www.therunningprimate.com

Instagram: @therunningprimate 

Twitter: @RunningPrimate 

Strava: The Shreddy Professor

Buy Training Essentials for Ultrarunning on Amazon or Audible

Information on coaching-

www.trainright.com

Koop’s Social Media

Twitter/Instagram- @jasonkoop

View all timestamps and show notes on the KoopCast website.

Episode overview:

Øyvind is the director of the Centre for Elite Sports Research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology

His research aims to improve the understanding of sport performance, by investigating integrative physiology and biomechanics, the effects of strength and endurance training, as well as the utilization of new technology to gain further understanding of these aspects in real-life environments. He also teaches these topics in Bachelor, Master and PhD courses, as well as the top coach education program.

Episode highlights:

(31:46) Quality over concentration: an argument against block periodization, examples

(41:02) Koop on targeting athlete weaknesses: takeaways for elite and non-elite athletes

(54:12) Øyvind’s takeaways for athletes: caveats, learning how to optimize key sessions

Additional resources:

Paper discussed 

Buy Koop’s new book on Amazon or Audible

Information on coaching-

www.trainright.com

Koop’s Social Media

Twitter/Instagram- @jasonkoop