Cody McKay was racing his bike at an elite level at 29 years old when a routine chest X-ray — ordered for something as mundane as winter congestion — revealed an ascending aortic aneurysm. What followed was a journey through diagnosis, open heart surgery, and an unlikely return to competitive racing.

In this episode, host Svein Tuft sits down with Cody to unpack what it's like to discover a life-threatening heart condition when you feel completely healthy, the mental weight of being an athlete whose identity is suddenly on hold, and what recovery looks like when your sternum has been cracked open and wired back together. Cody also shares the story behind Project Heart, his not-for-profit using his racing comeback to spark conversations about cardiovascular health in the cycling community.

Svein opens up too — sharing his own experience with AFib during the Tour Divide — and together they make the case that fitness and heart health aren't always the same thing, and that the endurance athlete's sense of invincibility can be its own blind spot.

A conversation about performance, vulnerability, and why looking after your heart is part of the long game.

Geoff Kabush on Racing Longevity, Skill, Doping Era Survival, and Still Finding New Adventures

Svein Tuft talks with mountain bike legend Geoff Kabush about building a decades-long career, from growing up in the Comox Valley and discovering cycling in his teens to racing internationally as a junior in 1995. Kabush describes the mid-’90s “glory days” of XC racing, his formative years in Victoria, and the long-term development approach shaped by coach Jürg Feldmann’s physiology-driven mentorship. He explains why he still races at 49—variety, adventure, and staying fit—while noting age-related changes in recovery and repeat intensity. They discuss modern athlete pressures, social media, development mistakes like rushing to Europe, and the importance of balance. Kabush reflects on equipment evolution, experimenting with 1x drivetrains and 32-inch gravel wheels, and speaks candidly about doping’s impact, why he spoke out, and his pride in winning the 2009 Bromont World Cup.

00:00 Welcome To Long Game 00:42 GripGrab Sponsor Shoutout 01:34

Meet Geoff Kabush 02:18 Home Base In Squamish

03:46

Early Sports And First Bikes 05:19 Solo Trip To Worlds 1995

08:01 Nineties MTB Glory Days 09:40 Victoria Years And Breakthrough

12:26 Coach Jurg Long View

15:11 Why Keep Racing 19:06 Aging And Recovery Changes

23:46 Experience Skills And Tactics 26:02 Training Week Now

27:27 Next Gen Pressures 31:07

Advice For Young Riders 38:49 Staying Motivated With Goals

43:13 Trainer Or Racer Mindset 44:05 Offseason Training Love 45:14 Racing Beyond World Cups 47:38

32 Inch Gravel Experiment 49:41 Bike Tech Evolution 52:51 Early Gear and Setup

55:10 One By and Wide Bars 57:48 BC Skills Advantage 01:00:15

Speaking Out on Doping 01:04:58 Exposure and Career Fallout 01:10:20

Truth Reconciliation Debate 01:19:17 Proudest Win at Home 01:25:10

Advice and Long Game 01:27:36 Semi Retired Adventures 01:29:34 Thanks and Sponsors

What does your body actually do during a long ride — and how do you find out?

In this episode, Svein sits down with performance physiologist Steve Neal, who traveled to Nelson, BC with his full metabolic cart setup to put the Svein through a comprehensive testing session ahead of the BC Epic 1000 — a 1,040 km ultra-endurance race.

This isn't a standard VO2 max test. Steve's protocol goes far deeper, measuring fat oxidation, carbohydrate crossover, ventilatory thresholds, muscle oxygen (via Moxy sensors), spirometry, and recovery response — all in a single session. The result? More actionable data than most world tour riders ever receive.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why shorter ramp tests miss most of what matters — and why longer protocols reveal the full picture
• Fat max vs. metabolic efficiency: what they are, how to improve them, and why the difference matters for multi-day events
• VT1 and VT2: the ventilatory thresholds most coaches ignore, and what it means when they collapse together (hint: you're probably more tired than you think)
• The Moxy muscle oxygen sensor — what it shows on a working muscle vs. a non-working one, and why the bicep reading can be more revealing than the quad
• The recovery test: why your heart rate recovering doesn't mean your respiratory system has
• Spirometry and FEV1: how lung function testing on the bike reveals a limiter almost no one is training
• Breathing mechanics — nasal vs. mouth, diaphragmatic vs. chest, and how slowing your respiratory rate at a fixed wattage can change your metabolism in real time
• Respiratory training devices: SpiroTiger, Breathe Way Better, AeroFit, and the Go2 mouthpiece — what each does and when to use them
• The zone 2 problem: why training at your fat max wattage might actually make you worse if that number is too low
• The freediving connection: what elite breath-hold athletes know about thoracic mobility that cyclists are completely missing

The headline result from today's test: fat max improved from 280 to 320 watts compared to the previous test — while the athlete is two years older. That's the kind of data that changes how you train.

Whether you're preparing for a 1,000 km bikepacking race or just trying to understand why long rides feel harder than they should, this episode gives you a framework for thinking about endurance performance that goes well beyond watts and heart rate.

Guest: Steve Neal, performance physiologist and metabolic testing specialist based in British Columbia. [email protected]

Svein Tuft

tuftcamps.com

[email protected]

@svein.tuft on instagram

Steve Neal joins the Svein to answer a listener question from Chris O'Leary (New Zealand) on FatMax: what it actually means, why it matters, and how to improve it.

What You'll Learn

FatMax defined: The highest fat oxidation rate with the least carbohydrate contribution — not just peak fat burning. On a metabolic cart, fat oxidation can stay flat across multiple power steps while carbs double underneath it. The precise crossover point is what matters.

Fat-carb crossover point: Two athletes can share the same FatMax wattage but have crossover points 100+ watts apart. This — not FatMax alone — determines how long and comfortably you can ride.

Target numbers for masters cyclists: FatMax at 175–200W is solid; 225W is exceptional. A healthy FatMax-to-FTP ratio is 70–75%. The crossover point should sit above FatMax.

High FTP, low FatMax? Yes. From four recent tests, FatMax ranged from 53–82% of FTP among athletes with similar thresholds. FTP alone doesn't tell the metabolic efficiency story.

What moves the needle: Nutrition likely drives the majority of FatMax improvement — roughly 90% of bodyweight (lbs) in daily protein, 1:1–2:1 carb-to-protein ratio, fat to satiety. On the training side, riding consistently 5–10W below FatMax is the key lever. One athlete's crossover point shifted from 110W to 210W in four months.

Recovery data: After a 500K ultra, FatMax held steady post-race but the crossover point dropped sharply — and took 10–14 days of rest to fully recover. Most athletes restart too soon.

Guest

Steve Neal — Exercise physiologist, metabolic testing specialist, endurance coach.

Listener Question

"Everyone talks about FatMax but no one puts it into a useful context. How do we actually use it?" — Chris O'Leary, New Zealand

The Long Game Project — performance for the long haul.

This is the first guest episode of the Long Game Project, and it felt important to start with someone who really sets the tone for what this is all about.

Steve Neal is a coach with over 30 years of experience working with endurance athletes, from development level all the way through to high performance. He’s known for his deep understanding of physiology, testing, and how to actually apply that information in the real world. But more than that, he’s someone who has spent a long time figuring out what truly works—and what doesn’t.

In this conversation, we get into a few key ideas that come up again and again when it comes to training, especially as athletes get older.

We talk about what actually changes as we age—and what doesn’t. Why so many people end up training too hard, and how that can quietly hold them back. How to think about testing in a way that actually helps, rather than just collecting numbers. And what really moves the needle when you’re balancing training with work, family, and everything else that comes with life.

A big part of this conversation is around consistency—figuring out what you can repeat over time, rather than chasing short-term gains. We also get into the idea that you can’t train everything at once. There are trade-offs, and understanding what you’re actually trying to improve is key.

Steve shares a lot of practical insight from years of coaching, including how to avoid overtraining, why leaving something in the tank matters, and how to build fitness in a way that lasts.

This one isn’t about shortcuts or perfect answers. It’s about building a better understanding of the process, and finding a way to keep improving over the long term.

Topics Covered

What actually changes as we get older—and what doesn’t

Why most people train too hard (and how it backfires)

The “5% undertrained vs 1% overtrained” idea

How to use testing to understand your own physiology

FatMax, VO2, and why you can’t train everything at once

What really moves the needle for busy athletes

Consistency and repeatability in training

Strength, mobility, and staying in the sport long term

Connect with Steve

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevenealperformance/⁠

Email: [email protected]

Connect with Me

Email: [email protected]

If you have questions or topics you’d like covered in future episodes, send them through—I’ll do my best to get to them.

If You Enjoyed This Episode

Follow the podcast on your platform of choice, leave a review if you can, and share it with someone who might get something out of it.

That’s the whole idea—build something useful and pass it along.

In this opening episode of The Long Game Project, Svein Tuft lays out the intention behind the podcast.

After nearly two decades racing at the highest level—including the Olympic Games, World Championships, and Grand Tours like the and —this episode focuses on what actually lasts: the process.

This is a conversation for anyone trying to stay consistent, capable, and engaged while balancing real life. It cuts through the noise, questions the idea that we should slow down with age, and focuses on what actually works—showing up, keeping a thread alive, and continuing to do hard things in a sustainable way.