Sine Labore Nihil "Nothing without work" Literally. If you want success as an endurance athlete, you must put in the kcal of work. Every. Day. Set yourself a kcal target and stick to it. In the beginning, it doesn't matter how long the work takes. Just get it done.

Unpopular opinion o' the day: Most athletes should use hrTSS as their default Training Stress metric. Most don't test frequently enough (or long enough) for power or pace based TSS to be accurate.

"I really believe that walking, coupled with 12, 15 minutes of mobility every day and one to four sessions of strength each week will give you all you need in life." - Inaki De La Parra Full podcast NOW live in link below 👇

Always fun to chat with my buddy, Inaki de la Parra about the merits of the zone 0/1 for EVERY body - even Ultraman World Champions! "This shit works for performance. And it works for health!" Covered more in my last Substack (alancouzens.substack.com/p/your-whole...) with full podcast to come. 🙏

We underestimate the impact of 'little stressors' on our health. I took my citizenship test yesterday. I was confident. I don't fail tests😊 But still, my HRV was ⬇️ all week Now, one day post & my HRV is instantly ⬆️ 30ms! Your body is under more stress than you think.

Coming clean on our latest #MADcrew forum thread on "long ride nutrition"...🤷‍♂️☺️ forum.madcrew.app/t/what-should-…

My latest... Your whole day is a workout, and these are your zones! With deep credit to Nassim Nicholas Taleb for posting a simple idea that completely transformed how I approach exercise in my life... 🙏 alancouzens.substack.com/p/your-whole...

Man there's a lot of psycho-babble on the interwebs. No wonder everyone is stressed out about whether they're in the 'optimal mental state' Relax. Chill. Clear your mind. Focus on where you are and what you're doing *right now* And execute that. That's all you need to do. That's all you can do

The final case-study is live! Meet World-Class Wendy! Learn about what it really takes to race among the best in the world. In terms of training, nutrition, physiology, and way of life! Hope you love it! alancouzens.com/my_book.html

A frequent question hitting the #MADcrew forum at the moment... Should I include walking in my weekly TSS? 🚶 Short answer: If you're not an elite endurance athlete, yes! Longer answer: forum.madcrew.app/t/tss-for-wa...

New habit: Before opening social media, I picture the IQ bell curve in my head and remind myself - the entirety of that curve is represented here. It helps.

"The 'secret' is a progressive increase in training load over many years." "But what if I don't have time to increase my training load?" "The 'secret' is a progressive increase in training load over many years."

Want higher #HRV ? Learn to let go. That's all HRV is... turning down the constant "stress grip" that you have on your body and letting the breath do it's thing. Every exhalation creates (literal) space for relaxation. Go with that. Learn to let go.

Glycogen depletion is the real "pain" that separates the men from the boys.

An interesting discussion is happening on the #MADcrew forum right now around how to go about improving your #FatBurning. forum.madcrew.app/t/how-many-c...

It all begins with committing to show up. Over the years as a swimmer & coach I've seen kids with broken arms still show up... with a kickboard in tow! No matter what... Commit to show up!

Only four of the 21 robots in the race crossed the finish line, highlighting just how far humanoids are from keeping up with their real human counterparts. www.wired.com/story/beijin...

Before worrying about all the fancy stuff - your training intensity distribution, whether you're doing the magic workouts etc... Start by simply making sure you're checking the box on at least 1,000 kcal of work *every day*. All the fancy stuff comes after that.

It is time... It hit me the other day that I have now lived a greater portion of my life in the U.S. than Australia. This country has been very good to me, and I do deeply love it - the land and the people. It is home. 🏠 Looking forward to hopefully making it official 🫰

The mindshift that makes all the difference: Move from... Trying to get yourself as fatigued as possible in the shortest time possible. To... Trying to rack up as much work as possible *while* feeling as fresh as possible. Fatigue isn't the goal.

Hi Abd, I don't use "FTP", instead I set threshold in TP et al. to the actual threshold observed in a lactate test. A 20 min test can be "gamed" by improving the lactate tolerance of the athlete w/no change in aerobic fitness. More on my protocol in Ch 6 alancouzens.substack.com/p/chapter-6-...

There are two things you must get right if you're serious about becoming very fit: 1/ Make more time for training. 2/ Truly understand what “easy training” means. Most people are doing their easy training way too hard.

Alright, there's something quite interesting happening with Monday...

#BlackMirror you did it again. Eulogy... Wow.

It's the work. Never lose sight of the fact. To continue to build your performance over the long-term, you have to build your daily capacity for plain ol' work. (From chapter 10 of my book) alancouzens.substack.com/p/chapter-10...

Control breeds consistency. Consistency breeds champions.

As the gap between the influencer & those who actually know grows algorithmically wider by the day, you're going to need to actively seek out those with real world experience. Trust me, it's worth it.

Unpopular opinion of the day... The fundamental problem: The U.S. has gone soft. And it's not something that hiding will solve. We need to demand more from each other. Academically, athletically, the whole bit. We need to compete. An expectation for excellence is not abusive when it's voluntary.

Interesting discussion on #Sleep requirements for different levels of training going on on the #MADcrew forum at the moment... forum.madcrew.app/t/training-s...

Honestly, the thing that scares me the most isn’t a Depression. It’s the US Dollar losing its status as the de facto world currency. That status is built entirely on stability and trust. Once those disappear, the value of the US Dollar disappears too.

Psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, economists will study this lunacy for decades to come. If I wasn't living through it, it really would be fascinating.

Why aren't I fitter/faster/healthier? You're not fitter/faster/healthier because you're not Training enough Sleeping enough Eating right You're not doing those because you're too busy. You're too busy because you're prioritizing $ & stuff above long-term health and fitness. *That's* the problem

Don't spend your entire life distracting yourself from the real problem. Fix the problem.

Paradoxically, the better you become, the less you have to focus on the work & the more you have to focus on the response you're getting from the work. For a novice, "more miles" is generally a viable strategy. For the elite it's all about "better miles".

For many athletes, it's much easier to get to the top than stay at the top. There are 2 main reasons for this, with finance parallels... 1. Too many withdrawals, not enough deposits. 2. Losing track of your return on investment. In short, trying to live a champagne life 🍾 on a beer budget 🍻

We can get so stuck, swimming upstream, against the current. Going nowhere. In a constant fear of "If I stop battling, I'll be swept away." 🏊 Wasting our days, going nowhere. Stop. Turn around. Go with the flow. There's a whole river downstream just waiting to be explored.

A sneak peek of my upcoming (final) chapter on my Substack for the highest level of my case studies - "World-Class Wendy" It’s common to see great mid-range lactate, but lousy fat oxidation numbers with too much mid-range Aerobic work. When this happens, there’s only one solution - Back to Base!

All this tariff stuff reminds me of athletes who hide away from real, international competition to protect their egos. You'll never know how good (or bad) you are if you don't race the best. And, when you race the best, maybe you figure out that your true strengths lie in a different event.

So good. 🤡 @brendanvduke.bsky.social

Trying to learn Greek at the moment while sitting on the trainer & listening to Eddie garble out Yellow Ledbetter. 🎶 #ExpertModeEngage 😊

New @nejm.org #ACC25 The global impact of 5 cardiovascular risk factors (BP, cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, smoking) on life expectancy in men and women www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2415879

"What does it mean to have a 'beginner's mind'?" forum.madcrew.app/t/what-does-...

High performance and health are tightly related, for one simple reason... An unhealthy body won't respond to the work! So, get your health in order first. Plus, life is just better when you take daily actions that prioritize your health.

Want to get fit? Simplify your life. Make space. Make movement, food, and sleep a top priority. That's the way.

An interesting thread is going on in the #MADcrew forum at the moment around the big question... When should you choose to hire a coach? And, just as importantly, when should the coach choose you? forum.madcrew.app/t/why-would-...

Anyone can go all out for a day, perhaps even a week. Few can exert sound and measured efforts for a year, decade, lifetime. The former look good on Instagram. The latter become champions.

Focus down. Once you decide on a single path, the journey becomes a lot easier.

Whether you mathematically define them or not... We all use performance models to make decisions about our training. That is, we forecast "this input will lead to this outcome" The only question then, is your model accurate? Do you actually quantify the errors in your predictions?

Athletes are too aggressive with their training load ramps. 📈 Think about it... If you add just 1 CTL per week, over a year, even allowing for an off-season, you'll add a good 45 CTL! The number of folks who actually add 45 CTL is very small, solely because they try to add 150 CTL! #Patience