Training science, coaching, and the 80/20 method — from Matt Fitzgerald and the 80/20 Endurance coaching team.
Have you ever tried intermittent fasting, or considered trying it, as a way to improve your endurance performance? Then you’ll be interested in a new study that just came out of UC Davis. Led by nutritionist Ashley Tovar, it aimed to determine the effects of a 16/8 “time-restrictive feeding” (i.e., intermittent fasting) program on body…
Matt Fitzgerald ·
How helpful are athletic coping skills really in helping us deal with life adversity? One year ago today—on October 6, 2020—I had a bad run. It was the type of run I would have really enjoyed had I been on my game: 6 x 1,000 meters at one-mile race pace on a minute’s rest. I…
Matt Fitzgerald ·
In any relationship, disagreements are bound to occur. These moments of friction are not limited to differences of opinion, such as whether dogs are better than cats or vice versa, but may also include discrepancies in how reality is perceived. Perhaps you and your spouse disagree on whether aliens walk among us in human disguise,…
Matt Fitzgerald ·
I’ve been learning about learning lately. My teacher is Jake Tuber, who, when he’s not organizing and hosting Endeavorun athlete camps, is studying toward a doctoral degree in adult learning and leadership at Columbia University. At the recent Endeavorun camp in Boulder, I was impressed by the way Jake incorporated his knowledge of adult learning…
Matt Fitzgerald ·
The short version. Being injury prone is real, but it is mostly not what runners think. The research does not support the idea that weak or tight muscles predict injury, and training errors explain only part of it. Genetics, especially collagen in tendons, matter, and so does the sum of stress in your life, because…
Matt Fitzgerald ·
Many moons ago, I wrote a post for this blog that bore the title, “The Human Body Is Not a Smartphone.” In it I argued that endurance training methods cannot advance indefinitely in the way that technologies such as smartphones can. “Once the best ways to train and fuel the human body for distance racing…
Matt Fitzgerald ·
I ran 20 miles the day before my first marathon. At 17, I didn’t know any better. Whether by choice or chance I had no running mentor, no athletic background, and this was long before the internet. I reasoned (correctly) that the best method to prepare for a marathon was to work backwards from 26.2…
Matt Fitzgerald ·
Every once in a while an athlete asks me why cadence is never prescribed in the cycling workouts included in our 80/20 triathlon plans. I fear that I will soon hear this question more often than once in a while, as I’m currently building a full selection of 80/20 plans for various types of cycling…
Matt Fitzgerald ·
I have a theory about athletic greatness, or more specifically, about what it takes to achieve greatness as an athlete. It’s quite simple. There are two mental traits that I see again and again in athletes of the highest caliber. One is a drive toward greatness that has the untamable ferocity of a full-blown disorder.…
Matt Fitzgerald ·
Raise your hand if you’ve ever gotten nervous before a big workout. Whoa, that’s a lot of hands! I guess it’s a universal experience. Here’s another question: Why do big workouts make you nervous? Chances are it’s for one of two reasons: Either you fear the suffering you anticipate experiencing during the workout or you…
Matt Fitzgerald ·
