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Your motivation is still there—but your body may not respond to training, stress, and recovery the way it once did. Is that simply part of aging, a warning sign that deserves attention, or something you can actively manage?

In the first episode of this masters athlete series, Coach Justin and Coach Katie examine the hormonal, bone-health, sleep, fueling, and lifestyle changes endurance athletes may face as they get older. They also confront a difficult reality: preserving health and performance may require new strategies, medical guidance, and a willingness to stop treating every setback as something harder training can fix.

What You’ll Learn

• How hormonal changes can affect sleep, recovery, bone health, body composition, and the ability to train consistently
• Why underfueling becomes especially risky for aging runners, triathletes, and endurance athletes
• The complicated line between hormone replacement, healthy aging, and competitive fairness
• How experience and self-awareness can become genuine performance advantages as physical resilience changes

Timestamps

00:00 – Training updates and the start of a masters athlete series
09:17 – What changes as endurance athletes get older?
10:49 – Perimenopause, menopause, and hormonal fluctuations
18:47 – Hormone replacement and competitive fairness
25:11 – Declining testosterone and what male athletes can do
33:38 – Bone health concerns for masters athletes
34:47 – Underfueling, calcium, vitamin D, and magnesium
39:07 – Strength training, plyometrics, and DEXA scans
47:39 – Why sleep quality can change with age
50:32 – Caffeine, sleep routines, and training after a poor night
1:04:43 – Career, family, and the changing burden of life stress
1:09:24 – The advantage aging athletes should not overlook

For coaching inquiries:

Coach Katie → https://fuel2run.com

Coach Justin → https://tabularasaracing.com

Podcast Email → theenduranceathletejourney@gmail.com

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The most confident advice is not always the right advice for you.

Endurance athletes are surrounded by rigid rules about training, race goals, indoor workouts, and fueling. But what happens when the accepted formula does not fit your fitness, experience, body, or life?

In this listener Q&A episode, Coach Justin and Coach Katie explain how to evaluate common endurance recommendations, apply them with context, and make decisions based on the athlete in front of you—not a one-size-fits-all prescription.

What You’ll Learn

• How to recognize credible training advice—and the red flags behind overly certain claims
• When your race goal should guide training and when completed training should reset the goal
• What treadmills and indoor bike trainers do exceptionally well—and what they cannot prepare you for
• Why carbohydrate targets require more nuance than body weight, age, or a universal grams-per-hour formula

Timestamps

00:00 – Listener Q&A and training-life updates
12:13 – How do you know which training advice to trust?
22:26 – The difference between textbook knowledge and athlete-specific coaching
25:49 – Why elite-athlete advice may not apply to you
31:24 – Should race goals dictate training—or should training dictate race goals?
39:39 – How fixed goals can limit performance
44:56 – When race expectations should change during a training cycle
47:38 – Can you prepare for a race on a treadmill or indoor trainer?
50:20 – The strengths and limitations of indoor bike training
53:22 – Why treadmill training can be highly effective
57:47 – How should endurance athletes calculate carbohydrate needs?
1:13:35 – Carb targets, gut training, athlete size, and age

For coaching inquiries:

Coach Katie → https://fuel2run.com

Coach Justin → https://tabularasaracing.com

Podcast Email → theenduranceathletejourney@gmail.com

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You gave months of your life to a race—but the day you imagined never happened. Now you are left deciding what the result means, what went wrong, and whether another race will bring redemption or deepen the disappointment.

In this episode, Coach Justin and Coach Katie share their own difficult race experiences and explain how to process a disappointing performance before making your next decision. Because the healthiest response is not always another registration—it is understanding whether you still want the training process or simply want a different result.

What You’ll Learn

• How to separate a disappointing result from your identity and ability as an athlete
• Why illness, missed training, and panic training can turn one setback into a larger problem
• How to tell whether a redemption race is driven by genuine motivation or the need to prove yourself
• Why returning to the process—not chasing validation—creates greater enjoyment and longevity in endurance sports

Timestamps

0:00 – What to Do After a Disappointing Race
2:21 – Katie’s Experience at Grandma’s Marathon
5:17 – Justin’s Difficult Return at IRONMAN Florida 70.3
9:14 – The Emotional Recovery After a Race
14:11 – Wanting Another Race vs. Wanting Another Result
20:13 – When Outcome Pressure Ruins the Process
23:39 – Panic Training After Illness or Missed Workouts
28:43 – Why Athletes Struggle to Coach Themselves
38:10 – How Difficult Races Can Make Better Coaches
47:37 – Why Finishing Times Never Tell the Whole Story
1:09:51 – Shifting From Outcome Goals to the Training Process
1:15:50 – Should You Sign Up for a Redemption Race?

For coaching inquiries:

Coach Katie → https://fuel2run.com

Coach Justin → https://tabularasaracing.com

Podcast Email → theenduranceathletejourney@gmail.com

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What if reaching your race weight is the very thing that ruins your race?

GLP-1 medications may help an athlete lose weight, but using them during race-specific training can also reduce fueling, impair recovery, accelerate muscle loss, and limit the fitness needed to perform. You could arrive at the starting line lighter—but less prepared.

In this episode, Coach Justin and Coach Katie examine where GLP-1 medications may fit for endurance athletes, when the risks can outweigh the benefits, and why significant weight loss should be treated as its own strategic phase rather than forced into a marathon, triathlon, or cycling build.

What You’ll Learn

• Why a lower race weight does not guarantee better performance
• How GLP-1s can affect fueling, muscle retention, recovery, and training quality
• Why rapid weight loss during a race build increases RED-S and injury risk
• When a separate, medically supported weight-loss phase may make more sense

Timestamps

00:00 – GLP-1 medications and the pursuit of race weight
06:52 – How GLP-1 medications work
14:12 – Benefits, side effects, and unanswered safety questions
25:26 – Why GLP-1 medications produce weight loss
35:15 – An athlete losing weight while training for a 70.3
44:19 – When race-weight goals become a warning sign
56:13 – Who may benefit from GLP-1 medications
1:05:47 – RED-S, muscle loss, and impaired recovery
1:17:43 – GI symptoms and the challenge of fueling endurance training
1:27:24 – Why reaching race weight may cost more fitness than it creates
1:31:15 – A better time and strategy for athlete weight loss
1:46:24 – Finding a better reason than chasing a number

For coaching inquiries:

Coach Katie → https://fuel2run.com

Coach Justin → https://tabularasaracing.com

Podcast Email → theenduranceathletejourney@gmail.com

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You are tired of following a structured training plan, but you are also afraid that if you back off, you will lose fitness and have to start over.

That is the tension a lot of endurance athletes face after a big race, during the off-season, around holidays, or between major goals. You may not need a highly specific training plan all year long, but that does not mean you need to remove structure completely.

In this episode, Coach Justin and Coach Katie talk through when it makes sense to loosen the plan, how to stay consistent without feeling trapped by training, and why the best answer is often not “plan or no plan,” but the right amount of structure for the season you are in.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why “less structure” does not mean “no structure”
• When it makes sense to take a break from a rigid training plan
• How guardrails help you stay fit without burning out
• Why jumping from one race plan to the next can hurt long-term consistency

Timestamps:
00:00 When to follow a plan vs. loosen the structure
02:18 Katie’s approach after marathon training
08:19 Justin’s view on maintaining fitness with less specificity
17:47 Why having no plan for too long can become risky
20:55 Giving athletes freedom without removing guardrails
28:46 Why workout sequencing still matters
33:48 When it makes sense to come off a plan
35:08 Post-race recovery and the mental deload
36:51 Training during vacation without guilt
44:37 Why downtime looks different for every athlete
48:31 How to reduce specificity without losing direction
56:12 Building flexibility into a structured training plan

For coaching inquiries:

Coach Katie → https://fuel2run.com

Coach Justin → https://tabularasaracing.com

Podcast Email → theenduranceathletejourney@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail

Training consistently but suddenly feeling slower? Your normal pace is harder to hold, your heart rate is higher, and every workout seems to take more out of you.

That does not necessarily mean you are losing fitness. Heat can mask the fitness you have built while adding stress your body must learn to manage. In this episode, Coach Justin and Coach Katie explain how heat acclimation works, how to prepare for hot and humid conditions, and how to build heat exposure into training without compromising recovery.

What You’ll Learn

• Why heat makes your normal pace feel harder even when your fitness is intact
• How active training, sauna sessions, and other passive heat methods create adaptation
• Why chasing cool-weather pace in hot conditions can undermine your training
• How summer heat training can support stronger performance when temperatures fall

Timestamps

00:00 Podcast update and current training plans
18:12 Why major races are being changed or canceled because of heat
27:36 The environmental risk athletes often leave out of race preparation
39:14 What heat acclimation changes inside the body
44:50 Race-day cooling strategies—and why they cannot replace preparation
50:20 Why every workout should not become a heat-training session
52:25 Active versus passive heat-acclimation protocols
58:10 How runners should adjust summer training volume and intensity
1:04:59 Why you should stop chasing pace during hot workouts
1:09:30 Feeling slow does not mean you are losing fitness
1:12:51 How heat masks fitness—and why it appears when temperatures fall

For coaching inquiries:

Coach Katie → https://fuel2run.com

Coach Justin → https://tabularasaracing.com

Podcast Email → theenduranceathletejourney@gmail.com

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Feeling more fatigued than usual? Struggling through workouts that used to feel easy? If your training isn't matching your effort, low iron could be the missing piece.

In this solo episode, sports dietitian Katie takes a deep dive into one of the most common—and often overlooked—nutrition concerns in endurance sports: iron deficiency. Drawing from both the latest evidence and her own experience as a collegiate runner who battled severe iron deficiency anemia, Katie explains why iron is so critical for performance and how even "normal" lab results may not be optimal for endurance athletes.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why endurance athletes are at higher risk for iron deficiency
• The early warning signs that often appear before anemia develops
• Which blood tests to request—and why a CBC alone isn't enough
• Optimal ferritin levels for runners, cyclists, and triathletes
• The best food sources of iron and how to improve absorption
• Common mistakes that can reduce iron absorption
• When iron supplementation is appropriate (and when it isn't)
• Practical strategies to prevent recurring iron deficiency while training

Whether you're training for your first marathon, preparing for an Ironman, or simply wondering why your energy has been lagging, this episode will help you understand how iron impacts endurance performance and what steps you can take to stay healthy and perform at your best.

If you've ever wondered whether your fatigue is "just training" or something more, this episode is for you.

For coaching inquiries:

Coach Katie → https://fuel2run.com

Coach Justin → https://tabularasaracing.com

Podcast Email → theenduranceathletejourney@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail

You’re putting in the bike miles, completing the workouts, and watching the numbers—but the fitness still is not showing up when it matters.

The problem may not be effort. It may be that your training is developing the wrong qualities or measuring progress in ways that do not translate to race day. In this episode, Coach Justin explains how triathletes can build sustainable bike performance through purposeful progression, greater durability, better execution, and stronger real-world cycling skills.

What You’ll Learn

• Why repeating similar rides eventually stops producing meaningful improvement
• How speed and FTP can mislead you about your actual race-day fitness
• Why cycling frequency, durability, and pacing matter more than simply riding harder
• How outdoor skills, position, strength, fueling, and pedal efficiency turn fitness into performance

Timestamps

00:00 Why triathletes struggle to improve on the bike
03:35 The factors that drive cycling progress
08:00 Why every ride should not look the same
12:00 Using progressive overload in bike training
28:00 Why average speed is a misleading metric
38:15 FTP versus sustainable race-day power
41:20 The problem with making every ride hard
46:45 Why triathletes may need to ride more often
1:00:45 Why indoor fitness does not fully transfer outdoors
1:05:30 Position, strength training, and functional bike power
1:11:35 Fueling the bike to support the run
1:14:25 Pedal efficiency and bike-handling fundamentals

For coaching inquiries:

Coach Katie → https://fuel2run.com

Coach Justin → https://tabularasaracing.com

Podcast Email → theenduranceathletejourney@gmail.com