The Infirmary | Fixing Broken Endurance Athletes: Daily Summaries Delivered

Episode 54: In Search of a Sensible Training Philosophy — Mikael Eriksson on VO2 Max, Athlete Profiling, and the Limits of Literature

Mikael Eriksson founded Scientific Triathlon in 2015 and has coached full time since 2017. He also hosts That Triathlon Show, a podcast with over 700 episodes in its archive that has become one of the most comprehensive educational resources in the sport. This conversation covers the question that organized it: what does a sensible training philosophy actually look like — and how do you build one that holds up across the cycling trends of polarized, threshold, Norwegian, sweet spot, and back again?Mikael's podcast: That Triathlon Show — scientifictriathlon.comScientific Triathlon coaching and training plans: scientifictriathlon.comJohansson et al. — "Elite Aerobic Endurance Performance: Is it Really Related to Lactate Threshold Expressed Relative to Peak Oxygen Uptake?" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40239962/That Triathlon Show Episode 419 (Q&A on science and coaching philosophy): https://scientifictriathlon.com/tts419/TrainingPeaks: trainingpeaks.comCampfire Endurance coaching: campfireendurance.com

Episode 53: You Are Not the Voices in Your Head, or How to Fix Your Self-Talk

My coaching intake questionnaires ask about fitness history, equipment, fueling, and injury background, but the thing athletes flag most consistently is imposter syndrome — and it appears whether an athlete has done fifteen Ironmans or is two weeks out from their first sprint triathlon. In this solo episode of The Infirmary, I break down the two types of self-talk — motivational and instructional — and walk you through a three-part process for catching negative internal voices, tracing them back to their source, and giving them a more useful job. The episode closes with a free five-exercise worksheet, "Meet Your Chorus," that connects everything covered here to work you can start this week, and you can grab that below.Links and resources mentioned:"Meet Your Chorus" free worksheet (five exercises): https://www.campfireendurance.com/your-chorusCampfire group coaching program (enrolling now): https://www.campfireendurance.com/group-20271:1 coaching inquiry: https://www.campfireendurance.com/triathlon-coachingCampfire Endurance Substack: campfireendurance.substack.com

Episode 52: How to Achieve a Breakthrough Performance with Mark McCabe

Mark McCabe wrote triathlon into his social calendar in 2020, stayed stuck at a 5:45 for four years, and then decided to find out what would happen if he actually gave the sport what it was asking for. Two and a half years of consistent work later — including a build block that got replaced by 23,000-step days in Italy, a Zoltar fortune machine in a casino, and instructions from his coach that scared his wife — he finished Ohio 70.3 in 4:11:50, jumped from the 62nd percentile to the top 8% of his age group, and posted a 21-minute PR. This is the conversation about what actually caused that. Chris and Mark go through the volume data, the carb-loading protocol, the race-week preparation, the emotional regulation that kept the run from unraveling, and the mindset shift that made doubles feel like a gift instead of a punishment. Along the way, Chris shares his own breakthrough race — Ironman Canada 2011 in 97-degree heat — and the decade of volume that preceded it. If you have been stuck at the same result for longer than you would like, this is the episode to listen to.Links mentioned in this episode:Fuelin app (nutrition planning): fuelin.appPrecision Hydration (sweat sodium testing and carb products): precisionhydration.comQT2 Systems / Jesse Kropelnicki: qt2systems.comEmpirical Cycling / Kolie Moore (threshold testing): empiricalcycling.comMark McCabe on Strava: search Mark McCabeMark's videography company: Flip Turn Media Group (Indiana)Campfire Endurance Bend Camp (limited spots remaining): (link in show notes)1:1 Coaching with Chris: campfireendurance.com

Episode 51: Three Endurance Skills that Lead to Mastery

I see the following situation far too often: an athlete who is completely reliant on their devices, doesn’t practice their fueling, and cannot change a flat tire. This kind of reliance is deeply fragile: it doesn’t take much to break it on race day. In this show, I walk through the three most important skills to an endurance athlete’s success, and there are far more qualitative measures than quantitative. We cover pacing, fueling, and equipment proficiency, ending with practical directions to improve at all three.

Episode 50 Live from Bend Camp: David Tilbury-Davis on the Mindset and Habits Behind Long-Term Athletic Success

This episode is a live recording from Campfire's annual Bend Triathlon Training Camp, where co-coach and longtime collaborator David Tilbury-Davis sat down with campers for an open Q&A. David has coached over 30 years and worked with some of the most recognized names in the sport — Lionel Sanders, Ashley Gentle, Cody Beals, Sky Munch, Kaisa Sali, and many others — but what runs through every answer in this conversation is a conviction that coaching, at its core, is about human connection and behavioral engineering, not data dashboards. Links:Campfire Endurance 2027 Bend Training Camp: https://www.campfireendurance.com/training-campsFuelin app: fuelin.comTrimapper: trimapper.comDavid Tilbury-Davis Coaching: https://www.tilburydavis.com/Campfire Endurance coaching: campfireendurance.com

Episode 49: How to Face Your Fear w/Sports Psychologist Simon Marshall

Simon Marshall trained the brains of endurance athletes for a living, and in this conversation he makes the case that the mental side of sport is the part most of us skip — right up until it costs us a race. Recorded during the pandemic and shared again in Simon's memory, the episode digs into what actually decides how race day goes: why everyone walks to the start line a little terrified, why your brain treats one bad comment like Velcro and ten good ones like Teflon, and why "just find your passion" is mostly a myth. Simon, who wrote The Brave Athlete with his wife, five-time world champion Lesley Paterson, also hands over tools you can use this week — the alter-ego trick, microdosing dopamine, and the quiet skill of embracing the suck. It's funny, honest, and a little subversive, which is to say it sounds just like Simon. Come for the start-line nerves, stay for the reminder that getting fitter and getting to know yourself are supposed to be the same project — the whole point of sitting around the Campfire.Links to drop in (mentioned on-air)The Brave Athlete: Calm the Fck Down and Rise to the Occasion* — Simon Marshall & Lesley PatersonThe Passion Paradox — Brad StulbergPaula Reed, adventure psychologist (the "fun scale" and the 150-item adventure list)Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Episode 48: Deliberate Practice in the Pool Leads to a TEN-MINUTE Olympic-distance Improvement

Swim improvement is slow, frustrating, and worth every minute — and this episode is proof of that. Chris walks you through Alex W.’s amazing 2:35 to 1:52/100 threshold pace improvement in today’s episode: what wasn’t working, what Chris prescribed, and how Alex took the reins and put in the hard work. We track her development step by step: the front quadrant breakdown that was costing her propulsion, the drift toward her breathing side that threatened her open water navigation, the elbow angle problem that was limiting her pull power — and the specific drills that addressed each one. Along the way, Chris explains why triathlon is an energy cascade, what deliberate practice actually requires, and why more yardage without technique work has a ceiling that most swimmers hit much sooner than they expect. If your swim has been stuck at the same pace for longer than you'd like to admit, this is the episode to listen to twice. Links mentioned in this episode:Book a swim analysis with Chris: campfireendurance.com/swim-analysisSwim Smooth (methodology and drill references): swimsmooth.comCampfire Endurance coaching (spots opening July 2026): campfireendurance.com or email chris@campfireendurance.com

Episode 47: Justin Daerr on Intrinsic Motivation, Longevity vs. Performance, and Staying in the Game