The High Performance Human

A few months ago I wrote a LinkedIn post about my decision to start taking statins. I had resisted for several years after being told I had a high coronary artery calcium score, and what changed my mind was straightforward: a handful of people I knew well, fit and healthy-looking triathletes with no obvious warning signs, had heart attacks. One of them died. That was enough. The post prompted Katherine Caris-Harris to get in touch. She is a performance nutritionist who works largely with...

Phil Burt has fitted some of the greatest cyclists in history. Tour de France winners, Olympic gold medallists, world record holders. Three weeks before Bradley Wiggins' hour record attempt, Phil dropped his crank length significantly and removed 30 millimetres from the front end of the bike. That is the level of detail that separates performance from potential at the highest level. But when I asked Phil recently what gives him the most satisfaction in his work, it was not the elite results...

I want to describe an athlete you might recognise. They are putting in 12, 14, sometimes 20 hours a week. They have the goal, they have the commitment, and they have convinced themselves that volume is the price of entry. On paper the logic holds: more training equals more fitness equals better results. Except it is not working. Times are going backwards. Niggles are becoming injuries. Motivation is starting to crack. And nobody has sat them down and told them the truth. So here it is....

Most of us have a clear image of the doper. Calculating. Cynical. Willing to cheat for personal gain. It is a comfortable image because it keeps the moral lines clean. But the more you dig into the actual stories behind the headlines, the less comfortable that picture becomes. James Witts, author of 'Dope - How Drugs Changed Sport' James Witts has been writing about endurance sport for over two decades. His new book, Dope, examines the current state of performance-enhancing drugs in sport,...

Hi Reader, Most athletes I know who've made the move from triathlon to gravel will tell you the same thing. They thought their fitness would carry them. It didn't — at least not in the way they expected. Dave Schell has spent 15 years coaching cyclists through some of the most demanding events on the calendar, ultra-distance gravel and mountain bike events like Unbound 200, Leadville or the Glorious Gravel events in the UK. Before that he spent seven years at Training Peaks as coach education...