Chris Cope: Winning the Summer Spine & Racing at the Sharp End with Type 1 🏆

In this episode, we chat with Chris Cope about ultrarunning at the sharp end, all while managing Type 1 Diabetes.Chris shares the challenges of stress-induced insulin resistance in multi-day racing, and how moving to a closed-loop system has been a total game-changer for his glucose control, performance and recovery. We get into Chris' fuelling strategy: separating carbs from fluids to avoid gut issues. We also talk about how being forced to be methodical with nutrition can provide some competitive advantage. Chris walks us through some of his race highlights, including his 2024 Summer Spine win, and reflects honestly on his recent Winter Spine DNF following a heavy fall on his knee near Hebden Bridge. He reflects on going out hot in the snow, and provides a useful reminder that in ultras, starting “embarrassingly easy” is usually the right call. Easy to say...harder to do.We run through his strength training approach and philosophy, and take a look at what’s next in the race calendar - UTS 100, a 24-hour track race, and a return to the Winter Spine for redemption.Send us Fan MailThis episode is sponsored by Empowered2. Most businesses significantly underinvest in leadership development.Leadership development should be bespoke and appropriate for the needs of your business, adding value by improving the performance of everyone involved with immediately deployable tools and techniques.Jon helps organisations serious about creating high performing leaders and organisations to create meaningful, memorable and lasting leadership legacy. Support the show