PODCAST · health
The Athlete's Compass
by Athletica
The Athlete’s Compass Podcast is your compass for navigating endurance training and health. In this show, we explore the cardinal directions of training, nutrition, recovery, and mindset, delving into the dynamic relationship that drives athletic success.Athletes are more than numbers; they're individuals with unique lifestyles and mindset challenges. Coaches who understand these personal nuances play a vital role in their athletes' journey. While training details and data are important, tools like Athletica provide a solution to streamline the technicalities, allowing coaches to focus on the human connection which makes the human coaches the best they can be.Each week, renowned sports scientist and researcher Paul Laursen will be our teacher and guide as we break down training principles so you can understand how best to train for your sport! We take a no-bullshit and practical approach to support age-groupers, masters, and everyday cyclists, runners, and triathletes like you as y
Episodes
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The Half of Endurance Training Most Athletes Ignore
Physical fitness gets you to the starting line, but what helps you perform when pressure, doubt, and discomfort take over? In episode 150 of The Athletes Compass Podcast, hosts Paul Warloski and Dr. Paul Laursen welcome performance psychologist Dr. Haley Perlus, author of The Personal Podium, to...
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The Biggest Nutrition Mistake Aging Athletes Make
Are you fueling your training for the athlete you are today—or following the nutrition advice that worked 20 years ago? In this episode of The Athletes Compass, hosts Paul Warloski and Dr. Paul Laursen welcome Kristen Arnold, registered sports dietitian and team nutritionist for EF Pro Cycling…
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The Hidden Endurance Secret of Hill Repeats
Hill repeats can provide endurance athletes with a powerful mix of strength, speed, neuromuscular, and cardiovascular benefits without requiring frequent all-out sprinting. Paul Warloski and Dr. Paul Laursen explain how running or cycling uphill changes muscle recruitment, why different hill...
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Run Faster Without Running More
Episode Summary Want to run faster but don’t have time—or the recovery capacity—to add more mileage? Paul Warloski and Dr. Paul Laursen explain how runners can improve performance by getting more from the training they already do. They discuss auditing training intensity, polarized training,...
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How to Improve Your Running Economy
Two runners can have similar fitness and VO₂ max numbers yet perform very differently. One reason is running economy—the metabolic cost of maintaining a given running speed. Paul Warloski and Dr. Paul Laursen explain why economy is different from mechanical efficiency, how it can be assessed in…
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Why Your VO₂ Max Isn’t Rising
VO₂ max is one of endurance sport’s most closely watched metrics, but what does it mean when the number refuses to rise? Paul Warloski and Dr. Paul Laursen explain why a plateau—particularly for experienced and older athletes—can actually indicate successful training. They explore the roles of...
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Why Stopping Was My Best Decision: 1,000km Across France with Jens Wachter
Endurance athlete and Athletica user Jens joins Paul Warloski and Dr. Paul Laursen to share the story behind Project Trans France, his ambitious attempt to run roughly 1,000 kilometers across France in just 17 days while pulling a self-supported trailer. Jens explains how years of ultrarunning…
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Norwegian Method vs Polarized: What’s Better?
The Norwegian method has become one of endurance sport’s hottest training topics, thanks largely to elite performances, double-threshold sessions, and lactate-guided intensity control. But is it really an alternative to traditional 80/20 training? Paul Warloski and Dr. Paul Laursen unpack what…
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How to Find Your Zone 2 Without a Lab Test
Episode Summary Zone 2 gets talked about constantly in endurance training, but most everyday athletes don’t have access to lactate testing or a metabolic lab. In this episode of The Athletes Compass Podcast, Paul Warloski and Dr. Paul Laursen explain practical ways to estimate Zone 2 using the…
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Do Hills and Sprints Cancel Your Zone 2 Benefits?
Does a short climb, town-line sprint, or brief surge above Zone 2 undo the benefits of an endurance workout? Paul Warloski and Dr. Paul Laursen explain why the answer is generally no. Brief excursions above LT1 or VT1 don’t suddenly erase aerobic adaptations, and short bursts can even provide...
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When to Perform High-Intensity Intervals
Should endurance athletes complete high-intensity intervals while fresh, or place them later in a workout after accumulating fatigue? Paul Warloski and Dr. Paul Laursen explain why the answer depends on the type of fatigue involved. General systemic or neuromuscular fatigue may be a reason to...
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How Much HIIT Do You Actually Need?
High-intensity interval training can produce rapid improvements, but repeatedly pushing to maximal effort may undermine recovery, consistency, and long-term progress. Paul Warloski and Dr. Paul Laursen discuss why HIIT must be supported by low-intensity aerobic training, how excessive intensity...
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Supplements That Actually Work for Endurance Athletes with Dr Jose Antonio
Dr. Jose Antonio, co-founder and CEO of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, joins Paul Warloski and Paul Laursen to separate effective sports supplements from overhyped products. He explains why protein, creatine, beta-alanine, nitrates, and caffeine form his evidence-backed top five,...
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Why You Get Sore 48 Hours After Exercise and How to Fix It
Why can a hard workout feel manageable at first, only to leave you struggling with stairs two days later? In this episode of The Athletes Compass Podcast, Paul Warloski and Dr. Paul Laursen explain delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS, and the role eccentric muscle contractions play in creating...
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Why 50% of Girls Quit Sport (and How to Stop It)
In part two of the conversation with Dr. Julia Casadio, the team explores why so many adolescent girls leave sport during their teenage years and how coaches, parents, and support teams can better respond. Julia explains how female puberty affects performance, injury risk, confidence, menstrual...
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Heat Training for Female Athletes: How to Adapt and Perform
In this episode of The Athletes Compass Podcast, Dr. Julia Casadio explains how athletes can use heat training as a powerful performance tool, especially when preparing for hot and humid races. Drawing on her experience with Olympic athletes and her research in applied sport physiology, she...
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How Sleep Timing Impacts Recovery, HRV, and Endurance Performance
In this episode of The Athletes Compass Podcast, Dr. Kristen Holmes, Global Head of Human Performance at Whoop, explains why sleep-wake consistency may be one of the most powerful yet overlooked drivers of performance, recovery, and long-term health. Drawing from years of athlete and wearable…
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System Engagement Explained: How Much Is Left in the Tank?
In this episode of The Athletes Compass, Paul Warloski, Dr. Paul Laursen, and Marjaana Rakai explain Athletica’s Workout Reserve and the new Systems Engagement feature. Workout Reserve is described as a battery-like metric that shows how close an athlete is to their historical best across…
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Can You Be a Mom, Work Full-Time, and Train for an Ironman? with Dr. Iris Nafshi
In this episode of The Athletes Compass Podcast, Dr. Iris Nafshi joins the team to discuss her research on “Iron Moms,” endurance athletes who train for Ironman while navigating motherhood, work, family expectations, and guilt. Drawing from her PhD dissertation, Beyond Grit and Guilt, Iris…
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A Stoic Philosopher's Guide to Endurance Training with Dr William Irvine
In this episode of The Athletes Compass, Dr. William B. Irvine joins Paul Warloski, Paul Laursen, and Marjaana Rakai to explore how Stoic philosophy can help endurance athletes train, race, and live with more resilience. Irvine connects rowing, coaching, discomfort, failure, and competition to...
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Power & Pace Profiles: What Every Endurance Athlete Should Know
In this episode of The Athletes Compass Podcast, Paul Warloski, Dr. Paul Laursen, and Marjaana Rakai break down the concept of power and pace profiles — the personalized performance fingerprints hidden inside your training data. They explain how these profiles reveal an athlete’s strengths,...
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How to Train With Limited Time
In this episode of The Athletes Compass, Paul Warloski, Dr. Paul Laursen, and Marjaana Rakai discuss how everyday endurance athletes can make meaningful progress with limited training time, especially when balancing work, family, and life. The conversation centers on the “minimum effective dose”…
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The Best Recovery Tools for Everyday Endurance Athletes
In this episode of The Athletes Compass, Paul Warloski, Dr. Paul Laursen, and Marjaana Rakai explore recovery strategies for everyday endurance athletes, emphasizing that sleep and nutrition remain the foundation while tools like cold water immersion, sauna, compression garments, massage guns…
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Carbs for Endurance: How Much Do You Actually Need?
In this episode of The Athletes Compass, Paul Warloski and Dr. Paul Laursen unpack the current high-carb fueling trend in elite endurance sport, sparked by reports of top marathoners consuming 100–120 grams of carbohydrate per hour. The conversation challenges the traditional idea that carb…
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Athlete Burnout: Warning Signs, Recovery, and How to Find Joy Again
In this episode of The Athletes Compass, Dr. Allie Wagener, a licensed psychologist specializing in sport and performance psychology, joins Paul Warloski, Marjaana Rakai, and Dr. Paul Laursen to unpack athlete burnout: what it is, how it differs from fatigue or a training slump, and how endurance...
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How to Train for Endurance After 50 with Dr. Reaburn
In this episode of the Athletes Compass podcast, Dr. Peter Reaburn shares practical and science-backed guidance for endurance athletes who want to stay healthy, strong, and competitive well into older age. Drawing from both decades of research and his own experience as a masters athlete, Reaburn...
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The Science of Aerobic Efficiency And How to Train It
In this episode of the Athletes Compass podcast, the team breaks down aerobic efficiency—what it is, why it matters, and how it may be more important than VO2 max for long-term endurance performance. They explore the physiology behind efficiency, including mitochondrial development and capillary...
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Menopause & Performance: What You Need to Know with Dr. Rebecca Robinson |
In this episode of The Athletes Compass, Dr. Rebecca Robinson breaks down one of the most overlooked areas in endurance sports: women’s health across the lifespan, with a focus on perimenopause and menopause. Drawing from her experience as both a sports medicine physician and competitive...
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Move Better, Perform Better: Erin Carson’s Training Approach
In this episode, Erin Carson, one of the most respected strength coaches in endurance sports, breaks down why movement quality is the foundation of performance, injury prevention, and long-term athletic success. She explains how many athletes are already “strong enough” but are limited by...
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Rest Day vs. Recovery Day: What Actually Works?
This episode explores one of the most debated topics in endurance training: whether athletes should take full rest days or train every day. Drawing from elite athlete examples and recent research, the hosts explain that there’s no single “correct” approach. Instead, recovery depends on training...
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HRV Training Explained: How to Know When to Push or Rest
Heart rate variability (HRV) is transforming how endurance athletes approach training by providing real-time insight into recovery and readiness. Instead of following rigid training plans, HRV allows athletes to adapt workouts based on their nervous system state, leading to better performance…
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Solo vs Group Training: Which One Is Better for You?
In this episode of the Athletes Compass Podcast, the hosts explore the pros and cons of training alone versus training in a group. Recent research suggests that while both approaches can produce similar fitness outcomes, group training may lead to greater improvements in functional performance…
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Meet Athletica AI Coach: The Future of Training
In this episode of the Athletes Compass Podcast, the hosts explore Athletica’s new AI Coach, a tool designed to provide personalized training feedback and answer athlete questions based on the science of high-intensity interval training. Built using a retrieval-augmented AI system trained on the...
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How to Train for Hyrox with Siren Seiler-Viken
Episode Summary In this episode of The Athletes Compass, the team sits down with Siren Seiler-Viken—researcher, coach, and emerging voice in Hyrox performance science. From her early years as an elite dancer to national-level distance running and now competitive Hyrox racing, Siren shares how...
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From First 10K at 48 to Ironman: Jeff Weiss’ Endurance Journey
In this powerful and deeply relatable episode, Jeff Weiss shares how he went from starting his first 10K at age 48 to completing Ironmans, ultra marathons, and chasing the World Marathon Majors in his 60s. Along the way, he unpacks the mental battles behind endurance sport, the value of failure,...
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The Second Threshold Explained: LT2, FTP & Critical Power Demystified
In this episode of The Athletes Compass, Dr. Paul Laursen and the team break down the science and practical application of the second threshold — also known as LT2, VT2, FTP, or critical power. They explain what physiologically happens when you cross this boundary, why base training is essential...
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Why More Exercise Doesn’t Always Burn More Calories with Dr. Mikki Williden
In this episode, Dr. Mikki Williden returns to The Athletes Compass to explore the Constrained Energy Model, a concept reshaping how athletes and coaches think about training and fueling. Drawing on the groundbreaking work of Dr. Herman Pontzer, Mikki discusses the biological limits of daily…
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The Athlete’s Guide to Smarter Warmups
In this episode of Athlete’s Compass, hosts Paul Warloski, Dr. Paul Laursen, and Marjaana Rakai explore the overlooked yet critical elements of pre-race preparation: warmups and openers. Drawing on science and experience, they break down concepts like post-activation potentiation (PAP), the Q10...
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How a Late Start Led to World Championships: Jerome’s Triathlon Story
In this episode, triathlete Jerome Guionnet shares his inspiring transformation from a non-competitive French parent to a world-class age-group triathlete competing in multiple Ironman World Championships. Sparked by his daughter’s interest in triathlon, Jerome began his journey in his 50s and…
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HIIT: The Secret Weapon for Endurance Athletes
In this episode, the Athletes Compass team dives into the physiology and performance science behind 30/30 HIIT intervals—30 seconds on, 30 seconds off. Dr. Paul Laursen explains why these short, intense bursts are so effective at improving VO2 max and recruiting fast-twitch muscle fibers. With...
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Why You Need Cross-Training in Your Plan
In Episode 110, the hosts of The Athletes Compass dive into the overlooked powerhouse of endurance training: cross-training. Dr. Paul Laursen, Marjaana Rakai, and Paul Warloski explore how activities like rowing, skiing, and cycling aren't just recovery fillers—they're performance-enhancing tools...
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ChatGPT meets HIIT Science: Athletica’s New AI Coach
In this episode of The Athlete’s Compass, the team introduces Athletica’s newly launched AI coach—an intelligent training assistant that combines large language models (LLMs) with athlete-specific data like HRV, sleep, and training load. Unlike generic AI tools, this coach taps into the HIIT...
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When Data Stops Helping: Escaping the Trap of Training Metrics
In this episode of the Athletes Compass Podcast, Mollie Brewer—sports scientist and PhD researcher—explores the fine line between using training technology as a helpful tool and becoming overly dependent on it. Drawing from research across collegiate and endurance sports, Mollie explains how GPS...
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Pause, Rest, Reset: A Holiday Guide for Everyday Athletes
In this holiday-themed episode, hosts Paul Warloski, Dr. Paul Laursen, and Marjaana Rakai shift the focus away from hustle and mileage to explore the restorative power of seasonal slowing down. Drawing on Nordic traditions and endurance science, the trio discusses how embracing the darkness…
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Your Brain on Race Day: Understanding Pre-Race Anxiety
In this episode of The Athlete’s Compass, co-hosts Paul Warloski, Dr. Paul Laursen, and Marjaana Rakai unpack the often-overlooked reality of race day anxiety for everyday endurance athletes. They explore how physiological responses like elevated heart rate and the “monkey mind” can feel...
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Train Your Mind Like You Train Your Body with Ashley Eckermann
In this episode, the Athletes Compass team talks with Ashley Eckermann, a seasoned sports psychologist and Ironman athlete, about how athletes can shift from chasing motivation to building mental skills that actually work under pressure. Ashley debunks common myths about mindset, explains how to...
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The Power of Listening to Your Heart Rate
In this episode of The Athletes Compass, the team—Paul Warloski, Dr. Paul Laursen, and Marjaana Rakai—dives into the world of heart rate. They break down what heart rate data really tells us, why your measurement device matters, and how to avoid common training mistakes. The hosts explore how…
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Why Slow and Steady Actually Wins: The Power of Zone 2
In this episode of The Athlete’s Compass, the hosts explore the often-underestimated power of Zone 2 training—effort levels that allow for relaxed, conversational pacing. They break down the physiology behind this aerobic zone, why elite endurance athletes rely on it, and how it promotes...
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Why You’re Not Getting Fitter: The Truth About Plateaus
Every athlete—beginner, elite, or aging—eventually hits a frustrating plateau where progress stalls despite hard work. In this insightful episode, the team unpacks what a training plateau really is, how to distinguish it from overtraining or undertraining, and what physiological, psychological…
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Why Endurance Athletes Need More Than a Training Plan with Jared Markiewicz
In this episode of The Athletes Compass, performance coach and speaker Jared Markiewicz shares how the disciplines of motivation, consistency, and self-reflection form the core of sustainable athletic—and personal—growth. Drawing from his journey from one-on-one coaching to leading hundreds…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The Athlete’s Compass Podcast is your compass for navigating endurance training and health. In this show, we explore the cardinal directions of training, nutrition, recovery, and mindset, delving into the dynamic relationship that drives athletic success.Athletes are more than numbers; they're individuals with unique lifestyles and mindset challenges. Coaches who understand these personal nuances play a vital role in their athletes' journey. While training details and data are important, tools like Athletica provide a solution to streamline the technicalities, allowing coaches to focus on the human connection which makes the human coaches the best they can be.Each week, renowned sports scientist and researcher Paul Laursen will be our teacher and guide as we break down training principles so you can understand how best to train for your sport! We take a no-bullshit and practical approach to support age-groupers, masters, and everyday cyclists, runners, and triathletes like you as y
HOSTED BY
Athletica
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Athlete's Compass have?
The Athlete's Compass currently has 149 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Athlete's Compass about?
The Athlete’s Compass Podcast is your compass for navigating endurance training and health. In this show, we explore the cardinal directions of training, nutrition, recovery, and mindset, delving into the dynamic relationship that drives athletic success.Athletes are more than numbers; they're...
How often does The Athlete's Compass release new episodes?
The Athlete's Compass publishes regularly with 149 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to The Athlete's Compass?
You can listen to The Athlete's Compass on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Athlete's Compass?
The Athlete's Compass is created and hosted by Athletica.
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