The Infirmary | Fixing Broken Endurance Athletes

Campfire Endurance Coaching
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Welcome to The Infirmary! We're sorry you're not feeling great. Our goal on The Infirmary is to solve the problems you are having in your endurance sport. Whether you are getting ready for your first triathlon, or you are a seasoned endurance athlete, we are here to help. Featuring discussions with coaches, athletes, and other business owners, we are confident we'll be able to help. Welcome to The Infirmary! We hope you'll be feeling better soon.

  1. MAR 12

    "'Metabolic Efficiency' is just a Fancy Term for Getting Fit," Says Endurance Coach Ryan Bolton

    Ryan Bolton is an Olympian, competing at the first Olympic Triathlon in 2000, and he is also a long course champ, winning Ironman Lake Placid in 2002. He coaches America’s top-ranked short-course triathlete, John Reed, and coaches or has coached Olympic Morgan Pearson, triathlon legend Ben Hoffman, recent star Sam Long, and many, many others. Ryan and I talk about a huge range of topics, including artificial intelligence (AI) in the coaching space, why “metabolic efficiency” isn’t anything you need to really pay attention to because it will happen as you get fit, and what it means to focus on “$100,000 wins” instead of “$500 wins.” You can find Ryan at https://boltonendurance.com/ and on his social media accounts: @coachryanbolton and @boltonendurance. You can (and should!) listen to my interview with Ben Hoffman, whom Ryan Coached for most of Ben’s career.

    59 min

  2. FEB 26

    Where Is My Mind? Flow State, Focus, and Interval Meditation

    Coaches and athletes talk about the semi-mythical “flow state” a lot, but there is precious little information about how to achieve flow state. Those same coaches and athletes seem to leave it up to chance, but as you all (I hope) know, hope is not a strategy! In today’s episode, which is the companion piece to the guided meditation just below this one in the feed, we talk about ways to practice presence in your training and racing, since all that flow state is is a state of heightened presence in the moment, when distractions and obstacles seem to fall away. If you read last week’s Substack post, you’ll see the connection here to getting away from thinking, because when we think we tend to make judgments, and if you are judging you are reflecting or ruminating, not present in the moment. The episode opens with a real athlete meltdown (the kind most of us have had at some point) to explore how perception and self-judgment are the first things standing between you and your best performance. From there, we make a connection between traditional meditation and the way you approach a hard interval — and explains why those two things are basically the same skill. You don't need an app, a cushion, or a monastery. You need your next workout and a willingness to notice where your brain actually goes when things get hard. Resources and links mentioned: The companion guided meditation episode CAMP How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan Chris's Substack post: "Getting Away from Bad" Book a consultation with Campfire Endurance

    25 min

  3. FEB 26

    10-Minute Guided Interval Meditation

    The companion piece to Episode 40, this is is a guided meditation that will help you discover what your brain and body wants to do during a difficult interval or during a race. Practice this meditation to improve your ability to maintain a wide, soft, presence that improves your chances of accessing flow state in your training, racing, and life. Book a free training consult with Chris here: https://tinyurl.com/3b8shdav

    21 min

  4. FEB 12

    From a Ten-Year Break to 9:03 at Roth: Ultraman World Champion Gordo Byrn

    Endurance coaching legend Gordo Byrn joins us to discuss his return to racing after a 10-year break. The 2002 Ultraman World Champion and author of From Lemon to Legend breaks down his training philosophy that led to a 9:03 at Challenge Roth. We explore why consistency matters more than any specific workout protocol, how he rebuilt his aerobic base starting with workouts so easy he didn't believe they'd work, and why most athletes overcomplicate their training. Gordo shares his "10, 20, 50" protocol and explains how patient application of ridiculously easy training builds the efficiency required for world-class endurance performance. Whether you're returning to the sport after time away or struggling to maintain consistency, Gordo offers a masterclass in sustainable high-performance training from someone who's mentored a generation of endurance coaches. Gordo’s book: https://tinyurl.com/2376uex4Gordo’s Substack: https://feelthebyrn.substack.com/

    1h 7m

  5. FEB 5

    Coaching The "Emotional" Athlete

    For well over the first half of my professional career, I was labeled an “emotional athlete.” That label seemed to mean, well, something else. In this case that “something else” appears to have been “undisciplined,” if the describer was being nice, or “riding like a stupid a*****e,” if the describer wasn’t concerned with hurting my feelings. Faced with this description, which wasn’t ever really elucidated further until later in my career, I set about eradicating the problem. I had a problem with pacing, was the coaching feedback I probably should have received, but without clear guidance on how to pace better I found myself falling into the same pattern: starting too hard in the swim and having to slow down after 2-300m and losing the main pack, burbling self-recrimination to myself for the rest of the swim leg, before climbing out of the water alone and…repeating the exact same pattern on the bike: riding too hard to “catch up,” and then, successful or not at catching up, blowing to bits on the run. In this episode we explore why we make decisions that don’t serve us as athletes, on and off the race course. We look at how fear was the prevailing emotion behind my explosion at Canada in 2012, and how I would have handled it differently, had I the tools. I hope this episode helps someone determine the shadows they have that are driving behaviors that they don’t like. The Mankind Project accountability exercise Chat with Chris about your emotional game, whatever your sport. Learn about CAMP May 29-June 2

    36 min

  6. JAN 12

    "The Bonfire of Success," with Coach David Tilbury-Daviss

    David Tilbury-Davis coaches or has coached triathlon household names such as Ashleigh Gentile, Lionel Sanders, Skye Moench, Corinne Abraham, Cody Beals, and Matt Hanson, and he’s been doing so for three decades. In this episode, David explains his “evidence-led” in contrast to “evidence-based” approaches, how he gives athletes autonomy within structured training blocks, and why understanding your race day "poker hand" matters more than race-day magic. We discuss block periodization across the four disciplines of triathlon, how the Norwegian Method is more a product of excellent professionalism, cognitive load in VO2 work, and why even successful performances need analysis. In the moment I found most affecting, David talks about how an athlete deals with setbacks separates the great from the merely good. Links mentioned in this episode: David's website: tilburydavis.com David on Instagram: @tilburydavis Book: Think Like a Rocket Scientist by Ozan Varol Book: The Scout Mindset by Julia Galef Book: Anti-Fragile by Nassim Taleb Book: How to Decide, by Annie Duke Resource: Swim Smooth

    1h 7m

  7. 12/29/2025

    Overtrained or Just Under-recovered? The Difference That Could Save Next Season

    Overtraining syndrome is rare, serious, and can end your endurance career if you're not careful. In this episode, we break down the differences between functional overreaching (proper training), non-functional overreaching (under-recovery), and true overtraining syndrome (OTS, and again, it's really rare!). You'll learn the warning signs that separate temporary fatigue from something far more concerning, plus we walk through actual case studies of athletes who took years to recover from OTS. We cover the psychological patterns that lead to overtraining, a return-to-training protocol that can get you back on the right track safely, and why consistency beats intensity every single time. If you're training hard right now or coaching athletes through big training blocks, this episode is the reality check you need before it's too late, for you or for your athletes! #triathlon #overtraining #endurancetraining Links mentioned in this episode: Return to Training Protocol Profile of Mood States Questionnaire Progressive Overload episode (for understanding proper training) Cody Beals burnout episode (previous episode referenced) 2026 Coaching spots Bend Camp Kreher Studies: Kreher JB & Schwartz JB (2012). "Overtraining Syndrome: A Practical Guide" – Sports Health, 4(2):128-138 Full-text: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3435910/ Kreher JB et al. (2025). "Overtraining Syndrome (OTS) in Three Endurance Athletes and Roads to Recovery" – BMJ Case Reports, 18(7):e265066 Full-text: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12258013/ Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/fe77a/bright-ideasLicense code: JTATK7ILXBEATYUM

    1 hr

  8. 12/15/2025

    Cody Beals' "Pathological Inability to Rest," Burnout, and Recovery

    Canadian pro triathlete Cody Beals opens up about thoroughly burning out, wondering if his triathlon career was over after Ironman Chattanooga, and what happened when he took his first real break in over 25 years of school, athletics, work, and professional endurance sport. We discuss the difference between intellectual understanding and actual practice when it comes to rest, why so many endurance athletes struggle with exercise addiction and forgoing necessary rest, and how Cody is rebuilding his relationship with the sport that's defined his adult life. We discuss fatigue resistance testing, the merits and difficulties of self-coaching (particularly when we fail to see how tired we are), and why baseline fitness sometimes matters more than peak training volume. Whether you're fighting burnout yourself or just trying to build a more sustainable approach to training, this episode offers practical, real-world advice from someone who's been to the brink of burnout and back. www.codybeals.com Cody Beals on Instagram: @cody.beals Book a coaching consultation: https://www.campfireendurance.com/triathlon-coaching

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About

Welcome to The Infirmary! We're sorry you're not feeling great. Our goal on The Infirmary is to solve the problems you are having in your endurance sport. Whether you are getting ready for your first triathlon, or you are a seasoned endurance athlete, we are here to help. Featuring discussions with coaches, athletes, and other business owners, we are confident we'll be able to help. Welcome to The Infirmary! We hope you'll be feeling better soon.

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