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. 3D AGO

    Durability and Fatigue Resistance with Coaching Legend Joe Friel

    Joe Friel — author of the Triathlete's Training Bible, co-founder of TrainingPeaks, and one of the most influential coaches in endurance sport — joins Chris Bagg for a conversation centered on durability: what it is, how it is built, and why it matters more than most athletes realize. Joe explains how he developed the concepts of heart rate decoupling and efficiency factor in the early 2000s — more than fifteen years before sports scientists gave durability a name — and walks through the three-phase training structure he uses to build durable athletes from the ground up. The conversation covers zone one and zone two training, the discipline of race-specific pacing, AI's role in coaching, and Joe's revised edition of Fast After 50, due out in June. If you work with long-course athletes, or if you are one, this episode covers the ground that determines who holds on late in a race and who doesn't. Links mentioned in this episode: Joe Friel's website: joefrieltraining.com TrainingPeaks (decoupling and efficiency factor tools): trainingpeaks.com Fast After 50, revised edition — coming June 2026 (available wherever books are sold) Kolie Moore / Empirical Cycling: empiricalcycling.com Serious Training for Endurance Athletes by Rob Sleamaker and Ray Browning Campfire Endurance coaching: campfireendurance.com

    1h 5m

  2. APR 23

    Triathlon Only Has Two ZOnes

    One of the issues with the established training zone systems out there is that, very often, there are more zones than we need, particularly for multisport training and racing. When zones were first established, most of the data came from road cyclists, who have more dynamic events and different demands placed upon them while competing. In a triathlon—even a short course triathlon—the goal is a steady, moderately-hard effort that you can hold for a long time. In this monologue episode of The Infirmary, I make the case that triathletes need just two training ranges: endurance and speed. I talk about how training actually works — oxygen delivery, blood volume, capillary density, mitochondrial function, muscle fiber recruitment, metabolic efficiency — and show why the moderate and heavy exercise domains can and should be collapsed into a single endurance range for multisport athletes. I also address why a seven-zone system can actually hurt your training as a triathlete, why "anaerobic threshold" is a misleading term, and why your threshold intervals shouldn't be killing you—they are part of the endurance side of things, NOT intensity. We wrap things up with a practical breakdown of how to apply perceived exertion and training intensity distribution across a season. Links mentioned in this episode: Jesse Dukes' one-day "How to Get Good Tape" Los Angeles Workshop: https://jessedukes.com/good-tape-how-to-get-it-2/ Kolie Moore FTP test and threshold discussion Ryan Bolton metabolic efficiency episode Book a free training consultation: https://tinyurl.com/mu8d8tux Join the Campfire Discord community: https://discord.gg/3Uq989QFX4 2026 Bend Camp waitlist

    50 min

  3. APR 9

    How To Train Your Gut with Tash Cooper-Smith

    Sports scientist and triathlete Tash Cooper-Smith from Precision Fuel & Hydration joins The Infirmary to demystify one of endurance sport's most confusing topics: fueling and hydration. Tash breaks down sweat testing, sodium concentration, carbohydrate intake, gut training, and the actual science behind cramping — and why the answer to most athletes' fueling problems is rarely as complicated as they make it. She also shares the story of her own athletic journey, from competitive gymnastics to Kona qualifier in four years, and what that experience taught her about personalizing nutrition for performance. Links mentioned in this episode: Jesse Dukes' one-day "How to Get Good Tape" Los Angeles Workshop: https://jessedukes.com/good-tape-how-to-get-it-2/ Precision Fuel & Hydration: https://www.precisionhydration.com Precision F&H free sweat rate calculator and spreadsheet: precisionhydration.com Follow Tash on Instagram: @tash.cs Follow Precision F&H on Instagram: @precisionfandh Book a free 20-minute video call with a Precision F&H sports scientist: precisionhydration.com

    59 min

  4. MAR 27

    Stress + Rest = Growth: A Guided Breathwork Session for Mental Toughness

    Most athletes swing between two bad options when things get hard: they back off because something in their brain, body, or heart says “too much,” or they panic, push too hard, and blow up. In this episode of The Infirmary we name the productive space between those two poles — the growth zone — and give you a practical tool to train your ability to stay there. Chris draws on his own racing career, including a painful lesson from Ironman Canada 2012, to explain why learning to sit with discomfort is a crucial and trainable skill, not a personality trait. The episode ends with a three-round guided breathwork session designed to put you face-to-face with that exact discomfort, so you can practice handling it before you're in a race or in a tough workout. Links mentioned in this episode: Campfire Endurance Substack: campfireendurance.substack.com Bend Camp 1:1 Coaching with Chris: campfireendurance.com

    30 min

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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
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5
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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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