I see the following situation far too often: an athlete who is completely reliant on their devices, doesn’t practice their fueling, and cannot change a flat tire. This kind of reliance is deeply fragile: it doesn’t take much to break it on race day. In this show, I walk through the three most important skills to an endurance athlete’s success, and there are far more qualitative measures than quantitative. We cover pacing, fueling, and equipment proficiency, ending with practical directions to improve at all three.

Simon Marshall has worked with many high-level endurance athletes out there, and in this conversation he makes the case that the mental side of sport is the part most of us skip…right up until it costs us a race. Recorded during the pandemic and shared again in Simon's memory, the episode digs into what actually decides how race day goes: why everyone walks to the start line a little terrified, why your brain treats one bad comment like Velcro and ten good ones like Teflon, and why "just find your passion" is mostly a myth.

Simon, who wrote The Brave Athlete with his wife, five-time world champion Lesley Paterson, also hands over tools you can use this week — an alter-ego exercise that will help you face difficult situations, how to microdose dopamine, and the quiet skill of embracing the suck. It's funny, honest, useful, and heartwarming, which is to say…it’s a lot like Simon. We miss you, man.