Human Endurance

What does it actually take to line up at your first trail ultra and not just survive it, but do it right?
In this Expert Series episode, we sit down with Ash Daniels, Level 3 Athletics Australia accredited coach, AUTRA endorsed coach, and Australian national 100km team manager, to get into everything road runners need to know before making the jump to trails.
Ash starts where most coaches don't: with his own disastrous first attempt at Ultra-Trail Australia, carrying enough kit to survive the weekend and arriving at a checkpoint six hours late.
From that experience came a 5-hour PB the following year, a decade-long coaching career, and a very clear philosophy on what actually matters in trail and ultra preparation.
In this episode we cover training specificity for trail (and why your marathon prep won't save you), the vert-per-10K metric Ash uses with all his athletes, why he ditched heart rate zones in favor of running power and RPE, what social media consistently gets wrong about electrolytes and high-carb fueling, and a nuanced, honest conversation about where AI fits (and doesn't fit) in coaching.
Whether you're eyeing your first 50K or just trail-curious, this one is packed with practical, no-nonsense insight.
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Find Ash at journey2ultra.com.au or on Instagram @journey2ultracoaching
Follow Bruna: @justbrunathings
Follow Fabi: @endurance_fabi
Learn more about the podcast: www.humanendurancepodcast.com

In this episode, we sit down with Pascal Rüeger, the Swiss ultra runner who ran 100km in 6:18:27 earlier this year, beating a record held since 1985 by almost 9 minutes and winning the race by over 30 minutes.
Pascal only started running competitively in 2018, in his late thirties. Today he holds the Swiss national records at 100km, 6 hours (91.6km), and 12 hours (161.2km), plus the M45 world record for 100km. He is self-coached, science-based, and trains twice a day, every day.
We talk through his race-day execution in Italy, his pacing strategy at 3:40/km, and how he uses heart rate zones to manage a sub-7-hour 100km.

Pascal also walks us through his weekly training (160-200km, with "Crazy Thursdays" of double 50K sessions), his low-carb daily diet paired with carb-targeted race fueling, and the entrepreneurial mindset that lets him fail repeatedly and come back stronger.
For anyone curious about ultra running, late-starter performance, or what consistency at the limit actually looks like, this conversation delivers.

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Follow Pascal: @swissultrarunner
Follow Bruna: @justbrunathings
Follow Fabi: @endurance_fabi
Bruna & Fabi are the co-founders of augo: www.augotraining.com
Bruna & Fabi coach runners & triathletes: www.jornadaendurance.com
More about Human Endurance: www.humanendurancepodcast.com

What separates an age-grouper who keeps improving from one who plateaus? It often isn't the next training method or the latest gadget. It's how they think about their training as a whole.
In this episode, we sit down with Mikael Eriksson, founder of Scientific Triathlon and host of That Triathlon Show. With nearly nine years of full-time coaching experience and an engineering background, Mikael takes a systematic, pragmatic approach to triathlon training that has helped athletes go from beginners to professional level.
We talk about how to profile athletes by their physiological strengths, why specificity is overrated for long-course racing, and the three metrics every coach should master: external load, internal load, and RPE.
Mikael also shares his philosophy on hard work in an era obsessed with recovery optimization: "You can become a pretty good athlete with very bad recovery if you're putting in the work. You cannot fully optimize your recovery and become a good athlete if you're not putting in the work."
If you're a competitive age-grouper looking for the right levers to pull, or a coach refining how you work with experienced athletes, this conversation offers a grounded, practical framework rather than a list of hacks.
Connect with Mikael on:
Instagram
Youtube
Linkedin
https://scientifictriathlon.com/
Connect with Bruna & Fabi:
@justbrunathings
@endurance_fabi
https://jornadaendurance.com/
https://www.humanendurancepodcast.com/

What happens when you stop thinking of yourself as "just a runner" or "just a cyclist" and start training like a complete athlete?
Peter Glassford and Molly Hurford from The Consummate Athlete join us to break down why cross-training might be the most underrated tool in endurance sports.
Peter is a Registered Kinesiologist and endurance coach with 20+ years of experience, and Molly is an ultra runner, author, and founder of Strong Girl Publishing.
Together, they've spent a decade helping busy athletes build sustainable performance through their 4 Cs framework: Cross-training, Consistency, Confidence, and Community.
In this episode, we get into practical strategies for fitting training around a busy life, why strength training matters more than most endurance athletes think, the real problem with ERG mode on the trainer, how to start cross-training without risking injury, and Molly's journey from crying in the shower after her first Ironman to setting the course record at her first 100-miler.
Whether you're a coach looking for fresh programming ideas or an athlete stuck in a single-sport rut, this one is packed with actionable takeaways.

Connect with Molly & Peter:
https://consummateathlete.com/
https://stronggirlpublishing.com/
https://www.instagram.com/peterglassford/
https://www.instagram.com/mollyjhurford/

Connect with Bruna & Fabi:
https://www.instagram.com/endurance_fabi
⁠https://www.instagram.com/justbrunathings
https://jornadaendurance.com/
https://augotraining.com/

Join augo's launch event on March 26th in Zurich
https://luma.com/8l4kbup7

What happens when the sport you've dedicated your life to suddenly gets taken away from you?
At 17, Nina Derron was a Swiss Junior Champion in triathlon, duathlon, and the 10km. And then chronic back pain stopped everything...
What followed was nearly 3 years away from competition, a PhD in Clinical Science from ETH Zurich, and one of the most remarkable comeback stories in triathlon.
In this episode, Nina walks us through the injury that derailed her junior career, how she rebuilt her relationship with the sport, and the deliberate decision, at 32, to finally go all-in as a full-time professional triathlete.
We also dive into Brett Sutton's RPE-based training philosophy, why Nina barely looks at her data, what it's like training alongside the Chinese national team, and the importance of bone density screening for young endurance athletes.
A story about patience, resilience, and trusting the process: for athletes and coaches at every level.
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Connect with Nina: @nina_derron
Connect with Bruna: @justbrunathings
Connect with Fabi: @endurance_fabi
Sign-up for augo's launch event: https://luma.com/8l4kbup7