Human Endurance

A high VO₂max can be a sign that you are inefficient, not that you are fit.

That is one of several ideas Marco Altini takes apart in this episode.

Marco is co-founder of HRV4Training, an endurance coach, an advisor at Oura, and a guest lecturer at VU Amsterdam.

He holds a PhD in data science and master's degrees in computer science engineering and human movement sciences. He is also Bruna's coach and an advisor to augo.

We start with why he prescribes almost everything by perceived effort and almost never gives a pace or a heart rate. He explains how he brings along athletes who cannot yet read their own effort, and what he actually looks at when he analyses training data, which turns out to be far less often than most people assume.

Then we get into the lab. Marco tests for running economy and substrate oxidation at race intensity, and explains why VO₂max is one of the least actionable numbers in endurance sport, using his own results as the example.

We also cover what changes between a road marathon and a trail marathon, whether you can train for trails without trails, why fueling past ten hours becomes a calorie problem rather than a carbohydrate problem, and where AI genuinely helps a coach.

That last part gets specific. Marco describes using augo to pull up a fueling conversation from months earlier instead of scrolling through workout comments and WhatsApp, and explains why he sees the tool as removing administrative friction rather than replacing coaching judgement.

About augo
augo is an intelligent platform for endurance sports coaching. It combines coach and athlete communication, workout data from Garmin, Strava, Coros, Wahoo, Polar and Zwift, and post-session athlete feedback in a single platform, so coaches can ask a question and get an answer with full athlete context. augo surfaces which athletes need attention today, tracks wellbeing trends over time, and remembers every note, conversation and session feedback.

augo is built to support coaches, not replace them.
Learn more at: www.augotraining.comMore from Marco: marcoaltini.substack.com

Two runners can look at the same race stats, the same distance, the same elevation gain, and finish hours apart. Ido Dassa has spent a decade learning why.
In this Expert Series episode we talk with Ido, a pro ultra-trail runner and CEO of RacePace. He is the Israeli 100 km champion and national record holder, a member of the national trail team, and a The North Face athlete. He has raced backyard ultras, 200K on the road, vertical Ks and technical mountain 100Ks. He also started running at 18, as a smoker who had never played a sport.
We cover what separates trail running from road running, and why importing road pacing into the mountains is how most first trail races fall apart. Ido explains what to look for in a course profile before race day, how he decides when to walk and when to run uphill, the three common hand positions on climbs and what each one actually does, and why technical descents deserve more caution than most runners give them.
We also get into fueling. Ido pushes back on the carbohydrate numbers circulating online, explains why gut training deserves sessions of its own, and describes the 100K where cold, altitude and wet hands stacked up until he pulled out at halfway.
For coaches, his closing point is short: learn the demands of the race first, then build the plan around them.
🔗 IDO & RacePace
⁠https://www.instagram.com/ido_dassa/
⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/find_racepace/⁠⁠⁠
⁠https://www.findracepace.com

👋 HOSTS
Human Endurance is hosted by Bruna and Fabi, coaches, athletes, and co-founders of augo.
Bruna: ⁠https://instagram.com/justbrunathings⁠
Fabi: ⁠https://instagram.com/endurance_fabi⁠

To support this podcast, head over to augo and create an account:⁠ ⁠
⁠https://www.augotraining.com⁠
⁠https://instagram.com/augo.training⁠

Pain shows up late. By the time you feel it, the process has usually been running for months.
In this Expert Series episode we sit down with Martin Kumm, a sports chiropractor who has spent the past five years with WorldTour cycling team EF Education-EasyPost, alongside years working in ice hockey and track and field. He is a lifelong athlete himself, from national level basketball to triathlon to cycling.
We go through the questions athletes ask us over and over. Does a warm up actually prevent injury, and how long should it be? Should you stretch, or are you someone who should not? Is a cool down worth the time? How much strength training do you really need, and what happens to it during a three week race? Are magnesium and creatine worth the money? And now that the research has shifted, is the cold plunge still doing anything for you?
Martin also explains why he can tell whether a professional cyclist played other sports as a child just by asking them to stand on one foot, and why plantar fasciitis you feel in your heel often starts in your toes.
If you coach, his closing answer may change how you plan your season. Stop trying to prevent injuries and start building a robust athlete.

🔗 MARTIN
https://www.instagram.com/martinkumm_cycling/
https://cycling.clinic/ride-ready/

👋 HOSTS
Human Endurance is hosted by Bruna and Fabi, coaches, athletes, and co-founders of augo.
Bruna: https://instagram.com/justbrunathings
Fabi: https://instagram.com/endurance_fabi

To support this podcast, head over to augo and create an account:
https://www.augotraining.com

https://instagram.com/augo.training

Bevan McKinnon has coached triathletes for over 20 years, hosts one of the sport's longest-running podcasts, and won his age group at Kona in 2016.

We talk with him about what changed in his coaching when he stopped starting with the workout. Bevan makes the case that the objective data most of us build our training around tells us very little on its own. A flat CTL can hide an athlete who is genuinely getting fitter. A completed session guarantees nothing. "The brain is auditing the body at every single second in time," he says, and his argument is that we have largely stopped listening to it.

He shares how he opens the conversations most coaches avoid, why he asked a physiologist to write an Ironman race plan with no numbers in it, what heat preparation actually costs an athlete, and his one-word answer to the question of what age groupers can learn from professionals.

We also get into fuelling, recovery capacity, and why he now describes himself as a health coach rather than a triathlon coach.
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Bevan is the founder of Fitter Coaching and hosts Fitter Radio: https://www.fitter.co.nz/bevanmckinnon
Follow him on Instagram: @fitter.co.nz
Follow Fabi on Instagram: ⁠@endurance_fabi
Follow Bruna on Instagram: @justbrunathings
Follow augo on Instagram: ⁠@augo.training
Learn more about augo: www.augotraining.com

In this Guest Series episode, we sit down with Ronja, a 23-year-old from the canton of Lucerne who came back to Switzerland in 2024 after a football scholarship in the US and started running almost by accident, mostly to clear her head.

Within a year she had won her debut marathon (SwissCityMarathon Lucerne, 2:43:38) off a longest training run of just 26K, and later run 2:38:48 for second at the Zürich Marathon, a U23 Swiss record.

We get into:
How she actually used ChatGPT to build and adjust her training, and where AI coaching started to get risky
Her move from self-coaching to a human coach, and then toward more science-based, data-driven training
Why race fueling is the biggest piece of untapped potential in her running
The mental side: kinesiology, racing through pain, and running with a smile as a performance tool
Her road toward the World University Games and an Olympic goal for 2028 or 2032
It's a story about starting late, progressing fast, and the reminder that consistency, rest, and joy matter more than any single heroic session. Whether you coach or race yourself, there's plenty here on the promise and the limits of training with AI.
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Follow Ronja: @ronja_hofstetter
Follow Bruna: ⁠@justbrunathings
Follow Fabi: ⁠@endurance_fabi
To support this podcast, check out augo. Use code HUMANENDURACE to get 1 month for free.