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Blog
Training science, product updates, and insights.
scienceSnippet #034: Minutes Near the Ceiling: Why Time at VO2max Shapes Aerobic Adaptation
VO2max is the ceiling rate at which the body can use oxygen to fuel muscle. The data show that accumulating a few minutes per session above roughly 90...
scienceEntry #036: Nitrate, Bicarbonate, Beta-Alanine: The Big Three, and Where Each One Actually Helps
There is a shelf in my pantry that tells a small, slightly embarrassing story about endurance science. A purple bottle of beetroot concentrate that st...
scienceSnippet #033: What Your Muscle Oxygen Sensor Is Actually Reading
Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) shines near-infrared light through skin into muscle and reads how much hemoglobin and myoglobin is carrying oxygen. ...
Hi (again). I`m Thomas
Many Mondays in, a growing community and time for a proper re-ntroduction: who writes this, why it started, and the half of the work a newsletter coul...
scienceEntry #035: The Aging Engine: What Masters Athletes Reveal About Mitochondrial Decline
A muscle biopsy from a seventy year old cyclist who has trained for three decades does not read like a textbook chapter on aging. Under the microscop...
scienceSnippet #032: Muscle Memory Is Written in Your DNA's Dimmer Switches
DNA methylation works like a set of dimmer switches sitting on top of your genes, turning each one down or up without rewriting the gene itself. When...
scienceEntry #034: Reading Training Load: The Fitness-Fatigue Balance
Two athletes finish the exact same twelve week block: same sessions, same hours, same numbers logged to the watch. One arrives at the start line sharp...
scienceSnippet #031: Why Humid Air Kills Performance Even in Moderate Heat
Sweat cools the body only when it evaporates, and evaporation depends on the water vapor pressure difference between skin and air. High humidity raise...
scienceOpenLab #009: An evidence-first way to spend on supplements
Averi Firari is a USA Cycling-certified endurance coach and kinesiology instructor at James Madison University. He holds an M.S. in Exercise Physiolo...
scienceEntry #033: The Hot Room as Recovery: What Sauna Does for the Tired Body
There is a particular kind of evening that endurance athletes know well. The hard session is done, the legs are heavy, and the body has shifted into a...
scienceSnippet #030: Cold Water After Lifting Can Quietly Undercut Long-Term Muscle Gains
Cold water immersion after resistance training is associated with blunted satellite cell activity and reduced phosphorylation of p70S6 kinase, a prote...
scienceEntry #032: Sleep and Endurance: The Recovery Window You Cannot Train Around
You finish a hard week. The legs are heavy, the long ride or run sits in the log, and the plan says recover. So you eat well, foam roll, maybe sit in...
scienceSnippet #029: How the Heart Resets After Hard Effort
When exercise ends, the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system, suppressed during hard efforts, gradually reactivates. This reactivati...
Entries#Entry 031: Load Balance, Decoded: What Tomorrow's Workout Should Actually Look Like
You looked at your dashboard this morning. Load Balance reads −18. Your training plan says hard intervals. Your legs say nothing useful. Now what? Mo...
scienceSnippet #028: Capillary Density and the Last Mile of Oxygen Delivery
Endurance training stimulates angiogenesis, the growth of new capillaries (the smallest blood vessels) around muscle fibers. Studies show the number o...
EntriesEntry #030: The two lactate thresholds (LT1/LT2) — The Dual-Threshold Metabolic Architecture
As an endurance practitioner, you have likely structured training around a singular metric: the lactate threshold. This pervasive concept—often anchor...
scienceSnippet #027: Your Energy Systems Run Together, Not in Sequence
The aerobic and oxygen-independent pathways of energy production operate simultaneously from the first second of exercise. Their relative share shift...
scienceOpenLab #008: Allostatic Load: The Hidden Stress Budget in Endurance Training
Guest OpenLab with Dr. Sebastian Sitko: why the stress you do not train, work, sleep loss, travel, life, lands in your legs, and how to read your full...
training-scienceEntry #029: How to Read Your Power-Duration Curve, A Scientist's Walkthrough
The single chart that compresses your entire physiology into one line. Here's how to read it without the jargon.
SnippetsSnippet #026: Strategic Fiber Intake Stabilizes Energy by Slowing Gastric Emptying
Dietary fiber acts as a structural and viscous matrix in the digestive tract, attenuating the rate at which chyme leaves the stomach, a physiological ...