In this episode of The Athlete’s Compass, Paul Laursen, Marjaana Rakai, and Paul Warloski break down the concept of periodization — the practice of structuring your training into purposeful phases like base, build, and taper. Drawing from cutting-edge research, Norwegian endurance dominance, and their own coaching experience, they explore how layering aerobic work with strategic...

In this episode of the Athletes Compass Podcast, the team is joined by Andrea Zignoli to explore a unique research study conducted within the Athletica platform—analyzing over 55,000 athlete comments to detect emotional patterns through sentiment analysis. The findings reveal that outdoor workouts tend to trigger more joyful responses, certain body part mentions signal pain,...

In this episode of Athletes Compass, hosts Paul Warloski and Dr. Paul Laursen welcome Dr. Jeff Sankoff—emergency physician, triathlon coach, and host of the TriDoc Podcast—for a refreshingly honest and science-based discussion about the often-misunderstood relationships between body composition, fueling, and performance in endurance sports. They tackle the dangers of under-fueling, especially in athletes trying...

In this episode of The Athletes Compass, hosts Paul Warloski, Dr. Paul Laursen, and coach Marjaana Rakai unpack the difference between outcome goals and process goals—and why the latter often holds the key to long-term success, joy, and mental well-being in endurance sports. Marjaana shares her personal challenge of completing 50 marathons before turning 50,...

In this powerful episode of The Athletes’ Compass, Dr. Tony Boutagy, a seasoned strength and conditioning coach, brings clarity to the often-confusing world of exercise advice for women—especially those navigating perimenopause and menopause. Busting common myths perpetuated by social media influencers and mouse-based science, Tony makes the case for context-driven, individualized training based on experience,...

In this episode of The Athlete’s Compass, hosts Paul Warloski, Marjaana Rakai, and Dr. Paul Laursen tackle a topic many endurance athletes experience but rarely discuss: post-race depression. After months of disciplined training, crossing the finish line of a major race should be euphoric—but for many, it’s followed by an emotional void. The team unpacks...

In this episode of The Athletes Compass, Mikael Eriksson—founder of Scientific Triathlon and host of That Triathlon Show—joins to share five key coaching lessons drawn from nearly a decade of coaching and over 600 podcast episodes. Mikael emphasizes the importance of individualization in training, the biopsychosocial model of performance, mastering the basics like sleep and...

In this insightful episode of Athlete’s Compass, Dr. Stephen Seiler joins hosts Paul Laursen, Marjaana Rakai, and Paul Warloski for a deep conversation on breathing as a training tool, recovery as a performance enhancer, and the importance of individualizing endurance training. From nasal-only breathing sessions to the role of sentiment analysis in monitoring strain, the...

Luke Evans shares his remarkable journey from a Canadian hockey player with no running background to winning Ironman Ottawa in 8:40 while holding down a demanding engineering job. He details his self-coached early days, the influence of family, the leap to Ironman racing, and the pivotal role of Athletica’s AI coaching in managing training load....

In this episode, the Athletes Compass team sits down with legendary exercise physiologist Dr. Stephen Seiler, who’s best known for popularizing polarized training. Dr. Seiler shares his latest insights into using breathing frequency as a real-time indicator of training stress—a potentially more accurate and actionable metric than heart rate or RPE. He explains the conceptual...