Endurance

Mark Beaumont

Welcome to the first series of the Endurance podcast with myself Mark Beaumont. I’m joined on many of the episodes by my friend and performance manager Laura Penhaul.

We started recording these conversations as a research project for my new book, also called ‘Endurance’ & published by Global Cycling Network – so you can find many of these conversations written up in the ‘Wise Words’ sections of the book. The Endurance podcast is focussed on meeting the sports scientists, the support staff, the researchers, the entrepreneurs – the people you will rarely have heard of - but who are the experts at supporting endurance athletes and are at the forefront of endurance sports.

I started my endurance journey 25 years ago as a 12-year-old boy cycling across Scotland, and I recently pedalled around the planet at the pace of 240 mile a day. Laura has been a physiotherapist at 4 Paralympic & Olympic Games, led the first female crew to row the Pacific Ocean and lead my Performance team for the ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ race.

Young or old, female or male – I believe that endurance is the greater leveller in sport. I’m fascinated by the mental, physical and logistics skills that it takes to push endurance.

We are all endurance athletes at heart – we can all go further. read less

Episode 15 - Dr Charlotte Elsworth-Edelsten and Luke Gupta
Jan 7 2021
Episode 15 - Dr Charlotte Elsworth-Edelsten and Luke Gupta
Dr Charlotte Elsworth-Edelsten is a Sleep Specialist and Human Movement Scientist. Luke Gupta is Lead Project Physiologist and Sleep Scientist at English Institute of Sport. Having completed her PhD in human movement biomechanics and physical activity performance and participation, Charlotte moved to the French alps and took a post doctoral position at Geneva University Hospital in 2009, where she worked between the sleep laboratory and the laboratory of kinesiology. This is where her interest in sleep developed. Living in Chamonix Mont-Blanc she is well placed to take theoretical and empirical work out into the field, for example the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc which you will hear us mention in this conversation. Charlotte runs sleep clinics, where she advises, assesses, and aids in the diagnoses of individuals with a wide range of sleep problems and disorders. In addition to this, she works in an educational capacity delivering lectures and seminars that raise awareness surrounding the importance of sleep. She is particularly interested in the cognitive and health related impairment we suffer directly resulting from disturbed sleep and the effect this has on performance. Website: www.charlotteedelsten.com or www.the-sleep-science-coach.com Luke is the author of ‘Does Elite Sport Degrade Sleep Quality?, and his research has included ‘napping in high-performance athletes: sleepiness or sleepability’ as well as ‘when research leads to learning and not practice in high performance sport.’
Episode 12 - with Sophie Killer and Rebecca Dent
Dec 17 2020
Episode 12 - with Sophie Killer and Rebecca Dent
Dr Sophie Killer is the Lead Performance Nutritionist for British Athletics and Rebecca Dent is a High-Performance Dietitian with a keen focus on adventure and endurance sports.Dr Sophie Killer is Performance Nutrition consultant in elite sport, having worked as the Head of Performance Nutrition at Tottenham Hotspur FC and as a senior member of the English Institute of Sport Performance Nutrition team. Sophie was the Lead Nutritionist for British Athletics, supporting the Olympic and Paralympic Track and; Field team throughout the Rio 2016 Games and continues to work in Athletics in a consultancy role in the lead up to the Tokyo Games. Sophie has gained a wealth of experience working with a wide range of elite athletes from cyclists, runners, ultra endurance athletes, triathletes and extreme sports athletes through to team sports, including leading the nutrition service for British Basketball during the London 2012 Olympic Games and having spent 5 seasons working in Premier League Football.Sophie completed her PhD in Exercise Metabolism & Performance Nutrition at Loughborough University and continues to engage in research through numerous collaborations. She holds a Visiting Fellowship in Sports Nutrition at Loughborough University where she is involved in PhD supervision and sessional lecturing. She has 15 publications to date, sits on the Editorial Board of the BioMed Central Nutrition Journal, is a Review Editor for Frontiers in Nutrition and is an invited reviewer for the EJSS, IJSNEM and IJSPP.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sophie_KillerRebecca describers her job as helping you choose the right foods to eat based on your lifestyle choices, sporting endeavours or epic adventures, but above all to help you achieve your best health.@sophie_killer and @Rebecca_Dent on Twitter
Episode 6 - with Gerard Vroomen, Doug Golenz and John Dennis
Nov 5 2020
Episode 6 - with Gerard Vroomen, Doug Golenz and John Dennis
Bike design has come a long way in the past decade, and most bikes are now designed for the Mark Beaumont’s of this world as opposed to the Mark Cavendish’s! That means comfort for endurance and great handling, rather than purely for elite racing. This conversation happened between Scotland, Holland, England and the US – and explored bike design and bio-mechanics. Gerard Vroomen is a Dutch-born mechanical engineer and the owner of Open Cycle. He is best know as the co-founder of Cervelo bikes. Vroomen co-founded Cervélo in 1995 when their design for a new time trial bicycle failed to garner interest from traditional bicycle manufacturers. Today, Cervélo is the largest triathlon bike manufacturer in the world. Doug Golenz co-founded and runs StudioWest near Boulder, Colorado – world famous for cutting edge bike design. The team are passionate creativity and have over 100 patents to their names. John Dennis is someone I (Mark Beaumont) have worked with personally as my bike fitter before the Around the World in 80 Days. John has worked full time in elite sport for over a decade, including as lead physiotherapist with British Triathlon. As an expert in cycling biomechanics, he has since worked with a multitude of pro cycling teams including Team Sky. Analyzing sports injuries, movement patterns and working with clients at his business Physiohaus near Newcastle in England with the best chance of a quick recovery and individualised bike positional work.