#246 – Alan Couzens “Ask Me Anything”

De Kobe Show

Alan Couzens answered questions from the Madcrew forum.

Introduction

• Quick thoughts on the Madcrew forum? Past / present / future?

Training related questions

• You trained a lot all throughout your life, and some of it at very demanding intensities. Did you ever approach a physical or mental burnout? If so, how did you get out of it?
• How do we get the running interested crowd to slow it down enough? People want to run. When you then tell them not to run, the exciting prospect of running goes out the window. I’d be really interested to hear Alan’s thought process on how to handle this!
• I’d like to ask about injuries. Our discussion on identifying as an athlete, putting on the HRM regardless and hobbling to the bench 50m away when you were recovering from broken bones got me thinking. What were your lessons learnt from that experience of serious injury? Are there more gems that could help others with reframing injuries, the recovery process and managing expectations? That’s if you are comfortable with discussing the subject.
• Nowadays that measuring power on the run is possible, would you say it is important that power and heart rate zones match? And if so, and if they do not, how to make them match, adjusting power to HR zones or vice versa?
• Is there a distinction between training for performance (for example a competitive age grouper while working full time), and training for health (for example optimizing for later years).
• Generally speaking, how does training differ between male and female athletes?
• To what extent would you say you’re shaped by your childhood temperament, environment, and experiences with sport, and to what extent is your adulthood a conscious “correction” of the less nice bits of your childhood?

AMA questions

• What are your goals for 2025?
• Did you always want to work as a coach? If, for some reason, you weren’t a coach today, what job would you do?
• What made you move to the US? Why Florida?
• What are your most cherished experiences / memories as an athlete?
• What was that job that tanked your fitness?
• Quick one: Would you train Lionel Sanders?
• Which athletes (pro or amateur, active or dead) inspire or influence you?
• How fit are Kona and Purrcy (Cerutty)?
• What are your lowest moments (both moments in time like a workout/race and phases in life), and what were your productive and unproductive responses to them?
• I assume that the swim is your favorite part of the triathlon? What’s your second-favorite sport?

Watch on YouTube

https://youtu.be/IfxgqtSXm_0