How was your season? What race did you do? How did it go? Comment below 
I’m not sure if this is the appropriate forum, but I wanted to share my experience with Athletica and say a thank you for the impact it has had on my running journey this year.
My athletic background is fairly limited. Outside of playing a few sports in high school and doing some recreational mountain and road biking as a teenager, I wasn’t particularly focused on sport. After university, life, work, and family naturally took priority over health and fitness. By the time I turned 40, I realized I was overweight, unhealthy, and needed to make a change.
I decided to try running, despite having absolutely no idea what I was doing. A friend somehow convinced me to sign up for a 26 km trail race with 900 metres of elevation gain, which I naively agreed to. Having never run before, I figured the best training approach was to run 5 km as fast as I could two or three times per week. Somehow, I believed this would prepare me for a 26 km trail race. Unsurprisingly, it proved to be both physically and mentally difficult.
Convinced there had to be a better way, I came across Dr. Phil Maffetone and the MAF Method through a podcast. I trained using the MAF approach, running 3 to 4 hours per week around my relatively flat neighbourhood .
I completed the trail race that September, but I could barely make it across the finish line. I knew very little about fueling, had done no hill-specific training, and had never run longer than 90 minutes in my life. At the time, I concluded that I simply wasn’t meant to be a runner.
Fortunately, I discovered the HIIT Science Podcast and signed up for Athletica at the beginning of this year and thought I would give it one more try. Last week, I completed the same 26 km trail race again and was absolutely blown away by how good I felt. My average heart rate was more than 20 bpm lower than the previous year, and I was even able to push hard over the final 2 km.
The combination of the adaptive training plans, AI Coach, and the Athlete’s Compass podcasts has been incredible. More importantly, I’ve seen measurable results while enjoying the process far more than I ever thought possible. I genuinely appreciate all the work that you and your team have put into creating these tools and resources.
Thank you Athletica for everything you’re doing.
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My season was both rough and amazing.
The AMAZING: coming back from a heart condition last year, and after taking significant time off to get diagnosed (that makes it sound really easy and fast; spoiler: it was NOT) and getting on a medication to where I can still train consistently (also…NOT easy or fast), I just finished a 70.3 aquabike!
The aquabike was a huge success too, nearly the same fitness as before the heart issues kicked up 18 months before! Swim was on pace, bike was actually stronger…
But the rough: achilles strain / inflammation that began in December 2025 and refused to fully abate, despite 9 months with a mix of rest, PT, imaging, sports med, false-alarms where we thought I could get back to running, and more. Thus the 70.3 ended up an aquabike since there was no running to be had.
And with that, my 2026 season comes to a close, with my 70.3 “training race” becoming my last race, and IMCA being a non-starter despite swim/bike nearly ready to go. I could maybe walk the marathon, but a) don’t want to aggravate the ankle (skiing this winter is important!!!) and b) walking for 7 hours does not sounds like a good reward for all the training!
Here’s to 2027, eh?
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Amazing story, congrats!
I 100% agree, couldn’t have made as much progress myself w/o Athletica. Thank you team!
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My season has been similar to @kimberg but for slightly different reasons and split pretty much in two halves:
1st Half - Started the year with running as my main goal and Athletica really pushed me through that. I was aiming to quite drastically improve my long distance PB’s and so set about increasing mileage and intensity whilst keeping up a level of biking and swimming too. I had an amazing result at the NYC Half Marathon in March, taking 3 mins off my PB. I then followed that up with a sub-3 marathon at Manchester, UK in April - the stuff dreams were made of and I couldn’t have felt any better after that.
2nd Half - I went into the summer on a real high, run fitness the best it ever has been and my bike and swim base also really high and looking forward to what was supposed to be an exciting summer of Triathlon (and travelling). However - things were not meant to be.
A puncture in my first proper race didn’t derail me but stopped me from potentially qualifying for Worlds. Then I travelled down with all my bikes and gear for a month in Europe - only for the 1st race (IM Versailles 70.3) to be cancelled on the way down. Disaster then struck after this when my campervan broke down in the middle of France. It eventually took 4 weeks to repair and I was without my bikes and gear for all of this time whilst back in the UK. Due to this I had to pull out of Alpe D’Huez Triathlon and eventually took the decision to cancel travelling to Ironman Wisconsin due to the lack of training I had done through the summer.
I guess it shows that it isn’t always our fitness or injuries that can derail seasons!! I’m now happily back on a base phase heading to (hopefully) Boston Marathon in 2027 and a big year after that with both Ironman and Ultra marathons scheduled!
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