Coaching Field Notes No. 12 is live. On this week's Ruth Performance Collective call, we started a new four-week theme: fatigue. The major question for the first call was how do we track training load and readiness for an athlete in a mixed modal sport? The problem is that most of the popular systems for monitoring fatigue just don't really have the flexibility to track well for mixed modal sport. Full note: https://kyleruthcoaching.com/fieldnotes/load-isnt-fatigue New note every week. It goes out by email first: https://kyleruthcoaching.com/fieldnotes

That was the starting point on Tuesday's Collective call, Week 1 of our Managing Fatigue series. Fatigue comes in two buckets. Performance fatigue is an objective drop in output: bar speed, jump height, reps at a fixed load. Perceived fatigue is how the athlete feels: session RPE, check-ins, soreness. Sleep, life stress, mood and expectations all move that second bucket. That's why the same prescription can end up with two very different internal loads, for two different athletes or for the same athlete two weeks apart. The takeaway: session RPE x minutes measures training load in a CrossFit session better than a wearable does, because intense strength sessions and intense endurance sessions both get high RPEs while only endurance training gets a meaningful heart rate response. Collect it within about 30 minutes of the session, and compare your current week to the average of the previous four to guide training load decisions. The full call and the call doc are inside Ruth Performance Collective: https://kyleruthcoaching.com/collective

"They're elite athletes because they move like elite athletes." That was Ryne's answer to the idea that you can't move like the elites because you aren't one. The number one change I make with a new athlete is cutting them back to one or two true metcons a week and putting that time into technique and the weak parts of their energy systems. Nobody is immune. The rest of it: -why you run better on the air runner than on the road -when to stop running a steep climb and power hike it -why a four-slide carousel isn't the same as reading the blog -the tape drill that made burpee box jump-overs 3 to 4 seconds faster per 20 reps -peaks and valleys: why nothing has to progress in a straight line -why threshold work written as mixed-modal pieces misses the stimulus -the 3 x 10s Echo sprint protocol that took a Games athlete's peak from the high 1200s to just shy of 1,400 -accessory vs assistance work, and the grip I use for rope climb pulling Full episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3pUjaSp7QPGPsBlUpfwM5k Written recap with every study linked: https://kyleruthcoaching.com/fieldnotes/first-things-we-change-new-athlete Questions and pushback in the comments. If there is a topic you want us to cover, put it here.

I wrote a blog post on the differences in running on the road and the air runner and why each favors a different profile of runner. Would love to hear anyone's thoughts or experiences with this nuance of running https://coachrynesullivan.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-air-runner-and-road-reward-two.html

"Relaxing is a skill just as much as a ring muscle-up is. And if you want to be good at it, you have to practice it on a consistent basis." Almost every conditioning workout I write ends with box breathing for exactly this reason. Athletes who never practice calming down in training can't find the switch between events, and the night before a comp turns into a 2 AM replay of event three. The rest of it: - what to review when you wake up at 2 AM, instead of the heat sheet - the breath counting drill I put in warm-ups (and the running version from Brent Fikowski) - why most CrossFitters panic in the pool, and what CO2 has to do with your metcons - Ryne's case for a hobby that has nothing to do with CrossFit - what the best athletes count as a failed skill session - what a 2026 review found when it compared ice baths and compression to doing nothing Full episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5UMwSH8KkrTuK6dO1qeupG Written recap with every study linked: https://kyleruthcoaching.com/fieldnotes/cant-sleep-before-competition Corrections: the recovery review we mentioned is Jin et al. 2026 in Frontiers, not a Steve Magness paper. And the CO2 therapy results from Breath on air were a reduction not elimination of panic attacks; the recap has what the book actually reports. Questions and pushback in the comments. If there is a topic you want us to cover, put it here.