Hi,
Did you know that most training blocks don’t fail because you weren’t fit enough?
They fail because stress accumulates faster than your body can absorb it.
Week 1 feels great. Week 3, everything’s a little harder. By week 5 or 6, you’re feeling worn down, maybe nursing an injury, and trying to get back on track.
We have been going deep on this with David Roche lately, and his take reframed how to think about training.
His core principle is simple: “Training long-term is all about stacking build-up stresses and limiting break-down stresses.”
That’s it. The athletes who finish training blocks strong aren’t always the ones training the hardest. They’re the ones managing stress well enough to absorb more load over time.
Here’s the thing most athletes get wrong about cortisol
Cortisol can have a negative reputation, but it’s not the enemy. Disrupted cortisol rhythm is.
During a hard training block, here’s what should be happening: cortisol peaks 30-60 minutes after you wake up, gradually declines through the day, and is low by evening so you can sleep. That rhythm is what allows your body to recover and adapt.
What breaks it? Late hard workouts. Underfueling. Poor sleep. Chronic stress. Once that rhythm goes sideways, you get the cascade: bad sleep → low motivation → half-effort workouts → stagnation or burnout.
David has a simple proxy for this: do you wake up dreading your hard workout, or excited for it?
Dread = your nervous system is overloaded. You’re doing too much for where you’re at.
Excitement = your body is ready to absorb training stress.
4 Things To Help Your Hard Training Loads:
OptygenHP by First Endurance. It has been used by elite endurance athletes for years—the adaptogens in it were originally used by Tibetan Sherpas at altitude on Everest, which tells you something about what they’re designed for.
The clinical research on elite athletes is hard to ignore: 26% reduction in cortisol, 42% increase in time to lactate threshold, faster glycogen replenishment, and measurable reductions in muscle inflammation.
Try First Endurance OptygenHP
On the recovery side, consider Nomio. It’s best known for buffering lactic acid, but it’s also incredibly effective for speeding up recovery by activating your body’s natural antioxidant system—meaning less damage from hard workouts and faster bounce-back.
Here’s the science: Nomio delivers isothiocyanates (ITCs)—compounds naturally found in cruciferous vegetables—in a concentrated 60ml shot. One serving is roughly equivalent to about 6 pounds of raw broccoli.
These ITCs activate NRF2, your body’s master regulator of stress response. The result: lower blood lactate during exercise, improved training adaptations.
For a training block, that last piece matters most. Less oxidative stress after hard sessions means you recover faster and stay ready to hit the next one.
Timing matters: take it 3 hours before your hardest sessions (not 1 hour before) to allow your body time to convert and absorb the ITCs. Some athletes also use it post-workout for recovery—both approaches seem to work well.
Try Nomio
Sleep is where everything comes together—and most athletes get this wrong during hard training blocks.
When your training load goes up, your sleep needs go up too. But here’s the cruel irony: harder training often makes sleep worse. Elevated cortisol, more muscle soreness, more stress. You lie there exhausted but can’t get the deep recovery sleep your body needs.
That’s exactly what Dream Shot was designed for.
It’s a 2oz drink shot you take before bed—no pills, no powders. The base is 2oz of concentrated tart cherry juice, and PeptiSleep—a peptide that specifically dampens those nighttime cortisol spikes that wake you up at 3am right when your body should be rebuilding.
69% of our initial buyers reported better sleep through more REM cycles.
More REM, more deep sleep—which is exactly when your body is doing the real repair work from that day’s training.
Try Dream Shot
Having a great pre-workout can help energize you for a harder session.Transparent Labs Bulk Pre-Workout sort of hits differently.
Transparent Labs uses clinical amounts of ingredients: 8g citrulline malate for blood flow, 4g beta-alanine to buffer acid so you can push harder longer, 2.5g betaine, 300mg Alpha-GPC for neuromuscular function and focus, and 200mg organic caffeine paired with L-theanine so the energy is smooth instead of spiky.
Over 17g of active ingredients per scoop. Nothing hidden.
For strength training, hard interval days, or any session where you need to be mentally sharp and physically ready—try this pre-workout.
Try Transparent Labs Bulk Pre-Workout
The simple framework
OptygenHP daily → supports cortisol rhythm, helps your body absorb the training stress you’re putting it through.
Nomio before key sessions → reduces lactate 12%, accelerates training adaptations, faster recovery between hard days.
Dream Shot before bed → deeper sleep, less nighttime cortisol, more REM—where actual recovery happens.
Transparent Labs Bulk before hard sessions → gives you the physical and mental output you need on the days that actually count.
– The Feed.To make sure you keep getting these emails, please add hello@thefeed.com to your address book or whitelist us. Want out of the loop? Unsubscribe.
Our postal address: 12303 Airport Way, Suite 350, Broomfield, CO 80021, United States
RJ Hamster 