🎙 Endurance Capital | Compounding Greatness

🎙 Endurance Capital | Compounding Greatness

🎙 Welcome back to Endurance Capital. Most people still believe the same lie about performance: that excellence belongs to the young. This episode challenges that idea through the remarkable story of Cherie Gruenfeld — 2025 IRONMAN Hall of Fame inductee, USA Triathlon Hall of Fame inductee, 14-time IRONMAN World Championship age-group winner, 4-time IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship age-group winner, and founder of Exceeding Expectations. Cherie did not start as a professional athlete. She came into triathlon around the age of 48, after already building a full life in education and then in the high-tech world. Then she kept going. For more than three decades, she built one of the most remarkable age-group careers in endurance sport. But what makes her story powerful is not only what she won. It is what the sport allowed her to become. And eventually, what it allowed her to give back. This is not just a conversation about racing. It is about confidence. Reinvention. Longevity. Contribution. And what it means to build a life that keeps expanding with age. In this episode, we explore: Why greatness does not only belong to people who start early How Cherie entered triathlon later in life and built a 34-year racing chapter What Ironman gave her beyond medals Why you do not need to be a professional athlete to build something extraordinary How confidence compounds through action What durable weeks, recovery, and planning look like over decades Why the people around you shape your ability to last How Exceeding Expectations turns achievement into service What founders, CEOs, investors, athletes, and parents can learn from late-life excellence Featuring: Cherie Gruenfeld 2025 IRONMAN Hall of Fame inductee USA Triathlon Hall of Fame inductee 14-time IRONMAN World Championship age-group winner 4-time IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship age-group winner Founder, Exceeding Expectations Hosted by: Ignacio Garcia Founder, Trampoline Venture Partners Host, Endurance Capital Presented by Endurance Capital. Endurance Capital sits at the intersection of endurance sport, longevity, founders, investors, and long-horizon decision-making. It is a practical playbook for people building and backing durable things. Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Stride. Stride helps you understand how your body is actually adapting, so your decisions around training, recovery, and performance are based on signal, not guesswork. Visit GetStride.com and use code TRAMPOLINE for discounts on STRIDE1 and any individual Stride tests or supplements. Links: Cherie Gruenfeld: https://cheriegruenfeld.com [https://cheriegruenfeld.com/] Exceeding Expectations: https://www.eefoundation.org [https://www.eefoundation.org/] Endurance Capital Substack: https://substack.com/@endurancecapitalhq?utm_source=user-menu [https://substack.com/@endurancecapitalhq?utm_source=user-menu] YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@EnduranceCapitalHQ [https://www.youtube.com/@EnduranceCapitalHQ] Stride: https://www.getstride.com [https://www.getstride.com/] Disclaimer: Endurance Capital is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this episode or accompanying materials should be construed as investment, legal, medical, or professional advice. Views expressed by guests are their own. Editorial note: This episode was produced from original interviews and source material and refined with the assistance of AI as an editorial tool. The ideas, conclusions, and final wording reflect my own judgment.

🎙 Endurance Capital | Powered by the Pack

🎙 Powered by the Pack Crowie Alexander — 3x IRONMAN World Champion | 2x IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion Support systems, resilience, and the hidden architecture behind long-term performance. Act 1 — Origin: Who carries you before the wins? Most people admire individual greatness. Very few understand what surrounds it. Not the medals. Not the finish-line photos. Not the headline performance people remember. But the people behind the athlete. The partner. The coach. The training group. The family. The co-founder. The friend who keeps you steady when the result is ugly and the story starts to wobble. In this episode, Ignacio Garcia sits down with Craig “Crowie” Alexander, one of the most durable athletes in long-course triathlon, to explore a deeper question: Who helps elite performers stay in the game long enough to become great? This is not just a conversation about support. It is a conversation about resilience, loss, recovery, family, coaching, and the systems that keep high performers from becoming isolated under pressure. Act 2 — The Build: Support, loss & staying in the game We break down the operating system behind long-term support: • Why the people who last are often not the most talented, but the best supported • How Crowie built a world-class career from the outside • Why family and support systems are part of performance, not separate from it • How elite athletes learn to lose without losing themselves • What founders can learn from athletes about building a pack before they break • Why women’s health, hormones, and internal rhythms matter for sustainable performance • How coaches, co-founders, partners, and investors shape long-term durability • What it means to design support by intention, not accident This episode explores a quieter but more important side of performance: not the individual breakthrough, but the ecosystem that makes the breakthrough repeatable. Not the hero story, but the pack behind it. Not just who wins, but who helps them stay whole enough to keep going. Act 3 — Translation: The Founder & Investor Playbook Endurance sport and company-building share the same difficult truth: you cannot go long alone. Here is what founders, chief executives, investors, and operators can apply immediately: Do not confuse independence with durability. A lot of people can push alone for a while. Far fewer can last that way. Support is part of the performance system. The people around you shape your consistency, recovery, decision quality, and resilience. Get good at losing without losing yourself. The best performers learn to turn setbacks into data, not identity. Design your pack before you need it. Co-founders, coaches, partners, advisors, investors, and friends should not appear only when things break. The environment matters more than ego admits. The people who last usually build a system around them that can absorb pressure. In both sport and business, the deeper question is not just whether you are strong enough to keep going. It is whether you have built the right support system to make going long possible. About Craig “Crowie” Alexander Craig “Crowie” Alexander is a 3x IRONMAN World Champion and 2x IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion. A physiotherapist by training, he built a 25-year professional triathlon career and is widely regarded as one of the most durable athletes in the history of the sport. About Anna-Luisa Schaffgotsch Anna-Luisa Schaffgotsch is the co-founder and CEO of impli.co, building at the frontier of women’s hormone monitoring and helping women better understand their internal rhythms so they can perform better and break less. About Endurance Capital Endurance Capital is where world champions, olympians, longevity thinkers, and operator-founders compare notes on pacing, recovery, biology, and decision-making when the horizon is long and the pressure is real. We translate elite endurance into practical playbooks for founders, chief executives, and investors who think in decades, not quarters. Subscribe Episodes every other week. About 60 minutes. High-signal. Evidence-led. Practical. Produced by Ignacio Garcia in partnership with OneFinePlay.

🎙 ENDURANCE CAPITAL | Built to last, not to break

🎙 Built to Last Daniela Ryf — 5x IRONMAN World Champion | 5x IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion Standards, sacrifice, and the harder form of excellence: staying at the top long enough to build something that lasts. ACT 1 — ORIGIN: WHAT DOES DURABLE EXCELLENCE ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE? Most people admire winning. Very few understand lasting. Not one great race. Not one perfect season. Not one peak performance people remember forever. But a career. A body of work. A standard held over time. In this episode, Ignacio Garcia sits down with Daniela Ryf, one of the defining long-course athletes of her era, to explore a deeper question: What does it take to stay at the top long enough to build something that actually lasts? This is not just a conversation about titles. It is a conversation about standards, sacrifice, repetition, and what it means to keep performing when the pressure is no longer exciting, only familiar. ACT 2 — THE BUILD: STANDARDS, PRESSURE & STAYING POWER We break down the operating system behind sustained elite performance: • How to hold a high standard over years, not just races • Why durability is a harder form of excellence than intensity • The relationship between ambition, repetition, and structure • How to keep evolving when everyone is chasing the version of you that already won • What must be protected if excellence is going to remain usable • Why the real challenge is not reaching the top, but staying functional once you’re there This episode explores a less glamorous but more important side of performance: not the breakthrough, but the maintenance. Not the rise, but the structure that survives pressure, scrutiny, and time. ACT 3 — TRANSLATION: THE FOUNDER & INVESTOR PLAYBOOK Endurance sport and company-building share the same difficult truth: the challenge is often not getting to the top. It is staying there without breaking. Here is what founders, chief executives, investors, and operators can apply immediately: Do not confuse intensity with durability. A lot of people can surge. Far fewer can sustain. Standards matter more than emotion. What lasts is usually built on repeatable structure, not occasional inspiration. Success creates a second challenge. The task is not just reaching the top. It is staying functional once you are there. What gets protected keeps performing. Energy, health, identity, focus, and recovery are part of the system, not extras. A career is a structure, not a spike. The people who last usually build in a way that survives their own ambition. In both sport and business, the deeper question is not just whether you can win. It is whether you can build something strong enough to survive winning. ABOUT DANIELA RYF Daniela Ryf is a 5x IRONMAN World Champion and 5x IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion, widely regarded as one of the most accomplished long-course triathletes of her era. ABOUT ENDURANCE CAPITAL Endurance Capital is where world champions, olympians, longevity thinkers, and operator-founders compare notes on pacing, recovery, biology, and decision-making when the horizon is long and the pressure is real. We translate elite endurance into practical playbooks for founders, chief executives, and investors who think in decades, not quarters. SUBSCRIBE Episodes every other week. About 60 minutes. High-signal. Evidence-led. Practical. Produced by Ignacio Garcia in partnership with OneFinePlay.

🎙 ENDURANCE CAPITAL | The Engine Room for Endurance

🎙 The Engine Room for Endurance Natalie Coles — Supercentenarian researcher | Will Harbourne — Founder & GP, LongGame Ventures Biological youth vs chronological age. Stress, rhythm, mitochondria, and what the world’s oldest people (supercentenerians) teach us about going long. ACT 1 — ORIGIN: WHAT THE WORLD’S OLDEST PEOPLE REVEAL Most people say they want longevity. Very few think seriously about what it actually requires. Not in slogans. Not in supplements. Not in abstract. But in rhythm. In biology. In the systems that let a human body stay useful for far longer than expected. In this episode, we sit down with Natalie Coles, who has spent years studying supercentenarians — people who live past 110 — and Will Harbourne, investor in lifespan and deep biology, to ask a simple question: What can the world’s oldest people teach us about staying strong, clear, and functional for longer? This is not a conversation about immortality. It is about the long game: how people age, why some age better than others, and what founders, investors, and endurance athletes can learn from the rare humans who have already stretched the curve. ACT 2 — THE BUILD: BIOLOGY, STRESS & LONG-RANGE DURABILITY We break down the operating system behind longevity and preserved function: • Why supercentenarians often look quieter internally — less stress, less inflammation, more stability • What rhythm, consistency, and family support have to do with aging well • Why the microbiome, mitochondria, and immune system matter for both performance and lifespan • How chronic stress compounds biologically over decades • Why data and biomarkers matter when used longitudinally, not obsessively • What normal people can do today before advanced longevity therapies arrive This episode explores a less fashionable but more useful view of longevity: not as optimization theatre, but as disciplined biological stewardship. The lesson is not just to live longer. It is to stay useful for longer. ACT 3 — TRANSLATION: THE FOUNDER, ATHLETE & INVESTOR PLAYBOOK Endurance sport, company-building, and healthy aging all reward the same thing: a system that holds over time. Here is what founders, investors, and athletes can apply immediately: Get the basics boringly right. Sleep, movement, recovery, stress, and metabolic health still matter more than fantasy interventions. Treat stress as biological, not just emotional. If you run your nervous system like a war zone for decades, the bill will arrive. Measure trend, not panic. Longitudinal biomarker tracking matters more than one dramatic snapshot. Build the right support system. Community is not a soft variable. It is part of resilience. Think in decades. The long game is not won by intensity alone. It is won by preserving function. Future therapies may help — but they will reward the prepared. The people most likely to benefit from the next wave of lifespan tech will be the ones who kept their systems intact long enough to reach it. In both sport and business, durability is rarely loud. It is built in rhythm. In consistency. In the invisible systems that let you keep going. ABOUT NATALIE COLES Natalie Coles has spent years studying supercentenarians — people who live to 110 and beyond — helping collect and interpret biological data from some of the rarest longevity outliers on earth. She is a Supercentenarian Researcher.. ABOUT WILL HARBOURNE Will Harbourne is founder and general partner of LongGame Ventures, investing at the frontier of lifespan, biology, and deep technology with a focus on companies that may extend healthy human life. ABOUT ENDURANCE CAPITAL Endurance Capital is where Ironman world champions and Olympians, longevity thinkers, and operator-founders compare notes on pacing, recovery, biology, and decision-making when the horizon is long and the pressure is real. We translate elite endurance and longevity thinking into practical playbooks for founders and investors who think in decades, not quarters. SUBSCRIBE Episodes every other week. In YouTube and wherever you listen to your pdcasts About 60 minutes. High-signal. Evidence-led. Practical. Produced by Ignacio Garcia in partnership with OneFinePlay.

🎙 ENDURANCE CAPITAL | Pain to Performance with Mirinda Carfrae

🎙 Pain to performance Mirinda Carfrae — 3x IRONMAN World Champion Pain tolerance vs system design. The brutal middle. How races and companies are actually decided. Act 1 — Race Plan: Stakes & Origin Most people admire the finish. Very few understand the middle. The quiet, grinding middle is where races are actually decided — and where most people begin to lose shape, lose clarity, or lose belief. In this episode, we sit down with Mirinda Carfrae, a female IRONMAN world champion who showed men how to race the marathon with elegance, to explore what happens after the adrenaline fades and before the finish appears. What matters in that stretch is not noise. It is not bravado. It is not a motivational speech. It is whether pain becomes performance — or failure — depending on the system you have built around it. Act 2 — The Build: Systems, Stress & Durability We break down the operating system behind surviving — and performing through — the brutal middle: • How to stay composed when the race stops feeling smooth • Why elegance under fatigue is a competitive edge • The training systems that make pain usable • Recovery, rhythm, and emotional control under prolonged stress • How to keep moving when results are still far away • Why the middle is where belief gets tested, not announced This episode explores the less glamorous side of elite performance: repetition, patience, restraint, and the invisible systems that allow champions to keep producing when the body is asking different questions than the mind expected. The middle is where durability reveals itself. Act 3 — Translation: The Operator & Investor Playbook Endurance and company-building share the same truth: The real work happens after the excitement and before the payoff. Here’s what founders and investors can apply immediately: Respect the middle. The hardest stretch is often where the advantage is built. Pain needs a system. Stress without structure becomes noise. Stress inside a system becomes progress. Don’t mistake drama for performance. The best operators often look calm because their process is doing the work. Build for durability, not just intensity. Can your pace survive the part nobody applauds? The long horizon is won in the invisible stretch. Not at the start. Not at the finish. In the grind. In both racing and investing, the winner is often the one who stays functional the longest. About Mirinda Carfrae Mirinda Carfrae is an Australia-born female IRONMAN world champion based in Boulder, Colorado, known for marathon elegance and world-class performance over the long course. About Endurance Capital Endurance Capital is where Ironman world champions and olympians, longevity enthusiasts, and operator-founders compare notes on pacing, recovery, and decision-making when outcomes are unknowable and pressure is internal. We translate elite endurance and longevity practices into practical playbooks for founders and investors who think in decades, not quarters. Subscribe Episodes every other week. In YouTube and wherever you listen to your podcasts. About 60 minutes. High-signal. Evidence-led. Practical. Produced by Ignacio Garcia in partnership with OneFinePlay.