#242 - Round 2 - Parker Spencer: Success Is Winning, and the Year He Almost Quit

<p>Parker Spencer is a USA Triathlon coach who leads Project Podium, the federation&#39;s donor-funded men&#39;s elite program, while finishing a PhD in exercise science and coaching pros like Sam Long. But his real story isn&#39;t the World Cup podiums. It&#39;s about a coach who once told his wife he was done, and who has come to believe that faith in his athletes matters more than any number on a lab report.</p><p><br></p><p>We talk about rewriting 120 pages of his dissertation when he thought he was at the finish line, why he wants his athletes to see him as a friend and still know when &quot;Coach Parker&quot; shows up, the busyness he calls his biggest weakness and the 16-mile mountain run that resets him, being two years into the USAT job, buried in critics and ready to quit, why he believes success is winning and wants his athletes to carry an ego, and a practical breakdown of VO2 max, VLA max, and why he&#39;s moved away from traditional periodization.</p><p><br></p><p>This is a conversation about leading people toward something hard, and why the most powerful thing a coach can say might be &quot;I believe in you.&quot;</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Parket’s IG:</strong> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/coachparkerspencer_/">https://www.instagram.com/coachparkerspencer_/</a> </p><p><br></p><p><strong>SQ Newsletter: ⁠</strong><a href="https://stupidquestions.show/pages/newsletter-signup">https://stupidquestions.show/pages/newsletter-signup</a></p>