The creator behind ROOTz
Intro
Hey there, I’m Sophie.
I am an endurance athlete and work as a mental performance analyst.
My background sits at the intersection of data, sport, and human support. After more than ten years working as an engineer, I gradually shifted my focus toward understanding human functioning in effort, particularly in endurance sports.
Mental performance relies on complex internal dynamics — motivation, emotional fatigue, cognitive load, overall balance — which evolve over time, yet remain largely unobserved and unstructured today.
ROOTz is an exploratory project aimed at better understanding, tracking, and analyzing mental performance in endurance sports.
The passion for endurance
I've been passionate about endurance and mountain sports for many years. I love long hours outside: trail running and long-distance cycling, ski touring, climbing, backpacking... Ultras have become my exploration ground.
These experiences have taught me a key lesson:
sustainable performance does not rely solely on physical capacity, but on psychological balance — between load, recovery and mental engagement.
The race that fascinates me most to this day remains the TOR des Géants. A 350km race with 24,000m of elevation gain, circling the Aosta Valley in Italy.
The ROOTz project
My professional background and athletic experience inform every step of ROOTz’s development.
The application I am building aims to help athletes:
structure the tracking of mental and emotional load
identify recurring signals of fatigue, overload or disengagement
better contextualize performance and its variations
adjust training while accounting for overall internal state
ROOTz is designed by and for endurance athletes.
The project is still in development, but the ambition is clear: to make internal dimensions of performance more readable, comparable and usable.
Individual coaching
I also offer individual coaching for endurance athletes who want to better understand and regulate their mental performance over time through Longue Distance.
This work is distinct from ROOTz, but complementary, with a focus on observing internal dynamics such as motivation, mental fatigue, cognitive load, and overall balance.
The objective is to help athletes gain clarity on their own functioning, identify imbalances, and build a more sustainable and aligned performance.
Let's go further together
Does this approach to performance resonate with you? There are several ways to stay connected:
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Get in touch
Contact me directly if you'd like to discuss the project or take part in the application testing.