Boost Your Cycling Performance with Affirmations: Strengthen Your Mindset for Confidence and Mental Toughness
This is the final installment in our three-part series on mental skills for cycling, inspired by Running Within by Jerry Lynch and Warren Scott. We’ve already explored relaxation and visualization-now it’s time to focus on affirmations, a powerful mental tool that shapes our mindset and performance on the bike. And while these articles are geared […]
How Running Can Improve Cycling Performance and How Cycling Benefits Runners: The Science of Cross-Training
Runners often wonder if cycling can enhance their performance without adding extra stress to their bodies, and cyclists ask whether running can help build fitness and endurance. Interestingly, many world-class runners and triathletes incorporate significant amounts of cycling into their training because it provides a low-impact way to build aerobic capacity. Similarly, some cyclists run […]
Base Training for Cyclists, Runners, and Triathletes: How to Build Endurance, Strength, and Recovery for a Successful 2025 Season
As we look toward the 2025 season, it’s time to lay the foundation for your best year yet. This begins with a structured base period, a crucial phase in any endurance athlete’s training plan. Base training builds the aerobic endurance, strength, and durability needed to handle more intense phases later on and helps you perform […]
How Cyclists Over 50 Can Maximize Their Online Training
As cyclists age, staying fit and strong on the bike requires a more strategic approach to training. For cyclists over 50, using online training platforms like Zwift, My Whoosh, and Rouvy can be a game-changer. These platforms offer a variety of training tools to help maintain fitness, improve performance, and keep the love of cycling […]
Caffeine Supplementation: Debunking Myths and Uncovering the Truth for Endurance Athletes
Caffeine is one of the few supplements that work. For most people, caffeine supplementation seems to benefit aerobic endurance the most, which is great for runners, cyclists, and triathletes. For most people, 3 to 6mg per kg of body weight is the dosage recommendation with more than 9mg possibly causing adverse side effects, like the […]
Harnessing Heart Rate Variability for Masters and Age-Group Cyclists, Runners, and Triathletes
As an endurance sports coach, I work to balance training stress and recovery for my athletes. Whether you’re a cyclist, runner, or triathlete, one tool I use for its ability to enhance training and recovery is Heart Rate Variability (HRV). By understanding and monitoring HRV, older endurance athletes can gain valuable insights into their body’s […]
7 Ways HIIT Supercharges Your Heart, Muscles, and Metabolism for Peak Performance
For everyday endurance athletes, the quest for improved performance like in gravel racing, trail running, and cyclocross, often focuses on long Zone 2 workouts that build stamina, durability, and endurance. However, incorporating High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) into your training regimen is as important as Zone 2 work. HIIT, characterized by short bursts of intense activity […]
Mastering Heat Acclimation: Strategies for Endurance Athletes in Cycling, Running, and Triathlon
It’s summer in the northern hemisphere and that means hotter temperatures for bike and running races as well as triathlons. And if endurance athletes don’t acclimate to the hotter temperatures, their performances on race day will suffer and they’ll risk injury and heat stroke. The key principle is to get uncomfortably hot for a given […]
Boost Your Aerobic Power: Mastering VO2max with HIIT and Long, Slow Distance Training
Your VO2max – or the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during intense exercise – is a measure of your aerobic fitness and endurance. The higher your VO2max, the more oxygen your body can take in and use, which means you can exercise harder and longer without getting as tired. It’s like your […]
Race to Your Peak: Key Recovery Strategies for the Tour of America’s Dairyland and Chicago Grit
The Tour of America’s Dairyland and Chicago Grit (formerly Intelligentsia Cup) are coming. You’ve done all the training, you’re peaked, and ready to go. Racing many days in a row requires a careful balance of hard efforts and recovery. Let’s talk through some of the most important elements so that you can be at peak […]
