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 […]
Something is Always Better Than Nothing in Your Endurance Sports Training
As everyday endurance athletes, our sports are not our primary job. And sometimes life gets in the way of training. So what do you do if you have a two-hour workout scheduled but there’s no way you’ll be able to complete the whole thing? Adapt and do part of it. Something is always better than […]
Five Key Principles of Winter Base Training To Keep You Fresh and Motivated
It can be a challenge during the winter months (in most of the northern hemisphere) to get in long, endurance miles. But those miles, whether you’re running or riding, are the base training you need for the rest of your training season. You still need some intensity, strength training, and yoga, but it’s critical that […]
Try One of These 13 Easy Ways to Mix Up Long Zone 2 Endurance Rides
I love getting emails from my clients about challenges they’re having with training. My client wrote me and said Zone 2 rides are boring, they feel like they slow her down, and she would rather chase riders who are faster. While doing fast group rides can be fun, my client is leaving fitness and speed […]
If I Want to Ride Fast, Why Do I Have to Do So Much Zone 2 Endurance Training?
If there is one thing I repeat more than anything to my athletes and endurance sports friends, it’s this: slow down! Here’s what I mean: The majority of your training should be at a slow endurance pace where you are able to have a conversation with a friend and be able to breathe through your […]
Short on Time? Optimize Training to Improve Endurance Performance
Given limited available time, how can we structure training to improve performance? Or put another way, what is the minimal amount of time to train and still improve performance while running or riding? The answer is, as usual, it depends – mostly on your goals and your past experience. The volume and intensity of your […]
If Training in All Intensities Deliver Solid Results, What Training Should You Do?
Training in higher-intensity zones usually brings about more positive adaptations. Yet if you do too much intensity, you’ll stagnate and/or burn out. So we learn two things from this: One, we need a balance of intensity and endurance, and two, we can target certain adaptations, such as increasing VO2max by improving cardiac output, by optimizing […]
How to Use the Triangle of Health to Improve Superior Durability and Performance
As an age-group runner or masters’ cyclist, the Triangle of Health can build our durability and help us accomplish our best performances. If all you do is run, and all you do is ride your bike, you’re not reaching your performance potential and you’re far more likely to be injured. The Triangle of Health is […]
Focus on unique process goals rather than results goals to find more success in training
It’s a constant challenge to focus on the process of training specifically for an event and not develop expectations about results. Whether we are training for a cycling or running event, we start to feel a certain way about how we might end up doing. We – or at least I do – daydream about […]
Polarized or Pyramidal or a Blend? Your Unique Training Model is Key to Endurance Success
By now, you’ve likely heard the debate about the best model for training between advocates of polarized training model and pyramidal training model. Essentially, the polarized group says that endurance athletes like runners or cyclists should do most of their training at a long, slow pace and just a small amount of training at a […]
