Optimize Your Cycling Potential: Balancing Endurance and Intensity Workouts
I’ve been having discussions with one of my newer cycling athletes about endurance riding. They consistently ride sort of hard all the time, and often add extra rides in at similar pacing. And while there’s a place for riding sort of hard, like in group rides or focused tempo intervals, this rider is slowly starting […]
Dial In Your Warm-Ups for Endurance Events: Maximizing Speed Without Burning Matches
I know a pro cyclocross racer who does a warmup before the race that is so intense I wonder if the rider was burning too many matches before the race began. Warming up before a race is tricky: Too much and you’re burning matches before the event even starts, but too little, and you’re missing […]
Mastering midlife nutrition: a guide for the over-50 endurance athlete to lose weight, gain energy
Navigating nutrition after 50 can be tricky at best, especially as an endurance athlete. I had a long discussion with several older male athletes about nutrition recently and decided to share my current understanding. (I have a nutrition certification, and I’m not a nutritionist or dietician.) Some endurance athletes over 50 tend to not eat […]
Here Are Six Researched Reasons A Coach Helps You Reach Your Goals
Sometimes as a person and as an endurance athlete, you set a BHAG (big, hairy-assed goal). You might decide to run a trail marathon or reach a certain age and decide you want to find out what you have as potential in cyclocross. You might want to beat your time in a gravel race or […]
Gravel Racing Training for Masters Cyclists: How to Train Smarter, Not Harder
Ready to take your gravel racing to the next level for the upcoming fall races? As a master’s cyclist, you know that training smarter, not harder, is the key to success. Gone are the days of endless punishing workouts and pushing yourself to the brink of exhaustion. Instead, it’s time to fine-tune your approach and […]
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 […]
6 Tips to Build Endurance for Your Best Season of Masters Cyclocross Racing
Are you a masters cyclocross racer looking to dominate your next season? Cyclocross endurance for over 50 riders is key in this physically demanding sport, and building it up takes time and effort. Here are six tips that will help you boost your aerobic stamina for an unforgettable season of racing. From tweaking your training […]
Mastering Long Distance Gravel Races: Dialing in the Essential 4 Factors
Are you a gravel rider who craves adventure and loves to push your limits? By incorporating scientific principles into your training, nutrition, mental toughness, and equipment choices, you can optimize your performance and leave the competition in the dust – pun fully intended. We’ve been talking the past couple of weeks about how to train […]
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 […]
