Coach Chad, Amber, Nate, and Jonathan discuss what causes high heart rate during training, the effect of altitude on tapering and the specialty phase of training, anaerobic work capacity and much more in Episode 360 of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast! TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE (6:44) What causes high heart rate during training? (24:29) Why tubeless tires are not fixing flats in road races and the hosts’ thoughts on Paris Roubaix (48:46) The effects of altitude on tapering (59:11) What is An...
Apr 21, 2022•1 hr 42 min
What effect does body hair have on evaporative cooling, how to find the minimum effective dose with heat training, should openers depend on your event type or your preferences, and much more in Episode 359 of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast! TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE (01:52) How does body hair affect evaporative cooling? (11:49) How to find the minimum effective dose with heat training? (26:54) Should openers vary depending on discipline or the athlete? (43:34) How to reduce bodily fatigue ...
Apr 14, 2022•1 hr 6 min
Is BFR training your missing piece to getting faster? Coach Chad, Amber, and Jonathan cover this along with pedaling technique, whether cold weather causes cramps, and much more in Episode 358 of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast! TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE (03:37) Does blood flow restriction (BFR) training make you faster? (57:15) Intermission: Host Challenges/Events Discussion 01:06:04 How to appropriately mix carbs, electrolytes, and caffeine supplementation during a long ride (01:15:16) Do...
Apr 07, 2022•2 hr
Ivy and Nate join Coach Jonathan for multiple questions on nutrition that will give you actionable tips for big improvements, as well as discussions on multi-day event pacing, race anxiety, and new possible podcast host events and challenges! TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE (5:30) Dropper posts and other innovations in bike racing (21:20) How to manage pre-race anxiety (47:55) How to pace yourself during multi-day rides and stage races (01:12:15) Nate’s Intermission (01:25:51) What challenges/rac...
Mar 31, 2022•2 hr 1 min
Amber Pierce and Alex Wild join Coach Jonathan for a guide on how to crush long climbs, sleep’s effect on training adaptations, and whether it matters if you train at a specific time of day with consistency. Tune in and share this episode with your friends! TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE (4:25) Does training time consistency matter? (22:17) Pacing marathon MTB and gravel courses like the Tahoe Trail 100 (46:33) Rapid Fire Questions (01:10:13) How lack of sleep affects training adaptations (01:33...
Mar 24, 2022•1 hr 53 min
Hannah Otto, Coach Chad, Ivy, and Jonathan discuss the point of anaerobic training and how strength training affects it, why different people need to warm up differently and guidance for your next warmup, how to use both indoor and outdoor training to get faster and much more. Tune in now to Episode 355 of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast! TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE (01:14) What happens to our body during a warmup? Why do different people need to warm up differently? (14:43) Tips for your nex...
Mar 17, 2022•2 hr 12 min
Amber, Ivy, and Coach Jonathan discuss what HRV is, how it’s used in endurance sports, what it means if your HRV is low or high, what your HRV should be, the objective of threshold training and pro tips on how to get better at it, how to have productive conversations on sensitive nutrition issues with endurance athletes and much more. Join us live on YouTube for Episode 354 of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast and share this episode with your friends! TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE (05:12) What is...
Mar 10, 2022•1 hr 54 min
Amber, Coach Jonathan, and Pivot Cycles / DT Swiss’s Hanna Otto join us for a discussion on whether amateurs should train like pros, the crossover effects of aerobic and anaerobic training in different zones, tips from Hannah on technique and equipment choice, and much more. Tune in for Episode 353 of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast! TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE (0:57) What Hannah learned from her first UCI XC races of the season (23:54) Should amateurs train like the pros? (40:23) Should you ...
Mar 03, 2022•2 hr
Coach Chad, Amber, Nate, and Jonathan take a deep dive into stretching, if it makes you faster, how you should do it, and more in Episode 352 of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast. Tune in for this and discussions on heat training, bodyweight vs. weighted strength training and much more! TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE 19:49 Deep Dive on Stretching 01:27:49 How to heat train at various budgets 1:37:45 How to drink and eat during interval workouts and not miss a beat 1:55:35 Is bodyweight training a ...
Feb 24, 2022•2 hr 4 min
Santa Cruz’s Keegan Swenson, Amber Pierce, and Ivy Audrain join Coach Jonathan for a discussion on what they do to maintain consistency, how to manage expectations after disappointing early season races, what to do if you’ve experienced a lot of improvement in the Base Phase, Keegan’s plans for the course record at Epic Rides’ 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo and much more! TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE 1:50 What has changed about Keegan’s training this year How Keegan is preparing for the shift from...
Feb 17, 2022•2 hr 20 min
Amber, Ivy, and Nate join Coach Jonathan for discussions on rider type discovery and development, as well as riding the line between functional and non-functional overreaching. Listen now for these discussions and much more! – TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE 0:00 Welcome! 01:37 No more testing! AI FTP Detection is available now 41:57 Functional vs. non-functional overreaching 01:07:12 Discovering and developing rider type 01:14:04 How to manage expectations for yourself in cycling 01:24:55 How fi...
Feb 10, 2022•2 hr 10 min
Coach Chad, Amber Pierce, and Hannah Finchamp join Coach Jonathan for a deep dive into protein for cyclists, discussing how much endurance athletes of all kinds should be taking in, if you should ingest it on the bike, plant-based alternatives and more. We’ll also dig deep into VO2Max training, training stress and much more. -------------------------------------------- TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE (03:05) Hannah’s training camp experience (13:23) Protein for cyclists: everything you need to kn...
Feb 03, 2022•2 hr 26 min
The original crew is back! Amber, Chad, Nate and Jonathan discuss the concept of gaining weight to get faster, how to manage motivation amidst canceled goal events, how to keep your training on track while fasting and much more. -------------------------------------------- TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE - Tri challenge update from the hosts - Should you gain weight to get faster? - How to keep your training on track while fasting - Rapid Fire questions - How to do the most work possible for 10 m...
Jan 27, 2022•2 hr
Amber Pierce, Alex Wild, Ivy Audrain, and Coach Jonathan go deep on how to come back to training after illness, when you should start adding races to your calendar, how to use early season training camps to boost your fitness and much more. Join us for Episode 347 of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast! -------------------------------------------- TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE - Is FTP testing accurate? - How to pick early season races, when to do them, and how to get the most from them - Alex’s pe...
Jan 20, 2022•2 hr 6 min
Amber Pierce, Hannah Finchamp, and Nate Pearson join us for an in-depth guide on goal setting and achieving, as well as a discussion on Hannah’s plans at Unbound Gravel, injury prevention and much more. Join us for Episode 346 of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast! -------------------------------------------- TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE - Hannah’s new team! - Amber’s guide to goal setting and achieving - Injury prevention and a discussion on concussions - Rapid Fire Questions - Women’s saddle su...
Jan 13, 2022•2 hr 22 min
We covered the science behind mixing strength training and endurance training in Episode 341, and now we’ll cover practical suggestions of how you can best fit them into your training schedule, which exercises are best, and get input from pro athletes on what they do. Join us for a discussion on this, high volume training, goal setting and much more in Episode 345 of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast! -------------------------------------------- TRY TRAINERROAD RISK FREE FOR 30 DAYS! TrainerRoad m...
Jan 06, 2022•2 hr 1 min
Jim Miller is the Chief of Sports Performance at USA Cycling and has coached more Olympic cycling medal winning athletes than any other coach in US history. Jim is a 5x Olympic Team Member and has coached his athletes to 5 Olympic medals, 6 World Championships, 10 World Championship Podiums and upwards of 60 National Championships, receiving the Order of Ikkos three times and USOC Coach of the Year two times. Tune in as we discuss the habits and traits that Jim has recognized across high perform...
Dec 30, 2021•49 min
Amber and Nate are back! Join us for a discussion on what muscular endurance actually is, how to train it, and how it makes you a faster and more capable athlete, as well as discussions on time-crunched training, avoiding blowing up at the beginning of rides and much more. -------------------------------------------- TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE Updates from Nate and Amber! Update from Ivy on her Singlespeed podium at CX Nats! Guide to using TrainerRoad to plan a season of training What is mus...
Dec 24, 2021•1 hr 58 min
Mentality is often what separates winners from the rest in pro fields, and while amateurs may not be able to train like pros, they can think like one. Join pro riders Hannah Finchamp and Alex Wild as we discuss strategies of how to get into the mindset of a winner, how to do sprint training amidst endurance training, their favorite training metrics and more. -------------------------------------------- TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE - TrainerRoad athletes winning National and World Championships...
Dec 16, 2021•1 hr 58 min
Is it possible to time your strength training in such a way that it doesn’t affect your cycling training? Coach Chad dives deep into interference-effect and if it is worthy of concern, as well as a guide to training plans for KOMs of different durations, how training fatigue and freshness can mask adaptations and much more in Episode 341 of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast! -------------------------------------------- TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE 0:00 Intro 2:56 How to stop failing workouts 10:...
Dec 02, 2021•1 hr 45 min
What role does glycogen availability play in cramping and what is the latest research showing us about why cramps happen? Orange Seal Off-Road Team’s Alex Wild will join us to dig into this as well as discussing fitness plateaus, endurance athlete guidelines for protein intake and more. Join us live for Episode 340 of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast! -------------------------------------------- TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE 0:15 Intro 4:28 Alex’s off-season 10:31 The Hosts’ Goals for 2022 24:26...
Nov 23, 2021•2 hr 2 min
How much of your “race fitness” is due to improvements in capacity and how much of it comes from pain tolerance? We’ll cover this and how should average athletes and pro athletes fuel differently, get into cyclocross season and much more in Episode 339 of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast! -------------------------------------------- TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE - Intro 0:09 - What has Ivy learned during her CX season so far? 03:16 - Deep dive on pain tolerance and endurance training 19:17 - Rap...
Nov 11, 2021•1 hr 40 min
Join us for a special live question and answer session with Nate and Jonathan about all things Adaptive Training! -------------------------------------------- TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE - Intro 0:00 - Why did we build Adaptive Training and what is it? 0:47 - How does it make you faster? 19:01 - How can you use it? 30:32 - What are the new metrics in Adaptive Training? 31:58 - What specific adaptations will be recommended? 39:15 - What about FTP tests? 48:02 -What about unstructured, outside ...
Nov 02, 2021•1 hr 40 min
After a long and challenging week, the last stage of Cape Epic looked almost tame in comparison to what racers have already faced. But it was a perfect outro to the race, with a big climb to sort things out and a series of treacherous rocky descents to the final finish line. Stay up to date with the teams: https://trainerroad.cc/3p0oNXW -------------------------------------------- TRY TRAINERROAD RISK FREE FOR 30 DAYS! TrainerRoad makes cyclists faster. Athletes get structured indoor workouts, s...
Oct 24, 2021•19 min
The penultimate stage of Cape Epic looked set to be a long, fast, rolling day on a flowing course. Unfortunately for tired racers, extremely heavy rains overnight had other plans. Stay up to date with the teams: https://trainerroad.cc/3p0oNXW -------------------------------------------- TRY TRAINERROAD RISK FREE FOR 30 DAYS! TrainerRoad makes cyclists faster. Athletes get structured indoor workouts, science-backed training plans, and easy-to-use performance analysis tools to reach their goals. G...
Oct 23, 2021•14 min
Stage 5 featured the most climbing of any day in this year’s Cape Epic. Add in cold weather and occasional rain, and it pushed athletes to the absolute limit. Stay up to date with the teams: https://trainerroad.cc/3p0oNXW -------------------------------------------- TRY TRAINERROAD RISK FREE FOR 30 DAYS! TrainerRoad makes cyclists faster. Athletes get structured indoor workouts, science-backed training plans, and easy-to-use performance analysis tools to reach their goals. Get Started: https://b...
Oct 22, 2021•13 min
Stage 4 was shorter, less technical, and less climb-heavy than other recent stages. Coupled with slightly cooler temperatures it offered a bit of a reprieve for racers, but it certainly wasn't without its challenges. Stay up to date with the teams: https://trainerroad.cc/3p0oNXW -------------------------------------------- TRY TRAINERROAD RISK FREE FOR 30 DAYS! TrainerRoad makes cyclists faster. Athletes get structured indoor workouts, science-backed training plans, and easy-to-use performance a...
Oct 21, 2021•13 min
Stage 3 of Cape Epic was brutally hot, extremely dry, and included the hardest climb of the entire race. But it was also less technical than the days that preceded it, and our racers were able to take advantage with strong performances. Stay up to date with the teams: https://trainerroad.cc/3p0oNXW -------------------------------------------- TRY TRAINERROAD RISK FREE FOR 30 DAYS! TrainerRoad makes cyclists faster. Athletes get structured indoor workouts, science-backed training plans, and easy-...
Oct 20, 2021•16 min
The race got truly underway today as athletes tackled what is officially billed as the queen stage of Cape Epic. Stage 2 lived up to the hype, offering several serious climbs, unrelentingly rocky terrain, and a dangerously steep descent to the finish. Stay up to date with the teams: https://trainerroad.cc/3p0oNXW ---------------------------------------------- TRY TRAINERROAD RISK FREE FOR 30 DAYS! TrainerRoad makes cyclists faster. Athletes get structured indoor workouts, science-backed training...
Oct 19, 2021•14 min
With the short Prologue successfully behind them, competitors faced the first major challenge of Cape Epic with the 98 km Stage 1. Our teams all came out of the prologue well-positioned and feeling good. How did they fare today? Stay up to date with the teams: https://trainerroad.cc/3p0oNXW ---------------------------------------------- TRY TRAINERROAD RISK FREE FOR 30 DAYS! TrainerRoad makes cyclists faster. Athletes get structured indoor workouts, science-backed training plans, and easy-to-use...
Oct 18, 2021•11 min
