We believe modern coaching doesn’t optimally fulfill the needs of the modern athlete. That’s why we’re introducing our community, education, and coaching membership, Fast Talk Laboratories. So often athletes are given templated training plans. But what if he or she gets sick? Or work gets stressful? That athlete will likely do more harm than good simply pushing through and sticking to the plan. In response to that methodology, we’ve created a virtual performance center, a place for the insightfu...
Nov 26, 2020•34 min•Ep. 139
Amos Brumble is a New England legend. Is it because of his racing palmarès? His charm? His collection of guinea pigs? Or all of those things? We find out, and then we dive into some listener questions. David H. of Seattle, Washington asks: “Suppose a 55-year old athlete is training with a heart rate monitor and perceived effort and recovery scales and is able to train between 10-16 hours/week. No power measurements. The athlete's goal is to maximize performance on gravel races—about 100 miles an...
Nov 19, 2020•59 min•Ep. 138
Are you ready to go long? Today we want to introduce you to the fascinating world of ultra-distance cycling. While there isn’t a true definition of what “ultra” means, and some of our guests like to say it is a state of mind more than anything else, for the sake of this discussion we’re talking about multi-day bikepacking events; randonneuring events which range from 200 kilometers up to 1200 kilometers, as in the case of the granddaddy of them all, Paris-Brest-Paris; and ultra-cycling races lik...
Nov 12, 2020•1 hr 41 min•Ep. 137
Today we bring back a former frequent guest, Colby Pearce, who has since graduated to his own show, Cycling in Alignment. We start with a discussion on crank length, determining what you need, and how consistent you should be across your, presumably, fleet of bikes. That leads to a discussion on power imbalances, what constitutes an issue when it comes to imbalances, and what you can do to correct them if they arise. Next we turn our attention to CBD, and address its claimed anti-inflammatory ef...
Nov 05, 2020•48 min•Ep. 136
Ah, sleep. I love it. Do you love it? If only I could get more of it, and get better at it, and wake up each day well rested. Somes days it works, many times it doesn’t. Sleep can be hard, but does it have to be? Sleep is critical, so are you getting enough? And are you getting the right kind? We all know we need sleep, but knowledge is not enough. The focus of this episode is not to convince you why sleep is important, but how to monitor and change your sleep, to get the most out of every night...
Oct 29, 2020•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 135
Whenever we speak with a guest of Fast Talk—coach, athlete, or scientist—we always ask them their favorite workout. In this episode, we share the favorite workouts of Cameron Cogburn, Joe Friel, Jim Rutberg, Neal Henderson, Payson McElveen, Amos Brumble, and Petr Vakoc. You’ll hear each guest discuss the specifics of the workout itself. You’ll also gain a sense of the guest’s philosophy—based on how he or she describes the workout—and the “style” that they bring to the execution and prescription...
Oct 22, 2020•49 min•Ep. 134
It wasn’t long ago that riding inside was something most of us did only when the weather was bad, or the days too dark, or we were pressed for time. Flash forward to today and indoor cycling is quickly becoming a discipline many people focus on for its own sake. It’s no longer a second-rate alternative. And that’s why, today, we’ll focus entirely on indoor cycling and its many nuances. The author of the famous “The Cyclist’s Training Bible,” Joe Friel has now co-written a new book with Jim Rutbe...
Oct 15, 2020•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 133
In today’s episode, we catch up with our friends at The Pro’s Closet, Spencer Powlison and Bruce Lin, to discuss their recent four-week Strava PR Challenge. In the lead up to their attempts, we helped them with training advice and “race-day” strategy tips. No doubt, this has been an unusual year for cycling. Many of our favorite races were postponed or canceled. And while bikes aren't the most important thing in the world, and public health and safety should always be our priority, as cyclists w...
Oct 08, 2020•58 min•Ep. 132
How do you, as an athlete, combine your understanding of sport science and your training and racing experience to most effectively map out your training? That question is the basis for today’s episode, one in which we drift between the philosophical and the practical. Essentially, we’ll dissect the different ways science and experience can influence how we train. Where does the science shine? Where does experience come into play? How do we best balance the two? And how can we use so-called scien...
Oct 01, 2020•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 131
In today’s episode, Colby Pearce, a Steve Hogg Certified bike fitter, sits down with Chris Case, host of Fast Talk, to dissect the minutiae of how to pedal a bike. Saddle position, ankling, dead legged drills, plantar and dorsal flexion of the foot, all of this and much more is unpacked in today’s episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 28, 2020•2 hr 2 min
You’re breathing, I’m breathing. But neither of us is probably thinking about our breathing right now. Do you ever think about your breathing during your workouts or races? Do you ever wonder if you should be "training" the act of breathing as a skill? Or whether you should do something differently during rest and recovery, or between intervals, or even on long endurance rides? In some ways, breathing is a much-discussed topic—often, however, that’s in the context of meditation or in the practic...
Sep 24, 2020•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 130
In today’s episode, we formally introduce our new head coach, Ryan Kohler, and put him in the spotlight for a classic Q&A. (Don't worry, Trevor is not going anywhere! He’s merely stuck in isolation amid the tundra of northern Ontario at the moment.) Ryan brings a wealth of experience as both coach and nutritionist after years of working at Carmichael Training Systems, as manager of the University of Colorado Sports Medicine and Performance Center, and while coaching several MTB development t...
Sep 17, 2020•36 min•Ep. 129
In today’s episode, we’ve assembled a fantastic group of coaches to discuss the differences, similarities, nuances, and challenges of coaching beginner athletes versus veteran amateurs. This episode is filled with myriad topics, all related to the coach-athlete relationship. And it starts by defining some terms. What constitutes a beginner, and a veteran? Can you be a beginner if you’ve ridden for 10 years but don’t know much about how to train? We’ll discuss. What should beginners focus on most...
Sep 10, 2020•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 128
This week, our favorite physiologist Dr. Stephen Seiler is back on the program to talk about something that many of us get wrong: the distinction between overtraining, overreaching, and burnout. Often these terms are used synonymously, but there are many nuanced differences between these conditions, and that’s what we’ll explore in today’s episode. We’ll dispel any myths about these terms, point out the scenarios that lead to each, and talk through how to avoid the worst outcomes. While research...
Sep 03, 2020•2 hr 3 min•Ep. 127
We have another fantastic Q&A episode for you today, with a diverse range of questions. Our guest coach this week is Julie Young, who has appeared before on Fast Talk—episode 91, to be exact. Julie is a former professional cyclist turned coach. Her road racing career stretched over a decade with teams including Saturn and Timex. She continues to race today at a very high level across multiple disciplines, and is currently part of the talented team behind the Kaiser Permanente Sports Medicine...
Aug 27, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 126
You’ve heard us talk about so-called “big gear” training on the program before. Many of you probably incorporate it into your riding, and for a variety of reasons. What’s surprising is how little research has been done on this low-cadence, high-torque riding. Even the definition of what constitutes “low-cadence” remains hazy. And there are as many ways of incorporating this into your workouts as there are coaches. Threshold, sub-threshold, five minutes, or 20 minutes. There are many possibilitie...
Aug 20, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 125
Hello and welcome to Fast Talk, your source for the science of cycling performance! I'm your host Chris Case. Today, we’re digging into the archive for some season-planning knowledge. Why now when our seasons have been demolished? Because it’s never too early to start soaking in the wisdom of seasoned veterans on how to best map out any season, particularly next year’s. Trevor did several great interviews with four top pros—Toms Skujins, Kiel Reijnen, Joey Rosskopf, and Larry Warbasse—for an art...
Aug 13, 2020•58 min•Ep. 124
Have you ever woken up early in the morning to go for a ride, skipped breakfast, and thought, “I wonder if that was bad for my training? Or maybe it was good?!” In today’s episode, we try to decipher if there are any advantages or disadvantages to occasionally riding, or exercising in general, in a fasted state. What does “fasted” actually mean, in this context? How’s that help, or hurt, my training? How conclusive is the evidence? And how often should I do it? Those are just some of the questio...
Aug 06, 2020•1 hr 59 min•Ep. 123
Today, Coach Connor and I discuss something that comes up nearly every time we receive an email from one of our devoted listeners, from you. (By the way, please keep sending us questions and voice memos—we love them.) So, what is it that is nearly universally included in every piece of correspondence we receive? Well, it’s some indication of a listener’s “threshold.” Often that figure is stated as if it is an absolute or as if it’s 100-percent accurate. And that’s what we want to address today: ...
Jul 30, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 122
Hello and welcome to Fast Talk, your source for the science of cycling performance! I'm your host Chris Case. I’ll set the stage for today’s episode with an analogy. And apologies to those of you who don’t enjoy our car engine analogies; alas, we’re sticking with it on this episode. We ask the simple question: Which has the greatest chance of consistently producing the best performances: a powerful, finely-tuned, race-inspired engine—take your pick from Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, and especially if y...
Jul 22, 2020•1 hr 43 min•Ep. 121
Hello and welcome to Fast Talk, your source for the science of cycling performance! I'm your host Chris Case, and today Coach Connor and I are joined by Coach Steve Neal of The Cycling Gym, which now resides exclusively in the virtual world: https://online.thecyclinggym.com/. Let’s get into the questions. Our first question comes from Dan S., as a follow-up to episode 113 on recovery period lengths: “What do you make of the FTP test protocols that call for a 5-minute maximal effort followed by a...
Jul 16, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 120
Which cycling shoes should I buy? This may seem like a straightforward question. But the better thing to ask is: Which shoes are right for my feet? If you’ve been a professional cyclist with extensive experience as a bike fitter, like show host Colby Pearce, the answer to that more complex question becomes an hour-long podcast, filled with the nuances of human anatomy. There are several questions about your physiology and biomechanics that need to be answered before you can select the ideal shoe...
Jul 10, 2020•54 min
Today we’re taking a good long look at training metrics. We’ve released previous episodes on how to use different numbers, what many of them mean, and how they’re calculated. Today, we tie it together into one package, with a master of data analytics, Tim Cusick, who is not only the product leader for TrainingPeaks’ WKO platform, but also an elite cycling coach of athletes including Amber Neben and Rebecca Rusch. As Tim likes to say, if each ride you do is a single note, to get the most out of y...
Jul 09, 2020•1 hr 49 min•Ep. 119
In today’s Q&A episode we invited coach and co-owner of Forever Endurance, Grant Holicky, to join us for a lengthy discussion on a myriad of topics. First, we converse about sweat rates. Ernest Boskovic references our discussion in episode 111 with Dr. Cheung, and asks several intriguing questions. (It makes us believe we’ll soon invite Dr. Cheung back to the program for a full episode on the subject.) Here are a few of Ernest’s questions: What is the relationship of sweat rate to intensity?...
Jul 02, 2020•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 118
Long-time friends, training partners, and competitors, Jonathan Vaughters and Colby Pearce have a deep racing history and relationship. With decades of experience in pro cycling, they have gained many insights about training, coaching, and the trajectory of the sport. Colby and JV first discuss their early training techniques, taught to them by their first cycling coach, Adrie Van Diemen, a Dutch exercise physiologist now with UAE Team Emirates. Many of the techniques are now considered to be st...
Jun 30, 2020•1 hr 42 min
Today we’ll hit the subjects of cornering and descending from many sides. Our main guest is Emile Abraham, who has racked up numerous wins because of his cornering and descending prowess, having grown up riding the twisty, steep roads of Trinidad and Tobago. Also in today’s episode, we hear from our friend and podcast colleague Colby Pearce, Petr Vakoc of the Alpecin-Fenix pro team, professional mountain biker Payson McElveen, and Kristen Legan, a coach and former cycling tech editor. Learn more...
Jun 25, 2020•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 117
In today’s episode, we’ve invited Rambleur Rising coach and elite gravel racer Kristen Legan to help answer your many insightful questions. To give you a broader range of coaching opinions, Kristen joins Trevor and me to talk about the art of listening to your body, ketogenic diets, glucose transport, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 18, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 116
We're all about off-road today! Our all-star MTB lineup includes: - Payson McElveen, 2x cross-country marathon Ntl. champ & host of The Adventure Stache podcast - Geoff Kabush, 3x Olympian, 9x World Cup podium finisher & 9x Canadian cross-country Ntl. Champ - Joe Lawwill, raced MTB as a pro for 10 years & is now Shimano’s North American MTB marketing manager as well as an MTB skills coach - Steve Neal, former Canadian Ntl. MTB coach & co-owner of The Cycling Gym (online.thecyclin...
Jun 11, 2020•2 hr 31 min•Ep. 115
On today’s Q&A episode, we cover a broad spectrum of topics including sugar consumption and its health effects, safe rates to increase volume, the pros and cons of group rides, the efficacy of topical bicarbonate products, and much more. Reminder, you can record a question for us on a voice memo app on your phone and then email it to us at [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 04, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 114
We’ll start today’s show with a simple question, one that few athletes ask themselves: why do we have rest periods at all? Then Trevor and I will discuss the metabolic milieu that is “perturbed” during intervals. Our main guest is Sebastian Weber of INSCYD, and we’ll also hear from national champion Ruth Winder, Dr. Stephen Cheung, and Jared Berg. Sebastian is creating a webinar that will complement this episode as well, so please visit fastlabs.com/fasttalk113 for that once it's available. Lear...
May 28, 2020•2 hr•Ep. 113
