When Chris Froome first came to prominence on the WorldTour and started dominating grand tours, all the talk was about how he was constantly looking at his stem. Was he staring at his power meter to gauge his effort? Entire websites were devoted to catching Froome in the act of looking at his head unit while racing his bike. https://chrisfroomelookingatstems.tumblr.com/ While Froome now claims he isn’t staring at his power and it has to do with breathing, the point deserves attention given the m...
Jun 24, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 169
Endurance athletes crave intensity. It's the closest thing we have to instant gratification: chose an interval, grab the bike (or running shoes, etc.), and head out the door or into the Zwift session. An hour later, the work is done and the feeling of satisfaction washes over you. What’s problematic, however, is that there are few subjects in endurance sports that are more steeped in mystique or misconceptions. There are as many articles suggesting that you’re not doing enough intensity as there...
Jun 17, 2021•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 168
Coach Trevor Connor and Chris Case, as well as Coach Ryan Kohler and Fast Talk producer Jana Martin, all chose an N1 Challenge in the fall of 2020. Now, part way through the training and preparation for their big events, they discuss what they've learned and the adjustments they've made to keep themselves on track. The premise of the N1 Challenge is that each of the four riders is an experiment of one (n = 1); however, each rider's training experience can offer lessons for everyone. For Jana, wh...
Jun 10, 2021•44 min•Ep. 167
If you’ve ever been a runner, swimmer, or rower, you might be familiar with the concept of two-a-days—individual workouts separated by hours within a single day, most typically one in the morning and another in the afternoon. In cycling, two-a-days have not had as much traction. However, that’s starting to change. The science is new, but many coaches, including our guest Neal Henderson, director of sport science at Wahoo Fitness, have been putting two-a-days into practice for years, with a lot o...
Jun 03, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 166
The race season is upon us! Hopefully, that’s true where you live... even if it isn’t, we hope this episode helps you understand how to train in the race season. Of course, any discussion about racing must be preceded by a discussion of the base season, which sets that foundation for success. So today we start with a bit of a review. Once we set our focus on race physiology, we address which assets should be developed, how, and when. How much “top end” do you need? Which assets take longer to de...
May 27, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 165
Melanie McQuaid, a three-time XTERRA world champion and owner of MelRad Coaching, joins us to discuss how to judge fatigue, the effects of overtraining, and the so-called "crossover effect" between running and cycling. Our first question comes from Matthew Eastwood. He writes: “After years of road racing, where I would struggle with prolonged periods of fatigue in between periods of good form, I now compete in cyclocross and sprint triathlon events as a master’s racer. I’m 43 years old with a mo...
May 20, 2021•57 min•Ep. 164
Quick, name two things that hit their peak in the 1980s. Yes, mullets were one. But think cycling and physiology. What about training principles? How much has changed since the days of Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond? Today, with the help of longtime coach Jeff Winkler, who, yes, once raced as a pro in the ‘80s with a mullet, we discuss what has and has not changed since the 1980s, focusing on the principles of physiology. Are they fundamentally sound and equally effective as the principles by w...
May 13, 2021•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 163
Janis Musins, owner of Train2Win Endurance Coaching in Latvia, joins us to discuss how to pace time trial efforts, how to optimize your TT position, interpreting INSCYD data, and the coach-athlete relationship. Our first question comes from Ernie Blankenship in Independence, Missouri. He writes: “I have a hard time pacing in time trials. Some people recommend that I have a steady pace throughout the effort. Others are adamant that I need to vary my pace given the terrain and technicality of the ...
May 06, 2021•58 min•Ep. 162
Returning to the bike after an injury, whether a traumatic crash or a non-traumatic ailment—something like an overuse injury—can be a lengthy process. Not only is there a physical cost, the mental aspect of both dealing with the injury and the slow progress you might face can be challenging for endurance athletes. With the help of our director of sports medicine, Dr. Andy Pruitt, someone with a 40-year career built upon helping athletes get the most from their sport, we discuss the different typ...
Apr 29, 2021•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 161
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 coach and athlete Jen Sharp, Ted King, Sage Rountree, Lindsay Golich, Kristin Armstrong, Daniel Matheny, and Sondre Skarli. Each guest discusses the specifics of their chosen workout, and in so doing reveals a sense of their philosophy and the “style” that they bring to the execution and prescription. Learn more about your ad choic...
Apr 22, 2021•34 min•Ep. 160
If you’ve been an endurance athlete for any length of time, you’ve undoubtedly performed some type of test to gauge your form, be it a 20-minute on-the-road test or a VO2max test in a physiology lab. There are many forms of testing, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. Today’s episode is all about comparing and contrasting the different test methods based on the three key aspects of any test: 1) the protocol, 2) the data the test provides, and 3) most importantly, the analysis you can ...
Apr 15, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 159
Have you ever been nervous before a big race? Of course you have. Ever talked yourself into thinking you might fail? Have you ever felt that unwanted negative thoughts and emotions influenced how you performed in a race? There’s a good chance that’s happened, since it will occasionally happen even to the best athletes in the world. But it doesn’t have to. This episode is entirely about helping you to control unwanted thoughts, with two experts who have literally written the book on it. Dr. Simon...
Apr 08, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 158
Longtime Fast Talk Labs contributor and coach, Grant Holicky, joins us for another Q&A episode of Fast Talk. With Grant's help, in this episode of Fast Talk we tackle questions on race tactics (including the infamous “shake and break”), if and how you can train grit in races, how to safely override the central governor and a greater discussion around the ethics of pushing past this fatigue threshold, training for a five-day gran fondo stage race, and the dirty tricks of road racing. Our firs...
Apr 01, 2021•57 min•Ep. 157
If you consider yourself an athlete—and presumably you do since you’re visiting this site and listening to this podcast—then your definition of what that means has likely evolved through the years. Think about your lifestyle, your mental health, your training routine—even your friends and community. To what extent are feelings of satisfaction and fulfillment connected to your definition? Think about the arc of your involvement in sports, the positive and negative aspects of what that has meant f...
Mar 25, 2021•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 156
We often mention scientific research articles within our podcast episodes. That said, Coach Trevor Connor laments how little time he is able to spend reviewing the data, in the context of the greater discussion. Therein lies the basis for a new type of Fast Talk episode, which we have affectionately dubbed "Nerd Lab." In this episode, we take our time to review four recent studies from the scientific literature. We address the hypotheses, methods, and conclusions of each study to give you a grea...
Mar 18, 2021•28 min•Ep. 155
I’m not going to pretend to know much about time trials. I’ve done one. I also did an Hour Record on the track. That was fun, ahem. On the other hand, our main guests today are arguably the greatest athlete-coach duo in the history of time trials. Kristin Armstrong won three Olympic gold medals and two world championship titles in her gilded career, and Jim Miller was her coach the entire time. The pair have a fascinating story about the way they dissected the discipline and dominated their comp...
Mar 11, 2021•1 hr 48 min•Ep. 154
We receive a lot of questions about very specific topics—fasted training, supplements and recovery products, breathing techniques, and so forth. (By the way, we love them, so please keep them coming.) In this episode, however, we step back and discuss what we feel is most important, and frankly what is going to give you the biggest return for your investment of time, sweat, and energy. If those specific things are the 5 percent, today is all about making an argument for focusing on the 95 percen...
Mar 04, 2021•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 153
They say age is just a number. That’s exactly it: Age is nothing more than digits, and certainly shouldn’t be seen as a barrier or a dirty word. We can age successfully, but it requires changes to how we train and perhaps to the types of races we target. Of course, there are some physiological changes—you might call them declines—that come with age. Yet, there are also things that improve as athletes get older. Sometimes they are truly physiological and psychological adaptations, and at other ti...
Feb 25, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 152
Coach Lindsay Golich is a sports physiologist who has worked with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center for the past five years. She works closely with USA Cycling and USA Triathlon in areas of environmental physiology, including altitude, heat and humidity, as well as data analytics for performance modeling. With Lindsay’s help, today we tackle several questions related to her areas of expertise, including heat acclimatization, swe...
Feb 18, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 151
It wasn't long ago that most athletes, in the grand scheme of training, neglected the importance of nutrition, prioritizing time spent on the bike. Now, nutritional periodization and other methods of manipulation are rapidly rising in popularity. Many people strongly believe that significant performance gains are being left on the table if they neglect nutritional manipulation. Today, we sit down with one of the top sports nutrition experts to discuss the potential performance gains from modifyi...
Feb 11, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 150
Today we first take on the complex subject of coaching junior athletes, including everything from building aerobic base in a healthy manner to dealing with overbearing parents. We tackle a very interesting question on the base/intensity relationship from Danielle in Monument, Colorado: “Does aerobic output after intensity still have the same effect? Or does it have an even bigger effect due to substrate depletion and muscle fiber recruitment change? How does this change how I plan my training ri...
Feb 04, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 148
Unfortunately, concussions and traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs, are far too common in cycling. Whether training on open roads, racing at high speeds, or facing off with rush-hour traffic on your bike commute, cyclists often place themselves in vulnerable situations. Head injuries are becoming increasingly diagnosed among the two-wheeled crowd. What’s more, there’s a good deal of misunderstanding about what exactly the terms concussion and TBI mean. Are they the same or very different? How shou...
Jan 28, 2021•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 148
We can learn a lot by looking back. And one of the best parts of being an athlete is planning ahead, setting goals, and choosing your next adventure. [For more on this, check out episode 140: How to Set Training and Performance Goals.] In this episode, the Fast Talk team, plus frequent guests, share the lessons they learned from a challenging 2020, and then declare their big, scary goals, races, and rides for 2021. First, looking back. We ask ourselves this question: Despite 2020 being an "off" ...
Jan 21, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 147
If you’ve listened to Fast Talk for a while, you’ve likely heard us mention “cardiac drift” or “decoupling” in several episodes. It's a favorite topic of Coach Connor's. The terms refer to cardiovascular drift, which is a "drifting" in heart rate and stroke volume over time. On the bike, we measure it by looking at a rise in heart rate relative to power. Many causes have been theorized including dehydration, muscle damage, cutaneous blood flow, and mitochondrial efficiency. We’re very excited to...
Jan 14, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 146
Welcome to 2021. And what better way to kick off the new year than to answer some questions from our devoted listeners. Today we take on a series of questions that deal with a dilemma many athletes face: deciding which rides or workouts to sacrifice when you’re short on time. We tackle a question about zone 1 rides and whether you get them on the mountain bike. We also discuss how to change the type of rider you are, and if it can be done, based on a question from a listener who wants to become ...
Jan 07, 2021•56 min•Ep. 145
Welcome to the best of 2020. What a year it’s been. In so many ways, 2020 was a challenge—sometimes big, sometimes small, but always a bit more challenging. The same goes even for this humble podcast. But we stay connected, virtually, across time zones, across international borders, and despite waves of pandemic disruptions to bring you what we think are some incredible conversations with exceptional minds in the worlds of physiology, medicine, nutrition, sports psychology, and, of course, cycli...
Dec 31, 2020•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 144
Is yoga just fancy stretching? Nope. Today we’re going to go into the specifics of why cyclists should consider yoga, from the physical literacy it can provide, to the strength and conditioning element it offers, from the potential for an improved inflammatory profile to better recovery and relaxation. It turns out yoga is far more than fancy stretching or breathing techniques, it can be a powerful tool to aid health and performance. No episode about yoga would be complete without an overview of...
Dec 24, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 143
Time to bust some myths about nutrition. Head coach Ryan Kohler and Coach Trevor Connor both have degrees in nutrition and decades of experience working with athletes on all manner of sports nutrition topics. Together, they discuss some of the major misconceptions that regularly enter any conversation on what to eat when training and racing. Are macronutrients all that matter? Do carbs make you fat? Do you need fancy race food? How do you know if you have a food allergy? What really causes cramp...
Dec 17, 2020•44 min•Ep. 142
What a strange and chaotic year it’s been. Despite the disruption to our lives, times like these afford us an opportunity to look farther ahead. It just may be that, from a training and racing point of view, this is just what some of us have needed. That’s because, sometimes, you can see greater gains by looking not just at next year, but by gazing two or three years up the road. Whether you’re just starting in endurance sports, or unsure of what 2021 holds, looking through a telescope rather th...
Dec 10, 2020•1 hr 49 min•Ep. 141
The off-season can be one of the most productive times of the year: It offers the opportunity to reflect on last season—to assess what went well and what could be improved—and then to look forward, and strategize about how to progress, both in your training and racing. Today we’ll focus on the art and science of how to set goals and incorporate them into your training. Coach Connor starts us off with a discussion of how to determine your goals, first by performing a season assessment, which feed...
Dec 03, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 139
