By Chris Carmichael, CTS Founder and Chief Endurance Officer Often, the best thing cyclists can do is get out of their own way. I’ve been coaching amateur and elite athletes for more than 30 years. People have more access to quality training plans and performance data than ever before. But it takes more than …
By Chris Carmichael and Jim Rutberg (updated March 2024) Reviewed by Stephanie Howe, PhD (March 2024) Myths abound in all areas of training and nutrition. There are many misconceptions about the role of protein in recovery, the amount of protein endurance athletes need, and when to use specific recovery drinks. Here are a …
By Darcie Murphy, CTS Ultrarunning Pro Coach Fartlek runs are fun, challenging, and useful for ultramarathon runners. And, of course, ‘fartlek’ is just a fun word to throw into conversation. A Scandinavian term coined in the 1930s by Swedish coach Gosta Holmer, fartlek translates to ‘speed play’ in English. And ‘playing with speed’ is …
By Jim Rutberg, CTS Pro Coach, co-author of “Ride Inside“ and “The Time-Crunched Cyclist” You cannot expect to train the same way year-round and perform at your best in a specific season. Summer sports athletes build fitness in the winter and create performance in the spring so they can win in the summer! By making …
By Darcie Murphy CTS Senior Ultrarunning Coach Increasing ultramarathon training volume or intensity is often a contributing factor for injuries. Your body has adapted to a certain workload, and increasing that workload is necessary in order to improve fitness. However, if you ramp up training too quickly or too much you are at increased …
By Chris Carmichael, CTS Founder and Chief Endurance Officer I frequently hear senior cyclists repeating training myths that hold them back. In some cases, they are not doing something wrong in training. Rather, their beliefs about aging have narrowed their vision of what a cyclist over 50 can do. Now that I’m in my …
By Chris Carmichael Founder and Head Coach of CTS Training Stress Score, or TSS, is commonly used to describe how “hard” a ride was, but that’s only part of the story. Although it is valuable, some important aspects of training are not reflected by TSS. So, as you are scanning through your workout data …
By CTS Ultrarunning Senior Coach Darcie Murphy with exercises by Sarah Scozzaro, CTS Pro Coach, NSCA-PT, NASM PES Many ultrarunning events and races are held on courses that feature lots of elevation change. However, plenty of runners live where there is little or no access to hilly terrain. Although developing superior aerobic fitness is the …
By Chris Carmichael CTS Founder and Chief Endurance Officer Life is complicated, but training should not be. After coaching for decades, I spend less time worrying about the specifics of any particular interval set and more time working with athletes to optimize the execution of training. When athletes stagnate in their training, it’s often …
By Andy Jones-Wilkins, CTS Ultrarunning Pro Coach, host of “Crack a Brew with AJW Podcast” I recently had the opportunity to provide race support for four athletes I coach at the Rocky Raccoon 100 in Huntsville, TX. Rocky is an early season ultra with a reputation of being one of the “easier” 100-mile …