By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning It feels a little strange to write about how to handle the heat when it’s still April. But, as I scrolled through my athletes’ comments on TrainingPeaks over the weekend, it’s obvious that athletes are contending with short term bouts of warmer conditions. This initial challenge, when …
By Lisa Bourne, CTS Contributing Editor & Senior Director of Diversity, Inclusion & Social Impact at Zwift So, there’s something quite spiritual about my three hour solo rides. This is the fourth year I’ve worked with a coach and trained for a May cycling holiday in Mallorca, though I’ve only been fortunate enough to visit …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning In a perfect world (or at least my version of it) all endurance athletes would have a coach. Sure, this sounds self-serving considering that I make my living in the profession, but the fact of the matter is professional coaches (and other professionals that work with athletes) …
It’s time to move on from Zone 2! When it’s time to develop the speed and power for high-intensity, race winning efforts, you need to build anaerobic capacity. Anaerobic capacity is a major factor in whether you make the breakaway, stay with the pack over the summit, charge up a technical feature on the …
By Scott Mercier, US Olympian, Retired pro cyclist Scott Mercier competed in the 1992 Olympic Games for Team USA and raced professionally for the Saturn, US Postal Service, and Navigators cycling teams. He will be contributing a monthly column for CTS, featuring stories from his cycling career and the triumphs and challenges of staying fit …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder/CEO of CTS With the world hopefully returning to normal over the next few months, cyclists are eager to get faster, stronger, and more powerful this summer. Whether you are new to training or an experienced cyclist I encourage you to remember the following 5 essential rules for training. Training Rule …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning Over the past year, Fastest Known Times (FKTs) and virtual or in-person Last Person Standing (LPS) running events have grown in popularity. Although they gained notoriety because of the pandemic, I think these race formats will continue to draw athletes and eyeballs for a long time. …
By Jim Rutberg, CTS Pro Coach, co-author of “Ride Inside“ and “The Time-Crunched Cyclist” Despite the current frenzy around Zone 2 training, coaches and athletes have long known they need to train the full range of intensities to improve performance. Even proponents of large volumes of easy aerobic training incorporate high intensity intervals into their …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning During one of our recent coaching meetings, one of our coaches brought up a scenario of an athlete who lives in the Midwest who is training for a 50-mile race with 8,000 feet of elevation gain. For this particular athlete, she might only be able to …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS Races and events are back on the calendar and the weather is getting warmer, so weight loss is a trending topic in coaching conversations across my entire staff of 50+ endurance coaches. No two conversations with athletes about healthy weight loss are exactly the same. There …