By Darcie Murphy, CTS Ultrarunning Pro Coach Fall is a transition season for many athletes. The hot, hurried and event-filled summer has wound down, ushering in the quiet, darker months of fall and winter. Autumn is a great time to enjoy and address many aspects of trail and ultrarunning, from testing new gear and …
By Chris Carmichael, CTS Founder and Chief Endurance Officer Over the years my coaches and I have written countless cycling workouts designed to increase riders’ fitness and power output for riding uphill faster. If you’re reading this blog you have probably done some of them, or something similar. But there’s a difference between being …
As many athletes wrap up their competitive seasons, there’s a tremendous opportunity to comb through the year’s achievements and shortcomings. It’s an opportunity that shouldn’t be missed. Each fall I set aside time for comprehensive season reviews with my athletes. This guided reflection process creates an historical reference, and it’s a key tool for really …
By Jim Rutberg, CTS Pro Coach, co-author of “The Time-Crunched Cyclist”, “Training Essentials for Ultrarunning”, and “Ride Inside“ Dean Pierson knows the value of a strong foundation. His company, Culver and Pierson, builds top-quality homes throughout the Delmarva Peninsula (includes Delaware and some of Maryland and Virginia), and Dean applies the same attention to detail to …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning For years I have wanted a fantasy football-style league for trail and ultrarunning (come on, you know you want one too). It would be fun, good for the sport, akin to the annual iRunFar Western States prediction contest that draws international acclaim and fun banter all …
By Jim Rutberg with CTS Ultrarunning Coach Neal Palles CTS Coach Neal Palles is living proof that more knowledge doesn’t always improve sporting performance. In addition to coaching for CTS, Neal is a mental performance consultant and licensed psychotherapist and has earned a UESCA Coaching Certification for Ultrarunning. And yet, as an athlete he …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Chief Endurance Officer Being a strong athlete and being a fast athlete are not necessarily the same thing. There are a lot of athletes who have great endurance and can maintain a hard and steady pace hour after hour. This is especially true late in the summer when athletes …
By Jim Rutberg, CTS Pro Coach, co-author of “The Time-Crunched Cyclist” and “Ride Inside“ 10x Leadville 100, 2x Unbound Gravel, 1 SBT GRVL Almost as soon as riders wipe the sweat and grime off their faces, they ask how they can go faster at the same event next year. This is part of the appeal for events …
Chris Carmichael CTS Founder and Chief Endurance Officer Summertime is fun time! Strong rides in the warm summer sun are your reward for months of training. But it’s not uncommon for athletes to make a series of summertime training mistakes that either cut short their fun or limit their peak performance. To finish the …
Open any training program from any running publication and you will inevitably see the following training structure: 3 weeks ‘on’; 1 week ‘off’. In normal training nomenclature this means you train hard for three weeks, take one week easy, and then repeat that cycle. Did you ever stop to think why this 3:1 structure emerged …