How many miles do you need to ride in training to be ready for your event? We get asked some variation of that question all the time from cyclists getting ready for their first century, or for a gran fondo, gravel race, or endurance mountain bike event. Do you need to ride 60 or 75 …
Cyclists who ride year-round sometimes get lulled into a routine that long ago stopped being challenging enough or engaging enough to improve performance. It’s not that you’re out of shape or that you’re not training, it’s that you haven’t changed anything is so long that there’s no reason for your body to adapt and improve …
We’ve all been there before. You are in the last two weeks leading up to a race and just thinking about the race makes your palms sweat. Suddenly, all the weeks and months of training – countless hours on the trail – are all but forgotten. All you can see are the remaining 14 days …
When Alison Jackson decided to make the 2023 Paris-Roubaix Femmes her “A race” for the spring, I was all for it. The Olympian who rides for EF-Education-TIBCO-SVB is well suited to the “Hell of the North”. She has a big aerobic engine and great tactical savvy from 8 years racing as a professional, plus a …
As sports fans we are accustomed to witnessing extraordinary performances, like CTS Athlete Alison Jackson’s victory in last weekend’s Paris-Roubaix Femmes. (Stay tuned for Coach Adam Pulford’s analysis of her training and race data on Tuesday!) Huge wins are inspirational. Many cyclists go out after watching an amazing cycling race like Paris-Roubaix and have storming …
By Jim Rutberg, CTS Pro Coach, co-author of “Ride Inside“ and “The Time-Crunched Cyclist” Spring can be a tricky time for cyclists. You have spent a long time in base or foundation training and spring and summer races are on the horizon. It’s time to shift from building fitness to optimizing performance for specific …
My alma matter’s Code of Conduct was “Aggies do not lie, steal or cheat, nor do they tolerate those that do”. As we A&M Aggies are a cheeky lot, we would routinely add an addendum to the Code that stated: “They just exaggerate, collaborate and borrow”. Little did I know in my late teens and …
Easy is in. If you are an athlete and paying even a little attention to endurance sport media, you have likely been inundated with content hyping easy training intensities. ‘Go slow to go fast’ is trending, with loads of content creators going all in on Zone 1, Zone 2, more rest days, fewer intervals, and …
In the ultrarunning world, there are innumerable stories of athletes fitting training in around work. Run commuting, lunch runs, and standing desks seem to dominate the conversation. For many people, balancing ultramarathon training with physically demanding jobs, including construction, plumbing, and powerline work may seem infeasible. That’s not true. The sport is full of successful …
By Jim Rutberg, CTS Pro Coach, co-author of “Ride Inside“, “The Time-Crunched Cyclist” Coffee has long been engrained in cycling culture. Many group rides start, end, or sometimes include stops at coffee shops. Coffee-related companies have sponsored some of the most iconic teams in the sport’s history, including Eddy Merckx’s 1969 Tour winning Faema team, …