By Jason Koop Author “Training Essentials for Ultrarunning” Columnist for “Ultrarunning Magazine” Ultrarunners inherently understand there’s a difference between the mechanics of running uphill and running downhill. When you look deeper into the biomechanics of ultrarunning, it is apparent there are really four distinct disciplines within the sport: uphill running, downhill running, flat running, …
In the real world, whether you are riding uphill on paved or gravel roads, mountain bike trails, or in a triathlon, you have to have more than one speed. As much as I love power meters and training with power, an unfortunate side effect is that many athletes focus so intently on improving sustainable …
By Mara Abbott 2010, 2013 Giro Rosa Champion Olympian CTS Contributing Editor In July, the world’s cycling fans multiply. The phrase “yellow jersey” is bandied around in public. Here in the United States, you might even hear someone say “kilometers”. July is why I love cycling too, but my Tour de France watching habits are …
By Paul Ruggiero CTS Triathlon Coach Summer is in full swing and that means many triathletes are in peak form. Olympic and Sprint races are happening just about every weekend, and the fall Ironman races loom in the near future. Hopefully all the hours you’re logging are paying off and fitness is good, so it’s …
There are a lot of frustrated cyclists out there. It’s summer and maybe your fitness and performance aren’t where you expected them to be by this time of the year. We hear this scenario every summer from new athletes signing up for coaching. The year hasn’t gone as planned up to this point and …
I had a long conversation with a coaching colleague who gained a significant amount of belly fat and is working to regain his fitness and fit back into his normal cycling gear. I can commiserate. About 15 years ago I went through the same process, and having a belly for a while completely changed …
By Jason Koop, CTS Coaching Director Author “Training Essentials for Ultrarunning” During an interview at Wimbledon, tennis champion Serena Williams was asked what it was like to have athletes up their game in order to play her. Her answer is not only an insight into what has made her the dominant player of her …
By Mara Abbott Olympian and CTS Contributing Editor It may have been the opening for my entire cycling career – a super-cool upperclassman invited me to go mountain biking with her in my first weeks as an impressionable freshman still identifying as a swimmer. She said I should join Whitman College’s cycling team. Jane Rynbrandt …
By Darcie Murphy, CTS Ultrarunning Coach We’re told that the statistical chance of being struck by lightning is low. According to National Geographic in any one year your chance of being struck is about 1 in 700,000, and over a lifetime it’s 1 in 3,000. Still, if you’ve been caught unexpectedly by this powerful force …
Checking on your assumptions is one of the best things you can do with data. Many experienced athletes, myself included, are confident their training, recovery, and nutrition routines are solid because they were solid the last time they checked and they haven’t changed anything since. But everything has changed, maybe not in major ways, …