By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS Athletes are eager to train but don’t want to waste their time getting prepared for goals that might get cancelled. While I would argue improving fitness and performance is never a waste of time, I also recognize people need tangible milestones to keep them moving …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning In-person racing will undoubtedly look different when it returns, whether it’s in 2020 or 2021. Physical distancing norms, crowd size limits and sanitization procedures are going to give race directors a few grey hairs, and they will impact runners as well. Simple things like pre-race briefings …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS With in-person bike races and gran fondos cancelled due to the pandemic, event directors are getting creative to keep the community engaged, motivate people to ride, and offer cyclists opportunities to compete. Some are hosting virtual races and challenges, and others are creating cycling segment challenges …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning One of the first things I do with any new athlete is to create a Long Range Plan, a big picture view of an entire season indicating where the major races will be and when to focus on intensity, higher amounts of vertical, and longer long …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS Sleep and recovery are two aspects of training that have increased in importance over the past six weeks. For some athletes, working from home and stay at home orders have opened up opportunities to train more than before. For others, the disruptions to personal and …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS Climbing is the most intimidating aspect of many cycling events. When events or tours post their route details (or even virtual routes these days) a lot of people get hung up on the vertical gain. In many cases, they’re more concerned about the amount of climbing …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning Let’s face it, for many ultrarunners have been feeling stuck in a rut over the last several weeks. You might be getting bored of the same loops, running by yourself, and slipping your mask on and off as you pass other runners. And all that has been …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS As ‘stay at home’ orders gradually ease in various places, more cyclists are making the transition from training indoors to getting back out on the road and trail. If you have been doing the majority of your training for the past few months on a …
By Chris Carmichael CEO/Head Coach of CTS I always try to reduce the number of components or tasks in a cyclist’s workouts. I’d rather you do a few things very well than a bunch of things not so well. This means I keep warm ups simple, prescribe easy-to-execute (but sometimes very strenuous) interval sets, …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a runner named Eluid Kipchoge ran under 2 hours for the marathon distance. Remember that? Yeah, that was less than 6 months ago. Rife with asterisks and caveats, the sub two-hour marathon was only the tip …