I got an email this week that really got me thinking. It was from a good friend and CTS Athlete, Irv Tremblay, about his son’s victory at a recent 100km gravel race in Saskatchewan, Canada. Now, in a week where fellow CTS Athlete Ty Magner won the first stage of the Tour of Utah …
Riding in a peloton can be intimidating and, at times, dangerous, but there are tried-and-true strategies you can use to keep yourself safe and in good pack position. Great handling skills, heads up racing, and years of experience prevent most dangerous situations from escalating into calamities, and you can use the same techniques pros use …
By Jason Koop, CTS Coaching Director and author of “Training Essentials for Ultrarunning” One of the things I enjoy the most about being a coach is seeing athletes compete. For one thing, throughout the year I don’t spend a lot of time with the athletes I coach. In some ways I think that distance …
Every time I come to Europe I am struck by how differently cyclists are treated here compared to the US. This week I am in France riding some of the iconic mountain passes of the Tour de France and watching a bit of the race. To escape the crush of race traffic most of …
Coaching is a push-and-pull between tradition and innovation, between “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” and “Newer is better!”. During my coaching career I’ve been on both sides of that divide, always seeking innovation but wary that innovations that sound good don’t always lead to improved performance. Training when on a low carbohydrate (CHO) regiment …
“All right stop, collaborate and Listen, Ice is back with…” No, no, no. Not that “Ice Ice Baby”. Exercise generates a ton of heat; about 75% of the energy you expend to propel a bicycle is lost as heat and only about 25% of it actually produces work. A hot summer environment only exacerbates the …
Heat is an endurance athlete’s biggest enemy. A human on a bicycle only achieves 20-25% mechanical efficiency, meaning the majority of the energy you produce is lost as heat. And when the air temperature rises that heat leads to a well-documented drop in lactate threshold power output. But the question is: how does this …
In some ways, our glorification of entrepreneurial culture has sold you a bill of goods. “Be the first to arrive and the last to leave.” “Live for the grind.” “You can sleep when you’re dead.” “While you were sleeping, this guy was winning.” You know what successful people do? They sleep. They sleep soundly, …
Endurance sports are beautiful and cruel. Even in the middle of the biggest races in the world, at some level every athlete is alone. You’re the one doing the work and making the decisions about how hard to go, what risks to take, and how much you can take. It’s that experience of surrounded isolation that …
By Jason Koop CTS Coaching Director Author of “Training Essentials for Ultrarunning” I had the pleasure of sharing the stage at the Western States Endurance Run with Dr. John Diana and Dr. Tracy Hoeg, and I wanted to share the video with all of you. Talking about training right before the start of an ultramarathon is …