Having a healthy ego is a good thing. You take pride in your abilities, have a solid sense of who you are and your place in the world, and generally positive self-esteem. Ego plays a role in an athlete’s level of confidence. It can be a factor in helping you sign up for …
Coaching is almost entirely about motivating and inspiring athletes, and there are a number of ways to accomplish that. Personally, we prefer to emphasize the positive by inspiring athletes to achieve lofty goals. Sometimes, however, athletes respond better to the desire to avoid negative consequences, like losing power, gaining weight, and getting slower. So, …
We all have certain triggers for food cravings. For me the sound of dry leaves crunching under my feet and crisp, cold fall evenings get me thinking about sweet potatoes. Thankfully there are a ton of ways to enjoy sweet potatoes other than drowned in butter, brown sugar, and marshmallows in a casserole. Over …
I generally try to be diplomatic when I talk about training and weight management, but perhaps it’s time to stop being polite and start getting real (sorry, I couldn’t resist the MTV reference…). We can talk about incremental increases in power at lactate threshold or optimizing pedal stroke, but if you really want to …
The biggest trap athletes and coaches fall into is making training too complicated. We’re not trying to launch a mission to Mars here, folks. The problem starts with the amount of information we all have at our fingertips. We know more about the science of performance than ever before and we have access to …
Many things in life follow a natural progression. You train, then rest, and get stronger and faster as a result. You start a job knowing very little and become an expert over time. Even declines in performance and health are often gradual and progressive. Where you could recover from a hard ride in a …
Two weeks before USA Pro Challenge I got dropped. It happened about 60 miles into a 70-mile “Coaches Meeting” ride, but the trouble started long before that. I felt fine and took some strong pulls in the first 90 minutes of the ride, but started feeling flat and empty not long after that. I …
One of the best things about having a staff of full-time coaches is the impromptu coaching round-table discussions we tend to have. This week we had an interesting discussion about the Giro d’Italia – Tour de France Double, or more broadly the attempt to win two back-to-back Grand Tours in a single season (Giro-Tour …
Many of you have been watching the Tour de France for years and perhaps you’ve read my commentary and articles about the training and strategies riders use to be successful at the Tour. On the other hand, some of you may be pretty new to watching the Tour de France or any professional cycling event. So, let’s …
Earlier this week Jim Ochowicz, my old team director from 7-Eleven, upset some cycling fans by suggesting that the Tour de France should reduce the number of teams in future races in order to reduce the number of crashes. And while other people have made that suggestion in the past, Jim further ruffled feathers …