How altitude affects cycling performance The basics of altitude work like this: as you go higher the air becomes less dense, which means the oxygen molecules are more spread out. As a result, when you breathe in and fill your lungs, there are fewer oxygen molecules in that volume of air. Most people from …
It’s been an incredibly busy few weeks around CTS, for the coaches as well as for me. Last weekend was the Trans Andes Boot Camp, two days of physiological testing and skills work followed by two back-to-back 5+hour mountain bike rides. After that I had a few days to recover before going to the Vail …
Two weeks ago I was talking with a CTS Athlete about how his season of training and competition was going, and after a while it became clear that he’d gone from being very aggressive to being more passive during the past few months of racing mostly criteriums. This is actually something we see quite often, …
After spending a lot of time this spring on the road bike preparing for the Amgen Tour of California Race Experience, this week I was able to reacquaint myself with my mountain bike. And just in time, too, because there was a Wednesday evening mountain bike race less than a mile from my house this …
I don’t get intimidated easily, but sitting in hotel room overlooking Lake Tahoe, with the entire course of the 2011 Amgen Tour of California laid out before me, I was more than a little bit intimidated. I’ve raced and participated in a lot of very hard endurance events, but the 2011 ATOC Race Experience was …
On Sunday, May 15 I will embark on the 2011 CTS Amgen Tour of California Race Experience. We’re going to ride every stage of the Tour of California, and I’ve been working very hard to make sure I’m ready for what I think will be the greatest endurance challenge I’ve tackled in the last 20 …
With the Amgen Tour of California Race Experience coming up very soon, I’ve been spending as much time as possible on the bike recently. This may very well be the biggest endurance challenge I’ve participated in since I retired from professional cycling. La Ruta was hard, but there wasn’t a field of professional riders coming …
Endurance athletes are creatures of habit. We ride, run, hike and traverse the same routes over and over again, sometimes for years on end. For the most part it’s a matter of necessity; we gravitate to the routes that are the safest, quickest, most fun, or simply those that are available. But if you’re finding …
I’m relatively new to triathlon and to serious training. Over the past several months I’ve been making steady progress, and recently I’ve noticed that I’ve started sweating more. The conditions (temp and humidity) are about the same as they’ve been, but I’m sweating a lot more. Does that mean I’m getting more fit? – …
Here’s the inevitable problem with citing research studies: you can almost always find a study that will “prove”, “indicate”, or “suggest” the exact opposite of the point you’re trying to make. And thus it was with great chagrin that I read the recent NY Times Blog “When exercise is too much of a good thing”. …