By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS A masters cyclist just won two back-to-back stages of the Tour de France, five years after his last Tour stage win and after being largely written off as a great rider whose time had passed. At 36, Mark Cavendish is not the oldest Tour de …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS I love the anticipation and sense of limitless opportunity that immediately precedes the Tour de France, which starts this weekend. As an athlete and team, the months and years of preparation are over and you just want the race to start already! Back in 1986, in …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS I’m not a quitter, and I’m sure you are not either, but as the old saying goes, sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. Last weekend at Unbound Gravel in Emporia, Kansas, a combination of heat and strong headwinds put a lot of riders deep …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS Our coaches get a lot of messages that start out with, “I was going to ride, but…”, followed by an explanation that they didn’t ride because it was raining, or threatening to rain, or too windy, etc. Some move their rides indoors, but many just …
In recent weeks I’ve heard variations on the question: How do I get faster on the bike?” When the question comes from more experienced athletes, it’s sometimes: “Why am I not getting faster anymore?” As the spring heats up, events ramp up, and you pile on the miles, you may notice performance stagnate. You’re training …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS Power meters are everywhere, and now with app-connected smart trainers and smart bikes athletes indoors and outside are training with power. All that data is great, and advanced training software can help make sense of it, but as a coach I see athletes making two big …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS Optimizing performance for masters cyclists can be trickier than getting the best out of a 20-something professional athlete. The complexity comes from fighting the slow and natural decline in performance potential after about 40 years old, coupled with busy lifestyles that incorporate relationships, children, and …
It’s time to move on from Zone 2! When it’s time to develop the speed and power for high-intensity, race winning efforts, you need to build anaerobic capacity. Anaerobic capacity is a major factor in whether you make the breakaway, stay with the pack over the summit, charge up a technical feature on the …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS Races and events are back on the calendar and the weather is getting warmer, so weight loss is a trending topic in coaching conversations across my entire staff of 50+ endurance coaches. No two conversations with athletes about healthy weight loss are exactly the same. There …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS One of the best parts of spending my life working in the endurance sports community is having the opportunity to meet and get to know brilliant scientists, coaches, entrepreneurs, and personalities. Of course, the more people you meet the more discerning you have to be about …