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 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 Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS As COVID19 has forced athletes to delay their goals for the season and train solo instead of with groups, many cyclists have built a stronger-than-normal base of aerobic and lactate threshold power through interval workouts and indoor training. And even though we don’t know when we’ll …
By Nina Laughlin, CTS Pro Coach, Land Run 100 Champion & 5th place SBT GRVL Potholes, sand, mud, and loose gravel. Baby head boulders, tire-slashing rocks, ruts, and roots. If these lists seem random, think again. Gravel riding is full of challenges and gravel race organizers like to think out of the box, so it’s …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS Cyclists looking for fun, camaraderie, and competition are flocking to eracing and discovering… it’s really hard! For cyclists who have been riding and racing outdoors for years or decades, it’s important to recognize that eracing is not going to be – nor does it intend to …
By Reid Beloni CTS Senior Coach Retül Level 1 Fit Technician We perform a lot of bike fits at our CTS training centers, and we have the opportunity to see a lot of cyclists at events and camps. Bike fit is more than a collection of angles and distances, and before we start measuring or …
Your choices in the hours after your workout will either enhance the effect of that workout or detract from it. It’s up to you. Many athletes put great emphasis on completing high-quality workouts only to shortchange their progress by making silly mistakes after. Here are 7 of the worst post-workout choices you can make. …
By Mara Abbott Olympian and CTS Contributing Editor I promise you this: yoga will change you as an athlete and it will change you for the better. Practicing regularly will increase both your athletic potential and longevity, and it will do so regardless of whether or not you can do the splits, or stand on …
By Chris Carmichael CEO/Head Coach of CTS I got a call from an athlete this week, as he was walking from one meeting to the next, exclaiming with glee that he had 90 whole minutes to work out that afternoon! That might be a normal Tuesday for you, but we’ve been shoehorning 45-minute training sessions …