Is Perceived Exertion Accurate or Meaningful to Your Training?

  Even as technology delivers remarkably accurate data about an athlete’s true workload, a seemingly archaic measure of intensity refuses to disappear. Rating of Perceived Exertion, or RPE, is the ultimate in simplicity: It is nothing more than a scale of how hard you feel you are exercising. There’s not one single piece of data …

Weekend Reading: Mastering 3 Advanced Group Ride Skills

Local group rides are the heart and soul of amateur cycling. These Saturday morning and Tuesday evening rides are where new riders learn to draft, where juniors cut their teeth, and where local bragging rights are earned. Most of all they are a ton of fun, without the pressure and expense of pinning on a …

8 Training Tips to Help You Tackle the Most Epic Challenges

As years pass it occurs to me that the beauty of endurance sport is that as we move through life there’s always a niche that resonates with our goals and lifestyle. For years I sought high-intensity, close-quarters racing in criteriums and road cycling races. But now I’m older and I’ve fallen in love with ultra-endurance …

Trainright Now: Cycling Fast and Safely in the Rain

Originally published in Road Bike Action Magazine, July 2014 By Chris Carmichael On a recent Saturday morning I got a call from Jerry, an athlete I’ve only been working with for a short time. His criterium started in an hour and he was sitting in his car listening to the rain pound on the roof. …

2014 Super Bowl Trainer Workout

What a weekend! For cycling fans this is Cyclocross World Championship weekend, with the Women’s Elite race today and the Men’s Elite race tomorrow. CTS Athlete Ryan Trebon will be racing for Team USA tomorrow, and shooting for a top 15 finish. And we’re also rooting for our friend and former-CTS Coach Katie Compton as …

Weekend Reading: How to Turn Lame Accelerations into Full-Throttle Attacks! Plus info on Summer CTS Camps

Last week I wrote about “The Key to Being Extraordinary”, and I was really happy to see that over the past week it sparked a lot of great conversations between athletes and their coaches, and between readers and me. Those conversations are what coaching is all about. Yes, sure, power file analysis and custom training …

Attack the Pack: Turning Lame Accelerations into Winning Attacks!

By CTS Senior Coach Daniel Matheny I have to be honest here, folks. I’ve been out at the early-season races, both as a competitor and as a coach, and I’m seeing a lot of really poor attempts at attacking the peloton. I love the enthusiasm, but that’s about all I’m seeing and enthusiasm doesn’t bring …