By Reid Beloni, CTS Expert Coach I want to follow up on our previous tips on equipment for outdoor winter riding with some winter cycling clothing tips. Your equipment can help keep you dry and safe, and your clothing will keep you warm and comfortable. We don’t expect you to ride in a blizzard, but if …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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. …
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 …
By Chris Carmichael Winter is a huge opportunity for a cyclist. Instead of looking at these months as a period of indoor drudgery or outdoor misery, look at them as the period where you can focus on shoring up your weaknesses and building on your strengths as a new season approaches. Strength training can be …
By Chris Carmichael In 40-plus years of cycling, I’ve never experienced heat like I did climbing through the Pyrenees mountains when I rode with team 7-Eleven in the 1986 Tour de France… or the first three stages of the 2013 Amgen Tour of California. There’s not a spot of shade anywhere, the narrow canyons offer …
In some parts of the US – including Colorado – winter just doesn’t seem to want to let go. This week it snowed twice in Colorado Springs, and it’s been cold and nasty in other parts of the country as well. We’re hearing a lot of nervousness from athletes who have big summer events coming …
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 …