As athletes start new training programs, many focus on losing weight as well as achieving their best fitness. Over 20-plus years of coaching, I’ve found some common things that trip people up. Below, I’ll share 5 common mistakes I see athletes make when pursuing weight loss goals. Before I dive into those topics, a disclaimer. …
Don’t end a productive year of training with the consequences of out-of-control Holiday eating. After spending most of the year eating well, sudden increases in sugar, salt, fat, and alcohol throw your sleep, workout performance, recovery, and mood all out of whack. We want you to feel good and have fun during the Holidays so …
Note: CTS has a partnership with The Feed, which carries a variety of sports drinks and other sports nutrition products. CTS does not have any affiliation with a specific sports drink brand. That said, many sports drink brands base their formulations on the science presented here, because… it’s good science. What is a sports drink? …
People have strong feelings about carbohydrate, despite the fact it is neither good nor bad. The positive and negative effects of carbohydrate on health, performance, and recovery come from when, why, and how much people consume. For endurance athletes, carbs are an essential fuel for performance and recovery. To understand this critical component of sports …
Ergogenic aids, or performance-enhancing substances, include any substances that enhance performance or recovery. The term encompasses legal substances like caffeine and prohibited substances like anabolic steroids. Interestingly, the research that determined just how ‘sports enhancing’ they could be, was done in controlled laboratory settings rather than real-world scenarios. While controlled settings leave less room for …
Indoor cycling is great for packing a lot of effective training into a short period of time. You don’t need to get dressed in multiple layers or navigate to safe roads for interval training. You can just get on, warm up, and open the throttle. But effective interval training requires fuel, and there are special …
Caffeine is one of the world’s most widely used stimulants, with the average caffeine consumption in the United States around two cups of coffee (200mg) per day. Most of us are familiar with our afternoon coffee’s ability to help us through the workday and how strongly ingrained coffee is in cycling culture, but does caffeine …
 By Chris Carmichael, CEO/Head Coach of CTS The Pikes Peak APEX presented by RockShox covers just over 125 miles over 4 stages, features more than 14,000 feet of climbing, and showcases four iconic Colorado Springs-area trail systems. Mountain bike stage races and multi-day adventures present unique nutrition and hydration challenges, so whether you are …
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 Eating in the evening often gets a bad rap because people associate it with mindless snacking and polishing off a whole bag of chips or a full pint of ice cream. Sometimes, though, what is bad for a sedentary population can be good for athletes. …