By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS For a long time I have advised athletes to cut back on or stop consuming alcohol in order to remove a barrier to improved performance. At the same time, I have to admit that I find the first slug of an ice-cold beer at the end …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning Intermittent fasting and time restricted eating have gotten a lot of attention lately. It pops up on podcasts, with social media influencers and in an array of apps that will tell you when and for how long your ideal fast should be. I have even written about …
By Chris Carmichael, inspired by Renee Eastman This blog post was entirely inspired by CTS Coach Renee Eastman, who recently completed her National Academy of Sports Medicine Nutrition Coach certification. In social media posts and a series of emails, Renee reminded me of one of the biggest challenges we see athletes face when it comes …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning In the very early part of my coaching career, far before I was working with elite athletes, caffeine was considered a controlled substance per the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Meaning, if an athlete had too much caffeine in his or her system, they would be subject …
by Chris Carmichael CEO/Head Coach of CTS Initially, this article was going to be about all the reasons endurance athletes don’t need protein shakes, but that wouldn’t really be fair or accurate. There are some very good reasons for cyclists, runners, and triathletes to consume protein shakes, but they are also often overused, used for …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS Athletes’ eating habits are just one of the many aspects of life that have been disrupted by the current public health crisis. In the very beginning, the produce section and meat aisle of the grocery store were stripped clean – along with the toilet paper …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS The difference between fueling performance with carbohydrate and consuming too much added sugar is one of the more confusing aspects of nutrition for athletes. Too much added sugar in your diet can be harmful to your health, but consuming carbohydrate – including simple sugar – can …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS For athletes seeking weight loss, the basic formula is pretty straightforward: reduce caloric intake, but not so much that you compromise training performance or recovery. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. After 30 years of looking at how athletes eat, I’m willing to bet your overall …
By Chris Carmichael, Founder and Head Coach of CTS Would knowing how many minutes of walking or running it would take to burn off the calories in a snack influence whether or how much of that snack you eat? The Royal Society for Public Health in the United Kingdom seems to think so. As a …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning In September of this year, the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) came out with a new position paper titled “Nutritional considerations for single-stage ultra-marathon training and racing”. You can view the whole paper, in its entirety, for free here. It’s about a 40 minute read and moderately …