By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning In a recent post I talked about the unique nutritional challenges ultramarathon runners face because of the length of the event, distance between aid stations, changes in the environmental conditions, fatigue leading to poor decision making, and food or flavor fatigue. I have spent so much time …
By Jason Koop, Head Coach of CTS Ultrarunning One of the things I love about coaching ultramarathon athletes is adapting the standard recommendations and best practices from the coaching industry into an ultra-specific context. All too often, the recommendations we see aren’t geared for us. They are geared for the weekend 5k crowd, the gym …
When you ask a group of cyclists what they eat and drink on rides, you’ll get almost as many answers as there are riders in the group. Everyone fuels rides a little differently, which is perfectly normal. Cycling nutrition and hydration are not one size fits all. However there are some key principles cyclists should …
This week I worked with my long-time co-author, Jim Rutberg, to review and update this article on keeping athletes healthy during cold and flu season. Every year I encounter athletes who have a false sense of invincibility because exercise=health. And while being an athlete and consuming an athlete’s diet does generally improve your health, training …
It’s Christmas Day, so we wanted to keep things light and offer up a treat you can make before a holiday run or last-minute get-together. Provided by one of our favorite chefs and athletes, Jeff Mahin, this incredible Banana Espresso Cookie Dough Energy Bite satisfies our passion for healthy real food ingredients, our very real need …
By Mara Abbott, Olympian and CTS Contributing Editor Of course it would happen at bedtime. My contacts out, PJs already on, I found myself urgently drawn to the computer. I needed, immediately, right then, to research ways to strengthen my bones. I don’t recommend this nocturnal hobby – after all, it was deep into …
Checking on your assumptions is one of the best things you can do with data. Many experienced athletes, myself included, are confident their training, recovery, and nutrition routines are solid because they were solid the last time they checked and they haven’t changed anything since. But everything has changed, maybe not in major ways, …
I was talking with an athlete earlier this week and our conversation turned to the issue of weight, as it has during nearly every coaching conversation we’ve had in the past year. The athlete I was talking to is probably not that different from you. He has worked hard and improved significantly. His power at lactate …
Intermittent fasting is worthless for endurance athletes. There, I said it (donning flak jacket…). You can keep doing it if you want to, just stop doing it because you think it’s going to make you faster. It’s no better or worse than other forms of caloric restriction There are three mainstream version of intermittent …
In a constant search for energy and performance, athletes tend to focus on the big macronutrients: carbohydrate, protein, and fat. They manipulate the percentage of calories from each, going from the classic endurance athlete’s high carbohydrate strategy to a Paleo-esque high-protein strategy, or even a high-fat ketogenic strategy. However, the foods we eat supply more …