A Message From Our New CTS Cycling Head Coach, Adam Pulford!

Written by:

Adam Pulford

CTS Head Cycling Coach

Updated On

February 23, 2026

Hey CTS Fam! Many of you know me as the host of “The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast” or you’ve read articles from me on the trainright.com website. Perhaps you’ve seen me at bike races or we’ve ridden together in road, MTB or gravel events somewhere in the world. Today, I’m proud to be coming to you in a new role: CTS Cycling Head Coach!

What does any of this have to do with you? Well, it means you’ll be seeing more content from me on our Youtube channel, newsletters, blog posts, and social media feeds. But I’m not here to eclipse the great work and valuable expertise of my colleagues on the CTS Coaching Staff. Just the opposite. I see my role as the opportunity to elevate the voices and profiles of the professional coaches I’m privileged to lead, collaborate with, and learn from. 

For those who may not know me well, I’ve been coaching for more than 20 years. I majored in Exercise Physiology at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse, and graduated with a minor in Chemistry & Coaching as well. I was a wrestler throughout high school and college, where I started racing bikes and got my first taste of coaching, working with all athletes and sport types both on the field and in the gym. I completed my coaching internship at CTS and began my coaching career looking distinctly different from my cyclist, runner, and triathlete colleagues with my “wrestler’s physique”! Throughout my career I’ve had the good fortune to work with and learn from incredible coach mentors inside and outside of CTS, including Chris Carmichael, Jim Lehman, Jason Koop, Dean Golich, Renee Eastman, Lindsay Hyman, Tim Cusick, Dirk Friel, and many more. I’ve worked in other roles outside of CTS with such as serving as the Team Director for Team Sho-Air/Cannondale MTB Factory Team, Assistant Director & Coach on the TeamTWENTY16 and TWENTY20 UCI Women’s Road Racing Team and Team Director of the Orange Seal Off-Road Team. I am currently one of the Team Directors & Coaches for the DCDevo Cycling Team in the Washington D.C. area.

But enough about who I am. Let’s talk about how I can help you. Let’s talk about how I and the team of CTS Coaches can help you become a stronger, faster, healthier, and happier athlete than ever before. Today, I’ll start by sharing some of the most valuable and impactful beliefs I use to maximize performance for the athletes I coach directly:

When you’re fit, everything is more fun

People often ask athletes “what are you training for?” as if event-specific goals are the only reason to exercise or follow a structured training program. I believe training is enjoyable in its own right and that the resulting fitness makes everything in life more fun. Fitness increases the range of activities you are ready for at a moment’s notice. If my friends call and ask me to join them on an 80-mile ride this weekend, I want to be fit enough to say “Yes!”. 

That doesn’t mean we all have to be in the greatest shape of our lives at every moment. That’s unrealistic. But exercising consistently, with a broad range of activities, improves health and longevity and increases your ability to fully engage in life. And if you do it right, you can keep your fitness where it needs to be so you’re always about 6-8 weeks out from being ready and sharp for some bigger, specific race.

All Zones Matter

If you have listened to “The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast”, you know I’ve been preaching this for a long time. Zone 2 intensity is the foundation of an endurance athlete’s aerobic fitness, but the hype around Zone 2 has been overblown. The biggest problem is that lionizing Zone 2 leads people to dismiss the benefits of spending time at higher intensities. Although you’ll spend a smaller proportion of your overall training time in these higher zones, the time you do spend there makes a huge difference in your fitness and performance. 

All zones matter whether you’re racing or not. One of the mistakes I see with older cyclists or cyclists who don’t compete is that they don’t see the need for hard efforts in their training. They ride a steady and moderate pace during events and group rides, so why incorporate harder intervals in training? Because there’s a limit to the benefits you can achieve through Zone 2 training. Harder efforts increase your aerobic and anaerobic capacities, which create more space for your Zone 2 power output to increase.  

Fitness Is Different Than Performance

This philosophy builds on the idea that All Zones Matter. Performance is what you can accomplish when you access your fitness, apply your skills, and utilize tactics and strategies. One of the elite U23 cyclists I work with is a great example of this. Nathan Cusack signed with EF Education-Aevolo for 2026 after a great 2025 season with the Kelly Benefits Cycling Team. Although he has great fitness, his power durations (i.e., peak 20-minute power, etc.) were very good but not what set him apart. He impressed EF Education-Aevolo with his racecraft, ability to move through the field, and expertise at reading a race and putting himself in a position to win. 

Fitness is a huge component of performance, but my colleagues and I firmly believe in helping athletes develop the cycling skills and tactical acumen to perform in real-world cycling situations. Obviously, this is important for competitors, but non-competitive cyclists benefit from understanding how to position themselves in a group during varying wind conditions, how to rotate through a paceline efficiently, how to conserve energy on long climbs, how to maintain momentum through corners, and more.  

Leverage Data But Don’t Let Data Lead You

I love training data and I’ve worked on data analysis and product development projects with TrainingPeaks, WKO+, and other companies. I’ve also seen athletes get so wrapped up in data tracking that exercise becomes no fun at all. Similarly, I’ve seen athletes led astray by focusing on inaccurate or misleading data because they couldn’t see the forest for the trees. My philosophy is to leverage training data to teach athletes how their bodies respond to certain stimuli or conditions. I know I’ve done a good job when athletes can execute a high quality workout or successfully compete in a race without any technology because they can manage their intensities, hydration, and fueling based on perception and experience. 

That’s All For Now!

I hope to meet many more of you out on the road, track, or trail in the months and years to come. These are exciting times to be a cyclist and a cycling coach, and I’m looking forward to working with my colleagues at CTS to bring you valuable training information you can use to improve your health, longevity, and performance!