By Jim Rutberg, CTS Pro Coach, co-author of “The Time-Crunched Cyclist”, “Training Essentials for Ultrarunning”, and “Ride Inside“ Amateur and masters cyclists will swear up and down that “I’m not a sprinter” because they don’t have a finishing kick like Jasper Philipsen, Wout van Aert, or Mark Cavendish. But sharp, hard accelerations (aka: sprinting!) are a …
The Time-Crunched Cyclist Mini-Course:How to Maximize Your Limited Training TimeIn a 2023 survey of more than 1000 amateur cyclists, “limited training time” was the number one limiting factor preventing people from achieving their goals. CTS literally wrote the book on maximizing performance in limited training time. “The Time-Crunched Cyclist” was the first book to focus …
Group rides are growing! Cyclists around the country are meeting outside bike shops and coffee houses for their Saturday morning club rides. Sometimes it’s a road ride, other times it’s on gravel or mixed surface ride. There might be some new riders at the group ride or on your cycling team. If you’re new …
Amateur criterium racing is not dead, it’s just moved from weekends to weeknights. Based on the activities and feedback we’re seeing from CTS Athletes, the after-work criterium scene may be stronger than it’s been in a decade or more! And it’s no wonder. There are three new elite-level criterium series – the American Criterium …
When Alison Jackson decided to make the 2023 Paris-Roubaix Femmes her “A race” for the spring, I was all for it. The Olympian who rides for EF-Education-TIBCO-SVB is well suited to the “Hell of the North”. She has a big aerobic engine and great tactical savvy from 8 years racing as a professional, plus a …
By Jim Rutberg, CTS Pro Coach, co-author of “Ride Inside“ and “The Time-Crunched Cyclist” Spring can be a tricky time for cyclists. You have spent a long time in base or foundation training and spring and summer races are on the horizon. It’s time to shift from building fitness to optimizing performance for specific …
Whether you are new to cycling or have been riding for decades, there are multiple ways to get started with a structured training plan. Personal coaching is rarely an athlete’s first experience with structured training, even though we wish it was. Rather, it’s more common to start with a pre-made training plan from a book, …
By Jim Rutberg, CTS Pro Coach, co-author of “Ride Inside“ and “The Time-Crunched Cyclist” Just about every cyclist would like to climb faster, or at least make climbs less taxing at the same speed. Many cyclists focus on improving aerobic conditioning with Zone 2 endurance rides, and layer in lactate threshold and functional threshold …
By Renee Eastman, CTS Premier Coach, MS, CSCS, USAC level 1, Retul, NASM As athletes work toward fitness and performance goals, many focus on losing weight as well. Over 20-plus years of coaching, I’ve found some common things that trip people up. Below, I’ll share common mistakes I see athletes make when pursuing weight loss goals. …
Indoor cycling has long been characterized by high-intensity interval workouts, because they are a good way to create a bigger training stimulus in a shorter period of time, they keep athletes engaged and focused, and they’re often safer and more convenient to complete on a trainer. CTS championed such workouts; they factor heavily into the …