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 …
We have yet to meet a cyclist who doesn’t want to go uphill faster, but not all hills are created equal. Rolling hills aren’t very long but they often come one right after the other and can add up to a surprising amount of elevation gain. Sustained climbs take patience and power, and the key …
By Jim Rutberg, CTS Pro Coach, co-author of “The Time-Crunched Cyclist”, “Training Essentials for Ultrarunning”, and “Ride Inside“ Trends in endurance training come and go, and long and easy workouts for building aerobic endurance are back in fashion. We’re talking 2+ hours at Zone 2 or even Zone 1. Long easy rides work wonderfully if you …
If you want to go long, burn fat. If you want to go fast, burn carbohydrate. Athletic performance is not that simple, of course, because you burn both – and a little protein – at all times, during all activities, and at any intensity level. However, the basic premise still stands: you rely more heavily …
Catching up with gravel and mountain bike pro Russell Finsterwald is no easy feat. He even goes on vacation fast. The day after winning the final major gravel cycling race of the 2022 season, Big Sugar in Bentonville, Arkansas, and finishing third overall in the Lifetime Gran Prix, Finsterwald flew directly to Mexico for some …