Meghan Kelley

Cycling recovery drinks are the quickest and surest way to get in the calories, carbs, and protein you need after your workout. There are numerous benefits to recovery drinks, and timing them correctly will help you feel confident that your glycogen stores are replenished for your next workout.

Eating the right food at the right time can make all the difference in your training. The best food for cycling isn’t the same for every athlete, though, and will change with the timing, intensity, and duration of your upcoming workout.

Every cyclist stands to benefit from some form of cross-training. Cross-training can address performance limiters, guard against injury, and make you a more well-rounded and skillful cyclist.

Not sure when to start base training? You can use your goals, discipline, and experience with structured training to guide the start of your season and decide the best time to start base training.

Unexpected time off doesn’t have to be a setback in your training. You can use these steps to make the most of your unplanned time off and return to training with more motivation and focus than before.

Yoga is the perfect tool for cyclists who want to round out their strengths, aid their recovery, and approach mobility and strength training from a different angle. To help you get a feel for Yoga, and some of the benefits it has to offer, here are five beginner-friendly poses with cycling related benefits.

Growing your fitness isn’t the only way to become a faster climber—technique and form also play an essential role in your ability to climb efficiently. You can improve your climbing-specific skills with on-the-bike drills that target technique, form, strength, and efficiency.

Incorporating indoor cycling drills in your workout is a great way to reinforce good habits and experiment with new techniques. It’s also easy to do. You can add these eight drills to your indoor workouts to enhance your time spent in the saddle and target the efficiency of your pedal stroke.

You don’t need prior training experience to get started with structured training. Athletes of all fitness levels and abilities can get faster with the right training plan. The Sweet Spot Base I low-volume plan is an excellent option for beginner cyclists.  

Over-under intervals improve your ability to shuttle and buffer lactate near the boundaries of your threshold power. Improving these capabilities will increase your anaerobic capabilities allowing you to output higher power values with greater efficiency and less mental fatigue.

Cycling training doesn’t just help you become a faster cyclist! Cycling also offers countless benefits to your physical health, mental wellness, and general wellbeing. Whether you’re a competitive cyclist training for a goal event or a recreational athlete looking to improve your fitness, you can expect to see these benefits when you ride your bike regularly.

Grow your strengths, target your limiters, and get back on track after training interruptions all with Adaptive Training.

When it comes to measuring ability, your Functional Threshold Power doesn’t tell the whole story. In fact, your power-based abilities are a lot more dynamic than you may realize. That’s where Progression Levels come in—Progression Levels are a real-time measurement of your power-based abilities in each power zone. You can use them to train your strengths, target limiters, and better understand how your training is impacting your fitness. 

No matter what your goals are—you should be doing threshold intervals. Spending time close to your functional threshold power (FTP) offers extraordinary benefits to your aerobic capacity, muscular endurance, mental stamina, and sustained power capabilities. Not to mention, doing threshold intervals will help to increase your FTP!

While preparing for the Silver Rush 50, athlete Kate McLaughlin sustained an injury that would keep her off her mountain bike for months. Eager to keep her Leadville goals on track, Kate found a new approach to training, that resulted in an all-time personal fitness and the fastest women’s time at the 2021 Silver Rush 50. Here’s how Kate trained for her first long-distance mountain bike race and her tips for success at the Silver Rush 50. 

When a technical feature forces you off your bike, don’t skip it! Challenging sections of trail provide you an opportunity to progress your bike handling skills, build confidence in your abilities and identify potential areas for improvement. You can safely and confidently approach challenging terrain with these six steps.

Raising your functional threshold power and VO2 max capacity aren’t the only ways to get faster. Improvements in your cycling economy are also on the table and can come with major performance benefits. Here’s how you can actively target your cycling economy with additions to your training and adjustments to your form.

Taking on a century ride can be a daunting task, especially when it’s your first. But with the right century training plan, you’ll be ready for the long haul. With these training tips and tricks, you can feel confident that you’ve got the necessary information to nail your first 100-mile ride.

Functional Threshold Power (FTP) is a crucial cycling metric. Increasing your FTP improves your ability to hold higher power for longer—making you a faster cyclist. In this guide, we’ll cover the best ways on how to increase FTP.

You can build a strong aerobic base, in a time efficient and effective manner, with a structured base training plan. Here’s why base training and aerobic fitness are important for every cyclist and how you can make sure you’re building your base properly for the season and goals that you have.

For full-distance triathletes, crossing the finish line at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, is the ultimate accomplishment. Getting to the event can be just as challenging as racing it, though. In this episode of the Successful Athletes Podcast, Ray Brunker shares what he did to earn a Kona qualification and his recommendations for other athletes who want to do the same.

Hot weather’s adverse physical impact on endurance performance can elevate the difficulty of any workout, race, or ride. Fortunately, you can improve your execution in the heat through heat acclimatization and mitigate its adverse effects with additional preparation.

Mid-volume training plans are best for athletes who can handle a higher training load but still want flexibility in their training schedules. You can determine if mid-volume is right for you by looking at your current training volume, goals, fitness, and schedule.

The longer and more intense a training session is, the more crucial your mid-ride nutrition becomes. Knowing when to consume liquids, gels, and solids can help you make an on-the-bike nutrition plan that includes the best fuels for you and your ride.

Target the power fundamental to criterium racing with these five workouts for crit racers. Use them to fine-tune your established fitness, build essential skills, or introduce criterium-specific interval training to your schedule.

When Dylan Schlageter joined his middle school mountain bike team, he didn’t anticipate just how far he’d progress as an XC cyclist. Now with several years of training and racing under his belt, Dylan shares his improvements and what he would recommend to other junior athletes who want to take their training to the next level.

The flexibility of a low-volume training plan makes it an excellent fit for a variety of schedules, goals, and abilities. If you’re considering a low-volume plan, here are the advantages of low-volume training and how to know if it’s the best volume for you.

An upcoming season of racing means it’s time to run through your pre-season checklist. Here are five things you can do before the first race of the year to round out your preparation and increase your confidence on race day.

We’re using machine learning to improve our training plans. With the help of Adaptive Training’s new, data-driven Workout Levels, we’ve added 641 new workouts to our workout library and updated all of the TrainerRoad training plans to be even more progressive.

At the end of a training block, it’s time to dial it back and take a recovery week. While a week may seem like a long time to focus on recovery, it can be one of the most productive weeks in your training plan when you give it the care and attention it needs.

Get prepared for mountain biking’s unique and demanding physical challenges with these five great workouts for mountain bikers. Use them to sharpen your mountain bike fitness, build upon important skills, or introduce off-road-specific interval training to your schedule.

Recovery is one of the most impactful parts of a training plan and should be prioritized by all goal-oriented cyclists. You can maximize your recovery with a dedicated recovery process, scheduled rest, and extra attention to your sleep and nutrition.

After winning the Individual Time Trial National Championships in 2014 Thrude Natholmen set her eyes on the next big goal. But when this goal didn’t come together it became a struggle to hold onto motivation and stay on the right track. Learn how Thrude found a new perspective and pushed through her setbacks in this episode of the Successful Athlete’s Podcast.

Can taking beetroot supplements increase an athlete’s aerobic capacity? It may depend. Looking at the benefits, caveats, and trade-offs to beetroot supplementation can help you decide whether or not it’s right for you.

Cycling training doesn’t just fatigue your legs — it can also tire out your brain. Knowing the impact that training has on subsequent mental awareness can help you anticipate the cognitive demands of training and racing.

You can extend the benefits of strength training into your cycling training season with a basic maintenance routine. Here’s how you can tell when it’s time for strength training maintenance and how to start building your own strength training maintenance routine.

Some of the supplements recommended to endurance athletes are necessary to performance, while others offer only minor benefits. You can determine which ones are right for you with a look at your diet and an assessment of the pros and cons that come with each supplement.

The flexible yet progressive structure of the low-volume training plan works with a variety of schedules and experience levels—making it the go to volume for many goal driven athletes. To help you get the most out of your low-volume plan here are five tips from TrainerRoad athletes who have used a low-volume training plan to get faster.

We know that the quantity of carbohydrates ingested after exercise impacts the replenishment of glycogen stores, but what about the type of carbohydrates ingested? Does ingesting glucose and fructose, as opposed to just glucose, impact subsequent endurance performance?

You can use the structure of your periodized cycling training plan to guide the progression of your strength training. This approach can help you reach strength specific goals without interfering with your cycling workouts.

Increase your power and raise your FTP with a Build Training Phase. Totaling eight weeks, the Build Phase’s are structured to raise your FTP, improve your repeatability, and increase your work capacity. Build is also the first opportunity in a training progression to focus on the specific skills, and power capabilities demanded in your field of racing or riding.

While cyclists need training stress to promote physical adaptations, too much of it can have the opposite effect. A prolonged period of insufficient recovery and excess training stress can lead to non-functional overreaching, and ultimately to overtraining syndrome.

Consistency over time is the surest way to becoming a faster cyclist, but staying consistent doesn’t always come easily. In this week’s Successful Athletes Podcast, Michael Brophy shares the real strategies that have helped him train consistently, nail his process goals, and reach 5w/kg amid a busy schedule.

When Egert Purre decided to race the 2020 Estonian Time Trial National Championship he didn’t think he had a shot at winning. At best he hoped to earn third in his age group, and ideally he’d finish in the top five. His performance on race day told a different story though. Egert left everything he had out on the course and ended up finishing with the fastest time in his age group.

Over the past year, Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast host Amber Pierce has offered key guidance on staying motivated, training skills, and creating a healthy and sustainable training process. In case you missed them the first time around, or just need a quick refresher, here are the top ten training takeaways Amber’s given on the podcast (so far!).

With the right training plan, skills, and equipment, you can take on any gravel race. Here’s everything you need to prepare for your next gravel event or your first big gravel race.

If you want to race cyclocross or are looking to take it more seriously, Successful Athlete, Laura Alagna, is here to share her tips for getting started with cyclocross and getting a cat two upgrade.

Running a longer crank might seem like it will increase power, but for most cycling disciplines, the research suggests otherwise. Here’s why you should opt on the shorter side and prioritize comfort over leverage when choosing a crankset.

Improvement comes in all shapes and forms. But behind every improvement, there’s always hard work, consistency, and dedication. In this round of Success is for Everyone, three TrainerRoad athletes share the training plans and strategies that helped them reach their goals and raise their FTP’s along the way.

When faced with an uncertain road to recovery, Sloane Tilley took it slow and approached each obstacle one step at a time. Her hard work and diligence paid off, and she got faster, stronger, and healthier along the way. Here’s how Sloane recovered from a horrific accident and what you can take from her inspiring story.

With the right training plan and good technique anyone can become a faster climber. Here’s the training, pacing, nutrition, and skills that will help you summit hills faster and more efficiently.

Training all of your energy systems for the demands and challenges of your racing and goals takes time. This season, ditch your short term training plan for a long term approach and add a training plan to your Calendar that aligns with all of your goals.

Sika Henry is an elite level triathlete with outstanding accomplishments in the sport of triathlon and has an important role in the triathlon community. In this week’s Successful Athlete’s Podcast, Sika shares some of her insights into training and racing, her personal progression into triathlon, an inspiring comeback story, and much more.

Time and time again, we return to base training. But why? Is it possible to skip base training when you’re fit? Can you derail your progression with early season racing or even too much base? Here’s the answer to these common base training questions and the goals behind base training.

A structured mountain bike training plan is the most effective and efficient way to build the power and endurance necessary for the demands of mountain biking. Cross country, Enduro, and Downhill athletes can get faster with a training plan specific to their racing discipline and the terrain they ride.

Your lifestyle and daily routine are more closely related to your training than you may realize. Daily stress, training habits, your support system, and the learning you do off the bike are elements of lifestyle that play a role in your training. Knowing how the elements of your daily life impact your training can help you optimize these elements so that your training plan complements your routine and reinforces your goals daily.

You don’t need to make big changes to see big improvements. Optimizing your training routine with the addition of a few small habits can have a significant impact on your progression in the long run. Here are eight little habits you can easily add to your routine to train better and get faster.

Progress isn’t always linear— and that’s not a bad thing. TrainerRoad successful athlete Jack Turnbull shares his journey through the ups and downs of his progression and how he’s adjusted his training to sustain a 4.8 power to weight ratio.

You need sufficient, high quality nutrition to fuel your workouts, aid your recovery, and promote your body’s physical adaptations. When you’re not fueling properly you’re short changing the training process, and your body’s ability to work harder and get faster.

The Training Elements of Getting Faster are ten training principles, that when actively applied to your training, can help you get faster and make the most of your hard work.

There are times when getting out of the saddle is better than staying seated. But because standing is inherently less efficient, standing isn’t beneficial unless you practice. Here’s how you can become more efficient at pedaling out of the saddle and how you can integrate the right amount of practice for the racing that you do.

There comes a point in a cyclist’s progression where unstructured distance isn’t enough to stimulate improvement. Jozsef Evans used structure and performance based goals to continue his progression and get faster. In a matter of a few months, the structure paid off and helped Joe increase his watts per kilogram from 3.1 to 4.2. Here’s how Jozsef did it.

Becoming a skilled technical rider doesn’t just happen — it takes hard work and dedication. Professional MTB racer Sparky Moir Sears shares how she developed her technical riding skills and continues to grow those skills on a weekly basis to be a faster and more capable XC racer.

When you have multiple hard workouts per week, the recovery in between those workouts is crucial. 2018 Elite XCO World Champion, Kate Courtney, shares how to get the most out of your down time so that you can nail your next hard workout.

The mental work you put into your preparation is as valuable as the physical work. 2018 XCO Elite World Champion, Kate Courtney, shares some insight into her racing head space and what she does to prepare for unexpected challenges in a XC race.

Sometimes maintaining a consistent training schedule is easier said than done. When you’re struggling to keep your training on track, trying some new strategies can help. Here’s what five successful athletes have done to maintain a consistent workout regimen and keep their training consistent from one goal to the next.

Balancing a demanding training load with a busy schedule is a challenge for any athlete. Entrepreneur, mother, and professional mountain bike racer, Sonya Looney, shares how she fits training into her busy schedule without compromising the time and responsibilities that are important to her. Share your success story and tell us how TrainerRoad helped you […]

Here’s how professional mountain bike racer Alex Wild warms up for XC MTB races and preps his starts to make them as smooth and as powerful as possible.

If you’re ready to give training, racing, or cycling a try, now’s the perfect time to get started and plan your first season. Planning your training season is easy to do and can provide you with the tools and support you need to successfully achieve your goals.

Consistent training makes you faster and can even prevent training setbacks. Here’s how you can keep your training consistent and adjust your plan to reinforce your long term goals.

Longtime friends and stage racing teammates, Alex Mallet and Brandon Watson, did their first major stage race at one of the most challenging stage races in the world —the Cape Epic in Cape Town, South Africa. From their achievements to their mistakes, here’s how Alex and Brandon tackled their first big stage race, and what they recommend to any athlete interested in mountain bike stage racing.

Hitting a fitness plateau doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve reached your physical limits. Reassessing your training, your nutrition, and your recovery can help you address and push through a fitness plateau.

In road racing the size of the field plays an important role in the demands of the race. You can use the tactical principles of field size to adjust your tactics for different field sizes.

After successfully Everesting in January of 2018, TrainerRoad athlete JJ Zhou decided to take on a new Everesting challenge —Everesting on Mount Everest. On this week’s successful athletes podcast, JJ goes over his preparation for his Mt. Everest ride and what he did to adjust his pacing, training, and planning for a high altitude goal.

Knowing how to recognize unhealthy training habits and make positive adjustments can make you faster, prevent exercise addiction, and help you foster a positive long-term relationship with your sport.

When you reach your limits during a workout, pushing through the mental discomfort can be as challenging as pushing through the physical discomfort. But just as your fitness can improve with training, so can your mental stamina. You can sustainably challenge and expand your limits with a growth mindset and incremental steps forward. For more […]

Taking your structured workouts outside with Outside Workouts doesn’t just benefit your fitness. You can also use your Outside Workouts to reinforce technical skills, work on outside conditioning and prepare for the specific challenges of your events.

Come every August, hundreds of athletes gather in the small town of Leadville, Colorado to test their abilities and challenge their endurance at the Leadville Trail 100 MTB. For many athletes, the objective is to conquer the course and get across the finish line, an incredible accomplishment in and of itself. But for a subset of athletes there’s an added challenge – to finish the race in less than nine hours.

Exercise-associated muscle cramps can be a frequent issue for endurance athletes. If you experience exercise-associated muscle cramps you can use sodium intake, hydration, stretching and maybe even some hot sauce to proactively treat and prevent your muscle cramps.

You might need extra water and electrolytes for your indoor workouts. You can make the most of your indoor training sessions by planning your hydration around your sweat rate, and using a fan to assist your body’s evaporative cooling process.

Use breathing to your advantage. You can improve performance, mental stamina, and focus with respiratory muscle training and active breathing techniques.

Get faster with better recovery. Athletes can make the most of their recovery week with activities and practices that assist the recovery process.

Taking structured workouts outside is easy when you have the right data displayed on your Wahoo head unit.

There are a number of steps that cyclists can take to make their rides safer. If you’re going to ride outside keep your rides as safe as possible with these additional precautions and appropriate safety measures.

When you have extra time to train, you can enhance your training plan with additional workouts and maintenance activities. Adding extra training can be beneficial when added appropriately.

Balanced, timely exercise can be beneficial to your mental health, improve your sense of well being, and in some cases alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression.

When you don’t have events on the Calendar, attempting to get the fastest time on a Strava segment can be a fun and motivating training goal. As long as you can do it safely and in compliance with your local ordinances, here are some tips to help you grab that KOM or QOM.

Female athletes can use an individual cost and benefit analysis to determine if the use of hormonal birth control is affecting their performance negatively or positively.

Only doing all-out efforts isn’t the key to getting faster. Athletes can get faster with a structured training plan that develops multiple energy systems and promotes long term adaptation.

When you know what to eat and when to eat, eating natural, non processed foods is a simple and effective way to fuel your workouts.

Life happens and plans change. If your events have been canceled or rescheduled, don’t worry. Plan Builder can help keep your training on track. You can adjust your training plan, event schedule, and calendar to make sure you can reach peak fitness on race day.

Performing a good ramp test is a crucial first step to high-quality structured training. Use these tips to get the most accurate results possible and keep your training on track.

Finding the right route makes outdoor interval training much more effective. Match your route to specific types of workouts with these tips.

You don’t need an event on your Calendar to benefit from a structured training plan. If you are an athlete who doesn’t race but wants to get faster or just maintain fitness, you can use Plan Builder to build a custom training plan. A custom plan can help you build the fitness you need to achieve your everyday cycling goals and the power needed to take on those bigger training goals.

Crashes are a scary, but a very real, part of racing. When you race in bigger events with larger fields the likelihood of seeing or dealing with a crash only increases. Knowing how to protect yourself in a tight field, and when you should go to the pit, can help you safely stay in the race.

If you want to get more out of your training and add Training Stress (TSS) to your week, you don’t need to crank up the intensity of your workouts to do so. Add TSS to your week with adjustments that are easy to integrate and consistently maintain.

You don’t need a big team to accomplish a race winning leadout. You can execute a successful lead out with just one other teammate. With a good plan and intentional execution you and your teammate can stack the odds in your favor and get one of you across the finish line first.

Good habits around training can improve your workouts and assist your body’s ability to adapt, recover and perform. Making a conscious effort to improve training habits can help you grow your FTP and achieve your training goals.

Mountain bike races start out hard as racers push to get to the singletrack first. But while all riders start out going hard, the best riders can do so efficiently without blowing up.

A busy schedule can make it tough to stick to a training plan. While balancing your training and a busy schedule can be tricky, there are plenty of ways to make a low volume plan fit for you. Picking the right training plan and learning how to make adjustments to this plan can help you get faster and achieve your goals.