Answer: The emphasis is no longer placed on growing fitness like it was during the Base and Build phases; rather, the focus of the Specialty phase is placed on event specificity. A reduced TSS allows flexibility for weekly racing opportunities during the final phase before your key event. The Importance of Dropping TSS as You…
Answer: FTP increases and applying different forms of training stress require small planned decreases in TSS to maximize training benefits. Reduce TSS Between Training Phases to Get Faster Within a progressively structured training plan, each new week sees a slight increase in the overall amount of stress (TSS), while each workout sees a similar bump…
Answer: For most athletes, no. Depending on the familiarity and experience with an FTP value, athletes can realistically sustain the power level of FTP in a range from about 40-70 minutes. ** Our default testing format to estimate an athlete’s FTP was changed to the TrainerRoad Ramp Test since this post was published Why Your…
Ever wonder about recovery intervals? The purpose they serve, the durations they last, even the intensities they’re prescribed at? You’re not alone… We had the same question, and so we talked about it in depth on episode of 114 of the Ask a Cycling Coach podcast. Here’s an expansion of that discussion. Furthering performance capabilities…
The infamous fitness plateau is a state no athlete wishes to face. We’re going to make sure you never find yourself there. Throughout this discussion, we will introduce two foundational theories to understand what happens to our bodies when we train. By doing so, we aim to illuminate why certain practices yield results, while others achieve…
This article is part 2 of 3 in a series focused on maximizing your training. Check out the next article here. When it comes to endurance sports nutrition, it can all essentially be broken down into two categories: what to eat and when to eat. While most athletes, coaches, and dietitians focus on the…
2015 is here and with it are new goals and challenges. While training may be vastly different for each of us depending on our genre of racing/riding, it’s safe to say we are all striving for a certain “race weight” that we want to be at as we charge into the new season. As endurance athletes, trying…
When you think of training, do visions of health and fitness come to mind? Most likely they do, and for good reason. Consistent exercise and training obviously offer many health benefits. But for many athletes, it also carries the risk of going too far, actually damaging muscles and cells, and causing fatigue and chronic soreness.In…
Only one week until your big race. You’ve made it. You’ve survived the training. You’ve started to taper. But what should you eat now? There’s plenty of conflicting advice out there to confuse most anyone. There’s “to carb load,” there’s “to carb starve,” there’s reducing calories, adding calories, and more. Clear as mud. Taper week…
They don’t call it the most important meal of the day for nothing. Here are a couple of tips to help you start the day off right with the perfect meal to fuel for whatever the occasion may be. 1. Purpose The first step in creating the perfect breakfast is identifying the purpose. What does…