Imagine sitting down with someone and having a coaching discussion at your dining room table. That’s basically what my “coaching discussion” archives are. These archives are a repository for all the coaching discussion I’ve penned in the past few years.
Browse through the archives of my coaching discussion and learn how to be a stronger cyclist. Don’t forget you can contact me with questions or check out the Tailwind Coaching Newsletter for more great coaching discussion.
Watts per kilogram is an important measurement in determining your cycling potential. On the surface, it's a simple measurement, but it can give a ton of information about your performance and strengths. But what exactly can you learn about your cycling by looking at your W/Kg measurements? In this article you'll learn what W/Kg is, how to use it effectively to plan and execute your training and a couple ways to improve your power to weight ratio.
Watts per kilogram, often abbreviated W/Kg is a measure of power to weight. It takes the amount of power you produce at various time periods and divides it by how heavy you are. Sounds pretty simple, right? In theory, it is. But like everything in your cycling training, there's more to it than just a number. Click through to learn a little bit more and figure out why W/Kg is so important.
Indoor cycling training has been changed forever since the introduction of Zwift. For those of you who are unaware, Zwift is an online platform for “virtual” riding and training. It is set in a variety of places, from the London and Richmond UCI World Championships courses to an island in the south pacific known as “Watopia.” Wherever you end up riding, you'll be thrown together with thousands of other cyclists from around the world. It only takes a few cheap pieces of technology to interface with the program. Once connected, each cyclist can pedal on their own or join friends from around the world in a virtual training environment.
Nobody has to worry about bad weather, traffic, flat tires (hopefully!) or wearing the right clothing. Everything is accomplished from your own trainer in your own home.
But what is it that makes Zwift such an efficient indoor cycling training tool? How can you use it to improve your fitness more than you ever imagined? I'll guide you through a ton of different ways to use Zwift. I'll give you a bunch of ways to add variety to your workouts and get the most out of your free riding time.
Click through the jump and start learning how to build the best fitness possible with Zwift:
The virtual training paradise known as Zwift Island (also called “Watopia”) has recently gotten a little bit bigger. On Monday, January 23rd, the Zwift island volcano expansion dropped. An entirely new route has become available, offering yet another training ground option for riders to conquer.
After riding the route several times, I've got a few tips to help you get the most fitness possible out of the volcano loop.
I'll start out by saying that I'm a huge proponent of using a smart trainer (like the Elite Drivo or Wahoo Kickr) with Zwift. One of the biggest complaints of riding a trainer is that it doesn't feel like riding outside. A smart trainer goes a long way towards mimicking the feel of outdoor training. By utilizing Zwift with a smart trainer, it also mimics real world conditions. This means even a “flat” road isn't really flat. Slight variations in gradient can change the type of training significantly. This is where a smart trainer shines, and you can read more detailed posts about training on Zwift with a smart trainer here.
That being said, click through the break to find out what kind of training I recommend on the new volcano expansion.
Zwift has revolutionized the way we train indoors with a trainer. The emergence of smart trainers has turned Zwift into an immersive virtual riding experience. Muscular endurance (ME) is one of the basic fundamental skills that create a well-rounded cyclist, but it can be boring to accomplish on a trainer. Combining the two together provides you the opportunity to get tons of high-quality training and keep things from getting stale. But before you can go about building a ton of muscular endurance and making your body bulletproof, you have to understand what the goal of a ME interval is.
So, first of all, what is muscular endurance and why is it important?
Muscular endurance is your body's ability to resist muscular fatigue under pedaling tension. That pedaling tension is where the magic happens in your pedal stroke. The more tension in the pedals, the more power gets to the rear wheel and the faster you go. I'm sure you've experienced a time when you have to really dig in and push hard to catch your riding buddy. After a short time, your legs start to get heavy and tired and you have to rest. The more times you have to repeat this kind of move, the harder it becomes because your legs are just tired out. Maybe your legs cramp up or maybe you just can't make the move. No matter what the outcome, you just need more ME training in your program.
In this article I'm going to give you tips to improve your muscular endurance training with Zwift. Click through the jump to find out how:
What is your cycling training plan looking like this year?
The base period is the perfect time to evaluate your past seasons and see what you can improve upon. If you're looking to switch up your goals or make a change in your training, now is the time. Following the same training plan every year will make you stale, so you need to switch it up.
Don't think you need to change things up to get more fitness? Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Switching up your training can be what you need to boost yourself out of a rut and into the winner's circle. The only problem is that kind of fitness isn't easy to build.
To help you get a jump on that new, event-crushing fitness, I've got a great deal to help you out. Click through to get the details and start your journey to kick-ass fitness!
