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Coaching: Rolling A Climb

Most people think a climb is over when you crest the top.  That's just not true.  In fact, the top of any climb is just the beginning of something else.  And that something else can be one of the greatest tricks in your arsenal.

To put in perspective how you can add a powerful weapon to your climbing quiver, let me ask you a question: How many times have you seen someone crest a climb, only to drop their head and soft pedal (or worse, coast) over the crest?

Let me ask you another question: How many times have you seen determined chaser manage to close a big gap by driving through the crest of that climb?

I know I've seen it all the way from the Pro Tour ranks down through the smallest group rides.  And I know that the guys riding out the crest of the climb are getting a lot of extra speed that the soft pedalers are missing out on.  I'll also tell you something: the physiological cost of that speed is really, REALLY small.

Read more about getting bonus speed in the hills after the break:

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5 Secret Tips For Huge Gains This Season – Podcast #53

Do you have big goals this season?  Are you trying to break a gran fondo PR or win your favorite race?  Are you stuck on how to make this season your best season on the bike?  A lot of the cyclists I talk to have ambitions such as those I mentioned, but they don't necessarily know to go about achieving them.  They keep on doing the same things they've done for the past couple of seasons and hope they will magically find more fitness than they did before.  This approach is how Einstein defined insanity: “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

I've got a few tips and tricks to help you make that leap from a “good season” to a “great season”, and I'm going to share them in today's podcast.  Check out the show notes, links and episode guide after the jump:

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Analyzing Your Cycling Season (Podcast #52)

If you don't know the strengths and weaknesses of your fitness, how can you possibly begin to work on them?  If you don't analyze your season, how can you possibly know your strengths and weaknesses?  Sure, you can probably guess at those strengths and weaknesses and you might get some of them right, especially the glaring ones like “I can't climb too well”.  Some other weaknesses aren't as obvious, and guessing at your fitness strengths and weaknesses, training blind and  then hoping for the best is a ticket to failure, or if not failure, sub-optimal performance in races, group rides and fondo rides.

It should sound obvious that you need to do some evaluation of last season's failures, but you should also evaluate your successes so you can improve upon your best performances.  In this episode of the Tailwind Coaching Podcast I'll discuss some tricks for what went right and what went wrong last season, along with why you're reviewing your season now and how to change your training in the coming months.

Click through for show notes and more information:

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Effective Base Building (Podcast #51)

When you hear the term “cycling base training” many of you think of cycling base training, involving long slogs through frozen tundra and icy winds.  Those of you who are racers or competitive fondo riders may believe that the necessary base miles for competitive cycling are long, boring and low intensity, with little variety.  Other, more recreational riders may think about watching the Tour de France while they spin away on the indoor trainer for a couple hours per week, hoping to get a jump on their group riding buddies.  I've got a newsflash for you: those impressions are OLD SCHOOL and couldn't be further from the truth.

In reality, base training should be taken to it's most primal definition, one that's hidden within the term itself.  “Base training” should be the activity done to build a solid BASE for your future fitness, both on and off the bike.

Just like the base of the human body is the core (everything attaches to it, everything works through it, so it's the true base of the body), the base of your fitness involves the core and everything contained within it, including your heart, lungs, and cardiovascular system.  As an extension of your core, your legs have something to do with this too.  Since they're the stems that attach your core to your pedals and they are important to build a base of fitness for as well.  So it's not just accumulating saddle time that should be your focus (although you really do need saddle time), but what you do WHILE accumulating saddle time.

In this episode of the Tailwind Coaching Podcast, I'll talk about the importance of base training and how you can be more effectively base training than you are now.

Read more after the jump, including:

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Recover Like A Pro (Podcast #50)

Have you ever heard that your body doesn't get stronger through training?  It's an odd thing to think about, but it's inherently true.  Training is the overloading stimulus that (hopefully) pushes your body beyond it's comfort zone.  Once you've pushed beyond the constraints of your fitness you need to allow the body to repair the damage that has been done to it and build it stronger for the next challenge.  But the recovery phase is something that many cyclists completely ignore, opting instead to sit on the sofa or worse, go for a recovery ride that turns into a workout.

In today's 50th episode of the Tailwind Coaching Podcast, I'll detail some of the do's and don'ts of recovery, including:

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