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Coaching Updates: High Intensity Trainer Workouts and Announcements

Start thinking about next season

For those of you who are ending your season soon and haven't thought about the next one, all I can say is:

WHY NOT!?!?!

You should be reviewing the successes and failures of your current season and thinking about your goals and aspirations for next season.  If you're contemplating hiring a coach to help you reach those goals, now is the time in the season to start thinking about it.  I've been hard at work  refining my training plans and building new workouts for my athletes.  Of course, one-on-one coaching is extremely focused and for that reason I limit the number of athletes I'm able to coach one-on-one.  Check out my coaching services if you're thinking of recruiting a little help to ensure you meet your goals.  Hoping to race Battenkill?  Want to PR at Gran Fondo NY?  Have a crit series on the calendar?  I've got the tools to make you leaner, stronger and faster, if you've got the drive and commitment.

 HIT Workouts

As some of you may have seen from my Strava uploads, I've been busy testing a number of different High Intensity Trainer (HIT) workouts recently.  These workouts are specifically designed for indoor trainer use (and with the shortening days and the holidays not far off, that's where you'll find most of us very soon) and are designed to build fitness and fundamental skills in very short times.  I've made the first few of the available on my Training Plans page, and keep your eyes open for more and more of them.  As a bonus (or an incentive, depending upon who you are) I'll be including ALL of my HIT workouts in my one-on-one coaching programs at NO extra charge!  That means you'll have access to these killer workouts as part of your customized training plans, giving you even MORE improvement in your speed, strength, skill and endurance.

Keep your eyes on this space for future coaching announcements and new workouts.

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Stress, Training and Real Life

Training StressStop and think for just a minute: how long has your season been?  6 months?  7 months?  8 months?  Here in the northeast, we were blessed (or maybe cursed) with a lack of winter, so we've really been riding and training since December of last year.  That's a LONG season, especially when you consider that many cyclists are just now gearing up for the impending cyclocross season, which will extend through December in most places.  Imagine a periodized training plan with peaks and valleys, builds and tapers, for NEARLY A YEAR!!  That's a LONG season, and it's not easy to pull off.  In fact, I found that to be the case in recent weeks.

Why do I bring up this topic?  Well, today I spent quite a bit of time thinking about it while on a training ride.  I had enough time to think through the last few weeks and gained some insight into my training and life.

Maybe you'll gain some insight into your own training and stress as well….

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Beginner’s Guide to Training With Power (part 2)

If you missed the first part of the Beginner's Guide to Training With Power series of articles, it would be a good idea to go back and read it.  Go ahead, I'll wait…

Done reading?  Good.  You should have a good idea about FTP, W/Kg, Training Levels/zones and more.  Now, let's take a look at some more power-based metrics, specifically power training zones.  You may recall the definition from my last article:

Power Training Levels/Zones: Along with FTP, these dictate (roughly) the energy systems used at certain power levels and allow a rider to train specific systems to get specific gains.  These may be described as “zones” or “levels” interchangeably.

We'll discuss what each zone is, what energy systems it uses and how long it is sustainable below:

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Beginner’s Guide to Training With Power (part 1)

Training with power is consistently hailed as the next step for any cyclist who is looking to improve their fitness.  While that's true, most cyclists who are in the market for a power meter are hesitant to purchase one.  The biggest reason I've run into is hesitation on how to actually utilize such an instrument.

But why?

A power meter is wonderful and spits out bucket loads of data, but the one thing that it won't do is make you faster.  It will, with some practice and some simple analysis allow you to train to become faster.  In this series of articles, we'll look at a few of the basics that beginning power meter users need in order to train smarter.

Click through for some definitions you'll need to know when you start training with power:

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Keeping Cool in the Heat

With spring here in full force and summer right around the corner, most cyclists are switching gears from cold weather preparation to warm weather preparation.  While warm weather certainly has its own challenges, one of the biggest (aside from remaining well hydrated) is keeping cool to prevent heat-related illness.  Keeping cool can often mean the difference between ground breaking success and crushing failure on rides, races and gran fondos.

If you're finding yourself wilting in the sun, check out my top tips for keeping cool in the heat after the break:

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