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Planning Your Cycling Season Effectively

Planning Effectively For Next Season

It's the end of the cycling season once again, and that means it's time to start thinking about what you're goals for next season are.  In past episodes of the Tailwind Coaching Podcast, I've talked about setting effective goals and how to plan your season.  In this video, I'll answer a lot of the questions I've gotten recently about planning your season's training and show you how to use my Season Planning Worksheet to build your season.  I'll walk through setting your events into the program and setting up your training blocks.  I'll even show you how to modify and rearrange the training blocks as you add more events during the season!

If you've got any questions for me after watching the video, don't hesitate to contact me and I'll help you get your season sorted out!

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How Much High Intensity Interval Training Is Too Much?

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT or HIT) is a great way to get fit fast.  It's one of the go-to training tools when you need to build a bunch of fitness fast.  But like anything else in training or in life, there's something called “too much of a good thing.”

While it's very effective at raising your fitness, there's still a cost to high intensity training.  Between the high metabolic cost and the potential for a lot of repeatability, you can get into trouble fast.  Recently, I've gotten a ton of questions about how much is too much.  So it's time to delve into high intensity training again and figure out what you can and can't get away with.

Before we get started: take a look at my “HIIT The Science” podcast for some in-depth information about high intensity interval training pros and cons.  It's a great primer for this podcast and it'll give you a good idea of what high intensity interval training is all about.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:19 — 24.8MB)

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How to Build Your Own Cycling Training Camp

Have you ever wanted to train like a pro?  I know a lot of cyclists read about professional training camps and get a little bit jealous.  They travel to far away places and spend weeks riding together, training and bonding.  But if you're not a pro, a cycling training camp is out of reach, right?

Wrong!

You can build your own cycling training camp.  All you need it a little planning and a little structure to ensure you execute everything properly.  You don't even have to travel if you don't want to: you can hold a training camp in your own backyard.  Of course, having a place to “get away to” for your camp can make all that riding a little easier.  You can choose any place you want to hold your training camp, as long as you follow a couple of simple guidelines when you put it together.

Are you psyched to build some big fitness and feel like a pro?  Then click through the jump and learn more about how to plan and execute your very own cycling training camp.

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Evaluating Ride Data and Race Data

With the huge number of electronic gadgets attached to a bike these days, it's inevitable that cyclists will be inundated with data.  From speed, cadence and heart rate to power data (and even new technologies such as muscle oxygenation data), there's a mind-boggling collection of numbers to consider. But why even bother collecting data? Evaluating ride data is one of the biggest reasons most cyclists collect data and it can tell you a lot about your ride if you know how to look at it the right way.

In this video, I'll walk through evaluating ride data from several race performances.  I'll describe what I look for and how you can use that information to improve your training and riding.

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Effective Peaking and Tapering for Cycling Performance

Peaking and tapering are essential to a high quality performance in a race or event.   They are often overlooked by your average cyclist and may be the missing piece in your successful training program.  Without a well thought out, well executed peak, your body may be too tired to perform or too flat (from lack of stimulus) to successfully execute the necessary work to succeed in your race or event.  If you ignore the importance of a proper taper, you'll find yourself struggling to build further fitness or worse, dip a toe into the frigid waters of overtraining.  In either case, you'll find yourself disappointed and struggling to piece together what went wrong.

In this episode of the Tailwind Coaching Podcast, you'll learn what peaking and tapering are, why they are an integral part of any training program and how to apply the concepts of successful peaking and tapering to your own training program.

Click through for the show notes and remember that the sponsor for this episode of the Tailwind Coaching Podcast is Stages Cycling.  Check out their power meters and help support the show, and don't forget to rate the podcast on iTunes!  You can also check out my new resources page and get a head start on reading some of my most popular articles!

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