As an athlete, you know you dread it: Deep into a training cycle a workout shows up in your plan that you fear you’re probably not going to finish. And you don’t finish. You’ll annotate the file or note in …
Category: High Intensity Training
The Myth of FTP
It’s pretty hard these days to escape the concept of Functional Threshold Power, or FTP. A quick Google search will produce statements such as: “FTP is the single most important physiological determinant of performance in events” “FTP has become the …
Speed vs PURE SPEED on the Bike
“Fast” is a vague term in cycling that means different things in different contexts. We might say that someone who can hold 29 mph for an hour is fast, or say the same thing of someone who can sprint to …
Going the Extra Mile: The Costs and Benefits of Supplemental Training
Racing, especially stage racing, favors those willing to train long and hard and to suffer intensely, so serious bike racers exercise in ways that sound crazy to non-racers. Occasionally, some racers train to such an extent that even us cyclists …
Going the Extra Mile: The Costs and Benefits of Supplemental Training Read More »
The Ugly Truth About Training Zones
Exercise physiology textbooks generally devote several chapters to the three energy systems that power muscle contractions and how the three systems interact to support various intensities and durations of exercise. They tell us that adenosine tri-phosphate or ATP is the …