FasCat Cycling Training Tips Podcast

Spring is around the corner and that means dried-out roads, sunshine, and GRAVEL. While gravel riding and racing is super hot right now in the cycling world, there are still a lot of cyclists who are intimidated or unfamiliar with how it all works. So, in this episode, Coach Frank breaks the gravel skills down and offers some of his tried and true tips for gravel riding and racing as a veteran of the gravel scene (he's been doing it since before it was "cool"). 61385Gravel Training Plan to help you practice what's described in this podcast! In this podcast, Coach Frank covers: pack riding skills maintaining a line of sight body position and english on the bike braking cornering descending roots and mud Thanks to everyone for tuning in, subscribing and reviewing on Apple Podcasts, and for engaging in our forum! Save 25% on your next training plan with code 25podcast Let me start with the 3 different types of gravel courses that different kinds of gravel skills apply to: the Boulder Gucci gravel What I jest about here is that the dirt roads around Boulder, CO are practically paved because out West Boulder County grades the dirt with giant tractors and treats the dirt by spraying the road with magnesium chloride (I think) to help bind the dirt and when the conditions are right – its smooth and hard pack just like a rough paved rough. Incidentally for those of you who live or have ridden in Costa Rica, you know many of the roads are dirt and they are treated with molasses to bind the dirt and keep the dust low. So riding in Costa Rica smells like pancakes. But I digress…. In either place not many gravel skills are necessary and I know that because I've ridden a road bike on these roads just as I would ride a road bike. In fact Boulder has historically held a road race called the Boulder-Roubaix on the Boulder gucci gravel and we all used our road bikes with maybe 25mm slick road tires. And nobody got hurt. The skills required are the same skills you need for road racing: To be able to ride in a pack, group, peloton Draft wheels Conserve energy from drafting and maneuvering in the pack to travel faster with less energy expenditure When I say draft I am speaking about the fact that aerodynamic drag is 30% less riding directly behind a rider in front of you than it is riding with no rider in front of you aka breaking the wind. Over 3-4-5-6 hours + that 30% adds up alot and you can travel farther and faster by riding in a group. Having a good group to ride with during a gravel race is kinda the holy grail to your performance especially in the final quarter of the race when you are really tired. You'll go faster and be more motivated than being stuck out there by yourself in no man's land questioning your life's decisions. How do you work on your pack riding gravel skills: why by George practice by riding in groups. This where a lot of roadies excel and why you see a lot of them coming over to gravel. That and they are aerobic endurance monsters. So to practice you need to seek out opportunities to work on you drafting and your pack riding skills. This is why we are such fans of the weekend group rides and the weeknight crits and group rides. I said crit – yes – crit racers are some of the best drafters in the sport of cycling (trackies too) but a good crit racer can draft like nobodies business and out sprint , out kick you on the last lap. Want to improve your pack riding, drafting gravel skills – do a crit. Or a road race – that counts too. In fact, the first 30-60 minutes of a gravel race is just like a fast paced road race. Therefore seek out road races to work on your gravel skills. Of course you can do gravel races to work on your gravel skills because by doing you are practicing. And with more practice you'll improve and become more comfortable riding at speed in close proximity to other riders. All the while it is dusty and bumpy. Familiarity plays a big factor. So practice practice practice. I'll give you an aside about pack riding skills to put it in perspective for gravel racing. When I worked for USA Cycling and Directed the US National Women's Team at all the world cups like Flanders, Drenthe Plouay, etc… pack riding skills was many time the rider's biggest challenge. The US National Team would take the best riders in the US used to slower speeds, bigger roads and a not as tight of a pack and put them on narrow unfamiliar roads, higher speeds , closer quarters and that was their biggest challenge. That's also why racing in Europe is important for athlete development – its a skill that comes from doing. There's no practice or drill or workout that is a substitute for riding in the European peloton. The point I want to make is to practice by doing when it comes to your gravel skills. The more gravel races you do the better you'll become at them, including our gravel pack riding skills. Okay – that covers the chaotic first 30 minutes of a gravel race but what about after that? After that you will be lucky to be in a smaller group of 6 – 12 riders. Same skills apply it is just not as scary. Your line of sight is much better! Let's talk about your line of sight because this is a big gravel skill. Your line of sight is drafting and looking ahead at the road/trail and seeing the smoother path. The path of least resistance AND making changes to your line to avoid that rock, or that hole in the dirt or the muddier line. Your line of sight is easier to see when you are out there all by yourself in the latter portion of the race but at the beginning of the race see the dirt is blocked by the pack and your attempt to draft better. Know why there are so many flats in the first two hours of the Dirty Kanza/Unbound? Because riders are desperate to find a better draft and don't see the sharp rock because they are literally glued to the wheel in front of them. What's the skill? Eyes up #1. Don't just look at the wheel just in front of you – looking ahead and around. Look Around # 2 – if possible – you'll be able to see better by riding an inch or two to the left or the right of the wheel in front of you – riding just to the side gives you a better line of sight. Sometimes that line of sight comes at the expense of the draft so its a balance. Do you trust the wheel, the rider in front of you and follow them verbatim or do you ride just a little off to the side? Its a balance – but don't use your brute strength in the first few hours of the race riding off to the side because that will come back to bite you in the last quarter of the race when you are dog tired. One final gravel skill or tactic is when riding in a group of 20 for example position yourself towards the front but not on the front for a better line of sight. You'll still have a good draft but less likely to be surprised by a rock, a rut, root, patch of mud etc… Kinda like the Paris-Roubaix entering the Ardennes Forest – be up front. But not on the front…. That covers the roadie esque portion of your gravel skills. You'll use those at nearly all your gravel races. Let's shift over to the gravel skills per the terrain – the gravel conditions getting away from the Boulder gucci gravel course and on to the medium and chunky sections – even sections that are like mountain biking. For these sections of a course line of sight is critical and the draft is not that important. In fact you will negotiate these sections better by not being around other riders. For example – you're riding in a pack, drafting well , traveling faster and life is good but you come to a singletrack section: The skill here is to enter that section first out of the group you are with or if not give the rider in front of you space ahead – like 3-5 bike lengths so you have a clear line of sight to handle the turns, the rocks, mud, slick section, roots, etc…. Often times these sections are only a small fraction of the whole race so my best piece of advice is to try to negotiate them safely and then you can put the hammer down when the technical aspect is over and the gravel road is in better conditions. In cyclocross we use the adage, "you know what's slower than riding a section carefully? Crashing." Crashing is slower and often costly to you and your equipment. I know its cool and all to rail a section like Matthew van der Pool or Christoper Blevins but remember from our podcast with Amity Rockwell – the tortoise beats the hare every time. Your goal for these sections is to safely steadily negotiate your way thru. Gravel Skills include: Check your speed before entering a technical section Eyes up – look ahead Ride light – and by that we mean get up out of the saddle so if you do need to roll over a rock or a root your whole weight sitting on the bike does not compress the tire and potentially damage your rim, cause an flat etc… While you are out of the saddle use your knees and elbows like shock absorbers. Let the bike move up and down and around underneath you while your arms and legs are extending at your knees and elbows. I took a mountain bike lesson from 2000 World Downhill Mountain Bike Champion Myles Rockwell and he said – 'dance with the trail' let the bike move underneath you while you are stable To practice: ride your Gravel Bike on trails! Yea, its fun and will help you train and practice for these portions of your gravel race. So for the Boulder gucci gravel riders – head over to Dowdy Draw where the xc mountain bikers go and practice riding your gravel bike on the singletrack. This reminds me of the announcer of the Crusher and the Tushar which is billed as 'no matter what bike you choose, you'll be dead wrong at some point in the race' – and of course this was in the early days of gravel racing when some choose to ride a mountain bike and some choose to ride a cyclocross bike – the crusher had/has mountain bike sections and road bike sections. These days ride your gravel bike on mountain bike terrain as well as the road. Be diversified. The more you do it the better you'll become. Back to the more in the moment skills here are a few more tips to consider and implement when you are out there getting your groad on: Use your rear brake more than your front brake unless the traction is good and consistent. Like 70 % rear 30% front. This is especially important for descending and corners. Again criterium racers and cyclocrossers have the upper hand here and often times take their skills for granted. For cornering – my number 1 tip is to check your speed before you enter the corner. While you are coming up on the corner read the line and the terrain. Is it loose and dusty, muddy slick or buttery smooth? How tight is the corner what are the safe speeds? At the Crusher the corners come in the form of switchbacks on the descents and the speeds are really slow. At Steamboat Gravel the corners are more like bends in the road and the speeds are high and some don't even require braking at all. Just remembering the tortoise and the hare its better to go thru a corner safely than by crashing. No one ever finishes a gravel race wishing they'd of cornered faster. Descending! I'm gonna give you all my cyclocross skill tips here: Keep your weight back and feather your front break, use your rear brake more. To get your weight back even further stand up and get your hips behind your saddle over the back wheel. Keep your elbows loose to dance with the terrain and avoid having a death grip on the handlebars. Be loose and flowy so the bike can move underneath over rocks, roots, etc… Avoid the death grip. Hand position: hoods are ok but for better brake modulation be down in the drops – the curly bars as the enduro folk poke fun of us endurance types. To practice: descend! For the Bouder gucci gravelers – descending down the gravel section of Sunshine Canyon – it has similarities to Steamboat and the Crusher. The gravel road at the Crusher get chewed up big time and stutter bumps forms as well the corners get loose. So descend Sunshine when its like that : awful. You can let off the brakes more in the straight sections and check your speed as you enter the corners. Even in the drops keep your elbows and shoulder loose. If you can remember to laugh and flap your arms like a chicken you'll get bonus points. Steam crossings + Roots and Mud: Gravel skills for stream crossings mostly depends on how deep the water is, visibility and the conditions at the bottom. At the legendary Winter park Tipperary Creek MTB race way back when, Lance Armstrong was racing and came to the famous Tipperary Creek crossing in the lead of the race. In late summer the water was still running pretty high and there was no visibility to the rocks below. Rumor has it Big Tex did a full on superman endo with a full face plunge into the water. Local honch Jimi Killen who was about a minute or two behind dismounted and overtook Lance for the w. The point here is safe passage is faster than crashing. There's a lot of stream crossing at Unbound and a lot of flats after because the visibility is poor a riders slam a rock underneath. So run your big tire and don't be afraid to get off your bike if you can't see you line. Roots! There's dry roots and wet muddy slick roots. I still have PTSD from racing the NorBA Nationals at Mount Snow and in West Virginia. If at all possible square off and ride the roots perpendicular. Whatever you do try to avoid riding a root diagonally because the chances are much higher for the rubber tire to slip sideways on the smooth wet muddy root. That is nearly impossible at Mt Snow or West Virginia but thankfully I do not know of any gravel course that gnarly. Pick your way over these sections. Light out of the saddle eyes ahead, feather the front brake and this is where doing a course inspection will help a ton. Ie. riding the course and knowing about the sections coming up. Finally let's talk about mud! I think we've all seen the picture from the Mid-South last year – just soul crushing slow peanut butter heavy mud. The biggest mud riding skill is a light gear and to keep your momentum, moving forward. Once you stop or dab you are going to probably need to get off an run to a less muddy section or expend a lot of energy to get going again. Fortunately for most of the gravel races out west you'll be battling dust rather than mud. But races further east have the potential to be muddy and that means slower speeds and more patience is required. That is more tactics but skills are to simply keep your arms and shoulder loose – and honestly let the bike slide underneath you and keep your center of gravity overtop the bottom bracket. Avoid the death grip. Letting the bike slip around in the mud is for sure an acquired skill so how do you practice? That's right ride in the mud. 10,000 muddy miles for mastery. ha! Alright that's all the gravel skills I have for you in this podcast, if I missed some please let me know in the comments. My biggest take home point is that gravel skills is like riding a bike – the more you do it the better you'll become. So while you are out there FtFP'ing weave 10-20 minutes here and there to ride singletrack or mountain bikey terrain. Use your long gravel simulation rides not only for the physiological aspect of the training but for the skills practice too. Not only uphill but downhill as well! Copyright © 2021 FasCat Coaching – all rights reserved. Join our *FREE* Athlete Forum to nerd out with FasCat coaches and athletes about your FTP, race data, power based training, or anything related to going fast on the bike! To talk with a FasCat Coach about Over Under intervals for your training and racing, please fill out a New Athlete Questionnaire to set up a complimentary coaching consultation. The post Gravel Skills and Tips appeared first on FasCat.

"Happy spouse, happy house" is an important mantra to keep in mind as a cyclist. Training and racing can be a selfish endeavor, and it's often easy to get sucked into the tunnel vision of goals and TSS and forget about the home life. Coach Frank shares some Valentine's Day wisdom for finding and keeping balance in the household while still hitting your cycling goals! 59525Sweet Spot part 3 top off your base!" We are having a 30% off Valentine's Day sale! Use the coupon code FAST30 for 30% any training plan on FasCatCoaching.com. Note: if you've already used your limit 1 25podcast coupon this is your 2nd chance to save again. Thanks to everyone for tuning in, subscribing and reviewing on Apple Podcasts, and for engaging in our forum! Save 25% on your next training plan with code 25podcast The post The Relationship Podcast appeared first on FasCat.

Welcome to the 16th edition of our "Ask a FasCat" podcast series, where we gather questions from our forum, website, and social media to help you ride faster! This round Frank and Lacey dive into questions ranging from course pre-riding, long term development in cycling philosophy, starting training again after a crash, and tons more. Thanks to everyone for the thought provoking questions! 58364Sweet Spot part 3 – as mentioned in the podcast!" The FasCat community now has access to discounts on Stages products, learn more by clicking on the Stages logo in our latest power based training tip "Top 10 Reasons to Ask Santa for a PowerMeter" Show Notes: Leaving post-activity comments: https://fascat.wpengine.com/tips/how-to-leave-post-activity-comments-for-your-coach-and-be-coachable/ Secret Training: To Race or Not To Race: https://fascat.wpengine.com/tips/secrettraining-to-race-or-not-to-race/ How to use the VIPR tube: https://fascat.wpengine.com/tips/how-to-use-a-vipr/ Use 25podcast to receive 25% off your first training plan! Join our *FREE* Athlete Forum to nerd out with FasCat coaches and athletes about your FTP, race data, power based training, or anything related to going fast on the bike! Copyright © 2021 FasCat Coaching – all rights reserved. The post Ask a FasCat #16 appeared first on FasCat.

Show Notes: This week on the podcast we are talking about ways to help you stay motivated! That's right motivational tips and tricks to beat the mid-winter blues and follow your plan. Coach Frank with sound bites from Coaches Isaiah & Jake expand on using these 18 examples to stay motivated in order to achieve your goals: 57324Sweet Spot Part 3 with Over Unders and Criss Cross Intervals Remember your Goals Set a Daily Goal to FtFP (General McRaven's Make your Bed EveryDay) Make it Turn Green – same as above, daily goal Indoor Training – lower the barrier to completion If you have a 3 hour ride on your plan ride 1.5 hours one way so that you have to ride 1.5 hours to make it back home! Ride a different bike than the day before Ride in a new place or new route Set an FTP – plan a 20 min field test and or a Strava PR into your plan Travel to somewhere warm and sunny Ask yourself what would Alaphilippe Do (WWAD)? Coach Jake :: Zwift Meetups / Group Rides Coach Jake :: get to Daylight Savings Coach Isaiah : focus on progression goals Coach Isaiah :: focus on feeling faster / improvement sensations Sweet Spot TSS rides when there are no group rides Watch a Pro Race – like the World CX Champs in Ostend this past weekend Buy a Training Plan Hire a Coach Watch the podcast here: Listen on Spotify: Phil's Everesting Video with Coach Frank Dr. Michale Roshon's VeloNews about early season racing Previous Podcast Episode on Motivation Indoor Workout Motivation Don't forget Ask a FasCat # 16 is coming up and the deadline to submit your training and racing questions is 5pm mst February 4th. Thanks to everyone for tuning in, subscribing and reviewing on Apple Podcasts, and for engaging in our forum! Save 25% on your next training plan with code 25podcast The post Motivational Tips and Tricks appeared first on FasCat.

The recipes in our Winning in the Kitchen Meal Plans are designed to be template guides for meals and have nearly endless variations to fit your preferences and tastes. In this episode, Frank and Jackson discuss how to adapt a few of the recipes to change them up and how to approach incorporating the 5 key food groups for meal planning. Listen in to hear how to keep the kitchen exciting if you've been feeling uninspired with your meals! 56075Winning in the Kitchen Meal Plan! Show Notes: Meal Prep Guide: https://fascat.wpengine.com/tips/meal-prep-guide/ Eggs and Kale recipe: https://fascat.wpengine.com/tips/what-to-eat-for-breakfast/ Chipotle Rice Bowl: https://fascat.wpengine.com/tips/chipotle-burrito-bowl/ Salmon Watts: https://fascat.wpengine.com/tips/salmon-watts/ OG Winning in the Kitchen Podcast: https://fascat.wpengine.com/tips/winning-in-the-kitchen/ Thanks to everyone for tuning in, subscribing and reviewing on Apple Podcasts, and for engaging in our forum! For more things cycling training, visit http://fascat.wpengine.com. Save 25% on your next training plan with code 25podcast The post Winning in the Kitchen Recipe Variations appeared first on FasCat.

How about a little anaerobic work to go with your sweet spot base training? At FasCat in the wintertime we like to caress and nurture our athlete's anaerobic system. One training myth we'd like to dispel is to only do base training for 2-3 months. Why not do both simultaneously, in the right amounts. We've long been fans of fast fun wintertime group rides for the short 10 – 20 second forays above threshold we see in athlete's power data. While not a ton of time is spent above threshold there is value and benefit to including anaerobic work to your base training. After all, isn't this how the sport of cyclocross was invented? 54547Wintertime Intensity Training Plan. 1 hour workouts Zwift Compatible. This year a number of athletes are missing group rides not only for the social aspect but also for the training. And not only the base miles training and TSS but the anaerobic component that makes these group rides so beneficial. Doing a group ride on Zwift (not a race) over variable terrain with mixed high and low power output is OK but not quite the same as these 5 workouts we are presenting below. First, what is 'Wintertime Intensity'? Wintertime Intensity is 2 – 4 cumulative minutes of zone 6 work per hour. Two to four minutes is not a lot considering a one hour criterium or cyclocross race has more than half or 30 minutes spent in one's zone 6. Wintertime Intensity as you would guess is prescribed in the second half to final third of one's aerobic endurance phase or CTL build. As in our sweet spot part 3 plan or our new wintertime intensity plan. These variable power wintertime intervals mimic the power demands* of road, mountain bike, gravel, fondo, cyclocross and even punchy time trials. In this training tip, we'll describe the how, what, where, and why of wintertime intervals and give you five progressive workout examples plus a link to our WinterTime Intensity Training Plan that includes these 5 workouts** in an easy to follow, simple and affordable training solution. *surges in the peloton, steep pitches up climbs, switchbacks, and technical singletrack, cyclocross accelerations ** compatible with Zwift and others 3rd party riding app. The Wintertime Intervals are what we call variable power workouts and they have 5 main benefits: Specificity of real world conditions Help the time pass quicker during indoor training sessions! Concise short high quality 1 hour workouts (designed for indoors and ERG mode) but just as easily performed outside with longer zone 2 warm up and cool downs. Nurtures your Anaerobic System Provides an introductory amount of intensity to one's base training before the high intensity interval training phase Wintertime intervals are structured over under or criss cross style workouts with short 10 – 20 second efforts at the beginning and/or the end of the interval. For example 10 seconds @ 150% on FTP followed by 2 minutes and 40 seconds at Sweet Spot wattages and/or heart rates followed by 10 more seconds @ 150-200% of one's FTP before a 1:1 work to rest ratio 3 minute recovery. Then repeat. That's a 3 minute variable power sweet spot effort with 20 seconds total (10 second before and 10 second afters on zone 6 work of zone 6 work. One can do 6 of these in a one hour workout for 18 minutes of 'wintertime intensity' split 88 % sweet spot and 12 % anaerobic zone 6. Or 16 minutes of sweet spot work and 2 minutes of anaerobic work. That's a perfect ratio for your wintertime base training Dec-Jan-Feb. Now the progression lies in spending more time in sweet spot and more time in zone 6 in the context of a one hour workout. To get started with your wintertime intensity interval training we have the FasCat #1 Sweet Spot Cheetah Pounce" 4 x 6 minutes. We like to have a little fun with sports psychology and animal imagery in these workouts. And of course we are talking about the world's fastest land mammal, the cheetah. Carefully sweet spot stalk your prey (your prey being your training goals) at sweet spot wattages and/or heart rates for 5 minutes and 40 seconds and the "pounce!" on them for the final 20 seconds at a 115 – 150% FTP Zone 6+ effort. Pounce out of the saddle as if you were going for the win and and uphill sprint. Really give'er here because you have a 3 minute recovery interval after. Take a 2:1 work to rest ratio 2 minutes recovery and repeat 3 more times. If all goes well and you FtFP your power and heart rate data will look like this: note the 'extra credit' watts for the last Pounce – we encourage this! In total this will be 24 minutes of WTI with 94% or 22.66 minutes being Sweet Spot and 6 % and 1.34 minutes being Zone 6 Anaerobic. ERG mode is fantastic for these variable power workouts but toggle if OFF to be able to get 'EXTRA CREDIT" with more watts for the Pounce Pro Tip: Shift Down 3-4 seconds ahead of the pounce to be able to respond to to load the FasCat #2 Sweet Spot "Cheetah Pounce: is 6 x 4 minutes broken up into 2 sets Its a progression from the Cheetah Pounce # 1 Again visualize yourself as a cheetah stalking your prey, which is your A#1 training goal and sweet spot for 3 minutes and 40 seconds. Then just like #1 pounce out of the saddle for 20 seconds at a 115 – 150% FTP Zone 6+ effort. Again really get after the pound effort because you have a 2 minute recovery interval to catch your breath after. Little known cheetah exercise physiology nugget: Cheetah are all fast twitch and anaerobically gifted but at the expense of their endurance. A cheetah is wicked fast for 30 – 60 seconds but if the antelope can outrun the cheetah for longer than that cheetahs lose their speed quickly. Would make a terrible endurance athlete but a world class obviously kilo and pursuit rider! Cheetahs need more sweet spot training! … but I digress. Continuing on with the Cheetah Imagery theme is the FasCat # 3 Sprint > Stalk > Kill: 2 sets of 3 x 3 minutes. The progression of # 3 come from added in a 10 second anaerobic out of the saddle sprint to the beginning of the effort like a traditional over under. The Sprint Stalk Kill Goes like this: Sprint out of the saddle for the first 10 seconds of each interval @ 150% of FTP. Then settle back in the saddle to sweet spot stalk your prey (your goals) before going for the KILL with an out of the saddle > 150% FTP sprint! Really visualize your goals here – it is a crit and cyclocross race and mountain bike course – think and see yourself in the crux moment of these races making this kind of power. Please pardon the KILL'ing reference but that's how it is in the Serengety and if you bring a killer mindset to your racing you'll make Eddy Merckx (the cannibal proud). the FasCat # 4 Sprint > Stalk > Kill: is 2 sets of 5 x 2 minutes and is a progression from # 3 Same deal, sprint out of the saddle at 150% of FTP settle back in the saddle to sweet spot stalk your goal before going in for the KILL at 200% of FTP for the final 10 seconds. Visualize your Goals to Sprint FAST like a Cheetah! Accelerate, Settle In to your Sweet Spot and then go Full Gas for the KILL! I believe Duran Duran says it the best 'Hungry like the Wolf". To our knowledge no cheetah has made it into pop music culture . The Sprint > Stalk Kill # 3 contains 18 total minutes of wintertime intensity with 88% and 16 minutes being sweet spot and 12 % and 2 minutes begin anaerobic. The Sprint > Stalk Kill # 4 progresses to 20 minutes of WTI with 83.3% and 16.6 minutes of Sweet Spot and 16.7% and 3.4 min of anaerobic zone 6. The progression comes from a little bit less sweet spot and a little bit more anaerobic. Finally! If you know us well you know we always include a 'Diabolical' workout version for all the young buck whippersnappers out there who can handle the load and want to get their cat 2 upgrade. Now the FasCat # 5 Diabolical "Cheetah Pounce" is diabolical because you don't have time to catch your prey with sweet spot – you need to stalk them faster at threshold watts! There's is no set break either in order to get 8 reps in an hour workout. The FasCat # 5 Diabolical Cheetah Pounce goes like this: 8 x 3 minutes with 10 seconds zone 6 followed by 2 minutes and 40 seconds at zone 4 followed by 10 seconds at 200% of FTP. There's a 1:1 work to rest ratio to enable you to complete the workout but the 8 reps add up – pace yourself especially for the first 2 or 3 because the last 2 reps, 7 & 8 will hurt! compliments of Coach Isaiah taking a diabolical one for the team Caress and nurture your anaerobic system this winter with these 5 wintertime intensity workouts. Get on the bike, get down to work, get off, go win in the kitchen and go on about your day. Copyright © 2021 FasCat Coaching – all rights reserved. Join our *FREE* Athlete Forum to nerd out with FasCat coaches and athletes about your FTP, race data, power based training, or anything related to going fast on the bike! To talk with a FasCat Coach about your wintertime intensity, please fill out a New Athlete Questionnaire to set up a complimentary coaching consultation. Comments The post Wintertime Intensity appeared first on FasCat.

Happy 2021! Coach Frank is back in action to talk about what's coming down the pipeline for podcasts over the next few months of the new year. Winter training, nutrition challenge, and more! Frank also revisits an episode he recorded earlier in 2020 discussing the importance of measuring and tracking your FTP (functional threshold power) with a 20 minute field test, an essential metric to focus on in the beginning of a new year. 53820Six Weeks till the Sweet Spot Part 1 Base Training Plan Reference: A 20 minute Power-Based Field Test As always, thanks to everyone for tuning in, subscribing and reviewing on Apple Podcasts, and for engaging in our forum! For more things cycling training, visit http://fascat.wpengine.com. Save 25% on your next training plan with code 25podcast Copyright © 2021 FasCat Coaching – all rights reserved. Join our *FREE* Athlete Forum to nerd out with FasCat coaches and athletes about your FTP test, power data, power based training, or anything related to going faster on the bike! The post What's Ahead on the Podcast in 2021 + FTP Testing appeared first on FasCat.

I wrote this five years ago in 2016 and have been living it since – cycling is a lifestyle and in this training tip I'll share that lifestyle with you – Frank Overton Jan 9, 2020 Five year's ago my new year's resolution was to double down and make 2016 my year to have a great cycling season. You know, 'get serious'. The motivation came from two cyclocross seasons of getting my ass kicked. That was not fun at all. Like cross the finish line, go back to your car, get in and drive away. So I woke up on New Year's Day 2016 and went for a ride. Then the next day I went for another ride and the next day and so forth. Training consistently was my first goal and I knocked that out in January – I got back to being a cyclist, just like you. As I look back on 2016 and the 4 years since then, I more than accomplished my goal to have a 'great season' and as a coach I want to tell you how I transformed my cycling so you will know how coaching can help you for 2020 and beyond! Here are 8 next level approaches to your training and two things I learned about myself that I'll share with you: #1 Consistency: I made getting on my bike a daily priority, whereas before I let work, kids and weather be an excuse. 1 hour a day Tues/Wed/Thurs, indoors or out. We've since adopted the phrase "FtFP" which is like Velomanti's Rule #5, HTFU. Here FtFP means Follow the F&*#'ing Plan. 100% of our athletes report back that having a plan to follow helps them get on the bike and accomplish their workout each day. Having a coach to hold you accountable to that plan and consequently those goals is also next level. 3864Start Sweet Spotting your way to your best cycling season ever. #2 Zwift: speaking of indoors, I hadn't trained indoors in years. Maybe it was that 4 hour roller session I did as a youngster that scarred me? Enter Zwift. Try it, its fun and you'll no longer use weather and daylight as an excuse. Zwift enables you to #FtFP. Last winter was the first winter in a long time where if it was sloppy cold outside or I couldn't ride till after dark due to work, that I would move onto plan B and get on the KICKR and Zwift. Fun and productive, 1 hour: one and 'dun' where I whole heartedly went for KOMs, rode hard and made a lot of sweat, aka TSS. Exporting your workout from TrainingPeaks to Zwift is incredibly easy and straightforward, we've documented it over in our athlete support forum. In January I established consistency and in February Zwift enhanced that consistency. By March, I stepped it up group rides. And you know what, this is where my training an goals became F-U-N. #3 Group Rides: by March I had 2 previous months of fitness to propel me on the group rides. I also had the cyclocross season in my back pocket where the fitness carries over. This gave me the ability to not just hang on, but to take pulls and ride harder without having to worry about getting dropped. You know what's not fun? Hanging on for dear life on a group ride. You know what's 'funner'? Going faster. Improving is fun. During these group rides, I was able to generate more TSS, raise my CTL higher and higher all the while having F-U-N. Hard as heck, shattered afterwards but Fun with a capital F. I kept going and the training snowballed from consistency, Zwift and the group rides. #4 CTL: Speaking of CTL , I took mine from 22 on 1/1/16 to 113 on 6/23/16 (2 weeks prior to my first A race). This was all made possible from 1, 2, & 3 and of course sweet spot training. We've since podcasted on using the performance manager chart to build a big aerobic engine as well as manage your training load – TSTWKT is truly a next level approach to your training. #5 Winning in the Grocery Store/ Kitchen: I've always eaten well but I knew eating better was key to my performance and the lofty goals I had set. Better nutrition was going to help me lose weight, fuel my workouts and help me recover better. Back in my younger days I used to race at 148 – 154 lbs but over the 10 yrs since my 'retirement' the weight had crept up. So I resolved to eat better on January 1st, 2016. I ate more veggies and started cooking more. I also cut sugar completely out of my diet and cut back on beer. The sugar was easy; the beer was tough. But there's 3-500 empty calories in every beer and going down to a few a week instead of 1-2 every night made a weight loss relatively easy. Oh and I started planning out my meals and cooking more, thus paving the way for what would be a major theme within our coaching philosophy: which was a relief. Athletes – I encourage every one of you to get more in tune with your nutrition by going to the grocery store yourself and cooking your own meals. It will be such a phenomenal shift in the way you eat, that you can't help but get faster. All these dietary changes took me from 168 to 158 lbs by Memorial Weekend and I felt great, setting Strava PR's because my power to weight ratio was way up. Overall, I lost a little less than 2 lbs per month for 5 months. Not dieting per se, just cleaning things up. Better food choices an eliminating empty calories. Basically practicing what I've always preached as a coach here. My threshold power was up too and my confidence really began to sky rocket. Then during the Tour inspired by Chris Froome, I took my diet and weight loss to the next level: Winning in the Kitchen: under cut my daily caloric requirements by 250-500 calories per day. Basically, I ate a ton of fish, veggies and salad + some carbohydrate the night before hard training rides. In July and August I went from 158 to 150 lbs, super lean and was absolutely crushing it on the bike. I started intervals in August so my power went up even more buoyed by the CTL I built up thru June. Less on the denominator and more on the numerator = significant power to weight improvement. Like back to where I was 10 years ago when I was racing NRC's at the professional level. I don't recommend trying losing weight during your season but remember, this was pre-season for me at the time because the cyclocross season was yet to start. To recap, I lost another 8 lbs (ontop of the 10 lbs by Memorial Weekend) and went from 12-14 % body fat to roughly a 5% lean, mean, cyclocross racing machine . 18 lbs total since January – had to buy a new belt! Not surprisingly the cyclocross season went well and I had the season I've always wanted to have. Hanging out after the races and swapping war stories. I podiumed in my first 6 race weekends, winning one race and nearly missing out on 2 other 'w's'. Wow. New year's resolution complete. #6 Yoga I had taken yoga classes in years past and remembered how good I felt after the classes and how it helped with proprioception for better bike handling. So I started again and sure enough, it was helping with my recovery (like stretching) and I started handling the cyclocross bike better especially leaning the bike over in the corners. I started with YogaGlo on the iPad at home and then upgraded to studio classes. At first once a week then up to 2-3 times per week, primarily on my off days when I had a recovery day on the bike. Along the way I found my 'breath' and when I was doing intervals for 'cross, I could literally slow down my breathing and 'relax' during the interval and in the race. Yoga is like moving meditating for me (just like riding) and the benefits spilled over to my mental toughness during the races. #7 Strength and Conditioning: I enlisted the help of a personal trainer to put me thru the paces in Sept and October. I saw amazing gains in my explosive power which I put to use with the accelerations I needed for cyclocross. It was all about getting the glutes engaged and utilizing this muscle group for power production. This year (2017) I'll integrate this work + squats, hip thrusts & plyometrics into my cyclocross off season Feb/Mar and then again July/Aug – earlier than this past year so I can recover and still deliver the power on the bike. What else? Sleep. Oh yes, sleep – the best recovery aid there is. #8 Sleep. Best recovery tool in the business. Everything else is secondary. In 2015, I got a Fitbit with my daughter for Christmas and what I found most helpful was tracking my sleep hours. 8 hours a night and I'm good, nine and I'm gold. 7 and I feel it and 6 or less and I'm absolute garbage the next day. Since that Fitbit in 2015, I've upgrade to using the Whoop which is a 24/7/365 wearable device that records my daily strain, my HRV and sleep to measure my recovery. Big data type of stuff but the Whoop distills it all down to a daily recovery score: red, yellow, or green that helps you adjust your lifestyle and training load in order to keep recovery (and keep getting faster). Lastly: all the stuff you already know: intervals, motorpacing, training hard, life balance and working on my cyclocross skills with our annual cyclocross camp. Overall I mostly trained 8-12 hour per week with the occasional overload 14 – 16 week before a regeneration block. I did do one 20 hour week over the Memorial Day long weekend. I made some mistakes along the way because I was self coached but I have the data and experience that I'm going to correct and use to my advantage in 2017. For example: #1 Not raise my CTL so high by Memorial Day (I was 109) – rather a more gradual ascent this winter and spring. And that means less forcing training days and more time snowboarding over the winter. I was pretty cooked from training so hard in June that I didn't quite have the snap for my A race that I had in May. Patience – it takes time and consistency. As I age I may set a CTL of 100 as the high end of what is good and beneficial to my goal events. #2 Prepare for my A race by doing a training race. Probably the Haute Route – its a great overload and timed perfectly to end 2 weeks before the Crushar. I'll simply recover and taper into peak form. Coaching is so much more than a training calendar and power files. Its a relationship with an expert invested in your goals ready to share their experience to help you. Granted a well thought out scientifically designed training calendar and power based training are fundamental but the 9 items I described above are next level. Its like the home depot commercial, "You can do it, we can help". It takes time and it was hard but ho. lee. moo. lee. it was worth the effort and every single bit of TSS. And the podiums. Copyright © 2021 FasCat Coaching – all rights reserved. Join our *FREE* Athlete Forum to nerd out with FasCat coaches and athletes about your FTP, race data, power based training, or anything related to going fast on the bike! Frank is the founder and owner of FasCat Coaching in Boulder, CO. Frank and the FasCat Coaches have been talking the talk and walking the walk [FasCat Core Value #7] for over 15 years. To talk about transforming your cycling and having your best season, you can email frank@fascat.wpengine.com , call 720.406.7444, or fill out a New Athlete Questionnaire to schedule a Coaching Consultation. Comments The post Transform your Cycling with a Next Level Approach appeared first on FasCat.

Welcome to another Q&A session of the FasCat Podcast, where we gather questions from our forum, website, and social media to help you ride faster! This round Frank and Lacey dive into questions ranging from tips for young cyclists, heart rate behavior during workouts, tapering, frequency of field testing, data fields to display, long term race goals, Haute Route nutrition, and so much more! Thanks to everyone who contributed questions, and congrats to the lucky winner of the Stages Dash head unit! 52180The one and only "Six Weeks to the Sweet Spot Training Plan" The FasCat community now has access to discounts on Stages products, learn more by clicking on the Stages logo in our latest power based training tip "Top 10 Reasons to Ask Santa for a PowerMeter" Show Notes: Scientific Basis for Pre Competition Tapering Strategies, Mujika & Padilla, Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 35:1182-1187, 2003 Tapering Using Zwift to FtFP Strava-Vals The Performance Manager Chart Podcast Join our *FREE* Athlete Forum to nerd out with FasCat coaches and athletes about your FTP, race data, power based training, or anything related to going fast on the bike! Comments The post Ask a FasCat #15 appeared first on FasCat.

The Performance Manager Chart in TrainingPeaks and WKO is one of THE best tools athletes can use for their training and performance. Coach Frank busts out the pocket protector to explain and describe this impulse-response performance model. Athletes and coaches may use the model to plan training and therefore predict performance! One can literally design more watts into their annual training by using the PMC Chart. It also a dashboard to monitor training stress, training load, acute training stress and the almighty: form – the balance between your training load and short term daily side effects from training. Frank covers everything you need to know about the PMC: what it is, why you should care about it, and most importantly, how you can use it to take your training and performance to the next level! For the scientific literature reference please see read visit the story behind the development of the PMC Chart here. As always, thanks to everyone for tuning in, subscribing and reviewing on Apple Podcasts, and for engaging in our forum! For more things cycling training, visit http://fascat.wpengine.com. Save 25% on your next training plan with code 25podcast Copyright © 2021 FasCat Coaching – all rights reserved. Join our *FREE* Athlete Forum to nerd out with FasCat coaches and athletes about your PMC Chart, FTP, race data, power based training, or anything related to going faster on the bike! The post The Performance Manager Chart appeared first on FasCat.