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Is It Time to Ditch Your Evening Cycling Workouts?
Sometimes working out late at night is the only option, but evening workouts have the potential to negatively affect your training. This begs the question: are cycling workouts done just before bedtime even worth doing? It’s a struggle many cyclists are familiar with: finding time to train during daylight hours can be tough. Jobs, family…
How to Train For Cyclocross After a Season of Road Racing
Cliches aside, cyclocross is coming. In my 25 years of MTB and road racing, I’m venturing into all new territory. For athletes getting ready for ‘cross season with me, here’s a first-hand look at how to train for cyclocross and what I’m doing to prepare for my first cyclocross championship. Of all cycling disciplines, I’d venture…
Altitude Training: How Long Before You See Improvements?
The human body naturally adjusts to different elevations. Although you may not notice, on the cellular level it’s constantly adjusting to support your external environment. Cyclists have learned to use this knowledge to their advantage through what’s known as altitude training. Altitude training helps to adjust the amount of oxygen your body is exposed to…
Is Alcohol the Reason You’re Not Getting Faster?
Alcohol is intimately related to cycling and racing in general. Post-ride trail brews, podium champagne and “recovery beers” are all a regular part of our cycling vernacular and culture, but if you’re trying to take your training seriously, should they be? The effects of alcohol on performance can be narrowed down to two things: how…
Is Your Pre-Race Warmup Helping You Win or Lose?
For many cyclists, their warmup routines before a race look a lot like riding around at a moderate pace for 10-20 minutes, depending on how long their event is. This is changing. In place of loose, unspecific pre-race workouts are structured workouts that riders are opting to do on the trainer — you may have…