Empirical Cycling Podcast

Dive into impactful training habits that can elevate cycling performance! Coaches discuss the balance of consistency and avoiding overtraining. Learn to prepare mentally for each workout and establish repeatable warm-up rituals for race day. Emphasize realistic nutrition strategies and manage health consciousness without going overboard. Enjoy your training while still focusing on long-term progress. Plus, tips on listening to your body for optimal performance and rest!

Rory Porteus, an Empirical Cycling coach with a wealth of practical coaching experience, dives into the paradox of training volume in cycling. He discusses why less-experienced cyclists can sometimes outperform seasoned racers and how survivor and selection biases distort our perceptions of training norms. The conversation also covers the diminishing returns of excessive training hours, the importance of balancing volume with intensity, and how consistent, optimized training can lead to significant performance gains despite genetic factors. Great insights await!

This discussion features Kyle Helson, a coach and exercise physiology expert, diving deep into the nuances of creatine and its effects on cycling performance. They explore why meta-analyses help clarify mixed results from various studies. The duo transparently shares their personal experiences with creatine use. They tackle how diet may influence creatine’s effectiveness and whether weight gain offsets sprint improvements. They also examine creatine's cognitive benefits and engage with listener questions, making practical evaluations on supplementation.

Discover how to effectively diagnose and train your weaknesses during the off-season. The hosts discuss the opportunity costs of this strategy and when it may not make sense. Learn the importance of accurate assessments, from evaluating anaerobic capacity to understanding race tactics. They also explore the benefits of enhancing race skills through group rides and footage analysis. Finally, practical off-season tips on nutrition, strength training, and avoiding burnout are shared to keep your motivation high.

Coach Kyle Helson, a seasoned contributor in endurance sports, dives into the interplay of perceived exertion and threshold testing. He discusses how athletes can intuitively gauge their functional threshold power (FTP) by relying on their experiences rather than fixed models. They explore fascinating insights on RPE drift, the limits of critical power tests, and provide practical tips for pacing and testing strategies. Trusting one's sensations over rigid metrics is emphasized, ensuring athletes stay in tune with their bodies and performance.

Explore how cyclists can build strength without unwanted weight gain through an analysis of four key studies. Discover the differences between eccentric and concentric contractions and how they affect muscle growth. Unpack the ideal sets, reps, and minimum training doses needed for strength improvements. Dive into nutrition strategies, including the importance of energy balance and calorie considerations. Get practical guidelines to enhance performance without compromising cycling goals.

We take a deep look at ten commonly used ways to test or estimate FTP, and dissect how and why each method does (or is supposed to) work, how often we might expect accurate result and who it'd be accurate for, and the Empirical Cycling standards for test accuracy. We also dig into some data on ramp test accuracy and bias, plus how anaerobic capacity, RPE, and daily fluctuations in performance can play a role in test results. Plus time in zone, %FTP, normalized power, lactate tests, the "Kolie Moore" test, and your listener questions on DFA-alpha1, eFTP, and more.

Our coaches sit down to discuss the downsides of using FTP as an anchor for many types of intervals, how your individual physiology can make those targets suboptimal for the best stimulus, and the many alternative approaches that we use instead. We dig into VO2max, anaerobic and sprint efforts, plus first threshold and endurance riding. Then we answer your questions on minimum effective dose, breaking out of a rut, assessing realistic targets, and more.

Dr. Eric Trexler joins the podcast for a nuanced discussion on energy expenditure and endurance sports. He explains measurement methods, the constrained energy expenditure model and its interpretations, the difficulty of calculating your total energy expenditure and needs and practical solutions, some curious results from papers on energy expenditure in cycling grand tours, and much more.

Our coaches answer your questions on identifying limiters, how to take a rest week on a low volume plan, resuming training after a break, training for fitness vs racing, total time in zone vs structured intervals, the things that cyclists under-optimize, making the most of unusually large training weeks, the benefits of ice cream, and much more.