Empirical Cycling Podcast

The episode starts off with a primer on parts of muscle needed for contraction and how these relate to different methods of fiber typing (there's more than one!). We finish our look at a classic paper on cycling physiology and its sections on fiber type and substrate use. Then a paper on cross country skiers throws a bag of monkey wrenches into decades of established fiber type paradigms.

Do companies really make the best hydration mixes? They do, kind of, but they're expensive. It's difficult to adjust their mixes to flavor and your unique needs. This episode goes through a homemade drink mix that will probably hydrate you better, and definitely for cheaper, than anything on the market today. The recipe can be found on the website show notes at http://www.empiricalcycling.com/podcast-episodes/ten-minute-tips-2-homemade-hydration-mix

Kolie and Kyle look at the relationship between FTP and VO2max. We use data from a classic paper that calls into question the validity of a long-standing testing protocol in the scientific literature, which is still in use today.

The last month before your cyclocross season is a crucial one. In the new Ten Minute Tips series, Kolie looks at the elements of training you may want to incorporate to get a strong start to your season. Included are key workout types, how to manage intensity, incorporating running, and mixing technique work into training rides. Includes three example workouts.

We talk to Empirical Cycling athlete Emma Edwards for an in-depth race report about the 2019 Cascade Classic, where she was racing with Amy D Foundation. We talk about her top 10 on the GC, the gods of mechanicals, what it's like racing against TWENTY20, and her bike's gremlin... just don't get it wet, somehow, in the Pacific northwest.

One of the theorized benefits of low carb or ketogenic diets for cyclists is that it spares glycogen so it can be used when needed most. Kolie and Kyle walk through a paper investigating this question. They then discuss the upsides and downsides and potential utility of fat-adaptive diets in daily training.

The podcast's first deep dive into muscle physiology, we look at a study on weight lifting while endurance training vs just endurance training, with a surprising result. From here we talk about the size principle, which you're using a lot more often than you think.

MIT cycling team members Liam Fenlon, Berk Ozturk, and multiple time individual national champion Emma Edwards talk about collegiate nationals 2019, a 35 rider pileup, and how to put the "team" into the TTT.

Exploring the discrepancies between Critical Power (CP) and Functional Threshold Power (FTP) models, their measurement accuracy, and practical applications in training. The importance of understanding the difference between FTP and CP, and their limitations for longer endurance efforts. Highlighting the physiological impossibility of maintaining critical power indefinitely and a humorous anecdote about a misapplication of the CP model.

Does going slow make you slow? Do you need to go slow to make you fast? We look into the reasoning behind two opposite training philosophies, then figure out what aerobic base really is, what's effective, and why.