Empirical Cycling Podcast

This is a wide ranging conversation with professional cyclist and Empirical Cycling coach Maeghan Easler. We discuss her successful race season domestically and with the national team, American vs European racing, and how improving fitness changed her training needs, along with more training and coaching topics like volume, recovery, intensity, nutrition and bodyweight, individualizing, and why she prefers 7 hour rides to 8. Instead of listener questions to finish the episode, we react to your controversial training takes submitted for a now forever-lost episode.

This episode takes a long look at the mechanisms behind aerobic adaptations from high intensity exercise, starting with an early study showing how AMPK activation leads directly to mitochondrial biogenesis, followed by a recent meta-analysis showing when high intensity exercise does and doesn't lead to adaptation. We provide guidelines in terms of exercise intensity, duration, and how well trained you are. Then we give some practical takeaways, plus debunk all the ways "hacking" this adaptive signal chain don't work. Marinus Petersen of KiloWatt Coaching steps in as a guest co-host for Kyle and provides an additional perspective from his coaching experience, and his formal exercise physiology education.

Empirical Cycling coach Rory Porteous discusses common reasons for fitness plateaus and their fixes. Topics include fatigue management, overcoming plateaus, motivation, training methodologies, understanding workout purposes, expectation mismatch, and the importance of consulting with an expert for improvements.

Former pro cyclist and successful lobbyist for the Tour de France Femmes, Kathryn Bertine joins the podcast to discuss her new memoir about these efforts, STAND, which details what it took, and what it cost. We discuss the writing and publishing process, activism and slacktivism, what people can do to effect change at every level, the financial structure of the TdF and sponsorships in cycling, what the Homestretch Foundation is and its purpose, an unlikely friendship with a raunchy comedian, and much more.

This episode discusses (and debunks) five training myths regarding training volume, and your listener questions asked on Kolie's Instagram. Myths addressed: -You can overtrain on volume but not intensity -Women can’t do as much volume as men -You can replace high volume with high intensity -Easy spinning is junk miles -You don’t need to train many hours to be fast

This podcast explores the connection between calcium and endurance performance by inducing mitochondrial biogenesis. It discusses the role of calcium in muscle contraction and its impact on adaptation in high-intensity interval training. The speakers delve into the role of calcium as an aerobic signal, its effect on gene expression, and the importance of maintaining cellular homeostasis. They also discuss the significance of calcium signaling in endurance training, volume over intensity, and provide actionable takeaways for listeners.

This episode contains expanded musings on VO2max and FTP training and progression, based on the years of feedback since the VO2max series debuted. We talk about whether or not you need to work in blocks, ways to determine the effects, interval durations, whether to start hard or not, recovery timelines, and more. We also answer your listener questions on time in zone, breathing, periodization, high cadence, testing, and more.

Adam Pulford, coach of Alison Jackson, joins to discuss the methods and ideas behind training and coaching a professional cyclist, using his article analyzing Jackson's Paris-Roubiax winning power file as a jumping off point. We get into CTL and volume, when to build vs maintain fitness, athlete mental health and motivation, and the coach's role in professional vs amateur athletes. We also answer your listener questions on race specific training, coach-athlete communication, setting goals, stress management, and building fatigue resistance.

To celebrate a half million podcast listens, we roast some of the earliest training plans Kolie wrote almost a decade ago. We get into lessons learned and how the coaching has changed, changing training fads, working with natural talents, and listener questions on "the science", impactful events, and advice for new coaches.

Cycling meme Hall of Famer Feedzone News joins the podcast to announce a new research division. We discuss the first three research papers and all the shortcuts you can use to go faster. Thanks to all of our new podcast sponsors!