Empirical Cycling Podcast

Professor Patrick Smith joins to discuss performance psychology, its role in cycling performance and everyday life, and some of the underlying themes and tools he uses in practice. We also discuss race nerves, negative spirals, some of the stigma around psychology in sports and overcoming it, defining the metrics of success, and more.

For this episode, Kolie and CTS coach Adam Pulford made lists of their most impactful coaching mistakes, how they recognized them, and their fixes. Lists include high intensity, training zones, communication, and more, plus things still ongoing. Also discussed is what makes a good coach, as well as your listener questions on the best coaching mistakes, fatigue management, trusting your coaching clients, and more.

In this podcast, they discuss pacing and programming endurance rides, answer listener questions on HR zones and fueling, and explore low, medium, and high volume week considerations. They focus on balancing intensity and duration in training, optimizing endurance rides through effective pacing, and maximizing cycling opportunities during trips.

The podcast delves into the difference in muscular adaptations between training intensity and volume, focusing on continuous moderate intensity, HIIT, and sprint interval training. It explores the intricate network of mitochondria in muscle cells, highlighting challenges in quantifying their numbers accurately. The discussion also covers the impact of training variables on mitochondrial function, individual variations in response to training, and the importance of balancing volume and intensity in endurance performance.

Whether you have a coach or are self-coached, leaving workout feedback helps to ensure you're getting the most out of your training plan and coaching. In this episode we discuss what kind of feedback to leave on what topics (like RPE, nutrition, sickness, sleep, etc), appropriate level of detail, and how we as coaches find it useful plus what we do with the information. We also answer your listener questions.

This is an in depth discussion on the upsides and downsides of always training to raise FTP vs holding it longer. After defining terms, we discuss the training required, adaptation timelines, fatigue, long term development, plus coaching and event specific considerations. We also consider a few counterpoints for each kind of training, individual response and needs, whether or not this is an actual debate, and answer your listener questions.

Dive into the intriguing role of PGC-1α in aerobic adaptation and endurance performance. Surprisingly, recent studies reveal unexpected outcomes from gene knockout experiments. Learn about the significance of structured training and balancing intensity with recovery. The conversation also unravels myths around metabolic adaptations from different training methods, emphasizing the need for personalized workout plans. Plus, discover how to interpret research on PGC-1α to optimize your training and performance.

If you're a cyclist who's intermediate or advanced in strength training, listen in. In our last strength training mistakes episode, we considered more general topics like nutrition, recovery, and periodization. Today we get into issues (and their solutions) concerning how you know you're working the right muscles, using lifting equipment like belts and shoes, range of motion and partial depth, HIT classes and kettlebell swings, power development in the gym, and long term strength goals. We also answer your listener questions that were asked on Kolie's Instagram, like if your knees can go past your toes, if strength training can increase your FTP, where you can see diminishing returns on the bike, going for PRs, and lots more.

By popular demand, we bring you the track episode! We first consider race durations and when you would need aerobic training (it's shorter than you may think), gearing and cadence, technique practice, strategy, the role of sprinting and strength training for mass start racing. We finally tackle some things about training for track sprint and what we've seen work well and not so well, plus a lot of tangential discussion around our favorite moments and people on the track. And finally, we answer your listener questions on training for the track.

Exploring the limitations of training zones and the importance of submaximal efforts. Understanding fatigue and recognizing your limits for optimal performance. The origins and purpose of training zones, and the importance of athlete morale. The benefits and limitations of tempo training. The importance of gradually increasing training intensity and the concept of 'zone zero'. The relationship between heart rate zones and power zones. The importance of tracking and adjusting training for improvement.