Empirical Cycling Podcast

Think your FTP is the power you can hold for 60 minutes? Think again! We dig into a classic Billat paper on time to exhaustion (TTE) and training threshold by adding time in zone. Then we discuss into the metabolic implications of these results, how they align with real world experience, and how this affects training and assessment of its effectiveness. Finally, we answer your questions as asked in Kolie's Instagram stories @empiricalcycling.

Should you always train like you race? In this episode we investigate three myths related to this idea, and find some grains of truth along the way. The myths are 1. Sprinters and non-sprinters really need to train aerobic systems differently. 2. Crit racers mostly need to focus on anaerobic efforts. 3. You won’t need to train FTP if you don't race time trials. We touch on some track sprinting as well, and of course answer listener questions from Kolie's instagram, so follow him there if you'd like to ask a question on the podcast.

Marinus Petersen of Kilowatt Coaching and graduate of Loughborough University joins us in this episode to discuss a recent paper on bias in research, but it of course evolves into much more. We discuss the line between scientific research and real world experience and the usual suspects in a conversation between coaches including lactate, critical power, warmups, and more.

This episode explores how individualization of training is why the answer to almost every question is "It Depends." We discuss a few things like tapering, volume, intensity, recovery, the one instance we could think of where there is a definite answer, and also take listener questions submitted from Kolie's Instagram.

RJ Boergers and Angelo Gingerelli join for a discussion of strength training for endurance cyclists, their book "Finish Strong" as well. The episode is full of practical takeaways and in depth discussion of strength training principles.

We begin our foray into listener-submitted training myths, looking at the largest issues with the claims, and discussing why, as always, it depends. This episode's myths are: 1. Low cadence riding is strength training. 2. Burning more fat makes you better at burning fat. 3. You should do your base rides in the little ring. Please reach out if you'd like to submit a training myth!

While the phosphocreatine energy system is well known for sprinting, it also has another crucial role as part of the aerobic energy system. We delve into creatine's part in not only temporal energy buffering, but spatial too, and how cells are organized to support this and how badly organisms suffer without it. Then we look at more research showing that the aerobic recovery of phosphocreatine is highly correlated with repeated sprint power, and come to some practical conclusions we can make from the research.

Multidiscipline coach and former MMA fighter Matt DesRoches of Resilience Health & Performance Consulting joins Kolie for a wide ranging conversation on training, measurement and metrics, cutting weight, the physiology of cycling vs team sports, recovery and adaptation, pacing, interpreting scientific papers, noob gains, and much more.

Can we really replace volume with intensity? We discuss the dos and don'ts of training on low volume, time crunched training, the principles that should guide you, and some tips to make sure the training time is being maximized. We touch on whether you should plan via TSS, how many hard days per week, polarized vs pyramidal and sweetspot, why and how RPE is incredibly useful, and more. Plus we answer your questions from Kolie's Instagram!

Coach Katie goes in depth with her overtraining history in both cycling and swimming. We discuss the various causes like intensity, nutrition, and sleep, and the associated symptoms, along with her recovery each time, and how this experience helps in her coaching. The episode concludes with some tips to help recognize and avoid overtraining, along with listener questions.