Empirical Cycling Podcast
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131 episodes
We dig deep into a meta analysis' findings on the difference in muscular adaptations between training intensity and volume, especially what we can differentiate between continuous moderate intensity, HIIT, and sprint interval training. We also discuss the paper's findings on one aspect of "mitochondrial function", bullet point some practical takeaways, and answer your listener questions.
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.
This episode goes deep into the integral role that PGC-1ɑ plays in turning exercise signals into aerobic adaptation and improved endurance performance. We then dig into the very surprising results of studies that selectively knock out the PGC-1ɑ gene. Finally, we discuss potential uses of this knowledge for training applications and interpreting the literature, the actual best ways to know if your training (or training "hack") is working, and answering your listener questions.
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.
To kick off 2024, Kolie and Rory discuss how and why training zones fall short, and how they can actually impair progress if taken to logical extremes. We build the conversation back up by thinking about their inception as descriptive rather than prescriptive, how WKO5's iLevels do, the reality of muscular adaptation, and how we actually think about training effectiveness, progression and adaptation.
After you've built up your aerobic engine, what does it mean to get ready to race? Empirical Cycling coach Alex Carmona brings his wealth of coaching and racing experience when discussing transitioning from your build to harder efforts, honing non-fitness skills, the balance of racing and workout intensity in season, and race specific preparation examples. We also discuss tapering into one day races, stage races, high and low volume tapering, guidelines about how often it should be done per year, and as always, your listener questions.
After some background information on what redox state means for exercise and your mitochondria, we look at some experiments linking various intensities of exercise to adaptations. Then we look at where these signals overlap with dieting and rest, and tie these into advice and realistic expectations for training, recovery, and nutrition. We also answer your listener questions on RED-S, measuring recovery, exercise intensity, and more.
This episode looks at all the ways people tend to mess up their rest and recovery days so they're not nearly as restorative as they could be, including such things as riding too hard, lifting weights, cross training, not eating enough. We then suggest guidelines for taking rest days or weeks, getting maximum recovery benefits, individualizing these days to work best for you, and answer your listener questions.
In this episode, 20+ year bike racing veteran Giancarlo Bianchi discusses the tactics of bike racing, and the process of honing racecraft and why people thought his FTP was significantly higher than it is. We cover the chess-game aspects of bike racing like positioning, aerodynamics, wind, reading the competition and body language, course and competitor recon, and a lot of stories from his own race career. We also answer your listener questions like how to practice with few racing opportunities, tactics that might annoy other racers, and much more.
Kyle makes it back from the desert in time to discuss common mistakes cyclists tend to make when they incorporate strength training. We discuss things like tracking load and fatigue, impact on the bike, recovery, session frequency and where it should occur in the week, max testing.. We also answer your listener questions on explosive lifting, hypertrophy vs strength phases, expected fitness impacts on the bike, alternatives to strength, water weight, and many other things.
When it comes to glycogen, does "train low" actually work? Rory joints to co-host as we examine and dissect the existing literature, and explore the limits of knowledge on p38 MAPK signaling as it relates to aerobic performance. We go through Kolie's coaching experience with these protocols, compare to existing recommendations, discuss why you should always check someone's references, and answer your listener questions.
Pro cyclist and coach Taylor Warren joins for a wide ranging discussion, including how he still finds fitness improvements after a decade of training and racing, balancing rest and workouts mid season, the value of the basics, RPE, and if American racing has gotten easier or harder. We also answer your listener questions on Legion's tactics, the most important power durations for domestic US racing, racing the course vs racing the people, training regrets, how much pros train, and more.
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 coaches Kolie and Rory sit down for an in-depth discussion of the 5 most common reasons that they see for a fitness plateaus. Touched on are reasonable expectations for fitness progression, fatigue management, options for overcoming plateaus, and situations where it's out of your control.
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 episode looks at two classic studies illustrating the often overlooked connection between calcium and endurance performance by way of inducing mitochondrial biogenesis through more familiar pathways. We then discuss applicability of these learnings, plus potential pitfalls interpreting this information, and your listener questions.
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!
This is a conversation between Kolie and epidemiologist Dr. Traci Carson, RDN and cycling coach Dr. Namrita Brooke, and MD and cycling coach Dr. Fabiano Araujo, in light of the Kristen Faulkner disqualification at Strade Bianche for wearing a continuous glucose monitor. We look at topics of whether CGMs actually confer a performance advantage, where their true utility lies, their shortcomings, thoughts on the UCI rules and Faulkner's DQ and the role of a team or dietitian, and health issues surrounding endurance athletes like RED-S and LEA.
This episode goes into Kolie's philosophy on programming and structuring over/under workouts. Duration of overs and unders, intensity guidelines, additional manipulation like cadence, how to progress them, and suggestions for disciplines like CX, MTB, crits, and track. We also discuss some alternative workouts to achieve some of the same touted benefits of over/unders such as better buffering capacity, and your listener questions.
The host of benefits associated with over-under workouts includes improved lactate oxidation and clearance capacity, great expression of MCT enzymes, as well as improved tolerance of associated metabolic byproducts over threshold. We look at the established mechanisms behind these phenomena and find that over-unders, as well as lactate presence and oxidation itself, probably don't have a unique adaptation unavailable to other types of training. The follow-up episode, Ten Minute Tips #27, will discuss how Kolie views and programs over-under workouts, as well as alternative workouts to achieve the same ultimate effects.
This is an in-depth discussion on weight loss diets for endurance athletes, with Dr. Namrita Brooke. The conversation includes guidelines on finding your starting point and how to adjust energy intake, avoiding crash diets, performance expectations and markers when dieting, the effect of off-bike activity, and reasonable loss rates. We also discuss energy balance vs hormones, demonizing food groups and the role of each macronutrient, the best times of year to lose weight, and your listener questions on diet aids, recomp diets, calorie estimates from wearables, finding a good performance dietitian, and more.
This episode is a coaching perspective on the upsides and downsides of when you just want to "set it and forget it." We cover pacing adjustments, mental state, fatigue and threshold feedback, and putting the "max" in VO2max intervals. Plus a couple scenarios where erg mode is an excellent tool.
Dr. Patrick Smith and Kolie sit down to discuss the athletic and coaching implications of Karl Friston's free energy principle of the brain, the right approach to bridge the gap between expectations and observable reality in training, and the right amount of sensitivity to this feedback. This dovetails with the appeal of quick fixes, miracle intervals, and silver bullet training principles. We also discuss what practical solutions are, setting yourself up for success, and your listener questions.
