The RPE scale is often overlooked in a world of power meters and heart-rate straps. Dr. Stephen Cheung explains how and why you can use RPE to improve your training, even if you collect data.
Mentors help athletes by providing guidance, teaching a philosophy, and serving as a confidante. Do you need a mentor to reach your full potential?
We’ve updated fasttalklabs.com with better navigation by topic and a more mobile-friendly design. Now it’s much easier to find the topics that interest you most—from intervals to nutrition to data analysis. Take a look!
Coach Julie Young breaks down the art and training of cyclocross—from training to skills, racing to drills.
We examine the pros and cons of using chronic training load (CTL) as well as the ways it can take your endurance sports training off track.
Coach Connor details the best practices for 5×5-minute intervals, from their physiological benefits to how and why you should do them. INCLUDES downloadable workout files.
We explore health conditions elicited by heat, including heat stress, heat stroke, and heat exhaustion, with expert guest Dr. William Adams.
Strength and conditioning expert Menachem Brodie explains why and how you should use foam rolling to improve recovery.
Coach Alec Donahue of Cycle-Smart helps us answer questions about training zones, cyclocross, weekly planning, and alcohol.
Sports nutrition for endurance athletes is controversial. With the help of experts like Dr. Asker Jeukendrup, Dr. Timothy Noakes, and Dr. John Hawley, we examine the science of fueling your body for performance and health.
Athletes spend much of their time training their legs and heart. What about our lungs? Steve Neal breaks down the components of respiration to help explain why it could be holding you back.
Is it better to focus on one big race a year, or have several targets? Is performance or process more important when it comes to goal setting? Two Olympians help us tackle these complex questions.
Coach Wenzel helps answer questions on travel, final race prep, big gear work on LSD rides, pushing through exhaustion, and training races.
The interrelationship between form, fitness, and fatigue is the basis for quantifying training load. Performance Management Charts help athletes visualize and interpret that balance. Coach Trevor Connor explains the science.
TrainingPeaks is popular, but WKO5 is a much more powerful tool. Coach Trevor Connor has extensive experience with WKO and shares his favorite features.
Physiologists and coaches have attempted to quantify training through both external and internal measures. We review the primary training metrics and detail the benefits and shortcomings of each.
With the help of CTS coach Renee Eastman, we field questions on injury, the power of consistency, weight vs. power, and fast-twitch fibers.
Endurance athletes inevitably face the challenges imposed by training and racing in the heat. How do our bodies respond, and what are ways that we can best prepare? Learn how to beat the heat with advice from Dr. Stephen Cheung, Dr. Stephen Seiler, and a range of experts and coaches.