Chris is a lifelong endurance athlete and holds degrees and experience in neuroscience, art, documentary photography, and journalism.
Chris was born and raised in southeastern Connecticut. He took up running in elementary school, just for fun. It quickly became his sole competitive outlet, and ultimately led to multiple state championships in cross-country and track. He also dabbled in mountain bike racing in high school, before taking time away from competitive sport to focus on his college education.
Chris attended Colgate University and graduated with degrees in neuroscience and art. He spent the next three years at the National Institute of Mental Health conducting research on patients with schizophrenia, in one of the world’s largest multidisciplinary studies of the disease. After another year researching a stem cell treatment for Parkinson’s disease, he decided to pursue his second passion. This led him to the graduate journalism program at the University of Texas at Austin, where he concentrated in documentary photography. This is where Chris rediscovered his love of cycling, joining the collegiate team before expanding into categorized racing.
After receiving his master’s degree, Chris worked as a freelance newspaper photographer in the Denver metro area. He then served as the first creative director of the Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum. For several years he served as editor, director of photography, and designer for Trail & Timberline, the magazine of the Colorado Mountain Club.
Chris then briefly returned to psychology research, working on a genetic study of mood disorders in adolescents and a clinical study of pre-psychotic symptoms in college-age students.
In 2012, Chris became the managing editor of VeloNews magazine, a position he held for nearly eight years. It was during that time that he became co-host of Fast Talk.
His cycling pursuits took him around the world to race on the road, mountain, and in cyclocross, to places like Taiwan, Costa Rica, Israel, and throughout Europe. He has stood on the podium at several cyclocross national championships, and is a silver medalist at master’s cyclocross worlds.
Chris is the author of The Haywire Heart, a groundbreaking and critically important guide to heart care for athletes, and the first book to delve into the relationship between long-term endurance athletics and heart health.
He is a cofounder of Fast Talk Labs, with Trevor Connor, as well as COO of The Paleo Diet.
In an age when athletes often focus on the specifics, we address the importance of focusing on the fundamentals: training, recovery, and functioning gear—the things that will bring you the greatest return for your investment of time, sweat, and energy.
Age is just a number. Few athletes know that better than Rebecca Rusch, who joins us to discuss how to adapt and perform at the highest levels of sport as you age.
Fast Talk Laboratories Opens Access to Content from World-Leading Exercise Physiologist
Physiologist Lindsay Golich, who works with some of America's best Olympic athletes, helps us field questions on heat, altitude, FTP testing, fasted training, and much more.
These "on/off" style intervals will help you push top-end power and cardiovascular adaptations.
We sit down with sports nutrition expert Asker Jeukendrup to discuss potential performance gains from modifying carbohydrate load during training.
Coach and endurance mountain bike champ Daniel Matheny helps us field questions on coaching junior athletes, how aerobic capacity is impacted by intensity, PVCs, and much more.
This spring may bring a rise in concussions: Cyclists make up 19% of recreation-related concussions and American cycling participation is booming during the coronavirus pandemic.
Batman Intervals will help you get better at riding comfortably at variable intensities, paces, and lactate levels.
Concussions and traumatic brain injuries are far too common in cycling. We define the causes, effects, management, and preventative measures.