FTL Free Member Content

With the help of the director of the Olympic Development Academy, we explore how to best develop young athletes, particularly in cycling.

Mentors help athletes by providing guidance, teaching a philosophy, and serving as a confidante. Do you need a mentor to reach your full potential?

Can cycling twice in one day produce the same benefits as one long ride? Do “two-a-days” yield adaptations you can’t get any other way? We explore.

Janis Musins helps us answer questions on time trial pacing, TT position, INSCYD testing, and the coach-athlete relationship.

It’s not always just about graphs and numbers.

We bring you our favorite conversations with exceptional guests from the worlds of physiology, medicine, nutrition, sports psychology, and, of course, cycling.

We believe modern coaching doesn’t optimally fulfill the needs of the modern athlete. That’s why we’re introducing our community, education, and coaching membership, Fast Talk Laboratories.

Train by data or train by feel? Here to unpack the duality of data and intuition in endurance athletics is cycling coach and former pro cyclist, Julie Young.

Colby Pearce interviews his long-time teacher Paul Chek.

In his continued efforts to help you find balance between life and sport, in this episode, Colby focuses on the six foundational principles of a well-balanced life, as prescribed by Paul Chek of the Chek Institute.

Cycling coaches Melanie McQuaid, Grant Holicky, and Ryan Kohler discuss the differences, similarities, nuances, and challenges of coaching beginner athletes versus veteran amateurs. 

Long-time friends, training partners, and competitors, Jonathan Vaughters and Colby Pearce have a deep racing history and relationship. With decades of experience in pro cycling, they share many insights they’ve gained about training, coaching, and the trajectory of the sport.

This short bonus episode is meant to clarify that formulas are a useful starting point in cycling and training, even though they have limitations.

Colby and his former coach, Dr. Allen Lim, talk about how athletes are much more than the sum of their training. Social, cultural, and eating habits count, too.

Neal Henderson and Rebecca Rusch answer an important question: Do we really need a coach?

We talk with Joe Friel about the newest edition of his bestselling cycling training book The Cyclist’s Training Bible. We touched on everything from periodization to energy systems, to Joe’s method of research…which believe it or not, has a lot to do with hundreds of 3”x5” note cards.

Maintaining strong training on the bike while aging isn’t as difficult as it may seem, as guest MTB champion Ned Overend illustrates.
We will delineate what age effects truly exist — for example, a drop in maximum heart rate — and others that have been traditionally attributed to aging that now appear to be trainable, such as a loss in fast-twitch muscle fiber strength.