Empirical Cycling Podcast by Empirical Cycling

04.24.2024

Perspectives #32: Coaching Mistakes, And What Makes A Good Coach

For this episode, Kolie and CTS coach Adam Pulford made lists of their most impactful coaching mistakes, how they recognized them, and their fixes. Lists include high intensity, training zones, communication, and more, plus things still ongoing. Also discussed is...

04.12.2024

Ten Minute Tips #37: Pacing And Programming Endurance Rides

In this episode we recap the big lessons from the last Watts Doc episode and revisit pacing endurance rides in terms of RPE, power, and heart rate, and finding that first threshold. Then we spend a long while considering how...

03.24.2024

Watts Doc #49: Endurance Intensity and Volume

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...

03.15.2024

Ten Minute Tips #36: How To Leave Your Coach (or Yourself) Workout Feedback

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...

02.20.2024

Ten Minute Tips #35: Higher FTP vs Longer TTE

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...

02.12.2024

Watts Doc #48: How PGC-1ɑ Does and Doesn't Live Up To The Hype

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,...

01.29.2024

Ten Minute Tips #34: Intermediate and Advanced Strength Training Mistakes (and Solutions)

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...

01.21.2024

Ten Minute Tips #33: Track Training Considerations

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...

01.09.2024

Ten Minute Tips #32: Where Training Zones Fall Short

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...

12.12.2023

Perspectives #31: Race Specific Intensity and Tapering, with Alex Carmona

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...

12.04.2023

Watts Doc #47: The Redox Role In Adaptation, Recovery, and Nutrition

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...

11.26.2023

Ten Minute Tips #31: How To Take A Rest Day (And How To Avoid Screwing It Up)

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...

11.07.2023

Perspectives #30: Being Faster Than Your Watts, with Giancarlo Bianchi

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...

10.22.2023

Ten Minute Tips #30: Strength Training Mistakes Every Cyclist Makes

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...

10.15.2023

Watts Doc #46: Why Low Glycogen Training Probably Doesn't Work

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...

10.01.2023

Perspectives #29: Managing Fitness And Rest During Race Season, with Taylor Warren

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...

09.22.2023

Perspectives #28: Training Takes and Season Retrospective, with Maeghan Easler

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...

09.04.2023

Watts Doc #45: How High Intensity Aerobic Adaptations With AMPK Do (And Don't) Work

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...

08.15.2023

Perspectives #27: Common Reasons For Fitness Plateaus and Their Fixes, with Rory Porteous

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...

07.28.2023

Perspectives #26: The Cost of Change, with Kathryn Bertine

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...

07.10.2023

Ten Minute Tips #29: Training Myths, Part 3: Volume

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...

06.12.2023

Watts Doc #44: Calcium Is An Underappreciated Aerobic Adaptive Signal

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,...

05.14.2023

Ten Minute Tips #28: FTP and VO2max Thoughts and 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,...

05.01.2023

Perspectives #25: The Coaching and Training Behind A Paris-Roubaix Victory, with Adam Pulford

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,...

04.16.2023

500k: Roasting Kolie's Early Training Plans

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...

04.01.2023

Feedzone News Announces Research Program in Fitness, Health, and Wellness

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...

03.30.2023

Perspectives #24: Continuous Glucose Monitors, Kristen Faulkner, and Athlete Health

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...

03.20.2023

Ten Minute Tips #27: Programming Over-Under Workouts

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...

03.12.2023

Watts Doc #43: Over-Unders Are Not Special

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...

02.19.2023

Perspectives #23: Weight Loss Diets for Endurance Performance, with Namrita Brooke

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,...

02.06.2023

Ten Minute Tips #26: The Case Against Erg Mode

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...

01.29.2023

Perspectives #22: The Cognitive Dissonance Of Silver Bullet Training, with Patrick Smith

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...

01.17.2023

Watts Doc #42:The Relationship Between Size And Power

This episode investigates the scientific relationship between size and power (allometry), both vo2max and maximal strength and power, and what it can teach us about sound training methods. How do w/kg and w/CdA scale? Why can't gaining muscle add aerobic...

01.09.2023

Watts Doc #41: Does Overtraining Actually Make Mitochondria Dysfunction?

Does overtraining cause mitochondria to dysfunction? We look at data in the Flockhart study on excessive training and compare them to the headlines, a similar overtraining study using proteomics, and a published response to Flockhart. We break down mitochondrial function,...

12.21.2022

Perspectives #21: Behind The New American 40km ITT Record, with Cory Lockwood

Kolie sits down with Cory Lockwood to discuss breaking the U.S. 40km ITT record, going under 45 minutes. Cory also talks about what's different working with Kolie from previous training he's done, along with observations about rest, FTP and VO2max...

12.05.2022

Ten Minute Tips #25: What's So Special About "Zone 2"?

This episode answers the question: is there something unique about endurance riding that is unavailable at other intensities? After discussing "zone 2" definitions, we look at adaptations and dose relative to other training intensities, fatigue, and volume. We look at...

11.15.2022

Perspectives #20: The Reality of Data In Training and Coaching, with Tim Cusick

Master coach and WKO5 product leader Tim Cusick joins the podcast to get his brain thoroughly picked. Training topics include the biggest differences between average cyclists and the top pros, the usual periodization schemes vs Olympic cycles, the evolutionary process...

11.03.2022

400k: AMA

To celebrate 400,000 podcast listens, we answer your questions submitted in the Empirical Cycling Instagram stories. We discuss high and low volume training and progressive overload, 3 things every cyclist should do, low CHO training, FRC for mountain bikers, supplements...

10.26.2022

Watts Doc #40: Endurance Adaptation Is Not Substrate Oxidation

This episode breaks down the origins of endurance performance and how cells control substrate oxidation. We review a paper looking at the difference in adaptive aerobic signals when participants used significantly different amounts of fat and carbs at the same...

10.15.2022

Ten Minute Tips #24: You Are Not Your CTL

Are you a CTL junkie? Terrified of letting it drop? Listen in. This episode takes a critical but realistic look at TSS and the metrics it's built on like CTL, ATL, and TSB. We discuss normalized power, what kind of...

09.29.2022

Perspectives #19: Adaptation, Signaling, and Performance, with Andy Coggan

Andy Coggan joins the podcast again to discuss everything we didn't get to in the previous episode. We get back stories behind the adaptations by training zones chart and the category and w/kg chart. We also go in depth with...

09.16.2022

Perspectives #18: Overcoming Historical Inertia, with Andy Coggan

In this episode, Andy Coggan discusses FTP and its context among various threshold definitions, the infamous "hour of power", and the legacy of Training And Racing With A Power Meter. We also discuss Andy's lack of social media presence, the...

09.05.2022

Perspectives #17: Evolution vs Revolution, with Mikael Eriksson

The interviewer becomes the interviewed as the host of That Triathlon Show joins Kolie. Mikael talks about what he takes from all the interviews he does and how they change his approach, multisport training and periodization, podcasting, pacing, and what...

08.29.2022

Ten Minute Tips #23: How Much FTP Training Is Too Much?

More FTP may be better, but not always. This episode explores ideas around how FTP can be overemphasized in training in both the short and long term, leading to suboptimal fitness and race outcomes.

08.15.2022

Watts Doc #39: Why You Probably Can't Hold Your FTP For An Hour

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...

08.02.2022

Ten Minute Tips #22: Training Myths, Part 2

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...

07.21.2022

Perspectives #16: Experiment vs Experience, with Marinus Petersen

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...

07.08.2022

Ten Minute Tips #21: Individualization Is Why It Always Depends

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...

06.23.2022

Perspectives #15: A Discussion on Strength Training, with RJ Boergers and Angelo Gingerelli

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.

06.14.2022

Ten Minute Tips #20: Training Myths, Part 1

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...

What's Empirical Cycling Podcast about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Empirical Cycling Podcast episodes: