The base training advice you've been getting from social media and indoor riding platforms is wrong.

Riding only Zone 2 all winter doesn't work for cyclists with less than 8 hours a week to train. Riding hard indoors doesn't work either. In this video, Coach Frank Overton (aka BigCat) breaks down how to build a REAL aerobic base on just 4–8 hours per week, using the Sweet Spot training methodology he has pioneered for the past 20 years.

You'll learn:

1️⃣ Where base training actually fits in your annual plan

2️⃣ Why Zone 2-only training fails when volume is low

3️⃣ The biggest base-training mistakes cyclists make indoors

4️⃣ Why Sweet Spot delivers more aerobic gains per minute

5️⃣ How to measure base fitness using OTS & Level

6️⃣ What a real month of base training looks like (calendar example)

This is the same approach we've used for over 20 years to help time-crunched amateur cyclists get stronger, more durable, and faster without burning out.

🎁 FREE BASE TRAINING + GIVEAWAY

If you listen to the end, you can get

✅ A full month of base training for free

✅ A chance to win a FREE YEAR of the CoachCat app

How to enter the giveaway: Start a free 30-day trial using the link below

Comment "CoachCat" on this video (plus any questions or thoughts)

No purchase necessary. One winner will be randomly selected and announced in the comments 5 days after this video goes live.

Even if you don't win, you'll still get full access to this month of base training for free.

👉 Start your free trial here: https://www.FasCatCoaching.com

What happens when you mix a live Sweet Spot group ride, real-time coaching, fueling advice, tech questions, and unfiltered athlete Q&A?

You get a live, no-BS training session led by Coach Frank that covers how cyclists train. Pardon the audio as we recorded from our discord channel that was live during the ride.

In this ride & podcast, we dove into a dozen or more topics, including:

1. How to ride Sweet Spot by feel (no rigid intervals required)

2. Why Sweet Spot is "not too hard, not too easy — just right"

3. Fueling correctly indoors (70–90g carbs/hr and why it matters)

4. ERG mode: when to use it and when it hurts your training

5. Using time-in-zone instead of chasing perfect watts

6. Heart rate vs power for Sweet Spot Time in Zone Accuracy

7. Training consistency, durability, and long-ride fatigue resistance

8. How to adapt training when life, travel, injuries, or holidays happen

9. Festive 500 strategy for road, gravel, crit, and masters athletes

10. Strength training + endurance: how to blend them without burnout

11. Why most plateaus are caused by doing the same thing too long

12. How CoachCat helps revise plans, answer questions, and guide decisions in real time 🎯

Who this ride and podcast is for:

Masters cyclists

Time-crunched athletes

Gravel, road, crit, and fondo riders

Athletes training indoors on Zwift

Anyone tired of over-complicating training

🧠 Key takeaway: Fitness comes from doing slightly more work than yesterday and recovering well enough to do it again tomorrow.

Sweet Spot training done right builds durability, raises FTP, and teaches you how to pace long efforts — without burying yourself.

🚴 Join us live again on January 3rd, 2026 Sweet Spot Saturday is part of a 7-ride progression series: Each ride gets 30 minutes longer Builds durability and confidence Ride #7 culminates in the legendary Uber Pretzel

📅 Next ride: January 3 👉 Join the FasCat Coaching Club in the Zwift Companion app

👍 Like • Subscribe • Share If this helped your training,

hit 👍, subscribe for science-backed cycling advice, and share with a riding buddy who trains hard but wants to train smarter. Train Smarter. Ride Faster. — Coach Frank 🐾

Sweet Spot Training is one of the most widely used and effective ways cyclists build their base and improve power. Sweet Spot Train the Right Way for FREE in the CoachCat App → https://fascatcoaching.com/app

But very few people know the story behind the development of 'sweet spot training'.

Long before Sweet Spot Training was mainstream, it was developed inside a secret, private beta group of coaches and sport scientists that I was part of.

We were testing a new power-based performance model that would later go on to become the Performance Manager Chart inside TrainingPeaks.

And what we discovered & developed changed endurance cycling training forever: there was a training intensity that built the most fitness for the least fatigue.

And that this type of training enabled time crunched athletes to develop a massive aerobic engines that previously weren't possible with Zone 2 training.

That discovery became Sweet Spot Training.

Do you remember your first sweet spot workout?

Pro Coach Sierra Sims (M.S. Exercise Physiology) breaks down the science and technique behind muscle tension intervals: one of the most effective ways to turn gym strength into real power on the bike. Whether you're building your base, coming back from the off-season, or looking to climb stronger, these workouts teach your neuromuscular system to produce MORE torque and apply it efficiently across the pedal stroke. You'll learn: ✔️ What muscle tension (high-torque) intervals actually are ✔️ Why low cadence is so effective for force production ✔️ How to combine torque work with strength training for maximum gains ✔️ How WorldTour pros use torque blocks from October–February ✔️ How to structure these sessions indoors or outdoors ✔️ Real-world workout examples you can try this week ✔️ How to avoid knee pain and progress safely Watch till the end where Sierra shows you two practical ways to perform these intervals so you can do them anywhere — on Zwift, on climbs, or on rolling terrain. 🚴‍♂️ Want workouts like these? Hire Coach Sierra, https://fascatcoaching.com/collections/coaches/products/sierra-sims or Start your 30-day FREE trial → https://fascatcoaching.com/app The CoachCat App includes: • 15+ muscle tension interval workouts • 600+ cycling workouts • 100+ training plans • Daily AI coaching • Human coach in-app support!

Most cyclists don't realize it, but our entire training lifestyle is basically built for longevity.

Endurance & VO2 max training, weight lifting, real food, and good sleep are the same fundamentals that help you live longer and stay healthy as you age.

With books like Outlive and the rise of longevity science, I finally decided to share my personal plan to live to 100 and the 8 fundamentals I'm going to use to get there.

This video is the first in a full series on Longevity & Health for cyclists and non-cyclists alike. No hacks. No supplement stacks. No billionaire biohacks. Just the fundamentals science keeps pointing to again and again.

You'll Learn:

1. Exercise: The #1 lever for healthspan: aerobic base, strength, muscle mass, and durability

2. Nutrition: Real food, protein, plants, hydration, and sustainable habits

3. Sleep

4. Stress Management: Daily habits that keep the nervous system calm

5. Relationships: Backed by the 80-year Harvard Study as a top predictor of long-term health.

6. Purpose & Mission

7. Safety: Smarter riding choices (more gravel/MTB, less traffic), and stepping away from high-risk environments

8. Blood Testing: FTP testing for your health: measure, benchmark, track trends, adjust early.

If you want to live well, ride long, and build the longest streak of your life… you're in the right place.

Train Smarter. Ride Faster. Live Longer with the CoachCat App https://fascatcoaching.com/app

Learn how to use your HRV along with three other essential recovery metrics to train smarter and recover better. Then try the CoachCat App → free for your first 30 days https://fascatcoaching.com/app

Coach Frank Overton (the BigCat), founder of FasCat Coaching and creator of the CoachCat App, breaks down what HRV really means, why single-day numbers don't tell the whole story, and how to actually use HRV to train smarter.

You'll learn:

✅ What HRV really measures

✅ Why daily HRV scores can be misleading

✅ The importance of trends (7-day, 1-month, 6-month)

✅ How sleep, training stress, and how you feel matter just as much

✅ The four pillars of real recovery

✅ How CoachCat's AI Coaching Intelligence analyzes your data and gives daily guidance — just like a real coach Whether you use Whoop, Oura, Garmin, or Apple Watch… HRV is powerful only if you know how to use it correctly.

This video & podcast shows you how to take control of your recovery and confidence in your training.

Start Training for Next Year NOW with these 4 "On Season" Training Methodologies.

Use the CoachCat to do your Winter Training free for the first month ➡️ https://fascatcoaching.com/app

Most cyclists call it the off-season… but that's a mistake. The truth is, winter is GO TIME and its actually the "On-Season" when you lift weight build base and ride Zwift that'll carry you to your best results next year. 💪🚴‍♂️

In this video, Coach Frank Overton breaks down exactly how to train this "off-season" so you can come into spring stronger, faster, and more durable than ever.

You'll learn:

🔥 The 4 key pillars of On-Season training:

1️⃣ Weight Lifting for Cyclists

2️⃣ Muscle Tension Intervals

3️⃣ Sweet Spot Base Training

4️⃣ Zwifting for Consistency & Progress

📈 Follow these methods now and add 10–50 watts by next Spring.

Don't hope to get faster, train to get faster.

Ready to Start? Train smarter this On-Season with:

👉 The CoachCat APP: https://fascatcoaching.com/app

👉 Hire a 1x1 FasCat Coach https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/hire-a-coach

Muscle Tension Intervals are those big gear, low cadence masher that are like lifting weights on the bike.

You can do them in the CoachCat app → https://fascatcoaching.com/app where the first month is free.

The problem? Not everyone has access to a steady 3–5% climb like we do here in Boulder.

That's where Zwift comes in. In this video, Coach Frank walks you through two ways to perform Muscle Tension Intervals on Zwift:

1️⃣ Exporting your workout into ERG mode and using the Incline setting in the Companion app. 2️⃣ Riding free-form in the Climb Portal and simulation riding uphill for work intervals, then turning around and coasting downhill for recovery.

Additionally, you'll learn how torque (force on the pedals) connects to power, and why these intervals build the kind of strength that pays off when you combine it with higher cadence later in the season.

💡 Try both methods, or even all three if you include the outdoor version, as part of your Fall Foundation plan.

Weight lifting for cycling can help you gain 15 to 50 watts by next spring — but only if you do it the right way. 🚴‍♂️💪

Watch this podcast on our youTube channel for a better visual learning experience: https://youtu.be/J5nTl0sXrFQ

In this video, the BigCat (Frank Overton) show you exactly how to lift weights for cycling to increase your power output, improve your FTP, and have your best season ever. This isn't just theory, we've used this exact 10-week, 4-phase weight lifting plan over the past 20+ years, to coach hundreds/thousands of cyclists to higher FTP's, podiums and group ride hero status 🏋️‍♂️💪

What You'll Learn in This Video:

✅ Why weight lifting works for cyclists and what makes this plan cycling-specific

✅ When to lift heavy — and when to switch to explosive, high-velocity movements

✅ How many days per week to lift

✅ How many sets and reps to do each day

✅ How much weight to lift for each set

✅ How to combine lifting with on-the-bike workouts to turn gym gains into real watts

By the end of this video, you'll understand the entire 10-week plan, including sets, reps, percentages, and timing so you can start lifting right.

Why This Weight Lifting Plan Works: Not all gym workouts are created equal. A lot of cyclists waste time swinging kettlebells or following generic strength programs that don't translate into more power on the bike.

Here's why our plan works:

1️⃣ Lift Heavy → Build strength to generate more force per pedal stroke

2️⃣ Lift Explosively → High-speed lifts simulate pedaling velocity

3️⃣ Neuromuscular Sprint Work → On-bike sprints teach your new muscle to fire faster

4️⃣ Muscle Tension Intervals → Lock in your strength on the bike and crush climbs

Get the Full 10 Week Weight Plan Plan in the CoachCat App

You could write everything down and try to follow the plan manually… but why guess?

Download the CoachCat app for free and get: Your 10-week weight lifting plan

Daily workouts with the right weight, sets, and reps Integrated on-bike workouts

A downloadable PDF plan

Unlimited plan adjustments and training guidance

📲 Start your free trial → https://fascatcoaching.com/app

Are you masters cyclist wondering why your FTP is plateauing or dropping — and what to do about it? 🚴‍♂️

Watch the podcast with visual charts & graphs on our youTube channel: https://youtu.be/DChZyc_7BWM

In this video, the BigCat, Frank Overton, explains the science behind why masters cyclists get slower with age and, more importantly, how to fix it with a smarter, age-appropriate training plan.

We'll cover:

✅ The science behind slower recovery for masters cyclists

✅ Introduction to "tear & repair" and why it takes longer after 40

✅ How age related decline in hormones increases the time to recover

✅ Masters cyclists training strategies to boost power and speed

✅ Top tips for adjusting your training plan to fit YOUR physiology

Whether you're in your 40s, 50s, or 60s, you can still get faster: you just have to train smarter, not harder. The BigCat shares the exact adjustments he's made in his own training and the athletes he's coached, plus what's worked for thousands of athletes we've coached at FasCat Coaching.

Follow a Masters Based Training Plan FREE for 1 month ➡️ https://fascatcoaching.com/app