Todd discusses how exercise affects the immune system. Does exercise make your immune system stronger or weaker? What other factors affect immune system capacity? Who is most likely to get ill?

Jason chats about sauna work and heat acclimatization. Should you sit in a sauna to make yourself a better athlete? Who is a good candidate for this training method? What's the best way to be heat acclimatized?

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What is the best position for descending a long straight mountainous road? What factors go into selecting the correct position? Are there better positions for more technical descents? How do I descend quickly anyway? Todd explores a paper discussing aerodynamic positions and we discuss their practicality and different times to use different positions.

Jason recently bought new cycling shoes and discusses his experience as well as what to look for in a shoe. How stiff do your soles need to be? What closure system should I use? 

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Show Notes:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167610518305762

Do you hydrate enough to fuel your workouts? How much water do you need to drink? Can you drink coffee, tea, or beer instead? Jason discusses hydration and common issues associated with it.

Todd discusses an interesting white paper on the limits of human endurance in long events. If we ran 'forever' how fast could we go? What is stopping us? What are the most taxing endurance events we know of? 

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Show notes:

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/advances/5/6/eaaw0341.full.pdf

In this episode, Todd talks about a lesser known training method involving restricting blood flow to worked muscles. This causes an extreme buildup in waste materials. How does your body adapt? Is it better than conventional training methods? 

Jason talks about his experiences with bad weather racing and talks about some tactics for improving your chances of success in races with less than favorable weather. How can I get the most value out of my equipment given the weather? How do I use the weather to my advantage?

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What happens if you are dropped off at Denver Airport without any altitude preparation? What if you forgot you were racing at altitude tomorrow? How can you mitigate the effects of altitude performance loss? Todd explores these questions and more with the topic of altitude and sport. Afterwards, Jason discusses some of the tactics he's used as a solo rider in crits and road races to maximize his chances of achieving his goal for the race. 

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Show Notes:

https://commons.pacificu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1461&context=pa

https://res.mdpi.com/nutrients/nutrients-09-00043/article_deploy/nutrients-09-00043.pdf?filename=&attachment=1

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Charles_Pedlar/publication/236196909_The_Effects_of_a_Single_Dose_of_Concentrated_Beetroot_Juice_on_Performance_in_Trained_Flatwater_Kayakers/links/562f497108aef25a24456722.pdf

https://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/ijsnem.2014-0129

Todd and Jason both have significant opinions on strength training for cycling. In today's podcast they share their experiences and advice for athletes interested in strength training and discuss its importance to the amateur cyclist. At the end of the podcast, equipment for road, track and MTB are discussed. Should you be riding your armadillo training tires in a race? (no) What minimum equipment is needed to feel like you aren't lagging behind your competitiors?

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Today Todd and Jason discuss flexibility for cyclists and why cycling is a flexibility sport. Do you stretch often as a cyclist? Do you work on your mobility? Should you be? We discuss our own experiences and the prevailing theories on stretching and flexibility in this episode.

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This week's topic is how track cycling and mountain biking can help you develop as a rider. Todd (the MTB guy) discusses his background in the discipline and the lessons he's learned. Jason (the track guy) talks about why he feels track is essential for development as a road rider. This format is back and forth rather than one topic at a time and is an interesting discussion through and through.

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In this episode, we give an introduction to heart rate variability (HRV) and discuss its use for riders. Heart rate variability is a measurement of the variability in the pattern of our heart rate. It can indicate excess fatigue or stress that the body is under even when other methods fail to notice. 

In the second half of the episode we discuss the 1000yd stare riders get after long races or rides. What are the causes this effect? How can we resolve the feeling, especially if we have other obligations during the day? We discuss causes and solution and generically give an example of ways cyclists can brainstorm potential causes of their issues that prevent them from riding at their best.

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Today we discuss the INSCYD test report Jason completed as part of his training for this upcoming season. INSCYD test is a complete metabolic test protocol attempting to characterize a rider based on their physiological characteristics. It involves 3 tests all done in one training ride and the resulting report can help a rider understand their strengths and weaknesses as well as provide information about how one can improve within the sport.

We are not associated with INSCYD in any way. It is a test taken by Jason as part of his training and he found it interesting to share.

We also discussed carbohydrate timing. This idea involves doing a fasted ride the day after a hard, intense ride in order to elicit higher fat burning capacity. Other benefits and drawbacks are discussed.

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Show Notes:

https://www.inscyd.com/