The Big Wheel Coaching Podcast

"The ultimate is not to win, but to reach within the depths of your capabilities and compete against yourself to the greatest extent possible. When you do that you can walk about with pride, no matter what place you finished." -Billy Mills, Olympic Gold Medalist

Endurance sports are arguably the most grueling and demanding physical endeavors Athletes can undertake. Whether it is an MTB race, gravel event, cyclocross race, criterium, or Gran Fondo, defining success solely through wins and losses would undermine the sacrifice required to tackle these great events.

That is why the words of Olympian Billy Mills and the mindset it suggests are pertinent to Athletes everywhere!

In the closing chapters of The Champion's Mind: How Great Athletes Think, Train, And Thrive, we get a deeper understanding of what it means to achieve our very best and compete against ourselves.

Check out Part 3 of our Podcast review of The Champion's Mind, in which, Coaches Brian and Brady cover the final chapters and the most important skills to develop a Champion's Mind! 

Did you miss Part 1 and 2 of our book review? Check them out here:

Want some cool BWC Swag like socks, hats, or a race day bag? Of course you do!

https://pedalindustries.com/collections/big-wheel-coaching

We hope you enjoy this episode of the BWC Podcast and can apply the lessons discussed on your way to a season of success in 2019 and beyond!

#TrainYourPotential

Until Next Time, Be Safe, Train Hard, & Have Fun!

-Brian and Joy McCulloch

Big Wheel Coaching, Inc.

Having a great ride at your Goal Event takes focused preparation and so much more...

One of the best ways to test your preparation and see if you are on track, as well as uncover any weak links, is by doing "mock races" or Lead-Up events.

These events or training sessions simulate the speed, intensity, duration, distance, climbing, or workload that you expect to face at your Goal Event (Note: hopefully as many of the items from that list as possible!).

In our preparation for the Mammoth Gran Fondo this September we helped a number of Athletes prepare for, and execute, their best strategy at last weekends Tour de Big Bear. It was their very own dress rehearsal for Mammoth and a perfect "Lead Up" event.

After the event we put together this weeks podcast to share the planning, execution, and debrief process we use with our Athletes that is so helpful for riders of all levels trying to stretch their limits and improve.

The discussion between Coaches Joy and Brian, as well as the topics covered, are not unique to Gran Fondo riding and can be adapted to cyclocross, road racing, endurance MTB events, gravel adventures, and more!

Would you like some BWC swag? Check out the BWC edition Race Day Bag from Pedal Industries!

We hope you enjoy this episode of the BWC Podcast and can apply the lessons discussed on your way to a season of success in 2019 and beyond!

#TrainYourPotential

Until Next Time, Be Safe, Train Hard, & Have Fun!

-Brian and Joy McCulloch

Big Wheel Coaching, Inc.

Endurance Athletes everywhere have felt the drag of doing a hard workout after a restless night in bed...and almost as powerful is the feeling of invincibility on a day when you could ride as hard as you want for as long as you want. 

Most of us experience far to many days like the former, while dreaming of more like the later.

Interestingly, both experiences are tied, in large part, to sleep quality.

Getting high-quality/restful sleep is one of the most powerful ways to maximize performance.

In his article The Whole Picture: Recovery Through Sleep, author and Biomedical Engineer Simon Wegerif outlines the importance of sleep, specifically that of Deep Sleep and REM sleep, as well as how to improve your sleep cycles to get restorative sleep. 

This article, Mr. Wegerif's research, and our experience both as Athletes and Coaches is the "jump off" point for a discussion about sleeps impact on an Athlete's ability to achieve their goals.

To read the training article referenced in this weeks BWC Podcast, please follow this link:

Would you like some BWC swag? Check out the BWC edition Race Day Bag from Pedal Industries!

We hope you enjoy this episode of the BWC Podcast and can apply the lessons discussed on your way to a season of success in 2019 and beyond!

Do you have a Champion's Mind? 

As Athletes we spend nearly all of our time addressing our physical preparation, through interval work, endurance training, and pedaling dynamics...

Rarely do we devote time and energy to developing a 'gold-medal' mindset that is a absolutely necessary for us to perform our very best.

In Part 2 of our Podcast review of The Champion's Mind, How Great Athletes Think, Train, and Thrive, Coaches Brian and Brady cover the middle chapters of the book outlining lessons learned from Olympic-Level competition that can be easily applied to help you achieve your goals!

Want some cool BWC Swag like socks, hats, or a race day bag? Of course you do!

https://pedalindustries.com/collections/big-wheel-coaching

We hope you enjoy this episode of the BWC Podcast and can apply the lessons discussed on your way to a season of success in 2019 and beyond!

There is far more to being a successful cyclist than pushing the pedals hard, but you already know that! Although being 'fit' is very important, focusing only on this aspect of performance would leave so much of your potential untapped.

Developing an Athletes' Mindset, and what author Jim Afremow calls The Champion's Mind, is one of the most important components of performance that has nothing to do with fitness. 

That is why we are breaking into one of our favorite topics, Mental Skills Training and covering the book The Champion's Mind, How Great Athletes Think, Train, & Thrive in a multi-part podcast.

In Part 1 Coaches Brian and Brady cover the opening chapters of the book, Afremow's "Gold Medal Performance" concept and 10 Mental Skills to help you maximize your training.

Want some cool BWC Swag like cycling kits, socks, hats, or a race day bag? Of course you do!

Order your VR7 BWC 1st Edition cycling kit before 7/15/19:

-Note: Use the code BWCVIP to get 33% off your purchase!

To order our BWC edition Pedal Industries Race Day Bag, a hat or socks?

We hope you enjoy this episode of the BWC Podcast and can apply the lessons discussed on your way to a season of success in 2019 and beyond!

Being an Endurance Athlete takes a lot "sport-specific" training in order to be competitive, meaning that it takes a lot of saddle time to maintain your best fitness. 

But for busy professionals that have jobs requiring regular business travel, the time away from their regular training habits can feel a lot like torture. These business trips, and sometimes even personal vacations, can cause anxiety for every Athlete as it is all to easy to worry about lost fitness.

Sound crazy? 

It shouldn't, it is completely natural to want to preserve something you work so hard to build, especially your fitness.

And that is why we put together this weeks BWC podcast episode to share our best "training during travel" tips and help you keep moving forward toward your cycling goals!

Is your bike a tool that is adapted to you, meaning you feel comfortable and ready to get the most from your body on every ride?

Or, are you struggling with upper back or neck pain, a sore lower back, possibly even numbness in your feet, hands and/or "seat-area"...

Unfortunately for even the most experienced cyclists, they are more likely to fit into the later category than the first. And it doesn't need to be that way!

Which is we brought on a long-time friend of BWC, and the owner of Bosco Bike Fits, Andrew Bosco for this episode of the Big Wheel Coaching Podcast.

Because, in our quest to help you perform your very best, we have found that a top-notch bike fit is more than a luxury, it is an absolute necessity!

"The toughest challenge I have ever faced on a bike was 3-days in the Gobi Desert when I thought I was lost and had to spend the majority of my day walking my bike through the deep sand..."

Not many competitive cyclists have a background that includes bike-packing through Mongolia, Bolivia, and the Gobi Desert, but then again, Erik Andrejko is not a conventional kind-of guy.

Having started his cycling career as a young-man bike-packing through remote areas in Asia and all across Europe, Erik Andrejko has found that racing gravel events has blended his passion for adventure with his thirst for competition now that he is a father, husband, and time-crunched cyclist.

Having recently completed Lost & Found, a 100-mile ruggedly grueling gravel event in Northern California, not to mention a build-up that included nearly a dozen other events to prepare him for this immense challenge, Erik is loving the balance of performance and adventure that comes with gravel racing.

In this episode of the BWC Podcast, Coach Brian talks with Erik about his unusual path to racing and the build up that helped him conquer one of his season biggest goals.

It was just two weeks ago that Big Wheel Coaching made a pilgrimage to one of the most challenging races ever-imagined...The 200-mile Dirty Kanza Gravel Race.

Although the race has earned the reputation as the "World's Premier Gravel Race", for nearly ever participant, it is as much of a vision-quest as it is a bike race.

This brutal event draws thousands of people, every year, not because of a huge prize purse or first-rate SAG stops, in fact there is no prize money for the winners and the event requires riders to be entirely self-supported while out on course.

It is the fact that Dirty Kanza is primarily an event where each rider is competing against themselves in a crucible-style test of strength, endurance, will, and preparation that makes this one of the most amazing events anywhere.

This year Coach Brian, supported by Coach Brady, headed to Dirty Kanza to see what all the hype was about and experience what was his longest and most difficult ride ever, amongst a professional racing career that has spanned nearly ten-years.

In this episode of the BWC podcast Brian and Brady discuss the entire DK experience and share "lessons learned" to help you on your next big ride.

The summer heat has arrived across much of the United States, especially in Southern California at BWC Headquarters, and that means one thing...

Helping our Athletes train properly and race effectively in the soaring temperatures.

With this in mind Coaches Brian and Leo review an article for this weeks podcast written by Dr. Stacy Sims titled, "Racing In The Heat: Are You Ready?"  that offers some unique and forward-thinking ideas that Athletes everywhere can use to perform optimally this summer.

Some of the topics covered include:

We hope you enjoy this episode of the BWC Podcast and can apply the lessons discussed on your way to a season of success in 2019 and beyond!