OVERVIEW

Wheels and Tires and Tire Pressure. These are the subjects of endless debates among road, gravel, and mountain bike racers. Wheel and tire technologies continue to change. Internal rim widths allow for wider tires, as do modern frames. In Episode 247 of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast", Coach Adam Pulford and Velosmith's Tony Bustamante discuss how cyclists can narrow in on the wheel + tire + pressure combination that works best in specific situation, like SBT GRVL vs. Big Sugar. 

TOPICS COVERED

• Why are tires so important to cycling performance?
• Why you should be testing multiple tire choices
• Sourcing course-specific info on tire selection
• How tire pressure affects wheel system performance
• Tinkering with tire pressure to find your preferred setup
• Sweet spots for rire size and handling characteristics
  
  

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LINKS/RESOURCES

Velosmith Bicycle Studio

- SRAM/ZIPP tire pressure guide
- Schwalbe tire width guide
- WTB Tire/Rim fit chart

GUEST

Tony Bustamante of Velosmith Bicycle Studio. A second-generation bike shop owner, Tony Began working for his father in 1986 and over time worked in shops from L.A. to D.C. In the late 90s - early 00s. He worked at Seven Cycles in production/manufacturing and design before starting Velosmith in 2011 with a focus on building custom bicycles and delivering an exceptional level of mechanical service and hospitality. One last bit about Tony: he was an athlete Adam Pulford worked with for a handful of years and Adam has utilized Tony's skills and guidance on equipment choices, bike fit, and more.

HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.

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OVERVIEW

When it comes to the equipment choices and mistakes athletes make before big events, Tony Bustamante has seen it all. The founder of Velosmith Bicycle Studio, which specializes in customized builds for discerning cyclists, and a second-generation bike shop owner, Tony has been that guy you implored to fix your brakes last minute or install that super-important part the afternoon before your flight. Not only does he not recommend you do that, he has other potentially race-saving, trip-saving, and money-saving advice for cyclists as we head into the height of summer event season.

TOPICS COVERED

• The 3 Categories of Concern for Cyclists
  • Rider: Apparel and Contact Points
  • Bike: Frame/Fork, wheels/tires, drivetrain, controls
  • Variables: Bags, aero bars, on-bike tools, lights, etc.
• How to choose a mechanic you can trust
• Timeline for event-specific equipment choices/changes
• Timeline for having your bike worked on before an event
  
  

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LINKS/RESOURCES

Velosmith Bicycle Studio

GUEST

Tony Bustamante of Velosmith Bicycle Studio. A second-generation bike shop owner, Tony Began working for his father in 1986 and over time worked in shops from L.A. to D.C. In the late 90s - early 00s. He worked at Seven Cycles in production/manufacturing and design before starting Velosmith in 2011 with a focus on building custom bicycles and delivering an exceptional level of mechanical service and hospitality. One last bit about Tony: he was an athlete Adam Pulford worked with for a handful of years and Adam has utilized Tony's skills and guidance on equipment choices, bike fit, and more.

HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform

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Website: trainright.com
Instagram: @cts_trainright
Twitter: @trainright
Facebook: @CTSAthlete

OVERVIEW
Interval training works, but there are ways to get stronger, ride faster, and win races without interval training. There are even aspects of performance that are better suited to no-interval training blocks. In some cases, the structured intensity with planned recovery breaks hinders an athlete's flexibility to use power and fitness spontaneously. Coach Adam Pulford breaks away from the dogma of interval training to show you how to improve your fitness and performance with a period of reduced structure. 

TOPICS COVERED

• The 5 reasons we do intervals in training
• 3 Ways to train without intervals
  • Sample workout 1: Hard Climbing Day
  • Sample workout 2: Kilojoules per hour
  • Sample workout 3: Normalized Power Game
• 3 Ways to use Group Rides for productive training
• Monitoring your fitness when you're not doing intervals
• Subjective feedback: "real feel" vs. "should feel"

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LINKS/RESOURCES

• The Evolution of Endurance

HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform

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Website: trainright.com
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OVERVIEW

Stephanie Howe, PhD is back for Part 2 of the sports nutrition podcasts she recorded with Coach Adam Pulford. An elite ultramarathon runner who won Western States, CTS Coach, and the provider for CTS Nutrition Coaching services, Stephanie works with cyclists, runners, triathletes, and more. In Episode 244 of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast", Stephanie and Coach Adam Pulford lay out evidence-based, practical sports nutrition recommendations for race day, including a checklist for planning your raceday nutrition, how to adapt your plan when things go wrong, how to come back from a bad stomach, and more. 

TOPICS COVERED

• Creating a race day eating and drinking plan
• Planning ahead with aid stations, feed zones, drop bags, etc.
• How 'palate fatigue' stops athletes from consuming more food.
• How to come back from an upset stomach during a race
• How much sodium do you really need?

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LINKS/RESOURCES

• https://stephaniemariehowe.com/about/
• https://trainright.com/nutrition/

HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform

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Website: trainright.com
Instagram: @cts_trainright
Twitter: @trainright
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OVERVIEW

Stephanie Howe, PhD is our go-to source for no-nonsense, evidence-based nutrition guidance. She doesn't abide fads or pseudoscience and has no allegiances to sports nutrition or supplement companies. An elite ultramarathon runner who won Western States, CTS Coach, and the provider for CTS Nutrition Coaching services, Stephanie works with cyclists, runners, triathletes, and more. In Episode 243 of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast", Stephanie and Coach Adam Pulford discuss the fundamentals of sports nutrition for training, misconceptions about eating sugar, how the recent "max carbohydrate" trends apply to Time-Crunched Athletes, and more.

TOPICS COVERED

• Why athletes shouldn't be afraid of consuming sugar during exercise
• Ingredients to look for in sports nutrition products
• Adjusting calorie/carbohydrate intake by exercise intensity
• Nutrition for endurance days vs. interval/competition days
• Gut training: what it is, why it's good, how to do it
• What to eat in the 24 hours before important training/competition
• Hydration recommendations for training/competition
• Why you should carry both water and sport drink

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LINKS/RESOURCES

• https://stephaniemariehowe.com/about/
• https://trainright.com/nutrition/

HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform

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Website: trainright.com
Instagram: @cts_trainright
Twitter: @trainright
Facebook: @CTSAthlete

OVERVIEW
How much fatigue can an athlete accumulate without hurting recovery and hindering progress? That's the million dollar question for all coaches and athletes because it reveals how much training you can do in a given time, what type of workouts to use, and even what goals are within your reach. Coach Adam Pulford delves into the software tools he uses to analyze athlete data, monitor fatigue, assess an athlete's capacity for future training, and much more. Listen to Episode 242 of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast" and learn to leverage your training data to supercharge your training and results. 

TOPICS COVERED

• What training metrics represent fatigue?
• Defining training stress score (TSS)
• Acute vs. chronic training load
• How stress (fatigue) is balanced by rest (recovery)
• Why "ramp rates" matter and how to use them to plan training

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LINKS/RESOURCES

• Why Ramp Rate is an Important Training Metric | TrainingPeaks
• A Coach's Guide to ATL, CTL & TSB
• Fatigue (ATL) – TrainingPeaks Help Center
• What are CTL, ATL, TSB & TSS? Why Do They Matter?
• Core TrainingPeaks Metrics Explained: Fitness, Form, Fatigue
• The Foster Score: A Simple Yet Effective Way to Measure Training Load in Endurance Sports - Ludum

HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform

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Website: trainright.com
Instagram: @cts_trainright
Twitter: @trainright
Facebook: @CTSAthlete

OVERVIEW
So many athletes are focused on training in Zone 2, but they don't realize "Zone 2" means different things depending on which training system you use. There is a 3-Zone system, a 5-Zone system, a 7-Zone system, and even more! Two of the most popular are 3-Zones, championed by researcher Dr. Stephen Seiler, and a 7-Zone system used by CTS and many other coaching groups. In Episode 241 of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast", Coach Adam Pulford answers a listener question about how an athlete can compare or use more than one training zone methodology, and what "Zone 2" means in a 3-Zone system compared to a 7-Zone system.

TOPICS COVERED

• Why training zones were created
• 7-Zone system compared to a 3-Zone system
• Using aerobic decoupling to evaluate aerobic conditioning
• Practical advice for athletes trying to use training zones

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LINKS/RESOURCES

• Complete Guide to Polarized Training with Dr. Stephen Seiler
• Zones Calculator Overview – TrainingPeaks Help Center
• Calculator Compare: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aptCiqhjm6Fn7vG6P50AX54pW1P7XdVWx-lCARzNA5U/edit?gid=965771708#gid=965771708
• Episode #170 “Leveraging Lab and Field Testing to Create a Bigger Aerobic Engine” https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trainright-podcast/id1494799053?i=1000634902218
• Aerobic Decoupling: 
  • https://help.trainingpeaks.com/hc/en-us/articles/204071724-Aerobic-Decoupling-Pw-Hr-and-Pa-HR-and-Efficiency-Factor-EF
  • Are You Fit? All About Aerobic Endurance and Decoupling
• Episode #169 Metabolic Testing:
  • https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trainright-podcast/id1494799053?i=1000634127336
• Tim Cusick:
  • https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trainright-podcast/id1494799053?i=1000468063825

HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform

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Overview
We love checking out what the pros are riding, but "normal" riders aiming to finish the Leadville 100 MTB in under 9 hours or under 12 hours have different needs on race day. Ten-time LT100 finisher, coach, and author Jim Rutberg talks with 3-time finisher Adam Pulford about the best bikes, equipment choices for the 2000+ riders behind the race leaders. And, since they're both coaches, they throw in a bunch of training, nutrition, and race strategy tips as well.

Key topics in this episode:

• Challenges of Leadville 100 course
• Is Leadville a drop-bar bike course?
• Best Bike Setup for Leadville 100
• How much suspension do you need?
• Bottles or hydration pack?
• What about a hardtail MTB?
• Wheels and Tires for Leadville 100
• Crank length for mountain biking
• MTB, Gravel, or Road shoes and pedals?
• Training and Nutrition tips for Leadville 100

LINKS

• 5 Race Bikes from the 2022 Leadville 100 - Pinkbike
• Tech Week – Bike & Tire Guide for the Stages Cycling Leadville Trail 100 MTB
• Roundup: The mountain bikes of Leadville - Velo
• XC vs Trail Bike Geo: Trail vs cross-country mountain bikes: Which is right for you? | BikeRadar

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Guest
Jim Rutberg has been an athlete, coach, and content creator in the outdoor sports, endurance coaching, and event industries for more than 20 years. He is the Media Director and a coach for CTS and co-author of several training and sports nutrition books, including Training Essentials for Ultrarunning with Jason Koop, Ride Inside with Joe Friel, and The Time-Crunched Cyclist with Chris Carmichael. A graduate of Wake Forest University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Exercise Physiology, Jim resides in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with his two sons, Oliver and Elliot. He can be reached at [email protected] or @rutty_rides on Instagram.

Host
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly 20 years and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform

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Website: trainright.com
Instagram: @cts_trainright
Twitter: @trainright
Facebook: @CTSAthlete

OVERVIEW
How do you know if your threshold value or FTP or the training zones you calculated from your field test or lab test are correct? The best way is to conduct a Verification Workout! Coach Adam Pulford walks you through his go-to verification workout and reveals how it can tell you if your training zones are set too low, too high, or just right.

TOPICS COVERED

• How to tell if your threshold test was any good
• Coach tips on training zones
• The FTP Verification Workout
• What to look for from a verification workout
• How to adjust training zones if necessary
• Scaling the Verification Workout for beginners
• When in doubt, here's what to do

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HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform

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Website: trainright.com
Instagram: @cts_trainright
Twitter: @trainright
Facebook: @CTSAthlete

OVERVIEW
Different cycling field tests have their pros and cons. Some are better for beginners vs. athletes with greater pacing skills. Others are more convenient and easy to fit into a training plan. And still others are more detailed and take multiple days to complete, but provide more nuanced information. Coach Adam Pulford breaks down the most relevant, high-quality field tests so you can use the best test for you. Includes consideration for the 20-minute, Ramp Test, 8-minute, critical power, and power profiling tests.

TOPICS COVERED

• What is a field test?
• The 20-Minute FTP test
• The Ramp Test
• The 2 x 8-Minute Test from CTS
• Critical Power Testing
• Power Profile Testing with WKO5
• When you should update your training intensity ranges
• The Best Test for You

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LINKS/RESOURCES

• CTS Cycling Field Test
• CTS Field Test: Why Two 8-Minute Efforts Instead Of One 20-Minute Effort? - CTS 
• Andy Coggan Protocol - Power Profiling: Creating Your Power Profile
• Comparing Many Field Testing Methods:
  • Cycling Training Zones: A Detailed Guide — High North Performance 
  • WKO5 Resources: https://www.wko5.com/power-duration-science-explained
  • Article: https://www.cyclingweekly.com/fitness/i-tried-every-ftp-test-to-find-out-which-is-the-most-accurate
  • Training Peaks Power Terminology: https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/power-terminology-for-cycling/
• Essential Guide to Cycling Training with a Power Meter - CTS

HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform

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Join our weekly newsletter

CONNECT WITH CTS

Website: trainright.com
Instagram: @cts_trainright
Twitter: @trainright
Facebook: @CTSAthlete