The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast by CTS

Free Cycling Training Assessment

What happens when your training numbers say you're doing fine, but mentally, you're struggling to find the motivation to ride?

Athlete burnout and overtraining can share symptoms like fatigue, mood changes, and low motivation, but they're not necessarily the same problem. Understanding the differences can help athletes recognize when training stress, performance expectations, or the demands of everyday life are becoming difficult to manage.

In this episode, CTS Head Cycling Coach Adam Pulford examines the signs of burnout and overtraining, including why an athlete may continue performing well while feeling increasingly disconnected from training.

Joining the discussion is former professional cyclist and mental performance coach Shannon Malseed, who offers insight into the psychological pressures athletes carry, from self-criticism and overthinking to the expectations that come with pursuing ambitious goals.

Together, they explore how to recognize the burnout rut, evaluate the pressures contributing to it, separate self-worth from athletic results, and reconnect with the enjoyment of riding.

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.

​​Interested in working with a coach? Schedule a free consult: https://trainright.com/coaching/cycling/

Self-coached athlete? Check out our TrainRight Membership: https://trainright.com/membership/

Find more free resources here: https://trainright.com/blog/

Resources:

• https://trainright.com/training-burnout-prevention-recovery/
• Links to Shannon:
  • Shannon | Mental Performance Coach (@shannonmalseed) • Instagram photos and videos
  • https://shannonmalseed.com/pressure-proof/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAack7G3G3VH_EBVsbkjVeo5KJ7_XxiRqXITYyY41lN5XWYUTDohoYKUCw78GBQ_aem_WLxpMLXzNFKeYZox6ycPgw
• Mind-Set Outcome-Decoupling:
  • These 5 Mental Shifts Turn Good Athletes Into Elite Ones

​​Free Cycling Training Assessment

What would a professional cycling coach change about your training if he could see everything you've been doing?

In the first episode of RATE MY TRAINING, CTS Head Cycling Coach Adam Pulford takes a deep dive into the training history of a real amateur cyclist: Willy B, a 67-year-old gravel racer preparing for another shot at Unbound 200.

Willy trains 10–15 hours per week, has experience racing demanding gravel events across Europe and the United States, and has ambitious goals for the coming season. But his progression has plateaued.

Adam examines Willy's training history, power-duration curve, performance management data, and 2026 Unbound race to understand where there may be opportunities to improve.

The conversation also explores an important distinction: improving your fitness and improving your race result aren't always the same thing. Time spent at aid stations, fueling decisions, group positioning, and pacing can all influence how effectively an athlete translates their training into performance.

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.

Interested in working with a coach? Schedule a free consult: https://trainright.com/coaching/cycling/

Self-coached athlete? Check out our TrainRight Membership: https://trainright.com/membership/

Find more free resources here: https://trainright.com/blog/

​​Free Cycling Training Assessment

Cyclists can spend an extraordinary amount of money chasing performance. Supplements promise better recovery. Wearables promise better training decisions. Ketones promise another fuel source. Ceramic components and aero equipment promise free watts.

But which purchases actually provide enough benefit to justify the cost?

CTS Head Cycling Coach Adam Pulford evaluates seven popular cycling purchases through the lens of performance per dollar. He digs into supplements, recovery wearables, ketones, cryotherapy, ceramic drivetrain components, altitude masks, and aero socks – looking at what the evidence supports, where marketing gets ahead of the science, and where athletes may be better off investing instead.

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.

Interested in working with a coach? Schedule a free consult: https://trainright.com/coaching/cycling/

Self-coached athlete? Check out our TrainRight Membership: https://trainright.com/membership/

Find more free resources here: https://trainright.com/blog/

Resources:

• Australian Institute of Sport: Group A | ASC
• BCAA’s for performance: https://examine.com/supplements/leucine/?show_conditions=true
• Cryotherapy for Recovery: Whole-body cryotherapy for preventing and treating muscle soreness after exercise | Cochrane
• Ketones for Performance:
  • Do ketone esters spare glycogen and improve performance?
  • Perspective: Ketone Supplementation in Sports—Does It Work? - PMC 
  • https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12821275/ 
• Oversized Pulley Wheels: https://ceramicspeed.com/pages/10-ways-to-minimize-drivetrain-friction?utm_source=chatgpt.com

​​Free Cycling Training Assessment

Preparing for your first gravel race can quickly become more complicated than it needs to be. What bike do you need? How wide should your tires be? What pressure should you run? What happens if you flat? How much should you eat? And how fit do you actually need to be?

CTS Head Cycling Coach Adam Pulford strips gravel racing back to the essentials. He covers the bike and equipment you actually need, fueling strategy, flat repair, tire selection and pressure, navigation, training, and why spending time riding real gravel is one of the best ways to prepare.

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.

Interested in working with a coach? Schedule a free consult: https://trainright.com/coaching/cycling/

Self-coached athlete? Check out our TrainRight Membership: https://trainright.com/membership/

Find more free resources here: https://trainright.com/blog/

Resources:

• How to change a flat & fix a puncture: 
  • Gravel Bike Outside: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm5UrDKZsss
  • How to Plug a puncture tubeless: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgs3Iq36mZg
  • Effortless tip: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lsoCr_a8wwI
• Tire Pressure Calculators:
  • Silca: https://silca.cc/pages/pro-tire-pressure-calculator?srsltid=AU7gw4VeflE3QaGaC5X2NSoV3l-6xNcHEsFH740xLSPyKAUzEcDo2eEk
  • SRAM: https://axs.sram.com/guides/tire/pressure 

Your wearable gives you a recovery score every morning, but how much should that number influence your training?

Adam Pulford breaks down the information coaches actually use when evaluating readiness, including subjective feel, life stress, recent training load, sleep, resting heart rate, and HRV. He also explains why he pays far less attention to proprietary readiness scores and detailed wearable sleep metrics, and why trends are often more useful than one morning’s score.

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.

​​Free Cycling Training Assessment: https://trainright.com/cycling-training-assessment-welcome/

Interested in working with a coach? Schedule a free consult: https://trainright.com/coaching/cycling/

Self-coached athlete? Check out our TrainRight Membership: https://trainright.com/membership/

Find more free resources here: https://trainright.com/blog/

Resources:

• Miller, Sargent & Roach, 2022 — Validation of six wearable devices
• Dial et al., 2025 — Nocturnal RHR and HRV validation
• Schyvens et al., 2024 — Systematic review of wearable sleep accuracy
• Manresa-Rocamora et al., 2021 — HRV-guided training meta-analysis
• Steve House/Uphill Athlete — Practical coaching interpretation
• Jason Koop/CTS — Practical HRV recommendations
  • https://trainright.com/practical-heart-rate-variability-recommendations-for-ultrarunners/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
• Marco Altini — Wearable HRV measurement critique
  • https://marcoaltini.substack.com/p/trusting-the-right-tool-for-the-job?utm_source=chatgpt.com
• TrainingPeaks — WHOOP integration documentation
• TrainingPeaks — Oura integration documentation
• TCC HRV Interview with Jason Koop:
  • https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-time-crunched-cyclist-podcast-by-cts/id1494799053?i=1000625446661
• Using Subjective Feedback to Drive Performance with Natàlia Balagué and Lluc Montull | Koopcast Episode 155
  • https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/koopcast/id1489494447?i=1000587345880
• The Case For HRV with Marco Altini: 
  • https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/koopcast/id1489494447?i=1000544394187

Strength training has a place in a cyclist’s program year-round, but that doesn’t mean doing the same lifts, loads, and routines for 52 weeks.

Adam Pulford explains how he periodizes strength training alongside cycling throughout an athlete’s season. He covers annual planning, how strength priorities change as racing approaches, the anatomy of a well-designed gym session, and why tracking your lifting matters even when you’re not chasing PRs.

The takeaway: treat strength training like your riding. Plan it, progress it, and change it as your goals change.

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.

​​Free Cycling Training Assessment: https://trainright.com/cycling-training-assessment-welcome/

Interested in working with a coach? Schedule a free consult: https://trainright.com/coaching/cycling/

Self-coached athlete? Check out our TrainRight Membership: https://trainright.com/membership/

Find more free resources here: https://trainright.com/blog/

Self-coaching gives you freedom, but it also makes it remarkably easy to reinforce your own biases.

Coach Adam Pulford breaks down five mistakes he repeatedly sees in self-coached cyclists, from avoiding field testing and inflating FTP to under-recovering, failing to plan long-term, and chasing equipment gains before training gains.

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.

Cycling Camps: https://trainright.com/camps/

​​Free Cycling Training Assessment: https://trainright.com/cycling-training-assessment-welcome/

Interested in working with a coach? Schedule a free consult: https://trainright.com/coaching/cycling/

Self-coached athlete? Check out our TrainRight Membership: https://trainright.com/membership/

Find more free resources here: https://trainright.com/blog/

Resources:

• https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/comparing-cycling-field-tests-using-the-best-test-for/id1494799053?i=1000697861599

After 24 years of coaching athletes, Adam Pulford has seen enough training plans, races, breakthroughs, failures, and comebacks to recognize which lessons continue to matter.

In this episode, Adam steps away from the charts and physiology to share 20 observations from his coaching career: why fitness isn't performance, why recovery matters as much as workload, why perfect training doesn't exist, what winning and losing can teach us, and why long-term development requires more patience than most athletes expect.

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.

CTS Cycling Camps: https://trainright.com/camps/

​​Free Cycling Training Assessment: https://trainright.com/cycling-training-assessment-welcome/

Interested in working with a coach? Schedule a free consult: https://trainright.com/coaching/cycling/

Self-coached athlete? Check out our TrainRight Membership: https://trainright.com/membership/

Find more free resources here: https://trainright.com/blog/

Resources:

• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius 
• Beyond Thoughts by Joseph Nguyen 
• Don’t Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen
• Awareness by Athlete de Mellow
• Find Your Why by Simon Sinek 
• On The Nature of Things by Lucretius
• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• Flow by Mihaly Czeskmihaly 
• Deep Work by Cal Newport 
• Waking Up App by Sam Harris 

A successful 100-mile ride is rarely the result of one thing going exceptionally well. It's what happens when your fitness, fueling, pacing, and execution all come together on the same day.

Coach Adam Pulford breaks down how much to eat and drink, why the opening miles should feel easier than you think, what to prioritize with one week versus six weeks to prepare, and how to use your training data to guide your effort.

And Adam's fourth piece of advice might be the simplest: bring your friends. Because 100 miles is usually faster, and definitely funner, with good wheels around you.

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.

​​Free Cycling Training Assessment: https://trainright.com/cycling-training-assessment-welcome/

Interested in working with a coach? Schedule a free consult: https://trainright.com/coaching/cycling/

Self-coached athlete? Check out our TrainRight Membership: https://trainright.com/membership/

Find more free resources here: https://trainright.com/blog/

Resources:

• https://youtu.be/_SQA-9uzVcc?si=g9UPnFf8tHGZ_0LM
• https://youtu.be/kPjy5rejBSg?si=mRa7_JewytDDOBlt
• https://www.trainingpeaks.com/my-training-plans/threshold_6_week_100milePrep 
• https://www.trainingpeaks.com/my-training-plans/VO2_6_week_100milePrep 
• https://trainright.com/camps/

Torque training has become almost synonymous with low-cadence riding. But simply dropping to 60 RPM doesn't guarantee you're producing more force or creating the adaptation you're after.

Coach Adam Pulford breaks down the relationship between torque, cadence, power, and force production; explains why the gym may be the best place to raise your strength ceiling; and shows where low-cadence work actually belongs in a cyclist's training year.

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.

​​Free Cycling Training Assessment: https://trainright.com/cycling-training-assessment-welcome/

Interested in working with a coach? Schedule a free consult: https://trainright.com/coaching/cycling/

Self-coached athlete? Check out our TrainRight Membership: https://trainright.com/membership/

Find more free resources here: https://trainright.com/blog/

Resources:

• Strength Exercise F-v and P-v Profiles as Predictors of Elite Sprint-Cycling Performance - PubMed
• Power-time, force-time, and velocity-time curve analysis during the jump squat: impact of load - PubMed 
• 58. HIGH INTENSITY TORQUE TRAINING CAN INCREASE CYCLING PERFORMANCE
• Effects of Cycling Training at Imposed Low Cadences: A Systematic Review - PubMed
• Effect of Cycling Cadence on Neuromuscular Function: A Systematic Review of Acute and Chronic Alterations - PMC 
• Pro Workouts: Torque Efforts with Noemi Rueegg | EF Pro Cycling 
• https://trainright.com/camps/