OVERVIEW
Following a training plan is better than training haphazardly, but how closely do you need to follow the letter of the plan? In Episode 274 of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast", Coach Adam Pulford discusses the benefits and necessity of not following the plan to a T, when that’s ok, when it’s not, and how to adjust daily training sessions based on how you're feeling while still sticking to the vision and progression of a bigger plan.

TOPICS COVERED

• What flexibility means in endurance training
• Examples: hard day planned and don't feel great
• Example: easy day planned and feel great
• Example: had day planned and feel great
• Should you push through a hard workout if you don't feel good?
• How to modify your workouts on any given day
• Autonomy of training

ASK A QUESTION FOR A FUTURE PODCAST

RESOURCES

• Rigid vs Flexible Training:
  • https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23881116/
• Planned vs Self Select: 
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.02061?utm_source=chatgpt.com
• Time in Zone vs Just HIIT:
  • https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00421-018-3910-3
• Specific vs General Training Programs:
  • https://sportsci.org/jour/05/amt-m.pdf

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

GET FREE TRAINING CONTENT

Join our weekly newsletter

CONNECT WITH CTS

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

OVERVIEW
95% of the cyclists and runners coached by Sarah Scozzaro and Adam Pulford incorporate strength training. Scozzaro is one of our top strength and conditioning coaches and in Episode 273 she and Coach Adam discuss how cyclists should blend strength and endurance training throughout the year.

Topics Covered In This Episode:

• How different endurance athletes leverage strength training
• How strength training changes throughout the year
• When to back off strength training volume during event/race season
• How to reintegrate more strength training in the post-season
• Resources for self-coached and time-crunched athletes

Resources

• Strength Training for Endurance Athletes: Key Exercises
• How to Program Strength Training: An Endurance Coach’s Guide
• Guide: Strength Training for Endurance Athletes » UESCA

Guest Bio:

Sarah Scozzaro is a CTS Pro Coach who specializes in strength training and  ultrarunning. A coach within the CTS High Performance Program, she is on the performance teams for Western States Champions Katie Schide and Abby Hall.  Sarah has her Masters's degree in Exercise Science with a concentration in performance enhancement and injury prevention. She has a long list of qualifications and certifications after her name, including being a National Strength and Conditioning Association certified personal trainer (NSCA-CPT) and National Academy of Sports Medicine performance enhancement specialist (NASM-PES).

Guest Links:

• Coach Bio: https://trainright.com/coaches/sarah-scozzaro/
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/drtyrunner/

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

GET FREE TRAINING CONTENT

Join our weekly newsletter

CONNECT WITH CTS

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

OVERVIEW
Almost anywhere you go these days, you're likely to see someone walking, running, or climbing stairs wearing a weighted vest. Popularized by Crossfit boxes, mixed martial arts gyms, and boot camp-style exercise programs, “rucking” is a new name for the old concept of an “overloaded training intervention”. The question we get is whether training with a weighted vest (off the bike) will improve cycling performance. CTS Pro Coach Sarah Scozzaro, one of our top strength and conditioning coaches, breaks down the details of whether weighted training works for cyclists. 

Topics Covered In This Episode:

• Weighted Vests: Are they effective for:
  • Increase Core Strength?
  • Improve Strength-Endurance?
  • Increase Bone Density?
  • Improve VO2 Max?
  • Increase Motivation?
• History of overloaded training interventions in cycling
• Separating strength from endurance training
• How to use weighted vests safely 
• How much weight to carry

Resources

• Should Runners Train with Weighted Vests? - CTS
• Gravel Racing Gear Guide for Cyclists - CTS
• Weighted Vests Are Now A Fitness Trend. Here’s What You Need To Know
• Hydration Backpack Market Size | Industry Report, 2030

Guest Bio:

Sarah Scozzaro is a CTS Pro Coach who specializes in strength training and  ultrarunning. A coach within the CTS High Performance Program, she is on the performance teams for Western States Champions Katie Schide and Abby Hall.  Sarah has her Masters's degree in Exercise Science with a concentration in performance enhancement and injury prevention. She has a long list of qualifications and certifications after her name, including being a National Strength and Conditioning Association certified personal trainer (NSCA-CPT) and National Academy of Sports Medicine performance enhancement specialist (NASM-PES).

Guest Links:

• Coach Bio: https://trainright.com/coaches/sarah-scozzaro/
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/drtyrunner/

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

GET FREE TRAINING CONTENT

Join our weekly newsletter

CONNECT WITH CTS

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

OVERVIEW
Cody Stephenson, the Education Program Manager at TrainingPeaks, is back on the podcast to talk about the current state of artificial intelligence in cycling coaching and how TrainingPeaks' developers are using models to improve the accuracy and usability of athletes' training data.

TOPICS COVERED

• A.I.'s current and future role in cycling coaching
• How auto-updates of FTP work and when to pay attention to them
• About TrainingPeaks' Fueling Insights Tool
• TrainingPeaks Virtual: Ultimate Indoor Cycling App 
• What's coming next from TrainingPeaks

ASK A QUESTION FOR A FUTURE PODCAST

Guest Bio – Cody Stephenson

Cody grew up racing mountain bikes in Durango, Colorado where he developed a passion for endurance sports, science, math and technology. He switched to the road and track while racing for Fort Lewis College, where he also managed to get a couple of science degrees. Now he gets to write and talk about his favorite topics every day as Education Program Manager at TrainingPeaks. When he’s not helping coaches learn to leverage technology to reach their goals he’s trying to become as good of a mountain bike racer as he was when he was 13 years old.

Resources:

- Cody Stephenson LinkedIn
- Articles: https://www.trainingpeaks.com/coach-blog/how-to-coach-athletes-who-arent-racing/
- CP W’ vs FTP alone
- Analyzing FTP by Joe Friel
- Power Training with WKO:
- Why Train Submaximally? WKO Case Study - Targeting Specific PDC Improvements
- Learning More about LLM’s and AI

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

GET FREE TRAINING CONTENT

Join our weekly newsletter

CONNECT WITH CTS

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

OVERVIEW
Cody Stephenson is the Education Program Manager at TrainingPeaks, meaning he teaches coaches how to properly utilize training data to improve performance. He's the perfect sports scientist to discuss the similarities and differences between Functional Threshold Power (FTP) and Critical Power (CP), Functional Reserve Capacity (FRC) and W Prime, and how all these training metrics and methodologies relate to each other. Best of all, he and Coach Adam Pulford are pragmatists, so they explain the strengths and weaknesses of each, without bias or hidden agendas.

TOPICS COVERED

• Is FTP dead?
• What is Functional Reserve Capacity (FRC)?
• Explaining P Max
• Are Critical Power and W Prime better than FTP and FRC?
• How to choose between FTP/FRC vs. CP/W Prime
• Why is "clean data" so important?

ASK A QUESTION FOR A FUTURE PODCAST

Guest Bio – Cody Stephenson

Cody grew up racing mountain bikes in Durango, Colorado where he developed a passion for endurance sports, science, math and technology. He switched to the road and track while racing for Fort Lewis College, where he also managed to get a couple of science degrees. Now he gets to write and talk about his favorite topics every day as Education Program Manager at TrainingPeaks. When he’s not helping coaches learn to leverage technology to reach their goals he’s trying to become as good of a mountain bike racer as he was when he was 13 years old.

Resources:

- Cody Stephenson LinkedIn
- Articles: https://www.trainingpeaks.com/coach-blog/how-to-coach-athletes-who-arent-racing/
- CP W’ vs FTP alone
- Analyzing FTP by Joe Friel
- Power Training with WKO:
- Why Train Submaximally? WKO Case Study - Targeting Specific PDC Improvements 
- Learning More about LLM’s and AI

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

GET FREE TRAINING CONTENT

Join our weekly newsletter

CONNECT WITH CTS

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

OVERVIEW
Christie Aschwanden is an award-winning science journalist and author of Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery. In Part 2 of her appearance on the "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast" we take a look at the evidence behind recovery scores from wearable fitness trackers. Christie also weighs in on the whether science supports the idea that older athletes need more recovery time. 

TOPICS COVERED

• Is data from wearable sensors really accurate? 
• Are "recovery scores" from fitness trackers accurate/meaningful?
• The effect of aging on recovery
• The benefit of stillness and relaxation for recovery

ASK A QUESTION FOR A FUTURE PODCAST

Guest Bio – Christie Aschwanden:

Christie Aschwanden is an award-winning science journalist. She was the lead science writer at FiveThirtyEight for many years and is a former health columnist for the Washington Post. A finalist for the National Magazine Award, her writing has appeared in Outside, Discover, Smithsonian, and Oprah Magazine. She’s also co-host of Emerging Form, a podcast about the creative process. She was a high school state champion in the 1,600-meter run, a national collegiate cycling champion, and an elite cross-country skier with Team Rossignol. She lives and occasionally still races in western Colorado.

Read More About Christie Aschwanden:

https://christieaschwanden.com/

https://twitter.com/cragcrest

Book Link – Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery

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

GET FREE TRAINING CONTENT

Join our weekly newsletter

CONNECT WITH CTS

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

OVERVIEW
Christie Aschwanden is an award-winning science journalist and author of Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery. With all the hype and marketing dollars being thrown at recovery modalities like tart cherry juice, ketone supplements, ice plunges, and the timing of post-recovery meals, we brought Christie back to "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast" to take a look at the evidence behind the claims. Which recovery products work? How do they work and are they worth the expense? 

RECOVERY METHODS/PRODUCTS COVERED

• Tart Cherry Juice
• Ice plunges/Cold water Immersion
• Is inflammation bad for athletes?
• Ketones
• Post-workout recovery window

ASK A QUESTION FOR A FUTURE PODCAST

Guest Bio – Christie Aschwanden:

Christie Aschwanden is an award-winning science journalist. She was the lead science writer at FiveThirtyEight for many years and is a former health columnist for the Washington Post. A finalist for the National Magazine Award, her writing has appeared in Outside, Discover, Smithsonian, and Oprah Magazine. She’s also co-host of Emerging Form, a podcast about the creative process. She was a high school state champion in the 1,600-meter run, a national collegiate cycling champion, and an elite cross-country skier with Team Rossignol. She lives and occasionally still races in western Colorado.

Read More About Christie Aschwanden:

https://christieaschwanden.com/

https://twitter.com/cragcrest

Book Link – Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery

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

GET FREE TRAINING CONTENT

Join our weekly newsletter

CONNECT WITH CTS

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

OVERVIEW
We receive a lot of listener questions, so we're batching a few of them together into one episode. In Episode 258 of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast", Coach Adam Pulford and co-author of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist" book, Coach Jim Rutberg, rip through questions about the fear of descending, how to increase carbohydrate intake, preparing for big mountain days, and making the best of events when you're under-prepared.

TOPICS COVERED

• Question 1: How do I get over my fear of going downhill on a bicycle?
• Question 2: I understand I should increase carbohydrate intake on the bike, but how do I do it and how much should I consume?
  • Carbohydrate scaling for different types of rides and races
• Question 3: How do I prepare for a big ride (RAMROD: Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day) of 160 miles with 10,000 feet of climbing, more than half of it in the first 50 miles?
  • Training by VAM (average ascent velocity) in elevation gain per hour.
  • Long range vs. short range training 
  • Pacing and nutrition advice
• Question 4: How should I make the best of an event if I'm going in under-prepared?

ASK A QUESTION FOR A FUTURE PODCAST

Guest Host
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. He writes for trainright.com and his work has appeared in Bicycling, Outside, Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, Velonews, Inside Triathlon, and on numerous websites. 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 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

GET FREE TRAINING CONTENT

Join our weekly newsletter

CONNECT WITH CTS

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

Welcome to the Tour de France Femmes Podcast, from the producers of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast"
CTS publishes daily Tour de France Femmes podcasts with Coaches Adam Pulford and Renee Eastman. They recap the stages, but the unique aspect of these podcasts will be coaching insights about how athletes prepare for the demands showcased in that day's stage. 

STAGE 9 PODCAST OVERVIEW
Stage 9 of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was the finale of the entire race, and Coaches Renee Eastman and Adam Pulford recap the action from the stage as well as highlights from the week. They also showcase several athletes who had breakout performances or MVP rides, and discuss Alison Jackson's race day data from yesterday's Queen Stage.

ASK A QUESTION FOR A FUTURE PODCAST

Co-Host: Renee Eastman

Renee Eastman is a CTS Premier Level Coach and has been coaching with the company for more than 20 years. She has been a professional bike fitter for 15 years and was one of the first fitters to use the Retül bike fit system. She has a master's degree in exercise science, has worked for USA Cycling, and is a 6-time Masters National Champion.

Renee Eastman bio: https://trainright.com/coaches/renee-eastman/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/renee.eastman/

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

GET FREE TRAINING CONTENT

Join our weekly newsletter

CONNECT WITH CTS

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

Welcome to the Tour de France Femmes Podcast, from the producers of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast"
CTS publishes daily Tour de France Femmes podcasts with Coaches Adam Pulford and Renee Eastman. They recap the stages, but the unique aspect of these podcasts will be coaching insights about how athletes prepare for the demands showcased in that day's stage. 

STAGE 8 PODCAST OVERVIEW
Stage 8 of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was the Queen Stage, meaning the hardest of them all. There was a big shakeup on the leaderboard, which Coaches Renee Eastman and Adam Pulford discuss. They also talk about coaching athletes on descending skills and the impact of a woman's menstrual cycle on performance and perception of effort.

ASK A QUESTION FOR A FUTURE PODCAST

Co-Host: Renee Eastman

Renee Eastman is a CTS Premier Level Coach and has been coaching with the company for more than 20 years. She has been a professional bike fitter for 15 years and was one of the first fitters to use the Retül bike fit system. She has a master's degree in exercise science, has worked for USA Cycling, and is a 6-time Masters National Champion.

Renee Eastman bio: https://trainright.com/coaches/renee-eastman/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/renee.eastman/

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

GET FREE TRAINING CONTENT

Join our weekly newsletter

CONNECT WITH CTS

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