If you look at a stream in nature, it flows down the path of least resistance. Maybe the stream grows to a great river like the Mississippi as other tributaries join it. For the most part, though, the stream or river runs quietly along – faster in some parts as it narrows and slower in others as it widens. During times like these, nature is in a state of balance from the perspective of the river. 

But what happens when something throws nature out of balance? A long period of rain can cause a flash flood or can cause the river to swell and drown out entire towns. Houses are ruined, cars are swept away and people can die, among other tragedies. Something that on the one hand can be serene and beautiful can turn ugly and malicious in the blink of the eye. 

The body is no different. The body seeks a state of stasis and hates to be forced out of this comfortable way of being. As we constantly try to force our whims upon our bodies, it can bend a little bit, but it will not allow itself to break. So, we try to cram too much into our daily lives— training, work, family, kids' schedules, other hobbies, friends, etc— and eventually things start to build up like a river behind a dam. Eventually the pressure can get so great that the dam breaks. Think of the massive force behind that explosion of water. Now, equate that the body saying, "Enough!" What happens? Injury. We either get really sick or really hurt. 

"If we don't listen, then the body takes matters into its own hands." 

You see, I don't think injuries are necessarily traced back to "overuse" in the common definition of that term. Train too much or too hard and you get hurt. I don't think it's that simple. I think we get sick and/or injured when we force our body too far out of its preferred state of stasis. To me, injuries (and in some cases sicknesses) are wake up calls from the body. We've ignored the signs and the screams from the body telling us that the way we are going about things is unacceptable and unhealthy. When we employ "mind over matter", the matter (our bodies) will unequivocally and always win. 

Our bodies will do everything they can to keep us from killing them. Usually they are successful; they are almost 100% successful in non-extreme scenarios. If we don't listen, then the body takes matters into its own hands. John Doe, you're running way too much. You're never at home, you don't know what's going on with your family, you're never in bed when your spouse wakes up, you're always tired at work and your friendships are suffering. So, guess what? A little Achilles tendinitis should slow you down for a bit. 

Now, we can look at injuries from all sorts of angles. But, ever notice that if our sole focus is to get back on our feet ASAP and if we "test it out" before we really know we should, that injuries hang on and take a really long time to go away? Or, in some cases they never go away? Why is that? The body's capabilities to heal are amazing. Something is inhibiting that process and, I think, it can be traced back to our state of mind and how balanced our lives are. 

This may be a little metaphysical, but I think it's true. Strive for balance in life and the usual suspects of injuries probably go away and stay away. Keep trying to cram a square peg through a round hole and my guess is that injuries are things with which you are intimately familiar. No absolutes, but my gut tells me this is pretty spot on. 

Happy Training, 
Coach Nate 

Sometimes life throws barriers up in our way that we run smack into. We fall down and maybe at first we can pick ourselves right back up. But sometimes we can't, or it seems like too much effort to even try. So, how do we stay motivated when things start going south? 

The barrier might be repeated or prolonged sicknesses that derail our training. Or perhaps our jobs take up too much time and energy, so that the last thing we feel like doing is training. Or maybe you're hit with an injury, or you're hitting some speed bumps in your personal life. How do we handle all of this? 

First, don't let the wheels come off. While it might seem that all is lost, don't believe it for a second. It is easy to fall off the edge and into the abyss of depression about your waning fitness, your inability to train/race, and so on. We are used to pushing ourselves hard and training day in/day out. So, when this freedom is taken away from us, it's hard not to let it get us down. The best thing you can do here is focus on what you CAN do rather than what you can't do. 

Let's say you're a cyclist, but an injury is keeping you from biking. You have a choice to make— and believe me, you always have a choice. You can either:  1) Do nothing since you cannot do your primary sport. This is what starts you down the slippery slope of losing motivation, getting depressed, gaining weight, etc.; or 2) You can find a way to maintain your fitness or at least minimize the loss of fitness so that when you are back on the bike, you are ready to get back at it. This approach can leave you excited to finally get back on the bike. And your day-to- day routine is minimally disrupted, so you won't feel like you're floating in space. Instead of cycling, you can try swimming, water running, StairMaster, elliptical trainer, or rowing machine . . . anything that does not aggravate the injury further. Doing something, even at a very baseline, recovery level of effort, is better than doing nothing. 

Any of the above examples are great ways to keep the heart pumping and your fitness growing. And, since you would be exercising in a way you are unaccustomed to, when you get back to cycling you might find your fitness is actually better than before. The short rest from cycling and the use of your body in a completely different way can help to rejuvenate you and build you up in new ways, effectively making you stronger all-around. This is just one simple example. As athletes, we are creatures of habit. We are used to juggling many responsibilities and being in certain places at certain times. Our training, work, and family require this so that we can properly attend to each facet of our lives appropriately. When one of these facets falls out of whack, it can send our entire lives into tailspins.... if we allow that to happen. But we don't have to! We CAN stay in control. 


And that's the crux of it all. As I stated earlier, we always have a choice to make. If you end up gaining 10-20 pounds while you are nursing an injury, you have to ask yourself whether it is because the injury completely took you out (like getting hit by a car while biking) or if you simply decided to wallow in the misery that can accompany a niggling injury (such as an Achilles tendon strain or patellar tendinitis). In the former case, there is nothing you can do about your inactivity. Yes, you can fight to rehab ASAP, but the road to recovery is long. So, your motivation should be to get back in the saddle more quickly than any doctor tells you is possible. In the latter example, your blinders and lack of personal flexibility are what is keeping you from looking at alternatives to stay fit. 


Each of us hits both expected and unexpected roadblocks along the road of fitness improvement. It is how we handle these roadblocks—emotionally, mentally, physically—that will help shape the athletes we are and the athletes we are becoming. 

Happy Training, 
Coach Nate 

Sometimes, athletes’ inability to perform well on race day has less to do with the training they’ve done prior to the event and more to do with improper warming up. We hear athletes say things like, “I didn’t warm up enough” as a means to explain away a poor performance. But, just how does the athlete define “enough”? Instead, wouldn’t it be better to look at warming up not from the angle of duration but rather from what is accomplished during that warm-up period? 

Take a look around the athlete prep area before your next race. You will see athletes laser-focused while they work themselves into a lather, preparing for the intensity of the race to come. The logic is that if you open up your body during warm-up, then your body will respond well to the rigors of the race rather than lock-up. The problem is that too much of a good warm-up turns it into a bad warm-up. The length and intensity of a traditional warm-up has long thought to give athletes an edge by eliciting a response called post-activation potentiation (PAP). An athlete triggers PAP when he adds interval work to the warm-up. What is less well-known is that (1) the benefits of PAP last for only 5-10min once the warm-up is concluded; and (2) fatigue from warming up too extensively negates the positive impact PAP plays. 

In research presented in the "Journal of Applied Physiology", scientists compared a traditional 50- minute warm-up with high-intensity intervals to a 15-minute warm-up with moderate-intensity intervals in 10 highly-trained track cyclists. The researchers found that the shorter warm-up group experienced less muscle fatigue and produced higher peak power outputs in an ensuing stress test. In other words, the cyclists that warmed up for just 15-minutes had fresher legs than those that used a traditional, 50-minute warm-up – and they performed better. 

Additionally, in a recent study in the "International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance", researchers warned that, “Warm-up exercise including race-pace and sprint intervals combined with short recovery can reduce subsequent performance in a four-minute maximal test in highly trained cyclists.” The cyclists in the study group that included high intensity warm-up intervals exhibited less peak power in a subsequent maximal exercise test. The study’s authors recommended that an ideal warm-up should be shortened or performed at reduced intensity. The effects of heightened fatigue from too long a warm-up last more than 30 minutes. In other words, well into the early stages of the race. 


With this in mind, it would behoove athletes to shorten their warm-ups to a maximum of 15-20 minutes and include some short sub-threshold intervals with adequate recovery between rather than performing those intervals at a higher intensity and producing unnecessary (and counterproductive) fatigue. Give the shorter warm-up idea a shot at your early-season races, and even during your upcoming interval sessions. You may find that spending less time warming up is actually the key to better performances. 


Happy Training,
Coach Nate

A lot of us are being forced indoors with our training due to inclement weather. We may have to resort to training indoors 100% of the time during the week and only be able to venture outdoors during the weekend -- if we're lucky. Riding the turbo trainer or running on the treadmill can provide great focus and results, for sure. But, too much reliance on these tools with the absence of outdoor stimuli turns training into a drag.

If we are used to varied terrain and training on various routes that really give us a well-rounded aspect to our training, what do we do when we are indoors and logging time on a treadmill or turbo trainer? You can simulate the outdoors to a degree. You can, for example, use a harder gear on the bike to simulate a climb. You would sit back in the saddle and assume the seated body position you would when climbing, choose a gear that allows you to spin at 50-85rpm, and "grind it out". You could also mix up your indoor climbing with some out-of- the-saddle drills. Likewise, you could simulate a downhill by picking an easier gear than normal and spinning at a higher cadence, say 100+rpm. The treadmill is much easier for simulating hill work, in that you simply set the treadmill to Manual mode, and adjust the incline of the platform up or down.

If you are going to spend 40 minutes of an hour workout at 70-78% (for a solid aerobic session), you could easily mix that 40 minutes up between riding "on the flats", "climbing", and "descending" as you would outside. With the treadmill, you can program in hills of various steepness. And you're really climbing up! On the bike -- even with all of the "real life simulation" programs out there -- it's just not the same. You are not going up; you are not battling gravity. Instead, you are simply battling more resistance against the flywheel or more resistance that is self-imposed (by using a harder gear). That does not directly translate to climbing outside. 

And, just to be clear, training indoors is worth the same amount of time as training outdoors.  The body knows duration and intensity.  So, a hour spent riding on the turbo trainer is worth ... an hour of riding.  There are no shortcuts.  Training indoors, especially with a volume-centric sport such as cycling, can certainly be a drain both mentally and emotionally.  But, you've then got a choice to make based on how you're coming along in preparing to meet your goals.  Maybe you've got enough time in order to shift things around within your training program.  Or, maybe it's crunch time and, therefore, you simply need to knuckle down and put the time in.

In any case, mixing up your workouts should allow you to derive greater benefit from them because you are altering the way you use various muscles and muscle groups. Diversity is the key here, rather than specificity. By mixing it up, you will accomplish a couple of things: 1) You will help the time pass by more quickly and you will also help stem the tide of boredom and loathing that can quickly consume any indoor training regimen; and 2) You should squeeze more out of your indoor training than in the past. 

All of this will help you enter the spring more refreshed mentally and stronger physically - both key elements to racing well come summer and beyond. 

Happy Training,
Coach Nate