Show Notes
Our coaches discuss what panic training is and how it manifests, common reasons for it to occur, ways to plan now to avoid falling into the trap, and ways to pivot before and even during panic training mode. We touch on all sorts of related topics like nutrition and panic dieting, setting milestones and assessing realistic goals, the impact of social media, and a couple ways to rethink training or goals to fit your season, plus answering your listener questions.
More from Empirical Cycling Podcast
This episode details our approach in coaching high quality training that isn't based on traditional intervals and power targets. We go over advantages and disadvantages of both approaches, and discuss how cyclists who don't enjoy intervals can still make progress. We advocate for a middle ground of "semi-structured" training, and different ways to take this approach in workouts as well as periodization. Plus your listener questions.
After discussing testing and getting descriptive with power profiling, we weigh the merits of several things power profiles are typically used for like training needs, fractional utilization and underestimated FTPs, race selection and scenarios, potential for training response. We also answer your listener questions on nature vs nurture, normalized power, and much more.
We take a very deep dive into the world of lactate. Starting out with "metabolic logic" to illustrate how and why lactate gets formed during exercise, we then get into the idea of "glycolytic strength" as well as the lactate shuttle hypothesis. Then we tackle lactate testing, with a critical eye on first threshold (LT1), lactate concentrations and various threshold definitions, as well as sources of variability that affect how valid test results may be. We end with your listener questions, including lactate gels.
This episode goes into our approach to periodization and training around holidays with and without bike access, injury and illness, extreme heat and cold, including how to adjust mid training block. Plus your listener questions on exam stress, weight loss, and more.
We discuss our process for learning from a season and applying it to the next one. Goals, roadblocks, recovery, availability, progressive overload, health, and more. We also answer your listener questions about what we're looking for in all that data, spotting limiters, race specificity, planning around holidays, and more.