Training for Big Sugar, How Long Your Off-Season Should Be, and Which Sport Dopes More Than Cycling | Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast 605

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// RESOURCES MENTIONED - Free cycling nutrition calculator: https://www.trainerroad.com/landing/cycling-nutrition-calculator - Free W/kg calculator: https://www.trainerroad.com/landing/watts-per-kilogram-calculator - Big Sugar Data: https://www.trainerroad.com/blog/big-sugar-gravel-2026-results-winners-finish-times-and-rider-data/ - Sign up for TrainerRoad! ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/GetFaster⁠ - Follow TrainerRoad on Instagram 📸 https://www.instagram.com/TrainerRoad

// TOPICS COVERED (00:00:00) Big Sugar Training, Off-Season Length, and Doping Data (00:01:32) How Many Big Sugar Racers Train With TrainerRoad? (00:03:01) How Much Faster Were TrainerRoad Athletes at Big Sugar? (00:04:52) Fueling Big Sugar: Why Riders Fade in the Final Hours (00:07:59) What Watts per Kilogram Does Big Sugar Take? (00:10:05) Why 1 in 10 Riders Didn't Finish Big Sugar (00:11:38) How the Fastest Riders Paced the Climbs (and the Stops) (00:15:34) How Many Hours per Week Big Sugar Finishers Trained (00:18:04) What a 28-Week Big Sugar Training Plan Looks Like (00:23:20) How Much Faster Could You Finish After a Year of Training? (00:25:57) How Long Should Your Off-Season Be? (00:32:27) Doping in Cycling vs Running: Every Case Since 1965 (00:37:35) Why Doping Cases in Running Are Exploding (00:42:49) What Athletes Are Actually Getting Caught With

How do you train for Big Sugar Gravel? Coach Jonathan Lee looks at how this year's finishers in Bentonville, Arkansas prepared: hours per week, watts per kilogram, how the fastest riders paced the climbs, how long each third of the field spent stopped, why riders fade in the final hours, and what a 28-week Big Sugar training plan looks like. Then, how long should your off-season be? Jonathan follows riders through two seasons of training and finds the break length where next year's fitness starts to drop, and why for most amateurs the answer is more about motivation than physiology. Finally, doping in cycling vs running. Every publicly documented case in both sports since 1965, by year, country, pro vs amateur, and substance. Running now posts more cases in a year than cycling ever has, and Jonathan shares his theory on why. TrainerRoad numbers are from a filtered sample of athletes and show associations, not causes.

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