Blog

Refill your Cup

Your race is over, now what?   It was great to see everyone focused on an event or race this summer.  We had a good time in the store watching participants come in with “race-brain” prior to their race. “My race is this week, and my bike won’t shift!” “I think I need a better […]

Feel vs Data Training

We started TCR in 2006.  Back then, I was showing people how to use heart rate monitors and develop individual training zones.  Where do you burn fat and where do you burn sugar?  VO2 testing was our initial gateway to training with science.  No more using formulas and guessing what heart rate was appropriate.  People […]

Power vs Skillful Riding

Lessons from Riding in ColombiaThis was our third camp with the Colombia Cycling group this time starting from Bogota.  We have learned a lot about skillful riding from our previous trips which has helped our coaching and bike fitting. You can learn a lot by riding through some of the most beautiful and challenging roads […]

The Effect of Running Cadence on Running Economy

By Mat Popovich and TCR Sport Lab Running, as a sport, has been gaining significant popularity over the past decade (Rizzo, 2021). Running dynamics can be analyzed using various metrics including ground contact time, vertical oscillation, stride length, and cadence (Adams et al., 2016). Running cadence is defined as the number of steps taken per […]

Training after Disease and Cancer

“What I don’t understand is how my conditioning can be this good when I don’t do hard workouts. Felt strong.  Best ride I’ve had since I started my treatment in August 2020.  Feels good!” – BM Not long ago, the road back from cancer or disease was limited to what you received in the hospital. […]

Flowy FTP

Flowy FTP“…your heart, blood and intuition are telling you what to do, listen in.” Cyclist or runner, most of us use a marker to judge the intensity of our workout.  For example, “Today we are going to work at 90% of your FTP for 4 sets of 5 min…”  The concept also applies to runners […]

Legs or Lungs?

What is your limiting factor?  Think back to your last interval workout or long effort. What was most fatigued when you finished?   Where your legs burning or where you out of breathe?   Traditionally, most of the off-season training that we undergo is designed to increase your tolerance to pain.  Lactate Tolerance is the official […]

More than Gravel

Gravel bikes are a relatively new genre in bikes even though riding on dirt and gravel roads is not. Randonneuring has been around for over 100 years, the original bike races covered many miles of gravel roads because that is what they had. The original Clunkers would race down logging roads on flat bar bikes. […]

Polarized vs Sweet-spot Training

By Selina Campbell, PhD Polarized model vs a Sweet-spot/threshold model I often get asked when it comes to training, which way is better – Polarized model or a Sweet-spot/threshold model.I know people want me to say the latter as the former involves 75-80% of Z1-2 time (boring!) whereas the latter involves going harder and working […]

What do my numbers mean?

What do my bike power numbers mean?Now that we are done over a month of training and some secret testing in classes, you are probably wondering what the heck that was all for?!   We were able to pull out data from your workouts to create your power profile.Looking at the data, you can tease out […]