It’s quickly approaching that time of year. Time to start gathering your thoughts and ideas towards success of your upcoming season. All I can say is, “Giddy Up!” I love this time of year, but I’m often approached by many athletes with questions of how to plan for a successful and stress-free calendar year. IfRead more
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Eat a balanced diet New Year’s Eve. Make sure you eat regular meals and snacks in order to satiate your appetite prior to any party where you’d be tempted to indulge in less-than-healthy alternatives. Some feel it is wiser starve themselves earlier in the day and indulge at night. unfortunately, those people can expect someRead more
Quite simply, I have never been confronted by a more constant and seemingly endless debate than the use of power data vs heart rate (HR) to classify the intensity of efforts on the bike. For me, as a physiologist, I can easily see it both ways, thus building arguments towards the implementation of both variablesRead more
“Go hard or go home”. How many times have you heard that pedantic statement? Probably too many to count, I’m sure. Normally, the mouth from which that originates is situated about a foot above a body clad in Under-Armor holding a Gatorade in one hand and some brightly decorated protein bar in the other. YouRead more
When one considers a strategy for supplying the body with what it needs for any type of sustained activity (by sustained, I mean activity in excess of 4hrs), it seems almost second-nature to include complex foods, rather than something more basic. The rationale for choices like this among the endurance athlete population is ubiquitous. IfRead more
Cyclists are a different breed, I grant you, but until you hear them (alright, US — you got me…) speak about their sport, you never realize the magnitude of departure from the norm. Just one conversation reveals this complex and systematic language packed with phrase after acronym whose meaning only draws credibility from the toneRead more
Since the advent of mainstream ventilatory data collection, VO2max, for some reason, has been the quintessential bit of information that makes an endurance athlete feel complete and whole. Granted, knowing that Lance Armstrong’s VO2max is “84” is both as interesting as it is humbling… that’s quite high, for the record. AND, I will admit thatRead more
One of the most interesting attributes, I find, regarding cyclists, triathletes, and runners is that they spend thousands of dollars and countless hours in perfecting and fine-tuning their technique in hopes of capitalizing on the advantage come race day. While it is rather obvious that technology and training are quite important to compete, especially, inRead more
Recently, while in my local bike shop I found myself paying some serious attention to my favorite category of products- Recovery supplements. As I became momentarily engaged with the sheer magnitude and overwhelming bulk of selection, I wondered how on earth someone without a doctorate or at least some education in nutrition and, from theRead more
When given the choice between deep, rhythmic, more diaphragmatic breathing, or short rapid almost hyperventilatory breaths, it is almost instinctive to think that the aforementioned strategy is more advantageous than the latter. Certainly, one would assume that the quest for oxygen will be much more fruitful when your respiratory rate is more controlled, substantial, andRead more