Alcohol is intimately related to cycling and racing in general. Post-ride trail brews, podium champagne and “recovery beers” are all a regular part of our cycling vernacular and culture, but if you’re trying to take your training seriously, should they be? The effects of alcohol on performance can be narrowed down to two things: how…
Tire Choices to Make You Faster on Race day
Could your tires be holding you back from your next win? As research develops, so does our understanding of how smart tire choices can help reduce the amount of time left on the table on race day. If you’ve ever walked into a bike shop or browsed a tire catalog online, you’ll know that the…
Core Training Principles That Make You a Faster Cyclist
5:30 a.m. isn’t a good time to wake up — it’s a great time to be at work. That’s how our Head Coach Chad Timmerman sees it. By the time most people come into the office for their first cup of coffee, Coach Chad is several pages deep into a science-dense training book (a routine…
Is Your Pre-Race Warmup Helping You Win or Lose?
For many cyclists, their warmup routines before a race look a lot like riding around at a moderate pace for 10-20 minutes, depending on how long their event is. This is changing. In place of loose, unspecific pre-race workouts are structured workouts that riders are opting to do on the trainer — you may have…
How to Train for a Gran Fondo or Sportive — Advice from Ex-Pro Neil Shirley
There are some races you can go into with confidence without a lot of prior training — a 100-200 mile bike race is not one of them. These one-day epics take a lot of preparation. And we’re not just talking about getting your body in good physical shape either. There’s equipment, your bike set up…
4X IRONMAN Champion Embraces Parenthood and Wins Big
Despite her talent, Liz Lyles never wanted to be a professional triathlete in her twenties. She wanted a family. After the self-described homebody proudly had her two gorgeous kiddos with her husband Chip, she finally decided it was her time to do what so many athletes dream about: turn her passion into her career. That…
What Your Cycling Racing Category Says About You
If you’re brand new to racing, it’s pretty straightforward to know which racing category you should start out in. But what if you’re coming back to racing? What category should you race and, more interestingly, what does it say about you as a racer? These are just a couple questions I’m about to dig into. Cycling…
How Much Faster Can You Get Watching TV?
Time and time again we’ve heard our users say they love watching their favorite TV shows while putting in time on the trainer. In honor of the new season of Game of Thrones returning to HBO this weekend, we decided to figure out just how fast TrainerRoad athletes can get while making their way through…
3 Advanced Tools Cyclists Can Use To Measure Fat Loss or Weight Loss
The goal of every cyclist is to optimize their power-to-weight ratio (w/kg). More power with less weight is going to make you faster —but how do you know if you are losing the right type of weight? Today’s post explores three methods cyclists can employ to measure their weight loss with precision. Overview Fat does…
Cycling’s Power Couple: How Fatty and The Hammer Train Together
There’s a good chance you already know who this cycling power couple is. Elden, aka Fatty, is the guy behind the Fat Cyclist; and Lisa is Elden’s wife who he lovingly refers to as The Hammer on his blog. These two are real-deal, honest-to-goodness partners in life and partners in training (we can’t think of…