
106 episodes

Empirical Cycling Podcast Empirical Cycling
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- Sports
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4.9 • 146 Ratings
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Do you want to know how training makes you faster? Listen in. Kolie is a leading expert in endurance, sprint, and strength training for cyclists. Kyle is a NASA scientist and national champion sprinter on the track.
Empirical Cycling is a coaching company specializing in individualized training plans for all cycling disciplines. If you like the podcast, please consider a donation at http://www.empiricalcycling.com/donate.html
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Ten Minute Tips #27: Programming Over-Under Workouts
This episode goes into Kolie's philosophy on programming and structuring over/under workouts. Duration of overs and unders, intensity guidelines, additional manipulation like cadence, how to progress them, and suggestions for disciplines like CX, MTB, crits, and track. We also discuss some alternative workouts to achieve some of the same touted benefits of over/unders such as better buffering capacity, and your listener questions.
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Watts Doc #43: Over-Unders Are Not Special
The host of benefits associated with over-under workouts includes improved lactate oxidation and clearance capacity, great expression of MCT enzymes, as well as improved tolerance of associated metabolic byproducts over threshold. We look at the established mechanisms behind these phenomena and find that over-unders, as well as lactate presence and oxidation itself, probably don't have a unique adaptation unavailable to other types of training. The follow-up episode, Ten Minute Tips #27, will discuss how Kolie views and programs over-under workouts, as well as alternative workouts to achieve the same ultimate effects.
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Perspectives #23: Weight Loss Diets for Endurance Performance, with Namrita Brooke
This is an in-depth discussion on weight loss diets for endurance athletes, with Dr. Namrita Brooke. The conversation includes guidelines on finding your starting point and how to adjust energy intake, avoiding crash diets, performance expectations and markers when dieting, the effect of off-bike activity, and reasonable loss rates. We also discuss energy balance vs hormones, demonizing food groups and the role of each macronutrient, the best times of year to lose weight, and your listener questions on diet aids, recomp diets, calorie estimates from wearables, finding a good performance dietitian, and more.
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Ten Minute Tips #26: The Case Against Erg Mode
This episode is a coaching perspective on the upsides and downsides of when you just want to "set it and forget it." We cover pacing adjustments, mental state, fatigue and threshold feedback, and putting the "max" in VO2max intervals. Plus a couple scenarios where erg mode is an excellent tool.
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Perspectives #22: The Cognitive Dissonance Of Silver Bullet Training, with Patrick Smith
Dr. Patrick Smith and Kolie sit down to discuss the athletic and coaching implications of Karl Friston's free energy principle of the brain, the right approach to bridge the gap between expectations and observable reality in training, and the right amount of sensitivity to this feedback. This dovetails with the appeal of quick fixes, miracle intervals, and silver bullet training principles. We also discuss what practical solutions are, setting yourself up for success, and your listener questions.
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Watts Doc #42:The Relationship Between Size And Power
This episode investigates the scientific relationship between size and power (allometry), both vo2max and maximal strength and power, and what it can teach us about sound training methods. How do w/kg and w/CdA scale? Why can't gaining muscle add aerobic power? Why can FTP seem to drop when dieting? Why do we rebound from crash diets? Why do most Tour de France winners seem to fit a certain size and weight? We answer all these questions and more, plus your listener questions.
Customer Reviews
Confession
I listen to this podcast on erg mode
Soooo deep
Kolie (the host) and his sidekick, Superstrong Astrophysicist, go very deep into what the heck happens when you train your body. It is cycling focused.
The backdrop of the show is this: we’re all different people with different current states, so understanding the actual physiology can influence the best path forward, rather than just doing the same thing as your favorite pro or best bro.
Spoiler alert: there is no magic bullet, and if you get lousy sleep and eat terribly, this won’t suddenly make you faster.
Um…..
You can’t host a podcast um and say Um at the beginning, um, middle and end of every sentence um.
You’re brilliant, you don’t need a filler to compensate. If you need a second; say nothing. Break this filthy habit!