cyclocross
Planning Your Season
Start next season NOW The best part about planning your season for next year is that we get to plan our epic adventure(s). Many of these adventures involve travel to faraway lands which ultimately means you’re committing significant time, energy and funds to create a life enriching experience for yourself. You would be in the…
Read MoreA Guide to Choosing a Cycling Coach
Hire a Coach! Choosing a cycling coach is very important… and it can also feel very overwhelming! In my opinion, it’s as important as choosing a bike frame, wheelset, or drivetrain. A coach is someone who not only keeps you accountable, but works together with you to achieve your goals. If you choose to hire…
Read MoreAthlete Highlight: Dean Parker- the F.O.G.
I’ve worked with Coach Adam and Source Endurance for almost 11 years. I just turned 71 this year and it has been amazing to see how Adam has modified my training as I aged.
Read MoreEthan Doherty 2022: Road Racer Targets CX Nationals Podium
Ethan’s training emphasis has been on aerobic foundation and extending Time to Exhaustion (TTE) at threshold. This year, we decided to take a different approach that landed Ethan on the CX Nationals podium.
Read MoreAllan Schroeder: 2022 Men 30-34 CX Champion
Allan cruising in the lead Meet Allan Schroeder, your 2022, 30-34 men’s cyclocross national champion!! SE coach Kristen Arnold has been coaching Allan since 2016. This national championship title marks a breakthrough ride for him and a sign of many great things to come. Allan has worked hard for his successes as he’s raced road…
Read MoreJosie Fouts, Leader in the Off-Road Para-cycling Movement
Born in Korea with only a right hand, Josie is an Asian-American amputee that grew up in the midwest, always standing out. Her interest in metabolism research led her out to San Diego and the year-round great weather encouraged her to begin commuting by bike. Soon the San Diego cycling community discovered her potential and…
Read MoreJP Brocket, King of the Long Ride
SE athlete JP Brocket has been training hard in Taiwan: JP Brocket, a long-time Source Endurance athlete, has been living in Taiwan and sharing his journey with us on social media. He’s been climbing big mountains, completing hard intervals, and hopping into local races. JP just finished a big block of volume where he completed…
Read MoreLess Pain, More Gain: 6 ways for cyclists to reduce soreness from strength training and running
Get DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) every season you start working out in the gym? Can’t walk the day after going for an easy 2 mile jog? Tried doing a 15 minute HIIT workout once and now your arms feel like jello on the bike? Check out these strategies to reduce soreness from exercises that…
Read MoreShadd Smith, Multi-Discipline Master
From long-time SE athlete Shadd Smith: Big shout out to Source Endurance coaches for keeping this guy in the mix. I am certainly a creature for training and riding so I can not stress enough how important the coaches are to properly keeping the sword sharpened. Cyclocross is in full swing now with racing every…
Read MoreConsistency, the Most Important Aspect of Training
What is the most important aspect of training? Is it nailing the fundamentals? VO2 max intervals? Squeezing out every marginal gain? I’d argue each of these has validity but the king and queen of them all is consistency. Cycling is a highly aerobic sport and most of the training adaptations simply take a lot of…
Read MorePatience in Racing: Often Overlooked, Never Underrated
HERE. WE. GO! Whether you’re ready or not, the 2021 racing season has started. Many of us are emerging from the months of Zwift training and working up the courage to do that first race. It’s likely racing will be analogous to our first post-pandemic group social interactions. We’re all going to be excited, a…
Read MoreIncorporating other cycling disciplines to improve your cycling performance
Perhaps you are in the middle of a training block and your fitness is starting to plateau and stagnant or maybe you’ve been road riding the same loop day in and day out and motivation is starting to wane. Picking up another discipline of cycling might be just the right move to boost fitness and…
Read MoreReturning to Training and Racing After COVID-19
If you or someone you know has gotten Covid, check out Adam Mills’ guide on Returning to Training and Racing After Covid-19, recently published on TrainingPeaks.It looks at the latest studies that are coming out and can hopefully serve as a way to self-evaluate when you can start riding again. Read the Article. Check out all…
Read MoreAdjusting goals and event predictions
2021, the first year of the new world, and we’ve been through a ton and we’re not at all out of the COVID woods. With everything that has happened in 2020, it’s easy to lose sight of what life was like and where we are heading for next year. There are many things that are…
Read MoreMeet SE Coach Taylor Warren
Taylor Warren just joined the Source Endurance coaching team. Taylor began his cycling journey on the bike path as a kid and fell in love with racing shortly after. He’s spent time at the top in road and track, holding National Championship titles and racing professionally on the road with 303 Project. How did…
Read MoreDylan Zakrajsek comes back from bad crash to win his first race back!
Over the course of the past few weeks I have continued to train and do more recovery from my hard crash back in February. This past weekend I did my first race since the crash and man was that fun, and I won! Being able to get back in-between the tape and shake some of…
Read MoreFlavors Make You Fast
It’s no secret that food is fuel. Kristen Arnold has written many pieces giving excellent nutrition advice on how to fuel exercise and an active lifestyle. If you want to nail your workout, recover like a Pro, and keep making improvements, it’s imperative that you take in enough nutrition. But did you know that flavors…
Read MoreTraining in smoke: Hacks for fire season
A lot of the West is currently on fire and tens of thousands of people have been evacuated. It’s smoky but safe where you are, it’s hard to breathe. Should you ride? Check your local air quality and decide if you should be outside or not. Then, adjust training as needed. Contact your coach if you…
Read More5 Benefits of Cycling Coaching in a Pandemic
The global pandemic is very real. If you’ve been fortunate enough to maintain your health and employment, you’ve probably also felt bummed to watch all your 2020 events and goals go up in smoke. We’ll never be taking events for granted again, that’s for sure… Here are five ways Source Endurance coaches are here to…
Read MoreThree ways to increase your FTP
Hire a coach and level up your FTP Functional Threshold Power or FTP is a single power value used by athletes and coaches to define a range of training ‘zones’ as well as assess overall fitness gains, losses, and status. FTP, as defined by Andy Coggan and Hunter Allen, is the highest average power or…
Read MoreAre V02 and Blood Lactate Tests Still Relevant? With WKO, probably not.
If we’re focusing on raising FTP or Lactate Threshold power, we need the best metrics to track change in FTP. 5 and 10 years ago, we sent our athletes into a lab or university to get the athlete’s blood lactate and maybe Vo2 max tested. Back then, that was the best way to check FTP…
Read MoreUtilizing Indoor Training Apps for Coaching
Source Endurance launched a free guide titled Utilizing Indoor Training Apps for Coaching, written and designed by Colorado-based senior coach Zack Allison. This guide evaluates the smart trainer and all the apps and tools that have come in its wake. Designed with cycling and triathlon coaches in mind, it is also beneficial for the devoted…
Read MoreBasic Nutrition for Endurance Athletes, Part 1
Build a Strong Fueling Foundation for Victory, Blog Series Part 1 Over the next few months we will discuss the basics of nutritional needs for endurance athletes. In order to optimize performance through nutrition we need to start with the basics and build a solid foundation. Similar to how base training builds a foundation in…
Read MoreLogan’s Cyclocross Season: Start With Strength Training
Logan VonBokel has been a bike racer for a long time. From winning junior races in the St. Louis area to elite cyclocross racing in Colorado. The last 18 months has been a recovery story for Logan from a back injury, resulting in an artificial disc, to a real push in fitness for goals this…
Read MoreRunning for Cyclocross
Howdy folks, Today we’re going to talk a little bit about running. Cyclocross running, that is. A couple of years ago, I wrote this: With certain regional exceptions, the way folks are designing cross courses in the US these days you might not need to train your running at all to be really, really damn…
Read MoreI See Food in your Power File: Fueling Adequately for Training
A few weeks ago I hosted a webinar for USA Cycling on the Nutrition Care Process. I discussed how Registered Dietitians conduct nutrition assessments and how coaches can apply these concepts to identify nutrition-related issues in their athletes. The webinar inspired this article where I present a few cases where athletes were unable to complete…
Read MoreAre starches the new sugar? Types of carbohydrates for cycling and how they improve performance.
Many athletes ask themselves how much sugar they should have, when, and from what sources. Studies show eating or drinking carbohydrates before and during workouts improves performance in endurance exercise1. For decades sugars have been king of performance enhancement during exercise in endurance sports. Hundreds of companies make products with sucrose, glucose, maltose, dextrose and…
Read MoreHow to Get Better at Bike Racing Skills
Bike racing is a puzzle requiring numerous pieces. When an athlete fits all of the puzzle pieces together as one, great things happen, like winning! As a coach and a racer, I cannot emphasize the importance of ‘skills’ in racing and training. Typically, when asked how to define skills for bike racing, coaches focus on…
Read MoreHow to Choose your Peak Events
To peak means to reach a highest point. In endurance sports this means training intensity and volume accumulate over time to reach top-level fitness at a specific time for a given individual. Reaching peak fitness can be tricky as there is a balance for every athlete to reach their highest fitness at the right time,…
Read MoreRace Week Tips from Coach Matthew Hill
The week before a big – especially a big long race – start adding a little bit of extra salt to everything. Drink a little bit more water with everything. Cut out the caffeine heading into a race, and you will get a bigger bump from it on race day. Well proven, and helps with……
Read MoreThe Trajectory of a Junior Cyclist
Young riders are the future of our sport. Whether or not a certain junior cyclist will go pro on the quick trajectory, or that rider will stop after college, take a break, come back as a Cat 3 and race through masters, every young rider entering the sport is someone that should be cultivated. With…
Read MoreRider Highlight: Shadd Smith takes age group wins at God's Country Fat Tire Festival and OMBA CARAMBA Mountain Bike Race
A challenging part of coaching is keeping riders mentally fresh as they prepare for their upcoming season. Shadd Smith, a cyclocross-focused athlete, is working with his coach Adam Mills to use some mountain bike races to prepare for the ‘cross season. Shadd took things one step further and won his age division at God’s Country Fat…
Read MoreSuccessful Cyclocross Master's Nationals for Paul Bonds, JP Brocket and Shadd Smith
At U.S. Cyclocross Nationals, three Source Endurance athletes competed in the Master’s Men 45-49 category. Paul Bonds raced to 3rd, Shadd Smith to 6th, and JP Brockett to 18th! Rider 1: Paul Bonds- SPCX p/b RK Black Pre-Race Goal Have fun and relax. The rider with the least mistakes will win the race. The fitness…
Read MoreTop 5 Mistakes of the Self-Coached Athlete
Every so often at Source Endurance we get individualized consults done for the self-coached athletes or we get athletes signed on that have been self-coached and we get to see what they were up to before they signed on for coaching. There’s a few patterns that we see with self coached athletes along with patterns…
Read MoreTopical Edge PR Lotion Significantly Improves High-Intensity Interval Performance
If you remember last fall, we were recruiting study participants in the Fort Collins, Colorado, area to participate in a study using Topical Edge. Well, the results are in! Here’s an excerpt from Topical Edge and a link to the full study and results: Coming on the heels of the clinical trial at San Diego State University…
Read MoreWhy You Should Choose Orucase The Next Time You Travel With Your Bike
WRITTEN BY: COLIN JASKIEWICZ We all know what it’s like to travel with a bike. Lug a 25 pound (empty of course… 40? 50 fully loaded?) plastic case to the airport. Now it’s time to check in, how much are they going to charge you? It’s a continual guessing game as to the mood the…
Read MoreRider Highlight: Dean Parker takes the win at Keen Wealth Kansas State Cyclocross Masters 65+
Dean Parker, a Kansas force to be reckoned with, has been ripping it up in Kansas. He recently took the win at Keen Wealth Kansas State Cyclocross Masters 65+! Brief event/course description: Course had a lot of climbing, in fact as soon as you turned off the pavement the climbing started. The other tricky part…
Read MoreRider Highlight: Skyler Mackey takes 2nd at Cyntergy Hurtland UCI Cyclocross
Skyler Mackey recently took an awesome 2nd at the Cyntergy Hurtland UCI Cylocross race in the Elite Men category. Thanks to photographer James Gann for the generous use of the photos of Skyler. Brief event/course description: The course has a good mixture of turns and straight aways. Never a flat spot except towards the end…
Read MoreRider Highlight: David Rosen took the win at Cross Crusade Race #4- PIR Heron Lakes, Clydesdale Category
David Rosen has been hard at work prepping for the cross season. His efforts paid off with a win recently at Cross Crusade Race #4- PIR Heron Lakes, Clydesdale Category. Here’s his story: Brief event/course description: Cyclocross Race/ 1.9 mile Cyclocross course. Mostly flat with 3 long straightaways. Muddy race conditions kept things slippery especially in…
Read More13 Ways Hiring Source Endurance for Coaching is Different than Simple Programming
Hire a Coach Today As endurance athletes, it’s easy to get caught up in what other people are doing that has worked for them. Many are also, unfortunately, familiar with the experience that what worked brilliantly for a friend has worked poorly for you. We’re also familiar with the idea of one-time-purchase training programs, which…
Read MoreRider Highlight: Paul Bonds takes the win at Day 1 of Jingle Cross
Paul Bonds rode to win on Day 1 at Jingle Cross and finished 3rd on Day 2 in the Master’s 45+. An impressive weekend! Event & Category: 45+ this weekend Brief event/course description: Friday not as technical as Saturday. Saturday, essentially the WC race. How’d the race go down for you? Great. Took the lead…
Read MoreRider Highlight: Alex Edwards takes home 3rd in the Omnium at Jingle CX
Alex Edwards raced fantastically at Jingle Cross in the Cat 3s, finishing 3rd in the omnium. He shared his experience: Brief event/course description: Very challenging, technical course, with a solid mix of climbing, running, and sand sections. How’d the race go down for you? I was able to take advantage of front row start spots…
Read MoreRider Highlight: Jorge Martinez Snags Second at Boneshaker CX Series in the Master's 40+
Name: Jorge R Martínez Event & Category: Bone Shaker CX Series Masters 40+ Brief event/course description: Great start, 3rd off the gun, made hard effort half way on first lap and established my 2nd Place gap to third. I held it all race. How’d the race go down for you? 2nd Place Which coach do…
Read MoreRider Highlight: JP Brocket wins his season cyclocross opener!
Name: JP Brocket Event & Category: Prologue CX – Masters 40+ Brief event/course description: Season opening cyclocross race here in Kansas City. Course was at Blue Valley park which offered some nice elevation changes, a few power sections, and plenty of twisty turns to keep you on your game. How’d the race go down for…
Read MoreThat moment you realize the cyclocross season is 6 weeks away…
…and suddenly, cyclocross season was 6 weeks away. That’s where we’re at, somehow. It just snuck up on us. The first UCI races in The US kick things off in just six short weeks. So where are you in your training? Feeling ready? Yeah. I didn’t think so. Well, it’s probably time to get after…
Read MoreYour Recipe for Success for Cyclocross Season
Let’s get right to the point. Cyclocross racing is just around the corner. If you haven’t started training specifically for cyclocross yet, you’re either late to the game or peaking for a late season race. Nonetheless, with the upcoming cyclocross season rapidly approaching, you’ll want to make sure your focus is where it needs to…
Read MoreCyclocross: What you should be doing in July to prepare
With our last “what you should be doing to prepare for a successful CX season” teaser, we discussed getting back on the cyclocross bike. That usually means cleaning it, replacing some worn parts or just buying a new one. Now it’s July. Now it’s the meat of the pre-season. Base season is in full swing…
Read MoreCyclocross: What you should be doing now to prepare
Howdy folks, Holy cow, it’s mid-May already. Can you believe it? September in 4 short months. It might just be time to start thinking about cyclocross again. Ok, maybe more than just thinking about it. How about planning for it? Planning? You mean people actually plan for a cyclocross season? Yes. Hell yes. I’m not…
Read MoreAthlete Key Workout: Skyler Mackey
After finishing up his most successful cyclo-cross (CX) season yet, Skyler Mackey of KCCX has decided to push in all his chips for the 2017-18 CX season. Once he was able to make this commitment, we set about building a periodization model that will let Skyler hit the ground running in early September in preparation…
Read MoreTrain harder. Recover faster.
What can we say, as a coaching company made up of athletes who studies sports science, we love keeping up with the latest studies. If you remember, we mentioned these guys awhile back when they were still looking for study participants. All of our coaches are currently testing out Topical Edge. Topical EDGE is the first and…
Read MoreMeet SE Ambassador Philip Tinstman
Philip Tinstman races just about everything: road, cyclocross, and MTB XC. We asked this long-time racer and SE Ambassador a few questions about cycling and this upcoming year: How long have you been racing? Began Racing road bikes at age 17 after transitioning from the MTB and BMX side of cycling. Had a long term…
Read MoreCoach Adam Mills A Year in Reflection
We talked with coach and Source Endurance owner about his reflections on 2016 as both a coach and an athlete and what he’s looking forward to in 2017. What did cycling mean for you in 2016? I think I was lucky as I moved away from the elite racer side of cycling to more of…
Read MoreMike Ivancic gets started with coaching for the first time
Mike Ivancic is a newer client who recently finished up his first two months of coaching ever. He’s partnered up with Coach Grant Harrison and has been reaping the benefits of his training program. We can’t wait to see where the 2017 season takes him. Here’s his story, straight from the man himself: I am…
Read MoreAthlete Highlight: Skyler Mackey
Name: Skyler Mackey Event & Category: Cyntergy Hurtland UCI C2 Brief event/course description: The course was technical with lots of short and steep ups and downs. There were also multiple creek crossings and a very technical off camber section. How’d the race go down for you? For me the race was a constant battle with attacks being…
Read MoreCyclocross tire treads & the practical use of each, Part 1
Let’s talk a little bit about cyclocross tires. First things first, we’re talking about tubular tires here. At the elite — truly elite, IE World Cup — level, there isn’t anyone running clinchers, or tubeless clinchers. There just isn’t. Will there be, in a few years? I don’t know. Tubeless technology has certainly advanced over the last few years,…
Read MoreCoach Zack Allison Completes F.I.S.T. Bike Fitting Certification
Source Endurance coach and Source Endurance Training Center of the Rockies owner, Zack Allison, recently completed his F.I.S.T. Bike Fitting Certification in Valyermo, California. This rigorous 5 day course covered every aspect of bike fitting including cleats, shims, fit philosophies, as well as different disciplines of cycling from triathlon to road to MTB. Why is…
Read MoreNew Service: Group Coaching
Source Endurance recently added Group Coaching to it’s range of services as a way to better serve cyclists in different places and with different goals. Why might one choose group coaching? Group coaching is a great introduction to coaching with custom workouts for a group and discounted rates. While you won’t be able to get…
Read MoreNew webinar: Why & How, Strength Training for Cyclists
**Check out the recorded version of this webinar** Webinar: Why & How, Strength Training for Cyclists Date: November 17, 2016 Time: 7:00pm US/Central Registration: Here– it’s free! Description: SE coaches Zack Allison and Mitchell Sides have recently written about the importance of getting in the gym right now in Offseason is Over: How Do We Know? and Should Strength Training…
Read MoreRider Highlight: Lucas Borkowski
Name: Lucas Borkowski Event & Category: Jingle Cross, Men’s Cat 3, 35+ Brief event/course description: The Jingle Cross course is one of my favorite CX courses. It’s more of a techy course that forces you off the bike several times. It’s a true ‘cross course in my book! For course features there is the steep…
Read MoreShould strength training be a part of your off-season?
To lift or not to strength train, that’s NOT the question. It’s that time of the year for serious road cyclists. Your season ended, everyone is planning their off season break or just ramping back into winter training and cross training. As you sit down and make the big plan for the winter, pondering the…
Read MoreSource Endurance Training Center of the Rockies is opening in their new location Oct 3rd!
It’s that time of year again- the days are getting shorter and cooler which means limited training time outdoors for most. The Source Endurance Training Center of the Rockies is getting ready to re-open for the season in our new space at 1833 E. Harmony, Unit 20! While we are dealing with some construction delays,…
Read MoreNew Video Consulting Service for Tier 3 and 4 Clients
Beginning October 1, 2016, Source Endurance will be offering video consulting via Google Hangouts, for Tier 3 and Tier 4 clients. This allows for a more personal and direct mode of delivery of consulting services and will enable the coach to utilize screen sharing to analyze your data files with you in real time. You’ll be…
Read MoreJoin us for the Source Endurance Coffee Ride at the UCI Jingle CX
When: Saturday, September 24. 9:30am, roll at 10am Where: Java House, 211E Washington St. Iowa City, IA Facebook Event: http://bit.ly/2cu0eQo Join Source Endurance coach Grant Harrison for a morning cup of coffee at the Java House in downtown Iowa City. From here, Grant will lead you on a self supported 75-90 minute ride in the Iowa City vicinity ending back…
Read MoreStarting with Coaching for Cyclocross
As a coach, the first thing I do when I get a new client – the very first thing – is ask to look at any data that they have collected over the last couple of seasons. If I get lucky – and I get lucky more often these days than I used to –…
Read MoreMind Matters: Psychological skills for cycling
Any athlete can tell you about their performance in terms of what their time was, what the score was, or other outside variables of the competition that lead to their success or failure. However what is rarely expanded upon in sport is the contribution that was made from an athletes psychological skills towards that performance.…
Read MoreHow to Choose a Bike for a Gravel Event
Gravel riding and racing has really taken off throughout the U.S. in the past couple years along with types of gravel events. It seems that every day new styles of gravel bikes and equipment pop up. While training is an essential part for a good gravel experience, equipment choice can be the difference between…
Read MoreAthlete Highlight: Christian Helmig, Luxembourg National Champion
Christian Helmig has done it all. He holds Luxembourg National Titles in a range of disciplines- Cyclocross, XC MTB, MTB Marathon, Elite Road, and Elite Time Trial. How does an athlete come to find success in such a range of disciplines? It’s definitely not easy and takes a lot of careful planning, a lot of…
Read MoreCyclocross and Aerobic Training
With cyclocross season fast approaching, many athletes are starting to get serious about training for the cycling’s cooler weather discipline. In a recent article, coach Zack Allison covered the importance of anaerobic capacity in cyclocross. Anaerobic capacity is a massive part of ‘cross, but that doesn’t mean you can neglect the aerobic engine and its…
Read MoreAnaerobic Capacity's Role in Cyclocross Racing
When you are pedaling in a cyclocross race, how often are you thinking “man I’m barely anaerobic….this is sustainable…” Pretty much never. When deep in a cyclocross race you are going from coasting, to a near max effort, to coasting, to running anaerobically, to deeply anaerobic again. While we can name 10 things that will make…
Read MoreWhy I chose Source Endurance for my Nutrition Consultation, By Shadd Smith
I recently contacted Grant Harrison, one of the Source Endurance Senior Consultants, for a nutrition consultation. I wanted to know more about my daily nutrition intake as it related to my racing and training throughout the year. My primary goal was to get down to my optimal race weight for this year’s road season and upcoming cyclocross season.…
Read MoreSource Endurance Event: Racing and Training in the Heat Webinar
Recently, coach Adam Mills conducted a webinar all about racing and training in the heat. Studies are constantly being done looking at heat’s effect on the body. In the webinar Adam looks at five areas: What is a hot environment? How does it affect performance? Physiological adaptations Behavior modification Improved performance in hot conditions We’ve…
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