Thanksgiving is around the corner and it has inspired me to write a post about being thankful in sport. Everyone who has had any success knows there are a number of people to thank for helping them get there: family, significant (and insignificant) others, support staff, race volunteers, race promoters, the list goes on and on. What I want to talk about though, is being thankful and appreciative of your own personal achievements.
Read MoreToday’s post is all about zone discipline. Staying in the prescribed zone by your coach to achieve the stimulus required for that session is not always easy, especially if you prefer group rides over riding alone.
Read MoreI (Nate) started Catalyst Coaching in October of 2015. In August of 2017, Jim Peterman joined me. I think anytime someone starts their own business they can be really protective of it. I put so much into starting Catalyst, and my personal livelihood depended on its success, so for a long time I was very afraid of bringing more people on. When the opportunity to work with Jim came about it was an easy question to say yes to. Jim is someone I already knew really well and is an expert in his field of exercise physiology. I knew that I would enjoy working with him and that he would bring knowledge I didn’t have. Since Jim joined, I’ve thought many times about adding another coach. However, it’s taken me a long time to find someone that is the right fit. Having put so much into starting the company always makes me a bit nervous and resistant to change. When I had the chance to bring on Johann van Zyl, I realized immediately we had to do it. Johann simultaneously meshes with mine and Jim’s coaching ideologies, yet broadens our horizons and the knowledge we can collectively provide to our athletes. When we bring on a coach we are not just bringing on one coach for one athlete, we are bringing on someone that strengthens the company and contributes to the crosstalk we have that trickles down to all our athletes, whether they’re coached by Johann, Jim, or myself. With that, I am really excited to add Johann to our team of coaches, and I want to share a bit more about him.
Read MoreI never have to think twice when asked what my favorite race is. It’s on a course that doesn’t suit me—and I haven’t been able to race it for the past three years—but there isn’t another race quite like the Tour of Somerville.
Read MoreWith a resurgence of COVID-19 cases and continued restrictions keeping us home, it’s tough to stay positive. A lucky few are getting to race but the majority of us have realized that there’s not going to be any racing for the rest of the year. It’s a blow to the morale. However, it also provides a great opportunity to get out and rediscover (or further cement) why cycling is so great.
Read MoreAs a coach, I frequently ask athletes to share their goals with me. Sometimes, even if they don’t really have goals in the front of their mind, I push them to set goals. Once they’ve made goals, I spend a lot of time thinking about where an athlete is along the path towards the goal and regularly check in with them about it. Are things going well? Is the goal realistic? Could we have done something better in the past year of pursuing a goal?
Read MoreAccurately monitoring fitness and health is important for maximizing performance gains. There are a number of different tools and metrics that are commonly used and help make the process easier. However, in reading a recent journal article by Ruddy and colleagues, I was reminded of the limitations of many current metrics. For today’s blog post, I’ll highlight some of the key points from the article and how you can better track your own performance (or help your coach track your performance).
Read MoreA lot of athletes are in the habit of using caffeine to enhance their time trial performance. What is really interesting to see in emerging literature from the science world is how much variability there can be in response to caffeine. There can be variability based on the timing of ingestion, but also variability between different individuals that has been linked to the presence of certain genes. The simple takeaway is to dial in an individual’s best use of caffeine it will take some testing of different scenarios. Here are a few different ideas to try in training:
Read MoreWe asked our athlete, Finn Gullickson, what his favorite ride is. No strings attached, not his favorite workout, not his favorite “epic day out”, just his favorite ride. Finn is a professional on the road with the Wildlife Generation Pro Cycling Team. He is a young up and comer, and we are lucky to be working with him. Sorry, I’m rambling, on to the good stuff. Here’s what Finn had to say about his favorite ride. The following is all written by Finn, and we hope you enjoy it!
Read MoreWith the nicer weather and a number of places easing lockdown restrictions, it’s been a great time to get in some longer rides. At the time of writing this, we’re still unclear as to when racing will resume so balancing training load and mental fatigue is essential. With that in mind, I thought I’d share one of my favorite training rides that provides a strong training stimulus while also incorporating the stress relief you get from an unstructured cruise.
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