Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast - Presented by TrainerRoad

🚀 Try TrainerRoad risk-free! 👉 ⁠www.TrainerRoad.com

// SHARE AND RATE THE PODCAST!
iTunes: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/apple2⁠ 
Spotify: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/spotify2⁠
Google Podcasts: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/google⁠

// RESOURCES MENTIONED
- Free cycling nutrition calculator: https://www.trainerroad.com/landing/cycling-nutrition-calculator
- Free W/kg calculator: https://www.trainerroad.com/landing/watts-per-kilogram-calculator 
- How to Qualify for Kona: https://www.trainerroad.com/blog/how-to-qualify-for-kona-2027/ 
- Kona Bike Course Breakdown: https://www.trainerroad.com/blog/the-kona-bike-course-how-hard-is-it-and-how-hard-do-athletes-actually-ride-it/ 
- Sign up for TrainerRoad! ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/GetFaster⁠
- Follow TrainerRoad on Instagram 📸 https://www.instagram.com/TrainerRoad 

// TOPICS COVERED
(00:00:00) How Much Faster Can One Season of Structured Training Make You?
(00:01:18) Your First Year of Training: Where the Power Gains Land
(00:03:06) Which Power Durations Improve the Most, 1 Minute to 4 Hours?
(00:05:08) Gains by Age, Gender, and W/kg: Is It Just Newbie Gains?
(00:06:00) Racing in Spring? Why You Need to Start Training Now
(00:07:06) Your Odds of Hitting the Improvement Curve, Month by Month
(00:08:15) Does Following the Plan Actually Make a Difference?
(00:08:51) UCI Gravel Worlds Course vs Unbound and Big Sugar
(00:11:04) Kona: How Strong Are Ironman World Championship Athletes?
(00:12:53) How Kona Qualifying and Age-Graded Slots Work
(00:14:10) Aero Upgrades vs a Year of Training: What Saves More Time at Kona?
(00:16:20) Kona Bike Course vs Other Ironmans: Intensity, Pacing, and Heat

How much faster can one season of structured cycling training make you? Coach Jonathan Lee looks at power data from athletes in their first year on TrainerRoad to see how much 20-minute, 60-minute, and 4-hour power improved, how fast the gains arrived, and why starting now matters if you race in the spring.
You'll learn which parts of the power curve moved the most, how the gains compared across age, gender, and watts per kilogram, why month two to month four is where the biggest jump happens, and how your odds of hitting the improvement curve climb the longer you stay consistent. Then we break down the UCI Gravel World Championships course in Western Australia against Unbound and Big Sugar, look at how strong Ironman World Championship athletes in Kona really are, how Kona qualifying and age-graded slots work, and whether aero upgrades or a year of training saves more time on the Kona bike course.
All TrainerRoad data comes from a filtered sample of athletes who followed their training plan closely. Results are associations, not guarantees.

// TRY TRAINERROAD RISK FREE FOR 30 DAYS!
https://trainerroad.cc/GetFaster⁠ TrainerRoad is the #1 cycling training app. No other cycling app is more effective. Over 17,000 positive reviews, a 4.9 star App Store rating.

// HELPFUL LINKS
- Have a question for the podcast? Ask here: https://www.TrainerRoad.com/podcast 
- TrainerRoad on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/trainerroad/⁠
- TrainerRoad Forum: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3uHvLnE⁠
- TrainerRoad on Strava: ⁠https://www.strava.com/clubs/trainerroad⁠
- TrainerRoad on Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/TrainerRd⁠
- TrainerRoad on X: ⁠https://www.x.com/TrainerRoad⁠ 
- Learn more about TrainerRoad: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3LBb5Ur⁠⁠ 
- Listen to the Successful Athletes Podcast: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3JmKrN5⁠
- Listen to the Science of Getting Faster Podcast: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3LpuIhP⁠
- Training Blog: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3gCdNdN

🚀 Try TrainerRoad risk-free! 👉 ⁠www.TrainerRoad.com

// SHARE AND RATE THE PODCAST!
iTunes: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/apple2⁠ 
Spotify: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/spotify2⁠
Google Podcasts: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/google⁠

// RESOURCES MENTIONED
- Free cycling nutrition calculator: https://www.trainerroad.com/landing/cycling-nutrition-calculator
- Free W/kg calculator: https://www.trainerroad.com/landing/watts-per-kilogram-calculator 
- Follow Alex: https://www.instagram.com/alexwildmtb 
- Sign up for TrainerRoad! ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/GetFaster⁠
- Follow TrainerRoad on Instagram 📸 https://www.instagram.com/TrainerRoad 

// TOPICS COVERED
(00:00:00) How Much Faster Are Pro Cyclists Than You?
(00:05:48) How Many Hours Do Pros Train vs Everyone Else?
(00:10:25) Alex Wild on Training Through Epstein-Barr
(00:15:53) How Team USA Won the Road World Championships
(00:29:04) Gravel World Championships: Course Preview and Favorites
(00:42:50) How Faster Riders Ride Zone 2 Differently
(00:53:16) The Hardest Workouts in Cycling, Ranked
(01:00:41) What Happens When You Skip One Hard Workout a Week?
(01:05:35) Two or Three Hard Days a Week: Which Is Better?
(01:07:02) Alpe d'Huez: Bike Upgrades vs Training
(01:11:47) Free Nutrition and Power-to-Weight Calculators

How much faster are pro cyclists than you? Coach Jonathan Lee compares pro gravel and MTB racer Alex Wild's power PRs and training hours to a filtered sample of 150,000+ TrainerRoad athletes, and the gap is bigger than most riders think.
You'll see where a pro ranks at 15 seconds, 1, 5, 20, and 60 minutes, and how many hours the median rider actually trains. Alex talks about training through Epstein-Barr, how Team USA won the Road World Championships, and who could win Gravel Worlds in Australia. Then we get into the data: how faster riders ride Zone 2 differently, the hardest workout types ranked, what happens when you skip one hard workout a week, and two vs three hard days.
Last up, Alpe d'Huez for a 250 W, 77 kg rider. A $5,800 frame upgrade saves about 7 seconds. The median FTP gain after a year for new TrainerRoad signups in a filtered sample (about 22 W) works out to roughly 6 minutes, at about $0.56 per second saved.
All TrainerRoad numbers come from filtered samples and show associations, not cause and effect.

// TRY TRAINERROAD RISK FREE FOR 30 DAYS!
https://trainerroad.cc/GetFaster⁠ TrainerRoad is the #1 cycling training app. No other cycling app is more effective. Over 17,000 positive reviews, a 4.9 star App Store rating.

// HELPFUL LINKS
- Have a question for the podcast? Ask here: https://www.TrainerRoad.com/podcast 
- TrainerRoad on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/trainerroad/⁠
- TrainerRoad Forum: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3uHvLnE⁠
- TrainerRoad on Strava: ⁠https://www.strava.com/clubs/trainerroad⁠
- TrainerRoad on Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/TrainerRd⁠
- TrainerRoad on X: ⁠https://www.x.com/TrainerRoad⁠ 
- Learn more about TrainerRoad: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3LBb5Ur⁠⁠ 
- Listen to the Successful Athletes Podcast: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3JmKrN5⁠
- Listen to the Science of Getting Faster Podcast: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3LpuIhP⁠
- Training Blog: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3gCdNdN

Donate to Hannah’s World Bicycle Relief Fundraiser: https://beyond-the-summit.raiselysite.com/ 

🚀 Try TrainerRoad risk-free! 👉 ⁠www.TrainerRoad.com

// SHARE AND RATE THE PODCAST!
iTunes: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/apple2⁠ 
Spotify: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/spotify2⁠
Google Podcasts: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/google⁠

// TOPICS COVERED
(00:00:00) Which Workouts Do Cyclists Struggle With the Most?
(00:05:01) Life TSS: When to Push Through and When to Back Off
(00:06:21) Inside the Data: A Filtered Sample of 60,000+ Athletes
(00:12:35) 85% of AI-Prescribed Workouts Went to Plan (vs Picking Your Own)
(00:16:33) Why Recovery Rides Go Wrong More Than Endurance Rides
(00:20:21) The Hardest Workout Type (and Where Over-Unders Really Rank)
(00:28:08) Why Sweet Spot Workouts Rarely Go Wrong
(00:30:34) Why Steady Training Weeks Beat Big Spikes
(00:42:11) Longer Workouts Go Wrong More Often, but Not Equally
(00:44:29) Race Pacing: Treat Every Climb Like an Interval
(00:47:46) What Cyclists Actually Do When They Skip a Workout
(00:57:15) Worlds to Chequamegon in 6 Days: Hannah's Lesson on the Confidence to Rest
(01:02:24) Hannah's Kilimanjaro Record Attempt: Up and Down by Bike in One Day
(01:14:01) Soldier Hollow World Cup and NICA Racing

What's the hardest type of cycling workout? We looked at TrainerRoad data from a filtered sample of over 60,000 athletes and 12 months of planned workouts to find out. Pro cyclist Hannah Otto joins Coach Jonathan to break it down.
Anaerobic attacks top the list, followed by threshold hard starts and threshold sustained power workouts. Threshold over-unders, the workout everyone loves to hate, landed right in the middle. Sweet spot workouts sat near the bottom, with fewer problems than any threshold, VO2 max, or anaerobic workout. The surprise was recovery rides. They went off track more often than endurance rides. And when athletes swapped a recovery ride for an unstructured one, the median ride came in at nearly three times the planned TSS.
We also cover why longer VO2 max and anaerobic workouts get riskier past the 75 to 120 minute mark and how to use that to pace your races. We talk about why consistent training weeks beat big spikes, and how Hannah recovered between Marathon World Championships and Chequamegon. Plus, she explains her attempt to set the women's record for riding up and down Kilimanjaro in a single day, which is also a fundraiser for World Bicycle Relief.

// RESOURCES MENTIONED
- Sign up for TrainerRoad! ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/GetFaster⁠
- Follow TrainerRoad on Instagram 📸 https://www.instagram.com/TrainerRoad 

// TRY TRAINERROAD RISK FREE FOR 30 DAYS!
https://trainerroad.cc/GetFaster⁠ TrainerRoad is the #1 cycling training app. No other cycling app is more effective. Over 17,000 positive reviews, a 4.9 star App Store rating.

// HELPFUL LINKS
- Have a question for the podcast? Ask here: https://www.TrainerRoad.com/podcast 
- TrainerRoad on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/trainerroad/⁠
- TrainerRoad Forum: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3uHvLnE⁠
- TrainerRoad on Strava: ⁠https://www.strava.com/clubs/trainerroad⁠
- TrainerRoad on Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/TrainerRd⁠
- TrainerRoad on X: ⁠https://www.x.com/TrainerRoad⁠ 
- Learn more about TrainerRoad: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3LBb5Ur⁠⁠ 
- Listen to the Successful Athletes Podcast: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3JmKrN5⁠
- Listen to the Science of Getting Faster Podcast: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3LpuIhP⁠
- Training Blog: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3gCdNdN

🚀 Try TrainerRoad risk-free! 👉 ⁠www.TrainerRoad.com⁠

// SHARE AND RATE THE PODCAST!
iTunes: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/apple2⁠ 
Spotify: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/spotify2⁠
Google Podcasts: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/google⁠

// TOPICS COVERED
(00:00:00) Why Consistency Is the Key to Getting Faster
(00:01:33) What Is Training Variability? The Formula Explained
(00:02:28) Training Variability Scores: Steady, Moderate, Uneven, Erratic
(00:03:19) How We Analyzed 30,000 Everyday Cyclists
(00:06:54) What Steady vs Erratic Training Looks Like
(00:08:25) Steady Riders Gain More FTP at Every Training Volume
(00:10:46) Consistency vs More Training Hours: Which Raises FTP More?
(00:12:11) Erratic Training Makes You 3 to 4x More Likely to Lose FTP
(00:13:02) Does It Hold Up for 20 and 60 Minute Power?
(00:13:37) Steady vs Erratic Training Over 12 Months
(00:14:57) Why Big Training Weeks and Training Camps Can Backfire
(00:17:28) One Long Ride vs Three Rides Per Week
(00:19:43) How to Calculate Your Training Variability Score
(00:20:16) Key Takeaways: Steady Low Hours Beat Erratic High Hours
(00:20:39) Do Recovery Weeks Hurt Your Consistency Score?
(00:22:05) What Helps Cyclists Train More Consistently
(00:23:18) Real Athlete Tips for Staying Consistent

Training variability is a new way to measure training consistency, and it may be the reason your FTP is stuck. Coach Jonathan Lee looks at a sample of more than 30,000 everyday cyclists to show how closely steady training weeks are linked to FTP gains, and why both skipped weeks and huge weeks come with worse results.
You'll learn what training variability is, how to calculate your own score from your last 12 weeks of riding, what a good score looks like, and why recovery weeks don't count against you. Plus, real tips from TrainerRoad athletes on how to train more consistently.
This is a correlational analysis of TrainerRoad athlete data, not a controlled experiment. The same pattern showed up in 20 and 60 minute power, not just FTP.

// RESOURCES MENTIONED
- Sign up for TrainerRoad! ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/GetFaster⁠
- Follow TrainerRoad on Instagram 📸 https://www.instagram.com/TrainerRoad 

// TRY TRAINERROAD RISK FREE FOR 30 DAYS!
https://trainerroad.cc/GetFaster⁠ TrainerRoad is the #1 cycling training app. No other cycling app is more effective. Over 17,000 positive reviews, a 4.9 star App Store rating.

// HELPFUL LINKS
- Have a question for the podcast? Ask here: https://www.TrainerRoad.com/podcast 
- TrainerRoad on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/trainerroad/⁠
- TrainerRoad Forum: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3uHvLnE⁠
- TrainerRoad on Strava: ⁠https://www.strava.com/clubs/trainerroad⁠
- TrainerRoad on Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/TrainerRd⁠
- TrainerRoad on X: ⁠https://www.x.com/TrainerRoad⁠ 
- Learn more about TrainerRoad: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3LBb5Ur⁠⁠ 
- Listen to the Successful Athletes Podcast: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3JmKrN5⁠
- Listen to the Science of Getting Faster Podcast: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3LpuIhP⁠
- Training Blog: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3gCdNdN

🚀 Try TrainerRoad risk-free! 👉 ⁠www.TrainerRoad.com⁠

// SHARE AND RATE THE PODCAST!
iTunes: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/apple2⁠ 
Spotify: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/spotify2⁠
Google Podcasts: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/google⁠

// TOPICS COVERED
(00:00:00) Two Hard Days vs Three Hard Days Per Week
(00:01:41) What Hard Training Does Inside Your Muscles
(00:03:53) Why the Fitness Signal Fades Within 24 Hours
(00:07:21) How Much Recovery You Need Between Hard Days
(00:08:47) Where the Two Hard Days Rule Came From
(00:11:20) Research on Three Hard Days for Low Volume Riders
(00:14:48) What the Research Says Overall
(00:16:12) TrainerRoad Data: Two vs Three Hard Days
(00:18:51) Does Age Change the Answer?
(00:20:14) Does Training Volume Change the Answer?
(00:20:58) Do Three Hard Days Cause More Skipped or Failed Workouts?
(00:22:36) What the Data Says for Most Riders
(00:24:00) How to Add a Third Hard Day

Is it better to train hard two days a week or three? A 42-year-old listener has been told by his friends that three hard workouts a week is overtraining, yet he keeps getting faster while they stagnate. Coach Jonathan Lee digs into the research and a filtered sample of over 14,000 TrainerRoad athletes to settle it.
You will learn what a hard session actually does inside your muscles, why the adaptation signal fades within about 24 hours, where the two-hard-days rule came from, and how power PRs from 5 to 60 minutes compare for riders doing two versus three hard workouts per week, broken down by age and training volume. Plus, how to add a third hard day without digging a hole.
Topics: interval training frequency, VO2 max, threshold, sweet spot, recovery, mitochondria, low volume training, masters cyclists.

// RESOURCES MENTIONED
- Sign up for TrainerRoad! ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/GetFaster⁠
- Follow TrainerRoad on Instagram 📸 https://www.instagram.com/TrainerRoad 

// TRY TRAINERROAD RISK FREE FOR 30 DAYS!
https://trainerroad.cc/GetFaster⁠ TrainerRoad is the #1 cycling training app. No other cycling app is more effective. Over 17,000 positive reviews, a 4.9 star App Store rating.

// HELPFUL LINKS
- Have a question for the podcast? Ask here: https://www.TrainerRoad.com/podcast 
- TrainerRoad on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/trainerroad/⁠
- TrainerRoad Forum: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3uHvLnE⁠
- TrainerRoad on Strava: ⁠https://www.strava.com/clubs/trainerroad⁠
- TrainerRoad on Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/TrainerRd⁠
- TrainerRoad on X: ⁠https://www.x.com/TrainerRoad⁠ 
- Learn more about TrainerRoad: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3LBb5Ur⁠⁠ 
- Listen to the Successful Athletes Podcast: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3JmKrN5⁠
- Listen to the Science of Getting Faster Podcast: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3LpuIhP⁠
- Training Blog: ⁠https://trainerroad.cc/3gCdNdN