Thanks for the pod, fellas. Great stuff as always. Your comments on Tempo were particularly interesting. Tempo is a big part of the 16 wk SST plan. Given this discussion, should we be replacing it with Zone 2? Thanks!

Topic is so interesting, audio doesn’t bother me at all.

The split Audio creates a funny pressure/eardrum irritation. Please go to stereo; can't click on your pod for now!

Unwatchable because of horrible audio. Y'all can do better!

The constant clicking and lack of attention makes this very hard to listen too, although it’s a topic your listeners really want to hear.

I’ve really enjoyed the rides so far, excellent workout and really interesting topics on the discord with a sense of fun. I encourage all you don’t want to miss out.1600 UK time.

Are you only ever going to do group rides on Zwift. Have you ever considered to organize events on TrainingPeaks Virtual? How about a FastCat team on TPV?

Good content. some tech feedback. For some reason the audio plays in headphones in mono. Frank on the left ear and the other guy on the right ear.

No this is not accurate for people who are intermediate to advanced lifters taking a break for a few months will decrease central nervous system fatigue and most people come back stronger after a few weeks of getting back to training regularly

Thanks for this video, helping me get through a never ending winter in the uk.

Great discussion, thanks guys!

Is the AI Fascat considered as a hired coach to make sure your headed down the right path?

Uber Preztel was so hard. Epic KOM followed by "bonus" Radio Tower... long recovery until Volcano and ultimate death up AdZ. I'm in!

Connecticut has been more cold than normal. Usually I ride outside through the winter. If it gets mid 30s I'll start doing longer weekend rides outside.

where in Connecticut are you. I'm in the North East corner

Bringing it fast to the ground instead of letting it fall down is more accepted and a standard-way in powerlifting. And dont look up. Try to keep your neck straight. Means you shoud look down or on a point 3-6m in front of you.

This is unfortunately mostly innacurate advice.

Riding a Gravel Bike like a road bike is utterly INCORRECT. Ride in the drops off-road?! 😂🙄🤦‍♂️👎

You can do the eccentric also very fast, especially if its an all year weight it wont build fatigue.

If we only have a gym that frowns on dropping your weight, do you recommend skipping this altogether or to do the eccentric contraction?

don’t drop the bar. lowering the bar (eccentric contraction) provides the greatest strength & hypertrophic benefit, especially for cyclists who are usually grossly deficient in bone & muscle tissue.

Can you please explain why you drop the bar rather than bringing it back down more slowly?

About plateauing in strenght gains, if you dedicate to it, you might plateau when you're squatting 400 for reps, so not much of a plateau 😂

So, you describe a “traditional” training approach from the 1990’s😅. If you want to TRANSFORM your strength & fitness, I’d suggest a few things. Not everyone can do this as it requires dedication to the process. 1) Lighter weights to failure using BFR (blood flow restriction) as used by the US Olympic Ski Team-& cyclist. 2). Muscle size does NOT correlate to muscle strength 3) Fatigue is a CNS protective response to low blood sugar, not usually low muscle glycogen. No CARB loading! Just 10-20g glucose per hour while exercising. 4) I highly suggest you getting Dr Tim Noakes et al’s Medical training manual. I’ve been studying this since the 1980’s & you slowly see the New athlete emerging. Drink less liquids, higher salt intake, very few carbs. It’s more natural & promotes long term health benefits ❤

Sierra is the best! (In my opinion. )

What coach Andrew says about hypertrophy at 21:36 and being in a caloric deficit was slightly confusing (or reversed). I heard, "You're not going to undergo hypertrophy if you're not in a caloric deficit..." I believe what was meant was, "When you're in the hypertrophy phase, do NOT put yourself in a caloric deficit. Your body needs the calories here to put on this extra muscle." Lots of people/athletes/cyclists will make various attempts at cutting weight by reducing what they eat; don't do that here, folks!

I probably missed it, but with in-season strength maintenance training, how often? I'm guessing once a week? And, on a non-cycling day, say after weekend (when more active on bike)? Also, not sure how to adapt the FasCat weight exercises (squat, leg press & leg curl) to just the concentric movement (I will see if I can google/youtube that, for examples). Thanks :)

Hopefully this year round strength training will show up on the list training programs. Strength training is a year round requirement especially for folks over 50

Unable to hear Sierra. Only Andrew

Excellent episode, thanks. Regarding pre-ride fueling, I seem to do better with a high carb drink rather than a big serving of rice or granola. I can easily digest a drink with a 150 grams of maltodextrin and sugar pre-ride, sipped slowly over about an hour. The equivalent carb source in a food meal is a bear to digest.

These people are the biggest PEDs users on earth ...

His performance is directly proportional to the extent people butcher his name. Only joking I may have missed it but I don't think you mentioned his bike handling. He is outstanding from wheeling to crash avoidance and downhill speed. Just watch his time trial on the last day of the tour this year

Funny video 2 guys talk about him as if they know him lol. But dont know him at all. I mean what is this?

There is no way he averaged 450w for the last 60 miles. May have done that on the climbs. Look at the power data from his teammate racing for France(I cannot think of his name), and he averaged around 300w for the time he was pulling turns with Tadej.

Where are you getting the W per kg numbers? Youre not taking into account climbing time, for example, and youre ignoring climbs he did at the Tour where he was around 7 W per kg. At Plateau de Beille "Pogačar did 6.98 ᵉW/Kg for 39:50 min, which is by far the greatest climbing performance ever, taking into account conditions and the stage difficulty. Sea normalised power for this historic effort is 7.27 ᵉW/Kg. Pogačar’s adjusted altitude score was 696, which means this performance was equivalent to pushing 6.96 ᵉW/Kg for 60 minutes at sea level." Im sure LeMond wasnt anywhere close to those numbers. Not even close. Do better research

That hat has to go

A friendly comment here. 10 mins before we actually begins the video. Would appreciate some basic chapter marks. Nothing wrong with house keeping and ad spot but 10 mins is brutal!

Frank and team. Just want to give you a shout out for all your creativity and continued efforts to make your coaching offering the next level. This is my second year with you and only use the App and not one on one coaching. To be honest, I am turning 62 next March and have dialed back my intensity this past year due to an injury. I have L4/L5 Spinal Fusion Surgery 9 days ago and am doing really well considering and as I focus on recovery and getting back on the bike your program and all it has to offer will be the primary driver to getting my power, fitness, and fun back to where it was prior to my back injury. Keep up the great work and CoachCat is like having a one on one coach. You and your team provide an amazing service and platform and I will be a customer for life. Please keep pushing your technology to the next level.

Great episode guys, you nailed it on the nature of gravel racing and I really like the idea of simulation training rides. I've been doing gravel races since 2015 both in the mid west and mountain west and I'm an older racer (66) so I'll offer some tips from my experience. 1) Pacing and groups...for most age-groupers, you've got to watch burning a lot of early matches to "find a good group". My experience has been unless it's really flat, groups will break up on the rollers and climbs and you're own anyway. You've got to look at tying into a group opportunistically. If I'm in a group and it's saving some energy or getting me some recovery I may hang in a while, but I'll also be cautious about burning a lot of matches to bridge up or stay in a group that's taking me into the red. As you guys said, it's about highest sustained power, but not a lot of time over threshold. My power curve is pretty flat so I'm not going to last long over threshold in any case, so it's question of finding and holding that right groove. 2) Hydration...for me a pack is the way to go. I tend to sweat a lot and it is variable by temperature. So separating fueling from hydration is the way to go. I've taken on 6L of water in a 6:30 race and that would be hard to fueling right if that was fuel as well as water. 3) Fuel....I've found that going higher carb really makes a difference at the end of these long races. I think part of it is making sure the brain has enough carbs to function well even when everything else is depleted. I did the SBT Black this year in 8:40, and while it was hard, I wouldn't call it a total sufferfest. Cramping was the limiter, as I was trying to go hard, but backing off just a bit when the cramps were coming on. RPE is mental and your brain likes carbs and can tell when they're low. I think keeping the carbs up helps the mental game. I mix 100gm/hr for these races, but use something less as you can't always get it in. I keep it simple by dumping the number of gels needed to get to that 100gm/hr in a clear bottle, adding some water so it flows better and marking lines on the side of the bottle for how much I should drink down each hour. A regular bottle is usually good for 6-7 hours. I take something every 20 minutes and then level up hourly. It can get pretty sticky, but it's simple and you don't have to mess around with any packaging. I'm a boring eater so palate fatigue doesn't bother me, and using nearly pure sugar works best for me. Thanks for tips on the simulation ride. I'll definitely add them to my program this year.

So laggy... Could be better video quality. Hard to take it seriously.

I'm always flying during base period, then lose it all when getting specific/more intense!

Why does the app set your race day as a 2 hr club ride? I just deleted the app, 5 mins after installing it and setting up my details.

Worst explanation of NP I’ve heard.

I think that this notion that 20 minute FTP is worthless is a worthless notion. The fact remains that if you can get your 20-minute power up then that affects your 5-hour power. As my 20-minute went up so did my 5-hour. Yes, you can get more sport specific and train to optimize at different lengths of event. But as a famous climber once said when asked, what is more important strength or endurance? " What is there to endure if your not strong enough to hold on to the smallest hold?" That reality remains in cycling. If your 20 minute and absolute number is too low to hang, than it doesn't matter what your 5-hour power is.

This machine does not work for me (back issue). Is the leg press without an angle just as good?

Shout Out to the Big Cat for suggesting Sierra Sims! She is wonderful and I already feel a wee bit faster following her plan.

Should we consider Creatine supplement for lifting block?

Intuitively it does feel like Zone 3 and "Sweetspot" training are the best balance to get the most adaptations in the least time. Zone 2 at 60-70% always feels way too easy to make progress, but above 85% is too hard to get significant volume. I really don't understand why most experts claim Zone 3 is useless. Then why do most experts say you need to avoid Zone 3 at all costs because it is nothing but "junk miles" and negates Zone 2 and Zone 5? Does Zone 3 "Sweetspot" qualify as being part of the 80% moderate intensity in 80/20?

I really. Really appreciate the break down. So many gems dropped

Andrew had a great point about making the" trainer" bike match as close as possible to the" road" bike, however I would do that in the fall before trainer season to avoid knee issues on either