Welcome to another potluck conversation with regulars Grant Holicky, Trevor Connor, Rob Pickels, and Griffin McMath. In these discussions, we pick topics that we find interesting and break them apart using a mix of science, humor, and our own experience.
Should You Train When You’re Not Motivated After a Long Workday?
We’ve all had the experience: You have a training session planned for after work, but you get home feeling exhausted, frustrated, and unmotivated to get out there. So what do you do? Do you force yourself to follow the plan anyway, or do you adjust? This is the question Coach Holicky poses to the team—and no one had a one-size-fits-all answer.
RELATED: Fast Talk Episode 93—Balancing Sport and Life, with Brent Bookwalter
What Do You Do When Your Training Race Isn’t as Hard as You Want?
Coach Connor recently had this experience and asks the team what he should have done: be okay with less intensity, leave the ride, or do some intervals afterwards? What he wasn’t expecting was the can of worms his question opened. Not everyone on the team thinks that we should be going to training races at all. We discuss not only what to do in this situation, but if you should put yourself in that scenario in the first place.
Do You Vary the Intensity of Base Rides?
Base rides are generally performed in Zones 1 and 2—the easy zones. But that’s a big range. Depending on the zone model, it can be anywhere from 40% of your max up to 65 or 70%. Coach Pickels wants to know, when we prescribe base rides, can they be anywhere in that very broad zone, or do we vary the intensity for our athletes (i.e., sometimes at 50% and sometimes at 65%)?
Get ready for some interesting conversations—and let’s make you fast!
