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FEATURED BLOGGER: Alison Powers - Triple National Champion

Training & Coaching

Struggling with Pandemic Cancellations? This might help.

If your motivation went out the window and you're struggling to put a leg over the top tube - join the club. It's hard to slide into a sausage casing without a goal in mind. It's what got you up in the morning to sweat your brains out. And POOF! It's gone

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The Athlete Who Trained Just Right: Avoiding Too Little or Too Much Training

Life as we know it has derailed without a foreseeable ending to our self-quarantine status. Watching the new produces a roller coaster of emotions while we battle an enemy we cannot see. Events have been canceled, everything has been put on hold and you've got to find ways to exercise your body and mind in order to stay sane these days.

Tagged: Inspiration Motivation Training Tips

Livestream Replay: Rally Cycling's Adam de Vos

Need some motivation on staying fit and healthy while working from home? We thought it’d be a good idea to ask Canadian National Champion Adam de Vos for his advice during the COVID lockdown.

Tagged: Inspiration Livestream Training Tips

Gravel Skills Training Camp

This training camp will bring your gravel riding skills and fitness to a new level. It's an opportunity to put gravel riding miles in your legs, and improve your gravel riding skills and confidence and make new friends while doing so.

Tagged: Bike Handling Events & Races Gravel

How to Prepare Your Race Tactics

In order to have success in a race, you have to be prepared for the race. Great training alone won’t do it. This means you have to know the facts about the race and race course and then come up with a tactic on how you can reach your goal for the race.

Tagged: Racing Tips

Cold and Flu Season - What to do if You Get Sick!

With the increased training, cold weather training conditions, and all the viruses that are floating around, the body is often put into a suppressed immune state. The same formula occurs in season, with big racing blocks, added life stress and travel...point being, we are human and we will get sick.

Tagged: Training Tips

5 Things that Speed Recovery with a Cycling Injury

Injuries come in many shapes and forms. Some are visible to the naked eye, some from over use. Regardless of how they occur one thing remains constant. REST is an important component for recovery.

Tagged: Injury Recovery

3 Steps to Illness Recovery for Cyclists

Poor advice or over enthusiastic training can either send the athlete back into a relapse of illness or prolong the period it takes to resume full regular training again.

Tagged: Recovery Training Tips

Criterium 101 Training Clinic

Want to try bike racing and not sure where to start? Already racing and want to learn how to be more efficient? Want to meet other like-minded women and have fun on bikes? THEN THIS CLINIC IS FOR YOU!!

Tagged: Coaching Events & Races Racing Tips

S.M.A.R.T - How to Set 2020 Goals

2020 is just around the corner! Our athletes are getting pumped thinking about next year; the races they want to win, making the podium and getting faster, better and stronger. This week's blog post is about how to set goals that are S.M.A.R.T.

Tagged: Coaching Inspiration Motivation

4 Ways for Cyclists to Get Through the Holiday Season

"The Holidays are here! It's that time of the year to enjoy time with family, friends, and loved ones. The holidays are joyful and exciting, but can also bring on stress. It's easy to get out of your normal rhythm and routine with overindulging in bad eating habits and neglected training. It's also a prime time to get sick with flu and colds."

Tagged: Motivation

4 Tips to Maximize Your Indoor Training

Now that winter is officially upon us, these next couple months may have you doing more training inside than actually out on the road. Here’s a few tips to get the most out of your indoor sessions.

Tagged: Indoor Training

It Takes a Village to Win in Cycling

It's easy to think that riders that stand atop the podium are an overnight success. That somehow, they've magically discovered the sport of cycling, flown through the ranks and appeared as though granted a wish and stand smiling, hands waving, champagne being sprayed and flowers tossed to the crowd afterward.

Tagged: Motivation

How to Deal with a Cycling Injury

Being injured probably taught me a lot more than if I would have been racing and training like planned. I think that I’m an easy athlete to work with but things are definitely different when you are injured. Have you ever been injured and had to take time off the bike?

Tagged: Injury Recovery

Training with Power Meter

Using a power meter is the preferred training device most professional cyclists and triathletes these days. Other devices such as a heart rate monitor and cyclometer can be used but this guide will focus on the usage of power meters to accurately track performance. Why train with Power?

Tagged: Training Tips

The Importance of Cycling's Mid-Season Break

Mid-Season break is a time to take (literally) a break from the daily training/racing routines and usually occurs around June/July. Similar to "half-time", it's a time to re-set physically and mentally.

Tagged: Coaching Motivation

Shoulder Exercises and Stretches Every Cyclist Should Know

One of the more common injury types amongst cyclists are shoulder-related. We spend countless hours bent over on the bike (in combination with desk-work) which lead to "rolled shoulders" / poor posture and eventually, injury.

Tagged: Coaching

Race Day Nutrition

Come race day- your nutrition is a very important part to have a successful day on the bike. Eat a meal 2.5 to 3 hours pre-race. This is your last chance to fuel your body for the race.

Tagged: Nutrition Racing Tips

3 Preparation Tips for Cycling Stage Races

"It's officially the start of "Stage Racing" season and riders are priming their legs and lungs for the first set of performance(s). All the off-season training and preparation will be displayed as athletes anxiously await in the final countdown before "game time." There are two aspects behind preparation for a Stage Race: the physical time and energy and the mental aspects."

Tagged: Coaching Racing Tips

10 Tips for Being Race-Day Ready

Everyone is excited to finally pin on a number and make use of all the training during the winter months. But in order to have success, you should be well prepared for race day. Ideally one should have a race day routine and maybe even a checklist that will help get the mind into the game.

Tagged: Motivation Racing Tips

Training To Be Healthy

Winter is in full force and base-miles and intensity are increasing. With the increased training, cold weather training conditions, and all the viruses that are floating around, the body is often put into a suppressed immune state. The same formula occurs in season, with big racing blocks, added life stress and travel...point being, we are human and we will get sick. This weeks' blog post is about what to do (or not do) when sick.

Tagged: Coaching Nutrition

Mental Toolbox - Noticing: Thinking vs. Feeling

"Sitting behind the motor itself is soothing and calming - it's getting to that point that can be the challenge. If there's someone in front of you that's tense and surging, it will ripple throughout the group. Similar to riding in a group on the road - if you find yourself around someone who is moving erratically and unpredictably, it's only a matter of time before something disastrous happens. The best thing to do is to put some distance between yourself and that rider."

Tagged: Coaching Motivation

High Quality Training vs Empty Miles

If you want to get stronger and improve your performance, then you should make sure your rides (or workouts) are high quality vs. just adding up a lot of "empty training miles" or "junk miles."

Tagged: Training Tips

Planning for 2019 and Beyond

"Got the winter time blues? As the winter solstice approaches, it may seem like FOREVER until the warm summer months. Whether you're finishing up cyclocross this week at Nationals or completed a full road race season and in the midst of some serious winter base miles, now is a great time to check in with your goals for 2019 and beyond."

Tagged: Coaching Motivation

Returning to the Start Line

"Getting back to racing this year taught me some good lessons. It was a modest re-introduction, don't get me wrong. There have been some issues in the last couple years that certainly didn't help, but a lot of it was on me. I just needed to make the time and commit. That took more than I expected."

Tagged: Events & Races Motivation Racing Tips

Skills in the Snow

The importance of skill work includes: better balance on the bike and in the peloton, maneuvering through a pack of riders during a race, managing obstacles/avoiding crashing and how to pick up speed quickly in a mass start situation (applies to: MTB Cyclocross and Road situations).

Tagged: Bike Handling Winter Cycling

Training During the Winter and the Holiday Seasons

The winter and the holiday seasons are coming closer. Most of our ALP athletes enjoyed their off season break sometime back in October or November and by not it is time to be back training for next season.

Tagged: Training Tips Winter Cycling

How to Get the Most out of Your Off-Season

Summer is winding down and many parts of the country have already seen a shift of weather, signaling the end of a long road season and for others, the start of the cyclocross season. Whether you take a break now from structured training and racing or do it after cross, it's important to get the most out of your off-season. This is where the biggest gains can be made.

Tagged: Coaching Motivation

ALP Cycles Coaches Corner: Racing and Training in the Heat

It's summer in the Northern Hemisphere and temperatures are heating up. While each person responds differently to heat (some thrive, others wilt) there are a few things you can do to beat the heat and ensure you maximize your performance. Below are several tips that you can start using immediately that might help.

Tagged: Motivation

Cool, Calm and Collected

It occurred to me that the demands required for steep, extended climbing and a technical downhill or rocky section are sometimes at odds with each other. Just as they are with the skiing and shooting of biathlon. Would training my body to ‘calm on demand’ yield benefits? I decided to give it a try.

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Dear Athlete: Help Me, Help You

"A great coach should be an athletes best advocate. We're looking out for your best interests - to help you succeed at your goals and perform at your absolute best on game day. And although you may think otherwise when you're assigned intervals and hill climbs, we really are putting you first."

Tagged: Coaching Motivation

What’s for Dinner?

“Cooking at home and eating healthy is one way you can improve and meet your overall health, fitness and training goals.” by Patricia Dowd, ALP Cycles Coaching-Tuscon Training Camp Chef What’s for dinner? I recently learned this question is dreaded by many people who find cooking a chore, intimidating and something they would rather not […]

Tagged: Nutrition

How to Prepare for Race Day

Race season is almost here. Some of our athletes will kick off their 2018 road racing season this weekend. Everyone is excited to finally pin on a number and make use of all the training during the winter months. But in order to have success, you should be well prepared for race day and do your "home work."

Tagged: Coaching

The Best Recovery Tool of All Time: SLEEP

It's choose your own adventure time...it's been a long week. You've had multiple deadlines at work and still managed to fit in your daily training prescribed by your coach. You've had to cut your nightly sleep totals by 30-60 minutes each night and by Friday, you're more than ready for the weekend. Do you: A) let loose and unwind from the week. Go out with friends, have a few drinks, stay up late and plan on catching up on your sleep during the weekend - that's what coffee was invented for, right? Or B) Get a nutritious, well balanced meal and head to bed early.

Tagged: Coaching

Tools of the Trade

Myofascial Release: Sounds fancy, eh? Chances are you're already doing some sort of myofascial release. Whether you use a foam roller, normatech boots, a lacrosse or tennis ball - you're attempting to release the tension due to trauma, posture, or inflammation. Or in a cyclists case - attempting to make your legs feel better after doing hundreds of thousands of pedal revolutions in a single ride. Sometimes it is downright painful. Yet after you're done, you feel 10 times better.

Tagged: Coaching

Training Quality

If you like to get stronger and improve your performance, then you should make sure your rides (or WO's) are high quality vs just adding up a lot of "empty training miles" or "junk miles." Working with my athletes shows me that WO quality isn't always executed properly. How does one prepare for a ride or WO? Do you read the WO instructions clearly or do you go out on your ride and loosely follow the WO instructions? Are you aware of your focus on the bike?

Tagged: Coaching

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