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80 posts in Training science
FTP explained: what it is, how to test it, and how to actually raise it
FTP is the single most useful number in cycling — it sets your zones, tracks your fitness and shapes every workout. Here's what it means, how to measure it, and how to push it higher.
Sweet spot, threshold or polarized: which training method actually works for you?
Three training philosophies, endless internet arguments. Here's what sweet spot, threshold and polarized actually mean — and how to pick the one that fits your hours, your goals and your life.
Base miles aren't dead: how to build an aerobic engine over winter
Long, steady, unglamorous riding is still the foundation everything else is built on. Here's why base matters, how much you really need, and how to make winter miles count.
Recovery is training: sleep, easy days, and why rest makes you faster
You don't get fitter when you train — you get fitter when you recover from it. Here's how sleep, easy days and rest turn hard work into actual speed.
How to pace a climb with power (and stop blowing up halfway)
Everyone goes out too hard on the big climb. Here's how to use power (or feel) to pace a climb from bottom to top so you finish strong instead of cracking.
Polarized vs pyramidal training: what elite cyclists actually do
Eighty-twenty is the most quoted number in endurance training, and the studies behind it are messier and more interesting than the slogan. What elite riders' training actually looks like, and how little separates the two models in practice.
HRV for cyclists: is it worth tracking, and how to use it
Heart rate variability is a real physiological signal wrapped in a lot of noise. What it measures, how to record it so the number means something, and what HRV-guided training trials have and haven't shown.
Overtraining vs overreaching: how to tell the difference before it costs you months
Planned overreaching makes you faster. True overtraining syndrome can take a season. The difference is mostly time — here's what separates them, what markers are worth watching, and the honest limits of self-diagnosis.
How to test your FTP without a 20-minute test
Ramp tests, eight-minute protocols, critical power from three efforts, or simply reading it off your ride data. How each method works, how far it lands from a true hour of pain, and which suits you.
Critical Power vs FTP: which number should you train with?
FTP is a practical estimate. Critical Power is a physiological boundary with decades of laboratory work behind it. Where the two agree, where they diverge, and which one your training zones should hang off.
W′ and anaerobic capacity: the battery above threshold explained
Everything you do above Critical Power spends from a finite tank, and that tank refills at a knowable rate. What W′ is, what a typical value looks like, and how it explains why the fourth attack is the one that drops you.
Do long slow rides still work? The evidence for volume
Intervals get the attention, but the adaptations that make a cyclist durable come mostly from time. What the research says about volume, why low intensity isn't wasted time, and how short a long ride can usefully be.
How many hard days a week can you handle?
Two or three, for almost everybody — and the reason is recovery kinetics rather than willpower. What moves your personal ceiling, and the signs that you've been over it for a few weeks without noticing.
Detraining: how fast you lose fitness (and how fast it comes back)
Two weeks off costs less than most riders fear, and eight weeks costs more than they hope. A week-by-week look at what actually declines — blood volume, enzymes, muscle — and how quickly it returns.
Big-gear, low-cadence work: strength on the bike, or just slow?
Fifty rpm up a climb in a gear you can barely turn feels like it must be building something. What torque intervals actually train, what the evidence says about transfer to real power, and the knee-load caution nobody puts in the session description.
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