Lettuce Talk Nutrition

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Lettuce Talk Nutrition

Nutrition plays a crucial role in performance and overall health. For endurance athletes, the right balance of macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, and fats) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) are essential for optimizing training, preventing injury, and enhancing recovery. Search for “nutrition recommendations” online though, and you’re going to find a wide range of guidelines, many of which are not focused on the unique needs of athletes. But have no fear, for this blog post is here (in partnership with FuelFood.io!) to provide you with the guidance needed to dial in your own nutrition plan.

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A Day at Altitude Camp

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A Day at Altitude Camp

I am writing from Andorra, where I’m at a training camp with a group of athletes preparing for the second part of the European racing season at altitude. Being at these camps is an event that has become quite common over the past years that I’ve done more and more work with cycling teams. It is really easy to get caught in the daily shuffle at these camps - which to be honest is not very high level coaching, it is more like making sure we have a good route for training, that the car has gas in it, and that the hotel knows our meal schedule for the day. Over the years I’ve come to realize that some of the slicker stuff, like diving deep into the workouts, just doesn’t matter on the ground at these camps if the basics aren’t dialed first. The basics of good route, good food, and calm logistics, are what make or break a training camp. However, I understand it’s not super interesting to read about how to make a route on Ride With GPS so I wanted to write a post walking through a day at altitude camp and what we’re working on.

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From the World Tour to the Real World

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From the World Tour to the Real World

A couple of years ago if you told me you want a training plan and have 6-8hrs a week to train I probably would have shrugged my shoulders and uttered “Good luck!” Now, working full time, coaching, managing my social life, training and above all still having quality time with my wife and little puppy I’ve never valued time more. I realized you can get a hell of a lot out of a 6-8hr training week and I have so much respect for my athletes who week after week dedicate whatever spare time they have to their training.

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Fuel the Fire

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Fuel the Fire

What you eat is just as important as how you train because if you’re not eating right, you’re not going to be training right. Eating plenty of real foods with lots of fruits and vegetables will provide the fuel you need to train and allow the body to recover from the training workloads.

However, sometimes it’s tough to find something quick and easy to make that gives you the fuel you need. So, I’ve put together a few different recipes that you can use to fuel your training/racing fire. These recipes can replace common store-bought products and are filled with flavor because there’s nothing worse than eating bad food.

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The Making of a Pro - Part II: Matteo Jorgenson

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The Making of a Pro - Part II: Matteo Jorgenson

A few years ago I worked with a rider, Will Barta, that was graduating from the U23 to the World Tour ranks. That was a first for me as a coach, and quite exciting. But at the same time I also thought, man I better take something out of what we did so that I can at least use what I learned. Together we wrote an article documenting four years of progress and four years of process. It was really fun to do, and gave us a documented version of the work we did together that we’ll always have to refer back to. It was incomplete, imperfect, and while the result was successful it does not necessitate that the process to getting there was responsible for it. All that said, I really enjoyed it and learned from it. That article is here:

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Ski School

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Ski School

For many of us wanting to ride outside, I think we can classify this winter as “not ideal.” Not only have there been a variety of continued covid restrictions, but there’s also been some frigid, snowy, and icy winter weather. Having already perfected my quarantine bread making skills, when we got blasted with a foot of snow, I decided it was time for a new challenge (because if there’s anything I’ve learned from quarantining, it’s that when the times get tough, you’ve got to come up with a challenge).

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I Can Feel it in my Gut (Again)

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I Can Feel it in my Gut (Again)

A while back I wrote about the latest hot topic in science, gut bacteria, and how it could potentially impact athletic performance. At the time, there were still a lot of unanswered questions. But, with a new review recently published on the topic, I feel it’s a good time to revisit things and see what new lessons we’ve learned that can be applied to maximizing performance.

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Nate's COVID Year Reflection

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Nate's COVID Year Reflection

There’s been so much said about how glad people will be to see 2020 go. A lot of it has been pretty funny, especially when it’s a fun photo combined with comical text. I enjoy that stuff, but I have to say I will look back on 2020 fondly. However, there will also be a lot about 2020 that I will remember with sadness and disappointment in the mark that COVID has left on the world. But in our small world of endurance sport and coaching, I feel I’ve learned a lot and it’s been a year that has also contained a lot of positives. As I reminisce and think about what I’ve learned in coaching, I realize much of it is concepts I thought I already knew, but that 2020 really showed me the importance of. Here are some of my main takeaways and things I want to apply to coaching in any year, COVID or not:

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Jim's COVID Year Reflection

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Jim's COVID Year Reflection

We asked Coach Jim Peterman about what he learned from coaching in the COVID year and how he and his athletes managed it.

How did you keep athletes motivated when the race calendar was up in the air?

In terms of coaching, one of the hardest times this year was when the race/event calendar was up in the air. It was hard not to be pessimistic about the race season as the COVID situation got worse and worse. However, if there was a chance that racing would be able to happen, it was important to make sure athletes were ready for it. I never would’ve thought all three Grand Tours would have happened this year so that just goes to show the importance of training through the uncertainty.

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