This past February I did a 3/20 test on the bike. For those non-QT2 folks reading this, that’s our version of an FTP test. In other words, ride really hard and see what kind of average power and heart rate you can produce.

We’ve all done it. We all fall into the trap. The summer months have arrived, and it takes every ounce of our being to not take to the open road, and launch into every workout full-blast, determined to sweat our hearts out in the summer sunshine. We do this willingly, visioning our dreams of completion, achievement, personal bests, and all the other race day feels. We want our friends on Strava, Garmin, and all forms of social media to see how fast we went. How strong we are. How far we went, how far we’ve come, how far we’ll go. But is it too much? Is it too hard? Will you reach that goal?

Running the Vermont 100 this summer? Or ANY hilly race for that matter? Read on to learn how to make the uphills (and more importantly downhills) your friends.

The concept of a massive over-distance day is nothing new to endurance athletes and something many do during their overload block of training for their key race (Ironman, ultra-marathon run or ultra-distance bike race like The Dirty Kanza 200). Personally, as an athlete and as a coach I am a big fan of this for multiple reasons I’ll explain here. There’s both an equal part physical training stimulus and a mental fitness stimulus. If one has never done an extreme endurance activity it’s kind of its own rite of passage if you will – the endurance athlete’s rite of passage.

Training for a race of any distance is a big commitment – you’re excited and ALL in. As weekly mileage starts to creep up, so should your focus on recovery strategies. These choices are nearly 100% within your control. The best athletes execute these techniques as consistently as workouts to improve personal performance, month to month and year over year. Recovery is just as critical as training.

Coach Tim Snow started out writing a blog post called The Butterfly Affect, which ended up turning into something much more complex, and lengthy. It turned into something that could not really be most effectively shared in a blog-type setting. But, we wanted to make sure that it was made available to you in the typical way that you access our written content. To that end, please see, below, three different links, all of which will allow you to access the writing, in three different forms.

Caffeine can be a great tool for athletes of all abilities used to enhance performance. However, when abused (or not used as a tool), it can be a detriment to your training and racing.

A few weekends ago I had the opportunity to coach 116 athletes at the Austin half marathon. For these athletes their why is a concrete one. To find a cure for an illness they are all in one way or another impacted by. I had the honor and privilege to speak as the charities inspirational speaker the night before the race where I talked about the importance of having a why. Having an intention for our training and racing can mentally be that extra 1% that pushes us just a little harder. Our whys can change race to race and its important to go back to them on a regular basis.

Read about Coach Doug MacLean's journey from back surgery to 100K finish line.

February is National Heart Month so when better to think about heart rate training! This Q will help you learn more about HOW to utilize heart rate in your training. Below, I have responded to the most commonly asked questions.