Co. KG Podcasts

Fresh off pro racing in Europe on the road this summer, Coach Ricky Arnopol joined five of his Project Echelon teammates at SBT GRVL, the big gravel race in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. On this episode, Ricky and show cohost Ben Delaney talk about the similarities and differences between the two styles of racing in terms of tactics, power numbers, …

Many racers dream of winning a national title and wearing the jersey, but few achieve it. On this podcast, we talk with not one but three FasCat athletes about how they achieved their goals of winning at the U.S. national championships. FasCat coach Zach Gregg won the amateur U.S. time trial title (after placing fourth in the pro TT), and two athle…

What sort of watts per kilo does it take to compete in the biggest race in the world? Today we are talking about power-to-weight ratios, the cumulative effects of fatigue, and how training compares to racing. And what better context for these topics than the biggest race in the world, the Tour de France Femmes. Today we are delighted to be talking …

Dig out that cowbell and get your skinsuit ready — cyclocross is coming! Whether you're a beginner or a veteran, FasCat is here to help you fine tune your skills so you can get the most out of this season. Coach Andrew Giniat is an UCI Elite ’cross racer who has honed his chops racing World Cups in Europe, and on this podcast he breaks down the fou…

Check out www.fascatcoaching.com and use code 25PODCAST for 25% off. Power meters, heart-rate monitors and other technology are excellent tools for training and racing. But your body is also an excellent tool for measurement. On this podcast, Coach Suzie Snyder talks with Ben Delaney about Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) — its history in science…

Check out www.fascatcoaching.com and use code 25PODCAST for 25% off. Having a solid, science-based plan is one thing — but following it is another. Having someone — or something — hold you accountable can help you stay on track in multiple ways. On this podcast, FasCat founder Frank Overton and new FasCat content director Ben Delaney talk about how…

Check out www.fascatcoaching.com and use code 25PODCAST for 25% off. It is HOT outside. We are feeling it and we know you are, too. So, how do we navigate through riding in this heat to continue to progress? More importantly, how do you navigate racing in events that are going to be hotter than what you currently train in? Don't worry, you're about…

Check out www.fascatcoaching.com and use code 25PODCAST for 25% off. Are you stuck on a plateau?! Are you struggling with physical gains where you can't seem to increase your power output? Or, are you struggling with performance gains where you can't seem to place higher on the leader board? Whichever plateau you're stuck on, this podcast episode i…

Check out www.fascatcoaching.com and use code 25PODCAST for 25% off. Welcome to our very long overdue episode format: "Ask a FasCat". In this episode, FasCat Mike Dee reads off our athlete submitted questions and FasCat Founder, Coach Frank gives us rapid fire answers. If you're ready to nerd out on the data science of training and how to structure…

Check out www.fascatcoaching.com and use code 25PODCAST for 25% off. Are you making one of thse five in-season training mistakes?! You could be putting in max effort this season, but if you are making one of these mistakes, it doesn't matter how much effort you are putting in, you're going to fail to see the results you want. Don't worry, Coach Fra…

Check out www.fascatcoaching.com and use code 25PODCAST for 25% off. In the spirit of Unbound Gravel just wrapping up, we thought it would be timely to have a discussion about how to proceed forwards after an epic event. In this episode of the FasCat podcast, Coach Frank, Allie, Isaiah, Jake, and Zack do a deep dive into their own standard protocol…

FasCat Athlete, Marisa Boaz, won one of the top gravel races in the world: Unbound Gravel (100). In this episode, Marisa gives us a play-by-play of the race and inside look into what it took to take home the gold. From racing with Peter Sagan, the mud, her husband to parenting her 4 children, Marisa shares her story and journey into gravel racing a…

In our 20 years of working with athletes, we always notice that some athletes get more out of their coaching than others. It's not usually about which athlete has the most time to train or the most talent. Instead, there's a variety of attributes that combine to make an athlete coachable–and the more an athlete is coachable, the more time a coach h…

Summer Kickoff special: Free interval training plan if you buy our 16-sweet spot plan first. Use SUMMER22 to redeem over at FasCatCoaching.com Have you ever heard of the expression "All the hay is in the barn" ? To many cyclists and farmers alike it has great meaning: the hard work is over and now it is time to reap the benefits of a job well done.…

Check out www.fascatcoaching.com and use code 25PODCAST for 25% off. In this episode of the FasCat Coaching Podcast, Coach Frank introduces 3 upcoming podcast topics and touches on what FasCat is up to – May is a busy month and there's a lot going on! Coach Frank introduces the topics of what it means to be “Coachable” and makes you think about whe…

Check out www.fascatcoaching.com and use code 25PODCAST for 25% off. Should you be performing anaerobic intervals? If you’re unsure, you should know that anaerobic intervals are essential for criteriums, cyclocross, road racing , track, your local group ride and mountain biking - even for fondo’s and gravel events in small amounts. With that being …

We have a special podcast guest this week: The Belgian waffle ride winner, Alexey Vermeulen. Alexey went full on beast mode this past Sunday, riding away from his comrades with an incredible display of wattage and courage. In this episode, we not only get a full recap of Alexey's experience of winning BWR, but also background on where he came from,…

Do you have fun performing FTP tests? We know the answer is a hard no. We don’t always have to perform an FTP field test in order to measure our performance. Often times the BEST data is in yuor hard group rides or races. That's why in this episode, we give you alternatives for FTP tests that will give you similar data. Coach Frank explains... How …

Check out www.fascatcoaching.com and use code 25PODCAST for 25% off. Feeling burnt out on the bike or feeling like you're training takes the fun out of riding? But the question is, how do you ride faster and longer, and see better success, while still having fun? We know some of you believe doing structured intervals 5 days a week inside is the onl…

In this episode of the FasCat Coaching podcast, Coach Frank is joined by Dr. Philip Skiba. Dr. Phil has a rare quadruple threat pedigree in that he is a medical doctor as well as a Ph.D. in exercise physiology, and has 20+ years of coaching experience including coaching Olympians and World Class Endurance athletes. Perhaps best of all, Phil has dee…

Today we are talking about Winning in the Kitchen! Performance nutrition and weight loss are all about your food choices and that’s what we call winning in the kitchen. 80% of weight loss and optimal race weight is achieved from proper nutrition while only 20% from riding more. Whether you believe it or not, it's true! That's why in this episode of…

Spring is here, and the weather is no longer an excuse to not ride longer and more. But, we get it, just because the weather is better, doesn’t mean riding more is necessarily easier. That’s why in the podcast episode, Coach Frank is here to make riding more each week a lot more simple with some simple training tactics. Coach Frank dives into why y…

Welcome to Part 3 of our three-part series on stage racing! This mini-series is brought to you by coach Isaiah from the Tuscon Bicycle Classic Stage Race where Coach Ricky and Coach Zach were both racing for Project Echelon. The Tuscon Bicycle Classic is a large stage race and has always been a big staple for pro riders as an early-season race. Coa…

Welcome to Part 2 of our three-part series on stage racing! This mini-series is brought to you by coach Isaiah from the Tuscon Bicycle Classic Stage Race where Coach Ricky and Coach Zach were both racing for Project Echelon. The Tuscon Bicycle Classic is a large stage race and has always been a big staple for pro riders as an early-season race. Coa…

Welcome to Part 1 of our three-part series on stage racing! This mini-series is brought to you by coach Isaiah from the Tuscon Bicycle Classic Stage Race where Coach Ricky and Coach Zach were both racing for Project Echelon. The Tuscon Bicycle Classic is a large stage race and has always been a big staple for pro riders as an early-season race. Coa…

Did you know we are data scientists for the Human Powered Health Professional Women's Team? We analyze the entire women's team's power, heart rate, sleep, and HRV data, literally everything in their training and racing. We're able to then use their data to help their team perform at their best. Coach Isaiah and I have been working for the Women's W…

Should you be doing pyramidal training only, pyramidal training only, or a mix of both? Which format is most effective? This is a controversial topic and one we’re going to dive deep into today in this episode of the FasCat Coaching podcast. More specifically, there have been a few recent studies released, as well as debates happening, within the s…

Want to increase your power output? VO2 max intervals are the answer. Although, the issue is that many riders are new to power meters or don't know how to use them correctly in order to perform their VO2 max intervals for maximum returns. That's why in this episode of the FasCat podcast, Coach Frank gives us a step-by-step guide on how to perform t…

Guess what? We have another new coach on the FasCat team and we couldn’t be more excited! Dr. Lauren Costantini, PHD has a holistic approach to training where she focuses on fitness, nutrition and sleep altogther, as the three work synergystically. And in this episode of the FasCat podcast, we dive into her background on these three things. Plus, w…

In this episode of the FasCat Coaching Podcast, I’m joined by one of our newest coaches, Ricky Arnopol. We have some good cyclist to cyclists training talk, chatting about everything from Ricky’s favorite ways to train himself and his riders, what’s contributed most to his riding progress, his riding nutrition, and a bunch of fun rapid fire questio…

We are excited to have our newest coach to the FasCat team onto the podcast to get a deep dive into his training, preferences, thoughts, and everything in between. Coach Frank has a list of 20 questions he asks every coach and Zach gives us some killer answers! Zach has been a cycling coach since 2018. His educational background includes a Masters …

Sweet spot vs. zone 2 seems to be the big debate between rides. In our opinion at FasCat, the adaptations we've seen with sweet spot compared to zone 2 are undeniably larger. Therefore, athletes accomplish more with one hour of sweet spot training than they do with one hour of zone 2 training. In this episode of FasCat, we're going to cover the 6 m…

The BigCat checks in with Coach Jake about his new MeetUp and talks all things Zwift. We give you a step-by-step guide on how to join our Zwift meet-up rides, how to draft during group rides (I personally think it’s extremely difficult to do!), how we both use Zwift as a training tool for our athletes when coaching, and how to navigate the more tec…

The new year is upon us and thoughts are quickly shifting towards the race season. What are you doing to ensure an improvement over last year? What kind of training are you doing? Are you just winging it? There’s a certain combo of art and science to the base building phase of a training calendar, and in Coach Frank’s extensive experience of coachi…

This podcast is for all the athletes who are making new year's resolutions for their 2022 training and goals. Just because it’s a new calendar year, doesn’t mean you will automatically reach your goals. In order to do so, you need to develop new habits. What habits do we recommend you adopt in order to set yourself up for success in 2022? I share 8…

In this episode of the FasCat Coaching podcast, we are joined by U.S. Cross country mountain bike 2020 Olympian, Erin Huck. Coach Allie takes over as host because guess what? Allie and Erin are both badasses on the bike and are also both pregnant. What Allie and Erin discuss: - Managing pregnancy as an athlete - The similarities and differences of …

The best tool you can utilize for optimizing your performance are your training zones. Why? Because training zones bring professional level sport science to your handlebar in a simple, easy to understand and follow training method. Even if you are new to training, you can use zone-based training and literally train the same way Tour de France Pros.…

Just because it’s winter, doesn’t mean you should stop training. No one wants to show up in the spring on their first group ride and get dropped, right? Training through the winter isn’t as difficult as you think, and in this episode of FasCat Cycling Training Tips, I share 3 habits to adopt if you want to stay on top of your game. Implementing the…

In this week's podcast, the FasCat team continues with our annual Thanksgiving tradition of sharing short messages of gratitude to our loyal podcast listeners and athletes! We hope you all enjoy the episode and we wish you all a wonderful holiday season!

In this podcast, Coach Frank reintroduces the topic of timing as it relates to the 3 main phases of a cyclists' annual training plan including lifting weights, building base, and high-intensity interval training. He explains in detail the ways athletes can line up these phases depending on what their race calendar looks like for the upcoming season…

On today’s podcast Coach Frank speaks with Alex Dowsett, a Pro World Tour Rider who is attempting to break the Track World Hour Record on November 3rd. Alex is no stranger to what it takes to achieve this feat, as he set the same world record in 2015! In the episode, they chat about Alex's training, his special equipment, nutrition, DadWatts, as we…

In this episode, the Big Cat talks to Dr. Louis Passfield, a Sports Scientist from the UK. Dr. Passfield is a leader in the scientific community, especially in the realm of quantifying training load from power data to optimize performance. He also has a 25-year track record of work in cycling and has worked as a lead sports scientist with the highl…

Welcome to the 20th edition of our “Ask a FasCat” podcast series, where we gather athletes' questions from our forum, email, and social media to help you ride faster! In this round, Frank and Lacey dive into topics ranging from the signs of overtraining, HR drift, the most useful whoop metrics, how weight loss can enhance or harm your performance, …

In this week's podcast, the Big Cat dives into a discussion about stress including training stress, life stress, when it is good, when it isn't good and how/if you can manage both together. He also touches on how HRV is a good stress metric and what kind of lifestyle habits you can adopt to minimize your stress.…

BigCat speaks with Pat Warner and Ben Sharp, the dynamic Coach-Athlete duo from Stages Cycling. Ben is an Olympic Gold Medalist Coach who also happens to coach Pat Warner. Pat is the head honcho at Stages Cycling who recently won the Masters National 50+ Road Race and Time Trial. In part 2 of the episode, they discuss Ben's work with Asthon Lambie,…

BigCat speaks with Pat Warner and Ben Sharp, the dynamic Coach-Athlete duo from Stages Cycling. Ben is an Olympic Gold Medalist Coach who also happens to coach Pat Warner. Pat is the head honcho at Stages Cycling who recently won the Masters National 50+ Road Race and Time Trial. In part 1 of the episode they discuss topics including their backgrou…

In this podcast, Coach Frank discusses FasCat's 4 new off season training plans for the 2021-2022 season! Specifically, he breaks down the 30 week off season plan, explaining the phases of the plan, how the workouts, sets, reps, and mesocycles progress, as well as the rationale for the plan and which type of athlete each level is designed for!…

In this episode, Coach Frank Overton and Coach Christian Parrett discuss what pyramidal training is, research studies from world tour athletes that support its use, real-world examples of how pyramidal training differs from polarized training, and why the 'Polarized versus Sweet Spot Training' is a false debate.…

In this episode, the Big Cat talks about 4 training tips for the month of august including fueling for long events, SBT race strategies, gear and tire choice, 4 cyclocross skills you should be working on, and how to taper properly. He also announces a few changes to our tried n' true off season plan and our 18 weeks of sweet spot training plan that…

We received a record number of user submitted questions for the 19th edition of our "Ask a FasCat" podcast! In fact, it was so many that we couldn't answer in one go. So in this episode, we bring in Coaches Allie, Jake, Lacey, and Christian to help answer 30 more questions! Topics covered include stage race nutrition, optimal cadence, mid-season se…