TrainingPeaks CoachCast

Listen in as indieVelo creator George Gilbert and TrainingPeaks president Lee Gerakos break down the reasoning behind the acquisition of the virtual riding platform, now named TrainingPeaks Virtual, the opportunities for coaches and athletes and how the ethos of credible virtual racing is a part of the DNA of the merger.  They share with Dirk the importance of community feedback in shaping the platform's development and commitment to creating inclusive and credible virtual racing environments. Plus, learn about the seamless integration of TrainingPeaks athlete accounts and TrainingPeaks Virtual and its impact on cycling training and community building. The options for creating group rides, races and training simulations are extensive for coaches and athletes.

Gale Bernhardt's insights on effective coaching, balancing technology with human touch, setting long-term goals and tips for aspiring coaches. With over 35 years of coaching experience, Gale Bernhardt has guided Olympians and World Championship athletes and played pivotal roles as the USA Triathlon Olympic and Pan American Games Triathlon coach. She shares her incredible journey from a mechanical engineering background to becoming one of the most respected figures in endurance sports as a pioneering endurance coach. We explore her coaching philosophy, emphasizing the importance of continual learning across exercise science, pedagogy, and other key areas of understanding. Gale also provides invaluable advice for aspiring coaches. She highlights the significance of setting long-term goals, addressing knowledge gaps, and balancing science and the art of coaching.  Gale and Dirk compare and contrast coaching occupations in the United States and European countries. Plus, she touches on the evolving role of AI in coaching and why the human touch remains irreplaceable. To learn how TrainingPeaks can help your endurance coaching, visit TrainingPeaks.com.

Understand the essentials of athlete fueling, including RED-S and the importance of tailored nutrition plans, with sports dietician Kylee Van Horn. Kylee Van Horn, CEO of Fly Nutrition, specializes in helping athletes optimize their performance and manage eating disorders, including RED-S (relative energy deficiency in sport). She's also an ultrarunner and running coach based in Colorado, looking to simplify nutrition for athletes and steer them away from fad diets. You can also hear her on the podcast "Your Diet Sucks" with Zoë Rom. In this episode, Dirk and Kylee break down personalized nutrition plans, the role of micronutrient density, and the importance of understanding fuel requirements for different training sessions. Kylee shares helpful tips on fueling strategies for endurance and ultra-endurance athletes, addressing common fueling challenges, and the benefits of a team coaching approach to addressing nutrition and training goals. Plus, you'll hear her thoughts on addressing a few situations as an athlete, like overcoming nausea and the difficulty in recognizing eating disorders. To help structure your endurance sports journey, visit TrainingPeaks.com.

Heart rate variability (HRV) is unique to each athlete. Learn how to effectively measure and use HRV data alongside subjective feedback to optimize your training and recovery. Our guest for episode 10 is Marco Altini, a scientist, app developer and expert in using data from wearable devices to optimize health and performance. Many will recognize his name from the app HRV4Training, which integrates with TrainingPeaks. Marco's background spans computer science, human movement and high-performance coaching. He's also an avid runner, having qualified for the Boston Marathon and competed in European ultramarathons. Our discussion digs into the details of HRV, an increasingly popular metric for endurance athletes. Marco breaks down what HRV actually measures, its history of use in scientific research, and how it serves as a marker of the body's response to various stressors — from training to travel to simple daily life. He also clears up some of the biggest misconceptions about HRV, like the idea that you can directly compare your HRV to someone else's or that a single HRV reading can predict if you're about to get sick or injured. Marco emphasizes the importance of context and tracking your individual trends over time to have a valid baseline to analyze your stress response. Perhaps most importantly, we cover how HRV data is best used as one piece of the puzzle in understanding your body so that you can have productive training sessions.   To learn how TrainingPeaks can help your training, visit https://trainingpeaks.com/