Articles

By Shayna Powless with Rob Ware

Shayna shares her high-level tips for those looking to begin their own Zwift journey or up their virtual game, along with some elaborative commentary about our experiences with the platform.

By Rob Britton

Rob talks about transitioning from the tarmac of Europe to the gravel of North America.

By Josiah Middaugh

After 25 years, the XTERRA World Championship was moved from Maui, Hawaii to Molveno, Italy. XTERRA has been gaining steam in Europe for the past decade and especially elite racing has really taken off in the past few years. The change was bittersweet, but I am excited for the sport and I was really looking forward to a mountain world championship in the Dolomites.  Without racing in Europe for several years it was hard to gauge how I would slot into the deeper, more competitive Eurocentric field.  

By Kiel Reijnen

Place one of the individuals on your team as far up the results sheet as possible. That’s the goal in professional road racing. It’s simple, clean and easy to measure (of course doing so is complicated, full of variables, some controllable, others less so). That was my default mindset as I transitioned from road racer to gravel privateer. It wasn’t until some “bad luck” struck during Unbound last year that I realized how flawed dragging that approach around with me really was. 

By Matt Hanson, EdD

Obviously, the Ironman World Championships is the one event each year where I want to be at my best. To me, this continues to remain the most important day of the year, and the entire season is geared around trying to set up the best performance possible on this day.

The course itself makes preparation and approach tricky, because the conditions of the Ironman World Championships are almost always going to be brutal. You have to be prepped for heat, humidity, high winds, and choppy water.

By Matt Hanson, EdD

The use of caffeine has become common practice among endurance athletes. It’s well accepted that caffeine can not only improve performance, but it can also reduce the perceived exertion during an endurance event as well as possibly masking some of the pain involved with strenuous exercise. However, one thing that does not seem to be fully clear among endurance athletes is the dosage of caffeine which is necessary to give us the desired outcome.

By Josiah Middaugh

Every triathlete was a beginner at some point, picking up one, two, or possibly three completely new sports. With huge variations in the training history, skill, and fitness levels of new triathletes, it makes finding sound training advice even more difficult.

To help any aspiring triathletes and provide a refresher to vets looking to refine their game (these comments don’t only apply to beginners), I’ve written down some of the most common mistakes I see triathletes make – or that I’ve made myself!

By Matt Hanson, EdD

The Ironman World Championships are finally going to happen and I couldn’t be more excited. I have had a fantastic build, am healthy, and eager to toe the line – It is officially taper time.

I’ve been asked quite a few times recently by the athletes I coach about how they should change their diet when they are leading into a high priority race, so I thought I’d throw a few of my thoughts on the matter together since I’m sure others have similar questions.

Words like “inspiring,” “perseverance,” “overcoming,” and the like get thrown around a lot in endurance athletics, but – for some athletes – they aren’t just stoke-bro hyperbole. Tommy “Rivs” Puzey is one of those athletes, and we’re unironically and very sincerely stoked to announce a partnership with him.

By Matt Hanson, EdD

As a coach, I’ve noticed a trend that goes on repeat year after year. Athletes tend to reach out 4-5 months prior to their first big race of the season and continue working with the coach through the fall when their final race is complete, but then they disconnect for the winter months. While I certainly understand the need to check out from the daily grind for a period of time at the end of the season, I really think this is a difficult approach to take if you are looking for the best possible performance.