I fought the test and the test won. It always does. It’s supposed to. I had the opportunity to perform a full battery of on-bike performance testing at Toronto’s The Cycling Gym this morning. I fasted, I drank my americano, I fed the kids and took...
I won’t make you hold your breath: it isn’t. FTP is alive and well and still – in my opinion – a very worthwhile performance metric for cyclists of all stripes. Mostly what has changed is the addition of novel protocols for testing and fitness assessment...
To run fast, you must train to run fast. I do enjoy a good trivial statement. I started this article to pontificate on all the reasons why running a once-weekly, structured workout on a track is so very useful to runners of all levels. I got...
I'm sick for what feels like the fourteenth time this season. I blame my three year-old - the cutest disease vector I know. I blame this not-yet-spring climatic purgatory that seems to have no end. I blame my own impatience in getting back to hard...
19. You Are Now Officially A Morning Person. GIF from Wakeup GIFs by Katherine Watson Waking up early is tough, especially in these dark, depressing, nasty winter months. Very few people take pleasure in peeling back their sleepy eyelids, extricating themselves from a warm and cozy bed,...
The original version of this article was first published in February 2017 by Triathlon Magazine Canada. I actually enjoy SOME runs in the snow. They’re fun, challenging, and the scenery is hard to beat. So while I look forward to next Sunday's long effort with X3...
by Nicole Mickelow My (love-hate) relationship with running started quite young, when I realized in elementary school that I could sprint faster than a bunch of the boys. Back then I thought I would be a track star…crushing 100, 200 and 400m races/relays and racking up...
Kids are a lot of work. They’re demanding, selfish, and entirely insensitive to your training objectives, PR goals, or Strava ranking. Little kids especially! Sticking to a rigid training plan as a new mom or dad is just about impossible – even for a dad...
Coach – ‘Let’s do an FTP test soon.’ Athlete – ‘I don’t think I’m ready.’ Coach – ‘Ready?’ Athlete – ‘Yeah. I don’t think I’d post a good result’ Coach – ‘What exactly is a good result?’ Let’s rewind and define some terms. I promise to keep this brief. Functional Threshold...
Spend time with triathletes for long enough, and you’ll no doubt be involved in a conversation that goes something like this (or exactly like this, since this is an actual post on the X3 Team Forum – redacted for sake of privacy): 17 reasons why we...