Chris Carmichael - The Time-Crunched Cyclist: Race-Winning Fitness in 6 Hours a Week

The Time-Crunched Cyclist, 3rd edition, is part of THE TIME-CRUNCHED ATHLETE series.

Copyright 2017 by Chris Carmichael and Jim Rutberg.

All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America by VeloPress, a division of Competitor Group, Inc.

3002 Sterling Circle, Suite 100

Boulder, CO 803012338 USA

VeloPress is the leading publisher of books on endurance sports. Focused on cycling, triathlon, running, swimming, and nutrition/diet, VeloPress books help athletes achieve their goals of going faster and farther. Preview books and contact us at velopress.com.

Distributed in the United States and Canada by Ingram Publisher Services

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Names: Carmichael, Chris, 1960- author. | Rutberg, Jim, author.

Title: The time-crunched cyclist: race-winning fitness in 6 hours a week / Chris Carmichael and Jim Rutberg.

Description: 3rd edition. | Boulder, Colorado: VeloPress, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016055402 (print) | LCCN 2016059236 (ebook) | ISBN: 978-1-937715-50-2 (pbk.: alk. paper) | eISBN: 978-1-937716-83-7

Subjects: LCSH: CyclingTraining. | CyclistsTime management. | Endurance sportsTraining.

Classification: LCC GV1048 .C38 2009 (print) | LCC GV1048 (ebook) | DDC 796.6dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016055402

Art direction by Vicki Hopewell

Cover design by Andy Omel; cover photography by Philip Beckman

Illustrations by Charlie Layton

v. 3.1

A note to readers: Double-tap on illustrations, tables, and training plans to enlarge them. After art is selected, you may expand or pinch your fingers to zoom in and out.

CONTENTS

The 2011 Leadville 100 was an event Ill never forget, full of exhilarating moments, unexpected challenges, and an inordinate amount of dust. You might expect someone who co-founded Strava, the social network for athletes, to feel at home in a race like this, but I had no business whatsoever at the Leadville starting line. I had never competed in a bicycle race before, and just a few years earlier I had a crash that cost me eleven surgeries. I avoided road riding like the plague, and my mountain biking was pretty tentative. Most of my friends thought I was crazy to be back on a bike at all, let alone training for a race like Leadville.

But I had committed to this race, with a goal of finishing in under nine hours. Thankfully, I found Carmichael Training Systems. I befriended a coach there named Jason Siegle, and we chased this goal together.

When I began working with Jason, it was clear that my lifestyle was going to present a challenge. Constantly changing schedule. Unexpected travel. Prone to injury and prone to bailing on workouts when time got tight. Talk about time-crunched. I was the living embodiment.

Thankfully, Jason tossed everything I thought I knew about training out the window. Using the precepts of the Time-Crunched Training Program, he taught me the value of efficiency, rest, and proper nutrition. We experimented with hydration, saddle height, and tubeless tires. And I learned the importance of measuring performance based on power and heart rate.

This training coincided with some of the early days of Strava. Jason and I explored ways to leverage the Strava experience for communication, inspiration, and entertainment. He reviewed my activities and adjusted my workouts on the fly. We scoured Strava for the perfect route and longest climbs, constantly looking for local challenges similar to the Leadville course. And we evaluated my weekly performances together, looking for clues within the analytics.

It worked. Despite the unexpected race-day challenges (like my front derailleur imploding at mile 25!), my Leadville experience was as near a sure thing as one could hope. The months of training, designed and implemented by the crew at CTS, proved the perfect combination for achieving what had long been one of my bucket list events. I did not break nine hours (9:37 was my official time), but I could not have been happier with my day.

Best of all were the memories formed in the preceding months that included countless weekends in the saddle, searching for hills that would approximate the infamous Leadville Powerline climb. The training experience taught me the value of being smart, listening to my body, staying positive, and getting motivation and inspiration from other athletes. Quite simply, enjoying the journey.

In my role at Strava I get to see firsthand the impact that technology, data, and education can have on human performance. For the vast majority of us its no longer about the number of training hours we put inits the quality of the training itself that makes all the difference.

And thats a good thing. Because I am the definition of a time-crunched cyclist. As a single father of twin boys and with an office an hour from home, workouts are often the first victims of my lifestyle.

This is why when Chris and Jim reached out to me for a few good words on the latest edition of The Time-Crunched Cyclist, I jumped at the chance to contribute. And I am confident you too will benefit from the insights and perspective shared by these masters.

Mark Gainey

Co-founder and CEO, Strava

One of the first judgments I make about a book is based on how it feels in my hand. I want it to be substantial and have some weight. And therein lay the challenge of writing a book called The Time-Crunched Cyclist. This is a book for people who lead busy lives, people who wake up early and hit the ground running, juggle one or more jobs while raising one or more kids. Time is in short supply, and the whole point of this program is to get more from less. So why is this book so thick?

To be fair, the first edition was a quicker read. When we released it, I was concerned that we skipped a few topics, but I expected that readers would likely have a few other books on their shelves that covered the basics of cycling. Not wanting to be redundant, I kept it short and focused on new training concepts specific to time-crunched cyclists. Athletes loved the book and achieved great progress, and at their request I added more programs to the second edition (which of course made it thicker). This revised and expanded third edition is longer still because Ive added material to address readers requests and to include new areas of sports science and nutrition that impact a time-crunched cyclists performance.

To help you move through the content more quickly, the book is divided into four parts. where youll learn about the opportunities and limitations of training as a Time-Crunched Cyclist.

starts with an overview of the workouts youll find in the training programs, which youll need for reference material. After that you can read about all the training plans or just skip directly to the one you want to use.

, on Hydration and Heat-Stress Management, is important too; it describes how heat is the real enemy of performance and how hydration status and other choices can help you or hurt you.

My favorite portion of , Making the Most of Your Fitness. Youll find practical and proven tips to help you leverage your time-crunched fitness into great performances on the bike.