Five Things I Wish I Knew When I Was a Pro
Ben Delaney
FasCat Coach Christian Parrett raced as a professional for seven years, and has since coached professionally since retiring from racing. He trained hard and raced well, but after several years of coaching professionally, researching physiology, and learning through athletes he works with, he's learned even more. If he could go back in time, here is what he would tell his younger self.
1. Pay attention to marginal gains. Don't give away time by not educating yourself on gear choices, especially the relatively easy and cheap things you can do to make a difference.
2. Pay attend to nutrition, specifically during racing and hard training. In short, eat more! Shoot for 80-100 grams of carbohydrates per hour if riding hard.
3. Weight training can help and hinder. Learn the differences.
4. Find a good coach and/or training plan you believe in, and stick with it. Jumping around various plans and coaches (including self coaching) is not effective.
5. Listen to your body. Fatigue and sickness should be heeded. Now, of course, we also have great tools like wearables to get objective feedback on how our body is doing.
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Riding Faster After 50
Tapering in Cycling for Peak Performance
![Road Racing Intervals](http://shopify-proxy.fascatcoaching.com/cdn/shop/products/Roadintervalsfinal_{width}x.progressive.png.jpg?v=1619793764)
Road Racing Intervals
- Increase your functional and race-specific power output
- Includes Sweet Spot, VO2, Anaerobic, Threshold
![Road Race In-Season](http://shopify-proxy.fascatcoaching.com/cdn/shop/products/Roadinseasonfinal_{width}x.progressive.png.jpg?v=1619793470)
Road Race In-Season
- Weekend racing and group rides with weekday training and recovery
- anaerobic efforts like criss cross, Over/Unders Sweet Spot, Threshold
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Foundation : 3 Weeks
- Perfect for all cyclists beginning off season training
- Raise your CTL and the all-important muscle tension intervals
![Phil Gaimon's Strava PR Plan](http://shopify-proxy.fascatcoaching.com/cdn/shop/products/philstravaplan_1_{width}x.progressive.png.jpg?v=1619630835)
Phil Gaimon's Strava PR Plan
- Perfect Plan for Those with Less Training Time, starts at 15 minutes per day
- VO2's, 1 minuters, Tabatas, threshold, suprathreshold, and even Sweet Spot