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Latest Blogs
A Busy Athlete’s Guide to Work Trips
After Sea Otter Classic this year—the most hectic 4 days in the cycling industry—it got me thinking about work trips. So many of the athletes that we work with are also busy executives who are often on 3-7 day business trips, and it can get really tricky, especially...
10 Year Podcast Anniversary Retrospective
In this episode of The Consummate Athlete Podcast, Peter and Molly Discuss some of their favorite take-a-ways from 10-years of podcasting! Concepts include: Nutrition - Focus on watts, not weight , on routine and environment Strength training - Lift heavy...
Life in an Altitude Tent – Our Best Tips
Sleeping in an Hypoxico altitude tent Sharing an altitude tent (sorry, altitude cubicle) with a partner is asking a lot of your relationship. Let's just start right there. If you're someone living at 0 feet of elevation and planning to race, say, at the 10,000 foot...
Training
Online Courses for Active Women that We Love
Our friends over at Feisty Media—including repeat podcast guest Selene Yeager—have some great online courses available that we wanted to let you know about. If you dug Selene’s last episode with us that was all about performance throughout perimenopause and beyond...
6 Simple Tips for Running Uphill Strong
Run easy more often Climbing is an expression of your fitness. One of the main drivers of pace and fitness is your LONG TERM CONSISTENT volume. The best way to be consistent and get more volume is to stop training at 'middle-ground' intensity. Enjoy your runs and...
Why Your Off Day Should Be OFF the Bike—A Practical Tip
Wondering what to do on your off day? STAY OFF THE BIKE! If you're new to this site, you may or may not know that I wrote a book all about nether regions and the bike called 'Saddle, Sore: Ride Comfortable, Ride Happy.' The book was all about how to take care of...
Racing
Gravel Tech & Bucket List Races – Ben Delaney
In this podcast episode we discuss gravel racing with special guest @TheRidewithBenDelaney! Discover the must-have gravel races for your bucket list, get insights on choosing the perfect gravel bike, tires, and components, and explore the latest trends shaping gravel...
First Gravel Training Plan
This 3 month gravel cycling training plan is perfect for your first 50 mile gravel race or for beginner and intermediate riders who want to learn to train consistently to improve their gravel racing and riding. BUY NOW via Training Peaks Is This Gravel Cycling...
Mountain Bike Stage Race Training Plan
This 3 month mountain biking training plan has been used successfully by adult athletes preparing for Mountain Bike Stage Races including Quebec Singletrack Experience (QSE), Trans-Rockies, Single-Track 6, La-Ruta, BC-Bike-Race (BCBR) and Pisgah Stage Race. ...
Cross-Training
Fall Training Challenge – No Inside Till December
We wanted to share a fall cycling challenge Peter does each year to guide his fall cycling training. This challenge is not a mileage goal or repetitive elevation goal. This challenge is actually a constraint on your training options to ensure you add more variety into...
The Evolution of My Morning Routine + What I Do Now for Yoga + Strength
To quote every influencer ever, a lot of you have been asking about my morning routine (????). Specifically, after I posted on Instagram pointing out that six years of consistency in that 10 to 15 minutes every morning is what has moved the needle on me having biceps...
Consummate Athlete Morning Yoga — Full 30-Minute Video Session!
If you're looking for a 30-minute yoga session aimed at getting a bit more cyclist-style mobility that's a gentle wakeup with just a bit of core work, give this video a try... and if the idea of having community like this is appealing to you and you've been...
Mindset
I Moved My Phone Charger and It Changed Everything
A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how moving gave us a chance to reset some less-than-helpful habits, but the truth is, there was one habit that was really wrecking my mindset, productivity, and—frankly—my mornings overall, and I had already started to change it prior...
Enjoying Your Off Time (on a Daily Basis)? Why It Matters
New research has shown that "feeling like leisure is wasteful and unproductive may lead to less happiness and higher levels of stress and depression." Personally, I was not surprised at all when I read this, because it's a feeling I completely relate to. And I know...
Applying Back to School Vibes to Your Training
If you've followed me or this blog for a while, you know I love back-to-school time. Just like January 1 or a birthday, it symbolizes a new chance to refresh, set some goals, and really do a bit of a reset with training and racing. I've always had a back to school...
Nutrition
A Few Quick Healthy Grocery Shopping Tips—Plus a PDF List!
'Tis the season for New Years Resolutions to get made, and then broken—largely due to poor planning and overzealous expectations... And that can happen at the grocery store, especially if your resolutions are training/eating/lifestyle oriented. So, I wanted to talk...
Getting Better at Fueling on the Run
I'm working really hard right now on fueling more effectively for long runs... It's not something I'm great at, and I know it holds me back in races. So, it's been a priority for me this summer + into the fall! Three Tips for Improving Fueling: 1: Use the Interval...
How to Plan Meals (The Easy Way)
When it comes to meal planning for a week or two, it's easy to assume that your grocery list needs to be massive. But really, a few ingredients in each category of a 'healthy meal plate' can make basically infinite combinations. We like using this food matrix as our...
Lifestyle
A Survival Guide for Couples for When You Both Work From Home
It's Valentine's Day, so I figured I would tackle a topic that's both romantic and practical: what to do when you and your partner both work from home. I wrote this originally back in 2018 when our lives were much more on the road—in fact, I intro'ed it by saying,...
How Overfilled is Your Life? Why We Love the Cup Metaphor
If you are a regular here at ConsummateAthlete.com, you know we love referencing Greg Lehman's 'cup' metaphor for stress and injury. Simply put, it's the idea that as humans we have a certain capacity for stressors (the cup) and that if too many stressors are poured...
Do You Need a Sunday Reset as an Athlete?
I love a Sunday Reset in general, as someone who works for herself and as someone who—by nature of working for herself from home—tends to have a few household things pile up over the course of the workweek. But I’m also realizing that a Sunday Reset is also an...
Women Specific
Organizing Your Cyclocross Gear for Less Mess (and Mud)
READER QUESTION: Can you maybe do something on how to organize your gear for cyclocross? I feel like my vehicle is a disaster and disorganized putting me into a panic before races to find stuff. Small storage bins, bags? Any hacks would be awesome. Thanks! As everyone...
Megan Roche – Training Happy, Injury, Failure and Dogs
Doctor, Coach and Elite Trail runner Meghan Roche joins us to talk about being a happy runner, dealing with failure, injury, balancing work+training, body image and ... dogs. DOWNLOAD THIS CONSUMMATE ATHLETE EPISODE Social and Links Get Megan Roche's book "The Happy...
What 45 Young Women Taught Me About Bikes, Life and Having GRiT
That feeling when you go to a girl's MTB camp in order to help out as a coach and end up leaving feeling like you just got schooled... As a very, very shy young woman, I didn't go to a lot of summer camp-style environments, and when I was forced into a weekend-long...
Gear
PSA: Wear Your Cycling Gloves
Cycling gloves are a bit divisive: There are plenty of people who won’t leave home without them, and I’d say an equal amount of riders who just don’t bother with them, or who consider them an extra but not a necessity. But much like the PSA I gave a few years ago...
Creating a Reusable Pre-Race Checklist
Quick tip for a smoother race day, whether you're already back to racing, just starting out or haven't raced in a couple of years: Make a checklist. This is one tip that gravel pro Alexey Vermeulen and I firmly agree on (and nerd out about in this podcast episode with...
Decoding Garmin’s Cycling Metrics
I don't know about all of you, but personally, I found some of the scores/metrics (like training score, recovery, and so on) to be a bit mysterious, if not negative. I mean, 72 hours to recover and unproductive training sound like all our effort is for nothing and...
Videos
6 Healthy Holiday Habits – Video!
Molly partnered with Rogers TV in Collingwood to record a video about 6 quick habits you should integrate into your daily routine to get through the holiday season feeling healthy and happy... while still enjoying those cookies + Netflix specials! Check it out and...
All the Cyclocross Skills You Need in One Place
Cyclocross season is upon us and while Nationals are cancelled in North America, local races are still happening, and it still makes sense to practice your cyclocross skills. Whether you're a mountain biker, a gravel racer, even a roadie, or you are a full-on...
Yoga Stretches to Target Common Athlete Issues – Video
We had such a great time chatting with The Valley Om's Sue Amato on the podcast a couple weeks ago that we wanted to bring her back in video form to address some of the specific athlete hotspots—from wrists to back to hips to knees—that are common pain points. In this...