199: Training as a Time-Crunched Athlete, with Chris Carmichael

Many of our listeners, in fact, most of the staff here at Fast Talk Labs, could be considered “time-crunched athletes”—people with only 6-8 hours to train each week. We’re athletes who, because of commitments like parenting and work, must try and find ways to fit training in around life, rather than the other way around. And if you’ve heard that term before—the time-crunched athlete—it’s because of our guest today, who literally wrote the book on it. But before you jump to the conclusion that the prescription in the book is high-intensity intervals all the time, think again. That isn’t the case, and today we explore the specifics of the method, as well as the science that informs this training approach. We also discuss its limitations, and whether, as we are so often asked, if it can play nicely with the polarized approach. Our featured guest today is, of course, Chris Carmichael, author, coach, and the founder and CEO of Carmichael Training Systems, or CTS, which now boasts 50 professional endurance coaches who have worked with more than 25,000 amateur and professional athletes since 2000. Chris was a member of the 1984 Olympic Team and the iconic 7-Eleven Pro Cycling Team, and is a bestselling author of more than 10 books on training and nutrition. He was also coach to the U.S. Olympic Cycling team in 1992 and 1996. We're also joined by a host of other experienced coaches, including Menachem Brodie, Jared Berg, Julie Young, and Neal Henderson. It’s time to explore training with limited time. Let's make you fast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Om Podcasten

The Fast Talk podcast offers the best guides to cycling performance and endurance sports training from world-class experts. Cohosted by cycling coaches and sport scientists Trevor Connor and Rob Pickels, Fast Talk episodes feature fascinating conversations with world-class experts discussing the endurance sports topics they know best: the best ways to train, effective workouts, questions on polarized and interval training, sports nutrition, physiology and recovery, and sport psychology. Fast Talk guests and regular contributors include Dr. Stephen Seiler, Joe Friel, Dr. Asker Jeukendrup, Sebastian Weber, Jim Miller, Dr. Andy Pruitt, Dr. Timothy Noakes, and elite professional athletes like Kristin Armstrong, Sepp Kuss, Brent Bookwalter, Kate Courtney, and many more. Fast Talk is part of Fast Talk Laboratories, a new endurance sports knowledgebase for endurance racers and adventurers.