Exquisite Endurance Coaching

Returning to What Restores You Mari Holden shared that she was especially happy to be back home after what felt like weeks of moving nonstop. There had been travel, work, responsibilities, supporting people she cared about, and trying to stay present through all of it. While so much of that time had been meaningful, she also admitted something many of us do not say often enough:...

In cycling, we love to chase the thing behind the thing. We look at power numbers, heart rate, lactate, glucose, heat adaptation, altitude camps, ketones, sodium bicarbonate, beet juice, caffeine, recovery drinks, sleep scores, HRV, and every new bottle, patch, powder, or metric that promises to make us faster. But underneath all of that, there is one very old, very basic, very ...

There’s a moment I remember so clearly it almost makes me laugh now. Early in my career, before marginal gains were packaged into sleek marketing and lab-tested drink mixes, I had heard whispers about sodium bicarbonate—baking soda—as this almost magical performance enhancer. So naturally, I tried it. I stood in my kitchen, scooped what I thought was the “right” amount into a wa...

Red light therapy has become one of those topics in endurance sport that seems to live in two worlds at once. On the one hand, it's marketed like a miracle tool. On the other hand, it gets brushed off as hype. The truth sits in the middle, and that middle is where cyclists need to live. Red light therapy, more accurately called photobiomodulation  (PBM), is not magic, but it is ...

There’s always a ride this time of year where I notice it. I roll out expecting things to feel the same as they have all winter—maybe a little heavy, maybe a little forced—and then somewhere along the way, something shifts. My legs feel lighter, my breathing settles faster, and the effort begins to flow in a way it hasn’t in months. It’s subtle, but it’s undeniable. And every ti...