Ryan Cooper, Founder of Best Bike Split and Chief Scientist at TrainingPeaks, knows something about everything, especially in the realms of swimming, biking and running. In this episode, Ryan and Dirk discuss everything from how wind direction should dictate when you eat and recover during a bike race, how to feel out a connection between heart rate and your personal RPE, as well as technical skill-building.
Stand-Out Quotes
“What kind of speed is it where I can like sit up and not just give away time, Right? We kind of came up with this 20 kilometer rule….you’re just not going fast enough to where the aero impact is all that much.”
“It’s always important, even if you hold that pace to still have that RPE and that internal clock, to say, like, ‘Okay, I know I need to hit an 8:20, but I’ve got this two miles of hills. So I need to measure myself.’”
“The general rule of thumb, for cycling anyway [is] is a 4% drop [in power] for every 3000 feet [of elevation gain].”
“One of the largest risk factors is shutting down your nutrition, um, whereby your gut can’t process the carbs that you need per hour… so word of caution there, if you’re shooting for the podium, a lot of this is really just a gut check along the way, and you’re pushing the envelope on everything.”
