When is a painting (or your workout) finished? Unfortunately a lot of artists (triathletes) probably walk away without fine tuning the little things. Using a triathlon analogy, many of us leave workouts short because we think "we've done enough for the day" or flip the switch to lazy the minute the calendar turns to "taper." Today we talk about the little ways we can build discipline in workouts to create better long-term patterns and ultimately "Masterpiece Races."

• What Difference Does Skipping a 10 Minute Cool Down Make?
• Being Rested Vs. Rusty 
• Not Minimizing What May Seem Like a Minimum
• Finishing Off Your Training - Setting Up Your Training To Finish The Race  
• Overcoming Race Challenges
• Building The Discipline To Finish Your Workouts 
• How We Create Bad Habits That Are Hard To Break
• Your Race Is Another Training Day That You Can’t Quit
• Building Your Practice So You Know How To Close Out a Race
• How Effort and Decision Making Impact Your Race
• The Little Lies We Tell Ourselves and How They Build
• How Training Pressure Escalates Closer To a Race
• How We Self Sabotage Our Races In Taper 
• Building Great Training Memories of Training Before Your Big Race
• The Details Matter When You’re Closing In On a Race
• Why Training Is Art and Your Race is the Masterpiece

Looking for a coach? Check out our Crushing Iron Coaching Philosophy Video

After a short warm-up we take a deep dive into how you can make huge cycling gains. This is not a technical discussion as much as how you can train more effectively and how it translates into race performance along with an overall stronger body for long-term health. We hit on proper (and custom) cadence, pedal stroke, power vs. MPH, hill techniques and many more insights that will take your cycling to a new level. 

• Simulating Course Conditions
• Understanding The Right Cadence
• Training For Hills When You Live In Flat Country
• How To Dominate Trainer Efficiency
• Balancing Your Body
• Building Power Out of The Saddle
• The Purpose Of Intervals
• When Recovery Ruins Your Effort
• Adapting to Gearing with Hills
• Different Pedal Strokes
• Finding Your Most Efficient Pedal Stroke
• Trading MPH for Power
• Benefits of Big Gear Work 
• Climbing Cadence
• Cadence Gray Zone 
• Working Below Your Cadence
• Varying Your Stroke On Purpose
• How Cycling Techniques Help Your Running
• Running Economy
• How To Get To Places Your Body Hasn’t Been Before

 Check out our new Crushing Iron Coaching Philosophy Video

You train your ass off, do all the little things, then get to the race . . . and say, "Well, it wasn't quite what I hoped for . . . But what is hope? Is it genuine optimism or expectations you've pulled out of thin air? Today we talk about the importance of detaching yourself from the outcome and how it will change the way you, not only train and race, but go about your life.

Also, what about this Wisconsin Swim Start Change? We have some strong opinions on why it's bad for the overall growth of the sport. 

Are you sore and tired a lot? This podcast is about understanding why that is and why sometimes there's not much you can do about it, especially in periods of heavy training load. There's a lot in here about how to handle the month leading up to your race. 

Setting yourself up with expectations that don't hold you back and derail your progress.

- Making Your Mission The Right Mission

How do we know when we’ve reached our limit? Odds are, we haven’t. What will it take to be one second better today? One minute? One hour? It’s likely all in our minds and believing we can overcome those limits. Seeing ourselves as that person and accepting the flow. Today, we start with how to build chemistry in the home with such a grueling workout schedule and wind up in a fierce discussion about why we must accept ourselves and our progress in order to break through our limits. 

• Building Chemistry and Support with your spouse, kids, parents, dogs, etc.
• Keeping Those Around you happy and involved
• Involving them in the process
• Don’t Talk Yourself Into Being A Fraud
• The Roger Bannister Method 
• Navigating the chaos of M-F to set up your weekend
• Creating Your Success Mindset
• Getting Your Mind Out of The Way
• Negative Split Thinking
• The Danger in Telling Yourself That “You’re Always Going To Be . . .”

For a lot of us, the weather is breaking and it's time to make the transition from inside to outside training. We look at how indoor training differs from outside training and what to keep in mind. Embrace the wind and sunshine, take stock in all your hard work, and have fun as you move toward race season. 

• Going From Inside to Outside Training
• Hip Triathlete Training Terms
• How You SHOULD Be Riding The Trainer
• What To Do If You Feel “undertrained”
• Training Vs. Exercising
• Building Your Body For A Specific Course
• Triathlete Frankenstein
• Swift Culture
• Differences in Bike Trainers
• How Progress Is Made
• Practicing Corners in Running
• Surging and What That Takes Out Of You
• Why STOPPING Sucks So Much Energy
• Learning To Surge, then Chill