Hi Slowtwitch community! I've periodically spent time on this site (but never posted) over the years during my stints in professional cycling and Ironman. I think it has to be one of the most engaged and interesting endurance sports forums out there, rivaled perhaps only by Letsrun.
For those who don't know (which I'm sure is most given that I work mainly with cyclists) I have a private coaching business where I work 1/1 with athletes, but I wanted to share something that I have worked on in partnership with Tower 26 over the past few months. Founded by Gerry Rodrigues, Tower 26 offers triathlon coaching, as well as in person pool and beach sessions, along with a swim subscription plan for those who aren't location based. For those in Tri who don't have a high level competitive or elite swim background, the program is incredible. When I left professional cycling and gave triathlon a shot in 2018-2019 the only background I had in swimming was one year in middle school in lane 4, and Gerry Rodrigues' program took me to a sub 25 (with a wetsuit) 70.3 swim in Santa Cruz.
As I made the move into coaching a while back, I looked at a lot of the cookie cutter training programs out there for the bike, both for pure cyclists as well as triathletes, and was pretty shocked by what I saw: an insane amount of intensity, trying to cut around any foundational training by piling on lots of Zone 4 and Zone 5 intervals and using "limited time" as the excuse for it. I saw very little periodization and most "pre made" programs had a lot of workouts that seemed designed to "look" appealing in how much variety they provided, rather than designed to be the most effective at improving fitness. With any workout I design for my athletes, the "why" behind it always has to be firmly in place. It piqued my interest enough that I decided to do something about it. I love the sport of cycling, and triathlon for that matter, and I hate seeing athletes get burnt out or disillusioned with sport. I think a lot of that can be traced back to poor training that leads to illness and/or injury, or just general fatigue. So, I spent a few months with Gerry and Tower 26 head Triathlon coach Jim Lubinski to create a Cycling Subscription plan under the Tower 26 banner, with the goal of doing for cycling what Gerry's program has already done for swimming. Make it accessible, make it easy to understand and follow, and provide genuine value for fellow athletes. We just recently launched it here: https://training.tower26.com/...ing-training-program
We provide live coaching on Zoom for our Tuesday and Thursday sessions where we typically have anywhere between 35-55 athletes on any given morning and it creates a fun environment, much like a club session at the pool. The program overall is intended to provide structure to support a triathlete looking to improve a bit on the bike, or as a starting point for a cyclist training for pretty much any goal.
I hope that some of you might find this of interest, or pass it on to someone else who might benefit. Feel free to reach out on here if you have any questions about the cycling program, or anything else for that matter, and I'll be sure to follow up!
In case you want to join a workout on Zwift with us here is the link to all T26 rides: https://www.zwift.com/uk/events/tag/tower26
Thanks to all of you for the entertainment on this forum over the years.
Andrew Talansky
For those who don't know (which I'm sure is most given that I work mainly with cyclists) I have a private coaching business where I work 1/1 with athletes, but I wanted to share something that I have worked on in partnership with Tower 26 over the past few months. Founded by Gerry Rodrigues, Tower 26 offers triathlon coaching, as well as in person pool and beach sessions, along with a swim subscription plan for those who aren't location based. For those in Tri who don't have a high level competitive or elite swim background, the program is incredible. When I left professional cycling and gave triathlon a shot in 2018-2019 the only background I had in swimming was one year in middle school in lane 4, and Gerry Rodrigues' program took me to a sub 25 (with a wetsuit) 70.3 swim in Santa Cruz.
As I made the move into coaching a while back, I looked at a lot of the cookie cutter training programs out there for the bike, both for pure cyclists as well as triathletes, and was pretty shocked by what I saw: an insane amount of intensity, trying to cut around any foundational training by piling on lots of Zone 4 and Zone 5 intervals and using "limited time" as the excuse for it. I saw very little periodization and most "pre made" programs had a lot of workouts that seemed designed to "look" appealing in how much variety they provided, rather than designed to be the most effective at improving fitness. With any workout I design for my athletes, the "why" behind it always has to be firmly in place. It piqued my interest enough that I decided to do something about it. I love the sport of cycling, and triathlon for that matter, and I hate seeing athletes get burnt out or disillusioned with sport. I think a lot of that can be traced back to poor training that leads to illness and/or injury, or just general fatigue. So, I spent a few months with Gerry and Tower 26 head Triathlon coach Jim Lubinski to create a Cycling Subscription plan under the Tower 26 banner, with the goal of doing for cycling what Gerry's program has already done for swimming. Make it accessible, make it easy to understand and follow, and provide genuine value for fellow athletes. We just recently launched it here: https://training.tower26.com/...ing-training-program
We provide live coaching on Zoom for our Tuesday and Thursday sessions where we typically have anywhere between 35-55 athletes on any given morning and it creates a fun environment, much like a club session at the pool. The program overall is intended to provide structure to support a triathlete looking to improve a bit on the bike, or as a starting point for a cyclist training for pretty much any goal.
I hope that some of you might find this of interest, or pass it on to someone else who might benefit. Feel free to reach out on here if you have any questions about the cycling program, or anything else for that matter, and I'll be sure to follow up!
In case you want to join a workout on Zwift with us here is the link to all T26 rides: https://www.zwift.com/uk/events/tag/tower26
Thanks to all of you for the entertainment on this forum over the years.
Andrew Talansky