Alec Donahue

Closed out an epic ski season at @trustrengthathletics Uphill Will 24 Hour Challenge @mtabramskiarea this past weekend. Such a cool community of amazing people who all are into doing hard things. Super grateful to have been able to go big from the start, have a proper unravelling, and then rally thanks to some pro level crewing from @mommcsharry_ and @joshmcaron 🚀 For the past 14 weeks @alphonsealbert and I put together a plan for an endless stacking of vert combined with laser 🔬 indoor trainer sessions in hopes for a smooth run @unboundgravel 350XL in May. Time to update the playlist and trade the skins for some high volume rubber. Special thanks to @cyclesmartinc for letting things get 🔥 off the bike, @whitemountainskico for all the post ski coffee, and of course my children for doing chairlift laps while I finished up workouts. LEGIT 📸 @knghtfllstudios

Of course I came here to win the World Champion title @mondiali_masterscx_varese . I came 2nd… 8 seconds to @dannysleeckx . We were equally matched, it came down to Danny was hopping the 40cm barriers! 🤯 Danny is also a 3x World Champion. I have mixed feelings right now but deep inside I feel like I won, because I had fun, I executed to perfection, I gave everything, and I had an amazing season. I’ll keep chasing 🌈 as long as I have fun doing it ❤️ Thanks @alphonsealbert for coaching and guiding me to my best. And just like that season is over… 5x 🥇 5x 🥈 4x 🥉 2 titles (🇨🇦 and PanAm) 🥈at Worlds 🌈 Thanks @compedgeracing for the amazing support ❤️ Thanks to all our sponsors @rotationengineering_bike @challengetires_northamerica @challengetires @rideshimano @vergesport @julboeyewearna @trekbikes

Our next ‘cross camp coach announcement is @alphonsealbert ! We’ve been talking about “legacy” as we’ve done our coach announcements, and that legacy has to be built by someone. In the list of national champions and World Cup winners we’ve introduced to you, one thing stands out: they were all coached by Alec Donahue. Al first entered the endurance training world through high school cross-country running. As an undergrad at Bates College, he majored in Biology, interned in orthopedic surgery and sports medicine, and continued his athletic career with cross-country and middle-distance track. Halfway through college cycling took over as his primary sport, and has continued since then, as an athlete and coach. Al has raced road and cyclocross since the mid-1990’s at the amateur and eventually professional level. He understands personally what it’s like to balance work or school with racing, as well as how to train and compete as a pro. In addition to spending a year on the road for Nerac Pro Cycling, he also won the Expert National Mountain Bike Championships at Mount Snow in 2008, and the UCI Class 2 Capital ‘Cross in Reston, VA, in 2007, demonstrating his talent, versatility, and knowledge in multiple disciplines. Arguably, no one has coached more riders to elite national championships in the United States than Al Donahue. While it’s valuable to learn skills from riders who are actively performing at the highest level, it’s a whole other thing to learn from the people who coach those riders. At the Cycle-Smart ‘cross camp, you get to do both. We look forward to sharing Al’s expertise with you this week.

One of my oldest friends made this for my best friend. Thanks @julietildenbrown

As we open registration for the 33rd edition of the race, it’s a great to time ask: what makes the @vergesport @cyclesmartinc #NohoCX so special? Why is it the one race everyone comes to in a time of fewer racers and fewer races? Why has it lasted so long when other races have died? If you’re a new racer, what creates the FOMO? If you’ve done it a million times, why do you keep coming back? Thom Parsons of @dirtwiretv asked, and you told us. We can’t wait to see you again at @lookmemorialpark on November 8-10, 2024 Follow the link to the full video in our bio.

Fierce debates in the house regarding what this slab burl looks like. What do you see in the Rorschach?

In the final clip from our discussion on power testing @adammyerson and @jordan.villella get into perceived exertion and "flavors of discomfort" Testing isn't always exclusively about the physiological data! All out efforts are opportunities to refine our sense of perceived exertion and better understand what our body is capable of.  Taking the time to interrogate how we feel and in turn accruing these very personal data points often makes extracting that extra percent or two on race day a lot easier. Link to the full discussion in our bio!

Why dropping threshold power down can drive our performance up. Focusing on arbitrary numbers like FTP or W/kg can get in the way of optimizing training and power profiles for racing. @mvdhcx explains why training for different outcomes and performance goals may require a decrease in our threshold capacity to prioritize gains on other points in our power curve. Training isn't about constant linear gains, and race seasons require an ebb and flow of our capacity.  Link to the full discussion on power testing in our bio!

Coach @alphonsealbert explains why he’s embraced lactate testing instead of determining power zones as a percentage of an athlete's 20-minute power. Our capacities above and below threshold are more complex than just percentages of FTP. With lactate testing we can learn how power is being generated and what levers a coach needs to pull to optimize for different performances. This opens up a world of opportunity to fine-tune an athlete's training program for different goals over the course of a season.  Link to the full discussion is in our bio!

In addition to our traditional weekend skills camp, in recent years we’ve added an advanced training camp option for Monday and Tuesday immediately following, for riders category 3 and above. Traditionally a number of our Cycle-Smart athletes would stick around for a few days of training in the woods and applying everything they learned over the weekend. We realized that these were valuable sessions and worth opening up to the public. So if a weekend of dialing in fundamentals and sessioning features isn't enough, you can spend two more days in even smaller groups training on the Pioneer Valley trails that have developed riders with national championships and international podiums on their palmares. Join all the #cscrosscamp coaches @adammyerson , @alphonsealbert , @jordan.villella , @mvdhcx , @stephenhyde and @jamfund assistants for a 2:1 coaching ratio that will push what you learn over the weekend into real world practice.

Power testing is an essential link in structuring training, so our coaches got together for a wide-ranging discussion about the whys and hows of the process. We dive into historical approaches to testing, our current methodologies, and the psychological side of testing, including how developing healthy relationships and practices with testing can help us grow as athletes by imparting knowledge and data points that extend beyond what the numbers alone can tell us.  This is well worth a listen if you’re curious about the history of power testing, and why we and so many others in endurance sports coaching have embraced critical power, field lactate measurements, and metabolic zones over FTP. We explain why testing can be so valuable for us as athletes in a world of algorithmic modeling and FTP detection. Link is in our bio!

It's @paris2ancaster race week! Here's the last snippet the goes into detail about how to approach the race tactically. @adammyerson describes the kind of efforts you can expect going into the technical sections and why burning matches to lead into them is worth the effort to avoid the inevitable traffic that will slow you down. See you all this weekend in Ontario!