The Paceline Cycling Podcast

This week Selene looks back at the career of sports physiologist Andy Pruitt and his work with Specialized and his leadership in bicycle fit. Pruitt is retiring from his work with Specialized, and he has been a steady source of wisdom and insight for Selene over two decades. Patrick takes a look at Christmas. He gives a little thought to what he'd like for Christmas, but more to what he'd like to...

This week Selene takes on a bevvy of listener questions that were intriguing, but not quite meaty enough to carry a whole segment. She covers artificial joints, diabetes, gravel events and more. Patrick and some board members from the California Mountain Biking Coalition got to join mountain bike legend Mark Weir for an eMTB ride on a private ranch in Marin County where Weir and friends have been...

It's the time of the year for planning the next season and Selene has been marking up her calendar with her schedule. She shares where she's headed, along with a few whys. With Christmas around the corner, Patrick takes a look at gift giving ideas and suggests an approach that might give your year a different sort of spin. He also makes a pretty exciting announcement. 

Of the many frame builder who can capably be called masters of the craft, it is distinctly possible that no one has been at the bench longer than Mark Nobilette. His credentials are impeccable. He was trained by Albert Eisentraut in the first frame building class that Eisentraut taught, which was held in Chicago, before he moved to California, way back in 1973. Nobilette went to work for Eisentrau...

This week Selene and Patrick talk Thanksgiving. The talk turns from turkeys to the real occasion of the holiday, what we are grateful for and they run down some of the things for which they are grateful. And here's to hoping everyone got out for a fun ride before the feast. 

The end of the season is a great time to reboot the system. No, we're not talking your computer. Selene considers just what downtime should be at the end of the season and just what we are trying to accomplish when we take a rest at the end of the year. Working on bikes is hard. Patrick says he didn't think that in the past, but a lot has changed. He discusses just what it means to deal with bikes...

With the end of the season here (except for everyone racing cyclocross), Selene has taken a step back to think about what she did this year, what she achieved this year and what she wants to do next year. Underlying all this is a question of purpose, as in what is her purpose. To what end does cycling take any of us? It's a big question, and she ropes in an NFL quarterback, to come up with a clear...

Patrick is back from Costa Rica, so the show is back on schedule now. This week, Selene takes on a reader question about aging. Her answer is as much about psychology as it is about strength training and choosing what cycling will be in the latter half of your life. Of the many places cyclists go for bike tours, Costa Rica isn't a typical destination. Patrick's recent experience there included a t...

This week Selene discusses her experience with Iron Cross, the gravel/cyclocross/insanity event that takes place in Central Pennsylvania. This is her tenth anniversary of doing the race and she has won it four times previously. The event is so challenging the word "ludicrous" comes up, possibly more than once. Conditions that day were not the best and Selene said she wanted to just roll over and s...

In this second part of my interview with Toby Stanton, we discuss his team of juniors and what the ingredients are that has made the team so incredibly and consistently successful. Hot Tubes riders and stars and stripes jerseys are kinda like peanut butter and jelly. There are other things you can do with peanut butter, but peanut butter with jelly doesn't really surprise anyone. Stanton is incred...

After a week off due to a power outage in Northern California, the show is back. Last weekend unPAved, the event Selene's husband Dave promotes, took place and Selene rode it but did not race it. She explains why and it was the best way to do the race, at least, if you aren't Ted King, who slayed all. Selene managed to convince her friend on the Chaise with her not to quit. The weekend before Patr...

I first met Toby Stanton at a mountain bike race in 1991. He was coaching a team that included future cyclocross supahstah (this was in Massachusetts, mind you) Jonathan Page and their kits were white with red, yellow and blue dots, signifying their sponsorship by Wonder Bread. A year or two later I sent him my Canadian-built Miele frame to be repainted and to have a second set of bottle bosses ad...

Selene and Patrick have been away riding. For Selene, last weekend was the nearly annual Bicycling Magazine Fall Classic. Unfortunately, even in organized rides, things don't always go according to plan. Or the advertising. So what do you do when the aid stations don't provide enough aid? Patrick spent eight days riding down the coast of California with the Arthritis Foundation in the California C...

This week Selene takes on weight loss once again. She addresses the problems with seeing that as necessary as well as seeing cycling as a vehicle for it, rather than an end in itself. And yet, she still accepts that it is an important goal to many people and she's a great guide for how to do it, so it may be that some of the issue here is her role as a fitness writer and making peace with providin...

This week Selene takes on a reader question about how exercise affects alcohol and how alcohol affects hydration. It turns out that this is a more complicated interaction than most folks understand. Alcohol affects how your body deals with lactate, your ability to ride hard after having a few beers or drinks and even how your body recovers. Of course, it's possible to minimize the negative effects...

My guest today is frame builder David Wages of Ellis Cycles. There was a time when the most common career path for a frame builder was to put in solid years building bikes for a brand that sold bikes in production sizing. Only after having put in a couple of decades at the bench was a builder established enough in reputation to venture out and order decals with his nam. David Wages may be among th...

We've gone from "'cross is coming," to "'cross is here." In a fair number of locations around the country, the season's first cyclocross races were held last weekend. Selene is excited for her local series to start. Are you ready? With fall right around the corner, or more unofficially, it's already here, this is a great time to consider your next bike purchase. Why? Patrick explains that bike com...

This week my guest is writer and flow state expert Steven Kotler. Kotler is a New York Times-bestselling author known for his work decoding the neurochemistry of flow. What began as a series of articles for Discover Magazine led to his first book of nonfiction, West of Jesus, a tale of surfing, spirituality and a reappraisal of mystical states. His book The Rise of Superman explores how flow state...

This week Selene takes on the subject of finding a coach specifically for mountain biking. What should you look for? Coaches aren't all the same and it's important to find the right coach for you. Selene breaks down some of the considerations, as well as some of the answers. We talk about flow states with some regularity here on the Paceline. Because it's been a while since we've discussed the nit...

My guest this week is the former executive director of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association, the organization that oversees, administers and fosters mountain bike racing for high school kids. McInerny has been involved with the organization almost since its inception and became the executive director in 2012. At the time, McInerny told the board he planned to do the job for three to fi...

Selene takes on a reader question regarding fasted riding for women riders because her previous advice didn't entirely jive with the advice of another expert on training for women, and there's an interesting point of intersection between the two. Last weekend she was in Steamboat Springs for a new gravel event that drew big guns for a big purse. And some 1500 people registered for the three distan...

This week my guest is sports psychologist Dr. Kristin Keim. Keim came to my attention several years ago when I began to see her posts on social media reshared by friends of mine in the bike racing world. Her posts were fonts of positivity rooted in practices that can bring about real change in a person’s life. I began to follow her as well and quickly realized hers was an outlook built on a backbo...

This week I’m taking a slightly different tack and am interviewing an academic. My guest is sociologist Ben Brewer of James Madison University. Brewer picked up the cycling bug in the 1980s as a teenager and had the good sense never to lose his interest in the sport. Like many cycling enthusiasts, he appreciates a great custom frame; Brewer has owned several, including a Land Shark. As an academic...

This week Selene takes on another reader question, this time about keto diets and their value, as well as their downsides. She also shares her experience teaching teen girls mountain biking skills for the upcoming NICA race season. Patrick talks bodywork and what a difference physical therapy and massage have made in his upper body and his ability to ride without pain. 

Selene is back from PPARC where she and her comrades across Pennsylvania raised more than $300,000. That works out to more than $4000 per rider, which is a staggering sum. She talks about the riding, the mission and the people. This week she takes up a reader question regarding his falloff in power over a long ride. Our intrepid reader saw a falloff of more than 25 percent over a nine-hour ride. T...