Grit Coaching Newsletter: Update and Content Worth Consuming


If you enjoy these emails please share with a friend and you can also read previous emails here


Hi Team, I decided to pause these emails during a busy period over the last 4-6 weeks. With the school cycling season wrapped up and the summer track season soon beginning, it has been a great time to digest a heap of learnings from events and coach development opportunities. Over the next few months, I look forward to implementing some cool new projects aimed at improving Grit and, specifically, the coaching process that I hope will benefit you all.

One of my goals for 2025 is to produce more quality content. Mainly in the form of writing, in an effort to be more explicit about my coaching and training philosophies. In particular, bringing learnings from the high-performance space and sharing them in the most relevant way.

The normal email format will resume next month.

In the meantime here is a sneak peek at the new website and some content worth consuming.


New Grit Coaching Website

In December I am excited to share a new website I have been working on. I hope for it to be less of a promotional tool and more of a map of thinking and a platform to share ideas and learning.

Building a new website from scratch has allowed me to review and refine my process as I articulate what Grit Coaching is all about.

Writing and specifically sharing on social media is not something that comes naturally to me at all, so I look forward to developing this more intentionally over the next year.

Ibuilt/Grit Takes On Tour Of Southland

This November Myself and Bill Blackmore are taking the Ibuilt team to the iconic Tour of Southland for what will be an action-packed 7 days of racing. We have a super young team but a good mix of abilities in both the crosswinds and the epic climbs of Bluff Hill and the Remarkables. Follow our progress here .

Racing kicks off on the 3rd of November.

Content Worth Consuming

Article: Rouleur Magazine - All Change At Astana

Article Here: All Change At Astana

Interesting article on Astana's current situation in the World Tour. For those that aren't aware we have Kiwi cyclist Aaron Gate joining this team in 2025. Aaron is a legend of NZ cycling and is a multiple Olympic gold medalist. He joins the World Tour for the first time at the ripe old age of 33.

Podcast: The Peter Attia Drive - Tadej Pogacar Interview

Full Interview Here

I know a lot of people have seen the sound bites from this interview Tadej Pogacar had with Dr Peter Attia. I highly recommend you listen to the full interview. It offers a lot of insight into how Pogacar trains, how he deals with pressure and what motivates him. It's really interesting.

Podcast: David Roche Leadville 100 miler Winner

Full Podcast Here

Super interesting interview with run coach David Roche. David is a 36-year-old run coach who surprised the ultra-running community by winning the Leadville 100 mile and beating the long-standing record. It's rare to get an athlete like this who breaks down their approach in such detail. While it's not cycling-specific, fundamentally, his approach is applicable. He borrows a lot of ideas from cycling and has taken them to the ultra-running world. Very interesting.

Research Article: First Beat White Paper - Estimating VO2Max

First Beat - Estimated Vo2Max White Paper

Ever wondered how your Garmin estimates your Vo2max? First Beat Tech Limited is a company that has produced an algorithm to estimate Vo2max. Garmin licence the rights to use this algorithm. It's why your Wahoo computer (or watch) lacks this capability.
I am working on an article to explain Vo2 max and how much confidence we should have in estimated measures like these. The white paper is worth reading to understand how they attempted to validate these measures.

Apps I Use Regularly

Epic Ride Weather - Detailed weather information for your race or ride. Many of you will get these sent to you by me before your races. Usually followed by a discussion about how you could approach the race in terms of strategy. I use this app almost every week in some form or another.

VeloBike Gear & Race Time Calculator - This is a little more track-specific but is very helpful for understanding gear ratios in relation to cadence, speed and lap times etc...

Strava Source - Boosts Strava! This is particularly good for analytical types that don't have Training Peaks Premium. You need to be using Google Chrome as your browser for this to work. When I use Strava this is my default and has many uses.

Readwise and Reader App - To be a good coach you have to love learning, that goes without saying. I read a lot but very rarely read on printed paper. Even scientific literature is all from PDFs these days. So for those who read physical books, or like to print things off this won't work for you.
This app allows you to save books, PDFs, articles and webpages., It syncs with hundreds of reading apps, like Kindle and Apple Books. It then saves all of your highlights and then feeds them back to you with a daily review practice.

If you got this far congrats! That's a wrap!

Cheers Team!

1/32 Sylvia Road, Saint Heliers, Auckland, 1071
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