The OBC Philosophy

Imagine a fresh rubber band, right out of the box. It's a bit stiff, and if you put it between your thumbs and stretch it immediately, it will break. But if you stretch it just a little in one direction and release it, and then twist it a little and stretch it more in another direction, and then stretch even more in a third direction, you will slowly loosen up the rubber band and expand its stretched-out circumference.

The area circumscribed by the rubber band is analogous to your performance envelope. We start by stretching your aerobic base for a few weeks, then let you recover. Then we switch modes to improve your performance in crits, requiring a different type of training, allowing one part of the envelope to expand while the other retract a bit. Proper training will, over time, yield better performances in ALL aspects of cycling. Everything improves, but at different rates and at different times in the year.

Coach Wharton talks about Off-Season Training in this interview on The Fredcast.
Listen to the Interview »