The Balance of Race Experience, Scientific Knowledge, and Coaching with Julie Young – Fast Talk Laboratories Podcast, Episode 209, March 31, 2022

One of the themes of the Fast Talk podcast is the important balance of science and experience. Experience as competitive athletes and as coaches. Neither science nor race experience nor coaching experience is sufficient on its own. To be truly guided as athletes, we need to blend science and experience.

While we at Fast Talk love reading new research studies, we know that research does not cover all the complexities of training. Research sometimes neglects to consider the sport-life balance that athletes must find.

And we know that even the best educated coaches might build the perfect training approach and plan, but does this mean they can truly guide an athlete through a difficult workout if they haven’t experienced that workout themselves?

Athletes, too, need a background in science. Even a 20-year racing veteran will benefit from an understanding of the physiology underlying his or her training plan.

Our guest on this episode brings science, racing, and coaching experience to the conversation. Julie Young started as a top professional cyclist racing in Europe. After retiring, she earned her Master’s in Sports Science and Human Performance. Now, Coach Young runs her own coaching business and works as a sport scientist at the Kaiser Sports Medicine Endurance Lab.

We talk with Julie about the importance and role of these three elements: race experience, a science background, and coaching experience. We pull no punches!

And before you fire off any emails to us, know that we get a little contrarian with Coach Young in order to challenge one another’s positions. No, I don’t truly believe that all interval work produces the same games, but it was fun making the argument.

So with that, grab every little bit of scientific knowledge and race experience you have, and let’s make you fast!