• – Programming that’s proven successful year after year
• – Experienced coaches that care about your overall fitness
• – NOW WITH 2 locations to choose from

Check out the details below:

DATES:

FALL: October 16 – December 22 (10 weeks)

WINTER: January 8 – April 20 (15 weeks)

When are classes?

Monday to Friday: 6:15, 7:30, 9:00, 10:15, 12:15, 17:30, 18:45

What do I need?

Cycling shoes, shorts, water bottle and the desire to train smart, consistently and with coaches who are aware of your goals.

Where are you located?

Montreal: YM-YWHA 5400 Westbury Ave, Montreal

West Island: OLYMPIA PERFORMANCE 16869 Hymus Blvd, Kirkland

Toguri Training - Performance Cycling Training & the Home of Silber Pro Cycling

It’s time to come in from the cold!

WINTER 2017 REGISTRATION IS ON
Space is limited, register NOW!

Session starts January 9th and runs until April 21st.

For information contact:
info@toguritraining.com
or
call 514-737-8628 ext246

Check out our online schedule here

Toguri Training - Performance Cycling Training & the Home of Silber Pro Cycling

Our NEW Website is under construction and almost ready.

In the meantime for up-to-date information on our programs you can contact us:
info@toguritraining.com
or
514-737-8628 (ext 246)
or
visit our online schedule:
YM-YWHA location: CLICK HERE
West Island location: CLICK HERE

OUR WINTER SESSION STARTS: Jan 9th and there’s still space for you!

We look forward to hearing from you!

Toguri Training - Performance Cycling Training & the Home of Silber Pro Cycling

TTS’ FREE lecture series kicks off on Wednesday October 28th at 7pm.

These popular informal talks are open to the Public and all are welcome!!!

Lecture #1 addresses this basic question: How do you BUILD fitness over a year?

More and more studies are revealing the importance of establishing proper movement and reflex patterns in order to forge better fitness, performance and basic well-being.

Gab Lehoux | B.Sc. Kinesiology, UQAM | Posturology, C.I.E.S

Gab Lehoux (BSc, Kinesiology) will discuss key movement patterns for cyclists in relation to posturology. He will also describe the importance of training with proper progressions, or building fitness through precise periodization. 

Eric Falstrault
Head strength coach and owner, PICP 5, and Author of The Strength Code

Well-known strength coach and nutrition consultant, Eric Falstrault, will also be on hand to talk specifically about pre and post-workout nutrition, the myths of “sports nutrition” and effective/useless supplements for athletes.

If you want basic knowledge about developing fields of expertise in exercise science, plus a chance to meet practitioners in the field, join us on Wednesday October 28th at 7pm 

YM-YWHA, Kellert Hall room (5400 Westbury Ave, Montreal)

Please RSVP by Sunday October 25th: michelle@toguritraining.com

Bring a guest!

Toguri Training - Performance Cycling Training & the Home of Silber Pro Cycling

• – Programming that’s proven successful year after year
• – Experienced coaches that care about your overall fitness
• – NOW WITH 2 locations to choose from

Check out the details below:

DATES:

FALL: October 12 – December 19  (10 weeks)

WINTER: January 4 – April 22 (14 weeks)

When are classes? 

Monday to Friday: 6:15, 7:30, 9:00, 10:15, 12:15, 17:15, 18:30

What do I need?

Cycling shoes, shorts, water bottle and the desire to train smart, consistently and with coaches who are aware of your goals.

Where are you located?

Montreal: YM-YWHA   5400 Westbury Ave, Montreal

West Island: OLYMPIA PERFORMANCE  16869 Hymus Blvd, Kirkland

Toguri Training - Performance Cycling Training & the Home of Silber Pro Cycling

The Fall 2014 Session was our most successful ever, with most clients achieving personal bests for peak power and both 3 and 20 min power.

Dates: Jan 5 to Apr 10, 2015 (14 weeks)

Cost: $511 + tax

When are classes? 

Monday to Friday: 6:15, 7:30, 9:00, 10:15, 12:15, 17:15, 18:30

**The Winter rush is on as riders of all levels are signing up. Some classes are full and have waiting lists, so take care of last year’s resolution and don’t procrastinate!

What do I need?

Cycling shoes, shorts, water bottle and the desire to train smart, consistently and with coaches who are aware of your goals.

Where are you located?

Montreal: 5400 Westbury Ave, Montreal

West Island: 16869 Hymus Blvd, Kirkland

How do I get started?
Call us at (514) 737-8628, ext 246

Email michelle@toguritraining.com 

Toguri Training - Performance Cycling Training & the Home of Silber Pro Cycling

“These results are staggering. I cannot hide my emotions.”

This year we changed our approach to the Fall Session. We greatly reduced the amount of high intensity workouts.

We made changes for two reasons: A lot of the latest scientific research in exercise science and physiology is pointing back to the benefits of what I will broadly call less intense training–anything from endurance to ez tempo riding. Secondly, the much touted benefits of high intensity training–which I believe to be real–have not really been examined long term. In other words, none of the studies were conducted within broader periodization schemes (year long training programs); they just hammered cyclists for 3-6 weeks and saw benefits.

With these two things in mind, I came to what now seems like an obvious conclusion: our client base does NOT need prolonged stress on the nervous system regardless of the benefits of high intensity intervals. TTS clients do NOT need to feel woozy after workouts twice a week! For what? So they can say they raised their 20 min average watts by a few percent? Ok, that’s a really good thing in itself but is it actually HEALTHY in terms of your entire day to slam intervals every time you get on a computrainer and then head to work…for 25 weeks of indoor training? Can we get the same results without the stress on power power power?

Now we have always emphasized the benefits of tempo riding more than other facilities. And we have always shunned the celebration of pain and suffering as a “good” when it comes to workouts (and politics!). And we have also been outspoken against the fixation on “20 min power” as the measure of a cyclist and championed instead developing a “rider profile” over various durations and acquired skills. But we always jammed in a fair bit of short intense intervals during the fall because they produce results.

This year we backed away from them to a huge extent and the careful modifications we did to the fall program are showing signs of success. The feedback from clients has been fantastic! A few of you recently did some riding in warmer climes and took time to email us to say how strong you felt.

This week, some clients were introduced to their first high intensity intervals of the session. The amount of personal bests from returning clients was remarkable. I’m not ready to judge the program as a whole. We’ll assess it in the spring, but the signs are encouraging. I think it’s our best Fall Session yet.

Note/Coolitivity 101: Personal bests are often referred to as ‘PBs’… do I need to explain why? Then things start to slide semantically from Personal Bests to “PBs” to Peanut Butter. Are you still with me? This week we introduce two more high intensity workouts before returning to a focus on muscular endurance. If you get a ‘PB’ and your coach holds out their fist and says “Peanut Butter”, make a fist and tap the coach’s with a knowing nod and sense of satisfaction because you’ve just done a personal best. Please STOP looking confused while raising issues about allergies to peanuts etc. Not cool.

Yeah baby! 

Toguri Training - Performance Cycling Training & the Home of Silber Pro Cycling

Elvis Joins the Army

Welcome to all returning and new clients at TTS!

Just so you know, we’ve made some aesthetic and functional upgrades in the studio because we want to look sharp for when Gary Shapiro, Sherri Issenman, Cindy Krupka, Matthew Stotland and others come back from surgeries, accidents and honeymoons. There was obviously lots of sufferin’ and lovin’ over the summer… and perhaps a lot of lovin’ sufferin’ on the bike!!

But now it is the Fall–a season of transition as pet videos and food photos are replaced by images of glassy lakes and fallen leaves on Facebook. TTS is also in a time of gentle change. I’ve been busy in years past, but last year was ridiculously demanding. Toguri Training grew by more than 20% and our race team took out a UCI Continental License under the name, Silber Pro Cycling. We became the #1 team in Canada. Stay tuned for a series of exciting announcements about the racing team. It is incredible how that project has taken off, and it still amazes me that TTS continues to experience substantial growth.

One reason for our success, I hope, is our ability to recognize the limits of our cycling knowledge at TTS. I am NOT saying we lack knowledge, but rather, we do not have a comprehensive understanding of the sport. This is a risky admission in the marketplace of coaching, but I do not aspire to be all-encompassing or comprehensive because firstly that is impossible. Developments in sports physiology, nutrition, the entire bike industry, etc have been sprawling and exponential over the last two decades. You can wake up in your altitude tent, eat breakfast with beet juice and beta alanine… then train on a carbon bike with electric shifting, a power meter and high profile carbon wheels, while wearing a ‘race suit’ with stitching designed to promote desirable turbulence… then shower and head to university to get a degree in ‘exercise science’!?! Anyone who aspires to be comprehensive in their knowledge of cycling ironically does not recognize the historical moment of growth in the knowledge industry related to cycling.

Don’t get me wrong: I want to learn as much as I can about cycling. As a coach, however, I want to establish a network of people who can share current knowledge with clients–and myself. I believe that a dynamic social network is more in touch with the ways in which cycling knowledge is currently developing and being distributed. I therefore no longer aspire to say that after 20 years of working with athletes I have developed a system. Rather, I want to establish an open network of resources coordinated by my ongoing development as a student of the sport.

Here’s an example. During the 1990s, the claim that high-intensity workouts comprised of short anaerobic intervals were time-efficient and effective gained support from a growing number of scientific studies performed on cyclists. The classic structure of these studies was to take two groups of cyclists and test their aerobic fitness by, for example, measuring the average power measured in watts that they could produce over a 12 to 20 minute effort. Then one group would ride moderately for 1 to 1.5h, four times a week. The other group would do 4-6 x 30-60 sec bursts with a few minutes recovery between… again 3-4 times a week. After 3-6 weeks, the group doing the short intervals would test better than the group riding steady.

One result of these studies was an increased understanding of how anaerobic training positively impacts aerobic metabolic activity. Another result was that the celebration of high intensity workouts led to the rise of indoor training facilities. You could now market short workouts as effective and time-efficient. The typical training studio that arose during this period therefore usually celebrates “pain”, “power” and “suffering.” They measure the success of their programs NOT on the ability to teach cycling, but rather, on the ability to improve your 12-20 min average power output. The excitement shared is primarily derived from the general challenge of overcoming pain and “hitting your numbers.” A “good” workout is therefore equated with a “hard, intense” series of bursts. This is about capitalizing on the “time crunch” as not only a situation many of us live in, but also as a means to workout!

I find this approach to be reductive on several levels. Firstly, professional cyclists don’t train this way and not just because they race for 6 hours. Cyclists cannot improve over time by simply doing short intervals. Cycling is an aerobic endurance sport and the physiological benefits of riding moderately for longer periods have never been denied. Incorporating longer, moderate cycling exercises in a training program, for example, enhances oxidative energy production by increasing the number of capillaries muscle fibers and mitochondria in muscle cells. In other words, a training program that emphasizes longer intervals of riding, is focused on building your engine over time. Again, the proven benefits of steady training regimes were well-known, but they were under-represented in scientific journals by studies of the effects of short intervals that took place over periods of only 3-6 weeks. Lastly, if each client is so “time crunched”, what are the cumulative effects on the nervous system of high intensity interval training? The scientific and coaching community understands that high intensity training is only a small part of a successful training program. Training to become a better cyclist cannot be reduced to narrow readings of scientific studies.

Last but not least, the celebration of short intervals as the best approach to bike training is reductive for anyone who loves the sport. All the coaches at TTS love cycling. They love the challenges of bike-handling, foot speed, climbing and the various scenarios that get played out on group rides. In fact many of our clients get most excited talking about LONG rides they went on and what happened amongst their weekday morning rides or on their charity rides or during their races. What if you raise your average watts over 20 minutes by 4% while learning to love the sport? Shouldn’t a good cycling program advertise and promote cycling?

So now imagine coming to Toguri Training for a one-hour workout, once or maybe twice a week. How do I effectively transmit my knowledge as a coach? I know one thing: I can’t claim to be implementing a “system”. There are too many variables during your week for me to make such a claim! If you go skiing for 4 hours on Sunday and then come train on Monday morning with me, how do I measure the benefits of what I’m doing? How do I deal with scar tissue from your recent surgery? The death of a parent? I can’t master the dramatic rise of exercise science, physiotherapy, sports psychology and the technological advance of the bike industry. The way I understand it, my job is to offer coaching and by that I mean access to an unfolding network of knowledge. I aspire to do that better this year than last year.

In the Fall Session, active clients will receive newsletters on various topics. Consider them the basis of conversations with your coach. Two newsletters will address nutrition. After they have circulated, our clients will get an opportunity to attend a short talk followed by a question and answer period with a naturopathic nutritionist. They will also get the opportunity in the Winter session to meet a sports nutritionist. We want different knowledge bases to be circulating in the studio. Another Fall topic will concern the rise of physiology and physiotherapy in relation to bike fit. Again, clients will get the opportunity to make an appointment with one of the city’s most important physiotherapists who will work alongside a “Retul” bike-fitter. Retul is a system that uses sensors to accurately capture the cyclist’s movements and thereby allow optimal positioning, regardless of bike brand or type. The goal will be for clients to get a physiological assessment, corrective exercises if necessary, and then fitted on their bikes in relation to the assessment.

In conclusion, a wise reader will have noticed that I have dodged the question about clients coming into train for 1 hour after I’ve celebrated longer moderate exercise. To begin, don’t be surprised if you walk out of some of your fall workouts with energy left in the tank. I’m trying to subtly change the culture of indoor training. I want to go “old skool” and use a traditional pyramid structure whereby we spend the first 8 weeks establishing a “base.” This “base”, however, will be constituted by “basic” knowledge that you can apply throughout the week which will help you value moderate intensity workouts, improve your bike fit and pedaling efficiency, tweek your nutrition and get gradually stronger on the bike while keeping your body rested enough for the new year. I like the idea of an old skool pyramid structure that supports new developments in the sport. The approach is broad, dynamic, caring, and committed to the culture of cycling. I’m not sure, however, if it will work… but what if it does?!!

Toguri Training - Performance Cycling Training & the Home of Silber Pro Cycling

This video is making the rounds… It reminded me that Nicolas Legault is doing an amazing job building up the program at the Centre National de Cyclisme in Bromont, QC.

Track has its own movement through light, directed power and beauty. So yes, keep that thought of visiting the Bromont facility this summer in mind as you watch this vid:

Toguri Training - Performance Cycling Training & the Home of Silber Pro Cycling

Is it really Robert Ralph, aka “Jr”, being motorpaced?

Toguri Training - Performance Cycling Training & the Home of Silber Pro Cycling