The Volume Trap: Why Junk Miles Quietly Kill Fitness | Zach Calton | Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast 575
Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast - Presented by TrainerRoad
TrainerRoad
4.9 • 4.6K Ratings
🗓️ 26 February 2026
⏱️ 57 minutes
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Summary
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// TOPICS COVERED
(00:00:00) How Do I Get Better at the Process of Training?
(00:01:06) How Do You Balance Full-Time Work and High-Level Training?
(00:04:23) When Should I Stick to the Plan vs Adjust a Workout?
(00:07:08) Should I Ever Push Harder Than My Workout Prescribes?
(00:11:43) Is Consistency More Important Than Training Volume?
(00:15:33) Do Big Training Camps Actually Make Me Fitter?
(00:18:11) Why Are My Key Workouts Getting Worse?
(00:22:49) What Does “Listen to Your Body” Actually Mean?
(00:25:26) How Should I Adjust Training on a Bad Day?
(00:26:19) What Metrics Should I Focus on During Workouts?
(00:34:11) How Do I Mentally Handle Hard Intervals?
(00:40:24) How Do I Pace Intervals Outside Without Chasing Watts?
(00:44:06) How Do I Stay Disciplined on Long Endurance Rides?
(00:48:01) Do I Need to Ride Race Distance to Prepare for Long Gravel Events?
(00:53:13) How Do I Survive the Early Attacks in Gravel Races?
(00:56:11) Where Can I Follow Zach + Start Structured Training?
In this episode, Coach Jonathan sits down with gravel pro cyclist Zach Calton for a detailed discussion on how pros approach endurance training differently than amateurs. They break down the specific habits that make professionals better at the process of training—protecting key interval sessions, resisting the urge to add junk miles, prioritizing consistency over massive volume spikes, and using tools like RPE, heart rate, and repeat workout benchmarks to measure real progress. Zach also shares how he adapts structured workouts for gravel racing, manages fatigue, and builds race-ready fitness for long events like Unbound. If you want to train smarter, execute your plan better, and think like a pro cyclist, this episode delivers the blueprint.
// RESOURCES MENTIONED
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Ask a Cycling Coach podcast presented by Trainer Road. |
| 0:02.5 | Today we have Zach Kalton from Ventum Bikes. |
| 0:05.4 | Zach is going to talk and I. |
| 0:08.1 | We're both going to have this big discussion about how you get better at the process of training. |
| 0:13.1 | Not just the fact that when you train, you get fitter, but actually how do you become a better trainer, a person that's executing the training? |
| 0:20.3 | Because Zach, sometimes I feel like you guys take it for granted. |
| 0:24.2 | Like you're really good at it and you just forget and it becomes normal. |
| 0:27.1 | But at some point, you sucked at training. |
| 0:29.3 | And now you're really good at it. |
| 0:31.7 | Very true. |
| 0:33.1 | Probably been a while. |
| 0:34.3 | You've been at it for a while. |
| 0:36.8 | We've had Zach on the podcast before. if you don't know who Zach is. |
| 0:39.8 | Zach races gravel and mountain bikes for Ventum for plenty of awesome brands. |
| 0:46.5 | If you know who Zach is on Instagram, you should totally follow him if you haven't. |
| 0:51.6 | But he was also on our Cape Epic series that we recently did with Alex. And he documented the misadventures that he experienced and the adventures that he experienced in that one. He's in the Lifetime Grand Prix. He's an athlete that understands the nuance and the training. And also you can go to his social channels and every once in all, he'll be posting content with insight on that very specific thing because you care about training, Zach. It's like a big time. You aren't just one of |
| 1:14.8 | the like spirit of gravel out there, but you like you care about training. I can't say that I am. Yeah, |
| 1:20.4 | no. Yeah. Before we do this, I want to add some context because some people may not know this. Zach, you, how, you aren't just like a, you are forever fast and forever just all you did was cycling. |
| 1:34.5 | Yeah. |
| 1:34.8 | But you also, very recently were working full time, trying to train, trying to balance it all. |
| 1:41.9 | Yeah. |
| 1:42.2 | So you're not coming from a position that's completely foreign to everybody that's |
... |
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