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TrainRight / CTS knowledgebase note

Overview

  • Website: https://trainright.com/
  • Brand on site: CTS, Carmichael Training Systems
  • Positioning: endurance coaching, camps, and education for cycling, ultrarunning, and triathlon
  • Stated track record: coaching company active since 2000, with more than 25 years of coaching and content claims on the current site

Confirmed public social links found in this pass:

Related public media link:

What the site appears to be

TrainRight is the public content and marketing site for CTS, an endurance coaching company built around individual coaching, camps, education, and sport-specific content. Their current public presentation is not just blog content. It is a structured athlete-acquisition and coaching-delivery system built around:

  • free coach consultation
  • coach matching
  • TrainingPeaks-based delivery
  • a large coach roster
  • sport-specific offers for cycling, ultrarunning, and triathlon
  • adjacent products such as camps, testing, sweat testing, books, podcasts, and membership

Core coaching system

From the coaching consultation and coach pages, their operating model appears to be:

  1. athlete fills out a short intake
  2. CTS matches the athlete with a coach based on sport, experience, and goals
  3. athlete gets a free 20-minute consultation
  4. training is then delivered as personalized coaching through TrainingPeaks
  5. athlete receives coach feedback, accountability, and data review

Key public claims about the system:

  • science-based training
  • personalized plans rather than generic templates
  • TrainingPeaks delivery instead of spreadsheets
  • coach feedback and accountability as a core product feature
  • in-house coach education and evaluation

Internal coach-development system

One of the clearer systems visible on the site is their coach pipeline.

CTS coaching college

CTS says it has an in-house Coaching Education Program or CTS Coaching College. New coaches are trained on the CTS coaching philosophy and run through real-world coaching scenarios before working with athletes.

Coach levels

CTS publicly describes a progression ladder:

  • Expert Coach
  • Senior Coach
  • Pro Coach
  • Premier Coach

The levels appear to be based on years of experience, education, internal development, and track record with athletes.

Vetting process

Their stated coach vetting process includes:

  • recruitment through referrals and reputation
  • interview and review of sports science knowledge and coaching ability
  • onboarding through CTS Coaching College
  • ongoing mentoring, education, and athlete-feedback monitoring

Coaching philosophy and methods, inferred from public materials

Based on the coaching and content pages, the main CTS methods appear to be:

1. Personalized coaching over fixed plans

They repeatedly contrast their service against generic plans. Their pitch is that effective training should be customized to:

  • goals
  • schedule
  • lifestyle constraints
  • sport demands
  • age and training history

This is a standard but central part of their model, not just marketing language.

2. Science-based endurance coaching

CTS repeatedly uses the language of:

  • proven methods
  • cutting-edge science
  • data-driven insights
  • sports science education

The site suggests they want to sit in the middle ground between traditional coach judgement and modern data-informed endurance training.

3. Coach-led accountability

A major part of the system is not just plan writing. It is regular interpretation and accountability. Their sales language emphasizes that the athlete should not have to guess what is working.

4. Event- and athlete-specific adaptation

Their testimonials and service descriptions repeatedly mention adjusting for:

  • life constraints
  • older athletes
  • terrain and event demands
  • nutrition
  • environmental factors
  • cross-training where useful

5. Training for masters athletes

The site is visibly investing in a masters-cycling segment. Their public copy for the 6-week masters power program emphasizes:

  • structure over just riding more
  • recovery, mobility, and strength for athletes over 50
  • longevity as part of performance coaching

That suggests a system that sees masters performance as a distinct coaching problem, not just normal training with lower volume.

Public training and nutrition techniques visible on the site

Fueling by workload, not hype

A strong theme in the current content is that carbohydrate intake should be scaled to actual workload, not copied blindly from the WorldTour.

From their public cycling nutrition content, visible methods include:

  • use kilojoules per hour from a power meter to estimate fueling needs
  • scale carbohydrate intake to a percentage of hourly work performed
  • reserve 100 to 120+ g/hr intakes for workloads that actually justify it
  • treat GI distress as the primary limiter to very high carbohydrate intake
  • use gut training to progressively raise intake tolerance

This is a practical coaching framework, not just a nutrition article. It shows a systems approach:

  • measure workload
  • classify ride type
  • scale fuel accordingly
  • train the gut deliberately

Performance rides vs easy rides

One public framework distinguishes between:

  • performance rides
  • easy/endurance rides

The logic is that harder rides require a greater proportion of carbohydrate replacement, while easier rides can be fueled more conservatively. That is a simple but useful coaching system because it gives athletes a repeatable decision rule instead of one universal target.

Indoor interval fueling approach

Their indoor-cycling nutrition guidance suggests the following method:

  • keep the pre-workout meal light enough to avoid training while overfull
  • use a small pre-workout snack 30 to 60 minutes before training when needed
  • prioritize hydration over calories during short, hard indoor sessions
  • use caffeine selectively as an ergogenic aid when tolerated
  • avoid overcompensating calorically after a one-hour trainer session
  • reserve recovery shakes for specific situations, such as multiple sessions per day or short recovery windows

This reflects a consistent theme on the site: fuel precisely enough to support the session, but do not inflate intake beyond what the session demands.

Carbohydrate availability manipulation, used sparingly

The indoor-workout article references the Sleep High, Train Low concept, but with a restrained stance. The public guidance suggests:

  • it is not necessary for most athletes trying to improve fat oxidation or durability
  • low intensity alone gets most of the intended adaptation
  • high carbohydrate availability is preferable for high-intensity work
  • low-availability work is better reserved for long morning endurance rides, not hard sessions

That indicates a coaching style that is willing to use carbohydrate periodization concepts, but not romantically.

Fast fuel vs slow fuel

One public article references a useful lifestyle split:

  • fast fuel during exercise and high-output work
  • slow fuel outside exercise and during normal daily eating

This is less a novel sports-science system than a coaching communication tool. It helps athletes separate performance fueling from general-health eating.

Distinct systems visible across the business

The site suggests several parallel systems:

Athlete acquisition system

  • content marketing through blog and podcast
  • free coach consultation
  • coach matching
  • case studies and reviews

Coaching delivery system

  • individualized coach assignment
  • TrainingPeaks delivery
  • accountability and feedback loops
  • sport-specific coaching verticals

Coach quality-control system

  • CTS Coaching College
  • coach levels
  • mentoring and continuing education
  • athlete feedback monitoring

Education and media system

  • blog articles
  • podcast
  • books such as The Time-Crunched Cyclist
  • category-specific advice for training, nutrition, and endurance topics

Specialized offer system

  • camps
  • mountain-bike skills clinics
  • sweat testing
  • performance testing
  • masters-specific short-duration coaching offer

Practical read on their coaching style

The overall coaching style appears to be:

  • mainstream endurance coaching, but polished and systematized
  • strongly athlete-facing and commercially mature
  • data-informed, but not overtly lab-obsessed in public messaging
  • heavily focused on athlete adherence and clear decision rules
  • comfortable coaching broad populations, from novices to elite athletes
  • especially strong on translating sports science into usable field language

What seems most useful to borrow

From a practical coaching standpoint, the most reusable pieces are:

  • scaling fueling to workload, not trend-driven numbers
  • distinguishing performance rides from easy rides for nutrition decisions
  • using simple athlete decision frameworks instead of abstract physiology alone
  • maintaining a formal coach education and quality-control system
  • emphasizing customization and accountability rather than just plan generation

Cautions

  • This note is based on public website material, so it reflects what CTS chooses to present publicly, not a full inside view of their coaching process.
  • Their site is a mix of coaching philosophy, lead generation, and content marketing, so some claims are marketing language rather than hard operational detail.
  • The visible system is credible and coherent, but public pages alone do not prove the quality of day-to-day coach execution.

Useful follow-up

If this becomes strategically relevant, next useful research steps would be:

  • review The Time-Crunched Cyclist positioning and how central it still is to the CTS model
  • sample more training articles to map their interval and periodization language more precisely
  • review their ultrarunning and triathlon sections separately to see where their methods diverge by sport
  • compare their public carbohydrate and masters-athlete guidance against current best practice and your own coaching standards