Trevor Irons, PhD
I have been active in the sport of bicycle racing since the mid 1990s. Initially, I was racing as a junior in MTB disciplines and loved the competition and thrill of racing. Soon I also discovered road racing. I was hooked on the tactics and chess game that went into road racing and for a long time this became my primary cycling passion. I achieved modest success road racing. Highlights for me included several seasons racing in Europe with the US National Team and affiliated teams in Belgium. I also had the opportunity to race in Okinawa. I held a UCI Elite license and competed in races up to UCI 1.5 and 2.6. These were incredible experiences, and during this time I was exposed to and worked with a lot of different styles of coaches. I naturally also was exposed to racing strategies and training methodologies. These experiences profoundly impacted my coaching approach and philosophy. I found several coaching styles that worked well for me, and several that did not.
One of the most difficult decisions an elite-level athlete has to make, is deciding when to ‘hang up’ the bike. While discussing my progress with coaches and team directors, I made the difficult decision to scale back my racing career. I continued racing domestically for a few years, notably with a junior development team out of Vail, CO. I enjoyed working with the young riders on the team, and they helped reinvigorate my love of the sport. I enjoyed this mentoring and coaching role. During this time, I also became increasingly involved in a second career in science. I received a PhD in geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines and worked in groundwater imaging for several years before returning to academia where I studied climate change and geologic carbon sequestration. In these endeavours I developed skills as a software engineer and data scientist. Geophysical surveys involve working with very large amounts of data, and I loved poring over diverse and complex datasets to uncover their hidden meaning. One of the biggest transformations in cycling has been the widespread adoption of power meters and heart rate monitors. A single rider accumulates many GB of data in a season and many riders can feel like they are drowning in data. It was with a degree of surprise when I found my background in science coming back around to help in my continued interest in cycling.
Cycling coaching is both an art and a science. I was exposed to the art of coaching firsthand in my cycling career and while mentoring juniors in Colorado. My PhD in science allows me to leverage big data and statistical inference to track cycling fitness and progress.
Part of my coaching workflow involves identifying limitors. Limitors are the pieces that hold you back, your weaknesses. My weakness as a coach is a limited knowledge of physiology, nutrition, and biokinetics. To address these limitors I spend a lot of time reading articles, listening to podcasts, and taking continuing education courses offered to USA Cycling Certified coaches such as myself. When necessary, I consult friends and colleague in the cycling world. I’m not afraid to state where my knowledge ends and to bring in another opinion. It’s almost always better to work together.
▶ Certified USA Cycling Level 3 coach with ongoing CE
▶ Racing since 1994
▶ Road, Cyclocross, Gravel, and MTB
▶ I’ve raced as a junior, espoir, adult and currently masters
▶ I’ve been exposed to lots of coaching methodologies while racing with the US National Team, European continental racing, and Domestic Road and MTB Racing
▶ I’m also a scientist (PhD) and have done data processing, software design, and data analysis for many years. I bring a scientific mentality to training and data analysis