Chris Carmichael was an Olympian and a professional cyclist before beginning his career as a coach, best-selling author, and entrepreneur. He has coached elite cyclists since 1990, was recognized as the U.S. Olympic Committee Coach of the Year, and was inducted into the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2003. He served as the men’s road coach for the U.S. Olympic Cycling Team during the 1992 Olympic Games, and was the head coach for the U.S. Cycling Team for the 1996 Olympic Games. Carmichael founded Carmichael Training Systems (CTS) in 2000 to make world-class coaching expertise available to everyone. Through Chris’s leadership and an unsurpassed education program that develops the highest-trained coaches in the industry, CTS immediately established itself as the premier destination for personal fitness, nutrition, and performance coaching and camps. CTS’s proven track record for producing champions continues to attract top amateur and professional athletes, including Ironman® world champions Craig Alexander, Tim DeBoom, and Normann Stadler; Olympic triathlon gold and silver medalist Simon Whitfield; NASCAR drivers Carl Edwards and Bobby Labonte; five-time U.S. national cyclocross champion Katie Compton; and two-time cyclocross national champion Ryan Trebon. In addition, Chris has created more than a dozen training DVDs and authored five books, including The Ultimate Ride (2003), the New York Times bestseller Chris Carmichael’s Food for Fitness (2004), and 5 Essentials for a Winning Life (2006).

Jim Rutberg is the communications manager for Haute Route and the media director for Carmichael Training Systems. He is coauthor, with Chris Carmichael, of The Time-Crunched Cyclist, The Time-Crunched Triathlete, The Ultimate Ride, Chris Carmichael’s Food for Fitness, Chris Carmichael’s Fitness Cookbook, The Carmichael Training Systems Cyclist’s Training Diary, 5 Essentials for a Winning Life, and innumerable web and magazine articles. His work has appeared in Bicycling, Outside, Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, VeloNews, Inside Triathlon, and more. A graduate of Wake Forest University and former elite cyclist, Rutberg lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, Leslie, and their two sons, Oliver and Elliot.