EVOQ.BIKE Cycling Podcast

It's so much more than just watts. Big thanks to Robin Carpenter of Rally Pro Cycling for sitting down and discussing a lot of the small details of his training and how he got the where he is! Robin is at the pointy end of a LOT of races in the USA and honing his craft in Europe. He shares tips that he has learned along the way and provides some great ideas that you can apply to your own training. Thank you Robin! Some show notes listed below. More is discussed in the actual interview. Please Like and Subscribe to the channel, and I can be reached at Brendan@EVOQ.BIKE. Introduce Yourself: who is Robin Carpenter!? STAGE 2014 US Pro Challenge Colorado 2016 Stage Tour of Utah GC 2016 Tour of Alberta GC 2017 Cascade Cycling Classic Green Jersey 2017 Tour de Beauce 1st 2017 Winston Salem Cycling Classic 2017 Joe Martin GC 5m20s What results are you most proud of? 8m10s Describe your racing style Watts Per cDa 13m20s - 19m Small thing that has a big impact in your training? Putting pressure on yourself for intervals. Lots of sweet spot! Don’t miss this section! 23m Best habit and worst habit? SLEEP! 26m20s - 30m, Mindset going into a big race. Has this changed now that he’s a seasoned pro? THIS IS GOOD. 31m30s synthesizing a race 32m40s Using Your Brain to Get In The Break; Slow the race down mentally 37m Biggest goal as a pro cyclist 41m30s Bread 48m40s, LISTEN UP!! His #1 Tip! Please share this with a friend! https://youtu.be/VS9n8FC-Q6A

Zach Nehr is rider for Project Echelon Racing and races on team NeXT on Zwift. He is also a coach and writer for VeloNews!  Zach has been cracking at the pro cycling door for a couple years and decided to focus more on building his business right as Covid happened. He had never ridden on zwift until the lockdown but spent the past year riding and competing mostly inside, and elements of his riding are better than ever! We spent some time trying to understand just why this is the case.   For different reasons, Zach and Patrick are both riding a lot less than they used to, but certain aspects of their riding are better than ever- which has surprised us both!   We talk about:   8m-What does Zach's indoor training look like compared to when he was riding 20 hours a week in Tucson.    12m- Steady riding vs quasi steady Zwift racing "intervals"  13m-Endurance Sports do NOT happen over night!   15m- another reminder- CTL does not reflect how strong you are. How does Zach look at this?   16:30 : your W/KG chart does not tell the whole story! You are always going to have to make your winning move after already pedaling hard!   18m- There are long races on Zwift- the Kiss 100 series! Zach Raced and won the 4 hour PRL full!   20m- Riding LESS does not make you faster. Training SMARTER does. 8-10 hours goes a LONG way for indoor and outside racers  23m- The quality and intensity of your Hard rides really needs to be hard- inside or outside.   31m- The main differences between Zwift racing and The Echelon Race Series happening on RGT   34m- Does having higher power for 40-60m Zwift races necessarily mean you will be a better road racer?     Other things we covered:  Training distribution when you ride inside vs. outside- More intensity! The differences of racing a small zwift race vs a big zwift race  Riding outside OR inside you need to ride your terrain Premier outdoor Stage Race fitness vs. Full Gas indoor racing   Plan your schedule! Your hard need to be REALLY hard and your easy needs to be easy!  RGT vs. Zwift As it turns out, riding less doesn't necessarily mean training less, or that you will have to get "slower" it just means you need to find ways to optimize your use of time!

We always talk about eating like an athlete, and food is fuel, so Patrick sat down with Michelle Henry, one of the members of the EVOQ Eracing Women's team, to discuss just how tricky this balance can be for experienced and novice cyclists alike.  More info about Michelle: https://sites.google.com/view/nutritionbymichellehenry/homeIG @michellecycles

Cadence and Power. Mindset. Time in Zone. There are some threads in here!

This one is great, as Stephen really opens up to us about all things cycling and life. Thank you so much for all your time Stephen! As mentioned, here is a link to the Tribe of Mentors book: https://amzn.to/3hK1FXZ 2:10 Who is Stephen Bassett 2:30 quick hitting questions 6m20 American vs Euro Racing What does Stephen end a lot of rides with? 11m50s Who is his coach? 12m35s The strength of resilience in training; what do you have at hour 4 or 5? Let’s chat about weaknesses! 16m I was surprised by this, I pictured Stephen really shining here. Just after, working on those long, dragged out efforts that aren’t full gas, but hurt just a bit. The more of a specialist you are, the more you want to train those strengths! Understanding how to characterize yourself as an athlete Favorite Pro Race? Stephen talks about loving some races that are all about survival. How does he continue to make selection after selection? 20m30s TOP TIPS FOR NEW CYCLISTS! Love these! PUT FUEL IN THE TANK!Going on a group ride and not pedaling? Save the 10% of watts at 450W as opposed to 250W Minimize time over threshold 24m30s the soft skills of moving to Europe to race…BUILD YOUR DOJO OMG LOL, 30m in…the lead up to him explaining why he’s “the cockroach that cycling can’t kill” Minute 32-40: How did losing a job help him really look at himself and obstacles in his life to get back on track? Finding the balances outside of cycling. Finding his tribe. Feeding off your teammates, especially when everyone is winning. Hakkaido!! 40m Focus on the race being fun and relieve the pressure of the result. Of course I asked about Pro Cats. Minute 43. Bank positions before the hill! The day you win a race might be a day when only 25% of things go wrong; it might not be a magical, perfect, day. Do the work in the moment! Wanting to win a midlevel Euro race… minute 50 FAILURE. min 52 Reframing perspectives. 53m30s TANGENT #3 Do different levels of racing! What’s an unusual thing that you love to do? LOL. Minute 56. Weird gluten bruh. 57m30s Tangents with Stephen Bassett ;-) So much of the sport is doing boring stuff. It’s a lifestyle!!! It’s just easier to do the work. The appeal of radically changing things. 1h1m15s, LISTEN TO THIS!!!!! A lot of good is better than a little bit of perfect. When is good enough, good enough? Thanks for watching! Please share this with a friend and subscribe! Brendan@EVOQ.BIKE https://youtu.be/lVo0lM5fzTQ

Today did not go as planned.  I shredded too hard in the gym and learned a good lesson that when my T2 secondary lift starts getting heavy, I need to do less reps.    My hips and low back might still be a bit wonky from the 16 hour drive, but whatever, it was a day to rip and I was mentally excited.   I forgot how the route unfolds; there was more traffic than I expected at lights since last time I rode so much earlier in the AM; I flatted on an open section, slit my finger open on the rotor....things just weren't going well!!! BUT....   There's a micro win in there somewhere. Gotta keep riding, salvage something from it. Don't just go home.   Also, we'll talk about how this can prepare you for race day, because YOU WILL have a morning when things are NOT lining up as you planned; AUDIBLE.  Be prepared to shift towards plan B!   Brendan@EVOQ.BIKE

Please leave us a 5 Star Review on iTunes if we've earned it! We continue the conversation around Craig's couch to Nationals, which has really just become a conversational flow about all things in a cycling training plan as he prepares for race season. As always, can you help us out and Like the video and Subscribe IF THIS BRINGS YOU VALUE. Thank you! Full training tips blog at: www.evoq.bike/blog In this episode, we hit on a bunch: What is the fast 30 interval, which includes some fartlek vo2max bangers. kJ deep rides; I don't talk about this A LOT, but I talk about it enough. This is even really pertinent if you're racing gravel. Structure on a free ride? When, how, and when? 10 minute bangers; love em. I just find them so applicable to racing. Rolling between efforts at zone 2 or above, hitting 4% active recovery and 30% endurance as opposed to full on recovery; you’ll actually consume more lactate this way! For a max watt 40 minute effort, would you rather go steady or ON/OFF with surges? Am I doing 1h power or 10m and 30m power? 3 things I wish i knew when i started training: train vo2max, deadlift heavy, and use LactiGo Craig’s max watt effort; he was just feeling like he wanted to crank out a 20-30 minute effort, and we said let’s GO! This starts at 18m30s Winter Training Camp, minute 24; what to do at camp? But also, what to do after? What does the upcoming spring look like for Craig? Intensive Aerobic, Lactate Shuttling…when will we hit VO2Max? How do we make back up plans if the race schedule changes? Do we even need to change anything? Look down the line, what about a race sim? Craig@EVOQ.BIKE Brendan@EVOQ.BIKE https://youtu.be/SKXwRMOw3eo

While it all stacks on each other (listen to the Chris Dellasega podcast), it can also detract when things start sliding off track. Look at the forest. I know, you’re tired of hearing that, but like an 8th grade teacher I want to “drill this point home”. Happy New Year’s and hopefully we all cross paths in 2021 aayyyeeee!!! 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀

Chris is a really intelligent coach, and he's super passionate about making athletes better! We accidentally went full tilt on nutrition from 12-35 minutes. Lifting chat start around minute 44, and you'll want to listen through as we discuss lifting close to cycling competition, potentiation, VARIATION in lifting protocols, and SO much more. Squat ass to grass or to parallel? It depends, and Chris explains. Trap bar or straight bar for cyclists? Guess what, it depends; Chris extrapolates! At the heart of Chris' philosophy is the kaizen principle….Kaizen is a long-term approach to an objective that systematically aims to achieve small, incremental changes in order to improve efficiency and quality. Continuous improvement is the responsibility of every everyone involved in the training process. Listen to him discuss stacking 1% gains on top of each other over the long haul! MICRO WINS MATTER. Consistency is king. When we hit on this topic, it resonated so well with me, as Consistency is PILLAR #1 to my cycling coaching methodology. The magic is that there is no magic. Preach. You can’t out-train a bad diet. We don’t need less carbs, we need better carb sources! Try to improve in some way, shape or form and those little improvements add up BIG TIME over time. Nutrition: you mention most athletes aren’t getting enough of the right stuff, what are some of the biggest things missing? Protein Water! Fruits and veggies Healthy fats Food intolerance test: naturalPath doctor. Sensitivity test Supplements for lifting? minute 35 Multivitamin : Designs for Health. ATP Labs. Fish oil Magnesium D3 Probiotic Rotating workout blocks through season; I love this, as I'm a big believer in changing up the stimuli in cycling training. You'll hear more about this again in the middle and end of the conversation. There are 180 variations of a squat! Most of us only know 2! Lots of ways to program this. What took you from amateur to pro probably won’t sustain you as a pro! Train smarter AND Harder. Love this, DO WORK. Gigajoule lifestyle. How does an athlete stand, or walk. Chris can tell quite a bit from this. Not enough emphasis on hamstring strength, an anteriorly rotated pelvis, and weak scapular stabilizers (Mid back) and anterior rotation of the shoulders. If you've read this far, Chris is a big fan of ass to grass squats if you have the body structure to do so! But, it depends how close you are to competition as to whether you go ass to grass or parallel. Is there a “big tss week” or is that too dangerous? Extra sets or something? When would you do it? Love his answer; but be safe and smart everyone! Straight bar vs trap bar deadlift for cyclists. Pros and cons, as well as risks. Warm up for lifting to 275. How much is enough ? 65 75 85% warm up ? 54321 rep scheme Train Heroic app Busting through plateaus; no surprise here; CHANGE IT UP! Lifting during cyclingrest weeks, is this okay? If so, what's the protocol? Variation and different stimuli is SO IMPORTANT as human athletes! When should a cyclist transition from lifting heavy to plyometrics? Transfer strength into power. “Power is torque x speed. Rather than just lifting heavy weights, do you incorporate specific speed targeted lifts (lifts meant to be done at cycling speed I.e 80-120rpm) or plyo into the weight routine? If so, when in the course of the season or is it sprinkled throughout?” Thanks for watching, and as always, please share this with a friend! https://youtu.be/oq6MiUdeIiw

I’m a fan of high torque for certain athletes BUT I’m NEVER a fan of high torque stemming from muscling the bike when it’s not intended. This can coincide with lifting heavy, which I’m a huge fan of! Let’s look at this and separate the two. Be safe out there (and in there; it’s the trainer, Lol!)