EVOQ.BIKE Cycling Podcast

When Lee Davis emailed me in April 2020 and mentioned that he was planning to do NT-444, I had to google the event. I was unaware of this one. 444 MILES!? That is one long bike ride!!! While I’ve completed a 250 mile ride on the road and gravel, 400+ is a whole other beast. I sat down to talk to Lee about this incredible feat, which has me so inspired to hit the 300 mark one day. 400, I don’t know, maybe! PS, THIS GUY TURNS 59 THIS YEAR. INSPIRED!!!!! https://www.evoq.bike/blog/lee-davis-nt444-ultra-cycling

https://www.evoq.bike/blog/grantkoontz Grant is a true leader and phenomenal cyclist, with National Titles on the road and track. He is currently training specifically to make the Olympic Track Team for 2024! We talk about his Pro Continental lessons learned, big volume, more VO2Max training, and a whole lot more! Click the link in bio to learn a lot and improve your cycling! Even though he’s got a focus on the track, road and gravel will intertwine into his training. I love this, as I often preach that Variety is key, on a micro AND macro level. How is Grant planning his training with a goal that is SO far away? 2024 is a ways out! Small goals along the way will lead him to the team, I am confident for Grant!! How and why he trained through COVID and stay motivated with cycling intervals and gym work. “Control what you can control. Behind the scenes, train my ass off. I’ll be better off for it.” Winning a team pursuit in 2019 when he was “way over his head”. Road fitness got him there, but he needed to tweak his training to track specific work. You gotta push a BIG GEAR straight out of the gates. More VO2Max Training! YES! Try new training techniques; get new and different stimulus. What would you recommend to athletes going from road cycling to track cycling? Grant loves volume, so the change has really forced him to focus on some shorter duration intervals. As a roadie, he was doing more sweet spot and threshold, “but you’re not going to win many races just doing sweet spot!” Intervals under fatigue: VO2Max work at hour 4! Cycling Lifting Domestic Road Racing Success

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKI9ZZoIty0 In Part 2, we will look at your second block of training in order to prepare for the next season.   This will be broken down into Gym work, Midweek Rides, and Weekend Rides.   The focus is on tempo, sweet spot (briefly!), and an FTP test.   Long tempo and extensive aerobic rides on the weekend, and of course a base miles ride. Email me with questions or comments at Brendan@EVOQ.BIKE  Thanks for watching, and please tell a friend about us!

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRNOO_VbgJc What are fartlek intervals?  How do you ride where the road dictates the effort?   When are we training one max watt effort versus repeatable efforts at let's say, 95% of your one max effort?   How aggressive should I be in the group ride? Sometimes I feel like it's just coasting and then one big sprint. What should I do?   Interval intensity related to Q2: should I go full send on the first one?   I'm doing a time trial and an old coach told me only to look at normalized power. Is this right?  Cliff notes: I disagree with this; it's all about top average speed; check out the video for more details on that!   Email me any questions at Brendan@EVOQ.BIKE   Thanks for watching, and please tell a friend! And subscribe!

Video: https://youtu.be/x5pnsSMx6A0 LactiGo Discount Code: Brendan20.  Let me cut to the chase: LACTIGO IS LEGIT.  It is nothing like AMP PR Lotion. More on that below.   When we go hard, we undergo glycolysis to produce energy. One of the big byproducts of this process is the production of hydrogen ions which creates acidity in our bodies (that burn when you’re dropping the hammer!)  This burn is the hydrogen ions, not lactic acid.  Said differently, if you’re wondering how to prevent lactic acid or lactic acid build up, you’re really wanting to understand the reduction of hydrogen ions in the bloodstream.   Sodium bicarbonate is used to buffer hydrogen ions in the blood.    Carnosine is a sponge that soaks up free hydrogen ions and binds them. Carnosine buffers hydrogen ions in the cells, meaning it actually has a greater effect at reducing the burning sensation that we feel.   Carnosine is one of the first thing that balances the acid, and this happens in the cells, before it is in the bloodstream. Once it’s in the bloodstream, sodium bicarbonate can go to work.   Summary: LactiGo goes to work on reducing the burning feeling well before AMP PR Lotion does. You feel less burn with Lactigo and the muscles can work harder.  I f you’ve used sodium bicarbonate products, you know how messy, thick, and gunky they are. LactiGo gel absorbs and dries on your skin within minutes. No thick paste on your legs. It’s so much cleaner and easier to use than other products on the market.   It delivers carnosine to the muscles through the skin on your FIRST application. We’ll get into this below.   LactiGo deliver carnosine directly to your muscles, which has been shown to improve aerobic and anaerobic athletic performance.   You can produce more work at a similar metabolic load, and this higher workload will provide you with more adaptation at the workload. Do more work, get stronger on the bike.   Carnosine will improve not only your anaerobic power (sprinting, hard 1 minute max efforts, bridging gaps, etc), but also your aerobic power at VO2Max, Functional Threshold Power (FTP), and endurance for long rides. You will fatigue slower and increase your Time To Exhaustion.   LactiGO has figured out how to apply the lotion and have the carnosine enter the muscle within 45 minutes of application, so you no longer need to go through the 8 week loading phase with Beta Alanine.   My personal review of AMP: mixed. Some days it felt like like a little benefit, other days, none.  I’ve used it on some really hard intervals, and didn’t have an increase in watts or feel any better than if I didn’t use AMP.   The consistency of AMP Human PR Lotion is also somewhat annoying to deal with. I’m kneading the bottle to try and make sure it’s all mixed up, and sometimes you just get too much sodium bicarbonate, sometimes it’s too much of the liquid carrier.   One you put it on, well, you’re hands are a mess. Hopefully you have a towel nearby or a sink to wash your hands.   When you’re riding, you’ll see the sodium bicarbonate runs down your legs sometimes. Just picking up more road junk as we smash.  IDK, not a huge fan of AMP Human PR Lotion.   Your Lactigo Discount Code is Brendan20.   How To Apply LactiGo One LactiGo bottle covers around 10 full-body applications.  For cycling, I use 10 pumps total, covering my ankles, calves, quads, hamstrings, and glutes.  Apply LactiGo directly to the desired muscles 45 minutes before your activity, workout, or competition.    Apply another round of LactiGo after your activity to further aid in muscle recovery.

Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC3WCNLCGQE   you might want to watch this one so you can see the graphs Sometimes you need to test where you're at to see where you're at. Makes sense, right?   But sometimes the numbers or metrics that we see can fake us out a bit.   Are you making a judgement today based on a ride from 89 days ago (your hero bar)?   Or are you thinking you're not as strong as you are because the algorithm is focused on just the past two blocks of your training? Said differently, if you mFTP is 275 and then you SMASH a few 20 minute efforts well above that, was your FTP really 275 a couple of days ago?   Of course not. But how do you know where you truly lie? You can use this chart FOR SOME INSIGHT, but at the end of the day, it's a great idea to start tracking these changes not only on paper but in your head...what's your FTP usually when you're flying? What about during base? What about during early spring races?   How does your FTP change normally affect your FRC?  The algorithm's can only give you good information to make decisions if you provide it with good data (tests from multiple durations after every block or two of training).   There's many ways to get these numbers without pure "tests". Think about that for a minute. It will help you down the road!   See you again next time with another check in on this Level 4 EVOQ.BIKE athlete that is going to win Master's Nationals in 2021!   Think positive, then make it happen.  LET'S GO!

Original Post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okcneWX6oZs Johnny has been riding and racing since he was a wee-pup, coming in 2nd for the MTB Worlds Qualifying team and nearly missing Worlds for cyclocross as well, never-nervous Johnny Purvis has been hitting up some big races for a long time.   When cycling wasn't fully panning out, he dug into running more, landed a scholarship at Univ of Arkansas Little Rock, and eventually ran professionally (cycling's Cat 1 level) in Sweden.   Johnny drops some knowledge on what it takes to go from running to cycling, gets into being early and prepared for race day, and has some great stories along the way.   While he's often at the pointy end of the crit, he's also a phenomenal road racer and newly crushing the gravel scene.   If you want to get good at racing, Johnny will tell you that it takes a lot of time: you need to race, study racing, watch other riders, and learn as much and as often as you can.   A conversation between him and Colin Strickland helped him learn to roll the dice a bit more and go for 1st as opposed to a more guaranteed top 10.   As we talked about in the previous video, no one is going to remember your 4th place finish except for you.   Everyone will remember when you went off the front and got caught on the line for dead last though. Or, if you win!  With some big results across all disciplines of cycling, there's a lot to learn from this guy's swaggg.    yyp.   Thanks Johnny, and I can't wait to see him smash on Lactigo. He's on the code Brendan20 for sure.   @swagggyyp on IG, watch for a new series from him.  EVOQ.BIKE EVOQ.BIKE/Blog Podcast on all platforms.  Let's go!!!!  Brendan@EVOQ.BIKE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2kpGzdNQCU Things have gotten very complicated, and when I was watching some webinars and reading articles about base miles and how to ride through autumn, I was doing all these calculations and thinking, "Betsy Jo doesn't have time for this!"  I want to get you 95% there. Let's simplify things, it doesn't have to be so complicated.  In 5 videos, we're going to break down block by block, how you can start in October and toe the line in February for a long season ahead.  All the blocks are listed out in the blog above, so check that out so you have a 30,000 foot overview of where we are headed.  Then, before each month I'll post a video giving you some guidance so that when racing and group rides come around again, you'll be ready to start smashing it!  Let me know what questions arise, Brendan@EVOQ.BIKE  Thanks for watching, and tell a friend about EVOQ.BIKE!

I like this episode of Cat 4 Questions Episode 9, as it's not just power and watts and speed related.  This guy asked about what his potential ceiling is and where should his cycling career go as a 29 year old that rapidly went from Cat 5 to Cat 2.  The cycling landscape is changing rapidly, and with road cycling shifting around (not dying) and gravel exploding along with gran fondo's, I think it's a fair question to ask: is being domestic pro even worth it anymore?  The short answer is yes. The experience that you'd gain and the ability to see the US and possibly Europe and Asia sounds ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.  But, at 29, is it worth throwing eggs in this basket? We discuss.  Watts per kg...I wouldn't shoot for one number; 5 w/kg has been a gold standard but seems outdated to me. You're a great cyclist at 5, but by no means phenomenal.  Check out this video, and let me know if you want to hear more of my origin story in cycling. I'm happy to share it all with you, but I'm not sure if that offers a ton of value for your time.  Thanks for watching and please share this with a friend!  Brendan@EVOQ.BIKE

YouTube: https://youtu.be/Hoq3iJ0-luw Master's National Champion Owen Shott drops in to share his vast knowledge of all things bike racing, triathlon transition to racing, and coaching elite level athletes. Owen drops some gems, like how foam rolling is like brushing your teeth. Keep the muscles supple and flowing nicely. Group rides teach bad habits, BUT(!), there is a time and place for them. Have purpose for your day, every day! Teammate motivation Stress + Recovery = Optimal Performance What are the little things that can add up and give you a great performance? We dive into these. Thanks Owen! Don't forget to check out Lactigo! I can't wait to see Owen's numbers on this!