EVOQ.BIKE Cycling Podcast

I like the "don't overthink it ". That's me in a nut shell. I can get caught up and overthink on a lot of things! It's easy to want to plan the entire season and figure out everything all at once, but sometimes we need to let the training come to us; and see what life dictates! It's not always easy to embrace this, but hopefully this athlete's story help you let the riding and events happen when they are possible. Good luck! Brendan@EVOQ.bike. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Full Blog With Training Tips: www.evoq.bike/blog Subscribe to Our Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ggRc4n Follow Me on Strava: https://www.strava.com/pros/5889

This was an awesome interview with TJ Eisenhart. You probably know his history of going from being one of the top US Road Cyclists and shifting towards gravel racing and starting the Imaginary Collective. We talked about all current things going on from bikes to art projects. Check out the show notes below, and be sure to check out his Insta page! It's awesome! https://www.instagram.com/tjeisenhart/ https://www.instagram.com/evoq.bike/ Check out our blog with training tips: https://www.evoq.bike/blog 00:00 Welcome TJ Eisenhart 02:00 The entrepreneurial hustle! PUTTING IN THE WORK. 06:10 Living in the present The biggest religion is smiling. Mormon growing up. 12:00 Inner conflicts and pushing that onto other humans. 15:00 Road cycling environment; was TJ meant to be there, or did it stifle creativity? 18:15 Wim Hof Breathwork and Cold Water…can a pro cyclist hold his breath longer than 60yo women?! EGO! I’m the best. I’m strong. 23:00 Signing with BMC. Be careful what you wish for, and ask for. 24:45 Palace Skateboard and alternative races 32:20 Should you only do what you love? 40:00 Taylor Phinney Conversation at Unbound 42:15 Imaginary Collective Curation 47:15 NFTs. We are going to have to collaborate with EVOQ.NFT 58:00 Breaking down in order to come back stronger 59:00 A really humbling and open moment. Wow TJ, a huge share. 1:07:00 reciprocating energy through messages 1:10:00 Can TJ get me on a mountain bike? Yikes! 1:11:00 NFTs 1:14:20 DUCKS

So you found cycling late in life? Or maybe you're 35 and wishing you found this when you were 18. Well, we didn't, but keep after it! The journey is so amazing, and you are going to grow SO MUCH!! When you are 3 years into training, you are still a newbie and have so much more to gain. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Full Blog With Training Tips: www.evoq.bike/blog Subscribe to Our Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ggRc4n Follow Me on Strava: https://www.strava.com/pros/5889

"These 6 efforts are nothing like doing a crit? Why can't I go to the crit instead?"   Max watts reached in TRUE anaerobic training is going to be higher than your 1 minute max in the crit...and you're going to do this for a many reps!   Anaerobic blog: https://www.evoq.bike/blog/anaerobic-capacity-cycling email: brendan@EVOQ.BIKE.    Follow Me on Strava: https://www.strava.com/pros/5889  Please Like and Subscribe to the channel!

YT link: https://youtu.be/G0OAoYLnBbk And some community building chatter feedback welcome: brendan@evoq.bike 

Part 2 of our conversation about cycling training!  00:00 00:26 I don’t hate sweet spot, I hate the overprescription of it  1:33 When would Tom Bell Prescribe Sweet Spot? what is Sweet Spot training good for?  Over unders  Overly structured BLOCKS (?)  Working the systems versus just arbitrary blocks  4:00 Crit training; don’t get too specific  4:35 Athletes enjoy sweet spot  4:51 LISTEN TO THIS  5:40 Muscle Fiber types  6:35 can you polarize too much? Crossing over and using all muscle fiber types (this is why is prescribe TEMPO riding!)  Training the in between fibers.  8:20 Tempo vs Sweet Spot  8:50 Sweet Spot for consistent pressure on the pedals  9:53 Looking at Lactate Threshold  12:40 VO2Max work; don’t slide down to Sweet Spot  14:30 Sweet Spot final notes. Not for FTP increases  Well rested for VO2Max  15:43 Sweet Spot is overly fatiguing but hard to see when you’re always riding at Sweet Spot  17:30 Sweet Spot for Long Climbs on big gran fondos  21:05 When the RPE goes up, that doesn’t mean GO HARDER!  22:32 The Marketing of VLaMax  23:00 Hyperfocused on one metric  the availability of the metric for us not in a lab  25:00 How does Tom Bell utilize VLaMax, if at all?  27:00 Practical value from VLaMax  Measuring lactate ACCUMULATION vs PRODUCTION  The method to testing: Vo2max test  33:53 The method Lactate threshold testing and variables that affect the results  Very protocol specific. Diet affects lactate.   34:48 MOXY Device  SmO2  I love how brits pronounce Capillaries   35:50 Wrapping it up, VLaMax and how to utilize metrics in the real world! Step away from the algorithm!  37:35 Putting metrics before the performance…Tom drops some knowledge here!!!!  42:00 Final Thoughts!

Tom and I sat down to do a podcast about VLaMax, and in getting rolling, we had a conversation that you might enjoy:   Absolute VO2Max Cycling 1,000 Training Hours Gravel Racing Quitting P/1/2?

Would love to hear from you on this one, as there isn't a perfect answer; a lot of this is by feel, without wrecking the rest of the future workouts.    Full Blog With Training Tips: www.evoq.bike/blog  Follow Me on Strava: https://www.strava.com/pros/5889 brendan@evoq.bike

Sometimes workouts go awry. Take a step back and critically think of why. Talk to your coach or training buddy (I keep saying this because even though we are a coaching company, I just want you to get faster and enjoy the journey!)  Here's the email exchange...... don't forget to check out the blog: https://www.evoq.bike/blog Athlete:  My face this morning...🥴  My son had a stomach bug Tuesday into yesterday (his birthday no less!) so no one was resting well. Chalked up Tues and Wed to "life (or 💩) happens".  I hopped on the trainer this morning since it's raining and could barely get through 30 mins. RPE was through the roof. I know there's so many factors that affect performance....rest, food, hydration, etc. but I just don't get how I can have an amazing ride last Sunday and can't do 30 mins on Thurs.  I'm trying not to get too down on this. I'm wondering if maybe my FTP is down (despite what Garmin says) even though maybe I'm getting more comfortable in Z2?  Rain will clear up so I could ride outside after work. Should I retry the lactate clearance ride tonight? It looks doable in TP...not sure why the first 23 mins kicked my butt today before even getting to the hard parts!!!  I'm trying to keep my eyes on my goals, while knowing "life happens" but I'm worried about falling off track since Aug is a big month.   MY REPLY:  Let me frame it this way: What does worrying accomplish? Don't waste energy doing that. 😄  The lack of sleep / poor sleep is a huge contributor to RPE. It goes skyhigh for me even when I'm just a couple hours off.   Also, you had 3 days off!! That is massive. 3 days off is a lot. Sadly, endurance performance drops, and hard rides can be very difficult. PLUS, indoors. It's harder to go hard inside. My error there, I assumed you were going to be outside with that ride.   I would just ride endurance today to get the legs back. Go enjoy the bike!  You will only fall off track by not pedaling. Keep pedaling. No one workout, or two workouts (!), will get you off track. But big gaps will. Stay consistent.  We got this!!! ONWARDS.

Training based off HR and Power are both valid. There are good use cases for both, but in different scenarios. Check out the video to see when you should be focused on hitting 90% HR max, and when you should focus on pure power numbers. Just some thoughts! What do you think?