I'm going to trickle down a lot of what I learned in the podcast into this not done yet cohort. So, I'm really excited by that project. You know, I'm genuinely proud of my little man cave. my escape, my safe place. It's not glamorous by any means. It's crammed into the spare room in our apartment with bikes stacked in the corner, boxes everywhere, and the smell of chain lube is just kind of hanging in the air. But in that corner, that's where the work gets done. That's where I switch off from everything else, and I lock in on my training. And the centerpiece of it all, it's the Wahoo Kicker Bike Pro. Honestly, it's the ultimate man cave. The thing just feels alive under you. It climbs, it descends, it shifts all automatically. You can dial into your exact position to the millimeter, just like your outdoor bike. And with the new setup, everything's smoother, quieter, and way more immersive. It's that perfect mix of comfort and performance that makes indoor cycling feel like a privilege, not like a punishment. And look, I'm Irish. I'm sitting in Ireland recording this right now. I know what it's like to wake up, look out the window, see wind, rain, and sideways hail, and think, do I really want to be out there today? And that's where the kicker comes in. You can get a worldass session done right there in your safe little space, no matter what's happening outside. If you want to build your own version of that space, a place to train hard, stay consistent, and escape for a little bit, check out Wahoo at wahooitness.com. They've got everything from the flagship Kicker Bike Pro to the Kicker Core 2, which gives you that same legendary ride feel at a killer price point. Wahoo! Building the better athlete in all of us. Reason number three is underdeveloped aerobic base or some coaches will call this cardiac drift or cardiac decoupling. So, what you'll notice on an endurance ride of 90 minutes or more is the heart rate starts to float up relative to power as the ride goes on. So early in the ride, 200 watts might cost you about 135 beats to produce. Now 90 minutes into the ride, you're still at 200 watts, but your heart rate's drifted. Say it's up to 147 beats and it's climbing. So why this has happened? Your ability to keep stroke volume high and rely on fat oxidation at low intensities. It's a trainable capacity. Without enough aerobic base, fuel use shifts, temperature and cardiovascular strain accumulate, and heart rate climbs to keep up with the demand. It's not a moral failing. It's a training signal that you have an underdeveloped aerobic base. The quick fix today is to just cap intensity early. Don't spend the first half an hour yo-yoing above tempo, sprinting for traffic lights. Ease into endurance pace with a long, patient warm-up or swap one hard, highintensity day each week for a longer steady endurance ride of 90 to 180 minutes. Now, I'm talking truly steady, not group ride steady where we're having surges all the time. And if the route tempts you to surge because there's rollers on the route, you just need to be a bit more conscious with route selection and choose a flatter loop or a trainer ride to reduce that variability. Now, a longer protocol to fix this is to run a 6 to 8 week endurance progression. Start with 90 minutes steady once a week and then add 15 minutes each week until you're living comfortably in that 2hour plus space. Track decoupling with your analysis tool. You're comparing average power to average heart rate in halves. You want less than a 5% drift from the first half to the second half of a session. And when you hit that repeatedly, now you've earned the right to add in a little bit of tempo or a little bit of sweet spot later into the ride. Don't chase speed in zone two. Terrain, wind, and ego make speed a really it's it's a liar. Speed's a liar. Chase steadiness, chase breathing, chase control, and chase decoupling. They're far better markers. Reason number four, stimulants and medications, especially caffeine and common cold remedies that you'll find a lot of people taking them at this time of year. What you'll notice on mornings when you take that extra coffee or if you have preworkout that heart rate sits 5 to 10 beats higher for the same power or if you've taken a decongestant like pseudoeadrin, which actually is on the band list, so be careful of that in competition and your suddenly your endurance ride starts to feel perceived effort more like a tempo ride.