Our most popular weekly podcast on audio platforms is "Rider Support", today for the first time it's coming to video.
We talk about Van der Poel spitting at fans, Rohan Dennis charged in the death of his wife and what is a "Huberman Husband"
Listen on
Our most popular weekly podcast on audio platforms is "Rider Support", today for the first time it's coming to video.
We talk about Van der Poel spitting at fans, Rohan Dennis charged in the death of his wife and what is a "Huberman Husband"
Sarah welcome back it's good to be back it's different today our first ever video newbie questions yeah I'm not in my pajamas are you nervous I am a little bit nervous actually yeah we've been doing newbie questions for I guess almost 18 months maybe a little bit longer so I kind of felt like very comfortable recording it that way but now I've got this like three big cameras in my face here and lights everywhere so it's been a busy week in the news maybe not all for good reasons and the first couple of stories that I want to talk about actually are quite horrific Ron Dennis has reportedly been charged by police with causing the death of his wife after she was hit by a car last week are you following the story yeah it's been very sad I mean we woke up to that news a couple of mornings ago in AER disbelief that this could happen Rowan Dennis is such a massive St star in cycling as well anyone that follows cycling will know him and his wife is also a star in her own right she's a track star former World Junior Champion not just trackstar former World Junior Champion and World Champion in the team Pursuit she's a load of podiums in team time TR world championships as well Melissa Dennis NE Hoskins really sad story it's very sad because they have two young kids so this is just awful it said that basically a man which is Rowan Dennis was arrested and charged with causing death by dangerous driving driving without youare and endangering life and he's been released on bail until March and I'm sure all of the kind of proceedings will go forward from there but one of the craziest things is did you see their Instagram post from like two three days before the death of Melissa and it's a happy Christmas message from our family to yours it just shows you how fast something can go totally AO totally Chang and the kids their smiles like it's such a magical time I would say they're very young they're definitely kind of Santi age and they just look so happy and smiling and yeah as you said their life has turned upside down now so we'll definitely be watching this one with interest I don't know it's kind of like the the gravel the murder that happened a couple of months ago Mo Wilson Oh you nothing F them that much I know you're like really into following your murder mystery stuff and then this is like the Vin diagram where murder mystery intersects with cycl and you're like okay I gotta follow this yeah I do and I don't I think this is a bit too close to home actually even with the mo Wilson one it felt a little bit like voyerism I think the murder mystery that I listen to know it's in some back end of texts that no one's ever been everyone has one tooth and it's like you know that kind of shenanigans so this just feels a little bit closer toone but yeah absolutely horrific and very very sad news and there was more more drama with another very well-known cyclist this week with Matthew vanderpal getting in trouble again mat vanderpal didn't get in trouble this is the weird thing with this story I thought it was disgusting Vander Paul didn't get in any grief for this from what I can see from any of the media Outlets Vander Paul the fans took a lot of grief for it the fans were drunk and they were given Vander paaul abuse and they were BN and vanderpol spot at the fans going past for that it's pretty disgusting I don't care what the fans are saying I don't think that justifies spitting at them it's an absolutely revolting thing to do to spit at somebody I just think that is the lowest of the low ferel seems to get himself I think he's got a little bit of a temper I mean we all remember what happened in Australia for the worlds last year he essentially dnfed the or did he show up I can't remember I think he started and climbed off like pretty climbed off early yeah he had been up all night chasing young ones around theot Hotel corridors cuz they were making noise exactly how it happened but let's just say that's how it happened and basically had spent the entire night you know getting himself into trouble showed up for
The ORS the next day and was absolutely exhausted so he I think he might he might suffer a little bit from the Red Mist he's not as tempered as he looks very clean cut he does that's why I don't think he gets the sort of bad boy pressed that maybe Sagan got in the last few years I think people should have come down a little bit heavier on them I think to spit at anybody especially fans if you're going to be doing racing you're going to come up from a bit of kind of grief booing espcially drunken fans cyclocross it's cyclocross is famous for everybody being really Ry so yeah I think he's definitely kind of gone down a little bit in my estimation before we jump into the questions did you see any of the strav art to finish out 2023 oh my God I just think this is absolutely brilliant I know you're going to be like oh my God people have too much time I just think they're all fake you think they're all fake they're all fake like the one with the lion it's insane it's like uh the legion head or something and it clearly has to be done by a drone I just don't know how any of these are real are real how somebody doic I'm sure straa have some way of checking these but it's also just a little B take my garment with drone and then fly these Roes I think it's a little bit of fun as well I mean I know that the biggest one that uh they did this year was um father and daughter in France so they broke the Guinness World Records for the biggest straa art and it basically took up a massive portion of France and they did it in the shape of a heart and they managed to raise loads of money for a brilliant brilliant cost so that was kind of a simple one I'm sure that was all very legit there are some really intricate ones right there was one in London I had a look at and it's a giraffe did you see that one SE it it's literally gas the way they did the tail they had to go like what 15 miles out one end to do the tail and then just a series of left right left right left right it must been the most tedious Bor yeah I know I'm skeptical of a whole lot I think they're absolutely brilliant I think there's so much fun there was another one that kind of caught my eye and that was this huge big Heron and I was like that's out in the middle of the sea what's what's the story with that it's a drone it's not a drone apparently it was a guy on a kayak so I think shapo I think they're absolutely beautiful keep going let's start the new year with some questions what have you got for this week okay so question number one and this is from Ash Evan Dean Anthony would you consider yourself a hberman husband you seem to have all of the symptoms not that I think that it's a bad thing but it is all just a bit of faf to add to an already hectic world and days should we not be focused on the bigger health and training stuff hman husband what hman husband okay I haven't heard this term so hman husband is basically somebody who is a decide iple of Andrew huberman now Andrew hubman he's a podcast host but he's not just a podcast host he's got a lot of Kudos he's actually neuroscientist at Stanford school of medicine and his podcast really is kind of like self-help but it's very much rooted in science so he really knows what he's talking about and he kind of breaks down complicated science jaragon to more kind of accessible bite-sized language for people I think that's why he got so so popular so he launched his podcast years ago but it became huge in 2021 so that was kind of smack in the middle of the pandemic when people really you know started to have like more of a focus on their health but a lot of people did I actually remember a funny guess that you had a few months ago Anthony I think it was Cynthia turlo and she said there's three types of people in the pandemic you either became a hunk a drunk or a chunk so these hunks everyone who
Became a hunk become obsessed with Andrew hooperman and I do think it's kind of men of a certain age that follow Andrew hooperman and you know ice baths saers intermittent fasting taping your mouth nose breathing H kind of you know cutting down on alcohol so what is the question would I consider myself a huberman husband like no no well I'm not a huge Andrew huberman fan I suppose that's maybe a something that you need a precondition to being a huberman husband to be hubman fan I don't know I think you I find stuff a bit boring do you really yeah a little bit yeah I think he he does a very deep dive into everything I think if you could so I'm more of a Sur I think what's brilliant about the hoopman stuff is most of these hacks it's essentially biohacking that's been around for a good while but most of the hacks that he kind of promotes you can do for free so it's not like like he's trying to yeah I'm sure he has supplements or whatever he's probably you know selling or sponsors but most of the hacks that he promotes are free and he really gets down into the nishy gishy of there's a whole band of people where it's Chris Williamson huberman petera um what's the the girl Ronda Patrick Dr Ronda Patrick there's a bunch of scientists that are all super credible but they're all on this kick now where they're talking about stuff the athletes have known for decades like when I started training from cycling like you very soon realized that about 80% of your training has to be zone two riding and now it's like all over YouTube there's these like zone two training and the Miracle of zone two training it's like ask any cat 4 Reider anywhere in the world and they'll tell you they've been doing it for a decade like same with V2 Max training they're talking about it now as if these are new discoveries so why I'm not that into the hu and husband type stuff is that it's it's kind of like Dave bra for its quest for marginal gains which is absolutely brilliant when you have an athlete who's doing the 99% of stuff already and then they're trying to uner an extra 1% to get a again but what's happening because people don't like doing hard work is they're skipping the hard work and they're just doing the 1% stuff so they're just sleeping in you know eight sleep pods they're trying to optimize their evening or morning routines and they're not doing the basic stuff like moving sleeping eight hours at night calorie restriction or calorie control and riding your bike running lifting weights whatever you need to do like there's no disagreement in academic circles you need to do some combination of cardio and strength training but it's revolutionary all of a sudden because hubman and a few others are advocating it well they have a platform and I think it's absolutely brilliant I think that men are now taking control of their health and their lifestyle and I don't know I think it's short the basic reality of any sport to get good at it you need to put a lot of unglamorous hard work in and I don't know I think they paper over that so like if I done a video say like yeah you want to get good at title and ride 20 hours a week every week for 10 years it's not going to blow up it's not going to be popular okay here me question number two okay let's move on okay question number two and this is from Jamie Anthony I heard you talking about Block periodization in the Alexander episode of the podcast I've always structured my training as three weeks on and one week off but you both seemed to suggest this is not the smartest approach what would you suggest instead this is a really interesting topic because for a long time I've had Joe Freel on the podcast a bunch of times and I came up reading Joe freel's training Bible as kind of my Bible it wasn't a training Bible it was my Holy Bible there's I mean there's a copy in there and or a couple of copies of each Edition and yeah I know it's I it pride of place and he Advocates a system of think about your training ter so we're trying to plan your training at the moment if we look at
Your calendar for the year three weeks on one week off isn't the reality because you look at it and you go okay I'm going to a wedding in May I'm going away for a week here I have some family obligations here I'm getting a medical procedure here so you start dotting in the periods of time where you're going to be away for a week and off for a week and then it just doesn't make sense to really do three weeks on one week off because you could have three weeks on one week off and then you're off the next week because you have to travel for work so the reality is it ends up being six weeks on one week off and when I say off I don't mean off it's like a decompression week but myself and Alexander bu if you haven't listened to that go back and listen to that podcast it's brilliant it will be coming to YouTube really soon as well we talk about if you need a full decompression week in your fourth week you've structured your training badly in your prior three weeks that you've done too much that if if you're looking at a system where to make an adaptation you're trying to take on as much load as you can over a long period of time you'd be better off doing back 5% for the three weeks and then being able to still train in the fourth week this is kind of a realization that I had that if I go and I do a six- hour ride on a Saturday maybe I can only like ride an hour on a Sunday or I can't even ride on a Sunday it' be better off just doing like a four and a two the three the three- week block and the one we break though does kind of it gives you a little bit of Hope because you're like okay I've got three weeks of suck and then I've got you know a week where I can actually go out maybe and enjoy the bike and do a few fun rides enjoy every ride that's not thing is it to me okay question number three and this is from Connor Anthony and Sarah I joined the virtual time trial yesterday it I saw Connor's name there it was a disaster I went I too hard I guess and a kilometer 8 I was using every trick in the book to keep my power up what are these tricks I need to know what I use these tell so you you change your Cadence so sorry Connor goes on to say I.E super slow cadence with a high power then a high Cadence then standing up on the pedals and rocking I just blew and I dnfed my FTP is 245 that was a few months ago and I've been tipping away over the winter break but nothing major Anthony can you give me a racing strategy for that 16 km time trial also a mindset strategy to keep going when the going gets tough we've got a lot of questions in about the time TR since we started it with people coming on and what I did notice yesterday because I usually do the Tuesday time trial I've documented it actually in a podcast too is that we'll have a lot of people join and then we'll have probably about 50% actually go over the dnf dnf yeah and about 50% get over the finish the finish line so my advice sorry Anthony you can jump in in a second is to finish it regardless so even if you're you've absolutely blown just keep pedaling until you complete the 16 km it can only get better the following week when you do that the one thing that helped me last week was to Pace I just set my gearing on the W bike and then I just kept my Cadence at the exact same I didn't even look at the power I got it to the power I wanted and then I just kept my Cadence at 85 and I was like right if I keep my Cadence at 85 my power is really going to be the same yet in the My Wish platform there's a little bit of undulation but you'll be there there with your power and that for me was kind of good to focus on I think Connor's biggest problem is his FTP is 245 and that was a few months ago so he went out with a
Pacing strategy based off what he could do a few months ago and people have this like magic mats they do all the time where you ask them their watts per kilogram and they give you the weight that they hope they could get to and the power that they could hit at their best so you end up then having a pacing strategy which isn't realistic and the parameter it's like clipping into a li detector so then you have two worlds colliding your fictitious World versus the reality and that never ends well a nice way to do it if you currently had a 245 FTP so if and again depending on his interpretation of FTP is that a power he achieved for 20 minutes or is that something he done for an hour let's say he could do that for 20 minutes his 20 minute power is 245 so if his 20- minute power is 245 the 16 kilm I would break it down into four 4 kilometer segments I would start slow as in I would start maybe at 235 and try and add five Watts every four kilometers onto that you really want to be considering your life choices pretty hard heading into the last four kilometers if you're still at that point going uh this is cruzy I don't feel much you probably haven't paced it hard enough if you're considering your life choices 8K in you've gone out way too hard all the fastest times I've seen in time TRS they're negative splits so you're starting out easier and you're building it's really difficult to start out at 260 and to finish at 230 and still have the same type of time also psychologically there's something about building towards the finish last year I was doing a 16 km time tral every week and I was in around 400 watts for those 16 km time Tri you're showing off now and I wish I was getting smashed by The Lads I was doing my average has been 220 for the 30 minutes but that's still solid it's all about you can't compare your chapter one to someone's chapter 10 yeah like I was racing friend of mine in Canada Ed Veil every week and I I couldn't be Ed Ed was averaging 420 on his now we were probably both lying about our weight I don't think Ed would lie about his weight he's a standup guy I can see you doing it all right next question but he just before we move on we want some mindset strategy to keep going when the going get get there's no mindset strategy like there's no mindset if you P it wrong there's no mindset strategy in you can do all the maths you want and try and you know read the letters backwards on the shampoo bottle it's on the shelf across from you and all this distraction mats to try and and there is some science in that kind of distraction mats and there's brain games and brain training you can do to pass the time but honestly if you've paced it wrong you've paced it wrong you you can't trick your body into pulling out a performance that you're not capable of doing so what I will say that really helped me get through my time trial that I previous one that I did is I want to give up so hard myself at around kilometer 10 and I literally just dig deep and I'm kind of thinking why am I here I have big goals for this year I'm unfit after Christmas I had a nice break over winter and why not just man up just do it just push through through and keep going because I have more in me and if I give up if I give up now I'm just selling myself short and I honestly have that talk with myself probably every every 10 seconds during it so that's my advice to you Connor hope I also think there's like a bit of standards in it as well if your standard is you just don't quit yeah I don't have ever quit an effort like that so it never feels like an option that I can quit the effort so that's just your standard you don't quit an efforts and then you do some good efforts you do some bad efforts some efforts when you're sick some when you have a headache some when you're hung over you just do the efforts and you just do the Reps and when you zoom
Out 12 months from now they add up that's why I implore you Connor don't dnf just keep going for the rest of the ride and I will see you there again on Tuesday okay question number four The Rock was on Joe Rogan recently and they talked about training every day does the body not need rest days I've always taken at least a couple of days a week off that's a brilliant question cuz they have this like big culture Now isn't it of like you know no off no days off yeah get it done you're don't be a [ __ ] if you're you know taking time off and stuff I don't know is that the right approach Anthony I I like the training every day I had a French director and he used to say Rog your bike seven days a week because your body gets used to having consistent signals that you get on the bike and your body's like yeah this is what we do we cycle every single day some easy days some hard days a day off you know you could put that in inverted commas I hope people use those quotation marks a day off could be you ride your bike or you go for a run but it's a super easy run it's like 45% of your max heart R and you're just cruising for a coffee it doesn't have to feel laborious it doesn't have to have the association of training with it the problem I have when I take a day off and definitely when I take two days off back to back is I feel terrible when I get back into it I really struggle to get back into the swing of things and that's from a performance perspective like I'm I don't feel good on the bike I don't feel good on the run I just feel blocked but it's also a momentum perspective I big fan that momentum it goes in both directions so when you're training every single day momentum is with you you know where your heart rate strap is you know where your you know your kit is everything's just you're coming home from a session you're putting it into the wash you're getting going again you're meal prepping when you take one or two days off the momentum's gone the other direction and then it takes you like two hours and you're walking around the house smashing things going I can't find left over you and it's a nightmare happens all of the time here so I think there is there is something to be said with training seven days a week but not seven hard sessions per week okay question number five Anthony I saw your Tweet about how there will be loads of new people out running cycling and in the gym this January and instead of judging them to encourage them that's me I'm that new person on the bike path and I'm not sure if I'm actually being judged but I feel like I am I definitely don't have an athletes body I would be considered obese and I can feel eyes burning into me when I'm out training I guess I just kind of feel vulnerable and exposed out there it almost feels like being back in the schoolyard any tips for dealing with this and tips for getting through the next year and staying focused I think it might feel like people are looking at you and judging you but they definitely aren't everyone is so wrapped up in their own [ __ ] and this is something I actually never had to learn so much in cycling I was self conscious at the start in cycling when I started wearing like C kiss going out training nobody cycled you know you go out now and everybody's on the bike pass there's people down the local bike shop the coffee shop wearing cycling kit when I started like 10 15 years ago I didn't know another single person that rode a bike so all my friends were football players so I used to pull football shorts over my cycling leggings and then like take off the cycling shorts when I got out the country so I knew no want to see me so I was like had this personal shame going on but really since then I've never felt like an outsider on the bike I've always felt like I'm inside that kind of cycling click because it is a little bit of a click but I've definitely felt
Like an outsider in the gym because you can go down to the gym you can have these you know 200 kilo dudes who can bench press you know half of the State of Texas probably they're definitely not looking at you they're looking at themselves yeah no one cares takes you a while to realize this that people are so wrapped up in their own lives and their own goals and their own insecurities and vulnerabilities that they just don't care about you I age I think I think it's actually the opposite I think people look at let's say this this guy you're wri in they look at him he's out there and he's trying to change himself he's out exercising and I honestly think when I see somebody like that and I think most people do they're like well done like getting after it like I I think that you are amazing for putting yourself out there I do see the vulnerability part particularly cycling when you're getting into like when we first started going out we went on our first cycle together down and canale you handed me liyer shorts and a liyer jersey painted onto me I was like what kind of a pervert is this well bringing me out in public like this and yeah you do you do feel very exposed I completely get that but I agree with your point Anthony I don't think anyone is judging you if if anything they're egging you on they're giving you is horrible for beginners though it is it is K I don't know we don't have a name on this question I don't know if this is a male or female question but really regard maybe it's extra exposed for a female but regardless the body paint kit is not essential like you don't need to look like every other cyclist to be a cyclist but it's amazing how Outside The Click you will feel which I actually don't think it's a bad thing for when you're getting started when you don't wear the cycling kit like I rode like two three months ago up our local climb and I was just wearing like a pair of bib shorts but I had like a dress short over it no helmet riding I think yeah I can't remember why I was dressed like that but nobody waved at me like I was still doing intervals at like 380 Watts up the hill but nobody waved at me it was like I was outside of this little cult but I actually don't think that's a bad thing for when you're getting started that you're in your own little world and you're in your own little cult so dress how you feel comfortable and don't feel that need to fit in with everyone else and you know wear the the cycling uniform because look it's not flattering on even the most athletic figures yeah it's it's difficult enough to pull off I mean if you do want to wear it because it is quite comfortable it's specifically made for cycling so you don't get shaing and all of that you know Saddles SES good stuff like that if you do want to wear just own it you're gorgeous you're gorgeous in your Lyra Sarah to wrap up I've been given what's now getting quite popular as a little my wosh session of the week and this is a session I actually done today just before we started this so I can attest how difficult this is it's if you go into my w and you go into workouts it's an anerobic number one it's called and it's essentially four sets of 30 seconds on 30 seconds off and it the on is that V2 max power it is a rough rough session it's a TSS 59 with an intensity factor of Point A2 so it's a lot of bang for the book If you don't know any of that stuff means it just means inside 58 minutes you're working pretty damn hard for the 58 minutes jump over there I'd highly encourage you to check that one out and Sarah it'll be going into your training plan oh okay wait look forward to it thanks for tuning in folks we'll be back again for another ran podcast real soon everybody thanks for tuning in to today's interview if you like this interview I'm going to put another interview up here which I know you're really going to enjoy and please
Weekly insights from the podcast. The stuff that actually makes you faster.
USE THESE TOOLS
More episodes you might enjoy
It’s been revealed that Americas Anti Doping Agency (USADA) has been using undercover agents/athletes to spy on team mates that dope. The World governing body (WADA) has come out to say that it does not support these actions. Anthony and Sarah discuss this plus loads more listener questions!
with Rider Support
This week’s Rider Support is packed with insights for roadies, gravel grinders, and anyone seeking a mental or technical edge.
with Rider Support
What is the real reason Tadej Pogacar is snubbing the Olympic games? Anthony and Sarah chat about the reasons he is skipping the games.
with Rider Support
It’s been revealed that Americas Anti Doping Agency (USADA) has been using undercover agents/athletes to spy on team mates that dope. The World governing body (WADA) has come out to say that it does not support these actions. Anthony and Sarah discuss this plus loads more listener questions!
with Rider Support
The cycling media has spent three years telling you Tadej Pogacar is just a freak of nature, that the watts are otherworldly and the rest of us are watching a different species. Andy McGrath spent two years researching Unstoppable, his full profile biography of Pogacar, and what he found was the
with Andy McGrath
This week’s Rider Support is packed with insights for roadies, gravel grinders, and anyone seeking a mental or technical edge.
with Rider Support
WHERE TO NEXT
AWARENESSWHEN YOU'RE READY
Find out what's actually holding you back.
The Masters Plateau Diagnostic — six questions, a personalised breakdown of where your training is leaking watts. Free, two minutes.
Take the Diagnostic →Join the Clubhouse to discuss this episode, ask Anthony your questions, and connect with serious cyclists.