So I've got like mechanics, chefs, nutritionists, coaches, sports scientists, sports psychologists, all talking about this idea of how do we make the viewer, you know, your average Joe, how do we make them go a little bit faster? Right, right. That could be it. So I wanted to dive in. I wanted today to focus our little chat for the next half an hour or so on kind of your training and coaching philosophy and how you train as an athlete versus how you recommend athletes trying at the moment. So were you kind of a, a miles or an intensity guy back in the day? Let's see, you know, both, both. I started, uh, just, you know, when I was a young professional and what I was first year pro in 1995 and then, you know, first, you know, arrive in the big leagues, basically at, you know, Tour de France level in 1997. And back then, I just basically do what my peers were doing, you know, the older veteran riders and I was like, they call it LSD, long, slow distance, you know. So it's like, you know, very much like how many hours did you do? It didn't matter really how fast or how many hours. And just putting, you know, putting in a lot of miles, you know, every week. And but then later in my career, I started, you know, with the help of SRM started doing really specific work, intervals, so many intervals. And either training really hard or training really easy, really hard, really easy. I'm in average. And that changed my career. I became a real vice-versist after that, once I started doing the hard work. I had a Sebastian Weber on the so much, and he was one of the really early dudes to use a parameter. And he was saying he almost got a chance to work with you at one point, at one point, but it felt true and it never happened for him. Okay, I don't know why not was. Yeah, I don't know. He said that because I was telling them you were on the so much. S-R-M? With S-R-M, yeah. Okay, yeah, I mean, I know Uli Schover, you know, the founder of S-R-M, he's an old friend of mine. But yeah, I think I first used the S-R-M when I was on the US national team, Chris Carmichael was my coach in Dean College. And we used to SRM for part of that, the 94 season. And then I was kind of put away for, I think, three or four years. And I think I picked it up again in 1998. And yeah, it made a real difference. You know, when your career is by gracing, to have that kind of data is a real difference maker. You're not really focused on just king and the numbers you need to focus on. A lot was like just RPM, jerkadence, where I didn't really ever think about that before. When you're working with athletes now, do you still think there's a place for a long slow distance, or are you all about the parameter and all about the numbers now? Oh, no. We mostly work with weekend warrior types, people with families, busy jobs, and all just busy lifestyle and having a small little chunk of their time dedicated to the bike. We certainly like using the numbers and all that but we also like step away from the numbers, doing some time on the bike without really just focusing on the way you feel without looking at all the data. Because sometimes think about it when you wake up in the morning. I know your morning is a little bit different than most people. But like, and I like, I like your routine. But for a lot of us, you know, it's like, boom, you wake up in the morning, get a cup of coffee as you're reading all these text messages and emails coming in. You're like all day long, you're, you know, data, data, data. So sometimes we have clients that, you know, it's good for them to take a step back and just go out and enjoy the bike. Maybe ride by feel, you know, ride on perceived exertion. you on the morning routine? You know, you got me partially on the routine. I like it. I like it. But you seem like you're pretty disciplined. And that's my goal. You know, I try it. Even if I rolled this morning, I left the house at 8am and I woke up at like 7am. And even though it was rushed, I still tried to get in like cold shower, some red light therapy, a little bit of meditate, not a small bit of journaling. And it's like, you know, know when you start up a computer it takes a little bit to get going like that boot up sequence. I feel like I need that boot up sequence to get going.
Yeah, that's great. That's great. It's, no, but it's important to kind of slice out a little part of your day, especially at the beginning to, you know, just do some mindfulness techniques, right? And, you know, it can really change your outlook on the whole day ahead. know. And some days I really dread my day. I had just had a lot of work today. And you know, when you can start out really on with a nice fresh foundation, I think it's super helpful. I think it's especially energy. Especially because we all spend so much time now looking at screens and looking at what's up. But you're going on WhatsApp like I've texted you a couple of times and I'll text you on like a Friday and it'll say on your like, Tyler was last online on like Tuesday. I'm like, whoa, yeah. You know, I don't check what's up so much. I mean, mostly it's like my connections over in Europe. And I don't know, most of my stuff is here in the States. So I'm like, yeah. But I probably should check what's up more often. I wish I could say I just checked out that much. But no, I'm pretty connected. You know, I mean, I don't know. I don't really do so. I barely do any social media anymore. I don't even have time for it really. I mean, I just linked in whatever. Thinking about, again, contrasting like the what you used to do versus what you recommended to clients, the role across training, I suppose specifically, we started out with running because I know cycling is such a low impact sport and the bone density is a huge issue. Was running something you'd done as a pro? Is it something you recommend now to clients? I did it as a pro and I failed miserably every time. I'd always get injured. I'd spend 10 days without doing anything initially. You want to do your off the bike time. But then I'd get itchy and I'd be like, oh, I'm gaining too much weight. So I'm like, I'm going to go run. And I'd still have this great fitness from cycling. I'd run too long and probably too fast. Every time I'd get injured. So I think it's a great cross-training activity, but super important if you're like, you know, it's very specific cyclists, you know, to run slowly, the beginning run really slowly in short distances and slowly increase the tempo and mileage. But yeah, if you've been riding your bike all year and doing that only and then you jump into running, you might feel pretty good, but like be careful, go slow. The next day. Go slow slow. I remember. I felt like I was having a bike crash. I felt like I was having a bike sprint. Yeah, I did every offseason, I injured myself running. Just a real, real idiot, you know, but hey, learn by my, I've made plenty mistakes, so hopefully people can learn from them. But it's a nice, you know, it's a nice, especially, I'd say trail running, if you can get off asphalt or concrete, do that for sure. And, but if you're stuck on the pavement, you know, you know, maybe just doing some real really slow runs early on, maybe a little bit even on the treadmill, but just maybe run a little bit, walk a little bit, run a little bit, walk a little bit, but a real slow transition into it because yeah, what would you try to do like one run a week for a clientless moment, like one run a week or would you think would you start? Yeah, maybe just start maybe to start or two really short ones, two really short ones and just with some walking and intervals of walking as well. help against sticking with that back then and now team again on strength and conditioning. Something you used in the past, something you still advocate, something you recommend to clients? Yeah, we like getting our clients into the weight run, certainly in the off-season. Some really throughout the whole year, depending on their goals and their body type and all that. Yeah, it can be, you know, especially as athletes get older, you know, they're losing muscle mass. So yeah, typically we like to have people get into the weight room. And do they work with like a local strength condition coach? Or is that something you prescribe as well and say that I'm local? We can give them. Yeah, yeah. You know, we give them like the type of exercise, how to do it. You know, some have experienced in the weight room so they can do it by themselves. Others choose to get like a coach to help them, at least initially get through the first exercises. Yeah, because I find it's one of the limitations of working remote on the internet. It's, you can't physically show someone an exercise.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know, now you can show them videos and all that. So it's like, everything's getting a little bit easier and easier that way. But there is nothing like face to face, you know, being able to ride with somebody or go to the gym with somebody or. And you know, as well, I find in this, it's definitely a team across the summit because everyone that's new, They want to talk about the physiology of stuff. How do I train? What are he intervals? What's the magic pill? What's this? How do I lose weight? What so much of it is, there's a couple of clients and I've ridden with them. And if I looked at their data, I would get one impression of them. But then you ride with them and you see, just like bike handling is a real issue. Cornering is a real issue. Just general craft and generally known how to look like a pro cyclist and fit into the group. and they just haven't figured those pieces out when we don't see that in the data. Yeah, how to maneuver. Just you watch a maneuver just in a small group ride and you can see, you can really tell kind of, I guess, what level they're at on the road, at least like bike handling was, you know? But you don't really, you know, you have numbers for everything, but you don't have a number for that, for bike handling and how much, you know, let's like take a Peter Sagan versus, you know, someone who's new to road racing. Like the difference, you know, and, you know, maybe they're just as strong as each other, right? But like, it will take Peter Sagon like that quick to get from the back of the Peloton to the front whereas they'll take, you know, this new rider, what? They'll never make it to the front. Like is it impossible, right? I watch Vomber. You gotta be able to thread the needle so many times. And, you know, it's, yeah, Valverde, like, just these amazing bike riders that, you know, that have been on their bike really since they were just kids. And I know Peter Sugon got disqualified for that sprint move in the tour this in September, but that was an incredible move. I could never have done that. What do you even thought about doing that? It was a little bit too dangerous and it got relegated, but it was an insane move. We have locally here. Did you ever race against Kiran Power or he's an Irish guy? He raced in Athens actually in the Olympics where you want to go. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, incredible rider. So Kieran still races locally, but I remember saying to a client of mine, because Kieran's low category again, he's not serious, he's just doing it for a bit of fun on his kid races. So he races to lower categories now. And I was saying to a client, you want to learn how to ride the bunch, just sit on Kieran Power's wheels, just watch why he moves, watch, because everything is deliberate. watch when he gets out of the saddle, watch when he puts his raincoat on, watch everything. And this is the stuff that's very hard to communicate, but when you see someone do it, it's like magic. It is like magic. It's like this finesse they have. And yeah, it was an incredible bike rider. And I'm sure he still is. I'm sure he still has big, huge power, huge power. Big sprint on him, big sprint on him. Yeah. And so for all like cyclists, you know, and it doesn't matter what level you're at, you It could be the best in the world. It's always good to work on your bike handling skills, right? So like go into a park, a grassy field, and work on them. Like work on reaching down, a pickup, a water bottle, or a tennis ball without stopping and unclipping. Work on your wheelie, work on all that. Work on like tapping the back wheel of your training partner, you know what I mean? On both sides, work on that. And then they can do the same to you. All that stuff. Like it's, you know, I coach some young kids that are like, like 11, 12 years old and like, we just work on skills. We just work on skills. Cause if they could have that in their back pocket, you know. That's amazing. Yeah. What do they say bonds your uncle? Yeah. Did they do little drills and cones and things like that? All that stuff. Yep. Cones. Yeah. I mean, whatever it is, just getting off a balance, getting uncomfortable being unbalanced. And then, you know, I don't know, It's just beautiful to watch riders like Peter Sagon just maneuver their bike. They're really just one with their bike. And it's, and yeah, you can't really put a number on that, but that I guarantee you that that gains him so much.
I mean, yeah, I mean, a lot of his results are based on just that insane skill. And I remember getting just a insight into how gold Saigonos have never actually raced against Saigon, but I used to race the US crits every week. Sure. Yeah, that's right. You know, healthcare, we're the big team there. So I went like five laps to go, healthcare had hit the front and the blue train, they turn up the heat and like basically whatever position you were in, like you couldn't move up once, but like this happened every week. You know, I'm in P20, they turn it on, I finish 20th position. You may be somebody, I got his drop out, whatever, maybe I finished 15th, but basically impossible to move up. And then I watched, I think it was like tour of Alberta or something where you know that healthcare road is, and Sagan also raced it. So like 4k to go, healthcare hit the front and they turn on the heat and I'm watching it on TV and I'm thinking, oh, this is a familiar saying, here they go. You're just going to deliver the guy. Sag An is just riding along basically like he's riding to the shops and he's riding along and he's kind of looking over at the shoulder, he's flicking in his pockets, he flicks onto the back of the healthcare train and I'm like, oh, he's not, they're not going to let him up there. Flicks into like, toward place in the healthcare train, just a little nudge into the train. And I'm like, he's just gonna sit here and he's gonna sprint against the guys. Like a K to go, he just comes up and he chops them on the corner. All the guys panic, they slam the brakes. Saigon wins, like he barely sprinted. He just like, crossed the finish line. It was incredible to watch. And it just highlighted the difference in skills as you go from level to level. Because I was struggling to cope with the skills that healthcare had. and in healthcare we're just so outclassed by Saigon. Yeah, I mean, I never learned to, I mean, I was at a high level, but I mean, you know, I learned to, you're forced to learn to like be able to descend fast enough and all that, but I mean, I had plenty of crashes and all that, like learning, you know, I kind of started late in my, like, I had a late start to my cycling career, so So that stuff didn't come naturally to me. And yeah, I mean, Peter Sagan and riders like that are just, it's fun to watch. I mean, all those sprinters, I think Robby McEuland, like he was incredible to watch. And I think a lot of them like had either BMX backgrounds or maybe a little bit of motor cross backgrounds. So honestly, if you're like a bike, if you're, especially if you're like a mountain bike rider, like, you know, learned or they're a little bit dangerous, but learned to ride like a motor cross bike a BMX bike, that'll help you in space. Do you still a group ride? For a charity event once in a while, yeah, I did one two weekends ago. Yeah. Yeah, small group rides and mostly, you know, you know, more of a weekend warrior than me. It's been a big peppy, even for a while, and I've said on the Go for You or the podcast, the group ride nearly fallen apart because when I remember when I started, the group ride was like this sacred thing and you know, it wasn't judged by speed, even if you're the fastest guy there, you had to learn the rules of the group ride and the older guys that take you under their wing and they tell you, you know, don't overlap wheels, don't flick your bike back when you're standing. You tell you like, how do you, you know, riding two by two, right? Exactly. Like, right and close together. Sure, sure, sure. And not half wheeling. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like all that's been thrown out the back door. Like, it seems like It's like when the etiquette's changed a lot. And it really does. Yeah, it's different. I mean, yeah, like you said, like all the veterans would put you in your place quickly. It didn't matter how strong you were. They would put you in your place quickly if you were acting like a rotting like a so-called idiot. And the thing was you could go, because I moved in from Ireland to France, and I went in, I didn't speak any French, and I went straight into a group ride there. And it's like its own language. The group ride has this beautiful flow too, and we all understand we're gonna chill out through the towns, we're gonna accelerate, we're gonna push the pace on the climb and it's no halfway and it's just this mutual agreement of pushing the pace.
But I don't know how we get back to that. And everyone also looks out for each other. Flat tire, everyone stops, you help him, help he or she fix the tire. Everyone kind of chips in, boom. I don't know. It seems like these days one person's going for a Travis segment. Guys, this way, one person is a flat tire Like the group rides get exploded so quick and I don't know. The last group ride that I did would like, you know, some pretty serious riders was probably out in like the San Francisco area. And yeah, it was just, it was a bit chaotic. It was a bit chaotic. But it was interesting to watch it and observe like, you know, everyone is doing something different, but it didn't seem very cohesive. And group rides don't seem like that. Do you feel, do you still stick your hand open, say to guys, don't do it that way? I mean, that's sometimes, sometimes. But you know, it's a different, I mean, it's 2020, you know, it's not 2001. And now, Stravi exists. And some people, like, they don't have much time to, you know, get out on a ride, like a long long like say four hour ride and maybe they want to have been gunning for this strava segment so kind of you know let them do their thing but you know once in a while yeah you got to get some tips on them maybe the proper way to ride two by two because when you're staggered the staggers everybody else behind and that's a pain in the butt right yeah and then when you know when they're flat tires like hey we all stop let's all chip in and help you know he or she fix this thing and get going again you know more of it i like riding this as a team. Let's look on weight loss order because we spoke just before we came on and you're almost 50 if you can believe that. You haven't put on any weight. You look like you're in almost rate shape. No, I'm not. I don't know. I try to get some, I try to get outside every day. More so lately it's running a little bit of jogging, slow running I'm a trail. I have a massive amount right behind my house. I try to run up. So it's kind of, it's a quick fast kind of workout. But yeah, do some yoga cycling once in a while when I can. I don't know. I stopped eating meat. I did a bit on a plant based diet for the last five years. It's not helping? Yeah, I like it. I just like it. I feel better. Yeah. So for just, but yeah, I'm not trying to be really, I'm not like training or anything like that, but just trying to stay, you know, fit enough to feel healthy and happy, you know. So for someone watching that's like, because I feel like a lot of our people watching this are maybe carrying somewhere between five kilograms and 10 kilograms more than they would like. What are the kind of strategies they can use to start shifting some of that way? Yeah, you know, watching your sugar intake, you know, I think a lot of us, myself, including probably a little bit too much sugar. And if you, you know, start reading the labels a little bit, maybe start making better choices there, you know, grabbing an apple versus, you know, three cookies or something like that. You know, that's always great. That helped me a lot. Like, you know, make just before you fully crack and, you know, eat whatever six Oreo cookies, you know, making the smart choice, grabbing an apple. It takes a little while to eat an apple, right? Drink a little bit of water. And then before you know, you're not even hungry anymore. So things like that. Yeah, also, yeah, drinking a lot of water, staying hydrated. A lot of us don't drink enough water throughout the day. We just start our day out with three or four cups of coffee. And then, you know, Anthony, one of your habits is like getting up and drinking a bunch of water, right? Super important. You haven't drank water in what, at least eight hours, probably. really important. And yeah, I find that my body's just crying out for it and I mix in a little bit of salt with it as well, a little bit of lemon. It's just, it's like a cool way to start your day because your body is dying for it. It doesn't want that caffeine straight away as much as we want to give it the caffeine straight away. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's nice. It's like warm water and lemon. It's a nice, I don't know, may it shows my age, but it's like a nice kind of way to start your day.
But yeah, other things, you know, eating a lot of vegetables, you know, watching how much, you know, you know, meat and Jerry, you know, I don't think you need as much as they say you need. But yeah, the big, you know, when you go to the grocery store to buy groceries for the week, don't go when you're really hungry, you know. And when you get to the grocery store, you know, make smart choices. Because if you don't have it at home, it's going to be hard to get to. You know, once in a while, like everything in moderation too, like if you need ice cream, like you go get it. But you know what I started doing? It works quite well for me. So I was doing a weekly shop, but I wasn't doing it every week. So it was the gap in between. So maybe I was doing a weekly shop, but I was only doing it every 10 days. So it's that three days in between where maybe I'll ride in the morning. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And you're like, I'll just order pizza or this or that. Yeah. not the wrong pizza, but like, do you need it, you know, every week? I don't know. And what I started doing was, I'm not sure if you guys have it in the US or wherever viewers are watching, but I started doing a recording order on my supermarket. So every Monday is my rest day. They drop off food and it just comes every Monday now. That's great. And I hate going to the grocery store. So win, win. Yeah, yeah. I like it. I like it. when you're looking at your clients at the moment, broadly, it's sort of that same avatar of your time-crunched weekend warriors. What's the biggest mistake you're seeing from them? Yeah, always feeling like they don't have enough time so they get up when they jump out on the bike, just riding maybe too hard, riding too hard. And then when it comes time to do do the intervals we're asking them to do, and some of these intervals are incredibly hard. They're only at 80% because they've been rotting too hard at other times when we ask them to do it to ride easier. There's a lot of that. And so certain intervals, we only have our clients do them when they're really fresh. But if they're always on the gas kind of thing, they're never really fresh enough to complete these intervals like the way we want them to. Yeah, no, when I was thinking about that question, it's the exact same IC. And it's quite intuitive as well because you think, I've only got an error for this ride. I need to go out and make the most of it. But you just end up riding around in zone three. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm sure we have, yeah. But so, I mean, of course, you can understand why, you know, But yeah, in a way, they need to kind of slow down, listen to their coach, right? And believe that like what we're giving and then this coaching program out of, because we've learned ourselves. And sometimes they wanna do the intervals and they wanna ride hard in between. And typically it has a mix well. You could just be a lot more efficient with your training if you look kind of listening to your coaches, I guess. Do you recommend fasted rides? Excuse me? Do you recommend fasted rides going out without breakfast? Oh, yeah. Yeah, once in a while I would do that. And I did that a little bit when I was a cyclist. Man, those are hard. Not that often, but every once in a while, depends on the athlete. Depends on the athlete. We have some athletes that are, you know, that need to gain five pounds. We have some athletes that need to lose five pounds. But when you look at the cross on their goals and all that, but that's a hard one, you know, going out without, without what, just black coffee. And I remember doing that myself. But, woof. It's hard. I don't know. I had a fast ride this morning. Oh, you did? A three hours fasted and then the last two hours fueled. And I got them coffee shop like after three hours and fuck, I was hungry. How much did you eat? When I got to the coffee shop, I had a good day. I had a good day. I had a good day. I got some cake, I got a sandwich, got myself a coffee. But we have a lockdown going on here at the moment. So you can't go into the coffee shop. You can only sit outside, like on the wall, which is pretty shit. Like you're riding in the cold and then you're sitting outside in the cold. So you're just trying to scoff and get going as fast as you can.
Yeah. Well, good for you. Five hours with the three hour fast. Man. No fun. No fun. Someday I want to go over there, we're going to do the great, what's it called, the Wile of Atlantic Way. Oh yeah, we're doing it. That's incredible. Yeah, it's on. It's on. We're going to talk after a show and we're going to hook that up. Okay, I like it. Last question for you, Tyler. When you look across your pro career, when you look at guys that succeeded and guys that didn't succeed, and now thinking about that same sort of what separates them, is Is that the same thing that separates clients that you have that succeed and don't? What is that? I'm trying to get that French saying the jeune sais quoir, the X factor. What is that thing that makes successful from unsuccessful? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was that deep desire to succeed. And I feel like we all got up to that level and then there were some that really made those last sacrifices than others that didn't, you know, not to say the ones that didn't, you know, maybe their results weren't as good, but who knows, you know, maybe they were happier because of it, maybe they chose to spend more time with their family or do family outings, you know. I'm thinking about like, for example, maybe a French teammate who would go home, you know, in between the races and spend time with their family in the little village they live in. Whereas we, in living in Toronto, we were these Americans, they would live like monks the whole week at home. We didn't really have family around it distract us. And which are clients now is at the same thing. I'm not just six dirty, the guys that embrace the social side. Well, I mean, it's everything in moderation, right? I mean, we're not saying don't be social and then like that. But the ones that are super disciplined and they listen to the training, they do the training to a T. It's like, I mean, in a way, it's like homework. Here's your homework, Anthony. Go out, do that today. Come back, send me the file. If they have power data and send me the file, we'll take a look. The ones that are really successful, are the ones that do the training to a T. And pretty much you know where you're going to get every time. They're going to be out there. That's the way I like to train when I was a racer. I'd go out there. I mean, I would do it. It was, you know, I would do the training like it was, you know, like a test and I would be proud to send send the files to my coach. That's good. I think that's a very good tip. And I know it's something that a former teammate, you're actually used to coach me, Mike Barry. Oh, yeah, nice. musical guy, but I remember he had this phrase and he named his book after it, Le Métier, and it's just that it's the work ethic, it's the craft, it's the kind of the pride in the craft. And I always think about that when it's like that expression, like the jobs work doing, it's work doing well. And that's like you were saying, you should almost be proud to send the file to the coach. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's an absolutely amazing tip. Tyler Hamilton, thank you for joining me. Anthony, good to see you. Yeah, keep up the good work and yeah, it was a pleasure to talk with you. Legend. Jot's our daughter. Hey everybody, it's Anthony again. Really quick, I want to invite you to join arguably the best thing I've ever put out inside the roadman community. It's a challenge. It's a challenge called a 14-day Kickstarter challenge. So regardless of where your fitness is at right now, this is going to be the catalyst for making it faster and making it leaner. I've created this challenge to take the guesswork out of everything. It's 14 days of training plans regardless of what your level is. There's Masters, Beginner, Advanced, there's meal plans, shopping list and even a video course holding your hand and talking you true at all. So what I recommend you do right now is just stop everything, press pause on this audio and go to roadmansoycling.com forward slash 14 day or check out the link in the bio at romansoichlink.com slash 14 day