1.Roadman, we need to talk about some of the wacky, wild and crazy…

Roadman, we need to talk about some of the wacky, wild and crazy targets you guys are coming up with. Let's cue the intro! The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our longevity? That is the question, this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Roman, welcome back to the Roman podcast. Thank you for tuning in again. If you didn't listen to this week's featureland episode, it was on Wednesday. It was with Ronan McLaughlin, a name you may not be familiar with, but Ronan has just gone and broke the Everest World Record. He's taken Alberto Contador off the top step. What I got with that interview, Ronan was, I got a sense that an ordinary person can achieve really extraordinary things when they stick their head down and they employ themselves judously to the task. Roman left no stone on torn and dandy talks, there's a new interview about that about he split tested tyres, he tested aerodynamics on every single piece of kit and boy he was using. He saw it off the bottom half of his handlebars, he only ran three gears on the bike. It was insane level of preparation. Yeah, I absolutely tip my cap to that and I think it's a kick up the hole for everyone who kind of has an excuse saying, you know, I have a family, I have a job, I can't do this. Ronan has all that and he went and knocked the comp there off the top step. So that's it, Rodeman, that's a wake up call for you. It's a kick up the hole you need. Rodeman with that kick up the hole, take that energy channel it, now head on over to patreon. patreon.com forward slash Anthony, underscore Walsh. That's the place you can buy me a coffee, buy me a beer, say you know what, fellow roadman, on your journey, I tip my cap, thanks for making these podcasts, I'm getting a lot of value and I want to support it, I want to see it staying around, that's the place you're going to do it. I do thank you for that. Today's short form roadman bites podcast, I want to talk to you about some of the crazy targets that I'm seeing clients coming to us with and we're suggesting to clients and that you the podcast listeners are coming with. Obviously motivation for a lot of people is low at the moment in the wake of this whole covid thing. Like you go on target a race like the Irish National Championship here at home and that was due to be late August and then the organizers pulled the rug from under that last week. Now there's talk it could be potentially October but not confirmed. And how do you deal with that from a motivation standpoint? I know a lot of people have decided to call time on the season early, but the season is such an arbitrary thing. Like don't get hung up and go, there's no sport heaves on, there's no races on. Like the season is where the season is because the weather is good. We still have the good weather. Like these organizers being, I don't call them flaky because they're not being flaky there. That's the wrong word. Organizers prioritize the health and safety of their community shouldn't deter you from getting out and You know enjoying the good weather and setting good targets So to start thinking about winter training in August just seems absolutely nuts to me be a little bit creative try and roll put body into this one and set yourself a target So I want to go through some of the targets that are keeping clients in a one-coaching motivated Maybe it's something that will keep you motivated Power targets are always a good one.

2.Go out and test your 10 second power, your 5 minute power, your 20…

Go out and test your 10 second power, your 5 minute power, your 20 minute power. So now you have a rough power profile, you know, relatively speaking against your peers, how you perform in your 10 second, 5 minute, 20 minute. Now, target one of those. So pick your 20 minute and say, okay, I'm at 300 watts now. I'm going to do a 6 week block focused on threshold training. training. If you don't know what threshold training is, you need to rewind a couple of episodes to the episode where we talked about threshold testing and training intensity, how much is too much and that breaks down and gives a zone calculator on the type of sessions you need to be doing to improve your threshold. So with a six-week window and a focus to improve your 20-minute power, now you go about building in threshold session. So, two by 20s, you know, three by 12s, over on their sessions where you could be 40 seconds, zone five, 20 seconds, zone three, repeated for 12 minutes. Build these in to a six week period and then go and retest at the end of six weeks. And put your building up to this like it's a race, you know, you'll execute a little taper before you get to it. That's just easing off the training intensity and training volume in the week before your target event, which in this case will be your power test. Another one you can do. You know, I've you've heard me from time to time given Strav a bad rap and I think it's a bad rap because it encourages people to just go around and ride full gas all the time which isn't a very sustainable way to train and it harks back to our culture of just training in zone 3 all the time which isn't beneficial because we're neglecting all the other zones we're not getting the adaptations in those other zones but pick a Strava segment go it doesn't have to be a hill, pick a strava segment, obviously don't do some crazy strava segment that requires you slalom and true for junctions. I see this all the time and what are the beginners that love these crazy obscure strava sections on flyovers where they have the time agreeing loit perfectly. Go to a country road and pick a strava section that's safe and check the wind before you go because no matter how well you're going, a head wind is not going to get you a strava section. Measure day one, go six weeks from now, measure it again. And then we think about the demands of the Strava section. How long is it? It's a four and a half minute section. It's a VO2 max effort. Now let's start building in VO2 style sessions into our training for the next six weeks. Let's go and target and get that Strava section. Another one you could do is a place to place. You don't even have, this doesn't have to be a record. This just could be something fun. Like I wrote a few weeks ago, I had a podcast, I think it was called Preparation for Boik packing where I rode to Kin Sale and it's so much fun. You're riding on roads you haven't ridden on before or you're stopping at shops and coffee shops and meeting randomers along the way. It's grey crack. I'd definitely encourage you to do a place to place.

3.Head off on a mad adventure, Royed

Head off on a mad adventure, Royed. But pick it as a target, stick it in the diary and go six weeks from now. I'm gonna go on a crazy adventure, Royed. Like a kind of a staication on your bike where you're gonna go from place to place around the country, almost like a four day stage race around the Orleans where you're going to do 150, 200k a day, if your points picked out, if your air B&B is picked out, you're going to have great crack. Or for those complete pseudo masochists out there, pick one of these mental records like Ronin that I chatted to him when says podcast, pick an Everest record, pick a point to point record, pick Dublin the Gallway is a popular one here in Ireland. I'm sure no matter where you're listening, you have a place to place record. Go for a record on the track, the error record. Go for, you know, you're not going to get carpenters' error record, but go and try and do the error record in your age group. Try and do the error record on a tandem. Try to do the error record on, you know, a bike that's under $500 in value, you know, get creative. But the message from this podcast is don't let the summer slip away. There's plenty of good weather left, you know, people are are going to start taking a break now and then they'll be tinking in October. Maybe I should get back training. It's miserable, it's cold, it's rain and it's overcast. There's so little light right now. We've beautiful sunshine, you know, decent long days, and we're COVID, turning negative into a positive. There's less cars on the road. So my message here is make hay when the sunshine's rolled, man. Rob, man, that's it for this week. I will be back Monday, thanks for listening to 5 days of the Rowman podcast this week. I feel like one of those talk shows, Jerry Ryan here in Ireland. The Ryan line is now closed for the week lads. Thanks for listening, check out Rowmanresources.com. That's the place where I'm making recommendations to all you guys about what kitchen need. It's the recommendations I described to somebody as stuff I have earned or stuff I have learned. It's I've earned some of that stuff hundreds of thousands of kilometers written and that's how I've earned that knowledge. Other stuff I've learned in the book and then I've tested in the field but all the stuff up there it's not just randomly thrown up, it's stuff I've failed tested, stuff I use, stuff I love. So go and check that out, pass it on to a friend and let's make that sort of de facto resource going for our industry. Okay guys, much love, take it safe over the weekend and you know what, I'll be back again on Monday for another roadmap podcast. Thanks for listening.