Is ‘High End’ Alloy A Rip Off? + Avoid THESE Training Mistakes – The Wild Ones Podcast Ep.26 SPECIAL

Check out the audio versions of the podcast here: https://podfollow.com/the-wild-ones/view

This week, we’re joined by Francis’ former coach and ex-Commonwealth Games racer Pete Hawkins, for a deep-dive into training. We chat ‘high end’ alloy bikes, motivation, managing expectations, juggling your work/life/cycling balance, how to know if you’re over training and ask the Big Question – is training like a pro actually a good idea?

Here’s the full breakdown:
00:00 Coach Pete is here!
02:54 Pete’s approach to training
04:41 Fitness in your late 30s vs your 20s
08:40 Would you pay £3,100 for a 105 alloy bike?
18:10 The danger of comparison in training
22:37 Is training like a pro a good idea? | The Big Question
28:00 Is pro nutrition, bikes and kit really worth the hype?
30:25 The pro ‘look’
33:22 Cycling has a HUGE body image problem…
38:58 Motivation & changing negative mindsets
43:43 Overrated/Underrated: branded sports nutrition
45:35 Overrated/Underrated: power meters
48:01 At what age do most people get a coach?
49:25 Pete reveals what it was like coaching Francis
51:18 Overrated/Underrated: New Year’s fitness resolutions
51:47 Overrated/Underrated: Riding In Snow
54:22 Fluff Up Of The Week
55:28 (TW: eating disorders) ‘How do I know if I’m overtraining?’
01:01:26 ‘How do I keep fit after having a baby?’
01:04:03 ‘How do I get fit enough to ride the Alps?’
01:08:30 ‘Help! What nutrition should I be using?’
01:12:24 Pete’s coaching deets

If you’d like us to send in a question, story, some good news, things you’d like us to discuss or anything else, email us at wildonespodcast@cademedia.co.uk
Thanks and see you next time.

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Welcome to the Wild Ones podcast episode 26 this is the show where we chat about bike stuff I’m Jimmy and this week I’m joined by producer Emily and cycling coach Pete hello hey Pete how’s it going good glad to be here uh just enjoying francis’s heated seat which I thought

Sounded like a massive extravagance when I first came in here but uh it is a bit chilly in here so yeah it is a bit chilly I was I’m a bit disappointed I thought you were going to be like me and be you know running hot and seeing the

Uh crazy that that that heated seat is but then you were sitting there for a couple of minutes and decided get very soft these days you know so a little bit about Pete um he was a professional bike racer he has ridden for a British Pro cycling team that was Madison Genesis

From I can’t even remember how many years ago he competed in Belgium for three years which is definitely a writer passage for British cyclists and probably most cyclist professional cyclist in the world uh represented Ireland and completed in the Commonwealth Games for Northern Ireland he’s also a math teacher and he runs a

Coaching business with fellow bike racer James jobber which is called upshift V so how did you start the coaching business um well I’ve been coaching already for a couple of years so I started coaching a little bit just towards the end of my career as a full-time racer uh that’s actually how I

Met Francis actually so I lived in the same area as Francis and you know he was a upand cominging cyclist so that’s why I I was doing a little bit of coaching while I was still racing and then um moved back to Newcastle to train to be a teacher

And about that time I met James I think we click quite well because he was in a similar position to what I had been at one point so he’d already done his degree and had kind of decided that he wasn’t done with cycling and wanted to

Focus on it fully and see far he could get which is exactly the same situation that I was in you know whenever I was his age and uh yeah we just started working together I started coaching him and we just you know figured out quite

Quickly that we had a lot in common in terms of our Outlook and Ethos and you know what kind of Training Method we thought worked and just the approach to racing so you know quite quickly within a year or so it went more from a coach and you know client relationship to more

Of a friendship and then also we decided to go in together and I completely felt like James was ready to start coaching himself so since then we’ve just been working together so so James is uh the workshop or he’s the he’s the shop manager at backyard bike shops which is

A shop based in Newcastle that myself and Francis spend a lot of time at and Nick Pro mechanic is Al also works at James races at Pro he’s the last couple years been Racing for Continental teams uh doing a lot of racing all over the world actually so he’s Racing for an

American team this year and doing you know some races over in America some in Europe some in Asia I’ve spoken to James a lot because I’m always in the bike shop uh and I’ve spoken to you about about some stuff but not in a huge amount of detail what I find really

Fascinating about both of you is that you historically for you and currently for James compete at an unbelievably high level but your approach to that is very unique based on a lot of stuff I’ve seen cuz when I used to race never at the level that you guys have achieved it

Was always this kind of like you’ve got to be tough and be harder and you’ve got to go out in rubbish weather and you you have to just do more and be really hard whereas you guys are are very much like I guess what the sort of ethos that I am

Now which is kind of like I don’t know if chill is the right one because you’re obviously still achieving incredible things it’s like prioritizing health I guess yeah I mean I think absolutely but I think at the same time you know James still trains in all weathers and I would have done as

Well and you know you do still need need to be focused and driven and you need to put in the hard work but I think you know it’s it’s all about doing it in a balanced way and you know keeping other elements of your life you know positive

And just not getting too overwhelmed by it but I think you know that even though these days we are a lot more focused on kind of keeping you know our own other aspects of our health and involved I think you do still need to work very

Hard like the best guys still train hard the best guys will still be you know going through a lot more a lot of things other people just aren’t prepared to and that’s just the reality of it and I think that will always be the reality of

It to some extent so something that we have talked about a bit uh you are very soon going to turn 38 I turned 38 a couple of months ago um and we’ve talked about how as we get older maintaining Fitness and training is different I definitely feel like 10

Years ago when I was in my late 20s I could just kind of throw myself at anything and the next day I’d be ready to go again whereas now I feel like I wake up some mornings and I’ve been going like 10 Rounds with Mike Tyson or something rather uh which I’m I’m

Putting down to age and probably my now lack of uh mobility and exercise compared to what I’ve historically done um how have you found being a very very high level cyclist in your mid and late 20s and now being a decade older well I think um I mean I’ve stopped racing

Seriously whenever I was in my late 20s and I hadn’t felt any depreciation in terms of condition I think my fitness kind of changed I think I became a bit more slow twitch and the things I got good at the things I was good at changed

A little bit as I aged became just more of a a diesel engine and and less of a sprinter and kind of probably still competed better though in my towards my late 20s but you know I didn’t stop because my body was starting to go you

Know it wasn’t like I wasn’t able to perform I just it was a a decision that I made to focus on other things in my life but I think um yeah you’re right once you get to past 35 you just need more recovery really you just have to be

Kinder to your body you need to give yourself prioritize your nutrition prioritize your rest and even kind of I started doing quite a bit of yoga towards the end of my cycling career and that’s something I’d still do quite a lot of and I think it’s all

About being realistic with your time and realistic with your energy and noticing when you really feel like training is something that you’re ready for you know it sometimes it’s it’s it’s difficult to have that conversation in your mind it’s like am I just being lazy or is this not

A good idea you know and I think it’s it’s an important it’s important to kind of understand the your body signals for okay is this a good idea or is it not and and just about being realistic and I think another thing I say to people all

The time is probably if you are a cyclist you’re likely to be somebody that wants to work really hard and put everything into it and I definitely have the tendency to overdo it I think 99% of cyclists have the tendency to overdo it so I think it’s probably higher even

Having that conversation with yourself there’s probably a good chance that you’re you know you’re maybe pushing the boundary a little bit Yeah I when I was late 20s I definitely did too much and now I’m at the point where I probably do too little and I’ve kind of Justified

Them in the same way yeah I think it I mean I can’t compare what I’m My Own training right now compared to what it used to be because at the minute I’m not sending massively High targets for myself I just right because I enjoy it but I know a

Lot of people our age do and so I work with a lot of people like that and it’s it’s really just about you know being being very attentive to yourself and your mood and your your body and you know and and I think that’s one one area where I think having somebody that

You’re working with can really help in order having those conversations because I think having when you when you’re only thinking of yourself sometimes it’s easier to not see the big picture just just to look at the fine details and think right I need to do this today whereas I think sometimes if you’re

Having a conversation with somebody else then they can see things in a bit more of a rounded way and can have a a sometimes a better input than you can yourself yeah very much so very much so uh I’m sure we will dig dive or dive

Digger dig deeper dig dig dive into that a little bit later on so uh we usually dive into a bit of cycling news so we are still going to do that um something that’s been causing a stir online this week is specialized selling a 3,100 alloy bike it’s the new specialized uh

Al Sprint I have once or I historically did have an Al Sprint it comes with Shimano 105 di2 12s speed DT Swiss r470 Wheels a carbon fork and in typical specialized fashion they’re calling it the fastest alloy road bike in history what do you make of high-end

Alloy bikes Pete well I come from a time where you know a lot of people were racing alloy bikes you know whenever I started mid early 2000s H you would had some some carbon bikes but a lot of people would have been riding aluminium I’m I’m not quite old enough to have

Been in this from the steel generation but um yeah I mean I think I had a really good memories I had a I had a canondale card s in about 200 actually got it from my 18th birthday 2004 to 2007 and I went from that from that bike

To carbon bikes for a couple years and it was a couple years before I felt like I I liked a bike as much as as that one even though I was riding carbon bikes I think sometimes people just go crazy for carbon the other thing is you know um

When I started with Madison Genesis we were racing steel bikes so I probably have ridden and still own perhaps the fastest steel bike that’s ever existed I I remember that that was like a big a thing wasn’t it oh yeah it was huge Reynolds 953 protein steel yeah yeah

Yeah it was it was massive that because at that point I think all the Genesis Bikes were steel and then they then at the end of that second year of the team they then brought out a carbon back I think they just admitted that for performance you were never quite going

To be able to get the same thing with steel as you get with carbon but it’s still a lovely bike and um what’s the highest level that you’ve ridden a steel bike I mean I I did one season on a British Continental team Race the Commonwealth Games on a steel bike you

Know race tour of Britain on a steel bike Commonwealth Games on a steel bike that is legendary what’s the highest level you race an alloy bike um I mean I would have been racing it and like that was when I sort of coming through so yeah like Lower Level Pro

Races and I won the Northeast divisional championships on on an alloy bike and yeah but at the same time obviously you’re comparing that with I think the thing really here is it shows just how all bikes are getting more expensive regardless of what material you’re using

And it’s just a case of kind of we that’s Justified and that kind of thing even the fact that it’s only got like 105 on it you know it would be interesting to put you say that it what you should do you and Francis need to

Get get one of these put the best wheels on it put the best group set on it and just see how it performs cuz I’m sure it probably you know it’ll be marginal differences really 105 di2 is basically a high-end group set now this is the

Thing we talk about a lot is I really want to try it us us growing up with group sets 105 was like entry level whereas that isn’t the case anymore like it’s it is as good as dur race it’s just a bit heavier so in terms of performance

It will be like exceptional uh the difference between that bike with 105 di2 and that bike with dur race di2 is going to be negligible yeah I think the wheels might be I mean the wheels are J the wheels are where you get the biggest difference you know Coulda upgrade the

Wheels but that goes for any bike you can upgrade the wheels and make a big difference so most people that listen to this if they do race they probably do crit races rather than stage races etc etc is there an argument that an ally bike is a better or worse race bike for

Crit racing I mean one thing I know about crit races is that there’s a lot of crashes and you know is is it more likely to end up in six pieces at the end of it you know absolutely not you know so that I remember Roger Hammond

Who was um uh DS at Madison obviously he was trying to plug the the steel bikes but he was saying I don’t understand how amate cyclists buy carbon bikes because they’re just so you know they are very it’s just so breakable yeah when I did

Use to race I used to race on steel or alloy and I always used to buy alloy bikes I used to buy basically allo frames so I had I had an all Sprint I had a cad 12 and then put really really top end everything on them and used to

End up with a light really was that for like money reasons or is that for durability reasons or just everything really it was it was a better value it always felt like better value cuz I was essentially saving a couple of grand on a bike and still getting something that

Performed really well I don’t know I mean I reckon there’s probably more variety in terms of quality with carbon than anything else because you know there’s plenty of bad carbon bikes out there I think you you you do get what you pay for even within the carbon range

There’s still a huge difference so people just it’s it’s a typical thing oh carbon bike oh that one’s going to be better you know that’s just how a lot of people think but it’s you know usually it’s more complicated than that I I I know what Francis will be thinking here

He’ll be thinking if you crash a carbon bike it can be repaired for a few hundred pound if you crash an allo bike to the extent that that you’ve actually broken it you’ve broken it it’s a write off yeah but how many crashes would you have where the

Alloy bike would be completely not a scratch and then the carbon bikes in three pieces yeah that that’s that’s kind of the playoff isn’t it I guess the challenge with this now though is this is £3,100 for an alloy bike if you wrote that frame off that frame on its own is probably

,500 whereas when we were racing alloy bikes the frame was probably 400 quid so if you did write the frame off it would be not easy but a lot easier to just replace the frame move your stuff over and crack on yeah I mean I I don’t even

Think like insurance was that much of a thing back then because it just wasn’t as necessary you know the you could handle replacing a 800 P frame in the same way as you know whereas these days if your frames three grand it’s like you’re not going to just have that money

Waiting to to buy it to replace it yeah that’s why that’s obviously that’s why insurance is so common these days Eman and myself used to have right by Le Lee Lee Le Valley Le Valley V Park where they used to do crit racing we used to race time trials there things like that

Uh and we quite often go to the crit races because we always need people racing and it would always blow my mind where you’d get someone racing on like a 10 15,000 full carbon AO bike in a a very crashy crit in London I think as well cuz like

How long ago was that uh four years ago three years ago so I mean obviously that’s huge thing down in London obviously money for a lot lots of people down in London they’ve got a lot more disposable income and you know having a flashy bike is is a big part of it but

Uh I think even that’s filtering up now as well you get a lot more up here a lot more of that up here as well and you know I still raise on a rim break bike I I have multiple bikes with this brakes but they’re not race bikes so any any of

The races I’ve done recently I’ve still do on rim breaks and I’m not anti disc Brak it’s just I at this point racing road races and spending lots of money on on a a bike like that is just not something that I’m interested in and I

I’m still happy with what I have you know um it was fairly recently I think it was it’s it’s really interesting like anyos were one of the last teams to make that change you know I think it was um Bernal won the year on a rim break bike

Whenever it was almost the only Rim break bike in the in The Paton at that point and he still so it just shows I think I think a lot of people will look at the final details like that and just think almost it’s a bit like what we’re

Going to talk about later with kind of training approaches it’s people think these things make a massive difference and really you know it’s marketing put a put a good guy on a bike that’s nothing fancy and he’ll he’ll still usually come come out on top you know so £3,100

For uh an alloy specialized Al Sprint with 105 di2 group set is it good value or not I would have to ride the bike I’m sorry oh he’s playing it so he’s playing it so yeah yeah to be fair it’s it’s a horrible question because what do you

Think um I think it will be a really really nice bike with a wheel upgrade y then it’s a at least a 4,000 bike and then all of a sudden it’s not very good value it it feels hard to say that £3,100 is going to get you good

Value I would still pick the decathlon bike over that yeah I’m I’m looking you got lots of these kind of lower and bikes I’m really want to know which one’s which one’s your favorite uh is it here no it’s not we’ve we’ve I think we gave it

To charity uh there’s an £850 de cathlon with Hy hydraulic breaks but mechanical shifters 10 of five group Set uh it’s great I think you would really like it and I think you would win races on it right not right now few years ago maybe on the subject of races you said you

Still do the odd race what what have you done in the last few years very little very just like a couple of local crits couple of local road races I was working with the cycling team this year and did did a couple with them uh I did think

The M the main thing that I’ve done in the last couple of years that I focused on and actually trained for and enjoyed was the dirty Reaver so did the dirty Reaver last year yeah which was amazing I mean I’ve been just riding gravel myself for the last three or four

Years and absolutely love it for the it’s it is 100% my favorite just way of riding right now and um yeah it was also like 200ks is off road like eight and a half hours yeah I think the best guys were doing it in kind of just under

Seven but still it was a new challenge I think that was what appealed to me about it as well it was sort of not just racing something that I used to do at a level far below what I used to be at it was doing something completely new that

I didn’t have any comparisons with my sort of formal former racing self and um that’s actually a really good point and it’s something that I’ve struggled so much with over the last decade is comparing myself to my former self it literally taken about six years for me

To get to a point where I go right okay so this is the this is now The New Normal whereas I still used to think that I could like get there yeah I think to be honest I I haven’t taken it as seriously to in any

Way as I as I used to you know I’ve never really knuckled Dar and thought right I’m actually going to see how what I can really do at this point I think just my life priorities are different and my life are so much bu more more so

Much more busy now but um I think comp comparison with yourself sometimes can be positive whenever you’re on on the up you know it’s good sometimes to see improvements and oh you know I was able to do this that I wasn’t this thing I wasn’t able to do six months ago or

Whatever but obviously you can’t stay at the top of the mountain forever and sometimes I think whenever you’re on the way down or if you’re not taking things as seriously use as you used to it’s just important to understand that it’s like there’s a reason that I’m not at

This level and that’s because I’m doing other things with my life or my my priorities have changed and just not beaing like not breeding yourself like there’s a reason that I used to be able to just pedal around at 250 Watts for 5 hours this because that’s most of what I

Did with my life whereas these days you know so many so many other things that are important that I enjoy and so I can still enjoy riding my bike but just try not to have that negative voice of my head telling me that I used

To be way better at it so yeah I think it’s really sad and it’s it’s one thing I see actually sometimes with clients that I have had is that they start out and they’re super ambitious and they really want to improve and they they put everything into it and you know they

Show real dedication and um and the fact that they decide to get a coach to help them obviously it means they’re they’re taking it seriously and then you know they see improvements or whatever or and it happened a lot through Co I think whenever Co happened and racing fell

Away and it was really difficult for people to keep going and and a lot of them stopped and a lot of them don’t even really ride anymore and it’s kind of sad because it’s basically it’s basically saying okay I I am really interested in cycling if I can do it at

This very very high level that I’m setting for myself and I would rather not bother than be slower than I used used to be yeah you know which is really sad because cycling is or any kind of anything you get into that you want to put that much time and effort into you

Must have some kind of passion for it and some kind of joy for it and just letting that completely fall away from your life which to be honest I kind of did a little bit whenever I stopped racing it took me quite a long time to

Come back to it and be able to just enjoy training and enjoy riding my bike without it being I I kind of knew that it would always be part of my life but for some people they just completely leave it and that’s it’s that’s a sad thing now onto our big question is

Training like a professional a good Target for most cyclists um I would say in the majority of cases at least initially no I think it’s something that people a mistake that people quite often make whenever they either are just starting or whenever they decide to kind

Of Step It Up from the level that they’re currently at is that they they look too hard at like the top end specifics of what the pros are doing because there’s so much information now about what everyone’s doing and kind of uh and I think generally cyclists are

Just so Keen to latch on to those things and try to apply them to their own training but I just see so many examples of people who are focusing on those if you think little things like the cherry on the top of the cake when they’re not actually

Really they haven’t got the bass sorted yet you know they’re they’re focusing too much on those Niche little things and neglecting gaping holes and uh just the very very obvious things that need to be need to be dealt with so I am 100% one of those people I am the worst kind

Of athlete back in my day so I was working full-time and I specifically like to the words I used to tell people I want to train like a pro and see what happens so like I didn’t have a childhood I used to play sports and was active as a kid have a

Childhood well no I I guess I did have a childhood is is is probably a better way of putting it I wasn’t a a standout athlete as as a child like some people are which is what then Grooms them into you know I imagine Jobo was probably a

Really good athlete when he was in school I wasn’t one of those people so I wasn’t like naturally groomed into sport so when I came at it uh in my mid 20s it was like right so I’m G to see what I’m capable of I’m going to see how fast I

Can be at this this whatever at the time that’s commendable obviously you know uh I just I well I think I just approached it what I did was exactly what this is saying I was like right so how do the pros do it let me try and do that whilst

Also having a job and a life so I got a coach who was actually amazing and without him God knows what have happened cuz he was constantly telling me me to back off with stuff uh and telling me off where it was like that was meant to

Be an easy session why were you at threshold I like it was fun um so I was I was training upwards of 20 hours a week as well as having a full-time job so I was training in the morning in the evening on the weekends just all of the

Time and it was just not very healthy do you find people still doing these kind of things in this day age all the time all the time it’s it’s just it’s a commendable thing to say you know High Target to yourself and be be keen and

You know all those things are good but it’s just a case of I think only starting from where you’re at and not trying to jump forward you know three steps just just focusing what you’re doing making improvements to that and then you know changing the ethos I think

That um a lot of the time whenever I take people on they’re quite often surprised at how the training is easier than what they would have expected or are a big proportion of the training is at a lower intensity from what they expect y I think that um people have

This idea that you need to smash every session and if you don’t finish every single session you know then you haven’t done it properly and um I think there’s also a even when you are basing your training on what the pros are doing like the pros tell you about that really

Hard session that they did with loads of savage intervals and or you know they’re going and reconning Mountain stages or like sections or whatever like they tell you the fancy stuff but they they don’t tell you about what they do 80% of the time which is actually not all that

Different from what you’re doing so it’s all about getting the right proportions of the right intensities mhm and quite often people are surprised by how little of the hard stuff that involves yeah it’s easy to fall into the Trap of trying to recreate their Watts rather than try to recreate

Their intensity it what their body is really doing and um yeah and just and neglecting the basics like sleep above anything get your cycle right if you’re combining it with a job and a family it’s all about those things that are just rigid you can’t move those

Things you might be able to you know slightly change your working hours or whatever but at the same time you need to earn money and you’re not a pro yet you need if you have a family in those commitments they aren’t just going to disappear and it’s it’s all about

Keeping all of those plate spinning but at the same time trying to train with the most Effectiveness and you know I think a lot of the time when I start with somebody I quite often just tell them I’m going to try to help you make the best use of the

Time that you have tell me how much time you can commit to this I’m not going to tell you how much time to commit to it you tell me how much time you’ve got and we’re just going to try and reasonably and sensibly make the best use of that

And to me that’s the most sensible thing you can do what’s your opinions on like the effects of cycling marketing and how that trickles down into uh normal people’s lives like uh the marketing around nutrition and bike weight and aerodynamics and all of that stuff I I

Kind of feel I spent a lot of time telling people that these things are not worth it or that you know um to not look at these N Things and I don’t want people thinking that I don’t believe in the benefits of those things I think I’m

Not saying those things have no benefit at all you know you’re talking about nutritional products yes absolutely they will be better but it’s just a case of how much difference do they make you know you know if I was when I was doing a professional bike race I wanted to

Make sure I was on the best bike I was eating the best stuff I was as well prepared as I possibly could be because mentally as much from from my mind needed to believe that I’d have the be best preparation possible there was just like a comfort in knowing that okay

Everything everything’s in place here for me to perform at an elite level absolutely but I think we are talking to those people who are not at that point they they might be doing they might just be out with their Cycling Club where they’re doing a gravel event or whatever

And it’s it’s are these and these people are the ones that have got got the money and it’s quite often those people that are just having all these fancy things but like leaving massive gaps as well yeah I I guess I guess one of the anomalies is

Just rich people that can just buy a 15 grand bike and go and race crits on and if they crash it they don’t it doesn’t matter if I was going to get a coach I would out a doubt work with you and James because I am at the point where I know

Having a £10,000 bike or a 2,000 bike isn’t really going to make a difference to me because the only thing that actually holds me back now is riding MH uh actually doing it and what sessions to do and making it fit with my life and

All of that kind of stuff um but then you know if if someone can afford the best nutrition in the world and the best bike in the world and the best wet suit in the world if they’re a triathlete and the best trainers you know sure fine

Whatever but don’t think that that is going to replace the training that you should be doing there’s this thing about cyclist as well which like I never had you know which was just this the the look thing that oh like I I I remember uh doing my first race in the

South of England so we’re talking 2008 and I’d been Racing for you know I’d already been at University in Newcastle RAC the north I remember going down and doing it called the S 5 day which was this amazing event down you know well it wasn’t just in sorry but in the south of

England and um I remember remember showing up with a group of riders from Ireland and we all just had like my shirt my jersey didn’t match my shorts my bike you know that Canon I was telling you about but you know nothing fancy did not look the part at all

Should have all these fancy teams matching kit nice socks new white shoes all that you know Carbon wheels whenever Carbon wheels were very rare I remember thinking right okay this is going to be these guys look these guys look good okay so I’m going to I’m going to be on

For a hard day here and I won the bike congratulations you know not matching my shorts didn’t match my jersey you know it’s just because all those things that all this look all it was just this uh environment of kind of how you look being more important than what what’s actually

Under underneath the Bonnet that leads us really nicely into talking about the pro look um which I think a lot of people get into their head and it is more than you know it’s having the right bike it’s being the right weight it’s having a bike that

Weighs under a certain amount of kilos um and kind of trying to emulate the pro cyclist look like for example do you shave your legs still no I and I used to shave my legs before my first bike race I never shaved my legs through the winter even when I was racing fulltime

Yeah and I would shave my legs if I was doing a bike race but I quite like having I like I feel masculine I I feel like a grown man when I’ve got hairy legs you know and even when I ride a bike I don’t care people sometimes point

It right and I don’t care so that because it’s it’s almost like uh well it’s it’s you wouldn’t be taken seriously in a lower level crit race if you didn’t have your leg shaving it’ be like oh he’s not shaved his legs probably going to be a sketch Fest

There’s actually more more evidence nowadays that it does actually provide an aerody aerodynamic Adventure so breaks up the air yeah I mean there’s a reason we do it and um like I was saying about the equipment like if I if I was taking that race seriously I’d be

Shaving my legs yeah because I wouldn’t I wouldn’t want any extra drag that wasn’t necessary it the case is just like if you go out in a Sunday with your Mates is do you need to do it at that point you know obviously stuff like shaved legs and what socks you have and

All of that kind of it’s trivial you can do it or not do it but I guess when it comes to diet and body weight and those kind of things do you think that that Pro Image um that people try to emulate can that have damaging effect on on

People definitely the body image part so you know I think when a lot of people young cyclists or even you know Club cyclist whatever they have a certain body image that they’re striving for which to them is the the body image that belongs to a successful professional cyclist and um

And also you know I don’t look good I wouldn’t say that I look as good in like as I used to because my physique is not what it used to be and it just doesn’t look as good you know and if I’m okay with that you know I think Mo both of

Both of us would be fine with that but I think the the danger is that people strive for this particular body image and they have an idea of what a professional cyclist looks like and quite often they will base that on the guys that win the tur of France so you

Know in order to win the T of France you need to be able to climb up mountains you know multiple mountains on over multiple days better than the people around you and that requires being very very lean if you think about you know vinger Gard poet chart these are very very skinny guys

But um so I was working with the cycling team this year and we had a a Meetup at the beginning of the year here and I showed them a picture of the podium from the world in Yorkshire in 2019 and that was the obviously we had the worlds in

The UK this year as well but at that point it was the biggest bike race that had been in the UK for the last 20 years at that point and the three guys that ended up on the podium were Matt pison who’s a big guy uh Stefan Kung another big guy and Mato

Trentin they are all grown men they’re they have muscular body types like they’re not skinny cyclists when you picture a skinny cyclist and they had just finished top three in the world over British roads mhm and I think whenever people have an idea in terms of Aesthetics but then I think also in

Terms of performance what makes a a cyclist physique I think sometimes our perceptions are wrong and um you know those guys aren’t going to win the tur of France but then neither is anybody who’s listening to this you know but you might want to prove yourself through the

UK racing scene and then move on to racing up mountains but you’re not going to get the opportunity to raise up mountains if you’ve not performed well in this scene in order to do that you you need to be strong you need to be fit

You need to be able to actually ride a bike properly as well mhm yeah I think I think the the perceptions are very very different you know you think about Wiggins whenever he won the turle fronts he slimmed down there was four years when people picted Bradley Wiggins they

Think of him when he was as lean as he was when he won the Tour of France but that was only a period of about four years where he was targeting Grand turs whenever he was targeting you know Pursuits or he put on weight in order to

Win the O the world TT championships in 2014 and then to compete for the pursuit team in in the Olympics in 2016 you know so he he was adapting his Physique in order to fit what he was targeting and for lots of people you know they think

It’s all about being thin it’s it’s not it’s about being strong and lean is part of it but you know it’s about it’s about the engine really even throughout my career my body type changed and then my my strengths and weaknesses changed as well so you know it it it’s but the

Leanest I got I remember I had that thing we’re talking about where that I wanted to be really really skinny and I remember having a it one of the Lan I already was and I remember having a winter vomiting bug and it was literally this the the lightest my adult self had

Ever been and I was unwell I remember looking in the mirror and thinking wow I I liked what I saw crazy you know I I had a sort of similar EXP experience the the lightest I ever was was just before a race that I was making a big deal for

And I was so proud of myself that I was like just just unbelievably skinny and there was a couple of pictures of me from Before the Race just in a pair of running shorts and I saw them like a week later and I was so upset at how ill

I looked yeah that I was like I have to change this I’ve I’ve compared you know well both young men and young women looking at cycling magazines to generally young women looking at you know Girls magazines and the kind of that striving for that particular physique and and the damage we know

About the damage that it does for you know lots of girls and then it can be similar in cycling and even you know exercise can be a form of pimia and uh it’s it’s it can it can get to the point point where it’s very unhealthy so we we talked before the

Show about how people get their motivation and how sometimes it can be actually from quite a negative place do you uh as part of your coaching deal with uh or how do you deal with the the ne the negative effect or the negative mentality of going into into training

Yeah I think I think what we were talking about was where people’s motivation comes from and whether it’s kind of of either like achieving in order to compensate for some sort of lack that they have or else trying to prove people wrong or you know doing something or or almost like fear of

Failure you know they’re they’re training because they’re afraid that if they don’t they won’t achieve MH and that’s you know you can’t win if if that’s your mindset there’s no winning because it you either get it and then it’s just relief or you don’t get it and then it’s

You know self-criticism or whatever and I think um for me from my own experience and then also with the the people I work with as well it’s it’s really just about trying to see what what they’re really motivated by what inspires them and also kind

Of why they’re doing it and and it’s it it should be something that you just are interested something there should be some fun in it if you look at the best Pros the real top ones they’re having a great time mhm you know they’re they’re enjoying themselves and the whereas a

Lot of other people who are who are trying to strive for that it just looks like a chore you know and they don’t they’re not actually getting anything from it you know there’s an element of playfulness you you look at like pogar he’s got this playful character sagam

Was the classic example where he it was all just a Big Show and fun and I I I felt VI fell victim sometimes of just not having the fun anymore yeah you know and but I think you get the best out of yourself if you’re if you’re en enjoying

Yourself if you still have that passion you’re still connected to that reason that you started so you’re effectively doing it because you want to do it not because you feel you have to do it yeah and and and I think as well but it’s a difficult mindset to

Switch you know it’s it’s not like oh you should just want to do this because you want to do it not because you feel like you’re afraid of you know not being it’s a very very difficult thing to to Really break you know um but I think a

Lot of it’s just about having conversations with people I think as well managing expectations because if people are always setting their sights on something which is maybe just unrealistic then that never ends well as well that that is 100% of all of my training yeah yeah yeah until very recently it’s just like

For example if you try and just recre recreate some whats that are unrealistic then you’re just going to break down and and it will it will the training will actually break you rather than Build You Up and I think at all points you know it

You should feel like you want to do it not every single day but you there should still be an element of you that enjoys the work and also you don’t need to be knackered all the time you know you you should have energy for other things in your life and uh and

That that energy will just transfer and by keeping yourself mentally in the right place and you know not getting consumed by it I know so many people where it’s like it becomes the biggest thing they’re not they’re not even doing it anywhere near fulltime they’re just got jobs and families and everything and

They just get so obsessive about it and it’s you know it could be quite damaging and I think also counterproductive I I I think I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there if and I think a really good Benchmark for this stuff because there is there is nothing wrong with being

Really into something but I guess the thing to always be aware of is do you actually enjoy it because if you’re not enjoying it there’s just no point yeah I mean and that’s also it is a a marker of overtraining as well if you’re if you’re

Not got any interest in it if there’s no kind of part of you that’s interested in it and and if if you really are choosing to do something you should be choosing it because you want it and if that if that sort of passion starts to disappear then

That’s usually a a sign that something’s wrong time for a round of overrated or underrated I’m going to read a list of things and Pete’s going to tell me if he thinks they’re overrated or underrated first up is a suggestion by Matthew Sports Nutrition for normal Riders underrated oh sorry overrated sorry

Overrated I think it’s important but you can get a very very similar effect from the most basic stuff can you give me one example two examples okay two examples you’ll find in my pockets a lot of the time on why Mars Snickers they just they they are almost an energy bar

Yeah you get a packet of four for one energy bar but even like jelly babies yeah yeah you know I think there’s so much sweet are a great one aren’t they yeah I think as well there’s a lot more evidence now that loading with a lot of carbs is really massively beneficial

Both in training and in racing it it just you know prolongs your endurance hugely and I think I already when I was racing I used to eat more than anybody I knew like my pockets would be Fuller than anyone’s I I knew I just always hated that feeling of like I was running

The risk of running on empty but I also just was very very good over long races and I think that those two things were probably correlated MH you know I was I was fueling like lots of people do nowadays but there was just less I think there’s also this old school mentality

With cycling again around you know oh eating’s cheating it’s absolutely not it’s it’s important to be essential it’s important to be fuing yourself so like I’m saying I would probably say nutrition on the whole is underrated but the Branded stuff is overrated I’ll give you that yeah next is power

Mees again both I would again say both but it it just completely depends on you can’t say both you have to pick one I’m going to say both all right justify that then so one question that I’ve asked myself is if I had a son or a daughter who was

Serious about cycling at what age would I buy them a par meter good question I like it and I think probably it would be when they went from Juniors to under 23 because I would want them to have enough time where they were getting to know their own

Sensations learning to actually ride a bike being able to handle a bike and you know I I would get them started on CY cross 100% yeah skills skills is so underrated yeah completely and and Bunch craft and you know stealing other people’s Watts rather than just using

Your own Watts M all those things um which are completely neglected and I think partly because it’s very difficult to sell that you know Bunch writing skills who’s selling it that I’ve never heard anyone refer to it as stealing other people’s wats yeah you do and you know it’s another another situation

Where James and I are probably we would both admit to never being having the biggest engine but we’re just very good at stealing other people’s wats and you know using just being clever with with what you’ve got and um so I would say having a part once you get to a

Certain point of where you have trained to a certain level and are trying to get to another level I think that a par meter is massively useful and um but I think that a lot of people just get them too soon and don’t know how they don’t

Know what they’re doing or they get caught up with the whats or even another thing about being if you’re like a young cyclist and you’re comparing what you’re doing with what you’re reading on the internet if you’re 15 your watts are going to be rubbish like every 15y olds

Are just going to be nowhere near what they’re reading yeah but I’m sure the great the great Racers of the present and the past had no idea what they were doing when they were that age and they weren’t losing out at all you know so I think I would say yeah it

It it completely depends on where somebody’s at can I ask you a question yeah what if you know it what’s the average sort of age of your clients average age would probably be about gim so yeah we do have some young as aspiring sectors I love working with and

James does as well where you’re working with you know a young person who H has the opportunity to still dream and to you know you can really uh and they might have more time as well available and they can commit to it and you know and you can also use the experience in

Terms of what might be the best team to race for or where might be the best place to locate yourself or you know being a mentor for somebody who’s going through a similar process to what I went through whenever I was young um I really

Enjoy that uh but the reality is that a lot of people people who would be coming would be in a similar position to what Jimmy’s talking about where they’ve they’ve already got those commitments they’ve discovered that they have a a passion for the sport and maybe a

Certain level of of ability and they just want somebody to guide them a lot of the time it’s just there’s so much information around and you can access all of it but a lot of it is a case of right what do I do with all of this and

It’s sometimes just having somebody that’s there who can make that decision for you I mean I I had a coach up to about 28 29 I had the same coach through most of my cycling career and I was already coaching other athletes whenever I was coaching coaching Francis I still

Had a coach because I wanted I didn’t want to have to think in the morning what am I going to do we would have a a consultation we’d have a talk about what areas of training we want to F we wanted to focus on and that decision would be made so in

The morning it would just be this is what I’m going to go and do and I’m going to come home and I’m going to recover and there was no know you know I I I I preferred it that way so I I didn’t you actually coached Francis yes

Oh wow yeah so we we met about 10 years ago and just at like a I think there’s like a training event for like Kingston wheelers yeah and yeah we just started riding together he lived just around in the corner and we we started training together a little bit and the next

Actually I’m just going to add a bonus one off the back of that Francis Cade as an elite racer you ask me about yeah overrated or underrated I think uh he didn’t Bo he stopped quite young he I’m sure he could have been really really good if he’ stuck at it but he

Just obviously had other things that he wanted to do in his life you know and um yeah he he was he was good he was good in the Hills but you know it’s a bit like what I was talking about he um wasn’t as strong as a lot of the guys

That were better than if he been racing up mountains he would have been a lot more successful than he was but the reality was he was racing in the UK and that’s not the scene and that’s kind of what I was talking about really so um so

He is a better YouTuber than an elite cyclist I’ll give you that so what what I took from that is there’s a possibility he could have won the Tour to France that’s let’s let’s just go with that we’ll leave that y uh right next one is you Year New Year’s even

Fitness resolutions overrated or underrated I think I actually used to love training on the 1 of January because it always felt like okay it was so calm Clean Slate yeah even if I had a hangover it was still like okay I’m just going to do this and it’s a clean slate

You know it’s it’s an opportunity to kind of re rethink and re and um refocus uh but yeah you got to you got to stick with something before we finish up the section do you have any to add to the mix um I’m going to say underrated overrated and underrated weather conditions for

Cycling what do you think my ideal cycling weather is um 30° Sunny somewhere in Spain nope what is it like -3° and snow it is just the best specifically snow specifically snow okay so it when it’s you know what we had the weekend here like nice snow

It’s just your body is warmer if it’s negative3 cuz you don’t get wet if you’re riding in the snow so there’s no kind of wind chill mhm and it’s just everything is Countryside looks amazing it’s so quiet and you you as long as you

Got the right bike for it but I I used to enjoy riding in the snow even when I didn’t have I didn’t have a gravel bike when I was racing I used to just be on the roads and I enjoyed it but are you riding onroad or off-road and what type

Of bike are you riding these days it would mainly be gravel bike and a combination of the two because with with gravel bike and decent tires it makes it so much safer but I agree that neg3 with snow is very pleasant the only issue I have with winter and cold is the minus

One to 4 de space Oh yeah and the problem with that is you get a lot of it’s very common for there to be icy roads icy tarmac and the mentality in that space of being like Oh I’m just going to go out anyway is just doesn’t make sense to me

Yeah that’s that’s fair I think it’s dangerous it’s higher risk it’s there’s a high chance of you falling out there are ways of mitigating it and I know you and James ride a lot in revish weather and I have this back and forth with James about him being a lot of it is

It’s being careful which roads you’re using being really like just scanning the surfaces like if it’s shiny it’s just it’s bad news yeah I I think what I have learned from you and James going out in the really cold stuff is you’re not going out and being like I don’t

Care I’m just going to ride anyway you’re actually doing it sensibly like I think James went out on a I think I’m pretty sure he went out on a mountain bike um because you’re going like well this is the most appropriate tool I’m going to avoid that bit of what is

Almost definitely ice I’m not just going to ride through it because you’re not trying you’re not going out going I’m going to crash you’re going out going well I’m going to have some fun and mitigate the chances of me having a crash that leads us on to fluff up of the Week let’s keep this one brief shall we this isn’t fair DW this isn’t fair because it leads in my name and I’m not the source of the issue uh so just before this podcast um I formatted the memory cards as we always do before the podcast and it turns out that there was

Footage on there that we shot earlier this week that was has not yet been edited that now no longer exists and I’m actually going to blame Francis for it because he took all of the memory cards home apart from the ones for the podcast which are not meant to be used for other

Video stuff so we ended up formatting one that should never have been used in the first place we’ve just lost a load of footage that’s that no one’s ever going to see again and I’m not going to tell you what it was it would have been

The best video in the world and now we’ll just have to make a tribute I I just made sure I was not involved in that conversation because I thought it was turning into like serious domestic did you think it was domestic I think we’ve worked together long enough that

We can kind of know that I just was staying well clear and now time for some more listeners takeover we have loads of questions rep Pete so we’ll go through a few and we will attempt to not make this a 4-Hour podcast um first one is oh my God this

Is absolutely massive do you want me to read it uh yes okay I do this is a message from Andy it starts off I’m worried that I’m over training but how do I know a typical working day is 30 minutes on the training three sessions

Of 60 press ups and 60 sit-ups and a 30 minute walk on a Friday afternoon I go for a mountain bike ride of around 25 miles or a 30- minute run then on a Saturday it’s a 70 M Club ride along with more press-ups and sit-ups and then

On Sunday it’s 25 miles in the mountain bike with the same 60 60 sessions I might do a 30 minute walk over the weekend too also with the amount of exercise I do I track what I eat how do I know if I’m tired because I’m doing

Too much or if I’m not eating enough the app says I’m meeting my needs most days I do worry I have a borderline eating disorder because I do obsess about my weight I try not to be influenced by what I watch and read but a lot is made of not being too

Heavy it’s quite a a heavy question yeah there’s a lot lot in there um a lot of interesting things I think a few things we talked about already as well sort of mentioned on you know the weight side and that kind of thing so um it it I it is impossible to

Say whether that this person is over trading or not without actually having a a conversation with them and know I mean the the workload is one part of it but if I was speaking to somebody I wouldn’t be asking them as much about how much training they’ be doing I’d be asking

About their body’s response to the training so you know it’s it’s the the input but then really what I’m interested in is you know how do you feel when you’re not on the bike how do you when you stand up do you get lightheaded what is your is everything

Okay with your sleep patterns you know libido that kind of thing all these things are just your body’s markers of whether it’s healthy and if they start to break down then that is a a a symptom of of overtraining and I think one other thing which is interesting is the app

Says my my needs are s my my the app says I meet my needs most most days and I think there’s definitely a danger for us to get too caught up in what this you know digital world yeah in terms of calorie counting that calorie counting

Training as well even you know we talk about TSS whenever we’re talking about training load and people get obsessed with the the figures and as in the same way as I was talking about earlier with power meters the figures have a massive amount of use and can be very very

Beneficial but at the same time it’s easy to get two bogg on on them and really what’s most important is the signals that you’re reading from from your body and I think even as I said before most cyclists have the tendency to overdo it and even if you’re at the

Point where you’re asking that question am I overtrained there’s a good chance you are so what I would probably be suggesting would be try doing a bit less cut it down take two days in the week where you don’t do anything don’t train at all and then see how that or

Limit your weak weekend miles slightly or whatever and see how your body responds to that both physically and mentally absolutely how do you feel mentally about not doing that work I think is a really important and I think a lot of it is and I’m not commenting on

This particular person but a lot of cyclists it’s an obsessive it’s an obsessive level of you know exercise that they need they feel like they need to do it and it’s a trap that lots of people will fall into it it to answer this person’s question I would

Need to really assess them you know one to one but there are lots of people in this in this situation who are overdoing it 100% and we’ve all kind of talked about our own experiences and and similarly with me I’ve been in a position where I have ultimately used

Exercise to mask um calorie deficits and trying to lose weight from a purely aesthetical point of view and the problem with doing it in sport is that you often get positive feedback from people so I was telling you earlier I used to do a lot of running and became

Came I would say in in quite a heavy pattern of disordered eating um and I would run to a mass calories that I then felt that I could eat you know and the feedback that I would get from Runners around me through no fault of their own

But was your physique is amazing you look like you’d be a great marathon runner yeah and in reality mentally I was screwed I could also and that’s other Runners probably looked you and thought that but then a lots of just normal people probably would have looked you completely differently yeah and

Thought Oh my God yeah but but this is it isn’t it and I think you can use those positive affirmations as um proof that what you’re doing is okay another thing that kind of happens as well in cycling is straa I think a lot of people sometimes will you know put these

Massive rides on St or even go out and do these stupid stupid training rides so that their friends can say the most straa and I hate straa I I rarely use it and it it’s there is so much of that kind of proving something to somebody when really you

Know what’s what’s what are you doing it for are you doing this to impress your friends or are you doing it to improve or you doing it because it’s something you want to do you know I think the most important thing on this section as well

Is if you are worried about your health either mentally or physically you should speak to a health professional you can find eating disorder support via beat eating disorders. org.uk okay next one is from Ben my wife and I had our first child a year ago congratulations and since then

Bike riding has gone out the window as expected how can I keep some sort of level of Fitness while only being able to make it out to ride once or twice a week I live near Regent Park so that’s my local but if I have more time I

Usually head down to Richmond or eping Forest yeah I mean it’s obviously I haven’t got kids but I’ve got Brothers with kids and you know the initial couple of years is it’s always super busy and you know sleep patterns are being interrupted and it’s a huge thing

I think as well sometimes with men there’s almost a guilt as well if they they don’t want to put too much on their partner as well um but at the same time it’s good for you and your family involved to be healthy and you know part of that is doing something for yourself

And and if cycling is is a part of it I think it’s really just about trying not to do too much maybe you you’re just going to have to limit your your aspirations com don’t com do what Jimmy was doing and compare yourself to where you were before the baby arrived because

Your life was different before the the baby arrived and and that’s okay and it’s really just about taking opportunities to ride it when you when you can I think as well in terms of a fitness perspective maintaining Fitness it would be more beneficial to do shorter regular rides than doing l

Long rides um the body responds more to being hit a little bit regularly rather than not riding for a whole week and then doing doing a big ride on the Sunday so would an example of that be doing like 420 minute turos for example versus one 60 Minute ride or or you know

Two 45 minute rides yeah I mean even I think when when people talk about second they’re I I sometimes go out and do a two-hour ride and people oh that was a short right again what other sport is 2 hours of exercise a short amount of of

Exercise you know I think people have a different different um set of uh expectations when it comes to cycling duration it’s it’s you can just get out and ride around regions park for half an hour and you will still you will be better for it you know and um combine it

With nap time or whatever and it’s it’s uh I think I’d say keep it up as much as you can prior prioritize doing it regularly rather than for a long duration and just try to not be harsh on yourself and be reasonable with your expectations next one is from Matthew hi

ER love the Pod I’m looking to go from 30 miles of Fitness to Alps Fitness I want to ride some mountains I’m 54 asmatic 173 CM 89 kilos I don’t know what that has to do with anything um I have zift all sorts of bikes but a stressful job although only Monday or

Thursday kids are gone advice on getting fit enough would be much appreciated okay so uh I think first of all I think start from where you’re at and just add any changes gradually um you know it sounds like you are interested in in increasing that workload and increasing your your

Fitness um the fact that this the fact that Matthew’s mentioned his height and his weight also and says to me that he’s made maybe worried that he might be too heavy um and I would again say as we have done no massive changes so obviously being sensible maybe changing

Some habits you know there’s nothing wrong with losing weight it’s just as long as you do it and you’re sensible about it um so I’d say that limiting the the amount of bad things that you’re eating but at the same time giving your body plenty of of good nutrition to to

Work with the with the um the training load that you’re that putting on it um again I will say prioritize training regularly rather than training a lot the weekends you know you this person does have three days off at the weekends and the the the Temptation there is if you

Have three days is to fill them with loads of riding especially straight away and I I’d urge against that I think at this point maybe do a longer ride on a Friday and a long G ride on a Sunday but limit it to maybe maybe you know 2 hours

Each and then build that I think uh try not to make too many huge changes too quickly I think focus on gradual progression gradual increase of the you know the workload and I as as we’ve been talking about just monitor those signs for overtraining you know W with him

Going from 30 miles to Alps Fitness so presumably he wants to climb some proper gnarly Mountain is there anything specifically you would change because someone wants to focus on CL yeah I mean riding on Hills is if that’s something that they can do then absolutely I mean um some places in the

I don’t know where Matthew’s from but uh if there are Hills available they don’t need to be very long but if you can work a little bit on your pedaling style climbing Hills then that will benefit as well so something that I I’m a big passionate believer of and this will

Overcome all of Matthew’s thought about maybe being on the heavy side to climb mountains is get more gears put like ride mountain bike gear ratios if you need to like there is there is enough gear ratio options out there in the world that no matter how aggressive the

Mountains are that you want to climb you’re going to be able to get a good Cadence that’s sustainable you’re not necessarily going to be World talk speed but you’re going to get up and have a good time whereas if you’re grinding really hard gears you’re going to hate

It I think as well you know so if you’re not a climber it means that you make Long Hills become even longer so the intensity that you can do on them becomes less so if you think you know a 40-minute climb to a pro they can do it

In zone four they could do that at threshold whereas if that’s taking uh a Matthew an hour and a half then they’re not not going to be able to push as hard as what the pro can so you know and they’ll be less trained that

Kind of thing so I think as well even when you’re there try not to overdo it on the intensity try to be especially if you’re riding multiple days you know back to back um there’s a people over overestimate how much faster increasing their like actual level of pain that

They’re going through if you increase that by 50% quite often you’re only actually increasing 10 or 20% in terms of power so you know it’s just about uh being sensible and not not overdoing it okay last one is from Stewart I’m 42 ride an endurance bike and I like a good

Distance on a Sunday morning rather than a race have you any advice in in regards to nutrition currently heading out with a Tracker bar a full bottle of something powdery and with a cafe stop normally for pastry is it worth spending the money on these gels Etc that I hear so

Much about looking to feel stronger and maybe do a long ride faster than what I did it the last time and I want to avoid the major Stitch I got from a century ride the first time I thought I would give nutrition AG go so basically the

Last time he did a century ride he got a stitch from the nutrition so I think this is interesting so he’s saying likes to do a good distance on a Sunday rather than a race uh I think Nutrition a lot of it is obviously dependent on the

Duration so if he’s working towards a century then obviously nutrition will be be a big part of that but um it’s it’s about how regularly you should be doing it so I normally recommend in my coaching clients 60 grams of carbs per hour and you can get that from gels you

Can get that from energy bars you can get that from more basic bars or even jelly babies or something sugary or obviously having something uh some it doesn’t even need to be fancy stuff that’s in your bottles just having a big bottle of fanta take away the Fizz and

That I’ll stick a bit of salt and that’ll be very much the same thing as what’s in a in a high level or high-end nutrition um high-end energy drink but um I think as well one mistake people make is overfueling before the ride so they fill themselves they cram all this

Food in before the ride when really that’s just putting the gut under too much stress is that the sort of thing that would cause a stitch yeah probably so you’d need to eat a lot during exercise to give yourself a stitch it’s more likely that he’s overeen before it

So I’d say beforehand just either musely porridge with a banana maybe jam on toast nothing too fancy but just giving yourself a nice mix of carbs a little bit of sugar in there but not too much little bit of protein there but not too much um and give yourself at least two hours

Before you you then are on the bike um and then once you’re on the bike just regular but I think as well I it dep it depends on on the person I say try different things on your training rides try jelly babies try different kinds of

Energy bars maybe try some gels and see if they work but um it’s really about keeping the you’re fueling yourself regularly but never overdoing it because that’s whenever you can you can end up having you know problems with the gut and it can end up being slowing you down

At least getting to the coffee shop that’s not a lot of food so if so if it’s if it’s a good distance you know if he’s done 40 miles or whatever to get to the cafe yeah or or you know even 20 miles 30 miles and he’s done all of that

On one tracker bar and some powdery stuff then that’s perhaps not enough there’s there’s a window there where he can increase what he’s what he’s consuming I think as well on the cafe stop then it’s it depends on what you what kind of intensity you’re doing afterwards if you’re don’t go from

Having a you know a fry up having a fry up to then going and smashing it up some hills yeah you know terrible time yeah don’t don’t do what I do and have two Greg sausage RS and then no I don’t do that never right that’s all we have time for

Thanks for all of your questions and sorry if we didn’t get a chance to read yours out if you want to send in more questions or stories for us to read out on future episodes you can by sending them to Wild Ones podcast at CAD media. co.uk that’s all for this episode thanks

Very much for joining us Pete thank you so much cheers um actually how do people find out your thing what is it yeah so we are upshift fellow and we’re on Facebook and Instagram up what upshift upshift fellow and um yeah you can just DM us from there if you if you

Want to get in touch cool um if you like this episode leave us a five star review follow subscribe share Etc thank you and goodbye thank you oh next week we also have a special guest don’t we oh yes we do an even speci one oh no that’s that’s

Very rude to Pete well it’ll make sense when when it’s when it’s unveiled who it is it’s better be good guys oh it’s going to be very good clue Jimmy is very happy about it yeah but we’ll leave it there thanks bye