I've been racing Cat One for 15 years. For the first 12 years, I trained 12 to 15 hours a week absolutely religiously. But then life happened.
This is what three years of cutting my training in half actually looks like. I'm going to give you the actual numbers. You'll see my decline in raw data on training peaks.
And this decline is proof that Professor Steven Syler's research was right all along. Look, I need to be honest with you all. For years on this podcast, I've been the guy that's been telling you just get out and ride more.
But in retrospect, that was easy for me to say because I had very few responsibilities. So, putting in 12 to 15 hours was really easy. But two years ago, everything changed.
The podcast took off. I got engaged and suddenly something happened. I did flip and mind shift and I realized that I was either cycling, eating or sleeping.
That was my entire existence. My fianceé Sarah, she never really complained, but I could see it. The weekend mornings gone, evening energy cooked.
I'd come home from a 4-hour ride and I just lie on the couch. I was like the living dead scrolling Instagram. So, I made a choice.
I went from 12 hours a week to 6 hours a week just like that. And I told myself the same lies you're probably telling yourself right now. I'll just train a little bit smarter.
Quality over quantity. I've got 15 years of base in my legs. How much fitness could I actually lose?
Well, let me tell you exactly what happened. 2 years ago, I was 75 kg and I could hold 400 W for 20 minutes. It hurt.
20-minute efforts, full gas do hurt, but I could do it. That's 5.33 watts per kilogram.
That's proper cat one raceinning numbers. Last month, exact same test protocol, exact same climb, exact same time of the year, 370 watts. And here's the kicker.
I'm now 80 kg on a good day. So, we're looking at 4.63 63 watts per kilogram.
That's not cat one power anymore. That's strong cat 2 at best. I lost 30 watts and I gained 5 kg.
And before you ask, some of that is muscle from actually having time to go to the gym, but mostly it's what happens when you're not burning 4,000 calories every single Saturday. The thing is, the research predicted this. It's there in the hard data.
I've interviewed Professor Steven Cider on the podcast three times now, and he's the godfather of polarized training. He advises world tour teams and in his 2013 study, the International Journal of Sports Physiology, I'll put it in the link down below, he showed exactly what I'm experiencing. He found that performance capacity doesn't decline linear with volume reduction.
The first 20% volume drop, you only lose about 5% performance. Your body's remarkably good at holding on to that fitness initially, but beyond the 50% reduction, well, that's when the floor really starts to fall out. And my racing tells the story.
Back when I was putting in proper errors. Top tens were normal. Multiple wins every season.
Now I I don't really race that much anymore, but when I do, I barely roll a top 15, and I'd be calling that a great day out. The speed is still there. I can bluff it for 20 minutes.
But when the racing goes hard for an hour plus, I'm watching wheels right away from me like they're motorized. Take a second to let's address the elephant in the room, or should I say those extra 5 kg that I'm carrying on my frame. Now, when you're training 12 to 15 hours a week, staying at 75 kg, it's easy.
Trust me, it's natural. Even you're burning so many calories, the eating becomes a chore. I used to set alarms on my phone to remind myself to eat.
Now, I eat like a normal human. I have dinner with my fiance, and it doesn't involve me inhaling 1,500 calories while she tries to have a conversation with me. I can have a beer on a Friday night without trying to calculate how that's going to affect Saturday's interval session.
But here's what the power to weight calculation doesn't show. the metabolic cost of maintaining racing weight all year round. Stelling Worf's 2012 research showed that athletes maintaining more than 5% below their natural body weight.
They see testosterone drops, cortisol spikes, and constant fatigue. At 75 kg, I was fast on the bike, but I was absolutely useless everywhere else in my life. At 80 kg, I'm a lot lot slower on the bike, but I'm actually present in my life.
There's a concept called performance ceiling in exercise physiology. Think of it like the maximum height your fitness house can reach. Volume, those long boring zone one, zone 2 rise that I talk about so often on the podcast.
That's what builds the foundation and raises the roof. Highintensity work, well, that just gets you closer to touching that ceiling. Ronstead's 2014 studies spell this out perfectly, and I'm living it.
My one minute power has barely changed. my five minute power it's it is down a little bit to be fair it's down about 5% but that 20 minute test that shows significant damage power loss plus weight gain the difference here or one of the big differences now it's durability you've heard this buzzword a lot recently but here's what it actually means 3 years ago I could do 400 watts for 20 minutes and I could still have something left now 370 watts empties the tank completely and I'm wrote off I can hardly stand for an hour and I'm wrote off for the rest of the evening Previously, I could still hit mid 390s after 4,000 kg of energy expenditure. Now, I can't hit 320 W after 4,000 kg expenditure.
That's not a fitness problem. That's a ceiling problem. The training distribution change tells everything.
I used to spend 9 hours a week just shorting out zone 1, zone 2 base miles, the boring stuff that everybody wants to skip. Now, I get maybe two and a half to three hours of easy riding a week. And I'm still doing the same 3 hours of intensity, the same hard Tuesday intervals, the same hard Thursday threshold work.
I'm doing the same hard work on half the foundation. L's 2010 sports medicine review warned about this exact trap. It's like having a Formula 1 engine, tires, the works, but you're sticking a Fiat Punto fuel tank inside it.
You have all the power, you have all the technology, but it's going to run dry after 20 minutes. What did Ajiratalia, Stage Slayer, Mads Patterson, and half the professional pelaton have in common? Well, they're all turning to Nomio, the natural performance enhancer proven to reduce lactate buildup during intense efforts.
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Details are in the episode show notes or description down below. And you know what nobody talks about in cycling? It's the relationship cost of volume.
I interviewed World Tour coach Christian Shrout. He's the coach for Jacob Alua last month and he said something that really stuck with me. The difference between six hours and 12 hours.
It isn't just six hours. It's the naps. It's the meal prep.
It's the recovery time. It's the mental energy. 12 hours of cycling probably takes you closer to 20 hours when you add up all the admin around it.
And 20 hours takes a toll on your personal life. It takes a toll on your relationship. On 12 hours a week, our Saturdays look like this.
So, I'd leave at 8:00 a.m. I'd get home at maybe 1:00 p.
m., shower, eat a massive lunch, nap till 3, wake up foggy, flick around Netflix, can't find nothing to watch, try to maybe be human for a few hours at dinnertime, but most of the time fail. On a 6-hour training week, I ride from 7:00 a.
m. to 10:00 a.m.
, and then I have an entire day with Sarah, energy intact, present, actually able to do the things that don't involve compression socks for the rest of the day. And here's what makes this a little bit complicated. I'm still racing at category 1 level.
I'm still pinning on numbers. I'm still finishing races. How is this possible?
Modika and Pandela's dtraining research from 2001 explains exactly how it is possible. Athletes with more than 10 years of consistent training maintain higher baselines. They have what researchers call structural adaptations that persist.
My 15 years of training volume, built a foundation that 6 hours can partially maintain. I'm living off a training bank account that I built this bank account when I was cycling for my entire life, stacking in those 12 to 15 hour weeks. But I'm not making deposits into that account anymore.
Now it's strictly withdrawals. What I can't do anymore, like respond to accelerations, race effectively over 90 minutes, stage races, absolutely forget it. I'm a 1-hour specialist now, whether I like it or not.
Watch any Cat One race and you'll spot us. We look like everyone else, but we're lurking in the background. the former 12 to 15 hour a week guys now surviving on six-hour weeks.
We're the ones who have good economy. We know how to surf the wheels in the first hour, but then we mysteriously start missing turns and disappearing when the race gets hard later on after 90 minutes. A quick word from today's sponsor.
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Every World Tour coach I've interviewed says the same thing. The head of performance at Bora Red Bull was bluntly honest. There's no way around volume for building capacity.
6 hours maintains, 12 hours builds, 20 hours plus, now you're talking about world tour level riders. But then he said something else. The best training program is the one you can sustain for life.
Not just physically, but emotionally, socially. A cat one racer who's miserable is worse than a cat 2 rider who absolutely loves the sport. And the science backs this up.
Siler's research shows that consistency over years beats intensity over months, every single time. Based on that literature and what I'm living through, here's the reality. If you have six hours a week, your power ceiling is probably 90% of your volume built.
You'll likely gain weight unless you're incredibly disciplined in the kitchen. Your threshold will drop 20 to 40 watts depending on your training history. But, and this is an important but, you'll have a life.
If you're trying to build two cat one level from scratch, the literature, it's unanimous. You need minimum 10 to 12 hours a week for 2 to 3 years. is the studies don't lie and my experience confirms this.
But you want to maintain cat one with a real life. 6 hours can work if you've already built that foundation, if you've built that architecture. But understand what you're trading.
Last month I was warming up for a crit and I was watching the cat one field roll around. The race field now is unbelievably young. All guys probably under 25, probably less than 70 kg soaking wet.
talking about their 15-hour training weeks, their TSS numbers, their power numbers, their optimum recovery protocols. And 5 years ago, that was me obsessed. Every conversation about training zones, weekly TSS ramp rates.
But I got back to put my coat in the car just before I started to race. And Sarah had texted me and she said, "Good luck. I can't wait to hear about it at dinner.
" Dinner at a normal time with energy to still speak, not just shoveling food while I stare at Training Peaks. I finished top 20 5 years ago. That would have absolutely ruined my weekend.
That night, I barely thought about it. We went out. We had a great meal.
We talked about everything except bikes. Look, I'm not telling you the volume doesn't matter. It does.
The science is crystal clear. My 30 watt power loss, my 5 kg weight gain, all prove that. But I am telling you to be honest about what you want from the sport.
If you want to win cat one races, accept 12 hours absolute minimum. Accept the lifestyle that comes with that. The early mornings, the social sacrifices, the constant fatigue.
Some people love it and I did for over a decade. But do you want to be fit and competitive at your level and still have a life? 6 hours works.
You won't maximize your genetic potential. You won't win regional championships, but you might actually stick with the sport for life. Think about your own training, your own trends.
Also, think about your relationships, your energy levels, your happiness off the bike. The pros train 20 to 30 hours a week because that's what it takes to be the best in the world. But last I checked, most of us aren't getting paid to ride our bikes.
were actually paying to ride them and paying quite a lot. Next week, I'm interviewing a sports physiologist about why so many Cat One racers burn out and quit entirely. And spoiler alert, it's not because of bad legs.
Do me a favor. If you like this style of content, take a second and subscribe to the channel because I'm going to be going deep on the science, the balancing life, the tradeoffs that nobody talks about. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off for a 2-hour ride and then I'm going to spend the rest of the weekend doing normal human things with Sarah.
And I'm finally okay with that trade-off because 370 W happy it beats 400 W miserable even if the results sheet and proycling stats say otherwise. See you next day. This episode today has been supported by Bickmo Cycle Insurance.
Ensure your ride with Bickmo today and they'll donate £10 to Trashfree Trails to support their work in protecting our planet. Head to bitmo b i kmmo.com and use the code roadman to get covered and support our wild spaces.