014 What Worked For Me: Conquering the Iron Horse: Rob's Journey and Training Secrets for Endurance Cycling

Transcript

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What's up, guys?

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Welcome back to the Fitness Fiasco podcast, which we could be rebranding sometime soon, right?

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Yeah, or maybe rebranded by the time this gets released, who knows?

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But we're still available everywhere.

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Podcasts are either under Fitness Fiasco or potentially InFit Lab podcast at this point Awesome.

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And you're doing a great job with posting it everywhere, because when I post on social media, I just say wherever you guys listen to podcasts, so it's easy, as opposed to listing all of them.

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But most people are on the, the typical big one, big ones, right, like apple and spotify and whatnot.

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So, um, we're here with rob silver myself.

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Michael suna, eric bustio will not be joining us today, but, uh, this is actually a good one, because we're talking about rob's endeavor into the cycling world, right, rob?

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So you just did a.

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Uh, you trained for a bike race, correct, correct, correct.

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Can you give us a little bit of a?

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What's the title, what's the name of this bike race?

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Yeah, so the bike race itself is is super cool and it has a pretty good history.

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It's called the iron horse bike race and it is in Durango, colorado.

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That is where my parents live, so you'll have, hopefully, if you haven't listened to the podcast part one with my dad yet go listen to that one, because he's a very interesting, very interesting man, very good storyteller.

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So it is.

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It's a 50 mile bike race, which 50 miles is not far for a bike race, but what makes this one unique is that it's 6000 feet of elevation gain.

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So my parents in the town of Durango is about 6000 feet above sea level, plus or minus feet above sea level, plus or minus.

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And the bike race itself goes up past a ski resort, which is the first hard climb, which is about a 9 000 feet elevation.

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But then it goes up to two mountain passes, coal bank pass and molus pass, which top out at about 11 000 feet of total elevation.

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So you are climbing, and not only do you have to climb on this one, but you climb up to the first one, go back down, climb up to the second one, go back down a bit, climb up to the third one, go back down.

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So it's it's not a flat 50 mile race, it is.

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It's tough, all right, yeah.

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And the history is really cool that you know the.

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The story is that there were two brothers.

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One of them was the engineer of a train which goes from the town of Durango to the finish, which is in Silverton a lot of silver in Silverton, hence the name.

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And if you remember, out of Colorado there was a river that turned orange because of some chemical arsenic poisoning when a mine lost its reservoir old mine you know broke open.

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That's where this is and the Silverton is about 9,000 plus feet elevation and the train runs between the two.

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It used to be a mine train, now it's a tourist train Really cool Narrow gauge railway.

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And the one brother said one brother was the train engineer, one brother was the biker and they decided to have a race.

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Oh, wow.

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And ever since then.

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You know we're in our 52nd, 53rd edition of it.

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Right.

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So now we're at the 53rd edition of the durango iron horse.

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You know durango to silverton iron horse bike race.

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Very cool.

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And what's the terrain like?

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Is it a?

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are you on road bikes, you're on mountain bikes or it's on road, so they actually it's on a may, it's called the million dollar highway and our good friend ozzy actually had, you know, recognized it right away because he rode his motorcycle.

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I remember that comment yeah and so they close the highway for this bike race.

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So that's the coolest part.

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It's one of the only ways to get between Durango and Telluride.

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It's the shortest way it's an hour and a half two hours for that drive, versus three and a half hours the long way, called Lizard Head Pass, but that doesn't matter here.

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So they close the highway down day Um and you get to bike ride it.

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Is this your first time doing this race?

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So I've done it.

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So my dad did it the first year.

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He moved out to Durango and I told him that I would do it the next year if he wants to do it again, and so kind of.

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And he did, and ever since then I've I've gone out either every other year or a few years in a row, depending.

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You know, covid kind kind of messed it up a little bit and then I had covid one year, so there was a year or two I didn't do it, and so I've done it a few years in a row.

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Uh, so I've now done it four times and I believe he's done it seven or eight.

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Does it get easier now?

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um, you get familiar with it, but I could imagine the same level of training.

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No, yeah, it does not get easier, you know, especially in in my stance, which we'll talk about with the training wise, because I don't train bicycling year round but you understand where the pain is going to be and you understand what you can and cannot do at certain points um so that familiarity definitely makes it mentally easier understood and is this a recreational race or are there, like, pros involved?

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that's what.

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That's a great question.

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You know, and that's what makes this race so unique and awesome is that they have simultaneously the professionals go and then you have the citizens go.

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So, like in years past, you know, so a direct.

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If you're anything related to cycling or watch the tour de france, you probably know the name sepcus.

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He didn't compete this year because he had covid, but sepcus was very you know, it was his, I think you know, his first time really getting in the limelight was last year on the tour de France, and he's from Durango and his dad is from Durango and his dad was one of the primary reasons that Durango was really able to grow.

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And so he's him and his family are are Durango legends and he is one of the best cyclists you know.

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Best American cyclists you know currently Just didn't, you know, have the chance to do the Tour de France this year because of COVID, so I've done the race alongside him.

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And here's one of the best you know that is one of the best cyclists there are right now.

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That's like saying you're going to go out and play baseball with Shohei.

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Otani, yeah, yeah.

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I was trying to look for the correlation there.

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Yeah, yeah, like just you, Miami, you can play a pickup softball game.

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And here comes Jorge Posada coming out to play against you, you're like fuck it.

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You're playing with Nick and Sergio.

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Yeah, yeah, tough enough.

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But yeah, it's like that.

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So that's what's really cool is that you get these professional cyclists alongside citizens, and that's one of the reasons why it hasn't become like a major tour stop is because if it becomes a major tour stop for the biking tours and a bike race, they can't have the citizens do it.

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They're like no, we're not going to do like.

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This is entrenched in durango culture, right so have.

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They're keeping it traditional with that.

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Now is is this your first?

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Is this the only race that you participate in, or did you start off at like c-level races?

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no, this is the only one I've ever done.

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That's insane of course you would pull something.

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So tell little bit about um.

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So your motivation is to do this with your dad.

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Do you guys try to stay together?

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Do you make the best man win?

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How does that work?

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Yeah, so the, the the first year we did it, we actually unfortunately got got separated, um, because it starts out really cold, right.

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So when you start it's it's like 20 degrees in the twenties, maybe thirties if you're lucky.

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So usually you have on a few extra layers, um, and so the first year my dad goes to take off his, his leggings during this climb and I said I'll meet you at the at the first rest drop, and I never see him past me, he doesn't see me waiting for him, and and we get separated.

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So that was kind of unfortunate.

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So the second year I made sure that I wanted to um, the second year I made sure that I wanted to prevent that from happening.

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So you know, I stuck with him for for most of it and then, right at the very end, one of the, you know, most fun parts is your descent into Silverton.

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So from 11,000 feet down to 9,000 feet, you fly, so you hit 50 miles per hour on the bike right.

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Yes, it's scary, there's cliffs, so you know, you the one missed turn and, yes, you are dead.

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Yeah, but it's so fun, of course.

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So, like, at that point I was like, all right, see you down in Silverton and would go.

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And then the third year, I said sorry, but my training was pretty dialed in this year.

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I'm going to see what I can do on this one.

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And then this past year, the fourth year, I actually went with not only my dad and I but also my wife's brother, danny, and his good friend who's now a good friend of mine Dan.

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So there were four of us that did it and we all went at our own pace, but Danny and I ended up together for a good portion there towards the end of it.

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So we have some good photos, or good videos that Danny was taking of it snowing on us quite heavily at the top of of this race.

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And this is in may, you're saying this is in may memorial day weekend.

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It's always the saturday of memorial day, so wild that, uh, we're down here scorching hot and you guys are covered in snow.

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Um, okay, so it happens in may.

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When do you start, or do you even start prepping for this thing?

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I mean, I ask because you're rob silver and you're always in great shape.

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So tell me a little bit about the training protocol, the cycle, walking into it, like that type of stuff.

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Yeah.

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So, and it's this ties kind of into you know, the snow and the elevation is my mindset.

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So from a physiological perspective, from what I am aware and I'm pretty sure this is accurate and through my own experience this is accurate it's tougher to adapt to the heat and humidity than it is to elevation.

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Elevation always gets the the saying of like, oh, it's so tough to do stuff at elevation.

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Yeah, well, come to florida and play in july.

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Yeah, like, whatever you're gonna do, like you're gonna die.

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Like it's the heat and humidity is tougher.

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You need to.

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You know the the plasma increase is required in your blood.

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Plasma increase is required to to maintain high performance in the humidity is so much tougher than the red blood cells needed to to go at at elevation.

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It just takes longer.

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Like elevation, you can go in and adapt soon.

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Humidity takes a season, right, and that's why the dolphins should never lose right.

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They just run a fast paced offense and they should win every game down here.

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But no, that's different story, but either way, so the adjustment process is shorter for elevation than it is for heat and humidity.

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Correct.

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So I've always said you have the elevation right.

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I'm not worried about that because I'm going to be training in Florida and I'm going to train in April and May and I'm going to go out and I'm going to do these long rides and I'm going to have the heat and humidity and I'm going to adapt to that and that's going to be the equivalency to your, to your elevation.

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So I'm not, I'm not worried about that.

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I just need to be comfortable on a bike.

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That's always.

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My thing is is you know, this race it's only 50 miles.

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You know, tour de france bike riders, they go like the 30 to 40 mile, like 30s on the flat.

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They're going like 30 mile per hour on the flat.

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So it's a you know it'd be take them an hour and a half to do this to to do to do 50 miles flat.

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If not, if not quicker this, the professionals do this race in just over two hours, which is insane that they're going like 20, you know, 24 point, some miles per hour, when they're going way you know elevation

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changes is crazy us.

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You know our general times are around the four hour mark, right, four to five-hour total time.

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My fastest has been close to four.

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My slowest has been closer to five.

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Including the break times, that's total time.

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So, going into this, the most important variable is I need to make sure I'm comfortable on a bike for five hours.

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So that's the most important thing is I need to know that I can be comfortable on a bike for five hours.

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When you say comfortable, do you mean your crotch straddling, a seat comfortable or your aerobic capacity on a bike uphill?

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Both Okay, Both right.

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So you need to have the muscular endurance to I'm not talking about pedaling.

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You need to have the muscular endurance to be in that position, that seated crotch position, for five hours, Just like if you're running a marathon.

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Your upper back needs to have the endurance to hold you up for that period of time.

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And that's where a lot of people underestimate the importance of strength training, for it is the importance of having those muscles strong enough.

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And have that enduring capacity in the weight room will really help when it comes to holding that posture during the longer race.

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What do you find more challenging when it comes to the muscular aspect of it, because you're in a hinged flex position, your triceps, it's isometric movement.

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What do you find?

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That was the first thing to give out, if you will.

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Is it your lower back?

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Is it your arms?

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Is it the the legs?

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yeah.

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So the I mean the the impact on the shoulders and triceps is is pretty significant.

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Um, I they they get tired during the race, but they're not the failure points.

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But, like, in terms of training, you do have to, you do have to take into account the beat down that your triceps and shoulders get just by holding you up in that position.

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Um, what I do for and around my legs, for training leading up to it is is something I want to talk about in a little bit detail over on.

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But during the race itself, what cramps up are usually like adductors, muscles that aren't used to that long volume, and as your hamstrings and quads start to fatigue, the adductors take a little bit more of the load and they're not used to it.

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So that's, you know, part two of being able to be confident pedaling for five hours.

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Your adductors need to.

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You know all the muscles around there need to fail, so they need to be able to take that, take that load on the bike race Okay, good point.

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When it so, then you know.

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When it comes to my training, how did I prep for this over the period?

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When do I start prepping for it?

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I want to really look at the last two years.

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So two years ago was it now 2024.

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So in 2023, I did it, and that's when I had my best time.

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2024, I did it, but that's where I had our newborn son.

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That was born in December.

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So we knew it was going to be the X factor.

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But Mel's brother, my brother-in-law, already wanted to, you know, was committed to doing it.

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So I'm like, yeah, we're, we're going to do it, like I'm going to come out and I'm going to find a way to get it done.

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So in 2000, when it came to, when it come to organizing my training 2023, my goal was not only to'm just going to count.

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You know, like this is going to.

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You want to be a skinny bicyclist?

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They're super skinny.

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Look at Lance Armstrong or any of these guys.

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Right, I wanted to be strong, I wanted to be big, I wanted to have a heavy deadlift going into this, but I also wanted to train as hard as I could.

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So put a huge emphasis on nutrition and recovery.

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My training you know, I did my training on the bike, which I'll I'll talk.

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I have two, you know, two to three different variables there, but it was in the weight room.

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I was still training for strength.

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I wasn't, I wasn't doing huge volume, but I was still trying to have like the three to five rep maxes, deadlifts, back squats, put those in um to and, and you know, put those in to keep my lower body as strong as as as possible.

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Like I was like I want to pull, I want to deadlift 400 pounds, and then, a week later, I wanted to to do the bike race, um, and.

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It's so funny how counterintuitive that is to the untrained recreational athlete because they would just pick up a protocol of endurance.

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They wouldn't even start thinking about deadlifting and back squatting, right Like you say that to somebody that you meet at you know your global gym here and you tell me I'm dead lifting right now, you know a three by five, they're gonna say you're trying to get bigger, yeah, for a bike race, and it doesn't make sense yeah, and it doesn't necessarily make sense from a performance standpoint, but it does, you know.

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neither does you know not training anything at all.

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Not lifting weights doesn't make sense from an endurance standpoint as well.

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If you're an endurance athlete, you need the weight room and there's a huge you know fallacy of a lot of you know running coaches for doing not so good you know strength and conditioning programs for their runners, and it's not because they're not trying, they just don't know it's not their field.

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Like, I'm not a run coach, I'm not going to write a running program.

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If you're a run coach, you shouldn't necessarily write a strength and conditioning program because it's not your, your area of expertise.

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Like go go to the experts and so, yeah, there is that huge disconnect.

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But that you know, that was, you know, in 2023, I was able to do it.

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I had a little knee injury that was kind of freak nature due to some limb length discrepancies that I had, so that put me back a little bit.

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Wasn't able to pull my 400 pounds, but I was pretty close.

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I was pulling, I was, I was trap bar deadlifting 400 pounds about a month prior and then I went to demonstrate a sumo deadlift and my knee tweaked, demonstrate with like 135 pounds, but that I was from a limb length issue, that I have just like a weird sprain, but that didn't affect my training too much, except good did a little bit, but I was able to work around it.

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Um, now for the, for the bike rate, bike race training.

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A lot of this dates back to, you know, about 10 to 15 years ago.

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A lot of endurance, maybe more 20 years ago, a lot of endurance stuff was all about volume, volume, volume, volume.

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And then there were some counter schools of thought that was like you don't have to have the, that much volume, you can do everything in shorter intervals.

00:15:30.908 --> 00:15:38.200
And that got a lot of, you know, just doing intervals for longer races got a lot of traction but didn't really have a lot of results.

00:15:38.200 --> 00:15:45.278
But then, kind of taking that hybrid approach of all right, I have to do some stuff long, but I also have to do some sprint training in there.

00:15:45.278 --> 00:15:48.995
What's you know what's the least amount of long I can do to get ready for it.

00:15:48.995 --> 00:15:55.567
So my schedule was always like in January, I start thinking about it, right, go for a couple of rides in January.

00:15:55.567 --> 00:15:58.195
So always like in January, I start thinking about it right, go for a couple of rides in January.

00:15:58.215 --> 00:15:58.576
So this is yeah.

00:15:58.576 --> 00:15:59.859
So we're five months out.

00:15:59.859 --> 00:16:01.623
So it's yeah, january, start to think about it.

00:16:01.623 --> 00:16:05.433
Do a couple of rides just to get comfortable, cause again it's having that posture on the bike and we're talking an hour to you know nothing longer than an hour.

00:16:05.433 --> 00:16:19.639
Wake up in the morning, go for an hour bike ride, try to pedal hard, get that experience under you and then in.

00:16:19.639 --> 00:16:20.865
Then in February and March is where I start to ramp up.

00:16:22.264 --> 00:16:26.729
And this will be a lot different in 2024, believe me, with our newborn.

00:16:26.729 --> 00:16:46.496
So in February and March, that's where I start to do intervals and I'm like I'm going to try to at least do one day a week where I'm doing intervals on the bike and that is anything from 400 meters, 800 meters a mile, five minutes, 10 minutes, four minutes with various rest intervals in, just to have variations of pedal hard, take a break, pedal hard, take a break.

00:16:46.496 --> 00:16:47.831
Try to do that one day a week.

00:16:48.648 --> 00:16:48.929
I'm sorry.

00:16:48.929 --> 00:16:51.004
What's your RPE during these intervals?

00:16:51.004 --> 00:16:58.455
Are you going at a 10, your balls to the wall in these intervals, or are you pacing yourself, depending on the amount of sets and rest ratio?

00:16:59.157 --> 00:17:00.279
yes, yeah, yeah.

00:17:00.279 --> 00:17:01.303
So it's more like I'm trying to.

00:17:01.303 --> 00:17:08.951
I'm always trying to go hard, right, the goal is always to do stuff at the highest intensity possible, but it's over with that whole, the whole session in mind.

00:17:08.951 --> 00:17:12.867
So if I'm like I'm gonna, I'm gonna go, and I do a lot of this in the gable.

00:17:12.867 --> 00:17:19.378
I do a lot of the intervals in the gables, either around granada golf course or country club prado, um, because I know the distance is there and I live by there.

00:17:20.147 --> 00:17:40.692
Um, I will, you know, if it's, if I'm gonna do something like I'm gonna do half mile repeat so, which is about two minutes on, and then I'll be like then I'll recovery for 30 seconds to a minute and do it again, and I don't have a the strictest plan I'm, you know, I kind of can fly by the seat of my pants on a lot of this and be more accurate than most programs ever will be, but that's, you know, a little cockiness on that aside.

00:17:40.912 --> 00:17:45.195
So I'll be like okay, and then after three or four of them, I need an extra two minutes to recover and then I'm going to do it hard.

00:17:45.195 --> 00:18:00.816
But my goal is like so I'm going to always have my goal roughly and it's going to disrupt my session, right Cause I want my session RPE, to be as hard as possible.

00:18:00.816 --> 00:18:02.222
It's always about trying to increase that intensity of of the session.

00:18:02.222 --> 00:18:06.680
I'm not doing it at the volume where I necessarily need the easier you know to to tone back.

00:18:06.680 --> 00:18:10.308
So I was only doing that one time a week and then if I got a second.

00:18:10.328 --> 00:18:21.376
Yeah, once a week was about it and then if I get the second session that's where I'm doing I'm gonna slowly try to get more time on the bike.

00:18:21.376 --> 00:18:22.329
So it'd be like all right.

00:18:22.329 --> 00:18:27.170
You know, my intervals was 45 minutes because I didn't wake up quick enough, right, or that's just what it was.

00:18:27.170 --> 00:18:29.717
It took me 45 minutes and my legs were spent and I'm good.

00:18:29.717 --> 00:18:34.471
Now the second session on saturday, I'm just gonna go out and I ride for 60 minutes.

00:18:34.471 --> 00:18:40.619
If I feel good, go 90 minutes and just try to push the pace right, just try to go at that higher pace.

00:18:40.619 --> 00:18:48.814
And I would repeat that, as much as I could through February and March, make the intervals a little bit harder, just feel myself, get in better shape and make that second bike ride.

00:18:48.814 --> 00:18:51.046
If I could, a little bit longer, a little bit faster.

00:18:51.567 --> 00:18:54.873
Now, are you doing any other cardio aerobic activity outside of it?

00:18:54.873 --> 00:18:59.180
I mean, you're doing Stairmaster, you're doing stationary bike, you're doing rowing or anything like that during your training, or this is it?

00:18:59.404 --> 00:19:06.118
I'd always thought about it, but I never really ended up doing it, just because managing that recovery while still trying to lift weights was starting to become too hard.

00:19:06.118 --> 00:19:07.490
I did want to run stairs.

00:19:07.490 --> 00:19:16.307
You know, I wrote stair running into my program one time and it just didn't manifest itself, manifest itself, um.

00:19:16.327 --> 00:19:27.490
I put rowing intervals into the program one time and just didn't quite man itself, manifest itself into what I was able, able to do and manage recovery, which manage recovery is is very important and you know for for this year 2020, and then I'll get through through April and May.

00:19:27.490 --> 00:19:29.435
April and May is where it really ramps up.

00:19:30.005 --> 00:19:30.204
Right.

00:19:30.705 --> 00:19:31.688
A good February and March.

00:19:31.688 --> 00:19:33.029
Make April and May means you can.

00:19:33.029 --> 00:19:34.852
You know April the two months prior.

00:19:34.852 --> 00:19:36.535
That's really where it starts Right.

00:19:36.575 --> 00:19:37.455
Right, that's seven weeks.

00:19:37.455 --> 00:19:39.559
You know, third week of May, right?

00:19:39.559 --> 00:19:40.221
Yeah, okay.

00:19:44.625 --> 00:19:44.724
Yeah.

00:19:44.724 --> 00:19:48.008
So, like you know, push comes to shove, I can start training for it on April 1st and I have a plan to get there Now.

00:19:48.008 --> 00:19:50.151
If you have a good February and March, it makes that April and May much better.

00:19:50.151 --> 00:19:52.452
Like you're now you're you're now you're training to complete it.

00:19:52.452 --> 00:19:55.615
Um, and I, and I keep that same, that same format.

00:19:55.615 --> 00:19:57.178
I try to do two rides a week.

00:19:57.178 --> 00:20:00.000
The one on the weekends now needs to start getting longer.

00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:15.298
All right, so I basically either straight linear progression, go from, go from an hour and a half on a Saturday or Sunday and, and by you know, two weeks prior, I'm trying to go out there and hit an 80 mile bike ride which will take five hours, you know, plus.

00:20:15.298 --> 00:20:21.233
So it's just what do I need to do on april 1st to take now to have a a 20 mile?

00:20:21.233 --> 00:20:23.919
You know, 20 mile ride takes under an hour and a half.

00:20:23.919 --> 00:20:30.978
And again, this is a forgot to mention this I'm I'm all about the little mind games.

00:20:30.978 --> 00:20:33.088
You know this is from from my wrestling days.

00:20:33.088 --> 00:20:35.213
How can I be mentally tougher than my opponents?

00:20:35.213 --> 00:20:36.477
I don't have a road bike.

00:20:37.105 --> 00:20:38.009
Jesus, you have a mountain bike.

00:20:38.285 --> 00:20:39.288
No, I have a single speed.

00:20:39.288 --> 00:20:41.910
Oh my God, I have a single speed commuter bike.

00:20:41.910 --> 00:20:44.465
Jesus Christ, yeah.

00:20:44.465 --> 00:20:45.590
So I'm like in Miami.

00:20:45.704 --> 00:20:48.534
Tell me this isn't the old bike that you rode up in when you got the job.

00:20:53.847 --> 00:20:55.068
I wish I still had that one.

00:20:55.068 --> 00:20:57.770
I wish I was like in the mountains.

00:20:57.770 --> 00:20:59.971
You know you're in that low gear most of the time.

00:20:59.971 --> 00:21:05.516
Why should I give myself the luxury of being able to switch gears in Miami, like, no, I'm not going to have that option.

00:21:05.516 --> 00:21:09.679
I'm going to go buy a single speed bike and I'm going to train for this on a single speed.

00:21:09.898 --> 00:21:11.019
Yeah, right For sure.

00:21:11.200 --> 00:21:13.340
So yeah, I've done everything on a commuter single speed.

00:21:13.340 --> 00:21:15.942
It's got the thin-ish tires, but it's still.

00:21:15.942 --> 00:21:18.044
It's not a race bike, it's not a road bike, right?

00:21:18.403 --> 00:21:19.365
So yeah, that's insane.

00:21:19.365 --> 00:21:31.460
Only Rob well, I would say the Rob Silver types, because I used to run the hill and the Orange Boy at 1 o'clock in the afternoon as opposed to 7 am or 7 pm, because I wanted that unbearable heat to make it easier when I walked into camp.

00:21:31.740 --> 00:21:35.601
Yeah, yeah, and then like another thing for the mental mind games I never wear headphones.

00:21:35.601 --> 00:21:37.261
Why should I give?

00:21:37.261 --> 00:21:38.961
Why should I give myself no music?

00:21:38.981 --> 00:21:41.923
the mental excuse nothing, right, nothing, it's just you and your thoughts.

00:21:42.143 --> 00:21:44.324
Yeah I want to enjoy the pain.

00:21:44.463 --> 00:21:52.807
I'm gonna be here and enjoy the pain, holy shit which a lot of this I learned from a wrestling coach, uh, from university of minnesota, jay robinson.

00:21:52.807 --> 00:21:58.471
He had his wrestling camps that I did when I was a sophomore, going into junior and junior going in.

00:21:58.471 --> 00:22:02.469
No, sophomore going into junior is when we did the intensive wrestling camp and that thing's legendary.

00:22:02.469 --> 00:22:07.570
Um, you know, and, and Jay Robinson, if, if anyone can has a connection there, I would love to interview him for this.

00:22:07.570 --> 00:22:21.210
He's kind of disappeared since he uh got kicked out of Minnesota for a little Adderall scheme that was going on with the wrestlers, but I would love to love to sit and talk with him because he probably had the biggest impact on my life outside, you know, for such a short period of time with him.

00:22:21.230 --> 00:22:22.374
But yeah, that was, that was.

00:22:22.374 --> 00:22:26.030
It was like I'm not going to have headphones because why would?

00:22:26.030 --> 00:22:33.930
My goal is to just immerse myself in this, in this pain of riding the bike and being, you know, in physical exertion.

00:22:33.930 --> 00:22:36.012
I'm not going to try to distract myself.

00:22:36.012 --> 00:22:38.055
Be in the bike and being, you know, in physical exertion, I'm not going to try to distract myself.

00:22:38.075 --> 00:22:38.395
Be in the moment.

00:22:38.415 --> 00:22:40.659
Yeah, yeah and so yeah, I'm you know the whole time doing it.

00:22:40.659 --> 00:22:42.000
I'm you know in my thoughts.

00:22:46.744 --> 00:22:48.931
Let me ask you this the 2023 pre-baby five hour rides on Sunday.

00:22:48.931 --> 00:22:51.136
I think about that in my life now Sundays, right, that's when you were doing it?

00:22:51.136 --> 00:22:52.247
Yeah, usually, usually.

00:22:52.247 --> 00:22:54.492
Sunday, sometimes maybe Saturday Family day?

00:22:54.492 --> 00:22:55.575
Yeah, Were you by yourself?

00:22:55.575 --> 00:22:57.026
Was Mel going with you or no?

00:22:57.026 --> 00:22:58.491
Hey, babe, I'll see you in five hours.

00:22:58.491 --> 00:23:00.210
I'll be back for lunch.

00:23:01.053 --> 00:23:03.289
Yeah, so I would wake up.

00:23:03.289 --> 00:23:11.230
I mean, the heat and humidity is one thing, but at the same point you got to kind of you can't be out in the sun for five, six hours, so you know towards more.

00:23:11.230 --> 00:23:18.696
So I don't remember exactly what time I started 2023, but now, with our baby, I was waking up at 4 am to do these rides.

00:23:19.136 --> 00:23:21.499
I was like I'm you know, beat the heat.

00:23:21.499 --> 00:23:22.359
Plus, you're a family man.

00:23:22.519 --> 00:23:22.820
Correct.

00:23:23.421 --> 00:23:24.162
I need you here.

00:23:24.261 --> 00:23:34.452
Yeah, so I would tell my brother-in-law and friend, dan be like hey, is anyone going to join me at Black Point, marina, at 5 am, like I'm going to leave the house at 4.

00:23:34.452 --> 00:23:35.194
On a, I'll be down Sunday.

00:23:35.194 --> 00:23:35.474
Yeah, I'll be.

00:23:35.474 --> 00:23:35.816
I'll be down.

00:23:35.816 --> 00:23:36.657
I'll leave the house at four 30.

00:23:36.657 --> 00:23:37.720
I'll be done at black point by 5.

00:23:37.759 --> 00:23:38.540
Yeah, no one ever joined me.

00:23:38.540 --> 00:23:38.942
Of course it's a.

00:23:38.942 --> 00:23:39.162
It's a.

00:23:39.162 --> 00:23:39.363
It's a.

00:23:39.363 --> 00:23:41.894
I mean we wake up on early Sunday mornings to come and record.

00:23:41.894 --> 00:23:43.612
I can't imagine to go for a five hour back ride.

00:23:50.151 --> 00:23:52.874
You know most people are going to, but before I wasn't doing it as early.

00:23:52.874 --> 00:24:01.162
But yeah, I was still hitting the road at 6 am and being off by 10 or 11, I think I learned the hard way the first year to not be out past 12.

00:24:01.162 --> 00:24:04.976
I would start sometimes at 7 and be done at 12.

00:24:05.428 --> 00:24:06.825
You're worried about heat exhaustion, heat stroke.

00:24:06.825 --> 00:24:08.344
Yeah, you just start the sunburn.

00:24:09.769 --> 00:24:20.565
This is becoming too tough to recover to and I don't need to be out in the heat then, but just being out in the humidity from 7, 8, 9 in the morning through to 9, 10 is enough.

00:24:21.185 --> 00:24:21.626
Let's stop there.

00:24:21.626 --> 00:24:23.109
I want to check the camera, sorry.

00:24:25.717 --> 00:24:30.354
Unfortunately, I'm just going to keep this playing right now.

00:24:30.354 --> 00:24:32.548
Do we start it?

00:24:32.548 --> 00:24:40.153
Yeah, I'm like this isn't going to be that long of a one and I'm like shit man, I'm talking about so much stuff.

00:24:41.817 --> 00:24:42.657
We're talkers bro.

00:24:42.798 --> 00:24:43.058
Yeah.

00:24:43.058 --> 00:24:49.276
What's good and hopefully the camera.

00:24:49.645 --> 00:25:03.171
It'll give us good little clips, you know, since we're more zoomed in it'll be a little bit more clear, the visual, if you will so where are we at right now we're talking about that glad.

00:25:03.211 --> 00:25:06.731
I remember the single speed that was uh holy shit, that's insane.

00:25:10.119 --> 00:25:12.509
I'm listening to you talking and I'm like this seems pretty motivating.

00:25:12.509 --> 00:25:14.269
I might want to do this fucking race one day.

00:25:14.269 --> 00:25:24.756
I signed up for the Dolphin Challenge a couple years back and I was in talks with the dolphin people about some stuff.

00:25:25.645 --> 00:25:26.229
And I'm like yeah.

00:25:26.249 --> 00:25:27.031
I just did the 100-miler.

00:25:27.031 --> 00:25:33.429
They're like Mike, I don't think you know what you're getting yourself into here Like you just can't just go and do 100 miles on a bike.

00:25:34.029 --> 00:25:34.230
Yeah.

00:25:34.631 --> 00:25:34.891
Me.

00:25:34.891 --> 00:25:38.376
You know my arrogant self Okay.

00:25:38.376 --> 00:25:40.960
And we're back and we're back All right.

00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:49.801
So let me get the all right.

00:25:49.801 --> 00:25:53.230
So we're seven weeks out training.

00:25:53.230 --> 00:25:55.394
You ramp it up two times a week on a bike, right?

00:25:55.394 --> 00:25:57.522
Yeah, so weight training correct.

00:25:57.563 --> 00:26:04.345
So again, for you know, a similarity between that I've I've kind of got this this over the years is, you know, I you can do it two times a week.

00:26:04.345 --> 00:26:04.726
I would.

00:26:04.726 --> 00:26:09.263
I was not really, maybe once or twice I was able to do three rides in a week.

00:26:09.263 --> 00:26:11.115
Over the four years I've done this right.

00:26:11.115 --> 00:26:20.190
So again, that's a difference between like difference in terms of the efficiency that I needed to bring into my training, versus someone else who can go out and do four or five rides or runs a week.

00:26:20.190 --> 00:26:22.342
It's like, in two times a week I can do this.

00:26:22.342 --> 00:26:24.461
One needs to be short and tense.

00:26:25.095 --> 00:26:27.944
The goal of those intervals is as hard as possible.

00:26:27.944 --> 00:26:32.817
Whatever you're doing, they need to be hard, you need to push yourself Right, and so that's what I did.

00:26:32.817 --> 00:26:36.494
Is, how can I ramp up my intervals to make them as hard as possible?

00:26:36.494 --> 00:26:57.210
And probably through April I did intervals and then by May you know, then that second ride was almost more a recovery ride or, you know, maybe a time trial where I would just go hard for 45 minutes or an hour and and and that was it can kind of, you know, tone down those intervals into may, because in may my weekend rides were three, four, five, six hours long.

00:26:57.210 --> 00:27:03.009
You know, getting up to that 80 mile, trying to get up to that 80 mile mark and you chose 80 miles.

00:27:03.632 --> 00:27:12.368
Uh, specifically because you're trying to equate, for because the race is only 50 miles, the time, the time the time, just time on the bike, Right, that's what it ended.

00:27:12.434 --> 00:27:14.323
I don't think I ever hit 80, but I came close.

00:27:14.323 --> 00:27:16.546
Just you know time on the bike, Like Mel's.

00:27:16.546 --> 00:27:17.009
Like where are you?

00:27:17.009 --> 00:27:17.632
I got to get home.

00:27:17.632 --> 00:27:19.319
Yeah, yeah, Like yeah, I'm coming home.

00:27:19.795 --> 00:27:29.126
So let me ask you this, I just you're are you you increasing your calories in order for this hugely?

00:27:29.307 --> 00:27:33.931
Yeah, so in 2023, before the child I was able to put more time into recovery.

00:27:33.931 --> 00:27:35.751
So my weightlifting was still total body.

00:27:35.751 --> 00:27:37.077
You know, I wanted to get the the.

00:27:37.077 --> 00:27:38.583
My weight training was still total body.

00:27:38.583 --> 00:27:43.691
Get the legs strong, um, you know, squat, jump, all that stuff as long with upper body.

00:27:43.691 --> 00:27:51.244
I was probably drinking three to I was drinking maybe two full 32 ounce things of of kefir, um, a day.

00:27:51.526 --> 00:28:20.828
Wow, and that was my, you know plus you know, having more toast and normally I'm very like protein heavy, like still pretty paleo food, you know, paleo plus plus carbohydrate sources is more or less how my wife and I eat, um and so then I was like a lot more toast, a lot more pancakes with breakfast, you know, and then drinking, you know, a quarter gallon to half gallon of fermented milk yogurt every day, because you need all the calories, plus carbohydrates, for the new endurance endeavor.

00:28:20.828 --> 00:28:21.150
Yeah.

00:28:21.595 --> 00:28:22.136
Did that?

00:28:22.136 --> 00:28:26.627
Did your nutrition protocol or calories also go up as training went up?

00:28:26.627 --> 00:28:29.307
So come April, may, did you also increase your calories.

00:28:29.307 --> 00:28:30.374
I didn't track it that much.

00:28:30.374 --> 00:28:30.816
No, no.

00:28:31.196 --> 00:28:42.056
I just eyeball everything but my weight, like I was yeah, that's where I'm going with this so that in the two years the first year I did it like you I could like I got slim, like I went from, like I'm normally, like.

00:28:42.056 --> 00:28:43.859
Mid 160s is natural for me.

00:28:43.920 --> 00:28:53.866
I was like 155 when I did it I didn't like it next year I was able to maintain, and then that third you know this 2023, when I was still able to do the strength training and everything I was trying to get heavier.

00:28:53.866 --> 00:28:56.900
I was like I'm trying to buck the trend, let's get heavier while we do this.

00:28:56.900 --> 00:28:57.362
So I did.

00:28:57.362 --> 00:28:59.145
I was able to, normally at 165.

00:28:59.145 --> 00:29:01.358
I got up to like 172, oh wow.

00:29:01.358 --> 00:29:02.800
So I did the race at 172.

00:29:02.800 --> 00:29:10.303
My legs were so big that they burned holes in my bike shorts because my thighs my thighs were rubbing each other.

00:29:10.563 --> 00:29:11.705

014 What Worked For Me: Conquering the Iron Horse: Rob's Journey and Training Secrets for Endurance Cycling

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