June 18, 2025 • 58 mins
OVERVIEW
Sprinting is something a Time-Crunched Cyclist can be very good at, because it doesn't take a lot of training time to develop a strong anaerobic kick. Yes, you still need an aerobic engine to reach the finale with enough energy left to sprint, but a strong sprint can be a Time-Crunched Cyclist's secret weapon! DJ Brew wins Masters and Pro/1/2 criteriums in the Washington DC area with a strong kick and smart sprinting tactics and skills. In Episode 253 of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast", he and his coach, Adam Pulford talk about key workouts, strength training, sprint practices, and even the differences between 10-, 20-, and 30-second sprint efforts.
TOPICS COVERED
- The basics of how to sprint on a bicycle
- The best cadence for sprinting
- Can you train for sprints on an indoor trainer?
- Neuromuscular drills for high cadence sprinting
- How 10-, 20-, and 30-second sprints differ physiologically
- Key Sprint Workouts
- Strength training for powerful sprints
ASK A QUESTION FOR A FUTURE PODCAST
LINKS/RESOURCES
- Analysis of standing vertical jumps using a force platform
- Anaerobic Power Assessment in Athletes: Are Cycling and Vertical Jump Tests Interchangeable? - PMC
- DJ Personal and Music: SoundCloud
- Bike Doctor Race Team and Bike Fit:
GUEST
DJ Brew races Masters and Pro/1 on the Bike Doctor Team and has been a regular on the local group ride and race scene in Washington D.C. and surrounding areas. A true time-crunched cyclist, he is a father, husband, and works long hours as a Maryland-National Capital Park Police officer. More than 10 years ago he started racing as a Category 5, progressing to Category 3 within a year and Category 1 the following year. Competing primarily in criteriums and supplementing his training with fast, competitive group rides, DJ’s developed a reputation for having an explosive sprint.
HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
from the team at cts.
This is the time crunch cyclistpodcast, our show dedicated to
answering your trainingquestions and providing
actionable advice to help youimprove your performance, even
if you're strapped for time.
I'm your host, coach adam pol,and I'm one of the over 50
professional coaches who make upthe team at CTS.
In each episode, I draw on ourteam's collective knowledge,
(00:30):
other coaches and experts in thefield to provide you with the
practical ways to get the mostout of your training and
ultimately become the bestcyclist that you can be.
Now on to our show.
Welcome back, time Crunch fans.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford.
(00:52):
Today's topic is how to sprint,and I'll admit I'm not an expert
in this topic.
I can break it down, I canteach it, I can train it and
somewhat deploy it, but even oneof my own dear athletes once
commented on a video of minewhere I posted that I got second
place in a road race, and hiscomment was should have been in
(01:14):
your drops, coach.
Thank you, nathan Cusack.
Your voice is now in my headevery time that I sprint.
So one guy that doesn't messthis up on a regular basis and
who can break it down betterthan any other sprint coach that
I've met is local legend,multi-time Mabra champion,
father of two and husband of one, dj Brew.
(01:35):
Dj, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Thanks for having me back.
It's good to be on with you,coach.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
You're right on.
Well, it is definitely been aminute since you've been on the
podcast before, and if I hadbetter memory, slash less
concussions, I know I would knowwhat we were talking about, but
I'll blame it on COVID andeverything that else that
happened.
Um, but you know what?
Uh, since you've been on theshow last, you've had another
kid, you've changed jobs, youwant a few more championships,
(02:05):
and all with your annual volumeand ctl going up and down like a
roller coaster.
So tell us a little bit moreabout you, why that is who you
are, what team you ride for inthe dmv area yeah, so I I mean
obviously I race in the dc mVirginia area.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Um, so, yeah, I'm like you said, I'm average Joe
father too, like I have a nineyear old son and a two year old
daughter.
Um, you know, my wife, you know, works for government.
So you know you've gone throughthat stress of is she going to
have a job?
So fortunately things arelooking pretty steady.
But, um, you know, I still havethe same job, I'm a police
(02:45):
officer in the area.
But I finally came off workingshift work, which was like
evenings, working till 2 in themorning, and now I have a
steadier position on the job,working Monday through Friday,
mostly 6 to 2.
But then there is some timeswhere I have to change my
schedule.
So it really is just nowfitting, like now that my son's
(03:07):
older and doing his activities,playing soccer, which seems to
be what he's attached himself to.
So now it's balancing trainingwith, you know, a two-year-old
that's super active and, youknow, in daycare, so getting
sick on a regular schedule andthen getting everybody else in
(03:30):
the house sick on a regularschedule.
So, yeah, just balancing thatand trying to ride whenever I
get an opportunity.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So yeah, yeah, and that's it.
And folks listening.
One of the reasons I wanted tobring DJ on is not only is he an
expert sprinter, like he isgood at doing it, he's good at
communicating it, but he's likeyou, he's trying to get it all
done, he's a time crunchedathlete and he's very relatable,
you know, in that sense.
And so before we get goingtoday, I will say this the
(04:01):
original question came from oneof our audience members named
Skylar, and I got to apologizebecause when they wrote in like
over a year ago because Iremember talking to you about
this at Armed Forces, dj, and wehad a between you and Battle we
had all these ideas of howwe're going to actually do this
podcast.
But then I had like three bigtrips come up Summer was gone,
(04:22):
sprint season was gone, and nowwe've got like Masters Nats
coming up, mountain BikeNationals, junior Nationals and
all the other bike races goingaround the world.
So it is a timely podcast andtopic to do.
But I just wanted to say,skylar, sorry about that, but it
was a great topic and it's beenon my mind since.
So let's get into the originalquestion and then I'll start uh,
(04:45):
uh, riddling brew with a bunchof questions, so here here's the
original one Uh, what is thebest way to sprint?
Topics Primarily like shiftingtechnique, cadence, pedal form,
et cetera.
Additional topics lead outtechnique with and without a
team, online on Zwift and inreal world, and then training
around that.
So thanks, skylar.
Now this is a pretty big topic.
(05:06):
So today we'll focus on thebasics, technique form, and
we'll provide some ideas andworkouts on how to train it.
Okay, but we'll touch on.
We will touch on the lead out,because that is super important,
but we've got another podcastlined up for that with that
cheeky little fella, nathanCusick himself.
So lead outs will be coming.
But let's focus, let's go tothe basics here.
(05:27):
Dj, if someone comes to you andwants to learn how to sprint,
what is the basic technique andwhere would you start with them?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I'll start a lot of what I and you know a lot of
people have asked.
You know, hey, I'm afraid tosprint.
I haven't tried sprinting Like.
What's the first thing I needto try?
Hey, I'm afraid to sprint.
I haven't tried sprinting Like,what's the first thing I need
to try?
And I think it's the main thing.
I tell for one don't fight yourbody.
Like, because a lot of peopletry to fit themselves Like.
There's so many different typesof sprinters out there, even on
(05:58):
the USA crit circuit to theworld tour like, the sprinters
come in all shapes and sizes andthey all ride different ways.
So don't fight your body,trying to make yourself look
like exactly like somebody elsethat you see on tv.
But there are like a couplebasic things.
Obviously you want to be in thedrops because you want to be
(06:19):
the most aero as you come out ofthe saddle.
And when you do come out of thesaddle, even when you are in
the drops, a lot of people willstill of the saddle.
And when you do come out of thesaddle, even when you are in
the drops, a lot of people willstill like stand straight up as
if they're climbing.
But now they're just climbingin the drops, but no, you still,
you want to come out of thesaddle but remain aero at the
same time, and it's kind of itseems like they go against each
(06:40):
other but you can be aero andout of the saddle at the same
time.
So it's that being in the drops,and then it's just the action
of pushing down and pulling withthe opposite arm, like as you,
if you're pulling with yourright arm on the handlebar,
you're driving your left legdown, you're pulling with the
left driving your right leg down.
A lot of people sometimesthey'll just do it on the same
(07:02):
side, so you get this weird,like baby giraffe learning how
to walk.
Action, which is what peoplewill experience almost when,
when they, just when they havenever sprinted before and they
just try to start sprinting.
That's kind of like thesensation is like oh, I don't
know what, like off balance andyou know that.
So those are kind of like the.
The three basic things I wouldsay is like be in the drops, try
(07:25):
to stay arrow, even when you'reout of the saddle, and then the
opposite push, pull motion.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yep, yep, that's it entirely.
And and one thing that I teachis is how to stay arrow when
you're in the drops and on thesaddle is you keep your chest
low, so head's low, head, headis low, chest is low.
You're looking up to see whereyou're going, more or less, and,
(07:51):
uh, you go for it, right, andthat that action that DJ is
talking about, of pushing with,say, your right leg and kind of
pulling or guiding with yourleft arm and going back and
forth, if this is your bike, andfor those watching on YouTube
I'm, I'm or those listening, um,what I'm describing, what you
can see on YouTube, is my handand that's the bicycle, and the
bicycle should be rockingunderneath you, as say the
riders here.
The rider doesn't rock as much,but the bike rocks a lot.
(08:12):
Okay, and we'll, we'll give someother examples and some, um, uh
, some people to Google to watchon how they sprint, Uh, but
that's it.
I mean that rocking back andforth of the stat of the bike
should occur in some form orfashion.
Like DJ said, you know you cansprint in many different ways.
I think the best advice I cangive is there's no like perfect
(08:33):
look to it.
In fact, sometimes it's alittle chaotic, and that's fine.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I saw it Like I know I joke with a lot of my team
like watching one, you know,sprinted out.
I like to watch now JonathanMilan on light or trek.
Now watching those sprint, it'slike, it's like the way he
moves on a bike.
It's it's funny to watch.
But his motion is like the, thelack of motion and everything's
just going forward, likethere's you could tell like when
(09:00):
he sprints like there's nowasted energy, like no, no
wasted, no excessive rocking ofthe bike, like every.
It's like his bike is on railsand it's just going as fast
forward as possible yeah, yeah,exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
And you've got fast sprinters like that.
That's uh like super generativeof their forces, going directly
into the cranks and into thebike and propelling them forward
.
And then the name stillescapeslling them forward.
And then the name still escapesme, but we were talking about,
uh, the short guy on lotto wherehe opens up his sprint and the
tires are just all over theplace but it's still fast.
So again, it's like no perfect,um, like look to it, but we can
(09:41):
focus on the basics and get thetechnique good.
So a couple of other things onthat is when you're starting to
deploy the sprint to and youstart to go.
I generally don't, I don'tprescribe or tell somebody to do
a certain cadence, I'm justlike make it high, so you
shouldn't be grinding, youshouldn't be bogged down.
It should be a high cadence,but there's a feel to that.
(10:02):
So, dj to you, when you'remaybe teaching somebody to
sprint and they haven't done itbefore, what, like how do you
get them to pedal?
Well, what should they feel?
And how do you get that likegearing right?
Speaker 2 (10:17):
With the gearing is you want?
You want to be pushing againstsome resistance, but not
overcome by it.
So it has to be just enoughresistance where you can.
You're still acceleratingbecause you want to feel like
you're accelerating the wholetime, like I'm accelerating.
I'm accelerating until you'refinally on top of it.
Then it's just all cadence.
(10:37):
It's like now I just got to runthis cadence until I get to the
finish line because you, you'repast the point of actually
accelerating, so it's like youhave to.
This is where practice comes inis defining that gear where,
when you come out of the saddle,like all the resistance just
doesn't disappear.
And when you or you come out ofthe saddle and it's like now my
(10:59):
cadence just dropped 10 RPMsbecause I had, you know, the
gear was too big.
Like you know, you never, younever want your cadence really
to be slowing down as soon asyou start the sprint, like, if
anything, you want to beaccelerating.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yep, yep.
I remember we worked a campwith, uh, sam Boardman here in
DC and Justin Williams was thereand you and Williams were kind
of giving that same talk and oneof the things Justin said was
like finding that right gearwith the right speed at the
right moment.
There's a, there's a beautifultiming that goes on with that,
and that's an art form thattakes years in my opinion, but
(11:35):
essentially he said the samething as you and he said if
you're, you know, if you'reshifting a bunch in your sprint,
that's wrong.
If you're bogged down, that'swrong.
Go lighter gear, he's like ifanything, maybe you shift once,
like if, because you'reaccelerating, accelerating, and
(11:56):
if you're going that fast, maybethere's one shift, but that's
it.
So for those who are learninghow to sprint, if your shift,
you don't want to be shifting abunch.
So find that right gear, find agood jump, make it smooth, have
the timing.
It's all practice, right, butthe major thing is like you
shouldn't be shifting a lot.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah, yeah, I think I I don't think I've ever like,
if I've ever shifted in a sprint, it was.
I was in like panic mode, mylegs are about to lock up, and
it was like go to a heavier gear.
So I don't cramp, for the mostpart I don't think I've.
You know for them, if I'm, ifI'm coming off of a wheel, I'm
(12:30):
coming off in a gear where Iknow I can still accelerate that
that gear, and not like run out, run out on top of it.
So, yeah, I, I, yeah veryrarely do I ever try to sprint,
unless I'm going from a long wayand I know I have time to
actually shift.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Um, and I think, to cadence.
We've been talking a lot aboutcadence.
We'll talk about how to trainit and then, um, how to kind of
train your cadence early on soyou have the neuromuscular uh, I
would say infrastructure tohandle these high efforts like
DJ is talking about.
Because when you're sprintingDJ, I mean what are yourj's
talking about?
Because when you're sprintingdj, I mean what are your, what
are your rpms, when you're in afully deployed, full-on sprint?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
130, 135.
Yeah, like really quick cadenceyeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
so in training we oftentimes need to over cadence
I just call it over cadence tostimulate that neuromuscular
system.
Neuromuscular is just, uh, thebrain to the muscle and um, high
leg speed with lower resistanceto get that done.
So we might be doing cadencesone, 50, one 60, one 70 track
People are like that ain'tnothing, you know, they're up in
(13:40):
the 200.
Sometimes it's ridiculous.
Um, bmx people same.
So we don't need to go thathigh, uh, on the road side of
things.
But so we'll break that down alittle bit more.
But to keep it real simple, um,when we're practicing that good
technique and we're learningtiming, we're learning our gears
, we're learning coordination,because just that side to side
(14:01):
and I've seen riders, dj, likeyou said, that kind of look like
a giraffe, it's like they don'tget the opposite lean going on.
The best way to practice thisis outside.
Am I wrong in saying that?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, yeah, and you, yeah, I've, yeah, maybe can
count on one hand how many timesI've ever sprinted on a trainer
to realize like I hate it.
I hate it with a passion.
It drives me crazy and it never.
I just feel so restricted.
(14:33):
So I'm like you know what?
I'm saving this for when itwarms up or when it's nice to be
outside, so this is not doingme any favors.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, exactly, and so in that way, just in terms of
practicing, we'll talk aboutZwift and like virtual racing
here in a second.
But when it comes to practicingyour sprint, best to do it
outside, because you're going toform good habits out there.
I think you'll form bad habitspotentially if you're learning
inside, because, again, thatbike needs to rock back and
forth and you need to feel thatin real life and if you don't,
(15:06):
you're missing, you're likeyou're missing out.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, even the dynamic of going from sitting to
standing on a on a trainerslike even with the little rocker
trainers it's still not as realas like what your bike does
when you go from sitting tostanding on the road and it
drops.
It's not the same.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
And even somebody like DJ, who's really powerful
and can produce a lot of powerlike he, won't generate as much
power inside.
Because when you stand up anddeploy the sprint, you're using
not only some body weight butbiomechanics in order to produce
that power, leaning that bikeover and being able to really
crank on the cranks themselves.
You need that, okay.
(15:47):
But, dj, if you're going tosprint, if you're super into
Zwift or TP virtual or whatever,how would you advise somebody
on how to sprint inside ifthey're going for the win?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
If I was to have to sprint, I would probably lean
more into cadence than I would,as you know.
So much as like getting out ofthe saddle and like grinding it
over.
And it's funny because I'vewatched, you know just like,
footage of some Zwift racesprints and how some of the
races end and it's like dudesmostly in the saddle anyway,
(16:23):
even after they've tried tosprint out of the saddle, like
when you've gone from, becausethe sprints normally start from
a long way out on Zwift, theyalways end up back in the saddle
anyway.
So it's almost like why does itjust stay in the saddle really
and just use cadence?
To you, you know, to sprintbasically like I've, you know,
(16:47):
done over a thousand wattssitting, so you know, seated on
zwift before.
So I know it's doable for guysthat actually race on zwift and
know how to use the drafting andwhatnot.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
So it's possible, yeah, yeah yeah, and I wouldn't
consider either of us to be likea Zwift specialist here, but my
observation is typically thesprints inside are longer.
High cadence is the way.
If you're a feeble creaturelike myself, I need to jump out
of the saddle, even inside to goover a thousand Watts.
(17:17):
I can't do it seated like DJ,can, uh, but generally like
train.
The cadence uh typically gofrom a long way out.
In the lead outs, uh, virtually, are usually long as well.
So it's a good segue to talkabout cadence and some
neuromuscular drills.
Now, generally, when I'm say,building an athlete up or just
(17:38):
general early season stuff,January, February is where I'm
using a lot of high cadence andneuromuscular drills to kind of
pave the way for better sprints.
High cadence or fast pedaldrills are what I use to
prescribe that on training peaksand that's going to be anywhere
between one minute, two minute,three minutes, sometimes four
(17:58):
minute high cadence and Iusually start wherever the
athlete can kind of do and whatI say is do, uh, do a high
cadence up to the point whereyou're bouncing in the saddle
and then back down five RPMs.
Hold that for the duration ofthe interval.
Let the heart rate climb up,keep the power tempo or below.
So when I'm, when I'm doing highcadence work, I start there for
(18:19):
somebody like DJ, I give yousome fast pedal work here and
there, but you have such a goodneuromuscular system we're not
doing a ton of that in the offseason, even though I weave it
in sometimes for you, though Iknow you do some sprints outside
Is there or in some other stuff.
But is there anything that youdo personally or would advise
somebody that's talking aboutsprinter stuff to work on in
(18:43):
terms of the neuromusculardrills talking about sprinter
stuff, uh, to work on in termsof the neuromuscular drills.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah, it's almost.
I mean it's not fancy, but itis just the working, the
extremes of it.
You know so, doing likeextremely, like high cadence,
low force.
You know those kinds of drills,um, like a very easy gear and
just try to get a max cadenceout of it.
Like you know those kind ofthings, and for one especially,
you know during your base season, those kind of drills like
(19:14):
break up a ride, like instead ofmindlessly riding around, you
know, for our area and circlesaround Haines, you know for
hours, hours on end, why notbreak it up and and try things
like that.
You know, um, and then theopposite end of the spectrum,
putting it in a heavy startingin a heavy gear and muscling it
over until you're at your.
(19:35):
You know your regular,self-selected cadence, and then
you know calling it a day, likejust working those extreme
ranges.
And then I, I, I even like tohave fun.
You know, even on group rides,like if I go for a sprint on a
group ride, it's like, ah, letme see if I can do this in a
small ring, like pick a gear ina small ring, and I mean, it's
not overthinking it, but it'slike I'm gonna sprint in a small
(19:56):
ring, you know, just to seewhat this feels like, what you
know what my body's gonna do,like how it's actually gonna
feel.
Yeah, it's, yeah, it's.
It's kind of like you, youtreat sprinting like you're
you're, you're playing, youreally you're playing on the
bike and you kind of are seeingwhat your bike can do, what your
legs can do.
For one, like is seeing okay,can I, can I crank out a one 60
(20:18):
cadence?
Like, can I?
You know, it's kind of likepicking that number that you
think is unattainable and like,okay, let me see if I can do it,
you know did we do the oneminute challenge today?
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Did I do that with you and we can or like the one
minute cadence, like how, howhigh of a cause I know I did it
with.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
AJ, I feel like I've done that with you one time
before.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah, cause basically , the one minute challenge that
I have is I pick on a fewathletes and I think you smoked
me, by the way.
That's what I'm remembering,but again, this was a couple of
years ago.
Anyway, let's go one minute.
What's your highest averageRPMs that you can hold?
And you beat me.
I think you're the firstathlete to ever beat me.
Aj got in on it, a couple of myjuniors did.
I'm pretty good on cadence.
(21:01):
I'm not the greatest sprinterin the world, um, but so, so
that is.
One tip here is like, just goone minute, try to go as high of
cadence as you possibly canYou're.
It's crazy what your heart ratedoes, cause it does spin up
because your leg speed is sohigh, right, um, and and you,
just you do that, maybe once ona ride you know, maybe peppered
into on another later on theride, like that.
(21:23):
But again it's more like play.
I don't prescribe this, I'mjust like beat this right.
And another one that I do is isand you touched on it was max
cadence, and this is what I dowith this with my juniors quite
a bit and I used to do this onlike talent id mountain bike
camps with usac is we just likego downhill, get some really
high speed in our biggest gear.
(21:44):
Get and get the legs spinning inthe biggest gear and then shift
down like two or three and justhave your legs like super, like
spin out of control and seewhat your max cadence is, and
that's a really good way todevelop absolute cadence yeah
yeah yeah, and those, to me,those kind of things are just
fun to do, because I feel likeyou always end up discovering
(22:09):
something.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
You might find a hack or some way, like how you work
biomechanically, like, okay, ifI do this, I'll always have a
higher cadence.
This is kind of how I have tocenter my weight over my bike in
order to really fully activateall the muscles.
And you know, because thehaving the cadence is all about,
(22:32):
you know you have to.
You're firing and relaxing allthose muscles at the same time.
So it's like, okay, where doesmy weight have to be, you know,
on the bike, or am I centeredover the bottom bracket and am'm
a little forward over thebottom bracket?
Do my levers work behind the?
You know?
Speaker 1 (22:47):
so it's kind of you get to play around and find out
to see where you, where you havethe most leverage on on the
bike exactly and when you dolike these little games and you
and you just play like that,it's I would say it's a simple
way to train all that otherimportant stuff that you're.
Just because your, your, yourbrain becomes more aware of it
(23:07):
and in the way of like, oh, mycore engages when I do this.
However, I don't tell anybodynow, engage your core.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
It's like if you, if you, ifyou just go high cadence and, if
you like, have fun doing it,the body will figure it out.
So I would say for listeners,don't get too bogged down in the
details, because learning howto sprint is actually just like
(23:28):
doing it Right.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
And this is why I what I was thinking.
You know, of course we had somesprints peppered in the ride
today, and it's one thing that Ireally what's hard for me is,
um, so for me sprinting comesnaturally, but when it's like in
my workout, then I start tooverthink, like, ok, this is
(23:49):
like I got to do this for coach,like you know.
So then I start, ok, rememberto pull on the bars.
Like no, I already know how todo all that, just sprint, just
go out and do it.
So it was always, you know.
Now it's much harder.
I feel like, you know, a fewyears ago, when I could come to
the noon ride and you know wewere always sprinting there.
(24:11):
So that was my sprint trainingand it was like you didn't
really have to think, you justdid it.
So now that I'm forced to likeI don't have that opportunity
every day, don't have thatopportunity every day.
So it's like now, when Iactually have to sprint, I'm
forced to like, okay, this issprint time, like you know.
Now it's like, just do it, butit's so like shutting my brain
(24:33):
off and and just doing it is thehardest thing, and it always
feels like, okay, I'm workingagainst, like my own self.
But yeah, it's like one ofthose things like you, you just
gotta do it.
You know, even if you have topull in a buddy, it's like, hey,
we're just you go to pick aspot and you know we'll sprint
to it, or you know we'll startfrom here and we'll go for 10
(24:55):
seconds or 15 seconds or 20seconds, you know yeah, that's
it, and I think too I mean,that's one observation I made
like just with your yourtraining is I.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
I need to prescribe in sprints more often, because
we ain't doing it at Hanes asmuch.
So, naturally we're not.
We're not getting it in andthat's for audience members.
It's basically a group ride,right?
That's what we're talking aboutwhen we're like deploying that
sprint and it's a unique one,but we're also supposed to not
talk about it.
Not talk about it.
But my but my point is sprintoften right In the group rides.
(25:27):
You're talking about group rides.
That's a good segue for itbecause, uh, sit in wait for the
sprint or attack hard, go for asprint.
Group rides are a great way toincorporate sprinting into it.
Don't overthink it, go with it.
That it's a huge component toit.
Now there's dedicated workouts,like I gave DJ today, and there
were flying sprints.
I think there are 20 secondefforts.
Well, I'll talk about that onehere quickly.
(25:49):
But like that's another good wayto incorporate sprints in is
just have a dedicated sprint day.
Solo is different than you know, going with a buddy or in a
group, but just know, like,intentionally, if you don't have
a group ride on a regular basis, you need to intentionally
build it in.
And then, finally, anotherpoint on like how to sprint
often is adding in the sprintson an already hard day.
(26:13):
So if DJ is doing likethreshold work or something like
that.
I'll say dedicated sprint day,because we're just like not
enough time in the schedule.
But if the day is already hard,do some sprints, because you've
already switched the anaerobicuh levers on right Might as well
(26:36):
, sprint and get her done.
And then I generally do it atthe end of a ride like that, so
it doesn't get in the way of thethreshold, um but uh.
And you can also do someopeners early on, just to like
open the legs up and you canpractice your sprint technique
and things like that.
Um.
And one thing that I'veactually leaned in, leaned into
a little bit more, but DJ, hehas this thing that well, I'll
(26:59):
have you describe it, but it'syour, your thousand watt rule
that you used to do a lot more.
Yeah, tell us tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I'll give you my criticisms, but I'm also I'll
lean into it, because there'ssome benefits there yeah, I
never, never wanted to end aride like without hitting over a
thousand watts at least once,like I'll, I like I'll have a
screen on my computer that I canclick to and be like, okay,
this is the max.
I was like now, honestly, and Ipushed it up, if I haven't done
(27:32):
over 1,400, either I'm wreckedalready and I'm like there's no
way I can do that withoutcramping anyway.
So I'm just going to leave italone.
But I've probably gone over athousand.
But if I'm still feeling goodand you've, you've like warned
me about this before becausethere's a little section of road
I have right outside myneighborhood, that is, it's
(27:57):
perfect for sprinting on becausethe pavement is fresh and
there's like the perfectmarkings that are like a stop
line and a, you know, a go lineand a stop line.
So I'm like, if I can hit over14 before I turn it to my
neighborhood, I'm going after it.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
So I've had conversations with DJ about this
Cause and I challenged him.
I was like, why the hell areyou doing this?
What is it like in your headthat says like cause, every
every day, you just like end hisendurance ride with a sprint?
And it didn't like for audiencemembers.
And there's even a question atsome point that somebody wrote
in is like basically, how manysprints can I do before I ruin
(28:37):
an endurance ride?
I thought it was an awesomequestion, but in my my answer to
it was you're thinking aboutendurance wrong and you're
thinking about sprinting wrong.
You need to separate them.
So keep your endurance.
Endurance.
Keep your sprints.
Sprints Right, but in that way.
So like one time sprints, notgoing to really ruin an
endurance ride.
Okay, but what I was telling DJis like what's the goal here?
(28:58):
Right, because we can make thesprint better.
We, we can make the sprintbetter.
We can make the sprint a daybetter.
We can make the anaerobiccapacity better if we separate
it.
And then keep your easy dayseasy.
Hard hard days hard.
Now that's my general advicefor everybody.
But then we also have like raceseason where we need that snap
and we need to keep the feel ofa good sprint in there, of which
(29:19):
kind of like free reign to.
Okay, if you're feeling goodand snapping, you have that
right moment.
I can kind of observe dj's moodon the day, like if he sprints
I know he's feeling good, right,because now intellectually he
knows when not to do it and whento do it, but it kind of like
now I lean into it and the moresprints he does because he ain't
doing as many group rides, it'sit.
(29:39):
I get that like neuromuscularthing.
And, by the way, when you'redoing like 10 second sprints
versus 20 seconds, it's verydifferent.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
The 10 second ain't gonna hurt you as much, right
yeah, and as these are, by thetime I'm sprinting at the end of
a ride, it's, yeah, 10, 12seconds max really, and it's
only because that it's it'sreally dictated by the stretch
of road.
Like, even when I'm on my wayinto work in the morning,
there's like this, this perfectlittle, it's kind of like maybe
(30:05):
like 2% grade, but it's justlike just long enough to like
you get to the top 10, 11seconds and then I'm just
coasting in the rest of the wayto work.
So yeah, yep.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Yep.
So let's, let's talk, causewe're kind of talking about and
I use the term sprinter stuffCause, uh, it was I had a
conversation with DJ at somepoint and he's like, yeah, I was
just talking about sprinterstuff and I was like, okay, I'm,
I'm the coach, I'm definitelynot a sprinter stuff.
That I probably don'tunderstand.
Um, but in the way so we talked, we've been talking a lot about
(30:39):
some abstract stuff.
So good, technique on sprinting, just go sprinting, don't
overthink it.
But a lot of people on thispodcast like workouts, they like
structure.
So let's bring some structureto this and let's just say, in a
sprint workout or some of thesprint workouts I prescribe,
there's hill sprints, there'sflying sprints, there's standing
starts, and let's talk aboutthose a little bit.
(31:01):
And then let's let's first talkabout like 10 second versus 20
second versus 30 second sprints.
For you, when would you use a10 second sprint versus a 20
second?
Speaker 2 (31:13):
So for me a 10 second is like good.
I feel like 10, 10 secondsprints are good for practicing,
like that initial jump andacceleration in my sprint.
So like if I feel like that'swhat I'm lacking, like I'll
throw in several of those inlike my rides, just like I just
(31:35):
gotta, you know, kind of get thesnap back in my legs, like I,
you know, and I feel like for me, maybe not being I think that's
where I guess my skill lies notnecessarily that I'm like
pushing like massive power andlike super big watts, but I
(31:55):
think having that quickacceleration and creating a gap
that makes it harder for peopleto have to close the gap and
then still accelerate past me.
So like that quick snap is whatI really like to have just
always in my back pocket, likeit's kind of to me it feels like
a get out of jail free card,because it's like if I'm not
(32:17):
feeling good, like I can kind ofsave my sprint to the last
second and then, you know,create a gap and it'd be hard
for somebody to come around mein the amount of time like
depending on how much time Ileave left to the finish line.
So it's one of those thingslike I keep in my back pocket.
But that 20 second, the 20second sprint is like a legit
(32:38):
like race, race winning, endingsprint, because it kind of the
20 second feels like the sprintactually started already and now
you still have to sprint, likeyou're basically hold, like is
after the initial acceleration.
Now it's building on how longyou can stay at top speed before
(33:01):
things just quickly startfading to the line.
So keeping that and then likethe 30 second is almost like
what we like from the 1k out,like when you have to sprint,
then you have to sit down to getback in the wheel, then you
have to sprint again to actuallywin the race.
So it's like those, those threedifferent things that you're
(33:22):
practicing in those threedifferent with those three
different time frames.
That's a perfect descriptionthree different with those three
different timeframes.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
That's a perfect description of all of them and
I'll add to that and say, likethe, the stress to the body
changes on those durations aswell.
And I would say, withoutgetting too deep in the weeds,
one thing that I said was youknow the 10 seconds, they ain't
going to hurt you all that muchgenerally, because if you do
three or four of them and you'rejust working on the jumps and
(33:48):
let's just, let's just call themjumps, uh, for now you can do
four by 10 second jumps withfull recovery in between, full
recoveries, I don't know eightto 10 minutes easy endurance,
spinning, and you just work thatinto a 60 to 90 minute ride.
Okay, and you're working onthat, that, that anaerobic pop,
the snap, the ability toaccelerate quickly, because it's
(34:13):
a neuromuscular sort of stress,you're not changing muscle
physiology all that much, you'renot, you're not inducing
acidosis, you're not causing aton of like lactate spike and
because it's full recovery inbetween, it's not causing a ton
of fatigue.
So I again allow you know,athletes, when they want to work
on that snap, yeah, go aheadand do three, four, whatever
feels good, cause it's not goingto, it's not going to add too
much fatigue residually to thesystem, okay.
(34:35):
But then when I start doing 20seconds now, it starts to add
more fatigue.
Okay, so maybe five, you knowfive or six, 20 second full tilt
sprints, that will change thefatigue system, right, and so
everything that DJ describedthere and then 30 seconds,
(35:01):
that's super deep and that'swhen you're working on, like I
mean, anything from mentaltoughness to sprinting
durability, to, I'd say, fromthe physiological side of things
, that's anaerobic capacity.
30 to 60 seconds is thatcapacity to do as much work over
ftp as possible, to do as muchpower as possible.
Um, and it's different thanlike the winning move, it's like
being able to last.
If the winning move plan didn'twork out, then you gotta keep
(35:24):
going.
Yeah, yeah, um, and so you know, five or six uh by 20 seconds,
full tilt, flying sprints, um,amidst the 90 minute ride.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
That's a pretty good workout there, uh, and I I say
flying sprints when we're doinguh sprints like at, uh, at speed
, so starting at 18, 20, 22miles an hour, something like
that and I mean that that'swhere a lot of a lot of the
difference, like you said it, itcomes in because even with the
quick ones you still you reallyaren't in a gear that's going to
(35:56):
do much damage either, like you, because you want to have that
quick acceleration.
You're not going to put it in aheavy gear because 10 seconds
will be over about it but beforeyou can actually get that gear
up to speed.
So you want to pick a gearthat's light enough you to
actually accelerate it and thenby the time you've popped out
the effort's over at that point,like you're not then shifting
(36:19):
for another 10 seconds, so youknow you're the effort's over,
so those can get peppered in andyou recover pretty quick from
those.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
I know, at least I know I feel like I personally
recover really quick from youknow those 10 seconds, friends
yeah, and it's interesting too,because even though dj is doing
a lot more power, one could say,well, he's, he's causing more
fatigue.
Well, it's like he's got morefast twitch, so he can do that
and he can recover from it.
It's all good.
Somebody who's more feeble, whois not producing as many as
(36:48):
much power, um, you're all, it'sthe same kind of thing.
It's like I'm not producing somuch power, so it's not going to
cause so much fatigue, and soyou just, I mean it's it's a
nuanced thing, um, but what Igenerally find is the 10 seconds
don't cause as much, and some,and then, when you're even
aiming for 10 seconds, it'srarely 10 seconds, sometimes
it's like seven, eight.
(37:09):
You know it's usually a littleon Um.
So finally, I'll just saythere's there's one more workout
that I like to put in there,especially for my um either crit
racers or mountain bikers,cycle cross racers, and that's
standing starts.
So two ways of doing it.
But okay, zero, you're startingat zero speed, no speed.
(37:30):
And two ways of doing it.
You can either start, uh, withone foot clipped in and one foot
clipped out, or you can do atrack stand and then go from
there.
These are like high torqueefforts and generally I'm going
to be doing like a 10, maybe 15second effort and there's like
riffs and nuance that I'll do onthat.
But we're really working on uh,the start power and generating a
(37:52):
really high power with hightorque, meaning like you have a
lot more uh forced to overcometo produce that power.
And it's a very specific way ofdoing it for, like, how crit
start, how mountain bike racesstart, how cycle cross races
start, um, and it's a veryspecific way of doing it for,
like, how crits start, howmountain bike races start, how
cyclocross races start.
And it's also really fun to doif you got someone next to you
and you try to like race eachother off the line, something
like that.
Yeah, dj, anything on standingstarts or anything that you want
(38:17):
to relate to that, especiallyin the way of like practicing
clipping in and clipping out.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Yeah, practicing clipping in and clipping out.
Yeah, I mean I do.
Though if I do those reallylike in my commute, if I'm at a
stoplight and I'm likeespecially like if I have a car
in front of me, I'm like, let mecatch this draft.
So it's like just, it's kind oflike a fun way to see if you
can match the acceleration of acar in front of you at a
(38:42):
stoplight Like there.
Yeah, acceleration of a car infront of you at a stoplight like
there, yeah, there's theretimes I purposely won't pass a
car because I want to do likethat kind of effort, as you know
, when the light turns green.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
so it's like, all right, well, let me see if I can
keep up with the the cartraffic before getting popped
you know, yeah, yeah, and what Itry to do myself and my with my
athletes, keep in mind, like,don't be afraid to play, and I
think that we don't play enoughbut anytime that there is a
stoplight or stop sign to unclipand then practice without
looking, clipping back in andpedaling like that's a skill man
(39:16):
.
Like that's a really good skillto have.
Meanwhile you can practice yourtrack, stands at the stoplight
and stop sign and then smokeyour friends right off the line.
It's always good.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
I don't know, I suck at track stand so I'm probably
always going to be clipped outanyway.
So and that's kind of, like youknow, for my wife, like when
she rides, it's kind of one ofthose things, because she
doesn't ride as often as that'swhat I tell her.
I was, like all you know,practice clipping in and out,
clip out every time we come to alight.
Don't slow down and like waitfor the light to change, like no
(39:47):
, go all the way up.
Clip out and clip in withoutlooking down and get used to
finding where that pedal is andbeing able to get in.
Because if you do come back toracing like that's a big part of
it is not screwing up your clipin when the ref says go.
So exactly.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Yeah, that's, that's it.
Yeah, so in in hill sprints uh,mentioned that, you mentioned
that a little bit.
But, um, when I'm doing hillsprints, it's usually like a um
kind of like on bach road, right, uh, where you got speed coming
off the hill and then yousprint going into the hill.
And the reason why those are sogood is it's working on just
like raw power production forany athlete sprinter, climber,
(40:28):
time trialer, whatever they'regoing to produce their best
power on a hill, because thehill increases the gravity
that's pulling down on you,right, and it changes the
physics.
And so, even for like sprints,if you get the timing right.
And so even for like sprints,if you get the timing right and
this helps practicing yourtiming of deploying the sprint
(40:48):
too as soon as that hill startsto kick up and you feel just
like the tension change a littlebit, drill it down on the drops
out of the saddle, keep chestlow and hit it, and I generally
see people producing some oftheir best power when properly
timed on a hill sprint like that.
So when you just want to likeoverload the legs with the power
production on the bike, that'sa great way of doing it.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
And I was, I like doing those also.
It makes it almost feels likeyou know.
Like I say, you don't forceyour body into a position that
it doesn't want to be in, butjust following, you know, the
basic principles.
Basic principles of you know,keeping your chest low, staying
aero, like sprinting up a hill.
It almost feels like it, or itforces you to be in that
(41:31):
position because you know,naturally when you're going up a
hill, you want to be on thehoods and you know actually
going up the hill like a climber.
But when you're forced to like,okay, I'm sprinting now, it's
like all right.
It kind like it puts you in themindset of, like I keep the
chest low.
So when going off of a hill andthen reapplying it back on up
(41:52):
to a flat, it feels much easier.
So it's like, okay, because Iwas forced to do it on a hill.
Like when I come to a flat andI have to sprint, like it just
happens naturally, Like the wayyou hold your body and it all
happens naturally.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
It's a good kind of summation of that and and I'd
say for all audience memberslistening, when you're, when
you're just refining your sprint, using those hill sprints,
flying sprints, standing starts,those are all good ways of
doing it and maybe you juststart with like three efforts on
a ride and then you build up tofour or five and maybe up to
six.
I think that's the most youreally need to.
(42:27):
After that it's more liketraining, training where stuff,
like in fatigue, starts tochange a little bit more.
So I think, just like, keep itsimple, keep it between three
and six efforts total.
Make it on a dedicated sprintday, pepper them in after
interval interval days.
Keep the hard days hard, easydays easy.
But those are like bread andbutter core sprint sessions and
(42:50):
workouts that you, that you cando pretty much all year round
yeah, and you know I've tried,if I'm outside I'm, there's
something small that's sprintrelated, that even you know.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
For if it's just cadence, like something small,
and it's not even that I'm, I'mlike in a full-on.
You know high cadence, sprint,but it's like riding above my
normally selected cadence, likejust always kind of working on,
like making a higher cadencefeel easier and more natural,
like the higher you can pushthat number when it actually
(43:22):
comes time to sprint, the morenaturally that higher number
will happen.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Yep, yep, yeah, and it did a whole well, a couple of
podcasts on that.
If anybody searches timecrunched athlete in pedaling or
time crunched athlete in cadence, you'll find it, and we talk
all about why high cadence isthe way.
So try to bring this thing homehere, dj, because you know we
are time crunched.
I want to talk about developingstrength off the bike, and then
(43:50):
I also want to just touch onlead outs and kind of give a
little sneak preview of what isto come, maybe on the lead out
podcast.
But when it comes to developingstrength off the bike, what
we're doing, we're talking aboutstrength training.
We're talking about stuff thatis not, you know, pedaling.
So this is a whole topic.
I've done several podcasts onstrength training.
But questions to you are whatare some key exercises that
(44:14):
listeners should definitely bedoing in the gym if they want to
improve their sprint?
Speaker 2 (44:19):
For me it's always.
I mean, squat, deadlift, singleleg squat and lunge are pretty
much my bread and butterthroughout the winter, even
during the season.
I, I personally, love doingthem.
So you, you never getcomplaints about me from having
(44:42):
oh man, I got to do anotherworkout in the gym today, like
no, no, yeah, that's the onecomplaint I'll never make.
So, yeah, if anything, it's nothard to get me out of the gym.
And then it's like all right,we got a ride now and and lift
less.
So yeah, but it's true those arereally my, my go-to, like
(45:04):
bulgarian split squats for like,getting that single leg work,
and lunges for getting that,either you know just regular
forward lunges or reverse lungesfor more single leg work.
And then you know squats, ifyou can handle it like I've been
squatting for years now.
So I, you know there's not.
I don't really I'm not veryinjury prone when it comes to
(45:27):
that, so I can do them safely.
So I like a high bar back squatall day, you know.
But I mean, if deadlift, trapbar deadlift is essentially a
squat where the weight starts atthe ground instead of on your
back, so yeah, that's definitelya definitely a safe, safer way
to do it If you don't want to dohigh bar back squat.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Yep Completely agree.
And all the exercises that hementioned keep in mind, most of
them loaded the full body, theyloaded the spine right, so that
high bar or or the deadlift, um,and the reason why that's good
is it's stressing all of thesystems right the, the quads,
the hamstrings, the glutes, the,the full body, and there's a
lot of other benefits that go onwith uh loading the spine in
(46:10):
that way.
Additionally, um, what we'retrying to do is, uh, overload
those muscles, tear them down sothey come back stronger.
So, those components that hedescribed, um, that's why you're
doing them in the in the longrun, what you're trying to do is
produce, uh, more strength,sometimes more mass, but also,
but definitely, more forceproductions so that when you
(46:30):
pedal, there's more power, uh,on the pedals themselves.
But one thing that I alwayslike to mention when it says,
well, what's the best way todevelop a sprint in strength
training backs everything thatDJ said, yes, but plyometrics
and jumping is even better If,if not like the way once you
(46:51):
develop strength and and even Iwould even say even not, and
it's not even so much that younecessarily have to like, we
don't hide box jumps or anythinglike that.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
Like, honestly, I I felt I've done some of my best
sprints, like when most of myplyometrics came from jump rope,
like I know it's aerobic, butjust you know that you know
pulling, you bring in the calves, and like strengthening the
Achilles, and like being on yourtoes, like just that bouncing
motion, like jumping rope for 10minutes.
You know either before for 10minutes, you know either before
(47:26):
actually lifting or you knowafter I've finished lifting,
like man, like, and just theamount of success I've had
thrown adding a jump rope intomy workouts was incredible.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, and I was going to share a
screen, but I'll keep it simple.
I'll just say check the shownotes, because here's my point
Is, when somebody sprints on abike versus jumps on a force
plate, when they just jump,meaning you squat down and you
jump up, you're going to produceabout three to five times more
(48:03):
power jumping against gravityand lifting your body off the
earth than you are in your bestsprint.
And people are just likemesmerized by this.
But like there's multiplestudies out there and I've got
one here in front of me and I'll, and again I'll link it in the
show notes but like we, you haveto realize when you're trying
to sprint or produce really goodpower, that when you do that
(48:27):
off the bike, you're overloadingthe body so much more than
deploying some best sprint.
So the best way to get good atsprinting is sprinting on your
bike because there's like somuch coordination, form and
technique that goes on in that.
But when you're trying todevelop force and strength off
the bike, you need to load thebody properly with weight, do
all the things there, but thenjumping is going to overload
(48:49):
that force production so muchway more than you need to.
And jumping rope.
We didn't collaborate on whatto talk about really here.
Jumping rope is where to startand probably the easiest way to
do it, because what I don't wantpeople to hear is like oh,
coach, ap said plyometrics.
I've never done plyometricsbefore, so I go do box jumps and
then you injure yourself.
So jump, jumping rope has theselittle oscillations, right?
(49:12):
so it's it's training theachilles tendon, your calves and
the whole lower body in a kindof a mini way.
Do like 20, 30 seconds at a pop, take 90 seconds rest, then do
it again and you're going totrain your body's ability to
handle more jumping down theroad.
And if you don't have a fancygym, if you don't have all the
equipment, jumping rope is agreat place to start on that.
(49:33):
And just know too, if you don'thave the fancy gym and you want
to, you know, increase yourforce production squat jumps,
counter movement jumps, boxjumps that's a great way to do
it.
So I will get off my high horseand off my jumping box, but
just know that and check it out,because check out the research
that I posted, because peopleoftentimes ask me that they're
(49:55):
like five times more than mysprint.
No way, and it's like, yeah,they've done a lot of studies on
it.
All right, two, two last thingshere.
Dj, lead outs.
I want to scratch the surfaceof it.
How important is a good leadout to win a bike race and have
a good sprint?
Speaker 2 (50:15):
You know it's make everything easier.
Put it that way, like Iwouldn't and I've, you know,
come from a team to that had oneof the best lead outs, so, and
I've come onto a team that gaveme one of the best lead outs, so
it's that's something it makesthings so much easier and a lot
(50:39):
less stressful.
At the end of it, you stillhave to sprint, but it's putting
yourself in a position whereyou only have to do one sprint,
as opposed to doing three orfour sprints that lead into the
actual sprint.
You know it's so.
It's kind of where it pulls itup.
(51:00):
You almost you train harder thanyou race.
So you do all this traininglike as if you don't have a lead
up.
That's how you want to trainyour sprint, like it's just me
and against everyone else.
And then, when you come to therace, it's like, okay're going
to make it so that I only haveto sprint one time in this race.
(51:21):
And that's really what it boilsdown to.
A lead out is designed to keepthe speed high and they let you
go from the highest speedpossible, because at that you
have the least amount of actualforce and wind resistance to
overcome.
And now it's just you only haveto sprint one time and it kind
(51:41):
of keeps you out of the vacuumof riders shuffling back and
forth and having a fight for awill.
So yeah, it kind of just makesyou focus on one thing in a
sprint and not a million thingsat once.
Speaker 1 (51:55):
Yeah, yeah and shout out to the bike doctor crew.
I've been behind you on acouple of races already this
year and it's the way they leadout is a beautiful thing.
So you guys got it dialed onthat one.
If we do a whole podcast on alead out there, there's a lot
more like nuance and like basicsto start from.
So if people want more on thelead out, write in and ask, drop
(52:17):
it in our comments section.
Let us know, because I've gotthe right person for it.
So let me know if you guys wantto hear more about a lead out.
Two last things it's beenrumored that you are a big fan
of Folgers coffee.
Is that true?
Okay, all right, we got thet-shirt to prove it 100% true,
(52:42):
100% true, they are the showsponsor.
Speaker 2 (52:44):
My personal sponsor yes.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
And that's so counter cultural to the pretentious
bike snobs that love theirespressos and stuff.
So why did you choose Folgers?
What's?
Speaker 2 (52:55):
it was just like the secrets sprint brew.
Caffeine is caffeine, so that'skind of I I do.
I will say I love coffee and Iwill drink fancy coffee when
it's available, but for everyday I want the least amount of
(53:18):
work to have my coffee aspossible.
So if I could just scoop it outof the plastic container into a
percolator and press the brewbutton, um, and I'll have, like
you know, 10 cups of coffee andI'm good to go.
So all right.
Speaker 1 (53:32):
Well, we, we differ in that realm, but, uh, I will
agree with you caffeine iscaffeine and, uh, that speaks to
how DJ does.
Keep it simple, folks.
Um, if you need caffeine, justhit it, it doesn't matter where
it's coming from, um.
But the last little thing hereis a shameless plug.
Uh, dj brew has something incommon with Christopher Blevins,
who has been on this podcastbefore, but, uh, they both make
(53:54):
music, very different music,very different music, in a sense
, but in DJ's spare time.
I don't even know how the sparetime comes, and when he does it
, it's usually cause he's notsleeping, and then I yell at him
for that.
But, dj, tell us about a littlebit, about your music and maybe
where we can find it.
Speaker 2 (54:09):
Oh, yeah, that's.
That's my other other passionthat I really picked up over
COVID, actually, when we weren'tdoing you know six hour days
then, but your highest fitnesswas during covet, by the way.
Yeah yeah, exactly.
But no, I, yeah, definitely,passion I'm I'm a big house head
, so you know I like house music, I produce house music, I dj
(54:34):
house music, so I'm all about it.
You can find me everywhere djbrew, on soundcloud, on mixcloud
, on youtube.
Speaker 1 (54:43):
So, yeah, dj brew house on youtube apple music,
yep yep yeah, I've got some ofthe music.
It is good, it's chill uh so ifanybody's looking for some new
music out there, definitely gofind it.
Um, but you know, you know,overall, today, I think what I
want our audience to uh comeaway with is like sprint
training can be reallycomplicated because when you do
(55:06):
it and if you haven't done itfor the first time you
definitely feel like a noob.
You're like, you feel likeyou're all over the place and
like, oh my God, I feel likeBambi, but like that's everybody
, and the more you practice it,the better you'll get at it.
Keep it super simple.
Sprint often sprint in thegroup ride.
If you have somebody like DJ inyour area that's like known to
(55:27):
be like the sprinter, ask him,because somebody like DJ, he
helps a lot of people in thatway and he ain't like you're not
going to hold back because whatwas your philosophy on that DJ?
If you make uh, what was yourphilosophy?
Speaker 2 (55:39):
on that, dj.
If you make somebody faster,what happens?
You get faster too.
It's like it's.
It's like the learning circleof learning.
Like you, you end up teachingsomething about something that
you might've forgot yourself oryou know.
The student becomes a teacher,and it's just cyclical.
Speaker 1 (55:53):
Exactly so.
If you're a good, uh sprinter,uh, teach others.
If you're not a good sprinter,seek somebody out that can help
with that.
And then those workouts that wetalked about, it's like try to
get away from like pure intervalway of thinking.
Play more, play around withyour cadence, play around with
it, just like spiking the powerup and seeing how high you can
get it.
See if it's any different onhill climb versus a flying
(56:15):
effort, versus a standing start,and see how you sprint your
best.
And I think when you keep itsimple like that, you have fun.
You you won't go wrong, that'sfor darn sure.
So any any final words there?
Dj?
Speaker 2 (56:27):
No, like I you know I was basically what you just
said Like it's.
It's many different ways toskin a cat.
So figure out how you know whatworks best for you.
Don't force, like you see otherpeople sprint, that doesn't
mean that's exactly how you'regoing to look when you do it.
So definitely don't do it fromlike an outside perspective,
(56:55):
Like sprint.
You know work on the mechanics,the basics, and then you know
your body will do what it does.
You know, and even for me I feelgoofy after a long winter of
you know we have a winner, areal winner here, where I'm just
on zwift, like when I get inthose first one.
I mean our friend jason, thefirst sprint that he saw me do
on one of our group rides.
He was like well, I could tellyou haven't been outside.
I'm like you are absolutely notand I agree with it.
(57:16):
100 was like I felt so goofydoing that sprint, Like that
first one.
It's like, yeah, but you kindof got to get that first one in,
like, and then they just allget better from there, you get
more comfortable from there.
So just start doing it.
That's, that's really what Ican say.
Speaker 1 (57:34):
Yep, solid advice, solid advice.
So I'll leave it there, dj,thank you so much for taking
time out of your time crunch dayto be with us, and I think I
think the audience will learn abunch from you today.
I hope so, thanks for having me.
Thanks, man.
Yeah, thank you.
Thanks for joining us on thetime crunch cyclist podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
(57:55):
Thanks for joining us on theTime Crunch Cyclist podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even moreactionable training advice, head
over to trainrightcom backslashnewsletter and subscribe to our
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Each week you'll get in-depthtraining content that goes
beyond what we cover here on thepodcast.
That'll help you take yourtraining to the next level.
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from the team at cts.
This is the time crunch cyclistpodcast, our show dedicated to
answering your trainingquestions and providing
actionable advice to help youimprove your performance, even
if you're strapped for time.
I'm your host, coach adam pol,and I'm one of the over 50
professional coaches who make upthe team at CTS.
In each episode, I draw on ourteam's collective knowledge,
(00:30):
other coaches and experts in thefield to provide you with the
practical ways to get the mostout of your training and
ultimately become the bestcyclist that you can be.
Now on to our show.
Welcome back, time Crunch fans.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford.
(00:52):
Today's topic is how to sprint,and I'll admit I'm not an expert
in this topic.
I can break it down, I canteach it, I can train it and
somewhat deploy it, but even oneof my own dear athletes once
commented on a video of minewhere I posted that I got second
place in a road race, and hiscomment was should have been in
(01:14):
your drops, coach.
Thank you, nathan Cusack.
Your voice is now in my headevery time that I sprint.
So one guy that doesn't messthis up on a regular basis and
who can break it down betterthan any other sprint coach that
I've met is local legend,multi-time Mabra champion,
father of two and husband of one, dj Brew.
(01:35):
Dj, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Thanks for having me back.
It's good to be on with you,coach.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
You're right on.
Well, it is definitely been aminute since you've been on the
podcast before, and if I hadbetter memory, slash less
concussions, I know I would knowwhat we were talking about, but
I'll blame it on COVID andeverything that else that
happened.
Um, but you know what?
Uh, since you've been on theshow last, you've had another
kid, you've changed jobs, youwant a few more championships,
(02:05):
and all with your annual volumeand ctl going up and down like a
roller coaster.
So tell us a little bit moreabout you, why that is who you
are, what team you ride for inthe dmv area yeah, so I I mean
obviously I race in the dc mVirginia area.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Um, so, yeah, I'm like you said, I'm average Joe
father too, like I have a nineyear old son and a two year old
daughter.
Um, you know, my wife, you know, works for government.
So you know you've gone throughthat stress of is she going to
have a job?
So fortunately things arelooking pretty steady.
But, um, you know, I still havethe same job, I'm a police
(02:45):
officer in the area.
But I finally came off workingshift work, which was like
evenings, working till 2 in themorning, and now I have a
steadier position on the job,working Monday through Friday,
mostly 6 to 2.
But then there is some timeswhere I have to change my
schedule.
So it really is just nowfitting, like now that my son's
(03:07):
older and doing his activities,playing soccer, which seems to
be what he's attached himself to.
So now it's balancing trainingwith, you know, a two-year-old
that's super active and, youknow, in daycare, so getting
sick on a regular schedule andthen getting everybody else in
(03:30):
the house sick on a regularschedule.
So, yeah, just balancing thatand trying to ride whenever I
get an opportunity.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So yeah, yeah, and that's it.
And folks listening.
One of the reasons I wanted tobring DJ on is not only is he an
expert sprinter, like he isgood at doing it, he's good at
communicating it, but he's likeyou, he's trying to get it all
done, he's a time crunchedathlete and he's very relatable,
you know, in that sense.
And so before we get goingtoday, I will say this the
(04:01):
original question came from oneof our audience members named
Skylar, and I got to apologizebecause when they wrote in like
over a year ago because Iremember talking to you about
this at Armed Forces, dj, and wehad a between you and Battle we
had all these ideas of howwe're going to actually do this
podcast.
But then I had like three bigtrips come up Summer was gone,
(04:22):
sprint season was gone, and nowwe've got like Masters Nats
coming up, mountain BikeNationals, junior Nationals and
all the other bike races goingaround the world.
So it is a timely podcast andtopic to do.
But I just wanted to say,skylar, sorry about that, but it
was a great topic and it's beenon my mind since.
So let's get into the originalquestion and then I'll start uh,
(04:45):
uh, riddling brew with a bunchof questions, so here here's the
original one Uh, what is thebest way to sprint?
Topics Primarily like shiftingtechnique, cadence, pedal form,
et cetera.
Additional topics lead outtechnique with and without a
team, online on Zwift and inreal world, and then training
around that.
So thanks, skylar.
Now this is a pretty big topic.
(05:06):
So today we'll focus on thebasics, technique form, and
we'll provide some ideas andworkouts on how to train it.
Okay, but we'll touch on.
We will touch on the lead out,because that is super important,
but we've got another podcastlined up for that with that
cheeky little fella, nathanCusick himself.
So lead outs will be coming.
But let's focus, let's go tothe basics here.
(05:27):
Dj, if someone comes to you andwants to learn how to sprint,
what is the basic technique andwhere would you start with them?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I'll start a lot of what I and you know a lot of
people have asked.
You know, hey, I'm afraid tosprint.
I haven't tried sprinting Like.
What's the first thing I needto try?
Hey, I'm afraid to sprint.
I haven't tried sprinting Like,what's the first thing I need
to try?
And I think it's the main thing.
I tell for one don't fight yourbody.
Like, because a lot of peopletry to fit themselves Like.
There's so many different typesof sprinters out there, even on
(05:58):
the USA crit circuit to theworld tour like, the sprinters
come in all shapes and sizes andthey all ride different ways.
So don't fight your body,trying to make yourself look
like exactly like somebody elsethat you see on tv.
But there are like a couplebasic things.
Obviously you want to be in thedrops because you want to be
(06:19):
the most aero as you come out ofthe saddle.
And when you do come out of thesaddle, even when you are in
the drops, a lot of people willstill of the saddle.
And when you do come out of thesaddle, even when you are in
the drops, a lot of people willstill like stand straight up as
if they're climbing.
But now they're just climbingin the drops, but no, you still,
you want to come out of thesaddle but remain aero at the
same time, and it's kind of itseems like they go against each
(06:40):
other but you can be aero andout of the saddle at the same
time.
So it's that being in the drops,and then it's just the action
of pushing down and pulling withthe opposite arm, like as you,
if you're pulling with yourright arm on the handlebar,
you're driving your left legdown, you're pulling with the
left driving your right leg down.
A lot of people sometimesthey'll just do it on the same
(07:02):
side, so you get this weird,like baby giraffe learning how
to walk.
Action, which is what peoplewill experience almost when,
when they, just when they havenever sprinted before and they
just try to start sprinting.
That's kind of like thesensation is like oh, I don't
know what, like off balance andyou know that.
So those are kind of like the.
The three basic things I wouldsay is like be in the drops, try
(07:25):
to stay arrow, even when you'reout of the saddle, and then the
opposite push, pull motion.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yep, yep, that's it entirely.
And and one thing that I teachis is how to stay arrow when
you're in the drops and on thesaddle is you keep your chest
low, so head's low, head, headis low, chest is low.
You're looking up to see whereyou're going, more or less, and,
(07:51):
uh, you go for it, right, andthat that action that DJ is
talking about, of pushing with,say, your right leg and kind of
pulling or guiding with yourleft arm and going back and
forth, if this is your bike, andfor those watching on YouTube
I'm, I'm or those listening, um,what I'm describing, what you
can see on YouTube, is my handand that's the bicycle, and the
bicycle should be rockingunderneath you, as say the
riders here.
The rider doesn't rock as much,but the bike rocks a lot.
(08:12):
Okay, and we'll, we'll give someother examples and some, um, uh
, some people to Google to watchon how they sprint, Uh, but
that's it.
I mean that rocking back andforth of the stat of the bike
should occur in some form orfashion.
Like DJ said, you know you cansprint in many different ways.
I think the best advice I cangive is there's no like perfect
(08:33):
look to it.
In fact, sometimes it's alittle chaotic, and that's fine.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I saw it Like I know I joke with a lot of my team
like watching one, you know,sprinted out.
I like to watch now JonathanMilan on light or trek.
Now watching those sprint, it'slike, it's like the way he
moves on a bike.
It's it's funny to watch.
But his motion is like the, thelack of motion and everything's
just going forward, likethere's you could tell like when
(09:00):
he sprints like there's nowasted energy, like no, no
wasted, no excessive rocking ofthe bike, like every.
It's like his bike is on railsand it's just going as fast
forward as possible yeah, yeah,exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
And you've got fast sprinters like that.
That's uh like super generativeof their forces, going directly
into the cranks and into thebike and propelling them forward
.
And then the name stillescapeslling them forward.
And then the name still escapesme, but we were talking about,
uh, the short guy on lotto wherehe opens up his sprint and the
tires are just all over theplace but it's still fast.
So again, it's like no perfect,um, like look to it, but we can
(09:41):
focus on the basics and get thetechnique good.
So a couple of other things onthat is when you're starting to
deploy the sprint to and youstart to go.
I generally don't, I don'tprescribe or tell somebody to do
a certain cadence, I'm justlike make it high, so you
shouldn't be grinding, youshouldn't be bogged down.
It should be a high cadence,but there's a feel to that.
(10:02):
So, dj to you, when you'remaybe teaching somebody to
sprint and they haven't done itbefore, what, like how do you
get them to pedal?
Well, what should they feel?
And how do you get that likegearing right?
Speaker 2 (10:17):
With the gearing is you want?
You want to be pushing againstsome resistance, but not
overcome by it.
So it has to be just enoughresistance where you can.
You're still acceleratingbecause you want to feel like
you're accelerating the wholetime, like I'm accelerating.
I'm accelerating until you'refinally on top of it.
Then it's just all cadence.
(10:37):
It's like now I just got to runthis cadence until I get to the
finish line because you, you'repast the point of actually
accelerating, so it's like youhave to.
This is where practice comes inis defining that gear where,
when you come out of the saddle,like all the resistance just
doesn't disappear.
And when you or you come out ofthe saddle and it's like now my
(10:59):
cadence just dropped 10 RPMsbecause I had, you know, the
gear was too big.
Like you know, you never, younever want your cadence really
to be slowing down as soon asyou start the sprint, like, if
anything, you want to beaccelerating.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yep, yep.
I remember we worked a campwith, uh, sam Boardman here in
DC and Justin Williams was thereand you and Williams were kind
of giving that same talk and oneof the things Justin said was
like finding that right gearwith the right speed at the
right moment.
There's a, there's a beautifultiming that goes on with that,
and that's an art form thattakes years in my opinion, but
(11:35):
essentially he said the samething as you and he said if
you're, you know, if you'reshifting a bunch in your sprint,
that's wrong.
If you're bogged down, that'swrong.
Go lighter gear, he's like ifanything, maybe you shift once,
like if, because you'reaccelerating, accelerating, and
(11:56):
if you're going that fast, maybethere's one shift, but that's
it.
So for those who are learninghow to sprint, if your shift,
you don't want to be shifting abunch.
So find that right gear, find agood jump, make it smooth, have
the timing.
It's all practice, right, butthe major thing is like you
shouldn't be shifting a lot.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah, yeah, I think I I don't think I've ever like,
if I've ever shifted in a sprint, it was.
I was in like panic mode, mylegs are about to lock up, and
it was like go to a heavier gear.
So I don't cramp, for the mostpart I don't think I've.
You know for them, if I'm, ifI'm coming off of a wheel, I'm
(12:30):
coming off in a gear where Iknow I can still accelerate that
that gear, and not like run out, run out on top of it.
So, yeah, I, I, yeah veryrarely do I ever try to sprint,
unless I'm going from a long wayand I know I have time to
actually shift.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Um, and I think, to cadence.
We've been talking a lot aboutcadence.
We'll talk about how to trainit and then, um, how to kind of
train your cadence early on soyou have the neuromuscular uh, I
would say infrastructure tohandle these high efforts like
DJ is talking about.
Because when you're sprintingDJ, I mean what are yourj's
talking about?
Because when you're sprintingdj, I mean what are your, what
are your rpms, when you're in afully deployed, full-on sprint?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
130, 135.
Yeah, like really quick cadenceyeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
so in training we oftentimes need to over cadence
I just call it over cadence tostimulate that neuromuscular
system.
Neuromuscular is just, uh, thebrain to the muscle and um, high
leg speed with lower resistanceto get that done.
So we might be doing cadencesone, 50, one 60, one 70 track
People are like that ain'tnothing, you know, they're up in
(13:40):
the 200.
Sometimes it's ridiculous.
Um, bmx people same.
So we don't need to go thathigh, uh, on the road side of
things.
But so we'll break that down alittle bit more.
But to keep it real simple, um,when we're practicing that good
technique and we're learningtiming, we're learning our gears
, we're learning coordination,because just that side to side
(14:01):
and I've seen riders, dj, likeyou said, that kind of look like
a giraffe, it's like they don'tget the opposite lean going on.
The best way to practice thisis outside.
Am I wrong in saying that?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, yeah, and you, yeah, I've, yeah, maybe can
count on one hand how many timesI've ever sprinted on a trainer
to realize like I hate it.
I hate it with a passion.
It drives me crazy and it never.
I just feel so restricted.
(14:33):
So I'm like you know what?
I'm saving this for when itwarms up or when it's nice to be
outside, so this is not doingme any favors.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, exactly, and so in that way, just in terms of
practicing, we'll talk aboutZwift and like virtual racing
here in a second.
But when it comes to practicingyour sprint, best to do it
outside, because you're going toform good habits out there.
I think you'll form bad habitspotentially if you're learning
inside, because, again, thatbike needs to rock back and
forth and you need to feel thatin real life and if you don't,
(15:06):
you're missing, you're likeyou're missing out.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, even the dynamic of going from sitting to
standing on a on a trainerslike even with the little rocker
trainers it's still not as realas like what your bike does
when you go from sitting tostanding on the road and it
drops.
It's not the same.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
And even somebody like DJ, who's really powerful
and can produce a lot of powerlike he, won't generate as much
power inside.
Because when you stand up anddeploy the sprint, you're using
not only some body weight butbiomechanics in order to produce
that power, leaning that bikeover and being able to really
crank on the cranks themselves.
You need that, okay.
(15:47):
But, dj, if you're going tosprint, if you're super into
Zwift or TP virtual or whatever,how would you advise somebody
on how to sprint inside ifthey're going for the win?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
If I was to have to sprint, I would probably lean
more into cadence than I would,as you know.
So much as like getting out ofthe saddle and like grinding it
over.
And it's funny because I'vewatched, you know just like,
footage of some Zwift racesprints and how some of the
races end and it's like dudesmostly in the saddle anyway,
(16:23):
even after they've tried tosprint out of the saddle, like
when you've gone from, becausethe sprints normally start from
a long way out on Zwift, theyalways end up back in the saddle
anyway.
So it's almost like why does itjust stay in the saddle really
and just use cadence?
To you, you know, to sprintbasically like I've, you know,
(16:47):
done over a thousand wattssitting, so you know, seated on
zwift before.
So I know it's doable for guysthat actually race on zwift and
know how to use the drafting andwhatnot.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
So it's possible, yeah, yeah yeah, and I wouldn't
consider either of us to be likea Zwift specialist here, but my
observation is typically thesprints inside are longer.
High cadence is the way.
If you're a feeble creaturelike myself, I need to jump out
of the saddle, even inside to goover a thousand Watts.
(17:17):
I can't do it seated like DJ,can, uh, but generally like
train.
The cadence uh typically gofrom a long way out.
In the lead outs, uh, virtually, are usually long as well.
So it's a good segue to talkabout cadence and some
neuromuscular drills.
Now, generally, when I'm say,building an athlete up or just
(17:38):
general early season stuff,January, February is where I'm
using a lot of high cadence andneuromuscular drills to kind of
pave the way for better sprints.
High cadence or fast pedaldrills are what I use to
prescribe that on training peaksand that's going to be anywhere
between one minute, two minute,three minutes, sometimes four
(17:58):
minute high cadence and Iusually start wherever the
athlete can kind of do and whatI say is do, uh, do a high
cadence up to the point whereyou're bouncing in the saddle
and then back down five RPMs.
Hold that for the duration ofthe interval.
Let the heart rate climb up,keep the power tempo or below.
So when I'm, when I'm doing highcadence work, I start there for
(18:19):
somebody like DJ, I give yousome fast pedal work here and
there, but you have such a goodneuromuscular system we're not
doing a ton of that in the offseason, even though I weave it
in sometimes for you, though Iknow you do some sprints outside
Is there or in some other stuff.
But is there anything that youdo personally or would advise
somebody that's talking aboutsprinter stuff to work on in
(18:43):
terms of the neuromusculardrills talking about sprinter
stuff, uh, to work on in termsof the neuromuscular drills.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah, it's almost.
I mean it's not fancy, but itis just the working, the
extremes of it.
You know so, doing likeextremely, like high cadence,
low force.
You know those kinds of drills,um, like a very easy gear and
just try to get a max cadenceout of it.
Like you know those kind ofthings, and for one especially,
you know during your base season, those kind of drills like
(19:14):
break up a ride, like instead ofmindlessly riding around, you
know, for our area and circlesaround Haines, you know for
hours, hours on end, why notbreak it up and and try things
like that.
You know, um, and then theopposite end of the spectrum,
putting it in a heavy startingin a heavy gear and muscling it
over until you're at your.
(19:35):
You know your regular,self-selected cadence, and then
you know calling it a day, likejust working those extreme
ranges.
And then I, I, I even like tohave fun.
You know, even on group rides,like if I go for a sprint on a
group ride, it's like, ah, letme see if I can do this in a
small ring, like pick a gear ina small ring, and I mean, it's
not overthinking it, but it'slike I'm gonna sprint in a small
(19:56):
ring, you know, just to seewhat this feels like, what you
know what my body's gonna do,like how it's actually gonna
feel.
Yeah, it's, yeah, it's.
It's kind of like you, youtreat sprinting like you're
you're, you're playing, youreally you're playing on the
bike and you kind of are seeingwhat your bike can do, what your
legs can do.
For one, like is seeing okay,can I, can I crank out a one 60
(20:18):
cadence?
Like, can I?
You know, it's kind of likepicking that number that you
think is unattainable and like,okay, let me see if I can do it,
you know did we do the oneminute challenge today?
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Did I do that with you and we can or like the one
minute cadence, like how, howhigh of a cause I know I did it
with.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
AJ, I feel like I've done that with you one time
before.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah, cause basically , the one minute challenge that
I have is I pick on a fewathletes and I think you smoked
me, by the way.
That's what I'm remembering,but again, this was a couple of
years ago.
Anyway, let's go one minute.
What's your highest averageRPMs that you can hold?
And you beat me.
I think you're the firstathlete to ever beat me.
Aj got in on it, a couple of myjuniors did.
I'm pretty good on cadence.
(21:01):
I'm not the greatest sprinterin the world, um, but so, so
that is.
One tip here is like, just goone minute, try to go as high of
cadence as you possibly canYou're.
It's crazy what your heart ratedoes, cause it does spin up
because your leg speed is sohigh, right, um, and and you,
just you do that, maybe once ona ride you know, maybe peppered
into on another later on theride, like that.
(21:23):
But again it's more like play.
I don't prescribe this, I'mjust like beat this right.
And another one that I do is isand you touched on it was max
cadence, and this is what I dowith this with my juniors quite
a bit and I used to do this onlike talent id mountain bike
camps with usac is we just likego downhill, get some really
high speed in our biggest gear.
(21:44):
Get and get the legs spinning inthe biggest gear and then shift
down like two or three and justhave your legs like super, like
spin out of control and seewhat your max cadence is, and
that's a really good way todevelop absolute cadence yeah
yeah yeah, and those, to me,those kind of things are just
fun to do, because I feel likeyou always end up discovering
(22:09):
something.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
You might find a hack or some way, like how you work
biomechanically, like, okay, ifI do this, I'll always have a
higher cadence.
This is kind of how I have tocenter my weight over my bike in
order to really fully activateall the muscles.
And you know, because thehaving the cadence is all about,
(22:32):
you know you have to.
You're firing and relaxing allthose muscles at the same time.
So it's like, okay, where doesmy weight have to be, you know,
on the bike, or am I centeredover the bottom bracket and am'm
a little forward over thebottom bracket?
Do my levers work behind the?
You know?
Speaker 1 (22:47):
so it's kind of you get to play around and find out
to see where you, where you havethe most leverage on on the
bike exactly and when you dolike these little games and you
and you just play like that,it's I would say it's a simple
way to train all that otherimportant stuff that you're.
Just because your, your, yourbrain becomes more aware of it
(23:07):
and in the way of like, oh, mycore engages when I do this.
However, I don't tell anybodynow, engage your core.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
It's like if you, if you, ifyou just go high cadence and, if
you like, have fun doing it,the body will figure it out.
So I would say for listeners,don't get too bogged down in the
details, because learning howto sprint is actually just like
(23:28):
doing it Right.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
And this is why I what I was thinking.
You know, of course we had somesprints peppered in the ride
today, and it's one thing that Ireally what's hard for me is,
um, so for me sprinting comesnaturally, but when it's like in
my workout, then I start tooverthink, like, ok, this is
(23:49):
like I got to do this for coach,like you know.
So then I start, ok, rememberto pull on the bars.
Like no, I already know how todo all that, just sprint, just
go out and do it.
So it was always, you know.
Now it's much harder.
I feel like, you know, a fewyears ago, when I could come to
the noon ride and you know wewere always sprinting there.
(24:11):
So that was my sprint trainingand it was like you didn't
really have to think, you justdid it.
So now that I'm forced to likeI don't have that opportunity
every day, don't have thatopportunity every day.
So it's like now, when Iactually have to sprint, I'm
forced to like, okay, this issprint time, like you know.
Now it's like, just do it, butit's so like shutting my brain
(24:33):
off and and just doing it is thehardest thing, and it always
feels like, okay, I'm workingagainst, like my own self.
But yeah, it's like one ofthose things like you, you just
gotta do it.
You know, even if you have topull in a buddy, it's like, hey,
we're just you go to pick aspot and you know we'll sprint
to it, or you know we'll startfrom here and we'll go for 10
(24:55):
seconds or 15 seconds or 20seconds, you know yeah, that's
it, and I think too I mean,that's one observation I made
like just with your yourtraining is I.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
I need to prescribe in sprints more often, because
we ain't doing it at Hanes asmuch.
So, naturally we're not.
We're not getting it in andthat's for audience members.
It's basically a group ride,right?
That's what we're talking aboutwhen we're like deploying that
sprint and it's a unique one,but we're also supposed to not
talk about it.
Not talk about it.
But my but my point is sprintoften right In the group rides.
(25:27):
You're talking about group rides.
That's a good segue for itbecause, uh, sit in wait for the
sprint or attack hard, go for asprint.
Group rides are a great way toincorporate sprinting into it.
Don't overthink it, go with it.
That it's a huge component toit.
Now there's dedicated workouts,like I gave DJ today, and there
were flying sprints.
I think there are 20 secondefforts.
Well, I'll talk about that onehere quickly.
(25:49):
But like that's another good wayto incorporate sprints in is
just have a dedicated sprint day.
Solo is different than you know, going with a buddy or in a
group, but just know, like,intentionally, if you don't have
a group ride on a regular basis, you need to intentionally
build it in.
And then, finally, anotherpoint on like how to sprint
often is adding in the sprintson an already hard day.
(26:13):
So if DJ is doing likethreshold work or something like
that.
I'll say dedicated sprint day,because we're just like not
enough time in the schedule.
But if the day is already hard,do some sprints, because you've
already switched the anaerobicuh levers on right Might as well
(26:36):
, sprint and get her done.
And then I generally do it atthe end of a ride like that, so
it doesn't get in the way of thethreshold, um but uh.
And you can also do someopeners early on, just to like
open the legs up and you canpractice your sprint technique
and things like that.
Um.
And one thing that I'veactually leaned in, leaned into
a little bit more, but DJ, hehas this thing that well, I'll
(26:59):
have you describe it, but it'syour, your thousand watt rule
that you used to do a lot more.
Yeah, tell us tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I'll give you my criticisms, but I'm also I'll
lean into it, because there'ssome benefits there yeah, I
never, never wanted to end aride like without hitting over a
thousand watts at least once,like I'll, I like I'll have a
screen on my computer that I canclick to and be like, okay,
this is the max.
I was like now, honestly, and Ipushed it up, if I haven't done
(27:32):
over 1,400, either I'm wreckedalready and I'm like there's no
way I can do that withoutcramping anyway.
So I'm just going to leave italone.
But I've probably gone over athousand.
But if I'm still feeling goodand you've, you've like warned
me about this before becausethere's a little section of road
I have right outside myneighborhood, that is, it's
(27:57):
perfect for sprinting on becausethe pavement is fresh and
there's like the perfectmarkings that are like a stop
line and a, you know, a go lineand a stop line.
So I'm like, if I can hit over14 before I turn it to my
neighborhood, I'm going after it.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
So I've had conversations with DJ about this
Cause and I challenged him.
I was like, why the hell areyou doing this?
What is it like in your headthat says like cause, every
every day, you just like end hisendurance ride with a sprint?
And it didn't like for audiencemembers.
And there's even a question atsome point that somebody wrote
in is like basically, how manysprints can I do before I ruin
(28:37):
an endurance ride?
I thought it was an awesomequestion, but in my my answer to
it was you're thinking aboutendurance wrong and you're
thinking about sprinting wrong.
You need to separate them.
So keep your endurance.
Endurance.
Keep your sprints.
Sprints Right, but in that way.
So like one time sprints, notgoing to really ruin an
endurance ride.
Okay, but what I was telling DJis like what's the goal here?
(28:58):
Right, because we can make thesprint better.
We, we can make the sprintbetter.
We can make the sprint a daybetter.
We can make the anaerobiccapacity better if we separate
it.
And then keep your easy dayseasy.
Hard hard days hard.
Now that's my general advicefor everybody.
But then we also have like raceseason where we need that snap
and we need to keep the feel ofa good sprint in there, of which
(29:19):
kind of like free reign to.
Okay, if you're feeling goodand snapping, you have that
right moment.
I can kind of observe dj's moodon the day, like if he sprints
I know he's feeling good, right,because now intellectually he
knows when not to do it and whento do it, but it kind of like
now I lean into it and the moresprints he does because he ain't
doing as many group rides, it'sit.
(29:39):
I get that like neuromuscularthing.
And, by the way, when you'redoing like 10 second sprints
versus 20 seconds, it's verydifferent.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
The 10 second ain't gonna hurt you as much, right
yeah, and as these are, by thetime I'm sprinting at the end of
a ride, it's, yeah, 10, 12seconds max really, and it's
only because that it's it'sreally dictated by the stretch
of road.
Like, even when I'm on my wayinto work in the morning,
there's like this, this perfectlittle, it's kind of like maybe
(30:05):
like 2% grade, but it's justlike just long enough to like
you get to the top 10, 11seconds and then I'm just
coasting in the rest of the wayto work.
So yeah, yep.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Yep.
So let's, let's talk, causewe're kind of talking about and
I use the term sprinter stuffCause, uh, it was I had a
conversation with DJ at somepoint and he's like, yeah, I was
just talking about sprinterstuff and I was like, okay, I'm,
I'm the coach, I'm definitelynot a sprinter stuff.
That I probably don'tunderstand.
Um, but in the way so we talked, we've been talking a lot about
(30:39):
some abstract stuff.
So good, technique on sprinting, just go sprinting, don't
overthink it.
But a lot of people on thispodcast like workouts, they like
structure.
So let's bring some structureto this and let's just say, in a
sprint workout or some of thesprint workouts I prescribe,
there's hill sprints, there'sflying sprints, there's standing
starts, and let's talk aboutthose a little bit.
(31:01):
And then let's let's first talkabout like 10 second versus 20
second versus 30 second sprints.
For you, when would you use a10 second sprint versus a 20
second?
Speaker 2 (31:13):
So for me a 10 second is like good.
I feel like 10, 10 secondsprints are good for practicing,
like that initial jump andacceleration in my sprint.
So like if I feel like that'swhat I'm lacking, like I'll
throw in several of those inlike my rides, just like I just
(31:35):
gotta, you know, kind of get thesnap back in my legs, like I,
you know, and I feel like for me, maybe not being I think that's
where I guess my skill lies notnecessarily that I'm like
pushing like massive power andlike super big watts, but I
(31:55):
think having that quickacceleration and creating a gap
that makes it harder for peopleto have to close the gap and
then still accelerate past me.
So like that quick snap is whatI really like to have just
always in my back pocket, likeit's kind of to me it feels like
a get out of jail free card,because it's like if I'm not
(32:17):
feeling good, like I can kind ofsave my sprint to the last
second and then, you know,create a gap and it'd be hard
for somebody to come around mein the amount of time like
depending on how much time Ileave left to the finish line.
So it's one of those thingslike I keep in my back pocket.
But that 20 second, the 20second sprint is like a legit
(32:38):
like race, race winning, endingsprint, because it kind of the
20 second feels like the sprintactually started already and now
you still have to sprint, likeyou're basically hold, like is
after the initial acceleration.
Now it's building on how longyou can stay at top speed before
(33:01):
things just quickly startfading to the line.
So keeping that and then likethe 30 second is almost like
what we like from the 1k out,like when you have to sprint,
then you have to sit down to getback in the wheel, then you
have to sprint again to actuallywin the race.
So it's like those, those threedifferent things that you're
(33:22):
practicing in those threedifferent with those three
different time frames.
That's a perfect descriptionthree different with those three
different timeframes.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
That's a perfect description of all of them and
I'll add to that and say, likethe, the stress to the body
changes on those durations aswell.
And I would say, withoutgetting too deep in the weeds,
one thing that I said was youknow the 10 seconds, they ain't
going to hurt you all that muchgenerally, because if you do
three or four of them and you'rejust working on the jumps and
(33:48):
let's just, let's just call themjumps, uh, for now you can do
four by 10 second jumps withfull recovery in between, full
recoveries, I don't know eightto 10 minutes easy endurance,
spinning, and you just work thatinto a 60 to 90 minute ride.
Okay, and you're working onthat, that, that anaerobic pop,
the snap, the ability toaccelerate quickly, because it's
(34:13):
a neuromuscular sort of stress,you're not changing muscle
physiology all that much, you'renot, you're not inducing
acidosis, you're not causing aton of like lactate spike and
because it's full recovery inbetween, it's not causing a ton
of fatigue.
So I again allow you know,athletes, when they want to work
on that snap, yeah, go aheadand do three, four, whatever
feels good, cause it's not goingto, it's not going to add too
much fatigue residually to thesystem, okay.
(34:35):
But then when I start doing 20seconds now, it starts to add
more fatigue.
Okay, so maybe five, you knowfive or six, 20 second full tilt
sprints, that will change thefatigue system, right, and so
everything that DJ describedthere and then 30 seconds,
(35:01):
that's super deep and that'swhen you're working on, like I
mean, anything from mentaltoughness to sprinting
durability, to, I'd say, fromthe physiological side of things
, that's anaerobic capacity.
30 to 60 seconds is thatcapacity to do as much work over
ftp as possible, to do as muchpower as possible.
Um, and it's different thanlike the winning move, it's like
being able to last.
If the winning move plan didn'twork out, then you gotta keep
(35:24):
going.
Yeah, yeah, um, and so you know, five or six uh by 20 seconds,
full tilt, flying sprints, um,amidst the 90 minute ride.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
That's a pretty good workout there, uh, and I I say
flying sprints when we're doinguh sprints like at, uh, at speed
, so starting at 18, 20, 22miles an hour, something like
that and I mean that that'swhere a lot of a lot of the
difference, like you said it, itcomes in because even with the
quick ones you still you reallyaren't in a gear that's going to
(35:56):
do much damage either, like you, because you want to have that
quick acceleration.
You're not going to put it in aheavy gear because 10 seconds
will be over about it but beforeyou can actually get that gear
up to speed.
So you want to pick a gearthat's light enough you to
actually accelerate it and thenby the time you've popped out
the effort's over at that point,like you're not then shifting
(36:19):
for another 10 seconds, so youknow you're the effort's over,
so those can get peppered in andyou recover pretty quick from
those.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
I know, at least I know I feel like I personally
recover really quick from youknow those 10 seconds, friends
yeah, and it's interesting too,because even though dj is doing
a lot more power, one could say,well, he's, he's causing more
fatigue.
Well, it's like he's got morefast twitch, so he can do that
and he can recover from it.
It's all good.
Somebody who's more feeble, whois not producing as many as
(36:48):
much power, um, you're all, it'sthe same kind of thing.
It's like I'm not producing somuch power, so it's not going to
cause so much fatigue, and soyou just, I mean it's it's a
nuanced thing, um, but what Igenerally find is the 10 seconds
don't cause as much, and some,and then, when you're even
aiming for 10 seconds, it'srarely 10 seconds, sometimes
it's like seven, eight.
(37:09):
You know it's usually a littleon Um.
So finally, I'll just saythere's there's one more workout
that I like to put in there,especially for my um either crit
racers or mountain bikers,cycle cross racers, and that's
standing starts.
So two ways of doing it.
But okay, zero, you're startingat zero speed, no speed.
(37:30):
And two ways of doing it.
You can either start, uh, withone foot clipped in and one foot
clipped out, or you can do atrack stand and then go from
there.
These are like high torqueefforts and generally I'm going
to be doing like a 10, maybe 15second effort and there's like
riffs and nuance that I'll do onthat.
But we're really working on uh,the start power and generating a
(37:52):
really high power with hightorque, meaning like you have a
lot more uh forced to overcometo produce that power.
And it's a very specific way ofdoing it for, like, how crit
start, how mountain bike racesstart, how cycle cross races
start, um, and it's a veryspecific way of doing it for,
like, how crits start, howmountain bike races start, how
cyclocross races start.
And it's also really fun to doif you got someone next to you
and you try to like race eachother off the line, something
like that.
Yeah, dj, anything on standingstarts or anything that you want
(38:17):
to relate to that, especiallyin the way of like practicing
clipping in and clipping out.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Yeah, practicing clipping in and clipping out.
Yeah, I mean I do.
Though if I do those reallylike in my commute, if I'm at a
stoplight and I'm likeespecially like if I have a car
in front of me, I'm like, let mecatch this draft.
So it's like just, it's kind oflike a fun way to see if you
can match the acceleration of acar in front of you at a
(38:42):
stoplight Like there.
Yeah, acceleration of a car infront of you at a stoplight like
there, yeah, there's theretimes I purposely won't pass a
car because I want to do likethat kind of effort, as you know
, when the light turns green.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
so it's like, all right, well, let me see if I can
keep up with the the cartraffic before getting popped
you know, yeah, yeah, and what Itry to do myself and my with my
athletes, keep in mind, like,don't be afraid to play, and I
think that we don't play enoughbut anytime that there is a
stoplight or stop sign to unclipand then practice without
looking, clipping back in andpedaling like that's a skill man
(39:16):
.
Like that's a really good skillto have.
Meanwhile you can practice yourtrack, stands at the stoplight
and stop sign and then smokeyour friends right off the line.
It's always good.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
I don't know, I suck at track stand so I'm probably
always going to be clipped outanyway.
So and that's kind of, like youknow, for my wife, like when
she rides, it's kind of one ofthose things, because she
doesn't ride as often as that'swhat I tell her.
I was, like all you know,practice clipping in and out,
clip out every time we come to alight.
Don't slow down and like waitfor the light to change, like no
(39:47):
, go all the way up.
Clip out and clip in withoutlooking down and get used to
finding where that pedal is andbeing able to get in.
Because if you do come back toracing like that's a big part of
it is not screwing up your clipin when the ref says go.
So exactly.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Yeah, that's, that's it.
Yeah, so in in hill sprints uh,mentioned that, you mentioned
that a little bit.
But, um, when I'm doing hillsprints, it's usually like a um
kind of like on bach road, right, uh, where you got speed coming
off the hill and then yousprint going into the hill.
And the reason why those are sogood is it's working on just
like raw power production forany athlete sprinter, climber,
(40:28):
time trialer, whatever they'regoing to produce their best
power on a hill, because thehill increases the gravity
that's pulling down on you,right, and it changes the
physics.
And so, even for like sprints,if you get the timing right.
And so even for like sprints,if you get the timing right and
this helps practicing yourtiming of deploying the sprint
(40:48):
too as soon as that hill startsto kick up and you feel just
like the tension change a littlebit, drill it down on the drops
out of the saddle, keep chestlow and hit it, and I generally
see people producing some oftheir best power when properly
timed on a hill sprint like that.
So when you just want to likeoverload the legs with the power
production on the bike, that'sa great way of doing it.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
And I was, I like doing those also.
It makes it almost feels likeyou know.
Like I say, you don't forceyour body into a position that
it doesn't want to be in, butjust following, you know, the
basic principles.
Basic principles of you know,keeping your chest low, staying
aero, like sprinting up a hill.
It almost feels like it, or itforces you to be in that
(41:31):
position because you know,naturally when you're going up a
hill, you want to be on thehoods and you know actually
going up the hill like a climber.
But when you're forced to like,okay, I'm sprinting now, it's
like all right.
It kind like it puts you in themindset of, like I keep the
chest low.
So when going off of a hill andthen reapplying it back on up
(41:52):
to a flat, it feels much easier.
So it's like, okay, because Iwas forced to do it on a hill.
Like when I come to a flat andI have to sprint, like it just
happens naturally, Like the wayyou hold your body and it all
happens naturally.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
It's a good kind of summation of that and and I'd
say for all audience memberslistening, when you're, when
you're just refining your sprint, using those hill sprints,
flying sprints, standing starts,those are all good ways of
doing it and maybe you juststart with like three efforts on
a ride and then you build up tofour or five and maybe up to
six.
I think that's the most youreally need to.
(42:27):
After that it's more liketraining, training where stuff,
like in fatigue, starts tochange a little bit more.
So I think, just like, keep itsimple, keep it between three
and six efforts total.
Make it on a dedicated sprintday, pepper them in after
interval interval days.
Keep the hard days hard, easydays easy.
But those are like bread andbutter core sprint sessions and
(42:50):
workouts that you, that you cando pretty much all year round
yeah, and you know I've tried,if I'm outside I'm, there's
something small that's sprintrelated, that even you know.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
For if it's just cadence, like something small,
and it's not even that I'm, I'mlike in a full-on.
You know high cadence, sprint,but it's like riding above my
normally selected cadence, likejust always kind of working on,
like making a higher cadencefeel easier and more natural,
like the higher you can pushthat number when it actually
(43:22):
comes time to sprint, the morenaturally that higher number
will happen.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Yep, yep, yeah, and it did a whole well, a couple of
podcasts on that.
If anybody searches timecrunched athlete in pedaling or
time crunched athlete in cadence, you'll find it, and we talk
all about why high cadence isthe way.
So try to bring this thing homehere, dj, because you know we
are time crunched.
I want to talk about developingstrength off the bike, and then
(43:50):
I also want to just touch onlead outs and kind of give a
little sneak preview of what isto come, maybe on the lead out
podcast.
But when it comes to developingstrength off the bike, what
we're doing, we're talking aboutstrength training.
We're talking about stuff thatis not, you know, pedaling.
So this is a whole topic.
I've done several podcasts onstrength training.
But questions to you are whatare some key exercises that
(44:14):
listeners should definitely bedoing in the gym if they want to
improve their sprint?
Speaker 2 (44:19):
For me it's always.
I mean, squat, deadlift, singleleg squat and lunge are pretty
much my bread and butterthroughout the winter, even
during the season.
I, I personally, love doingthem.
So you, you never getcomplaints about me from having
(44:42):
oh man, I got to do anotherworkout in the gym today, like
no, no, yeah, that's the onecomplaint I'll never make.
So, yeah, if anything, it's nothard to get me out of the gym.
And then it's like all right,we got a ride now and and lift
less.
So yeah, but it's true those arereally my, my go-to, like
(45:04):
bulgarian split squats for like,getting that single leg work,
and lunges for getting that,either you know just regular
forward lunges or reverse lungesfor more single leg work.
And then you know squats, ifyou can handle it like I've been
squatting for years now.
So I, you know there's not.
I don't really I'm not veryinjury prone when it comes to
(45:27):
that, so I can do them safely.
So I like a high bar back squatall day, you know.
But I mean, if deadlift, trapbar deadlift is essentially a
squat where the weight starts atthe ground instead of on your
back, so yeah, that's definitelya definitely a safe, safer way
to do it If you don't want to dohigh bar back squat.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Yep Completely agree.
And all the exercises that hementioned keep in mind, most of
them loaded the full body, theyloaded the spine right, so that
high bar or or the deadlift, um,and the reason why that's good
is it's stressing all of thesystems right the, the quads,
the hamstrings, the glutes, the,the full body, and there's a
lot of other benefits that go onwith uh loading the spine in
(46:10):
that way.
Additionally, um, what we'retrying to do is, uh, overload
those muscles, tear them down sothey come back stronger.
So, those components that hedescribed, um, that's why you're
doing them in the in the longrun, what you're trying to do is
produce, uh, more strength,sometimes more mass, but also,
but definitely, more forceproductions so that when you
(46:30):
pedal, there's more power, uh,on the pedals themselves.
But one thing that I alwayslike to mention when it says,
well, what's the best way todevelop a sprint in strength
training backs everything thatDJ said, yes, but plyometrics
and jumping is even better If,if not like the way once you
(46:51):
develop strength and and even Iwould even say even not, and
it's not even so much that younecessarily have to like, we
don't hide box jumps or anythinglike that.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
Like, honestly, I I felt I've done some of my best
sprints, like when most of myplyometrics came from jump rope,
like I know it's aerobic, butjust you know that you know
pulling, you bring in the calves, and like strengthening the
Achilles, and like being on yourtoes, like just that bouncing
motion, like jumping rope for 10minutes.
You know either before for 10minutes, you know either before
(47:26):
actually lifting or you knowafter I've finished lifting,
like man, like, and just theamount of success I've had
thrown adding a jump rope intomy workouts was incredible.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, and I was going to share a
screen, but I'll keep it simple.
I'll just say check the shownotes, because here's my point
Is, when somebody sprints on abike versus jumps on a force
plate, when they just jump,meaning you squat down and you
jump up, you're going to produceabout three to five times more
(48:03):
power jumping against gravityand lifting your body off the
earth than you are in your bestsprint.
And people are just likemesmerized by this.
But like there's multiplestudies out there and I've got
one here in front of me and I'll, and again I'll link it in the
show notes but like we, you haveto realize when you're trying
to sprint or produce really goodpower, that when you do that
(48:27):
off the bike, you're overloadingthe body so much more than
deploying some best sprint.
So the best way to get good atsprinting is sprinting on your
bike because there's like somuch coordination, form and
technique that goes on in that.
But when you're trying todevelop force and strength off
the bike, you need to load thebody properly with weight, do
all the things there, but thenjumping is going to overload
(48:49):
that force production so muchway more than you need to.
And jumping rope.
We didn't collaborate on whatto talk about really here.
Jumping rope is where to startand probably the easiest way to
do it, because what I don't wantpeople to hear is like oh,
coach, ap said plyometrics.
I've never done plyometricsbefore, so I go do box jumps and
then you injure yourself.
So jump, jumping rope has theselittle oscillations, right?
(49:12):
so it's it's training theachilles tendon, your calves and
the whole lower body in a kindof a mini way.
Do like 20, 30 seconds at a pop, take 90 seconds rest, then do
it again and you're going totrain your body's ability to
handle more jumping down theroad.
And if you don't have a fancygym, if you don't have all the
equipment, jumping rope is agreat place to start on that.
(49:33):
And just know too, if you don'thave the fancy gym and you want
to, you know, increase yourforce production squat jumps,
counter movement jumps, boxjumps that's a great way to do
it.
So I will get off my high horseand off my jumping box, but
just know that and check it out,because check out the research
that I posted, because peopleoftentimes ask me that they're
(49:55):
like five times more than mysprint.
No way, and it's like, yeah,they've done a lot of studies on
it.
All right, two, two last thingshere.
Dj, lead outs.
I want to scratch the surfaceof it.
How important is a good leadout to win a bike race and have
a good sprint?
Speaker 2 (50:15):
You know it's make everything easier.
Put it that way, like Iwouldn't and I've, you know,
come from a team to that had oneof the best lead outs, so, and
I've come onto a team that gaveme one of the best lead outs, so
it's that's something it makesthings so much easier and a lot
(50:39):
less stressful.
At the end of it, you stillhave to sprint, but it's putting
yourself in a position whereyou only have to do one sprint,
as opposed to doing three orfour sprints that lead into the
actual sprint.
You know it's so.
It's kind of where it pulls itup.
(51:00):
You almost you train harder thanyou race.
So you do all this traininglike as if you don't have a lead
up.
That's how you want to trainyour sprint, like it's just me
and against everyone else.
And then, when you come to therace, it's like, okay're going
to make it so that I only haveto sprint one time in this race.
(51:21):
And that's really what it boilsdown to.
A lead out is designed to keepthe speed high and they let you
go from the highest speedpossible, because at that you
have the least amount of actualforce and wind resistance to
overcome.
And now it's just you only haveto sprint one time and it kind
(51:41):
of keeps you out of the vacuumof riders shuffling back and
forth and having a fight for awill.
So yeah, it kind of just makesyou focus on one thing in a
sprint and not a million thingsat once.
Speaker 1 (51:55):
Yeah, yeah and shout out to the bike doctor crew.
I've been behind you on acouple of races already this
year and it's the way they leadout is a beautiful thing.
So you guys got it dialed onthat one.
If we do a whole podcast on alead out there, there's a lot
more like nuance and like basicsto start from.
So if people want more on thelead out, write in and ask, drop
(52:17):
it in our comments section.
Let us know, because I've gotthe right person for it.
So let me know if you guys wantto hear more about a lead out.
Two last things it's beenrumored that you are a big fan
of Folgers coffee.
Is that true?
Okay, all right, we got thet-shirt to prove it 100% true,
(52:42):
100% true, they are the showsponsor.
Speaker 2 (52:44):
My personal sponsor yes.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
And that's so counter cultural to the pretentious
bike snobs that love theirespressos and stuff.
So why did you choose Folgers?
What's?
Speaker 2 (52:55):
it was just like the secrets sprint brew.
Caffeine is caffeine, so that'skind of I I do.
I will say I love coffee and Iwill drink fancy coffee when
it's available, but for everyday I want the least amount of
(53:18):
work to have my coffee aspossible.
So if I could just scoop it outof the plastic container into a
percolator and press the brewbutton, um, and I'll have, like
you know, 10 cups of coffee andI'm good to go.
So all right.
Speaker 1 (53:32):
Well, we, we differ in that realm, but, uh, I will
agree with you caffeine iscaffeine and, uh, that speaks to
how DJ does.
Keep it simple, folks.
Um, if you need caffeine, justhit it, it doesn't matter where
it's coming from, um.
But the last little thing hereis a shameless plug.
Uh, dj brew has something incommon with Christopher Blevins,
who has been on this podcastbefore, but, uh, they both make
(53:54):
music, very different music,very different music, in a sense
, but in DJ's spare time.
I don't even know how the sparetime comes, and when he does it
, it's usually cause he's notsleeping, and then I yell at him
for that.
But, dj, tell us about a littlebit, about your music and maybe
where we can find it.
Speaker 2 (54:09):
Oh, yeah, that's.
That's my other other passionthat I really picked up over
COVID, actually, when we weren'tdoing you know six hour days
then, but your highest fitnesswas during covet, by the way.
Yeah yeah, exactly.
But no, I, yeah, definitely,passion I'm I'm a big house head
, so you know I like house music, I produce house music, I dj
(54:34):
house music, so I'm all about it.
You can find me everywhere djbrew, on soundcloud, on mixcloud
, on youtube.
Speaker 1 (54:43):
So, yeah, dj brew house on youtube apple music,
yep yep yeah, I've got some ofthe music.
It is good, it's chill uh so ifanybody's looking for some new
music out there, definitely gofind it.
Um, but you know, you know,overall, today, I think what I
want our audience to uh comeaway with is like sprint
training can be reallycomplicated because when you do
(55:06):
it and if you haven't done itfor the first time you
definitely feel like a noob.
You're like, you feel likeyou're all over the place and
like, oh my God, I feel likeBambi, but like that's everybody
, and the more you practice it,the better you'll get at it.
Keep it super simple.
Sprint often sprint in thegroup ride.
If you have somebody like DJ inyour area that's like known to
(55:27):
be like the sprinter, ask him,because somebody like DJ, he
helps a lot of people in thatway and he ain't like you're not
going to hold back because whatwas your philosophy on that DJ?
If you make uh, what was yourphilosophy?
Speaker 2 (55:39):
on that, dj.
If you make somebody faster,what happens?
You get faster too.
It's like it's.
It's like the learning circleof learning.
Like you, you end up teachingsomething about something that
you might've forgot yourself oryou know.
The student becomes a teacher,and it's just cyclical.
Speaker 1 (55:53):
Exactly so.
If you're a good, uh sprinter,uh, teach others.
If you're not a good sprinter,seek somebody out that can help
with that.
And then those workouts that wetalked about, it's like try to
get away from like pure intervalway of thinking.
Play more, play around withyour cadence, play around with
it, just like spiking the powerup and seeing how high you can
get it.
See if it's any different onhill climb versus a flying
(56:15):
effort, versus a standing start,and see how you sprint your
best.
And I think when you keep itsimple like that, you have fun.
You you won't go wrong, that'sfor darn sure.
So any any final words there?
Dj?
Speaker 2 (56:27):
No, like I you know I was basically what you just
said Like it's.
It's many different ways toskin a cat.
So figure out how you know whatworks best for you.
Don't force, like you see otherpeople sprint, that doesn't
mean that's exactly how you'regoing to look when you do it.
So definitely don't do it fromlike an outside perspective,
(56:55):
Like sprint.
You know work on the mechanics,the basics, and then you know
your body will do what it does.
You know, and even for me I feelgoofy after a long winter of
you know we have a winner, areal winner here, where I'm just
on zwift, like when I get inthose first one.
I mean our friend jason, thefirst sprint that he saw me do
on one of our group rides.
He was like well, I could tellyou haven't been outside.
I'm like you are absolutely notand I agree with it.
(57:16):
100 was like I felt so goofydoing that sprint, Like that
first one.
It's like, yeah, but you kindof got to get that first one in,
like, and then they just allget better from there, you get
more comfortable from there.
So just start doing it.
That's, that's really what Ican say.
Speaker 1 (57:34):
Yep, solid advice, solid advice.
So I'll leave it there, dj,thank you so much for taking
time out of your time crunch dayto be with us, and I think I
think the audience will learn abunch from you today.
I hope so, thanks for having me.
Thanks, man.
Yeah, thank you.
Thanks for joining us on thetime crunch cyclist podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
(57:55):
Thanks for joining us on theTime Crunch Cyclist podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even moreactionable training advice, head
over to trainrightcom backslashnewsletter and subscribe to our
free weekly publication.
Each week you'll get in-depthtraining content that goes
beyond what we cover here on thepodcast.
That'll help you take yourtraining to the next level.
That's all for now.
Until next time, train hard,train smart, train right.
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