December 25, 2024 • 34 mins
Overview: Coach Renee Eastman joins Adam Pulford to provide wisdom, guidance, and actionable tips for thriving through the week between Christmas and New Year's. For some, it's an opportunity for a big training block (e.g., Rapha's Festive 500). Others struggle to train at all because of family trips. And still others get anxious about indulging in holiday meals. Renee and Adam have common-sense tips for all these scenarios and more.
Topics Covered In This Episode:
- Strategies for Time-Crunched vs. Time-Rich Athletes
- Will taking two weeks off hurt your fitness?
- Alternative exercises that count for training
- Healthy perspectives on Holiday eating
- Are week-long fitness challenges a good idea?
- How to execute a week-long challenge if you choose
Guest:
Renee Eastman is a CTS Premier Level Coach and has been coaching with the company for more than 20 years. She has been a professional bike fitter for 15 years and was one of the first fitters to use the Retül bike fit system. She has a master's degree in exercise science, has worked for USA Cycling, and is a 6-time Masters National Champion.
Show Links:
- Renee Eastman bio: https://trainright.com/coaches/renee-eastman/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/renee.eastman/?hl=en
- Detraining Effects Prevention: A New Rising Challenge for Athletes - PMC
- (PDF) The Effects of Detraining on Cardiovascular Parameters in Distance Runners
- Vacations: Remarkably Valuable for Athlete Fitness and Life-Balance
- The Rapha Festive 500
- Detraining Episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-time-crunched-cyclist-podcast-by-cts/id1494799053?i=1000583323375
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Host
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for more than 14 years 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 AdamPulford, and I'm one of the over
50 professional coaches whomake up the 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.
Now onto our show.
(00:51):
Happy holidays, time Crunchfans.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford.
The holidays can be a trickytime of year for endurance
athletes because we try to keepregular training patterns, but
we have all the other issueslike schedule changes, habit
changes and lifestyles thatstart to just get all over the
place.
We move away from a somewhatnormal, predictable schedule of
(01:12):
work, training and familyactivities.
We go to lots of social time,holiday parties and maybe a
little extra travel, with allthe stresses that go along with
it.
I'd say that this is probablythe majority of the athletes
listening to this podcast andpeople that I know personally.
However, another trend, thoughless common, that I see and hear
(01:34):
are some athletes that just doless of all that holiday themed
stuff.
They stick closer to home andperhaps they have more time to
do what they want to do aroundthis time of year.
So if you're extra timecrunched or extra time rich
leading into the new year, I'vegot a few training tips that
will help bring some perspectiveto all of this and set you up
(01:57):
for an awesome 2025 for fitness,performance, health, fun, all
that kind of stuff.
So with me to discuss this andmore is CTS coach Renee Eastman.
Renee, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Thanks, adam, thanks for having me Happy holidays.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Happy holidays.
And you know, my first thing isI have some regrets because my
Charlie Brown Christmas tree isdownstairs and I should have put
it behind me.
You know you are winning theday here, Renee, so thank you
for being festive, Although I dohave a Christmas mug with me.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Terrific.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yes, well, we have wasted enough time at least 45
seconds of talking aboutmeaningless stuff.
Let's dive into the firstquestion.
Renee, do you see athletes asmore time crunched or time rich?
Is there like this kind ofpolarization of time going on
with your athletes and peoplethat you know, or am I just off
my rocker?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I see it both ways.
I see a lot of folks and myselfincluded, I used to take the
Christmas and New Year's weekoff and a lot of people do have
those, those, those days off.
And I would say probably 50 or60 percent of my athletes have
more time because they have timeoff.
Um, and then you know, maybethe other percent are, uh, maybe
(03:20):
they have that time off butthey're going to see family or
they have family visiting, sothey're even more time crunched
maybe than the normal or justout of the routine, as you
mentioned.
You know, visiting family andyou know, uh, out of their
element.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, yeah.
So for those athletes who are alittle extra time crunched and
and and I think it's like a lotof the people with, uh, kids,
you know a bit busy job, lots ofkids, or you know they're going
home to see family, that kindof thing Um, they may have more
time away from work, but itcertainly is not more training
time.
Um, the the main questions Iget is like coach, I can't ride
(03:59):
for a week.
Am I going to lose it all?
Am I going to lose all myfitness?
What would you say to the extratime crunched athlete that is
worried about that betweenChristmas and New Year?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Well, that a week or 10 days, two weeks, doesn't make
or break your fitness.
That if you're training less oreven not at all for two weeks,
that doesn't derail everything,especially if you can plan for
it ahead of time, that you'renot in maybe a hole already
(04:32):
going into the holidays, in thetime off.
And for some people that mightbe involving some you know cross
training, you know.
Maybe add some running, somestrength work, some rowing.
You know cross training, youknow.
Maybe add some running, somestrength work, some rowing.
You know walking, even you knowjust saying I would say, mobile
and active, as opposed to, inquotes, training.
(04:55):
You know it doesn't have to betraining to be a, you know,
productive, healthy trip.
But I think the biggest pointI'd make is that whether it's
you have extra time to train orless time to train, it's not
going to make or break the wholeyear.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, that's a really , really good point.
And I was just.
I told you off recording that Iwas riding my bike and I was
like man.
So many people overestimate thevalue of a week and
underestimate the value of ayear.
So, in other words, if theyhave a really good week, it's
like man, I'm crushing it.
Right now, this is going to begreat.
(05:33):
Or if it's like I had the worstweek ever my life, my training
is gone.
Versus that boring consistencyhow much, how, how good was the
year?
How many years were in the year?
How many good weeks did youhave racked up?
And so, if anything, for ourlisteners it's like take that
longer term approach, take youreyes off of the here and now and
(05:53):
zoom out and take a look atthat.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
The better your year it's.
The week off isn't asdevastating in, the big week
Isn't as it's.
The week off isn't asdevastating and the big week
isn't as productive ordestructive, which I think we're
going to get to when we talkabout some of these challenges.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah, no, that's it.
And I think to that point is ifyou have a really good year and
you plan all this well and youmade a nod to that too if you
plan for it, this is not as bigof a deal.
Right?
And I've done several episodeson detraining and all detraining
means is you're structuringyour training with a purpose to
(06:33):
decrease CTL and decrease someof these things so that
physically and mentally you'reready to go for another season
or another big block orsomething like that.
So for those who want to learnall about detraining, check out
episode number 120, and it'scalled off-season training how
to detrain with a purpose.
But that takes a lot longer tohappen.
Okay, then a week or even twoweeks, and I'll put in cause I I
(06:57):
just grabbed these some of theresearch I did for that podcast.
I'll put it in on the shownotes here.
But for detraining to occur,we're talking like over two
weeks to see a reduction in VO2max and over three weeks to see
a drop in anaerobic capacity.
So for those people who aresuper worried about maybe 10
(07:19):
days of super off trainingpatterns and stuff, renee, the
proof is in the pudding to me,they ain't going to lose much.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
That's true, adam, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, so, um, I guess to that point.
What I see anyway is like twoweeks they have a reduction in
training, but most people can dosomething and in that, those
ways with the, and you can evensit on the couch if you want and
eat pie for breakfast, as Reneelikes to do, as she told me.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
My mom makes a great apple pie, Adam.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I don't.
Great, I love pie.
We won't get into that, but Idid the same thing after
Thanksgiving and it wasdelicious.
But even so, what this researchsays two weeks, 15 days of
inactivity and we see areduction of you to max.
The reality is, most people aredoing some sort of activity.
Renee, if they do have I don'tknow three or four days to train
(08:14):
per week, what would you tellthem to do in those three or
four days?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I, uh, I am a huge fan of mobility work and yoga.
You know, start your day with afew sun salutations.
Do a little bit of strengthwork.
You know my favorite bodyweight exercises, you know
push-ups, lunges, planks, sideplanks, dips.
(08:43):
You know you can make a little.
You know 15, 20 minute workoutand just get the blood flowing
to your body, you're probablygoing to feel better.
Most of my athletes don't feelgreat if they take two, three,
four days off in a row of noactivity or limited activity.
So just moving your body, doingsome mobility, doing some yoga,
(09:04):
doing a little strength workcan go a long way to just you
feeling better.
And you know, on thecardiovascular side, I actually
just went on a.
I went to go visit my mom for acouple of weeks and I couldn't
take my bike and I ran a littlebit.
I'm not much of a runner Adamknows that, it's true but I did
a little bit of running in theweeks leading up to it so that I
(09:25):
could run and not, you know,totally break myself down.
And I just do.
You know, 25, 30 minute run, youknow, not not for me a
tremendous amount of exercise,but a little bit.
I did that three or four timesthroughout the weeks and that
was enough to make me feelbetter, probably more so than it
(09:46):
really impacted my fitness.
But it you know, it wassomething, because there's a
huge difference between thedetraining that happens when I
am in bed and I'm ill in bed fortwo weeks, not moving at all,
versus just being an activeperson.
And I find that when you'revisiting family, everybody wants
(10:10):
to go for a walk or hike orthings like that and those can
be great activities just to moveyour body for 30, 40, an hour
every day.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
That goes a long way.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
It's movement.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
I couldn't agree more .
Renee.
And one thing literally a callthis morning with one of my
juniors and she just got donewith cyclocross nats and she and
we were like and she's like 14,15 year old and and I was like,
okay, for the next two weekswe're just going to, you know,
do less, you know detrain andtalk about some of these things.
She's like okay, but can I gofor like hikes and stuff?
(10:47):
Because I just feel a lotbetter if I move around a little
bit and I'm like yes, you know,and she's getting that, she's
learning that, you know, she'slearning that message.
You know, as a youngster, I'mgoing to start running.
Just listen what Renee did.
(11:15):
She started small, she wentslow, she built up and she has a
prep phase before she couldactually do some run phase
training Even the run phases wasnot much at all.
Yeah, it probably didn't helpyou all that much, but it helped
to maintain and help you feelbetter, and there's some
psychological stuff there thatgoes on that we probably don't
need to get into other than justlike moving and sweating and
taking care of your body.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
That's healthy, and taking a break from the family
that's key too.
Exactly, Get outside for 30minutes and you know just.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Speaking of psychology Speaking of
psychology yeah, no, I mean I do.
Speaking of psychology trainunravels and we can just get out
(12:02):
and go and breathe and move andso when you detrain or you take
time off, we miss that and wefeel super weird and that's why
everybody is scared of the bigloss of fitness training.
Monster, right, because we losethat.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I've seen it more often than not that a time time
off for vacation, holidays,going on a cruise happens a
couple of athletes year you're,they come back.
Better that you know they gettwo, three weeks after they come
back.
They're hitting their numbersagain and they feel great.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
They feel fresh they feel reinvigorated, they feel
motivated.
So this forced break canactually be a good thing in the
long run.
(12:59):
And it's those same things.
And it cites some research aswell that lays up with the
research that you and I weretalking about of two to three
weeks before anything super badhappens.
And meanwhile, when you're onvacation, you usually move a
little bit too, and that canhelp to maintain.
(13:28):
You know, maintain is a um uhtaper strategy that we use with
with athletes moving into a maincompetition, but there's a
little bit of it too.
I have some athletes that getready for a vacation.
They just, you know, traintheir butt off, maybe get the
extra miles in that kind ofthing, and then they take a
vacation, they come back andthey super compensate because
they effectively theyoverreached in a functional way
deeper than what they were doingbefore.
They take a break and they comeback and they super compensate
because they effectively theyoverreached in a functional way
deeper than what they were doingbefore.
They take a break and they comeback and your, your body's
response to that is supercompensation, which all it means
(13:51):
is you adapted well to yourtraining because you took a big
rest and now you're performinglike the Hulk.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yeah, so a little bit of a hiatus there.
So I guess, to bring home themessage of if you're extra time
crunched, have a strong realityof what is real, what is doable.
If between Christmas and NewYear's what 10 days and you only
got three days to train do alittle bit of something, and it
(14:22):
could be like mobility work,like Renee is talking about.
It could be running, hiking,whatever it could be, on the
bike too.
My opinion a couple of days ofendurance, maybe one day of
threshold, because one day ofthreshold kind of per week keeps
, I'm just going to say, mixedintensities, because it can be
zone three, four, five, six,throwing a couple of sprints.
That's going to help tomaintain a lot of that, a lot of
(14:47):
the energy systems that we'retalking about, without having
that decay, but some of themobility stuff that Renee's
talking about.
You don't need a bike, youdon't need running shoes, you
can do that right away in themorning, before people are up,
just to have a little bit of amovement going on.
Renee, other things that change, I would say, during the
(15:07):
holidays, are people's nutritionhabits.
Would you agree with that?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yes, grandma's pie, that's a big factor in the
holidays and I think that that'sone of the questions or maybe
concerns that I get from a lotof my athletes of the week or
every month of the year.
But you know, afterThanksgiving, yeah, or after
(15:46):
Christmas, have a pie forbreakfast.
I think one of the you knowtips that I would say is, like,
you know, kind of, avoid thatall or nothing of like.
If I see that all the time thetime like, oh, I can't work out
as much, my eating poorly andthat's like all in, and you know
(16:08):
, you have to be thoughtful andmaybe if you're going to have
pie for breakfast that you don'tneed your oatmeal on top of the
pie, you can just eat the pie,that's enough.
Um, that if your activity levelis down, you don't need as many
calories.
But in the, in the big picture,one week of you know, maybe
you're overindulging a littlebit is not going to derail you.
(16:32):
You come back from yourvacation or your trip and your
weight is up.
It could easily be three orfive pounds up.
Here's my tip Spend a dayhydrating and flush all that
(16:53):
fluid out, because you're justretaining a lot of water.
Yeah, I think another thing thathappens in you know the holiday
meals.
You know.
Maybe if somebody you know isyou know imbibing their mulled
cider and eggnog and things likethat, you know that.
You know alcohol calories docount.
They are extra calories.
(17:15):
If you like that and you wantto have your, you know, enjoy
your glass of wine with dinneror eggnog or whatever.
Just know that that does addcalories.
It usually lowers yourinhibitions.
You don't want to have yourfirst glass of wine on an empty
stomach because then that's youknow recipe for disaster.
(17:40):
I actually see like I just don'twant you to go into the holiday
meal starving yourself all day,Because then that's like you
know, you go overboard oneverything then.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
I was going to say.
I get that a lot, where peoplelike they kind of do somewhere
in between like I'm going toskip meals because they get the
calorie counting the game right,so I'm going to skip some meals
leading up and then I'm justgoing to like go for it at
dinner.
So it's like kind of thispseudo fasting and then like
extreme meal sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Strategy good strategy or bad strategy?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
A better strategy?
I don't think that is a goodstrategy.
I think a better strategy iseat fairly normally, going up to
it.
Then the next day you have allthese calories on.
You.
Go on your big hike the nextday yeah I, I, I, uh, I'll uh
credit stacy sims for this.
Uh quote think preload insteadof reload yep you know, don't
(18:36):
starve yourself.
And do the big hike before thebig dinner.
Eat fairly normally so you'renot totally famished, you can
eat, you can enjoy.
Yeah, have the gravy, have thestuffing, you know, have the pie
, go for it.
But if you're not totallyfamished you're going to eat a
more modest amount and then, ifyou have all those extra
(18:58):
calories on board, have plentyof energy next day to go for a
big hike or not.
If you eat one big meal, itdoes not change the scale, just
like one day of fasting ordieting doesn't change your
scale so much, neither does oneday of overindulgence.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Well, I was about to say December 26th will be the
day to go for a Strava uhsegment, full all out.
That's what everybody'slistening here.
That's that's what they'reprobably thinking about.
Um, yeah, and I think to thatnutrition end of things.
It's like if you can play, ifyou understand, like the
(19:38):
calories in and calories out,and you're aware, that's good
because you're becoming moreaware of that.
And if you're like you know what, and I'll raise my hand and say
I love my old fashioned, likeI'm going to have a couple of
fashions to celebrate Christmas,but don't have that be the
nightcap either.
Like, don't, like, maybe youskip dessert because you had
your alcohol, but then in theevening I'd say you know, drink
(20:07):
a couple of glasses of waterbefore you go to bed, because
that's an extra hydration tooand it's going to help to bring
awareness.
Why am I drinking water?
Why am I not going for the pie?
Why am I not going for theextra glass of wine?
Whatever is, you're bringingawareness to those habits that
you're doing and all of this isin moderation.
Okay, all the food, if it's thealcohol, if it's the lack of
training, just everything inmoderation.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
That's the boring answer yeah, and I think that
you know all or nothing approachof like oh well, I blew it and
I had too many calories today,so I'm gonna do it tomorrow too.
You know that, that you knowyou can enjoy your day, have a
good time and then be like OK,I'm going to get back on track
(20:45):
tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yep, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Or next week when I'm back at home, whatever the case
may be.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Exactly, exactly, from the time crunched athlete
to you know the nutritionstrategies that can apply to
everybody.
How about some of your athletes, renee and some of the people
listening, that might be alittle extra time rich for these
next couple of weeks?
Should they just go full tilt,take advantage of it, or should?
(21:14):
It's the end of the year?
Should they not be training asmuch?
What do you say?
Speaker 2 (21:20):
It depends.
It depends on the, it dependson the individual's goals and
what they have going on.
I would say most of my athleteswho are time rich want to take
advantage of it.
You know, especially this timeof year, most of my athletes are
training indoors midweekbecause even if they have, if
(21:40):
it's not wintry weather, it'stoo dark to train, so that they
get some time to train outdoorsor just train more.
So most of my athletes who arein the time rich they have the
time off work, they want to do alittle more.
Um, I know I have at least twoor three people who are doing
the festive 500.
(22:01):
That's a real popular one.
That is the.
It's a Rafa challenge 500kilometers over the eight days
from what?
Christmas Eve to New Year's Eve.
I think that's the timelinethat you do.
You know 500 kilometers andthere's also other challenges
out there.
I used to do I've done it acouple of times back in my day
(22:25):
uh, star wars movie challenge.
There are 25 hours of star warsmovies.
Okay, I would do.
I would do because I wastraining a lot indoors.
You know we're here in colorado, so train a lot indoors and I
used to do uh, to do everysingle, all, the, the, the, the,
the nine uh series from youknow new hope to uh uh, the last
(22:51):
jedi, and then um and the solomovie and uh so you, you ride
inside for all 25 hours of thisyes, yes, I, I ride through, I I
do movie challenges.
I've done, like you know, thehobbit series and things like
that, but the star warschallenge is the big one because
(23:11):
that's the 25 hour wow, and soyeah, I guess I was gonna say so
it has to be inside for alltime.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Yeah, I guess it would have to be if you watch
the movie.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yeah, but I'm one of those crazy people who enjoys
riding Zwift, so I don't mind.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Wow, yeah, that is impressive, renee.
I don't think I will take thaton, nor could take that on
actually.
So, matt, respect to you.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yeah, movie marathon challenges.
So yeah, whatever yourchallenge I'm not saying there's
necessarily smart and maybe wecan get into that part of it is
you know how, how effective aresome of these challenges?
You know, and what, what youknow if you're the guy who asked
the question.
So what can you do with thatextra time?
(23:55):
Is it just writing, you know,an extra two hours a day?
You?
Speaker 1 (24:00):
know an extra two hours a day.
Yeah, I think like in that way.
Here's a good example Uh, oneof my athletes, um Steven, which
you know, renee, um, he, hetakes this time of year cause he
does have extra time, and Ithink we're even doing the um,
yeah, we're doing the festive500 on Zwift, but then he skis
(24:21):
in the morning, so kind of a mixof Nordic and Schemo and two
days basically, kind of likeevery day, you know, and it is
four hours of of aerobic, youknow training, but it's like his
time and to to do this right,cause he doesn't get the luxury
of that time.
Um, so we kind of like prep andbuild into it, come into that
(24:41):
fresh and then go for it, and inthat way it's, it's we treat it
as a mini training camp.
You know what I mean?
Well, actually a pretty bigtraining camp, especially for a
time crunch athlete, but in theway of, you know, that couple of
week time period.
So I think if you again planahead and can kind of structure
your form, your fitness andfreshness, leading into a big
(25:03):
block or a big camp or a bigchallenge of sorts, that's much
better.
And you know, if you'relistening to this podcast on
Christmas day, which is whenthis is being released.
Um, you can't do much in theway of like leading up to it.
In that sense, you kind of haveto like read the room of your
reality and what you can do thisweek.
But I think when you, when youhave more time, yeah, go for it,
(25:25):
especially if you know you'renot going to have that time Once
the new year comes around.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
You can just take a week and freshen up and I like
that you said leading likebuilding up to it and leading
into it, because you know the,the festive 500 and those kind
of challenges.
That's a lot, you know, andgoing from five, six hours a
week to it's about a 20-hourweek to do the, the festive 500
(25:52):
and for some people could be toomuch of a good thing and I will
put my hand up that.
Back in my day as an athlete Ihave buried myself in a end of
year training camp and I've seenit with other athletes too that
if you need two plus weeks offto recover from your training
(26:18):
camp, it's not a productivetraining camp.
So it's getting you know, maybea little bit hung up on the 500
, that if you didn't get the 500, then it's, you know, worthless
.
You know, in the eight days,well, maybe it's over two weeks,
maybe it's the two weeks.
You know, I know a lot of people, what is today, monday, when
(26:39):
we're recording this, they'regoing to have, you know, two
plus weeks off because they getthe couple of days here and a
couple of days after.
I know, you know, maybe notapplicable for the people it's
coming out on Christmas Day but,yeah, maybe your festive 500
could be over two weeks, itdoesn't have to be over the
eight days, and it's a littlebit better for you that you can
(27:01):
actually absorb that trainingand it be productive, rather
than just going for thisarbitrary goal and I'll say like
, maybe the movie marathon goal,the whole star series, maybe
that's not a great goal, youknow where, maybe it's.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
But do it in a month.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Do it in a month.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Or maybe it's instead of the you know two hours and
15 minutes of that movie.
It's all riding.
Maybe it's your warmup.
I'm doing a dynamic warmupbefore and then I'm doing my
ride, and then I'm doing someyoga after for cool-down and
bing bang, boom, that's two anda half hours.
But it's not.
It's very productive Becausejust because you have extra time
(27:46):
to train doesn't only meanriding your bike.
It can be some other thingslike working on mobility Daily
yoga that would be a greatchallenge.
Things like working on mobilitydaily yoga That'd be a great
challenge.
Do 10 days of yoga or two weeksof yoga every day?
Yeah, that would be an awesomething to add to your.
(28:07):
I have an extra hour or twohours a day to train.
It doesn't have to only beriding your bike.
You know something, somethingI'm actively doing right now I'm
refreshing my meal prep routine.
I've been out of that routineand I'm getting back into it
because I have a little bit moretime now.
That'd be a great time toestablish some really good
habits as well.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Well, it's just that, renee like habits, right, and I
think that's another hot topicthis time of year.
We kind of started the openingwith that a little bit.
I think the habits are a morepowerful force in our lives as
athletes, as humans, than werealize.
And, just like the festive, 500is at this time of year, new
(28:51):
Year is that turning point wherepeople get reflective, they
hopefully slow down and theythink, and then they set their
new goals and habits for thenext year, right?
So before the new year happens,take this extra time to form
those positive habits that youwant, because those habits take
quite a bit to get into yourpsyche.
Usually not like 28 days, right, not not two months, it's
(29:16):
usually more like three monthsof repetitive behavior.
That will then sit in and it'llbecome a habit.
So, yeah, to that point I wouldsay if you're already training,
you know eight hours a week ish,six to eight hours a week, like
a time crunch cyclist normallyis, and you want to add a little
extra, but you don't have a tonof time.
Increase the habit of mobilityand yoga and some.
(29:39):
Add a little extra, but youdon't have a ton of time.
Increase the habit of mobilityand yoga and some of the
strength training to get that inas a habit, and I'll even raise
my hand and say that too.
Like I kind of go back andforth on that.
I do a pretty good job this timeof year.
Then it wanes off, you know,middle of the year and it comes
back.
So and I've been in timeperiods where I have really good
habits of that and I just feelbetter.
I wouldn't say that I performbetter necessarily on the bike,
(30:01):
but I definitely feel better,move better and have less of the
um uh, you know, I I picksomething up and be like Ooh,
like more fluid, right and froma healthy person standpoint,
that's, that's a positive.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Not direct maybe, things that aren't directly
impacting your FTP, but if youhave more good days on the bike,
you feel better overall.
And then I'm a few years olderthan you and I have to worry
about breaking a hip down theroad here and carrying in my
groceries.
And I think a lot of myathletes are active not just
(30:36):
because they want to be a goodbike rider.
They use the bike as a tool tohave a active lifestyle and
increase their longevity andquality of life.
You know I get a lot of peoplein their 50s, 60s and even 70s
who are training with me.
So, yeah, I absolutely thinkthis is a great time of year to
(30:58):
work on those habits and whenyou're in a low stress period
low stress meaning like maybeyou have these two weeks off of
work you can control totallycontrol your eating patterns and
, you know, have that extra timeto do a warm up before you get
on the bike or do yoga beforebed.
Great, I think that's anawesome use of your extra time
(31:20):
rather than just only ridingyour bike more or running or
whatever your activity is.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah, couldn't agree more.
So I think you know the realkey here is is consistency
throughout the year, balance it,have moderation and build those
good habits as we enter in thatnew year time of season.
And so, to bring this thinghome, I really want all of our
listeners to take this time toactually slow down, be honest
(31:48):
with themselves of what they canget in training wise before the
new year and if the reality isnot a lot of hours, know that
you know all the gains of 2024,they're not going to go away
overnight, they're not going togo away over a week.
Okay, you know, even if you'rejust sitting on the couch from
now until new year.
(32:08):
Even the research says that'snot how fitness and physiology
works.
So Renee anything that you wantto add to that in the way of
shaping up if you got extra timeor not, a lot of extra time.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Yeah, I'm going to kind of take it off coaching a
little bit and be like enjoyspending time with your family
and friends, whether you havemore time to train, you know,
maybe you don't have to ride sixhours a day, maybe you can
spend.
You know, you know I just, youknow, feel that way.
You know I have older parents.
(32:45):
It's great to spend time withparents If you have younger kids
and it's, you know, great to.
You know the wonders of theholidays for the younger kids
and everyone in between that youknow this is a great time to do
that and you don't have toworry so much about your
training over these two weeks,whether it's on the high side or
the low side of that.
(33:05):
Yes, it's going to move theneedle a little bit one way or
the other, but it's not going tomake or break your year.
So you know, enjoy the holidays, your year.
So you know, enjoy the holidays, have pie for breakfast and
enjoy.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Well said.
Thank you, renee, for joiningus, and thanks to you listeners
for always tuning into eachepisode, and to all endurance
athletes out there.
We wish you a happy holiday.
Thanks for joining us on theTime Crunch Cyclist podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even moreactionable training advice, head
(33:39):
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
your training to the next level.
That's all for now.
Until next time, train hard,train smart, train right.
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 AdamPulford, and I'm one of the over
50 professional coaches whomake up the 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.
Now onto our show.
(00:51):
Happy holidays, time Crunchfans.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford.
The holidays can be a trickytime of year for endurance
athletes because we try to keepregular training patterns, but
we have all the other issueslike schedule changes, habit
changes and lifestyles thatstart to just get all over the
place.
We move away from a somewhatnormal, predictable schedule of
(01:12):
work, training and familyactivities.
We go to lots of social time,holiday parties and maybe a
little extra travel, with allthe stresses that go along with
it.
I'd say that this is probablythe majority of the athletes
listening to this podcast andpeople that I know personally.
However, another trend, thoughless common, that I see and hear
(01:34):
are some athletes that just doless of all that holiday themed
stuff.
They stick closer to home andperhaps they have more time to
do what they want to do aroundthis time of year.
So if you're extra timecrunched or extra time rich
leading into the new year, I'vegot a few training tips that
will help bring some perspectiveto all of this and set you up
(01:57):
for an awesome 2025 for fitness,performance, health, fun, all
that kind of stuff.
So with me to discuss this andmore is CTS coach Renee Eastman.
Renee, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Thanks, adam, thanks for having me Happy holidays.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Happy holidays.
And you know, my first thing isI have some regrets because my
Charlie Brown Christmas tree isdownstairs and I should have put
it behind me.
You know you are winning theday here, Renee, so thank you
for being festive, Although I dohave a Christmas mug with me.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Terrific.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yes, well, we have wasted enough time at least 45
seconds of talking aboutmeaningless stuff.
Let's dive into the firstquestion.
Renee, do you see athletes asmore time crunched or time rich?
Is there like this kind ofpolarization of time going on
with your athletes and peoplethat you know, or am I just off
my rocker?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I see it both ways.
I see a lot of folks and myselfincluded, I used to take the
Christmas and New Year's weekoff and a lot of people do have
those, those, those days off.
And I would say probably 50 or60 percent of my athletes have
more time because they have timeoff.
Um, and then you know, maybethe other percent are, uh, maybe
(03:20):
they have that time off butthey're going to see family or
they have family visiting, sothey're even more time crunched
maybe than the normal or justout of the routine, as you
mentioned.
You know, visiting family andyou know, uh, out of their
element.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, yeah.
So for those athletes who are alittle extra time crunched and
and and I think it's like a lotof the people with, uh, kids,
you know a bit busy job, lots ofkids, or you know they're going
home to see family, that kindof thing Um, they may have more
time away from work, but itcertainly is not more training
time.
Um, the the main questions Iget is like coach, I can't ride
(03:59):
for a week.
Am I going to lose it all?
Am I going to lose all myfitness?
What would you say to the extratime crunched athlete that is
worried about that betweenChristmas and New Year?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Well, that a week or 10 days, two weeks, doesn't make
or break your fitness.
That if you're training less oreven not at all for two weeks,
that doesn't derail everything,especially if you can plan for
it ahead of time, that you'renot in maybe a hole already
(04:32):
going into the holidays, in thetime off.
And for some people that mightbe involving some you know cross
training, you know.
Maybe add some running, somestrength work, some rowing.
You know cross training, youknow.
Maybe add some running, somestrength work, some rowing.
You know walking, even you knowjust saying I would say, mobile
and active, as opposed to, inquotes, training.
(04:55):
You know it doesn't have to betraining to be a, you know,
productive, healthy trip.
But I think the biggest pointI'd make is that whether it's
you have extra time to train orless time to train, it's not
going to make or break the wholeyear.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, that's a really , really good point.
And I was just.
I told you off recording that Iwas riding my bike and I was
like man.
So many people overestimate thevalue of a week and
underestimate the value of ayear.
So, in other words, if theyhave a really good week, it's
like man, I'm crushing it.
Right now, this is going to begreat.
(05:33):
Or if it's like I had the worstweek ever my life, my training
is gone.
Versus that boring consistencyhow much, how, how good was the
year?
How many years were in the year?
How many good weeks did youhave racked up?
And so, if anything, for ourlisteners it's like take that
longer term approach, take youreyes off of the here and now and
(05:53):
zoom out and take a look atthat.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
The better your year it's.
The week off isn't asdevastating in, the big week
Isn't as it's.
The week off isn't asdevastating and the big week
isn't as productive ordestructive, which I think we're
going to get to when we talkabout some of these challenges.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah, no, that's it.
And I think to that point is ifyou have a really good year and
you plan all this well and youmade a nod to that too if you
plan for it, this is not as bigof a deal.
Right?
And I've done several episodeson detraining and all detraining
means is you're structuringyour training with a purpose to
(06:33):
decrease CTL and decrease someof these things so that
physically and mentally you'reready to go for another season
or another big block orsomething like that.
So for those who want to learnall about detraining, check out
episode number 120, and it'scalled off-season training how
to detrain with a purpose.
But that takes a lot longer tohappen.
Okay, then a week or even twoweeks, and I'll put in cause I I
(06:57):
just grabbed these some of theresearch I did for that podcast.
I'll put it in on the shownotes here.
But for detraining to occur,we're talking like over two
weeks to see a reduction in VO2max and over three weeks to see
a drop in anaerobic capacity.
So for those people who aresuper worried about maybe 10
(07:19):
days of super off trainingpatterns and stuff, renee, the
proof is in the pudding to me,they ain't going to lose much.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
That's true, adam, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, so, um, I guess to that point.
What I see anyway is like twoweeks they have a reduction in
training, but most people can dosomething and in that, those
ways with the, and you can evensit on the couch if you want and
eat pie for breakfast, as Reneelikes to do, as she told me.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
My mom makes a great apple pie, Adam.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I don't.
Great, I love pie.
We won't get into that, but Idid the same thing after
Thanksgiving and it wasdelicious.
But even so, what this researchsays two weeks, 15 days of
inactivity and we see areduction of you to max.
The reality is, most people aredoing some sort of activity.
Renee, if they do have I don'tknow three or four days to train
(08:14):
per week, what would you tellthem to do in those three or
four days?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I, uh, I am a huge fan of mobility work and yoga.
You know, start your day with afew sun salutations.
Do a little bit of strengthwork.
You know my favorite bodyweight exercises, you know
push-ups, lunges, planks, sideplanks, dips.
(08:43):
You know you can make a little.
You know 15, 20 minute workoutand just get the blood flowing
to your body, you're probablygoing to feel better.
Most of my athletes don't feelgreat if they take two, three,
four days off in a row of noactivity or limited activity.
So just moving your body, doingsome mobility, doing some yoga,
(09:04):
doing a little strength workcan go a long way to just you
feeling better.
And you know, on thecardiovascular side, I actually
just went on a.
I went to go visit my mom for acouple of weeks and I couldn't
take my bike and I ran a littlebit.
I'm not much of a runner Adamknows that, it's true but I did
a little bit of running in theweeks leading up to it so that I
(09:25):
could run and not, you know,totally break myself down.
And I just do.
You know, 25, 30 minute run, youknow, not not for me a
tremendous amount of exercise,but a little bit.
I did that three or four timesthroughout the weeks and that
was enough to make me feelbetter, probably more so than it
(09:46):
really impacted my fitness.
But it you know, it wassomething, because there's a
huge difference between thedetraining that happens when I
am in bed and I'm ill in bed fortwo weeks, not moving at all,
versus just being an activeperson.
And I find that when you'revisiting family, everybody wants
(10:10):
to go for a walk or hike orthings like that and those can
be great activities just to moveyour body for 30, 40, an hour
every day.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
That goes a long way.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
It's movement.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
I couldn't agree more .
Renee.
And one thing literally a callthis morning with one of my
juniors and she just got donewith cyclocross nats and she and
we were like and she's like 14,15 year old and and I was like,
okay, for the next two weekswe're just going to, you know,
do less, you know detrain andtalk about some of these things.
She's like okay, but can I gofor like hikes and stuff?
(10:47):
Because I just feel a lotbetter if I move around a little
bit and I'm like yes, you know,and she's getting that, she's
learning that, you know, she'slearning that message.
You know, as a youngster, I'mgoing to start running.
Just listen what Renee did.
(11:15):
She started small, she wentslow, she built up and she has a
prep phase before she couldactually do some run phase
training Even the run phases wasnot much at all.
Yeah, it probably didn't helpyou all that much, but it helped
to maintain and help you feelbetter, and there's some
psychological stuff there thatgoes on that we probably don't
need to get into other than justlike moving and sweating and
taking care of your body.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
That's healthy, and taking a break from the family
that's key too.
Exactly, Get outside for 30minutes and you know just.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Speaking of psychology Speaking of
psychology yeah, no, I mean I do.
Speaking of psychology trainunravels and we can just get out
(12:02):
and go and breathe and move andso when you detrain or you take
time off, we miss that and wefeel super weird and that's why
everybody is scared of the bigloss of fitness training.
Monster, right, because we losethat.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I've seen it more often than not that a time time
off for vacation, holidays,going on a cruise happens a
couple of athletes year you're,they come back.
Better that you know they gettwo, three weeks after they come
back.
They're hitting their numbersagain and they feel great.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
They feel fresh they feel reinvigorated, they feel
motivated.
So this forced break canactually be a good thing in the
long run.
(12:59):
And it's those same things.
And it cites some research aswell that lays up with the
research that you and I weretalking about of two to three
weeks before anything super badhappens.
And meanwhile, when you're onvacation, you usually move a
little bit too, and that canhelp to maintain.
(13:28):
You know, maintain is a um uhtaper strategy that we use with
with athletes moving into a maincompetition, but there's a
little bit of it too.
I have some athletes that getready for a vacation.
They just, you know, traintheir butt off, maybe get the
extra miles in that kind ofthing, and then they take a
vacation, they come back andthey super compensate because
they effectively theyoverreached in a functional way
deeper than what they were doingbefore.
They take a break and they comeback and they super compensate
because they effectively theyoverreached in a functional way
deeper than what they were doingbefore.
They take a break and they comeback and your, your body's
response to that is supercompensation, which all it means
(13:51):
is you adapted well to yourtraining because you took a big
rest and now you're performinglike the Hulk.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yeah, so a little bit of a hiatus there.
So I guess, to bring home themessage of if you're extra time
crunched, have a strong realityof what is real, what is doable.
If between Christmas and NewYear's what 10 days and you only
got three days to train do alittle bit of something, and it
(14:22):
could be like mobility work,like Renee is talking about.
It could be running, hiking,whatever it could be, on the
bike too.
My opinion a couple of days ofendurance, maybe one day of
threshold, because one day ofthreshold kind of per week keeps
, I'm just going to say, mixedintensities, because it can be
zone three, four, five, six,throwing a couple of sprints.
That's going to help tomaintain a lot of that, a lot of
(14:47):
the energy systems that we'retalking about, without having
that decay, but some of themobility stuff that Renee's
talking about.
You don't need a bike, youdon't need running shoes, you
can do that right away in themorning, before people are up,
just to have a little bit of amovement going on.
Renee, other things that change, I would say, during the
(15:07):
holidays, are people's nutritionhabits.
Would you agree with that?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yes, grandma's pie, that's a big factor in the
holidays and I think that that'sone of the questions or maybe
concerns that I get from a lotof my athletes of the week or
every month of the year.
But you know, afterThanksgiving, yeah, or after
(15:46):
Christmas, have a pie forbreakfast.
I think one of the you knowtips that I would say is, like,
you know, kind of, avoid thatall or nothing of like.
If I see that all the time thetime like, oh, I can't work out
as much, my eating poorly andthat's like all in, and you know
(16:08):
, you have to be thoughtful andmaybe if you're going to have
pie for breakfast that you don'tneed your oatmeal on top of the
pie, you can just eat the pie,that's enough.
Um, that if your activity levelis down, you don't need as many
calories.
But in the, in the big picture,one week of you know, maybe
you're overindulging a littlebit is not going to derail you.
(16:32):
You come back from yourvacation or your trip and your
weight is up.
It could easily be three orfive pounds up.
Here's my tip Spend a dayhydrating and flush all that
(16:53):
fluid out, because you're justretaining a lot of water.
Yeah, I think another thing thathappens in you know the holiday
meals.
You know.
Maybe if somebody you know isyou know imbibing their mulled
cider and eggnog and things likethat, you know that.
You know alcohol calories docount.
They are extra calories.
(17:15):
If you like that and you wantto have your, you know, enjoy
your glass of wine with dinneror eggnog or whatever.
Just know that that does addcalories.
It usually lowers yourinhibitions.
You don't want to have yourfirst glass of wine on an empty
stomach because then that's youknow recipe for disaster.
(17:40):
I actually see like I just don'twant you to go into the holiday
meal starving yourself all day,Because then that's like you
know, you go overboard oneverything then.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
I was going to say.
I get that a lot, where peoplelike they kind of do somewhere
in between like I'm going toskip meals because they get the
calorie counting the game right,so I'm going to skip some meals
leading up and then I'm justgoing to like go for it at
dinner.
So it's like kind of thispseudo fasting and then like
extreme meal sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Strategy good strategy or bad strategy?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
A better strategy?
I don't think that is a goodstrategy.
I think a better strategy iseat fairly normally, going up to
it.
Then the next day you have allthese calories on.
You.
Go on your big hike the nextday yeah I, I, I, uh, I'll uh
credit stacy sims for this.
Uh quote think preload insteadof reload yep you know, don't
(18:36):
starve yourself.
And do the big hike before thebig dinner.
Eat fairly normally so you'renot totally famished, you can
eat, you can enjoy.
Yeah, have the gravy, have thestuffing, you know, have the pie
, go for it.
But if you're not totallyfamished you're going to eat a
more modest amount and then, ifyou have all those extra
(18:58):
calories on board, have plentyof energy next day to go for a
big hike or not.
If you eat one big meal, itdoes not change the scale, just
like one day of fasting ordieting doesn't change your
scale so much, neither does oneday of overindulgence.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Well, I was about to say December 26th will be the
day to go for a Strava uhsegment, full all out.
That's what everybody'slistening here.
That's that's what they'reprobably thinking about.
Um, yeah, and I think to thatnutrition end of things.
It's like if you can play, ifyou understand, like the
(19:38):
calories in and calories out,and you're aware, that's good
because you're becoming moreaware of that.
And if you're like you know what, and I'll raise my hand and say
I love my old fashioned, likeI'm going to have a couple of
fashions to celebrate Christmas,but don't have that be the
nightcap either.
Like, don't, like, maybe youskip dessert because you had
your alcohol, but then in theevening I'd say you know, drink
(20:07):
a couple of glasses of waterbefore you go to bed, because
that's an extra hydration tooand it's going to help to bring
awareness.
Why am I drinking water?
Why am I not going for the pie?
Why am I not going for theextra glass of wine?
Whatever is, you're bringingawareness to those habits that
you're doing and all of this isin moderation.
Okay, all the food, if it's thealcohol, if it's the lack of
training, just everything inmoderation.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
That's the boring answer yeah, and I think that
you know all or nothing approachof like oh well, I blew it and
I had too many calories today,so I'm gonna do it tomorrow too.
You know that, that you knowyou can enjoy your day, have a
good time and then be like OK,I'm going to get back on track
(20:45):
tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yep, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Or next week when I'm back at home, whatever the case
may be.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Exactly, exactly, from the time crunched athlete
to you know the nutritionstrategies that can apply to
everybody.
How about some of your athletes, renee and some of the people
listening, that might be alittle extra time rich for these
next couple of weeks?
Should they just go full tilt,take advantage of it, or should?
(21:14):
It's the end of the year?
Should they not be training asmuch?
What do you say?
Speaker 2 (21:20):
It depends.
It depends on the, it dependson the individual's goals and
what they have going on.
I would say most of my athleteswho are time rich want to take
advantage of it.
You know, especially this timeof year, most of my athletes are
training indoors midweekbecause even if they have, if
(21:40):
it's not wintry weather, it'stoo dark to train, so that they
get some time to train outdoorsor just train more.
So most of my athletes who arein the time rich they have the
time off work, they want to do alittle more.
Um, I know I have at least twoor three people who are doing
the festive 500.
(22:01):
That's a real popular one.
That is the.
It's a Rafa challenge 500kilometers over the eight days
from what?
Christmas Eve to New Year's Eve.
I think that's the timelinethat you do.
You know 500 kilometers andthere's also other challenges
out there.
I used to do I've done it acouple of times back in my day
(22:25):
uh, star wars movie challenge.
There are 25 hours of star warsmovies.
Okay, I would do.
I would do because I wastraining a lot indoors.
You know we're here in colorado, so train a lot indoors and I
used to do uh, to do everysingle, all, the, the, the, the,
the nine uh series from youknow new hope to uh uh, the last
(22:51):
jedi, and then um and the solomovie and uh so you, you ride
inside for all 25 hours of thisyes, yes, I, I ride through, I I
do movie challenges.
I've done, like you know, thehobbit series and things like
that, but the star warschallenge is the big one because
(23:11):
that's the 25 hour wow, and soyeah, I guess I was gonna say so
it has to be inside for alltime.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Yeah, I guess it would have to be if you watch
the movie.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yeah, but I'm one of those crazy people who enjoys
riding Zwift, so I don't mind.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Wow, yeah, that is impressive, renee.
I don't think I will take thaton, nor could take that on
actually.
So, matt, respect to you.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yeah, movie marathon challenges.
So yeah, whatever yourchallenge I'm not saying there's
necessarily smart and maybe wecan get into that part of it is
you know how, how effective aresome of these challenges?
You know, and what, what youknow if you're the guy who asked
the question.
So what can you do with thatextra time?
(23:55):
Is it just writing, you know,an extra two hours a day?
You?
Speaker 1 (24:00):
know an extra two hours a day.
Yeah, I think like in that way.
Here's a good example Uh, oneof my athletes, um Steven, which
you know, renee, um, he, hetakes this time of year cause he
does have extra time, and Ithink we're even doing the um,
yeah, we're doing the festive500 on Zwift, but then he skis
(24:21):
in the morning, so kind of a mixof Nordic and Schemo and two
days basically, kind of likeevery day, you know, and it is
four hours of of aerobic, youknow training, but it's like his
time and to to do this right,cause he doesn't get the luxury
of that time.
Um, so we kind of like prep andbuild into it, come into that
(24:41):
fresh and then go for it, and inthat way it's, it's we treat it
as a mini training camp.
You know what I mean?
Well, actually a pretty bigtraining camp, especially for a
time crunch athlete, but in theway of, you know, that couple of
week time period.
So I think if you again planahead and can kind of structure
your form, your fitness andfreshness, leading into a big
(25:03):
block or a big camp or a bigchallenge of sorts, that's much
better.
And you know, if you'relistening to this podcast on
Christmas day, which is whenthis is being released.
Um, you can't do much in theway of like leading up to it.
In that sense, you kind of haveto like read the room of your
reality and what you can do thisweek.
But I think when you, when youhave more time, yeah, go for it,
(25:25):
especially if you know you'renot going to have that time Once
the new year comes around.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
You can just take a week and freshen up and I like
that you said leading likebuilding up to it and leading
into it, because you know the,the festive 500 and those kind
of challenges.
That's a lot, you know, andgoing from five, six hours a
week to it's about a 20-hourweek to do the, the festive 500
(25:52):
and for some people could be toomuch of a good thing and I will
put my hand up that.
Back in my day as an athlete Ihave buried myself in a end of
year training camp and I've seenit with other athletes too that
if you need two plus weeks offto recover from your training
(26:18):
camp, it's not a productivetraining camp.
So it's getting you know, maybea little bit hung up on the 500
, that if you didn't get the 500, then it's, you know, worthless
.
You know, in the eight days,well, maybe it's over two weeks,
maybe it's the two weeks.
You know, I know a lot of people, what is today, monday, when
(26:39):
we're recording this, they'regoing to have, you know, two
plus weeks off because they getthe couple of days here and a
couple of days after.
I know, you know, maybe notapplicable for the people it's
coming out on Christmas Day but,yeah, maybe your festive 500
could be over two weeks, itdoesn't have to be over the
eight days, and it's a littlebit better for you that you can
(27:01):
actually absorb that trainingand it be productive, rather
than just going for thisarbitrary goal and I'll say like
, maybe the movie marathon goal,the whole star series, maybe
that's not a great goal, youknow where, maybe it's.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
But do it in a month.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Do it in a month.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Or maybe it's instead of the you know two hours and
15 minutes of that movie.
It's all riding.
Maybe it's your warmup.
I'm doing a dynamic warmupbefore and then I'm doing my
ride, and then I'm doing someyoga after for cool-down and
bing bang, boom, that's two anda half hours.
But it's not.
It's very productive Becausejust because you have extra time
(27:46):
to train doesn't only meanriding your bike.
It can be some other thingslike working on mobility Daily
yoga that would be a greatchallenge.
Things like working on mobilitydaily yoga That'd be a great
challenge.
Do 10 days of yoga or two weeksof yoga every day?
Yeah, that would be an awesomething to add to your.
(28:07):
I have an extra hour or twohours a day to train.
It doesn't have to only beriding your bike.
You know something, somethingI'm actively doing right now I'm
refreshing my meal prep routine.
I've been out of that routineand I'm getting back into it
because I have a little bit moretime now.
That'd be a great time toestablish some really good
habits as well.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Well, it's just that, renee like habits, right, and I
think that's another hot topicthis time of year.
We kind of started the openingwith that a little bit.
I think the habits are a morepowerful force in our lives as
athletes, as humans, than werealize.
And, just like the festive, 500is at this time of year, new
(28:51):
Year is that turning point wherepeople get reflective, they
hopefully slow down and theythink, and then they set their
new goals and habits for thenext year, right?
So before the new year happens,take this extra time to form
those positive habits that youwant, because those habits take
quite a bit to get into yourpsyche.
Usually not like 28 days, right, not not two months, it's
(29:16):
usually more like three monthsof repetitive behavior.
That will then sit in and it'llbecome a habit.
So, yeah, to that point I wouldsay if you're already training,
you know eight hours a week ish,six to eight hours a week, like
a time crunch cyclist normallyis, and you want to add a little
extra, but you don't have a tonof time.
Increase the habit of mobilityand yoga and some.
(29:39):
Add a little extra, but youdon't have a ton of time.
Increase the habit of mobilityand yoga and some of the
strength training to get that inas a habit, and I'll even raise
my hand and say that too.
Like I kind of go back andforth on that.
I do a pretty good job this timeof year.
Then it wanes off, you know,middle of the year and it comes
back.
So and I've been in timeperiods where I have really good
habits of that and I just feelbetter.
I wouldn't say that I performbetter necessarily on the bike,
(30:01):
but I definitely feel better,move better and have less of the
um uh, you know, I I picksomething up and be like Ooh,
like more fluid, right and froma healthy person standpoint,
that's, that's a positive.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Not direct maybe, things that aren't directly
impacting your FTP, but if youhave more good days on the bike,
you feel better overall.
And then I'm a few years olderthan you and I have to worry
about breaking a hip down theroad here and carrying in my
groceries.
And I think a lot of myathletes are active not just
(30:36):
because they want to be a goodbike rider.
They use the bike as a tool tohave a active lifestyle and
increase their longevity andquality of life.
You know I get a lot of peoplein their 50s, 60s and even 70s
who are training with me.
So, yeah, I absolutely thinkthis is a great time of year to
(30:58):
work on those habits and whenyou're in a low stress period
low stress meaning like maybeyou have these two weeks off of
work you can control totallycontrol your eating patterns and
, you know, have that extra timeto do a warm up before you get
on the bike or do yoga beforebed.
Great, I think that's anawesome use of your extra time
(31:20):
rather than just only ridingyour bike more or running or
whatever your activity is.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah, couldn't agree more.
So I think you know the realkey here is is consistency
throughout the year, balance it,have moderation and build those
good habits as we enter in thatnew year time of season.
And so, to bring this thinghome, I really want all of our
listeners to take this time toactually slow down, be honest
(31:48):
with themselves of what they canget in training wise before the
new year and if the reality isnot a lot of hours, know that
you know all the gains of 2024,they're not going to go away
overnight, they're not going togo away over a week.
Okay, you know, even if you'rejust sitting on the couch from
now until new year.
(32:08):
Even the research says that'snot how fitness and physiology
works.
So Renee anything that you wantto add to that in the way of
shaping up if you got extra timeor not, a lot of extra time.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Yeah, I'm going to kind of take it off coaching a
little bit and be like enjoyspending time with your family
and friends, whether you havemore time to train, you know,
maybe you don't have to ride sixhours a day, maybe you can
spend.
You know, you know I just, youknow, feel that way.
You know I have older parents.
(32:45):
It's great to spend time withparents If you have younger kids
and it's, you know, great to.
You know the wonders of theholidays for the younger kids
and everyone in between that youknow this is a great time to do
that and you don't have toworry so much about your
training over these two weeks,whether it's on the high side or
the low side of that.
(33:05):
Yes, it's going to move theneedle a little bit one way or
the other, but it's not going tomake or break your year.
So you know, enjoy the holidays, your year.
So you know, enjoy the holidays, have pie for breakfast and
enjoy.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Well said.
Thank you, renee, for joiningus, and thanks to you listeners
for always tuning into eachepisode, and to all endurance
athletes out there.
We wish you a happy holiday.
Thanks for joining us on theTime Crunch Cyclist podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even moreactionable training advice, head
(33:39):
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
your training to the next level.
That's all for now.
Until next time, train hard,train smart, train right.
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