[music] James: What if I wanted to hold a normal 9:00
to 5:30 job down, but also, right at the highest level? Is it even possible? Well, to find out,
I set myself a challenge. Can I train like a pro, but also, hold down a normal job? First things
first, I need to find a coach that can set me a program, someone who knows the ins and outs about
how a world tour rider trains. Well, I'm joined by Stefan of Spokes coaching. Stefan, I'm hoping
you're going to sort me out a training program. Stefan: When I try to build your training, I
try to keep in mind your rider profile obviously as you're a sprinter guy I would say.
Of course, when you said pro training, I could give you a recovery week in
December which would be doable easily, but I opted for something that's not average,
a little bit more than average but not maximum volume week. I think it should be doable.
We'll see, of course, how good you would do. James: If you were someone who was aspiring to be
pro, but you still had to work, how would you go about fitting in your training your
recovery but also working to earn a living? Stefan: That's a really tough one. Of course,
it depends on your goals, where you want to shine. If you want to shine at a race that
is basically five hours full gas like the national championships. It's super,
super hard because you need to get the volume in. Of course, you can get the most out of every
training session by doing short intense sessions, but then it depends on the rider type. If he or
she can actually maintain that high intensity for a longer period in the race. Basically, you can
do a lot with short sessions, but targeting those long races, it's really a challenge.
James: How important nowadays are the endurance rides? Back in the day, it was all about long
hours, five, six, seven-hour rides. Now, it got more scientific. We're now looking at the
shorter rides but more intense and we're looking at all the different efforts. We're always seeing
a change in the tide where we might actually have more time if you're riding pro or if you're riding
as a pro-Conti ride than you had 10 years ago. Stefan: If you're preparing for your Thursday
night grit, of course, you can take a shortcut by ditching endurance for the most part, but thinking
of a pro-level especially at very long races to a certain degree, you still need to put in
the hours. Of course, the scientific approach now with a lot of interval work changes it, but still,
it's a lot of volume that you have to put in. James: This program is typical of a Tour de
France sprinter or a classics rider a few weeks out of a big event like the Tour de France or a
classics event. The week I've been set starts with Monday which is an hour and a half with a massage.
Tuesday is four and a half hours with a training session with a PT so that's working on your core.
The Wednesday session is a one and a half hour fasted ride before breakfast and a 2 hour and 40
minutes with efforts. Thursday is five hours and a massage appointment. Friday, I get a rest day.
Saturday, no carbs morning ride three hours and an hour and a half after breakfast.
Sunday, it's a big endurance day, five and a half hours. That's my program. Now, I only have
three days. Well, I need to do three days of it, but I hope that these three
days will just show you how hard it is to hold down that nine-to-five job but also
put in the hours those world tour or pro-Conti riders put in. Tomorrow, I've got a so a solid
day at the office, so I've got to be in the office from 9:00 and I've got to be there till 5:30.
Well, tomorrow's session is four and a half hours in the morning. That includes 4 times 15 minutes
of sub FTP efforts, 90% of FTP, and include 15 seconds per [unintelligible 00:04:08] and 750
watts every two minutes. I've also got a training session with a PT for core chucked in there. I'm
trying to think how I'm going to fit all this in. My plan is to get two hours in before work
and then two and a half hours in after work and then I'll try to fit in a PT session after that.
I guess it's going to be an early morning. I'm going to set my alarm.
I need to be in the office from 9:00 so I need to set my alarm for--
I need to leave here at 6:00. I guess it's a 5:00 AM wake up tomorrow. Right,
5:00. I'm going to add get up you lazy sod in there just to make sure I get in.
[background noise] [unintelligible 00:05:06] I go.
[music] That's my two hours done. Like I always say I
actually feel good. Working me up two hours before breakfast. Now, time to have some breakfast,
showered, changed, and off to work. [sighs] I would normally just do that once in a day and
I'll go do it again tonight so I'm not looking forward to that but so far so good. All right.
Off we go to work. [music]
It's twelve o'clock now. I feel a little bit tired. It worries me that,
well, I just don't think I'll be able to maintain this every single day for more than a day. First
day in, I've still got solid five and a half hours left of work and then I hit the bike again.
Right, more filming. Today, we're talking all about nutrition. I'm joined here with Sir Bradley
Wiggins, the winner of the 2012 Tour de France. I thought I'd ask him the same question. Brad,
do you think it is even possible to hold down a nine-to-five job and train
like a world tour or pro-Conti pro? Bradley: Probably not, but it depends what the
level you're aiming. Do you need to be training like a world tour pro? Unless you are one,
there's probably no need to really. It all depends on what your goals are. I think if you're trying
to do your best while having a job and perform at the best and obviously, world tour riders
are deemed to have the best training programs, et cetera, et cetera, you can take elements of that
and reconstruct it to fit around your life. I think being able to go and do seven hours
or maybe do a calorie deficit ride in order to burn fats and things, it's not
really possible if you have to go to work. James: I guess the biggest thing that you're
missing is that recovery time. How important is recovery to be able to aid doing top-level racing?
Bradley: Well, I think it's everything really. Most people have families as well. Obviously,
if you're working nine-to-five plus the travel hours around it, you probably wouldn't have
much of a marriage if you then went out and did three or four hours plus. In the winter times,
we lose light at the times you want to go and train. I think it's almost impossible to, but
that's not to say that you can't take elements of that. I think it's more just the quality.
Chris Boardman, when he turned professional in 1994, was training very much at the
[unintelligible 00:07:47] zone system which had just come in so it's purely science.
They developed Maxim which was the first glucose polymer that you could re-fuel to the
same extent by eating food. Chris Boardman, for the first year or two, again, was only
doing eight-hour training weeks, but every one minute of that eight hours was of some quality.
He basically cut out all the junk miles really which we know are essential in some aspects of the
sport in terms of fat burning and efficiency. Chris took a very scientific structure
predominantly because he believed in the science and numbers, but also because
he didn't really enjoy riding his bike. He'd be out the door 2 hours at
350 watts and back rather than doing six hours at 200 watts. It worked for him for a period, but he
soon realized that he'd have to train a lot. When his goals changed to trying to win the
Tour de France, he accepted that he was going to have to do aspects of the tour which are required
and the demands of the event in order to try and win it. It really depends on what your goals are.
James: As a world tour rider and coming from your background, would you say, to the average
person watching this, is being a world tour rider all-consuming? Does it take up your entire life?
Bradley: Yes. Well, I think it has to. I think by nature of the fact you're getting paid. Like most
people's jobs, you take it serious. Cycling and elite sport, in general, now has become
so brutal and it is all-consuming really and it does consume you because it's about getting
the best out of yourself on a daily basis and the best out of yourself on a daily basis is not just
what you do on the bike. It's what you put in your mouth and it's also the rest. Simple things like
you may go shopping for a day with your family on a day off and that seems to be unprofessional.
You need to put your feet up because the recovery time is just as important as the training miles.
That answers the question that it is almost impossible to train like a world tour rider
and have a nine-to-five job, but then I'd say that you don't need to is what I would say because the
reason they train as a world tour rider is because they have to ride world tour races.
James: Let's just stick by 5:30. Time to go back home. I'm not going to lie. I'm actually
feeling quite tired. A day at work actually takes a lot out of you so trying to train around it
is definitely quite difficult. An hour's drive home, and then back on the bike.
I'm an hour in, to my ride with the GCN club. Luckily, I've got [unintelligible 00:10:19] with
me. I've got an hour and a half after this. It's fair to say my legs are sore but
I've been enjoying some good company with the GCN club and of course [unintelligible 00:10:35].
[music] It's 9:30. I've done two and a half hours on the
Zwift tonight. That's four and a half hours in the day. I'm absolutely shattered but I'm going to get
some food then go to bed. Tomorrow, it's another early start.
[music] As you can tell,
I've just gotten up. I'm feeling pretty tired today,
but I've got an hour and a half to do before nine o'clock. The time is seven o'clock.
[music] Nine o'clock, coffee in hand.
I'll start some work. I've got to say though I do actually feel a little bit better for doing
some exercise before work. I think it's just the accumulation of yesterday's. I reckon I could put
out an hour most mornings and not be too bad. It's just the evening workout as well, that takes out
of me. Now in order to show you how hard it really is and to show the amount of recovery needed,
and the amount of strain upon my body, the training and working will be, I'm using Whoop.
Now Whoop is designed to show you how much recovery it needs. It helps monitor your
sleep and also your training so that you can perform at your very best. Currently,
it's day two into my train like a pro around a nine-to-five. I'm Whooping at 37%. 100% is when
you're ready to go and you're ready to do a big day or race. Obviously, going into the red means
that you need recovery and you need to relax. Amber is well, move forward with caution which
doesn't really bow well seeing as I'm only one day into my three days of training like a pro.
I'm going to use my lunch break to have a snooze, so bear with me. The time is 5:30,
the sun is still up. After a day at the desk, I'm going to hit the bike. Two hours 40 minutes
with some efforts planned. Hopefully, I can do it before the sun goes down, fingers crossed.
[music] While I'm putting in my training,
there is one person that did a degree while riding at high level. His name is Larry Warbasse
and he rides for AG2R La Mondiale. He managed to do it but I think he found it easier
when he stopped uni and gone straight on cycling but here's what he had to say.
Larry: When I was going to university and I was still racing for the national team, and
I was still trying to live the college student life. I was trying to get really good grades,
still have a social life, and train to race at the high elite level.
It was really hard. It's like I didn't sleep very much and I definitely wore myself down.
Then also I went to school in Michigan where I'm from, and it's really cold there.
I spent a lot of time on the turbo, and this was before Zwift existed so it wasn't really
that pleasant. I was still able to train pretty hard but not to the level that I can train now.
Also just trying to juggle around my class schedules and everything,
it wasn't super easy but I'm glad I did. I think I learned a lot during that time period
just on time management and everything. Hank: The sun is slowly going down behind me.
I'm feeling pretty tired today. I'm not going to lie. What I'm totally worried about is I've
got a very early start tomorrow morning to be able to get all the training before I start work.
I think you can see that it's near impossible to do all this training, be able to hold down
nine to five, be able to eat, and if you want a social life or any sort of family life, then
well that comes into it as well. Yes, it's hard.
The time is now five o'clock. On my training program, I'm meant to be doing
five hours. I've got to leave by 6:30, so I've only really got an hour. I think it's
fair to say that it's nearly impossible to do this program and do it for a nine-to-five job.
I'm going to go back to bed. Sorry. Sorry, coach.
[music] Hank: As you can imagine being a GTN presenter,
what isn't your typical nine-to-five office job. I mean I get to ride in cool places, but as well,
we've got some early mornings that were spent in kit. Luckily today, I'm joined by Mark Beaumont,
and we're doing some shooting today. I thought it was a fantastic opportunity to ask Mark how
he's become an ultra-endurance athlete as well as holding down all the other commitments
you've got to do so. How do you do it? Mark: It's a juggle. For 15 years, I've been
trying to both plan the event and do the event. I guess for any adventure athletes, watching
and trying to understand about time management and training, it's that added element of the fact that
there's no systems and structures around you. If you're a pro-rider or a tour rider,
you know it comes with that is your job. Ride the bike. Whereas everything that happens
off the bike is also your job when you're an adventure athlete. I've always relished that.
I've always enjoyed that challenge but it's a heck of a juggle. In fact, the person holding
the camera is Laura Penhold, my performance manager. On the build-up to the around the
world in 80 days, her role was as much about my time management as an athlete and getting me to
my best possible conditioning and fitness, whilst also juggling the workload of raising sponsorship
and logistics for this incredible 18,000 mile mission, young family life.
I remember so many conversations with Laura on the performance front were actually about
my recovery and about just how we juggle this. We just didn't have enough time in the day as opposed
to just geeking out on your FTP and hit sessions. Hank: I've just got back from work it's
what, eight o'clock and there's just no way I'm going to be able to fit five hours in.
I guess this is the end of my challenge, and let's just say,
it wasn't easy. No, far from it actually. I thought it'd be easier than this. I've come
to the end of my three-day experiment, and to tell you the truth, I'm absolutely knackered. Holding
down a nine to five job, and then training a world tour training program around it,
I think you can agree is near impossible. It just shows the importance of sleep.
Performing at your highest whether it be at work, or whether it be in training, you need
sleep and you need recovery. That doesn't mean it's impossible though to do university work or
work a job while training and performing at a high level. I guess you need to be really
smart with your training. Be efficient. The hours that you put in training make
it quality based, getting in some good efforts. Maybe even think about getting a coach so you're
performing at your best when you need to be. I guess as well we learned from Brad and Larry
Warbasse that if you're specific with your goals, then you can train towards those goals.
If you don't really need those endurance hours, then you don't need to spend the time doing it.
That's the end of the video. I hope you guys enjoyed it and it just showed you how
difficult it is to train around a nine-to-five job but, it's not impossible. Get good at time
management and work on specific training. Right, I'm going to go and sleep for a week,
and hopefully, Tsai and Dan don't need me for work. I'll see you in the next video. Oh yes,
don't forget, give it a big thumbs up. [00:19:36] [END OF AUDIO]