(crowd cheering)
(whistling) (clapping)
- At the start of the year,
I decided having barely ridden my bike
for a couple of years that it was time to get fit.
So I got in contact with The Sufferfest
who kindly agreed to provide me
with a detailed 10-week training program.
And with a lead who provided me
with a Drivo II Smart Trainer,
upon which to do that training.
Could I go from zero to hero?
We'll see.
It all started on January 2nd,
I hopped on the bike to do a 4DP Full Frontal test.
A rude awakening in more ways than one.
Physically it was brutal
and mentally it was quite tough, too.
My Power Values across the board were at least
30% down on my peak from eight years ago.
Except for my sprint, which wasn't too far off.
The question was, how fit could I get in 10 weeks?
The premise, very simple.
I'd spend about four hours a week training on the bike
and half an hour or so training off it.
Which, even involved some twerking.
Apart from all that, I really didn't change anything at all,
and that was really part of this.
My lifestyle has remained essentially the same,
and so has my diet.
Which, I say is reasonably good anyway,
but I've certainly not denied myself a cake
if I've wanted one, or a beer if I've wanted one, or two.
So what exactly have I been doing for the last
10 and a half weeks?
Well, I've got some stats for you.
I did 43 rides, 39 of which were indoor,
two of them were in the South of France,
and two out on the road in The New Forest.
All training rides were designed around
the numbers that I produced on the 1st test.
And then subsequently, on the numbers I produced
on the Half Monty, which was a slightly easier
midterm test, which bumped my numbers up slightly.
I had ridden for just under 40 hours in total
and burned 34,000 calories.
So that has been my journey over the last 10 weeks.
Now, before this evening, I do my 4DP Test,
then we see what the numbers are like
after 10 weeks of training.
But 1st, I went back to Bath University
to see what else has changed in my body.
So nine and a half weeks into this now,
I'm back with Jonathan here, at University of Bath
to check whether any of my general fitness parameters
have improved.
Lets go through what we're doing again.
- So what we're going to do is look at hight and weight.
Might be some slight changes there,
do the skin folds again to look at body composition,
lung function, the strength test on both
strength dyno and vertical jump as well.
- Yeah, vertical jump was pathetic last time.
(chuckling)
It might not have improved at all but we'll see.
(upbeat music)
- 51.
88.5.
- Not as much as I thought.
- It's still a half centimeter.
- This next one is like the moment of truth,
cause the central abdominal part last time,
it's was over 23 millimeters,
I haven't made any efforts to loose any weight,
by the way, if anything I've been eating more
since I started exercising again, so, here he goes.
(upbeat music)
- 18.5...
- Whoa, five millimeters less, I'm happy with that.
I'm not my former self, but I'm getting there.
(upbeat music)
(blowing)
- And it's still saying your lungs are the age,
below 20 years, in terms of lung age, so.
- Isn't that nice.
Alright.
(exercise machine rowing)
(labored breathing)
(stomping) I don't know why I kicked my legs in the air.
- Yeah, so try and keep your legs straight.
(chuckling)
- Alright, all done.
In conclusion, not dramatic changes to the strength,
if anything, I went down in my legs,
but some improvements on weight and fat percentage.
- Yeah, so probably what we'd expect, really,
so body weight's a little bit less,
couple of kilograms, which is quite good,
and then the body fat percentage is about 2% lower.
Which is really good in nine, ten weeks.
- And any chance of me making the
high jump team with my improvement?
- Maybe not just yet.
(laughing)
- Yeah, so 2 centimeters improvement there,
but a long way to go.
And that 10 weeks has led me here, to Mallorca,
because some bright sport had the ideal I should
do my final 4DP Test in front of an audience.
Which is going to be great fun.
I've got a new canyon bike,
which I started riding a week ago.
I've got some new Physique Shoes,
which I've been beating in for the last week too.
They got to be worth a few watts of extra morale,
I would've thought.
One thing I haven't done, though, is shave my legs,
for a couple of years, in fact.
So I recon I'll get another two watts from
(electric razor vibrating)
feeling like a cyclist again.
(cheering)
I'm in my robe, I feel like a bit of a tit to be honest.
Here we are.
(cheering)
(energetic music)
- Alright mate, looking good, looking good.
- But I've got, I've got my belly out.
It's time, it's 9pm, the audience is already
sipping on beer, which I'm quite jealous about,
but I am sort of looking forward to his 4DP Test
Full Frontal.
Let's see whether I've gotten anywhere close to here,
and exactly how much I've improved.
So I've got my brain in gear.
Well, I've been thinking about it for the last 10 weeks,
so, I'll give it my all, and see where it gets me.
(suspenseful music)
- [announcer] Okay, 10 seconds to go. It's going down.
Game face mate, game face.
(cheering) (clapping)
- [Announcer] Three, two, one, go!
(yelling) (cheering)
(clapping) (cheering)
- You're at that lower cadence
but if you're at a little higher cadence
you actually will get a little higher acceleration
and a higher true P power.
- Personal coaching, see if it works.
(mumbled announcer speaking)
And he is off!
(cheering)
(suspenseful music)
- Here you go mate, come on!
Say mate, just 20 seconds to go, come on!
- [Crowd] Five, four, three, two, one!
(whistling) (cheering)
- One of the good things about one of these tests
is that they actually give you some time off the bike.
Stop pedaling for a minute or so.
I'm enjoying that at the moment,
before I embark on the 20 minute.
- Want some ice?
- Yeah, please.
(crowd talking)
There's another one on your back as well.
- That'll work.
- It's good work, it's good work.
(suspenseful music)
- [Announcer] Go on mate, keep that power up,
keep that power up.
- [Neal] You got it, yes, yes.
He looks amazing, yeah.
(suspenseful music)
- Keep it up Lloydy, you're doing a very good job.
- By the way, can you just have a look at that pain face,
this is Lloydy with just four and a half minutes to go
with 20 minute threshold test.
That is some serious effort.
Come on Lloydy, dig in mate.
(cheering)
- [Crowd] Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five
four, three, two, one.
(cheering) (clapping)
(whistles) (cheering)
- I hate to say it, but he's actually quite good, isn't he?
- I know, he's better than most.
- [Announcer] All he's got to do otherwise is
one last minute, full gas, okay.
And, we were talking earlier, you were saying
that this is the point in which, actually,
the training really kicks in.
- Just the one minute test to go.
So mostly, I'm pretty pleased with that.
It's one of those things where you want to do it
and see well you're going,
but you really want it to be over as well.
- Can we bring you up to a level three,
just a little bit more?
Or do you want to stay, you're at level two right now.
You were a four for the first.
- Yeah, go on now, we'll put it at level three.
- In the middle.
- Amazing when people do stuff for you.
After 10 weeks at home in the garage,
adjusting the levels myself, on my laptop,
it was on top of my wife's Jaguar.
- [Crowd] Three, two, one, go!
(cheering)
- [Crowd] Go, go, go, go!
- 15 seconds to go, come on Lloydy!
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five,
four, three, two, one!
(cheering) (clapping)
(announcer muffling)
(cheering) (clapping)
- That was massive you (beeping) man, well done.
- So just to recap, tomorrow (mumbling).
- I guess you'll want to hear the results,
whether I improved, whether I hit my own targets,
or whether I was closer to Neal's estimation
that I'd improve by 10%.
I, of course, wanted to get 300 watts FTP, but they're in.
So, we're going to start and go in order of the tests.
So 1st in there, 5 seconds.
- Sprint, back in January you hit a 10, well, 1,035 watts.
Last night, you broke a 1,000 watts,
and you went seven watts higher at 1,042 watts.
So, in the plus category already.
- Seven watts?
What, what percentage is seven watts?
- Well, that's 0.67, to be precise.
- Yeah, well it, it's going in the right direction,
but not very quickly from that point of view.
(chuckling)
So, we'll quickly move on the five minute test,
which came after that.
- Yeah, this is a big one, so back in January,
you averaged 309 watts.
Your max heart rate during that was 178.
We know you went hard.
Last night, you went up to 353 watts average,
which is really nice.
You had a max heart rate of 175
and that represents a 14.2% improvement.
Which is really big in 10 weeks.
- Yeah, I'm pleased with that.
And I got Neal to get the heart rates because,
again, underneath the original video,
there few people who had claimed I wasn't
putting enough effort in because I didn't sweat enough.
I promise you, I went as hard as I could on both.
And actually, yeah, my heart rate was higher
for the 1st test than it was last night.
The 20 minute test.
(fingers drumming on table)
Did I hit 300 watts, or did I improve by 10%,
as Neal predicted?
We're about to find out.
So, the original one was 244 watts
on January 2nd, and last night?
- [Neal] 286.
- Yeah, I'm quite, I'm pleased with that.
- 17.2%, that's massive.
- Yeah, in hindsight, the 300 watt ambition
was over-ambitious, I think, is fair to say.
- Yeah, but, you still had massive improvement
and that's really exceptional,
and we know you went all in.
You averaged 163 beats per minute back in January.
You averaged 165 beats per minute last night.
And, if you watch the video, you're going to see,
there was no holding back.
You were (whistles), at the end.
So that was, that was what you had.
- I was, and I think I probably didn't pace it
really well because I was so determined to
hit the 300 watts that I probably started a bit too hard.
- You might have hit in the 290's at least.
- Yes, possibly.
- You left a little on the table.
- We'll know next time if I decide to do a 4DP Test again.
And finally...
- When, when.
(chuckles)
- Yes, well we'll discuss that afterwards.
(chuckles)
- Finally, the one minute test.
I'm happy with this one.
So 440 watts back on January 2nd, last night?
- Big jump.
538 watts, that's a 98 watt increase.
Absolutely massive. 22.2%.
You are an attacker.
You are able to go deep.
- Yeah.
- That's big.
- Yes, well, I mean, that was what I was good at
back in the day, was the short,
one to three minute, kind of climbs.
But we were also discussing before we started filming,
that part of my increase in that one, I mean,
is all down to finish, but it's also partly
down to the fact that when you're fitter,
you recover quicker between these efforts.
So I had more in the tank, as it were,
for that final one minute test than I had in January.
- Definitely, and that's kind of part of the
type of training that you did, focusing on your capacity
and targeting across those ranges,
that peak neuromuscular power,
the max aerobic power, anerobic capacity,
and the ability to then repeat
and hit that max effort after maximal five minute
and 20 minute, really shows, that,
that kind of improvement is across the board,
and really, really nice to see.
- Yeah, I did have a slightly higher heart rate
for the one minute this time versus last time.
And I must admit, I did go deeper.
In fact, it was very noisy.
There was a lot of encouragement,
and the sound kind of ebbed away.
I went into a dark place during the one minute this time.
Right, before we finish, I know a number of you
were asking me what my top Peak Powers were
back in the day when I was riding full-time.
And Neal was kindly going back
through my training peaks, which I was good at.
- You did a really good job.
Being, you know, if you could write down
a little bit of information of what you're doing
in your training log, that's really helpful in the future.
Your future self will thank you, if you do that.
- Yes, well I, I'm going to thank myself now,
because I'm pleased with one of them in particular.
Anyway, we'll start at five seconds.
- Back in 2008, April of 2008, in fact, 1,180 watts.
So actually, you know, you're pretty close
to that still at best, 1,042.
- Yes, well I have actually beaten that in a
GTM video a couple videos ago,
which I think proves that freshness is better.
If you want to get the best sprint power.
Five minute peak?
- 485 watts, that's in March of 2009.
That's, that's throwing down some big watts, man.
- Yeah, only 20 watts more than what
Bradley Wiggins did for an hour,
but still, I mean, it's not too bad.
(chuckling)
20 minutes?
- 396 watts man, knocking on that 400 watt.
If we look at the plus or minus, you know,
the, the variability of power meter,
we could almost call that 400 watt.
(laughing)
- Yes, let's-- - I call that 400 watts.
- Let's call it 400 watts, which is kind of
an FTP, I guess it's sort of 375 to 380.
Bare in mind that all these ones were done fresh,
as opposed to the 4DP Test where you're a bit fatigued
after sprints, after 20 minutes, after five minutes, etc.
And finally, the one I'm most proud of,
is my one minute Peak Power.
- Cinco de Mayo of 2010, you knocked out 773 watts,
that is monstrous, man.
- [Dan] Yeah, a weight of 69 kilos,
so about 11 watts per kilo.
- That's big, so again, do you know how many
watts there are in horsepower?
- No.
- 746, so you my friend are a member of the stallion club.
(clapping)
- Oh no, I've got one horsepower,
no, I had one horsepower.
- Excess, in excess of one horsepower, man.
- Right, well I'm going to thank you,
even though I said earlier that I hated you.
I have enjoyed the last few weeks, I think.
It's been hard, but its been great
to see the numbers go up, and to get fitter.
One last question.
Where do you think the ceiling is?
If I continue to do 10, sorry,
four hours per week indefinitely,
at what point would I stop improving,
and also what do you think the numbers would be,
at that point?
- Yeah, so, there's a little bit of a
diminishing return with training.
The more you do, the less you get, as a benefit.
So, these kind of gains that you had,
14%, 70%, 22%, are not sustainable, another four weeks.
You might gain closer to half of that in another 10 weeks.
And then another, closer to half of that,
and so it would take, not quite a year
until you kind of level off.
The other thing we would do is play and tweak with
the type of training that you did
and the workouts, and have blocks of training
focusing on a certain type of thing to, maybe,
make a gain somewhere and then hold steady somewhere else.
So, probably within a year, though,
you'd pretty well plateau in four weeks,
four hours a week and we might need to
just bump up a little bit of training volume
here and there to have some continued gains
into well over a year though.
- Now there were a few comments underneath
the initial video, and I've also received a few messages
along the same line claiming that,
because I am an ex-professional rider,
the gains that I made over the 10 weeks,
are not going to be representative of what somebody else
might be able to expect over the same 10 weeks,
doing the same training program.
And I think that is true, to an extent.
You know, there's the muscle memory, etc.
And there's no doubt I would've gained fitness,
just by doing four hours steady per week on the bike,
versus doing nothing beforehand.
But I definitely wouldn't have made the massive gains
that I have done with this very specific program.
But I did write to Sufferfest,
and I got them to collect all the results from the
other people that have been doing the same
10-week training program to see what their gains were.
And here they are.
So the average gain for five seconds, the sprint, was 13.2%.
For the one minute it was 13%.
For the Maximal Aerobic Power it was 14.1%.
And then for the Functional Threshold Power,
which was the 20-minute test, it was 12.7%.
And I would say, that is pretty blooming impressive.
When you consider the fact that it was only
up to four hours a week on the bike,
and up to an hour a week off the bike,
which included strength training,
mental strength training, and yoga.
As I said, that's very impressive.
Although, in the interest of being open and honest,
I did actually do more yoga over those 10 weeks
than I was prescribed because I was enjoying it,
and I guess that might give it reasons to why
I've grown by a half a centimeter in 10 weeks, too.
I do think, though, that those stats prove,
beyond doubt, that this training really does work.
And there's good reason for it,
because all the training you do
is based on your own personal best.
Your metrics from five seconds, one minute,
five minutes, and twenty minutes, that fact means
that every minute spent on your bike is worth while,
and achieving something.
And it also proves that you don't need long rides
and base training to get a hell of a lot fitter in 10 weeks.
Have I enjoyed the 10 weeks?
I'm sure you're asking yourself.
I've asked myself the same thing.
There were points where I though I wasn't,
but actually, looking back, I have.
I've enjoyed the process of it.
I've enjoyed ticking the boxes and hitting the numbers,
but then, that was kind of what floated my boat
when I was a cyclist anyway.
I didn't hit my 300 watt FTP target,
but at the same time, I'm still pleased
because I did all I could.
So what's next?
I don't really know, is the answer to that.
I don't really have much in the way of plans.
This time next week, if you're watching this
the day the video comes out,
I will be doing a New Forest Sportive with Wiggle.
That's about 80 miles, but beyond that,
I don't really have any plans.
But I am going to try and get on my bike more often.
I am going to try and stay fit.
Anyway, if for whatever reason you happen to miss
the initial video that we put out in January,
then you can find that by clicking just down here.
And also, if you've enjoyed watching me suffer
for the last few weeks, please give this video a thumbs up.
Cheers mate, cheers.
(crowd talking)
Doesn't taste as good as normal, yeah.
Like a mix of beer and sick.