The Ultimate Cyclist Checklist

This podcast is brought to you by Trivelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you train smarter to race faster. I'm your host, Jordan Donnelly, and on my left is former Australian Ironman champion and head coach of Trivalo Coaching, Gerard Donnelly. What does it actually take to get the most out of your cycling performance? Today we're going to go through a checklist of the top 30 things you you need to do to become the ultimate cyclist. When we say ultimate cyclist, we don't mean become the world's most elite cyclist. We mean become the most complete package of a cyclist you can for you. And if you go through this checklist and understand each thing that we say today, you will see exactly the things you need to tick off to become the best cyclist possible for you. So really excited to get into this list. In this episode. There's a lot of things to go through. As always, dad, welcome to the episode. And first things first, what is your gratitude for the day?

Thanks, Jord. It's almost a bit embarrassing, but I did come off on the bunch ride on last weekend. Just one of those innocuous crashes and you know, for everybody out there, it's okay. You will crash eventually. It's just when and you hope that it's going to be the most minor crash you could possibly have. So I'm grateful that I, even though I hit the deck and banged my backside and my arm, I was able to catch, get back up and ride on to finish off the bunch ride, even though my front wheel was buckled. But I'm really grateful that I wasn't injured any more than I was. So you can hit the deck and come off second best and, you know, it can really derail whatever you've been planning to do over the next six months, six weeks. And you know, there's been quite a few people that I coach who have actually been hit by a car. Stevie Mac is in Scotland, got hit by a deer, which is pretty remarkable at 60ks an hour and fractured pelvis hip. Paula got hit by a car just, you know, on a training ride. So, yeah, it is one of those things that you just try to avoid and sometimes it's totally out of your control. But I'm just grateful that I actually came out of it without really being injured.

And more importantly, the, the beautiful Trivello coloured giant T TCR that you have is all intact and not scratched, which is the most important thing.

Exactly right.

My gratitude is going to be once again grateful for the Tour de France. I know I was grateful for that last episode, but I just cannot get enough of it. And every night I say to myself, you've got to go to bed early, just watch the replay in the morning, watch the stage highlights. And I just chuck it on. I think I'll just. I'll just put it on for a little bit. And I inevitably almost watch the entire thing of each stage. I honestly just can't get enough of it. And I'm absolutely loving it.

Yeah, I have to agree with you there.

Yeah. And speaking of that, we wanted to touch on the Tour de France a little bit, because before we get into the topic of the episode, and once again, by the time this episode comes out, the Tour de France will be finished. It will be done and dusted and someone will have won. Will it have been Poga? Will it have been Vinegar? Or will it have been Geraint Thomas, who just keeps lurking in the background with a strong team behind him? And we just want to change through some of the tactics so far, because whether the Tour de France is on or not, the principles of what's happening still apply. And there's some key things we've noticed throughout the race that can be applied to any age group athlete. And the first one is we talk about this a lot, but, yeah, respecting the event, respecting the race, and understanding when efforts are going to cost you. And we've seen over the first few weeks, Vinagard and Poga are clearly the two strongest riders, but will their efforts cost them in the last week, the amount of sprints that Pogajar has been doing almost unnecessarily throughout stages, just because he's got young legs and, and very good legs, Will that cost him in this last week compared to the. The more experienced Guarant Thomas, who's just riding his tempo, not going above himself, but he's still 20 seconds behind Boguchar in the overall standings.

Yeah, and look, you probably left out Quintana there in your, in your, your top contenders. I think they're the only ones that are left. And look at this stage. The. They've had one day in the Pyrenees and they've got really only three more stages that the Tour can be decided on, which is the time trial and a couple more stages in the Pyrenees and then it's Champs Elysees and one more sprint stage. So that's. That's where we're at when we're talking about this. So to give people context and perspective of where we're at, because when you hear this, obviously it will be post Tour de France and we will be making predictions based on what we know at this particular day. So burning matches, that's really an interesting topic, isn't it? And it seems to me that the younger generation of riders haven't felt the effects of burning matches. And I've got a feeling that it could come and bite them. And I did say to someone, look, didn't seem to affect Picacho over the last two years. He could do whatever he liked and still win. But then he did crack two or three days ago, which, which was one of the, the all time best Tour stages I've seen in, I don't know, 20 or 30 years. It was unbelievable. There was just so much happening, so much attacking and you know, to be fair, Vinegard came out on top and Jumbo Visma, their tactics were horrible, but their tactics actually worked in the end. It could have backfired so badly. You know, Woot Van are going back and bringing the other bunches up and then, and then Vinegar actually, you know, cracking Poguchar. So I just think there's more to play out here and who knows what, what can happen. But Pogachar's got his work cut out. You know, from this point on, all Vinegard has to do is defend and, and if he does that well and just, just follows Poga wherever he goes, he will win the Tour. The time trialing isn't very different. They're, you know, the worst result between the two time trials over the last two years has been about 30, 35 seconds. And in one of those time trials, Vinegar won and it was only a 13k prologue but vinegar beat pocket chart. So, so that's the time trialing you can almost, you know, because they're two minutes apart and I just can't see Vinegar has to really crack for Poga to, to win. And so, you know, it's really, it's really up to UAE to, to, you know, isolate Vinegar and, and his team, Jumbo Visma, which is, you know, Sepp Kuss had a great race last night and did everything, you know, beautifully to protect his GC rider. And I, I just can't see it happening. And Solaire got, you know, ill stomach problems and had to drop out. So, you know, UAE are down to, you know, two or three helpers. It's going to be a race of attrition. And this is where those early efforts that you just mentioned at the start of the question was will, will those early efforts come back to bite uae? And I think, I think they will. And this will be something that we'll talk about after the Tour. If but Gacha actually loses the Tour, I would say those stages where he won, you know, and attacked and, and one and sprinted, where he could have let other teams win the stage and get into yellow and be allies to help chase breakaways. I think this is a mistake that he made and Alan Piper's not there. He's back in Australia, and I think that's the difference. And who would have thought that someone with a really calming nature like Alan Piper as a, as a director, sportif could, could have not allowed those things to happen? Probably, and I'm only giving my opinion here, but I just think that's, that's been crucial to the way that the team has ridden this Tour. And you talked about almost disrespecting the race. Well, I don't think it's disrespecting. I just think it's naivety to think that, you know, continuous efforts aren't going to eventually catch up with you over three weeks. And that's the nature of Grand Tours, isn't it?

Well, SBS actually mentioned Alan Piper last night, and because he's not there, they said that Pogachar said he'd spoken to him and his advice was, you need to calm down and you need to not do so many attacks. And it's exactly what we're talking about. He's, he's saying to him, you're doing too much. And teams like last night, he didn't listen. And that was just one example because he was absolutely gung ho off the front in some questionable times. And that's just how he seems to ride. But it will be interesting. I mean, both UAE and Jumbo are getting decimated by the day. Jumbo were absolutely on their limit last night with helpers. You know, one less helper and I feel like Vinegard would have had to be on the front himself, you know, dragging the peloton along, which is. You don't see that from a yellow jersey rider. But they're almost there. So a few more cracks and INEOS can come through very strong.

Yeah, and I, I totally agree. I, I think INEOS have still got some cards to play. I know Geraint Thomas isn't good enough to ride with Vinegar and Bagacha, we know that, but he's got a diesel engine. He has won this Tour before, so, you know, you never know what's going to happen next. And it could all unravel. Those two could blow each other up and you know, Geraint Thomas sails through the sunset and, and, you know, gets time back. You know, they've got so many cards to play with Yates and Pidcock and they've got a full team, you know, so, so don't underestimate Dave Brailsford's ability to manipulate, even though he doesn't have the best rider in the race. So this is something that, you know, we're all, we're talking about this. You know, you've got. He hasn't done anything hard, Thomas, he's, he's a great time trialer so, you know, you can't discount him there. And, and Yates is, is, hasn't thrown a punch. And, and if they put Pidcock up the road, you know, this could put pressure on UAE and Jumbo Visma because he's. Pidcock's back in the top 10. So.

Yeah, yeah. Anyway, these are all predictions because. Yeah, because by the time the episode comes out, this will all happen. So we'll see if what we're saying actually pays off. The last thing we wanted to mention on the Tour was Michael Matthews effort. The Aussie who won, the second Aussie to win a stage. And what a tour the Aussies are having. You know, two stage wins from Australian riders. Bike exchange. I've had a first and two seconds with Michael Matthews and sorry, two firsts and two seconds, which is awesome. Dylan Grunewagen won sprint. Michael Matthews won a stage. Just awesome. But we wanted to chat about his stage win because it's exactly what you talk about with. You never know what's going to happen. You just got to keep fighting. When Betiol went past him, he was on his limit. Betio gapped him. That could be it, you know, that could be race over. You could throw in the towel, but he just did everything he could to hang in there and he just didn't let that band break. And then the mental effort to come back was just unbelievable.

Yeah, he's a different rider now, Michael Matthews, he's a completely new style of rider. And we did talk about. His training has been a little bit different and it's really showing. And the fact that he spent a little bit of time with Bogaccia, it's obvious to me, but really, when Betty Old gapped him, Matthews did not throw in the towel, he just limited his losses. And then the gradient changed and that's one of the things that I don't think many of the commentators picked up on. Betiol got over Matthews when the gradient was steep. And then the gradient went back to 3 or 4% and Matthews got momentum and that all round ability that Matthews has, whereas Betty Ol was much more of a climber. Oh, that was just give Matthews a sniff. And he took it with both hands. It was brilliant riding and, you know, never say die attitude and just because you're being gapped doesn't mean race is over. So it was fantastic to see a person like that who, who is really, you know, had some, you know, really always top 10, always top 5, but never winning. And here he is now, you know, winning a stage. And don't forget, Schultz got second as well. So by the narrowest of margins stage earlier.

Yeah, that was the other second I was talking about. Yeah. So two first and two seconds for Green Edge Bike Exchange, which is just awesome.

It looked like it wasn't much of a tour for them and geez, they've done extremely well.

Yeah, absolutely. Moving on to the topic of today, the ultimate cycling checklist. If you can tick off these things, you can confidently say you are close to getting the most out of yourself. And then anything further is just advanced tactics to improve yourself. So we've broken this list up into different categories and we're going to start the. The first category of things is from a training program perspective, an overall training perspective, and number one, the first thing you need to tick off is consistency in your training frequency. So how often are you ticking off the frequency of training you need in your week? And depending on your ability, you might be doing five sessions a week, six sessions a week, or seven sessions a week, or if you're a triathlete, even more, 10 sessions a week. But the point is, how consistently are you hitting that number of sessions per week? And that is going to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, determiner of your success over a sustained period of time.

I'm so sick of writing in my coaching notes. Consistency is king, and I think it is the most important thing in your program. You can have the best written program and only do 50% of it and still be a very average cyclist in terms of your own ability, you won't improve. You could have the worst program almost, and I'm being extreme here, but if you just consistently did those sessions day after day, even though they weren't that brilliant, you would actually still be better off than a person who does 50% of a great program. I can't make it any more of a point. That that is what we should be thinking about all the time is back up, back up. Even Though I've done a really hard session today and I don't feel like doing it tomorrow. Get your shoes, get your socks on, as we say, get your shoes on and then get out there and do that session, whether it's a recovery session or you have to back up on another hard day. That's why you need to actually plan what you're doing for the week and allowing the consistency, the frequency of your training to be not interrupted. There's so many things can affect that, you know, ill health, sickness, injury, you know, life gets in the way and people think, oh, consistency is really easy to achieve. It is the hardest thing to achieve. And if you can just navigate your way through a season being the most consistent you've ever been, you will absolutely improve. Without a doubt, you will be a 10% better rider just by changing your consistency.

And that leads us to point number two. And we actually say that being consistent in training is more important than having the best program in the world because you could do a poor program, but if you did it consistently, you will actually be better off than someone who has the best program in the world and doesn't do it consistently enough. And so that does lead us to point two though. Do you have a structured training plan to follow? Do you have an effective training plan that is going to actually yield results?

Yep. And you know, some of these ones we can quickly browse over because they are less important than the others. But the structure program is right up there. You need to have the structure in your week. If you wake up each morning and go, what will I do today? That is the worst possible scenario that you could come across because you are not thinking ahead, not thinking about the big picture. You know, you're not working backwards from your A race and you are just making it up as you go. So structure in your program allows you to get to your destination in the best possible form.

The next three are all about the specifics of the training week. And the next one is, do you have variation in your sessions or are you waking up each day just doing the same kind of session? Are you fitting in two high intensity sessions per week? We want to make sure we're getting at least two really high quality, high intensity sessions per week. And are you getting in your endurance session weekly? So there's three key points there. Are you actually getting your insert in endurance session done weekly? And those are just things you can either say yes or no for. And if you're saying no, then you need to get those ticked off. And then the next Point number six is, are you testing regularly and what do we mean by testing regularly?

Well, without actually understanding whether you're improving or not, you will never actually improve. So you need to actually find out where you're at in any given block. So in terms of what do we mean by testing, we want to find out through any form that you can do whether it's a, a PB ride that you've done over an hour outside, whether it's a 20 minute FTP and whether you go to a race and see what your power numbers are. These are forms of you getting feedback to understand whether you are the same rider you were four weeks ago, or whether you've deteriorated or whether you've improved. So we're trying to understand where we're at at any given point in a block of training.

And you're trying to test people like you just said, after a block of four weeks, maybe after six weeks, but at least, at least every 12 weeks they should. And that is the upper end. And we could say for a lot of cyclists, they can't tick this box. Yes, they can't say that they're testing themselves properly. At least every six weeks, max 12 weeks. Right.

Well, the problem, Jordy, is if you do it every 12 weeks, you could do 11 weeks where you are under doing your training, or you could do 11 weeks where you're training too hard and you actually will end up worse off because you'll ride yourself into a hole. So those two scenarios are what we're trying to avoid. So 12 weeks is way beyond my expectation. Six would be my max period without having done some sort of form of where am I? You know, where are my numbers at? And leaving it more than that means you potentially could be training too hard or too easy in the next block of training and therefore preventing yourself from improving and standing still.

Basically, points number seven and eight are about your training program, how it's written, and it's basically asking are your weeks progressively increasing in frequency, volume and intensity? And if you're not progressively increasing those, you're not getting the required overload, you need to keep improving. And then on that note, point number eight is, do you also have scheduled deload weeks in your program? And you could comfortably say that a lot of athletes out there don't have scheduled deadload weeks in their recovery weeks where they allow their body to actually adapt from the previous block of training so they can continue to progressively overload.

Now, don't get us wrong here, don't misunderstand what we're saying you cannot progressively increase intensity, duration and frequency over 16 weeks. You have to have a period where you have a week or a set of training sessions where your goal is not to increase duration, intensity and frequency. In fact, your goal is to do the opposite, which is drop the intensity, drop the duration and possibly drop the frequency. And that needs to happen every third week or every fourth week, depending on your age, depending on your experience, and depending on where you're at in terms of your preparation for your race. So yes, we want to improve the frequency, duration, intensity over 16 weeks or 20 weeks or 30 weeks, whatever it is. But we can't do that every single week. There has to be the deload or recovery. So that enables you to actually, as we've used many times in the podcast, the staircase example, you do some hard training with increasing the duration, frequency and intensity and you like you're up on the upward step. And then you do this deload period where you're absolutely not improving fitness at all. You're trying to recover so that you can actually then train harder in the next block of two or three weeks. So this is a combination of two things here. Progressive overload with recovery.

And finally, the last point in this category of this list is looking at the macro cycle of your training blokes blocks and that is do you have a designated specific base period, do you have a designated specific race ready period where you are training specific to the requirements of the race and then do you have a specific taper phase period? And a lot of athletes don't, couldn't say they have these things specifically blocked out. They train pretty similarly all the way through to their race. Maybe the last couple of weeks they increase that intensity and then get into a taper. But do you, can you say you have a base period blocked out, you have a race ready period blocked out and you have a taper phase?

It's a really good point and I think there's two sides to this. There's the athlete that we're talking about who has an a race or a set of races. And then we also have the athlete who doesn't have any races but is just trying to improve, just trying to be a better, healthier person on a bike or in health in general, but they're using the bike to achieve that. So the person who's actually got a race, a target, they need to have some structure in what am I going to do early on in the season, what I'm going to do closer to the middle of the season, what am I going to do when I'm getting close to my a race? So there has to be three types of phases or four types of phases with race ready. But the person who's actually just trying to improve, you know, and hasn't got an end goal, target and end date, they still need to do that. You know, that base early preparation. Even though you don't have an end goal, you still need to not just jump into. If you've, if you've just started a program where you haven't done much training in the past, you can't just jump into, let's go for a two and a half hour, three hour endurance ride when the longest you've ridden is for 15 or 20 minutes. So, so you still have to think about having a period of preparation which is. And then once you've got a big base under your belt, even though you're not racing towards a race, you still need to then move from that period to overload. So progressively, you know, overloading your body so that you are improving rather than doing the same thing which we talked about in points 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Absolutely. And so that moves us off the overall program structure into the category of training specificity and looking specifically from each individual training session perspective. And the first point is, do you know your functional threshold power? Do you know your FTP number?

Well, I don't know how you would train and this is, you know, not a shock to anybody who's been listening to our podcast. I just don't know how you train if you don't know what your FTP is. Do we leave it there?

Yeah, yeah, I think so. And I mean the next two few points are quite similar. Do you know your LT1 and you know LT1 LT2? But FTP is the same as LT2 thresholds. But do you know these numbers? And you can get them through lab testing or you can get them through field tests, both LT1 and FTP. And yeah, same, same point applies. You can't actually train properly unless you know these numbers. And I guess the consequence.

Just before you go on with that one, Jordan, I think that most people really do understand that if they find out where their threshold is, they can actually train to it or be reasonably close. And so that's the intensity sessions covered, isn't it? But the big thing we have trouble with with most of the athletes we coach is they actually train there all the time. And then when we say to them to train in zone two, they're totally lost. And we don't spend A lot of time on talking about zone two and below, and we have recently, but most people are bored with zone two. They want to know, how am I going to get better? So what intensity sessions do I need to know about to be a better athlete? But if you don't do zone two, you are not going to be fresh enough to do those high intensity sessions. So training in zone two is key to enable you to train hard enough. And so therefore, if your zone 2 is in zone 3 instead of in zone 2, then you are still making the mistake. So zone 2 is absolutely as important a number as your threshold and don't train above it. And this is the thing where testing will allow you to understand what your heart rate is for your LT1 and what, what your power is for LT1. And I, I just did a whole block of training straight after my lab testing where I knew 136 was my LT1 heart rate and 220 was my max for my LT1 power and all my Zone 2 sessions, that's all I did was stay under those numbers. What a difference it made.

And as we always say, you don't need, you don't have to do lab testing to get that. You can just do that from field testing. Obviously it's not as specific, but it gives you the general range as well. And you can also use, use that with the experience of, you know, you do some field testing, you'll get your, your set range for zone two and then you can do those rides and quite report back to yourself and see. All right, did that feel like zone two or did that feel quite hard? You know, you could do some little small measures on yourself and say, if I held that for, let's say, two hours, would I have been able to survive? Would I have lasted? Would I have my heart rate drift happened where my heart rate slowly increased over time, which would be an indicator that it's probably too hard for zone two. So there's all these little things you can do to make sure that you are actually staying in zone 2 and not going above that LT1 threshold, and that is points 12 and 13 is once you know these threshold numbers, are your high intensity sessions specific to those numbers? Are you doing your VO2 max sessions in your VO2 max zone? Are you doing your threshold sessions at your threshold zone? Are you doing your Zone 2 sessions at Zone 2 or below? Are you doing your pure recovery sessions? If they're in there, not even close to zone two? And that leads us to point 14, which is, do you know how to set the specific ranges to ride in. So let's say you're doing a zone two ride. Like you just gave the example. You knew that you could not go above a certain heart rate, but you did have to be above a certain heart rate. So your heart rate needed to be somewhere between 110 and 128, for example, if it was below 110, it was probably too low intensity and probably more recovery ride. And the same thing with your VAT max range, you know, do you know what the minimum power is that you have to be above and then how high you can go? And in the VO2 Max example, it's almost unlimited. As long as you can. You're just trying to go max as long as you can hold it for the time prescribed. But that's a really key point is, do you know how to set the specific ranges for each individual session? Yeah.

And look, a lot of people are really struggling with this because they don't have access to, you know, an app such as TrainingPeaks. They haven't, haven't done any field tests, so they have no concept of the numbers. And I totally get that people, you know, some people aren't just into that, but, but if you, if you want to improve, and that's what we're talking about here. But, you know, people are searching for information to become better cyclists or triathletes or runners. So, so you need to actually do something about it. And, and by doing the field test, as we've said, whether it's an FTP or an hour hard, you know, training run or whatever, the method you're using, that will give you data to use to set your ranges. And without doing that, you will have no idea. So therefore you could say that you wanted to do zone two, and because you don't know the data, you end up riding at a heart rate. I'll use myself as an example. My zone 2, I can't go above 136 heart rate if it's a hot day. You know, I could get to 136 heart rate with 180 watts of power. Whereas I know that my, my zone 2 power number, upper limit is 225, but I'm going to use my heart rate ahead of my power number so that I've got two metrics to use here and it's going to stop me from going too high. I could be stubborn and say, no, I'm allowed to ride 225, but my heart rate's crept to 150 well, I've actually not stayed in zone two, even though my power told me I had. But the day, the temperature of the day is something I had to take into consideration. So these are so many things that you need to actually think about when you're trying to set the training session up for that particular day. You're going out with a goal of I'm going to ride zone two. You need the information to understand what the best outcome is going to be from power, heart rate and the temperature of the day.

Yeah, and those ranges are also there just for personal feeling. You know, you might get to a zone two day and feel way more exhausted than normal because yesterday's session was really, really hard. And you just do not want to sit anywhere close to the top of zone two. You want to sit right at the bottom and just make sure you're getting enough stimulus to be in zone two, but you really want to limit the fatigue as much as possible. And so that's where having that range is so, so important. And that brings us to the last point on training specificity, which is, do you know how to adjust these numbers? Do you know how to adjust the frequency of training or the volume slash duration or the intensity based on your ability? Because different riders can handle different things. And if we give a specific training example of, you know, if someone's doing 3 by 8 or 4 by 8 minute efforts, we know that an athlete can handle somewhere between 100 to 107%. You know, the best riders can handle up to 107%, and less experienced riders would be closer to that threshold number for eight minutes. And that's really important to know so you can know the expectations of what you can get out of yourself in a specific session.

Yeah. And, and just because the range has an upper and a lower marker for you to train at, the expectation isn't that you will hit the upper range every single training session. And that's the key point in understanding your program, that on certain days you are going to feel great. So you can try to aspire to be at the top of the range, and other days you're going to feel that average, that getting to the bottom of the range is going to be an achievement. And so, you know, they're the things that as you become more experienced as a training athlete, you will understand that on some days it's going to be great. Work hard those days. Some days you're just not feeling that good and do your best to be at the bottom. So understanding how to adjust your effort according to Your feelings is really what we're trying to say in that point.

Absolutely. Moving on to the next category segment is equipment. So we're going to fly through these because these are pretty basic ones. But if you want to be getting the most out of yourself, these are all really basic essentials of equipment that you need. And firstly is, do you have a bike computer? Do you have a head unit that you can read all your data from while you're actually cycling? Do you have a heart rate monitor? We know that heart rate is really important to be able to use as a metric throughout training and racing. Key one, do you have a power meter? We still get a lot of people who listen to the podcast tell us that I've been a listener for a long time, but I still don't have a power meter. And as always, we understand the reasons why. There's always valid reasons why. But we're just saying that if you want to become the ultimate cyclist for yourself, if you don't have a power meter, it's one of the biggest things holding you back. And then a lot of people actually do have a power meter, but they're not using it. So that's the next point. Do you actually use your power meter? And then the point on the head unit is, once you've got a head unit, do you look at power lap power, average power cadence, speed and heart rate while you're riding?

Oh, there's a lot in there. Equipment. Something we've done a podcast on, and I don't want to go over it again, but without the points that you've made 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, you can't expect to get the same improvement by just going by feel every time you ride a bike. If you don't have a bike computer, you don't have a heart rate meter, you don't have a power meter. You're just actually going by feel, because that's the only thing you can do. If you don't have any of those things that will be okay to a point. And there are people who have done very well just by going by feeling. So we're not saying it's not possible, but we're trying to give you advice on things that are going to make it easier for you to be successful. So if you want to invest in the sport that you've chosen, these are the things you should be investing your money in. These are the things that should be most important ahead of a set of wheels. A fancy set of wheels aren't going to be as good or valuable to your improvement as the data stuff equipment that we're talking about.

And the last point on data is actually being able to analyze and assess your own data. And so do you have some sort of training application to analyze your data in detail? And I'd go to is training peaks, but there's plenty of other training applications out there. As long as you can analyze your data in detail is such an important part. Because looking at it live versus looking back on what actually happened can be two very, very different stories. And we find this often that your experience in what's happening, you might be telling yourself different stories as to what's actually happening.

It's also the fun part too is the post, post training session analysis. Like, you know, if, if I've had a bunch ride where I'm trying to find out, you know, in a bunch ride where we're trying to just. The goals are endurance with intensity. That's just an example. So after the event, because during the actual bunch ride I'm, I know that I'm going for four hours. So I'm ticking the box. I've got the endurance ticked off. I know there's intensity in it because we've got a, of the, of the bunch ride. We've all agreed on that we're going to race through this section. So now I'm getting the intensity. So I don't actually mind or care too much what my heart rate's doing or what my power meter is telling me. I'm trying to keep up with my mates around me. That's the value of the intense bunch ride where I'm riding with competition. And after the event is when I'm wanting to find out what power did I ride on that hill, which I've done 17 times in the last five years. And did I ride the same power, More power. I felt like I rode pretty well today. I was ahead of a few of the other guys that I'm normally behind. What power? Oh, far out. I was 25 watts better than I've ever done before. That's the value of having the ability to analyze post event. And it's fun. You're seeing improvement and then you might have had a bad day. Geez, I need to act. It's a good kick up the backside. Maybe I haven't trained so well. I didn't perform very well this training ride, you know, my numbers are down. I can actually analyze what am I doing wrong, what things do I need to do to change this, change this up. And it's. It's the perspective value of this is. Is undeniable.

Our last category of things, this is probably the most important part and it's. We call it the success plan, but it's actually getting to race day and performing well on race day, which everything we've listed listed so far is just designed to help you perform well on race day, which is for a lot of us, the most important part. That's what we're doing all this for. So part of that success plan and things you need to be able to tick off. We spoke about it before, but do you know how to do a taper phase? And that is just so important. And what that involves is point number 23, checklist number 23. Do you know what training sessions to do in the final few days before a race? And that is specific to an individual, depending on what works well for them. But it's also. There are specific things you can do to really help yourself get prepped. But one we really wanted to Talk on number 24. Have you done race simulation sessions that match the distance of your event?

Yeah, and it seems an obvious one. The example would be, I don't know, as a cyclist, a time trial that's, that's got quite technical aspects of it. Melbourne to Warrnambool as an endurance race, a handicap, that's a circuit. Have you actually gone over the course and had a look at the requirements of the course? Which is a point we're going to talk about later. But have you done the actual time on the bike equivalent to what's going to be the time or the duration of your event?

At the right intensity?

At the right intensity. And therefore you can practice your nutrition at the right intensity. So you need to be doing similar style of training sessions, not the, you know, the worst example would be three peaks, you know, a 9 to 14 hour event at that. You're not going to do a Three Peaks event in a training session six weeks out at the same intensity. You possibly would do a Three Peaks, you know, similar distance and elevation. You could actually do the same course, but you would have it at a lower intensity. So. So you need to understand that in every any event that is your key event, you need to have done some sort of practice that's going to be similar to what you're going to experience on race day. That's all we're saying.

And Dylan Johnson spoke about this. He said, I don't do a 10 or 11 hour ride to prepare for my 10 or 11 hour gravel race. You know, he does get up to Six, seven, eight hours. But you don't need to do the full thing, but you need to do some sort of race simulation that is really similar and replicating the requirements of the race. And the specific components like you've spoken about are the volume, are the intensity, are the course requirements depending on the type of race it is, whether it's a long time trial, a long endurance event, or a really short one hour or one hour and a half punchy road circuit. And that leads us to number 26, which is what you mentioned. Have you actually done a recon of the race course itself? Whether it's a one hour, two hour or four hour course, have you been on the course and knowing what it's like and giving yourself a chance to understand the requirements of the course and.

Also Jord, in the actual race, you know, you know what's coming. If, if you haven't actually done a recon of the course, whether you've been in the car doing it or on your bike doing it, which is where you should be. But if you're traveling to another country and you haven't had the time, you need to hire a car and go and actually look at the course. And anybody who goes to a race and doesn't actually know where they're going on the course and what hill's coming, you know, what downhill, what uphill, how long the hill is, they're doing themselves a huge disservice. And they will, you know, at the end of the race, I'll go, I didn't know, I didn't expect it to be that long or that, that hilly or. Well, that's your own fault. You need to have done the, your homework. That's part of preparation.

Yeah. And the next point, we've spoken about race plan so much on this podcast, but do you know how to create a race plan and do you know how to come how to come up with numbers? And have you done it before that tell you, this is my race plan for this race. These are I'm going to aim for. And even if it's a road race or a crit race or a handicap race, these are the numbers I know I can average for this amount of time. These are the numbers I know I can hit on a hill, a steep hill, a hard section if I'm in a breakaway, these are all things that you have to have considered and actually be able to put into use as your race plan.

Well, we certainly comparing time trialing with road racing or criterium racing, the data is less relevant in the actual race. But there are sections where you would really use your data. You know, a crit race or a long road race where there would be sections where you could be isolated and you need to time trial so you would know how long is this section of road that I need to be time trialing for. If I've broken away from the pack, you know I've got 7K to go. Well, I know that that's about 11 or 12 minutes. What's my best 10 or 12 minute power, then I can hold that and if I start way above that, I'm actually going to blow myself up. So these are really good pieces of data that you can use in a road race. If the race is going up the road, you're not going to sit there and go, that's above my power. I'm going to let the race go. That's not what we're saying. We're saying use it in periods where you could be having to understand that the next climb you're coming to is a 15 minute climb and you start off at the bottom. You're riding at 130% of your FTP because you're trying to keep up with the race. Well, you know that that's unsustainable and you want to hang in there for a couple of minutes to see whether the bunch is going to slow down. If they don't, then you need to back off. And the Geraint Thomas style of riding, where you just let them go, you know, and then you, then you dial in what your threshold number is, which is what he's doing. He's using his data. He can't keep up with pigaccia and vinegard, so he just lets them go. And, and that's a way of using your, your information to help you race better.

You see it all the time in the Tour de France. We've seen it a lot this year's race where a rider will break away and maybe there's 30k to go or 20k to go on the stage, or 5k to go on the hill and they just look down, they're playing with their head unit and they are absolutely changing their data. Maybe they're pressing lap and they are just going, I know my tempo from here, I've broken away. Here's what I'm going to stick to for the next 7k or 8k. And then on the opposite end, you see, when there's 5k, 8k, 12k to go and a rider has a breakaway, he is not worrying about his head unit whatsoever. He is just full guns blazing. Here's my chance to win a stage. I don't care if I do my best power ever here. I don't care if I'm over threshold. I'm willing to blow up to win this stage.

Yeah. And they're the things that we're trying to get across. There's all scenarios and you need to be able to have every trick in your kit bag and know when to use them. And that's what we're trying to get across here. We're trying to give you points of view that you can make better decisions on. And there's times when you need to use that, the information. There's times when you need to just go for it.

You can't just be a one trick pony. And this will help you be the ultimate cyclist. If you can do all these things, if you have all these weapons at your disposal, you can actually use them. And Aussie cyclist, I can't remember his name. He did a great YouTube video after the Criterium du Dauphine where he was a workhorse on his team. He was a domestic and he did this great video where he was breaking down his data from different stages and he was trying to help one of their riders get in the breakaway at the start of one of the stages. And it was a straight uphill climb. And he just said this. His data was crazy. He did a 20 minute FTP PB. This is a pro cyclist and it's. It'd be hard for them to do a FTP PB. He did in the. At the start of 160k stage, trying to help his teammate, getting the breakaway straight up this hill. And he said, I wasn't looking at my data, but it hurt. And that was just the requirements of the race. He was just willing to bury himself. And he said, I had no idea how I was going to survive the rest of the stage after doing a 20 minute FTP power PB. And if anyone's done an FTP test, you know how you're feeling after that. Imagine riding another 140k in a breakaway. And that's an example of him. He knows his data, he's seeing how wild it is. But the requirements of the race and what was expected of him. He just had to put his head down and do it.

That's a great example. Jordan. I think that was Michael Storer, actually. And I remember looking at that data and you would think, how the hell am I going to ride any more meters other than 140 kilometers, because he just buried himself so that his teammate could get in the break. And, and you know, there's example of when you just, you just got to do what you've got to do.

Yeah. And someone else actually said it when they tried to get in the breakaway with Wood Van Aert earlier this year. They just said, I have never been in more pain than trying to stay with him while they were establishing a break. And again, that was at the start of a 200 kilometer Tour de France stage. And that's just what it takes sometimes to get the result that you want. Speaking of some other aspects of your race plan, do you have a clear nutrition and hydration plan of what to eat and when? Depending on the requirements of the course, and then this leads to the next point. Do you also have adjustments to that plan that can be made based on the weather conditions, based on the temperature, based on the course requirements, the climate of where you're at?

Yeah. And of course, practicing in nutrition in your training, and that's something that we've banged on about for many years, and also practicing nutrition on hot days, cold days, and they will vary for the same distance as we've known many times. You could be training for a 90k road race or 180k time trial and you could do it in 30 degrees and you could do it in 13 degrees, and your requirements for nutrition will be different on just temperature alone. You could do one of those days at 95% of your FTP and do it another day at 75%. You will need different nutrition against intensity. So you've got to understand how your intensity and the conditions on the day will affect your nutrition. And you need to practice them because, you know, there's unpredictableness about racing that you can't actually prepare for in training because people will be doing things that, you know, aren't scripted in a race. Someone might have the idea, like Woot Van Aert, that I'm going to attack, you know, for the first 40k and ride everybody off my wheel. And that could blow so many nutrition plans out the window because people haven't got, you know, after, after riding for an hour, they're totally depleted because they've been riding at their maximum or over their maximum. And they're just examples. And, you know, we've, we've seen the Tour de France now been riding in 40 degrees, which is really unusual weather conditions. And, you know, the hydration required for those days is completely different for a day when it's raining in 14 degrees and obviously, the fueling's different as well. The body has to adapt to so many different conditions. And if you haven't practiced that in training, that's the point we're getting across. It will be foreign to you and you will have the risk of not achieving your outcome on race day.

And the very last point in this checklist is, you know, we started this kind of, this category, this success plan of do you have a race plan? But have you executed your race plan before? Have you actually trusted yourself to go in with a plan and then come out the other end and say safely, yes, I executed it well. Because a lot of people might go in with a plan, but if every race you're just not sticking to the plan. You know, we always talk about, in terms of running, making your first kilometer off the bike the slowest in, in bike riding, making sure that in a time trial you're negative splitting, making sure that your first five minutes at power of a time trial or a race isn't the highest power of the day. And if you're looking back in your post race analysis and those things aren't checked off, you can't actually say that you executed well. You might have had a good result, but you didn't execute your race plan. And a lot of athletes might get away with running too hard in the first kilometer of their run off the bike and then they still managed to hang on and not blow up. But you would just as a coach say that's great, but you still didn't execute your race plan. So the final point is, have you put a plan in place and actually executed it? And if you're not doing that, you're not getting the most out of yourself as a cyclist or an athlete.

Yeah, and there's a bit more to that as well. You know, executing according to your numbers when you're in a time trial mode or time trial race type of position and then executing your race plan according to your opposition in a criterium or a road race. So you should identify who are the stronger riders, what their strengths are. Is it the hills, is it the flat, is it their sprint? So therefore, if someone goes up the road who you know has the ability to stay away because they've got great endurance and great time trialling ability, there's someone that you need to follow. If you see someone go up the road, that's never figured in the final results and always does that, you don't have to chase them, that's a race plan that you've got in your mind. Certain riders that you're going to earmark, that you're going to follow no matter what they do. You could be the strongest rider in the race, as an example. So you've got to then have a race plan, as, when am I going to get rid of the rest of the field so that I don't rely on the sprint at the finish? Where are the hard parts of this course where I can attack the field? And not only where are the hard parts, but where are the parts where the actual race is hard? And then I have to. That's when I have to attack the group, when everybody's puffing, when everybody's on their knees, and therefore only the strongest will be able to follow. And even though you are on your knees as well, you're actually bluffing to make an attack. And you watch, people will not go with you, and that's the only time you will get away. So your race plan not only has to be driven by data, but it's driven by your actual knowledge of the people in the race and the course.

Absolutely. And that's it for this checklist. Now, this is by no means an exhaustive checklist. We could probably come up with a hundred more, but we picked some of the top 30 things you could look at and almost give yourself a scorecard as to what kind of athlete and cyclist you are. And if you tick off these 30 things, we guarantee that you will be getting almost the absolute best out of yourself. These are some of the biggest things you could possibly be doing to be a better athlete. And you should really look at this and go through these points and say, okay, would I tick off 10 out of these 30? And I've got a lot of things that I can improve on, which is great. But I tick off 20 out of these 30, which means I'm well on my way. But there's 10 things that would really help me improve as an athlete, and I'd be surprised if this is the case. But you might tick off 25 or 26 out of these, but the three or four that you're missing might be the key things that you're missing to become a better athlete and get the most out of yourself. So have a listen through the list, free listen if you need to, and go through and go, what's my scorecard here?

I think it's a great summary, Jordan. I think it's well worth people's time to give yourself a score out of 30 and be honest and say yes or no to all of the topics that we've brought up. And you know, I would have to say many times that I'm missing and lacking in half a dozen of those things. And if I concentrated more on doing those six things better, I guarantee I would be a better version of myself. And, and that is the goal of what we're trying to get across here, to enable you to be a better version of yourself as a cyclist.

And one last caveat is that not every point is equal. So, yes, we say give yourself a score out of 30 just to make it easier. But for example, point number one, which was consistency, might actually be worth 10 points because if you're getting that right, you're getting way more out of yourself than a lot of the other things. If you're missing that, you're way down. So let's say that you ticked off 29 out of the 30 things, but the one thing you were missing was consistency in training. Then that doesn't mean you're even close to getting the most out of yourself. So, yeah, we say give yourself a score out of 30 just to see where you're at, but understand it and use this episode to know that some of the really important things we spoke about, they're probably weighted a bit heavier and would be worth more points.

No, that's a good point. And I think a lot of the things we just skimmed over, they're worth one. And if we spend a bit of time on it in this podcast, go back and listen to the ones we spent more time time on, they're the things that got heavier, weighting to their value. At the end of the day, the ones that have more value are the ones you should be really looking to do better at.

That's it for this episode. If you decided that you need some help with these things and you highlighted some things that you really need work on and you don't know how to actually improve on them, you can get help from us. That's what we're here for. You can go to our website, Tribello coaching.com you can apply for some help from us there. If you want to get one on one coaching, we do an interview process. Plus there's other program options on the website. But thank you very much as always for listening to this episode and we'll see you next time. Sam.