We started off with a question all about how to deal with negative racing–a hot button topic for Tobin. We talked about strategies to flip that script, how emotion and psychology play into it, and what we think the Life Time Grand Prix could do to combat the predominant negative racing we see in that series. We then got into audience questions on why certain athletes see more FTP increases from VO2 Max blocks than Threshold training, and another about the fat burning zone, covering some misconceptions about substrate utilization at different intensities, calorie burn, and fasted training.
Tobin is a relative podcast newbie, but he’s great at it! Hope you enjoy this one
(00:00:00) Welcome!
(00:00:43) Listener’s Question on Negative Racing
(00:02:32) Tobin’s Personal Experience with Negative Racing
(00:04:15) Strategies to Combat Negative Racing
(00:06:10) The Importance of Tactical Patience
(00:11:40) Effective Use of Power in Racing
(00:17:33) Forming Alliances and Team Dynamics
(00:26:18) The Impact of Negative Racing on Local Competitions
(00:30:27) Discussion on Lifetime Grand Prix and Points Structure
(00:33:08) Scott’s Question About The Fat Burning Zone
(00:37:54) Understanding Fat Burning Zones
(00:47:39) Fasted Training: Pros and Cons
(01:09:10) Maintaining Fitness During Off-Season
I really enjoying Tobin being on the pod. I know he’s a professional bike racer/rider but he comes across way more as a normal guy who happens to ride bikes.
Seems easier to relate to him than someone that’s at the super pointy end. No offense to Tobin, he’s still worlds ahead of most of us in terms of skill and dedication
V interesting (as always). Sometime, could you do a discussion about how structured training affects mitochondrial function and whether this is similar (or not) to the effect of aging on mitochondrial function. See Redirecting and https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13770
Very glad to hear Jonathan doing his best to clarify the fact that calorie balance determines weight loss, and that altering substrate utilisation does not affect fat balance long term. The misconception that one needs to burn body fat through intentional “fat burning” activities at low intensity in order to lose weight never seems to die.
I thought Jonathan did a good job of explaining the difference in calorie burn between 1 hr of SS and one hour of Z2, but I think something that got missed here is that a lot of us can’t do lots of hours of SS+ without developing significant fatigue, but CAN do many hours of Z2 without the same. I’ve always looked at doing slow and low exercise as a way to adapt the body to more physical movement and, as a side benefit, burning more calories overall. I don’t think the average person thinks that they should stop doing 1 hour of hard work and replace it with 1 hour of easy work in order to lose weight. I think they think that by dropping the hour of hard work they can get in multiple hours of easy work and add volume instead of more intensity.
By doing a “2 hard and the rest easy” plan, you’re opening the door to doing more hours of easy work. Adding an hour of easy riding or walking here or there along with your hard workouts, and then doing some long rides once or twice a week is the goal.
Obviously this doesn’t work for the time crunched cyclist who is only exercising an hour a few times a week though.
