Yeah exactly. The large events everyone travels to are expensive, but local gravel events usually aren’t. There’s a race around me that the entry fee is a bag of dog food.
There’s gravel, and there’s lifetime grand prix gravel.
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Just wanted to drop in to say I really like the hot take format every once in a while. What I REALLY want though is Chad and @Nate_Pearson with a couple of drinks under their belt doing it. Oh, and @IvyAudrain is absolutely killing the host job - chapeau
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I just listened to the podcast and then jumped on this thread to see what the fallout was over the “100 pushups” question, and I’m stunned — STUNNED — to find there aren’t any comment.
I may start a thread about this lol.
Can I get some clarification from @chad or @Jonathan on this?
Let’s assume the following: the 100 pushups in question are done either in a single set of 1x100 or 2 sets of 50. Given that, does anyone agree with Chad’s comment that (paraphrasing) “100 push-ups is not sufficient strength training, not for cyclists, or for humans” 
What am I missing? I’m guessing 90% of this board, 100% of the pro peloton and almost everyone I’ve ever seen at a crit … or the grocery store, for that matter … cannot do 100 pushups 
And I feel like everyone, cyclist or not, would be better off if they could work up to doing 100 pushups. Amiright?..
Can I get get a clarification from the judges on this? 
PS - I love the hot take episodes🤘
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It may be a case of splitting hairs or being more technically correct. The hot take said the word strength and 100 reps in the same sentence. It never stood a chance.
The spirit of the question is possibly along the lines of both yours and my gut reaction. Your response also isn’t wrong and brings up valid points. I’m sure it’d give more cyclists better overall health than what most cyclist have.
However, 100 push-ups doesn’t stress your bones enough to guard against bone density loss to the same degree that a coach would like. That seems to be just as big a factor in getting cyclists to to do strength training as anything else.
Ironically, the word strength in the hot take made it a weak one.
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100 pushups used to be the requirement to get the top score on the Army entry. I think if you can do 100 push ups you’re pretty strong.
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Hell, I can’t even do 10! 
But IMO, anything beyond that isn’t strength training(not that someone that can do 100 of them isn’t strong), but at that point it’s simply endurance training. I feel that if you can do 100 pushups, you would be better served by doing less but with more weight.
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Looking at the Ridley on top makes my balls numb…yikes!
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@Helvellyn @Power13 @CincoGirl hahaha sometimes I do question my sanity
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100 push ups is impressive, but doesn’t take much raw strength. In university I was super into weightlifting, could benchpress 300 at my peak…and there’s no way in hell I could do 100 push-ups in a row.
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In high school I was heavy into lifting - I maxed out at 305 on the bench - I don’t know what my max pushup reps would be - but I was very heavy anyway. In college after getting into cycling - I could crank out 90+ pushups routinely - but I didn’t lift weights anymore - but I was way fitter. These days I’m do strength training and I think my max pushups are about 35 - 40. Repping close to 100 pushups may not be an indication of strength, but it is an indication of conditioning which is what I believe we are after as endurance athletes. Chad may correct with his comment, but I will take 100 pushups over my 305 max bench press at my current body weight and with cycling as my main athletic endeavor.
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I haven’t been to Bentonville … but if there’s any trail that can match the Hymasa/Ahab loop, then it’s a special place.
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Agree. 100 push-ups is plenty strong for cycling. There’s also variations on a standard push-up that can stress your body in different ways.
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At some point early in the pandemic I got really into high rep burpees. Over a few months I went from doing a workout that would be a total of 50 burpees (marine style, so it’s a proper push-up), to doing workouts of 200+ a few times a week. These would be broken into sets of 20 or so with other stuff, like kettlebell swings or lunges in between.
I felt really functionally strong and extremely durable, as well as looked great, in my humble opinion, but I don’t think it would have translated into a big bench press or anything like that.
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I’m not sure if it was in this podcast, but Chad recently mentioned a book on hormones. What was the title of the book? Thanks!
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I came here looking for that too (I expected it in the show notes tbh).
I think it was this
[Nicky Keay
Hormones, Health and Human Potential: A Guide to Understanding Your Hormones to Optimise Your Health & Performance
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Holy hell. That amount of time just staring at the wall, facing my own thoughts and feelings? Hell no! I don’t need that much introspection. But good on you!
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Well, to be fair, I do look out a pretty big window. The long endurance rides are good for introspection, threshold intervals and Vo2 workouts don’t leave much room for thinking much at all 
Several people have given me “cred” for riding without entertainment of any kind, but I just like it better that way. I don’t really do it do “harden” myself or anything, I just enjoy cycling a lot. I would never ride with anything distracting me from the experience outside, so I don’t want to distract myself from the experience inside either - regardless of how uncomfortable that may be at times. I ride my bike to ride my bike, and I want to experience all that riding brings; both good and bad!
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That’s certainly an interesting perspective. For me, cycling inside is just barely cycling at all. Sure, I’m moving the pedals but it’s a far cry from cycling outside.
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Yup, different “worlds” entirely. Even riding the same bike inside on rollers is a far cry from the experience of riding in the real world. Outside, we get endless and dynamic interaction & distraction. Taking that inside and NOT adding something is admirable to a point, but adding music, virtual or video apps, movies and the like are necessary for many riders in order to combat the sensory deprivation when relocating to a single, stationary location in a room.
Some people imply or state that these aids are crutches and such, but I don’t see that at all. The removal of so much when moving from outside to inside practically necessitates adding something as a replacement for all but a rare few. Great if you can stomach the greater limit on involvement when riding inside, but it’s not common from what I see, and those adding whatever works for them aren’t cheating or missing out either.
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I just watch YouTube or tv or often the TR podcast. I typically ride 2-3 hours per week inside and long rides on the weekend. And those workouts are harder intervals so easy to keep your mind engaged.
2 years ago training for unbound 200 unfortunately super bad weather hit during some of my planned longer rides that were too late in training to push off. So my coach would have me do endurance rides inside and do like 45-50 minutes riding then 10-15 minutes off the bike. Repeating that for like 6 hours. Just mind numbing. No way I could do that without a break and/or distractions. I think I’ve done 3 hours continuous indoors max
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