Dialed Podcast 354 - Top American Cyclist | Bad Blood in Women's Racing | Closing the Gap to the Race Season | I Was Today Years Old When I Learned...

Who is the top American cyclist? Why is there bad blood in Pro Women's racing? How are you closing the Gap to the start of the Race Season?  I was today years old when I learned what?  Sounds hot.  Enjoy the podcast!

Fit, Healthy & Happy Podcast
Welcome to the Fit, Healthy and Happy Podcast hosted by Josh and Kyle from Colossus...

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Chapters

• 1:24 Intro
• 2:23 Backpedal
• 11:06 Leadout News
• 13:48 EPO Chain Mail
• 16:04 [Ad] Fit, Healthy & Happy Podcast
• 16:51 (Cont.) EPO Chain Mail
• 20:43 The Hot Seat!
• 1:10:03 One Last Thing

Transcript

Jake: [00:00:00] All right, welcome back to the podcast. I'm Jake von Duering Durian. I'm here with Lance Friggen Heppler. 

Lance: Lance Friggen Heppler. Welcome to the show. Here we are. Your show is on the show. Isness is on. We are back. 

Jake: It is, right? Sir Gibson. 

Matt: Sir Gibson. It's a That's a nice intro right there. Yeah, that's a nice intro. I wish I had that.

Matt: It's good. That's, you need some horns in the background? Something Majestic. Majestic 

Ian: ma, majestic music. And then nothing, some British guy struggling to say something. 

Jake: Are you saying that I need to come up with something for you? No, 

Matt: no. I'm good. I'm good. Are you sure? I just, I'm just a little bit jealous.

Matt: That's all. It's just so nice. 

Jake: Oh, and finally, last but not least, the one and only Matt LeGrand. 

Matt: What's up, ladies and gentlemen of the internet, you guys look. Like breaking news. It's good to have you back, Matt. It's just, I only missed like, I missed like three days. It was only, we recorded three days ago.

Matt: Three days is a long time. I know. Sorry, sorry I was not here for that. It's too long to not have you in my [00:01:00] life. I think I was at a swim meet. Because I'm always at a swim meet. That's what you do. Had to go. Ethan qualified for this like, um, kind of like this all stars thing, which I'm super proud of him.

Matt: He, he, this was one of his big goals was to be, you basically have to be like selected to be on the Oregon team, the Oregon team goes up against the Southern California team, the Northern California team. And the, like, I don't know, they call it like the Pacific North, but it's like Seattle area teams, right?

Matt: And Oregon gets their butt kicked, but Ethan got selected. So he's like one of eight kids in his age range that got picked and he got beat. Oh, no, it was good. But I mean, it was good. It was, so you like spend the night with your team and all this stuff. And, uh, it's good. 

Lance: You know, Oregon has like, a third of the population that Washington does because of Seattle, Tacoma.

Matt: So there's that, but I mean, like we're Southern Washington. We just get roped into the Oregon team for swimming. It's that, that was my weekend. It was great. We went back and forth to Hillsboro, way out in the way out in Hillsboro. [00:02:00] Not too far, not too far to travel as opposed to like anywhere else in the entire West Coast.

Matt: So that was pretty good. 

Jake: Kind of smells like a backpedal. Is that what that was? Uh huh. All right, sweet. 

Matt: Well, I've also, okay, let's backpedal too. Yeah, go for it. Um, day six in a row of being on Zwift. Hey, you've done Zwift six days in a row. Dialed 100? You're trying to do the dial 100? I've got, I'm, I'm six days in, dialed 100, almost done.

Matt: I've already done today's ride, actually. So you're seven days in. Yeah, I'm seven days in. I'll get it in. I'll get today's in. 

Jake: Well done. 

Matt: Cool. That's my backpedal. 

Jake: Gibbo, backpedal for us. 

Ian: Uh, not much has happened in Gibboland. Been on Swift a little bit, dealing with some knee pain after my, uh, terrible ride on Saturday.

Ian: So I got on the trainer a little bit and then called it a day and I went to the gym yesterday and that's all I've got to say about it. You guys rode in the 

Matt: morning and then podcast directly after your bike ride. We did. Okay. Take care. 

Ian: Uh, not directly after we went to the sauna and the 

Matt: hot [00:03:00] tub, I saw, I saw your video, but I don't think I saw, I didn't actually listen to the podcast or something, or maybe that's what I saw from the podcast is from your video clip.

Matt: Yes. That's probably what it is. Yeah. Okay. Doji wankers. 

Lance: Sweet. 

Jake: How about you, Hep? What have you done 72 hours? I have 

Lance: done 10 

Matt: hours of riding. In the last three days. In the past 72 hours, I've been on the bike 74 hours. Something like that. That's how much he bikes. 

Lance: Uh, Sunday, I did go out to the Dalles, Oregon and did a five and a half hour, 80 mile loop with a couple of teammates and some people out there.

Lance: It was cold, but sunny. Um, I had a great day out there with, uh, Ed Dudlik and, uh, David Barna and a couple other guys. And, uh, I don't know. We had, we had a blast. It was cold. It was chilly. We were trying to stay zone two the whole time. And we mostly did that except for the. Frickin [00:04:00] 11 mile gravel climb we did at the beginning.

Lance: They look 

Ian: like an awesome ride. I really, I'm going to go out and do that. In fact, Lance invited me on a Friday and at the time the weather forecast didn't look good. And I responded, you know, I love to get covered in mud and dropped by a bunch of hitters. David Barner and Ed Dedlick, Lance freaking Hepler.

Lance: Everybody was very well. Yeah, because we were trying to just really, we were trying to keep it sewn too. So 

Ian: isn't that the way things always work out when you decide you're not going to do a ride that it's always better than it looked like on paper, 

Lance: but it was gorgeous. It was beautiful out there. Um, I did like another.

Lance: Two hours longer than everybody else or an hour and a half because I was 

Ian: down the Oregon It's called 

Lance: the Deschutes River Trail. It's a it's a gravel road. It's non motorized. [00:05:00] So there's no cars No other things on it, which it's just like a jeep to track. 

Ian: Can't you take that all the way down to? Like Klamath Falls are not 

Lance: there.

Lance: No, not quite the trail the road like Peters out There's a point where you have to like hike out or so you can ride through it But it only goes like 12 miles back or 13 miles back And then you have to take an ugly ugly trail to get out. So I just do it as an out and back it is It is one of the more beautiful little gravel spots where there's no traffic in, in the state.

Lance: It's just gorgeous. I'm thinking 

Ian: of something else, because I know there's like this route from basically the Columbia River all the way to Southern Oregon. It's called the Oregon Outback, I believe. Okay, that's it. Yeah. Yeah. 

Lance: I think Lael Wilcox was trying to set an FKT on it. Yeah. And then Stephen Hartzell, our local guy, went out and beat Lael Wilcox this time.

Lance: Anyway, that's our whole, we're gonna 

Ian: do it. We're gonna do it. Me and you. 

Lance: Yeah, we should [00:06:00] do it at some point. So I had a great day. It was very fun. Um, our weather turned here to sunny, so I rode yesterday a little bit, and then I rode this morning already. I tried to do two. 20 minute threshold efforts this morning.

Lance: I did not make it. 20 minute threshold effort. I tried to do it outside, which is, which is difficult. It is really hard to Where do you 

Ian: do a 20 minute threshold? 

Lance: I, um, I went out towards, uh, Vancouver Lake. Was the wind out there? It was not. Really? No. I mean, like, three or four miles an hour, so not really.

Lance: The wind could actually help you. Yeah. Like, working against the wind to Yes, to keep your power up. 

Matt: Exactly. 

Lance: But it was really, it was difficult. I did some work. It hurt a lot. I have also been continuing with the daily training vlog. I'm like, I don't know, six days in. Six days in. Me too. I've been doing it every day, so.

Lance: Uh, check them out. I think they're kinda [00:07:00] stupid. 

Matt: Where do they go to find 

Lance: you? Youtube. com. It's just on Youtube. Hepler. Yeah, look for Lance Hepler. I think training, these aren't being posted 

Jake: as shorts. Are they, are they like the landscape, normal YouTube landscape, normal, what are you using to 

Lance: record? I'm using, uh, my cell phone and a GoPro hero 12.

Lance: Sweet. So just those two things, how are you mixing and editing? I'm using an app called Filmora or something. I'm using Filmora. So, um, it's just, it's easy to use to, to, to do it on my phone and upload it from my phone. And so I'm just trying to make it. As quick and easy as possible. I want the editing part to be easy, like 30 minutes max or 45 minutes max.

Lance: Cause that's still another chunk of your day that you're just losing. So, uh, so far I'm sticking with it. Good. Good job. Keep it up. I'm awesome. That's it. Jake. 

Jake: I'm not much here. Just, uh, I've actually written on the trainer a couple times. I think maybe I'm due to write again today. So yeah. should be fun. [00:08:00] I think I'm supposed to post the Tuesday night ride for tonight.

Jake: I haven't done that yet, so I'll post that and maybe, maybe I'll show up tonight. So good times. 

Matt: Maybe I'll show up too. I haven't written yet. So like you've ridden for a couple, like 20, 20, 30 minute little rides or 

Jake: the shortest ride I've done is 45. And I started writing about a week ago and I think I've written four times now and actually it's not too bad.

Jake: I, I talked about in the last podcast, if you would have listened to it, you'd have heard this, but I got, I haven't 

Matt: listened to 

Jake: it 

Matt: yet. 

Jake: I got these really gnarly leg cramps for some reason. It wasn't even for doing crazy hard things, but, um, God, I was so sore. I had actually, I'd like take two days off completely cause I couldn't even squat down.

Jake: It was really dumb. But, um, other than that, yeah, fine. Just kind of slowly easing back into it and gonna build up the volume slowly, but surely like I did last time and because that worked well for me, I don't want to just jump back into this thing and go crazy. I mean, it's not like I was off forever, but still you need to kind of work your way back up.

Jake: So yeah, I should hopefully by week's end finish [00:09:00] with about five or six hours if all goes as planned and then the following week about seven and then hopefully get up to 10 after that. So you can make 

Matt: 75 of the dial 75 if you want. I did one. I made it one day and got one. Yeah, it didn't work out. Well, I knew I 

Jake: wasn't going to be able to do it.

Jake: Well, I know, but you could 

Matt: do 75 days within the 100 days. Sure. If you wanted. 75%. 

Jake: Yeah. 

Matt: But I remember you used to make something up where it's like, if you tell people, like, if you don't, if you don't, You don't want to do a hundred, do 50. If you don't want to do 50, you know, whatever. Like tell people, I suppose I could start over 

Jake: and maybe do something shorter, but I, I am more concerned about doing something short and you got to be smart about it, be smart, any who let's move on.

Matt: Oh, Champ Bailey. He's around here somewhere. 

Lance: Champ 

Matt: is here. Bring him in, bring him in, bring him in from outside, bring him in from the 

Lance: downstairs in the, in the basement. Champ is here. What has happened? There has been so much has happened in three days. Uh, there hasn't been any. Well, okay, Wout van Aert did do two [00:10:00] races back to back.

Lance: Um, I think he did a Saturday race and a Sunday race. And he, he pulled out the win on the Sunday race. It was a It was the muddiest cyclocross race that I've seen. It was raining so much that it wasn't like sticky mud, so it was like really flowy, like loose mud, so the riders just got coated. Wout van Aert looked like a mud monster.

Lance: His face was completely covered in mud, um, his jersey you couldn't tell was yellow, it was just completely coated. So, but he was pretty stoked to have won that race, he again, just kind of pulled away at, in the last lap or two, so. It was, it was exciting. You look 

Ian: at that race and you think, how, how bizarre, like how, how does it come to this, where.

Ian: Riding bikes through mud is a thing. 

Lance: And that, and that he like pulls himself away from his, you know, wife and kids [00:11:00] and his training for other stuff to, Oh, I'm going to go freaking roll through the mud for a while. But 

Ian: even you look at the crowds, like there's, Thousands and thousands of people are standing in mud puddles.

Lance: Yes. Drinking 

Ian: beer. 

Lance: Yes. It's 

Ian: gotta be said. But still, that's like a, 

Lance: Wout is incredibly popular in Belgium. He's incredibly popular in cycling, period. But in Belgium, he is like, He can't, like, leave his house very easily. He's so popular. So when people know that he's going to be at a race, man, they are stacked deep to watch that race.

Lance: So he's even more popular in Belgium than Matthew Van Der Poel is, even though Van Der Poel is Dutch, but he was born in Belgium, and he lives in Belgium, but he has Dutch nationality. So, uh, yeah, but he's still not as popular as Wout is. Yeah. In Belgium, so it's interesting. Anyway, thanks champ. I don't know what else happened.

Lance: [00:12:00] Um, I think Evan Paul got back on the bike. Finally did. Yeah. So that's good to see. He, he was injured a little worse than originally. And they thought in that when he hit the car or the mail truck, open the door, he got doored, right? He got doored by a mailman. Anyway, uh, he's back on the bike and Champ out.

Jake: That's it. Huh? 

Lance: I don't

Jake: know. Thank you, champ. Appreciate it. Let's keep this a little dog and pony show rolling. 

EPO Chain Mail: I've dealt with nothing but my own blood, sweat, and tears and extra blood. 

Matt: Extra 

EPO Chain Mail: blood. You know, this is a sport with literally hundreds of dollars on the line and dozens of fans. The stakes are medium. Come on! How do you beat a man on drugs if you love on drugs?

EPO Chain Mail: Wait, did you just admit to being on drugs? The EPO Chainmail. Send us a text with your questions, forward this [00:13:00] podcast to 15 people, and you'll lose 10 pounds overnight without even trying. You got mail. Oh, 

Matt: nice. 

Jake: It's a little long for the first one, but hey, you know, we'll have fun with it. We'll, we'll trim that up a little bit.

Jake: We need 

Lance: some bumper music for EPO Chainmail. 

Jake: We have a question from a listener from Chicago, Illinois. They are asking, what do you guys eat and drink when you're on the trainer? That's a good question. Um, beer? 

Matt: Yes. 

Jake: Nuts? 

Matt: Yes. Alright. All the things. Yeah. Some bon bons? Banana? Banana? Is anyone else? I 

Lance: actually generally eat the same thing I do when I'm on a road ride.

Lance: That was Something, something sugary, uh, something like that. So, I'm 

Jake: I, I do have to remind myself though, to, especially for the longer rides, I've gotta remind myself to put something in a bottle. 'cause like, if you're riding for an hour and a half or two hours, I sweat so much more on the trainer. Yes.

Jake: That you're, you're kicking out a lot of the, the salts and the electrolytes that you need. So I gotta remember, remember to put things in there [00:14:00] and, um, that's, that's kind of a big thing, but not for nothing. Like, I'm not a stranger though, to have like a cup of coffee sitting right there. Because why not, you know?

Jake: Again, it depends on the time of day, but, um, I will keep some, uh, like little snacks or something like that, whether it be like scratch chews or cliff blocks or something along those lines, just in case you're starting to feel a little bonky or you're just kind of paying attention to your, your Watts output, just to kind of keep things.

Lance: I usually have scratch bars and cliff blocks sitting next to me to, that I can eat depending on how, how much effort I'm going to do like an, an easier zone to ride. No, I just drink water. Gotcha. Yeah, 

Ian: cool. I, um, most of my rides on the trainer at sub hour and a half, um, usually right around an hour, hour, 15 minutes.

Ian: So I didn't feel like I. I really need to fuel, uh, during the ride generally. So I'll make sure I've got plenty of carbohydrates on board before I start plenty of [00:15:00] fluids to drink, but it's usually a good place to kind of experiment to see how, how, uh, far I can go without really feeling that, um, you know, the carbohydrate fuel, uh, drop away.

Ian: I mean, I can always get off my bike and run down to the kitchen if I need something. That's 

Lance: what the coffee stop button's for. There's 

Jake: a coffee stop button. You get three minutes. That's, that's a misnomer. That needs to be a dude pissing in the bushes. Yeah, it does. Let's be real. That's what most everybody uses that for.

Jake: But anyway. 

Ian: But I mean, you know, I'm not miles from home. I, I, I can have something sat there, but generally I don't, I don't need to eat fuel during an indoor workout. 

Jake: Gotcha. I don't eat a lot and I don't, I'll drink water, but I just, I don't take in a lot. But then again, I'm not usually riding for more than an hour and a half.

Jake: I mean, there are some of those days it's like, let's go ride 50 or 60 miles or let's do a century. I don't think I've ever even got to a century on the trainer. Like some of you knuckleheads, but, um, those Ian, have you ever done a 

Matt: hundred on 

Jake: the trainer? 

Ian: No, never have. 

Matt: Lance, you usually do one a year at least, don't you?

Matt: [00:16:00] Yes. I 

Ian: have this stupid project going on right now where I'm riding all the routes in Watopia. Some of the, uh, Some of the ones near the end, they're going to be quite challenging. I think there's a, there's an 80 miler with a 8, 000 feet. I think that's a four 

Lance: hour ride. Yeah. Yeah. 

Ian: So that'll be the last one.

Ian: Super pretzel Pret. I did a hundred. 

Matt: You get a jersey or you used to get a jersey? This is a long time ago. I did it. I did a hundred miler. I was like training for something. Maybe it was, it was when we were, you and I were training for Seattle to Portland. Okay. And it was some really horrible weather and I was like, I gotta do, I gotta do something long was like, it was like in the training period where it was.

Matt: Do go out and do a hundred miler and yeah, I don't know. So I just hunkered down. I think I watched two or three movies. Nice. 

Ian: Cool. But when you are, when you are doing a longer workout like that, if you, if you go four hours, just having the food sort of there in front of you so you can look over and go, okay, in 15 minutes, I'm going to eat this.

Ian: Yeah. [00:17:00] 20 minutes time I can stop. I can Kick back and eat one of those, then it keeps you motivated, even if you don't need, physically need those calories. Well, not 

Jake: for nothing, you gotta pay attention to that stuff, because the trainer rides are already miserable, and it's already very easy just to stop and get off, especially if you're feeling tired or like, bonking a little bit.

Jake: So if you kind of stay ahead of that curve, it's gonna make that a little more enjoyable, as opposed to like, miserable. I don't know. That's just my two cents. So 

Ian: no. And, and those trainer rides, if you, if you're doing a hard workout session, they put a lot of stress on your body. So you do need, especially if you're going to go out for a ride the next day, you need to, um, pay attention to taking in enough carbohydrate post post ride, even if you, if you didn't need it to fuel, so you got your recovery.

Ian: Is, is basically part of the workout. So you've got to, you've got to make sure that you've got enough fuel in you post ride. 

Jake: Gotcha. Good question. Appreciate that. Yeah. Good question. If, uh, if anybody else has some [00:18:00] questions, hit that little button on there, that little text us button, and it shoots us a message.

Jake: We send us a text. Don't get to see who it is. We don't get your phone. And we just get a little message saying that it's, uh, from the city from, we do get the last four digits of your phone or, but I think it'd take quite a bit of time for us to figure out who that was, but yeah, send us a message and we would love to get back to you and get your input.

Lance: We've answered every question that's come in. Yes, sir. Yeah. No, I bet we missed something. Nope. Nope. So far, so good. We're, 

Jake: we're so send more than a thousand. More of the Mario. So yeah, thank you. Appreciate that. Let's keep it going. So hot. You gotta listen naked. Taking off my pants. Hot seat. The hot seat's back, boys.

Jake: Who wants 

Matt: to go first today? I'll go first. Sweet. All right. Who's going to be the top American in 2025? Seb? Matteo Jorgensen! Yeah, that's true actually, 

Lance: that's a good call. Matteo is solid. He upped his game after, you know, after joining Visma this last year and helping out [00:19:00] Jonas Vingago. Plus he won a couple races.

Lance: But will he be back? Looked at as a GC 

Matt: contender, like, 

Lance: no, 

Matt: but neither is Sepp Kuss. And he's a GC winner. 

Lance: So, so yeah, pretty solid. Those two guys I think are the, are the American, are the top of the heat. American hopeful. The American hopefuls. 

Ian: Who does, who's Jorgensen ride for? Wisma. Yeah. Oh, he rides for Wisma too?

Ian: Yeah. 

Matt: Yeah. So, so your thought is, I guess they're teammates. Yeah. So your thought is there's no chance of an American GC. No, at any of the Grand Tours. No, 

Ian: because they're both writing for Vizma, and they have, they have supporting roles to, to do, I guess. 

Matt: Maybe they have supporting roles for all three Grand Tours, though.

Matt: They're probably not, I mean, I wouldn't expect. So the, so 

Lance: the Giro, Yeah, the Giro w is going to, okay. Jonas is doing the, is is he gonna be a GC at the Giro? Who is, I don't know. Probably not, but w is doing the [00:20:00] Giro and the tour. Okay. Jonas is doing the tour. 

Matt: Yeah. So so you go is gotta be obviously the man.

Matt: Yeah. And if those two, if, if he has everyone healthy, it's gonna be, it's gonna be interesting. It's gonna be those two guys if, 

Lance: but the Weta. I don't know what, which, which one of those guys are going to do the Vuelta, so it's kind of a toss up. 

Ian: I think both of those guys are going to, could easily be Grand Tour contenders, given, given the chance, given the, 

Matt: if they get the opportunity, if, 

Ian: if, if they have the opportunity, 

Matt: yeah, correct.

Matt: True. 

Ian: Cool. 

Matt: Any other Americans we should be on the lookout for? Magnus. Magnus Sheffield? Mm hmm. Is he still 

Lance: with Yeah, where is he, right? Ineos? 

Jake: I believe so, yeah. 

Lance: He's still with Ineos. He's pretty strong, but Yeah. 

Matt: How's Ineos? How do you think Ineos is gonna be next year? 

Jake: There's another kid Hold on. Keep talking.

Jake: I'm gonna look this up. There was another kid from the States, if I'm not mistaken, that just signed Yeah, but he's [00:21:00] 17. But they're saying that he's got a lot of promise. 

Lance: He's somebody's son. He's somebody very famous. A very well known name. Why can't I think of his name right now? People are screaming at their car radios at the moment.

Lance: Yeah. Um, uh, there's a couple other great Americans. But those are two, the two, like, stand out. 

Matt: It's gonna be a fun year to watch. I think this year's tour will be fun. It'll be interesting to see how the entire, like, Grant tour season kicks up and starts going. It'll be fun. Got you. Brandon McNulty. Palace. I feel like Brandon McNulty is probably riding in support.

Matt: I don't know. Magnus 

Lance: Sheffield. Quinn Simmons. He's on the, he's on the comeback trail. He is also Um, but he was involved, [00:22:00] he was involved with that crash at the tour of Italy, or I don't know, which was the tour of Swiss where that guy died. Okay. He was just behind it and like witnessed it and it, it jacked him up.

Lance: Didn't he take a big break? He took a big break and wasn't even sure he was going to race his bike anymore. Yeah. But ultimately. Came back, but he took a big, long break, but Quinn Simmons could step it up. He's done some stuff, Jake 

Jake: Ashland, Barry. 

Lance: That's it. 

Jake: So his dad, Michael Barry, um, raced with the U S postal service back in the day with Lance, um, 17 year old American cyclist who just signed a professional contract.

Jake: And he's now with Visma. So he's on their development team. Exactly. He's on their development team. He's considered a quote unquote super talent. But he's 17. If you're already considered a quote unquote super talent at 17, I would say that he's got some potential, some good upside. So kind of curious to see, but it's fun to see, uh, you know, somebody coming out of the States that it's got some promise.

Jake: Yes. Keep them coming. 

Lance: There's Larry Warbass. I think [00:23:00] he's switching teams this year. Uh, there's Luke Lampertie who won, like, some crit stuff and has been very good, but he has, uh, stepped up. So there's still some American names that can do some things. 

Jake: Cool. Alright, let's keep it going. That was a good question, Matt.

Jake: Thank you. It was hot. It was hot. It was hot. Who would like to go next? 

Lance: I'm going go for it. Okay. So what's going to happen with the women drama in next year's World Tour Road Racing, you may not know how much drama is happening, but Demi Voeldering and Lotta Capecki were both on SDworks together and Capecki ended up winning.

Lance: Was it Capecki? I don't know who won the tour. France have ex whiffed women's race, but, uh, Demi Vollering has left SD works. There was so much turmoil in SD works that she, she left. So she is going to a new team. A lot of Kopecky is staying [00:24:00] on the, staying on SD works. There is drama happening and I think there's some bad blood there.

Lance: How is that going to affect the world tour? Women's racing for next year. 

Jake: Um, how is it going to affect it? I think you're going to see some fireworks. So you think you're going to, whenever there's a little bit of bad blood in the water, that always makes things a little bit more interesting. It does. So it should yield some 

Lance: fun racing.

Lance: It should be some good storylines. This last year. I mean, those two being on the same team, they, they couldn't really. They didn't really attack each other, but they did. And you didn't realize how much tension was between them, but there was. And not only that, Demi Vollering's coach wasn't racing last year, and now this year she has left to a different team and she's going to be racing.

Lance: Mm hmm. Oh, this is, man, this is a drama going on. 

Jake: So. Couldn't, can you say [00:25:00] that there's an equivalent in the men's side of things that you can kind of draw from? Mm hmm. From experience in terms of like what happened there, are there a couple of pro cyclists that really. Did not care for each other. And how did that play out in the Peloton?

Jake: Uh, the only, I mean, who did Cavendish butt heads with that? Sagan, but it 

Lance: heads with Sagan because they both elbowed and need each other in the sprints. And, and. Everybody hated Lance Armstrong because he was a jerk. We're Seven Price when we need 

Matt: him, right? He would defend. He would. 

Jake: I mean, it just made for better racing.

Jake: Cause everybody's like cutting on the edge of their seat saying, What's gonna happen? What are they gonna do? What are they gonna say to each other? Yeah. I think 

Ian: it makes it more entertaining. For sure. I think some of it. You've got to think some of it's manufactured with that aim in mind by, by the people broadcasting the races, you know what I mean?

Ian: Especially on the longer. 

Matt: Or especially on the [00:26:00] Netflix docu series where they're like just making up drama that probably didn't exist. 

Lance: But like, was there really drama between the races? Wow. And Jonas at the tour. It's like some of these longer 

Ian: stage races. If you're watching a five hour, um, flat stage of the Tour de France, it helps to have some drama in there, something to talk about, not much going on.

Ian: Have you guys ever had any 

Jake: drama in your own races with somebody else that was, uh, getting under your skin or you didn't really care for? 

Ian: I've had a couple of words at PIRI guess over the years, but you gotta think that what a different dynamic it must be on a pro team where you know, you have these, there's money on the line, egos and ambitions and money on the line.

Ian: Yeah. I think even your and, and you kind of force together people from completely different cultures coming together and being told what their role is and how they should race and who they need to support. It's, uh, completely different [00:27:00] to any amateur masters bike racing that we, we've been exposed to.

Lance: You know what happens in our local masters racing is the more experienced racers will, will bark or encourage the less experienced racers to close gaps and to pull things back. And you, you know, you don't want to let the people down around you. So you like. You like step up. They do that because they don't want to actually do it themselves.

Lance: Correct. Yeah. They're, they're, it's, it's, it's very, Ian, close that gap down. Yes. Ian, you can't do that. My legs 

Matt: are sore. Close this gap for us. 

Lance: Uh, that's, and I've been victim to that and I've been jerked. I've been on the other side of that. I've encouraged people to do things and I've, I've been encouraged and taken the bait before.

Lance: So. 

Ian: The other thing you see, you hear a lot is, If somebody makes a mistake, if somebody cuts somebody up or there's nearly a crash, you have one or two people that just won't let it go. It's like. [00:28:00] You know, I, I often think, okay, they made a mistake. It was a kind of dig thing to do a dangerous, but let it go.

Ian: You know, there are, there's always people out there that thrive on drama and conflict, and that's, thankfully it's not, it's not that prevalent at our level of racing, at least in my races. Otherwise, uh, Probably wouldn't do it, 

Lance: but there are wheels I won't follow or wheels. I won't sit on because I just know they're, it's a, not a trustworthy wheel.

Lance: It's not going to stay straight. 

Jake: That's good. Cool. 

Ian: That's 

Jake: it. Sweet. Gibbo, you got any, uh, hot seat questions for us? 

Ian: Bringing it back home. Um, we are now, I want to say we were like 10 weeks, maybe two and a half, three months away from, uh, At least here in the Pacific Northwest, our local race is kicking off.

Ian: What are you guys doing right now to [00:29:00] that end? And it doesn't need to be just in terms of training on the bike, but how are you, how's that fitting in with your life right now? What are you doing to work towards that 

Matt: by you guys are training for training. Yeah, for training camp, no training for training pre camp for training camp for training camp for the pre season than for the race season.

Matt: It's completely inception of training camps. Inception, yes. Let's work this back. So we have. Time also operates at a totally different like time frame when you're, yeah. 

Ian: Let's work backwards. It's the racing season coming up in the late spring. Uh huh. So we have a training camp to prepare for that. However, the training camp.

Ian: Is, uh, basically a five day stage race. Yes, it is. So in order to get ready for that, you have to do a pre training camp, camp. Now there's three of us going to that. So that's kind of, that's kind of getting [00:30:00] a little bit competitive. So we're all kind of training for that. 

Lance: Yes. We're training for our pre training camp, not the actual train.

Lance: Yeah. Let me ask you this. 

Matt: When you guys fly to Tenerife. Yeah, you're, I wonder like when flights leave and things like that because you may miss one of the dialed 100 days of biking. Oh, that's quite possible. 

Ian: I'm not doing, I'm not doing it. 

Matt: Yes 

Lance: you are. 

Ian: I'm not doing the dial 100. I already took a day off yesterday.

Lance: There's a there's like a there's a full travel day that where you won't be on the bike Yeah, because you're flying that direction. Yep. 

Matt: Yep. 

Lance: Yep and and coming back actually coming to do it on the way back I bet we can do it on the way back but on the way out We lose you fly out. We we don't fly out to like 1 in the afternoon, but we don't arrive until then A day and a half later.

Lance: Oh, okay. So you're, yeah, we, we lose like, we lose like 14 [00:31:00] hours or something like that on the way. Anyway, what if 

Matt: you brought a pair of little pedals that you had that you could put under your seat while you're, we, 

Lance: we do have like, 

Matt: we do have like five hours in 

Lance: the Amsterdam airport, 

Jake: hook up a power meter to that.

Jake: They've got to have one of those city bikes that you can go. You put your credit card into your door. Does that count? Five hours. Well, 

Lance: yeah, it does count, but we'd have to, like, leave the airport to do that. So, yeah. Get a locker for five hours. It's a long 

Matt: time. It's, it's a long time. Yeah. Yeah. Let's make this happen, guys.

Matt: But on the way back, oh, yeah. You'll probably be in the middle of the night. You'll just be cruising down. I mean, everyone else is gonna be on bikes in Amsterdam anyway. They will be. But the, but the Amsterdam, the airport is a ways out from the actual Amsterdam. But that's okay. That might be okay. You get your There's still bike lanes everywhere, no matter where you are.

Matt: You can ride all the way to the Amsterdam airport, I'm sure. 

Ian: Specifically, uh, Jake, I mean, you faced a lot of adversity, uh, roadblocks in your training, in your [00:32:00] preparation, but there must be something, must be like a little, like a, an event or something that you're looking, kind of got your eye on that. What was What can you do between now and then?

Ian: What would be your strategy? 

Jake: Oh jeez, I Yeah. I've got so much work to do. I mean, how, how long you got? I mean, seriously, I can sit here and just talk to you, but 

Ian: broadly, yeah, 

Jake: I'm, I'm trying not to look at the greater picture because it becomes a little bit too overwhelming for me. There's just too much to think about.

Jake: And if I start thinking about racing right now, yes, of course, I want to be able to pin on a number, but the thought of like putting on a number right now and just thinking about where I'm at with my condition. Like Mike, Oh my God, I'm going to die. And like all of the work that I got to do between now and then, I don't know.

Jake: I, I have not put anything on my calendar for 2025 yet. And I'm going to say, I'm doing that race. Now I've done that on purpose because I don't want to hold myself to like having to do that and not be quite ready for it. Cause I don't want to go and have like a sub [00:33:00] partial. I don't care about how I finish.

Jake: I just need to be able to finish and be able to finish in a manner that I would be proud of and not feel like I've. Wasted a bunch of time or, you know, did a bunch of stuff, you know, I could go do that in a training ride. So I want to be able to go out there and be like mildly competitive. You know, I don't want to be sweeping the course for everybody else.

Jake: So that part, it's kind of hard for me to tell you, like, I'm doing that. Like right now, kind of what I have my sights on is like, all right, let's just put one foot in front of the other, take it baby steps, if you will crawl before you walk all the little isms, if you will. And just be able to start building up a little bit of fitness, build up the tolerance.

Jake: And then like, I need to be able to ride outside because that would be kind of nice. I haven't done that since, I don't know, September it's been a minute again, but um, like in the back of my head, like we've got our battleground loop that that 60 mile loop, I want to be able to go out there and do that at a comfortable pace and be able to finish that three hour ride and, and know that, all right.

Jake: That part will say like, you're ready to take the next step and go, you know, train a little bit harder and start putting a calendar or race on the calendar so that I [00:34:00] can go get that done. And it's just like, I, I know that I need to like, look at all the little things, like what am I eating and how am I, how's my sleeping come along?

Jake: Is my, is my tolerance to my increased load come along fine? Am I doing all the little supplemental things on the bike that are off the bike that I need to do so that things don't fall apart and break. It's amazing what happens to your body as you get older. 

Ian: Hmm. 

Jake: You just break everything. Or at least I do.

Jake: I don't forget. I think that was 

Ian: the essence of my question was what are you not just you, but guys like, what are you, what are you doing in your life now? That's this getting you ready for the upcoming race season. Is it trying to sleep better? Is it. Trying to do so many miles a week. Is it, is it working on your weight management?

Ian: Is it working on your strength? Is it, 

Lance: where are you at Hepler? I'm doing all of those things currently. I, I'm actually really watching my weight really closely right now. Um, and watching what I eat very carefully because I'm trying to [00:35:00] cut a few pounds before this season starts. Uh, which is a very difficult thing to combine with training because I want to be fueled properly for the training, but not, not blow it in the kitchen.

Ian: Yeah. 

Lance: You know, so that can be a little bit tricky, but I'm already like on a plan. I'm doing 15 to 18 hours a week. I did two, two weeks. It does seem to me like you're actually following a program closer than usual. I am, and I started it. You're enjoying it? I am enjoying it. It's difficult to stay on top of all that with the weather and what not.

Lance: Yeah. But, um, I am trying to do that. I I've started this training vlog on YouTube to also kind of help keep me accountable. 

Jake: I was going to say that that was well played, you know, when you, when you see, even if nobody's watching it, but you said, I'm going to do this. I'm going to hold myself accountable.

Jake: And I'm going to tie it to something that I want to be able to like get over, [00:36:00] I want to accomplish this. So you tied it to your, your training and you're trying to achieve certain things and you're showing it to people. So you want to make sure that you're not, not following, following through. Yeah. 

Lance: So, yeah, so I'm trying to do that.

Lance: Um, I am going to race a lot again this year. I raced a lot last year and I don't know if I'll do as many days as I did this year, but there's a race this Saturday that I might actually line up at if I can wrangle it. Where is this one? It's in, it's in, um, Phoenix. Yeah. Snowbird! 

Matt: So, Well, I mean, It's a mountain bike race.

Matt: Weather was decent yesterday, weather is okay today. You got some outside riding in. It's gonna rain for the next month, you might as well fly 

Lance: the coupe. Yeah, we'll see how it goes. There's a lot of drama happening with my family at the moment. Just helped drama, not So you want to get out of here. Get out.

Lance: No drama. So we'll see how this all goes. So yeah, I'm trying to put things on the calendar. [00:37:00] I'm trying to watch my weight. I'm trying to do some efforts Um, I'm trying to follow a training plan somewhat so that I build these hours this during this base. So I guess I'm doing a lot In in forward and looking forward to the race season 

Jake: Let me ask you a question and i'll ask this of you too ian and I kind of will know a little bit What do you have to say?

Jake: What are your biggest challenges right now? You guys of everybody sitting at this table have it We'll say the easiest because you're retired, you don't have to work so you don't have those stresses and you can say, my time and my passion are going to converge and it's just going to go into all this cycling stuff.

Jake: I mean, what challenges are you facing at this moment in time? 

Lance: Just the physical ability to actually do the amount of training I'm trying to do. Doing 20 hours a week is a freaking lot for a 55 year old. It's, it's a lot to Is that ill advised? It might be, but I'm handling it at the moment. But how long 

Jake: can you handle that though?

Jake: I don't know. 

Lance: I did I was able [00:38:00] to do it last year for all of January and February and March, mostly. So, I'm gonna and I had a very good race season last year, so I'm just trying to see Kind of how I can manage it as well. 

Ian: Somebody even of your age, but 20 hours is doable. As long as you manage that time and spread your workload out.

Ian: Um, yeah, but we're talking about 

Jake: Lance frigging Hepler. I know he's out chasing tennis balls, trying to get KLM segments. He's doing all this sweet spot stuff in 20 minute intervals. 

Ian: If you do do that kind of volume though, you absolutely need to incorporate it. Rest days, full rest days, and, and spread the stressful workouts.

Ian: Dialed 100. I saw an 

Matt: easy day on your vlog. You did an easy day Yesterday. Yesterday. Yesterday. You did like super easy. I'm following. I'm following along. Thanks. No, you can do, you 

Ian: can do Dialed 100 and, and, and put in a zone one, like. [00:39:00] It was a hundred watt ride. It was. You went out 

Matt: to Vancouver Lake. You took it super easy.

Matt: I took it super easy. Yeah. 

Jake: You've been doing this for quite a few years in a row too. You're not getting burned out at all. 

Lance: No, I mean, my body's holding up. I, I'm as long when I lose the fire for wanting to race, I'm burned out and I'm not there yet. And this year changed for me because, um, I don't really have a huge race on the calendar, but.

Lance: I'm catting up in mountain biking and it is going to be much harder racing for me. 

Matt: Yeah, 

Lance: and that actually is 

Matt: probably 

Lance: the 

Matt: Phoenix 

Lance: race is a mountain bike race, right? No, that is complete. Let's see if I can remember how to ride a mountain bike. No, it's a mountain bike race. It is a mountain bike race. It is a mountain bike race.

Lance: Okay. But so you might need to get on the mountain bike before. And my first big mountain bike race will be in March. It'll be middle of March. And so we'll, 

Ian: you know, it's weird. It's it's now it's [00:40:00] been almost a year to the day since I last went to work at my job in, at, uh, Alaska. And, um, something that surprised me was actually, I did less.

Ian: Volume of writing in this last year than I've done previously. Like my mileage is way down and I basically ran out of motivation towards the end of August and didn't do much after that. And it's maybe it's just not having the structure, you know, having a specific time slot after work, let's say that I always.

Ian: Just put on my shoes and get on the trainer, you know, maybe because I've got so much time on my hands now, it's weird. Um, I need to, uh, I was going to, um, this year I'm like, you know, maybe this will be the last year I actually do this, but then I thought, no, let's just turn it up and let's just, let's just.

Ian: Double down and, and, and [00:41:00] just try to do more. Just sit 

Lance: on my wheel for the next two months. We're going to make it. That's, that's the way I, 

Ian: that's the way all our rides have been working out. Right. So me sitting on Lance's wheel. Um, but no, that's a challenge. Uh, I do find that now, um, it's challenging. Like if I do an intense.

Ian: Uh, workout, I feel like it is hard for me to recover. I feel sleepy and tired the next day. Like I'll go to the, I get, what I do is I go to the gym in the morning for an hour and a half, and then I get in my training for an hour and a half in the afternoon. And I'm done for, I'm tired after that. Yeah, it's not bad though.

Ian: And on top of that, like I am dealing with this, uh, basically a repetitive use injury now, so my right knee is giving me. Issues, which I'm concerned about because we've got all this cool stuff coming up. It's definitely, we'll, we'll face these challenges, right? 

Jake: You're still hitting the gym. 

Ian: Yeah. 

Jake: How's that make your knee feel when you get [00:42:00] through a workout?

Jake: I have 

Ian: not, I've been hitting gym upper body, like, which is, which, It breaks my heart in a way, cause I was doing well with the squats and the dead lifts and the, uh, leg extensions and so on. And I felt that was really helping me, but like deep squats now, back squats, I can't, it's, it's too, uh, too much of a strain.

Ian: So I'm using it. The gym is part of my weight management. Really? I'm trying to drop some pounds. I'm down 12 pounds in the last six weeks or so. Good job. But, uh, I've been tracking calories and I've been working out at the gym and watching, keeping a high protein diet. So even though the weight's not coming down like massively fast, you know, um, I feel like I'm just losing body fat right now and protecting my muscle mass with gym.

Ian: And that's basically what I'm using the, the resistance workouts for. So, yeah, [00:43:00] yeah. I can't say, like, first world problems really, what are my, what are my challenges for, for being in shape, but I'm doing pretty good. 

Matt: What challenges are you running into right now, Matt? First world problems. First world problems.

Matt: Dialed 100 problems. Yeah. Gotta, gotta schedule that in each day. It gets to be tough. 

Jake: It does. But if you get through that first, like, 10 or 15 days, you kind of hit a rhythm. Yeah. Yeah, 

Matt: I think. They'll be like, I was talking to my wife about this and it was like, okay, there'll be some times when we're like going to all these swim meets where it's like, how are you going to fit this in?

Matt: Cause we traveling and stuff. But if I don't make it a hundred days, it doesn't matter. It's like the, the fun challenge of like, okay, well let's just try this, you know, and see how it goes. So. It's fun. I'm enjoying it. So far. Do you have, 

Ian: um, do you have any, uh, events or things you want to achieve out? I put a, 

Matt: some of my friends like, we're like, we're doing this triathlon and I was like, all right, I put it up.

Matt: So I put it on my calendar. It's like an early season one. It'll be like a sprint one. And you, [00:44:00] you start, you know, I think that's a pool, something like that. It's not that one, but, um, I didn't even remember what it's called, but I put it on the calendar and it kind of lines up so far. It doesn't conflict with a swim meet, but we'll see.

Matt: And yeah, so I mean, I was thinking about what you were saying, like, okay, I want to go out there and be competitive. I think I'm okay with not being competitive. I think I'm okay with like going to this race just to be with some of my old triathlon buddies and just participate. And yeah, I don't, the, the, the next step of being competitive, I think really would require having like a TT bike and stuff like that, where you, you not like, it's like you're instantly faster, but like, it does put you in a different place where you're like, okay, I could be competitive if I was fit enough.

Matt: Whereas if you're on the road bike, you're really at a disadvantage. That's fine. If like Lance wanted to hop in a triathlon road bike, that'd be fine. But to be [00:45:00] like going up against Evan Price or someone like that, where you're like, he's on a TT bike and you're on your road bike. You're like, well, that's not, and you can't draft.

Matt: It's like, well, that's just our difference right there. It's ridiculous when you, when 

Ian: you say your old triathlon buddies, are they in the same position or are they going to kick your butt when you, 

Matt: um, so some of them are in pretty bad shape. That's encouraging. Yeah, no, I mean, but it's, And then some of them, like, some people that I used to handily beat, like, pretty soundly will, will beat me.

Matt: Um, so I'll, if I went hard, I would be in that kind of, like, second position or whatever amongst this group of friends. But I also might have just as much fun being like, let me run, when we get to the run part, let me find someone to run with and run with them, and, Like whatever it is, like easy job, like, that'd be awesome.

Matt: Like the whole reason for me to go and do it is to do another triathlon. Cause I like doing triathlons, but also like be with a group of people and have fun doing it. Um, it just like [00:46:00] anything, like it's more fun if you're in shape and then you chill out or whatever, as opposed to being like on the struggle bus.

Matt: Right. Like that's, it's, when you're on the rivets the whole time, like, It's fine to be working that hard if you are like kind of being competitive or you're pushing your personal records or whatever it is, but when you're pushing yourself that hard and you're still way back there, it's not as much fun as like when you're in shape and you can actually hold up, hold back a little bit.

Matt: So anyway, so I, um, you know, even doing like the dialed 100 thing, I think will help me a lot. Just consistently get some training in that I was doing some biking before, but it wasn't a lot. And I was doing more running and stuff like that, which I enjoy, but like, now I'm like, okay, well, when do I fit in a run?

Matt: And a bike, and a swim, I should probably swim. That's why I 

Ian: think, I think it's super important to just have that, just one thing on the calendar. Yeah. This says, this, this, you know, after all, um, otherwise you're like, why, why am I doing any of this? You [00:47:00] know, the. Right. So just to have that one event or one race or whatever it is, and then you can put next to it.

Ian: Well, my goals for this are just to have fun or my goals for this is to not get too badly beaten up by my old buddies, you know, I mean, whatever it is, you don't need to have a podium position or a 

Matt: right. No, I don't care. But just to, just to have a 

Ian: little, a little thing, maybe three or four months out, they go, that tells you I'm training because I want to do this event.

Ian: What's nice, 

Matt: what's nice is, um, it's early season too. So if I go and I have fun, I'll do another one. It's easy to sign up for something else. And. Again, summer, I'm sure all of us get into the situation where it's like you look at the summer calendar and you're like, holy crap, every weekend is filled with some trip or some, you know, for me it's kids swimming stuff or vacation stuff.

Matt: And it's like, wow, it fills up so fast. So Yeah. Hopefully I can get some races snuck in there and they don't have to be great, but they just need to be [00:48:00] fun. Cool. Like it? 

Ian: I mean, I'm, I'm thinking I want to go out and not get beat up too bad on the flogging rides. Yeah. Especially like when Jake comes back, you know.

Ian: That's the worst. It's like going to these rides, it's like the cyclocross thing right now when Everybody's doing fine. And then Vanderpool or Van Art shows up and it's the same when Jake gets back into shape. Oh, 

Lance: damn 

Ian: it. You know, that is one of those things in the back of my 

Jake: head that I do want to be ready for some flogging.

Jake: So there you go. I knew I'd get it out of you. Yeah. Those are a lot of fun. 15, 20 minutes, sometimes 30 minutes. So yeah, I do kind of want to like, Change them. Maybe the route just changed them ever so slightly this year. Or like when we have the longest days, maybe for just a couple of weeks, like add a little bit onto them.

Jake: So they're just, there's, there's a couple of different things. Um, you know, when we're going out, um, was it two 92nd and then you can go up [00:49:00] Powell, there's a climb in there. 

Matt: Oh, 

Jake: that does not play to my advantage by any 

Matt: good 

Jake: cause you could go up and then down. Exactly. It just adds a little horseshoe on there and maybe make the a group do that only, or it could be everybody.

Jake: But anyway, if you did that, then that would give the climbers a little bit of a chance to kind of create a breakaway. But then, you know, the sprinters, the rollier guys are going to have to go a little bit sooner to try and create some separation or wear out the climb 

Matt: to 

Jake: yeah. It's a good one. Yeah. And then there's also like when we get to the very end and you've got the, the school where we regroup right there, if you actually go right, you can create a nice little loop out of that as well.

Jake: So just adding on a little bit of extra distance on it. 

Ian: Sanctioned road racing at its finest. 

Jake: Stay tuned. We'll, we'll find that one out. So 

Matt: yeah. You know, it'd be interesting too, if you did that and you set it up correctly where the people, there's some people could skip that and go to the school. And if you could time it right where everyone came back and met up with the group, like You know, let's, if you found a loop that added like that hill loop would probably add not that much.

Matt: It's not that far. You're probably [00:50:00] talking about 10 minutes or so. Anyway, 

Jake: I was even thinking too, cause you can maybe send it in like two big groups. And so you say like, or I don't know, you have your, your C group or D group. If you've got them coming, you can send them together and make the C's go up and the D's go straight.

Jake: And then you could send the A's and the B's together and make the A's go up and there's just a couple of different ways to skin that cat. Yeah. Good All right, Jake. Yes. Hot seat. All right. Let me figure out a good way to frame this question. Um, what is something that you were never told about cycling that you probably should have learned way, way, way sooner than you actually did.

Jake: So you were today, you're today years old when you figure it out X. So what's that or, and if you don't have something there, what's gatekeeping that you need to share with the world? Lance's like sauna and his free EPO stuff that he's got going on there. I mean, people can do their research and find out, but that's a good little thing to know that people can sit in a sauna and raise their red blood cell [00:51:00] level counts.

Jake: Yes. Plasma. It's their blood plasma volume there. There you go. 

Lance: Good pair of chamois shorts, a good like, they're worth it every time. 

Jake: Yeah. 

Lance: A good pair of bib shorts that have a good chamois. So you rode for a 

Jake: long time, a lot of years, and didn't know any better? 

Lance: Yes, and just thought, I don't want to spend 150 bucks on a pair of bibs because that's freaking expensive.

Lance: Oh yeah. I'll ride the 40 bib shorts. Shorts. Yeah. That aren't bibs. Oh wait, bibs feel better. It isn't cut into my fat belly Because it sits over the top of my belly. Yeah, so it feels okay So when you 

Jake: first started writing Did you have people who influenced you and then kind of coached you and gave you tips and suggestions?

Jake: So the first set of bibs that you bought were they bibs or were they regular shorts with a chamois in them? 

Lance: Um, I think All the training stuff I first bought was shorts, was like triathlon stuff. Yeah, it was shorts. When I first joined the team, and I had to buy the [00:52:00] team kit, and they were bib shorts, I was like, Damn.

Jake: Big difference there. Big difference. Yeah, so much more comfortable. This is 

Lance: so much more comfortable. Sure. 

Jake: Now, here's a funny question. When you first wore your very first pair of bib shorts, did you know better to not wear underwear? Um, I don't 

Lance: remember. Do you have the banana hammock on? I don't. I don't.

Lance: I, I'm, I'm almost positive I didn't wear underwear with them. But that might've just been my free ballin attitude. That's just how, that's just how you roll. It could've been. 

Jake: So it took you, it took you longer than it should've to get some good To get some good bib shorts. You got anything that you're gatekeeping from people that you would like to share?

Jake: A little secret tip, trick? I gotta think about that. We can come back to you if you'd like. 

Lance: I, I certainly, I mean, I guess I'm not gatekeeping it, but sauna and hot tub, part of my recovery almost every day is like. The bomb. 

Jake: [00:53:00] Yeah. Well, it makes sense. Given what you've been accomplishing year over year, over year with the volumes that you're putting in.

Jake: I'm like, yeah, that's working for you. Yeah. You get your recovery. Yeah. Cool. How about you 

Ian: Gabo? Hmm. Well, for years and years I just used to just get on my bike and ride as hard as I could every day. And I'm thinking that, uh, This is the route to fitness. I'm going to get faster if I just work harder. And I did learn three, four years ago when, uh, I joined a team and started writing with other more experienced writers that they were approaching things a lot differently, they were, had more structure to that training.

Ian: And then when I work with a coach myself, I just. Figured out a whole smarter way of doing it. And, you know, and giving, given that I'm up until recently, up until this last year, I didn't, I was strapped for time like most of us. Um, it just seemed a [00:54:00] more efficient way of doing things. Like I just, each of my bike rides I went out on each of the training rides had some kind of goal purpose.

Ian: Doing so that was it. I can remember 

Jake: when I first started following some structured training program on the bike. I mean, I knew how to put together a training program for off the bike. Yeah. Cause I've worked with athletes for many, many, many years. And I had a good concept of like how the physiology of it all worked, but I never really put it all together with just bike specific training.

Jake: So once you start to kind of figure that stuff out, it makes a huge difference. And you know, when I first started training, you know, if you had a power meter on your bike, you were, you were. You know, high dollar guy, you know, cause those power meters back in the day were several grand, like two, three grams, something like that.

Jake: And like, nobody had those and, and they slowly, but surely kind of trickled down and came down and you could start to ride with those things. So a lot of times it was just training based off of rate of perceived exertion and your heart rate. And. Even just doing that, I got some tremendous results out of that.

Jake: So, you know, just kind of staying in that zone too. And then knowing when to do the, the, the higher intensity [00:55:00] stuff and the rest recovery days, when that all started to come together, that's when I made some huge gains. So, 

Ian: yeah. And it's hard to, uh, It's hard to appreciate that if you, you know, you can read about that and you can know the concepts and ideas behind it, but when you start applying it to yourself and you, and you've, you analyze how you're feeling after, after certain workouts, you know, it all, um, it all adds up and, and, you know, it's hard.

Ian: Yeah. You just, you just get better at what you're doing, I guess. Yeah. 

Jake: Cool. I guess. Yeah. That's, is that, does that answer? It does. Is there anything that you've been gatekeeping, anything that you think you can share that can help, um, help somebody that's maybe newer to cycling or just doesn't know any better?

Ian: No, I'm going to keep it all to myself. You got to pay Ian for his coaching to get that information, 

Matt: huh? I can, I can, I can't think of 

Ian: anything to tell you the truth. 

Matt: I can confirm Jake, like what you're talking about with like, I've said this on the podcast before, having a power meter is like cheating, especially when it comes to triathletes and [00:56:00] all the triathletes that listen to the podcast.

Matt: Like it used to be, and it's not really the case anymore, but like if you had a podcast and you, if you had a power meter and you knew like what your numbers were to ride to, it was cheating. It was like, you could just hit those numbers and get off and run, right? Other secret stuff, secret sauce would be, um, for other triathlete listeners of the podcast, you really do have to train your legs to run off the bike.

Matt: Whereas a lot of times, like when you're training, you're like, well, I am running, I'm running three times a week and I'm biking the other days or whatever. It's like, that's great. But if you're going to, Do is different. Triathlon, you kinda have to run off the bike and your, your legs have to get used to that.

Matt: It's wobbly. Funny when I look at 

Ian: triathletes. Yeah. Um. Postings on Strava. I see. They name their ride something something OOTB, off the bike O ot. And I'm like, what is, because to me it always meant off the back or over the bars. Over the bars. Over the bars. . Yeah. Seriously. [00:57:00] 

Lance: But 

Jake: that's what I thought it was the 

Lance: very first time I saw the mountain biking.

Lance: It's over the bars. Yeah. 

Matt: Yeah. But yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I'll have to do some, I haven't done a lot of OTB work, so. Over the bars or off the bars or off the bike, but I will have to do some here sometime soon. What does that look like? I mean, what is you just like, so you write, let's say you ride Zwift for an hour or whatever it is, and you go out for a three mile run directly afterwards.

Matt: You, you, you can probably like go inside and change. Out of your bibs, but like you step 

Lance: off change shoes go for the run like right away 

Matt: like within the next 10 minutes or so You'll get that wobbly leg feeling but you get over that pretty like when you're used to it You get over it after the within the first mile.

Matt: Yeah Yeah So 

Lance: it takes them a half mile or a mile for your legs to come around but you're being on the bike if you 

Matt: haven't done that stuff in a while, you're like, Oh crap, my legs don't feel normal. 

Ian: Why would you want to ruin a perfectly good bike ride by 

Matt: running, running 

Ian: afterwards? [00:58:00] That's the time to go to the kitchen and fix yourself.

Jake: What's wrong, man? Is your bike broken? Is there anything that You learned late into your either triathlon or cycling journeys that you should have, and wish you'd known way, way sooner. And you felt like maybe, I don't know. I D 

Matt: I definitely think like running off the bike would be the thing that I was thinking of that you have to train.

Matt: You have to train that. Um, I don't think the first couple of years of triathlon, I don't know that I did a great job and I still ran fine because I have the running background, but it was like, It just feels so bad when you're not used to it. Uh, the other big thing was when I trained through the winter and did interval work, and I don't think that this has to be some super scientific.

Matt: This interval is better than that interval. It's just like. Interval work, like you, like I did a winter's worth of interval work. It [00:59:00] was power based. It was a lot of like 10 times a minute with a minute rest. And like, that's not a super scientific workout by any means, but you're pushing power, you're going hard.

Matt: And I was doing it on rollers and stuff. So it was like, you end up going from being like, for, from a triathlon group, like I was like hanging on to. Being front of the pack like you guys can get on my wheel and hold and like go for a while like it's just significant increase in fitness Again, a lot of that is also the fact that other people had just spent a winter of not biking and then they, you know, you go out and you're in better shape than they are because you've trained through the winter, but just doing interval work is, is huge.

Matt: It's very helpful. 

Jake: Yeah, totally agree. Um, if I were to answer my own question, is that. That it's, um, that it's actually okay to ask other people questions and not to be so, uh, I don't know, machismo about that. I, when I first started doing a lot more of the cycling stuff and was doing a lot of the mountain biking and the road cycling, I mean, [01:00:00] YouTube was around, but it was more like, you know, cats playing pianos and people dancing, doing the Macarena.

Jake: Yeah, exactly. What does the fox say? But it wasn't so I don't know, full of all kinds of information. So yes, people can go to the internet now and get a lot of their questions answered. But there were so many things that had to just ask questions sooner or sought the advice of like, you know, friends or even a coach at that point in time.

Jake: Like, like my bike fit was so bad on my road bike when I first got started and like, I'm just always kind of tinkering it. And I did finally ask somebody and they kind of gave me some tips and some pointers and like, Oh, okay. Yeah. That, that makes a lot of sense. Tried it. And then all the difference in the world.

Jake: Yeah. That's great. So there was that. And then the other thing I think that I waited way too long to, to figure out is you look at bike saddles or a, you see a bike that comes with a saddle. You just assume like, all right, that's just how I'm going to go ride it. Like saddles are just like shoes. They fit everybody differently.

Jake: And I just never, like, I never really truly made that connection, but Hey, go try some different saddles. You know, I was [01:01:00] riding a saddle that. Just so happen to be comfortable for me on my mountain bike, but the road bike, it was not comfortable at all, but I just kind of like powered through it. And it was just never comfortable.

Jake: It was never one of those things until I actually got a decent saddle. When I started to kind of tinker with things and ask some questions, people, Oh yeah, you've got this kind of, this kind of, this kind of your sits bones. I'm like, yeah, that all makes sense. And they make saddles for all of that different stuff.

Jake: Yeah. Should have done that. So just ask questions. Don't be, don't, don't feel like you had, you know, you have to go figure all of this stuff out. I don't know. None of us are born with this information and there's one way to learn it. And just ask. 

Ian: It makes me think about where we got all this information before it was so readily available.

Ian: Like, you know, when I was writing back in the eighties and nineties, You, you got everything from other cyclists or I, I, I'd buy books from books and learn that way. Yeah. But you know, now, um, there's the global cycling network, YouTube channel, there's, there's [01:02:00] the internet. I mean, it's, yeah, there's so much information out there.

Ian: It never used to be. So we, it used to be more of a tribal knowledge thing. Yeah. But there's 

Jake: still a lot to be said about like showing up in, in writing in a group. Yeah. In just asking people questions, if you're not sure about something, because you can learn so much from people and their experiences. And that will help you like maybe.

Jake: Circumvent having issues with your bike or spending money on stuff that you don't need to, or, you know, anything. So, you know, going back to the saddles, I mean, I, I kind of had a surgery recently that was kind of half genetic and half saddle related. And it's just an issue there. And that, that, that in itself is another little thing.

Jake: And I can't. I can't even begin to tell you how many people have had conversations like, Oh, did you have surgery on your hip or your shoulder? No, it was actually, you know, and I haven't said it on the podcast yet, but it was for my prostate. And it was, it was such a bad problem. And it's amazing how many people won't talk about that because they feel like there's a stigma attached to it.

Jake: And as soon as you let it [01:03:00] out, that that's what you were dealing with. I can't even, it's like, it's like every other person's like, Oh, you're dealing with that too. Me too. And then like you start comparing stories and they're like, how come nobody ever talks about this? I'm like, I know it's just like, just share this information.

Jake: And it was a, an issue that for me, it slowly just crept up for probably 10, 12, 15 years. And it just got to the point where it was so bad that I, I had to stop writing and I had to go have surgery because my, you're all just said, you went from moderate to severe. You need to have surgery and we're going to need to see you around this time.

Jake: Yeah. Yes, sir. We'll see you then. So, you know, long story short, um, you know, share this information. Just, just know that, you know, 

Ian: Cause other cyclists love to talk about that stuff, like cleat position and, you know, how many millimeters. Handlebar extension, you have all this stuff that, 

Jake: yeah, it's funded, would 

Ian: completely boil a pants off a non cyclist.

Ian: Yeah, true. 

Jake: But it's fun to nerd out on that. And if it's gonna be something [01:04:00] that's gonna help you, you know, then that's great. Yeah, ask, ask them like not only like what are they doing, but ask them why. Yeah. And that's gonna tell you a lot about that. Then you can start to lay that over with what you've got going on and it's just gonna make cycling that much more enjoyable for you.

Jake: It's gonna make you that much better of a cyclist and you're gonna be doing it for that much longer. So. Get a good saddle. Fix your cleats. Train off the bike. Don't train off the bike. Get a coat. Sweet. As for gatekeeping, I don't know if I gatekeep. I tend to share just about everything. Overshare. I can't think of anything other than looking to, you know, I think my little secret for a long time, but I've told a million people.

Jake: EPO, uh, phytonitrates. So, you know, that's, that's a little thing. What is it? Phytonitrates, like your beets, beet juice and stuff like that kind of stuff. That was a big winner for me. And like, I got such a positive response from that when I first started doing that, probably 15 years ago. I'm like, holy cow, that made a huge, huge improvement.

Jake: I didn't tell [01:05:00] anybody. I just kept it to myself. And everybody started asking me like, how the hell did you get so fast over these last few months? And then I finally like, yeah, I started kind of dabbling with this and this happened and I did some research on it and found all these journals and articles.

Jake: And then I honed in even more and like, Oh my Lord, that was, 

Ian: I remember talking to you about this, uh, five years ago. In fact, I went out and got a juicer and. Made my own beet juice for a long time. And it does kind of work. If you stiff, if you stick with 

Jake: it, it's very significant in my opinion. So in the journals are showing that it's, uh, anywhere from seven to 10 percent increase in your power endurance.

Jake: That's significant. So when we're over here paying thousands of dollars to drop our. The weight of our bike by grams or whatnot. It's just kind of nuts. But if you're in, you're fighting your butt off just to get a couple extra Watts in an entire training season, you can do something that's going to be healthy for you and it's going to give you a performance and boost.

Jake: Why not? 

Ian: You know what I found in similar to that by bicarbonate soda, I, I, I, I got this [01:06:00] stuff, yeah, well, I found this super expensive, um, this, this, uh, Product where the, the bicarb is in these little tiny balls and it's suspended in a gel. Mm-hmm . So you don't, it doesn't wreck your guts, but Sure. Um, it really helps.

Ian: Did you see somebody 

Lance: on the Tour de France eating it out of Tupperware? Oh geez. That was how it was. Yeah. Somebody was, yeah. Somebody was eating the. It's martin, it's a martin, martin. Yeah. Yeah. And somebody, they handed it to him through the window and he was eating it out of Tupperware on the bike and passed it back in.

Lance: Cause there was like two more, two more, three more hours to go. 

Ian: I saw something with Jumbo Bismuth that would. And uh, I tried it and it really works, really works. What 

Jake: about ketones? Are you, any of you guys still doing the ketone stuff? Lance, did you kind of ever go wholeheartedly? You tried it, right? 

Lance: I tried it for, um, for like two months and I didn't find a significant improvement.

Lance: I feel like Evan tried it too. So I [01:07:00] stopped. I actually did the same thing with like, um, Like with AG1, the, the, it's, it's, the Athletic Greens. I've, I've tried, I've done that for, for months at a time and didn't find a significant improvement either. And so I don't, I don't do either of those things anymore.

Jake: I've heard that that's just a really good marketing company, but that's just my two cents. 

Lance: All right. But they have a lot of very good athletes on their, on their team. Payroll, and so it gets advertised and talked about a lot. Yeah, 

Jake: let's be good. 

Lance: Yeah. 

Jake: Cool. Anything else boys? No There it goes

Jake: I'm sorry. I just, I never get tired of hearing that. So how do you have one last thing? Speaking of one last thing, let's do one last thing. Matt Legrand, 

Matt: would you like to go first? Well, sure. Yep. Uh, last week I posted a video [01:08:00] talking about trends in, um, 2025 for smartwatches or GPS watches. I've plugged it for you.

Matt: You plugged it? You told the world? Oh, it was in one of your training blogs? No, I plugged it on this podcast for you. Okay, well then, uh, coming up, I was editing it like right before the podcast, so it's pretty much wrapped up, so maybe coming up tomorrow morning, I'll be posting the Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Edition, um, how it's holding up after 100 days.

Matt: So, yeah, that'll be a good video. That'd be tomorrow. And it's not that great of you. Cause it's really the same as the Apple watch ultra two, which is the, you know, it's been around for a year. It's the only thing that's interesting about this video is that I'm doing a lot of macro shots and it's like zoom and enhance, zoom and enhance, like super, super close up shots of the, the watch.

Matt: Because a lot of people are like, Oh, the black edition is going to be scratched or the black edition is going to be this or that or whatever. So. That's the video how do you like it or do I have to watch it's fine. Yeah, it's fine. I mean, it's another color choice[01:09:00] 

Matt: I'm excited for them to do something different. Ballpark idea. How many watches do you own right now? 

Jake: Seriously? Like if you had to give it an honest estimate? Probably 

Matt: only 40 maybe? 30 or 40? Something like that? 

Jake: At what point in time do you like retire them and put them out to pasture and then Do you just hold on to them because they're 

Matt: a lot of times I'll pull them out and I'll be like, okay, I need to show the Apple watch, whatever series seven versus the series eight versus the series nine versus the series 10.

Matt: And you can show that history, which is kind of nice to be able to at least have one clip, um, to show people like what, how it's different, how it's changed. Uh, so I do like having some historical watches around. Um, yeah, and then people borrow watches all the time and stuff like that. So do you want me to 

Jake: start getting you some dummy watches from Garmin?

Jake: Yeah, I just threw away a bunch of them because they're discontinued. So [01:10:00] yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I did. Did you throw them away? Really? Well, they're in a recycle bin. They're probably still at the lab and they haven't gotten out to fish them out. Are they like, which ones are they? Are they like the old Phoenix or something?

Jake: Epics, the older Phoenix six and seven, I think. And there might have been, uh, an older. Forerunner, you want those? I'll take all those. Okay. I didn't even think to ask you. Because 

Matt: the thing is they, like, I don't have the Phoenix seven or the Phoenix seven pro. I just have the Phoenix eight. Okay. So there's a lot of stuff that I don't have, but yeah, those are yours.

Matt: I'll get them. Thank you. Cool. Just go dumpster diving for me. There's lots of dumpster diving that I need you to do in the future. So glad you're healthy. Yeah. Ready to dumpster dive. There you go. 

Jake: Hello. One last thing, bud. 

Ian: Yeah. Exciting announcement for road races here in the Pacific Northwest area. I was on a zoom call meeting with some promoters also with Chuck from Obra last night, uh, the Northwest cup is going to happen.

Ian: It's going to be a series of four races, [01:11:00] two in Washington state to here in Oregon. So it's going to be Mason Lake to, uh, I think it's called Boston Harbor race up by Seattle. Okay. Um, Travis's race out at High Lake. The Banana Belt is going to go ahead and my race, Barton Park. Barton Park. Yeah, that's awesome.

Ian: Yeah, it's, it's. It's a tremendous boost, I think, for the local racing scene. And, uh, 

Jake: will you be changing anything for Barton park this year over what you did last year? A lot of what we 

Ian: talked about was, as was, um, standardizing the categories that going to count towards the cup. And basically it looks like Barton park looks like the way I had the categories set up.

Ian: Um, so, um, yeah, it's going to be great. Castelli's, uh, going to provide. Leaders jerseys. Excellent. Um, there's gonna be, yeah, prizes and [01:12:00] good times, so, wow. Exciting. That is exciting. I think that runs good for you. So that's gonna start, I think Mason Lake two is right at the end of March, I believe. Mm-hmm . And then the final race is gonna be the Boston Harbor and.

Ian: Mid May something like that. 

Lance: Barton Park is May 10th. May 10th. Yeah. Sweet. Yep. Um, one last thing from me. Um, I don't know that I have a whole lot to share. 

Matt: Oh, plug your, plug your. Oh, watch my, 

Lance: uh, watch my, uh, training vlogs on YouTube. YouTube. com. Slash. Lance Hepler. Lance Hepler. And you'll see my training vlogs.

Lance: Today is like day two. Six that I've done them or something like that. How long is 

Jake: it taking you right now to get one of those produced and turned around? Like you're doing an hour, so like, will you record it all day long? Like little bits and pieces or do you like intentionally go out and record something?

Jake: Nope. Okay. 

Lance: I'm not like intentionally 

Matt: recording something extra. Are you pressing publish like right after it's been edited and good to go? Oh yeah. And then thumbnail it [01:13:00] all or just like, just whatever, just letting it, just letting it fly. Let's just let nature fly. Letting it happen. Perfect. So that's good.

Lance: I'm trying to do it with the least amount of effort possible by all means. 

Matt: Yeah. Just 

Lance: because I don't want it to be a three hour thing. I want it to be a 30 minute. You can 

Matt: set up a template of what your description is. I've already done that. Okay. Yeah. 

Jake: You can even set up a template too, to make the thumbnail and just plug in a picture really quick and just, you know, Upload that and that will get you more, like, that's one of the big hooks right there is to get people into the thumbnail.

Jake: Yeah, I gotta work on my thumbnail again. It's not just terribly difficult, but you 

Lance: could you could choose the thumbnail from your video. I have done that like I did that twice and then I was like, oh that that's actually works. Well, 

Matt: yeah. Because you can do that. I mean you can, and you can also change titles and thumbnails after the video is published.

Matt: Like you have time to do stuff. Like when you're on the toilet and you're on your phone, you can be like, let me just change the thumbnail. Let me change the title. Oh, yeah. 

Lance: Oh, 

Matt: okay. 

Lance: Okay. 

Matt: That's good. See, I don't know. Toilet. It's 

Lance: all toilet time. [01:14:00] So go to my YouTube, check it out. Yes. Make some comments. Tell me how much of an idiot I look like.

Matt: Okay. 

Lance: I've been messing that up on the comment section. Yeah. You've been going nice. You need to go mean. Okay. Got it. Jake. 

Jake: Sweet. Um, I really don't have a one last thing other than, um, yeah, I'm just gonna be out. Starting to do some rides. Uh, come join us on the Tuesday nights with ride those. Um, I don't know if this podcast will come out today, but, um, there will be a ride tonight and if you can't make it tonight and it's not out today, then join us next week, more the merrier.

Jake: And, um, we do use the discord and you come on there and chat with us and talk a little bit more, which is a lot of fun. And we get people from all over the place, which is pretty cool. Sometimes kind of fun, but this year has been a little bit on the light side. I don't know if that's partly my fault because, um, I'm not on the rides and promoting them quite as much or because Strava is stupid, let us put web links into things, people having issues getting onto it, but you know, whatever you can do to, we need, yeah, we definitely need more 

Matt: people.

Jake: Yeah. And then the other thing is, um, yeah, on the EPO chain mail, [01:15:00] send us a text, send us a text, send us some questions, send us some feedback and while you're at it, We'll review the podcast too. Yeah. Use those that that's always helpful. So five stars. I'm always so excited. We, we switched over this new platform and I know I've talked about it a few times and it's been super cool.

Jake: It's a bit more work for me because I'm doing more stuff, but at the end of the day, it's kind of fun and it's really neat to be able to go back and just see like all of the, the different like countries and the cities that have listened to us in the last six weeks, since we started doing this, we've just in the last six weeks, we've had people from 27 different countries listen to the podcast.

Jake: Doesn't that blow your mind? 

Lance: Are you sure they're not just bots in Botswana or something? They're listening to us. No, I mean We don't 

Matt: know. I wonder how valuable that would be for a bot to be listening to us. 

Jake: So, I mean, there are some kind of like weird things. I'm like, I don't even, I didn't even know that that was a country.

Jake: But there's plenty of other stuff out there. I mean, we've got people from Belgium listening, for instance, you know, so you're talking [01:16:00] about, you know, Wout and Van Der Poel and all that other stuff. I mean, they're, they probably appreciate that. Or 

Lance: why is Wout more popular than Van Der Poel? Please tell us.

Lance: Yeah. 

Jake: I mean, we've got seven different people that listen to the podcast in Cameroon. Cameroon. Wherever, you know, where's that at? 

Lance: It's some dude and he's made his like four training partners and their wives listen to us. That's funny. And then 

Jake: just looking at the total number of cities and this is around the world.

Jake: 272. different cities around the world. So that's just kind of neat to, to see that, you know, people are listening and I want to hear from all these people. Like if you're from Cameroon, why, why are you listening to 

Matt: us? Send us a message. 

Jake: Yeah. Give us, you know, give us a little bit of feedback. We want to know.

Jake: Anyhow, that's enough. I'll shut up now. Let's uh, let's call this one done. We will be back next week with another one of these. And until then, bye for now.