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On my exercise bike I normally try to stay within my aerobic zone so below 145 but sometimes it’ll go up to 180 but yea I’m very unfit but it’s normally between 130-160.
My initial post was about it being their job bro. Nothing to do with intensity, nothing picking on their level of fitness. I know they’re damn fit. 100x fitter then I could ever imagine being.
BUT. It’s their job. They have complained for as long as I can remember about how hard it is etc etc etc with the amount of work they do. This video brought to light how little time actually goes into training and I was amazed by how little time went in. I would be very happy working 24 hours a week and making enough money to live on.
That was all. I’ve stayed away from their actual stats on performance, I’ve not commented on that once. Only on the hours gone in and that I was very surprised because I thought/ assumed/ believed that they put in a heck of a lot more.
Believe me when I say I’m the first to defend moto athletes to my mainstream friends who don’t think moto is hard. I know these guys are fit.
I also knew I would get roasted for saying what I did but as I’ve said. I genuinely thought they would be putting in a lot more time.
Exactly 👍
Fuck these guys, I also was genuinely shocked. I decided to give working out a legit effort myself this offseason. I was logging around 20 hours a week and I can assure you the intensity level wasn’t that low. My lifting numbers went up each week, my cardio measurably improved over the 5 months.
Typical week I was doing 10-12 hours of focused zone 2 cardio per week, 1 hour of intervals, 2 hours of moto, and 4 hours of lifting.
i knew what I was doing was pretty legit but I had no idea how close it was to the top level guys!! Basically they did my schedule with two more days of riding and probably 40% less lifting.
and I know a lot of their bike rides are zone 2, so their intensity isn’t redlined 24/7 like some are trying to claim. Most of their high intensity comes from the dirtbike and the rest is zone 2 stretching, balance and lifting.
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I’m electrician in wind turbine. I climb 300 feet ladder multiple time a day
I bet you're in pretty good shape.
No one said doing construction would make you fitter than a professional athlete.
Any of you guys ever done roofing with a group of amigos in the month of August?
I actually have worked with said amigos doing brickwork in AZ. Usually we’d start by 5am to beat the heat and get after it to finish by 2pm. Powered by homemade breakfast tamales and a 6 pack of beer in their cooler. Sprinkle in a pregnant woman and a few kids under 10 helping with jobsite cleanup. Tuned athletes to complete their job no doubt.
What I don’t think you realize is that your intensity “wasn’t that low” for YOU. When competing against other elite athletes, the margins are so close that you have to do so much more to get better than the other elite guy. Adam Cianciarulo’s interview on pulp after the retirement announcement was eye opening. He said he was just doing 450 mains at like 175bpm and he should be at 190 to have that top 5 speed and intensity. That’s the margin between getting lapped and potential top 5s. I’m interested in this topic because I only recently got into running and tracking data.
As a 40yr old construction worker who sits on a machine all day, I wanted to get in better shape for riding and hopefully enjoy retirement instead of dying at 60 like most people in the trades do. I’ve been running for about a year and have steadily improved my pace and distance. The goal this year is to do a half marathon in under 2hrs. I know that doesn’t sound hard to all the Navy Seals here, but that’s my personal goal.
It’s obviously far easier to make huge gains when you start at basement level. Knocking 3 minutes off your 5k time or dropping your mile pace from 10:00 to 8:30 is pretty simple if you do the work long enough. The bigger problem with the elites is dropping 8 seconds off their 5k time when you and 40 others are at the 15:00 5k race pace.
Everything that these elite racers are doing as far as training is geared toward the last 3 laps of a 20min sprint or 35min moto so their laps times don’t drop a few tenths of a second. The average dude who’s in shape and races pretty decent would be happy with staying within a few seconds of his best lap at the end of a 5 lap local race. I’m sure guys with Litpro data see similar things.
I'm pretty much on the same program as a 32 year old construction guy. Started back riding 3 years ago and started cycling and running 2 years ago. I want to see how fit I can get just for personal satisfaction. The funny part is that my "fitness" on the jobsite has seen the most gains compared to on the bike fitness.
I rarely post, always just turns into arguments. Couple of thoughts.
1) I'm amazed they train anywhere near those levels while the season is going, which is almost year round really. They put in some serious workouts at the races if you add up all the practices, qualifying and race times. I'm sore for 2-3 days when I ride that long and I'm not hitting anywhere near those levels of G-forces.
2) Some of those guys are just machines, hitting huge jumps for 40 minutes, slamming whoops, riding hours for the weekend, they look like they are barely breathing after a main. Talent has a lot to do with it. A talented rider can ride so much more efficient. I have Amt off road friends that look like they are riding a bull around pretty easy tracks with no jumping and come in after 10- 15 mins exhausted.
3) I was always short on natural talent and felt that I could just out-train most of the guys I raced against, never worried about looking for smooth lines and loved nasty sand tracks. My best X/C year was one of the years I'd use the summer break to train and compete in the hotter-then-hell triple threat in August in Texas. MTB bike race on Friday, 100 mile road bike on Sat, and a 1/2 marathon run on the MTB course on Sun. Heck I beat most of those guys numbers just on those weekends. I was surprised at some of those bench press and strength numbers though. Now I understand a little better when I see those guys struggling to pick their bikes up in the mud or get trapped under their bikes! I always thought they were just being a little dramatic. I do think some of the stronger guys have a bigger advantage especially on the 450s, like Tomac and Sexton.
Anderson seemed like the most honest. I find it hard to believe some things RC and Sexton are saying, even if they might be telling the truth, just seems like their ego is too big to allow themselves to look bad.
Thanks mate. And the numbers they were talking about was during their peak boot camp intense 6 week pre season program. I’d be interested to know their mid season hours. Obviously a lot of travel mid season though and more focus on recovery. But once again it’s a job. 🤙🤙
I know of a cross country runner that wanted to get on the sprinting team again. The long distance running took his explosive ness away. He went to a retired Packer players warehouse training place . To retrain his trigger muscles. Plowing 7ft deep with a train , I got the job nobody wanted bird dogging. With a 25 lb set of huge blue prints I had to run out front & find gas lines, etc. mark them . Then run out front then run back to the train. Ovr 100 mi a day 7 days a week. The balas stone Is hard to run on. I lost all my toe nails , I still had to run. The next yr. I had a little training to maintain & operate the train. I would do a few sprints & maybe a steep hill . Mx is a sprint sport . Sprinting will get u in way better shape & it’s quick. Think about it I sprint 1 1/2 laps cruise a 1/2 then sprint 1 lap. Etc. if I sprint I pulled 20 seconds on u . How r u going to make that up . You don’t because you’re training for a long distance. 4-5 lap race why would anyone train for long distance? Today was long distance I made it to La. It’s 90.
You want to run a 16 minute 5k? You are going to be running lots of "slow" 10-12 mile runs. To build the aerobic base. You have to stay in the aerobic range to build the necessary oxygen processing structures in the muscles. You have to run the heart at an aerobic range to build the size and pumping ability. You cannot train to run a 3hr marathon by running fast all the time.
"To go fast, you must first learn to go slow....and long."
Some of you fuckin couch potatoes have zero idea what it takes to build the ability to run anaerobic heart rates for 35 mins and then do it again an hour later.
And basic Ironman triathlon training....
Monday- 45 to 60 minute spin before work. 5 mile easy run Monday evening and light weights.
Tuesday- in pool at 5:30am for 1-2 hours before work. 10-15 mile easy run, evening, after work.
Wednesday- 1hr spin session before work, off Wednesday night or light weight training, high reps, low intensity.
Thursday- in pool again for 1-2 hours before work. Thursday night, another 10-15 mile run.
Friday- spin session or light run 1 hour, before work, or weights, sometimes both. Off in the evening.
Saturday- bicycle from 50-100 miles followed by a 3-5 mile run immediately after.
Sunday- long run of 15-18 miles.
20-30 hours a week PLUS your 45-50 hr job.
Sit down job obviously? So your training your body like a 69 yr old marathon runner, why ? Are you doing 35 min motos in tx. Now ? Speaking of I was in Houston & then nacogdoches. Unld , reld feet to upper body everything u got. Total of 13 hrs in 93 & muggy . Upper body is pumped like Ben Johnson. Want to sprint race a 40, 60,80, or 100 . I bet 10 grand you can’t beat me. Unless you’re an Olympic level sprinter. Houston to next pu was 3-4 in per hrs rain, 59 was shutdown, under water.
Doesn't 35 minutes of anaerobic heart rate defy the physiological definition of "anaerobic" (without oxygen)?
Just a question from the uneducated "couch potato" crowd.
Anaerobic and aerobic respiration happens at the cellular level and occurs at the same time but is proportional to the intensity of the workout and your personal aerobic threshold. This determines the rate of lactic acid buildup. You can go at your personal threshold of aerobic respiration for a while, it's different for everyone.
Talking about the fitness of the riders does not make interesting TV. These guys are professional athletes, guys at the top of every sport in the world are all fit. Guys that win American ninja warrior train just as hard as Eli Tomac or Jett Lawrence.
Pit Row
That was back in 2014 and 2015. I'm in south Texas and running 15 miles in 90-95f heat is brutal. Doing 50+ mile bike sessions in the same heat plus half the route heading straight into 15-25 mph southern winds and rolling hills....brutal. I did a 70 mile ride in 90f temps and 25mph headwinds and the last 30 miles heading home, I damn near raged/cried. Probably my toughest bike session ever.
I did my 70.3 in Galveston in April 2014 (first tri ever) and a front blew in that morning and we had 2-3 foot waves and 25-30 mph headwinds the first 600m....brutal, I struggled but no fuckin way I was going to quit, once I got to the first turn to out the wind at my right, I was fine. So many people went out on the swim. Then I did Ironman Texas the next month in The Woodlands, pretty hot on the bike and run between 88f and a high of 93f.
I used to run half and full marathons prior to that from 2007-2012 until I had kidney cancer, lost a kidney, then used triathlon to get back into shape and prove to myself and my kids that dad was OK. I loved teaching myself to swim and the longest swim I did was 3 miles.
I'm 6'3" and no sprinter. But I could go long at a 7'30" to 8'30"/mile at 200lbs. Slower in 90+ heat, big guys bake. I knowa little about training and endurance.
Yep. In actuality you are doing both energy-related functions. But aerobic training pushes your anaerobic thresholds higher, and that is why pro moto guys can maintain hr of 180-190 for 35 mins at a time.
You cannot do that if your aerobic base is tiny.
And you know what helped me get through all of the tough runs and bike rides? Motocross. I raced and rode mx from 1985 till 2006. I ran and biked for training then, and racing mx made me tough. When I was suffering, I would think back to my toughest races and say "I raced mx, I can do this, too."
I can't take anything this guy says seriously, and I own a trucking company. It's humorous.
The video in the original post did make me feel a little better since I've hit the gym for 5 months now. I'm not far off some things and on par with others. 100 pushups in 1 set are pretty far out, more like 35 here. Recovering from back injuries. Still getting my ass kicked on the track, Trying to take a riding lesson every week. This was week 2 of riding lessons working with the same people as Jeremy Hand. Only had decent weather for 2 weeks around here. We're definitely making progress.
Interesting video. When I was a young marine I was running just under 18 min 5k (usually still drunk) easily doing 20 pull-ups, 100 pushups, 100 sit ups, 5x10 100lbs dumb bell bench press, max deadlift was 405. Motocross is strange though I was never very fast and I had friends that never trained in the gym that were expert or pro and they could put in longer motos. I think it takes more energy to go slow, pros carry so much momentum so they’re not pushing as hard braking into corners, they’re not pulling as hard coming out of corners, they’re not wasting energy in the corners compensating for poor form…obviously that logic breaks down at a certain point comparing pros to pros but that’s my theory anyway.
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