Getting off our bikes is the last thing most cyclists want to do. That, however, is just what we’re recommending in today’s episode of Fast Talk. Whether for overall health, improving performance and fitness, gaining athleticism, or getting a much-needed mental break, off-the-bike training and cross-training is a powerful tool with many benefits.
RELATED: Fast Talk Episode 288—Climb Training, Lost Motivation, and the Best Cross-Training
Today, we’ll discuss why they’re so important. Then we’ll explore the favorite off-the-bike workouts and activities of coaches, physiologists, and athletes. Coach Connor even makes a lofty claim about how cross-training—exercising without a bike in sight—has prevented him from having overuse injuries like many who ride as much as he does.
First we hear from former pro and longtime endurance coach Julie Young, who offers great low-impact suggestions that you can incorporate into your training routine.
Next, we discuss stretching with RedBull athlete, MTB marathon national champ, and host of The Adventure Stache podcast, Payson McElveen.
Then we chat with Petr Vakoc of the Alpecin-Fenix team about how he approaches his training and off-the-bike work with a focus on enjoyment.
And finally, Steve Neal, endurance coach and the co-owner of The Cycling Gym, offers some powerful advice on combatting long term physical impairments like asthma through off-the-bike work.
Now get off that saddle! Let’s make you fast.
Episode Transcript
Chris Case 00:08
Welcome to another episode of Fast Talk your source for the science of cycling performance. I’m Chris Case. And I’m actually in a room with Trevor Connor. And we’re gonna do this episode together looking at each other.
Trevor Connor 00:23
Are we breaking rules doing this?
Chris Case 00:25
Probably. I have a mask on. You have a mask?
Trevor Connor 00:29
I have pants on.
Trevor Connor 00:31
That’s my standard, right? I think this is the first time I’ve actually been in a room with another human being in like a month?
Chris Case 00:36
Well, time to bring the standards back up to what we might call normal, Trevor. So here we go.
Trevor Connor 00:43
Yeah, good luck with that.
Chris Case 00:45
But we do want to do something a little bit different today. We have been asking all of the guests over the past several months. A single question, really, and we want to offer their answers today. But before we do that, Trevor wants to talk a little bit about give us the context for off the bike work, something we’ve talked about many times before on the show. But we want to give a little bit of a preface to the episode talking about why it’s important, the variety involved, and so forth. So Trevor, what do you got?
Trevor Connor 01:17
So if you’ve been listening to the show, you know that we think off the bike work is really important. And it is. I do a lot of it. The one time I really had health issues, the one time I was kind of feeling bad, I’m old, was when I was just riding the bike, and not on the bike. So I don’t think we need to go down that road of explaining why off the bike work is important. So we’re doing something a little bit different here, which we thought would be fun. Which is there’s a lot of different types of off the bike work.
Chris Case 01:48
Absolutely. for different reasons for different things as seasons.
Trevor Connor 01:52
That’s a thing I have been asked; Why do off the bike work? And what I’ve noticed is my answer really varies. And it’s not because I’m being inconsistent, it’s because there’s a lot of answers to that question. Absolutely. So we thought about and felt hey, it would be kind of fun to ask people, what’s their three favorite off the bike workouts? to kind of get at how are they using it? Why are they using it? What are their different reasons? But I think before we can get to those interviews, we need to just kind of do our summary of why what is the purpose of the bike work, or one of the many purposes, what’s the value? So the first and the most obvious, and the one that especially a lot of younger cyclists kind of jump on is how does this make me stronger? There are certainly ways in which off the bike work will make you stronger on the bike, particularly if you’re getting into the weight room and doing some strength work. If you are the typical little on the smaller side cyclist, doing some leg work building some some muscle strength is going to help you on the bike. And research has gone back and forth on that. But really now the research is saying it does help because it strengthens your slow twitch muscle fibers. If they are stronger, you can produce more power, where you still just using slow twitch muscle fibers, which means muscles aren’t fatiguing as quickly you’re working purely or aerobically, you’re going to be fresher at the end of the race than the person who doesn’t have that slow twitch muscle fiber strength. So that’s one it just makes us stronger.
Chris Case 03:22
Yep, go straight to the heart of performance in that regard.
Trevor Connor 03:24
Also can improve neuromuscular recruitment, which again, will help you on the bike. And we’ve covered that before, so I won’t dive into it too much. But the next side, which is increasingly an important one to me is a nearly 50 year old cyclist, is health. And I’m going to say that this is the one that no, you’re not going to notice anything a week from now or two weeks from now, this is the long term one. But if you want to have a long cycling career or even a long season, if you’re just talking about a single season, you have to focus on that hillside. Cycling is an inbalance sport you are locked in, you’re pedaling in circles, which is an unnatural movement for your body. And there’s no eccentric work. And you read any of the research on the strength training side talks about the benefits of doing eccentric work. So
Trevor Connor 03:35
This is one of those things where you’re talking about the health repercussions sort of the general health repercussions, you could go without some of this stuff for a while and then I think you’re more likely to fall off a cliff rather than see small declines. But if you’re doing the off the bike work, you’re actually preventing that from happening in first place.
Trevor Connor 04:47
So I think I forget which episode it was but way back early on in the show we had Dr. Andy Pruitt on and he made the comment, “If I’m walking into a building and a cyclist is walking out I can always recognize them because of the kyphosis that kind of arch in the back so yes, the cyclists who only ever ride the bike. You watch them walk and they stop looking human they stop looking normal.
Chris Case 05:13
Yeah, it’s like that graphic you’ve seen between the primate and the human at the other end and somewhere in between is the cyclist because they’re, they’re hunched over.
Trevor Connor 05:23
So you hear heard it here first, cycling is a deevolving sport.
Chris Case 05:27
Yes, it is. And that was Episode 59. with Dr. Pruitt preventing the I think it was the most common cycling injuries and that was one of them that-
Trevor Connor 05:35
-you are getting really good at this. I’ve like I’m vaguely remember doing an episode at some point. You just instantly here’s the episode.
Chris Case 05:43
I have a helper over here she’s called the producer. I know sign language. She’s given me signals.
Trevor Connor 05:51
I like this. We can we can-
Chris Case 05:53
-And we’re just we’re in the same room so we can actually do this stuff appropriately.
Trevor Connor 05:58
Anybody listening right now this is not live call immediately. Ask us a question about something was said. And we’ll give you the episode number right now. Absolutely. Not that you have a phone number for us. Not that this is your-
Chris Case 06:00
-voicemail. Leave us a voicemail. 719-800-2112 my credit card number is 414. My social security number is you can pretty much figure out people’s social security numbers.
Trevor Connor 06:23
So not only can you ask us about an episode, but you can now pretend to be Chris Case for the rest of your life. You have all the information you need on hand.
Chris Case 06:30
You know your credit card number by heart?
Trevor Connor 06:32
Oh, I don’t even know my phone number by heart. I do. Do you know your social insurance number?
Chris Case 06:36
My social insurance number?
Trevor Connor 06:38
Yeah, you don’t have one of those? Do ya?
Chris Case 06:40
No I do not. I’m not Canadian.
Trevor Connor 06:42
That’s Canadian equivalent to Social Security. I have both. I’m special.
Chris Case 06:46
Do you remember either of them?
Trevor Connor 06:48
No. Slightly. I remember the last four digits of my social security. Because I get asked that all the time.
Chris Case 06:56
I think we should probably talk about off the bike workouts.
Trevor Connor 06:59
So let’s get back to off the bike. Yes. So the health component. Keeping you upright, keeping you in balance, is critical. There is research showing that cyclists who just ride the bike can suffer from osteoporosis, or at least they can lose bone mineral density, because it’s you you don’t have any sort of impact, which helps bone growth. So you might not feel that tomorrow. Like I said, you might not feel it next week. But if all you are ever doing is riding the bike, you are shortening your career and you are impacting your health, and-
Chris Case 07:38
-Soon it’s going to catch up
Trevor Connor 07:39
Right. And I have told this story in previous episodes. But the the story I love to tell is back when I was coaching, the CSU cycling team and mind you I had a fantastic coach in your Houshang Amiri up in Canada who was huge on off the bike work. He wanted us to stay healthy as athletes. So he drilled that into my head. And I will always appreciate that. So when I was coaching CSU, and I saw nobody doing this, I would bring it up at the team meetings ever and they were like yeah, whatever, I just want to ride my bike. And so I finally in those meetings, I figured out how to kind of get through to them. Because they’re all in their their early 20s. I was 40. I would just go put up your hand, if you’ve had an overuse injury that’s taking you off the bike, and over half the room would put up their hand. And I would just go you are all early 20s. Most of you have no overuse injury. I’m 40. I didn’t put my hand up yet. That’s why I do off the bike work, right? Yep. And I guarantee you if Houshang had not drilled that into my head, I would probably not be racing anymore. So that’s part two, it’s this this health side, there is a third side. So you know, we call that physical balance. There’s also a mental balance side. Cycling can wear on you, if you’re doing interval work all the time. Even if you’re having fun on Zwift. If you’re always kind of doing the same thing it’s going to wear on you and there is eventually you just need to do other things.
Chris Case 09:15
I think it makes you hungrier too.
Trevor Connor 09:17
Right.
Chris Case 09:18
In terms of getting the quality work that you want, when you want it being fresher mentally so that you can put yourself into somewhat painful situations, whether it’s in your intervals or blocks where you know you’re gonna be suffering by the end of that training block. If you go into it and you’re already mentally fatigued, then you know you’re probably not going to get out of it as much as if you go into it fresh or with the right mindset and sometimes freshness is exactly what you need going into that sort of stuff.
Trevor Connor 09:53
Exactly. I can tell you many times with athletes where I see them starting to get mentally stale and I put on their training packet this weekend, instead of going out for a ride, go for a hike.
Chris Case 10:03
Mm hmm.
Trevor Connor 10:04
And sometimes I’ll get some resistance, but then they go for the hike and then I’ll go, I needed that. I don’t even know what that was so much fun. You just go. You just need to be mentally fresh. My favorite is I do have one athlete that when he gets mentally fried, he goes in bowls, huh? He loves 10 pin bowling,
Chris Case 10:19
smashing stuff.
Trevor Connor 10:21
Yes. So I kind of go Well, sure. I guess there’s a physical component. We’ll call that off the bike work. But it’s, it’s mentally refreshing for him. Yeah,
Chris Case 10:29
yeah.
Trevor Connor 10:32
So those are kind of the three sides. And there is a lot that you can do off the bike that’s going to satisfy one of those needs. So as we go through these different guests, you’re going to hear the different focuses, how they use off the bike, and it’s not always just going to be answering the question, how does this make me stronger on the bike?
Chris Case 10:56
One thing that you didn’t mention in there that pertains to some of the things that we talked about, is I think that doing stuff off the bike actually makes you a better athlete, not just a cyclist, but a better a better. Absolutely. It helps with a lot of things that you don’t, you might not think apply to being a cyclist, but they do in some way, whether it’s agility or hand eye coordination, or reflexes or whatever. You know, it, whether it’s on the bike or off the bike, some of the skills that you learn in another sport can help with the technical side of cycling, which we haven’t really spoken about either. So I, I do a lot of stuff off the bike. That you know, and it’s not all the time but to become a better or maintain a higher level of athleticism, I guess I would say generally, which then can apply to the sport specifically.
Chris Case 11:56
I think there’s there’s three terms here that are often used synonymously, which is fit, athletic, and physically healthy. And people think that they all go hand in hand. And that’s actually not the case. I have no one cyclists who are incredibly fit, like Tour de France level 50. Yeah. Who are not healthy, right? Sure. Absolutely. I know and people who are, again, quite fit, but not athletic. Because again, all they’re doing is riding the bike and they’re not working on other sides. Yeah. So I do think it’s important to to keep all those in mind. And while we focus on this podcast on making you fit. I think you also need to focus on athleticism, and particularly health.
Chris Case 12:47
Mm hmm. Absolutely. The first guest will hear from Julie Young who appeared in Episode 91. Julie’s former elite pro longtime coach currently owns Julie Young training, works at the Kaiser Sports Medicine Endurance Lab out in Sacramento. And she has another great perspective on off the bike work.
Trevor Connor 13:11
What I really liked about Julie’s answer is you definitely see that that coach and you definitely see it was both the coach and the physiologist because she has a physiology background where some of the other answers were I like hiking, I like doing yoga, Julie was like, nope, trunk stability, I want to get right at their hip activation, like she really zeroes in on what are the areas that I need to hit both to help performance and to keep balance she understands really well, where cyclists tend to have issues and focuses in on that. So let’s, let’s hear what she has to say.
Julie Young’s Perspective on Off The Bike Work
Julie Young 13:54
So I’m a huge like, lot all like all year round, huge proponent of trend stability, and hip activation, hip stability. So I love those. I think those are just just super, super important throughout the year. I’m also a huge fan of like, again, style yoga. I also really like active recovery of and I know not everybody’s into this, but like summertime, you know swimming like open water swimming, just it’s a great like active recovery. Type workout. So I would say those are my, my three main or like those are the ones that come to the top of my mind.
Trevor Connor 14:39
So why yin yoga?
Julie Young 14:42
I feel like for athletes, they don’t need to go into yoga for another workout. And I think our best intentions to stretch at home get derailed. You know, like oh, I need to go feed the dog. Oh, I should go vacuum and then I think like I love yoga, especially yin yoga, it’s surprising to me because it seems so simple. But yet, when you’re in that pose, and you’re holding it, and you feel like you’re resisting it and and then when you start really breathing, and you realize, oh my gosh, breath can help me like relax into it. And I find that I think it’s great because it is a counter to like the intensity that we do on our bike or do running in terms of just opening up. But I also have found, it’s super applicable, like on the bike or running when you start a hard effort. And I think the tendency is to kind of tense and hold your breath or hold your body. And I think for me, in yoga has really taught me to breathe through those sticking points, including like those those times on the bike, you know, where you have a tendency to start tensing up and folding. So I love it for that. And I just think like, I just think mentally, there’s just such a great way to slow down.
Trevor Connor 15:57
And go back to hip activation, what are a couple good hip activation exercises.
Julie Young 16:01
So I really like I studied with Dr. Powers down at USC. And he is really dedicated his life to this. And so his science says with like the mini band exercises, it’s about static, because you’re actually changing the brain in that case. So you want to change the landscape of the cortex to like, once you’ve, once you’ve created more real estate for the hips, then you can actually develop that area. But so he is protocol with the hip activation work is many bands are up over the knees, and the poses are held statically and of range. And the reason for the end of range is that’s where you train the stabilizer to kick in before the prime mover. So he does some and they’re very like similar to probably what other folks have used like the clam, sideline abductor, fire hydrant. And then the moving ones like the like monster walk and crab walk, but I just think there’s different protocols in terms of trying to elicit that response. And I really, like think what he says makes a lot of sense.
Trevor Connor 17:20
So that’s fascinating. So static.
Julie Young 17:22
Yeah, yep. Yeah. And it is interesting, because he started to do a lot of work in neural plasticity. And again, like they really believe like through the static code, you’re creating that connection. And you are changing the cortex. And that’s for him like as a PT he, it’s really interesting going to his courses as not a PT and like he really believes their industry is is in jeopardy because they’re not getting these these lasting results. It’s kind of like, you know, stem and ice and send people on their way. And he’s really adamant about like, we need to create lasting change. And so that’s a big part of his practice is, how do we affect lasting change for the client?
Chris Case 18:10
Next we’ll hear from Petr Vakco, who is a longtime World Tour rider rode for the Quickstep team for many years now. He’s with opposite Phoenix team of Matthew Vanderpol. And we caught up with Petr recently. And he gave a lot of great answers that tended to be more about the mental side here, Trevor?
Trevor Connor 18:31
Yeah, I think that it’s interest I don’t know if this is intentional or not. But here you have a pros training 25-30 hours a week on the bike, he pros at that level really are at risk of getting mentally stale. So it seems like he’s really zeroed in on how do I keep myself mentally fresh.
Chris Case 18:50
And a lot of these have to do with his sort of off season, you know, when he’s preparing for the big load to come. And in the winter months, you might say he’s doing a lot of this stuff off the bike.
Trevor Connor 19:02
Yeah, I think he even said that he takes several weeks off and just goes and does things that are fun.
Chris Case 19:08
Yep, absolutely. Great. Let’s hear from Petr now.
Petr Vakco’s Perspective on Off The Bike Work
Petr Vakoc 19:14
Number one is definitely hiking. I love spending time in nature and most of the winter preparation I spent working in the climbs here in underwrites perfect environment to do this. And yeah, the moment when I’m not able to train outside on the bike, I can still do the hiking. So it’s a big part of training at the moment. Then the second would be gym training. I really like strength training guy have very specific exercises, and always try to make something different, at least in one new exercise or really turn it around. And it’s like CrossFit style or Olympic weightlifting style. So pretty complex exercises, which are much more fun than just using the machines. And I believe it has also a lot more benefit than just the pure machines, it definitely takes time to learn the correct technique, but then it’s also more fun. And the third is cross country skiing. That’s something that I grew up while being still in Czech Republic, then in the winter, it was quite impossible to ride on the bike or most of the days, just the weather is not good enough. So I would spend the winters in the Czech mountains and I would spend hours cross country skiing. And that’s something that I really like, and I miss it, miss it now, because as a pro, our season is so long that there is barely any time to do skiing anymore. So I usually do maybe once or twice a year, around the Christmas time I get to do the cross country skiing. But it’s probably my favorite part of winter training or of the bike workouts. But unfortunately, I don’t get to do it very often.
Trevor Connor 21:43
So I find interesting is it seems like all three of the your your favorite off the bike workouts have a certain mental component to meaning. You enjoy hiking, you said you enjoy cross country skiing. But they do have benefits to cycling, even when you said when you get in the weight room you prefer even though you have to take the time to learn the proper lift. And please anybody listening to this, if you are attempting Olympic lifts, you need somebody there to help you. You need somebody to teach you to do it properly. Do not attempt it on your own. But you you said that you like those because they’re more interesting. They’re more fun. So it seems like keeping it enjoyable, adding that that kind of mental enjoyment side is an important part to you.Yeah, definitely, oh, I really like to train in different environments on the bike as well. So I often in the winter season travel to new places to also discover a new road. So this element of having something new, something different in the training. It’s a big part of what makes the fun for me.
Chris Case 23:00
Next, we’ll hear from Steve Neil, owner of the cycling gym, co owner of the cycling gym up in Toronto, Canada. We caught up with him for Episode 90. And here he’s going to talk a bit more about his off the bike favorite workouts.
Trevor Connor 23:14
Yeah, so a little background, a couple fellow torontonian Steve Neil and Andrew Randall on the the GM and Randles, a Canadian national champion, Steve Neil was the national mountain bike coach at one point and their facility, they coach cyclists, but they have actually built a quite literal weight training gym that is designed for cyclists, because that’s how important they feel off the bike work is for for cyclists. So we thought it’d be really interesting to hear their perspective on what’s their favorite workouts and what cyclists should be doing.
Chris Case 23:53
Great. Let’s hear from Steve now.
Steve Neil’s Perspective on Off the Bike Training
Steve Neil 23:58
Respiration training. So I’ve been utilizing that for probably over 15 years and had a lot of success with the clients that kind of commit to it even myself, I got off asthma medication when I was 35 and took my vital capacity from like 2.98 to six currently sits around 5.9 and no no longer on medication. You know that that’s something that I think a lot of people or the medical profession might might have said that you can’t change your vital capacity and as an asthmatic I was always getting tested at the hospital and you know, we currently have a, you know, a medical grade high end metabolic cart at the gym and so I can actually do a medical vital capacity test right at the gym and and know that it has changed. And you know, I think respirations getting a it’s coming to the forefront, I think mostly in other sports maybe with breath holding and CO2 tolerance. And so we’ve got this big kind of on one side you’ve got people who I think maybe in the endurance world, we tend to do what the Co2 tolerance people called over breathing. But I, I really think that there’s a place for both of these types of training, if you can improve your vital capacity and improve the muscles that that allow us to breathe so that we can do that in a more efficient way, then that’s one side of it. And then it is, I always feel like if you can take your respiration above what’s required in your sport, then you don’t have your bodies just going to, then you’re in this peripheral limitation situation. But you know, our respiration can be a limiter. In our, in our bigger picture, I’m really just starting to sort of learn more about breath holding and Co2 tolerance. And I’m kind of fiddling around with that for a little over a year. And so I think respiration is going to come more to the forefront with products that are getting maybe a little bit cheaper and more accessible for everyone to actually do some respiration training, I think that’s one thing that I like to look at the stretching, strength training thing is always super important. I do feel it sometimes comes down to time. So you know, if you have people with 12 hours a week with really big goals, stage racing, grant big grand fondos, and lots of them in a summer, it can get tricky to, to really follow a strength plan that’s going to help someone but I think there’s, you know, there’s always time for mobility work, and mobility work can even incorporate core training, some people just don’t need it. It’s like I worked with some people who tried strength for a year and then felt a certain way and gone off it. And that this, I don’t know, some people just seem to be resilient, mobile and strong enough and healthy enough. And others are just continually getting injured and being uncomfortable and trying new saddles and switching their shoes and their cleats. And so I think if someone’s really super fidgety, and always changing stuff, or looking for the next most comfortable thing, then, you know, mobility and or strength training would really help them and I just sometimes a proper mobility program can’t always be done at the same time as a proper strength program. And so maybe deciding which one is you know, which one is best for the person might be the way to go.
Chris Case 27:35
Now, let’s hear from Payson McElveen, who appeared in Episode 97. about stretching with the main guests being Manakin Brody. But we thought his answers during that episode were great. So we bring them back for this episode here. Payson a multiple time national mountain bike marathon champion, pretty nice guy, if I do say so myself. And here’s what he has to say about stretching and yoga. So pacing as a mountain biker and a gravel racer? Do you use stretching in your daily routine? Do you use it as a recovery tool? Do you use it for your warmup,
Payson McElveen’s Advice on Stretching and Yoga
Payson McElveen 28:19
I do stretch, but it’s more as I as I feel I need it. I don’t have a stretching regimen per se. I’ve heard it’s it seems like one of those topics where you’ve got folks all over the map, folks theoretically in the know all over the map. Based on what I’ve heard, the kind of stretching I do is, I guess what you’d call more dynamic stretching. Part of my gym, warm up routine involves some stretching, but it’s almost more mobility type stuff. Creating the range of motion, or increasing the range of motion that you actually are able to control. And by that I mean, you know, if you just pull up your your ankle, to your butt to to stretch your quad. That’s not really a movement that you’re under control with, per se. So one thing we’ve kind of been working on is the mobility component. So how far can you get that foot back to your butt without using your hands help for example, stuff like that. That said, sometimes I will do much more traditional stretching just when it feels right. You know when muscles are really sore. For me, and I think for a lot of people stretching just feels really good. And it’s not like some crazy half hour thing where I meticulously go through every muscle group and have a checklist to make sure I get everything. It’s more just this feels good. I need to kind of stretch here. That sort of thing. And I’ve heard to mix things about whether stretching is quote, unquote, good or not, I would never stretch aggressively, like on the start line of a race. That said, one of the veterans that I race against Carl Decker is pretty famous for doing stretching right on the start line. And we kind of giggle at him for that now and then, but that’s what he likes to do. So, yeah, it’s more of a case by case basis. And I actually had a professor in college who is very, very against stretching. But to me, it just kind of feels really good sometimes. And I think at the end of the day, there’s probably something to that.
Chris Case 30:43
Right. What about yoga? Did you incorporate that into your life in any way or as a recovery tool, or even a way to relax the mind.
Payson McElveen 30:56
I’m not a regular Yogi, I have done yoga in the past, and I will do it here and there. Again, it’s more something that just feels good. This kind of reminds me of the conversation I often have about CrossFit, where people see that I go to a CrossFit gym, and they see that a lot of the moves, I do look a lot like CrossFit. And they asked if I do CrossFit. And I said, well, kind of like a lot of the strength moves we work with are very much look like CrossFit. And some of them are even, you know, in the CrossFit Games, but we don’t have the time component at all, like I’m not rushing through it. Really focusing on quality, over quantity of reps, all that sort of thing. And so, similarly, with with stretching, and yoga is just sort of like some of the moves that I do probably look like yoga, but it’s not because they come from yoga.
Chris Case 31:55
Right, right. I understand.
Payson McElveen 31:56
Yeah, they just feel right. So, you know, if I, if I say do a really push myself towards the end of a strength workout in a plank position, and just see how long I can hold a plank position and really, you know, climb into the box and bite down and do a max out on a plank, which is something we do often at the end of a gym workout. What feels really good right after that is a downward dog move. Does that mean I do yoga? I don’t know.
Chris Case 32:29
All right, Trevor, you’re on the clock. You got one minute or three minutes really to talk about your three favorite workouts off the bike, can’t be on a bike, go for it.
Trevor Connor’s Favorite Off The Bike Work
Trevor Connor 32:41
I actually have a whole bunch but I think I get a pick three that are definitely among my three favorites that gets it each of those different elements we were talking about. So in terms of the strength performance side, I have a whole plyometrics routine that I love to do. Part of my enjoyment as I go into the field behind my apartment complex and do it and many of these things look really strange and all the people in the complex stare at me wondering what the heck I’m doing. I’m that guy-
Chris Case 33:10
Do they look as strange as the guy wearing the VR glasses dancing in the snowstorm that we saw that one time.
Trevor Connor 33:16
Nothing will be as strange as the guy with songs in the parking lot with VR goggles on? Yeah, no, I won’t do that. Ever. Right. So that’s my performance side. My health side I have a back issue. I do a lot of core work to try to keep my bag strong. I’ve figured out what does and does not help my back and find if I don’t keep that up. My back starts bugging me. Mm hmm. And finally the third one, just the mental side. I I’m not a huge fan of running. But I love to snowshoe. And every time we get a snowfall I get really excited because I go and hit the trails and snowshoe for a couple hours and it’s just one of my most fun days.
Chris Case 34:04
Awesome. That’s a around here. You can’t beat good snowshoe when we get a few feet of snow.
Trevor Connor 34:10
Yeah, there’s some pretty well trails around here. So Chris, you’re on the clock. What are your three favorites besides chasing your daughter
Chris Case’s Favorite Off The Bike Work
Chris Case 34:17
Ah, that’s that’s a really good exercise off the bike and really good mental mental break for off bike times but no I would say running is something that I have rediscovered in a way and while it’s you know, can be as physically taxing sometimes more so than being on the bike. I love the simplicity of it just throw the shoes on and go out the door from my house there’s a lot of good trails so it’s it serves a off the bike strength purpose, if you will and agility purpose trail running, but it also has a mental component to it because of the simplicity because it it you can go out for an hour and just You’re not really even having to pay attention. You’re just listening to birds sing and stuff like that. For a more purely mental side of things, I love hiking and getting into the wilderness in Colorado or wherever I might be in the world. I love it. I can’t get enough of seeing great landscapes. And when I do that, I try to really take my time, slow down. It isn’t about getting to the summit of anything. It isn’t about reaching a high point or climbing something impressive. It’s just being out there, slowing down, relaxing, appreciating what’s around me, all of that. I’m starting to sound like Colby Pierce now. But it’s like a spiritual thing. It’s It’s really amazing and refreshing to be outside. Without any devices around too. That’s another thing getting you know, leave your phone in somewhere that you can’t get to. A third thing in the winter times when we get a snow. If I’m not on trails, snowshoeing or hiking, then I do love to do some Nordic skiing too. And that’s a really great way to get fitness without being on the bike. And so, in those winter months when it’s tempting to get back on the bike, I tried to resist that because I know I’ll spend a lot of time on my bike maybe too much time on the bike in the summer months. So we can do that Nordic skiing as a family more and I love just getting up onto some trails and doing that. So that was another episode of Fast Talk. As always, we love your feedback. Email us at fasttalk@fasttalklabs.com or call 719-800-2112 leave us a voicemail. Subscribe to Fast Talk wherever you prefer to find your favorite podcast. Be sure to leave us a rating and review. The thoughts and opinions expressed on Fast Talk are those of the individual from Julie Young, Petr Vakoc, Steve Neil, Payson McElveen, and Trevor Connor. I’m Chris case. Thanks for listening.
