Nils Van De Poel smashes the 10,000m WR on his way to Speed Skating gold, achieving the new World Record!Subscribe to the #HomeOfTheOlympics in Europe to str...
This is pretty crazy- I don't know how someone can cycle that much when it's not even their sport. Also, how much does he weigh? His watts seems impressive for a non-cyclist (I'm comparing it to my numbers @ ~ 140 lbs though; if he's 180 lb maybe those numbers aren't as big.. idk).
Also crazy to me: From Feb-Oct 4th 2021 he pretty much didn't ice skate at all. Then wins gold in early Feb 2022.
He's basically a Tour de France cyclist. Could have a career on Zwyft.
Lol my thought exactly. Just like someone else stated the watts are quite impressive. I wonder what kind of bike did he use and how the power was measured?
I read through the entire thing, very interesting. Some of my main takeaways:
- He doesn't ride an indoor bike (even though he's in Sweden!)
- He trains only 5 days a week with two consecutive days of full rest. But he absolutely gets in the hours.
- He builds virtually all his endurance on the bike (which translates really well to speed skating, not sure how that would work for running?).
- He first spends a long time building his aerobic base with no speed work. He then is able to do very high quality sessions off of that base. Was it Ritz who once said the same on the podcast with the three greats? (building a huge base without speed then doing speed work off of that). Then a phase with threshold sessions and then a specific phase.
- No fancy workouts, just simulate the race as much as possible by skating a lot of laps at race pace
Not a great name to bring up but I think Lance Armstrong and his team talked about a similar approach.
I seem to remember them saying that you can only go so fast, but the human body's ability and capacity for aerobic development seemed open ended, so they concentrated on that*.
*granted all that stuff could have been a way to attempt to explain away all the drugs.
"An easy way to add extra aerobic hours during competition season was to squeeze them inafter races. I celebrated my 5k WR for three hours with a champagne bottle on my bike."
There must just be a really big crossover between cycling and skating, wasn’t Eric Heiden a world class (maybe not world beating) cyclist after his skating career?
There must just be a really big crossover between cycling and skating, wasn’t Eric Heiden a world class (maybe not world beating) cyclist after his skating career?
Big crossover. When the skate style was introduced in XC skiing skiers started to train on the bike in the summer. That was unheard of before. XC skiers used to roller ski and run in the summer.
this was a great read and inspiring stuff. circling back to his FTP he stated is weight was between 80-85 kg so his FTP would be 4.7-5.2 w/kg depending on the season. Not quite on a pro cyclist level, but would be competitive for a pro triathlete (which seems a more fair comparison since he also would run 10+ hours/week before his hip injury and then primarily skating during competition season).
but it also begs the question...why dont runners do more cross training? even if you are running 120 mile weeks that is 12-15 hours. In theory you could cross train AT least 5-10 hours during your aerobic season and then cut it down a little as you get more specific. This isnt realistic for most people, but as a professional athlete your job is to train. If you are pro runner and only run 10 hours or less a week and arent doing cross training then you are probably missing out on a lot of potential gains.
but it also begs the question...why dont runners do more cross training? even if you are running 120 mile weeks that is 12-15 hours. In theory you could cross train AT least 5-10 hours during your aerobic season and then cut it down a little as you get more specific. This isnt realistic for most people, but as a professional athlete your job is to train. If you are pro runner and only run 10 hours or less a week and arent doing cross training then you are probably missing out on a lot of potential gains.
If that was the case then the best runners on the planet would be the triathletes - and they are not.
Don´t think that pro runners don´t max out on running. If they would add a lot of cross training they would have to cut back on running.
but it also begs the question...why dont runners do more cross training? even if you are running 120 mile weeks that is 12-15 hours. In theory you could cross train AT least 5-10 hours during your aerobic season and then cut it down a little as you get more specific. This isnt realistic for most people, but as a professional athlete your job is to train. If you are pro runner and only run 10 hours or less a week and arent doing cross training then you are probably missing out on a lot of potential gains.
I think a lot of the reason is the trouble finding a suitably running specific exercise. Cycling too low a cadence and can irritate runners' hip flexors, back and shoulders, in addition to other shortcomings. Swimming is great if you're a solid swimmer, but may pose other problems. Water running may be the best way to go, but I don't see anything else with the synergy that speed skating and cycling have.
but it also begs the question...why dont runners do more cross training? even if you are running 120 mile weeks that is 12-15 hours. In theory you could cross train AT least 5-10 hours during your aerobic season and then cut it down a little as you get more specific. This isnt realistic for most people, but as a professional athlete your job is to train. If you are pro runner and only run 10 hours or less a week and arent doing cross training then you are probably missing out on a lot of potential gains.
If that was the case then the best runners on the planet would be the triathletes - and they are not.
Don´t think that pro runners don´t max out on running. If they would add a lot of cross training they would have to cut back on running.
notice how i specified that the phase of training is paramount. you wouldnt cycle 15 hours the week of a 10k race. you would do it 3-6 months out from the olympics until you started getting into threshold and specific work.
but it also begs the question...why dont runners do more cross training? even if you are running 120 mile weeks that is 12-15 hours. In theory you could cross train AT least 5-10 hours during your aerobic season and then cut it down a little as you get more specific. This isnt realistic for most people, but as a professional athlete your job is to train. If you are pro runner and only run 10 hours or less a week and arent doing cross training then you are probably missing out on a lot of potential gains.
I think a lot of the reason is the trouble finding a suitably running specific exercise. Cycling too low a cadence and can irritate runners' hip flexors, back and shoulders, in addition to other shortcomings. Swimming is great if you're a solid swimmer, but may pose other problems. Water running may be the best way to go, but I don't see anything else with the synergy that speed skating and cycling have.
this is a fair point tho. i do think the aerobic benefits from added cycling could still be realized when it comes to the threshold phase for runners, but pool running might be a better option. Rupp has talked about how he cross trains quite a bit with aqua jogging so its not like this idea isnt being explored by pro runners, but i dont think enough people are trying it.
Never though it is possible to crush the competition, on a professional level, by having 2 rest days/week. And these days are in a row.
Also no compromises in the Threshold phase. Either low intensity training or close below threshold (FTP). Interesting the comment that he believes, that a lower total duration but at higher lactate (4mmol) would be possibly better.
