are you…?

This year I’ve tried phased core training, proper diets, controlled or no alcohol, no caffeine after 3pm and a very regular 7.5hr sleep pattern.

Yet I go through phases where all I want is to stuff my face with beer and pizza (or equivalent)  and I start getting into the “athlete or middle aged STWer” paradox.

Anyone on here managed to stay super disciplined?  Or its a only a task for pro’s with a £m incentive…?

Lived like a monk (of the non beer drinking variety) for years when I was a bit competitive. Then spent a decade getting into bad habits. I realised I had forgotten it was ok to be hungry from time to time and also I felt ‘entitled’ to eat whatever was in front of me. Now I’m a couple of months into a pretty radical lifestyle overhaul and feel amazing. My attitude to food is transformed and I have discovered a sense of personal responsibility. Yes, still have massive cravings but I’ve learnt that overcoming them is possible and it ok to not get what you want all the time.

Not at all. Life is too short to waste it with all that shit.

There’s no point doing all that unless you’re in with a chance of actually winning something.

I have regular Cherry Bakewell interval sessions, though.

I’m trying to improve my fitness and lose weight am 100kgs and want to get down into the 80’s, but just love eating!!

The other problem as I pick up the exercise I want eat more. My fitness has improved loads but I’m really struggling to lose weight.

There’s no point doing all that unless you’re in with a chance of actually winning something.

And you are only going to win against folk who are doing much the same as you before you have to move up a category and then you have to put in even more effort to compete. Seems like a pointless ongoing escalation.

I’m reasonably disciplined.

I exercise 6 days per week, 30 ish miles run, often more and maybe 60 or 70 on the bike including commuting. I’ve kept this up all year, my lowest mileage weeks have been in the taper for a big event or the week after. There is some degree of paranoia in this, I used to be fat and hate not exercising as I fear I’m 1 missed day away from this again.

Eating, I could be better. The week is generally food, breakfast is fine, evening meals are usually fine but lunch is almost always crap and involving chocolate.

But, I do misbehave on the weekends, beer and pizza are involved but it could be a lot worse.

Not at all. Life is too short to waste it with all that shit.

Unless your’e actually an athlete.
Colin, I reckon your’e more of an athlete than me but I agree, life is too short for all that shit.

I try to be realistic. For me the most important things are diet and sleep. I also try to do at least 4 decent workouts a week of at least 20 mins duration. HITT training seems to work well for me (on cross-trainer and bike machine) and takes up a minimum amount of time. I like kettle bells too for strength training.

When I was in my 20s and 30s and to some extent my 40s I always thought I could eat whatever I felt like and exercise it off. But now in my early 50s I’ve come to realise that you need to be careful what you eat. With a decent diet (still not perfect, but cut out loads of sugar) I’m now as fit as I was back in my early 30s. I don’t compete, I just ride for fun.

Not at all. Life is too short to waste it with all that shit.

This. I ‘train’ maybe 4 mornings a week before work, mostly because I love food, and beer & it gives more of a budget to fill.

I race, funnily not much this year, but of the 6 races I’ve done, I’ve podiumed 3 & I still get to race the odd world series level event. If i lived a boring life, and was strict about what i ate, who knows, i might even win a couple, but who cares in reality? I’d still go to an EWS and get absolutely smoked by 50% of the field at least.

And I’d be a miserable, boring tw*t. Probably would fit right in with the XC & CX crowd. 😆

Not at all. Life is too short to waste it with all that shit.

Unless you enjoy it, which I do.
I really enjoy the structured training and the discipline is gives, it kind of helps my mind as much as my legs.
The food is no real chore, it’s as easy to make healthy stuff as it is unhealthy.

Life is too short to waste it with all that shit.

Born agains are the worst I appreciate but (within reason) being a bit bothered makes everything (climbing the stairs, riding the bike, sex) sooooo much better. Hell, even food tastes better when you eat with a bit more moderation.

The short answer: Not much!

The long answer…
I drink far too much caffeine, but rarely after ~1700
I rarely drink alcohol, been like that way before my fitness quest started, I can get a hangover from a single glass of wine if I drink it quickly on an empty stomach
I was snack-eating restrained from June 2016 to August 2017, dropping from ~95Kg to ~73Kg
Then restraint went out of the window, quickly back up to ~78Kg by Xmas 2017 and been fluctuating around ~81Kg since
Generally, things started going wrong when I started doing 2+ hour rides, not eating enough during rides, coming home and then emptying the cupboards and fridge

One of my goals is to manage 4W/Kg for 20mins, I got reasonably close (~3.9) back in March even with the extra “spare tyre,” but then I lost all my winter fitness gains and then some through illness and then injury. But things have turned around and by chance while doing a shockingly bad Zwift race from a tactical pointy of view, I managed ~3.57 the other night towards the race end.

My cycling would be much easier if I had more restraint around hot cross buns; peanut butter; peanuts; chocolate and the latest addiction… Chocolate raisins!

Managed 6 months of discipline when training for my first Haute Route. Once I realised I was capable of making the cut-offs I wasn’t quite as monk-like for the second one.

Since then I’m maybe a 8/10 if I’ve got a big event to target and a structured plan. 6/10 if not.

My favourite part is writing the plan. A bit like doing a revision timetable when at school, I was far better at the timetable than actually doing the revision (insert Arnold Rimmer reference…)

I eat sports biscuits.

I really enjoy the structured training and the discipline is gives, it kind of helps my mind as much as my legs.

This is me also.

One of my goals is to manage 4W/Kg for 20mins,

I’m aiming for that next year.  Yet I’ve my last race next weekend, have been I’ll haven’t trained much and have put on 1kg – natural winter fat harvesting has arrived.

I’m using MfP but I”m a grazer so like the flexibility, and being not flexible annoys me.  Anyway, I’m off for a 6pm 30 min workout with SIS REGO chaser…

Not enough. But I see the people who are serious and they’re putting in both crazy amounts of training, but structured too along with eating like saints.
I’m all for a bit of exercise, but you’ve got to live too.

Anyone on here managed to stay super disciplined? Or its a only a task for pro’s with a £m incentive…?

Thing is you don’t need to be ‘super disciplined’ to be decently fit. If you’re prepared to train smart you can get away with relatively low volume and still be pretty quick. Likewise you don’t have to forsake slightly unhealthy food and drink, just consume it in moderation.

I know things tend get nailed into binary choices in here – live like an Olympic athlete OR carry on like Mr Creosote – but really it’s a continuum.

If you want to be really competitive, sure, you’ll probably need to be a shedload more committed, but equally a lot of people enjoy that focus. It just depends how you’re wired.

Hello.

On (a few carefully selected pieces of) paper I’m an elite athlete, sports scholar, all that jazz. At this time of year though I’m knee deep in my off season, so lots of crisps, nights out, social riding only. I’m about to go on holiday and don’t plan on touching a bike for the whole 2 weeks.

Obviously I’m a bit more disciplined the rest of the year, but for any kind of sustainability you can’t be too militant with the restrictions. Back in the junior days I’d send myself spiralling into self-doubt and anxiety if I ate one unhealthy thing or missed one session, which almost always had a detrimental effect on the rest of the weeks training. These days I’m much more relaxed with diet and scheduling and going much quicker for (or in spite of) it.

“athlete or middle aged STWer” paradox.

The latter definitely. Middle age you have way passed your physical peak.

In our local club there are a few GB age ‘athletes’

Are they good because they were always exceptional or just in middle age they have the time to train when others don’t?

There will also always someone who will always be quicker and can drink / eat / do everything

Ive found a happy place where I eat well most of the time, ride my bikes quite a lot but don’t train and mix in a fair bit of gym work and pilates too so that my body works as well as possible for my age.
I’m not as fast as I was when I trained obsessively but I feel so much more balanced.
I like to live a reasonably structured life, so like to plan rides in patterns throughout my weeks and I like to feel well which is heavily influenced by what I eat.
I’m looking forward to getting back into racing again soon but want to do it for the love of speed rather than chasing that elusive improvement in status (which is an illusion anyway).
P.S. Hob Nob. The xc/cx crowd are some of the most wonderful, fun loving people you’re ever likely to meet. I miss them way more than I miss the racing.

I find the idea that you have to be a super-disciplined athlete OR a beer guzzling pizza chomper a bit odd.

One can follow a training plan (and actually enjoy doing so) AND have the odd beer & pizza sessions and still be fast on a bike.

I’m with @rollingdoughnut on this. The ‘more points will make me happy’ thing seems like a fairly hollow motivation. Wanting to ride your bike fast because it’s pointless, silly fun is really rewarding and has the side benefit of encouraging you to be healthy and fit.

Its very true, I’m much more relaxed after I gave up a 12hr top 10 on the basis I wanted a beer with mates and some time in the sun with my son at the camp site.

It was the thought of that Scottish marathon runner interviewed in Doha yesterday that has me posting this thread.  He said he spend his training in a heated shed with kettles of boiling water to simulate the conditions and to make him more effective.   I appreciate he’s world class and notwithanding the electricity bill but that feels like madness.

“He said he spend his training in a heated shed with kettles of boiling water to simulate the conditions and to make him more effective. I appreciate he’s world class and notwithanding the electricity bill but that feels like madness.”

I’d rather do that than fly to the Middle East for one of the most important races of my life and then go through two hours of hell and perform really poorly!

Anyone on here managed to stay super disciplined?  Or its a only a task for pro’s with a £m incentive…?

If you want to live your life around training regime’s then why not. A mate of mine does long distance trails runs (across the Sahara etc.) and he’s a great laugh and drinks beer. He’s Uber fit mind, runs into town for his job (Beaconsfield to West London) has no kids though, and his wife is like his personal support crew 24/7.

Me? I chased all that crap once… and realised that I like sausages and a pint.

All the best on your endeavours 🤪

I’m not an athlete, but I’m not unfit.

Respect to those who dedicate themselves to training, as long as they’re enjoying it obvs.

I’m just don’t care about racing and only want to stay fit so I can do big rides and enjoy riding my bike fast.

I keep my body like I keep my office or my bedroom: immaculate, until something comes along to throw everything into chaos, and then I have to start again.

I go through long phases of high discipline. I don’t drink much, or eat a lot of shit anyway, but I do love quantity, so really struggle with weight. My most appropriate weight level is about 78 kgs, but I have been as high as 94. I am now 89 as a result of being 11 months off the bike.

I have to say, though, that the pay-off for eating less and riding more is much higher than the shit feelings I go through when I am stuffing my face and sitting around.

Even if I am not “training” for competition, I find I am healthiest and happiest when I am competitive with myself.

National level long distance TTer. Regional chipper at circuit races. Off the back of the pack in road races. Can be seen mincing around the occasional muddy field or walking the technical parts. Never willingly/knowingly ridden Black!

I so wanted to be good at road racing. Training wise, a season to forget as I was I’ll all winter. Just the one 12hr TT this year, but managed to knock out 231 miles on three wheels with nowhere near enough training.

I’m less disciplined than I have been, but for my discipline, you don’t really lose the fitness very fast.

Hat is off to anyone who can do hard, structured training on top of everything else in their life. Sounds appealing on paper but the fatigue you build up must be brutal, like it must be great to be that fit, but I bet it doesn’t feel like you’re fit a lot of the time.

I have a good balance I reckon – race at the weekends, try and keep the turbo going, but nothing too serious. I actually like a good hard interval sesh because I’m never carrying that much fatigue into them – climbing on after work when you’re tired, knee deep in TSS, is a different game.

Thinking of trying a serious block next year for time trialling, as I’ve probably got as fast as I can just showing up and doing them. Interested to see if I’m capable of stepping it up, and also if it will make as much difference as I think. Apparently some people don’t respond very well to training load – like some folk can ride the turbo from the couch to cat 1, but others just aren’t trainable in the same way.

Being fit to race bikes at any decent level seems to leave you open to catching every cold and other virus that’s flying around . Also a lot of people I know have got into cycling and found that they like it so they naturally become fitter so they race then they train to be better at racing . Neither training nor racing is great fun unless you are dishing out the pain to other riders so they stop training as much , get worse results , get disillusioned and discover that golf and a relatively normal life is more fun .

Being fit to race bikes at any decent level seems to leave you open to catching every cold and other virus that’s flying around

I can verify that riding a decent amount, having school age kids, eating too much and enjoying beer also leaves you open to this.

Supermegaprolevel crisp eater. Was properly fit when doing sprint triathlon. Not any more though! Keep meaning to dust the turbo off but just can’t quite be arsed.

Was the swimming that killed it for me, too time consuming and tedious.

Another missive from me…

My Niece (31, 2 kids) was a top level swimmer, just missed out on GB selection due to a bad case of “**** you lot” and then went travelling around the world, met some one in NZ, had two kids (now 4&2) divorced and came back to the UK (yeah, go figure) I bringing up those kids and still training for her open swimming stuff..

She came 2nd in the UK Open swimming champs this year, came second in the Beach triathlon in the open swimming and running (but hated the TT) so ended up top ten.

So.. what I’m really saying is… she’s single, has 2 kids, a job…. yet still trains like a looney in the pool..

Who says it can’t be done?

In a former life .

These days just for fun and the races that I really want to do. Done 2mtb races and a time trial this year.

Mostly I’ve been applying my knowledge and aptitude to other sports.

Always been shit at running but made great inroads into it this year finishing my first marathon…..over the Cairngorms. Took 15minutss off my pb for the 10k and took 3 minutes off my 5k.

Next year I’m working on getting an hour off that marathon and another 2 minutes off my 5k.

Mostly I got fed up of driving around the country every weekend to compete. Still love racing. Hate the time wasted driving .so just do what’s local

I’ve never been an athlete of any sort, I was at my fittest over 30 years ago when a keen (though mediocre) rock climber. “Training” consisted of climbing walls, weight training and beer, though I did become quite well muscled. Since then not so much, a bit of bike riding here and there and I kept up the fell walking (sort of).

Now 65 I retired earlier this year and decided one thing I would do is spend more time on the bike. I already had a Polar computer for GPS mapping use and with the addition of HR and cadence monitors I started to look more seriously at my progress. I have no desire to compete, I just want to become more comfortable riding more quickly for longer. So looking for ways to improve I picked up a couple of British Cycling training plans and a free version of Trainingpeaks. I’m now deeply embedded in measuring my performance, plotting my fitness, fatigue and form. The latest is Heart Rate Variabilty and how that changes with respect to fatigue, sleep and red wine. It’s interesting stuff and I think helps keep me motivated. I’ve even cut down on booze and snacks and lost a few pounds (although I wasn’t exactly portly to begin with). What’s helping is that Mrs. SOM is onboard and getting quite racy. She fancies a go at CX for God’s sake!

Not an athlete so that’s why I like 24 hour races.

I can go at knackered pace all day and all night.

I can still ride the Bealach na Bah on a single speed with a few stops for oxygen to take pics.

But not an athlete, I just like riding my bike.

Hey, and isn’t training a form of cheating? Not the sort of thing a gentleman would do… 🙂

Was a decent athlete once. Very healthy diet (probably excessively so), extremely limited alcohol intake. Training was very structured. Life involved travelling a fair amount to play sport, didn’t see a great deal of my kids for the first two years of their life.
Got injured for the second time. Had the potential of under going treatment to allow me to prolong playing, but wife deemed the risk was too high….
To keep active, I’d always mountain biked, so after stopping playing rugby and no longer being able to do my powerlifting I bought a new hard tail and a road bike, initially just to occupy my mind and keep me fit. Got hooked with road riding, lost just over 4 stone very quickly. I raced for a fair few years, crits and road. Did OK, but one of my last crits I really noticed I was about 20 years older than the rest of the field. Decided getting mullered for all the hard work wasn’t that much fun. I struggled with recovering from all of the short sharp sprints out of every pesky corner, think it’s an age think as FTP and power to weight is decent. Enjoyed the road races more as more structure to the race, but also not that many local and didn’t want to travel too far away from family.
Weight wise, it was always a struggle, I was 67kgs and 7.5% body fat, going up to about 10% during the off season. But with family life, social life and work, it was really difficult and even unfair of me to want to maintain that lifestyle.
I still ride with the fast guys a few times a week, still also mountain bike with friends for fun. But also enjoy my social life, eat and drink too much crap. But I realised how much I enjoy beer and crisps.
Bought a watt bike recently and much to my wife’s annoyance I’ve decided to race again next year…..LVRC and the odd Cat 2/3 local road races. I’m 47 years old, 72kgs, 13% body fat and after a recent test my FTP has dropped to 264, so a fair amount of work to do over the winter. I won’t obsess over it though and hope to find a balance.

So.. what I’m really saying is… she’s single, has 2 kids, a job…. yet still trains like a looney in the pool..

Who says it can’t be done?

It can, but it depends on your relationship with your family. I could **** off riding for 8 hours each weekend, but it would upset the rest of my family quite a bit because we are all a bit co-dependent.