Tadej Pogačar has lifted the lid on the coaching and diet methods that powered him to a dominant 2024 season, during which he received the Tour de France–Giro d’Italia double, to call solely his highest profile achievements.
Chatting with Peter Attia on The Drive Podcast forward of the World Championships, a race Pogačar is the outright favorite to win, the Slovenian mentioned his love of zone two rides – lengthy outings ridden at low depth – alongside some exceptional energy figures, and detailed his balanced relationship with meals.
“I like using in zone two,” he advised Attia. “Round the place I reside in Monaco, it’s actually laborious to get to zone two for a very long time as a result of there’s quite a lot of climbing after which you’ve all of the downhills. I attempt to hit a very excessive zone two on the climbs, they’re like 20 to 40 minutes lengthy, after which you may actually get better on the downhills.
“However once I go residence to Slovenia or elsewhere, possibly Spain once we’re coaching in Calpe the place it’s extra flat, I prefer to then keep for 5 hours in zone two. In some coaching classes I like to do simply zone two and simply go nonstop.”
When requested by Attia what his coronary heart price is prone to be in zone two, Pogačar mentioned: “once I’m fatigued it’s like 140 or 145. After I’m a bit extra recent, possibly round 150 to 155.”
He then defined that he can preserve “320 to 340 watts” at that very same coronary heart price determine.
“In Monaco on the climbs the place I can actually get better after, you can’t take a look at zone two and say that is your zone two since you did two ten minute exams at this energy,” Pogačar added when offering additional readability on his coaching. “When you’re doing a 5 hour journey, your zone two after 5 hours will not be your zone two anymore.
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“You all the time must know at what time this zone two is not going to be your zone two anymore. As a result of on the flat you’ll not get better and 5 hours of using 320-340 watts for me additionally signifies that the following day I’m not using my bike. So when occurring the flat for longer, I drop my energy to 290-300.”
Energy meters and VAM
Celebrating profitable the GP Montréal for a second time
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Pogačar went on to say that he considers energy meters to be “unreliable” and revealed that he has monitored his personal coronary heart price since childhood.
“You all the time have to be cautious with the temperatures exterior, the calibration, the whole lot. Generally I believe it may be off and it’s worthwhile to watch out about this,” he mentioned when requested to clarify his view on energy meters.
“I’ve been coaching with a coronary heart price monitor since I used to be about 12 years outdated,” he added. “So I might say that I understand how my coronary heart price responds once I’m drained or once I’m feeling good. I might go by coronary heart price solely, however it’s all the time good to check coronary heart price to energy.”
Food regimen and diet
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It could be straightforward to imagine that champion cyclists like Pogačar completely chorus from consuming chocolate, cake or anything of a candy selection that’s excessive in energy and fats. Nevertheless, Pogačar’s actuality may be very completely different.
“I by no means prohibit an excessive amount of or I by no means say I can’t eat cake or I can’t eat chocolate, however I do all in measurements and when the time is true,” he mentioned.
“That’s as a result of should you prohibit an excessive amount of and also you don’t contact chocolate for a month or six months then one time you’ll break and you’ll go loopy, and I believe that’s not an excellent relationship to have with meals. You might want to have stability with the dangerous meals additionally, I believe.
“Then with regards to the off season I don’t have cravings. After I go on trip, I’ve good, good meals, high quality meals and never loopy quantities, so I don’t achieve an excessive amount of weight.”
