Family, full-time job and racing like a pro

On June 23, 2012, at the 2012 Cold-FX Canadian road championship for elite men, nine riders got into a break. They worked hard as rain came down in Lac-Mégantic, Que., to open up a gap of almost six minutes on the chasing peloton, which included professionals, such as Svein Tuft, Christian Meier and Michael Barry. The break had four members of Team SpiderTech, so it was no surprise when the team car pulled up with directeur sportif Steve Bauer. It was a commonplace sight for the pro riders, but that break wasn’t wholly made up of cyclists who make their living on the bike.

“In all of my races, a car never pulls up,” says an amateur rider. “This was a team car with Steve Bauer hanging out the window. I looked over and said ‘hey Steve’ with a goofy grin on my face. He looked at me with a face that said “Who are you?’ Then he passed water bottles and talked strategy with his guys.”

The cyclist with the fanboy reaction was Bruce Bird of Wheels of Bloor/Graywood Developments. At the time, he was 43 and had just recently gained elite status. His cycling career was little more than two years old. Before that, he competed in duathlons and triathlons for four years. To date, he maintains a full-time job as a project manager for technology projects. (A current project he’s working on is with American Express.) He has a wife, two kids under the age of TK and a house in Toronto’ s Beach neighbourhood. He trains, on average, 12 hours a week.

While 12 hours is the equivalent of adding a part-time job to an already full schedule, the number seems low considering the company Bird was riding with and the pace they were keeping. He ended up finishing 32nd, 1:24 behind David Veilleux of the UCI professional continental team Europcar. This is the same David Veilleux who won Tre Valli Varesine this past August. He no doubt clocks more hours on his bike than Bird. So what’s the amateur’s secret? Are 12 hours a week all you need to ride with the pros?

Before exploring Bird’s performance further, let’s talk drugs. The unfortunate reality of cycling means that stellar performances are often followed by suspicions of performance enhancement. Bird has been tested three times this year and nothing has come of those tests. Since there’s no evidence of cheating, it seems his training has produced big results. To understand the effects of his training, let’s first look at what a pro does to ride like a pro.

In September, after the TD Bank Mayor’s Cup in Boston, Davide Frattini of UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team was back at his home in Barrie, Ont. The 34-year-old domestique’s season was winding down. Unlike two years previous, he wasn’t planning to extend his season with cyclocross. He was going to try to make up for time away at races by spending time with his wife and soon-to-be one-year-old daughter – and rest, really rest.

“I’m taking at least two weeks off,” Frattini says. ” I don’t want to see my bike. It’s in the garage. It’s kind of like you need to pull the plug, mostly for the brain, not so much for the body. If you have a full season, you kind of burn out by now.”

After two weeks of little physical activity beyond working on the house and walking in the park with his daughter, Frattini will do some hiking, swimming, mountain biking and cross-country skiing once the snow arrives. Then, after a month away from the road bike, he’ll be back on it. He’ll have two days riding and then one day in the gym working on his core strength. If he were a sprinter, he’d do more lifting to work his legs.

In November, he’ll be back on the bike putting on base miles. He’ll do three days of long rides with a low heart rate followed by a day with an easy spin or no riding at all, then repeat. He could be riding as much as 25 hours per week during this time.

“You want to build a huge base of power through training in the winter,” Frattini says. ” You can’t build a base during the racing season. It’s impossible. Last summer, I had a stage race in China that was 13 days. Then I had two weeks of no racing that I spent in Canada. Then I left for a stage race in Portugal that was 11 days. I spent the first week in Canada recovering from the race in China. I took a couple of days off because I needed it. Then I did two or three hours maximum of easy riding in a day. After my body had recovered, I did three or four hours a day with some intensity. A couple of days before I left for the race, I was only doing short, easy rides. Any intensity was very short. Basically, you can’t alway train, train train. That’s what the winter is for.”

In the winter, Frattini’s high-mileage, low-intensity training improves his muscles ability to generate energy using oxygen, which is also known as the aerobic metabolism. Having all those base miles behind him allows his body to get more power out of an efficient aerobic system, instead of the anaerobic system, which kicks in for higher-intensity, but can’t last as long.

“The name of the game is getting the most oxygen and using the most oxygen in your muscles,” says Dr. Stephen Cheung, professor of kinesiology at Brock University and author of Cutting-Edge Cycling.

The training expert says that a cyclist of moderate ability may be able to produce 250 watts, but he is generating, say, only 50 per cent of that power by aerobic means and the other 50 per cent by anaerobic. Anaerobic is short term, in limited supply and causes lactate buildup. A fit cyclist, such as Frattini after he has ridden all his base miles, can ride at 250 watts with possibly 90 per cent of that power is coming from his aerobic metabolism. His body is using fats for fuel instead of carbohydrates, which are in limited supply. He has an engine that can keep going and carry him through multi-stage races.

Frattini’s training is not dissimilar to that of Barry, Tuft and Veilleux. They had many base miles on their legs going into 2012’s national road race. But what about the amateurs in that race who don’t have the same base miles?

Another rider at the nationals with many similarities to Bruce Bird was Ed Veal. Veal juggles work (coaching and personal training), spending time with his nine-year-old son, who is also into sports, and a 12-14 hour per week training schedule. The 36-year-old member of Real Deal Racing/La Bicicletta did his first mountain-bike race at 26 has been riding road for roughly seven years. This past September at the Subaru Centurion Canada in Blue Mountains, Ont., Veal finished first, edging out the third-place Bruce Bird by little more than a second. However, Veal’s ride in the nationals was tough. Without the base miles that the pros have, Veal was at a disadvantage over the 182.2 km of racing in the championship race.

“I wanted to see how I ranked with pros,” Veal says. “The problem is that I can’t do the distances they do. I just don’t do 180-km rides. The nationals was the only 180-km ride I did for the year. I had to go on total will and determination and hope that my body followed through.”

VeaI was in the group with Barry and Tuft chasing Bird’s breakaway during the first few laps on the Mont Morne circuit. Veal would lose contact with the group after each lap and have to chase back on. Eventually, he lost contact for good. When he later rolled across the finish line, he was disappointed when he found out he was just outside the cutoff time.

“I would race the nationals again,” Veal says. “I think I have a chance. I mean, it’s a low chance. But because I’m not on the radar as much as professional riders, I have the tiniest chance to surprise them. If they want to take me to the line or let me stick around and don’t think I’m a threat, then maybe I can eke out an impressive victory – or even a result.”

This past September, after returning home from a short afternoon ride, Bruce Bird saw that the nanny was home as well as his seven-year-old daughter, but not his five-year-old son. There was a mix-up and the boy was still at breakdancing lessons. He quickly got out of his cycling shoes, hopped in his Mercedes-Benz SUV and picked up his son. Work, life, training, racing – it’s a tricky balancing act.

“Twelve to 14 hours a week is quite a high dose of training,” says Cheung of Bird’s fitness regimen. “A professional can train 25 hours a week, but he doesn’t have much additional stress outside of his workout. He has a better ability to recover. But to get off the bike and care for a child, run around getting groceries, fix things around house and get to work all make for more stress and pressure. For someone who has a full-time job, it is not productive to train more than 15 hours a week. Off-bike stress will catch up with him.”

So far, it seems Bird has made his training and racing work. Sure his wife rolls her eyes when “watts” come up. She also admits that the race season can be long and wears on her by the end. But Bird’s training/work/life balance is pretty integrated. He works from home with a trainer in his office. Two-and-a-half hours before his afternoon ride on that September day, Bird had a free hour ahead of a conference call. He got on the trainer for that hour and then made the call dripping with sweat.

But is there something different about Bird’s 12 hours per week compared with Veal’s? Is Bird doing something that Veal isn’t that allows the 44-year-old to stay in a break at the nationals and finish with a result? When Bird recounts his race, the details are telling, starting with his time in the break.

Bird says he got away from the bunch because most of the riders were marking Tuft. The amateur did his part in the break at first, taking pulls at the front. But the pace and then the repeated climbs up Mont Morne had him just hanging on. He stopped working.

“The pros in the break were trying to get us amateurs to pull,” Bird says. “One guy said ‘If you want to rest, go back to the peloton.’ Of course I couldn’t speak at this point, but I thought, ‘Are you kidding me? The peloton is chasing right now, so they’re going faster than you guys. There’s no way I could hang on to that right now. I can barely hang on to you.”

Like Veal, Bird would lose contact with his group, chase to get back on. Eventually the group of escapees fell apart. Barry caught up and he and Sebastian Salas blasted by Bird. What remained for the peloton, with Tuft and Meier, eventually came by the struggling amateur.
“All I could think was ‘Catch them. Don’t let them get away,'” Bird says.

He hung on to this group, right at the back. He lost contact when Tuft made an attack. When the team and support cars came by, he found a bit of relief, which also allowed him get back into the bunch. From this point to the end of the race, Bird hung on to the scattered groups left from the fractured peloton.

“In the last group I was in, I was staying out of the way,” Bird says. “I was just trying to get to the finish line. When we hit the last incline; the group was gone. I said goodbye. I’m sure they didn’t know why I bothered. It’s not official etiquette, but it is mine. I climbed at my own pace. When there was 5 km left, people appeared at the side of the road cheering.”

When Bird crossed the finish line, he was spent. Like Veal, he had ridden farther than he had all year. He’s prepared for a 160-km race, but once he hit 170 km, he really started to struggle. Bird’s training took him pretty far in the national road race, but tenacity, opportunity and a bit of luck – all regular factors in a race – got him to the finish among the pros. As for finishing so close to Veilleux, Bird can explain: “David Veilleux got a flat tire in a bad part of the race. That I finished just behind him in the order …” Bird trails off with a bit of disbelief. “He is just so much stronger than me.”

Racing in the nationals was a thrill for Bird because he was there not only as a competitor, but as a fan who watches the pros on TV. It was the highlight of his year and he’s already planning and training for the 2013 edition in St-Georges-de-Beauce, Que. His 12-hour a week training schedule allows him to ride with the pros, but it doesn’t put him in the same league. Still, next year, there’s always a chance something big could happen.
“You have different strengths,” Bird says,” and if you use them at the right time, you can do the best you possibly can do.”

On Drive
Training isn’t everything. There are other factors in a race that will get you to the podium, such as luck, experience and good strategy. And then there’s something every athlete needs: drive.
Ed Veal, coach of Real Deal Racing and elite rider
“As soon as I start making deals with myself, then I know I’m working. I know I’m training hard. My body is adapting because I want to quit. The mind is the key. It’s how you unlock your potential.
I say things to myself like: ‘You want to be the man, but your are thinking about quitting? You want to be the Ontario Cup champion, but you want to fold after two minutes at this intensity?’ I beat myself up a lot. What would a champion do? I ask, ‘What would Miguel Indurain do? Or what would Lance do? One of my teammates is Darko Ficko. I love that guy. I often think about what would Darko be doing right now?”

Stephen Cheung, , professor of kinesiology at Brock University and author of Cutting-Edge Cycling
“Will power is huge. You can have two people who are equal in their genetic and athletic gifts, they can be identical twins, but if one wants to be a bike racer more than the other, I’d place my money on person with drive.
Terms of understanding why people fatigue and what limits exercise, one of the big concepts recently is not just straight physiology but voluntary drive, the whole psychological component. It’s about who wants it more.
For amateurs who are successful, I’d say they have a genetic foundation. They probably train hard and smart. You can get a lot in 12-14 hours per week if you are smart about your training. They are also very mentally motivated and committed. They not only have the off-the-bike drive to avoid drinking too much or to get enough sleep, but on the bike, if someone attacks on a hill, they are willing to hurt themselves to catch up. It’s that very primal, in-the-moment drive.”
What a 12-hour training week looks like
Here’s a glimpse at Bruce Bird’s training schedule in 2012. The notes are his own.

Week 5
Date Jan. 30
Time 137 minutes
Training Trainer work on the time trial bike.
Notes Felt as if I got past a barrier in staying aero. Even used leverage to get more power in the aero position.
Jan. 31
113 minutes
Trainer work on the time trial bike. Road to and from school.
This was a hard effort.
Feb. 1
120 minutes
Trainer work on the time trial bike.
I ran out of strength after first 20-min. set. I could feel the power giving out in my legs so I stopped. Probably need more recovery time from a hard three days. [Bird had a team ride on Jan. 29. -Ed.]
Feb. 2
120 minutes
Trainer work on the time trial bike. Road to and from school.
Legs are tired and need some to recover.
Feb. 5
76 minutes
Trainer work on the time trial bike. Easy recovery.
Total hours for the week 12.43

Week 15
March 19
135 minutes
Trainer work on the time trial bike.
Tried to do 2 x 20 minutes but felt the weakness in my legs after 90 seconds due to the effort from yesterday.
March 20
105 minutes
Trainer work on the time trial bike. Road to and from school.
I knew right away that my legs lacked strength because of the 4.5 hours on Sunday and two sets yesterday. But, I wanted to push through to get back on the 2 x 20 minutes horse. Tough horse to get back on …
March 21
204 minutes
Trainer work on the time trial bike. Club ride, 73.18 km.
Beautiful day.
March 22
72 minutes
Trainer work on the time trial bike.
Left calf cramp and slow recovery from liquid depletion.
March 23
70 minutes
Trainer work on the time trial bike.
Was ready for a 2 x 20 minute set. (Legs not great). Son was all over me so I stopped to tend to tears and then went for the second set. Tried a third set but had no leg strength left. Wanted to spin for 60 minutes at 300 watts before the party, but forced into house-prep mode.
March 25
261 minutes
Club ride, 150.6 km
Total hours for the week 15.62

Week 27
June 19
60 minutes
Easy time-trial ride.
June 20
30 minutes
Nine hour drive to Lac Lac-Mégantic followed by reconnaissance of national championship time-trial course.
June 21
90 minutes
National championship time-trial race (18th).
June 22
60 minutes
Reconnaissance of national championship road-race course.
June 23
300 minutes
National championship road race (32nd).
June 24
300 minutes
Centurion Lake George (first).
Total hours for the week 14

Week 32
July 24
60 minutes
Trainer workout.
July 25
195 minutes
Trainer workout and hill repeats.
July 27
106 minutes
Trainer workout.
July 28
165 minutes
Trainer workout.
Watched the Olympic road race.
Total hours for the week 11