Ever wondered about the intricate science behind cardiovascular fitness and the mysterious VO2 max readings on your smart devices? Or pondered about the impact of bike crank lengths on your cadence? Well, your curiosity is about to be satiated as we explore these fascinating topics with our guest, Wolfman. An exercise physiologist turned real estate agent, Wolfman's unique journey is sure to captivate you as much as his insights on physiology and bike mechanics.
Imagine hitting a wall during your training because you've been pushing too hard—overtraining is a genuine concern, and we'll be uncovering the importance of recovery and mental strength and how renowned athletes like Chris Horner and Mark Spitz handle training. But it's not all about the physical; we also delve into muscle cramps and the science behind them, plus the long-term impacts of high-intensity training. We're also going to take a closer look at the significance of bike fit, from saddle height to handlebars, and how it can make a world of difference to your cycling performance.
In the final segment, we explore the intersection between real estate and bicycles in communities, the advantages of bike paths, and the perils of sidewalk riding. We delve into the role infrastructure plays in creating not just an easier, safer cycling experience, but also how it can up the value of your home. And if you've ever struggled with sleep hygiene, you'll want to tune in as we discuss its impact on training performance and the benefits of sleep studies and CPAP machines. So grab your headphones, hop on your bike, and join us for a conversation that promises to be as enlightening as it is engaging.
Wolfman's 1st MCP Episode - MCP 027
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2052531/12243471-027-turns-out-your-body-matters-on-a-bike-andrew-wolf
Get a bike fit! Ask around your local area. In Tucson? Here's a couple options...
Kurt Rosenquist: https://www.fitworkscycling.com/kurt-rosenquist
Frank Kaiser: https://www.bensbikestucson.com/
Physiological measures of bicyclists’ subjective experiences: A scoping review - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1369847822002066
Real Estate Topics: Trails and Greenways - https://www.nar.realtor/trails-and-greenways
Active Transportation and Real Estate: The Next Frontier - https://uli.org/wp-content/uploads/ULI-Documents/Active-Transportation-and-Real-Estate-The-Next-Frontier.pdf
Room with 18 Bicycles incorporated into Active Couples House - https://www.trendir.com/room-with-18-bicycles-incorporated-into-active-couples-house/
Listen to Mountain Cog
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Other Podcast Sites
Socials
Instagram
Facebook
Email
mountaincog@gmail.com
Ever wondered about the intricate science behind cardiovascular fitness and the mysterious VO2 max readings on your smart devices? Or pondered about the impact of bike crank lengths on your cadence? Well, your curiosity is about to be satiated as we explore these fascinating topics with our guest, Wolfman. An exercise physiologist turned real estate agent, Wolfman's unique journey is sure to captivate you as much as his insights on physiology and bike mechanics.
Imagine hitting a wall during your training because you've been pushing too hard—overtraining is a genuine concern, and we'll be uncovering the importance of recovery and mental strength and how renowned athletes like Chris Horner and Mark Spitz handle training. But it's not all about the physical; we also delve into muscle cramps and the science behind them, plus the long-term impacts of high-intensity training. We're also going to take a closer look at the significance of bike fit, from saddle height to handlebars, and how it can make a world of difference to your cycling performance.
In the final segment, we explore the intersection between real estate and bicycles in communities, the advantages of bike paths, and the perils of sidewalk riding. We delve into the role infrastructure plays in creating not just an easier, safer cycling experience, but also how it can up the value of your home. And if you've ever struggled with sleep hygiene, you'll want to tune in as we discuss its impact on training performance and the benefits of sleep studies and CPAP machines. So grab your headphones, hop on your bike, and join us for a conversation that promises to be as enlightening as it is engaging.
Wolfman's 1st MCP Episode - MCP 027
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2052531/12243471-027-turns-out-your-body-matters-on-a-bike-andrew-wolf
Get a bike fit! Ask around your local area. In Tucson? Here's a couple options...
Kurt Rosenquist: https://www.fitworkscycling.com/kurt-rosenquist
Frank Kaiser: https://www.bensbikestucson.com/
Physiological measures of bicyclists’ subjective experiences: A scoping review - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1369847822002066
Real Estate Topics: Trails and Greenways - https://www.nar.realtor/trails-and-greenways
Active Transportation and Real Estate: The Next Frontier - https://uli.org/wp-content/uploads/ULI-Documents/Active-Transportation-and-Real-Estate-The-Next-Frontier.pdf
Room with 18 Bicycles incorporated into Active Couples House - https://www.trendir.com/room-with-18-bicycles-incorporated-into-active-couples-house/
Listen to Mountain Cog
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Other Podcast Sites
Socials
Instagram
Facebook
Email
mountaincog@gmail.com
Oh, shemalon ding dong, he's back everybody Guess who's back Shady the Wolfman's back.
Wolfman:Wolfman, I am in fact here.
Mike:Yes, it is so nice to have you back in studio. Wolfman, it is so nice to be here and, by the way, to the guy who invented zero, thanks for nothing. Nice, thank you.
Wolfman:Can you dig it?
Josh:Wrong button.
Wolfman:Oh Michael was holding that in his pocket and we said just don't tell us about this dad joke. And it that hit, it hit nice, it was okay to deliver.
Mike:Yeah, yeah, okay, thank you. You're good at that man. Yeah, it was like a jump scare except not scary Funny.
Josh:What's a jump? Oh, it's jump scares. Oh it's cool, I got you. You guys should have seen the visual. It was awesome, yes.
Mike:Yes, we kind of left things off with Wolfman. That might be a return visit, yeah, and that was. Yeah, I was like episode 30 somewhere on there.
Wolfman:Thank you. Yeah, it's a return visit. I had to beg really.
Josh:No, absolutely. We asked him to come back.
Mike:We asked him as well, as other listeners said hey, if Wolfman comes back on again, first of all, he should come back on, we love that episode and secondly, there's some questions we want to ask.
Josh:We've got a bunch of questions.
Mike:You know we should have him call in if we can. You know that'd be fun. Have listeners call in and ask Wolfman Go ahead.
Josh:Yeah, some time. We've got new listeners now since then we should introduce Wolfman.
Mike:Oh, I'm sorry, we may have like one or two thousand new listeners here.
Wolfman:Yeah man Go ahead oh well, okay, all right, all right. Right, I'm an X bike racer who basically here's the deal. I went to undergraduate at the U of A and I was getting a degree in mining engineering.
Mike:We went down that last time and while I was doing it, I was like.
Wolfman:I don't want to live underground this sucks. So I've met someone who worked as an exercise physiologist. I didn't even know what it was, and then I changed my major and I got a degree in exercise physiology. Unfortunately, during that entire time I was racing and going out of town all the time, so my grade point average was a substandard. Mercifully, I'm a really, really, really good tester and one of my old professors came into the bike shop where I was working and was like what are you doing?
Mike:here, dude.
Wolfman:I'm like, well, you know, I'm working in a bike shop and I love it and I did love it, my favorite job ever, nice. But he's like, no, come on, let's, let's, let's make something happen. He's like I'll write you a letter. You do a good job in the GRE, I'll get you into a good university. So I did, I got a good score and I got into UT Austin and I got my master's degree in exercise physiology and I worked in that for a little over 20 years and then I, oddly crazy, left turn, got into real estate, which I'm, thank God I did.
Mike:So yeah, do any, do any dollar. I was killing it in real estate.
Wolfman:Well, what you know with my schedule and the flexibility family I'm like dude I, I it's a good fit, absolutely Completely perfect fit, yeah. But I love physiology, I love, I love the, the notion of the scientific method and nothing being sure. I mean I know that sounds awful, you know, because people are like I want to know the answer. But for me, the notion that like, well, this is what we know to the best of our knowledge thus far, that concept I dig it.
Josh:And here's our hypothesis.
Wolfman:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and the whole, like you know, qualifying everything is questions. You know, I don't, I don't know for sure, but I mean, I think this is what we know, you know, just leaving it open for things to change and get modified and get better. I think that's the greatest thing.
Mike:Well, that's awesome and it helps. I wish I was smart. You know what I mean.
Wolfman:So I'm somebody Shut the front door. Listeners, listeners. He's very smart, michael Festering.
Mike:I'm, I'm, I'm a smart man, not, not on your level. So again, as you know, we're going to ask some challenging questions of the Wolf. We always do yes, we do Not to stump it, because I don't think he can be stumped, but but he's going to, you know, give us the high level and then he's going to also kind of maybe dumb it down. To what grade?
Josh:Yeah, yeah, it was like third grade and I kept, and I kept like hammering him, last time Pragmatic, oh my God, since you did that, oh my.
Wolfman:God. Okay, so I have to write all of the descriptions of the houses that.
Josh:I sell with my boss. You did not use the word pragmatic in a house description, did you? Oh my God.
Wolfman:I used the word cerulean the other day, oh wow.
Mike:Cerulean.
Josh:Yeah.
Wolfman:Huh, and my boss is like Andrew, son of a biscuit maker. Cut that shit out Fifth grade.
Josh:Yeah, fifth grade.
Mike:Okay, so it comes back practically here again in real estate.
Wolfman:I would say, my vocabulary makes me appear smarter than I am.
Mike:No, okay, disagree. I know many people who. But your vocabulary is from Latin to English, it's just the plants, scientific names of plants. This is true. He remembers them like, yeah, going out of style. Okay, so we are going to talk about questions on physiology. So maybe some bike mechanics along related to that.
Mike:And then, because I would trust my mom dad to look for a house with you and I, and because you're subject matter expert in this area, I would like to know about bicycles and maybe real estate and communities. So those kind of three areas, does that sound good? Yeah, that sounds great, okay, okay, so first one. Josh, do you mind kicking it off?
Josh:Yeah, great question on the view, the VO2.
Mike:Yeah, Okay, so so VO2 max we touched on it briefly in the last one. Yep, yep.
Josh:And I've got like a really specific reason for asking.
Wolfman:So I'm going to kind of give you the backstories to what I can listen to, but I need you to know that even if Josh had not trained one iota from my last visit to this current visit, his relative VO2 has increased drastically, because there's a lot less man's in that chair Better leaven through chemistry.
Josh:Anyways, awesome. Thank you. Appreciate that.
Wolfman:You're welcome.
Josh:Okay so so VO2 max so well. First of all, why don't you explain to our listeners what it is?
Wolfman:Okay, so VO2 max is the maximal volume of oxygen that your body can consume per minute. So VO2 max is just there's a thing called absolute VO2 max and a thing called relative VO2 max. So if you want to think about absolute VO2 max, you want to think about a guy named Ghana.
Wolfman:Don't know he is, he is the time trial mutant from hell. Okay, who is on the INEOS team? He's on a road team and he's a big, big, big boy, probably 6263, which you know, I know that's not a huge, huge person, it's a big cyclist. It's a big cyclist and he, if you just look at the absolute horsepower that this creature can create, he just produces an in an inordinate amount of horsepower. Now, if he has to go uphill for a long period of time, that's a bummer, because he's got to drag that bulk up there. Yep, but that is VO2 max. Then there's a thing called relative VO2 max, which is how much horsepower can you make divided by how much you weigh.
Josh:Okay.
Wolfman:And that's where the like, the little teeny guys you know, do really really well. You guys know Tom Pitcock, right, yeah, he's the is he's, he's the current world champion. I think so In cross country, yeah, yeah, yeah. Little little, teeny, tiny man from Great Britain who also rides road bikes and he does not have a huge absolute VO2 max, but relative. But relative to how much carcass he is dragging around. It's dumb.
Mike:So the relative is what really is the climbing?
Wolfman:Oh, climbing, climbing Okay, whereas absolute is just horsepower.
Josh:Horsepower down a flat, straight road because this is the oxygen version of like yeah hour to weight ratio?
Wolfman:Yeah, exactly, because here's the thing. Like you know, josh is a, you know, a substantially bigger human than I am. You know, I would ride a 53 centimeter bike and you would ride a 61, 61, right. However, if you put us in a wind tunnel, our frontal area, and our wind drag is not that different. Really no. So I would guess that your your horsepower on the flat, where weight means nothing, gives you a huge advantage, and so it's like you know, you know if you've ever, if you've ever ridden road bikes and tried to draft off of a tandem, that's a nightmare because it's two people putting the force into the pedals of
Mike:one of one bike.
Wolfman:Oh, got you, and if you come out of that draft, you're gone.
Josh:Yeah, so you just get sucked. You're like that's what. I regret nothing.
Wolfman:So, whereas like a little Tom Pidcock on flat I mean this this Ghana guy I was talking about could just ride him off his wheel, but they go up the hill and suddenly Tom Pidcock's in the driver's seat. So that's, those are the two differences. And you know, vo2 max is I think we talked about this last time has nothing to do with how big your muscles are, right, it has to do with how much blood the left ventricle of your heart can pump to the muscles per minute and how good the muscles are at sucking it out when it gets there.
Josh:And imagine it has some something with your lungs too, and how much it's nothing nothing to do with nothing.
Mike:It's the pump of the blood left left ventricle.
Wolfman:I always think about the lungs, as we talked about this last time. They're sort of analogous to testicles. You have two for a reason If one goes down, you're still opera operational lungs are the same thing.
Wolfman:You've got so much excess lung capacity that you know most people could you know, lose a lobe or two and hardly notice in day to day living. Interesting, so it's. The lungs are not the issue unless there's something wrong with them. Right, it is. How good does that left ventricle pump blood to the muscles and how good are the muscles that suck in that oxygen out?
Josh:per second or per minute or whatever time you want. Okay, so how is VO2 max scientifically calculated Like? What's the best way to determine what your VO2 max is?
Wolfman:Well, it's super, super easy, it's insanely easy, but I mean, the machines are expensive and stupid. Rumor is 20.93% oxygen. Okay, and like 0.03, 0.04% CO2. Okay, so you know that, right, yep. And then you put a mask on someone's face and you start collecting the air that they breathe out, right? So you're like okay, what's going into this critter is 20.93% oxygen. What's coming out is 19%. What's coming out is 18%. What's coming out is 17% Consumption of oxygen. Yep, exactly. So you're literally just looking at what's going in. What's coming out.
Josh:Okay, so then okay. So here's my question. Since I've started dropping pounds, my watch has been giving me warnings that my so I wear an Apple watch.
Wolfman:Oh yeah, right on.
Josh:Yeah, that my, my cardiovascular fitness is dangerously low, Right, oh God. And so so I'm like what the hell? How is this possible? I'm riding my bike, I'm exercising, I'm losing weight. Why is my watch telling me? That it's that it's that my, that my cardiovascular fitness is dangerously low. And so I go and I research, like how it's doing it, and it's got some type of calculation that's taking my average heart rate, my resting heart rate, my max heart rate.
Wolfman:Yeah.
Josh:And it's, it's, it's backing into somehow the VO2 max and apparently all of the smart like gizmos.
Wolfman:Is your weight in there?
Josh:It is. I can't. I don't think it's my weight's in there, but I don't think the weight is in this calculation.
Mike:Wow, and is it there? Is it the correct weight?
Wolfman:Yeah, here's one thing that may be happening. One of the things that does happen and you'll you'll see this with the with, with athletic people, cardiovascularly athletic people is they are more and more likely to have heart arrhythmias. Okay, because one of the things that happens is you work out more and more and more, you have, you have more and more vagal tone. So what's vagal tone? So okay, if you ever want to, feel vagal tone happen.
Josh:I always wanted to feel vagal tone.
Wolfman:Get a, get a big, big bowl of ice water, uh-huh. Put on your heart rate monitor. You know like, okay, 60. Nice, boom, plunge your face into that ice water. Okay, just sit there for like 10 seconds. You don't sit there for long. Come up, look at your heart rate monitor. It'll be like 30.
Mike:It slows it down. It slows it down.
Wolfman:That's vagal tone, that's vagal, that's the vagus nerve when people who you know, you know people who love yoga and like, oh man, yoga centers and it's amazing, my chakras are alive.
Mike:And this guy, this guy right here, yeah, chakra, yes.
Wolfman:All that breathing control that they make you do in the yoga class stimulates the vagus nerve, okay. And what it does is it? It ever so slightly not in a bad way reduces oxygen to the brain just a little. And what it does is it slows everything down and makes you feel mellow. Okay, so the Apple watch, I suspect, is noticing like okay, I got this dude you know, here was the original numbers.
Wolfman:You know I used to see his heart rate get up to here. Now it only gets up to here because you have increased the vagal tone and it thinks something's wrong. And there's nothing wrong with that.
Mike:Okay, you know if anything.
Wolfman:As you exercise more and more, the maximal heart rate goes down a little bit.
Josh:Yeah, okay, so, so okay, so cool. I'm going to go research that some more, see if that's potential. How can I increase, or how can anybody increase, your VO2 max?
Wolfman:VO2 max is it's, it's, it's the, it's the opposite of like the CrossFit ideal. You're like go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, you're gonna die, you're gonna die. Go, go, go, go, go, go go, you're gonna die, you're gonna die.
Josh:It's like my marriage.
Wolfman:V02 max is about. I'm gonna make a A Stink of an effort. I'm gonna make it to maybe five minute effort somewhere in that zone, right, and what I'm not gonna do Is take an inadequate rest. I'm gonna take a super adequate rest. I'm gonna. I'm gonna chill and I'm gonna send a pedal at a mellow pace for let's see you do two minute interval right you want at least five minutes.
Wolfman:You want to. You want to fully, fully recover, because what you want to do is you want to push the pumping capacity of that left ventricle on the next interval as hard as you can Okay, whereas if you're doing something hard, taking an inadequate rest, doing something hard and taking inadequate rest, what you're trying to do is you're trying to mess with the biochemical Makeup of the leg right, you know, and that's more Lactate threshold, yep, whereas V02 max is literally like how much Blood can that left ventricle squeeze out per beat?
Wolfman:Okay so long, so long they call ejection fraction.
Josh:So so two plus minute intervals, yep, you know, go crush it. Barfing intervals, yep, and then five minutes, but, but a long, a long rest between you.
Wolfman:Want to recover fully, feel like oh.
Josh:Oh good, I got it.
Mike:Cool. Last episode we talked about the lactic.
Josh:Was a lactate threshold lactate threshold right.
Mike:So this is, like you mentioned, different than that.
Wolfman:This is the yeah and it's is blood pumping and it's a gen and it's part of a periodized program. You know, when I was always making up programs for people, my thought was and you know I could have been wrong, but it made sense to me was like, hey, let's okay, let's first of all do some base mileage. You know, not a ton, because most people don't have the time, the patients for it.
Josh:Do you know what he's talking about? Based?
Mike:on was that what you mentioned last time? The base you just ride for five, six hours and you said that was a really good training you can get so Stunningly fit on just long run chill rides with a buddy, that's what I'm doing on my, on your gravel bike.
Josh:Yeah, I mean, look, my heart doesn't get above zone two, like I'm just really have you ever seen Lachlan Morton?
Wolfman:No, lachlan Morton is a, is a pro who writes for EF education. First Teepka of whatever I can't remember the. The name of the team has changed, but they realized his. His Media value to the team was not in writing the Tour de France or writing the Tour of Italy, it was in him doing these Absolute buck, wild Nut job endurance races, you know. So he did this ride. Where he went to? I think he went from Jean Agroots, scotland, all the way down to the, to the southern tip of the UK.
Wolfman:Oh, wow and he just rode and Road and road and you know, if you, if you ever see these, these Documentaries about him, he's like I'm starting to see things. Oh, I've been up too long.
Mike:I'm starting to hallucinate.
Wolfman:I'm gonna know I'm gonna lie down on the side of the road with like a, like a plastic tarp, and and then he wakes up and does it again. Wow, and he just keeps shattering records because he's taking world tour cyclist fitness Into the realm, super endurance, endurance, yeah, yeah and he, and in doing so he can't kill it. He's like I'm gonna be on the bike for the next 36 hours without sleeping.
Josh:By the way, we're gonna we're gonna announce it. Well, it'll be the podcast that comes out right before this one. That's, the team that Brady got on was EF.
Mike:Oh, what yeah?
Josh:what my nephew's on you.
Mike:Congratulations, brady. Holy cow that is so huge.
Josh:Yeah, you couldn't talk about it when we recorded that. I remember what you do. It's out now, yeah what's what's?
Wolfman:what's this person's specialty?
Josh:So he's 15 years old, um. The podcast will drop on Tuesday, so you can listen to his whole story.
Wolfman:So he's on the development team.
Josh:Correct oh correct. Yeah, with with Enzo King Cappy In Capi's George, george's son.
Wolfman:Yeah, did you hear about?
Josh:um, oh, go ahead, I'll come back to this no, no, no, cuz the cuz, the listeners will have heard the whole story about Brady. Yeah, okay, they'll hear that podcast. Yeah cuz.
Wolfman:There's another local in town, jimmy Riccatello. His son was in the tour of Spac, tour of Italy, really just getting in breakaways every day. You're like.
Josh:Mutant, I'll answer your question. I think Brady says he's a, he's like a GC kind of all around, right, but time trials where he blows Everyone away.
Mike:Well, that's time trials yeah.
Wolfman:Yeah, that's time trials. Okay, so I mean, I could never retain my focus. Oh, on the time.
Mike:Um, yeah, I'm just like.
Wolfman:And then I started thinking about something else. My Andrew, can you stay on topic for a second here and finish this stupid thing? Meanwhile, some giant dump truck of an individual would just like Steam pass me like.
Josh:All right, so speed. Just final question on vot. Yeah, yeah, please we can put a bow on it. Yeah, um, it's worth it For me.
Wolfman:Oh, my god in time, it is. It is. How big is the engine, you know? Is it a v6? Is it a v8? Is it a v12? You know, that's it. You know, and that's where the the mutants in the world are. The mutants, I mean, michael, and I talked about this I don't know if you've ever seen that documentary about um the rwandan cyclists. No, oh man.
Josh:Did you watch some weird shit I?
Mike:do, I, do, I do yes, whoo, yeah.
Josh:I just want to know Um, that's a different podcast, that's a, that's a. That's the other one.
Wolfman:So, yeah, they went to rwanda and they're like okay, here's the deal. During the rwandan genocide, Whether or not you survived had a lot to do with did you have a bike? Interesting, because if you had a bike, you could get on it and you could bust ass and get away. Yeah, exactly and what is it called the wooden? Called the wooden bike. They have a. They have a get together every year where people Ride homemade bikes like made of bamboo and stuff like that.
Josh:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Wolfman:You know, and the country I didn't know this it's just like a, it's like a nightmare of mountains and it's like it's like green arizona, right like so if you're training there, you're getting.
Wolfman:You get amazing feeling you're getting your butt kicked. So they just went over there with some equipment. They're like there's got to be some talent around here and they just rounded up these people and they're like, oh man, Amazing. But here's the problem with the vo2. It's just the engine. It has nothing to do with the command center up between the ears and it has nothing to do with the lactate threshold.
Wolfman:Yeah um, so it is a very, very crude, rude, dull way to figure out. Does this person have the some juice? Yep, and then we will proceed, see what else we can. We can do exactly, and that's where the lactate threshold comes in, because that is, you know, you know, can you just suffer, suffer, suffer, suffer.
Mike:Yeah, yeah, um. So kind of related to this on the training piece, yep is josh would ask a question, will be a Troy Jacobson on um, I don't know a few months back and there was a comment about how much can you train Before you start doing irreconcilable damage when you kind of over train. And as an athlete I forget how you asked him, but, um, as an athlete you know, performing that level, you really need to push the envelope right. And so, as a physiologist, in your experience and as a x, you know, bike racer yourself, like what? What is the balance so that you, because as a when you're younger, you don't look ahead, you don't have the perspective?
Wolfman:right as age no but, even when you're younger.
Wolfman:I mean, I specifically remember, like I, I had some. I don't know how this happened, but I had some time off. How this happened, I can't remember anyway, but I'm like this is it? I got some time off, I'm gonna crush myself, I'm gonna crush myself, I'm gonna do a 600 mile week. Oh Jesus, and I just did, you know. So I'd go out on the morning ride and I had a great time, and then I would just like, okay, you know. And then I think I capped the week with I don't know if you guys have ever done this I wrote all I wrote from the university All the way to the top of Mount Lemmon, and then I went all the way to the top top of Mount Lemmon.
Wolfman:So beyond the ski station and then back down and then I rode around for a while and by the end of that I was just like, uh, I was dropping things. I knew I was tired because I just started dropping like literally, I do oh shit, huh, oh my, why is that fork on the ground? I was like, okay, this is what it truly means to be tired.
Wolfman:And the next week was awful. I mean, I couldn't ride my way out of a paper bag, so I was I. You know I was. I'm inherently lazy person, so I'm like I don't think it easy. And then, about two to three weeks later, I was like, oh, watch me go.
Mike:We did be recovered and it was stronger.
Wolfman:But Because of my laziness, I had Not the wisdom, just the I don't know what you would call. It just happened. I just took it easy enough that, despite the fact that I had trained really hard and was Actually worse off than when I started, I gave myself enough time to recover that it recovered in a better place. Okay, and, and that's the key, I mean once things get. And that's where the mental part comes in, because when you get um, what's the word I'm looking for?
Wolfman:When you get neurotic about it, where it's gotta be like this and it's gotta be like this and I wrote this down to my planner and the training's gonna be like this, and you do it regardless of the feedback From your body. That's where people fall apart, because if you are Chronically glycogen depleted day after day, because you're trying to cut weight, because you're trying to go nuts, that's where you, that's where you end up in, you know compromised, and that's where you end up in situations where market cavendish ended up in, where you get etchstein bar and then, before you know it, you've got a season that's gone.
Josh:So so, like what? If you do four or five, six hundred miles every week, every week, every week, week after week after week after week after week, you don't have a job. You don't have a job. No, no, we this. Yeah, you don't have a job.
Wolfman:There there are people who are like that Um, chris Horner, have you ever seen his podcast? No, he's got amazing hands. I, I see his podcast and he always like like George, likes with his hands George Costanza. No, no, no, he's got like cool hands.
Josh:Oh okay, you have like a hand fetish? Yeah, I do. I've never actually heard someone say that before. Like guitar people? Yeah, yeah, like.
Mike:I was Jimmy, I could like wrap my whole hand around the neck and whatever.
Wolfman:Okay, um, but he was a mutant. I mean, he was like this six, seven hundred mile week dude. That was the way he trained. But on the flip side of that, um, oscar fryeray, he was the world champion, I think three times. Never went on a ride that was over three, three hours. Oh anyone in the world, and keep in mind Michael. The world championship in road cycling is usually 265 kilometers.
Mike:And how long does that take? Oh, six and a half hours, and he trained for three hours. Yeah, and not, not more than yeah.
Wolfman:Huh, he's like I'm going to, I'm going to do three hour training, rides max, and then I'll slip into the season, get my ass handed to me and then I'll be awesome.
Mike:So is one of those worse, worse off than the other.
Wolfman:Long term or, yes, absolutely the huge mileage, I think is awful. I always think about um, who's the swimmer? Michael's world famous. No, not Michael Phelps, before that spits Mark Spitz.
Mike:Okay, yeah, I don't know many swimmers, to be honest, but he he was the first.
Wolfman:He won eight Olympic golds, or something like that.
Josh:Don't even know who he is. So yeah, like so total cuckoo.
Wolfman:Anyway, he, um, he got on the Olympic team and the Olympic coach is like, hey, you're going to do this. He's like, wrong, I'm going to do half of what you want me to. And then he went on to win however many gold medals he won. So quality is much more important than quantity.
Mike:Quality over quantity.
Wolfman:Yeah, I think quantity works for people who have the ability to deal with it. But that is it. That's rare.
Mike:Okay and then. So going back to what Josh was talking about like pragmatic and for our listeners, so what so for listeners? I would say quality is everything. And then your recovery time. So if you do go for a long, like you said, you killed yourself that week. The recovery time gave your body the chance versus, like you said, the depleting that like a gin.
Wolfman:Yeah, what my body did is it said is this the new normal? This he's lost his damn mind. Okay, I need to make this change, this change, this change, this change, this change, this change. And one I think we talked about this last time there was this guy who's we used to use as a subject in our our studies at the University of Austin, and he was just, he wasn't fast, he just loved riding bikes and he would just go on these mega rides. And we finally did a study where we were doing muscle biopsies, which gross. You basically stick up something the size of a, a big pen, a big pen in someone's leg.
Josh:Just take a core sample.
Wolfman:Like right here like on the side of the thigh and he let you do that. Well, no, you take, you take a. You take a syringe full of lidocaine with a very short needle and you.
Josh:Yeah, until.
Wolfman:The place is numb, and then you take a small scalpel and open a hole and then you stick this thing in and it's connected to a vacuum tube.
Mike:So was this the mining class, or was this your Exactly? It's a mining class.
Wolfman:So there's a hole on the side of this big pen and you turn on the vacuum two minutes sucks up, the sucks up a little piece of muscle and then you push a plunger and it whips it off and then you pull the thing out and you got to get that thing in liquid nitrogen within, I think, four seconds or everything's done, yeah, so it's like if you're going to do that to a subject, you are ready on the ball.
Wolfman:Yeah, thank you so much. And what we found is this weird thing, because we also did. We were across the hall from like a lab that did a lot of diabetes research and when you look at normal people, they have a certain amount of fat in the muscle.
Josh:Okay.
Wolfman:Okay, If you look at people who do a lot, a lot of long rides, they have a lot more fat in the muscle. I would have thought the opposite. I know it's. That's why science is cool, because half of its counterintuitive so what the body does is it's like look okay, what's the fuel where the muscles need it? Exactly the body's like. He's going to do this all the time, and I could ship fat from his love handles to his calf, or I could just put the fat in the can.
Mike:So the body just makes that adjustment over time with the training regimen schedule as needed.
Wolfman:Absolutely. That's so cool. And that's where that's where things get really odd, because you know, people are like oh, I want to take these antioxidants and like improve my recovery and stuff, and it's like that's cool. But the more and more you facilitate and help yourself feel better, the less stressful it is, unless your body makes an adaptation.
Josh:So the you know if you're like the benefit of the training, you're losing the benefit.
Wolfman:basically, the stress is what induces the positive annoying such a weird yin yang thing, and that's where some of these pro cyclists were doing like inside workouts on really nice trainers, but in heated rooms.
Mike:Just to reduce the suffering, just the suffering.
Wolfman:Yeah, that's awful, like the worst.
Mike:So, speaking of overtraining and suffering, I think we think we put a tie on that one Okay. Yes, Okay. So one of our listeners I can't remember was on a ride. They said hey, if Wolfman comes on again, can you please ask him about gerbils? Okay, and this is good. I don't know if that's a real name, so I apologize.
Wolfman:It's not sure. Can we just say Bush babies.
Josh:He's going to explain what a turbo is first.
Mike:Okay, this is a medical sense. This is All right, so pygmy lemurs. Yeah, yes.
Josh:So he's right Everything is on a long ride, yeah super long ride.
Mike:Yeah, he just fatigued out whatever, and he had what he said was like gerbils crawling underneath his skin and his veins. Yeah, and he couldn't get them to calm down. Yeah, and he laid there and just had. He called them gerbils. So what? What is that? And can you? He wanted to know what that is. How can he prevent them and recover from them?
Wolfman:So the way a muscle fundamentally contracts, which to me is just absolutely buck wild. You know, you've got. You've got this thing called actin and myosin. Okay, I'm on a like, a like, a micro level. So you form this myosin cross bridge and it pulls this actin fiber past it and the muscle gets shorter and that's what.
Mike:That's what can contract. Contracts the muscle, yeah exactly.
Wolfman:And that whole thing is is to use that word, potentiated. Yes, that whole thing is is made possible by the influx and efflux of calcium. So you're like, okay, calcium allows us to happen. And then we pull the calcium out. And you've also got this thing called Cal modulin, which actually, like, bonds the calcium to make your muscle think that there's not the calcium there, so it can relax for a second. You know, there's calcium, calcium, calcium, calcium, calcium, calcium.
Wolfman:And if you fuss with that enough, the muscle is not responding to your, your whims, and so you end up with what's called a Titanic muscle contraction. So the muscles like Ramanaman, ramanaman, ramanaman. And, from personal experience, when I'm very cramped, prone. So if I start training and you'll see me doing things like taking vitamin E and taking magnesium and the reason is because I think we talked about this last time, I'm a world class sweater we do, yes, like two liter an hour, yep, like stupid, right, yep. So if you get your electrolytes screwy enough, that whole thing gets upset and you end up with a Titanic muscle contraction. And when I'm starting to get it, it feels like, and I can see it. You know, when you feel something, you can see it. We're like like like in my calf, it feels like like this branched tree of I don't know if I know what you're talking about electricity, and like like okay, it's not a full cramp yet, but it's okay, it's coming.
Josh:Yeah, I mean, I've had some of those things in the bedroom where, like, you can feel it but you can't see it. But you can see it in my is that?
Mike:what we're talking about Exactly. Yes, I'm feeling a Titanic contraction where it's most important.
Wolfman:This muscle will not relent. Yeah, so basically what happens is the muscle is turning on and contracting in a way that your normal neurological input is not able to say, okay, turn it off. It's just on and if, if you're lean enough, you can see it oh, he's pretty lean propagate across the flesh. You know, and that's what. I had a race once. I'll never forget this. It was a hotter, it was another damn race. You guys have probably never heard of this. I don't even know it exists anymore. It was an early season race in Yuma where you went across the dam, so you would actually go into California and come back over the dam.
Mike:It was cool. It was awesome man.
Wolfman:Yeah, anyway, I was dating a moment at the time. I'm like, okay, listen, here's what you do. I'm going to come up this hill, okay, and what I need you to do is I need to hand me this water bottle on lap two, because by then it's going to be pretty ugly. So I'm coming up the hill, and she took one look at this group of cyclists coming at her.
Josh:It's like full bore, scared the crap out of her.
Wolfman:It comes from the bottle ran, oh no, and I was thirsty. When I got there and I had a whole another 20 miles to go, I was like is it just water?
Josh:Was there electrolytes in there?
Wolfman:There's electrolytes in that bad boy. Yeah. So by the time I crossed the finish line, you know, my cramps start in my calves and work their way up. I was just a wreck, it was a little bit.
Mike:This is who was happening. Oh, it was that.
Wolfman:Titanic and a friend of mine who was a farm D was like wow, okay, I need you to take you know 1000 or how many, how, many.
Wolfman:I use of it. Tell me, basically, take this much magnesium, take this much vitamin E, take it on and drink this much water and you're going to be fine, because it was a stage race, because I had to race the next day, and so I did and I did okay, but, um, yeah, once you, if you're lean enough that you can see your muscles and they're doing that Titanic muscle that's what that is that cramping, you can put it. You can see that and it looks like something's crawling around under your skin.
Mike:Okay, so how can people prevent that from happening?
Josh:Just want to go off and make sure, drop the water bottle.
Wolfman:I did a different girl. I mean, that's where. I mean that's where the Gatorade stuff kind of is annoying. You know, if you're working that hard, you know water is not gonna do it. You're gonna need something that's got some salt in it. Okay, you're gonna need to eat something that's got some salt in it. Ham sandwich, ham sandwich. Amen, brother, um so then the last but that's what?
Mike:oh, very good reference, excellent.
Wolfman:You know, and you know even it like good God cost cuz even got it like that liquid IV. Yes, yeah, about that in the last podcast you yeah, I mean it's actually salty enough that it doesn't taste great. That's perfect. But you're not a fan of Gatorade. It's okay for what 99% of people do. But you know, if you're in a mountain by grace and and it's hot in your sweat like an idiot, you know by the time you see any like salt rings on your jersey or your shorts.
Mike:Gatorade's not gonna do it, it's too late.
Wolfman:Yeah, something with you need something with some that's that taste Estrigenly salty. Yeah, don't be afraid. Oh.
Josh:I'm.
Mike:NT. Oh, that's right, I'll let you. Okay. So, speaking of things we talked about in a lot, last podcast was the cadence of pedaling. Oh yeah, and so, josh you started yeah, so I so.
Josh:I, so I told you at that point I'd gone to one one from 175 to 170s. Yeah, since then I've gone from 170s to 165. So I'm my, I'm like I might what we call it down country but cross-country bike.
Wolfman:Yeah, and.
Josh:I have a 165 on my downhill bike. I have a 165. I just got a new gravel bike and it's 170. Okay, feels like I'm like going like this long god.
Mike:It's too much.
Josh:So my question is I Definitely quick in my cadence, significantly? Good for you probably Probably around 90 now as an average, where?
Wolfman:I was probably.
Josh:You know, 60 to 70 was my average and for off road.
Wolfman:That's huge.
Josh:Yeah. Yeah yeah, yeah. So my question is is going shorter crank? Okay yeah, is that a good way to do that?
Wolfman:and then and it buys more crown clearance.
Josh:It buys me more, which is the which is another reason why we did it is because when we talked about this last time, you know lower bottom rockets were getting more pedal strikes and I've had a couple gnarly crashes from pedal strikes. But my second part of the question is is should I? Am I hurting myself by having bikes with different?
Wolfman:no, crank arm links. No, because I mean, think about it, are you wearing the same shoes on your gravel bike and your no? No, I mean, we're talking about Five millimeters five millimeters, you know, and different shoes are. It's crazy.
Josh:Yeah, that's a good point. I didn't think about that, like it's really not. I mean, there's probably five millimeters of difference in the shoes that I'm wearing.
Wolfman:No, but I mean. I mean, cycling is about it in an accumulation of Of effects okay you know it's, it's only five millimeters. But how many times in a ride does that thing go around?
Josh:a lot, yeah. So is it helping me by having different sure crank arms?
Wolfman:Yeah, absolutely, you know. That's why Leonard's in the guy who heard of that guy.
Mike:I don't think so.
Josh:He's he's a famous. You could fill a book with the things he knows that we Don't know names of the people he knows.
Wolfman:Yes, he's a famous bike maker, like a, like a one-off bike maker, but he's also six, six, okay. So he's like look, you know what? They don't make stuff for me. So he started making his own cranks. And then he realized, like there's the whole world of people out there who are not between five, eight and Six, one, yeah. And so he started making. He's like I'll, I'll make you a crank that's a hundred eighty millimeters. I'll make you a crank that's one, forty five, whatever you want.
Wolfman:Yeah exactly, and we actually had some adjustable cranks in the lab and I was shocked at how Little it changed performance, making pretty big changes in crank length. So if you can get comfortable on a pair of one, sixty-fives, yep, I, I Please feel free.
Josh:Yeah it helps me keep what forces me to. So it's a run-up, run-up, run-ups. Easier gear to pedal Yep, in a pedal faster.
Wolfman:Yeah, which is easier in your knees and it's gonna put much, much more load on the cardiovascular system, which again Gets back to this idea of, like, what am I doing to make my VO2 better? Right?
Josh:So shorter cranks makes your be, helps your VO2 nice interesting. So along those lines, right, one of the things we thought would be cool bike fit in general and like where are the parts of the bike? Like how important is it? What's the most important seat?
Wolfman:Okay yeah, I was telling Michael about this and I hope this isn't gonna help I don't go too far. I was in a mix of really beautiful home showing it to some clients, and this is, you know, you know the home you want to live in. Yeah, this is not like oh, yeah, some people made this house. You're like, oh, someone hired an architect to make this house and you walk through the front door. There's a view for the whole house into these giant windows that looks out into the city, and then, if you look behind you, the Catalina's are big, you know yeah.
Wolfman:Anyway. So I walk into the house and you know we're talking about the kitchen, we're talking about the, you know the, the, the countertops and all All the real estate stuff. And I look over to my right and there's a bike. It's an S works, so it's a super high-end, yeah, specialized.
Josh:It's a road bike for our bike listeners.
Wolfman:It's 10,000 bucks yeah. Yep and it's on a stationary trainer. I'm like I get that. You know that's what people need, yep. And then I took another look and it's got a saddle on it. That I know it's cheap and it is tilted down and probably at a 15 degree angle.
Wolfman:It's pretty it's pretty aggressive, pretty aggressive, you know, and the guy's just doing it to make it so. As you know, his Johnson weed doesn't go numb, right, yeah, and but because it's down at such an angle, he is basically falling off the seat during the whole ride and he's having to push himself up with his handle, with his arms. So I mean the the maximal time this guy can probably spend on the bikes maybe 45 minutes Before his shoulders and his neck freak out on him. And I'm like this is a $10,000 bike With a $60 saddle on it that forces him to ride in a back-asswards way. If that guy would just Pay 350 for a bike fit and Pay another 250 350 for a really nice saddle, that thing could be level, he could sit on it and he could just actually pedal as opposed to fighting the bike.
Josh:So during a bike fit I've never had one, oh, probably something I should do. Yeah, during a bike fit, there, they, they, they also can help with the saddle.
Wolfman:I didn't know that. Oh my god, when I had my bike fit, I had my bike fit by. Um. What's his name? Kurt Rosenquist, no.
Josh:It's another guy, we don't know. No, yeah.
Wolfman:You know where the Lost Barrio is on on South Park.
Josh:I do.
Wolfman:Yeah, um, fairwheels has a has a? Um a warehouse down there where they where they run their mail order business out of. It is Dude. That's where they had that nine pound nine pound rideable road bike.
Josh:Dude, fairwheels got some. I mean, I remember going to inter bike and do you know what inter bike is? Yeah, yeah, so I remember I went. I went to one of you know One year I went with Arizona cyclist a couple years I went and then they let consumers in. I went as a consumer but I went a bunch of times and Fairwheel was there.
Wolfman:Yeah, like with like what are you doing here? Like why is?
Josh:there a bike like a shop here. Those guys are connected in.
Wolfman:Yeah well they, they invented the sequential XTR shifting before Shimano did they took. How did they do this? They took like Dura-Ace and like Electric yeah, and I saw it.
Josh:They had it at the shop there. They converted a Dura-Ace Di2, di2 electric shifting when electric shifting was only available for road bikes, and they converted it and had it on a mountain bike there at interbike and they had it.
Wolfman:so it was. I don't know what the word is for it, but basically all your gears are programmed into it. So as opposed to picking front chainring, I mean big chainring, small chainring and the gears in the back, the gear ratios were programmed in. So you're just like I want it harder, I want it easier, I want it harder, I want it easier. And it did the selection for you.
Josh:This is what. So it probably doesn't sound like a big deal if you have a one buy, but at that time we were all running two or three buys. So you had to do a combination of a shift in the front and a shift in the back, and it did it for you.
Wolfman:It's like the next gear up is going to be us doing this and this. Wow, it was crazy. That is so. It must be a computer chip of some sort. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, they came up with it. No, dude.
Josh:I gotta go out and grab a hold real quick. Yeah, so punk rock. Dan writes me.
Mike:Uh-huh and he says punk rock.
Josh:Dan's a long-time listener and you guys know he's a retired admiral, he's a chief engineer at a defense company, he's just a brilliant guy and he's wrapped he's. He's an interesting dude for sure, but he writes me and he's like hey, I heard your podcast and you were talking about, like Shimano, having a drivetrain system that automatically shifts from the front. Have you seen this? Now the front cog moves independent from the crank.
Wolfman:Oh my God, they brought that back Auto shifting.
Josh:It's saying so so SRAM and Shimano have one, and he's like I've got a patent from 1977, where I came up with that idea. Oh yes, Don't get it, it's just of course right.
Mike:Yes, of course he does.
Josh:I don't have to see what, if anything, ever comes to that. But I'm like I say, I'm the here's Shimano's and here's SRAM's and go really. Yeah, so I love it. So I didn't mean to take you off your off your topic.
Mike:What was I doing? So we were talking about, like fit, oh, yeah, yeah.
Wolfman:So I went in there and he put me on the bike and I'm like, hey man, I got this bike. It's kind of a girder, you know, stiff, and it's a race bike and I'm just old. He's like, hmm. So he starts like futzing with it and he's like looking at it. You know, before I know it I walk out of there. My handlebar is actually lower than when I started. I'm like what? But my whole, my pelvic orientation to the bike was completely off. He changed it and all of a sudden I'm like Holy Moly, I got like a new lease on life with this thing.
Wolfman:But here's the big thing he did. He's he took the fit that he came up with off the bike and he transferred it to this fit bike. And then what he did it is be basically like 50 saddles on the wall, he's like, and he could put a saddle on the bike and then like flick a switch and lock it into place, and then I would say yay or nay. So I'd sit down, pedal big. Oh God, no, click, boom, tang, pop, new saddle. And we literally went through 40 saddles Like in rapid fire, and I couldn't see him.
Josh:So I couldn't make your biases, my bias, is out the door.
Wolfman:And then when we're done he's like here's the three you loved. I'm like get out of dodge what you expected Exactly. They were rounded. I thought, for sure, I needed a flat, flat saddle, and what I picked was the roundest saddles out there.
Mike:Really.
Wolfman:Yeah, I was like what. And the one I loved the most was the Brooks saddle with the carbon rails. Made another recycled weird material Like Brooks with like the leather wrap. No, this. They make one that's like 350 bucks.
Mike:It's okay, dumb.
Wolfman:Of course my ass would choose the most expensive, but it's made of this recycled rubber.
Josh:They put little tax in all the cheap ones. No, this one hurts my grundle.
Wolfman:So, yeah, and I just you know. And then I realized there's like the physique saddle that I ended up with because it was the cheapest was the last one I would have picked. Interesting, yeah. So all of a sudden I was like, oh, and what was interesting is he taped me like. He like took film of me. It's like look, what's going on here, look at your leg. I'm like, oh well, that would explain why always wear the logo off the right side of the saddle but it never wears off the left, because you're no kidding. Yeah, he's like, and suddenly I'm symmetrical. God damn it. I got to get a bike fit. Yeah, it's, but the problem is it, look, you're like 350 bucks, are you serious? But when you do it, you're like oh, and once you have it, you can quantify it and you can transfer it from bike to bike to bike.
Mike:That wasn't my question. Do you take one bike in a? Do you have to wait till you find that one bike? Yeah, but you can actually transfer it over, if Josh went he would.
Wolfman:He would take the, the gravel grab it and get it fit and then do a you know, an approximation on the mountain bike.
Josh:Yeah, it's, it's absolutely worth it, of course, the road, he would say bring your closest.
Wolfman:Yeah, that's a very good point.
Josh:I'll probably bring the mountain bike in and then approximate it. I would bring both, bring both.
Wolfman:Yeah, Because that's the thing I mean. You know, like what I said to you before we started, I'm like, hey, how do you like the gravel bike? Because you have so much more to do with your hands. And you said, well, I'm a mountain biker, so I just put my hands in one place. Yeah, and you know, that's the difference. So, yeah, but a bike fit I can't. I'm. I just keep telling people get a bike fit.
Mike:Get a bike fit. So how does one go about getting a bike fit? Do you call just different local bike shops and say, hey, do you do bike fit?
Wolfman:Kurt Rosenquist is the guy's name Kurt Rosenquist. Okay, dang it. Yeah, he's great, he's a fun. I mean, he's just an interesting individual, he's like he's. The first time I met him he was out on a long road ride on a fixed gear. Okay, I was like oh, okay, you know weirdo.
Mike:And it's just a guy who did the fit the bike fit for you, yeah he's still doing it.
Wolfman:You think I would think so. He's a ninja, okay, it's, and he's one of the it's like I can't see real well, like I wear some pretty thick glasses and every time I go in to see an ophthalmologist or an optometrist I'm always like you're wearing glasses, no, like I would never get lacy, and you know, they seem they have like an old school sort of vibe to him.
Mike:Yeah, and he's the same thing, nice, I'm like what bike do you ride?
Wolfman:He's like oh, I ride in 1972. Chanel, I'm like of course you do.
Josh:It's perfectly fit, though he's perfectly how we doing on time. And we're good?
Mike:Okay, so did we. Are we good on the bike fit so?
Josh:get a bike fit yeah. Get a bike fit, yeah. But the other? Thing?
Wolfman:saddle most important. Saddles, the most important thing. Handlebars are important, right, don't? I mean everyone chinses on bar tape. Don't get expensive ass bar tape, because that's where you interface with the bike Right. And rubber, buy expensive rubber. Don't buy cheap tires. Tires, okay yeah, get good rubber, you know. Get the widest rubber you can, you know and and and. Don't be chinsy on the bike pump either. Get a get a nice bike pump so you can just likes a good bike pump.
Josh:I've got a lot of bike pumps.
Wolfman:So you can get that air pressure right. I mean because I mean I always think of it in a road sense, but I mean you know you go to a cyclocross event or an off road event, I mean people's tire pressures are just, it's like top secret, you know. Yeah, it's a big deal. Yeah it's like my friend tires 28, my years 32 and you're like what really? But I mean that's the difference.
Josh:It's a good deal. Yeah, silica, everyone's got to get a silica. It's like a $500 bike pump. Okay, like manual bike.
Wolfman:That is in the battle.
Mike:Nice, all right, as we, as we talked about your subject matter. Expert, I love you.
Wolfman:Nice.
Mike:No, you don't know. Nice, nice, another, we don't know she's an actress from Reno 901.
Josh:Of course, yeah, is there like any. Where does it end you?
Wolfman:don't know Reno 901. I know Reno 901.
Josh:I'm just trying to figure out where you went. Where does your breath of knowledge? Oh my God, I am the worst. Okay.
Wolfman:Yeah, but you're talking about Reno 901.
Josh:Yeah, I know, but that's not pop culture, that's like. I don't know. It's a new boot goofing right there.
Wolfman:Yeah, that's it. It's a good goofing I like that.
Josh:Have you seen it? So it's a Reno. I'll show you. It's a real 911 clip.
Mike:Oh yeah, okay. So, subject matter expert also in real estate? Okay. So, in your experiences I don't know, you know whenever, now, just currently, are there some trends with real estate and communities regarding bicycles, whether it's the home itself, the community. Can you talk to us a little bit about what you're seeing out there?
Wolfman:I think here yeah, it all comes down to the livability thing and I think honestly, people are getting a little lazy, like the loop was a huge undertaking and it has a lot of added values for a lot of communities.
Josh:So the loop is a paved trail that kind of circum, circumvents no circumnavigates circumnavigates to sign, but then also spurs out to some of the major you know, like out to Oral. Valley, yeah, some of the major kind of you know cities that are adjacent to Tucson.
Wolfman:Yeah, I guess I just think about it in the context of a couple I've been working with who really want to buy a place in Tucson and their big thing is is there a place to store the bikes? How easy is it to get to the bike path? You know, and you know as a mountain cyclist you know maybe this doesn't come up so much, but as a road cyclist, the quality of the bike path is everything and the fact that the bike path would be on the road as opposed to off the road is key. And I know that sounds insane, but my parents live up in, like up off of Tangerine, you know, and Tangerine's a big road and it's got a little shoulder, which is cool, but there's also a separate bike path, like off to the side. The problem is is that bike path crosses over the feeder roads to Tangerine.
Josh:So you're having to stop all the time.
Wolfman:Well, but they cross the road before the stop sign on Tangerine. So people are just like do, do, do, do, do, and they blow through and it's just it's dangerous, dangerous, dangerous, you know because what is it?
Wolfman:75% of bike to car incidents occur when people are either A riding on a sidewalk or B riding against traffic. And those bike paths for the most casual bike rider who's not into it for fitness, probably okay, If you're actually trying to get fit, they're a disaster, you know. So for me, I just wish the infrastructure, the cycling infrastructure, was more part of, like the community zeitgeist, Like it's it's. Everyone expect there to be bikes on the road because we have made the infrastructure for them to be on the road. Therefore, things will be safer. But I think people shy away from that.
Josh:I mean the loop itself. It's great because there's no crossover, doesn't have the crossover. It goes underneath all the roads and it's yeah. Perfect.
Wolfman:Yeah, I mean it's one of the best around, so but I think Wolfman oh, oh.
Josh:What we want to get to is like what trends are you seeing in real estate that are bike related? Are you seeing anything?
Wolfman:Not a whole lot.
Wolfman:I mean, the one thing I am seeing is, in some of the some of the stuff, some properties I've seen down by the bike loop, they are including bike storage and I think that's a huge.
Wolfman:And there's a couple of office spaces in town that allow bike storage and I think that you know bicycling is equipment intensive. You know, even if you have like a, you know, a beautiful condo or a townhouse that's on the second story, I mean for you or me or Michael you know you're dragging a bike, a nice bike, you know, up a flight of stairs and putting it in the house is no big deal, right. But if you didn't buy a really nice bike and your bike happens to be 30 pounds and you happen to be a little person, you know it's another barrier that keeps people from cycling, right. So I think you know, in the world of real estate, you know there is this idea of, like you know, let's get them. You know there's a piece of land we're going to develop, let's get the most money out of it. I wish there was a little bit of perspective on okay, that's the case, but how are we going to make this as livable as possible?
Wolfman:And I think livability is part and parcel of making infrastructure changes that make cycling easy and makes people feel safe and I will tell you, I mean, these people are from out of town, this is going to be a second home for them, and I've shown them plenty of beautiful places that they didn't buy because it didn't have easy bike access. Well, you know, and that sort of thing I don't think people in a short-term temporal frame think about. You know, and the more that you put money into that, the more attractive we look as a community.
Mike:Yeah, there's articles here that one of them is from the National Association of Realtors. Is it NAO? No, no, okay, and they talk about that. It actually increases the home values if the trails are done correctly. You know three to five, even upwards of 15%, depending on some communities. Oh, absolutely so that's an interesting story you have. That's happening right now.
Mike:There's a transportation research, part E, f, psychological and behavior, something that you probably read on a daily basis. Science is correct. Yes, okay, it goes to what you're talking about. It's a physiological measure of bicyclists subjective experiences and what it has to do with with all the different monitoring wearable devices. I'll read this the recent rise in wearable devices has coincided with research using bike riders physiological responses to measure their subjective experiences while riding. So what it talks about here is they can look at the wearable device and they're looking further into the subjective nature of this and the danger associated with it. So if they're on a bike path that has a lot of traffic, that they can actually see that on the wearable device, possibly, potentially, and so that goes to what you're saying is the safe paths, like we have the loop there's another cross traffic in that.
Wolfman:Well, and you got to remember most people who are riding. You've seen them. They're not out there to like I'm one of my VO2 up. No right, they're on e-bikes. They're on e-bikes and they want to enjoy themselves and they want to have a good time and they want to feel the wind in their hair.
Wolfman:Nice and get a little bit of fitness, yep. So for them, if you're working really hard, it's like when I was racing bikes. I would hang out with these people and they're like, oh man, I want to take a bunch of caffeine before we do this race. And the caffeine they would take if you were just sitting around the house you would climb the walls, but because you were putting that much energy into the event, all you noticed was like I feel great.
Josh:How much caffeine can you take before it's dangerous?
Wolfman:Depends on the person. There's a five, there's a five point scale on caffeine sensitivity. I can't remember it, I saw it. Of course there is. Yeah, and it goes from like you know the people who can, you know, like, have a double espresso and go to sleep, to the person who looks a calf, you know, like a cup of coffee wrong and a little bit of heart arrhythmias. So it's very dependent on the person. But I mean, if you're working really hard and a little stress happens, you're not going to notice. But if you're enjoying yourself on a bike ride and you're not working really hard, you know you have a close call with a car, you know you're going to have a physiological response that can be measured on a wearable device. That's what that article is talking about Exactly so.
Mike:there's another article here that talks about it's a Seattle home that looks like it's custom built, beautiful place and what they designed. They have 18 different bikes because we've talked about you need how many bikes.
Josh:Yeah, plus one.
Mike:And so this is a multi three story home on a kind of narrow or a lot it says. But the ground floor of the home is where the garage and the garage entry bike shop and exercise room are located, where the bike shop opening opens out to enclosed yard for washing, maintenance and repairs. Yeah, so I mean this is to the next level of course, luxury mudroom. Yeah, yeah, I mean, how cool would that be. And then, of course, it's located centrally, where it's like the merging of two bike paths.
Josh:Right.
Mike:And I don't know if you've looked at any statistics. I mean we could talk about the sustainability, of course, but also just the using of non-renewable resources. But it talks about if 23% of trips were taken on a bikes by 2050, the world would avoid 300 megatons of CO2 emissions, leading to a cumulative saving of $25 trillion between 2015 is when this was and 2050. Yeah, I mean that's significant. So we're looking at different ways. Electric cars but if they just design communities and other things, the bike could really be a solution here.
Wolfman:for the whole world, yeah, yeah, and especially, I mean and that's the weird thing, I mean we're, you know, we're well, this is too, but you know, kind of don't be spacing this climate crisis, and the climate crisis and the increased heat that we've had in here makes cycling harder.
Josh:I've ridden less outside this summer.
Wolfman:It's been crazy hot and the answer is part of the answer. A fractional part of the answer is more riding outside. So it's a little bit like fitness. I mean I've said this to you before like I got to get fit before I can diet if I want to lose weight. Because the more fit I get, the better my insulin sensitivity gets, the better my blood sugar control gets and the more easily I can go without a little bit of food without me feeling like I'm going to fall face first. Interesting.
Wolfman:Hand in hand, whereas, you know, with cycling and climate, you're like, ok, we need to get out there and do more things on the bike, even though it's more comfortable to offset, you know, this looming crisis. That's like looking us in the face. Yeah, I mean, it's a weird metaphor, but I kind of think of them in the same, yeah, same breadth. Super interesting. All right, I got one final question for you. Well, good, because my bladder is very full, yeah.
Josh:OK, so you have control, as you can make this answer as long as as short as you want. Tell us something kind of ex-fizz related that we haven't talked about could be applicable to the cyclist that you think is super interesting and that we should all know.
Wolfman:I guess for me in cycling and I had this drilled in by a coach and he's like what is the biggest organ in the human body? Skin. I know what mine is Skin.
Wolfman:It's my hog Skin and so he was kind of a nut job. He's like, guys, if I see you hanging out after the bike race in your shorts chatting with people, I'm going to yell at you, because the biggest organ in your body is your skin and what I don't want you doing is sitting around in your butt gravy Chafing yeah, chafing, but also bacterial. I mean and think about what Ineos Grenadiers did with their team bus. They're like, hey, here's the deal. Everyone just rode a six hour stage in the Tour de France. Do we really want to take everyone's shorts and throw them into one washing machine and create a big bacterial soup so everyone can put them on tomorrow? And they didn't. So every rider has their own little mini washing machine on that bus so they can keep their really their grundle.
Mike:I did not know that the grundle clean.
Wolfman:Grundle clean. Yeah, interesting. So his big thing was like guys when we were teenagers. So we're disgusting, it's gross. He's like when the race is over. We have a team van. You get into the team van. You get out of those goddamn clothes. I don't want to see you hanging out in clothes. So to me that's a huge one, because that's just another unnecessary stress. And if that goes south enough, guess who's not going to be riding tomorrow.
Mike:Yeah.
Wolfman:A nice little saddle soar and you're like, oh shoot, yep, so that's a huge one. But the other thing is the balance between taking antioxidants so you feel better, but not overdoing it to the point where you don't get the training effect. Yep, you talked about that earlier. Yeah, and I think that's really about sleep. That is 100% about sleep, getting enough good quality sleep. Getting enough good quality sleep and having good sleep hygiene, which is insanely important as you get older.
Wolfman:Sleep hygiene, yeah, like OK, how much booze am I going to have before I go to sleep? Ok, I got to have a limit on this. Ok, when am I going to start dimming the lights before I go to sleep to reduce the blue light infiltration? Yeah, do I need a pair of glasses that actually have blue light blocking on them so I can start to secrete melatonin, so I can sleep in a reasonable fashion? Do I have enough airflow in the room or is the temperature low enough that my core temperature can drop so I can get beyond stage 2 sleep and actually get into deep sleep? Yep, nenenenenenenenenen, you know, and this is why I'm such an evangelist for the notion of sleep studies, especially for men in our age bracket.
Mike:Oh.
Wolfman:You know, I'm like I don't know. My husband snores a little bit. I'm like, get that son of a bitch of sleep study. God damn it, I've done one.
Josh:They want me to go back.
Wolfman:I'm like it was awful. Have you done one? Yes, I've done one. It's awful, I've done two.
Josh:It's awful.
Wolfman:Yeah, big old bundle of wires.
Josh:There's like 1,000 wires hooked into you. Man, how do you sleep with that?
Wolfman:Not well, but I will tell you. They sent me home with my CPAP. I'm like you know, you want to feel unsexy. Go home with the CPAP, so I go home. I'm like son of a bitch, so I fill up the water reservoir. I put the thing on my head first night, struggle bus Like waking up over and over again. Second night a little better. Third night I'll never forget. Game changer Put the thing on, really Woke up, looked over at the CPAP machine and the CPAP machine tells you exactly how many hours you have slept. And I'll forget this number Eight hours 27 minutes. And I had to pee like a race horse.
Mike:I was like yes, wow, so that made a difference.
Wolfman:The sleep getting a sleep test studied on sleep, because you statistically get less and less and less deep sleep as you age. Oh, I didn't know that. So at some point you know we don't die when we're 35, 40 anymore. We're going to live a long time. So at some point you have to take the bull by the horns and be like. I need to get a grip on my sleep hygiene and make this happen.
Josh:All right, so don't chill in your dirty camis. Nope, ok. What was the second one? This was the make yourself feel better, take the anti-accidents.
Mike:Oh yeah, anti-accidents yeah.
Josh:Careful about it. Not too much Distress is what helps your body change.
Wolfman:And you get the benefit of it.
Josh:So don't try to fix everything and then look after your sleep hygiene.
Wolfman:You got it Nice. Thank you so much for coming out, dude, it was a pleasure. Oh, now.