Julian’s Top Tips for Cyclists Training at Home
Julian at home with his indoor cycling training setup.
If there's one sport that defines WhereNext, then it's cycling. Our global creative agency began with our founder’s two-year cycling odyssey from Alaska to the tip of Patagonia, and it's not uncommon for our videographers and editors to squeeze in daily mountain climbs on their bikes before work. If you come to our Bogota office and find one of them splayed out on the orange couch upstairs, it's a pretty good indication of an early-morning bike ride!
Our Head of Video, Julian Manrique, is the most hardcore of our team's cyclists. He racks up hundreds of kilometers a week, riding his bike in the mountains surrounding Bogota. He once had three days off work, and used them to cycle 1000 km to the Caribbean coast! Julian is working from home like the rest of our creative agency team, so he shared with us his top tips for cyclists on lockdown for the latest blog in our quarantine series.
Top Tip: Don't Overdo It!
Unlike Pipe's top tip for climbers in quarantine, I don't recommend staying tired for cyclists stuck indoors. Why? Indoor cycling on a static bike requires twice as much energy as a regular outdoor ride, so it's important not to overdo it, especially when you start, so you don't burn out too fast. You should aim to make progressive gains, and build up slowly to maximize the positive impact of an indoor cycling training regime.
What I’m Reading: bikepacking.com
I've been reading loads of stories, articles, and tips on bikepacking.com. The founder of this website, Logan Watts, was recently working with WhereNext in Bogota to design a bikepacking adventure with the ultra-endurance cyclist Lael Wilcox, and I spent some time with him learning more about the sport (Check out our WhereNext Live interview with Lael below).
Not only is the website very informative for cyclists, it's also serving as a form of inspiration during this lockdown. I'm using it to plan future biking adventures, and it's helping me fall even more in love with the sport.
Read our full interview with the world’s greatest ultra-endurance cyclist: “WhereNext Live: An Interview with Lael Wilcox”
Watch: The Least Expected Day: Inside the Movistar Team 2019 on Netflix
This mini-series premiered on Netflix while we were already on lockdown, so it couldn't have arrived at a better time! It's a fantastic look at life behind the scenes of a cycling team during the 2019 UCI World Tour. Sadly there are only six episodes, and none of them are longer than forty minutes, so it's not a series to binge-watch for weeks at a time. But it does offer a fascinating window on the preparation and dedication required to cycle at the very top level. It also features lots of scenes with the legendary Colombian rider, Nairo Quintana, so that made me want to watch even more.
How I Stay Fit
I have a great indoor riding setup with a pair of bike rollers. As I mentioned before, indoor cycling takes up much more energy than outdoor riding, so I warm up with an hour of gentle riding while watching a series or movie. I try not to let my max heart rate go above 70-80% during this morning ride. Before starting that morning ride, I have to wash the dishes. That's a house rule!
In the afternoon, I ride a bit harder using the Zwift app (see below for more on Zwift). Sometimes I join a race if my friends are having one on the app, but I never ride more than 20 km in the afternoon. Saturday is a full rest day, and I take a longer ride on Sunday, again, sometimes using Zwift, but never for more than two hours. I tried that early on in the lockdown, and I was destroyed for a few days afterward. Never again!
Download a Training App: Zwift
Zwift is a brilliant app that allows me to link my static bike up to my computer, letting me ride with other Zwift users in a virtual environment. Riding solo on a static indoor bike can be incredibly boring after a while, but with Zwift I can set-up friendly rides in the "countryside" with my cycling friends, and even challenge them to time-trials and races. I've also been virtually riding with Esteban Chaves, the star of our documentary Behind the Smile. He's still a lot better than me, but it gives me a good incentive.
What to Eat — How to Make Oat Milk
I've been starting my day with oat milk. It's always my breakfast before my one-hour morning ride. But since we've been stuck at home, my wife Atenea and I have made a genuinely life-changing discovery: we can make out own oat milk instead of buying expensive almond milk in the supermarket. We've been using a recipe we found online (see below for the complete recipe), and it's fantastic! I start the day full of energy for cycling and work, and it's so much cheaper. I like to mix the homemade oat milk with granola.
Ingredients:
1 cup of rolled oats (100 g) | 3-4 cups of water (750 ml – 1 liter) | 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (optional) | 1-2 tablespoons of maple syrup or 1-2 Medjool seedless dates (optional) | A pinch of salt (optional)
Instructions:
Soak the rolled oats in water for at least 30 minutes. It's better to leave them covered overnight. | Drain the soaked oats and wash them with water. | Pour the oats into a mixer along with the rest of the ingredients and one litre of clean water. | Blend the mixture for 2 minutes. | Let the mixture sit for 1 hour (you can drink it straight away after following the next steps, but it is better if you let it sit). | Strain the oat milk with a very fine strainer to separate the liquid from the remaining oat grains. Do this 2 or 3 times until the liquid is thoroughly strained (again, this isn't essential, but it makes for better oat milk). | Store the oat milk in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Read about and watch our award-winning cycling documentary: How our Storytelling Agency created “Esteban Chaves: Behind the Smile”
Julian’s home riding setup
How to Stay Sane
For me, the only way to stay mentally healthy is to keep setting goals and keep my eyes on the future. I'm just dreaming a lot about what I will do on my bike when all this is done. And I'm not just dreaming; I'm actively planning trips and adventures. I'm using bikepacking.com a lot for this: I want to organize more bikepacking-style adventures with my friends when we're allowed out again. Reading that website is like a virtual adventure, and it's getting me excited and motivated for the future. When I read the cycling stories, I can imagine I'm out riding in the Colombian mountains again.
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