If you're really committed to developing your cardiorespiratory fitness, you know, I think I talked about this on one of the podcasts. Maybe it was on Tim's podcast. You're trying to maximize the area of a triangle. Right? So the triangle has a base, and the triangle has a peak. And the goal is how big an area can I get, not how wide, not how tall? You don't want one that's this wide and this tall, and you don't want one that's this tall and this wide. You want the max. The base is your zone 2. The peak is your VO 2 max.

From a training perspective, the rule of thumb that is applicable for people like us, I. E. Normal people and the best athletes in the world is roughly 80 20. 80% of your volume is down here. 20% of your volume up here. In fact, some of the really, really elites are probably closer to 90 10.

So you're saying no matter if you're just an ordinary athlete or you're the best of the best, it's still roughly the same?

Tadeep Bogacchar, who's the greatest cyclist on this planet, 2 time winner of the Tour de France, you know, absolutely mopping up the field of cyclists like their children. That guy is doing 80 to 90% of his training at zone 2. And I know that for a red fact because we know who his coach is.

So so then let's maybe talk about that pyramid. So maybe let's just step back and say

I didn't answer your question, by the way, about VO 2 max, which we can come to.

But Yeah. So maybe I was just gonna say, maybe let's just cover the whole pyramid. So what's the training of the whole pyramid? If you know it's kinda 80%, 20%, let's break out

the whole course. Start with how much time am I willing to put into this. Now I gotta be honest with you. I wish I could be putting 10 hours a week into cardio. I do. I mean, historically, I've put in 14 to 20 hours a week into cardio up until 10 years ago. So, like, I really miss those days. I miss being insanely fit.

You know, I miss I I I'd miss that terribly, and I miss I miss the joy of that much training. It's simply not possible today. I you know, for all of the obligations that I have, and there's I've done the math 10 ways to Sunday. I'd have to give up something I'm not willing to give up. I give up archery or give up driving or give up my kids or something like that. I'm just I'm not willing to give any of these things up. So, yeah, I basically start with what's the most amount of time I can put into dedicated cardio. And for me, it's like 4 to 5 hours a week, not including rocking.

I sort of keep that in its own bucket. So then it's a very simple calculation. 80% of that time is zone 2, and 20% of that time is VO 2 max.

And how are you breaking out let's just start with zone 2. How many

I divide it into 4 workouts a week. So 4 Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday.

And do you always recommend doing it over like, let's say you could do 4 hours in one day. Is there the same benefit of doing all your zone 2 in one day versus spreading it out?

No. I think you know, I've talked about this with Inigo. His view is if you can get at least 30 to 45 minutes, you should spread them out. So, again, if you're only able to commit an hour to it, it might be 1 hour once or 30 minutes twice. But I'm sort of doing 45 to 45 minutes to 60 minutes each time is what I do.

And are you doing zone 2 VO 2 max on the same day?

One of those days. So so Tuesday, Thursday is just zone 2, and then 2 long sessions of stability training. So it's, like, call it an hour of zone 2, an hour of stability. Actually, why don't I just walk you through the whole week? That'll be easier. So Monday is just strength training. So that's about 90 minutes to 2 hours when you include the stability training that I do as well. So movement prep stability training, strength training, and that's all lower body. That's Monday.

Tuesday is zone 2 followed by dedicated hour of stability. Wednesday is, upper body strength and stability. Again, 90 minutes to 2 hours. Thursday is a repeat of Tuesday. Friday is a repeat of Monday. Saturday is zone 2 in the morning, upper body strength, repeat of Wednesday in the afternoon. Sunday is zone 2 followed by v o two max.

And will you ever do VO 2 max before you do zone 2?