How Fit Are Cross Country Racers? | GMBN’s XC Boot Camp With Nino Schurter

(energetic music) - Professional

cross

-

country

racers

are elite athletes and this is the Olympic discipline of mountain biking. They have to deal with undulating circuits, fast climbs and technical descents. The races usually last an hour and a half without rest, even the descents are very close, so the runners rarely manage to recover. The physiological requirements necessary to meet these demands are truly elite. (man grunting) So how do a pair of mere mortals compare? - How fit are the world cup

cross

country

runners? We are here in Switzerland to find out. - Yes, we came here just for one day to go to the gym. - With someone very special, Nino Schurter, one of the greatest of all time, seven-time world champion, Olympic champion, to win it all again.

I don't know whose idea it was. - I don't have a Garmin. - Nino is a Garmin sponsored athlete. Well, we're also sponsored by Garmin, so it was their idea. Here we are. This is going to hurt. - It's going to hurt, Neil. Are you ready to get your... - You look very sad, Blake. - I feel very sad, Neil. - You'll look green in a minute. - No, they're going to rip off your legs. And hit with the tip soaked. (energetic music) - To this day there are two parts, gym and then cycling. Have you seen the video of Nino doing this that is already on YouTube? - A bit. - So this training circuit is nine things.

Three leg exercises, three core exercises, three upper body exercises, but no rest. Between your circuit, you have 20 seconds of cognitive recovery, I think he calls it. So, juggling balls, standing on balance boards. - Juggling balls. - Juggle. - I can't juggle, so... - I can't juggle. - I'm going to have to find some other means of cognitive training. You know I keep saying this in videos, nervously, but you know what? I have never felt nervous going to a gym. We get goosebumps, because it's Nino Schurter and we will follow him at his personal training center, where he trains.

This is a crucial point in his, basically, season. He is winning, he has won both of his races so far and now he is training and preparing for the next ones. And we're here, we've got ropes set up, we've got juggling balls, we've got balance, we've got some weights, we've got a crazy-looking idler wheel, some medicine balls. Are you ready for Neil and I to throw up on camera? Because it could happen today. (loud music) - Nino Schurter, Olympic champion, seven-time world champion, six-time world cup champion, with 32 world cup victories along the way, and two-time winner of the Cape Epic.

Neil Donoghue, me. Two-time British downhill winner, with several top tens in the downhill world cup and two UK Gravity Enduro championships. Nowadays, I don't follow any kind of training program, although I still try to keep fit by cycling a couple of times a week, with a stop at a pub, the occasional walk along the road and a push-up or two . Blake Samson, a former professional opportunist. Blake comes from the mountain biking family. They feel more at home in big jumps on the trail and not in the gym, and aren't necessarily known for their athletic training and diets.

Although Blake is no stranger to big trips and he is strong as an ox. Possibly just putting heavy accessories on his beloved Jeep and some casual bicep curls, that's beer. Nino goes first, then I copy what Nino does. Blake is following me. - Ready? - Oh, you've really... - There are three torturous exercises for each set of muscles. Jumping and spinning on the box with a barbell in hand was an absolute killer to start with. (heavy breathing) (dramatic music) The kettlebell squat on the balance board required a lot of skill along with physical effort. Dragging the weights with my heels was absolutely deadly, because it took a lot of downward pressure to move those weights. (heavy breathing) Holding on to the radiator with flailing legs was complete sadism and something I really had to struggle with. (heavy breathing) Some of these exercises were actually too difficult.

We had to make it a little easier. That ball spin, holding a dumbbell between my feet, became too difficult for me and I had to do it with the ball alone. Plus, lifting the bar while leaning over the medicine ball really taxed the lower back muscles. Then for the upper body, the rope, the press on the ball and the dips that almost finished Blake. - Death. (grunts) (upbeat music) What if we can't juggle? Is there anything else we can do instead of juggling? Because I do. - You have to learn. - You have to learn, great. (energetic music) (heavy breathing) Thanks, Nino.

That was crazy. 42 minutes. Three repetitions. From the feet to the head. I can't even... I'm done, but we're not done. We have much more to do. We have to go by bicycle. (raspberry noise) - Some of that was really impossible for me. I couldn't complete the exercises. I had no strength in circuit one, much less in circuit three. - The end of circuit two, I was, the center turn when you hold the weight between your feet. - That was another one, I couldn't really hold the weight. I have burned 512 calories. - I have burned 500. - And 29 hours of recovery.

Except we'll go to an interval session afterwards. - If that was difficult... - VO2 Max interval sessions, so I know what this could be like. - There's going to be vomit. -Yes.-He is preparing more things. Those are the squats, Neil. We're not done at the gym, Neil. - I literally felt like vomiting on the other. - Maybe you? - Yes. - Did you hear me cough? (coughing) Oh no, Neil. (energetic music) - Easy. - So, Nino only has 100. - And I'm going to do 70. - I would recommend it, Neil. So he did 130. Okay, let's go. (growls) (energetic music) - Good. - Breathless. - Five minutes.

Six times, five minutes at V02 max. - 35 minutes at V02 max. and you just try to follow. - Nino's V02 has between 410 and 450 watts. Mine was 320 about ten years ago, so he doesn't look good. - I've never had one. - Are you guys ready? - Don't forget to start your computer. - And let's go. - Mine is 450 watts. (energetic music) (murmurs) Nino behind him, kicks his butt. - Push, push, push, almost to the top! - Doing well. Go! Go! Go. - I'll chase you. (energetic music) - On the bike we did maximum V02 intervals. V02 max, simply put, is the amount of oxygen your body can consume during intense exercise.

Along with the functional power threshold, there is a figure that shows how good your physical condition is. V02 max. highest ever recorded is 96. That's milligrams per kilogram, per minute, associated with a male cross-country skier. And it's 77 for women. It reduces with age, but generally speaking, anything above 50 puts you at a very high level of fitness. When I was a pro Enduro racer, mine was 69, but now he's much shorter. Blake has never done a V02 max test, and although Nino was very open with his data, this was a number he wanted to keep close to his chest. - Second interval. - The first one worked pretty well, I averaged 445 watts. - Second interval, Neil.

It was way over my V02 max, so I'll pay the price. I was 100% out of my comfort zone. In these ranges, the Nino can typically produce between 410 and 450 watts, depending on conditions. That's what he intends to do. Monitor the power of it on your Garmin computer and sit like this steadily for the 5 minutes, then you will have a four minute break. That includes going down a steep, bumpy, downhill track. Whenever there is leftover, it is used by spinning in circles on a flat surface, then repeated. The problem for Blake and I is that it ended up taking us much longer than 5 minutes to climb the climb, so we'll only rest for about a minute at the bottom.

Nino is actually climbing much higher, then turns and heads down the descent. What happens to the data from those six intervals? It was six times uphill, designed to take 5 minutes each time. Nino's average heart rate for those six intervals is 166 BPM, which is about 86% of his maximum heart rate. The power of it remains really constant, from 445 to 454 and only begins to gradually decrease in the later intervals, up to 432 watts. As for me, as you can see in that first interval, I tried to stick with Nino, unsuccessfully I might add, and my power was 312 on average during that first interval.

But, if you look at how much higher my heart rate is, I was up to about 95% of my maximum heart rate. Then you can see in the next interval how much my power starts to decrease. The second interval was 265 and it went down, it went back down to 232. My average heart rate was about 95% of my max, my average watts was 254. You can see how Blake didn't take Nino's bait up front and is much more consistent that I. In fact, during those last three intervals, he beat me to the top. His average heart rate was 175 and his power was 220.

Well, thank you very much Nino. I'm not sure I should thank you because that was ridiculous. - I hope you enjoyed. - It was a torture. (laughs) Absolutely gutted, I feel like he used to train pretty hard but nothing like that. Thanks for that and I see what you really do. There are a couple of weeks until the next race. Now we know what it takes to get those stripes. Is not easy. - So if you want to see a video from a few years ago of Nino racing Marc Beaumont, a former professional downhill racer, click there.

For Nino pro bike, click there. - Don't forget, subscribe to the world because you're missing out. Give us a like if you like cross-country. - Thumbs up.