TRAINING
AND RECOVERY
Although he isn’t a naturally-
talented athlete, Waleed is a
hard worker. The fact that he
owns multiple businesses –
selling shocks and exhausts
for cars, demolishing buildings
and providing a fl eet of taxis
and shuttles – is proof of that.
Although Waleed includes
quality sessions, such as
endurance and recovery rides
of up to fi ve hours and interval
sessions on a Watt bike, he
trains for between 15 and 25
hours a week.
According to the head of
high performance at the Sports
Science Institute of South
Africa (SSISA) and cycling
coach at Science to Sport,
Dr Mike Posthumus, Waleed
tends to train more than he
should, and probably verges
on overdoing it occasionally –
especially bearing in mind his
external load, such as family
commitments and work.
“Masters-level riders, who
still work full time but wish to
be very competitive, would
struggle to tolerate constantly
training more than 12-15 hours
per week,” Dr Posthumus
says. “If Waleed is continually
training more than 20 hours
a week and not allowing
during the three to four months
leading up to the Epic, with
some 20-hour weeks thrown in.
The secret to Andrew Mclean’s
longevity is consistency.
“Living in a cycling house in
Flanders is not as romantic as it
sounds,” says Andrew’s friend of
20 years, Issy Zimmerman, who
has raced several Cape Town
Cycle Tours and 94.7s with the
athlete. “You cycle to events in
the rain, ride a further 200km
in the rain, and return home in
the same conditions. A lot of
athletes who Andrew competed
against back in the 90s, when
he was at his physical peak,
are nowhere now. But Andrew
dinner parties for friends.
Sometimes, this means he only
gets three to four hours of sleep.
“During deep sleep, human
growth hormone is released,
which helps you recover and
repair your muscles after
they’ve been broken down
during a training session,”
explains Dr Dale Rae, Manager
of the Sleep Science Unit at
the Sports Science Institute
and a Senior Researcher in
Chronobiology and Sleep Health
at the University of Cape Town.
“At night time, you’re only in
one environment, which means
your risk of infection is low and
your immune system has a
chance to regroup and release
white blood cells, ready to
attack viruses that invade your
body. If you haven’t had enough
sleep, your body hasn’t had a
chance to recover from physical
and mental fatigue, and you
probably feel sluggish and fi nd
it harder to generate the same
amount of power you would
usually feel comfortable with.”
BODY WEIGHT
Top: Waleed at the 2017 Cape
Epic where he nabbed a Masters
Category podium fi nish.
Above: With his mom, son, wife
and three grandchildren.
himself adequate recovery, he
won’t be able to train at the
intensity required for optimal
adaptations. Overtraining
may lead to stagnated levels
of performance, and even
decreased performance.”
Dr Posthumus says the best
approach is a periodised training
programme that focuses on high
volume during certain phases of
the season, and reduced volume
and increased intensity during
other phases.
In comparison, Rob Sim
averages 12-13 hours per week
is still competing in his age
category on the world stage, at
international-level events.”
Another important aspect
of training is recovery. All three
cyclists aren’t full-time pros:
they’re business- and family
men; and as they juggle these
commitments with an intense
training programme for the
Cape Epic, often the fi rst thing
to be compromised is sleep.
Case in point: Andrew gets
up at 03.45am to fi t training
in before he starts work, and
occasionally hosts late-night
Lance Armstrong once visited
South Africa and Waleed was
one of the mad guys who paid
to ride with him. Armstrong
told him that the best way to
improve his performance was to
lose weight.
Waleed is 1.63m tall and
weighs 55kg, but he believes
his ideal weight is 52kg. He
measures everything, from his
caloric intake to the types of
food he eats. He weighs himself
regularly – and if he discovers
he’s put on weight, he resorts
to drastic measures to lose it,
such as intermittent fasting,
which involves surviving on
water alone, every day, for a
week at a time, despite his high
training load. “I celebrated
Eid by indulging in traditional
Malay food at my mom’s house,”
Waleed says. “The following
morning, I sat on a Watt bike for
two hours and made sure I got
rid of it.”
amateur pros | MTB | 113