French professional cyclist Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is preparing for the race of her life at the Paris Olympics. Ferrand-Prévot, 32, shared a picture of herself wearing black and red cycling gear, taking a selfie in the sunshine. “Back at sea level 🙏🏻 Olympic race is around the corner, Sunday 28th 🙃 Prep has been so far so good, and can’t thanks enough all the people involved in it. ❤️ See you all in Paris 🫶🏻,” she captioned the post. Here’s what Ferrand-Prévot’s training and wellness regimen looks like.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CeqEC1oMWA7/?img_index=1Ferrand-Prévot focuses on strength-training exercises at the gym. “I started a muscle-building program this winter to strengthen my body and also to have more explosiveness in my legs when I race,” she told Red Bull. “This work will also allow me to recover better. The descents on the World Cup course today have more and more rock gardens and are also punctuated with jumps. The body has to be able to take all that in. I also do yoga and meditation, but that’s more in-season than out.”
Ferrand-Prévot is careful about her diet after being too restrictive in the past. “I talk with my trainer and he might say, ‘Ok, you have to lose two kilos, but not too fast’. He might say that I have to eat 2000 calories per day,” she told Pink Bike. “That’s pretty good, you can still lose weight with two thousand calories, but you will not lose two kilos in one month, it will take longer. It’s safer. For me, I found that if I weigh all my food and I put it on an app, then I have the number of calories I eat per day. Because I’m an extreme person. If my trainer told me to lose two kilos, I would lose it in a really short time, you know?”
Ferrand-Prévot is accustomed to the sacrifice it takes to be a professional athlete. “At 12, I was already beating girls who were three or four years older than me, so I think I was noticed,” she told Red Bull. “Adolescence is always a turning point for a young cyclist. It can be complicated. When your friends are doing something else to you on the weekends it can be hard. If you don’t have that passion and determination to ride bikes, you can quickly drop out and prefer to party rather than work out.”
Ferrand-Prévot continued training during the pandemic lockdowns. “For example, I do an intensity session on my home trainer in the morning, and then some core or TRX exercises — I’ll do a core training live on my Instagram account in the coming days,” she told Velo. “Feel free to follow me! And then later in the day I usually do an easier home trainer ride.”
Ferrand-Prévot admits she finds it hard to slow down. “I must admit that I find it difficult to stop sometimes,” she told Red Bull. “But I wouldn’t say I’m overtrained either. I love progressing, I know I’m a hard worker and I’m not afraid of hurting myself. I rarely do a day without any sport. Even if I’ve got days off, I still go out to ride for an hour or go on a short outing. At the very least, I have to get some fresh air. By staying home or being on the couch all day, I feel like I’m ruining my day. And it affects my morale.”