Another easy one this morning - cavendish and home via Langbar. A couple of hill reps when back in town.
It's funny how this is now an easy session - despite climbing about 400m before breakfast!
Thursday, 17 April 2008
Wednesday, 16 April 2008
Wednesday Cavendish ride
Easy ride out to cavendish, Storiths on the way back and then an extra 20 minute hill-reps whilst waiting for the train.
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Back to Cavendish, and training discussions
Back on my bike this morning - down to Cavendish and back. I actually felt ok - no signs of the hardship I had been suffering less than 48 hours earlier.
Picture of me taken on the ride by Digitalfeel:
During this morning's ride, and later in the day, there was some talk of the right training for competing in 6 hour + sportive rides.
My thoughts on it (taken from an email) follow:
For the first two things mentioned:
* To build strong muscles where they are needed - primarily legs, but also to a lesser extent core body fitness.
* Heart and lung fitness
I agree can be trained from short-term exercise. For muscle building to increase strength and power, you need to push the muscle fibres past their limits which then tiggers a response by the body for them to be repaired and their size and density increased. This can be achieved through exercise within our 1 hour timeslot.
Similarly, for heart and lung fitness, you can stress your heart (which is muscle) in the same way, and by pushing the limits of your cardiovascular system you can increase its efficiency as your body will adapt to cater for the demands. Again we can achieve this in our 1 hour slot.
However, it is the third of your list that is the issue:
* Stamina / endurance.
Looking at some basic physiology helps here. From wikipedia:
"Glycogen forms an energy reserve that can be quickly mobilized to meet a sudden need for glucose, but one that is less compact than the energy reserves of triglycerides (fat).
Glycogen debt and endurance exercise
Due to the body's inability to hold more than around 2,000 kcal of glycogen, long-distance athletes such as marathon runners, cross-country skiers, and cyclists go into glycogen debt, where almost all of the athlete's glycogen stores are depleted after long periods of exertion without enough energy consumption. This phenomenon is referred to as "hitting the wall" or "bonking". In marathon runners it normally happens around the 20 mile (32 km) point of a marathon, where around 100 kcal are spent per mile,[citation needed] depending on the size of the runner and the race course. However, it can be delayed by a carbohydrate loading before the task.
When experiencing glycogen debt, athletes often experience extreme fatigue to the point that it is difficult to move."
What we suffer in our longer rides is glycogen debt. This is the only things that slows us down as our bodies efficiencies in strength and heart/lungs abilities don't depreciate.
We start off with about 2,000 kcals, but I use about 500kcals per hour when cycling (about 800-1000 when running).
So after about 4 hours I am out of glycogen. Now I can supplement this by taking more food, but even with Clive's magic gels my body can only metabolise about 250 per hour.
So I can last about 6 hours overall.
This actually ties in with my riding (and running) experience. It is that 6-10 hour period where things go wrong.
So how can this be improved?
The body also uses fat reserves for energy. This process is a lot less efficient than glycogen use, but the body holds a lot of fat (enough for days of effort).
So the key is to train your body to use it's fat reserves more efficiently, and this can be done by forcing the body into glycogen debt and carry on exercising.
The best way is to ride for 6 hours plus, as this is similar to race conditions. But of course this is hard to find the time for, even on a Sunday.
The other way is to start with as little glycogen in reserve when you start.
This can be done, and has been done by runners, through this:
Evening: go for long steady run of 2 hours (or cycle 2-4 hours)
After: Eat nothing, but re-hydrate.
Sleep.
Morning. Don't eat again and go for another long ride/run.
The theory is that you then start in the morning with lowered glycogen reserves - perhaps as low as 500kcals. So after just 1 hour of cycling or 30 mins of running, you are in glycogen debt, simulating the point that a 6 hour ride would normally put you in.
This will be a tough session, of low speeds and hardship, but will train your body to burn fat efficiently. It also an amazing way of losing weight, albeit especially taxing.
So I am thinking of doing this once a week in the run up to the etape, especially as it's getting lighter in the evenings.
I'll do a 2 hour run or ride in the evening, no food, and then a long ride in the morning (probably a EB Cavendish Ride followed by Keighley Gate/Canal into Leeds). This morning ride will likely take me 3 hours, but will be simulating the period I will hit in the Etape and White Rose between 6 and 8 hours.
Clive didn't actually think that your body can be trained to use fat very much more than it does naturally, but this approach is used by Ironman triathletes and ultra-distance runners (or so the magazines say).
I could always do the Sunday ride on an empty stomach and take no food, but that would spoil the enjoyment of the group ride, and I may get dropped towards the end of it.
I think I'm going to start from next week. So my schedule will be:
Sun - 4-5 hour quality ride
Mon - easy EB 1 hr
Tuesday - EB hilly+ extra hill reps - 1.5 hr
Wednesday - EB fast + extra hill reps
Thursday - EB hilly (optional, maybe rest)
Thursday night - 2 hour run on moor
Friday am - EB easy + moor/canal to work (fat burner)
Sat rest.
The only modification to my current training plan is the evening/morning fat-burner combo.
I'll try and throw that session in as often as I can, but not more than once a week.
We'll see how it goes.
Picture of me taken on the ride by Digitalfeel:
During this morning's ride, and later in the day, there was some talk of the right training for competing in 6 hour + sportive rides.
My thoughts on it (taken from an email) follow:
For the first two things mentioned:
* To build strong muscles where they are needed - primarily legs, but also to a lesser extent core body fitness.
* Heart and lung fitness
I agree can be trained from short-term exercise. For muscle building to increase strength and power, you need to push the muscle fibres past their limits which then tiggers a response by the body for them to be repaired and their size and density increased. This can be achieved through exercise within our 1 hour timeslot.
Similarly, for heart and lung fitness, you can stress your heart (which is muscle) in the same way, and by pushing the limits of your cardiovascular system you can increase its efficiency as your body will adapt to cater for the demands. Again we can achieve this in our 1 hour slot.
However, it is the third of your list that is the issue:
* Stamina / endurance.
Looking at some basic physiology helps here. From wikipedia:
"Glycogen forms an energy reserve that can be quickly mobilized to meet a sudden need for glucose, but one that is less compact than the energy reserves of triglycerides (fat).
Glycogen debt and endurance exercise
Due to the body's inability to hold more than around 2,000 kcal of glycogen, long-distance athletes such as marathon runners, cross-country skiers, and cyclists go into glycogen debt, where almost all of the athlete's glycogen stores are depleted after long periods of exertion without enough energy consumption. This phenomenon is referred to as "hitting the wall" or "bonking". In marathon runners it normally happens around the 20 mile (32 km) point of a marathon, where around 100 kcal are spent per mile,[citation needed] depending on the size of the runner and the race course. However, it can be delayed by a carbohydrate loading before the task.
When experiencing glycogen debt, athletes often experience extreme fatigue to the point that it is difficult to move."
What we suffer in our longer rides is glycogen debt. This is the only things that slows us down as our bodies efficiencies in strength and heart/lungs abilities don't depreciate.
We start off with about 2,000 kcals, but I use about 500kcals per hour when cycling (about 800-1000 when running).
So after about 4 hours I am out of glycogen. Now I can supplement this by taking more food, but even with Clive's magic gels my body can only metabolise about 250 per hour.
So I can last about 6 hours overall.
This actually ties in with my riding (and running) experience. It is that 6-10 hour period where things go wrong.
So how can this be improved?
The body also uses fat reserves for energy. This process is a lot less efficient than glycogen use, but the body holds a lot of fat (enough for days of effort).
So the key is to train your body to use it's fat reserves more efficiently, and this can be done by forcing the body into glycogen debt and carry on exercising.
The best way is to ride for 6 hours plus, as this is similar to race conditions. But of course this is hard to find the time for, even on a Sunday.
The other way is to start with as little glycogen in reserve when you start.
This can be done, and has been done by runners, through this:
Evening: go for long steady run of 2 hours (or cycle 2-4 hours)
After: Eat nothing, but re-hydrate.
Sleep.
Morning. Don't eat again and go for another long ride/run.
The theory is that you then start in the morning with lowered glycogen reserves - perhaps as low as 500kcals. So after just 1 hour of cycling or 30 mins of running, you are in glycogen debt, simulating the point that a 6 hour ride would normally put you in.
This will be a tough session, of low speeds and hardship, but will train your body to burn fat efficiently. It also an amazing way of losing weight, albeit especially taxing.
So I am thinking of doing this once a week in the run up to the etape, especially as it's getting lighter in the evenings.
I'll do a 2 hour run or ride in the evening, no food, and then a long ride in the morning (probably a EB Cavendish Ride followed by Keighley Gate/Canal into Leeds). This morning ride will likely take me 3 hours, but will be simulating the period I will hit in the Etape and White Rose between 6 and 8 hours.
Clive didn't actually think that your body can be trained to use fat very much more than it does naturally, but this approach is used by Ironman triathletes and ultra-distance runners (or so the magazines say).
I could always do the Sunday ride on an empty stomach and take no food, but that would spoil the enjoyment of the group ride, and I may get dropped towards the end of it.
I think I'm going to start from next week. So my schedule will be:
Sun - 4-5 hour quality ride
Mon - easy EB 1 hr
Tuesday - EB hilly+ extra hill reps - 1.5 hr
Wednesday - EB fast + extra hill reps
Thursday - EB hilly (optional, maybe rest)
Thursday night - 2 hour run on moor
Friday am - EB easy + moor/canal to work (fat burner)
Sat rest.
The only modification to my current training plan is the evening/morning fat-burner combo.
I'll try and throw that session in as often as I can, but not more than once a week.
We'll see how it goes.
Monday, 14 April 2008
The Day After
Results are now out for yesterday's Lakeland Loop.
I was actually surprised how high up the field I came - 65th out of 301 finishers in 04h-56.
Given I struggled up the climbs, it implies that I went quite fast on the earlier sections and had nothing left for Hardknotts and Wrynose.
But as I said yesterday, I felt ok in myself, even whilst climbing - I just didn't seem to have the peak leg strength for those couple of minutes when I needed it.
I also felt like I was psychologically not in the game.
I normally embrace climbs - it is great to be staring at a road in the Alps and seeing the glints of cars all of the way to the top.
But yesterday when I saw Hardknotts, it just seemed TOO steep to climb. Maybe I convinced myself it was before I even started.
When I used to rock-climb, we often talked about our relationship with the rock. Some people saw it as their friend, it working for them, helping and coaxing them up. Offering them holds when they needed it and friction when it counted. A holistic relationship of love.
Others saw it as a battle - climber versus rock or ice. The climb is trying to prevent you from getting to the top and you must beat it into submission and claim your victory. I used to think of the Ali picture of him standing victorious and comtemptous over the fallen and beaten body of Sonny Liston.
I actually felt both feelings depending sometimes on the climb (I loved pocketed limstone and hated gritstone), but more often than not, my attitude was based on how I felt. And in fact how I was feeling about life in general.
So was I looking for love on Sunday when I should have been beating those climbs into submission? Alpine climbs at 7-10% that last for 25km have been long, pleasurable encounters for me. Short British climbs at 30% pehaps need a more Ali approach?
I was actually surprised how high up the field I came - 65th out of 301 finishers in 04h-56.
Given I struggled up the climbs, it implies that I went quite fast on the earlier sections and had nothing left for Hardknotts and Wrynose.
But as I said yesterday, I felt ok in myself, even whilst climbing - I just didn't seem to have the peak leg strength for those couple of minutes when I needed it.
I also felt like I was psychologically not in the game.
I normally embrace climbs - it is great to be staring at a road in the Alps and seeing the glints of cars all of the way to the top.
But yesterday when I saw Hardknotts, it just seemed TOO steep to climb. Maybe I convinced myself it was before I even started.
When I used to rock-climb, we often talked about our relationship with the rock. Some people saw it as their friend, it working for them, helping and coaxing them up. Offering them holds when they needed it and friction when it counted. A holistic relationship of love.
Others saw it as a battle - climber versus rock or ice. The climb is trying to prevent you from getting to the top and you must beat it into submission and claim your victory. I used to think of the Ali picture of him standing victorious and comtemptous over the fallen and beaten body of Sonny Liston.
I actually felt both feelings depending sometimes on the climb (I loved pocketed limstone and hated gritstone), but more often than not, my attitude was based on how I felt. And in fact how I was feeling about life in general.
So was I looking for love on Sunday when I should have been beating those climbs into submission? Alpine climbs at 7-10% that last for 25km have been long, pleasurable encounters for me. Short British climbs at 30% pehaps need a more Ali approach?
Sunday, 13 April 2008
Lakeland Loop
Today was my first sportive ride of the year – the Lakeland Loop. About 70 miles around the Lakes, with about 2,500m of climbing.
Obviously riding in the Lakes is generally tough, but in the spirit for the ever-increasingly popular sportive ride, this was intentionally hilly.
The sting in the tale were climbs over Hardknotts and Wrynose passes, were each rise to a stupidly steep 30% incline.
It was a glorious day – a beautiful spring morning. Five early-birds were travelling together and it was good fun in El Cid’s van. Sad cyclists’ talk of energy-bars, shaving our legs and gear ratios!
I felt good on the few early climbs but then did a fairly long stint on my own – I chose to take it quite easy as it was truly beautiful whizzing along the lakeside road.
The EBs caught me up and we rode together for a fair while, working well and getting a good pace going.
However, once I got to Hardknotts, the sheer sight of it did me. I chose to let the others go on and take a few minutes to enjoy the view (well, actually have a rest). I thought that this would then fortify me for what was going to be a tough climb. But my training had been going well, I was on my new lightweight bike and I was wearing my new white bling shoes. It should have been easy!
But for reasons I still don’t quite understand – I was defeated. I had to stop two further times going up Hardknotts, and again near the top of Wrynose. I just didn’t seem to have the leg strength to be able to push the pedals on the very steepest sections. My heart and lungs seemed fine, I was not full of lactic acid and I had eaten well - it just felt like I didn't (or ever could) have the leg strength to get myself up there.
So it was a great ride and wonderful experience, but I was disappointed with my overall performance.
I had hoped to do all climbs without having to stop on them, and I was expecting to get round quicker than my early-bird buddies (in fact I came 4th out of the 5 of us).
Cacophony did a great ride, getting up the climbs and finishing 5 minutes or so ahead of me. He of course is a great rider with a lot of experience, but he is 7 years older than me and 3 stone heavier! On any sprint or flat section he could leave me for dead, but on climbs I should be ahead of him.
Well done Cacophony! Chapeau!
Also riding well is a new cycling buddy called Roentgen who, beat us all with a fair bit to spare.
Two other friends had interesting rides - Stefan's bike broke on the first climb and I think he retired, Bob stopped to fix a friend's puncture, later managed to fall off at high speed but of course still breezed up the climbs.
More analysis tomorrow.
Obviously riding in the Lakes is generally tough, but in the spirit for the ever-increasingly popular sportive ride, this was intentionally hilly.
The sting in the tale were climbs over Hardknotts and Wrynose passes, were each rise to a stupidly steep 30% incline.
It was a glorious day – a beautiful spring morning. Five early-birds were travelling together and it was good fun in El Cid’s van. Sad cyclists’ talk of energy-bars, shaving our legs and gear ratios!
I felt good on the few early climbs but then did a fairly long stint on my own – I chose to take it quite easy as it was truly beautiful whizzing along the lakeside road.
The EBs caught me up and we rode together for a fair while, working well and getting a good pace going.
However, once I got to Hardknotts, the sheer sight of it did me. I chose to let the others go on and take a few minutes to enjoy the view (well, actually have a rest). I thought that this would then fortify me for what was going to be a tough climb. But my training had been going well, I was on my new lightweight bike and I was wearing my new white bling shoes. It should have been easy!
But for reasons I still don’t quite understand – I was defeated. I had to stop two further times going up Hardknotts, and again near the top of Wrynose. I just didn’t seem to have the leg strength to be able to push the pedals on the very steepest sections. My heart and lungs seemed fine, I was not full of lactic acid and I had eaten well - it just felt like I didn't (or ever could) have the leg strength to get myself up there.
So it was a great ride and wonderful experience, but I was disappointed with my overall performance.
I had hoped to do all climbs without having to stop on them, and I was expecting to get round quicker than my early-bird buddies (in fact I came 4th out of the 5 of us).
Cacophony did a great ride, getting up the climbs and finishing 5 minutes or so ahead of me. He of course is a great rider with a lot of experience, but he is 7 years older than me and 3 stone heavier! On any sprint or flat section he could leave me for dead, but on climbs I should be ahead of him.
Well done Cacophony! Chapeau!
Also riding well is a new cycling buddy called Roentgen who, beat us all with a fair bit to spare.
Two other friends had interesting rides - Stefan's bike broke on the first climb and I think he retired, Bob stopped to fix a friend's puncture, later managed to fall off at high speed but of course still breezed up the climbs.
More analysis tomorrow.
Saturday, 12 April 2008
Pre-Race Prep
A rest day yesterday, and today perhaps best not described as rest but at least an easy day.
We had the in-laws up for the weekend, so Mrs Gizzajob and I made the most of the on-hand babysitters. My dear wife has just started running again, so we went for a very pleasant 6 mile run at an easy pace.
This evening we went out for a few drinks and dinner at a local hostelry. I was probably best having an alcohol-free day and an early night but it was great to get out for a few hours.
We had the in-laws up for the weekend, so Mrs Gizzajob and I made the most of the on-hand babysitters. My dear wife has just started running again, so we went for a very pleasant 6 mile run at an easy pace.
This evening we went out for a few drinks and dinner at a local hostelry. I was probably best having an alcohol-free day and an early night but it was great to get out for a few hours.
Thursday, 10 April 2008
Turner's Lane
Nice ride this morning. Addingham and Turner's Lane. Quite a long hilly ride but we we did it in less than an hour which is quite a pace. Poor old El Cid was struggling and went back early - he was accusing me of giving him one of the gizzajob viruses but I'm not sure.
It is the Hell of the North on Sunday - both the Paris-Roubaix and the Lakeland Loop!
It is the Hell of the North on Sunday - both the Paris-Roubaix and the Lakeland Loop!
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