Post Number 10: Rubber Cranks and 1RM's

Cycling Update

Eight days have rolled by since last I posted... Unfortunately, the days were pretty much the only thing rolling! A quick check of my Strava feed shows just 4.5 hours of training and a mere 80 miles... Not quite what I was intending! Overall, it looks like I am going to fail dismally on my cycling goal of clocking up 30 hours riding in January! Hitting if I'm lucky 21-24 hours. 

If I'm being honest, I am slightly disappointed by this. I've probably had more opportunities to get out than I have taken. I could have got up earlier on a number of days and added some hours. I could have ignored the decidedly damp environment and 'mtfu'd'! I have though, made the most of the rides that I have managed to do - so I have to be positive about that. There is no point beating myself up too much. Certainly though, I am going to 'try harder' in February!

Interestingly (to me at least), I did have an opportunity yesterday to see exactly how poor my cycling fitness still is... and it's fair to say I surprised myself! The following is an account of my experience on the Wrekinsport Reliability 2014:

The fantastic Wrekinsport Cycling Club organise a reliability ride that covers 60 miles. The route covers some fairly flat roads from Wellington Leisure Centre near Telford to Market Drayton, Audlem, Whitchurch, Wem and back to Wellington.

As I cycled into the leisure centre car park for the 'signing on', the first riders I bumped into were Andy Tennant (GB Team Pursuit squad member) and Jason Meyer (local hardman renowned for his relentless pace on every ride). I wasn't exactly filled with glee at the prospect of these two nutters setting the pace for my untrained legs to follow. However, the more stubborn side to my personality went into denial. 'It'll be ok' I thought. 'I've hung on in the past - today will be no different!'. I'm sure that at one point I even had the notion that I could probably get around the course without going too 'anaerobic' (you may remember that I'm trying not to go anaerobic so that I can get a higher volume of training in). It really does astound me that after all these years of suffering on wheels, I can still sell myself an idea that is blatantly not true! Not only that, I can even take the big-fat-kidding of myself to the next level...

The next level of denial started pretty soon into the ride. We started pedalling at 9.30am. At around 9.35, with 58 miles to go out of 60, I found myself a fair way off the front of the bunch, cruising at around 27mph. This could have been considered a 'lone attack'. Except I then remembered that I didn't know the route, so I waited for the group to catch me up. 'Don't be silly' I thought, 'You don't know the way and there's a long way to go'. Sound advice. Which I adhered to for around 2 more miles, before I hit the front again. 

At this point, the legs were feeling fantastic (20 mph tailwind may have had a role to play in this!). So I stoked the fire a bit and gained a small gap - hoping that 2 or 3 other riders would catch me up and that together we would ride a glorious ride to the finish at an average speed of 25mph. It didn't happen though. I still didn't know the way, so sat up again having used up calories I probably couldn't afford!

Things settled down on the ride for a few miles, until, at the 22 mile mark, a black shadow passed up the outside of the bunch. A quick check of the Garmin showed a speed of 29mph at that point. A normal reaction when you see someone floating up a bunch is to add just a bit of effort, so that when the rider goes 'off the front' and the elastic bunch gets stretched, you're not the rider to snap. So I pressed on the pedals and got to 32 mph. The black shadow (no prizes for guessing who) then duly rode off the front of the bunch. Still in my state of denial, I focused a bit more power through the cranks. 'Easy' I thought. A weird thing happened though - the carbon fibre cranks that have served me so well for the last 2 seasons... well, they turned to rubber. I seemed to lose all control of my pedalling style and absolutely no extra power was coming out the other end. This didn't seem right to me, so I took a moment behind a passing car to take stock of the situation. 

As the passing car sped up to overtake the newly formed lead group of four riders, I attempted to hang in it's slipstream - a bit of a cheat to bridge the ever growing gap - but acceptable in such circumstances. Once again, I diverted all my efforts into my legs. My brain stopped functioning, I got a 'pins and needles' in my arms where they were being starved of blood, the car in front even started to look like a 'ghost car' as the fog of complete exhaustion clouded over me. All of this happened to my body and yet there was no extra speed to show for it, in fact, I was slowing up a fair bit. The game was up!

The realisation that I hadn't 'made the cut' was a game changer for me. From that point on, all I wanted to do was survive to the end of the ride. Which, with the aid of a small bunch that formed at about 30 miles to go did actually happen! It's a shame that I didn't play the 'survival' game from mile 1... Perhaps next time! My group (dwindled down to just 2 riders by the finish), eventually finished somewhere around 15 minutes after the leaders. 

At the conclusion of the ride, it's fair to say that I was scraping the bottom of the calorie barrel. Even 2 bottles of sugar and a gel didn't last to the finish. Just as well then that the lovely Organisers from the Wrekinsport club were selling homemade lemon drizzle cake for just 50p! 2 slabs later and I was pedalling the 2.5 miles home to more tea and mackerel on toast (my top tip for a protein rich post exercise meal). More on nutrition strategies in the next blog!

Overall conclusion - well, I had good speed, just poor endurance. But for me, that's normal at this time of year. Strength training in winter tends to give you a speed advantage over other riders as you can 'muscle' the pedals round with that bit more force than someone who's just been clocking up big miles. Of course, nothing builds endurance and pedalling efficiency like long rides, so that's something I hope to see progression in over the next month or two.

Strength Training Update

This bit is a slightly shorter ramble! I didn't actually do that much strength training last week. I did though, complete my one rep max deadlift test. I managed 145kgs. As a fairly lanky ectomorph, I'm pretty happy with that!

This week, I'll be back on it - but starting on Tues not Monday (ran out of time today). I'll post on here a short video clip to show correct deadlift technique - mainly because a national cycling magazine has published an article about strength training for cyclists - and has managed to confuse a 'deadlift' for a 'bent over row'. Hopefully, at least just a few readers of that magazine will read this and not make the same error!

Cyclists Fighting Cancer

Finally, if you are reading this blog as a supporter of Cyclists Fighting Cancer, then thanks for clicking on Mike's email link and tuning in! This September, I'll be riding the Raid Pyrenean with Mike and around 18 other cyclists of varying abilities. I'll be using this blog to document my riding, offer training advice and give cycling tips - and I'm happy to answer questions, so please feel free to subscribe and share! The more people you share this blog with, the more people will become aware of the charity - especially as we get nearer to the event, when my 'coverage of the charity' will inevitably increase!

Stay Safe,

Paul

Post Number 6: Stronger Together

Only a shortish blog tonight (although I realise I have a tendency to ramble!)... Mainly because I have zero energy left after training earlier. There's two main reasons why I have no energy - and they are the two culprits below left! 

You see, tonight I trained with my friends and colleagues Tom and Pom. No, they don't do a comedy double act despite their similar names (unless you include their current attempts at growing beards as comedy). As you can see from the pic' above, they're not cyclists... 'So why train with them?' I hear you ask.  Well, two reasons:

Reason 1

Training with mates is motivational. Not only does it push you to lift that extra weight or rep (or if you're on the bike, ride the extra mile), but it also gets you out and training in the first place. I can guarantee that tonight I wouldn't have made the training session without them pestering me on our 'group text'. Nor would I have lifted as much as I did, or focused on my technique. All in, they were good value to me tonight! (Thanks lads!).

Reason 2

Despite them being football and rugby players, the basic movements of their sports share many of the same features as cycling. Therefore, the exercises we do can benefit all of our sports. 

The primary movement in almost every sport, is often referred to as 'Triple Extension'. Triple extension, in a nutshell, involves the extension (opening up) of the ankle, knee and hip joints. If we want to generate as much power as possible, then we have to be able to extend the hip' knee and ankle as fast and efficiently as possible. That means practising this movement repeatedly to train our muscular timing and muscle fibre recruitment. If we can 'time'our muscle contractions to work together perfectly and 'recruit' as many muscle fibres as possible, then we will be able to generate an awful lot of force which we could use for jumping, sprinting, pushing opponents, or... pushing pedals around in circles. 

The Gluteals, Hamstrings, Quadriceps and muscles of the lower leg; Tibialis Anterior, Gastrocnemius and Soleus all have a role to play in Triple Extension, so tonight we used the Deadlift and Clean exercises to develop strength, fibre recruitment and muscular timing.

Training Triple Extension of course, can be done on the bike... but training muscular timing and recruitment is generally thought to work best when high forces are involved. High forces are possible on a bike of course (grind up a hill in a big gear at low revs per minute). But... tonight it was dark, wet and windy... and... the forces that I can generate with an Olympic bar on my back are an awful lot more than what is possible if I push pedals around - even up a big hill (push too hard and you'll either just lift your bum off the saddle or fall off!). 

Now some of you might be thinking 'Yeah, but is any of that going to cross over to cycling?'. Well, in my opinion, yes. That's why track cyclists do it. I hear your next question... 'Yeah but what about endurance cycling?'. Well, Think of this analogy:

There are two identical twins - they both weigh exactly the same and genetically are identical. However, one of the identical twins can squat a heavier weight (twice his bodyweight) than his brother (he can only lift 1.5 times his bodyweight). This is because the first twin has been doing strength training.

Question - If both twins were asked to do 100 bodyweight squats (an endurance activity if ever there was one and nowhere near either twin's maximum lift), who would get tired first? You can write your answers below as comments if you like! I'll give you my (and the strength and conditioning community's) answer in the next blog!

So, that was tonight. Oh yes, with one other thing. Tonight a young impressionable cyclist named 'Todd' trained with us. Fingers crossed, he has felt the benefits of group training tonight! I guess we'll see on Wednesday, when our next session is due! 

Our programme by the way, if you hadn't noticed is now in the top right hand corner of this blog. As it changes, I'll keep you updated!

Paul

Post Number 3: Macrocycle, Mesocycle 1 and an Iphone Tip!

So then, the Master Plan! Macrocycle Jan Cycling endurance / Leg strength Feb Cycling endurance / Leg strength March Cycling specific strength + endurance April Cycling specific strength + speed work May Cycling speed work June Competition July Competition Aug Cycling specific strength + speed work Sept Competition A bit more detail on the first phase of this programme... Mesocycle One Cycling Training January’s cycling training will be trying to fit in as many hours as life allows on the bike in order to build up my endurance. I start back at work on 13th Jan so will aim to get five big rides of 5 hours or more in over, during and after Christmas. There are also group evening rides on a Tues and Thurs night which I will try to ride to add in some extra hours. I actually started this mesocycle* of training 2 days ago (the day of my last blog). The ride was also significant for two other reasons – Firstly, it showed how much fitness I have lost since the Summer and also because on it, I discovered that when wearing gloves, Iphone cameras can be operated with your tongue! With a bit of luck, my monthly total of time on the bike will be around 30 hours (not much by most people’s standards, but realistic for me (Think SMART goals – better to under promise and over deliver to keep motivation high!). The intensity of these rides will be low – as much because my legs will be sore from the strength training I’ll be doing as from the requirement to keep intensity low so that I can ride more frequently. There are certain variables that you can change in training to adapt your training to suit you. These are Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type (of exercise). Generally, if one goes up, another must come down to compensate –though if you’re not doing much training then perhaps all of them could be upped! Of course, I’ll add in a small amount of harder stuff every so often (in the form of Strava KOM’s!), purely so that my body doesn’t fall into a ‘lazy state’ due to it not being challenged very much! *A Mesocycle is a period of training time that has a specific goal attached to it. They usually are 5-6 weeks in duration (the average time it takes to see an adaptation in the body), but could be shorter or longer depending on what you're doing. This mesocycle for me will be a bit longer as endurance takes a while to acquire! Strength Training I love strength training almost as much as cycling itself – it’s frustrating though that the two don’t always work in synergy with one another! I tend to gain a fair bit of upper body bulk, which isn’t ideal for lugging up hills on a bike. However, I do like the fact that I’m not the average weedy cyclist! There are many benefits to strength training that you won’t get by riding a bike and for me, these offset the downsides… I'm lucky enough to have my own mini gym in my garage... the Olympic bar and squat rack are definitely going to be important to me this winter! My strength training actually started back in October – doing endurance based stuff. This general conditioning phase has strengthened the muscles around my back and also added flexibility to my joints. Therefore January’s strength programme can be fairly advanced. So in January, I’ll mainly be doing 5 sets of 5 reps of each exercise with a heavy load on (close to my maximum lift). In a nutshell, this means that I’ll gain strength through increased muscular coordination, rather than by building bigger muscles (muscles tend to grow most - hypertrophy, with slightly higher rep ranges and lighter loads). The overall effect of this training should be increased strength but no extra bodyweight (I hope!). High resistance / low rep training has been shown to cause ‘neural fatigue’ after a few weeks – this causes you to start losing strength, so I’ll be sure to look out for the tell-tale signs (no improvement or even reduction in amount lifted). My next blog will have the exact strength programme I’m doing contained in it. (I toyed with the idea of not giving my ‘secret recipe’ away, but figure that’s probably not the point of writing a blog like this!). January Goals To keep me entertained and because you only live once, I’m making more of an effort to get ‘out and about’. Every month I’m trying to ride somewhere I don’t normally visit. In January I’m aiming for North Wales and the Peak District. Another goal in this period is for me to improve my diet and lose an inch or so from my waistline! I’ll be focusing on eating less refined food and more fruit and veg. I’ll also be aiming to feel hungry a little more often than I currently do! Let’s face it, unless I feel hungry at some point, I’m not going to lose the ‘back butter’ and ‘belly jelly’ that I’ve been slowly gaining since Harry came along 2.5 yrs ago! I’m actually going to go the lengths of weighing and measuring bodyfat (skinfold calliper method). I’ll also take some circumferential measurements as a record. By the way, first impressions on how this blog writing is working for me are good... I've already done 2 workouts I wouldn't have bothered doing normally! Paul