Cyclesport Coaching

Don't Train on an Empty Stomach - Here's Why

2010-09-08T13:06:00.001-07:00

I've read recently in a couple of different articles where people are recommending riding before breakfast to force themselves to burn more fat. There are two problems with this approach and I'll discuss them in this article. But first, let's look at how the body produces energy. At all times, your body is burning both fat and sugars along with a minimal amount of protein. Your body only burns sugar in the form of glucose, which is derived from dietary carbohydrates (starches, sugars). However, the proportion of the contribution of fat and sugar to your overall energy varies with the intensity of your activity. When you are at rest, you produce a majority of your energy from the burning of fat. When you start becoming more active, you begin burning more sugar for energy. When you are riding your bike at an easy to medium pace, you are generating calories in approximately equal proportion from fat and sugar. As you pick up the pace, you begin obtaining a higher proportion of energy from sugar and a lower proportion of calories from fat. There is a general belief that to burn body fat, you must keep intensity down to keep the proportion of fat calories up. However, the fallacy of this is that proportions don't burn fat, the absolute amount of calories you burn versus consume is what will trim body fat. To lose fat most effectively, you should burn as many calories as possible and cut back on eating. It doesn't really matter if you burn fat or sugar during exercise, if you burn more calories from any source than you consume, the net result is your body will eat into its own fat stores over time.

There is also the fallacy that riding with low sugar reserves will force your body to burn more fat. Here's what happens when you train on an empty stomach. Let's say you get up in the morning and head out for a ride before eating anything. You body's reserves of sugar is already somewhat depleted from your night's fasting since dinner the evening before. Your body can store about 2000 calories worth of sugar as glucose and glycogen. These are found in your blood, muscles and liver. As you train with depleted sugar reserves, if you ride hard enough or far enough, you will completely deplete your sugar supplies. When this happens, marathoners call it 'hitting the wall', whereas cyclists, because we are cool, have a better name for it: "bonking". When you bonk, you have depleted your blood sugar and body's reserves of glycogen. Your body needs to have some glucose at all times to function, namely your brain. So when you deplete your stores, your body has to manufacture it. The way it does this is by breaking down protein, from your muscle tissue, into amino acids which it can then convert to glucose, using a process called gluconeogenesis. Doing this is destructive to your hard-earned muscle tissue, but it is a survival mechanism to keep your brain, and therefore your body functioning in the absence of adequate dietary glucose.

Another thing happens when you bonk. You are forced to rely almost completely on fat metabolism to generate your energy needed to keep moving. Fat releases a large amount of energy and your body has tens of thousands of stored calories as fat. But the downside is fat metabolism is slow and cannot keep up with the demands of vigorous exercise, so you are forced to slow down. If you have ever bonked, you know this feeling. You become lethargic quite suddenly and it is all you can do to get home from a ride. Not a pleasant experience. In addition, although you are relying to a high degree on fat burning when bonking, your total calorie expenditure goes way down due to the slow nature of calorie release. So if you are trying to lose weight by riding without eating first, it turns out to be a bad idea. Let's say you typically burn 600 calories per hour of moderately intense riding. If you bonk halfway through your ride, you may be reduced to burning 150 calories during the last half hour, so you end up burning only 450 calories during this ride, not to mention having a fairly unpleasant half hour of riding as well, and burning up your precious muscle tissue in the process.

Also, if you are trying to train to improve your cycling performance, you need to train at an intense level. There's no way you can do this with depleted sugar reserves. You need to have adequate sugar in your body to make it through a productive and hard training session.

You would be better off eating enough prior to your ride so you avoid the dreaded bonk and are able to maintain a vigorous pace during the entire ride. You will end up burning more calories during the ride, some more following the ride due to EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption), and you save burning muscle tissue for energy. You are much better off eating enough to have a good ride where you will be able to enjoyably burn a lot of calories, then trying to ride in a sugar-depleted state and ending up burning less overall calories and consuming muscle tissue for fuel.

If you are trying to lose body fat, cycling is a great way to do it. But make sure you are eating some carbohydrates prior to your rides to have ample energy to have a good, energetic ride, and eat some carbohydrate and protein following your rides for refueling and recovery. Then cut back on eating at other times of the day to create an overall calorie deficit. Cutting back on eating prior to a ride is not the best way to lose fat and maintain lean body mass.

All the best in training, eating and fat burning,

Coach David Ertl

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David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and NSCA Certified Personal Trainer. He coaches individuals interested in improving on their current cycling ability, whatever level that may be. He is the author of '101 Cycling Workouts' and provides cycling training plans and ebooks at his website: http://www.cyclesportcoaching.com/

He can be contacted at Coach@Cyclesportcoaching.com

Don't Be a Pain in the Rear

2010-06-16T12:17:00.001-07:00

Don't be a pain in the rear

(This is my most recent blog on www.RAGBRAI.com) The most common comment I hear from people who do RAGBRAI is not that their legs hurt but that their seat/bottom/derriere/buttocks hurts. One of the most important reasons for training prior to riding RAGBRAI is to make sure your seat is prepared for hours in your bike saddle. With even moderate training, your legs should be able to make the entire ride without too much difficulty as long as you pace yourself. But there is no getting around the fact that when riding 50-100 miles per day, you will be sitting on your bike saddle for several hours a day. Several things can happen when your seat is not trained properly. You may notice soreness under your sit bones after a long ride. This usually goes away fairly quickly. The next thing that may happen is chaffing where your seat and legs rub from pedaling. The worst thing that can happen is development of saddle sores. These can keep you off your bike and ruin your RAGBRAI. Here are some suggestions for avoid being a pain in the rear.

First, you should wear cycling shorts. These are designed to provide padding to your tender nether region. The padding also helps absorb perspiration to avoid chaffing and development of saddle sores. TIP: DO NOT WEAR UNDERWEAR UNDER YOUR CYCLING SHORTS. Cycling shorts are designed be worn directly against the skin. Underwear adds another layer of clothing that can rub and chafe, and even worse, has seams which can irritate your skin. If you don't like wearing tight fitting Lycra shorts, there are different types of riding shorts, including baggy shorts. But they all have an inner lining with a chamois (pronounced 'shammy'). In the olden days, shorts came with real leather chamois, but modern shorts have synthetic ones which provide more padding and are easier to clean and maintain. But they are still called chamois. For a ride like RAGBRAI, you will want at least two pairs of cycling shorts, probably more. The reason being that after each day you need to wash your shorts. Due to the humid and sometimes rainy weather that occurs in Iowa in July, you can't always count on your shorts drying overnight. So bring an extra pair or two so you always have a clean and dry pair available. What's wrong with putting on wet shorts? It's not pleasant to put on a pair of cold wet shorts first thing in the morning and it also subjects your groin area to moisture right off the bat and may never dry out during the day.

Second, ride a lot. Spend a lot of time sitting on your bike saddle. As mentioned above, this isn't just about training your legs, it's training your seat. In many cases, it's more about training your seat. Gradually build up to longer rides. Doing a lot of riding all at once can irritate your tender seat skin. By gradually building up to longer miles, you will gradually toughen your skin. This is a great reason for riding year round by the way. You maintain your toughened seat skin and don't have to retrain it each spring.

Third, to avoid chaffing, there are commercial products available that you can use to apply to your skin where it contacts the chamois of your shorts. There are several brands with rather interesting names such as Chamois Butt'r, Assos Chamois Cream, DZNUTS, Friction Freedom, and Ride EZ Chamois Cream from right here in Urbandale Iowa. Wipe a thin layer on your skin in your groin area prior to your ride to help provide a smoother ride.

Fourth, keep your groin area as clean and dry as possible to avoid the dreaded saddle sore. Saddle sores are infections in your skin around your seat area. These are caused by bacteria getting into your skin and not being cleaned promptly or thoroughly. These become infected and are usually right under your sit bones where you put pressure on your saddle. These are extremely uncomfortable and can make it impossible to ride. Saddle sores are so painful they can cause a Tour de France rider to quit the race. Prevention is definitely the best defense. Make sure you wear clean shorts every day. Wash your shorts after each day. Either bring along a little container of laundry detergent or you can also use shampoo in a pinch. Just hand wash in a sink, wring and hang out to dry inside out in the sun if possible. TIP: make sure you rinse thoroughly. If it rains and you haven't rinsed well, your shorts will start foaming. Watch for this on other riders on rainy days! You also need to clean your own skin thoroughly and quickly after each ride. The worst thing you can do is spend the rest of the day in your dirty, wet shorts after you finish your ride. Shower and change as quickly as possible after you finish riding. Bacteria love warmth and moisture, exactly the conditions in your shorts after a ride. When you take a shower be sure to thoroughly clean your groin area. If you can't shower right away here's another great tip that I use. Bring some individually wrapped wipes and wipe your groin area clean when changing into street clothes. I use Preparation H Portable Wipes that come in individual packets. You can find these at your local drug store. If you don't have these wipes, you can also use hand sanitizer such as Purell. I suggest you keep a small bottle of it with your bike gear at all times.

Ride on with a comfy bottom Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 coach, NSCA personal trainer and author of "101 Cycling Workouts". He offers personal coaching and customized training plans, and offers book, training plans and free articles at www.CyclesportCoaching.com

Great way to spice up your rides

2010-05-27T12:01:00.001-07:00

Interval training is a great way to not only improve your speed on a bike, but may also improve your endurance. Here's a great way to improve your cycling speed and fitness. Throw in some all-out intervals lasting about 1 minute into your rides. If you don't have much time, warm up for 10 minutes, then do an interval for one minute and then spin easily for two minutes. Do seven of these intervals and cool down. On longer rides, you can throw in one of these super hard intervals every five or 10 minutes. You will be breathing hard at the end of the minute interval but because these are short, they will only momentarily wipe you out, but you will recover quickly. If on a long ride, you get 10 of these intervals slipped into your ride, that's 10 minutes of very hard riding you've done. Do these a couple times a week and you should notice an improvement.

If you have a power meter, select a power that you think you can hold for about a minute. Start your interval and try to hold it a few watts higher than your target. As you start to get tired, your sustainable watts will drop below your target and its time to stop that interval. If you don't have a power meter, do your intervals by feel. For the first 30 seconds it won't be too bad but then your legs will start to burn and your pace will become increasingly difficult to hold. Once you note your cadence dropping, its time to stop the interval.

As with all intense exercise, you need to make sure you are healthy enough to do intervals. Check with your doc before adding intense intervals to your workout to make sure your body is up to it.

Coach David Ertl

New Meaning for the Term "Feed Zone"

2010-05-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

Why I don't believe Lance dopes

2010-05-20T20:46:00.000-07:00

With Floyd Landis' confession today that he used performance enhancing drugs extensively throughout his career has really made me re-evaluate my thinking of drugs in cycling. I've always given the cyclists the benefit of doubt when they come up testing positive. You know, innocent until proven guilty. I really wanted to believe that Tyler was falsely accused until his second positive test and eventual confession. I wanted to believe Floyd was clean and just a victim of intentional or unintentional testing errors. But that was proven incorrect today. (His said he used testosterone but not during 2006 when he tested positive for it, so that test is still suspect but doesn't that matter any more) In Landis' confession, he is also trying to drag down several other high profile cyclists such as George Hincapie and Lance Armstrong. At this point, I just don't know what to believe. Floyd is now a confessed liar. So you don't what to believe from him anymore. But I have trouble believing that Lance does performance enhancing drugs and here's why. First of all, he is the most tested athlete on the planet and has never had a positive test, false or not. Maybe he's lucky or maybe he's good or just maybe he's clean. Secondly, after all Lance has been through with his cancer and almost dying, why would he take any chances with his health? Thirdly Lance is an exceptional athlete, gifted with exceptional physiological abilities and an incredible work ethic, combined with an incredible desire to train and to win. I believe he has achieved what he has through these features and didn't need assistance from drugs. Fourth, and most importantly, can you imagine what a positive test would do for his Lance Armstrong Foundation? He has come out of retirement to give his foundation a kick in the rear, to raise it's profile once again. While I think he came out of retirement in large part because he missed the competition and missed being in the spotlight, I do believe he wants to bring attention to cancer and his foundation. He has all the money he needs to live a very comfortable life. He didn't have to come out of retirement. He's done everything in cycling he needs to do to ensure his place in history. Will one more Tour de France victory really prove anything more? But his Foundation is his other legacy. Why risk losing that for one positive drug test? I personally thought it was very risky to come out of retirement for that very fact. One false positive and his Foundation takes a huge hit, perhaps irrecoverable. With all the testing he undergoes, a false positive is a real possibility. If he does use performance enhancing drugs, a real positive test is even more likely. I was wrong with Tyler and Floyd, and maybe I'll be wrong about Lance. But for all the cancer victims around the world, I sure hope not.

Coach David Ertl, eternal optimist

Pulling Through the Bottom of your Pedal Stroke

2010-05-12T14:55:00.001-07:00

In my last post, I discussed the concept of pushing over the top of your pedal stroke to smooth it out. Likewise, you can also pull through the bottom of the pedal stroke. These two actions in combination will really allow you to pedal in circles. As I discussed last time, because the saddle is located behind the bottom bracket, the knee is fully extended about at the 5 o'clock position of the pedal stroke (as viewed from the right side of the bike). Once your foot passes 5 o'clock, the knee begins to bend, or flex, and the foot comes back. The knee continues to flex until the 11 o'clock position. The hamstring muscles are responsible for flexing the knee. Consciously flex the hamstrings while riding to get a more forceful rearward and upward pedal stroke through the bottom and upstroke of the pedal stroke.

When you start to pull back on the pedals with your feet, I've heard it described as a similar action to 'scraping the mud off the bottom of your shoe". Pull down and back with the foot as it is coming through the bottom of the pedal stroke. This will not only give you a little boost through the bottom of the pedal stroke, but will also help unweight the foot as it goes up through the back stroke.

If you can combine pushing across the top of the pedal stroke with pulling through the bottom, you will notice your speed increases. The next time you are riding, consciously think about pushing forward and pulling backwards. I think you will notice your speed increasing by a half to a full MPH.

Coach David Ertl, smooth pedaler

Push over the top on your pedal stroke

2010-05-06T12:42:00.000-07:00

The inventors of the bicycle did something pretty neat and I don't know if they knew it at the time or not. What they did was to put the saddle behind the bottom bracket. So what? What this does is allows the knee extensor muscles (the quadriceps or 'quads') to begin their work before the pedal is going down. If you watch the leg of a cyclist, you will see that the knee reaches its maximum bend, or flexion, before the foot reaches the top of the pedal stroke. So if the pedal stroke is viewed as as clock, and the top is 12 o'clock, then the maximum knee bend occurs about at 11 o'clock. At that point the knee begins to extend forward across the top of the pedal stroke all the way around to until about the 5 o'clock position at which time the knee begins to flex backwards.

By beginning to apply pressure to the foot during the forward movement of the foot across the top of the pedal stroke, it helps smooth out your pedal stroke. You main power stroke is the downstroke, where your quads and glutes (your butt) muscles are in full play and powerfully pushing down on the pedals. If you only push down with each leg, you will have a choppy pedal stroke. If you also push across the top of the pedal stroke with your foot, you will instantly notice that you have a smoother pedal stroke. The force is more even applied throughout the pedal stroke.

So the next time you are riding, consciously think about pushing the foot forward starting at the 11 o'clock position, with each leg. Don't wait until your foot is beginning to move down to start using your quads. Get the full use of them and start to push and extend the knee from the 11 o'clock position. I think you will be surprised at how this smooths out your pedal stroke.

If bicycle builders had put the saddle directly over the top of the bottom bracket, you wouldn't be able to push across the top of the stroke. Your knee would be at its maximum flexion at the very top of the pedal stroke. All you could do would be to push down. Notice the pedal stroke of a unicyclist the next time you see one. I think you'll notice a fairly choppy pedal stroke because all they can do is push down with each leg.

Coach David Ertl, smooth pedaler

Recovery Works!

2010-05-05T13:22:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I wrote about the need to take more than one day easy after a hard ride or race, if you are not recovery very quickly. I wanted to let you know I practiced what I preached and tell you the outcome. Last week, I rode hard on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. By Saturday my legs were very tired and I was not able to complete my interval workout because I couldn't sustain my threshold power any longer. Due to other activities, I did not ride on either Sunday or Monday. Last night (Tuesday) I did our team training ride and there was no stopping me. My legs pushed whenever I told them to push. They didn't scream at me and I got stronger as the ride went along. These are fun and satisfying rides when they happen. I attribute it to the fact that I had two days off. Normally I recommend active recovery with easy spinning on recovery days but I didn't even do that. So when my legs start to feel tired, I will take it easy for two days and see if I can bounce back.

It's no fun training tired all the time, once in a while is okay, but not all the time. Be sure to fully recover at least once a week. If you are fresh, you can put out a great effort and build your fitness. If you are tired, you won't be able to put in a hard effort and you may not be able to stress yourself enough to get a training response.

Training works, and so does recovery!

How to adjust training when you don't recover quickly

2010-05-04T11:44:00.001-07:00

One thing I've noticed about getting older (I'm 51) is that my recovery takes longer than it used to. If I have a hard ride, my legs are sometimes sore for two days following the workout. It used to only last one day. I probably first noticed this around 40 years of age. This is one of the reasons we get slower as we get older - we have to take more time for recovery which means less hard days of training. So instead of doing hard rides 4-5 days a week, we may only be able to handle 2-4. One of the attributes of successful road racers is their amazingly fast recovery. Some pros even get stronger during a three week tour which is hard for us mortals to imagine. That means they are able to recover from a day of racing in 12 hours!

If you find your recovery time is increasing as you age, you may need to adjust your training to compensate for it. I know a lot of cyclists do their hard training on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. This is fine if you can recover with one day off: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. But if you need two days of easy riding to recover after a killer workout, you will never recover on this sort of schedule and gradually (or quickly) grind yourself into the ground. So here's an example of a way to set up your training schedule to allow for better and longer recovery: Do your hard rides on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. This gives you two sets of two easy days in a row per week. If you ride hard on Saturdays and then ride again on Sunday, yes, you will be tired Sunday but push on through it and make it your longer, easier endurance day.

If you have a team or club ride on Tuesdays that your really want to do, as many of us do, then you can do hard days on Tuesday/Wednesday and then again on Saturday and still get in two two-day recoveries per week. If you want to fit in four hard workouts per week, then I'd suggest Tuesday/Wednesday/Saturday/Sunday or Wednesday/Thursday/Saturday/Sunday which will allow one two-day recovery and one one-day recovery. I'd suggest putting your longer endurance ride on the day before the one day recovery as I find I don't need as much time to recover from long easier paced rides.

Keep in mind that three hard days of training will allow you to get very fit. It's better to have three quality workouts than to have four or five mediocre ones. You will get fitter with better quality workouts and adequate recovery.

How to Keep Your Pace up while Riding

2010-04-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

Here's a way to keep your pace up while out doing training rides. Often, if you are out riding by yourself, your mind may tend to wander and your pace will slow down. Here's what I do sometimes when I want to keep my pace up. I have a power meter on my bike. At the beginning of the ride I decide what the rules are. For example, today I told myself that whenever my speed dropped below 18 mph, I would make sure I was putting out at least 220 watts. What that does is forces me to work hard whenever I slow down due to a hill or headwind. On the level, downhills or tailwind sections where my speed naturally picks up, I can back off and recover. If you do something like this you will find your average speed for the ride will increase. It's a nice way of riding because it uses the natural terrain and wind to determine where and how much you work and when you get to rest and recover.

This strategy doesn't work as well if you are doing an out-and-back ride and there is a strong wind. You will end up working really hard for half the ride and soft pedaling along for the other half. It works best with a rolling hill course that goes in all four directions.

If you don't have a power meter, you can still do this. Just tell yourself to push harder when your speed drops below a certain pre-determined pace. Go by your perceived exertion to determine your pace. If it feels hard, then you are doing it correctly. The longer the ride, the lower your speed threshold should be. For example, if it's a 50 mile ride, you may back off and only push hard when your speed drops below 16 or 17 mph. Try it and I think you'll find it helps keep your pace up. It also helps keep your mind from wandering.

David Ertl is a Level 1 USA Cycling Coach, NSCA personal trainer and author of "101 Cycling Workouts". He offers personal coaching and customized training plans, and offers book, training plans and free articles at www.CyclesportCoaching.com

Mileage as a Training Metric

2010-04-26T12:56:00.001-07:00

It used to be we judged our fitness and training by the number of miles we rode. As training has become more sophisticated, so have the metrics we use to track our training and fitness levels. About 10 years ago Joe Friel taught us to start keeping track of 'hours trained' as well as mileage. Then came power meters and now we track our Training Stress Score, Chronic Training Load, Training Stress Balance and Normalized Power, thanks to Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan. I find these new power metrics really interesting and can identify the amount of actual work I've done through my training much more accurately than by simply tracking mileage. I now have power data from three years and I can compare the total amount of work done across years. I can also look at last year at this time and see if I've put in more work than last year or not. That's quite something. This is probably more accurate in describing the fitness level I've reached each year than simply tracking miles ridden.

But as we get more of these newfangled metrics for tracking our training, the more I believe that total annual mileage is still a pretty good metric. First of all, the more you ride, the better you will be, plain and simple. If you aren't riding a lot, then you can't expect to be at the same fitness level of someone training three times more miles. You don't need a power meter to tell you that. If you are riding a lot and it is all at a moderate pace, you won't be in the best shape either. You need to do some intensity as well, even if you are riding long miles. If you can't ride a lot, then more of your miles should be intense if you want to maximize your fitness. But no kind of training can completely make up for lack of miles. Miles are good and you should track them.

I still track my mileage from year to year. It's still a very tangible metric and easily compared across years. I still use a simple Excel program I created more than 10 years ago to log my miles and hours ridden and it creates a colorful little graph which I print off each year and put into my training notebook (you have a training notebook, don't you??). There's something pure and simple about tracking miles ridden. Satisfying too, especially when I ride more than I did the year before.

Re: How to Use Training Zones in your Training Program

2010-04-13T06:34:00.001-07:00

Coaches use Training Zones to describe different training intensities for workouts. I use 6 zones, from recovery to all out sprinting. Here's an explanation of my 6 zones and information on how and when to use these and a sample workout.

Zone 1 – Recovery: This should be done on rest days. By riding easily, you loosen your legs and help flush waste products from your muscles following a hard day of riding. It's important not to push into zone 2 during these rides. You don't want any additional stress on your leg muscles. An example workout would be to spin in a very low gear at a fairly high cadence such as 90 RPM with little resistance on the pedals. Spin for 30 minutes.

Zone 2 – Endurance: Zone 2 rides are the foundation of a cyclist's training program. These rides should be long, longer than 1.5 hours, to get an endurance benefit. Zone 2 is quite easy but after 2-3 hours, it will become more of a challenge. This type of workout builds your aerobic base required for more advanced and intense training to follow. A typical workout would be to ride 2 or more hours in zone 2. Nothing fancy about it but do it once or twice a week and you will get more fit.

Zone 3 – Tempo: This zone is somewhat controversial. Some people call it 'no-mans land' and recommend you avoid it. I believe it has a specific place in training. The reason some folks avoid it is because its hard enough work that you will get tired, but if you are already fit, it doesn't add enough stress to make you faster, just more tired. However, early in the season when you are rebuilding your fitness following the winter off-season, you can do some of your base zone 2 rides in zone 3, especially if you don't have time to ride for 2 or more hours in zone 2. Riding an hour in zone 2 won't do much for endurance, so if that is all you have, then ride that hour in zone 3 instead. One such workout is to ride for 5 minutes in zone 2 and then increase your pace and ride in zone 3 for 5 minutes. Repeat this sequence for the duration of the ride.

Zone 4 – Threshold: This is the zone where you can make great progress on your fitness. This is the pace at which you are at your aerobic limit. You can maintain this pace for as long as an hour. It is a hard pace but sustainable. It will increase your ability to ride faster and longer without going anaerobic, or getting out of breath. A great workout is to do 3 minute intervals at zone 3 pace followed by recovery periods of 3 minutes. Work up to one hour of these intervals.

Zone 5 – Anaerobic: These are red-line intervals. Your body can no longer supply enough oxygen to your working muscles at this pace and you begin accumulating lactic acid and your legs burn. You can only maintain this pace for up to 5 minutes before you are forced to back off. Training in this zone will increase your aerobic and anaerobic capacity to work. You can work this zone by doing 2 minute very hard intervals at zone 5 pace followed by 3 minutes of recovery. These will be very hard and should only be done if you are fit and healthy.

Zone 6 – Max Effort: These are all-out sprints, going as hard as you can go, for 30 seconds or so. This trains your ability to accelerate rapidly and to sprint. Training in this zone isn't required for recreational riders but should be done if you are racing. A workout for zone 6 is to throw in an all-out 30 second sprint every 5 minutes during a ride.

As you can see, each zone has its own purpose. Experiment with these different zones and experience the effect. In addition, you should do some climbing and leg spinning workouts as well. There's no excuse to ride the same pace all the time.

David Ertl is a Level 1 Cycling Coach, NSCA personal trainer and author of "101 Cycling Workouts". He offers personal coaching and customized training plans, and offers book, training plans and free articles at www.CyclesportCoaching.com

Two approaches for riding faster

2010-04-12T12:18:00.001-07:00

Let's say you do time trials and want to get faster. Here are a couple approaches you can use to get faster. For this exercise, we will assume you can ride 23 mph for a 40k time trial. Your goal is to ride 25 mph.

One approach is to gradually increase the speed at which you do your time trial intervals. For example, to train for a 40K TT, you may do 6 x 10 minutes at 23.5 mph. Because these are shorter intervals than your race distance, you should be able to hold a slightly faster pace for these intervals. Once you can handle 23.5 mph, bump it up to 24 mph and hold as long as you can on these intervals. Gradually you will train your body to ride at a faster pace and increase the average speed you can hold.

Another approach is to train at race pace. If you plan on racing at 25 mph, you had better spend time training there. This approach has you training at your goal race pace, but because it's a jump from your current sustainable pace, you won't be able to hold this pace very long at first. A couple ways to do these goal pace intervals: 1) ride as long as you can at race pace. Once your pace drops below race pace, slow down, spin and recover, then do another race pace interval as long as you can. 2) ride at race pace for a given period of time (e.g. 1 minute, 2 minutes), and then spin easily for an equal recovery period. Do as many of these as you can until you can no longer hold race pace for the duration of the interval. After doing these often (once a week), you will be able to hold your goal pace longer.

One word of advice: When basing your pace on speed, keep in mind headwinds and uphills will make it impossible to maintain your goal pace and downhills and tailwinds will make it too easy to maintain it. A better way to do these intervals is to base it on power. That way you can put out a constant power regardless of winds and terrain. You will, however, need to know what your average power output needs to be for your race pace. That will be covered in the next blog.

Coach David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 Coach, NSCA Personal Trainer and Author of '101 Cycling Workouts'. David provides personal coaching as well as training plans, books and freee articles at www.CyclesportCoaching.com.

The slower you train, the longer your fitness lasts. The faster you train, the quicker you lose it.

2010-04-10T13:02:00.000-07:00

How can this be? Isn’t training an ongoing activity and won’t you lose fitness pretty quickly once you stop? In general this is true – you lose fitness as soon as you stop pushing your body to the level it is used to. But there are differences in the rates at which fitness is lost. The slower type of training (i.e. endurance training) builds fitness gradually but it’s a type of fitness that lasts and is built over years. High intensity training, such as lactate tolerance and VO2 max type training builds you to a high level of fitness but is rather quickly lost once you stop training at this level. Even the best trained professional can’t maintain this peak condition for long periods of time. I tend to make the analogy with trees. An oak tree grows very slowly but it creates a very strong tree which lives to be very old. Compare this to the fast growing aspen which shoots up very quickly and grows to great heights but isn’t very strong and often breaks. Endurance training is like the oak tree. It builds over many years. High intensity training (the aspen) results in peak performance and can be created in short periods of time but does not last long and may lead to injury or overtraining.

Here’s an explanation for why this occurs. When doing low intensity training, your body responds in a number of ways. Your heart gradually becomes larger and stronger, your blood hemoglobin increases, you develop more capillaries in the muscles, and your mitochondria (the muscle’s powerhouses) increase in number. These changes are physical changes which tend to be fairly permanent. Yes, they will reverse over time but slowly. As a matter of fact, you can build endurance over years of training. This type of fitness builds on itself meaning what you gain this year won’t be completely lost over the winter. If you have been training for years, you notice how your endurance comes back fairly quickly in the spring after a couple of long rides. Your body doesn’t ‘forget’. Actually you have physically changed your body and it has maintained some of these changes. So you go into the next year at a higher level and can build on that.

When you train at high intensity, such as fast, short intervals and sprinting, you are training mostly your anaerobic system. This type of training brings you to your peak level of fitness but the changes are not nearly as long lasting as with endurance, probably because you aren’t making many physical changes to your heart, muscle or vascular tissue. Peak fitness is fleeting and fragile. Maintaining your body at a very high level of fitness is somewhat similar to a Formula 1 race car engine. It is finely tuned and extremely fast but is always on the edge of breading down. It is right on the edge because it’s pushing its limits. The same is true for your body. Think of your peak fitness as the point of a pyramid. You need to have a very solid base of fitness to support it, and peak fitness is the pinnacle but not a very large in terms of time spent training and racing there.

This helps explain why in endurance sports such as cycling and running, the best athletes in the world tend to be older than the best athletes in other more speed-related sports such as track and field. The faster the sport, the younger its elite athletes tend to be. Speed is largely inherent and those who have it can do the volume of intense training when they are young to perfect their peak fitness. As we age, it becomes more difficult to do the volume of intense training required to train for speed, and our bodies are more likely to break down. But we can continue to add volume to our training and build on endurance year over year. You often see this in the Tour de France. The sprinters are fairly young and peak and then are often gone from the front end of race finishes in a few years. (There are exceptions such as Eric Zabel who continued to be a competitive sprinter until his retirement in 2008. However even he rarely won a sprint during his last few years and didn’t win the green jersey after 2001). Often, you will see former sprinters showing up in breakaways and winning stages that way rather than through sprinting. This was the case with Larent Jalabert. He won the green sprinters jersey in the Tour in 1992 and 1995 and then went on the win the polka dot climber’s jersey in 2001 and 2002. His years of training developed incredible endurance that he used in long breakaways to win mountaintop points after he was no longer a competitive sprinter.

Coach David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 Coach, NSCA Personal Trainer and Author of '101 Cycling Workouts'. David provides personal coaching as well as training plans, books and free articles at www.cyclesportcoaching.com.

Bad Rides Happen - Don't Dwell on Them

2010-04-09T18:58:00.001-07:00

Bad rides happen. I'm not talking about rain or flat tires, although they happen too. I'm talking about rides where you just don't feel very fast. Your legs may be sore or sluggish, you don't have energy, you get dropped, you can't get your heart rate up to its usual level, or you can ride as fast as other days. Accept the fact that these rides will happen and move on. Sometimes you just can't explain why they happen. You may have done everything the same as other days where you felt great but this time you didn't. It's worth reflecting briefly on them to see if you can identify anything such as lack of deep sleep or change in eating patterns. But don't let a bad ride ruin your week. If you have one ride where you don't perform up to par, don't start questioning whether you are at a plateau, or worse in a slump. As long as you snap back in a day or two and feel your normal self, don't make too much of that one bad ride. It isn't a true reflection of your fitness level. A lot of athletic success in any sport is based on your attitude. If you are positive and feel confident, you will ride up to your potential, but if you are full of self doubt, your riding will reflect that as well.

Likewise, there will be days when your feel absolutely fabulous on the bike - the "no chain" rides. Sometimes these are just as mysterious as the bad days. They may only happen a few times a year, but enjoy them when they happen - these are the reason you ride and train. A few great days can make a year worthwhile.

Here's one diet tip that can make a huge difference

2010-03-22T09:59:00.001-07:00

There is no shortage of diet books. People are constantly battling the bulge and its a problem that isn't likely to go away any time soon. The modern world seems stacked against us. Inexpensive, tasty, calorie dense foods are everywhere. All our modern conveniences are designed to make life easier, meaning we have to spend less energy ourselves and therefore fewer calories are required to live than any time in human history. This combination makes it doubly difficult to manage our weight. Currently, there are more overweight adults and children than ever before. Is it any surprise? So what can you do about it? Although there are many diet and exercise tips that can help keep you active and eat less, here's one that can go a long ways toward helping you to eat better and less calories: Try to minimize processed foods. Processed foods are those which come in cans, boxes and bottles. It also baked goods and foods found in fast food outlets. They are the opposite of whole foods (apples, baked potatoes, chicken breast).

What's so bad about processed foods? Here's a list.

1) Processed foods are highly refined making them quickly and easily digested. Much of the fiber and chewiness is removed. Refined foods are more quickly broken down by your stomach into simple sugars and hit your bloodstream faster, causing a sugar high soon to be followed by a sugar crash. White flour is a great example. It is broken down into sugar (glucose) and absorbed faster than table sugar. Think of processed foods as pre-digested. The less we have to chew a food, the more quickly we can eat it allowing us to overeat it. Compare soft white bread to chewy whole grain bread.

2) Processed foods are stripped of natural fiber, vitamins and minerals. Ever wonder why flour is 'enriched'? To replace some (but not all) of the vitamins that are removed during processing. Fiber is good for our digestive process. Most processed foods have removed the fiber and a lot of the vitamins and minerals in it. For example, many of the vitamins in potatoes are found in the skin yet these are removed in instant mashed potatoes.

3) Processed foods have added chemicals and salt. Most processed foods are loaded with chemicals you can't pronounce, much less know what they are and whether they are good or bad for you. Many chemicals are added at stabilizers or preservatives. Rule of thumb: the fewer the ingredients typically the better. Almost all processed foods have salt added.

4) Processed foods often have added sugar and fat. A lot of times, this fat isn't a healthy type, instead being saturated, trans or hydrogenated fat. Fat and sugar are added to make the food taste better. Nothing wrong with that except that we are more likely to overeat it than if it were a more whole food. Which can you eat more calories of, baked potatoes or potato chips?

5) Processed foods are often more expensive than whole foods. You have to pay for the packaging, processing, and food scientists who formulate the foods, not to mention the advertising that goes into selling it. You don't have to advertise apples. Compare the cost, calorie for calorie, of old fashioned rolled oats compared to flavored instant oatmeal in individual serving packages. Yes, you are also paying for convenience but ask yourself if it is really worth it.

Here's another way to think about it: eat foods that closely resemble the plant or animal from which they came. If you can't recognize the plant or animal part, it is processed. Does macaroni and cheese resemble wheat? Does a corn chip resemble corn? Does a hot dog resemble whatever it comes from? (maybe that's a good thing). As much as possible, eat whole (or frozen) vegetables and fruit, real cuts of meat, whole grains or whole wheat products. You end up with a much richer diet in vitamins, minerals, fiber and slow digesting carbohydrates which take longer to eat and are more filling. Plus you avoid a lot of other things you would never think of adding if you cook it yourself.

Shaving Tip For Men Who Shave Their Faces and Their Legs

2010-03-16T11:45:00.001-07:00

Now that it's spring and you are out riding more and perhaps starting to race, you may be starting up your leg shaving ritual again. Here's a tip to try the next time you shave. If you use a disposable razor on your face, when it gets too dull for your face, don't throw it away. It still has several good leg shaves left in it. You see, for most of us, our facial hair is coarser than our leg hair so even though its too dull for our face, it will still work fine on our legs. The other good thing about using a used razor on your legs is that you are less likely to nick yourself. I try not to use a brand new razor on my legs or I'm sure to draw blood on my knees and ankles. So every time your face razor gets dull, put it in your shower and use it on your legs until your next face razor is dull. If you shave your legs but not your face, this obviously won't work. If you don't know what I'm talking about, ignore it, it's just one of those quirky things some of us bike guys do. Here's another tip: whatever you do, don't use your wife's leg razor! And if you do, clean your long black hairs out it when you are done!

Anaerobic Energy Production Is a Continuum

2010-03-15T08:26:00.001-07:00

You've undoubtedly heard and read a lot about anaerobic threshold, a very important level of exertion for endurance athletes. But the term 'Threshold' gives the connotation that it is a specfic point, a magical point where your body shifts from aerobic to anaerobic production. But this isn't the case and I will try to explain. First, a little background on Anaerobic Threshold, or as it's also called, LactateThreshold. There are two main avenues the body has to produce energy. One is the aerobic pathway where fat and sugar are broken down into ATPs which fuel the muscles. Then there is the anaerobic system which produces ATP from sugar in the absence of oxygen. Without oxygen, sugar is incompletely burned and lactic acid is left as the end product. This creates an acidic condition in the body that interferes with further exercise. (There is actually a third energy system, the Creatine Phosphate (CP) system, which produces energy for very short periods but doesn't contribute a lot to overall endurance cycling compared to the other two.)

Conventional thinking is that aerobic energy production occurs during low and moderate exercise but when we pass the anaerobic threshold, we switch over to anaerobic energy production. This is not correct. Both aerobic and anaerobic energy production are occuring at all times in the body. However, at low intensity activity, aerobic energy production predominates and anaerobic production occurs at a very low level, low enough that the resulting lactic acid is easily removed and processed. As your activity level increases, your aerobic energy production continues but your anaerobic system increases its contribution to energy production. As pointed out by Andy Doyle, Ph.D. (Georgia State U.), don't think of your energy systems as having an on/off switch like a light switch. Instead think of them as having a dimmer switch. They are all on but at different levels and increase on a continuum. Your anaerobic system doesn't suddenly kick in once you've reached some discrete threshold. It's on all the time. As you exercise harder, it's contribution to energy production increases and along with it lactic acid. As your intensity increases, your production of lactic acid outpaces your body's ability to remove it and you will eventually have to ease off and slow down. Commonly, the anaerobic threshold is defined as the rate of maximum exertion you can maintain for one hour. Above this pace and you will build up acidity at a rate which will force you to slow down. However, the rate of maximum effort is dependent on time. You can ride faster for 1 minute than you can for 5 minutes, faster for 15 minutes than you can for 30, and faster for 30 minutes than you can for 60. This is because you can operate at and tolerate a higher level of oxygen debt and lactic acid for short periods of time. If you do a 15 minute time trial, you will be doing this at a more anaerobic level than if you do a 30 minute time trial. If we redifined the anaerobic threshold as the maximum level you can work for 15 minutes instead of one hour, you would have a higher threshold value. At your hardest, fastest efforts, such as in sprints, you will be using your anaerobic system at it's maximum level. You are also using your CP system and you are still depending on the aerobic system as well because you are still bringing oxygen into your body, just not as fast as you need it.

Knowing your anaerobic theshold heart rate or threshold power, the level that you can maximally work for 60 minutes, is a useful benchmark however. The anaerobic threshold is very trainable and it can be increased by training at or near your threshold level. By training at this level, you train the body to become more efficient both aerobically and anaerobically. Aerobically, it increases the ability to bring oxygen into the body (blood, capillary and heart changes) and the ability to convert energy efficiently in the cells. You also train your body to burn fat more efficiently, sparing the use of limited sugar. Training at this level also trains your body to process lactic acid and remove it from cells and process it into energy. It also trains your body to tolerate acid conditions better. Remember, at your anaerobic threshold you are operating at a combination of aerobic and anaerobic energy so you are training your body to become more efficient at both. You can also train your anaerobic system by doing very high intensity anaerobic efforts, and you should. But you can't do very many of them. By training at threshold, you are able to work there much longer, thus gaining a larger training benefit.

Coach David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 Coach, NSCA Personal Trainer and Author of '101 Cycling Workouts'. He provides books, training plans, coaching and training services, and free articles as his website: www.CyclesportCoaching.com

Maximizing Training, Minimizing Fatigue

2010-03-11T10:31:00.001-08:00

I've read a lot lately about how masters cyclists need more time for recovery. As one myself, I can attest that one of the first changes I noticed as I turned 40 was my slower recovery. But I still want to be as fast and strong as I can be but my training had to change. So how does one maintain as much fitness as possible as one ages? First you need to allow for more time for recovery. This means backing down on the volume (mileage) of training and perhaps only ride hard 2-4 days instead of 5 days a week. Reserve at least three days for no riding or easy active recovery riding. Play around with it. Maybe you need 4 days of recovery. If you train hard on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sundays, for example, you may have thrown in an endurance ride on Wednesday. You may need to drop this from your regime. For me, it's hard to back off on mileage. One of the metrics I've tracked since I was a teenage was total annual mileage. I hate to see myself let it slip to levels lower than previous years. But more importantly, the training intensity needs to stay up there. I still aim to increase the wattage I can put out in various intervals even as I get older. And I may only do three hard rides per week instead of four.

So the goal is to work really hard on the hard days, and allow enough easy days during the week so you are able to recover and don't develop chronic fatigue. Another option if you want to do four hard workouts per week is to do them back to back. For example, if you typically ride on Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday/Sunday, consider riding Tuesday/Wednesday/Saturday/Sunday. This allows you two days in a row (Thurs/Fri) to rest before hitting it hard again on the weekend. Or cut back to Wednesday/Saturday/Sunday so you have two back to back rest days per week. Keep in mind that recovery is a very important part of training. It's the part that allows you to benefit from the hard rides. "Training breaks your body down, it's the recovery which brings it back stronger than before." So enjoy your recovery days guilt-free knowing that you are getting stronger while you rest and take it easy.

Coach David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 Coach, NSCA Personal Trainer and Author of '101 Cycling Workouts'. Check out www.CyclesportCoaching.com for his books, training plans, coaching and training services, and free articles.

Do a Negative Split on Your Next Long Ride

2010-03-09T11:15:00.000-08:00

Runners are familiar with the term "Negative Splits". It refers to doing a run where the second half of the run is faster than the first half. It is used in pacing for training and racing. Cyclists don't often talk about negative splits, but they can be a useful tool. A good opportunity to try a negative split is on one of your long base mile rides done by yourself. On these rides, especially early in the season, you become fatigued towards the end and slow down. So try this on your next long ride: Head out at your normal endurance ride pace for the first half of the ride. On the second half, pay attention to your pace and try to keep it higher than your pace going out. If you have an average speed function on your bike computer, use that to determine the speed you are trying to maintain or exceed coming back. You may find that you really have to work hard on the second half of the ride just to maintain the pace you set going out, because you are more fatigued. But this will give you good experience learning to push on through when you are fatigued. Of course, if you head out with a roaring tailwind or down a mountain, don't expect to be able to maintain that pace coming home. However, if you have a power meter, this is a great tool for allowing yourself to ride home at a higher wattage than you went out, regardless of your speed, elevation or wind. Just don't sandbag too badly on the first half of the ride!

Knowing When To Call It Quits

2010-03-07T06:48:00.001-08:00

If you train seriously you have had days when you were planning to a hard workout but just couldn't seem to get yourself going as hard as you wanted. How do you know if you should push on with the training session or call it quits? If you train with a heart rate monitor, you may notice that you can't get your heart rate up to where you want it to be for the workout. Let's say you are doing anaerobic threshold intervals but your legs are dead and you can't even get your heart rate up to your anaerobic threshold. Or, if you train with a power meter, you aren't able to hold your threshold power as long as you want to or as long as you've been able to in past workouts. These are symptoms that your body or your legs are too fatigued to perform a good, quality workout. The purpose of doing a high quality intense workout is to push your body to higher levels to make it more fit. If your body is too tired to push that hard, you will end up doing a sub-par workout and not pushing your body to new levels. Instead, you may just be piling on fatigue to an already tired body. There's a saying, 'If you find that you are digging yourself into a hole, the first thing you do is to stop digging'. If you body is fatigued, you will likely be better off giving it a day of rest rather than adding on more fatigue but not doing anything beneficial for fitness.

But before you call it quits too quickly, give yourself an honest chance at the workout. Very often, your first interval will feel really hard. Your legs may be stiff or sore, you may not have the energy you'd like. But don't quit after the first interval. Do at least three. You may very well find that you start feeling better once you get your system up and running at full speed. On the other hand, if you do a few intervals and find you are still struggling to get your heart rate or power up where it needs to be, and your legs are still feeling sore and sluggish, then it's time to pull the plug and just turn your training session into an active recovery ride. Yes, you have missed one of your important quality workouts for the week, but rather than grind yourself into the ground further, recover so that your next key workout can be done well.

How To Dress Warm for Cold Weather Riding

2010-03-05T11:42:00.001-08:00

Now that winter is beginning to lose its tight grip, cyclists are venturing out even though it's still plenty cold. I get questions about how much clothing to wear when cycling in the cold, so here are some guidelines you can use. All temperatures are given in Fahrenheit:

20-30 degrees: Heavy weight tights over shorts, winter shoes w/charcoal toe warmers and shoe covers, ski gloves or mittens, hat which fits under helmet or consider a balaclava, three layers on upper body (wicking undershirt, jersey, and heavy jacket)

30-40 degrees: Heavy weight tights over shorts, winter shoes or shoes with shoe covers, heavy gloves, hat which fits under helmet, three layers on upper body (wicking undershirt, jersey, and heavy jacket)

40-50 degrees: Regular tights or leg warmers over shorts, shoes with shoe covers, medium gloves, headband under helmet, 2-3 layers on upper body (wicking undershirt, jersey, light jacket)

50-60 degrees: Regular tights or leg warmers over shorts, light or no gloves, 2 layers (wicking undershirt and long sleeve jersery).

60-65 degrees: Regular tights or leg warmers over shorts, long or short sleeve jersey

65+ degrees: Nothing! (Okay, shorts and short sleeve jersey).

You will see runners out in shorts when its 40 degrees (of course their legs are bright red). Unlike running, cycling always generates a considerable wind chill, even at 60 degrees. You want to keep your leg muscles warm so they perform for you. Once exception is during races. People will often shed their tights and leg warmers when it's as cool as 50 degrees because they don't want the extra resistance while pedaling. But if you do this, still wear warmer clothing on your arms which aren't working as hard as your legs.

Remember that the terrain you are riding in will also affect how cold you feel. If you are mountain biking in the woods, you need to dress as though it is 10-20 degrees warmer than it actually is, because there is little wind and you aren't going as fast. On the other hand, if you are riding out on the open road with a lot of wind, it will feel colder than what the thermometer says, so dress a little warmer.

Coach David Ertl
USA Cycling Level 1 Coach
NSCA Certified Personal Trainer
Author of 101 Cycling Workouts
www.CyclesportCoaching.com

Should you be training with intensity during the off-season?

2010-02-26T12:06:00.000-08:00

There is a common question asked this time of year regarding the amount of intense training a cyclist should do during the offseason. In the old days, like when I began racing back in the 20th Century, we took a couple months off after the racing season, then rode rollers in the winter, and then got out on the road on our fixed gear track bikes for long slow distance to rebuild fitness in the spring. This training approached mimicked what the Euro pros were doing at the time. But racing has changed over the past 35 years and so has training philosophy. One thing that has changed is the racing season is much longer now. The pro circuit runs from January through October. In Iowa, where I live, there are races almost every weekend of the year, between roller races, gravel road races, road races, cyclocross and moutain bike races. Another thing that has changed is that the level of competition has greatly improved. You just can’t afford to take time to get back into shape in the spring or you will be left behind. You need to maintain a fairly high level of fitness year round. At most, racers may take a few weeks of easy riding, called the Transition Phase, at the end of the competitive season before getting back into serious training again.

So while no one is advocating hanging up the bike after the competitive season is over, there is still some debate as to whether cyclists should concentrate on strictly low intensity endurance during the offseason or should the cyclist be maintaining some fairly high intensity training workouts throughout the year. Low intensity, long miles are important and necessary as they build endurance, increase capillaries in muscles, and enhance fat burning capability. These are important aspects of fitness for an endurance sport and therefore these types of rides are still essential to do. But the difference of opinion is whether cyclists should also be doing more intense threshold and even anaerobic workouts during the winter. My thinking has evolved over the years and I now agree that we should include some fairly intense workouts year round. The main reason we used to do a lot of long, slow distance riding in the spring was because we had lost fitness over the long winter off-season and we had to rebuild it in the spring, so we started out with a lot of base miles. Because we aren’t taking as much time off from training any more, we never really get very far out of shape, so we can maintain a higher level of fitness in the offseason. In fact, we need ongoing intense training to maintain this higher level of fitness.

The type of intense training you should be doing during the offseason is primarily threshold workouts, where you are doing intervals around or just under your lactate, or anaerobic, threshold. It’s also okay to throw in a few anaerobic workouts once in a while, too, just to keep the pipes cleaned out. The workouts you don’t need to be doing in the offseason are maximal efforts such as sprinting and short all-out intervals. These are best reserved for the racing season as you are building toward peak fitness.

I can’t think of a physiological reason why intense training can’t or shouldn’t be done year round. The main risk is on the mental side. You shouldn’t train so hard in the offseason that you are mentally burned out by the time spring comes around. If you can manage to train with intensity all year with enthusiasm, you should. You will maintain a high aerobic fitness base and be ready to add miles and intensity when spring comes around.

Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and author or '101 Cycling Workouts'. He is the JDRF Coach for the Ride to Cure Diabetes, the lead coach with the DMCC/DMOS/Bike World Race Team, and coaches individual cyclists. He is also an NSCA certified Personal Trainer. Check out his articles, training plans and ebooks at http://www.CyclesportCoaching.com

What's So Special About Whey?

2010-02-20T17:34:00.000-08:00

If you walk into a health food store, or flip through a men’s muscle and fitness magazine, you will see lots of whey protein being promoted claiming all sorts of benefits. You may wonder what’s so special about whey protein, whether it has special properties and you may wonder if it is something you should be using. Or, you might wonder if this is all hype. I’ll attempt to answer these questions in this article.

First, what is whey protein? Whey protein is a component of milk protein. Milk is composed of two major classes of proteins, casein and whey. Casein comprises about 80% of milk protein and whey makes up most of the remaining 20%. Whey protein has a couple of features which does make it somewhat unique and useful for athletes. First, whey is the most complete protein for the human body. By ‘complete’, it means that the protein has the combination of amino acids which best matches the needs of the human body. There are several measures of amino acid profiles of proteins: Biological Value (BV), Protein Efficiency Rating (PER) and Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS). With all of these measures, whey comes out on top. So whey is a very high quality protein source for humans. Secondly, whey is very digestible and quickly gets into the body where it is used to repair and build muscle and other tissues. While casein is also a fairly complete protein, it is more slowly digested and takes longer to get into the body. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but if you are using a protein supplement to rebuild your body after a hard workout, whey is superior for this purpose due to the rapidity with which it gets into the body to begin to do its work. Also worth considering, according to T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., author of the book “The China Study”, casein protein is implicated in promoting cancer growth. So to be safe, choose whey over casein supplements.

Should you be using whey protein supplements? That depends. If you are eating a well-balanced diet which contains adequate protein sources, you don’t necessarily need a protein supplement. However, there is one situation where whey protein supplements can be useful for a cyclist: as a post-ride recovery source of protein. When you have had a strenuous and/or long ride or workout, you have done some damage to your muscle tissues. After your ride, you need to replenish your body with both carbohydrate and protein to help rebuild your energy stores and rebuild your damaged muscle tissue. The sooner you can get these into body, the better and more quickly you will recover. Therefore, you want a high glycemic index carbohydrate source, such as glucose or maltodextrin, and a highly and quickly digestible source of protein, such as whey. Ideally you should consume some carbohydrate and protein within an hour of finishing your ride or workout. Now, we all know that when we finish a ride or race, it is usually easy to get a carbohydrate source, such as fruit or a sports drink, but it isn’t usually very easy to get protein. It may be two or more hours before you eat a real meal which has protein. On these occasions, you would be well served by bringing along a recovery drink mix which contains some whey protein along with carbohydrate. Just add water, shake, and you have taken care of your immediate need to start refueling your body. By the way, if you don’t have a protein source available, a quick fix is to stop at a convenience store and pick up some chocolate milk or yogurt, which have protein and carbohydrate. Just try to get non- or low-fat types.

When selecting a whey protein supplement, you should preferably look for those which contain whey protein isolate rather than whey protein concentrate. Whey isolate is a more pure form of the protein and doesn’t have the lactose and fat that concentrates can have. Also, watch out for whey supplements that are loaded with sugars and other, sometimes questionable ingredients. If you are using a whey protein supplement, you want protein, not a bunch of other stuff.

So is whey protein special? Yes and no. It is a legitimate protein supplement that serves as an excellent source of post-workout protein which can help you recover. But, it doesn’t offer magical powers. Ignore the hype and use it for what it is - a very digestible, high quality protein source.

The source of much of the information in this article comes from Hammer Nutrition (www.HammerNutrition.com ). Hammer uses a very science-based approach in the formulation of their sports nutritional products which are designed specifically for endurance athletes. I use their whey and other products and think highly of their philosophy and products. They have a very complete database of free information on their website and if you become a customer, you get on their mailing list and receive their magazine, Endurance News. This magazine alone is enough reason for ordering something. You can read the back issues by clicking here. Hammer offers a 100% pure whey protein isolate supplement and also a recovery drink mix, Recoverite, containing whey protein isolate. If you are interested in trying some for yourself, you can click here and receive 15% off your first order.

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 Coach and NSCA certified personal trainer. He is the author of ‘101 Cycling Workouts’ and coaches individual cyclists and cycling teams. You can find his training plans and ebooks at www.CyclesportCoaching.com

Infinite Intervals

2010-02-10T12:54:00.000-08:00

Intervals are a fantastic training method for cyclists. But they are a lot more than what people tend to think of them as. When you mention intervals, gut-busting all out efforts come to mind. Sure, some intervals are gut-busting, but there are many other ways to do intervals that are less demanding and work many different energy systems you need for cycling. But before we get into that, let's review why we should do intervals in the first place. Interval training is a series of harder efforts separated by periods of easier efforts. The reason for doing this is to force yourself to ride as a faster pace than you normally ride. Because your body is not used to going at this faster pace, it will lead to physiological improvements which will allow your body to become more fit and more able to ride faster in the future. But, also because your body isn't used to pushing this hard, you won't be able to ride at this faster pace for long. Hence, intervals come into play. Let's use a simple example. If you can cruise along fairly comfortably at 18 MPH, it will probably be difficult to maintain 20 MPH for long. So to get faster and ultimately be able to ride at 20 MPH, first start out doing short periods at 20 MPH, say 1 minute at a time, then slow down to 17 MPH to recover. If you alternate back and force between 20 and 17 MPH for 10 intervals, you will be able to do 10 total minutes at the 20 MPH pace, whereas you probably couldn't have done a solid 10 minutes at 20 MPH. So intervals help you to get faster, little bits at a time.

There are SO many different ways to do intervals. You've probably done them without even realizing it. Because several variables come into play, there is essentially an infinite number of possibilities for putting together an interval workout. Here are the variables:

Duration of the interval
Intensity of the interval
Duration of the recovery period
Intensity of the recovery period
Number of intervals
Number of sets of intervals

To give an example, you can do a workout containing two sets of the following intervals: Hard for 1 minute, moderately hard for 1 minute. Repeat 10 times. Then you would take a 5 minute easy spin to completely recover and repeat a second set of these. By manipulating these six variables, you can come up with a huge variety of intervals. And not all the intervals have to be the same in a workout. You can mix in short, medium and long intervals into a workout if you choose.

There are several different energy systems your body uses when cycling. There's the aerobic energy pathway, there's the anaerobic pathway and then there's the Creatine Phosphate pathway. To train the aerobic system, you can do intervals that are harder efforts than your normal cruising speed, but not so hard that you become out of breath. I prescribe two types of aerobic intervals: Tempo and Threshold. Tempo intervals are done at a pace that is harder than your regular endurance riding pace. Think of the speed you would ride on a 2-3 hour ride. Then bump that up a couple of miles per hour and you are at Tempo pace. It's harder and faster but not terribly difficult to maintain. Tempo intervals are typically on the longer side, such as 5 minutes and longer. Threshold intervals are done at or just below your anaerobic threshold. This is the pace that you can just barely maintain for a half up to a full hour. This is a hard pace and requires full concentration to maintain this pace. But like tempo intervals, you do not get out of breath. You will be breathing hard but you will be able to maintain that effort for long periods. Threshold intervals can be done from 1 minute on up to 30 minutes in duration. These typically have shorter recovery periods because you are not going into oxygen debt and don't have to 'catch your breath'.

Then come the anaerobic intervals. These are the intervals that most people associate with the word 'interval'. For these, you push yourself into oxygen debt - in other words, you work harder than your heart, blood and lungs can deliver oxygen to your working muscles. Within three minutes at this pace, your muscles will begin to burn and before long you must slow down. Because these are so intense and you get into oxygen debt, you will need to keep these short. Anaerobic intervals typically last from 30 seconds up to 5-6 minutes max. Depending on what you wish to work on, these will either have long or shorter recovery periods. If you want to develop your maximum speed and capacity, you want to have longer recovery periods so that you can recover quite well so that each interval can be done as well as possible. If you are trying to develop your ability to tolerate repeated attacks, you will keep your recovery periods shorter so that you do not fully recover between intervals and eventually build up fatigue that you try to overcome. Anaerobic intervals can also be done on hills to not only stress your energy system, but to help develop leg strength and climbing speed as well.

Finally, there are the creatine phosphate intervals. For very short, hard efforts, your body uses CP to generate very fast, short term energy. These are short, very hard intervals last from 10-30 seconds. What you are training here is actually your body's ability to manufacture energy quickly through the CP system. These intervals can be done as sprints or short, steep hill climbs. With these intervals, you want them to be very short but you want the recovery periods to be quite long, up to 5 minutes, as you are training your ability to recover and replenish energy.

By varying the length and intensity of the recovery periods, you also change the nature of the interval session. The longer and easier the recovery, the better able you will be to put out a hard effort in the next interval. This trains you to put our hard efforts and to increase your ability to ride faster. On the other hand, the shorter and harder you ride the recoveries, the more fatigue you will build up during the intervals. This trains you to continue riding hard and teaches you to push through fatigue. Both strategies have value, just know what you are trying to improve with any given interval session.

So there you have it. You can design your own intervals to meet your needs. Remember, not all intervals have to be gut-busting killers, just some of them!

All the best in training!
Coach David Ertl
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David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and NSCA Certified Personal Trainer. He coaches individuals interested in improving on their current cycling ability, whatever level that may be. He also provides cycling training plans and ebooks at his website: http://www.cyclesportcoaching.com/
He can be contacted at Coach@CyclesportCoaching.com