My hill training has led me to start exploring interval training. Yes, going up a slope is a good way to get good at going up a slope. But I've also noticed - before the gradient gets too steep - that a lot of time on a hill is spent at the top end of your aerobic performance.
You're breathing hard and only just "within" yourself. This isn't a leg thing. Your legs are fine. It's more about the supply of energy and oxygen to them that is being taxed. You need to get better at supplying all they need to power up the relatively easy 8 to 12% slopes that a continental climb is likely to present. And to be able to keep on supplying all they need for 30 to 60 and may be even 90 minutes.
So that's perhaps 90mins of "top end" aerobic performance. To start trying to improve this you can schedule in a "Steady State Interval" - the name isn't quite right to me - perhaps "top end aerobic interval" would better describe it? Go pretty fast over a 10 to 15km flat route - so something that will take you 15 to 25 minutes to complete.
The interval should be quite hard - but not sprint or all out - and probably a 7 or 8 out of 10 on a scale of "perceived effort". Because of the duration it almost inevitably becomes just about the fastest way to cover 15km of flat road - and still be able to ride on immediately after the interval (rather than collapse). You should feel able to say a few words/communicate a bit whilst doing the interval but not carry on a conversation or even say a whole sentence.
This sort of interval will start to reflect the demands you are going to face on a continental sportive where 30mins is nothing for a climb...
Italian events and European climbs
Showing posts with label training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label training. Show all posts
Hill Training #1
Just completed my first hill specific training session - above is the profile. I rode out to this hill - 300m+ (lucky me), hammered up it trying to go a fast as I could then turned around and rode back.
Hill training is about improving your hill climbing ability. I want to climb faster up hills as I think this will help me on the Maratona in Italy this summer. This event has 4,000m total of hills. My thinking is that being able to climb hills faster will mean I have the capacity to cope with the demands of this event.
Why not just go on a hilly bike ride? Well, that has a role too but when you are on a 50km or 70km ride you naturally preserve your efforts. You "survive" on the hills always reserving something for the next hill and then keep enough to get back home on too. With Hill Training you go as hard as you can, hold nothing back.
My previous record (Strava) for this hill was 30min 40sec. And that would be on a carbon bike and not with my rucksack on but during a normal bike ride. Today I was on my winter trainer (knobbly tyres) and carrying a rucksack of tools and kit. I did it in 24min 11sec! Wow. Shows the difference between taking a hill during a long ride, and focusing solely on it during a hill training session.
I also was careful about not riding too much before the hill. I drove out to 10km away from the base of the hill and then rode over very relaxed. That meant I was warmed up but not at all tired - no excuses, I was tip top and ready to do my best. This is different from Base Training. During the winter I've looked for every opportunity to exhaust my self with more distance. Now it's about intensity.
Wiped out Sunday
3 weeks on, one week off. And the week off has started with a "Wiped out Sunday" - so tired you can't get off the sofa, you snooze all afternoon and then wander around the house in a semi-daze. You're almost worried you are so tired.
You started the day relaxed but happy to not be doing any more training. As the day went on you've descended into weakness and super-tiredness. It's like you let go, relax and the long-term recovery starts to kick in. Your body no longer needs to hold itself ready for the next piece of exercise, instead it can start on the restoration project that it's been putting off whilst you've been hammering it.
And that's why you have a "Wiped out Sunday" - where you can totally get the rest. If you tried to start your recovery on a Monday it wouldn't be the same - going to work, starting the week, commuting - all that actually adds stress and delays restoration.
If you don't know what I mean about feeling wiped out then perhaps you aren't pushing yourself in your training? You should be going a little bit beyond yourself, doing a bit more than you can really cope with, and in the short term that means you'll be tired. In fact you'll have accumulated tiredness over the 3 weeks - a bit here, a bit there - you carry it whilst you are busy training and then it all gets to come out once you stop.
If this isn't happening for you then may be you need to have another look at your training, and at what you want to do this year?
You started the day relaxed but happy to not be doing any more training. As the day went on you've descended into weakness and super-tiredness. It's like you let go, relax and the long-term recovery starts to kick in. Your body no longer needs to hold itself ready for the next piece of exercise, instead it can start on the restoration project that it's been putting off whilst you've been hammering it.
And that's why you have a "Wiped out Sunday" - where you can totally get the rest. If you tried to start your recovery on a Monday it wouldn't be the same - going to work, starting the week, commuting - all that actually adds stress and delays restoration.
If you don't know what I mean about feeling wiped out then perhaps you aren't pushing yourself in your training? You should be going a little bit beyond yourself, doing a bit more than you can really cope with, and in the short term that means you'll be tired. In fact you'll have accumulated tiredness over the 3 weeks - a bit here, a bit there - you carry it whilst you are busy training and then it all gets to come out once you stop.
If this isn't happening for you then may be you need to have another look at your training, and at what you want to do this year?
Exhausted
The key part of endurance/performance training has to be "going beyond yourself" - doing more than you can really cope with. Whatever aspect of endurance/performance you are busy developing, doing too much of it is what you are working towards. And sometimes you achieve that - you do too much.
Well done - you have achieved the central goal of your training! Many people never really push themselves, they pootle along well within themselves and presumably are happy to keep at whatever level they are at.
For ones who push, who aspire and want to do something bigger than they could ever imagine doing then getting to a point of exhaustion is the goal. But it involves real pain. You are going to be tired, to be exhausted, to be on your knees. And that's good, despite it feeling so bad. Your body is going to take the hint, its going to come back stronger, and you are going to be better.
Well done - you have achieved the central goal of your training! Many people never really push themselves, they pootle along well within themselves and presumably are happy to keep at whatever level they are at.
For ones who push, who aspire and want to do something bigger than they could ever imagine doing then getting to a point of exhaustion is the goal. But it involves real pain. You are going to be tired, to be exhausted, to be on your knees. And that's good, despite it feeling so bad. Your body is going to take the hint, its going to come back stronger, and you are going to be better.
Listen to your body
This is an old training maxim - "Listen to your Body" - it means that no matter what, no matter that you did more last week then this, that you haven't been pushing yourself or that you have done similar workouts before - if your body starts complaining then pay attention.
Trouble is your body whispers. It gives hints. The signs are slight, and you're going to have to get good at listening for the murmurings. Because if you ignore them then the next thing will be full-blown injury or over-training or illness.
And having a rigid training plan can also be a problem. You become so fixed on completing the workout assigned for that day you don't even bother listening out for the signs that things aren't right. A weekly plan with workouts set out for each day puts lots of pressure on the training cyclist - after all, if you start cutting a workout here and there, well, soon you won't be doing anything, will you?
But if your body is complaining then you have already done enough. Congratulations, you're pushed yourself far enough that it's starting to complain. Hang back, let your body recover and come out storming when fully recovered. That's the real secret - sometimes you need to do nothing to get better...
Trouble is your body whispers. It gives hints. The signs are slight, and you're going to have to get good at listening for the murmurings. Because if you ignore them then the next thing will be full-blown injury or over-training or illness.
And having a rigid training plan can also be a problem. You become so fixed on completing the workout assigned for that day you don't even bother listening out for the signs that things aren't right. A weekly plan with workouts set out for each day puts lots of pressure on the training cyclist - after all, if you start cutting a workout here and there, well, soon you won't be doing anything, will you?
But if your body is complaining then you have already done enough. Congratulations, you're pushed yourself far enough that it's starting to complain. Hang back, let your body recover and come out storming when fully recovered. That's the real secret - sometimes you need to do nothing to get better...
Strava kudos
Most people on Strava reserve giving "Kudos" to the rides of others on the basis of achievement. So for instance I recently got 8 "Kudoses" for the Hell of the Ashdown sportive - 100km and 2,000m of climbing (i.e. quite a lot for February). And this seems appropriate.
I give out kudos for people doing similar efforts. Of course this requires you to know what they regularly do so you can spot when they are doing something exceptional. But this isn't how everyone uses it.
It looks like some check in to Strava and simply give kudos to any new activities they can see from people they follow without regard to the effort. So I got kudos for the 20km recovery pootle-around ride that I did the day after the Ashdown effort. Although initially you can regard this kind of kudosing as superficial it's still generally positive or supportive.
Another slightly more disturbing kudosing is when total strangers start giving it to you. This started happening to me when I joined a large, international Strava club. People who weren't following me were giving me kudos - they'd give it once and then never again. How were they finding my activities (and again these could be the simplest little rides)? I finally worked it out - if you go to the club and click on "Recent Activities" you get all sorts of rides that have happened around the same time as yours all over the world - you can then give kudos to people you aren't following.
I know some people find it weird that total strangers are giving them positive input but one way of looking at it is that they are really fellow club members - you are in the same club as them - and they are being "clubby".
Amateur v. professional
Whilst writing and thinking about the sportive cyclist I've been using the word "amateur" to describe the non-professional cyclist. I've been worried about using that word - amateur.
You just don't hear it in the cycling world, do you? Yes, "professional cyclists" is a phrase you hear all the time, and "pro-peloton" or "pro-this" and "pro-that". One of my oldest and least capable bikes has "professional" written in big letters on the downtube.
But you don't see "amateur" anywhere. There are no amateur bikes, no amateur clothing, no amateur wheels - despite all these bikes, clothes and wheels being bought by amateurs.
And, lets face it we are amateurs. We aren't being paid to ride. No, we pay to ride. We are amateurs but that word isn't welcome.
Instead we seem to be expected to be just lesser professionals, we are all apparently aspiring towards professional status and therefore needing all the same equipment as a real pro. Ofcourse, that's the real reason -the manufacturers aren't going to badge anything "amateur" and you or I aren't going to buy anything so labeled. .
But it can have a wider and more unfortunate influence. Behaving like a "pro", riding like a "pro" and probably worst of all "training like a pro" may not be so easy to fudge. I've written elsewhere about how just cutting down the numbers on a pro training plan might not work for the regular amateur, and how employing the same sophisticated tools and thinking might also be confusing (especially if you don't have a coach to explain it all).
Trying to be even a quarter of a professional rider might be more difficult than being a 100% amateur.
You just don't hear it in the cycling world, do you? Yes, "professional cyclists" is a phrase you hear all the time, and "pro-peloton" or "pro-this" and "pro-that". One of my oldest and least capable bikes has "professional" written in big letters on the downtube.
But you don't see "amateur" anywhere. There are no amateur bikes, no amateur clothing, no amateur wheels - despite all these bikes, clothes and wheels being bought by amateurs.
And, lets face it we are amateurs. We aren't being paid to ride. No, we pay to ride. We are amateurs but that word isn't welcome.
Instead we seem to be expected to be just lesser professionals, we are all apparently aspiring towards professional status and therefore needing all the same equipment as a real pro. Ofcourse, that's the real reason -the manufacturers aren't going to badge anything "amateur" and you or I aren't going to buy anything so labeled. .
But it can have a wider and more unfortunate influence. Behaving like a "pro", riding like a "pro" and probably worst of all "training like a pro" may not be so easy to fudge. I've written elsewhere about how just cutting down the numbers on a pro training plan might not work for the regular amateur, and how employing the same sophisticated tools and thinking might also be confusing (especially if you don't have a coach to explain it all).
Trying to be even a quarter of a professional rider might be more difficult than being a 100% amateur.
Context or terrain training
I've been going on for a few posts about the difficulty for the amateur cyclist of using Zone systems to control training intensity. I want to suggest another way.
How about thinking of the context you're riding in? How about thinking of the terrain you're riding? These are likely to be much more apparent to the amateur cyclist than an abstract Zone.
So if you go for a long bike ride on flat terrain, and you don't indulge in any sprints, you can be fairly certain you have completed a low-intensity, endurance capacity building training session.
If you head for the hills, and the hills are frequent and steep, then you have completed a hill climbing training session.
If you go out with the local club chain-gang you may be contributing to your speed training.
This is obvious I hear you say. Yes, that's right and perhaps for the amateur cyclist "obvious" is a good place to be. Obvious means you can think about your training in a way you can understand, and therefore in a way you can control and manipulate.
And it means you can relate your training to the nature of the challenges you want to take on. If you are aiming to complete a hilly sportive then you know what sort of training might be appropriate. If you are aiming to complete a week long tour then again you have some indications from the challenge for what you need to focus on.
Training becomes purposeful and directly connected to what you are trying to achieve.
How about thinking of the context you're riding in? How about thinking of the terrain you're riding? These are likely to be much more apparent to the amateur cyclist than an abstract Zone.
So if you go for a long bike ride on flat terrain, and you don't indulge in any sprints, you can be fairly certain you have completed a low-intensity, endurance capacity building training session.
If you head for the hills, and the hills are frequent and steep, then you have completed a hill climbing training session.
If you go out with the local club chain-gang you may be contributing to your speed training.
This is obvious I hear you say. Yes, that's right and perhaps for the amateur cyclist "obvious" is a good place to be. Obvious means you can think about your training in a way you can understand, and therefore in a way you can control and manipulate.
And it means you can relate your training to the nature of the challenges you want to take on. If you are aiming to complete a hilly sportive then you know what sort of training might be appropriate. If you are aiming to complete a week long tour then again you have some indications from the challenge for what you need to focus on.
Training becomes purposeful and directly connected to what you are trying to achieve.
Using the terrain to manage your training
I'm really interested in how an amateur cyclist can think about and manage their training. I'm guessing that most don't have much of a plan, that the complicated published plans look daunting and that Zone training looks onerous and double complicated.
Cycling is supposed to be fun; after all we're not paid to do it so why get involved in activity that makes our pastime into a chore?
Despite all this though there are some basic training principles that will help. Having some way of controlling the intensity of your training is important - if you just go as fast as possible all the time you may be missing out on important endurance capacity building. This is the classic quick commuter who zips through urban car traffic at top speed but never does more that 7km at a time. Alternatively, if all you do is potter about on day-long rides you may be brilliant at covering distance but when you ride with others they all go much faster and you can't keep up.
You may have noticed how I'm using the context of your riding to help describe the intensity of the training effect you'll get. A commuter may be doing lots of short rides at speed, the tourer may be doing long, continuous rides at a much steadier pace.
What they are both doing is experiencing one of the basic principles of training - specificity. You get good at what you practice. I think this might be a more understandable way of thinking about your training than struggling with abstract Zones.
Cycling is supposed to be fun; after all we're not paid to do it so why get involved in activity that makes our pastime into a chore?
Despite all this though there are some basic training principles that will help. Having some way of controlling the intensity of your training is important - if you just go as fast as possible all the time you may be missing out on important endurance capacity building. This is the classic quick commuter who zips through urban car traffic at top speed but never does more that 7km at a time. Alternatively, if all you do is potter about on day-long rides you may be brilliant at covering distance but when you ride with others they all go much faster and you can't keep up.
You may have noticed how I'm using the context of your riding to help describe the intensity of the training effect you'll get. A commuter may be doing lots of short rides at speed, the tourer may be doing long, continuous rides at a much steadier pace.
What they are both doing is experiencing one of the basic principles of training - specificity. You get good at what you practice. I think this might be a more understandable way of thinking about your training than struggling with abstract Zones.
Managing load during training
I guess you may have heard of "Zone training" and may be even "Power Training"? I used to do all my training with a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) and then kept a careful watch on my Zones - how much time I spent in various heart rate zones with the theory being that I could control the amounts of work in each Zone, the better to manage my training.
So, in any given week I might be able to say "I've done 6 minutes of Zone 5 (near maximum heart rate) training, and 2 hours of Zone 2 (fairly low level exercise)" and then compare that to other weeks, and perhaps increase or decrease my time in various Zones according to my training needs.
Trouble is I never really got to manipulate my training in this way:
1) It's quite complicated. The software you use to record the amounts can produce graphs of what you are doing - but what does it all mean? And what should you do next?
2) The numbers could jump around, so you could have 6 mins in Zone 5 one week, and 12 minutes the next - just by accident.
3) It was a distraction. You felt like you were managing your training when really you were just recording it, and in the meantime you would be ignoring the signs from your body about what the real effect the training was having.
Eventually, when the HRM chest strap ran out of batteries I didn't bother renewing them, and had my best year on the bike ever. That was several years ago and I'm still training without an HRM.
So, in any given week I might be able to say "I've done 6 minutes of Zone 5 (near maximum heart rate) training, and 2 hours of Zone 2 (fairly low level exercise)" and then compare that to other weeks, and perhaps increase or decrease my time in various Zones according to my training needs.
Trouble is I never really got to manipulate my training in this way:
1) It's quite complicated. The software you use to record the amounts can produce graphs of what you are doing - but what does it all mean? And what should you do next?
2) The numbers could jump around, so you could have 6 mins in Zone 5 one week, and 12 minutes the next - just by accident.
3) It was a distraction. You felt like you were managing your training when really you were just recording it, and in the meantime you would be ignoring the signs from your body about what the real effect the training was having.
Eventually, when the HRM chest strap ran out of batteries I didn't bother renewing them, and had my best year on the bike ever. That was several years ago and I'm still training without an HRM.
Rest Day
Just about all training plans will schedule in one or two rest days per week. The principle is that you actually improve during the rest day - which is sound. But many plans have rest days that may not be suitable for the amateur rider:
Monday - this is a classic rest day. The idea is that you've done loads over the weekend so Monday is a rest day - only it's not for the full-time worker. They have to get up early and go to work. I've lost count of the number of Mondays where I've dragged myself to work half-dead from all the weekend training. The stress of getting the week's work going is compounded by my fatigue and makes for a difficult start to the week. And then having had my "rest day" it's back to training on Tuesday...
Friday - another classic day to have off. You may have actually trained during the week so now have a rest before the big weekend push is the thinking. Again, I'm not so sure - the working week can leave you dead on your feet and so Friday is less of a recovery/rest day and more of a survival day. Alternatively, it can also be a great day to do something on the bike - may be not much - but a short ride at the end of Friday can clear the working week and set you up for the weekend.
Sunday - now this can be a real rest day in my opinion. It's possible to sofa-surf all day - you can literally put your feet up (the England Rugby World Cup winning team were made to go to bed in the afternoons to maximise their recovery during training). You can also do things with family and friends - unwind and be around for people - much better than being absent without leave all weekend getting in huge mileage...
Saturday - if Sunday isn't available then take Saturday off, and do a big ride on Sunday but be aware of how you might feel on Monday...
Here's a different weekly training pattern:
This has worked for me - especially the resting on Sunday because this is much more likely to be a real rest and recuperation day rather than the "fake" rest days like Monday and Friday.
Monday - this is a classic rest day. The idea is that you've done loads over the weekend so Monday is a rest day - only it's not for the full-time worker. They have to get up early and go to work. I've lost count of the number of Mondays where I've dragged myself to work half-dead from all the weekend training. The stress of getting the week's work going is compounded by my fatigue and makes for a difficult start to the week. And then having had my "rest day" it's back to training on Tuesday...
Friday - another classic day to have off. You may have actually trained during the week so now have a rest before the big weekend push is the thinking. Again, I'm not so sure - the working week can leave you dead on your feet and so Friday is less of a recovery/rest day and more of a survival day. Alternatively, it can also be a great day to do something on the bike - may be not much - but a short ride at the end of Friday can clear the working week and set you up for the weekend.
Sunday - now this can be a real rest day in my opinion. It's possible to sofa-surf all day - you can literally put your feet up (the England Rugby World Cup winning team were made to go to bed in the afternoons to maximise their recovery during training). You can also do things with family and friends - unwind and be around for people - much better than being absent without leave all weekend getting in huge mileage...
Saturday - if Sunday isn't available then take Saturday off, and do a big ride on Sunday but be aware of how you might feel on Monday...
Here's a different weekly training pattern:
- Sunday - don't train, relax, fully recover
- Monday - get the working week going with energy, and do a training session in the evening - something to look forward to on a Monday night
- Tues/Wed - more training
- Thursday - rest day, you've done 3 days of training so get some rest before you are completely on your knees
- Friday - another "difficult" day but if you have a little time at the end for a quick bike ride that can be a great way to put the working week behind you and prepare you for a big training day on Saturday
- Saturday - big ride, Saturday is often a practical day but if you can sort out the chores then you'l have time to ride. And you can be really ambitious because you know you have a complete day of rest coming up on Sunday
This has worked for me - especially the resting on Sunday because this is much more likely to be a real rest and recuperation day rather than the "fake" rest days like Monday and Friday.
Amateur v. professional cyclist
Of course the professional cycling world has a lot to teach the rest of us who don't ride as much. But I think there can also be problems in simply taking directly from pros and this is especially true when it comes to training.
What's interesting is how bike manufacturers have already nailed this issue. The bikes sold to amateurs may well feature all sorts of pro-kit but in some important ways they will be fundamentally different - the gearing will be very different, and the frame geometry/available positions may be much less extreme.
It'll look like a pro-bike but really it's not.
With training programmes I don't think people have been so clever. These can appear to be essentially professional schedules with a few tweaks to the numbers, and that can cause problems:
1) Amateurs have all sorts of calls on their time and are much less justified in asking for their training to take precedence. The tweaked "pro-plan" may have reasonable time demands for the amateur but the frequency and scheduling may make it impossible.
2) Zone training can require considerable testing and managing; when the amateur cyclist just wants to get out and ride they instead get tangled up in Zones and intervals. It can also be mis-leading with amateurs not really understanding the Zones or relying too much on them and not listening to their body.
3) A rigid plan that an amateur follows without really understanding is going to be a problem. They haven't got a coach to explain what is going on, and because they don't understand it they can't modify it when needed.
4) Even the pros complain about scheduled training that falls on cold, rainy days. For the amateur with less time, and more on their mind and plate, having a bike ride when they don't want to go out can easily lead to a plan being abandoned. Amateurs are supposed to be doing it for fun.
All of this can mean the wonderful "professional plan" may be disappointing and demoralising for the normal cyclist. We may need something simpler that we can manage because we understand what's going on.
What's interesting is how bike manufacturers have already nailed this issue. The bikes sold to amateurs may well feature all sorts of pro-kit but in some important ways they will be fundamentally different - the gearing will be very different, and the frame geometry/available positions may be much less extreme.
It'll look like a pro-bike but really it's not.
With training programmes I don't think people have been so clever. These can appear to be essentially professional schedules with a few tweaks to the numbers, and that can cause problems:
1) Amateurs have all sorts of calls on their time and are much less justified in asking for their training to take precedence. The tweaked "pro-plan" may have reasonable time demands for the amateur but the frequency and scheduling may make it impossible.
2) Zone training can require considerable testing and managing; when the amateur cyclist just wants to get out and ride they instead get tangled up in Zones and intervals. It can also be mis-leading with amateurs not really understanding the Zones or relying too much on them and not listening to their body.
3) A rigid plan that an amateur follows without really understanding is going to be a problem. They haven't got a coach to explain what is going on, and because they don't understand it they can't modify it when needed.
4) Even the pros complain about scheduled training that falls on cold, rainy days. For the amateur with less time, and more on their mind and plate, having a bike ride when they don't want to go out can easily lead to a plan being abandoned. Amateurs are supposed to be doing it for fun.
All of this can mean the wonderful "professional plan" may be disappointing and demoralising for the normal cyclist. We may need something simpler that we can manage because we understand what's going on.
Training Plans
The plans set out in magazines and books can look really good but I wonder how many amateur cyclists ever follow them in practice?
I know I never had. And I've tried - setting out my own programme of workouts week by week, day by day.
But somehow it all goes wrong very quickly, why's that?
1) Life gets in the way - the plan calls for a big bike ride every Saturday for the next 3 weeks but the 2nd Saturday has a special family event that you can't get out of so your big ride can't be done.
2) Monday is a rest day - this is a classic of almost all plans, the thinking is that the amateur cyclist will have trained all weekend so Monday should be off. But the amateur cyclist is also probably a full-time worker and has to turn up early Monday morning to put in a full day of work - so its not really a rest day.
3) Make the most of the weekends - this is the corollary of the Monday rest. Hammer yourself all weekend is the idea but in practice a Saturday or especially a Sunday may be the amateur cyclist's only real day of rest.
4) Complicated, zone based training sessions - can be quite difficult to manage by yourself during a ride - perhaps you need to get a coach and do it on a track? Oh, right you're an amateur and don't have all those facilities.
I sometimes suspect that these training programmes are written by coaches of professionals and all they have done is change the quantities to reflect the lower capacity of the typical amateur cyclist.
What they haven't done is take into account how the amateur rider is fundamentally different from the professional.
I know I never had. And I've tried - setting out my own programme of workouts week by week, day by day.
But somehow it all goes wrong very quickly, why's that?
1) Life gets in the way - the plan calls for a big bike ride every Saturday for the next 3 weeks but the 2nd Saturday has a special family event that you can't get out of so your big ride can't be done.
2) Monday is a rest day - this is a classic of almost all plans, the thinking is that the amateur cyclist will have trained all weekend so Monday should be off. But the amateur cyclist is also probably a full-time worker and has to turn up early Monday morning to put in a full day of work - so its not really a rest day.
3) Make the most of the weekends - this is the corollary of the Monday rest. Hammer yourself all weekend is the idea but in practice a Saturday or especially a Sunday may be the amateur cyclist's only real day of rest.
4) Complicated, zone based training sessions - can be quite difficult to manage by yourself during a ride - perhaps you need to get a coach and do it on a track? Oh, right you're an amateur and don't have all those facilities.
I sometimes suspect that these training programmes are written by coaches of professionals and all they have done is change the quantities to reflect the lower capacity of the typical amateur cyclist.
What they haven't done is take into account how the amateur rider is fundamentally different from the professional.
More on Rest Week
Currently taking the week off bike riding (or any serious exercise) - I do 3 weeks "on" and 1 week "off" - to recover.
What are the alternatives?
1) Just train all the time - sounds more productive but in reality you can't push yourself all the time, you end up ill or injured.
2) Don't push so hard - yes, you can keep going week after week but you aren't really stretching yourself and things won't improve like they could/should.
3) You ride infrequently, never building up fatigue - a safe option, and you may make some progress, but it's not really a training programme that builds significant capacity, more just riding about and "keeping" fit.
Taking a week off is justified if you have trained hard, you'll need the time off if you have done the 3 weeks right.
What are the alternatives?
1) Just train all the time - sounds more productive but in reality you can't push yourself all the time, you end up ill or injured.
2) Don't push so hard - yes, you can keep going week after week but you aren't really stretching yourself and things won't improve like they could/should.
3) You ride infrequently, never building up fatigue - a safe option, and you may make some progress, but it's not really a training programme that builds significant capacity, more just riding about and "keeping" fit.
Taking a week off is justified if you have trained hard, you'll need the time off if you have done the 3 weeks right.
Rest Week
I always look forward to Rest Week. My current programme gives me the 4th week in every month off, so I have 3 weeks of expanding my riding then a week when I'll hardly ride at all.
Am I wasting a week? How can not riding my bike help improve my riding?
Mmm, well, the first thing to say is that I really need the week off. After 3 weeks of pushing and forcing myself to do as much as I can, to ride when I'm tired, getting on the bike when I'm aching still from the last ride, I really need to stop.
I can push myself harder because I know I've got a rest week coming.
Rest isn't just for the body either - the mind needs a rest from all the striving, all the keeping going, all the ignoring of pain. It can be wearing to take the strain day after day so mentally I need to take some time out.
And when I come back to training for the next 3 weeks I'll have new enthusiasm, and hopefully will notice additional physical capacity - the rest will give me a mini-peak.
Am I wasting a week? How can not riding my bike help improve my riding?
Mmm, well, the first thing to say is that I really need the week off. After 3 weeks of pushing and forcing myself to do as much as I can, to ride when I'm tired, getting on the bike when I'm aching still from the last ride, I really need to stop.
I can push myself harder because I know I've got a rest week coming.
Rest isn't just for the body either - the mind needs a rest from all the striving, all the keeping going, all the ignoring of pain. It can be wearing to take the strain day after day so mentally I need to take some time out.
And when I come back to training for the next 3 weeks I'll have new enthusiasm, and hopefully will notice additional physical capacity - the rest will give me a mini-peak.
Thinking about hills
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| Start of the Passo Sella |
"Will I be able to do the climbs?"
Things are a bit different over there. The climbs go on and on. Many start at heights way above the tops of UK hills, and climb way up into sub-altitude training territory.
They can be long - 20km, and they can be constant - 8% gradient all the way, and you can gain more height in a single climb than you would in the whole of a UK sportive.
How are you going to prepare for these kind of climbs?
I've started trying to get my head around the climbs I'll be doing this summer in the Dolomites. Lets look at one climb - the Passo Sella in the Italian mountain range. Truly spectacular scenery and a relatively modest climb - 436m will get you up to the top but this is still much more than just about any road up a hill in the UK.
Clearly, if I could ride up a similar hill in the UK that would help me prepare for it.
Even in a hilly part of the UK you need to pick your hills carefully to find one with over 100m of height gain. Yes, many will be much steeper than the Passo Sella but finding one that is even a third of its height gain will take some looking for.
OK, lets say you can find a hill with 140m of gain. Brilliant, you now need to do training that involves "hill repeats" - that means going up it, turning around and coasting back down it and going up it again. Do that twice and you've got 280m of height gain, and 3 times will give you 420m and that is within spitting distance of the Passo Sella. In fact your UK hill will very likely be steeper so you may be doing a higher load, and this may make up for the short rests you'll get as you coast back down to do the next hill repeat.
Psychologically, it can also help when surrounded by high pinnacles and peaks to remember that the stupendous mountain you are scaling is actually just 3x your local hill that you climb every week.
Training Notes #5 - warm toes
They may take an hour to get cold, and may be you can cope with another hour of pain but when you go longer it can really start to impinge on the ride. If you're doing 3 hours or 4 with painful, frozen feet it can become the main limit on your performance.
With a 4+ hour cold ride set for last weekend I decided to do something about this.
If all the socks and overshoes aren't enough, what next? Ah ha, heat is what I need. Yes, some actual warmth inside the shoe. A quick internet trawl brought up various electric foot warmers from £20 to £70 and upwards, and a range of reviews about them.
And then I came across "Hothands Foot Warmers" - £4 for a 5 pack from Tesco. These are slim pads that you stick to the underside of your sock. Unwrapping them from their packet activates the pad and it starts generating gentle heat.
On Sunday the temperature started at 0deg and rose to 2deg by mid-day. My feet were toasty the whole way around! So just one less thing to deal with when your out on a big one, and with probably just 4 or 5 big rides planned for these deep winter months it looks like a single pack will do me. Sorted.
Training Notes #4 - cold weather riding
When it gets really cold you may need to take extra measures, above you regular winter set-up, to keep yourself warm:
- Double leggings - so 2 layers. Your legs never feel cold but giving them extra insulation means they don't loose heat
- Multiple, multiple layers - consider wearing many cycling jerseys. You've got enough clothes on when you feel your movement is slightly restricted. Another sign is when you feel slightly over-dressed whilst indoors - uncomfortable is good when indoors
- Scarf or neck tube - this can really be effective, and easy to remove if things get too hot
- Gloves - inner and outer gloves, the outer should resemble motorcycle gloves and should cause your hands to go moist on warmer days. Consider carrying extra gloves just in case the first pairs get wet
- Balaclava - this is really extreme, on really cold days you can still build up quite a heat wearing one of these
- Thermos with hot coffee - now you're talking! You can get dehydrated because you're reluctant to drink the cold water in your bidon. A warm drink can also help keep your core temperature up
- Shoes - lots of shoes have large vents for summer riding. No amount of socks or over-shoes will make up for this fundamental gap. Solution - wrap gaffer/parcel tape over the main holes.
Anyone else got any tips?
Training Notes #3 - road closed
What now? My local regular ride is currently closed and I've had to find all sorts of new ways around.
And I'm amazed - amazed at all the little roads right next to or parallel to my regular roads. And these new routes are completely new - never been down them, never even thought of them but here they are, and they're alright.
I've come home reflecting on how easy it is to just do the familiar, and then how refreshing it is to try a new road - they're all around. And if it means going down a dead end or one that doesn't help the route its not a problem because at least you've gone somewhere new - and that's always good when you are training.
Training notes #2 - over-training
The flip side of recovery rides is the danger of doing too much. It's good to help your recovery by doing a gentle ride to loosen off you legs, but you do run the risk of simply adding extra stress to an already stressed out body.
Even slight over-training can be a real problem as it can take a week or more of total rest to shake off. Spotting the very first signs means you can immediately dial down the effort, save the situation before full over-training sets in and get back to full training perhaps after just one day off.
So what are the signs of over-training for you? I know for me that getting grumpy and impatient, and then feeling mildly depressed are sure signs that I've done too much. As soon as I pick up on those kind of indications I know not to do more, in the hope that I'll bounce back within 24hrs.
Another sign is checking out how much I've done - if it's way more than previous weeks then that might be a further confirmation that I've done too much.
It is possible to ignore these kind of signs, especially if you are enthusiastic, but over-training for a week or two will just mean you completely fall apart, suffer an injury or illness and then have to take a month or more off...
Even slight over-training can be a real problem as it can take a week or more of total rest to shake off. Spotting the very first signs means you can immediately dial down the effort, save the situation before full over-training sets in and get back to full training perhaps after just one day off.
So what are the signs of over-training for you? I know for me that getting grumpy and impatient, and then feeling mildly depressed are sure signs that I've done too much. As soon as I pick up on those kind of indications I know not to do more, in the hope that I'll bounce back within 24hrs.
Another sign is checking out how much I've done - if it's way more than previous weeks then that might be a further confirmation that I've done too much.
It is possible to ignore these kind of signs, especially if you are enthusiastic, but over-training for a week or two will just mean you completely fall apart, suffer an injury or illness and then have to take a month or more off...
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