What You Train is What You Get

This winter I committed to an extended period of low intensity training we cyclist like to call base training. I set a goal to train for 8-12 weeks without going over Zone 2 Heart Rate, for me that’s 153bpm. For those that don’t know me, this was very hard for me to do. Well here I am 7 months later and I’m still training at lower intensities. Sometimes not on purpose, I just haven’t been disciplined enough to add in intervals at higher intensities. Quiet the contrast to how I use to train. I use to be of the mindset that if you weren’t suffering to the point of vomiting, you weren’t working/training hard enough. Every ride I did was one of two intensities; hard or harder! I grew up in the school of no pain no gain. After educating myself a little, by the way some people call that ignorance; I realized that there is definitely a method to the madness. There has to be a better way than how I was doing things. It took me a year or more to finally but into the process of systematic training but I have finally drank the cool-aid. The past few years as I developed as a cyclist I was what I call a Zone 3 Hero. Last year I would go out and ride hard and hang with some of the fast guys and occasionally inflict some pain myself. However, if the pace was pushed over that a little bit, I was dropped, or if there was a push to the finish or heaven forbid a sprint that required me to go above Zone 3-4, I was toast. Now, however, I think I have developed a pretty strong base but still need to add some high intensity training (HIT Intervals) in to my work-outs to take it to the next level.

There are numerous physiological reasons for what I described in the paragraph above. In both cases my body adapted to the type training I was doing. Over time, no matter what you do, your body goes through a process called adaptation and becomes really efficient at what you tell it to do. An example is a Zone 3 Hero. That was me. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is not going to win many races. Trust me, I know. I was for the most part a decent cyclist. On most recreational rides on the week-ends with the LBS and even rides with the boys, I felt like a champ. As soon as I started racing I realized that I wasn’t quite as strong as I thought. Don’t get me wrong, in the few races I competed in, I normally had top 10 finishes (out of 11-12 racing) Just kidding! I did fairly well, ok, decent. I was a little better than average. I don’t know about you but those are not words in which I want to be associated. Here I am today in a very similar situation but in my opinion, a better one. Just like last year when I raced, yesterday while on a club ride my body did exactly what I asked it to do.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m stuck in an extended base training period. I have yet to deliberately add HIT Intervals as a part of my weekly work-outs. This can be a problem if you want to push the intensity for any length of time. Notice the key words length of time. I can go out and push the pace for a short period but yesterday was proof that I need some more work at interval training and Threshold training. I was on the weekly Sunday evening ride with the boys and they were in rare form. One guy is silly strong and then another guy that coached me last year was there. There were the usual suspects that are fairly strong too. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do based on what I had eaten that day and I’m sure that did play a small part in my performance but for the purpose of this post, I’m sticking to the title, What You Train is What You Get. Here’s how the ride progressed. We were doing an old familiar loop close by that is about 32 miles in length with a few sections of rolling hills. No significant climbs, but definitely not flat either. Great course but there is one part that can sneak up on you and it did. After 18 miles and the split, we were cruising along at 21.7mph. I say split because we came to an intersection and half of us made it across and the other half had to stop for a car. That also happens to be the same place in the route where there are a series of steep, stair step climbs. This was the beginning of the end for me and one of my buddies. As soon as we crossed the road, one guy attacked and the other guy followed. The other guy, who was my coach last year, also races in the masters division and has been racing now for about 20 years. We spent the next 10 miles trying to bridge but just couldn’t close the gap. We had them in sight the whole time but just couldn’t make any gains. We actually increased our average speed from 21.5 to 22.8 while trying to get across. With that said you can imagine what my intensity level was by then. It was already high, near threshold, but by then I was suffering at around 180-185 bpm. Eric and I both were on the bubble and after not making significant progress; we sat up and cruised on in to the finish.

Lesson learned. If I expect to ride at that intensity, I need to train there. Not all the time, but it is necessary to develop that energy system. I need to add some HIT Intervals as well as some LT and Anaerobic efforts into my work outs. I have been staying way too low in my zones to ride like that. This also brings up an interesting point. What are my goals? I really haven’t been training for any particular event or race so that’s why I haven’t been motivated to push the intensity. Goals are another topic for another day but you see where I’m going with that. I have trained my body to be really efficient at lower intensities. I bet I could ride all day at a lower heart rate and a slow century would likely be no problem. But as soon as I start hammering for an extended period, forget it. My body is doing exactly what I have been asking it to do. It really didn’t like me asking it to go above and beyond that level yesterday. What did that look like? It was painful. I had a little nausea and dizziness with a few black spots in my vision. My HR was well above Lactate Threshold so I knew what was coming. My body telling me that I haven’t trained for this kind of effort and it’s going to back it off a bit, whether I wanted it to or not. The bottom line is that we really do get what we train for or What You Train is What You Get!

One Degree Makes ALL the Difference

"At 211 degrees water is HOT, at 212 degrees water boils, and when water boils it produces steam, and with steam we can power a train! One degree makes all the difference."


I ran across this video the other night while looking for material for Spinning class. You have to check it out. Let me know what you think.

UNBELIEVABLE

Check out Jenniefer Sage's blog post on some incredible indoor cycling classes. This is a great example of how NOT to do things. Let me know what you think.

JUST RIDE

I finally broke out of my slump this morning with an awesome ride. I met my friend who's training for IM Florida at 5:15am and we were off. I have forgotten how beautiful it is to ride this time of the day. The traffic is low, the heat and humidity had not yet crept in and there was no wind. Another good thing about right now is that the sun comes up way early so you get more daylight.

This morning was fun! I had no reason to ride except the fact that I love doing it. Unlike my friend who is knee-deep in his rather intense training schedule, I just rode. Don't get me wrong, his endurance is alot better than mine right now simply because of volume, and lack of on my part, but I loved it. I felt good physically but I really felt good mentally. After WSSC, I felt energized to start logging more miles and that's just what I'm doing. I will say that the timing is a little because my family is out on summer break and things have settled down. No more baseball and softball, but, I made a decision to make time to ride no matter what.

So there, I am going to "Just Ride". No training schedules. No set training sessions, no nothing. Just me and my bike! Don't get me wrong, there is a place for strict training and stuff and I've done that, but I have decided just to do recreational rides this season. My friends from Miami are coming up to Nashville to do the "Jack and Back" MS 150. That is the extent of events I'll be training for this summer. So, get on your bike and ride. If you are like me and love riding, don't let anything stand in the way of you doing this. It doesn't even have to be cycling, if there is something you really want to do, do it. What's stopping you? More on this later.

Great Ride Yesterday

I created a ride yesterday based on some of the core movements within the Spinning Program and I thought I would share it with you. It's a very simple profile but I think it turned out good. The goal was to create a High Intensity ride that would certainly challenge you but at the same time allow those that weren't quite ready for Higher Intensity to still hang on. Here's how it went.

It was a loop ride. We did two loops. The first was a bit longer than the second but the goal was to take note and observe the first loop so that when it was time for the second loop, we could really challenge ourselves. It was an interval ride but they intervals were rather long in nature. Here goes. BTW, I think this is the first profile I've ever posted on here, not sure why, just never have.

5:00 Warm-up
5:00 (continued warm-up) "Bridging the Gap" These were basically a continuation of the warm up but I also used this time to work on fast cadence drills. I called it Bridging the Gap because outdoors, you really do have to do these to get back on the wheel in front of you if you fall back. The fact that I explained that to them and had them visual this went over really well. It gave the class something to "picture". These are also called spin-ups and fast cadence drills. They were :30 seconds in length and were instructed to pedal up to 110rpms or even higher without sacrificing form. High cadence, low Resistance. I coached proper pedal stroke, leg speed, good upper body form (no bouncing) etc. HR was still going up. Target 75% of LT.

5:00 Transitions-Some call them jumps but these were longer in nature. Started out with :30 seconds then went to :15 seconds in and out of the saddle. The focus was on smooth transitions from seated to standing and controlled intensity. Target HR-80% LT.

5:00 Seated Flat. I called it "Hammering on the Flat" I knew that after a little higher intensity that some would recover and that was OK. I encouraged them to maintain the intensity on the flat, IE Hammering. I think this is one of the hardest things to do in a class because it takes a lot of mental toughness to maintain a higher intensity for more than a minute or two, for some that is. The HR goal was still 80-85% LT.

5:00 Seated Climb-We transitioned onto a hill and really started working on resistance and slower cadence. I asked them to really challenge their legs and to raise that intensity a little. I also let them know that the hill was going to get a little steeper and to get ready mentally. We worked on good climbing position and breathing techniques getting ready for the steep part.

5:00 Standing Climb-I gave them an option to remain seated if they needed to and some did, but I really wanted to see them increase the intensity and push over the top of this mountain. I asked them to raise the intensity higher than they've had it all ride. This was the toughest part of the hill. They responded well and we made it over the top. We took 3 minutes to recover and flush our legs to prepare for the next loop.

As I said earlier, the next loop is exactly the same except the segments were shorter in duration. I did ask them to look back over the first loop and think of anything they would do differently. Did they go out too hard, not hard enough? How was their form? Do you think you could have challenged yourself a little more? Then I encouraged them to make necessary changes.

Overall, I think the class was good. It definitely challenged me. I haven't trained intensity much at all this year but I really liked it. Let me know what you think.