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Intermediate Bike Training News |  |
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Greetings, Hey, how about this. I'm only a day late this week with the newsletter. My new personal assistant must be working out. This week I was talking to several others from our training group, which by the way, is up to over 260 members. We all agreed that we are tired of indoor training and ready to hit the road. The Parmalee Gulch and Larkspur rides gave us a taste of what is in store for this season. If you are just wrapping up the ski season you had better start hitting the road or the indoor trainer. For the next six months all the Saturday rides are climbing rides.  Rick Russon
The main question I get about cycling is "how can I climb the hills faster?" My answer is "practice on flatter ground." Long distance cycling is a muscular endurance sport rather than a strength sport. At 128 pounds I can generate 700 watts (Lance generates 1000). However, I can only sustain 210 watts for several hours while Lance can sustain 500 watts. Riding on 4% grades rather than 8% grades helps you to develop your cardiovascular system. Your goal is to maintain 90-100 rpm for hours on the 4% grade then move to a 6% grade. The steeper grade will cause you to drop to 80-90 rpm. Your training will be to work your way back up to 90-100 rpm. Hitting the steepest hills you can and motoring around at 40-50 rpm will help leg strength a little but will do nothing for aerobic conditioning and you will burn a lot of glycogen rather than fatty acids. At most you will be able to apply only a little over your body weight to the pedals. Might as well save strength training for the gym where you can press 2- 4 times your body weight.
Weight training is over. Hitting the legs hard with weights and climbing on the bike just don't mix well. Instead we will hit the studio classes to work on core strength and breathing. Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, and other group exercise classes will help. You can still do spin classes but make sure you ride the spin bike the same as your real bike. Keep the cadence up and don't let the instructor suck you into 20-30 rpm "hard" pedaling.
"I don't like to eat or drink on the bike" - guess you won't be riding with us for long. At this level of cycling we are burning over 1000 calories per hour. We need to replace at least half of that. These aren't joy rides. What people mistake for lack of conditioning is sometimes just running out of fuel. I ride with one sport drink bottle and one plain water bottle. The content of the sport drink bottle changes depending upon length and intensity of ride. I cover this in a 3-4 hour Cycling Nutrition seminar. We also run gels, bars, and even normal food. We say that endurance cycling is more biochemical than biomechanical. This is an area of riding that demands a lot of study and experimentation to see what works for your specific body. So instead of grabbing a Pepsi during the day, grab a Cytomax or Accelerade.
Please set aside April 28th for the Brent's Place Roadless Ride at the Athletic Club at Denver Place. This is a fund raising event for Brent's Place which is an organization that provides "safe clean" housing for children who have undergone bone marrow transplantation. You can pick one hour at any time during the day to join the special spin classes. Registration is $40 or $75 Please visit http://www.brentsplace.org to register or for more information. On May 23 at 7 pm Trek For Women will be giving a presentation at Campus Cycles. It is in the best interest of RMCC and the Intermediate Bike Training Group to show our support to both of these organizations. Trek is developing a special line of bikes and accessories specifically for women rather than just cosmetic modifications to men's bikes. Campus will be a distributor and is creating a special women's section in their store. Like any business, if the companies don't see much of an interest in women specific cycling products and services they will discontinue the program.
I have added more FREE papers to the store and a special section for the Rocky Mountain Cycling Club. You can join the club online or pre-order jerseys, wind vests, thermal vests, or water bottles.
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