What is really important about your power abilities? Absolute, gross power numbers show us what you are capable of but are they the most important feature of your power?

The 20 minute FTP test is a great case in point. Many riders approach this test in a nice rested state, warm up, and then hammer out a 20 minute effort. FTP is then set at 95% of the 20 minute average power, with all training zones set from this level. In almost all cases this results in an FTP set too high due to the anaerobic contribution of  a singular 20 minute effort.

I would wager a lot of money that most people who set their FTP like this could not hold that average power for more than 30 minutes at best.

So what happens?

You work at an effort level that causes muscular fatigue and a reduction in performance.

Most failure in races and longer endurance events has nothing to do with absolute power – you just run out of energy and fatigue too quickly.

A lot of the work we do with our riders is aimed at improving the point at which fatigue sets in and performance drops off.

We look to improve FATIGUE RESISTANCE

Now this should be specific to the rider and also specific to the demands of their race or event.

For example a racer would be very interested in how quickly they fatigue in a sprint. This would inform both training and race tactics. Using WKO4 we can create a fatigue profile to show us this performance. As you can see below this rider has very stable power out to 12 seconds but then power drops away by 25% by 20 seconds. In terms of race tactics this rider would not want to be launching any long range sprints. In terms of training we would look both to improve absolute power but also to INCREASE THE TIME THAT POWER CAN BE SUSTAINED FOR.

For Gran Fondo and endurance riders it is the longer time frames that would be interesting.

How much does your power fall from say 30 minutes to 60 minutes? From 60 – 90minutes and so on…….

If you are training for an alpine Gran Fondo then you know that you need to be able to lay down sustained efforts for 60 and sometimes 90-120 minutes for some of the epic high mountain climbs, and then do that maybe 3 or 4 times or more…..

Creating resistance to fatigue is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN INCREASING ABSOLUTE FTP.

So we prescribe very unfashionable long intervals for this type of event. Long tempo efforts, building to 90 minutes+ in a single session is a great way to prepare for the rigours of mountain riding and gets the body used to sustained efforts. After a few weeks of consistent tempo efforts the body adapts and muscular fatigue lessens and stamina increases.

You can see in the chart and table below that this rider has an FTP of 287w, a 2hr best of 220w and a 4hr best of 170w. This is illustrating his current fatigue resistance over long time periods. Improving FTP is good, but improving his 2hr to 4hr drop in power would be much more effective at improving his finishing times in long endurance events.

Tempo training will improve Gran Fondo and Sportive finishing times significantly by improving resistance to muscular fatigue, and is not too demanding physiologically so these sessions can be repeated frequently. Threshold training has a part to play but it is too demanding to be repeated day after day, week after week, throughout the whole season and may not specifically target the ability you are aiming to improve.

Focusing on absolute power numbers is an important, but not sufficient way to assess strengths and weaknesses. Increasing absolute power for a discrete time period is cool but increasing power for longer durations of time can be much more beneficial in improving results.

To find out more please get in touch rob@propello.bike

Have a great week riding

Rob Wakefield – Propello Founder and Head Coach

We are living in a world driven by data and a cycling world that is obsessed with it. Heart rate monitors, power meters and smart trainers have all been fantastic inventions, but at a cost – A lack of self awareness leading to an inability to self pace efforts, and hence poor training and riding.

We build all of our workouts in Training Peaks Workout Builder which allows us to set ‘target’ ranges for power, heart rate and cadence. For the purpose of this insights piece we will discuss the power numbers and why you should not treat them as RULES, or always aim for the highest number in the prescribed range.

Just because two riders have the same FTP does not mean that their other physiological markers will be the same. For example, two riders with exactly the same FTP can have significantly different sprint abilities. In the chart below we can see that for an effort of say 17 minutes (1000secs) the divergence of power output as a percentage of FTP for different riders is very small. However when we get down to sprints, the divergence is extremely significant. Unless you are following a very individualised training plan, like the ones we offer in our Platinum Coaching, it is very possible that your higher intensity intervals are set either too high or too low, depending on your unique physiology.

In my life before coaching my job relied heavily on statistics and quantitative analysis. One of the most useful illustrations of how statistics work is the classic bell curve, that has been used for many things from bucketing exam results to predicting (badly) financial risks, and estimating (again badly) maximum heart rates. If you are ‘average’ then calculating your maximum heart rate as 220-age works, with an acceptable degree of inaccuracy for around 68% of the population, which is illustrated by the hump area of the bell curve. However if you are in the high or low 14% or even more importantly the high and low 2% or 0.1% then an equation, based on the ‘average’ person is going to be very wrong. So think about that for a moment. Anything that is calculated on the basis of the general population is going to be wrong for 32% of people.

Bringing this back to cycling. Let’s assume that I have 1000 riders with the same FTP and set them all a VO2Max workout at 115% of FTP.  Using our bell curve as a rate of perceived effort guide, we can assume the following:

1. 34% of  riders would find the session slightly too hard.
2. 34% of riders would find the session slightly too easy.
3. 14% of riders would find the session much too hard and at least 2% of riders would probably fail to complete the session.
4. 14% of riders would find the session much too easy and at least 2% would get limited training adaption from it as it would not cause enough stress.

You see we are dealing with human beings with different capabilities, different heart sizes, different lung sizes, different peaks power, different VO2Max and so on. So when you have a workout with a ‘target’ power range it really is only an approximate guideline. If you are lucky enough to be average, then it will probably work out fine but even then you will have an off day and a day when you can hit it out of the park for the same perceived effort. If you are a high performer or a poor performer at a particular fitness ability,  the ‘target’ power numbers that you are using will be badly wrong.  I understand that for many of you that are new to cycling, that data has been part of the experience from day one. For those of us who are old enough to remember our Dad buying us a 5 speed racer at 12 years on that we rode until we were 18, then we had to ride by how we felt on the day.

Smart trainers have proliferated the problem because in erg mode there is nowhere to go if you are having an under par day. Cycling is an endurance sport and I want to see nearly all workouts completed at whatever power you can do on the day. I don’t want to see your cadence fall to zero and you to fail in a heap of sweat on the floor!

Personally I can tell in my warm up whether I am on a good day or bad day and I often cover my screen with my towel and do my sessions without looking at power. Often I am surprised by the results. For example a session this week prescribed 5 x 5 minute efforts at around 295w which should equate to a perceived effort of around 8/10. I did the workout blind, worked to a perceived effort of around 8/10, finished, grabbed my post workout shake and sat down to look at the results. 5 efforts all above ‘target’. A good day.

Conversely a few days later I had a 3 x 15 minute threshold session at around 275w. I could tell from my warm up that the legs were heavy after two hard rides the days previously. Preparing for a 9 day stage race sometimes you just have to grind these workouts out, so again I covered my screen and rode at a perceived effort of 7/10. Three efforts, all below ‘target’ and each one deteriorating in quality. I was tired but I finished the session and banked the work. A poor day?

When you think about the adaptions that we are trying to encourage, you can see below how much cross over there is between the training zones. Increasing power means building more and better mitochondria in the muscles for example. This is achieved by training in all zones from 2-6 and most effectively in tempo and lactate threshold zones. So you can train at anywhere between 76% and 105% of FTP and get pretty much the same mitochondria adaptions! Your body is not going to adapt any better or worse because you worked out at a few watts harder or easier. If the perceived effort is the same then the physiological strain you are putting your body under is the same, despite what your power meter is saying. Do the right amount of work in the approximately the right areas and the power will come. I say it over and over and over again….

Also think about what you are doing tomorrow before trying to smash every workout through the ‘target’ ceiling.  If you have a hard day tomorrow then don’t turn your tempo session into a threshold session. The difference in physiological cost between workout at say 90% FTP and 100% FTP is massive, and you will be introducing increased training risk for very little potential reward. If you are coached then the risk/reward of every session should have been worked out for you and carefully periodised in a sensible plan. If you are self coached then this is an area that you can easily get wrong. Many believe that every session has to be nailed to elicit any gain in fitness, whereas all you are really doing is playing a high risk game for little reward.

I will leave you with a great quote I came across about rules that I think applies brilliantly to being a slave to numbers and obeying ‘targets’.

Have a great weekend and remember, sometimes turn the screen to map and time only and ride it like an artist, not a scientist

Rob

The New Year is a good time to take stock of the year just past. Did you make the progress you wanted to in 2018? Even if you had not set yourself specific goals, I bet you had some secret aims of improving some element of your cycling. Was it improving your performance on a local sportive, making the podium a few times in some road races, improving your 10 mile time trial personal best? Humans like to make progress, so if you are sitting here in January wondering why you stood still, now is a great time to look at what has been holding you back.

Progress on a bike can come from three main areas:

1. Physiological – did I make the improvements to my fitness?
2. Physical – was I on point with my diet and lifestyle, maintaining good health all season?
3. Psychological – was I motivated and committed enough to make the desired improvements?

If you can answer yes to all three of these then you should have had an excellent year. If you can answer yes to two then you have probably had a pretty good year. If you can only answer yes to one, or worse none, then it’s time to understand what’s holding you back.

Physiological

To improve your fitness you need to firstly have a good understanding of the areas where you are strong and the areas that currently limit your performance. If your sprint is weak, and you are often in bunch sprints, then clearly you need to address this. The best way to quantitatively assess strengths and weaknesses is to conduct a full power profile test. This will cover all of the 4 energy systems and provide information on what you need to work on. Even of you don’t have the ability to do a power test, I am sure that you know instinctively the things you find hard. They tend to be the things you avoid doing!

To make progress with your fitness year on year is possible even for older and experienced riders. However, you can’t keep doing the same things and expect different results. For many of you, significantly increasing your training volume is not an option due to work and family commitments. It would be great to up your riding time to 10-15 hours a week, but I know that for the majority of people 6-8 hours a week is what is practical. The key is to make some changes to how you structure your time to make it more effective.

Increasing training density is an effective change you can make that will stress the body in a more intensive way and bring about better fitness adaptions.

Typical weekly schedule: Monday- Rest day: Tuesday- 60 min turbo: Wednesday- Rest day: Thursday-60 min Turbo: Friday- Rest Day: Saturday -3hr ride: Sunday- 1hr ride. total 6 hours

Suggested weekly schedule: Monday- Rest day: Tuesday- 40 min turbo: Wednesday- Rest day: Thursday-40 min Turbo: Friday- 40min turbo : Saturday -3hr ride: Sunday- 1hr ride. total 6 hours

The suggested schedule is more dense because you now have a solid 3 day training block with a recovery ride on the Sunday. Clearly what you do is very important and the shorter turbo sessions need to be intense enough to make the best use of the 40 minutes, but the overall organisation is likely to produce better training adaptions for the same weekly training time.

Mixing intensities is also a highly effective way of increasing the training response from a set number of training hours. Historically, most riders built their training year based on a classical linear periodisation, starting the year with lots of long rides and building intensity as the season progressed. The fundamental purpose of training is to increase power. This is achieved predominantly by increasing mitochondria enzymes in our muscles.

The table below summarises the expected training adaptions from training in the various power zones. As you can see you can increase mitochondria in all of the training zones. In zone 1&2, which is the typical long slow distance intensity, it takes a lot of time to have effect, but as you move into the tempo/sweet spot zone the effectiveness of your training time, in terms of improving mitochondria, increases significantly.

A good use of your 40 minute turbo sessions would be to do some focused tempo/sweet spot work twice per week, leaving you with one additional session where you can work on an area that currently limits your performance. If you are weak at sprints do some zone 6/7 work, if you hate those punchy 2-8 minute climbs do some zone 5 work.

Intensity is perfectly safe throughout the training year as long as you manage the dose of the high intensity workouts (and you have no medical condition that makes high intensity training dangerous)

The last but arguably most important element to your physiological development is recovery. Recovery is highly individual. Older people need more, youths and juniors less. What you do for your day job matters. Are you at your desk or are you a scaffolder? It makes a big difference. I am not going to prescribe how many days off or easy days you might need because everyone is different.

But the one secret weapon that you can all deploy. The one thing that mostly all of us have in our control and is the same from one person to the next. The one thing that will guarantee a better training day tomorrow if you get it right.

GET MORE SLEEP! If you are getting less than 8hrs sleep then find a way to get some more…….

Physical

To get the most benefit from your training you need to be in physically good shape. Quite simply there is little point to working hard in training if you are still binging on cakes and beer every day!

In terms of weight, many people I see obsess too much about the detail. They are constantly trying to find an optimal balance of carbs, protein and fat to maximise the chance of weight loss. Taking one piece of advice from a magazine one month, and another directly opposite piece of advice the next, is a recipe for confusion and weight GAIN!

Most advice for diet and weight is targeted at the general population, a third of whom are morbidly obese and funnily enough don’t train regularly.

There are only two things worth remembering:

1. IGNORE MOST DIETING ADVICE
2. THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS FOR LONG TERM FAT LOSS IS CALORIES

I have deliberately marked these two statements in capitals because they are the MAIN, MAIN thing that everybody has to get into their heads when thinking about how to become lean. Sure, quality of diet matters, it matters a lot, but if your calories are too high you will put on body fat, if they are too low you will lose body fat. It is a simple as that.

As a reductio ad absurdum consider this…..would you gain or lose weight if you ate only 5 Mars Bars a day?  At 230 calories per bar you would be sure to lose weight. Now I am not proposing this as a diet but hopefully it illustrates the point.

Did you see this couple on social media who lost half their body fat in 18 months.?

Now I don’t know if these two rides bikes but Danny lost 136kg! On a steady 6% hill you need to generate an additional 5watts of power for every extra KG you weigh. So Danny would now have to generate 680w less to climb a 6% hill! Again an absurd illustration but it serves us well to illustrate that weight in cycling really matters if you want to take the next step to improve your performance.

Psychological 

There are those athletes who love training, those that love racing and those fortunate enough to love both. A lot of people struggle with motivation in training. After all to become truly world class requires years of dedicated and purposeful practice. For the average amateur athlete, training is part of a list of responsibilities and probably not the top of the list either.

There are two main types of psychological issue we see all the time:

1. A struggle to find the motivation to be consistent in training
2. Self doubt and under confidence

Poor training motivation can be caused by a number of external factors. Maybe you are working too hard and are tired, maybe you are trying to train at the wrong time of day to suit your lifestyle and physiology. There is now plenty of evidence to suggest that different people train more effectively at different times of day. Many of us, me included, are morning people, whilst others are more effective later in the day. If you are a morning person and are trying to train late in the day, after work, then that could easily translate into low motivation.

Maybe you have chosen the wrong sport? That might sound flippant but I have seen plenty of people who are just beating themselves up trying to find the motivation and commitment to train properly, when all they really want to do is something else, anything else.

If you are generally motivated but find that for a time you struggle, then it may be because of fatigue arising from  not enough physical recovery and hence not enough neural recovery.

Other times it’s just a case of getting the first 10 minutes of a workout done to find the motivation to see it through. I have plenty of times when I am not ‘up for it’ but I live by the rule of always doing the warm up and then making a decision. I reckon I stop after the warm up maybe 1 workout in 100, it is that rare. However it would have been very easy to just not start and then feel bad about myself.

We all have self doubt and under confidence at times. We don’t all show it, but you can bet your bottom pound that even the most outwardly confident person you know has periods of doubt and anxiety about their performance. We see many extremely talented riders who self sabotage their performance before they have even rolled onto the track, or lined up at the start line. They constantly make comparisons to other riders that they think are better than them, they worry about what others think about them, they have negative thoughts or imagery before the race has started, even predicting the result. They often set unrealistic goals and are overly critical of their performance.

Self-confidence is how strongly you believe in your ability to execute a skill or task. Racing/event confidence is crucial to every rider’s success. Without a high level of confidence, you simply cannot perform at your best with any consistency.  If you struggle with under confidence what can you do to help yourself become a more confident rider?

If you struggle with lack of confidence then ask yourself the following questions

1. Are you confident in your training routine and plan?
2. Do you think you work hard and show dedication?
3. Do you think you are in good physical condition?
4. Do you possess the skills and experience necessary to compete?
5. Are you present, in the moment?

Many of you will be able to answer yes to most of these questions and yet still have self doubt. The last point about being in the moment, or in the zone as some call it, is mightily important. Remember on the start line there is nothing more you can do, you have to be totally focused on the race ahead and adopt a ‘care less’ attitude to the result. Try and throw the shackles of expectation away and race for the love of it, race for the thrill of it, but dont race for the result. Think about and focus on what you are in control of, yourself. Have confidence in your process and enjoy yourself.

There can be many aspects of your life that are affecting your current performance. Maybe you think that you have reached your potential? In our experience there are very few people who have reached anywhere near their potential. There is always room to grow and get better with the right attitude. The great thing about attitude is that you can choose it every morning you wake up. am I going to have a positive day, and I going to have a negative day. Spend 20 seconds at the start of each day, immediately after you wake and choose POSITIVE. It’s a very simple, but highly effective tactic to live a happier life.

”  Listen there’s a hell of a good universe next door; let’s go.” EE Cummings

Train hard and ride with a smile

Rob Wakefield

Cadence is the speed you turn your legs to propel a bicycle forward, and is most commonly measured in terms of revolutions per minute (RPM). Out of everything that most cyclists obsess about, cadence is usually well down on the list, and yet it is where a lot of easy gains can be made.

It is worth a recap about power.

Power = Force * Velocity

In a cycling context, force is dependant on strength, and velocity is dependant on cadence.

High cycling Power = big gear*high cadence. It is as simple as that.

To generate more force you need to work at becoming stronger and that takes a lot of physical effort.

To generate more velocity you need to work at improving your cadence and that takes less physical effort (but arguably more mental effort)

What is your ideal cadence?

There has been a lot of research on this topic and a lot of smoke and mirrors. Yes, riding at 50w at 50rpm, as one test was set up, maybe more efficient than riding at 50w at 100rpm, but who wants to ride around at 50w!

My general advice is that for general riding, on flat to undulating ground, you want to aim for a cadence of between 85-100rpm. For climbing I don’t like to see cadences lower than around 70rpm for long periods of time. Cycling with a low cadence places more strain on the muscles and back, and will cause fatigue. Spinning at a higher rate reduces muscular stress, and places more emphasis on your cardiovascular system which has more ‘capacity’ and will recover much more quickly from bouts of hard work.

All but one of the professional hour record breakers in my lifetime won with an average cadence of over 100rpm. That’s got to tell you something about how to go fast!

If your current ‘cruise around cadence’ is lower than 85rpm then you really should make some changes to improve your endurance and speed.

As with any change you need to make gradual changes. Part of speeding up the legs is not physical at all, it is neural. Training the brain to send messages to your legs to move faster is surprisingly hard. If you are currently riding around at 70rpm (I bet some of you are!) then trying to increase to 95rpm in one move will be a disaster. You will find it extremely difficult and you will give up quickly.

Get it Visible

That which we don’t measure will not change. If you do not have a cadence sensor, buy one, fit it, and make sure that you have cadence on the front screen of your bike computer.

Chunk it up

Let’s say you want to improve from 75rpm to 95rpm, thats a 20rpm increase or more interestingly a 27% increase. This is going to be impossible if you shoot for a binary change. Your heart rate will be sky high, your pedalling technique will be all over the place and you will give up.

Instead chunk the desired improvement up into 5rpm buckets. Aim to increase your average cadence to 80rpm for the first few rides. Even this will feel strange at first and you will be surprised how hard it is to keep it up. Once 80rpm feels like the new normal then aim to increase to 85rpm and so on…..

Get really Fast 

To improve neural pathways and ‘teach’ the legs to move more quickly, I like to prescribe some super fast cadence drills that are best done on an indoor trainer.

Workout: Complete Cadence: Choose an easy gear and wind up to the highest cadence you can achieve without losing control and bouncing (power should be no higher than 60% FTP). Ride for 4.5 minutes at this rate. Then for 30 seconds spin as fast as you can, not worrying about control. Repeat this 5 minute sequence for a total of 20-40 minutes. At the end of the session check your average cadence and make a note of it. Next session try and increase this average and so on. You will improve your average very quickly. Call me when you can average 120rpm for the whole session.

Check your set up

Your cadence is affected by the shape of your body. Remember back in school physics classes when doing experiments involving moving objects with pulleys and levers? Well guess what – longer levers are stronger but move more slowly than short levers. So for cycling, the lever we are most interested in is our thigh bone. Long femurs are generally better for cycling because they can exert more pressure for a given force.

If you have particularly long femurs then you will want a long crank length. Short femurs then a shorter crank will suit your body type. Funny thing is, most bikes these days come with a crank length that will suit the average femur length. So if you have either very long or very short legs then it would be worth checking that you have the most appropriate crank length.

If you are building a new bike from scratch then I would now recommend fitting a shorter crank for most people, say a 170mm or even 165mm even if you are of average to short femur length.

Speed

Increasing cadence will improve your endurance by placing less demands on your muscles, which tire quickly. It will also improve your speed for a given muscular effort.

In the table below we can see how a given gear ratio and cadence translates to speed. Firstly let’s look at a nice easy climbing ratio of 34/27 – that means you are using the small ring on a compact chain-set, and a large 27 tooth cog on the rear cassette. At 60rpm (which I bet many of you are climbing at) you are moving the bike at 9.58kph. If you drop down a gear to a 30 tooth cog on the rear, and increase your cadence to 70rpm, you increase your speed to 10.02kph. Thats a 4.6% increase in speed. On a 10km climb, the easier gear, higher cadence option works out at 2m 45s faster. If you can master a higher cadence you will be able to climb faster with less muscular strain and hence better endurance.

Now let’s look at a fast gear ratio. 50/12 at 90rpm generates a speed of 47.54kph. Drop down a gear to a 50/13 and increase cadence to 100rpm and you are going 48.77kph a 2.6% gain. In a time trial this makes a massive difference and again the higher cadence will spare your legs and enable you to go faster for longer. Improving your cadence by 10rpm is not trivial but it is possible over a relatively short timescale.

Helping our riders improve cadence is a key deliverable from our coaching. It’s is one of the first things I look at when analysing a workout file and is the one element of cycling that I keep banging on about like a stuck record! Having seen the dramatic impact it has had on peoples’ cycling, and how relatively effortless it is to improve, it is a no brainer in terms of a big marginal gain.

If you would like to learn more about how you can make this important improvement to your cycling, then click HERE AND CONACT US

Have a great weekend and remember spinning is winning and grinding is well…..just a grind.

Rob Wakefield

Winter training can be a time of dread for us northern hemisphere riders. Short, cold days, often wet and windy, at least here in the South West, make for pretty miserable riding conditions. The traditional way of Winter training, getting a ‘grand in the bank’ (1000 miles of endurance riding) before any intensity starts is outdated and certainly outmoded. Very long rides, week in week out in cold conditions, is demotivating, unpleasant, and runs the risk of encouraging colds and flu and hence time off the bike. It is counterproductive.

For experienced and competitive cyclists looking to take on demanding endurance events, or those looking to race, I like to start training around 24 weeks from the first race they want to target for a great result, and this often means starting training in November or December. All performance is built on a solid aerobic foundation and that means time in the saddle. So how do we build this aerobic fitness without having to ride 6 hour rides?

Firstly, for winter you need to get yourself  geared up for outside rides and set up for indoor training in an environment that is motivating, and will keep you engaged. Today there are several software applications that make training inside more enjoyable. Zwift and Rouvy are two of my favourites, and our coached athletes can now automatically synchronise their Training Peaks workouts to them, to follow the workout on the screen. One note of caution. For structured workouts, built with power targets or ranges, you should turn the erg mode of your smart trainer OFF. Erg mode is great for simulating climbs and rides but it has some nasty unintended consequences for interval training of any kind.

Once you have yourself set up with a good indoor trainer, music, and cool software to keep you engaged, what type of training should you do to build this aerobic foundation without the long outside rides?

1. Firstly, let me stress that unless you are one of those dedicated (read crazy!) athletes that can ride indoors for 3 hours+, then there is no substitute for a good 3hour endurance ride. This means that your training plan has to be flexible, if possible, so that you can ride when the weather is good. Duration is king but go when the weather is good.
2. Focus your indoor cycling sessions initially on basic abilities.
   1. Short intervals at low cadence in a big gear, is a great resistance training session that starts to build muscular endurance.
   2. Short intervals at high cadence 100-120rpm+ in a medium gear, is a great technique training session that will slowly help improve your self selected cadence. Increasing cadence is still the single easiest improvement most amateur cyclist can make.
   3. Incorporate plenty of tempo workouts (on 2-4 days per week) with the focus on extending duration, not power. Build up slowly each session so that you are doing 45-90 minutes of tempo riding in a single workout, depending on your level of experience and event/race demand. This does not have to be steady state riding – incorporate some surges and bursts to mimic riding on the road and keep you more mentally engaged.
3. Hit the gym. Work on improving sport specific functional strength, ideally under the supervision of a strength coach.
4. Work on your weaknesses. For many it is the ability to work at high intensity that limits performance. I like to include some high intensity sessions from the second block of training, depending on the level of rider I am dealing with. Historically, high intensity was shunned in the winter training period as it was feared that riders would burn out too quickly. Whilst this can certainly be the case, the key is the dose of these workouts. This is where an experienced coach will be able to help you.
5. Block training. Whilst rest and recovery are important, blocking together a few days of solid training can reap big rewards. The key is to slightly over reach to become adapted to riding on tired legs. Building up your resistance to fatigue is massively important and is largely overlooked by amateur riders, who focus more on increasing power and intensity. Longer tempo intervals, as highlighted above, will lay the foundations to enable you to push harder for longer.  3-4 days back to back muscular and endurance training, followed by 2 easy or rest days will test your resolve but deliver the goods! These are especially important when training for multi day stage races, and will also mean that you have a very solid aerobic base when it comes to stepping up to the harder sessions.

Here is your checklist for Winter Training:

1. 3 hour endurance rides with tempo efforts up the hills as and when the weather allows for a safe and enjoyable ride.
2. Plenty of short intervals focused on building muscular endurance and improving cadence.
3. Plenty of tempo intervals focused on increasing duration, not power.
4. Sport specific functional strength training in the gym.
5. Work on your weaknesses and build in some hard efforts – one session per 7-10 days is fine at this stage.
6. Block training – do 3-4 workouts back to back followed by 2 days easy for great results.

Above all, really try and be consistent with your training this winter. Little and often is much better than grabbing a long ride and then not riding for 4 days due to bad weather. If you can get 4 out of the 6 above nailed you will be well on your way to making 2019 your best year yet.

If you would like to talk to me about any of our Coaching Packages then I am offering FREE 15 minute consultations to the first 10 people to make CONTACT.

What have you got to lose?

Rob Wakefield –  Level 3 UK Cycling Coach, Certified Training Peaks Coach.

Now it’s getting near that time of year when many of you will have been training, racing and riding pretty hard for a long time. Many of you start your training in November in readiness for those April to May early season races and events. You may then have taken a mini break, but then launched right back into training for a new summer peak, maybe even a third in September.

This reminded me of a song by arguably the best band ever to have existed, Led Zeppelin.

If it keeps on rainin’ levee’s goin’ to break
If it keeps on rainin’ levee’s goin’ to breakGoing down, going down now, going down
going down now, going down, going down, going down, going down
Going down, going down now, going down
going down now, going down
going down now, going down
Going d-d-d-d-down

Now substitute the words rainin’ with trainin’ and my little variation starts to make some sense right? Think of fitness as adding water behind a dam. The more water you add the more strain the dam is put under. The dam is analogous to your body. The more training you put behind it the more strain it places on your body and the more likely it is to break. Every year we need to open the gates and let some of that water out to ease the strain and let the body become strong again.

The race season is now coming to an end with the traditional end of season hill climbs and the final road and criterium races. The sportive season is slowly grinding to an end although there seems to be more and more late season events encroaching into the middle of October. This is a shame as it tempts you to continue to train for far too long and not give yourself enough rest and recuperation time.

October is traditionally called the ‘off season’.  This is a time of year where you take time off from hard training and get yourself mentally and physically prepared for next season.  Now I am not advocating taking a whole month off slouched on the sofa eating Krispy Kremes and gaining 5kg, however you really do need to let go of some of your hard earned peak fitness.

And this is why…..

Trying to maintain it will not make your next season’s results any better – it will make them WORSE. It simply isn’t possible to be in top shape every week for the entire year. Trying to do so will likely lead to mental burnout, injury or illness and could lead to full blown overtraining. Not a good place.

Now I understand that for the really dedicated amongst you this is going to be REALLY HARD. But please believe me it is a really important part in the preparation for next season.

In order to build back to new fitness peaks you have to allow your fitness to FALL in the off season. I like to see Critical Training Load (CTL) fall to somewhere between 45-55 for well trained athletes – about half where their season peaks have been. Now that is PRETTY SCARY right? Losing 50% of fitness! But wait a minute – what does 50% of fitness really mean? If you keep riding some nice easy rides in October then your endurance fitness will remain rock solid. But by cutting out MOST of the intensity you will lose a little race sharpness, but who cares unless you are racing CX, as its out of season.

Believe me when I say that this is one of the most important periods in your training year. I have seen people try to maintain CTL’s of 80-100 all year and it always ends badly.

So please abandon the idea of staying in race shape all winter. Instead, decide when it is you want to have an excellent level of fitness in the coming season. It will probably take you something like 24 weeks to get back to to race shape so if you have more than six months until your next A-priority race relax your training for a few weeks –  2-6 weeks is a good period of time. It does not have to be in October either. For some, December is a better time, especially if their target events and races are in the summer. If you are racing CX or MTB then your off season should be in February or March (not bad months to take a break!).

By all means continue to take regular exercise but make sure that there are days of DOING NOTHING. A little intensity for us older riders is also a good thing as it keeps those top end energy systems alive and keeps those harder efforts close at hand.

AVOID other athletes who keep training hard. You know the type. They are doing intervals and hard group workouts when it doesn’t count for anything. They are the turkeys at Christmas and won’t be jumping like spring lambs in May.

Be creative with your exercise. Do something different from what you might normally do. I try and rekindle my old passion for surfing while the water is still nice and warm and the Autumn swells are often good. I also get back in the gym twice a week and start my adaption phase for the heavy weight lifting that is to come.

Just do something different and HAVE SOME FUN!

Training should be about delivering performance when it counts.

We now have two ways for you to connect with our growing Cycling Collective. We are already signing new riders to our Winter Coaching Programme and new for this year you can also Join Propello as a yearly member for those that want to belong to our growing group of riders, share the experience, take advantage of the benefits whilst not having to commit to a coaching programme.

Enjoy your October and I look forward to seeing you refreshed and raring to start training sometime in November.

Rob

As someone who has (inherited!) poor quality teeth, and having had numerous root canal treatments and now implants, I am worried about what I see riders putting into their mouths on an all too regular basis. Products that, if we saw our children eating and drinking them, would be banned from the ‘treats’ drawer for ever!

There is an unnecessary consumption of energy products, in my opinion, which contain an amazing amount of sugar. As we know, sugar is bad for teeth and gums, so what are we doing to ourselves? I asked my friend, fellow cyclist and dentist (definitely in that order) for some advice about how we can be limiting the damage.

Rob has asked me to produce a short guide to how sports drinks and foods can impact on your dental health and give some tips or strategies to help minimise that impact.

Let me start by saying I am a dentist (at Whitehall Dental Practice in South Molton – let me get my plug in right away!) but also a keen cyclist. Being asked to write this has given me an opportunity to look at the latest guidelines and will shape my own strategies as well.

London Olympics 2012 was used by some eminent dental researchers to study elite athletes dental health. Guess what – it was really bad! On the same levels as the most socially deprived groups in society. What they found was high levels of tooth decay, gum disease and dental erosion.

Allow me to bore you somewhat with an explanation of these disease processes and what can happen if they go on un-detected or un-treated.   

Everyone’s mouths are full of bacteria – disgusting but true. If you give them fuel, sugar being their favourite, they process it and the bi-product is acid. This acid dissolves your teeth, making holes in them. Your saliva has an ability to neutralise the acid stopping the damage – but it takes a little time to do this. The more frequently you give the bacteria fuel, the longer your teeth are under attack. If you don’t brush properly then plaque forms on your teeth. This is a white sticky combination of undigested food and bacteria. It is very commonly seen on teenage boys teeth… When I see this on kids teeth I say “if your mum left your food out on the table for a week, would you eat it? Well that is what is on your teeth!’ Equally effective on the parents! Getting back to plaque – well this blocks the buffering effect of the saliva – so more damage is caused. It gets worse. If you don’t brush the plaque off regularly, it calcifies due to calcium salts in the saliva. Think of stalactites in caves – same process. This is caller tartar (dental name = calculus) and you can’t then brush this off, it has to be scraped off by your hygienist or dentist. It is a great environment for bacteria – a sort of stone city for them to live in – and they then cause gum disease. All sounds lovely doesn’t it? Finally we have erosion. This is the process where acidic foodstuffs and in certain conditions stomach acid dissolve the surface of the teeth.

What happens if these go untreated?

Dental decay leads to cavities in your teeth. These can be brown and unsightly, but also as they progress will start to make the test sensitive to hot and cold. If the decay progresses further, it can cause the nerve of the tooth to die resulting in an abscess. Early treatment is less invasive and less expensive. Gum disease starts as gingivitis. This can be seen as bleeding gums – often, but not always, detected by blood in your spit after brushing. This then progresses to full-blown gum disease (periodontal disease) where the plaque has become tartar and you start to lose the attachment of the gum to the tooth. Untreated your teeth can become wobbly and drop out. This is the biggest cause of tooth loss in adults. Acid erosion is reported in 50% of elite athletes! I have to say though that it is much less seen a problem in general dental practice. That said, those affected, can be quite be debilitated by it – severe sensitivity – no more Hockings Ice Creams.

Ok I have the bad news out of the way, let’s talk about some coping strategies and preventive measures.

As a cyclist you are likely to be using gels and sports drinks. So you will be getting more than your fair share of sugar when you are out riding. Try and avoid it elsewhere in your life. Use it just for training and racing and avoid the cake shop on the way home. Sorry Bike Shed cafe! Remember rule #91 No food on training rides under 4 hours. As a general rule, processed sugars are worse than natural ones. Sticky foods are worse than non-sticky ones. Acidic fruit (oranges) are worse than non-acidic ones (bananas)

You can’t really avoid processed sugars when cycling – they release energy quickly when you are exercising – but the good news is that they will generally be consumed in a non-sticky format.

I will go through what you generally take out on a bike ride. I am not a sports nutritionist so you will need to find what works best for you and consult a nutritionist if you run into trouble. I use the app MyFitnessPal – you will put those naughty snacks down if you use the app to scan their bar codes!

Water bottles:

These drinks include energy drinks (normally with a CHO concentration of >10%),

A bottle of Lucozade Energy Orange has 15 teaspoons of sugar in a 380ml bottle nicely wrapped in an acidic fruit wrapper. Avoid

Isotonic sports drinks such as Lucozade Sport or PowerAde have about 8 teaspoons of sugar

Hypotonic drinks such as Torq have less again and can be added in powder form.

Water – old school but if you are getting fuel from one of the other sources, this will better for your teeth. You can add electrolyte tablets to this which are available zero calorie.

Dehydration

As mentioned previously, your saliva is vital for protecting your teeth and a dry mouth is one of the first signs of dehydration. Keep hydrated at all times to reduce the effects of sugar consumption.

Gels:  These come in varying degrees of sweetness and stickiness. Avoid the gloopier gels for the good of your teeth

Bars: Protein bars from about 3 teaspoons

Carbohydrate bars such as Clif have 11 teaspoons

Paleo bars – I make a cold-pressed bar made from brazil nuts, raisins, dates and a small amount of honey.

So eat before you go out with a slow release energy source – say porridge. Then brush your teeth – so there is less plaque on your teeth

Drink water to rinse your teeth

Don’t hold the drinks or foods in your mouth for longer than you have to

Prevention

Fluoride is very effective at preventing tooth decay. As mentioned above, athletes are in the high-risk category for dental diseases, so it would be a good idea to maximise your fluoride exposure. Firstly, don’t rinse out your toothpaste with water – just spit it out. If you are consuming lots of sugary foods and drinks, it is advised you use a high Fluoride toothpaste. These are only available at the dentist, you can’t buy them over the counter. You may be able to obtain these on prescription, but the NHS is facing cuts so it might not be readily accessible.

Brush you teeth twice a day, once last thing at night and one other time.

Visit your dentist twice a year. Picking up problems early is vital to prevent running into difficulties later. Once the decay gets through the hard outer layer of the tooth (enamel) it will progress quite quickly. You won’t get many symptoms from teeth problems until really quite late.

Don’t smoke – I don’t need to elaborate on that.

As with all advice given by “experts” do as I say, not as I do…..

We focus a lot on the process of our training. Building workouts into training plans, monitoring progress, power, heart rate, cadence…..and so on. On race day most of us are meticulous about our physical preparation and super organised with what we need to perform well – carb loading, energy bars, drinks, bike serviced, sun block, washed kit, new socks (or is that just me?).

As a coach I understand that the physical and organisational preparation is essential, but most of us miss one vital ingredient – MENTAL TRAINING & PREPARATION.

I have just finished reading a great book called ‘How Bad Do You Want It’ by Matt Fitzgerald, which I highly recommend. In one chapter, titled, The Art of Letting Go, he describes the experience of a triathlete athlete, Siri Lindley, who finished third in her division at the 1994 age group triathlon World Championships and then turned professional.

With her sights set on the Sydney Olympics, she moved to Australia to be close to her coach and to be away from all distractions, dedicating her whole life to training until she qualified. Siri lived a solitary life, slept in a high – altitude simulation chamber, and fell asleep every night imagining her perfect Olympic qualification race. However her solitude, and obsession with doing everything ‘right’ was draining all the fun out of being triathlete.

Siri did not need to win the Olympic qualifier, she just needed to beat the four other American women in the race. A difficult start in the swim, she panicked and pushed way to hard to catch up, rushed the transition and then rode herself to the limit on the bike. By lap 2 of 6 laps on bike she braked, unclipped and quit.

So what happened? In a word she choked. The race had been totally different to how she had visualised for a year beforehand, and she could not adapt.

Choking is best described as “poor performance that occurs in response to the perceived stress of the situation” (Sian Beilock). The source of the stress is the sense of the importance of the performance and achieving a certain OUTCOME from it.

Recent research into the brain suggests that it is not the pressure per se that cause people to choke, it is more self consciousness. Impaired performance when the stakes are high is linked to activity in the brain linked to self awareness.

This self awareness distracts us from totally concentrating at the task at hand and also reduces movement efficiency. Athletes perform better when they are focused on key features of their environment rather than their own body. This is the reason that people tend to perform better when training indoors when they have something to look at or listen to. Ask someone to ride as hard as they can for 5km and then ask them to chase another rider avatar for 5km, and almost certainly the rider focusing on the chase will ride faster than when just racing himself.

Self consciousness seems to increase PERCEIVED EFFORT and hence reduces endurance performance.

Following her disappointments Siri decided to switch coaches to Brett Sutton. One of his first questions was – WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS? – to which she replied – to win a World Cup race, to win the US Championships and a World Championship medal.

In no uncertain terms he told her to forget all of those goals and to mentally retire! All those OUTCOME GOALS were putting way too much pressure on Siri. Sutton wanted her to get back to loving triathlon, and seeing just how fit, fast and strong she could become.

To Siri this was an epiphany.

The more people fantasise about specific OUTCOMES the less likely they are to achieve them. Obsessing about OUTCOMES has been shown to be a bad coping skill that may be associated with a lack of self confidence in one’s ability. Siri’s nightly mental rehearsal functioned as a fantasy because it only ever ran through a perfect performance.

We are all better placed to directing our energies into DOING not DREAMING.

Siri’s performances almost immediately improved. Set free to focus on racing, rather than winning, she won race after race, in the process beating Brigette McMahon who five weeks later claimed Olympic Gold. Siri finished the season with a World Cup Gold in Cancun.

Triumph in the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton was the high point in her personal happiness as an athlete. Letting go of her goals and finding happiness in the day to day process of training and racing was the turning point.

Letting go of the dream enabled her to ACHIEVE it.

Is there an opposite of CHOKING – the mental and physical self sabotage that increases perceived effort and hampers endurance performance?

Can we be in a state where self consciousness disappears and efforts feel easier producing greater performance?

I have definitely found this place on some occasions. A training ride or event where I have had to dig really deep but for some reason the effort does not feel too bad and I actually enjoy it! When I am completely immersed in the effort feeling like I am looking down on myself.

Actually scientists have a name for this and it is a real thing. It is called FLOW.

Athletes are in the flow state when they feel an ‘absolute unity with one’s effort’. Hard work still feels hard but the feeling becomes enjoyable.

• Anything that helps an athlete become less self conscious promotes the flow state.
• Focusing on your environment rather than yourself promotes the flow state.
• Having confidence that you are physically prepared promotes the flow state.

Flow is difficult to attain of you are prone to NEGATIVE THOUGHTS, and some athletes are especially prone to this when they have excessive focus on the DESIRED OUTCOME. This can be any outcome, both in terms of winning competitions or even in training when you are fixated on hitting a desired wattage when cycling for example.

Attaining OUTCOME GOALS will not result in SELF BELIEF.

SELF BELIEF has to come FIRST and comes from letting go and caring a little less about the outcome. This will seem counterintuitive to many of you. Surely we do well in the things we care deeply about? But the evidence suggests that an athlete that can put goals out of her mind, to train and race in the moment, will gain more self belief and perform to the best of her ability.

This ‘just do it’ mentality promotes a self belief in a way that no amount of fantastical visualisation can.

“Real confidence comes from real training and real results. It must be truthful” (Siri Lindley)

SirI is now retired and is now a great coach. Her coaching philosophy is based around ‘Gratitude and Belief’

• Gratitude is about letting go of outcomes and fully embracing the privilege and process of pursuing your dreams.
• Belief is about building confidence and self trust that is the polar opposite of the doubt fuelled fixation on goals and outcomes.

I believe that way too many of us focus on the outcome rather than the process. The slightly uncomfortable truth for all of us is that we are all capped by our genetic ceiling. Fixating on outcomes, over which we have no control, makes no sense. We can train perfectly, be prepared both physically and mentally, have the best kit in the world and still not know who is going to turn up on the start line.

We should all take a leaf out of Siri’s experience and live more in the moment, be grateful that we are able to live the lives we do, aim to do the best we can with time and genetics we are blessed with, and gain joy in the deep sense of satisfaction that will come from being the best versions of ourselves.

Rob Wakefield

Ref: How Bad do you Want It – Matt Fitzgerald

Hello Everyone!

This is a follow up article to the very first article I wrote for the website over 3 years ago! Being open minded and adaptable is at the very heart of progress, advancement and improvement. Here is how I began the article 3 years ago.

It is a question that I often get asked. Can I do my Propello weekly workouts on the road rather than indoors on the turbo? The quick answer is yes. We should all train in the way that best suits the time we have available, that keeps us motivated and delivers results. However, we believe that our structured workouts are best executed on a turbo trainer. Why?

Training using a turbo trainer removes many of the external elements that can hinder the delivery of a consistent training effort; rain and wind are obvious climatic variables that can alter the way that we have to ride. Living and training on the edge of Exmoor we also struggle to find flat roads to put in a sustained effort for more than a handful of minutes. Using a turbo trainer means that you can hop on your bike and have exactly the same conditions to train in day after day.  A turbo will allow you to train with more control, delivering more consistency to your efforts and be more specific in terms of training intensity.

Importantly it is also a much safer environment to train in, removing the need to be traffic aware, which allows you to focus on delivering the effort needed and wonder at the increasing power numbers that you are delivering on your cycle computer screen!

So have I changed my mind?

Well YES and NO!

I actually still believe in most of what I wrote back then, BUT in recent years I have not swung my leg over the top tube of my turbo bike or used a Wattbike (I should not really say that owning a Wattbike Studio!) from about April to November unless the weather has been truly awful.

Why not?

There are several reasons that training outside has advantages over the indoor set up

1. It is more realistic – one of the fundamental principles of training is that it should be specific to the demands of your event. Unless you are riding Zwift races all year, then outside has got to be more specific. Even training for the long climbs of the mountains can be done in Devon, but not on Exmoor hills!
2. It develops greater riding skills – having to deal with the elements and road conditions is a crucial part of becoming an accomplished rider. We see far too many riders who are fit but still can’t ride a bike properly outside!
3. It is more engaging – training on the road means that it easier to introduce different motivators. For example, indoor training nearly always specifies intensity and time as the goal – go this hard for this length of time. Get outside and we can now specify intensity and distance as the goal. – go this hard for this distance. A small change but one that is somehow more engaging, especially for repeated intervals when you know exactly where the finish line is!
4. You can get more watts out! Generally you will be able to put out more power on the road, especially for those crucial race winning super hard efforts which are impossible to replicate indoors.
5. It is easier to build in some useful endurance zone riding time with an extended cool down ride. You can do this indoors but who really wants to ride 60 mins endurance indoors at the end of an interval session?
6. And not forgetting that it is better for your wellbeing, and much better for tanning those cleanly shaven legs!

There are pros and cons of both indoor and outdoor approaches. The safety element is definitely one to think about. If you are new to training and new to doing hard efforts then I can see a strong argument for keeping indoors. If you have been training for a while and have experience out on the road, then I just think that outside training is more specific, develops better skills, is more engaging, uncovers true power and is more versatile.

Whatever your preference have a great weekend riding!

It looks like the sun is out so go on get those guns out and soak up some Vitd!

Rob