Fitness & Training for Bicyclists

These articles appeared in Bicyclist Magazine (previously, Bicycle Guide), which has since gone out of business and reappeared as Bike, a magazine dedicated to mountain bicycling.  I have captured and re-produced these articles here to ensure that they are not lost from the web.

Contents of this Page                                                                                                            

What Is Fitness? An Athelete's Primer for Defining the Term Cardiovascular Fitness Metabolic Fitness Muscular Power Health-Related Fitness Strength Training Tireless Legs Part One: Base Miles Sample Base Miles Schedule Tireless Legs Part Two: Power Base Sample Power Base Schedule Training For The Pack Building the Perfect Cyclist Strength & Power Mental Toughness Endurance Flexibility Nutrition Recovery Your Training Chart

Weight Training Fueling for the Big One Is Your Fitness Stale?  (Training Intensity) Training:  Rest to Go Faster (Overtraining) Training: Multiday Racing Winter Weights for Spring Speed Training Elements (Motorola's '97 Winter Training) Motorola' s Winter Training Plan Late Season LSD (Long Slow Distance) Caffeine Fitness Foundation: Aerobic Base Conditioning Interval Training for Aerobic Power Aerobic Interval Training Schedule Endurance Nutrition Systems: Using Food As Medicine The Conconi Method of Cycling For Life Improve Your Sprint

What is Fitness?  An Athlete's Primer for Defining the Term

Everywhere you look these days, the topic is fitness: how to get fit in 10 minutes, how to be fit for life, how to be fit not fat. Infomercials on late-night TV proclaim that you can be fit if you buy their latest fitness gizmo for only $49.95. Superbeef gym or Barbie's fitness center will get you fit for the beach for only $39 per month. Weight lifters think of themselves as fit, as do aerobics instructors and football players, and certainly we as cyclists think we're very fit. With all these differences, it's no wonder most of us have only a vague idea of the meaning of a word we use almost every day. Even those supposedly in the know have different ways of describing fitness. Many coaches think in terms of percent of maximum heart rate, whereas most physiologists think in terms of percent of VO2 max. Over the next year, this "Training" column will feature articles on various types of training that will target specific aspects of fitness. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to explain the physiological and metabolic components of fitness that are important for cycling and define a common language which we will use over the coming year.

Fitness for the endurance cyclist can be divided into four general categories:

• Cardiovascular fitness
• Metabolic fitness and metabolic
  efficiency
• Muscular power
• Health-related fitness

Cardiovascular Fitness

This is usually defined as the maximum rate at which you can take in and use oxygen (VO2 max: the maximum volume flow rate of oxygen) and is determined by measuring the amount of oxygen that you extract from the air you breath during maximal exercise. The protocol is usually a fairly short (6- to 10-minute) test on a cycle ergometer during which the workload is increased until you fail, and you will fail. Results are expressed as either absolute VO2 max (liters/minute) or relative to body weight (milliliters/kilogram/minute). Absolute values range from around 2.5 l/min. in smaller people to over 6 l/min. in elite men and from about 40 ml/kg/min. to over 80 ml/kg/min. when expressed relative to body weight. When cycling over flat terrain, absolute VO2 rules. However, if the road points upward, relative VO2 max will become more critical.

What determines VO2 max? It is primarily limited by the amount of oxygenated blood the cardiopulmonary system can provide to the working muscles and, to a lesser extent, by the amount of oxygen the working muscles can extract from the blood. The delivery of oxygenated blood to the working muscles is limited by cardiac output, which is the product of heart rate and stroke volume. The ability of the working muscles to extract oxygen is characterized by the arterial-venous oxygen difference (a-v O2 difference). The exchange of oxygen at the lungs is probably not a limiting factor in normal, healthy people at low altitude, but may be limiting in highly elite endurance athletes or in normal people at high altitude. The main benefit of training is to increase stroke volume. Although maximum heart rate is thought to be unaffected by training and to decrease with age, some studies have found that training helps maintain maximum heart rate during aging.

Metabolic Fitness

This is a measure of how well you have trained your working muscles. Most everyone, except the most highly trained, is limited by metabolic rather than cardiovascular fitness. You will know when you have attained really high metabolic fitness because you become what is called "centrally limited." That is, you will be able to ride at heart rates very near maximum without your legs screaming. Really, it happens! The best indicator of metabolic fitness is probably your lactate threshold (LT), which is often inaccurately called anaerobic threshold. (Briefly, the term anaerobic threshold implies that the muscle is operating without oxygen-however, the accumulation of lactic acid in the blood at submaximal intensities is a normal part of aerobic metabolism.) LT is determined by the amount of muscle mass you recruit (i.e., how well you distribute work among muscle fibers) and by the capillary density and mitochondrial density of that muscle. The capillaries are the smallest blood vessels in the muscle and are the place where oxygen exchange occurs; when these are increased in number with training, oxygen transport occurs more readily. The mitochondria are the aerobic powerhouses in the muscle-these too increase with training and are perhaps the most important element of metabolic fitness. They metabolize fat and glucose together with oxygen to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of the muscle. LT is measured by taking blood samples during several submaximal work rates on a laboratory ergometer. The characteristics of the work rate versus lactate relationship are these:

1. At low work rates, the lactic acid level in the blood remains about the same as resting levels. This level is referred to as baseline. The lactate level remains low because the rate at which lactate is produced by your muscles and cleared from the blood are about equal.

2. As the work rate is increased, lactate levels in the blood increase, and at some point the lactate concentration exceeds a limit (various labs use different criteria) which is defined as lactate threshold. An untrained person will reach lactate threshold at about 50 to 60 percent of his VO2 max, whereas a well-trained cyclist will reach LT at about 75 to 80 percent of his VO2 max.

3. At intensities above LT, the lactate versus work-rate curve becomes very steep, indicating that lactic acid and other metabolites are accumulating in both blood and the muscles.

There is another side to metabolic fitness: metabolic efficiency (ME). ME is determined in a protocol similar to the one used to determine LT. From the measured gases (e.g., inspired and expired O2 and CO2), the amount of metabolic energy you are producing can be calculated. Since the amount of work you are performing is known, it is easy to determine the portion of metabolic energy that produces mechanical work and the proportion that produces heat. Metabolic efficiency can vary from 20 to 25 percent and is highly dependent on the percentage of slow-twitch fibers in your muscles. This range may not sound like much, but think about it: For roughly the same VO2, an inefficient rider may produce, say, 200 watts while a very efficient rider will produce 240 watts-a power difference of 20 percent! Unfortunately, there may not be much you can do to improve your ME other than change your fiber type. Although it is possible to change muscle-fiber type by chronic nerve stimulation, this has never been proved to occur with training. Anecdotally, we observe that elite cyclists who have trained for many years have a high proportion of slow-twitch fibers, but it is not known for sure if the training caused the observed distribution or if they became elite because they had the efficient fiber type to start with.

The best predictor of endurance performance is the power you can produce at your LT. This is a great composite measure because it takes into account your VO2 max, your LT and your ME. However, even power at LT is not a limiting value for endurance performance. Most people can perform for one hour at 10 to 15 percent above their LT. Elite cyclists with LTs of 80-plus percent have ridden for one hour at 93 percent of their VO2 max, and less trained cyclists with LTs of about 70 percent can maintain about 80 to 85 percent.

Muscular Power

Muscular fitness is hard to define, but it usually involves some measure of maximal power output. In a lab we might measure your peak power, which might range from 600 to 2000 watts for about three seconds. Or, if you really wanted the bottom line, we could give you a 30-second all-out Wingate test, during which you would briefly (5 to 10 seconds) produce your maximum power, then fatigue for the last 20 to 25 seconds (Ouch!). Muscular fitness is related more to your ability to recruit muscle mass (which can be developed through strength-training techniques), and even though you may not consider yourself a sprinter or power athlete, if you ride a bike, you are a power athlete.

When people talk about fitness, there is often confusion in terminology. People often use percent of maximum heart rate when they mean percent of VO2 max and vice versa. While there are many problems related to quantifying intensity when using a heart-rate monitor, it can give you some meaningful feedback and you may be able to make some general guesses based on a calculation of heart-rate reserve (HRR). The first step in this calculation is to determine your max heart rate (best to have this done in a lab with medical care available). Secondly, you should determine your "no load" heart rate. To do this, just put your bike on a trainer with no resistance and pedal at about 30 rpm. This no-load heart rate is probably better than resting heart rate for determining HRR. Now let's say your max was 190 beats per minute (bpm) and your no-load was 90 bpm. This gives you an HRR of 100 bpm. The percent of HRR is roughly (and I mean roughly) equivalent to percent of VO2 max. You can calculate the percent HRR as: percent HRR = 100 x no-load HR/HRR.

For instance, if you did a flat time trial and kept your heart rate at 170 bpm, you could calculate that you were at 89 percent of HRR [100 x (170-90)/100 = 100 x 80/90 = 89 percent]. This would indicate that you were at roughly 88 to 90 percent of VO2 max, indicating that you are very fit!

Health-Related Fitness

What about good, old health? As a cyclist interested in fitness, you probably are most concerned about how far or fast you can ride your bike. Also, as a person interested in health, you are probably interested in your weight, blood pressure and your potential to develop heart disease or diabetes. Coincidentally, everything you do to improve your cycling fitness will also improve your health. Training increases the good HDL cholesterol in the blood and decreases the bad LDL. After exercise, your muscles take up blood glucose more rapidly. Exercise decreases blood pressure. Training also raises your resting metabolic rate so you not only burn calories while you ride, but you burn more during the rest of the day. Both your fitness and your health benefit from endurance cycling training. So, next time you feel torn between fitness and duty, go ride--think of it as preventative medicine.

Jim Martin was the 1988 Master's 30- to 34-year-old National Match Sprint Champion. Currently, Jim is the coach and director of sports science for Team EDS and is a doctoral candidate in kinesiology at the University of Texas. Additionally, Jim has served as a technical consultant to Project '96 on cycling aerodynamics.

Strength Training: Weights Now Equals Power Later
By Jim Martin
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What a great feeling: You're sitting comfortably in the lead group with only a few miles to go. You made it through the hills with the best climbers, and now finally, finally, you're going to finish in the front group. Then you hear it over your left shoulder-the whoop-whoop-whoop of tires under power. You turn to see a rider out of the saddle launching an all-out attack. Immediately, the bunch reacts and goes single file. You're pushing as hard as you can, but you find yourself going backward. Rider after rider goes around you and suddenly, inexplicably, you find yourself off the back. Darn! Not again! Why, if you're fit enough for the climbs, could you not handle the attack?

Sound familiar? It should. Almost every rider I know has gone through a phase in which he has the fitness to race or ride fast group rides but he lacks the speed to handle the serious attacks and the sprint finish. Mass-start bicycle racing places physiological demands on you for both aerobic endurance and anaerobic power-demands that are somewhat unique in the athletic world and not fully compatible with each other.

With endurance training, you make various adaptations to your cardiovascular system and to your muscles that allow you to ride at high levels of effort for several hours. You also make adaptations in the way your central nervous system (CNS) recruits your muscles. Specifically, when you train for endurance, your muscles' motor units are recruited asynchronously. That is, you recruit only a portion of your muscle fibers for any given pedal stroke. This is great for endurance, where the demand for muscular power is low, but it is disastrous for those brief periods when you need maximal power. For instance, it is common for endurance athletes to see dramatic increases in their vertical jump after they stop training. To gain power, your CNS must be reprogrammed to fire all your muscle fibers at once. One of the best ways to teach your body to recruit all your fibers for maximum power is with good old-fashioned strength training. With winter upon us, this is just the right time to head for the gym and begin to build a strength base for the attacks that will surely come fast and furious next spring.

Cycling is a sport of hip and knee extensions-therefore, the lifts you perform should mimic these actions. The primary lifts are squats, dead lifts, knee extensions and hamstring curls. If you don't feel comfortable with free-weight squats and dead lifts, the squat machines or sleds common in gyms are good alternatives. Calf raises are also valuable, but in my opinion, the only safe calf-raise machine is the "donkey calf," or the sled. Cycling requires minimal upper-body strength, but biceps curls and bench presses or, better yet, decline bench presses provide some balance for your chest and arms.

Getting Started

Step 1: First, you need to find a gym where you're comfortable. Gyms run the gamut from a few free weights in a small space to the chrome and glass at the singles gyms, so spend a little time and find one that's right for you. Most gyms will give you a trial pass for one workout, so try two or three before you plunk down your cash.

Step 2: The first day you lift, keep the weights and repetitions low. For instance, even though you may have squatted eight reps of 225 pounds last spring, you should start with no more than, say, four reps of 85 pounds for your first time out in the fall. If this is your first time lifting, be very conservative. I recommend on the first day you simply lift the bar a few reps and leave.

Here are two pointers for the first few days in the gym: 1) Don't let someone take you through a fitness evaluation where you do maximum lifts at every station. This will leave you so sore you probably will not walk well for three days. 2) Remember you're in the gym to become a faster cyclist. It's easy to get distracted from this point when you see all the he-man body builders walking around and you're looking at your skinny build in the mirror. Just remember: You can drop those guys like a stone. Plus, they're not even athletes-they're posers, literally.

Step 3: During these first few visits to the gym, while the weight is light, you want to learn the proper technique for each lift. Be careful to keep all your movements slow and controlled. Always lift with a spotter present (many gyms will provide someone for you.)

For squats, the most common mistake I've seen is to position the bar too high. Often I see people with the bar right on their necks. This can lead to serious injury. The correct position for the bar is about the upper third of your shoulder blades. This will be uncomfortable for your arms at first, but it will save your neck and give you better balance with heavier weight you will lift later. Position your feet about shoulder width apart, with your toes pointing straight ahead. Keep your back flat and squat down until your hamstrings are about parallel with the floor. This is called "bottom parallel" and is as far as you need to go for roaf riding training. Learn to stray balanced and keep your heels on the floor. Many people use a board under their heels while squatting because they don't gell comfortable or balanced with their feet flat on the floor, but I do not recommend it. I suggest you tru to adjust to lifting with your feet on the floor by staying conservative with the weights and gaining flexibility.

Straight-legged dead lifts are performed with the knees slightly bent and are an exercise in simple hip extension. Grip the bar with a reverse grip, one hand palm out and one palm toward you. Use a dead-lift platform so you can take the bar down to your shoe tops. Lift the bar until your torso is slightly less than vertical. The habit you will see at the gym of leaning way back with the wright is pointless and potentially injurious.

For knee extensions and hamstring curls, take care to position the center of your knee at the center of rotations of the machine's arm.

Step 4: After three to four workouts of learning the lifts and getting over any initial soreness, you are ready to start strength training. I recommend onlyu lifting twice a week, with at least two days of recovery. Mondays and Thursdays work best for me, but you'll have to devide what works best with your schedule. Here is a general guidelin for a four-month lifting program, beginning after the initial period previously described.

Keeping a schedule

Weeks 1 to 4: Keep the weights light enough so that you can handle two or three sets of 12 to 15 repetitions. This period is aimed at learning the lifts, gaining flexibility and preventing injury. As you get stronger, increase the weight so you are at or near failure at the last rep.

Weeks 5 to 8: Increase the weight so you can only perform three sets of 8 to 10 reps at each station. Alternate the number of reps you perform in your two workouts (e.g. Monday is a 8-rep day and Thursday is a 10-rep day). As before, increase the weight so as to elicit failure on the last rep of the last set.

Weeks 9 to 12: Decrease the reps again, this time to three sets of six to eight reps. By now, the weight is starting to get pretty heavy, and you'll have gained a lot of confidence in the gym and in your strength. Increase the weight as needed to elicit failure.

Weeks 12 to 16: Continue to perform six to eight reps but only two sets. Decrease the weight by about 20 percent and increase the speed of each lift. Do not jerk the weight, but lift it quickly during the extension phase. This explosive type of lifting will prepare you for the maximum acceleration you'll need on the bike.

Weight training can provide a nice break from on-the-bike training and give you more speed when you need it. Always keep in mind that you're lifting to become a better cyclist, not a body builder. Remember this when the person next to you is lifting three times as much as you. Hang on to your self-esteem and don't try to compete in the gym, as that is the quickest way to get injured. Be conservative and stay healthy, and you will find yourself riding with newfound power and speed in the spring. Be strong and you will fear no attack!

Tireless Legs Part One:  Base Miles
By Jim Martin
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When I was a kid, comic books featured ads for some sort of body building program. This was the real thing, in which the skinny guy gets sand kicked in his face, then gets all muscled up and finally whips the bully and gets the girl. In one panel, the newly muscled guy is shown striding along the beach, admired by bikini-clad women, and the caption claims that following the program will give you "tireless legs." Tireless legs-wouldn't that be great? Thirty years later that phrase still sticks with me.

All of us have been beginners or have simply taken a hiatus from training at one time or another. You know what it's like: You can ride along at an easy pace, but the instant you try to pound the pedals, your legs just seize. It happens before your heart rate or breathing goes up, and it's frustrating and embarrassing. Your friends have to wait up for you-it's awful. It's roughly the same as having sand kicked in your face. So, like the guy in the ad, it makes you want to train for tireless legs. So what does it mean in a cycling context? Is it a realistic goal and, if so, how do you get there?

From the last training article you may recall that one of the limiting components of fitness is lactate threshold (LT). LT is a measure of the exercise intensity at which you produce lactic acid more quickly than your body can clear it. When you have a high LT (an elite rider will have an LT at around 80 percent of VO2 max), you become "centrally limited," that is, you can pound the pedals till you're breathing like a freight train and your heart rate is through the roof, but your legs aren't screaming. That's right, high LT means tireless legs.

LT is related to both the density of the muscle's capillary bed and mitochondrial enzymes. By having more capillaries per unit cross-sectional area in the muscle, the muscle cells are better able to breathe: Oxygen has a shorter diffusion distance from capillary to muscle cell, and metabolic by-products (including lactic acid) have a shorter diffusion distance out of the muscle. The increase in capillary density may be the main physiological adaptation that you achieve during your base miles. This adaptation does not come to complete fruition during one season; rather, it is an ongoing process that takes years. You will increase mitochondrial density, too, but probably not to the same extent (that will come later, during the power phase).

Base miles is a phrase that almost every cyclist uses, but it may not mean the same thing to everyone. In general, I would describe base miles in the following terms:

• Base mile rides are of longer duration, say more than two hours.
• Intensity during base mile rides is low and conversation should always be reasonably easy.
• Base miles are best done in a group because you don't want to get stuck out in the wind too long.
• Base rides should probably be done back to back (e.g., Saturday and Sunday).

Duration and Intensity

When you ride at low intensity, you recruit primarily your small, slow-twitch motor units (a motor unit is a combination of a single motor neuron and the muscle fibers which it enervates). These slow-twitch fibers are, by nature, well trained. That is, they have relatively high capillary and mitochondrial density. When you increase the intensity, you recruit the larger, fast-twitch motor units, which have less aerobic capacity. It is these motor units that you really need to train in order to raise your LT and avoid that God-awful leg seizure when you stomp on the pedals. Clearly, the most obvious way to recruit and train these fast-twitch fibers is to increase intensity. But, as you have already experienced, that causes rather abrupt fatigue. Another way to recruit the fast-twitch fibers is to ride long enough so the slow-twitch fibers become fatigued, primarily due to glycogen depletion. In this way, the fast-twitch fibers are recruited very gradually and you don't experience the sudden accumulation of lactate (sometimes accompanied by nausea, vomiting, hallucinations, etc.). Instead, you experience a feeling of emptiness in your legs that is, well, sort of satisfying.

Group Riding

For me, the thought of base miles evokes fond memories of rolling through a brown central Texas winter landscape with a fairly big group, always in a two-by-two line. These are times of story telling, lying, bragging and general bikie bonding. You'll take long pulls, maybe five minutes, but they will be fairly slow. Of course, the intensity in the draft is even lower. The low intensity makes it easy to carry on conversations. Furthermore, by riding slowly you can get comfortable and relaxed riding close to one another. This is a skill that is difficult (and dangerous) to develop under the pressure of high-speed racing or group tours. Base rides in a group serve as both training and practice sessions and provide a great time for the telling of tall tales.

Back-to-Back Rides

If you follow up a long base ride with another the next morning, chances are you will not be completely recovered from the first ride. This is a good thing, and something you can make use of. In a single ride, you fatigue the easily recruited slow-twitch fibers and then get down to the real business of recruiting and training the fast-twitch fibers. By riding again before you are fully recovered, you extend the process into the second ride. So if you start that Sunday ride feeling stiff and weak, rejoice, you're getting maximum benefit. Of course, you don't want to take this any further than two days, so you'll want to have a rest or strength-training day on Monday (surprisingly, even when you're very tired you can still lift just fine). Also, you'll want to really eat well after these rides to speed recovery for the coming week.

If you put in base miles during the winter and early spring, your endurance will increase dramatically. You'll find that the two-hour ride that initially wore you out now just makes you feel good; that is, for low speed, you will have earned tireless legs. This, by itself, is a great result for many riders. Some of you, however, have your sights set on going longer and faster. You will find that this base work sets the stage for you to start working on aerobic power. If you've never trained systematically for a whole year, you will be really surprised to see how quickly you progress when you start your power work. Physiologically speaking, these base miles have increased your capillary density and somewhat increased mitochondrial enzymes. This has the effect that when you start riding at higher intensities, the metabolic by-products more readily diffuse out of the muscle. You will find yourself riding at higher and higher heart rates without the sensation that your legs are stuffed (a term used by British track riders that is wonderfully descriptive of when the legs have had it).

So for now, try to establish a habit of putting in easy group rides for the next several weeks. Call around and find a group ride that you can depend on and that you like. One tip when looking for a ride: the better the riders the more polite the ride. Don't be intimidated by the local elite riders because they will often be a better group for winter rides than beginners, who feel the need to compete all year round. Additionally, don't forget to dress warmly-you'll be out for a while.

Sample Base Miles Schedule

This schedule is for a typical recreational rider with a full-time career and various obligations. The total training time for the week is 6 to 10 hours depending on strength training and easy day rides.

Tireless Legs Part Two: Power Base
By Jim Martin
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The movie A League of Their Own includes a scene in which the coach tells a player, "Of course it's hard. Hard makes it good. If it wasn't hard, everyone could do it." That statement sounds great and does a good job of glorifying baseball (and going "hard" in general); it is, however, very misleading. The truth is everyone can go hard. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but if you take it one step at a time, you can and you will. And when you do, you will find that it is indeed glorious. With that in mind, we will take another step toward achieving the Holy Grail of "tireless legs."

In the last training article (Tireless Legs Part 1), we went into great detail about the hows and whys of putting in base miles. By now, if you followed the advice in that article, you have probably ridden several hundred easy base miles, and with them, you should have the beginnings of metabolic fitness (see "What Is Fitness?" Feb. '97). I'll bet you've found that riding steadily for two or more hours has become progressively easier, and now you're itching for more challenging rides. Well, wait no longer-the time for dialing up the intensity is here.

The next phase is the power base, which will challenge you to ride at a higher intensity so that you recruit both slow- and fast-twitch muscle fibers and start to stress (train) your cardiovascular system. The main physiological effect will be to increase mitochondrial density in your muscle fibers, particularly the fast-twitch fibers and, consequently, raise your lactate threshold. Also, the higher intensity will tend to increase your VO2 max, although specific work targeted to increase VO2 max will come later in the year.

Structuring the Power-Base Ride

The protocol for power-base riding is very similar to that for base miles. You will want to ride in a group-a line at least three riders long. Two-abreast (echelon) riding is preferred because it incorporates a skill or practice session along with the physiological training aspect. This is particularly beneficial during the power-base phase because you are just beginning to be stressed, and it is important to learn good bike-handling skills under this mild stress before you get thrown into the pressure cooker of your first race or group tour of the season. Be sure to get warmed up with low-intensity riding for 20 to 30 minutes. Choose a route that is long enough so you can spend at least 30 minutes at the front. That is, if the line is three riders long, figure on about 90 minutes for the power-base portion of your ride. Talk with your riding group and decide the length of pulls. For power base, I recommend five-minute pulls, but anything between 3 and 10 minutes will work, and you may want to be flexible depending on the terrain. Remember, when going uphill, the drafting effect is minimal, so a rider who pulls a flat then drafts on a climb is getting a double dose.

Power-base riding differs from base miles mainly in intensity and cadence. The real key to successful power-base training is the intensity of your pull, and you should try to maintain constant intensity throughout your pull. This is the real trick because if you go too hard, you will fatigue before the end of your pull and have trouble staying on when you go to the back. Conversely, if you pull too easy, you will simply not improve your fitness. A heart-rate monitor may help you develop a feel for the right intensity, but keep in mind that these pulls are relatively short and it may take one to three minutes for your heart rate to reach a steady state value which represents the intensity of your pull. Thus, the burden is on you to "feel" the intensity. As a general guideline, the pace you select for your pull should elicit about 90 percent of heart-rate reserve (see "What Is Fitness?") by the time you pull off. Also, you will want to use gears that allow you to keep the pedaling cadence at around 80 to 90 rpm.

Easy There!

The most common error I see is for a rider to go much too hard at the start of the pull and end up blown and off the back. I think the reason people make this mistake is because it is so easy to sit in the draft, you can develop a sort of draft-induced arrogance. You start to think you are much stronger than the wimp in front of you, and when it comes your turn to pull, you take the speed up two or three mph to a more appropriate speed for a stud like yourself. About 30 seconds later, that arrogance meets reality and detonation occurs. A good rule of thumb for avoiding this situation is to hold the same speed as the rider before you, at least for the first 15 to 30 seconds. You may find out that he was not so wimpy after all and that the pace is actually quite brisk. If not, you can take the pace up or down to an appropriate intensity.

Technique: Be Hip!

You have probably heard that the best way to pedal is with a smooth spin at relatively high cadence. In general, that's good advice, but not for power-base training. The key for your power base is to recruit all the muscle fibers, fast and slow twitch. It may seem paradoxical, but the best way to recruit fast-twitch muscle fibers is to stomp on a big gear. By pedaling at a lower cadence, you must produce more force on the pedal (for any given power), and it is the increased force that recruits the fast-twitch fibers. Don't get carried away-I'm only talking about going down to 80 rpm or so. Lower than that may be too much stress on your knees. If you try to grind away at the big gears too soon or without a proper base, you may risk knee injury. Gradually increase the gearing over a period of weeks-after several weeks of base miles-and back off immediately if you have any knee pain.

One side effect of pedaling bigger gears at 80 rpm is that you may find that your quads fatigue. No problem: Don't use 'em. I'm serious-you can pedal without using your quads-just use your gluts and hamstrings to extend your hip. It takes some practice, but if you concentrate you will find that you can relax your quads and just use your hips. It may help to think about aerobics class where the instructor says, "Squeeze, squeeze." You will be amazed at the amount of torque you can generate from your hip with little or no stress in your quads.

The Whole Picture

So, let's put all the components for power-base riding together:

• Try to find at least two other riders so that you can recover twice as long as you pull.
• Start the power base ride with a 30-minute warm-up.
• Take 3- to 10-minute pulls at a steady effort.
• The ride should be long enough that you spend at least 30 minutes at the front.
• Be careful not to go too hard during the initial part of your pull.
• Try to reach a heart rate at the end of your pull of about 90 percent of heart-rate reserve.
• Keep the cadence relatively low (but no lower than 80 rpm) so you generate more force on the pedal and consequently train your fast- and slow-twitch muscle fibers.
• Be alert for any knee discomfort.
• Learn to turn off your quads and pedal mainly from your hip.

These simple, but by no means easy, steps will empower you to go harder than you ever thought you could. You'll have to work hard to earn it, but like the coach said, "Hard makes it good." Thanks to all of you who have written. The feedback is much appreciated. Feel free to e-mail me at j.martin@mail.utexas.edu.

Sample Power Base Schedule

So you have aspirations to ride in the bunch, huh? Understand this: The peloton accelerates faster than a World Cup sprint, corners like a pro criterium field, climbs as if contesting King of the Mountain points and hammers the crosswinds relentlessly. In other sports, each person may have strengths and weaknesses that allow him to gain or lose ground at various points of his event. But in cycling, one moment of weakness in any of the various disciplines will send you flailing off the back, never to be seen again. This challenge is what makes cycling such an attractive sport: To do well, you have to have it all. This month, we will describe a few situations you are likely to see on a pack ride and provide methods to train for them before you get thrown into the vortex of the peloton.

If you have been following our training articles over the last few months, you will have the fitness to perform the workouts described in this article. However, if you have not laid a proper base with a progression from relatively easy to relatively intense riding, these workouts will be much too intense and you will simply not be able to do them. I'm not trying to scare you off, but this is crunch time; the peloton takes no prisoners and accepts no weakness.

Peloton Peculiarities

Pack riding is a totally different animal than solo cycling or even rides with several friends. There are a few anomalies to be aware of. Whether it's your first race, club ride, sport tour, charity ride or even your first time racing in a new category, the first thing you are likely to experience is speed shock, from the insanely fast speed the peloton adopts from the gun. Within a few seconds, you will find yourself sprinting with everything you've got just to stay in the group. Your mind will be telling you that this behavior is insane and that you must ease up and pace yourself. Don't! Everyone else in the group is human just like you, and they can't go all out for too long. Consider speed shock your welcome into the bunch.

During climbs, the whole sport of cycling changes. As soon as the road points up, you find yourself in a weight-bearing sport with little or no help to be gained from drafting. Unless the climb is really long, you'll be climbing above your VO2 maximum power, that is, some of the power will come from anaerobic metabolism. Thus, the fitness required for climbing is similar to what is required for handling attacks, except for one thing: pedaling cadence. Most riders climb at a much lower pedaling rate (revolutions per minute, or rpm) than they ride the flats. The lower rpm requires higher torque (more force on the pedals) to generate the same power and, consequently, climbing produces somewhat unique demands.

The intense speed of the attacks and climbs in the peloton, combined with the high average speed, demand that you integrate all your physiological systems: aerobic power, anaerobic power and anaerobic capacity. Until now, our on-the-bike training has focused on aerobic power, and our off-the-bike strength training has been designed to lay the base for anaerobic power.

Sprinting Time-Trial Intervals

Here is the workout that will bring all the components together for you: sprinting time-trial intervals. Sounds great, huh? The best way to perform these is to find a loop about 12 mile in length with a short, steep climb. The climb should be about 30 seconds long at your absolute all-out sprinting power. You will use the climb to elicit a huge oxygen deficit which will take you right to the edge of complete fatigue. The real key to these workouts is the work you do after the climb. As soon as you crest the climb, settle right into a hard time-trial effort. This is the essential element that will build your capacity to handle the sprint-recover-sprint-recover nature of riding in the peloton.

Six Hard Steps to Fitness:

Start at the top of the climb and begin riding your loop at a hard time-trial pace. Maintain that pace until you reach the base of the climb (about one minute).

At the base of the climb, pretend you are nearing the end of your interval and sprint all out for the top. In your first session of these intervals, you may want to keep the sprint short, say, 15 seconds, and increase to 30 seconds over two or three sessions.

Now here's the gut check. When you get to the top and you're totally gassed from your sprint, settle back into the best time-trial effort you can muster. It may only be 12 to 18 mph, but it has to be time-trial effort. Suck it up and go hard!

Take advantage of the loop to work the corners. Gradually try to increase your cornering speed. Force your eyes to look past the apex, and leave your braking for later into the turn.

Keep this routine up for six minutes.

Repeat this four times with a 10-minute recovery.

If you can't find a loop like I've described, you can do these exercises on any road, but the key is that you must sprint all out for about 30 seconds out of every minute and a half you ride. So on the road you could do these by beginning with a one-minute time-trial effort followed by a hard 30-second sprint, then settle back into a hard time-trial effort and repeat for a total of six minutes. Of course, by not using a loop with a hill, you may not get the climbing or cornering practice, so look around. I'll bet there's a nice loop within 20 blocks of your house.

This workout is very demanding and you may have a hard time staying motivated for a whole interval session, so bring a partner. If you and your partner are well matched, you can ride side by side or, even better, in a single-file paceline for the time-trial part and side by side for the climb. If you are somewhat mismatched, you may want to handicap the start so that the stronger rider must go all out to catch the first rider by the end of the six minutes.

Recovery

These exercises are very stressful and demand that you take care to ensure proper recovery. The nature of high-intensity anaerobic work is that it burns stored muscle glycogen at rates that are up to 15 times higher than aerobic work and generates high levels of metabolic by-products, including oxidative free radicals. Because of the relatively inefficient nature of anaerobic metabolism, you can end up very nearly glycogen depleted in a very short time, and you must replace that muscle glycogen before you can expect to perform again at high intensity. Therefore, you should consider proper nutrition an important part of your training. Down one of your favorite sports drinks (a specifically formulated post-workout recovery drink is best-Ed.) and an energy bar upon finishing the workout and follow that with a regular, high-carb meal-you'll speed your recovery tremendously.

Anaerobic work generates oxidative free radicals that can be very damaging to muscle tissue. Antioxidants (more properly termed free-radical scavengers) combat these free radicals and prevent the damage they can cause. In general, studies have shown that muscles treated with antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and beta-carotene recover more quickly and to a greater extent. Therefore, during periods of heavy anaerobic training, you should consider adding foods or supplements to your diet that are high in vitamins C and E and beta-carotene.

Along with the need to replace muscle glycogen and protect against oxidative free radicals, recovery rides become more important during periods of high-intensity training. Rides of 40 minutes to an hour and a half performed at very low intensity can speed recovery from these training sessions in two ways: The increased blood flow to the legs help flush various metabolic by-products out of the muscle tissue, and even an easy ride increases the muscles' ability to take up blood glucose and thus facilitates the replacement of muscle glycogen.

Group rides are the most exhilarating aspect of cycling, but getting dropped is easily the most depressing. By performing high-intensity training as described, you will have a much better chance to stay in the bunch and experience the
excitement.

Building the Perfect Cyclist
By Jim Martin
<back to top>

• Strength & Power
• Mental Toughness
• Endurance
• Flexibility
• Nutrition
• Recovery
• Your Training Chart

Strength and Power.....
How to Be a Monster on the Bike
Ask Frederic Guesdon how important raw power is to a cyclist and he'll tell you all about his 1997 Paris-Roubaix win. The little-known rider for team Les Francaises des Jeux surprised his star breakaway mates with a ferocious sprint he uncorked at the finish on turn three of the Roubaix velodrome, using a mere 100 meters to shoot from the back of an eight-man group and win by a comfortable four bike lengths. How did the young second-year pro Guesdon go from zero to hero at the expense of some of the world's best riders? With power to spare. Here's how to win your own town-line sprint or just drop a persistent wheel-sucker.

"What we're trying to accomplish is power gains on the bike," former pro triathlete Ray Browning said. With a master's degree in exercise physiology and biomechanics, Browning is the Biomechanics Laboratory Coordinator for the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine, a nationally renowned exercise physiology center. "Ideally, we want the ability to convert strength into raw power for short bursts of energy," he said. "When you think about it, the power phase of a pedal stroke¬the leg extension on the downstroke¬only lasts two-tenths of a second or so. That's where your power comes from."

Strength training is a year-long process that should actually start at the end of a season. "The first step is to identify your strengths and weaknesses," he said. "Are you a weak climber or sprinter? Have you had any injuries last season that held you back? A really helpful idea is to schedule an evaluation with a physical therapist, then create a winter strength program."

That means mostly gym work during the off-season, Browning said. The first phase is general strength building, with an emphasis on muscle balance, and should coincide with your base-miles training on the bike, during a two-month block from late January through March. "I'm a big proponent of strengthening your lower back and abdominals¬your core," he said. "I like general exercises like the bench press, shoulder raises and seated rowing for upper body work. Seated rowing is especially good for cyclists. Combine three or four upper-body exercises with leg work¬like squats, leg presses and curls and calf raises¬and add in floor work, crunches and leg lifts and you've got a good circuit of eight or nine exercises." See the strength schedule in the training charts for specifics.

Do two to three sets with 10 to 15 repetitions each. The 10th to 15th reps should "be difficult, but not impossible," Browning said. For those who don't enjoy their time in the gym, take heart. "You can do this circuit in about 45 minutes, and for cyclists (who aren't interested in building much bulk) you only need to do it two or three times a week times, maximum," Browning continued. If you can't make it to a gym, there are alternatives. "Be creative. I did a strength program in my own house one winter with a couple of sandbags, a chair and a pull-up bar," he said.

As you introduce variety and intensity into your training, it's time for what Browning calls his maximum strength-development phase. "It's about a one-month period where you'll convert all that strength into power on the bike," he said. These circuits will include only our four lower-body exercises and just one for the upper body...seated rowing. "Increase your sets to between four and six, while decreasing reps to six or under," he said. "The weight should be about 90 to 95 percent of your maximum lift."

One way to help increase power is to lift more explosively during this phase. Continue to use good form, though, and don't snap your joint at the apex of the lift. "You can also incorporate plyometrics at this point," he said. "A really good resource for this is Jumping Into

Plyometrics by Donald Chu ($13.95, Human Kinetics Publishing, 800/747-4457; www.humankinetics.com). You can also start strength work on the bike. Solo exercises include hill repeats--climbing a hill in a larger gear--or sprint intervals (which can also be done with a group).

"What you want to do is gradually shift your emphasis to on-the-bike work as the season approaches," Browning said. "During the summer it's advantageous to continue strength work, but it's more for maintenance then; you're not actually trying to increase strength. There's been research to suggest that power dropped off in athletes who discontinued strength work during the season, so now's a good time to go back to your original strength sessions. The focus during the season is recovery, so your strength workouts shouldn't leave you sore."

A good strength and power program will make you both a stronger cyclist and one less prone to injury. The best time to start a strength program is at the end of a season by using Browning's advice about evaluating yourself. But even in June, starting a light circuit workout will show dividends in only a month. Use that to springboard you into next season¬your strongest yet.

Mental Toughness

...Strength and Power from the Neck Up

One of the beauties of cycling is the merging of mechanical technology with physical prowess. By designing a gear-driven two-wheeled machine, humankind was introduced to a device so efficient that even a person who lacked fitness could travel short distances without exhaustion. In fact, the bicycle remains the most efficient human-propelled vehicle ever invented. While cycling enthusiasts frequently converse about sculpted athletic bodies and finely wrought frames, it's much rarer to hear talk of a certain cyclist's mind; in truth, it should probably be the other way around.

After all, many riders have shared the experience of meeting a visitor on a club ride who appeared out of shape and rode a cobweb covered bike he had just discovered in the attic of his grandparents house but who, nonetheless, handily dropped everybody on $1500 bikes up the first climb. In such cases, mental toughness proves to be the common denominator. Most who have been with the sport a while recall certain instances of determination that sent chills along their spine, such as LeMond clawing his way back to the top of the sport after nearly dying in a hunting accident. Those fortunate enough to have observed LeMond take 58 seconds out of Laurent Fignon in the final time trial of the '89 Tour de France well know that, regardless of fitness and aerodynamic considerations, LeMond's legendary ride--which continues to stand as the Tour's fastest time trial--was the result of sheer determination. Discovering such mental toughness in ourselves, however, can often be a difficult matter. Fortunately, unlike VO2 uptake, there appears to be no limit on developing the mind to adjust to hard efforts.

According to Toby Stanton, a coach for Hot Tubes Racing (formerly G.S. Mengoni) with 19 national championships to his coaching credit, mental toughness can be developed in much the same manner that a person improves his or her fitness. "Encouragement is one of the best ways to develop toughness," Stanton said. "Also, being surrounded by other good riders tends to help a person develop toughness. Many times I've seen a new rider arrive on my team, who seemed a little shy at first, but after racing alongside team members who were doing well, soon became aggressive and tough in his own right."

While such a stance dispels any myths about mental toughness being a genetic quality, Stanton did note that some sports, such as hockey, seem to draw a more toughened group of competitors than cycling or cross-country skiing. Stanton doesn't deny that cycling and cross-country skiing can be brutal sports. "Both require a great level of endurance," he continued. "Endurance, though, is the easiest component of training to build. Short bursts at maximum effort are the most difficult and, as a result, require a much tougher mind. It's during these efforts that races are won." To judge personal mental toughness, Stanton suggests putting on a heart-rate monitor and attempting to reach 180 beats per minute and holding it while cranking down a gently sloping descent: "After all, anyone can push their heart rate up on a climb, but how many can push themselves on the flats or even a downhill? That's mental toughness."

If you can't afford such luxuries as a heart-rate monitor and live in a region where there are few others to ride with, setting small goals is one way to harden your mind for maximum efforts. One method is to locate a series of telephone poles or other landmarks, such as mile markers, that are spaced anywhere from a few hundred meters to a full mile apart. Once you've located suitable markers, go all out between the two markers, starting at full effort and attempting to hold it until you reach the following marker. If you do have others to ride with, set a goal such as staying with a stronger rider up the first section of a local climb. As you continue developing, set a slightly more difficult goal. In the process, you'll find yourself adjusting to tougher situations.

Setting too difficult a goal, however, nearly always results in failure. As Stanton pointed out, "A junior rider would be much wiser to attempt placing high in a junior race, instead of entering a senior race with the goal of simply finishing." Developing the mind-set of a winner is a delicate process. Many people are able to finish high, often within yards of the winner, yet victory always eludes them. Attending a small local race and winning develops the psychology of a winner, instead of going to a national-caliber race and getting dropped three laps into the event.

Recreational riding, in turn, can be equally difficult. Going out and riding four days a week for 45 minutes at a time is wiser than immediately planning out a schedule that calls for riding an hour every day of the week. For those rare individuals who are born with a tough mind, almost any task appears easy to accomplish. But for the rest of us who must work hard to accomplish similar goals, the key is to first find enjoyment in riding and then, later, push yourself. Once you've developed a healthy schedule of enjoyable days balanced with more difficult days on the bike, you will find your fitness blossoming along with your confidence.

Resources      One of the most thorough books on mental preparation is Marc Evans' Endurance Athlete's Edge (Human Kinetics, P.O. Box 5076, Champaign, IL 61825; 800/747-7757; $19.95). Evans focuses on many diversified aspects of mental preparation, such as goal setting, imagery training, mental fatigue versus physical fatigue, negative thoughts and positive self-talk. While his primary training is as a coach for triathletes, his methods transcend sports categories.      Renowned cycling physiologist Ed Burke also addresses mental issues in the recently reissued Cycling Health and Physiology (Vitesse Press, 4431 Lehigh Rd., #228, College Park, MD 20740; 310/772-5915; $17.95).      Finally, those interested in getting information straight from the horse's mouth should consult Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling, available at your local bookstore. While LeMond's book doesn't focus solely on mental development, it makes for fascinating reading.

Endurance...

How Long Can You Last?
Typically, the best way to train your muscles to fire for long periods of time is to put in what coaches tend to refer to as "base mileage." These miles should be steady and easy and applied as liberally as ketchup to a french fry. The low intensity of solid base miles prepares your muscles for the repetitive nature of the longer endurance ride. Ride duration is increased slowly and for most riders shouldn't be increased by more than 10 percent at a time once you're riding 50 miles a week.

Team Hot Tubes' Toby Stanton will tell you that you needn't be able to ride 50 miles in order to be able to race 50 miles. Huh? "If you go out to ride 100 miles, it's going to take you seven or eight hours," Stanton says. "But if you race that distance, it will take you five hours or less. Your body doesn't understand miles, but it understands time." So Stanton coaches his riders to concentrate on training the length of time it will take them to race a given distance.

What that means for you is that if you are preparing for some sort of longer group ride, you only need to train toward the amount of time it will take you to complete the ride, not the distance. If your weekend group is going to do a metric century one Sunday and the group typically averages 20 mph, then all you need to be able to ride is three hours. If you work toward that duration gradually, then your last training ride prior to the metric century need only be about 2 hours and 45 minutes long.

Mike Niederpruem, manager of coaching programs for USA Cycling, concurs. "You don't have to be able to do a metric century in order to be able to do a metric century," Niederpruem states. "The conventional wisdom is to get base mileage." But he says there is now substantial research showing that endurance adaptation takes place even when training for short, intense events. Niederpruem advises that time-crunched athletes need not give up the goal of completing a century. While he grants that the best route to endurance will always come from logging the miles, he says endurance can be gained from doing longer interval work. "Intensity can help make up for the lack of time," Niederpruem explains.

Just because you've done the training necessary to endure the event doesn't mean you can suddenly ride above your ability. Says Stanton, "They gotta be sitting in, not driving it. They gotta be smart." Being smart means keeping your nose out of the wind as much as possible. "You gotta understand you get a huge advantage by riding in a group when you do an event," he says.

According to Stanton, one of the toughest lessons you must learn in order to establish endurance is eating on the bike. "You gotta eat when you're not hungry," Stanton says. "If you bonk, you're never gonna restart; you might finish but you won't ever get going again." Because most of us are accustomed to riding shorter distances we haven't had to train ourselves to eat much on the bike, but when preparing for a longer event it is important to begin eating earlier in the ride and continue to eat frequently. Most coaches advocate eating something every half hour and drinking a bottle of water an hour, unless conditions are really hot, in which case you should drink even more.

The final ingredient to making sure your legs last the day is to make sure the rest of your body is happy. You may need to pick up a pair of gloves if you don't ordinarily ride with them so that your hands won't get sore. Consider purchasing a really nice pair of shorts if you are prone to soreness in your butt; saddle sores, a more extreme phenomenon, can prematurely end your fun.

You'll know when you've found that holy grail of endurance. The feeling that you could ride all day is unmistakable. For many of us, it is that very feeling of freedom that attracted us to road riding in the first place.  

Indoor Options      If you want to prepare for a longer event but lack either time or daylight, there's no need to think you're completely hosed. With the aid of an indoor trainer or indoor cycling class you can perform intensity training to help you sustain the longer effort necessary for the big day.      If you prefer group activity, then you might want to try an indoor cycling class. Typically held in health clubs, these classes mix high-intensity training with high rpm by varying the resistance on the flywheel. There are other health clubs offering similar classes that use ordinary stationary bikes in an interval-format class. The idea is to train hard enough to reach your lactate threshold, stay there for a period of time, then recover so you can do it again.      The physiological adaptation that will allow you to ride longer distances will come from your super-hard efforts. If you just climb on an indoor trainer and ride hard for an hour, you won't make any progress. However, if you pedal through a set of six three-minute intervals and recover, your body will become stronger. It won't be the most fun you've had, but no one said intervals were a party.      The great advantage of going to an indoor cycling class is the group camaraderie fostered by the instructor. You'll find yourself working harder than you thought possible. The workout, shoehorned into less than an hour, will leave you a breathless, sweaty mess¬exactly what you need if time isn't on your side.

Flexibility....

Balancing Your Fitness Program

When increasing your mileage base, you can physically watch your muscles take shape, slowly toning themselves into smooth curves until finally becoming distinctly cut: sharp lines along the lower edge of your calves, the double ridge of the quadriceps folding neatly into the knee joint. Stretching, on the other hand, presents no immediately visible results; your muscles look much the same. Improving range of motion is, more often than not, slow going. Furthermore, unlike dedicated riding, stretching burns few calories. So why, you might ask, should I spend my time increasing my flexibility?

Concentrating your efforts into a stretching program improves your life twofold. Physically, it reduces injury, back pain and muscle soreness while improving posture, recovery and muscle coordination. Mentally, stretching is one of the oldest meditative practices known to humankind. While stretching, you are able to not only relieve the tension of each muscle, you can also reduce anxiety, by contemplating and resolving situations from racing strategies to relationship problems. Many cyclists use their bike as a tool to help relieve tension accumulated at the office or home. Going on a long ride provides solitude, even when riding with others. During an hour-long ride, our mind often travels farther than our bike. The only downside of riding is that rather than reducing tension, we actually increase it through tight, sore muscles and, occasionally, when we push it too hard, a tired, sluggish mind. While the benefits of stretching aren't as apparent to others as purchasing a new sweater or losing 10 pounds, you'll quickly notice how much more relaxed you are at home, in the office and, of course, on the bike.

Stretching should only be attempted after warming up, whether 10 minutes into a ride or upon returning home afterward. Increasing body temperature allows for greater elasticity of the muscles and connective tissues. If you prefer stretching in your living room, jumping jacks and running in place for a few minutes are adequate warm-up. Stretching cold, unfortunately, has no benefit and can actually increase the chances of injury by stretching too far and pulling a muscle. Cyclists will naturally want to concentrate on their legs (calves, hamstrings and quadriceps), lower back and neck muscles to increase riding comfort. Lengthening your hamstrings through daily stretching will eventually allow you to increase your saddle height by a centimeter (and in rare cases two centimeters) which gives you the distinct benefit of greater power as a result of increased leverage.

During extreme efforts, blood swells the quadriceps, leaving traces of lactic acid when the effort is finished. The more supple the muscle, the greater the blood flow, allowing for faster recovery while riding. By increasing blood flow, lactic acid that would otherwise remain in the muscle (creating soreness the following day) is quickly washed away. Not only does stretching increase recovery both on and off the bike, it also reduces the chance of overuse and trauma injuries.

Through stretching you can increase the flow of synovial fluid, which lubricates joints and transports nutrients to articular cartilage, greatly reducing overuse injuries, especially in the knee. By the same token, trauma injuries caused by high-speed crashes are also reduced. Muscles that might otherwise tear in a crash are able to stretch beyond their original range of motion when limber.

While high-speed crashes may be an unlikely event for many riders, sore neck and back muscles are commonplace with both professional racers and weekend warriors¬even desk jockeys fight with cramped necks and backs. Tight neck muscles can be relaxed by tilting the head and holding it for 15 seconds. Working the kinks out of your back requires a little more space, but as with all stretches you'll want to stretch the muscle just shy of the point where you feel pain and hold it for approximately 15 seconds. While working through a routine, you can begin to explore the mental possibilities of stretching.

Cynics who find the physical benefits of stretching uncertain will find the possibility of mental gains even more nebulous. This is one area of fitness where the pragmatic mind must submit to the intuitive. Incorporating stretching with mental calisthenics requires no special training. The method is quite simple: While stretching, concentrate on breathing, first steadying your breath, then focusing on exhaling. As you stretch, release the tension of each muscle with each exhalation. Your breathing pattern should be slow and even, drawing air deep into your diaphragm. Don't consciously force air out of your lungs¬simply focus on the spent oxygen leaving your body. As the exhausted fuel exits your lungs, allow muscle tension to travel with it.

As you work through the different muscle groups, you will find your body falling into a deeper state of relaxation. Over two or three months you'll notice your posture improve as each muscle group becomes balanced alongside the others. Once you have developed a comfortable stretching routine, and learned how to steady your breathing patterns in conjunction with stretching, you can begin to explore other possibilities, slowly transforming stretching into a meditation session. By now, releasing tension with each exhalation will have become second nature, allowing you to move into other areas such as visualizing a victory or coming to terms with problems in your personal life.

Attaining true fitness requires a multidimensional commitment. Cycling is only a single component to a healthier lifestyle. Stretching, in turn, can help round out your fitness plan, but only as a means to an end. Learning how to synthesize stretching and meditation may be the missing part of the whole.

Nutrition....
Fuel for Perfect Fitness
As a cyclist, your dietetic needs don't vary much from the rest of the population. The guidelines established in the USRDA will work well unless you are training more than 10 hours in a week, in which case all you really need to do is raise the number of calories you are taking in on a daily basis.

The food pyramid is as applicable to cyclists now as ever before. Fad diets have virtually no clinical support, while all clinical studies involving athletes continue to show the benefits of a well-rounded diet in their development regardless of the discipline. Muscle adaptation is quicker, as is recovery from a hard effort. Cravings for evils such as bear claws also seem to wane (well, at least sometimes the pull is not so great).

Breads, Cereals, Rice and Pastas

Since this group forms the base of the pyramid and provides a rider with most of the carbohydrate he needs to perform, it's important to try to get in the daily recommendation of six to eleven servings per day. Whole grains are recommended as are foods that are low in fat and sugar. The more diverse the sources of your grains, the healthier your diet will be. Spreading your intake of these carbohydrates throughout the day will also prevent huge swings in your blood sugar which can help stabilize moods.

Vegetables

Since different vegetables provide different nutrients, a diet rich in a variety of vegetables will prevent the need for vitamin supplements. The recommendation is for three to five servings daily¬far more than most of us get, especially if you have a hostile relationship with one or more of those veggies that your mom made you eat. Dark green, leafy vegetables and legumes are particularly good sources for many vitamins and minerals that cyclists need. Many legumes, when combined with rice, will provide a complete protein (one that has all the necessary amino acid chains); it's possible to be a vegetarian and still build muscle.

Fruits

Satisfying the recommendation for two to four servings of fruits is pretty easy to do, especially if you like to rehydrate on 100 percent juices. Punches and 'ades don't count (at least not fully). If you are looking for additional ways to work more fiber into your diet, then eat fruits instead of drinking them. While you can satisfy your intake with fruits that are dried or canned in syrup, nothing beats fresh fruit.

Meats, Poultry and Fish

Most American diets include twice the recommended daily allowance for protein, which comes primarily from the intake of meats, poultry and fish. This means that the two to three servings daily recommendation is actually more like four to six for most of us. The good news is that most active cyclists do need more protein than the daily recommendation, so you probably won't need to alter your intake in order to ride happily. When shopping for meat, poultry or fish be sure to choose lean cuts and trim any excess fat before cooking. With poultry, remove the skin as well. When preparing a dish remember that broiling, roasting or steaming these foods will contribute much less fat to your diet than frying them. Many nuts and seeds can also provide protein (as can legumes), but most nuts and seeds are high in fat and should be consumed in moderation. However, the polyunsaturated fat in nuts and lighter oils (like olive) is much better for you than that slab of bacon.

Milk, Yogurt and Cheeses

Don't get too excited, a pint of Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby is not recommended. While two to three servings of milk products are recommended daily, this is a territory that can easily get you into trouble. Most cheeses and yogurts are available in low-fat versions just like milk. By sticking with skim or part skim milk products you can cut your intake of dairy fat in two. As with meat, most Americans exceed the recommended number of servings.

Fats, Oils, and Sweets

The watchword with this group is "sparing." Not like "Spare the rod and spoil the child," rather "Use these things sparingly." When eating breads avoid putting butter or margarine on them. When adding a dressing to a salad do so lightly and try to use a low-fat dressing¬a vinaigrette as opposed to a creamy ranch (or a creamy anything for that matter). Avoid cooking with sugar (maybe you can add a bit to those oatmeal cookies); instead try using fruit juices or applesauce.

That takes care of what to do while you are off the bike, but you do need to give some thought to the foods you consume on the bike that aren't sold in a mylar wrapper. This is especially important if you are planning to ride a longer event like a century.

If you have a fussy stomach, you'll want to do your experimenting with foods before the big day. If your plans include an organized ride with rest stops stocked with food, try calling the promoter to find out what they'll serve. If they only plan to have vanilla creme sandwich cookies, you might want to try packing a jersey full of them to see if you can survive on cookies for two hours. If not, bring your own food along. Drink mixes can have widely varying effects depending on how strongly they are mixed. If you find out the Gatorade is being mixed a little thinner than you usually drink yours, you'll need to drink or eat more in order to make sure you are taking in enough calories¬after all, eating intelligently means not only eating the right foods, but eating them in the right amounts.

Recovery...
Be Your Own Soigneur
"I get a lot of people saying to me, 'I'm training really hard, but I'm just not getting any better,'" Cycle-Ops' director of training programs Chris Carmichael said during a recent interview. "Their training is fine, it's the recovery part that they're not doing right," he continued. Carmichael, USA Cycling's former national coaching director and the architect of America's most successful Olympic showing since 1984 (Atlanta '96) knows a lot about recovery. A former elite racer himself and coach of some of today's top pros, such as Lance Armstrong and Bobby Julich, Carmichael has had ample opportunity to refine his views on what he considers the most underrated aspect of cycling.

"What's most important about recovery is that riders understand what the process is," he said, "...the actual stage where you adapt and get stronger; training is just the stress phase¬recovery is where the real gains are made." Recovery is also a lot more than just sitting on the couch. It's cooling down, eating right and basically paying attention to your body's needs following a hard workout. Pros have trained soigneurs to do all this for them. You have, well, you. Here's how to be your own soigneur and pamper yourself post-ride.

Late in the Ride

"Cooldowns aren't nearly as actively practiced as warm-ups," Carmichael said. "But warming down, just putting it in a lower gear and spinning easily for the last 15 minutes of the ride, helps the blood continue to move acid buffers in and sweep waste products out." If you just hop off the bike with your heart racing, your body starts to shut down from your hard efforts, decreasing your circulation and leaving those waste products to build up and inhibit recovery. If you're on a group ride that finishes with a town-line sprint, take a short spin before relaxing over coffee with your riding buds. Not only will they understand, but you might just start a new post-ride routine for your group. As you're warming down, drink the rest of your water and even pop a gel if you have one handy.

Food, Part One

"Right after your workout is a crucial time for your body," Carmichael said. "You're glyco-depleted and you need food right away. I can't emphasize enough the importance of the glycogen window." That's about a one- or two-hour period when your body is especially receptive to reloading blood and muscle glycogen stores. Miss it, and you'll be hurtin' for certain the next day. Carmichael said that it's hard to eat too much food following a good hard ride, but you have to eat the right kinds. "Have a carbo drink first thing," he said. "You're trying to replenish blood sugar levels first, so that means simple sugars. Then have an energy bar and follow that up with a post-ride recovery drink."

Intermission

After slugging down some immediate picker-uppers, put on some water for pasta. As it's heating, work some of the kinks out of your muscles with massage and stretching. "Massage helps improve recovery by working out all those little knots in your muscles that cause spasms and constrict circulation," Carmichael explained. A combination of stretches and kneading will relax your tired limbs and make your body more receptive to healing. Check out Roger Poleznik's book Massage for Cyclists ($14.95, Vitesse Press, 301/772-5915) for do-it-yourself hints, or go to the American Massage Therapy Organization's web site at www.amtamassage.org for a list of certified local therapists.

Food, Part Two

Next, get the complex carbs and protein your muscles need. A good meal of pasta, vegetables and a protein source will top off your muscle stores and give your body the fuel it needs to start repairing the damage wrought during your workout. Don't forget to drink plenty, too. "I see lots of chronic dehydration, where riders aren't rehydrating to 100 percent," Carmichael said. "They get 98 percent there and start the next day a quart low. Over time, that catches up to you." So stuff your face, tip back a glass or two. Just stay away from alcohol and caffeine, no matter how good a hefeweizen or iced cappuccino might taste. Both are diuretics and will do more harm than good for your recovery efforts.

Nap Time

"I think that if you called any European-based pro at three in the afternoon, you'd catch 'em napping," laughed Carmichael. Rest is an important component of recovery, and when it comes down to it, nothing beats a nice afternoon snooze. Now that you're stretched out, refueled and rehydrated, catch up on your sleep. But after your nap, there's one last thing¬more riding!

That evening, hop on the wind trainer or rollers. A brief 15-minute spin at low rpm and gears can help facilitate blood flow and recovery, working the stiffness out of your muscles almost before it sets in. While you may not be motivated for even a quarter-hour roller stint, doing so will help you get faster with less stress and pain.

The Next Day

After all that pampering, you might feel rarin' to go next morning. Don't. All that hard work after yesterday's ride could be wiped out if you go out hard. "The number one error I see in people's routines is they don't leave enough time between hard workouts," Carmichael said. "I only schedule three hard workouts back to back for my guys, and they're the elite of the elite. For most people I'd say don't go more than two hard workouts without recovery work, and novices should definitely alternate hard and easy days." Take an easy spin and think low: low gear, low heart rate (under 70 percent of max, Carmichael recommends) and low rpm. Fast spinning can be harmful because it requires lots of muscular control, and that's stressful to your legs. So spin easy at under 90 rpm, and watch the scenery rather than your stem. Tomorrow you'll be ready to rip.

Your Training Chart

Illustrations by Bill Cass

To build overall strength and fitness for cycling, and specifically to produce more power on the bike, you'll need to use strength training. Here's a year-long program in four stages that coincide with the riding season to help improve your power.

Strength Training

    Winter and Early Spring (January to March)
     Bike work: Base miles
     Strength work: About 45 minutes, one to two days a week in the gym. Circuit workout with leg press, leg curl, calf raise, leg extension, bench press, seated row, back extension crunches. Two to three sets of 10 to 15 repetitions per exercise. (Crunches, two sets of 20 to 30 reps each.) Weight should be moderate‹reps 10 to 15 are difficult but not impossible. Concentrate on proper form. Gradually increase weight to keep reps 10 to 15 difficult.

     Spring (March and April)
     Bike work: Adding intensity with sprints, hill intervals and paceline riding
     Strength work: Power-recruitment phase‹two days a week in the gym. Circuit workout with four leg exercises (above), crunches and seated row. Two to three sets of four to six reps each (continue crunch workout as above). You should work at about 90 to 95 percent of maximum lift. Continue good form, but lift dynamically, explosively. If desired, incorporate plyometrics.

     Summer and Early Fall (May to October)
     Bike work: Full riding season of racing and/or long rides and organized tours
     Strength work: Maintenance. One day a week in gym with two sets, 10 to 15 reps each of early season circuit. Emphasis is clearly on strength maintenance. Use lighter weight; the workouts should not induce muscle soreness.

     Late Fall and Winter (October to January)
     Bike work: Time off bike, easy riding and cross-training
     Strength work: Continue maintenance work, use cross-training (cyclocross, mountain biking, downhill and cross-country skiing, ice skating) to build overall fitness.

Season-Long Fitness

Winter and Early Spring (January to March)
	Focus: Base miles
Sunday:	1- to 2-hour base-mile ride
Monday:	Strength workout described below for early season
Tuesday:	1/2-hour recovery ride (very easy) or day off
Wednesday:	1-hour base-mile ride or rollers
Thursday:	Strength workout or day off
Friday:	Recovery ride or day off
Saturday	2-hour base-mile ride with group
	Total Training Time: 4 to 7 hours per week

Spring (March and April)
	Focus: Adding intensity
Sunday:	2-hour group ride
Monday:	Power-recruitment strength workout described in strength chart
Tuesday:	Day off or recovery ride
Wednesday:	1-hour ride of moderate intensity with a few short, hard efforts
Thursday:	Power-recruitment workout or day off
Friday:	Recovery ride or day off
Saturday:	3-hour group ride with some hills or sprints and paceline work
	Total Training Time: 7 to 8.5 hours per week

Summer and Early Fall (May to October)
	Focus: Top form
___________________Sunday:	2-hour ride with 0.5 hour each of warm-up, moderate intensity, time trial and cooldown Time trial for 0.5 hour structured as two six-minute efforts separated by 10-minute recovery time (easy riding pace)
Monday:	Recovery ride or day off
Tuesday:	Strength-maintenance workout described in strength chart
Wednesday:	1- to 1 1/2-hour ride with paceline work
Thursday:	1/2- to 1-hour ride with intervals or sprints
Friday:	Recovery ride or day off
Saturday:	3-hour­plus group ride
	Total Training Time: 8 to 9 hours per week

Late Fall and Winter (October to January)
	Focus: Maintenance
Sunday:	1- to 2-hour ride of easy to moderate intensity
Monday:	Recovery ride or day off
Tuesday:	Strength-maintenance workout
Wednesday:	1-hour cross-training (mountain biking, skiing, ice skating, trail running)
Thursday:	Strength maintenance or day off
Friday:	Recovery ride or day off
Saturday:	Cyclocross or 1-hour ride of moderate intensity
	Total Training Time: 4 to 6.5 hours per week

Weight Training
By Joe Lindsey
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Weight training is commonly mentioned with the same sort of enthusiasm reserved for your IRS return, but unlike the 1040 long form, weight training is actually productive. With a minimum of time spent staring at the full-length mirror at your local gym, you can enter the new year better prepared to ride and quite possibly with a fair bit of power, too. We've outlined six exercises designed to get you strong quicker than ever this spring.

Even though most of our exercises are demonstrated on weight machines and may not require a spotter, work out with a friend. Not only is it safer, but working out together is more fun and you'll find it harder to break a workout commitment if someone is depending on you.

Form is paramount when lifting weights. All lifts should be done in smooth, continuous motions--no jerking. You might think rapidly charging through your sets makes you look stronger, but it'll only make you more prone to injury and you'll get less out of the workout, simply because you're not lifting the weight for as long. Don't hold your breath while lifting. Exhale slowly as you lift the weight and inhale as you reverse the lift. Good breathing also helps you control the speed and form of your lift.

For strength training, select a weight you can lift 10 times. The 10th repetition should be nearing failure. Start with two sets and work your way up to three sets a session. As you get stronger, increase the weight (incrementally) rather than the repetitions.

Lower Body

Leg Curl: This exercise strengthens the hamstrings, a commonly neglected muscle for cyclists and one that if left untrained can lead to muscle imbalances and nagging injuries. With the roll pad behind your ankles, curl the pad up to your butt in a smooth, continuous motion. Don't arch your back, and use your hands for stability only, rather than pulling on the grips.

Leg Extension: Your quads might already look formidable, but there's work to be done yet. Leg extensions help build the muscles that support your patellar tendon (holds the kneecap in place), and the strength you'll get from this lift is something you don't get during the less intense motion of pedaling. With the roll pad in front of your ankles, extend your leg until a point just before your knee locks. Don't snap your leg at the end of the lift.

Calf Raises: Ever feel that burning sensation in your calves when you stand up during a long climb? Calves do a lot of work when you stand, and a good climber can use standing form to actually rest other muscles during a long ascent. Adjust the weight so it's barely off the weight stack at the low point of the lift. Slowly raise up on your toes, then lower your heels back down. If this exercise is performed with the weight on your shoulders, use a weight lifting belt.

Upper Body

Back Extension: Best performed on a Roman sit-up bench, this exercise strengthens your lower back muscles. These muscles are important for supporting your torso during long seated stretches in the aerodynamic position on a road bike (no sore lumbar region) and increase your strength during out-of-the-saddle efforts. Slowly drop your torso until it's perpendicular to the ground, and then reverse. When lifting your torso away from the floor, do not raise it past a point parallel with your legs.

Crunches: You can use a sit-up bench or just lay on a padded floor for this one. Clasp your hands over your chest and lift your feet off the floor with bent knees. Curl your torso toward your feet and try to roll into a ball. Start with 20 reps, and repeat a second time. As you get stronger, add more reps and sets, or use an incline bench.

Chest or Bench Press: This exercise simulates fairly closely the action of leaning over on the bike in the drop position. Strong shoulders and chest are the object here, although the triceps also get a workout. Use a firm, but light grip on the bar and press firmly from your shoulders, extending through your elbows. Don't arch your back, and if you do a free-weight bench press, enlist a spotter.

Thanks to Santa Clarita Athletic Club (805/255-3365) for the use of their facilities.

So there you are, 47 miles and two and a half hours into your first century. You can see the water tower in the town at the halfway point. You've averaged over 18 mph, and you're expecting to be done in just a little over five hours. Your legs feel good, and you're congratulating yourself on your fitness. Suddenly, you notice that the gear feels a little big--there must be a bit of a grade (funny, the road looks flat). So you shift to a lower gear, click. You still feel a little bogged down, and you decide that the wind must be picking up (funny, the trees don't seem to be moving). So you downshift again, click click. You look over your shoulder and see a group coming up and decide that you'll just pick it up a little and draft behind them. Wow, they're going fast, too fast to get on. So you decide to just ride at your own pace which is now, let's see, 12 mph. Hmm. You're also beginning to feel a little woozy, a little disoriented, and you're really looking forward to the food at the rest stop. Congratulations--you've just bonked.

Bonking, and How It Happens Bonk in cycling lingo and the phrase, "hitting the wall," in running jargon are the same thing. Both refer to muscle weakness, confusion, disorientation and general fatigue.

From the moment you bonk, the rest of your ride will be slow and miserable. That's bad enough, but it's not all. The bonked-out portion of your ride, as hard as it is, will be completely unproductive in terms of improving fitness. In order to gain fitness from training, you must overload your physiological systems by riding at high intensity, and you certainly will not gain any training benefits. Worse yet, you will be losing muscle mass for the rest of your ride. Add to that the potential for heat injury that may come from hyperthermia and dehydration and you have a recipe for a fitness disaster. Consequently, you must view the prevention of bonk, dehydration and hyperthermia as essential elements of training.

Muscle glycogen is the main source of energy for relatively intense exercise. Glycogen is stored in the liver and serves as a reservoir to maintain blood-glucose levels during prolonged exercise. This supply of blood glucose is critical because your brain relies almost exclusively on blood glucose for fuel. Consequently, when you deplete liver glycogen and your blood-glucose levels drop (i.e., hypoglycemia), your brain will become starved for fuel. When this happens you will feel weak, disoriented and exhausted due to impaired brain function.

Beware the combination of high intensity and heat. If it's really hot out, you may want to reconsider that set of five-minute intervals. Substitute a longer moderate-intensity ride to avoid the risk of hyperthermia. Those of you who live in extremely hot and humid environments may actually need to augment outdoor summer training with indoor intervals in the air conditioning.

Severe dehydration can lead to cardiovascular collapse and death. Similarly, hyperthermia can cause heat illness, which can have permanent effects on your heat tolerance. The combined effects of even mild dehydration and hyperthermia reduce your cardiac output, increase your blood pressure and increase your perceived effort for a given work rate. This latter effect is, perhaps, the most important for your training, because when you get hot and dehydrated you simply cannot exercise intensely.

Avoiding the Bonk

To avoid bonking and the related effects you must take a few simple steps:
1. Make sure you have adequate glycogen stores when you begin exercise.
2. Provide glucose while you exercise.
3. Replace the fluids lost
to sweat while you exercise.

Pre-event carbohydrate stores: The idea of carbohydrate loading has become almost a cliche, but it is still a very valuable part of your preparation for an endurance event or a hard day of training. A diet rich in carbohydrates eaten 24 hours prior to a major exercise bout will help to "top off" your glycogen stores both in the liver and the muscles. I should add that recently there has been much speculation about the benefits of lower carbohydrate diets. However, that speculation is largely anecdotal, and the vast body of research remains quite unified in finding that pre-event meals high in carbohydrates enhance performance.

Take in glucose while you exercise: Studies have shown that during exercise you can absorb about 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour. These carbohydrates serve to maintain blood-glucose levels and thus reduce the amount of liver glycogen that must be used. Consequently, the ingestion of carbohydrates helps to stave off the bonk.

Drink about one liter of water per hour and take in about 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour while you exercise. You can get both fluid and carbohydrates by drinking one liter per hour of a sports drink which contains 6 percent carbohydrates. Manufacturers of various sports drinks make claims about their other ingredients, but carbohydrates are absolutely the most important.

Replace fluids when you're done: During studies of exercise in a heat chamber, subjects can sweat as much as one and a half to two liters per hour. This is probably more than you will sweat on a bicycle because the wind provides so much more cooling. Still, you can count on sweating about one liter per hour if you ride in the heat. You should try to replace all of that by drinking fluids. Very few riders do a good job of replenishing liquids because it just seems like too much to drink (more than one large water bottle per hour). Interestingly, the riders who have volunteered as subjects for studies at the Human Performance Lab at The University of Texas end up being the biggest devotees of high fluid intake. They find out during the studies that it is possible (and not uncomfortable) to drink those volumes and that the performance enhancement is truly remarkable. These riders find that they are very strong at the finish.

Does It Really Help? Studies have shown that subjects can ride longer at 70 percent of VO2 max and perform better in a maximal time trial when fed carbohydrates. In one study, endurance-trained cyclists rode 33 percent longer (four hours versus three hours) at 70 percent of VO2 max. The improvement in endurance seems to be related to increased utilization of blood glucose during the last hour.

In another study, subjects performed a performance trial after riding for 50 minutes in a heat chamber. When they received either water or carbohydrates, they stayed cooler and performed about 8 percent better than when they received a placebo treatment. When they received both fluid and carbohydrates, they performed 14 percent better. This was a remarkable finding because it showed that water and carbohydrates had separate beneficial effects and that the effects were additive. This finding suggests that you can take your water and carbohydrates in any form you want and get the same benefit.

Drink Up to Train Hard! Why are we doing an article on proper fluid and carbohydrate intake in a training column? Simple. You can't train well without them. Your water bottle is more important to performance than aerodynamic wheels or a titanium frame (and much cheaper). By taking proper care to take in fluids and carbohydrates, you can train with more volume and intensity than without them. Sure, you won't be able to tell those stories about how you bonked out in the middle of nowhere and made it home one convenience store at a time. But wouldn't you rather tell stories about how much fun that century ride was in the front group with all your friends? Drink up, and go fast!

The weekly schedule shown below is an example of the preparation needed for a long training ride, race or tour. This is based on the assumption that you are performing the high-intensity training appropriate for group rides (see the July '97 article on training for group rides). The key point is that you must incorporate proper fluid and carbohydrates into your rides and your preride meals. Drinking the proper amount during a ride takes discipline and practice, so work on it during your training rides before the big event.

Monday: Day off or a very easy spin. Strength training can be done, but should be reduced to two sets of six repetitions, and the weight should not elicit fatigue. This should be maintenance work only, and you should not feel tired when you leave the gym.

Tuesday: High-intensity intervals. See last month's article for the specifics of interval format. Practice drinking a sports drink or water and eating carbohydrates. Drink at least one liter and consume at least 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour during this workout. If you can tolerate it during intervals, you can tolerate it anytime.

Wednesday: Recovery ride. This is an important part of the week, so don't neglect it. It can be as short as 30 minutes and should not be longer than two hours. Make sure to consume one liter of fluid and 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour.

Thursday: Speed work in a paceline. See the June and July '97 "Training" articles for the specifics. This will be a real test of your ability to drink in a group. Take a drink every time you go to the back of the paceline. In this situation, I recommend a sports drink so that you don't have to unwrap and chew any solid food.

Friday: Day off or easy spin. Make sure you eat high-carbohydrate meals at lunch and dinner in preparation for your big event on Saturday.

Saturday: Time to put your training to the test with a group ride or race. Take enough fluid and food for the length of the ride. Sometimes that will not be feasible because of the length of the ride, but most rides will take a break within two hours so you should be fine with two large water bottles. For long rides, take money or a powdered sports drink mix so you will have enough carbohydrates for the entire ride.

Sunday: 1- to 3-hour recovery ride . See the July '97 issue for specifics. One again, consume one liter and 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour.

Is Your Fitness Stale?

...Maybe You've Been a Lazy Man!
By Jim Martin
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The first time I ever walked onto the velodrome in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania, the first thing I heard was a melodic Caribbean-accented voice saying, "Well aren't you the lazy man? How did you get to be such a lazy man?" It was Gene Samuels (Pan American Games champion) and he was talking to Shaun Wallace (a two-time Olympian) who happened to be right behind me. During the next week I heard this banter over and over. Whichever one of them got to the track second, even if by only a few minutes, was "lazy man" for the day. Why is this relevant in a training column? Simple: In cycling, arriving at any given point a few minutes behind your buddy may mean that you too have been a lazy man.

Riding a bike can be as challenging as any sport. But because it is nonweight- bearing and power is related to velocity raised to the third power, it can be very easy. Refer to Chart A for a comparison of exercise intensity as calculated for a 5-foot 8-inch 154-pound male cyclist.

Chart A
This table shows the power, metabolic energy and equivalent running speeds associated with cycling at three velocities.
Cycling Velocity	Power	Metabolic Energy	Equiv. Running Mile
(mph)	(watts)	expenditure (kcal/hr)	pace (min:sec)
15	80	309	19:00
20	166	642	9:00
25	305	1200	4:53

Intensity and Fitness
The most effective way you improve fitness is to spend time above your current lactate threshold. Riding at intensities above lactate threshold will place stress on your aerobic energy system and tell your body to adapt to the higher stress. However, if most of your rides are easy toodles, you will probably not gain much fitness. Instead, you may find that your fitness and performance become plateaued and stale. Here's an example: Let's say that a typical ride is 25 miles and the average speed is 15 mph. As shown in the chart, average power will be only about 80 watts, which represents an intensity equivalent to about 30 to 40 percent of the VO2 max of a typical recreational rider. If you consider that even untrained people have lactate thresholds of around 50 to 60 percent of VO2 max, you can appreciate that this low-intensity riding will not stress the aerobic energy system and will do little or nothing to improve fitness.

Many of the riders I know are as interested in weight loss (or maintenance) as they are in performance. Lately, there has been a great deal of controversy over the optimal exercise intensity for weight loss. Although it's true that a higher percentage of calories burned during low-intensity exercise come from fat, the key to losing body weight is to increase your total caloric expenditure, to increase the total number of calories (fat and nonfat) used. And the best way to do that is with high-intensity exercise. Let's go back to our earlier example of a 25-mile ride at 15 mph. Your total caloric expenditure will be about 515 kilocalories, and about half of those calories will come from fat. If, however, you were to perform a total of 20 minutes of that ride at 25 mph you would increase your caloric expenditure to about 722 kcal, an increase of 40 percent. You can perform the intense riding in a variety of ways including short or long intervals--it's up to you.

Perhaps even more important is that intense exercise will increase your resting metabolic rate for more than 24 hours after you exercise, whereas low-intensity exercise will not. Studies have shown that athletes who trained intensely burned about 200 kcal more per day at rest than moderately trained athletes. Since this additional caloric expenditure occurs at rest, almost all of the additional calories burned come from fat. Thus, in this example, riding more intensely will result in a total exercise-related metabolism of about 922 kcal, compared with 515 for the low-intensity ride. The more intense ride will burn 207 more calories burned during the ride and 200 kcal more burned due to increased resting metabolism. Although the calories burned from fat during the ride will be slightly reduced, the increase in post-exercise metabolism will more than make up for it.

What if I Can't Ride 25 mph?
It's okay if you can't ride 25 mph for very long--most people can't. However, you probably can ride 25 mph (or more) for, say, one to two minutes at a time. Therefore, start with what you can do and develop an interval training program that works for you. The first time out, try riding for one minute at 25 mph with five minutes of easy recovery and repeat that five times. You can do these at any point in your regular ride. Just check your clock and punch it for a minute. When you can do 5 to 10 of these during your ride, try two-minute efforts. Eventually you will develop to the point where you can ride about 25 mph for three to six minutes at a time (or more). In concert with the intervals, you will develop the ability to maintain higher average speeds in between the intervals and during steady state rides or tours.

For the power and calorie calculations in the examples above, I have used two simplifying assumptions: flat roads and no wind. I personally have never encountered such conditions, and I doubt that your usual ride is like this either. Obviously, if you are going uphill or into a headwind, the speed versus effort ratio will be substantially altered. So, don't use the 25 mph as an absolute measure. Instead, you can substitute "very intense" for 25 mph, "moderately intense" for 20 mph and "easy" for 15 mph. A heart-rate monitor may help you to determine relative intensity, but keep in mind that your heart rate takes time to respond to any given level of effort. Thus, a heart-rate monitor may not provide much information during short- duration intervals.

Motivation Is Where You Find It
Some people really thrive on regimented interval training, while others don't. Although I have suggested an interval approach to training, there are any number of ways to incorporate high intensity into your rides. If you ride hills, you can designate several of the climbs on your route as high intensity and just hammer on those. You can time yourself to judge intensity (and progress) or just go by feel. In my area there are some hills so steep that if you stay above tipping speed (i.e., the speed at which you lose balance and fall over), you must work very hard. Consequently, the only motivation you need is the desire to stay upright.

Even if you're convinced that you should incorporate more intensity into your training, your riding partners may not be. If you want to train harder and keep your group together, just try making a statement like, "I'm going to start my intervals now, so just sit on my wheel for the next few minutes if you don't mind." No true friend can take offense to a statement like that. Besides, you will be leading by example. After a few rides you will probably be fielding questions such as, "Now how hard are you supposed to go and for how long?" Before you know it, you will have become the interval guru in your group and you will have elevated the fitness level of the whole group. Of course as soon as you get them all to ride hard, the real fun begins because you can start fast paceline riding (see "Training," June '97).

The take-home message is quite simple: If you want to improve your fitness or lose body fat, you cannot be a lazy man. You must include some high-intensity training in your riding schedule. The intensity need not be so hard that it leaves you debilitated, but it must be enough to stress your aerobic energy system. You can incorporate intensity into your program in small doses at first and build toward longer efforts as you develop the fitness for it. If you ride with friends, you can lead by example and get your whole group more fit.

I hope you find a way to integrate this into the type of riding that you enjoy. Thanks to all who have written; the feedback is much appreciated. Feel free to e-mail me at j.martin@mail.utexas.edu. I especially enjoy hearing from those who have given these training methods a try and can tell me how they worked for you.

This schedule is for a typical recreational rider during the power-base training phase. It consists of four days of cycling, with three rides that include some higher intensity training and one recovery ride.

Monday:
Day off or strength training. See the November '96 issue for strength training specifics.

Tuesday:
One- to two-hour ride with 15 to 30 minutes of intense riding. Break this up any way that works for you. Find a way to ride intensely that is motivating and fun for you.

Wednesday:
Day off or easy spin (no more than one hour with no high-intensity work).

Thursday:
Same as Tuesday, but use a different method to achieve the high intensity. If you did hard climbs on Tuesday, try a flat, fast time trial today.

Friday:
Day off or easy spin.

Saturday:
Weekends are for group rides. Get together with your riding buddies or local club. The nature of group riding often results in brief jam sessions of high-intensity riding. The beauty of getting in your high-intensity "work" by going fast with your friends is that it doesn't seem at all like work. In fact, it's a blast. If the group is riding lazily, just take off; someone will come with you and you'll have your systems stressed in no time.

Sunday:
Recovery ride. One to two hours at low intensity (call this your "Return to Lazy Man" ride).

* Total training time is 4 to 10 hours, depending on duration, strength training and easy day rides.

Training  .....Rest to Go Faster
By Dr. Max Testa, physician for Team Motorola.
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One of the most difficult parts of training is walking the thin line between normal and pathological fatigue. Performance improvement is the goal of each bike rider and training is definitely the best way to reach this objective. In an ideal situation, a well-designed and controlled training program would take the athlete from a starting level of fitness to a higher one through physical and psychological adaptations. In other words, training stresses the functional capacities of the body as a whole in order to provoke a reaction (recovery) that makes the body better able to handle that kind of stress. It is recovery from exercise that makes us stronger‹not the exercise itself. This process is called supercompensation and is nothing more than a particular kind of adaptation ability that is common in all living creatures.

When measuring training loads, we need to consider some parameters such as the volume, the intensity, the frequency, the density and the recovery. In a simple picture, an alternating training load with adequate recovery should generate improvement. Unfortunately, athletes often tend to forget the value of recovery, almost as if it were wasted time. When this happens, the body does not have enough time to rebuild and implement the previously mentioned adaptations. The results are chronic fatigue and a fall in performance‹in other words, the onset of an overtraining syndrome.

This undesirable situation can affect any type of athlete‹pros as well as weekend riders. In fact, the cause of overtraining syndrome is a relative imbalance between training loads and rest periods, leading to exhaustion that limits the body¹s ability to react to stress. For a professional bike rider this can happen when training is combined with racing, traveling and the pressure for good results and they exceed the rider¹s capacity to handle the overall situation. For recreational athletes, the picture is very different. Very often these riders use all their time off for training, sometimes skipping meals or reducing sleeping hours. Also, they must juggle work and home obligations and fit their training around them. For these riders, the improvement gained from reducing hours of training is often dramatic.

Like I said at the beginning, the basic problem is to differentiate normal fatigue from the early symptoms of chronic exhaustion. Clinically, it is possible to evaluate some psychological, physical and functional parameters (see the symptoms box); however, it is important to remember that overtraining syndrome is characterized by a fall in the athlete¹s performance.

The best way to prevent overtraining is to monitor training by keeping a diary of the most important information such as weekly mileage, the time spent working at anaerobic threshold, the hours in competition, etc. Measuring and recording the resting heart rate and the morning weight (before breakfast) once or twice a week is also useful. In general, a rise of the resting heart rate of eight or more beats per minute could indicate inadequate recovery from the training load, while a sudden loss of 1 to 2 kilograms could be related to glycogen depletion or dehydration. A decreased maximum heart rate is also a common finding in athletes undergoing difficult training programs. In these cases, a reduction in training is the only therapy. If the symptoms are not improving within one or two weeks, consult with a physician to find out how to correct physical and/or psychological imbalances.

The goal of training is to reach a higher level of fitness and performance. Rest between training sessions is an important part of this process. A good training schedule and regular control of some physiological parameters are important guidelines to follow to avoid overtraining syndrome.

Training: Multiday Racing
By Dr. Max Testa, physician for Team Motorola.
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The 1995 Tour de France took racers over 2200 miles at an average speed of 25 miles per hour. Many stages were longer than 120 miles, including alpine passes above 6000 feet. Thus, it is easy to understand why only selected and well-trained cyclists are able to withstand such physical and mental stress. For most of us, it is probably more realistic to forego dreams of the Tour de France in favor of multiday tours. Multiday rides allow cyclists to measure themselves daily, in shorter and easier efforts, while enjoying pleasant scenery and good company. Multiday rides can also be a good source of training.

Training for multiday rides such as RAGBRAI or PAC Tour requires a consistent plan. Building some general as well as specific adaptations is necessary.

• Above all, it is important to be able to maintain a riding position for three to six hours a day. Not only the legs, but also the back, neck and rear end must be ready.
• You should be confident about your daily riding distance.
• Be able to perform at a speed that covers the daily mileage within a reasonable amount of time without pushing yourself over the anaerobic threshold all day long. This is important for overnight recovery so your multiday ride doesn¹t become a torturous death march.
• Be prepared for changes in altitude and temperature, which add to the stress on the body.

For those riding on a regular basis (four to five times a week), it is enough to add an extra hour on the weekend rides four weeks prior to the challenge, keeping in mind that hills are the main difficulty. It¹s important to understand your body and know its limits. You should focus on finding the right pace‹one that uses the aerobic engine without excess lactic acid buildup. (See Sample Weekly Plan A for a possible schedule.)

Those riders training specifically for a multiday ride but who have few opportunities to train (and isn¹t that most of us?) and still desire to arrive prepared for the challenge should consider a few tips:

• Start specific training at least three months prior to the event.
• If you train only on the weekends, use your bike during the week as much as possible (e.g., running errands, commuting to and from work).
• Use a turbo trainer at the gym or at home for 20 minutes a day. (The goal should be to increase the efficiency on the bike and to better prepare the aerobic engine.)
• Regularly stretch the back and work the abdominal muscles.
• During the weekend rides, spend time on improving your anaerobic threshold.

If you do not have time to develop an extensive training program, it is important to focus on the intensity. (See Sample Weekly Plan B for a possible schedule.)

If training is important for good performance, maintaining glycogen levels in your liver and muscles is also a determining factor for good results with the least amount of suffering. If glycogen stores become depleted, it takes up to 48 hours to replenish the loss. Therefore, it is important to eat and drink regularly during the effort. Drinking a carbo drink during the first half hour after exercising helps speed up glycogen recovery. Also, you should eat soon after the ride to maximize your body¹s ability to replenish glycogen stores.

A multiday ride is a great opportunity to challenge yourself while enjoying the countryside and other company. With some sacrifices and a minimum amount of time, it is possible to obtain satisfying results and a healthy sense of accomplishment.

Sample Weekly Plan A Monday Day_off_______________________ Tuesday 2 hours, with 1 hour at 80 to 85 percent max heart rate (mhr) Wednesday 2 to 3 hours on hilly course at 70 to 90 percent mhr, pedaling at 85 to 100 rpm Thursday 2 hours with two climbs lasting 20 minutes each at 85 to 90 percent mhr Friday Day off Saturday 3 to 4 hours, with 1 hour at 60 to 75 percent mhr, 1 hour at 75 to 85 percent mhr and five 8-minute repeats at 85 to 90 percent mhr, resting 4 minutes in between Sunday Long group ride (3 to 5 hours) on hilly course

Sample Weekly Plan B Monday Day_off________________________________ Tuesday 30 minutes abdominal exercises and stretching, 30 minutes on the turbo trainer at 70 to 85 percent mhr if possible Wednesday Possible 1 to 2 hour ride with three 10-minute uphill reps at 85 to 90 percent mhr, the rest of the time at 60 to 80 percent mhr Thursday 30 minutes abdominal exercises and stretching, 30 minutes on the turbo trainer at 70 to 85 percent mhr if possible Friday Day off Saturday 3 to 4 hours on a hilly course at 60 to 85 percent mhr Sunday 3 to 5 hours with 1 hour 75 to 85 percent mhr on the flat at 85 to 100 rpm, two climbs lasting 20 minutes each at 86 to 92 percent mhr

Training Elements
By Dr. Max Testa, physician for Team Motorola.
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Motorola's serious winter regimen should have them ready for the spring classics in March.

Christmas vacation is over and a new year of training is about to begin. Now is the time in which professional bike riders get serious about their precompetitive workouts. For example, starting in December, the Motorola cycling team was scheduled to begin averaging 600 miles a week in order to have around 5000 miles of training before the first series of races, which begin early February in Spain.

If you are not a pro, this quantity of work at this time of year is obviously not necessary. However, for the recreational rider, it is important to increase the amount of specific work on your bike and the quality of overall training.

Depending on where you live, weather can be a variable during this season. It is important to be flexible about training in order to adapt your program to your specific situation. In general, if you can ride your bike regularly and your objective is to be competitive, you should try to develop different physical qualities using the bike as your main tool. If, however, weather conditions are not favorable or if your goal is to maintain a general level of fitness, an effective solution is cross-training.

In either case, here are training elements to consider during January and February:

• Increasing general aerobic condition (power and capacity)
• Increasing muscular endurance
• Beginning and developing training to raise anaerobic threshold
• Beginning and developing training to lower lactate production and to raise lactate tolerance (lactic power and capacity) if you are planning to compete
• Improving overall efficiency

Aerobic conditioning requires two or three training sessions per week. Generally, two of these sessions should be based on improving endurance (aerobic capacity). That means increasing mileage on the bike or prolonging time spent in other aerobic activities such as running, cross-country skiing, hiking or in-line skating. The intensity should be at 65 to 80 percent of your maximum heart rate (mhr). One session should focus less on time spent and more on cardiac intensity: 40 to 60 minutes at 75 to 85 percent of mhr. To improve aerobic power, perform four to six minutes at 90 percent mhr, with a short rest in between.

Muscular endurance refers to the capacity to push a big gear for a longer period of time. On the bike this quality can be trained with uphill repetitions. More specifically, eight to 12 times, each lasting between one and three minutes on big gears at 50 to 60 rpm. During these efforts, the focus should be on muscle fatigue instead of heart rate, as it will rise very slowly. Recovery between reps should be three to five minutes. Off the bike, one alternative is to train the specific muscles by uphill running repeats of 20 to 40 seconds, six to 12 times, resting two to five minutes. Another possibility is using weight machines or free weights that require 50 to 60 percent of your maximum strength for three sets of 12 to 18 reps.

Anaerobic threshold (AT) exercise at an intensity which causes blood lactate to rapidly rise causes muscle burn, hyperventilation and limited exercise duration. Experience shows that training around this intensity improves the ability to maintain a harder effort for a longer period of time. Without being tested in a laboratory (which is the most precise and safest way to learn the related heart rate), a generally accepted measure of AT is 85 to 92 percent of mhr. On the bike, this workout can be organized in three to eight repeats of 4 to 18 minutes each at your AT target zone. Off the bike, try to reproduce this same workout while running, keeping in mind that the heart rate at the AT can be five to eight beats higher. Another alternative is to use an aerobic circuit in the gym, spending five to eight minutes for each different simulator (treadmill, rowing machine, StairMaster, cycling ergometer) at the above-mentioned intensity.

Lactic power and capacity refers to the energetic mechanism that is activated when the intensity of exercise becomes higher than the anaerobic threshold, as in maximum efforts lasting between 20 seconds and 2 minutes. This kind of training has to be performed when the aerobic mechanism is already well trained and should be limited to competitive athletes. In fact, the intensity reached with this workout can create damage to tendons and muscles if the athlete is not well prepared. To train lactic power, a number of maximum efforts lasting between 20 and 60 seconds should be performed until the quality decreases. Rest between reps should be three to eight minutes at 60 to 65 percent of your maximum heart rate. Lactic capacity can be trained through six to eight efforts of one to two minutes at maximum intensity, with two to four minutes rest in between in order to avoid complete recovery and improve lactate tolerance. In general, high-intensity lactic power/capacity or muscular endurance workouts should be performed on Tuesday or Wednesday in order to avoid "hard legs" on Sunday. Anaerobic threshold training can be planned for Thursday during the scheduled long ride in order to break the slow rhythm of aerobic endurance.

Economy makes the difference between experienced riders and novice riders. It is the capability to produce high power output with the minimum energy cost. It refers to the ability to use different muscle groups to contribute to the pedal stroke in a well-coordinated way. Economy is also related to the quality of the muscle fibers: whether they are slow (red) or fast (white) fibers. This technical quality can be improved by spinning at 110 to 130 rpm. Pros like to use motorpacing at high speeds (40 to 45 mph) or a small fixed gear (42x16 or 17). For less experienced riders, training this aspect on the turbo-trainer is recommended, alternating high-cadence efforts with one-legged pedaling.

After considering some of the elements which can create an effective training program, it is important to organize them. In general, all of these points should be incorporated into a period of one or two weeks. For novice riders, it is more important to emphasize aerobic endurance workouts two or three times a week, with one training session dedicated to AT and two dedicated to muscular endurance. For competitive riders, adding one additional AT and one lactic workout into each period is suggested.

I would also like to emphasize the importance of a well-organized training program in which different elements are included in order to achieve improved performance. The points previously mentioned are basic elements for a well-rounded training program. Each athlete can add other training components to meet individual needs. To measure improvement, regularly undergo a laboratory test to check at least the AT in terms of heart rate and power output. All of these aspects, together with a little imagination, can help make this new year more interesting and productive.

Motorola's Winter Training Plan

Sample Weekly Plan: January
Monday:	1-hour recovery ride at 60 to 75 percent maximum heart rate (mhr), easy gear, spinning at 95 to 105 rpm
Tuesday:	2-hour ride with 40 minutes warm-up, easy gear at 60 to 70 percent mhr, eight reps of four minutes at 80 to 85 percent mhr with two-minute rests between at 65 to 70 percent mhr, 30 minutes spinning at 100 to 110 rpm at 60 to 70 percent mhr
Wednesday:	11/2-hour ride with 30 minutes warm-up at 60 to 70 percent mhr, 30 minutes at 70 to 80 percent mhr on the flat in 53x18 or 17 gear, 30 at minutes 60 to 70 percent mhr on the flat in a 42x16 gear
Thursday:	21/2- to 3- hour ride with 30 minutes warm-up at 60 to 70 percent mhr, two reps of 20 minutes of 70 to 80 percent mhr with 10 minutes rest between at 60 to 65 percent mhr, 40 minutes on rolling hills with uphill at 80 to 90 percent mhr and 90 to 100 rpm downhill spinning, 30 minutes cool-down at 60 to 70 percent mhr
Friday:	Day off
Saturday:	2-hour group ride at 60 to 85 percent mhr, way over 80 rpm
Sunday:	3- to 4-hour group ride at 60 to 85 percent mhr with two to three climbs lasting 10 to 15 minutes at 65 to 75 rpm

Sample Weekly Plan: February
Monday:	2-hour recovery ride at 60 to 75 percent mhr
Tuesday:	2-hour ride with 30 minutes warm-up at 60 to 70 percent mhr, eight reps of 1 minute 30 seconds uphill on a big gear at 50 to 60 rpm, three minutes of rest between 60 to 65 percent mhr (muscular endurance), 30 minutes high-speed motorpacing or spinning on small gear at 70 to 80 percent mhr
Wednesday:	2-hour ride with 1 hour warm-up at 60 to 70 percent mhr, four to six reps at 40 seconds, increasing speed to the maximum. Rest four minutes at 60 to 65 percent mhr, 30 minutes cool-down
Thursday:	3- to 4-hour group ride at 60 to 85 percent mhr with four to six reps of six to eight minutes at 85 to 90 percent mhr. Rest three to four minutes at 60 to 65 percent mhr
Friday:	1-hour recovery ride or day off
Saturday:	2- to 3-hour group ride at ride at 60 to 80 percent mhr
Sunday:	3- to 4-hour group ride to simulate race situations: tempo climbs at 90 to 95 percent mhr, medium pace on the flat at 70 to 80 percent mhr, fast finale with some jumps

Winter Weights for Spring Speed
By John Howard
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This weight-training program has three phases. The first two last seven weeks each. The third phase will carry you through the next racing season. You’ll be using light weight with many repetitions to start. The phase-one exercises should be done three times each week with one day of rest between each session. Select a weight for each exercise that allows you to complete the set without cheating the movement. Always exhale on the exertion portion of the movement.

Phase one, which is designed to build foundation and muscular control, consists of two sets of 20 to 25 repetitions for each exercise performed. After seven weeks you’ll begin phase two, which includes the same exercises in the same order, only using a lighter weight for 100 reps in a single set. If you’re able to only complete 40 to 50 repetitions at a time, reduce the weight. Start phase three after the seven weeks of phase two are complete. Phase three includes only the following core exercises to be completed in this order: dead lift, bench press, overhead press, barbell squat, step-up lunge and floor crunches. You will complete four sets of 8 to 12 repetitions of each exercise. Because there are fewer repetitions, your weight will be significantly increased during phase three. Good luck.

Exercise 1: Bent-over row. Your back is flat and your knees are slightly bent. Your stance should be shoulder width and your hands are palms up. Pull the barbell to the upper abdomen while squeezing your shoulder blades together, then extend your arms for a full stretch. Muscles worked: upper back.	Exercise 2: Dead lift. Your hand position and stance are both shoulder width. Your knees are slightly bent. Lift the weight from the ground to a fully erect position. Always keep your head and body in a straight line. Return to start position to repeat. Muscles worked: mid- and lower back, also stretches hamstrings.
Exercise 3: Bench press. You should have a shoulder-width grip with your feet well planted on the floor. The barbell should touch in the center of your chest. Do not bounce the bar off your chest. Return to the start position and repeat. Muscles worked: chest, shoulders and triceps.
	Exercise 4: Dumbbell flies. Lay on the bench with your feet on the floor. Start with your arms extended upward and lower the weight. Maintain a very slight bend in your elbow throughout the entire movement. Lift to the point where a good stretch is felt across your chest. Return to start position.
Exercise 5: Overhead press. Stand with your hands and feet shoulder width apart and your knees slightly bent. Lift straight up, being careful not to arch your back. Keep a slight bend at the top of the movement so your shoulders remain taut. Slowly return to start position. Muscles worked: shoulders and triceps.	Exercise 6: Tricep kickbacks. Stand with your feet slightly closer than shoulder width apart. Bend at the waist until your back is flat. Pin your elbows to your sides throughout the entire movement. Extend your arms until they’recompletely straight. Very slowly return to start position without swinging the dumbbells. Muscles worked: triceps.
Exercise 7: Barbell bicep curl. Hands are palm up and shoulder width apart. Be sure to keep your elbows pinned to your sides throughout the entire movement. There should still be tension on the bicep at the completion of the curl. If you lose tension on the bicep, you’ve gone too far. Lower the weight slowly until the arms are completely straight. Muscles worked: biceps.	Exercise 8: Barbell squat. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, holding the barbell on the portion of your back that has more soft tissue. Supporting the barbell on your neck area may cause injury. A thin piece of wood or thin barbell plates may be placed under your heels to help with balance. Descend to the point where your upper leg is parallel to the floor (90 degrees). Rise to the start position while avoiding a complete lockout of your knees. Always keep your head forward and your eyes focused slightly upward. Muscles worked: entire leg, including the glutes.
Exercise 9: Toes-out squat. Assume a stance 12 inches wider than shoulder width. Point your toes out at 45 degree angles. Hold the dumbbell chest level and descend until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Be sure to keep your knees pointing in the same direction as your toes are. This relieves stress on the knees. As you rise upward, slightly tip your pelvis forward to squeeze the glutes. Avoid completely locking your knees. Muscles worked: entire leg with emphasis on glutes and inner thigh.	Exercise 10: Step-up lunge. If you don’t have an aerobics type of step, a sturdy block of wood or those steps leading out to the garage work great. This exercise will take some practice to become smooth. You will alternate legs so be sure to regain proper balance before taking the next step. Don’t let the knee of your forward foot extend beyond your forward toe as you descend. To do this properly, use this helpful hint: As soon as your forward foot is planted on the step, drop your rear knee to a point 2 inches from the floor. At this point, push with your forward foot until your feet are aligned in the start position. You may want to do these without any weight to start. Oce weight is added, hold it steady at your side. Muscles worked: entire leg with emphasis on hamstrings.
Exercise 11: Toe raises. Use the step from the previous exercise. You will do one leg at a time and you can hold a dumbbell for added resistance. Pivot on the ball of your foot. Start in the fully stretched position, stop for a split second when parallel to the ground, then finish the movement at the top. Slowly descend to the fully stretched position without a pause. The pausing (double pumping) motion on the way up will give the muscle a tighter contraction. Note: You may need a wall or workout partner to lean on for balance. Muscles worked: the entire lower leg.	Exercise 12: End-of-bench knee raises. This exercise actually has two parts; the lifting of the knees and the raising of the torso. Together, the two parts form a scissors motion. Be sure to keep your knees completely bent throughout the entire motion. This will ensure minimal involvement of the hip-flexor muscles. Don’t overexaggerate this movement; it’s short and concise. Muscles worked: entire abdominal area with emphasis on the lower aspect.
	Exercise 13: Floor crunches. Bend your knees so your back is flat. Place your hands at the base of your neck. It’s important not to pull up on your head; gently support it in a neutral position. Keeping your eyes fixed on one object will help maintain this neutral head position. Rise to the point where your shoulder blades come off the ground. Squeeze your stomach and then return to the start position. Muscles worked: entire abdominal area with emphasis on upper portion.

The summer days are upon us in full force and the distant memories of long, slow endurance rides in subarctic temperatures have all but faded. However, the endurance aspect of your training program should not be so easily forgotten. This can be accomplished with long, slow distance (LSD) miles. LSD workouts can be defined as having two main components: low intensity and long duration. The intensity should be at 60 to 80 percent of max heart rate and at a duration that is 15 to 20 percent greater than the distance of competition. The frequency should not be more than once a week late in the season in order to prevent burnout and overtraining. Cyclists of all levels and abilities can benefit from these rides.

Most riders put in many LSD miles at the first of the year in order to lay the foundation for more intense workouts later on in the season. Dr. Ed Coyle from the University of Texas Human Performance laboratory has found that early season base miles establish slow-twitch muscle fiber recruitment patterns and increase blood volume. These two training adaptations increase muscular efficiency and cardiac output, respectively. Other resonances which can occur due to this type of training include the strengthening of the postural muscles and their supporting connective tissue, enhancement of fat metabolism as well as an increase in muscle glycogen storage capacity. Adaptations such as these are why a strong aerobic base is critical for success during a long season of hard riding and racing. Although this is the time of the year you may be thinking about other aspects of training such as lactate threshold (LT) intervals and speed work, it is imperative not to abandon the base miles that have helped you get to the level you are at today.

During the late summer months, several aspects of everyday life make LSD rides less appealing and, therefore, harder to get motivated for. One of the most common complaints of riding for three hours or more in the months of June, July and August is that it is too hot. It could also be unbearably humid. Along with the fact that this extreme weather is uncomfortable, it can be dangerous to train for long periods of time while exposed to intense heat and humidity. One way to avoid the heat is to ride early in the morning when it is cooler. This may sound like common sense, but do not discount its importance. Another suggestion is to wear light-colored clothing that is loose fitting. Sleeveless jerseys are always a wise choice and they really make an enormous difference. Also, bring as much water and carbohydrate drinks as can be carried on the bike. This is important for fluid replacement, use as an energy source for prolonged endurance and a means of lowering skin temperature by pouring water directly on the body. Dr José Gonzales-Alonzo and colleagues working in Dr. Coyle's lab found a strong negative correlation between increases in body core temperature due to dehydration and hyperthermia and cycling performance (i.e., the hotter you get, the slower you become). The bottom line is to stay hydrated and keep as cool as possible.

Another reason for not wanting to include long endurance rides in your summer program is you may be weary of riding with the same people and doing the same routes. This is common and somewhat expected. However, with some creative planning, this too can be remedied. One solution is to travel to a new location for a ride which may include a new tour or race. If there is not an official event on a particular weekend, it should be easy to find an organized group ride in another town or city by simply calling one of the local bike shops. As you may already know, some of these local club rides can turn into serious training sessions. Not only do you get a chance to ride a new course, it is also an excellent way to meet new cyclists. The key to fighting burnout is to add variety to your riding schedule.

The one constant in your training program is your responsibilities outside of cycling that sometimes take precedence over riding your bike. This fact does not change during the summer and actually can become more of a factor during these months (e.g., parental responsibilities may increase since the kids are out of school for the summer). However, your endurance rides do not have to suffer. One possible answer to this problem is to include your loved ones in your training schedule. This can be accomplished by taking them to a tour or race that may have something to offer for noncyclists. Also, you can do things such as riding out to the lake or beach and meeting them for an afternoon. This aspect of training is best left up to the individual because of the great variability of circumstances, although a little creativity can go a long way.

While maintaining your endurance base is very important, you don't want to fall into the trap of riding in the same gear and at the same speed for three to five hours. Do not take this to mean that LT intervals or hill repetitions are needed during long-distance workouts. Three or four 10- to 20-minute moderately high-tempo sessions interspersed throughout the ride will be beneficial for maintenance of higher-intensity cardiovascular dynamics, other metabolic processes and fast-twitch muscle fiber motor recruitment patterns (leg speed). During long group rides this should be easily accomplished by getting into a paceline and increasing the intensity from 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate to 75 to 85 percent. Riding in the echelon will allow plenty of time for recovery between pulls and should not facilitate muscle fatigue that would impede the endurance workout.

As a competitive athlete, you work hard to reach a certain level of fitness so that hard work should not be wasted. This is a broad statement regarding your training program but it especially applies to the endurance base you established early in the year. Maintenance of this aerobic base is crucial for performance late in the season. Without good endurance capacity, your time and energy spent doing intervals may be wasted because of the fact that you're bonking at the end of the ride instead of setting up for the finish. Do not let unjustified excuses get in the way of some of your best possible performances.

Trace Adams has a master's degree in exercise physiology from the University of Texas in Austin, where he works in Dr. Coyle's Human Performance laboratory. In addition to pursuing his Ph.D., Adams is a Category 2 USCF racer and Elite Category mountain biker.

  Caffeine  

   
     By Elke Kolodinski
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You've seen the commercials: "The best part of waking up is [the caffeine] in your cup." A nice, hot, freshly brewed cup of joe helps wake up your brain and body. Suddenly, no matter what you're doing, your time is a little more your own because you can take a moment to sip your coffee, contemplating its richness and warmth.

Caffeine is ubiquitous in the Western Hemisphere--it's actually difficult to avoid. It's most notably found in many soft drinks, chocolate, pain relievers and a host of other edibles. Why? It makes (most of) us feel good. The hormonal reaction following the ingestion of even a small amount of caffeine makes us feel alert and tenders a general sense of well-being, enhanced mental acuity and increased energy. And that combination significantly enhances athletic performance. So much so, in fact, that the International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Cycling Federation have decreed that athletes' urine must not contain more than 12 micrograms of caffeine per milliliter--about the amount present after ingesting between four to six cups of coffee (unless you are a very small person).

Caffeine for the Short or Long Haul The judges are still bickering about whether caffeine best enhances athletic ability in long- or short-term exercise, how it actually works in the body and how much is necessary to affect performance. The party line is that caffeine spares the glycogen found in the skeletal muscles (legs, arms), hence, staving off the fatigue that sets in when that glycogen is depleted. Studies also show that caffeine lowers blood-potassium levels, which is good because potassium buildup in the body during exercise contributes to fatigue. If it's true that as little as one or two cups of coffee (or one can of Coke) can trigger physiological changes and elevate neural activity in the brain, that alone could give an athlete that all-important "edge"--the feeling that he or she has an advantage, while the poor sap riding next to him/her discovers the softest part of the pavement. (Caffeine does have a detrimental effect on fine motor skills, however, so changing a tire on the side of the road could be a little more difficult than anticipated.)

How It Works In a nutshell, caffeine affects adrenaline (aka epinephrine) utilization, muscle calcium levels and the speed at which the exercising body burns free fatty acids and glucose in the blood. All these combine to hoard the skeletal muscles' meager 1.3 percent glycogen makeup for as long as possible. Adrenaline floods the bloodstream when we feel we're under stress. All we have to do is think we might get worked up, and adrenaline is already there. It dilates blood vessels and bronchial passages to bring the most oxygen to the muscles, shoots up blood pressure to speed the process and aids metabolization of sugars and free fatty acids in the blood, as opposed to the energy stores in the muscles themselves. Adrenaline must attach itself to adenosine receptors on target cells designed to grab it in order to be utilized. Since caffeine slows, but doesn't block, this process, it increases the adrenaline concentration in the bloodstream, sparing muscle glycogen for a longer period of time.

Caffeine's interaction with calcium is of special importance to female athletes because of the threat of osteoporosis in old age. The calcium found in muscle tissue coordinates the breakdown of glycogen with muscle contractions, presumably to provide necessary fuel. Caffeine mobilizes the calcium, lessening the amount in your system and enabling muscles to contract a miniscule amount harder and recover a miniscule amount quicker from that contraction. As long as the blood provides plenty of fuel, we really don't need to access the muscle glycogen. (Women who ingest caffeine on a regular basis should also take a calcium supplement to counteract this.)

Initially upon ingestion, caffeine goads the liver into dumping a load of glucose into the bloodstream (the liver is composed of about 5 percent glycogen), providing the initial "lift" sensation. It also makes more free fatty acids available as fuel in the blood, sparing muscle glycogen and prolonging the exertion time to fatigue. Sparing muscle glycogen, however, doesn't help with blood-glucose levels once the initial gush from the liver and the stores already available in the blood are gone. Your brain is a finicky eater, feeding strictly on blood glucose. You can ensure your brain's ability to back up the caffeine-induced McGyver feeling of cleverness by hydrating with a carbohydrate-filled drink before and during a race--and also combat caffeine's strong diuretic effect at the same time, although you might have to deal with more pitstops than you'd like.

A Coke for the Final Sprint, Anyone? There's one wrench in this otherwise sewn-up story, though. Caffeine must have other effects on the body or else it alone would be basically useless as a short-term performance enhancer. Up until now, all responses have been geared toward sparing muscle glycogen to stave off fatigue on a long ride. Some studies even suggest that the amount of caffeine ingested doesn't even matter as much as whether caffeine was ingested at all. Why, then, do cyclists down Cokes before the final sprint in a long race? Researchers in Canada investigated.

A study done on swimmers during a 1500-meter swim sought to determine the effects of caffeine on blood-glucose levels during intense, short-term exercise. Eleven athletes who normally used very little caffeine swam the race twice: once after ingesting about 6 milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight (which would produce a slightly higher urine concentration than currently allowed in organized cycling) and once after ingesting a placebo. The researchers used a double- blind test protocol and tested the athletes' blood for a variety of substances (lactate, glucose, cortisol--a carbohydrate-regulating hormone secreted by the adrenal gland--and potassium, among others) immediately before and after the swims.

The caffeinated group posted significantly faster times than the placebo group. The swimmers' perceived exertion remained the same, although they swam much faster when caffeine-boosted. Post-swim blood-glucose levels were significantly higher for the athletes running rich than for those pumping unleaded. (After the trial, the caffeine users experienced a brief hyperglycemic state, presumably due to their livers' continuing to pour glucose into their bloodstreams after they had already stopped burning the energy.) Post-swim potassium counts were the same, but, significantly, the preswim potassium levels were lower in athletes who had consumed caffeine, so it took more physical exertion for them to attain the same level, post-swim. This suggests that caffeine may inhibit the onset of fatigue in this way, as well. Basically, then, that can of Coke not only puts a hell of a lot of sugar into your bloodstream, but the additional caffeine might persuade your body to dig deep for those last vestiges of available stored glucose, as well: a double whammy.

Just a Little or a Lot Researchers at San Jose State University in California determined that a little less caffeine than what was used in the previous example produced a trend toward higher output in short-term, high-intensity cycling. But the results were inconclusive, and the scientists concluded that the test should be done again using double the dose. An unrelated study concluded, however, that varying the caffeine dosage ingested by test subjects didn't alter performance--only the presence or absence of caffeine did. Only 5 milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight resulted in a urine level under 12 micrograms. Nine and 13 milligrams of caffeine per kilogram both showed results in the too-high-to-compete category. Yet another study announced that researchers easily detected caffeine's ergogenic effects in subjects testing below the allowed 12 micrograms caffeine per milliliter of urine. These researchers suggested banning caffeine from competition altogether. So, caffeine effectively enhances performance in both long- and short-term exercise--but be careful. Larger doses of caffeine can produce headache, nausea, tachycardia (abnormally rapid heartbeat), convulsions and even delirium. Every person's caffeine tolerance level is different, being affected by habit, genetics and state of mind.

FITNESS FOUNDATION
Aerobic Base Conditioning
By Jim Martin
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Ah, the off-season. The time when you kicked back, relaxed and reflected on your cycling season. The time when you set goals and planned your training for next year. Yep, now that spring has come you can dust off that bike and begin right where you left off last fall. Right? In your dreams! If you took off 'til now, you've detrained all winter. Now you'll have to work all spring and half the summer just to get back to where you were at the end of the season. If you really expect to make year to year improvements in your fitness and riding skills, you simply cannot take the winter off.

Winter training is usually referred to as base mileage, and it truly is the foundation upon which you build fitness. The stronger your foundation, the higher you can build your fitness peak. This article explains the hows and whys of base training. We start by describing the physiological adaptations that take place during base training, then provide both a traditional base mileage training plan as well as alternative 'solo,' 'indoor' and 'no-time' plans. Finally, we suggest ways to make the most of your time on the bike by incorporating riding skills practice along with your training.

Physiology

The best predictor of endurance performance is the power at which you reach your lactate threshold (LT). You may recall from previous columns that LT represents the intensity above which you begin to accumulate lactic acid in the working muscles. LT is highly related to the density of the muscle's capillary bed, because when more capillaries surround each muscle fiber, the muscle cells are better able to breathe; thus, oxygen has a shorter diffusion distance from capillary to muscle cell and metabolic by-products (including lactic acid) have a shorter diffusion distance out of the muscle.

Training the Fast-Twitch Motor Units: When you ride at low intensity, you recruit primarily your small, slow-twitch motor units. As you increase intensity, you recruit the larger fast-twitch motor units. The most obvious way to recruit and train the fast-twitch motor units is to increase intensity, but that can result in rather abrupt fatigue. An alternative way to recruit and train the fast-twitch motor units is to ride long enough to fatigue the slow-twitch motor units. The fast-twitch motor units are then recruited very gradually and you won't experience the sudden accumulation of lactate and fatigue.

Spin Your Base: Cycling power is the product of pedal force and pedaling rate. So for any given power, you can pedal at a number of force-rate combinations. However, high pedaling force impedes blood flow through the working muscles. During base training, you want to maximize the blood flow through your muscles to stimulate capillary development. Consequently, you should use a higher cadence to minimize pedaling force and maximize blood flow.

Back-to-Back Rides: If you follow up a long base ride with another the next morning, you may not be completely recovered. This means the slow-twitch fibers are still somewhat fatigued, so you can recruit and train the fast-twitch fibers.

Traditional Long Mileage Base: Traditional base training is centered around rides of longer duration, usually two to three hours.

Sample Weekly Schedule
Monday:	Strength training or rest day. See the November '96 or December '97 issues for strength training specifics.
Tuesday:	Day off or a very easy spin (30 to 60 minutes in first gear).
Wednesday:	This is an important aerobic training maintenance day. Try to get in a 40- to 60-minute ride on the road, trainer or rollers. You can keep it short if you go a little more intense as recommended for the time-limited base training. The Wednesday ride will provide a training effect that will keep your base work intact from weekend to weekend.
Thursday:	Strength training or day off, same as Monday.
Friday:	Day off or easy spin.
Saturday:	Ride as much as you can, preferably with a group. Try to get in at least two hours; better yet three or more. Eat heartily after your ride.
Sunday:	Continue your base riding. This time try to put in one and a half to two hours. You may feel stiff initially from Saturday's ride but that's okay. Again, eat heartily after your ride.
Total training time is 6 to 10 hours, depending on strength training and easy-day rides.

The intensity should be kept low enough that conversation is reasonably easy. Base rides should be done in a group of at least four so that you can have a work-to-rest ratio of at least 1:3 and spend 30 to 60 minutes at the front. Your base rides should cover flat or gently rolling terrain. The cadence for base riding should be slightly higher than you might normally choose. As a rule of thumb for cadence, find a gear that feels just right, then shift to next lower gear so that you are spinning about 6 to 10 percent faster than normal. You can increase the effectiveness of your rides by doing some of them back to back.

Alternative Base Training

Rolling along in a large group of excellent riders through the brown winter landscape at just the right intensity is the ideal way to log your base miles. Unfortunately, those rides are hard to find, they consume a lot of time and many of you may not live in a climate where outdoor riding is possible all winter. For those of you who must train alone, indoors or for a limited time, we have included alternatives to traditional base training.

Solo Riding: If you have trouble finding a group that meets your needs, you can put in a base by yourself, but it will require discipline. First, you must maintain an even tempo for a total of 30 to 60 minutes. Notice that this is the same as the time you should spend on the front if you ride in a group. You can log the time as a continuous effort, or break it up in interval fashion to more closely match the pull-draft nature of group riding. You should look for flat or gently rolling terrain in order to maintain a steady intensity. When you are in a head wind, be sure and use your smaller gears so that you can keep your pedal pressure light.

Indoor Base: If you are forced to exercise indoors, you can still lay down a very effective base. The general guidelines for an indoor base will be the same as those for solo base riding. The main difference is that you will be on a trainer, rollers or a stationary bike. Be aware that rollers are much more appropriate for base riding than a trainer, because they tend to have less resistance and force you to work on pedaling technique. Trainers allow you to work on power but do less for technique and balance.

Of course, the key to laying a base is to actually do it, so motivation is critical. If you find that using a trainer with feedback (such as CompuTrainer's Racer Mate or Cycle Op's Trainers) or if going to a spin class keeps you riding, then by all means do it! The February '98 issue has a detailed description of how to work on your spin. Try to incorporate these principles into your indoor base.

Time-Limited Base: If your life has too many demands (whose doesn't?), you can still lay an effective base by trading intensity for time. Instead of 30 to 60 minutes at low intensity, you can substitute about 20 minutes of higher-intensity intervals. For instance, you could do two repeats of 10 minutes at 85 to 90 percent of maximum heart rate (roughly 75 to 80 percent of VO2 max), or four repeats of 5 minutes at 95 percent of max heart rate (roughly 90 percent of VO2 max). Of course, these intervals are above lactate threshold and will be very tough. They will require more discipline than the other base workouts, and you will have to find ways to stay motivated through the winter. Even so, if you stick with a program like this, it will provide an excellent base of conditioning in minimal time.

Skills Practice

Riding base miles at an easy pace allows you to learn bike handling and pack riding skills. These skills are difficult (and dangerous) to learn under the pressure of high-speed racing or group tours. Thus, base rides in a group serve as both training and practice sessions. By training solo, the major element that you will miss is this skill practice. The best (and only) substitute for the group experience is riding rollers. Rollers force you to ride a straight line, and relax while doing so. You can duplicate the feel for riding closely in a group by having someone come and stand close to you while you are on rollers, maybe even touch shoulders with you. Make sure you have something to hold on to in the event of a fall (set them up in a doorway to start) and stay away from any glass (such as windows, cabinets or sliding doors).

Base work will build the foundation upon which you build your fitness by increasing your capillary density. When you start riding at higher intensities, the metabolic by-products readily diffuse out of the muscle and you will find yourself riding at higher heart rates without the sensation that your legs are stuffed.

Try to establish a habit of putting in base rides for the next several weeks. Call around and find a group ride that you like and can depend on. When looking for a ride, remember that the better the riders are, the less polite the ride may be. Don't be intimidated by elite riders, though, as they will often be a better group for winter rides than beginners.

Additionally, if you ride outdoors, don't forget to dress warmly and in layers. As always, your comments are appreciated, so feel free to e-mail me at j.martin@mail.utexas.edu.

Interval Training for Aerobic Power

By Jim Martin
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If you hang around any group of athletes, you'll hear talk of interval training. The discussion will often be couched in superhuman terms and you may think that interval training is beyond your ability. Think again! Interval training is simply a process of working hard for a short period, recovering and then working hard again.

Put Intervals in Your Training; What Do You Get?

When you show up for a group ride, race or tour, your interval training will make a noticeable difference in the length and strength of your pulls. Your fellow riders will notice it immediately. You'll find yourself sitting on the front carrying on conversations rather than seeking shelter at the back of the line.

Simply put, intervals are the most effective way to improve your fitness. They require both courage and restraint, but the results will more than justify the hard work. Ride hard and have fun!

How Hard Can You Go?  In the last few months, our training articles have been designed to systematically increase your fitness. As you have trained, you have found that you are able to ride at higher intensity and higher percentage of your VO2 max. Indeed, if you have followed our recommended training programs, you have probably increased your lactate threshold to around 70 to 75 percent of heart-rate reserve (HRR), which should enable you to perform a 20-mile time trial at about 80 to 85 percent of HRR, or around 15 to 20 beats per minute below max heart rate. Congratulations, you are very fit. The question now is: How do you get even more fit? Answer: interval training.

Target the System: The key to productive interval training is to pick the right intensity and duration for the type of fitness (i.e., the physiological system) you want to improve. This article will focus on intervals that are intended to improve endurance performance and will begin by describing the principles and physiological adaptations associated with aerobic interval training. We will then describe how to determine the right intensity for your intervals. Finally, we will lay out the structure of an interval training workout.

Training Principle Number One: Overload. You must overload your aerobic system if you want to improve your endurance. That's a problem, because as you become more fit, it becomes more difficult to overload your already-fit system. For instance, if you can already time trial within 15 to 20 beats of your max heart rate, then you will have to train within 7 to 10 beats of max heart rate to improve. This may sound unreasonable, even impossible, but it's not. In fact, studies have shown that elite cyclists can ride for one hour at up to 95 percent of HRR!

Physiology: You already know that you can ride for a few minutes at much higher speed than you can maintain for one hour. The reason you can't maintain the higher speed is that metabolic by-products build up in your muscles and cause fatigue. What you may not fully appreciate is that while you are riding fast, even for a brief period (say 3 to 6 minutes), your muscles demand energy at a very high rate. This energy demand represents an overload that will increase your mitochondrial density, capillary density and stroke volume (i.e., the amount of blood pumped with each heartbeat). Stroke volume will increase because your heart size will increase and because your veins will help return blood to the heart (hence the term cardiovascular fitness--fitness of the heart and the veins).

Response Time Is a Factor: When you start to exercise, your aerobic system has a response time during which it makes adjustments to blood flow, heart rate and breathing. During interval training, you must also allow time for your aerobic system to match the energy demands of your intensity. You can reasonably assume that within one to three minutes your heart rate and breathing will closely match the exercise intensity (if you are a natural endurance type, you may respond more quickly, whereas if you are a sprinter type, your aerobic system may respond more slowly). These first few minutes really serve as a precursor to interval training. That is, the benefits of interval training start once the aerobic system is brought on-line. For this reason, aerobic intervals should be at least five minutes long. That way, you allow about two minutes for the start-up and then you get three minutes of really effective training. The response time is probably longer on the initial interval, and shorter on subsequent bouts, making them harder but more productive.

Heart-Rate Reserve

Many of us train with heart-rate monitors, but our understanding of how to use them can be suspect. If anything, we simply look at our current heart rate as compared to our maximum heart rate (if we even know that). But there's a better gauge of exertion: heart-rate reserve.

HRR, simply put, is the difference between your max heart rate and your no-load heart rate, and when expressed as a percentage (75 percent of HRR) is roughly equivalent to percentage of VO2 max (maximum oxygen uptake). No-load is different from resting heart rate. To find your HRR, first get on your bike and ride very easily at about 30 rpm with a heart-rate monitor on; your heart rate during this effort is your no-load. Make sure you're not on a false flat or incline, or your no-load number will be off. Then, subtract that from your max heart rate.

So, if your max heart rate is 190 beats per minute and your no-load is 90 bpm, your HRR is 100. You can then calculate your percent of HRR by the following equation: HRR = 100 x (HR during effort - no-load HR)/HRR. If you were sustaining an effort at 170 bpm, you would then be at 89 percent of your HRR, which is pretty dang fit. Bear in mind that this equation is something you should probably do off the bike, since your mathematical abilities at max effort will be a little suspect. Do the math at home and then set up target heart rates for 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 percent of HRR.

Don't have an HRM? Count your pulse for six seconds and add a zero. During hard efforts you may even be able to feel your pulse in your head.

Intensity: The appropriate speed/intensity for aerobic interval training can be difficult to determine, and it is easy to overshoot. Ideally, you should ride at a power output that is about 10 percent higher than what you could maintain for 30 to 60 minutes. The details for determining interval intensity during road cycling are complicated and were previously presented in the article "Interval Intensity? Go Figure!" (June '97). Calculations from that article showed that your interval speed should be about 3 to 5 percent (or 1 mph) faster than your steady-state time-trial speed if the road is flat or slightly rolling. If you like to use a climb for your intervals, the speed should be about 5 to 8 percent higher than your time-trial speed. In each case, this should result in a power that is approximately 10 percent higher than your time-trial power. These speeds may feel too easy in the initial minutes of your interval, and you may want to go harder. Don't! By the third minute this speed will start to seem quite difficult, and you will be hard pressed to finish the whole five to six minutes.

Ramp It Up!: After the first couple of interval sessions, you will probably find that the intensity no longer seems difficult. That just shows the effectiveness of interval training. Consequently you must increase the intensity to continue to overload your system. When the initial intensity becomes fairly easy, try to increase your interval speed by about 1 mph for flat or rolling terrain and .5 to 1 mph for climbing. This will be an ongoing process, and you will have to summon the courage to increase your intensity whenever the current speed becomes easy.

Structure: Begin your interval training session with a 10 to 20 minute warm-up of lower-intensity riding. With any luck, this will take you from your home to your interval training course. In the last few minutes of the warm-up, gradually accelerate so you reach your interval pace, then hold that pace for two minutes. Recover from the warm-up by riding easily for five minutes, and then you will be prepared to start your interval training.

Your interval session can take any form that works for you. It should be set up to take advantage of the road or loop that you use for training. My general recommendation for aerobic interval training is to include three to six intervals of 5 to 6 minutes each with 5 to 10 minutes of easy recovery.

Bring a Friend: You will find these intervals quite difficult, and may have trouble staying motivated. Having a training partner along will probably help you to finish the workout. During the recovery periods, you and your partner can talk about what an awful person I must be to recommend this training.

Not for Everyday: Don't include intervals in every training session and don't do them all year. If you do, you'll end up burned out and overtrained. But use them sparingly and they will increase your riding pleasure. If you incorporate one or two sessions a week, maybe three sessions every two weeks, your fitness will improve to a level you never expected.

Sample Aerobic Interval Training Schedule
Monday:	Strength training or day off. Refer to the November '96 or December '97 issue for strength training specifics.
Tuesday:	Day off or very easy spin (e.g., 30 to 60 minutes in first gear).
Wednesday:	Aerobic interval training. Include a warm-up and three to six intervals of 5 to 6 minutes each. Recover 5 to 10 minutes between intervals.
Thursday:	Recovery ride. Approximately 60 to 90 minutes, generally easy riding but with some (10 to 20 minutes) tempo riding.
Friday:	Day off or easy spin.
Saturday:	Group ride or interval training. Remember that the reason you do interval training is to ride strong in a group, so get out on a group ride whenever possible. If there is no group ride, you can perform another interval session, but try to do them a little differently than you did on Wednesday (i.e., hills versus flats).
Sunday:	This is a good day for aerobic power riding (May '98 issue). If you find that you have not recovered from Saturday's ride, just reduce the intensity by sitting at the back of the group or reducing the intensity of your solo intervals or steady-state riding.
This plan is designed for a typical recreational rider with interval training. Three days of cycling training, one day of strength training or recovery ride and two days off or easy-spin rides. Total training time is 6 to 10 hours depending on strength training and easy day rides.

Endurance Nutrition Systems: Using Food as Medicine
(bfore, during, after)

By Elke Kolodinski
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Everybody has to eat and drink something, right? Athletes and health nuts have figured out that not only can food and water be used to assuage gnawing hunger, but they can also serve as medicine, to affect particular responses in our bodies. Yes, the basic carbohydrate, protein and fat contents of foods are a good way to start assessing the role of nutrition in your athletic regimen, but when you want results above and beyond just feeling good and maintaining adequate energy to enjoy your customary workout--say, when riding a century--using food as medicine becomes a crucial concern. You have to ingest the necessary components of food at the right times to optimize your athletic performance and cut down on recovery time. You must stay hydrated. And all of this on a bicycle.

Many sports-performance companies have investigated this issue (surprise!) and come up with drink systems that simultaneously keep you hydrated and boost your system with strength-sustaining nutrients. These drinks go way beyond the simple carbohydrate-protein-fat analysis. They are high-tech attempts at bioengineering that assume a direct correlation between nutrient input and performance output. The first thing to assess when choosing a drink system is what you actually need.

Across the board, studies show that hard-training athletes rarely ingest all the nutrients their bodies need to produce what's expected of them--and to recover adequately and quickly. Much overtraining amounts to starving yourself of essential nutrients. A good drink system, then, can make up for what's missing in an athlete's regular diet. On the flip side, there's no need to pour rocket fuel into a Ford Mustang. Yes, it's a great-performing car, but could its brakes stop it if it were traveling, say, 250 mph? Maybe...

Our bodies, like finely tuned, finicky machines, don't need everything that could potentially be good for them. Studies show that most mineral supplementation, for example, is only effective in cases of a sustained dietary deficiency. The popular chromium picolinate will cause a noticeable increase in lean body mass if the person taking it had a deficiency to begin with, but that's difficult to ascertain. If not, the supplement will most likely be excreted. In the laboratory, cultured cells exposed to high levels of chromium have shown chromosome damage, however. The picolinate seems to facilitate chromium transport into cells, where it is slow to leave and accumulates. Excessive supplementation has the capacity to throw off your body's natural balance.

If you habitually train for more than 60 minutes at a time, or in a hot environment, or you don't have time to ensure that your diet is as complete as it should be, an endurance-enhancing drink system is the right choice for you. If not, you might do well to save the money for new bike parts and just hydrate with standard H2O or fruit juice halved with water.

Remember, no matter what you decide on, you must choose something that's palatable enough that you'll actually drink it. The most nourishing drink available won't do you any good if it tastes like ca-ca. Not only do you risk dehydration from resistance to drinking, you won't get the benefits of the nutrients, either. Test your drinks a few times while training before employing them in a competition setting. Gastric surprises are the last thing you need while sprinting toward a finish line.

Finally, don't choose an endurance drink that's too thick with nutrients. The time required to assimilate the liquid into your bloodstream (osmolality) is crucial. Low osmolality means your body will assimilate the fluid quickly. A drink too thick in nutrients will hinder your ability to hydrate.

About an hour before training, a substantial drink that functions as a complete food will prepare you for exertion. Drinks are easier to digest than solid foods such as bars, so they can be consumed closer to event time. They also provide hydration, which bars can't do.

Some of the more popular drinks among cyclists are Champion Nutrition's Cytomax, TwinLab's HydraFuel and Unipro's Endura. Let's see how they and their counterparts stack up.

Cytomax's label says it can be used before, during and after workouts and competitions, which is, of course, true. Its high carbohydrate and electrolyte and no fat and protein composition make it good for stretching energy during a race and for ensuring hydration, but not much else.

So, Champion offers Metabolol Endurance, a complete-food drink to ingest before race time. Metabolol Endurance contains complex carbs and MCTs, whey protein (a complete protein with all amino acids intact), a specially formulated egg-white protein, antioxidants, electrolytes, carnitine--everything you'd expect. For postrace recovery, Champion offers several protein supplements like Pro Score 100, Metabolol Maximum (Met Max) and Muscle Nitro. These contain different whey-based blends of proteins, special amino-acid cocktails and electrolytes to speed recovery.

Cytomax sells for about 53 cents per serving if you buy 4.5 pounds at a time. One serving of Metabolol Endurance will set you back around $1.75 if purchased in the large, 20-serving can. Pro Score 100 makes recovery cheap by comparison, averaging 24 cents per serving.

TwinLab's HydraFuel does what it says. It is 7 percent carbohydrates (with less than 2 percent fructose, as are Cytomax and Endura) with some electrolytes and antioxidants.

TwinLab's ProFuel, a preworkout drink, looks to be mostly protein and BCAAs. Nothing special there, but the PowerFuel, whose label says it can do triple time before, during and after a workout, looks more promising. It claims its carbs are easily digestible with a small amount of fructose. The antioxidants include beta-carotene, not just vitamin A (which could be an isomer--synthetically constructed with the same atoms, but arranged differently as a molecule--and possibly not as effective). PowerFuel also involves CoQ10, carnitine, creatine (ostensible for short bursts of energy) and B vitamins, but no protein; hence it is low in nitrogen and not that good for recovery and muscle-building.

HydraFuel retails for about 21 cents a serving and PowerFuel runs about 47 cents per serving.

Unipro takes a slightly different bent on the mineral supplementation aspect of endurance, putting higher than usual magnesium into its Endura drink mix to combat the purported magnesium deficiency in 50 percent of Americans. (It's probably all the athletes, given our bad diets.) Since magnesium affects blood-sugar regulation, as well as acid balances in the body, this could be important for the athlete exerting himself to the nth degree. Other electrolytes are also present in this high-carb, no-protein, no-fat drink. B vitamins, chromium and pantothenic acid all make an appearance. Looks good.

For long sessions, Unipro suggests that the Endura Optimizer be brought in near the end of your ride to give you an extra boost, then be continued after the race to facilitate recovery. It has protein with a cocktail of peptide-bonded amino acids, extra antioxidants like beta-carotene and selenium, electrolytes (magnesium again), boron to facilitate calcium usage, other trace minerals and vitamins D, C and the Bs.

Unipro's Pro-Optimizer's label claims the product can be used either before competition or after for recovery. Again, it's higher in magnesium than comparable brands. Its whey protein, high carbohydrate content, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and mix of amino acids render it a complete supplement either before a race or after the damage has been done.

Endura retails for about $1.05 per serving. The Endura Optimizer will set you back a stiff $1.99 per serving, and the Pro-Optimizer? $2.70.

One last thing to consider: In a blind taste test, HydraFuel won hands down over Cytomax. (Unfortunately, Endura wasn't tested.) In this age of high-tech supplements and well-funded research, that seems to be all the choice really boils down to.

"Before" Drinks Should Have: Thermogenic qualities to pump you up. That means it'll increase your oxygen capacity, blood pressure and mental acuity (usually achieved with caffeine or herbs like ginseng, ma huang, ephedrine or guarana, or amino acids like L-phenylalanine); Fuel in the form of complex carbohydrates and medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs)--complex (maltodextrin, corn hybrids) because the energy they provide lasts longer and circumvents the highs and lows other sugars can cause; medium chain because, in the body, these free fatty acids are easily turned into energy, as opposed to other fats that are more difficult to metabolize; Antioxidants (beta-carotene, vitamin E, vitamin C, glutathione, cysteine, selenium) to help combat free-radical damage to tissues that may occur during exercise; Lactase in some form to help keep lactic-acid buildup in check; Electrolytes like magnesium, potassium, calcium and sodium to make sure you start your race hydrated and ready to quickly assimilate the liquid you ingest.

"Before"_Drinks_Could_Have:____________ Bioflavonoids to mildly stimulate you and help circulation; B vitamins (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 12) for circulation regulation and the metabolism of carbohydrates and fats; Glutamic acid to keep a clear head (GA facilitates the flushing of ammonia from the brain); Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs--leucine, isoleucine, valine) to protect muscle fibers from degradation during exercise and offset the drop in plasma BCAA concentrations that occur during prolonged cycling; Biotin to assist in carbohydrate, protein and fat metabolism and fatty-acid production; Carnitine to encourage the burning of fat rather than glycogen, thus sparing energy stores; CoQ10 (Co-enzyme Q10) to help control the intracellular flow of oxygen, catalyzing the creation of energy ; Manganese for carbohydrate metabolism and enzyme activation; L-alanine to fuel the brain and metabolize sugars and acids; L-aspartic acid to help you resist fatigue; L-proline to ensure the pliability of cartilage and the proper function of joints and tendons; L-threonine (generally low in vegetarian diets) to assist in glycogen storage in the liver and skeletal muscles; L-lysine, the precursor to carnitine.

"During" Drinks Should Have: Fuel in the form of complex carbohydrates or MCTs to keep you going for the longest time possible (but be no more than 8 percent of fluid volume, to keep osmolality in check); Electrolytes to enable the quick assimilation and retention of liquid; Antioxidants to protect tissues and prevent fatigue; Little or no protein to get in the way. During exertion, you aren't interested in building anything. Use what you've got and make the best of it.

"Recovery" Drinks Should Have: Fuel in the form of complex carbohydrates and MCTs to replace lost energy stores; Whole protein with the full complement of those "L-" amino acids to rebuild muscle lost during exertion; Electrolytes to quench your body's thirst (although you drank as much as you could) as quickly as possible and assist in the smooth movement and utilization of other nutrients; Nitrogen (found in protein) to facilitate the rebuilding of muscle; Antioxidants to prevent further damage to tissues; B vitamins (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 12) for antibody and red blood cell formation and tissue repair.

The Conconi Method of Cycling for Life

By James Startt
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Since the early 1980s, the role of the doctor in the professional peloton has increased. Before, the role of monitoring the athlete's health remained in the hands of the masseuses. While their talents in massage were indispensable, their medical knowledge was sometimes sketchy. As the sport has grown, so has the need for more in-depth medical care.

Dr. Conconi is the granddaddy of cycling doctors. He first gained critical acclaim when he guided Francesco Moser to his first world hour record in Mexico City in the winter of 1984. Today he still counsels numerous professionals, but he believes in cycling as a sport for life.

He proved his point in 1994 when he and Moser returned to Mexico and shattered Moser's original record set in 1984. At 43 years of age, Moser rode an inspiring 51.840 kilometers in 60 minutes, 689 meters beyond his record set a decade earlier. "Francesco never really stopped riding after he retired," Conconi explained. "He rode a lot less, but when he went out, he really rode." The 1994 effort stemmed out of a gentlemen's bet between Conconi and Moser, but it served as a monumental statement to the positive effects of exercise on aging.

Conconi himself practices what he preaches. He, like most working people, has little time to train. Despite his crammed schedule as professor of biochemistry and Vice Rector at the University of Ferrara just north of Bologne, Conconi always finds at least an hour a day to ride. It shows, as only his birth certificate could prove that he is now in his mid-60s. "You can work any domain you want in an hour: power, endurance, etc. But you can't just go out in the park and toddle around - you really have to work that hour. I would never advise riding without suffering at all. That's just for fun, but you get nothing from it," Conconi related by phone from his university office. "Of course I'm not talking about the elite athlete but of the fitness athlete. There are no miracles, but I've seen some everyday people who previously led basically sedentary lives really change their form over a year or two. With an elite athlete, change is hard to monitor - 1 percent, 2 percent, 3 if you're lucky. But with average people the difference can be up to 30 percent," Conconi said.

To maximize your hour-long workout Conconi has several suggestions. "The best is if you live close to a long, steady climb." It is the perfect way to warm up and the perfect way to work out because a gradual climb guarantees consistent resistance. "If you ride 30 minutes up a hill, you work both endurance and power," Conconi explained. However, he does realize that many of us do not possess a handy little mountain outside our doorsteps. "Wind trainers are great when you don't have much time. You can really monitor your efforts and get the specific workout you desire. I often use one when it's raining or when I simply don't have much time," he said.

The first important element to an efficient workout is a progressive warm-up. Conconi always takes 30 minutes and during that time he progressively works up to the limit of his submaximal capacity. Using a gear that you would choose in a flat time trial, you should start at 60 rotations per minute (rpm) and increase approximately 1 rpm per minute until 90. Then after a brief pause, the real workout can begin.

For Bicycle Guide, Conconi has outlined three workouts designed to improve endurance, power and overall muscle strength (see the charts and diagrams for specific workouts on the next page). Conconi assures that by varying these workouts, you can maintain a respectable fitness level. "At a general fitness level, it is more important to maintain one's power and strength. If you maintain these elements, endurance comes easily. In contrast, if you simply ride long and slow, the power is much more difficult to attain. The basic idea is to work just under the anaerobic threshold, which is generally accepted as 81 to 90 percent of maximum heart rate - the maximum sustainable effort that you can maintain for 20 minutes or more and when the body starts building up lactic acid. During the warm-up, get your heart rate just at the aerobic limit, then maintain. Once you reach a certain work intensity, the heart rate no longer increases, but the physical output still increases," Conconi said.

Although the good doctor does not go as far as to equate cycling fitness with the eternal fountain of youth, he does insist that a consistent training program can slow down the aging process. "We are really pushing the frontier in this domain," Conconi said. "We are the first generation that is really active and it is hard to say where it will take us. Many sedentary people age tremendously between 45 and 55. But those who have consistently exercised can push those limits. We definitely age, but we can surely slow it down. In the case of Moser, we clearly saw that he no longer had the same level of endurance and his performance was declining in the last part of his 1994 hour-record attempt. But I also recently ran into a guy who has always cycled and now at the age of 88, he is still climbing mountains such as the Stelvio. And he looks great."

Chart 1: Aerobic Endurance Workout

30-minute warm-up, gradually reaching submaximal speed. Make a slow progression from a cadence of 60 rotations per minute (rpm) up to 90 rpm in increments of 1 rpm each minute. Gearing should be one you would use for the race pace in a time trial on a flat course (e.g., 52x15).

30-minute exercise at medium intensity. Use the gearing employed in the warm-up and in three minutes reach a cadence of 84 to 86 rpm. Keep that cadence for the times indicated in this diagram. If adequately trained, one could do this workout for 30 minutes without interruption.

Chart 2: Muscle Strength Workout

30-minute warm-up; see Chart 1.

30-minute workout specific for increasing muscle strength. The course should be uphill at a 6 to 9 percent grade. The gearing is the same gear used in the warm-up. Keep the cadence at 30 to 40 rpm for the times indicated in this diagram and heart rate should not exceed the heart rate reached in your workouts at medium intensity.

Chart 3: Aerobic Power Workout

30-minute workout; see Chart 1.

30-minute workout specific for improving aerobic power. The course should be flat and the cadence should be up to 100 rpm for the times indicated in this diagram. The gearing and exercise intensity should be similar to those you would use for a long time trial (i.e., this workout is not meant to be an all-out exercise).

Improve Your Sprint
By Joe Lindsey
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Ever been on a group ride and tried the town-line sprint only to get spat out the back and limp home with a damaged ego? Have you stood hard on the pedals to make a stale green light only to watch your speed increase at a sloth's pace forcing you to brake hard as the light changed? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you're in need of some speed therapy.

Sprinting is a manifestation, basically, of our fast-twitch muscle fibers. They're the ones that do the work during short, extreme efforts. That's opposed to slow-twitch fibers, which are the ones that allow you to maintain 20 mph for five hours. Since muscle makeup is genetically determined, we're individually better at either endurance or power riding, depending on how you picked your parents. But we're not all doomed. You can, to a certain extent, recruit more fast-twitch muscle fiber; more important, you can train what you have to pull more than its weight.

Combine these two exercises with a good power-building weight program to surprise the field at your next ride, and always start a training program with the appropriate base mileage in your legs.

Sprinting Time-Trial Intervals: A heinous creation from our Training guru Jim Martin, they're darned effective. Here's the scoop--find a short loop about a half mile long with a steep climb that takes about half a minute to get up at top effort. After a good 20-minute warm-up, start riding the loop at the top of the climb at a hard time-trial effort. (If you don't have a heart-rate monitor, no problem; judge in terms of relative intensity. This effort means hard breathing, no talking. A good judge of effort is to ask yourself every couple of minutes if you could go harder. If the answer's yes, step it up a notch.) At the base of the climb, stand and sprint to the crest. At the top of the climb, sit down and try to resume that hard time-trial effort from before. It's okay if you're just creeping along, as long as your perceived effort is time-trial. Repeat the loop for six minutes and do this four times with 10-minute periods of rest in between. You can do this without a hill, but you have to replicate the hill effort with about 30 seconds of all-out sprinting. Do this workout with a partner--still not fun, but at least you can commiserate.

Fartlek: "Huh, huh, he said..." Yeah, we know, Beavis. Juvenile humor aside, fartlek (a Swedish word meaning speedplay) is an incredible boon to your training. What's more, it's a lot more fun than the previous workout. Basically, the idea is to introduce short, hard efforts to your training rides in the form of sprints. Think of intermediate sprints at the Tour de France, which break up the monotony of a long stage. Alone or with a group (much more fun), pick out landmarks on a training ride and sprint for them. If you really want to spice it up, offer a prime, such as "loser buys coffee." They can be close or relatively far away (1/2 mile, even). It's pretty amazing; head out once or twice a week with friends and see how simple comments like "that Dip sign at 200 meters" can liven up a ride, improve your sprint and exponentially increase your fun quotient.