A MUST READ FOR DHARMA WHEELS TRAINING!

 

The following is a chapter from Richard’s Cycling For Fitness, by John Schubert, 1988. I’ve found the book and this chapter, in particular, very useful for training - especially if you’re not one of them Tour de France jocks (or wannabes).

 

 

Assembling The Techniques

 

It's time to assemble the many bits of riding technique into good workouts, and good workout schedules. Workouts need to fit in around your job, your social and family obligations, and your own need for sanity. The right schedules make the best of limited time to make you a bike rider.

 

Early Season

 

I've harped on the fact that you can't be a great bike rider by grinding big gears. But how can you get fit, and have the satisfaction of feeling like you've really flogged yourself (if that's what you want), by twiddling those sissy little gears?

 

Anything is hard work if you do it long enough. But the beauty of bike riding is that it doesn't have to feel like hard work. Ex-runners may have a tough time adjusting to cycling, because the feet and joints won't feel so flogged. Heart, lungs, and muscles, however, will have the same beneficial workout, and joints will last longer.

 

Professional cyclists spend the first two months of each season twiddling little gears. They do it because it works-not just for each season, but for the rather long professional careers these riders have.

 

Here is a typical early season ride. For me, the distance will be anywhere from 15 to 50 miles. Novices will need to work up to 15-mile rides, but it doesn't take long. Fifteen miles is a good minimum to warm up, get in some good pedal pounding, and warm down. Shorter rides won't hurt, but for basic aerobic capacity and endurance, a minimum of one hour, or 15 miles, brings big dividends.

 

At the start of my ride I put the bike in a pretty low gear (40 to 50 inches), and start twiddling. My forward speed is slow-a good runner could pass me-but that's part of warming up. I twiddle for about two minutes, then up-shift to another low gear (65 inches or so) which I can spin easily.

 

Why a slow start? A warmup gets your blood pumping and your muscles warm and

loose. It helps you go faster later on, because active blood circulation carries away lactic acid generated by your muscles. If you go hard from the first pedal stroke and build up lactic acid before you have blood circulation, your body will be trying to catch up for the duration of your ride. Many blood vessels in your muscles are so narrow that blood cells have to pass through one at a time, like a stack of slowly moving poker chips, and the circulation in these blood vessels may be extremely poor when you're not exercising. By warming up slowly you fill the vessels with a stack of blood cells instead of a supply of lactic acid.

 

The warmup doesn't last forever. After two more minutes, I'm ready for another up-shift and something closer to normal cruise speed. At this point, I'll have a cadence around 95 rpm (it varies some with terrain) and the pressure I'm putting on the pedals will be slight enough so that I can barely feel it, if at all.

 

This description of cadence and pedal effort is perhaps the most important objective for a new cyclist to work towards. It may be different from your idea of a good, hard workout, but for reasons given below, it's the key to faster, better riding and fintness. I don't hit my full cruising effort until 10 or 15 minutes have passed. A long warmup builds a good foundation for a good, lusty workout.

 

But in an early season workout, I never hit that full effort. You warm up over the season as much as you warm up during each individual ride. In early season workouts, my only goals are duration on the bike and developing a nice, quick spin. Pushing hard on the pedals won't help. In February, I'm not in shape to go fast even if I try, and trying hard won't help - just hurts - it turns on the lactic acid spigots. On the other hand covering long miles at moderate speeds is pleasant, aerobic and rewarding, and it prepares you nicely for faster speeds later in the season. The benefits from these warm-up rides increase greatly as the duration of the rides reaches and exceeds two hours, and these rides set you up for better performances later in the year in several valuable ways.

 

Here's why: the body has two basic fuels; glucose (stored as glycogen) and fat. Glucose is the primary fuel of intense aerobic activity, so the harder you ride, the more glucose you consume. Fats, on the other hand, are fuels for lower intensity aerobic activity. By burning them, you can stretch your glucose stores to let you ride farther. One effect of working well within your aerobic capacity is to train your body to burn the "low octane" fuel, fat. Another effect is to increase the glycogen stores in the muscles. And a third is to improve the efficiency of oxygen delivery from the blood to the muscle itself.                                                    

 

Training your body to burn fats is important because the body’s natural tendency is to use the limited supply of glucose first, since it is more easily released. You combat this tendency with long, low-key, steady state rides that train the metabolism to bum fat more readily. This means that you can get better performance later in the season without using as much glucose. The benefits increase after two hours or so because it

takes about two hours for your glucose to be exhausted. You want to log plenty of riding

miles when your glucose supply is on the reserve tank.

However, do not make early-season rides so long that they utterly deplete your glucose supply. When that happens, you get the bonk-total exhaustion. You feel just dreadful, little better than a road kill. And you don't need to bonk to train your fat metabolism. Merely approaching the bonk will suffice.

 

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WHAT IS LACTIC ACID?

 

If you exert yourself within your aerobic ability, your muscles use oxygen from the bloodstream. But if you want more horsepower than your heart and lungs can supply oxygen for, your muscles metabolically 'borrow' future oxygen. They do that by converting glucose to pyruvate and into that undesirable byproduct, lactic acid.                                   

 

The lactic acid is liberated m your bloodstream and, like most acids, it hurts. That's one source of the muscle pain you feel after a burst of hard exertion. The pain goes away slowly, as your blood is pumped through the lungs, where oxygen is used to burn the lactic acid and convert some of it back to glycogen.

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Easy early season rides also train your nervous system and synapses to the muscles. Muscles, unless trained otherwise, will use only a favored few of their fibers. The favorite fibers contract; the other fibers act as dead weight. When those fibers aren't used, the nerves which innervate them become rusty and function poorly. Training assigns the lax fibers to active duty-a promotion they aren't capable of achieving on short notice.

 

To train fibers and nerves, you must first tire out the favorite fibers. Then, to keep on going, the muscles are forced to call on the other fibers and those rarely used nerves and muscle fibers get accustomed to working for a change. Again, this effect takes hold with longer workouts, and isn't nearly so obvious in shorter rides, no matter how intense.

 

The little capillaries which feed these muscles are trained, too. They may be shut from disuse, but long, gentle rides will open them.

 

Another neurological benefit is training the coordination of spinning. Early season spinning trains you in that coordination-much like people practicing their golf swing.

 

If you're a novice, a gentle early-season riding program helps you get used to other aspects of the bike. Every new rider needs to firm up his bum so the saddle feels comfortable. Other parts of you-your finger muscles, your neck, your arms, and back -  may benefit from some easy riding time.

 

Yet another benefit is psychological. Rare is the rider who can hammer all season without feeling stale. I'm sure you've known athletes who put their shoulder to the wheel hard, all year round, and don't progress much. More successful athletes avoid that.

One of the best veteran racers I know insists on moderately paced touring throughout the fall and winter. He's in shape to ride much faster, but he likes the change of pace, and he knows that he's ultimately faster because of it. He's old enough to be my father, and when we ride together in the cold months he rides gently, but in the summer he can drop me like a stone.

 

Playing with cadence is a major component of early-season workouts-seeing how fast you can pedal and feel smooth.

 

Why work on cadence if you're already capable of comfortable spinning at 90 rpm? To get even more comfortable. And you want to feel smooth and comfortable spinning much faster, so you can sprint to make a traffic light or pass someone in  a race.  Sprinting takes you up to 120 or

so, and track sprinters will go still higher to 140 -150. The ultimate training goal is to be smooth at cadences up to 180 rpm - the benchmark for the excellent sprinter. Much of this you'll do on rollers-the magic tool to make your cycling style creamy smooth. But much of it takes place on the road. Not much ceremony is involved; just gear down and rev up your legs.                     

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BEGINNERS: ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE

 

To the beginning rider, for whom a few miles make every body part hurt, the notion of people comfortably riding dozens  of miles may be nearly unbelievable.

 

But with practice, you improve. The body adapts.

 

Start with short rides that stay within your comfort zone. The range will widely from one individual to the next. A person who's already fit from other sports may be ready for 20-mile rides right away. Or he may need to get a tender backside used to the bike with half-mile get-acquainted rides. If you need half-mile rides, take them! (Think of a person just learning the guitar; his fingers hurt after only a few minutes of plucking the strings.)

 

At least three days a week, preferably more, get on the bike and take your short ride. Within a fe rides, your rear end will be better acquainted with the saddle, your leg muscles comfortable with the pedaling motion. You'll start to become familiar with the hand controls, so they don't fee foreign.

 

Soon enough your rides will expand to one mile, then two, then five. And you'll be onto the regular training schedules in this book [or the Dharma Wheels Training plan.]

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When you do a high-cadence binge, you are in for a surprise: spinning becomes very rough and choppy at around 120 rpm, and then relatively smooth again around 135 rpm. Why? 120 rpm is at a frequency which unfortunately coincides with the resonant frequencies of your innards. Like the Tacoma Narrows bridge, which was torn down by its own vibrations in response to moderate winds, your body organs jiggle with a vengeance when excited at the frequencies generated by pedaling at 120 rpm. Pedal faster, and you reach a frequency which no longer excites your organs. The workout ends much as it started, with moderate effort and pace. Remember, its goal is duration and not much else.

 

These easygoing workouts are an excellent excuse to have fun with your bike. Go somewhere. Have a picnic. Visit friends in the next town and get a workout each way. Go riding with friends who aren't such tenacious cyclists-you're in no hurry, so you

can enjoy their company-and let them laugh at your low gears and churning legs. Tell them that's how World Professional Hour Record Holder Francesco Moser trains, and he's the absolute king of aerobic output.

 

If you're a runner new to cycling, you may not feel like you've had a worthwhile workout. After 30 miles of gentle cycling, your legs won't feel pounded. In fact, you may feel refreshed-after all, your heart and lungs have been pumping oxygen-rich blood throughout your body. But for proof that you've had a good workout, put on your running shoes and head down the block. Your get up and go would be mostly gone, and you'd realize that your system is tired - a largely biochemical phenomenon. You're sure to feel mellow that evening and sleepy that night. A cycling workout will leave you tired but not hurting. Next time, you'll recognize that tired cyclist feeling. It's more subtle than fatigue from running.

 

While riding, it is hard to distinguish the deceptively subtle changes in sensation you get from changes in workload. Suppose you're cruising at an effort level somewhat below your maximum aerobic capacity. You upshift and accelerate, maintaining the same cadence, riding at a higher speed and an effort level very slightly above your aerobic capacity. You won't feel much; perhaps a slight change in the way the muscles feel. Only after a minute or two do the big changes come home to roost: deep breaths, a pounding heart, and the realization that you've just burned up glucose anaerobically and generated a bunch of lactic acid.

 

Teach yourself to detect that slight change early on, before the accumulation of lactic acid slows you down and disrupts your rhythm. Everybody does some rides, particularly early season rides, in which they want to stay below maximum aerobic capacity. More ambitious riders would want to go above that point at one time or another. For these riders, knowing the threshold is important, because there are times you'll want to hover just above it.

 

There's an even more subtle change you want to feel for: the difference between consuming mostly fat (low intensity aerobic activity) and consuming mostly glucose (high intensity aerobic activity). (When you go anaerobic, you consume almost all glucose.) There's no clear dividing line. At best, this is an ephemeral, zen-like "listening to your body sensation, and I have no proof that a rider can feel it directly. But some riders I know believe they can. At the very least, they learn to recognize the difference between the effort level which leaves them limp after using up all their glycogen (which takes about two hours, depending on the individual) and the effort level which lets them keep on going after that.

 

Mid Season

 

Your goals will determine how much your midseason rides differ from the deliberately easy, early season rides. They needn't differ at all. If you want to enjoy scenery riding your bike, and shoo off heart attacks, riding would never be hard work; instead, it would be your counterpart to the current walking craze. There's mounting evidence that gentle exercise produces as much overall health benefit as far more strenuous exercise, and that holds as true for cycling as it does for walking-without the skeletal fatigue of walking. Moreover, you can go places on your bike. I know riders who complete long tours and centuries without ever working themselves hard. And their elapsed time for the centuries is often surprisingly close to that of riders who work themselves too hard and forget to relax.

 

Traditionally, people who don't ride very hard are assumed to have poor bike handling skills, and that's usually been the case. But if you develop those skills, your riding would be quicker and more expert at a comfortable level. And you'll be able to enjoy the company of faster riders because you'll know how to hold their wheel. Gracefulness, smoothness, and attention to detail will make you more efficient-and faster.

 

Harder

 

But what if you like the feeling of going fast, and are willing to experience a little lactic acid to tell yourself proudly, "I just ate that hill for breakfast!” What if you crave improvement as measured by the stopwatch?

 

For you, a higher effort level will kick in after one or two weeks of easy twiddling. Each day's long warmup still applies, but when you're truly warmed up, you'll want to go faster and harder. This generally means same cadence, higher gear, and flirting with that burning feeling in your legs.

 

Now you're entering the realm of long, steady distance, or LSD. What you want to do is steady mileage very near your aerobic threshold. You'll be right at the point where your breath is getting a little short; if you're riding with another person, you won't have the energy to converse.

 

Feeling correctly for this effort level is where many novices trip up. It's all too easy to fall in the trap of pounding too high a gear in quest of a little bit of hurt. After all, every other sport from rowing to tennis feels a bit grueling when you're broadening your aerobic horizons. But if you try to simulate that feeling on a bike, you'll only be able to keep it up for a minute or two. Then the lactic acid will bring you down to reality.

 

Even for an expert, staying right at the anaerobic threshold is seldom easy. In addition to the fact that the cues from your own body are subtle, the world around you is in flux. Hills, traffic, and changing winds force you to anticipate and shift to keep your effort constant. The only way to get good at it is to listen to your body and practice. In time, you'll get better at recognizing those subtle cues.

 

Whenever you do a hard workout, you absolutely must warm down. Before you're so tired that you drop, ease off on your effort level; the last 15 minutes of your ride should be as easy as the first 15 minutes. A warmdown helps you recover faster for the next workout because your blood circulation remains brisk while your muscles' production of undesirable pollutants (like lactic acid) subsides. Fresh oxygen gets a chance to whisk through and clean out the crud.

 

The fastest of my regular riding companions is a retired racer who warms up fo ten minutes, creates sonic boom while I desperately such his wheel )his typical flatland cruise is 27 mph)< and then sits up and takes it easy for the last third of the ride. Because he and I warm down so extensively, we recover quickly. I can stay with him for one of his "death rides" (he has a way with words) and ride reasonably strongly the next day. The warmdown refreshed him so much that he can ride that hard every day for months at a time, without ever skipping a day. 

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RUBBING YOURSELF UP THE RIGHT WAY

                                

After you’ve finished your ride with a nice warmdown and a relaxing soak in the tub the next thing you can do to make yourself feel better and sleep more soundly is a leg massage. And you can do this yourself.

 

Massage works wonders. Try it and see. Hammer hard on an early-season ride, add a massage to your post-ride ritual, and see how refreshed you feel the next morning.

 

After a long ride, there's a huge supply of metabolic slag left in the muscles. Warming down helps your bloodstream pump the slag out, but a lot remains. Massaging helps push most of the remaining slag into the bloodstream, where it can be carried away.

 

I repeat: try it and see. The results are far more dramatic than you'd ever guess. Massage makes it possible to recover from hard rides more quickly, to tolerate greater weekly mileage than you're really in shape for, and to feel especially refreshed when you do reach for that post-ride beer.

 

Here's how. Lie on your back - a shag or mattress is a nice touch if you have them - with your rump near a wall and your legs extended upward, heels resting on the wall. Bend one knee towards your chest and massage that leg's calf. Always work towards the heart, kneading the muscle and shaking it occasionally for variety. Switch legs and repeat. Now do both thighs.

 

You can do an effective massage in five minutes, and it will hasten your recovery by a day or two. Absolutely nothing beats it.