CyclingFitness Autumn2013

FREE!
Autumn training guide
THREE NEW 12-WEEK PLANS

FITTER Weekend warrior FASTER Intro to intervals FURTHER No-tech training
FAT BURNING SECRETS WHATS YOUR ZONE?

STRONG MIND STRONG LEGS Training your emotions to win
QUICK TIPS FOR RAPID RECOVERY
IS IT TIME TO MOT YOUR BODY?
FASTER FUEL Real food

on the go
FROM THE MAKERS OF
PLUS Smart carbs, Pilates, cyclo-cross & easier climbing
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to the Autumn edition of Cycling Fitness
Welcome
disorientating, after years of racing weekend in and out I still need to set myself challenges but Im now much happier picking a few events that I am really excited about and riding my bike for fun and health the rest of the time, something we discuss on page 56. My summer event this year was an epic 1,000 mile ride across France from St.Malo in the north to sunny Nice on the Mediterranean a sunnier, warmer John o Groats to Lands End with, it has to be said, much better wine! For autumn Im looking ahead to Cycling Weeklys Adventure Cross in the Lake District, a 100km off and on road hilly challenge its going to be tough enough to make sure I keep my training up and fitness in check right through to the start of winter.
utumn is one of the best times of the year for bike riding; youve accumulated a summers worth of fitness so should be feeling good and the weather hasnt yet turned grim. The first sniff of freshness in the air of a morning as you start your ride or the low down golden glow of late afternoon sun as you head home can make autumn rides as beautiful and memorable as any high summers day. Its a time of year when you will have been striving towards, and hopefully, achieving your goals so its a good time to take a mental and physical break before you review the year and start planning next seasons targets. In this issue we look at understanding goal setting and knowing what we want to achieve from cycling. Being without goals can be
Hannah Reynolds is Cycling Weeklys fitness editor. A keen cyclist, Hannah has raced road and mountain bike and has taken part in numerous cyclosportives, including the Etape du Tour and the UCI Golden Bike series. She studied sport science at University College, Chichester, before starting work at CW, and continues to keep a hands-on approach to the sport by working as a soigneur and massage therapist in her spare time. Our knowledge of training techniques, sport science and nutrition is constantly evolving. To stay up to date with all the latest developments that you can apply to your own cycling, check out Cycling Weeklys extensive Fitness section in each weekly magazine, or visit our website: www.cyclingweekly.co.uk.
www.cyclingweekly.co.uk CYCLING FITNESS 3
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41 Improving with age 46 Harness your emotions
TRAINING
52 Post-ride analysis 56 Performance or health? 60 The art of recovery
READY TO RIDE
07 Fitness news 13
46
4 CYCLING FITNESS www.cyclingweekly.co.uk
EAT WELL Coach-designed day-by-day training plans 16 How to get motivated 66 Smart carbs 19 Maximising fat burning 70 Fasting: the 5:2 diet 25 Full body MOT 74 Autumn recipes 31 Train your resilience 78 Fuelling for multi-day rides 35 Four-seasons cycling 84 Nutrition rules WorldMags.net
Pull-out
52
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TECHNIQUE
92 Hill-climbing 96 Stretching and strengthening 102 Cyclo-cross skills 110 Pro performance: Tour tricks 114 Next issue
96 102
WHATS ON THE COVER?

19 Lose fat and get fit 46 All in the mind 60
Recovery tips
Maximise the fat-burning potential of your riding to get leaner and meaner Choose the right one for you from our three new 12-week plans
13 Training guides
IPC Media Ltd, Leon House, 233 High Street, Croydon, CR9 1HZ
Why cycling is good for your head as well as your heart
TEL: 020 8726 THEN EXTENSION... NEWS ...8469 TECHNICAL ...8455 FITNESS ...8456 EDITORIAL FAX ...8499 EDITORIAL EMAIL cycling@ipcmedia.com ADVERTISING FAX ...8499 ADVERTISING EMAIL
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Speed up the adaptations off the bike and start your next ride fitter, stronger and fresher
recipes 74 Autumn
Use real food to power your performances: four recipes from sports physiologist Dr Allen Lim
25
Full body MOT
Should you have a health check or can you do it yourself?
Editor: Hannah Reynolds Production editor: Daniel Thomas Chief sub editor: James Shrubsall Sub editors: Jonathan Emery, Derri Dunn, Simon Smythe, Rob Hoyles, Janet Coulson Group art editor: Dan Baines Deputy group art editor: Sarah Auld Design: Matt Levett, Callum Tomsett Editorial: Rob Hicks, Rebecca Charlton, Dan Henchy, John Walsh, Chris Sidwells, Laura Tilt, Lucy Miller, Louise Mah, Huw Williams, David Bradford, Contributors: Simon Scarsbrook, Jason Hardy Photographers: Andy Jones, Rupert Fowler, Christopher Catchpole, Daniel Gould, Mike Prior, Fotolia, British Cycling, 2012 Getty Images, AFP, Graham Watson, Jason Critchell, Andy Whitehouse, Chris Auld Ad production: Robert Budd, Andy Perry Managing editor: Robert Garbutt Publishing director: Keith Foster Managing director: Paul Williams 8409 Group sales mngr: Kevin Attridge 8407 Deputy advert manager: Paula Trainor 8415 Classified sales mngr: Cheryl Townsend Subscriptions hotline (0845) 676 7778 Subscriptions fax (01444) 445599 OR SUBSCRIBE ONLINE AT... www.cyclingweekly.co.uk

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READY TO RIDE News
News
Be part of the bigger bike picture

Researchers from University College London are embarking on one of the biggest UK cycling surveys in an attempt to show just how big an impact cycling has on health
Cycling Health UK aims to quantify the health benefits of cycling in the UK population by using online surveys which will measure cycling fitness by self-reported miles cycled per week, hours cycled per week, involvement in cycling events and cyclings relationship with self-reported past medical history and use of health care services. We hope this research will help show the Department of Health how cycling can be used to improve health and help doctors recommend how long, how far and how hard someone has to cycle to gain health benefits, says co-lead researcher, Milo Hollingworth. It may also answer questions regarding whether cycling is better for you compared to other forms of exercise. Cycling Health UK was born out of a need to know about how exercise and activity affect health. The National Institute of Clinical Excellence, Britains health watchdog, recommends 30 minutes of moderate exercise five times a week. However, the idea of exercise is subject to so many different interpretations. Exercise, whatever it is, has been shown to reduce risk of cancer, heart diseases, stroke, diabetes, depression, the list goes on, says Hollingworth. To exploit this potential there needs to be a greater understanding of how exercise affects our health. Its well established that active people compared to inactive people have better health outcomes, but what about fit people compared to even fitter people? Does a Ferrari have greater longetivity than a Fiat Panda? It has been shown that marathon runners running sub-three hours are healthier than their competitors crossing the line two hours later, but does this rule apply to cycling? These are some of the questions we want to address. The survey only takes 12 minutes, and will be followed in five to 10 years time in order to measure change. Cycling Health UK currently has 5,500 responses but would like to get to the golden figure of 10,000 in order to increase the validity of the results. If you want to be involved, then visit http://tinyurl.com/ lp2uvut and help contribute to a future of healthy living and frequent cycling.
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WorldMags.net Bam clothing

British brand bring bamboo to biking
UK brand Bam uses fabric made from bamboo fibres to create base layers and other garments. Its smooth and soft next to your skin, while having all the other qualities youd want and expect from a base layer such as sweat wicking, heat control and even antibacterial properties to control whiffs. Unlike other natural materials such as merino wool, which has many similar qualities, it doesnt feel itchy next to the skin and has very little static. The eco credentials of bamboo clothing are impressive too: bamboo grows quickly, it has a greater yield than cotton, has less need for fertiliser and pesticide and the fibres are 100 per cent biodegradable. Bam has a great range of garments, not just base layers we love its soft, warm hoody for after long rides when you need a little bit of extra comfort, and the companys gym wear is simple and stylish. www.bambooclothing.co.uk
Red card for red wine

Research suggests less is more...
After research found that consuming red wine had benefits on health due to the antioxidant resveratrol found in red grapes, for many that meant a second guilt-free glass with dinner. Others began supplementing resveratrol into their diets as they hoped to gain extra benefits. However, recent research conducted by the University of Copenhagen unfortunately suggests that consumption of resveratrol has negative effects on the cardiovascular benefits gained from exercise. In a study that lasted for eight weeks, 27 healthy, inactive men trained at a high intensity on a daily basis. This is known from previous research to significantly improve cardiovascular fitness. Half the men took a 250g resveratrol supplement while the others just consumed a placebo. Those who took the resveratrol supplement blunted the positive effects of exercise on cardiovascular fitness. Ylva Hellsten, the study leader, commented that this was surprising partly because our results contradict findings in animal studies. So if you regularly take supplementation, of any kind, remember that too much of anything is just as bad for you as too little.
SIS REGO NIGHT

1.80 per sachet A high protein night time formula designed to promote recovery while you are sleeping by slowly releasing protein throughout the night. The night is a long time for your body to go without the protein needed for recovery, particularly if youve done a really tough training session and struggled to refuel sufficiently during the day. A sustained release of protein aids your recovery as you sleep by making sure there is a constant pool of amino acids available for your bodys repair work. It also contains tryptophan, zinc and magnesium that has been shown to aid restful sleep.
Posture pole
Australian solution to cycling posture problems
Riding a bike doesnt do wonders for your posture. While your back ideally should be flat when sitting in the saddle Bradley Wiggins is a perfect example many struggle to keep their back in the right position. Coupled with hunched shoulders, a raised head, and even reaching for the handlebars, you can see why cycling can cause so many issues. The PosturePole, which was created in Australia, helps relieve neck, shoulder and upper back pain coming from a forward head posture. According to Dr Bruce Scott, who came up with the original idea, for every two to three centimetres your head slips forward the load on your neck and shoulder muscles double. The PosturePole, which is a special shape of cut foam that you lie on, can reverse the position that makes those muscles tight upper torso, muscles surrounding the spine and lower back caused by cycling. Having the spine supported in a level, neutral position eases pressure from the surrounding muscles, according to PosturePole.
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READY TO RIDE News
NATURALLY ENERGETIC
Brand new sports nutrition company OTE Sports is already starting to make a mark in the nutrition world and has developed a number of products designed to help the everyday cyclist. The brand has been created with you, fellow athletes and sports enthusiasts in mind, says OTE Sports. Our range of naturally flavoured energy products and recovery drinks have been developed by experienced sports nutritionists and athletes, the professionals who know exactly what you want and what you need. If its product is half as good as its packaging, then its on to a winner a DualDelivery unique packet design provides two easy-tear perforations for flexible pouring and dispensing into different sized bottles or to sip gels on the go. All of the OTE Sports products are naturally flavoured, free from artificial sweeteners and colours and have been research, designed, developed, tested and manufactured here in Great Britain. www.otesports.co.uk
EXERCISE COULD BE GOOD FOR YOUR TENDONS

Injury risk can be reduced according to new research
Tendon injuries are quite common for cyclists, and can prevent you from riding your bike as much as you would like. Its important they are looked after, but many believe that the onset of tendon injuries is caused by exercise. However, new research from the University of East Anglia suggests that moderate exercise could help guard against the condition. The onset of tendon diseases has always been associated with exercise. However, this association has not been fully understood, says lead researcher Dr Eleanor Jones, from UEAs school of biological sciences. We have shown that moderate exercise has positive effect on tendons. In the tests, human Achilles tendon cells were seeded in rat tail collagen gels, which were then subjected to levels of strain experienced by human tendons to simulate moderate exercise. A positive relationship was found between exercise and tendon health. In the study we talk about moderately high exercise and we would consider running to be moderately high. But its important to remember that our research was carried out in the lab, so to confirm this we would need to complete further clinical studies.
This allows the shoulders to comfortably relax, the rib cage to move downwards and the diaphragm to become better positioned. www.posturepole.com.au
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SOMETHING IN THE WATERMELON
The next fruity superfood
For some, theres nothing more refreshing after a long ride than a glass of watermelon juice. High in antioxidants, which help fight off free-radicals that are harmful to muscle cells, watermelon juice also has contains minerals, nutrients and vitamins. Some studies have even shown that it can be beneficial in treating conditions such as hypertension and heart failure. However, according to a new study, there may be another benefit from consuming watermelon juice, a benefit much closer to the cycling home. Martha P. Tarazona and her team from the Department of Food Engineering at the University Politecnica de Cartegena in Murcia, Spain, have found that watermelon juice contains recovery properties. The testing involved subjecting seven healthy sport science students to a cycloergometer test on three separate occasions, after which they had to drink 500ml of watermelon juice, enriched watermelon juice and a placebo. Results shows that muscle soreness 24 hours after exercise and recovery heart rate was significantly lower when cyclists drank the watermelon juice. Watermelon juice, naturally rich in L-citrulline, is an excellent option for athletes who want to improve their sports performance, says Diaz. The amino acid could be supplied as watermelon juice or as products enriched in citrulline from watermelon extraction. In both cases, it is important to choose watermelon cultivars rich in this amino acid.
Bike clothing from across the Channel
Cafe culture
@UberFacts The average person burns 30 calories per hour while typing. @HeaIthyTips Water as always is extremely important, sometimes your tummy tricks you into thinking youre hungry when all you really need is a drink. @Fitness_Facts Strength gains come from muscle hypertrophy and improved muscle fibre recruitment.
Caf du Cycliste is based in Nice in the French Riviera and brings a little bit of French style and glamour to cycle clothing. Its aim is to avoid the shiny Lycra products that mimic pro race kit and instead create something that, while completely functional for long rides, also has a touch of elegance. Its jerseys have rapidly become the most versatile item in our wardrobe here at Cycling Fitness. Wear them with tailored shorts for touring and cafe rides where you want your kit to be practical but not scream cyclist! and you can walk in the door of a quiet rural pub knowing you dont look embarrassing. On long, all-day rides the attention to detail with ample rear pockets, extra zipped security pocket and general comfort makes them a pleasure to ride in. Even after 100 miles in the saddle the jersey still looked pristine even if we didnt! www.cafeducycliste.com
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GET INTO THE FAT-BURNING ZONE FOR THE OFF-SEASON
Breathalyse yourself to train at the right intensity
As autumn arrives, intensity of rides starts to wind down and thoughts of winter training and base miles begin to emerge, with most doing low-intensity fat burning rides. Some riders use heart-rate monitors to ensure they stay within the correct zones, but this can have discrepancies in accuracy if youre ill or tired. Researchers at NTT DoCoMo labs, in Japan, have come up with a new device that tells you if you are burning fat by analysing levels of acetone that you breathe out. Acetone is produced in the blood when fat is broken down and released in the air breathed out. The device contains a pressure sensor, which picks up the exhalation, as well a gas sensor that detects acetone in the breath. With the device able to calculate and send acetone concentrations to mobile phones via Bluetooth within 10 seconds, this sensor not only enables you to check you are training in the correct zones, but also check you are burning fat throughout the day, and give you an idea of whether you are slimming down to get up the hills without hitting the scales.
Dehydrating a muscle by
3% 10%
can cause a loss of strength
New biosensor could help avoid the bonk

Stick-on technology
Bonking or hitting the wall is any endurance athletes worst fear. Unfortunately though, if youre focused on holding the wheel in front, fuelling is often forgotten. The bonk occurs when the body no longer has enough fuel to continue supplying energy to the working muscles by aerobic respiration. An alternative method must therefore be used and anaerobic respiration is switched on. However this only provides energy for a short amount of time. This is due to the production of lactic acid, which cannot be removed quickly enough, so builds up and leads to rapid fatigue. However, scientists may have the answer to catching this rapid onset of fatigue and indicating that refuelling is needed before its too late. With a new study, published in the journal Analytical Chemistry, testing a biosensor that monitors a form of lactic acid released in the sweat. This simple device, which sticks to the skin like a temporary tattoo, is a breakthrough for athletes and scientist alike. This is due to current methods for measuring lactic acid accumulation being complicated and time consuming, as blood samples must be taken and analysed. Researchers believe this biosensor could lead to useful insight into physical performance and physiological status offering considerable promise for sport, military and biomedical science. It could mean well no longer see the sort of drama we witnessed in this years Tour de France, with Chris Froome fined for taking a late gel to ensure he made it up Alpe dHuez. As technology filters down, worrying about not eating enough may even become a thing of the past.
Mio my!
Mio Cyclo 505 329.99 (399.99 including heart-rate monitor and cadence sensor)
As a fan of the Mio Cyclo 305HC it was only natural that Cycling Fitness would be interested in trying out the new Cyclo 505HC to see what it has to offer. The 505 is ready to use straight out of the box, with cycling maps for Western Europe pre-installed. Just enter a few personal details to create your profile and you are ready to go. You can set up to six profiles, specifying your different bikes and even a running profile if you so wish, and the Mio will use these profiles to help create routes. Use the Surprise Me feature to calculate a ride based on time or distance and the Mio will adapt a route to match your profile and the type of bike you are riding.
With the newly integrated WiFi in the 505, managing and sharing your routes has become even easier, just press the WiFi sync button and your ride will be uploaded to your MioShare account or in reverse you can upload a track found online to your device. Another great feature is the shake and share, making riding with a group of friends of different abilities much easier. Using a pre-existing route, or after calculating a new one, simply activate the device and move it up and down to share the route with other 505 or 305 users in your group so that everyone goes the same way at their own pace. This way no one gets lost or feels
they are holding people back and they all meet up in the end. All in all, this is a great device that you can make work for you as simply or as in depth as you want, by connecting a power meter, wireless heart-rate monitor and cadence sensor. Check out the full range of Mio Cyclo computers at www.mio.com
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WorldMags.net TRAINING GUIDE

AUTUMN TRAINING PLANS FOR ALL
Make the most of your weekends
FITTER
Enter the world of interval training
FASTER
FURTHER
Minimum tech, maximum gains
in association with
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WorldMags.net TRAINING PLANS
How to use them

Making the most of your time means working at the right effort level for you. Heres how to work out where your training zones are
If you scan through any of the sessions in our three training plans youll notice that the different parts of the ride are described using numbered training zones. Simply work at that level of effort for the time given. how hard it is working the higher the heart rate, the greater the strain. If you have a heart-rate monitor, you can create a set of personal training zones based on your maximum heart rate (MHR). You can use the following formulae to predict your MHR without so much as getting out of bed: Youll probably hit your MHR somewhere towards the end of point four. (You will need a heart-rate monitor that records maximum heart rate to be able to perform this test properly.) Once you have established your MHR, simply use the percentage ranges in column four of the tables to set your own heart rates.
How hard is Hard?

If youre training entirely on feel, you can follow the basic effort and feeling descriptions below, but these are a bit vague, which is why weve linked them to a series of percentage zones based on either maximum heart rate or functional threshold. All you do is decide which approach works best for you, work out your zones and start training.
MEN: 214 (0.8 x age) WOMEN: 209 (0.9 x age)

For a more exact number, perform the following simple (but not easy!) test: Ride Easy for 15-30 minutes, finishing up at the bottom of a long, steady hill. Ride up the hill for five minutes at a nice, Brisk pace, then coast back to the bottom. Climb the hill again. Start at the same Brisk pace, but this time increase your effort every 30 seconds. When you reach the point where you can push no harder, stand on the pedals and sprint until you simply have to stop. Coast back to the bottom and repeat step three again before riding home.
Functional Threshold training zones

Your functional threshold (FT) is the best average effort you can possibly manage in one hour of non-stop riding. Thankfully, you dont have to enter a 25-mile time trial to work out your FT. Use the following test ride (devised by Hunter Allen of Training Peaks) to calculate a realworld FT: Ride Easy for 20 minutes. Do 3 x 1min at a high cadence (120rpm) in a small gear with 1min Easy after each. Ride Easy for a further four minutes. Ride as hard as possible for a further five minutes. Ride Easy for 10 minutes.
Working from feel

Columns two and three of the Training zones table outline how each of our different training zones should feel and how much talking youll be able to do at that intensity. Working from feel is a lot less precise than using heart rate or power, but it will work at a pinch until you can get a more objective measure.
2 3
1 2
Max Heart Rate training zones

Heart rate is a measure of the strain your body is under and
3 4 5
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Ride as hard as you can for 20 minutes. Aim to finish the 20 minutes having given absolutely everything. (Youll need to be able to record an average power or heart rate for the 20-minute all-out effort.) Once back home, work out the average
power or HR for that final 20-minute effort, and multiply that number by 0.95. This is your FT. Use it to calculate your training zones, using the percentages in columns five and six depending on whether your number is a heart rate or a power rating.
Oliver Roberts is a level two coach, specialising in cycling and triathlon, who works with PBscience.com. Over the past 10 years, hes created training programmes for the Race for Life 5K series, had three training manuals published and has coached athletes of all abilities, from novices to national champions, World Championship contenders and a National Ironman record holder.
TRAINING ZONES
ZONE 1 2 3a 3b 4 5 6 EFFORT Easy Slow Steady Brisk Threshold Hard Very Hard YOU CAN... Speak, sing and even dance! Chat freely Just about hold a conversation One sentence at a time, now! Manage short sentences at best Only get out the odd word (youre breathing hard!) Grunt! Gasp! Pant! % MHR 65% or below around 70% around 75% around 80% around 85% around 90% N/A % FTP up to 55% 56-75% 76-85% 86-90% 91-105% 106-120% 121-150% % FTHR Up to 68% 69-83% 84-90% 91-94% 95-105% 106% or more N/A
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WorldMags.net FITTER PLAN
Working at the weekend

weekend-loaded fitness plan will get you results fast
Last issue, one of the plans we presented suggested a way to structure your training if your weekends were rarely left free for riding. But, of course, the reverse is just as likely to be true. Indeed a busy working life, family commitments, irregular hours or a particularly busy commuting route can leave you trying to stuff as much riding into the weekend as possible. The trouble is, mixing the long rides youll need for sportives and other events with the specific, progressive workouts that tend to be better for building predictable fitness can be a tough balancing act to pull off. Heres how wed do it.
If your weekday life leaves little time for training, our

them, and three shorter midweek sessions where the emphasis is mainly on fitting in a good, solid general workout to keep things ticking over until the next weekend block. The midweek rides are a variable length, and can be shuffled about, but the two weekend rides should really be done in the order given. Your weekday riding is restricted, but You can ride for several hours on both Saturday and Sunday
THIS IS THE PLAN FOR YOU IF
Youre keen to improve your general conditioning You have a spring and summer of decent riding behind you, including a regular long ride of at least three hours
Whats involved
Built around a standard four-week cycle, this plan has two long (and challenging) weekend rides with some specific work inside
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KEY SESSIONS
Microintervals
Youll notice that one midweek ride is short, perhaps even surprisingly so. Dont be fooled, the work it contains is short but sharp. The very high torque through the muscles during these bursts should improve your overall efficiency, particularly if you aim for a high cadence, while the extended sequences of reps in the later blocks should also help improve your Functional Threshold performance (see page 3).
Steady rides
The other two midweek rides are all about accumulating as much repeatable work as possible. Theres no need to push especially hard, even up any hills, but you dont want to let the effort drop below the upper boundary of Zone 2 as long as you have a clear road for riding.
Capacity efforts
The idea of cooking your legs before you start the main work of the day might seem a little strange, but the idea is to stimulate your anaerobic system properly, once, before you burn it away in an unfocused way. If youre a racer or keen sportive rider, being able to handle a really hard start to a long threshold effort can be a useful skill.
Sweetspot blocks
If overall fitness for general riding is what youre after, work in the sweetspot just below Functional Threshold tends to offer the best benefit for time invested. If youre a sportive rider or road racer youll want to do your blocks uphill, but time triallists and triathletes will be better served by doing them on the flat.
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YOUR WEEKS TRAINING GOAL
To settle into your new weekly ride pattern
60-90min (Start with 5min 45-60min (Start with 5min Z1-2, then ride in Z3a as Z2, then 5min building to continuously as possible. Z3b, then 5min Z2 all at Push a cadence of c95rpm around 95rpm. Next do on the flat and about 4 x 30sec All-Out efforts 80rpm up any rises. with 4min 30sec Easy Finish with 5min spin recoveries. IS H T Y Z1-2 at 100rpm) Finish the ride TR ort-interval sh e with Z2 spinning Thes n be done o rb tu sessions ca at 100rpm) m bike or
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n are d hydratio king Fuelling an youre stac n he to w l ck vita rides ba hard long for a minimum m Ai d . an ck ba of drink of 500ml carbs per 60g of ridden hour
TRY THIS
60-90min (Start with 5min Z1-2, then ride in Z3a as continuously as possible. Push a cadence of 95rpm on the flat and about 80rpm up any rises. Finish with 5min Z1-2 at 100rpm)
45-60min (Start with 5min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then 5min Z2 all at around 95rpm. Next do 5 x 30sec All-Out efforts with 4min 30sec Easy spin recoveries. Finish the ride with Z2 spinning at 100rpm)

To continue pushing the correct intensity in all your rides
45-60min (Start with 5min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then 5min Z2 all at around 95rpm. Next do 6 x 30sec All-Out efforts with 4min 30sec Easy spin recoveries. Finish the ride with Z2 spinning at 100rpm)

To reduce the training load, recover and adapt
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2hr (Start with 10min Z2, then do 3min Very Hard at 95-105rpm. Take 2min Easy spinning, then do 15min Z3b at 90rpm. Ride at the top of Z2 and 90-95rpm for the next 60min, then do 20min Z3b at 80rpm but with one seated surge to 100rpm in the same gear every 5min. Finish the ride with 10min Z1-2 to cool down)
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3hr (Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm apart from 3 x 15min right at the top of Z3b, spread out during the ride)
REST DAY
2hr (Start with 10min Z2, then do 3min Very Hard at 95-105rpm. Take 2min Easy spinning, then do 15min Z3b at 90rpm. Ride at the top of Z2 and 90-95rpm for the next 60min, then do 20min Z3b at 80rpm but with one seated surge to 100rpm in the same gear every 4min. Finish the ride with 10min Z1-2 to cool down)
3hr 30min (Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm apart from 3 x 15min right at the top of Z3b, spread out during the ride)
REST DAY
in the last not The surges on Sat are Z3b block accelerate ts ct rin sp to the corre smoothlythen ease back e nc e. cade base cadenc to the ldnt need You shouew el to fre he
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2hr (Start with 10min Z2, then do 3min Very Hard at 95-105rpm. Take 2min Easy spinning, then do 15min Z3b at 90rpm. Ride at the top of Z2 and 90-95rpm for the next 60min, then do 20min Z3b at 80rpm but with one seated surge to 100rpm in the same gear every 3min. Finish the ride with 10min Z1-2 to cool down) 2hr (Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm apart from 2 x 15min right at the top of Z3b, spread out during the ride)
t weeks aren Recoveryse to catch up cu ex lly ea , an chores. Idtime on tiring th extra the e d en sp t burning asleep, no oil! midnight
REST DAY
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3hr (Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm until the final 45min, then do 10 x 1min Very Hard efforts with 2min recoveries. Finish the ride with 15min Z1-2 to cool down)
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Block 2 Pulling LT from above
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45-60min (Start with 5min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then 5min Z2 all at around 95rpm. Next do 6 x 1min seated Big Gear Efforts with 2min recoveries. Finish the ride with Z2 spinning at 100rpm)

To adapt your training to the reversed weekend schedule

To extend Saturdays mid-ride blocks without reducing the intensity
45-60min (Start with 5min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then 5min Z2 all at around 95rpm. Next do 8 x 1min seated Big Gear Efforts with 2min recoveries. Finish the ride with Z2 spinning at 100rpm)

To keep the pressure on despite the growing fatigue
60-90min (Start with 5min 45-60min (Start with 5min Z1-2, then ride in Z3a as Z2, then 5min building to continuously as possible. Z3b, then 5min Z2 all at Push a cadence of 95rpm around 95rpm. Next do 10 x on the flat and about 1min seated Big Gear Efforts 80rpm up any rises. with 2min recoveries. Finish with 5min Finish the ride HbiIS Tur Y R ar T ge g Z1-2 at 100rpm) Dont start yo ing. Use a with Z2 spinning th no m m at 100rpm) efforts fro s you 50rp
give gear that ing Easy, and roll when rid smoothly up to n ar ge u ca the t speed yo se the highes er the cour ov e ag an m ute of the min

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4hr (Start with 10min Z2, then do 3min Very Hard at 95-105rpm. Take 2min Easy spinning, then do 15min Z3b at 90rpm. Ride at the top of Z2 and 90-95rpm for the rest of the ride, but include 3 x 10min Z3b-Z4 spread out during the ride. Finish with 10min Z1-2 to cool down)
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2hr (Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm until the final 60min, then do 30min building to Z3a, 20min building to Z3b and 10min HIS the building TRY Tto pace to Z4) e best way e is to
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2hr (Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm until the final 60min, then do 25min building to Z3a, 20min building to Z3b and 15min building to Z4)
REST DAY
2hr (Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm until the final 60min, then do 20min building to Z3a, 20min building to Z3b and 20min building to Z4)
REST DAY
3hr (Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm until the final 45min, then do 10 x 1min Very Hard efforts with 2min recoveries. Finish the ride with 15min Z1-2 to IS cool TRY T,H you can t s ou If its easier down) ur interval
spread yoe at the end of a bit mor and time them this ride happen over a so they of short hills series
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Block 3 Sustainable steady state
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45-60min (Start with 5min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then 5min Z2 all at around 95rpm. Next do 2 x 10min alternating 15sec Very Hard with 15sec Easy. Take 5min Easy between the 10min blocks)

To maintain a solid Z3b base pace throughout all of Saturdays blocks

Increase the frequency of your Z4 efforts on Sat without letting the base Z3b effort fade
45-60min (Start with 5min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then 5min Z2 all at around 95rpm. Next do 2 x 15min alternating 15sec Very Hard with 15sec Easy. Take HIS e 5min Easy TRYalT ternate thing n between ca u ift Yo here by sh the 10min effortsm to little fro bigor en by ev blocks) g, ainrin
ch ling, back-pedal to recover

Simply to stick to your guns for one more demanding week
45-60min (Start with 5min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then 5min Z2 all at around 95rpm. Next do 2 x 20min alternating 15sec Very Hard with 15sec Easy. Take 5min Easy between the 10min blocks)

To recover and then (perhaps) go racing!
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2hr (Start with 10min Z2, then 3min Very Hard at 95-105rpm. 2min Easy spinning, then 15min alternating 1min at Z4 at 100rpm with 2min Z3b at 90rpm. Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm for the next 60min, then 20min Z3b at 80rpm with one Very Hard 20sec standing sprint effort every 5min. Finish ride with 10min Z1-2 to cool down) 2hr (Start with 10min Z2, then 3min Very Hard at 95-105rpm. 2min Easy spinning, then 15min alternating 1min at Z4 with 90sec Z3b, at 90rpm. Ride at the top of Z2 90-95rpm for the next 60min, then 20min Z3b at 80rpm with one Very Hard 25sec standing sprint effort every 5min. Finish with 10min Z1-2 to cool down) 2hr (Start with 10min Z2, then 3min Very Hard at 95-105rpm. 2min Easy spinning, then 15min alternating 1min at Z4 with 1min Z3b, at 90rpm. Ride at the top of Z2 and 90-95rpm for the next 60min, then 20min Z3b at 80rpm with one Very Hard 30sec standing sprint effort every 5min. Finish with 10min Z1-2 to cool down) 2hr (Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm apart from 2 x 20min right at the top of Z3b, spread out during the ride)
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4hr (Start with 10min Z2, then do 2min Very Hard at 95-105rpm. Take 3min Easy spinning, then do 15min Z3b at 90rpm. Ride at the top of Z2 and 90-95rpm for the rest of the ride but include 3 x 10min Z3b-Z4 spread out during the ride. Finish with 10min Z1-2 to cool down)
REST DAY
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be an id of Sun would me sort to day for so you decideitch event. If th gh, sw ou do one, and Saturday s Thursdayound so youre rides ar for racing fresh
3hr (Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm until the final 45min, then do 10 x 1min Very Hard efforts with 2min recoveries. Finish the ride with 15min Z1-2 IS TRY TH eal to cool down)
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WorldMags.net FASTER PLAN
Getting to grips with intervals

If you want to get the best out of yourself, you need to do some quality work heres how to get started
Interval training is the cornerstone of most training programmes. Breaking sessions up into sections, and setting specific heart-rate, effort, power or speed targets for the different sections means that the planned workload per ride can be measured and doled out in an attempt to control how your fitness develops. But intervals can look hard. And complicated. And if youre not used to doing them, pacing intervals and even producing the sorts of efforts they demand can be a mystery. This plan is designed with one purpose in mind to unravel some of that mystery and give you the confidence to get the best out of yourself and your sessions. block to block. Gradually adjusting the number and/or duration of intervals per session but keeping the target effort largely the same should give you plenty of time to learn how the different types of intervals should feel. One final word of warning: this stuff is strong medicine and it really does need the frequent days of recovery factored into the plan if its going to work. Whatever you do, dont try to stack this work on top of whatever riding youre already doing.
You only really have two paces all-day and as hard as I can
Whats involved
The layout of this plan is pretty straightforward: its made up of three four-week blocks, every fourth week is an easier recovery week and each block builds on the one before. But what is unusual is how little the sessions vary from
The painful reputation of intervals puts you off doing them Youre never quite sure that youre pushing hard enough You find your legs give up before your heart and lungs whenever you push hard
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KEY SESSIONS
VO2max intervals
The trick with Thursdays efforts is having the confidence to do them hard enough. Keep the cadence high, and ideally do them as reps up a steady climb, aiming to start and finish at the same point with each effort and expecting to push your heart rate up to within five beats of your Max Heart Rate. Start hard, but dont sprint the start each time, and if you can, lift the effort at the halfway point and again in the final 30 seconds to drive your heart rate up.
Critical power repeats

Treat each of Tuesdays efforts as a mini-time trial, and do them on the flattest, quietest piece of road possible or up a shallow climb. The first minute or so should feel just a little too easy, but the discomfort should build until youre having to really fight to hold. Theyre also long enough to leave you a little dry, so remember to take on fluids in the recovery time after every effort.
All-out efforts
One of the least pleasant things you can do on a bike is a Wingate test, in which you start as hard as you possibly can and aim to empty yourself entirely by the end of the interval. These are essentially road-based versions of those. The two keys to them are not to start out stomping too big a gear, and dont do them anywhere with much traffic as you may feel quite unsteady at the end of each effort.
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Block 1 Finding the balance
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90min (Start with 5min Z1, followed by 15min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then another 5min Z2 all at 90-95rpm. Next do 3 x 5min Hard at 95-100rpm with a 5min Easy spin after each. Finish with 30min Z2 at 100rpm)
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To differentiate between three different hard paces
ur ramp in yo The 5min ions is to prime . ss harder se e efforts to followa to hold you for th t way is of 95rpm The easies dence ift up constant ca sh lly ua ad gr d an e gears to through ththe effort increase
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To maintain an even performance across all the efforts in each session

To lift your effort level in the penultimate effort to test your limits
90min (Start with 5min Z1, followed by 15min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then another 5min Z2 all at 90-95rpm. Next do IS 5 x 5min Hard at TRY TreH whether l 95-100rpm with equa youre unsu If tru s are ly a 5min Easy your effort session, try spin after each. across the out and back em of road, Finish with 10min doingsith le stretchadwind, on a ngs to he Z2 at 100rpm) in al rv te in ith
w recoveries ind the tailw

To ease back and give yourself time to recover and adapt
1hr (Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm)
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7+856'$<
75min (Start with 5min Z1, followed by 15min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then another 5min Z2 all at 90-95rpm. Next do 10 x 1min Very Hard at 95-100rpm with 1min Easy spin after each. Finish with 5min Z1 then 20min Z2 at 100rpm)
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90min (Start with 5min Z1, followed by 15min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then another 5min Z2 all at 90-95rpm. Next do 6 x 20sec All-Out sprints, with 4min 40sec Easy spin recoveries. Finish with 30min Z2 at 100rpm)
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3hr (Ride at the top of Z2 on a route that includes 3-4 climbs of 5-15min. Climb at the border of Z3b and Z4, keeping the cadence above 80rpm when climbing)
90min (Start with 5min 3hr (Ride at the top of Z2 Z1, followed by 15min Z2, on a route that includes 3-4 then 5min building to Z3b, climbs of 5-15min. Climb at then another 5min Z2 all the border of Z3b and Z4, at 90-95rpm. Next do 6 x keeping the cadence above 25sec All-Out sprints, 80rpm when climbing) with 4min 35sec Easy spin THIS TRY recoveries. e with g Sats rid Fuel durins much longer Finish with nday nsider Su 30min Z2 at ind, so co d ride in m otein-base 100rpm) taking a prdrink within
recovery of finishing 15min
90min (Start with 5min Z1, followed by 15min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then another 5min Z2 all at 90-95rpm. Next do 6 x 30sec All-Out sprints, with 4min 30sec Easy spin recoveries. Finish with 30min Z2 at 100rpm)
90min (Ride Very Very Easy, apart from 3 x 2min Hard efforts spaced out so theres at least 5min recovery between efforts)
rts, m the effovery, Apart frosh ould be ish e rid is fin th . Aim to very easyfresher than feeling u started n whe yo
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Block 2 Pushing the envelope
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To settle back into your established interval paces
ok back u begin, lo Before yo last blocks efforts, e ds th er sp ov t the ee wers think abou ng, the po t rates ar youre hitti he tting, the ey re your youre se eing. Th s for youre setin rget star g ta this block
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To increase the duration of your efforts successfully

To continue holding the same efforts as the intervals increase in length
90min (Start with 5min Z1, followed by 15min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then another 5min Z2 all at 90-95rpm. Next do 4 x 6min Hard THISde at at 95-100rpm TRY arting to fa tervals with a 4min If youredst th of ese in em so they Easy spin after the en th e tim The try to an uphill. each. Finish finish on should make nt ie with 20min Z2 grad g hard more pushin evable at 100rpm) achi 1hr (Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm)

To ease back and focus on general endurance riding and recovery
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90min (Start with 5min Z1, followed by 15min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then another 5min Z2 all at 90-95rpm. Next do 6 x 20sec efforts alternating one All-Out with one building, so you finish as fast as possible, with 4min 40sec Easy spin recoveries. Finish with 30min Z2 at 100rpm) 90min (Start with 5min Z1, followed by 15min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then another 5min Z2 all at 90-95rpm. Next do 6 x 25sec efforts alternating one All-Out with one building, so you finish as fast as possible, with 4min 35sec Easy spin recoveries. Finish with 30min Z2 at 100rpm)
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75min (Start with 5min Z1, followed by 15min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then another 5min Z2 all at 90-95rpm. Next do 8 x 90sec Very Hard at 95-100rpm with 90sec Easy spin after each. Finish with 6min Z1 then 15min Z2 at 100rpm)
s to do Sat One way tervals is to eish building in rg la a ng start rolli rpm, and then gear at 60lly increase the spin to gradua until you t cadence or ou out rune of tim
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90min (Start with 5min Z1, followed by 15min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then another 5min Z2 all at 90-95rpm. Next do 6 x 30sec efforts alternating one All-Out with one building, so you finish as fast as possible, with 4min 30sec Easy spin recoveries. Finish with 30min Z2 at 100rpm) 90min (Ride Very Very Easy, apart from 3 x 2min Hard efforts spaced out so theres at least 5min recovery between efforts)
3hr (Ride at the top of Z2 on a route that includes 3-4 climbs of 5-15min. Climb at the border of Z3b and Z4, keeping the cadence above IS H T 80rpm when Yan TR to test d te w climbing) If you Sun you
on e your legs ace this rid could replsportive or with a sort of race e even som
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Block 3 Walking the tightrope
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To ensure you cover the same distance on each effort on Thursday
90min (Start with 5min Z1, followed by 15min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then another 5min Z2 all at 90-95rpm. Next do 3 x 7min HISn to Hard at 95-100rpm with TRYteT a 7min Easy spin after mptatio u Resist the each. Finish with gears as yo forts. pick bigger ef r te la e 18min Z2 at 100rpm) tire in th o low a
to Starting atill leave you cadence w stalling if at risk of ad rolls the ro ds upwar

To extend the last interval on Tuesday without slowing
90min (Start with 5min Z1, followed by 15min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then another 5min Z2 all at 90-95rpm. Next do 2 x 7min Hard at 95-100rpm with a 5min Easy spin after each, then 1 x 8min Hard followed by 10min Z1. Finish with 18min Z2 at 100rpm)

A final week of quality training efforts
90min (Start with 5min Z1, followed by 15min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then another 5min Z2 all at 90-95rpm. Next do 2 x 7min Hard at 95-100rpm with a 3min Easy THIS TRY veries spin after each, ned recoth te or sh e then 1 x 9min Hard Th here will make is y harder. followed by 11min session markedl start it u yo re su Z1. Finish with Make hydrated and d, le el fu ork! 20min Z2 at 100rpm) ready to w 1hr (Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm)

To back off the effort and plan for your next training target
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WorldMags.net
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90min (Start with 5min Z1, followed by 15min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then another 5min Z2 all at 90-95rpm. Next do 6 x 30sec efforts alternating one All-Out with one building, so you finish as fast as possible, with 4min 30sec Easy spin recoveries. Finish with 30min Z2 at 100rpm) 90min (Start with 5min Z1, followed by 15min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then another 5min Z2 all at 90-95rpm. Next do 7 x 30sec efforts alternating one All-Out with one building so you finish as fast as possible, with 4min 30sec Easy spin recoveries. Finish with 25min Z2 at 100rpm) 90min (Start with 5min Z1, followed by 15min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then another 5min Z2 all at 90-95rpm. Next do 8 x 30sec efforts alternating one All-Out with one building, so you finish as fast as possible, with 4min 30sec Easy spin recoveries. Finish with 20min Z2 at 100rpm) 90min (Ride Very Very Easy, apart from 3 x 2min Hard efforts spaced out so theres at least 5min recovery between efforts)
681'$<
75min (Start with 5min Z1, followed by 15min Z2, then 5min building to Z3b, then another 5min Z2 all at 90-95rpm. Next do 5 x 3min Very Hard at 95-100rpm with 3min Easy spin after each. Finish with 5mins Z1 then 10min Z2 at 100rpm)
ent al commitm Make a re warm-up er op pr a t to doingol-down. It doesns and co the easier part t, if matter ute or two shor ight are a min jump stra but donttervals after into in 5min just
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offers weekend This finalideal opportunity r anothe part in an event. to take trained hard. Youve rested. Go Youre fun! have
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WorldMags.net FURTHER PLAN
No-tech training
You dont need expensive gadgets to make rapid improvements if you choose to self-monitor
e spend quite a lot of time in these plans advocating training with power, heart rate and as many objective measures as possible. We think its important because it provides the coach and the rider with a much clearer picture of what they need to do, whether theyve achieved it and how theyre progressing towards their goal. But we do recognise that not everyone has the money or the inclination to splash out on a power meter, GPS unit or even a heart-rate monitor. This plan is our suggestion for ways to plan and perform your training sessions to ensure the best possible value with the minimum level of technological complexity.
have to do, and diligently follow the same routine over the same roads week after week, matching and measuring your performances against each other should be relatively easy to do. With that in mind, this plan is built around four rides, a flat ride on a shortish circuit on Tuesdays, a series of long hill repeats on Thursdays, a rolling Saturday ride and a long ride on Sundays. As the weeks pass and you move from training block to training block, the things youll do on that climb, or around that circuit will change, but youll be on the same roads, which should help you ensure the work is done right.
You cant be doing with all that technical malarkey
You worry youre over-reliant on tech for pacing and motivation Youre not sure youre serious enough to splash out on tech tools just yet
Whats involved
The key to this plan is predictability. If you choose your routes based on the session you
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KEY SESSIONS
Hill repeats
Runners have been using hill reps up and down the same climb for eons now, but its an approach that we see surprisingly few cyclists using. In this plan, all the Tuesday rides are designed to use the same steady climb. You want something that takes 10 minutes or so to climb, going hard, that isnt too steep and that is quiet enough for you to dead turn at the top and bottom.
Flat-loop efforts
Familiarity with a route can make measuring your performance from effort to effort and session to session a lot easier, as well as making a big difference to your pacing subtlety. For your Thursday session, youll want a hill-free loop that takes about 18-20 minutes to ride around at a comfortable pace.
Hilly rides
A route made up of rolling climbs of 15sec to 2min in length is a great weapon to have at your disposal. Again, always use the same route each week, and keep an eye on how long it takes you to get to particular points on the way round (we use junctions) to help you maintain a consistent effort.
Long rides
Flat or hilly, the key thing with these will be not to hang about. By all means descend safely, but dont treat your long ride as a pootle between climbing efforts. The key is maintaining a consistent load, not reducing your effort as you tire, so that it all feels right. The last hour should always be more challenging than the first, even if its with a tailwind.
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Block 1 Threshold fitness
:((. 021'$< 78(6'$<
90min (Ride out to your flat loop, and do three laps. Do the first 10min of each lap comfortably hard at c95rpm, and then ride at a long-ride effort for the rest of the lap. Aim to start and finish each 10min at the same points on the lap each time or even get a little further with each rep. After the last effort, take a relaxed spin home) 90min (Ride out to your flat loop, and do three laps. Do the first 12min of each lap comfortably hard at 95rpm, and then a long-ride effort for the rest of the lap. Aim to start and finish each 12min at the same points on the lap each time or even get a little further with each rep. After the last effort, a relaxed spin home) 90min (Ride out to your flat loop, and do three laps. The first 14min of each lap comfortably hard at 95rpm, and then a long-ride effort for the rest of the lap. Aim to start and finish each 14min at the same points on the lap or even get a little further with each rep. After the last effort, take a relaxed spin home) 90min (Ride out to your flat loop, and do three laps. The first 10min of each lap comfortably hard at 95rpm, then ride at a long-ride effort for the rest of the lap. Aim to start and finish each 10min at the same points on the lap or even get a little further with each rep. After the last effort, take a relaxed spin home)
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2hr (Head out for a nice, steady ride at around 95-100rpm. If you aim to creep up the hills, press on on the flat and drive down the hills youll probably end up with a nice, even power load)

To settle on the exact routes youll use for your efforts
fety eed and sa da From a sp e, try to fin iv ct pe ns rs ru pe es that that loop on Tu so e is rn tu anti-clockw r have to you neve ss traffic acro
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To increase the distance around your Tuesday loop

To measure your effort and recovery so you can complete your rides properly

To get an extra hour of sleep every night this week
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WorldMags.net
7+856'$<
90min (Ride out to your hill reps climb, and climb it three times at a comfortably hard effort, turning at the top and rolling down to the start each time to recover and aiming to get to the top in the same time each time. After the last effort, take a relaxed spin home)
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2hr (Ride your hilly route. Hold a comfortable, longride effort for the first 30min, then push the pace on all the climbs for the next 60min, so that climbing feels comfortably hard. Finish with 30min back at that long-ride effort)
681'$<
3hr (Head out for a steady ride on a flat route, focusing on creeping, pressing and driving just like on Wednesday)
2hr (Ride your hilly route. 3hr 30min (Head out for a Hold a comfortable, longsteady ride on a flat route, ride effort for the first 30min, focusing on creeping, then push the pace on pressing and driving just like all the climbs for the next on Wednesday) 75min, so that climbing THIS TRYne feels comfortably ral eye on hard. Finish with Keep a ge e for Sats ride. tim your total pacing effectively 15min back at u ure ld find yo that long-ride effort) If yo you shou r the route
cove gradually the workload faster as creases in
90min (Ride out to your hill reps climb, and climb it three times at a comfortably hard effort, turning at the top and rolling down to the start each time to recover and aiming TRY THIS be may well to get to the top Your legs avy by this in the same time quite he if possible ride, so it until each time. After leave ing the last effort, take the even a relaxed spin home) 90min (Ride out to your hill reps climb, and climb it three times at a comfortably hard effort, turning at the top and rolling down to the start each time to recover and aiming to get to the top in the same time each time. After the last effort, take a relaxed spin home) 90min (Head out for a nice, steady ride at around 95-100rpm. If you aim to creep up the hills, press on on the flat and drive down the hills youll probably end up with a nice, even power load)
2hr (Ride your hilly route. Hold a comfortable, longride effort for the first 15min, then push the pace on all the climbs for the next 90min so that climbing feels comfortably hard. Finish with 15min back at that long-ride effort)
4hr (Head out for a steady ride on a flat route, focusing on creeping, pressing and driving just like on Wednesday)
3hr (Head out for a steady ride on a flat route, focusing on creeping, pressing and driving just like on Friday)
pressure to Take the of f yourself perform d simply today an relaxed, enjoy a ed ride unstructur
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Block 2 Lactate clearance
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90min (Ride out to your flat loop, and do three laps. Do the first lap comfortably hard at 95rpm and take a note of your time as you cross the start/finish point. Do the second lap at a long-ride effort, then try to beat your first lap time in the third lap. Afterwards, take a relaxed spin home)
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To increase the duration of Thursdays surges
90min (Ride out to your flat loop, and do three laps. In your first lap, aim to beat your fastest lap from last Tuesday by about 5sec. Do the second lap at a longride effort, then try to beat your first lap time in the third lap. Afterwards, take a relaxed spin home)

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90min (Ride out to your flat loop, and do your laps. In your first lap, aim to beat your fastest lap from last Tuesday by about 5sec. Do the second lap at a longride effort, then try to beat your first lap time in the third lap. Afterwards, take a relaxed spin home)

To focus on healthy food and rest between sessions
90min (Ride out to your flat loop, and do three laps. In your first lap, aim to beat your fastest lap from last Tuesday by about 5sec. Do the second lap at a longride effort, then try to beat your first lap time in the third lap. Afterwards, take a relaxed spin home)
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2hr (Ride your hilly route. Hold a comfortable, longride effort for the first 45min, then push hard up all the climbs in the next 45min. Finish with 30min back at that long-ride effort)
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90min (Ride out to your hill reps climb, and climb three times at a comfortably hard effort, but standing to surge for 10sec at the end of each IS s minute spent climbing. TRY TH Thursdaysh Turn at the top and roll The surges tin rin sp ts. Pu down to the start each ride aret no hard that e bu not so , on return to th time to recover, aim to you cant immediately get to the top in the same right pace each after time each time. Take a relaxed spin home) 90min (Ride out to your hill reps climb, and climb it three times at a comfortably hard effort, but standing to surge for 15sec at the end of each minute spent climbing. Turn at the top and roll down to the start each time to recover, and aim to get to the top in the same time each time. Take a relaxed spin home) 90min (Ride out to your hill reps climb, climb it three times at a comfortably hard effort, but standing to surge for 20sec at the end of each minute spent climbing. Turn at the top and roll down to the start each time to recover, aim to get to the top in the same time each time. After the last effort, take a relaxed spin home) 90min (Ride out to your hill reps climb, and climb it three times at a comfortably hard effort, turning at the top and rolling down to the start each time to recover and aiming to get to the top in the same time each time. After the last effort, take a relaxed spin home) 90min (Head out for a nice, steady ride at around 95-100rpm. If you aim to creep up the hills, press on on the flat and drive down the hills youll probably end up with a nice, even power load)
4hr (Head out for a steady ride, but include four 5-15min Hard climbs on your route)
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4hr (Head out for a steady ride, but include five 5-15min Hard climbs on your route)
3hr (Head out for a steady ride on a flat route, focusing on creeping, pressing and driving just like on Friday)
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Block 3 Sustaining hard efforts
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90min (Ride out to your flat loop, do three laps. First 7min of each lap as a besteffort TT. Take a minute or two easy after each, then ride a long-ride effort for the rest of the lap. Aim to start and finish each 7min at the same points on the lap, or even get a little further with each rep. After the last effort, take a relaxed spin home) 90min (Ride out to your flat loop, do three laps. The first 8min of each lap as a best-effort TT. Take a minute or two easy after each, then a long-ride effort for the rest of the lap. Aim to start and finish each 8min at the same points on the lap, or get a little further with each rep. After the last effort, take a relaxed spin home) 90min (Ride out to your flat loop, do three laps. Do the first 9min of each lap as a best-effort TT. Take a minute or two easy after each, then a long-ride effort for the rest of the lap. Aim to start and finish each 9min at the same points on the lap, or even get a little further with each rep. After the last effort, take a relaxed spin home) 90min (Head out for a nice, steady ride at around 95-100rpm. If you aim to creep up the hills, press on on the flat and drive down the hills youll probably end up with a nice, even power load)
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90min (Head out for a nice, steady ride at around 95-100rpm. If you aim to creep up the hills, press on on the flat and drive down the hills youll probably end up with a nice, even power load)

To produce three even efforts on Tuesday

To hit the same point in the climb, in each effort, as your best rep last Thursday

To chase your best distances in each effort on Tuesday and Thursday
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4hr (Head out for a steady ride, but include three 5-15min Hard climbs in the first 3hr. Then increase the effort to comfortably hard and try to hold that for the rest of the ride)
90min (Ride out to your hill reps climb, and do 4 x 3min efforts aiming to climb as far up as you can in the 3min. Turn at the end of each 3min effort, and roll down to the start to Y THIS TR Thurs recover. Afterthe last the keys to e of ne O effort, take a keeping thyou is n io ss even as relaxed spin home) case dence high r efforts.
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90min (Ride out to your hill reps climb, and do 4 x 4min efforts aiming to climb as far up as you can in the 3min. Turn at the end of each 3min effort, and roll down to the start to recover. Aim to get to the top in the same time each time. After the last effort, take a relaxed spin home)
2hr (Ride your hilly route. 4hr (Head out for a steady Hold a comfortable, longride, but include four ride effort for the first 30min, 5-15min Hard climbs in the then push hard up first 3hr. Then increase the all the climbs effort to comfortably hard in the next and try to hold that for THIS TRY-3 e 75min. Finish the rest of the ride) of th in 0m 20 e with 15min The lastbl of Sats rid k oc . e rd back at that middl el quite ha should fee temptation long-ride Resist th back on to ease wnhills effort) do
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90min (Ride out to your hill reps climb, and do 4 x 5min efforts aiming to climb as far up as you can in the 5min. Turn at the end of each 5min effort, and roll down to the start to recover. After the last effort, take a relaxed spin home)
4hr (Head out for a steady ride, but include five 5-15min Hard climbs in the first 3hr. Then increase the effort to comfortably hard and try to hold that for the rest of the ride)
3hr (Head out for a steady ride on a flat route, focusing on creeping, pressing and driving just like on Thursday)
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YOUR FREE!
Autumn training guide
Visit www.cyclingweekly.cc for an interactive version of these plans. Use the coupon code CF40 for 40 per cent off the usual price of 15
THREE NEW 12-WEEK PLANS WorldMags.net

FITTER Weekend warrior FASTER Intro to intervals FURTHER No-tech training
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Riding
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We all love riding our bikes but as with any relationship it can have its ups and downs. Sometimes, almost inexplicably, the love goes, and while we want to want to ride our bikes the desire just isnt there. The good news is it never goes completely your bike will always be patiently waiting for your return. Check out our tips on page 16 for how to rekindle your motivation and if you need any more reminders to ride, page 46 looks at how cycling can influence your emotions.
In this section
70-75 PER CENT

of maximum heart rate is where you burn most fat
Page 19
A 37-inch waist for a man or 31.5-inch waist for a woman is associated with increased health risks
Page 29
Aerobic capacity can decline by as much as 10 per cent per decade if you stop exercising
Page 41
KEEP IT UP
16 31 35 46
Plus Motivation
Mental toughness Riding in all weathers Manage your emotions
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PROBLEM SOLVER
Cant think of anything worse than prising your backside from the
sofa to go cycling and wondering, where did the love go? Dont give up on yourself, it happens to every rider at some point, assures Rebecca Charlton
NO
If you have a great group of people to train with, use them to keep you motivated. You are much less likely to slack off if you know you will be letting others down. Schedule a weekly meet time and youre more likely to stick to it.
Are you in with the wrong crowd?
YES
Setting yourself clear goals is a great way to stay motivated. Make sure theyre realistic because if you set your sights too high this can have an adverse effect and end up denting your confidence. Put your goals on the fridge, or somewhere prominent, to remind yourself why youre putting in the hard work. The end result will be worth it!
Are you setting specific goals?
If you have nothing to aim for you can lose track of where you want to be. If youre happy cycling for fun then remember theres no point in putting unnecessary pressure on yourself, just make sure youre enjoying it. However, if youre cycling to increase your fitness or speed then setting goals will allow you to tick off your successes and progress to the next stage. Riding aimlessly can leave you feeling demotivated. Remember to keep things SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound.
NO
Constantly trying to people-please will not help your motivation because ultimately your passion to cycle needs to come from you and not anyone else. If youre trying to reach a target because your coach/partner/parent/friend has told you to, you need to ask yourself what you want from your cycling and make sure youre on the right path for your own fitness aims. They might have suggested it because they think you are capable of it and will enjoy it, but no matter what their good intentions are, you have to do it for yourself.
YES
Are you cycling for others? Are you resting enough?
YES
NO
If youre cycling for yourself and not because of the pressure of others then you are probably just experiencing a temporary blip in motivation. Take some time out and rekindle your love. A little break can work wonders. Pick your favourite cycling experiences and remember what it felt like to summit that mountain, cross the line or feel strong riding, with your back in the sun. When you get back on, find a song that makes you happy and blast it out before you hit the road, or select a motivational playlist while youre on the turbo-trainer.
Rest and recovery are crucial when it comes to remaining motivated so youre doing the right thing in taking this into account. Ensure that youre eating the right foods while youre off the bike to avoid becoming lethargic. Avoid overcompensating when it comes to recovery eating too many carbs and refined sugars can leave you feeling sluggish and less likely to want to get back on it. Dont make excuses and allow a rest day to roll into a week or more, because you will struggle even more with motivation when you do resume due to stale legs.
16
CYCLING FITNESS www.cyclingweekly.co.uk
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READY TO RIDE
YES
If your aim is to get a result in crit races and your friends are training for 200mile endurance challenges you may have to part ways for some specific sessions. Riding with people who have completely different programmes to you can affect your motivation because you may not be seeing the same progress as them. Stick to your guns, and your own training goals.
Your mood is highly affected by what youre eating, so nutrition is key, especially during blocks of high-intensity training. If youre not refuelling correctly, lethargy can creep in and motivation levels will dip. Eat little and often so that your energy levels are never entirely depleted, and avoid the bonk on the bike by eating or drinking 1g carbohydrate per kg body weight for each hour youre out for, beyond the first hour.
NO
Problem solver
Are you eating right?
YOU HAVE TO ENJOY IT

Jo Tindley, Matrix Fitness Racing Academy Having raced at the highest level in womens international cycling, Jo fell out of love with the sport for five years. Here she tells CF why shes back and more motivated than ever. I lost motivation and, in a way, I was lazy. I was lucky to do OK at racing because, while I love racing and just riding my bike, I dont like training! Because winning was so important to me, if I got beaten my heart wasnt in it. I lost the passion and the drive. Its not good having a pushy stepdad, either! When I decided to stop riding for a while it felt great. Just like a huge weight had been lifted, I was normal. From the age of 12 to 20, cycling was my life, and weekends were taken up by travelling to bike races. When I stopped, I never planned on coming back, I hated it that much. But in the five years I stepped away from the sport Ive grown up a lot. I realised what I had given up and how lucky I was. The want and need to ride just grew and grew. I had to be realistic about it: it was now or never. I knew this was my last chance and I didnt want to miss it. You should never regret anything in life, and I dont, but I knew if I didnt do this it would be a big regret. So I set up my five-year plan and the most important thing was that it was my plan. The end goal is to win big bike races and turn professional. You have to enjoy what you are doing. If I didnt enjoy what I was doing Id stop, and I did. I have a fantastic team around me in Matrix fitness. A brilliant DS, too. I lost motivation a few weeks back, I felt rubbish. I spoke to Stefan Wyman, I had two days off, went to work and chilled. I then went straight into the next race and had the best ride of the season. There are many things you can do to get motivated again. One thing I do is watch bike racing on YouTube. Mark Cavendishs lead-out train and sprint, I find very motivational. Very odd I know, but I find it helps. I imagine that will be me one day, and to get there I need to pick myself back up and get motivated. All the best athletes get like this, its just another hurdle to overcome to make you stronger.
YES
Look at the timing of your nutrition so that youre getting essential recovery meals, or a shake, within 20 minutes of returning from a long ride. Also take a look at what youre eating on rest days. You may think youre being good by avoiding overeating, but check youre getting the right foods to allow your body to recover.
NO
Are you doing other things in your downtime?
Most elite bike riders we talk to admit theyd struggle for motivation if they didnt have times when they completely switch off from cycling. That may be watching a DVD, having dinner with family or friends, or in the case of Movistars Alex Dowsett, gokarting. Taking time out to enjoy something completely unrelated to the bike will refresh your enthusiasm when it comes to the next hard training phase. Its important to remember why youre doing the sport and keep things fun as much as you can.
YES NO
When youre training hard, or even just plodding to work each day on the bike, you need to schedule in a proper rest day to avoid cumulative fatigue. Often, the more tired you become, the less likely you are to recognise the need to rest, as you feel youre not working hard enough when you do go out riding. Battling on will only make matters worse and could see your motivation at an all-time low.
Cycling may be a very important part of your life, but you still need balance. Being able to switch off when youre not cycling and find other things to do and think about is great. However, because most of us have to juggle a busy work and/or home life with training, its important to avoid being on your feet where possible. Obviously, supermarket runs and other essential tasks can mean you cant simply put your feet up, but try to do something relaxing which will allow you to replenish your energy.
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READY TO RIDE
Having previously examined the theory behind fat burning,
Going for the burn W
Fat burning
in this issue Andrew Hamilton looks at the practicalities of maximising fat burning for cyclists who are keen to get or stay lean
henever you ride your bike, you burn fat. But what a lot of cyclists want to know is whether theres any way of maximising the bodys fat-burning ability. Before we discuss the ins and outs of practical fat-burning strategies, lets just recap on what we learnt in the Spring issue of Cycling Fitness on this topic. Firstly, unless youre already very lean, losing some extra body fat can be a very effective way of increasing your performance. Thats because as far as cycling is concerned, body fat is dead weight, which contributes
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nothing to propelling you from A to B. Shedding some excess fat, therefore, increases your all-important power-to-weight ratio, which means youll accelerate and ride up any inclines faster for the same effort. The potential gains of fat burning are also very large; yes, you can fork out a couple of grand for a fancy new bike that weighs 4lb less than your existing steed, but when you realise you can lose 10lb for free by shedding some fat, that new bike idea suddenly looks much less attractive. Secondly, while youll only lose fat if you burn more calories than you eat, the right type and intensity of exercise can help ensure that as much energy as possible for that exercise comes from fat burning the so-called fatmax. Fatmax is achieved by prolonged, moderate-intensity riding in order to promote aerobic energy production (because fat needs lots of oxygen to be converted to energy). However, this shouldnt be your only mode of training because we know that higher levels of fitness result in even bigger fatmax values. In other words, in addition to longer, moderate-intensity rides, you still need to include some anaerobic, high-intensity rides to build fitness, because this higher level of fitness will allow you to work harder while still deriving lots of energy from fat calories, therefore increasing your fat-burning capacity. Another point to remember is that the (gentle) exercise intensity at which you burn the biggest proportion of calories as fat is NOT the same as the (somewhat higher) exercise intensity that burns the biggest number of fat calories [see Riding intensity and fatmax]. Finally, we learnt that the kinds of foods you eat before you train, and when you eat them, can affect the amount of fat burned for energy. We also briefly mentioned the use of supplements, some of which may be of help and some of which are mere hype masquerading as science. In novice or less fit cyclists, however, fatmax occurs at around 65 per cent of maximum heart rate. In reality, the exact intensity at which fat burning peaks is less important because within five or 10 per cent of this intensity (or 10-15 beats per minute), your fat burning rate will be similarly high. If you increase your riding speed too much, your fat oxidation will drop rapidly because your muscles will now want to burn mainly carbohydrate for fuel. Its easy to identify whether youve strayed above your optimum fat-burning zone because at this point, many people will perceive a big step up in their rate of exertion. The use of a heart-rate monitor helps remove any guesswork from the process.
RIDE LENGTH AND FREQUENCY

As for the duration and frequency of your rides, if your goal is first and foremost to maximise fat burning, the most important factor is your total energy expenditure over any given time period. So, for example, six rides per week of 45 minutes duration at 70 per cent MHR would be equivalent to three sessions of 90 minutes at the same percentage MHR (four and a half hours of riding time in total). The goal is to increase your total weekly volume so that you burn more fat calories. However, there is good evidence to suggest that fewer but longer rides (fitness permitting) are better for fat burning than more short rides. This is because we know that fat becomes an increasingly important as a fuel source as the duration of exercise increases. Therefore, in the example above, three sessions of 90 minutes may be preferable to six sessions of 45 minutes, because more of the
Strategy 1 Fitter cyclists should train around 70-75 per cent of MHR to burn fat. Novice/less fit cyclists should stick to 65 per cent MHR.
FAT BURNING THEORY INTO PRACTICE

Understanding the theory of fat burning is all well and good, but putting that theory into practice is another matter. Lets look at some simple ways you can apply this theory in your own training, starting with training structure.
TRAINING INTENSITY
Going back to the fatmax concept (the intensity of exercise at which you burn most fat during exercise), studies have shown that in trained cyclists, riding at a fairly moderate intensity around 70-75 per cent of maximum heart rate (MHR = approx. 220 minus your age in years) is optimum for fat burning.
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READY TO RIDE RIDING INTENSITY AND FATMAX
For the majority of cyclists with reasonable fitness, fatmax will occur at around 70-75 per cent of maximum heart rate or within 5 beats per minute of this figure. Very fit cyclists may have a fatmax nearer to 80 per cent of maximum heart rate, while beginner/unfit cyclists will probably have their fatmax somewhat lower around 65 per cent of max heart rate. If fat burning is your main goal, you should stick to these training guidelines. In addition, you should also perform some regular higher-intensity training to boost your maximal capacity to burn fat.
Fat burning
energy in the 90-minute sessions will come from fat calories. Another benefit of structuring your training this way is that it allows for longer periods of recovery in between each ride.
Above: tracking your heart rate will allow you to calibrate your fat burn
Strategy 2 Gradually increase your

total weekly mileage and, if you can manage it, structure your training towards fewer, longer rides.
TRAINING TIMING
For many of you reading this, lifestyle factors such as your work and family commitments will likely dictate what time of day you will be training. However, if you have any flexibility at all (e.g. time to train at the weekends), you can use this to help increase your fat burning while you ride. This is because theres plenty of evidence suggesting that the longer the period between your last meal and your next training ride, the greater the
proportion of energy used during that ride will be derived from fat. The most obvious way to take advantage of this effect is to train first thing in the morning before eating breakfast and, indeed, research has shown that the total fat oxidised during exercise (and for two hours after exercise) is greatest when morning exercise is performed in the fasted state, so before breakfast is consumed. It is important to stress, however, that this approach becomes less appropriate for longer duration sessions (lasting more than one hour) where training on empty could result in excessive fatigue as a result of low blood sugar and stored muscle carbohydrate (glycogen). If you want to ride for longer than an hour, be sure to take some carbohydrate drinks/bars/gels with you and start feeding on the bike once you reach the 60-minute mark a strategy that is popular with some pro cyclists.
Strategy 3 Ride for up to an hour before breakfast on an empty stomach.
OTHER TRAINING MODES

As a general rule of thumb, the best way to improve your cycling performance is to cycle and do lots of it. When fat burning is your number one priority, however, it might be useful to add in some other modes of endurance training such as running or even walking. The reason is that for any given exercise intensity (heart rate), youll burn more fat while running (or walking) than you will cycling. This is because, when compared to cycling, the work done during running is spread over more muscle fibres because more muscles in total are involved in the running action. For the same workload these fibres dont have to contract so intensely so can derive a bigger proportion of their
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energy from fat (at high muscular intensities, carbohydrate burning becomes much more dominant while fat use drops off). You should also consider resistance training, which builds and maintains muscle mass, increases your calorie burn at rest, which then helps to promote fat burning (see Resistance training for fat burning). carbs are oats, pasta, lentils, beans, peas, most fresh vegetables and fresh fruits such as apples, pears, cherries, peaches and plums. Why low-GI foods? Well, the more gentle the release of energy, the smaller the rise in insulin that results, thus increasing the potential for fat burning. Indeed, studies have shown that compared to a highGI carbohydrate meal, a low-GI carbohydrate meal increases the amount of fat burning by 118 per cent in a subsequent training session. One caveat, however: while some carbohydrate restriction is good for fat burning in the initial stages of a ride, be very careful not to overdo it. During longer rides and after all rides, you absolutely must consume plenty of carbohydrate in order to stop your muscles becoming depleted in glycogen (muscle carbohydrate), which will leave you feeling like a physical wreck.
Strategy 4 Try adding some long walks or runs into your weekly training schedule and resistance train at least once a week.
RIDING NUTRITION
Your most powerful nutritional weapon for fat burning is knowing what you shouldnt use. While carbohydrate drinks and gels have their place in maximising riding performance, if its fat burning youre after, these products should not be used before or in the early stages of your ride. Thats because carbohydrate taken before training can suppress your muscles ability to burn fat for energy by up to 35 per cent. Carbohydrate raises levels of the hormone insulin, which subsequently suppresses fat burning, so by not taking a pre-exercise carbohydrate drink/ gel/snack, you can ensure levels of insulin remain low and fat-burning potential remains high. This is also the reason why pre-breakfast riding is effective for fat burning. If you do find yourself in need of some pre-training energy, the best option is to eat some low-GI carbohydrate carbohydrate that releases its energy very gently about two hours before you ride. Good examples of these low-GI
Strategy 5 Dont consume

carbohydrate drinks/bars/gels or snacks immediately before or during the early stages of a ride, and stick to low-GI carbs in the three hours before a ride.
SUMMARY
By applying a few simple training and nutrition strategies, you can significantly enhance your muscles ability to burn fat for energy. Manipulating the length, frequency and timing of your rides can all boost fat burning too, as can adding in a sprinkling of other exercise modes. Throw into the mix a little nutritional knowhow and you really will be going for the burn.
RESISTANCE TRAINING FOR FAT BURNING

Adding in some resistance training to your weekly training plan is a great idea for cyclists seeking fat loss. This is because resistance training increases muscle mass, which is a very desirable thing for two reasons. Firstly, itll make you a stronger, more powerful rider and help protect you against injury; secondly, because muscle mass is metabolically far more active than fat tissue, so increasing your muscle mass with the addition of some resistance training means that the rate at which you burn up energy (even while resting) can be boosted significantly. This in turn makes it easier for you to achieve a negative energy balance, which is what you need to burn fat when youre not riding. Try adding one (or at the most two) sessions of resistance training into your weekly cycling programme. You dont need to spend hours at the gym; very significant benefits can be had with a quick 40-minute blast. A resistance session consisting of 10-12 exercises designed to work all the major muscle groups (one to two sets of 10-15 repetitions per exercise with enough weight set so that the repetitions can only just be completed) will produce great results in cyclists who are not experienced resistance trainers.
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READY TO RIDE Fat burning
Stay away from quickrelease carbs and the fat will melt away
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Health Checks
YOUR FULL BODY MOT
From cholesterol levels to cancer screening, the market for health MOTs is booming. Aside from body weight, most of us would struggle to recall our health metrics, so is it time we sat up and took notice? Laura Tilt investigates what those tests really mean and whether theyre worth your time and money
ith the healthscreening market worth an estimated 100 million, theres no doubt that physical MOTs are something were keen to invest in, and its easy to see why. A quick search reveals that for as little as 99 you can have a sequence of health tests designed to identify your risk of having a heart attack, stroke and more. If nothing else, these tests promise to put your mind at rest. Aside from the standard height, weight, body mass index and body fat checks, private screening companies offer everything from basic screenings (which include blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose and liver function) to more specific tests to assess cardiovascular health, bone density and even your risk of developing certain cancers, including colon, breast and prostate. In as little as two hours, you can get a comprehensive-looking report full of coloured charts detailing your risk of everything from iron deficiency to aortic aneurysm the question is, why wouldnt you want to know?
READY TO RIDE Health checks
SAFETY FIRST?
Despite the growing trend for health screening, there has been growing concern from the medical community that some of the tests under offer are unnecessary, and worse still, some may actually cause more harm than good. Take CT (computerised tomography) scans, for example. Offered as a method of screening for cancers, the test uses a series of X-rays to created detailed images of the body. Although essential under the right conditions, the use of CT scans in healthy patients is controversial as they carry a radiation risk, and as such should only be carried out if absolutely necessary. But a 2009 report by Which? revealed that few screening companies were taking due care to warn of the associated dangers.
Your local GP should always be your first port of call
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Theres also the possibility of false positives, i.e. a test identifies a problem when there isnt one, or on the other end of the scale, a false negative, in which a test fails to pick up a condition. A classic example of this is prostate cancer studies show that annual screening does not reduce the risk of death. In addition, the test has been shown to have a lack of specificity, which means that other conditions (such as urine infections) can give rise to a positive result. Interpreting the results of health screenings can also be difficult, thanks to the use of often complex (and unnecessary) medical terminology. One of the most commonly offered tests is a screening for an abdominal aortic aneurysm (a bulge in the main blood vessel leading to the stomach), which to the uninitiated can seem frightening, despite the fact that the risk in those under 65 years of age is very low. It is these types of concerns that have led the medical community to speak out, with the chairman of the British Medical Associations committee warning that the general population should be sceptical of such tests. Chances are you dont need a doctor to tell you if youre overweight (see BMI if youre unsure), but you may want to get your blood pressure, blood glucose or cholesterol level checked if you are, particularly if youre over the age of 40. Those with a family history of diabetes, heart disease or high cholesterol should also get their glucose and blood pressure checked (see Under the microscope). Anyone with pre-existing conditions that require the long-term use of steroids or affect absorption or regulation of vitamin D and calcium (such as Crohns, coeliac disease or those who have had bowel surgery) are advised to get regular bone scans and screens for vitamin B12 and vitamin D. Its important to remember that health screening is rarely diagnostic, and may identify risk or indicate need for further tests as in the case of blood pressure or an abnormal blood glucose result. To help you decide whether you should go for a test, the National Screening Committee recommends you ask yourself the following questions: What do you hope to gain from the test? Do you have any symptoms? If so, can you discuss these with your GP first? Can you get the information another way? (see DIY MOT) Is your screening company registered? (check www.cqc.org.uk) Are there any risks associated with the test? What happens if something is picked up? Is there a medical doctor on hand to speak to? Many screens are delivered by healthcare assistants, and you may have to wait to speak to a doctor at a later date. If you are between 40 and 74 years old you will be invited for a NHS Health Check once every five years where your risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and diabetes will be assessed www.nhs.uk/ nhshealthcheck
NHS HEALTH CHECK
TO SCREEN OR NOT TO SCREEN
Despite concerns, there are undoubtedly some instances in which health screening can be helpful. According to Diabetes UK, almost a million adults in the UK have type-2 diabetes but dont know it. Last year, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence also warned that close to six million of us are walking round with undiagnosed high blood pressure. So, if you are considering investing in a health screen, which, if any, should you choose? Before you decide, its sensible to take an honest look at your current picture of health, any symptoms and your family history. The risk of many chronic conditions increases with age (40 is usually considered to be the watershed), high levels of body fat or family history. For example, being overweight, having a large waist circumference and being over 40 is associated with an increased risk of type-2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and some cancers.
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

BLOOD GLUCOSE/ORAL GLUCOSE TOLERANCE TEST WHAT IT LOOKS FOR: Raised levels of glucose in the blood, which can indicate diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance (pre-diabetes). The OGTT involves drinking a glucose solution and then monitoring how quickly this is cleared from the blood over a two-hour period.
SCREEN FOR FREE

There are currently eight national screening programmes offered free to eligible adults. These include: Bowel cancer Men and women aged 60-69, and every two years if 70+ Abdominal aortic aneurysm Men aged 65 and over Breast screening Women aged 50 to 70 every three years. Cervical screening Women aged 25 to 49 every three years, or those aged 50-64 every five years For more information, visit www.screening.nhs.uk/about
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READY TO RIDE
BLOOD PRESSURE WHAT IT LOOKS FOR: Hypertension (raised blood pressure), which increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. WHAT THE RESULTS MEAN: Blood pressure is measured in millimetres of mercury (mmHg) and is reported as two figures, e.g. 120/80mm/Hg. Anything under 130/80mmHg is considered within the normal range. High blood pressure is diagnosed if the reading is consistently (on two or more separate occasions) measured at 140/90mmHg or higher. WHO SHOULD TAKE IT? As there are no signs or symptoms its wise to get it checked every couple of years, and ideally annually with increasing age. WHERE TO GET IT DONE: Your GP, Lloyds Pharmacy. Gyms and larger workplaces may also offer testing. COST: Free, or included as part of a basic health assessment, which costs from around 99. CF RATING: With so many cases undiagnosed, its well worth a quick check, but remember that anxiety, exercise and stimulants such as caffeine can all falsely affect readings.
Health checks
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WHAT THE RESULTS MEAN: Blood glucose is measured in mmol/l. A fasted level of 7.0mmol/l or higher indicates diabetes. Levels of 6.1mmol/l-6.9mmol/l indicate impaired glucose tolerance. A non-fasted result of more than 11.1mmol/l will require a fasted test. WHO SHOULD TAKE IT? Anyone with symptoms (increased thirst, urination, blurred vision, tiredness, weight loss), but also those at high risk: family history, overweight and over 40 years of age. See www.diabetes.org.uk/ if unsure. WHERE TO GET IT DONE: Your GP or a Lloyds Pharmacy. Its wise to be fasted before having a glucose test as levels will be raised for several hours after eating. However, a random sample can indicate whether theres any need for a fasting test. COST: Free, or as part of a basic health assessment, costing around from 99. CF RATING: Quick and easy to perform and can identify undiagnosed hypertension. CHOLESTEROL AND BLOOD LIPIDS (HDL AND LDL CHOLESTEROL AND TRIGLYCERIDES) WHAT IT LOOKS FOR: High levels of cholesterol or blood fats (known as triglycerides) are used to assess risk of heart disease and stroke. Levels of cholesterol are also monitored to determine responses to medications and diet. WHAT THE RESULTS MEAN: Total cholesterol levels are not helpful in isolation as they lump together both good and bad cholesterol, which isnt useful. Total HDL cholesterol is more predictive of heart conditions, and you want to aim for a TC/ HDL ratio of 4.5 or less (your total cholesterol divided by your HDL cholesterol). Levels of triglycerides should be 1.7mmol/l or less. WHO SHOULD TAKE IT? Those with pre-existing heart conditions, a family history of heart or stroke problems, or those with risk factors, e.g. being overweight, over the age of 40, diabetic, having high blood pressure or smoking. WHERE TO GET IT DONE: GP, Lloyds Pharmacy Cholesterol and Heart Check, as part of a cardiovascular screen or NHS health check. COST: Free with your GP, 14.99 at Lloyds Pharmacy, or as part of a basic health screen starting at 99.
FULL BLOOD COUNT WHAT IT LOOKS FOR: General health status including liver function, kidney function, iron stores (used to detect anaemia) infection and inflammation. WHAT THE RESULTS MEAN: White blood cells can be increased in response to infection or inflammation, the size and shape of red blood cells can point to anaemia, folate or B12 deficiency. Certain substances in plasma also indicate liver, kidney and thyroid function. WHO SHOULD TAKE IT? A full blood count usually forms part of a routine medical exam or if you have symptoms of anaemia (fatigue, shortness of breath), unexplained weight loss or infection. WHERE TO GET IT DONE: GP if symptomatic, or as part of a general health screen done privately. COST: Around 95.00 if done privately, free on NHS. CF RATING: Used to diagnose a range of health problems if you have symptoms. Otherwise not especially helpful, as levels of certain markers can fluctuate on a daily basis with no cause for alarm.
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READY TO RIDE DIY MOT
Resting heart rate: Find your pulse on your wrist and count the number of beats for a period of one minute. A normal pulse is between 60 and 100 beats per minute. The fitter you are, the lower your resting heart rate is likely to be some athletes have a resting heart rate of 40-60bpm or less. Waist circumference: Measure your waist at the midpoint between the top of your hip bone and your lowest rib. Risk of health problems is increased if your waist is over 94cm (37 inches) if youre a man, or over 80cm (31.5 inches), if youre a woman. Body mass index: Divide your weight in kilograms by your height in metres squared, e.g. 73 divided by 1.75 divided by 1.75 = BMI of 23.84. If your BMI is 25 or more, youre over the ideal weight for your height.
Health checks
ECG ELECTROCARDIOGRAM WHAT IT LOOKS FOR: An ECG measures the rhythm (beats) and electrical activity of your heart. Results are drawn onto a graph to identify any abnormal heart rhythms, which may indicate problems such as decreased blood flow, enlargement of the heart, or occurrence of heart attack. They can be performed at rest or during exercise. WHAT THE RESULTS MEAN: Abnormal heart rhythms indicate the need for further tests. The test can also identify heart disease and severity of the condition. WHO SHOULD TAKE IT? Not recommended for healthy, low-risk people without symptoms. May be advised if you have chest pain, palpitations, fast or slow heart rhythms, shortness of breath. Some experts recommend an ECG once every 10 years for comparison if carried out as part of a routine health screening. Young athletes can also benefit, as sudden cardiac death in young athletes does sadly occur in completely healthy people without any symptoms. See www.c-r-y.org.uk for more info. WHERE TO GET IT DONE: Private health clinic, or on referral from GP at a local hospital. COST: Carried out privately, a resting ECG and report is around 85. An exercise ECG can cost as much as 395. CF RATING: Doesnt predict problems in healthy people, but is an important test for those with symptoms.
Boots offers a home cholesterol testing kit for 12.25, but this only checks total cholesterol. CF RATING: Useful to have checked annually, but not as a single marker. BONE DENSITY DEXA SCAN (DUAL ENERGY X-RAY ABSORPTIOMETRY) WHAT IT LOOKS FOR: A DEXA uses X-rays to measure bone density, which can diagnose osteoporosis or the risk of developing osteoporosis or osteopenia (low bone density). WHAT THE RESULTS MEAN: Results are given as T scores. 0 to -1 is normal, -1 to -2.5 is classed as osteopenia, below -2.5 is classed as osteoporosis. WHO SHOULD TAKE IT? Those with a family history, fractures after a minor fall, very low BMI, conditions that can lead to low bone density such as rheumatoid arthritis, those with Crohns disease, alcoholics, and those who have been taking steroids for long periods of time. Full-time professional riders who do little resistance work are also at increased risk. WHERE TO GET IT DONE: Can be requested by your GP or offered as part of a health screen. COST: Around 100-150 privately, or free if carried out through a referral via the NHS. CF RATING: Unless indicated, it is not necessary.
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READY TO RIDE Resilience training
Real resilience
Physical and psychological resilience is the key to unlocking your inner champion, says Matt Lamy.
Nurture your ability to push harder and longer and youll be able to overcome almost any setback
with rower James Cracknell and the Red Bull F1 team among his clients. Rather than resilience I like to call it efficiency, Shrosbree says. Its about learning increased resilience to all factors and making yourself more efficient with your personal discipline. The first step is you need attainable goals that you can chip away at and go after. If you can make some small steps in your discipline and your commitment and how your training is executed, your resilience increases massively. Everybody goes out and trains and says: Oh, well, theres another session done. But how many people go out and purposely train their resilience? Say theyre going to ride at x watts for x minutes on a turbotrainer, then suddenly somebody like me walks in the room and says:
ne of the biggest buzz concepts in sports coaching right now is the idea of resilience. But what is resilience, and how can it help every sportsperson? Former Royal Marine Bernie Shrosbree is one of Britains leading coaches when it comes to coping with high-pressure physical events,
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I want you to up that for another 20 seconds, and find another five watts. That is what resilience is about. If you are about to fall off the bike, but youve got to find another 20 seconds and another five watts, will you just stop, or will you find it? After all, thats what would happen in a race. training, Shrosbree continues. You dont do it the week before the big race, for example. And it may be that youve gone out for three to four hours and tested your resilience, or it may be that its just the last few seconds of a turbo set where youve decided to really go hard. Resilience is almost like a little secret, a little thing that elite athletes have in their top pocket to create excellence. Essentially, to reach a top level you have got to learn how to hurt. But youve got to try and understand about your own resilience towards hurting the give-up factor as we call it. Look at James Cracknell, weighing 90 kilos but running a marathon in under three hours. He can just dig deep, and go into what I call The Deep Dark Hole Of The Unknown. So its mainly about the mindset, and I suppose thats why I like this word efficiency, because that can mean a lot of things: the efficiency of your mindset not to kick into nervousness and panic; then the efficiency of the energy output you can give. If you can train yourself to be more efficient mentally and physically then your resilience will be enhanced. Were all limited physiologically, but most often we end up being limited by what goes on upstairs in our heads.
KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY

Interestingly, its those athletes who have a broad experience of life outside sport who tend to be most resilient psychologically. Sports people who are really committed, who have sports as their whole life and their identity, when they go through stress they can really crumble, Ross Wadey says. Its usually people who have a number of things going on with their lives that cope best, so if sport falls down they have other aspects of their lives to rest back on. Other things might be going well at home, with their family or in interests outside of sport.
EXTREME EXERCISES
Having a coach who can introduce unexpected exercises to test your resilience is the obvious approach, but Shrosbree says strong-minded athletes can do it on their own. Dont train resilience every day, but occasionally just turn something up in the session, he explains. It may be that you ride 25 miles before you do a 10-mile time trial. The aim is to go for your personal best, even though you know youve done a 25-mile warm-up on the bike instead of just driving there in your car. Thats what I call resilience. Look for opportunities to test your limits every now and then. Say youre going to do hill intervals eight three-minute hill intervals, up to the top, then back down for recovery. The idea is that youve got to be within five seconds of each one, and the last has to be close to maximum, so that gives you a resilience goal. Most people produce their best effort on the last one. I dont. Id give my soul on number six and number seven, and just try and survive number eight. Thats how to take your resilience up from being ordinary to great.
STRESS BUSTING
In terms of that psychological element, resilience has further reaching goals than just in-themoment performance. Resilience is a relatively new concept in the sports psychology sphere, Ross Wadey, senior lecturer in sport and exercise psychology
DEEP DARK HOLE

Youve got to know where in your programme to place that kind of
You cant avoid stress but you can avoid giving in to it
at the University of Roehampton, says. Essentially what we try and do is help athletes, when they do experience some stress when demands get too overwhelming for them so they are far more able to adapt quickly. That is what they want and what their coaches want: when they face adversity, they want to get back to how they were as quickly as possible. The first step to achieving this is gaining a full understanding of the stress in question. Of the people I work with, those who cope with stress best tend to reveal what they are feeling by writing it down or talking to people close to them, Wadey says. Selfdisclosure isnt always encouraged in sports often coaches dont like it when you focus on negatives or bring up emotional elements. But the reason why they explain what they are feeling is because they want to think about it rationally and they want to do something to vent their emotions. Communicating the problem doesnt get rid of all of those emotions but it gives the athlete a little bit of breathing space. Then after that, once theyve lowered their emotions, they
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READY TO RIDE Resilience training
You cant avoid stress but you can avoid giving into it
Cycling Fitness editor Hannah Reynolds gives the insiders view on how to prepare for events that test your body, mind and soul...
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Essentially, to reach a top level you have got to learn how to hurt
try to get a broader perspective on everything. People with high resilience are very good at being able to set whats happening to them in some kind of perspective. Probably the most common approach is to think: Im not the only one who has experienced this. Or: things could be worse and this could be a much more serious issue. the sportspeople pretty much all used the coping strategy Ive just mentioned. The only difference was when the stress was completely outside the athletes control. They still try to increase their understanding of the issues, but then they have to move on to acceptance rather than doing something about it. We also did a lot of tests with people with low resilience who just put their heads in the sand, and that leads to people experiencing really low states of depression, anxiety, relationships breaking down. They would never resolve their problems, then other stresses would come along, and more negativity. But the resilient would always resolve it and learn from it. Thats the kind of programme that I would teach the people I work with. Its worth noting, though, that a persons ability to be resilient can change over time, and athletes do actually want to feel under pressure to perform. Most athletes, especially the higher up the ladder you go, would feel worried if they werent stressed before a big event. It shows that it means something to them and that they care. You need adrenaline to get the best performance out of you.
ROOT CAUSES
Great sportspeople crave information, so they then want to work out what happened to them, Wadey continues. There are three things they focus on. Why did it happen? What is the issue or stress about? And what can they do about it? They look at the past, the present and the future, and really build up a big understanding about it. The key to resilience is then to solve the problem as quickly as possible. Tests of resilience can come in many different forms. In one of my studies into resilience, we went across lots of different contexts, whether it was retirement from sport, being dropped from a team, being injured, or losing at a really critical moment, Wadey says. In all of these different cases,
Preparing for my first 24-hour solo race, I put a lot of thought into how I could train my resilience. Being physically fit and prepared is just one aspect; I knew from talking to those who had done well in 24-hour events that it was how you managed your head and dealt with the unexpected that made the difference. In the months leading up to the event, I did all kinds of different things: I set my alarm for 3am and leapt out of bed to change an inner tube or fix a chain; I needed to know I could do it when sleep deprived. I spent several hours on the rollers at a time without any music or distraction to learn how to handle boredom and physical discomfort. I did my training at unusual times of day, maybe starting a four-hour ride at 1am so I knew I could ride my bike at any time of day or night. All of these things, I felt, contributed to my resilience. You can practise resilience in all areas of your life. Even painting some fences contributed to my resilience I set myself the challenge of doing it all in one go. When it rained before it was dry and I had to redo it, that was the real test. One of the problems with developing your own resilience is you know the challenge and when it is going to arrive so you can prepare for it. Coaches, friends and family can help you by throwing challenges at you that you arent expecting.
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READY TO RIDE Four seasons
Four seasons
At this time of year, the prospect for varied weather conditions
is high it is not uncommon to experience all four seasons in a single ride. Dan Henchy talks through the effects that the weather can have on your cycling performance and runs through some strategies to ensure that Mother Nature does not derail your plans WorldMags.net
ne of the joys of living on a small island perched on the edge of the Atlantic is the opportunity to experience the full variety of weather. Spend some time on your bike in these parts and you will be lucky enough to experience rain, cold, heat (admittedly rare), rain, sunshine, clouds, rain, wind, hail, snow and every imaginable combination of the above, particularly as we move into autumn. What a lucky bunch we are! Despite our moaning to the contrary, the climate in the UK is fairly temperate and allows for riding outside almost every week of the year. For those few weeks when it is extremely cold and icy we can seek refuge on the indoor trainer, but otherwise a little thought and preparation goes a long way.
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HEAT
If were experiencing an Indian summer or youre jetting off to warmer climes for a late-season challenge youll want to know what effect high temperatures will have on your cycling performance. This is an area that has seen a huge amount of research from the sport science community, and the effects of riding in the heat are well documented, even if the reasons for these effects are still hotly debated. The first observation is that short-duration efforts, such as a single sprint or an effort of around one minute, are improved by an increase in muscle temperature. The infamous hotpants used by the GB track cycling team at London 2012 are proof of this phenomenon. On the other hand, for longer duration events, and anything longer than five minutes certainly falls into this category, heat will have a negative effect on performance. Hyperthermia is defined as an increase in core temperature above normal values (37C at rest or 38C during moderate exercise, for those with a penchant for facts and figures) and exercise will become impossible when core temperature approaches 40C we only have a few degrees to play with! Whats more interesting is that a reduction in performance has been shown at the start of exercise trials in the heat, long before core temperature begins to rise. At this point, the debate continues as to how and why this happens but from a practical perspective it is clear that the perception of temperature plays an important role.
WARM UP
The reduction in performance in the heat for endurance exercise raises an interesting question what is the point in warming up in hot conditions? The answer to this question comes from understanding what the aim of a warm-up is. The phrase warm up is misleading. Rather than an increase in temperature, the aim of the warm-up is to promote optimal conditions in the body to give a maximum effort increasing muscle temperature can be part of this, but more important is priming the body for a hard effort. Everyone whos done some form of interval training is familiar with how awful that first rep can be, and how subsequent efforts can get better and better until fatigue begins to set in. This is the real aim of a warm-up increasing enzyme activity, achieving a potentiation effect and optimising physiological readiness. In hot conditions, these requirements are just as important but we must achieve them without a further increase in core temperature
HOW TO COPE IN THE HEAT

Pre-cooling If a rise in core temperature above normal is problematic, then an intuitive (and evidence-based) strategy to maintain performance levels is to try to reduce core temperature beforehand. The use of ice vests, ice-cold drinks (even crushed ice-based drinks), or cold-water immersion in advance of beginning exercise have all been shown to improve subsequent exercise tolerance in the heat. Areas with high blood flow are ideal for reducing body temperature, so a cold, wet towel round the neck when warming up, or running your hands and wrists under cold water can be a good way to both reduce body temperature and also very effectively reduce that perception of feeling hot. Warming up with an ice vest on is something you can look out for as elite athletes prepare ahead of hot events. Promote heat loss Lightweight, breathable fabrics and light colours are the order of the day to reflect the suns rays and allow heat and sweat to escape. A squirt of water into
the vents of your helmet and down the back of your neck can give an incredible lift on a hot day, but be careful to avoid doing the same with a sweet, sticky energy drink! Pacing Acknowledge that high temperatures will have a negative impact on your endurance performance and reduce your absolute work rate to compensate. This will reduce the amount of heat you create as a result of energy production and slow that rise in core temperature that is so problematic. Blood flow Circulation to the digestive system can be restricted during exercise in the heat, as the conflicting demands of blood to the skin to aid cooling and of course blood flow to the working muscles takes precedence over the stomach and gut. Try to minimise the strain on your digestive system by consuming your calories in liquid or gel form. Nutrition Fluid is obviously key given that so much extra liquid is lost through sweat; sweat rates of three-four litres per hour have been reported in some subjects. Recent research has suggested that a little dehydration is
not as catastrophic to performance as once thought, but in my experience it does make subsequent recovery more difficult. Drinking to thirst is a good rule of thumb and if you get things right expect to need a small pee every couple of hours just as you would if you werent cycling!
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COLD
As much as hot temperatures have a negative impact on endurance performance, cold can be just as problematic and perhaps more likely in the UK. Reductions in endurance performance are well documented in cold conditions. In extreme cold, blood is pooled around the vital organs to preserve heat, which can again lead to a conflict in demand with blood flow to the working muscles. For some bizarre reason, our bodies have evolved to preserve life rather than take Strava segments! In parallel with observations in the heat, performance decreases in cold conditions even without a change in core temperature. Once again, just the perception of cold weather is enough to reduce endurance performance.
READY TO RIDE Four seasons
HOW TO COPE WITH COLD TEMPERATURES

Clothing Wrap up warm! Layers of clothing are vital. Blood flow to the extremities is reduced in cold weather to preserve heat around the organs, with the exception of that most important extremity your head! Blood flow to the brain is preserved at the expense of all else so be sure to insulate your head with a skull cap or similar garment under your helmet.
In cool conditions many riders find red drinks more palatable plump for blackcurrant or other red drinks rather than your tropical or other favourite summer flavour
TOP TIP
Nutrition In cool conditions, the thirst response is blunted so you are unlikely to get through as much fluid as you would on a hot summer day. Thats not to say fluid isnt important the general rule of needing a pee every couple of hours still applies.
Bike choice Minimise the effect of wind chill by riding a bike that will travel at a slower speed. Forget carbon wheels and race tubulars a heavy winter bike with thicker tyres will keep your speed down and make the temperatures more manageable. A cross bike is ideal because it allows for you to maintain your normal riding position, but on the coldest days a mountain bike might be the order of the day.
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WIND
Ask most cyclists what conditions they most despise and Im sure strong winds would figure top or close to the top of their list. Tailwinds can be the most exhilarating experience, with pro-level speeds attainable at real-world fitness levels. However, there is always that nagging doubt that before long you will make a few turns and all too soon you will be clicking down the gears and straining to maintain forward momentum. Fortunately, there is plenty you can do to make windy rides more manageable.
HOW TO COPE WHEN THE WEATHER GETS WINDY

Ride with a group They say a problem shared is a problem halved. Nowhere is this more appropriate than riding into a headwind. Taking it in turns to lead while the others get some respite on your wheel can make even the stiffest of headwinds manageable. Surging The key to beating the wind is cooperation. Try to avoid putting in a burst of effort when you come to the front of the group, or when riding up hills. Your job on the front is providing shelter and saving energy for those behind, not tearing their legs off (unless this is the agreed aim of the session). Stay smooth and protect the other riders in the group and youll all travel faster. Crosswinds Directly behind the rider in front is not always the place to get the best shelter. Ride on the downwind side in a crosswind to get some extra respite. This might mean riding slightly to the left or right of the rider in front use trees or flags to get clues as to the wind direction, or experiment until you find that sweetspot. The leading rider should also think about their position on the road to
leave room for following riders. Avoid forming a full-on echelon on open roads, though; two abreast is the maximum you should ever be riding. Aerodynamics Minimise the negative effects of the wind by improving your aerodynamics. Ride in the drops rather than sitting upright on the hoods. Even simply bending your elbows a little more can reduce your profile to the wind. Avoid loose fitting, flappy clothing on windy days theres a reason top riders resort to wearing tight-fitting skinsuits, but theres no need to go quite this far on your training rides! Length of pull Generally keep the pulls fairly short, perhaps a couple of minutes if riding at a steady pace or shorter if youre working hard. Weaker riders should do shorter pulls and the stronger riders slightly longer. Cooperation is key its time to leave your ego at the door! Route selection Generally, riding into a headwind early in the ride gives you the chance of a tailwind home. That order makes it much easier psychologically and physically given youll get a help from the wind towards the end when tired.
Gearing The tendency when riding into a headwind is to adopt a lower cadence. Try to avoid getting bogged down, though. Accept that your speed will be reduced and drop down the gears accordingly. Windy days can be a great opportunity to train at a range of cadences work on torque development at a low cadence into the wind, and practise spinning at a high cadence with the wind behind. If preparing for an event on the Continent involving long climbs, ride a 20- to 30-minute stretch into a headwind to simulate the efforts youll face, given the lack of long climbs in the UK.
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RAIN
The rain tends not to have an effect on physical performance per se, but an examination of the conditions faced by the UK cyclist would be incomplete without a mention of it. The main issue is that it can exacerbate some of the issues discussed above, perhaps with the exception of very hot conditions when a rain shower can often offer a welcome respite. What follows are a few hints and tips to make riding in the rain a little easier.
HOW TO COPE WITH WET WEATHER

Clothing A decent rain jacket is a vital investment for any cyclist committed to riding through the worst of the UK weather. A specific cycling jacket should be short in the body at the front and long at the rear to fit well when riding, with taped seams and a high collar to minimise water getting in at the edges. The pros all seem to wear black these days, but do yourself a favour and pick a bright colour to ensure you stand out on dull, rainy days. Mudguards In my opinion, the most underrated piece of cycling equipment! Everyone should have at the very least a set of clip-on guards for their bike. On your own, preventing spray to your backside can vastly improve comfort and protect the contents of your pockets (especially food) from road grime. When riding with friends in the rain, no one will want to sit on your wheel with a rooster tail of spray in their face! Caution Take extra care when riding in the rain. Caliper brakes are considerably less effective in the wet so make sure you start to reduce your speed much earlier into corners. Grip is also reduced in the wet so leave the Sagan-esque descending to dry days and slow down through the curves. Manhole covers and white lines on the road are always extra slippery so make sure to ride around them. And with the state of the UK roads at an abhorrent low, beware of riding through puddles because you dont know what horrors lie below! Lighting A final note on safety: a front and rear LED light will do wonders for your visibility on murky, rainy days.
Four seasons
COME RAIN OR SHINE

The risk of writing an article on the British weather is one I almost shied away from writing this knowing it wont be read for a few months leaves me clueless as to
what well be experiencing when you pick up this copy of Cycling Fitness. Im confident that one of the above will be immediately relevant and even more confident that all of the above can present
conditions that are far from optimal and enough to dissuade many from riding. Embrace the challenge and with a little preparation and forethought you can still have a great ride.
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GEORGE WHITE Did all my best times in my 40s. Now Im 50 Im still getting top-five Strava positions round here and stomping it on the chaingang. You get more time, more money, more self-discipline and more knowledge when you get older.
READY TO RIDE
STEPHEN JEFFREYS Over 20 years ago, when I turned 40, I started riding bikes more seriously and did 10 years of triathlon as well as getting my first mountain bike. Set some great running PBs too. Since I turned 50 I went into mountain biking seriously and have had over 12 years of immense fun but it takes longer to recover after an off. However, Im going to Les Gets to rip up some dirt next week and I ride about 2,500 miles per year, mostly off-road. Age is not just a number but a state of mind. If you think you are over the hill at 40 then you will act that way and miss out on 40 years of fun!
The ageing athlete
ROB TURNBULL Am better and fitter now at 44 than I was 20 years ago. I also enjoy it more and have become a lot more focused and aware of recovery and nutrition issues. My wife calls it nerdism, I call it enjoyment. Definitely takes longer to recover, thats the only downside.
PHIL WALKER Didnt start till I was in my late 30s, but, definitely better now than I was when I started. Hated hills back then have learned to embrace them, and love them now!
ALAN CRANE Been racing for 31 years and did a PB for 25 miles last year at 43. DAVE VAN MUSICMASTER I did a lifetime best for a 10 at 45, and I still reckon I can beat it.
BRUCE KAY Raw strength was best when I was 28-30. But I had no stamina then. Since then stamina and mental toughness has steadily improved. Now I can ride much longer distances, stick to a goodly pace for much longer. Also technique and efficiency have improved with time. Perhaps the only detrimental thing with age is loss of flexibility. I now need to stretch much more, or I find my knees, hips, feet, lower back very stiff. Im in my 60s now and retired. I enjoy the luxury of being able to ride every day. If I have to miss a day, and dont get to enjoy the endorphins hit, I get grumpy and depressed.
Dan Henchy of PBscience examines some of the research behind exercise performance as we age, separating myth from fact and explaining how we can keep on riding and improving well into retirement and beyond. WorldMags.net
THE AGEING ATHLETE
BRI MURRAY Im 59 and flying, faster now than at 18! Hard training, structured! Plenty of rest! Good nutrition and good mental attitude!
heres no hiding from that elephant in the room as an article by Hirofumi Tanaka and Douglas Seals in The Journal of Physiology put it back in 2008: Declines in athletic performance are inevitable with ageing. No ones going to say cycling will make us all immortal, but there are plenty of things we can do to continue enjoying the sport we love, well into our old age. And the best way to tackle something is to know the facts. So here is a little more information on what the effects of ageing really are on athletic performance, and a few tips on how to manage the passing of the years (in cycling terms at least!). Firstly, what evidence is there for this decline? The following graph (taken from the review article described above) presents the world record marathon time for men and women in five-year age groups. Admittedly, the data is on runners but it is fair to surmise that you could easily replace marathon times with Hour-record performance in cycling, or perhaps even 25-mile time-trial times. However, the data on running is more readily available and the
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message is clear older athletes run slower times than their younger counterparts. Taking a closer look, the decline in performance is fairly gradual up to the age of around 50, at which point things start to drop off more dramatically. We do have to be a little careful with interpreting this data though, and I think its fair to assume the pool of runners completing marathons in the oldest age groups is much smaller. Returning to cycling, the average age of the winner of the Tour de France in its 100-year history is 27.7 years, with the oldest winner being Firmin Lambot who won the 1922 race at the age of 36. There are a handful of professional riders still mixing it in their forties, and perhaps the shining beacon of professional cyclists defying the ageing process is Frenchwoman Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli, who won her 10th French TT title in 2011 at the age of 52, to add to her 15 French road championships. With world titles in road, time trial and track events, and a silver medal in the MTB race to go with four Olympic medals, its hard to imagine a cyclist of the current generation with a longer palmars. However, athletes like this are few and far between, and its fair to say that top-level cyclists reach a peak in physical performance some time between the age of 25 and 35. JOHN PICK At 69, after 25 years off the bike and still at my racing weight of 15 1/2 stone, I got up Alpe dHuez three times this year. Loved every painful minute of it. I have the stupid desire to break evens for a 10.
THE GOOD NEWS

At this point, its perhaps time to draw a distinction between performance decline in athletes who have been training and competing at the top level for many years, and amateur athletes or weekend warriors who maybe came later into the sport or havent trained to their maximum potential. When we talk about a decline in performance in the ageing athlete, what we really mean is a decline in the performance potential. Unless youve been training hard for in excess of five years, the chances are that you will be nowhere near that
NEZIH CAKIR I just turned 61 and still put 150+ miles every week in the Rocky Mountains where climbing a hill is a norm and enjoying it immensely. Age is just a number!
MARK HILL Im riding better, quicker and stronger than Ive ever done. Training more specifically and use a WattBike as part of my training. Just turned 40 and put riders half my age to shame!
TIM LEVER On the basis that I didnt start until I was 48, I can say that I have improved past the age of 40 and I am still improving did my first 100-miler this year in my 50s!
SIMON HATHAWAY I am 51 this year and riding better than ever. I did a 320k enduro last year learning about nutrition and core work really helped me, also goal setting with loads of motivational stickers on the fridge. Having a friend or two on board to help is also important.
limit and theres every chance you can continue to improve well past the age where research dictates you should be slowing down. Additionally, for the amateur athlete, those peak years for performance aged 25-35 years often fall at a time in life when starting a family or developing a career take precedence over the strive for cycling excellence. Many find that the later years offer up more time and the financial freedom to give sporting goals more of the attention they deserve and this can offset any age-related loss of performance. In order to come up with some strategies to minimise the effects of ageing, its useful to understand some of the changes in the different systems of the body that might explain this drop in performance. An exercise physiologist would explain endurance performance by three factors:
Firmin Lambot became the oldest ever Tour de France winner in 1922 aged 36
GRAHAM CROW Loving racing, currently cat 2 and aiming for cat 1 next year. Beating many nearly half my age.
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PAUL FOLEY Turned 45 and have posted PBs this year for 100km and 100 miles. Both of these were by 40 mins improvements. We also need to recognise the kit is better than when we raced in the 1980s and we are more likely to have the disposable cash to buy top of the range of current bikes and kit.
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MARK FAIRHEAD Getting better with age. 10 mile TT PB 2011: 22.59 (47), 2012: 22.50 (48), 2013: 22.30 (49)
1 Aerobic capacity, which is the highest rate of aerobic energy production your body can produce as measured by the infamous VO2max; 2 The fraction of that maximum you can sustain (for example one of the various thresholds you may have heard of) and: 3 Efficiency which dictates how much power you produce for the size of your engine as defined by the first two factors.
Garry Clark still works as a CF model at the age of 52
The ageing athlete
SLOWING THE DECLINE

Research suggests that much of the decline in endurance performance associated with ageing can be attributed to a reduction in that top-end aerobic performance, in other words a decrease in VO2max. Many of you will be familiar with the adage 220 minus your age for calculating max heart rate. While this is of limited value for calculating your individual max heart rate, given we know how many people dont conform to this rule of thumb, it does encapsulate another observation on the ageing athlete: maximum heart rate declines as we age. Additionally, stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped for every contraction of the heart) shows a similar decline. Both of these factors combine to give a reduction in cardiac output as we age, going some way to explaining the drop in VO2max. It has been suggested that VO2max declines by 10 per cent per decade after the age of around 35, but the evidence is contradictory in this regard. One of the main drawbacks to this research is the
600 Men Women Marathon running time in minutes 500
400 300 200 100
50 60 70 80 90 100 Age in years Changes in mens and womens marathon running times with advancing age (from USA track and field world masters athletics) 20 30
40
difficulty in accounting for the training practices of the athletes studied. Many of the studies that claim this 10 per cent per decade reduction are on sedentary individuals. Similarly, there is a wealth of research on high-level athletes who perhaps see a cessation or reduction in training volume at the end of a competitive career. On the other hand, there is a third group of less wellstudied individuals who come to sport later in life, or return after a break. Its clear that the blanket rule of a 10 per cent decline per decade in VO2max is a little simplistic. What is clear from the research is that this decline is minimised, or even removed, in athletes that continue to train as they age.
On the other hand, ageing tends not to have such negative effects on parameters such as lactate threshold, or cycling efficiency. This may go some way to explain the tendency for athletes to migrate to events of longer duration as they get older. As the length of the performance increases, the relative importance of VO2max decreases and the other two factors become far more crucial to success. This raises another point when discussing declining athletic performance. We need to be very careful in drawing a distinction between a 4km track pursuit and a 240km sportive both can be described as endurance events but beyond that the demands are very different!
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Aged 49, Frenchwoman Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli leads the 2008 womens Olympic road race
Perhaps one of the more wellknown changes as we age is a loss of muscle mass, and in particular a reduction in the type-2, or fast-twitch, muscle fibres. Does this explain the reduction in athletic performance with advancing age? While this is perhaps the most well-established physiological change, by digging a little deeper the waters begin to become slightly more murky. Firstly, sprint exercise performance, or events that are more anaerobic in nature (less reliant on oxygen), have been shown to decline at a slower rate than endurance performance. Slightly curious given that you would expect a loss of fast-twitch muscle fibres to affect sprint events to a greater extent! We also run into a similar problem with controlling for training routines in this research,
STEPHEN EAVES I have more endurance these days, but on the flipside some days I really ache.
with the suggestion that this loss of muscle mass is minimal in those that continue to train. So, use it or lose it seems an appropriate motto. While it does seem clear that a reduction in cycling performance as you age is inevitable, a closer look at the research reveals that your training practices can have a significant impact on this process. The key is to acknowledge that things do change with advancing years but that this
STEVE BUTTS Im 62, been time trialling on and off since 1968 and still managed some PBs after 2009, but it hurts a lot more and hills I find really hard work. But I still love cycling.
LEIGH COULSON Only started riding when I was 48. Started off doing six miles at a slow pace. Now 53. Recently did a 63-mile sportive in Northumberland at 17.3 mph average. Have ridden over 100 miles in a day. Have managed to hit 54.1 mph last month (downhill that is). Im doing a 73-mile sportive on Sunday and the gruelling Pennines Etape in WorldMags.net October. Everything aches more but I am as fit as ever.
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READY TO RIDE
What can I do?

HIGH-INTENSITY TRAINING With a reduction in VO2max identified as one of the key reasons behind declining performance, it is vital to include some form of training to maintain this top-end fitness. Interval sessions with work periods of 2-5 minutes in length will provide a training stimulus to protect this all-important area of your physiology. I recommend that masters athletes complete a training session of this type at least once per week throughout the year. STRENGTH TRAINING A second factor we have identified is a potential loss of muscle mass, in particular type-2 fast-twitch muscle fibres, as we age. A weekly (or preferably twice weekly) strength training session will minimise or negate this decline. In a cycling-specific context, spending all your training time on two wheels offers no load-bearing exercise. A loss of bone density is also a risk as you get older, so some training in the weights room at the gym can minimise the chances of developing conditions such as osteoporosis. RECOVERY Speak to any cyclist who has experience of the changes in their cycling as they age and you can almost guarantee that the first thing they mention is the struggle to recover from training and racing. The best advice from athletes who have successfully maintained performance as they age is the need to train smarter rather than harder. This means recognising what the key sessions are for improving or maintaining your fitness and protecting these above all else. While it might have been easy simply to throw more miles into your plan in your youth, theres no place for junk miles or wasted efforts in the training plan of a masters cyclist. CHOOSE YOUR EVENT If your top-end aerobic fitness is declining but your sub-max fitness is more stable as you age, then consider a switch to longer events to give yourself a better chance of competing with the young whippersnappers. Alternatively, veteran racing is more popular than ever, so you can simply choose to level the playing field by only competing within your age group, whatever that is. Sportive and timed-challenge events often include agegraded results, so although your performance may decline in absolute terms, its still possible to improve relative to your peers. BODY COMPOSITION Middle-age spread is something that many experience. It might have been possible to let your hair down in the off-season when you were younger, knowing that you could easily lose the winter weight once the season began in earnest, but over time this becomes more and more difficult. There is, however, no reason not to stay at a healthy weight, it is simply a question of consistency becoming much more important as we age.
The ageing athlete
GOOD NEWS
If you have only started riding in the last five years then regardless of your age your performance levels will still be increasing.
GARY BIDDULPH Im 51 years young tomorrow and still averaging 19mph over a 100mile ride!
simply means a change in training practices is needed, rather than using the passing of another year as an excuse to slow down. In my opinion, much of the research in this area comes from a time when masters athletes were perhaps the exception rather than the norm but with an ageing population and an increase in cycling participation in those aged 30 and above, I fully expect the rule book to be re-written in terms of what is achievable by more mature cyclists.
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Cycle your way to happiness

The physical benefits of cycling are well known, but the mental benefits that can be reaped from cycling tend to gain less attention. Dr Nicola Davies investigates the evidence supporting the mental health benefits of cycling, along with advice on how to harness your emotions to enhance, not hinder, your cycling performance
READY TO RIDE Cycle your way to happiness
e are living in an era in which stress is high and there is little time for moodenhancing activities such as play or relaxation. In a recent survey published by the Mental Health Foundation, it was revealed that 59 per cent of British adults felt their life was more stressful than it had been five years ago. Alarmingly, 47 per cent reported feeling stressed daily and a further 24 per cent every few days. The impact this is having on individuals and the economy has pushed the government to focus its efforts on mental wellbeing, with physical activity emerging at the forefront of subsequent initiatives. Indeed, as publicised by the Mental Health Foundation during Mental Health Awareness Week 2013, there is extensive research demonstrating strong and positive links between physical activity and mental wellbeing. In particular, two mechanisms of benefit have been identified: mood enhancement and a stress buffering effect.
MOOD ENHANCEMENT
Just as our bodies become more active when exercising, so do our minds. In particular, there is a flood of endorphins into the brain during exercise. These are the neurotransmitters that can be credited with the euphoric high you might experience after pedalling your way to the finish line in a cross-country race. In contrast, depression is related to low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, the hormone that contributes to our sense of happiness. Exercise increases concentrations of serotonin by stimulating the sympathetic nervous system, the part of the bodys nervous system responsible for mobilising our fight or flight response. Serotonin also has a two-way relationship with the brain-derived neurotrophic factor
(BDNF), a protein in the brain that of Psychology at Boston University, supports the growth of new neurons. put this down to the similar These new neurons are essential physiological fight or flight reactions for healthy brain functioning and evoked during physical activity and boosting serotonin production. Since when under threat, such as heavy exercise also directly increases perspiration and increased heart rate. They propose that regular exercise BDNF production, the serotoninmight make anxiety-prone people BDNF loop is reinforced, less likely to panic when they which explains some of the experience these symptoms. mood-enhancing effects This was tested on of exercise. Indeed, One in four people experience 60 volunteers with high evidence from a series of mental health issues if you are sensitivity to anxiety who randomised controlled looking for support yourself contact took part in a two-week trials, which are the gold mental health charity MIND at exercise programme. standard for reliability and www.mind.org.uk or Participants demonstrated validity among scientists, 0300 123 3393 significant improvements in has shown exercise to have anxiety sensitivity compared a comparable effect to antito a control group who did not depressants in people with receive the exercise programme. major depression. Exercise in many ways is like STRESS-BUFFERING exposure treatment. People learn to EFFECTS associate the symptoms with safety Several mechanisms have been instead of danger, reasons Smits. suggested to explain how physical CYCLING AND MENTAL activity can reduce the harmful HEALTH effects of stress. The exact effects of cycling on mental health have not been as fully Q Enhances mood investigated. However, research does Q Causes beneficial biochemical show a positive relationship between changes in the brain cycling and mental health. One study Q Influences the release and uptake for the American College of Sports of endorphins Medicine, demonstrated that six Q Increases other positive health weeks of cycling eased stress and behaviours (ie healthier eating) irritability in women diagnosed with Q Higher levels of fitness support an anxiety disorder. more efficient stress regulation (ie Furthermore, Dr John Ratey, lowered blood pressure) professor of psychiatry at Harvard Q Improves self-image Medical School, has even claimed Q Improves cognitive functioning, that cycling is so effective for minimising the effects of anxiety depression that it is like taking a little Q Interrupts negative thoughts bit of Prozac and a little bit of Ritalin. Q Improves sleep Prozac, used to treat depression, Cross-sectional studies, which is a selective-reuptake inhibitor that involve observing the population of delays the reuptake of serotonin, interest at one point in time, have resulting in this happy hormone shown that highly active adults tend staying in the brain for longer. to have lower stress rates compared Cycling might have the same effect, to individuals who are low in activity. according to sports scientists. Jasper Smits, director of the Anxiety Ritalin, the stimulant commonly Research and Treatment Program used to treat attention deficit at Southern Methodist University in hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), with Dallas, and Michael Otto, Professor its key ingredient methylphenidate,
STRESS NATION
Illustrations Sarah Auld
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increases the activity of dopamine and noradrenaline in areas of the brain that play a part in controlling attention and behaviour. These areas, which appear to be underactive in people with ADHD, undergo increased activity when taking Ritalin, which in turn improves mental functioning. There is a growing belief that cycling has the same effect on the brain. Cycling has even been shown to change the structure of the brain, as demonstrated by Dr Jay Alberts, a neuroscientist at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute in Ohio. Dr Alberts rode a tandem across the state with a friend who had Parkinsons disease, to raise awareness of the condition, but they
A cycling enthusiast who runs a mental health trust in Sussex. Here she shares how cycling has helped improve her mental health
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Ive only consciously noticed the impact cycling has had on my well-being in the last 15 or so years. I now realise that I use cycling to lift my mood by getting fresh air and light. Cycling also helps me feel in control. I think it helps me control anxiety because it gives me thinking time but also requires me to concentrate on my breathing and body. I like to use my gears properly and push myself, and I have a love/hate relationship with hills, but I also love to bowl along admiring the scenery. I am cycling 150 or so miles with seven friends in October from Morecambe Bay to somewhere on the East Coast, which will involve a lot of big hills. I will be in training over the summer, which means I can eat healthy food with impunity and thats very, very good for my mental health!
Evidence suggests that not only does cycling benefit the brain, but cycling harder brings even greater rewards
got more than they bargained for when significant improvements were witnessed in the friend. This led Dr Alberts to conduct an experiment, whereby he examined the brains of a small group of individuals with Parkinsons, during an eight-week cycling programme and one month after. All patients improved but, interestingly, the group who were pushed harder showed significant increases in connectivity between areas of grey matter compared to those who went at their own pace. The evidence suggests, therefore, that not only does cycling benefit the brain, but cycling harder brings even greater rewards. during and after the exercise. Cycling, which uses both the mind and body, is likely to impact the brain more than exercises that use only the body. This suggests physical activity that integrates different parts of the brain responsible for such things as coordination and rhythm, as is the case with cycling, offer the greatest benefit to the brain. This is supported by a small German study comprising 115 sports academy students, half of whom took part in cycling and activities involving complex coordinated movements while the rest performed simpler exercises with the same aerobic demands. Both groups performed better in concentration tests, but the cycling group performed significantly better. The benefit of cycling is believed to be due to the uniform, cyclic movement, which might help with psycho-physical regulation and
WHERE CYCLING EXCELS

While physical activity can achieve the same effect as drugs such as Prozac and Ritalin, not all exercise is equal. Whether you choose to cycle or go for a run will determine the degree of enhanced brain function
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physical health as one rather than seeing them as distinct. According to the ABC model, emotions have three basic components: Arousal, Behaviour, and Conscious experience. Emotion is accompanied by physiological arousal, such as increased heart rate or muscle tension. There will also be some behavioural expression in response to the emotion, such as shouting, frowning, or pedalling faster. This leads to a subjective feeling, which is also known as a conscious experience, such as sadness, fear, anger, or joy. Any of these emotions can be helpful, neutral or harmful to your cycling performance and, indeed, all can be helped by cycling. So, how can you use the ABC model to ensure that you gain the emotional benefits of cycling, rather than having your negative feelings exacerbated by poor performance? The answer lies in using your behaviour to manage your arousal levels, which ultimately produces your conscious experience. To achieve this, you need to use both your mind and body to target the arousal. Lets take anxiety as an example. Physiological measures of arousal during anxiety have shown increases in blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, and adrenaline in the blood. Behaviourally, this can lead to panic, avoidance, and aggressive cycling. In order to manipulate this so that your cycling performance is not hindered, you need to intervene and reduce your arousal levels. This can be achieved by: Breathing: Deep abdominal breathing induces the bodys natural relaxation response. Imagery: Imagine yourself calmly riding down a quiet country road. Replacing negative self-talk: Replace negative self-talk with calming thoughts, eg. I am not controlled by my anxiety or My anxiety will pass, as it always does. By reducing your baseline anxiety levels and subsequently your arousal levels, your behavioural response will also change so that you can mount your bike with the aim of improving your mood rather than exacerbating it. By utilising the ABC model of emotion, youre exerting emotional pragmatism managing your emotions in order to obtain the best possible outcome for yourself. At the core of this is recognition of self-control. In other words, even if it doesnt always feel like it, we all have the ability to control our own emotional responses. Emotional pragmatism is part of emotional intelligence and you can use it to: 1) manage your emotions through cycling; and, 2) manage your emotions while cycling.
READY TO RIDE Cycle your way to happiness
reductions in the effects of stress. Indeed, it is this rhythmic motion that can induce what feels close to a state of meditation. Cycling is also useful for emotional well-being in that it helps establish a mental framework for controlled goal setting. Research has shown that goal setting can have significant positive effects on mental health; when we are able to set and achieve our own goals we feel empowered and more emotionally secure. Cycling can also provide you the time and space to examine your thoughts.
THE ABC MODEL OF EMOTION

Despite cycling being a healthy way to manage your emotions, the very emotions you are trying to manage can sometimes act to hinder your performance. For example, research has shown that although general emotional wellness is significantly
improved by cycling for just 90 minutes, cyclists perform much slower after being cognitively and emotionally exhausted for a short period of time. Since cognitive and emotional exhaustion can accompany low mood and high stress, there is the risk of your cycling being negatively affected by your mood, as opposed to your cycling helping your mood. Emotions that evoke adrenaline, such as stress, tension, and worry, are particularly prevalent emotional obstacles to optimal cycling performance. Therefore, in order to gain the emotional benefits of cycling, when a particular emotion is extremely high it might be necessary for you to manipulate that emotion slightly before you get on your bike. This is where the ABC model of emotion can be useful; a model which leans towards a mentalphysical co-dependent solution and attempts to address mental and
Managing your emotions on the bike is the key to cycling happiness
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In this section
RATE YOUR RIDE

Four rides analysed
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Training for health. NHS recommends a minimum of
150 minutes
a week
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Goal setting, however vague, can bring a number of benefits; its

good for motivation, it helps make sure that your training is targeting the areas you want to improve and gives you a clear path to follow as you progress. Goal setting can also help to make sure that you are approaching your cycling in a balanced and healthy way. It creates structure and helps prevent you from under or overdoing it. However, before you even start thinking about setting goals, you need to know what excites you and what you want to achieve,whether that is weight loss, improved health, or sporting performance.
The first 60 minutes after riding is the golden hour for good nutrition
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Perfect post-ride
Dan Henchy of PBscience takes us through one of the important benefits of all the riding data we can collect nowadays the art/science of post-ride analysis
TRAINING
analysis
No amount of technology will ever replace the essential skill to know your body but a considered look at the numbers will reveal if youre hitting the target intensity of the training session. The first step to analysing your ride file begins before you start your session: what is the aim of your workout? If you cant answer this question before you start your ride then youre unlikely to be making the best use of your training time. If youre just riding for the pure pleasure of it, then that is an aim in its own right, but if improved performance is your goal then it might need a bit more What to look for: On paper a pretty simple session, but there are a few things to look at to make sure youre optimising what can be the biggest investment in time and energy of your training programme. Rides to increase base endurance should involve as much time as possible at or just under the LT heart rate / power. The aim is therefore to keep your power in as narrow a range as possible, ie time at target intensity is more important than coming back with a ride average at target intensity. Keep to the mantra of: every pedal stroke on target; up or downhill; into a headwind or with a following wind. Another phrase to remember is keep the strain on the chain. The biggest failing in sessions like this is spending too much time below your target intensity or freewheeling downhill. How much time did you spend with an HR or power within five per cent of your target? After an initial settling down period once you first take up cycling, your heart rate at LT tends to stay the same, even as you get fitter what will happen though is you will be able to increase the power return with a heart rate at LT. You can track this improvement over the weeks of base development. If you dont have a power meter, then a standard loop ridden at your target heart rate should give great feedback. Obviously weather conditions will play a part, but on comparable days there should be a trend for faster average speeds at the same heart rate. Could you train again the next day? For me the most important consideration with base training is consistency. No single session should leave you so tired as to need an extended period of rest. Always leave yourself feeling like you could ride another hour if necessary to protect yourself from digging too deep. What next? Progression is the name of the game for continued improvement. Once you can comfortably manage a ride of two to three hours there are a number of things you can do to provide an additional training stress.
Analysing your rides
ever before have there been so many different ways to record and analyse your ride its rare to spot a bike without some sort of GPS unit or downloadable bike computer. Heart-rate monitors are now standard fare and the rise of the power meter is continuing to gather momentum, as a growing second-hand market and greater competition continues to drive down prices. One benefit of this wealth of data is the ability to monitor and adjust your effort in real time, according to the computer display.
thought. If youre confident and experienced, then this could be a self-written plan. Alternatively, dont forget the pull-out plans by Oli Roberts in this magazine, or if you want something bespoke then seek out the services of your club coach or one of the vast numbers of professional coaches available. Once you know the whys for your training session, it becomes pretty straightforward to understand if youve done a good job or not. What follow are some of the classic training sessions that you might see or include in a training plan and a few tips to help get the most out of your efforts. Go longer! If time is no issue then you can stretch the ride out each week. Aim for an extra 30 minutes on your ride but aim to keep the quality every pedal stroke on target! Ride back-to-back days for a real test of your endurance why not try a long base ride on consecutive days. If you can build up to two four-hour rides on a weekend then thats a clear sign your basic endurance is excellent. Add intensity rather than adding time, try adding blocks of work at a higher intensity. See the sweetspot blocks session that follows for details. Manipulate fuelling 60g of carbohydrate per hour is generally recommended to maintain energy levels on longer rides. Once youre comfortable at this level of fuelling you can promote fat utilisation by playing with your carb intake. Perhaps start the ride fasted, with no breakfast or a protein-based breakfast. Or ride the first hour on just water before beginning your carbohydrate supplementation. This is a much more advanced version of the long ride so speak with a coach or nutritionist before trying anything too drastic!
THE LONG RIDE

Aim: The long, steady base ride is a staple for any endurance cyclist. The repetition of spending an extended period of time in the saddle will build efficiency and the capacity to handle an increased training load (allowing you to complete more of the event-specific work in your final build). The huge energy expenditure can be invaluable in changing or maintaining body composition and, with a little care around nutrition, your long ride can be a powerful stimulus for increased utilisation of fat as a fuel. Session description: Typically between two and six hours in duration at a steady intensity. A steady intensity means at (or just below) your lactate threshold (LT), an intensity that corresponds to the first deepening in your breathing or roughly 65-70% of maximum heart rate or 70% of the best power you can maintain for around an hour. More advanced athletes may include blocks at a higher intensity within a longer ride.
Its not just about counting hours: its about making every minute count
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SWEETSPOT BLOCKS
Aim: riding around at a steady intensity is great for building a fundamental level of endurance but we also want to build the capacity to ride a bit faster! Training at a sweetspot intensity is a very powerful stimulant for improvements in Maximal Lactate Steady State (or FTP or 25-mile TT pace). This intensity is considered a balance point: the intensity is great enough that lactate metabolism is under considerable stress the body is forced to adapt to low blood and muscle pH and improve the shuttle mechanisms that allow lactate to be shifted to other cells more suited to lactate metabolism; yet the intensity is not so great that it significantly limits the volume of training that can be carried out at this intensity. This makes it ideal for bridging between low-intensity base training and high-intensity intervals, or it can be used as a great tool for building endurance in time-crunched athletes or to maintain a level of endurance during a race season. Session description: a sweetspot training session involves riding for prolonged intervals at a comfortably hard (not hardly comfortable!) intensity. For the physiologists this means riding just below the MLSS. Breathing should be deep and fast but still controlled, if you find yourself panting then the effort level is too hard. Heart rate should sit at 80-85 per cent of maximum HR or a power output of 85-90 per cent of best one-hour average. A good starting point is 3 x 10 minute intervals with 5 minutes of steady riding between each. Youve built endurance now its time to add speed... What quantity of carbohydrate did you consume? You should be aiming for around 60g per hour. Were you sufficiently recovered to train on the following day? If not, doublecheck your nutrition or consider whether you need more time building endurance at lower intensities. Progress can be monitored by measuring power output or performing the intervals on a familiar circuit (again with a pinch of salt taken with respect to weather conditions). What next?: 1. Add duration 3 x 10-minute blocks can become 3 x 15, 2 x 20, 3 x 20 or even 4 x 20 minutes for experienced cyclists with excellent endurance. 2. Add variability rather than riding at a steady intensity, try adding some variability to the session. Short efforts above sustainable effort level will flood the body with acidity, lactate and other by-products. When you drop back down to a sweetspot level, your body will be forced to clear these products and build the machinery to better cope with further stress in the future.
What to look for: Were each of your intervals performed at the correct intensity? Did you sustain the correct intensity for the full duration of each interval? Look at your HR profile if it is flat then the chances are you have stayed at the right level. If its rising, it might be that you have just nudged the intensity too high.
Interval training will add speed to your endurance
BIG GEAR SPRINTS
Stronger legs equals increased torque and more power
Aim: cyclists often talk about being strong on the bike or sometimes not having the leg strength to keep up in reality, the forces involved in endurance cycling are pretty small and that feeling is more often simply a case of lacking aerobic conditioning. That said, a little extra top-end power can be useful for punching over small rises or if you have the intention of racing (either against your mates or in organised events), so building the ability to accelerate quickly or sprint for the line is
essential. This can also be a great session for MTB or cross riders to prepare for muddy sections on a course. Peak power means both achieving a lot of torque (ie pushing hard on the pedals) and doing so at a high cadence. Session description: Mainly a zone 2 ride. Within the ride, from low speed (almost stationary), perform 20 x 20sec sprints in your biggest gear. Recover in-between with two minutes easy pedalling.
What to look for: a power meter really lends itself to a thorough analysis of this session. The following are things you might like to look for: Peak power: the highest individual figure during each sprint. What was it and in which sprint did you achieve it? Its rarely the first effort! How much drop-off was there from the beginning of the session to the end? Average power: you can ask the same questions as for peak power but with the average power for the whole 20 seconds. Time to peak power: torque will be highest at the very start of the effort but
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VO2MAX HILL REPEATS
Embrace gravity as a training partner, over and over... Aim: Your aerobic capacity, or VO2max, is the maximum volume of oxygen that can be taken in and used by the body in a minute. Research shows that this is determined by a high cardiac output and a high rate of oxygen extraction at the muscle bed. The focus of this session is on oxygen delivery so aiming to increase the ability to transport large quantities of oxygen to the muscles. This is brought about primarily by increased stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped per contraction). Research work in running has shown that this approach to training (ie breaking down time spent at VO2max into manageable chunks) is one of the most effective ways of improving your top end if you just tried to work at VO2max for as long as you can, you might make only six to eight minutes. In this session, you might reach the progression of 8 x 3 minutes ie 24 minutes, and four times as long at VO2max! Session description: Repeated intervals of three to five minutes in length, with equal recovery. The level of effort is one that you could only sustain for five minutes maximum. HR should be approaching your max HR by the end of the 3 minutes. Similarly this session is a great one to perform on a hill. Choose a climb that takes you roughly three minutes to summit; having both a defined finish point and extra resistance to work against can help you manage a truly maximal effort.
Hill repeats are a surefire way to improve your aerobic capacity
TRAINING Analysing your rides
What to look for: One of the big advantages to performing this session on a hill is the chance for instant feedback. The main resistive force when climbing is gravity (a constant) rather than wind resistance on the flat (variable). Therefore we can use distance covered (or average speed) as a marker for improvement. We would hope to see it taking less time
to reach the top, or on a longer hill travelling further in the same interval duration. Wind can still make a difference, but the effects will be less pronounced than on the flat. What next? 1. More intervals 4 x 3 minutes might be enough to start with, building to 8 x 3 minutes as you adapt and get stronger.
2. Longer intervals 4 x 3 minutes, 4 x 4 minutes, 4 x 5 minutes is another progression, but make sure the duration is not so long that you can no longer get close to maximum. The end result should be more power! If you give a maximum effort each time, progression can come from operating at a higher absolute work rate as you improve.
remember that power is derived from torque and cadence. How long into the effort did you hit your peak power? As you build the strength to develop more torque, the peak power should happen earlier in each sprint. And how does this change as you fatigue? Without a power meter, the same parameters are equally important but you may have to be a little more subjective in your analysis. What next?: This depends on your goal. If the aim of this session was just to develop a bit of cycling-specific leg strength to address a personal weakness,
then perhaps a four-week block is enough to make progress and you can move on to the next priority (perhaps with one shorter session per fortnight as maintenance). If this is the first step in building a devastating finishing sprint, then you may wish to include some sprint work at a higher cadence to develop the ability to use your newfound torque in racespecific scenarios. If youre targeting success in criterium, MTB or cross racing, then gradually reducing the rest interval can turn this into a micro-interval session to prepare for the constant accelerations that typify these types of racing.
I hope its now clear that post-ride analysis is simply a case of assessing whether or not youve hit the aims of the session. There is a huge number of metrics that can aid in your analysis the key is selecting the right ones for your session goal. Total mileage might be a reasonable metric when building an endurance base but perhaps less relevant when VO2max hill repeats are in the plan. Choose carefully what the key parameters are and use these to assess the success of your session and decide whether youre ready to up the ante next time out!
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TRAINING Performance versus health
Performance versus health

Dan Henchy of PBscience asks which is more important to you,
health or performance, and considers the relationship between the riding plans you make and your own personal goals
s a mode of transport, an attempt to lose weight, to win the Tour de France, to spend some time with friends, to improve your health the reasons for riding a bike are many and in reality most cyclists would point to a mixture of the above as their motivation for adopting cycling as part of their life. Before reading further, have a quick think about why you cycle. What follows is a little information to shine a spotlight on whether or not the time you spend cycling matches up with your personal motivations. Recent research has turned the world of health and fitness on its head. Some of the headlines in recent years have suggested that obesity does not necessarily carry negative health risks, a few minutes exercise per week is enough to improve key markers of physical health, long-term endurance training may actually damage the heart as much as protect it and countless other variations on the theme. Its time to look at the research and see how it should affect the choices we make when planning how, when and where we ride. Careful goal setting is widely encouraged as a key to success, but only if you take the time to audit your training practices and ensure your goals and decision-making are in harmony.
TRAINING VOLUME
How many hours a week do you spend on the bike? NHS guidelines suggest a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week or one 75-minute session of vigorous exercise. Admittedly, a minimum suggestion, but a lot of cyclists probably hit this volume of training each day! A popular area for research and making waves in the mainstream media at the moment is the use of relatively tiny volumes of highintensity interval training to get the same benefits as more prolonged traditional endurance exercise. Quite frankly, youd have to have
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been living on Mars not to have seen arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation the headlines promising big fitness and some potentially risky enlarging gains on only a few minutes exercise of the arteries around the heart. As per week! with many diseases of this nature, The basic premise was first chronic inflammation seems the published in 2006 by Martin Gibala most likely cause, so even athletes of McMaster University, who aiming for the top would be wise to showed that five or six 30-second incorporate periods of low-stress all-out sprints induced similar recovery into their plans to triggers for adaptation in minimise the risk. A rest the muscle cells to more day each week and a few prolonged endurance weeks off each year are training. Research in common features of Strength and this area has exploded the training plans of conditioning off the back of this most cyclists, but does sessions are vital landmark study and this research point to whatever type of recently other groups the need for an easy cycling you do have shown that just year every fourth year 10 six-second sprints or so, as a means of are also effective, or even allowing the heart a rest? one short effort is enough to This is all food for thought improve cardiovascular fitness and and an area that is guaranteed to be insulin sensitivity (examples of key a focus of cardiology research in the markers for physical health). With this coming years. evidence in mind, if you spend more Somewhere between these than a few hours a week on the bike extremes lies a happy medium, are you really solely training for the but where exactly on the health benefits? continuum you lie depends on the The other end of the spectrum importance you attach to health has also been in the press recently, and the importance you attach to but in a negative light. There is a performance. Does your training growing body of evidence that volume match up with your reasons suggests prolonged endurance for cycling? exercise over an extended period of INJURY/ILLNESS time significantly increases the risk of MANAGEMENT developing problems with the heart. Remain a cyclist for long enough This is pretty scary stuff! and its rare that you wont pick Before looking closer, it is worth up a sickness bug or some sort of repeating that in most cases the injury. What is your response when negative health consequences of faced with some ill health? An doing no exercise far outweigh the inevitable consequence of striving negative effects of overdoing it. for peak performance is learning The studies in question refer to a to manage, or train through minor small but significant increase in the niggles or illnesses. Simply put, if prevalence of fibrosis of the cardiac we stopped training every time muscle, a greater incidence of heart our bodies werent in perfect shape wed never achieve the consistency that underpins those breakthrough performances. On the other hand, if the aim is to use cycling as a vehicle for improved health and wellbeing, then a few days off every now and then to allow that cold to pass or slight knee pain to subside wont do any harm. If performance is your target then that is not an excuse to ignore injuries any pain should always be diagnosed and treated by a professional therapist but the key is to find ways to avoid missed training. If theres no risk of further damage then you may have to train through the pain.
TOP TIP
ROUTE SELECTION
What are the criteria that dictate where you go when you head out on your bike? If your training plan requires you to perform long, steady efforts, then that might mean abandoning your favourite hilly loop in favour of a flatter course that negates the need to back off in order to safely negotiate fast or technical descents. For cyclists in city centres, this might require the use of the dreaded turbo trainer to ensure you meet your session goals. Yes, thats right, even in summer an indoor trainer session might be necessary if your local terrain does not offer you a chance of completing the session. For the same reason, narrow country lanes might not be ideal for hard, fast riding as the safety concerns of not knowing what is on the other side of the next blind bend hinders the possibility of a truly maximal effort. Peak performance means choosing the best option to get your training session done rather than always
RIDING POSITION
Your position on the bike is a trade-off between comfort and performance. Contrast the aerodynamic tuck of an elite time-trial rider with the more upright position of a rider on a long cycling tour. Do you ride with a long stem slammed right on top of the head tube to be as aero as possible, or is your position geared to create an armchair ride? Both research and experience dictate that you become most efficient in the position that you train in, so make sure to spend as much time as possible in the most appropriate riding stance for your goals. Again, peak performance means making sacrifices to get the biggest gains, which in this context might mean sacrificing some of the comfort of an upright riding position for a more aerodynamic posture. Vice versa, if youre riding with a 140mm stem slammed right down and are only interested in riding for a little extra fitness and weight management, then that is just as good a reason to pay a visit to a bike-fit specialist.
Get your position right for the type of riding you do
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total stress for an individual the idea that we each have a certain amount of stress that can be safely tolerated and this stress comprises everything we experience in our lives; be that work, relationship, financial and training stress. In other words, it is wrong to think that we can compartmentalise stress in different areas of our life. Recent research has supported this, showing that the best adaptation to exercise is achieved by those athletes with the lowest selfreported stress levels at the start of a training plan. Where does cycling fit into your life? Is it a source of stress or stress relief ? How does this relate to your number one reason for cycling?
TRAINING Performance versus health
CROSS-TRAINING
My number one tip for cyclists looking to maximise health and wellbeing is to sacrifice one ride per week in exchange for a strength and conditioning session. This does not necessarily mean the gym. A conditioning programme for a cyclist should aim to strengthen those areas that are missed by cycling, and lengthen those areas that become tight. For example, cyclists are often very quad dominant, so a programme to strengthen the posterior chain (all the muscles that run up the back of the body) can provide balance and improve posture. Similarly, tightness in the front of the hips is a curse of the cyclist due to the time spent folded on the bicycle. Some stretching and mobility work focused on this area can also prevent problems further down the line. Add in some exercises to strengthen the core and that will go a long way to ensure an all-round level of fitness. You might think these problems are of equal importance for the performance cyclist. Youre right! These considerations are just as, if not more important if striving for peak performance. The extra time on the bike means one session isnt enough; tight or weak areas need focus on a regular basis. A small amount of TLC after every ride is important to keep you on the bike, possibly in addition to a couple of standalone conditioning sessions.
WEATHER
Nothing tests the commitment of the budding cyclist more than the range of weather experienced in the UK. With the exception of ice and snow, it is rare to have conditions that prevent outdoor riding. Missing a ride due to rain, or substituting it with a short indoor trainer or gym session, is fine for the health-seeking cyclist but not so if performance is the goal. If you want to get close to your potential you must accept the fact that you will get cold and wet and suffer in the wind. Sure, you can seek refuge on the trainer from the worst of the weather, but what happens when conditions are far from perfect on race day? The dreaded turbo might take care of your physical conditioning but training is also about learning to ride in different conditions, and understanding how your body and the bike react to riding in the wet, for example, is something that comes down to experience in those conditions. riding the most scenic or the most enjoyable route.
NUTRITION
If maximising your potential fitness is your goal when cycling, then your nutritional strategies must be aligned with your training and racing to ensure you get the most out of yourself. Its a popular phrase that you cant out-train a bad diet in other words reaching peak fitness is about getting the training, recovery and nutrition balance right, with an equal focus on each pillar of your performance. For once this is one area where health and performance largely go hand in hand. Many people cycle to give themselves the freedom to eat what they like. The extra calories you burn on your ride are the perfect excuse for an extra slice of cake at the cafe stop and while regular exercise can give you a little more freedom in your diet without the danger of weight gain, optimum health also means minimising unhealthy foods and eating a well balanced diet.
Goal setting is a key to success as long as you audit your training practices and ensure goals and decisionmaking are in harmony
PSYCHOLOGY
Too often the focus when discussing the benefits of cycling is on physical health. Lets not forget that mental health is of equal relevance, and cycling can be invaluable in maintaining your psychological wellbeing. The chance to escape on two wheels can be the perfect opportunity to leave the stresses and strains of everyday life behind and maybe spend some time with friends or enjoying some solitude. On the other hand, training to reach your athletic potential can tip the scales in the other direction and be an additional cause of stress. Ive always been a big believer in the concept of
REGULAR AUDIT
With all those factors in mind, lets revisit that question from the start of the article why do you ride your bike? Perhaps youve noticed a mismatch between your original reason and some of the decisions you might make about your riding choices. Goal setting is just the start of improving your cycling a regular audit to ensure your habits support these goals is crucial. With the current season drawing to a close, perhaps your newfound insight can help you align your riding with your key aims and ensure you get the most out of your time on the bike.
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Recovery is an important element in training and sports

performance. In fact, it could be the difference between success and failure. But how best to recover? Rob Hicks finds out
Cycling Fitness has heard some odd recovery myths over the years, ranging from eating raw tea leaves to doing handstands to ease leg aches. It seems some people will believe and do anything.
REST TO REBUILD
Exercise breaks down the body causing microscopic tearing of muscle fibres. This is known as exercise trauma. During exercise, the body loses nutrients and electrolytes, and muscle glycogen (fuel stored in your muscles and liver) may start to run low. Meanwhile, adrenaline and stress hormones such as cortisol course through the body. To put it bluntly, exercise gives the body a right good kicking after this ordeal, it needs a break. During this break the body repairs itself to come back
heres a lot of fuss made about recovery, and rightly so. It plays a hugely significant role in sports performance, especially in endurance sports like cycling. Ask any professional cyclist for their top tips for improving performance, and theyll emphasise the importance of recovery, guaranteed. But what is recovery? Is it
just a matter of resting your tired legs up on the couch in between tea runs? Is sleep the best way to recover? Nutrition plays a huge role is pigging on carbohydrate-rich food the answer? And what about certain recovery techniques and pieces of kit that can apparently speed up the process? The significance of recovery is starting to be understood. Even so, people still needlessly get it wrong.
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LOW-TECH
Elite athletes try all kinds of weird and wonderful recovery techniques, including warming-down, stretching, massages, and even ice baths and hydrotherapy. But do these methods really work?
TRAINING The art of recovery
WARMING DOWN
Stopping abruptly can cause blood to pool around your muscles, which results in insufficient bloodflow to the brain, causing light-headedness, dizziness and, in the worst cases, fainting. An efficient warm-down will aid in the removal of waste products from muscles, lower the level of adrenaline in the blood, reduce stress, reduce the impact of DOMS and help the heart rate return to its resting state.
STRETCHING
Many cyclists regard stretching as a pre-exercise routine, but there is little evidence to prove its effectiveness. Stretching after cycling may help with recovery, though. Stretching may help relax muscles that have become tight through exercise. Stretching can increase blood-flow to muscles, as well as having a positive impact on the mind it feels good. Spending a quiet 15 minutes stretching helps calm the mind and lower heart rate and stress levels.
MASSAGE
Some studies have indicated that massage yields benefits. One study conducted by researchers from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, studied the cellular effects of exercise and the differences between those who underwent massages after exercise and those who didnt. Results showed that massage therapy reduced exercise-related inflammation and also helped cells recover far quicker. Results did not show that it assisted with the removal of lactic acid.
stronger for the next session. If you dont recover adequately and return to exercise too soon, you could find yourself injured or even sick, so its worth doing it properly.
ICE BATHS
Ice baths have become more popular over the last few years, with many athletes believing this method speeds up the recovery process and reduces muscle pain. Ice baths are thought to constrict blood vessels, flush waste products out of muscle tissue, decrease metabolic activity, and reduce swelling and tissue breakdown. Once out of the bath and into warmer surroundings, bloodflow increases. Some athletes swap between cold and warm water to increase the contrast effect.
PROPER REST
Proper rest is fundamental. Many people believe rest is not doing exercise and, for example, head out to B&Q, buy a BBQ set, spend the rest of the day building it in the back garden, and then wonder why they feel drained afterwards. Proper rest means minimal physical activity. Granted, this isnt always practical. After all, going out riding in the morning followed by a day spent on the sofa may cause a touch of friction between you and your partner. But, if you can, minimise your activity.
RECOVERY IS SO IMPORTANT. ITS AMAZING HOW MANY PEOPLE FORGET THIS. YOUVE GOT TO GIVE YOUR BODY A CHANCE TO RECOVER FROM WHAT YOU HAVE PUT IT THROUGH. EVEN SOME OF THE YOUNGER GUYS ON THE TEAM GET IT WRONG. THEYLL COME BACK FROM A RACE AND, INSTEAD OF RESTING, GO OUT FOR ANOTHER BIG RIDE AND RETURN COOKED. ITS ALL ABOUT COMMON SENSE AND LISTENING TO YOUR BODY
Rapha-Condor-JLT, Kristian House
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The golden hour
The golden hour refers to a window of opportunity during which the body is more receptive to the intake of fuel. Its very important to make the most of this hour. Think of your muscles as a sponge. In the hour immediately after exercise, your muscles are able to soak up more fuel; thereafter, they become steadily less receptive. This is why you see Grand Tour riders eating immediately after a stage race. Sometimes it isnt possible to get real food into your body the moment you finish a race or sportive. You may have a two-hour drive home. Thats why its important to have recovery nutrition to hand once you have finished. A recovery drink is perfect, or even a pint of milk, or yoghurt. This will provide the body with much-needed protein and carbs at a time when the muscles are most receptive before you get home for a proper meal.
[DURING] RECOVERY YOUR BODY ADAPTS AND PROGRESSES. AS WELL AS REST, YOU NEED TO EAT CORRECTLY. WHILE CARBOHYDRATES AND ELECTROLYTES ARE VERY IMPORTANT, IT IS PROTEIN THAT YOUR SYSTEM NEEDS IN ORDER TO HELP BUILD THE MUSCLES BACK UP. THE MINIMUM AMOUNT OF PROTEIN YOU NEED FOR ANY SESSION IS 20G. YOUR NEED OF CARBOHYDRATES IS DEPENDENT ON HOW HARD YOU HAVE TRAINED. THE MORE YOU PUSH, THE MORE FUEL YOU USE, AND THIS NEEDS REPLACING. REST IS ONE THING, BUT WITHOUT REAL FOOD, YOU WONT RECOVER SUFFICIENTLY
SiS nutritionist, Dr James Morton
What advice would you give other cyclists on how to get the most out of their recovery time?
Jamie Walker Remember to eat a balanced post-workout meal Corinne Black Stretching and low-intensity recovery rides Thurstan Johnston Recovery drink, cold bath/ warm bath and a balanced meal. Massage if you can or use a foam roller. I usually have milk before bed too Ryan Scott Compression Chris Devine Stretch and massage Tams Mole Ice bath for 10min, protein shake in the first 15min, good carbs in the golden hour, legs up, good sleep, gentle stretch in the morning Jon Birkett I use recovery products within 30-60min [after training] to provide the right nutrition to aid muscle recovery and refill glycogen stores
Diet is another very important factor. In fact, its crucial. The body needs not only carbohydrates and electrolytes to refuel dwindling energy levels, but adequate protein too. During exercise, the body synthesises less protein the building of muscles and breaks down more protein. Consuming more protein helps reverse this trend of protein breakdown. This means consuming enough carbohydrate to stimulate the release of a significant amount of insulin, as insulin transports carbohydrates and amino acids to the working muscles. This results in an acceleration
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RECOVERY WAS SO IMPORTANT FOR ME, ESPECIALLY WHEN I WAS PUTTING IN SUCH HARD EFFORTS ON THE TRACK. BUT ON WHATEVER LEVEL, IT NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED. NOT TAKING YOUR RECOVERY SERIOUSLY OR NOT DOING IT PROPERLY CAN LEAD TO BIG PROBLEMS SUCH AS SICKNESS AND INJURY, WHICH CAN REALLY SET YOU BACK. THERES A LOT OF TALK ABOUT HOW TO RECOVER, AND IM VERY WARY OF GADGETS AND STUFF LIKE THAT. JUST MAKE SURE YOU GET THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF FOOD IN YOUR SYSTEM AND TRY TO GET AS MUCH REST AS POSSIBLE
Sir Chris Hoy
TRAINING
HIGH-TECH
Along with do-it-yourself techniques, there are some smart pieces of kit designed to aid recovery. Some are useful and effective, while others are overly complex and fail to live up to their promises
The art of recovery
NORMATEC
Developed by rehabilitation physician Dr Laura F Jacobs, NormaTec was designed to help patients with circulatory problems but has since been developed into a useful aid for recovering athletes. By using pulsing technology to externally compress the muscles achieving its effects by means of an action similar to massage inflammation is reduced and waste products removed from the muscles.
COMPRESSION SOCKS
Its a fairly simple idea, which probably accounts for its popularity. By increasing pressure on the muscles, the flow of blood around the body is increased, allowing more oxygen and nutrients to get to where they are needed most. While in theory it makes sense, especially from a health point of view, there is only a small amount of evidence to suggest it really works and improves sporting performance.
COMPEX
Your intelligent training partner can apparently help increase blood flow, stimulate endorphins and eliminate lactic acid. Perfect. According to shopcompex.com the session begins by stimulating the muscles at a low frequency of between nine and 10Hz and decreases until it reaches the very low frequency of 1Hz... which helps [muscles] recover and reduces cramps. As the frequency falls, the pulses automatically increase in amplitude... Get it? No? Join the club.
in carbohydrate resynthesis and turns protein balance positive, helping to repair muscle tissue. A recovery drinks after your ride puts carbs, electrolytes and protein immediately back into your system. In doing so, it provides the perfect stopgap until you get home and are able to eat real food.
FIREFLY
Recover two times faster, reduce DOMS within 24 hours and improves sports performance, so Firefly claims. Worn behind the knee, the firefly device is powered by OnPulse neuromuscular electrostimulation technology (NMES) and is to be used immediately after exercise to increase blood circulation to the muscle of the lower leg. The NMES delivers painless electrical impulses, activating increased blood-flow. And we thought the Compex was complex...
HOT OR COLD?
Other recovery measures include warming-down, stretching, massage or even more extreme procedures such as ice baths and water therapy (the use of cold and hot water alternatively). But whats their purpose and are they effective?
WARM-DOWN FOR ME IS A VERY IMPORTANT PART OF RECOVERY. AFTER CYCLING YOU NEED TO BRING YOUR BODY BACK DOWN TO ITS ORIGINAL STATE. REMEMBER, WHEN YOURE RIDING, YOUR BODY IS GOING THROUGH THE ROOF ON ALL LEVELS YOUR SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM IS IN OVERLOAD. IF YOU SUDDENLY STOP , YOUR BODY WILL CONTINUE TO FIRE. ITS IMPORTANT TO BRING YOUR HEART AND RESPIRATORY RATE BACK DOWN. WARM-DOWN HELPS WITH THIS AND BY GRADUALLY REDUCING THE INTENSITY OF THE EXERCISE HELPS YOUR MUSCLES RELAX AND CLEARS LACTIC ACID Garmin chiropractor, Matt Rabin
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Nutrition
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The night before a race used to be all about the pasta party, but
while its a cycling tradition thats taking a while to die out, pasta is no longer the king of carbs. Our nutritionist Laura Tilt looks at the better options out there. Another food issue being turned on its head in this section is back-pocket riding food instead of prepackaged bars, we get the lowdown on the many real food treats that can keep you full of energy when you are training.
In this section
A ripe banana contains
30g
of carbs
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USING THE 5:2 FASTING DIET

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LOST IN 10 WEEKS
9.9KG
Find out how much you need to eat to ride a 100 miles a day for 3 days
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Plus
Autumn recipes 74
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Pasta does not make you faster

Forget pasta, advises Laura Tilt, as she thinks outside the fusilli box and recommends some smarter carbohydrate strategies to maximise your energy levels on and off the bike
s a cyclist, youve probably heard the carbohydrates are king mantra a dozen times over. But this isnt an excuse to fill yourself with sugary and starchy foods. When it comes to fuelling your rides effectively, not all carbohydrates are equal.
CARB SCIENCE
During endurance and high-intensity cycling, the body relies on glucose (a form of carbohydrate) to fuel the working muscles. At lower intensities, the body burns fat for energy, but glucose still contributes to energy production. As intensity increases, glucose becomes increasingly important because its converted to ATP (adenosine triphosphate, the bodys energy currency) much more efficiently than is protein or fat.
Although storage can be enhanced through exercise, the average adult body is able to store around 500g, or around 2,000kcal of energy. This means that, depending on the intensity of your ride, your carbohydrate stores will be wiped out within two to three hours of hard exercise. Unless this is replaced, you may hit the wall or bonk, terms used to describe the phenomenon of extreme fatigue that sets in when glycogen is completely depleted. In exercise lasting over 60 minutes, low glycogen stores are the
CARB-DEPLETED TRAINING MAY STIMULATE THE USE OF MORE FAT AS FUEL, BUT FOR HIGH-INTENSITY WORK, CARBS REMAIN KING
most common cause of fatigue, and a failure to top up (or replace carbs after your ride) limits your ability to perform well in the saddle. Although there is ongoing interest in the concept of stimulating the body to burn more fat and rely less on carbohydrate by training in a glycogen-depleted state, whether this translates into a performance benefit is unknown. Experts agree that, in terms of high-intensity performance, carbohydrates remain king.
FUEL YOUR RIDE

Glucose is obtained from the digestion of carbohydrate-containing foods such as bread, pasta, rice and potatoes. Once broken down into glucose units, carbohydrate is stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver as an energy reserve. During exercise (and between meals), glycogen is converted back to glucose to provide fuel for the working muscles. Unlike fat, which the body can stockpile in vast quantities, carbohydrate (as glycogen) can be stored in only limited amounts.
your training expenditure in order to maximise performance. So, if you spend most of your day sitting at a desk and your leisure time is more closely aligned with the sofa that the bike, your carbohydrate requirements are lower. Equally, if you ramp up your training a notch, youll need to increase your carbohydrate intake accordingly. As a general guide, experts recommend 5-7g of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight for a moderate training programme (one to three hours a day). This equates to 350g of carbs per day for a 70kg adult, but bear in mind this is significantly reduced on non-training days. During heavy training (several hours a day) as much as 7-12g per kilogram of body weight is recommended. In terms of timing, you need to consider your carbohydrate intake before, during and after training. If youre trying to lose weight, its advisable to consume fewer carbs while riding. On days when training loads are lower, you can drop your carbohydrate intake and focus on filling up with lean protein and plenty of vegetables.
PRE-RIDE
A carbohydrate-containing meal or snack eaten one to two hours before riding will top up glycogen stores and help delay fatigue you can easily incorporate this into your regular meals or snacks. This is a time to eat slow-release, low to moderate
CARB TIMING
If youre riding regularly, your daily carbohydrate intake should match
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HEALTH & NUTRITION Smart carbs
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GI foods (see Be carb smart). For example, you might choose to hit the roads after a decent breakfast of porridge or scrambled eggs on toast, or if youre riding home from work, a banana and yoghurt or muesli bar an hour before you set off will suffice. different rates. The glycaemic index is calculated on a scale of 0-100, with test foods compared to pure glucose, which has a glycaemic index of 100. Carbohydrates that are digested and absorbed rapidly raise blood glucose levels quickly. These are called high glycaemic index and ON BIKE include white bread and cornflakes. Theres no need to take carbohydrate On the opposite end of the scale, on board if your ride is under 60 carbohydrate foods that are broken minutes. There is some research that down and absorbed slowly provide suggests very small amounts taken at a more gradual rise in blood around the 45min mark may provide glucose these are known as a boost via effects on the central low glycaemic index and include nervous system, but this is wholegrain oats and rye bread. relevant only to racing. Research shows that In rides of 60min or opting for low glycaemic more, carbohydrate index carbohydrates ingestion may may benefit sports Steel-cut porridge oats; delay fatigue. performance in a multigrain, granary, seeded, or Current guidelines number of ways. rye bread; oatcakes; dried recommend Because they raise apricots; apples; bananas; consuming 30-60g blood glucose muesli; basmati or brown rice; carbohydrate an levels slowly, lowsweet potato; quinoa; hour energy GI carbs maintain pasta; lentils; beans drinks and gels are carbohydrate convenient, but real availability over a food options such as longer period, which dried fruit and bananas can delay fatigue. are just as effective. A large Conversely, high-GI banana contains 30g of carbohydrate, carbohydrates (including table sugar as does a handful of raisins. and refined cereals) are best avoided because they cause an insulin RECOVERY spike followed by a rapid drop in Once off the bike, refuel with protein blood glucose, which may limit fat and carbohydrate. Aim to consume oxidation and cause an early bonk. about a gram of carbohydrate per Quite simply, you can affect kilo of body weight to maximise the rate at which you supply glycogen replenishment, with 20g of carbohydrate to the working protein to boost muscle repair. muscles by modifying your choice of If youre training again in less carbohydrate, which may translate to than eight hours time (eg using better performance. your commute to and from work In a 2010 study from the as a training session) aim to eat University of Hull, researchers as soon as possible. When you compared the effects of high and have more than 24 hours between low-GI pre-exercise meals on sessions, the timing of your intake cycling performance in a group of is less important, provided the females. Not only did the low-GI overall quantity of carbs ingested meal significantly improve time to is sufficient. exhaustion, the high-GI meal caused Although high-GI, fast-release a large spike and then fall in blood carbohydrates have traditionally glucose levels not seen with the been recommended for recovery, low-GI meal. recent studies suggest these foods HEALTHY CARBS? offer no great advantage over low-GI Low-GI diets may help to regulate recovery meals. energy levels and appetite, so theyre BE CARB-SMART the smart choice for those looking to In the past, dietary guidelines for sport concentrated on the quantity of carbohydrate regardless of the HIGH GI source, which meant sugary drinks and sweets were often par for the course. In recent years, the focus has moved towards carbohydrate quality, as it has been recognised that not all carbohydrates are used by the body in the same way. For example, carbohydrate foods are digested and absorbed at varying rates, which can impact on both performance and recovery. Since the 1980s, a system known as ONE the glycaemic index (GI) has been used to describe how carbohydrate TIME/HOURS foods raise blood sugar (glucose) at
AIM TO CONSUME 30-60G OF CARBS PER HOUR ON RIDES LASTING LONGER THAN 60MIN. A LARGE BANANA CONTAINS 30G
LOW GI
While cycling, fast-release, highGI foods are best
LOW GI
TWO
lose weight, reduce body fat or just avoid the unwanted energy dips that accompany diets high in sugar and refined carbohydrates. In a recent study from Boston Childrens hospital, low-GI diets were rated as more effective for weight loss than the traditionally prescribed low-fat diet. Thanks to the higher fibre content of low-GI carbohydrates, they offer benefits for digestive health, and cardiovascular and type-two diabetes risk. Despite the usefulness of the GI system, its certainly not foolproof. Adding protein, fat or an acid source to a carbohydrate food naturally lowers the GI, as it slows digestion. A Snickers bar has a relatively low GI, as much of its energy comes from fat.
BLOOD GLUCOSE LEVELS
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more rapidly digested so have a higher GI.
YOU SAY
SMART CARBS
HEALTH & NUTRITION
ITS NOT JUST GI...

Being carb-smart doesnt simply come down to GI. If carbohydrate forms a large part of your diet (as it should if youre training regularly and hard), you want it to do more than replace energy; you want to maximise the levels of vitamins, minerals, fibre and antioxidants in the calories you are consuming. Take a slice of white bread other than the carbohydrate, you get very little, since the B vitamins and fibre are removed during the refining process. Swap a white slice for a sweet potato and youll get vitamin C, soluble fibre to stabilise blood sugars plus beta carotene, which has been found to alleviate muscle stiffness in the post-workout period.
WHEN IT COMES TO FUELLING YOUR RIDES EFFECTIVELY, WHAT CARBS DO YOU CHOOSE? A thick slab of Soreen smothered in Nutella. Steve Knight Bananas and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Nata DeHoyos Bananas and toast with loads of Nutella. Dave Marsh Banana, egg, avocado, honey and cinnamon smoothie about 30-45min before. Lee Hine Brown rice, loads of veg and a bit of protein the night before. Coffee with cream and home-made flapjacks with peanut butter and honey for breakfast. Veronique Corney rice over white rice for additional antioxidants, or try quinoa porridge with berries instead of your usual breakfast cereal. Rotating your choice of carbohydrate foods will ensure you get a good mix of micronutrients and may help if youre sensitive to large quantities of wheat and gluten, which can cause gas and bloating. Get creative in the kitchen by coating chicken and fish in quinoa or oats instead of breadcrumbs, use buckwheat flour to make pancakes, add seeds, coconut flakes and goji berries to a base of oats for a healthy breakfast alternative, and try buckwheat or rice noodles instead of the usual pasta type.
Smart carbs
SIMPLE, COMPLEX OR NONSENSE?
In the past, health experts used the terms simple and complex to describe different types of carbohydrate foods. Simple carbohydrate foods are made up of short-chain sugars (including fructose and sucrose), while complex carbohydrate foods are those containing long-chain sugars (such as pasta, flour and potatoes) the idea being that complex carbohydrates were healthy, and simple carbohydrates unhealthy. Although these terms make sense on a molecular basis, they are meaningless from a health perspective, as refined carbohydrates like white bread fall under the umbrella of complex carbohydrates, despite being converted to blood glucose almost as rapidly as sugar and also being a poor provider of fibre, healthy fats and micronutrients. Meanwhile, the carbohydrates in milk (lactose) and fruit (fructose) fall under the category of simple carbohydrates, despite being components of nutritious foods.
MAKING SENSE OF IT ALL

The type of processing also affects the glycaemic index rating of a food. Steel-cut oats are low GI, whereas finely milled oats are SWAP Cornflakes Sports drinks Cereal bars White potato Biscuits Pasta White Rice White flour Ice cream FOR Quinoa porridge with berries Bananas, Trek bars, rice cakes with peanut butter, milk Pressed raw fruit and oat bars or homemade banana flapjacks Sweet potato Popcorn with cinnamon Quinoa Wild rice or red rice Spelt, rye or buckwheat Greek yoghurt blitzed with frozen berries Making smart carbohydrate choices is largely common sense. As a first step, aim to reduce or eliminate the refined and high-sugar options from your diet these include biscuits, cakes, crisps, white bread, white pasta and sugary breakfast cereals and cereal bars. Replace with high-quality carbohydrates, such as starchy root vegetables, wholegrain rice, wholemeal, rye, granary or seeded breads, and steel-cut oats. Instead of opting for pasta, try lesser-used grains such as quinoa, bulgar, teff, buckwheat and barley. Think about the type of carbohydrates you choose at each meal to maximise the nutrient density. Swap white potatoes for sweet potatoes, opt for red and wild
DO IT THE EXPERT WAY

If in doubt, look to the experts. Nigel Mitchell, head nutritionist at Team Sky, recommends regular meals and snacks based on quality carbohydrates during training. A typical day for the team includes porridge oats or a smoothie for breakfast, milk and fruit mid-morning, baked potatoes with a quality protein source at lunchtime, yoghurt, nuts, or flapjacks in the afternoon, and an evening meal of oily fish, basmati rice and vegetables. Remember to use your carbohydrates wisely. Focus your intake around your training and watch portion sizes at other times to avoid excess calories. Reduce your carbohydrate intake on non-training days, when you can consume lean protein and plenty of vegetables.
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&
T
ON THE FAST TRACK
Fast
he scales told a shameful tale. After a low-mileage winter, a late spring and a starring role in Biscuit Tin Revisited, they were topping out at 88kg. I was a porker. Winter weight gain is no stranger, but this was worse than the usual kilo or two. Then we got snow in March and the panic really began to set in. My spot on the Strava leaderboards was stretching into page 10 and beyond. The hills got steeper. Riding mates left me trailing in their wake. And the scales werent shifting a gram. Action had to be taken, and a few more miles just wasnt going to do it. I have never consciously dieted, preferring the commonsense approach of eat less/exercise more. Thats usually meant a seasonal belt-tightening, by one hole, two in a really good year. But reflecting on this policy, the real truth is that the exercise more bit is enjoyable. The Dont be afraid to shift the eat less thing is not such an fast days around to suit amiable companion, so doesnt your other commitments. get as much house room. If you skip a fast day, its This season, though, it had not a disaster, but dont to be different. Two big century make it a habit. sportive rides, each with 3,500m of climbing were coming up, and a trip from Geneva to Milan, via some alarming Alps and disarming Dolomites was in the diary. Id joined a new club and was enjoying the chaingangs apart from getting dropped. That hurt.
HEALTH & NUTRITION Fast to get slim
Fed up with constant calorie counting and the willpower sapping battle against hunger? What if you could limit self-denial to just two days a week and still watch the pounds melt away? Simon Schofield explains how the 5:2 diet helped him lose 10kg in eight weeks while improving his cycling performance
go faster
TOP TIP
So, the habits of a lifetime had to change. I had to Go On A Diet. I couldnt bear the prospect of a fiddly diet that required 24/7 denial, a DVD and a calculator, so the 5:2 diet was the natural choice. It comes in a variety of forms, depending on your selection of guru, but the principle is consistent and super simple: on two days a week, you consume 500 calories on each day, and on the other five you eat normally.
Dont be afraid of a short, easy ride just because youre running on empty
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THE MEAL PLAN
Buy the book, the recipes and the T-shirt if you want. But its not necessary. Hit the web for meal ideas and stick to 500 calories a day, twice a week. This is whats worked for me. Before all meals, thats all two of them, drink a big glass of sparkling water. It was a project, a challenge like vowing to do those intervals on your commute. I visualised the cliff-face plunge of the weight graph in three months time, compared it to the profile of your average Alp and I was away. Resolve was firm. But would it work for a cyclist? First job is to nominate your fast days. Mondays and Wednesdays have worked really well. Monday is a natural choice. Youve probably had a good weekend with some decent mileage, so itsperfect for a rest day. A normal day on Tuesday, including a ride, then Wednesday is Denial Day again. But by breakfast on Thursday, its over. The next fast day seems ages away and already youve completed your weekly target. My experience has been that being busy on the fast days Dont schedule two fast days on the trot. If hungry, drink water, tea or even better, just find something to take your mind off it. is pretty much essential. Its a long gap between breakfast and dinner and you need distraction from the hunger pangs. Bike cleaning and maintenance is a brilliant evening diversion its also a reinforcement of why youre doing it. A clean bike is a fast bike and a fast rider isnt a fat rider. If youre not a home mechanic or you can somehow tolerate a dirty drivetrain! then fill the gaps with some stretches. A stronger core can never be a bad thing. The activity is generally gentle so the slightly weak feeling you will encounter doesnt get in the way. And again, its a virtuous circle. Both things keep you out of the kitchen, which is a good thing, although once embarked on the project, temptation was surprisingly easy to resist. If you find yourself lurking in the presence of a well-stocked fridge, just remember:
BREAKFAST
Two poached eggs and one piece of reduced-calorie toast, with no butter. Big cup of tea, small amount of skimmed milk. Or 30 g (about half a teacup) of porridge oats, a cup of skimmed milk. Add half a grated apple, or half a diced banana, or a few chopped strawberries. Big cup of tea. Or one poached egg. One piece of reduced-calorie toast, no butter. Half a small tin of no-added-sugar beans.
MY EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN THAT BEING BUSY ON THE FAST DAYS IS ESSENTIAL
LUNCH: THERE IS NO LUNCH

Fruit tea is good. Tasty and you can drink litres of it. Black coffee is excellent, but dont overdose or youll be jumpy as well as hungry. Sparkling water kills the pangs temporarily. Find something to do . . .
TOP TIP
DINNER
I usually eat about 8pm, but its closer to 7pm on fast days. The mantra here is a hunk of meat and some salady-stuff. Avoid lots of carbs. Buy steak, or lean pork, or skinless chicken in a pack with its calories on. Allow yourself a portion size thats around 200 250 calories. Use spray oil, not much, if frying. Chinese cabbage, grated carrot, lime juice and a few hazelnuts and a dash of soy sauce makes an incredibly tasty salad. The same goes for mange tout and sesame seeds (about a quarter of a teaspoon). Sweet potato chips (baked not fried) are good in moderation. Non-meat eaters need a hunk of meaty fish or a plate of smoked salmon thats about the same calorie count as the meat, or similar protein-filled veggie equivalent such as seitan. If you cant or wont cook, all the big chains now do ready meals that are leaping on the fast diet bandwagon and youll find plenty of pre-prepared stuff at around 350 calories. Not as tasty, but quick and easy.
NON-FAST DAYS
BREAKFAST
Fresh grapefruit. A big bowl, and I mean big, of home-made muesli. Made up of: oats, crunchy, sunflower seeds, mixed chopped nuts, vine fruits, chopped apricot, desiccated coconut. Tea.
LUNCH
Two bananas is filling. If riding in the evening, an energy bar before clipping in.
DINNER
Kind of anything without being daft. Eat what you normally would. Try to skip the pudding. Enjoy a beer.
Fettle while you fast to keep hunger pangs at bay
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fasting is just one day. Tomorrow is Get on the scales weekly. normal. Resist, resist, resist. It is incredibly motivational. The fast days themselves are a If you want a real lift, do it curious beast. There is no denying at the end of the second fast that at times you will feel hungry. But day. Dont snack between theres also a strange kind of euphoria meals on non-fast days. associated with feeling a little empty. I Its a bad habit have felt lively, alert and generally perky to form. on fast days. So what about the yawning chasm of potential calorie consumption that is the rest of the week? The truth is that I have not compensated for fasting by bingeing. Its partly psychological. Youve worked hard to fast, so undoing it by mainlining a pack of Pringles just seems silly. Its also probably physiological. Five hundred calories is not a feast fit for a king, but its enough. You can function so breakfast after a fast day is certainly enjoyable but its never been double rations all day long. I tried riding one fast day and it was fine. A cheeky 20 miles is enough, though. A full-gas training ride or a long, hard race is probably foolhardy. I could not be happier with the results. Over eight weeks, I have managed to shed 10 kilos. I am noticeably faster, the fires of the cycling obsession have been stoked even hotter and my bikes have never been cleaner. What, exactly, is not to like?
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HEALTH & NUTRITION Fast to get slim
Book worms may choose to binge on the written word
THE TALE OF THE TAPE

They had stayed hidden under the dressing table. I knew it was bad. Weighing in at the start of The Project, the scales were so underused the batteries had gone flat. On Saturday April 13, eyes clenched shut, I stepped on. I gave them the look. Cue the selfloathing: 87.5kg (192lb). One week later: Two successful fast days. Eating sensibly the rest of the time. Weekly mileage: 150. Weight loss: 1.9kg (4.18lb). Off to a flyer. But has he started too hard? One month later: Fasting within the rules. On non-fast days, managed to confine lunch to two bananas most days. Big dinners. Some salty snacks between meals. Monthly mileage since start: 450. Weight loss: 6.1kg (13.33lb). Hes staying with the bunch. Eight weeks in: Fasting now just part of life. Sticking well to routine, with the odd slip-up, like a chocolate pudding after dinner. Monthly mileage up to 500, including a big PB in LEtape du Dales and a first-ever gold medal after six attempts. Weight loss: 9.2 kg (20.28lb). This lad could find himself on the podium. Nine weeks after starting: One mistake doing a fast day after a very big ride. Weak and tired. But routine is now embedded and the Starting weight 87.5kg
scales are my friend. Total weight loss: Around 10kg (22lb). Down to 77.6kg (171lb) Never been lighter. Never felt better. And I am, without a shadow of a doubt, a faster bike rider. Target: I would love to hit 75kg (165lb), at which point I would probably move the fasting to one day a week with a view to maintaining that weight.
Do chart your ride times on online platforms. Seeing improvements is another strong motivating factor. Dont schedule a fast day the day after a gutbusting, eyeballsout effort.
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WEIGHT LOSS
Weight in kg
80
A month later weight 81.4kg
9 weeks later weight 77..6kg
A week later weight 85.6kg
8 weeks later weight 78.3kg
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OCT
NOV
DEC
JAN
FEB
MAR
Starting fat mass 19.7%
APR
MAY
JUNE
JULY
FAT MASS
A month later fat mass 15.7%
8 weeks later fat mass 12.6% 9 weeks later fat mass 12.4%
Fat mass %
15 10
A week later fat mass 17.8%
OCT
NOV
DEC
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUNE
JULY
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Food for sport

You dont have to gorge yourself on cloyingly sweet energy drinks and gunky gels just because youre riding
hard take a leaf out of Dr Allen Lims recipe books and you can power your performance with real food
Republished with permission of VeloPress from Feed Zone Portables. Try more recipes at www.feedzonecookbook.com
r Allen Lim is a sports physiologist who has worked with elite cyclists. Ive worked with very few athletes who could just eat prepackaged food all day when training or competing. They would often complain they just couldnt stomach the bars, blocks and gels given to them, says Lim. For pro cyclists who must eat up to 10,000 calories a day during races this poses a problem. Lim discovered that many of these athletes were packing real-food snacks to take with them training little sandwiches, fresh pastries and even leftover pizza. They turned to real food because they learned it made them feel better. Their experience and feedback inspired me to take the extra time to start cooking for athletes from scratch. Lim, along with Chef Biju Thomas who is known for designing the menus of some of Denver and Boulders most successful restaurants have cooked for Tour de France teams and produced two recipe books: The Feed Zone Cookbook and Feed Zone Portables. Here we feature four easy recipes to try at home.
% GDA (guideline daily amount) Cals 174 8.7% Carbs 15g 5.5% Fat 9g 12% Protein 9g 20% Sodium 292mg 12% Eating eggs for breakfast has been shown to help increase weight loss in those dieting by increasing satiety and reducing number of calories eaten later on in the day so these frittata would make perfect breakfast on the run snacks for busy work day mornings.
Each serving contains
Mushroom & Swiss frittata

How do you like your eggs in the morning? How about combined with
mushrooms, cheese and onion to make a delicious frittata...
YOULL NEED: (SERVES 6)

2 cups sliced mushrooms 1/2 cup diced onion 1/4 cup coarsely chopped parsley 2 cups cooked rice 4 eggs, lightly beaten 1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese 1 teaspoon celery salt 1 tablespoon grated parmesan Dash of salt and pepper
WHAT TO DO:
Heat oven to 175C. In a non-stick saut pan, heat a small amount of olive oil to coat bottom evenly. Over medium-high heat, saut the mushrooms, onion, and parsley until the mushrooms are tender and onions are translucent. Remove from heat and drain any excess oil. Combine the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir in the mushroom and onion mixture. Lightly grease a muffin tin and fill six of the forms 3/4 full. Leave until cool to the touch before wrapping. Store extras in the refrigerator.
COOK & PREP
20
MIN
Bake for 15 minutes or until centres are firm
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HEALTH & NUTRITION
% GDA (guideline daily amount) Cals 249 12.45% Carbs 45g 16.6% Fat 6g 8.5% Protein 4g 8.8% Sodium 194mg 8.08% These little cakes are moist and moreish, perfect treat snacks for long rides or even as an alternative to the afternoon vending machine run. One of the most important aspects for Lim in designing these recipes are that they are moist; when Lim analysed sports food and bars he discovered that real food and prepackaged sports food are similar except in one important way, sports nutrition bars are often very dry where as real food like these cakes contain a lot of water. Bloating and stomach cramps can be caused by an overload of dry product in the stomach and gut as extra water will be needed to be absorbed out of the bloodstream to aid digestion. This slows down the absorption of the energy from the food and can result in digestive discomfort. As Lim explains: Imagine we are making a cake and after adding all of the dry ingredients into a bowl we use only 10 per cent of the water that the recipe requires before baking. What we would have at the end would resemble a brick, not a cake that we would want to serve for dessert or be excited to eat during a long endurance event. As with all the recipes there is emphasis not just on taste but nutrition. Blueberries are powerful antioxidants so useful to the regular exerciser, and coconut milk contains medium chain triglycerides which, unlike other fats, put little strain on the digestive system. Each serving contains
Autumn recipes
COOK & PREP
25
MIN
Blueberry & chocolate coconut rice cakes

Have your cake and eat it with these satisfyingly sticky treats that combine a
clean carb kick with the antioxidant goodness of blueberries

3 cups uncooked sticky rice 4 1/2 cups water 3/4 cup coconut milk 1/4 to 1/2 cup raw sugar to taste Juice of 1 lemon (about 3 tablespoons) 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt, or to taste 6 ounces chocolate chips (half of a regular bag) 1 pint fresh blueberries
WHAT TO DO:
Combine rice, water, and a dash of salt in a rice cooker and let cook. Transfer cooked rice to a large bowl and add coconut milk. Add sugar and lemon juice. Stir thoroughly and salt to taste. Let rice cool then spread half onto a 23cm x 33cm baking pan. Press flat. Sprinkle chocolate chips and berries evenly over the rice. Gently press the remaining rice over the berries and chocolate. Let sit for 5 minutes, cut into squares and wrap.
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% GDA (guideline daily amount) Cals 91 4.5% Carbs 15g 5.5% Fat 3g 4.2% Protein 2g 4.4% Sodium 116mg 4.4% Many professional riders are following gluten-free diets and most team chefs work predominantly to provide glutenfree meals for their teams. Glutenfree diets such as those followed by Team Garmin are designed to reduce the inflammation caused by high loads of exercise as well as reducing the time it takes food to be absorbed by the body. Its certainly not a complicated diet to follow; replacing pasta with quinoa, rice or other whole grains increases the nutrient profile of your meal which is going to be beneficial in ways beyond simply avoiding gluten. If you are really strict it gets complicated to find the hidden gluten in all kinds of sauces and condiments but if you cook from scratch with whole foods then even this is easy to avoid. The one thing most glutenfree athletes miss is a good slice of cake or a cookie but this recipe helps hit that sweet tooth craving by using potato and rice flours to replace wheat flour. A good postride treat to go with your coffee. Each serving contains
COOK & PREP
Gluten-free chocolate chip cookies

Rice and potato flour cookies are a digestion-friendly way to indulge
yourself without the inflammatory kickback of regular sweet treats
25
MIN
Bake for 15 minutes.

1 cup brown rice flour 2 tablespoons potato flour 1 tablespoon brown sugar 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt 1/2 cup almond milk, heated 1 tablespoon coconut oil 1 egg 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips TOP IT OFF 2 tablespoons raw sugar + 1 tablespoon coarse salt
WHAT TO DO:
Heat oven to 175C. Lightly coat a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray or line with parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Heat the milk for 90 seconds in the microwave, or until very hot. Add the coconut oil or butter to the hot milk to melt it (nut butter cookies dont require oil). Quickly whisk in the egg or almond butter and any other wet ingredients. Pour the hot mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients. Stir until thoroughly combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. Set the dough aside to cool for a moment as you prepare the topping. Shape cookies into 12 golf-ball size balls, lightly flatten, and top with a generous pinch of sugar, cinnamon, nuts, or sugar-salt. You will have topping left over.
Let cool and store cookies in an airtight container. Keep the cookies separated or they might stick together.
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HEALTH & NUTRITION
% GDA (guideline daily amount) Cals 112 5.6% Carbs 22g 8.14% Fat 1g 1.4% Protein 3g 6.6% Sodium 289mg 12% Savoury and satisfying, these make a good back-pocket snack for long rides where the sweet goop of gels would be too sickly. Equally they would make a good lunchbox staple as you can cook up a batch and they will keep in the fridge for several days; with a bit of nifty presentation you could even serve them up as a starter at your next dinner party. Polenta is a type of cornmeal which absorbs lots of water during cooking; it can be shaped, baked, fried or eaten as a soft porridge like mush. On its own its not very flavoursome but cooked in vegetable stock and with the addition of cheese, spinach and red pepper it allows the flavours to burst through. Peppers and spinach taste great together and both bring lots of nutrient value to the cake. Red peppers are rich in antioxidants and the minimal cooking involved in this process keeps their nutrient value high. Similarly the spinach is stirred in only once COOK & the pan is removed PREP from the heat so it is wilted rather than cooked, keeping its high levels of iron and MIN vitamin C intact. Both of these foods help fight the inflammation caused by exercise, making them a great choice for snacks and post-ride meals. Each serving contains
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Spinach & red pepper polenta cakes

Savoury snacks are a blessed relief for a palate thats jaded with energy
bars and powders; these cornmeal squares are perfect on and off the bike

6 cups water 2 cups uncooked polenta 2 cubes vegetable bouillon (optional) 2 tablespoons minced red bell pepper 1 cup shredded spinach, loosely packed 1/4 cup crumbled feta (or any crumbly cheese) 2 teaspoons raw sugar 1 teaspoon coarse salt BOUILLON CUBES bring more flavour to rice, polenta, or grits. Look for a high-quality organic brand without extra additives.
WHAT TO DO:
Lightly coat a 20cm square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. On the stovetop, bring water with a dash of salt to a boil and slowly stir in polenta. (If using bouillon, add it now instead of using salt.) Reduce heat and simmer, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Cook for 2030 minutes Stir in the peppers. Cook for 510 minutes longer, or until mixture thickens. Remove from heat. Stir in the spinach and cheese and adjust flavour to taste. Pour mixture into pan and let set for 10-15 minutes to firm up. Mix the raw sugar and coarse salt in a small bowl and sprinkle on top. Cut into squares.
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HEALTH & NUTRITION Multi-day nutrition
MULTI-DAY NUTRITION
Riding over a number of consecutive days can be quite daunting, and takes a fair bit of training in order to just get through it. However, as Rob Hicks discovered, get your nutrition right, it neednt be as scary as you think
it. A couple of times a week on the Wattbike and a few weekend rides I thought was more than enough. However, that was until I decided to click on the forums and Twitter. Within five minutes I could clearly see that I hadnt done enough. Compared to some of the riders, my total training time wouldnt even constitute a warm-up. I started to panic. Another post warned me how this would be a test of human strength and that theres no hiding in the London to Paris. Organisers, Hot Chillee describe the event as three consecutive
efore the summer started I wrote a feature for Cycling Fitness about my training and preparation for the London to Paris ride. The ride itself consisted of cycling 100 miles a day for three days, getting up at 6am, and spending at least seven hours in the saddle. As far as cycling goes, thats more than enough for someone like me, and something that would definitely be challenging. I did a bit of training and preparation for it, but didnt overdo
marathons that will require me to be in peak condition and prepared to be challenged, mentally and physically. This wasnt good, and with only a few days to go, I had to try to find a way to get through this event, regardless of how much of what was being said was hype or bravado. I thought about throwing myself down the stairs or eating uncooked chicken to get out of it, but there must have been an easier way and one that didnt involve me harming myself. Thankfully, I found the answer. Food. Or more specifically, sports nutrition.
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KNOW YOUR LIMITS
Looking at it logically, it makes sense. Providing there is always enough fuel in the tank, and the engine has been trained to cope with the task, then (theoretically, at least) it shouldnt break down. Of course, aches and pains could become an issue but, within reason, these are manageable. Encouragingly, this logic suggested that providing I ensured that I was eating the right foods at the right time, I should make the finish. I wasnt interested in setting a fast time; I just wanted to complete it. The first step apart from finding a nutrition company to provide me with every product under the sun was to plan out what I needed and how much. After a bit of digging and researching through sport science studies on sports fuelling, the majority of research suggested a rough guideline of 60g per hour of carbohydrates, which should be adequate for steady riding. So as long as Im getting more than 60g of carbs an hour into my system Id be fine and perhaps if I wanted to push a little harder I could just take on more? After all, the more coals your pour on the fire, the faster you can go, right? Well no, wrong. Further studies have shown that although you need to take a certain amount of carbohydrates an hour, there is a limit, and if you go past, your performance could drop. According to research, as carb intake rises, performance increases. However, this relationship was only observed up to an intake of 78g per hour. Anything more than that, and performance and health will start to deteriorate. A possible reason for this is due to the body not being able to absorb such a high quantity of carbohydrates, which could result in gastric distress. So at this point, I knew how much I should be ingesting an hour, and what my limit was. Now it was a case of translating that into products. and dont like bars, then so be it. If youre not a fan of either, and would like to get the majority of your fuel from fluid, then that isnt a problem either. The main thing is, you are getting the required intake. Personally, I prefer gels. Theyre quick and easy to consume, and take up very little room in my jersey pockets... and gut. However, sometimes taking on so many gels can have some pretty extreme effects on the stomach, so I was wary not to take on just fluids. So my plan was, two gels, half a bar and quarter-half a bottle of drink an hour. Roughly, this would provide me with around 65g of carbs per hour. At first glance, it doesnt seem like a lot of fluid, and it isnt. Ive never been a big drinker on the bike, which is quite silly, as dehydration can have a big effect on performance. Thats why its a good idea to have an energy drink that has electrolytes in it.
TAKING ON TOO MANY ENERGY GELS CAN HAVE SOME PRETTY EXTREME EFFECTS ON THE STOMACH
Energy gels take up very little room in a jersey pocket
REAL FOOD RULES PART ONE: LAY IT OUT
It may seem a little obsessive, but having three bags laid out, with your energy needs in each one helps massively. Do this while you are packing the rest of your kit and make sure everything is in there. It will save any rushing about or last minute panicking and will give you one less thing to worry about each night and each morning.
ONE DAYS FUEL (SEVEN HOUR RIDE) 10 gels 3 bars 4 energy drinks (sachets). This seems a lot but if you notice, the numbers dont add up. If I were to ride for seven hours taking two gels an hour, I would need 14 gels and so fourth. However, breakfast and lunch are important parts of the day and providing I eat adequately each morning and lunchtime,
GELS, BAR, THE OCCASIONAL DRINK

While it does take a little planning, it really isnt rocket science. To be on the safe side, I was aiming to get in 65g of carbohydrates every hour and I was going to achieve this through a mixture of gels, bars and drink. Each gel released 20g of carbohydrates, each bar 40g and a 500ml energy drink 50g. Its up to you how you want to get the energy in your system. If you have a particular fondness for gels,
Rob had to change his drinking habits to stay the course
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out, my body jumped at the chance at consuming it. Having set times when you should be eating also helps speed up the hours in the saddle as it gives you something to aim for. For example, 20 minutes into each hour, I would eat my first gel; half hour in, I would take two swigs of energy drink; at the 40 minute mark Id eat half a bar and on 55 minutes, I would have my final gel. Youll be amazed at how quickly the time flies.
EXPERT ADVICE
Dr James Morton is the Senior Sports Nutritionist for Science in Sport (SiS). He has led and collaborated in over 40 research papers and publications and is also Senior Lecturer in Exercise Metabolism & Nutrition at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). Outside of your training, nutrition is by far the most important part of your preparation. In fact, even if you have trained perfectly leading up to the event, failure to prepare correctly from a nutritional perspective in the days leading up to the race and on the race day itself can, in many cases, be the most important factor determining your race performance. In the worst instances, poor nutrition despite sound training could even be the difference between completing the race or dropping out mid-way. However, nutrition isnt everything and wont be enough to get you round. A well-fuelled muscle will still not be able to perform at the desired intensity or duration and nutrition can never substitute training. Legendary bodybuilder, Jack LaLanne once said: exercise is king, nutrition is queen, together you have a kingdom. In order to train, recover and perform optimally, we should be serious in paying as much attention to nutrition as we do our training plans. Is training and fitness irrelevant if you dont eat right? Not necessarily so, especially from a health point of view. For example, there are lots of overweight but very fit people whilst there are also many slim but very unfit people. If you are the former you are likely to live a lot longer given that aerobic fitness is a strong predictor of life expectancy. However, from a performance point of view, the correct nutrition ensures that you get the best gains from your training and much of this actually occurs in the recovery period. It is in this time that our muscles begin a process of remodelling such that they will be better conditioned to handle the stress of the next exercise session when it arises. Ensuring a readily available supply of protein, carbohydrate, fluid, vitamins and minerals etc will kick-start this process. Similarly, ensuring appropriate carbohydrate intake to fuel the requirements of the training session also ensures that training intensity and duration is not compromised. So in a nutshell, although training per se is not a waste of time, training plus nutrition will give you the best chance to see performance gains. Training and nutrition should really go hand in hand. What top nutrition advice would you give to a cyclist riding a multi-day event? Given that a multi-day ride will involve lots of fuelling on the bike, then I would say the biggest tip would be to practice your in-race strategy in your training rides. Pick the longest ride of your week and adopt a high carbohydrate diet the day before, consume breakfast before you ride and refine your in-ride fuelling and hydration strategy until it works for you. For example, we often cite the requirement to consume 60g of carbohydrates per hour on event day in the form of SiS drinks, gels, bars etc. However, for many of us who are not used to this amount, leaving this to race day can be disastrous. So all in all, I would definitely say experiment with it during training, keep a diary and refine and practice it. When it comes to race day, your nutrition should be the last thing you need to worry about as you will have done it countless times before in training and you know what works best for you! A lot of people neglect recovery in a multi day event, but really you want to be feeling as good as possible each day. And as the miles increase, if youre not recovering properly, youre likely to be making very hard work for yourself. We suggest having a recovery drink, such as SiS REGO Rapid Recovery, within 30 minutes of finishing. A drink is often the most convenient way of getting the vital ingredients you need: carbohydrate, protein and electrolytes.
HEALTH & NUTRITION
OUT TO LUNCH
Towards the end of each day, tiredness will and did start to creep in but that was mostly due to general fatigue and muscles starting to seize up simply being on a bike for so many hours rather than any nutritional mistakes. At not one point did I start to feel weak, shake, or experience the dreaded bonk. Although there was one occasion and that was on the last day, where I felt like I was struggling. A friendly fellow rider had told me we were only a couple of km away from our lunch destination. Upon hearing that, I eased up and was all set to roll in for a wellearned break. However, the chap had obviously got his distances wrong, and after 20km, there was still no lunch in sight. I had nothing left and could barely turn the pedals. Thankfully we arrived at lunch just before I fell off, but it goes to show just how important it is, not to take your eye of your nutrition no matter how close or far you are away from your destination.
Multi-day nutrition
that should easily see me through that initial first hour in the morning and that one-hour after lunch. Whenever you get a chance to eat real foods you must do it. Real foods are far more rounded than supplements. They contain more minerals and vitamins as well a filling your stomach up with actual stodge rather than gels and sticky bars. It also breaks up the monotony of eating supplements.
REAL FOOD RULES, PART TWO: RECOVER
MINDLESS EATING ISNT ALWAYS A BAD THING...

During the ride itself, it can be easy to forget to eat. If you dont feel hungry, then there are no messages being sent to your brain to rip open a gel or a bar. Its also worth noting, that constantly riding for hours, burning away energy and fuel, results in a different kind of hungriness, and its important you understand what your body is feeling and is telling you. Eating gels, bars and drinking from your bottle is not going to fill you up like a Sunday roast would. But they should satisfy you. Its wise not to feel as if you are running on empty and once this kicks in, you are starting to play catch up. Keep on top of your fuel even when you dont want to. I found it hard at times to make the effort of getting the food out of my pocket and kept saying to myself another 10 minutes. However, what I found was that once I got the gel or bar
Fuelling doesnt stop once you get off the bike. If you think that, then youre going to run into a heck of a lot of problems. While recovery drinks are great (go to the recovery feature page 60 to read all about them) now is the time to get real food inside you. Real food will provide the body with what it so desperately needs and give it a break from all the supplements youve been taking; even helping to soak up some of the excess. Heavy exercise has been known to suppress appetite and it can be quite a problem. In some cases, riders have come in from a heavy ride and havent eaten. They arent getting the protein and carbs they need, which means their body cant recover and it will have a knock-on effect the following day causing extreme fatigue, sickness or even injury. You have to eat. And if you dont feel like it, force yourself. Your body will thank you for it the next day.
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but
You know what you should be doing, says Laura Tilt, but sometimes life gets in the way: or you simply forget that doing things properly makes a real difference to the way you perform and feel
ometimes its easy to slip off the wagon so heres a gentle recap of the nutrition rules that you know you should be following, and why they will really help your cycling. Weve also thrown in a few tips to help you get back on track the easy way.
YOU KNOW
YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD: always eat well before a ride

Why? A badly timed or poorly chosen meal can ruin your performance on the bike. Eat a large meal close to getting on the saddle and youll end up feeling sick and nauseous, as blood flow is directed away from the stomach to the working muscles, which means digestion takes a back seat. Highfat meals take longer to digest so are best avoided, and the same goes for high-sugar and refined foods like cornflakes, sugary cereals and white bread. These can cause a spike in blood glucose that can suppress fat oxidation and result in an early bonk. So why dont you? Busy lifestyles can make it hard even to squeeze in time for a ride, let alone plan and prepare a meal beforehand. You might not feel hungry, especially if your ride time doesnt conveniently fit with a mealtime. You might even think that, as its a short or easy ride, eating properly doesnt matter. No excuses The ideal pre-ride meal is not too heavy, and will combine slow-release carbohydrates with some protein. Good breakfast options include poached or scrambled eggs on toast, a banana and peanut butter sandwich, porridge oats and milk or if your ride is mid-afternoon, a chicken salad sandwich on granary bread or a couscous salad with some chicken eaten at lunch. If your ride doesnt coincide with mealtimes, a banana or couple of handfuls of raisins and some fluid half an hour before you set off will help to top up fuel stores.
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YOU SHOULD
YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD: refuel during training sessions that last over an hour
Why? Prolonged and high-intensity exercise relies on a steady source of glucose to fuel the working muscles, and this becomes increasingly important as the intensity increases. Since your body can only store enough carbohydrate to fuel around two hours of intense riding, failure to consume carbohydrate on longer rides can result in an early bonk. In fact, next to dehydration, glycogen depletion is the most common cause of premature fatigue. So why dont you? Youve simply got out of the habit of taking food and drink on longer rides. Your endurance is better so you dont feel the telltale signs of the bonk very often. In fact, youve been wondering whether it really makes a difference at all. Plus, it takes longer to prepare for your ride, and more often than not you dont have anything on hand to take with you. No excuses In rides of less than an hour you can get away with fluid alone, but for longer training sessions and events, you should aim to consume 30-60 grams of carbohydrate per hour. Whether its solid food or a sports gel or drink is up to you both work equally well, so choose whichever is easiest or best tolerated. Thirty grams of carbohydrate is equivalent to 500ml of an isotonic drink or a single gel. Solid food choices include a large banana, two fig rolls, a Clif, Nutri-Grain or Trek bar or a handful of raisins. Keep several packs of bars and a bag of raisins in your cupboard and there really is no excuse not to have one in your jersey when you need it the most.
HEALTH & NUTRITION You know you should...but
YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD: eat a recovery meal after finishing a session on the bike
Why? The hour or so after you finish a ride provides a unique opportunity so far as recovery is concerned, as your muscles are primed to restock glycogen and repair any damage. This means that nutrients are shuttled into muscles at an increased rate. Teaming protein and carbohydrate in a recovery meal can boost glycogen storage, which can in turn improve subsequent performance if your next session is in less than eight hours. Whether you choose a specific recovery product, a solid meal or just a snack is up to you. The key thing here is timing, so choose something that is easy to prepare and consume. So why dont you? The recovery window is something youve been familiar with for a while, but its not always practical to eat when you finish a ride, particularly if youre arriving at work, or getting home to an empty fridge, which means heading out to the shops before you can prepare and cook anything bye, bye recovery window. No excuses Keep things simple and dont get bogged down in trying to create a three-course meal a decent portion of carbohydrate with around 20 grams of protein will go a long way to meeting recovery goals for most riders. Quick and easy options include a three-egg omelette with salad and bread, a tuna sandwich or oily fish on toast. If youre really short of time or arriving at work where a solid meal isnt an option, a pint of milk and a banana is a convenient choice. Specific recovery products like For Goodness Shakes drinks also provide the recommended ratio of carbohydrate to protein in a ready to drink formula, although a bottle of chocolate milk will also do the trick.
YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD: keep fuelling experiments to training sessions

Why? You wouldnt try out new shoes on the day of a sportive, and the same rule applies to experimenting with new foods. Although you can train your gut to absorb greater quantities of carbohydrate, this takes time, and trying out a new fuelling strategy on race day can result in disaster. Over-consuming carbohydrate can overload the bodys absorptive capacity, which means the excess will end up in the colon, where it can cause digestive discomfort including bloating, gas and stomach cramps. So why dont you? You meant to try out that new glucose/fructose drink during your training sessions but you just never managed to get round to it. Youve been focusing on your training and improving your fitness not worrying about your nutrition, plus using all those products for training as well as events gets expensive. Now the day of the race is here and youve got your hands on the drink, you figure you might as well give it a try, along with anything else you find in your goodie bag. No excuses As a general rule of thumb, make sure you try out any new fuelling strategies for at least a month before an event. Start with using them on shorter distances and then progress to longer rides. You might want to try a combination of solid food and sports drinks, but you need to know at what rate you can stomach gels, drinks or real food and the practicality of doing so. A lot will depend on your body size and absorptive capacity, so dont assume you can tolerate the maximum recommended intake.
MAKE SURE YOU TRY OUT ANY NEW FUELLING STRATEGIES FOR AT LEAST A MONTH BEFORE AN EVENT
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YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD: hydrate on the bike
Why? As temperature increases during exercise, the body releases sweat to reduce heat, which results in a loss of fluid and electrolytes. Fail to replace this and your performance will suffer dehydration is an even bigger, if often less obvious, cause of fatigue than carbohydrate depletion. Even a 1-2 per cent dip in hydration can affect performance, delaying reaction times and increasing how hard your ride feels. Although highly trained riders are good at judging fluid needs, thirst can be a poor indicator of hydration in the less experienced rider. So why dont you? You jump on board your bike after a long day at the office or first thing on a Saturday, and hydration is the last thought on your mind. You have a few cursory swigs of your drinks bottle during your ride, as and when you feel thirsty, but you dont really stop to think about quantity, and you definitely dont assess your hydration levels on your return thats for pro riders, right? No excuses Adopt the rule of regular drink breaks every 15-20 minutes when on the bike, and make a point of starting each ride well hydrated make sure you take some fluid on board in the hour before you ride. Sports drinks are useful in hot weather as they replace salts as well as fluid. Youre more likely to consume a flavoured beverage, so a slug of squash added to your water bottle can encourage you to drink. If you want to work out the numbers, weigh yourself before and after a typical training session youre aiming to minimise loss of body weight to less than two per cent, so if youve lost more than this, youll need to increase your fluid intake on the bike. A less precise but easier way to monitor hydration levels is to keep an eye on your urine it should be plentiful and straw coloured. Dark, strong-smelling or a small quantity of urine means you need to up your fluid intake.
YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD: consume a good diet rather than use supplements
Why? Tempting as it is to think that you can rely on a vitamin pill to right all those dietary wrongs, evidence doesnt support the theory. As well as concerns over habitual use of high-dose supplements (most recently mega doses of vitamin C), recent research suggests that antioxidant supplements may actually disrupt the bodys the natural adaptive process, which is designed to protect against the increase in oxidative stress that comes from training. Synthetic nutrients also act differently in the body compared to those from food, plus regulation of their contents is sketchy at best. So why dont you? Your good intentions have been slipping, but youve managed to quiet your conscience by thinking that a daily multivitamin will top
up anything that youre not getting at meal times. And its a lot easier than making an effort with your diet. No excuses There is no good evidence that supplements reduce mortality in healthy or active individuals, so youre likely wasting your cash. Get back on track by packing as much colour into your diet as possible dark and brightly coloured fruits and vegetables contain the highest levels of antioxidant compounds; aim for one to two portions with each meal. Include plenty of quality proteins (fish, dairy, meat) and carbohydrate (oats, quinoa, brown rice, lentils) and vary your intake to ensure a good range of micronutrients. The two exceptions to the rule for supplements are vitamin D and omega-3. Unless you have regular sun exposure, a daily supplement of vitamin D is advisable, while omega-3 can help regulate inflammation if youre not getting two portions of oily fish a week, consider a capsule.
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YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD: quit the processed foods
Why? Weve more food choice than ever before, but obesity, diabetes and other lifestyle-related conditions are on the up. But its not just body weight the quality of your calories is just as important as the quantity. Although exercise can help to offset some dietary mishaps, this doesnt give you carte blanche to eat whatever you want. Recent studies show an increased association between processed foods and depression, plus diets high in added sugars and junk foods have been linked with higher body fat, increased triglycerides, reduced insulin sensitivity, and even an increased risk of cognitive problems. So why dont you? Eating well takes time and preparation, and its all too easy to rely on the canteen and cereal box for sustenance. Those midafternoon chocolate cravings have been resulting in trips to the vending machine more often than youd like to admit, but you figure the regular riding offsets most of the damage, so while you are getting away with it theres no need to change. No excuses You need to think outside of weight and about your overall health in the long term. This doesnt mean you need to become a raw food-eating caveman, but aiming to make the majority of your diet free from processed foods will go a long way to reducing your risk of chronic disease. If it comes in a packet with a list of ingredients that require a degree in biochemistry to decipher, chances are its not going to do you much good. An occasional cupcake or pint isnt going to ruin you, but try to keep the 80/20 rule in mind, ie, if you can eat healthily 80 per cent of the time, the other 20 you can relax about.
HEALTH & NUTRITION You know you should...but
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In this section
SADDLE CLIMBING
increases wind resistance and power
Page 92
OUT THE
Pilates
Stretch, strengthen and balance for a better riding position
Page 96
HOW TO MOUNT AND
REMOUNT
YOUR BIKE AT SPEED
Page 102
Improving your technique can really boost your

speed and confidence on the bike so its worth investing time in along with your fitness training. Cyclo-cross isnt just about racing round grassy playing fields, many people are now investing in these bikes because they are perfect as all round commuter, road, touring and of course off-road machines. Adventure cross is a new style of sportive, a mixture of on and off-road sections over long distances, as much as 100km, so wildly different from a 60-minute dash around a park. Off-road skills will improve your road bike handling and confidence but above all its a lot of fun!
Plus
Pro performance 110
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IN OR OUT?
In or out of the saddle, that is. Which is the more effective climbing style? Louise Mah goes against her natural instinct to stand up and stays seated, recording the data to find out which is the smarter, faster technique
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little while ago I wrote a feature on how to climb for those who, like me, have a somewhat negative relationship with the uphills. As well as using my own knowledge and experience, I did some digging for trusted, expert opinions on different aspects of climbing. I repeatedly read that its better and more efficient to climb in the saddle on longer ascents, as doing so engages and uses larger muscle groups. But Id always preferred to climb out of the saddle and struggle to maintain power when sitting. Deciding this was possibly down to my lack of climbing ability, I resolved to stay seated on inclines, telling myself it was better and would make me faster. It took a little while of going against the burning desire to stand up on the pedals before I caved, but on doing so I couldnt believe how much easier, faster and stronger I felt. So now Im confused. Am I just imagining it or is it actually better to climb in the saddle? Did I merely feel better climbing out of the saddle? It was time to put it to the test.
to rider. This years winner Chris Froome exhibited an unattractive, elbows-out, in-thesaddle, spinning technique, which seemed to be extremely effective but looked like a lot of hard work. Similarly, 2011 Tour winner Cadel Evans constantly looked to be grinding a big gear as he ascended most of the mountains out of the saddle. Both obviously got the job done as they won a Tour each, but is one of these styles better than the other?
provide the fairest test. It would have areas where, when seated, wed be itching to stand, and vice versa. The climb was a mile long and rose steeply at the end. During the test, I was unable to see any of the data produced, apart from heart rate, so I would not be tempted to try to beat the numbers. Power As previous research has shown, theres an increase in power when you get out of the saddle, so we thought it was important
TECHNIQUE In or out of the saddle?
THE TEST
Previous tests that looked at climbing out on the open roads and compared the efficiency of standing and seated styles restricted participants to certain parameters. We wanted to see how quickly we could ascend the same hill in the saddle, then compare with our out-of-the-saddle effort. We would record the power produced in each case: an uphill time trial, gathering data. The climb We wanted to use a longish climb on which most riders would stay seated for most of the time, but one with some sections of a steeper gradient requiring out-the-saddle climbing. We felt this type of climb would
THE FACTS
While cycling out of the saddle has been scientifically proven to produce more power, it is also known to increase heart rate and oxygen consumption, reducing efficiency. Interestingly, a study in 1996 found that cyclists perceived climbing out of the saddle to be easier, as I did. A more recent study puts this into context by finding that cyclists standing are able to maintain a higher maximum power for longer periods, around 30-40 seconds longer than when seated. This is thought to be the result of biomechanical differences between seated and standing cycling because, when out of the saddle, body mass is farther forward over the cranks, giving more leverage. The problem given by most coaches as regards standing when climbing is that smaller muscle groups, which fatigue quicker, are used, rather than the larger muscle groups, such as the glutes, which are used when seated. Whats more, the upper body is engaged much more when out of the saddle, so the arms and shoulders tire from having to support the body. Despite this, research has found no significant difference in riding time till exhaustion between seated and standing when riding at around 86 per cent of maximal oxygen uptake. As with all tests, there are differing results, some of which may be skewed by mixing the use of static bikes and field tests out on the road. Conducting research in different ways makes it hard to categorically state which is correct. Despite the confusion within scientific research, advice from coaches and top-level riders who have ridden Grand Tours is to climb seated on longer sections but get out of the saddle on short, steep parts of the climb or while covering sudden surges or attacks. Youd expect these guys to know a thing or two about how to get up a hill, but is their advice right for all of us? All you have to do is look at previous Tour de France winners to see how riding styles differ from rider
Cyclists produce more power while climbing standing up, but also expend more energy
Power was measured for each, seated and standing
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SIT, FROOME-DOG, SIT!
TRAINING SESSION
Seated accelerations QWarm up for 15min at zone 2, then do 3min at zone 4 to prepare yourself for the efforts to come. Recover with 5min easy zone 1 and 2 so you are fresh for the first efforts. QFind a hill with a steady but not overly steep gradient of less than 10 per cent. Ride it once at a comfortable zone-2 pace and make a note of the gear used. QStart the climb again in the same gear at a moderate cadence, around 80rpm. While remaining seated, increase your cadence to over 100rpm and hold it for 20sec. Roll back down the hill and repeat up to five times. QOn a long hill, you can do this repeatedly the whole way up. Using the same gear, repeat 20sec of acceleration with a fast cadence and 20sec of slow pedalling till you reach the top. Its a tough session but will get results. Chris Froome demonstrated an apparently devastating seated climbing style at the Tour Chris Froomes distinctive climbing style made a mark on the Tour de France this year. His opponents couldnt match his seated, spinning accelerations, so maybe seated is the way forward. We know Skys attention to marginal gains and the detailed approach of coach Tim Kerrison, so climbing technique is no doubt tried and tested in training. What benefit did Froome gain from his seated accelerations? Staying in the same gear and spinning away from rivals meant he didnt have to worry about mechanical mishaps that often occur when changing into a higher gear while climbing. Its thought that staying seated is also more aerodynamic, so more of the power you produce is used for forward momentum, as you are not trying to overcome wind resistance. Even though you can get more leverage when standing, more power is needed to maintain the same speed, as your torso is acting as a wind break. Training to whip your legs round quickly while in the saddle as Froome did on Ventoux will allow you to accelerate rapidly without the clunky gear shifts or changes in body position which may slow you down. Using low gears and getting your cadence up could help to put the hurt on others both mentally and physically as you climb away from them. Theres nothing worse than watching someone still in the saddle ride away from you if youve got nothing to match it. Just ask Nairo Quintana.
Climbing fast hurts, whatever your style

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to find out if the change in power was significantly higher. We used a PowerTap hub hooked up to a Garmin Edge 500 to measure the power output on both trials, which also measured cadence, speed, time and heart rate. Remember the connection between power, gear ratio and cadence. If you are in a much higher gear but pedalling significantly slower, you will be producing a similar amount of power as you would in a lower gear at a higher cadence. Cadence Often when you stand during a climb, you use a higher gear than if you were seated, so your cadence falls. Its also noted in research that riders cadence usually drops by about 10rpm when climbing due to the increase in gradient. In previous research, riders were given a cadence to ride at. In our test, cadence was self-selected so that we could find out how our pedalling rate naturally changes in and out of the saddle or as the climb gets steeper. Speed It goes without saying that speed decreases as you begin to climb, but by breaking it down and recording speeds on different sections we hope to find out whether there were parts where our position, in or out the saddle, altered our speed. It needs to be remembered that higher power outputs do not always equate to riding faster. Time Time would tell us which position got us to the top quicker. Even so, the fastest time doesnt necessarily equate to the most effective way to climb, as one position may produce a significantly higher heart rate (harder work) for a modest time gain, ie reduced efficiency. Frantic high effort is OK for a one-off hill-climb event but not so good if it is the fifth or sixth climb in a hilly event. HR Heart rate is probably the most important factor we need to test in this experiment. It will reveal how hard we are working; a higher rate indicates the body is working harder to get up the climb. Although HR is not as accurate a measure as gas analysis for working out energy expenditure, it is a reliable basic method. Evaluation All good scientific research acknowledges pitfalls and problems inherent in the test design. While this isnt the most scientifically rigorous research ever conducted, its only fair that we inform you of any discrepancies. The major limitation we encountered was that the subject may have become fatigued over the course of the tests, as all were conducted on the same day. We allowed time between each test to try to ensure full recovery, but repeatedly climbing at full gas is bound to have an accumulative fatiguing effect on the legs. We must also factored in road conditions, which included other riders. Having a rider ahead causes an automatic urge to chase them down; having other people in front may lead to greater exertion. Hopefully this did not occur, since the aim was to pace each effort at the same level of exertion.
TECHNIQUE In or out of the saddle?
THE FINDINGS
After my testing, I have come to the conclusion that neither climbing style, standing or seated, is significantly faster than the other, even on relatively short climbs like the one we used. Climbing out of the saddle was just over two per cent slower than the time for going up in the saddle, with the in-the-saddle test taking five minutes and 32 seconds against the out-of-thesaddle tests five minutes 39 seconds. Over a mountain ascent of an hour, this would, in theory, equate to over a minute gained. However, this doesnt factor-in the reduced efficiency and greater fatigue associated with climbing out of the saddle. After analysing the climbs, it was noticeable that the cadence of the out-of-the-saddle effort was 54rpm, compared to 72rpm seated. The out-of-thesaddle power output was only six watts higher. As predicted, its clear a higher gear was used while out of the saddle the cadence was significantly lower but a similar power output was achieved. Looking at the heart rate, average and maximum, there were no significant differences between the out-of-saddle and seated performances. An average of 171bpm and maximum of 180bpm was recorded when climbing out of the saddle, compared to 168bpm average and 178bpm maximum seated. Similarly, there were no significant differences in power output. In conclusion, taking into account the research and my own experience, neither climbing position is superior to the other. Standing uses a bit more energy and produces only a bit more power. Occasionally standing on longer climbs can give your muscles some respite from working in one way, as it allows them to stretch out and can help relieve discomfort from saddle pressure. That said, dont be afraid of staying out of the saddle for longer if you feel fresh and its not becoming painful. As you become more experienced, you will know which suits you better, and when. Youll work out your own personal riding style. If youre climbing and your body tells you to sit down, its probably time to do so, and vice versa.
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With winter on its way, nows the time to start focusing on fixing any niggling aches and pains, and working on your posture and weaknesses. Lucy Miller explains how, by stretching and strengthening key muscles, you can improve speed, power and performance, while reducing your risk of injuries
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ilates can include deep stretching, core training and strengthening key muscles, such as the stabilising muscles in your glutes and back, and has a long track record when it comes to helping athletes improve their performance and reduce their risk of injuries. Most cyclists know they should be stretching more. Its not all about what you do on the bike but what you do off it too. For example, the recently retired professional Grand Tour rider Levi Leipheimer used Pilates to improve his performance on a bike. He was quoted as saying that he did two one-hour sessions a week in his pre-season build-up, and he found it unbelievably hard, as it uses all these little muscles that you dont realise. Bradley Wiggins has also claimed to be a devotee of Pilates, stating that he uses it to help strengthen his core muscles, because without a solid core you cant transfer power efficiently. It seems that all the professionals are at it so whats the hidden secret behind the exercise method?
WHY PILATES?
In 2005, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) stated that Pilates is a beneficial exercise to enhance flexibility
TenPilates has six studios across London, offering Pilates and muscular fitness and classes for all levels as well hamstrings and tight hip endurance. flexors, which can result in as physio and sports Subsequent research has lower back pain. massage. Visit also shown it can improve Pilates can help to realign tenpilates.com for posture and core stability. It a cyclists spine, while releasing more info wont burn many calories, but tight leg muscles that are pulling it will build leaner muscles instead on the pelvis or the kneecap, says of bulky ones, which will help towards Carruthers. Another key benefit for improving your cycling performance. efficient movement is core stability. If the When cycling, there will be lots of times core is strong, it can stabilise a rocking pelvis, when the muscles are being overloaded, like allowing greater force transmission through on hill climbs or sprints, and if muscles arent to the legs which could otherwise sap your functioning properly, then there is a high energy and put pressure on the lower back chance that eventually you will be hit with an and hips. injury, says Pilates trainer Robert Carruthers PILATES WORKOUT from TenPilates (tenpilates.com). Pilates Carruthers recommends the following helps stretch overloaded muscles like the workout before every cycling session. It will lower back and thighs, while strengthening and isolating weak muscles like the glutes and help activate the muscles, he says. Also, stretching after the ride will help relieve tired the core, which will make you more efficient muscles and boost recovery. on the bike and lower your injury rate. The whole sequence should take you STAND UP STRAIGHT no longer than 25 minutes, and as you do it While cycling makes you fit, many cyclists more often, you will find that your muscles do not consider the postural implications of react quicker, so you dont have to spend so riding a bike. The head position is forward long on getting the form right because your and low, making the lower part of the coordination will be better and muscles will spine (lumbar spine) and shoulders round remember the movements. excessively. The hips and pelvis rotate Take your time to focus on each forwards, which turns off those all-important movement it may be worth booking glute muscles, and the back of the neck also yourself into a session with an instructor to shortens. Most cyclists also have shortened help you master the technique.
TECHNIQUE Pilates
HIP FLEXOR STRETCH

WHY? This stretch will encourage overused hip flexor muscles to relax, which will then allow your glutes to engage properly before a ride, says Carruthers. It will also help to relieve tension as well as lengthen out the hips after they have been put through a long ride in a flexed position. For best results use this exercise after rolling out the hip. HOW Kneeling on the ground, take a large step forward with one foot. Tilt the pelvis, by tucking your tailbone under to flatten the back and engage the glutes, then reach the hand on that same side to the ceiling. Slowly lower your hips towards your front foot until a stretch is felt in the front of the hip.
QUAD STRETCH
HOW MANY? Hold for 20 to 30 seconds on each leg
HOW MANY Hold for 20 to 30 seconds on each leg
WHY? This move is great after your ride because it will encourage the relaxation and lengthening of stressed muscle fibres in your hips and glutes, which will help reduce any muscular pain and DOMS, says Carruthers. Flexibility is important for healthy muscles, allowing for full range of motion and less
stress in those areas, so less chance of an injury. HOW From your hip flexor stretch, reach back with the elevated hand to grab the ankle. Again, tilt the pelvis to engage the core and reduce lower back compression, before lowering your hips forward to the front foot.
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SEATED HIP FLEXION
WHY? This move will help strengthen the hip flexor muscles while encouraging stability through the pelvis, which is important for reducing tension through the lower back, says Carruthers. HOW Start by arching and flattening your lower back, to help HOW MANY? engage the 3-5 on each leg. abdominal Hold for five muscles, seconds and find your neutral spine with your tailbone slightly tucked under. Maintain this position, staying as still as possible. Holding this position, raise one knee two inches into the air for five seconds. Lower, then repeat on the other leg. Keep alternating between legs until you have raised each leg three to five times. As strength starts to develop, increase hold for up to 30 seconds, but reduce the number of repetitions. Sit on a gym ball (or bed, or even a chair) with your legs perpendicular to your hips and your hands on your lower back.
FOAM ROLLING OF THE HIP FLEXOR AND IT BAND

WHY? Your TFL also known as your tensor fasciae latae, a muscle that starts along the outer edge of your hip and attaches down the side of the knee, can pull the kneecap out of alignment if allowed to become too tight, says Carruthers. It can also inhibit glute activation, while becoming uncomfortable on long rides. HOW If excessively tight through the TFL/hip area, start with foam rolling on your hip. Have the foam roller roughly under where your front pocket on a pair of jeans would be, with your arms or forearms on the ground to support your body weight. Place as much weight through the hip as you can bear and roll around on the area until your find a knot. Once youve found it, stop on that area and let the foam roller ease the knot for around 20 seconds. Then carry on. You can also carry on down the side of the leg towards the knee to help release any excess tension pulling on the kneecap. Follow the same protocol as above, but be warned it is going to be painful! So take it steady.
HOW MANY? 60 seconds on each leg
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CLAM
WHY? The muscles targeted by this exercise are important for both knee alignment and supporting the lower back. Many injuries seen in cycling relate to poor knee tracking, an overtight piriformis (the muscle that runs from your lower spine to the top of your thigh bone), or poor support for the lower back structures. Strength in these muscles is essential for reducing the incidence of these injuries. HOW Lay on one side, with your arm lengthened out under the head for support. With your back straight, bend your knees, so they are in front of your body and pull your feet up so that they are under your bottom. You should almost be able to draw a straight line from head to hips to heels. Keeping your heels together, roll your top hip forward until the top knee is two inches in front. Squeeze the floor side of your core (your obliques) to pull your waist off the ground. While holding this position, slowly lift the top knee towards the ceiling, then pause for a few seconds before lowering it back down slowly. As you work through your reps, you should be able to feel a warming sensation in your glutes around where the back-pocket area of a pair of jeans would be.
TECHNIQUE Pilates
HOW MANY? 25 each side
CLAM PROGRESSION NUMBER 1 90-DEGREE LIFT

HOW Bring your top knee forward so its perpendicular to the hip. Then, with your knee at the same height as your hip, and pushing the knee forward into an imaginary wall, lift the knee two inches higher. Pause for a second, then lower again.
CLAM PROGRESSION NUMBER 2 RUNNING MAN

HOW Using a similar set-up to the 90-degree lift, extend and straighten the leg forward, then drag the heel straight back behind you, without bending your knee, until it feels as though the top hip is rolling forward, bend the knee and then return to starting position. Make sure you keep an eye on those hips. They should be still not rolling backwards and forwards. HOW MANY? 20 each side
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SHOULDER BRIDGE
WHY? Maintaining a pelvic tilt in this exercise will encourage the deep glute and core muscles to engage and support the spine, says Carruthers. The progressions offered are ways to gradually challenge both core control, glute strength and the hip stabilising muscles, all of which aid in reducing excess movement through the lower back when on the bike. HOW Lay on your back and bring your feet up towards your bottom so they are hip width apart. Keep your hands relaxed beside your hips. Start by tilting your pelvis, bringing your pelvis bone towards your ribs to engage your abs, as well as the glutes. Roll your hips off the floor, then progress to your mid-back so youre resting between your shoulder blades and making a straight line that runs from your knees to your shoulders. Roll back down starting from shoulders, with your tail bone touching the ground last think of the spine as a string of pearls, moving each segment individually, rather than locked together.
HOW MANY? 20 to 30 times
SHOULDER BRIDGE PROGRESSION NUMBER 1 HEEL RAISES

HOW With your hips elevated, maintain an even hip position, as you lift one heel off the ground. Repeat with the other heel and alternate every five HOW MANY? seconds. 20 each side
SHOULDER BRIDGE PROGRESSION NUMBER 3 SINGLE-LEG LIFTS

HOW With your hips elevated, maintain even hip position while lifting one foot entirely off the ground. Point your toe and bring leg into a table-top, then straighten the leg so its in a horizontal position, and lift over your body until its straight over your chest. Pause for a moment, then return the leg to horizontal.
HOW MANY? 10-15 each side
SHOULDER BRIDGE PROGRESSION NUMBER 2 TOE TOUCHES HOW MANY?
10-15 each side HOW With your hips elevated, maintain an even hip position while lifting one foot entirely off the ground. Point your toe and bring your leg into a table-top position calf horizontal to the ground while keeping a 90-degree bend in the knee. Slowly touch your toe onto the ground, then bring the leg back up to the table-top.
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CYCLING
WHY? This exercise is designed to strengthen the abdominal muscles while mimicking the cycling movement, says Carruthers. HOW Start by laying on your back, with your legs bent HOW LONG? into a table-top position 30 seconds and your fingers linked together behind your head. Extend one leg towards the top edge of the room where the wall and ceiling meet then lower the leg 30cm then return to the table-top position while extending opposite leg away.
TECHNIQUE Pilates
CYCLING PROGRESSION NUMBER 1 FULL RANGE
Curl your head and shoulders off the HOW LONG? ground (think ribs 30 seconds pulling towards hips rather than pulling chin to chest) to increase the intensity of this move. The legs can go in larger movements and in all directions.
SUPERMAN
WHY? This movement will encourage your key cycling muscle groups to fire together, especially the glutes, which help keep the knee aligned, explains Carruthers. Keeping the spine long and strong is important for the strength of the glutes as well as the postural muscles that will help you maintain a strong position on the bike. HOW Starting in split-stance position, bend the front leg and straighten the back leg. Lean forward but lengthen through the back and pinch shoulder blades together. Take the opposite arm to the back leg and reach towards the top edge of the room. Trying to keep the hips still by engaging the stabilisers and abdominal muscles, bring the knee of the back leg towards the body, bringing the hand down to touch the knee, then return to starting position. This is about stability, so keep the body as still as possible and direct the bent knee towards its little toe to encourage quad and glute activation.
To progress this exercise, lean the body further forward, standing with less weight through back leg, but more on the standing leg.
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Cyclo-cross: the winter winner

Cyclo-cross is on the up in the UK. With race organisers hosting showcase events, and new cross sportives
being introduced, Louise Mah looks at the benefits of riding this versatile discipline and the skills needed
n the winter months, hitting the road can be a bit grim and training can become more challenging. So, with motivation dropping, getting involved in cyclo-cross could be just what you need. But what are the benefits of riding cross? Riding off-road in the winter, but on a bike similar to your road bike, really helps improve bike-handling skills, which people joining the sport later often find themselves lacking. Being able to manoeuvre round muddy corners, slide over wet, slippery roots, smash through sand pits, and jump off and on your bike smoothly makes you not only more confident in your own abilities but also in how far you can push your bike. Riding in tough conditions
makes hitting the tarmac seem like a walk in the park when the warmer months come back round. As well as these benefits, its a great way to add variety to your winter and it uses more muscle groups than road cycling alone, including upper body, core and different leg muscles due to running and carrying the bike. Cyclists often neglect such things, but they are important for stability on the bike. Many of the skills are not just useful for cyclo-cross racers either, but for those wanting to go for a hack through the woods too. These skills prepare you for anything the terrain throws at you, whether that be a fallen tree or a steep, rooty descent. The versatility of cross bikes makes for an exciting change to your riding
as it allows you to switch from road to woods to bridlepaths without a second thought to the question of whether you are on the wrong bike. If you want to see whether cyclo-cross is your cup of tea, there are new adventure sportives that take you on tailor-made routes specifically for cross bikes, or if youre interested in racing cross there are many leagues in different areas of the country as well as specific introductory Go-Race events just check out the British Cycling website (britishcycling.org.uk/cyclocross). With adventure cross sportives looking to be the next big thing, and many cyclists investing in cross bikes as their main steed, now is the perfect time to learn your cross skills and get ahead of the game.
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Dismount and shouldering
This is a skill only really found in cross, but being able to get off the bike smoothly is vital, as some terrain is too steep and muddy to cycle over, or there are obstacles to negotiate. Ensure you are holding the top of the bars, as this is the most stable position. Sometimes you need to adjust your speed just before dismounting, so holding the hoods to use the brakes is necessary. However, as you are aiming for a smooth transfer from riding to running, braking is taking away from the speed you begin running at. As you come up to the point where you need to be off the bike, unclip and swing your lead leg over the back wheel. Bring this leg in-between the opposite leg, which is still in the pedal, and the frame of the bike, and stride through as if you were starting to run. Plant this lead leg on the ground while unclipping the opposite leg, then bring it down to follow through and continue running. Once into your running stride, grab the down tube, midway along, with the hand nearest the bike, and lift it up onto your shoulder in one fluid motion. The top tube of the bike should rest in the groove between your neck and shoulder. To hold it in place as you run, hook your arm through the frame and under the down tube, while you hold onto the drop of the bars on the opposite side.
TECHNIQUE Cyclo-cross
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Descending
Coming to a steep downhill when off-road can be nerve racking initially, but try to stay relaxed and go with flow. Keep your brakes covered, which for people with small hands may mean getting on the drops in order to reach them, so you can adjust your speed easily. Bring your weight back slightly as this will prevent you going over the bars on steeper downhills and give greater control for manoeuvring. Look at where you want to go. It may seem obvious but its easy to look at the massive tree you want to avoid, and in doing so youll inevitably drift towards it. Keep your eyes on the terrain ahead to give you time to prepare for it. If you need to control your speed try to use both brakes together, or the back one mainly, as grabbing a handful of front brake could send you over the bars. If you feel the wheels locking and starting to slide, let the brakes go as this will give you more traction so you can regain control.
Bunny hop
This is a cross skill that takes some practice and is not always needed, but when done well it is significantly quicker to bunny hop a log or obstacle than to dismount and run over it. Many think this is because it is faster to ride than run, but you actually bunny hop at running speed. The advantage is gained after this, when you dont have to waste time getting back on the bike. When coming up to the object you wish to bunny hop, it is often best to have your hands on the tops again for stability. Begin by straightening your arms out, and shifting your body weight right back, pushing the bike forwards, pivoting the front wheel upwards, while keeping your pedals level in a horizontal position. Once your front wheel is up, compress your arms and legs, bringing you closer to the bike. Once in the air, push down on your pedals and transfer your body weight forward, bringing your back wheel up in the air. As this occurs, straighten and push down with your arms again to regain contact between the front wheel and the ground do this rapidly if you have two or more obstacles in quick succession.
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Line choice
Often in cyclo-cross there are a few different line options for the same bit of trail. Choosing the right one is important as hitting a root or rut at the wrong angle can bring you to a standstill or cause you to have a bit of a spill, while nailing the right line can send you sailing through a technical section with ease. Looking ahead at the terrain is vital. If youre racing you should always recce the course to give yourself an idea of whats ahead. However, be aware that lines often change as races progress so keep an open mind, think for yourself and dont just follow the rider ahead. As you build up knowledge from riding off-road on a cross bike, youll learn how your bike handles over different terrain and in varying conditions. Sometimes, when dry, a line is easily rideable, yet as soon as it gets wet it becomes treacherous. As your experience and confidence grows, however, you will learn to anticipate this and how to deal with it.
TECHNIQUE Cyclo-cross
Cornering
When riding cross youre often hitting corners at much lower speeds than on the road. This enables you to pedal through some corners, and in doing so youll find greater grip on muddy terrain. Obviously, for sharper or faster turns, which you cannot pedal through, employ the same strategy as you would on the road, keeping your inside pedal up and pushing down through the outside, straightened leg to increase grip. Any adjustment of speed should be done before the corner, as hitting the brakes as you turn will often cause you to slip out. As you hit the apex of the corner, dipping the inside shoulder will help transfer weight through the bike and into the tyres, aiding grip as you turn, and lowering your centre of gravity, which will also give greater manoeuvrability to whip the bike around the corners.
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PRO PERFORMANCE
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Tricks of the Tour

Chris Sidwells searches the 2013 Tour de France for elite
training techniques that can benefit us mere mortals
he Tour de France is massive and its demands huge. The focus and training needed to meet those demands are truly daunting. Youd be forgiven for thinking, What has the Tour de France got to do with the way I train? More than you might think. Tour de France riders arent robots. Their bodies are just like ours, responding in the same training stimuli, governed by the same physical principles. So its worth looking at how Tour riders train, assessing what features we can apply to our own riding.
You need to develop your spinning technique to make this work, though. Sky riders spend time spinning the lowest gear they can keep contact with as fast as they can once a week. It usually produces a bit of a laugh within the ranks, but it ensures their bodies are comfortable with fast spinning.
SPIKED EFFORTS
Team Skys trainer Tim Kerrison spoke about this special interval training, conducted by Chris Froome and their Tour team, in the run-up to the race. Riders would make violent efforts off an already high pace on long climbs, hold the higher pace for a specified time then fall back to the original high pace. What they were trying to do was simulate the demands of attacking in the mountains. By doing so, they trained their bodies to cope more efficiently with the physical processes fuelling the attacks, so they became more resilient and better able to withstand other riders attacks as well as make their own stick. What you can do Team Skys session is very racespecific, but spiked efforts can be incorporated into anyones training. Ideally you need to know your average heart rate or power when you ride at anaerobic threshold, lactate threshold, functional threshold and just threshold. Its the pace you can hold for 30 to 60 minutes, which you can judge by using a heart-rate monitor (HRM) working at 75-80 per cent of your maximum heart rate (MHR). If you havent got an HRM, think of this effort level as between zone 3a and 3b you should be just about able to chat but only in short bursts. If you are already doing threshold training in some form, adapt Team Skys spiked efforts by doing your threshold intervals a little differently. Instead of riding them at a constant pace, start alternating between slightly
SIT DOWN
Chris Froomes fast-pedalling, seated attack on Mont Ventoux raised a few eyebrows because it looked ungainly, but its a technique developed in the name of efficiency. Tall riders like Froome hit a lot of extra wind with their upper bodies when they get out of the saddle, which is one reason he usually stays seated. The other is that standing up is less efficient. The inventor of the Wattbike, Eddie Fletcher, has studied lots of power curves, graphics showing how much power is applied, and where its applied, through each pedal revolution. It gets messy when riders get out of the saddle, he says. It pushes the power curve forwards and your legs can only apply full power later in the curve. It can be improved with training, but it takes hours of climbing out of the saddle to do it, and even then, putting those sorts of hours in only works if you are light. For any man over 70kg or a woman over 60kg, I recommend climbing in the saddle. If the hills where you ride are too steep for that, or you are doing long climbs in Europe, then you need a compact chainset. What you can do Start spinning up hills, seated in a low gear instead trying to blast up out of the saddle in a higher one. It feels counter-intuitive at first, but stick with it. Once you get used to it, it not only saves energy, its faster, too.
Judge your spiked efforts using a heart-rate monitor
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TECHNIQUE Pro performance
Staying seated and spinning fast is the most efficient way to climb
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above threshold and slightly below, holding each for about a minute. Playing with your threshold like this will provide a powerful stimulus for it to rise. Treat such sessions with care. If you do two threshold sessions a week, do only one of them like this. If you do one a week, do this version only on alternate weeks. If you arent doing any threshold training because you dont know your threshold parameters, take steps to establish them, using either power, heart rate or perceived exertion. Numbers put you in control something Alberto Contador has come to realise. ascent of Alpe dHuez on stage 18, when he felt himself running out of fuel. If he had run out, hed have bonked or, put more scientifically, become hypoglycemic. Thats when your body runs out of the glucose fuel it needs when working hard. Its forced to switch to burning fats instead, but fuelling with fats alone would have meant Froome slowing down a lot. He would have lost time, possibly enough to lose the Tour had Richie Porte not gone back to the Sky team car and fetched sugary fuel for an instant energy hit. They were both given a 20-second time penalty for taking food from the team car when it wasnt allowed, but that was nothing compared to what Froome could have lost. What you can do Fuel your rides. You need to fuel during any ride that is hard and lasts more than an hour. Tour de France riders slip an energy gel inside the leg of their skinsuits even for time trials of under one hour. Start eating at one hour and continue little and often after that. Take two bottles on longer rides, one with water, the other with an energy drink. For hard rides of longer than two hours, also take energy gels, cakes, energy drinks, confectionary or energy bars. These take care of your on-thebike energy needs, but there are training techniques that teach your body to use a greater proportion of fats as fuel. Fat stores are far greater than sugar stores in terms of the duration of exercise they can fuel. Burning more fat conserves your precious sugary fuel store. The simplest technique is the prebreakfast ride. Get up, drink a glass of water and head out for an hour of moderate-effort riding. After two or three of these rides within a 10-day block, your body will burn a higher proportion of fats to sugar for the next few weeks, after which you can do a further three pre-breakfast rides again to rekindle the adaptation.
TRAINING TO RACE
Shortly after Contador stopped reeling from being comprehensively beaten by Chris Froome in the 2013 Tour, Alberto Contador made a promise. He promised not to use races for training in 2014, because races dont put him in control of the effort he makes. Instead, hes going to train and use races like Team Sky do. He added, ominously: Beating Chris Froome has become my new inspiration. Team Skys approach to the Grand Tours has been to simulate the races demands in training, prescribing doses of effort at certain power outputs to replicate what happens in the stages. Numbers put them in control, so they can build form for exactly when its needed. In races, riders arent in control of the efforts they make, no matter how carefully they ride, so using races isnt the most exact way to prepare. Sky riders race in the run-up to target events, but not for training. Instead its to keep race reflexes ticking over and assess their performance. They use the data gained during a race to determine the next block of training. Thats how Alberto Contador says hell prepare in future, rather than the more traditional way he has used in the past. What you can do. Use numbers in your training and work with a coach, fitness instructor or personal trainer to measure your training in specific doses. Thats the way to ensure solid progress and maximise return for the effort, time and expense you put in.
Work with a coach or personal trainer to measure your training numbers
DONT FORGET TO FUEL

Even the best preparation can be undermined by forgetting the basics. A car wont go without fuel; neither will you, and neither did Chris Froome. All his careful training and planning nearly came unstuck on the second leg of the historic double
Richie Porte kept Froome topped up with sugary fuel. Sweet
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ON WorldMags.net SALE NOV 27
Contacts
Our models are wearing a selection of clothing from the following suppliers autumn ranges. If anything has caught your eye youll be able to get your hands on it through these contact details.
Clothing contacts
Specialized www.specialized.com Endura www.endura.co.uk +44 (0)1506 497 749 Northwave Jim Walker Ltd www.i-ride.co.uk Campagnolo Jim Walker Ltd www.i-ride.co.uk Pearl Izumi www.pearlizumi.com Shimano Madison www.madison.co.uk Polar www.polarelectro. co.uk Oakley www.oakley.com Mavic www.mavic.com Skins www.skins.net Assos www.yellow-limited. com Sugoi www.sugoi.com Rapha www.rapha.cc Cannondale www.cannondale. com Howies www.howies.co.uk Yew www.yewclothing. com Prendas Ciclismo www.prendas.co.uk Shutt www.shuttvr.com Dhb www.wiggle.com Hackney GT shop.hackneygt.com Btwin www.decathlon.co.uk Sportful www.c3products.com Cafe du cycliste www.cafeducycliste. com
GET STRONG AND FAST

UNDERCOVER TACTICS
AVOID WINTER WEIGHT GAIN 3 NEW TRAINING PLANS HOW TO RECOVER OVERNIGHT
Altura www.altura.eu.com
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CyclingFitness Autumn2013

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Autumn training guide

THREE NEW 12-WEEK PLANS

FAT BURNING SECRETS WHATS YOUR ZONE?

IS IT TIME TO MOT YOUR BODY?

FASTER FUEL Real food

PLUS Smart carbs, Pilates, cyclo-cross & easier climbing

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to the Autumn edition of Cycling Fitness

41 Improving with age 46 Harness your emotions

WHATS ON THE COVER?

Why cycling is good for your head as well as your heart

Full body MOT

Should you have a health check or can you do it yourself?

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Be part of the bigger bike picture

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Red card for red wine

SIS REGO NIGHT

EXERCISE COULD BE GOOD FOR YOUR TENDONS

Bike clothing from across the Channel

10 CYCLING FITNESS www.cyclingweekly.co.uk

New biosensor could help avoid the bonk

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Enter the world of interval training

Minimum tech, maximum gains

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How to use them

How hard is Hard?

MEN: 214 (0.8 x age) WOMEN: 209 (0.9 x age)

Functional Threshold training zones

Working from feel

Max Heart Rate training zones

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Working at the weekend

If your weekday life leaves little time for training, our

THIS IS THE PLAN FOR YOU IF

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THIS TRY in t block on Sa

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Getting to grips with intervals

THIS IS THE PLAN FOR YOU IF

Critical power repeats

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1hr (Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm)

2hr (Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm)

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2hr (Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm)

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2hr (Ride at the top of Z2 at 90-95rpm)

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THIS IS THE PLAN FOR YOU IF

You cant be doing with all that technical malarkey

WorldMags.net FURTHER PLAN

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