Words to Grow Old By

"When you're motivated age doesn't count"

- Sven Nys

http://www.behindthebarriers.tv/cross-talk/shimano-presents-cross-talk-with-sven-nys-part-i/

Embrace the Pain

This past weekend my friend and teammate Matt S ran the Las Vegas Marathon.  His first.  A few days before the race Matt texted me that he was suffering from a calf injury and was questioning his prospects of finishing (he said for sure that he would start – I didn’t tell him that once you start you pretty much have to finish as there isn’t a sag wagon picking up

Darryl showing a good suffer face

stragglers). 

In his race report Matt noted how I told him to “embrace the pain,” which is true; reading it third hand makes my comment sound kind of cliché or flippant.  I really did mean embrace the pain.  Don’t whine, don’t complain “why me,” instead accept the pain as part of what real living feels like, accept it and move on.
At no other time in human history have so many been allowed such a pain free life.  Physical pain slash suffering is part of being a human on this Earth.  Accept it at face value and move ahead.

I was riding my bike last winter, it was probably around thirty five degrees and raining when a gal pulled alongside in her Escalade.  I noticed the she was wearing a t-shirt.  At what other time in human history could a person travel twenty miles in near freezing rain wearing nothing but a cotton t-shirt.  The window is pretty small.  Nobody ever found enlightenment in an Escalade.

For me pushing myself to physical exhaustion is a way of feeling alive.  A way to know that I’m not sleepwalking through my brief time on this planet.  When you look at it this way physical challenge is something to be sought out, and once found appreciated.  Cherish the suffering for this is when you feel alive.

Rest

Several years ago I read an article penned by a pro Ironman competitor in which she described a typical week in the life of a pro endurance athlete.  In a word her life was boring.  She really only did four things: train, eat, meet sponsorship obligations and rest.  Far and away the biggest part of her day was spent resting.  It’s easy to think that pro athletes train all the time, a more accurate way to see it is that they train a lot but they rest even more.

The way we humans increase our aerobic fitness and muscular strength is to first tear

Be like Jens and put your dogs up

ourselves down (via training) and then to build ourselves back up into a slightly stronger state (via rest).  With this in mind it’s easy to see the importance of an effective rest regimen.  Unfortunately the vast majority of us focus too much attention on the training (tear down) aspect and too little on the recovery (build up) portion.

The human body has an amazing ability to adapt to a rigorous lifestyle PROVIDED that you give it ample opportunity to recover from a hard effort.  This became very clear to me over the course of a number of multi-week mountaineering expeditions.  A mountaineering expedition basically consists of three things: climbing, eating and lying in a tent.  Acclimatization and bad weather prohibit climbing every day and so eating and lying in a tent are how one spends the majority of an expedition.  No matter how fit I was coming into the expedition the first two or three days always proved tough, I never failed to wonder if I was up for the challenge, but by day four I typically had hit my stride and was able to routinely do what only days before had either been impossible or extremely arduous.  With enough rest my body was able to quickly adapt to the rigors of a mountaineering expedition.

When it comes to working out your training schedule for the upcoming season be thinking about how to incorporate rest into your regimen.  Working out a way to consistently get a good night’s sleep and taking one day off a week are two good ways to start.

And You Thought It Was Cold Here

Our former teammate Courtney McFadden is tearing up the pro Cyclocross circuit this year.  She's been in the hunt in every major race this season and finally she hit the top step yesterday at Jingle Cross held at my old stomping grounds of Iowa City, Iowa.  Actually I'm a third generation Iowa State Cyclone and Iowa City is the turf of the University of Iowa Schmuckeyes, so actually the place sucks, but it's still Iowa and I'm an Iowan - kind of.  Anyway I digress.

Courtney finished on the podium Friday, Saturday and then won on Sunday.  She beat two sport Olympian Katerina Nash who wears number one on her jersey for good reason.  Nash has a killer last lap and Courtney led her out - a gutsy move that paid off.

Courtney leading out Katerina en route to a win

Everyone mark your calendars for the UCI (i.e. pros will be in attendance) races that will he held December 6th and 7th.  The Dec 6th race will be held at the Marymont Event Center in Tacoma and the Dec 7th race is at good old Fort Steilacoom State Park.  Even if you don't plan to race come down to see the pro women and pro men race.  It is definitely something to see.  In my opinion the NW has some of the best and deepest cross racing in the country but we always seem to get overshadowed by the East Coast scene.  Let's show them East Coast snobs what we can do.

The Day Before

Over the course of the past few Cyclocross seasons I've been experimenting with what type of day prior workout works best.  I've had some good races following big (60-80) mile hard team rides, but examining the entire data set I'm going to have to conclude that those results were anomalies.  In my opinion the best thing to do the day before a super hard effort race (such as Cyclocross) is to go for an early morning 30-40 mile ride at a stiff but not insane pace (around 20mph).  After the ride stretch out and then put your dogs up as best you can.
Leave a comment regarding your day before regimen.

Lloyd on Weights

Lloyd L. wrote a good comment regarding weight training and so I thought I'd include it as a separate post.  One thing that's got me curious is plyometrics (talked to Michael P about it last weekend and now Lloyd is mentioning it).


Sometimes riding solo works

In order to win races you either have to ride away or be able to sprint.  Eventually the riding away
tactic will become less and less effective as you'll be moving up through the categories and the other riders/teams will be less willing to just let you ride off into the sunset.  So really winning on the road means sprinting and a big part of sprinting is explosive power - get ten feet of space between you and the competition.  I'm thinking that this plyometrics thing might be the ticket.  Curious to see if anyone knows anything about this technique.

And now Lloyd:


My personal thoughts… Friel's Cycling Training Bible is a great place to start. He spells out what types of workouts to do and when to do them -- in relation to your training and racing schedule. Some of his information is, in my opinion, a bit dated in regards to the actual exercises but the scheduling and basics are spot excellent. I've been working with physical trainer's (PT's) this past two years and it has helped enormously. Some of the latest teachings include involving your core in all exercises as well as the importance for balancing your strength.
For instance, if you're going to improve the strength of your quads, ensuring your hamstrings and core properly offset the pressure will reduce your chances of injury as well as improve your overall quad strength. One way to do this is with deadlifts and squats. Historically I had awful form and as a result was prone to injury. For me, having a PT guide me on these exercises is paramount. I also avoid most machines because they isolate a given muscle-group without paying credence to the overall balance.
Another example is chest press; Instead of using a typical bench, I do them with dumbbells while positioning my shoulders on a large inflated exercise ball. I do this while keeping my back straight and horizontal to the floor with my lower leg perpendicular to the floor and my feel about shoulder's width. To keep my balance and the exercise smooth, I have to keep my core engaged the whole time. Additionally, as is generally the case, doing exercises like above actually require lower weights and lessen the chance of injury.
One area where Friel is rightly tentative is plyometrics which can include explosive high-impact maneouvers. As the description suggests, they can lead to injury if not done thoughtfully. However, with careful preparation, plyometric exercises are excellent for building explosive muscle response (think spring). As part of my Anatomical Adaptation phase (Friel specified phase which prepares the body for more serious weight training), The PT had me start with drops off a 1ft box, landing on my toes and holding for 2sec before resetting and jumping up to a higher box. The exercises seemed trivial and wanting in value but it is a necessary foundation for later exercises. Another preparation callout is building lateral knee strength which is something cyclists are generally very weak at.
I didn't even touch on the seeming mundane and sometimes crazy looking warm-up exercises the PT has me do before we even start on the real workout for the day. Bottom line, I highly recommend getting a Personal Trainer if only for a month or two so that you can learn proper form and technique.

Clogged Cogs

Two tired horses

This past Sunday at the Woodland Park CX (MFG#6) my cog-set got so clogged with pasty mud that I ended up riding the final three laps in one of only two available gears.  The muck had become so packed in between my cogs that by the end of the race the teeth on my lower eight gears were barely even visible.  My friend Doug D. told me that he had the same problem and that Russell S. had advised him to switch to a lower quality cog set as a cheaper rear end is less likely to clog.

I’ll try to investigate this further but leave a comment if you’ve encountered and have successfully dealt with mud-packed cogs.

Smile When You Do That

So this weekend our own Matt S. is off to Vegas for his first marathon.  Last week he and I were talking about what to expect; I told him that the last six miles were probably going to hurt and that he should smile the entire time.

The smiling advice comes from one of the hardest women in modern athletic history - Natasha Badman.  Once an overweight depressed single mom, Badman turned her life around and became a five-time Ironman world champion, and she did it all with this huge smile on her face.  She said that she smiled because she was so thankful for simply being healthy and fit enough to even be in the race let alone win it - five times.

During long grueling events it's easy to start feeling sorry for yourself, to obsess over the pain, the boredom the misery.  The best way that I've found to combat this is to simply put a smile on your face.  You can't be miserable if you're smiling.  so few people in this world have the time, the health and the money to do what we do so be happy.

Be like Dave and smile when you do it

Randy on Weight Training

Here's some good stuff from our own Cat 1/2 Randy B.

Before I started racing, I was into powerlifting and was 40 pounds heavier. I did this for about 7 years.

First of all, I would like to talk about weight lifting myths. Weight lifting will not make you bigger and bulky. It can if you train hard, overload your body and eat tons of food. High reps do not make you more defined. Clean up your diet. Eat healthy food and you will become more lean. If you eat a bunch of junk food and do high reps, you will still look like you eat junk food.  Just because you’re getting stronger, you are not gaining muscle mass. As a person starts a new activity such as weight lifting, your neuromuscular system starts creating new motor engrams allowing your body to perform a specific activity much easier thus making it seem like you are building muscle.

As cyclists, most people are afraid to lift weights because they will get heavier. None of us are going pro so does it really matter. Your upper body will not be as fatigued at the end of a race, you will be more balanced on the bike, and you will just feel better all around.

High volume high intensity builds muscle mass (15 to 20 rep range 3 to 4 sets), high intensity low volume builds strength (1 to 5 reps 2 to 5 sets).

When it comes to exercises, through personal experience, some of the best ones for your legs are front squats, lunges, step ups, calf raises, stiff legged deadlifts. Leg extensions are useless and serve no purpose so don’t do them. Here are the proper techniques for front squats and lunges. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPZFg9nriB0   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAfEGsJqJjA. Understand that a good day in the gym lifting legs will make you feel sluggish on the bike for a couple of weeks. It doesn’t matter because it is winter. Once you stop squatting and other heavy exercises, your cycling will get stronger and faster throughout the next couple of weeks. It doesn’t really matter how many reps and sets you do. This is personal. Do what works for you and keeps it fun. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE PROPER FORM ON ALL EXERCISES. I am more than happy to help anyone with this. Continuing to lift legs during racing is possible, just be aware of how your legs feel. However, do not squat or lift heavy. Step ups, lunges, calf raises, box jumps are all good exercises. If you don’t feel good on the bike then stop lifting legs completely. This is just something you will need to experiment with.

Upper body exercises are also very important. Learning about you muscular imbalances and fixing them is a big part of lifting. If you cannot do a certain exercise, it is mostly due to an imbalance somewhere. I have shoulder issues and cannot do certain exercises. I realized my front deltoid is much larger and stronger than the rear. Once I quit working the front and focused on the rear, my mobility has improved and can do exercises without pain. I am not going to go through exercise for the upper body because there are simply too many. Just remember that if you work your chest and shoulders in the front, you must also work your back to compensate. Again, the reps and sets are up to you and which exercises as well.

Your core is a large part of cycling and working it can be done all year long. Many people think they have a strong core but having a six pack does not count. What about your pelvic floor, obliques, etc. The FIBO challenge from Dynamax really works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2tcUNfBwFU. You can do a google search for the exercises. The tornado ball https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEn3KAjQHYE is a very good exercise. HSP has some good exercises on their Youtube channel with a medicine ball that work really well.

As far as the amount of time you need to spend in the gym, there is no set amount. I used to spend 2 plus hours a day while powerlifting. Now I only spend 45 minutes to an hour. Lift as long as you feel like it. I have gone to the gym, did some stretching, then went home because I just did not feel like working out. Keep it enjoyable. That is about all I can offer unless I feel like writing all night. If anyone wants to start lifting weights, I am more than happy to set a program and get them started with proper form and exercises. Send me an email with any questions you have. Randyebott@yahoo.com

More Winter Tire Thoughts

Thought I'd forward some thoughts Z shared with me regarding winter training tires:

A note about the Conti Gatorskins you mention is that a nice compromise between that model and the GP 4000 is the Conti 4 Season.  You get better durability but they are not as stiff and heavy.  Kind of a "mid" winter training tire offering better ride quality.  Personally, I've been having good luck with Michelin Endurance tires 700x25 which measure closer to 28's.  I also use training tires from Maxxis, Panaracer, and Kenda and have had good results there too.

Weights and Bones

Martha just emailed me this story with respect to weight training, competitive cycling and bone loss;

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/is-bicycling-bad-for-your-bones/?_r=1

The main take-away from the story is:

“For competitive riders, I’d recommend spending some time weight-training.”

Don't worry about becoming Hans and Franz

Despite 35 years of serious running I suffer from osteopenia (early stage osteoporosis) a situation that came to light after six stress fractures in three years.  I'm gambling that a regular regimen if weight training will keep me upright for another few decades.

Personally I think that the idea of avoiding weight training in order to "not bulk up," is a little misguided.  It's about the strength-to-weight ratio.  If you begin a weight training program now you could see a 15-20% increase in your strength by the time the spring races come around.  How many of us could lose an equivalent amount of weight (while maintaining current strength levels) by spring.  Not many.  In other words focus your attention on what's going to deliver the biggest bang for the buck.

By The Numbers

Steve B just ran the numbers on the Cucina Fresca Cycling Team 2014 season (still not final as some folks have yet to submit their race results).  Here's what we have so far:

Total Races = 914

Matt Stanigar podium at MFG Silverlake

Wins = 56 (1:16.3 ratio)
Podiums - 132 (1:6.9 ratio)
Top 10s = 389 (1:2.35 ratio)

So in short we put a CF rider on the podium in one out of 7 races and managed to top 10 in nearly half of all races entered.

 

This is going to make setting goals for next year a bit difficult.

A Weighty Issue

I find that as I inch closer and closer to the half century mark weight training becomes more and more important.  Here is a good article on that subject.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/fitness/how-older-athletes-can-fight-the-effects-of-aging/article21149953/

The winter months are a good time to hit the gym and start pushing around some weights.

For most of us racing is about achieving that next level: getting dropped to finishing with the pack, finishing with the pack to being in the sprint, being in the sprint to top ten, top ten to podium, podium to win.  Simply spending another ten minutes on the trainer isn't going to get you to that next level.  I think intelligent weight training is a great way to up your game.

I know that Randy B. and Lloyd L. do some serious weight training, perhaps we can get them to weigh in (pun intended) on the issue.