THE TIME- CRUNCHED3rd Edition CYCLISTRace-Winning Fitness in 6 Hours a Week CHRIS CARMICHAEL and JIM RUTBERG POWERED BY THETIME- CRUNCHED CYCLIST 3rd Edition THETIME- CRUNCHED CYCLIST Race-Winning Fitness in 6 Hours a Week CHRIS CARMICHAEL and JIM RUTBERG BOULDER, COLORADO The Time-Crunched Cyclist, 3rd edition, is part of THE TIME-CRUNCHED ATHLETE™ series. Copyright © 2017 by Chris Carmichael and Jim Rutberg. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic or photocopy or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations within critical articles and reviews. 3002 Sterling Circle, Suite 100 Boulder, CO 80301–2338 USA VeloPress is the leading publisher of books on endurance sports. Focused on cycling, triathlon, running, swimming, and nutrition/diet, VeloPress books help athletes achieve their goals of going faster and farther. Preview books and contact us at velopress.com. Distributed in the United States and Canada by Ingram Publisher Services Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Carmichael, Chris, 1960- author. | Rutberg, Jim, author. Title: The time-crunched cyclist: race-winning fitness in 6 hours a week / Chris Carmichael and Jim Rutberg. Description: 3rd edition. | Boulder, Colorado: VeloPress, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016055402 (print) | LCCN 2016059236 (ebook) | ISBN 9781937715502 (pbk.: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781937716837 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Cycling—Training. | Cyclists—Time management. | Endurance sports— Training. Classification: LCC GV1048 .C38 2009 (print) | LCC GV1048 (ebook) | DDC 796.6—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016055402 This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). Art direction by Vicki Hopewell Cover design by Andy Omel; cover photography by Philip Beckman Interior design by Erin Farrell / Factor E Creative Illustrations by Charlie Layton Text set in Minion Pro 17 18 / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CONTENTS Foreword: Mark Gainey vii Introduction ix Part I The Time-Crunched Advantage 1 1 The New Paradigm for Endurance Training 3 2 The Science of the Time-Crunched Training Program 23 3 Terms and Conditions 49 4 Measuring Intensity in the Information Age 73 Part II Training Programs 117 5 Time-Crunched Cyclist Workouts 119 6 Criterium, Road Race, and Cyclocross Training Programs 149 7 Century and Gran Fondo Training Plans 161 8 Gravel Racing and Ultraendurance MTB Training Plan 173 9 The Commuter’s Plan for Race-Ready Fitness 185 Part III Weight Loss, Nutrition, Hydration, and Heat-Stress Management 203 10 Weight Loss for the Time-Crunched Athlete 205 11 Fueling High-Intensity Workouts 253 12 The Time-Crunched Kitchen 279 13 Hydration and Heat-Stress Management 321 Part IV Making the Most of Your Fitness 343 14 Supplementing Your Training: Endurance Blocks 345 15 Making the Most of Your Fitness 357 16 Strength Training on Limited Time 379 Acknowledgments 409 References and Recommended Reading 411 Index 419 About the Authors 429 v FOREWORD The 2011 Leadville 100 was an event I’ll never forget, full of exhilarating moments, unexpected challenges, and an inordinate amount of dust. You might expect someone who co-founded Strava, the social network for ath- letes, to feel at home in a race like this, but I had no business whatsoever at the Leadville starting line. I had never competed in a bicycle race before, and just a few years earlier I had a crash that cost me eleven surgeries. I avoided road riding like the plague, and my mountain biking was pretty tentative. Most of my friends thought I was crazy to be back on a bike at all, let alone training for a race like Leadville. But I had committed to this race, with a goal of finishing in under nine hours. Thankfully, I found Carmichael Training Systems. I befriended a coach there named Jason Siegle, and we chased this goal together. When I began working with Jason, it was clear that my lifestyle was going to present a challenge. Constantly changing schedule. Unexpected travel. Prone to injury and prone to bailing on workouts when time got tight. Talk about time-crunched. I was the living embodiment. Thankfully, Jason tossed everything I thought I knew about training out the window. Using the precepts of the Time-Crunched Training Program, he taught me the value of efficiency, rest, and proper nutrition. We experimented with hydration, saddle height, and tubeless tires. And I learned the impor- tance of measuring performance based on power and heart rate. vii viii FOREWORD This training coincided with some of the early days of Strava. Jason and I explored ways to leverage the Strava experience for communication, inspira- tion, and entertainment. He reviewed my activities and adjusted my workouts on the fly. We scoured Strava for the perfect route and longest climbs, constantly looking for local challenges similar to the Leadville course. And we evaluated my weekly performances together, looking for clues within the analytics. It worked. Despite the unexpected race-day challenges (like my front derailleur imploding at mile 25!), my Leadville experience was as near a “sure thing” as one could hope. The months of training, designed and implemented by the crew at CTS, proved the perfect combination for achieving what had long been one of my bucket list events. I did not break nine hours (9:37 was my official time), but I could not have been happier with my day. Best of all were the memories formed in the preceding months that included countless weekends in the saddle, searching for hills that would approximate the infamous Leadville Powerline climb. The training experience taught me the value of being smart, listening to my body, staying positive, and getting moti- vation and inspiration from other athletes. Quite simply, enjoying the journey. In my role at Strava I get to see firsthand the impact that technology, data, and education can have on human performance. For the vast majority of us it’s no longer about the number of training hours we put in—it’s the quality of the training itself that makes all the difference. And that’s a good thing. Because I am the definition of a “time-crunched cyclist.” As a single father of twin boys and with an office an hour from home, workouts are often the first victims of my lifestyle. This is why when Chris and Jim reached out to me for a few good words on the latest edition of The Time-Crunched Cyclist, I jumped at the chance to contribute. And I am confident you too will benefit from the insights and per- spective shared by these masters. —Mark Gainey Co-founder and CEO, Strava INTRODUCTION One of the first judgments I make about a book is based on how it feels in my hand. I want it to be substantial and have some weight. And therein lay the challenge of writing a book called The Time-Crunched Cyclist. This is a book for people who lead busy lives, people who wake up early and hit the ground running, juggle one or more jobs while raising one or more kids. Time is in short supply, and the whole point of this program is to get more from less. So why is this book so thick? To be fair, the first edition was a quicker read. When we released it, I was concerned that we skipped a few topics, but I expected that readers would likely have a few other books on their shelves that covered the basics of cycling. Not wanting to be redundant, I kept it short and focused on new training concepts specific to time-crunched cyclists. Athletes loved the book and achieved great progress, and at their request I added more programs to the second edition (which of course made it thicker). This revised and expanded third edition is longer still because I’ve added material to address readers’ requests and to include new areas of sports science and nutrition that impact a time-crunched cyclist’s performance. To help you move through the content more quickly, the book is divided into four parts. Part I talks about the program’s origin, the science that backs it up, and how to measure training intensity. If you decide to skim through some of that material, pay attention to Chapter 3 where you’ll learn about the opportunities and limitations of training as a Time-Crunched Cyclist. ix x INTRODUCTION Part II starts with an overview of the workouts you’ll find in the training programs, which you’ll need for reference material. After that you can read about all the training plans or just skip directly to the one you want to use. Part III is where you will find information on sports nutrition, shortcuts for the grocery store and kitchen, and recipes from renowned chefs Michael Chiarello and Matthew Accarrino. If you’re short on time, head to Chapter 10 which focuses on modifying how we eat more than what we eat. Chapter 13, on Hydration and Heat-Stress Management, is important too; it describes how heat is the real enemy of performance and how hydration status and other choices can help you or hurt you. My favorite portion of Part IV is Chapter 15, Making the Most of Your Fitness. You’ll find practical and proven tips to help you leverage your time- crunched fitness into great performances on the bike. Until we developed the Time-Crunched Training Program, superior performance in cycling and other endurance sports was out of reach for time- crunched athletes.