CYCLING TRAINING SECRETS ride faster, stronger and longer for winning performance CyCling Training SeCreTS ride faster, stronger and longer for winning performance CyCling Training SeCreTS ride faster, stronger and longer for winning performance © Green Star Media Ltd Green Star Media Ltd Meadow View, Tannery Lane, Bramley, Guildford, Surrey, GU5 0AB. United Kingdom. ISBN: 978-1-905096-26-8 Editor Andrew Hamilton Designer Charlie Thomas The information contained in this publication is believed to be correct at the time of going to press. Whilst care has been taken to ensure that the information is accurate, the publisher can accept no responsibility for the consequences of actions based on the advice contained herein. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the permission of the publisher. CONTRIBUTORS Andrew Hamilton BSc Hons, MRSC, ACSM is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American College of Sports Medicine and a consultant to the fitness industry, specialising in sport and performance nutrition: www.andrewmarkhamilton.co.uk Joe Beer is a multisport coach (JBST.com), author of Need to Know Triathlon and a successful multisport athlete in triathlons, sportives and time trials Andy Lane is professor of sport psychology at the University of Wolverhampton. He is part of the Emotion Regulation of Others and Self (EROS) research network; www.erosresearch.org Alicia Filley, PT, MS, PCS, lives in Houston, Texas and is vice president of Eubiotics: The Science of Healthy Living, which provides counselling for those seeking to improve their health, fitness or athletic performance through exercise and nutrition CONTENTS 9. Time trial pacing: why you shouldn’t be a ‘steady Eddie’! 15. Aerodynamics I: how better riding aerodynamics can give you more dash for less cash 25. Aerodynamics II: does your kit go with the flow? 35. Tour de France psychology: learn from the pros how to conserve mental energy 45. Back health for cycling: don’t get saddled with injury! 55. Cycling efficiency: peddling myths and pedalling facts 61. Cycling and health: is there a bone of contention? 67. GPS for cyclists: make technology your master, not your slave 75. Strength training for cyclists: why resistance isn’t futile! PEAK PERFORMANCE CYCLING TRAINING SECRETS FROM THE EDITOR n the first decade of the new millennium, the popularity of cycling as a mass-participation sport has exploded and it’s not hard to understand why. Cycling is a sport that can develop and maintain extremely high levels of fitness Iand the rise and rise of ‘sportive’ type events offers a new way of setting (and accomplishing) new personal challenges for elite and amateur riders alike. The icing on the cake is that high-end featherweight bikes dripping with the latest technology have never been more affordable! The good news doesn’t stop there however because in this special report on cycling we’ve gathered together the very latest research showing how you can ride faster, longer and more comfortably whatever your goal. Among its contents, you’ll find cutting edge research on how to attain that new time-trial PB using the latest thinking on pacing and aerodynamics. It also shows you how you can exploit the technology of GPS to make your training more rewarding and enjoyable, harness psychological techniques used by the pro rides, use the latest findings from strength and condition research to steal a march on your peers and do all this while staying in peak riding health! The famous and prolific science fiction author HG Wells once said “Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia”. However, with the information in this special report, you don’t have to resort to fiction; you can use the latest science facts to attain your personal cycling Utopia today! Andrew Hamilton BSc Hons MRSC ACSM PAGE 7 PEAK PERFORMANCE SPORTING ANKLES PAGE 8 TIME TRIAL PACING Cycling: avoiding those time- trial pacing tribulations! At a glance This article: ●●Explains the traditional approach to pacing time-trials ●●Looks at new research on ‘variable effort pacing’ in undulating terrain ●●Makes a number of practical recommendations for cyclists seeking a personal best in their chosen event When the racing season comes around, many cyclists hit the roads in search of a time-trial or sportive personal best. Andrew Hamilton looks at what the science says about pacing and comes up with some surprising conclusions… When it comes to pacing yourself through a time-trial or sportive, you probably already know that tearing off like a bat out of hell might get you a good time for the first few miles, but as that fatiguing lactate accumulates in your legs, you’ll pay the price later. But then setting a leisurely pace that enables you to feel good right to the end might leave you wondering just how much faster you could have been if you’d pushed harder, earlier on? So how should you judge your effort and pace to maximise your overall performance? A popular method for shorter time trial events is to think about mentally splitting the distance up into four quarters and deciding the relative effort you’re going to put into each quarter (see box 1). However, if the event involves your first ever 100- mile sportive, your main pacing strategy is likely to be one of taking it nice and steady, just to make sure you get to the end! PAGE 9 PEAK PERFORMANCE CYCLING TRAINING SECRETS Box 1: The quarters approach A commonly used approach in time trialling (including the cycle leg of triathlon) is to think about how you’re going to pace each ‘quarter’ of the event. It’s often recommended that you hold back on your effort a little bit for the first quarter in order to ‘find your cycling legs’ and build a foundation for the next three quarters. The second quarter is one where you increase your speed somewhat to hit your desired pace while in the third quarter, the goal is to try and dig in mentally to try and maintain that pace. In the final quarter, the end is in sight so the goal here is to gradually increase your effort further (if you can) as you approach the finish line. Even effort versus variable effort Regardless of the distance involved in a particular event, much of the advice out there suggests that your best strategy is to maintain a steady, even level of effort throughout the ride, adjusting your work rate to ensure you’re working near your maximum sustainable capacity for that distance. However, while an ‘even effort’ strategy sounds intuitively correct, recent cycling research, suggests that when it comes to the real world with hills and tail/headwinds, it might not be best after all. A few years ago, evidence derived from mathematical modelling suggested that varying power outputs according to conditions could produce faster times (see box 2). Now recent research carried out on real cyclists riding real time trials seems to confirm these earlier findings(4). Another group of British scientists looked two different pacing strategies performed by 20 experienced cyclists over an undulating time trial course. These strategies were: ●●To maintain a constant power output of 255 watts throughout; ●●To maintain an average power output of 255 watts over the course as a whole but allow for variations in power output at different parts of the course according to gradient. The cyclists completed four separate trials over a 4km course, with two trials at an average constant power and two trials where power was varied in response to gradient. As in the PAGE 10 PEAK PERFORMANCE CYCLING TRAINING SECRETS mathematical simulations, the results showed that the fastest pacing strategy was one where the power output was allowed to vary according to the gradient (ie an increase in power during climbs and a reduction of power during descents). In fact, the time taken to complete the 4km course was reduced by 12 seconds (2.9%), which was very significant. Box 2: Variable pacing theory Back in 2007, a group of British researchers began modelling variable versus constant power strategies during simulated cycling time-trials of 10km and 40km distances to see how different the pacing strategies coped with tailwinds, headwinds of up to 10m per second and gradients of up to +10% and –10%(1,2). Among the race scenarios were: ●●A 10-km time-trial with alternating 1km sections of 10% and -10% gradients; ●●A 40-km time-trial with alternating 5km sections of 4.4m per second headwinds and tailwinds. The results showed that at a hypothetical average power output of 290 watts, allowing power to vary between 260 and 320 watts (rather than maintaining a constant 290 watt output) resulted in a time saving of 26 seconds over a 40km course. Even larger timesavings were found at lower average power outputs (as would be found in weaker riders) providing there was enough capacity to produce large power variations. The researchers then went on to test their theory using real cyclists who rode a bicycle ergometer that simulated uphill and downhill sections during a time-trial course(3). Each rider rode the course as quickly as they could with no constraints and from this, their average power was calculated. They then had to complete the simulated course using two pacing strategies: At a constant power equivalent to the average power achieved during their initial ride; ●●Using variable power, increasing power output by 5 % over the average when travelling uphill and decreasing the power in the downhill sections (so that overall power was equivalent to that in the constant ride).