domingo, 13 de marzo de 2016

Cavendish top 5 tips on how to sprint (I do the opposite in 4 of them)

  1. Don't go too early (amateur rider? aim for 250m or 15s sprint). This happens to me all the time. In fact the closest I ever been of wining a bunch sprint in a race (although it was to get second) I screwed it because I went too early
  2. Chose the right gear (don't change gear midway to the sprint, you lose power). Another common mistake of mine. I tend to start with a gear that makes me difficult to get momentum.
  3. Commit to your sprint (no pacing, it's a flat out effort). I don't have problems with this one. I go and I go.
  4. Bring your bike to your feet (you'll have to watch the video to understand this one). Another problem of mine. The climber wannabe on me sprints as Mark says you should not. 
  5. Keep low. One big mistake of mine, in fact in occasions I even have sprinted on the hoods.
Five tips and I do wrong in four of them. Certainly there is room for improvement.

Take care 
Javier Arias González

The Horsepower 200 (español)

Tenía yo mis dudas sobre este 200. Nunca lo había rodado, pensaba que no iba a conocer a nadie y, raro en mi, no tenía un plan sobre como rodarlo. Pero me equivocaba.

Nada más bajarme del coche empecé a reconocer gente con la que había rodado. También un par de Wheelers, Gavin y Sarah. Buena sorpresa. Gavin iba a rodar con su hermano y su sobrino en plan "full value" (apurando los tiempos de cierre de los controles) y Sara iba a rodar con su amingo (no me quedé con su nombre). Rodar en plan "full value" me parecía demasiado lento por lo que decidí que rodaría con Sarah y su amigo.

El problema fue que un minuto antes de empezar, cuando todos estábamos esperando que nos diesen la señal de salida un ciclista me advirtió que había perdido un tornillo de mi portabultos. Me costó un tanto solucionar el problema y cuando me puse en marcha hacia un rato que todos se habían ido. Decidí darme cera y ver si era capaz de alcanzar a Sarah y su amigo.

Rodé la primera hora bastante fuerte (252w NP, IF 0.87), adelanté a un montón de ciclistas, pero sin señales de Sarah y su amigo. En el km 47 llegué al primer control y allí estaban. Me hice con un ticket para demostrar mi paso por ese pueblo y como ellos se ponían en marcha no me entretuve más y me uní a ellos.

El problema es que yo necesitaba una parada fisiologíca por lo que cuando salimos del pueblo y encontré un sitio adecuado me paré. Cuando acabé volví a la bicicleta y venga a ritmo para tratar de alcanzarlos.

Resultó que no rodaban tan despacio, me costó más de lo que yo esperaba cogerlos. Para cuando llegué a su altura se les había unido un tercer ciclista, un Dulwich Paragon. Y justo un minuto después de haberlos alcanzado va y se me rompe el guardabarros trasero. Me paro, lo arreglo y venga otra vez a poner ritmo de caza en busca del trio que me precedía.

No los alcancé hasta el km 75. Al principio me quedé a la cola del grupo recuperando el aliento y luego pase un par de veces a dar relevos al frente. En el km 100 llegamos al segundo control. Mitad de ruta.

Mis tres acompañantes decidieron tomárselo con calma y sentarse a comer algo. Yo no quería parar tanto tiempo por lo que unos minutos depués ya estaba de vuelta en la bici.

Un ciclista que se ponía en marcha en ese mismo momento se unió a mi y al poco, sin mediar palabra entre nosotros, ya estábamos dándonos relevos y rodando a buen ritmo. A veces el ciclismo es mágico.

La pena es que no duró mucho. En uno de los relevos yo estaba delante y me di cuenta que hacía tiempo que el otro no pasaba a dar relevos. Miré hacia atrás y vi que no estaba ahí. Había desaparecido, ni idea de que le pasó.

Y en estas me encuentro sólo y sin un plan claro que seguir. Obviamente la situación duró solo unos segundos. En breve hice un par de cálculos y caí en la cuenta que acabar antes de las 15:30 era un buen objetivo. "Solo" tenía que mantener una media de 26km/h (incluyendo paradas), complicado porque ya estaba empezando a pagar los excesos de la primer mitad de la ruta, pero posible si era capaz de gestionarme correctamente.

Cuando ruedo sólo todo me resulta mucho más fácil si tengo un objetivo en mente. Todos mis pensamientos se centran en ese objetivo ¿estoy comiendo bien? ¿voy demasiado rápido/despacio? ¿es el viento de cara más fuerte? ¿debo ponerme en una postura más aerodinámica? Me olvido de todo, me concentro en lo que estoy haciendo y disfruto.

Los últimos 10km antes del tercer control (km 150) me costaron lo suyo (NP 190w, IF 0.65), acabar antes de las 15:30 seguía siendo posible pero tenía menos margen de maniobra.

En el control me encontré con un ciclista, charlé con él brevemente antes de que se pusiera en marcha. Yo decidí alargar un poco la parada (unos 10 minutos en total) para darme tiempo a comer y beber bien.

Los primeros 10k después del control se me siguieron haciendo duros (aunque viendo ahora el perfil veo que picaban para arriba), pero poco a poco me empecé a sentir mejor (aunque viendo ahora el perfil veo que los kms en ese momento picaban para abajo) y sin darme cuenta me encontré a 30km de acabar y pasando un montón de ciclistas otra vez.

He de mencionar que me sorprendió el adelantar a esos ciclistas. No tenían pinta de ser lo suficientemente rápidos para estar tan en la parte delantera de la ruta. También pasé al ciclista que me encontré en el tercer control. Mis piernas parecia que vivían una segunda juventud, parecía que si que iba a acabar antes de las 15:30 y me sentía genial sobre la bicicleta.

De repente atravesé un pueblo y lo reconocí. Esta carretera era la parte final del Flatlands 600 y parte de la parte final de la LEL2013. Una carretera en constante sube y baja que te impide coger ritmo y que te destroza las piernas.

Lo normal es acabar odiando este trozo de carretera, pero sorprendentemente yo lo disfruté. Ataqué cada subida en plato grande y lancé

Me sellaron la brevet a las 15:23 en el último control. Para mi sorpresa me dijeron que era el primero en acabar. Todos esos ciclistas que había adelantado y los que ya estaban en el control eran de la versión corta (100km) de la ruta. Me sorprendió bastante porque casi 8 horas para acabar un 200 mayormente llano (1000m) no es rodar tan rápido. En cualquier caso yo estaba encantado con como me había salido la ruta.


En el control final tenían de todo. Me tomé un sopa de vegetales, un sandwich de jamón y queso, un par de vasos de leche. Charlé con los ciclistas que por allí estaban. Sarah, su amigo y el ciclista de los Dulwitch llegaron y me quedé un poco más para intercambiar impresiones con ellos. Cuando me fui para casa llevaba una sonrisa en mi cara, había pasado un gran día.

 La ruta en Strava

A cuidarse
Javier Arias González


The Horsepower 200

I was hesitant about this 200, I have never ridden it, I thought I wasn't to know anyone and, strange for me, I didn't have a plan to ride it. But I was wrong.

I soon I stepped out of the car I started to meet not only people I have ridden with but also a couple of Wheelers, Gavin and Sarah. What a great surprise. Gavin was going to ride it with his brother and nephew going for the full value and Sarah was riding with her friend (I missed his name). I thought riding full value was too slow for me so I decided to ride with Sarah and her friend.

Problem was that one minute before the start, when we were all lining up waiting for the go. A rider let me know that I had missed one screw in the back rack. It took me a while to sort it out and when I finally was ready to go everyone was already gone. So I decided to push it to see if I was able to catch with Sarah and her friend.

I rode the first hour fairly hard (252w NP, IF 0.87), I passed a lot of riders but no sign of them. At km 47 I arrived to the first control and they were there. I quickly got a ticket as prove of pass and since they were about to go I kept my stop short so I could join them.

The problem was I needed a pee stop so as soon as we left the village and I could found a suitable place I let them go again. When I finished my business jumped back on the bike and pushed it again to try to catch with them.

It turned out they were not riding that slow and it took me longer than expected to caught them. By the time I did they were riding with a third rider, a Dulwich Paragon. And just a minute after I caught up with them my rear mudguard got broken and I had to stop to fix it. There I go pushing it again trying to catch up with the trio that was riding in front of me.

It was not until km75 when I finally joined them. First at the back trying to get my breath back and them taking the occasional turn on the front. At km 100 we made it to the second control.

The trio decided to sit down at the cafe and eat something but I didn't want to stop for long so after a couple of minutes I was back on the bike.

A rider that was also departing at the same time joined me and soon enough, without even saying a word we found ourselves taking turns and riding at a decent pace.

It didn't last very long though. In one of the turns I was at the front, I realized it's been a while since the other rider has passed to take his turn and looked back just to find out he was not there. He had disappear, not sure what happened to him.

There I found myself alone and without a clear plan to follow. But that lasted only a few seconds because very quickly I did some calculations and figured that finishing the ride before 15:30 would be a good objective. I "only" needed to keep an average speed of 26km/h (including stops) challenging because I was already paying for the efforts in the first half but possible if I managed to pace myself correctly.

If you are riding alone everything is easier if you have an objective in mind. All my thoughts were focused towards the goal. How am I eating? Am I going too fast/slow? Isn't this head wind a bit stronger now? Get in the drops to be a bit more aero?

The last 10k before the third control (km 150) I struggled quite a bit (NP 190w, IF 0.65), finishing before 15:30 was still possible but now looked more challenging. At the control I met another rider, chatted with him for a minute and saw him depart while I was drinking my chocolate milk. Ate, drank and tried to recover for 10 minutes and back on the road again.

In the first 10k after that control I was still struggling (now I see in the profile those kms were mostly uphill) but slowly I started to feel better and better (now I see in the profile those kms were mostly downhill) and before I know I was 30km from the finish and again passing lots of riders.

I have to mention that I was surprised I was passing those riders. They didn't look fast or fit enough to be that far ahead into the ride. I also passed the rider that I had met at the third control. Legs appeared to have recovered a bit, it looked as I could finish before 15:30 and I was feeling great on the bike.

Suddenly I passed through a village I recognized that bit of the road. I was now in the road that was the final stretch of the Flatlands 600 and part of the final stretch of LEL2013. And that was relevant because I realized exactly what I had in front of me. A series of ups and downs that prevents you from sustaining any kind of rithm and kills your legs.

It didn't matter to me. Surprisingly I was feeling great and attacked every up on my big chainring and kept pushing it downhill.

My brevet card was stamped at the final control at 15:23. To my surprise I was told I was the first one finishing the ride. All those riders I was passing and those that were already at the final control were riding the short version of the ride (100km). I was very surprised because almost 8 hours to finish a mostly flat 200k is not riding that fast, in any case I was happy with the effort I had done.


The final control was well catered. Had a vegetable soup, a ham and cheese sandwich, a couple of glasses of milk. Talked a bit with the riders that were hanging around. Sarah, her friend and the Dulwich rider arrived around and I extended my stay to catch up with them before I called it a day and headed home with a smile in my face.

This is the ride in Strava

Take care
Javier Arias González

martes, 8 de marzo de 2016

Interesting recovery drink research potentially applicable to multi-stage days

You ride, your muscles are glycogen depleted, you have 4 hours to recover before a 20km TT. What recovery drink are you having? Apparently chocolate combined with any kind of milk (dairy, low-fat, soya or hemp) improves around 3mins!!!! in the TT compared to placebo (aka. almost having no recovery drink).

Don't have all the details on the beverage preparation as I don't have access to the paper, but from the summary below I infer that 1 gram of carbohydrates per kg per hour (ie. if you are 70kg, you would need 70gr of carbohydrates per each of the four hours = 280gr of carbs) in a 2250ml (almost 4 pints!!!) mix of cocoa, any of the mentioned milks and water should work.

I think this could be applicable for the first day at L'etape de la Defonce (11k TTT followed around three hours later by a 85k stage) so I'm going to try something similar as a recovery drink after some turbo sessions in the evening and see how I feel riding hard on the following morning.

**************************************

Original Research
Cycling Time Trial Performance 4 Hours After Glycogen-Lowering Exercise Is Similarly Enhanced by Recovery Nondairy Chocolate Beverages Versus Chocolate Milk



2016, 26, 65 – 70

Postexercise chocolate milk ingestion has been shown to enhance both glycogen resynthesis and subsequent exercise performance. To assess whether nondairy chocolate beverage ingestion post–glycogen-lowering exercise can enhance 20-km cycling time trial performance 4 hr later, eight healthy trained male cyclists (21.8 ± 2.3y, VO2max = 61.2 ± 1.4 ml·kg-1·min-1± SD) completed a series of intense cycling intervals designed to lower muscle glycogen (Jentjens & Jeukendrup, 2003) followed by 4 hr of recovery and a subsequent 20-km cycling time trial. During the first 2 hr of recovery, participants ingested chocolate dairy milk (DAIRYCHOC), chocolate soy beverage (SOYCHOC), chocolate hemp beverage (HEMPCHOC), low-fat dairy milk (MILK), or a low-energy artificially sweetened, flavored beverage (PLACEBO) at 30-min intervals in a double-blind, counterbalanced repeated-measures design. All drinks, except the PLACEBO (247 kJ) were isoenergetic (2,107 kJ), and all chocolate-flavored drinks provided 1-g CHO·kg body mass-1·h-1. Fluid intake across treatments was equalized (2,262 ± 148 ml) by ingesting appropriate quantities of water based on drink intake. The CHO:PRO ratio was 4:1, 1.5:1, 4:1, and 6:1 for DAIRYCHOC, MILK, SOYCHOC, and HEMPCHOC, respectively. One-way analysis of variance with repeated measures showed time trial performance (DAIRYCHOC = 34.58 ± 2.5 min, SOYCHOC = 34.83 ± 2.2 min, HEMPCHOC = 34.88 ± 1.1 min, MILK = 34.47 ± 1.7 min) was enhanced similarly vs PLACEBO (37.85 ± 2.1) for all treatments (= .019) These data suggest that postexercise macronutrient and total energy intake are more important for same-day 20-km cycling time trial performance after glycogen-lowering exercise than protein type or protein-to-carbohydrate ratio.


My top 10 training suggestions


  1. I always use a power meter. In all my rides. Not only helps me to understand how I'm progressing but also gives a fair clue on how to control training load, that is how hard should I train and how much should I rest/recover (see point 3). 
  2. I have a plan. Towards the end of the year I write down a draft plan for the whole season and them I change and adapt it when life gets in the way. My plan has one main objective (L'etape de la Defonce) and two secondary objectives (Milan-San Remo and Millie Miglia). Everything else goes around these objectives.
  3. I try to control how my training load evolves. I use CTL, ATL and TSB to track my progress. For this year I have a target CTL I want to be in the third week of June and based on that I have a target training load for each week that started very low in January but it is increasing slowly to peak early June. 2015 was a funny year for me, but here is my 2014 PMC chart and the analysis I do at the end of the year.
  4. I think recovery. I like to believe that I follow the pattern of three weeks of training load increase and one week easing off but life (travelling in particular) comes into play and I end up planing my daily training sessions for each week one or two weeks in advanced. I tend to be very detailed on what each session is going to be, I even assign a target TSS for each session. Still I always have the question "how am I going to recover? in mind"
  5. Turbo is my friend. 2 or 3 Turbo sessions a week. Mostly 4x8mins with 2mins recovery at maximum sustained intensity for the whole session seems to be the best time/effort/improvement combination for most (see From polarized to optimized) but moving towards under/over threshold, winter loops, afternoons in the hills as my training load needs to increase or races are approaching.
  6. I try to be consistent. This is the most difficult part for me. Family, work, did I mention travelling? seems to be always in the way. It also appears to me my brain is excellent finding excuses to skip training sessions. One it likes particularly is I'm too tired I should skip today's session at the turbo. The way I deal with it is no matter what I go to the turbo. I do the warm-up and give the planned session a try. If it turns out it is true I was tired I fall back to an easy session. My strategy is don't skip sessions just adapt the intensity. 
  7. I use the weekends for longish/hard rides. I can only ride one day in the weekend so I try to make it count. I tend to join rides with riders stronger than me, that gives me an extra motivation.
  8. I commute on the bike (28km/17miles each way) but almost always is in recovery mode; riding really, really easy, with the idea of saving my legs to smashing it in the next turbo session or training ride. If someone overtakes me I classify the rider as "Faster than me" or "Slower than me", feel happy with my assessment and keep riding easy. 
  9. I read a lot about training/recovery/nutrition. These are topics I really enjoy. I found myself starting with articles in magazines them moving to books and now exploring science papers. Somehow my knowledge about the material (bikes, clothes, etc) is less developed but it is an area I'll make the concious effort to improve on.
  10. I ride long distances. Not only I enjoy riding Audax events but I have also found that throwing a SR series (200k, 300k, 400k, 600k) helps me to improve a lot. I believe that riding long distances I get better endurance and train my body to recover faster. This allows me to train harder in the 6/8 weeks before my main objective. VaVaVeteran makes the same point here.

Now, looking at this list you could be fooled on to thinking that I have any idea on what I'm doing/saying. Don't get it wrong I'm clearly a chopper and I know it. Data and planning geek yes, but also my results don't sustain all my quackery.

Take care
Javier Arias González

lunes, 7 de marzo de 2016

6 minutes interval soundtrack


I'm going to try this video as background soundtrack in my next 6 minutes interval in the turbo.

I think it sets a good beat to synch my cadence with.

I like the short rest it gives you almost half way through (@2m41s).

And I definitively love the final 45 seconds rush.

A real shame it is not 8 minutes long (which is the length of my most common interval at the turbo).

Do you have any good suggestion in this line? What is your soundtrack for intervals?

Take care
Javier Arias González

domingo, 6 de marzo de 2016

Sometimes I surprise myself...

The plan was 135km, 9 Hills, almost 2,000m of climbing.

The morning starts with the scale saying I'm 1Kg heavier than yesterday.

The first hill tells me one day off the bike is not enough recovery from all the training I have done during the week. My legs are still empty.

Half way through the route I lost contact with my colleagues so I ride the second half (5 hills) alone.

In my second pass through Box Hill a hailstorm drops over me.

I get home and I'm not sure how this ride counts in terms of my training. Too hilly to be base miles? Too slow to count as endurance miles? Definitively too hard to be considered a recovery ride.

Then is when I surprised myself thinking how do I care? It's been a great ride and I had a fantastic time. I'm happy.

The ride in Strava

Take care
Javier Arias González