750g CHO went down easy

Well that wasn't so bad. I did a short sharp workout setting new SBs for 60s and MPA.

Then I tucked into lots of pasta, brown basmati and jelly babies.

Got to the "target" 700g remarkably easily and early, around 19.00. Funnily enough I was feeling hungry again towards bedtime.

Slept OK though woke a few times and had some more jelly babies and a couple of Snickers. (next time I'll prepare some pasta to eat instead)

Woke with a slight headache. Not weighed myself yet but had gained 3lbs yesterday evening.

Carb Loading

I plan on doing a full trial run of the Marmotte tomorrow which should be interesting.

So today I am going to experiment with a simple carb loading experiment.

I'll try the "Western Australian" approach of doing a short sharp workout then plan to eat 10kg of CHO per kg so around 700g over the course of the next 24 hours.

What should happen is that my weight should spike up by around 3kg not only storing up carbs but also water to help me through the ride.

Time will tell, should be interesting.

Not so good long ride

Aimed for a 210minute season best yesterday. I made it, just, but felt rough.

Interestingly the key limiter was mental, I had the legs but just found it hard to maintain concentration and focus.

I need to find some sort of combination of courses that will keep me motivated. 

One obvious option is the Marmotte course, I'll be riding this next week and be interesting to see how it compares in RPE. 

Easy Gardening

Stunning weather for the Easter weekend, probably the best we have ever had.

Still with every sunny day there's a cloud and I had to get the mower out for the first time this year.

I was surprised by how easy it felt, right from manhandling it out of the garage to sweeping up the last of the detritus.

I put this down to the weights I've been lifting, in particular the bench press. My favourite description of this exercise is "it fits your arms to your body" and that's exactly how I felt.

PS another PB on the deadlift last night

Magic 3 what I wish I had been taught during PE

PE was one of my favourite lessons at school (with the exception of rugby that is).

However knowing what I know now I wish that more time had been spent on the fundamentals that apply to every form of exercise rather than jumping into the specifics that apply to one particular sport.

In particular IMO every child should be taught the basic movement patterns so that they know good form from bad and can move correctly from the off and not develop problems due to years of bad habit.

It really is very easy. There are just 3 essential components

1. The basic basic moves, just 4 of them from classic weightlifting.

• Squat
• Deadlift
• Push
• Pull

Push and Pull each have 2 variants, horizontal and vertical (so 90 degrees from chest e.g. bench press and row and 90 degrees from shoulder e.g. pull up and overhead press)

As a cyclist I am only interested in building strength not muscle bulk from these so I just go high load low reps. So as much as I can handle for 3-5 reps, 3-4 sets.

Best source I have found is Alan Thrall on Youtube, loads of videos all of them both informative and fun.

 2. Functional strength/movement

 These are exercises that challenge multiple parts of the body to work in a co-ordinated manner to develop  strength and/or stability. It's possible to develop a complete program of these just with body weight drills e.g. bird dogs, single leg squats, lunges planks. 

There are also lots of variants with simple equipment like TRX, kettle bells and the like. As an example of the latter doing this 2-3 times a week would be great https://shoppeaks.com/the-cyclists-ultimate-kettlebell-workout/

3. Mobility

These are focused sessions that work on specific areas to ensure they move correctly.  

They also double up as warmups prior to a workout and/or routines to promote recovery afterwards.

Single best source for these I have found is Mobility WOD. Following the daily drills here is pretty much guaranteed to keep you moving freely without pain for your whole life.

Dead Lift pain (not)

Car needed some work doing so I ended up walking into the market yesterday.

Came close to 10k steps in total and it was PAIN FREE!!!!

First time in ages I can recall walking that far that comfortably.

Combination of factors helped I think including carbon feet.

I'm pretty sure a significant one was me setting a new dead lift PB a couple of days ago (106kg x5 I think).

 This has made me significantly more aware of my posterior chain and made me feel as if it's really strong. As a result I walk with my weight set back a bit so that my glutes and hamstrings absorb most of the shock from each step. I think this helps take some off the stress off my knees, also moving the point of highest pressure from the spot that is particularly bad.

Hex Ramp up

Did my third Humon Hex threshold test yesterday and was able to set a new PB quite comfortably.

Protocol is start at 30W then increase by 30W every 3 minutes until failure.

Managed over 60s into 360W, compared to 12s for first attempt, 42s for second. Also I was not really on the point of complete failure, I was just shooting for the minute mark.

Good 20

Excellent 20 test yesterday. 

Averaged 330W with HR going up very nicely to peak at 169.

Weight was 68.6kg so w/kg of 4.81 was actually better than any ride last year.

Super sweetspot

Quite superb workout yesterday. Aimed to set new season best of 270W for 90 minutes.

Got on turbo warmed up to top of Z2 then upped to target.

I had intended this to be part of my warmup and stop after my HR stabilised but I was feeling OK so decided to push on.

Just kept pushing encouraging myself with lots of small targets, eating the elephant in small chunks. Final interval was a thing of beauty. 286W pan flat and minimal HR drift,

 

Feeling crap > feeling great

The single biggest issue I have with training is relating how I feel to the progress I am making. 

The whole point of doing workouts is to "damage" your body so that it reacts by repairing itself and getting stronger in the process.

So pretty much by definition if you are feeling 100% then you are not training hard enough.

However just how bad can you feel?  

The received wisdom in training bibles is not to overdo it. They emphasise the dangers of "overtraining".

The trouble is individuals clearly differ in terms of how much damage their bodies can absorb before this risk becomes a reality.

For me I can't say I have ever come close, despite some pretty extreme training levels. To the contrary the harder I work the better I feel. If I feel crap it quickly passes and I know its a good sign as I'll feel even stronger soon.

A case in point is earlier this week.  I felt run down but forced myself to complete my workouts and also double up with a max strength weight session setting a new PB for my deadlift.

Yesterday I did a "tired 20" and felt like a god. Easily pumped out the target 1500kcal in a couple of hours and was really strong during the 20 averaging near 300W. 

FWIW my personal opinion is that for amateur cyclists the fear of overtraining is a lot more debilitating than the reality. 

60 feeling 26

Finally registered a new decade yesterday and had a lovely day, thanks to the family.

The calendar may say I'm 60 now but my Tamita scales tell me I'm 26 :) so I'll go with that.

Flanders Fat

The "Classics" season started a few weeks ago.

I've never really been into these before but this year I'm taking an interest, renewed my Eurosport contract and enjoying them muchly.

The great thing about them is they are all or nothing on the day so no-one holds anything back and they are less predictable as a result.

I watch them in real "4D"  riding my trainer while the race progresses. I keep watts low just being content with a long fat burning session, perhaps with some higher intensity towards the end as the race hots up.

Low pressure = low mood?

Weird but I think I've found one reason for my low mood yesterday.

Checking the barometer the air pressure plummeted and the weather was foul.

This isn't the first time this has happened. Indeed I bought the barometer because I felt a link, high pressure feels good, low pressure bad. both accentuated if there is sudden shift from one to another.

This notion does not seem to be backed up by any science so it may be all in my mind. Which I guess is sort of the point... 

Anyway will try to stay aware of this for the future.

Feeling rough

I tried doing a canal run yesterday and felt rough after 10 minutes or so.

Been filling a bit run down since and this morning definitely don't feel my usual self.

HRV no use, tells me I'm fit and raring to go...

Will take it easy and see how I feel tomorrow.

New carbon feet

Finally got to the root of my big toe problem. 

Arthritis in main joint > next joint up flexing and  taking too much weight > pain.

Solution seems to be to get a carbon fibre insole that stops the foot from flexing, so I walk with flat feet.

This actually is not as bad as it sounds, since I have been changing my gait towards my heels so that my glutes take up more load to relieve my poor old knees. 

Touch wood this will sort things out long term.

320 20

I'm doing some tests this week so pushed myself on a 20 minute effort. Managed to break 320W which is pretty much what I expected given my lack of higher intensity efforts.

Will be interesting to see how this increases as I up the intensity in the next couple of months.