And now the good news

It's the last day of 2013. Time for a bit of reflection and the BBC web site is full of reviews of the year. 

One is here The Year in Numbers 

First bullet is a real good news story and one that flies in the face of the torrent of horror stories/depression/cynicism that forms the bulk of most comment for most of the time.

When asked how happy they were, on a scale of 1-10, the average Briton rated themselves 7.3. Only 10% rated themselves 4 or less.

I'd say this was pretty much the best news of 2013 and a fitting way to end it. 

(FWIW, I wasn't asked but had I been I think I'd score a 9)



 

No food needed

I've got to the point in my training plan where I am starting to do some long “sweetspot” workouts as described by Hunter Allen here,.http://www.hunterallenpowerblog.com/2013/11/four-keys-to-powerful-winter-training.html?utm_source=November+2013+Power+News&utm_campaign=November+Power+News&utm_medium=email

I thought I would use these to take the opportunity to check my previously stated assertion that you don't need to take any calories in the form of sports nutrition for workouts less than 2 hours long, moreover doing so will often be a mistake. (You do ofc need to drink, but water is fine)

So yesterday I did a 2+ hour workout comprising a warmup, 90 minutes of sweetspot at around 90% FTP and a warmdown.

I had some porridge for breakfast around 2 hours beforehand and during the workout nibbled one apple just to keep my mouth fresh and not have an entirely empty stomach. I drank around 2l of water.

Stats for the workout were:

Warmup 30 mins averaging 205W (bit longer than planned due to some setup issues)

Sweetspot 90 minutes averaging 268W/153bpm (FTP c 300W atm, HR@ FTP 166bpm) so spot on in terms of target power and HR zone

Warmdown 20 minutes averaging180W

The sweetspot session was reasonably intense, equating to just over 1.5 climbs of Alpe D'Huez at 57minute pace.

Looking at energy use the total for the ride was just over 2000kj=pretty much same kcal. ( Using the results of a recent ramp test I can guesstimate roughly 1500kcal of this came from carbohydrate mostly glycogen with around 80kcal for the apple and maybe a bit from the porridge.)

This is not just an n=1 example. Some aspects of the workout are, I would argue, broadly applicable to most riders regarding the question of whether and how much needs to be eaten during a workout in order to achieve a workout goal.

Reason for this is that most folks should have ample stores of glycogen to fuel such efforts, easily enough to do a 1-2 hour session at a quite strenuous level. Maths are that it is usual to have around 400-500g of glycogen are available for use, 1G of glycogen = 4kcal. So immediately, for a 2 hour session you need to be doing a workout burning more than 800kcal per hour which is pretty tough (Note these are real calories as measured by a powermeter or similar, not the inflated figures some products produce to make their consumers feel good). Further, not every kcal burned will come from glycogen. Some will come from food in the process of being digested, some from fat. Fat only contributes a significant proportion at low intensities but still even the hardest of most workouts will include times of low intensity.

Taking all this into consideration bottom line you need to be capable of and actually do around 280W+ non-stop for a full 2 hours before you need to worry about feeding to accomplish a training objective for short <2 hour="" span="" workouts.="">

If you are not doing sessions as hard as this

• If weight loss/control is one of your objectives I would absolutely recommend not taking in any significant calories during such workouts. Sports “nutrition” is mainly just junk food in the form of sugar. The calorie deficit short hard workouts produce will be far better filled by larger portions good healthy balanced meals at normal mealtimes that will stop you feeling hungry and/or allowing yourself a treat or two to make dieting more tolerable.
• If weight loss/control is not an issue. I would still advise not using any sports products as a default. Rather do without for a bit then, perhaps, introduce some in a controlled manner to see if they actually do for you what they claim on the label. Alternatively they can be an option if you hit a plateau level where you cannot improve when you can try using something to see if it helps. It may (though chances are reason will be as much psychological as physiological) in which case great, but then I'd advise weaning yourself off it to reserve for the next training plateau or as a boost for race use.