Wednesday evenings at the clubhouse from 7:15, core fitness training.  Bring a mat.

With thanks to Cynergy Personal Trainers – http://cynergypt.co.uk/
Mind, Body, Spirit – A different approach to personal training

Visit their Center based in the peaceful Chiltern hills now with the new Wattbike and the latest equipment – 07951 659728

Our American friend, Rob Roop, asked about training recently, and how I was going.

I responded like this:

We trained on the turbo yesterday evening. I then went to the pub, before going home and eating pizza. This probably isn’t ideal, so I hope to put some pointers together to keep the nutrition approx correct.

We talked yesterday about ‘good’ hormones (HGH) and ‘bad’ ones (insulin). Do, please, take these terms in context. Without insulin you’d be dead. However, as a club rider, you’ll want to aim to keep insulin levels steady, so that you don’t get sugar rushes followed by renewed hunger. (Think of the classic ‘chinese meal’ scenario – “They’re great, but an hour after you’ve eaten, you’re hungry again”), You will also want to keep the HGH production tip-top. Since anything that elicits a spike in insulin trumps anything triggering a let-down of HGH, and since a modern western diet triggers excessive spikes in insulin, we are suffering constantly from a lack of HGH, the leanness hormone. So anything we can do to keep insulin flat, and stoke up HGH production, will push us towards lean, strong, recovered, light and, hopefully, fast. Its really only when you do a lot of long and/or hard training that you need to worry about excessively shoving carbs down your neck. The rest of the time, its worth thinking about decreasiong carb intake after about lunchtime, so that spikes in HGH caused by hard evening training can be maintained into the night, creating an improved reaction to your training.

Lets look at my typical week:

Monday is a recovery day, as I will have done something unpleasant on Sunday. I look at how many Kcals I’ve used, and approx how many I’ve already replaced in my sunday afternoon meals. Then I try and balance the rest during monday morning. Muesli for breakfast, banana on arrival at work, apple mid morning. Meat and veg-based lunch from the canteen, with a small amount of potato if required. Mid afternoon sees a handful of nuts and an orange, and tea at home is probably fish and vegetables with a salad.

Tuesday is a Turbo training day, with a hard session done at Uni in the evening. Thus I try and follow the rule of no food 3 hours before training, and no food three hours before sleeping. This means a good breakfast – scrambled egg and an apple, at least. Mid morning its a banana, an orange and half a cup of mixed nuts and seeds. I have a late-ish lunch around 1.30 – as yesterday – and another 2 pieces of fruit at around 3. Then its nothing till training at 6.30. Straight afterwards, I eat a banana if I’m knackered, and no matter what, have 4 capsules of branched-chain amino acids, and 4 capsules of glutamine (Holland and Barrett). I told you there’d be some drug-taking! I should point out that I’m hydrating vigourously, too – a cool glass of water every hour.

Wednesday is another evening training day, currently core circuits at West Wycombe at 7.30. So, again, there’s an evaluation as to how my legs feel when I go upstairs. This gives me a view on whether I need to put in more carbs or not. If not, then I don’t. Again, minimal grass- or dairy-based food. Kedgeree would be perfect for breakfast, but a scrambled egg would do. Mid-morning sees at least 2 pieces of fruit and some mixed seeds and nuts. Lunch is probably something hearty like a lancashire hotpot. Potatoes and all. 4pm sees more fruit, nuts and possibly a sandwich if I’m in need of it. Then nothing till after training, when I may have a recovery drink, a recovery bar as well as the BCAAs and glutamine.

Thursday is a commuting day, so I get up, get on the bike (recovery drink in the bottle) and ride 50 minutes to work. I drink after each of the 2 hills and at the end, where I also have a banana. Then a shower and an apple, and probably, if I’m honest, a bar of chocolate with a sugared cappucino – naughty!!. Mid morning is nuts and an orange. Lunch is a salad with turkey and hard boiled egg. Mid afternoon is 2 pieces of fruit. Then its ride home, and have my multivit (I go for the really expensive Wellman 50+) and my 8 capsules as described above. Then shower, then tea. I have whatever is going, and don’t worry about it.

Friday is another recovery day, so its a muesli breakfast, apple mid morning, salad lunch, nuts and a pear mid afternoon, and a nice tea – whatever is going. I try to keep the carbs down, though there is Saturday’s training to think about – I don’t want to begin the weekend in a depleted state.

Saturday is a 2 hour ride, so its a muesli breakfast, then, about 2 hours later I’m out training. I use a bottle of winter training mix at the mo – you can make this by mixing half and half the same flavours of energy drink and recovery drink, then about 3 scoops of the resultant mess in a 750ml bottle. Back from training and its the 8 capsules and a pasta lunch. Consciencious rehydrating during the afternoon, with an apple. A good tea ensues, with pasta, potato or rice to build for Sunday

Sunday is the big miles day, so its a ride down to Wycombe first. The 3 hour rule says no breakfast, so I take a cocktail of dodgy drugs with water. These are: Fat metaboliser tablets x 2. Green tea extract capsules x 3, BCAA capsules x 4. After the ride in, I have half an energy bar, or a banana. I take with me 2 gels for emergencies, 2 eergy bars, and 2 bottles of the winter mix. I ride for up to 6 hours. The rest of the day is eating and drinking. Don’t really care what, but replenishment is the name of the game. On return I also take my multvit, 4 more BCAA capsules, and 4 capsules of HMB. Secret formula, that, and highly effective at assisting with recovery.

Try it yourself. See if it works for you.

So, yesterday I was talking about Long Slow Distance (LSD) as the traditional, and effective, way to teach your body to go back to using fat as an energy source. I hinted that there are other ways to do this, involving timing, type and intensity of exercise and food intake. By stimulating the ‘right’ hormones, and suppressing the ‘wrong’ ones, those of us with limited training time budgets can achieve a similar effect to that induced by LSD. It does, however, take discipline!

1. Nutrition – follow some base rules: Cut traditional carbo intake by 1400 hours. Your tea might then be lean meat or fish, with a side salad and green beans and broccoli. No potatoes, no pasta, no rice, no bread. No food within 3 hours of racing, training or bed. Only have traditional carbos as described above after long sessions (over an hour and a half). Drink more water. No – more than that, even. Try and keep your food to quality lean meat and fish, seeds, fruits, salad and vegetables including root vegetables, and avoid dairy product, grass product (wheat, corn, rice), sugar and fermented items. (Incidentally, sticking rigidly to this will cure you of pretty much everything – obesity, asthma, eczyma, spots, arthritis, depression, old age and ugliness to name but a few. Clearly I’m not sticking rigidly to the plan!) Increase your protein intake as you remove traditional carbs sources. You have to keep your food calories about the same, so you have to get them from somewhere else. Due to the low calorific density of most of the recommended foods here, you can actually eat more. 5 meals a day is quite sensible.

Try a breakfast omelette, as you’re not having toast, porridge or Muesli. At elevenses, have half a cup of mixed nuts and seeds, and a piece of fruit. Lunch can be meat or fish and salad, with more nuts, more fruit. Mid-afternoon would be nice for an apple and an orange, and tea could be lean meat or fish with salad and vegetables followed by whatever bright coloured berries you can find. Finish by 8pm.

2. Workouts – in order to fit in the nutritional requirements above, most of your training must be done in the morning. Train hard and short, before breakfast, and refuel as necessary within half an hour of finishing to get optimal energy replacement. Leave it 20 minutes more to gain a better fat loss effect. Intense exercise stimulates the release of Human Growth Hormone, and this is what makes you lean. If you eat loads of sugar, Insulin cuts in. This is fine, but it suppresses HGH. Thus, whenever you over-fuel with sugar, the excess goes to fat. Use the weekend to do your longer workouts, and try to fuel these with water. Carry emergency gels and so on, but only use if essential.

Next, we’ll talk about what to do if evening workouts are unavoidable. Its great, as it involves drug-taking, so don’t go away…….

Why is it that professionals and those with lots of time, spend their winter doing steady training miles? One of the core components of  our sport on the road is endurance. Its essential that we are efficient to maximise our endurance, and one of the main areas where efficiency can be achieved is in energy production. If you can put out as many watts as possible while being fuelled by fat, then you can save your precious and scarce glycogen stores for the more intense power-endurance efforts like climbing, bridging, breaking and time trialling. The pros develop their fat-burning abilities by getting in as many hours as possible at 75 -85% Max heart rate. We can do the same. There are, however, other ways to stimulate metabolism of fat, involving timing and intensity of exercise and nutrition in order to train your hormones. Not got enough time train? Reda the next post to find out more about hormone training and fat utilisation………

Members have just come back from a quick 4 day in Majorca. Its amazing to think that just four days of riding, doing, say, 60 miles a day, is SO much more than one normally does. As such, it’ll take a bit of a while to adapt properly. Think of training adaptation as the bit that gets you to grow new things – muscle tissue, mitochondria, blood, enzymes, hormones. To make these things, it needs the right building blocks, so keep good quality and varied protein coming in in good amonunts. Also take a good multivit, and I recommend a course of Branched Chain Amino Acids and Glutamine – this keeps the hormone balance in the Human Growth Hormone half of the field (Lean) rather than the Insulin end (Fat). I’ve had commentas about how hungry those of you who have just come back are – please do try and keep your food intake of a high quality. Cakes and buns are so attractive, and you may feel you can justify them after a tough week. You can’t. Eat 5 quality, small meals a day, by all means, but don’t slide into processed or sweet or excessive processed carbs. Stick to Hunter-gatherer foods, and plenty of them – Good organic lean meats, fish, nuts, berries, fruits, leafy vegetables.

Lastly, you need to recover to get the full training effect to turn you into a faster rider. 4 days on the bike should really be followed by 4 days recovery – a light swim, stretching and especially light yoga, a gentle walk, some easy 30 minute turbo sessions will help. Nutting yourself will dilute the effect of the training block with no real beneficial effect. Be patient, and trust in The Force.

Today’s probably the last of the crisp, very cold days, where riding has been lovely, as long as you don’t fall off. Now the weather turns wetter, amd much windier, so there are still many and varied excuses to stay off the roads. If you can stand it, then turbo training options are many and varied, giving you targetted, controlled sessions developing your aerobic capabilities. Try using any of the Endurance sessions listed at the bottom of this blog, and work your way steadily through them. Having said that, this eekend looks good, so do try and get out with the club. I think that training around this time of year is most usefully done on flatter roads, as this eliminates the culture of sprinting up the hills, and resting for the rest of the time in case there’s another hill round the next bend.

While Im at it, have a look at www.jbst.com for some nice turbo sessions, and also have a look at www.trainright.com for some interesting stuff about Lance’s training at the moment.

There’s a lot of it about! I’m assailled on all sides by Flu from work and home, sinus infections from home, winter vomitting virus from home and school. Therefore, when I woke this morning still feeling pretty done in after last night’s circuits, I quickly concluded that not overdoing it was by far the best option, so I drove in instead of my scheduled commute. I’m still feeling frustrated by that, but would be a lot more frustrated if  I had flu and was off for 2 or more weeks!

This constant evaluation of your own training load, and your reaction to, and recovery from training sessions, is vitally necessary to allow you to effectively progress withoutslipping into the danger zone.

As part of this on-going training blog, we’ve incorporated a weekly set of off-the-bike training on wednesday nights, coinciding with the Core-yoga-circuits we do at West Wycombe. I was originally going to convert this into a turbo session, to increase the specificity of our training as we move into the new year, but I’ve been outvoted, so we’re going to continue core circuits until the end of January. There’s very good reasons for training through ranges of motion not normally used while on the bike, as all-round strength is very useful to balance inequalities in power between sides, and to prepare you for falling off. Also, there are exercises we can do which are more intense than we could make them while on the bike, so giving us extra preparation for the coming season. Many of us have found that variation is often the stimulus to overcome a training plateau, and that stimulus is desparately needed by all of us who turn up and bang out the same old performances year after year. If you’re under 60, you can get better. If you’re over 60, are you looking to steadily get slower as you age?

Come to Core Circuits and reverse that trend!!

I like to do Endurance based sessions at this time of year, keeping a steady HR for a good proportion of time. Turbo tonight not so hard as before Christmas – to force growth of blood components, Mitochondria and fat burning componentry. I like “Just sitting there”.

Warm up till you get to 80% Max HR, then oscillate your HR between 80% and 90% for 40 minutes. Use the two boundary HR’s, and every 3 minutes, as your prompt to change something. Thus, say:

15 minutes Warm up, which leaves you in, say, 53×16 at 80% HR. This is a multiple of 3 minutes, so change up to 53×15 and ride for three minutes, during which HR will rise, to, say 86%. At 18 minutes, change up again, to, say, 53×14 and ride for as long as it takes for your HR to reach 90%. At this point, change down again, to 53×15 and ride till the next 3 minutes are up. Change down again and ride for 3 minutes, or until HR drops to 80%. Keep toggling up and down between the two values, using your gears, until your 40 minutes are done. Then cool down, stretch and bask in the warm glow of another good session well done