Tour de Basement Revisited: Epic Blue Ridge DVD

In the past I have done reviews of training DVDs under the rubric “Tour de Basement” because, well, I was doing my riding on the trainer in the basement.  That was some time ago and not only have I relocated to a different country (Germany) but I have come out of the basement and up several floors.  The Tour de Basement has become the Tour du Grenier or,  more accurately, Das Rundfahrt auf dem Dachboden—the Tour of the Attic.

Unlike my previous basement, I have a window which overlooks a park.  Generally, and today is no exception, it also a view of continuously drizzling rain or, as wags here refer to it, liquid Dutch sunshine.   Nobody comes to the Rhineland for the weather.   Well, except for Fox News experts who believe that Germany is sunnier than the United States, which explains why all those people from Texas, California and Florida enjoy the German Riviera so much.

But if it rains and you can’t play outside, there is no reason you can’t play inside when you have DVDs as good as the Epic Rides series.  I have enjoyed using the Epic Acadia DVD and the latest in the series,  Epic Blue Ridge, continues to meet the high standards of the previous release.   This is one of the longer DVDs in the series (and also available as a download) at 75 minutes and is rated as “very hard” on the website. 

This is a fair comment.  One of the things I like about Epic Rides is they don’t  go to especially exotic destinations but to places in the United States that offer beautiful  and challenging riding.  In 2009  I did an excellent spring trainingcamp with four friends in North Carolina, based at a ski resort north of Asheville.   So it was with some wistfulness that I relived one of the best rides I have done in the US here in the Dachboden: the ride along the wonderful Blue Ridge Parkway to the top of Mt. Mitchell, the highest point in the Eastern United States.

We did the ride from Little Switzerland, on the Parkway itself, but the group of three riders featured in the DVD began in the opposite direction, departing Hendersonville.  They claim the climb is one of the finest rides in the area and is 2.5 hours of effort and without further ado we have a five-minute warm-up before switching into no less than 50 minutes of climbing intervals.  When you get to the end of that, the road turns and you are on the final summit climb, an additional 20 minutes that brings you to the top of Mt. Mitchell.

Appalachian Spring: the view from Mt. Mitchell

Riding the Blue Ridge is really special.  There is very little traffic most of the time and the quality of the pavement has to be about the best in North America as there is no commercial or winter traffic.  You can see this on the DVD quite clearly.  Gradients are reasonable; in the video the warm-up is at 2%; the intervals at 4% and the final summit climb 5%.  There are superb vistas as you look down into the mountain valleys and the whole area is parkland so it is green and lush.  The downside is that since the Parkway was built during the Depression as a make-work project and does not leave the Ridge and go down into any towns, there is really nothing along the ride where you can enjoy an Eiskaffee or Apfeltasche, as is the case every 5 kms or so in Germany.  But it really is beautiful and I never get tired of the view and you can see this much of the time on the video.

Pretty much my only negative comment on the video is that the ride takes you up to Mt. Mitchell but that portion is in fog, which shrouds the view and is a bit disappointing although the three cyclists reach the altitude sign in the parking lot.

The day we rode up there was no fog!

The positives are similar to the Epic Acadia ride (and, I think, the rest of the series).  There is an excellent dashboard feature at the bottom of the screen that provides really useful information for training.  It shows you the ride profile, where you are on the route, what your heart rate zone should be, the grade and elapsed time on the segment, as well as time elapsing on a climbing section.  The video footage is crystal clear and the accompanying music, which is of course a personal taste, I found to be really tuned to the course.  Epic Rides is unusual in that the DVDs not only have a music soundtrack but an alternate soundtrack can be downloaded and played in sync if you get tired of the first one.  There is no hectic action on the video but you know it is an all-climbing all the time project and it is good training for setting a climbing rhythm.   EpicPlanet uses an instructor who has race experience but also teaches indoor cycling to advise on the training format.

Also on the Epic Ride website you will find a Training Guide for each of the DVDs.  For example, the Blue Ridge Training Guide breaks down the course and offers three variations (Beginner, Intermediate, Race) which seem to vary primarily by cadence.  Another feature is that you can choose to do the complete ride or shorter 45 or 60 minute versions.  This would seem to be ideally suited to spinning classes or other groups.  

A non-cycling friend asked me how training DVDs work when you have a bike set up on a trainer.  She seemed surprised when I explained that as the road gets more difficult you shift into a harder gear on the bike.  I also said that it is important to watch your heart rate to get the proper workout.  This all sounds rather simple, I suppose, but I can honestly say that 75 minutes of climbing the Parkway while watching Epic Blue Ridge will leave you soaked in perspiration and the sweat is not virtual.  Anyway, it is pleasanter than riding outside in the cold rain and the dark!  Recommended, and if you have never ridden up to Mt. Mitchell this should whet your appetite.  Epic Rides’ website even has a downloadable route map for when you get on the road!

Epic Blue Ridge

Produced by EpicPlanet

75 minutes, in 16:9 widescreen format, 2013

DVD is US$29.95 and download is US$19.95, available at www.epicPLANET.tv

The Compleat Tour de Basement (Part 4): Back to Hawaii

Maui Highway
Photo by the tahoe guy, Creative Commons

Last week on Thursday morning it was sooooo bitterly cold on my ride in to work I was a bit depressed. Although the ride is only 5 kms long, I had to stop halfway through and try to warm up my hands. With double gloves I still had no feeling whatsoever anymore in my fingers since I was riding into a brutal north wind. So when I came home (thankfully it was a bit warmer on the way back), I headed downstairs to the Tour de Basement and returned to Hawaii to really warm up.

I recently reviewed the “Strendurance” DVD here. Global Ride offers two more in their Hawaii series. The next of these, “Oceanside Ride,” begins with a series of still photos to allow you to warm up a bit, then followed by a nice steady state ride that takes you cruising along the ocean for about five minutes. The idea behind this is to get properly set up and riding at a regular heart rate.

Maui Sunset/Moonrise
photo by Kaptain Krispy Kreme, Creative Commons

The next segment, called “Local Treasures,” takes you along a broad, nicely-paved road, with a bike lane or at least a wide shoulder, past lots of palm trees and some pretty nice houses on Maui. We are joined by a solitary cyclist who is clearly exerting himself on the hills. There is a live commentary with a spinning instructor that is fun to listen to if you don’t select music and before you know it at 35:28 the last segment, “Sunset Finish” begins. This is really an exceptional sequence, with soft golden light and some marvellous oceanside scenery. A few little hills and the ride ends with a view of the ocean as the sun goes down. Without the entertaining spinning class, you can listen to some nice music: “the Quest for Heavenly Sound Waves” is a nice trance piece that really gets you into the mood, although the refrain of “Our quest is long and tiresome” is not the case here. Wonderful. I liked this last section so much that I actually repeated it three times during my training ride. Well, I had to since the ride ends at just under 42 minutes.

Here is a little commercial that Global Ride has prepared so you can see the program:




After the ride, you can take a break and the switch into the additional 30 minute training sequence. “Oceanside Ride’s” special feature is a half hour of Pilates training. I had never tried Pilates before but I do a lot of core workout stuff in my training program as I am convinced that strengthening the mid-section pays off in climbing on the bike. The instructor offers a pretty straightforward program that looks effective but simple to do. I tried a number of the exercises and will include this workout as part of my regular training as well.

To give you an idea of what Pilates looks like, check this out:



Sure beats freezing on the ride to work!

Global Ride Productions
"Oceanside Ride"
available directly from www.globalride.net and other outlets
Price: $29.95 (or a boxed set of three DVDs for $74.99)

The Compleat Tour de Basement (Part 3): A Training Ride in Madison, Wisconsin

Blooming Capitol
photo by WisDoc, Creative Commons

At the Bright Dawn of the Age of Video, many of us began our Tour de Basement watching videotapes–remember them?–as more “scientific training” became the norm. No more Erik Zabel-like ideas of just riding and riding and riding. Thanks to Mr. Armstrong and his soon-to-be-celebrated coach, the idea became to train less but train better, maximizing effectiveness.

This idea was taken up as the first training videos hit the market. The most prolific producer of these videos is formerly-of-Maryland-and-now-Tuscon-based Coach Troy Jacobson, who is responsible for turning our indoor training sessions into a measure of how much we can endure since 1992. For the most part, his vast output consists of him standing around looking comfortable (or concerned) while he encourages a group of sweaty athletes on trainers to work that much harder as he guides them through a dedicated program, which will cover one of the disciplines of road cycling, such as sprinting or time trialing. His Spinervals videos have terrifying titles, including “Bending Crankarms,” “Suffer Fest,” “Have Mercy” and my favourite, “Time Trialapalooza,” the latter apparently being 80 minutes in length but feeling like several days.

Not content with haunting our basement thoughts, Coach Troy has extended his range of action to now include a series of virtual reality outdoor DVDs called “On the Road.” I have already reviewed his excellent Lake Placid ride but he has added to the scenery-with-pain series most recently with a ride along segments of the Madison, Wisconsin long course triathlon route. I have only been in Wisconsin once and was impressed by the size of the friendly people I met, none of whom looked much like triathletes, but I have also read that Madison is one of the most bike-friendly places in the United States.

There are some new twists to this video. In addition to the Coach Troy Cam and the Car Cam, we now have the O’Connor Cam, all giving different perspectives of the ride. For the first time, Coach Troy rides outdoors with other people and this gives some variety to the proceedings. With his very fit group of athletes assembled, Coach Troy leads us out onto the course.

Like all the Spinervals DVDs, this one is meant for pretty serious training. The background music is pretty well invisible so what you have is the course and Coach Troy’s detailed coaching comments. There are fairly unobtrusive indicators on the screen showing elapsed time, suggested gearing and exertion levels. If you don’t want to follow Coach Troy’s comments you can always turn off the sound.

Wisconsin State Capital
photo by Ryner12, Creative Commons

Never having been to Madison, I was expecting flat cornfields in all directions. The ride begins in a low-key way, along some busy streets and bike paths and through what appears to the be the enormous parking lot of a state fairground or something (I suspect it is the starting area of the triathlon). But soon enough Coach Troy and his merry band are out on the open road and you learn that while there are indeed a lot of cornfields there are also quite a few hills on the course. The rolling scenery, while less dramatic than Lake Placid’s, is still very pleasant and you will find the hills to be challenging. The riders ahead of you change position, and Coach Troy, with his South-of-the-Mason-Dixon-Line accent urges you on and on and on. And on. This DVD gives you three full hours on the road so no need to change DVDs during the workout.

More Bikes
photo by robbyb, Creative Commons

In addition to the ride itself, there are segments in which Coach Troy discusses preparation for a triathlon with one of the riders, and another segment which is basically an infomercial (albeit an interesting one) for Zipp wheels, which has become a sponsor of Coach Troy. Coach Troy must be happy about this since he even loosens up and lets a couple of “Yee-haws” out during the ride.

With the addition of the Madison DVD, Coach Troy now offers virtual reality training for a flat course, one with steep hills, an all-climbing course and now one with rollers. His coaching advice is clear and useful and the whole thing has a professional, non-nonsense feel to it. With some five dozen different DVDs to his name, it is clear that Coach Troy is doing things right and I would highly recommend his “On the Road” series. The scenery may be a bit prosaic but training to this DVD will definitely get you in shape to tackle any course you like.

To get an idea of the DVD, you can see some of it here:



Coach Troy's DVDs can be purchased on his website here or through retailers or elsewhere on-line. At $34.95 the Madison DVD is not inexpensive but given its length and the coaching instruction I would still consider it a good value. As well, Coach Troy has a lot of good training advice at this website, including video coaching.

The Compleat Tour de Basement: Life is a Highway (Part 2)

It is still winter in Ottawa (no surprises there) but this week has been exceptionally mild so on Monday I took BlackAdder outside and we rolled off to work, a feat I have been able to duplicate each day so far until now. Of course with my commute only being around 9 kms return it will take a long time for the miles to add up! But the streets are still wet and there is a lot of slush (and even some ice) around so no opportunity for real on-the-road training. So the Tour de Basement continues...

In my ongoing efforts to bring you the best in training entertainment, here are three DVDs from VITA Digital Productions in North Carolina. The company specializes in filming foreign locations and providing stock footage. It has an impressively long list of DVDs, featuring scenery in many parts of the world. Some of these have a specific purpose: virtual walks in places such as the Cotswolds; treadmill and jogging programs; and, of greatest interest to followers of this blog, scenery for cycling.

At the moment the company offers four DVDs for cyclists and I have three of them.

1. Virtual Bike Ride in Maine’s Acadia National Park/Mt. Desert Island

Acadia National Park, established under the Administration of President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, is comprised of three islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Maine. The largest island, Mt. Desert Island, is 47 sq. miles and the town of Bar Harbor is located on the northeast corner of the island. This is the landscape featured in VITA Production’s DVD. Once the playground of the Rockefellers, who built miles of carriageways in the park, much of the region looks much the way it did when Samuel de Champlain saw it in 1604.

The View from Cadillac Mountain
photo by AudeVivere, Creative Commons

The ride begins at the peak of Cadillac Mountain (altitude 1528 feet (466 m) ASL). This mountain is the highest one within 25 miles of the coast of the Eastern United States and was once the site of a nice hotel, reached by cog railway. After the hotel burned down in 1895, the cog railway ended up at the celebrated Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. But you don’t need a cog railway since the road slopes down and you can enjoy a 15 minute descent. No matter how fast you are riding in the Tour de Basement, the group of cyclists on the DVD are still going to pass you on the downhill. No matter; the road looks very good and the scenery is splendid,
with wild, rocky vistas and water everywhere.

The next stretch of road takes the cyclist onto the park’s 26 mile (41 km) loop road. Sections of this road reminded me very much of the area I ride in, with dense green forest. There are pleasant sunny sections and some climbing and descending. Before you realize it you are pulling up to the carriage house at the park headquarters and your 60 minute ride is over.

One of the features I liked on this DVD (and on the other two) is that you move at a reasonable speed, apparently around 20 km/h (12 mph). This is a bit on the slow side but at least you don’t get the impression you are riding a motorcycle, and you have lots of time to look at the scenery. If you want to warm-up beforehand–or cool down afterwards--there is an additional 14 minute segment of Maine scenery. Like the remainder of the DVD this was originally shot in high-definition and the pictures are all very clear. There is some New Age music used for the extra segment but otherwise the DVD has no music, no soundtrack, no coaching. This is fine if you have your own program to follow and you can use your own music as well.

In summary, you have very nice scenery, an exceptionally clear image and an appropriate impression of speed. On the downside, at 60 minutes it is a bit short for a long workout, although the adding the additional 14 minutes at either (or both) ends of the ride adds some time. And it is all balanced nicely by the fact that it is one of the least expensive training DVDs I have found.

To see what the Mt. Desert Island ride looks like, you can see a sample here.

2. Connemara, Ireland

The second DVD from VITA that I have is a ride along in Connemara, an area of County Galway in Ireland, surrounded on three sides by the Atlantic. The ride begins with you cruising alongside Lough Corrib, the largest lake in the Republic of Ireland and a major tourism and fishing destination. It looks quite nice in the Tour de Basement but sometimes a virtual tour is better than the real one as the lake was severely contaminated in 2007 and residents of Galway had to boil all their water. Anyway, this is no factor for us and the ride continues gently along, through the green May scenery. There are birds singing. In fact, they sing an awful lot and while I like birds this is a bit grating eventually. I suspect a loop is being used since I recognized some of the songs! The road is quite fun as it appears to have been built by leprechauns–diving and turning and very, very narrow. After riding for about 10 minutes to the small town of Clifden, where everyone is going about their normal routine and you hear the murmur of voices around you. The Irish, incidentally, seem to park like the French and put their cars in any direction where they will fit.

Clifden town centre
Photo by Kevin Danks, Creative Commons

Clifden, founded only in the 19th Century, has two historic events to its credit: it was here that Marconi conducted his experiments in trans-Atlantic wireless telegraphy and also was the town closest to Alcock and Brown’s rather sudden landing in a bog after their 1919 flight, the first non-stop trans-Atlantic one.

After passing the Clifden Town Hall, you get out of town on the Sky Road, which runs along the inlet of Clifden Bay and offers some excellent climbing and truly wonderful views. The scenery around the 43 minute mark is quite spectacular, and then there is a gentle ride back to Clifden.

Again, the photographic quality is excellent. The birds are a bit much, and sometimes it sounds as if the Irish are driving jet-propelled cars but at 62 minutes this is the longest of the three DVDs, and again priced at the same rate as the others.

Check out the Connemara DVD here.

3. Loch Etive, Scotland

Staying with the loch theme, this is a 59 minute ride along Loch Etive in western Scotland. It is springtime, and not only do we have birds again but there are some relentless sheep sounds too. This is a bit strange as in the DVD I did not actually notice all that many herds of sheep. The scenery is not dramatic, but very green and there are many wildflowers.

Loch Etive
photo by Jamie Campbell, Creative Commons

The Loch is 19 miles (31 kms) long and only just over a mile wide. Interestingly, it is home to a small colony of seals! We don’t see them, or any Lock Etive Monster for that matter, but just enjoy a pleasant and relaxing country ride. This DVD includes an 8 minute section of still photos and I must admit that Wayne Jacobs is an excellent photographer as many of these shots are truly beautiful

The Loch Etive DVD does not have the dramatic scenery of the other two and the cycling pace is definitely on the slower side. I would recommend it more for days when doing a recovery ride or perhaps easy spinning.

You can see an extract of the DVD here.

The VITA Digital Production DVDs are modest in nature as they do not promise to make you a better cyclist or offer a lot of extra features. It is up to you to make the most of them as they deliver exactly what they promise: beautiful scenery professionally filmed along the kinds of roads you would seek out if you were really there, and at bargain prices. And you can always turn down the virtual sheep noises.

VITA Digital Productions Virtual Bike Rides can ordered from their website here or from their E-Bay store. There is a fourth cycling DVD devoted to the Hollywood Hills in California but I am considering getting some of the walking or scenery DVDs of Italy simply because they look so nice!

The Compleat Tour de Basement: Life is a Highway (Part 1)

Tantalus Drive, Oahu
photo by Indichick7, Creative Commons

I read that East German coaches forced their cyclists to do their daily four hours of indoor training on rollers facing a plain brick wall, with no music or any diversion at all. This was supposed to focus their concentration and toughen them up. Perhaps this might have been acceptable for a regime that actually walled in its citizens to prevent them from leaving, but it sounds pretty nasty to me. Riding in the Tour de Basement is hard enough without being reminded you are actually in the basement. As I move into my February training program, the workouts are going to get harder and longer so having a diversion to take my mind off the pain and, yes, boredom, is vital.

Luckily, capitalism has provided an answer. Recognizing a growing market as cyclists most everywhere try to improve their performance, entrepreneurs understand that not all of us can zip off to California or Tucson or Lake Como for a training camp in the sun and have provided us with training DVDs that we can watch at home and turn the Tour de Basement into a virtual Tour de Somewhere. Of course, there are dedicated computer programs such as those from CompuRide and Tacx but these are complex and not inexpensive. For most of us our training system is a lot simpler: a trainer (or rollers) and a bike, with access to music or a television screen to drown out the noise of the bike and that giant fan blowing a headwind at us.

Training DVDs have been around for quite a while and for the most part they have consisted of video of people on trainers, sweating and straining as a cool and relaxed coach in a polo shirt urges them on. But most of us we can see sweating and straining cyclists simply by putting up a mirror: the only thing more boring than your own Tour de Basement is watching someone else’s. So some of us watch classic bike races on video, over and over, and pretend we are in the peloton, battling up Mt. Ventoux. But these are really sportscasts and not specifically meant for training so it is hard to sync your workout to them. So the idea to show scenery has now blossomed and an impressive range of videos has appeared in the last year that promise to make those training hours fly by as you sweat and strain in an exotic location. I wanted to share my experience and rate some of the DVDs now on the market. I still have around three months of indoor cycling to get through so I consider the DVDs an important training aid.

Global Ride Productions: StenDurance in Hawaii

Global Ride, the New Kid on the Training DVD Block, began as a spinning, pilates and yoga club in Pennsylvania. There was a realization that cyclists used to the road found indoor workouts barely tolerable, while many in the spinning community had no interest in going outside and facing the perils of traffic. The goal of bringing these two groups together has resulted in a series of DVDs that attempt to link interesting scenery and music with appropriate modern coaching and additional off-bike workouts. How successful is this?

The first series of DVDs covers rides in Hawaii and the one that I received, “StrenDurance,” is a compilation of three segments, featuring a long climb up Tantalus on Oahu, followed by a flattish stretch of coastal ride on Maui and ending with a series of charming rollers, also on Maui. The series begins with a segment of still images as you do your warm-up prior to the actual training. My first impression was that this was a bit long but I quickly realized that a) it allowed me to set my own warm-up rhythm and b) as I spun in my unfinished basement with the temperature at -29C outside I found that I was mesmerized by photos of lush, green Hawaii and actually looking forward to the rest of the DVD!

The Tantalus component, in which you are accompanying another cyclist, is a steady but not too steep climb that takes you above the city of Honolulu up the extinct cinder cone of this now-deceased volcano. Honolulu is actually built on the ashes of Tantalus. You continue up the steady climb, with occasional views of Diamond Head, until you approach the summit at 634 m (2014 feet) ASL. Coupled with the previous warm-up, this is a good start to the program.

The next section, which is coastal highway from Laihana, is actually not quite as interesting as not only is it flat but to your left is heavy traffic and on the right the sea so there is not a great deal to look at. But at least it feels warm (apparently the word “Laihana” is the Hawaiian phrase meaning “merciless sun!”) and the segment allows you to do some steady state/tempo riding. There are a few rollers at the end as you approach the next segment.

Kahakuloa Point, Maui
photo by Mastery of Maps, Creative Commons

This last segment, Maui Cliff Climbs, is simply fantastic. For those of us who believe that the only point to riding a bicycle is climbing, this is nothing less than paradise. You ride a whole series of hard hills, with amazingly varied scenery, along a beautifully-maintained asphalt road that is completely devoid of any other traffic. When this segment came to the end, I went straight back to the beginning of the chapter and rode it all over again. And yet again. One of my only complaints about this DVD is that at around 50 minutes for the cycling section it is short for those of us who have 90 to 120 minute workouts scheduled. Some of the other DVDs I have are of a similar length. On the other hand, you can just use the remote to extend things.

But, as they used to say on those frentic TV ads, Wait! There’s more! One of the very cool features of this DVD is that you can ride while listening to a coach–and not one coach, but you have a selection of three! You can choose Sally Edwards (representing the USA), Massimiliano Zambiasi (Italy) and Nicci Heath (Australia). These are all experienced coaches and on the voice tracks they are breathing pretty heavily so it is like they are suffering there with you. So on each ride you can pick which coach you want for that day. A nice feature.

And after the cycling segment there is a cooldown one where you can look at upcoming DVDs from Global Production (ah–Italia!) and this segment is then followed by something unique for a scenery DVD–you have to get off the bike and do a 30 minute strength training program with lightweight dumbells. This is led by a distressingly fit-looking coach who takes you through a rather challenging circuit. I think the addition of a cross-training segment is an excellent idea.

The music chosen for most of this DVD is by Andy Hunter, a British DJ, and is in the techno/trance mode, and is well-suited to the rhythms of the ride. It is commercial music and reflects well on the professionalism of the Global Ride producers. The other thing I was impressed by was that the screen is not cluttered up with many distractions, allowing you to enjoy the scenery as you pedal. And the pace of camera work is not far off of a racing bike’s speed. Well, perhaps faster than me...

As you can tell, I enjoyed the DVD very much. I think it is has terrific scenery, good music and excellent special features. I have already ordered the other two DVDs in the Hawaii series, which are extended versions of the coastal ride and more on Maui. After watching “StrenDurance” I am all set to pack my bags and ride those Maui cliff climbs, which is probably as good a recommendation as one can give!

The company promoted its product by taking it around to spinning studios and doing product demos. I have suggested that my local fitness club get the DVDs since our spinning room has black walls and nothing to look at. At least nobody is making me work out for four hours there...

To give you a sense of the DVD, here is a sample from the DVD showing some of the most challenging sections:



Global Ride Productions
"StrenDurance in Hawaii"
available directly from www.globalride.net and other outlets
Price: $29.95 (or a boxed set of three DVDs for $74.99)

The Compleat Tour de Basement: Nutrition for Endurance Athletes

“I eat to ride, I ride to eat. At the best of moments, I can achieve a perfect balance, consuming just the right amount of calories as I fill up at bakeries, restaurants or ice cream parlours. On the road, I can get about twelve miles to the quart of milk and a piece of baker’s apple tart."

Daniel Behrman, The Man Who Loved Bicycles

Now that we have covered strength training, the next area that I have been investigating is nutrition. To nobody’s amazement, there is a lot wrong with the way people eat generally: one-third of all added sugar in the American diet comes from the consumption of soft drinks, and French fried-potatoes are the primary vegetable. According to a Johns Hopkins University study every single American adult could be overweight by 2048. Current prevalence of obesity and being overweight is 71 percent, which is nothing to crow about since it was only 57 percent in 2000.

We all know that cycling is a good way to get the pounds off but what happens if you want to push up the performance beyond just losing some weight? I would very much recommend you read Monique Ryan’s “Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes.” The 2nd edition of this book came out in 2007 and from what I see it remains the Gold Standard for anyone interested in this subject.

The first part of the book deals with the basics of nutrition in order to establish a base. You learn a great deal about the building blocks: carbohydrates, fats and proteins, along with information on hydration, and vitamins and minerals. Much of this information is available elsewhere easily enough but the writing here is very straightforward and easy to understand. There is a detailed discussion of the Glycemic Index and what it means in terms of building your diet. Helpfully, the author refers to the needs of those following a vegetarian regime as well.

Part II of the book is “Your Training Diet” and covers the rather complicated principles of an endurance athlete’s diet. Not only will you arrange the type of foods you eat depending on what stage of your periodized training you are in but you also have to determine the correct calorie levels to maximize effectiveness, including recovery. There is a specific section on the nutritional requirements for building muscle that is quite detailed.

Supplements get their own section, although the chart on p. 187-188 summarizing them does not pull any punches about their effectiveness (or lack thereof). It was interesting to note that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) policy on supplements prohibits the providing of muscle-building products such as the popular creatine and even protein powder by a collegiate institution to its athletes. There are real concerns about the contamination of products: the International Olympic Committee found in a study that 15 percent of 600 over-the-counter supplements included non-labeled ingredients that would have resulted in a positive doping result.

With all this useful information, the reader is now set to go into the last section of the book which covers nutrition planning for specific endurance sports. Of particular interest to me is Chapter 9, which covers multiple cycling disciplines: road cycling, mountain biking, track cycling, cyclo-cross and even recreational distance riding.

Ms. Ryan notes: “Cycling is undoubtedly one of the most physically challenging sports that an athlete can pursue. It requires muscular strength, power, and endurance. Cyclists complete long aerobic training rides to prepare for competition, but they also incorporate a significant amount of anaerobic exercise into a program that includes intervals, sprints, and weight training.”

The fact that refueling on the bike is a simple task compared to running or swimming is a good thing, given that fluid and carbohydrate demands during training are so high.

Other endurance sports covered in Part III include rowing, running, triathlon and swimming so if you do cross-training this is useful as well.

Throughout the book one finds valuable sidebar pieces on training in the heat or at altitude and how you can deal with this through proper nutrition. The book concludes with Appendices that cover the Glycemic Index of Foods, a comparison of vitamins and minerals and another on sports nutrition products. Appendix D is very important as it is a guide to planning meals, including snack ideas and tips on reading labels. There is even a section on dealing with restaurants and good choices to make and another sidebar with useful tips for vegetarians. Appendix E has sample menus, which look a bit boring but are only a guide and show you breakdowns by carbs, fats and proteins for the base, build and transition periods of training (with vegetarian alternatives). This is not a cookbook but explains what fuel you need to participate in endurance sports. Taking these basics there is no reason you cannot come up with attractive and nutritious meals to suit your taste. I have referred before to www.fitday.com, which is a very easy-to-use website that allows you to record what you have eaten and quickly learn the amount of calories you have consumed and their composition.

One of the lessons I take from this book is that different sports and different periodized elements require varying nutrition. Nutrition is a key to success and while this book is aimed at competitive athletes it is so well-written that everyone with an interest in what they eat and in their physical performance will want to read it.

Dairy Queen, Vancouver, WA
photo by dalechumbley, Creative Commons

Of course, all this effort and self-denial and measuring how much food you eat can sometimes be a bit difficult for someone not paid to ride their bikes. For the final word, perhaps we could turn to former World Champion and three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond. He replied, when asked what he thought about during races in Europe: “Dairy Queen, God, I dream about Dairy Queens.”

Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes
by Monique Ryan
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: VeloPress; 2nd edition (March 27, 2007)
ISBN-10: 1931382964
ISBN-13: 978-1931382960
Suggested Price: US$ 21.95 (but you know where you can get it cheaper!)

The Compleat Tour de Basement: Weight Training for Cyclists

There are some who feel that weight training is a waste of time for cyclists and the limited scientific studies carried out so far have had mixed results as to whether pumping iron makes you faster. There are fears that the possible addition of muscle mass in the upper body (remember Lance Armstrong pre-cancer?) will provide no tangible benefits and in fact will be just that much more weight to carry around.

In fact a strong torso contributes to pedalling action by providing rigidity against which the quadriceps can work. Most of the training programs for cyclists I have seen tend to be aimed at building strength rather than mass and as the riders moves into the racing season the weight program becomes one only of maintenance. Increased strength means reduced fatigue although aerobic capacity seems to be the limiter for endurance. Stronger muscles last longer and stabilize the body, improving technique and efficiency, allowing the cyclist to keep in the proper form longer.

Not to be overlooked is the fact that cyclists typically suffer from low bone density as cycling is not a weight-bearing exercise. Studies indicate that during the Tour de France pro riders can lose up to 25 percent of bone mass, and a surprising number of Masters-class racers suffer from symptoms of osteoporosis. Weight training helps combat this, as do weight-bearing exercises such as running, and calcium supplementation.

There is also a saying “lift weight to lose weight.” Aerobic exercise burns calories but the body’s metabolism returns to pre-exercise levels quickly, perhaps in as little as 30 minutes, whereas strength training “confuses” the metabolism for a much longer period. In addition, having more strength means you will burn more calories as muscle burns calories at a higher rate than body fat.

My coach has given me a simple program that provides the periodization recommended, working from light weights to much heavier weights and then backing off to more reps with lighter loads. I am presently doing three weight sessions a week. At the moment I am doing the full gamut of legs, arms and chest and core but I will soon divide the workouts so that there is one day for each of the major muscle groups and the core would be worked every day.

In addition to my coach’s comments, I have found a very useful guide to weight training to be the recently revised Weight Training for Cyclists: A Total Body Program for Power and Endurance by Ken Doyle and Eric Schmitz. This 2nd edition of their 1998 book, released in November 2008, incorporates new information on core training and lower body exercises. It is very clearly written and explains how strength training in the weight room translates to endurance and power on the bike.

Different exercises for the muscle groups are described and illustrated with very good line drawings that are simple but effective. I have photocopied the section on core workouts and have supplemented my coach’s suggestions so that I am doing more work with a stability ball. There is also a chapter reviewing the best series of stretches I have seen.

The last part of the book presents a range of training plans that are time-efficient and look quite effective. I have incorporated parts of them into my own workout and although it is not quite My Year of Abs yet there is a definite improvement in my core strength.

Of course, weight training can become so addictive that it takes away focus from its goal here which is simply preparation for cycling. While doing my workouts I focus on what I want them to accomplish for me on the road. For example, the leg presses and squats will build up leg strength that will, I hope, allow me to turn a very big time trial gear at high revolutions. I am getting a 56-tooth chainring for motivation!

“Weight Training for Cyclists” is an up-to-date and comprehensive book that is invaluable in building a program to increase strength. Clearly-written, attractively-presented and reasonably priced, it belongs on the shelf of everyone interested in improving their riding.

Should anyone be interested, here is my current workout, designed to maximize strength. Most of it is a single set of six at maximum weight, although pullups are to failure (ouch) and a lot of the core exercises are for 20 or 30 reps.

Machine Squat
Leg Sled
One-Leg Sled
Hanging Leg Lifts
Pullups
Pushups
Deadlift
Bicep Curls
Lateral Raise
Lat Pulldowns
Pectorals
Seated Row
Plank
Side Plank
Ab Crunch on Ball
Ab Roll with Ball
Ab Bicycle
Ab Crunch
Back Extension

Of course, there are lots of other exercises to consider. In addition to the free weights and machines at my gym, I have a set of dumbells, a stability ball, a chin-up bar and lots of rubber resistance tubes at home. The tubes alone can provide an amazing workout! I also use the Fit Deck exercise card pack when travelling or for variety at home. Of course, you don't need any equipment at all since bodyweight exercises, like push-ups and crunches, are very effective. As you will recall, one of my New Year's Resolutions is to beat Groover's 100 push-ups in a row. I think my weight loss program will be easier...

A weight training program should be a fundamental component of training, coupled with the right nutrition. And nutrition will be the next stop on the Compleat Tour de Basement.

Weight Training for Cyclists: A Total Body Program for Power and Endurance
by Ken Doyle and Eric Schmitz
224 pages, illustrated
VeloPress; 2nd edition (November 18, 2008)
ISBN-10: 1934030295
ISBN-13: 978-1934030295
$18.95 list, but you can get it for $12.89 at you-know-where

The Compleat Tour de Basement: Introduction

Lance in his garage, getting fit.
Is this the best he can do for a home gym?
Photo: Art Streiber, Men's Health

I was alarmed to see the omnipresent Lance Armstrong appear on the cover of Men's Health magazine for January 2009. Alarmed for several reasons: a) he is smiling in the cover photo; b) he is now on every magazine cover in the world, having been on Outdoor magazine's cover in October, the December, January and February issues of Cycle Sport, not to mention the current Bicycling and c) the inside photos show him looking totally ripped, with hyper-defined abs and pecs. This is a cyclist? But Lance knows a thing or two from training as well as self-promotion if past results are any indication of future possibilities.

You have seen me refer to my extended off-the-road season ("Winter" is too kind) as the Tour de Basement. From the beginning of the bad weather in October I can be found on my time trial bike in the basement, watching old race videos or scenery DVDs or at the gym for spinning classes and weight sessions and doing some cross-training, such as cross-country skiing as well. I have an excellent coach who provides feedback to me and I maintain a detailed workout diary at http://www.trainingpeaks.com/ as well as a food diary at http://www.fitday.com/.

Although I am not a coach or trainer and profess no particular special insight, several years of doing this have given me some ideas about getting ready for the cycling season. In Ottawa I am basically training for seven full months to ride for barely five, and I have three weeks in summer that are the focus of my training. In 2003 I cycled the climbs of the Barolo wine country and the hills around Lake Como; in 2005 a dozen climbs in the Swiss Alps; in 2006 the hilly Black Forest and some climbs of the Tour de France; in 2007 the ballons of Alsace and more climbs in the Black Forest; and in 2008 the Route des Grandes Alpes in France, covering some of the most celebrated (and difficult) climbs of the Tour de France. This is in addition to my regular time trial racing on the flat, which of course has some different training requirements.

I have read very extensively and reviewed a number of cycling publications online. I now have a small collection of recent items related to training and I wanted to share them since they cover what everyone needs for their own Tour de Basement. I propose to do a short series here on Tin Donkey in the form of reviews dealing with books on weight training, nutrition and base training, along with my comments on training DVDs that have recently come on the market.

Until then, be entertained by Lance Armstrong training in Hawaii as he prepares for the Tour Down Under. This week in Ottawa it has been typically -28C (-18F) during the day and approaching -40C (-40F) with the wind or at night. This was clearly not the case in Hawaii. You will also note that Mr. Armstrong is using a 39-28 for the tougher parts of this climb.

Next: Weight Training for Cyclists

Keeping Fit in 2009

The Canadian Thanksgiving weekend passed in a blur for me. Instead of stuffing myself on pumpkin pie, I have finally begun to get seriously into training again:

Saturday: 90 minutes spinning class, followed by 90 minutes of relaxed cycling on the Marinoni (relaxed because it is clear I have to replace the middle chainring now)

Sunday: 60 minutes spinning class, followed by nearly 3 hours of climbing in Gatineau Park on the Tarmac

Monday: 75 minutes of cycling the Eastern Parkway with five high-spin 15 second intervals at 120 rpm on the Tarmac

The Leader time trial bike has been set up on the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine trainer and I have a new Power Computer installed to give me watts readings. I even rearranged the setting for the Tour de Basement so that I will not get any electronic interference on my heart rate monitor. Tonight will be the base-setting Short Duration Power Test. I will be soon summarizing my year of cycling and setting new goals for 2009.

Towards the end of the year I tend to find my motivation drops, which is pretty normal for most people. Knowing that the weather will only get colder and that I will be doomed to spend hours and hours and hours either in the basement or at the gym spinning or lifting weights is hard on morale but I will treat myself to some more racing DVDs and, yes, those cross-country skis and lessons. The other motivator will be the planning for our next assault on the roads of Europe in 2009; some ideas are already being hatched.

Speaking of Europe, two more of the participants at the Tour de France, which we watched in Briancon, have been found to have doped. They are the winner of both time trials and the King of the Mountains, who placed third overall. Both have signed with new teams and both, in my view, should, if the tests are beyond doubt, receive lifetime bans. The riders are obviously not getting the message and as a fan I have other things to spend my money on.

Both of these riders were part of the now-defunct Gerolsteiner team. While living in Germany I saw Manager Hans-Michael Holczer raise up his Continental-level team to the top ranks by 2001. He was someone who loved the sport and he and his family put a great deal into it. There were many highlights, including exciting wins by Davide Rebellin in particular in 2004, and support for a number of young and exciting riders, such as Markus Fothen and Fabian Wegman; there was and only one instance of doping I can find (one of the sprinters in 2005). In 2007 at the World Championships in Stuttgart, the Canadian team's bicycles were stolen and Team Gerolsteiner stepped up with loaners for the race.

Due to the bad odour of pro cycling in Europe, Herr Holczer was unable to find a replacement sponsor as Gerolsteiner was pulling out after ten years of support and the team was scheduled to race a final time in Sunday's Giro di Lombardia. Instead, it has been disbanded and Herr Holczer, who has been outspoken over the years on the subject of doping, has left cycling entirely. I feel disappointed for him but grateful for his efforts. To leave the sport in this way is unfair and uncalled-for.

Turning to that source of breaking sports news, the Economist, there was a nice piece about using high-technology to promote exercise (although nothing about sweating for seven months in the Tour de Basement!):

WE ARE constantly warned that we are becoming too fat. A third of American adults are already reckoned to be obese; a quarter of adult Britons; and, in the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru a staggering four-fifths of adults. The World Health Organisation forecasts that by 2015 (rather beyond our horizon) there will be 2.3 billion overweight adults in the world, including 700m who are obese (ie, with a body mass index of more than 30, compared with the “ideal” range of 18-25).

A safe prediction, therefore, is that exercise products will be heavily advertised in 2009—and perhaps even used. Already jogging fanatics can wear a chip in their Nikes that transmits to their iPod to be downloaded to their computers—which will then add to a graphic display of kilometres and routes covered, even gradients climbed, calories burned and speeds endured.

So what could be next in 2009? One project now in development targets the “road warrior” who tries to stave off the perils of fast-food and a spreading waistline by going to the hotel gym. The idea is to transmit a hotel guest’s athletic profile and needs ahead of check-in. All the guest will have to do is key in his or her code to the treadmill or other machine and the equipment will automatically adjust to the guest’s requirement for speed, tension, time or whatever.
Which leads to another safe prediction: there will be plenty of work for the maintenance men.

Riding with Coach Troy in New York State: A Recommendation

At this time of year I am hard at work, riding the Tour de Basement as the snow falls gently down outside. Maybe not so gently: we are promised the joys of 15-30 more centimeters (up to 1 foot, in the Old System) of the white stuff this coming Sunday.

Luckily I am one of the few people on the planet to actually admit to having no problem riding indoors for fairly lengthy periods. My personal record was the Braveheart Ride, when I watched the Mel Gibson film in its 3 hour entirety while turning the cranks.

My secret to indoor trainer success is to usually to watch old Tour de France/Giro/Tour of Flanders DVDs and pretend I am out there riding with the guys. This has worked well as there is nothing to detract from doing your own workout. My Cruel Coach has me doing the High Intensity Training regime of Dr. Arnie Baker and there is so much brutality in this that I can easily match my exertion to things like the 1 hour session of Marco Pantani climbing the Plateau de Beille.

In addition to my race library, I have several other DVDs that are training-specific. I will review these for the blog but I wanted to start with my most recent acquisition as I enjoyed it so much.

Coach Troy Jacobson of Maryland is well-known/notorious for his Spinervals training DVDs, which usually feature a team of cyclists riding indoors and creating serious sweat and tendon bulges while the coach walks around them and saying things like: "Good job!" This must appeal to people as the number of his DVDs seems to be increasing exponentially.

The latest series is one that features rides outdoors. Like, with scenery and movement. I purchased the second in the series. It features the Lake Placid Ironman loop of 56 miles. I would like to go south (Lake Placid is only 2 hours from here) and ride this course in Spring and thought it would be nice to see the route beforehand.

The DVD features Coach Troy himself riding the course. He is being followed by a car filming the whole thing, except for the sequences when the Coach Troy Cam gives you a cyclist's-eye-view of the road ahead. This helmet-mounted camera is a nice idea, but Coach Troy should spend a bit more money on equipment as the view always seemed a little blurry to me.

Coach Troy gives a running (rolling) commentary of the route and suggestions about where to go fast and where to pull back. He varies the gearing, and you can follow along: the DVD indicates the gearing, the time enroute and the level of exertion in percentage terms. Although it seemed to me that he was using the big chainring where I would probably not, it is very easy to follow along. You can listen to Coach Troy with music, or music without Coach Troy if you prefer.

Whiteface Mountain (5th highest in New York State)
Photo by Paul Duncan

You get a nice impression of the scenery as the DVD is divided up into segments and you pass through the village of Keen and through a series of nice rollers to Jay before getting in some good climbing. You can see Whiteface Mountain, famous as the site of the 1980 Winter Olympics alpine ski runs. Incidentally, there is a toll road that goes to the top and averages an 8 percent grade. It is described as being "challenging." The summit of the mountain is 1480 m (4867 feet) and the road gets to within 91 feet of the top. Hmmm.

Anyway, you can get in a lot of excellent training with this DVD. It is almost 3 hours in length and you can imagine that you are riding in the wild forests of the Adirondack State Park. Well, except that you spend most of the time actually looking at Coach Troy's butt but at least he is letting you slipstream him. The real Ironmen don't get that option in July.

Coach Troy offers the DVD at his website for $34, but I got it a bit cheaper on E-Bay.