Book Review: "Fast After 50" by Joe Friel

We are indeed living in the Age of the MAMIL—Middle-Aged Men in Lycra abound. Where once bicycles were sneered at as children's toys or for those too poor to afford motorized transport we now have astonishing two-wheelers, crafted of the highest of high-tech materials in the exotic Far East and featuring electronic shifting and featherlight wheelsets for five-figure sums that would buy excellent used cars. Gran fondo events have become all the rage in North America, catching up to European counterparts, and thousands are spent on travel packages to let the well-heeled enjoy the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix or retrace the Tour de France route itself. Middle age may not just bring the wherewithal to indulge in these luxuries but also some unpleasant surprises and noted coach and author Joe Friel brings succour to those who find their bikes losing weight in inverse proportion to themselves in his latest book “Fast After 50—How To Race Strong for the Rest of Your Life.”

Joe Friel has trained endurance athletes since 1980, including national champions, world championship contenders, and Olympic athletes in triathlon, duathlon, road cycling, and mountain biking.

He is an elite-certified USA Triathlon and USA Cycling coach and holds a master’s degree in exercise science. He conducts training and racing seminars around the world and provides consulting services for corporations in the fitness industry so he knows a great deal about athletics but the book had its genesis in his sudden realization that he was about to turn 70. He writes about his milestone birthday: “My greatest concern was that it might signal the beginning of the end of my lifelong adventure as a serious athlete. I simply didn't know what to expect.”

With six months to go until the dreaded day, he delved into the scientific literature to determine what his future might hold. Since writing a previous book (“Cycling Past 50”) published in 1998, he learned that the huge baby boom generation, a cohort entering their 60s in 2005, meant a significant increase in studies on aging and the patterns he saw in them came together in this new book.
“By the time we're in our 50s, it's just starting to become apparent that things are going the wrong way. The first thing that athletes typically notice around that age is that they don't recover from a race or a hard training session as quickly as they did a few years earlier. And not only that—race times are slowing, there's a loss of power, hills seem steeper, and other performance markers are also looking worse. What can be done?”

Apparently not all is lost! We learn that there is a surprisingly low deterioration in the performance of elite athletes as they move through their race age groups. But there is a reduction and Mr. Friel forces us to look at the grim truth in Part 1 of the book, entitled “Older, Slower, Fatter?” This examines the various theories of aging (and the book is festooned with footnotes to indicate just how much serious research went into it). There is a sad list of what happens with aging: skin loses elasticity; hair thins and turns grey; high-frequency sounds become more difficult to hear; sleep quality declines; bone density is reduced; the basic metabolic rate slows down, resulting in weight gain...well, that's enough for the general population. But for athletes this means aerobic capacity declines; maximal heart rate is reduced; muscle fibres are lost and so forth. The “Big Three” aging limiters for athletes are reduced by the author to:

1. Decreasing aerobic capacity;
   
2. Increasing body fat;
   
3. Shrinking muscles.
   

There is an inevitability to this but recognition of these three effects and the acceptance that one might not be as fast as one was in his or her 20s or 30s but that it is more important to live up to the potential fitness one might have is the heart of “Fast After 50.”

Frankly, it was disconcerting to read through this catalogue, as well-researched as it might be, and feel the cold breath of the Grim Reaper close by. The author realizes the effect and writes: “I know what you're thinking and I agree. There wasn't much in the way of good news in this chapter. Unfortunately, there's even more to the downside of aging that's been left unexplored. {In addition to the Big Three limiters}...we may also include other changes that senior athletes often experience, such as increased risk of injury and a weakened immune system that makes them more susceptible to disease.” Sigh.

Luckily, Part 2 arrives: Faster, Stronger, Leaner! This was designed to address the problems set out in the first section by noting that aging is a blend of genetics and lifestyle (in an unknown ratio) but research has shown that the process can be speeded up or reduced through something we can control. The physiology of training is no different with age although capacity may be reduced so it is by modifying our lifestyle we can truly reach the potential high performance of our athletic endeavours.

Given that the book is aimed at people who are already familiar with athletic activity, Mr. Friel does not need to go into detail about things like goal-setting but covers the importance of high-intensity training and avoiding the tendency to comfortable training levels and easier workouts that we slide into. With clear goals set we move onto periodization to avoid overtraining and then into advanced training that makes allowances for the aging athlete, including sections on strength training (not only to improve performance but to stop age-related loss of muscle mass) and on to the importance of rest and recovery. There is an entire chapter devoted to body fat and nutrition and how to deal with those shrinking Lycra™ jerseys. In addition to his own research, the author has called in interesting contributions from a number of noted sports figures, including the truly ageless Ned Overend of mountain bike fame.

The book ends on a hopeful note as the author believes that the baby-boomers will bring about statistical changes in the expected decline after 70. “If you count yourself among this group, then you are part of the most athletic and performance-focused generation in history. I believe you will rewrite the numbers in such a way that we may soon find that the rate of decline for athletes in their eighth decade of life is no greater than it was in the previous 10 years.”

Coach, author, competitor, septuagenarian: Joe Friel

Alas, a month after he reached 70 Mr. Friel crashed on a training ride when a strong gust of wind blew him into a curb. He broke seven bones and received a concussion and subsequently developed blood clots in his legs and lungs. He expects to be racing again on his 71^st birthday and invites his readers to write to him about their experiences with the ideas and suggestions in this thoughtful, well-written and groundbreaking book. We wish him a speedy and complete recovery and look forward to “Even Faster After 80” which we anticipate will come out in 2030. We will be ready!


“Fast After 50: How to Race Strong for the Rest of Your Life”
by Joe Friel
328 pp., some chart illustrations, paperback
VeloPress, Boulder, Colorado, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-937715-26-7
Suggested retail price: US$21.95
For more information about this and other VeloPress publications go to www.velopress.com

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

A Dusseldorf Training Circuit

It was a profitable day. For the first time in several weeks I woke up this morning with all the symptoms of a head cold, apparently a very common problem in Fall in Germany. I had organized myself enough yesterday that I spent part of the morning putting up the last of my pictures in the apartment. Previously, while living in Washington, DC, I had a nice big empty wall and, inspired by a collection of Indian paintings at the Renwick Gallery, I arranged all my cycling posters/certificates/cowbells to occupy all that space. One of my friends referred to it as "the Shrine." In Ottawa I did not have any suitable space so all the framed pictures stayed in boxes for three years. They have now been liberated as the Shrine has been reconstructed in D'dorf.

I did not have much time to admire my handiwork as Richard, he of Ricci-Sport, gave me a call. The weather was good enough (that is, not raining for once) so that we were able to go for a ride together. I met him at the shop at 11:30 and we headed out together. He had a different bicycle as his admirable silver Ricci singlespeed, which I had tried out a few weeks ago, had been stolen yesterday. He put together another bike to ride today, so off we went.

Richard is proud of the courses he has worked out in the area and today's was impressive: we live in the most densely-populated corner of Germany and yet almost all of the ride was on roads with no traffic, taking us past farms and through quiet valleys. The course was challenging as it includes some very difficult little hills. I actually had to walk up a piece of one. The 17% grade was hard enough but I lost all my traction on the rear wheel due to the wet leaves. He is also proud of the fact that we were never more than half an hour from the city, although our course was nearly 60 kms.

I did not feel 100% and climbing with a head cold is not easy as the increasing blood pressure tends to make your face hurt but I could not keep up to Richard anyway, even on my Marinoni which has a triple. How he can ride this course on a singlespeed is beyond me, although I think that in one or two spots he would have been happy to have some extra gears. He tells me that if I ride this course often enough I will have the legs and stamina for L'Eroica next October and I do not doubt it. And I hope that my weight will drop enough to make climbing hurt less!

We rolled back through Gerresheim and then back to Grafenberg, where it was time for coffee and cake at a little Konditorei I had noticed a while back since not a lot is open on Sunday. It was a delightful ride, although with 819 meters of climbing in 57.61 kms, I suspect I will sleep well tonight.

Unfortunately, it was too grey and nasty for photography but it was a joy to ride though the autumn colours. Perhaps not as impressive as what I would see in Ottawa but since there is snow there already I will not complain. Although the bike is filthy...

First Spring Training Ride

Last night the weather was so good in Ottawa that when I came home after work, I hauled the Ancient but Honourable Bianchi out of the basement and strapping on the heart rate monitor I rolled out at just after 6 pm. It was around 7C, which counts as "balmy" here, and it was sunny enough. The first stretch of road leading to the Aviation Parkway has gotten even worse over the winter, if that is possible: it has the worst collection of potholes and bad pavement anywhere in Ottawa, and possibly North America.

After heading north on the Aviation Parkway, I swung up the ramp onto the Eastern Parkway, passing the Aviation Museum where our time trials start. The asphalt is not too bad but after 2-3 kms becomes very good as it was only repaved a year ago. There were a few other cyclists out training but it was pretty quiet.

Here is what my Coach of Cruelty recommended as a 1 hour 15 minute training sequence:

Power Workout--Jumps.

Warmup for ~30 minutes by performing 3 spinups. Warmup is crucial for power workouts to prevent injury.

First spinup: 70 rpm to 110 rpm increasing cadence by 5 rpm each minute.

Second spinup: 70 rpm to 120 rpm increasing cadence by 5 rpm every 30 seconds.

Third spinup: 70 rpm to 130 rpm increasing cadence by 5 rpm every 30 seconds.

Finish rest of 30 minutes of warmup by spinning in easiest gear at 110 rpm.

Jumps: perform 3 sets of 8 jumps recovering 1 minute between jumps and 5 minutes between sets. Each jump is in an easy to moderate gear and consists of 12-15 complete pedal strokes. Half jumps out of the saddle, half in the saddle. Try for smooth, powerful, high cadence efforts. Try to make each jump more intense than the last, by increasing cadence or initial acceleration. If knee pain occurs, less the effort or stop.

Cooldown: spin at 100 rpm, easiest gear for 10 minutes.

The timing was ideal as I finished the cooldown and pulled back into my driveway at exactly 7:15 pm, just as the sun was setting with a spectacular red and purple glow. It was now much cooler, needless to say, but I felt a real sense of accomplishment with my training. When you have days like these, you have to grab them.

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: 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

Early Morning Training: A Good Thing

It is hard to believe, but there is a 5:20 in the morning as well as the afternoon. I know this because I got up to go training, which is a sign of true dedication to the cause. Actually, I may have gotten up at 5:20, but by the time I pumped up the tires and got dressed in a half-asleep, floundering kind of way it was closer to 6 am.

Training in the morning, once you wake up, is actually very good. There is no traffic or pollution or wind and you can really focus on the training. It was not very onerous today: I had to do some jump practices, spinning up quickly five times per set with a one minute recover. I did four sets with 3.5 minutes between sets as well. Before I knew it, I had 30 kms under my tires and was starting to head for home.

There are a far more cyclists than you would expect before 6 o'clock in the morning in Ottawa, with lots of commuters riding in to work. I did notice a Time Trial Guy, with his disc wheel, practicing on the course for tonight's Open Time Trial; I will do the one next Thursday.

By the time I headed for home the traffic had definitely picked up a great deal. The weather was gorgeous, although the humidity was up to 92 percent. I felt very virtuous as I pulled into the driveway but in need of some brutally strong espresso.

After entering my mileage on BikeJournal, I discovered that I have now surpassed 1500th place, moving to 1486th, out of some 6800 participants. Not quite podium, but I had a very late start to the season and the weather has not helped much in the last month. Next stop: 1,000th!

A Golden Oldie

I want to be as fast as Gordy Shields of El Cajon, California, who rode a 20 km time trial a few days ago in 44:53. Now, my best time trial to date has been 40 km in 1 hour and 2 minutes, so before you think I am regressing somehow the thing about Mr. Shields' ride is that he is presently 89 years old, and his ride knocked 12 minutes off of the previous US national best time in the 90+ age group. You can read about his ride here. I am not only impressed by his effort, but by the fact there are people out there competing in the 90+ age group at all!

Cycling is a great sport, and it is exciting to think that I might be still able to do it, and perhaps set my own records, another four decades from now. Of course, I may have to live in the San Diego area to do this but I can think of much worse things, such as training in the basement again for another five months. I still look back fondly at my January 2007 training session at Cycling Camp San Diego and would go back anytime.

A Scientific Approach To Training, revisited

I wrote this piece in Spring 2005 and as I continue on the Tour de Basement in preparation for yet another summer assault on the Alps it is fun to revisit it. There is a difference between training and working-out and my results in 2005, when I rode 11 Swiss/Italian Alpine pass roads in 6 days, convinced me that I just had to keep on doing this.

"Go, Go, Go!," my friend Ralph the Badger was shouting in the distance, along with my coach. My dim brain could barely comprehend what was happening as the words filtered in. I was totally focused on grinding out yet another turn of the pedals as my familiar bicycle turned into a torture instrument, forcing me to ride up what felt like at 25 per cent incline. Worst of all, I was breathing as hard as I could but getting almost no air into my lungs because an ogre was stamping on my chest and suffocating me. In fact, I was taking a test indoors to determine my VO2 max and my lactate threshold. Not only had I willing agreed to do this, but I was even paying for it.

I would consider myself an average recreational rider. Just out of high school in 1974, I made my first serious bike tour, riding from London to Munich with my best friend and discovering I loved cycling. Of course, back then I was strong and slim, albeit less charming and sophisticated than now, but as the years went by I never forgot that great ride. In 1998 I moved to Germany for a four year assignment and discovered cycling Euro-style, with trips to Mallorca, Belgium, Sicily, Holland, Switzerland, the entire Camino de Santiago and all over Germany. But when I rode with my friends I found that I often could not keep up well on hills and was determined to improve this.

Fast-forward to Washington, DC. After moving to the city in 2002 and joining a bicycle touring club, I found that I was able to do more riding than ever before. I also was climbing more hills than ever before as we often rode in the shadow of the Blue Ridge. In a moment of insanity I signed up for the cheerfully-named Mountains of Misery Tour and discovered that I was still not very good at hills. But a year later, and 15 pounds lighter, it was a lot easier when I did my second MoM. And thus a plan was hatched.

In 2000 I rode several passes in the Swiss Alps and I was so taken with the beauty of the region that I vowed to return. But I also vowed that I would not wheeze and gasp my way over the passes as I had done then. It was always my experience that the best tours I did were the ones where I felt most at one with the bicycle, when my conditioning let me enjoy the scenery without being distracted by the hardships of pedalling.

At the end of October 2004 I decided to Get Really Serious and take advantage of the coaching services that have sprung up all over the United States. I bought a good heart rate monitor, an expensive home trainer, and even a great big fan to keep me cool. I got all kinds of bicycle race DVDs to watch but to set the whole thing in motion I clearly needed Professional Help. This would not be a surprise to those who have known me any length of time, but what I was looking at would mean a much greater commitment to my hobby. But as someone with a desk job I looked at this as an investment in my future health as well. The most obvious benefit would come in August 2005 when my goal is to do a week’s tour in the Swiss Alps, covering 12 passes, including the fearsome Stelvio with its 46 hairpin, turns in seven days.

To prepare myself, I stocked up on books written by training luminaries such as Joe Friel and Chris Carmichael, and searched the Internet for any useful information about training I could find. I now have several binders full of Useful Suggestions, but you don’t get fit by reading. So I then found a coach near me who offered training programs and the opportunity to take tests at a facility a short drive away. My friend Ralph wanted to do the test as well, although he was not planning on signing up for coaching.

I was chosen to be the lucky first contestant. My bicycle was set up on a home trainer. A heart rate monitor (HRM) transmitter was strapped on to my chest and then a neoprene mask with tubes sticking out of was fitted to my face, below my eyes. There was a computer wired up that the coach was operating. The idea was that I would keep pedalling at a comfortable and regular cadence as resistance on the trainer unit was increased each minute. The set-up was able to determine how much oxygen I was consuming and how fast I was exhaling CO2. This is used to calculate what is essentially lung capacity (maximal aerobic capacity, technically), something that is more representative of good genes than of fitness. For example, two of the Tour de France’s great riders–Lance Armstrong and Miguel Indurain–could boast VO2 max levels (expressed in milliliters of oxygen per kilogram per minute) of 88 and 80 respectively, compared to the average person’s level of 50.

Of more importance is establishing baseline level for "Lactate Threshold" (LT). Without being too scientific about it, this is the maximum effort you can sustain for extended periods without, well, blowing up. If insufficient oxygen to going to your muscles using the aerobic metabolism, your body must rely on the anaerobic metabolism. What you get is a build-up of lactic acid, which causes your muscles to hurt a whole lot and you eventually have to slow down or stop. The purpose of the test is to determine at what heart rate LT is reached and then you can use that figure to develop a training plan. While VO2 max can’t be changed a great deal, the LT can be raised through training to represent a higher percentage of VO2 max.

So my curiosity thus led me to be strapped onto my bicycle so I could pretend to be an elite athlete. There was a long warm-up first; then the first few minutes of the test went swimmingly as I kept a steady pace and thought positive thoughts. At the 5 minute mark I was finding it a little more difficult; at 10 minutes it was getting noticeably harder. At 14 minutes, bad things were beginning to happen as I was starting to feel the mask constrict me as I tried to breathe heavily to match my exertion. The last two minutes, which took me to 17:08, were horrible as I was gasping, trying to breathe and my legs felt like concrete blocks. Who is doing all that groaning? Wait–it’s me! Get me off of here–I only cycle for fun! My head was throbbing and I felt as if I would do anything to get off the stupid bike and end the idiotic test. But I survived.
Mind you, Ralph had to take the mask off because I did not have the strength or coordination to do it myself. I was too busy gasping. And he took great pleasure in telling me how awful I looked. It needed a good ten minutes of gentle spinning for me to feel sort of normal again. And when the computer printout was completed, I learned that my VO2 max was 58.4 (hmm, no Indurain there) and my LT was reached at a heart rate of 155 bpm. According to the printout, the latter was 76% of my VO2 max. This meant I was a good candidate for improvement through training as you can be trained up to 90% of VO2 max. Most importantly, I now had a baseline to determine the correct intensity of my workouts. No two individuals are alike in heart rate or LT or recovery time, so these tests are only useful for measuring your progress.

In the four months since then, I have religiously followed my workout program. The first part, at what seems like bizarrely slow speeds, has been primarily to improve my endurance. After this initial stage, I will move into the realm of training closer to the LT. My coach has encouraged me to develop training goals for the year and has suggested doing some racing to improve my cycling skills and focus my training. And of course, proper nutrition is a major element of getting in condition, but that’s another story.

Most cyclists don’t race, but training is valuable for anyone going on a bike tour. There is often the added weight of panniers to consider and if there are no hills, there are always headwinds. After a great day of riding and a well-deserved dinner, getting up the next morning and heading off to new adventures should be something to look forward to rather than being endless torture.
On the subject of torture, Ralph had his chance to be tested too and I did not neglect taking the opportunity to point out when I removed the mask from his face how pale he looked, and how pink his eyes had become.

Book Review: The Hour

The Hour: Sporting Immortality the Hard Way
by Michael Hutchinson
Yellow Jersey Press, 2006


In 2004, there were stories circulating suggesting that multiple Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong might go after the legendary World Hour Record of cycling. Given his immense power output and single-minded dedication to training, this seemed like a great idea. And the stories got better: he would do the ride at altitude; he would do it in a specially-built velodrome that would be only used once and then torn down. It would have been a sensation and I, for one, would have paid good money for a ticket to see Big Tex go round and round and round for an hour at insanely high speed. But it did not come to pass. The Hour Record has been a target of many of cycling’s greats–held by Coppi, Anquetil, Merckx, Indurain–but Michael Hutchinson is, in spite of being an excellent rider at the national level, admittedly not one of these. An academic, he came to bike racing very late and thanks to the support of a large bike company was able to turn his passion for cycling into a professional career, albeit one that focused pretty much entirely on time trialling in the United Kingdom.

His book is about his attempt to go after the Hour Record at the Manchester Velodrome, a record which he felt was attainable and could be accomplished by the rather modest Team Hutchinson, which seems to have numbered no more than six people. This is a shoestring project but the author puts in an enormous effort to succeed. After recounting the history of the Hour Record, of which the international cycling governing body, the UCI, has, through its bizarre rule changes, reduced the lustre, he writes of his own career and how he wished to go out with some glory. Seizing on the idea of the Hour Record, suggested by a friend, he sets about organizing his training and equipment in a methodical, even obsessive manner, that does not seem to equate with reality very often. It is clear that self-reliance has pitfalls. Pursuing a record at a velodrome is hard enough, but when you need to do it on a bicycle similar to that ridden by Eddy Merckx in 1972 it becomes a serious issue just in terms of acquiring materiel. In an ideal world, Mr. Hutchinson should have been left to focus on his training preparation, rather than chasing around for parts and, in the book’s grimmest chapter, picking up frames from a courier at Heathrow and dragging them home in their gigantic box.

Geeky, obsessive and seemingly more terrified of losing than inspired by winning, the author is not so good at dealing with the inevitable setbacks. His description of the war between road racers and time triallists in post-war Britain suggests that there might in fact be a difference between the two tribes. And in the background is the goofy UCI, which decided that it did not like Graham Obree breaking the record in 1994 and decided in 2000 that all the records after Merckx’s effort in 1972 did not count. The post-1972 records became classified as “Best Hour Performance” and the rules now mean that it is unlikely that Chris Boardman’s 1996 distance of 56.375 km can be bettered. The Merckx record has now become the benchmark for “the Athlete’s Hour,” which does not permit any aerodynamic features on bike or rider. Chris Boardman, riding at the Manchester Velodrome in 2000, broke Merckx’s record with a ride of 49.441 km and then ended his career. It was this record that Michael Hutchinson wished to better.

The book is certainly quirky, befitting its author, and the climax seems to come with the chapter featuring the Heathrow handover, rather than the record attempt ride itself. Mr. Hutchinson is a gifted athlete who can do a 40 km time trial in 48 minutes but he is often so self-deprecating in the book that he begins to sound like one of those bungling amateurs, a sort of two-wheeled Scott of the Antarctic, so beloved by the British. This conflicts with the impression given by the amount of time he spends training for the attempt and dilutes that story of someone who, with minimal resources but clear talent, wants to accomplish something big. The book, which is primarily of interest to cyclists, is rather basic when talking about training and rather sparse on technical information. And it would have been nice to have some photographs of the principals, including the author’s valiant girlfriend, Louisa.

For those of us who open themselves to the challenge of athletic competition and believe it is better to set a high goal and fail than a small one that does not test us, the book could be more inspirational. The Athlete’s Hour has become of little consequence now in the world of pro cycling but it is enjoyable to read about Mr. Hutchinson’s struggle with Mr. Murphy’s Law.