Posted by: Coach Carter in Untagged on Jan 19, 2010
Sunday was a chance to get out on a ride with some of the PBscience athletes. In all, 12 of us headed out on to the roads of Surrey to enjoy a rare break in this winter weather. I certainly felt the Gods were smiling on us – the only day of sunshine and good road conditions in what feels like weeks! From the training diary comments I received the next morning, I think all the athletes enjoyed a chance to escape the turbo dungeons and get out into the real world. As we cycled around the Surrey hills, it was amazing to see the numbers of cyclists out on the road. Chris joked it must be the Surrey Sportif that day – he was right, and we were sure that the recent weather had caused many cyclists to go stir crazy and seize the chance to get out in the sunshine.
Riding in a group on Sunday was an opportune reminder of some of the issues Dan and I face as we move towards the camp in Majorca in a fortnight. For one, the recent weather driving people indoors to train has meant a degree of ‘rustiness’ has settled on the riders – it sounds odd, but people have almost forgotten how to ride a bike outside! I think nearly every rider reported how challenging it was to get a good quality session completed out on the road this weekend. As I reported the other week, turbo training is very different to road riding. One of the positives it brings to the programme is the ability to hit a target intensity and just sit there. You find the appropriate resistance and gear, then all you have to do is hold a cadence and “volia”, job done, target power hit. It is very similar to the sensations you get riding on the track – maybe that is why I enjoyed both modes of cycling – the numbers always add up. Programme them in, outcome achieved.
Outside is another issue, you have varied terrain, varied speed – you have to control gear selection, cadence whilst aiming at a power or heart rate. Whilst a turbo ride will deliver 90 to 100% of time ‘in zone’, a good outdoors ride will return 55 to 70%. Why not turbo all the time then? Well, maybe if you are entering the Virtual Time Trial Champs, hooked up to PC and competing against others over the internet! No, we HAVE to gain a range of skills to be the complete biker. A mix of both sessions is the ideal.
Of course, group riding brings another set of challenges – to the rider AND the coach. Most of the riders I work with tend to train alone, or with one training partner. It means they are able to focus on their training goals in the most effective way – its easier to hit a target pace or zone when its only you to control. Ride in a group of 8 riders, and you suddenly have 8 people all looking at their power meters all trying to hit their zones! It leads to issues ? Maybe due to rustiness, maybe due to a lack of group riding in general, Dan and I could see a lot of room for improvement in the group we were riding in.
To be fair, its hard to keep a group together when their steady zone 2 intensities range by 60 to 80W. In theory, it should be possible. If the stronger riders sitting on the front acknowledge they are stronger and that the benefit of some social riding is one to gain from as a nice change. Rather than wanting to hit the very top of their zone (which they can do week in, week out) if they compromise just 10 to 15W, they can still get a good ‘in zone’ workout, but also enable to group to stay together. I also encourage people to spin with a higher cadence – it allows the rider to hit an appropriate level of training stress whilst lowering the power and therefore the speed. This is also a good tactic if you find yourself in the bunch and not getting enough work sat there. Drop a gear, increase the cadence, and watch your heart rate for a given power go up. Use these strategies, and riders with zone 2 powers in the range of 160 to 180W can ride with riders on the front hitting 60W more, such is the energy saving of drafting.
The next consideration is keeping the group together on hillier terrain. Drafting, and therefore keeping a mixed ability group together, is a whole lot easier on the flat. Introduce a hill, and its more complicated – the heavier riders have to work harder, and the less strong riders have to dip further into their top end fitness reserves. For example, someone with a ‘steady power’ of 200W and a maximum of 330W is challenged more going up a hill than someone with 240W and 400W at steady and maximum powers respectively. Even riding conservatively up at 240W has taken someone deep into ‘zone 4’ territory...and venturing there will burn someone’s glycogen stores and affect them well into the ride. So again, riders in the group need to respect the WHOLE group. Just taking 10W off can protect the weaker riders and keep them going for longer. The whole group benefits – as there is less need to freewheel to let others catch up.
Freewheeling is actually next on my list of ‘things to improve’. Having spent my formative years as a cyclist riding with my club on a Sunday, it used to drive me nuts: riding hard up a hill, and then coasting down it. Better for the physiology to maintain a ‘steady effort’ throughout – watch the power meter on the ups and the downs: try to match the figures and you will not only get more time in your zone, you will keep a group together, and there will be less accidents as half wheeling on fast descents is avoided. When I met Dan for our weekly meeting on Monday morning, I was complaining about my legs – my average power wasn’t any different to my normal pace (if anything, it was 20 to 30W lower) but because I had spent considerably more time in zone 4 up the hills (and riding to the front to give ‘tips’ to the riders on the front!) my legs were fatigued in a different way. Of course, this means a different level of adaptation is probably going on which is wise to listen too in a total plan, BUT certainly at this time of year, repeated steady level effort is probably a more effective way to challenge things like efficiency, fat utilisation etc. The cornerstones of endurance base work at this time of the year.
The variability in a ride is something I keep a close eye on each morning when I analyse all the riders files. The Training Peaks WKO+ software actually gives a useful index of this. It compares the average power of the ride with the ‘normalised’ power of the ride. The ‘NP’ is the power that would induce the same heart rate (and presumably other physiology) if ridden at consistently. For example, my average power for the ride was around 150W, and my heart rate was 144bpm. Because the ride was hilly, I didn’t ride AT 150W all the way around. The Variability Index shows me I was riding above and below this average to such an extent that it pushed my HR up – to get 144bpm from a constant ride (e.g. on the flat, or on the turbo) I would have to have ridden at 175W – which is interestingly, my normal zone 2 power.
I was asked after the ride (in Caffe Nero, where else?) how all the riders’ power profiles would have looked from the day. So, here’s a little insight. The 12 of us split into 2 groups:
• Group 1 was faster ride, averaging 18.8mph. The powers in that group ranged from an average of 200 through to 266W (reflecting different group position and body size). Normalised power ranged from 230 to 290W, the associated VI being ~1.1%
• Group 2 was a bigger group, averaging 16.6mph. Powers in this group ranged from 140 to 195W. NP ranged from 170 to 254W. Interestingly, ~170W was the NP seen in 4 out of the 5 riders who had power meters that day. Another interesting feature was how much higher the VI was in this group – 1.2 to 1.3.
I think the differences between the groups here helps to illustrate how key a strategy to group riding is. The riders in group 1 are more experienced, and their ability to hold a more consistent power up and down hills, across group position is shown in the lower VI. You could argue they are more similar in fitness, but looking at their range of powers, it was similar to group 2 (i.e. ~60W). Of course, in group 2 we had twice as many riders, and that makes it more of a challenge, but I think this blog post has revealed some interesting facets to group riding.
Going back to a point I made earlier, it was certainly useful for me and Dan as we approach a whole week of group riding at camp. Balancing rider needs is critical to making the camp work. Encouraging each rider to take responsibility is key too. I am sure we will update you in due course!