These days, my day job, and the majority of the small amount of private consulting I do, is generally focused on general health (interesting) and weight loss (yawn) – unsurprising when you consider the numbers who are unhealthy and over weight. However, I maintain a strong interest in human performance and assist a few athletes where I can with their endeavours, particularly those involved in endurance sport, and especially those who have all things cycling as their first love. In the same regard as I review aspects of nutrition research from an evolutionary biology perspective, I take the same approach with sport and performance.
My previous writing on the topics of paleo sports nutrition and training is currently enjoying an increase in readership, thanks in no small part to some much appreciated link love from Mark Sisson. In summary, I believe that by applying a combination of low-intensity training, high-intensity training, strength training, high-fat nutrition, and, in race situations, plenty of safe-starch carbohydrates, a paleo framework and competitive endurance sport are highly compatible. I get frustrated though when I see people blindly follow the conventional practices of elite athletes, believing that what they do is healthy by virtue of the fact that they are super-fit (or at least fitter than average).
When you see young teens and 20-somethings, who are largely propped up by mum and dad, allowing them to ride several hours per day (or park up on the couch relatively stress-free when they aren’t), who are fit, thin, and can get away with consuming large volumes of liquid carbs (sports drinks, energy drinks, and beer, typically), becoming role models for the middle-aged man with a job, family, and mortgage, it’s hard not to despair. Sure these young guys are fast – really fast. And they are often lean (although many are tending toward being skinny-fat). But while we can see their performance on the outside, we can’t see the state of their metabolic machinery on the inside. And I can’t help but to think that many of their practices, in pursuit of performance, are perhaps priming their bodies for later expression of damage and ill-health. Indeed, when you read about the impact of Mark Sisson’s competitive history on his body, it’s not unheard of (not to mention that many endurance athletes tend to go to seed when their athletic careers wind up).
Perhaps for those who really want to be at the peak of their sport, there are sacrifices to be made… some of the practices that you need to engage in, whilst increasing performance, will possibly/probably decrease health. Yet we have, with the surging popularity of endurance sport participation amongst the middle-aged (and particularly the likes of cycling), people who already have a degree of poor health trying to emulate the training and nutrition practices of elite athletes who may well be getting well paid to do what they do, with the health sacrifices they make. These weekend warriors, with their high levels of visceral fat and insulin resistance start chugging back the carbohydrate drinks to fuel the high volumes of lactate threshold training and racing they are trying to engage in, week in, week out. They select to emulate the parts of an elite athlete’s programme that looks like it is doing the business – that 70-80% no mans land training… And when they start to lose traction with that – when the return on time invested begins to slow – the answer becomes to simply do more training volume at that intensity. If 500km per week isn’t getting you where you need to be, perhaps it needs 600km?
For the people I work with, simply getting them healthy gets them a long way toward their performance goals by itself. This is where a paleo lifestyle comes in. I focus on getting the base diet sorted – cutting the sugar, the industrial oils, and the grains, and adding back in a nutrient-rich diet. The vast majority of people I see are weak – very weak. Weaker than what they think they are. So I want them to get strong – very strong. Some need to do less endurance work than they are currently doing, and they need to do it less intensely. Lowering the intensity and volume early on often helps them with the dietary changes they are facing and buys them some more energy to focus on strength.
At some point we also tackle some high-intensity efforts. This is a learned skill – it takes time to develop enough strength and power to extract more out of your body at the high-end. Ask people new to high-intensity training to sprint, and invariably you seen something akin to a fast run or a slow aerobic wind up on the bike. I recall having a client a few years ago who was scheduled to do 30 sec “full-power” intervals. Thirty-second intervals of everything you have got, especially when you start doing more than 6 of them, should bury you. This client loved them as they were “really easy”. It turned out her idea of a sprint and my idea, were two different things. She didn’t actually have a sprint.
For those who have race aspirations, it becomes important to get people to distinguish between racing and training. People often mistake the two, thinking that you must be feeling in peak physical condition and fully fuelled up for every training session. You see people so afraid that their carbohydrate stores are too low for training and they fear the feeling of heavy legs, that they are pouring sports drinks into themselves for every session they undertake. They don’t realise that it is okay to be under-fuelled for some sessions, or that heavy legs don’t always mean slow or weak legs… that pushing the envelope in training helps with adaptation and makes one stronger and faster for race day. Contrary to popular cycling lore, not every ride is a race, and as an old coach I used to work with once wrote, racing can get in the way of training.
These are all changes I have made myself to my own training structure, and while I am far from elite, even as a weekend warrior, I am in the best shape of my life and I’m probably only 6-8 weeks of structured specific training away from being in good race condition at any stage. I obviously do the high-fat paleo diet as my base diet (though I would generally flick over to a high carb diet a day or so out from any race heading out to the 2+ hour mark), and I have been a fan of strength and high-intensity interval training for a long time. More recently, I have been teaching myself the art of training more at the bottom end of the intensity scale, and even in a short period of time, I have seen improvements in the speed at which I can sit for hours at a time well below my anaerobic threshold. Collectively, these things have improved my health no end from where it was in my conventional wisdom days, and allow me to really enjoy the sport I love so much, relatively injury-free.
Reinforcement of some of the things I have been doing came recently in the form of the latest Peak Performance newsletter. This latest issue covered updates in three key areas of training and nutrition – interval training, carbohydrate nutrition, and using resistance training to increase power. I’d like to share the highlights here.
Interval Training
The Paleo/Crossfit world is a big fan of interval training in all of its various forms – perhaps too much so at times. A steady stream of research over the last 10-15 years has highlighted how a well-constructed programmed based around short anaerobic intervals can net you at least the same gains as longer aerobic intervals. One of my first real attempts at using intervals for my own training was based on a summary of research in this article which showed 30-second full-noise intervals paired with longish 4.5 minute recovery periods. These were tough sessions, but with a return on investment well-worth the pain. Being more of a power-based rider, this method of training was far more suitable to my style of riding than doing long (and to me), tedious aerobic intervals.
The latest Peak Performance newsletter builds on that article that first inspired me.
…grinding out steady state, one-pace workouts will only really produce performance gains in the earlier stages of training. Once you reach the performance plateau that one-paced training inevitably brings, you need to challenge the muscles and energy systems in your body in order to produce further gains in aerobic capacity and power. Of course, you could just up your basic training pace, but a significant increase in pace sustained over your normal training cycle would place a lot of stress on your body, leaving you both exhausted and injury-prone.
The newsletter focuses on a handful of relatively recent studies comparing interval training with longer aerobic efforts. The first compares 7x 30-second all-out sprint efforts with 3x 20 minute long-duration aerobic intervals (~87% of VO2max).
Swedish scientists looked at the effects of two types of cycling sessions on genetic markers for mitochondrial biogenesis in elite cyclists. Mitochondria can be thought of as the ‘aerobic energy factories’ within our cells. All other things being equal, a higher density of mitochondria in muscle cells means a higher aerobic capacity. An increase in these genetic markers of mitochondria synthesis essentially means the genes are ‘switching on’ the process of making new mitochondria in cells.
During long intervals, the total work performed was 8 times greater and the exercise duration 17 times longer than during the sprint intervals. Muscle samples were taken before and three hours after exercise in order to measure the changes in levels of genetic markers of mitochondria synthesis.
…the post-exercise increase of three key markers of mitochondria synthesis was just as large after the sprint intervals as the long intervals. Moreover, a fourth marker was only raised after the sprint interval training – not after the long intervals. The fact that the key genetic markers were elevated similarly after both short, low-volume sprint intervals and longer (more traditional) aerobic type intervals indicates that the short sprint intervals were just as effective at increasing mitochondria density, which is a key determinant of aerobic performance.
A study from the U.S. focused on intervals for triathletes…
The subjects performed four different types of interval sessions on a cycle ergometer, which were as follows:
1. 90% of maximum power output for 30 seconds;
2. 90% of maximum power output for 3 minutes;
3. 100% of maximum power output for 30 seconds;
4. 100% of maximum power output for 3 minutes;The researchers found that compared with the 3-minute intervals, the 30-second intervals allowed the triathletes to perform longer overall sessions, with higher total and average oxygen consumption levels. Compared to 100% maximum power, the 90% maximum power intervals also allowed the triathletes to perform longer sessions with higher total oxygen consumption. The researchers concluded that the best way to increase the total time spent at high intensity during intervals and maximise oxygen uptake (i.e. maximise the training effect) is to perform short (30-second) intervals at 90% maximum power rather than to perform longer, harder efforts.
So it looks like short intervals compared to longer aerobic efforts offers at least the same benefit for less time invested. But what about comparing two different lengths of short interval? Say 10-sec with 30-sec? A recent Canadian study did just that, splitting subjects into four different interval training protocols.
1. 30-second interval, 4 minutes rest (average intensity 89% of peak power)
2. 10-second interval, 4 minutes rest (average intensity 96% of peak power)
3. 10-second interval, 2 minutes rest (average intensity 95% of peak power)
4. no training (control group)The subjects trained three times per week for two weeks. Each session initially consisted of 4 intervals, but this was raised to 6 intervals over the 2-week period.
The researchers found that all three interval protocols produced gains in maximum oxygen uptake, 5K time-trial performance and maximum power outputs. The aerobic, time trial and peak power gains were greatest in the 30-second interval group but still significant in both of the 10-second groups.
The common theme running through these three studies is the superiority of 30-sec intervals, performed at an intensity of around 90% of maximum effort. This is a little different from how I have performed these intervals in the past, where I have used the 175% of peak aerobic power output protocol (translated: everything you have got on any particular day). Is this 30/90 protocol proving to be a bit of a sweet spot? More evidence…
A Norwegian study on trained cyclists found that shorter intervals pedalling at 90% maximum intensity produced better performance gains (in terms of the maximum power that could be sustained for long periods) than cycling at a maximum intensity of 88% using intervals twice as long. However, when the researchers halved the interval time again but asked the cyclists to compensate by pedalling at 94% of their maximum intensity, they found that performance actually fell.
The authors of this newsletter make the following comments, which I wholeheartedly agree with…
For many endurance athletes, there’s a reluctance to contemplate the use of high-intensity intervals. One of the main reasons for this is that this type of training is normally associated with explosive power or sprinting ability, neither of which are of primary importance for endurance events…
…this is not to say that the core of an endurance-training programme shouldn’t be aerobic based; it should, and lower-intensity (70-75% maximum heart rate) aerobic work should still comprise the bulk of any endurance athlete’s workload. However, the crucial point is that the high-intensity interval work should be just that – high intensity.
These points reinforce what is known as polarised training whereby one performs the bulk of their training (75-80% of total volume) at a relatively easy aerobic pace (you might consider this the traditional “fat-burning zone”), with another 10-20% of training performed at the very top end – our sprint interval protocols. The marry’s quite well with Mark Sisson’s laws of “move around frequently at a slow pace” and “move very fast once in a while”.
Putting these 30/90 intervals into practice, it is suggested that 4-8 intervals of 30 seconds at 90% of maximum power output, with 4-4.5 minutes recovery will produce good results. These might be performed 1-3 times per week, depending on season and stages of training relative to key events. It may take a bit of testing and trialing to dial in the right intensity; too low and the effort might not be high enough to be of benefit; too high and the increased training load can become counterproductive, inducing too much fatigue.
A couple of last points;
- The total volume of time spent training doesn’t necessarily correlate to the gains produced; in effect this means that endurance athletes may well get better performance gains by cutting out some of their long, slow distance work in order to make way for some intense intervals.
- Beware of performing too many longer (lactate threshold) interval sessions – the evidence suggests that too much lactate threshold work is counterproductive (possibly because it imposes a high training load and recovery demand on the body without maximising the training stimulus).
Carbohydrate Nutrition
The second article focuses on ensuring adequate carbohydrate for training and racing. This is more of a conventionally-focused article and while I agree with the need to ensure and adequate muscle and liver glycogen status during racing, I don’t believe that glycogen levels need to be maximised for training. I very much subscribe to a train low, race high approach in that regard. However, a couple of interesting points did come out of this article.
At several points during the article, there is reference to the digestive discomfort that can go with trying to consume high levels of carbohydrate. Despite the need to keep carbohydrate oxidation rates high during a race (particularly once you have started taking in exogenous carbohydrate – once you start, you are generally committed), getting the balance wrong can lead to a lot of gastrointestinal distress.
Most sports drinks are relatively dilute (typically 4-8% by volume). Thus, obtaining 1 gram per minute of carbohydrate from sports beverages requires 750-1500 ml per hour during exercise. Obtaining 1.8 grams per min of multiple transportable carbohydrates requires a whopping 1800mls per hour of a 6% carbohydrate drink!
However, carbohydrate intake can be augmented with highly concentrated carbohydrate gels, energy bars, and other carbohydrate-rich foods, which also appear to be oxidised at relatively high rates during exercise. For example, the same 1.8 grams per min of carbohydrate could be obtained via 2 typical gel packets (25 g of carbohydrate per packet) and a more manageable 965mls of carbohydrate beverage; or potentially 3 gels and 550mls of beverage.
Regardless of the specific strategy utilised, high levels of carbohydrate intake may not be tolerable or practical for some athletes. Indeed, even the lowest fluid intake indicated above is higher than the voluntary intake of most athletes.
This last point was emphasised more in a post published today by sport scientist, Alex Hutchinson…
Based on the latest lab research, Dr. Stellingwerff tells the endurance athletes he works with to aim for 10 g/kg of carbohydrate the day before the race – an amount that virtually none of the amateur runners in the London study reached. Only 31 of the 257 runners even managed to reach seven g/kg – a clear indication, Dr. Stellingwerff says, that most of the runners didn’t start the race with full fuel stores…
…There are also legitimate concerns about how your stomach will respond to a superdose of carbs. The numbers are daunting: A 70 kg runner would have to down 16 cups of cooked pasta over the course of a day to get 10 g/kg of carbohydrate. So it’s easy to understand why so many runners can’t do it.
What was also interesting from the above article was that carbohydrate intake really only needed to be maximised a couple of days out from race day, and for the marathon at least, what was taken in during the race actually made little difference.
With regard to taking in carbs during a race, whilst there is a bit of research around to say that small amounts of fructose added to glucose-based solutions increases carbohydrate uptake and oxidation (marginally), it is more likely to be fructose that will cause gastrointestinal upset. Therefore, I would advise people to utilise glucose-only based solutions and experiment with medium-chain triglyceride supplementation. A work in progress to experiment with that mix.
At a practical level, the authors of the Peak Performance article make the following suggestions;
- If you participate in short, intense endurance events (ie a 30-minute 10km runner), there is little evidence that carbohydrate can aid performance, and risks of gastrointestinal problems outweighs any benefits – don’t worry about carbohydrate intake during the race.
- During intense events of approximately an hour, carbohydrate may augment performance. However, it is unlikely that high intakes of carbohydrate will produce improvements in performance compared to lower carbohydrate intakes.
Looking at these recommendations from a training perspective, and combining this with our polarised training (longer low-intensity “fat-burning” and shorter, high-intensity efforts), we can see how an athlete can get away with sitting at the lower end of the carbohydrate intake spectrum (this isn’t to say that an athlete should go super low-carb by some people’s definitions, but an intake of 150-200g per day is still relatively low for an athlete) and still maintain good training volumes.
Power Through Strength
Lastly and briefly, I’ll pull a single line out of an article regarding power training for athletes…
Power equals force applied per unit of time. It follows therefore that baseline strength is an important component of the power equation.
Essentially, if you want to develop power, even in an endurance capacity, it pays to get strong first (with absolute strength requirements varying by sport, of course).
I’ll finish this rather long post with a quick plug for a good friend, Chris Highcock. Chris runs the very excellent Conditioning Research blog, and has come to be one of my go-to sites for all manner of health-related information. Chris does a stirling job there, so if you haven’t visited his site yet, you are most definitely missing out.
Chris is a keen hiker and regularly posts pictures from the spectacular Scottish countryside in which he resides. Chris openly acknowledges that it is his strength training that helps get him up the hills considerably more easily than he would otherwise, and keeps him injury-free and enjoying his outdoor escapes. I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of Chris’ latest e-book Hillfit and I managed to sit down over the last weekend to give it a read. It is a superb book for anyone wanting the basic nuts and bolts of getting strong enough to enjoy their outdoor endeavours. Chris has written this relatively specifically for hiking, but it is easily applicable to many other areas. Go check it out.
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Great post. Just working through the details of the interval training section, and I have a question: the studies seem to refer to 90%’ish of max power output, but you at one point refer to it as 90%VO2max. Is this really what it is? 90% VO2max does not seem too challenging for intervals, and I would have assumed that max-power refers to some kind anaerobic max, rather than the aerobic max?
Thor,
From the studies linked to –
- Swedish study – “All out”
- U.S. study – 90% of maximum power output
- Canadian study – “sprint intervals”
- Norwegian study – 90% of HRpeak
So a bit all over. If we go back to the older article, they referred to 175% of peak aerobic power, which puts you right up into a high anaerobic zone.
I’ve corrected my comment to say 90% of maximum power.
Hi Jamie,
Another great post, as a very keen British cyclist, I’m loving and learning loads about how to train more efficiently from your most recent posts, thank you for taking the time to work on these subjects.
I’m entered into the Etap du Tour this coming year, training has started (strength training and lower intensity rides at the weekend with some recovery rides and intense sessions in the week) and its going great
But, I was wondering if you have given any thought to nutrition on longer rides 5-8 hours: I’ve been eating a mix of bananas, gels and sports bars (I’d much like to dump the gels and sports bars as they are nasty, but I’m not sure what would work)
Thank you from a big fan
Gutsy
Thanks Mark – Great stuff on the Etap du Tour.
As far as food is concerned, I would be aiming to keep it real, and to have a play with making your own bars using the likes of coconut oil in the mix. I think there are some recipes floating around on Mark’s Daily Apple for “energy balls”. And have a look for drinks which are glucose/maltodextrin only.
Great, thank you
I’ll have a look see and get cooking.
On the strength and conditioning front i’ve been following http://bretcontreras.com/ a great blog on glute strength training.
Mark
I love Bret’s work. Can’t go wrong there.
Thanks, once again, for providing thought-provoking ideas on endurance training. I’ve been using your polarized training ideas, very similar to Brian MacKenzie’s Crossfit Endurance, for the past few months, to much ridicule and consternation from my fellow cycling team mates. You just gave me some new ammunition to back up what I’m doing.
Chris
Thanks Chris,
No matter what you do, there will always be people telling you it is wrong. But at the end of the day, all you can do is trial it and see if it works for you. None of this HIT/polarised training/strength training stuff offers the ONLY way of doing things, but I do believe it is an alternative that will keep you competitive and plug some of the health gaps created for cyclists when they step off the bike, which aren’t well addressed by conventional training.
Thanks for the support Jamie.
This is a superb post….tour de force in terms of sports nutrition!
Thanks for the pointers to some really interesting research. I’ve been doing the traditional 2x20s, but am keen to try this protocol as well.
Out of curiosity, how/where do you do these intervals? On the road or on a trainer? If on a trainer, how do you stop your back wheel from spinning up when you try max. power?
I generally prefer to do the intervals on the road, but over winter I will do some on the trainer. Plenty of tension on the roller helps, but some slip is almost inevitable.
OK, thanks Jamie. I might try extending the intervals with a few seconds for a ramp-up period to allow for some wheelspin rather than trying an “instant-on” approach.
Just discovered your Blog this morning. Overwhelmed with all the great articles. I am going to have to start wearing my Garmin to the gym for the stationary bike. I just tried a 10 x 60 on the bike but will be switching it up to the 6 x 30/90. (assuming my 90 of max is 220 – 50yr = 90 of Max) Please, correct me if I’m miscalculating.
Love the Train Low Race High. I’ll be incorporating this approach on my day or so cut back on carbs just before my weekend training long runs. Jamie, Would you recommend me going with the Protein and Oils on those fasts?
Hi Joe
I’d caution about using HR targets to set your intervals to… too much lag in the system and the 220-age formula is a bit rubbish. If the bike you are using has a power reading, it might be best to play around with that. In essence, you will want to be going flat out but in such a way that the full number of sets can be completed with high quality. If you do 6 and think it was easy, perhaps not hard enough… if you do three and start to really fade, perhaps too hard. It will be trial and error without such devices as power meters.
I advocate a relatively high fat and protein diet by conventional standards due to my buy-in with the paleo diet. This would be my “low” base, and fasting is exactly that – no food (though using medium chain fats might allow you to achieve the same result).
Jamie~ thanks for the Max Output breakdown! I don’t like hassling with my chest HR belt when going to the gym anyways.
I’ll continue using Wild Pacific caught Pink Salmon for my Protein and natural occurring Oils. I’ve been swigging my (long chain triglycerides fish oil approx 5g EPA 3.3g DHA 300mg LA
Great article.
I do sprints on a stationary bike. I’ve adapted a Tabata workout with 20 second sprints (all out) with 40 second rest in between (I do 8 sprints). I’m beat by the end. In your opinion, is the short rest period counterproductive? How rested should I be before the next sprint?
Thanks.
I don’t think that structure is overly counterproductive, though as always, one needs to consider these things within the bigger context of everything else you are doing.
In terms of rest, for such a session, it is more a case of allowing your autonomic nervous system to recover. Sprint work takes its toll on the ANS. The more extensively you do the sprints, the more recovery you require. Keep in mind too that sprint training and resistance training overlap, so becareful if you are doing both to not overly compartmentalise everything you do. But if that is all you are doing, I’d consider 3-4 days plenty of time before you might apply that stimulus again.
I do this purely for health reasons (my competitive days are behind me and I’ve recently achieved my weight loss goals) and only once a week. My sprints are all out. I do resistance training (ala Body by Science/Slow burn) once to twice a week. I understand what you’re saying, and will modify accordingly. Thanks for the feedback–it’s appreciated.
Jamie,
Love your blog page and info. I live in Boston, USA and have to cycle on the turbo with a power meter in the winter. I do all out sprints 10 sec on with 2 ” recovery in between, and I do a series of 6-10 sprints depending on how I feel. I am a paleo for 2yrs , and eat low carb in the winter, except for rides out doors when i use gels and electrolyte drinks with a good protein/carb meal after or if no meal a protein /carbo drink.
I recently read something on the “soc doc” web page where he talks about stretching as being bad for your muscles and that he does not stretch and has not problem with his muscles as a result, what is your take on that idea?
Barbara
I’m in reasonable agreement with that sentiment. I think joint mobility is more important than resting muscle length, and how you achieve improvements in joint mobility will differ to normal static stretching protocols. E.g. squatting increases hip mobility AND strength. Hamstring stretches might make the hamstring muscles longer (though just as likely not – you’ll just learn to tolerate the stretch more), and do little for the joint and nothing for strength.
My reading and understanding is that to gain reasonable increases in a muscle length, you would need to stretch it everyday, for at least 6 minutes at a time. The trade off, if you do this, is that you’ll compromise muscle power. In my mind, muscle power trumps “long muscles like a dancer”
So certainly, I do not advocate static stretching prior to anything that requires power to be generated, though I do perform some dynamic mobility work myself prior to lifting in the gym. If remedial work needs to be done around a joint and the soft tissue in that area, I’ll consider what modes might need to be applied – rolling, massage, heat, and maybe even static stretching. I’m a fan of the types of yoga which emphasise a good balance between strength and joint mobility.
I certainly do not stretch based on any conventional belief that one must be flexible to be fit.
Jamie,
First of all, amazing blog! This is some incredible stuff. I was turned on by a fellow cyclist teammate. I am a Cat 1 road racer recently during this off-season my teammate was telling me about your theories and your blog. As you can probably guess, I have been around the typical “cycling diet” of high carbs during the week and then carbo-loading on top of that which I now realized just added a few kilos to my performance! In saying that, after I have been thoroughly reading your blogs I have decided to do this! But I want to do it 100%. So I am hoping you can help me out with a few things!
I am particularly wondering about nutrition for recovery when using the “training low/racing high” and fat adaptations principles. In “training low/racing high” carbohydrates are low prior and during training, but consumed post training to aid in recovery, correct? I have been doing most of my training in a fasted state (so with empty glycogen stores) but I am not sure If they are supposed to stay low after training as well. I would think that by not refilling the tank with carbs (paleo friendly of course) after a fasted training session would hinder recovery and therefore performance the next day. Could you please give me an example of a post training recovery meal for someone looking to benefit from “training low/racing high” principles? Also, when it comes to “refeeding” to prime the body for “racing high” is it best to increase carbohydrates to about 70% the day before the race? OR what should the pre-race day meal plan percentages look like?
Thank you so much,
I cannot tell you how awesome this is to have a fellow cyclist writing a blog such as yours. Usually, nutrition gurus share nothing with their followers besides the interest in nutrition, but I find your blog so much more intriguing because you link all of the principles you believe in to the sport we love!
Evan
Hi Evan. Thanks for reading and your kind words.
Carbohydrates and recovery – yes – if you are training and racing at the level you are, then I would be consuming carbs in that immediate post-workout window (and this may even start before you have finished your ride). I’d gravitate toward glucose-based drinks in the first instance (for that first shot), though a small amount of fructose in the mix won’t hurt, then switch over to real food as practicably as possible (it is in this immediate post-training/race zone that the biggest compromises on a paleo diet might have to be made – but you accept those if you want to compete at that level. The general rule would be to consume a high carbohydrate diet for as many hours as you have been training. E.g. if you have been out for 3 hours, you would eat a good amount of carbs for 3 hours or so after before turning them down and returning to your baseline diet.
Consuming carbohydrates immediately after will switch off some of the signalling that is occuring in terms of adaptation. But at Cat 1 level, you have to ask how close you are to your adaptation limit and will remaining decarbed for an extended period buy you any further gains than your fasted training session has already stimulated. I would suggest it isn’t really worth it. For a lower Cat rider (such as myself), I might want to push it out a bit, but the payback for doing so would be minimal, and the risk is that a subsequent training session requiring the muscles to be fuelled up (strength or HIIT) will suffer.
A post-workout meal might be some bacon, eggs, and I’ll normally slice some sweet potato or normal potato, microwave it in butter for 5-7 mins, and then crisp them up in the pan that the bacon has just cooked in. Season up with salt and pepper. Yum. Leave more fibrous vegetables out of this first meal so that you have plenty of room to fit enough carbohydrate in. You might also try a rice-based meal in that immediate window. If optimising your reload speed is key, then use a carb fluid in the first instance while you are packing up and getting yourself sorted to cook the main meal. Get this in before you start adding fat and protein to the mix.
For the carb up day, I think 60-70% would be a good target. Keep the protein relatively constant and maybe ease on the fats a bit.
Jamie,
First of all…THANKS! I really appreciate the information, it means a lot. I cannot believe I have missed your blog the past years. So I made sure to scroll back and read previous posts that I missed. I am simply amazed! I don’t think I have ever read something so intriguing, informative, and directed exactly towards what I love in cycling!
I have one more question that I was hoping you could answer even though it is from a previous post. When I came across the High Fat Diets for Cyclists/Strength Training for Cyclists I could not stop reading…I read the 6 part and 3 part posts while sipping some coffee and it felt like heaven. The sad thing is that I have been “coerced” by a cycling coach that strength training is of detriment to my “on bike” performance. I wish I had the articles in hand to slap them in his face and say “told ya so!”
Anyways, I am done with riding my body into a weaker and more injury prone copy of itself. I want to incorporate strength training into my cycling program. I am racing already (they aren’t high priority races, just early season ones) so I was wondering if it is still a good idea to do strength training. I know in the end it is going to make a stronger rider, but I am wondering how adaptation to muscle soreness will effect my performance in the beginning and how long it will last. Also, once I have concurrent strength and endurance training, how long into the season should I continue the program? I believe that once I become adapted to strength training that I will be able to continue it during these earlier races, but then cut back a little when the real races start. This is so exciting…I can’t believe I am just finding the blog now! I appreciate your work Jamie. I can tell you are very passionate about cycling and it makes me smile. Have a great one. Thanks.
Evan
Evan, thanks again for your kind words. I’m glad you are enjoying the archives, though I’m sure (and I know of) many conventional cycling coaches will be quick to dismiss any of my musings.
If you are still in early season, then you can look at doing some strength work. Just the basics, and if you haven’t done a lot in the past, focussing on technique. When you start, you may experience a bit of soreness and additional fatigue in the legs, but much of this will be determined by your total training load over that period of time.
Once you have a period of lifting under your belt and are comfortable with it all and the adaptations, you can (and should) lift virtually all year round. You might look at dropping some volume around priority races (you can usually cut training frequency and within session volume to about a third and as long as you maintain intensity within 90% of what you typically lift, you’ll get a good maintenance effect). I know within some programmes, they have their riders do a lot of strength work and then taper them right off with the aim of getting what is called an “overshoot effect” – essentially a large transition of muscle fibres from type 2a (strength) to type 2bx (power) fibres. The applicability of this is very dependent on the type of riding you are doing (maybe more suitable to track and criterium).
Overall, I’d start with some very basic work – a hip compound lift (my recommendation – deadlift), and a push (overhead press), and a pull (pull up/body row), and plug away and some good quality technique work (see if these lifts expose any weaknesses that might need some remedial work – e.g. weak glute medius), and look at plugging the gaps. When you hit the off-season, get stuck into it.
Cheers,
Jamie
Jamie,
I was wondering what your thought is on Plyometric training? (in terms of versus weight training). For example, lets say a cyclist is time limited (as we all are) but still wants to continue to build strength off the bike, as well as maintain during the season, would Plyometrics be better? They are time effective and build explosive power and strength and can be done virtually anywhere. What are some workouts you would give one of your elite level riding clients as far as exercise reps/sets for plyometric training? Similar to weight training, low reps, high sets to keep max power up while keeping the chance of muscle hypertrophy down? Look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thanks
Evan
Evan
I don’t think it is as easy as a one or the other choice. On the one hand, both plyometrics (when done correctly) and strength work (when done correctly), may help boost power on the bike. However, to perform plyos well, you typically need a good level of strength for a start. I have an issue with people who you may see ride with their knees folding in on every pedal stroke, who rarely do anything athletic off the bike, then decide to engage in a form of training which will place large forces through tendons, ligament, and muscles which are just not conditioned to handle them. The cyclists whom I have seen successfully add plyos to their overall training have at the very least been undertaking concurrent strength training.
You also need to look at the dynamics of cycling versus a typical plyo programme. Plyos are great for athletes, such as track and field athletes, who may experience large ground reaction forces as part of their sport, and who have a large eccentric loading, and who are trying to recoup energy stored in tendons. In cycling, you do not get this, or at least it is very minimal. With the exception of decelerating a fixed gear, there isn’t a lot of eccentric loading – driving the pedals is all concentric. You also generally do not get to make the most of the stretch-shortening cycle whereby you get to recover energy from stretched muscles and tendons the way a runner would.
This isn’t to say that cycling specific plyometric exercises do not exist – they do and are useful. But you need to judge many factors before deciding whether to apply them and whether you may get better mileage from other means if you are not going to commit time to the gym.
Sorry – not going to post workouts for the reason that they are given to individuals specific to their situation, plus I also make money from writing such programmes, so won’t be giving away everything for free! Suffice to say, I focus around hip strength in a large way and balance the upper body out.
Jamie,
You rock! I cannot thank you enough for being so polite into offering some of your expertise to myself (as well as thousands of others). I love how you stick to what you believe and never stray from what “others” say. Sometimes it takes what is different to most to results! Keep it up! Will be following closely.
Evan
Great post and must say I perform my crossfit workouts with much better consistency when I keep my fat intake high. Agreed on the intensity side also as I see so many crossfitters doing too many beat down metcons and not enough basic strength work. Cheers
I totally understand Jamie. No need to apologize for not giving out any free services, just thought I would ask
. You know that I greatly appreciate everything you do for “free” already.
If plyometrics were done in a way to eliminate the eccentric phase and maximize the concentric phase (i.e. doing squat jumps from stand still, box jumps from a squat position, or single leg squat jump with leg on box) would that be beneficial to the concentric aspect of the pedal stroke?
Thanks
They’ll be beneficial if executed correctly and you have good strength through your hips. i.e. Knees are not falling in or out whilst you are doing them. If you can’t keep your knees driving straight down through your foot as if you were pushing through the pedal, then you are probably best to spend some time addressing that issue.
OK. I definitely know the “knee collapsing guys” you are talking about. I am not one of them. I played ice hockey all the way through college so strength training and stability were my bread and butter. It wasn’t until I was in my second year at college that I began to cycle as “cross training” but I quickly was hooked and it became more than just cross training. It took me about 2 years to upgrade to Cat 1 and after I graduated college I decided it made more sense to pursue cycling than continuing to try and live the hockey dream. Anyways, it’s been a year or so since I have been out of hockey and full time cycling. I have had a few coaches during this time and the last said “strength training is not need” (as you would expect! haha). But the funny thing is I feel that I have been more powerful and dominant in the past because I was lifting and doing plyos (similar to my hockey workouts) in addition to riding, even though I was about 20 lbs heavier. Now I am beginning to feel like I am becoming just a weaker (and lighter) version of previous self. I am not saying that I want to gain any more pounds back, but I feel I need to do something about the strength training off the bike.
My strength and function are still above most cyclists at this level (I am still able to squat 1.5 times my body weight and NEVER have my knee collapse during a pedal stroke…and this is why I was considering starting plyometrics again. First because they can virtually be done anywhere, and second because I have been under the assumption that they are the best bang for your buck in terms of speed and power training (that is, if they are done in a way that eliminates the eccentric phase and maximizes the concentric phase)?
Sorry for the long reply..this is something that I am just really passionate about and it is hard to see myself become the “weak cyclist” that I never thought I’d be when I was a hockey player haha. Thanks
Sounds like you have a good background to be doing plyos from, Evan. Go for it!!
Thanks Jamie,
And because of reading your blogs, I feel confident in getting back to work and becoming a “complete” athlete again. Soon I think the rest of the cycling world will begin to understand the importance of it and we will see pro tour riders building strength off the bike as well.