:The transformation begins…

June 3rd, 2008 | No Comments » |

Based on the feedback I’d gotten about my power output and weight <MP - I can’t find my last post to link to it… >, looks like the thing that I need to work on is improving my power to weight ratio and my lactic acid threshold.

Ok, firstly power to weight… this is the ‘simple’ bit. Two things I can do here, (a) increase power or (b) decrease weight. Now both of these are going to be good but I thought that I’d get serious about tackling the weight thing and see someone about what I should be doing (who’da thunk that learning to eat would be so difficult?).

Based on a recommendation from my cycling club I went to see Dr Naras Lapsys (http://www.thebodydoctor.com.au/) who is a sports dietician – what this means is that he specialises in not only helping in working out what to eat but makes sure that this is in line with the sort of training that you’re doing. For me, I need / want to loose about 10kg (currently 176cm and 90kg, want to hit 80kg ish) but I want to do it in a way that enables me to still have the energy to train.

So, this is what an ‘average’ training week looks like for me:

· Monday AM: easy ride, approx 30km, focus on cadence HR <85%

· Monday PM: Ride home, ANZAC bridge evening race J, approx 15-20 min hard

· Tuesday AM: Easy ride (5km), spin class 50min, ride to work (5km)

· Tuesday PM: Ride home, ANZAC bridge evening race, approx 15-20 min easy

· Wednesday AM: easy ride, approx 30km, focus on cadence HR <85%

· Wednesday PM: longer ride home, approx 18km, varied terrain

· Thursday AM: Hill repeats - New South Head road * 3, Cranbrook Rd * 3 (big chain ring – Heartbreak hill in 50*11 – ouch!!!!)

· Thursday PM: Straight home

· Friday AM: Easy ride (5km), spin class 50min, ride home (5km)

· Saturday / Sunday: One long MTB ride – 3-4 hours or hard road session with club, other day off.

All up this works out to be about 12 hours or so.

The analysis of my nutrition actually showed that my basic eating habits weren’t too bad but there was some unpleasant news L. We were doing quite well until the discussion of booze came up… did you know that having the odd alcohol free day is counterproductive to weight-loss (and fitness training in general)? So, mid week drinking is to be severely curtailed. Apart from that, it was mostly tinkering and putting something together that reflected the emphasis that I have on doing longer endurance work on the weekends.

So, roughly the eating plan is:

• Get up, have piece of fruit to kick-start metabolism (nothing you eat now is going to fuel the ride but it will trick your brain into metabolising food from the night before)
• Once at work, wholegrain bread, cream cheese & jam or baked beans on toast – good carbs and protein to aid recovery of muscles.
• Lunch, alternate between a carb and non-carb lunch – for me this is either a tuna sandwich or some sort of packaged salad (coles or woollies – Sumo etc are chockas in fat and a bit of a rip off!) and add some form of protein on top
• Afternoon snack – some sort of yogurt or protein drink
• Dinner – pretty much anything I want but making an effort to reduce the amount of carbs – i.e. if we have spag bol then more mince, less pasta. This is what is going to fuel the ride the next morning.
• Weekends… anything goes (my favourite quote was ‘if you feel you need a burger and chips after a big ride then go for it’)

There are some other principles as well, firstly eat at home 5 nights a week. This one is TOUGH – you know how it is, working in the city, late nights, can’t be arsed cooking, Glebe Point rd less than 5 mins walk away… not doing so well on this so far. Other big one was mid-week alcohol, this is allowed but no more opening a bottle with my wife and then finishing it off – one glass of wine or one beer only. Again, a tough one – how long was it that you got home after a long crappy day and were happy with _a_ beer?!?!?!

Well, been following the plan for about two weeks now and it seems to be working. I feel like I’ve got enough energy to ride strongly which initially I was worried about as it’s a lot less calories than I have been eating and my guess would be that I’ve dropped a kg or so.

Next time, more on the actual bike training bit!

 

Tags:bikes,cycling,endurance,learning,mountain r,mtb,racing,sydney,Track,training

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