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You train and train and train and train and train.

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by Abby Ruby Ph.D., Carmichael Training Systems™ Senior Coach

Some of you may have already done your goal setting for 2010, but I know many of you haven’t. This is like the prep work that you have to do before painting your kitchen. It seems tedious, especially when you’re excited to just get going, but it’s essential for achieving the results you want. And effective goal setting is more of a process than simply saying, “I want to win the Poedunk Grand Prix.” or “I want to get faster.” And filtering your list of goals can be crucial, especially for all you over-achievers out there (you know who you are). Regardless of how 2009 went, it’s time to look ahead to 2010 and it’s time to do better. Here’s how: Take out a piece of paper and start writing. 

by CycleOps Power Master Trainer, Charles "Joey" Adams

It is usually this time of year that I find myself banging my head against the handlebars as I am forced to ride inside more and more. There is only so many 20 below days my toes can take, even on my short commute. I’ve watched all the movies I can stomach on Netflix, and learned more from documentaries than my brain can take…I can now predict Sportscenter…and I’ve even caught up on infomercials and the latest fitness trend. So what is one to do when outdoor play is not an option due to the darkness of winter and the lack of snow due to global warming? Running is always an option, but for many cyclists not a pretty one as we tend to run like Pheobe in Friends (hit it on youtube on your next inside ride).

Download this new CycleOps Power wallpaper to add a little motivation right to your desktop.

The guy on the horizon isn’t a cyclist. He’s a victim.

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Download this new CycleOps Power wallpaper to add a little motivation right to your desktop.

Stop measuring power by the puddle under your trainer.

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Join us for a Webinar on February 4

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The last newsletter provided 8 gut buster Hour of Power workouts that were favorites of my clients. Here are more of their favorites, guaranteed to make your winter carpet criteriums effective and fun.

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This is where you win races that don’t start for six months.

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The Holiday Season is upon us. Although a time of peace and joy, it is also a time of cookies, candies office parties, family travel and inclement weather. All reasons to over eat and having to ditch your riding time resulting in incomplete workouts and extra pounds of non-functional weight. This is a great time to bring out the trainer or indoor cycle and incorporate some gut-buster carpet criteriums, studio stage races, garage grinders, basement bursts….whatever you call them. With limited time and extra calories to burn, you can effectively expend the most amount of energy in an hour or less, while also reaping the benefits of positive physiological adaptations.

In this video, Robbie Ventura from Vision Quest Coaching talks about functional training for endurance athletes. What is it, and why should you do it?

by CycleOps Power Master Trainer, Charles "Joey" Adams

We all learned the three R’s in school – readin’, ritin’, and ‘rithmatic. More and more we are practicing the three R’s in conservation – reduce, reuse, and recycle. But how many of us practice the R’s in our training – Reflect, Recover, Rest, Rejoice?

Many of us give lip service to it, but how many of us do it? It is perhaps the most essential ingredient in training, yet the most overlooked. As the holiday dash ramps up – from the candy eating frenzy of Halloween to the jubilatin’ of the New Year. It becomes important to reflect on the season that was and the year and opportunities that lie ahead.

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Remember to save just enough to get back up the basement stairs.

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by top Spanish triathlete and coach, Jaime Menendez de Luarca

I’ve been training triathletes for the last 12 years (as well as trying to improve my own performance for 20 years). I consider myself lucky as a triathlon coach because in all these years I’ve known the best triathlon coaches in Spain (some of them being the world's best) and learned from their training methods. The more training methods I learn, the more things I find I don’t know, and I am always wondering if I’m working with my triathletes in the best possible way.

Whether I am working with a client as their coach, consultant, metabolic assessor or providing educational certifications and seminars, "THE" question is always asked, and "THE" debate is always thrashed out: "Is threshold power AeT, VT, LT, AT?" What follows is often the discussion of a variety of explanations of threshold, many as alien as E.T. Since "threshold power" is dynamic and one of the strongest trainable indicators of endurance and performance, a thorough understanding of what "threshold power" refers to is essential. That answer will be revealed as the article progresses. First, it's necessary to comprehend thresholds in general.

It is getting to be that time of year in the northern hemisphere when many of us are finding it more and more difficult to ride outside. Colder temperatures, rainy (or snowy) days, and decreasing daylight make riding outside more challenging then many of us can overcome. Though you may be resisting the transition to indoor riding, there are many advantages to training indoors. You never have to worry about how many layers to wear, daylight isn't a factor, and riding on an indoor trainer can provide a much more controlled, productive training session than many outdoor rides will afford. There are many factors in reaping all the benefits of training indoors, but it all starts with having the right trainer.

by Danny Suter, USA Cycling Level 1 Coach

In preparing for Ultra-endurance Mountain Bike Events, one of the difficult challenges in training is executing an “ultra long ride.” For most of us it is impractical to arrange to do a training ride the length or duration of our goal event – especially in preparing for a 24 hour solo mountain bike event! For the athlete with a normal work week, I suggest the following two options for the “longest ride” in a training program progression. Try to execute one of these options 5 to 3 weeks in advance of your goal event.

by Danny Sutter, USA Cycling Level 1 Coach

Twenty-four hour, 100 mile and even most 50-mile mountain bike events (ultra-distance events) are not about going fast or going hard. They are about going long. Sadly, how hard one can go depends upon how long they are required to go. Conversely, how long one can maintain an effort depends upon how “hard” that effort is relative to their ability.

Triathletes, cyclists, and recreational athletes can all benefit from cyclocross racing. In this video, CycleOps Power Director of Training, Robbie Ventura, talks about the advantages of doing cyclocross, and provides a recommended workout to prepare for your first cyclocross race.

by CycleOps Power Master Trainer, Charles "Joey" Adams

There is a concentration that comes about in steady hard work, knowing that in this work there is a reward of a goal achieved. Recently, while riding I was reminded of this thought after a long steady climb of many miles. As I rode, I noticed a rhythm expressed in my body; it was the rhythm of the road, the rhythm of the challenge. Like any challenge I could have chosen to back away from it by simply turning my bike around and coasting down the hill. However, most of us are motivated by reaching the top of a hill; we see the summit up the road, and it calls us to the top. These climbing tips will help you realize your fullest potential and reach the top faster and stronger.

A 40 kilometer time trial is a great test of a cyclist's fitness. However, it is not sheer power that guarantees the fastest time in a race against the clock. Power moves a cyclist forward by overcoming the three main factors that resist a cyclist's forward motion: gravity, aerodynamics (wind), and friction (rolling resistance).

This past Saturday was host to the annual Wisconsin State Time Trial Championships, near Milwaukee, WI, on the famous (and flat) Double Bong TT course. Since we at CycleOps are headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, we were able to get some power files from the Men's Pro/1/2 race to see a real-world example of how the best power output doesn't always equate to the best time.

Recently, coach Matt Hart explained how riding at a constant pace in Zones 2 and 3 will build an athlete's aerobic power. In this article, Coach Hart talks about how to build the anaerobic system with specific intervals and high intensity.

Enjoying some downtime at altitude training camp

by Nikki Butterfield

Well the time since my last article has been ‘eventful’ to say the least. Tyler and I have bought a house in Boulder, made a trip back to Bermuda for Tyler’s best friend’s wedding, moved in to our new house, raced 21 days (Gila, Joe Martin, Montreal, Nature Valley), started my World Championship preparation, went for a training camp up at 10,000 feet (3000 meters), crashed very heavily on my head the day I came back down, spent and week in hospital, re-started my World Championship preparation, and now, trying to catch up on everything that has got on top of me before we leave for Europe!

It is nearing August, and for most folks in the northern hemisphere, it means more warm summer weather. Is your indoor cycle or trainer gathering dust in the corner of your basement? As we learned from Nikki Butterfield, riding indoors can be a great help in recovering from an injury. However, even for healthy cyclists, riding inside has its advantages.

Nutrition on and off the bike is an integral part of a cyclist's success. This is no secret to Dr. Allen Lim and the Garmin Slipstream team. A few years ago, when CycleOps Power asked Dr. Lim to share some tips on training and racing, we had no idea he had such culinary prowess. However, Dr. Lim revealed some secret recipes for race foods he prepares for team Garmin-Slipstream. The recipes weren't secret for long, with one of those recipes, Allen’s “rice cakes” becoming wildly popular.

Matt Hart is an experienced cycling coach who works with TORQ fitness. TORQ was one of the first Fitness Consultancy companies in the UK to embrace the use of power meters on bikes, specifically the PowerTap. When riders spend a day at their facility, they don’t just get a fitness test, they receive a comprehensive day of ‘education’ on the fundamentals of training theory, the energy systems that an athlete's body uses, performance nutrition, and periodization (how to structure training over the year).

by Matt Hart, cycling coach, Torq Fitness

An idiosyncrasy common to practically every rider we see is that when we gather information from them and find out what kind of training/riding they’re doing, it’s all being performed at what we call ‘mixed pace’.

In this video, Robbie Ventura from Vision Quest Coaching covers questions about VO2 intervals. What are they? Why should we do them? How should they be done? What benefits will they yield? Watch the video to find out.

Rain, snow, sleet or hail may not stop the postal carriers, but it drives most of us inside – or it brings out your inner Belgian persona. The good news about riding inside is you can bring the outside in by simply using an outdoor ride file and then breaking down the wattage demand minute by minute or section by section and riding the same ride inside.

This article from top Spanish triathlete and coach, Jaime Menendez de Luarca takes you on a turn-by-turn ride through Ironman Lanzarote in Spain. While most of us will never experience this race or even Ironman Hawaii (which this course compares to in terms of it’s windy conditions), it doesn’t mean us mere mortals can’t get a taste of an amazing ride and take in some tips along the way to help our pacing on a windy day in your own world.

by Nikki Butterfield, professional cyclist, Webcor Builders Women's Professional Cycling Team

1. Take the time to find a coach that matches your personality, goals, experience and expectations from the relationship……and stick with them.

2. Sit down with your coach (or ‘advisor’) at the beginning of your season and pick out the races that excite you and suit your physical attributes- these are your ‘no excuse’ races. The pressure is on to perform. Everything else is preparation for these key races or helping your teammates achieve their goals for the year. Don’t get caught up trying to be 100% every race.

by Frank Overton, FasCat Coaching

Here in mid April the cobbled classics are history and Ardennes week has arrived: Amstel Gold race was Sunday, La Fleche Wallonne is Wednesday and Liege Bastogne Liege Sunday. These races feature narrow roads littered with numerous short, steep climbs. A race like the Fleche Wallonne is a completely different animal than the Tour of Flanders and as such favors a much different style of rider.

by Robbie Ventura, CycleOps Power Director of Training

There are many different definitions of what a rider’s "threshold" is. Even the best physiologists in the world argue about exactly what "threshold" means and exactly how to define it. At Vision Quest, we like to keep things as basic as possible, so to us, threshold means the average power and heart rate an athlete can hold for 40 to 60 minutes at maximum effort. We consider threshold intervals to be efforts between 90% and 115% of the threshold power, lasting between 10 and 60 minutes.

Earlier this month, Dr. Allen Lim appeared as a guest speaker for the Century Road Club Association. He spoke to a full house on his philosophy behind training, discussing his “scientific approach to training by feel.” Audience member Michael Green caught a few snippets of the discussion and has posted them on YouTube.

Most of the work performed in cycling is supported by aerobic metabolism. Thus, boosting aerobic power is very important. However, to raise your performance level, you must incorporate anaerobic training as well. This session is designed to lift anaerobic power and recognize how to pace high intensity efforts so you can sustain hard work, in lieu of getting dropped at the end. This training is fatiguing and therefore it requires a day or two of recovery time thereafter.

Over the last few years, time trialing has become one of CycleOps Power-sponsored Team Garmin's strengths. With two standout top-5 finishes in the opening time trial stage of Paris Nice this weekend, the Team proved that it will continue to be a factor in time trials this year. Andy Shen, author for the popular website nyvelocity.com sat down with Dr. Allen Lim and got his introspective on Team Garmin's time trialing success.

Power based training provides the most accurate and immediate feedback to identifying different levels of subjective performance intensities and training zones. To make your power training more ‘powerful’, learn to combine intuitive factors with the scientific feedback of your PowerTap. While combining heart rate with power serves as a means to keep an eye on how the body is responding to the effort, it is affected by so many internal and external factors, so may not FEEL in-line with the actual effort.

To keep the pedals turning, focus on boosting your threshold power and VO2max. These markers are the major predictors of endurance and performance and needed markers to determine accurate training zones. Maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) is the maximum amount of oxygen that can be used by the body for maximal sustained power output. Threshold reflects the balance between lactate production and removal. By raising your Threshold Power and VO2max, you will be able to produce more work and maintain the activity for a greater period of time.

One of the first things people encounter when using PowerTap technology is the fact that as they ride the wattage goes up and down. Initially people tend to think there is something wrong with their bike, when in truth the answer lies in their bike set-up, fitness, and pedal stroke. The first step towards achieving the best pedal stroke possible is to make sure you are set up properly. The bike is an extension of your body and just like well-tailored clothing, it can be made to just fit you by asking a CycleOps Instructor or your local bike fitting professional. It is a good idea to write down these measurements and adjustments for future reference.

Once used only by elite athletes, PowerTap technology is now being used by a variety of people, with diverse objectives. Whoever you are: beginner, recreational, elite or coach; male or female; young or old; indoor cycling instructor or participant; you know training with a PowerTap is a key tool to fitness and performance. You read these articles to find training programs and workouts that will produce superior results for yourself or your clients. However, are you missing the KEY element to power? Without this critical component your training studio is just a room and your power meter is just a gadget, as simply having or using a power meter won't make you stronger. Knowledge is that key element. “Knowledge Itself Is POWER” Sir Francis Bacon.

by Robbie Ventura

For endurance athletes, regardless of athletic discipline, possessing a powerful aerobic engine is essential to success. For long-course triathletes or RAAM riders, this zone is where they will spend almost all of their time in competition. Even for criterium specialists and short-course triathletes, an aerobic foundation is vital to prepare them for more intense lactate threshold and VO2 workouts. Unfortunately for most amateur athletes, especially in the Midwest, a full-time work schedule, unpredictable winter weather, and short days make adequate aerobic preparation during the traditional base-building months a challenge.

by Danielle Foster

Can stationary bike training improve your outdoor cycling performance? Of course! Whether alone on a trainer, or within a group indoor cycling class, many skills can be enhanced over the winter months. What makes a good cyclist? Endurance, strength, speed, power, stroke skills, bike skills and mental resolve. All of those can be cultivated indoors while our streets are covered in ice and snow or you need a controlled environment out of city traffic.

2,500 to 4,000 calories! That is a lot of food and that is what the typical American ate last week at the Thanksgiving food fest! This is according to the American Council on Exercise, and the Journal of Obesity takes it a step further by stating that during the holidays the average American will gain an average of 1-7 pounds (the higher the gain the greater the risk for increased illness and/or morbidity from an obesity related disease). The good news, by the fact that you are reading this and likely concerned about your health, is that you probably ate on the lower side of these averages (or you have an incredible metabolism and you can afford to eat on the high side).

by Marci Titus Hall, USA Cycling Level 1 Coach

The Baja Epic went off without a hitch, or should I say - a shooting. The unrest in Baja and Tijuana continued the week before the event; it didn’t look good for a while but as the race director said “It’s bad guys killing bad guys. Unless you are one of the bad guys, you don’t need to worry much.” (quote from www.bikemag.com). Consequently only 28 of the supposedly 100 registered racers showed up for the event. And we thought Chris’s biggest worry would be being sick and under trained...

CycleOps Powered athlete Joanna Zeiger is the new 70.3 World Champion and World Record holder for the distance. In this article, she and her coach, Dr. Philip Skiba, describe talk about one of Joanna's key workouts leading up to her victorious 70.3 World Champion race: the 20 minute interval workout.

by: Dr. Joanna Zeiger and Dr. Philip Skiba

Interval training is a key to making improvements in cycling. Using the PowerTap maximizes your interval training by ensuring that you are training at the correct effort for your distance. The 20 minute interval, while seemingly simple, can be an efficient way of improving your 40K to Ironman bike splits.

Whether you are riding outdoors or clamping into your trainer indoors, many riders try to make an efficient use of their time by eliminating the warm up. The result is a rapid increase in heart rate or it won’t climb at all, heavy legs that quickly fatigue, a queasy stomach and the inability to achieve your power potential throughout the session.

by Marci Titus Hall, USA Cycling Level 1 Coach

The Baja Epic starts on November 5th, and Chris is ready to race – well Chris is as ready as he could be considering the circumstances. To add insult to injury as Chris’s job stress rose, his training levels dropped, but so did his recovery modalities including sleep, rest, and any form of therapy. (see stress tracker graph w/training volume). That was a formula for disaster and indeed Chris found himself succumbing to a virus that had been making its way around his office. In the nick of time Chris began a heavy dose of antibiotics and an inhaler to battle bronchitis. It is a risk, but Chris will be at the start line on Day One, and actually the Baja Epic 4-day stage race might just be less stressful (well mentally at least) than putting in 12-16hr days [as an investment banker] like Chris would otherwise be doing.

The off-season is a good time of the year to work on improving cycling efficiency. The more efficient a cyclist is, the less energy he/she needs to do a given amount of work. Dr. Allen Lim provides some advice on improving cycling efficiency.

A few things that you can do to continue to help with your pedal stroke are as follows:

1. Focus on using your hamstrings. A lot of the inefficiency in the pedal stroke occurs because we concentrate to much on pushing down rather than engaging our hamstrings. I find that if you just focus on using your hamstrings, the quads and gluts will naturally engage.

by Marci Titus Hall, USA Cycling Level 1 Coach

Two weeks have gone by, and Chris has completed several rides with his mtb disk Power Tap including completing his functional threshold power (FTP) task. (Read Article #1: Teaching an Old Dog a New Trick for instructions on how to perform a FTP task.) I will use the data from the FTP task to establish power and heart rate training parameters and determine Chris’s training budget.

Here in Madison, WI, home to Saris Cycling Group ~ CycleOps Power, the winds are coming in from the north, as we say goodbye to summer. Although Fall means the change of tree color and cooler weather, it also means the end is drawing near to the cycling events. Ironman Wisconsin is now complete, the triathlon & road cycling series are wrapping up and the mountain bike series is winding down to its last cross country races. What is a persistent cyclist to do now? While many will launch into their recovery period, others will start base training or hit the gym to begin building strength for the 2009 season. However, those endorphin-crazed riders seeking to discover their true power potential will likely choose to run around in the mud, hopping over barriers with a bike on their back . . . Cyclo-cross.

by Marci Titus Hall, USA Cycling Level 1 Coach

As a coach I am always encouraging my athletes to train with power. There are so many benefits to utilizing power that allow an aspect of control for both coach and athlete, that it makes training without power seem like antiquated guess work. So finally my busiest athlete agrees to check out the mountain bike PowerTap, and we will share with you his journey through wattage.

Chris doubles as an investment banker by day and a mountain biker, traveling the world competing in ultra endurance events and stage races, the rest of the time. You can well imagine that due to the current financial state of chaos, Chris is now busier than ever and training will have to take a back seat. It is even more important to make the time that he does have to train as effective as possible. My theory is that Chris can set a pace, continue it for 6-12 hours, and then repeat it for 2-8 days. A power meter will help to determine that pace, improve on it, and ensure training efficiency for the limited about of time he does have to train. It will be his training budget.

Ahh, but what to measure...

At M2 Revolution, we focus on the most relevant fitness metric: how much power can a rider sustain for a given period of time - very simple, very direct, and easily tested with our CycleOps bikes which provide accurate and consistent measurement of power output, or shall we say fitness.

Many riders are drawn to Lab testing as a means to measure fitness. While this option can at times be useful, its drawbacks include that it is expensive, can be invasive, and often does little to shed light on the most basic of fitness variables - how much power can I generate for 20, 30, or 60 minutes.

by Danielle Foster

As a cyclist, what is important to you? For many of us, it is the ability to go a little faster for a littler longer-to produce more power with less effort. As Joey Adams stated last month, it’s about producing more power at less cost, aka, The Green Ride.

by Marci Titus Hall

by Robbie Ventura

Well I spent some – actually a ton of – time in the wind tunnel with VQ aero expert Jim Sauls and the King of Aero himself, Steve Hed. Steve is one who lets the results speak for themselves. He was the one who dialed in Lance Armstrong’s aero position for the last six tours, and he’s spent the last three years working with Levi Leipheimer and the top triathlete in the world. Not to mention he and his wife also have personal experience with Ironman racing! We also brought along VQ’er Bob Weeks, an MIT grad who added great insight to the project. With all this brain power (Jim, Steve and Bob’s brain power, not mine!) I knew the fancy words and complicated equations wouldn’t take long to overwhelm me; in reality it only took about 10 seconds until I was lost. Reynolds numbers, drag coefficients, lenticular designs, boundary layers, K-factors and every other imaginable term were being thrown around constantly, and we joked that we needed to get a helmet made of ice for all the experts to keep their heads from overheating. All these guys were great to work with, and the time I spent with them and Mike Giraud at the A2 tunnel was some of the most productive and educational time I have had as a coach.

by CycleOps Power Master Trainer, Charles "Joey" Adams

Indoors versus outdoors. Outdoors versus indoors, each type of training has advantages over the other. Yet, they both have the same training zones in common. What is a training zone, and why is it important? First, let’s start with the big advantage that indoors has over outdoors – one can easily argue it is the smooth “road” of the inside. When you are riding outside there are many variables, you work with and against wind, terrain, and a host of environmental, physiological and psychological factors. Inside you can control the environment and the terrain – thus, you can more readily work in specific training zones via the elimination of extraneous factors. Indoor training ensures your body is getting the prescribed stimulus of a specific training session. In contrast to the varying stimuli often created when the ride is outside.

CycleOps Power recently received a question for Dr. Lim in regard to his Calorie Calculator:

The premise of the article seems to be that so long as one can accurately assess carbohydrate expenditure for a given work output/duration, one can put it back through fuel taken on board.

Numerous variables are a factor to successful cycling, including the bike, appropriate training, mental toughness and proper nutrition. Principally, cycling is most dependent on the ability to generate power to the pedals. Power is dynamic and since your legs do most of the work, there are abundant training workouts done on the bike that focus on amping up that powerful pedal stroke. However, cyclists really rely on the capability to create pedaling power from where power originates . . . the abdominals and lower back. A strong core provides a sturdy platform for the lower body to drive power transfer to the pedals. Simply put, cycling relies on core strength but does not develop or sustain it. Therefore, it is critical to strengthen the core off the bike to maximize your power potential on the bike.

Dr. Lim discusses the his strategy for the fastest time trial.

Why proper nutrition is important ~ The Panini ~ The Boiled Potato ~ Rice Cakes ~ Wrap Up

Why proper nutrition is important ~ The Panini ~ The Boiled Potato ~ Rice Cakes ~ Wrap Up

Why proper nutrition is important ~ The Panini ~ The Boiled Potato ~ Rice Cakes ~ Wrap Up

Why proper nutrition is important ~ The Panini ~ The Boiled Potato ~ Rice Cakes ~ Wrap Up

Allen Lim, PhD is wears many hats on Team Garmin/Chipotle, but they all fall under one main goal: make sure the guys in argyle are performing at their best. One of the ways a rider performs at his best is by being properly fueled. For last year's Tour de France, we filmed a series of videos with Dr. Lim showing a few recipes for goodies that can be found in the team's musette bags. What better day to bring these videos out of the archive than on the longest day of the 2008 Tour, where being properly fueled is of utmost importance - not only to get through the 230 KM stage, but to stay topped off for the racing to come.

Why proper nutrition is important ~ The Panini ~ The Boiled Potato ~ Rice Cakes ~ Wrap Up

by CycleOps Power Master Trainer, Charles "Joey" Adams

Progress, we all want to make progress, we all have goals. Yet, many of us may just be working out instead of training. A workout is just about getting out there and feeling great, burning up some calories and “getting it off the list” – nothing wrong with these things. A training session is something more – a training session has a focus, it will take you someplace more efficiently down life’s road. It could be weight loss, it could be a race, an event, or a personal best. To create a training session, instead of just a workout, starts by understanding where you are today, and then creating a plan for a future target. This helps you maximize your time!

There are over 130 million people in the US alone that are overweight. Associated with heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, gout, asthma, depression and so much more, obesity is the second leading cause of preventable death. Although genetics and hormonal factors can play a role, for most the solution is simply a matter of shifting their ‘energy balance’.

by CycleOps Power Master Trainer, Charles "Joey" Adams

Are you a slow twitcher, a fast twitcher or do you just twitch when you get on your bike? It comes down to the specificity of how you train and knowing your power zones. Cycling is primarily an aerobic sport. The longer you use and develop your aerobic engine the stronger you will ride, unless you are trying to become a track sprinter. As you take a close look at the physiology of muscle fiber types you discover the keys to zone training and your power zones. In a very simplistic sense the Fast Twitch IIb fibers are your sprint fibers (the Phosphogen or PCr system below), the Fast Twitch IIa fibers are your Anaerobic Glycolysis fibers, and the Slow Twitch fibers are the Aerobic fibers. You can see in the graph below how these fibers might play out in the land of track and field (source ACSM).

Race ready and taken down by a bug.... Base is built, climbing skills have been honed, and you've got your pacing down. You've seen your Threshold Power rise as a result of your hard work, and then it hits.

The flu and similar illnesses have swept our country this season. Have you seen your watts get stripped away as a result of picking up that nasty strain? Acute viral infections decrease muscle strength, endurance performance, and can impair pulmonary gas exchange- so expect a decrease in power. It comes with the bug.

by CycleOps Power Master Trainer, Charles "Joey" Adams

The “off-season” is almost behind us and the “in-season” is just on the horizon. Chances are you spent a fair amount of time honing your aerobic base, and you spent some time in the gym lifting some weights. While you were lifting weights, you likely saw increases in the amount you were able to lift and the reps you were able to pump out. You did this by (hopefully) manipulating the F.I.T.T. rule of training. F is for frequency, I is for Intensity, and T is for the amount of training time, and the last T is for Type of training.

You can now use this knowledge of the F.I.T.T. principle and apply it to mountain biking. Sure, you could do it the old way of going out and hammering a few days a week. That would take care of all the variables at once – and quickly get you the same old results. This may or may not be to your liking, or worse may or may not help you realize your full potential. We all have a limited amount of time, and we all want the most from our training time. The key in creating your training plan is to generally manipulate one variable at a time to create optimal stress. Manipulate too many, too little, or too much at once, and the system rebels or stagnates. You get less out of more! Ouch!

The use of heart rate monitors to gauge training intensity is not new to the cyclist. Since there is a linear correlation to an increased/decreased heart rate with an increase/decrease in effort, many cyclists use the rate at which their heart is beating as a measurement of their workload.

by CycleOps Power Master Trainer, Charles "Joey" Adams

Exercise is like opening a metabolic window. It is always easier to open the window from the top which is equivalent to pushing the training window up by training in Zone 1 and Zone 2. It is common to see my clients trying to open their metabolic window by pushing on the glass (training in the gray zone – the point where slow twitch fibers and fast twitch fibers are not working to their full potential, or both aerobic and anaerobic systems are not fully involved) or worse pulling on the latch (training too much in Zone 4 and Zone 5). Training from the top down leads to frustration, injury, plateau, or illness – undeveloped potential.

Training zones are best determined through metabolic testing or a power test using a Power Tap/CycleOps Power test. The results of these tests are the basis for effectively scheduling your training. Yes, there is a time and place for all training – it is called Periodization, or planned change. By identifying your unique training zones you will know how to raise your own metabolic window safely and effectively. Knowing your threshold is the best way to open your window (by increasing mitochondrial density, neuromuscular connections, and capillary perfusion for substrate delivery and waste removal). This means you become more efficient while at play or work.

A recent article in Women's Health Magazine recommended that it is not important to pay attention to watts while exercising and that power output is only relevant for professional athletes. We disagree and wanted to explain why paying attention to watts, when the option is available, is the best metric to track.

Read the article in Women's Health Magazine.

Danielle Foster is one of our CycleOps Master Training Specialists. She is also the CycleOps Power Cycling Coordinator at The Natatorium training facility, one of the first fitness clubs in the nation to carry a full fleet of power-measuring CycleOps Club 300PT Indoor Cycles. Read on to hear how training with power is transforming her students...

Power, for the past three years, it has been invisible to us. We’ve always been creating it, but we were never able to see it, let alone measure it!

Our facility was savvy enough to realize the value in training with power. We knew it would take our IDC (indoor cycling) classes to a whole new level. We invested in the bikes hoping the ability to measure so many factors (actual work done, heart rate response, cadence and exact caloric expenditure) would enhance our riders’ ability to see fitness progression.

To keep the pedals turning, focus on boosting your threshold power and VO2max. These markers are the major predictors of endurance and performance and needed markers to determine accurate training zones.

Maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) is the maximum amount of oxygen that can be used by the body for maximal sustained power output, and is determined by gas analysis assessment. Oxygen consumption is your ability to extract oxygen from the air, ability to ventilate, ability of heart to pump out blood and ability of tissues to extract oxygen from the blood. The body uses oxygen to convert nutrients into energy. Therefore the more oxygen you can consume, the more energy you can produce (the more power, speed, and work you can do). VO2max is your fitness ceiling, or like a car, it is the size of your engine.

In any training session, we tend to overlook the warm-up and the cool down. Either we are anxious to start hammering with the rest of the group or we are rushing to get home after our workout. The warm-up and the cool down are just as important as the workout itself. They are essential components to improving our performance and executing each workout effectively.

To ensure your success as an endurance athlete, it is critical that you know your limits. In this sense, “knowing your limits” refers to knowing when you are helping yourself by pushing harder and when you are damaging your body by going over your limits in training or racing. There is often a fine balancing act between these two extremes to maximize the training benefits and racing results.