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'Cross is no longer coming...it's here! The exciting discipline of cyclocross racing has some of the greatest buzz out of all types of bike racing, at least on the world wide interweb. Cyclocross is super fun and, despite the pain we choose to all put ourselves through, very addictive. Even for the most casual racer, "cross racing pushes your skills, both on and off the bike, to the limits. One of the primary differences between cyclocross and other types of bike racing is that you will most likely get off your bike at least once if not several times over the course of one lap. The most common obstacle that will require dismounting is the "barrier". 'Cross barriers often come in pairs and are typically between 12 and 16 inches (40 cm or 16" for UCI standards) and usually between 4 and 6 meters apart, spanning the full width (3 meters) of the course. Think steeplechase for bike riders. For most riders, the barriers and other obstacles only take a few seconds to traverse and their bike can simply be lifted alongside their body while they run. Sounds simple, right? Well, yes and no. You are simply dismounting, lifting the bike, running, placing the bike back down, and remounting, but there are many ways to make this process smooth, efficient, safe, and FAST  Just like that game you might have played as a child, one of these things is not like the other. Or, more specifically, one technique is considered better than the other. Which is it? Check out this great article from CX Magazine written by Adam Myerson on how to properly lift your bike. It's a skill worth practicing! https://www.cxmagazine.com/technique-tuesday-myersons-tips-on-carrying-bike Easy, right? As long as you take the time to practice PROPERLY, you'll get it in no time. If you're in the area, BJL Coaching conducts clinics and skills sessions for groups or individuals. I offer video review of your technique to help you learn and improve as efficiently as possible. Drop me a line and we can setup a time to get you on your way to your best 'cross season ever! [email protected] Cheers, B.L.
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 When I see how often some folks struggle to find the will to ride their bikes, I realize I’ve been blessed with what seems to be relatively high motivation to ride. I love riding bikes. I really enjoy riding and training, and racing is just the best. I’m usually pumped for solo rides of many, many hours, and rides with friends and family is so amazing I feel like it’s a gift when I’m out there. I can even get fired up to ride my trainer or rollers. And if not fired up, I don’t dread it, at least. One thing that really helped to boost my motivation was becoming a father and having less time to ride. I usually get pretty excited about my times to ride and am not likely to squander them away. However, like most, I can suffer from low motivation from time to time. Just recently I had an obligation during my “normal” riding time on a Sunday, but did have a window to get out later in the day. On my training schedule was an endurance mountain bike or road ride, so nothing too taxing. It was a beautiful day, blue sky and the sun was shining. It was a bit chilly, but a long sleeved jersey and leg warmers would be sufficient, so throw out that “excuse.” But for some reason I was dragging a bit. I did all the checks: I was feeling fine; resting heart rate was normal; training stress supported a ride; life stress was “normal.” No reason to not ride. I said to myself, “Just get dressed, throw a leg over and get out there. Ride to the woods, do a little loop, and come home.” So I did just that. As I hit the woods, though, all of a sudden I got instantaneous boost of energy and motivation. As I pedaled and enjoyed some great singletrack, riding became essentially effortless, and the fun-o-meter began to escalate. It turned into a GREAT ride and I certainly wasn’t going to go home early. I finished that ride with more energy than I began with and had a huge smile on my face. Stoked! So that’s one good tip when low on motivation--just show up. Note: Always do a self-check or talk to your coach if not sure, though. Get dressed and just start pedaling, allowing yourself to turn around after 20 minutes if you’re still not feeling it. This is again assuming you shouldn’t take a rest day, you’re not getting ill, and you’re not forcing extra stress into your life. You might be surprised how great you feel once you get rolling and before you know you’re an hour into your ride. Here are some more great tips when low on motivation presented by the awesome folks over at GCN: GCN Tips for Motivation What has worked for you to get you out there door when running low on motivation? What’s your best tip? Keep in mind that sometimes that low motivation is speaking to you and you quite possibly SHOULD take the day off the bike. But if the green lights are there, go for it. Chances are you won’t regret it. Cheers, Coach Brian I have motivation to ride in general but life threw some curve balls that distrusted my race schedule and I found myself without purpose. Not sure if motivation drives purpose or the other way around. Just reset and created a big goal/challenge and now feel the need to ride and train. Motivation and purpose will now have me cranking full gear for the foreseeable future!! I learned the hard way overtraining last year that if you're a dedicated athlete and have a day of low motivation (not someone with chronic low motivation just an off day) it's probably better to listen to your body and do something less active letting your body rest. When you're charging hard most of the time and you wake up occasionally not motivated I learned that my system is telling me something. Those signals are ignored at your own peril!  I wrote a post a couple of months ago (Free Speed!) about reconnecting with Dr. Matt Miller, a longtime friend and fellow mountain bike racer.
From his site, www.mtbphd.com : “Dr Matt Miller is a sports scientist and entrepreneur focused on MTB rider performance. He was the first to publish findings on using FTP to predict MTB race performance and pioneered braking analysis on the trails. Matt is the Inventor and Founder of BrakeAce, the world's first brake sensor and analysis app. BrakeAce was successfully funded on Kickstarter in August 2021. He has coached gravity and endurance MTB racers 1-on-1, including riders earning multiple USA National Championships and top-10 overall finishes in the Enduro World Series. He continues to consult for major brands in the industry and publish educational science content for mountain bikers.” Matt lived in Pennsylvania when I met him and we raced many of the same regional and national events. He was always so much fun to be around and once he aged up, a great competitor to race against. Most of the time I only saw the back of his jersey, though. Now he lives in New Zealand, with some of the best trails in the world right down the street from his house in Rotorua. Riding destination for sure! I was honored to be invited as a guest on his podcast, Demystifying MTB, with the two of us getting into a great discussion about The Top Three Mountain Bike Training Tips. Within in the episode I presented my three best tips which include some workouts to help you get faster on the trail. Dr. Matt and I share many training philosophies and it was really fun talking about some great training ideas and the why behind them, with an occasional trip down memory lane. Here’s a link to the YouTube version: https://youtu.be/SdS5ReLSRC4 But if you’re more of an audio only type of person, here’s a link to the podcast on Matt’s site: https://www.brakeace.com/podcast/episode/2859ee5a/top-3-tips-for-mtb-training I’ve been on a few podcasts before but this was the first mountain bike specific one. If you have any suggestions, comments, feedback, or the like, please shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment here. Also, please pass on the links to anyone that you think may be interested, as well as to folks who would want to learn more about BrakeAce, the world’s first brake power meter. The first round of orders have been shipped and Dr. Matt is currently taking pre-orders, so don’t delay! Order here: https://www.brakeace.com/shop What’s YOUR best mountain bike training tip? Post this up or any questions or comments below. Until next time, keep working on that aerobic engine. Your mountain bike will thank you. Cheers, Coach Brian  Polarized Training has become quite popular over the past 5 years or so, but after talking about training modality this with many athletes and upon reading and listening to discussions, I believe it is often widely misunderstood. So what exactly is it and why the confusion?
The concept of polarized training was “invented” over 20 years again by sports researcher Dr. Stephen Seiler. Dr. Seiler looked at training data of successful professional endurance athletes and saw a commonality. To over simplify it, they trained either really hard or really easy. Both of these terms are relative terms, of course. And they training really easy about four times as much as really hard. He found that it fell into a breakdown of about 80% low intensity and 20% high intensity. I believe a major source of the confusion comes from this notion that 80% of the training is “hard”, and 20% of the training is “easy”. Sounds pretty straightforward, right? Apparently it’s not. What I’ve learned is many athletes interpret this as, at the end of the week, 20% of the TIME they spent training should be hard, and 80% of the TIME should be easy. For example, in a ten hour training week, two hours would be high intensity and 8 hours would be low intensity. With this incorrect interpretation, if an athlete did five workouts in a week, each two hours long, that athlete could do 24 minutes of high intensity work during EACH workout. When it’s detailed like that, it’s clear to see that would be a recipe for burnout, injury, and/or overtraining. This is not what Dr. Seiler observed nor intended with this model. A true polarized system is based on 20% of the WORKOUTS are hard, and 80% of the WORKOUTS are easy. So over the course of ten training days, two would be hard, and eight would be easy. I’ve seen this is challenging for many athletes, as it takes tremendous discipline to only go hard two out of every ten training sessions. Or perhaps one could say that many find it very difficult to go easy on eight of those ten workouts without sneaking in a little “effort” here or a QOM/KOM attempt there. The differentiator is making those intense workouts REALLY quality sessions. Along with that, the lower intensity workouts need to be true low intensity. Dr. Seiler defines the low intensity workouts to be at intensity below your ventilatory threshold 1. For detailed information in an amazing slide deck by Dr. Seiler check out: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen-Seiler/publication/310725768_Seiler's_Hierarchy_of_Endurance_Training_Needs/links/583590c208ae004f74cc51f5/Seilers-Hierarchy-of-Endurance-Training-Needs.pdf Another bit of confusion comes from the concept of “hard” days. What’s hard? If one were to only take a snapshot of the polarized model, hard days would be those eye bleeding Zone 3 (in the three zone model, or Zones 5+ in a five or more zone model) efforts. You know…those efforts that are maximal and often called VO2 Max Efforts or Anaerobic Capacity Efforts. However, if you listen to Dr. Seiler, you’ll hear him talk about even sub-threshold (FTP) efforts as hard days. But he’ll also talk about efforts such as 100 seconds on, 50 seconds off at max. Hard is really relative to the training period that the athlete is in as well as their overall goal and the duration of the effort. Three of his workouts are 4x4, 4x8, and 4x16 (four reps of x minutes) each at maximum intensity for that duration. Obviously the 4x16 intervals would need to be performed at a lower intensity than the 4x4 intervals. Check out the deck link above for an interesting study Dr. Seiler did using those intervals. As a coach, I find it very effective to apply different modalities depending on the athlete, training period, goals, available training time, and more. Even when using a periodized approach, however, it often shakes out that there will be one or two “hard” workouts a week with the remaining workouts being lower intensity to really build that aerobic engine. This is particularly true for athletes who race frequently or have that weekly group ride throw down. If you’re interested in learning more, here’s a great article in Pez Cycling that also includes a link to a podcast with Dr. Stephen Seiler: https://pezcyclingnews.com/toolbox/cycling-polarized-training-stephen-seiler/ Looking to learn more about other training modalities? Here’s an informative and enjoyable listen that breaks down common training modalities, including the Polarized approach: https://trainright.com/tim-cusick-periodization-training-modalities-training-rhythm/ Have you tried a polarized approach? Any thoughts or questions on training modalities? I’d love to hear from you with a comment or question below. Until next time, make your easy days easy, make your hard days hard, and make your off days OFF. Ride on! Coach Brian  Happy Pi Day! Yeah, I'm a math nerd at heart. Despite the bitterly cold temperatures, 30 mph wind gusts, and sideways snow here in the North East, spring is right around the corner. We've sprung the clocks forward and have that extra daylight in evening, just begging us to get off of our trainers and out on the road and trail. Let's go get that fresh air! Many of us are fully conditioned to the cold weather at this point of the winter, and even a 60 degree day feels pretty darn warm. Unfortunately, as liberating as shorts may feel, our legs can actually take on damage if we ask them to work exposed to the cold temps. In an effort to keep you riding strong and healthy, I bring you my PSA of: "If your arms are cold, cover your legs." Turns out, we have a lower density nerve receptors in our legs compared to our arms, and that's why our arms can feel cold but our legs feel fine. Source: https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jn.00313.2020 And I know...it looks "pro" to have a long sleeved jersey with bare legs but it looks like you're a complete "noob" if you have leg warms with a short sleeved jersey. Bonus tip: Just wear a long sleeved jersey AND leg warmers and you'll be fine. I've seen it time and time again. As I go our for a ride in these transition seasons, the veteran, accomplished cyclists will almost ALL have their legs covered. On the flip side, the weekend warrior is out there with bare legs. I've seen it as far as ear covers and bare legs, or even winter shoe covers and bare legs! Another example that is forever etched in my memory was an early season training race. It's a Tuesday night, probably right around 60 degrees, and we're all rolling around with bare legs and a jacket warming-up. In rolls this legit pro with a jacket a leg warmers on. "Surely this guy must be soft." Nope. He was just smart. He proceeded to lay down the smack on us all and for many seasons to follow. I would imagine the philosophy of really taking care of his body and not making things harder than they need to be was a pillar of all of his training. Below is my post from last fall as well as a link to a great podcast. If you're not sold on protecting your body, check it out! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One of my goals as a coach and lover of all things bike, is to help make sure people can ride bikes for as long as they live. It's a great sport for longevity, but there are some precautionary measures that need to be considered to keep us all rolling. A joint in our bodies that potentially takes a toll from riding a bike is our knees. There are steps we can take to help keep our knees healthy and functioning well starting with a proper bike fit and avoiding large increases in volume and/or intensity. But protection from the environment is important as well. As the temps drop, we also need to consider protecting our knees. Not only our knees, but all of the hard working muscles in our legs. I've long been a proponent of keeping knees and legs covered, but this podcast from Fasttalk really gets into the "why" and how damaging that pushing our muscles and joints in the cold can be. Cold, Bare Legs Make You Dumb, Not Tough https://www.fasttalklabs.com/fast-talk/cold-bare-legs-make-you-dumb-not-tough/ The title is perhaps a bit harsh, but really drives the point home. Although it looks "cool" to wear a long sleeved jersey and shorts, it's just not a good idea. And I fully agree that just knee or leg warmers with a short sleeved jersey is not particularly stylish. In that case, just cover your arms and legs. If it will be warming up during the course of your ride, you can always stop and take the warmers off and stash them in your pocket. My own personal rule is 65 degrees or below, my knees and legs are covered. Do what makes you feel good, but keep in mind the words of Coach Connor that if you're overdressed you're maybe uncomfortable, but if you're underdressed, you're doing damage. Who wants to do damage? So get yourself a set of leg warmers and maybe some knee warmers and keep your legs happy. What's your take on covering your legs? Post a comment or question below. Ride on and enjoy these great early Fall days! Cheers, Coach Brian Thanks for the insight Brian. I remember the roadies from way back when suggesting to keep the knees covered in 60 degrees and less. Never thought too much of the reasoning behind it. Do you think the same applies to us mountain bikers? Slower speeds in the woods, lack of wind,etc Thanks for reading and for the question, Jack! by Dr. Matt Miller (a.k.a. MTB PHD)  Yeah, right…”Free Speed.” Believe it or not, it’s out there for the taking and this is not an infomercial. Any endurance athlete obviously has to have the physical capabilities and engine to perform their sport. But there are ways to get faster without improving our fitness. In a very skill dependent sport such as off-road cycling (mountain bike, cyclocross, and even gravel to some extent), this is even more evident. One of the most important skills in these disciplines is effectively applying (or not) your brakes, but can we measure something like this? Thanks to Dr. Matt and his amazing team, now we can! I’ve known Dr. Matt Miller for over 20 years now. Dr. Matt and I were at many of the same races back when he lived in Pennsylvania and I got to know him well through my junior teammates. Personally, Matt is super fun to be around, an excellent cyclist, and overall a great guy. And now, he is literally the MTB PhD. Dr. Matt has a master’s degree in exercise science and earned a PhD with a focus on mountain bike descending. So in addition to all of his great personal qualities, you can add super smart and experienced to the list. He now resides in New Zealand with trails right outside of his door. Perfect testing grounds for his amazing creation.  24 Hours of Allamuchy 2004 Matt and I were both on winning teams that year. Matt and his teammate took the two-person division, and I was on the winning Men's Elite 4 Person Team. Good times  Besides Matt’s extensive knowledge, research, and application of exercise science, he has also invented the world’s first brake power meter. Sound awesome? It is! It was recently showcased here on Pink Bike: Brake Ace on Pink Bike https://www.pinkbike.com/news/hq-tour-brakeace-worlds-first-brake-power-sensor-app-combo.html Brake Ace will now allow coaches and riders to actually quantify their braking and how it impacts their riding, both positively and negatively.  That which can be measured can be improved.
Along with this amazing device, Matt and his all-star team developed an app to collect and make sense of the data while providing actionable steps for improvement. The app delivers many meaningful metrics, but also breaks it down with your “flow score” and provides three “key opportunities” where you can find the greatest gains. For each key opportunity you improve, it will find another. To pull it all together, Dr. Matt also wrote a companion book that we can all learn from even without a Brake Ace. However, after reading the book, you will quite likely contact Dr. Matt to order your Brake Ace. The name of the book is, you guessed it, Free Speed. Matt and I had a great video chat a month ago, and right after the call I went straight to his site and got the book. It was written really well and an easy and engaging read. While reading it, there were many times I felt like I was actually having a conversation with Dr. Matt. He broke it down to a language that is easily understandable. I might be at a slight advantage having been a math teacher for 20+ years and with extensive education in the cycling and coaching world, but he delivers it without getting too techy. However, the science is there if you have an interest in diving in deeper. While the book thoroughly describes how Brake Ace and its app can be used to help make you faster, there are also concepts and drills that can be practiced without a Brake Ace. My question really would be, “why practice this without a Brake Ace?” Here’s a link to his book on his Brake Ace site: Free Speed https://www.brakeace.com/product-page/free-speed-the-brakeace-book And on Amazon: Amazon Free Speed https://www.amazon.com/Free-Speed-Guide-Finding-Brake/dp/B0BPGMSSHB I also encourage you to check out his two podcasts: Demystifying MTB https://www.brakeace.com/podcast These are mountain bike centric, but certainly some of the episodes could be applied to other off-road disciplines. Dr. Matt’s is joined by Rohan Martin, a.k.a. The Sweaty Techie, who has an amazing resume of decades in the technical world of ANT+, Bluetooth, wearables, and more. And now Brake Ace. He also rips it up on the mountain bike. The Performance Advantage Podcast https://www.performanceadvantagepodcast.com/podcast This one is presented from more of a training and science standpoint brought to us by Dr. Matt and his co-host, Dr. Will O’Connor. Dr. O’Connor specializes in running endurance coaching and is an accomplished runner himself. I recommend this episode first to learn more about Brake Ace: Five Ways to Get Faster Without Getting Fitter https://www.performanceadvantagepodcast.com/podcast/episode/30da38a6/99-or-5-ways-to-get-faster-without-getting-fitter Brake Ace is a smart investment for all of us that want to get faster. Yes, you should train with consistency. Yes, you should build your endurance engine. Yes, you should hire a coach. And yes, you should check out this amazing tool that can help you improve your riding. You can find more about Dr. Matt at: MTB PHD : https://www.mtbphd.com/ and let him know I sent you there. Find your flow! Coach Brian Will you be happy with your future self? Picture this…you just rolled back into your driveway from a multi-hour winter base training ride. It’s cold, you’re cold, you’re tired and hungry, and you just want to get out of your cycling clothes and get some good food and warm up. You glance at your bike as you park it in your stable and see it’s a mess.
“It’s OK,” you think, “I’ll clean that later.” And then you get busy or just conveniently forget until…the next time you go for a ride and it’s a mess or worse and not even rideable. So you just lube the chain and deal with the extra wear and tear, until that next time. And the cycle repeats. Or maybe it’s the pile of cycling clothing that’s growing, or the water bottles that are a mess both on the inside and outside. Or your head unit showed that your power meter battery was low and “you’ll change it later.” Or that tire with a slow leak. Or that head unit that needs to be charged. Or countless other little things that may provide a barrier and time delay to you starting your next ride. I write about these through personal experience. I’ve struggled with all of these things and more, and been frustrated with myself when I go out for my next ride. Although as I “grew up” and got busier, I did improve in this domain but it’s far from 100%. I recently heard a great suggestion that really resonated with me to help us all make better decisions when it comes to these little tasks. Ask yourself the question, “Will my future self be happy with my current decision?” I like to take it just a step further and ask: “Will my future self be PSYCHED with my decision?” The busier I get, the more important taking care of these post ride chores becomes, and the more psyched I am when I take that extra step. It might even mean, gasp, ending my ride 5 minutes early to fit it in, but it saves a whole bunch of self-aggravation later. I bucket this together with also being proactive, such as setting out my clothes for that early morning training, or getting my bottles prepped hours before my ride when I have 5 “extra” minutes. These are definitely decisions that my future self is psyched about. I know many of you may have all of your cycling and life tasks wired, and I admire that and aspire to that. If not and you’ve have experiences like me, set yourself up for success with those little less-than-fun chores. Especially at those times when they’re least enjoyable. I’m off to get ahead on my laundry and prep my bottles for tomorrow’s ride. And my future self is going to be psyched. Word. Coach Brian A Simple Tip to Keep Your Feet Warm “Once my hands and feet go, it’s all over,” said every other athlete that I’ve worked with and lives in a place that gets a “cold” winter. Here’s a little hack to keep in mind, or to pass on to others and save your ride. I’ve been riding with winter mountain bike shoes since around 2000, and I highly recommend this as serious consideration your winter cycling footwear. Mine are particularly warm, have great grippy soles if I need to hike or warm up with a coffee, and I don’t have to struggle with booties/shoe covers. However, booties are the next best thing, in my opinion. I’ve logged thousands of miles with booties for sure. And booties with winter boots...single digits! I also have a whole drawer full of Seal Skinz socks (thanks, Seal Skinz!) that are primarily made to be waterproof, but that also makes them windproof and warm. Of course there’s the guidance that’s often given to make sure you keep your core warm, and this will help to keep your extremities in better shape. But what happens if you get out there and realize that you underestimated the “real feel?” Or your buddy shoes up with no cold protection for their feet and you want to make sure they both of you can still have a good ride? Or you’re traveling and don’t have your warm gear and want to head out on a rogue cold day? Here’s a nice little hack that you can use to help keep your feet warm on the cold and windy winter days. I used this once way back in the day, but have seen others clearly embracing this fix out on rides. It’s very simple: Put your socked feet inside of a plastic bag and then inside your shoe. You can cut off the excess on top or tuck into your tights or leg warmers if it’s long enough. This technique also has the extra bonus of keeping your feet dry (from the outside at least) from wet weather or puddles. You do need to be careful that if it’s raining or snowing that the precipitation or splashing can get up and over and into the bag. That is definitely something you’ll want to avoid. I even saw this as a roadside fix. I was out on a cold winter rides with my teammates, and one of them had undressed their feet. We were out in the middle of nowhere, at least 20 miles from any store. I remember he found two plastic shopping bags on the side of the road and created his emergency oversocks. It wasn’t attractive, but we rode for several more hours and he was not uncomfortable enough to have to head home. This article goes into a little more depth, but it’s not to complicated a concept: https://www.montaguebikes.com/folding-bikes-blog/2014/02/keep-your-feet-warm/ Have you ever done the plastic bag trick? What’s your best tip for keeping your feet warm? Post these answers and questions or comments below. Until next time, may your extremities never cut your ride short. Coach Brian I am laid up this winter but found great solace in my cheapo flat bar, flat pedal starter commuter hybrid in winter. I now use heated insoles from Amazon. I charge them via USB the night before, and if I leave it on the lowest level, I can easily get 4 hrs of warm feet. Before that, I used sandwich bags (fold-over, not zipped) and still carry some as backup sometimes.  Just like we train with specificity to best meet the demands of our events, we should also fuel with specificity. What does this mean?
Event day is NOT the time to experiment with new energy and hydration sources. We want to have fun and perform well, not be dealing with gastrointestinal distress. Or perhaps it’s a mix that doesn’t bother our gut, but tastes so terrible you have no desire to drink it. While a fun farm to fork fondo type of event might be more forgiving if you’re riding casually, you still don’t want gut issues. How can this be avoided? (Nutrition? Fueling? See: Fueling vs. Nutrition) If you’re providing all your own fueling for the event, start dialing in what you’re going to eat and drink at least 8 weeks out from the event. Practice with this fuel on different training rides, especially rides that replicate part or all of the event. Can you open up the food when going hard? Does it take forever to chew (which can be good or bad, actually)? Is it fine at an endurance pace but as soon as things heat up your stomach revolts? Does it taste pretty good 2 hours in but after 6 hours in you’re tired of it? All things to think about that can be investigated through deliberate practice. If some or all of the refueling will be provided by the neutral support at the event, make sure you find out EXACTLY what will be offered. If not clearly outlined on the registration page, find out directly from the promoter, not what your buddy that did it 5 years ago remembered. If you’ve used their products successfully before, GREAT. If you’ve never tried them, go get yourself some and practice as I wrote about above. Obviously if you’ve used and it didn’t sit well with you or just wasn’t effective for you, you're going to want to carry your own fuel and, if available, have your drop bags stocked up. I had a teammate that could not stand what one of the big endurance mountain bike events in our area had in the hydration jugs at the aid stations. Instead of using what they offered, he would carry small plastic bags of the drink mix that worked for him, and then just add water at the aid stations. Slower at the aid stations? Maybe, but better than the time you may lose from not drinking during a super-hot race of 8+ hour duration. For either situation, try to practice under similar environmental conditions, as something that sits well at 40 degree Fahrenheit might be a gut bomb at the 95 degree venue. Try these foods and drinks on the trainer when you’re really cooking as we all know it’s easy to get hot riding indoors. Or maybe the bar or waffle that’s soft and chewy at home turns into a brick at the frigid event. Obviously the different conditions are not always available, but something to consider. Even if you’ve got your plan dialed in and find “your products,” I encourage you to continue to experiment and try other things. The wider the range of products that you know work for you the better. You’ll make yourself much more versatile lower maintenance with the flexibility. You also may find that a new product came out that works better for you, or you’ve changed with time and respond better to something else. Buying box of bars or jugs of mix that you might not like can get expensive, with a little creativity you can save some dough. You can make trades with riding partners, buy singles at your local bike shop, or check out The Feed. I’m not sponsored by The Feed or anything of the like, I just simply know that some of my clients have enjoyed purchasing samplers to figure out what they like and what works. www.thefeed.com While you're experimenting, also work on the amount of the fuel that you're taking in. Are you getting enough calories (energy)? Can you push it up to 60 grams per hour? 70? 80? Find what works for you, but also be ready to adapt the plan based on the duration and intensity of the event. I can help you dial in your plan and find a good range that works for you. I had some teammates who could race up to 10 hours with all liquid based calories. And others, like me, that needed and preferred a mix of liquid and solid calories. Find what works for you and keep in mind that different durations may yield different “optimal” plans for you. Here are two solid resources to help you get DIALED: https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/how-to-optimize-carbohydrate-absorption/ https://cyclingmagazine.ca/sections/training-guide/training/pro-cyclists-share-their-race-day-nutrition-plans/ As always, find what works for YOU! So keep practicing and leave as little to chance on event day as possible, especially not what’s going to keep your turbo diesel engine humming along! What are your best practices for fueling during your event? Post these or any questions below. Fuel like a champ! Coach Brian  I’ve been riding indoors for almost 30 years now and most of those years were spent staring at some kind of movie, video, show, webinar, etc. Sometimes it was less than exciting, but it was effective and got me through the cold, dark months of winter.
Around 2014, I started hearing about this thing called Zwift, back when it beta and was just the island. I was intrigued and listened intently as it was described by some of my friends who got on the beta release, but it seemed unnecessary to me and just added a layer of complication that I didn’t want. After it moved out of the beta version and started gaining some momentum and membership, I felt even stronger that this wasn’t something that I needed and always got... a good workout on my trainer with no problem. Admittedly, I was also concerned that I would indeed develop a dependence and not be able to ride indoors without the gamification of Zwift. Quite possibly it was a bit of grump old guy not interested in the new-fangled gizmo. As a TrainingPeaks Coach, several years ago I was given the tools to create workouts that are downloadable to all the major online platforms, and I learned everything I could about them and the “new” smart trainers that were quickly becoming ubiquitous. But I still felt this wasn’t for me. To add to this mentality, I heard more than one story of connectivity issues, frozen screens, deleted workouts and the like. Again, all aggravation that I wasn’t looking at add. Fast forward to 2019 and I’m still off Zwift, despite the thousands and thousands of users, many of them my friends and racing colleagues. Everyone seems to be raving about it. Then, late fall of that year, another virtual platform called RGT reached out to the top level TrainingPeaks Coaches and asked if we would pilot their software. It sounded like a good opportunity to me and with it came a lifetime free membership to their premier service. So I downloaded the app, created a profile, and I was off. It was a cool experience for sure, and it was fun providing feedback and seeing what changes they could or would make to the platform. The graphics were great, the courses were fun, and it has a super cool feature where you can upload a GPX file and it would recreated the course for you. Now, it was in this magical land where the roads were kind of clear and there wasn’t much terrain, but it’s a cool tool to practice a real life course like a road race or a TT course. If nothing else for the elevation profile which would be recreated accurately. The greatest downside with RGT was a fairly “small” membership base. I did a few events and often there were less than 20 people registered. Meanwhile, I’m hearing of Zwift events with hundreds of participants. I would drift on and off of the RGT platform and had no problem just “riding” and doing my workout without logging in. OK, so a cool experience but I wasn’t hooked. Then we all know what happened in March of 2020 and as a result more and more people started training indoors, or training more indoors. The pandemic cycling explosion had happened. Well, I also rode inside a bit more but spent plenty of hours riding out of doors as usual as outdoor riding was permitted in my area. I wasn’t going to hop on the Zwift train…yet. Late summer in 2020, one of my clients asked if he could hire me to do some Zwift rides with him. At that point it seemed like a no brainer, so I got an account as I was off. I had some fun with my client and my original plan of only being on for a short while quickly went out the window. As a child of the 70s and having lived through the birth of video games, I was having fun earning the different badges and learning more about the platform. Group rides were kind of cool, and I tried a race to see what that was all about. Zwift does a great job of peppering in those dopamine hits very frequently and you really crank through the levels in the beginning. As you ride more, you start earning new frames, helmets, glasses, shoes, socks, etc. I certainly felt like I could still ride indoors without Zwift, but now, why would I? It’s been a full two years since I signed up for Zwift, and I have to admit it’s added to my enjoyment level when training indoors. On days when I’m a little low on motivation, I’ll scour the group rides to find one that meets my target intensity goal of the day, but I’m also fine getting spit out the back if it’s harder than what I’m looking for. It’s fun just doing a workout on an open world and getting some PR’s, KOM’s, Green Jerseys, or Course Leader Jersey’s when your intervals line up with the sections. I also create meetups and will get together with clients, friends, teammates, and so on. It’s weird that that becomes even more motivating, but it does. Just cruising around some Zwift world in the winter, texting back and forth, rubber band is on (no one can get dropped), and getting in time spinning our legs. Finally, I have strategically put in a handful of races when they fit my training goals. I can tell you that they can be very, very HARD if you want them to be. I’ve set some 5, 10, 20, and 30 minute power records chasing some avatar on the screen which is just downright silly. But they’re “free,” there’s many to choose from if you get dropped, and results just don’t matter. For the most part at least. Indoor training is not what it used it be. Interactive online platforms and smart trainers have changed the game for the most part for the better. But unless you’re a sponsored e-sports cyclist, I do hope you use the indoor trainer as a tool to enhance your outside riding, not as a substitute to your outside riding. Just this past weekend it was in the low 30’s with wind in the teens, and I considered staying indoors and banging out a few hours on the trainer. It’s convenient, a great workout, very focused, efficient, and effective. And makes for a lot less laundry. After a quick gut check and mental head slap, I suited up with my five layers and burly gloves and got outside for two great rides. Maybe I’ll see you on the roads of Wattopia, but I hope to see you out on the roads and trails IRL! If you’re interested in listening to an in depth discussion about the future of online racing, check out: https://www.fasttalklabs.com/fast-talk/is-virtual-racing-the-future-with-ben-delaney/ What’s your take on indoor training? What’s your favorite online training platform or are you “old school?” Leave a comment, question, or answer below. Thanks for reading! Coach Brian |
AuthorCoach B.L. is the head coach at BJL Coaching and an avid racer and cycling enthusiast himself. Categories
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