Taking no breakfast and using only water on a training ride can help bring about the benefits of much longer winter base training spins, says nutritionist and coach Beth McCluskey.
Former international rider turned coach and nutritionist, Beth McCluskey of Peak Endurance Coaching says while winter base training is the bedrock of the form we'll enjoy next year, many riders get it wrong. She also explains how training in a fasted state can make the body a lot more efficient at burning fat.
Base training season is here again. This time of year always seems to roll around very quickly.
Racing and sportive riding has long since finished. Riders have taken a well-earned rest from the bike during September and October.
And now it’s time to contemplate next year’s events.
Advertisement
It’s a good time to evaluate how you did this year and to perhaps learn from some of the mistakes you made with a view to getting it right this winter.
Base training sounds very easy; lots of long steady miles with some specific strength and conditioning.
It’s a time to work on weaknesses and injuries, and to generally build a big strong aerobic base.
Then once you have the miles in the bag, you build on top your goal-specific fitness as the New Year turns to spring and then summer.
When it’s done correctly, base training can produce great improvements in performance.
But when it’s done badly, it can be destructive.
It may sound easy, but so many riders get this critical phase of training wrong.
Some of the most common mistakes made, even by experienced riders, during base training include:
- Riding too hard – there are no prizes for winter champions.
- Not riding enough base miles - no prizes for turbo torturers.
- Overdoing the gym work - no prizes for this either.
- Ignoring good nutrition principles because “it’s not the racing season”.
Giving breakfast a skip and remaining fasted in the morning for training is counter intuitive should only be done in moderation.
One of the important physiological adaptations during base training is an increased capacity for the body to burn fat while cycling at low intensity efforts.
As the base training phase progresses in the winter months, riders become increasingly efficient at burning fat for energy.
This is very useful as the body, at the end of the base training period, prepares to enter a new phase of building that goal-specific form.
Burning fat for energy means the muscles have the ability conserve precious glycogen stores for the harder efforts to follow after the base training phase.
That’s important because it means fatigue will be delayed; the body’s natural adaptation to endurance training.
For example, cycling at 60-70 per cent of your maximum heart rate or 56-75 per cent of functional threshold power for between 2 and 5 hours will allow your muscles to make these adaptations over time.
However, if you train too often above these intensities - winter hero and turbo torturers take note; your muscles will prefer to use glycogen as energy and it won’t become super-efficient at burning fat.
It’s easy for the pros to get out and train at a steady aerobic pace for up to eight hours per day.
And this allows them to become very efficient at burning fat for energy, building a huge aerobic base in the process.
Related News
Most of us are amateurs who winter train with our clubs; we don't have hours and hours to get the steady miles in.
However, for most of us living in Ireland this is not an option.
The weather isn’t always on our side and most of us have other commitments; jobs, study, family and so on.
Skipping breakfast
One very easy way to enhance the physiological adaptations of aerobic training is to do some of these base training rides in a fasted state.
For example, once or twice per week you could cycle to work before breakfast in your ‘aerobic zone’.
On longer weekend rides you could try riding the first 90 minutes of your spin without food or energy drink; just use water.
You could extend this every week until you can comfortably ride 2-3 hours in your aerobic zone without needing to eat.
This has been shown to enhance endurance muscle adaptations; building that big base as our bodies become more efficient at burning fat and so keeping in reserve those glycogen stores.
However, fasted riding like this is a strategy not without risk.
It can compromise your immune system if done too often or for too long. So be wary and seek advice if you are unsure.
Another physiological adaptation of base training is increased strength in the muscle fibres.
This is particularly important for cyclists.
Giving energy drinks a miss and opting for water only is part of the approach recommended for enhancing the benefits of base training.
In order to improve power on the bike, we need to increase the amount of force a muscle fibre is able to produce.
This is done by specific strength training.
Strength training increases the size of a muscle fibre and this increases the amount of force this fibre is able to produce.
Protein intake and timing is very important in fostering this process.
Whey protein, which contains large amounts of the amino acid leucine, is a good choice to take immediately after strength training; 20-25g as soon as possible after training is enough to induce a training adaption in the muscle.
Some very interesting research now suggests that taking a small amount of protein before sleep allows the body to adapt to training throughout the night.
Strength training and endurance training require separate adaption pathways and can inhibit each other if done in the wrong way.
However, it is possible to gain the maximum endurance and strength outcomes if timing and nutrition are optimum.
This is called concurrent training and it’s where the science and art of coaching can produce great outcomes if done correctly.
Topics
