Break Time!

Jan 1 to Jul 13, 6.5mo of focused training and racing brings me to the end of MTB season. MTB Nationals is this weekend, and normally I would go but Wednesday I spent the day caring for my son as he underwent ACL reconstruction. Total bummer, this is his 2nd ACL surgery and it really makes me sad. I'm not to bummed about missing Nationals as its at altitude (Near Denver), and us low-landers don't do so well with short notice trips to races at 8000'. But it does seem as if the season has flown by, and I feel weird shifting gears into break mode... although I always make "break mode" a celebration!

For the 6.5mo I diligently tracked all my energy intake and output in an effort to chisel down to a super lean 152lbs. I might hit 150 for a few days here and there, but 152 is racing weight and it is a huge job trying to stay there. At 47 it's just plain tuff to get lean, and even tuff'er to stay lean. Mid season I bulged to about 154, but for the most part I have maintained race weight since February and I am now fully prepared to gain a quick 5 pounds!

During the 6.5mo I rode pretty much everyday, and rode with purpose pretty much every time I suited up. I had an agenda, a workout set, a goal, there was a mission with every ride. It might be to recover, or it might be to suffer, but every ride had a purpose. So between a rigid adherence to a workout schedule and an equally rigid adherence to diet, I am pretty much ready to hold-up the nearest Bakery come July!

What do I do on a break? Well first I park the bike. 2nd, I eat pastry, ice cream, burgers, pizza, and pretty much set out to put on 5lbs as quick as possible. I really gotta do this, for a few different reasons. #1, I've deprived myself of "poor choices" for months. #2, racing weight is not a healthy weight. #3, I have lived "feeling hungry" for months! So, I immediately target poor choices and weight gain, and as far as stopping the "feeling hungry", it requires at least 3-4days of limitless consumption of whatever I want.

This may seem extreme, and it kinda is, but after 3-4days I stop "just wanting to eat", and start to feel like eating meals and more healthier choices. The cravings subside, the hunger disappears and I start feeling MUCH less obsessive about food. I also have seen the scale change and the abs start to smooth, its amazing how quickly it comes on.. especially knowing how slowly it goes off! Soon I am back to eating my routine foods and its amazing that all the cravings I fought away for months seem to be totally absent. The body is happy now, and having done this before, will be happy until I chisel down again.

So what about the bike? Well, I am in pretty much the best shape of my life, so I hate to just let it go to waste. If I am traveling, well, I just won't ride. But this year I am at home, so riding is an option. I've taken a few days off but kinda feeling like taking an EZ spin tonight. Tomorrow is Saturday, the weather is gorgeous, the group rides are in full swing.. what to do? I am gonna ride, I just won't ride with purpose. I'll sit on, eat, drink, enjoy the ride. I won't hammer, I won't pull.. I'll chit chat and just cruise. The next day I might skip, I'll just do whatever I want for 7-10days and really let the chronic training load subside and the rest sink in. After 7-10days I should be feeling ready to ride hard and will probably go out and do something that sets a PB at some time duration. Breaks are usually followed by an amazing ride, tuff to predict when exactly, but usually in pretty short order.

And the rest of Summer? I'll ride hard! Lets face it, fitness is great right now. Weather is great, the only thing that really wasn't great was the chronic effects of a high training/racing load and 6mo of calorie deficit. Those 2 combined will hammer a body into a super fast MTB racing machine, but it cannot be sustained indefinitely, and I gotta be able to say enough is enough. At that point fitness can be huge, and by simply taking a short break, packing on a few lbs, and trimming back the "riding with purpose", I can hammer through the Summer with awesome form for fun! No expectations, plenty of second servings, and a whole lot of Good Times!

MTB Specificity

MTB racing requires solid endurance, your best power to weight ratio, and the ability to repeatedly deliver short high powered efforts. The endurance part is the same as any other aerobic sport, if you want to race, you need good endurance. Power to weight ratio means you have your body conditioned to develop your best power at the lowest possible weight. With all the climbs and accelerations in MTB racing, power to weight ratio is VERY important. And man, its tuff maintaining a super lean physique for months on end. But probably least understood is the ability to repeatedly produce the short high powered efforts that are required to ride fast through roots, clear obstacles and ascend the countless rises and hills featured in MTB races.

When racers launch from the line and hit the single track it may or may not be apparent that they are basically pedaling a few times, coasting, pedaling, coasting, continuously throughout the event. They also most likely do not realize just how much power they are producing during the "pedaling" portion of the ride. When you look at a power file from an MTB race it becomes very apparent! Every corner, lump, root, whatever.. requires a surge of power to maintain speed and momentum throughout the race. These surges are generally quite short, but repeated continuously throughout most sections of a typical race course.

Quadrant analysis.. what? Within WKO+ power file software you can view "how" the rider is producing power. High revs low force, high revs high force, low revs low force, low revs high force. Each pedal stroke will fall into 1 of these 4 quadrants. Generally during your basic road bike endurance ride you will be riding at a fairly middle rev speed (cadence) of around 90rpms with moderate force on each stroke. Chugging along, doing the miles, building endurance. Now say you want to accelerate, you may shift to a bigger gear and stand on the pedals in a low rev/high force style. Or you may spin the gear up with high revs eventually producing less force per rev as the rpm's increase. But on a MTB when you go to clear that root or small rise it is almost always accomplished with a lower rpm and HIGH FORCE.

I often notice that when I spend a lot of time training on my road bike that the transition back to racing on trails is not so smooth. All that power I developed on the road bike is good for those steady climbs, but when the going gets technical, rooty, highly undulating, I seem to wear out a lot faster. All those short, sharp efforts become exhausting and the next day I have soreness.. everywhere! Beat up and beaten down by the demands of MTB racing!

Why is this? I have my own conclusions, its due to the low cadence high force efforts, repeated over and over as power eventually fades away. These short, sharp efforts require a hearty push with every pedal stroke that uses more core muscle, arms and parts of the legs that just don't get worked very hard when road riding. Repeatedly delivery robust pedal strokes causes muscle contraction throughout the entire body, not to mention the upper body abuse you endure chattering through the roots and rocks, jumps and stumps and whatever obstacle may be coming next. MTB racing is much more of a full body workout, and if I've spent to much time on the road, I am going to pay for it!

So how do we train this quality up? All sorts of methods have been used, including low speed big gear accelerations, short high powered intervals, and long tempo rides with a "burst" every 5 minutes. But IMO this is all weak compared to actually getting out on the trails and riding hard.. or even better RACING! We all hear how the Pro's need racing to bring their legs around, and it holds true for us. Get out and race.. push hard, work to exhaustion and push even harder. These all out efforts will signal the body to adapt and develop strength where it needs it. I can get a bit of this by special road exercises, but nothing tops the specificity of actually getting out on the trail and riding hard!