(dramatic sounds effects)
- Welcome to GC anything.
- Coming up this week we answer your questions
on knee pain, training when under the weather
and how to go about choosing an upgrade.
- Oh, exciting stuff.
But before we get straight into it,
the next weeks show is our Christmas special.
Now, for this we thought it would be a great idea
for you to be able to ask your questions
to specific presenters.
For example,
- Well, I just wanna know how long them batteries
in Emma's motor last before they wear out.
(drum sounds)
- Nice one, Chris, nice one.
And to do that, it's same as always,
use the hashtag TORQUEBACK
and then put the presenters name
you are putting your question to
and hopefully they'll answer it.
- Yep, and don't forget if you wanna be in
with a chance of winning a free three month subscription
to Zwift use the hashtag ASKGCNTRAINING.
- Yes.
Alright, we should get straight into it, should we?
- Come on.
- Right, we're gonna go straight in
with the first question from David Wilson,
I've been getting knee pain from long rides.
I have had bike fits and regular physio, physical therapy.
I want to maintain and even improve my form.
What exercises and activities can I do off the bike
which will help develop or maintain the muscles
and fitness needed for when I am on the bike?
What do you reckon, Chris?
- Well, you can start with something like swimming
because this is wildly recognized
to help build up your um, aerobic-
- Yes, super good for recovery, isn't it?
- Yeah and it's really low impact as well.
So if you got any niggles it's gonna be good for that.
- Yeah, I do.
- I would also try some stretching
after all your sessions when your muscles are warm.
Because that will really help
any tight muscles that are causing those knee injuries.
- Yeah.
So, I reckon just try and do some
cardiovascular fitness, like swimming for example
and try and stay clear of the impact sports,
cause that will really agitate the knee.
- Ketaki Deshpande writes in with,
should I invest in an indoor trainer or some good tires,
or maybe even a new cassette and chainring
which would be a more suitable gearing for me?
He actually wanted to get a power meter
but decided it was too costly,
which I can understand.
- Yeah, interesting.
All those upgrades would be good,
but, ideally you wanna hone down on the one thing
that you're doing regularly that will actually enhance that.
So for example, if you can ride outside at all
then getting an indoor trainer is probably
not the most ideal thing to get.
Maybe a set of new tires that are more grip,
you have more punch resistance would be more ideal.
If for example you could train indoor a lot
and that would really benefit you
then an indoor trainer would be good for you,
if that makes any sense.
- Yeah and likewise, if there's terrain out there
that you're not currently using
because your gearing doesn't suit it,
then getting new gears is definitely gonna make that easier
and more accessible to you.
- Yeah, so hone in on the thing that's really
like, you're doing and that's gonna be beneficial for you
if you got the upgrade.
- Cool and if you wanna know more about upgrades,
check out Dan still in the countryside somewhere
talking about them.
- So tires are a great way of saving a few grand
and making a bike feel that much better.
Don't go for anything super, super light.
That way you'll be even more susceptible to punctures.
But a good quality folding tire
with a high thread count will make a big difference,
if you're somebody that's used to a beaded tire
which is quite heavy.
(dramatic sound effects)
- Zwiftly moving on?
- Oh, Chris that is good, that is good.
Yes.
The winner of this weeks Zwift question is..
- Jacob Sargent.
- Yeah, right on Jacob.
So you've got a three free month subscription of Zwift
coming right your way.
For this question, how much can your FTP fluctuate
throughout the year.
I have found that mine has become about 10 watts lower,
going into the winter.
What is the best way to maintain
and raise my FTP during those cold, wet winter months?
- Well, you know what Jacob?
I wish that mine only even fluctuated by 10 watts.
- Me too, mate, me too.
- But, sadly, that's not the case.
Your fitness is not a constant at all.
It's always either slightly going up
or slightly dropping off
and there's nothing you can do about it
and that's just a fact of life.
So your best off accepting that it's perfectly fine
for you FTP to fluctuate by 10-12%
or even more in some cases.
And once you've done that,
well then you want to look at the
Zwift 12 week fitness builder, or the FTP builder.
- Yes, 100%.
Now you've got a three free month subscription,
why don't you start off with using that FTP builder
as part of your training program.
And hopefully that will start seeing your FTP
going in the right direction to getting 10% better,
not 10% worse.
- Yeah, 57 workouts tailored specifically to your needs
and your current FTP to help you really push
the boundaries of what you can do.
- Yeah, have a go of that.
It looks quite tough though, don't you think?
- 57 workouts, I don't know how you can manage that.
- Jacob, ouch.
- Glenn Parr is up next with,
what is the best training to do when you
inevitably get a winter cold and you can't do much,
but you don't want to lose any progress
that you've already made.
- Oh, good question
and I think all of us athletes, cyclists out there
just wanna get straight back on the bike
and really don't wanna miss any time off the bike.
But the best thing to do
and we can't stress anymore than that
is just to rest.
Stop what you're doing, have a day in bed
and try and get over it as quick as possible.
And then hopefully you can get straight on the bike faster
than if you kinda dragged on.
Cause the worse that you could do
is get on the bike too soon when your immune system is low
and your body's already trying to fight the illness
and then it just prolongs the illness
and you just don't want that.
So just try and hit it on the head.
- You don't want three or five days becoming
10 days to two weeks, do you?
- Yes.
- Cause that's just gonna write you off for the next month.
- Next question from Bill C,
I'm planning on riding in a very hilly,
high altitude, week long Fondo here in Colorado,
oh I'd love to live in Colorado.
I have a lot of weight to lose to get up all those hills,
but I also want to build my endurance to crank out
those multiple long days of riding.
How should I plan my training to achieve both goals?
I do have a Wahoo Kickr Snap trainer
as well as a cold weather clothing
for our often dry winter days.
Well, Bill, it sounds like you got yourself
a really, really cool challenge there for next year.
- Yeah.
- And the way we would recommend going about it
is to slowly, but surely build up the volume
that your completing each and every week
and also the volume on each day.
So, you wanna do one to two or maybe even
three long rides if you've got the time.
If you've only got a weekend day
then a long ride on the Sunday
with some proper good intervals,
which will really help get you over those
climbs on the other day.
So, you're like 12 minutes and a 12 minute max effort,
three times, so you've got around
30 to 40 minutes in total workload in that session.
- Yeah, and I would just try and string
a few weeks together
and then try to have a bit of an easier week
and then try and string another few weeks together
and that would really help you come on and get fit.
So, good luck for that Grand Fondo
and do let us know how you get on
in the comment section below.
We'd really be interested to hear, yeah.
- Yeah.
- Next question we have is from Stefan Boogard.
I really like the shows and this winter
I started doing some weight training twice a week
to prepare for the racing season.
Should I combine this with specific FTP or tempo training
or is it just better to do the rides
next to the weight training
and start the specific road training
when the weightlifting is over.
I'm worried I might overtrain
if I'm going to combine the two of them.
- Interesting one, I would absolutely combine the two.
- Yeah.
- So I would do your riding in the morning
and your weight session in the evening.
But that's my personal preference, you may be different.
But, yes, I would not neglect the riding
because that is a really big part
of getting fast on the bike.
- Yeah if you do your weight training
as a complimentary type of training to your road riding
and you really do not
wanna miss out on those longer efforts,
those harder efforts,
cause that is your fitness that you'll be building,
specifically for your racing.
- Yeah, your priority is your bike riding
and your weight training comes next.
So, make sure you've done all your bike riding
and like Chris says, the strength training is a bonus.
- And good luck, if you do feel tired, take a day off.
- Right, now it's time for..
- Quick fire round!
- Chris, that was beautiful.
And the first question in from Erwan Lacoste,
Hi GCN, should a rider always know which speed
he is riding at, at any time?
Do the pros have some kind of hidden gene
that tells them if their mechanic
is switching gears when servicing,
or does their brain keep track in the background
any change of shift they operate?
So basically what you're saying is
do the pros just automatically know what gear
and when to be in it
and what is the best gear to be in?
- Well the answer is simply yes,
because as a pro bike rider you become
so incredibly in tuned with how fast you're going,
what your cadence is,
and what gear you need to be in for that given speed
and that circumstance.
You could almost probably tell the mechanic
the gear ratios yourself.
- Yeah, 100%.
And I think you know, pros ride their bikes everyday
for hours and hours on end.
And you do, like the bike just naturally
becomes apart of you.
- An extension.
- Yeah, so, literally,
you don't even really need to think about it,
it's second nature what gear and when to be in it.
Christopher Reis then, next up,
I am planning to do my first bike race early next year.
So I'm really in need of a little Zwift
to make the indoor sessions more fun.
- Yeah, 100%.
Zwift actually really helps get the winters
passed by really quickly and take your mind off it,
because you are racing on the game.
Actually, I say racing, get involved in the racing.
Cause it's a really good way of doing really hard efforts
without even thinking you're doing hard efforts.
- It's harder than real life.
- Yeah.
And there's also workouts in there, too.
- There are.
Right, my favorite one next up, Fluffy Domo,
torqueback should I cut off my friends dork disc?
And it's my favorite,
because I had no idea what a dork disc was.
- I don't know, I don't know either.
- What, really?
Okay, lets do this.
Its the little plastic dish
that comes on the back of brand new bikes
and wheels sometimes.
- Ahh.
- And yeah, you should definitely get rid of it.
Because it looks awful.
- Have you seen one?
- Well not for years, but, I've seen pictures.
- Yeah, nice.
Next question, Stanislav,
can I get the same benefits from Zwift racing
as from structured Zwift workouts?
- Well, yes and no.
I mean, I did a Zwift race the other day
and it was kind of a relentless, on the pedals effort.
It wasn't a particularly anaerobic effort at all,
it's full on aerobics.
So that's kind of what the Zwift workouts
are star towards as well.
But, the Zwift workouts are designed specifically to target
certain energy sources so, you wanna use those
if you wanna build specifics into your training.
- Yeah, I personally do most of the workouts
and then maybe once or twice a week I'll do a race.
- That's the way to do it.
- So, yeah.
But, have fun and make sure
you do what's best for you, really.
- Next question, comes in from James Williamson,
I'm needing to replace my headset bearings,
what improvements could buying better bearings give me?
- Well other than buying bearings that are better sealed,
or bearings that are maybe a little bit lighter,
then the benefits won't be huge.
So, just go out there and find one that fits your bike
and gets the job done and you'll be fine.
- Yes, like when you turn your headset,
your headset bearings are only moving a quarter amount
and it's not going to improve your riding, for example.
It's not gonna make you faster on the bike,
but it will make you feel a little smoother.
So, yeah, like Chris said,
just get a set of bearings that do the job.
- Yeah, it's a bit different to your wheels-
- We're forgetting it's a bit far out.
(clicking)
- Girogio Nitzia,
- I've seen a lot of pros doing mountain bike
during off season.
My question is, do they push hard
or do they just stay in zone one to three.
I find it very difficult to maintain
a constant pace on the mountain bike.
But I want to ride it cause it's fun
and helps with my technique.
Now, Chris, you love - I do, yeah.
- mountain biking in the off season, so tell me what you do?
- Well so, I would just go out
and ride it on feel, completely.
And that's the beauty of it,
it's so far removed from road cycling,
it's more about technique and about having fun
than it is about sticking to certain zones, or whatever.
If you really want to use a mountain bike for training,
then you can use like, fire tracks and all that
and then you can stick to your zones.
But, it's actually all about forgetting
the strict regimented training
and just enjoying riding a bike
and working on your technique.
- Yeah, I would second that, 100%.
I would keep your zone efforts and keep your FTP threshold,
VO2 max all that kind of stuff,
I would keep that to the road
and your structure work out to the road
and like Chris says, just go, get muddy and enjoy it.
(upbeat Christmas music)
Unfortunately we have come to the end
of this weeks Ask GCN Anything.
- If you want to ask one of the presenters next week,
on the Christmas special - Yes.
- A question, us the hashtag TORQUEBACK
and then drop their name in it as well.
- Yes, 100% and as always, if you wanna get,
be in with a chance of winning three free month subscription
from Zwift then use the hashtag ASKGCNTRAINING.
Be a nice Christmas present actually, wouldn't it?
- Yeah, it would be.
Just like this outfit would be as well.
- Yeah.
- Alright, anyway, let's go to the party, c'mon.
- Are we late?
- Well, I think so, yeah.
Blimey, it's dark.
- Oh, Christmas party.
- Oh!
- Woo!
Party on!