- Hello, and welcome to Ask GCN-ything.
- This week we answer your questions on aero bikes,
on sprinting versus climbing, and on the Dirty Dozen.
- A little bit of everything there. And don't forget,
to be in with a chance of winning a free three-month
subscription to Zwift. All you have to do is use the hashtag
#askgcntraining.
- And of course, for any non-training related questions,
you can use the hashtag #torqueback.
- First up we have a question from Christopher Jenkins.
- "Hi GCN. One of my favorite things to do is ride
in the hills. I want to improve and train for this type
of riding. But I was wondering if my genes could hold me
back and actually I could train to be a better sprinter
than climber and not know it. Am I wrong for training
this discipline because I find it more desirable,
or can your body adapt to either
equally with correct training?"
- Well, I think Christopher, there probably isn't such
a thing as a wrong discipline. You should really do
what you love, that's the most important thing.
And at the end of the day, if we train optimally, we're all
ultimately going to be limited by our bodies and our genes,
and yes, there is some kind of genetic predisposition
to be good at certain types of cycling, and depending
on what size you are, your body composition, how much
muscle you usually put on, and what kind of
muscles you do put on, so if you're more fast with it,
or you're more slow to it. Lung capacity as well,
but at the end of the day, those are really quite
slight differences to the effect of training and
by that I mean life-long training, so you know,
what you've been doing for the last 20 years,
or however old you are and however long
you've been cycling. So for example, I can't sprint at all,
but that's probably because I've spent 25 years doing
endurance sport, and never training at sprinting,
'cause I hate it, 'cause bad at it.
And the thing that we often think, that you're either
one or the other, because you know, if you watch the
World Championships, or the Olympics, we see the
extremes of human performance, where they're both
genetically predispositioned to be good at their event,
probably at that level, and they've spent
years and years training it. I mean, I know that
people who call themselves sprinters can get really,
really, really, good at climbing, whatever their initial
body-type, just by training. And I don't know how
you feel about sprinting?
- Yeah, well, actually, when it comes to
racing and sprinting, your end result is detected as much by
your positioning as it is by your actual ability to sprint,
so if you're out with your mates, or you're doing a race,
then you can pay attention to that as well as including
some training. You know, you're gonna improve.
- Yep. You're gonna improve on what you train at,
if you're training well at it. And I'm not sure what
you think your genetic limitations are, because
you haven't been more specific, but I think that I
wouldn't worry too much about that,
you should train for what you love.
If you are 150 kilos, and your FDB is fairly low,
then it's going to be tough to do long climbs, I admit,
because power twin really is important for longer climbs.
But that's trainable, so keep training at it.
- I'm going to give you some top tips through your
climbing anyway. Why don't you check that map?
- Some hacks, even.
- Are you too fond of food to cut back on calories?
Don't worry, you can lose weight
from your bike much quicker.
Leave the beat-ons at home. In fact, take the
bottle-cages off, altogether. Wear your lightest clothing,
take off your under-jersey, take off your gloves,
take off your socks, don't need sunnies, I mean,
you could even take off the saddle because you're
gonna be standing up sprinting the whole way anyway, right?
And weight is everything.
- Next question comes in from MTB Jr. "#torqueback.
What is more important: aerodynamics,
or weight, or your power?"
- That's a really good question. And actually, that
depends a little bit. So when it comes to going uphill,
then the steeper hill the more important your weight's
gonna become. And the same with aerodynamics.
The faster you're going, the more important
the aero will become.
- Exactly, yeah, because obviously your aero-drag increases
with the square of your speed. So the faster you go,
the more important it gets. And um, there's no point
where you can say weight stops mattering and aerodynamics
matters, obviously they're both involved in
slowing you down, it just depends on the terrain,
which one's going to be more important.
I used to say, rule of thumb, 20K an hour, Chris says 30,
but then he always went faster than me. So if I was
doing a time trial, and I was going uphill, and it
was slower than 20K an hour, I'd sit up to feel more
comfortable, but if it was faster than 20, I would
get down on the aero bars, to stay aero. But that's
very much rule of thumb. They're all important, frankly.
And power, you're always going to need some power to
ride your bike, so power is always important,
I think we can safely say that.
- Definitely. Work on the power, and then the
rest kind of follows as well. Like,
your power to it'll be better,
and aerodynamics is less of a factor for you.
- And if you're trying to work out which is more important
for a certain course, or a certain route, or a certain
race, that's quite a complicated equation, 'cause you
have to look at all the different sections where it's
flat, uphill, downhill, and work out the optimal power,
the optimal weight, the optimal drag. I mean, it's possible,
and there are tools out there to do it, but it takes
quite a lot of work, and if I were you I'd just
concentrate on riding your bike,
training well, being powerful.
- Yeah, definitely. 'Cause once you get to a 60K an hour,
in fact a lot of the energy you're putting
into the pedals isn't gonna make you go that much faster.
So you're better off just being really aero,
and saving the energy.
- We now have our Zwift question, which is from
Jonathan Zappala. "Hi GCN, I'm training for the Dirty Dozen,
race in Pittsburgh, so I'm focusing
on one minute and five minute power.
Which is the best way to increase those powers?
Right now I'm doing one minute intervals at a wattage
between my one and five minute bests,
with a three minute recovery twice a week."
Well, yeah.
- Well, Jonathan, that is a unique and fantastic event.
For those of you not familiar with the
Pittsburgh Dirty Dozen, it's a race that consists of
the 13 steepest hills in Pittsburgh. 13 because it's a
baker's dozen. There's a bit of a snag though, because
you race up the hills, where the top ten competitors
on each hill receive points, but between the hills it's
neutralized, so you ride easy from hill to hill.
In fact, it is sounding quite good to me, until, I found
out that the hills are crazy steep. We're talking
20 to 37 percent. That's a steep hill.
- Yeah, it sounds absolutely brutal. And, because the
event is so unique, your training will have to be as well.
So you'll want to focus on getting some really
good, high-quality, maximum effort out of your body,
and then recovering fully before doing them again.
So, if you don't have loads of hills in your area, something
like eight to ten times 30 seconds of maximum effort before
a full recovery and then going again, you want to do that
over gear as well, because you're trying to replicate the
high torque efforts that you'll be doing on these climbs.
- Basically, in the event you are going to run out of gears.
So you need to practice that horrible feeling of running
out of gears. So practice out-of-the-saddle climbing,
over-geared, and it's gonna feel horrible, but you need
to get used to that, and you also need to get used to the
lactate that you'll produce. So for longer efforts, you
can go for six to eight by two minute efforts, maximum, but
you need to start them over-geared. So I suggest starting
maybe the first 10 seconds out of the saddle over-geared,
and then sit down, and then carry on over-geared through
the rest of the two minutes. And you're never gonna feel
like you're on top of that gear. It's gonna feel
brutal all the way. But that will prepare you pretty well
for what sounds like really, a very tough event.
- It does, it doesn't sound like my idea of a day out.
It's almost gonna be like weight training, basically.
- Yeah, exactly, yeah. Do remember to recover fully
between the intervals, because that's key, that will
happen in the event. You don't need to start each interval
racing. You should obviously be going flat out straight from
the gun on the interval, so there's no rolling into it, but
recover really well between the efforts.
- Yeah. And good luck, there's loads of workouts on
Zwift if you want to check any of those out, to
train indoors over the winter.
- Yeah, indeed, so your three months of Zwift membership
should really help you with the training.
- Yeah. Enjoy, and good luck.
Next up, B Con writes in with, "is there a big difference
in comfort on an aero bike when compared to a lightweight
bike. I've been thinking of buying an aero bike for some
time now. And what kind of aero bike do you recommend?"
- Well that's a really good question, and I think that
to be honest, you can be just as comfortable on an
aero bike, as on a lightweight bike, and so you don't
have to assume it's going to be less comfortable.
It will feel different though, potentially,
so some people find that super aero bike feels stiffer,
and if you put super aero deep section wheels on,
then it will definitely feel different,
especially in a crosswind. So I really struggle,
for example, with the deep section front wheel, 'cause
I just can't hold the bike up in a crosswind, so there
are differences, for sure.
- Yeah. And the other thing you want to take into account
is the position on the bike, as well. Most aero bikes will
be slightly more extreme forward, and lower at the front,
as well. Whereas a more comfortable lightweight bike
will be slightly more relaxed, so you want to take that
into consideration. But, bear in mind, that your body
actually makes up most of the drag, so the bike makes
a very small difference. You will feel it, but your
body makes more of a difference, so. Go with whatever
you feel you can get into a better position on.
- And if you can't cope with the low front end of an
aero bike, then that means that you're not flexible
enough to get into an aero position, so it might be
a false way of trying to go faster. And that actually,
when it comes to choosing a bike, I would advise going
to your local bike shop and trying out a few bikes,
because they all feel different, like. I think the
aero bikes from different brands will feel totally
different, and there's a lot more to how a bike feels
than whether it's aero or lightweight, the handling, and the
geometry, and the position, and you just, you know, if you
love a bike, you love a bike. So I think you should try them
out first, and then you'll know.
- Yeah. Choose the one that's gonna make you
want to ride it. And if you want any extra tips, why
not check out what the pros choose?
- [Emma Voiceover] It's more about the right feel than the
weight, so it's more do they feel more comfortable, maybe.
- I like bikes that are, a bit heavier in the mounts,
but I feel better on it, so that's what it is. It's all
about the feeling, it's not about the weight.
- Yeah, at the end of the day you've gotta
feel good to ride well.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- Next question comes in from Barnaby Grant,
"#AskGCNTraining, I'd love some advice about carb loading,
specifically repeated loading. I have a month coming up
where I have four races, spaced about a week apart,
each of which is an endurance event, which would see
a significant benefit from carb-loading. However, I'm
worried about the effects, if any,
of carb-loading repeatedly. Any thoughts?"
- Well, there won't be any side effects, other than if you
overeat, you're gonna put on weight. There's
a big difference between carb-loading and overeating,
something that a lot of people get quite wrong.
- Yeah, me, for example. I'd always overeat from nervousness
the night before a race. The science shows pretty clearly
how much carbs you need, and you knew the numbers, didn't y
didn't you?
- Yeah, so, you want to weigh yourself, first off. And then
the day before the race, or the two days before the race,
you want to eat around eight grams of carbohydrate per
kilo of body weight, per day. So if you weigh 75 kilos,
that's around 600 grams just of carbohydrates, and you
probably want to find them from quite an easily accessible
source, so white bread, pasta, that sort of thing.
- You don't need too much fiber.
- No, exactly. Not the day before a race.
- And you also don't need too much fat.
'Cause that will slow your digestion down, and it won't
bring you that much help in the race.
- And then the day after the race, you want to reduce
that a little bit, down to like
five to six grams per kilo. That's, what, 400 grams?
If you're that weight.
- So obviously you do need some carbs
the day after the race, to help with the recovery, and
replenishing your muscles, and then in the week between
race days, you can eat slightly less carbs, but I should
emphasize that you need enough carbs. In a period like that,
where you've got so many races close together, you shouldn't
be doing any faster training really, because it's
quite fatiguing. And your focus should really be on
being fully recovered for your event, so make sure you
get enough carbohydrates, but you know, slightly too much
is probably okay, but if you massively overeat on carbs,
then yeah, you will put weight on, so--
- And you'll feel sluggish.
- Yeah. Well, I don't know, I felt really good, but it's
mostly mental. I think if I overate, I felt so guilty that
I raced really hard, but that's the only real bad
side effect. Obviously if you change your diet massively,
from if you eat normally loads of vegetables, and then
you suddenly eat no vegetables, then yeah you will see a bit
of a change in your digestive system, and you will feel
sluggish, so. I would try it out, but you need to eat
enough carbohydrates. There's no benefit to going low-carb
in this period.
- No, and on the morning of the race you want to
make sure you leave that good three hour window before
the race, after eating. Otherwise, you'll get to the
starter line, and you'll just struggle with breathing.
- Yeah. Feeling pretty sick.
- So, we then have a question from Leo Franceschini,
"Hi guys, I'm incorporating some mobility and stretching
sessions into my training program, and I'm wondering how
often and when I should do these sessions. Before or after a
workout, on a rest day?"
- Generally, people recommend these days to stretch after
a workout, because you don't need to make your muscles
stretch before you start training. It's quite a personal
choice when you do it, really. Up to three times a week,
probably. And however you do it. If it makes you feel good,
then as often as you have time for, really.
- Yeah. I used to do it every day after training.
- Really?
- Yeah. Unless I got home wet and cold.
- Wow.
- In which case, yeah. No chance.
- I stretched about once a year, normally.
Next up, David Alexander, "I recently changed work locations
in the last year, and am now working across
a very large river. There are no options for me to ride
across the river," I'm not surprised because
riding across water: tricky, but. Anyway, sorry, that
wasn't the question, "there are no options for me to ride
across the river, I have to use a ferry. This hasn't been an
issue until the weather started getting cold. I find myself
standing around more or less outdoors for 20 to 30
minutes for the ferry, and by the time
I get back on my bike, I'm quite cold again. Is there
anything I can do in the cramped confines of the ferry to
keep some of the warmth I got
on my way to the boat, thanks."
- Star jumps? Star jumps or, just pack some extra clothing,
especially a hat or waterproof jacket that will really keep
the warmth in. Or, you could also try and not
build up a sweat before you get on the ferry, because
if you warm up before you get there, you're really gonna
notice the effects as you're cooling down, and especially
with moisture on you as well.
- Yeah, but a hat's tiny, you can not have much space. Pack
it down, put it in a plastic bag so you don't sweat on it,
and put it on. Take your helmet off, put the hat on, and
that keeps most of your body heat in.
But star jumps, I think.
- Or--
- You could also pack tea, in a thermos.
- Yeah, exactly. Hot drink.
- Oh, lovely. Next up, Vimeo Yt asks, "please can you tell
me why I can train easier with the team than at home,
and could you guys do a video of stretching to do
after training."
- Well, the second part's really easy. We've definitely got
some videos on the channel of stretching, If you just
type that in the search bar. The reason you find it easier
to train with others is probably like, your perceived
exertion. Some people are really motivated when they're
around others, but yet when they train by themselves, they
really suffer, and find it really difficult to push as hard
as they did. Personally, I love training alone, when no one
can see me suffering. But, that's not
always the case for everyone.
- You know it's funny, 'cause I find it much easier
to train hard with other people, 'cause I find that it
helps me push myself. I enjoy it more, it feels mentally
easier, and physically harder. So that's why I really
love training with other people. But it's a very personal
thing. I mean, I assume you're asking like comparing
watts for watts, not comparing speed because obviously
if you're training with a group, and your team
then you're going to go faster for the same effort.
- That's aerodynamics.
Martin Cheatle, "Which of the GCN crew can do
bike maintenance from a basic puncture to a complex
replace loose bearings?"
- Well, that's pretty easy, really. John Cunnings can do
everything.
- John is the master.
- I think most GCN presenters are pretty good, apart
from myself. And I'll freely admit that I am rubbish, so
I can definitely change a puncture.
- Maybe we should all build a bike.
- No.
- Get timed, see who can do it the quickest.
- We literally do not have time in a working week.
It would take me all year. I mean, I can probably
strip a bike down, I can take stuff of the bike, I just
don't know how to put it back on in the right way.
- It's easy you just put the stuff on where it came off.
Trial and error, that's the way everyone learns.
Right then, C Mad, "I love the show. Please can you compare
the advantages and disadvantages of the
common fitness tests? In other words, 20-minutes versus
two-times-eight minute tests, versus a ramp test, or versus
the new 4DP test. My results seem quite varied depending on
which one I do, so. Thank you."
- Yeah, well, that's a good point. Not a lot of people say
oh, I did an FTP test, and I got to X power, or to X level.
And the thing is that all the tests are different, so it's
not that any of them are unreliable, unless they're
run badly, but the point is that they're all
slightly different. They'll give you a gauge of
your fitness, but they're not really comparable.
So, if you want to measure your fitness, you just need
to make sure you pick one of the tests, and do that one.
Although not too often, 'cause you'll get bored and
you'll get stale, and--
- Yeah, exactly. And also, kinda train to do the test,
if you're keep on doing it repeatedly, and you'll just get
good at doing the test, which isn't always a fair
representation of your fitness.
- Definitely, yeah. So back in my day, we did like a boring
old school ramp test, but the length of the ramp
was different. So my pro team would test us with a certain
length ramp, and British Cycling would test with a
different one, and I got to totally different powers, 'cause
in one of them I got tired 'cause it went on for 35 minutes.
The other one was only 15, so it was much easier. Anyway
Pick one, stick to it - Pick one, stick to it
- Once every six weeks is probably the most you
need to do it then. Things rarely change that often.
- Twice a year is maximum, I think.
- Yeah, exactly, and twice a year is probably fine,
to be really honest.
- I find it immensely, very, very draining doing
those tests, so keep them spaced out.
- Right. Hoyt Anders, "I've been really enjoying all of the
indoor training videos on the channel. Could you recommend
a weekly routine of training videos to follow to improve
general cycling fitness? I can rarely get outside during the
cold months, but I'd like to keep fit if possible. Right now
I'm alternating between doing one that focuses on strength
one day, and one HIIT session the next day. I usually do one
30 to 45-minute video a day for three or four days in a row,
and then I take a rest day.
Does that sound like a good plan?"
- Well that sounds like quite a lot of intensive training
in a week to me, and I think that if you're going to do
that much intense indoor riding, you want to maybe
structure it a bit better. It's fine to two to four really
hard intensive sessions indoor in a week, but you probably
wouldn't want to do more, because you won't get any benefit.
You'll just be getting tired, and you won't be
able to actually do the intensity you need to get a
benefit from it. So maybe start with two to four,
depending on how you feel, and split them up, so you've
got two blocks, of two days.
- Then you come back for the second block, fresher.
Which means you can push harder.
- You need to have a complete rest day probably, once a week
and recovery between the sessions is key. And you also don't
want to forget your endurance. So if you do get time on the
weekend, maybe do a longer endurance ride.
- Yeah, even if it's just two hours, y'know.
It's gonna help you.
- Hope this video has been interesting and informative.
If you do have any more questions, please use the hashtag
#torqueback, or #askGCNtraining, and that of course
gives you a chance to win three months of subscription
to Zwift, which is very useful now that it's getting
cold and dark in the Northern Hemisphere, and going
outside to train is, well.
- It's grim.
- It's grim, it's grim. I've been on Zwift five times this
week, already, I reckon.
- It's only Wednesday? Make sure you leave any comments you
have in the box below, even without the hashtag, we'll
still get back to them.
- And give us a thumbs up, share it with your friends,
and if you haven't seen it yet, please, please, go and
watch, James' red hook Milan...
- It's properly epic, the red hook crit in Milan.
- Oh, it's. Yeah. I was on the edge of my seat, literally,
and nearly cried at the end, it was.
- Worth a watch.
- Emotional, yeah. I think Grant, cried as well.