(inspirational music)
- Do you want Strava Q.O.M.s?
And do you want them now?
Well, accepted wisdom has it that
if you want to climb better, you need to be disciplined
and consistent with your training,
disciplined and consistent with your recovery,
and disciplined and consistent with your diet.
(record scratching)
But accepted wisdom is just so old fashioned and frankly,
discipline and consistency are just a bit boring
and they require, discipline and consistency.
And frankly after years of training and racing,
I'm over that, so let's look at some sneaky,
but totally legal, I hasten to add,
ways to improve your time on a climb
to bag that Q.O.M. or K.O.M.
(upbeat music)
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 all together.
Wear your lightest clothing, take off your under jersey,
take off your gloves, take off your socks,
don't need sunnies.
You can even take off the saddle because you're gonna be
standing up sprinting the whole way anyway, right?
And weight is everything.
This is a bit controversial, but it is actually possible
to lose a kilo, but even two, just before you go riding.
Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.
If you go for number two before your ride,
you can save a lot of weight.
I mean, it would cost a lot of money
to take two kilos off your bike
and it would take a huge amount of self discipline
to lose two kilos of body weight.
So if going to the toilet is not part
of your pre-ride routine, well,
there's a couple of tricks you could try.
You could have a really strong coffee
and you could do some star jumps.
Oh, gotta go.
(footsteps)
(door closing)
Along those same lines, what you eat in the 48 hours prior
to your big Strava segment attempt
could make quite a big difference to your body weight.
You might've heard the pros talking about low residue diets.
That basically means eating a diet that is low in fiber
in the run-up to a big event.
That means that they're not carrying around
a load of fiber in their gut.
So, skip the salad, skip the fruit and veg.
Stick to plain, refined carbohydrate.
Now you know that dietary advice is very much on the side
of eating a lot of fruit and veg,
so this is not healthy long term,
this is really just a one to two day tactic
in the run-up to your target event.
(upbeat music)
Lose weight the expensive way.
Now this is probably what we would all love
to be able to do, just spend, spend, spend
to make the bike as light as possible.
If you've got the money and you love your bike, why not?
I'm assuming here that the utilized minimum weight
requirement of 6.8 kilos does not apply to you.
If the climb you're targeting is not too steep,
you should hopefully be going at quite a decent speed.
Now the rule of thumb for aero gains and losses
is generally taken as about 20 kilometers an hour.
But, it's a sliding scale, so if you think
you'll be riding at 10, 15, or 20 kilometers an hour,
it makes sense to train of riding in a super aero position
with your head down to minimize aero losses.
And you can invest in a more aero frame, wheels,
maybe some aero over shoes, a skin suit, aero helmet.
Just make sure that you buy aero kit that's also super light
because that's a really expensive way of doing it.
I'd like to add here that the trade off between aero losses
and the mass of your bike and kit
is a complicated optimization and it will depend
in each case on the steepness, the speed you're riding,
the wind conditions, the air density, your frontal area,
and the coefficient drag, and your mass, in some cases.
Especially draggy, not very steep hills,
being more aero, but heavier, will actually be faster
than going as light as possible.
Now wind conditions can obviously make a big difference
to your time on any segment, so do your homework.
Research the prevailing wind directions,
check out the seasonal and daily variations,
monitor the weather conditions, and set up an alert
so you know when the best time is for your Q.O.M. attempt.
Obviously, the main thing you want is a big, big tailwind,
but also low air pressure and dry cool conditions will help.
Like the pros, it helps to have a good team around you
if you want to win and this is what cycling friends are for.
First, you'll need a cracking lead out
in the front of the climb and then,
you'll need at least one, preferably several,
super-dom assists to sit on the front
any point where the climb is below 20% gradient.
You'll want to make your team train rigorously
for the event, I mean, you don't want to be let down
by their lack of fitness.
On the other hand, you don't want them to train too hard,
in case they drop you half way up.
Now if none of your friends is up to the job of pacing you
through a Strava segment, or if in fact,
you don't actually have any friends left,
possibly due to your Strava related behavior,
well don't panic!
Instead you can recruit your husband or boyfriend
or parents, or godparents, or your own children even.
Set them up on an e-bike and get them to pace you
into and then right to the climb.
By the way, I take no responsibility of any divorces
or familial discord resulting from this advice.
(upbeat music)
Family and friends have a role to play off the bike as well.
It's well known that the atmosphere and ambiance
of a big event can help athletes to dig in even deeper
to try even harder for the win.
So, persuade all your friends and your family
to line up along the climb to cheer you on
to your big Q.O.M. attempt.
If your former friends have stopped answering your calls
and your family thinks your Strava obsession is unhealthy
and your partner's left you
because you only ever talk about bikes, well, don't panic.
What you can do is record the sound of cheering crowds
and then play it over headphones while you're riding.
Just make sure it's not illegal to ride with headphones
wherever you are, perfect.
(upbeat music and cheering)
So hours leading up to a strenuous, athletic event
are crucial for getting your fueling right.
If you've done everything right in preparation,
you don't want to ruin it all by eating a pizza
or even two just an hour beforehand.
And even if you haven't done everything right,
like you couldn't be bothered to train,
still don't want to vomit halfway through.
Your last meal before an intense effort like a hard climb
should be at least three hours beforehand
and should consist entirely of refined carbohydrates.
Caffeine is also your friend.
Caffeine will help you ride faster and unless of course,
you are sensitive to caffeine, in which case,
don't drink too much of it.
Recovery is critical to performance.
In fact, you get stronger in recovery, not in training.
So make sure you taper well
for your K.O.M. or Q.O.M. attempt.
This could be a good excuse to not do the training
that you didn't want to do anyway.
It's definitely a good excuse not to do any heavy lifting,
grocery shopping, cleaning, playing with the kids,
or in fact, just having a social life.
As the pros say, never run when you can walk.
Never walk when you can stand still.
Never stand still when you can lie down.
Once you're lying down, take a nap.
I hope this video helps you to achieve Strava segment glory.
I have to say that, think it might actually be easier
and more fun to just ride my bike more
and eat less chocolate to go a bit faster,
but there you go.
If you would actually like to do some training,
if you click down here, for some G.C.N. training videos.