- Welcome to Ask GCN Anything.
- Coming up this week we have all your
questions on endurance; so, multi-day cycling
events, fasted fat-burning training, and more.
- Endurance for January, I like it.
- Endure and enjoy.
- Yes, and remember if you want to get involved
in next week's show, then use the hashtag #TorqueBack,
and if you've got any training questions,
then use the hashtag #AskGCNTraining
and you'll also be in with a chance
of winning three months free subscription from Zwift.
- Don't forget, leave your questions on Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube; we will find them.
- Yeah we will. I reckon we should
crack off with some questions, you ready?
- All right, first up. - Right, we're gonna go
straight in on a nice, really good question actually
from lemonteilrevolution_velo, I like that.
- Right - In Calum, that's going to be
tough, isn't it? - Yeah.
- A nine day race. - Yeah but it's good though.
I love a stage race. - Yeah.
So first thing to remember is that it is actually
really rare to replicate a stage race in training.
It's unlikely that you'll ever go out and train
back to back for nine days because you'll lose
the quality of your training for a start.
- Yeah, you'll never actually do what the race is
if, for example, you would never go out and
just go nine days, replicate the race.
It's just not gonna happen, so we've actually
put our heads together, - Yeah.
- and we've worked out a program that will
hopefully take you from where you are now
to completing a nine day stage race
and hopefully in really good fitness.
- So you'll condense you training into blocks of three
to four days, or two days to start with
before a rest day and that will ensure that you keep
the quality in your training but will
also help you increase the load.
And also, there's some progression at the end of it.
So if you start with a recovery day on a Monday,
- A recovery day on a Monday is lovely. I used to
do that. - Yeah. Generally most of us
have more time on the weekends to train
and then on the Tuesday when your legs are still
not quite 100%, perhaps from the weekend, you can
target your sprint work because you need to learn to
sprint when you're slightly tired.
- Yeah and if you are wondering what kind of sprint work
to do, then we've actually got some videos of Chris
showing you some sprint sessions.
- Yeah, and then Wednesday's kind of a great day for
your threshold riding, so thirty to forty minutes
of zone four and maybe slightly above that sort of training.
- Yeah and you can do that on the turbo or
using Swift which is a really good way to
maximize your time on the Turbo.
- Yeah, and you can break that workload down
into intervals that will make it
much more manageable and more quality.
The Thursday is then 15 to 20 minutes of VO2
to anaerobic, so you're thinking 2 to 3 minute intervals
for that, and then easy day on the Friday.
- Get your legs up, get a coffee, and chill out.
- Because the recovery work is where you are
actually getting better. As you are getting more and
more tired, your body needs to adapt to that training.
And then Saturday and Sunday, endurance, but don't be
afraid to include a few intervals in there as well.
- Yeah, so this is the kind of weekend where
you want to ring up the local club, go out, socialize
with all your mates and enjoy being out on the bike.
And it also makes the time go a lot faster.
- Yeah, and as you get fitter and you move forwards,
you can then include an extra endurance on Friday,
or on the Monday, but make sure you try and keep those
two recovery days every three to four
days, so twice a week, really.
- Yeah, so try to string all that together
so hopefully put in from four to six weeks
and then come back to it and let us know how you get on.
Hopefully that really sets you up and gets you
a good base for your nine day stage race.
- Our second question is from Ben Boddy
who writes in, saying:
- Wow! That's awesome.
- Yeah, that's incredible. Good work.
- So you reckon he trains fasted,
which I think is fine. - Yeah, yeah.
- All right, Ben. Riding in a fasted state will 100%
help you improve. As long as you're stringing
those rides together and keeping them, you know, regular,
then you will definitely see the benefits,
so waking up at 05:20, yes, it's gonna hurt, I mean,
I don't think anyone wants to wake up at 05:20,
but trying to get an hour in before work would
really benefit you, and you can do this
in a fasted state but you can also do this with some fuel,
so either eating like a sports bar or having an energy drink
will actually help you as well.
- Yeah, you can eat once you're on the bike but
what we recommend is including some intervals
of 85 to 90 percent of your max heart rate
as this will really help boost
your aerobic performance once you're out there.
It means you're not wasting your time.
- Yeah, so you can either do that on the Turbo
or on the road, and Emma has done a video
on fasted commuting so if you fancy riding to work
in a fasted state and you want to chuck in some intervals
then this is a video you you'll want to check out.
- [Emma] Fasted training means training when you're
in a carbohydrate depleted state. This helps your body
adapt to a fat-burning metabolism which can help
you when you take part in long endurance events.
In fact, fat-burning is one of the components
of endurance that long rides can help you to train.
- And the winner for this week's
Zwift question is (hand drumming)
- Lander Scheers - Yeah, well done to you.
So you've got three months free subscription
on Zwift coming right your way,
but do remember to contact us on Facebook
and we'll get the code over to you.
For this question:
I mean, good for you to ride in Belgium. We
used to love riding in Belgium. I think you
also won some big race in Belgium.
Not as big as I'd like. - So how can we help?
- Right, so Lander, learn the style of racing
you have over there. The races are decided
by your ability to sustain a top end
effort over a long period of time.
- Correct. - So, doing one or two
endurance rides a month of four, five, to six hours
if you're feeling really motivated and the
weather's good will, you know, tide you over
in this period whilst you're studying for your
exams so don't worry too much about
missing out on your four hour rides.
The sort of intensity to sustain an endurance ride
means that you'll be taking a deep breath
if you were having a conversation after every sentence.
And then, that means you're not peddling too easily
but you're also not being too hard.
You just want to sustain that.
- Yeah it's a good way of kind of gauging your effort there,
so then you're not going too hard
and you're also not going too easy.
- But then moving on to those mid-week rides
or those weekend rides where you've only got
an hour to an hour and a half and, as
we mentioned before, sustaining effort is
what will decide the races so you want to focus
on having a really strong aerobic capacity
and you want to do that with some good intervals
around 88 to 92 percent of your max threshold
power, as it were, so what you can sustain for an hour.
If you're using your heart rate then you want to
use a slightly lower number than that,
and you want to build to that over
five to seven minutes of the effort.
These efforts, they're anything from 12 to 30
or even up to 60 minutes if you're doing them
and you want to do them a couple of times a week really.
- Yeah, and you really will see the benefit
especially in that short bit of time.
So, do what Chris says. Put in those efforts
in those interval sessions and then
when you've got more time, you can put them
into your endurance session, too.
- Yeah, good luck. And don't forget,
don't neglect the shorter efforts,
you know, the three to five minute efforts.
- Yeah, some VO2 style efforts.
They hurt, but they work.
- Great for those little climbs in Belgium.
- Yeah, so good luck and let us know how you
get on in the comment section below.
- We're on to some Instagram questions
now, and roryrides writes in with:
- Yeah, interesting question and again,
thank you for commenting on Instagram.
We do look at those questions as well.
But, to answer your question is,
have you looked at your fueling strategy?
For example, are you fueling correctly, because
endurance suffers a lot if you haven't got the energy
or the glucose or the glycogen stores
in the body to be help to then progress onto
longer rides than an hour, for example.
- Yeah you wanna keep 'em topped off,
don't you. A little, and often.
- Yeah a little and often is super key. So try
to eat every 20 minutes. Either take a bite
of a bar or a banana or a flapjack always
seems to work well, and then hopefully you'll
be able to increase your endurance.
Try to increase it by around 30
minutes so if you're nailing on an
hour ride, try and get an hour and a half,
two hours, two and a half hours, etc, etc.
But make sure you're fueling because
that really will help. And also, hydration.
- Yeah, and one final point and I know
you're a big fan of this; aim for a cafe
around three-quarters of the way through
the ride, then you've got the perfect
opportunity to refuel and you've also got a
good motivator to aim for and it's not too far to get home.
- Yeah and it is easy to forget to drink and eat, but
it's really something you want to get in the habit
of doing because, especially if you start racing
or whatever, it will come more naturally.
I mean, you're a natural eater and drink, aren't you?
- I'm good at eating and drinking.
- I'm terrible (laughing hesitantly)
- It's now time for the quick fire round!
- Yes, and to do this we're going to try and beat
the world's team pursuit record held by
Australia team in the commonwealth games in 2018.
And the time was 3:49. - 3:49.8.
- So, this is gonna keep us honest.
Are you ready Chris? - I think so.
- 3, 2, 1, go!
Right, best thing to do is write in to us
on Facebook and we'll get a code sent
straight to you over direct message.
Alright, I would 100% just get into
a club that's local to you.
Best is kind of getting close, you want a close club.
And then yeah, you go out with the club on the weekends
and if you've got a VeloDome or if you've got
a cycle park, get there because they
always do classes or club rides.
- Yep. Try loads of different disciplines and teach
yourself good technique. - Cross. Mountain Bike.
- It's all about getting comfortable on your bike.
- Right, VO2 efforts. So, just going out
for a shorter ride but really putting in a minute
to three minutes, really hot effort so
around 100% of your FTP so really max out
sprint efforts and stuff, don't you reckon?
- Nice, yeah that's a perfect answer, definitely.
- Right, we've done a video on this, Hank and I,
and we're going to drop that link in the comments
or in the info box underneath the screen.
It is definitely achievable with a little thought.
- I've done some training on field actually,
so... - I think it's the way to go.
- It is done and it can be really enjoyable, too.
Right, so next question is from Nicholas Smith:
- So with that short period of time you're gonna
focus on some intervals on the Turbo.
This will increase your aerobic capacity still
even though it's not actually improving your endurance,
but it will make it easier to get out on the road.
The key to that is to string as many of those sessions
back to back as possible because this will help...
- In building your endurance - Yeah, exactly.
- And then you will smash your century, what do you reckon?
- Yeah, when the weather's better, it
will make it easier, won't it?
- Yes it will!
- Which I looked up, was an hour and 15.
- Ouch that's a long climb.
- Right, yes, twenty minute but this is an FTP
session and we'll put it on screen now.
It's really good for climbing.
It's got some 20 minute intervals in it
and those intervals really string you out
and really work well for a long climb.
- Did those a lot, didn't we?
- Yes, we did. Yes, we did.
- 25 seconds.
- Well, I would slowly ramp it up.
- Yes, so start off fairly easy at the beginning
and then slowly ramp up so then you can get the
most out of yourself so try and finish
the effort empty. - Pacing.
- Right, Chris, I'm going to have to stop you.
The Australian team have just won the record.
- I don't care. We're on the final lap now
and we started the question; we're going to finish it.
- We'll do it, what about that?
Well, Thymen, the answer is a good 12 to 16 weeks
minimum building your fitness to get into form
and once you're there, assuming you followed
a good program, around 6 to 8 weeks.
- Yeah, so keeping good, peak mental and
physical condition is a sign of good form as well.
- Yep, and fitness plus freshness is also form.
We did a little ask around the office and
that's what everyone's come back with.
- Yeah so I hope those questions and I hope
you enjoyed the quick fire round, and
hopefully we'll beat the record time in next week's
show, so make sure you tune into that on Friday.
- Let's choose a 10k record.
- Yeah, that would be easier. - Give us a bit of extra time.
- We could take a few takes as well.
Don't forget to get your questions in
with the hashtag #AskGCNTraining to be with a chance at
winning that free three month subscription to Zwift.
- Yes, and for any other questions, use the
hashtag #TorqueBack and don't forget
to put them in the comments section below.
And if you did like this video, then give us a thumbs up.
- And we'll see you next week.