(low, intense tones)
- Hello, and welcome to Ask GCN Anything.
- Yes, and this week we've got a packed show for you.
We've got questions on tubeless tires,
winter motivation,
pre-race meals,
and can you increase your FTP
without even riding your bike?
- Good questions then.
- I'm skeptical.
- Don't forget, if you want to be in
with the chance of winning a three months,
free subscription to Zwift
use the hashtag #askgcntraining
and for any non-training related questions
use hashtag #torqueback.
And you can drop them in the comment boxes below.
- Yes, so if you've got that burning question
that you want to get answered on here
then don't forget to put it in that comment section.
So, without further ado let's crack on
with the first question coming from Oleg Revulet:
"Sport supplements, do you use any?
"What is good for recovery
"or for better performance, pick power et cetera?"
I think he means peak power there.
What do you reckon, Chris?
- Yeah, well, Oleg, that's a really good question,
and the simple answer is that, aside from hydro drinks
or energy gels on those really tough days,
then, no, I didn't use supplements as a pro rider,
and I certainly don't use them now, either.
Maybe on occasion I would use a protein drink,
after a really tough ride.
- Yes, so I think the reason being here is that
a well thought-out, balanced diet, is actually
will do all your needs, your energy levels,
your health, and yeah.
I think that's all you need, really.
Your vegetables, your carbohydrates, your protein.
- Yeah, it's always best to stear clear
of any products that have been processed too much,
and supplements have definitely been
processed quite a bit. - Mmm.
- They're not a natural thing that you're gonna
walk out into the fields and find.
So, with that in mind, unless you are actually deficient
in something, I think it's best just to try and get
your nutrients from natural products.
- Yes. I think you really are what you eat, here.
So, maybe a McDonald's every day probably won't turn
you into the rider you really want to be.
- On the subject of food,
MTB Rider writes in with the following question:
"Hi GCN, I am 17.
"Yesterday I did my first race, which I also won.
"After sprinting to the finish line, though,
"I felt like I was going to throw up, although I didn't.
"Before the race, I had two slices of bread and some cheese.
"Why does this happen, but more importantly, how can
"I prevent it happening again?"
- Well, first off, congratulations
on winning that bike race.
Any bike race is hard to win,
so congratulations on that one.
And, on the subject of feeling sick, you're probably
feeling sick because you ate too close to the event.
What I tend to do is plan it a bit more,
and eat two to three hours before the event,
that way you won't get that sick feeling
and it lets your food digest, and also
there's a good prevention of stitches.
- Yup.
Don't forget, though, when sprinting to a finish line,
you could feel a little queasy.
Maximum efforts and all that. - Yeah, true.
- If you did the nutrition
plan before and you stopped eating two or three hours
before the event, and you still felt like that,
then you might want to consider eating something
that's easier to digest, maybe some bread and honey,
or bread and jam, instead of the cheese.
- We've actually got the perfect pre-race meal,
- Right here. - That Emma did,
which is a carrot cake porridge.
Interesting one, this.
- I'll have to try that tomorrow.
- Mmm.
- Now I'd just like to say here, that I am
a strong believer in using this kind of grater
to grate citrus peel, not this one, because
it all gets stuck in the grating holes
and then you can't use it.
So I go for this one.
Other people believe differently, I know.
- So, we're now on to the
AskGCNtraining winner question.
So congratulations to Vincent Lavallee,
who won this one, for this question:
"#AskGCNtraining, I always seem to get really motivated
"at the end of the season and to hit peak fitness
"in November, after the season has ended,
"but can never carry it through the Canada winter,"
which is particularly horrendous, I hear,
"to the season start in April.
"How do I maintain my intensity
"through the winter off season?"
- That's a good question, I think.
- It is a really good question, yeah.
- Yup, well, if you're hitting your peak
fitness and motivation in November,
then that kinda suggests that something's
a little bit off with your training year, on the whole.
- Yeah, and I think if we firstly address the mental
period, or the mental fatigue, you're basically,
if you're doing structured training, day in, day out,
it's actually gonna be quite mental fatiguing.
So, you want a bit of relax time, and you don't want
to be stressed all the time.
- Yeah, no, exactly.
Most pros will do this throughout the season,
and you should also include, a period of
unstructured training at some point.
So, most pro riders, they'll build towards an event,
the Giro d'Italia, for example, and then they'll have
a week or two where they ride their bikes when they want to,
and if they don't want to, then they won't.
- Yeah, so the best way to include unstructured training is
to have a goal in that week, but then don't structure
the training to that goal.
Go out and enjoy riding your bike,
but have that goal, but don't
put all the 20 minute efforts, five minute efforts,
and then, hopefully, that will relax you a little bit more.
- No, exactly.
You could have the overall volume there as a goal,
but you don't have to stress if you miss a day
or if you don't manage to tick every single one of those
boxes on the way to achieving it.
- Yeah, so what we're saying here is,
if you do skip a session, don't feel guilty about it.
Relax over it, and just move on.
- Yep. - Go to the next day, I guess.
- And then when it comes to the winter,
- Mmmm. - The following winter,
you'll want to include
one unstructured ride a week, really,
where you do some intervals as you feel like it,
so without being too hard on yourself
that you're trying to do these five minute efforts,
five minutes on, five minutes off.
You wanna kind of ride on feel a little bit,
and you can even consider doing a Zwift race.
- Yes!
Or basically what you're saying is,
we can include intensity but without the structure.
- Yeah.
- So go out on a group ride,
or, which I tried the other day, do a Zwift race.
- [GCN Host] Well they are working hard as well.
You can see it dripping off the end
of his nose there, for James.
It's been a tough race and I think it's the end of it
for James, in terms of a Top 10 now,
because he hasn't quite been able
to hang on with the group that came past him.
- Ouch! As you can tell, well that one hurt quite a lot.
- It's not on the screen. I don't know where we're looking.
- I dunno.
- So anyway, to summarize, if you want to hit April
in peak condition, you wanna consider having November
and December as quiet months,
and then 12 weeks out you want to start really
including that structured intensity.
- Yes, so to be clear, the intensity during the off season,
one day of structured work, will probably be sufficient.
And then if you plan your week, and have one unstructured
training session, that should put you in good stead
going into the beginning of the season,
fully motivated and in good fitness,
ready for race wins.
So now we're onto the quickfire round.
Last week we had a slow fire round because Dan was here,
but now we've got Chris in,
so it's gonna be a quick fire round.
Let's hope so, anyway.
- Right then. First up, Joseph Kozachek.
"I was watching the worlds and Adam Yates
"started the race with leg warmers on.
"This raised the question:
"how to riders take them off during the race?"
- Ahh. Interesting one.
Now, I've done this a couple of times,
especially with knee warmers, as it's a little bit easier,
'cause the gap's a bit bigger.
But what I would do is start riding, slow down,
put your leg to the, well, your pedal rev
to the bottom of the pedal rev;
slide your knee warmer down,
put it over the bottom of your shoe,
then unclip, and then whip it over the end of your shoe.
- Yep, and then you post them in through the car window.
- Yep, just like that.
The second question is from David King.
"Why is it when you touch wheel,
"it inevitably ends in crashing?"
Whatcha thinking, Chris? - Well,
that's because if you touch the wheel in front of you,
it's kinda been, or the wheel in front of you
touches your front wheel, it's being pushed
out from underneath you,
moving your center of balance out
from over the top of the bike.
Which is why if you do it yourself
you're in complete control of it,
because you're prepared for it.
Generally, when you touch a wheel, you weren't ready for it
and you will crash.
- Has this happened to us before?
- Huh. Maybe.
(both laughing)
- [Event Announcer] 14 Wiggins
and they're down on the corner.
- Ondra Stehlik, the second, writes in:
"I found on the World TT Champs that
"Tom Dumoulin has decent breast muscles.
"Is there any reason for that,
"and should I get them as well?
- Yes. Riders at this level, well they need core strength.
They would've done a lot of work in the gym
to be able to sit in those low, hard positions.
And when you're as lean as Tom Dumoulin,
they might be a bit accentuated,
so that's probably what you're seeing.
- Yeah, exactly.
They wouldn't look as great on you or I, would they?
- Probably not.
- Next question is from Ryan Downey.
Now this is the skeptical one.
"Is it possible to increase my FTP without riding a bike?"
Now, I know you've done some research on this.
- (chuckles) Hardly.
Well, in rare circumstances, it could be.
But, it's most unlikely. - Yeah.
- So, basically, if you're really, really tired,
and you've been riding and riding and all of a sudden
had a rest and were starting to freshen up,
then your FTP could go up by not riding your bike.
That's obviously quite a rare circumstance.
The other one would be if you're not normally a cyclist,
and you did some specific strength training,
your muscles could increase in strength and therefore,
again, you will see an increase to your FTP.
And the final chance is if you did some speed skating
or cross country skiing,
- Ooh, I love that. - As they use muscles
quite closely related to cycling muscles.
So, yeah, basically, it's probably not gonna happen,
but there is a chance.
- I have interest.
I know you did an FTP test yesterday,
and you haven't been on the bike for awhile.
Or you haven't been training to the level you were.
Did you increase your FTP?
- No, I lost 60 watts.
- Oh. Ouch.
Next question is from ...
- Gem Lacson.
And they write in with, "Would it help to incorporate
"a two- to three-hour endurance ride in my weekly session?
"Currently, in my tight schedule,
"I do two interval trainings and then
"an endurance ride each week."
- Yeah, I think this depends on what goals you have.
Try and keep your training specific.
If you are looking at stretching your endurance,
then trying to add some two- to three-hour training rides
in that week will help you stretch that.
But it kinda all depends on what you want to train towards.
- Yup. That's pretty much it.
So, then we have, oh this is a brilliant name.
NeffiKristensenfilm.
- Yeah, and he says, I think it's a he.
"Hi GCN, after riding my tubeless set up for a while,
"the valve cores are getting pretty sticky
"and filled up with tubeless sealant, to the point
"where getting air in the tire are just as hard as a job
"as getting the tires to seal in the first place.
"Are there a way to clean the valve cores
"so they become new again?"
Oh, the dream. - Well, I've got
a couple of ideas for you.
The first one would be to take them off and soak them
in some really hot soapy water for awhile,
and see if you have any luck with that.
Failing that, though, get yourself some new ones
and then pop the sealant into the tire first,
instead of injecting it via the valve.
It's definitely possible, 'cause we've done it ourselves.
- You've done it a lot. You love tubeless, don't you?
- Yeah, I do.
And then, when you go to blow them up,
blow them up with the valve at the top of the wheel,
to prevent any sealant seeping into the valve.
And that way, while not only should you never end up
with sealant in the valve, it should also
function for longer.
- Yeah, and that brings us
to the end of the Quick Fire Round.
- Next up, we have quite a long question
from Matteo Dellapiana - Very long question.
Wow. - So I'm gonna paraphrase it
a little bit for us all.
So, he's a runner.
He does middle distance running but has a few hours
available each week to do some cycling.
He's coached for his running, which includes
five to six days a week of running,
but wants to know is there anything he can do
to help compliment that, from cycling?
- Yeah, and I'm sure he's aware that
a key component to training is to keep it specific.
So if you do want to increase your cardiovascular
and aerobic capacity, a good thing to do is to go out
on a three-hour, gentle ride -- I say gentle,
do it at about 80% of your sustainable intensity.
- Yeah, that should help you become more efficient,
which will definitely benefit your running.
The other way you can approach it,
is to do some really intense efforts.
Because, of course, when you're running,
it's hard to recover while still moving,
whereas on the bike, you can really dig extra deep.
So, four to eight minutes, and then recover.
That should really help push you
to the edge of your physical capacity.
- Yeah, but be sure to chat to your coach
about it all, because you don't want to be,
him putting it in your training that you're
sitting on the sofa, when actually,
you're putting in a cycle.
So you don't want to do that.
Make sure you tell him, talk to him,
and then you won't be fatigued, or super tired.
- Yeah, don't skimp on your recovery
- Yeah. - 'cause that's the
fast track to illness.
- Exactly.
We've actually got a video
from our mates over at GTN, on exactly this.
- Cycling five hours of cycling per week,
again, breaking across three rides, perhaps two shorter
rides during the week and one longer ride on a weekend,
or when you have more time.
- So, the next question's from
ACS45 Cal, "Hello GCN.
"I'm a big fan of the channel and the ask,
"and ask GCN training show."
Well thank you. We love bringing it to you.
"I've an aluminum training bike, which I use to train
"on the weekdays, and carbon race bike,
"which I only ride during the weekends.
"Both bikes have been set up to have the same saddle
height and reach, but problem is,
"they both have different geometries.
"As an example, the BB distance to the saddle nose
"on both bikes are different, despite having
"the same saddle height and reach.
"How will something like this affect
"my performance on my race bike?
- Well, don't worry too much.
It won't massivelY affect your performance,
other than feeling a little bit different
when you get onto it.
But there are some tips.
It's almost always a challenge to set two bikes up
exactly the same, but I would start with the saddle height
and layback of your saddle from the bottom bracket.
So you wanna have a nice plumb line that drops
down from center point of the saddle,
through the bottom bracket, or from the tip of the saddle,
past the bottom of the bottom bracket,
and measure that on your race bike, and then try
and replicate that on your training bike.
If you then need to change the stem
on your training bike, to account for the reach,
that's the best way to go about it,
because it's your legs that are training
in that specific position, mostly.
It is cycling. We're peddling.
- Right, next question.
From Slam031, "AskGCNTraining, I notice that my back
"hurts after two-plus hours on the bike.
"Can you recommend any off-the-bike exercises
"that would help prevent this?"
I know exactly what you're gonna say, Chris. Stretching.
It's key. - Yep.
- It is key. - C'mon Slam,
you need to get on top of your stretching.
Backs are particularly problematic at times for cyclists,
so if you have any niggles, you need to get on top of them.
And we've dug deep into our archives for you,
and we've come up with this brilliant stretching video
with Matt Rabin and Dan Martin.
- Yeah.
- So it's well worth checking out.
- I've actually been seeing Matt Rabin, and he's amazing.
- First exercise we're gonna go through with you,
is a dynamic stretch to get
your glutes and hamstrings activated.
So what we're gonna do, is you need about five meters or so
to do this exercise, and as you go through it,
you're just gonna take a step up,
grab your leg, and just elongate your body
as you tip toe, and make your body as tall as possible.
- Well, it's a sad time isn't it, Chris?
- It is. - Because it's the end
of this week's Ask GCN Anything.
But if you want to get the chance to get your question
answered on next week's show, then use the hashtag
#askGCNtraining to be in with a chance of winning
three months free subscription from Zwift.
And if you've got any more questions
or any more burning desires to ask,
then use the hashtag #torqueback.
- Yep. And it's that time of year,
when we start to throw to the cyclo-cross videos.
So, if you want to brush up on your skills,
why not check out this week's video of Emma,
doing some cyclo-cross? - Yeah.
That's amazing, that video, actually.
- Give us a thumbs up if you found this video useful.