Do you like to ride early? I do. In fact, I’d say at least 75% of my 9800 Zwift miles have been done before the rest of my family is awake! These early morning fasted rides help me build a lot of base fitness, teach my body to burn fat, and are just a nice way to start the day off with some activity.
This morning as I rode around Richmond with my buddy Zane I began thinking about how my mind and body travel through a fairly consistent set of phases as each early morning ride progresses. Perhaps you have experienced something similar? Let’s compare notes… here are mine from this morning’s ride.
Phase 1: Waking Up
The phone alarm goes off at 5am, quiet so as not to wake the wife. Do I really need to get up now? It’s dark outside, the bed is warm. I delay a few minutes… then roll out of bed.
Phase 2: Kitting Up
It’s cold. I put my socks on first because the tile floor feels like ice. Brush my teeth so I don’t have to ride with morning breath. Visit the toilet, where an important decision needs to be made: to poo, or not to poo? If I stick to pee only I’ll be out of there quick and on the bike. I don’t really feel a need for #2. Let’s make this quick.
Throw on the kit (today’s it’s my comfy Castelli Zwift World Champ’s kit), regret not drying my shoes after yesterday’s rainy ride, fill a water bottle. Grab my phone and exit the bedroom.
Phase 3: Get Riding
Walk to the garage, hoping nobody left anything in the dark hallway for me to trip over. Turn on the trainer power strip, wake up the computer, start Zwift (why does it take so long to start up? was it sleeping too?) then we have a decision to make. Where do I ride? Some days I’ve already decided on a particular workout or event, but many days I just free ride in the mornings. Today my friend Zane is on course, so I click to ride with him.
Phase 4: Regret the Route Choice
Freakin’ Richmond flat. Why did Zane pick Richmond flat? Now we get to ride a crowded 3 mile flat loop for 90 minutes.
Phase 5: The Jacket Comes Off
A few miles in and my body starts to warm up. I take off my jacket and toss it in the corner.
Phase 6: The Fan Turns On
5 miles later and I can feel a bit of sweat coming on. Time to turn on the fan. Luckily I’ve got a handy network-connected power strip for my fans, so I can turn them on via a phone app. Best $15 I’ve ever spent.
Phase 7: Only 10 Miles?
That first 10 miles always seem to take forever. But I also know the next 10 will not.
Phase 8: Nausea/Hunger
45 minutes in and my stomach gets that feeling… you know what I’m talking about. That kind of upset stomach feeling, but it’s actually a hunger pang? I’ve been doing this long enough that I know it’s just hunger (I haven’t eaten in over 12 hours, after all) and it will go away soon enough. Keep pedaling.
Phase 9: 20 Miles Down
As I get close to the hour mark I start doing the math in my head to calculate our average speed. Yeah, I know Zwift speeds are a little generous, but it’s still a decent gauge of overall effort on a flat course. We’ve ticked off 20 miles and we’re only 54 minutes in, so we’re doing fine at this fasted zone 2 pace.
Phase 10: Should Have Pooped
It happens. Every. Time. It’s like my bowels don’t wake up until I’ve been riding for an hour. But this isn’t a Tom Dumoulin-level emergency, so I’m not going to stop now!
Phase 11: Let’s Make It 30
Zane ditches me at the 1-hour mark because he has a real job. But I generally ride until around 7am, so I decide to keep going, riding for a least 90 minutes. That’s about the limit of what I can do on a fasted ride before I need some nutrition.
Phase 12: Impromptu Sprint
One nice thing I realize about the Richmond flat course it is takes you over a sprint section every 8-9 minutes… not unlike London’s Classique. I glance at the leaderboard and decide to hit the sprint in a bid to steal the green jersey. I don’t have a useful powerup (a feather on Richmond flat?!) but I follow my own suggestions and get third place. Only half a second off the green jersey, and I know I could have gone harder. Next time around.
Phase 13: Call Me Cavendish
I take the green jersey on my second and final sprint. Just barely. But it still feels good. So I take a snapshot.
Phase 14: Another Few Miles Won’t Hurt
I’m over 32 miles after 90 minutes. Might as well make it 35.
Phase 15: Done. And Happy I Did It.
That post-ride feeling is the best, isn’t it? The endorphins are flowing, I know I’ve started my day off responsibly, and oatmeal is waiting upstairs. Time to hit the showers.
Now for recovery
Haha! So much easier to answer the siren call of the poop fairy on Zwift than when riding outdoors. Apart from the weather that’s the other major deciding factor on indoors or out. TMI? Sorry. 🙂
“Siren call of the poop fairy.” Excellent.
Why not eat breakfast before riding?
I’m doing it fasted on purpose–see this article for more on fasted training: http://blog.trainerroad.com/program-body-burn-fat-instead-store-fasted-training/
Isn’t a sprint on a fasted ride kind of defeating the point? I thought the idea was steady zone 2 fatburn rather than spiking the effort?
Sort of. But I couldn’t help myself. 🙂
A couple short sprints doesn’t mess up the zone 2 nature of a ride, in my book. It was a total of maybe 90 seconds of hard effort over a 90 minute ride.
Wow Eric! It’s possible that we’re long-separated twins! Your morning breakdown pretty much encapsulates mine. Slapping the alarm and rolling over will never beat out punching the “save” button after getting up early and going all-in. Ride On!
Ride on, twin brother!
After riding in a fasted state you should have had a low carb healthy fat meal afterwards instead of spiking your insulin with the high carb oatmeal.
Russell, if you sprint, your mitochondria are still utilizing fat. You don’t exclusively use glycogen or fat during exercise but a combination of both — unless you are running away from a charging rhino! That’s all glucose/glycogen (anaerobic)! ?
That’s a good point. The problem is, I like oatmeal. 🙂 But you do make a good point! I just need my personal chef to whip up a nice omelette with bacon and avocado…
What do you eat, Tim, that would qualify as a “low carb healthy fat meal”? Looking for ideas.
Eric – thanks for the post & the article. I ride first thing in the morning and normally in a fasted state. However, I never really understood how hard you can go. From the article, the recommendation is to go relatively easy. I have done a wide variation fro easy to hard U/Os and never had a problem in an under 90 minute ride. I would be interested to hear from others on their personal experiences.
In my experience, I can go hard for 60-90 minutes in a fasted ride, if I want to. And sometimes I do.
BUT many people do fasted rides trying to directly burn fat and train your body to burn fat for energy. In that case, keeping the effort low is smart, since your body will pull more of its energy from fat than from glycogen if you’re not going hard. (I’d say zone 2 at the most, even zone 1 may be better.)
Would love to hear what others think on this, though. As Tim mentions above, it’s not like you ONLY use fat in zone 1, and ONLY use glycogen in zone 4. But you do use MORE fat in zone 1, and MORE glycogen in zone 4.
From my experience you can go as hard as you want, if you ate properly the day before. When your glycogen stores in muscles are properly replenished breakfast/pre-ride meal is not necessary. You should have at least 1500kcal of reserve in you. It’s plenty for over 2 hours of tempo riding. Sometimes it’s even better to go with empty stomach, because our body won’t be additionally burdened with digestion. Any discomfort when doing fasted training is most likely psychological. Humans evolved to perform well without need to eat non stop.
Do you really fill your water bottle in the bedroom and walk through your house in cycling shoes?
Absolutely. Where else would I fill the water bottle? Kitchen is upstairs. And why carry my shoes when I can wear them? It’s carpeted.