Winter Training: Is It Working?

Editor’s note: Dr. Nick Green is writing a series of posts documenting his winter training progress as he works to drop weight, build power, and be ready to take Strava KOM’s when spring rolls around. Browse his past posts here.

It’s been seven weeks since I started my Zwift account. In that time I have managed to put in roughly 60 hours on the bike, travelling 1800 kilometers. I’ve had some strong days, and some days where the legs were just not there. There have been some days where a light spin is a light spin, and days when a light spin turns into a hard charging sufferfest that leaves the legs begging for a few days off.  In the seven weeks there have been three successful “McCarthy Special’s” – and one utter failure. Two of the rides have been over 100 km and in total there have been 1600 metres of climbing.

Recently I’ve been struggling with the question of improvement. I’ve been training most days, with the last stretch being ten days between days off. By the tenth day my legs were flat. Reviewing the power curve at the end of each ride has been a disappointment, as I’ve been nowhere near my ‘best power.’ Yesterday life stepped in and gave me a great reason to take a day off. Specifically, I “didn’t want to ride,” and seeing that it had been ten days it seemed like a great day for a rest.

So now it’s a Friday night, and after a busy week I’ve got about an hour to put in some miles in Richmond. Shortly after getting started, I was happy to see my friend Karl on my wheel. Karl is lighter and stronger than I am, so he’s great to get the competitive juices flowing. The ride was going well, and I attacked the hills on the first lap. The Strava results speak for themselves. Every uphill segment in the hills resulted in a personal record. This also extended out to the complete “Richmond 2015 UCI Worlds Lap” segment, where my previous best fell by almost 3:30. Perhaps more exciting was the change to my Critical Power curve: while it used to be a fairly smooth down slope, today’s ride caused a plateau at the 30 second to 1 minute mark. Perhaps I’m a little crazy to get excitement from pushing up my power curve, but this has become one of the most rewarding aspects of my Zwift experience.

As a brief summary, this reinforces the value of regular training, as well as the value of rest days. I have to keep in mind that training too much, or too hard will lead to less than favorable results. Now it’s time to get ready for tomorrow, when that “Fast Friend” Karl and I are planning on doing a metric century around London.

Winter Training: Group Ride #2

Editor’s note: Dr. Nick Green is writing a series of posts documenting his winter training progress as he works to drop weight, build power, and be ready to take Strava KOM’s when spring rolls around. Browse his past posts here.

It’s the day after the double ride which included the hard group 30km effort. In fact, it’s only about 12 hours later and an invite from a friend to ride the Watopia Pretzel just couldn’t be passed up. There were nearly 1000 riders at the start line, and in the confusion I immediately lost track of my friend Karl.

It quickly became apparent that there was a technical issue with Zwift that was keeping both the mobile app and the ‘riders nearby’ display from working properly. For the majority of the ride there were only 6 riders listed as being nearby. Unfortunately Karl never made the list, which made it difficult to keep track of him. Karl was also having the same issues, so at least we were both in the same predicament. This issue also extended to the displayed place in the group. Even when I was riding in front of Karl, I was always listed as being 30 to 40 riders behind him. Even at the end of the ride I was listed as being in the top 50 for the ride, despite finishing 165 as per the official results.

The Pretzel Hurts

If you haven’t tried the Watopia Pretzel, it’s difficult. In a group that is pushing you slightly out of your comfort zone, it’s extremely difficult. The Epic KOM climb is punishing. Each and every time I have ridden to the Radio Tower I have been reminded why part of my winter quest involves losing 10 pounds. Being nearly 200 pounds and climbing just doesn’t feel good!

Power Up to Achievement

Karl climbed the mountain like a champ, leaving me about 30 seconds behind by the turn around at the tower. This was a good opportunity to experiment with the Drafting Boost that I had been saving since the start of the ride. Pushing about 200 watts, combined with the boost and the -14% grade pushed me over 100 km/h, which triggered the 100KPH! achievement and a bonus 1000 points. As a new rider, the achievements can be a great way to quickly raise your level, leading to better bikes, wheels and perhaps more importantly… socks!

Overall the ride went very well. Riding in the group is a great way to keep things interesting, while pushing you harder than you would push by yourself. The last half hour was very difficult. I’m confident that my food preparation was far from adequate. Not only did I not eat enough before the ride, but before the end of the ride I was straight up hungry. That does not help performance! I had also lost a lot of weight in water, which could also have affected late ride performance.

Today’s lessons:

1. Have food available when doing rides of this nature. Just like outside on the road, anything over an hour needs some quick energy foods to help from hitting the wall.
2. Having a friend on a hard ride tends to make it that much harder, just like in the real world!
3. The climb to the Radio Tower is punishing.

I can definitely see myself diving into more of these group rides in the future. Hopefully Karl will be around to drag me up the hills!

Self-Examination: Identifying Weight Gain Issues

“You may ask yourself: Well, how did I get here?”
– David Byrne of Talking Heads

Identifying your weight gain issues may help your journey toward a healthier future. Self-examination is harder than it sounds. Here’s a little help.

Self-Examination

We likely have more than one reason our figure betrayed us. We expected it to keep its healthy figure despite the pitfalls we experienced or the trials we endured. Does it go back to childhood or was it habits that started in college, when we left home and went from home-cooked meals to fast food substitutes? A desk job can feel exhausting. A boss who brings in doughnuts every Friday, depositing them right near your desk? Awful. Then there’s late night snacks or the pizza craving that arises every Friday. You know, the one that attacks you and is stronger than a pregnant woman’s hunger. Were there just days when you didn’t care about your weight? Stress and anger can lay havoc on our willpower.

We often don’t notice subtle changes. We ‘forget’ how many times we have given in to our craving over the last few weeks. We remember exercising ‘just the other day’ when it was really eight days ago. I don’t think the majority of us are going to sit down and write out our thoughts and the path that led to our weight issues. It is a great idea. A lot of people suggest it. But, I think many of us will say, “Look. I’ll workout for an hour every day. But, I’m not going to sit down and write a journal about how I got fat in the first place.”

You can, however, focus a bit on your shortcomings. It may not feel valuable to identify your past issues. Someone may have issues that go back to childhood. When they were sad or angry, candy was the answer. For others, it is mindless, constant snacking in front of the television. For many, there is nothing healthy to eat at home, except for that frozen organic turkey breast. But, it isn’t defrosted and it would be four hours until it would be ready to eat. Then we find a bag of potato chips. Identifying how you got overweight can help you find better ways to resolve or cope with those weaknesses.

What’s the Advice?

Let’s examine some common advice and find some application or value in them. Everyone can create good habits. With practice and planning, you can overcome the pitfalls that may plague you.

“Eat what you are craving. Sit down and enjoy it.” In other words, give in rather than fight it for hours or days. Then the craving will allegedly disappear. This is poor advice. Some suggest the compromise either where you buy one slice of pizza or buy a bag of those miniature 100 calorie sized portions. It would be a good start. I tend to eat several bags. Try to think, how long is this craving going to last? Hours or days? Is there a healthier alternate? To be honest, I do keep a little chocolate at home. But, I often make hot chocolate with cocoa powder and skim milk without any sugar or just half a teaspoon. The alternate is a bag of M&Ms that I tell myself, “I will stop halfway.” I also read ‘palm oil, corn syrup’ on the label and stop myself from buying it.

“Eat broccoli every time you crave junk.” Great advice. Sounds like something Mom would say. Grandma would at least bake you a pie. And maybe the smell of warm apples with cinnamon was more satisfying than candy or fries. You can microwave an apple with cinnamon. It smells glorious and doesn’t have the fat and sugar trappings of store bought pie. Need crunch? Most pretzels are fat free or low fat. Try mustard dip instead of cheese sauce. I make not-fat Biscotti (3 eggs or just two eggs and a tablespoon of yogurt). They have sugar, but I sometimes need that crunch. Add almond flavor, anise, or gingerbread spices and you have a satisfying occasional treat. Or eat broccoli.

“Escape.” Dr. Oz suggests you turn off the television or computer and go outside. Breath deep. Relax or jog. Get out of the kitchen for a few minutes and occupy yourself with something. Clean your car. Or clean mine? Someone said my car looks like a homeless person lives in it.

Identify Bad Habits. Exercise during commercials instead of hunting for snacks. What do you do when you first walk in the door from work? Do you have healthy snacks at home? Air popped popcorn? There’s a lot of frozen smoothie fruits with little bits of kale. I make a frozen cherry shake with cinnamon and cocoa powder. Yum. If evil lurks in your cabinet, have a cabinet to keep your spouse’s or kid’s Pop-tarts, nacho chips, etc. This is a very difficult situation to deal with. But, you have to allow others in your family to live outside of your diet. The main problem is that you know it is there when you are depressed or stressed. Believe it or not, I know someone who put a lock on the candy cabinet.

Mindless eating advice: sit at the table, not in front of television, computer, or while updating your Facebook, Instagram, etc. Turn the phone off. Eat on a plate, not out of the container.

‘Fight your craving’ advice: one site says you should hold and melt an ice cube in your hand. Another says to drink a cup of black tea. Try massaging yourself. How about watching a Zwift race on YouTube? I tried some ginger. It is dried with a good bit of sugar. But it has a bold flavor that can knock out some hunger pains. Kiwi is a great snack. Try it with a dab of yogurt. Some people find if they concentrate on a puzzle that it helps get their mind away from demanding junk food. It is often our mind or heart steering us wrong, and not our true hunger driving us to eat.

I found one app that gives you reminders to avoid your nemesis snack foods, share accomplishments on social media, and keep track of your eating habits. It is called CraveMate, costs 99 cents and has good reviews. If it sounds like it may fit your needs, give it a look. It only costs the price of a small candy bar.

Let me know what works for you. You can always find me on Facebook at our ZwiftOff group. You’ll see our next scheduled group ride for burning fat off with Zwift. Come on and join us!