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 a Saturday that I have to work, so a quick early morning ride is in order. The hour long ride before work averaged a respectable (for me) 178 watts, 33.2 km and 173 metres of elevation. I don’t think this is too bad for a little rip just to get the legs moving.
Following a full work day, I had the opportunity to get on the bike again after supper.
Signing into Zwift I happened to see there was a group ride starting in 4 minutes. Billed as a
“Fitness Recruit’s Social Ride” with power output of 1.3-1.5 w/kg, I figured it was a good place to dip my toe into the group ride scene.
Harder than Expected
It was nothing short of surprising that I watched a group zip away from the front, leaving me pumping out 3.8 w/kg in order to keep with what became the second group of the break away. The entire ride was an interesting mix of bridging gaps, pounding up hills, hanging on to drafts and generally working a lot harder than expected, especially for the second ride of the day.
Follow the Leader
Here is where I need to apologize to the group leader. Unfortunately I was too busy dripping on my handlebars to think about taking note of her name. She was gracious, even while trying to get the group to come back together–attempts that were ignored by a large number of riders who were pushing way above the ride’s planned power output.
Not being familiar with the etiquette of group rides, I spent much of the ride debating about slowing to join the crowd, or continuing to fly through the 30 km. This was compounded by relatively little information from Zwift. It was only after the ride that I figured out the group leader has a marker on the mini-map, and a chevron beside the group leader’s name in the ‘Riders Close’ list. Unfortunately by being dragged along by the power riders I didn’t actually see it during the ride.
Max heart rate of 150 – not much of a ‘social ride when my max is 160.
Notes for Future Reference:
Don’t get sucked into the competitive nature of a ride. Honestly I’ve told myself this 1000 times and fail every time!
Despite the prescribed wattage of a group ride, it is possible to go much harder.
Riding with a group is great fun. Large groups to draft with and the nature of them being spread out on the road can bring some interesting opportunities to push yourself. Of course, this is very similar to a real group road ride.
Apologize to the group leader BEFORE signing out of the ride, regardless of how hard the effort became.
By the time the 30 km ride had finished, the 1.3 – 1.5 w/kg ride had become a 2.43 w/kg effort, with a maximum effort of 5.09 w/kg. The lesson for today: Zwift is close enough to real life to spark the competitive nature, even when it shouldn’t!
To be clear: vegetarians do not eat meat. Vegans take this further and also forgo eggs, dairy, and even honey. Some people flip back and forth: I have friends who are weekday vegans.
This article will look at some common arguments for and against veganism. You vegans don’t get off easy though: there are a number of doctors with great concerns for vegan patients.
Note: this is a look at the main issues, not a forensic examination. We can probe the height, width and depth of this in another article.
What’s Wrong with Meat?
There’s plenty to worry about with your meat, particularly its source. Hormones and antibiotics are a great concern to vegans. Reports indicate a definite link from red meat to prostate cancer and arterial clogging. There are claims that animal proteins cause inflammation and water retention. Much of your meat source is fed corn and even sugars to fatten them up quickly for sale. (The television show Dirty Jobs once showed how dead cattle were ground up and used to make chicken feed.) Thus, many meat animals are unhealthy.
Is there proof that meat is the villain here? Do studies differentiate from lean meat and processed meats, like ham, bacon, sausage, and deli turkey? Does it matter what type of meat is consumed?
There are three things worth observing in my opinion:
Avoid all processed meats, including frozen prepared meals and meat with chemical additives.
Avoid fried and grilled meats. Carcinogens are believed to be from high temperature cooking. Slow cooked meats may avoid this danger.
Look for the best meat you can find and afford. As Newsweek magazine once showed, cage-free and organic are terms that do not describe the packed conditions often present. Real free range is healthier as they can move around, as well as be outside. I recently purchased free range, natural grass raised venison and elk. A serving had 4 grams of fat. Dare you look at the amount of fat in the average steak or hamburger? Lean 90/10 beef has four times the fat of venison.
What’s Wrong with Dairy?
The main concern appears to be Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH). Like MSG, there are sure to follow similar chemical compounds that will establish similar results but with various substitute names. More and more milk labels read “No BGH.” A cow given BGH reputedly produces twice the amount of milk over its lifespan… hard to resist for farmers, impossible to resist among corporate-owned industries.
Other objections to dairy includes possible links to cancer, lactose sugar impact, and resistant infections from antibiotics. Low level reactions, such as indigestion and headaches, can occur until a dairy free diet is introduced.
Proponents of dairy products see little issue with this. Again, many dairy cattle never get outside the barn in the modern milk industry. You may see a study where those who eat dairy are much more likely to die of a heart attack. Again, are they comparing people with a healthy diet that includes dairy or an unhealthy diet with dairy? Do they compare vegans to vegetarians who consume dairy? Can they differentiate the type of dairy consumed, such as fat free versus those who consume whole milk and cheese?
With dairy, try a brief change to check for intolerance to lactose or casein. We can conclude that fat-free is your best option. Some with mild issues can consume lactose free milk, yogurt, and fermented cheeses without complications. Look for grass fed organic milk. Note that 1% milk is 20% calories from fat while 2% milk has 38% of its calories from fat.
What’s Wrong with Veganism?
Vegan heart attacks? Yes, indeed. The issue includes vegans who eat junk foods like potato chips, french fries, even stir fried vegetables. There is a lot of vegetable oils that are considered dangerous to your health, especially hydrogenated oils and trans fats. Many oils lose their nutritional value when heated to high temperatures. They may even endanger your health. While coconut oil has been touted by the coconut oil industry as having health benefits, it is extremely high in saturated fat (coconut milk gets 63% of its calories are from fat.) Why avoid saturated fats in meat, then get it from coconuts? The danger is there. Doctor Michael Colgan is one of the experts who has staked his reputation against coconut oil from the very beginning.
One study said that eating meat causes inflammation… obviously vegans avoid this. However, other studies showed much inflammation from gluten (another diet altogether.). A better study showed inflammation occurred in those eating meat fed a corn-based diet, but not in the group with grass-fed meat. I only trust studies with real people. Mice and rats are not humans. Besides, the test changes the proportion of the amount that a human would consume. In other words, don’t test mice with the equivalent dose of twenty servings a day for a human.
You can definitely gain fat on a vegan diet. If you currently eat a lot of fatty meats, cheese, and ice cream; then you will lose weight on any diet where you eliminate those items. There are a good number of vegans who simply want to save animal lives. Extended time as a vegan will reduce the flora in your intestines that aid the breakdown of those proteins. This is probably why vegans who return to a meal with dairy or animal proteins usually feel awful after. Go back slowly and take probiotics if you are vegan for several months.
What Are My Best Choices?
Oil-free cooking may be your healthiest choice. It will immediately reduce the amount of fat in your diet. There are a number of companies providing non-stick enamels that can truly do what they promise. They are safer than Teflon and durable.
Protein powders can help you break the bad meat habits that are currently clogging your arteries. We can all benefit from eating healthy greens, like spinach and kale. Proteins from lentils, peas, and all the beans are worry-free alternate sources of the proteins you need. Choose fat-free dairy products. Limit cheese severely or eliminate it altogether. Despite the convenience, steer away from processed foods. Processed soy products have little nutritional value and can still have high fat levels. Consider a better soy option such as Fearn Soybean Soy Flour. Give yourself time to adjust to a new diet completely. Don’t give up if you fail from time to time.
I have been pleasantly surprised how many people have made half of their weight loss goal with Zwift. Daily exercise can do wonders. Share your story with us or join your fellow Zwifters currently riding off the pounds, kilograms, and a few stones. Join ZwiftOff on Facebook.
Here at Zwift Insider, we love how the community adds to our Zwift experience. The Zwiftalizer tool is one of the greatest examples of this. It’s a lot of numbers, but how exactly do you interpret all the details? This video is a tutorial by Mike Hanney himself: he’s the brain behind the Zwiftalizer.
Rowing on Zwift has the obvious advantage of a much more meditative sound atmosphere. It’s also yet another way to travel Watopia. Not convinced yet? Have a look, and also go and check out this post.
We recently featured zwofactory.com on Zwiftinsider. Here coach Rory Duckworth (Zwift Insider contributor and coach at the Salt Lake Triathlon Club) gives you a rundown of how to use it for creating your own workouts.
Xert entered the training scene with a big promise of improving on the much-used-much-hated FTP metric. Did you know that you can seamlessly integrate Xert and Zwift? This is a quick how-to.
On this episode Adam and Chris talk with members of the Team Draft about all things Zwift racing. It’s an insightful look at teams on Zwift: what race strategies actually work, and what benefits do teams bring outside of the actual race experience?
About The Echelon Podcast:
The Echelon Podcast is co-hosted by Adam Zimmerman and Chris Smith. As they describe it, “We are amateur cyclists who cover everything in the world of cycling.” Find them on Soundcloud or iTunes.
An Evening with ZwiftQuest: Who has the best route?
The ZwiftQuest is back. It’s a fun way to break the routine of indoor cycling with a unique competitive format. (It’s been a while since I’ve done my last Zwift race. My issue with them is not so much that I can’t hold the pace of the leaders in my category… it’s that I’m a bit tired of all the multi-lap crits around the Volcano or the London Classique course.) To me, ZwiftQuest sounded very promising.
The idea of ZwiftQuest is some sort of virtual bike treasure hunt. Each challenge provides a map with a list of checkpoints that you need to pass. The trick is to be fast, but you can be fast in different ways. You can just push as hard as possible, or you try to find the smartest route. If you want to win, you need both. You can complete the ZwiftQuest at any time over a period of several days. The inaugural London ZwiftQuest was active for the three London days that also brought us the Leith Hill expansion.
A quick look at how this works:
First, connect your Strava account with ZwiftQuest on at ZwiftQuest.com.
Then, plan your route and get going
You start by crossing the start/finish arch. One of the five to six checkpoints is going to be the one that you should cross last. (You can pass it several times before on your way to other checkpoints. ZwiftQuest considers the last time you pass by.) ZwiftQuest will automatically estimate the distance that you covered between the first and last checkpoint, and it will validate that you included all other checkpoints in between. Spoiler: I didn’t.
After your ride, include a specific code word in your activity title (for the first London quest, it was ZQLDN1), and if necessary, re-process the results from ZwiftQuest’s results page.
Magically, you will appear in one of the results list. It should be the one with the actual results. For me, it was the list of failed attempts.
My FTP is high enough to compete in C, but even in C, I will come in among the last in a race. I knew in advance that I would not win the ZwiftQuest by time. For me, the challenge was in finding the shortest route. The key is to make use of u-turns as much as possible in order to avoid unnecessary loops, then to turn around as fast as possible after you’ve reached the checkpoint, and not to take the wrong turns.
On my first attempt, I did pretty bad and reasonably well at the same time. Pretty bad, because at some point I turned left one road to early, and wasted something like 500m on recovering from that. Pretty bad, because I missed that one checkpoint that kicked me out of the classification. I simply forgot about it. Pretty bad, because I approached the final checkpoint as my penultimate checkpoint (of those that I remembered). Pretty good, because had I not made these mistakes, I actually would have found the shortest route (alongside almost all others). But I didn’t. So in the list of failed attempts, my distance is actually the one that I covered until I really passed all the checkpoints.
One thing I like about the ZwiftQuest is that it’s not intrusive. I don’t have to decide between race and workout. I can do other things on that ride. I can do a normal workout. I could even participate in another race. I can (and did) continue riding after I (thought I) completed my journey along the checkpoints. I added my first attempt of Leith Hill afterwards. All that does not cause trouble for ZwiftQuest. You only need to include that code word in your activity title and follow a valid route.
And you can do it at the pace you want. As ZwiftQuest grows, I can imagine informal group rides will form, so people can benefit from drafting. And in fact, there has been a ZwiftQuest race in the past. For the time being, it’s a lone adventure. Imagine being dropped after the first kilometer in a Zwift race and completing it by yourself. (We’ve all been there, haven’t we?) Pretty much like that, but minus the frustration because you might still do well thanks to your superior navigation skills.
ZwiftQuest is not for people like my highly appreciated former colleague from Rotterdam. Whenever he adds a bike ride on Strava, it’s either route A or route B. ZwiftQuest is for people like me. This past summer I did not follow the exact same route in my usual training area in Milan a single time. On every ride, I tried to find at least one tiny bit of new street. I know all Zwift’s streets, but I try to always change the way I combine them. Still, there are some bits that I usually avoid. For instance, I don’t often go up the Epic KOM on Watopia because it takes half or two thirds of my usual workout time. ZwiftQuest is a fun incentive for me to go for the roads less visited.
Truth is: ZwiftQuest works best on a complex network of roads. The latest two expansions of Watopia and London are vital. Nonetheless, the best routes might soon look very similar. The team at ZwiftQuest could keep it more dynamic if they are going to use their start and finish checkpoints flexibly. And then every new expansion will add more fun. Is it only me or did I see several points on the new roads that already feature some junctions that could turn into expansions? Like that gravel street on top of Leith Hill? ZwiftQuest has great potential. Personally at least, I’m already looking forward to the next quest already.
There are only a few small things that I would love ZwiftQuest to adjust on their website. I finish up this post with them:
It would be great if the results page could highlight the Zwifter that found the shortest route. After all, that’s half of the achievement of completing the ZwiftQuest.
The Zwift page contains a menu item labelled “Events/Results”. However, that’s not where I find the results. In order to see those, I need to go to “My ZwiftQuest”.
I find the button on the “My ZwiftQuest” page to reprocess the results a little bit difficult to see, given how important it is.
Those who completed the Quest can open a detailed look at their attempt, including a map of their route. (Once the quest is completed, everyone can look at the details of anyone’s attempt.) Those who failed can’t. However, they might benefit from having a look at which checkpoint exactly they failed.
The ZwiftQuest website is mobile friendly. That’s awesome, but there’s a catch: I can’t zoom into the map of the running Quest. In order to really understand the location of a marker, I’d need a bigger screen or to zoom in. For instance, for the first London quest, I couldn’t detect on my smartphone whether the marker close to the Western tube tunnel comes before or after the junction that leads to the tunnel.
Episode 41 of Zwiftcast has been released. Here’s the full episode description:
The Zwiftcasters welcome 2018 with lots of chat about the Zwift getting bigger – in both senses. The roads are longer, with the London expansion, and the roads are busier, are thousands of new Zwifters flooding on to the platform.
Simon, Shane and Nathan try to make sense of it all – and look at the statistics, combining insight, public information and naked guesswork to try to assess the scale of the Zwift universe.
Meanwhile the chaps discuss the Surrey Hills expansion. It may not be as visually spectacular as recent developments, but there could be some very interesting business reasons behind the new roads.
The consequences of growth is a continuing theme as Simon sits down for a chat with Zwift’s VP of Events, Charlie Issendorf. Amongst other things, Charlie reveals that the Zwift HQ is seriously considering limiting entry to some events – Shane sniffs a clever marketing ruse. Charlie also reveals that a “club portal” is soon to launch, giving benefits like private rides and club kit to qualifying groups.
Simon puts three of the best trainers, the Neo, Drivo and Kickr into the Zwiftcast sound lab to get a rounded picture of just how loud or quiet are the competing top offerings from Tacx, Elite and Wahoo.
ZwiftQuest could be a whole new way of Zwifting – it’s competitive but it’s not a conventional race. Simon talks to ZwiftQuest pioneer Jonny Noblett.
And finally the boys riff on When Good Rides Go Bad.
Editor’s note: this article refers to syncing your Withings scale with Zwift, but this connection has been broken for 5 years or more. Someday, we hope Zwift+Withings will get together and fix the connection. Until then, you can use this approach.
One of the keys to being successful and fair in Zwift racing is making sure your weight is current and correct. I just discovered that you can automatically sync your smart scales to Zwift.
This is fairly simply done via the Zwift Companion app. (These instructions are based on the app for iOS.) Once open, tap more in the bottom right hand corner, then tap settings and finally connections.
Depending on whether your scales are Withings/Nokia or Fitbit, tap the appropriate +
I set up my Withings scales (pick one up on Amazon here). I had to sign into my Withings account and authorise Zwift to access its data:
Once done the source now has a grey check next to it on the list of connections:
Now every time you weigh yourself, it automatically updates your weight in Zwift. I weigh myself in kilograms and it rounds up or down, so the first time I weighed myself at 75.8kg, Zwift had my weight at 76KG. Later after some tough workouts I weighed myself at 75.4kg and that was shown as 75kg in Zwift.
So whilst not perfect, it’s one less thing to worry about if you are gaining or losing weight.
Noise Testing Trainers – A Sweaty Business (Neo vs Kickr vs Drivo)
Whilst the very definition of a “pain cave” suggests isolation from the non-Zwifting portion of humanity, for many, that’s not the case.
Sure, lots of Zwifters set up in their garage or basement, but a good chunk need to have a little consideration for their family or neighbours. And nobody wants their workout interrupted by a family member crashing through the door demanding to know if a jet engine has recently been imported into the family home!
So I figured that running some noise tests on three of the premium smart trainers (the Tacx Neo, Kickr Gen 2 and Elite Drivo) might make an interesting and useful feature for the Video Version of the Zwiftcast.
This Is Real Work
It’s not as easy as you might think. First and foremost, it means repeated quite hard efforts without the benefit of a fan and with all the windows and doors closed . . . too much risk of extraneous noise pollution muddying the results. This really was a sweat test.
Secondly, it’s technically quite a challenge. I had a camera on the trainers being tested and a second camera trained on a decibel meter. The third video source was a screen capture of the custom workout I created to test the trainers running at 250w; at 400w and at 650-700w. All three had to be precisely synced together to make sure that the composite shot of all three sources you see on the video was giving an accurate, real time picture.
Thirdly, you want the audio to be recorded in identical fashion for all the trainers. That was fairly easy. I recorded everything in the same room and used the same microphone and recording kit, making sure an X marked the spot denoting distance from the trainer and orientation towards it.
Lastly you really want to try to hit the prescribed wattages in the same gear and at the same cadence. That’s actually harder than it sounds, especially on the seventh or eighth run! And, if I’m honest, it’s the one area of my testing protocol that could stand some improvement. In one section of the test, I allowed the Drivo to run at a higher cadence than the other trainers.
That said, I don’t believe it substantially affected the outcome of the testing. Whilst decibels are useful – they are a measure of loudness after all – this metric is not the full story. Each trainer has its own noise signature – the type and character of the noise it makes. Going to a higher wattage, even within a wide cadence range, mostly just intensifies the noise signature.
The Results
My results? – Well, it’s best you watch the video, but perhaps the stand out result for me was how much Wahoo have managed to reduce the “Kickr whine” from Gen 1 to Gen 2 of the trainer. It’s still a higher pitched noise than the other trainers, but it’s nowhere near as intrusive as it once was. And the Neo really is quiet.
Hopefully the test might help some Zwifters with at least one aspect of that agonising Which Trainer Should I Buy dilemma.
Editor’s note: Dave Bibby’s “Road to Recovery” series documents his use of Zwift to return to full fitness after a road bike accident in June 2017. This is the second post of the series… additional posts can be found here.
Welcome back to my little journey along the ‘Road to Recovery’. First of all sorry with the delay in getting this latest update to you. With all the fun and food enjoyed over the holidays my training, along with the post, has taken longer than expected.
Workout, Which Workout?
So let’s get on with my latest adventure in the world of Zwift.
I would advise anyone wishing to start workouts to build on their fitness to have a good look at what is on offer and what areas of their cycling they are looking to improve upon. For me I noticed my FTP drop dramatically since my accident but I was determined to get it back.
After a little bit of research I chose the 6wk Beginner FTP Builder. You can find all the details of workouts on offer over at https://whatsonzwift.com/workouts/ there are some 695 on offer to cover all abilities.
The FTP builder I chose was a plan that takes you through about 4 workouts a week each lasting around 90 mins. The workout’s title each day give you an idea of what you are aiming to do.
There are others further on into the plan but most weeks go through a couple of Foundation workouts with a Strength and Tempo added for good measure.
I have to say I found the workouts pretty easy to start with and would go as far to say “boring,” especially the Foundation workouts. Don’t get me wrong they are a great platform to focus and train on but the Erg mode still feels like you are almost on a conveyor belt. Zwift workouts adjust the resistance based on your cadence and I was surprised at how high the cadence was for these workouts. IRL my cadence is normally 70-80 rpm but the on screen instructions recommend 90-100 rpm.
As I write this now I am just about to start week 5 and it is getting harder. For the first few weeks I almost wondered if I should do another FTP test. My advice would be to stick with the program and follow the rules. There is no point in cutting corners and only time will tell if the plan is working.
I can honestly say I believe I am around 50% there on my power/fitness compared to how I was before the accident. All this takes time and a structured workout really helps.
Back in the Day – Sub 2.5
This is fast becoming the reflection part of the blog where I look back at some of the groups and teams I have ridden with. In the last installment I spoke about the Sub2 group I joined in the early days but pretty soon many of the zwifters in the group wanted something a bit more challenging.
Using the power of Facebook we discussed setting up a Sub 2.5 group ride. It seemed pretty simple to do but you have to understand this was before we had an event module on the mobile app and rolled out from the start/finish line.
I took it upon myself to be the ride leader for most of these sessions and we built up quite a following. The one thing that keeps surprising me on Zwift is the community and the network of people all over the world riding together. Even as a ride leader I could not have run these events without the help of some great team support from the likes of Joe Tiley-Walker, Greg Lunt, Carl Dedman, Stuart Lundstrom, Malcolm Davin and Dave Mars. Sorry if I missed anyone but thanks to all the TPF 2.5 Green Machine.
Join me for the next instalment where we complete the FTP builder and take the dreaded test again. Hunt for Tron currently stands at 79% complete.
Ever feel you are doing everything correctly to lose weight, yet a month later nothing has changed? Don’t give up hope! Keep refining your efforts.
Expert Advice
Even the experts don’t agree on what methods work best. “There’s no way to lose weight fast,” says a popular fitness site. But, do a search and you will find they list articles such as “Lose Weight Quickly”, “Lose Weight Super Fast!” and “Lose Fat Super Fast.” I am not dismissing those articles. Some of them contain good advice, but they’re cloaked behind clickbait titles. It is wise advice: beware of articles that are simply a hidden sales tool.
The Numbers
Part of the problem is applying weight loss principles to a diverse group. An article for beginners in cycling fitness may urge one to “Go hard.” That may refer to a level of effort that would be considered light to moderate for conditioned cycling athletes. Even when working with personal levels as a percentage of your maximum effort, the numbers may be difficult to pinpoint with accuracy.
To illustrate: a beginner’s level that can be maintained for a given length of time may be 50% of his maximum level. Whereas, an experienced, fit cyclist may maintain 85% of his maximum for the same length of time. You can’t always go by numbers. Beginners can’t train the way an experienced cyclist can. Experienced cyclists can train by feel or intuition. They know what they are putting out without looking at the numbers.
This does not mean that those numbers are meaningless. Training levels just can’t be defined with precision. You should find your FTP (Zwift Insider has an article What is FTP? and you can read a brief article from Zwift on Understand and Find Your FTP.) This will help you target your efforts more precisely, since training zones are often given as a percentage of your FTP.
Some studies and coaches use a percentage of your maximum heart rate. I will link the CDC (Center for Disease Control) information to calculate your Estimated Maximum Heart Rate. Basically, subtract your age from 220 if you are an adult.
VO2Max is a level higher than your FTP. It is often expressed for use as a training level in watts. The actual VO2 (Volume of Oxygen Maximum) is expressed in measurements of milliliters of oxygen used in kilograms of body weight per minute. If you can cycle all-out for three to five minutes, that’s perfect. Your wattage in that effort should be the level of your maximum volume of oxygen consumption. Short all-out sprinting uses more energy than the amount of oxygen your body can take in. The four minute test is great for knowing your approximate VO2max level. However, I wouldn’t recommend it for beginners. (I’m sure you’re glad to hear that.) Many athletes simply estimate their VO2Max level to be 120% of their FTP.
Fat Burning Levels
Last week’s chart showed the best fat burning levels to be 45-52% of VO2Max. The men’s peak level for burning fat was 45% while the women’s peak level was 52%. Here’s the original chart for 233 test subjects (A) and all 300 test subjects (B):
Let’s compare this chart to a training level based on heart rate:
Terry O’Neil “Indoor Rowing Training Guide” (2001)
As the chart above shows (results were rounded for simplicity according to author), the best fat burning occurred at 65-75 % of maximum heart rate. This number may not be reliable in individuals with poor heart health, obesity, and other health conditions. It is an estimate. Poor fitness may make one’s heart pump much faster than it would with a trained athlete. A great benefit to low intensity efforts is that they should not over-stress your heart. It should contribute to the habit of daily exercise rather than requiring rest days.
It Feels Too Easy
Could you possibly be doing too little to get the most benefit? In my opinion, a flat yes. This is why I stress a strength workout of low cadence effort. Low intensity efforts without a high pedal force are quite possibly too low an effort for many individuals. The exception is those whose health limits their ability to do more at present. And this presents the problem with studies of low intensity exercise. It is often defined differently from one test group to another.
Let’s examine two individuals doing the same workout. The effort consists of ten minutes 45% ftp, ten minutes 55% ftp, and ten minutes 50% ftp. A little tough to maintain if all you see is a line graph.
Example 1
Example 2
In example 1, the rider did the exact protocol, averaging fifty percent of his ftp for thirty minutes. His heart rate appears low and under stressed. He averaged a cadence of 90. His heart rate resting was 100. His heart rate averaged 112 for the entire duration. My analysis would be low force on the pedals, essentially just spinning in a small gear. He may lack muscular strength in his legs. This is not a failure, it misses the ideal for weight loss though. This rider may not be targeting weight loss.
In example 2, the rider did the test as called for. His resting heart rate was between 85-90. His effort averaged a heart rate between 117-125 beats per minute. This is spot-on to what I would expect. His cadence was between 69-72. He was exerting his muscles much more. It should feel like you are pushing up a hill. Push with your glutes and the back thigh or bicep muscles. The effort of the rider in example 2 burns fat and improves fitness.
If you can target the right intensity at the right strength level and add the factor of early morning exercise, you can put yourself in the best position for success. Be aware that fasted exercise is recommended only in the low intensity zone. Many advocates of fasted exercise (pre-breakfast efforts) will limit the total duration of your workout. If you burn 50% of your calories as fat, then you also burn some of the finite amount of glycogen stored in your muscles and liver. You don’t want to completely exhaust your energy by riding over 90 minutes on water alone. If you want a longer ride, take a few calories with you.
Experts caution that high intensity exercise (85% ftp and higher) should not be maintained for more than 30-60 minutes without some fuel (sports drink, fruit, cereal). You don’t want an energy crash (aka ‘bonk’) especially if you are riding outdoors. For many of us, it is the opposite problem. I see people ride a short distance to burn 200 calories, eat a 500 calorie granola bar, then pedal off back home! That will blunt your fat burning efforts. Drink water. Drink plenty of it.
Fringe Benefit
One more reported benefit of specific fat burning exercise hasn’t been mentioned yet (deliberately so as not to influence you.) If you have tried a ZwiftOff Group Workout on Zwift or have followed some of our workout suggestions; you may have experienced a suppressed appetite following your workout. In sharp contrast, an intense high level workout that burns a large percentage of carbohydrates often causes an increased appetite, aka ‘carb frenzy’. Personally, I thought it sounded like nonsense. Maybe it is the power of suggestion, but I know I get carb crazy after an intense race or workout. I haven’t felt that after the ZwiftOff workouts.
All I can say is “Try it.” I wish you all the success you deserve. Try our group workout, ‘ZwiftOff with Zee’ Sundays at 7:10 am EST. Check Zwift Events Listing and join us. Everyone is welcome.
This is fast becoming the reflection part of the blog where I look back at some of the groups and teams I have ridden with. In the last installment I spoke about the Sub2 group I joined in the early days but pretty soon many of the zwifters in the group wanted something a bit more challenging.
