David Kerchinsky
Your guiding principles are good and I have one thing to add...stretching.
Do it correctly and it will help aid in muscle growth, strength, and prevent
injuries. I have also found that it aids in recovery time.
David Kerchinsky
North River Racing
Camas Day Races July 27 & Aug 3
Southwest Washington's Cycling team!
http://www.northriverracing.org
From: Jim VanSchoonhoven <vans-@budget.net>
Reply-To: vans-@budget.net
To: Obra <ob-@topica.com>
Subject: [OBRA Chat] training comments and a question
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 18:17:21 -0700
I have been watching posts on this list for years and decided to ask some
questions and voice an opinion. I have noticed from talking to many racers
and from reading most of the USCF training manuals the common believe is
that Cat 2 racers and above must put in huge amounts of time and miles in
order to be good.
First off, I am wondering how much time or how many miles you Cat 2 racers
and above are putting in? I am expecting big numbers. This is just for my
information in some things I am working on.
I am asking this because based on my experience and a ton of studying 100s
of books and 1000s of articles from many different sports, I have a totally
different concept of what brings about the best in an athlete, and it does
not point to lots of hours on a bike or lots of miles each week. I believe
a
person could be a Cat 2 or Cat 1 racer and do well with 10-12 hours a week
and maybe even LESS.
I know I could never get certified by the USCF based on what I am going to
say, but I am training all kinds of athletes and have great results based
on
the following principles and I have applied them to cycling.
First, and foremost it is genetics that makes a great athlete, you either
got it or you don?t and if you don?t, you can train forever and do
everything right and you will never be a Cat 2, if you do not have the
right
genetics. I have heard too many people that believe if they only had
enough time they could be Lance Armstrong. Forget that, have fun with what
you got. Not every horse can win the Kentucky Derby! On the other hand
don
?t blame bad results on a lack of time. Strive to be the best you can be.
Second , even in endurance sports, it is speed and strength that is more
important to improving your fitness performance then having more endurance.
So once you can ride the length of time your event will last, you are
better
off working on going faster rather than further. Don?t take this out of
context, you must first be able to ride your bike the amount of time the
race will last at least once or twice a week, if you can do that you have
enough endurance. Work on intervals and building strength. I know this may
not line up with what the USCF teaches, but there is a ton of research
backing this up.
This may surprise people but VO2 max has nothing to do with who wins
endurance races. An example of this is a study done on elite marathon
runners. First they tested every ones VO2 max. Then they ran the race,
they thought the people with the highest VO2 max would win the race. If VO2
max was an indicator of endurance that is what would have happened. They
did not win; in fact there was no correlation at all to how people placed
and their VO2 max. But here is the shocker!!! They ran a 40 meter dash
and
guess what they got??? Almost a 100% correlation, the fastest guy in the
40-meter dash won the marathon and the slowest guy in the 40-meter dash
lost
the marathon. Notice even Lance is training with a POWER METER!!! Many
studies in other endurance sports have shown an increase in strength alone
increases your endurance. Studies in Cross country skiing have similar
findings.
Third, the proper general cycling skills can give you more improvement than
long hours in the saddle; this would, including pedaling form and proper
cadence. Increase your pedaling efficiency and you will greatly enhance
your endurance and your speed.
Fourth, the proper race specific tactics and skills many times are more
important to enhancing performance then hours in the saddle. This would
include team tactics and personal tactics. Knowing when to breakaway and
when to draft and how to do each of these things can be more important than
adding more miles on the bike.
Fifth and I believe the most over looked aspect in training athletes and
cyclist are perhaps the worst at doing this is!!! REST!!! REST!!! REST!!!
Cyclist talk a lot about rest but few actually do it.
I know Mountain bike racing is not the same as road racing, but they are
both endurance sports. I am using this only as an example of the
importance
of resting, my son, Jeremy was 16 years old when he placed 2nd over all at
the NORBA Oregon State Cross Country Championships. Carl Decker was the
only Pro that beat him in the Pro-Expert race at Mt Hood. Jeremy was also
splitting his time between being a Pro Trails Rider and a Mountain bike
racer. I want to stress he was not the second best rider in the state at
this time, but he did place second, and he was a good rider. He was only
riding a total of 12 hours a week. Some weeks he would ride 6 hours of
cross-country and some weeks he would ride 8 hours a week the rest of the
time he did trials riding. He was going very hard two times week, one of
them was the race day. The rest of the time he was resting!!!
Since Jeremy has decided to focus on just being a trials rider his results
as a trials rider has skyrocketed. He trains far less than many expert and
pro trials riders and is improving at a faster rate right now than ever in
his life. I know trials riding is not an endurance event, but plenty of
rest and recovery is the key to allowing your body to build stronger in
BOTH
aerobic and anaerobic events. Jeremy now trains less than 6 hours a week.
Because he allows himself so much time to rest he feels really great every
time he gets on the bike, as a result of this, his two intense days a week
are much more intense than ever before. The result is better quality
practice.
Another example of the importance of rest comes from the world of strength
building. In January, I started doing squats to build my leg strength. At
the time I started using 200 lbs. for my squats. I have been lifting once
every 10-14 days using a superslow protocol with the goal of reaching
failure in one to two minutes. I have lifted 9 times and I will be using
370 lbs in my next workout. I had never been able to lift over 200 lbs at
any time in my life!!!
A 61 one-year-old woman I am working with had been lifting for over 5 years
doing 80 lbs on the leg press. She was doing a 3 sets of 10 reps protocol
three times a week and the most weight she had ever done was 90 lbs, but
she
could not do it consistently. I started her lifting once every 7 days.
After 4 weeks she used 160 lbs and lifted it with a superslow 10 seconds up
and 10 seconds down rep for 1:49 seconds. The key to this is she is
getting
lots of rest. Using this same protocol she has also doubled her military
press. The very first thing I made this woman do was to take two weeks off
with no training of any kind. I knew she was overtraining for years!!!
Every person I am currently training is getting similar results and know
one
lifts more than once a week for 15- 30 minutes and some people are lifting
once every 14-21 days and getting steady results. It is the high intensity
training followed by lots of REST that leads to good results. I tell
people
I am working with that training is like an airplane. It has two wings, one
of the wings is high intensity training and the other wing is REST!!! If
you cut either wing short your plane will either be grounded or it will
crash and burn.
When it comes to our ability to recover from a work out there is a huge
misconception. We assume every one is the same. We are all equal,
everyone
is different and they need to adjust their training accordingly. Most
people do too many medium days and not enough truly hard days and not
enough
truly easy days. Medium days get you nowhere, but worn down. If you want
to
get good fast stop doing medium days. You get better by overstressing your
body and then allowing it to recover. Medium days do not stress your body
enough to trigger the response you are seeking to get better and they do
not
allow your body to rest and repair itself like it needs to.
Instead of trying to figure out how much stress your body can tolerate why
not try to figure out how little stress it takes to produce good results
and
spend the rest of your time allowing your body to rebuild and make itself
stronger.
So, take a honest look at yourself, if you decide you have the genetics,
examine your training, the reason you aren't?t putting the hurt on the ones
and twos might have more to do with your quality of training rather than
your lack of hours in the saddle.
I am sure this is a foreign way of thinking for most riders. I am trying
to stimulate some alternative thinking in the cycling community.
Jim VanSchoonhoven
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