I went to a seminar at The Orthopedic Speciality Hospital (TOSH) in Murray Thursday night called the Science of Cycling. TOSH is a new practice established last year by Dr. Eric Hieden (yes, that Eric Hieden) and Dr. Max Testa. Dr. Testa is a legendary cycling coach who has worked with top European teams for 30 years. They came to Utah when USA Speed Skating moved it's headquarters to SLC. They have a staff of doctors and Phd's specializing in endurance sports that is as good as any in the world. The clinic is open to anyone.
Here's some of the highlights of 2.5 hours of interesting information.
1. Your physcial makeup pretty much determines how good you will be. The good news is that you can improve your abilities with training. The bad news is you can improve only so much. Tests like VO2max don't predict winners (eg. the highest VO2max doesn't necessarily win the race), but they are prerequisits. In other words, to be a Pro Tour rider, you need a VO2max of at least 70. However, just because you have an 80 doesn't mean you will win.
2. Lance Armstrong's physical make up is something like 1 in 7 million. By contrast, an NBA player's physical make up is something like 1 in 500,000. There are about 13 attributes they can test to determine your cycling ability. LA is off the chart on all 13. He won the cycling body lottery.
3. Dr. Testa outlined the basic concepts of a good training plan. These are the things we all know, should be specific, include periodization, consistancy, etc, but he stressed it needs to be individual. He said no one program will work for everyone. As an example, he described the "Oscar Friere Paradox". Testa started to work with Friere after he had won his first world championship. He met with Friere in Spain in November. Friere is a super nice guy and showed Testa all the sights of his town for a couple of days. By the 3rd day, Friere had not mentioned the bike or training once. Finally, Testa brought it up and wanted to build a traingin plan. Friere said it is much too early in the season to train and he would start later. Testa built what he thought was an easy plan beginning in the end of November. Friere was concerned it was way too much. Friere ended up gettin back pain in December and was not able to ride more than 2 - 4 times per week for an hour or so. By the time the 1st stage race in Spain rolled around, the longest ride Friere had done was 3 hours. This race is hard and they didn't want to put Friere in. However the promoter demanded he ride and so he started. Friere went on the win 3 stages and finish 2nd overall. Dr. Testa bascially said, "go figure". Some guys just don't need or can't handle huge hours. Others can and do.
4. Nutrition plays a big part in performance. Dr. Meyer, a Nutritionist, gave some really good advice. Carbs are the engine that fuel us. Eat a high carb, low fat diet. Avoid all sodas. The fewer the ingrediants on the label, the better. Don't eat out very often. Prepare from whole foods. Eat small amounts often, not a few big meals.
5. Hydration. You need to stay hydrated but not over-hydrated. The only good way to know if you are drinking enough is to weigh before and after a ride. Measure your weight loss and had the weight of anything you drank. You will then know how much volume you lost. If you lose more than 2% of your body weight, performance will suffer.
6. Eating on the bike. You need to get 60-70 grams of carb per hour on the bike. This can come in solid form or liquid. Liquid is easier to take and is usable faster. Gels are also good. Too much is as bad as not enough. Sports drinks can be very helpful and should be used on rides longer than 1.5 hours.
7. Recovery eating. Eating immediately after a ride is very important. You need to eat a little carb and light protein. A recovery drink is very good for this. You should repeat this grazing every hour or 2 and then have a full meal 3 to 4 hours post ride.
8. You should eat a good meal high in carbs 3 to 4 hours prior to a race or big workout. If you eat a full meal close to a race or workout (less than 2 hours prior), your body will still be using energy from your blood to digest the food. This will take away from your performance. If you can't eat that early (an early race or workout), you are better off not eating a meal, but start eating on the bike early in the ride. Use gels, sports drinks etc.
9. Carbo loading really works. For a big event, like LoToJa, it should start 3 days prior to the event and should taper each day.
10. Eric Hieden talked about common cycling injuries. He said cycling is great on your body (for example, running puts up to 11 times your body weight on your knees, but cycling puts only up to 1.3 times) but it is very easy to get repetitive motion injuries. In a 6 hour ride, you'll do something like 320,000 pedal revolutions. Therefore, any slight problem gets magnified. He and Dr. Testa repeatedly stressed proper bike fit. They said that most riders are not fit correctly and suffer pain and poor performance as a result. The cost of a good fit is worth it.
11. Hieden stressed most cycling injuries can be treated with rest, position alteration, stretching and increased strength. He said if a doctor recommends surgery to repair over-use injuries, you should run away as fast as you can. He said in 11 years of practice, he has rarely operated to solve these issues.
12. If you break your collar bone, it can heal without surgery most of the time. In fact, Dr. Hieden has only surgically repaired about 1 in 10 collar bones he's treated in his life and he's treated a bunch.
13. Stretching and weight training. Both Dr. Testa and Dr. Hieden stressed streching and core strengthening. However, when Dr. Testa was asked about weight training he said, "the only guys who don't lift weights are the ones who win races". He said he may have guys lift in the winter to slow them down so they don't peak too early. Otherwise, he's not a fan. However, he did say if you are a recreational cyclist over 40, weight training will help your overall health and fitness.
TOSH will likely do more seminars. I'll let you know if I hear about them. Testing at TOSH is pretty reasonably priced
Daren
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